***Saggitarius Arm – Icarius***

***Travil, the Ambassador***

The following days proved to be a lesson in patience. Our hosts did their best to accommodate our every wish to an unnerving degree. We were allowed access to every installation on the starship, except for people's private quarters. If there was a need, it was enough to ask for something and the Demons would provide with the costs supposedly covered by their government.

Their willingness to accommodate us went so far that it tethered on the edge of achieving the opposite of what they probably intended with their openness. Instead of feeling welcome, it held my delegation on a precarious edge between wariness, wonder and frustration.

The Demons didn't have access to anything utterly unknown amongst the Galactic Societies. They hadn’t invented some groundbreaking new physics, but what they had was centuries ahead of most of our technology.

Which was why Miredin couldn't stop admiring the alien technology.

According to him, the Demons’ advantage was the fact that they paid a lot more attention to the details. Where we would be satisfied with a hammer because it did its job to our satisfaction, the demons would take their time to find the optimal shape, weight, and so forth.

I had another theory about their proficiency in various scientific fields, which wasn't to say that Miredin was completely wrong.

The Demons’ technology was a simple result of them welcoming many different species into their 'culture'. Or at least that was the narrative that Iris preferred. With new minds came new ideas and improved ways to do things. All the little things added up to a greater whole in the end.

The G.S. might have wanted their members to think otherwise, but the truth of it was that technology was only sparsely shared out here on the edge of galactic civilisation. It may be true for the galactic centre, but for the Lmir the G.S. was just this nebulous force that dictated a part of our lives.

As I saw it, the demons' advantage was straightforward assimilation.

Another thing that I slowly started to understand was why these people called themselves the Virtual Cultures.

They didn't care about species, form, or even ethnicity. From what I understood, they had banished all of those misgivings to their virtual realities. People who just couldn't accept the differences of others were banished to their very own reality where they could be together with like-minded individuals.

This practice had formed various groups who shared the same ideals and ideas, each developing into their own culture.

If an individual wasn’t satisfied with how the people around him thought, he could just pack up his things and transfer to another culture that fit his ideals better.

So we weren’t even fighting the whole of the V.C. According to Iris, what we called the Silent was a single group among countless others living in the V.C, the Lifers. A group that wished for life to continue in all its facets.

It was hard to fathom that such people would turn into the spearhead of this war against the Galactic Societies.

And yet, from everything I saw, the Demons weren't necessarily cruel about their deeds. Nor did they try to hide what they were doing – which I found more than a little confusing.

The demons had the power to go about their conquest of the galaxy like tyrants. Which they were in a way. But they were 'nice' tyrants if such a concept even existed. From their point of view, they offered eternal life to someone who was their enemy.

Iris had given me plenty of opportunities to talk to people whose worlds had been 'uploaded'. From the predominant Bri who could be found everywhere on Icarius to a Go'tak, and even a relatively sullen Omami who was in charge of the gravity projectors that held the star in check.

I listened to stories of ambivalence, down to outright enthusiasm about being part of something so large and powerful.

If I hadn't refused, I would have even been allowed to talk to some species who outright objected joining the V.C. and instead preferred to stay within their own virtual space.

But I felt conflicted about the idea of uploading myself. Something inside of me just couldn't accept that this 'upload' process wouldn't just kill me. It was a horrible thought to be replaced with some copy. And among my group of assistants, I wasn't alone with that fear.

It wasn't the only misgiving that the Lmir had to the Demons' practices.

Jerera, our sociologist, was appalled by the local culture.

According to her, the demons were hedonistic down to the bone. The demons’ nanotech allowed them to create a post-scarcity society on a level that was completely unknown in the galaxy.

Such a state of affairs had broken most lesser races because there was no more need to strive for more.

This wasn’t the case with the Virtual Cultures.

As a counterbalance, their G.O.D. provided the masses with game-like incentives to work toward common goals. By performing tasks, they could improve their standing in society or gain upgrades to their bodies.

Apparently, most of the demons present in 'meatspace' weren't here because someone had forced them, but because they genuinely thought they were doing something worth doing.

One of the former Bri had told me that: 'The great task is never done.', and according to my lessons, this meant that the Bri genuinely thought that they were working for what served as the 'Greater Good' in their belief system.

I just couldn't reconcile in my mind that BILLIONS! of thinking beings from different worlds and species could be motivated to wage something akin to a holy crusade against the G.S.

Then again, it may not even be that hard with their G.O.D.

If they could reliably select trustworthy individuals from an assimilated species that went along with their ideals, then each assimilated world might get them millions, if not billions of new warriors for their cause.

Another inexplicable thing was that there wasn't a single ruler, leader, commander, or whatever they wanted to call it, on the entirety of Icarius. It was mind-boggling to me. Icarius was a huge installation with a billion thinking beings if Iris hadn’t lied.

“You are so gloomy today,” Iris woke me from my thoughts and handed me one of those baked cones with ice cream on top.

I blinked and took the sweet delicacy, remembering that she had taken me out on a walk through a nearby park.

“Sorry. My thoughts just drifted off. I just can't reconcile the fact that there is nobody with the power to decide anything on the entirety of Icarius! That everything is organized from the V.C. by this G.O.D. of yours,” I replied with a sigh. “I was trained for my job from the day I left the crib. As the First Ambassador, I was supposed to find a way to avoid the war from happening. Now, I just don’t know what to do.”

Iris licked over her ice cream. “Well, you are just on an expeditionary fleet at the frontline of an intergalactic war. Of course, there isn’t anyone here who could just flick his fingers and order all of us to go home. The current front-line of our expansion is...”

She frowned and her eyes flicked around, something that told me that she was accessing this virtual network that connected all demons with each other.

“30.000 light-years, give or take! This war is being fought on a scale that’s unimaginable to little meat-brains like us. I am sure that if the Blues weren’t on our side, we wouldn't even be capable of organizing everything. Your presence here, it's like visiting some task force from our point of view. The queens and the king aren't anywhere close to the front lines. There are no civilians here, so to speak.”

I snorted and gestured around, indicating the urban scene. “What is this then? There are people with children here.”

“Demonlings,” Iris corrected. “They aren't really children. Just new bodies for people who want to join us out here on the front lines. Their minds belong to grown-up individuals as soon as the brain can support the personality. Warp drives are cool, but even they are slow in comparison to n-space. If someone wants to join the frontlines, they just request a rebirth on one of the starships and they are ready to go within a few months. And not to forget, even a newly hatched demonling could probably kill you during a boarding action. Real children with new minds are kept far away from all of this.”

She looked around. “And who says that we can't have a nice time while we wait for the next big battle?”

“Battle?” I blinked, then remembered the G.S. fleet that was passing through Lmir space right now.

She sighed and sat down on the bench next to me. “Travil, all that you see here will be gone in a few months. We have scouting missions of our own, and we know that the G.S. fleet is at least twice as big as ours.”

“Then why don't you turn around!?” I asked. “Avoid this whole war!” It would give our people at least a few more decades of peace.

“Because Icarius can't run away from a fleet that has access to warp-tech,” the infuriating woman explained calmly. “We are just one small battle-group in this war, Travil. If not us, then the expeditionary fleet three years behind us will have the Lmir caught up in this war. And if not that one, then the one six years behind that. No matter what your people or the G.S. do, we will keep coming after them until their worlds are buried beneath our bodies. And if they still threaten us, we will keep throwing organic matter at them until their worlds collapse beneath our weight and turn into black holes.”

I laughed.

Then stopped when I realized how serious Iris was about this.

Icarius was a colossal installation. If it was true that they had them coming in waves just three years one after the other, then the Lmir had less time left than we thought.

“You should eat your ice. It's melting.” She smiled. “And besides, you should be glad that we are rolling into your space with banners waving high.”

“Why?” I asked drily.

“Because the chances are pretty high that even if this expeditionary force is defeated, we will likely destroy or at least heavily cripple the G.S. fleet that’s passing through your space. Enough so that your own military will handle the remnants easily.” She took a lick from her ice cream. “We have spied up to the other side of Lmir controlled space, and there is no second fleet in sight. Once the G.S. has no mentionable military presence close to your worlds, your politicians might gain some sense and consider our offer.”

I frowned, knowing that the majority of the powerful amongst the Lmir would never consider the upload as an option.

“We have seen them do it,” Iris continued. “Rather than give us more willing recruits against their tyranny, the G.S. is going to glass your worlds. You should hope that we encounter them before they decide that they can't rope more of your ships into the battle. Right now, they should be petitioning your government to send every ship with a warp drive to their aid.”

Her words didn't process for a moment, but then it clicked. “They wouldn't...”

I stopped and reconsidered while I nervously massaged my earlobe. There was no way that the G.S. military didn't know how the V.C. operated.

The V.C. had no interest in resources. They knew how to take apart entire stars!

What they were after were like-minded minds, as stupid as that sounded. They wanted to stay true to their ideology and not be threatened by the G.S., a thing that would never happen as long as the core worlds stayed untouched. “No, they would. They've already lost control of the situation. Just as long as it gets them a little more time. Defeating your fleet here gives them at least three more years to come up with a solution. That's all they will care about.”

Iris nodded. “And just in case that you aren’t convinced of the truth of my words, think about how slowly they are flying through your space.”

I snorted. “Well, that’s completely normal. Using warp technology costs energy, and the speed they are going with is standard for long distances flights.”

“Ah, but they know that we are within a few weeks’ flight time at their maximum speed, and that’s certainly not ‘long distance’ for their ships. Their first few punitive fleets went all the way to the Outer Rim,” Iris countered. “They are leaning back and twiddling their thumbs, or whatever appendages they can use for that.”

I frowned.

“The answer is obvious,” Iris continued, anticipating my next question. “They want to stay in a position that allows them to threaten your government while they are waiting for our fleet to arrive. If our encounter is fought within your space, it would be much easier to mobilize Lmir forces so that their own task force isn’t crippled too much.”

Slowly, I nodded to myself as I listened to the demon’s whispers. Everything she said made perfect sense.

There was just one problem.

I had absolutely no clue what she got out of telling me this.