‘High value’. That was the response she got from one collection house to another.

And that led her to the one thing she knew she did have which could be considered unique enough to those with wealth to burn.

Cygnus had considered bringing Iain along with her, at least as a distraction, but given his DNA that might be might have become a dangerous distraction, especially for those of many species which had either had their home world’s or other worlds in their interstellar civilizations wiped out by the Mimes which had evolved from the base human being he was. She figured he might be considered unique in a bad way, but after a dozen pitched to fairly disinterested parties, she was beginning to wonder.

After all, she hadn’t gone shopping for something to buy, but for someone or thing she could sell to, and for the most she could get.

Which had been why she thought the Transient Void would be the kind of antique that could be worth enough credits to build a stake from and then be able to do whatever she wanted to do or whatever seemed like it would be a good idea at the time. It was an old ship, and still operational. A no brainer.

“You know it’s just a start,” Omicron warned her. “Think long term for once, Phi.”

Long term? Why live for a million years in the future when you can enjoy today. It was a philosophy which separated her from most of her kind. And despite the derogatory comments of her selves across the realities, Phi was sure she would end up outliving them all, as her life was at least stress-free.

The Transient Void was certainly a rare antique. Not nearly as old she was, or as rare of course, who was that wasn’t a sentient star or intelligent planet or one of these asteroids, but old enough to pique some collectors' interest she hoped, even as she talked it up to a collection of Hanging Murmurrers in their chain house.

“It’s only three of ten thousand of its model that is still operating and star-worthy,” she’d pointed out as the long chains around her pulled up and down in response. “And it’s AI is still operating at a top mean, which you have to agree is impressive as it is still on its original OS.”

But the offers were disappointing again and again

“Really,” she said when even her best option, a spindley Horshan offered as its quote for the Transient Void.

The amount was hardly worth the effort to dress up, especially with the frozen menagerie the ship might be carrying which she had touted as being a fabulously potential mystery box.

And so she added Plan B to her sales pitch, which was dropping a hint of what it carried which was walking and breathing, what Iain was, to spark some interest. Everyone knew what humanity had become, and to own a piece of its original stock, well, that had to be worth something.

“What if I might have accessed to a base human,” she finally gave in. “Pre-Mime, even Pre-Clown vintage DNA?”

Letting it drop she did have an unsullied base human, did finally catch some interest of a few among the collector community. And the offers finally started to reach a decent price point she could negotiate from. For some reason, none of them seemed concerned. Funny. She’d heard even mention of a Mime to most sent the average alien scurrying into its safe space.

But the mention of him turned out to be another good reason for not being bringing Iain along because he probably would not have liked what she was proposing to the aliens who seem to have the most credit to burn.

Question was, could she convince herself what she was doing was the best for both of them. But then, what was avaricious and power-hungry family for but to help make the most greed inspired decision.