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”So the whole station has basically turned into one giant meeting place for all races involved?” Yrala asked curiously as her hooves clopped against the metallic flooring.

"Yes. When we initially found the station, we naturally wanted to take control of it, but the AI controlling the station made it pretty clear that wasn't going to be acceptable. Even though at that point the AI was in a dormant state according to Selendil, it was still more powerful than anything we had, and although this isn’t a military station, that doesn’t mean it can’t poke holes in our ships.” Lilly explained. She had insisted on tagging along with the group that showed their galaxy to Yrala.

“The intent is for the station to serve as a sort of neutral ground. Even if two races are involved in a bitter war, this station serves as a place where they can still meet and discuss terms.” Amaterasu added.

“And yet, your people don’t have an embassy here.” Yrala pointed out the obvious disconnect.

"Not yet, though that's changing from what I hear," Amaterasu replied. Just because she wasn’t the empress anymore, that didn’t mean she didn’t get information.

Xiaoli gave a small chuckle. “From what you hear? Don’t pretend like this wasn’t your idea in the first place, oh Dread Empress.”

“Just Dread nowadays Red Spider.” Amaterasu retorted using Xiaoli’s nickname. “Surely you heard about my abdication.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Yrala waved her hands to have the two stop arguing. “Empress?”

“Oh, she didn’t mention that yet, did she?” Xiaoli teased with a grin. “She used to be the leader of the faction known as the Illum, who coincidentally won the war between the three formally human factions. She really earned the nickname as well.”

“That’s complete propaganda and you know it. You wrote some of those false stories yourself after all. Incidentally, that’s the reason we don’t have an embassy here. The other races still think of the three former human factions as one race and don’t want to grant more than one embassy. We couldn’t share of course due to our differences, so…” Amaterasu shrugged.

“I didn’t think you knew.” Xiaoli was actually surprised, though she shouldn’t have been. Most of the intelligence officers had taken part in propaganda efforts after all.

“Anyway, enough about that. What do you want to see first Yrala?” Amaterasu asked as they stepped away from the office area where Yrala had taken care of the entry interviews.

"I'd like to try some of the local foods," Yrala suggested immediately.

“No wonder you get along so well with Selendil.” Lilly laughed.

“Well, it’s not just that.” Yrala joined in on the laugh. “Sharing food is a good way to learn about new cultures, and we can learn a lot about different habits while dining. As an additional benefit, while we eat, I can people-watch and observe many of the beings that call this galaxy home. That can help me decide what to do next. Besides, we didn't have breakfast before we left. Someone, whose name I shall not mention, ate most of the food the chefs had prepared for us.”

“Fine.” Lilly acceded to her wish. “We should probably head for the park section. The dining areas there are a bit on the lighter side and you’ll get to see some local flora as well. Besides, the surroundings won’t be as rowdy.”

The group of four headed for the transports. “You mentioned the station AI. Since this is a Dhar station, then is the AI similar to Nox?” Yrala asked while they walked.

“That’s a relative term. I’d like to think we are very different, but to many others we might seem similar.” Haven answered instead of the others.

"Oh! We've met, haven't we? You're the male AI whom I've heard a few times on the ship. I didn't realize you were the station AI." Yrala suddenly came to a realization.

“Nox allows me to join in on the ship to provide extra calculative power and to stave off boredom.” Haven explained.

“You called Haven a male AI. As someone whose family specializes in AI development, you of all people should know there’s really no such thing.” Xiaoli pointed out.

"In a certain sense, you are right. However, at some point, the AI personality matrices start taking on habits and traits of people, and those habits tend to be along the lines of the crew onboard the vessel. So let's say we have a crew of Eriad on board, the ship AI will at some point start skewing towards a more typical male or female Eriad behavior. Seeing as Haven is a Dhar AI and uses a male voice, I’d assume he skews towards male Dhar behavior and traits. Besides, advanced enough AI’s can actually be assigned pre-defined personality matrices, and that often includes slant towards a gender. Usually, that's done for preference reasons, or if the AI is installed in a decidedly gendered body for a specific reason. This is a cliché example and something most people don't like to think about, but pleasure AIs are most definitely gendered for obvious preference reasons.” Yrala argued back.

“You have pleasure bots?” Lilly asked with some surprise and badly hidden interest.

“You don’t?” Xiaoli asked equally surprised.

Amaterasu laughed. “This is one of those cultural difference things. Both Cybrans and the Eriads are very accepting of AIs, so they use them for almost everything. On the other end, the Mrrroww are more suspicious of AI, so the use of AI for such frivolous purposes is outside their social norms. To give a third perspective, the Illum aren’t opposed to AI, though we aren’t as accepting as the Cybrans, but we don’t really subscribe to the idea of…well brothels, be they AI or otherwise.”

“Bah, don’t pretend that the Illum don’t like to have fun. We saw the videos and pictures of your outing with Selendil.” Xiaoli countered.

“I’m not saying that at all. We Illum can be very hedonistic actually. We just like to keep that part of our lives sectioned to certain times and places, and we don’t believe it should be something transactional. As you noticed from those pictures and videos that you like to peep on and keep bringing up, the Illum are rather liberal when we get into that mode. We’re also all genetically engineered and that comes with certain improvements in appearance, so there’s no need for transactional affection.” Amaterasu shrugged. She was rather realistic about the nature of her people. There was no need to make things complicated with lies. The Illum were what they were.

“Well, among our people pleasure AI’s are quite common. In fact, pleasure AI’s are one of the largest income sources for my family, and our products are popular all over the CAS. That said, most of our products are more virtual in nature instead of just pleasure bots. It’s not that the pleasure bots can’t be fun, but they are messier, more expensive, and take space while not in use. A pleasure AI that can connect with a cerebral implant can make all your dreams true virtually and doesn’t cost too much. Doesn’t really do much to fix the itch though.” Yrala stated rather shamelessly.

Lilly laughed almost hard enough to fall off her floating pillow. “It seems some things are shared no matter where you go.”

“Well, most races like to enjoy themselves, and nature has a habit of giving certain incentives to encourage certain behaviors, and procreation is one of the most common ones. The exact nature of the pleasure may change, but…” Amaterasu stated sagely.

“Ain’t that the truth.” Yrala nodded her agreement. That shared commonality had made their company extremely profitable after all.

“Speaking of, I wonder if either Nox or Haven could…” Lilly left her words hanging in the air.

“No.” Haven retorted directly.

Yrala grinned at that. “I’m sure they have the capability, but that’s not their role. I’m sure we can arrange something the next time we go back to my home. You’ll have to bring some materials along though if you want a custom one.”

“Yes!” Lilly gave a small pump with her paw.

As they rode the transport to the park area and found a suitable restaurant, they all started noting something odd. “Is it just me, or does the mood around here seem a little off?” Yrala asked. She wasn’t sure what the usual atmosphere in this place was, but this seemed odd.

“It’s not just you.” Amaterasu frowned. She had not spent too much time here either, but the people seemed too agitated for all this to be normal. “It seems like something has happened.”

“Haven?” Xiaoli asked.

“I was going to inform you when you got around to asking for updates, but I might as well do it now. There has been a wave of ships going missing lately. The odd part is that the ships have not been disappearing in a single area nor are they from a particular race. According to the reports, the attacks seem random. They are happening all over the known galaxy, which just adds to the confusion and agitation. It seems like everyone is in danger. The number of missing vessels isn’t too alarming yet, but we’re not talking about just a few ships either.” Haven reported.

"From your words, I get the sense you know more than the reports.” Xiaoli pointed out.

“I may know something. My sensors have picked up traces of cloaked ships appearing on the very edges of my detection range. They seem to be probing, but they turn away every time they get detected by me. Apparently, they have a way of knowing when they have been detected, as they jump out as soon as it happens. It’s hard to get accurate readings and they seem to have given up for now.” Haven explained.

“Wait, so there are cloaked ships prowling around, and no one besides you has figured it out?” Xiaoli asked with a difficult expression. Cybrans often used cloaking as well.

“And you haven’t mentioned this to anyone before now?” Lilly confirmed.

“No. Nobody asked me, and Selendil has not ordered me to cooperate with the other races in such a way. It is not the purpose of this station to provide such information. As long as these ships don’t act in a hostile way towards the station or initiate hostilities in the space surrounding the station, they are welcome here, just like everyone else.” Haven stated simply.

"I sometimes keep forgetting that while Haven is helping us, he's not necessarily helping any of our races," Lilly muttered. "I'll have to relay this information to the admiral."

“Wait, if they’ve attacked all over the galaxy, does that mean that the Illum or the Cybrans have also lost ships?” Amaterasu suddenly asked.

"According to the information I have access to, not yet, but that relies on reports that pass through the embassies on the station and the admiral's reports," Haven replied. “Incidentally, even though the others have not detected a pattern yet, there is something that they are missing due to the timing off these attacks being confusing. The attacks seemed to be moving from the direction of the unknown regions of the galaxy down towards the other side. The galactic arm where Illum and Cybrans originate from is on the opposite side and it seems these events have not reached them yet.”

“Doesn’t this directly imply that these attacks are coming from the unknown regions? Or at least strongly suggest as much.” Amaterasu pointed out the obvious.

“You have unknown regions in your galaxy?” Yrala asked, somewhat surprised. Their galaxy was pretty much entirely charted. The only unclear areas existed because a particular race wanted to keep them hidden.

"Well, unknown to us," Lilly stated more specifically. "The races that come to Haven aren't really all that wild about sharing their phase lane maps, and they aren't really willing to allow other races to send scouts through their territory either. So it would be more accurate to say that some races are aware of what goes on in those areas, but they aren't sharing. The quadrant where Haven resides is fairly well mapped, though we still find new phase lanes quite often, while the two neighboring ones are only partially known. The quadrant on the opposite side of the galaxy is almost completely unknown to us though.”

"You also have to remember that life in this galaxy is a fair bit younger and less developed than in yours," Amaterasu added. "We didn't have a race like your Ancients to oversee our development. We had to manage with the ruins Selendil’s people and the races that served them left behind. Incidentally, Selendil wasn’t all too happy to find out we were all rifling thought the ruins. She rather accurately called it grave robbing.”

"That explains a few things I suppose," Yrala said quietly. "And I suppose there's a story to be told there as well. I never did hear how you met Selendil in the first place, but I guess that can wait."

"Yes, I'd say this matter seems a fair bit more pressing," Lilly stated. "I wonder, would Selendil help us deal with the problem?”

“I don’t think she would without a proper reason.” Amaterasu shook her head with a small grimace. “She has already helped us deal with certain things, but those were all so we would be able to travel without worries. I don’t think this qualifies. She’s already made it clear that it’s not her job to solve every problem our galaxy has. Besides, here’s a thought. Should we even get involved? I can see why Lilly would get pulled in, but so far this isn’t an issue for the Illum or the Cybrans. I don’t want to sound crass, but I doubt either of our governments would lift a finger to help. They might even wish for the other races to be dragged into a mess so that they could make gains.”

“That sounds like standard power politics.” Yrala nodded. “Even among the CAS, where we are supposed to be working together, I can freely admit that the Eriads would be particularly slow to react to problems our biggest competitors were having. As long as it's not our problem, we gain from just standing by and letting things play out. The only reason the CAS is even as united against the rebels as we are is because we're all affected. And even with that, we seem to have found out hints that some parties in CAS are working together with the rebels. I’d imagine such things are even more common among you considering you don’t have a unified government or even an alliance of any kind.”

“And what if this develops into a problem that threatens you as well? Would it not be better to help us deal with it before that happens? It might turn out that it’s too late if you want to join in later on.” Lilly pointed out.

"You're not entirely wrong, but I don't think our governments will see things the same way," Amaterasu replied. "That's not how governments work. Your people didn't care about the Shinzen before they attacked you, right? Besides, it's not like there's something we can do at the moment. In fact, we're the exact last races to ask for help. You have all the information we do. What you need to do, is to get the cooperation of those species that border the unknown areas of the galaxy. If the attacks really do originate from there, then that’s where you should look for answers. Or to be more exact, that’s what your people need to do. It’s not your responsibility personally.”

“You could contact Moonshadow and ask her to do something about it though.” Xiaoli pointed out. “She took one of your ships to travel towards the Mrrroww homeworld, right? She’s a diplomat. A High Ambassador even. Isn’t this sort of thing right in her purview?”

“Would Selendil allow Moonshadow to leave for such an extended period of time?” Lilly asked slightly surprised. Diplomatic missions like that would take weeks if not months.

“Why wouldn’t she? It’s not like she’s keeping us prisoner or anything.” Xiaoli looked at Lilly slightly oddly for even asking.

"Well, she was rather insistent that Moonshadow personally join the crew. She didn't seem to mind the identity of most people as long as they were good at their jobs, but she pressed for Moonshadow personally.” Lilly replied.

“Ah, I think I know why.” Amaterasu suddenly realized. She had been present when Selendil explained the concept of ‘Crossroads’ and when they saved Moonshadow. “I don’t think that applies anymore. Selendil needed something very specific from Moonshadow, and I’m fairly sure she already got it.”

Selendil had mentioned something along those lines after the event where Moonshadow had given hints about the Great Song and had been unable to speak freely. Selendil had given them a very brief run down afterwards that had not explained everything but had been enough to lift any restrictions that had been placed on Moonshadow. Selendil had not been very forthcoming with the details, but one of the things she had mentioned was that this had likely been the reason why she had been prompted to save Moonshadow back then.

“Haven, can you confirm with Selendil just in case?” Lilly requested. It might be that all this was completely unnecessary, but it would be good to make sure.

“I can.” Haven went quiet for a few seconds. “Confirmed. You are all free to take as much time as you need. Also, she added that this whole thing is your problem unless things go catastrophically wrong."

“Did our vacation just become a bit longer?” Yrala asked eagerly. Now she might get to see much more of this galaxy than a short visit.

“In a way, though I’m not sure if this is still a vacation.” Amaterasu made a sad smile.