Madame Captain Cecilia ryanan squar could not believe her audio pores she fiercely snap shut her folding fan silencing the dull hum drum of her Noble Bridge with its resounding click her crew attendants all stopped what they were doing in fear of whatever anger had irked The Madam Captain they listen intently their audio pores expanding to take in the vibrations about to emanate from the communicore of the now shaking crew servant who kneels before the Madam Captain Madame Roy Ana considers the poor crew servant before her he is not an ignoble squid she does not hire
the ignoble for her royal vessel but while he may have a station both political and occupational he was certainly overjet in his manner to use such strong language as he has who does he think he is to say such a thing as we must investigate and to The Madam captain or self no less but she is not nearly as cruel as her mother might be were it her in This Ole the crew servants head would have already been crushed betwix her beak yet it is her mother's reputation that guides the reactions of her crew especially
those of the servants who do not attend to her directly upon the bridge he Quivers each of his tentacles shaking as he struggles to maintain his dignified bow his eyes pointed directly away from one another so as not to challenge The Madam Captain's gaze his beak just barely hovered above the floor as low as it could get without dirtying the Royal tiles with his less than Royal kitan perfect for him honestly marred only by his anxious shaking at least he has his chromator under control were he in the presence of any other aboard this vessel
Madame royan imagines he would be flaring all sorts of nervous colors right now his head a light like a celebratory light pillar do not make me repeat myself she commands perfectly exercising her royal tone honed over Decades of training and practice crew servant gan's Voice trembles through his communicore yes Madam Captain squar as you wish I believe firmly that we must investigate this planet I understand that the star system is not on the visitation schedule but I have discovered clear indicators of sentient life upon it yet I can find no records of any squid colonization
of the world due to its extreme size rendering its pressures too extreme at the higher depths any squid would require a pressure suit at high depths and a temperature control suit at the lower ones Ah that's his angle no squid could colonize this world but the same could not be said of the others within the Republic though of course any such colonization would be a clear breach of the territorial distribution act and and thereby a declaration of war fine let us see what fools have challenged the might of my step grandmother's Royal Navy surely the
CLA that discovers the trespass will earn the right of command in the engagement and thus secure the best battle honors and the greatest rewards from her majesty Queen Trac seal squid naturally This Crew servant has seen to it that this CLA shall be the royan natica he overjet but not without good reason Madame Captain Cecilia roon natica squar is not one to overlook an overachiever she gently Jets from her oval slowly pushing her way through the invisible ether between her and the now trembling head of the crew servant gnin but while he may have expected
his life to be cut short by the clamping of a royal beak what he received instead was a gentle suction from one of the Madame Captain's own manipulator tentacles you have done well crew servant gin you may have been hasty in your choice of words but your hearts are in the right place I am not my mother I reward Good Deeds I shall see to it that the clan gnin is Thoroughly rewarded for the Deeds of its she ended with an upward inflection not so subtly commanding that the crew servant reveal his family status his
trembling stops dead freezing entirely how odd he should be joyful at the recognition of his deed but why does he now he begin stuttering more fiercely than the reverberating motions of a particularly fast prey fish she confusedly tries to finish his word Baron I assume how odd I do not recall putting the baron of an entire Clan as a crew servant bastard he finishes Madame Captain Cecilia royan Ana squar chromophor Flash ever so briefly with yellow shock dappled and dots of purple confusion bastard of course you're she spoke to herself softly as if it were
the most obvious Revelation before realization struck her like a bolt of death light from the anther bastard her primary tentacle crushes into pieces the holding fan which was previously shut it shards floating now to the top of the royal Bridge she quickly jets away from him recoiling her tentacles and especially that one that touched the lowly bastard as if she were darting from the toxic Billow of a geov vent green disgust pure and true floods her translucent tubular head she tries to collect herself but is only barely able to refrain from shouting again how did
a bastard get aboard my vessel answer me immediately in great his tentacles droop now slouching to the floor of the royal bridge in defeat and shame as he should for his transgression before answering I I was unaware of my status at the time that I applied for this Expedition Madam Captain it was revealed to me only very recently via a long range communication when my mother's death resulted in a large number of previously hidden concubines stepping forward to lay their daughter's claims to my clan Clan gakin is currently falling apart due to this succession battle
from which I am isolated unable to act upon it I had hoped enough The Madam Captain command silencing him mid sentence I have heard enough I hope you understand my hesitation to believe in your ignorance and nevertheless you have performed an admirable deed in bringing this trespass to my attention Therefore your reward shall be me not imprisoning you in the brig for the remainder of the Expedition you shall atone for your crime of lying to royalty wittingly or otherwise by your good service your loyalty shall be its own reward when the Expedition is complete you
will be sent back to your clan for them to deal with you as they see fit am I clear she was literally as she recollected herself and corrected her chromator she returned to being almost transparent only the vague outline of her head and tentacles visible like the shroud of a Heavenly Spirit elegantly draped over her similarly translucent internal organs yes Madam Captain he depressingly acknowledged before breaking his kneel and promptly exiting the Royal bridge in shame she then returns to her ocle and then commands her crew attendants aboard the Royal bridge now I will not
be hearing any gossip about this incident understood good set course for the system what was its name again her Navigator a small and especially pale night of Clan gawran speaks up it is recorded in our database as trinia 12 it was discovered very very early on in the age of the first dynasty and was one of the first bodies assessed for a potential long-distance Outpost although the assessment reported it as uncolonized its nature as a theoretically habitable planet was enough to Warrant it being set as the furthest part of the current Dynasty's border when the
territorial District abusion Act was first implemented it has been largely ignored for several centuries thank you Navigator gawran she thinks now the question is which of our Rivals has dared to colonize it this is especially concerning since this border is at the edge of explored space there should not be any rivals on this side of Her Majesty's Empire yet the bastard claims signs of intelligent life can one of my more aidite mind translate his lowly words uh yes Madam Captain answers exoplanet olist gawran a brother of Navigator gawran which has made it somewhat difficult to
call one but not the other nevertheless family names take precedence over personal ones when using titles for those not of royalty he continues tyrania 12b is the second planet of this system within the habitable zone of its relatively dim star its ather and anti- comp positions are nearly identical to that of sadalia but its extreme size does seem to be the problem its core is not dense enough to condense its ether to survivable pressures within the correct temperature bands and the layers that are of correct pressure are far far too cold any attempted colonization would
see its citizens canined to lives inside controlled environmental spheres which makes the cost of colonization far greater than any potential benefits however this sensor report shows clear signs of industrial development all of them at or near the surface bands of the ather plumes of high temperature anti- ather and vague radiation signatures consistent with vision based power generators whoever is in that world they are working with long obsolete technology given the isolated nature of the location I surmise them to be a hidden pirate CLA we should be careful in our approach a crew servant enters the
bridge carrying a replacement holding fan for The Madam Captain to take and she does swiftly resuming its motions to push fresh cool ether through her jet pores and keep herself cold amidst the otherwise sweltering heat of the royal Bridge she has always preferred cooler temperatures than most she speaks as she cools herself off excellent uh thank you exoplanet olist gawran I agree with your assessment Navigator set the automated course attention crew of The Royal vessel royon natica 2 we are now going into stealth mode make yourselves translucent as she gives the command the scene before
her vanishes her ship her crew everything goes suddenly near invisible of course there is still a faint Shimmer as her crew and ship cannot be made entirely invisible but at Cosmic distances a faint Shimmer such as this may as well be thankfully their ship's force field curves invisible Cosmic radiation around the vessel so they are not truly exposed to such harmful void Rays she feels a Lurch as the ship's Auto navigational computer plots a jump course this tactic is the Hallmark of her people the only species with technology capable of maintaining such Advanced and complete
stealth and doing so even when traveling in FTL she watches as the stars of Space turn into lines shifting from their natural colors into continually Bluer and Bluer Shades though it is only for a very very brief moment as this system was not far off their original course they had stopped for a brief moment specifically to do this and give the man a view of this distant edge of the Empire's space though now they have a new destination in mind the auton Navigator shuts off the ship's FTL drive and the star Trails reassert themselves as
mere dots most of them are overwhelmed now by the dim light of the near star reflecting brightly off the greenish Sheen of tania's aethersphere a green aethersphere how quaint set our Communications to passive reception intercept their Transmissions let us see what fools we're dealing with I want to hear this myself she commands and her crew attendants obey soon there is a dull crackle of the Bridge's speakers but all that comes through is muddled noise incomprehensible it seems structured but it is so heavily distorted that it is impossible to understand Linguistics officer what is this she
inquires maintaining her translucent composure alongside her crew she is happy to see that they are all well trained enough not to falter in their chromator at this vital moment they cannot risk detection but this lasts only briefly as her Linguistics officer linguist Corin briefly flashes a purple shade in confusion before recollecting himself The Madam decides to overlook this she is feeling generous today in light of her impending battle honors linguist Corin if you would apologies Madam Captain but I I do not know this is not a language recorded within our database the ship Ai and
I are working at deathlight PACE to parse its structure but we can do so only so quickly it is unlike anything else in the Republic no matter what modulations we make to its waveforms it remains distorted and indecipherable it's as if the ather itself refuses it suddenly The Madam Captain hatches an idea the reports said that the technological indicators were restricted to the surface of the ather if she called it may seem unlikely but she has always been dismissive of scientific conventions then don't let it travel through the ather apply an anti- ather modulation instead
she commands as expected he resists her wild ideas oh well with all due respect Madam Captain I I do not think but she reasserts her Authority that's correct linguis Corin you don't think your job is to apply your skills to my thoughts and commands not the other way around do it he does so quietly before once again losing control of his chromatophores Madame royan NAA would have liked to allow herself a flare of a smug blue but she is a professional well the results his jet pores fruitlessly swallow a great deal of Aether filtering out
a small buildup of mucus he gulps down an anxiety as he delivers his report Bo as you surmised madam Captain the language becomes discernible when translated in the context of an anti- ather medium I have prepared a basic translation but it may be somewhat rough play it she orders there's another dull crackle but this time the words come out in very rough squalen I repeat this is Outpost Kepler 22b we detect unknown object on Impossible em bands currently in orbit above it approaches at clearly faster than light speed we confirm this is not sensor malfunction
requesting orders over Madame royan NAA turns pink with fear as does her entire crew they were detected but how what what is an em band this is just an outpost of who whom are they communicating with they've been detected she must shift to combat mode just in case take it down Outpost Captain that's your order the Madam Captain panics her voice echoing harshly through the thick ether All crew breaks for impact Boom the entire ship lurches as a shock wave reverberates through the entire vessel thankfully it did not hit the bridge but the Madam cannot
imagine the damage that was done to those unlucky enough to have been in the weapon path if it lurs the ship like that it must be powerful the only weapon she knows of that can travel that quickly are photonic which means these Invaders are anything but obsolete she shouts to issue orders but her audio pores were damaged by the shock wave and she has been rendered deaf she does not know if it is temporary she resorts to color signing as her ship's translucent field deactivates and its physical Contours reassert itself but its gravity generators have
failed as she feels the resistance in The Ether drop dramatically her surviving crew attendant not the change and switch themselves damage report she signs report severe damage was sustained to deck four five and six gravity generators overloaded significant Aether loss the damage control system has already closed the appropriate bulkheads and pressure is reestablishing but we won't get gravity back until extensive repairs are made our translucent field was breached by a photonic beam and that generator was overloaded as well our primary Shields are now online and seem to be blocking further beams their actual power is
high but they don't seem to be using any kind of penetrative sheath and are just instead firing a continuous beam in theory we could hold in perpetuity but we cannot enter FTL like this reports engineer Julene Navigator we need to land on planet somewhere hidden so we can conduct said repairs we have pressure suits on board yes she signs to navigator gaulan yes Madam Captain but I don't recommend landing on a hostile just do it we have nowhere else to go anyway and there's no telling when they they might send reinforcements we need something to
hide in and right now Tonia 12b is our only cover she has dropped her normal Royal Cadence her mind already shifted into that of a military commander the Navigator obeys and begins taking the vessel in for a dive they breach the anti- without much difficulty their force field doing the brunt of the work in deflecting the extremely thin particles that make it up even as they superheat from its passing their impact with the fluid ather however is difficult the force field had to be shut off in the moments before the crash the weight of the
ship plows into the greenish Hues of this world's ather diving through the extremely light pressure of its upper layers like a blade through soften sea Vines they rapidly plunged through the depths of the Aether the pressure mounting higher and higher until it begins to approach nominal levels but as it does the temperature drops dramatically as the dim Stars light fails to penetrate these depths eventually Madame Captain royan Ana has to make the call cease dive we'll stain in the layers with survivable temperatures it's EAS a pressure difference than the temperature one and we need every
scrap of power we can get and as she issues the command and color sign her Navigator obeys and engages the vessel's ather breaks rapidly it brings itself to buoyancy and floats neutrally in the ather all falls silent though it is only now that the Madam notices her hearing is returned if with an accompanying and very annoying ring all stations report she orders and they do nothing much has changed changed the ship is damaged but the bulkheads were closed and only tertiary systems have been lost their main power weapons and defenses remain online as due their
life support functions light damage technically but the real damage is somewhere else the shock wave killed nearly 50% of the crew it is a miracle we're still operational their weapon lacked any penetrative power but it hit as hard as an asteroid suffice to say that we cannot afford a second hit ever reported the medical office officer remotely from the hospital Bay secretly she wished the bastard was amongst them one less headache to deal with nevertheless I need a report on the Hostile infrastructure the intercepted transmission said it was an outpost yet have produced enough industry
to be detectable from Photon years away just how big is an outpost to these people her sensor officer floated up to the report yes Madam Captain so far our sensors show no Aether based infrastructure almost whatsoever Madame royan Anica is confused none then how did we even detect them no Aether based infrastructure Madame Captain it seems that nearly all of what they have built is above it in the anti ether sensors also report organic life signs exposed entirely to the anti ether no suits Madam the officer elaborated no suits how are they even alive I
I know I was cunning with my guest that their language needed an anti-e medium but I thought it was some kind of encryption method I I did not expect this planet it's so large that even the ether is deadly at pressure levels near the surface but to exist in the antie how is that even possible the strength of their skin alone would have to be Unthinkable how how is their infrastructure floating at top The Ether it is made of metal yes surely it cannot be sensors indicate that the size of their structures is M Beyond
imagining they display so much Aether that the pressure of it pushes them to the surface they fluctuate slightly but massive poles of metal seem to keep them mostly upright and stable somehow I I'm no engineer I don't understand the mechanics of it myself this perhaps this is good are there any active sensor sweeps in The Ether if they're not accustomed to living in it they may not have ble but what was that the madam Captain asks as a strange high-pitch noise reverberates throughout the ship the sensors officer goes pale deathly white a an acoustic wave
madam what one of unimaginable power it it's a wave of death nothing could survive being in its proximity even within a few kilometers it would be powerful enough to rupture internal organs from further than that dein we are protected by our hole but they they are using a forbidden weapon an Aether shock wave of fatal proportion Madam I I don't think she interrupts them before he says something he'll regret we are not going to die sensor officer Luth I will see to it they do not know where we are and that is why they use
that Lethal Weapon they are not creatures of Aether it is natural for them to be so cruel and uncaring for creatures which are it is obvious what their intent is they attacked us on sight almost without warning granted we did attempt a stealthy approach with a somewhat hostile intent ourselves but we would have at least attempted to hail them first Perhaps Perhaps it is not too late surely they are aware that we are not alone we can explain to them that they stand no chance against the combined armadas of the Republic and that my disappearance
would bring them to their Doom perhaps then they will see reason hail them linguis Corin forgets his place but Madam they attacked us on sight I I cannot believe that it is wise to reveal our position linguist do not question my authority hail them low frequency photonic wave of course something non-threatening tell them we came here in peace he reluctantly obliges yes Madam Captain the message is sent several crushing minutes pass the Silence of the depths the low hum of distant waves and more of those lethal high-pitched bleeps they persist in their deadly force not
knowing that their Target's vessel is strong enough to repel it at these distances but the mam is intent on throwing her weight even warlike people should see the Strategic value of not declaring war on unknown forces finally a response we cannot understand you we we cannot translate alien languages we see your message was directed at us on low frequency em band if you want to speak you must do so in our language or give means for yours and we do not know if you understand but we are trying anyway the following is a large amount
of linguistic data for translation if needed exactly as the roughly translated message claimed a large amount of the linguistic data was passed why are they being so forthright to a ship they just shot down the Madam Captain was hoping they might be willing to talk but still she was shocked they were so willing to offer language data nevertheless her linguist takes it and uses it to improve the translation to reasonable levels and to reverse the translation for their message and we noticed your presence and came to investigate we came in peace please stop attacking us
we are the Royal vessel royan Ana 2 of Her Majesty's Royal Armada your trespass upon this world and attack on our vessel constitutes a declaration of war but we are willing to interpret this as a misunderstanding please respond the response was much faster this time understood I am head Linguistics officer Paul in the interest of preventing a potential war with an unknown species I have mutinied against my commanding officer alongside my fellow scientists they were convinced that you were hostile soldiers belonging to an enemy Nation back home using an experimental craft they refused to believe
my evidence supporting that you were in fact a different intelligent species but this should hopefully suffice however we already stopped attacking you our Weapons Systems are currently offline our sonar has detected that your vessel is currently floating in extreme Crush Jeeps are you in an emergency Madam Captain Cecilia roon natica squid is baffled they mut need their commanding Authority was overthrown so easily and quickly by a mere scientist these people they are confusing but she is glad to hear that their hostilities have ceased this means they should hear no more of that deadly ble The
Madam speaks directly now tired of making linguist core and act as an intermediary when the situation is so tense negative your attacks continue please cease your usage of the Forbidden weapon of mass death the acoustic Shockwave generator we are protected by by our hole floating at a relatively safe temperature SL pressure band but we cannot move any closer for fear of being destroyed the alien on the other end speaks with a tone the translator pins at first as uncertain followed by realization uh acoustic Shockwave generator I I don't oh oh my God you mean our
sonar our sonar is dangerous to you that's I I I mean it's supposed it makes some sense but it's dangerous to fish and other Aquatic Life but we never dear God understood we'll shut off our sonar but that will render Us blind to the Aquatic Predators below we will not be able to warn you of their approach uh do you have functioning aquatic sensors Madame royan NAA readjusts back to her typical Royal tone hoping to intimidate the seemingly Meek individual on the other side Thank You Scientist Paul though late allow me to introduce myself I
am mad Captain Cecilia roona squid first daughter of Madame Admiral Lola roona squid of the roona clay beneath her majesty Queen tril squid of the squid Dynasty I am in command of this vessel and hold considerable Authority so that you are aware my disappearance would be taken as an act of War if you truly seek to avoid conflict with an armada large enough to obliterate you I would advise allowing us to conduct our repairs in safety and leave unharmed armed the response is Swift and panicked according to the translator oh my God yes of course
I I am sure that is the best course of action if you need any help with the repairs please let us know and again we are blind down there without our sonar so we cannot warn you of the leviathans if they approach leviathans The Madam says questioningly yes Leviathan class life forms that prefer to live within the deepest parts of the world's ocean so far they haven't been aggressive but we haven't exactly gone as deep as you have for fear of potentially triggering an attack far larger than your vessel certainly The Madam responds confidently I
see uh our sensors are functioning we we should be able to see such things in advance so long as they displace ether I I'm sorry uh your highness what is ether the word the translator uses a very old one in our language and has long been derided as a fictional concept he apologetically asks and The Madam lets it slide he is a foreign individual technically not beholding to squid Authority structures but as long as he is willing to use titles uh Madam Captain if you would the ether is what is all around us and between
us it is the fluid of life that which lets us move freely and exist do you not know of that upon which you float he makes a strange noise that the mam cannot ascertain but his words are flecked by tones of realization so that must be it ah I see our people call that water large bodies of it such as the one you're in and that our platforms are floating in we call oceans that we have other terms for different kinds of aquous bodies but for now I think that will do I am curious if
you would mind indulging a question Madam Captain she cannot help but flush a happy shade of dark red at his use of her title yes s say Paul you may the words he says next are swarmed with overtones of excitement yes uh thank you uh okay can you see the ather as you call it the the water and can you see air the um stuff above that the atmosphere what a silly question H well of course not what such a thing is ridiculous the the photons that the Aether absorbs are invisible to the naked eye
only the low frequency bands can be seen Madame royan natica is not amused by the smug tones that come with Paul's next words we can water is only semi-transparent to us anything within is heavily blurred and anything beyond a few dozen feet is practically invisible the entirety of our vision is in a specific narrow band of EM waves or uh photons we call visible light The Madam is shocked and the crew attendants on the bridge seem absorbed in the show of color she has fluctuated between throughout this conversation so distracted was she that she forgot
to maintain her translucent elegance and accidentally gave her crew an inappropriate show embarrassed she quickly reasserts herself ridiculous how can anyone function in the ather if they oh oh you don't your platforms are all above in the anti ather the uh air as you call it and the anti ather is so thin that it absorbs only the highest energy photons you live entirely in the anti ather the the air you do not for lack of a better term explode internally from the lethally low pressures the excitement of the scientists on the other end only grows
nope we we are not an aquatic spe species though we evolved on a planet comprised mostly of water we live on land in above water regions that exist entirely within what you called the anti that is a nice ring to it though it is a bit of a mouthful to us the pressures you are at are fatal we would be crushed like tin cans the deepest any one of us can go without equipment is barely a few hundred feet and even then it's so dangerous that we have to be careful on the return or we
will explode from the sudden shift and pressure this planet is really miraculous but because its composition is so predominantly water and not heavier elements it swelled to incredible size despite its mass and ended up with gravity and pressure similar to our home planet near its surface incredible really not at all what any of us expected it's a bit far but it's the best candidate for the first colony Humanity has I hope we can get this sorted out so that we may keep it there really is little else for us out here so many earthlike worlds
that were toxic or had fatal temperatures or pressures apologize Madam Captain I I didn't mean to go off topic the this whole Mutiny thing really has thrown me for a loop I understand scientist Paul I'm glad we could come to an understanding now let's talk about compensation for the 50% of my crew your Photon beam killed the two had a very long conversation the result of was the somewhat Rocky first Contact between humanity and the Republic of United Empires the humanity was somewhat strong armed into compensation agreement offering vast sums of the extremely rare atom
26 as compensation to the families of the deceased and to CL royan natica for damage to their vessel though the inability of the squid to actually colonized Tania 12b resulted in the territorial distribution act giving that system along with a large number of others outside the borders of both the Republic and the Empire all of which are uncolonized for nearly all Republic species to humanity it was a lucky deal Humanity being the very first species of non ather humans to ever be discovered and are an intelligent one at that remarkably capable of surviving lethally low
pressures that others in the Republic cannot though even for them the void of space is fatal it was not long until relations between the squid Dynasty and Humanity SED when it was discovered that they'd been using what amounts to a wmd as a primitive sensor system for many many years that in the vast sums of Adam 26 they gave as compensation are for them laughably abundant on their home world and that the vast sums of the far more common Adam 47 that they've been taking as exclusive payment and their International agreements were actually a key
element in nearly all of their Advanced Electronics many of which involved Advanced photonic sensors and photonic Weaponry far beyond that of the Republic in contrast to the rest of their technology which was startlingly primitive by comparison eventually Humanity came to be known to The Republic as the gas giants for their ridiculous size compared to the other species and ability to survive in a purely gaseous environment and Humanity came to call the squid by one name in particular the Cuttlefish
