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== Omoikane 03 - Master and Servant ==

Tippalan came into my office. I looked to make sure she had room. Tippalan was a full Ane. Four hundred pounds of sophont antelope. Parts of the Omoikane were arranged for their comfort. Usually, Tippalan called me to her.

<nowiki>**</nowiki>Captain, may I speak to you for a moment? It's about our guests.**

"Sure," said. Galaglan grew grim. She was hearing the news before I did.

<nowiki>**</nowiki>They are Orionoids, with some minor differences. They are closest to the Darnarans, but we see genetic changes. Tillean suspects some genetic engineering. My guess is that they eliminated imperfections, compared to the Darnarans.**

<nowiki>**</nowiki>But, Lt. Sharmarlaz....** She was unhappy **You’ve seen the headband he's wearing?**

"Yeah, I saw it."

<nowiki>**</nowiki>It's telepathic technology, like the telepathic interfaces we use. But it's pointed the other way. It's broadcasting into his mind. It's also a shield, so I can't see exactly what it's doing, but I suspect it's some sort of compliance device.**

I grimaced, "Aw, shit."

-*-

We went nebula diving while I considered what to do. Into the nebula, change our warp drive signature to the degree we could. Hang out in the nebula for a random amount of time, then leave it, facing away from the Dragons, and then head for another nebula.

Repeat a few times and hope any long-range senses they had missed us.

Space is big. It was a decent bet.

-*-

Tillean poured over the scans of the dragons we got and the subspace transmissions coming from them.

“Now that I know the transmissions are coming from a living source and not machines or natural processes, they make more sense,” She said. She called up a chart. “This one is the electrochemical signals in a person's body,” She called up another chart, “This is the frequency and pattern distribution of the putative Dragon transmissions.”

I saw colors. And shapes. There was a similarity in the patterns, but that could be the way the charts were formatted.

I just nodded and said, “Good work. Keep it up.”

-*-

Sharmarlaz was in the forward lounge. It had a Winnie-the-Pooh theme. Holographic Winnie, Eeyore, Piglet, and Roo circulated among the patrons, saying things appropriate to their characters. They were carefully limited so as not to become sentient. We didn't need to be bringing more holographic children into the world by accident.

I stopped for a moment and slightly regretted calling the Omoikane the "Hundred Acre Starship."

I approached Sharmarlaz. "Sharmarlaz, greetings."

He smiled at me. I could see some survivors from his scout ship there, too, mixing with my crew. Some of them also had headbands. There was a pattern like some sort of rank marker. Bigger headbands carried more rank.

Sharmalaz was sipping a dark fizzy drink. "Greetings, Captain."

"Dr. Pepper?" I asked

He nodded, "Recommended by your Green XO. She's lovely."

"Yes, indeed she is,” I agreed. “May I ask you a question?"

"Certainly."

"Your headband? We don't have anything like it in the Federation. Can you tell me about it?”

He straightened up. "It's my badge of office. As a commissioned officer in the Shard Star Navy, this marks me as a true Servant of the Shard."

"Do you sleep in it?"

He blinked. "Sometimes. I forget it's there every so often."

"Is it doing something to your mind?"

"It helps me to stay focused, disciplined, and loyal to the Shard."

"Would you be willing to take it off for me?"

He didn't like the idea. "Why?"

"I'd like to know you're not being controlled against your will."

He glared at me. "Don't you have methods of ensuring the loyalty of your crew?"

"We prefer to work from the positive motivation angle."

"What if I say no?"

"I don't know. We value our autonomy and consent quite a bit in my culture. I'd really like to know you're not being victimized here."

"If I were a victim of a mind control plot, what then?"

"Then I'd work to restore your autonomy to you."

He grimly took the headband off.

His face changed. He looked angrier, less composed. He held up the headband. "This helps us stay unified. This allows me be who I want to be. Some take off their headbands and retire to obscurity. I want to command ships. I want to attain rank and station. This is the way I'll do that. These prevent us from placing our own ambition ahead of the good of the Shard. These prevent us from tearing ourselves apart. Like the Original Empire. Like all Empires. In time, your Federation will explode into civil war, with warlords vying for power.

The Shard will remain. We'll be unified and true to our oaths and our nation. We'll pick up the pieces when you fall. Voluntarily? I want this. If you destroy this one, I'll make my way back to The Shard and get another."

He put the headband back on. "I hope this answers your question."

"It does. Thank you." I said. It was troubling, but that's the way he wanted it.

-*-

In time, we randomly doodled our way to the galactic south and spinward. We got a lot of charting and scanning done.

Sharmarlaz and his crew recovered as well as they could. Some made friends, and we learned a good deal about their culture.

The Shard was full of itself. The Shard-folk let us know, in small ways, that they considered themselves and their empire superior.

They were especially interested in information about the Lefyt, the Darnarans, and Bot'chok. We shared what we could within civilian classification levels.

-*-

The system ahead was moderately built up. An inhabited class M world anchored the system. We could see space stations and other modern infrastructure. Commercial and military ships came and went.

The military ship designs were strangely Orion. Similar to the traditional Orion ships we knew, but with different lines. More elegant, swoopy, and developed. Some were much bigger than anything the Orions had, rivaling the large Federation and Klingon ships.

Three destroyers decloaked and signaled us. Their commander was a yellow/green Orion with a slightly bigger and more ornate headband than Sharmarlaz. "Halt! Identify yourselves and state your purpose!"

"All stop," I told the helm. "Open Channel." The light came on to show I was live. "This is Captain Hailey of the Federation Starship USS Omoikane. We have survivors aboard from SMV Reetabal. We seek friendly contact and diplomacy."

"Stand by."

It was an awkward few minutes.

"USS Omoikane, we're reading a biohazard aboard your ship. But the notation is ancient, and the details are classified. We're messaging our command for clarification. May we speak to our survivors?"

"Certainly."

Lt. Sharmarlaz was perfectly groomed and dressed. Either for a job interview or a funeral, "Lt. Sharmarlaz reporting."

"Report."

"I am the ranking survivor of the SMV Reetabal. There are 83 survivors. We were scouting to anti-spinward when a dragon spotted us. These people rescued us. These people say they were on Oron ten weeks ago. We've seen holograms. It looks right."

The commander of the destroyer blinked slowly "Oookay. That's a remarkable claim. Please stand by, Omoikane. We'll get this alert sorted out as well as possible." We could see communication traffic between the destroyers and the planet ahead, but it was too well encrypted for us to listen in.

"The Federation is an organization of peace, mutual aid, exploration, and defense. We have some public information about ourselves, if you'd like it." I said

He squinted. "Why would you do that?"

"We think knowing is better than not knowing. We think people we meet will be more comfortable with us if they know what they're dealing with. We hope to facilitate understanding."

The commander looked a little confused. "Sure. I guess. Please send it through."

We opened the Public Access Database server and sent them the directions on how to connect to it.

We could see the officers on the Shard destroyer boggling at the amount of information in the database. There was some discussion with the sound muted.

Then they slurped it all up, at the maximum speed our ship could serve it.

The Commander came back on the line, "That's a lot of data, Omoikane."

"Yes. It's mostly cultural stuff. We have a hundred and seventy-five planets in the Federation and a lot more friendly worlds. So you have something about all of them."

"Alright. I hope you won't mind if we call with questions later.

"Please feel free."

"Alright, until then, please stand by."

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