Song of the Void

”We all like to think that we’re intelligent and that we know how the universe works. Even if we don’t know all the details, we have a pretty good idea about the general outlines at least, right? This conceit is especially prevalent among psions. Partially that’s because psions do tend to be more intelligent on average, so the idea is not completely without merit. However, that’s where the hubris sets in. Psions tend to be more intelligent on average, but what makes you think the average is a worthy comparison? Just because you can beat the average doesn’t mean you have reached a level where your knowledge actually counts for anything. Even the smartest people of a race often have an insufficient understanding of the universe, not to mention someone barely above average. Having gone through the experience personally, I can say with confidence that there’s nothing more humbling than finding out that you have been blind your entire life. It can break a person when you find out that the knowledge and intelligence you were so proud of only moments before were not only wrong but also not even scratching the surface. Alternatively, it can be an incredible source of motivation."

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

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Moonshadow grew bored quickly as the ship slowly moved around the region of space, trying to get more reliable result from their scanners. A lot could happen in the span of millions of years and while the facility could move around enough to maintain its relative position, that didn't mean the surroundings couldn't change, forcing the facility to relocate. The arrival or birth of a new black hole could've forced the facility to move a relatively large distance, and the disturbances plaguing their sensors were making it hard to eliminate that possibility without a thorough search. Yet, it was the possibility they had to eliminate first before entertaining more exotic theories about the reason behind the facility disappearing.

Moonshadow was not a stranger to waiting, as diplomacy often included a lot of just that. Making the other party wait was a common power move in negotiations, one which she had personally used, though rather sparingly. She was also a hunter of dangerous prey, and you didn’t survive very long as a hunter if you lacked patience. That said, she didn’t like to just sit around doing nothing. Nox and the science officer Nochehuatl were researching the beacon while many others were either helping with the search or helping some of the more affected people, or plants in the case of the gardeners, deal with the erratic gravitational forces and the aftereffects of the nasty warp. It seemed almost everyone had something to do, except Moonshadow. She couldn’t negotiate with a black hole after all. Not very successfully at least. And her other skills were not applicable in their current situation.

In normal circumstances, she would alleviate her boredom by doing some leftover paperwork or something, but even that possibility didn’t really exist at the moment. Selendil didn’t want paperwork. In fact, the Dhar Keeper had tossed Lilly out of her office for even suggesting such bureaucratic hurdles. So the only thing Moonshadow was left with was to train her psionics. She didn’t want to miss anything important, so she moved to an empty corner of the bridge and lay down with her eyes closed.

All of the psions on board had followed Selendil’s instructions when it came to their psionic training. They had seen a lot of improvement as a result and they were eager to improve further, leading to a sort of virtuous circle as they sought more of Selendil’s teachings. One of the only things Moonshadow had personally found limited success with was with her attempts to connect with the universal consciousness that Selendil had spoken about. Selendil had no doubt done her best when it came to that too, but it was hard to teach someone to do something that came to you so naturally. It was like teaching someone to breathe. You didn’t know how to do it, you just did it. Apparently, it was also something that didn't depend on technique, so there wasn’t really anything to teach. It was just something you had to figure out on your own.

Moonshadow had managed to improve with the small hints that Selendil had given her, and she did feel like she was getting close, but something still stood in her way. Something she knew she could get over eventually, but the solution had eluded her so far. She ran through her normal exercises and reached towards the elusive target. She kept up her efforts as time passed, and felt like she was getting closer and closer. But the closer she got, the harder it became to take that next step.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Amaterasu’s console gave a small warning sound. She had no idea what the signal indicated, but it probably wasn’t too important judging by the fact that Amaterasu barely reacted. She kept part of her attention on the console while making another half-hearted attempt to reach her goal, when suddenly she felt her mind connect with something. Her focus was instantly drawn towards the connection point, and suddenly it felt like she was no longer on the ship but somewhere else.

If someone would ask her to describe the feeling later on, it would be impossible to explain. It was like she stepped through a doorway to another dimension, and a sense that she had never known about and had laid dormant was suddenly filled with a sensory overload of all kinds of signals. It was also impossible to describe what she was sensing, as it was as much about emotions than sensory data. Above everything else was a sudden feeling of closeness and being connected. It wasn’t that she could sense the entire universe; it was like she was the entire universe.

She felt like everything she could possibly want to know and to find out was around her. Secrets of quantum physics? All you had to do was ask. Explanations to the deep mysteries of the mind? Three steps into that direction and turn left. All the riches and power you could ever want? Well, everything could be negotiated for. Not that she could even think in terms that precise, as she was overwhelmed with the sheer feeling of being, and these were all feeble attempts of her mind made trying to make sense of what was around her. She was everywhere and nowhere at once. There was no real concept of distance or direction in this place. Everything was at your fingertips, yet nothing was. It was both unbelievably euphoric and depressingly frustrating at the same time. All this around her, and she had no way to touch any of it!

“Frustrating isn’t it?” She heard while sensing another presence. She also realized that she hadn’t actually heard anything. The meaning had been relayed straight into her mind by the presence. The presence had not invaded her mind and had not even really connected with her, yet they both knew exactly what those ‘words' meant. The message was tinged with the emotion of frustration at not being able to reach something you so desperately wanted to touch but couldn't. It was exactly the feeling Moonshadow had felt only moments before, yet also tinged with sympathy.

It was easy to recognize the other presence. The presence was enormous compared to her. She felt like a tiny grain of sand sitting next to a mountain range, but that’s not what gave the other being’s identity away. In this place there was no need for names or appearances. Moonshadow simply knew it was Selendil. There was no concept of ‘behind’ or ‘sight’ in this place either, but somehow she still turned to look at Selendil. With a single glance she recognized many qualities of the Dhar Keeper she had known before. For a brief moment she saw a huge mix of emotions, which disappeared as soon as she saw it. Guilt being the most obvious of the emotions she had managed to glimpse. Survivors guilt to be exact.

She could feel her own non-existent eyes tearing up in sympathy as the presence seemed to realize what Moonshadow had just seen. “My apologies. I had gotten used to this place being empty.” Selendil relayed the message into her mind once again. “You shouldn’t need to see that. Speaking of which, I need to teach you to do the same. Just because we can put everything on display, doesn’t mean we should. Just imagine yourself keeping your emotions to yourself and it will be done.”

Moonshadow did as she was instructed as she realized she must also be broadcasting certain things, and she felt something shift. She knew she had succeeded, and that she didn’t need to focus on keeping things this way. She really didn’t want to think about what she might have shown in that short time, so she changed the subject. “Why?” Was the question she sent Selendil’s way. Her attempts at communicating where clumsy, like a newborn baby learning to speak for the first time. Despite this, they both knew what she meant with her question. Why could she feel all this richness of information around her but couldn’t reach any of it? What was stopping her? Or if there wasn’t anything stopping her, how could she get ‘there’?

“You have to take part in the Great Song.” Came the expected reply. Moonshadow had heard Selendil mention the Great Song before, and on some level, she would've known even if she had never heard about it. That's just how this place worked. Sometimes you just knew things.

“How?” She managed to ask.

Selendil seemed to hesitate for a short moment, before finally making a decision. As soon as the decision was made though, action was taken immediately. Selendil’s voice rose up in a melody that could only be described in concepts and emotions mixed with a divine voice. The words ‘Great Song' were grossly insufficient. The most obvious thing was that the Great Song was not just an audible melody. It was that, but it was also made up of a myriad of emotions, profound knowledge, deep insight, complicated concepts and so much more. The whole universe seemed to resonate with Selendil’s voice, and Moonshadow resonated along with everything else.

Describing the physical and emotional resonance with the word pleasurable was not doing it justice. It was like erotic ecstasy mixed with a spiritual experience the likes of which believers could only hope for. It was a feeling of belonging, of coming home after a harrowing journey, of meeting your family after missing them for years on end. And it was a feeling of oneness. Oneness with Selendil who was singing and oneness with the universe itself. And Moonshadow knew all these feelings would be intensified if she only joined in the song, which brought a profound sadness, as she wanted to sing but had no voice.

Despite the rush of emotions that took over Moonshadow, Selendil had sung only a scant handful of notes. She understood the dilemma Moonshadow was facing and didn’t want to make it worse. “It will come with time. For now, it is time for you to return. Now that you have made the connection, you will be able to do so again.” Moonshadow felt a gentle mental push and found herself back in her own body. She had no idea how much time had passed, but the rush of emotions and new experiences had exhausted her. With a quick murmur, she made a quick excuse and withdrew to her quarters. What she didn’t know was that just making the connection had changed her, and those changes needed time to adjust to.

-----

‘Well, that was certainly a surprise.' Selendil sent a mental message to Nox. She had felt Moonshadow making the connection with the universal consciousness as soon as it happened.

‘A welcome one I hope?’ Nox replied in a questioning tone.

‘Most certainly. She has a long way to go but at least now she has set her paws on the path.' Selendil agreed with the sentiment. She had expected that both Moonshadow and Amaterasu would make the connection but had expected Amaterasu to be the first. The Illum Empress had almost reached that point when she was searching for Miyo. Yet, sometimes chance played a large role in such things. She had known what Moonshadow’s main problem with making the connection was, but simply pointing out that she was trying too hard would not work. So she let nature take its course.

"Once again, nothing," Amaterasu commented soon after as she read the report from the scans. “We will have to keep this up for a while if we want to be thorough, but I don’t see any sign of the facility drifting away due to natural causes. Nochehuatl, how about the beacon?”

“According to preliminary analysis, the beacon was damaged by a supernova, and its own repair abilities were insufficient due to the gravitational pull of the nearby black hole and just the fact that it’s really old. Nox is running an analysis on the records at the moment.” The science officer replied through the comms.

“Why wasn’t the beacon inside the facility?” Xiaoli suddenly blurted a question. “That would make things so much easier.”

“What makes you think there were no beacons inside?” Selendil shot back with some amusement. She had wondered why no one had asked this before. “The Enduring Symphony has several support beacons inside. Even more now, since I’ve made some to use as warp markers later on. The facility is much larger so of course it would have a few as well.”

“So, why aren’t any of them operational?” Xiaoli asked the obvious follow-up question.

“Well, there could be many reasons. Whoever took the facility could’ve broken them somehow, either intentionally or by accident. The VI controlling the facility could’ve decided to turn them off. The most likely explanation is that the beacons fulfill different roles. The beacons that are inside ships and facilities are mainly in charge of maintaining whatever they are inside of. This can be draining on the internal resources over time. The beacons outside can be used for many purposes ranging from ship repairs to whatever you could imagine, but most of the time they are just warp markers. The only thing they need to keep operational is the beacon itself. That saves on resources. Of course, they are also more exposed to the surroundings, but they could also use their nanites to harvest more resources from the surroundings, assuming whatever they were lacking was available.” Selendil explained idly while looking at a stream of data from the last scans.

“I’ve got it.” Nox declared suddenly. “The facility was indeed moved away. The beacon didn’t get a good picture of who did it, but their energy signatures suggest ships capable of phase jumping. The little I could judge of their direction of travel suggests one of the nearby systems we already flagged as candidates. Whether they are still there is another matter.”

"Well, we have our next destination," Amaterasu stated in a relieved tone. She was glad to get out of charting the rest of the area. "We may have a small problem though."

“Phase lanes?” Xiaoli asked, realizing the issue.

“Exactly. We can't warp to the destination, so we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. That means phase jumping through an uncharted, extremely perilous, and turbulent area. That means we’ll have to take it slow. Unless the ship has some new tricks I’m not aware of?” Amaterasu confirmed.

“Well, yes and no.” Selendil hedged. “Our sensors work much better in phase space and I can use my psionic abilities to a certain extent. We can also go much deeper into phase space as you well know. There are two problems with that though. The deeper into phase space we go, the less my psionic abilities will be able to help. Secondly, the deeper into phase space we go, the more energy the sensors will require, and with our main power core still offline…”

For Dhar, the charting of new phase lanes was much easier than for the younger races, but it was still a trade between speed and safety. That’s why they constructed enormous Arkships to travel in the huge void between galaxies. These Arkships had the best sensors and the largest amount of available power, which enabled them to make the trip in the shortest amount of time possible while still staying relatively safe. The ships also carried enough people and materials to get things started in the new galaxy. They only had to make the trip once, as after that they could skip the long travel time thanks to warping. Just the ships themselves served as enormous mobile warp beacons. In fact, the crews of the enormous Arkships often warped back home for shore leave during their travels. That’s how they all got infected with the plague when it hit.

“So basically we can take it slow and be safe, or we can do it faster with some risk?” Amaterasu summarized. “I vote for slow and steady since we aren’t actually in a rush at the moment.”

“Chicken.” Xiaoli jibed and almost made a chicken noise, but thought better of it.

"I'm simply of the opinion that we don't need to take risks at the current time," Amaterasu replied calmly. She was not risk averse. She knew the need of taking advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves better than most, as that's part of how she had helped create the Illum in the first place. Still, she also knew that taking pointless risks would eventually backfire. That’s just how probabilities worked. No matter how good the odds, sooner or later you would be on the losing side.

“The distance isn’t very far and the area is extremely perilous, so I agree with Amaterasu in this case. Taking a bit of care won’t waste too much time at these distances. Nox, calculate an initial route and make the jump keeping us to a relatively safe speed.” Selendil decided.

-----

"Well, that's…not what I expected," Amaterasu commented as they exited phase space and scanned the local system. The trip had taken them less than 48 hours.

"Well, it does seem Moonshadow was correct about the Shinzen being involved," Nochehuatl added as the scan results came. “I’m reading two general types of ships. One of them definitely belongs to the Shinzen as the wrecks have a pretty unique biomechanical structure. The other party I’m not sure of.”

It was obvious they were all looking at the results of a fairly large battle. At least two parties had fought bitterly in the system and hundreds of vessels from both sides lay in ruins in the system. “I see no sign of the facility we’re looking for though, which is both positive and negative. We still didn’t find what we’re looking for, but at least it might be intact.” Amaterasu spoke slowly as she scrolled through the results. “It seems whoever won took the facility away.”

“As much as I dislike admitting it, I don’t think the Shinzen have it. If they had won, they would’ve recovered what remains of their ships as they can reuse the materials.” Moonshadow was forced to concede.

"I think you might be right, but that might not be quite as simple," Selendil stated. "This battle didn’t happen recently. If our theory about the Shinzen having become active only relatively recently is correct, this might have been a splinter fleet they were forced to give up on due to lacking the forces at the time. This might be especially true if the local Queen was also lost. They might have decided there was no need to waste effort in this direction anymore once the facility was taken away. Still, even that suggests they didn't come out victorious. It might be that they didn’t even fully realize what the other side had in their possession, and simply considered this a lost battle.”

“So who won?” Xiaoli asked. She wasn’t as well acquainted with the various races of this area of space.

Surprisingly it was Nox who answered. “I’m almost completely sure these ships were all AI controlled. That would imply the Dawn Collective.”

“But…that doesn’t make sense.” Moonshadow exclaimed. “You just said this battle happened long ago. The two were not at war until we arranged the two to run into one another. As far as I know, they hadn’t even met before then.”

“You didn’t let me finish.” Nox stated a little annoyed. “The ships were AI controlled, but they still had crews. Biological crews. There isn’t anything like bodies remaining after all the time that has passed, and I suspect such bodies were removed by the survivors in any case, but my scans show certain things that only biological crew would need among the wrecked ships. Things like toilets, showers and other such facilities.”

“But…isn’t the Dawn Collective a fully synthetic race?” Lilly asked, before she realized the implications herself. “They used to have a creator. One that was still around when this battle happened.”

“I think I see where this might be going, and I’m not entirely sure I like it.” Amaterasu voiced a bad feeling many of them shared.