Moments pass.

The Koon Heya leaves orbit, T'Khasi fades from view, the small flash of another nuclear detonation being the last any member of the crew sees of the surface of their home before the singularity reactor takes them into sub-space.

More moments pass.

The waking crew of the Koon Heya are the first of their people to observe a subspace shockwave. They are unable to tell others about it though, as the ship is torn apart at the edge of warp speed. When the edge of the shockwave makes contact with the ship's singularity, the rest of the ship is shattered and shot off in all directions at speeds that the Koon Heya's designers would have thought ludicrous.

Many moments later.

The cryopod has gradually slowed to sublight speeds. In this time it has gathered layers of dust and traveled from what the occupant's people would call the Alpha Quadrant into the distant Gamma Quadrant.

Ships pass in the moments. Strange designs, from alien peoples, and eventually stranger ones from her own. None of these take much notice of another stone passing through space.

But the stone is noticed at one point, and one of these strange alien ships brings her aboard, and brings her through a wormhole to their own homeworld, far closer to T'Khasi than she has been for centuries.

The majority of the ship's samples make it through the Order's inspection, a handful of samples, including the largest are redirected to research libraries in the Munda'ar sector of Cardassia City. Two of the expedition's scientists were also transferred to assist in researching these samples.

The largest sample is cleaned, and its true contents are discovered. Months are spent researching the pod in an attempt to interpret the controls and identify the occupant, before the conclusion is reached. She comes from a lost history. Any record of her life was destroyed centuries ago, in the wars that ripped her homeworld apart, with horrible weapons since lost and hidden. Exactly what the Cardassian Union needs, invaded by Klingons and threatened by the Dominion.

She wakes in a dark curved room, alone.

Fuzzy. Painful. Pinpricks of poor circulation. Outside expected margins? Maybe. Hard to tell with thoughts this disjointed. Deep breaths, relax the circulatory system. Heart rate low, boost it a bit. Doctors will interrupt if it causes damage.

No doctors readily apparent. Dark? Eyes are damaged, but not that badly. No immediate light sources, no minds reaching out.

Wait, inner eyelids working? Blinking is painful, both layers. No sign of dim light or short wavelengths.

Proprioception isn't working. Psionic senses can confirm whole body is present. Pod is not. Feels like...a chair? Partially embedded in a chair. Maybe restraints? Less metal than expected, ceiling feels like stone. So not the ship, they've reached a destination.

The lights begin to come up gradually, and a section of the wall splits into a door. Two Cardassian women walk in, one pulls out a scanner and begins examining R'vneh, the other sits in a chair positioned in front of her.

"Jolan tru visitor." She leans back, allowing the light to catch her forehead scales, reflecting off her grey-blue skin.

"This one is Gul Ocett of the Cardassian Union, the healer is Abbess Calan. She has learned of the Romulan doctoring traditions, but please inform us if your existence is crumbling. This is assuredly a perplexing situation for you, and we will be willing to answer what questions you may have. We are not of you, and have dueled time to review your ability."

"This one would like to recognize you?"

Figures. Blurry. Door, also blurry. Eyes, then. Trigger tears to accelerate their repair.

Minds, dim. Hard to notice when they aren't right here. Weak, like animals? ...Maybe. But maybe also blurry. Or distorted? No legible emotions, even at this range. Possible brain damage? Need to self-assess, once practical.

Voices, grating. Higher urgency, aren't they. Prioritization is going poorly. Relax blood vessels in brain a bit further.

Cardassian Union. Some sort of guild? Healer and doctoring are promising, but it sounds like they expect "Romulan" to be meaningful? Hopefully existence is not actively crumbling, preliminary assessment suggests acceptable stability. Didn't expect cryosleep to be fun.

...A response is expected. Prioritization still difficult.

"..."

As is speaking. Maybe a whisper?

"experiencing context breach. need glucose. and water? my priority. your priority?"

Gul Ocett stands and walks to the room's small replication unit.

"One serving aytlik broth." She returns with a large mug of vegetable soup and a small spoon which she then offers to R'vneh.

"Of course yes. We are expectant of this. We must maintain patience for preparedness. Context is lacking for all, new oration can productively join the scheme and will rally the speaking with unheard clans."

Doctor Calan completes her scans and leaves the room.

"This one will return before a bloodwing can take flight. Please consume."

Uh, soup? Smells like soup. Soup works, better hydration source than expected.

Soup helps a lot. Salt reserves weren't getting low, but carbohydrates and water are both necessary to finish regenerating. Focus on eyes and brain, for the moment.

They expected confusion. Also communication difficulties? And this isn't the ship. Could have been a lot longer than expected, long enough for linguistic drift. Perhaps issues with the cryopod? Or they could be natives of the destination. Aliens. Did they look like aliens? Hard to tell, check again when they get back.

Mind is feeling a bit better, time to branch. Possibilities:

Brain damage. Maybe the cryopods cause it. Difficulty communicating because (everyone/me) is disabled relative to pre-cryosleep. Predicts that thoughts won't get much more coherent, emotion sense won't improve because that's all there is to see, existing leadership is nonetheless worse than I can manage.

Significant delay before waking from cryopod. Other colonists have been experiencing cultural evolution without maintaining perfect records of original language. Possibly original colonists or a later ship. Predicts unexpected technology level, more likely higher than lower. Predicts personal historical significance, does not predict obedience except if political stability is lower than T'Khasi. Many opportunities for leverage, but rushing would be dangerous.

Aliens. Probably didn't capture the ship in-transit. They would have worked out communications with the maintenance staff or computers before opening cryopods. Suggests no unfrozen survivors. Either the ship never made it, or the colony failed to wake the pods and died out. Poor but comprehensible translation due to computer being damaged? Or perhaps past communication with other T'Khasans that have experienced cultural evolution. Bloodwings are known birds, implies they have some limited cultural context. Many free variables. Interest in opening cryopod suggests curiosity and lack of omniscience. Did not insist focus remain on their questions, weak evidence for charity or generosity. Early statement of questions suggests they expect valuable information but are willing to delay retrieving it to improve current comfort or survival-odds. Suggests limited resources, but not critically so. Remarkably similar to T'Khanans. Physical structure looked similar as well. Weak evidence against whole hypothesis branch. Predicts any number of things, but probably that they're confused, that they have highly unpredictable abilities, and that there's no backup available outside their terms.

Finished with the soup. Thoughts and eyes are working better, evidence against brain damage. Would be nice to drop into healing trance, but the minds outside the door are stirring again. They must be observing the room. Better to stay conscious until events are more clear.

Gul Ocett returns with a small box. She sets it down on a small table close to the door, before bringing the entire table closer to the two chairs.

"This one has also brought an indulgence." She takes the now empty soup mug back to the replicator, "One gelat and one red leaf tea." The prior mug vanishes, leaving two more in its wake.

Ocett arranges the two mugs on the table, the red leaf in easy reach of R'vneh, as she busies herself disassembling the box to reveal the fresh ikri buns inside.

"This one, with a minimum of deceit, takes great joy in well-built singular ikri buns." With the box out of the way, Ocett returns to her seat and takes a long sip of her gelat before selecting one of the buns.

"Abbess Calan relayed to this one that the mind and form sound as if fully intact. Thence, this one can opine that the speaking with unheard clans is stunted, unspeaking of your speech. We possess several priority, eloquence is momentarily first."

More food. Dry. Smells sweet. Good, scent is working better. Probably a pastry? Flavorful, taste is also working acceptably.

"Eloquence is momentarily first priority. Understood."

Tea and pastry are not recognized flavors. Alien? Plausibly. The figures would be...odd T'Khasans. Strange color, strange texture. Short, especially in the torso. Neck is very wide. But not as different as had been hypothesized. And on the other hand, more divergent than evolution would produce over plausible timeframes. The cryopods could not have protected a body for even a hundred thousand years, and the kind of society that could save a serious preservation failure after so long would not not make these translation errors.

"My condition has improved. I value your assistance in this. Would it be preferable for me to describe my language, or to study yours?"

"The language you hear is being provided by a piece of computer software, it is highly ductile and tumbles languages quickly, now you will speak extra, it must mirror the dialect you are using warily. Please speak on the thoughts on the breeze."

Gul Ocett finishes the last bite of her ikri bun and her posture shifts to conceal the buns from her main vision.

"Is there thought or material I can bring you?"

"Should I try to speak many different words? Or to speak a few words in different ways? Or to correct the translator? I am not fully recovered, I would prefer to be efficient. If you have standard material that I should read, I can do that. Or I could name pictures, or moving videos."

"Well, for example, is there anything we can do to make you more recovered? Would just water and glucose be preferable? Doctor Calan and the others who helped wake you commended the broth, but if their choosing was perverse, we can find either what you require or something resembling."

"The soup worked well, thank you. It will take time to integrate the fluids and energy, but I can speak while recovering. I don't think you mean 'perverse', you probably mean 'mistaken'. I didn't understand what you meant before, either, by the computer being 'ductile'. Do you just mean 'adaptable'? Is this helpful? How much more do I need to talk?"

"Hmmm. The translation is still quite rough, I can't imagine what sort of nonsense you've been hearing everywhere. I regret that we were insufficient to acquire more translation data on Old High Vulcan, but the current state of military readiness does complicate many things."

Gul Ocett takes another long sip of her gelat, "I believe we've made enough progress for now if you'd like some time to rest, I apologize that I cannot yet offer to release you from your seat, but according to Dr. Calan's assessment your body is not yet equipped to support itself regardless."

Strangely fast for the translation quality to improve! Is that really all they needed?

"Cannot" is interesting language, and might at this point be meaningful. The chair is comfortable but does have restraints. Wouldn't have figured them for a prisoner's shackles, they're only barely outside the limits of unaugmented strength. Not that the door is much better. It would pose a challenge to a non-psion? ...Are none of these people psions? It might explain the muteness of their minds. Weak even compared with the fully untrained, though. Might be even weaker than that. Not yet a safe conversation topic.

"I confess surprise that you were able to do this well! I can guess at the 'old' and the 'high' in the title, but can you speak more of 'Vulcan'? After that I agree I should rest. Seems a shame to sleep now, but I think I may need it."

"Your biology and appearance allowed us to identify you as either a Romulan or a Vulcan, there are some very slight differences between the two peoples, which neither is willing to explain to other species."

"The history that they are willing to share is that Vulcan is the homeworld of both these species, as well as a few others that have met with greater genetic variation. Near 2000 years ago there was a great schism of the wings, the Sundering, during which many colony ships departed. Many of these ships were lost or destroyed, and the majority of records from the period were destroyed as well."

"There was a specific convoy of ships, the survivors of which eventually settled the planets now known as Romulus and Remus. Once they were well established on their new worlds, the settlers of Romulus started an interstellar empire which my own people have been allied with for some time now. Once you are feeling better we can supply you with historical texts."

Two thousand years. Several! Loss of historical records is unfortunately plausible. Any technological loss has likely been recovered at this point, given the continued presence of interstellar ships. Unlikely they could have decided the cryopod was produced less than a few centuries ago, so the existence of Romulans as an interstellar force must also have that much history. Interesting that this culture emphasizes their diplomatic relations with the Romulans but not the Vulcans. Perhaps the Romulans were capable of greater coordination efforts? Maybe because of lower resource scarcity on Romulus than T'Khasi.

"This context is helpful, thank you. It would be preferable for me to rest now, I think. I expect to be more capable of holding a conversation in a few hours. Is there anything you would like before I sleep?"

Gul Ocett begins clearing the table, "Could you confirm your name for me? It will simplify my reports substantially."

"Of course! I am R'vneh, Daughter of Sudoc, Princess of Jaleyl. Last princess, it would seem."

Ocett deposits the remnants of their snack in the replicator.

"I mentioned earlier, but I am Gul Ocett. Thank you Princess R'vneh." she performs a small nod of the head that seems intended as a bow.

"Lights on or off?"

"On. I should give my eyes a bit more opportunity to adjust. Thank you."

"Certainly." The door slides open, and swiftly shuts behind her.

Once outside the room, Ocett rushes down the hall, collecting a crowd quickly behind her. She gathers the facility's staff in a briefing room.

"This announcement will be made again in a written form for those currently on monitoring duty. Starting four hours from now, no one without anti-telepath training will be permitted within 100 meters of the subject."

"Based on current data she appears to be a pre-Sundering Vulcan, and an immediate relative of the most violent individual in the known Vulcan-Romulan pre-history. Her recovery is already 40% faster than our estimates predicted, and that is without the healing trance that was included in most estimates."

"I will require the assistance of all department heads in preparing a report for Chief Executor Rejal in my office in ten minutes, take this time to instruct those below you in the implementation of these precautions."

As the room erupts behind her, Ocett walks across the hall to her office and throws herself into her desk chair. This is not what her archaeology and xenobiology degrees were for.

Two thousand years with known record loss implies lack of details regarding old-style T'Khasan psionic disciplines. They likely have precautions, but not well-targeted ones. Cardassians are oddly similar to T'Khasans, but there would be little reason to pretend to be an alien species if not doing so to fake your real capabilities.

T'Khasans disguising themselves is more likely if it hasn't been two thousand years. A small delay in waking the pods could lead to colonists in a highly unstable position, with more to hide. Aliens more likely if two thousand years have actually passed. Less reason to lie about that in particular, even if they're hiding other information. Examination of the cryopod will likely be definitive. Astronomical data could be conclusive if it could be accessed without room for interference. Brain damage scenario looks less likely, thoughts are recovering at expected rate for waking from cryosleep.

Information about "Vulcans", "Romulans", and the "Cardassian Union" is still predictive noise. No cause yet to believe Gul Ocett has said anything without careful tuning and consideration of expected interpretations, and checking up on those details will be difficult in the short-run.

This is a high-risk environment where additional data could be very valuable. No time for a proper healing trance. Better to only reduce brain activity partially, maintain subtle consciousness while handling regeneration actively. Slightly less efficient, but six hours should still be sufficient recovery for light activity and moderate-scale psionic workings. Time to rest, but not to sleep.

"Tell me how this will work, Ocett."

"I will be the first to acknowledge the danger inherent in this strategy, Executor Rejal. However, if we can win her trust, she may well build us a weapon that can wipe out a Klingon orbital station in a single shot."

At a frown from Rejal, Ocett quickly continues, "Certainly I am in full support of our current response to the presence of Klingons within our borders ma'am, but that strategy is primarily based on the tremendous reduction in our fleet. It can't be a long term strategy. The people are already suffering from the raids and the reduction of trade throughout the sector. It may take time, but it already seems as though many of the legends about ancient Vulcans are vastly understated. She was asking coherent questions about the universal translator within 20 minutes of waking from millenia in unpowered cryostasis. The personnel file embedded in her cryopod identifies her as an engineer, the intended governor of the colony, and the daughter of a militaristic emperor. She almost certainly knows how to build the ancient psionic weapons that forced Vulcan back to a pre-space-travel technological level."

"And what exactly is supposed to prevent her from turning these weapons on the State, Gul?"

So far Legate Hoval had remained silent, Ocett refocuses her attention to his side of the screen.

"As I said sir, there is significant risk in the strategy. Whatever the Klingon Empire may claim, we are at war, and we are about to be in another one, possibly at the same time."

"I outlined proposed security procedures in my report, this program will require a higher degree of flexibility than many historical projects the military has undertaken, and we still need to conduct more research which will hopefully lead to even more options. The goal is to make her a loyal subject of the Union, failing that we hope to make her a powerful ally, and if we succeed in either of these, we will have drastically shifted the galactic balance of power in favor of the Union."

"Hoval, I am inclined to approve this proposal. So far, it seems to offer the best ratio between necessary resources and possible gain, of any military research proposal I have heard since returning to Union Space, and State knows that we could use anything that we might be able to prepare before the Dominion attempts retaliation for the Omarion Nebula. If you have any specific misgivings, this would be the time to share them."

Legate Hoval lets out a deep sigh, "I think this is a bad solution to a terrible problem, but we haven't come up with anything better yet. At least in theory, we should go through with this."

"But can we at least move this project out of the capital city?"

"Many of the project's current precautions are only possible because we are using a former Order installation. If there is a similar facility further from major cities, then I would be happy to transfer the project there in a few weeks, once R'vneh has recovered further, and we have a better understanding of the specific risks."

"If there's one in the Mekar Wilderness, it would be easier to explain to her as something for her benefit, and might even improve her opinion of us."

Legate Hoval buries his face in his hands, coming back up to speak, "There is such a facility, and it has been an absolute nightmare."

"Getting teams and resources out there has been hard enough, but the traps have been devastating. We're still not sure what the facility was designed to hold, but whatever your princess is capable of, that place should be able to contain it. We'll raise the priority of clearing it, I want you ready to start the  transfer as soon as the Mekar installation is cleared. Even with the entire military working on it I doubt we'd be ready before you."

Time to think.

Top-weighted branch is that it's actually been two thousand years and the Cardassians are actually aliens. This branch is also conservatively pessimistic, implies fewer resources. No political power, no trade goods, outdated technology.

How accurate is each of those? No political power is very likely. No good sense of local politics yet, but while polite, they have not been deferential in a way which implies innate weight. Chair still seems locked, after all.

Possibly they will recognize ownership rights over the remnants of the ship. Cryopod is missing, and crown, and both contain useful tools. The cryopod computer even has details that can't otherwise be recovered. Its memory banks are larger than even an augmented mind. But if the Cardassians have the military upper hand, they have no reason to purchase what they already possess. Firsthand historical records are more plausible and harder to steal. Only viable with free contact with the sorts of intellectuals who will value such things. Still the best option if wealth is needed.

Technology? Mechanical portions of the chair and door look like they might use finer circuitry than standard T'Khasan variants, but the difference isn't enormous. Though the walls are harder to read than the chair. More opaque, beyond just the thickness and density. Possibly an active precaution against farsight? Or psionic senses in general. They don't seem defended against amplified pulses, gravitic shear, or even standard telekinesis, supporting the theory of inferior psionic potential, but suggesting they have some experience with the whole concept. Psionic weapons can be useful even if you have nukes. Some of father's best designs were even primarily defensive, and thus significantly safer to trade with weakly-allied military. Perhaps designs for amplifiers could be adjusted to function as psionic prostheses, providing standard abilities to this less-capable species? If it were simple the Romulans would likely have developed the technology already, but it's worth checking.

So, limited options for resource acquisition, but not none. Recovery is continuing successfully, but highest priorities are proceeding with regeneration, and obtaining more information about the area. If the Cardassians become aggressive, escape might be possible using the discipline of warfare. If they start looking for compensation, offer historical records and float ideas like self-defense weapons or psionic prostheses. Workable plans for scale of hours and days.

Great, wonderful, she still hasn't slept. The medical staff has been quite clear that Romulans need approximately as much sleep as Cardassians, apparently there are rumors that Vulcans need 30% less, but all of the doctors have said that they think it's only a rumor. That does nothing to change the fact that while Ocett has been writing reports, meeting with Legate Hoval and the head of the civilian government, reviewing her anti-telepath techniques, and developing over 200 different contingency plans, Princess R'vneh has been awake, staring at the wall and occasionally glancing around the room.

If she ever gets the chance to write a scholarly paper on this experience, Ocett is going to need to find another way to describe Ancient Vulcan physical capability, because right now the only word she can think of is terrifying.

She takes a deep breath before leading the way into the recently implemented security zone.

The three of them walk into the room, and the workmen quickly begin assembling furniture behind R'vneh. "Good evening, Princess R'vneh. How are you feeling?"

"Much improved, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to rest. Yourself?"

"Oh, I'm doing quite well. I've been looking forward to another opportunity to speak with you."

"Apologies for the noise, we thought your recovery would take a bit longer and that we'd have more time to prepare your room."

"Oh, don't mind me. I'd be happy to step out for a moment, give the boys a chance to work."

She smirks.

"It'll be a little while till I'm fully recovered, though. I can feel my fingers again, but I don't think I'll be ready to exert myself for a while."

"I'm sure the medical team will be glad to hear that they haven't been entirely wrong." She smiles back.

"This seemed like a good time to discuss the rooms amenities, unless you had other priorities?"

"That works for me, if it's the priority you advise. You remain the one with most-detailed context, here. What amenities are under consideration?"

"Well," she presses the button on a small remote on her belt, and the restraints in the chair slide back, "if you'd care to join me over here, I thought we could start with the replicator."

"Oh, please get started. I'll just be a minute."

...A stretch to check core and limb function. Still less than ideal. Relax blood vessels in legs, increase heart rate, start triggering muscles group by group. A minute is an accurate estimate to standing up.

"Of course, take your time. Your recovery has already been absolutely miraculous, don't rush yourself on my account."

"The replicator is a common method of food preparation, it creates synthetic food out of energy according to programmed patterns and can be activated either verbally or with the display."

"Well, I'm not sure I'm comfortable calling it miraculous myself, yet. This is interesting, though. It creates the food purely out of energy? How detailed are the patterns? Do you store the energy beforehand, or do you need to generate it on-demand?"

"The patterns go to the molecular level, most people find the results indistinguishable from non-replicated versions, and there are no detectable differences, until one starts examining the subatomic differences. There's a sizable power cell that is gradually filled from the facility's power system, but it can also recycle anything it might have produced."

"Do you have any dietary preferences we should keep in mind? Right now we only have native Cardassian foods, but I can check our xeno-cultural libraries for anything you particularly want."

"My micronutrient reserves have not been excessively diminished. It is possible my biology will react poorly to large quantities of your proteins, I presume they are not overly similar to mine? Do you know whether your world's food is edible to Romulans or Vulcans under normal circumstances? If it is, I am happy to sample your culture for the time being."

"Excellent. I believe that Regova eggs give Romulans indigestion. Vulcans would only find some of it edible, but that has more to do with the fact that they are all strict vegetarians, avoiding even replicated meats."

"It is for the best, the enzymes in Regova eggs are nearly impossible to program correctly, and I have yet to hear of a truly acceptable pattern for them."

"You may experience indigestion regardless for a few weeks, but Romulans and Vulcans both adapt quite well to other species' cuisines. The medical staff has recommended against gelat for the time being, as it contains a high dose of stimulants. However they have admitted that you may be in a better position to determine the risks for yourself. Yamok sauce is a common addition to savory dishes, if you find something to be lacking."

She has managed to raise herself to her feet, though she's still leaning against the chair.

"I will keep this advice in mind, thank you. I will avoid stimulants for now, my own neurology is having enough trouble as it is. What makes an enzyme more difficult to program than another?"

"I am not an expert on the matter, but my understanding is that manual construction of enzymes is difficult, and the number necessary to influence flavor is large enough that any programming errors are greatly magnified in the resulting product. There is still active research being conducted into what phase of the replication process enzymes should be introduced. Many believe that the issue is that the enzymes do not have enough time to interact with their surroundings, but even the programs intended to allow for that are somewhat lacking."

"Medical grade replicators may be better equipped to produce accurate recreations, but they are substantially more resource intensive and their intended use is regarded as a higher priority."

"Intriguing! Can the technology only produce organic molecules? Does it produce micronutrients at all?"

"Of course. In slightly higher quantities than would be found in the original foods."

"Are there any particular limitations besides the complexity of certain molecules, then? Could it produce fissile material? True vacuum? Stable quantum singularities?"

"This particular one can create none of those things, there are some that produce fissile material. As far as I am aware, stable quantum singularities cannot be made in a replicator, but this is rather distant from my personal fields of expertise. I'm not certain what you mean by true vacuum, I'll need to ask some of our engineering staff."

"Fissile material is not in common use these days," Ocett muses, "it's a much less efficient power source than matter-antimatter reactions or quantum singularities, and any starship without proper radiation shielding will be lost long before it sees combat."

"Of course, I apologize for the distraction. I would find documentation on these sorts of technical specifications to be interesting and valuable, though, if you do not mind supplying it."

She looks a little unstable on her feet, but has managed to approach the replicator.

"I'll bring something with me in the morning, but for now we should discuss your options."

Ocett offers something of a masterclass in Cardassian cuisine, accompanied by the occasional taste test. Before too long the door opens and closes again as the workmen leave, their task complete.

R'vneh appreciates the opportunity for education and learning. And having a ready source of calories available. How is her room altered by this construction work?

The room now contains a bed, a small storage container for clothing, and a decent sized table with three chairs, in addition to the two larger chairs and the small side table that had been present before.

R'vneh rapidly avails herself of the opportunity to sit in a somewhat more comfortable chair.

"Is there anything else you would like to discuss? At some point I would like to acquire some more local context. A local book or newspaper, or historical summary. I'm sure you'd like the same regarding myself."

"I'll have my staff prepare some summaries and a collection of recent news for the morning. We've been working on getting more information on the period we believe you come from, but it has been slow in coming."

"I would love to hear about your world, as you remember it."

"Not a question I have had reason to consider in such terms before! Compared with what little I have seen of your planet, T'Khasi has lower humidity and brighter lights. Our staple foods have more oil and less starch than what you have served so far. The quality of this building and furniture would be very high for mass-manufactured products. I suspect I am noticing replicated components. The imperial palace sourced furniture from the best artisans of the last millennia, and I must admit this is a superior though less practical alternative. Of more personal relevance, we were making slow progress towards reducing starvation and war, but availability of political or economic positions of any significance was a diminishing resource. The primary purpose of the colony project was to broaden the scale of our extraction options for already-saturated resource reserves. A significant secondary goal was to provide more room for expansionary sorts of ambition."

"Much like why my own people first left our homeworld, it's only in the last century that nearly every citizen of the Union has had enough to eat. We have been without internal war for far longer, but in the modern galaxy, interplanetary conflict is far more common than one would like."

"As I recall, the bigger problem with industry on Vulcan was accessing the resources that existed, as they were much farther beneath the surface than is common on planets of the same grade. I understand leaving to find better situated materials, but my understanding is that the Watcher and the Watcher's Eye are both still quite resource rich, if not particularly comfortable. Had they already been colonized when you left? The archaeological record has been somewhat disturbed by all of the mining, and what about P'Jem? The monastery there was supposed to be nearly 3000 years old when it was destroyed shortly before Cardassians and Vulcans first made contact."

"Oh, metals are easier to extract from the moons, but specialists can pull as much ore as we needed for most industrial purposes even on T'Khasi itself. I was born significantly after we learned how to draw from the mantle, and metal hasn't been a concern since that technique was popularized. The major limitation was water, and our moons weren't any better off in that sense. Jaleyl was a geographically contiguous political body, in any case. The Watcher had around a twentieth of T'Khasi's population, and wasn't a better colony location than another continent would have been."

"The far radio array stations were all considered strong evidence for the viability of real colony missions, though P'Jem in particular wasn't really a great success. As the highest-water-mass world discovered, it was obviously optimistic data for other hypothetical planets. Having been ruled by Cthiist cultists for a thousand years was pessimistic data for the viability of long-term cultural stability. When was it destroyed? Have the modern Vulcans been involved in any interstellar wars?"

"Several. The monastery was destroyed roughly 200 years ago, as part of several centuries of conflict with another nearby species, the Andorians. They come from an ice moon quite close to your own system, although my own people would not have considered it to be habitable, far too cold. The planetary government of Vulcan engaged in several wars and skirmishes during the period, including one with the Romulan Empire, I'll see to it that this period is included in your summaries in the morning."

"Shortly after, they joined a regional alliance that grew into an interstellar government known as the United Federation of Planets, which the Union was briefly at war with twenty years ago."

"Are you not a Cthiist yourself? Most modern Vulcans follow an offshoot of Cthiism, although I don't believe any of the other related species do."

"Their ideas do not lack all merit, but they were not popular in Jaleyl, and I haven't found them personally compelling. They tend to clam to avoid internal bias, but also claim to reject subjective standards of value, claiming these to be equivalent. A handful of their techniques are useful, but what value they have produced is already integrated into standard neurology training. I follow the path of integration, myself."

Ocett laughs at this, "You have nicely summed the opinion the rest of the quadrant has on modern Vulcan philosophy. They are very self-important about it too."

"What is the path of integration?"

"I don't know whether these concepts still exist, if all of modern 'Vulcan' is governed by Cthia, but in my time we had as many as several governing philosophical concepts an individual might devote themselves to. Cthia was popular with mystics and rebels, but a more popular principle in the imperial family was Arivne, the principle of integration of all things. Arivne represents the unity underlying reality, with physics teaching us of the continuous gradient between matter and energy, and psionics teaching us of the direct link between mind and self and the world. As a personal virtue, it refers to incarnating and enforcing yourself as an entity with self and independence and the capacity to command your environment. I am happy to elaborate further on the subject, it is of personal significance to me."

"A beautiful sentiment, and an excellent perspective for a planetary leader."

"It is an honor for which I did make some efforts to be worthy."

"I am sorry that you have not had that opportunity. You have so far remained remarkably calm in some rather troubling circumstances, especially if our records are accurate that your people had not yet encountered alien life."

"Accurate. Alien life was certainly postulated. Alien contact, and alien contact with few resources, were both scenarios I consciously planned for. The most surprising aspect is actually how similar you seem, with underlying biology clearly similar enough for your doctor to treat me. But as for the troubling circumstances, I think I shall wait to mourn until I have seen what has become of my people in the time since."

"All descendants of your people seem quite proud of what they have accomplished. Although, it's hard to say how they will react to meeting you. That is part of why we're hoping you'll accept our hospitality for a while."

"I appreciate the chance to get my feet under me. I am sure the technological environment is very different from my experience, but I hope I will have some skills of value to trade."

Ocett shifts in her seat at the table uncomfortably, "And that would be the other part."

"I certainly do not expect infinite hospitality. I just hope that the fact that you're even talking to me implies you are not so far beyond us that your economy has no use for my talents."

Rule one of dealing with telepaths is to lead with obvious truths.

If the princess manages to read anyone, she needs to remain a trustworthy figure. In some versions of the long game R'vneh is going to leave the Union anyway, but in those she still needs to think of Cardassians as her friends and allies.

Vulcans are straightforward, most of the time, and Romulans prefer subterfuge, but both think of themselves as uniquely capable. (When Ocett first learned how many different subspecies there were she thought it was the biggest joke any sentient race had ever played on itself. The past few years have taught her better.)

Ocett sighs deeply before beginning, "This will all be covered more deeply in your summaries in the morning, - but my people just carried out a successful revolution. The sentiment that lead to it had been building for quite some time, but the desire for a government that was truly responsive to the wishes of the people was actively repressed by a group called the Obsidian Order, who considered themselves responsible for safeguarding the Union from any and all threats. They harmed a tremendous number of people, we still haven't recovered all of their records."

"But a former leader of the Order lead all of them and their sister organization from the Romulan Empire into battle against an incredibly dangerous new foe, the Dominion. The goal was to annihilate a specific planet where the god-kings of the Dominion, the Founders, lived. They succeeded in this, but the Dominion had spies within at least one of the two organizations, they had evacuated the planet well in advance of the attack and hidden a far larger fleet of far more powerful warships near enough to wipe out the entire combined fleet in less than an hour."

"The battle was broadcast live on all Cardassian channels."

"We watched as our indestructible protectors and their highly illegal fleet were mown down in real time."

"There were almost immediately widespread protests and rebellions, we closed our borders and shut down most external communications and travel to prevent any outside attempts to capitalize on the chaos, but within days of the transfer of power to the new Detapa Council, the Klingon Empire invaded."

"They took and are still holding over 20% of our territory, they are currently fortifying it and making raids into what we still control to prevent effective internal trade. They declared victory after a very short time, but that does not mean that the war is over."

She falls back in the chair and slumps a bit, "And the Founders could come for us any day now," glancing back at R'vneh, "we don't know much about them, one of the things we do know is that they hold a grudge. Their vengeance is also brutal and can persist for generations."

The Order could do this better.

The Order hadn't done this.

The Order would have worked out a way to trick her into helping.

But the Order is dead, and lying and tricks take far longer than the Union has left at this rate. There are plenty of reasons not to explain things as they are, but it is damn efficient.

"I know that you still don't have context on any of this, and we will begin work on that quickly, but all versions of the Sundering are clear that your people unleashed weapons that were capable of completely destroying your society as it was. We are not currently in a good situation. While some of your people's weapons will be stopped by modern starship design, we hope you may be able to help us develop something that can allow us to overcome these threats."

"Oh my! These are some significant details, I shall have to think on this for a moment."

Hm.

Interest in weapons technology is optimistic on several levels. Less likely that their current military capacity could prevent escape. Dangerous aliens seeking revenge suggests risks associated with supporting the Cardassians, but could also be intended to present the universe beyond this planet as unacceptably dangerous.

Wrong question. First branch point. Do they actually want military tech? More likely yes. If they don't, they probably want to distract and delay. If they want the help, they'll be more likely to take what they can get. If they want to delay, they'll more likely push for something specific, especially something especially dangerous or horrifying or time-consuming.

Second branch point. Are there actually aliens invading? Leaning towards yes. The woman is still difficult to read, but some amount of emotion sensitivity is coming through, and she seems legitimately upset when discussing the subject. Act as though invasion is real for now, ample opportunities available for additional evidence once more local context is acquired. More thorough thought reading, or access to public data channels.

Selection of "Dominion" and "Klingon Empire" as enemies may be significant or irrelevant, depending on other context. Details to keep in mind, but not viable to process in higher detail yet.

Safest choice is to make preliminary offer of self-defense technology. Less information extracted that way, but since it's probably what they expect, they'll continue with a more standard playbook that might be easier to identify.

"I would need to know more about your current technological and military base, and that of your enemies, in order to have a chance of saying whether my own knowledge is useful. I do not know with what weapons my people eradicated my history, but I do know that annihilating planets was not the focus of most of our tools. Without knowing more of the history and nature of this conflict, I could perhaps offer what my culture would have considered tools of self-defense? The greatest of these are effective at scales of cities. Your own engineering expertise may permit me to retool them for ship usage."

Oh. Oh! Ocett has read intelligence reports on the Stone of Gol, if there is a version of that which can be used against an entire city, and that could be used by warships...

Well, the Union will never need worry about the Klingons again, and it will probably be enough to keep the Dominion away for at least a few months.

"General civilian technology will be included in the morning summaries, there will be quite a few of them at this rate. I will need to petition my superiors for permission to grant you military clearance, it may take several days for that to come through, but I am sure we can spend those days productively."

Ocett is planning to go off duty for the day and get some rest, is there anything R'vneh needs before the morning?

There is not, so long as the replicator and some further opportunity to think remain available.

Of course.

Ocett leaves to file some reports and officially request clearance for an alien military contractor.

And R'vneh rests.

Circulatory system basically working, now. Repairing muscles and organ damage will take longer. Also high priority is stretching psionic senses, and especially trying to get a better read on the Cardassians.

She relaxes into herself and the world, heart rate and biometrics slowing to something closer-resembling sleep. Her mind spreads out into the surrounding space, hampered by the psychic shielding in the walls, but not wholly-so. Set the body to slow repair, and listen for anything interesting. Close enough to sleep to be restful, but not enough to miss an attack. A princess has her fair share of assassination attempts.

Ocett returns in the morning with a pile of datapads, she says good morning to the princess and stops at R'vneh's replicator for a cup of gelat before sitting at the table.

"This is absurdly inefficient, I have a team of engineers working on a pad you'll be able to use properly, but our universal translator does not interact with user interfaces well. This was the functional workaround they had to organize files in Old High Vulcan."

"Hah, a small sacrifice of inconvenience. I appreciate the reading material."

Silly inconveniences point towards attempts to distract and delay, but the quality of the translator is itself confusing. They noticeably improve in a handful of spoken sentences, but text is apparently more difficult? Even heavily selected reading material will be very helpful, though.

She really hopes R'vneh can slow down the impossible achievements a little bit. It's hard to project a proper aura of mastery and competence when all of your timelines are constantly being shortened from several weeks to as soon as physically possible. The situation has at least allowed her and Legate Hoval to grow closer commiserating over the insanity of former Order projects.

"This one," she pulls the first pad off the pile and hands it to R'vneh, "has historical data for Romulus and Vulcan from your father's lifetime to the present day. He's one of only a handful of figures from that period we know by name, I am sorry that we do not have specific information on any other members of your family, but Vulcans and Romulans refuse to share their family names with other species. We were able to read yours in the cryopod computer, but if you care to find any of your siblings' descendants, you will need to personally request that the appropriate governments check their records for relatives of yours in the future."

"Given the current state of military affairs, the Cardassian Union cannot currently guarantee you safe passage to Romulan or Federation space. I am sorry, but once things are under control, we would be glad to escort you anywhere you like." She is genuinely sad about this, Romulans are the only people she is aware of who truly understand the importance of one's family.

She has started drafting a message to ask Commander Galathon to assist in research, but she's still working on plausible reasons to even be asking the question.

Slow down the impossible achievements? R'vneh will (not) do her best.

"I suppose there are few other figures that loom larger to my recollection. I wonder how accurate the recollections are."

R'vneh skims the file. Is this the right Sudoc she remembers? Is there any information to suggest why old katras haven't been consulted? Have all the old katras been destroyed? That would be deeply horrifying, the worst atrocity in history. Well, T'Khasan history. Who knows how bad the rest of the universe is.

It is a very long file, but on a cursory glance there does not seem to be any reference to katras.

Unfortunate. Is Gul Ocett leaving R'vneh to read the file, or would she like to explain the next one first?

"I am afraid that you are the only person who could really know that."

"This one is an overview of current interstellar factions and their relation to each other. Current and former alliances and battles."

"This one is on Cardassian culture, and I would recommend reading it before this one, which should explain our history and the current system of governance. Finally, this one has engineering details, tolerances, and schematics for a few interesting pieces of civilian equipment. And we should have this one set up so you can take notes, the stylus can be used as a psionic interface."

She is leaving! R'vneh can speak to the computer if she requires anything additional.

"Thank you!"

And she reads. Particularly looking for general local context. How do the Cardassians want to present themselves, are there any inherent contradictions in the presentation? What seems to be the extent and scale of their engineering knowledge, does the psionic interface imply they already have psionic weapons, or the building blocks of them? And at lowest urgency but high priority, what's a rough outline of modern "Vulcan" history? Are there clear derivations from historic T'Khasi, or does it look like the culture was near-completely reset?

There are no contradictions present in any of the material on the Cardassian Union! How could anyone even consider speaking of the state inappropriately!

There are tremendous contradictions present in the materials on how the Cardassians present themselves, but there are some indications that these contradictions are most present in the past few years and may be based in the political context that Ocett mentioned last night.

Engineering knowledge is not vastly beyond her, most of the differences are the sorts of things that can be derived from easy access to replicator technology, with the possible exception of transporters. Much higher precision machining and unfettered access to most rare materials make many projects far more practical, and reduce the cost of prototyping significantly. The civilian engineering documentation has nothing relating to psionics, either they are mostly used for military purposes, or it's just interfaces and they weren't considered important enough for the first round of documentation.

The society currently present on T'Khasi sounds most like the cult on P'jem. About 200 years ago there was a major cultural resurgence of Surakian Cthiism after a copy of Surak's original writings were rediscovered in the Forge. Before that, they were more warlike and had been involved in imperialist conflict, but still with a weird insistence that they have no feelings or interests on any subjects. The images included look mostly like the world she remembers, but less fortified, and the temple on Mount Seleya looks much less worn, but otherwise the same.

Apparently, the modern name for the world is Minshara, but the residents are not particularly concerned with what aliens want to call it.

Sudoc died either after over a thousand years of rule, or after about 200 years of rule, unclear which. He died when a meld with one of his generals caused an embolism, and shortly before the Sundering.

The Sundering is just recorded as an unknown disaster, which caused many to flee T'Khasi in a fleet of colony ships. Vulcans and Romulans seem to have some records on the matter, but sparse and highly contradictory ones.

Modern Romulans are descended from a fraction of the fleet that fled. Most of those who survived had identified themselves as the Children of Ket-Cheleb, lead by Tellus, before leaving T'Khasi. There was a Surakian leader as well named S'task. S'task abandoned the governance of the people shortly after settling the new world, and Tellus lead the remainder of the council that had lead them to Romulus until his death, roughly 90 years after they settled the planet. With the loss of Tellus, the clans fell upon each other in a series of wars that rendered their ships impossible to repair, and shut off the Romulan people from the stars for centuries. Eventually, they came together as a planetary government in order to launch a space program. They quickly started colonizing other worlds and currently hold hundreds of inhabited planets. It has been 700 years since the Romulan Empire was ruled by an emperor, currently the military is overseen by the Praetor, and other matters are debated in the Senate.

Still no reference to katras.

So their records are obvious propaganda, but look like they're probably the same propaganda the civilians get. A promising level of sincerity!

Cardassian society overall looks remarkably stable and peaceful. While clearly imperfect, their anti-revolutionary structures appear to have been broadly effective. Even in their recent rebellion, the revolutionary forces were able to replace the existing world government wholesale, maintaining a unified administration. Fewer psionic tools for crime prevention, too. If they actually have a singular interstellar government, they must be incredibly effective at suppressing criminal activity. Lots to learn about their methodology.

The engineering documentation suggests there is room for additional innovation, though obviously some of the modern techniques will take adjustment to figure out. The existence of the psionic interface and the possibility of psionic shielding in the walls suggests they do have psi-reactive materials, too. Seems workable, they want to encourage actually working on the weapons.

Vulcan history (Minsharan?) is more concerning. In a certain sense it is optimistic that the Cthiists seem to have taken a while to improve their governance. Better leadership may have been possible, but it did not automatically fall out of giving in to cultists. The "Sundering" must have happened not long after the departure of the Koon Heya. Consistent with other information. The Koon Heya was heading in the approximate direction of Romulus, and would have identified it as a viable candidate if not interrupted. Possibly it even reported back that identification. It is unclear when the cryopod was lost.

Cause of the Sundering is unknown to Cardassians. Sufficient to cause the collapse of the empire. Perhaps father's death was enough in itself. Tellus wouldn't have killed him, it must have been another of the generals. That suggests the Romulans may remember father in a positive light? He never expected to be well-regarded, but followers of Tellus who left immediately after his death might preserve his status as a hero where others would let him pass more maligned. No need to be unnecessarily optimistic, but something to investigate.

R'vneh will spend several hours reading, taking occasional cryptic notes. A T'Khasan mind can't implement public key cryptography on handwritten text, but a trained psion can chunk writing in ways that make simpler encryption readable. No time to try hacking the datapad yet, though.

Well, it is generally ineffective to attempt to rush any movements of the Great Machine that is the Cardassian Union, however much it would help to be able to provide military schematics to... okay, working out Princess R'vneh's specific status on Cardassia may be the order of the day, along with glaring at the technicians that handed her six pads to pass on this morning. In retrospect it is a good security measure to make the user interface on military pads unable to interact with the universal translator software, but it is frustrating to be stymied by counter-insurgency protocols again. She had more than enough of that when taking the facility.

She appreciates the efforts to establish her as a living person who exists. Also for reestablishing the "living" part. That was handy.

R'vneh will spend a few hours sketching out a design for a rudimentary emotion sensor that works on Cardassians using materials they have available in the replicator. She'll talk the design over with them before actually building one. In between design concepts, she'll also poke around the pad to see how easy it would be to interface with directly. Can the psionic interface be used to upload and execute code?

No actually, that is exactly what this particular protocol is designed to prevent!

The files she's been viewing and her notes are the only bits of software in each pad in Jaleyli, and the universal translator will not interact with the rest of the pad.

Is she trying to code in Cardassi?

No... R'vneh will wait a bit longer to start hijacking the pad to run a T'Khasan compiler. She'll just work on the Cardassian-spec emotion sensor for now.

After a few hours Ocett comes back.

Cardassians traditionally see mealtimes as an opportunity for conversation, and R'vneh is the most interesting and productive person to speak with.

"Would you like to join me for lunch?"

"Of course, thank you."

Armed with slightly better local context for Cardassian culture, R'vneh is better-prepared to actually get anything useful out of more casual conversation.

"Is there anything you were interested in trying? I don't think we established whether you eat meat in all of the excitement yesterday."

"I do eat meat, yes. I don't believe I yet have the context to name anything specific, but I continue to be interested in experiencing the local cuisine. Do you have anything you would recommend?"

"Two pieces of k'aatch and some canka nuts," the replicator produces two plates, each with a pale green triangular slice of foam dotted with pieces of vegetable and fish on a crumbled crust, and a bowl full of warm nuts.

She brings everything over to the table.

"Do you have any preference between being listed as a refugee or an alien exile? There are some other options, but these are the most practical and most closely model the current situation."

How intriguing. R'vneh will eat the offered food.

"Is there a benefit to one presentation versus the other? I could see an argument for each. My homeworld has suffered a civilization-ending disaster, so in that sense I am a refugee. In the other branch, my homeworld is a functioning government that no longer considers me a citizen, so I could be said to be exiled."

"Refugees need work arrangements to be accepted, which I would be happy to attest to, and exiles need to swear loyalty to the state and submit to an intensive court process. The benefits of being an exile are that your prior social standing will be respected to a greater degree, and if you would like to pursue full citizenship in the Union, the path is somewhat simpler."

"It has been some time since Cardassia was ruled by our aristocracy, but they do still exist, and might accept an exiled princess to a greater extent than they would a refugee who was once a princess."

"If you were not a princess, I would likely have only recommended that we file for refugee status, but -

"I think I will seek refugee status. I'm sure my royal nature will speak for itself, in time."

"Of course."

"Have you learned anything interesting?"

"Many things! I am impressed with how your government managed to retain control of its outlying territories during your recent administrative transition. I have looked through your engineering documentation and come up with some designs for simple, proof-of-concept devices that I could build to your specs using my technical knowledge. I'd like you to have a local engineer look over the designs and attempt manufacturing one, as a first gesture towards determining whether any of my knowledge is helpful to you."

"Wonderful, I'll have an engineer take a look at them after lunch. Do you mind if she comes by herself? I'm sure she will have questions you are better equipped to answer than me."

"I would be happy to speak with your engineer directly. There are technical considerations involved, yes, and I would prefer greater knowledge of your methods and precautions before actually attempting even this simple project."

"We have been trying to avoid wearing you out with too many people, but that will make the work easier."

"It was relatively simple to ensure the continuance of the State, it is the primary duty of all citizens. With the loss of the Order, it was clear that the remaining branches of our government required rebalancing. The military had more power than the Detapa council, and while our leadership at the highest level betrayed their duty, those below them handed the authority over to the council."

"The new elections were somewhat stressful, but we were choosing leaders to fill very different roles from their predecessors."

"Hah, those are higher rates of patriotism than we could consistently manage. Perhaps in the capital, where we could afford to guarantee accurate and timely convictions for any crime. I would be interested in seeing data on your crime rates, in fact, or those of the Vulcans and Romulans."

"Of course, I'll see about that for your new pad tomorrow. We should be able to find a solution for the translation problem by then."

"Our legal system is the most efficient we have encountered. I think there was a trial last week, we should be able to get you a copy of the recording."

"A former clerk of the Fourth Order was discovered to have sold a large quantity of military supplies to the Ferengi immediately before the Klingons invaded. His confession was beautiful, he had gone mad from missing the skies of Cardassia Prime after being posted to the frontier for too long. He had an excellent conservator. He's on his way to the labor camp on Lazon II already."

R'vneh will watch the presented video, and take in Ocett's commentary on it.

Not overly dissimilar from Jaleyli criminal proceedings, to a first examination. Mind-melds and lie detection are obviously much easier for confirming accuracy, but top Jaleyli detectives are nearly as good, so it's obviously not impossible to run your crime prevention without psions. The fact that Cardassian courts publicize their records is also interesting, a remarkable dedication to transparency and accountability. Broadly consistent with the model of Cardassia as relevantly more stable and peaceful than T'Khasi. Labor camp is unexpected as a punishment, forced labor on T'Khasi was both economically inefficient and less effective at reducing further crime. Is the simple to remove the offenders from the positions where they caused issues? Or is this a difference in culture or nature between T'Khasans and Cardassians?

It removes him from his position, and provides an opportunity for him to dedicate the whole of his being to the State, to remember what it is to serve. The specific camp is a dilithium mine. Dilithium is a very powerful energy source, and frequently interferes with powered equipment. As such, it is more efficient for mines to be established by professionals, and then manned by inexperienced personnel, who quickly pick up on the necessary skills. His sentence is 20 years starting from when the Union retakes all Klingon occupied territories, to help compensate for his contributions to our losses.

"Interesting. So dilithium miners are valuable enough that it is worth retraining a clerk to be a miner, but not so valuable that you have ample labor available already? ...Though now that I think about it, what techniques do you use for mining? In general or for dilithium in particular, since I suspect they different from T'Khasan standards."

"Generally speaking mining operations are highly automated, and overseen by a small team of engineers trained in maintenance and use of the equipment. Tunnels are carved, leading from the surface, or the subsurface access point, to the relevant mineral deposits, and then the deposits are removed for processing.

"For dilithium specifically, attempts at automation quickly fail. Any attempts to remove the crystals from the surrounding rock produces some amount of powdered dilithium, which is drawn towards the nearest power source and shorts any system more complicated than basic lighting.

"As such, any automation requires that all machines be constantly monitored by an engineer, and results in mines that shut down frequently anyway. The overall output of automated dilithium mines is actually significantly worse than those operated entirely manually."

R'vneh appreciates the detail and clarity.

"But I do think there might be ways to improve on this model. I'll have to speak to your engineer before making further progress there."

After finishing lunch, Ocett makes her way out and sends in an engineer.

R'vneh is happy to speak with an engineer. Her design attempts to use Cardassian-standard components and measurements, and a resonance chamber made out of psi-reactive materials, allowing it to amplify emotions to the point that they can be detected. R'vneh would like the engineer's input on the feasibility of the design, and assistance on acquiring the components.

Great! Pirak is an engineer, and excited to work with psionics. She may struggle to source a sufficient density of psi-reactive material for the current design.

Can't they just get some organic quasicrystals?

"Well, that's not translating right, so it's not a concept in Cardassi. Tell me more about them, we might be able to find them."

"You can get some basic efficacy out of materials like carbon fiber or graphene, but I'd rather use irllium-infused bio-organic substrate or psi-lensed diamond if we can source them. If there's nothing better I could retool the model for use with a micro-black-hole?"

"Oh, of course. Irillium-infused substrates are commonly used in starship construction, they're excellent at deflecting radiation, also highly radioactive on their own, but there are many other kinds of radiation which are harder to shield from and much more disruptive."

"Perfect! Though obviously we will want to shield the device to be safe in testing. What density do you think you can manage? I have some numbers here on the amplification ratio I want to target..."

R'vneh is happy to discuss the exact details of the design with engineer Pirak. If replicators can enable it, she'd like to get a test model completed today or tomorrow.

If all goes well they can have a prototype tomorrow morning.

Good. Is there anything further the Cardassian government would like to discuss about, in the meantime? R'vneh thinks she has a bit more local context, and would like to hear more about how Cardassians view themselves, and their relations with other nearby worlds. They seem remarkably non-alien, by T'Khasan predictions. What's up with that?

The government would be interested to hear her thoughts on war, from a philosophical perspective, any insights she may have on desert agriculture, and obviously her own history.

The Union has been heavily put upon in recent years, with famines, wars, and the Bajoran rebellion. The past few years have been focused on recovery and dealing with a terrorist movement on the outskirts of Union space, part of the legacy of the latest war. An individual Cardassian is nothing but a cog within the great machine that is the State, and for several centuries now that machine has been dedicated to expanding its power and resources to more worlds. There is a growing philosophical movement suggesting that the Union has expanded as far as it can for now and needs to be refocused onto a new goal. Many of these philosophers recommend "self-maintenance," as the next project for the State. Better developing the resources the State already possesses should prevent similar problems from recurring, but we'll need to stop being targeted by hostile forces for a few years before we can put such theories into practice.

And, well, depending on what R'vneh means by that last question, there's a lot of answers. Cardassians and Romulans tend to understand each other better than most other species, and it seems as if Romulan society is a fairly direct descendant of T'Khasan society, so it may mostly be a matter of coincidence. There are some theories that alien societies that develop under similar circumstances end up similar in a lot of ways that don't seem like they should be correlated. Aquatic races, like the Zaldans and Moneans tend to have a deep opposition to lying.

"Cardassian history sounds remarkably familiar to me. Jaleyl, too, had begun to slow its pace of expansion and consider other strategies, though at a somewhat smaller scale. But it is very convenient for me, at least, to end up on an alien world with so little culture shock. Is your relationship with Romulans relevant to me turning up within your territory? I have not yet heard from you many of the details surrounding my body's discovery."

"Oh, of course."

"The Romulans were not actually involved in that project. Three years ago, our military gave up possession of Bajor, and within a matter of weeks a stable wormhole appeared in their system, leading to a near completely uncharted quadrant of the galaxy. Several of the major powers in the quadrant started exploration and mapping missions, you were discovered on one such mission, when your pod was recovered as a geological sample. The Obsidian Order took charge of you when the mission returned to Union space, and my team is still working on decrypting the Order's research results, but they were very good at encryption."

"Another quadrant of the galaxy? Do you know how far I was found from T'Khasi? My ship used an engine of uncertain maximum velocity. Your talk of interstellar empires suggests the more optimistic theories were correct, but I doubt the drive outperformed to the degree a different quadrant would imply."

"Interesting, I would like to hear more about that engine."

"Ah, but you were found 67,530 light years from Vulcan, which did imply to us that you had encountered some sort of subspace phenomena. After this long, it is hard to say what precisely."

"Far indeed, then! The ship used an experimental singularity drive, but it certainly could not travel at thirty times lightspeed. It had only even passed light at all in the most rarefied of laboratory conditions. How do your own ships travel?"

A singularity drive? It sounds increasingly like our dear Romulan friends remember more of their past than they are willing to admit to...

"Ah, yes. Warp drive is technically a piece of military technology, a rather vital one. In the abstract though, matter and antimatter are combined through a medium, which creates electro-plasma. The electro-plasma is then pressurized and directed to create a protective bubble around the ship, and a ripple in spacetime that the ship rides."

"Interesting! I wouldn't think that a matter-antimatter reaction could create a spacetime distortion powerful enough to ride without also blowing up your ship. Though I suppose I have some reason to think my own culture's engine was not as safe as we hoped it to be."

"At this point it is a well established technology, there are still experiments being done with it, but most are dedicated to passing the warp limit, which seems an arbitrary restriction on speed. However, no currently spacefaring people has passed it, with the exception of certain highly specific circumstances involving outside forces."

"It can also blow up the ship, but that happens very rarely outside of combat."

"I'd be interested in hearing more about that. Jaleyl was not familiar with any particular limitation on speed in distorted space, merely with the overwhelming practical difficulties involved in moving beyond the speed of light."

And in time the conversation will circle back to Cardassia's questions for R'vneh.

The Jaleyli perspective on war is one of weighed costs. Small, warring tribes are wasteful. They destroy capital faster than they produce it, they get their most talented individuals killed in combat faster than they can train more. Cities are better, able to grow in ways that last, able to pass on their best techniques through multiple generations. Cities that are capable of trade with each other do better still, able to leverage scale and comparative advantage to push towards projects that can't be better-attempted by a single particularly-skilled individual.

R'vneh's father discovered early that wartorn tribes are a liability to the survival of the entire species, and he began to forcefully unite them into a sustainable and safe nation. The benefits were obvious, and the wars proceeded until his home continent had no independent tribes and few independent cities. This permitted them a life expectancy eight times higher than in the original tribes, and a national crime rate a third as high per capita as the average T'Khanan city. As of R'vneh's departure, most of the world had managed to come as far as cities on their own, but the cities were waging more-useless wars against each other. Many cities would fight over access to specific resource reserves like lakes or trade routes, or just over serious disagreements like philosophical affiliation. Since the cities rarely ended up politically merged afterwards, R'vneh feels they had no mitigating value.

Jaleyl also had a policy of not invading anywhere that was even plausibly well-run. Independent cities like ShiKahr were able to maintain their own technological base and trade with Jaleyl, and Sudoc preferred to avoid damaging their sovereignty when they weren't actively attacking. Though they often did attack, and needed to be put down or subsumed. R'vneh herself is mostly trained in governance at a city scale. It sounds like Cardassia has less of an issue with sporadic and piecemeal rebellions, so perhaps they have better insight into planetary management and peacekeeping.

As has been mentioned, the Cardassian goal in war has long been resource acquisition. Ocett's own parents have stories about going hungry during the famines eighty years ago, before the occupation of Bajor began.

Most Cardassian expansion before reaching Bajor had been simple colonization efforts or trade agreements, with no real need for military action, but the Bajorans were in chaos. They had a spiritual government and a secular government that were constantly at odds and prevented each other from ever taking action, the Union initially wanted to engage in trade, and the secular government agreed quickly. The spiritual government immediately started interfering with the fulfillment of terms to such an extent that the secular government requested aid in restoring supply lines, the military agreed on the condition that they become a member world of the Union, and they accepted.

The Occupation took far longer than anyone expected, and consumed almost as many resources as it generated. While the Union was at war with the Federation, the casualty rates on the front lines were almost the same as they were on Bajor to the Resistance.

"I certainly hope that it would have worked better at a smaller scale."

Disappointing that these issues still occur amongst the stars, but none of this is fundamentally confusing to R'vneh. T'Khasi, unfortunately, did not have a comprehensive solution to the difficulty of growing lots of food on very dry planets. She'd be happy to go over their notes on efficient water-harvesting and hydroponics farms that don't lose significant moisture to the atmosphere and so on, but obviously their ongoing wars are a more serious concern. What's Ocett's personal or civilian perspective on the current wars, if she doesn't have permission to present the details yet?

"Well, the Klingons claim to have invaded because they didn't believe our government could have transitioned as quickly and safely as it did without interference from the Dominion. To an outsider, this may seem reasonable, the Founders are talented shapeshifters, and they have infiltrated the Federation's government. However, at that time, the Founder moved quickly to attempt to involve the Federation and the Tzenkethi Coalition in another war. Given the common feeling after the Battle of the Omarion Nebula, when the Order was lost, and the fact that we have been strongly on a defensive footing, most citizens doubt that we have been infiltrated."

"We are somewhat more careful with operational security than the other major powers in the quadrant."

"Since the initial attack from the Klingons, additional losses have been small, although they are a constant threat to interstellar shipping lanes, and have been gradually expanding their claims on Union territories. They have also declared war on everyone else in the quadrant, so most Cardassians are not concerned about them in the long term."

"The Klingons are concerned about shapeshifters substituting themselves for your administrative officials? Do they rely on appearance to determine the integrity and validity of orders? Do you rely on appearance to determine the integrity and validity of orders?"

"They do, and have implemented some rather barbaric testing regimens to supplement that system."

"The Founders can perfectly mimic all of the biometrics we would usually use to verify identity, and in that respect we are somewhat insecure. In the known incident of replacement, blood samples were taken to demonstrate who was the imposter, as any part of a founder that is removed from them immediately reverts to their natural, gelatinous state, but that individual found a workaround within an hour, and so we assume that the only known detection method is unlikely to succeed on any imposter who knows to expect it."

"However, all non-emergency orders are passed through a decentralized bureaucracy, requiring approval from three different individuals in different cities before they can be followed, and emergency orders currently require authorization from two thirds of the Detapa council. As very few Founders are willing to travel alone, the Cardassian people are more than willing to believe in the overall integrity of the State."

"Do you predict that the Klingons would react positively to news of a superior method for identity verification? Or is that not their true determining factor in waging this war?"

"Oh, they'd love it. It would change nothing though."

"They like war. The longest they've been at peace in recent memory was only 10 years, and that ended in a civil war."

"The stinking brutes consider the pinnacle of their culture to have been over a thousand years ago, when one of them invented a more efficient method of stabbing, and they're constantly trying to re-enact it. - But they had no such reason to declare war on everyone else, and likely wouldn't trust any newer testing method, especially if it comes out of Cardassia."

"Ah well. Inconvenient, but obviously there would be less war if not for those who pursue it when inefficient and even disadvantageous."

"Indeed."

"I am looking forward to being able to provide you with more details, our methods may be relatively secure, but they are not as swift as one might hope in some situations."

"Of course."

And R'vneh will return to designing preliminary psionic technology that the Cardassians might be able to actually build.

Psi-lensing diamonds is not something that Cardassians have much experience in, but diamonds are one of the easiest arrangements of carbon to replicate. If R'vneh can sketch the precise shape of the lens it will be much easier than miniaturizing the necessary radiation shielding.

Do they have any other equipment from the Koon Heya? Any of the computers, including the minimal system in the cryopod, would have some basic definitions of technical specs. R'vneh could use those to define a lens exactly. Though the psi-lensing process requires treating the lenses with a high-intensity psionic field, so they aren't ideal as a first step.

Fair enough, Pirak will focus on radiation shielding for now.

She appreciates the help. How much radiation shielding will they actually need? ...How big is this prototype going to have to be?

It's going to end up about 15kg and 35 centimeters along its shortest side, we should be able to reduce it in iteration though.

Meh. A little unwieldy, but it'll do. R'vneh will talk Pirak through the basic engineering considerations, how conscious thought creates particular coherent subspace ripples that can be identified by a properly-tuned resonance chamber. This chamber is a bit weirdly-shaped, because it's intended to catch many possible patterns that will all resonate differently from one another. It's actually a lot easier to make an emotion-detector that detects exactly one emotion, but R'vneh has only the barest clue what Cardassian emotions might look like under this model, so they're going to go with something hilariously overpowered for the task, instead.

Pirak is taking a lot of notes and asking a lot of questions. This is really interesting! She hasn't worked much with psionics before, and it seems really elaborate and hard to work out from first principles for a non-psion.

Her attempts to grasp the structures are occasionally weakening her defenses against telepathy, and R'vneh can get small senses of her emotional state.

"If emotions are detectable as waveforms in subspace, how long have your people been aware of subspace? Normally scientists develop a faster than light drive before even beginning to study the nature of subspace properly."

She's very frustrated, somewhat awed, and annoyed with herself for feeling awed.

Stet! Do all telepaths work like this? How telepathic are the Romulans? Can Romulans stetting hear ships dropping out of warp? Aliens are the worst!

The annoyance is taking over the rest of her emotional spectrum.

Ah, so Cardassians do have emotions. Is it because she's getting more passionate, or because her control is slipping?

"Why, more than two thousand years, I'd say!"

"But yes, Jaleyl had psionic technology that interacts with subspace for generations before I was born. I don't actually know much about macro-scale subspace physics, since the field is mostly applied to these areas, not to transportation. My ship did utilize a subspace bubble, but primarily for obstacle-avoidance, not for propulsion. The relation between consciousness and subspace is foundation to much of our culture."

Most of the annoyance has converted into a pleased surprise at the joke.

"That is the foundation of modern warp travel though. It is very good for avoiding obstacles in normal space, because it effectively puts you in subspace."

"Did your people really build a warp drive not knowing it could take you faster than light?" It is intended as an insult, but Pirak is still quietly projecting amusement tinged with something else...

"We hadn't yet conducted experiments at suitable scale! It was known that a subspace wave could move faster than light in realspace, but the singularity drive was primarily intended as a reactionless gravity drive. It was considered very plausible that the warp bubble would pop under excessive spatial shear. Which may well have happened! I wasn't awake at any point when the warp bubble was active. The abstract principle had certainly been predicted, but many of us would have guessed we were much further from truly breaking the lightspeed limit."

"Well, pity that didn't turn out to be more of a pleasant surprise." That's kind of a downer, she starts picking her mental shields back up.

"Better than still being a a frozen rock in deep space, I'm sure. But I would be interested to see any other wreckage you were able to collect, nonetheless."

Some amount of control over her visibility, then? Consistent with Cardassians having much lower, but not nonexistence, psionic capacity. Are Cardassians outside this facility less well-trained? Do the trace psi-reactive materials in the walls act as purposeful psionic shielding?

"What we do have is extremely highly classified at this point, and will have to wait until you have clearance."

Pirak has some additional questions about the nature of the subspace waves they'll be trying to detect.

R'vneh continues to be the planet's top expert on micro-scale subspace wave dynamics. And an indeterminate region of space beyond. She is happy to talk on the subject.

The two of them finalize a design for the emotion detector, and Pirak heads out to start programming the pattern into the industrial replicator.

The next morning she comes in with a new datapad, that actually runs in Jaleyli, all of the summaries from yesterday are already loaded in, and she'd be happy to help R'vneh transfer her notes over if she wants?

Sure, she'd appreciate a walkthrough of the new system. Also more summaries, if they have them yet.

She's also going to start poking at the operating system, looking for documentation on any standard scripting methods.

"We've actually got you hooked up to the facility's main database, there's a bit of a delay in retrieving information thanks to the translation protocols, but it seemed more efficient for you to have access to whatever information you needed, now that you have the basics. If you do need more summaries to help with your specific context you can make a request here," indicating a specific messaging channel, "and someone with relevant knowledge will answer."

Access to the industrial replicator is slightly more limited than she was hoping, the prototype should be ready in about 2 hours though.

That documentation is not hard to find, and pretty clearly laid out. It looks like there was a lot of work necessary to get this working properly, and it was only finished about an hour ago.

Providing much greater access to information is promising. Improves the strength of good-faith branches, and those with high capacity for generating fake content. Or an existing large database of fake content? If that were the case there would have been less reason to wait until now to present the information, but convenient evidence could always itself be purposefully orchestrated.

"Lovely, thank you. With broader translation available I may be able to instruct a computer to account for several likely instabilities. We could account for them after the fact, but it may still be the best use of my time until the prototype is finished. Or would you prefer for me to check the translation quality?"

"We're quite confident in the translation quality, we simply had to overcome a few counter-insurgency protocols to allow the user-interface to be translated into other languages. It was quite important during the Occupation. Maintaining the language barrier and keeping all military materials strictly in Cardassi made it far easier to prevent effective espionage in the field."

"What sort of instabilities? For most purposes, a report for myself and the Gul would be more effective."

Locking the language for military reasons? Do other civilizations lack the rapid translation the Cardassians applied to (old?) T'Khasan?

"As-is, the sensor will just pick up noise. That's good enough to see if it works, but with a computer available I could just set it to calibrate. Calibrated and zeroed, we might be able to see something interesting in the results."

"Ah, yes. That sounds quite productive, procedures prevent me from agreeing though. If you can design the calibration, I can take care of the implementation phase."

"Of course. I'll draft a design specification. The psi-reactive components are static, but it will need to adjust the electronic components actively."

"Excellent," the two of them discuss the specific requirements of the various equipment, and then Pirak heads out for her turn on the replicator.

An odd level of restriction. To allow access to so much information, to build a device to these specifications, but to refuse help in programming it? Almost as though they have security precautions, but don't expect a high risk of betrayal! It's refreshing. Still going to hide a trick in the design, of course. It would almost be rude to do otherwise.

R'vneh will draft some pseudocode to handle auto-calibrating the device under standard signal patterns, and will continue reading the available reference materials on Cardassian culture.

The Cardassian Military has a mandatory draft for all young males not already working directly for the State. Females are welcome to join the military, but are not drafted. R'vneh finds a collection of op-eds on the subject. The mandatory military service encourages males to control their chaotic emotional urges enough to work collaboratively on projects for the good of the State, and allows young females the freedom to contribute in more productive ways in the Science Ministry or local government. Female Cardassians are frequently of higher rank when joining the military given the cultural pressure to earn multiple advanced degrees first.

Elsewhere in the complex, two engineers are going over the design files. Nothing is found.

Several weeks earlier, on a joint Bajoran-Federation space station...

"Thrax, what an unexpected pleasure! I don't think we've talked since you transferred away."

On the viewscreen, an elderly Cardassian man says, "You were never this happy to see me when I was station security, at least not until you got the dabo wheel."
"But, this call is strictly business."

"Even better. What sort of business?"

"There's some new research project, supposedly important to the Klingon situation. All I know is that they say they need, 'At least 20 texts in Old High Vulcan, at least one of which is a technical manual, preference for a dictionary as well.' Thought was that you were well positioned to get them,"

"Have you tried asking the Vulcans for them? They're almost as insistent as the hew-mons that everybody learns their history."

"There's probably thousands of technical manuals in some publicly accessible database that no one's looked at in 30 years."

"They expect everyone to know when Surak lost his first lobes, but do they study Ferengi history?"

"Gint changed the way every businessman thought, and never led us into any conflict. Yet all these Starfleet can recite Surak's laws, and couldn't tell you one Rule of Acquisition."

"Yes, well...I've been told it's a restricted database at least, and Vulcan security programs are well written. I have 3 bars of latinum to offer with a bonus for exceeding the base requirements."

Yeah, sure. He can ask some Vulcan librarian some unusual questions, especially for more than 3 bars.

"What sort of exceeding?"

"Oh, additional texts for the team to work with, or fulfilling some small additional requests when it comes time to make the exchange," he leans into the viewscreen slightly. "If we have a deal I can send you the details."

"Sure, sure. We have a deal." Obviously the additional requests are going to be some huge political nonsense that will only get him in trouble, and not provide nearly enough profit to make up for it, but doubling the number of books he picks up from the library shouldn't be a problem.

"We should catch up again soon, Thrax. Don't get many opportunities to catch up with folks from the old days anymore."

"Perhaps," he looks at something off to the side of his screen, "I expect I'll be having fewer of those as well."

"Goodbye Quark." The screen goes dark.

Rude.

Quark fires up his terminal again, deactivating the top two layers of anti-Odo encryption. 'Confuse the hell out of your enemies,' continues to be the most important half of Rule 76, and there is no way Odo will be able to work out why he's trying to get a bunch of books in weird fancy Vulcan.

The specifics come through.

Or Old High Vulcan.

Sure, whatever. He starts searching through the Federation cultural database for resources in Old High Vulcan.

Sure, it's an old language by anyone's standards, but what's so high about it? Did they only speak it on mountains or something? There's a mountain in Vulcan Love Slave, so probably the planet has at least one.

Alright, looks like these books are actually restricted. Quark may be able to keep Odo out of his business, but he's not exactly ready to try and bypass Vulcan security encryption, certainly not when he can just ask politely.

There are two different contacts for "scholars seeking access to restricted materials," would Quark like to contact a representative of the Vulcan Security Directorate or a representative of the Vulcan Academy for the Arts?

What in the name of profit is wrong with Vulcans?!? No, he would very much not like to speak with the Vulcan Security Directorate about this!

"Now, why would Old High Vulcan be restricted by the Security Directorate and the Academy for the Arts?"

"All Vulcan cultural and historical information prior to the lifetime of Surak is considered highly restricted by the Vulcan High Council. The research of Pre-Sundering sites and artifacts is broadly considered a major security risk, and is therefore overseen by the Vulcan Security Directorate."

"One access exception has been carved out for the Vulcan Academy for the Arts to allow the research necessary for legitimate artistic exploration of Vulcan's ancient history."

Quark goes back in to his security programs to deactivate the creepy Hew-mon voice interface, again. How does it keep turning on?

Vulcans love boring stuff! All he has to do is take a good thing someone made about Vulcan and tell them he wants to make a historically accurate adaptation!

His favorite book is absolutely due for another holonovel adaptation too! And since Vulcan Love Slave was published anonymously, he doesn't even need to arrange for the rights!

Rule #9 'Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.' Time for profit.

He punches up the contact information listed for the Vulcan Academy for the Arts' Historical Archivist.

"Hello, I saw that if I wanted access to historical documents on ancient Vulcan history, I needed to contact you?"

The video comes through as a text label, "Archivist, Age of Antiquity, Historical Artifacts, ShiKhar Academy for the Pursuit and Edification of the Arts, in Association with the Minsharan Society of the Aesthetic and Spiritual", but the voice comes through clearly.

"I am authorized to release or provide archival materials related to the Age of Antiquity, when those materials are otherwise restricted. As there are several other individuals with this capacity, it would be inaccurate to describe this interaction as 'needed'."

Yeah, that's a Vulcan.

"Thank you so much for your time Archivist. It may not be strictly necessary, but it seems the most effective way to get some materials that I do need for my latest project."

The viewscreen is still dark except for the, - Blessed Exchequer, is that six lines of text?!? "I'm not currently receiving visual are you having technical difficulties?

"This is a restricted area, and you would not be calling this line if you had authorization to view the contents. If you require visual verification of any resources or materials, you may submit the appropriate Records Access Request. Do you wish to submit a Records Access Request?"

"Yes, but not to look at your office."

"My name is Quark, Chief Executive and Operating Officer of Quark Enterprises Inc., I've published a handful of holoprograms over the years, and I recently realized I was ready for a slightly bigger project. I'm writing a holonovel, - not a wholly original work of course, I'm still not confident enough for that, but an adaptation of a novel. Specifically the anonymously published work, The Arduous Journey of T'Lana on the Road to Enlightenment."

"The book was published not long after first contact between our peoples, and it's tremendously popular in Ferengi society. As such there are a number of spin off books and sequels, and already a fair number of holonovels, but all of them fall flat in comparison to the original's descriptions of T'Lana's life and surroundings."

"I think the problem is that other holoauthors have been approaching this from a purely Ferengi perspective, leaving everything Vulcan about the story flat and lifeless, including T'Lana herself."

"The book is set a little over 3000 years ago, based on certain details about the Ferenginar presented in the story, and I couldn't find any information about Vulcan history and culture from that period."

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the material. That time period is considered restricted for reasons of emotional inadvisability, galactic security, and an additional reason which is itself classified. I am authorized to release these materials for projects considered to be of legitimate artistic or cultural value by the Bureau of Artistic Merit. I am also able to assist with preparing a Records Access Request for an application of legitimate artistic or cultural value. However, you should be aware that no Ferengi artistic work has ever received this designation."

Really frustrating that he can't bribe her for that third reason. That's going to bother him for a while.

"Given how briefly our peoples have had formal relations, I could hardly expect any differently. I look forward to your assistance."

"Of course. Well, it is possible to apply for an access request for a pre-publication artistic work. A preliminary approval may be granted on merit of an application summarizing the goals and artistic purpose of the work, should the Bureau consider it likely that the resulting work will meet the standards of highest approval. This preliminary approval grants the artist authorization to access works relevant to the completion of the project, and permits the artist subsidized access to a records specialist capable of retrieving the reference materials and assessing the work to insure its ongoing maintenance of civic standards and artistic or cultural value. This assistance is, of course, mandatory, and all reference materials will obviously be kept under copy protection until full approval is received.

Do you wish to review the sample application packet?"

Subsidized? Are the Vulcans going to charge him for this? How reasonable! He was expecting this entire endeavor to be only an investment of his time, but there is more than one reason why Vulcans are his favorite Federation species after all.

"I would very much like an application packet to review, and if I may, how large is the subsidy?"

"The subsidy is pegged to the median salary of the lowest-paid bracket of staff authorized to access the relevant materials. In this case, it would be approximately sufficient to pay for the services of an archival assistant from the Age of Antiquity department. An applicant may choose to secure the services of a more experienced researcher if they are willing to provide appropriate compensation for the time of more valuable staff. I am transmitting the sample application now."

Why, that's almost like a proper bribe! How civilized!

"Lovely, if I have any follow up questions after reviewing this how should I direct them?"

"Further questions relevant to this department should be directed to this line. I, or another available archivist, will be capable of assisting with each stage of the Records Access Request process. If you intend to submit an application, I recommend you request assistance early and often, rather than waiting for specific questions. The sample application is very thorough and should answer all direct questions, but a successful application requires quality as well as completion."

"Quark stands for nothing if not quality, thank you for your time, Archivist. I'm sure we'll be speaking again soon." He closes the channel and sets his contract translator running on the sample application packet.

Well, that's inconvenient. This does still sound like a better solution than trying to hack into a restricted Vulcan database, but he's definitely going to end up actually writing a holonovel at this rate.

Maybe he'll be able to sell the holonovel to Vulcans? The Vulcan market for Vulcan Love Slave has never been large, but this is actually something he thinks could expand it pretty well, and of course there's plenty of Ferengi who will pay through the lobes for anything new in the series. He's hardly about to let his doubts tarnish his lust for latinum of course, it should be possible to make a decent profit off both sides of this transaction, even with some marginally higher costs than he's used to from the Federation. Actually, there's no way anyone in the archival department is paid enough that he'll have to put down a full 3 bars on the research project.

Unless Vulcans have bizarre and alien priorities.

So maybe.

This is normally the point at which he does research on new business associates, but most of the questions he has are classified for classified reasons. Gah!

Well, the contract translator* has finished its first interpretation. Obviously written by Vulcans for Vulcans, there's a lot of cultural references that the translator claims to have lengthy footnotes for, but Quark still hasn't sprung for the Elite Advanced subscription, so they'll get to stay hidden (unless he'd like to acquire them for only 2 slips per footnote!).

Wow, no wonder no Ferengi has had his project approved yet. This really requires sucking up to the Vulcans. The main sections are "How will your project strengthen the Vulcan Spirit," "What details do you require, and how will they elevate your creation," and "Why does your project require the truth of the past, rather than the wonders of What Might Have Been," with a brief introduction to preface his answers.

The packet's own introduction explains that while the sample is written in prose, it is recommended that applicants submit their answers in the same format as their proposed project where possible, to allow the adjudicating council to also weigh the creator's skill in their craft as a component of the request. Should an artist's preferred craft prove insufficient to answering the application question, the council prefers written supplementary material, either in poetry or prose.

*Dronol Family Industries Negotiator's Aid is widely considered the latinum standard for any Ferengi conducting negotiations with aliens. Even on the lowest tier subscription it offers multiple interpretations of the contract's original language to assist the enterprising business man in finding the most lucrative path. Used by the Grand Nagus himself!

Okay. Time to start writing the holonovel.

Just basic setting stuff for now, and maybe that program he used when the staff was being unreasonable with a few tweaks.

Actually, this is the best situation for placeholders in holoprogramming. It should outrage the "Bureau" just the right amount if all of the furniture was Ferengi-style furniture from the reign of Grand Nagus Smeet. He'll just have Holo-Quark give them a tour, and explain all of the reasons why he obviously needs records access, and there'll be a lot of fake books and art pieces, in an authentic Vulcan landscape. Shouldn't even take him more than an afternoon before he has a draft to send to the Archivist.

Quark receives a prompt response, and about thirty pages of commentary. The archival assistant assigned to his proposal feels it lacks a nuanced understanding of Vulcan culture and would benefit from greater focus, with the selected vocabulary excessively vague and thus failing to establish...

It seems like they have perhaps not understood his artistic vision.

Indeed they did not!

How could they miss it?! There was even a version of him available to slowly walk them through it!

Of course he doesn't have a "nuanced understanding of Vulcan culture" that's why he wants access to their records!!

Wait, no it's not.

He wants access to the records for the three bars of latinum he's getting from the Cardassians. The holonovel does not matter.

He would rather not actually need to write a full holonovel. It would be a bad idea to put more time and effort into this acquisition than he absolutely must.

Buuuut, maybe it's time to bring some latinum into the equation. If he wants the proposal approved, (which yes, both his cover story and the real plan do require the proposal being approved) he needs to pay some archivist enough that they will actually explain themselves coherently. He'll send a request for the rates for various archvists' time.

The Federation, of course, looks down upon the use of "money" when handling routine or essential transactions. The average resident of Earth, famously, never handles currency in their daily life, with alternative systems in use even for inherently-scarce resources like nondeveloped land.

The rest of the Federation doesn't go to such efforts, instead using Federation credits for anything that would be inconvenient to allocate inefficiently, or that relies on the time of highly-trained professionals. Interstellar food shipments are denominated in credits, even if meals are too cheap to meter on the planetary level, and a combination of copyright law and excessive computing requirements mean that a holoprogram license is the most expensive thing most Federation citizens ever buy. Other specialized professionals can charge similarly, based on the rarity and value of their work. The local value of labor, obviously, is heavily dependent on what others are willing to pay for similar labor.

Vulcans, unfortunately, really like history. The dedicated attention of a fully-trained archivist costs about a bar of latinum per hour, in credits.

No.

Just no.

That's more than he'd pay for an hour's advice from the Nagus, and with an hour's worth of advice from the Nagus he could do a lot better than 3 measly bars of profit. He wouldn't even need to write this worthless holonovel!

Buuuut....

When you consider Quarks' case specifically:

The loss of profit from the bar when he's away, the cost of travel to Ferenginar, and the fact that the Nagus still seems really invested in personally exploiting HIM...

He probably won't even need a full hour with an archivist, and that's still at least 2 bars of profit. Plus bonuses and holonovel sales.

He could always talk to someone between the lowest-priced assistants and the most-experienced archivists. Though in the other ear, of his two interactions with the Academy, only one has been comprehensible to people who aren't actually Vulcan historians.

Right, there are plenty of people he could be bribing here, but since it's a secretive alien organization, best to go straight to the top with just a few questions. Five minutes of that Archivist's time should come to a little less than 2 strips of latinum, which is still absolutely extortionate, but everyone knows how good monopolies are for business. With five minutes, he can ask which of her staff can actually answer questions coherently and get a decent list of who he should be bribing.

"Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to" (Rule #3) means a lot of different things depending on the circumstances, but right now it means that he shouldn't be gradually increasing what he pays one slip at a time, blindly hoping that the next bribe will solve all his problems somehow, like Rom would.

Quark is paying for something he knows will work. "Knowledge equals profit," (Rule #74) and maybe this is even the sort of information he can sell in the future. He isn't the first Ferengi to try this after all.

Oh! A new revenue stream for this project!

Not a huge one, sure, but marketed correctly, a guide for the application process could net him enough to cancel out the bribery expenses from this stage.

Quark sends a request for five minutes of the Head Archivist's time.

Quark will shortly receive a call in response, and Archivist T'Mai will once again appear (or not, given the lack of video).

"Chief Executive Quark. I understand you wish for my assistance with your application for an artistic merit exemption for your work 'The Arduous Journey of T'Lana on the Road to Enlightenment'."

"I suspect only a very small amount of your personal assistance will be necessary, Archivist T'Mai. The assistant who reviewed my first proposal seems inexperienced in dealing with artists of other species. Given my personal circumstances, I would find a level of expertise in that area quite valuable. Could you recommend a list of your staff who have worked on applications from aliens before?"

"Yes. Stand by."

There's a pause of about fifteen seconds, before Quark receives a notification of an incoming data packet. In the meantime, the screen pops up with a running timer, to assist Quark in limiting the conversation to five minutes if he so desires.

"I have sent you a list of staff with access to the relevant materials who have previously assisted with applications submitted by non-Vulcan artists. Most primarily have experience with human submissions. Archivist Sorraan and Assistant Archivist T'Ral have prior experience with Ferengi submissions in particular. Though, not successful submissions. In the interest of brevity, I recommend Archivist Sorraan. Your proposal had greater potential merit than the last Ferengi work he assisted with, and his competence is sufficient to limit the risk of rejection to artistic inadequacy."

Wow, the timer is very considerate, on Ferenginar he would be expected to pay extra for it, or to provide his own. Although, - at these sorts of prices, the timer should be included.

"Excellent, I'll take a look at this," he has a lot of questions, but if he ends the call right now, it won't have cost him a full slip, and he now has a list of people it's cheaper to bribe, "I believe that's all I need for now Archivist, I'm sorry I overestimated how long this would take."

She isn't going to charge him for the whole scheduled time, right? He absolutely does that for anything that requires an appointment, but there's a difference between holosuite reservations and bribes for personal meetings.

Quark isn't really in a line of business where he gets bribes for meetings though.

"Understood. I will remain available for the next six hours if you contact this line again. Archivist Sorraan will be available in approximately two hours if you choose to contact him directly. Goodbye."

As it turns out, the fee (listed in Federation credits) has been rounded up to the nearest thirty seconds. His contract translator may be aware that this is the Vulcan standard, intended to reduce the need to carefully limit opening and closing pleasantries without eliminating the option of short, compensated communications. Older Vulcan legal records use an increment of twenty seconds, but the period was increased a century ago after persistent lobbying from other Federation member species.

Yeah, that sounds like one of those pesky footnotes that Quark usually manages without. Just look at him managing!

Excellent, under budget and ahead of schedule!

He'll bring a pad with the list to the bar for the evening. Business has been slowing down lately, as the Bajorans have been filtering down to the planet to do some complicated voting thing, and people have been worrying about the Klingon war again, and he'd only just started to recoup the losses from the time of cleansing, the timing on the staff's pay raise could be a lot better, but at least he should have time to read it over while tending bar.

Probably he'll end up going with Sorraan, but it is important to inspect the merchandise before making a deal.

Yeah, this Sorraan guy has some solid experience actually helping aliens with this process, and Quark's heard of Prag before, the guy's an absolute hack. Even this scam project is going to be better than Prag's last published work, it was supposedly satire, but a lot of the time that's just what people who like terrible things say to explain why it isn't actually terrible. At least he and Sorraan will have things to talk about.

Everyone else on this list can go in Quark's new guide for Ferengi to this nonsensical process. They can buy advice, but not good advice, that'll cost extra.

So, before resubmitting it to Soraan, he may as well make a little more progress. The scenery test is fine for a preface, and he can just use that same set up for the first chapter, set up the character models properly, but costuming them in Ferengi clothes of the period, in the Vulcan desert, but with Ferengi houses and furnishings.

Make it clear that he's still working on the project in case someone decides to check, but further emphasize the fact that he needs cultural help.

Archivist Sorraan has enough experience with alien art to invent hypotheses such as "probably these are placeholder assets" or "the Ferengi explaining the plot of this scene will be removed in favor of simply playing the scene in the final release". His eventual report will explicitly name but proceed from this assumption. The suggested themes appear to primarily focus on overcoming adversity and particularly distraction. There is significant reference to dealing with irrational desires by threading the line between losing sight of goals in the face of emotions, versus wastefully suppressing emotions past the point where your relevant decisions are rational. It is hard to assess the artistic merit with so few details completed, but the overarching concept has... potential.

He requests additional clarification as to the intended themes and level of detail, and the degree to which the experience is intended to be interactive versus simply placing the viewer into a relevant state of mind. He does not yet feel comfortable recommending the work for access to restricted records, but sees some potential implementations which could be worth publishing, and which could have additional artistic value given historical accuracy.

Huh, - well...

Okay.

"The original work that this piece is based on is written entirely from the perspective of the Merchant Shmun, with T'lana serving as more of a guide and instructor to a stranger in a strange land. It is intended for the users to decide from the start whether they and any friend they may choose to join them to take the role of either Shmun or T'Lana, being either a guide in the process finding her own way, or a student who must be seen as leading his teacher, although I am hoping to create something that will be satisfying to even those who prefer only to observe and not participate in the action.

"I only have a cursory grasp of Surakian philosophy and history, but I aim to emphasize the ability of anyone to pursue logic and enlightenment, even when they think they are chasing something else.

"I am specifically requesting access to the historical database because based on my understanding of Vulcan history, there were people before Surak, whom he spoke to, that were attempting to push your society in the same general direction. While of course, T'Lana could not have studied with Surak, I would like to provide a better understanding of the culture that created Surak, and an opportunity for people to share the experience of coming to some of his conclusions, but before their people are ready for it.

"To provide the appropriate atmosphere, I will require some examples of period fashions, architecture, cuisine, and books. Obviously with a focus on those with a philosophical leaning, to provide something more for anyone playing T'Lana who is not yet fully versed in Vulcan Philosophy to lean on in their portrayal."

"While the prevailing aesthetics of the pre-Surakian period obviously present artistic value, the Vulcan Academy for the Arts has already made the determination that the value of restricting access to these records exceeds the value of simply showcasing the historical artistic works. Moreover, you seem to be operating under an assumption that an understanding of pre-Surakian ethical philosophy will provide useful context to Surakian ethical philosophy for those unfamiliar with the field. While the hypothesis is understandable, you should also be aware that this is not a perspective well-supported by pedagogical research. Our educational system teaches the value of logic and ethical action from first principles without establishing a basis in prior illogical beliefs. Is this an accurate assessment of your justification for your request?"

Alright, the Nagus obviously had the right idea when he announced that the entire Federation was crazy.

"Archivist Sorraan, while that may be true for Vulcan education, many other species have different educational methods that work better for them.

"The Ferengi system begins with thorough instruction in all 285 Rules of Acquisition and introductory bookkeeping practices, after which we go out on apprenticeships."

"My education has been significantly more hands on than the one provided in the Vulcan education system, and I prefer it that way."

"I suspect that most other species that are not already followers of Surak's teachings would agree with me when I say that the current method of instruction promoted by the people of Vulcan is difficult, dense, and unrewarding. We already have 'illogical beliefs,' and as such these concepts need to be marketed differently.

"What I learned from The Arduous Journey of T'Lana on the Road to Enlightenment was that enlightenment is a journey and it must be chosen with every step, I aim to provide a road for it, and I hope to use materials from the Academy to as a foundation and guardrails."

The archivist frowns at the explanation, but Quark's finely-honed skills at selling to aliens may detect a level of interest.

"So you propose that additional historical context may be of benefit to those without a strong educational basis in logic? Or perhaps even that historical context is uniquely valuable to those who have developed bia-" he catches himself and coughs. "-heuristics suited to a less... focused educational system."

"I'd say differently focused.

"Everything I have ever studied has been with the singular goal of earning profit, I believe the Vulcan system does address more than one goal, which would make it the less focused of the two."

"But, yes. Those of us who haven't been through a Vulcan education rely on our emotions, and cannot be fully brought over to Surakian thought without an emotional appeal on some level.The ones made in 'The Arduous Journey' are based in empathy and passion. That if we love and respect the people around us, sometimes we must punish them for their own good, and if we have enemies, sometimes we must show them kindness and respect as well.

"And that's hard!

"Both T'Lana and Shmun struggle with their feelings and the differences between their emotional wants and their logical and physical needs throughout the work. A struggle that they see playing out all around them between others, and given the more open world nature of my project than many of the adaptations that have come before, I want to enable passersby to root their commentary in the philosophy that their realworld counterparts would have had access to, providing a more realistic struggle. And one that players may be better equipped to apply, and possibly seek out more of, once out of character."

"Hm. I will have to investigate the literature on the value of emotional appeals in non-Vulcan pedagogy. I comprehend the theory you are proposing, but the risk is obviously significant that students with an emotionally-founded understanding of philosophy would have difficulty applying it in practice. However, the value of improving educational content for other species may justify the risk. Particularly given poor uptake from existing methodologies. If you expect the work to improve on current philosophical study materials tuned for human learning styles, it maybe worth applying for an educational grant. There are several available through the Cultural Outreach Committee."

Another income stream for this project!

Don't mind if he does apply for that then.

And now, the thrilling return to the original story.

Before the last set of revisions to the experimental subspace detector, Gul Ocett sent a message to an acquaintance in the Romulan Fleet.

"Commander Savul, in the process of recovering the many great works of the Cardassian Union that had been stolen from us by the Obsidian Order, my colleagues and I have located the remains of a Romulan. I know our people's traditions around death are different, but I apologize for the fact that so many of us have seen them regardless, and have done my utmost to keep the number of people who view them as small as possible. The enclosed data file is a genetic scan, I hope you might be able to check your people's database's for any surviving family I could contact regarding next steps."

"Regards,"

"Gul Ocett"

A few minutes later Gul Ocett has a call on a secure channel from Comander Savul.

"Elements Ocett! Even if you had to throw yourself into another of the galaxy's greatest mysteries, you did not need to drag me in like this."

"It can't possibly be as bad as the last one Savul. Do you have contact information for me or not?"

"I would say it is. Unless you'd like to change your story about where you found this sample?"

Well, no. No she wouldn't actually.

"I may have omitted some details certainly, but nothing I said is untrue. How is this worse than what we found on Vilmoor?"

"Ocett, I do not want to get involved in any of the political games surrounding the imperial throne.

"If that's what the Union is trying here, tell them that they need to go through someone else, and maybe find someone related to the actual imperial line.

"The Queen of Two Worlds may have been the first monarch, but her bloodline, however close the relation may be, does not make a good argument for a throne established more than 500 years after her death."

Of course. There was no way that this particular part of the project was going to go well. Malyn should never have thought for a moment that this incredibly implausible woman might have either no living relatives in the Romulan Empire, or maybe a small village of great nieces and nephews somewhere in the Valley of Chula.

Of course her sister, or niece, or great niece, was the first monarch of Romulus and Remus.

"Well, that's at least going to make my report on the incident more interesting. Obviously I haven't found any explanations of what the Order wanted her for yet." The polite way of saying that she absolutely wouldn't tell him even if she did, and that she does in fact know more than she's said.

"Any chance you could share how closely related they were?"

Savul lets out a deep sigh, "Of course neither of us has any idea what the Obsidian Order was doing with this woman." The sarcasm so thick it could stand up to a disruptor blast.

"They would be aunt and niece, hard to say which is which, but after the last time someone planned a coup around a clone of Vriha T'Rehu the Senate passed a law stating that no one within three generations of T'Rehu could hold any office in the Imperial Senate or above it.

"Just in case the Guard is getting any ideas."

Rude. She was only considering that a little bit!

"Now Savul, even if that was the Order's intent, the Cardassian Guard and the Detapa Council would never condone such an intervention. Especially in the government of an old ally like the Romulan Empire."

Not that such an alliance has been at all helpful since the Klingons invaded...

"No, of course not. However, allies and friends that we are, I do hope that you won't be dragging me into this any further.

"This sounds like the sort of trouble that could bring me to the attention of the Tal Shiar, who do seem to be rather excited to remind us all that they did not all leave for the Omarion Nebula."

Yeah, fair. There should be a decent amount of information in Union databases on this close relative, and it would be inconvenient if Savul were to disappear, whether permanently or just to a re-education camp.

"I still don't see why that would be necessary, but it's enough of an answer that I can certainly look elsewhere for who to contact regarding her next of kin.

"Jolan tru Savul."

"Of course. Jolan tru Ocett."

Alright, who is this Vriha T'Rehu then? Ocett is vaguely aware of the Queen of Two Worlds as an ancient warlord who united Romulus and Remus, and was promptly overthrown by a different unifying government.

Romulans.

But presumably there would be some more recent records about what the one(s?) from the attempted coup(s?) were like, which could be somewhat informative of what her aunt might be capable of.

Or it could just be a fun research vole-hole for an archaeologist who's been stuck doing a lot of practical military logistics and not a lot of fun historical research over the past few days.

The following data comes from discreet access to the Romulan Central Information Net, do NOT make follow up inquiries to any external entities based on information found in these files.

Presented Selection is a biography from Early Leadership: Pre-Imperial Biographies by Nevesa D'era [NAME SUSPECTED TO BE FALSE BY UNION MILITARY INTELLIGENCE]

The Ruling Queen of the Two Worlds, Vriha T'Rehu, the Last of the Queens of Kh'reitekh

T'Rehu is believed to have been born on the Journey Ships, sometime in the last decade of our ancestors' great voyage. By the time of the Settlement scholars believe that she was the last surviving child of her parents, Tulek and J'Rey of the Sunheart. Tulek made planetfall on Romulus as Councillor of the Elehu District of Nn'Verih, and over the course of the first 20 years ascended to the office of Grand Councillor of the continent; a position he retained until his death in 35 AS,* upon which the councilliary fell to T'Rehu.

Contemporary sources from T'Rehu's early life have lead some scholars to identify her as a nuhirren, and there are some surviving writings from contemporaries that indicate the belief may have been circulating around neighboring regions during her early career. These suspicions would naturally have lead to those who believed them avoiding face-to-face contact with her, as the belief of the time was that there was no means of refusing the plea in the eyes of a nuhirren.

This and other concerns regarding her suitability for the office lead other members of the council to refuse many requests made by the Elehu district over the next few years, exacerbating famine and an outbreak of lunglock fever, which claimed many lives. This lead T'Rehu to a strong dislike for the Council system, leading to a continually worsening relationship with her fellow councillors. Despite their interference, T'Rehu brought Elehu to prosperity, offering significant incentives for educated immigrants and those looking to start families.

These policies allowed her to undertake the first ever war of conquest on Romulan soil when, after a near doubling of the district's population, she was able to field more soldiers than expected. From 60 to 72 AS T'Rehu's armies conquered neighboring territories, and then more distant territories with the logistical assistance of the Ship Clans. In these conquests her soldiers and Adepts killed or mindchanged all those who would not join her. This campaign ended after she was called to attend a meeting of the Dual Council where she famously announced, "Say what you like, and do what you like. I am your mistress now. Idiots and old men shall not run my land anymore, nor any other I can get my hands on." After which she was given the Master Councillorship of the Grand Council, although she still held no seat on the High Council. This meeting is famously the first time that S'task left the council chambers against her command.

The second time S'task attempted this was in 78 AS, when T'Rehu presented the Dual Council with evidence that the famine that had swept across Novok was caused by the indifference of the Grand Council. When S'task attempted to leave, T'Rehu famously had her guards kill him in the Council Chambers, an act which brought an end to the High Council. Within 6 days she had begun to purge the Grand Council of remaining dissent and had scheduled her coronation as Ruling Queen of Two Worlds, taking the name Vriha for the first time.

As Queen, Vriha T'Rehu ordered a great study of many of the technologies of the Journey Ships and greatly improved planetside transportation and communications technologies across both worlds, but among those closer to her she was an unpredictable tyrant. She handed down death sentences for the most minor of infractions and would pardon anyone as her whims moved her. A procedure that left her with only the mercenary Ship Clans as consistent allies.

During her rule the population of Remus was finally beginning to grow despite the lack of medical and cloning technology, and a discontent that mirrored her own early displeasure with the Councils was on the rise among the population. Rovalat himself is said to have lead the negotiations with the Ship Clans for the transport of Reman forces to Vriha's new capitol, Ra'tleihfi in exchange for several large optical rubies to replace degrading components of the ships lasers. When the Ship Clans delivered the Remans to the Plains of Aihai, they met with what seemed to be a great united force lead by Queen Vriha herself, but her armies quickly dissolved into a dozen little factions, most of which were opposed to her. While records vary wildly on who precisely killed her, all are agreed that the first and last Queen of Two Worlds fell that day in 96 AS.

*After Settlement, roughly equivalent to the Terran year 188 BCE, Settlement having occurred in 223 BCE.

The following data comes from discreet access to the Romulan Central Information Net, do NOT make follow up inquiries to any external entities based on information found in these files.

Presented selection is a partial transcript of the episode "431: Vriha T'Rehu III" of the political history podcast "Names of Ki Baratan"

Shortly before our people restored the Imperial Throne with the crowning of Empress Ael, there was a plot to restore it with another empress; a plot that will sound quite familiar to those of our listeners who are up to date with the latest announcements from Qo'noS.

An ancient ruler brought back from the dead by the wonders of cloning, and the people responsible aim to achieve political goals by arranging for their clone to become the highest authority in their empire. This is the story of the return of Kahless, the newly installed Emperor of the Klingon Empire, as well as that of the second known clone of Vriha T'Rehu.

I'm sure our listeners remember the story of Queen T'Rehu, but if not pause here and go listen to episode "219: The Queen of Two Worlds," don't worry, we'll wait.

[Twenty seconds of silence]

Welcome back! Our profile for today picks up during the Tricameron period of our fine Empire, when a small team of rebels in northern Nn'Verih found a computer system dating back to the Settlement Period, which had originally been used by one of the Settlers' original cloning institutes.

The computer was still functional, and filled with data regarding the names and genetic profiles of our most honored ancestors. But did the rebels even think to contact the Ministry of History?!? Of course not. They were planning to betray both the Star Empire and all its citizens already, and armed with what they were able to salvage from one of the last vestiges of the Journey they developed a new plan.

The recent introduction of industrial replicators allowed the rebels to synthesize a small sample of the genetic material of one name they found in the database that had survived the passing of years, the onetime District Councilor, T'Rehu.

Once they had the means, the rebels concluded that it would be foolish of them not to attempt to gain the skills of T'Rehu for their cause. The original T'Rehu was a fierce leader, dedicated deeply to her people, and a brilliant tactician.

Of course the plan would take at least a few years, during which the young T'Rehu would need to be raised carefully, without allowing anyone outside their group to learn who she was.

And now a brief message from our friends in the Ministry of History: [Section Redacted by Union Military Intelligence for excess of Foreign Propaganda, requests for redacted content can be directed to Glinn Idel]

[Thirteen minutes and nineteen seconds of silence]

-Senate was deeply grateful for the young clone's aid in collecting the last of the rebels who had raised her, but when asked what reward she would like for her great service to the Empire, she replied, "All that I wish is a name of my own and a chance to serve the Empire as a private citizen. While I may share much with the ancient queen, I would prefer to share less."

A wish quickly granted by the Senate, we are told that the woman who was once known by that name went on to attend medical school and has since become quite renowned as a medical researcher under her new name.

A surprising choice certainly for one whose genes are so tied with blood as T'Rehu. Will we all wake one day to hear that Kahless has retired to take up painting? Only time may tell.

Make sure you're subscribed for next week when we discuss Praetor Devoras Narviat and his recent assassination.

Alright, Glinn Idel clearly needs to be demoted.

Actionable steps first. She forwards the transcript to Legate Toren in Military Intelligence, with a suggestion that someone review the Glinn's other work for similarly flagrant errors. That should be more than enough to ensure he receives some form of disciplinary action.

Research results though: she sort of has some. Nuhirren are not a concept Malyn's encountered before by name, but the short description here sounds like some of the worst case scenarios for science fiction type telepathy. Luckily, handling that obviously doesn't go on her schedule, as someone who's been in close contact with R'vneh, her job here is to assign someone to consult with someone about what precautions should be taken moving forward. She also probably has the name of one of R'vneh's siblings and the beginnings of a lead on a clone of her niece, which is a lot more family than Malyn was really expecting to find here.