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"I do not share your frustration." Fio'Vre Lar'shi Gru'oya makes a gesture to indicate that while she doesn't exactly
disagree, she doesn't share my perspective. "I found it quite instructive."
"Yes, but you do
agree, right? This doesn't make any sense."
"Aliens frequently do things that make little sense to me. As you have observed, by definition, different species think differently. There is more than one correct solution for the equation of sophoncy."
I throw up my right hand in frustration. "So why do
you think this ship is a study in different ways of achieving the same outcome?"
She thinks it over for a moment. Gru was given this job due to the way she doesn't get flustered by alien technology, which the Lar'shi fio'ar'tol correctly deduced was going to be to most significant consideration to being assigned to studying the ring. I once asked how they determined that, and apparently they
used to use a complex battery psychological test… But found that they got almost the exact same results far quicker by showing the students an
Imperial servitor and watching how they reacted.
I was pleased to find out that it wasn't because of her name. On the other hand, as far as I'm concerned any rational person
should find a servitor weird.
"The possibility which I think is most likely is that it was intended as a test bed for new technology. Putting them in a functional ship would allow them to be tested under load, and give better information than a laboratory test."
"The idea being that they would select the best and install it on future generations."
"Yes."
"Then where are they?"
She considers that for a moment as well. "Warp travel is not something that can be precisely controlled by any known species in this galaxy. While it is usual for ships lost in the warp to coagulate together in a vortex to form a space hulk, it is possible that a ship might find a current which caused it to exit the warp on its own."
"Where's the damage from warp exposure?"
"They had shielding devices. They were the source of our understanding of the technology."
"No crew, Gru. Something killed them. If it was daemons, then the shields failed. Or weren't perfect. There should be
some damage."
"Warp dives have a far lower-."
"We know their fuel capacity, and we've scouted literally every system in range of a warp dive based system. That
can't have been how they did it."
She watches me, waiting for me to calm down a little.
I bow my head. "Sorry."
She nods slowly. "We know the fuel capacity for the systems we can understand. Your ring had given us full access to some of the databases we could not decipher, but not to all of them. There are still systems we do not understand. You have told us that the ves'ron use drives which nullify inertia in normal space. Perhaps it is something like that, but not effective enough to entirely replace warp technology."
"One of the two would be faster. We know how far that could be for warp diving. Sure, they could have another system, but then why have the warp dive system?"
"The be'gel would make such a system."
"The orks would cobble the systems from captured ships together rather than regularise their ship-building. They wouldn't build it like that from scratch."
She regards me calmly. "Then what do you suspect?"
"Two possibilities. One, despite assurances from the T'au kor'ar'tol, we
haven't been given access to everything. They're hiding the bodies, or… Okay, this isn't a fresh wreck or anything, I wasn't expecting it to be pristine, but parts have been removed and not included. Something that would make this make sense." I sigh. "The
second is that they're pulling a
Krikket and the ship's a fake."
"It was a real ship. We walked inside it."
"I don't mean that it's not a real ship. I mean that it wasn't a fortuitous wreck. Someone put it there for the early tau to find. And… Since they didn't know exactly what your species would be good at, they included a little of everything."
"Why would any species do that?"
"Necrons messed around with ancient humans to create pariahs. They can't cope with warp energy, so they wanted another species around who could dampen the connection between warp space and real space."
"That claim is based on the existence of
pariah units amongst the ves'ron. The Tau Empire has not encountered them for some time. It has been suggested that they were only ever used by a single dynasty."
"Or there are a lot more dynasties waking up at the moment and they haven't all had enough time to pick up enough pariahs to form units. If they were even aware of the possibility. The point is, that very long term plans that might pay off are something that happens."
"Very well. Let us assume that one of the situations you suggest is correct. How would you determine the difference?"
"Ah… Test everything that could be a drive in the field. And everything that might generate power. Except for warp phenomena I can scan and replicate just about anything. Then we'd know what the greatest range
could be. Then check all worlds within that area for signs of habitation. If anything matches, then we've got an origin point."
"And what would the significance of that be?"
"We might find other examples of their technology. After four thousand years I doubt that anyone there will remember it… If their civilisation is still a going concern. But they might at least give us some way to decode the remaining databases."
"And the only thing that would require your direct involvement would be the creation of the device copies." I nod, and she's been working with me for long enough to understand the gesture. "What else?"
"Hunt down the T'au kor'ar'tol's secure databases, including nudging peoples' minds to persuade them that I need access. And… At this point, probably the T'au aun'ar'tol's databases as well. That would get any records that I don't have access to. I'd need to do that myself, but it would be relatively safe and wouldn't require anyone but me."
"A-ttacking the aun'ar'tol is something of an extreme measure, regardless of other considerations."
"I know how tau get about the aun. If I was planning it, I wouldn't have told you about it. But… You weren't there, but the Admiral had a physical reaction to me showing her the image of Krona. If this ship is somehow one of
his projects, keeping that from me is an astronomically stupid thing to do."
Her eyes narrow has they unfocus, Gru clearly going through a calming meditative exercise after my not-heresy.
"Perhaps we should return to a more productive avenue. How would you access the remaining databases?"
"If it even
is a database. It scans a lot like some Eldar psychomorphic materials, so I'd… Try getting hold of a psyker. One with skills relating to transferring information. And probably spotting booby traps."
"None of the other databases have active defences."
"Warp-based technology needs to have active defences due to the
warp. The daemons
will worm their way through any undefended hole eventually, even if it's just to attack the minds of nearby sophonts."
"Do you have access to such people?"
"There are human astropaths I could call on. None cleared for access to this site. The genestealer hybrids are psykers and.. since they're under my authority I
could bring one or two here, except that I am not a moron. Not trying to use Gremlin because even if he
can get enough waaaagh energy, it would probably just wreck the database. That leaves-."
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The Dark Eldar wych prisoners smile near-mindlessly at me, eyes
glowing orange. It turns out that that once you take out the sadism and hunger, there really isn't all that much left.
"How may we serve, master?"
