Memory transcription subject: Ilona Zolya, the First of the Bloodline

Date [standardized aurigan time]: Fall 7, 1 AA

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My kin, so used to scientific supremacy, are more backward than the other species in this galaxy. We must grow in leaps and bounds if we are to hold our own against the Federation's zealots.

Thankfully, we are not doomed to face the future by ourselves, as the Venlil have proved themselves eager, if befuddled, allies, and the success in keeping the Cradle from falling into Arxur hands has left us in the good graces of the Gojids, and earned us positive influence with ten other races.

However, the battle for the Cradle has claimed most of our fleet. In two days we lost what took us nearly two months to build, and most of our resources are now gone with it. Extraction rights on VP and trade with the Gojid and the Yotul should hopefully help us recuperate, but I don't know if it will be enough and in time.

The news of the Kolshians' assassination attempt proved that the Federation was out to get us. The DNA evidence showed that both ships' coolant pipes had indeed been tampered with by members of the squid-like race. So we knew the means, but we lacked the motive. They clearly wanted to frame us for the disappearance of the ambassadors, turn the Federation even more against us, but what did they have to gain? Was this just a result of their irrational fear? Or was it something more?

So much of the way the Federation saw the world gave us pause. Perhaps we Aurigans were the outliers, and the rest of the galaxy really operates on different paradigms. But we are a meticulous, empirical lot, so we will not rest until we have falsifiable answers.

Taking a step back from my own thoughts, I looked up from the star map that was being projected over my desk, at which I'd been staring for the past few minutes. It was a map of known space, compiled by the Federation, and showed both the extent of each race's colonization, as well as which areas saw the most Arxur activity.

I then dismissed the hologram and looked between Raudd, Jutka, and Kata, who were here as my advisors. "So, what do you have for me?" I asked, motioning for Raudd to speak first.

"Well, as far as I can tell the Federation has no concept of ecology. They think carnivores are innately evil and violent creatures, and that any violent animal is automatically a predator, even if it's not. They torch every animal they find that isn't docile or frightful, and think that this is cleansing the ecosystem, rather than damaging beyond repair. And they think that mental illness is caused by 'predator particles' in blood and saliva." The ginger shook his head in disbelief, a tired look on his face. "If I didn't know better I'd say they're all stupid, but we know that's not the case."

"If I may add to this." Jutka interjected, and I gave her the go-ahead to do so. "During yesterday's negotiations, every species present reacted in horror at the thought of bathyspheres, and oceans in general, even the ones with aquatic ancestors. Everyone agreed that oceans were full of nothing but dangerous predators, and should be avoided at all cost. When I asked Tarva about Federation naval history, she said that no Federation species dared go onto the water, but when I asked Laulo, the Yotul, he informed me that his peopled had shipyards before the Federation 'uplifted' them, but that they had been destroyed by the Federation and replaced with flying shuttles instead, along with... well, every other part of their transport infrastructure."

"So we have a Federation of herbivore species that knows nothing about the natural order of life, is unusually afraid of water, and intentionally keeps new members from further developing their naval technology." I mused, leaning back into my chair.

"During the debacle on the Cradle over the Drakken workers, Sovlin, that Gojid captain, said something that made me think. He asked me how I was sure that Auriga's ecology wasn't the odd one out. Knowing the Yotul were recently uplifted, I decided to ask Laulo all I could about their ecology, and their relationship with predators. He told me that they didn't really fear predators, and that attacks were rare. And more interestingly he said that they used to keep small carnivores as varmint killers to protect their crops, but the Federation had them exterminated along with the rest of the 'predators' on their homeworld, despite them never having been a threat to the Yotul." Raudd added.

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"So they ignored the Yotul's own experience with carnivores, and pushed their own narrative on them."

"Seems so, yes."

"There's also the issue of Gojid children. Almost all Gojid children we rescued from stampede zones during the attack were quick to trust us and calm down, they didn't display the same fear towards predators that the adults did."

"You know what smells rotten to me?" Kata finally spoke up. "The Arxur and the Federation have been at war for centuries, but no side has won. There's no arms race, no evolution, it's a technological stalemate, despite centuries of fighting, and dozens of new species being inducted into the Federation. There's no way the Arxur have a numerical advantage either, logistically they can't, since the Federation species are their source of food, so their numbers are what limits the Arxur's numbers. By now the Federation should've won if they really applied themselves."

"So. The Federation have a numerical advantage, but their fear of predators makes them terrible fighters. The fear of predators seems to be manufactured, if the Yotul are anything to go by. And they have unreasonable expectations and fears about predators, including that they cause mental illness and that the ocean is one giant abyss of death."

"To be fair, Auriga's ocean was pretty deadly." Raudd interjected.

"Only because of the Endless experiments." Kata retorted.

"Anyways. Moving on from that. What do we know about our mysterious kidnapper?" I turned the Hologram display back on, showing a lifesign sneaking through the vents, breaking into the cryobay, and then leaving through a berthing hatch. "The guards we found unconscious in the corridor don't remember anything, but the guards outside saw a drunk venlil stumbling about before one of them mysteriously lost his key card. The same guard that our drunk venlil tried to flirt with."

"Well, we know it's probably not Tarva. When I mentioned we had an internal security issue, she didn't even flinch, and didn't act suspicious in any way throughout the meeting. None of the other representatives reacted either. So I'm assuming he wasn't employed by any of them." Jutka explained.

"My money's on the Kolshians. After they tried to explode the delegation, I wouldn't put kidnapping past them." Kata responded.

"But why take a random person from cryosleep? An officer would be a more valuable target." Jutka said in return.

"Maybe they thought an officer would be too hard to kidnap? But that doesn't explain why they'd bother kidnapping a rank and file grunt instead. Again, he's not a valuable target to them, the boy doesn't even know we survived Auriga." Raudd spoke up, and it gave me an idea.

"Maybe that's why he's valuable." I said, and the others raised their brows in unison. "He doesn't know that the Argosy survived and that we're safe. They could lie to him, tell him he was the only one, or any other number of falsities, and get him to divulge all he knows."

"He still wouldn't know much though, would he?" Kata said. "He was only a young marine."

"Maybe not, but he would know as much as anyone else about Auriga and our people. Do we know where he was taken?"

"We combed through the data as best we could, whatever ship he used was untraceable." Jutka responded to my query.

"Which is very much unlike the ships that either side of this war uses. I'm telling you, the whole thing smells rotten." Kata interjected.

I nodded, before turning my attention back to the hologram on the table, dismissing it as I had the one before it. "Anything else that you've discovered?" I then asked the trio, looking bac up at them.

"I may have. Studying what I could of the Arxur we fought on the Cradle, it's quite evident that most of them are half starved, and some even fully starving. Both the biochemical tests and the cellular analysis confirmed this. The Arxur are fighting for survival just as much a the Federation is." Raudd added, and I pushed back into my chair. This whole region of space was making me miss the Necrophages. At least they were irredeemably evil.

I put my foot up on the table and contemplated the situation. So far it was seeming more and more likely that we were not, in fact, the odd ones out. That whatever region of the Galaxy we'd drifted into was the site of a greater plot, a plot to keep the races locked in an unending war for survival, neither side getting the upper hand, one living in constant fear, one living in starvation.

I sighed and gave the trio a nod in gratitude, before sitting back up properly. "Ok, thank you. You should all return to your duties. I have to think about our next move. Hopefully once we get ourselves better settled on this planet, we'll be able to get to the bottom of this."

The three bid their goodbyes to me in various ways, and then left the room, leaving me to my thoughts. Our best way to get to the bottom of this was to dismantle the misconceptions from within. That would take time, but hopefully peaceful co-operation with the herbivores we managed to get on our side would start to raise doubts about just how innately evil carnivores allegedly were.