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“Well for one thing, we were hoping that you could give us the coordinates of where you found the emergent kids so I can do some scrying myself,” Sonia said. “Not that we doubt you but–”

But two sets of eyes are better than one? Emily said. I understand. Of course I can. But Edwin could have given you that. There’s something else, isn’t there? Read the rest of this entry »

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“Oh my, now that’s a relevant piece of information, isn’t it?” Amanpreet swallowed convulsively. “I guess we just have to hope that, given that this is ancient history, they’ve changed and no longer go in for xenocide.” She tried to ignore the churning in her stomach that said that would be a forlorn hope.

“It is a long time,” Mei agreed. “But from what the book says they must be very long lived, because, while they have access to hyperspace communication, they don’t seem to have hyperspace ships and yet they’ve spread their influence over several thousand parsecs.”

Midori sucked in a sharp breath. “To hold together a civilization with relativistic speeds…” she shook her head in wonder. “They must be biologically immortal.”

“Or extremely long lived at least,” Umi said. “But not very resilient in other ways if they can’t tolerate hyperspace. Did the book give any more details?”

“It said that these aggressors initially attacked this system but the inhabitants were able to fight them off,” Mei said. “When that failed they went to a nearby massive star that should have been only about halfway through its lifespan and somehow aged it prematurely. The people here were aware of the changes and tried to stop them but they only had a prototype hyperspace ship, so they couldn’t. So they took the final clutch of one of their strongest and most intelligent breeding queens, and hid it in the hope that one day their species could be resurrected.”

“I still don’t understand how the eggs survived,” Midori said.

“Shielding,” Amanpreet said. “In my vision they were shielding the egg cavern with some sort of super-dense metal. It would have stopped the radiation.” She frowned to herself. “They couldn’t make enough to shield the city in time so they went with Plan B.” She tilted her head at her own certainty. “Hmm… maybe there are some after effects of what happened to me.”

“Possibly,” Midori said. “But more likely hearing this shook some details of what you saw loose.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ll contact the Council of Planets and pass on this and what Umi told us. Can you gather your crew and try to track that Fish like you said?”

“Of course,” Amanpreet replied.

***

Mark frowned when Amanpreet explained the situation. “I’ve done a bit of hyperspace tracking when I used to work search and recovery on Cels.” The bronze skinned navigator frowned and shook his head. “But it’s not easy, Am. We very rarely managed to recover a ship lost in hyperspace. Admittedly this isn’t exactly the same but it still might be too late to track them.”

“I’ve never done it,” Kane said. “I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think I could do it.”

“That’s okay,” Amanpreet said. “I can do it, so Mark and I will handle the navigation this trip – presuming we can find the trail. If we can’t it will be a very short trip.” She turned to Niobe. “If we do find them I’ll need you to talk to them and explain that the Mez have changed and don’t keep slaves anymore.”

“Do we know which Mez language these Fish are likely to know?” Niobe asked. “I’m sure they don’t know all of them.”

“I’ll find out,” Amanpreet said before turning to Nevin. “How are you on Mez physiology? Umi’s sister might be injured.”

Nevin looked dubious. “I can transform one of the medical pods for a hydrogen breather so she can breath and not overheat, but I’m not familiar enough with their physiology to risk medical intervention. Even a doctor probably wouldn’t be.”

“Yes, fix up one of the pods,” Amanpreet said. “That will be necessary even if she isn’t injured. I doubt she’s got an environment suit in the dome with her. We’ll just have to hope she’s unharmed. Have Vanna help you if needed.”

“Is that everything?” Niobe asked, then smirked as Amanpreet nodded. “Okay, then let’s save the Milky Way.”

“No,” Amanpreet murmured thinking of Mei’s discovery. “Leave that to the Council of Planets.”

“I was funning, Am. I know these Fish aren’t that big a danger.” Niobe narrowed her eyes. “There’s something else? Something to do with them?” She jerked her head to indicate Talis. “Spill!”

“There is,” Amanpreet said. “I’ll tell you about it once we’ve at least done our best to find Umi’s sister. This is far more urgent.” She looked over at Mark. “Do you want to take the first stint in the dome or shall I?”

—

Prompt Post 13 is here. Come and leave a prompt.

Comments Welcome.

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Matthias tutted thoughtfully to himself. “Yes,” he said finally. “I think that’s doable. It will take some thinking about but we can probably come up with a way to do it.”

“But how?” Edwin said. “Could you really pull off pretending to be a whole other species?”

“Well they do, apparently,” Matthias said. “So we should be able to. We can conceal ourselves and disguising ourselves as something else is only a matter of degree.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Lydia tutted to herself. “We’ll warn dad,” she said. “Though we really don’t need any more enemies. You’d better tell us more about this Savira-ida so we can tell him.”

“She’s brown, very strong and the youngest draconic idri. She was conceived on Taloa but born on Kithra – she has a heart friend but their bond is damaged. It’s strong enough to protect her from the mental disturbances that afflict potential idri who don’t have a heart friend and to keep her from frenzy, but it’s otherwise deficient. As a kithreia, her obsession was to fix her bond and gain heart friends for those who don’t have one – and even as a dragon she’s never quite let go of the idea. Her court is a ragtag mob of dragons of various colours who want the same thing.” He hesitated then added. “And she’s in descent – she has been for a couple of centuries at least – so she’s willing to do all sorts of horrible experiments to further her aims.” Read the rest of this entry »

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A/N: Thank you to Kamala for volunteering to my new beta reader for Whisper 😀

—

“It’s not just your species though,” Midori said. “They’ve attacked human Fish as well and they attacked Amanpreet’s Stick.”

“The attack on the Whisper seems to have been a mistake,” Umi said. “And we suspect they don’t realize that not all Fish are crewed by us. It’s not immediately obvious, of course. And even if they do we don’t know why they are attacking now.”

“So the prototype Fish could navigate hyperspace on their own but the current ones can’t because they’re only class three intelligences?” Amanpreet asked. “I suppose you tried that because of how badly hyperspace exposure affects your people?” Read the rest of this entry »

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“Hmm…” Lydia studied Indaturan thoughtfully as she tried to think of another question. “This is kind of hard; I don’t know what I should be asking.” She tutted to herself for a few moments. “Do you raid?”

“Ouch,” he said but he was smiling. “That’s direct. Yes, but rarely and only if it’s necessary. Better a hunting raid by dragons who are in control of themselves than a rampage by one who’s frenzying due to starvation or injury.”

“Better for whom?” Daniel asked sharply. Read the rest of this entry »

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“That’s the first thing everyone asks,” Indaturan said. “I suppose it is what I’m known for.” He sighed and looked away. “Taloa has changed so much that it’s not the home I remember. I’ve lived here longer than I’ve ever lived there, so logically this is my home now and I even think I’ll get homesick for here. On the surface it’s not rational.”

“So why?” Lydia asked. “Something below the surface obviously.”

He nodded. “I’ll tell you what I told your parents. I don’t know why. I’ve never been able to define it. It’s like something I can’t quite recall, but I have no doubt that Taloa needs us to return.” Read the rest of this entry »

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A/N: Unfortunately this installment of The Whisper of Damkina is once again unedited. I’ve done my best to catch any errors but self-editing is difficult. Apologies if there are more errors than usual. If anyone would like to volunteer to help out with betaing drop me a line. I’d be really grateful. 

—

“What am I going to tell Umi?” Midori had her hands pressed to her mouth in horror as she stared at the screen.

“I don’t think you’ll need to tell her anything, Administrator Midori,” Amanpreet said. “She will have been watching so all we need do is offer support. My crew and I will go and tow in the crippled ship. There may be survivors.” She frowned at the screen. “You know from where the damage on the Whisper was the Fish that attacked us was targeting our dome as well. Why the domes?” She shook her head. “No it’s not the domes, is it?” Read the rest of this entry »

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“If it comes to that, of course we’ll help,” Matthias said. “For now, how are we going to deal with this situation with the Government?”

Sophie sighed heavily. “I don’t know. I can’t blame them for being scared. Hell, I’m scared. The situation warrants it – they have to hold things together because it could so easily collapse into chaos if they didn’t. But they’re going about it completely the wrong way. I just hope they aren’t mistreating those kids.” Read the rest of this entry »

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As Andrew carried the tea tray into the sitting room, he carefully shot a thought about Naria’s suspicions at his parents, careful to keep it private from their guests. At least he thought he had kept it private but Sophie’s eyes shot to him as he did it, though she gave no other sign if she had heard him.

Brierthorne I can see, Matthias said as he poured the tea. But even if they could monitor jumps to the other world, how would they know exactly where they were? Read the rest of this entry »