Song of the Void

”Some silly races, which unsurprisingly includes humans, feel the need to classify everything. What class does a ship represent? What rank is a psion? How habitable is a particular planet? Classifications like these are not bad per se, but they are rather strict and don’t really give a true picture of reality much of the time. For example, knowing a particular ship is classified as a frigate is great and all, but not all races or factions use frigates for the same purpose. It is much more important to know what a ship can do and how well. In the same vein, it’s nice to know a world had a great habitability rating, but the colonists might prefer that you informed them of the large carnivorous beasts that skulk the forests before they find out about them the hard way. The same applies to almost everything else. I’m afraid to admit it, but even we fall into this trap when it comes to certain things, but at least we try to think outside such classifications most of the time.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

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A pair of shuttles very carefully approached the energy field separating the hangar bay from the space outside. Getting a probe through had given them a reason to believe that this would work as well, but it was better to be careful. The sleek black shuttles faced no resistance though, and the pilots gave a small sigh of relief. As soon as the hatches on the shuttles hissed open, a group of trained soldiers that had been waiting by each hatch fanned out with their weapons trained on the surroundings. Their black vacuum proof armors had no markings and blended well into the dark surroundings. If it wasn’t for their glowing visors even Miyo might have lost sight of them despite her superior eyesight.

As the soldiers did their thing, the more scientifically-minded people trudged out. One of them pulled out a scanner to check what the air was made of. The drone had been able to tell that there was some kind of gaseous atmosphere inside the hangar due to the pressure affecting its flight capabilities, but the drone had not been equipped with the sensors necessary to give a thorough breakdown of the contents of that air. That’s why every member of this advance party was wearing either combat suits meant for battle in the vacuum of space or general purpose protective suits suited for work in a vacuum. All of them, of course, carried their own oxygen, though luckily there was more of that available in the shuttles, so no need to lug around large containers. This in turn allowed them to wear generally light suits with a great deal of mobility and flexibility.

The scanner spat out a result that Miyo did not see, but she was soon informed of the result anyway as the comms buzzed to life. “The air’s contents are generally the same as what we are used to. It’s theoretically breathable. Slight traces of something the scanner doesn’t recognize but judges as safe. The problem is, while the life-support systems on this vessel might have worked fine at some point, they aren’t working well now. The air is quite stale and is not getting replaced until we get the damn thing working. If we get it to work at all. So, I’d recommend against removing your helmets. The air is actually in a remarkably good condition considering the time that must have passed. Probably due to a lack of biological contaminants and materials that would oxidize. If your helmet gets busted you can try breathing in this stuff, but I would advise against long-term exposure. It probably also stinks pretty bad and will feel very stuffy to breathe in.” The male scientist explained. Miyo didn’t recognize the voice.

“Isn’t it a little convenient that these supposed Progenitors breathed the same type of air we do?” One of the nearby soldiers asked. He and another female soldier had been left to watch over the small group of scientists.

The shuttles had already been pretty crammed with all the soldiers that had now disappeared and the necessary equipment, so only a handful of scientists came along. Miyo wasn’t entirely sure what the leaders of this little expedition expected the soldiers to do. It was rather unlikely they would actually be able to fight against any safety measure that the owners of this ship had left behind. Heck, the whole group of soldiers could keep firing their railguns at the nearby Progenitor shuttle for an entire day without making a dent. Still, the question the soldier had asked was not a stupid one.

“That’s a rather hotly debated issue, but I can give you the most likely reason if you’d like?” Miyo started, looking towards the soldier whose helmet made a nodding motion. “Well, most of the life-bearing planets in our galaxy have been terraformed to an extent by the Progenitors to suit their needs. So when new intelligent life developed on those same planets, the various races all adapted to a similar atmosphere. There are exceptions like the Kratach who developed on a distinctly different world with a wildly different environment, but in general the principle holds true. Rather handy for diplomacy, all things considered.”

“The downside being that it’s much easier for invaders to just waltz in and take your worlds since little to no terraforming is needed.” The female soldier interjected. “If a particular race runs out of habitable planets, well the neighbor’s planets are just as good once the original occupants are dealt with. The only things they really need to worry about are possible diseases and microorganisms and pretty much every race has ways to deal with those.”

Miyo made a small gesture to concede the point. No need to antagonize the people with the guns. The scientists also spread out to do whatever was most relevant to their field. One guy that specialized in material sciences just took readings off everything and kept cursing when the sensors were rebuffed by the materials. He’d need to take samples into an actual lab to find out anything, assuming he could even pry off any of the silvery metal that seemed present everywhere. There were no tools lying around either, so that was not a possibility either. Another scientist carefully studied the controls for the energy field that they had passed through, or at least what she thought were the controls. They all wore magnetic boots despite the place having some sort of artificial gravity, so if she fucked up the controls, only about half of them would be sucked into space.

Most of the soldiers that had drifted back and a pair of military scientists were focusing on the closest fighters. The problem with their comms working on a single channel was that even Miyo had to listen to them natter. The soldiers naturally had their own channel but could still listen in. “I don’t see anything like a cockpit or an entrance to the craft.” One of them said. A man that Miyo had heard before. A quite serious fellow.

“AI controlled? I was given the impression that they were a warrior race. Why would they not fly their own fighters then? That seems a little contradictory.” The other one asked a woman Miyo had actually eaten and talked with a few times. Her name was Daniella. A lovely woman if a little stuck in her ways.

“You’re assuming this was a military ship. We saw no weapons or even gun-ports in the outer hull. These fighters seem to have no launch bays either. The cradles seem to be set like the fighters could pass through the wall, but that obviously isn’t possible. Maybe these are something like a last measure defense? AI controlled fighters without actual pilots being involved. They seem to be rather well armed all things considered.” The man speculated and patted something like a missile rack below the wing of the fighter shaped roughly like a swooping bird of prey. The shape seemed fairly universal, though Miyo had a feeling these fighters would not stay in one shape. “Or maybe this ship was transporting them.”

“What class of a ship is this anyway? It seems too large for a freighter or something like that. It’s well over a kilometer long, so that would place it somewhere between a large destroyer and a small-ish battleship. Civilian vessels usually don’t come that large, aside from colony ships. It’s quite a bit bigger than the Vindicator at least.” A voice asked over the comms. Miyo speculated it was one of the soldiers listening in. Incidentally, the Vindicator was a very specialized cruiser.

Miyo ran her fingers over a panel she had approached. The panel had several Progenitor runes she recognized. The Progenitors had often used runic script with their control panels, where the runes were actual words with a meaning dependent on context; much like some of the old written languages back on the capital world of Gaia. Most of the Tetrarchy had adopted the universal standard alphabet at this point, but the old languages were still around.

“Sorry to interrupt your riveting conversation, but I thought you would like to know.” Miyo sent on a general channel that was heard by everyone and was heard back at their ship as well. “I can now confirm that we are dealing with a Progenitor vessel. This is the same type of script we have found in the oldest ruins that we know belong to the Progenitors. While some races have tried adopting similar scripts since then to emulate the Progenitors, some of these symbols are unique to the ruins and have not been found elsewhere, mostly because we still don’t know what they mean.” Or at least the Tetrarchy didn’t know.

That certainly got everyone’s attention, and Miyo could imagine the buzz back on the ship. “Permission to interact with the console?” She asked once a sufficient amount of time had passed for the excitement to set in. She knew that the news had raised emotions and lowered guards, which was exactly why she had revealed her discovery.

“Permission granted, but be very careful and document everything you do. We might as well test things now and not when the hangar is full of our people.” A jubilant voice of an officer came through. Normally such an action wouldn’t have been sanctioned without a fair bit of preparation and a host of precautions, but most of the things here had not reacted to their presence so far and the danger seemed minimal. The emotions being high also helped ease things a bit and they were a little tight on time. Some other races would get a word about this discovery eventually. Psicom did their best, but the bureaucracy of Tetrarchy hemorrhaged information to spies and pretty much anyone with enough credits for bribes. Secrets didn’t stay secrets very long once parties other than Psicom got involved.

Miyo had chosen this panel on purpose as she had seen something similar before and knew how to operate one. However, she knew that the people back on their ship would monitor her camera feed so she turned just a little to allow the camera a better view of the hangar while she touched the runes in a particular order. Suddenly her vision went white and she knew she was now somewhere else. The others only saw a flash of light and noticed she was gone.

As she rose from the floor, where she had fallen after experiencing a weird feeling of displacement and vertigo, she saw that her surroundings were indeed very different. All the walls surrounding her were somewhat opaque but not entirely as if made from some sort of glassy material filled with clouds. A stark difference to the silvery metal that she had just left behind. The lights that shone from her suit were not strong enough to penetrate the material, but it seemed there was a kind of small blue-ish glow to the place even without her suit lighting it up. Everywhere she looked she saw consoles and machinery she couldn’t identify. The engineers back on the ship would piss themselves in excitement.

She too was excited, but she also knew her time was limited. She perfunctorily tried to contact the ship but knew it to be futile. The central portion of the ship blocked any communications automatically. She just wished to leave behind a record of at least making an attempt in her suit's computer, just in case things went badly. The others would try to operate the same console to figure out what had happened and to follow her, either to rescue her or to capture her. They would fail for the most part.

There were hundreds of runes and countless combinations and the console likely had other, less innocuous purposes as well. Luckily, there was the possibility of them stumbling on a combination that brought them to the other extensions, as those were much simpler to hit by accident. You had to know the language at least a bit to figure out the combination to enter the central section of the ship. Still, it was only a matter of time and the people on the other side were not stupid. She had been visible from multiple angles and sooner or later someone would figure out a way to duplicate her movements from the recordings. That would give them enough hints.

As she moved forward, she realized that the central section of the ship was divided into decks just like the ships other races used, just that the materials used here were different. Most likely every deck had a specific purpose. There were no maps with a convenient “you are here”-dot of course, but she could figure out that she was near the middle of the ship and in a secured part of the engineering deck meant for receiving potentially hostile arrivals. She saw many non-functional security features as well as other rooms similar to the one she had arrived in. The dim light made it difficult to make out details, but she could figure out that much at least. In fact, it looked like there were eight identical rooms surrounding a central hub with a tunnel leading further into the ship.

She had wondered how to navigate through the ship, but luckily the hallway only went one way. Once she arrived she was relieved to find something akin to lifts in this place. She had read stories about the Progenitors being able to vanish and reappear elsewhere almost at will, but apparently that didn’t apply to every Progenitor, or the ship was designed with other races in mind. What she found weren’t lifts exactly, but close enough. There were several enclosed platforms floating over what looked like a fair bit of empty space. The platforms ranged from a small and personal to a large platform meant for transporting something huge. In general, they looked a little like the private cabins that you would find in some high-class transit system on most advanced worlds.

As soon as Miyo stepped inside the platform came to life and a console lit up. It looked like this console was used to operate the contraption. She studied the runes and tried to press the one she assumed meant ‘bridge’, though her grasp of the language was far from adequate to be sure. Suddenly a door slid closed behind her and she could see that the platform was starting to move as she gazed through the panes of glassy material. Not that there was enough lighting to actually see much. But she saw enough to know that the platform had slid over to the empty space and had started to move rapidly. Notably, there was no sensation of movement, but the walls whisked by extremely fast.

In the meantime, the people back on the ship tried to contact Miyo with every method they could figure out but had no luck. One of the telepaths even tried to reach her but was blocked by the walls of the ship. Apparently, the psions were all blocked by something on that ship and that made them worried. They had never run into something quite like this. The ability to reach through walls was fundamental to the telepaths and if the materials could block mental connections, could they block other kinds of psionics too? They had heard of materials that could dampen the effects of psionics, but to have those powers blocked completely was a different matter.

The same pair of scientists that had tried to figure out the fighter was now working on the console that Miyo had used, trying to figure the damn thing out. There were also several xenoarcheologists and –engineers helping them over the comms, while a pair of both had been launched from the Vindicator with another shuttle. They had already figured out that the thing was some sort of transportation system, and while they were slightly worried about Miyo, they were more excited about the possibilities this opened.

So far they had found no way to enter the most important part of the ship, so having a possible method dangling in front of them was quite enticing. They didn’t even really consider the possibility that Miyo might have had something nefarious in mind. The possibility of course occurred to the ever-suspicious Psicom members, but it was quickly dismissed. The likelihood was just too small, and it would be a hell of a coincidence.

As Miyo’s platform closed in on what she assumed was her destination, she started to feel something strange. There was a weird sort of pressure on her that kept getting heavier and heavier. It was as if the gravity was getting stronger, except that wasn’t it. It was more like a mental pressure. ‘That can’t be right. The mindshield should block any such effects and there doesn’t seem to be anyone around to affect me anyway. Is the Deity back on the Vindicator trying to get at me?’ The thought made her wary.

As the platform finally came to a stop and the door opened, she noted that she had to pass through another force field. For a moment she was worried that her way was barred, but the force field didn’t actually stop her. However, as she stepped through she noticed something. This place felt much warmer even through her suit and the air seemed different. There was dust and other small particulate matter floating in the air, though only enough to barely be noticeable in the lights projected by her suit.

‘I don’t think this is the bridge.’ She muttered as she took a better look around. These seemed more like the personal quarters of someone. There were pillows, the frame of something like a bed, and various sundry items scattered around the room. Or at least what was left of them. It seemed something had kept this area in a decent condition, but had eventually failed. Still, the area was rather lacking in personal effects. Most of the items had either decayed, they were somehow stored where she couldn’t see them, or the owner of this place had a rather subdued decorating style.

Despite her apparent miss in selecting a destination, something pulled her towards the open doors on the other side of the open rooms. It was likely the fact that this area seemed better preserved, or the fact that there was actual light coming from the doors. As she slowly sneaked closer, she came into a large chamber that was dominated by something roughly the size of the chambers used on older exploration vessels. The similarities ended at the size though.

The circular apparatus projected a powerful field of energy between the two white disks placed in the floor and the ceiling, forming a cylindrical energy field. The important part though was that the energy field was not empty. Suspended in the field of energy, floating roughly in what Miyo would describe as a fetal position, was a being that caused shocks to run through Miyo’s body. There were surprisingly few pictures or holograms depicting the Progenitors in person, but Miyo had been privileged enough to see one in the Grand Temple of Illum. That hologram was the main object of worship and the being in that hologram was close enough to the being now floating in front of her to make an immediate connection, only the hologram was not enough to prepare her to what she now saw.

The being floating in front of her was clearly very tall despite her full height being hidden by her posture. It was hard to tell exactly, but the being was definitely over two meters tall, likely more than two and a half. Most of the being’s body was being covered by a black suit made of layered mesh, but enough skin was showing to see the being had a dark blue skin that faded to almost white in places and almost black in others. There were glowing spots on both the being’s skin and on her suit, and lines of power ran like veins from those spots. From her position, Miyo could see at least five of such spots, one on the being’s chest and at both shoulders and backs of the being’s hands. There were likely others hidden out of sight.

The being had a clearly humanoid form, with a pair of long arms and legs, and a rather long tail that ended in a vaguely pointed and narrow end. The being’s face had some resemblance to a human’s, though much of it was hidden by the angle. Miyo did not see any visible ears or a nose but noticed the being’s head was slightly elongated compared to a human’s and it had slight bony ridges at points. It also had no hair visible anywhere, but at the back of its head were five long appendages. It was as if the being had five more long and thin tails growing from the back of its head. The being also gave Miyo the distinct impression of being a female, though that might have been just her mind playing tricks.

Most notably though, the being seemed almost intangible, as if made mostly of energy. It seemed like there were clouds or smoke beneath the being’s skin, and the smoke seemed to be moving despite the fact that time seemed to be frozen inside the energy field. Miyo got the feeling that the being was in the current shape only because it so chose and it could change that shape at will.

There was something else that caused rather complex feelings in Miyo. The readings at the side of the field seemed to indicate that the being was alive, and the field seemed to be slowly losing effect. There were also several lights that seemed to be signaling something blinking at the top of the cylindrical energy field. Almost as soon as Miyo considered the possibility, the energy field seemed to collapse. Miyo had expected the being to fall down, but instead it just floated in place as it gave a deep sigh and extended to its full length. ‘Yep, definitely over two and a half meters.’ Miyo thought idly. She also noted that the being's feet were still not touching the ground despite the energy field now being gone.

Then the being opened a pair of eyes that seemed to be bottomless wells of power, and glowed with the intensity of barely keeping that power contained. The earlier pressure suddenly surged and almost crushed Miyo, as she collapsed on the floor. The last thing she felt was trouble breathing and then darkness overtook her.