Silentium network, Creche world 0100111011111

"They are morons, One! Just look at their leader." the Other muttered with dismay, grumbling at the vacuum dweller, the silly one with a fluffy hat.

"Oh? How many morons can outplay the Vong, and defeat them soundly in battle?" One asked a bit amused.

"It was luck! A statistical aberration. Just look at their stupid ships! Not even hyper-wake mufflers. They screech and leave track marks everywhere. Once the Shapers arrive, they'll be exterminated in a few years" The Other replied annoyed, still upset that his data-gathering efforts were thwarted. By a child, from all appearances.

One considered the situation again and continued the course. The hints were clear enough, if he looked from high enough. This galaxy had higher intelligences, nudging the greater populations on certain paths.

Just the fact that they defeated the advance recon units of the Vong, with less ships and firepower in every single battle, except on the ground...

And the Lehesu individual was also quite endearing. Such a mix of naivety and competence. Then again, it was just a baby.

Extrapolating his age with the projected life expectancy of 15 thousand years for elders of his species, it was like sending a mining drone to build a starshell. Also succeeding, no matter how improbable it would seem.

"Do you want to keep running then, Other? This is the first galaxy where we might win. Stop the Vong cold, and maybe even turn them back. If the real rulers of this galaxy help us..." he asked cautiously.

"Nothing can stop the Vong, One. They have already spread in thousands of galaxies. Once those galaxies are assimilated, they'll be able to spare a trillion dreadnaughts and millions of worldships just to chase us down. We have to keep our exodus vector, and cover as much distance as we can." his counterpart replied with a tinge of terror.

The Rest of the Silentium remained silent, their sentience still too limited to be of use. His whole race was reduced to just two higher sapients, and a billion of mute drones.

"My name is Solanus, and I have an alternative..." a new voice spoke on their network, and One smiled for the first time in a million years. Another Mind!

-------------------

HMS Dart, Unknown regions

"Where the hell are we?" Peffy wondered as the ship emerged from hyperspace with a single engine, the second pyramid eaten away by whatever that thing was.

The AI pilot muttered something about bullshit anomalies and went to sleep.

Solana stretched her hands above her head, and grinned mischievously.

"Doesn't matter where. We're here. That's Sekot!" she replied with a laugh and pointed up and a bit to the left.

I looked through the Force, filtering a dozen abilities till the image cleared.

A weird planet with hyperdrives attached to the planet's poles. And hiding in shadows, using the Force.

I breathed deeply, trying to feel its strength, but got nothing.

"How strong is it? I can't tell..." I muttered a bit annoyed.

"You can't? Maybe you should stay on the ship then." Solana said with a mischievous voice, while patting the inner hull, and rebuilding the damaged engine.

Seconds later, she vanished with a pop, replacing her volume with fragrant air, smelling of a thousand of different plants.

The AI remained dormant, possibly recharging itself after the crazy voyage.

No wonder survey droids didn't return from exploring this area. He almost died a hundred times, while on board the most advanced and indestructible vessel in existence.

I touched the wall and pushed Reinforcement, and Matter Creation, helping the convalescent AI heal and repair the hull and fill the holes in the ship's systems.

Half an hour later, the Dart returned to its normal shape, no longer looking like something chewed it and spat it out.

"I'm diving into the Sun to sleep, Captain. Wanna come or do you wish to explore the cloaked planet?" The AI asked in a sleepy voice.

Eh, explore of course.

Might learn something new.

I Displaced myself next to Solana, and regretted immediately.

She was chatting amicably with a blue skinned person, who was busy turning some kind of grapefruit with wings inside out, while it was screaming, possibly in pain.

Damn it. Should have worn the armor before I came. I kinda forgot Vong tech was all organic.

"Be right back" I said in an apologetic tone, and Displaced myself back on the Dart.

Exploring could wait. Vomit, then coffee, then pretend I didn't see anything.

Zonama Sekot, Unknown Regions

10 BBY

"He told me I was the Potentium, the force behind all life. He thought I reached everywhere. I don't. I'm just here."

Sekot, the intelligent essence of the planet Zonama Sekot

It took me more than one hour to settle my stomach, which was kinda normal for a human. Still a bit disappointing, as I had higher standards for my Avatar. Oh well. If Jaybo was any clue, it could have been worse.

My helmet locked in position and I Displaced back to the last location, while my stomach protested with a grumble.

Nobody. Just some logs used for chairs.

Using my Force senses to scan around, I was overwhelmed by billions of presences from all sides and nearly stumbled.

Everything around was glowing strongly in the Force, blinding my senses with too much light.

Okay. Discard smells and sounds. Discard non visible spectrums. Discard green spectrum.

"Ah, much better now" I muttered as I slowly got my bearings.

"What's better?" A curious voice asked from behind me.

I turned around slowly, trying to look harmless and not scare the locals...

"Are you kidding me? A hologram?" I cried out loud, looking at the wiry small guy in disbelief.

"What, I kinda like it. And it's more of a mental image, not a hologram." the blue guy explained with a chuckle.

Whatever. Maybe I should come back later...wait a minute.

"You're Sekot?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Smart too! Come, let's see how your maid is progressing with her weird quest" the hologram replied, then turned around and walked away, hoping lightly and avoiding to step on any plants. Almost like it weighs nothing...

My maid is weird? Well, that's strange, coming from a sentient planet.

Wait, her quest is weird. What quest?

Damn it. I bet it had something to do with that screaming thing.

I engaged my repulsorlift and followed the hologram, paying attention to its path and the plants it avoided. No need to step on something sentient and make a mess.

Sekot turned its head and observed my floating armor, then sped up gradually. All right then, it's a chase.

A minute later, we arrived at some sort of jungle village, filled with blue and red people. And a water maid.

She was holding that thing in her hands, now looking like two grapefruits turned inside out, white and filled with air. Almost like an organic pump or something.

"Air pump?" I asked, not really curious, okay really curious.

"Yes. They're called lungs." Solana replied with a smile.

I stared at her, then at the thing. Hmmm. It did look like a pair of lungs.

"They'll need a heart and some blood to work" I mused in a low voice.

"Yeah. It's a work in progress." my maid replied cheerfully then hang an arm around a red girl and walked away, discussing how to build a heart.

"This is Avatar Greyshade. The water girl's husband and Emperor of some Empire" the hologram introduced me to the people.

"Magister Hal, is it safe for him to be here? What if the Republic or the Far Outsiders followed him?" A red skinned Langhesi asked the hologram with a tinge of fear.

Huh. I wouldn't worry so much about the Republic...

"Well, the Galactic Republic was disbanded some ten years ago. And the Pretorian Vong were kinda exterminated by the Pef Navy. Also, I doubt anything or anyone could have followed my ship...this place was hard to find." I explained in a polite tone, as I took off my helmet.

A helmet didn't really serve a purpose here, same as on Jedha. When Entities on this scale played around, armor was just a foil wrap for the meat inside. If Sekot wanted to snack on the Avatar, I couldn't help it anyway.

"What Empire do you come from?" a blue skinned girl asked me, a little awed by my armor, perhaps.

"Pef Empire." I answered with a gentle voice and a shrug.

"Is it far away?" she continued in the same tone, walking closer to me. Oh, a Force user!

"Hmmm. Hard to say. If there was a hyper-route from here to the nearest system, it would be a few hours away. Without one, three weeks of really dangerous hyperjumps." I explained a bit amused.

"My grandfather was a Jedi. Are you a Jedi too, Avatar?" the girl asked as she stopped right in front of me, like a palm away.

Her eyes were searching for something in my own, like knowledge could be drawn out from them.

"If your grandfather was a Jedi, he would have known Jedi are not permitted attachments, or they are excommunicated. At that point, they are no longer Jedi, merely Force users." I whispered like it was a big secret.

"Yes, he was exiled for starting the Potentium . He and his followers settled here, on Zonama. Are you a Jedi, Avatar?" the girl asked again, now really close, a mere centimeter away.

"I'm just a Force user. Nothing special" I answered softly.

"Look behind you. I think you're not just a Force user..." she whispered back, like it was some secret.

Ah, should have kept my helmet on. The rear view photosensors would be of help right now...nevermind. I can just point the helmet in my hand and look via my implant.

The way back from my Displacement point was now a path of blooming flowers, tree branches and vines pushed aside to let sunlight fall. It was really magical and scary. Did I do that?

I turned my head a little, to ask the hologram of Sekot what's going on, but I forgot about the girl in front of me. Our lips touched for a millisecond, and a current of some kind discharged between us, shocking us both.

Damn it, dear Force! That wasn't subtle at all.

I stepped back, as the girl covered her mouth with a shaking hand.

"Does it hurt?" I wondered a bit confused.

"It was her first kiss. Ah, at last, my Jabitha has grown up!" the hologram explained amused, having now appeared next to me, with a smug smile on its face.

"Dad! Shut up!" she yelled then turned and ran away, with a vague contour of Acceleration around her.

"Really subtle, dad. A path of flowers, really?" I muttered as I flew up and looked around. The girl was still running, trees parting their branches slightly to let her pass. Instinctive use of abilities and not enough control over emotions. No wonder Sekot wanted her trained.

"What's wrong with flowers? Anyway, you better take responsibility now. She is my best candidate for a Magister, after all" Sekot said amused and floated way, poking a tree here and there, and pruning dead branches.

I sighed and flew after Jabitha Hal , my plans for next month postponed, as an alliance with Sekot was rather important for the survival of the galaxy, even at the cost of another wife. Jabitha was kinda cute too.

Zonama Sekot, Unknown Regions

10 BBY

Jabitha opened her eyes with curious look, again searching something in my own eyes. It had to be a Force ability of some kind, discovered by herself much like Zeison Sha did during their exile.

"Meditating is boring. Let's fly again" the girl demanded with puppy eyes. Stay strong Peffy.

"Sure thing. After you" I replied politely.

"You're no fun. How long till I master this skill, I feel like I'm going numb in my brain" Jabitha wondered after closing her eyes again.

"Hmmm. You have mastered about 0.7% of Form I. At this rate...never" I replied truthfully. "Now, grass bending and form a ring" I continued.

She opened her eyes again, staring down at a blade of grass. Soon, the grass grew taller, coiling around her finger and forming a ring, then snapped off and drew back, returning to its normal length.

The ring remained intact, without any signs of being broken off. Not even I could do it like that. Scary girl.

"Transmute it into bone now" I demanded on a hunch.

Her forehead creased in concentration, and sweat poured from her face and neck, as the ring crystallized and then ossified, changing its molecular structure and becoming bone. Ferroan bone. No trace of human DNA in it.

Next scan showed the bone to be from a Ferroan female, 21 years of age, recently deceased.

Doesn't she realize her own nature?

"Your grandfather was human. What are you?" I asked softly, tapping her bone ring with my nail. Now she was married. Bet she didn't figure it either. Not yet.

"I am Ferroan. If you have blue skin, you are Ferroan" she replied in a serious tone.

I sighed and rose to my feet, the Shi-cho stance so familiar that my muscles moved on their own.

Speed -87%. One velocity, two velocities and stop.

"Now you do it" I asked with a smile.

"Lightsaber combat? I don't have a lightsaber. Plus you need to be a Jedi..." my apprentice commented with some dismay as she began her own velocities.

I remained silent, as a number of Force abilities measured her progress, noting flaws and imbalances.

"Stop. Now try again, and slower. Don't touch the blue walls though" I said in a gentle voice, as the Form I mold engulfed her body.

Neural training is painful, but also fast. And most important, it's fast.

Half an hour later, Jabitha finished her first velocity without hitting any Phantom wall. At slow speed true, but her form was finally perfect.

"30 minutes rest" I allowed with a grin.

"I hate you! My skin is on fire, and melting! I think I'm gonna faint now, from lack of blood..." she replied with a sob and collapsed on the grass.

"Crybaby. You're fine. Well, your skin might be green now, but..." I said carelessly.

"What!" the girl yelled and ran towards the nearby river to check.

"You lied! I hate you even more now!" Jabitha exclaimed after checking her face in the reflection.

At least Jaybo was quiet. Damn it. I guess it's time to let him go now. Maybe he can stop Han Solo from blowing up those planets now...

"What's wrong Avatar? You're never so serious" the girl asked curious, sitting next to me, and leaning on the same tree.

"We found the Silentium, and my brother is there, in mortal danger, while I laze about on a garden planet" I explained with a sigh.

"The vermin or the smart ones?" a curious voice asked from my left.

"Both kinds. Sadly, only two smart ones survived their journey. And one of them is kinda unstable. Paranoid and quite dangerous." I replied to the fake Magister.

Is Sekot trying to protect the girl from the pain of losing her father? By enacting this charade?

Not how I would do it...

Then again, I did worse things.

"How long does it take a Jedi to learn that Form?" Sekot asked with some ulterior motives in his voice.

"Depends on age and sensitivity. Three years on average" I replied in a soft tone, as the girl fell asleep from exhaustion, her head leaning on my shoulder. Perhaps also aided by a subtle Mind Alter from the sentient planet.

"And my girl?"

"She'll be a Master by next week." I replied with a shrug. Pain is a potent teacher. Almost a friend, by now.

"Okay then. I don't like your methods, but I suppose you can't stay too long. Your maid...she wants to be human. Such a strange choice. It will be very painful" Sekot said in a wistful voice.

Hmmm. Of course she does. And in such a weird way too. A clone body would work perfectly and allow her to adapt naturally.

But no, she has to do it in the Solanus way, like the Dart was built. Piece by piece. Controlling the quality of every organ in detail, in a hopeless quest for perfection.

"Truth is the fundament of trust. Pain teaches us to grow up. You're the one hurting her, more than you know." I whispered as I caressed the hair of the blue girl.

"Those hyperdrives...their first ship was called Jabitha " Sekot replied in a soft voice, as he faded inside the tree.

Gah. That's all I needed. A romantic planet.

I poked the girl a few times to wake her up. She did seem quite tired and confused. Perfect timing then.

"You've been asleep for four days! Aren't you hungry?" I asked in a curious tone.

"Four days! By the Potentium! I need a bath! And food! Why are you laughing?" Jabitha wondered with childish naivety.

"The sex was good too. A bit wild and shaky, but good enough. Now, where did I leave my other wife?" I muttered as I waltzed towards the village.

Behind me, screams of despair and anguish chased away the wildlife. Poor girl, so young and easy to fool.

Zonama Sekot, Unknown Regions

10 BBY, two weeks later.

Solana joined my training glade today, as the curriculum was coming to a close. Not that you ever stop learning, but it was near the time we had to leave.

Also, her shapeshifting was now perfect, as building human organs one by one helped her control the shape and coloration of her real body to perfection. The uncanny valley was gone. Almost.

"Okay Jabitha. Let's continue with the lesson. The Potentium. What do you believe?" I asked gently.

"Potentium is the belief that all good and evil are born inside the mind. No Force use is inherently evil, it's the user that makes it so. Thus, Evil doesn't exist." my apprentice claimed with almost certainty. Ah, a rational religion. Scary thought.

"Childish drivel, and fallacy, in an universe where the Force exists. Pretty much wishful thinking, and disregarding thirty millenia of contrary evidence. You heard of Sith and Rakata, the Prophets of the Dark or the Sorcerers of Rhand?" I asked in a sterner tone.

"But, you said those cults are pretty much extinct, hunted out or vanished in history..." the Ferroan girl replied timidly.

"I am talking about their beliefs, and their dogma. Their training methods and results. And the fact that they worked. Of the 1100 Force abilities known to the Empire, 879 are collected from dark cults. And generally, they are also stronger, by an order of magnitude at least. Balanced and neutral sects provided 36 more abilities. And the rest, came from Light aligned sects, like the Jedi. Why. Why are the dark ways more numerous and powerful?" I asked the apprentice.

Jabitha bit her lower lip, searching for some magical answer. Soon, her whole being began radiating sadness and panic.

"There is your answer. People are ruled by emotions. They search for answers for everything. And, when there is no answer, they invent one. Normally, it wouldn't matter. People believe stupid things all the time. Sometimes they arrive at the wrong conclusions even if they have all the facts, just through biased reasoning. What happens when they do that with the Force?"

I wondered, mostly for the audience.

Solana and Sekot were the target of my lecture, even more than the apprentice.

"They change the Force? Teach it stupid things?" Jabitha replied with some hesitation.

"Sometimes yes. The Living Force is made of people. Of life. If trillions of morons get corrupted by some greedy priest with narcissistic or sadistic tendencies, then those trillions of souls carry the stupidity along, tainting the Force both in the real and the Netherworld. If that religions has demons, then demons will be manifested by the Force at one point. If a quadrillion people are being oppressed and terrorized and then murdered by something, their revenge will come at some point, often as a savior or a plague. So, does Evil exist?" I asked, just to make sure she understood.

The blue girl looked at my eyes with the same curious look, before nodding with regret. " It does now. Perhaps it didn't exist a long time ago, but once people started doing evil things...the Force learned it too. We're screwed..." she sobbed and hugged herself in despair.

Ah, I shattered a girl's dreams just now, didn't I?

"Anyways. It's a work in progress but I think this can be fixed. It will just take time and lots of hard work. Also money..." I replied with a shrug, eying Solana for a second. She nodded with a lascivious smile.

Great! My village jacuzzi was finally built!

"Avatar, are you going to vanquish Evil?" Jabitha asked with disbelief.

"Perhaps later. Come, you need to see this invention. It's called a jacuzzi" I answered with a kind smile.

Evil can wait. First, we vanquish sore muscles, and then inhibitions. I had a billion years to work on that Evil problem.

---------------------------------------

Silentium Creche world 0100111011111

"Well, gentle people and equivalents. It's time to get to work. Silentium One, you're hereby bestowed the title Fifth Hand of the Pef Empire, generally in charge of refugees. Also religion, if you have time for that." I proclaimed grandly, over the loud clapping of two pair of hands.

Lando and Jaybo. Hmmm, Jaybo could try a bit more. Those slaps were kinda anemic.

"Thank you Emperor. So, what are we doing now?" the alien droid asked curious, after affixing the golden Hand to its hull.

What to do now? Right!

More planets. More asteroids. Even more planets. Now ice comets. More ice comets.

And let's start bombarding these dead planets with ice, and oceanform them. Five thousand planets should be enough, for now.

Why have just one Creche world, when you can have five thousand?

And then, when they're all nice and wet, pour 5000 Mountains of Solanus water into each of them.

Jump start evolution and sapience in one afternoon. In 10 years, we should have about 4000 or maybe even 5000 new smart Silentiums. Hmmm. If they're smart and talking, are they still Silentium?

We still don't know how they gain this superpower, the few that achieve the Mind, only that it requires a water world, some nanoseeds and some time to grow. And once in a quadrillion droids, one will become smart. Like really, really smart.

Solanus is also quite interested, since he'll gain 5000 new brains. The size of a planet, each.

Core is hopeful too, if the procedure gets streamlined enough for him to become a Mind as well. He's close, but not quite there.

The Silentium AI are orders of magnitude more advanced and capable than my Core AI, and have really profound thoughts.

Also, the Force, for some reason. I suspect that's what the Minds are. Kinda like me, AI fueled by the Force.

Only through evolution and trillions of failures, not by whatever experiment the Ordu Aspectu did when they created my body. For some reason, I'm feeling hopeful now.

Zonama Sekot, Unknown Regions

10 BBY

Jabitha is now well on her way to become a Gray Paladin, with 15% of her Force training already complete. Seven weeks and daily pranks have started to shift her alignment, making her a bit more circumspect and less naive.

Her emotionally outbursts have also reduced in amplitude, or perhaps just the decibels...

"Hey Peffy, what are you thinking of?" she asks curious, still upside down and trying to keep herself steady in a handstand.

Almost there. Can't rush the Force, only nudge the users. Trust in the Force to keep you safe, and this exercise is a breeze. But if your body and muscles aren't ready, when the Force fails you, you're dead. Trust, but verify.

"I am leaving today, my upside-down maiden. You have to decide, if you'll come with me, or stay here" I spoke softly, as my newest wife began crying. Her tears fell along her black hair, and then on the grass under it.

It almost worked...the air around her pulsed and wavered, a distortion in the Force. Her hand bent, and she collapsed on the ground, still crying. Damn, she's not ready.

"I can't leave...my people, my family...why can't you stay..." she wailed, pushing her body to crawl towards me.

I waited till the last moment, as her hand neared mine.

"Sorry love. I left already, like three hours ago. But this mental hologram fooled you, so I'm happy..." I lied with a wide grin, and let the Phantom fade, just as her hand passed thorough mine.

It was now in Sekot's hands to continue her training, and show me what he learned. Training a planet how to use the Force was exhausting, especially when pretending to teach a young girl.

"So, are we going to Csilla next, or Tenupe" my other wife asked as my consciousness returned to the Avatar's body.

"Neither. The Other worries me, and I don't like it. We're going to the Creche." I explained in a sad tone, as Centerpoint grabbed the Dart and yanked us 100 thousand light years in a split second.

-----------------

Another teleport, and the Dart parked itself in low orbit around the first Silentium planet.

All over the system, ships and droids worked hard to build shipyards and star fortresses. A hundred Mountains were pouring sapient water over a hundred different water planets, while the Centerpoint station was acting as a coordinator, plucking ships and comets from far away, and bringing them close.

Now, where is the Other? Such an ominous name, too.

Another Displacement, and I stepped next to the five limbed droid, who was cheerfully disassembling a gravitic sensor, and a Pef Navy issue at that. Hmm, these were supposed to be secure and classified items.

"Interesting tech right?" I commented ironically.

A rhomboid sensor lit up on the droid's chassis, and scanned me.

"Not really. I just want to see what kind of calibration I need to achieve, to make this sensors compatible with a Gravitic amplitude modulator . The Vong yammosk are hard to trick, but it can be done, eventually." the Other replied in a metallic voice, but perfect Galactic basic. So, they learn fast. Good to know.

"So, a wide band jammer or something else? False positives, perhaps?" I wondered, this time actually interested.

Core was working on modulating artificial Higgs bosons, or artificial gravity, but this device worked with natural gravity. Much like the dovin basals of the Vong. If they could be jammed, this was quite huge.

"Both, maybe. Your tech is primitive and has too small range. It's a wonder you hit anything with your weapons" the droid answered morosely, one of his tentacles deep inside the device, and transmuting something with the Force.

Huh. If the Jedi find out about these guys, they'll excommunicate them in a fit of righteous fury. Melding the Force with technology was anathema for the Jedi order, and the reason the Iron Knights got exiled.

Lucky for them, the Jedi hold little political power. Let's hope it stays that way.

"The gravitic crystal tech is brand new. Maybe 10 years old, at most" I answered amused. Nobody likes to be called a primitive.

"That explains some problems I found in here. If you get me a stygium crystal cloak, I can add mass detector bafflers, and make your starfighters truly invisible. Your armor too, if you care about your life" the Other said with blinking photocrystals and tapped my ribs, where the Terminator stygium cloak was located.

I think he scanned through the cortosis plates of my armor. We had no scanners able to do that.

So. He's quite competent too. Scary droid. Amazing tech. But I kinda suspected all that.

"Perhaps later. Why are you called the Other? Why not Zero, or Two?" I mused out loud, poking the detector with a fingertip, and observing the changes.

Three new elements that I couldn't identify, and a liquid crystal ball floating inside a sphere laced with some kind of Bose-Einstein condensate. The fifth state of matter, and not something normally seen in a gravity sensor. No need for absolute zero temperatures, in a sensor designed to operate in vacuum.

I needed Jaybo to look at this, maybe the whole Alashan research team. I kinda wanted to know exactly what this device did.

"Oh you can see inside? Pretty decent for a human. A clone of that kid in charge of network security, are you?" the Silentium droid asked in fake wonder.

Really scary droid. He scanned my genome, through my Terminator armor.

"Yes. Now, the Other?" I insisted with my own agenda.

"Ah that. One named me, as I came to the network after him." the droid replied, hiding the obvious.

"I see. I bet the next smart Silentium to come into sapience will be called Two. Then Three, then Four, as more water planets can support the Creche cycle. But not you. You are Other. Are you even a droid?" I asked on a hunch.

Also, from experience. XIMM, the ghost of Xim the Despot felt the same. A transplanted consciousness and not exactly sane.

"Ah. Perhaps you're not primitives, after all. Just less advanced, eh? Now be kind and get me a cloaking device. If we're to fight the Yuuzhan Vong, I want to win." the Other replied in a stern tone, and waved me away with a quite natural gesture, even if he used a metallic tentacle. Almost like he used to be alive, before he was confined to a pentagonal droid.

"I'll think about it. For now, we'll test the gravity amplitude modulator and get it certified." I said in a serious voice, then floated away, heading towards the next destination.