Song of the Void

-----

”So do we actually have some weaponry that can disable enemy vessels and take them in one piece?” Moonshadow asked.

“Eeeeeeh…” Selendil made a non-committal sound.

“That’s not a yes.” Moonshadow stated, now looking firmly at the Dhar Keeper.

“It’s not a no either.” Xiaoli retorted with a wide smile.

“Well, the Dhar weren’t really big believers in taking enemy ships in one piece," Selendil explained. "Usually when we had to do something like that, we just boarded the enemy vessel and took care of it that way."

“Wait, hold up. How did you do that? I’ve seen nothing like boarding shuttles or breaching pods in the hangars.” Xiaoli suddenly got more serious at the thought of getting more tech to toy around with.

"They can teleport short distances doofus," Amaterasu said with an exasperated tone.

“All of them?” Xiaoli asked. “I thought that was an ability specific to Selendil?”

“Well, not quite everyone, but I’d say the vast majority.” Selendil supplied.

"That would make breaching pods quite useless," Xiaoli admitted a little disappointed. "Still, that doesn't really answer the question fully. You kind of implied we had something."

“Well, while we don’t have weapons for specifically disabling enemy vessels, that doesn’t mean we can’t use our other weapons for that purpose. Something like our fighters would be ideal for that. That plan does have an issue though.” Selendil stated.

“We don’t want to accidentally destroy their ships by using too much force, which becomes a bit difficult with their shields. The line between just damaging their ships and destroying them isn’t that clear or easy to stick to.” Nox explained before anyone had time to ask.

“Yet we had three people nod their heads rather eagerly when asked about disabling their ships.” Moonshadow pointed out.

“That’s because we have a rather large number of powerful psions on the ship. Even if their galaxy has powerful psions as well, I doubt those can be found on every ship, especially near the edge of the galaxy where we are. Besides, we have a Dhar Keeper.” Amaterasu said, while Xiaoli just pointed at the Illum woman with a ‘what she said’-expression.

“We’ll need to make a rotation. A pair of Deities on duty at all times, preferably out on the mechs that amplify their powers. Selendil can handle any ships others can’t deal with.” Lilly surprised everyone with her reasonable suggestion. She was the one in charge of personnel matters, so it made sense, but they were simply not used to her making such suggestions. She had one of those roles where if she did her job well, no one would notice. And no one had really noticed. Usually Lilly’s presence seemed minor, but she was surprisingly competent.

“If we are going with that plan, then I have another suggestion.” Moonshadow said. “As a sort of reward, Selendil could also hold extra lessons for the psions now that we have some time to kill.”

“That sounds reasonable. And I think I know just where to start. All of you need to learn how to hide those halos of yours.” Selendil agreed.

---------

The surroundings of their ship were a graveyard of disabled vessels. Almost two dozen ships floated around them, empty of crew. The ships were all various customized vessels of different mercenary and bounty hunter groups, so most of them looked like modified civilian ships or very peculiar military vessels. The white ships of the CAS fleet were rather obviously absent as none of those had been stupid enough to attack them so far. The CAS vessels had helped evacuate the disabled vessels, and they had even towed the disabled ships away on the first day. After the second day the Lightbringer decided to leave the disabled ships to float around as a warning.

“You have quite a few powerful psions on board.” Lightbringer Yrala commented. She spoke to them daily, giving reports on the status of the situation.

“We do what we can.” Moonshadow replied nonchalantly. “So how long is this going to take? We’re almost at the one week mark that you mentioned.”

“Well, the good news is that they won’t be able to drag this much longer. The bad news is that they are going to make one more attempt and I got word that they are getting serious this time. That’s why I wanted to warn you. They’re not going to send mercs your way anymore. The one who got you into this mess is using her connections as a Prime of a prominent background to make a last-ditch attempt. She called in her family’s forces in the CAS. I’m not sure how many ships they are sending, but they will be actual warships of the fleet. To top things off, since you’ve been using psions so far, they’re likely to send someone powerful along to counter you. I would expect a person of a Master level at least.” The Lightbringer stated.

“How strong is a Master exactly?” Moonshadow asked with some confusion. “That wasn’t among the information you sent.”

“It wasn’t? Ah, I suppose that information is among the more protected inform…” Her words were cut off as a large number of hyper-jump windows appeared in the system and twenty white warships suddenly made their presence known. “That’s them. Good luck!” The Lightbringer said quickly and cut the connection. They would have to handle this on their own. She didn’t say it, but this was also a test. If the people on the strange ship could deal with a force of this size, then they would have to be treated with real respect, and thus they would be greeted with open arms. Apologies for earlier misunderstandings would be made of course. Perhaps even some small compensation. But only if they survived.

A holographic display of the approaching fleet rose on the bridge, and they all noticed something very important. In the middle of the fleet was a single mech surrounded by a large halo. That single halo was large enough to surround one of the dreadnoughts that had come along the fleet. “How many halos does it take to form a single one of that size? And I thought that was a Dhar specific technique.” Moonshadow asked, not really expecting an answer as Selendil was not on the bridge.

“Around twenty to thirty.” Nox still replied dutifully. “And it’s not a hard technique to develop from what I understood. Just requires enough psions of sufficient strength.”

"We have a long way to go still," Amaterasu muttered. Then she tried contacting Selendil. "I think this one's for you handle.” She managed to say before Selendil already appeared outside the ship in her own mech.

Selendil didn't bother hiding and revealed a halo of her own, except this one was large enough to circle a large planet. She flourished a weapon and took a stance that indicated her willingness to do battle. The enemy fleet seemed to freeze for just a moment. Then, to everyone's surprise, the ships made a synchronized U-turn and just hyper-jumped away. They all stared at each other with faces that seemed to twitch from suppressed emotions ranging from amusement to disbelief.

“I’m sorry, but what was that?” Xiaoli finally exclaimed.

“Well, it’s not like I can’t understand their reaction.” Amaterasu replied. “I’m pretty sure I would decide to do the same thing if I was in their place.”

“But still! They came in with an entire fleet in parade formation, and then they just turned tail and ran? I wanted to see Selendil clashing with that other psion!” Xiaoli complained in a spoiled voice.

“I don’t think that would’ve been very conducive to the wellbeing of this solar system.” Moonshadow said diplomatically.

"I should've just done that from the start," Selendil muttered as she teleported to the bridge. The mech was already gone.

The communication channel beeped again, and Nox wordlessly connected the line with the Lightbringer. “You could’ve just done that from the start!” The woman shouted in exasperation immediately as the signal came through.

“That’s what I just said.” Selendil agreed.

“Heck, this whole mess could’ve been avoided if you had told me you had a being capable of rivaling the Ancients on your ship! The administrator would’ve never dared to act against you.” The Lightbringer was clearly frustrated.

“Well, we sort of did. We did mention we have someone on board that entire fleets should watch out for.” Moonshadow said carefully.

“I can match fleets! My mother can match fleets! My baby-sister can give fleets trouble! What you have is someone who can match the entire Confederation! You really need to be more specific.” The Lightbringer shouted, though she was clearly losing some steam already.

"Well, at least we all got some practice," Amaterasu mumbled.

“Oh, yes, there is that. And this whole thing will get that bastard fired, so silver linings I guess.” The Lightbringer said, suddenly sounding a lot more positive. “Anyway, I don’t think you’ll have to wait for approval very long after a show of force like that. I believe it’s time to meet face to face. Let’s do it planetside. I need some proper food and a nice view if I have to deal with this shit.”

“Two hours from now?” Moonshadow suggested.

“That sounds fine. I need to deal with some irate people in the meantime. I’ll send you the location.” The Lightbringer stated before cutting the connection.

“So…” Moonshadow started, while looking at the rest of them. “We can’t go with a large group. I suggest myself as I’m the one that has been in contact with the other party, Selendil because of course she’s coming along, and Ka’aukai for protection. Any other suggestions.”

“As much as I’d like to go, I think that might be the best choice.” Nochehuatl hissed a little disappointed. “Maybe next time I can go along.”

"Actually, I'd prefer it if you came as well," Selendil stated. "I need someone to focus on the science side, and I might have my hands full. The AIs of the other side will be keeping their eye on Nox, so I don't think she can do it alone."

“I feel slightly insulted.” Nox joked. “For the record, I could do it, just not secretly.”

“I’ll be happy to come along!” Nochehuatl stated with excitement, already planning on which poncho to dress in.

"That brings us to the next point. What form will you be taking Selendil?" Moonshadow asked and cleared her throat. She looked at Amaterasu and cleared her throat again.

“Ah, right, it might be a good idea to take a form that would not draw so much attention. Maybe taking the form you used while pretending to be a Mrrroww.” Amaterasu suggested while trying to fake enthusiasm and failing miserably.

Selendil noticed that there was some byplay here she was unaware of, but decided to ignore it for now. Mostly because it would be more amusing that way. “I think we went past trying to avoid attention when the enemy fleet made a complete U-turn straight after showing up. I want to see how they react to my real form. More specifically, I want to see if they react at all. I want to know if these ‘Ancients’ left behind any information about us.”

“Fair enough.” Moonshadow said, hiding her disappointment, though not very well.

“By the way, that reminds me. Why did they make a U-turn?” Nochehuatl suddenly asked. “Does their orientation really matter when hyper-jumping?”

“I don’t think we’ll know until we ask, but I think it was meant more as a symbolic gesture.” Moonshadow replied a little uncertainly.

The trip to the planet’s surface was uneventful and all other ships traveling to and from the blue oceanic world gave them wide berth. They had expected to arrive at a floating city, but were surprised to find several enormous and long stone arches rising from the ocean’s surface. The arches had been reinforced with support columns, and the city they arrived to was hanging from the arch. It looked like the entire city was built on top of some sort a large hammock or a hanging bridge. The city was covered in lavish architecture, and many of its buildings were constructed both above and below the ‘ground level’, so they looked like they were growing into both directions.

"Well, that's unique." Moonshadow commented.

“Not quite unique, but very rare.” Selendil agreed.

“That’s a rather dangerous architectural choice depending on how they built it. Very bold.” Nochehuatl stated in his extremely colorful attire. It was a real riot of colors of every kind, some of which were not even visible to most species.

“Can’t build very large cities that way though.” Moonshadow felt the need to criticize the beautiful city some way.

“That depends on how far their spatial extension technology has advanced.” Selendil countered. Since their society seemed to have advanced power generation, that meant they could utilize rather strong spatial extension as well.

They landed the shuttle in one of the ports near the edges of the hanging city and walked the rest of the way. They could see hundreds of varied species in just a few minutes on the planet. The species ranged from bi-pedal and humanoid to centipede-like insectoids, and everything in between. Nochehuatl, Ka’aukai, and Moonshadow would’ve drawn no attention, but Selendil drew quite a few glances. An ethereal looking being seemingly made of energy floating above the ground was new even in this mess of races.

Luckily they didn’t have to travel far as the areas around the spaceport were filled with restaurants and entertainment directed at travelers and ship crews on leave. They went straight towards a dinky looking place that was clearly not suited for diplomatic meetings. However, it seemed like the grub was good because the place was filled with happy looking customers speaking and shouting in a dozen languages. “This way!” One large female being rose from a table and waved them and stopped as her eyes fell on Selendil.

“”Huh.”” Both Selendil and the woman they assumed to be the Lightbringer said at the same time. The reason was rather obvious as well. If you looked past the fact that one of them was made of energy, they looked somewhat similar. The large woman had a greyish blue skin and she was easily over two meters tall. She had several tails hanging from the back of her head as well, although hers were fewer in number and they were thinner and shorter. She also had hair and a pair of horns on the top of her head, but the large eyes were extremely similar in that they seemed like bottomless wells of power. Unlike Selendil, she did have a mouth and nose, but those features were dominated by her large pair of eyes. She also had hooves though no one really paid attention to that.

“Well. That is curious.” The Lightbringer stated. The number of differences in their appearance was rather large, but they were similar enough to warrant notice. Her voice, just like Selendil’s seemed to be almost psionically created despite her mouth moving.

“Are you sure your kind didn’t schtup one of their ancestors at some point?” Nochehuatl asked Selendil with very little tact but understandable curiosity.

“Ancestors?” Lightbringer asked, noticing the word. “Your kind have visited this galaxy before? You implied rather directly that you came from another galaxy.”

“That’s a long and complicated story, but to answer your first question, I have personally visited this galaxy before, though that was a long, long time ago," Selendil replied as they sat down. Only Ka'aukai remained standing, keeping an eye on the surroundings.

“Well. This sounds like a story I want to hear. And I suppose we do need to get some business done as well. Let’s order something first though. I hate the insult on all food they serve in the cantinas of every CAS ship.” The Lightbringer stated.

“You should really visit our ship then. Selendil here scooped some of the best chefs to serve on her ship, citing something about the importance of morale. We get some really fresh ingredients as well thanks to stasis and some sort of dimensional storage system she had tried and failed to explain to me.” Nochehuatl said in a chipper hissing voice.

Without warning the Lightbringer scooped up Selendil’s hand into her own and looked straight into her eyes. “Please marry me.” She said in a completely serious voice, but a small twinkle in her eyes told them she was joking. That and the absurd request. Of course, the Lightbringer had used a different word in place of marriage, something akin to Joining, but marriage was the closes thing the word translated into. At least according to the language files Nox had compiled.

“You’re going to have to take me on more than just this date first. I require proper courtship.” Selendil joined in on the joke.

The Lightbringer made a tsk-sound of feigned disappointment. “Playing hard to get. I see, I see. Well, the chase can be thrilling as well.”

The entire time Moonshadow was sitting there in complete disarray. This was so far from any previous diplomatic or first contact meeting she had ever attended that she had trouble keeping up. Still, she was a professional and decided to just let it all slide for now. “So I assume the matter with the destroyed ship has been dealt with?” She asked, trying to bring things to a more serious topic.

“Is she always so serious? She’s the one I talked with earlier, isn’t she? She wasn’t such a stick in the mud over comms.” The Lightbringer commented, looking at Nochehuatl. Incidentally, she finally let go of Selendil’s surprisingly solid feeling hands.

“She’s a professional diplomat. This type of informal thing is offending her sensibilities.” Nochehuatl explained as if Moonshadow wasn’t even there.

“Oh, she’s that type.” The Lightbringer stated in a knowing tone. “My condolences. I have one of those on my ship as well.”

“She’s not so bad once you get her out of official surroundings.” Nochehuatl continued joking.

“Ah, so unlike the one I’m saddled with, yours can let her hair…erm, her fur down?” The Lightbringer nodded in fake understanding.

“Sometimes. She could use with a bit more relaxing though.” Selendil joined in.

“I don’t want to hear that from you!” Moonshadow cried. “Who was it that caused a war with that other galaxy we visited?”

“Oh-oh. Maybe I should be more worried after all.” The Lightbringer joked.

"Eh, you'll be fine as long as you're not shaming the memory of my race or anything like that," Selendil replied half-serious.

“Speaking of, what are you doing here? You don’t look like an invasion force despite everything, and I doubt you’ve been traveling between galaxies for a pleasure trip.” The Lightbringer prompted.

“That’s a bit of a long story as well. I’ll explain once the food arrives.” Selendil promised, eagerly anticipating the new experience.