Neras Emergence Starhome Alternate Nutrient Source Advised
Location Unknown
You floated in the deep dark, only the faintest light of decades past glinting on the surface of your home. Almost two weeks by the measure of Earth in that vast emptiness, waiting patiently for others to come; little surprise you'd grown lonely as the days ticked by. Out here, there was no central star, or planets to judge the passage of time by eye, and a Starhome was far smaller than those. Half again the size of a
Collector, yes, but when distance made even the stars small?
But your people had mastered a way to step across those distances a long time ago, and space rippled as fellows flickered between the Void. Twelve Starhomes snapped into existence around the
Alternate Nutrient Source Advised, and a flurry of acknowledgements and welcomes spun between them. A full choir had answered the call, as you'd hoped at the same time as worrying that there would have been too little time for one to muster. Yet here they were, and there was a pleasant surge of warmth as you recognised the
Single Action Retrograde Enabled among them. It was rare for growth-sibs to meet in the grand sweep of the galaxy.
More signals flashed between you and the choir, and thirteen ships so large as to almost defy the term swung gracefully in towards each other. A long time ago, this would have been much messier, but you'd learnt better ways since those early days. Six limbs stretched out from the skin of your home, linking with matched growths from your temporary companions, for this was too precious to be trusted to wireless transmissions. The link buzzed for a moment in your minds, then vibrant thoughts burst across it from the other minds who had joined you, and you lifted your own consciousness to meet theirs. For all the theatre of its formation, there was no faster, or safer way for the Emergence to share experiences than this.
Shock echoed in the link at your actions in the last part-cycle, but it settled as they recognised your reasons. It was rare indeed for anything so complex to be left behind, and curiosity had always been a defining trait of your species. The question now was what to do with it. The works of the latest growths of galactic life were simple enough to access, but it was rarely a question of 'could we' for the Neras. The question today, as it almost always would be, was 'should we'.
As the one who'd found the curiosity, it was expected that you would support opening it, yet you were conflicted. The blossoms of the six growths that had come together aboard you so many times were a regular source of mass, but for something to be brought and then left for the purge meant that its contents were seen as deathly dangerous. Maybe even something to do with the lost ones, but how the younger ones could have found that data…was a matter for another time.
Thought and feeling poured across the link, a freewheeling debate of more than just words, but it wasn't without purpose. A consensus formed, slowly but steadily, between the choir; to open the chip and see what the Nilean's had discovered. Another race might have erred on the side of caution, but it was so rare now for true curiosities to come calling, and this was definitely one of them. To simply let it lie? That wouldn't do at all.
Your growth-sib confirmed the agreement, and you signalled acknowledgement, extending miniscule parts of yourself into the access port on the Nilean datachip. Power pulsed through the interface point, bringing the storage to life, and you opened your view of it to the rest of the choir. They would see whatever was here at the same time as you; so that each would be able to form their own opinions in the pursuit of a consensus.
A twist here, and the encryption fell apart, and then the data were clear.
Oh.
Oh my.
You hadn't expected anything like this.
***
Many moments later, the intricate web of links between you and the other Neras broke apart, the growths returning to the skin of the Starhomes, and power flickered to life at the core of every member of the choir. What you'd found had been interesting, but the possibilities of it, for the lost blossoms and ones who'd picked them, they were fascinating.
Two of your fellows vanished across the Void, charting new paths as you reached for your own, the power woven through you forging a bridge across the stars. You didn't use it yet, however, still deep in conversation with your growth-sib.
Single Action Retrograde Enabled would take what you had discovered here and carry through the consensus. Three more Starhomes vanished as you said your goodbyes, and another five followed as you double-checked your own destination. Spending so long in one place wasn't likely to set you wrong, but it was safer to be sure.
By the time that was done, you were the only one left in that place of black and starlight, but you wouldn't have time to be lonely again. You set the image of your path in your minds, a thriving system of another of the youngest growth, and then the bridge was there. An instant of connection, but that was enough; these bridges cared not for the weight they bore.
And the light of old stars shone once more, alone across the deepest dark.
