There are many things in the universe which are constant. The speed of light, the gravitational force of particles, and the correctness of a cup of tea and a cream cake on a sunny summer's day. Out of all of the species that inhabited an infinite universe, there was one constant amongst nearly all of them: Everyone liked being a little bit nosey.

Whether it was the impossible to resist allure of listening a bit closer when voices could be heard shouting outside, or slowing down your own travels just slightly when spotting the police giving someone a good talking to, getting 'all up inside' someone else's business is a near universal joy experienced by all sentient beings.

This was what Lena and Dr Johnathan Fletcher were doing right now, embarking on the ever rewarding habit of being a bit nosey.

Officially, they were walking around the storage rooms looking for their first major delivery of their new project. Blocking the Uhae's XK wave manipulating powers had shown some promise, the initial calculations and simulations ran over the last two months stated that the science Johnathan and Lena had been researching might just work. Now was the time to build an initial test of concept, along with the exciting experience of getting to play with some new toys, the anticipation of which had caused the duo to travel down to the storage center instead of waiting for the items to get delivered.

It had also given them the chance to look at other groups and scientists doing the same, and engage in a little bit of people watching.

"Confident guess: Three doors down, a giant plasma weapon of some kind."

The Scythen pointed towards a group in the back, three Ritilians going through a box of equipment. The storage room was vast, hundreds of rooms and corridors connecting the logistical masterpiece of the entirety of Research Location 9. The halls were mostly quiet and empty, apart from the few groups silently picking up items, or the near soundless smooth running of flying drones carrying things deeper into the facility. The dim lighting gave plenty of places to hide and watch the others with little chance of being spotted.

"Oh that one was easy, no way a capacitor that big would be used for anything else." Jonathan responded, giving a small chuckle before continuing. "The Terrans in the back. I'd bet a lunch that they're working on some form of orbital entry system."

Dr Fletcher pointed out the group of five rummaging through their own equipment, the light sensors that covered Lena's strange alien body easily picked them out. The pair had a good vantage point from where they stood, the control tower not only provided a birds eye view of the entire storage area, it was also very rarely visited: only created as a technical requirement: in case the AI who ran this location were somehow put out of commission, and someone had to manually press the big red stop button in an emergency.

"Disagreement: Fabric wrong density. I bet they are designing a light armor system."

"Then we'll go ask them later, and the loser buys lunch." Johnathan responded with a smile.

"Agreement: Loser buys lunch. The group of Terrans at the back there, I have no clue what they are working on."

This caused the Terran to give his own grin, giving a shake of his head as he responded.

"The Scythen not knowing something! Well my dear Wattson, it's very clearly an attempt to cure Ethan's syndrome!"

Johnathan was indeed right about this, although he had the unfair advantage of having bumped into the research group , having a chat about their work when Lena wasn't around. Not that he was going let the Scythen know this. Lena on the other hand was still confused, the phrase not providing them with any enlightenment.

"Query: Ethan's syndrome?"

"Oh yeah, you guys probably already solved this for your species." Johnathan stated. "Just before the God Plague, we worked out how to restart the biological processes after death. We then later learned that actually restarting the meat part of people is the easy step: Stopping consciousness fundamentally breaks something in people's minds."

Ah, that.

Lena knew exactly what that was referring to. Every single species of any technological might had a different name for it, but they all referred to the same thing: There was something special about consciousness. Stopping it was like smashing a stained glass window: You could try to put the pieces back together, but it would never be the same as before, the cracks and shattered surfaces irreversibly unmaking what once was.

"Turning someone back on messes the mind up: Severe dysphoria and dysmorphia, self disfigurement, hallucinations, the feeling of being a different person, of all your memories not being yours. It's why people are only ever brought back in emergencies: there are coping strategies but none of them are great."

Lena sat there pretending not to know exactly what was being talked about, the concept that stopping a consciousness, whether digital or not, effectively destroyed that person. Many religious sects and cults had used it as proof of there being a soul, that no matter the physical processes, a person was made up of something more, something unknowable.

"There's a bunch of people who tried to get past the whole 'tumor growing disease' that was the God Plague, by killing and freezing themselves, to be revived after the god plague naturally ran itself out. Ironically, most of the people who tried this strategy are still in stasis, until we find a cure for Ethan's syndrome."

All Lena really knew was that this Terran group was doomed to fail, an impossible task that had no solution. Not even the Scythen themselves had worked out how to bring someone's mind truly back from the dead, the closest 'fix' being rebuilding a similar, if completely different 'person' from the remains of what once was. Still, even if it ended in failure, the process would probably provide several new useful insights.

The pair went silent for a moment, just watching the people moving around below them, until something very very strange caught Lena's 'eye'. Something that shouldn't be there, walking silently along the back halls of the storage area.

"Confused query: Why is there a Hagorthian here?"

Jonathan gave his own frown, trying to follow where the Scythen was pointing, his confusion evident at such a ludicrous statement, especially considering that the giant low intellect reptiles were literally part of the group the Terran Alliance were at war with.

"I doubt there's an Estorian here, let alone the stupid brutes…" Johnathan trailed off as he finally spotted the figure, mouth dropping agape with surprise as he indeed saw the same red and brown scaled reptile. "Holy shit, it's Dr. Xavius."

Indeed, the small 7ft figure of the famous saviour of humanity was walking down the darkened back corridors of the storage bay, pushing a hovering cart filled with nondescript crates of whatever she was working on. The Terran gave this no thought as they were instead star struck after seeing the most famous woman in science just walk around with little fanfare.

"Question: Who?"

"You're joking right?" Johnathan glanced back from his shocked staring, now giving the Scythen an incredulous look. "She's the genius who cured the God Plague. I'm not surprised she'd be recruited, but no one's mentioned they've seen her. Basically every single Terran knows who they are."

Lena was feeling a little confused. Of course, they knew that the organic Terran members had been stuck in stasis for quite some time up until the last 76 years, awaiting a cure to a self created disease. It wasn't even that special so far as civilizations accidently destroying themselves went: Lena could remember the names of at least 5 space faring species who had wiped themselves out with a self created virus or weapon of some kind. The Scythen had had no reason to look up the exact details of what had happened, as it hadn't come up or been relevant during their time together.

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"Additional confirmation: So this Xavius cured the illness inflicted upon your entire species?"

Johnathan gave a small shrug and a grimace as that statement, disagreement slowly covering his face as he continued to gawp at the Hagorthian once more.

"Well… that's a bit reductive." As Johnathan started the classic 'Yes but actually no' tone of voice all experts use regularly. "Terran AI had been working on the problem for ten thousand years, and based on their progress, would have probably cracked it in a thousand more. Still, Xavius sped the entire thing up by a millenia, which obviously still makes her the most famous alien in Terran space."

Lena paused for a moment as they mulled over that statement, the idea that there was a reality where their Terran friend was still trapped in stasis was not one they enjoyed thinking about. Part of the enemy species or not, the Scythen had a lot to be thankful for towards Dr Xavius.

"Sad thought: and we would have never met."

"Yep, without her, I'd still be a sleeping beauty in some storage facility." The Terran gave a sigh, before returning to their normal happier attitude. "In summary, Dr. K Xavius is a really big deal among Terrans, fixing possibly the worst thing to ever happen to our species. That's without getting into all the stuff she's been doing since then; lady is a certified genius."

That led to a little more curiosity from Lena, wondering just how a Hagorthian of all people managed to gather such an intellect. The Scythen logically knew their species must have some people who had been able to take the dumb, ever hungry, ever growing reptiles into FTL travel. Personally they'd never heard of any Hagorthian getting past the "1+1 =2, Eat fight sleep" stage of development.

"Leads you to wonder: Why isn't her involvement here on any of the records?" Jonathan softly mused, scratching his chin absentmindedly. "They seem really open to the idea of collaboration, and if people knew Xavius of all people were here, everyone would want to talk with her…"

"Dry remark: Perhaps that is the point, and the Hagorthian does not wish to be continually disturbed."

To this the Terran gave a small shrug, before a mischievous grin crossed his features as he watched Dr Xavius leave whatever items she'd been pushing behind to do something else.

"Maybe… I wanna go look at the stuff she's using in her project, the coast is clear!"

"Disapraging remark: Isn't that the 'disturbing' I just warned you against?"

"Come oooon, it's just one little look, what's the harm? I'm sure she won't mind, aren't you a little bit curious about what a genius like her is working on?"

Lena looked up at the pleading puppy eyes of Dr Johnathan, the Scythen having spent enough time around the Terran to know that 'No' wasn't going to be an accepted answer in this circumstance.

"Dejected acceptance: Fine. One look."

Dr Fletcher, the esteemed academic, gave a small silent joyful pump of his arms, as he started guiding the Scythen into doing something stupid: rushing out of the main control room and making their way down the stairs towards the ground level, Lena following with a silent digital sigh behind them.

Even in such a busy location, the halls that connected the various storage rooms together were mostly empty of actual people, the only movement and noise from the automated machines sending the various supplies towards the labs and locations that needed them. Most people didn't come down here, preferring to let MATILDA bring their supplies up to them.

In fact, it begged the question why Dr. K Xavius was collecting her items in person.

This thankfully made sneaking around unnoticed rather easy, which was all well and good considering the only experience the academic Terran had with 'being sneaky like' was video games and bad spy movies. With all the grace of a brick attempting a crash course in learning to fly, Johnathan and Lena eventually found themselves at the back of the storage room, silence surrounding them as they stared at their unguarded goal: The crate Xavius had left behind, still sitting upon the hovering pallet jack. Unmarked, with no name or label on the side, not even the required seal that came with going through the space port's processing center.

A slew of questions and excitement filled the Terran as he gently lifted the unlocked lid with both hands, the light metal container opening without fanfare as Johnathan peered inside at the wonders within.

"Quiet statement: Is it everything you expected?"

Inside, there was… was… very little of interest. Dr Fletcher didn't know exactly what he was expecting to find to be honest, something amazing, mindblowing, a glimpse into the mind of a genius who had saved all of Terrankind. But this was just… stuff. Stuff you'd find in any lab, containers of materials and various equipment that Johnathan didn't know the function of.

"It's just lab equipment… nothing exciting."

"Sarcastic remark: Oh really, what a surprise."

Johnathan rolled his eyes at that remark, still rummaging through the box trying to get a glimmer of something interesting, some special spark of what the Hagorthian was working on. As he did so, a container caught his eye. Slightly bulkier than the other items, attached to the side of the box to ensure it couldn't move or jostle in transit, the special kind of overengineering that went into containers of chemicals that '100% can never accidently be released or everyone is losing their jobs'

As he tilted his head to read the letters, his eyes widened as he recognized the name.

"Excuse me?"

The sound of a 'polite' cough and a raspy quiet voice signaled the entrance of a certain Hagorthian, steady and without emotion, reptilian eyes glaring at them from the doorway Dr K Xavius had poked their head through, interrupted from whatever they'd been doing.

Lena turned an embarrassed shade of purple, fully understanding what they were doing crossed the line from 'annoying' straight into the realm of 'The full on impolite savagery of blatantly going through someone else's stuff'.

"Apologizing gesture: My Terran friend Johnathan here wished to meet someone as famous as yourself, and got carried away."

Jonathan on the other hand had frozen up entirely, mind spinning over what they'd just found. Mere moments ago they'd have been more than happy to push through the embarrassment to have a chance to talk to someone like Xavius, but now the panic of understanding what the cold blooded reptilian was working with had stricken all sensible thoughts from his mind. Dr Fletcher could do no more than silently open and close his mouth as his brain refused to work.

"Well, I'm here now, Johnathan." The voice of Xavius was cold and emotionless, merely tinged with annoyance as she said the man's name, taking a step forwards to tower over the scientist. "What is so important as to rifle shamelessly through my items, which even by Terran standards is remarkably rude."

While Xavius was a small runt of a Hagorthian, she still stood at over 7ft feet tall and armed literally to the teeth with claws and… well… teeth. In the dim light of the empty corridors of the storage rooms, there was a menacing emotionless aura to the saviour of humanity, unblinking reptilian eyes staring down at the pair.

Lena noticed the strange change in demeanor from their Terran friend, deciding to jump in and rescue him, even if this was a problem of Johnathan's own creation.

"Apologetic concern: My friend Johnathan seems to be starstruck from meeting someone of such renown as yourself. Please forgive us, I told him not to do this, but you know how Terrans get."

"Yes, I do know how Terrans 'get'." Xavius just glared once more at Johnathan, eyes narrowing for a moment, before giving a final huff. "Well you have met me. You can leave now, there is no more requirement for you to continue this interruption of my tasks."

"Embarassed apology: Thank you, we will hold you up no longer."

Xavius watched as the Scythen gently nudged the Terran with one of its many tendrils, the action finally snapping the annoying primate out of whatever stupid insignificant frozen state they'd found themselves in, the Hagorthian glaring at the pair as they scuttled off towards whatever stupidity they'd end up causing elsewhere.

The reptile gave a final huff, before returning back to their gathered supplies, taking a quick moment to glance over them. It was annoying having to pick up these items manually, to avoid having them scanned by the facilities AI.

Annoying, annoying, annoying. That described how working with the Terrans and their limitations and laws felt, hundreds of little annoying things that had to be thought of and considered before actual science could be done. She ensured her latest batch of supplies were still all in their proper place, before replacing the lid back down upon the container, and continuing to push the hovering pallet jack towards its final destination.

Meanwhile, Jonathan and Lena had finished scrambling away, diving back into the room that held their items and pressing their backs against the wall, as if they were hiding from Dr Xavius. The Terran still looked panicked, worrying the Scythen at their friend's sudden change in attitude.

"Alarmed concern: Friend Johnathan, what is wrong?"

Dr Fletcher stammered for a few more moments, eyes still wide with shock as they struggled to fully grasp what they'd seen.

"Xyter-Y!" Johnthan finally managed to speak. "They had a massive container of bloody Xyter-Y!"

This didn't clear anything up at all for Lena, who was still as confused as ever.

"Query: And?..."

"Do you know how… dangerous and illegal and war crimes in a can that stuff is? Just being on the same planet as that amount of the stuff! Practically every single biogenetic weapon created in the last two hundred years starts with Xyter-Y!. When I worked at a university, the official procedure for that stuff was 'drop it and run'." Johnathan was erratic and frantic as he spoke, shock and surprise filling his voice as he described just how infamous the chemical he'd found was.

"Just what is the Hagorthian working on that requires a war crime grade biogenetic binder?!"

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