Truth of Slir'lass, Trilla'Ssk-Class Scout Ship

Vault System—Outer edge of scattered disc (87.2 AU from primary)

31.8 solar hours since signal reciprocity with "Protector"

Battle Matron Lar'ri clacked her fangs together in apprehension as she tried to still her troubled soul. After flicking out her tongue, she rubbed it against the specialized glands on the roof of her mouth, tasting the same apprehension among her crusaders as the oily pheromone residues were absorbed and processed by her tri-lobed brain.

After rendezvousing with the Exalted Fleet, Matriarch Nal'as commanded her to immediately come and share her recollections. Lar'ri discarded any pretense of conducting herself with the dignity expected of such a high-ranking battle matron, and she sprinted through the massive flagship at her highest possible gait.

She only slowed down near the Sacred Sanctum, where the Matriarch was waiting for her, and she stepped into a mechanical junction off the main tunnel so she could cool down without showing weakness to any underlings who may come upon her.

Head lowered, she opened her jaws wide and slackened her long tongue, allowing the throat muscles to flutter. The gular membranes began vibrating to the stimulus from the throat muscles, rapidly fanning her core body heat out through the moist interior of the jaws to prevent her brain from overheating.

Still feeling as if she was not cooling down fast enough, she consciously made her spinal feathers go erect before turning her back towards the maintenance vent, allowing the cooler air currents coming from it to pull away excess heat from the now exposed blood vessels and dendrites.

After some time, she began to feel much better, and she closed her eyes, collecting herself and organizing her thoughts and arguments in a logical fashion like the Teachers had taught her to do when she was their student.

Once she felt ready, she slowly peered out into the main tunnel. Seeing none of her fellow crusaders around, she stepped out of the mechanical junction and quickly adjusted her harness before walking at a measured pace the rest of the way.

She entered the Sacred Sanctum, acutely aware of when she had last come here to pray to the Creator. Long dormant guilt began to stir inside her spirit, but she suppressed it as she headed towards the inner sanctum where the Matriarch was waiting for her.

Seeing Matriarch Nal'as sitting on the simple stone bench as she entered the inner sanctum, Lar'ri felt happiness come into her heart when her lifelong companion looked up and bared her fangs in joyful greeting.

Lar'ri returned it, making sure to avert her eyes in proper submission as she waited for the Matriarch to invite her to sit on the bench. Tapping blunted claws on the bench right next to her, the Matriarch hooted softly before speaking, her voice filled with a playful imperiousness.

"Come, old sister, and do sit next to me. There is no need to observe the proper courtesies when it is just you and I; did we not know each other's scents in the birthing room and suckle our milk from the teats of the same wet nurse?"

Lar'ri hooted softly in agreement and then quickly sprinted to the bench, positioning herself properly so her long, thin tail would slip into the cutout along the back edge as she sat down in the shallow depression that would be filled by her haunches.

Once she was seated, Nal'as gave her a long, searching look before dipping her head to indicate for Lar'ri to begin the recollections.

Starting from when she had first left the Exalted Fleet, Lar'ri gave a concise summary of the events as they unfolded, and she could see the excitement in the Matriarch's eyes as she described tasting the engines of the unknown ship that was of the same origin as their own.

After traversing the great voids of death for so long, not only did they finally come across life in the system within the cluster, but now they had come across another unknown ship, which meant where they were going still teemed with life and had not yet been destroyed by the evil Bal'Ri'Kan.

She described capturing the ship and then the signal reciprocity, and she could feel the silent approval being exuded by Nal'as as she told of how she released the ship and began the process of properly introducing the Exalted Fleet to new potential allies.

The approval turned into a deep shame that was easily discerned by the guilt in the eyes, and the Matriarch's face scales flushed as Lar'ri described the visceral reaction of the mammalian ape Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi and her erroneous assumption that they were of the same ilk as the evil and hateful Bal'Ri'Kan.

Lar'ri told the truth in every recollection except for one thing, and she allowed her admiration for the fighting skills of Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi and her underlings to come to life in her words, describing in great detail how their small and heavily damaged ship fought like a cornered sskirl'lasska fighting to protect its young against great odds.

She could see the Matriarch's eyes dilating and her breath quickening as she recollected the beginnings of the battle and described how they decimated the Bal'Ri'kan despite the great odds facing them and the heroic sacrifices of the crusaders on the other ships.

Her voice faltered as she then recollected how the mammalian ape ship was struck with a mortal blow, and she looked away as she stopped speaking, afraid to confess what she had done and failed to recollect before.

Nal'as noticed and trilled softly in misunderstanding before speaking gently. "You did what you could, old sister, and none can fault you for failing, so I will not. It is a shame I will not get to meet Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi in this life; she sounds like a true battle matron and someone I could have considered a companion and ally."

Still averting her gaze, Lar'ri responded hesitantly, speaking just barely loud enough to be heard. "She still lives, Nal'as. I... invoked Thari'shul and ordered our ships to protect her and her underlings at all costs. I regret not recollecting this as I should have."

Nal'as hissed lowly as her head reared back and the spinal feathers went erect, seeming more shocked than angry as she clacked her jaws together anxiously before speaking again. This time, she was speaking not as Nal'as the companion, like she was before, but as the matriarch, and the emotional dynamic of the room changed.

"Look at me, Lar'ri. Look me in the eyes and tell me why you did this!"

Lar'ri lifted her head, feeling her face scales flushing as she forced herself to look into the eyes of her Matriarch. The pupils were now constricted into a thin line, and there was no longer any hint of the prior love and happiness that were in them when she first entered the inner sanctum.

All her prior preparations and thought organization vanished, leaving her floundering without her logical and well-prepared arguments. The Matriarch continued peering at her, waiting for her justification of invoking Thari'shul and endangering the Exalted Fleet for a battle matron and stranger they did not truly know yet.

"It is hard to properly explain, Matriarch. When she mistakenly thought we were the evil Bal'Ri'kan, she did not flee or submit to our overpowering advantage. She instead overloaded her core and charged at us, Matriarch!

She wanted to die with honor and take as many of us as she could to the afterlife with her like a true battle matron would, rather than flee like a coward or allow us to take her and her underlings as spoils.

I saw this, and I thought if she was willing to do this, then others of her kind would be too, and are these not the kind of allies we had hoped to find? Crusaders like us who would fight and die to their last breath to kill our hateful cousin-kin?"

Lar'ri stopped speaking, overcome with wild emotions that threatened to break her composure. The Matriarch recognized the inner turmoil she was undergoing and remained silent, allowing her the time needed to collect herself. Once she was ready, Lar'ri continued, determined to prove her point by speaking from the heart.

"And when I told her that we were not the same as the evil Bal'Ri'kan and that I would remain and allow her to slay us to prove that we were different, she stopped the core overload, proving to me she was not only a wise and true battle matron but also that she was not an evil slayer.

In that moment, she was no longer a stranger to me but a true battle matron who also knew right from wrong; she not only had the courage to die with honor if need be but also the wisdom to move past what I looked like and peer into my heart and soul so she might see who I truly am.

This is why I invoked Thari'shul, Matriarch. I did not think on it and consider the consequences; my heart had already made the decision for me and said it was the right thing to do, so I listened to it."

The Matriarch's pupils dilated to their maximum size as she rapidly clacked her teeth together, the chattering sounds ringing throughout the inner sanctum and grating in Lar'ri's earholes.

It sounded almost exactly like the mating calls of the underground insects on their twin worlds that emerged every six cycles by the trillions to reproduce before dying, an occurrence that every Bal'Ri'Sar dreaded with all their being.

As Lar'ri waited for the Matriarch's judgment, she could see the internal conflict warring in the eyes, which were gateways to the soul. The chattering finally ceased as she saw the tiny muscles around the eye sockets relaxing and the pupils returning to normal before the Matriarch spoke again.

"I was not there, Lar'ri; it is not my place to condemn you for your decision, especially if it was made by the heart, but now you have bound us all to fulfilling the vow. I can only hope it was the right thing to do. Tell me everything, and don't leave out any recollections this time, old sister."

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Lar'ri did as commanded, and now here she was, on the periphery of the system as time seemed to slow its passage by a hundredfold. 1.35 light cycles away, there were five thousand warships death-feigning inside an emission nebula, sent by the Matriarch to help Lar'ri fulfill the vow of the Thari'shul and rescue Battle Matron Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi if need be.

The rest of the Exalted Fleet was coming as well, though at a greatly reduced speed because of the need to protect their mining fabricator vessels and the massive Arkships that grew their food and housed millions of crusaders.

Within thirty solar seconds of their arrival at the edge of the solar system, two hundred of the black, menacingly fanged warships flashed out and assembled into a bowl-shaped formation with her lone ship nestled deep inside of it.

She immediately recognized and appreciated the fact that Protector did not surround her ship entirely and chose this formation instead. It was denying her the ability to move any further into the system while still allowing her the option to retreat if she wished to by only blocking her on three axes instead of four.

Despite opening a channel to the formation four times, there had been no signal reciprocity from the warships except for a curt response that was obviously artificial in nature and always said the same thing:

~ Cease all attempts to communicate. We have not been authorized by Protector to engage in an exchange of scents with you. ~

After the fourth rejection at signal reciprocity, Lar'ri stopped trying and instead focused on running combat and evasion drills to prepare for any eventuality, but mostly to distract herself from looking at the chronometer every few solar seconds.

She was so engrossed with a series of mine-dropping and death-feigning drills, she failed to notice the sudden appearance of the massive warship that slipped out of null space without the usual brilliant flash before taking position 100,000 draks directly in front of their bow.

"Battle Matron, another ship has flashed out!"

She snapped her head around immediately, hearing the anxiousness in the warning and looking at the main viewer. It was the same ship as before, which meant Protector was here.

Like the others, the bow was fanged, and the two demon eyes of the particle turrets above the torpedo tubes within the snarling mouth glowed brightly, making her spinal feathers rise at the terrifying display of ferocious intent.

She quickly glanced at the chronometer to confirm the time, seeing it was exactly thirty-two solar hours to the nanosecond when the warship flashed out. At least they are punctual; this shows great respect for others' time, she conceded as she raised her dominant upper hand and signaled for a channel to be opened.

There was a series of beeps from the communication tech's console as the two ships ran their own individual security protocols to prevent any infiltration attempts, and after receiving the signal from the tech that all was well, Lar'ri inhaled deeply to begin speaking when an unexpected voice came over the audio intercoms.

"I know that ship! Let me speak first. Larry? Is that you!?"

She knew the voice, and her heart fluttered at the unexpected sound of it ringing throughout the command chamber as her mind stuttered and lost its bearings momentarily before she recovered.

"Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi? Is this really you?" She asked hesitantly, her spinal feathers stiffening with sudden suspicion. What if this was a trick by the Protector? Voices could be fabricated, especially by an advanced and powerful artificial intelligence like Protector was.

"Yes, Larry, It's me! I'm so happy it is you who has come; I was so worried about you and your people even though Protector told me about what happened after it knocked me out like an asshole and kidnapped me."

Before Lar'ri could respond, the cold and emotionless voice of Protector came over the channel.

~ You were being illogical and overly emotional, Sheila Mizrahi. I stunned you to prevent you from taking any action that would harm yourself and your crew. I do not appreciate being compared to a bodily orifice that expels waste. I have told you thi- ~

"Can it, Protector. I told you it's just a figure of speech, and have I called you that again since then except in reference to that circumstance? No, I haven't. So, do me a favor and disable your vocal processors for a moment so I can talk to my friend, okay? You will get your chance to talk after I am finished."

~ I do not appreciate your insolent demeanor, Sheila Mizrahi. You may be Magnati, but I am a Class-12 integrated neuronal intelligence, the most advanced one ever built by the Federation's Artificial Intelligence Institute. You would be wise to accord me the respect I am due. ~

"Jeez, don't get your algorithms all twisted in a bunch and turn Skynet on me, Protector. Let the adults talk first, and then you'll get your turn, okay? Good boy. Larry? Are you still there? I'm sorry about that; I'm still potty-training Protector, as you can see."

Lar'ri was following along with the very unusual conversation between Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi and Protector, though some of the words and terms could not be translated by the translation matrix in real time, but she understood enough to be greatly surprised by the strange dynamic between them. It did not seem like a normal captor/captive interaction.

Still, she was highly suspicious, and her mind accelerated as she tried to think of a way to confirm this was really Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi and not a treacherous strategem. Recollection of what she said to Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi when she overloaded her core and charged at her ships came to the forefront, and she seized on it.

"Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi, if this be truly you, then tell me what I said to you when you overloaded your core and charged at me. Only the true Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi would know this and be able to tell me now."

Several solar seconds passed before the familiar voice responded, sounding very serious and emotional.

"You said... if I killed you and your crew, then I would be a slayer who steals life from others, like the Balrikans do. You said you did not think I was a slayer, and that even if I did kill you... you would still call me sister and ask God to absolve me of the sin because I did not know any better. It's really me, Larry."

Lar'ri felt her heart fluttering again at the words as they came over the audio intercoms. It was truly her, and she wanted to shriek with joy because Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi was not only still alive, but she was also here now speaking with her.

Lar'ri forced herself to remain still and composed even as her body trembled with relief, wondering how to proceed now that her ally was here. Before she could acknowledge the battle matron's words, Protector came back over the channel.

~ That was an unnecessarily convoluted way to verify your identity, Sheila Mizrahi. It would have been far simpler to just open visual communications. I do not understand why they are still refusing to establish a visual interface; my scans indicate their communications array has been replaced, so there is no battle damage preventing them from doing so this time. It seems extremely suspect, and my calculations indicate a high probability it is because they are hiding something. ~

Lar'ri's whole body clenched at the Protector's astute observation, and she made the signal to prepare to initiate an emergency flash out in case the artificial intelligence acted on its suspicions when Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi responded to it.

"I told you, Protector. They have a religious prohibition that does not allow them to reveal their faces or bodies to any who are not blood kin. This is why they wear clothing that covers their whole face and body, only allowing the eyes to be seen.

Right Larry? Isn't this what you told me when I asked why you wouldn't allow me to see your face when we first established visual communication before your array was damaged in the battle?"

It took Lar'ri a few moments to understand what Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi was trying to convey with the untrue statement, a delay that Protector seized on to interrupt again.

~ I find this highly unlikely, Sheila Mizrahi. It is not typical of a civilization to become spacefaring with such religious taboos still exerting this type of influence. I have scanned my databases multiple times and have yet to find any- ~

"It is not proper for you to still be harping on this, Protector. Do you remember when I showed you several cultures on my own world that had and still have such restrictions? And did I not show you that the Ma'lit do the same thing and hide themselves now? No pun intended, but you need to let sleeping dogs lie and move on, Protector.

Larry, are you still there? I apologize for the unintended insensitivity of Protector; it does not have the proper understanding of cultural and religious idiosyncrasies. I hope you can forgive us so we may move on.

Now that Protector has been informed of your religious restrictions, do you require time to fully... veil yourself so we may establish visual communications and perhaps come to an agreement that would benefit us all?

We all have the same enemy, and it seems to me we should make common cause and try to form an alliance if possible. I offer my services to mediate between you both as a representative of the Republic of Humanity; what say you?"

Full understanding of what Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi was trying to do dawned on her mind, and Lar'ri bared her fangs happily as she recognized the intelligent foresight and deviousness of the mammalian battle matron. Not wishing to allow Protector to interrupt again, Lar'ri answered immediately.

"Yes, we wish this. We require five solar minutes to properly veil and prepare ourselves for visual communication. Is this acceptable to the both of you?"

"Yes, I accept." Shi'lah Mik'ra'hi answered immediately, her voice sounding both excited and worried to Lar'ri's ears. The artificial voice of Protector came over the audio intercoms a moment later.

~ I accept. Please initiate the visual interface as soon as your religious requirements are fulfilled. We will be waiting. ~

Lar'ri signaled for the channel to be closed and waited for the tech to confirm it had been done and was now safe to speak before leaping up and trilling loudly to get everyone's attention. Once they were all looking at her, she pointed to the communications and weapons techs.

"We do not have much time. You two! Go and get large fabrics that will cover our entire bodies. We need four of them and get cutters as well so we can make holes for the eyes. Go now and come back as fast as you can!"

As the two techs immediately obeyed and sprinted out of the chamber, she pointed at her second. "You will remain here with me and the other two techs. I know you are good with drawing, yes? Go get your satchel and quickly look up simple religious iconography from one of the dead worlds we came across in our records.

I want you to draw some of the iconography on the cloths to keep up the religious pretense, but keep it simple for now since we do not have much time. The rest of you, exit the chamber and wait in the corridor; you are to prevent anyone else from entering the chamber. Go, now!"

As all the other underlings responded to her command and began to quickly leave the chamber in a disciplined and orderly fashion, her second stepped closer and spoke quietly. "What of our eyes, Battle Matron? We have yet to come across any others that have eyes like we and the evil ones do."

Lar'ri jerked her head back in surprise, not having thought of that at all. "You are correct, Second Hir'al. I did not even think of that."

"I had an idea on that, Battle Matron. We can don the goggles the torch cutters and welders use in their tasks; they can go over the cloths and hide our eyes, and the artificial intelligence may well assume it is normal since we are already hiding our face and body."

"Excellent thought, Second Hir'al. Have four of them sent to us immediately."

As the second unhooked the communicator from his harness, the other two techs came back into the chamber, their arms filled with large bundles of dark gray cloth that looked like the table coverings they used for the communal meals.

They dropped the cloths on the deck and quickly began to separate them as the second gave her the signal that the goggles were on their way before sprinting to his station and pulling out a small artist satchel from under it.

"Remember, keep it simple!" She called out to remind him as the two techs began to cut small holes in the middle of the now separated sheets. Hir'al acknowledged her reminder before he accessed the databanks and began to peer intently at the images being shown on the small screens.

Looking at the large chronometer above the main viewer, Lar'ri felt equal measures of excitement and worry surging through her body as she watched the others hurrying to finish their tasks before the allotted time ran out.

I hope this works, she thought to herself as the second got down on the ground and began to draw around the two eyeholes of the first sheet with bright red paint. Looking back at the chronometer, she saw that just over three solar minutes remained.

I should have said ten solar minutes, she chided herself as the second finished with the first sheet and moved over to the next one.

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