It was a good thing that energy fluctuations were on the list of things that were high priority for all of the Alliance’s ships to study, because it would be a shame to have to send people out specifically for the thousands of stars in the area around the Origin Cycle. Especially since they hadn’t chosen to be publicly revealed. It would be difficult to keep random ships from accidentally passing through their system without putting a large warning… in which case their secrecy would be in name only.
Even though it would actually center around the distortion beast nest, their coordinates were nearly the same. The nest had accelerated slightly outside of the system- though perhaps its denizens would not have cared if it took them a thousand years to travel to the next system. They would come and go as the nest itself slowly drifted through subspace, not even necessarily returning to the same nest. Though perhaps this one was an exception. More study was required to know for certain.
Alin might be one of the foremost experts on distortion beasts in the lower realms, but even he didn’t know much more than that. Aside from the difficulties of studying what appeared on even one layer of space, distortion beasts would flow between a number seemingly effortlessly. That and their severe aggression resulted in progress being slow.
This was far from the first nest they had come across, but this was the first time they suspected there was more to it. The insights carried by distortion beasts were far too odd- or rather, the fact that they had any at all. The danger was greater, but that was precisely the reason they weren’t being immediately wiped out. Just carefully monitored.
With the clearly manmade tokens inside them- hunks of enchanted metal that were decaying away- it spoke of a sinister plot. Taking careful calculations, one could discern through which systems the distortion beasts might have traveled by taking the average resonance with various systems. If one accounted for certain time variables, a path could be inferred that-
“Here, probably,” Alin’s assistant interrupted his thoughts. “That’s about where they started. With the path going around here, they’ll end up on this spiral curve taking them out of the galaxy.”
“If one extrapolates any unconstrained path it will leave the galaxy,” Alin retorted. “I don’t believe that is a useful conclusion.”
“Everything’s useful,” the assistant replied. “For example, if the path were reversed then we’d know that they came from outside the galaxy.”
“But the path is not reversed,” Alin said. “That is no different from saying that is up were down, down would be up.”
“I think we should consider this issue of the distortion beasts,” Alin repeated, exasperated. “Do you have any valuable insights to contribute?”
“Well, maybe,” the assistant who probably had a name shrugged. “Do you think someone shoved this nest? Maybe they put subspace rocket boosters on it.”
“I… highly doubt anyone put ‘subspace rocket boosters’ on a distortion beast nest.”
“They could have. Why else would it not flow with gravity? Unless it’s being affected more than expected by dark dark matter. And dark dark dark matter. Or maybe dark dark dark dark-”
“I already told you we’re not going to reference potential subspace mass anomalies like that. It would be more helpful to refer to it as second order and third order, and so on.”
“That assumes we’re on the first layer of space. Maybe we aren’t.”
“Nobody has had any success breaking into any sort of… superspace. But you were speaking of how this nest appeared… directed?”
The assistant had added a proper trace of the projected curve into their three dimensional display. “Yeah, you see this?” Part of the curve was more substantial than the rest- systems for which they actually had data. The rest was projected. Everything into the future, for example, and anything more than a couple hundred years in the past.
“Should we have our scouts fly along the reverse path to confirm an origin point of some sort?” Alin suggested. “It would only take a couple decades to confirm, unless the tokens were much larger than we suspected.”
“Eh. If you want,” assistant said. “That does assume someone pushed it, though.”
Alin Kato took a deep breath. “I do believe we are well past the point of determining human involvement. The insights alone would be sufficient. So yes, some group no doubt… pushed this nest.”
A white lab coat flapped dangerously close to sensitive equipment as the assistant shook his head hard enough to vibrate his whole body. “Not necessarily. Someone could have… pulled it.” He mimed pulling on a rope. “Just giving it a little tug, you know?”
“I don’t think how momentum was imparted upon it is particularly important.”
“Sure it is. Because if you want to find the people involved, you have to look at the other end. You’re not going to find any horse behind a cart. Well… I’ve heard a few people aren’t good at setting things up, but most of the time it’s a bad idea. At least get some pegasi and a space cart. With the right harness it might work in reverse.”
Sometimes, Alin felt like strangling his assistant. Or perhaps it was more correct to say that occasionally, he did not have such feelings. “Are the tangents really necessary?”
“Tangents can define curves.” The words were so natural. It was nearly impossible to tell if they were meant to be sarcastic or not.
“I suppose I must consider your opinion. You think we should search along the forward curve? How likely is it to be the correct one?”
“Well, if whatever we are looking for is there… a hundred percent. If it’s the other way, zero percent. So if we round… about two thirds?”
“You think it is more likely that the guidance is ‘pulling’ this nest?”
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“The other end of this spiral isn’t getting closer to the upper realms- until you get way off here past the Chaotic Conglomeration.” the assistant pointed out. “Where as this one…”
“Actually dips back into the Exalted Quadrant at… when would that happen?
“Two cycles from now. That’s… not outside the realm of reason.”
Alin wasn’t quite certain if most of the Alliance would be around then, but aside from catastrophe some currently living individuals would still be- and the Alliance as an entity, hopefully. Their quick rise could come with an equally rapid fall. Well, if they only ever got a single Unity cultivator. With someone like Anton around… it would be hard to lose what they had in the lower realms even without considering how the upper realms might support them.
“Oh,” the assistant commented. “We probably still want to look in your direction. To try to confirm where the curve actually started.”
“And for the alternative where that is where the propulsion is coming from.”
“Are special distortion beasts friends?” Bear Hug asked.
“I’m certain we already covered this,” Anton said. “Distortion beasts are even more aggressive than the natives of this system. I’m not certain they would actually survive here, but they’re certainly not friends.”
“I know that,” Bear Hug complained. “But that doesn’t mean special ones can’t be friends. They can do fancy energy stuff… so maybe we can talk to them!”
“That’s not a good idea,” Anton said.
“They want to eat you.”
“Hasn’t stopped me before.”
“These are far away from this system and we don’t know if you’ll survive.”
“I have to test that at some point anyway! I’m not limiting myself to Klar.”
“You have no experience with subspace.”
“You yanked me into it that one time! It was fun.”
“There’s practically no chance that they’ll even comprehend that you’re trying to communicate.”
“Which means they might figure it out. Tell me where they are.”
“I’m not going to take you,” Anton said.
“Fine. I’m sure I can convince someone else. It shouldn’t take too long. I’ll probably freeze along the way like one of those hyper-coldified chambers that one tech guy talked about. Time will pass in an instant! I’m not sure how I’ll get unfrozen, though.”
Bear Hug had a sense of humor and liked to joke around- even about ridiculous things. This wasn’t one of those times. “If I take you, you can’t get mad when they attack you and I kill them.”
“Okay. But you have to let me try.”
Sometimes, Anton wished he had less sway. He couldn’t tell Bear Hug, ‘actually, there are restrictions on entering the area’. There were, of course. People needed far more than security clearances to even be told about the area. But supervised by someone like Anton, Bear Hug could certainly get away with it if Anton at all tried to get them approved.
That said, he didn’t rush into things immediately. He didn’t want to disrupt any number of related activities, and seriously attempting communication with distortion beasts was something that hadn’t been attempted. Certainly, there had been some halfhearted attempts- but it wasn’t like they had eyes or ears most of the time. Nor would that be a reason for them to share human language.
Anton seriously doubted that their thought patterns would be close enough to ‘get’ the energy language, either. Their physical form was on a scale too large even if they occupied only one layer of reality. It would be like a human talking to an ant.
So not really that weird, he supposed. Certainly, he could pick out proportionately minute fluctuations in energy, so if they were decently perceptive it should work. Especially since the absolute amount of energy used would be much greater. Whether they would take it as anything other than an invitation to eat Anton had significantly more doubts. But the way things were now, this was their best chance. Weird distortion beasts and a language meant to be spoken by anything with energy.
The team that came up with the language was probably not accounting for multidimensionality, though. Either way, they should be included in the mission, since they could best interpret if there was any sort of response aside from pure violence.
Anton wondered briefly how he had gotten swept up in something again… but of course the answer was simple. He poked his nose into too much of other people’s business, and then had to accept the consequences.
“What kind do you want?” Anton asked.
“Distortion beasts are… a lot like animals.”
“I want a snail! Like Helix!”
“They’re not… actually animals. I can probably get you something with a spiralled shell or slime or both, but it might have tentacles, acid skin, or radiation bladders.”
“What do those last things do?”
“They sort of surround something with radiation and turn it into soup.”
“Soup is good. It’s warm.”
“You don’t want to be soup. Radiation is bad.”
“I like solar radiation. Can you get one of those?”
Anton frowned. “Do you want that, or the shell thing? I might not actually be able to get either, depending on the population of the nest.”
“These have cultivation stuff, right? I think I want something nice. Like water.”
“It might try to steal your water and turn you into dried algae.”
“That would be very rude,” Bear Hug declared.
“They have even less social impetus than Briar,” Anton declared. “And less restraint.”
“Wow. That’s… not a lot of restraint. Why don’t they eat each other?”
“They do. Sometimes.”
“Why not all the time, then?”
Anton had to admit he didn’t know. Maybe there were distortion beast hunting seasons. Probably, something about the nests calmed them… relative to each other. They were probably more aggressive with regards to foreign matter. Like people. And planets. And maybe stars, though there hadn’t been any confirmations of one consuming a whole star. Just bits and pieces, siphoning some energy and matter off the top.
“I’ll talk to a water one,” Bear Hug decided. “If you can get a weaker one that would be good. I want to resist myself.”
“That’s not an easy request,” Anton admitted. “But I’ll try.” At least he should be able to draw one out.