As the Ji squad remained tense, the room’s door chi sounded, interrupting Keller’s thoughts. He scratched his head and got up to answer. Outside were two Rat Folk who exchanged a few words with Keller.
The team’s audio capture system recorded the conversation, revealing that Keller was being summoned to the laboratory. After a brief discussion, the three Rat Folk left the room.
“Phew…” The Ji squad collectively exhaled in relief. Blanca opened her mouth to speak, but the Captain raised a hand to stop her. “Back to base first. Warwick, report.”
“All clear,” Warwick’s voice ca through the communicator.
With the all-clear, the team worked together to remove the wall panel again. After another round of careful operations, they restored the room to its original state and activated their cloaking devices. Under Warwick’s guidance, they returned to their quarters without incident.
“Blanca, what did you discover earlier?” the Captain asked eagerly once everyone was safely back and the team had cleaned up.
“The na of the First Empress—it’s the sa as the Swarm Empress’s na: Sarah Kerrigan,” Blanca said softly, wasting no ti revealing the shocking information.
“What!” the team exclaid in unison.
“Are you sure? How do you know the Swarm Empress’s na?” the Captain asked. Their official briefings described the Swarm Empress as the supre leader of the Swarm, but her na was listed as unknown, simply referred to as the Empress.
“Before this mission, I t a friend in the Riken Star System. He’s from the Troi race. As you know, the Troi were the ones who invited the Swarm to join the Confederation. My friend was part of the negotiation team during their initial contact,” Blanca explained.
“Because of the upcoming mission, I steered our conversation toward the Swarm once I learned he had interacted with them. That’s when he shared an important piece of information. My friend has an extraordinary mory—not only can he recall visuals perfectly, but he can also retain sounds with remarkable accuracy. During their mission, he overheard two Swarm officers conversing. Although the officers left imdiately after noticing him, he managed to rember a sentence.”
“At the ti, the Swarm was still using Riken as their diplomatic language for negotiations. However, the two officers were speaking in the Swarm’s native tongue. My friend didn’t understand the aning of the sentence then. He ntioned it in his mission report, but it was dismissed due to a lack of actionable details.”
“Even so, my friend couldn’t forget the exact pronunciation of that Swarm phrase. Later, when the Swarm language was partially deciphered, he painstakingly matched the sounds to words. Finally, he uncovered the aning of that sentence.”
Blanca paused for effect as her teammates leaned in, listening intently. She continued in a hushed tone, “The sentence was: ‘I will report this to Empress Sarah.’ If the Swarm doesn’t have two empresses, then Sarah must be the na of their Empress.”
The team collectively gasped. The complexity of the intel’s discovery made it all the more astonishing. While the information seed minor on the surface, its implications were monuntal.
“If the Swarm Empress and the Rat Folk’s First Empress are the sa person, it’s incredible but would explain so much.”
“Why the Rat Folk elite so rigorously uphold and protect their secrets. Why the Rat Folk impose strict information controls. Their peculiar relationship with the Swarm, the staged breakup, and the feigned conflicts—it all makes sense now. It’s all to conceal this truth.”
“Hah! Looks like we outsmarted them. No matter how well they hid it, we’ve found plenty of cracks in their story,” one of the team mbers remarked with a triumphant smile.
The team, now brimming with excitent, began piecing together their findings, connecting the dots from prior intelligence. Unearthing such a significant revelation was a monuntal achievent—one that would secure their reputations and careers for the rest of their lives.
“Wait a second,” Wright interjected, scratching his head. “We’ve all seen the Swarm. They’re completely different from the Rat Folk—appearance, genetics, everything. They’re clearly two distinct species.”
Blanca pondered for a mont before replying, “I recall reading in the intel that our race discovered Swarm bodies have genetic locks, making it impossible to dissect them or obtain detailed information. This trait is identical to that found in their biological weapons. It didn’t seem significant at the ti, but now I’m wondering—what if the Swarm found a way to transfer consciousnesses originally housed in Rat Folk bodies into Swarm bodies? Those Swarm bodies could very well be specialized bioweapons.”
“That’s ridiculous! Even we Ji can’t do sothing like that,” Wright objected, finding the idea of consciousness transfer too far-fetched.
“Tch! How much of the Swarm’s technology do we even understand? We can’t even break their genetic locks,” Blanca retorted with a dismissive snort.
“Blanca’s theory isn’t implausible,” another teammate added. “The intelligence we’ve gathered ntions that the Swarm Empress and several of her ministers have shown no physical changes over ti, leading us to suspect they’ve mastered advanced life extension technology. But if they’ve truly achieved consciousness transfer, that would essentially be the equivalent of immortality.”
A collective hiss of astonishnt spread among the group. Lifespan extension was a matter of utmost concern for all intelligent species. If the Swarm had indeed mastered such technology, it would represent an achievent surpassing even the original Ji race.
“No wonder the Rat Folk elite are so committed to guarding this secret. That Keller resisted even under the effects of interrogation drugs. If I had a chance at immortality, trust , I’d protect the secret too,” one team mber remarked.
“Haha, dreaming big, are we? Maybe you should go ask that Rat Folk administrative officer if he’s taking applications for godsons,” another joked.
“Get lost!” Wright barked back, though the group’s conversation had unwittingly shifted to a tone of envy toward the very Rat Folk they once looked down upon. 𝙍ᴀŊ𝖔BÈṤ
“I used to think the connection between the Swarm and the Rat Folk might have been so grand experint initiated by the original Ji race. But now, I’m starting to doubt that. If the original Ji had created the Swarm, they wouldn’t have gone extinct. There wouldn’t even be a ‘new’ Ji race like us.”
The original Ji had excelled in both chanical and biological technology. They had conducted large-scale experints throughout this galaxy, seeding countless planets with “life seeds.” This explained why the density of civilizations in this region was far higher than in others.
“Not necessarily,” soone countered. “Perhaps the original Ji did create the Swarm. Otherwise, why would the Swarm exist here in the first place?”
Previously, the Swarm was believed to be an alien species. No matter how strange their technology, it could be attributed to countless years of unknown developnt. But now, learning that the Rat Folk and the Swarm were intrinsically connected only complicated matters further.
“I think the most pressing question is how this First Empress beca the Swarm Empress.”
“Exactly. If you’re telling the Rat Folk developed the Swarm’s technological path on their own, I wouldn’t believe it in a million years.”
“So where do we start? Right now, we don’t have a clue.”
“Perhaps we should revisit the historical records and see if there’s anything we missed,” soone suggested.
Reviews
All reviews (0)