by Aer-ki Jyr
Have you found any more naturals?
Two more. A mere pittance than what there should be in a civilization of this size.
But a luxury nonetheless, Paul reminded him.
Indeed, but still frustrating. I wanted to speak with you about the Nightcrawler’s revelations.
Paul split his attention and linked in to the ship’s database and brought up the appropriate files that he’d only briefly glanced at upon their delivery 5 years ago.
I have not reviewed them thoroughly.
I believe I now know how the Saiolum can be used to kill.
Paul frowned. Explain.
It is what links us to our bodies in a harmony that is natural. I had not believed there was an alternate version, no matter what the Gahana and the Neofan say, and I was not completely wrong. What there is, I have discovered, is a distortion that creates a destructive resonance. I have never tried to create such a thing, and I refuse to do so, but I have found it is occurring naturally everywhere in small amounts. Not enough to overcome the harmony, but it does reduce it slightly. That is why I never noticed it.
What is creating it?
Damage to biologicals, but more so torture. Damage that kills briefly twists the Saiolum. I had always felt this, but torture or other means of putting the body into a state it is not meant to be in likewise corrupts the Saiolum. I believe the machine in the center of the galaxy that is creating the toxic energy of the synthoids is feeding off the toxic Saiolum. As the darkside diminishes in this galaxy, so too does the corruption in the Saiolum.
Then I think I’ve been adding to it the past few years, Paul admitted.
Quick deaths do not produce much, and any death no matter what the cause will create a disturbance. But to produce a flow of the toxicity, eating of one alive seems to be the primary cause, and when the Megaloids do it, it does not happen quickly.
Paul cringed. And you figured this out how?
Deduction. I have not been in the Deep Core to investigate recently. But what I fear is an inversion in the existing flows. If the toxicity is greater than the harmony, it could turn the harmony into toxicity. And if that occurs across a planet, it could create the death rather than be the result of it.
The Saiolum will mimic it?
I fear so. It is a rhythm, and if enough is produced, the existing Saiolum will slowly become in sync with it.
And if it inverts, everyone dies and the Saiolum goes silent?
In that local area, yes, but there would also be a pulse that would travel outwards as those deaths occurred. And that death pulse could travel to other planets in a chain reaction. I need your help when you can spare it to do some experiments on developing technology to act as a stabilizing rod for the Saiolum. These same experiments, if misused, could create technology to do exactly what I want to protect against happening. And I believe your synthoids did the same thing with their lifeforce energy.
Any idea on how they’re harvesting the Saiolum toxicity?
No. It does not make sense, but the more puzzle pieces I gather the closer I am to figuring it out. The Nightcrawler information provided two such pieces. And if the synthoids can use Saiolum to create their toxic wave, it is possible those that exist in the dark between galaxies could construct theirs to kill us.
And the Gahana could use theirs to kill them, I understand the concept, but not the implementation.
Nor do I, but if such technology can be created, the distance between star systems in the Rim would be the safest place to find refuge. The Core would be a bloodbath.
Would the toxicity kill you?
I don’t know. But if all life on a planet dies, I will soon die afterwards in the lack of Saiolum density.
When a system was destroyed previously and you felt it, is it fair to say it was a diminishment in the harmony?
More than that, but also correct.
Perhaps the toxicity can travel in addition to canceling out harmony. You’ve told me you can hear death from far, far away. Is it the toxicity you are feeling?
I sense the ripple. Perhaps some travels with the ripple, but I have not sensed it vividly since the Pafdreng, possibly because they kill all in the same instant and the wave it creates is maximized by timing.
But could it be laced with toxicity?
I do not know. If it is, then what is coming from the Galactic Core now is so diffuse by the time it reaches me I can’t differentiate the two sensations. What do you sense?
I have to numb it out to focus, or it sickens me enough I can’t fight effectively.
Does it inhibit you?
Not that I can detect when numbed. Is there a way to measure Saiolum cohesion with the body?
Indirectly only. This type of deliberate poisoning of the energy mediums makes me very worried about what we will draw to this galaxy. You and I need to figure out a basic countermeasure before someone figures out how to reset the galaxy.
The Gahana woke to widespread destruction, Paul noted.
My thoughts exactly. We need a defense.
We’re nowhere close to building your level of technology. How do we begin to create something you never did?
We must start somewhere. As soon as you are able, return to the Praxium. I cannot do the work in their bodies. They are barely open to the Saiolum.
We have to take advantage of this gateway being shut down to the Hadarak quickly, but when I find a decent opening I will return. I can’t say when that will be though.
I trust in your timing. But I do not trust in the synthoids or the dark ones. We must learn more about both, and quickly, before we can be blindsided with an ancient form of war that we are unprepared for.
Agreed.
Paul felt Azoro relinquish contact, but the tether between them in the Saiolum did not break, and Paul tucked it away in the back of his mind without releasing it as he blinked his eyes fully open, not realizing he had glazed over as much as he had.
“Work, work, work,” he said to himself as he dangled his feet over the railing of the command nexus and looked down at the holographic soup just below them that showed the black hole rather than the floor. He began to go through the Nightcrawler information in detail, trying to piece together whatever Azoro was missing for more than an hour before letting it go. He could come back to it later, and if he couldn’t rest right now then he could at least get a good workout in. Maybe that would reset his brain, or at least get him exhausted enough for a long sleep.
Paul shut down the holograms and hopped down from the railing, then walked off in search of the Archon sanctum as he reached out to the Saiolum simultaneously and tried to get a feel for the now calm and mostly battle free system’s ebb and flows.
He didn’t get far before he stopped cold, turning to look down through the ship’s decks to the black hole below as he could sense it. Faint, distant, but now quite recognizable after his conversation with Azoro. The toxicity was there, riding along with the currents…and it was coming from deep, deep below.
Paul reached out as much as he could, tracing the ripples back to where they came from and finding the fingerprints of what was producing them.
It was the Spice Lords, and there was something wrong with them. Some sort of internal sabotage that was rendering their Saiolum emissions contaminated. They were sick, and being tortured inside indefinitely…and in a far lesser way, it was similar to the way Hadarak felt within the Saiolum…
The Hadarak were designed to be in light misery constantly, and that was the fuel for the Tri’vey toxicity machine…which meant whoever altered the Jedein into Hadarak was probably the same as whoever built the machine, and both creations were merely puzzle pieces in some intergalactic, darkside master plan.
The workout would have to wait, and Paul diverted from his path to the Archon Sanctum to the nearest telepathic receiver in the ship that would let him use the main transmitter to contact the Jedein in the system to do some analysis on the Hadarak, and especially the Spice Lords if they could coax one up ne
ar the surface where the Jedein could get a closer look at it…
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