The Calm before
Uhl was old. Ancient by these puny beings standards, and old by his own kinds. She remembered the great bridge. The singularity at the core of the galaxy, the powerful dark well, that had brought her here. She had followed the Endurium, the Ancients across the long black path. Riding their subspace song like a wind or a ship to a new shore. She had grown and changed and merged. Had met others like herself, and shared in the pain of the Ancients, watched them burn inside the dark cold steel ships of the plagues that sprung from a thousand corners of the cosmos. The very plague that so hurt and disrupted the very being of a Uhl. For forty thousand years they had marched together, burning every world as those worlds had burned the Ancients. It seemed a natural path to take, pushing her slaved antibodies along in front of the crystal planet. Now that world had ended, the crystal planet was dead. Now she no longer had to move her minions. And she had a new child. One who was far more flexible and capable than she had ever been.
Her new Uhl was small still.
No larger than a single solar system, the solar winds had not yet pushed the particles of its being very far. Crystals of thought had yet to carry its presence to the vast distances that would soon be under its control. And already Uhl could feel this was going to be, a big one.
It was dark, the ground was cold, there were definitely no nid berries anywhere near here.
Oopoo was gently lifted from the ground where he lay. All around him Leghks, not Uhleks or zombied petrified bodies, Leghks looked back at him with love. Oopoo had never seen that look in anybodys eyes before, even his old mum was merely bored when he was born, he had been her 16th child, and was obviously not very interesting. But these Leghks confuesed Oopoo.
The entire cargo pod was light only by the controls on the hastily rigged Damper device.
Oh my oh my, oh I nearly forgot, yes, Ive gotten it online.
Are you okay oldest of friends?
This was an entirely new moment for Oopoo, they generally sounded well concerned!
Uh Im fine I uhm, friend?
Yes, in our own way, we have kept alive memories of your kind.
But werent you mindless drones.. Uhm forgive me for asking, you can just drown me if you get bored, everyone else seems to.
The Leghk crowded in and gave comfort to the dizzy Dweenle.
Yes, and no. The old Leghk paused to consider, It is a very long story, and meant to be passed on orally.
Oopoo perked up, if it could be said that a Dweenle gets perky (except when eating coffee beans disguised as nid berries).
I know many oral traditions, my people tell all their long boring stories that way!
We know friend, we started them together, and theyre not all.. boring.
Oopoo smiled.
Jusst hold onn
Shsyss had regained consciousness, but not much hearing. There appeared to be permanent damage. All he could do was lay pinned beneath the support beam, in pain. He was a brave tuff old Thrynn, and honored himself by refusing to utter a sound.
Xfnphi was somehow, grotesquely, cruelly, still alive.
Izzy, bounce attempt sensor . . reading off of debris . . Spemin warship. Xfnphis breathing was getting worse.
Wanting you to . . echo sensor of . . Umanu vessels the quickly.
Aye ssir.
Diverting what power was available, Izzy began attempting to bounce a signal off the more solid pieces of debris he could find. It was a bit like banking a pool shot, Izzy thought to himself attempting to distract his mind from the grizzly form of Xfnphi. Eventually he calibrated the instruments enough to receive a signal 3 times refracted.
A fuzzy and somewhat distorted image of the Argos appeared on the main viewer. It wasnt pretty. The analysis showed 80% lifesigns and 47% damage.
Thatss ass clearr ass I can make it ssirr.
Good . . now the Umanu .. find.
Izzy began rotating the sensor array slightly, for a few seconds he lost picture completely, only to regain it, bouncing off a Gnunk corpse. It was dirty work.
Found them ssir.
Three complete Umanu vessels were neatly stacked and still tucked close around the Argos.
Rreadinigss indicate one wass prrepairring to fire jusst ass it entered rrange. The otherr two moved in to prrotect uss.
Izzy did an analysis.
Furtherr sscanns sshow they forrtunately enterred ourr ssphere of influence.
Being the good
Ssir, they arre beginning to drrift, possibly they are all comatosse
Xfnphi pondered, somehow blocking out the incredible amounts of pain.
attach . . cables .. the towing
But ourr enginess are down, we cant possibly tow
Not tow, anchor.
It sank into Izzys head what the old bug was planning, the cables would keep the Umanu vessels from drifting out of the Dampers range.
Aye Ssir.
Uhl was old. Ancient by these puny beings standards, and old by his own kinds. She remembered the great bridge. The singularity at the core of the galaxy, the powerful dark well, that had brought her here. She had followed the Endurium, the Ancients across the long black path. Riding their subspace song like a wind or a ship to a new shore. She had grown and changed and merged. Had met others like herself, and shared in the pain of the Ancients, watched them burn inside the dark cold steel ships of the plagues that sprung from a thousand corners of the cosmos. The very plague that so hurt and disrupted the very being of a Uhl. For forty thousand years they had marched together, burning every world as those worlds had burned the Ancients. It seemed a natural path to take, pushing her slaved antibodies along in front of the crystal planet. Now that world had ended, the crystal planet was dead. Now she no longer had to move her minions. And she had a new child. One who was far more flexible and capable than she had ever been.
Her new Uhl was small still.
No larger than a single solar system, the solar winds had not yet pushed the particles of its being very far. Crystals of thought had yet to carry its presence to the vast distances that would soon be under its control. And already Uhl could feel this was going to be, a big one.
It was dark, the ground was cold, there were definitely no nid berries anywhere near here.
Oopoo was gently lifted from the ground where he lay. All around him Leghks, not Uhleks or zombied petrified bodies, Leghks looked back at him with love. Oopoo had never seen that look in anybodys eyes before, even his old mum was merely bored when he was born, he had been her 16th child, and was obviously not very interesting. But these Leghks confuesed Oopoo.
The entire cargo pod was light only by the controls on the hastily rigged Damper device.
Oh my oh my, oh I nearly forgot, yes, Ive gotten it online.
Are you okay oldest of friends?
This was an entirely new moment for Oopoo, they generally sounded well concerned!
Uh Im fine I uhm, friend?
Yes, in our own way, we have kept alive memories of your kind.
But werent you mindless drones.. Uhm forgive me for asking, you can just drown me if you get bored, everyone else seems to.
The Leghk crowded in and gave comfort to the dizzy Dweenle.
Yes, and no. The old Leghk paused to consider, It is a very long story, and meant to be passed on orally.
Oopoo perked up, if it could be said that a Dweenle gets perky (except when eating coffee beans disguised as nid berries).
I know many oral traditions, my people tell all their long boring stories that way!
We know friend, we started them together, and theyre not all.. boring.
Oopoo smiled.
Jusst hold onn
Shsyss had regained consciousness, but not much hearing. There appeared to be permanent damage. All he could do was lay pinned beneath the support beam, in pain. He was a brave tuff old Thrynn, and honored himself by refusing to utter a sound.
Xfnphi was somehow, grotesquely, cruelly, still alive.
Izzy, bounce attempt sensor . . reading off of debris . . Spemin warship. Xfnphis breathing was getting worse.
Wanting you to . . echo sensor of . . Umanu vessels the quickly.
Aye ssir.
Diverting what power was available, Izzy began attempting to bounce a signal off the more solid pieces of debris he could find. It was a bit like banking a pool shot, Izzy thought to himself attempting to distract his mind from the grizzly form of Xfnphi. Eventually he calibrated the instruments enough to receive a signal 3 times refracted.
A fuzzy and somewhat distorted image of the Argos appeared on the main viewer. It wasnt pretty. The analysis showed 80% lifesigns and 47% damage.
Thatss ass clearr ass I can make it ssirr.
Good . . now the Umanu .. find.
Izzy began rotating the sensor array slightly, for a few seconds he lost picture completely, only to regain it, bouncing off a Gnunk corpse. It was dirty work.
Found them ssir.
Three complete Umanu vessels were neatly stacked and still tucked close around the Argos.
Rreadinigss indicate one wass prrepairring to fire jusst ass it entered rrange. The otherr two moved in to prrotect uss.
Izzy did an analysis.
Furtherr sscanns sshow they forrtunately enterred ourr ssphere of influence.
Being the good
Ssir, they arre beginning to drrift, possibly they are all comatosse
Xfnphi pondered, somehow blocking out the incredible amounts of pain.
attach . . cables .. the towing
But ourr enginess are down, we cant possibly tow
Not tow, anchor.
It sank into Izzys head what the old bug was planning, the cables would keep the Umanu vessels from drifting out of the Dampers range.
Aye Ssir.
