Junior Administrator and Sector Assimilator had at first been disturbed by the anomaly’s ability to sense their observations, but it soon became apparent that it was only in the broadest sense of the word. That had seemed to change as the anomaly continued to grow their Energy Sense skill over the coming days. From its ramblings, the two knew that he was beginning to sense more and more when the System interfered.

This anomaly was truly unprecedented, at least as far as either of them knew, and Junior Administrator had been worried enough to voice his concerns to Sector Assimilator. As was always true of their older cousin, Sector Assimilator had managed to hush Junior Administrator’s fears, telling them that the anomaly was getting more and more locked into the System with every skill increase. More importantly, Sector Assimilator had asked them to imagine how powerful the Energy Sense skill must be. It was a true rarity in the Hive–seeing one’s own channels was normal, but being able to see another’s that was rare. Usually, only the elite members of the inner circle had such a skill, and usually it was only a partial fractal. Unbeknownst the to the anomaly, Level 9 was the most pure form of a symbol that the Hive knew, making it also the highest level. This was going to make their first integration incredibly successful, and that was just a bonus to the many other skills the anomaly had cultivated close to perfection.

“System Administrator was thinking small and would have pulled the plug already. But we know better.” Sector Assimilator said with a pat on shoulder. “This anomaly is probably the most valuable assimilant in the last 10,000 integrations.”

The statement went against everything they had learned in training, and they felt compelled to point it out. “But he isn’t an assimilant. He is an anomaly. Doesn’t that mean he can’t be harvested?”

“Oh, my dear young cousin, you are thinking like an outer ring spawn. True, the System will have a hard time assimilating him, but there are other ways of extracting those skill fractals.”

“But isn’t that illeg…”

“Silence!” Sector Assimilator roared. “You dare to question us after all we have done for you? We saved you. We have allowed you to take part in this amazing cultivation opportunity. And now you dare to question if we go to far?”

Junior administrator was not ready for the outburst. They had seen this behavior from their cousin before, but never directed at them. That Sector Assimilator could destroy them physically and politically suddenly felt like a possible outcome for the first time. In an act of self-preservation, they chose the path of immediate self preservation.

“This one apologizes for their lack of trust in Elder Cousin.” Junior Administrator said as they dipped to a kow-tow, using all of the possible formalities they could to show their contrition.

After a moment of silence where Junior Administrator’s future seemed to balance on a knife’s edge, Sector Assimilator replied. “Apology accepted.” before continuing further, “This one is sorry for their outburst. It was unbecoming. You need to understand though that this has already gone to far. If you don’t have the stomachs for going the rest of the distance, say so now.”

Junior Administrator remained motionless, not even for a moment considering voicing their true thoughts, and not fully sure what those thoughts were. On the one hand, Sector Assimilator was a rising star that was sure to reach the upper echelons of the inner Hive. On the other hand, they clearly acted impulsively, bending rules and bullying their way to get what they wanted. When it had purely been in Junior Administrator’s favor, freeing them from prison and giving them command of the vessel, it had been easy to stomach. Even when they had shut themselves off from the rest of the vessel and learned from the anomaly’s pseudo cultivation, rather than enacting Phase 4, it had been bearable. But a line was going to be crossed, harvesting fractals was expressly forbidden.

So much cosmic energy and resources went into growing these symbols in assimilants, and that would all be wasted if individuals went and harvested those symbols for themselves. It was one of the most fundamental tenets of integrating new planets–only the System harvests skills. The System was optimized to harvest skill fractals for transplanting, but if someone untrained did it, there was a good chance it would be ruined. On top of that, this protected the Hive’s knowledge of the sacred language and made sure that it was only disseminated to those most worthy, in addition to making sure that the sacred symbols weren’t destroyed.

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“Cheer up, Junior Cousin.” Sector Assimilator said, breaking their chain of thought. “An anomaly’s log is much easier to erase than an assimilant. It will be as if the anomaly never existed, and we both shall be rewarded handsomely for bringing the skills back. Besides, after the amount of pain this anomaly has caused, would you really be ok simply allowing it to be reconstituted as cosmic energy upon integration completed? That would be a waste of value and a waste of effort”

The logic, while perhaps not fully sound, was enough to push Junior Administrator into abandoning any thoughts of going against Sector Assimilator, and after apologizing again, they returned to their vigil.

For several more planetary rotations, they gleaned very little, as the anomaly spent most of its time digging towards the cosmic water. The one boon they got was when it had traced out the sacred symbol for cosmic energy–this was the one symbol that almost every cultivator in the multiverse knew, at least in its more basic forms. In a language created solely for the purpose of manipulating cosmic energy, the symbol was both the most widely known, and also the most important. So when it became apparent that the anomaly knew a much improved form of the symbol, the two of them had been elated, spending days to copy it down meticulously.

Sector Assimilator had nudged Junior Administrator as they neared completion of recording the symbol. From their view, it was readily apparent when the large bird became aware of the anomaly’s activities.

“System, what are the odds of survival?” Sector Assimilator asked, before whispering quietly to Junior Administrator, “This could be the perfect opportunity to harvest.”

[Survival rate calculated at 15%]

“Hah!” Sector Assimilator cheered. “Let’s be prepared to beam the anomaly up then.”

Junior administrator was still walking over to the controls when the explosion started. They looked up, but the only thing visible on the screen was a roaring conflagration. Sector Assimlator prompted the view to zoom out, making it very easy to see when the stockpiled explosives added their firepower.

A speck of darkness near the explosions origin grew dramatically, sundering reality before it rapidly began to consume everything around it.

“Feepach!” Sector Assimilator cursed. “System, situation report.”

[Quantum Tear detected. Space is unstable.

Tear engulfing plant at a rate of ……]

Junior Administrator’s eyes glazed over as they processed the rate. What had been a greedy attempt to gain some extra cultivation resources had become a full on catastrophe, and they internally wished that they could be back at Space Camp instead of actually facing Quantum Tears.

“Convert System operations towards stabilization, use portion of energy allocated for integration if necessary.” Sector Assimilator instructed, even as they walked over and opened the door to the viewing chamber. They then pushed the button on the intercom and made an announcement.

“Attention vessel. A Quantum Tear has been detected. Please report to emergency stations. Strike Leader, prepare your team for hostile invaders.”

As everyspawn aboard the ship ran to comply, Sector Assimilator made their way back to the main viewing area. “System, locate the anomaly.”

[Location undefined. No trace of the anomaly remains.

Probability of being consumed by Quantum Tear is 97.8%]

“Feepach! What is the probability of the anomaly having survived entering the tear?”

[Due to active skill, probability of survival is at 80%]

Finally, a piece of good news. Now they just had to wait for the anomaly to return.

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

The announcement came over the intercom of the Officer’s Brig, waking System Administrator from their nap–while they spent most of their day planning and cultivating, the allowed themselves this one small piece of comfort.

“Feepach! Those two luggards have doomed us all!” He yelled as he began banging on the door to get in touch with the jailor.

A few moments later, the small hatch opened. “Yes?”

“Tell those two idiots that they had better close the tear immediately”

“This one feels unqualified to relay such a message.” the jailor responded before closing the hatch.

“Ghwaaaaaaaa!” System Administrator screamed, losing the placating calm they usually maintained constantly.