"Well, yes, but his offer meant military force," Rai replied.
"Like I said, I know them better. Watch." Ponar walked up to one of the envoys dispatched outside the shuttle, knowing the Assessor had gone inside. Rai exchanged glances with Rilte and Bau. "The Progenitor's vessel and her chosen companions require sustenance and a place to rest, while the Core retrieval operations are taking place. Please inform the Assessor," Ponar stated in a matter of fact tone, and instead of waiting, he turned and walked back over to them. The envoy entered the shuttle for a few moments, and then returned to his post.
Rai and the others waited a few minutes, but nothing happened.
"What are we waiting for, again?" Rilte asked.
Ponar smiled and pointed to the sky. "Something like that." A second, larger ship descended, sleek lines running the length of its pearlescent, ovoid form.
"What style of ship is it? It's not a shuttle, and not a war cruiser either. I've seen specs on those," Bauleel asked.
"How would I know?" Ponar replied. "But I'm certain it's some hidden treasure."
A bell reverberated through Rai, within Vida, yet Vida remained in her meditative state. Graeber shot her a look askance, and she knew he'd felt echoes of it too. Rai could only shrug, not knowing what the signal meant.
The ship landed, and the five of them walked towards it. The top of the ship was blanketed with windows, visually open to space like a solarium. A panel slid open, and a pair of slender, dainty Juggernaut emerged.
"Please, will the vessel follow us so we may be of service to you and your esteemed companions?" The pair genuflected, chests scraping the ground, and then trundled back inside along a short ramp.
The vessel and her honored companions followed the two odd Juggernaut into the ship. Rilte clapped Ponar on the shoulder on the way in. Rai sensed Graeber's nervousness. He looked down at her, caution and caring warring in his glance.
"They can't hurt me, remember?" Rai whispered. "I don't even think they want to."
He looked away. "Let's suppose Vida can hold off an entire Juggernaut armada if she needed to. What if they didn't want to hurt you? What if they want to keep you? Keep her?"
Rai felt a chill travel down her spine. What if Vida wanted to be kept? But, surely not? Az'Unda, or whatever she called it, was her home, or at least her project. She wouldn't abandon it. Would she?
They entered the vessel and were greeted with the finest of perfumes and, as the panel slid shut behind them, the increased humidity alerted them that this was no ordinary sterile ship.
Rai felt Vida stir, but she didn't rise to the surface. "What class of ship is this?" From her recovered memories, Rai knew of no such Juggernaut vessel.
One of the diminutive Juggernauts approached her and bowed low. "Progenitor, I am Caretaker Traken, and this is my assistant Kaanee. We humbly serve upon this Sanctuary class starship."
"I know of no Sanctuary class starships amongst the Juggernaut fleet," Rai replied.
Traken rose, momentary surprise quickly wiped from his features. "Of course, Progenitor. We keep them secret and tell other races we use these vessels to grow crops. In truth, they are traveling monuments to your race, memorials to the impact you had on our inception. In times of need, any Juggernaut may come here to seek guidance. However, while you are here, your group will not be disturbed. Now, we have taken the liberty to prepare a feast for you, and there are also places to rest. We are hopeful you will feel at home."
"I am honored, Caretakers Traken and Kaanee. Please, escort us to the feast," Rai replied.
Traken led them on a labyrinthine path towards the center of the vessel, decorated with a wide variety of plants, stacked stone placements, fountains, and arcane carvings upon cut metal slabs of varying shapes which levitated in the air. All walked along quietly. The energy of the space demanded their silent awe, as if talking would violate some implicit code.
Rai took all this in, waiting for some sign from Vida. After all, this was a monument to her species, and yet she remained curiously reserved. Or perhaps she just chose not to share her reactions with her vessel? Rai had no way of knowing.
After a few minutes, they reached the center of the ship and saw the promised feast table laid out in front of them.
"Now, this is what I'm talking about," Ponar said, walking straight towards the food.
"Wait." Vida's voice rang out. Her eyes were fixed upon the column in the middle of the ship, identical to the one Rai had discovered in the depths of the ocean. Rai recognized it at once; both she and Vida knew it from their personal experience.
"What's wrong?" Graeber's voice at her ear, reassuring.
Rai walked forward even as she felt Vida stall and hold back within her. Odd, now Rai was the brave one? "It's a Seed Marker. Well, part of one. You can see where it's been cut at the top and bottom."
"Yes, Progenitor," Traken replied, chittering in joy. "All Sanctuary ships carry such a token, in case we find you again."
Rai looked at him, keeping the question out of her eyes, and certainly not voicing it. She felt Vida's pain sear through her. Where are my people?
"Thank you, Caretakers. We will take our feast in private. Now leave us," Rai said.
"If you need anything," Traken replied, "please summon us from the communications array." He gestured to a panel located at chest height next to the doorway into this room.
"I asked you to leave," Rai replied.
He bowed low. "There are sleeping quarters," he said as he retreated. "May we show you?"
"I can find them on my own," Rai replied.
"Of course you can, great Progenitor. My apologies. It has been some time."
Some time? Vida's confusion rippled through Rai's gut.
The Caretakers left, groveling all the way out the door.
"Well, dig in everyone," Rai said. "And thanks, Ponar, you were right about the Assessor."
Rilte took a seat at the table. "It's not our usual fare, but I can't say I'm feeling picky at the moment." He dug in without complaints, and Bauleel and Ponar joined him.
"You're not hungry?" Graeber ran a hand down her arm and watched the way she stared at the Seed Marker. "What's your plan?"
"The markers store information on Vida's people."
"And?"
"They serve as a living history, but can also store consciousness, as the one on Az'Unda did for Vida," Rai explained.
Graeber frowned. "Don't you think if this one had a sentience within it, that it would have already found a vessel, as Vida did?"
"Exactly," Rai agreed. "Vida wants to know where her kind went, but it also scares her."
His face softened, and a lip curled up. "Something scares the invincible?"
"I know, it's oddly comforting to discover she has a vulnerability."
"So, what is Vida going to do?"
Rai regarded Graeber, reading the tension in his form as impatience. She knew he wanted to talk, as did she, although not with the outcome he was hoping for. Rai used her mind's eye to seek out the mentioned sleeping chambers, and indeed, there were plenty available and easily accessible.
"Vida is sitting on her butt. I think she will be occupied for a while contemplating the universe," Rai replied. "Perhaps we could eat privately? We have a lot to discuss."
Graeber nodded. "Talking would be great. But first, I think you need to go and touch that Marker. Vida can get her information and stew on what it means."
Rai's eyes widened. "You want me to force her hand?"
"Well, your hand, actually," he chuckled. "Come on, while we're unsupervised."
"What if whatever she sees upsets her? We have no idea how she'll react."
Graeber turned her to face him. "Could you have gone on, not knowing your past?" he asked. Rai shook her head. "As I understand it, this is a history book for her race's past. Just read it. Vida has lived for millennia, I have faith in her resilience."
Rai shrugged, and before she lost her nerve or the possibility for Vida to ris
e up to stop her, she walked straight up to the Seed Marker and put both hands on it.
At first, her vision faded to black as the energy of the Marker seized her. Her external senses shut down, as her mind's eye connected to the latent power of the stone. The monolith illuminated, both within her and itself. Ancient scrollwork lit up along the depressions of the Marker, and Rai was conscious of the others approaching, awestruck.
"Stay back. I'm not yet aware what may be contained within," Rai said, her voice a sweet harmony, despite Vida's continuing decision to stand in the wings. She felt her friends, and the Caretakers, who'd returned to witness this seeming miracle, look on with anticipation.
Full of focus, Rai opened the book before her, pulling Vida along on her journey. Sucked into a cavern of knowledge, data streaming all around her, Rai could have been lost, but she held tight onto the stalwart Vida.
"Explain to me what I'm seeing." Rai kept her tone unemotional. Yet demanding.
"It's a Seed Marker. It's broken."
Right. "How much remains?"
"There," Vida pointed to an area of blackness, where the data flows cut off abruptly, "and there, it has been severed. This is a quarter of the whole."
"Does a sentience reside here, as you did at the one I encountered?"
Vida made a noise of disgust. "No, they would have left before this atrocity was committed. No Progenitor would allow such a thing to occur. An incomplete Marker does not permit the full story to be told."
"Do you require a Marker? To house yourself?"
Vida mentally chuckled. "Of course not! We may rest within them, and we store project history and our travels within them, but we are independent. This one was abandoned and then desecrated by the Juggernaut."
That didn't bode well for the Juggernaut, did it? "I think they intended this ship as a tribute to your race, Vida. This looks something like a Temple. Perhaps they come here to worship and seek comfort in their last vestiges of connection to the Progenitors."
Vida's sad expression touched the core of Rai. Within moments Vida's disgust transformed to rage. Vida reached up her arms to the walls of the Marker and arcs of blue lightning danced between her flesh and the polished stone. Rai's eyes glowed incandescent, mirroring the raw energy's color.
Information poured from the Marker into Vida, while Rai gleaned snippets as it rushed by her consciousness. Another world, another colony, not Juggernaut at all. The monolith represented another failed experiment, but the details weren't recorded within this segment of the stone. Frustration and abandonment were etched into the very crevices, and the weight of sadness crashed down upon Rai as Vida kept extracting and pulling every morsel of data she could find. Nothing would have been enough to satiate her curiosity.
Rai sensed Vida's tipping point and knew why the Progenitor had been so quiet and withdrawn. The absence of others of her kind was foreign to Vida. Although they lived at great distances to one another, the connections formed lasted millennia. This broken marker, and the Juggernaut speaking of her race as lost, had created an abyss within Vida herself, which could not be filled with the contents of this broken relic.
"There are no answers here. Only questions." Vida's eyes raged, their blue fire staring off into the distance.
"Vida!" Rai yelled, drawing her dark, wild visage upon herself. "We will go to all of the Sanctuary ships. You will make the Juggernaut show us all of the Seed Markers they have. We will unravel the puzzle of what happened to your people. I promise this to you."
The light went out in Vida's eyes, and her arms dropped to her sides. No more lightning crackled. She held up a hand, and illuminated scrolling text flowed above it. "You can read as well as I can, Rai. Even in my language, I have seen to it. Here it says my sister failed in her mission. This Progenitor feels that our time has passed and went to join others who shared her convictions. They felt it was time to step aside and be separate from interfering in the ways of the natural order."
Rai read the words and felt the sadness and regret inherent in them. The Progenitor who'd written them felt they'd not only failed but also done great harm.
Sorrow filled Vida's eyes, and Rai echoed her emotion. "Again, I promise you, we will find your people."
Vida dropped her arm and the text dissipated into the air in swirls. "The Juggernaut have stated my kind have been gone for some eons. I am a monument of another age. You owe me nothing."
Chapter 29
Brague paced back and forth before the display console in the empty transport shuttle as he waited for it to cue up the connection to Queen Klimitzi. He'd cleared the ship of his staff to ensure his conversation with the Queen would remain private despite using the full-screen display. It would be like they were talking face to face. A thrill of anticipation shuddered down his carapace.
The display chimed, and Brague struck an appropriately humble posture, neck bared, back straight, and eyes down.
"Assessor Brague, I am pleased to hear from you again so soon. I hope this is good news?"
Brague straightened and looked upon his Queen. She was veiled, and her slight form reclined, resting upon many pillows. "Yes, my Queen. When last we talked, there was a particular subject here, a Rai Durmah, who appeared to have been touched by Progenitor technology. I can confirm for you, beyond any doubt, that this was the case. More so, she has become inhabited by the Progenitor, unlikely as that may be for a lowly human."
The Queen bolted upright. "What proof have you of these blasphemous statements?"
"Let me replay what I have witnessed. Then judge for yourself, my Queen."
Brague keyed his arm terminal and uploaded his data files to the open connection, encrypted of course. He watched them replay for the Queen, and he observed her reactions throughout. She took her time, not asking to have anything skipped over. Eventually, the feed finished, and the Queen reclined again and sat in silence for a time, contemplating.
"I am well pleased with your efforts, Assessor. You are to be commended."
"Surely I am at the right place at the right time," he deferred.
"No, it is more. So much more. You have been given an opportunity to be an instrument of light for our people. Whatever else you do, befriend the Progenitor. Give her whatever aid she desires. Become as close to her as she will allow."
The Selector, the Hunter, in Brague railed at the thought of catering to anyone's whim. But he was, above all things, a servant to his duty and more so, his curiosity. "If I may ask, to what end, my Queen?"
"You must find a way to bring her here. To me. I need an audience with her. It is imperative to our race."
Brague understood he couldn't question why. There was a palpable desperation clinging to the Queen's words. What was so important here?
"I will placate the Progenitor, befriend her, and bring her to you."
"Above all, do not risk angering her. We cannot lose her. This is imperative. Too many have been lost."
Abruptly, the connection terminated, but Brague had his orders. And his questions.
Chapter 30
The lights around them dimmed as the Seed Marker went inactive. Rai opened her eyes and stood with her hands against the Marker, face damp with tears, her friends and the Caretakers standing in silence behind her. She searched, panicking, stepping back from the stone. Had Vida stayed in the Marker? But no that couldn't be, she'd require an intact Marker as a home. After living with the Progenitor for only a few weeks, the intensity had made it feel like a lifetime, and now the silence echoed within Rai like a hammer.
"We are honored, Progenitor," said Caretaker Traken. "That was a beautiful display. I have never seen the stone glow before. The patterns will stay with me to my end days."
Rai wiped the tears from her face and turned to face her audience. The activation of the Marker had been visible. How much, if any, data had been broadcasted, or was is simply a light display?
"Traken, leave us to our meals and rest period. Alert us when the Assessor is ready." Emptiness ached th
rough her, and Rai crossed her arms protectively across her midsection.
Traken bowed low, groveling adeptly from a lifetime of servitude, and exited the room backward. Bauleel snickered, and Rai didn't blame her, she would have found his display cute if she wasn't so upset. Once Traken was well out of view, Graeber was in her face, not touching, but seeking her eyes.
"How bad is it?" His eyes bored into her. Bauleel and Rilte kept their distance as if sensing the delicacy of the matter.
"Hold on a moment," Rai replied. "I'm not sure." Rai closed her eyes and focused internally.
She went down, and down, and down... And there Rai found Vidaaquar, in the depths of her mind, in the dark, still as a statue. Still as a marker stone.
"What are you doing?" Rai asked her.
Vida sat unmoved.
"Are you giving up?" No response. "Since when does a Progenitor give up? What am I supposed to do with this mess?"
Vida did not move. Did not respond.
Vida had become a stone wall within her mind.
"Great. Now I'm stuck with a mess the size of a mountain, and you're, what, grieving? Fine. Sit here and pout. I'll deal with this without your help!"
Rai shot back to consciousness filled with frustration, her anxiety ending on panic.
"All you all right?" Graeber asked.
"I'm exhausted. Do you mind if we take some food to a room and eat there? "
Graeber's eye's narrowed for a moment. "Do you know where the rooms are?"
Rai nodded. She focused a moment and activated the in-floor lighting leading to two different bedroom suites, located close to each other.
"Neat trick," Rilte smiled in appreciation. "So, did her Profoundness have a meaningful conversation with the rock?"
"Vida managed to extract all available information. There was nothing of interest to our situation, just history from another Progenitor's operation." Rai sidestepped Graeber and grabbed a plate, filling it quickly, not particularly caring what it contained. She didn't need to eat, but the notion of filling her stomach was a comforting distraction.
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