Grasp the Stars (Stellaris: Overlord)

Scans of enormous monoliths on the surface of Sjookr VI show pictograms of what appears to be a creation myth. The mineral composition of the enormous towers does not appear to match their local geology - or indeed the geology of any of the planet's major mountain ranges - suggesting they may have been imported from off-planet. There doesn't appear to be any signs of actual habitation, however.

The ISS Einstein may have uncovered a clue as to the mystery of Hraztan's history. A laser-scarred military vessel has been located, adrift around Hraztan B. Captain Schwarz is already in contact with Earth's best xenolinguists to try and decode the logs.

Secretary Lebouef slowly re-reads the summary report from Pavel's team. "I think I'm going to throw up..." she mumbles to her empty office.

Some of the databanks on Titan have been safely powered up and quickly translated, using the extensive samples of the aliens' language from previous sites. A massive automated analysis - there hasn't been time for anything else yet - turned up frequent use of a phrase that appears to mean something like 'brain cleansing'. More extensive examination of the surrounding context suggests these ancient aliens had developed technology capable of crippling mental faculties, and this base was aimed at a massive project to deploy this 'brain cleansing' on a massive scale.

But why?

"On screen! Now!" Sophie calls, striding into Sol Station's largest conference room. She is alone physically, but Cordelia and Envoy Cartwright are already present holographically.

The large screen at the opposite end of the table comes alive. The creature pictured is birdlike, or perhaps reptilian, bipedal but with four arms, and appears to be formed of mineral materials. Where there might be a ridge of feathers on an earthly fowl, a row of crystals juts from the creature's head and back.

The creature begins grumbling and gnashing, the stones in its chest grinding against one another to produce different rhythms. Text on the bottom of the screen begins translating.

Curator Portrait said:

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<Greetings, young star travelers, from the Curator Order. I am the High Curator, [Graat Daartun].>

"Well met, High Curator. I am Exoplanetary Secretary Lebouef. My colleagues are Secretary-General Whitfield and Envoy Cartwright, who I understand you have already spoken with."

There is a moment of delay as the translation happens on their end, before the High Curator shudders.

Cartwright whispers, "That was basically a nod."

<We live long, and our Order has endured long, and seen much. It is pleasant to meet a new people who appear in peace. As your Envoy has heard, we were established to preserve and share knowledge. I ask you, who has the authority to answer, do you seek a contract with us?>

Your current credit stockpile is about 9000. The 'what else can we expect' option can be taken multiple times using "[] (Curators) What else can we expect to encounter out in the galaxy? (-300 credits, +10 opinion with Curators) x2", x3, etc. Votes for taking it N times will count as support for numbers lower than N.
[X] (Curators) Access to your databanks would be most helpful. (-1000 credits; +10% research speed for 10 years; +20 opinion with Curators)
[X] (Curators) What else can we expect to encounter out in the galaxy? (-300 credits, +10 opinion with Curators)
[] (Curators) We would be interested in recruiting one of your scientists. Requires 50 opinion, currently +0.
[] (Curators) Nothing more for now.

Galactic Situation said:

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In addition to forwarding codes to access a portion of their ancient databanks, the Curator order sends two coordinates. One is a system counter-spinward to Sol and much nearer the galactic core, where another branch of the Curators resides. The other is also counter-spinward but much closer, and nearer to the ISS Hawking's current position. Captain Reid suspects the trail she is triangulating may lead that direction as well, and has become even more excited about the prospect of a long-distance journey.

"Captain, I can barely make sense of this, so much of it is redacted. How is it possible I don't have clearance to see the full text?"

"It's not redacted ma'am, it's censored," Captain Schwarz replies crisply. "The ship's logs were mostly focused on cussing out a group that stole something from them. Almost obsessive, really. We're still not sure what took the ship out, but they left us coordinates to follow if we choose."

Secretary Lebouef scans the report again. The ship was apparently en route to a currently uncharted system in search of an alien manufacturing system that had been stolen from them. The xenolinguists working on the project have termed it the 'Rubricator'.

Send Captain Schwarz in search of this 'Rubricator'?
[X] (Relic) Yes
[] (Relic) No

Aided by the flood of information available from the Curators, Doctor Zhivenkova has organized rapid deployment of the latest zero-gravity experimental tools for humanity's orbital outposts, and is now making a big push to integrate and back up the portions of the Curator archives available to you to accelerate future work.

Sophie absentmindedly checks off Captain Okada's request to divert from her survey to investigate a small radio signal in orbit of Sjookr IIa. Such requests have long since been effectively rubber-stamped, but the bureaucracy demands its tribute.

Her head is thoroughly elsewhere, much closer to home. Another chunk of the Titan databanks have been successfully decoded. Their last entry diverts from the standard format for reporting fuel consumption or other such mundanities. It is a personal journal entry describing a ship taking off with the mind-wipe technology on board and grieving for the mission it undertakes, a mission described as wrong and despicable but the lesser of two evils.

But what the hell, she wonders, was the other evil?

Captain Wang would be very happy if he was not up to his chest in Grunur archaeology. Captain Okada has conducted extensive scans of the body of an ancient many-limbed alien pilot, mummified by the vacuum of space and orbiting a moon in the Sjookr system for what looks to have been, by carbon dating, about a millennium.

Instead of fawning over that particular alien, he is busily updating what little we know of the Grunur's language and culture. Many of the logs discovered thus far deal specifically with military exploits, usually briefly. A large fraction are devoted to a single encounter, however, when the Grunur made contact with a species they referred to as "the Baol Organism".

Qiang is very excited to point out the use of the singular tense - a whole civilization referred to as one organism. He hypothesizes that an organism using organic light-speed transmission like that observed by the fungal transmission Captain Reid is studying could have maintained coherence across a planetary scale, and developed a civilization consisting entirely of itself!

Captain Wang's hypothesis may soon be put to the test. Beatrice and her crew have managed to identify the targeting of the electromagnetic waves emitted by the massive mycelium, aided in part by 'using the mushrooms to peer into other dimensions'. Her report is scarce on methodological details, but it definitively identifies the target as a planet in the Orvall system, off to humanity's spinward.

Where should Captain Reid direct her attention?
[X] (Reid) Spinward, to the Fungal Trail.
[] (Reid) Counterspinward, to the Curator coordinates.
[] (Reid) Counterspinward, to the Curator coordinates. The Einstein is closer, send it after the fungus. (Incompatible with Yes on Relic vote.)

Galactic Situation said:

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