The baby hypership had no issues keeping up with Dark Horse when Dr. Karaktinio took her out for exercise. This was largely due to the hyperspatial boundary zone (otherwise known as the Maelstrom) being very 'shallow' and placid in flat space, to where there was hardly any difference. Both vessels needed to return to normal space in order to for the hypership to dock again, but it was an event all the same: something the crew and passengers could celebrate, which was certainly good for morale.
She hadn't heard the song again, despite her meditations in the bridle. Instead she heard her own voice telling her she'd imagined it all, or was crazy. As things got worse from exposure to Flat Space, Darkwings' voice had become her own. Katie's change of sleeping arrangements had had a positive effect on Lacci, at least, as Tasha saw the Vartan out of her armor every so often, and once trying to handle Katie's guitar. That required wearing little protective caps on her talon-tips, and Lacci was no prodigy: but she kept at it, giving both her and Katie something to focus on.
No solution had presented itself to Tasha for managing any sort of para-natural phenomena detector, and even Horus was limited to sensing things in the immediate vicinity of Melchior. The revelation of Amuntaton's true identity was another issue Tasha was trying to deal with. Hakeber was helpful here, with her knowledge of ancient cults and religions. "If the Vril-ya could be considered god-like beings, Elohim, then Thoth would be a Benei Elohim; a demi-god," she explained, deciding to use more cryptic terminology that the others weren't likely to know.
And so Tasha listens to Hakeber in her office, where at least she can be assured of physical security and some level of less physical, more mundane security as well. The Niss are good at detecting changes to the ship and environment that don't involve extra-universal beings, even hybrid ones, and yet appear to be completely blind to the more exotic threats. It's the best she can manage; even with unlimited resources she still isn't sure how to defend against observation using rules that aren't even native to her home reality.
"So what would Atum be considered, something like an over-god? And Vril itself? Maybe a ... Universal? Because it's a whole universe, like how the Star worshippers talk about the Star?" Tasha tries, head propped on her hands, eyes watching Hakeber who sits across the desk from her. "And how should I approach Dr. Amuntaton? Are there ritual greetings? Is tea appropriate?"
"Well.. Thoth is the Egyptian god of knowledge in Terran lore," Hakeber explains. "So.. offer him knowledge, maybe? You said you felt like he had you figured out, but that can't possibly be the case. It isn't clear that he has any divine powers. I'm.. honestly not even sure if the Vril-ya do, beyond being really alien."
"Ehh, they could perform an uplift individually. They are what they know, but that also seems to give them power over what they are and know. I think that's why they end up resembling the species they do. It's not like the current Atum sends them out already looking that way, they must be dispatched in a common general form and then adapt after finding a species to guide. I saw the Hall of Souls, and not one of them looked alike. I also think the piece of Atum relates somehow to the species they find, that every piece is different, so they chose differently. They're, um, predisposed." Tasha sits up a little, spreading her hands. "And they see reality differently. I think they must see us fundamentally, as colections of knowledge and elements we'd consider abstract but they actually see. Horus once showed me a little bit of that, they percieve things about us we can't."
"Like with the dolphins sonar that can see inside of us?" Hakeber asks. "But.. that doesn't really tell us about Thoth that much. I mean.. he looks pretty old. What happened to his wings, and what does he have under that funky headpiece, or his robes.. what happened to his eyes?"
Tasha cocks her head to the side for a moment, expression crunching up as she considers the question. "Maybe he never had eyes or wings? I mean, they're a sort of fire, an energy. Their actual bodies are a burning light, like fire. The shells they wear are basically space suits. They don't need them where they come from, they wear them to protect themselves from our environment. If Thoth is in any way like the Vril-ya, he may just be 'piloting' that body. But," and here she shakes her head, " ... Eve said mortal souls and bodies form our universe aren't exactly compatible with theirs, so if he's not energy-in-a-suit, he could be closer to us, which would mean he might suffer problems, need a kind of life support different from the Vril-ya suits."
"Yeah, he's the only.. 2nd generation Progenitor?" Hakeber asks. "I guess you'd have to ask him. I don't think I could seduce him to see what he's got on under that outfit. He.. oh, that's what it is. I think he's dressed as a sort of monk. Well, not any that I'm familiar with, but.. maybe a Vartan or Celestial one?"
Tasha nods to this, then rests her head back on her hands. "I got the impression he still looks up to Horus and Ahriman, he could see himself as their clergy in a way, keeping their beliefs and values going. He could then fit in with existing religions and try to appear more harmless. People tend to expect a little eccentricity from religious persons, unusual beliefs and interests, which would help hide his activities." She untangles one hand to tap through the display on her desk, bringing up an image of the somulent Naga that accompanies Thoth, which she spins for Hakeber to view using a twisting gesture. "Horus said he keeps this Naga with him to balance his 'sides', that he was never sure which of his own makers he identified with more. If he is what he knows, he could be caught between, which I can certainly identify with. Maybe we can talk about that. I just wish I knew what the Naga did besides provide balance, or if they're both Thoth somehow."
"He's a really big Naga too.. could be luggage," Hakeber suggests. "I mean, he doesn't move much, so wouldn't need to eat often.. perfect for hiding acid-proof packages in. Not that I'm familiar with Celestial contraband smugglers or anything.."
"He could probably hide equipment, implants, or any number of things. Since he seems to be the passive element of their two man team, he may be passively observing us all, engaged in internal systems operation using an interface, or he might be there for emergency response and be armed to the, uh, teeth." Upon providing this explaination, Tasha frowns a moment, then leans forward. "You know, Horus always was the more friendly of the two. Ahriman was described as god-like, acting only when needed, and just enough. I'd even guess that he was aloof in that scary, competent way. If the Naga is there for balance, then he's there to play the Ahriman role, and that means the way Thoth is acting now is the Horus-role. We should expect that Naga is a lot more competent than he appears, and very dangerous if provoked, and that Thoth is acting as half of a two-element team."
"What if it's the spare body, or is being remotely controlled, or.." Hakeber only stops rambling when she slaps herself across the muzzle. "No.. no.. Too easy to fall down a hole here where it's flat, which.. sounds stupid. I need better metaphors! Or at least I need to stop listening to Sam's music and.. singing. Have you noticed he doesn't lurk as much anymore?"
"I haven't been paying a lot of attention," Tasha replies, which isn't exactly true. She has been paying a lot of attention, but only to certain elements and activities while tuning out anything that doesn't seem like it will cause a problem. Samael is usually fairly strange and so long as he doesn't appear to be up to something beyond the usual passive menance and active teasing the hybrid has placed him in to the 'not a problem pile'. "I think he's just enjoying flat space. It's easier on his kind, less, uh, mass to weigh on them. Besides, seeing us uncomfortable might also be something he enjoys on some sort of fundamental, demon-biology level. They're made of a kind of psychic negativity, did you know that? At least partially. Kind of the opposite of the Vril-ya in some ways. Demons and angels, if we're using the Star religion."
"I know he doesn't like Dr. Amuntaton.. and now I know why, I suppose," Hakeber says, and raises a finger. "We should be able to deduce something from that though. What does something like Sam fear? That should give us an idea of at least something that Thoth can do, right?"
"That's true, but now we need to know what that is." Tasha drops her head back on her hands, letting her elbows slide out from the impact. She looks down at the inverted image of the Naga and thinks back to all she knows of the Vril-ya and the Dark beings. "Sam's not a Ogdru-hem, he wasn't created from what I'm going to call 'Dark Order', order-leaning dark beings. The Ogdoad, and beings like Leviathan, all lean towards Order and see partial or complete order and control under their own will as the way to do things. So, Thotep is Dark Chaos, also a Dark being and what we might call a demon just like the Ogdoad and Sam, but Thotep leans towards chaos. Disorder, randomness, maybe something more fundamental or broad than I understand, but at least not orderly. If Sam's Dark Chaos and Thotep's Light Order, they're a kind of like opposites. Maybe not perfect opposites, I'm not willing to say one side or the other lives up to our reality's idea of chaos, order, light and dark metaphors, and so on
, but I am willing to say they're antithetical to some degree. That might mean they can undo each other. That they're made of the other's, uh, 'antimatter'. Either physically or some other way."
"There's a happy thought," Hakeber says. "Best that they don't mix it up while we're around then. "Maybe -" the scholar is cut off as the ship shakes, and the 'emergency surfacing' alarm blares.
Tasha is on her feet immediately. "Tasha to Bridge, what's going on?" She looks down, reaching out to spin the display again and flick through menus, activating her holographic array of ships' status reports.
The ship is definitely in real space again. "Kaa is babbling something about icebergs," Gabriel replies, before the alarm is silenced.
"Maelstrom icebergs?" The hybrid frowns and, on a hunch, begins searching nearby space for signs of dark matter. It's the only thing she can think of that would generate significant mass and lurk out here, it's supposed to contribute to the expansion of the universe and would flatten space around it simply by existing.
There's no way to access the mass detector outside of the bridge, unfortunately. "Better come down before everyone else does," Gabriel advises.
Tasha frowns. Never enough information where she needs it. "Come on Hake-bear, lets go perform panic control." She waves the display off, then heads for the exit. "Bridge, check for dark matter masses?"
It seems that everyone is indeed converging on the bridge, other than Scholar Shiftless. Half of them are in their sleepwear or underwear or nothing in the case of the two Eeee. "This is it, the turbulent zone," Professor Stanislav says. The mass detector is showing a hazy mess with amorphous bright spots that seem to come and go, all in layers. Some it reminds Tasha of broken bits of glass.
"Uh, what is that?" Tasha asks as she steps to the railing over the water-filled pilot's area below, leaning forward to peer at the mass detector. "Is that mass entering and exiting hyperspace or something?"
"This shouldn't be possible," Hera is saying. "Dark matter doesn't form.. structure." But that's the only real interpretation at this point. Kaa is bringing them slowly through the.. debris field, if it can be called that. A normal hypership, with its fixed speed, would never be able to negotiate it.
"Rotating bodies," Amuntaton says. "With part of that rotation being in higher dimensions. It's a broken wall," he claims.
"You can't have a wall in space, much less hyperspace," Dr. Soshelle claims, being the hyperspace expert.
"You can if you're a pan-galactic superpower with immense control over macrostructures and higher dimensional building," Tasha notes, proud she remembered the elements that make up that particular claim. Come, as they did, from a wide scattering of data files, educational vids, interpersonal communication, and personal experience. "Or something even more advanced. Lets not forget we're not the first sentients to live here." Or visit here.
"Detect-ecting degenerate matter," Moka declares, and a sharper shape appears in the detector, once a more nebulous mass moves out of the way. "Surface us, Kaa, I want to see it if it's real," Gabriel instructs.
"A Dyson sphere made of dark matter?" Soshelle asks Tasha.
Once in normal space, the mass detector goes blank as other means of sensing become active again. "Debris field found, Katie reports from her station, still wearing a nightgown. "Resonance scans processing.."
Tasha turns and spreads her hands. "I'm just guessing here, but we shouldn't limit our expectations to our level of developement and understanding. Who knows who was here last, or what they were doing. We're the third in a series of known Galactic civilizations, the previous two being considerably larger and older than us. And that's just the known civilizations." She turns back, turning to the hovering displays and display window. "So if it's a broken wall, who broke it?"
What slowly builds up on one of the displays is the wreckage of a massive ship. Other sensors, relegated to mere light-speed, fill in more of the features. "Well, maybe it was that.." Modo says. "Looks like a burst sausage." The sausage is nearly fifty kilometers long though, uses a lot of trans-uranic elements.. and has a monster entwined around out that's nearly half as big. It's bony, with an asymmetrical shell and long tentacles.
Tasha straightens, ears shooting at first up, eyes widening, then laying back. She drops down to hunch against the railing, staring at the display with intense focus as she frowns deeply. "Alright ... " she then begins, searching her memory if she knows anything at all about what she's seeing. Was there a ship like this in the graveyard of vessels the Titanians brought her to? And just what is that being wrapped around the vessel? "Okay. We don't know if they're antagonists to each other, maybe that ship belongs to that being, but it's also possible one attacked the other. And then there's the wall. Did the ship break the wall, or did the organic-looking being? Or did they both come here? But the wall is broken, so if one had intended to go through they possibly could have by now. The ship is the damaged party, so I think this ship came here, tried to go through the wall, and ... that responded. The wall's guardian. Maybe one of many."
"I'm finding a lot more signatures," Katie notes, with a hint of worry. There wasn't anything like what Tasha is seeing in the Titanian junkyard.. she'd remember something that big!
"Let's get a map going," Gabriel says, his voice in that flat Captain Mode he uses when he expects to find unwelcome things. "Head towards the next cluster at best safest speed, Kaa."
"I've never seen that ship before, not even anything like it. Nothing that big, not even in the Titanian stories." Tasha turns to give Gabriel a meaningful look, then she looks up. "I don't know who owns that ship. Niss! Do you recognize that configuration? Does any of this show up in your, uh, database?" Eyes back to the screen, she leans in again. As the ship begisn to move off, the young woman feels her hackles rise. She has a fairly good idea of what's coming, and what has been coming through countless ages. The who she doesn't know, but the why.
"Unknown," the Niss replies without inflection. The wreck is soon behind them, however, as Kaa weaves through the area made turbulent with dark matter.. until that goes away. Without the interference, the mass detector finds plenty of other mass points. The next one is another alien derelict, also with the remains of a space-monster that doesn't look much like the first, unless it was turned inside out on purpose. "I can't get any solid reading from the carcasses," Katie notes. Yue is next to her, arms crossed and frowning. "There's no way to tell how old this all is.."
"A combined fleet came here," Amuntaton says. "Broke the barrier shell, and fought against something."
"Those aren't starseeds," Professor Stan says with a tremor of distress. "Those aren't.. anything! The signals were from something alive, we were sure.."
"So there's a living monster still?" Hakeber asks.
"There's always a monster," Aaron mutters.
"One of those warships.. it's bigger than the entire Vartan fleet," Lacci says, not quite hysterical but Tasha knows when Vartans are close to the edge.
Tasha glances at the second generation Vril-ya, but she can't say what she wants to say or ask what she wants to ask. Doing so now would only further complicate matters, for them and everyone else, and so she returns her gaze to the screen. "That's an interesting interpretation," she hedges, nodding slowly. "And so we have a wall. Walls are build to protect something, or to restrict movement. To keep in, or out. Fromw what we see it's definitely of the 'keep out' variety, and these, um, creatures seem to fill the role of guards. They almost seem like one use guards, because there's on per ship and they've each been different. Maybe even specialized to defeat each ship? And, okay, they're guarding. So there must be something to guard, something that justifies all this expenditure of mass and energy. Something like that ... would it break easily? Die ... easily? But it must need to be protected ... "
"Tausen," Sam says, suddenly showing up, despite Amuntaton being on the bridge as well. "First one was K'zek-turian. Very early post-Ancients. Second galactic generation." He then claps a hand on Tasha's shoulder. "Congratulations, you found a nursery. Just not for starseeds."
"O-oh." Tasha leans back and looks up at Samael, blinking with wider eyes than she had before. She had been about to call Lacci over for comfort, but not only is that out now, she's the one who feels in sudden need of the comfort. Realizing she might even be cowering, she looks down and pushes herself to stand, taking a deep breath. After the exhale she looks Samael in the eye. "So you're ... here. That's important, isn't it. A nursery ... for your ... For yours?"
"No, not mine," Sam says. "Think of like a horse ranch. Or an ant colony. All this to protect the queen at the center."
"The queen." And a horse ranch. A horse ranch. That must be why Tatha-hem accelerated! She wasn't excited, she was coming home. Or at least to something like her home. Where she was born. Maybe, where so many of them were born? This realization necessitates a few others, first that they're probably safe if Tatha-hem recognizes this place, yet more so, if this place recognizes Tatha-hem. What it may think of everyone else, she doesn't know. Second, it strongly suggests whatever lives here is still alive. And third, she can't help but think she heard of something like this before. Something not of Samael, but of the Ogdoad. A queen. Her eyes widen. "Sam, Sam, is this ... Is it her? The mother. The one that makes the others, I can't remember her name, what was it ... Shubb..?"
"Lukthu-hem, womb of the Ogdru-hem," Sam confirms. "The oldest living thing in this universe.. probably. For certain interpretations of alive."
"Don't assume it's still alive, Pharol," Amuntaton says. By now everyone not busy with something is staring at the three of them.
"Ooo," goes Tasha, as much a exhale as anything, and certainly not of the excited discovery variety. No, more like a wound recieved. She turns from Samael and lays her head on the railing, staring at the mass of twisted space for a long moment as the head ever inward, wondering if she ought to stop the ship. Wondering if she can at this point. "Where it all began. This is where it began. Did they arrive nearby? Relatively speaking. Maybe right infront of us. Or did she move later. She must be alive ... The ship heard her song ... we were called and we're not being attacked. Not attacked because we belong. She belongs. It knows."
"That doesn't mean it was her signals that the Professor detected," Amuntaton states.
"It doesn't?" the professor asks, looking dazed and a bit dizzy.
"Well, I'm fine with her being dead or dying," Samael says, but he doesn't look happy about the Pharol slip. What demon wants its real name known, after all.
"Not that. I heard the song. I was listening to her, and I heard the song. Then we accelerated." Tasha swallows, licks her lips. "What the Professor heard could be anything. One of these ships. One of the guards. Another power. This place would attract them all. Is that the point?" Her brows knit and her fingers strum along the railing without pattern. "Or is it impossible to hide? It's so large. Could it..? An ant colony ... horses ... Not a farm. Not livestock?" Her head shakes; no, probably not.
"Dying animals cry out as well," Amuntaton notes. "We'll know more as we get closer.."
"Yes." Tasha nod is slow, and she doesn't look away from the viewscreen. She does continue to mumble to herself, however, speaking of intentions of bases and songs as iffitting puzzle pieces together, testing how it all fits with each piece and the whole.
"Wait, we aren't turning away from the graveyard where a civilization with thousands or millions of years more advancement got squashed by critters that look like they were scraped out of the bottom of a lobster tank?"
Modo asks.
"Sometimes you can't run away," Aaron comments. "Especially when you're caught in the rivers current as it drags you towards the waterfall."
"Gabriel, see if you can turn us around," Tasha says suddenly, in quite nearly a monotone and clearly distracted. "We'll know, then."
"Anung Ess Lunnan," Hakeber whispers.
"Kaa, tell me we aren't playing checkers," Gabriel relays. The Dark Horse surfaces.. then submerges again. "We can go where we want in normal space," Kaa reports. "Not as such in FTL. At the moment-t-t."
"Come here, Hake." Tasha reaches out behind her, gaze still fixed on the screen.
"What?" Hakeber says, surprised as Tasha gropes her chest before getting hold of her shirt properly. "Did.. you need.. uh.. something?" she asks as she comes up alongside Tasha.
Tasha feels around until she has her fingers intwined with Hakeber's hand, bringing her down to hunch beside her while using her free hand to keep herself steady. When Hakeber's beside her, she mantles a wing over her shoulders. "It's alright, Hake. I'm here. Gabriel, lets keep going." Not that she believes they have any other choice, but the illusion of choice is important to prevent panic amongst the mortal crew.
"Nothing within range yet other than derelicts," Katie reports, and Yue is silent.. meaning she probably not sensing anything either, but then her range was never more than, say, the confines of a ship.
"Which is the scarier thought," Hakeber whispers to Tasha. "A living monster-spawning mega-monster, or a dying monster-spawning mega-monster?"
"Keep an eye out for any salvage of interest," Tasha notes, her tone still that calm, distracted near monotone she's had ever since she started mumbling. She knows, too, it's important to stay on mission, for all their sakes. And who is to say they won't find anything useful out here, or what lost piece might make a difference?
"The dying do desperate things," Tasha replies, voice having also dropped to a whisper. "I remember when I faced that other-self the old weed made for me. I would do anything to protect what mattered. To kill my enemy. And then, to live." It's not precisely an answer, but it is vaguely one.
"Wasn't that a new weed?" Hakeber asks. "I'll let you know if I find a piece that's smaller than our ship," Katie says.
Tasha doesn't respond to Katherine, having taken to rubbing her muzzle as she thinks. To Hakeber, she replies, "Older than Ahriman's flock, younger than this." She nods to the display. "Much younger. A trick, a trap, and a test. To meet them. Him. Beyond. I wonder if that's the case here, too. It's hard to guess them, yet so many of them are here right now. Watching. Why?"
"Well, I think there may be one obvious reason," Hakeber suggests. "This was the first time it was possible to get here after this.. big battle. This mess is who knows how many millions of years old."
"But they've had time," Tasha retorts, nodding to the screen again. "They've had all this time. But the key, they couldn't enter without a fight, I think. It's her. The ship. You can walk in to a base if you belong. The breach is just the first step, they could enter but not survive. The door was kicked open, and the guards won't shoot one of their own. I wonder if it knows about the rest of us."
"So.. this ship was designed by Thotep right, and Sam is the 'dagger' part of it," Hakeber says. "Do you think he planned for this?"
"It always seemed like he was too nice about things, offered too much for so little. Sam's told me about him. And that place. Do you know what that castle was made of?" Tasha turns and looks at Hakeber with an intensity of vision she's only seen once before, back when Katha-hem revealed itself and struck the Bellerophon. "I've been wondering when he would move further. But he's not the only one. He won't have it easy, if there are conflicts."
"Oh right, the yellow one you kind of not quite really explained?" Hakeber asks. "So.. I guess Horus is the one here by accident?"
"Maybe. Remember who gave him to me. And remember who is behind him. 'We don't see time like you do,' they've told me that many times. And beyond, they come from beyond. How far can you see whe you look from the outside, in? Maybe you can look anywhere, and anywhere, until you find just where to be." The hybrid licks her lips, head shaking. "The Yellow King and the Black King, the lost prince, and the two jacks. And maybe one more in me. All here. Now. When it could matter. It seems hard to think it's an accident."
"And whatever Katha-hem put inside my head, too," Hakeber says, sounding worried. The tension suddenly breaks when there's a loud pinging sound, and Professor Stanislav pulls out his tablet. "The signal, it's back," he says. "Still.. some distortion though."
"I guess we'll find out. We'll be together, at least, Hake." And so Tasha pats Hakeber's hand reassuringly before glancing back. "Straight ahead, Doctor?"
There's also a rapidly growing spot of light in the mass detector. "Planetary mass ahead," Moka announces.
"Yes.." Stanislav says, and Hera takes the device from him to verify things, with the two Eeee also leaning in to look.
"This is crazy," Aaron says. "I'm going to go make coffee." The Lapi heads off the bridge (and the tense atmosphere) and Shojo turns a moment later to follow him.
"I'm not going anywhere," Yue notes.
"Be ready. That's probably not a planet," Tasha warns without changing her tone at all, nor has she for some time. "Gabriel. We should be ready. We don't know what it might do."
"And it's hard to plan for that," Gabriel says. "Unless you want to ask Mr. Override Circuit nicely?" he asks, turning in his seat to look at Samael.
"I'd like to see if the old woman is dead or not," Sam points out.
"Yes." Tasha turns back again, looking between Samael and Dr. Amuntaton -- Thoth. "Was this expected?" Her gaze shifts between them, to land on Thoth. "Did you know? Is this a test?"
"I suspected," Amuntaton says. Sam just shrugs. "I am not told about big-picture things. I was only made the Dagger of Eibon when I had it chewed into me."
"So Thotep probably knew. Knew we'd have to end up here eventually, but that doesn't mean it was the plan. Or at least the end. The whole thing might satisfy him, enemy-of-my-enemy. Gabriel taught me that. he doesn't need to do more to gain, but he might anyway. More to gain. Hard to know what he thinks, or the Yellow One." Tasha lowers herself to sit on the deck, still holding Hakeber's hand. She scratches at the side of her muzzle, clearly thinking. "This one's different. A source. Does it mean more? Resources? Can it still make more? I'll ... I'll need to try and negotiate." With a planet. "Talk first. Stab later. Maybe. If we must. I just wonder if it will be the same this time. Out here, in flat space. Will it work."