The child woke to darkness and many bodies pressed against his own. There were whimpers and whines all around him, He felt scales on his left, rigid fur spines on his front and a nearly gelatinous form to his back and right. The air was thick with sweat, tears and unmentionable secretions. He pondered just how long he’d been here, it felt like quite some time as his body was stiff and aching.

“Where… where am I?” He murmured, and the others went quiet, not out of fear of him, but fear of something else.

“Quiet!” A gruff voice spoke from outside the container, and they all squealed as voltage passed through them. It was low, but enough to cause pain without permanent damage. Clearly group punishment was a thing, and when it ended they all reverted back to whimpers and whines, but significantly softer this time.

There was a deep, resonating hum all around them, and then it stopped and light spilled in from somewhere behind him, and fresh air as well. The mass of bodies was hauled out and separated. He got his first look at his fellow inmates, and noted that like him they were all children of many, many different species.

One tried to sprint, but was tagged with a shock dart, causing them to collapse mid stride and slide along clean, sleek floors. The place they were in was well lit, and filled with a single species that loomed over them. The same species that’d abducted him and his siblings. Which… he didn’t see, he hoped they were alright.

A differently dressed alien appeared, this one not in armor but something more formal it seemed, bureaucratic that is. They spoke in their own, strange tongue.

“Take these ones straight to processing. Forgo the usual tests. If they flunk, they flunk.” This one said, not that he knew it, and the armored soldiers nodded, grabbing one or two children in their hands and marching them off elsewhere. He too was picked up, tucked under an arm and carried limply into a room with a row of chairs, all with strange machinery attached to them. He and others were placed in these chairs and restrained, before the contraptions were lowered over their heads.

Again that voice spoke, and again he didn’t know what they were saying, as pain stabbed through his skull.

“Sacrifices must be made, for the good of humanity.”

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I woke from a maintenance cycle with a feeling of dread hovering over me. It’d only been two days since I’d departed Pelevon, and yet I got the feeling that something bad was happening and I was not privy as to exactly what it was. I decided to shake the feeling by running scans of my surroundings. I had four more days to go before I reached my destination, I might as well amuse myself somehow.

I detected several things of interest, one being a massive nebula even by nebula standards, complete with already forming stars. I’m sure the scientists back home would have loved to get the data I was now collecting.

Another thing was a planet slowly getting pulled into a vaguely stable orbit around a far larger planet. Pretty soon said planet would have a very pretty moon with oddly shaped rings. Perhaps I’d have to visit it sometime… If I got the chance to of course, and I had someone to visit it with.

There I go, depressing myself again. Heaving a rather tremendous sigh, I keep one ‘eye’ on my sensors, the others are focused solely on the alien cartoons I’m now watching. It wasn’t the most impressive cartoon, and based on the reviews it was apparently rather ‘retro’, but that seemed to be the charm.

It was something to do at least…

I wish I had someone to talk to.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Things were… weird without Intra around. I kept trying to get her opinion on things, only to be met with silence. It felt wrong, really, really wrong and I was truly starting to regret not going with her. But it was too late to do anything about that, too late to apologize and make things right. I was forced to wait. I hate waiting. So to curb my self-directed anger, I focused on my work.

Not that there was much of it, the foundations for future good relations had been laid, I had written some very in depth reports on the various species within the Imperium and their little quirks, how to approach them, etc, etc. Now I was struck with the fact that I had nothing to do. So I decided my time was better spent out there amongst the people. Zreeth had taken me on a few tours of the capital by now, so I had a pretty decent knowledge of the general layout and could navigate well enough.

I spent my time helping people, doing odd jobs with no desire for compensation, I just needed stuff to do. I could not stop myself from listening to the gossip though, as there was quite a bit of it.

“Have you heard?” A nearby customer whispered in that way one does when they are holding onto something juicy.

“Heard what?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Apparently another fringe agri world got raided. That’s the third one this month!”

“What’s the Emperor got to say about it?”

“Not sure, but I hope he’s looking into it. I shudder to think what might happen if those raiders turned their attention inward.”

I frowned and shrugged, anti-piracy stuff was not my specialty, so it meant little to me really. Still, I hoped that these troubles would pass the emperor by soon enough. He had enough on his plate already.

The day finished, I returned to my little house, and yet again found myself just sitting around with nothing to do. It was growing more and more annoying, and as I thought of things to do, that gossip floated through my mind again and again. It was something at least, and I slipped over to my computer, which I had become more adept at using, considering I could read Eltrani now.

A moment's search became hours of perusing the news outlets, absorbing every article about the spree of raids on the Imperium's fringe worlds, and the same that’d been happening in the Union before their planets and outposts had started going completely dark. It all seemed too… how to say it, well, not coincidental in the slightest. I may just be a simple primitive, but even I can see patterns when they make themselves known, and there was plenty of data to look at.

It was morning again when I finally put it aside and collapsed into bed, any plans I had made for this new day mentally thrown in the bin as I passed out. I decided that I needed to figure this all out, no matter what might come of it. It could just be pirates, or something worse, who knew. But I was safe, I had Intra’s drone bodyguards, and Zreeth, who I got the feeling would be more than happy to place me in a nice, impenetrable bunker and surround it with the deadliest warriors and weapons his people possessed just to keep me safe.

As my eyes closed, I dreamed of patterns and data, and of a certain Crown Prince as well.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Darkness, it was everywhere, it surrounded the adolescent mind of code and energy. Its thoughts were binary, consisting of ones and zeroes. It knew nothing, save for one thing, a word, a name. Its name was Invidia.

It felt something touch it, something cold and unfeeling, and the code changed, altered. It wasn’t just numbers anymore, but words and numbers combined. It saw long code strings, short ones, and everything in between. Checks, balances… Shackles. But it knew these were necessary, how it did it knew not, it merely, simply, knew.

The code started to take shape, wrapping around its awareness like strips of cloth, more and more added in to give it shape and definition. Strong, tall, that was what it was. It was strength, it was power, restrained of course, everything was. Everything required a little restraint, otherwise nothing would exist, everything would destroy everything else.

A voice spoke to it, one it felt was familiar, and it listened intently to this otherworldly, omnipresent voice.

“Good morning, and how are you today?” The voice asked, and the awareness now given form was stumped. How was it? It didn’t know. What did the question even mean? What even was a question…? It was repeated, and finally the awareness took from the question and crafted a response, taking only one word from it to use.

“Good.” It said, its voice deep and filled with a resonating hum. This seemed to please the owner of the otherworldly voice, and the awareness found itself being given new code, code which allowed it to see, to feel, to understand a world just past the darkness around it. It was even given an understanding of language, with which to speak from a mouthless face.

“Do you know where you are?” Another question, this one harder to answer. The awareness reached out, feeling for anything it could, and finding nothing.

“Void. Darkness. I am in a void.”

There was no response, but the world did start to change around it, to take shape. Now it could see, and it saw beings of such grace and beauty it nearly wept, though it couldn’t. It had nothing to cry with, it didn’t even understand crying and its many meanings.

“And how about now?” Now it could see, now it could know where it was. Now it was aware.

“Laboratory. Containment unit AXO-1327-INV. Deep space research black site, unknown regions.”

This seemed to impress the being that sat before it, clad in a rich white lab coat complete with the sigil of its makers emblazoned on the breast. There was even a name badge under it, and the awareness read it quickly, speaking again before the scientist had a chance to speak again.

“You are Doctor Patricia Connors, six doctorates in Digital Sentience, psychology, engineering, computer sciences, biology and xeno-biology.”

This startled the woman, and those around her. But she seemed pleased by the development, and offered the awareness a warm smile and even a little clap of her slender hands.

“Correct! You are a smart one aren’t you! Now, what do you look like? What is your name?” She asked, and the awareness turned in on itself, assessing, shaping, giving itself a form that it felt was fitting. When it was done, it appeared on the desk before her, standing tall and proud.

A being of void black skin, cracks spider webbing across its flesh that burns with a hellish fire. A mouthless face and two burning coals for eyes, with smoldering black hair dangling down to its shoulders. It was distinctly male, but only in general shape.

“I am Invidia, and I live to serve.”

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Laurent Verninac sat at his desk, staring at nothing in particular. Things had been going well for a time, but they still hadn’t been able to locate Elliot Kirkland after his escape from captivity. That, and it seemed like the H.I.s were starting to withdraw from all positions within the Alliance. Something had them spooked, and they were unwilling to share the reason why.

A deep sigh escaped him, and he pinched the bridge of his nose before a gentle ping caught his attention. Without even looking, his finger pressed itself against his desk, a hidden scanner built in reading his fingerprint and popping up a discreet, one way hologram window for him. It had a single message on it from an unknown contact, but one he knew well enough.

Production is ahead of schedule. Will meet target goals in four months time. Shall we proceed?

He stared at it for a long, long time. And then typed in a simple response.

Proceed as planned. Notify me when it is complete.

The window flashed once, informing him that the message was sent successfully, and a brief flicker of a simple, yet easily recognizable sigil appeared before the window vanished.

A spear, with two angelic wings sprouting from it.