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July 14, 2578
Location : Kiyasumeni
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According to Karga'te, getting the market evacuated would be a massive pain. Hguthreeit did believe them, but he only ran the city, he didn't outright rule its visitors. Kirindi thought he could let her help that, but neither of them agreed to it.
New ships kept pouring in, unable to change course or simply not having learned of the new threat. Some even insisted they should just let the humans discover them and blow them up. Others dithered, saw no reason to leave or just holed up. Too many didn't want to leave their wares.
Some liked the idea of blood retaliation, those were small fry trading between worlds (albeit with sufficient firepower to stay safe), not so much super powers with a clear understanding of interstellar politics. Or rather, the lack of politics. Humans with their rabid colonization all over the place didn't really seem so much a threat on the surface, but well, that was just the surface. The bulk of these nations hadn't even met yautja, being of no interest.
Hguthreeit would've liked to send Kirindi to persuade them, but Kirindi found her job taken by Ayo. She always managed to be there before her, and was terribly persuasive. It was just one of many things her father couldn't make sense of. The Ayo whom Karga'te had known had been distant, quiet and methodical.
This Ayo wore something new and colorful every day, always covered with an odd, mossy scent not of her own. Sometimes light paint lines her skin in elegant patterns. Her dreads were in different shapes and patterns, sometimes with trinkets through them. She'd linger on the market and buy things when she could, try new fruits and casually convince stubborn traders to pack up.
It bothered Karga'te how she'd changed because he thought she might've fooled him, which was a weird priority to have. The monster part should bother him much more.
Odygos suppressed the little instinct telling him to burn Ayo, favoring that other little drive to figure her out. Ayo humored whatever question he sent her.
Eliath didn't get used to the voice, but he did put up with her after it became clear she was good for Kirindi's survival and it would aid his mother. In practice that meant he bothered to avoid her so he wouldn't reflexively attack.
That left everybody with opinions on Ayo that Kirindi found hard to reflect. Ayo was going to be a murderous monsters soon. Why did her father just tolerate that? Unlike Kirindi herself, Ayo was a true risk. Even when not telepathically readable, there was always a hint of aggression vibrating off of every cell of her body.
Assimilate and survive.
Just like ordinary xenomorph drones. For Eliath and Odygos, it was serve. Just that. They were part of her unity without any ... alright, perhaps Eliath had a few aggression problems in regard to the serve part.
Anyway, Ayo could not be assimilated or transformed, like Karga'te and Sarah. She already was something else below her skin, and this something was the enemy.
Maybe her father needed proof.
If she had been able to prove that Eliath and Odygos were harmless — okay, Eliath not so much — all that mess wouldn't have happened. Just because Karga'te didn't get it in a certain frame of mind didn't mean he wouldn't adapt eventually. Maybe he was being overly cautious after he'd done things wrong with Kirindi herself.
Ergo, she had to get evidence that Ayo would be dangerous.
One early morning, while Karga'te was exhausted at home from a tough day of work, she took Eliath and Ti'chai-di. She'd tell him later what she meant to do.
The Sanhedrim ship lay close to the jungle and was half covered by mist. Typical scans did not work on it, but she couldn't tell whether echo location was also blocked.
From a secure spot above it, the three shrieked in a tone carried so high most wouldn't hear it, or in her sister's case, so low it was hard to hear.
This confirmed to her the surface was alive and in a way that resonated perhaps a little with the odd fields of the world. They got nothing else, when it should have gives them at least some idea of what was inside. They couldn't even guess how thick the outer hull was despite there being at least a few windows hit by their call.
She dropped down on it, tried poking at it, tried pulling off something (she didn't eat it, that had been forbidden) and got absolutely nowhere. Eliath joined her, and found nothing interesting about it. This stuff wasn't the same as the monster within Ayo.
The poking did get the attention of people inside.
A hatch opened nearby and an Aing Tii peaked, then vanished again. Shortly after, a very groggy Ayo peeked out.
"Surely you want to go home and sleep," she said, making a vague hand wave.
She wanted to do that. Yes, absolutely. One thing stopped her : she could tell something external tugging at her own mind, compelling her in a more forceful way than when she herself eased people. Just on words alone, that power carried.
Ti'chai-di shrieked when that coin dropped, angry more at the memory of Jonah than anything here.
Ayo's eyes widened and she ducked back into the ship, pulling the hatch along.
Ti'chai-di shot after her and pounded where the hatch had been, but the surface had grown shut.
Eliath just sat by, very confused by wanting to sleep. He could hibernate and rest, but he didn't outright sleep ...
Weird.
In the way Odygos's curiosity fought with his instincts, Kirindi got a treacherous little idea. She couldn't just tell Eliath to not be mean, but something about that monster's technique could at least make him consider ...
Aww, no. That meant the monster had something she needed.
Kirindi coaxed her sister and Eliath to stand back before she knocked where the hatch had been.
It opened on a split.
"What is it now?" Ayo asked. "Y'know, meditating from here up to the Beast Nebula isn't easy, I don't need monks waking me every time you three spook them."
"I'd like to know what technique you used just before, please," Kirindi said.
"So you can make me talk about those alleged future dangers I might become, hmm?" she said, rubbing out her eyes. "Okay, you back off."
Kirindi did so.
With a big yawn, Ayo climbed out, but kept her hand on a weird tube at her belt. "What'y want?"
"It's because Eliath. He needs to get along better in the hive."
"You might have an easier time teaching him how to treat allies if you didn't preemptively assign people like me as enemy. I know you can fight those inclinations of your instinct, you're just not trying as much as you should."
"You will be dangerous," Kirindi said.
"So can you be, little girl," Ayo said. "Anyway, that technique won't work on him. He didn't shoot off to go home, so if it had any hold at all, it's not because he's weakminded. Probably just simpleminded. Heh, I wonder whether it would work on Karga'te, if he weren't attached to your mind."
"He could tell if he tried, but he usually just goes with what pops into his head," Kirindi said. "Why?What would you have him do?"
"Reason," Ayo said with unusual sharpness in her tone. "Oh, abyss, if I had a say in the grand scheme, we wouldn't be betting on him at all."
Now Eliath spoke at last, because this topic interested him.
He wanted to know why Karga'te should think, and what about.
Ayo narrowed her eyes. "Hmm, another thinker? Wanna talk about why they're weird?"
"No, if you can't help, then I don't need you," Kirindi said.
Ayo frowned. "Okay, kid, this gotta stop. I'm a person. I used to be much more human, and if I wanted to, I could be part of your little group mind. Don't treat me like this when I'm here to help you."
Kirindi wasn't sure what to respond, but Eliath, to her surprise, conceded. Reluctantly, but he had a lot less going on in his mind. Simple, as Ayo said.
"He says ... he knows what's needed, but ... you're only ever choosing to not hurt us, but Karga'te did. That's why he's angry. That's why you're ... he says you're our ally for now ... "
Now he laid it out clear, it was so obvious. Maybe her saying Ayo was the enemy was like her father when he rejected the hive mind.
"Great. I'm going back to meditating, okay?" Ayo said. She dropped back into the ship, and that was it.
Kirindi, Ti'chai-di and Eliath climbed back up the wall, but didn't return home. They huddled on a ledge overlooking
She understood reasoning as a concept, sure. She'd reason herself, but not far. She definitely hadn't asked whether Eliath had reasoning about Karga'te and Odygos ... regardless of whether the reasoning made sense.
Ti'chai-di didn't engage, but Eliath gave her his undivided attention now.
"~ Should I talk to her again? Or should we talk? Can I talk with you about not hurting Odygos or my father? ~"
He never answered in sentences, but he kept all those things in his memory, and admitted he didn't know.
"~ Doesn't it bother you that that monster exists and has to work with us? ~"
It did, but everything was secondary to his primary purpose : keeping her safe. He'd always assumed that just meant fighting things, but it wasn't so easy. Karga'te did have a point, as much as he hated to admit it, that Odygos was also useful for that purpose. Even if Eliath didn't like it.
"~ You'd hurt people even in our shared mind for disliking them. We don't want the same then. ~"
What did she want, he asked.
"~ I ... I want everyone to be together. ~"
Impossible. Eliath wasn't supposed to say that.
Impossible, her sister said as well. Those who had hurt them had to die.
Eliath said there was something else he wanted : his mother free. That's be a good bonus.
If she herself could bypass that instinct, and Eliath got it, and Odygos got it, and maybe she was wrong to think Ayo was the enemy, then what? Kirindi sat still and juggled those thoughts for a while, before climbing down again.
This time it took a little longer of knocking on the hatch before Ayo appeared again. She was even groggier this time.
"Hello again, miss. I don't want to work with you, but I get that Noasyvé works with you. If you want the Auton to help, there's one you can ask. I know he's very likely to try out new things and is okay with monsters."
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Whenever Anudjan recharged, Persephone handled audience requests. Typically these came from Hguthreeit's staff, no exception today.
It was expected that in exchange for being here in secret they would perform volunteer work, which often involved repairing human technology that was being trades or confiscated. Virus checks were also their jurisdiction. As synthetics could not communicate directly with them, it was always emails.
In the past, Kirindi had used the same mail system to ask whether she could come play, but she hadn't used it since her sister returned. So, when Persephone checked her messages to find a long string of emails from Kirindi, it worried her a lot.
The first one seemed dictated, and told her that Enigma IV planned to invade the planet right off the bat. Their source was a strange monster that had come along with the Aing Tii. This monster and its allies wanted to mount a rescue operation for the mother of the drones, as well as Sarah, by exploiting the absence of Enigma's forces. They would like the help of the androids in this to avoid an infection, and in exchange would assist in the evacuation of the market.
That sounded like they had a time table in mind, but how? Telepathically given by Sarah perhaps? How would those Aing Tii even get to Enigma II in time? The Auton had vast technology, but surely they needed information and preparations?
Following this were five messages of Kirindi pleading them to be careful, because the monster was something very, very wrong, and maybe they could do some magic checking stuff to prove that, because Karga'te didn't take it serious enough. Later messages seemed to be her realizing the androids didn't know how the monster was wrong, so she tried comparing it to a virus.
To Persephone all internecivus raptus were a virus, but she refrained from pointing that out.
The next message was from Odygos. He said Y-921 was already aboard the Aing Tii ship anyway, so she might as well come to have a chat.
Dammit. When the Auton had agreed to assist Noasyvé, they had imagined something far, far in the future where they'd be more in control. Please hop aboard this strange alien ship and break into Enigma II right now was not that.
She connected to their matrix and reached Y-921, who sent her a few packages of information.
The alleged monster looked completely human, a tall woman, most likely of African descent, somewhere around her thirties. Scans didn't work properly near the Sanhedrim vessel, so Y-921 got no other readings but plain old human on her. She behaved like a warm, friendly human, who was either a spectacular actor or genuinely worried for the welfare of the people on the market and the victims of Enigma IV.
She would have returned home and gathered a retrieval mission, except Ti'chai-di awaited her outside Hguthreeit place.
"Hello," Persephone said.
The skull peaked out from under the crest.
"Do you need something?"
Ti'chai-di closed her jaws around Persephone's arm and lifted her up. She kicked, but soon dangled far above the ground as Ti'chai-di climbed down the pillar. Holding on seemed smarter. Maybe she could — nope, she kept jumping all over the place. Too much steep drops.
Y-921 told her to please be patient, but they had to abduct someone in high rank for a moment to persuade the others to visit. He would've tried a casual invitation but Ti'chai-di hadn't understood that — she didn't read beyond "gotta show this to Persephone".
Ti'chai-di didn't bite through, but the trip was rough so by the time Persephone was dropped, her arm was a mess. Persephone swore to herself to get a gun implant.
Before her was a low dock at the bottom of the side wall, where a bizarre, organic ship lay.
Ti'chai-di still loomed over her, so Persephone stayed put, lest she get more damage.
"So, now what?" she told Y-921.
"Just watch."
The ship vanished. A loud pop vibrated all around as air filling the empty space, follow right away by a massive gust from her right.
Just below the shelter of the roof, half between two pillars, a forcefield expanded to push air away and within, the ship reappeared.
This wasn't possible. This shouldn't be possible. It had to be a trick, this just, no. No. Teleportation?
The ship floated right over her, real, tangible and undeniable. It retook its place, and opened the doors. Y-921 wandered down the ramp and waved at Persephone.
She stayed where she was as he walked down to her. He looked at ease enough, no hidden distress signals, but she couldn't trust sense after what she'd just seen.
"What are you doing with them?"
"It's okay," he said. "I had plenty of choice, they let me keep my weapons. It's okay. I'm okay, Persy."
"How do I know you're not reprogrammed somehow?"
"You're free to test me," he said. "This time I won't have a wiped memory, I promise, so you can check whether I was tinkered with."
In the doorway a number of white bipedal creatures with exoskeletons appeared — Aing Tii, according to Y-921 — as well as the humanoid named Ayo.
"Hey there," she said lightly. The creatures around here made odd noises and seemed to be curious? Cautious? She couldn't guess.
Y-921 nodded at her. "That's Ayo, she's pretty much on our side. She has an awesome proposal, but you have to come aboard. Since Kirindi's not vouching for her, they decided to play open cards. Come on, it'll be fine."
He checked on her arm for a moment, then said, "Don't worry, you won't be harmed beyond this little accident. I'm really, really sorry for the rough treatment, but it'll be worth it. It's a little awesome."
Sure, no worry here. She had no idea what methods those biomechanic things might have to get in her system. The biomechanica she was familiar with wasn't even on this level yet could pose a threat.
Ayo came down the ramp. "I have no malicious intent. If we wanted to do you Auton any damage, we could have done it already. Now hold that thought, because it's the key here."
Persephone pressed her lips shut just to show defiance, and considered rerouting energy in case she had to fight. Maybe alert the city guard?
Ti'chai-di shoved Persephone in the back, in the direction of the ship. She didn't resist, not wanting worse.
The Aing Tii moved aside as the door began closing. A few looked her over, but before they were all through the door they'd scattered. Like this wasn't a very dramatic event. Ti'chai-di too turned away, back down the ramp.
The door grew shut.
Inside, a green light pulsed on the walls, but it was brighter in further rooms.
Ayo went ahead, ignored by all. When the door closed behind them, Y-921 let go and took a few steps ahead, holding out his arm the way they had to go.
Persephone hesitated. None of her scanners worked, she went practically blind, but wasting time standing here wasn't helping. She followed.
Ayo went right for a certain room, held the door and gestured at a creature in the center.
By all account it was a xenomorph drone, but the most peculiar that Persephone had ever seen. The dark green exoskeleton wasn't even the strangest. It lacked the jaws and somewhat phallic head, instead having two necks. Mandibles like a spider's twitch at the end, and it had eight legs. Four of those were in front and on the black, small like those of a queen. Its whole body came in segments, with the thick hind body spinning out into a tail.
"This is the product of our technology combined with a little gift from Noasyvé," Ayo said. "It is a drone like the two Kirindi has with her, but it serves us entirely. We modified it to be more useful, and that means individuality. Call xer Xylia."
At this, the drone reached out one of its longer hands, presumably for an handshake.
If this was a trap, they were pointlessly elaborate about it. She took the monster's hand, yet it didn't take her hand. It just tapped a stump claw on her palm.
"Why did you show me this creature? It's not like we don't know weird drones exist, we met Odygos."
Xylia rattled and took a step back, front scooping low as the tail curled forward from below. The small arms on the back began pulling thread from the tip, while Ayo the resulting thread between her fingers. She walked backward while the thread fell apart into a fine curtain, which Xylia's smaller front arms pulled closer. Weaving in a triangle, the creature began making a complex pattern that constantly shed threads yet expanded as if there was no gravity.
Despite not being fed further thread, it appeared to grow in mass. On the tremor of the threads her sensors could detect something. Sight processed a vibration, sound a song, electromagnetism a movement ... and in her imagination, she saw the threads as light illuminating a vast field that expanded far beyond.
The presumed teleportation should be what baffled her most today, but the suggestion of this expanse went deeper to her core. She wasn't programmed to daydream or hallucinate. Imagination was only when she intended to create something, yet here it suggested something more existed.
The drone had tapped her hand, had it infected her somehow?
Inspecting her hand wielded no damage and no unusual signals, except for a soft sense that moved in the same rhythm as this expanse.
"What is this?" she whispered. There was wonder in her voice, she didn't bother deactivating it.
"I'm told it's the closest we can get to perceiving the weird field where the xenomorph get their extra mass and energy when they speed grow," Y-921 said.
Alright, they absolutely had her interest, but that didn't mean she didn't want an answer.
"Why would this mean we ought to help you free that queen on your terms?"
"It's going to help humankind. There's things we don't want to figure out too much of this, and we could use an ally who knows how it works. You know, Kirindi said something about a monster, right?" Y-921 said. "Turn around and have a look at Ayo now."
Well ... damn.
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