The Calm Facing The Storm

Deep in the heart of The Seed of Truth’s engineering decks lay whole sections of the mighty ship to house the massive complex, bespoke, experimental psionic amplifiers which The Fujiwara Corporation were testing in order to gain a more scientific understanding of the ephemeral forces and arcane abilities many xeno breeds exhibited as well as take advantage of cutting edge technologies which require trained psionically gifted specialists to operate.

In their shrine cells, ordained Phaaz’n and Laaza Marr clerics worshiped their God with the devotion that only the most fanatical and faithful of their already zealous kind. Each of the major Synod sanctioned xeno-cults had an altar and idol for their particular interpretation of the Homo Superior ideology as it related to the xenos’ personal and institutional relationship with The Divine. The professional prayers prayed each in their own way united in a singular shared belief in the superiority of the human race and a faith serving them would bring all life closer to God.

What made these shrines different from most however was the presence of cutting edge technology designed to analyze, direct, store, and amplify the psionic energies generated through the power of this prayer. Each of these shrines were designed to muffle exterior sounds while blasting the sounds of worship into the primary chamber. The shrine cells designed to work in synergy with the caged naked singularity

It was a marvel of engineering and one which would drive any who looked at it to madness. It was for that reason that the two Schar girls formerly known as Brilda and Zhansi xol Bazul wore special eyewear as they paced around the circle of bound Kalari **** to stare unblinking into the singularity. The six mage-xenos were suspended above the luminescent floor charged with dangerous amounts of arcane energies that would fry anyone who tried to walk on the surface without specialized footwear. The two twin witches paced around the circle of agonized alpha-grade psionics rubbing their antenna over the traumatized psi-gems of the men and women tasked with staring unblinking into something so unnatural that it should only be able to exist inside of a blackhole. The dainty wild caught twin girls were strapped into specialized harnesses of synthetic Symix tissue and micro-gems made from tissues grown from the psi-gems harvested from Kalari who were less talented than the ones who were now focusing their immense psionic gifts into looking into Infinity and Eternity for dangers and opportunities.

Brilda and Zhansi did not have to understand how the Psionic Auspex worked to know that it was their job to connect to the minds of the mad clairvoyants to unscramble the cacophony of visions bombarding their brains and sort out the strange vistas of higher and lower dimensions from views of alternate universes where one can perceive what will or can be. The system was far from perfect, but it did drastically increase the range and accuracy of The Seed’s scrydar returns.

Brilda and Zhansi did not see themselves as separate individuals. They saw themselves as a their Master saw them, as a single unit, inseparable parts of a single mechanism. This perception was only enhanced by the drastic augmentation and cybernetic enhancement Brilda and Zhansi had undergone to connect their consciousness. The pair had lost track of which body had originally contained Brilda and which had been Zhansi. They were two bodies with one mind and one purpose. Brilda and Zhansi looked into the minds of the bound and suspended Kalari, doing their best to soothe their traumatized psyches as they transformed the dreams of seers into trinaric code. Brilda and Zhansi translated the visions into -s,0s, and +s which the ship’s A.I.s could read and incorporate into their astrogation data.

It was rare for both bodies of Brilda and Zhansi to receive the same vision at the same time. So when two Kalari showed the twin Schar empaths the same Kroxaa wargator stalking towards The Seed of Truth with a malice towards The Master Race emanating from its hull, the twin witches marked the code packet to be Urgent Priority One X2. From there it took the A.I.s fractions of a fraction of a second to identify the stealthy old clunker trying to sneak up on them from a low band of hyperspace. Had their ship had some more advanced wake bafflers, or had they been trying to stalk a less advanced ship, the Kroxaa might have managed to get the drop on the humans and their loyal xenos.

Instead, the long range scrydar of the Seed of Truth locked in on the wargator’s position. “Commander. I am picking up a hyperwake on long range Scrydar.” BGT1T5 said as the Mekani tactical officer sent the information to the officer on watch.

“Damn, looks like that fancy new psi-booster is paying off already.” Lt. Commander Mycroft Jonesmith said as he examined the range and drivewake of the vessel with a silhouette and matter shadow to indicate that it is a tough vessel of a crude design carrying a sizable population of Kroxaa and smaller populations of other races, at this range it was hard to get details on the specifics, but it was apparent that they were looking at a Kroxaa wargator, an ancient and powerful warship that has likely been stalking for prey since before mankind first reached for the stars. “Tell whoever the seraphim flight leader on watch is to prep for launch. Have four breacher cans loaded with a mix of stalker, hunter, and weaver Vyraxis. Tell the Shock Marines to get their birds prepped and stand by.” In almost an afterthought, Mycroft added. “Contact that Knavar flotilla we are supplicating and see if they have any information on that ship. Give the data a workover so that the savages think that we just happened to have a scout drone doing a recon sweep, no reason to let these wild dogs know how good our eyes are until we have them on leash.” Mycroft said before he pulled up the tactical hologram. “Then, send a report to the captain and the commander informing them that, pursuant with General Order 19 of the Lex Chivalric, I intend to order a preemptive strike on the Kroxaa ship.” The Lt. Commander said with hint of excitement in his voice.

“Shouldn’t we contact the captain and inform him that we are about to send his forces to engage with hostile aliens?” BGT1T5 asked.

“Negative. I am not going to interrupt Lord Fujiwara during a sacracution. We have followed procedure. This is not an emergency. The captain and commander will know about the situation as soon as either of them check their inbox.” Mycroft said.

“There is a 21.4% chance that you will be reprimanded for failing to inform command staff of a threat to the vessel. A 39.8% likelihood of Lord James being annoyed that he is not the one leading the first seraphim attack flight of the maiden voyage of his ship.” The Mekani tactical officer calculated.

Mycroft shrugged. “Maybe, but there is a 100% chance that Lord Michael will have you broken down for scrap metal if you came back and his son did not. The dude is going to throw himself into danger, we do not need to encourage it.” Mycroft said.

***

Among the thousands of xenos living aboard The Seed of Truth, the Cloverlin family were unique in that they were not owned by anyone. Technically as first class supplicants they were the property of The Shogunate who were travelling on a work lease for The Fujiwara corporation. Lord James’s Beloved had insisted that they needed a few Vreebachs working in the Seeds biolabs and hydroponics sections and Lrgo and his wife Taxala were among the arboreal xenos who were accepted for the prestigious and high paying positions aboard the privateer cruiser. For the Cloverlins it was a dream come true. A chance to see unexplored parts of the galaxy as a family. The contract generously offered to cover all living expenses for the botanists and their children for the whole voyage in addition to an annual salary of a hundred and fifty shackles each. More than what most Vreebach saw in a lifetime of working back home, even the guides and personal assistants to the human tourists who come to enjoy the city sized trees and Godzilla sized animals with which the Vreebach shared their world. On top of their generous salary, all of the Vreebach on board were permitted to sell any pharma-cysts that the arboreals might choose to grow as a choice. By order of The Shogun, no human may **** a Vreebach that they do not personally own to ingest lipids without their consent. A law for which every Vreebach alive gives thanks to The Light every day. It was that promise, The Green Promise, that the Vreebach chose to give themselves to The Federation.

***

Lrgo and Taxala were old enough to remember The Terror Times. Like all but the oldest of their kind, they were born after The Kroxaa had come to their world. The saurian hordes descended from the sky and brought fire, destruction, and pain with them. The Vreebach had no concept of war, slavery, or conquest. They soon learned that the invaders regarded them as animals to be caged. Cities by the millions were corralled into filthy stockades. It took many years for the Vreebach to learn what the Kroxaa did to their kind once captured. Locked in filthy crammed stockades without any natural light, the men, women, and sprouts are **** fed rancid fats causing them to become sick. The Vreebach were kept in this intoxicated half-dead state to keep their bodies producing the colorful cancerous mushrooms that the Kroxaa would rip from their captive’s flesh and eat for the euphoric and energizing sensations the pharma-cysts were capable of producing.

Those that managed to escape capture learned to survive, evading their hunters by using their knowledge of the plants and animals to make their nomadic bands and isolated redoubts more trouble than they were worth for the hunters to pursue their prey.

Then one day, using captured Kroxaa technology, the Vreebach learned that there were other aliens besides their predators roamed the sky. They were amazed to discover that some of them preyed on their predators. After a great deal of debate and preparation, the free Vreebach sent a transmission out into the stars asking for help, and The Federation responded.

After that, everything changed. After careful negotiations and co-ordination Vreebach guerillas armed with human made weapons and equipment launched a series of devastating counter attacks against the predators and seized control of vital planetary defenses in what the chroniclers recorded as The Great Thorn Growing. After thousands of years of living in fear, the Vreebach flourished once more. Their world having been transformed into a popular tourist destination for humans and a hotspot for biological research.

***

Taxilla and Lrgo walked into the ampitheater and stood in awe at the elaborate details that had put into the banked seating of the enormous dinner theater in which their captain’s religion worshiped. The couple held hands as they moved cautiously through the rows and aisles of booths to find where their daughters were sitting.

For the first few weeks the Cloverlins had kept to the Vreebach section of the ship. Despite being fully humanized, the xeno specialists naturally found it difficult to socialize with members of The Master Race without feeling the need to sell themselves to a human and embrace the desire every Vreebach burns with to show their gratitude to mankind by giving themselves to be owned. Despite the ubiquity of NOXET on their world, most Vreebach feel satisfied with being the property of a faraway Shogun who owns them out of a legal nicety rather than as a visceral reality. Lrgo and Taxala had promised themselves that they would keep their kids isolated from the humans until they were old enough and that neither of them would sell themselves alone. “If we are going to belong to someone, then we should belong to them together.” Lrgo had said to his wife after the pair had emerged from geneforging in their newly humanized bodies.

However, with all of the entertainment facilities and hologyms scattered around the ship. Once sprouts realized that the A.I.s parental locks do not work on anyone over eighteen terran years old, the seven eldest Cloverlin children joined their fellow sprouts in exploring the ship and learning about the race that they had grown up revering as their guardians and protectors. There had been more than a few family squabbles as sprouts barely in their fifties started getting pressured by the crewmen into taking fats. Thankfully that had not been something Lrgo and Taxala had to deal with, they did have to deal with the fact that their daughters Lylar and Sasha had made friends with one of the ship’s sentai rangers.

“Mom. Dad.” Lylar Cloverlin waved at her parents to show them which box they were seated in. The cozy alcove centering around a table was designed to accommodate a human family and a few xenos standing or kneeling in preparation for attending to their owners. The two Vreebach botanists walked down the steps to find their two daughters lounging on the bench in the back snuggling between a young human man with an Amarlean and Ligreon on either side of them. The two girls were drinking glasses of thick liquid that smelled of lipids. The Vreebach the young sprouts in their forties stood up and gave their parents a hug. “Mom. You goootta try this. Its called olive oil and it is amazing! Its okay, itsa plant based oil, goes down very clean. Try it!” the young girl said pushing the glass into her mother’s face.

“Leave your mother alone.” The human woman sitting at the table said. “Her generation is bound to have a different attitude towards fats than yours. It is not something that you ought to be putting pressure on her over.”

“You are right Linda. Sorry Mom.” Lylar said. “Mom, dad, this is Linda Snodgrass and her son, Akihiro. Akihiro is our boyfriend.”

“What!?!” Lrgo said shocked and incredulous that his little girls barely four decades out of their pods would show any interest in the opposite sex. The Cloverlin parents knew that humans matured much faster than their kind, but it had not occurred to them that by humanizing their children, they had given them the bodies of young, nubile, adult humanoids.

“It just means...” Linda said, standing up and trying to give the xeno supplicants a reassuring smile. “...That he is among a select few human males that the girls are comfortable with becoming intimate. I want to assure you.” Linda placed her hand on the Vreebach man’s shoulder and smiled. “That my son and I have no desire to collar your daughters. They are wonderful, vivacious girls, but the captain’s orders are quite clear. No seducing the supplicants into becoming slaves.” Linda gave Lrgo a pouty face before biting her lip. Linda turned to look at Taxala even as her fingers continued to pet her husband. “You are a lucky woman. To have such a man in your life. Boys!” Linda snapped her fingers and the Ligreon and Amarlean stood up and rushed to the woman’s side. “These are Aki’s fathers. Rayden, Odin, show Mrs. Cloverlin the respect worthy of The Shogun’s chattel.” With that the Ligreon and the Amarlean studs got down on their knees and tasted the Vreebach woman’s feet. Taxala’s eyes went wide, both from the oddness of the gesture and the strange feelings and sensations the ritual evoked in the humanized xeno woman. “Come, sit, relax. The show has not started yet. I ordered you food. Just leaves, grasses, and barks. The olive oil is there. Humans traditionally mix it with vinegar and spread it on top of their salads.” Linda explained as she gestured to their seats. Linda sat at the center of the table with Sasha to her left and Lrgo to her right. Akihiro enjoyed a position between the two young Vreebach girls while Taxala tried to keep an eye on everyone as she prayed to The Light that she would be able to hold her family together this evening.

***

“Oh wow, are those Vreebach’s sitting with Lt. Snodgrass?” James asked rhetorically to Sydney.

“Oh. Those are the Cloverlins. They were a huge help designing the Dranza berries. Taxala is a genius when it comes to polysaccharides, and no one can grind through gene sequences like Lrgo. Those Dranza-berries would have taken another two months without their help.” Reagan said. The biosculptor saw the expression of her beloved’s face and rolled her eyes before giving him a smirk. “Remember my love. Supplicants.”

“It just makes it more fun.” James said with a mischievous grin before giving Reagan a kiss. “Jangles sweetie.” James beckoned the teenage girl to his side. “I remember you telling Daddy that you made up a new dance with Snowball, Tabila, and Miirbana. Is that right?” James asked his beloved xeno-wife. Jangles nodded enthusiastically in the affirmative. “Gather them up, and prepare to show everyone, tell the stage manager to put you in before the expungates are brought out.”

“Yes, Daddy.” Jangles said. James sent the teenage xeno off with a pat on the head and a slap on the ass.