[[Itari here: Yes.]] For once the Jelly had said something expected.
Kira wanted to continue that line of questioning, but Hawes had other ideas. “Ask it about the Soft Blade,” he said. “Where does it come from?”
The nearscent of the Jelly thickened, grew sharper, and conflicted colors rolled across its skin. [[Itari here: You ask for secrets we do not share.]]
[[Kira here: I am a secret.]] She gestured at herself, at the Soft Blade. [[And the Corrupted are chasing us. Tell me.]]
The Jelly rolled and twisted its tentacles, one around another. [[Itari here: Many cycles ago, we discovered the works of the Vanished. It was their makings that allowed us to swim through space, both slower and faster than light. Their makings that gave us weapons to fight.]]
[[Kira here: You found these … makings on your homeworld?]]
Nearscent of confirmation. [[Itari here: Deep on the Abyssal Plain. Later, we found more remnants of the Vanished floating around a star counterspin to our homeworld. Among those findings were the Idealis, including the one you now are bonded with. It was that which began the war that led to the Sundering.]]
How much of their technology did the Jellies actually invent? she wondered. [[Kira here: Who are the Vanished? Are they Wranaui?]]
[[Itari here: No. They swam long before us, and we do not know where they went or what happened to them. If not for them, we would not be what we are, so we give praise to the Vanished and their makings.]]
[[Kira here: But their makings led to war.]]
[[Itari here: We cannot blame the Vanished for our own failings.]]
Hawes made notes while Kira translated. He said, “So it’s confirmed: there were or are at least two other advanced civilizations in this area of the galaxy. Great.”
“Sentient life isn’t as rare as we thought,” said Kira.
“That’s not exactly a good thing if we’re at the bottom of the pecking order. Ask if any of the Vanished are still around.”
The response was quick and definitive: [[Itari here: None that we know of, but always we hope.… Tell me, Idealis, how many makings of the Vanished have you found?]] The bite of avid desire flavored the alien’s words. [[There must have been a great number in your system for you to spread so quickly.]]
Kira frowned and again checked with Hawes. “They seem to think—”
“Yeah.”
“Should I mention the Great Beacon?”
The lieutenant thought for a second. “Okay. But don’t give away its location.”
With some trepidation, she said, [[Kira here: We have found one of the Vanished’s makings. I think. We found … a large hole that emits lowsound farscent at regular intervals.]]
A burst of reddish satisfaction spread across the Jelly’s skin. [[Itari here: You speak of a Whirlpool! One as yet unknown to us, for we keep close watch on all makings of the Vanished.]]
[[Kira here: Are there more Whirlpools?]]
[[Itari here: Six that we know of.]]
[[Kira here: What purpose do they serve?]]
[[Itari here: Only the Vanished could say.… But, I do not understand. Our scouts have not scented a Whirlpool in any of your systems.]]
She cocked her head. [[Kira here: That is because it is not in one of our main systems, and because we only found it a few cycles ago. The Vanished’s makings have not helped us learn how to fight or swim through space.]]
Itari went a dull grey, and its tentacles knotted in on themselves, as if it were rubbing its hands together—hands with fingers that were far too long and flexible. The alien seemed unreasonably perturbed. Even its scent changed, growing bitter and almondy. (Was that arsenic she was smelling?)
“Navárez?” said Hawes. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”
As Kira opened her mouth, the Jelly said, [[Itari here: You lie, Idealis.]]
[[Kira here: I do not.]] And she impressed the nearscent of sincerity upon her words.
The Jelly’s agitation increased. [[Itari here: The Vanished are the source of all wisdom, Idealis.]]
[[Kira here: Wisdom can come from within as well as without. Everything my kind has done, we have done on our own, without help from Vanished, Wranaui, Idealis, or any other form or kind.]]
With a wet, sticky stound, Itari let go of the deck with its suckers and started to push itself around the airlock, as if it were swimming in circles. It was, Kira thought, the Jellies’ version of pacing. Out of the corner of her mouth, she said, “The idea that we invented all our technology ourselves seems to be a bit disturbing to our friend here.”
Hawes smirked. “Score one for humanity, eh?”
The Jelly stopped and turned its tentacles toward Kira, pointing them at her as if they had eyes on the tips. [[Itari here: Now I understand.]]
[[Kira here: Understand what?]]
[[Itari here: Why it has been the plan—since first we scented your kind after the end of the Sundering—to destroy your conclaves once we reached a ripple of appropriate strength.]]
A splinter of unease burrowed into Kira. She resisted the urge to fidget in response. [[Kira here: Have you changed your mind? Do you agree with that plan?]]
The scent equivalent of a shrug. [[Itari here: Were it not for the Corrupted, yes. But circumstances are not what they were or will be.]]
“Did it really say that?” asked Hawes. “Really?”
Bemused, but not in a pleasant way, Kira said, “It doesn’t seem worried about how we might react.”
The lieutenant scrubbed his fingers through his short-cropped hair. “So … what? The Jellies think xenocide is normal? Is that it?” He was very young, Kira suddenly thought. No STEM shots for him. He couldn’t have been older than his midtwenties. Still just a kid despite all the responsibility the military had given him.
“Could be,” she said.
He gave her a worried look. “How is peace ever going to work then? Long term, that is.”
“I don’t know.… Let me ask a few more questions.”
He gestured toward Itari. “Go for it.”
Returning her attention to the Jelly, she said: [[Kira here: Tell us of the Sundering. What was it exactly?]]
[[Itari here: The greatest struggle of our kind. Arm fought against Arm in an attempt to control the makings of the Vanished. In the end, the makings nearly destroyed us. Entire planets were left uninhabitable, and it took us many cycles to rebuild and regain our strength.]]
“Say,” Hawes remarked, “do you think the Sundering explains why we haven’t seen any signals from the Jellies over the past hundred years? If they got knocked back and had to rebuild their tech, the light might not have had time to reach us.”
“Could be,” Kira said.
“Mmm. The brass back home are going to love this.”
Now they were coming to the crux of the matter. [[Kira here: Much of the destruction during the Sundering was caused by Corrupted, yes?]]
Again, nearscent of confirmation. [[Itari here: It was they that brought about the greatest calamities of the war. They that marked the darkest days of the conflict. And they that woke one of the beings you call the Seeker from its sleep.]]
[[Kira here: And how were the Corrupted stopped?]]
[[Itari here: Few records survived from the Sundering, so we do not know exactly how. But we know this much: the colony where the Corrupted first emerged was blasted out of existence by an impact from above. The seabed is cracked, and all forms of life on the planet are now gone. Some of the Corrupted swam into space, and those spread much as they are now spreading, and it was only with many resources and great effort that we killed them.]]