CHANNEL ACTIVATED. TIME REMAINING: 00:01:04.

: What can you tell us about the Liraeans?

: Very little, I’m afraid. We know they existed. We know they sent the testships.

: Do you know what they look like? Looked like?

: The Liraeans are long gone now. They are succeeded by those such as the Xeranai.

: As far as we know, they were extinct before the first testship visited the Xeranai homeworld. The Xeranai have some idea about them, but they do not share this knowledge.

: You can try asking a Xeranai, of course.

: I understand. What about the homeworlds of the Xeranai and the Archons? Can you tell us about them?

: No. No Raptor has ever been on a homeworld of any species of the Mind.

: What about the Great Struggle? You mentioned it earlier.

: That is more complicated. It is the struggle against the Accelerators, which the Liraeans have set in motion.

: Who are the Accelerators?

: Are you familiar with galactic drift?

: I’m afraid not.

: Everything in the universe is subject to gravity. Our galaxy is part of a cluster, which in turn is part of a supercluster. All objects in this supercluster are being drawn towards a vast structure known as the Omega Source.

: Galaxies move slowly. Wouldn’t that happen over billions of years?

: That is what the Accelerators are about. They are massive intergalactic entities that accelerate the movement of objects towards the Omega Source. We do not know if they are sentient. We do know that they give even the Archons pause.

CP EXHAUSTED. CHANNEL CLOSED.

CHANNEL ACTIVATED. TIME REMAINING: 00:01:04.

: Has the Hierarchy ever made contact with the Accelerators?

: Some of the Archons tried, a long time ago, to meet one. The Accelerator ignored it. Or did not notice it - it is difficult to tell.

: How could the Accelerator not notice it?

: An Archon is the same size as you or me. An Accelerator is larger than the distance between two stars.

: …. You mean an Accelerator is several light-years long.

: Exactly. And they are located outside of normal galaxies. They manipulate the flows of gravity and electromagnetism, accelerating the movement of entire galaxies towards the Omega Source. We do not know what timescale they operate on, or why.

: Surely the timescale must still be in the millions of years.

: We don’t know what drives the Accelerators. We do know that the Liraeans felt they were enough of a threat to build the testships and send them to world after world, in the hope of finding a counter to the Accelerators.

: What happened to the Archon who met an Accelerator?

: I did mention the Accelerator was located outside the galaxy. To get there needed the Xeranai to create a special ship, which a thousand Vautari sacrificed their lives to pilot to the point where they came close enough to create a portal that could reach the Accelerator.

: The Archon went through it, tried to contact the Accelerator, and failed to make any impact. After a few hours the portal collapsed, leaving the Archon on the other side without an FTL array.

: Our best guess is that he is on his way back to the galaxy. It may take him a few million years, though.

CP EXHAUSTED. CHANNEL CLOSED.

“Do you believe this stuff about the Omega Source?” I asked the officers.

Commander David Kipling, the astrophysicist, spoke up. “We’ve known of the existence of a super-large mass somewhere in the universe for some time.”

“A… superlarge mass?”

“Back in 1986, it was determined that the galaxies in the observed universe weren’t moving randomly. They were all showing signs of moving in a specific direction, towards an ultra-large mass located somewhere in the universe.” Kipling tapped a key, and an image of several galaxies appeared on the screen. “Physicists hypothesized it was due to a super-large mass called the Great Attractor located in our galactic supercluster; it was later determined to be due to the Shapely Supercluster, where it’s theorized an ultradense mass is pulling all the galaxies in the universe closer and closer.”

“The Omega Source,” muttered Pemberley. “And these Accelerators are supposed to speed up our movement towards it? Over what time cycle?”

“Well, it would be in the billions of years. The Shapely Supercluster is 652 million light years away from us right now.”

“So why is the Hierarchy - or the Liraeans - worried about it now?”

“It would depend on their planning horizon,” observed Heath. “If they’re psychologically oriented towards thinking in terms of thousands - or millions - of years, then working on a solution makes sense. Especially if they can afford to have an individual Archon travel for millions of years to return from a single mission.”

“The Liraeans definitely think long-term,” observed Goldman. “Given that they planned test-ships thousands of years ago. Fortress Skyguard would have started out on its journey - what? Five thousand years ago? Ten thousand?”

“At which point the Liraeans would not even know whether there would be a civilization here to empower,” pointed out Kipling. “If they’re sending testships to civilizations - at least to those that have developed sentience - instead of to every lifebearing world, then there’s the issue of timing.”

“That’s true enough,” Pemberley nodded. “Which does raise a point. The Liraeans sent a ship to the Grizzeloids and the Raptors when they were in the middle of a medieval age; we got one a hundred years after going into space. Why the difference?”

“And how would they plan it so precisely?” wondered Sinclair. “Unless they were actually monitoring us somehow….”

The answer came to me immediately. “Precognition.”

The officers all turned in my direction. “Please expand on that thought,” said Pemberley.

“We know the Liraeans are somehow the source of ultrahuman powers,” I explained. “Which means they must have had those powers themselves at some point. Most powers are firmly rooted in the present - except for precog and postcog. The Liraeans must have used their precognition to identify the threat to the galaxy - universe - and identified the Accelerators as that. Then to counter that, they would have sent the testships to upcoming civilizations - at the times when their precognition told them it was most relevant.”

“That’s… well outside the realm of what precog can do,” mused Pemberley. “The best precogs in existence can barely see a few hours ahead on a reliable basis. You’re proposing a level of effectiveness millions - billions - of times more powerful than known.”

“Doggie underpants,” I said.

That certainly got everyone’s attention. “Excuse me?” Pemberley’s tone suggested I’d better have a good reason for that comment.

Fortunately, I did. “Have you ever noticed how little variety there is in doggie underpants? Or pet clothes of any sort, for that matter?”

“I have a pet cat,” said Laura. “Getting sweaters for her is a bit of a challenge. I usually get my mum to knit them.”

“Which means handmade, instead of high fashion,” I said. “Whereas sweaters - or even underpants - for humans are designed by Calvin Klein and a bunch of incredibly skilled professionals. So they fit much better, are more cost-effective, and are much more comfortable.”

“You’re going somewhere with this,” said Goldman.

“Maybe ultra powers are like underpants. The first set were the ones the Liraeans made for themselves - which would have made them incredibly powerful in using them. Then they decided to give powers to other species, which needed them to create different versions of the powers for other species.”

“Like different underpants for dogs and humans,” nodded Pemberley in understanding.

“The powers fit best to Liraeans. The versions we get are probably the watered-down, ill-fitting mass-market versions meant to fit the butts of Labradors and cocker spaniels alike. The versions the Liraeans used were probably the equivalent of Armani briefs, or custom-designed for the specific user.”

“And the testships are also machines intended to implant powers in sentient beings,” Blythe observed, “only they’re not perfect. Which is why the powers people get vary so widely in effectiveness or combat potential.”

“Assuming the powers were intended for combat in the first place,” added Dr. Shapiro, “which has never been proven.”

Group Captain Pemberley shook her head. “I understand the concept. Well, this is definitely going in the report to Windsor tonight. Before that, I’d appreciate it if someone could come up with a better analogy than canine underwear.”

FOR YOUR DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPERFECTIONS OF LIRAEAN POWER FITMENT TO SENTIENTS, YOU GAIN +1 WISDOM. NICELY REASONED.

FOR COMMUNICATING YOUR INSIGHTS INTO THE ALIENS TO MANY OF YOUR ALLIES, YOU HAVE STRENGTHENED THE BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP WITH THEM AND GAINED THEIR RESPECT. +1 TO CHARISMA.

FOR YOUR DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF OUR ANIMAL FRIENDS, YOU HAVE SPARKED ATTRACTION IN A SECRET ADMIRER. +1 TO ATTRACTIVENESS.

I winced at the third notification. Hopefully this wouldn’t devolve into romantic drama - I had enough of the non-romantic kind in my life right now. Still, the other bonuses were helpful.

On the positive side, my CP just went up to 300, so I could have longer conversations with Sarvenimazarus now.