Bravo nods and steps forward.
"I'll try the universal introduction."
He points at himself.
"Bravo."
Then he points at the native who spoke first.
Krizen nods slowly towards SET, not wishing to use fast movements. He takes a small step forward and gestures to himself. "Krizen"
The leader puts it's bottom two arms on it's compatriots and says, "Karang," before motioning to itself and saying, "Hlaush."
It speaks again and Soundbyte's translation device spits out, "Metal beings, who ride inside a metal beast. The old mind speaks of this. Tells of the hubris of the strangers. The strangers are long dead. Who are you?"
Soundbyte repeats the translation for his companions to hear, but does so at a lower volume to not be mistaken for speech towards the natives. He does the same in reverse once prompted.
"Thanks, Soundbyte."
He addresses Karang and Hlaush.
"We are explorers from other worlds. We mean you and your people no harm, and we thank you for saving us from that beast."
Krizen adds to Bravo's comment, conveying some of the reason for their mission here.
"We come to find another like us, who in their own hubris risk damaging this world. We hope to find and stop them."
If Karang was a plural and Hlaush was singular, the S.E.T. wasn’t certain if these were titles, names or a mix of the two. But “old minds” suggested some passed down wisdom, and that suggested some knowledge of the Unity artifact they were seeking. Still, the organics were doing a better job of finding things to say than the security technician, so it remained silent and observed, watching for signs of a change in mood that suggested it’s crew might be attacked.
"The strangers have been dead and gone for almost longer than can be remembered."
Hlaush is quiet for a moment before saying frankly, "We hunt the iyuthu to feed our young. Saving you was not the intent. You say you wish to find another like you? If it is remains of the strangers you seek, the old mind would know more."
"Ah! Then they do have cocktail sauce," S.E.T. deduces when they say the beast was being hunted. "Bravo, you're in luck! You can eat dead crustacean with them..."
Turning back to the 'aliens', S.E.T. says more somberly, "...that is, if we were invited. If you need the food for your young, we certainly would not take it from you..." It 'blinked', then added, "This 'old mind' you speak of... would it be possible to meet it?"
Bravo rolls his eyes at S.E.T.'s attempt at a joke, but then turns back to Hlaush and Karang.
"Even if it wasn't your intent, we are still grateful for your aid. Would you like to continue this discussion someplace safer than out in the open like this? We wouldn't want scavengers coming after your iyuthu while we talk."
Then he waits for Soundbyte to make the translation, and hopefully make it sound more tactful than their "Captain's" way of putting it.
"Other beasts know to avoid the Karang. If you can follow us back to Hlaashyaal, we may talk there."
"Thank you. Please, lead the way."
Soundbyte struggled to confidently clip and replay their vocal patterns when voicing for himself, but he tried his best to manage. "Wish to find another like /Ourselves." His translation software twinged slightly at being fed differing audio tracks, but it started to adapt after a moment.
"Please, lead the way /The Old Mind. /You go, we follow."
Bravo lets Soundbyte take the lead as they're steered after the native vessel.
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Bravo rolls his eyes at S.E.T.'s attempt at a joke, but then turns back to Hlaush and Karang.
The S.E.T. listens to the back and forth, and seems content with this outcome, saying nothing else but offering a chipper wave to the 'Hlaush' and 'Karang'. It tries to quickly assess the damage to the STEVE and whether it needs to be repaired before getting underway again.
Krizen notes SET's attention and comes over to provide any assistance he can "Anything we need to do to get moving? I don't think the natives want to hang around too long, and I'd hate to leave the STEVE's poles unmanned. Figuratively speaking."
Working together, S.E.T. and Krizen are able to patch up the worst of the damage.
Hlaush and their comrades kneel down and Hlaush knocks against the skiff, and the vehicle submerges.
STEVE follows along, and the full profile of the vehicle becomes clear. It's made mostly of coral, with large green tendrils that propel it through the water. The humanoids crouch on the flat surface on its back.
The party passes by large schools of fish, one of them being chased by a large, sleek creature that resembles a cross between an orca and a lobster.
It's about half an hour before what must be Hlaashyaal comes into view. Located in an underwater valley, the large settlement is surrounded by fields of waving kelp. Other crafts similar to those used by Hlaush and their comrades move in and out of the settlement.
The city is comprised of buildings made of coral, with spires that grow taller the closer to the center of the city they are.
The skiff lands at the edge of the city and STEVE touches down as the episode of My Brother's Doshko comes to an end. Those in the party who need to breathe engage their environmental protections as they exit STEVE. Hlaush says to the party, "Hlaashyaal greets you."
"And the Starfinder Society greets Hlaashyaal in return," Bravo replies, offering a salute as he disembarks from STEVE. "It's beautiful!"
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Set extracted itself from the STEVE, looking about their new environment curiously. As Bravo commented on the aesthetics, Set asked, "It is?" It looked around, gazing more closely at the coral city, then added with what might be an excess of enthusiasm, "Yes, it is... Very! Beautiful!"
Captain Jake had always handled this, and, even then, those dialogues usually began with, "Our grievances are not with you but your masters. We don't want to harm anyone, so please handover your cargo." S.E.T. was self-aware enough to recognize it was struggling with how to navigate this particular exchange. It shook its head slightly, then waited for the organics to figure out how to make nice with one another.
"Beautiful, beautiful, just beautiful" He intoned, his voice clip having an odd musical tilt to it. Soundbyte is begining to recognize that his captain isn't exactly well adept at this sort of situation, so he took the opportunity to self-promote himself from translator- as well as not translating SET's words at all, for his own benefit.
"Please, take us to your /the Old Mind. /Anything you cool cats need to let us know /Regulations, rules, customs, offerings?" He asked, not wishing to offended the one they seem to revere.
Hlaush is quiet as the party takes in the city before saying to Soundbyte, ”Those besides the Karang have not tread the waters of Hlaashyaal since the strangers. Only the deepest elders of the old mind would know the rules you must abide. For now, follow me.” They motion to STEVE and say, ”If your beast needs food, Muulsh or Weyish can bring it what it needs.”
"Thank you, but that won't be necessary," Bravo replies at the offer of "food" for their exploratory vessel. "So Hlaashyaal is the name of this world, and Karang is the name of your people?" he asks as they travel, taking notes on his personal comm as they travel. He wasn't really a scholar, but he was probably the only one who'd be have the time or inclination to write mission logs and debriefings to send back to the Society.
”We are Karang. Hlaashyaal is our city.”
The S.E.T. continues to be largely silent, listening to the others and processing the information. The 'Karang' are the people. 'Hlaashyaal' is the planet. Not as good as 'Topheratau,' they should have consulted with this one... Oh, no, 'Hlaashyaal' is the city. Good, we can still call the planet 'Topheratau'.
While an ambush was unlikely, the Security Enhancement Technician remained true to its core programming and watched for signs of an danger to the organics in its care. If it was 'honest' with itself, it was much more comfortable in this role. I miss Captain Jake... The "I" in that thought escaped its notice.
The S.E.T. was distracted by its thoughts.
”We are Karang. Hlaashyaal is our city.”
"My mistake, sorry. What DO you call this world, then?"
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Good, we can still call the planet 'Topheratau'.
"My mistake, sorry. What DO you call this world, then?"
Good, we can still call the planet 'Topheratau'."My mistake, sorry. What DO you call this world, then?"
Hlaush is quiet for a moment, deep in thought. "There is much we have not seen. Every year, our Far-Riders bring back tales of new waves. Perhaps, once they return to us to stay, we would name the world."
"I see," Bravo says as they continue. "Can you tell us more about these Far-Riders? They sound a lot like explorers, like us Starfinders."
"In our language we refer to /this world/ as / Topheratau." Sounds clipped together, using his captain's voice st the end.
Failing to observe any threats, Set turned its attention back to the discussion with the natives. Not natives. Karang. It did not fully understand the need for the prolonged back and forth, but had been around organics long enough to know that, outside a boarding action, this was often how negotiations started. “Foreplay,” Lucky Jake had called it. Another disgusting organic ritual but the rest of the crew seemed amused by the reference. Thankfully, they were en route to the ‘Old Mind,’ so the prolonged ‘chit chat’ did no harm.
In the meantime, it began compiling a report to the Starfinder Society on the STEVE’s design deficiencies: inadequate armor plating, lack of shields, lack of thermonuclear torpedoes, lack of capital ship sized plasma weapons, lack of poles...
"The Far-Riders search for new grounds for us to hunt. I know little about what you Starfinders do."
The party passes through a large open space that seems part market and part coral reef. Karang hawk their wares, mostly tools and weapons crafted from obsidian and coral.
"Little, but not nothing? Have other off-worlders been here before?" Bravo asks as they continue to travel. "We Starfinders are...explorers and students. We wanna know what's out there in the universe, how it works, how it got that way."
Set began to think they were being screened, or tested, prior to being allowed to see the ‘Old Mind’. The SRO was good at lying (usually) but this didn’t seem like a good time for deceit, and those subroutines had done an admittedly poor job of trying to run any sort of diplomatic exchange. So, it added, ”And keep it from blowing up into a fiery ball of non-existence.” That was truthful. Good job!
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Soundbyte carefully reworded SET's comment into "And to help keep things safe."
Hlaush puts their six arms behind their back, "You mean you do not search for new hunting grounds? I know nothing, then, of what you Starfinders do. Not since the days of the strangers have people come from another world."
The party finds themselves at the bottom of a great coral dome topped by a spire, taller than any other in the city.
Even through the translation, the reverence is clear in Hlaushs's voice, [b]"The old mind awaits you.
"Thank you, Hlaush," Bravo says, waiting for the go-ahead to head in.
Krizen looks thoughtful at Hlaush's words. "The Starfinders are not searching for new hunting grounds, but we do have Far-Riders of our own. We have a different job, but maybe we have more in common with your own culture than we first thought."
Like Bravo, Krizen waits for an indication of when to proceed towards the revered resting place of this "old mind".
Set trills appreciatively towards Soundbyte as the other SRO translates for him, then listens to the translation of Hlaush announcing their arrival, Bravo giving thanks and Krizen continuing to chatter about the Society. ”Yes, thank you.” It looks about the gathering for a moment, then, if there is an obvious portal into the dome and it is not stopped, proceeds in.
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The party walks through the archway at the foot of the dome and behold the sight before them.
A massive coral formation sits at the center of this cavernous room, extending down almost as far as it does upwards. Strangely, formations almost resembling arms, legs, and even faces similar to Hlaush's can be seen on the exterior of the formation. Hlaush kneels, intertwining all of their fingers and begins to murmur, "Ancestors, great ones, first of my line, I ask you, awaken and share your knowledge. Those from far beyond seek your wisdom."
A ripple of soft light traces it's way through the cracks and furrows of the coral at the center of the room, extending to the interior of the structure.
In the minds of each party member, just for a moment, countless voices can be heard speaking at once, a monumental weight that would crush one's will to dust if not for the fact that it subsides a few seconds later. With heads or neural processing units reeling, the voice begins to speak, each word in the voice of a different being. No, it is the voice of one's mother. Or their creator. Or their closest friend. It consumes the mind as it speaks, drowning out all else.
”Strangers. Matching your image. Seeking knowledge. Seeking glory.” For a moment, Bravo is one of the Karang Far-Riders, seeing a great ship made of dark metal touch down onto the water and a watercraft crewed by humans disembarking from it’s hull. The Karang feels confusion, panic, and curiousity.
”Strangers. Builders. The deep held their home. They did not listen. Their voice urged them not to.”
For a moment, Krizen is a Karang watching from afar as humanoid beings in powered suits construct a large underwater complex. The Karang feels pity, and a tired sadness.
”Strangers. Took from among us. Returned to the sky. Others remained. Their voice was triumphant.”
For a deeply confusing instant, S.E.T. is an organic being, a Karang. A boarding ramp on a spaceship closes, two humans and a dozen Karang visible on the other side. The Karang feels loss, and yet hope for their kin.
”Strangers. Dwelt in the deep. We warned them. The dark waters consumed them. We knew it would come.”
For a brief moment, Soundbyte is an organic creature, a Karang. Terror grips it as it flees from something towards the sunlit waters above. It dares not look down. Whatever lies beneath is too terrible to behold.
The party comes to their senses. The gargantuan presence has receded from their mind, though not entirely. On the edge of consciousness, it remains, awaiting something.
Bravo tenses for a moment, and his weapon instinctively is raised before he realizes it's just a vision. He lowers it sheepishly.
"Sorry, sorry about that. I guess that answers my question about whether people like us have been here before."
He briefly turns to the other ones.
"You saw that too right? 'Seeking knowledge, seeking glory' and all that?"
Krizen shudders as he returns to himself. "Glory? No, no glory... I saw ignorance, stubbornness... I saw a great underwater complex built by beings wearing power suits. There's definitely something here."
Set’s head swiveled as if shaking in the negative. ”No. I saw organics — the Strangers, like you, Bravo — taking the Karang away, and other organics staying here.” Set’s memory banks briefly recalled the sale of the protocol and etiquette SRO to the Vesk, and decided to avoid comment on organics’ propensity to treat one another as chattel.
The data is hard to parse, several errors flash in his mind's eye about the unexpected transference. His mental skills give him some moderate defense against in the way of what to expect, but the power being the being made his walls look like garden fenses. He struggled to find a propper way to describe the words he he had without showing them directly, and there was no audio for him to clip.
”And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” He spoke cryptically.
"Sounds like each of us got a different piece of the Old Mind's story. Let's piece it together: Humans, or a species cloesly resembling them, came here sometime in the past. They set up some kind of deep-sea colony or something that the Karang observed. At some point after that, a group of offworlders left with a bunch of Karang. My first thought is slaving, but neither we nor the Karang are sure. And then...something happened to the underwater base. Not clear what, but given we haven't seen any humans mingling with the Karang, it's probably safe to assume the event resulted in the deaths of the remaining colonists."
Soundbyte turns to Hlaush, "I wish to make my approach /seek knowledge /mind-to-mind neural interfacing."
Bravo frowns.
"Uh, Soundbyte? Are you sure that's safe?"