[Campaign] The Corus Expedition | Dr. Shiny's Tau Narrative

<<Janneria Colony, Da’Ieldi Enclave Compound, Fio Research and Development Centre>> 
<<16 Rotaa ago>>

Shas’o Aloh’ka stood at the observation window of the laboratory, with two others.  The first was Fio’el Tinek’wei, the elderly head of the Earth caste’s scientific efforts on the planet.  The other, only recently arrived from Aloh’ka’s home of Da’Ieldi, was Aun’vre Erra’jhi, who had become the most important person on the planet the moment her feet hit the ground.

On the other side of the window, an array of machinery under controlled conditions clustered around and slowly circled two small platforms.  Glass canisters full of various chemicals were attached to various parts of the machinery, green and purple in various shades due to variance in concentrations.  On the platform on their left was a simple earthenware pot, full of soil and containing a plant, green leaves around its base and a central stem drooping with the weight of several pink flowers.

“What did you say this plant was called?”

“The local gue’vesa call it an orchid,” Tinek’wei replied.  Aloh’ka knew it was in fact one of the old man’s own plants, that he was cultivating not only for study, but for his own enjoyment.

Erra’jhi made a face.  “An ork-kid?”

“I don’t think there’s an etymological link.  More importantly, watch.”  Tinek’wei waved his right hand over the console attached to his left, summoning a number of holographic controls, and activated the experiment.

The lights around the room in the orchid chamber turned from a neutral white to red as the chamber locked tight, and arrays of lights on the machinery switched on and off or changed colour to denote a change in state that Aloh’ka could only speculate at.  The arms circling the two platforms gained speed, and even on the other side of the glass they could hear a mechanical hum gaining volume.  From a display on a nearby monitor, he inferred that ozone gas was being pumped invisibly into the chamber, and to him it seemed the lights on the rotating arms were now leaving faint phosphorescent trails in the air behind them.

He became aware over the course of several seconds that the plant on the platform was, to his eye, blurring as if becoming insubstantial, or simply vibrating so quickly as to not quite appear to be staying still.  As the machinery reached a crescendo, crackling energy burst from within the plant, splattering bits of smouldering matter all over the room, and the experiment slowed down to a gradual halt.  The three tau watched in silence until the lights in the room returned to white.

Aloh’ka turned to look at Tinek’wei.  “You brought an Ethereal all the way here to watch you explode a plant?”

Tinek’wei, by contrast, was nearly giddy with excitement, as he motioned with his chin to the right side of the room.  “Look at the other platform.”

Aloh’ka and Erra’jhi did indeed look, and could see a small pile of vaguely pinkish dust on the platform.

“Hm,” Erra’jhi said, diplomatically.  “Perhaps you might grace us with some further elaboration?”

Tinek’wei didn’t need to be told twice.  “Of course!  The experiment, as you might surmise, involves an application of technology many known alien species possess, which we currently do not.”

That was easy enough to figure out.  “Teleportation,” Aloh’ka said, his eyes still on the mess in the chamber.

“Exactly.  The gue’la Imperium has such a capability, but it operates on very similar principles to their ships’ warp drive technology, having the matter enter the Warp and reappear elsewhere.  With all the attendant problems we’ve had with that.”

“Warp energies induce chaotic outcomes in all attempts to harness it, sometimes with catastrophic results.”

“Just so.  And what’s worse, the gue’la no longer fully understand the technology themselves, so when we asked this planet’s gue’vesa engineers about how it worked, their responses were far from useful.”

Aloh’ka, scrutinising the chemical canisters attached to the failed teleporter, made a small leap in logic.  “The purple chemical, is that dioxazine?”

Tinek’wei beamed with pride at the commander.  “You’re catching on.  We can synthesise dioxazine, of course, but the Ves’ron attack earlier this tau’cyr resulted in a quantity of an unusually refined version of the substance floating around the system.  Literally, of course: but fortunately for me the Kor’vattra were willing to fly around scooping up enough from the empty space to use in these experiments.

“Now, the Ves’ron’s technology is very different to the gue’la’s.  In particular, they haven’t been observed interacting with the Warp at all.  How much of their technology works remains somewhat mysterious at the moment, but the simple fact that it is all based on the physics of this universe means that, if we can figure out how it operates, chances are it will actually make sense.  For example, take a look at this.”  Tinek’wei summoned a hologram in the air, drawing a graph with several colour-coded lines scrawled across it.

“Ah, yes, I see,” Aloh’ka said sagely.  He and Erra’jhi’s eyes met, and the Ethereal smirked at him.

Tinek’wei tilted his head.  “You don’t have the faintest idea what this is, do you?”

“Not even slightly.”

“It’s a graph of the interplay of various energies during the experiment you just witnessed.” He looked at them himself.  “I admit, they don’t mean a great deal without an understanding of the wider context, but they are significantly more useful to our research than asking the gue’vesa about praying to machine spirits and the proper way to prepare holy water to throw on delicate components.”

“It occurs to me,” The Aun’vre scrutinised the data with no better comprehension than Aloh’ka did, “That were we to acquire information from the Ves’ron themselves about how their teleportation technology works, it might provide a great deal of assistance to your research.”

“And that, I suspect, is where my cadre enters the equation.”  It was Aloh’ka’s turn to tap a wrist computer, though his hologram was of a planet.  “The Kor’vattra have been cataloguing planets in the ves’ron ship’s escape vector, trying to find where their raids originate.  This is AO-41, currently held by the gue’la Imperium, but with clear energy spikes of ves’ron activity.”

“Have the Water caste attempted diplomacy to persuade the inhabitants to consider the virtues of the Tau’va?”

“Not yet.  But we do have a Jannerian gue’vesa operating on the planet as a reconnaissance agent.  The diplomats will have their time to talk to the gue’la population eventually, but conflict between the gue’la and the ves’ron will be inevitable.  If we want to send an expedition to acquire data or material for learning the secrets of their teleportation capabilities, it may have to be soon.  Otherwise the local ves’ron will either be purged, and the data lost; or the escalating conflict will cause the ves’ron to reinforce their presence on the planet to the point that a raid on their vulnerable points becomes implausible.”

He turned to the Ethereal.  “Aun’vre, I ask if you would endorse this endeavour.”

Aun’vre Erra’jhi looked him in the eye, her face betraying none of her thoughts until her gaze shifted to the room covered in splattered orchid.  “The alternative is returning to attempts to study and tame the Warp, and this has never served the Greater Good, for any of us.”  She paused.  “Shas’o Aloh’ka, I do so endorse your expedition.”

Aloh’ka made a traditional sign of respect for the Ethereal: adjusting his fingers to form a rhombus shape, each corner representing the four major castes of the Tau race; the shape as a whole representing the fifth and most vital caste, its shape mirrored by the bony ridge on the forehead of every Ethereal, including the one standing before him.  She honoured him with a small bow of her head, and he turned to leave, to prepare his forces.

“Shas’o!” Erra’jhi halted him at the doorway.  “The gue’la breed some form of enhanced soldier class for their wars.  I believe they call them ‘Astartes’.  Do you know if any have been sighted on AO-41?”

Shas’o was familiar with the warriors of whom she spoke, having faced such before.  “There have, Aun’vre. A small force so far, wearing red armour.  What of them?”

Erra’jhi was clearly thinking; he suspected she was recalling some additional business to which he was not privy.  “Intelligence on their capabilities, in the event of Imperial reprisals, might also be considered valuable.”

How nice to be one step ahead.  “That is among the objectives our field agent was tasked with observing.  As long as he has not been caught, I shall be happy to share whatever data he has collected.”