Urligate Vor-Pell of the Sancteen Triumvirate was disturbed from her sleep by the chime of an incoming voxcast. As she slipped out of the bed and retracted into the wall, the blinking indicator switched from a dark vermillion hue to a vibrant green, indicating an urgent message. The Urligate straightened her hair and received the vox.
"My lady, the survey section reports an unusual ping that commands your attention."
Vor sighed. "Very well. Ten cycles."
The Sulvaax was an Interlocutor class survey ship and bereft of creature comforts. Water could not be wasted for hygiene on extended missions, and so the polywave scrubber would have to suffice. The first thing Vor would do when the Sulvaax returned to dock, after resigning her commission and claiming her pension, was take a hot shower. Perhaps for an entire solcycle.
When Vor arrived in the command pod, there was a buzz of activity such as she had never seen. The Sulvaax was no warship. The sector her crew was tasked with surveying was far from the border and safe. Her ship was tasked with surveying new sources of Magnesium-12 for Super Solenoid Core manufacture.
Settling into the command chair, she turned to face her crew.
"Well, what is it?"
"Urligate, we have detected an unknown pattern."
The scientitian Kol Ur-Vex was the subject of some consternation for Vor. It was custom, after a woman's period of ferility ended, to set aside men, yet it was not uncommon for youths like Ur to take a shine to their commanders on mission such as this. He had even suggested she take a hormone injection to reactivate her sex organs.
She had to credit him for the effort, but no matter how many verses he composed honoring the silvery perfection of her hair, she was not going to suffer through the reproductive cycle again. Her own children were grown and had children of their own and the continuation of her species was, to Vor, a settled problem.
All that was set aside now. "Blue, or red."
"That is why it is unknown, my lady. It is neither."
She turned to the comms operator. "Send a beat back to the Investiture. Now."
Dread coiled, cold in her stomach. The Precepts were absolutely clear. Those Who Came Before delivered a complete roadmap to the biology and physiology of their creations when they seeded Calvax with life. In ancient times, her ancestors prayed at the foot of the Bleeding Queen, but once the Cube was found, her entire civilization made the Great Leap and found the stars as their makers intended.
There was one absolute law in the Precepts delivered by the Cube. What is Red is Red and what is Blue is Blue and never shall they meet, or there shall be a great disaster.
Ur sputtered at his station. "I can't fix a read on this. It's bouncing back and forth, but the Tripartite Intelligence insists it's a sepia pattern."
In all its history, the Investiture had encountered Red Life only once. The two ships that made contact immediately fled from each other. It took decades to decide on the use of a nonbiological drone to make diplomatic contact, and even then the Old School argued it was Blasphemy of the highest order to speak to the Red. The Red creatures were totally alien, strange shapes. They did not pilot ships, they were ships.
In the end, a border was agreed upon, a neutral zone established, and both quarantined the other. There would be no Blasphemy. Red would be Red and Blue would be Blue and never would they meet.
Now this.
"How far are we?"
"If we make a thaumaturgic incursion, six hours," said Ur.
Her crew of nine would go into sleep while the Core, directed by the Tripartite Intelligence, directed the ship's total dissolution into energy, shunted it to another location and reassembled it. The time was for the calculations. The trip was instantaneous.
"We have to know. Plot a course."
Sleep was not sleep. Vor moved to magna-seal herself in her pod. It was then that Ur came to her.
"Your choice is your choice," he said. "I have no right to make demands of your body, but favor me at least with a kiss before we face this."
With a sigh, Vor gave in. There was no heat in it. More respect. She would retire soon. Perhaps she would reconsider the injection. It was temporary, after all, and she had fertility potential for another ten years at least.
"Get in your pod," she ordered.
When the jump was completed, the pods opened on their own. Vor came around, though groggy, and rushed to the command pod with the others without changing out of her transmission suit. This was too important.
"Get an array of sensor pods out there. Now."
It took a few minutes for the ship's eyes and ears to be deployed. Once the optical pod was online, Ur directed it to display the source of the blasphemous signal.
Vor had to hold down her gorge.
The vessel, and it was clearly a craft of some kind, was at least fifteen times larger than the largest forge-ship the Investiture could deploy, and forge-ships were not void vessels, but barely mobile assembly plants.
This thing knifed through the open sky, surrounded by a cloud of smaller objects. It was a dull blue-black, shaped for utility but, she thought, to inspire fear. It was the shape of a vast predatory animal, hunting the void as the scurlaax hunts the waves.
"My lady," Ur said, softly. "It's changing course. It's heading towards us. I've confirmed the pattern. Sepia."
Vor swallowed, a very childish gesture she immediately regretted.
"I think it's trying to communicate, or we're being probed. It's beaming a broad-spectrum electromagnetic burst at us. The same pattern over and over."
"Send it to the Intelligence to analyze."
"What should we do?" the pilot asked, turning in his seat.
"Nothing. We're unarmed. They should be fleeing if they follow the Precepts." Sweat slid down her neck. The slipsuit was too hot. "We'll hold. They seem to be waiting for us to answer."
"It's language," said Ur. "Lilithic in origin. We're sixty percent to a translation."
Vor swallowed again.
"I have it."
"Read."
"Attention, unknown vessel. This is the scout frigate Merciless Intent, of the sixth expeditionary fleet, in service of the Instrumentality of Mankind. Prepare to be boarded. Cooperate and you will not be harmed."
"All stop," said Vor. "Hold position in space. Flash the docking lights, signal them."
"My lady," said Ur. "The precepts-"
"That… that thing is armed, isn't it?"
"Those crystals along the side are some kind of energy projector, I think. They have cores attached through some sort of biosilicate conduit. Tremendous energy output is a possibility, yes. There's a smaller craft approaching."
Now all they could do was wait.
It took fifteen cycles for the smaller craft to approach. It was smaller than its mothership, but it dwarved the Sulvaax. The entire ship rattled as it attached some kind of docking clamp. The majority of her ship's operating space was taken up by the probe and survey apparatus, so all there was to do was wait.
"We've been boarded."
Vor stood up and folded her hands behind her back. Best to remain calm. This was out of their hands, now.
"Unlock all hatches."
When they came in, the crew gasped, and Ur nearly passed out. He ended up sinking into his seat and covering his mouth with his hand.
The smallest of them looked like lilin, but it had the most bizarre features. Its hair was silvery-white and its skin was as pale as milk. It wore a dark, skintight suit, and Vor could not tell if it was male or female. Its eyes were red, and bored into her own.
"Forgive me for analyzing your language," it said.
The other two terrified her. They were half again as tall as a man, and at first she thought they were wearing some obscene, fleshy armor, but it wasn't. It was their flesh itself. Broad shouldered with stunted legs, the creatures carried biotech contraptions that melted into their arms, an obscene perversion of all that was Blue and Red, merged. They were living weapons, a blasphemy so profound Vor could barely stomach to look upon it.
"How can I help you?" she said.
"We are here to help you. We have bring the good news of the new century, the Instrumentality."
"I represent the Investiture. I'm not authorized to engage in any negotiations, but per the Precepts we should disengage immediately and establish a quarantine to prevent contamination."
The thing with the lilin's face examined her.
"My lady," Ur said, very softly. "They're sending some kind of trans-conceptual assault at the Intelligence. I've never seen anything like this."
"Your cooperation is not required," the creature said. "You will be uplifted, as we have uplifted many before. We will carry the Good News to your world of origin, and your knowledge and civilization will be adapted to the Instrumentality."
"Ur," Vor said. "How long will it take for them to break into the Intelligence's memory banks?"
"Five cycles, if that."
"I see. Initiate an emergency slip."
The lilin faced thing looked confused.
"Your ship is vastly outgunned. Assaulting us is pointless. We all return to nothing and return again to serve the Instrumentality."
"I don't know what you are, or where you came from," said Vor, "but the Investiture will not stand for your blasphemy. Ur. Slip."
When Vor woke again, her first thought was that she should not have woken again. Slipping awake was instantly fatal, an emergency slip doubly so. Slipping without a destination was a polite way of saying "exploding". An untargeted slip should have taken out the shuttle and the mothership, or at least crippled it. There was no way she could have survived.
"Welcome to the Instrumentality."
The creature that violated her ship with its obscene presence leaned over her as Vor coughed and sputtered and dragged herself out of the shallow tub where she awoke in a stinking pool of something that wasn't blood, but was too much like it.
"Remain calm. Your first rebirth can be traumatic."
She spoke… and her voice sounded like the thing. "Where am I?"
Before she could hear the answer, Vor turned and turned, and saw. The walls undulated, a hideous blend of plastic, steel, and something alive. The shallow tubs were everywhere, and in all of them lay bodies, the unmoving shapes of the creatures.
Vor looked down. Her body was like the others, thin and obscenely efficient, a parody of the lilin form, smooth between the legs, hairless, repulsive. Evil. She screamed and screamed, and more of them came, surrounding her, groping her arms, her legs, her soft silver hair.
"You'll see," they said, their voices chiming with beatific calm. "You'll see."
"Let me go," Vor wailed, "This is blasphemy, blasphemy, blasphemy. Please let me go-"
"You will be free soon," one of them said, caressing her cheek. "Once we've changed your mind."
"No!" she wailed, "Please, don't!"
"It's not so terrible," another said. "We love you. Everyone will be here soon, when the Fleet makes planetfall at your homeworld. All your friends, all your loved ones."
"No, no, no," she moaned.
It had a beautiful smile.
"We love you."