Song of the Void

”The Dashane are an intriguing race. They are one of the few to never develop general psionic abilities, but they have other qualities to make up for that shortcoming. As a race, they are relatively resistant to the psionic abilities of other races, and for some reason, this resistance extends to their ships. No one outside their race knows how this resistance works, but we do know the resistance is not absolute. It is likely that the resistance is also caused by the same thing that prevents them from becoming psions, but we have no real proof of that and the Dashane aren't exactly the sharing type. Their race also has extremely honed predatory instincts and they are the best hunters in the galaxy. Combined with their impressive physical abilities, the Dashane are the most respected mercenaries and bounty hunters you can find. The only reason they haven’t taken over as the main security force as well is their disdain of other races. To them, other races are nothing but uppity prey that they are not allowed to put in their place for complicated reasons most Dashane don't care about. Luckily they also have a rather well-developed sense of honor, though there are sects among the Dashane that think the dictates of that honor should not extend to their ‘prey’.”

-- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

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“…and finally we come to the matter of psions on the station.” The Mrrroww ambassador Fluffington stated. There had actually been several procedures they had skipped over simply because they could all sense the impatience radiating from the environment suite clad being across the table. They all got the distinct feeling that pushing the ‘Solarian’ too much would be inadvisable.

Despite not doing anything, Selendil had radiated a sort of forceful presence that kept getting more oppressive as the meeting stretched on. ‘The last time I felt something like this was when I had angered the High Ambassador.’ Fluffington thought and nervously pawed at his ear.

“Can we get on with it?” Selendil asked firmly, having lost her patience long ago. She was seriously considering taking over the station and just tossing everyone outside merely to get away from the whole thing. This meeting had taken several hours and the magnanimity she had felt in the beginning towards the younger races was wearing extremely thin.

The serpentine Coatl used a hand hidden by a sleeve to press a button on a console and the table suddenly opened up to reveal a round crystal rising up from inside the table. “We know you are a psion already, so would you be so kind as to touch the crystal and put some of your power inside. The device is used to estimate the danger you pose to the station and the inhabitants.”

Selendil almost laughed when she saw the crystal. This was one of the devices that the Dhar had left behind. These things could be found in most of the facilities that Dhar children had been present, as the devices were used to test the children and aid in their training. “We use the crystals as well. That’s not exactly what they are meant for though.” She pointed out, keeping up the pretense that she was a member of a younger race.

“Oh? We have speculated to their exact purpose. The best use we have found for them is the one we described. They are common enough that we assumed them to be a standard security feature the Progenitors used. If you have further information to share though, we would be thankful.” The Mrrroww ambassador interjected. As the nominal rulers of this station and a major player in the galactic power scene, their race was naturally very interested in all things left behind by the Progenitors.

“Well now, I’m not against sharing that information, but just handing out something like this is a bit iffy. I did come here for trade after all. I’m well stocked with the currency my people use and things I might use to trade with on the station, but you already told me that the major races have agreed on a common currency used in most dealings between races. A sufficient number of these credits would be a decent compensation for my information and would help me get started on the station.” Selendil haggled a bit.

She could always have Lux steal enough credits to get her anything she needed, or she could have the station’s VI create some from thin air since the VI was the one in charge of the system as a neutral party. That said, making a trade like this would establish a precedent and it would be less suspicious if she actually earned the credits in a simple transaction. No one would question where those credits came from, even if she added to them through other means. She didn’t mind sharing this bit of information either as it was something that had been commonly known back during the time her people were still around. How all the subordinate races had managed to lose that information after the fall of the Dhar was a bit weird, but such things happened. Maybe none of those races were around in this galaxy anymore?

The four beings had a small negotiation of their own. Or at least three of them did. The being from the race called the Guardians looked like a tree had combined with other plant life to form a vaguely humanoid-shaped form. The being was simply observing Selendil and not taking part in the negotiation. The other representatives were not actually arguing about whether to accept the offer or not. If the information Selendil provided was legitimate then it was worth paying for, and if not, well they could always not pay. The question was, how much would they offer for said information, and who would foot the bill.

In the meantime, Lux surveyed the prices of various things with the aid of the station’s VI, and together the two came up with an estimate for a fair price on the piece of information Selendil was planning on trading. Incidentally, when Lux asked why the VI never revealed that information, the VI replied that revealing such information didn’t seem to have any additional benefit and the younger races didn’t bother asking nicely enough for the VI to go out of its way to help. After a few minutes, the trio of representatives came back and presented an offer that exceeded the price Lux had decided on by 30%.

‘It seems that the prevalence of the device and the potential wide application of your information has made them generous.’ Lux guessed. Such intangible things were hard to judge perfectly. If the device had been a singular item, then the use of the information would be highly limited, but as the device was rather common, the value of the information also rose due to wide application.

Selendil agreed to the offer. "The devices are actually meant to be used with children. Yes, they can estimate the amount of power an individual has, but that's only a part of what makes someone dangerous. Admittedly an important part, but only a part. What is more important is how good that someone is at using their power. As a bonus, I’ll add that a skilled psion can mask their power in a certain way to fool the device, so there’s that as well.”

That little tidbit caused a stir and the Azi male named Cholt started to furiously type on his terminal. “You said the device is used with children?” Fluffington asked, a bit ruffled by the bonus information Selendil had offered. That the device could be fooled had disturbing implications and would cause some trouble.

“Yes. When used correctly, the device can effectively determine what areas of psionics the child has the most talent for. This helps avoid extensive testing and a lot of wasted time in trying to train children in areas where they have no talent for. In addition, the device is an easy way for the children to train their psionic power. You are of course aware that like many muscles, repeatedly straining your psionic power to the limit helps in strengthening that power. The device can be used to rapidly and safely drain the child at the end of the day before resting. The practice won’t turn a weak psion into a powerful one, but diligent training can improve a child’s strength between ten and thirty percent by the time they reach adulthood.” Selendil explained.

The Dhar believed in the individual’s ability to choose their own path, but they were also big believers in not wasting one's talents. If someone had absolutely no talent in telekinesis, for example, there was no point in spending years trying to master that ability. The person could choose to do so anyway, even with the benefit of the knowledge brought by the devices, but that was their own bad decision, and they were treated with the same disdain reserved for those who avoided battle. On the upside, the guidance afforded by the devices helped the Dhar children achieve their first achievement ring, or halo as these younger races called it, and reach adulthood as soon as possible.

“T-thirty percent?” Fluffington confirmed.

“With enough diligence, you can achieve that. It’s not something everyone would reach though.” Selendil corrected. The Dhar were also big believers in diligence and hard work. They also believed that diligence should be rewarded with an equal amount of fun, but that was another matter entirely.

“How exactly do you activate these functions?” The large tree-like being suddenly asked. It talked slowly and its voice sounded like wood being shredded, but the message was clear. It seemed like the other three were shocked to see the being speak.

The cords at the back of Selendil’s head quivered with amusement at their shock. Apparently, they had not known that the tree-being was perhaps the most intelligent and observant of the group. Just because you were quiet, that didn’t mean you were not paying attention. “As with most…Progenitor technology, you need to interface with it using your mind. You just need to firmly think of what you desire and send that thought into the device. If you want it to drain you, just send that thought. If you want it to help discover your talents, just think about wanting to know about your abilities. The device will provide you with a full listing of your talents, though interpreting that list might require some practice. Ah, one more thing. The devices are calibrated for children, so take that into account. If you want a proper result for an adult, you need to add that into your request. Or you can re-calibrate them entirely, but that would require some effort if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

The tree-like being suddenly reached for the device with speed that was quite shocking for a being its size and bulk. Those with any psionic talent could feel a small pulse of psionic power and several images suddenly floated above the device, and the images kept slowly changing. “Strong talent in empathic abilities, especially towards plants. Not surprising I gather. Mediocre talent in physical enhancement focused on speed and strength, and spatial control. Rather poor talent elsewhere.” Selendil summarized the report. The three talents she mentioned kept floating clearly visible with brightness relative to what she had stated. The other images were dim and kept shifting constantly, going through a list of over a hundred talents. The large being nodded, seemingly satisfied. The device agreed with the being’s own experience.

Fluffington reached for the device as well, and soon also received images. “Good talent in telekinesis and creation and manipulation of temporary objects made from power. Slight talent in physical enhancement focused on speed. Some ability in telepathy.”

“Creation of objects?” Fluffington asked with slight surprise. It was something he had not tried before. After a moment the feline shook his head and turned back to Selendil. “We thank you for this information. Nevertheless, we must insist that you go through the standard test. You said a skilled psion can cheat, which means that likely you know how to do so as well. We’ll have to rely on your honor in this case until we figure something out. For comparison’s sake, we would appreciate if you also showed your own talents.”

Selendil gingerly reached her hand towards the device and allowed a wisp of her power to enter. Although she had mentioned it was possible to cheat, masking her power was extremely difficult for someone of her level. The difference was simply too large, as even among the Dhar the Keepers were anomalies. With a thought, she calibrated the device to estimate her when compared to other Keepers, but even that would not be enough. She made it look like she had touched the device, but she knew it would explode if she actually did touch it. Like she had said, even though it could be calibrated differently, the device was meant for children and not powerful adult Dhar psions. It was especially not meant for Keepers.

The whole device lit up with the brightness of a sun, which elicited yelps of discomfort from those in the room as they were suddenly blinded. Afterwards, hundreds of bright images floated out of the device. Selendil knew that this was only a part since she had used just a wisp of power, but it was still bad enough. She quickly dismissed a small group of bright red images that would alert the observers of her talent to become a Keeper and a few other specialized professions. These people didn't need to know she had an extreme talent for mental intrusions required from a Truth-Seeker for example.

“Ah. A Deity talented in…pretty much everything I gather?” Fluffington commented with deadpan voice, blinking the light out from his eyes.

“Where is your halo? Or halos as I suspect the case may be.” The Coatl asked curiously. The serpentine being was not a psion, but the halos were something everyone knew about.

“I’m not sure how to translate that. I think the ‘halo’ as you call it has a different meaning where I come from. In any case, I have no idea why someone would keep such an obvious weak point visible.” Selendil replied. “Is there some sort of problem?”

“Well…not as such. There are simply certain rules concerning Deities on the station.” Fluffington explained. He was nervous at being at the presence of an obviously powerful Deity.

“I’m sensing this will take a while. I would note that my patience is wearing thin though.” Selendil stated once again firmly.

“We’ll make it quick!” Fluffington promised. He was partly right. It only took an hour before Selendil’s patience ran out and she simply marched through the doors and inside the station. There was nothing the four beings could do to stop her, and with the knowledge of Selendil’s status as a Deity, they didn’t even try. Even despite the additional rules, Deities were important beings that should be treated with respect and tact while on the station. It would be bad if one decided to try and damage the station after all.

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“Sir!” A young ensign poked her head through the open door of Admiral Mittenz’ office. The young officer was floating on a hover-pillow, the method of transportation preferred by most Mrrroww on the station.

“Ensign, you better have something important to interrupt my meeting like this.” The meeting wasn't about anything sensitive as evidenced by the open door, but Admiral Mittenz happened to be quite smitten with the High Ambassador, so any interruption to their weekly video conference was frowned upon.

"Yes, sir! I mean, I'm not sure sir! I think we have a situation but I don't know what exactly might be the cause. I thought you'd want to know." The officer named Lilly stammered.

“Well, what is it?” The admiral hurried the ensign on. The High Ambassador was waiting and she was seeing everything that was happening. It wouldn't be good to appear too strict, but he had to give a competent impression.

"Every Dashane on the station is leaving," Lilly said in a hurried tone.

“Well, I’m not sure I’m too sad to see them gone. Is that it?” The admiral asked a bit confused. He wasn’t seeing the significance and his impatience was not helping matters.

Luckily the High Ambassador didn’t have the same problem. Her voice came over the speakers. “Excuse me, when you said every Dashane, what do you mean exactly?”

“I mean exactly that. Every single Dashane on the station is trying to leave. It started a few hours ago. Those either working on the station or traveling with other ships are rather desperately seeking passage off the station and every Dashane vessel has already either left the station or is waiting for a clearance to depart. Even the few Dashane we commonly put into the brig are asking to be let out. They say that they will accept getting thrown off the station for as long as they are allowed to leave.” Ensign Lilly reported.

The High Ambassador was able to barely see the young officer by the door with the camera, but couldn't tell the details. "Tell me, ensign…” She stopped to allow the young officer to provide her name.

Lilly grimaced a bit. She had been born on a ship and had been named by other races as her mother had not survived the journey. She was not fond of the name at all, as it was so different from other Mrrroww. “Ensign Lilly ma’am!”

Even the High Ambassador was slightly surprised by the name but could hide it well enough. “Ensign Lilly, have you contacted the Dashane ambassador? What does he have to say about it?”

“Ma’am, the ambassador was one of the first off the station. His personal corvette left the station an hour and a half ago.” The ensign replied.

“Do we still have Dashane in custody?” The admiral asked, finally noticing something potentially really bad was going on. He might have been blinded by potential romance but he wasn’t stupid. If the Dashane were leaving because they had some special event that concerned their entire race, then that could be either good or bad for the other races. But if they were fleeing, then it was definitely extremely bad.

"Yes, sir! We still have two of them in custody over serious charges of bodily harm to other races." The ensign replied, relieved to be talking to the familiar senior officer. The High Ambassador had seemed nice enough, but she had heard stories. Stories were always unreliable, but some of them were quite persistent.

“Admiral, connect us through to their cell. If I recall, the cells on the station had screens for communication. This is important.” The High Ambassador requested.

The admiral was happy to oblige and he wanted to get to the bottom of this as well. He grunted a bit as his paws extended with a snap to look something more like the hands used by the other races. The process was not pleasant, but sometimes it was necessary. He pressed several buttons with his fingers and the screen suddenly changed to show the insides of a rather sparse cell inhabited by a single two meters tall being covered mostly by single color robes and a veil. The black cloth could not entirely hide the scales that changed color to match with the background. “A hunter. Just what we needed.” The High Ambassador stated, clearly pleased.

The being got away from the door and turned towards the screen embedded in the wall. The dark eyes regarded the admiral prominently displayed on the screen. Before either could speak though, the High Ambassador continued. “Hunter. I have a single question you can answer with a yes or a no. If you answer the question honestly, you will be allowed to leave.”

“Ask your question.” A soft drawn-out voice replied. The tone was even, but the being showed clear signs of agitation in small ways that it was trying to hide.

“The reason your people are all trying to leave the station. Is it because of your predatory instinct?” The High Ambassador asked, as if she had figured out an answer to a puzzle and was just waiting for a confirmation.

The Dashane suddenly looked at the screen much more sharply. “Yes. You are well informed for a prey.”

“I was once recognized as a hunter by one of your shamans.” The High Ambassador stated with slight pride in her voice.

‘Well, that’s one story confirmed.’ Ensign Lilly thought to herself.

“Admiral, we got the information we needed. Let him go. He will leave the station as soon as he is able.” The High Ambassador continued.

The Dashane turned towards the door eagerly but then suddenly turned back. “If you are a fellow hunter even without the instinct, you deserve a warning. We Dashane do not fear powerful beings. Our Blood Hunters are proud to throw their lives away just to bring down a worthy fellow predator. However, some fights are too far beyond even our Blood Hunters. Seeking some fights will just throw away lives without achieving anything.” The Dashane had clearly said his piece and turned away again.

The Admiral shut the connection and waited for an explanation. “The Dashane have extremely powerful instincts. Among other useful features, those instincts warn them of danger and warn them of the power of other beings. The main reason they seem so disdainful of other races is because their instincts tell them that the other races are nothing but prey. I believe that in this case, those instincts have warned every Dashane on the station. There is a predator much more dangerous than them on the station.” The High Ambassador obliged.

“Are we at risk?” The Admiral asked, now genuinely worried.

“That’s hard to say. Just because a being is potentially dangerous, that doesn’t mean they are a threat most of the time. Take the Dashane’s words seriously though. He mentioned the Blood Hunters. The Blood Hunters are almost suicidal in their willingness to take risks. It’s their way of washing away shame, by dying in glorious combat. They are rarely talked about in the open so if he mentioned them, then he means it. They would not avoid a confrontation like this unless they genuinely believed that they didn’t have even a theoretical chance to win.” The High Ambassador was not on the station so this was as much as she could do to help. There was a stable phase lane created by large phase gates between the station and the Mrrroww homeworld which allowed their communication, among other things.

The Admiral pawed at his whiskers for a bit in thought. “Ensign. Give me a list of everyone that has arrived on the station in the last few hours, preferably a few hours before the Dashane started leaving. Also, try to get me a list of any notable events during this time."

“Ah, sir, Ambassador Fluffington reported just a few minutes ago that they had an interesting first contact encounter. Apparently, the ‘Solarian' as they are called that arrived on the station is a powerful Deity. They also traded a hefty sum of credits for some information on a Progenitor technology. The Ambassador's report was not forwarded to you yet as we were dealing with the Dashane, but…” The ensign replied.

“I think we have a winner.” The High Ambassador commented. “Where is this Solarian?”

“Apparently she got annoyed by all the bureaucracy and entered the station proper. The ambassador thought it better to not antagonize things and allowed her to leave. He did mention that this Solarian was here for trade.” Ensign Lilly reported.

“Try to make contact, but don’t push things. Remember the words of the Dashane. Seeking some fights will just throw away lives without achieving anything..” The High Ambassador ordered. She was above the admiral in rank, and the admiral happened to agree with her assessment. It also helped that the High Ambassador was rarely wrong.