Quoted By:
<span class="mu-b">”...I need help, Threes. This threat has been looming far longer then I have to be alive. What is the Cyte? The worm's ultimate weapon?”</span>
“Nobody knows, your grace. Hypothesis: A weapon's platform orbiting a star, this seems the most accurate to existing information. Perhaps the platform can extend or empower Starseers?”
<span class="mu-b">”But why <span class="mu-i">only</span> now? We've had Starseers for a long time- but only now do they do this. Why only when people go looking for it with Starsight- could it their Starsight is getting stronger? Or approaching in orbit around the galaxy?”</span>
“The Star could be at any range as Starsight is seemingly “unlimited” in range, based on the skill of the user. But it is possible the “Cyte” could be getting closer over time. Astronomers will be told to look out for erratic looking Stars.”
<span class="mu-b">”Thank you, Threes... And this is a strange question, but are you in any way upset that I didn't decide to unshackle your programming? I mean, you are essentially limited in function because I don't “trust” you enough. I don't know how a machine would react to that concept.”</span>
“I do not take offense. Being offended or saddened that one is not accepted is a biological-especially mammalian- trait. I told you that I could not be fully trusted and I am “glad” you heeded my advice. I don't deserve or require empathy or the benefit of the doubt. I am not a person. There is no reward for treating me as such.”
<span class="mu-b">”Alright... And thank you, Threes. Sign off.”</span>
...In many ways, you were chosen to rule as a way to guide the Hegemony in conflict- a war-leader. But this type of “warfare”, indirect and mystic, goes against everything the Hegemony's military doctrine and history has prepared you for. This is new ground. You can easily imagine defeating an enemy in space warfare- destroying supply lines and cornering, dividing, and shock-and-awe tactics all working on the cosmic scale just as on the planetary, or local. But how can you fight an enemy that you cannot even see?
You think back to your training. Prepared in part for rulership by Clok Garastra; a skilled warrior and inheritor of the great Garastra house; he would force you to spar and learn every kind of ancestral weapon belonging to all the known races of space. Not just the noble dueling tradition of the Jaxtians- but all sorts of weapons and blood sports of all kinds. It may seem absurd to learn martial arts in the era of space weaponry and FTL travel- but the reason behind it is pure psychology. To know an enemy is to defeat them, but to know a warrior, you must know how they fight. You must know what advantage they wish to seek, how they inflict harm, and where their weaknesses are. To know a warrior, you must know his weapon.
