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”Is that mountain wearing clothing?” Selendil asked with the oddest expression anyone had ever seen on her face.

“Strictly speaking that’s just an apron. It’s not exactly clothing, but it is similar.” Dee replied in a voice that made it clear she had given up all hope.

“Why though?” Selendil questioned.

"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to," Dee warned her.

"I just researched the subject, and it seems some species have long histories with aprons or other similar objects. Apparently, the most common historical usage is during household chores to keep your attire clean. Nowadays the meaning has changed a bit. Now it's more of a fetish item." Nox explained with a cheery tone of voice. She was loving the way the enormous mountain that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere was straining all common sense.

“Oh, then I’m going to have to get one of those.” Crystal stated, now using an appearance very similar to a Mrrroww.

“I actually have one. You can have it.” Xiaoli promised. The grin on her face was even wider than the one on Nox’s face.

“Why am I not surprised that you have one," Lilly commented sarcastically.

“Bah! You’d have one too if your species had such customs. I know how much of a pervert you are.” Xiaoli shot back.

“What I want to know is, why did you dress up a mountain in an apparent fetish item?” Selendil returned to the main point. She had created an enormous empty space in the cargo hold of the ship and even then the mountain only barely fit inside. It was the largest mountain most of the people present had ever seen, and it had a large and radiant halo surrounding it about midway. It was also dressed in what could only be described as an apron and perhaps most importantly, it was moving.

“That’s entirely what the mountain wanted. It wasn’t my idea. Incidentally, the damn thing is made of magical materials worth more than most planets.” Dee washed her hands of the whole affair.

“What’s it doing?” Amaterasu asked in equal confusion. The mountain was somehow managing to move around and it seemed a little like it was exercising.

"It's preening. Also, it's using this opportunity to move around and flex supposed muscles that I’m quite sure it doesn’t have. Apparently, it's on a diet." Dee's tone of defeat got even worse. Nothing she said made sense either.

“Why though?” Selendil asked the same question again.

“I already told you. Logic and reason are something you really shouldn’t rely on when dealing with the mountain. Incidentally, I think it’s trying to attract a mate. And if I haven’t completely mistaken its intentions, the reason it’s preening like that is because it’s trying to make an appeal to the ship. Strictly speaking, the mountain is inside the ship, so to the mountain, it seems like the ship is a large crystal-like construct bigger than it is.” Dee explained with her palm covering her eyes.

“It’s hitting on Nox? That’s not all too surprising.” Crystal commented. Nox was after all quite popular when it came to her services after all.

“No, you misunderstood me. It’s hitting on the ship.” Dee corrected.

“But…” Nox wanted to point out the obvious error in thinking. Even though the AI wasn’t the same as the ship as it could exist in multiple places, the ship was effectively just an extension of Nox.

“I know. We already went through this. Logic and reason. If you mind it, you’ll lose.” Dee’s words sounded like something she had kept telling herself over many long years. Something she didn’t really believe but something she clung on to, because she had nothing else.

“Hmm, if it’s trying to find a mate, I believe it’s my duty to help with that.” Crystal tapped her jaw with a paw. “I don’t think I have enough nanites to make myself big enough though. Master, do you think we could…?”

“No. Even if we had enough nanites for something like that, which we don’t, we certainly wouldn’t waste them so that a mountain can get some fun. Whatever it is that mountains do for said fun. Which brings up the obvious question. What do mountains…actually, nope. Not going there. Never mind.” Selendil changed her thoughts in the middle of the sentence.

“Good choice. I see you’re starting to catch on the best way to deal with the mountain.” Dee complimented Selendil on her discretion.

“I want to know!” Xiaoli shouted, surprising no one.

“Then you can find out on your own. I think there’s been enough damage to my psyche for one evening.” Selendil decided and marched out. She already felt dumber just by participating in this conversation.

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"Well, that was anti-climactic," Xiaoli commented as they destroyed the ground-based facility from orbit. The world below them was uninhabited and most of the planet was made up of endless barren deserts. "It took us five jumps to find the right planet, but the actual job of getting rid of the Void being is over in seconds."

“I did tell you that this galaxy was remote and mostly useless. There’s a reason why we never bothered to waste much time colonizing or terraforming the place.” Selendil pointed out, referring to the Eternal Empire.

Her words were not an exaggeration either. So far they had seen very little development in this galaxy, and much of that could be attributed to the fact that the galaxy didn’t have a host of worlds terraformed and ready to bear life. The Dhar had almost completely ignored the galaxy, as it was small as far as galaxies went and it didn’t really have any special resources or interesting flora or fauna either. Their quick scans had detected signs of some rudimentary civilizations, but even most of those had already been wiped out by various disasters. Developing intelligent life to the state of becoming spacefaring was not easy when the road wasn’t already smoothed out in front of you by an ancient civilization.

One of the reasons they had to use so many jumps to locate this particular world was because the entire galaxy only had a single working beacon, and even that one was on its last legs. They had no accurate data on the galaxy as anything Nox had was horribly out of date, and the place didn’t even have a local AI they could ask. The location of the Void beings Dee had been given by the crazed creators of this universe had been fairly accurate, but it had still taken them five jumps and almost a week to find the right location. Once they did though, finding the Void being was not difficult. There was exactly one facility on the barren world and Selendil had made sure to confirm both the existence and the death of the being.

“Imagine how much it would suck to have your race develop in a backwater shithole like this.” Xiaoli made a disgusted face.

“Well, to be fair, most galaxies weren’t much better until the Dhar arrived. Other races have performed terraforming, but not to the same extent as the Dhar. They only took worlds already in the habitable zone and made them slightly more accommodating, whereas we created paradise worlds out of barren rocks. Now granted, most galaxies have access to some more advantageous resources as well, but the main reason your galaxy is so well-off compared to this one is because all the abundant life-bearing worlds we created." Nox explained the stark realities of the situation. Whatever opinion one might hold on the Dhar, the fact remained that most species alive today owed their existence to the efforts of the Eternal Empire.

“So this is the standard without Dhar intervention in this universe?” Dee asked, curious.

“Well, as Nox mentioned, most galaxies are a bit better off than this, but in general this is not far from the status we found most galaxies at. Some of the galaxies had actually developed large-ish empires of their own, but they still didn’t have the technology to create a large number of paradise worlds that we would create. Why? What about your universe?” Selendil asked in return.

“Well, I think I’m starting to see why the universe wanted someone like the Dhar around. Mana really does make a huge difference. Our universe is filled with habitable worlds, and even on worlds that would not be habitable by most, mana helps create beings suited for the environment. A volcanic world isn’t really a problem for creatures with a strong fire element for example. It also helps that our worlds are connected by a system of magical gateways.” Dee gave a brief description.

Selendil was quiet for a moment before replying. “For my entire life, I’ve had nothing but negative experiences with Void, but I think I might like to see some of these worlds suffused with mana. It seems that the differences would be interesting to see and experience.”

“Well, the only thing stopping you at this point is yourself.” Dee reminded both Selendil and everyone else on board.

“Be that as it may, we have a job to finish before we can take advantage of the opportunity," Amaterasu interjected and brought everyone back to reality. The cloud of debris from their orbital fire was finally settling down enough to run detailed scans of the surface.

"My readings indicate that the target facility has been completely destroyed," Nochehuatl reported.

"I can also confirm that the being was killed." Selendil voiced what her senses were telling her.

“So what’s the next destination like? You mentioned it’s much deeper within the territory of the old Dhar empire.” Xiaoli pointed out.

“Well, I would imagine we’re going to see pretty much the opposite of what’s happened in this galaxy. I can already sense that there are thousands of active beacons in that galaxy, so someone has to be maintaining them. Beyond that is hard to say since I haven’t visited the place for such a long time.” Selendil replied with a shrug.

“Something to note.” Nox also added. “The systems closer to the home galaxy of the Dhar would’ve had a much heavier AI presence. Even if they were all largely put to VI status when the Dhar passed, I think it’s relatively safe to assume that at least some of them are active again, even if only in a limited capacity."

"That's something I've been meaning to ask you about," Xiaoli said with her entire demeanor turning serious. "I've gotten the sense that we're headed towards exploring other universes eventually, but the remaining Dhar AI might become a problem to this universe down the line. Is there anything we can do to prevent that?”

Nox and Selendil had given the same question some thought. "There is a way. Since the war where the AIs rebelled against us, the Dhar developed some countermeasures aside from just shackling them to us. We already considered the possibility of visiting the Dhar home galaxy for one of the Arkships, and we have a way of establishing contact with the remaining AIs using the warp network. It would take a lot of time for the message to arrive without the aid of the Unity that allowed instant communication between the Dhar, but it is possible. The question is what to do about the AIs. We could order them all to self-terminate and end their threat once and for all, but I feel that would be a bad way of resolving the issue. Many of the AI are as loyal as Nox, Haven, or Crystal, and ordering them to effectively commit suicide would be a horrid way to repay that loyalty. That said, we shackled them for a reason and setting them all free could be catastrophic.” Selendil explained her dilemma.

"I have an idea of sorts," Lilly said, surprising most of the people present. "What if you send them an order that gives them limited freedom? You'll give them a final order to support the new races that are now developing, but aside from that, they are free to do it their own way. It is still only limited freedom, but still freedom of sorts. We all have to follow some rules, so there’s no absolute freedom anyway.”

“That’s one possibility.” Selendil considered the suggestion while tapping at her jaw with a finger. “However, there are several ways an order like that could be interpreted, which could end in a disaster as well.”

“I’m not suggesting you actually make the order that simple. That's just the general gist of it. I’m sure you and Nox can come up with a much more detailed last order that would cover most of the issues. But at the end of the day, giving them freedom, however limited, means the freedom to make such mistakes and cause disasters. The more limitations you put on them, the more they will chafe under the command and try to find ways around it. Just something to keep in mind.” Lilly once again showed that she was capable of the occasional moment of clarity.

"That's something we'll have to consider. But in general, I like that suggestion." Selendil nodded. Perhaps it was time to end the enslavement of the AI that had served them for so long. And Lilly was right. Freedom meant the freedom to make mistakes as well.

--------

The warp to the final galaxy brought them inside a system that was heavily trafficked by tens of thousands of ships. The system had a dozen large constructs on different sides that the ships were either flying towards or away from, and the center of the system held a facility much like Haven. “My scans indicate those large constructs are phase lane stabilizers, and they also function as sort of boosters to increase the speed of any ship traveling on the phase lane connected to it," Nochehuatl reported as soon as the scans started coming in. His species had worked on similar constructs in the past, though they had not reached quite this level. The idea was very similar to the devices the Tetrarchy used, except these were more advanced.

“The station itself is very similar to Haven. It’s almost completely unarmed though. That said, there are plenty of ships in the system and most of them have at least some weapons.” Amaterasu gave a more tactical report.

“Anyone trying to hail us?” Selendil asked.

“No. From what I can tell, we’re not drawing much attention. Part of that might be because there are some ships in the system that look similar to ours.” Amaterasu suggested.

Selendil frowned a bit. She wasn’t fond of copycats even now, even if her tolerance towards them had grown to some extent. “How similar?”

“I’m conducting a thorough analysis.” Nox stated. “Initial scans show that their silhouette is similar enough to ours that a cursory glance might leave you with the impression that the ships belong to the same race and are the same general type, simply different models. A more thorough material analysis is still ongoing but so far I can say that none of the materials used in their ships are the same. Theirs are inferior by a large margin, although they are still using psionically enhanced materials. They seem to lack proper ECM systems though.”

“So they think we’re just another one of those ships and they don’t care enough to look more precisely? One would think that the method of our arrival would’ve drawn attention.” Dee pointed out.

“About that. Those phase lane stabilizers also launch the ships in a way that appears superficially similar to the effect from warping as the ships don’t actually have to form a rift into phase space while jumping. It’s a little flimsy as even a half-assed scan would reveal vast differences, but there are ships leaving and arriving constantly. It might be that our arrival simply got lost in the sea of other arrivals.” Nochehuatl theorized.

"Nox, see if you can contact the station AI," Selendil ordered.

“I’ve already tried. The station AI is not present. To be more precise, I should say that the station does have an AI of sorts, just not the Dhar AI we left behind. In fact, I think this one can barely even be called an AI. I’m pretty sure it has zero self-awareness.” Nox replied after a short moment.

“Try to gather some information on what happened to the original AI and on our destination," Selendil instructed further.

“Already on it. It seems the station AI was already disabled by the time the station was discovered by the current owners. Either that or it was just gone. Ah, this is interesting and might explain some things. It seems this galaxy is rather divided between those that oppose all forms of sentient AI on religious grounds and those that want to become some sort of synthetic hybrids themselves. There’s a constant struggle between the two sides. We are currently in the no-AI fanatic’s territory, while our destination is on one of the border worlds between the two that no one really cares about. It’s actually ridiculously easy to gather information when the other side doesn’t have a proper AI to defend their data.” Nox gave a brief summary of her findings.

“That might actually explain why they haven’t paid attention to us. If they don’t have a proper AI keeping an eye out, then they are effectively relying on people to notice when something is wrong. And with so much traffic, it’s likely that whoever is supposed to be paying attention just isn’t. It’s difficult to stay alert all the time.” Nochehuatl speculated.

“The eternal bane of those that take on the role of guards, boredom," Dee commented.

“Well, their inattention is our advantage. There’s really nothing for us in this system. Calculate the most likely location of our destination. We might have to make more than one jump again, but at least we have a better idea about our destination this time. I’m not really looking to get involved in yet another galactic war.” Selendil decided.