Reneden remembered very little about those who came to the system and destroyed it. That was before Reneden possessed full consciousness. Some people might have considered it better that way. After all, it might hurt less.
But Anton didn’t think feeling pain was bad. It depended on the circumstances, of course, but pain was there for a reason. It was one thing to not be in pain, and quite another to be numb to it. Reneden was afraid, lonely, and confused. Or at least, that was how things <em>had</em> been.
Now confusion was the most prominent. It was hard to be lonely <em>or</em> afraid with Bear Hug around. They were simply the least intimidating individual in the universe despite a nominally high strength. Loneliness couldn’t stand up against an eager friend, not forever.
In some ways, Anton thought things could have been much worse. If Reneden actually had any capacity to fight, things would have felt more dangerous. Not for the travelers, however. Putting up a brave front with no defenses might actually be more empowering than having weapons that were insufficient.
Likewise, Reneden’s rejection of visitors had been an instinct borne of fear- but although they had been lost in thought for countless years, ording to their own words much of that time they had been shut down. Unless there was some sort of stimulus.
Talking about such things was depressing. There were a few things that had to be addressed, though. “The natural energy here is thin,” Anton noted. “Without any… organic life… it will not grow.” Anton supposed it was possible that there were exceptions, but it was certainly easiest to have nts and animals when developing a system.
“That’s why I’m usually in standby,” Renden said. “I canst a long time like that.”
Anton didn’t think that was true. At least, not really. If there was a total operational time, dividing it up into segments didn’t actually make it more. Not for the sake of a <em>person</em>, the experience that Reneden had. It would just be the same… or less, as standby doubtless used <em>some</em> energy. More than made it into the depths.
“We need nts!” Bear Hug said. “We can give you all sorts of cool nts. Trust me, it will be great.” Anton and Bear Hug exined the process. Reneden was hesitant. “Much of the energying in now will go into these nts, before the total grows?”
“That’s correct,” Anton confirmed.
“Then I will die.”
“Of course not,” Bear Hug said. “We’ll make sure you get enough energy.”
The robotic voice was as steady as it could get. “You do not need to lie. I understand my own situation. Without constant observation, I will hit my limit sooner rather thanter in such a scenario. But perhaps that is for the best.”
Anton frowned. “Do you think our offer of help is so shallow? We wouldn’t let that happen.”
“You have matters more important to consider,” Renedenmented. “Even if you don’t speak of it Anton, with your power I am certain you have many responsibilities. Perhaps even this ck hole is more important, as a casual whim.”
Bear Hug said exactly what Anton wanted to express, and without fear of sounding foolish. “People are always the most important. Every single one.” It was a philosophy that the Alliance held that was hard to put into practice. But at the very least, Reneden was important enough regardless of what they thought.
“You cannot stay with me forever,” Reneden said. “I am aware it would take centuries for the to reach a tolerable state. That is an uneptable level of dy.”
Bear Hug put hands on their hips. Reneden was made to interface with humans, after all. “Clearly <em>you</em> haven’t been listening. I’m a multividual.” Bear Hug turned to Anton. “We can wait for me to split, right?”
“Of course,” Anton said. “In fact… it might benefit us for me to bond with the local stars. If that would be alright, Reneden?”
“The stars aren’t mine. Do as you wish.”
“They are more yours than anyone else’s,” Anton said. “You carry the legacy of Reneden, after all.”
-----
The binary stars of Reneden were…fortable. They were the only thing in the system that could be considered lively, with everything else having been wiped out except bits and pieces of structures. Luckily for Reneden the sapient individual, they <em>were</em> practically a structure. Having been ced under the sea to begin with- by very confident builders-rge parts of theputer system hadn’t been fully scuttled. From what remained, Reneden eventually finisheding into being.
Anton had long since filled up his first one hundred stars, so the only option was one of his free stars from beyond Assimtion. The process of bonding one of his ‘free’ stars was quick. However, he still wanted to gain familiarity with the actual stars so that he could guide them. Stars were pretty good at continuing to exist, but except for a single exception they didn’t carry much <em>intent</em>. And that was one of the most beneficial things for any sort of cultivation growth.
Reneden couldn’t be considered a cultivator in the traditional sense. In fact, the energy they held wasn’t really anything like a cultivator. Just like a machine… with a bit more flexibility in usage. Maybe they couldn’t actually cultivate, but they <em>did </em>need a supply of energy. And repairs, but that was going to be an entirely different project. For the moment, without moving about the various bits and pieces hanging around and within the trench, getting more energy to Reneden’s body meant guiding some manually or increasing the total ambient amount. Anton and Bear Hug meant to do both.
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Since neither of them happened to carry a full ecosystem, they began with various nts. Without insects orrger animals, fish in the seas, or a <emplete</em> ecosystem things would copse… but it would take a while. And ultimately, it should be better than nothing as that absorbed natural energy would disperse onto the fourth.
Besides, Bear Hug was going to stay around to maintain things. “I can talk to all sorts of people,” Bear Hug said. “So if you’re ever curious about anything I can ask them.”
“How are you in multiple ces at once without anything in between?”
“Nobody knows!” Bear Hug dered proudly. “Actually, that’s not true. But I think it would take me literally forever to tell you what people have been learning. They have a whole room full of storage devices! I don’t know how much your bits store but let me tell you it’s a lot. Like a million books.”
“Far more than that,” Anton said.
“More than a million books,” Bear Hug continued. “Though most of that isn’t words. Just funky data. And I haven’t been able to look at it all because I’m not allowed to.”
“Why?”
“National secrecy!” Bear Hug said. “I wouldn’t understand it all anyway. Anyway, we’re leaving now so if you have any questions for Anton… ask them anytime!”
“Because I’m also staying here,” Bear Hug’s other body said. “Obviously.”
-----
“System ess denied. Reroute or be exterminated.”
Anton looked over at Bear Hug. “Did we get turned around somehow?”
“Not at all! Plus, there’s so many satellite thingies here it’s obviously a different system, Anton.”
Anton chuckled. “I was justmenting on the simrity of the experience. And it’s not even that far.” Just a few systems away. Perhaps there was a connection with Reneden?
As for why nobody had noted anything, they clearly had a distortive field in ce that made the system feel unupied- and not nearly as energy dense.
Anton supposed he had to respond to the defenses. “It wasn’t our intention to intrude,” Anton held up his hands. “After all, your existence was excellently concealed. We were simply nning to pass through an empty system.”
As he began to retreat… “Do not move.”
Bear Hug was clearly upset, enough to vocalize. “How are we-”
It wasn’t clear what caused it, but the local systems responded to Bear Hug with extreme aggression. Perhaps it was because Bear Hug had to use quite a bit of natural energy to speak, making their actions look aggressive. Anton wasn’t certain, all he saw was the response.
Space was cut apart in a pair of crossing nes that intersected in Bear Hug’s midsection. Anton only felt the distortion, before he grabbed Bear Hug and activated Star Steps to the utmost of his ability. Instantaneous velocity gainunched them outside the domain of the system, though Anton <em>did</em> have to break something one the way out.
He didn’t stop, retreating for a full minute as he jumped the two of them through subspace, changing directions as he curved away from the system. He’d never seen space fall apart so… directly. There hadn’t been anything physical for him to witness the effects on, but Anton was certain the effects would be devastating.
After a minute Anton didn’t feel anyoneing after them, slowing to his normal quite swift travel speed instead of all out movement. He also loosened his grip on Bear Hug. “Why did you drag me away?” Bear Hug asked. “I was going to ask them how we were supposed to both stay and go!”
“They tried to slice you into quarters,” Anton said simply. “Not the sort of people we want to be friends with.”
Of course, Anton was wrong there. “Eh, I’ve had worse,” Bear Hugmented. “Can we go back and try again?”
Anton had to seriously consider it. “Too dangerous,” he said. “Next time I might have to destroy some of their things. Or kill some people.”
“Aww, I don’t want <em>that</em>,” Bear Hug said. “I guess we can go around. We cane backter when they’re not feeling grumpy. You think they’re hungry? People get grumpy when they’re hungry.”
“I was unable to get a proper look at theirs,” Anton said. “So I don’t know. However, with the sort of defenses they had I would be surprised if they didn’t have a solid agricultural system in ce.”
Anton thought back to the spatial weaponry- that was what it had to be. He hadn’t seen anything quite like it, and the power… it was enough to threaten him, at least outside of one of his proper systems. They were far enough from Reneden that it hardly counted, so Anton’s effective power was around Enrichment. Still quite powerful, and the fact that he felt threatened <em>at all</em> was significant.
It took a few days to route far around the system. Anton didn’t want to get within a lightyear of the ce, if they were going to act like that. People deserved to have sovereign territory, but you couldn’t hide, get mad at people for stumbling upon you, then attack them when they tried to leave.
Well, you could. And it was fairly logical if they presumed he was going to reveal their position to enemies… but it was pretty shortsighted. Any sort of effort taken to keep people apprised of his position would reveal them just as much if he suddenly disappeared.
Anton would have respected them more if they opened with an immediate assault instead of a useless warning. Maybe it was meant to make them off guard when an actual attack came. It had worked pretty well.
Slightly altering their route, the pair soon arrived in the next system. Anton wanted to find a with a decent atmosphere and take a nap, but sadly that wasn’t meant to be. The instant Anton felt a change in the world around him he was ready to flee. He was impressed that the other side reacted faster than him. Perhaps this system had sensed theming from outside, despite Anton and Bear Hug’s current efforts to not advertise their presence.
Some form of cage formed around the two of them, made out of pure energy. Anton tried to tear through it, and surprisingly failed. He amped up his natural energy… but reserved himself from making another move. Better to let them believe he couldn’t escape, to see how they would react.
“Intruders one and two, surrender peacefully to the domain of Aretis.”
Huh. These people had multiple systems under their control, based on the surprisingly familiar defensive setup. Perhaps Anton should have been more cautious about such a possibility.