Laandi sat at her desk. She stared thoughtfully out of her office window and into the abyss of stars. She had made a special request that the feature be included in the building of Uleesia station a decade ago, and it was by far her favourite of all her executive decisions. There was something calming about looking out at it all. Knowing that the stars were there long before she existed and would continue long after her deterioration. Her mistakes didn’t matter to them, her actions insignificant blips in the passage of time.

Yet, in the last few days, she felt that she might have a role to play in the greater universe. Facilitating a new Creator species’ integration into the Galactic Council, a species with natural Frequency capability that would rival the engineered elite of the galaxy. A power shift of the greatest magnitude was coming, and she might not live to see the outcome of her decisions. Her actions would not matter. Not to herself at least, but Jasmine would remember, and somehow that worried her.

Laandi had begun to wonder what power the human could wield if she were able to control it with any precision. The Director turned her gaze from the window to her comms terminal. Perhaps it would be prudent to speak with Lieutenant Commander Nako first before someone else gave him inaccurate depictions of the events occurring. She brought up the address he had specifically assigned to her for this project and accessed the link.

The lights in her office dimmed; security recordings on both ends of the line jammed; they would be able to speak their minds in peace.

Her comms screen illuminated with the visage of Lieutenant Commander Nako.

The handsome Arvas Prince looked weary with exhaustion. Two out of three sets of eyes barely open, the bottom set closed completely. The dim light in the projection only served to highlight vibrant red streaks that graced his natural, dark green chitin. Red was a colour of power to the Arvas, the same hue of their worshiped moon, a burden of great calling painted on his shell. It contrasted rather jarringly to the oily black of his Ranger armour and the deep blue cape of his Lieutenant rank. The cape was wrinkled, thrown hastily over his broad shoulders rather than neatly pressed as on their first meeting.

She must have caught the Knight during his rest period, an auspicious start, they wouldn’t be interrupted.

“Salutations Lieutenant Commander,” Laandi bowed her head respectfully, “I do hope I have not intruded upon your personal time?”

“Salutations Citizen. Director…” he faltered, mandibles twitching while putting in an effort to recall their last meeting. “Lahmdi was it?”

Laandi turned her head to the side ever so slightly averting her gaze as she went to correct him.

“Laandi, Executive Director Doctor Sahlor Laandi,” she reminded him. Nako bowed his head in turn.

“I am afraid I have been visited by many an official in the past few [days], I hope I have not caused offence in the misplacement of your name.” he offered.

Laandi smiled forgivingly.

“Not at all, it is understandable for a man in your position,”

The Knight laughed, and relaxed his posture ever so slightly. Even though the Lieutenant was of the Galactic Council Rangers, he held more in common with the Arvasain Imperial Knights. It was his privilege to serve in the greater galactic military, not his job.

“I can assure you Laandi, there are many who are not as understanding as you,” he brought his hand to his chin, “Knight Commander Kotorn being one of them, he isn't happy with the amount of interference the GC is placing on his branch. Then there is the incessant succession of Imperial Ambassadors who wish for my audience. I sometimes wonder if Akira could not have chosen another; perhaps there is a Primarch willing to shoulder my burden, hmm?” Nako waved off the sentence with a flick of his lower right hand. “But enough of my transgressive thoughts,” he sat forward into the comms screen, his voice low even though the line was private.

“Is everything proceeding as scheduled?” The knight was on the edge of his stool; clearly the creatures in the six pods had weighed heavily on his mind ever since he had secretly jettisoned them only weeks earlier.

Laandi nodded her head, unable to hold back the excited twinkle in her eye.

“Not quite my lord, there was an unexpected discovery.”

The Director savoured the pause between her words. She could tell how much he wanted, no, needed to know the information she had at her disposal. It had been a long while since she had held such a bargaining chip. “Which means we will have to renegotiate the contract.”

Nako’s shoulders stiffened, he rested his upper hands on his knees as he awaited her exorbitant demands.

“Is the exclusive access to the creatures and their data not enough to profit? I fear that is a problem on your end not mine,” The knight deflected, as much as he wanted the data he was not about to submit to Laandi’s demands without a fight.

“Forgive me my lord, I was being facetious.” The director smoothed out a crease in her politician’s cape, “The data will certainly be enough to profit from, but I need guarantees that the GC will not envelop Esaander into the government hierarchy once it releases said data.”

“That is,” The Knight glanced off screen, “Presumptuous of you to make such a request.” She had put him on edge, bouncing between playful banter and serious subject matter.

“Presumptuous, but necessary,” she confirmed, resting her gloved hands upon the table, “And a term I think you will be happy to agree to.”

“Now that is presumptuous,” Nako folded his upper arms, “Why would I agree to such a condition?”

“Because the subject needs to be handled with great care, these are not a people to be trifled with.”

That slip of information caught the Knight’s curiosity.

“A people?” His three pairs of eyes opened wide and once again glanced off screen.

“Do I have your word of protection Lieutenant Commander?” Laandi coerced, but the Knight’s attention lingered off screen before he returned to answer her.

Nako was no longer enjoying the director's game.

“... Yes, Esaander will not be touched, I shall have the magistrates draft a contract.”

“Excellent,” she pulled back her bureaucratic offensive and relaxed. Laandi was rather excited to make the announcement to a ranking official, even if it was to never be on the record. She took a moment to compose herself and uttered the words that would undoubtedly change the galaxy forever: “The suspected vassal discovered aboard the Rajavan ship is not a new amalgamation, but a distinctly new species of Creator level sentience-”

The Lieutenant’s wings fluttered up and out from under his cape, catching Laandi by surprise.

“I knew it!” he exclaimed to himself, jumping up from his desk and parading around like a juvenile. Quite unseemly for someone of his standing. “A Creator-level sentient, that was the only explanation!”

“Lieutenant Commander?” Laandi was startled by the sudden animated display. Nako’s arms pounced off screen, snatching something from his desk and bringing into her line of sight.

“The Rajavan ship held numerous anomalies, some of which could not be explained away. This dataslate being one of them.” He began, holding the device as carefully as one would would a hatchling. “I am told the tech inside is masterfully designed, and as powerful as a dedicated Terminal unit without a single organic component.” Nako rotated the dataslate for Laandi to see, not that she could have missed it. For one, it was an iridescent pink, decorated with what Laandi could only describe as uniform bursts of colour, trying to mimic organic flora. “The technicians have been in a frenzy trying to replicate it to the best of their ability, with improvements of course.” The Knight returned to his seat, his lower hands holding the device, seemingly unable to part with it now that he had shown it to someone else. “Do you think it is possible the creature could have made this?”

“It is within the realm of possibility. Miss Howe, as she prefers to be addressed, is quite adept with our own dataslates,” Laandi elaborated.

“She?” Nako repeated, almost in surprise. “and she was willing to talk with you and your staff?”

“We have more than a few conversations on record; Miss Howe has been extremely co-operative-” Laandi cut herself off, reflecting on the alien's actions and her own. “Considering her circumstances…”

“This is tremendous news, I must commend you on your research, Director. When will I be able to listen to the reports?” Nako was almost too eager, possibly feeling he no longer needed to hide his youthful enthusiasm in her presence.

“We are still going through the examination process, but I can send you the observation reports as well as the compiled works of Dr. Xant’s research transcripts. They only scratch the surface however, and do not contain any of the research into Miss Howe’s Frequency capabilities.”

“Female and Freq-able?!” He was getting more excited by the second.

“Lieutenant Commander, while negotiations with Miss Howe are going remarkably well, I must warn you that her species is capable of manipulating both Zenthi and Emotional Frequencies with devastating results.” the Director tried to warn the Knight, but it was not caution he took away from her advice.

“A species finally able to match wills with the Arvas?” Nako contemplated happily. “Is she Civilised?”

“Miss Howe is Civilised, Lieutenant, but we are taking precautions until her translator is adapted; she appears to have the power of a Princess yet none of the training-”

“I think I should like to meet this Miss Howe,” the Knight interrupted, having already made up his mind. “As soon as I meet the final Ambassador I shall visit to speak with her.”

“I will have the facility prepared for your arrival Lieutenant,” Laandi acknowledged

“Sir Nako will be fine Laandi,” he rewarded her, removing a layer of formality. “May your path be clear.”

“And may your life be balanced,” she bowed her head one last time in farewell.

Laandi closed the comms line, confident in how well the meeting had gone. Now she had even more of an excuse to speak with Jasmine. After all, a few lessons in intergalactic etiquette couldn't hurt negotiations.

The comms line faded to inactivity, and for the first time in two weeks Nako was alone. He looked down at the strange pink dataslate he had taken from deep within the Rajavan ship. Flowers grew in spiral tendrils down its outer case in shades of rich red and purple. Rajavans did not decorate their dataslates, and especially not with detail worthy of a politician's robes. The screen always lit up with the slightest movement, hinting at a secret world within. A world where flowers gave birth to the stars, bathed in a single moon’s light. Nako had never seen such colours in nature, at first he thought the dataslate had been corrupted; slates tended to deteriorate with constant use.

Even so, he dared not part with it, for he knew the technicians would love nothing more than to tear it apart piece by piece. He had asked the technicians to leave this one undissected, and even then they had scratched its casing from prying into its battery cavity. He had let Viitoic and his crew dismantle the other marvels found in the bowels of that dreaded ship; the vehicles made of steel, artillery small enough to fit in a single soldier's hand, dataslates half the size of his own and each one with a different and devious encryption. This dataslate showed him such a tool could be used for the expression of unfathomable beauty. Nako very much wanted to speak with a being who could create such things.