“Are you aware that our genetics are altering into an alignment that vaguely mimics the Zak’de’ron?” Jack-020 asked.
Paul’s eyes narrowed. “I was not.”
“We learned of self-sufficiency from the V’kit’no’sat, who got it from the Zak’de’ron. Do we know of any other source in this galaxy of that knowledge?”
“Hard to say, since the V’kit’no’sat were pretty much dominance litter bugs that didn’t mind showing off for others. It’d be hard to track another source that didn’t have contact with them.”
“I know of three,” Davis offered, “all in the Rim and isolated. Their biologies were near to it naturally, so they didn’t have far to go. And when they did, they stopped reproducing almost entirely and attained a neutral to slightly growing population. None of them sought heavy expansion.”
“And here we are teaching everyone how to do it,” Kerrie said ominously. “A violation of the natural order?”
“Bingo,” Paul confirmed. “We’re small fries now, in a fringe galaxy, and not really old enough for it to matter. But give us a few billion years and imagine the ‘damage’ that could be done.”
“Wait,” Ian-033 interjected. “Are you saying these other powers are not self-sufficient?”
“I don’t know. Didn’t come up in the conversations yet, but I get the feeling they’re more of the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ type.”
“And the Apocalypse Monsters? Are they immortal?”
“They are weak when you know where to hit them. I don’t have a firm grasp on the dynamics of their existence, but they retreat into the deep void for a reason, and that reason is fear. They come here to feed, then leave and enter a type of hibernation until their feeding grounds are ripe enough to warrant the risk of coming back.”
“They’re Wraith?” Morgan asked.
“Who are somehow merged with the Saiolum in a way that Azoro doesn’t understand either. The only way he could investigate is to hitch a ride on one of their few scouts all the way out there, then he’d be trapped until he could hitchhike back.”
“Can they hurt him?”
“He seemed to suggest no, but I didn’t explore that. They can affect the physical and he can’t, so I don’t think he knows for sure and that’s another reason he stays away.”
“What sort of growing do we need to do, other than physically?” Davis asked.
“Blind spots. Things we don’t know exist, and don’t know how to defend against, or to use. The Saiolum is one such blind spot, but there are others, including many technologies that will bypass our shields and armor. We have to harden our technology, our planets, and our empire before we can start poking around at what lays beyond…but be warned, the Sha’kier were not destroyed by known enemies. It was the ones that came out of the frontier that hit them the hardest. Azoro knows them now, but only to a certain extent. He warns that there will always be an unknown frontier that you cannot predict, no matter how far you search. This is the primary reason they pushed their empire so far, to give them galaxies to retreat to in case some fell to an unknown enemy. But they had no idea what was in store for them, and their expansion was what drew their downfall.”
“Challenge accepted,” Morgan said calmly.
“Azoro is going to give us his cheat sheet, and he’s promised it’s a massive one, but one thing seems to be clear. Dominion of the playing field is going to draw the giants to come and stomp you, for they like the galaxies to be primitive and no threat to them as they roam or turtle up where they like. They will stop us from helping others in order to preserve this status quo, so when we make the move to expand beyond this galaxy, we have to be ready to face them before we catch their full attention. This is the single most important point I have to make. We have an advantage in Azoro, plus our own badassness. But if we rush, we’ll be discovered and targeted. If they learn that Azoro exists and is helping us, expect immediate deletion of our entire civilization and anyone who has ever had contact with us, or even heard of us.”
“He’s that much of a threat?” Davis asked.
“Knowledge is power, when given the time necessary to forge it into a weapon. They will not allow such time.”
“Who exactly are they?”
“He won’t give me a list of names, for it won’t matter unless we come into contact with them. Any new contacts, races or empires, he wants me to be made aware of so he can filter them. If something crosses our path that we should worry about, he’ll let us know.”
“Holding back information?”
“As would I,” Paul agreed. “The Saiolum itself is massive and I’m just playing around in it. He also wants to make sure Star Force stays Star Force, for we would not be able to operate the way the Sha’kier did. So he has to feed us little bits and we have to take what’s useful and incorporate it while discarding the rest. And in that light, doing it slowly is better…especially when we won’t understand most of it.”
“What’s he given you so far?” Jason asked.
“Other than help with my transition and
