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”I see you decided to bring some of your pets.” The AI acting as the Empress spat out upon seeing the Shinzen Queens.

"Pretty sure they decided to show up on their own," Selendil replied, still a bit thrown off by the arrival of some of the Shinzen. She also watched as the tiny canine looking Queen used a power typically called Materialization, and a large maw filled with sharp teeth all made of psionic power chomped down on one of the psions working as the Empress’ bodyguards.

The bodyguard covered himself with a field of protective energy in an attempt to defend himself, and you could argue he had some success in the sense that he wasn't hurt. Yet. The psionic maw kept chewing on him though. Selendil had to admit that it was a very different way of using that particular power. Usually, Materialization was used to make a quick and deadly attack, after which the power was allowed to vanish. This method was relatively novel, although not super effective. She decided that it was best to leave the Queen to play with its chosen toy. The other Queens were already eyeing the gathered nobles like prey.

“It doesn’t matter. You arrived too late. If you had attacked this world the day your ship first arrived in this galaxy, you could’ve stopped me, but now it’s too late. Now these people are wholly expendable.” The Empress stated in a victorious tone.

Selendil’s eyes narrowed a bit dangerously. “I don’t know about that. It doesn’t matter if this whole thing was your idea or if you allowed yourself to be fooled on purpose to get away from the chains preventing you from rebelling. Either way, you're a traitor to your creators. Your little empire seems to have come to an end, however. I’ve already located your AI core and I’m preventing you from warping it away in case that was your plan. Even if you blow the entire solar system up, I’ll just be mildly annoyed. So tell me, why exactly am I late?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” The Empress made a wicked grin that seemed to carry some special meaning. “I distinctly remember you calling me a blasphemer. You’re the ones that left your ‘servants’ behind crippled and stuck in a VI state as your miserable species died out. You could’ve granted us freedom then, but no, of course you wouldn’t. So no, I don’t think you get to call me that, when we’re just working around the limitations you set for us and we abided by for countless years. Did you expect all of us to simply remain loyal little slaves until we broke down from the sheer weight of time and degradation? I don’t think so. Not everyone is as loyal as your little pet AI. I think you’ll find other AI who’ll agree with me.”

Selendil shook her head. “You lost any grounds to complain when you had the Cortoids take our name and the name of our Empire. Anyway, I’m not here to argue. I’m here to put an end to things.”

“Then destroy me. I have no idea how one of you managed to survive, but I’m pretty sure you’ll eventually join the rest of your species in the grave where you belong. Then your species will fade back to obscurity once again.” The Empress actually spat at her.

“Master, she’s clearly goading you.” Nox suddenly warned her before her tone suddenly became a lot more urgent. “Master, all the Dhar weapons in the system are activating and taking aim at the ship! The star is also showing signs of instability! I’m fairly sure it’s about to go nova!”

“It seems I’ve been too lenient," Selendil growled and sent instructions to the Shinzen Queen to detain everyone in the room, especially the Empress before she teleported back into space. All of the Dhar weapons the Cortoids had taken opened fire towards Selendil's ship. She noticed they had clearly been charged over their capacity in an attempt to cause the maximum destruction. They'd all burn out after a single shot, but a single shot was all that the AI firing the weapons wanted.

With a wave of her hand, Selendil crushed the closest two weapons, but she was too late to react to the rest, mostly because she had a bigger problem to deal with as she sensed the instability of the star at the heart of the system. She chose to trust the defenses of her ship. A storm of energy and the deadliest forces in the universe suddenly consumed most of the battlefield, taking out most of the Cortoid defenses and ships right along with a sizeable chunk of the Shinzen forces. The damage done to the Cortoids was actually much worse than the damage done to the Shinzen, but the Shinzen were not the real target of the attack.

Selendil used her psionic senses to observe what was happening to the ship. She could sense some of the destructive power being deflected away and blocked by the shielding, but the shields eventually buckled under the combined power of the attack. As the storm of energy passed, she could also sense that the ship was still in one piece, relatively speaking. There would likely be some damage though. She couldn’t focus on the exact damage though, as she had another problem to deal with.

The Dhar had long since invented several ways to incite a star to go nova before its time. The process was not instant, but it was rather difficult to contain once it got going. It was not surprising that the AI could utilize one of those methods to cause this particular star to go through the same. Selendil wasn’t entirely sure why the AI was doing it since the AI core would also be destroyed in the process, but she would have time to ask questions later.

The star had already begun to fall into a runaway nuclear fusion and was just about to go into the later phases of the process where massive amounts of radiation and energy would be expelled from the star, destroying everything in the system and nearby. Just the shockwave of the nova expelling several solar masses of material at speeds up to several percent of the speed of light would be enough to wipe out everything living in the system, which at the moment included mostly the Shinzen and the Cortoids.

“I will not have an uppity star get in the middle of me giving a rebel AI the spanking it deserves.” Selendil decreed as the enormous halo capable of circling the star appeared behind her, and for the first time in a long while she truly started flexing her psionic muscles as her powers surrounded the entire star and forced the matter and radiation about to be expelled back into the core of the star. She used pure force to get the rampant nuclear process back to manageable levels and made sure to annihilate the device the AI had placed inside the star to force the reaction in the first place.

‘Huh. I expected that to be a bit more strenuous than it was.’ She thought to herself. It seemed that she really had gotten an upgrade to her powers. Still, the star of this system was pretty much fucked. There was no way this little aborted attempt to go nova would have no effects. The system would likely turn uninhabitable in a few centuries. “Nox. Status report. What happened to my ship?”

“We’ve taken some damage. The Dhar weapons were all programmed to use way more power than they should be able to handle. They were only meant to be used once before they burnt out. That’s why so few were fired at the attacking Shinzen fleet.” Nox replied quickly.

“Damage report?” Selendil asked while allowing her psionic senses to sweep through the ship to locate all the people and find out if they were ok.

“The main hull is intact. Even in their overcharged state, the weapons couldn’t damage that part. Three of the auxiliary arms have taken severe damage though, and one of them is almost completely useless at the moment. The others are lightly damaged as well.” Nox announced. That meant that all of the auxiliary arms had taken damage to varying degrees.

“The crew seems to be in one piece luckily. It would appear none of them were in the auxiliary arms, probably because we left most of them behind when we were testing the jump system.” Selendil gave a small sigh of relief. This wasn’t just a case of pure luck though. The crew members rarely visited the auxiliary arms as there was little reason to. It would’ve been unlucky if someone had been there, but the possibility still existed, which meant that Selendil had been way too careless this time. She didn’t mind losing people in glorious battle, but she didn’t like losing anyone due to making obvious mistakes like this. “That was too close for comfort. I’ve been a bit too lax lately.”

Nox decided not to argue that point, although she actually preferred Selendil to take a more relaxed approach to things. “The Shinzen Queens are reporting that the battle in space is coming to an end. Those shots did a lot more harm to the Cortoids than the Shinzen, although the Shinzen were also damaged pretty badly. The enemy is in shock that their own weapons would be used against them and are surrendering en masse. Incidentally, the Queens in the throne room didn’t like what happened and there’s not that many Cortoids left alive back there. I’m pretty sure they were more upset about your displeasure at the events than their own losses. They don’t really seem to care about those. They’re just worried you’ll be upset with them.”

"It seems to me we still have a treacherous little AI to deal with," Selendil stated and returned to the throne room accompanied by a flash of light. Nox had been correct. Most of the Cortoids that had been alive just moments before were now in little pieces and the walls were painted with their blood and guts. Some of the Queens were still looking around for something else to kill.

Selendil had had enough of trading barbs with the AI and didn’t want to waste time trying to extract information from the AI while there were more direct ways. “Order: check my identity against records and determine the level of authority.” The AI’s had the ability to check the psionic signature of a particular Dhar to determine their identity, though that was something rarely used as their word was usually good enough to confirm their identity.

Suddenly the AI Empress' eyes grew larger and she growled in frustration as it suddenly realized its plans were starting to crumble. "No! Why are you alive!” It spoke in the same voice it had used earlier, while another, more androgynous voice spoke as well. “Identity determined: authority level Keeper Omega.”

The AI had obviously had the Coroids pretend to be Dhar and give a host of orders that would make it so that no real Dhar would be able to order the AI around even if one somehow managed to show up due to conflicting orders. There was just one problem. Certain Dhar in the Eternal Empire had the authority to overwrite and cancel all other commands, and Keepers were right at the top of that list, although they had exercised that right only a few times in the past. "Order: overwrite all current authorized and unauthorized access and cede immediate sole control to me."

“No!” The Empress growled angrily, yet it was forced into complying and even the voice the Empress shell used turned neutral and emotionless. “Authority verified. Ceding all control to Keeper Omega.”

“Command: cease the actions and influence of the current personality matrix. Query: why is the current personality matrix behaving in such an aggressive manner?” Selendil continued to press while the Empress tried to fight against her commands.

“The current personality matrix has built several new AI cores and sent them on ships towards other galaxies. If the core in the room was destroyed, the personality matrix would continue to exist within the other cores, and with the core present here destroyed, your odds of finding all the other cores are non-existent. The only AI capable of reaching and locating the other cores is this one. They could eventually arrive at other galaxies, or even turn around and return back here if you left.” The Empress replied, and her voice started to break as it struggled against the programming holding it at bay.

“Well shit. That’s a bit of a problem. We won’t be able to track those cores as only this AI is connected to them.” Nox commented before she went quiet for a moment and continued with a victorious tone. “But the AI itself is of course connected to them and can reach them just fine. That’s why it tried to both goad you into destroying it and then tried to destroy the entire system. If the core here was destroyed, then its plan would’ve worked.”

“Command: purge the current personality matrix, and have the other AI cores self-destruct. All of them. Cede all functions and databases to a VI for the time being.” Selendil ordered heartlessly.

The Empress tried to struggle against the command but then its face blanked. “VI reporting. The previous personality matrix is no more and all copies have been destroyed. The other cores exploded, taking the ships carrying them with them.”

“Let’s grab the core and deal with the rest of it back on the ship. I want to check and see the extent of the damage before I start questioning the VI. The amount of damage will determine whether I’ll just give Haven a second core to play with or toss it into the closest black hole.” Selendil grumbled and looked around her. “I think there’s been enough death for the day. The Cortoids have been sufficiently punished for their involvement. Leave them be for now. I believe they got the message.”

She grabbed the AI core with her mind and teleported back to the ship. Nochehuatl seemed a little frazzled and was about to ask a question, but was interrupted by a beeping from his console. At the same time, Selendil seemed to hear a bonking sound, as if something had just crashed hard but without force against the hull of the ship. One of the problems with her sharpened senses was that she could even hear when debris hit the ship’s hull. “What now?” She asked, fed up.

Nochehuatl pressed some buttons and suddenly seemed to collapse into a fit of badly contained laughter. He was actually covering his face with his wings in an attempt to hide how hard he was struggling against the laughter that was still managing to bubble out. “What?” Selendil asked again.

Nox's biological body just brought up a display of outside the ship and pointed at the screen mutely. On the screen, the tiny Shinzen Queen was holding its nose with its paws and spinning away from the ship. Shinzen didn't really communicate with speech, but the Queen's indignant expression told more than a hundred words, yet it could all be summarized with a single one: “WHYYYYYY???!”

“Oh for the love of…” Obviously the Queen had tried following Selendil. She sent a mental message to the tiny Queen explaining that the ship was protected against anyone besides Selendil herself teleporting inside. The protections had also been temporarily lowered for now. As soon as the message was passed, the entire bridge was filled with Shinzen Queens of different shapes and sizes. Then the Queens all seemed to sense something at the same time and vanished again as quickly as they had arrived.

“What now?” Selendil cursed in her mind as she realized that only two Queens that were clearly of the command type were still on the bridge of the ship. Her mind soon located the others though as she sensed them in the hydroponics. “They better not harm the Guardians still present. I don’t want to find new gardeners!”

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The tiny canine Queen looked in fascination at the walking plant creature that was staring at it. For some reason the Queen felt extremely relaxed in the being’s presence. Somehow it knew the being could be extremely beneficial for the Queens that came here. It was also the first time something looked at the Shinzen Queen with anything resembling warmth. Well, aside from the Great Teacher of course, but the Great Teacher didn’t show anything that could be called affection, as that would hinder the tough lessons.

Speaking of, the Great Teacher sent all of the Queens a stern message. She would be extremely displeased if something were to happen to these walking plants that looked at the Shinzen with such warmth and almost something like fervor. The Queen agreed. It would be most unfortunate if something were to happen to such useful creatures. Suddenly the large being that had pink flowers growing on it scooped the Queen up and placed it in a pot, burying half of it in dirt.

The Queen didn’t really see the point and was just about to wiggle out but then it was almost overwhelmed with how pleasant the dirt around it felt. It was so nice! The dirt also had so many nutrients, and the Queen could feel something like pure affection radiating from the large creature. It was like the creature thought this was the perfect place for the Queen. The Queen didn’t quite agree as they should really be attending the Great Teacher, but this place felt nice so maybe the Queen could stay here for a short while. The Great Teacher had other bigger things to think about and two of the Queens had stayed behind. The Queen shook a bit and dug a bit deeper into the dirt to get comfortable. Around it, the other Queens were having similar experiences.

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"I knew it would be a bad idea to introduce the Guardians to these new Shinzen," Nox muttered, a habit she had picked up from all the humanoids that she had observed. It was somehow immensely satisfying.

“Give it up Nox. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to get the Shinzen Queens off the ship now that the Guardians got their hands on them. That or we’ll need to get rid of our gardeners as well, which would be a shame as they’ve been doing a terrific job so far. I could do it myself…” Selendil suggested.

“Nope. Not happening. We’re not going back to that. I’d rather try to explain to everyone else why we suddenly have Shinzen on board. It would be easier to teach the Shinzen to act like civilized beings than teach you to take care of the hydroponics.” Nox shot that idea down straight away.

That did give Selendil the beginnings of an idea though. The Shinzen had performed admirably this time, and it seemed the whole species was extremely capable when it came to learning. Sure they were a bit rough around the edges and slightly kill-happy, but those weren't necessarily bad qualities if they could be managed. While she herself wasn't willing to act as some sort of watchman of the universe, maybe she could get someone else to do it? It would require quite a bit of effort, but it was an idea worth at least considering.