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May 27, 2578
Location : Kiyasumeni
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Karga'te didn't sleep well lately. The other side of the hivemind kept forcing its way into his dreams. Narrow, cold halls full of hate except for a cloying cluster around Sarah. When one night, Hguthreeit drummed him awake over a potential emergency, he didn't even complain.
Well, he didn't complain about the waking up part. The worm had an infernal ability to whine telepathically, so he actually had to get out of bed and do a thing.
Kirindi was already awake and dressed by the time he got out of his room, smiling as she held out his netgun and a few others weapons to pick from, just in case. He grumbled and picked something random. Before leaving, he double checked whether the gate on Eliath's room was closed well enough. Eliath himself hibernated, and Kirindi didn't wake him to ask whether he'd come along.
Hguthreeit got them updated on their way down.
A particular group of visitors had arrived who could be trouble, the Aing Tii. They were staunch opponents of slavery. In theory slave trade was not permitted here, but more covert forms happened anyway. The Aing Tii tended to crack down without any regard for the rules, which could result in anything from destroyed wares to outright execution. They had no qualms about neurological interfacing, aka brainwashing by means of implanting. This also meant they could have agents who acted on things without knowing way, so there was no mind reading to be done to find out. All in all, reason to be edgy around them.
Karga'te didn't care for the laws about how to handle slavers, but he didn't like the brainwashing part at all. He'd bother to be serious about this, so he asked for more information.
Aing Tii always appeared without warning. They docked their ships as soon as a place had been reserved, literary. Their travel technology was of a standard beyond this galaxy. Right now, they'd docked without even unloading any cargo and had requested an audience with the supervisor. A translator was awaited, since Hguthreeit wasn't keen on starting telepathy with them.
Karga'te docked on the same pillar they were at the bottom off. He and Kirindi took a seat on a ridge, where he zoomed his helmet up close while Kirindi telepathically probed the area.
The ship was a clunky bean shaped thing with a segmented shell and random protrusions, looking more like an insect pod than a machine. Shallow nozzles broke the pattern in random places, while countless tiny windows neatly lined on the segments. The only thing indicating it even had a front were the larger windows on one end.
The creatures mulling around it were so similar, he would bet they were biomechanic. Bipedal creatures, white like their ship, segmented but more streamlined. Rounded heads with eyes and no mouth ended in a long, pointed tail. They didn't speak by sound, but scents, as far as Kirindi could tell. They had some spirit speech though, so they weren't entire unintelligible. Kirindi liked them at once and wanted to invite them to the hivemind. Whenever did she not?
Well, there was one exception.
Kirindi drew his attention to a small figure sitting on the ramp. He switched on his mask's close up function to zoom in on ... a human.
A human he knew.
Darker in color than Anudjan, but younger and of a different gender, she was both familiar and strange to Karga'te. Her clothing style had changed from understated to ornate and complex, her dreads were heaped on the back of her head in a wild array and she had green colors painted on her skin. Strangest of all, she laughed at the worm that had come to negotiate. Out loud. Karga'te had never seen Ayo like this, yet it was her.
According to Kirindi she was the Aing Tii's technological translator; she handled the sign ins and had just struck up a conversation with Hguthreeit. Ayo was telepathic now? That did come with the ash generation, but Oihana had said she was rather hard to read. On top of that, they'd appeared limited to their own kind.
"~ You know her? ~" Hguthreeit asked.
"~ No, I just like the fashion she's got, ~" Karga'te said.
"~ I do too! ~" Shadhahvar cheered somewhere far away. "~ Let's invite her! ~"
She was ignored.
Karga'te crossed down the pillar, spooked a few sightseers and landed on top of the Aing Tii ship. There he leaned over the edge of the entrance.
"Ayo, what in the pit are you doing here?" he said in human language.
"The same as always, surviving and helping others survive. How have you been doing, Karga'te?" she said in yautja language without missing a beat. She didn't even look up.
He sat down, dangling his legs over the edge. "The badblood clan wasn't my thing, then I got in some freaky hardmeat hive and walked out with a monster daughter. Then she brought in her big little sister and two drones. Now I have a job kicking people's asses over asinine market rules. What's your story?"
Ayo gave a hearty laugh, once again making him doubt it was really her. She'd been so stoic.
"Really now? Can I meet your daughters?" she asked, looking up for the first time. "I'll tell you my story then."
"Depends. How's your inner monster doing?"
"I'm just fine, don't worry. I have to wrap up some things here, though."
She got up and disappeared inside, while Karga'te still processed what had just happened.
Ayo was here.
He had expected her to be killed, escape or still struggle along with the clan till she had a chance to escape. None of that had involved ever running into her again. What was he going to say? What would they even talk about? How did she even end up here?
Kirindi hopped down on the roof, entranced with the living tissue. She wanted to grow such things too, so she began prying off a bit to take along. Maybe Odygos could learn from it.
Ayo reappeared from a hatch to the right of Karga'te. "Done. Let's go up and ... please don't do that."
She gave a nod at Kirindi, who had started spitting acid on the ship, but now froze and stared at Ayo.
"Don't eat that, you don't know what it's been!" Karga'te said.
"Also it doesn't belong to you," Ayo said. "Even if you could defeat the owners in combat."
Karga'te bristled. "I'm not raising her with yautja rules."
Kirindi pushed the half detached piece back in place without breaking eye contact with Ayo. She didn't say sorry, like she'd usually do.
"I've got a hovercraft up there, if you really wanna meet Ti'chai-di. Or you can just meet Kirindi here and be done with it. Ti'chai-di doesn't do much other than droop around and be sad she can't have kids. Also, I got a human guy in the house."
Ayo could climb in ways ordinary humans could not, so he didn't wait for her or bother to drive the craft down. He went up, Kirindi next to him and Ayo at a calculated distance.
Kirindi hadn't asked a single time to add her to the hivemind, despite her being familiar.
When asked why, she indicated Ayo didn't appear like a real person. Like the androids were to him. Kirindi saw the Auton as persons who unfortunately couldn't be added to the hivemind because they were on a different frequency, but she claimed they could transform to make it possible. One of those existed somewhere in the galaxy, Eloise. They had shared dreams once.
So, if she could make that comparison, didn't that mean she understood Ayo was a person? What was the hold up? This was flat out the first human Karga'te didn't mind being in the hivemind.
When she noticed his confusion, she said, "~ That one's wrong. ~"
"~ Why? ~"
"~ It just is. ~"
"~ She is much more real than your androids. She even had some of her own telepathy. ~"
Kirindi didn't like that last part either. If anything, the idea that she might have her own shared mind with other people made her alert for enemies.
They reached the hovercraft with no incident, which put Ayo on the same dock as Kirindi.
Oblivious to the difference in behavior, Ayo smiled at her and leaned down to look her in the eyes.
"Hey, kid. How are you dealing with this prick?"
She just tilted her head.
Ayo held out a hand, but Kirindi shot away. Climbing onto Karga'te's shoulders, she looked away.
At least, Ayo's ease in not being offended remained. "Heh. Who would have thought it would turn out like this."
"Noasyvé, apparently," Karga'te grumbled.
"Yes, but it's you! You've been such an asshole, and after—"
"Cut that out," he growled.
Almost Kirindi asked Ayo what had happened, but she kept back because she noticed he didn't want that story out. It was the first sign Karga'te saw that maybe, she hadn't really forgotten that he'd nearly killed her. About time, but not a good time. Ayo had just confirmed she knew Noasyvé, after all.
"It's not a coincidence you're here, is it?"
Ayo stood straight. "No. I and my allies are here to help Noasyvé escape from Enigma II."
Change of plans. He wasn't going to introduce her to his home, they were heading straight for the worm's place.
He told Hguthreeit the rough detail that Ayo was an old acquaintance, she looked human but was something else and she had a goal for Noasyvé.
Hguthreeit thought this was a bizarre development, sure. The secluded Aing Tii taking in a human? Siding with xenomorph now? One for the record of freaky developments of the kainde amedha, which he had started the moment he met Kirindi, so really, he could roll with it. Did she like tea or coffee or wine? He had reserves on his ship for whenever he dropped by a human settlement.
So he ended up in a fancy room by worm standards that smelled atrocious. Really, how could anyone drink that stuff? Ayo was normally averse to anything that would be bad for her, ash instincts and all that, yet down it went.
"Ah, thank you," Ayo said after the first sip. She leaned into the pouffe, calm and content and once again making him doubt she was Ayo.
"~ You're welcome, ~" Hguthreeit said. "~ So, care to tell us your story? Feel free to speak human, if sending is difficult for you. ~"
"It is when speaking to your kind." Ayo cast a look at Kirindi, who stared unblinking at her. "And her kind, apparently."
Ayo still had her succinct nature, at least in how she explained her presence with the Aing Tii and her goal.
The Aing Tii had come to this galaxy for spiritual reasons. Their strict standards led to their involvement in countering the Loki organization's trade with the Mala'kak, and from there on their pilgrimage turned into a rather intense charity mission. Jormungandr had come onto their radar, which led them to the Nirevé. Jormungandr had been gone by then, but Ayo hadn't. She had joined them, and met a number of their allies, Noasyvé included. They had a shared goal in preventing humankind or anything of their making from getting their hands on Mala'kak technology.
All this she told in stoic detail, except when she emphasized she did not want her selling out the pack she'd been with at the time to be called betrayal. It was escape.
Hguthreeit had a lot of questions on why the Aing Tii hadn't just come up to any of the advanced civilizations to explain their findings, which Ayo repeatedly shoved off by saying their were just recluses. Karga'te was less interested in her friends than in her presence.
It was really absurd, the longer he had time to let it sink in. One day on another, Ayo just wandered back into his life. He had every reason to believe he would never see anyone of that time in his life again.
He always had distant ideas about finding his brother, but Ayo wouldn't have been anywhere near him. He never would return to Nirevé. Not then, and especially not now.
As Ayo and Hguthreeit spoke of an invasion, of freeing Noasyvé, and then escape, it started turning more and more real he'd lose his life on Kiyasumeni.
Hguthreeit had objections to Noasyvé coming here right during an invasion, after a supposed attack on Enigma II, for similar reasons. The last he wanted was the United Alliances on his back over harboring enemies of humankind.
"You think it'll get that far?" Ayo asked. "Tell me then, what do you think will happen when Enigma comes?"
"~ They'll send airborne drones that either transmit something I don't want them to see, or we destroy the drones, or we risk trying to reprogram them. They will not send the same low tech as those cyborg, and they are not likely to send one type. Once they have reason to, we can expect an invasion force. This is a problem, but it will be bigger if Enigma has reason to believe I'm involved directly with the attacks on it. ~"
Ayo shook her head. "There will be an invasion force right away."
"How would you know that?" Karga'te asked, having an inkling of the answer.
"There are others like me." Ayo stood up, kept her eyes on the ground and closed nearby window. "They will gradually unravel the secrets Utara and Nuitar keep on Enigma II. Even now I have to be careful not to let anything slip. Especially visuals are easy to pick up on."
Karga'te growled. "Then how do we know you're not being mind read right now?"
Ayo gave a weird little smile at that. "I have a shield."
In a rare moment of concord, Hguthreeit and Karga'te agreed that was infuriating vagueness. Kirindi didn't, she thought something else was too vague.
"Why would you and your friends want to help Noasyvé?" Kirindi asked. "I agree she must be helped, of course, but they oppose the Mala'kak. Why not their kin too?"
"It's not that kind of standards the Aing Tii strive for," Ayo said. "That want what's best for life—"
"Then they should join the hivemind."
"They have their own unity," Ayo said, with a bit of bite to her tone. "As have my team, and those of the planet I joined. We will be allies, the Aing Tii will be allies, as long as independent life is served."
Time to leave before this got any more tense. Karga'te stood up and climbed out the farthest window from Ayo, followed closely by Kirindi.
All the way home, she tried to convince him Ayo was dangerous, less for what she'd said and more for the thing under her skin.
Hguthreeit only had one thing to say, "~ So your old friend happens to know Noasyvé. Someone is playing with you. ~"
Hardly news, but he was gonna deal with that as it came. Right now he had a market city to evacuate, because if anything like Ayo's kind came here, there would be a lot of death.
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May 28, 2578
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Of all the new information that got onto the metaphorical table, Odygos thought that Karga'te having acquaintances who didn't hate his guts was the weirdest. Really, Jake was only tolerant of Karga'te because he was in the hivemind. He was curious about Ayo now, but she didn't want to come by because of some inconvenient breeding instinct. Jake was a fertile adult male human, so.
The answer was obvious : Odygos just kicked Jake out. Packed his bags with junk food and send him for a fun night over with the Auton and other Philidon humans. That done, Ayo agreed to come over, which Odygos looked forward to right up until she stepped through the front door and he got a field full of distorted radiance and hostile pheromones.
This was bad. Really bad. As in inherent instinct to destroy bad.
Well, he was going to deal with this, whether his instincts liked it or not. Just to be sure though, he had Kirindi convince her sister to lean down on him. Ti'chai-di had no opinion of her own on Ayo's averse nature. This resulted in Ti'chai-di awkwardly fitting herself in the living room and Odygos tucked between her neck and arms. Kirindi happily decided her sister had finally figured out dolls, before making herself scarce. When Karga'te tuned into the hiveminded and decided this was an embarrassing display, Odygos decided to never developed that thing called pride. It seemed so inconvenient.
Someone probably should have decided to tell Karga'te they were inviting Ayo cause he did a lot of swearing when he tried to exit his room and there was Ti'chai-di in the way.
By the time Karga'te had wormed out, Ayo had taken a seat. On the surface she appeared just like an ordinary human, Odygos might have been fooled if he hadn't been hardwired for picking up her wrong nature. It was probably a good thing Eliath was still on room arrest when off the job.
"What are you doing here?"
"Your kainde amedha invited me, and I wanted to ask you something anyway."
Karga'te grabbed the nearest hard object and threw it at Odygos's head. "Bad dog, Odygos."
Stuck as he was under Ti'chai-di's arm, he couldn't dodge. Thank goodness for the exoskeleton.
"Odygos?" Ayo asked.
He would've said yes, but couldn't mind link, so he tried sticking up a thumb. It didn't really work, his thumb was too forward, but Ayo noticed.
"Oh Ashla, I'm a weird thing myself but are they picking up human slang?"
"Just Odygos, mostly. He's weird existential one of our two dickheads," Karga'te said. "The other is Eliath, who won't accept life is more complicated than being a dickhead. Don't provoke that one. Anyway, if you're here anyway, you can tell me more about you and Syvé."
"I'm not going to get into more detail about my deal with Noasyvé, in case the wrong people end up mind reading you," she said. "Believe, I want to talk about everything, but I have to play it safe. I came for something else."
"Then why don't we do like always and shut up?"
"Not that kind of playing it safe. We're not in Nirevé anymore. Maybe we can talk as free people."
Karga'te crossed his legs and remained on his feet, which Odygos didn't get. She wasn't an enemy, why the defiance?
"What would talking as free people even mean?"
Ayo frowned just a little. "That I can ask you for the real reason why you did certain things. You can ask about me too. Let's start simple : why did you pursue those eggs?"
He tensed up. There had to be more to it, but Odygos couldn't pick up anything despite the hivemind.
"I'm ... not sure." He started in a low voice, only for it to get more irritated. "Maybe I wanted revenge and set the result loose, maybe I wanted to see whether I was immune enough ... now I'm in the hivemind of the death goddess or something. You doing anything better with life?"
Ayo gave him a look and waited a few seconds before she said, "I work for a sapient planet."
Shadhahvar peeked into the room behind her. "And I'm the empress of the galaxy!"
"Cheers to you," Ayo said as she stood up to push Ayo from the room. "Seriously though, Karga'te, do you understand what a hivemind means?"
"Shared mind of the hardmeat hive. What else?"
"It can mean two things. One, what you said : the shared mind of the group created by the telepathic link centered on Ti'chai-di, which you happen to call hive because that's what hardmeat usually are."
"Ti'chai-di? Kirindi's the core," Karga'te said.
"Ti'chai-di handles the processing, I can tell from the fields around her. Anyway, the second thing is the mind of a hive, multiple bodies acting as a single entity. Are you still yourself?"
He could only thrill in amusement. "Take me word that's not happening at all. She can do some to keep me focused, but my thoughts are my own."
"Your thoughts are the product of your subconscious, if that's changed you wouldn't be able to tell. Look, I'm just worried. When Mahad and I moved out on our own, we started to mentally synchronize and didn't even realize it until someone with expertise in it pointed it out. He's not here now because we split before we became nothing but instinct driven versions of ourselves. We amplified it for each other. Even now I can't draw a clear line. Knowing that, are you sure you weren't influenced to seek out those eggs?"
"You know perfectly well why I'd be interested. What I think is more important is why Noasyvé is interested in us both."
Ayo ran a hand through her thick hair. "That ... is less grand scheme than you might think. I told her about you and she has a warped sense of humor that leads her to pursue avenues of thought. She has a number of other avenues that she pulled in out of curiosity, all kinds of back drops, potentials and maybe's. Thousands of them across the worlds. I don't think she planned you specifically, but others might. Regardless, we both are here now because of Jormungandr is an enemy of Noasyvé."
"That all you wanted to say?" Karga'te asked.
Odygos was pretty sure that expression on Ayo meant disappointment forced down. She carried on on a more monotone voice. "No, I also wanted to see whether Kirindi can persuade the Auton to help us on the jailbreak. She once had their aid, did she not?"
"Yeah, but only cause they planned to put a bomb in the place. Some kind of message they wanna send to the UA thing," Karga'te muttered.
"Maybe she can convince them to lend us some Auton to subtract Noasyvé from Enigma II, and blow it up afterward," Ayo said. "The Aing Tii would themselves go aboard if not for the risk of contamination by Nuitar. The Auton are not at this risk."
"Contamination?"
"There's a variant of our kind aboard that's susceptible to infected other biomechanic entities. They won't take that risk."
"There won't have to if you don't free her. Why bother?"
Ayo glared. "If only that was an option ... look, Karga'te ... Noasyvé has a way to telepathically steer mutation agents, she can send dreams across lightyears without relying on a planet's basic energy fields. There is something on Enigma II strong enough to keep her weak, and it wants her power. Noasyvé bears the living no malice, but that thing does. We need to free her, and it will be easier if we can get the Auton to cover for us."
Karga'te was dangerously close to suggesting the Auton blow up the ship with Noasyvé on it, but didn't say it out loud at least. Odygos wasn't going to forget he'd just openly let that thought float for the entire hive, but didn't take it as fiercely as Eliath — he was fuming in his room right now. It didn't have to mean Karga'te'd backstab them like Meke'tor had. Rather, he suspected Karga'te wanted to get a rise to find out more. At least, that's what Odygos saw sense in.
"I don't have proof of anything you say any more than Nra'tex-ne ever gave me proof of his gods," Karga'te said. "You should know better than to think I'll play this game. For all I know, this is all a trap, Mahad's in an incinerator somewhere and you've gone all the way into monster mind land."
"This ... this isn't what I wanted. We could be allies. We should be. I'm surrounded by things that treat the fate of the world like some detached rhythm, I'd hoped that now you're down a different path—"
Karga'te snarled, "I've seen what it gets like when things with super powers think about reshaping everything. You think we can just chat up about the past? Why don't we talk about the best way to roast a body while we're at it?"
"That is not—why are you bringing this up now?"
"Because you're trying to get my daughter wrapped up in danger!"
"Oh, now you've got a problem with this sort of thing? I'm glad you learned, Karga'te. Did you make some progress on how you view your brother too, or does that need a few more punches to the face?"
That was enough. Karga'te wrestled with wanting to throw her to the ground and leave; the latter won. Not wanting to worm his way back into his room, he stomped out the door.
Karga'te tried to take things as they came. Odygos concluded he sucked at that, given his lovely little outburst just now. He was gonna run all of this by Sarah once they got a clearer connection, and see whether he was on the right track reading people. Karga'te was like 101 material here.
Ayo just stood there, just breathing. "Oh Ashla, always with the running off."
Ti'chai-di stretched an arm out, nudging her in the arm.
Ayo startled and stood up. "Right, I'll be on my way then."
Odygos didn't really have anything to gain from it, but hey, it was more interesting than her just leaving. So he had Ti'chai-di tell her she hadn't meant for her to leave. She just knew the same feeling of not getting anywhere — that and she liked the goal of blowing up Enigma II so Ayo now registered as ally.
"Oh ... I'll be okay. So will you, Ti'chai-di." Then she looked at Odygos. "You're really a weird one, aren't you? Does that make a difference to how badly you want to kill me?"
He couldn't answer, didn't even know how to link to a mind like that, but Ti'chai-di translated for him; it surprised them both.
He told her Ayo he didn't want to kill her, he just had an instinct that warned him of danger.
Ayo broke a wide smile at that. "I wonder whether we can work together."
What did that mean? Ti'chai-di wanted to know too, but for her it was more about working together to expand the hive with her children.
"We can do a lot of things, I and my team. Ti'chai-di, I don't think you'll need our help once Noasyvé is free, but Odygos ... you should think about something you might like."
Why?
"Hmmm ... why not? Didn't you mother seek out a way to have generals who are loyal, but can function independently without her constant supervision? You could start wanting that."
Could be worth it. So what did she want?
"I want freedom and peace for all who deserve it," she said with a shrug, turning to the door now. "You know, selfish human things."
As Sarah was prone to do.
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Author's Note : Ayo is from the prequel to this story, Morphology.