”Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes things work out in ways you would never expect. Sometimes you manage to trudge through with pure improvisation and luck. Rare is the occasion where things work out exactly as you plan. Some call this the natural chaos of the universe. I call it people being idiots and fucking up.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

---------

“I…what?” Amaterasu stuttered. Selendil’s question was completely outside her expectations. There were a hundred different scenarios she could imagine in her head about how this discussion would proceed, but none of those scenarios included being questioned on her culinary skills.

“Can you cook?” Selendil repeated the question. “I’ve noted that in most things the younger races are inferior to Dhar. This isn’t entirely your fault as you just haven’t had the time to develop. However, one area where you seem to shine is the field of preparing food. So, we could really use a good cook on the ship as that is the field where you have the most to offer. That brings us to my original question.” Selendil explained patiently. It was understandable that the young ones were a bit slow on the uptake on occasion.

“I can’t say I have much experience when it comes to cooking," Amaterasu replied carefully. She wasn’t sure she was all that fond of being told her highest worth was as a cook. Nothing against cooks, but she was a monarch. It was a question of numbers. There were countless cooks and only so many monarchs. “My position hasn’t left me with the time to hone that particular skill, but there should be several skilled cooks among my Handmaidens.”

“Excellent. They’re hired!” Selendil stated with clear eagerness, which was suddenly dampened when she swayed, as if feeling dizzy out of nowhere.

“Are you…alright?” Amaterasu asked worriedly and instinctually got up to approach. She wouldn’t have felt worried otherwise but they had just talked about the Dhar dying due to a plague.

Selendil gave a small wave towards the other woman to assuage her. She spent a moment gathering her thoughts. This was something completely outside her expectations. “Well now, this was certainly a surprise. Nox, I was just presented with a ‘Crossroads’.”

“Here?! Now?!” The AI asked in dismay. It understood the significance.

As Selendil had spoken to Nox in the language of the Eternal Empire, Amaterasu understood only a part of what was said. "I do not recognize the word." She stated, the question clear in her tone.

“That’s a rather long explanation, but you might get your part of the bargain faster than you think. Nox, prepare the ship for travel. We’re making a phase jump towards the Mrrroww controlled space. And use the best speed we can manage. We’re going to have to leave the new crew members behind for now as we don’t have the time to pick them up. We’re in a bit of a rush.” Selendil instructed.

The ship suddenly started moving. The auxiliary arms surrounding it positioned near the bottom of the ship and closed around the central section like the petals of a flower. In less than ten seconds the space around the ship seemed to be rent apart as the powerful phase drive within deposited them deeper into phase space than any ship in this galaxy had gone for millions of years. Travel this deep inside phase space was extremely fast, though in turn it also took a lot of energy. Luckily they had managed to get more power.

“The Mrrroww space? Should I be on the ship? The cats don’t exactly like us Illum. I’d point out that their dislike is misplaced, but I don’t think that is relevant at the moment.” Amaterasu questioned. She also wasn’t so sure if she wanted to suddenly spend weeks in potentially hostile territory, even if that time was spent inside a Dhar vessel. It would’ve been better if she had at least warned the Handmaidens first.

"Unfortunately for you, we're already on the way. You might as well tag along now. It will take a much shorter time than you're likely thinking." Selendil realized some of the woman's worries, even if she didn't really care enough to wait ten seconds to warp her back on the station. Not to mention she could still do that but chose not to. Secretly she wanted the company, but wouldn’t admit that even to herself. The Guardians in charge of the hydroponics were also along for the ride, but they were not exactly stellar company.

“If I’m stuck here, then can you at least explain what’s going on?” Amaterasu requested with a deep sigh.

Selendil considered the request for a while before giving a nod. “As long as you realize that this is not a simple matter to explain and that I’m not going to explain every little detail again just because you might have trouble keeping up.”

“Agreed.” Amaterasu felt that the other party was underestimating her once again, but decided not to argue the point. The best method to change Selendil’s mind was to prove her wrong anyway. And it wasn’t like the Dhar didn’t have a reason to be a little dismissive of other races despite their downfall.

“To explain what happened, you need at least a rough understanding of two concepts. I already mentioned the universal consciousness before. It is the thing you used to track us. The universal consciousness exists everywhere. At its simplest, it is a method for beings to communicate wordlessly and mentally with each other and the universe at large. Without experiencing it, it is nearly impossible to describe the concept to someone. You have likely at some point tried to meld minds with another psion. The process was no doubt liberating as the walls between you are erased. Joining minds with other psions is a wondrous thing, but it pales in comparison when put side to side with joining with the universe itself. Explaining the joys involved would be like explaining colors to a blind person, so I’ll stick to the part that is relevant to this situation at hand. Joining the universal consciousness comes with certain benefits. The deeper you join, the larger those benefits.” Selendil found herself lacking words in how to describe the miracle that was the Great Song to someone who had no idea, so she had to go with a simplified explanation.

She shook her head in frustration. “Anyway, you touched on one of those benefits with your little tracking stunt and that’s barely scratching the surface. However, one of the main takeaways from that is the fact that the universal consciousness has access to information that we can’t even imagine. Some of that information breaks the laws of reality in ways I don’t care to explain. Now with that said, we come to another concept. A psion, even one at my level, can’t see the future beyond a few seconds, and even that few seconds is a rare gift to those with the special talent. However, sometimes we can get hints from the universal consciousness. The more powerful a psion, the more likely they are to receive such hints. That said, even the most powerful beings can experience this only a handful of times in thousands of years. Usually, these hints come in the form of a choice that the person might not even be aware of.”

“A crossroads in their life, so to speak.” Amaterasu suddenly stated, realizing the meaning and context of the word Selendil had used. The idea of having your life’s crossroads highlighted like that sounded tremendously useful to her.

“Exactly. To give you an impression of how rare such crossroads are, none of the Dhar were given even a hint before or after the plague hit. And believe me, if someone would’ve gotten a hint, I would know. Now, this might be because we didn’t have a choice in the matter. I can’t say for sure. The way crossroads work has always eluded us. Most Dhar never faced one during their entire lives and they became increasingly rare before the end, likely because all paths had the same end result.” Selendil said with a sad shake of her head.

“And you were given such a crossroads moment just now?” Amaterasu guessed.

"Yes. Apparently, a certain High Ambassador of the Mrrroww will die without my interference in a battle against the Shinzen. It seems like the direction of my life will change depending on whether she lives or dies." Selendil had to admit she was rather thrown off kilter by the situation. How could the life of a single member of the younger races affect her to this degree?

“Have you had these crossroad moments before?” Amaterasu asked, genuinely curious. She had no idea of the true significance of the situation, but that was not surprising as she had only Selendil’s words to work with, and Selendil was giving her the short version.

“I have. Twice. Once when I had to choose whether to become a Keeper or not. I had hidden my talent before that moment. Although the position is a great honor, it is also something that will dominate the rest of your life. I had…other plans before that moment.” Selendil still avoided thinking about the subject and even Nox knew it was a sore spot that should not be approached. The AI would joke about most things, but this was not one of them.

What would her life have looked like if she had chosen differently? Would she still be alive just like now, or would she have died with the rest of her race? Would her race have died at all? She wasn’t the most influential Dhar in existence, but in some ways she wasn’t far from that either. She wasn’t self-centered enough to think the plague was her fault, but some of her decisions might have pushed their race down the path that eventually doomed them. Would she have fallen in glorious combat instead, like had been the desire of most young Dhar of her age in her youth? And most importantly, instead of the solitude that she had developed as a result of her role, would she have formed a family? Her life might have been shorter, but what about happiness? Would not a shorter but happier life have been a worthy trade?

She shook her head to clear away the same questions that always came up when she thought about that moment. “The second time was less dramatic, but in retrospect perhaps just as important. After my relatives died, I decided to seek solitude as the role of the most powerful Keeper fell on my shoulders. Instead of actively trying to lead our people, I decided to become something like a sage that was sought when our race faced trouble. At the time I thought the decision had been mostly a wasted opportunity, but now I realize it likely led to my eventual survival as the plague hit.” Selendil was less conflicted about this choice. Even though the choice still carried the regret of possibly steering their race away from the doom that awaited them, the situation was less emotionally charged as a whole. She also knew that she might have been able to do nothing to stop what happened even if she had made another choice, as she still didn’t know the cause of the plague.

Amaterasu didn’t quite understand all the hidden implications of Selendil’s words, nor did she truly understand the role of a Keeper. That said, she could sense the decisions had been dramatic and she could sense the emotions flowing off Selendil like waves of power. “So. One decision made you into what you are and the other one spared you while the rest of your race died. Weighty decisions. Admittedly I don't understand everything involved, but I can make a couple of observations if you don't mind."

Selendil made a gesture with one of the tail looking appendages that came from the back of her head. It was meant to urge Amaterasu to continue, but mostly just confused the woman instead. Eventually, she did get the hint though. “These decisions seem to hinge on small things that have far-reaching consequences. The person you are saving now might only need to say the right thing at the right time in the future to sway your destiny in some way. Maybe it will affect a critical decision you will make in the future. I doubt you would be given this choice if it didn't have similar consequences to the ones that came before. Yet you made the decision awfully quick, almost as if it didn't carry the weight it likely does."

Selendil expressed slight gratitude with the same appendage, though once again that gratitude was missed by the recipient because the gesture was different from anything Amaterasu had seen before. Selendil was mostly thankful that the other person felt the need to worry, even if the worry was misplaced. Few people ever bothered worrying about her. “It might seem like I treated the decision as if it was trivial, but I can assure you I did not. As I cannot see the eventual consequences of my choice this day, I can’t make an informed decision. Thus I will make the same choice as I made the last two times. I will choose the option that feels right in the moment. I can’t say if those feelings have led me astray before, or whether they will do so now, but that is who I am. I will not stray from the path that I have already chosen to follow.”

“And what feeling led you to this choice, if I may ask?” Amaterasu asked.

“Curiosity about the person involved. She is one of the two people that have aroused my interest since I woke up, the other one being you. I also want to see her face when she realizes she owes me. Besides, we need a people person on the ship. Someone who can deal with the pesky diplomatic things. To be fair, you’re not exactly great at that, and I’m not much better. She at least is a High Ambassador. She should know how to properly leverage the advantages we have.” Selendil justified her instinctive decision. The reasons she stated were mostly excuses though. She had known the right answer as soon as the choice was presented. She didn’t know why or how, but she did. The rest was just her trying to justify things to herself.

--------

Moonshadow’s hunt for the cloaked meteors was proceeding well. The Shinzen were a hive mind so it was rather natural that they had placed some of the small flyers on those meteors, and the hive mind revealed their location to the rest of their forces. Once she realized that, Moonshadow could use those same flyers to spot the meteors, although she had a much harder time spotting the mental signature of these particular beings among the millions of little creatures that were flying around. Once she did though, the Mrrroww fleet could easily shoot the meteors down as they were significantly smaller than the large asteroids the Shinzen used for their Hives. In this case, even a small difference in size made things much easier.

Her success didn't go unnoticed by the Shinzen though. Her hunt took some time that the Shinzen, in turn, used to pick up all their forces from the surface of the planet. They were not planning on fighting to the death. Not against this enemy and not when they had this much to lose. They had tested a theory, the test had been a grand success, and they had gained a lot. Many of the technologies the Mrrroww ships and civilian infrastructure used had been stolen, and it would take some time to integrate those technologies for their own use. They had learned much from this attack.

Shinzen were notoriously difficult to dislodge when they landed on a planet, but the leading Queen had also learned new tricks. You didn’t need to use the same tactic against every enemy. Against most enemies they would happily trade these forces to take down as many of the enemy ships as possible. They could replace their losses much faster than the enemy. In this case though, there was no point. The Hives were easy to replace but their other ships and Queens were somewhat harder to re-create if they fought to the bitter end. The technological advantage of the enemy also meant that the amount of losses the enemy would take would be less than normal. Why not just cut their losses and leave while they had nothing but gains from this little sortie. They would only retreat temporarily anyway. This fleet was meant to be a serious attack and the attack would not stop just because they retreated for a time.

While that was all true, there was no reason for them to avoid taking some additional gains from this retreat. The leading Queen realized that the psion that had spotted their little trick with the meteors might become a problem later on. Aside from that, it was much easier to build new ships than train exceptional psions. At least for other races that is. They had some disposable pawns here, and it would be a good experience for their new type of Queens to fight a powerful enemy psion in direct combat. That experience would be useful for their eventual replacements.

The remaining Hives suddenly accelerated towards the Mrrroww fleet on a collision course. The remaining small flyers all positioned behind the Hives, letting the hulking Hives take the fire for them. Four of the Shinzen combat Queens hid themselves within the swarm. On the other side of the field, the Mrrroww Primaris noted that the main bulk of the Shinzen fleet was retreating towards the other edge of the gravity well and knew that the Hives were only meant to buy time. He could recognize a sacrificial pawn when he saw one. He ordered all the ships on the path of the approaching Hives to move out of the way to avoid collisions.

What he did not realize was that Moonshadow’s ship fell neatly between the hurtling Hives, and that his order cleared her surroundings of most supporting vessels. Moonshadow’s ship was not left alone, but it was left with only ten other vessels, most of which were smaller support vessels that could easily squeeze into the space between the approaching Hives, even if those Hives changed trajectory towards them. These ships were actually well equipped to deal with the small flyers as they were mostly anti-fighter frigates and cruisers. The problem was that the flyers were no longer using their normal tactic.

“Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?” Moonshadow asked with her senses screaming at her that this was a trap.

“The enemy flyers! They’re not firing on the ships around us!” One of her crew reported.

“What are they doing?” She demanded to know. The small things kept flying closer despite the losses they were taking. Even if the damn things didn’t have the longest of ranges with their corrosive weapons, they still had a long enough range to fire from this close.

“They’re…ramming the support ships! They are exploding on contact!” The same crew member reported again.

Moonshadow immediately realized the point of the tactic. Even though the small things lost more of their number flying close enough to explode on contact, the explosions completely by-passed the void shields and the individual explosions also did heinous damage compared to the usual corrosive shots. She couldn’t know that the flyers were detonating their cores on impact, but she could see the result. The ships around her kept getting damaged, but she sensed they were not the real target.

She tried to gather her psionic power into an attack to clear the enemies surrounding their ships, but suddenly she could feel the damn enemy that had kept bothering their psions the entire battle interfering with her attack. She also sensed an incoming attack from another source and hastily erected a protective barrier around her ship. Not a moment too soon as a beam of destructive energy rammed into her shield, almost causing it to buckle. She recognized the attack from the recordings she had seen. This was one of the powerful new Shinzen individuals that had taken part in the attack against the planet. On the monitors she could see a slightly humanoid looking individual with a pair of large cannons hanging on both sides.

The real issue was that she also saw something else. More specifically she saw another one of the powerful Shinzen rapidly approaching. This was the one that had struck straight through the Mrrroww ships that had defended the planet, clearly displaying a powerful penetrative ability. “Shit. It seems I gathered their attention a bit too much.” She still had tricks she could use but was quite unsure if she could stop this combination of attacks. Her senses also screamed that there was another threat she could not detect. She might be able to save herself, but it looked grim for her ship and crew. And that was assuming this was everything the enemy was throwing at her. They looked quite determined.

One enemy that excelled in disrupting the abilities of others, one enemy that excelled in long-range attacks, one enemy that excelled in frontal assaults, and finally one enemy that likely excelled in staying hidden and attacking when the time was right. Alone, each and every one had power but also their obvious weaknesses. Together they were much more dangerous. "Is this what they would call being in a pinch?"