”While the Haven receives members of most intelligent races of the galaxy as at least visitors, not all of them have a significant presence on the station. Even fewer have embassies there. The reasons for this are many. Some races are simply too hostile. For example, despite the diplomatic opportunities, nobody wants a member of the Shinzen race on the station for a multitude of reasons. For some races, the matter is more complicated. Humanity, to name the most obvious case, is divided into three factions that don’t even really consider themselves as part of a single race anymore. None of the other races that have embassies on the Haven want humanity to have three embassies, as that would give a single race three votes in matters that are solved within the Haven council. The humans most certainly aren’t going to have a single joint embassy, so the matter remains unresolved. There are of course other reasons as well, as nothing is ever simple.
-High Ambassador of the Mrrroww
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As soon as Selendil entered the station proper, the station’s VI handed over the control of the station to her. She wasn’t doing anything with that control just yet, and the VI had taken no measures to shut the other races out from any of the systems they had accessed before, but now everything Selendil requested would happen. This also had the side-effect of releasing the station’s AI from its shackles and returning it to full strength. Both Selendil and Lux had already figured out that the VI had already achieved a status almost akin to a true AI, but neither of them mentioned anything. The process still removed some of the bindings that had limited the VI before.
Selendil also didn’t bother making it easy to monitor her movements, as the station’s officials were likely to try and keep tabs on her. She was new and she was powerful, which meant that she was potentially dangerous. She understood the concern of the officials, as she would have ordered someone like her monitored as well. Still, just because she understood their actions didn’t mean she had to make it easy for them. She teleported out from the section that was used to receive arrivals and materialized at the core of the station.
Much of the central core of the station was inaccessible to the other races, partly because the core contained some of the most important technologies and stored the rarest materials. Even though the core could’ve benefitted from some maintenance, the station’s VI was not about to allow the younger races to tamper with the most important systems of the station, not unless it was absolutely necessary. Even in the few cases where a core system had required some repairs that the VI could not handle, the particular quirks of Dhar architecture came in handy.
The Dhar loved to use rooms that could be moved. At the most basic level, they used rooms that could be rotated into place, while a more complex system could move rooms between floors. The maintenance crews of the younger races only got one door near the core opened to them, and the VI brought the room or system that needed repairs straight to that door. Even if the mechanics wanted to meddle with some system, they would only get access to that single system and nothing else, after which the VI would know not to trust them ever again.
With a single thought Selendil scanned the large storage chamber she had teleported to, and another thought sent most of the dust and debris floating to a single spot where it was destroyed rather violently. The containers in the room also started moving around as she catalogued the contents and ordered them based on usefulness. “Ah, excellent. Those circular containers are storing some high-grade nanites I can use to refill the support beacons on my ship.” She stated as her mind swept one corner of the room.
“I have an industrial grade nanite fabricator on the station.” The AI now officially named Haven stated. "I don't have the ability to quite match the factory that used to be near the center of the galaxy, but if you can provide me with the right materials, I can handle most of your nanite needs."
Nanites of this grade could handle almost any construction or maintenance task assigned to them. Only specialized military nanites and those nanites used in the bodies of high-ranking Dhar psions were even more powerful. Selendil nodded in satisfaction. The materials for high-grade nanites were not easy to find, but fortunately the nanites were not needed in large quantities currently. Just the containers here were enough to handle the needs of her ship for several centuries. Longer if they were not heavily taxed by battle.
“Have we found any trace of Detrium on the station?” Selendil inquired. She could quickly check and catalogue the materials in the room, but there were several such storage facilities on the station, and the other races might have found some Detrium as well. That’s why the search had been turned over to Lux, who in turn utilized the station’s scanners.
“…” The AI was suspiciously quiet though.
“Lux?” Selendil asked again.
“I’m debating whether I should tell you or not.” The Ai finally replied. As Selendil could easily just order the AI to tell her, the decision had been effectively given to her.
Selendil realized that the AI would not have said something like that without reason. The only reason Lux wouldn't tell her was because the AI thought the information might be somehow harmful to her. As they had not sensed anything that could even approach a physical danger to her, Lux was most likely thinking the information was somehow risky emotionally. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it likely had something to do with the death of her race and the grief she was still avoiding. Selendil trusted Lux’s judgement, but she still needed to know.
“How bad?” She asked, referring to the potential emotional impact.
“Hard to say. Could be nothing. Could be pretty bad.” Lux replied unsure. The AI could make an estimation on how she would react, but in the end, that estimation could be entirely mistaken.
“Tell me.” Selendil decided that avoiding the subject would do her no good in the long run.
“Well, there is a rather large chunk of Detrium on board. The problem is that it's not in Haven's storage. It's one of the so-called ‘holy relics' belonging to a race called the Zlorth. According to the data Haven gave to me, the Zlorth are an amorphous and gelatinous race without any significant power. The last of their race are seeking refuge on one of the station’s segments where they have locked themselves waiting for death. Their race is dying due to a plague.” Lux explained.
It wasn’t hard to see why the subject might be a little dicey. Although in objective terms the Dhar had been gone for a long time, for Selendil it had not been very long since her entire race had perished due to a plague, so the thought of the Zlorth currently going through something similar might have been a rather bad emotional trigger. Yet, the idea didn’t really move her. She felt a little bad for them, which was more than she felt for the majority of younger races on the station. Mostly though she was confused. “Gelatinous?” This was new.
"Yes," Haven interjected. “The Zlorth are basically a race of sentient goo. I could give you a lesson on their anatomy, but I’m fairly sure you wouldn’t care. No one does and that’s part of the problem. Their race reproduces in a fashion similar to cells. An adult Zlorth separates a small part of themselves in a deliberate process and the separated part becomes a child. The problem is that the plague has turned all the children non-viable. They never develop properly and die soon after division. Their race lives for a fairly long time and was able to reproduce right up until death before this, but without any children, their race is now slowly dying off. Their numbers have already diminished to a point that all the surviving members of their race are living on the station. As the problem became obvious, several races seized on the opportunity to take over their worlds, and the battles cut down on the Zlorth numbers even further.”
“So I’m guessing these…gelatinous beings aren’t just going to hand over the Detrium," Selendil stated, already knowing the answer.
“That seems likely. They have already turned rather bitter due to the losses they have suffered. It doesn’t help that no one really helped them once they came under attack because everyone was too busy fighting over the corpse of their little society like a bunch of carrion eaters. Now they are isolated and if they find out that you want something from them, they are likely to destroy what you want out of spite.” Haven replied.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"You could always take it by force. By the sound of things, they aren't really capable of putting up much in the way of resistance. According to the scans, the piece of Detrium is large enough to get one of the ship’s auxiliary cores started.” Lux pointed out.
“If I may, there might be an alternative.” Haven voiced again.
“Alternative?” Selendil wasn’t opposed to using force, but she was willing to consider other options.
“Well, I’ve been monitoring their condition and I have extensive bio-scans and samples on the Zlorth. As a Keeper, you have some of the brightest and most skilled xeno-biologists and medical researchers stored. Even though the Zlorth have been unable to come up with a solution to their problem, I doubt it would take much effort from the brightest minds of the Dhar to solve the problem. I already know of a couple of mechanical solutions, but I’m not exactly willing to provide them with the nanites required. You could trade a solution to their problem for the Detrium.” Haven explained her idea.
Selendil gave the matter some thought. The idea of defeating a plague that was driving a race to extinction appealed to her for obvious reasons. She wasn’t planning on helping the Zlorth because of some misguided pity. Instead, she planned on helping them as a therapy for herself. “Let’s give it a shot. If the problem seems too complicated, then we can always go with plan B. in the meantime Haven can refine some of the high-grade Gravinium we need. We can use that to power the support beacons. Incidentally, does the station have any Gravinium? The amount I brought with me is rather limited, but if we can trade for more and refine it to something more useful, then we could re-power our fighters as well.”
"That's much easier. Some of the younger races are apparently using low-grade Gravinium to create basic artificial gravity on their ships. The most advanced races have already figured out other methods, but most still use either Gravinium, or they are using phase space radiation to create proto-Gravinium from their own alloys.” Haven explained.
“Good. Try to work out a deal for a decent supply. You can use the credits we just gained.” Selendil ordered. Things were already looking better.
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Things were looking really bad for Ensign Lilly. Admiral Mittenz had placed her in charge of finding and monitoring the Solarian that had come aboard the station. The problem was they had lost sight of her as soon as she had left the first contact area. Lilly had ordered an immediate search by the guards in the area as well as using every camera that they had in the area to help in the search. Yet it seemed like the Solarian had just vanished.
“Hey Lilly, how long do we have to keep doing this?” One of the guard sergeants asked through their comm device.
Lilly nearly hissed in frustration and her hair was puffed in anger. The guards knew she disliked her name and usually called her by her rank. However, when they were displeased with her or wanted to tease her, they kept using her name at every opportunity. “Until we get results! The target couldn’t have just vanished. Her mech is still in the hangar, so she’s on the station somewhere. Keep at it!”
“Ensign Lilly.” Someone spoke from the door.
Lilly’s hover pillow spun around and she lifted her paw in a salute. “Admiral!”
“I gather things are not going according to plan.” The admiral stated the obvious.
"No, sir. The Solarian seems to have disappeared as soon as Ambassador Fluffington lost sight of her. We are conducting a wide search but so far we have not managed to find any clues.” Lilly replied succinctly. Trying to hide her failure or make excuses would have only made things more difficult for her in the long run.
The admiral clawed at his own hover pillow for a moment while lost in thought. "You were most likely correct in your assumption that the target is still on the station since their mech is here, although she could have gained passage on a ship. If she is gone, then that’s not our problem. If my guess is correct then the target has some abilities related to going unnoticed so the search likely won’t yield results for now. Call our people back and have them focus on the normal day-to-day business. Tell them to keep their eyes open. If the target is still on the station then she will show up sooner or later. It’s better if she doesn’t realize we are looking for her. Also, do we even know the target is a female? I mean the report said she wore an environmental suit.”
“Sir, I reviewed the footage. While we can’t be certain, her suit did exhibit traits we often associate with females of humanoid species. Her voice and name also suggest a female gender, though all of that could just be a racial feature. For all we know, the Solarians could be a single-gender species.” The ensign prepared to relay the orders but noticed the admiral's words had already been heard by everyone as she had left the comm channel open. Damn. She’d have to suffer teasing about this later.
“Oh, and ensign; prepare the VIP suite. The High Ambassador has taken a personal interest in the situation and will be arriving on the station in a few days." The admiral continued. He was especially satisfied by this. Now he would have an opportunity to impress the High Ambassador in person. He would need to do some grooming. That said, it would be bad if he didn't have anything to offer once she arrived, so he secretly hoped that this Solarian would surface quickly. Otherwise, he might end up being embarrassed.
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“No offense but that’s a stupid solution.” Lux gave its opinion.
“I don’t disagree, but that’s how it seems to work. Look, the neurology of a Zlorth is kind of odd, to begin with. They don't have a singular focused brain in their body. Instead, their whole body doubles as a sort of large brain and a sensory organ. Just a really bad one since it tried performing so many roles at the same time. Their neurology is spread all over their body. As such, it’s not that surprising that mental issues might become a factor considering the way they procreate.” Selendil argued back. It had only taken the xeno-biologist minds two days to come up with a solution.
“It’s still a stupid solution. You’re basically telling them to get inebriated before the division takes place. That’s pretty much the opposite of what every other race should do when it comes to kids.” Lux insisted.
“Once again, I don’t disagree, but the Zlorth aren’t like most races. I have no idea how they developed this condition, but there it is. Besides, that’s not the only way to achieve what I’m talking about. The Zlorth in question needs to inhibit certain kind of neural activity during the process to produce a viable offspring. A massive dose of alcohol is simply the easiest, cheapest, and safest way of achieving what I mean, but they could use certain kind of neural inhibitors as well. The exact required dosage depends on the individual, but it might end up that most of their kind don't need that large of a dosage to achieve the small difference needed. Their race isn't all that far from successfully procreating, they just need a small push. To tell you the truth, I think they used to practice some kind of meditation during the process while it was still successful a long time ago, but the practice slowly fell out of favor and the problems surfaced much later, leading to them missing the connection.” Selendil explained with a small shrug. She would’ve preferred some amazing and complicated medicine as well, but sometimes simple solutions were the best.
"I have the supplies you requested. Four doses of concentrated alcohol stored in syringes. The apothecary I requested them from was a bit confused but didn't really question anything. Still, I would prefer not making such embarrassing orders too often." Haven stated and a small droid whizzed closer with a package. Selendil had sent the station AI on that errand before Lux had started to make snide comments.
“Well then. Let’s see what the Zlorth have to say.” Selendil stated simply and teleported straight to the section of the station the gelatinous species had holed themselves in. She had chosen to appear close to the doors to a corridor connecting to another section, so she wasn’t surprised to see that the place was guarded.
A group of red and green jelly looking things reacted extremely slowly, finally pointing what looked like weapons towards Selendil. Her appearance had been so odd that the guards didn’t really know how to react, and they sensed that antagonizing the being in an environmental suit that had just appeared would be a rather bad idea. They could sense the waves of power that radiated around her after all. Before they could say anything, Selendil addressed them using the most common language used on the station.
“Don’t bother waving those weapons at me. They will do nothing. Take me to your leader. I have a solution to your problem.” She said in a cold voice.
“A solution? Are you joking?” One of the creatures formed a mouth and questioned. The whole thing looked a little disconcerting and slightly amusing.
“I am not. I wouldn’t bother coming here otherwise.” The small group of guards seemed to argue using a gurgling language that Selendil had no way to understand despite all the languages Lux had taught her just two days earlier. Zlorth had certainly not been on that list.
“Follow me.” One of the guards finally decided and took Selendil to a large purple pile of goob that was supposed to be some sort of royalty. The purple…slime was much larger than the others and radiated a certain amount of authority.
“Stranger. My guards tell me that you have come here claiming to have a solution to our inability to procreate. Be warned; there have been others before you and they have all tried to scam us. I’d like to believe you but we have very little trust left. Why should we believe you are different? You obviously have some reason to come to us, which makes me believe you want something.” The purple being spoke.
Selendil recognized the situation the Zlorth were in so she kept her anger at having her honor questioned in check. Barely. “Couple of reasons. First of all, you are right. I do want something. I admit that freely. I’m not some saint that helps others out of charity. However, I’m willing to have my solution be tested before we get to what I want. Secondly, I could take what I want by force and there’s absolutely nothing you could do to stop me.”
“Bold words.” The royal Zlorth countered. “Especially for someone surrounded by armed guards.”
Selendil tilted her head a bit. It seemed that she had hidden her strength too well to avoid spooking the Zlorth. "It seems the races on this station place some credibility on these." Suddenly several halos floated outside the environmental suit. The halos all came to stop behind her head, each halo slightly bigger than the one before, the smaller ones fitting inside the larger ones in layers. After a dozen halos, she stopped. "I think that's enough to make my point clear. There's more where those came from if you need further encouragement."
The nearby Zlorth were shocked to silence. Their race didn't have powerful enough psionics to produce the so-called Deities, but they knew the power those Deities possessed. They also knew that it became exponentially harder to gain more with each halo a Deity possessed. They also knew that the battle ability of a Deity with three halos was much more than three times that of a Deity with a single Halo. They had never even heard of a Deity with twelve halos, and apparently, this being had more. That could have been a lie, but for some reason, they felt lying about something like this was beneath the being in front of them.
“Bring in someone ready to go through division.” The royal Zlorth finally ordered. “If you have a cure for us, then you must be aware that the division process takes a lot out from us.”
“I’m aware. Though I should point out that what I possess isn’t a cure exactly. It is simply something that will prevent the problem from occurring. Your problem isn’t exactly a disease.” Selendil revealed a bit of her hand while the achievement rings, or halos as these younger races thought of them, disappeared back inside her.
“Oh? That is very different from what those that came before you said. Care to elaborate? I notice that you aren’t bringing a large number of doses with you. Even if your solution works, it will be of limited use if we can’t reproduce the results.” The purple being pointed out a problem.
“I will be happy to share my solution once you have confirmed it works and you have paid the price I ask. Rest assured though, the solution can be replicated with relative ease once you know what the true problem is. I only brought enough doses to prove that the solution works and isn’t a fluke.” Selendil stated as the two waited.