”Many have speculated about the reason why all the races that served the Progenitors eventually fell to ruin. The first thing that should be mentioned is that we don’t actually know if all these races fell, as we have not explored the entire galaxy. Secondly, it could be that other races in other galaxies are doing fine, but that the races in our galaxy just happened to be unlucky. In fact, it is almost certain that at least some of those races have thrived, though we have no idea to what extent.

That all said, there are a couple of credible theories that have been put forth. The first one, and the one most widely accepted is that the races that served the Progenitors were in many ways dependent on their masters. We don't know what exactly happened to the Progenitors, but we have evidence that they disappeared over an unnaturally short period of time. That likely didn't leave much time for the servant races to prepare, assuming they were even aware of the danger. Much of their technology stopped working, and some worlds that were previously well supplied suddenly faced starvation. These upheavals likely brought civil war, and those civil wars likely turned apocalyptic. We can still see traces of worlds that were destroyed. These devastated worlds could also be proof of wars between races that tried to take hold of the now empty throne that the Progenitors left behind, and these succession wars are considered to be the second most likely explanation to the disappearance of these races.

In the end, we can’t say for certain what happened to them. Theories are abound, but evidence is scarce. In addition, the erosion of countless years has made the interpretation of the little bit of evidence we do have extremely difficult. The truth will likely turn out to be a combination of many factors, some of which we could not even fathom.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

--------

“Can’t you just bring the ship to Haven?” Lilly asked with frustration. “Just seeing the ship would make the whole process much easier. It’s hard to recruit people blindly. I get that we don’t need to fill many of the standard positions thanks to the ship being largely controlled by an AI, but I still need to get an exact list of what we need. Just the number of people will affect many of the supporting positions!”

“I get your frustration, but it can’t be helped. If I brought my ship here, then we would have a battle on our hands. Look, think of it this way. I can’t tell you the exact number and nature of the positions because I don’t know which positions we’ll find competent people for. Simply put, we’ll fill any posts we can find a worthy person for, and then we’ll make do without the rest.” Selendil replied calmly.

“That doesn’t exactly make things easier!” Lilly was not having an easy time with her new employer. “Can we at least settle on some positions we can’t skip? I need to know the mandatory ones at the very least.”

Selendil seriously considered the question as it was a good one. “Well, you will need a medical crew. Doctors and nurses. Someone who can deal with the biology of several races. A communications officer and some aides for sure. I’m not at my best when dealing with other races.”

“Who could’ve guessed," Lilly muttered sarcastically. She had already spent enough time with her new employer to know Selendil didn’t mind, as the AI kept making jokes as well. In fact, the only reason the AI had not made a similar comment to what Lilly said, was because she’d done it first.

“I suppose someone like a second-in-command would be necessary. Someone who can handle emergencies. Nox will be making the final calls when I’m not around, but I get that most humanoids get jumpy when ordered around by an AI. I think you people call the position the first officer?” Selendil half asked, half stated.

“What would you call the position?” Lilly asked a little curious.

“First Warrior or a Champion," Selendil replied curtly. “Anyway, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ll need a few chefs. I rather enjoy good food. I want the mess hall well stocked and I’d prefer skill in different types of cuisine.”

“That should be popular with the crew at least. Ship chow can often be rather dull. A good cook can make or break a ship. I’ll get on that.” Lilly muttered again, for once agreeing with Selendil. Good food was great for morale. Unfortunately, fleet rations were often boring, to say the least.

Selendil was about to continue when the Haven suddenly interrupted their conversation. “Master, a ship just jumped into the system. According to my records, the ship belongs to the Human faction known as Illum. Their kind is very rare on the station and now they came with a ship well beyond the technology Humans have shown before. The main point is that the ship was also running scans on the nebula.”

“A ship from a race that almost never visits the station randomly arrives in the system and shows interest in the nebula that we have used to hide our ship? That seems a bit too specific to be an accident.” Selendil was not amused by the thought.

“Your ship is in the Gordian Nebula?! How is it not being corroded to shit?” Lilly demanded to know.

“Because it’s not a flying piece of junk like most of the vessels around here. Now be quiet for a moment.” Selendil countered. Her mind expanded outside the station to get a better feel for the situation.

"It seems the Illum ship decided they can't approach the nebula," Haven reported after a short while. “They are heading towards the station, but their scanners and detectors are all still focused towards the nebula. I think they’re trying to figure out a way inside.”

‘It seems they have some idea what they’re looking for and where.’ Selendil thought to herself. ‘But how? I can barely accept that a race that frequents the station and saw my mech exit and re-enter the nebula might have figured out that I have a ship in that direction, but according to Haven, the Illum are certainly not part of that group. I doubt other races would share information like that with the Humans either. I heard they’re not exactly popular around here.’

“How did they find us? We warped straight here and there’s no way we were tracked here with the technology they possess.” Nox seemed equally confused.

“I can’t really see it either. Even our own ships would have trouble tracking us if we wanted to stay hidden. The only way our ships would find us would be by using the unity and tracking me. The universal consciousness can’t track objects like the ship either. But even so, I’m not…on the ship…” Selendil’s voice disappeared and then she exploded in laughter.

“What?” “What?” “What?” Lilly and the two Ai’s all asked at the same time. Lilly had already lost the thread of this conversation when terms like unity and universal consciousness had been thrown in.

“I think I might have helped them find us accidentally. Oh, they're being clever. They are tracking us through the universal consciousness, only they’re not trying to find me. They’re tracking the broken girl we have in stasis.” Selendil knew she would be able to feel it if they were using the universal consciousness to track her, that’s partially why she had been so willing to lend them a hand. However, the same did not apply if they were tracking the girl. They could theoretically be tracking her new gardeners as well as they were on the ship, but that seemed less likely. The girl had come from the Illum, so it made sense they would track one of their own.

“Why would you do something like that?” Nox asked in confusion.

“Setting aside the whole load of mumbo jumbo you spoke before, I think the better question is, why do you have some girl in stasis? And what did you mean by broken?” Lilly blithely ignored the AI and voiced her question, genuinely concerned whether she had joined up with a criminal.

“Oh, right. I should probably address that. We ran into some hostile Human forces a while back. I repelled them and captured a couple for questioning. One of them survived, although her mind was much too fragile to handle my inquiries. I put her in stasis until I can find the time and energy to fix her.” Selendil replied rather jovially.

Lilly didn’t even bother suppressing a sigh and pressed a paw against her forehead due to developing a sudden headache. “I’ll take your word on their hostile moves for now. That would make questioning the prisoners a legal act, although not something that’s exactly generally approved. More importantly, by your words, you're capable of extracting information from someone's mind? And you're saying you can fix a broken mind as well? Those are not exactly easy techniques, especially fixing a broken mind. Additionally, you seem to have some abilities as a mind shredder if you broke her in the first place."

“It’s not as hard as most think, just time-consuming. As for the shredder part, you don’t need to have that gift when your target is broken by a gentle mind read.” Selendil said a little defensively.

“Keep in mind that anything she considers gentle is like hitting a nail with a star.” Nox interjected. “It’s not that she doesn’t have the grace and skill to be careful, but you people are much too fragile in comparison to what we are used to.”

Lilly had known that the Solarian was powerful, but she wasn’t entirely sure she liked being described as ‘much too fragile’. “So the gist of this is that there are some Illum coming on the stations and they’re trying to find you, or your ship. Or at least someone on your ship. The whole thing is a bit confusing. So what’s the plan?”

“I think we’ll wait here and see what they have to say. It’s not like they’re a threat.” Selendil replied with a shrug.

------

“For the last time, we’re not the Tetrarchy. We’re barely even the same species anymore. You wouldn’t like being compared with the criminal elements inside your race either.” One of the Handmaidens argued with the entry officials.

“Our race does not have a criminal element.” The official in question argued back.

Amaterasu had taken a large contingent of her Handmaidens to the station on shuttles, as their ship was much too large to dock with the station properly. The Handmaidens were rather efficient in dealing with the obstructions that the officials were putting up, but it seemed some among the station’s bureaucracy were dead set on creating trouble for them. Even if they could not ban the Illum from the station, they could throw a hundred little barriers to make things as difficult and time-consuming as possible.

As the Empress of the Illum, Amaterasu was perfectly capable of cutting through much of this, but she was trying to avoid drawing attention to her rank. She was even dressed the same as the Handmaidens, which meant simple white robes of high-quality materials. Her robe was a little more ornate than the others, but only so far as to signal her as the leader of the group.

“I think we’ve entertained your little vendetta long enough. The fact is that you have no right to detain us as you are basically squatters on this station, just like everyone else. Haven station, are we cleared for entry?” Amaterasu finally ran out of patience and addressed the station directly. The station had already interfered on their behalf once before, so she was counting on that continuing.

“You are.” Haven replied simply.

“Are we allowed to use force if we are obstructed further?” Amaterasu wanted to make her point crystal clear.

“Within acceptable limits. Use of excessive force will be punished though.” Haven replied again. It rather liked the temperament of these new arrivals, although the fact that they were in something akin to an adversarial position with Selendil dampened that.

"You heard it," Amaterasu stated firmly, addressing the official again. “Now, if you want to make further trouble, I’d take it up with Haven itself.”

“Haven is one thing, but setting yourselves against the inhabitants of this station is another. I’d advise against taking rash action, or you’ll find yourself running afoul of the security forces.” The double eye-lids of the Azi female blinked in a show of anger. Her threat wasn’t entirely without merit as the Azi were the primary security force on the station.

“First of all, you don’t speak for the security. You’re a two-bit bureaucrat with a chip on her shoulder. Besides, it’s not even you personally who has a problem with us. Someone has paid you to make trouble, someone that has a grudge with us. I doubt the higher-ups will take a genial stance on corruption and misusing your position to advance the personal grudges of other races. Secondly, come at us. I’m pretty sure we can take you. I alone will be able to handle the security forces of the station.” Amaterasu made her own threat. Just because the Illum had learned how to hide the halos that marked them as Deities, that didn’t mean her party had none.

In actual fact, her party had four Deities in addition to herself. The Illum were at the peak of genetic engineering, they had the ability to utilize nanotechnology, and they even used several techniques and technologies that they had gained from the Progenitors to enhance themselves. They had the largest concentration of high-ranked psions out of all the races in this part of the galaxy. When the Handmaiden had said that the Illum were barely even the same species as the Tetrarchy, she had been exaggerating a bit but not that much. The two may look similar but they were very different inside.

“Are you threatening an official?” The Azi female asked, her tone heavy with anger. The Azi were not big on showing emotions so the tone was a telling sign of how angry she truly was.

“I wonder about that. That’s one interpretation. There are others. The point still stands regardless.” Amaterasu grinned at the official.

In the end, they were let through as the Azi official could not make trouble after the Illum had been given the license to use force if necessary. As soon as they were through, Amaterasu planned to send the Handmaidens to gather information. She wasn’t sure what exactly they were looking for, which made things a little difficult. Then an idea occurred to her. The same idea that had occurred to a certain High Ambassador some weeks before. “Haven, is the owner of the ship inside the Gordian Nebula on the station?”

The station AI did not reply immediately but eventually did oblige. “She is.”

‘That’s interesting. If the AI wanted to run a search then that was a bit too slow. It’s like the AI had requested permission to answer. My theory is getting more and more viable.’ She thought to herself. “Would she be willing to meet?”

-----

Selendil watched with some curiosity as a group of female warriors entered the reception room of the building Lilly had reserved for their business. She could sense several beings that had enough power to warrant an accepting nod from her, and one of them was actually quite strong for a non-Dhar. They also had the brains to hide their ability, unlike many others. Surprisingly, even the ones that had no psionic ability had the bearings of a trained warrior. As Lilly was working in a role akin to an assistant to her at the moment, the young Mrrroww signaled for the other party to take a seat. Despite her gesture, only one of the visitors took the offer while the others remained standing.

“May I ask if I have the honor of addressing one of the old ones?” The leader of the group asked in a broken attempt at the common language of the Eternal Empire of the Dhar. The language was heavily accented and didn’t use quite the right words, but it was close enough to be understood. Understood by Selendil that is, as Lilly was completely confused.

Selendil looked up sharply as she heard the words, though her look was hidden by the helmet of her environmental suit. She replied in a perfect representation of the language the other party had tried to speak. "That depends on what you mean by the old ones."

The other party nodded, as if she had already gotten her answer, but reworded her question anyway. “Do I have the honor of addressing one of the Dhar?” Not many knew that name. It was not widely spread even among the Illum, and they were something akin to experts on the subject. Amaterasu’s own knowledge of the language had been a patchwork she had created personally by combining together some written information and a scant few broken recordings only she and a few others had seen.

Many others might have felt it more prudent to lie to hide themselves. Selendil was not like many others though. She was displeased about hiding her true nature, despite the amusing twist of playing herself off as one of the old enemies of her people, and she was proud of her people and heritage. She firmly considered that secrecy was a weakness that she only tolerated because her position was currently questionable. “That is a name I have not heard others use in a while. But you are correct. You are talking to one of the People.” She put special emphasis on the last word. It was one of the words her kind had used to differentiate between other races and the Dhar.

Amaterasu rose from her chair and barked a single word as a command in the language of the Illum. As one, she and the Handmaiden all knelt on one knee. “These unworthy pay their respects!” She said firmly, still using her broken understanding of the Eternal Empire’s language.

Poor Lilly was completely stumped. She had understood nothing of what had been said. She didn’t understand the language of the Illum either, but she knew this faction of the Humans was especially proud. Their pride was not without a reason, but still the Mrrroww considered them a bit conceited. Having a large number of the supposedly proud Illum suddenly kneeling in front of her employer was a shock, and the shock had not been made easier by the fact that she could sense that these were not just a group of average Illum.

"Stand," Selendil told the kneeling Illum, finally switching to the universal standard language. The actions of the Illum had taken her by surprise, though she had seen similar behavior from some of the client races before. “I assume this is not why you are here.”

Amaterasu had given instructions to the Handmaidens beforehand, and they all withdrew to the walls of the room and away from where they were sitting while she retook her seat. "Indeed. I have a million questions, but they can wait. I have a pressing matter to discuss. The discovery of your ship has caused some...complications. The two other factions of Humans, the Cybrans and the Tetrarchy, are under the impression that your ship fell into our hands, and now they have a common cause to join in battle against us. They fear the technological advantage we might gain from studying the ship. This is creating some problems for us, especially since they are mistaken about the whole thing. Even though the ones that found your ship belong to the Tetrarchy, the ship was found in an area that is strategically important to us, so they won’t just take our word for it if we tell them we don’t have the ship.”

Even though she had more pressing concerns on her mind, concerns that could reduce the war between the three Human factions to a mere spat, she decided to address this matter first. It would be a good foundation for other matters with the Dhar in front of her. Despite her reverence towards the race most called the Progenitors, she didn’t have a special connection with the being she wanted to get closer to. On the other hand, successful negotiations were a good way to build the beginnings of a relationship.

Amaterasu’s explanation had actually caused Selendil to feel curious about the situation, even though she wasn’t showing her interest. “That sounds unfortunate, but what do you want from me? I will not fight your wars for you, even if I was inclined to help you. Before any of that, who are you to the Illum?”

“My apologies, I didn’t even introduce myself. I am Empress Amaterasu, the leader of the Illum. Those in my company are my Handmaidens.” Amaterasu introduced herself with a small smile, eliciting a surprised yelp from Lilly who was still present. Now the kneeling made even less sense to the poor girl. “I would not expect you to fight our war, but we would like something that would prove you have the ship instead of us. Just showing the ship around Haven would be acceptable. The word would soon get around.”

“That is not very convenient for me. If I brought the ship to the station without revealing myself, then others would assume the ship could be seized by force. I’m not afraid of their attacks, but something like this would incite entire flotillas to rush for the station. I could crush all those who dare oppose me, but it would be somewhat bothersome.” The confidence in Selendil’s voice made it clear that she meant every word, which scared Lilly a bit. This had been a stressful day for the poor girl. Amaterasu, on the other hand, took it in stride.

“There are other ways that are more subtle, though they might not be guaranteed to work.” Amaterasu pivoted her position. She had suspected there was a reason the Dhar in front of her was keeping a low profile, so this turn of events did not surprise her.

“You are correct. However, most of them carry the same risk even if the information would get out slower.” Selendil grasped the idea Amaterasu was hinting at, which included revealing the ship’s presence to just the Tetrarchy and the Cybrans. In fact, Amaterasu was thinking of just the Cybrans as the Illum would continue their war with the Tetrarchy regardless. “So far, all I’ve heard is what you require. I’m not completely averse to the idea as the ship will be revealed sooner or later, but if it is to be sooner, I require something in compensation.”

“Compensation seems fair, although I’m not sure what we can offer.” Amaterasu genuinely had no idea what the Illum could offer to a Dhar. She seriously doubted money was an issue.

Selendil’s reply was simple and direct. The Illum did have something she was interested in. Her finger pointed straight at Amaterasu.