--- 34 - New Species ---
Squeaky eagerly looked out at the swirl of colors that marked travel with a fast FTL drive. Today was the first chance she had to check on her special project personally since starting it a few days before. While things were going better with the more mundane trade between instances, this was what she really thought would work out best.
The problem with trading to exploit the differences in resources and tech available in various instances was not getting a set of places that all got more resources than Squeaky started with. It wasn't hard to find something cheap in any given instance, and just finding a version of the next that wanted it wasn't too bad either with their current search methods and data from the Void Entities. The issue was that the stuff she could find both cheap and in high enough quantities to use as trade goods wasn't the same stuff that the Lava Vipers actually needed to operate.
Raw materials were easy to get, Squeaky just bought more than she wanted to sell from an instance you found it cheap, or more likely they could just capture more to reprocess from the ancient networks. From there they could make a lot of the lower end goods that everyone wanted. Which was a good amount of civilian grade things, because it turned out that Flamescale was right about a lot of them wanting to go civilian, plus basic ammunition production and the supplies to repair most of their stuff.
Going past those more basic goods was the problem. R&D was working on designs for proper production of advanced gates and other Void technologies, with side projects to design some custom freighter and warship components so they could start to build their own that Squeaky wouldn't need to somehow explain. However, they couldn't work on everything, and there was a lot of stuff that they could acquire more easily than reverse engineer to build themselves.
That sort of stuff also was hard to buy. Heavy plasma rifles were technically on the market in some instances, but Squeaky needed to double check if they were modern models, or the old style that was miniaturized into the modern standard plasma rifle she could get by the pallet. Military security crackers and other electronics weren't available outside of the black markets, which were honestly harder to buy from on her timescale. She could get these things, if she had better stuff to sell or months to set up some connections.
"Prepare for FTL emergence," the Unfinished's computer system stated over the internal speaker system as the colors faded back into the speckled black of space. "Docking maneuvers for Freeport 45 starting, be prepared for sudden artificial gravity shifts."
Squeaky started to the main docking bay, and double checked that she was scaled. This inspection was mostly to work out if there were any immediate issues that needed her to talk with the Locals again, and to make sure that her team here wasn't hiding any problems. Likely not even on purpose, this was an odd thing to try and Squeaky was not crazy enough to think she had considered all the problems they might run into.
Brilliant-Clear-Sky was ready and waiting for them as soon as the freighter docked, the former Macrophylla that Squeaky put in charge of this project ready to meet her immediately. Their body had a fairly minimal set of markings, just a large black triangle in middle of their head with an otherwise red body. Scaled at the moment to go with the deception that none of them were goo creatures, and Brilliant-Clear-Sky was one of those Macrophylla that showed off that the Leafs weren't all xenophobic by being xenophilic instead. In practice that meant they were quite happy with their new form, and also a solid choice to deal with a massive variety of forms.
"Quartermaster," they greeted her as she continued past to better look at their dock. "We have been allowed to secure this space a bit more than most of the traders, and allowed the market space adjacent to it, but I am still unsure about how much we can test that. Entities may take it as a challenge, even if the Locals don't."
"Have they tried anything so far?" Squeaky questioned thoughtfully. That detail was a big reason why she was spending the resources to have daily transport trips that genuinely took goods to and from the station, and as little goo visible as they could manage.
"The only thing so far has been trying to sell us Linked Gear and then leave with it," they warned her with a sigh. "It didn't work, but they are trying to figure out exactly why it doesn't work on us when it apparently can work on Locals."
"I assume they then buy the items back?" Squeaky considered. They were currently allowing that as long as the stuff didn't already head out on a ship out of the instance.
"Sometimes. A few have needed to make some rather big trades to get them back due to spending the money elsewhere on the station first," Brilliant-Clear-Sky confirmed. "We also have had issues with the rare stuff. I'm not sure what to do with Entities trying to buy the stuff other Entities have sold us."
"That is waiting for us to work out how often buybacks happen, and maybe what sort of stuff we want to keep," Squeaky ordered as they arrived at the main floor, where they could see out into the main market area their shop sat inside. "What is the initial report on what we've been getting?" She knew the high level results, but had spent more time hiding these efforts than she had checking the smaller details. That was another reason for this trip.
"Well, the main thing so far is gear," the other Lava Viper started to explain. "Data chips are really common, mostly empty ones but we have decided to pay a bit more for filled ones. We don't check what is on them until afterwards, but that just means we can only pay just a bit more instead of whatever the data is worth."
"You are checking those on isolated systems, right?" she had to ask dully, and somewhat unimpressed with that idea. "We honestly can probably use them even if they are auto-hack chips, but system burners could still end up expensive even with isolated systems."
"Bio-Hacking. We have an expert who can check that, and the burners we've hit so far haven't even killed him yet," Brilliant-Clear-Sky quietly mentioned. "Next most common is personal computer stuff. A lot of it is civilian, with only a few security crackers. After that is guns and ammunition, which varies. The best stuff was Linked, but Girant and Macrophylla ballistic weapons are the most common so far. 319 stuff we get asked about selling more than we buy, but we are getting some."
"Any notable odd ones?" Squeaky asked a bit eagerly. She was looking forward to the first Void Entity that decided to try and sell something unreasonable. Like an entire disassembled factory, or a space ship. If they did think of this as games then some of them should mess with that sort of thing.
"A pile of cybernetics," Brilliant-Clear-Sky said without their typical cheer. "Well, the cybernetics were what we paid for, it was actually a pile of body parts. We had to point out that we didn't have a use for biological things, and then we had to clarify a bit more when we got some ancient samples."
Outside Squeaky could see a Void Gate open. There were a few scattered around the station, apparently installed by Void Entities and leading to places that let them come here more easily. Squeaky wasn't sure how well the Locals here were keeping up with stocking whatever else they were buying. A couple of odd creatures emerged, the ones that looked like the Girant idea of an alien from before they met other species besides the Slinks, with an ape-like form, only with just two arms and a rather small amount of hair that was only present in patches. DeepStoneMiner of the Ancient Network raids seemed to be the only Entity Flamescale worked with that used this form, but it was more common elsewhere.
"Full details are on the office computer, right?" Squeaky asked, not entirely ready to try to buy things herself without any prior interactions with random Void Entities.
"As much as we trust to take down," they confirmed, and clearly got that she wanted to go on her own as they made for the counters that the Entities were heading towards.
The office was reasonably secured, and large enough for small meetings after considering the way the tight spaces of a station were limiting to creatures their size. It didn't take long to get to the door, with some short discussion with a pair of Vipers moving some Girant small arms from a storeroom to the Unfinished as the main distraction.
Squeaky happily opened the door, and there inside the room was Flamescale at the far end looking directly at Squeaky.
The thought that first entered Squeaky's mind at this was a comparison to the time her First Trainer caught her sneaking into the training computer lab after bed time to run the "The Assault on the Ferric" simulation game. Squeaky had not known that Flamescale would be here, and given how hard she was trying to hide this from Flamescale that likely meant that she was also caught because of being made to not realize someone was there again. Her First Trainer had used that sort of masking on half her clone batch when they tried stuff like that by the end of their time with him.
"Flamescale," Squeaky said, unfortunately with a bit of a squeak. "I didn't think this project was quite-"
"Squeaky," Flamescale cut her off, and again Squeaky was reminded of her First Trainer. Who did not take her justifications about the simulation being educational on what needed to be kept fixed on a ship well. "I have had an interesting day." The tone was something Squeaky had never heard from Flamescale before. "It started with Yellow-Glow asking me why my project ended up on another guide before his. Which was bad enough, as any projects I have that I don't want on his guides are projects I don't want on any guides."
Squeaky realized that she had forgotten about those, despite using them to find this place. It didn't seem like something that would really matter all that much, and she assumed that Yellow-Glow not having that sort of list meant he didn't care about that sort of thing.
"So imagine my surprise when I found that RedStarScribe's top recommend Local trade station now had a new species of red and black snake people," Flamescale continued in the same tone, and ordered her to come in and close the door. "Now, he didn't outright say that this was another player's minions trying to do some large scale trade, but I am not under the impression that he wasn't at least considering the option." Flamescale saying 'player' was a bad sign in Squeaky's experience.
"Now, I don't mind projects I don't know about when it comes to Locals," Flamescale kept explaining. "I don't care what deals or even scams you pull with them as long as you aren't giving away secrets. We can always just leave with Locals, just abandon the instance and move on without much risk of them doing anything to us again. But players are different, players talk to each other, players know what the rules of the game are, and players will find me when I do things. Like my army of snakes buying stuff at random prices outside of the Nexus." Flamescale breathed out heavily.
"I assume that we are shutting down then?" Squeaky asked, unable to keep a bit of disappointment out of her tone.
"And make everyone think this was a scam?" Flamescale sarcastically asked. "The problem isn't that this is a bad idea, it is that I am not a social person. I am not the kind of player who would run this sort of thing, so when they ask me why I did whatever it is you are doing here I won't have an answer."
The room was getting a bit too hot, although Squeaky had planned to occasionally get mad in here so it wouldn't be the worst case of damage to their equipment. "You're angry," Squeaky realized quietly as that thought registered. She didn't think she'd ever seen Flamescale angry before.
That realization seemed to make Flamescale take a moment to consider what to say. "There are taboo topics among Void Entities," Flamescale slowly restarted her explanation, clearly calmer from how the term wasn't 'players' this time. "Things that it occurs to me you might not understand are taboo topics. The big one is that it is not a game." Flamescale looked her over for a moment. "You do have games, right?" Squeaky glared at her boss who apparently went a bit too far with assuming she didn't understand things. "If a game suddenly had a new shop open, and the person who opened it said the NPCs were the ones to open it, what would you think?"
"How good of a simulation are we talking about?" Squeaky questioned, but she had a terrible suspicion what Flamescale actually meant. "But that isn't part of the taboo, is it?"
"The fact that you are a real person, somebody who could come up with this scheme, is a subject I can't openly discuss around random players going off RedStarScribe's guide," Flamescale clarified bluntly. "I would make a lot of Entities mad. Which means since we can't shut this down, and I can't explain why this was done, I need someone to point to who did have the idea. Another Void Entity."
Squeaky flinched at that, and started to get the idea. It was disappointing, very disappointing, to have her work given to someone else, but she nodded unhappily at the reality of that argument. If Void Entities only listened to Void Entities as people, then there had to be one to run this.
"The plan is that I will say I have an online friend who didn't have an account yet, and wanted to know if whatever this is was possible before she got one," Flamescale continued still being blunt. "Now that we know it does work, she has started her own account to help me handle it since I don't do this sort of thing."
"So, who am I going to be working for now?" Squeaky dully questioned, with a hope that it would be someone worth working with.
Flamescale gave her the most unimpressed look yet. "Squeaky, you are the new Void Entity. Getting an account is no longer optional due to this stunt you pulled," Flamescale said, and that was worse than Flamescale just being mad at her. Squeaky could tell just how unreasonably dedicated Flamescale was to giving them choices about this sort of thing, so taking that away meant that Flamescale had to be beyond angry at her. "You are going to figure out a name, get your character made, get a slot in our shared base area, and have Yellow-Glow help you get started with some skills. Hopefully before I get asked too many times about what you are doing here."
Squeaky didn't really have a good answer to that, but she did have a question that she probably should have asked before. "Would you have let me try, if I had asked?"
"Squeaky, I'm still not sure what you're doing here," Flamescale declared. "Given it made someone's guide I probably would have asked you to get an account first, that way we didn't have a terrible lie about the timeline, but I need things to be getting fixed before I can ask what it is or how it is going. Even then we are only going for something that sounds plausible to anyone who doesn't know this is real, and that should hopefully be enough for the ones who do know."
---
Squeaky was happy enough that Flamescale seemed impressed with the idea once it was properly explained. Even if it had the downside of being on a time limit until the Entities worked out that Lava Vipers weren't an actual new species and just another Void Entity's forces.
"So, the good news is that it was only a matter of time before someone tried this, and the obvious explanation is that I was the first Entity that had ships and the free time to try," Flamescale noted much more calmly as Squeaky finally got a chance to go over the data she had been there for in the first place. "Actually, that helps with the cover story too. Getting ships that work isn't a new player thing to pull off, and I'm one of the players who has the best setup so far to handle this. I'd rather not let people know we have gate-to-point advanced gates yet, so maybe setup a fixed gate base somewhere instead."
"We're hiding that from other 'players' too?" Squeaky had to ask, even though she knew that the worst part of the plan was trying to get her to sound like a regular Void Entity.
"You probably want to go with a cover story of being really into the lore," Flamescale cautioned carefully. "And yes, we are hiding things from other Entities. Lots of things, but those are one that is an advantage I don't want to easily give up. Given that they are a technology I don't know if I want to spread to the human instance."
"What is-" Squeaky started to ask then cut herself off.
"What is what?" Flamescale questioned.
"Um, well I realized that you probably can't answer me," Squeaky noted uneasily, but Flamescale gave her a look. "I was going to ask what having more than one body was like, but then I remembered that you're weird even for a Void Entity there," she confessed.
"Synch-Tech isn't like having more than one body most of the time," Flamescale grumbled. "Sixteen is doing alright, but there are a lot of people who can't manage both sides at once. You will see Entities that only do stuff here when they aren't doing something in the human instance."
"You sound like your talking about drone control cybernetics," Squeaky pointed out. Admittedly those needed a communications line to operate, but Sixteen had fair scores with those, and Squeaky personally had some pretty good ones.
"I don't know how your drone control stuff compares to Synch-Tech," Flamescale admitted thoughtfully. "The only drones I've ever used are Synch-Tech, so I can't compare there, and I never had the time to get Local stuff like what the Oryx use to work properly."
"Oryx aren't Locals," Squeaky pointed out. "They're from beyond the Gap. I think the only reason they even come to Local Space is to trade their electronics for 319 weapons and reactors."
"Locals to the instance," Flamescale said looking just as confused. "I mean... wait, wait is this place actually called 'Local Space'. As in the name instead of a description? You guys actually use that?"
"With 'Locals' as the proper noun," Squeaky slowly confirmed. "We're in the largest collection of civilizations anyone knows about so far. Okay, if you don't know even that much I have to pretend I'm going too far into pretending the game is real to handle those conversations you want me to handle."
---
[Author's Note]
And now Squeaky is found out, and has to deal with the consequences of going for forgiveness instead of permission. This moment was a big motivation to do this little side arc, even if some versions of the arc I considered omitted it.
It is also looking like the arc might be 6 chapters instead of the original plan of 4... yes 4, the next chapter was already an addition once I worked out Squeaky's skills as a Void Entity, and that is a big reason I went for this outcome to the arc. We just have another chapter being added after the next one too to tie things up.
