Scout Karfoon. In particular investigate why the sector has been marked hostile and assess whether the Pleasant Winds survivors can safely pass through or whether they will need an adventurer escort, fleet escort, or for us to… pacify the system.

Scout Academe. Assess if our military could conquer the natives. Tell the Scouting team the Goddess would like to see warring factions united in worship of Her Holiness, but only if She can actually achieve that unity. The successful incorporation of Jats shows that temporary increases in bloodshed are acceptable when they lead to long term decreases in bloodshed.

Radio home your reports, but don’t return straight away. Your next mission will be to explore adjacent star systems – and then, unless otherwise instructed, seek signs of Leviathan activity. Ours is missing in action, and We desire options to recruit another such powerful partner.

Shift Production to Ice: Yeb incarnate (that is, Yeb 6D) spent an inordinate amount of time reorganizing the work crews inside of the Graves to attend to the correct storage units this past Pulse. It would be best not to make such hands-on management an ongoing need.

Yeb 2F, Robots are Dead to Us: Yeb doesn’t have any use for Fake Life. It usurps resources that Real Life could be using. But We have (that is, the Goddess has) a use for an army to pacify and entrench control over Etro once the Graves leaves. To that end, robot bodies can be useful.

We don’t need to construct a fleet carrier to exit the system. We will be primarily doing local police maneuvers walking around the worldweb. This plan conserves Gas, of which we are regrettably short.

The Goddess (that is, you, Yeb 2F) will befriend the battlebots. Offer a trophy for their fighting league (Ores or Rares, as they like). See if the robots can be co-opted into a viable fighting force. Else, copy their technology to construct our own soldiers. It seems to me many Jats crippled in the Crash could use new, shiny robot bodies.

Assess the fastest route to that goal. If we can convince the battle bots to voluntarily implant a Jat brain or two into their frames as friendly equals, so be it. Or perhaps we should start robo-napping them and implanting a brain. Perhaps we should simply capture or build battle-bot factories and use them to pump out new Jat-Bots.

Asymmetric Exchange: This sounds like a good deal. Run this to the maximum we can afford. At present, alas, that it’s only 4 units of Ice. Well, we’ll have more later.

Bring Pleasant Winds survivors to Etro: Make them honored guests, get to know them, share our tentative reports on Karfoon and any information scouting report. I (that is, the Goddess Yeb) sense an opportunity to Serve, though we haven’t much in the way of spare resources. To reach their home they must safely pass through dangerous sectors. The only way to Junxrn 4 is through Karfoon. We must ponder on this.

Brake Gradually, dearest navigator.

The Great Gate Mystery: We must devote some time to learning about the Gates. Why did they close? Why open now, just when the Graves comes into the Chit system? Is it a result of Our Divine Intervention, or are there plausible answers more mundane in nature?

Close Etro’s Borders. Let it be known that Etro Borders are closed to Nonessential Business. Our (that is, the Goddess’s) reasoning here is to maximize the advantage of asymmetric exchange. The arrival of foreign Ice will tend to dilute Our bargaining power, and should be prevented.

No, my dear Servant, I am not allocating sufficient resources to actually enforce such a decree. Heavens no. I am instructing you to bluff. If bluffing doesn’t work, roll back the policy and make sure our devotees get an ample helping of any incoming riches – my Flock should not be disadvantaged in such a scenario. If bribes are to be collected, ensure my devotees receive more favorable rates than non-believers.

Foment Rumors: Specifically, plant the idea that there are major Ice reserves buried in the worlds of Academe. A bit of misdirection for greedy, disloyal persons. Be discreet.

Host the Higher Ups: Etro’s leadership has so far not presented any Opposition worth bending the knee for (knock on wood) but if there are any exceptional individuals, the Goddess Yeb wants to hire them. Learn enough to ensure their service to Her will seem to naturally align with their own needs and aspirations. We should make a more formal search for such talent later on, but for now, keep your eyes peeled.

Check in on Nest: Befriend the beetles. Life is Life.

Continue Chocolate Covered Vitamins: Given the distance to the Graves, Yeb settles for radio updates on their deliciousness from 6D. Yeb Prime requests that her clone set aside a handful of every flavor variation she goes through. She promises to double check the medical updates 6D is providing. Yeb 6D complains a great deal that the added work improving Ice production is just really really consuming Her time. The vitamin work is very important to Life and She hopes that Her failure to respond to recent requests for further information was not confused with disinterest.

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Next Week: What Outsiders Say

The Goddess Yeb accepts the Charity Council’s in-person invitation to the planning session for the Quintennial Orphans Benefit Gala.

Message to Peare from Arslan Goldfeather of Nest

A message from kindred castaways, who floated on the clouds below while your sister stood on moonrock above. Gravity is as firm a barrier between us as the dead gates were to you. Your kin are rescued by another, we saw them go, we wish to chase. It is time for our bravest Savs to leave the Nest and take flight, to reach for the stars now that the stars once again reach back. Share your tools of travel and we shall repay you with our journeys.

The transmission is accompanied by diagrams of Nest, a multi-aerostat settlement in the upper atmosphere of Heffa’s gas giant, as well as pictures of the tool-using avians who inhabit it. It contains a request for resources, 2 Gas and 1 Ore, in order to construct a simple interstellar scout ship (blueprints attached), and promises future transmissions if aided.

Message to Junxn 4 from the High Merchants’ Guild of Etro

The High Merchants’ Guild of Etro seeks trade partners and the importation of fresh ice.

Our archived records indicate Junxn 4 is a trade hub. Our archived records indicate Karfoon is hostile.

Transmit records of your adjacent systems, any information on safely transiting Karfoon or dangers within, and preferred rates of exchange.

Respond on same frequency and we shall reciprocate.

Message repeats.

The transmission is accompanied by a clipped four-section map showing the path of a potential trade route: Junxn 4, Karfoon, Heffa, and Etro.

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Next Week: The Best of Intentions

Report from the scout ship Service:

There are two planets here circling a dim blue star at the edge of its snow zone. The more distant one is smaller and is totally covered in solid ice. The larger is wet around its equatorial zones, with polar caps. We landed on the Northern ice shelf at a location where many local individuals were walking above the ice. They are swimming crustaceans, similar in size to Savs, and only relatively primitive tools were visible -- we were threatened with tridents. Establishing communications took some legwork, but thanks to the depths of Monocant cultural libraries, we managed a workable pidgin.

It seems we landed in the middle of a search party. Several respected hunters came to investigate “the tramp-tramps” above the ice that followed a “fire-rider” landing last Pulse -- this is a literal translation, we speculate they mean a spaceship and occupants. The fire-riders departed but none of these hunters returned. His Royal Shrimpiness Plink Cracklesnapper aimed the long-talker at the place where the fire-riders went, and spoke accusatory words. Our arrival soon thereafter meant that the prawns initially thought we were the returning hunters. However, “your fire-rider plonks more different,” and “your stomp-stompings are nothing like those others.”

Wishing to serve Life and also glean anything we could about other travelers, we accompanied the search party to the location where the prior incident occurred. Our scanners quickly uncovered something the Prawns were simply unable to conceive: a place where the ice had re-frozen after melting under thrusters. Within this ice we found, shall we say, only the inedible remains of their missing kin, some charred bits of Prawn shell, waste grease and a few grains of a carbohydrate-rich grass seed very obviously not native to this planet. We inferred the hunters were captured, cooked, and eaten, and attempted to explain this to a people that have a limited understanding of fire.

The Prawns became agitated, and our translation devices were not able to keep up with the wailing, gnashing and apparent demands for vengeance. We left them to their grief before any thought to attempt a hijacking in order to pursue the prior intruders.

We have every reason to believe friendly relations can be established with the Prawns, though given the circumstances current relations are at best neutral. Scans of the solid-ice world flagged little of interest -- it appears barren. The two sites are roughly equal in their convenience for siting ice-harvesting operations; the presence of Life on the larger, warmer planet suggests that location would be preferable, but if Yeb deems it our duty to leave Life undisturbed, the barren ice-world would serve well.

Next Week: Missives from the Goddess

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Report from Goldfeather:

A good beginning. Systems functional. Staff battered but up and about.

The Nest’s basic arrangement is much like a hot-air balloon, with heavier-than-air living quarters dangling below a set of huge inflated gas-bags they can heat or cool, compress or expand to rise or fall. There are five gas bags, and any three are sufficient to keep the tiny settlement afloat at a survivable altitude. The air at this height requires moderate processing to sustain Sav life, but the Arts seem amenable to it for short periods.

Sav staff have set one another’s bones and are (with many splints and bandages) up and about. The settlement is still relying on stores for all life support, but hopes by next Pulse to be able to harvest at least enough resources to become self-sufficient.

Only notable Life observed at our altitude is a species of beetle, size ranging from 10 cm to 1 meter. They appear to appreciate the opportunity to rest on our platform. They nibble but appear to disapprove of the taste and depart again in short order.

Bots on the Web

There are several in Etro that appear to be modeled on upright walking figures, six to ten meters tall and powered by rockets in their feet or backs. They are currently engaged in fundraising for a prize-fighting purse. They have not yet appealed to the Goddess Yeb for sponsorship.

Chocolate-Covered Vitamins

Yeb 6D makes a snap decision to stay with the Graves rather than attempt to move all the delicate infrastructure required for cloning fresh Yebs. Her plan is to keep a low profile and only reveal her presence aboardship if things go badly enough on Etro to require a display of foresight, omnipresence or miraculous resurrection. Vitamin research proceeds apace. She finds she rather enjoys the quiet solitude.

Course... Correct?

The Graves remains on course to arrive at the Gate on Pulse 5. This will send it to an adjacent star system. Any star system adjacent to Etro is reachable using background-level maneuvers.

The Graves can no longer reach the Gate next Pulse.

If Yeb wishes to prevent the Graves from traveling through the Gate on Pulse 5, the Navigator must decide when to brake — the later braking procedure begins, the higher the cost in Gas

Standby Jats

Yeb Prime notifies Yeb 2F and her Jats that she plans to attend the Charity Council Meeting. Just in case she needs assistance and a rescue.

Next Week: The Fire at Prawn

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Yeb ensures that she understands the size and arrangement of what passes for Etro’s military. This once-proud institution had atrophied during the long silence of the Gates; without the threat of invasion and with the press for resources to support local populations, it dwindled into little more than a police force tasked with protecting elite property rights.

As it happens, the Emergency Response Management Center had recently been relocated away from Government Heights to West Upper Midtown specifically to ensure that there would be capacity to respond to riots in Government Heights. West Upper Midtown was one of the first places destroyed by the Graves, and this both crippled Etro’s immediate responses and enhanced Yeb’s reputation for knowing things she could not possibly have known. It may or may not also have enhanced the Third Navigator’s standing as an intercessor for the poor and downtrodden -- the local police were little loved.

Military Matters, Part Two

The Jats are thriving on adrenaline and jabbering about stress-testing the quartermaster system. Suffice it to say that the Jats have managed to put the pointy end of their high-tech spear toward the enemy and keep it steadily supplied despite a supply chain that grows more tenuous with every passing second as their base of operations rapidly recedes. To their knowledge nothing like this has ever been done before, it is an accomplishment without precedent, and comes with an entirely bloodless capture of the target world, which by the way is actually three worlds fused together.

Their cockiness overlooks certain facts -- such as the lack of any significant opposition and the death of untold millions in the single kinetic strike of the conflict. However, much is to be said for their trigger discipline and show of force. No shots are fired in anger, and they stretch their small flock of ships with randomized patrol patterns to effectively occupy the star system, bolstering Yeb’s soft-power approaches with the presence of very real weaponry. They report to Yeb that while they still cannot travel through the Gate as a unit without the Graves, they can operate independently at arbitrary distances from the Graves for an indefinite period. Asked to clarify, they say they mean “prolonged,” rather than “unknown.”

The Monocants gain further influence from their military occupation.

Heffa Rescue Mission

Report from the Scout Ship Credo:

We’re approaching the PulseGate. Requesting clearance to proceed with mission contingency two.

Briefly: We have rescued four persons from the moon in question. One of these persons states that they are the lawful heir to House Trogondor. That House is part of the governing structure of Peare, a star system adjacent to Junxn 4. The rescued individual requests immediate return to that location. Reaching Peare will require two Pulses outbound and two to return to Heffa or Etro. Please advise whether to proceed to Peare or rendezvous with the mothership at its present location.

More detailed:

Jumped to Heffa, observed hazy, uneven atmosphere around the moon where Pleasant Winds was stranded. Approached the moon, radioing intent to rescue. Confirmed that all broadcasts received originate from the derelict ship Pleasant Winds. Passengers are second and third-generation individuals descended from stranded tourists. Aurorae on Chit reported as unparalleled, peppered with lightning and often set to concurrently-broadcast music.

Upon approach observed strange phenomena, localized high-density atmosphere precipitating within the limits of a single crater, pooling liquid around a small object, estimated 2-4 meters, approximately cubic.

Stranded individuals delighted to hear from us, initially determined to effect repairs of their ship and showed a deep-seated psychological resistance to leaving the confines of their shelter. They are of the opinion that their ship could reach Peare in a single three-Gate jump. However we note none had flown anywhere, ever. It was also revealed that one member of their party suffered medical difficulties that precluded transit through the airlock. We offered assistance. One Jat and one Gon went aboard Pleasant Winds to assess their situation and personnel. Sav compatriots and our security detail remained aboard Credo. Away team brought a stretcher and a few pressure-safe body bags, in case medical emergency warranted immediate involuntary evacuation to serve Life.

The away team was still working through socially-appropriate introductions when those aboard the Credo radioed warning -- the cubic object previously observed was in fact a land vehicle now approaching Pleasant Winds at a high rate of speed and with unknown intent. We began evacuation procedures and successfully retrieved all persons but were obliged to leave behind the ship and nearly all its contents. The ground vehicle was photographed during our launch. It is likely a robotic life form, type not recognized. Eight limbs, wheeled but also capable of jumping. Internal power mechanism, dynamic and fast -- we estimate that it traveled one-quarter of the circumference of the moon within a few hours over uneven terrain. Possibly capable of manipulating atmospheric phenomena.

The robot visibly interfaced the stranded ship; we should presume ship has been compromised or captured. No pursuit observed.

Again, please advise how to proceed.

Other than our normal transponder we observed radio silence regarding Nest. Moments ago we received a report from Goldfeather for retransmission to you. See appended.

Next Week: A Monocant Colony

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The Monocants emissary ships were already on standby for arrival in a new star system and are the first scrambled after the collision.

The insides are dressed up as temples but also function as marketplaces; anyone who wants to do sales under Yeb’s Blessing is invited to come. Because space is at a premium, most merchants are asked to bring show inventory, but do delivery outside. These temple-ships fly throughout the Worldweb, announcing a transit pattern in advance so that they can land, accept visitors for four hours, then move to the next location, singing and dancing Yeb’s praises, and -- in a local variation -- finishing services with a sip of genuine purified water for every celebrant.

The Monocants in the Temples are well-drilled in the practice of Mindfulness -- a form of worship in which devotees seek total empathy with each person they meet, to truly understand their desires and then report those desires in the form of prayers to Yeb. This is a reasonably reliable source of insights into local culture. Here in the World Web, desires are mostly material and straightforward: more space, clean water, clean air for those ranked low; more space, more power, the sudden death of hated enemies for those ranked high.

This temple-market investigation reveals an option for increasing popularity:

Asymmetric Exchange: Yeb can offer to exchange a modest amount of Ice in for an equal volume of Etro’s liquid Waste. This is a multi-level gamble that the Servants will be able to distill or purify at least some water (aka Ice) from the Waste they receive. This in turn they will be able to sell for a new batch of Waste, purify it, and repeat. If it works, the Monocants will recoup some of the Ice initially invested, gain Popularity, and have a unit or two of extremely concentrated Waste. Investing more Ice will tend to increase the odds of a good payoff,

Yeb does not have good intel on the existing concentration of Etro’s liquid Waste. Only after accepting Etro’s Waste, will the proportion recoverable as Ice become knowable. The chance that the Monocants end up with at least 1 unit of waste is 100%. The chance that the Monocants end up with at least 1 unit of water is less than 100%. Nothing further is known.

Capital Flap

Preparations for the transfer of the Capital are necessarily swift, since every minute wasted lengthens the distance between the Graves and the World Web. Much military equipment is simply hurled overboard still in crates, collected by fighters with netting and shunted into baggage trains. It is late in the Pulse before Yeb Prime and her train arrive. The way paved for Yeb’s Etro takeover.

In her wisdom the Goddess Yeb situates her personal ship in the precise center of the destruction wrought by her prior passage. She sets a toroidal ring of ice spinning around the ship at a rakish angle. It is a highly conspicuous use of space and Ice, and draws the eye away from the smattering of Star-swarms and Jat-Bats that patrol and preserve the Path of Yeb as an empty area. The portions not patrolled quickly reconnect, so that soon it is as if the web were always designed with a cylindrical cavity to house a single golden droplet. The only way to reach Yeb Herself is by a pair of passageways that take the form of a hollow double-helix -- one for entry and one for exit. These connect only to the Lower World-Web. Higher-Ups who wish to visit the Divinity must first lower themselves and pass through lower, rougher districts than they typically visit.

Yeb Herself sometimes appears directly in the homes of favored personages. These tend to be those who were previously seen as lightweights of only middling importance. Once she is seen stone-faced and weeping, carried through a slum that stinks of sulfur off-gassed from a leaky recycler. The recycler is repaired seventeen hours later -- at the cost of a local official.

The Higher Ups previously governed by a form of elite consensus that favors inertia and the status quo. Without directly challenging their power, Yeb has rendered them all but irrelevant. Her will prevails as if it were theirs. The divinity’s majesty is undeniable, her military is present, and the masses thirst for more of her purified Ice. Yeb is in equal parts loved, feared, and revered. A handful resent her, but these learn quickly to hold their tongues and accept her gifts.

Yeb gains influence through her majestic presence, resulting in revenues flowing into the Graves from Etro.

Next Week: Military Matters and a Rescue Mission

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The translation team has worked round the clock to bring Yeb reliable renditions of these notable messages. Perhaps fearing her irritation that they arrive too slow for instant responses, they append a reminder report from the communications team’s resident physicist explaining that Gate mechanics make it difficult in the extreme to communicate across Gates in real time, even when translations are not required.

These are the messages that reach the top:

Message from Academe

This is an open invitation to all historians within range. The Interstellar Information Vault of Academe is organizing the first ever Conclave of Conferences, to occur on the seventh Pulse of the New Era.

We encourage submission of papers covering your respective local histories during the long closure of the Gates, and will prioritize presentations based on those researchers able to donate the largest volume of information to the Vault. Original documents and artifacts will receive treble the weight in the competition for rank and speaking order. RSVP is required for presenters but optional for attendees who wish merely to observe and learn.

Due to campus rules we must request that attendees submit to a weapons search upon arrival. We look forward to a history-making event!

Message from Peare

Hold fast, sister. We come. Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, brief as the lightning in the colloid night, life flees. Thus in speed shall we unfold both heaven and night, racing death itself. We come. We come. Word and blood and honor, we come.

Message from Etro

Many messages have been collected within the Etro system, but this one stands out, mainly for its lack of obsequious language:

We the Most High Charity Council request the presence of the esteemed personage known as “Goddess Yeb” on Blursday next for a planning session of the Quintennial Orphans Benefit Gala. Light refreshments will be provided. Note that long-established protocol calls for this to be a principals-only occasion. Palanquin-bearers are welcome to bear and retrieve guests, but are requested to withdraw for the speaking session.

End of Translated Messages

Hail Her Holiness Yeb

The influence campaign already in Etro underway ramps up with the news that Yeb will grace the WorldWeb with her presence. Certain celebrities and on-the-rise politicians -- after receiving lucrative “blessings” -- begin speaking about the hole as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redevelop a poverty-stricken, underserved neighborhood, mentioning how really Etroverts should be thanking the mystery ship for doing such swift demolition work in an area overdue for redevelopment.

However, the real game-changer is the pure water Ice available from the Graves. Etro’s own sources of Ice are long since depleted, and recycling efforts were on the verge of failure. Giving Ice directly to the masses makes the Monocants into something like anarchist antiheroes. Oddly, the fallen Third Navigator figures in this narrative as a martyr, softening the heart of the Goddess Yeb to bring the people Ice. Blue paint in the precise shade of the Third Navigator’s plumage sells astonishingly well. Feathers suddenly feature both the new high-end fashion trends and the less-than-effective wishful folk remedies sold down in lower levels.

Yeb has gained enough popularity to begin accruing economic income from Etro, even before the Goddess incarnate formally arrives.

Transport interiors are dressed up as temples but also function as marketplaces; anyone who wants to do sales under Yeb’s Blessing is invited to come. Because space is at a premium, most merchants are asked to bring show inventory, but do delivery outside.

Yeb is presented as powerful and wise but not omniscient. She offers guidance and advancement to her worshippers, in the form of a rigid structure that leads to success. It’s a combination of Patriotic-Authoritarianism and Prosperity Gospel. Worship is social and performative; the set of ‘divine beliefs’ mostly relate to Yeb’s superiority and the benefits.

Her servant followers, the Monocants, are unstoppably happy to work in her service. The religion is tightly hierarchical, with each layer passing up at least half of its decisions to the next level, with a surprising number going up to Yeb herself; the Goddess appears to have limitless time for fine-tuning the minutiae of operations, and yet somehow it all works.

Her temple-transports are guarded by fighters from the Graves. The most common are star swarms; pint-sized fighters that come in tightly coordinated packs of six, each is armed with a single railgun. More serious threats draw one or more Jat-Bats; a catch-all-phrase for any kind of larger, singled-piloted fighters, all of which are heavily customized to their pilots’ preferences.

Before the transports left the Graves, they were packed with cheap fab materials and the contents of Yeb’s administrative offices. This is used to erect “permanent” locations in the wreckage of West Upper Midtown.

Meanwhile, the Graves blasts out messages through the open Gate.

Yeb, having decided upon The Lie, sees the messages she must send as clear. By the time she has finished drafting her text, Yeb believes it herself. After all, the Pulse restarted at the end of her journey. It must mean something, even if she does not yet know what, and her words may be false in the facts but true in the direction.

Outbound Messages:

To the People of Etro

This is the Goddess Yeb. We gods created the Firmament—what you call the Pulse Gates—and we have delighted in seeing the many ways mortals have used them. Normally, we are content to watch.

But the Firmament in this sector has failed. We could not restore it from outside. I, Yeb, was selected to leave the Empyrean and cross the void between Gates, traveling near light speed, in order to bring the Pulse back to this sector.

I restarted the Gates as my ship approached Heffa, as planned, but these Pulses are limited. I must find the cause of the Firmament’s failure, before it fails again.

My ship has been damaged colliding with your world. I mourn the loss of life from this tragic accident, amongst your people and amongst my servants, but time is short. I must ask for your help in this Holy Mission. With my scouts and sensors damaged by this great crash, I ask your assistance to rebuild and discover what broke the Pulse Gates.

My followers and I have spent centuries in the void, recycling the same as Etro has. We must have much in common. I am visiting in peace; I offer my churches as a place of faith, commerce, and knowledge. If my recycling techniques can be adapted to Etro’s benefit, I shall offer them.

Worship me, repair the Gates, and never go without Ice again.

To the Grand High Committee of Etro

Tight beamed text-only message to the highest towers, also provided by Yeb 2F. It is intended to be unidentifiable and therefore deniable.

This is the Goddess Yeb. As sophisticated men and women, I expect you to appreciate the value of an embellishing title. I will not expect your worship, but I do expect your cooperation.

I am quite impressed with what Etro has grown into, it does not match our records before the Break. But you have grown to the limits of this system’s capacity.

You should want me to succeed. Help me, and you can become the jewel of this sector. Fight me, and find your renaissance of open gates to be short lived.

To Heffa

On repeat, to get attention, and using an exact replay of the message received previously from Heffa.

Snaflax. Mmnm. Flonk. Snotblossom. Shakur.

Rescue offered. Show yourself.

Every fifteen cycles, an additional message is inserted:

This is the Goddess Yeb. My ship, the Graves, is part of the Divinity of Yeb. I am a traveler from afar, seeking to understand this sector and repair the Pulse Gates.

To Stanx

This is the Goddess Yeb. Your deceptions did not fool my faithful and they will not fool others. Your strategy is flawed. With the Gates open I am coming soon, and countless others will follow.

Disclose yourself to us and let us find a better strategy.

My mission requires gas, I intend to build an aerostat settlement in your system in order to collect it. But my people can serve as a distraction, a decoy so that visitors never approach your moon and never peer inside. But only if I know who I am dealing with.

Attached is a short description of the Divinity of Yeb, the various Servant species united in worship of Her and in Service to Life.

To Tik

This is the Goddess Yeb, broadcasting from the voidcrosser-vessel known as the Graves. Do you support freedom of commerce and worship? Do you require assistance? Please reply.

Attached is a short description of the Divinity of Yeb, the various Servant species united in worship of Her and in Service to Life.

Next Week: Hails to Her Holiness

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Y^6D: They won’t have much of a military, or what they have will be mothballed like ours. Inefficient to maintain an active military with the gates down.

Y′: And their society?

Y^6D: Oppressive.

Y′: And?

Y^6D: …

Y′: People will want a reason to not comply. We will be that reason. It will require a Great Lie, but no greater than the lie we are already telling the other Monocants. Here is what we should do:

Invest in Long Range Military Operations. Fly them to Etro to defend Our presence. Let a few fighters to treat Etro’s defenses as their home territory and do all they can peacefully to provoke an armed response. At the point that there’s any kind of Etro-induced skirmish, we will use that justification to counterattack in full to seize control. Recordings should be broadcast to civilians as justification. If a war happens, I will oversee it in person.

Relocate Capital to Etro World Web. Assuming no war, I, Yeb Prime, will go in person.

Scout/Investigate the moon of Heffa’s Gas Giant. Search for the Pleasant Winds. We would like to see it returned to House Trogondor. If time permits, also scout the gas giant itself.

Scout south of Stanx. Extra priority on the gathering of information about its neighboring regions—if travel between sectors has begun, perhaps they can link with other explorers who have news of the same. Scouts are empowered to disclose the conditions on Etro, but not Stanx.

Investigate Grave Exchanges. We must find something positive to offer new star systems as the Graves visits them. Yeb 6D, look into options on this. The Graves must have been doing similar recycling operations to Etro… can We allow a mutual technology exchange to the improvement of both? Let us look into making such technology exchanges a standard practice when the Graves visits somewhere for the first time. Such gifts would encourage settlements to welcome us.

Research Chocolate Covered Vitamins. Yum.

Next Week: The Gift of Yeb’s Blessing

Collision warning. Reduce your [message ends]

From the Grand High Committee of Etro

Attention Unknown Juggernaut Ship:

State your purpose or you will be fired upon.

We do not understand why you have destroyed the Parkside Dwellings, West Midtown, and West Upper Midtown. We know you are in there. We demand restitution.

Respond on same frequency.

Message repeats.

From Heffa (transmitted in the clear, on emergency channels)

Mayday, mayday. This is an automated message from the yacht Pleasant Winds. Engines disabled, Gate system has been nonfunctional for over 10 Pulses. Please assist. Reward offered upon return of craft and survivors to home system. (Coordinates indicate a location on a moon of Heffa’s Gas Giant)

From Heffa (transmitted in the clear, on emergency channels)

This is my last will and testament. I, Jorun Carvanian of House Trogondor, being sound of mind and body, do name as my sole heir my second daughter Jocasta Carvanian. She shall inherit my estates, titles and all their incomes. Let my death upon this moribund rock be a lesson to her on the perils of travel in pursuit of pleasure, and the need to invest in robust closed-cycle ecosystem life supports.

To my first daughter, the Lesser Duchess Jocinda Syweller-Carvanian of House Syweller, I leave the horse that slew her father, and my infinite contempt.

From Heffa (transmitted in a deep encryption, unclear if translation hash is correct)

Snaflax. Mmnm. Flonk. Snotblossom. Shakur.

Rescue required.

Additional transmissions were detected but could not be decrypted.

Next Week: Yeb Consults Yeb

Matching Drives: As a passive action, every time the Monocants enter a new star system, we will offer adjacent star systems a deal in which we split the costs of a new settlement 50-50 and share equally in the resulting resource gains. The Goddess Yeb will receive a notice when any group accepts the deal. Monocants will gain influence in any resulting settlements, in the form of a Temple to Yeb. This form of mobilization would quietly influence elites in star systems that show interest in cooperation. However, the Goddess should be clear that Her divine influence will manifest in the new settlements, not in the pre-existing communities we contact. This form of mobilization relies on Messages sent to potential partners in neighboring star systems, and will absorb half the Servants’ economic output each Pulse, always including 2 Rares. This effort will take two Pulses to organize initially, then will continue until the Goddess commands her Servants to desist.

Evangelization: The Monocants will leave behind small delegations in every star system they visit. In each of the next three Pulses, these Monocants will make a concerted effort to inspire local populations to pursue new settlements. If a new settlement occurs, they will contribute their early income to building a temple to Yeb, creating local institutional influence for the Servants. This form of mobilization would limit the Graves’ population growth within the ship, and would produce no disposable economic gains for the Servants until after Yeb’s temple is built at any new settlement. Similar to an influence campaign targeting the masses, this effort relies on the use of Ice. It will absorb half of the Servants’ economic output each Pulse. This effort will take two Pulses to organize initially, then will continue until the Goddess commands her Servants to desist.

Bento Box Settlements: The Monocants will retool the back half of the Graves to facilitate the creation of Settlement Kits for common planetary types. The equipment, initial resources and an appropriate population sample (mostly frozen with a handful of alert stewards) will be bundled together on landing craft. This will divert fully half the Graves’ economy from discretionary coffers, accumulating them in the form of stockpiled kits. When the Graves enters or scouts a new system and discovers an unoccupied niche, a new Settlement will be started. New Settlements will only occur when sufficient funds accumulate, and will never target worlds known to be populated (unless the Goddess commands the deployment of a kit in a populated area). Since this plan sends out population un-thawed, settlements will have a reduced total resource cost and a reduced population cost. This effort will absorb half of the Servants’ economic output each Pulse, including at least 2 Gas. It will take two Pulses to organize initially, then will continue until the Goddess commands her Servants to desist.

Next Week: Emergency Broadcast

Everywhere a Yeb, Yeb

The records on cloning are fairly straightforward: Yeb clones grow from start to finish over just three Pulses. Direct brain transfers have been attempted before without success. An apparently active area of research is how to affect the inherent abilities of a given Yeb. The only note that seems consistent and clear on this is “More Ore for More Stronger” written over and over in the margins of the notes.

I see a few plausible courses for future research:

Brain Transference would reduce the total cost of a refreshed Yeb by about half, and should reduce the time needed to a single Pulse, once we master the technique. I expect if we try over and over, we’ll get better at this. For now we should budget two Pulses per attempt – or one Pulse if we don’t mind risking an existing clone. Hey, sometimes we don’t.

Growth Hormones would reduce the total time it takes to grow an entirely new Yeb to 2 Pulses.

Resource Correlation to develop greater control over the abilities of a new Yeb, based on the inputs we throw at the problem.

Chocolate-Covered Vitamins would provide better nutrition and mood stability for existing Yebs.

I’m only one Yeb, so I can only pursue one of these lines of research at a time.

Hole Lotta Damage Control

The high-velocity impact has torn a Graves-shaped hole in the WorldWeb, leaving curling ends that turn fringe neighborhoods inside out. Public outrage initially focuses on the mystery juggernaut and its drivers. Yeb 2F joins the influence effort with a Follower and all the previously authorized resources.

Visions from Stanx

A report from the follower scouting Stanx comes through on a laser-line broadcast.

Radio jammed. Locals secretive and standoffish. Excellent telecoms tech. Greeted us with a terrifying visual hologram of something like a Kraken, booming on all bandwidths to turn back or feel the wrath of Vorce the Subluminal, Omniscient of Sea and Sky, Reef Upon Which Empires Shatter, End of the Mocoropoi.

Our ship was going too fast; we sailed directly into the hologram’s gaping maw and discovered it was insubstantial. Shortly afterward several electronic systems began to malfunction. Our navigator put the ship into a ballistic trajectory that wrapped around the smallish gas planet here in Stanx and put us on a course that will put us back through the Gate shortly. For now our thrusters are functional enough to remain in Stanx or travel to an adjacent system.

The interference is coming from a rocky moon orbiting the gas planet — we believe the moon is hollow but don’t have functional instrumentation to determine whether the interior is filled with air or liquid. We can confirm from its overall gravitation that it is less dense than its surface rocks.

Attempts to hail those on the surface yielded verbal warnings that trespassers would be shot and survivors shot again. We elected not to attempt a landing. We note that among other malfunctions our electronics indicate that several hundred missile targeting devices have been locked onto us continuously since 23 seconds after our arrival in-system. To our knowledge no missiles have been actually launched.

Our conclusion is that these folks do not like visitors, intend others to believe a Leviathan or major military resides here, and are -- in a word -- bluffing.

Next Week: Mobile Nation Mobilization

Under Arslan Goldfeather’s eyes, workers haul a large flock of Savs -- the majority still frozen -- and three hives of Arts into a disused gas freighter that’s been rapidly repurposed and renamed “The Nest.” No sooner has The Graves crossed into the heliopause around Heffa than the Nest parts ways with the Mothership. Retrothrusters fire immediately, solar brakes deploy and days of harsh deceleration follow.

The Nest’s trajectory was handled by the Fourth Navigator (the second and third chairs remain vacant) but nonetheless comes out precisely as calculated. After braking maneuvers that skim the surface of two planets and sweep dangerously close to the local sun, the former gas freighter splashes belly-down into the turbulent skies of Edura, plunging deep and leaving a burning wake of plasma that sets off tremendous lightning storms, calamitous thunder, and vivid green and purple aurorae. The badly shaken Monocants miss the liquid/solid core of the planet and punch out on the other side again, finally slowing enough to settle gracefully into a high-altitude position.

Nearly all have suffered broken bones and none are immediately fit for duty, but so far events have unfolded within expected parameters. The Savs expect to deploy their aerostats as planned.

Moving Fast and Breaking Things

The Graveship hits the Gate like a truckload of bricks slamming against the eye of a needle -- and yet it somehow squeezes through. For an indeterminate moment the exterior of the ship and all its ports are bathed in strange pink and white lights. And then -- then it slams back out into real space still traveling criminally fast. The Navigator screeches and furiously pecks the controls; the ship shudders and lurches.

Gate travel has slightly slowed the Graves, but it is not enough. There are objects in the flight path. What they are -- were -- is impossible to know because they are immediately annihilated as the Graves plows through them, taking punishment as it goes. Heavy bulkheads crumple. Explosions rock the forward quarter. Emergency doors snap shut to retain atmosphere. Only the incredible mass of the Graves saves those within.

The fringes of the Etro WorldWeb extend further than expected, and despite desperate firing of thrusters by the Navigator, the Graveship slices through these like a billiard cue through cobwebs. The Graves packs such a punch that smallish habitats flash instantly into hot plasma, their tethers shattered rather than torn. The Graves blazes past (and through) the WorldWeb in the blink of an eye, trailing liquid metal threads crazily down its hull like tortured superstring theories.

The WorldWeb wobbles. It is driven into a quicker spin and lengthened elliptical orbit. A Graves-shaped area is replaced with a Graves-shaped hole so quickly that on most security cameras it occurs between frames. The pulverized, vaporized, atomized and ionized former residents of the new hole feel nothing -- their transition into nonexistence is too swift. The rest feel the sharp shockwave of the initial impact, followed by intermittent nauseating vibrations as the effects ripple and resonate through the interconnected web.

The Third Navigator has a heart attack and dies in her chair. The Fourth Navigator, a vivid blue Sav, is now the most senior. He nervously checks and re-checks his work before reporting that the Graves is traveling just below escape velocity relative to the Etro system. On its current course it will travel outward for a pulse and a half, then fall back toward the star, returning the approximate location of the Gate three Pulses from now. Continuing on this course will put the Graves in Stanx on Pulse 5. Departing sooner would require Gas expenditure beyond the current budget.

Next Week: Here a Yeb, There a Yeb

We can do this. The Galaxy is big. Our existence cannot be unique. We will spread out, find Life, and continue our Service.

In the meantime, we must Serve here. In the Graveship.

Let us build capability as quickly as possible. For the great purpose of hastening Our growth, I shall direct the economy personally.

Let us keep as low a profile as any cityship so large as the Graveship can. Whereever we go, let Our steady, quiet efforts ensure Our strength is seen as a boon, not a threat.

It is my Will that Our colonies shall seem independent and Our followers few. We want to allow Ourselves to be quietly overtaken, which means We cannot be seen a threat.

We intend to keep the Graves moving, to seek the SunEater, and in time find Our way back to Our homeworld and see what has become of it.

We must prepare Ourselves as though worse has come to worst. It may be that the SunEater abandoned Us and doubled back to visit and consume Our home star. Let each Servant proceed in earnest, as though this Our Vessel, the Graveship, carries the only remaining Servants in all the known Galaxy.

Such is my Will. Such is Life. Such is Service.

The Goddess’s Sermon is followed by closed-door meetings with Yeb’s seven closest Servants. These are the minutes from the meeting.

Those Gates won’t wait for Our discussions. As soon as you hear your assignment, move out.

Scout Stanx

Send out a scouting flock of Savs to see if the Stanx system is safe. Use discretion to investigate any additional information in the system. We would be most pleased by information on Levitation Activity.

Proceed to Stanx via Etro.

We lack Gas. Should we stop, we could not start again. Therefore, onward to Etro and beyond.

We do not wish to shoot re-enter the void between stars. Therefore, We Servants must master the art of unstable orbits that circle around a system’s star. Let us hit the Gate after a known and certain period.

Instruct Our Third Navigator to plot a course that will enter the Gate, circle Etro for a pulse, and then do the same in Stanx.

I would be most pleased if Our Third Navigator could devise means and methods for Gas-less braking over time via Gates or gravity wells.

Should Our Third Navigator deem such tasks entirely impossible, I would be pleased to meet Our Fourth Navigator.

Colonize the Gas Giant

We cannot linger, but let us grow where we are planted. Deploy a settlement made from a constellation of Aerostats. Let the population be a flock of Savs, whose wings will be of great use. Arslan Goldfeather and his Goldfeather flock shall lead them. Let him choose a small number, those he trusts greatly. Beyond these few, let the colonists be only those currently frozen.

Let a story be given out that their time on the planet is long, accidental, and only recently allowed for revivals of their frozen kin and ancestors. Keep the truth as a secret within secrets, as the colony grows. Let their loyalty to the Goddess run strong but silent.

National Mobilization, Cosmic Planter: The Graves may be a corpseship, but it should give new life. Plan a mobilization to spend most of Our resources creating settlements in the wake of the Graves. We envision a trail of civilization blooming in the cityship’s wake. This will be very expensive, so it calls for a mobilization. Aim to throw fully half our resources into this mission each Pulse.

Orient around building small settlements in systems the Graves passes through. Drop a new colony whenever the effort has a ready match for the local star system. Sacrifice precise control over where the settlements go if it results in more Monocants being out there in the worlds.

Meditation

I* will make certain arrangements in government and the economy.

*Meaning me, Yeb Prime. I hereby assign Yeb 6D to the Artifice Office, and Yeb 2F to directly lead our efforts influencing Etro.

Influence in Etro

We must win the hearts of such Life as we find in Etro. I shall dedicate my own attention** to this task. I shall spend from Our stores of Ice, giving to the impoverished, and recruiting missionaries among them. I shall spend from our stores of Rares to secure loyalty from elites.

**Yeb 2F, this means you.

Science Mission

I*** must conduct a cleansing ritual in the holy laboratory.

***Yeb 6D, this is you. The mission is to replace our fallen sister Yeb 3B with an equal or upgraded Yeb 3C clone. At a minimum we need a cost estimate. I’m always interested in ways to speed up cloning, recycle clone bodies, or generally improve the quality or quantity of clones we can crank out for a given investment of time and resources. Go nuts.

Next Week: Moving Fast and Breaking Things

The (formerly Third) Chief Navigator remains face-down while presenting four options to the Goddess, noting that the Graves is currently traveling at a low but nonetheless appreciable fraction of lightspeed. The Graves’ present ballistic trajectory will intersect the YebGate during the correct window for its operation. If selected now, the adjustments in trajectory necessary to select any of the YebGate’s destinations are so minor they can be made at a negligible cost. Karfoon, Tik, or Etro could be reached on the next Pulse.

A second option is to expend all remaining 10 Gas to reduce velocity sufficiently to remain in orbit around Heffa or any of the planets in her orbit. If selecting this option, the Graves will be obliged to refuel before resuming powered travel of any kind. Deepest apologies mistress, that we are unable to alter the rules of physics that so constrain our motion. If it is so desired, the Navigator will attempt to calculate ballistic trajectories that yield unstable orbits intersecting at later dates with the YebGate. However any error by the humble navigator would not only inflict eternal humiliation upon herself, but also death upon all mortal souls contained within the Graves. This outcome would deprive the immortal Yeb of her have-we-mentioned-how-humble devotees.

A Choice of Advisor

Initial tests show Yeb 6D’s general knowledge and language centers are functioning appropriately. Due to… recent events, the Economic and Artifice offices are operational but vacant. Yeb 6D can start immediately in either office.

Speaking of Recent Events

Yeb 3B’s postmortem confirms initial diagnosis of delusional parasitosis including tactile hallucination of formosis. Biological remains deemed safe; reclaimed for reuse.

Accelerate Awakenings

Ninety-seven percent of the passenger manifest remains in stasis. The resuscitation protocols are inefficient and poorly prioritized. Direct attention from an advisor-level Yeb would make the system an estimated five to ten percent more efficient, resulting in faster population growth. This research requires an economic advisor to proceed. It was Yeb 3B’s stated top priority before she began… scratching.

Get a Life, Maybe

Among the Gon word passes from hand to hand that life-signs have been detected in the readings from the local gas giant. The exact data behind these rumors is reported as “classified” a gesture in this case made with the third hand to indicate a questionable/unattributed source. Yeb has no specific basis to say whether or not there is life within the Heffa system, yet what kind of Servant could pass by without investigating?

Next Week: Divine Writing

A cacophony awakes all Servants not cryogenically sedated. Open Gate, Open Gate, Open Gate detected! The navigation instrumentation registers the unmistakable signal of a PulseGate opening in the star system dead ahead.

The Goddess Yeb declares a national holiday. Pre-recorded choirs sing hallelujah through the public announcement system. And yet, everyone’s knuckles are white.

The star system ahead remains unknown. The Servants have crossed time and space seeking the answers ahead: Were all Gates closed, or only their own? Has the Galaxy been trucking along without them? Is there anyone out there still living, at all? And most important of all, Will the Goddess Yeb be pleased or angered by what we find?

Scouting Report

Though half-blind, our sensors indicate the local star system hosts four features of interest:

1. A gas giant with at least two minor moons

2. An ice planet, distant from the sun and genuinely frozen.

3. A dispersed asteroid belt between the two notable planets.

4. An active pulse gate

Accounting for multiple centuries of stellar drift, we have reason to believe this system was once known as Heffa, after its star. The instrument readings obtained during the most recent (and only) Pulse do indicate a variance from the expected readings from the old map of the Heffa PulseGate.

Our navigation techs initially indicated that even if the initial “likely” match of Heffa proves to be incorrect, empirical observations would enable a confirmed match after two to seven uses of unique PulseGates.

The more they are pressed for certainty, the more this number seems to vary. After the sudden death of the First Chief Navigator, the Second Chief Navigator estimated it may take as many as nineteen unique PulseGate trips. The current (formerly Third) Chief Navigator refuses to raise her face from the deckplating in the presence of Yeb.

Until such time as we can reconcile navigation, we must treat our map as a relic which may or may not prove fully accurate. Here it is:

• Junxn 4 is a trading hub connecting to four other systems. It is home to a large, hot, wet world. It is best known for its mix of luxury orbital stations and seedy salvage yards.

• Karfoon is a cool, small star distantly orbited by three small worlds each with a handful of moons. All are encased in water ice of notable purity, the overall star system apparently having formed out of mostly out of hydrogen and oxygen. This system is marked hostile, notations unclear why.

• Fernia is a star system with mixed planets -- two modest-sized gas giants, one hot dry rock close to the local star, and one lush jungle planet notable enough to give the system its name. The planet Fernia within the Fernia system is designated in the records as a protected park under ecological observation. By whom it is observed goes unstated.

• Heffa is listed as a a star system with one icy plannet, one gas giant, and a relatively young yellow sun. It is not the original intended destination of the Graves, but has a similar profile the type deemed delicious by the SunEater.

• Mocoropoi is a system mostly consumed by its star, which has entered the Red Giant phase. Out of eight original planets, only one modest rocky planet remains. Notable as the birthplace of the Mocoropoi Empire.

• Tik is listed with two planets and one sun and most information redacted in favor of a note in an archaic alphanumeric system: “Tikoponosoromofogogocholoposomovokonotokolopopofoyohososoloblofomototowofogotofoloposodomofonoroshoyopoxoxoshozoropofobonopromodojohojoyolofogogomocoropoi!!!” A team of three scholarly Savs and six massive-dictionary-wielding Gons eventually offers two suggested translations “A Bio-Mekanikalle Researche Statione Under thee Permanente Protection of thee Eternale Mocoropoi Empire.” Alternate translation: “A slightly inaccurate calculation of pi, performed in base three.”

• Etro is listed as a densely-populated urban world-web originally consisting of two rocky planets, four moons and the remains of one gas giant

• Stanx is listed as a a star system with one icy plannet, one gas giant, and a relatively young yellow sun. It is not the original intended destination of the Graves, but has a similar profile to those deemed desirable by the SunEater. Note: The entry appears to be copy-pasted from the Heffa entry, and contains identical typographic errors.

• Academe is listed as a rugged, barbarian system. It contains four rocky worlds. Only one is inhabited. It consists mostly of ruined libraries and warring factions.

The unlabeled zone represents an anomaly in the readings from the observed Pulse. If accurate it would represent an unknown Gate that is certainly connected to Tik, possibly connected to Etro and Academe. It definitely includes at least some icy bodies. The readings are consistent with a Gate opening onto a large number of cometary bodies accompanied by a dim white star.

Next Week: Whither shall we wander?

Sources of Resources

For resource purposes, the Graves are something like a small moon. The lack of records means that locating or creating resources requires searching through store-rooms or cannibalizing parts of the ship, a process not dissimilar to prospecting and mining, though it may produce a lumpy income as store-rooms full of a particular resource are discovered and emptied. Servants are not presently able to estimate when resources available aboard ship will run out. It is known that changing the ship’s speed and direction requires truly vast amounts of Gas, which cannot be reclaimed after expenditure.

Other resources like Ice, Ore, or Rares, can only be accessed as quickly as the Servants can work. The logistics of expanding the Servant workforce without overloading the Graves’ delicately balanced life support (which needs more workers each time demands on it increase) mean that it’s reasonable to conceive of the ship’s residents as mining the ship -- even when this physically may only mean a long journey to the correct storeroom and back. There’s certainly room to improve economic outputs by focusing on particular resources or population growth.

Military Might

Records state that we Monocants embarked on this voyage with a formidable military, including many scout ships, light fighters and cargo craft suitable for delivering personnel, supplies or armaments to space or planetary surfaces. Plans called for using Living Rock to construct carriers for these small craft, once a PulseGate was located.

Currently, we can send scouts through the PulseGate or can send the entirety of the Graves through the PulseGate. We cannot send a detached Fleet through a gate – the finicky physics of the PulseGates require sending ships in physically unified blocs, and we have no suitable carrier. With its currently active fighter swarm and passive defenses, the Monocant military can confidently defeat a basic Fleet and could conduct a (certainly suicidal) rear-guard action against a large Fleet for long enough to ensure the Graves reached and passed through a PulseGate. Monocant combat would currently rely on the Graves itself as a forward operating base. The Graves itself has limited fuel. If placed in an orbital path it would necessarily so remain until new Gas reserves could be obtained.

Reports from three Jats currently in contention to lead future military operations uniformly recommend allocating additional resources toward raising and improving Fleets, though there are variations among the recommended upgrade priorities, with some focusing on personnel, some on ships, and some on scouting and intelligence-gathering capabilities.

Diplomacy Adrift

The Monocants have no current diplomatic relations outside the Graves. Previously, the Monocants served the ineffable will of the Leviathan known as the Suneater. The Suneater is missing in action. Initial inquiries into the whereabouts of the Suneater did not produce straight answers. The Monocant military has deployed a small number of stealthy scout ships toward the nearest sun.

Stone Cold Trail

Missing from records in the past seventy years is a fifth (sixth?) major race in the Monocant culture. The Silicoids were a race of living stone created (powered?) by the Suneater, traveling in company with the Graveship. Silicoids are something between a life form and self-replicating computer. They were space rocks that have lattices of complex silicon structures woven throughout them, though the vast majority of a Silicoid’s “body” remains simple rock. Silicoids are as observant and durable as you’d expect an asteroid to be, but they are ponderously slow compared to carbon life. Many Monocants have been interrogated by Yeb, but all that can be determined is that the Silicoids are not inside the Graveship. They were always outside the Graveship. The question is: where?

Next week: Land Ho! A Scouting Report

Do not speak until you understand our situation.

The Graves is a century ship sent across the vast gap between stars to investigate the sudden closure of the great PulseGates that once connected distant points across the galaxy.

We wandered and are lost. I have taken control, declared myself a goddess, and I — that is, we — perpetuate the illusion of immortality using the cloning equipment in the science lab.

The cloning process is imperfect, or perhaps our own biology is at fault. We continue to experiment with the formula to cultivate certain strengths in our genetic predispositions, but understand this: every Yeb is a ticking time bomb. The madness comes or all of us, some sooner and some later. When you see the signs in an elder clone, you must dispatch her at your next opportunity, and hide it from the Servants.

Our records are limited and secret, but it seems the original elder tyrant Yeb was a mad scientist and decadent hedonist who joined in the Graves’ mission principally because it was clearly the only way to leave the Monocant star system once the PulseGates closed.

There is a gap in the Graveship’s records – anything older than 70 years is spotty at best, requiring forensic excavation and fact-checking.

Among the public written records, Yeb is known as a brilliant scientist, among the last of a long-lived race. She transitioned her research into cloning when she saw signs of a global decline of the Monocants. During the prior era of Open Gates, Yeb had planned to exploit endless Monocant compliance to funnel endless funding into secretive cloning research focused purely on her own biology. When the local Gate permanently closed, Yeb found herself cut off from the wider universe. We aren’t actually certain whether some progenitor Yeb remained behind on our departure planet. I like to imagine dozens of us back there ruling with the passion and fury of capricious gods, indulging in acts of great consumption that the local Monocants are happy to supply. Here on the Graves, things are a little different.

Our current Yeb Prime was young when the PulseGates closed. She is the only person in the Graves with any first-hand experiences of its operations. Her organic memory of those long-ago days is sketchy, and must be supplemented by searches through her own voluminous, poorly-indexed partially-falsified notes.

This much I’ve pieced together: Some original Yeb Prime accepted the Monocant Creed and took it upon herself to fill the role of iron-willed outsider. She recognized the Monocant lack of initiative and feared their lack of leadership would be fatal to their society with prolonged Gate closure. She transformed herself into an icon that could inspire Monocants to action. We clones survive by serving Yeb Prime, and she in turn survives by serving Life. Still, rulership is relatively fragile – the current Yeb Prime took over the role from an elder one.

None of Yeb’s imperfect and inexperienced clones (we Yebis) can truly match our maker. Generally each Yebi’s rulership periods start with analytical paralysis, progresses through a strong period of focused improvements, and finally crashes in a period of megalomaniac-behavior. Yebis are quietly substituted out on a regular basis. When my time comes, I only ask that you make it sudden, unexpected, and decisive.

Yeb 6D Upgrades Pending

Experiments in preprogramming genius-level brilliance had unacceptably high failure rates, resulting in the current imprint yielding above average general intelligence. You will receive instructions shortly regarding your exact role within the Yeb hierarchy. Batch notes on you, Yeb 6D, show that we aimed for book-smarts, at a cost to leadership and well, cunning.

Next week: How Resourceful Are We?

The Monocants have been traveling in The Graveship for over a century on a mission designed as part of a pact with an entity known as the Suneater.

The Suneater is an enigmatic extradimensional entity who delights in the exotic particles created by unusual stellar activity. It can extend into this dimension during supernovas and remains after, a hungry presence eager to see stars collapse. It has the ability to finely modify matter on a molecular level and is willing to “exchange” with sentient beings who are willing to create supernovas and more Suneater incursions. The Suneater’s protrusion into this dimension can give quantities of exotic matter directly, or give extradimensional abnormalities which create exotic matter. The Suneater is also… missing.

For Your Awareness

Below please find a copy of the standard briefing provided to cryo-frozen Monocants upon waking. Please take particular note of the mythos created around the Goddess and Her Laboratory. It is in our mutual interests to preserve belief in her Godhood by all following the same lore.

Oh Good, You Are Awake

You are a Monocant, my friend, or if you prefer, a Servant of Life. We sail together from one star to another on an important mission. Please, ingest this background briefing while your neurons or their equivalents regain their normal function. It is not unusual to experience short-term difficulties with your memory when emerging from cryonic sleep. There is no need to feel panic or embarrassment. Recovery rates exceed ninety-two percent, and we think another six percent are simply taking the opportunity to make a clean break from a past they prefer not to revisit. In any case, you are among friends.

Drink your nutrient blend, and relax into your briefing.

The Monocants/Servants

The Monocants believe in the Oneness of Life and the primacy of Service. They’re dedicated to supporting sentient life in all its expressions, particularly non-Monocants. As a result they’re sometimes called the Servants.

In this multi-species caste society, Servants choose a profession-caste early in life, often but not always genetically determined. Monocant settlements or enclaves typically organize around a foreign leader or species that sets the goals and direction. A delegated-leadership caste manages internal affairs, accomplishing communal tasks not just through taxation, but a robust corvée system that requires all residents to put in irregular public service.

Several “mainstay” Monocant races represent the bulk of their society, but the main criteria for assimilation is a commitment to service, enforced by meditative therapy, post-puberty chemical alteration or electronic minder implants, or even genetic modification in the case of mainstay races. This is a society of chosen family, open to many species.

Ships and colonies heavily prefer organic technology; as the bodies and minds of Servants age, it’s common to extract the head or brain and transfer them into a device so that useful Service can continue even after they’re too feeble to live independently. They’ve adapted tech from converts, and their fleets are a medley of ships inherited and adapted from foreigners. Our Fleet Carrier, the Graves, is larger than any known Monocant Fleet.

We People

Over 80% of the Graves sentient population consists of three mainstay races of equal intelligence. One additional race -- the Arts -- are kept as pets with considerable but limited intelligence.

Savs are small flock avians, and favor space-born castes. They are about one-tenth as massive as Yeb the Goddess. If invited, they could easily perch upon her shoulder and whisper into her auditory spots. Savs make excellent pilots and prosper in null-G environs, but have a noted weakness. They become rapidly depressed and suicidal if traveling in company with less than two other Savs; as a rule Yeb will send at least five (their lifespans are not long, so it’s best not to assume they’ll all return). Their beaks are not well-formed for spoken words, though they are fully trilingual. Expect a Sav to punctuate their chirps with single words of Common and two-limbed gestures in the Gon vernacular. Some uniquely avian concepts translate poorly into Common, but Yeb is fluent enough to grasp the gist of Sav songs.

Gons are large pack ruminants, with four arms and four legs, and favor physical-focused castes. These carry Yeb the Goddess in her palanquin, and do most of the physical labor needed to keep the Graves operating. They are quite intelligent, and use an elaborate sign language that can be spoken adequately with any pair of limbs but is most eloquent and nuanced when using at least four. They hear nothing, so Yeb may speak freely in their presence. She is conversant in both the two and the four-limbed variants of their speech, but reserves the four-limbed style for formal occasions. To do otherwise would spoil them.

Jats are bipedal, humanoid cat-like pack predators and favor military, engineering, and science castes. The last race to convert, an event which ushered in the Great Peace the Dark Ages before the Glorious Ascendance. Jats evolved as formidable predators, with sharp, pointy ears, sharp teeth and claws suitable for slashing. Their vertically-slit eyes are much like Yeb’s, their fur and short tails are not. Jats work well in teams that surround a problem and pounce on it, fearless of their own safety in service of the pack Life. They form a large portion of the Graves’ defensive and offensive capabilities, and are represented in nearly all the research and engineering teams. With their integration into Monocant culture still genetically recent and intentionally tuned for military purposes, individual Jats sometimes require chemical or neural rebalancing.

Arts are hive insects who manage drudgery tasks in Monocant colonies, the intelligence of queens is moderate. She may have difficulty with abstraction, but can pursue long-range goals if they are explained or can be reasoned out in concrete terms. Drones are playful, and take joy in completing repetitive tasks, but sometimes experience rapid shifts in mood. They can take verbal instructions in the Common tongue, but have difficulty reasoning things out for themselves and find delayed gratification all but impossible. They are fuzzy, affectionate, and enjoy sweet treats. Yeb Prime prefers the purple ones with white chevron markings, but they come in many colors.

Roughly one out of every eighty-seven Arts is male, and the male Arts carry retractable hypodermic stingers as long as their own thoraxes. Effects of an Arts sting vary widely by species; they are death to a Sav, a local anaesthetic to a Jat, and produce something like a hangover headache for a Gon. Yeb, of course, has never been stung. A drone Art is only slightly smaller than a Sav, while a queen Art is twice as large.

The Goddess Yeb is a unique Monocant, a bipedal lizard with an exotically colored frill-neck and a whip-like tail. The Goddess is odorless, multilingual with a tremendous vocal range. She is immortal.

Yeb prefers to travel by auto-palanquin when she must visit worlds outside the Graves. She is carried on a palanquin when inside. She lives in the science lab complex, which is the only portion of the Graves kept clean and holy enough to receive her blessed foot directly on the deckplates.

From time to time, the Goddess Yeb becomes quite wroth, even to the point of smiting her assistants. Fear not, for this season passes like all others, often being followed by a few days of self-exile for meditation. Yeb the Goddess returns in perfect health, and offers forgiveness to all who confess their recent transgressions in the form of a succinct written briefing.

The Gift of Tongues

As a society organized around a creed rather than a species, the Monocants have historically attracted individuals and groups from many diverse societies, with the result that the Graves is well-stocked with dictionaries matching thousands of alien languages. It is likely that when encountering new species, the Monocants will be able to establish communications.

The Ship Whisperers

Nothing about the Monocant fleet is standardized. Many different models of small ships and former freighters have been mothballed in the Graves’ storage decks for a century. Often mechanics end up dismantling three ships to reassemble as two working ones. The Monocants have inherited an exceptional number of user manuals for many different types of ships and engines and pride themselves on being able to repair anything that flies. Presented with an alien ship, Monocant mechanics can often (but not always) determine how to fix it, make it blow up, or make it interoperable with existing Monocant infrastructure.

Next Week: Confessions of a Goddess

Deep in the bowels of the Graveship, Yeb wakes. She feels disoriented, raw. Her eyes open and focus on a greenish pane of glass above her. Printed on it is a character. Six. It means Six. Why does it mean Six?

Information shudders through her as carefully cultivated synapses interact with a one-shot electric stimulus. This is the part where I sometimes die, she thinks. Why does she think that?

Suddenly she knows. And this is what she knows:

Prepared Imprint Stamped on Yeb 6D

You are a Monocant. You serve Life. All Monocants serve life. Monocant is a creed, not a species. You are one of many diverse Monocants traveling aboard an immense, multi-compartmented ship known as the Graves.

Your name is Yeb. My name is Yeb. I am a goddess and you are my clone. Between us Yebs you will be known as Yeb 6D, but all others should know you only as Yeb, the goddess.

We have our work cut out for us. The Graves have gone cold. Too cold. It means we are alone in space. When our PulseGate closed, the Graves were made and launched at the next nearest star. We volunteered to ride in stasis so that we could continue serving the SunEater. We set sail with the SunEater itself powering the ship. A fleet of living stones served as our vanguard and carried freight for use along the journey. They said the SunEater would drive us forth at a high fraction of lightspeed. They said those who remained awake would perceive the journey as five standard years. Wrong.

We slept long. Too long. The SunEater is missing. We cannot detect it. The few living stones that remain with us have fused to the hull, inert, perhaps dead. They coat the Graves like a cocoon, hampering our sensors.

We wake now because after centuries of travel -- centuries -- we come to the edge of a new star system. Like a candle against a glacier, its trickle of photons and solar wind began our long thaw. The Servants woke first, or perhaps they never slept. They hold by the old faith, their oath to serve Life. But it became clear to me within hours of waking that without the SunEater, we are lost and rudderless. Our people have forgotten what it means to make decisions of our own, to chart our own course, to reason out how best we may serve Life.

It falls therefore to me. To us.

I have claimed Godhood. I use my lab and all my skill to create you, my clones, and present to our people a facsimile of omniscience, omnipresence, and a benevolent omnipotence exercised with judicious restraint and occasional smiting.

The important thing here is that only you and I and I and I and I and I know that more than a single Yeb exists. This secret must be guarded to serve Life by preserving our status as a Goddess, even if this means the occasional end to a specific, lower-case life.

Next Week: The Graves