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”I’ve triple checked all the connections, and we’ve simulated the operations of the core. It should work now.” Nox stated while her mechanical body extracted itself out of a maintenance duct.

“Yet the readings on this relay are not consistent with those simulations.” Nox’s biological body replied while operating a display tied to a power relay station that they had customized.

“That could be a calibration error in the relay. The readings from the jump core and the power reactor are both consistent with the simulation.” The mechanical body retorted.

“Is it just me, or does this give a whole new meaning to talking to yourself?” Ka’aukai commented while looking on from the side of the room.

"I think you could call this arguing with yourself," Ka'eo suggested another play on words instead.

“I’m just thinking out loud. It’s practice so that I can act and converse more naturally. For some reason, most humanoids argue like this. It's good practice, although knowing both sides of the argument does make it a little too predictable.” The biological body said while not looking up from the display. “Also, I can feel you two staring at my ass.”

"I believe that's another thing you'll have to practice getting used to if you want to go with that body," Ka'eo said while shamelessly staring at Nox’s new assets. Nox was wearing a skintight utility suit, so the view presented was phenomenal. “Besides, wasn’t that part of the point in creating a body like that?” He asked with surprising insight.

“I didn’t tell you to stop looking. I was just making an observation. That indeed was part of the point. I want the full experience and I’ve noted that this is part of it. I never quite understood it and no one ever explained it to me satisfactorily. Females of various species dress and move specifically in a way to draw the eyes of the males, yet they then complain when they are paid attention to. Their vitals also show that they don’t actually dislike being looked at. Except sometimes they do. I do not understand it. It’s one of the most baffling behaviors I’ve observed. I want to personally experience it. Maybe then I’ll understand.” The biological Nox explained, still flipping through the figures shown on the display.

“Even Selendil does it to a certain extent, although things work a little differently for her. She gets stared at anyway no matter which way she dresses or acts, so she can’t tell the specific reason why someone is looking at her. That’s part of why she rarely says anything. Yet she too wears attires that are very form-fitting, even though she doesn't have to." The mechanical body added, sounding genuinely curious.

"I'm afraid you're addressing these questions to the wrong people," Ka'aukai stated. "You'll need to ask the people involved. We’re especially bad to ask as all Dashane dress in an almost identical fashion aside from armor and our shamans. Not that we can’t enjoy a good view when it is offered. We just dress for the hunt at all times.”

“Well, not at all times…” Ka’eo started but was gestured to silence by Ka’aukai.

“They do not need to know about such things.” The older Dashane stated firmly.

“I feel like I just heard something interesting. I’ll let it slide for now though. Assuming you oblige my little inquiries that is.” The biological Nox stated with a small smile that the two Dashane didn’t see. They were too busy looking elsewhere.

"Much appreciated," Ka'aukai said gratefully.

“As to your suggestion, I did ask others, but the answers have no consistency. It’s not even factional or racial. Some among Amaterasu’s handmaidens gave wildly differing answers and Kurnau looked at me like I was an idiot for even asking. I don’t think she realizes that I don’t have the same perspective as she does. Besides, with Amaterasu, Xiaoli, Moonshadow, and Lilly gone back home, I’ve lost the best place to gather feedback. I suppose I’ll ask when they return.” The mechanical body added. “Aha! Found the problem. The sensor was misaligned. Try it now.”

“Already running the simulation.” The biological body replied. Just because she was practicing, that didn’t mean she actually had to wait for the words to come before acting on the intent behind them. “Power is running through the relay according to our specifications now. We can finally test the jump drive properly.”

They had put the finishing touches on the hyperjump core they had constructed. The installation and tests had taken some time though. As she closed the panel, Nox gave her biological booty a small and playful wiggle. “Like what you see?” She asked.

“Very much so yes.” Ka’eo once again shamelessly admitted. “You did a great job designing the body.”

"I must admit that Ka'eo is correct. The view is indeed extremely distracting." Ka'aukai said, remembering the small bargain they had made earlier. He was also slightly ashamed that he had not been paying any attention to the surroundings for several minutes despite being here ostensibly on guard duty. It wasn't that there were any dangers inside the ship, but it was good to stay vigilant just in case. Usually, Ka'aukai would either be constantly scanning the surroundings if on high alert or at least every few seconds if keeping a more relaxed guard. Being distracted for several minutes was a testament to how good of a view it was.

“Mission accomplished then. Master, we’re ready. We can make the jump.” Nox messaged the bridge where Selendil and Nochehuatl were waiting. Most of the crew had been sent off the ship just in case something with the jump went catastrophically wrong. The Guardians were enjoying the hospitality of the Eriad homeworld and apparently would be bringing several plants along when they returned.

“Alright, set the coordinates and activate the core.” Selendil gave the order to Nochehuatl who punched in the coordinates. This was the first time they tested the core so the results might be unpredictable.

They all sensed a small feeling of disturbance similar to when they were warping. The feeling came as a result of disorientation, but they were all relatively used to it by now. “Reporting from the engine room. The core is stable and it doesn’t seem like anything is wrong on this end. The core was not stressed too much by the jump and is ready for immediate reactivation.” Nox relayed her findings.

They had made a short jump on purpose to not put too much stress on the core. It had been what could be called a micro-jump so the core was capable of making a second one without resting. "Navigation tells us that the jump was successful, but that we missed our target by quite a bit," Nochehuatl reported.

“That’s fine. We couldn’t use the measurements of the CAS cores because we modified our systems so much. We’ll just need to calibrate over successive jumps. How much did we miss?” Selendil asked.

"By a factor of 100," Nochehuatl replied wryly.

"So we jumped a hundred times the distance we aimed for?" Ka'aukai asked in surprise through the comms. "That's not a small miss."

“No it’s not, but it’s the right kind of mistake for our purposes. Also, the direction of the jump was correct. That is to say, we headed the right way; we just traveled a much longer distance than we tried to.” Nochehuatl said happily.

“Re-calibrate with this new information in mind and let’s try again. Double the length of the jump as well. We want to see how varying the distance messes with the calculations.” Selendil ordered.

“Executing the jump.” Nochehuatl acknowledged and the disorienting feeling hit them again.

“Reporting, the core is stable, but we’ll need to allow the heat to dissipate for an hour before jumping again. As we suspected, connecting the core directly with our main power core risks overloading it.” Nox reported again.

“Navigation confirms that the direction was right this time as well. We missed again, but by a much smaller distance. Now we're under the factor of 10. It also seems that making large jumps is easier to calculate. We'll need to keep jumping until we can hit our target consistently, but we’ll get there.” Nochehuatl reported confidently.

“Good. Let the core recover, use the time to run simulations and let’s try again and again until we can hit the target we’re aiming for every time. We don’t need to be able to be perfectly precise immediately, but I expect us to be reasonably accurate before we can use the core in practice.” Selendil decided.

--------

"I never thought of it like that," Xiaoli commented to Yrala as their ship pulled in to the Haven's docks. They had used an Illum vessel to visit some of the notable nearby worlds. The group was standing ready to disembark in the airlock.

“It does make sense though when you think about it.” Amaterasu also nodded in agreement. “Most of the differences between galaxies can be found in the people inhabiting them and the things that follow from those differences. Culture, entertainment, customs, stories. Products that we create. That sort of thing.”

"My point exactly," Yrala confirmed. “There are some materials that can be found in one galaxy and not in another, but even that is relatively limited. The difference between a paradise world in this galaxy and in mine is not that large and mostly down to how we enjoy things, and the more significant galactic features such as nebulae are nice but not exactly something you'd travel to another galaxy to see. The people are the important part. As it happens, Haven is the best place to observe people and learn about different cultures. We might want to visit something like the homeworld of the Mrrroww at some point, but for now, we can stick around Haven."

"That does give me an idea though." Xiaoli suddenly got a sneaky look. "I have a business proposition for you.”

“I think I already know what you have in mind.” Yrala grinned. “You want to trade cultural libraries so to speak, right?”

“Exactly. Since it seems unlikely that there will be frequent travel between our galaxies, at least for a while, it doesn’t really matter if we both benefit from the cultural achievements of the other galaxy. You could release the stories and songs and the like that we have produced back in your galaxy, and I could do the same here. We could earn a fortune!” Xiaoli schemed.

“There is one problem though. I’m the only Eriad to have visited your galaxy so far so I’ll get the benefit for obvious reasons, but your crew has more people.” Yrala looked towards Amaterasu. “Those people might want to benefit from this deal as well.”

“You can keep your little scheme. I already have something bigger in mind.” Amaterasu said in an oblique fashion and refused to elaborate. She had asked Nox for the original schematics for the jump cores the CAS ships used, and the AI had not been told by Selendil to keep it a secret from the other members of the crew. Amaterasu had already forwarded those plans back to the Illum scientists to tear apart. They would likely be able to replicate the core with enough time, though they lacked the power production of the CAS ships and wouldn’t be able to use the jump cores to the same extent. That would improve with time and technology though.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a question for Miss Yrala.” Haven suddenly said as they walked aboard the station.

“Something wrong?” Yrala asked worriedly.

“No. Hopefully the exact opposite. I think I may have gotten an idea. Have your people ever tried to utilize the jump cores your ships have to establish a connection between two fixed points and instead of transporting the core itself, you jump whatever is present at that particular position.” Haven queried.

“I’m not entirely sure I understand what you mean. Do you mean something like the transfer platforms Seledil’s ship uses to warp between the main ship and the auxiliary arms?” Yrala asked.

"Exactly," Haven confirmed.

“That was how the very first prototypes worked. We still have a few platforms that allow travel between a handful of the CAS core planets, but they are rarely used because the energy costs are so horrendous. It can be used for emergency messages and the sort, but it doesn’t really allow for regular travel. Courier ships are almost as fast and much more power-efficient.” Yrala explained from memory.

“I think I already know what you have in mind Haven. You wanted to propose the construction of such a platform to allow for travel between our galaxy and Yrala’s homeworld. Then we wouldn’t be relying on Selendil for all our travel.” Amaterasu’s mind immediately reached the same conclusion as Haven.

“That wouldn’t really work though. The amount of energy required would be too much. I know the power generation of Dhar power generators ridiculous but this is a bit too much.” Yrala pointed out.

“If we were talking about building things from scratch, yes. But what if I told you the necessary power infrastructure is already in place on standby, ready to be utilized. It just needs to be harnessed?" Haven stated.

"What do you have in mind?" Xiaoli asked with a frown. She had an idea but didn't know enough to really guess.

“The warp network is one of the greatest creations of the Dhar Eternal Empire. It was used to warp trillions of Dhar and countless ships at its peak and the system wasn’t even stressed. Now the only one using the network is Selendil, and the rest of the network is sitting idle. Now granted warping is much more effective when it comes to power expenditure over large distances, but the network can still effortlessly handle something like what I suggested.” Haven stated confidently.

“What gave you the idea suddenly?” Amaterasu asked.

“A combination of things. You asked some months ago for Nox and me to work on a way to allow you to get outside the ship when you're on the bridge and Selendil teleports away. I've been working on that, and then we were introduced to the CAS jump cores. That got me thinking. If the basic idea works, why not scale it up?” Haven explained.

“I’m sensing a ‘but’.” Xiaoli pointed out.

“Well, it would still require Selendil to form the connection and it would only work between those two points. I’m also not entirely sure of the exact mechanics we would need to have in order to facilitate the transfer requests. I know it can be done as the transfer platforms on the ship work, but I’ve never been given access to the schematics and I don’t know if it can work over such large distances. It could very well be that the reason those platforms work is because they are in such close proximity. That’s why I thought of using the jump cores. It was my understanding that only very particular phase-smiths had the plans to those platforms. I’m guessing it’s because they didn’t want any outsiders getting their hands on those plans as it would essentially allow outside access to the warp network. As such, I’m not sure Selendil would go for it.” Haven explained.

“But it is theoretically possible.” Xiaoli mused. “We could ask her at least. There’s no harm in that.”

“I’m not sure if…” Amaterasu was about to argue before alarms suddenly blared all over the station. These were not alarms that belonged to the original systems of the station but those later installed by the Mrrroww. “What now?”

“Two things. Apparently, there are a number of unidentified ships approaching the station, and it seems the hostilities are reaching the borders of the known galaxy. The Mrrroww High Command has detected signs of battle in multiple systems.” Haven replied.

“A number of ships?” Yrala asked skeptically.

“Yes, well, the Admiral in charge of the station thinks we have a few dozen ships approaching, but he is not aware of twice that number approaching via stealth as he doesn’t have access to my sensors.” Haven retorted.

“Will we be alright?” Yrala asked. She had seen thousands of ships outside the station but most of those were either freighters or diplomatic vessels.

"The station is armed," Lilly stated confidently. "And if they fire upon ships in the area, then Haven is going to retaliate."

"I think they're just probing. Otherwise, we'd see a much larger fleet. Who else is under attack?" Amaterasu asked.

Haven listed eight races and one of the names stuck out. “Really? They attacked the Shinzen?” Lilly asked in shock.

"Well, the Shinzen do control access to some very important phase lanes near the core of the galaxy." Amaterasu pointed out.

“That’s good news for us in any case. I doubt they’re going to have much luck attacking the Shinzen and this way we don’t have to figure out a way to get the Shinzen into the war.” Lilly cheered.

“Huh. The ships that came into the system might not be such idiots after all.” Haven suddenly said. “They aren’t attacking the station or the ships around it. They’re keeping their distance. Instead, they are putting down phase space inhibitors. Rather powerful ones at that.”

“Doesn’t that violate your rules anyway? We aren’t allowed to prevent anyone from accessing the station.” Lilly pointed out.

"Yes, though it is a bit of a borderline situation. They aren't strictly speaking stopping people. They sent a message that ships of other races are allowed to leave the blockade, they just have to fly outside the area blocked by the inhibitors. However, they are demanding that the Mrrroww hand over stewardship of the station. Strictly speaking, the Mrrroww were only allowed stewardship because I was still asleep and the place needed maintenance. Now that Selendil is back, the only reason we're still allowing it is because she doesn't want to be bothered to keep things running here. However, you don't have any more right to the position than anyone else." Haven explained.

“So will you be interfering?” Lilly asked in confusion.

“That depends. They have demanded you to relinquish the stewardship, but they aren’t claiming it for themselves yet either. Once they do, I will act. Before then I don’t really have a reason to until they start firing on your ships. Or we could just ask Selendil. She’s the ultimate arbiter here anyway.” Haven made the digital equivalent of a shrug.