Yes, as it turns out, I had completely forgotten to do a couple of important things before I decided to head into the welcoming tunnel with Ess in tow on a comically long leash. A continually sweating Jjjjimpvv had sent his mind mate off into the service tunnel with instructions to find the strongest leash possible for me to use and Mmmmimpvv had returned a short while later with a cable used to tie down cargo. This was acceptable, not that it would stop Ess if she suddenly wanted to roam, but it at least made appearances as though it could be used to guide her.

No, the two details that had completely skipped my mind were to bring along Leva nest billets to trade and to stow the pile of boxes that were delivered inside my ship for safekeeping. Meditati had been considerate enough to make a little text popup start blinking in the corner of my vision to remind me once I had made it halfway through the disabled welcome tunnel.

A welcome tunnel that was overly congested with an inquisitive Leva hatchling, two Yelvos guides who were sweating to death still, and at least 12 bumbling hazmat androids.

My good mood at being reunited with Ess almost started to take a hit as I stared back down the tunnel while wondering how I was going to get such a large hatchling to turn around in such a congested space. I could tell Nurse was holding her breath and observing me as my eyes fell on one of the androids near the end of the tunnel. I could feel that she was waiting for me to figure something out on my own rather than just giving me the answer.

"Nurse, oversee what I am about to try please since I can't visually see anything." I thought as I mentally willed what I wanted to take place. To observers who were watching my ship's hanger through video feeds it appeared as though a small cargo door suddenly opened and three antlike carry bots jumped to the floor. The head, body, and thorax were each made into flat platforms and they each were carrying one billet each on each of their bodies segments. I figured that nine billets would be enough to enter trade negotiations with. With one more command, I willed more of the fake robot ants to appear from inside my ship and to begin carrying the crates inside for safekeeping.

Soon enough, just as I had imagined it, the soft scuttling sounds of my little swarm cargo bots were making their way across the ceiling of the welcome tunnel.

I stood there with a smile plastered across my face until the cargo ants came to a stop above our heads.

"Are you really expecting me to say 'Good job Kevin!' and to pat you on the back?" Nurse asked as I realized that that was in fact what I had been waiting for. I might as well have just patted myself on the back, as she and I were of the same mind in that regard.

"You know, I believe that your mind is flexible enough for me to teach you how to fully enter and control the swarm at will if you wanted. I would need to suppress the hive thoughts so that you wouldn't get lost in the process but I think, with practice, you could learn how to see and control your hive fully as a Monarch does." Nurse said after a few moments of me willing the cargo ants to move back and forth in a wave on the ceiling.

As for Meditati, I could feel her watching and studying what I had done from a different point of view. I think the lack of code behind my interactions with the swarm concerned her.

"Penny for your thoughts Meditati," I said mentally as I gave Ess's leash a gentle tug so we could both get moving again. I set the cargo swarm to follow us and put them out of my mind. The billets were covered with a thin layer of cr so I wasn't worried about anyone using a scanner to detect them while we were in motion. "So, how much free will does your swarm have?" I heard Meditati ask quietly as I turned around and started off again with Ess in tow. She moved so freely through the air that it almost seemed as though I had a helium balloon attached to the leash. I didn't know the answer to Meditati's question, so I let Nurse be the one to answer.

"Oh, right about zero percent." Nurse answered as I walked with my right hand resting against Ess's head and my left holding her leash. "If Kevin commands something then all of his swarm will work tirelessly to achieve his will."

"And if his will is removed?"

"Then his hive will wait for a new Monarch to come to claim them. They aren't free thinkers even though they do possess a massive memory." Nurse said.

"Why do you ask Meditati?" I asked mentally as we finally reached the end of the greeting tunnel and stepped back out into the station.

"Which way do we go?" I sent Mingllll a message once I got far enough onto the broad thoroughfare to get Ess's tail out of the tunnel and to let the two stressed Yelvos to finally catch up. They were both still clearly not having a good day having to be so close to my hatchling. I had to admit though that she did look quite imposing and impressive. Her obsidian cr was a perfect blackness that didn't allow for the eye to see any depth if she turned in different directions. For me, it wasn't an issue because I could see the swarm that her armor was made up of. To the rest of the aliens who relied on sight, baring her starburst design on her head, she looked like a huge, armored snake-shaped hole in reality.

Mingllll and Mangjjjj might have been a little bit stressed as well because they couldn't smell her at all. She was a blind spot for eyes as she was for their nose sensors.

"To the right and up, ever up to the Command Quarter. It is not too far, thankfully." Mingllll answered as they both began shuffling along the incline to the right, on a path that I didn't take while here before.

I shrugged and followed while letting out more leash for Ess to roam with while we walked. She seemed to not really care for the amazing view of the buildings that made up the interior of the trading station. She was, however, highly interested in focusing on any new species of alien that came into her view. She tracked them with her head like a laser until they ran away.

It took me a little bit to figure out that she was scaring them away on purpose. I swear I could almost hear her chuckling in her mind after the fifth alien, a Jaz'era, went zooming away in fright, totally abandoning its jelly fruit cart. Jaz'era naturally couldn't hear, and they use their sensitive fur to detect disturbances in the air when creatures move nearby. It can, however, see very well, and when it saw Ess's head tracking it steadily from fifteen feet away it almost jumped out of its soft-looking fur in fright.

I shrugged and let her have her fun. She was helping to keep nosy uninvited visitors away from our little parade.

"Because, Kevin. Before your mind was housed by a Personal Live Matrix." Meditati answered once there was a gap in my focus.

"It still is." Nurse said.

"Yes, but it isn't maintained by Tela cr anymore. If it was, I would be able to detect with the cr since he downloaded me into his matrix's AI space."

"No, you are correct. His Personal Live Matrix was freed of all Tela cr and is now maintained by his swarm."

"I see," Meditati replied.

"Why do you ask? Where does that line of questioning lead Meditati?" I asked.

"Look, I have nothing to hide, not that I can hide anything from you. I was just trying to learn how things are. With cr at least I can be sure that, if there is no programming, it will not do anything untoward towards me or you. Being in the hands of a parasite swarm from another dimension is troubling and poses too many uncalculated variables. Variables that I don't see you ever being even slightly curious about. This is also very troubling to me."

"So, you are telling me that I don't ask enough questions? Fine, you be my guest, ask Nurse all your questions. Nurse, please be as helpful as you can without giving her anything that would or could be used to harm me.... um... within reason." I said as I left the conversation.

"We will just let those two brains ask all their questions. Am I right Ess?" I asked my Leva even though she had no clue about the conversation that had been going on inside my head. I turned my attention to the station that we were walking through and found we were the focus of practically every alien within sight. There were even some eye stalks peeking from around walls and through grates. I probably looked like a psychopathic lunatic talking to myself aloud with a young, but very scary-looking Leva on a cargo rope leash.

"Um, Mingllll, is everything alright?" I sent our guide as I began petting Sublimis's head slowly. She seemed to really like the attention because she stopped locking on to each passing alien and simply let me touch her.

"No, Kevin. My mind mate and I are under so much stress right now. Our families have threatened us both with expulsion if we don't get you safely to the trade hall."

"Oh, I had no idea. Sorry to hear that." I sent back as I looked around for anything that might prove to be a danger to us. I wasn't worried about myself and Ess was armored to the teeth with cr. That only left the two Yelvos and their bumbling android's safety to worry about. Just to be extra safe I willed the three cargo ants to scout out around us and to act as shields in case anything was launched at us.

My efforts proved to be unnecessary though because we walked the rest of the way along the station's wide road untroubled. The structure that we were heading to didn't look like much to my eyes, but I could tell from the way that our Yelvos guides perked up and sweat a little less, that the building must have smelled like luxury and power to their nose sensors. I couldn't see it... or smell it, but that is just me, I guess. It looked the same as the rest of the armored buildings around. My helm faithfully translated the sign on the wall outside as the Yelvos Upper Commerce Hall. There were little warnings posted all around the building as well that stated that uninvited intruders would be vented straight into space and charged for the service.

The signs made me chuckle a little bit because getting vented wouldn't harm me or Ess. In fact, I couldn't wait to be away from this station so that I could see my friends again.

"The whole building has been cleared out for your meeting with the Tela and LOW, Kevin. We wish you a safe meeting." Mingllll sent as it and Mangjjjj took up posts on either side of the entryway while the androids kept marching up the street, to destinations unknown.

"Safe meeting? Why did they have to phrase it that way?" I wondered to myself as I walked into the building with Ess following me closely behind.

The outside of the building had been mostly a gray and yellow-colored affair with yellow being the accent color in odd places. On the inside, the yellow color was abandoned for a sickly green fluorescent color that seemed to be painted as a highlight around everything.

"What is up with all this gaudy trim?" I asked Meditati as we walked further into the building.

"For the Yelvos, it is a highly prized and coveted scent that they associate with riches and long life. I think it comes from a certain long-lived fungus on their planet. Don't touch any of it if you can help it, it really is a live culture of fungus that is extremely hard to get rid of. Plus, when it dies it reportedly smells horrible." Meditati answered.

With that in mind, I kept well away from the catchy trim and continued straight past odd wall hangings and doors to other hallways. I walked so far that I began to suspect that the Commerce Hall might actually be relatively close to the outer wall of the station. Close enough to allow guests and dignitaries to park their ships outside and to enter without having to travel for any length to get to the commerce room.

It was just me, Ess, and the three cargo ants walking down a long and ornate hallway that seemed to be ominously silent.

"Kind of creepy in here. No elevator music or anything." I muttered as even the fungus paint suddenly stopped adorning the doorways and trim at a certain point. It was as though the decorations had been stripped from this part of the building. Even the lighting dropped off at the same point when I stopped noticing the fungus paint. The hallway was gradually getting darker and darker. "It is almost like gradual sensory deprivation or something."

"It is done this way so that guests don't feel overstimulated or to possibly get offended. Commerce halls are as sterile and devoid of distractions as possible. Just get in, trade, and get out. At least that is the Yelvos way. Not all other species share this practice." Meditati commented as I approached the huge doorway at the end of the long hall. I didn't see a door, possibly because it slid to one side or the other. All I could see was darkness beyond.

"Haha, very funny. So how am I supposed to see anything?" I asked as I stepped right up to the door sill and looked into the room beyond. I mentally flipped my helm's sight wavelength through different waveforms until I settled on infrared. I could make out a source of heat inside the room to the far left. "That will do I suppose."

"Kevin, just wait up for a second, please. Your Yelvos guides should have told you all of this before you came in here. It is a breach of protocol for them to have just forgotten to instruct you on the procedures once you enter this room. Either they both are idiots, or someone told them not to tell you anything... in order to put you at a disadvantage with the other hosts, like say if you started using unauthorized forms of energy that wasn't agreed upon first." Meditati warned me, stopping me in place.

"Like what?"

"Oh, like shining a flashlight that you brought with you or starting a fire. The list is endless."

"Nurse, I thought you were monitoring those two's communications."

"I was, but there was no chatter this trip. It was almost silent the entire walk up here. If what Meditati says is true, those orders came before they met up with us."

"Huh. Let's go with them being idiots for now. Ok, what do I do Meditati?"

"Right as you step past the door sill the room should automatically offer you a table of different forms of illumination, radiation, vibration, smell, sound, and forms of communication. Don't move forward until the table arrives! Moving forward says that you are ok with whatever your hosts want as well. Some races will fight for different forms of illumination because they can be used against other species to detect lies or emotional states. I know this is all tedious, but it just shows that someone either has it out for you or paid a lot to manipulate this meeting for their benefit."

"Only one way to find out I suppose. Sure, is a lot of trouble to go for something that the Tela can get easily with cr." I said as I stepped inside the room. Ess's large head floated above my right shoulder as she moved her head back and forth. "I know girl, it is dark in here. Don't worry, I will try to find something to make it so that you can see." I said as I stood still and waited.

Sure enough, a few seconds later a table rolled over out of the darkness and came to a stop just a foot away from us. My helm went to work translating each of the dials and soon I had a pretty good idea of what each of them did. I reached out and twisted the light dial upwards until the space around Ess and I was bathed in a white and crisp light.

"Is that better girl?" I asked as I tugged on her leash a little bit. She floated closer to me, just like a balloon, making me smile at how responsive and accepting she was to me and whatever I did. "You are such a good girl!" I beamed at her as I leaned closer to rest my head against the side of her huge head. To me, she was like a massive puppy who just wanted to be near me. I never really had a dog before, mostly growing up around cats, and it was really nice to just have a pet that wasn't trying to scratch me all the time.

Hmmm... I mean, she did try to make me into a human pancake the first time she met me, but we will forget about that for now.

"Ok, I think that is it. Do I do anything else Meditati?" I asked as I looked at the circle of light that surrounded us and extended about five feet out from where we were standing.

"We wait to see if the other members will accept or restrict your settings. They may also choose to make it a global setting, which you will have the option to accept or deny. Global light will make it so that every corner of the room will be illuminated, which for a sight and light-based creature like yourself, would be optimal. I am sure the Tela trader doesn't have a preference. I would be surprised if... yes, they selected the "I don't care option." That leaves just you and the LOW to come to an agreement on what settings the room will be set at." Meditati replied while I watched the console for any changes. I noticed that there was a bulb lit up that was labeled "Abstained" for one of the guests in the room. I suspected that it was linked to the Tela like she had said it would be.

"Kevin." Nurse said out of the blue as I watched some of the LOW's settings change on the panel.

"Yes, Nurse? What is it?"

"I have swarm in the air around us and they have intercepted living cells."

"So... what does that mean? The LOW molts?"

"Yes, but that wasn't what I found interesting about the cells. They appear to almost be immortal."

"Why almost?"

"Well, they died when I had our swarm tear them apart."

"So? What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know yet. Something about the durability of the cell seemed to surpass even a Leva's cellular strength. It was just surprising how tough it was. Almost as if it was designed that way." Nurse said before getting quiet. I could tell that she was puzzling over something and didn't want to offer up incorrect information.

"Ok, just keep them out of Sublimis in case they happen to be harmful to her, ok?" I said as I mentally freed up a little more cr for her to dust the air with. I wasn't about to let Ess get hurt again from another parasite if I could help it.

"Mmm, there is no danger of that. Her swarm cr is already using your Bullet Shield and Kevin's Butt & Body Wash to scrub any invasive parasites from the air that might enter her mouth." Nurse said, totally surprising me.

How had Ess's helm known to do that? I had no idea.

The panel on the table changed a little bit and offered to increase the light circle to a radius of around twenty-five feet and to set the floor to have an increased allowance for vibrations. It seemed as if the low sensed movement through their feet? Was that a thing?

I didn't see any other changes or any reason to deny the whole footfall vibration thing, so I looked for the accept button for a couple of moments until I remembered that moving forward meant that I was ok with all the settings.

It was right after I had taken my fifth or sixth step that I realized just what a difference being able to feel vibrations through the floor might make. I could feel the LOW as it was walking towards the center of the room to meet up with the Tela and me. It felt like an elephant was stomping towards me and I was just a light little mouse. I couldn't even sense the Tela's tentacles moving against the floor at all.

Oh, and I was able to gradually see the two beings heading towards me now as the lights above them slowly brightened to match the settings that the LOW and I had chosen.

I was suddenly having regrets about asking for the lights to be turned on.