“Well, isn’t that lovely?”
F.B. de Joklerson, black chitined Speaker of the State Assembly of the Anankti Federation, looked over at the bristling spider who had asked the question, then looked at the object in question. The Second Arch-Matriarch of the Neolathian Regency’s sitting room was as ancient as her institution, its granite columns softened by a collection of traditional silk tapestries. These works of art were woven in various representations of the Neolathian deities going about their divine business, with the centerpiece being a rather grisly scene. On the left, Shalimorri, the black Goddess of the Night, directed vermin into (wheat) fields, to the much lamentation of a group of literally shit stained Theradectans. On the left, Reslor Baheph, the brown God of Plauge, sowed diseases into another group of spiders, these dyed green from old venom, falling over from a slow, gruesome, and painful death.
However, it was most likely the center that drew the speaker’s ire. It showed Madawat Airget, the God of Death, supervising his subordinates work as he idly picked flesh out of his pincers. Underneath him was the blood-stained and brutalized corpse of a red-colored spider, a crown laying on its side next to it.
“Well,” F.B. said, still looking at the tapestry, “I’m assuming it’s a reference to the Great Famine of 974.”
“No,” the red chitined Theradactan, Leouisa, Crobir Padinkeza Al-Bosicobel of the Robertin Empire, asked with her prickling hairs, “Really? Never would have guessed.”
The Speaker shook his thorax, looking at the larger spider. “No disrespect, Padinkeza Leouisa, I was just trying to make conversation. Not like we have much to do but wait.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” she said, pulling a slate out of her jeweled harness and tapping it to bring up its screen, “All we do is wait on the fucking Neolathians.”
He decided not to comment on that. Partly because the padinkeza was being a spoiled brat, as usual, but also because she wasn’t wrong either. The Regency did like to throw its weight around, whether it was planting their flag on celestial bodies or making foreign dignitaries wait in a sitting room with pointedly disturbing decorations. Not to mention that he was used to this kind of thing. Being a Unktomin hardened you to this kind of behavior. Quite a different life than a Robertin padinkeza who was used to be waited on pincer and foot. But I’d be surprised if she understood that, he thought.
Thankfully, they only had to wait, Leouisa passing her time playing an obnoxiously loud game on her slate and F.B. looking at the more pedestrian tapestries and other, possibly centuries old, furniture that made what was in essence a stone cave into a parlor fit for the Priestess that was second in line for the embroidered vestments of the High Matriarch.
Her imminent arrival a few more minutes later was announced by a diminutive Unktomin male, who walked tentatively into the room and said, “Presenting Her Holiness, Priestess of the Neolathian Orthodoxy, Keeper of the Holy City, Guardian of the Temple,” this went on for another few, painful moments, “the Second Arch-Matriarch of the Neolathian Regency, Frekhri of Cailin.”
Matriarch Frekhri’s relatively mediocre entrance was the minimum her station allowed. A white Neolathian male walked in to the room first, holding a pair of candles in his pincers as he led the procession. Another spider, looking like a twin of the first, bore a censure of incense, made of Ceroptera musk, waving it to spread the smell far and wide. Finally, came the Priestess herself, her vestments long enough to fully cover her thorax, abdomen, and the first joint of her legs, necessary in Cailin’s snowy terrain, though both the overly long veil and train required a pair of Neolathian females to keep the vestments from touching the stone.
F.B. rose from his cushioned seat, out of politeness if nothing else. Leouisa on the other hand, kept her eyes on her slate, the cheerful tones of the game at odd with the centuries old ceremony that was taking place. You would think she wasn’t the heir of the oldest nation on Atos, but that’s what you get when you wrap a broodling with too much silk.
Frekhri glanced over at the younger Theradactan, looking for a moment like she would snap at the irreverence, but decided to let it slide, as she settled into her own decadent stool, resting her pincers on the built-in cushions. The female retainers quickly folded the vestment’s superfluous fabric so it stayed off the floor and then stood behind her, along with their male coworkers. “Welcome to my den, Speaker and Padinkeza,” she said, nodding to both of them, oozing disdain. “I hope you realize the sacrifices that have been made letting the unclean into the temple grounds.”
“Yes, Arch-Matriarch,” the Unktomin said, bowing his thorax before lowering himself back onto his seat, “We’re grateful for the invitation to the temple and for talking to us directly.”
“Just glad you finally showed up,” the Robertin padinkeza said, finally putting her game away and looking at the Neolathian.
“I was unavoidably detained,” Frekhri said, flattening her hairs in annoyance at Leouisa’s remark.
“I’m sure you were, Arch-Matriarch,” F.B. said, clicking his pincers to get both females’ attention. “But why don’t you tell us why we are here today. Your representatives weren’t too specific on what this meeting was about.”
The white-chitined Theradactan glared at him for a moment, before straightening them and continuing, “Yes, let’s get down to business. You were summoned to Cailin because we finished our analysis of the Dagotha Array’s first light gravitational observations.”
Even the Padinkeza paid attention to that. The Dagotha Array was the latest part of the multinational Ocugus Array, a multi-star system observatory that detects gravitational waves. Usually the sole domain of scientists, the observatories had caught the eye of politicians after the Nyargmal Array was built and it was discovered that faster than light travel left imprints on space-time that was detectable by the Arrays’ systems. This was provable by observing the effect the wormholes created by their own ships. They were immediately used to scan for similar phenomena, but soon realized that they would need at least one more array to get any kind of resolution more than fifty light years out.
“And since we’re not at home listening to the scientists ramble on about the fiddly details,” Leouisa said, “That means you found something big enough that the called us here and keeping the data to yourselves, right?”
“Indeed,” Frekhri said, clicking on a small buttonboard on her stool. This dimmed the lights and caused a (holoprojector) to come out of the ceiling. The machine whirled into work, spraying a fine mist of water in between the three politicians, and then illuminating it from above. After a few moments, a three-dimensional picture came into view, showing the local star systems that surrounded Atargatis, with it and two other systems highlighted in bright primary colors close together in the center.
“After a week of analysis and double checking that analysis,” the Matriarch said, getting right to the point as she pressed more buttons to zoom out and highlight a dense knot of stars that appeared near the Neolathian, “We’ve confirmed that this sector of space, almost 800* light years away, is indeed home to alien civilizations that have access to faster than light travel.”
Those words laid on the floor in between the three Theradactan leaders, evolutionarily uneasy at the idea of not being on top of the food chain.
“So,” Leouisa said, breaking the silence after a few moments, “How exactly do the scientists know this? The last time they thought this, they explained it away with concentrations of dark matter and other nonsense.”
“I said,” Frekhri snapped, narrowing her eyes and taking half a step forward, startling her retainers, “they double checked. Do you think I want a repeat of that fiasco?”
“Maybe you’re just pulling us in so we all get shit thrown in our face,” the Padikenza said, rising from her seat as well, her hairs standing on end.
“Ladies,” F.B. said, clacking his pincers as he stood up, trying to get the females attention away from each other. “Please, let’s not bicker needlessly.”
“Shut up, Unktomin,” the Neolathan hissed, not sparing a glance at her inferior as she extended her fangs. “This doesn’t concern you,” she continued, venom dripping from her fangs.
“Oh, bring it on, you old brood,” the Robertin said, extending her pincers as she waited for the older Theradactan to come at her.
“Enough!” the black-chitined spider screeched, jumping into the air and landing between the two larger spiders. “We’re diplomats and leaders of our respective nations. This isn’t a time to quarrel like a pair of Forpedic farmers, it’s time to act as one species. Besides,” he said, ruffling his hairs and whistling in amusement, “Would either of you want the fact that a male was the calm one in the room to get out?”
The room was silent for a minute or so, until Frekhri ruffled her hair as well, taking a few steps back as she sheathed her fangs. “Indeed, Speaker,” she said, nodding to him before turning around and walking to her seat, “Let us get back to business.”
The red-chitined padikenza kept her pincers extended for another few moments, before giving F.B. a venomous glare for making her accept the Matriarch’s slight and turning around herself.
Not my fault you’re a prideful piece of shit, broodling, the Unktomin thought, shaking his thorax in annoyance as he backed up to his seat. This is why I question our alliance. You’re lucky the Neolathians are by far worse. “While I’m sure our own scientists would love to look at the data as well, let’s assume that your conclusions are correct. What are we going to do about it?
“Yes,” Leouisa said, folding her pincers in front of her, “How do you propose to deal with the reality where you aren’t on the top of the food chain, Arch-matriarch?”
Why don’t you know when to shut up? the Speaker thought, using all his will to not snap at his nominal ally.
To the Neolathian’s credit, she kept her answer polite. “I think it’s a question of two possibilities,” she said, settling onto her seat. “Do we shut down wormhole travel, just in case they can see our signatures or do we go and meet the aliens?”
The room was silent again for a few moments, as the other politicians digested her words. “That is a succinct way to capture the question,” F.B. said, “But we’ve been using the first generation of wormhole drives for decades now. If they were going to come to us, they would have by now, unless their method of FTL is much slower than ours.”
“We haven’t spent too much time looking at those details,” Frekhri said, zooming in on the anomalous cluster of stars, the potential gravitic disturbances connecting the various stars making a complex web of tortured space-time. “But at first touch it seems like most of the travel isn’t through using wormholes. Our drives definitely don’t look like that. Determining the speed of travel will require multiple observations and deeper analysis.”
“Might it be a point to point gate network?” Leouisa asked, looking at the FTL tracks.
“Not likely, Padikenza,” the Matriarch replied, attempting to be civil as she pointed out a number of outlying trails. “They don’t seem to be tied down to specific routes. Sure, most of them do seem to be going to specific locations, but there are plenty of side trails to suggest it not being tied to point to point travel systems like a few proposals I’ve seen.”
The Robertin nodded, thankfully keeping her anger at being corrected to herself.
“So,” the Unktomin said, looking between the two females, “I think its safe to say that they won’t be coming to us anytime soon, unless something drastic changes. And until our navies are built and ready to go, we can’t do too much pincer shaking.”
“True,” the Neolathian agreed, moving her pincers to rest on their cushions. “We’re agreed then? Ready a fleet to go and find the aliens?”
“In general, yes,” the Padikenza said, before the Speaker had a chance to reply, “Though I do think we should go back to our respective governments and ready a joint press release.”
“Indeed,” F.B. said, keeping his annoyance to himself. But anything to make this another spider’s problem is fine with me. “I’ll need to confer with the President and the Prime Minister, to make sure they are okay with the present plan. May I get a copy of the observation data to take back to them, Arch-Matriarch?”
“That’s what I was about to offer you,” the Matriarch said, beckoning one of the white-chitined males to bring them a pair of data sticks. He paused when he reached the Unktomin, but handed the stick over quickly before scurrying back to his place, tucking his now unclean pincer to his body.
“Any other questions before I depart?” Frekhri asked, rising out of her stool.
“Don’t think so,” Leouisa said, hopping out of her own stool and breaking for the door. “Love to watch you leave, but I’ve got better things to do. See ya, you old brood.”
The audacity of the Padikenza got her through the threshold before she could be stopped, leaving F.B. alone with the Neolathians. Uggh, stupid broodlings, he thought, shaking his thorax. “Good day to you, Arch-Matriarch,” he said, bowing again. My mother would kill me if she saw me now.
The vested female looked sidelong at the mere politician, then ruffled her hair and whistled at the irony. “Never thought I’d see the day when a Unktomin would be more reasonable than a Robertin,” she said, sweeping a pincer in respect, “Good day to you, Speaker.” Having said that, she stepped back from her stool, allowed her retinue to form in their assigned places, and then processed their way out of the sitting room.
Waiting a full minute after they left, F.B. let his anger finally come out, hissing as he got out of his stool. “Females,” he muttered, walking towards the door before pausing. He took one last look at the tapestry, looking especially at Madawat Airget. “Hope she tasted good,” he said, before heading out the door.
*625 standard light years=781.25 Theradactan light years
F.B. de Joklerson, black chitined Speaker of the State Assembly of the Anankti Federation, looked over at the bristling spider who had asked the question, then looked at the object in question. The Second Arch-Matriarch of the Neolathian Regency’s sitting room was as ancient as her institution, its granite columns softened by a collection of traditional silk tapestries. These works of art were woven in various representations of the Neolathian deities going about their divine business, with the centerpiece being a rather grisly scene. On the left, Shalimorri, the black Goddess of the Night, directed vermin into (wheat) fields, to the much lamentation of a group of literally shit stained Theradectans. On the left, Reslor Baheph, the brown God of Plauge, sowed diseases into another group of spiders, these dyed green from old venom, falling over from a slow, gruesome, and painful death.
However, it was most likely the center that drew the speaker’s ire. It showed Madawat Airget, the God of Death, supervising his subordinates work as he idly picked flesh out of his pincers. Underneath him was the blood-stained and brutalized corpse of a red-colored spider, a crown laying on its side next to it.
“Well,” F.B. said, still looking at the tapestry, “I’m assuming it’s a reference to the Great Famine of 974.”
“No,” the red chitined Theradactan, Leouisa, Crobir Padinkeza Al-Bosicobel of the Robertin Empire, asked with her prickling hairs, “Really? Never would have guessed.”
The Speaker shook his thorax, looking at the larger spider. “No disrespect, Padinkeza Leouisa, I was just trying to make conversation. Not like we have much to do but wait.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” she said, pulling a slate out of her jeweled harness and tapping it to bring up its screen, “All we do is wait on the fucking Neolathians.”
He decided not to comment on that. Partly because the padinkeza was being a spoiled brat, as usual, but also because she wasn’t wrong either. The Regency did like to throw its weight around, whether it was planting their flag on celestial bodies or making foreign dignitaries wait in a sitting room with pointedly disturbing decorations. Not to mention that he was used to this kind of thing. Being a Unktomin hardened you to this kind of behavior. Quite a different life than a Robertin padinkeza who was used to be waited on pincer and foot. But I’d be surprised if she understood that, he thought.
Thankfully, they only had to wait, Leouisa passing her time playing an obnoxiously loud game on her slate and F.B. looking at the more pedestrian tapestries and other, possibly centuries old, furniture that made what was in essence a stone cave into a parlor fit for the Priestess that was second in line for the embroidered vestments of the High Matriarch.
Her imminent arrival a few more minutes later was announced by a diminutive Unktomin male, who walked tentatively into the room and said, “Presenting Her Holiness, Priestess of the Neolathian Orthodoxy, Keeper of the Holy City, Guardian of the Temple,” this went on for another few, painful moments, “the Second Arch-Matriarch of the Neolathian Regency, Frekhri of Cailin.”
Matriarch Frekhri’s relatively mediocre entrance was the minimum her station allowed. A white Neolathian male walked in to the room first, holding a pair of candles in his pincers as he led the procession. Another spider, looking like a twin of the first, bore a censure of incense, made of Ceroptera musk, waving it to spread the smell far and wide. Finally, came the Priestess herself, her vestments long enough to fully cover her thorax, abdomen, and the first joint of her legs, necessary in Cailin’s snowy terrain, though both the overly long veil and train required a pair of Neolathian females to keep the vestments from touching the stone.
F.B. rose from his cushioned seat, out of politeness if nothing else. Leouisa on the other hand, kept her eyes on her slate, the cheerful tones of the game at odd with the centuries old ceremony that was taking place. You would think she wasn’t the heir of the oldest nation on Atos, but that’s what you get when you wrap a broodling with too much silk.
Frekhri glanced over at the younger Theradactan, looking for a moment like she would snap at the irreverence, but decided to let it slide, as she settled into her own decadent stool, resting her pincers on the built-in cushions. The female retainers quickly folded the vestment’s superfluous fabric so it stayed off the floor and then stood behind her, along with their male coworkers. “Welcome to my den, Speaker and Padinkeza,” she said, nodding to both of them, oozing disdain. “I hope you realize the sacrifices that have been made letting the unclean into the temple grounds.”
“Yes, Arch-Matriarch,” the Unktomin said, bowing his thorax before lowering himself back onto his seat, “We’re grateful for the invitation to the temple and for talking to us directly.”
“Just glad you finally showed up,” the Robertin padinkeza said, finally putting her game away and looking at the Neolathian.
“I was unavoidably detained,” Frekhri said, flattening her hairs in annoyance at Leouisa’s remark.
“I’m sure you were, Arch-Matriarch,” F.B. said, clicking his pincers to get both females’ attention. “But why don’t you tell us why we are here today. Your representatives weren’t too specific on what this meeting was about.”
The white-chitined Theradactan glared at him for a moment, before straightening them and continuing, “Yes, let’s get down to business. You were summoned to Cailin because we finished our analysis of the Dagotha Array’s first light gravitational observations.”
Even the Padinkeza paid attention to that. The Dagotha Array was the latest part of the multinational Ocugus Array, a multi-star system observatory that detects gravitational waves. Usually the sole domain of scientists, the observatories had caught the eye of politicians after the Nyargmal Array was built and it was discovered that faster than light travel left imprints on space-time that was detectable by the Arrays’ systems. This was provable by observing the effect the wormholes created by their own ships. They were immediately used to scan for similar phenomena, but soon realized that they would need at least one more array to get any kind of resolution more than fifty light years out.
“And since we’re not at home listening to the scientists ramble on about the fiddly details,” Leouisa said, “That means you found something big enough that the called us here and keeping the data to yourselves, right?”
“Indeed,” Frekhri said, clicking on a small buttonboard on her stool. This dimmed the lights and caused a (holoprojector) to come out of the ceiling. The machine whirled into work, spraying a fine mist of water in between the three politicians, and then illuminating it from above. After a few moments, a three-dimensional picture came into view, showing the local star systems that surrounded Atargatis, with it and two other systems highlighted in bright primary colors close together in the center.
“After a week of analysis and double checking that analysis,” the Matriarch said, getting right to the point as she pressed more buttons to zoom out and highlight a dense knot of stars that appeared near the Neolathian, “We’ve confirmed that this sector of space, almost 800* light years away, is indeed home to alien civilizations that have access to faster than light travel.”
Those words laid on the floor in between the three Theradactan leaders, evolutionarily uneasy at the idea of not being on top of the food chain.
“So,” Leouisa said, breaking the silence after a few moments, “How exactly do the scientists know this? The last time they thought this, they explained it away with concentrations of dark matter and other nonsense.”
“I said,” Frekhri snapped, narrowing her eyes and taking half a step forward, startling her retainers, “they double checked. Do you think I want a repeat of that fiasco?”
“Maybe you’re just pulling us in so we all get shit thrown in our face,” the Padikenza said, rising from her seat as well, her hairs standing on end.
“Ladies,” F.B. said, clacking his pincers as he stood up, trying to get the females attention away from each other. “Please, let’s not bicker needlessly.”
“Shut up, Unktomin,” the Neolathan hissed, not sparing a glance at her inferior as she extended her fangs. “This doesn’t concern you,” she continued, venom dripping from her fangs.
“Oh, bring it on, you old brood,” the Robertin said, extending her pincers as she waited for the older Theradactan to come at her.
“Enough!” the black-chitined spider screeched, jumping into the air and landing between the two larger spiders. “We’re diplomats and leaders of our respective nations. This isn’t a time to quarrel like a pair of Forpedic farmers, it’s time to act as one species. Besides,” he said, ruffling his hairs and whistling in amusement, “Would either of you want the fact that a male was the calm one in the room to get out?”
The room was silent for a minute or so, until Frekhri ruffled her hair as well, taking a few steps back as she sheathed her fangs. “Indeed, Speaker,” she said, nodding to him before turning around and walking to her seat, “Let us get back to business.”
The red-chitined padikenza kept her pincers extended for another few moments, before giving F.B. a venomous glare for making her accept the Matriarch’s slight and turning around herself.
Not my fault you’re a prideful piece of shit, broodling, the Unktomin thought, shaking his thorax in annoyance as he backed up to his seat. This is why I question our alliance. You’re lucky the Neolathians are by far worse. “While I’m sure our own scientists would love to look at the data as well, let’s assume that your conclusions are correct. What are we going to do about it?
“Yes,” Leouisa said, folding her pincers in front of her, “How do you propose to deal with the reality where you aren’t on the top of the food chain, Arch-matriarch?”
Why don’t you know when to shut up? the Speaker thought, using all his will to not snap at his nominal ally.
To the Neolathian’s credit, she kept her answer polite. “I think it’s a question of two possibilities,” she said, settling onto her seat. “Do we shut down wormhole travel, just in case they can see our signatures or do we go and meet the aliens?”
The room was silent again for a few moments, as the other politicians digested her words. “That is a succinct way to capture the question,” F.B. said, “But we’ve been using the first generation of wormhole drives for decades now. If they were going to come to us, they would have by now, unless their method of FTL is much slower than ours.”
“We haven’t spent too much time looking at those details,” Frekhri said, zooming in on the anomalous cluster of stars, the potential gravitic disturbances connecting the various stars making a complex web of tortured space-time. “But at first touch it seems like most of the travel isn’t through using wormholes. Our drives definitely don’t look like that. Determining the speed of travel will require multiple observations and deeper analysis.”
“Might it be a point to point gate network?” Leouisa asked, looking at the FTL tracks.
“Not likely, Padikenza,” the Matriarch replied, attempting to be civil as she pointed out a number of outlying trails. “They don’t seem to be tied down to specific routes. Sure, most of them do seem to be going to specific locations, but there are plenty of side trails to suggest it not being tied to point to point travel systems like a few proposals I’ve seen.”
The Robertin nodded, thankfully keeping her anger at being corrected to herself.
“So,” the Unktomin said, looking between the two females, “I think its safe to say that they won’t be coming to us anytime soon, unless something drastic changes. And until our navies are built and ready to go, we can’t do too much pincer shaking.”
“True,” the Neolathian agreed, moving her pincers to rest on their cushions. “We’re agreed then? Ready a fleet to go and find the aliens?”
“In general, yes,” the Padikenza said, before the Speaker had a chance to reply, “Though I do think we should go back to our respective governments and ready a joint press release.”
“Indeed,” F.B. said, keeping his annoyance to himself. But anything to make this another spider’s problem is fine with me. “I’ll need to confer with the President and the Prime Minister, to make sure they are okay with the present plan. May I get a copy of the observation data to take back to them, Arch-Matriarch?”
“That’s what I was about to offer you,” the Matriarch said, beckoning one of the white-chitined males to bring them a pair of data sticks. He paused when he reached the Unktomin, but handed the stick over quickly before scurrying back to his place, tucking his now unclean pincer to his body.
“Any other questions before I depart?” Frekhri asked, rising out of her stool.
“Don’t think so,” Leouisa said, hopping out of her own stool and breaking for the door. “Love to watch you leave, but I’ve got better things to do. See ya, you old brood.”
The audacity of the Padikenza got her through the threshold before she could be stopped, leaving F.B. alone with the Neolathians. Uggh, stupid broodlings, he thought, shaking his thorax. “Good day to you, Arch-Matriarch,” he said, bowing again. My mother would kill me if she saw me now.
The vested female looked sidelong at the mere politician, then ruffled her hair and whistled at the irony. “Never thought I’d see the day when a Unktomin would be more reasonable than a Robertin,” she said, sweeping a pincer in respect, “Good day to you, Speaker.” Having said that, she stepped back from her stool, allowed her retinue to form in their assigned places, and then processed their way out of the sitting room.
Waiting a full minute after they left, F.B. let his anger finally come out, hissing as he got out of his stool. “Females,” he muttered, walking towards the door before pausing. He took one last look at the tapestry, looking especially at Madawat Airget. “Hope she tasted good,” he said, before heading out the door.
*625 standard light years=781.25 Theradactan light years
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