In Pursuit of the Kaheshi

[The Clans]

After having run for their lives in the wake of hostile forces, chief scientist Kyu'el guides his ships from system to system in pursuit of again an alien fellow man (being?) of science, ignoring everything else he comes across in his single minded pursuit. The other scientists aboard make passive scans and map out the route they've traveled while he spends every waking moment reading the readouts of the other scientist's water holding power suit and supervising the study and disassembly of a taken survey probe, safely from another ship.

[Joe Joerson]

The Dominion Searcher Ship Kha'ro'ni Warps into an unexplored system. Detecting unknown vessels present, the Searcher ship starts towards them and broadcasts a signal towards the five ships.

At first they Broadcast several mathematical subjects to attempt to achieve communication, then they send  a full transmission not waiting for a reply.

The Full transmission includes a Kha'ni dressed in Black Robes with many Kha'ni moving in geometric shapes of precision behind him. He speaks and if translated.

"Greetings Unknown vessels. We are the Kha'ni Temporary Dominion, and wish for peace and prosperity between our peoples. We have met many Alien species before. We also wish to meet you. I am Priest-Academic-Explorer-Senior Losm. We search for our Gods. May Prosperity reign for the good of all."

The Message repeats translated well into Kaheshi and badly into Low Taar before cutting off.

[The Clans]

After the message repeats itself the ship soon responds "This is Archmaster Kyu'el, chief scientist of the First Explorer Fleet. I greet you on behalf of my clan and on behalf of the Awakened Dreaming Clans and our Unifier, Mysha." Over the centuries use of the word "god" had completely lost its meaning to describe a divine being. The closest word in current Yuxu speech to "god" meant "great hero". "I am afraid that we are unable to assist in your search for your heroes. Your are the first of your kind that we have come across. We have only other met the Kaheshi."

[Joe Joerson]

The Ship sends a transmission back to the small flotilla.

It is the same scene as before.

"Greetings Archmaster Kyu'el, chief scientist of the First Explorer Fleet, we are saddened to here you can not assist in our search. However we are glad to know that you have also met the Kaheshi. We have an embassy on their world. However they are not very appreciative of the Gods. They are very advanced and powerful would you not agree? They have ideas that fighting itself is bad. We do not know why they they have these, however we accept them. They also seem very individualistic, this is strange to us. Would you not agree that it is strange? In any case if you desire we can give you coordinates for where you can send an Embassy to us. The Kaheshi are also sending an Embassy to us. We are very excited."

The Transmission ends and the Ship continues to approach the Flotilla.

[The Clans]

As the ship approaches the ships adopt a defensive formation.

"I'm unsure of what you mean by 'individualistic'. Do you mean they have no families or clans? I did not get the impression that the scientist I met was a bandit or raider. Now that we have established communications, is there a reason why you continue your approach?"

[Joe Joerson]

The Ship starts to slow and halts, as this occurs a transmission is sent.

Same scene again.

"If you do not wish to meet in person, we will respect that wish. They appear to have families but the ties are strange, and weak between members. So far we have discovered no things analogous to clans among their society. As well sometimes they put the good of the many over those of the individual, however many other times they act purely of their own self-interest. It is confusing and strange. As well they espouse the need to help and support the state but then do not give up the abilities of the individual for the good of all. It is almost a contradiction. We hope you see what we mean now."

The Transmission ends, as the Kha'ni in the background start a different movement.

[The Clans]

"It sounds very conflicting and confusing to me. You may continue onward, I simply did not know it was your intent. We did not manage to establish full communications with the Kaheshi until their ship was already upon us."

[Joe Joerson]

A transmission is sent, as the ship starts moving towards the flotilla once more.

In the background all the Kha'ni are gone except for two fairly far away doing something rapidly on a board of some type.

"It is very confusing, we are grateful to meet other species similar to ourselves. We hope that our peoples can be friends. The Kha'ni are friends with the Kaheshi but they are very confusing, we are also friends with the Thyaras but they have different Gods. Their Gods found them, but they don't seem like they're really Gods. They are strange as well. You do not seem strange, you even dance with your ships as we do! We look forward to meeting you in the flesh. We look forward to learning about you. We look forward to having you have the knowings. We are excited. We Search for the good of all."

The Transmission cuts off as the two Kha'ni in the background finish what the were doing on the board.

[The Clans]

With communications seemingly cut, the ships on the very fringe of the formation open their airlocks to allow the approaching ship to dock at whichever end they wish and broadcast that those are the intended places to board. A welcoming party consisting of four unarmed guards and the individual ship's captain await the boarders at either ship to receive them.

[Joe Joerson]

As the ship docks with one of the ships in the flotilla, Priest-Academic-Explorer-Senior Losm prepares to greet the Yuxu, he has seven Priest-Acolytes, each wearing a black armband around their outer right arm.

Once the ships are docked and airlocks connected and seal formed, Priest-Academic-Explorer-Senior Losm moves towards the Yuxu and bows, steepling his inner hands together while while clutching his outer arms behind his back as the acolytes do the same and he speaks.

"Greetings from the Kha'ni Temporary Dominion and from myself Priest-Academic-Explorer-Senior Losm!" Some of the Acolytes are toting a large portable translator. "We will have much to discuss and to share. We hope you wish to do this discussion and sharing of information."

The only other items carried are an ornate board with a grid of squares on it, and two bags of counters, in colors blue and red.

[Mthis]

After having run for their lives in the wake of hostile forces, chief scientist Kyu'el guides his ships from system to system in pursuit of again an alien fellow man (being?) of science, ignoring everything else he comes across in his single minded pursuit. The other scientists aboard make passive scans and map out the route they've traveled while he spends every waking moment reading the readouts of the other scientist's water holding power suit and supervising the study and disassembly of a taken survey probe, safely from another ship.

The readings of the Suit reveals alot of data, it would appear extremly mechanical and easy to use with sensory ports all along its interrior, there are also several indications of devices inside the suit the readings cannot determine what is, the water that could be identified through the readings appear like standard H2O, at least from scanning it from afar.

The Probe is a completly alien device on the interrior the mechanical components appear nothing like one would expect. Strange markings and texts, runic almost, appears all along the interrior, one could almost call them religiously planted there, however due to a certain small symbol next to each texts its more than likely its the name of the components and then a trade-mark of some sort. The most noteable alien device is inside is a cylinder which rotates and scans inditate immense energy readings from that small cylinder. It would appear it powers the probe.

[The Clans]

The guards keep stony faced expressions while their officer does their best to give off the most welcoming of body language.

"Greetings from the Awakened Dreaming Clans on behalf of Archmaster Kyu'el. I am Mistress Kyvu, boss of this ship and specialist in astrophysics. I've been instructed to keep you companywhile the Archmaster is finishing his duties and to apologize for such spare unwelcoming conditions aboard the ship. We never expected to encounter other lifeforms aside from megafauna. While we know that life is a random freak occurrence in the universe, we believed we were the only forms of life to reach intelligence and persist."

She motions for her guests to follow further inside the ship and into the spartan crew relaxation area with several chairs and and tables without another soul occupying them. She motions for them to sit, breaking etiquette for a moment to stare at the brought board in curiosity. While it looked like a board game to her, reports of the disassembled exploration probe had planted the idea in her mind that alien technology could not be judged and reasoned with in terms of what she knew.

[Joe Joerson]

The party follows her into the ship. At her speaking Losm replies.

"This is perfectly acceptable. The Demons did many things and took many forms among the previous star-faring inhabitants of the Galaxy."

As they follow into the relaxation area with the chairs and tables, they start to respond to her motions until she stares at the board in which he then speaks.

"Ah you are interested in the Board of Tchick'ah, yes? It is very useful," As he speaks he motions for the Acolytes to set up the Board. "as well it determines many things in our society, would you like to see it used?"

[The Clans]

The meaning of the word 'demon', like 'god' was lost to them and had come to mean something more mundane.

She folds an arm over her belly and begins to dig at a scar on the underside of her jaw with a knuckle in thought "I would appreciate a demonstration, yes. And what of these demons? Did your gods crush them, or are they still out here? Shapeshifting bandits flying through space in something as resource-intensive as a ship is... Well, more than a little foreign to me. On the planetary level, ours make raids with cheap and disposable vehicles, not well maintained war rigs."

[Joe Joerson]

Losm replies, as he motions for the Acolytes to set up the board on a table.

"The Demons were according to the New Gods, servants to the New Gods, but not as one Kha'ni is to another. They betrayed the New Gods to their enemies and became traitors. They seized many worlds and built many ships. They had stolen all the technology of the New Gods and were at advantage because of their betrayal. The New Gods helped us survive before they retreated to the Safe Place. For some reason the Demons were defeated. We think it was done by the New Gods' enemies. We do not know why. We try to find our Gods. We Search for the New Gods and the Safe Place."

After the Board has been set up, two Acolytes begin placing blue and red counters. They do this extremely quickly using all four arms, occasionally clearing part of the board and placing a new pattern before changing something else.

[The Clans]

She watches as the board is set up, taking in the alien's words, not entirely understanding why this science ship is out looking for a select group of people, even though her superior had become obsessed with finding the Kaheshi again. "How long ago did you say your heroes left you? They're probably all dead by now and their descendants may not even know of you if they spread so far over the galaxy."

[Joe Joerson]

The two Acolytes clear the board and place pieces in a remarkable specific and seemingly random pattern. Primarily starting with many blue counters. This shifts and changes as Losm begins to speak.

"The New Gods do not die, they stayed for many centuries before they left. But enough of the New Gods let us speak of different matters. We came from a world that is covered in shifting waves of sand. What world are you from?"

The pattern shifts to many subdivided boxes in each is a specific pattern that is occasionally changed. The box that is changed seems to be random except for one which just stays eight tiles of blue around a single red counter.

[The Clans]

She takes her eyes off the box and uts attendants, assuming that the box will he ready when it's ready. She sits and relaxes, or as much as she can from hiding her excitement from speaking to another inteligence not of her own. "Our world is rocky and wind swept. When the sun doesn't bake the sands sandstorms block out the sky. There are very few green places with wqter, but geologic surveys and our old stories tell of a time when water and plants used to cover the surface during our first known civilization. Do you have any farms? How do you grow food on a world of just sand?"

[Joe Joerson]

Losm nods and folds his inner arms over themselves.

"We too have problems with sand storms, and water. Our solutions have been different we think. We do indeed have farms, they are underground to protect from the sandstorms and the necessary buildings would be too costly. We used to have problems with water until we advanced into space with help from the Servants. We harnessed the comets of our Solar system to provide the water that could not be found underground. Most of our farms are completely closed systems, the waste of the people go to the farms and the food go to the people."

Losm pauses and looks at the board before turning back to Mistress Kyvu.

"In times long past we had cities and farms on the surface however they were destroyed when the Demons attacked. We lost many resources at that time. They are replaced now. Many died at that time. They are replaced now. We have come far, we would help you to join us. However we are far from here and many do not wish to leave their ancestral grounds."

[The Clans]

"We used to build ourselves into cliffs, sturdy buildings, and other high places to escape the storms, now we build where we please. We've been using hydro and aero- we've been using hydroponics and aeroponics for the length of recorded history." She pauses, realizing that the words may not mean anything to her guest if they constantly recycle their waste. "Growing plants in either a nutrient rich water solution, or freely suspended and sprayed and misted with nutrient rich water. Near any hatchling can repair a faulty system, get a team together and they can build a haphazard system, the only problem for them would be creating the solution. Our water used to come from hand and machine dug wells and atmosphere condensers, but now we exploit deep ground aquifers. Is the eh, hm, is the board ready yet?"

[Joe Joerson]

Losm turns towards the board a makes a motions towards them, they speed up their movement of counters. He speaks.

"The Board will be ready soon, however does not your methods waste some resources? We have done our method for many years, and not much has changed, though now some thought groups have made new innovations, we still primarily rely upon our no waste system. How long is your 'length of recorded history'?"

[The Clans]

Despite being an astrophysicist, she gives a surprisingly detailed defense for their food production, stating concepts without fully elaborating on them like it's second nature to her, hinting that children of the species may actually be able to maintain and even build parts of their growing operations.

"We use our 'waste' to produce methane for the production of methane until it is dry and then burn it for heat. Relying exclusively on natural fertilizer... I don't see how your population can expand any. If anything it should slowly decline from starvation from a gradual loss of nutrients lack of new nutrients entering the system. We can always fix more nitrogen from the atmosphere. Another benefit is that without soil to or water to transmit disease from plant to plant, if one should get sick it can easily be removed from the grow house without spreading to other plants and causing crop failure... Did you ask something else? I feel like you had another question."

[Joe Joerson]

Losm listens intently and replies.

"Though we do not understand why you think that nutrients would be lost, we did have another question. We had asked how long you had been recording your history."

The other Kha'ni place counters faster over on the table.

[The Clans]

Knowing that solar rotations are varied from planet to planet, she thinks for a moment before answering in a number of half lives of Uranium 232 equal to a thousand Earth years. "We have records of our civilization before then, but they're spotty and incomplete. The books our ancestors saved were mostly military manuals and engineering textbooks and documents."

[Joe Joerson]

Losm, nods He takes time doing some mental calculation before replying, then replies in the same manner using half lives of Uranium-232.

"Our recorded history goes to roughly 262 half lives of Uranium-232 back. Our development stalled several times do to problems with lack of water for steam engines, lack of easily accessible metals and other resources. It took our people a long time to reach our current state, and we had help. We have earlier records but they are too incomplete to be of use."

The Kha'ni moving the counters stop suddenly, stand up and bow to Losm, he stands and says.

"Ah, the Board is ready,shall we?"

He goes over and sits into one of the chairs at the table uncomfortably as they are poorly designed for Kha'ni. The counters are in various patterns of complexity. Several of the gems and jewels in the sides of the board are pressed inward. A large flat jewel is on one side of the Board and Losm is careful not to have it obscured for several feet from it. He looks expectantly at Mistress Kyvu.

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