LF Friends, Will Travel

Why we said yes - Scythen

"Thank you for your time, you've been very helpful."

Zantari gave a small wave with their amphibian arm to the Yunni diplomat: "Trekn, Son of Trekn, born on the third rock along the river". The frog-like creature did the same, their brightly coloured skin hidden underneath the suit that all Yunni wore when not on their home planet. It was less for their protection and more for the protection of everyone around them, since the amphibian species constantly secreted a toxic poison from their skin.

Zantari was sort of lying as they left the meeting room on this neutral Federation space station, heading towards their vessel, on their way to yet another scheduled meeting. 35 meetings had been had, 35 species who all explained why they had joined with the Terrans, and the Ghirlinn still felt confused.

No matter who they talked to, no matter the type of species, they all gave a different answer. Sometimes the Terrans were aggressive, other times peaceful. They would endeavour to travel the ends of the galaxy, or settle down and make permanent homes on alien planets. They offered a great amount of bureaucracy and stability where needed, but were also known for being chaotic and random. It felt like every single person Zantari had spoken to saw the Terrans differently. If they didn't know better, the Ghirlinn wondered if somehow 50 different species had all taken the name.

At this point, Zantari believed that their meeting with the Terrans was probably going to go OK. Although they had never interacted with a species as advanced as the Ghirlinn, the Terrans seemed to have one central point of being liked by most people. The issue was, to a species as advanced as the Ghirlinn, probably wasn't good enough.

When you can calculate the position and velocity of the entire universe to a Planck length and have the technological ability to play god, unknowns and probably's become a sea of indecision. The idea that something couldn't be planned out perfectly in advance was one that Zantari refused to accept. They could move planets and change reality, and these adorably cute and infuriating chaos primates weren't going to be the ones to add an element of unknown to the very knowable life the Ghirlinn lived in.

"Questioning statement: Zantari, just what exactly are you doing?"

Zantari had been so engrossed in thought, they hadn't noticed the figure approaching from ahead, the electronic voice forcing them to snap out of their thoughts as their focus returned to what stood before them. The Ghirlinn had to suppress an annoyed groan as they saw the mass of tentacles that represented the Scythen.

They 'stood' as all Scythens did, which is to say not at all. The Scythen were a strange species, not following the conventional rules of evolution, made up of a writhing mass of bioluminescent colour changing tentacles, as if a 3 foot ball of spaghetti was created by an aspiring artist. They rested upon a complicated floating metal disk that allowed the physically fragile species to move freely and communicate easily with the rest of the galaxy. The default Scythen language was a complicated thing involving colour changes and signing with their dozens of appendages, so a robotic translation into something more akin to speech was necessary for any Scythen to communicate with others.

"I don't know what you mean, I'm just walking to my ship. Haven't seen you in a few hundred years <¡¡¡>, how have you been?"

There was a moment as Zantari adjusted their physiology to correctly convey the changes in colour that represented the Scythen's name: '<¡¡¡>'. The amphibian's hand flashing with various colours as the Ghirlinn spoke. While the reacquaintance of the pair was tense, there was no harm in being polite.

The Ghirlinn obviously knew about the Scythen species, as they were the closest thing to a near peer competitor in this galaxy. Probably would have been a superior species if their culture hadn't taken such a disastrous shift after their mistake.