One of the greatest challenges of running something on the scale of an entire galaxy, was dealing with the differences in time zones. That is, being so far away that it would take literally, thousands of light years, simply to send a message from point "A" to point "B." The founders had tried almost everything to deal with the problem, and they eventually passed the issue onto the next generations. So it continued, as the trouble was to be handed down, again and again. Poked and prodded by all manner of creative solutions, until they finally had something deemed "functional."

In the end the solution that was constructed and put together was a systematized optimization that relied on flexibility and buffers. The methods used could take into account as much as was deemed reasonable necessary.

That was bureaucratic speak for a solution that “Only partly works.”

Ships containing an FTL drive could indeed manage to get to other systems, and far quicker than any other form of communication, but that was not instantaneous enough for something as massive as the Union. What's more, is it took an entire crew to do so safely, and due to certain phenomena, that crew would need to be organic in nature. All of which lead to the Union looking for other options.

What had saved them, at last, was the discovery of the warp drive- or more accurately put, the re-discovery. As they'd known about it for at least a a few thousand cycles, and only then realized that it could be used for something. Not only use: it was only a matter of time until the Union had taken an archeic bit of technology deemed “Entirely useless” and managed to turn it into the backbone of their governing structure.

Typically bureaucratic in both form and execution...

...

Warp jumping was a dangerous field of work, but it had been decided long ago that it's risks were outweighed by it's rewards. A profession that was almost as old as the Union itself, it had allowed information and communication that spanned hundreds of thousands of light years, to be transmitted near instantaneously.

Yet, as fantastic as this might seem at first glace, this becomes less impressive once looked at from behind the curtain. In fact, Warp Jumping is considered such a low tech level, relative to the normal standards of the Union, that most would have been written off entirely, if not for the results.

In essence, Warp Jumping is nothing more than a cruel feat of wave frequencies and engineering that relied on stuffing as much energy as possible into a controlled location. At which point, the waves which overlap with a fine medium of uniform material would cause something similar, but not exactly the same, to hundreds of thousands of black holes- which would then each fight one other in what might be scientifically refered to as "an unorganized clusterfuck."

At which point, Space-time would be crudely ripped to pieces and in its absence, the formation of a shallow tear in the fabric of reality.

Then came the calibrations.

Of course, that was the tricky part. All set and based on the energy readings, averages of data-sets, and long lists of numbers that no living creature could possibly remember. These were, of course, all related and improved upon what had worked last time, and not quite "exact."

Then, a large metal sphere would then be shot out of the space-age equivalent of a cannon. With nothing but a pure and kinetic trajectory, brought about by a rapid acceleration, these would be launched into the tear at a precise angle. As the spheres were all of precise and uniform in size, no further variables should need to be accounted for, so long as no mistakes were made. As sizing would need to be exactly so- to the point where a standard deviation of 0.001 units would be enough to cause colossal and catastrophic failure. Something that was quickly noticed, after a large number of misfires, leading to the decision that all of such spheres would be created, brand new, and then recycled for materials when possible. Which had an unexpected benefit of making it extremely unpractical to bother with any of this for much more than the most important of tasks.

But, what of the spheres themselves?

Why, starting from the outside in, the spheres begin as a thick ball of pure copper. Perfect and polished, this covers a slightly smaller sphere of pure aluminum, which covers a slightly smaller layer of lead. Yet, it is inside this lead where a thick layer of synthetic glass to line a hollow containment, and that is almost always filled with a large amount of heavily oxygenated water.

You see, just as FTL travel tends to cause problems with inorganic constructs, Warp jumping has the negative side effect of absolutely decimating any form of inorganically organized information. No matter what storage device the Union has ever attempted to send, the results had been ruined. No type of computer or even solid organized data in set glass or alloy containment has yet survived unscathed. In many cases, the information that can be retrieved, is scrambled into unrecognizable form. This stands true for even the most primitive attempts: such as physical etchings into a sheet of titanium. Theories range far and wide on why this might be, but the lack of any information to what actually waits outside the observable universe essentially prevents any advancements from being made. Even after 400,000 cycles, it is universally accepted that the only things one could reliably know about warp jumping are where the shot is fired, and where the shot will land. The methods on how it got there instantaneously is still just about anyone's guess.

Still: once you've ruled out computers, imprints, carvings, written or holographic, or any other form of external organized data, there is only one option left to make this strange, archaic, and extremely expensive means worthwhile.

And that would, of course, be pilots.

Yes, warp jumping was a dangerous profession.

For some reason, life could survive a warp jump. Of course how this was originally discovered was something of a black stain in the Union's history books, but none the less: it was crucial. The unobserved universe would distort any information sent by warp jump, but if a life form was sent through such an event- for reasons not quite understood, they would emerge unaffected. At least, most of the time.

Once this was realized, though, further decisions had to be made. As it turned out, very few species could survive the trip. Not because of the trip itself, mind you, but because the process to create the warp spheres took a significant amount of time, and any life that wanted to make it through the trip had to be sealed within a pool of dense liquid, and then surrounded by thick layers of metal. Most species would not only panic at the thought, they would simply drown before the sphere was even completed, which had dramatically lowered the list of potential applicants.

Once the physical limitations were applied, the list came down to a select few species of intelligent life. The sheer insanity of it narrowed the list even further. Certainly, there were species that were capable of it, and at times they might be enticed to actually go through with it- saying they were paid for the risk and trouble. But those were few and far between, and it was no small matter of strife to try and enlist them.

Yet, all of that changed upon the discovery of a newer species within the Union. One that was soon found to be both "willing" and capable of warp jumping.

They were known as Gemynd.

Xios was one such Gemynd.

Essentially, he nothing but a ball of flesh, and only identifiable as a male by his genotype. He had no visible features, and basically no variation. He was this way because he chose to be this way, and if he so desired, he could change. Mass was finite, and he could not grow in that regard, but he could shift. Into any shape, at any time: he was not limited. Granted, he had no bones, so his shifting rarely made much of a difference outside of an aquatic environment, but he could extend himself out to mimic the many nervous system pathways which other species possess. This trait was what had made Gemynd like himself the most successful and dangerous parasitic species ever known.

By using primitive creatures from their home planet as hosts, Gemynd had taken to the stars and encountered the Union, where they had soon been uplifted without many questions. From there, it took hundreds of cycles before the Union was aware of the fact that Gemynd were parasites at all, and that their hosts were simple domesticated livestock, and not truly intelligent. In fact, the only reason the Union ever became aware of this was due to the Gemynd's primal and violent urges. To take a new host was a delicious feeling, and such a vast array of other intelligent life from across the stars was simply too much for some individuals to resist.

Yes, there were more than a few casualties in those early years.

Now of course, such things were considered savage. The Gemynd were a changed people. Enslaved, enscripted, and rarely free- outside of those rare few who had completed their full military service to the Union. Of those, though, Gemynd could select a true host, in which to live out their retirement. Only from creatures without true intelligence, of course. Until that point, in place of hosts, they were issued synthetic exoskeletons of several variations, but these were truly poor substitutes for Gemynd individuals with a true craving.

And for Xios, that primal urge never did fade with time.

In fact, if anything, it grew stronger every cycle.

Xios was glad he was finally capable of retirement. Each jump he completed, he mentally approached as his last. Now it was simple a game of waiting for the correct motivation. The correct set of encouraging factors to push him to pull the trigger and start a new life. He wanted it to be exceptional. He wanted it to be one of a kind.

Occasionally drifting and restricted sub-currents of thought would wander beneath the surface, like deep undertow on an oceanic world. They could pull him down into daydreams as he wondered what it must be like to take another creatures life and blood as his ancestors did. To feel them as they twitched and pulsed, to intercept their being and envelope their very mind on the psychic plane, and then again as a physical act. To feel a sense of ecstasy as their muscles tensed and trashed, and their nerves became numb, until he devoured all that they were and took their place.

What would it feel like to become them, without anyone realizing?

The lump of flesh shivered within it's confinement. Xios often found his thoughts wandered in such directions when he was preparing for a warp. Contained in complete darkness, sealed by glass and metal, he was as free from outside influence as was physically possible. The telekinetic links that he constantly shared with his fellow Gemynd were gone here, and none could know his individual thoughts but himself. There was no one else watching, or listening. Xion enjoyed this very much. His fantasies could be imagined here with vivid gruesome detail, and none would be the wiser for it.

When the Union had discovered their strange ability, his species had purged the more violent natured individuals from their ranks. It was a matter of necessity, to remove those few, or lose everyone. The murder of other intelligent species was taboo outside of war or defense of life, and their species had been found guilty on millions of counts. Their ultimatum was made while staring down the arsenal of entire fleets around their systems, and in the end it wasn't even a choice at all.

The purge.

The Gemynd of that time had come together in groups and focused their mind channels open. As a single unit they worked with gruesome efficiency. Those they had selected, those who did not fit the ideal mold, were ground into genetically sterile lumps of organic mush through the combined and focused will of psychokinesis. This process lasted for an entire cycle, and afterwards their species was reborn. Not a single recorded incident had occurred since then.

Despite this, Xion suspected that the purge had not been truly successful. Evolution was a difficult thing to overcome, and the forced selection might have only made those individuals with violent urges much harder to detect. Perhaps they had unintentionally pushed their species onto another level, with an extinction event that let only the most deceptive survive.

He considered this often, for his nature was simply an asexual clone of the being that came before him, and true mating of his kind were rare. Obviously something had been missed along the line if he was the way he knew himself to be. If he had slipped undetected through the ranks of his peers, imagine how many others had done it. 400 cycles was a long time to go unnoticed.

Certainly too long to have been a fluke...

His thoughts were scattered by a sudden impact that slammed his jelly-like texture along the glass lining of his encasement with brutal violence. He willed his form to splay out, to become a thin and loose puddle of skin as the force continued. Then, the enclosure rocked back again in the other direction as he felt himself slow dramatically. The unceremonious arrival of a warp drive pod was never easy to predict when you were on the inside.

As he slowly collected himself, he pooled his thoughts back into cohesion. His urges were suppressed into the dark depths of his mind, and he covered any tracks by means of hundreds of decoys. From the weather on the home planet- to military duties, he committed the thoughts to a cycling repetition as he readied for the inevitable embrace of his kin. Already he could feel them reaching towards him as the layers of metal were peeled away from the sphere.

These trips had a purpose besides providing him time to plan his retirement into true flesh and the twisted fantasies he wished to make reality. He was a warp jumper, and like all others he had information to report, and vital information to receive. Military secrets and dangerous commands were waiting outside of his shrinking isolation. Echoes, cloaks, and daggers.

Perhaps this had been his final jump. He would certainly never find himself bored with this destination. The fringe was an interesting place, and people seemed to go missing all the time without much explanation. Maybe retirement here wouldn't be so bad...