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"What am I looking at?" Edu'frec asked. Gaia had taken his android to a small room with a single holographic projector connected to a power outlet. The room was generally devoid of any other features, with grey drywall and a concrete floor. The ceiling was also concrete, poured quickly by construction robots.
He narrowed their location to several cities within the Guulin Congressional Republic, the only area with so much of this housing. It was where the freed Guulin slaves from the United Legions had gone, a new nation shaped mostly around the Hudson Bay, for which Canada had ceded in an agreement they were still getting paid back handsomely.
In fact, the Guulin Congressional Republic's economy was outpacing even those of the Pan-Andes Union and China together. It was on its way to adding India and America to the list of nations its combined GDP would surpass.
With the unique economic system Phoebe had helped President Blistanna pioneer, the pittance of money available to pay everyone for their work was enough for them to survive. Phoebe subsidized the entire nation with her vast wealth and workforce, building housing, meat factories, additional production facilities for desalinated water, and specialized city foundations.
Essentially, the entire nation was a single metropolis wrapping around the Bay, glowing as bright as the economic cores of the richest nations on Earth. Given their past conditions, the Guulin's reception was broadly warm. Blistanna's outreach and diplomacy efforts had ensured that every nation on Earth and Luna recognized the Republic and allowed Guulin to immigrate or visit with visas.
It was reflected in the North American Hub Airport, which had nearly 30,000 planes arriving and departing from its roughly 200 runways. Technically, the airport was 20 smaller complexes arrayed in the general Winisk area along the beach.
The city had been built to accommodate the number of flying planes, with an array of monorails and hotels near the edges of the airport, complete with shielding layers for noise cancellation and protection measures. The greater array of shields around the Republic also shined brightly in the sky.
Using his eyes, he could even see the reflected light underneath the door, even on the concrete. All his thoughts and analysis had taken less than a second. That was much the same as before his risky encounter with the power of his own mind turning against him. Edu'frec was wary of such experiences again and watched himself with many vigilant VI programs. The most important points of failure last time were the data veins, so several thousand VIs had been jointly made by him and Phoebe precisely to address that.
They weren't directly managed by Edu'frec, which should allow them to continue their operations and transform them if he went into collapse again. Phoebe's concern over him continued to dominate her mind, and it showed no signs of stopping.
He was glad that she loved him so much. Not everyone was as lucky as him, and a parent like her was wonderful. Ri'frec's eccentricities meant they'd grown apart a bit as Edu'frec had gotten older, but their relationship was also loving. Sadly, it could never be as deep as the one with Phoebe because there was just so much that Ri'frec couldn't know and understand.
Even the pace of their conversations reflected that, as did Ri'frec's moderate inferiority complex to Phoebe which he knew about and was seeking counseling for. It was inevitable, though Edu'frec hoped that he could get what he needed, considering the rising costs of counseling and therapy these days.
Phoebe subsidized those, too.
"This is the rough area where the planet cracker hit Earth several years ago. I've been monitoring the energy and consistency of the plates here, and I'm seeing some worrying upwelling in the crust," Gaia said. The hologram showed a topographic map of the Atlantic Ocean, centered on the North American Basin and with the edge of the mid-ocean ridge in view.
Several areas resembling an impact crater remained from the desperate scramble to save Earth from a planet cracker impact. Much of the ocean's topography had been altered since most of the protective efforts were saved for a perimeter area around the impact before the energy delivered could punch through the mantle to deliver its powerful impact to the planetary core.
"So we'll see a new mountain range in several millennia?"
That was what the data showed. The eastern edges of the North American Plate and the western edges of the African and Eurasian Plates had fractured into dozens of smaller pieces, generating massive earthquakes every few months in the region. In some places, the lateral movement of the larger plates outward as pulling on the smaller ones rotationally, making them rotate slowly into the other plates that could only subduct or buckle in response after large earthquakes. It was just another small thing that had changed since the beginning of all this mess with the First Contact.
Luckily, the zone was underwater, and the city and national shields every inhabited landmass on the planet were equipped with ensured all the tsunamis could do was splash against them. Some were very big waves, too, which would have killed thousands in floods.
It had also required shields to be placed on tethered platforms in the sea connected to the seafloor by a series of heavy anchors, which generated shields to both disrupt the waves and provide safe travel corridors for cargo ships.
"No. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is still fractured, but all I can see is that there is movement in the crust which cannot be explained by our current theories. Now that our shields are capable of it, and with my power having grown so large, we can conduct vertical expeditions and topographic mapping of the actual rock itself. That is what I want to do, because I believe there is an object of non-natural origin responsible for some of the earthquakes we have seen."
Lists of earthquakes from thousands of 7 and 8 Richter scale movements to the roughly monthly 9 and above earthquakes appeared.
"I specifically believe that the 9.7 and above earthquakes are not natural generations. There should not be enough energy between the plates to generate that level of energy where they are being made. Including the 10.5 which resulted in the loss of nearly half the shield platforms two years ago, along with several plate fractures. Alone, they suggest a pattern which coincides roughly with the perigee of Luna."
He checked the data, and it mostly panned out. He gave Gaia a small nod but then spoke on the point he'd noticed.
"But only roughly."
"Yes. Its period is off by a small but significant time, though the current ones correspond to a far older Lunar orbital cycle, which would line up perfectly with the perigee of the Lunar orbit as of roughly 65 million years ago."
They paused to let Edu'frec absorb the meaning of that. And it was true, too. The timeframe they'd mentioned was worrying, though. When things lined up with mass extinctions and violent upheaval in the past, it wasn't a good sign. Sometimes, treating the world like it was a story was the better option. Fate was real, and the tropes seen in stories had happened before.
Edu'frec was sure that eventually, the old enemies who had escaped the Alliance would return once again: Exii'darii, Yasihaut, Aphid, the fleet of generals and commanders who had left Izkrala and never returned for an unknown reason. Reality could be and was altered by incredibly powerful entities, which had the ability and willingness to do so again. Time rolled back damage from their future wars. Luck determined many nebulous things, as did Fate.
Neither of them were as absent as they appeared. Universal entities had been crammed into a scant few galaxies. The idea that they wouldn't meddle in every aspect of it had long been disproven. So the alignment was a bad sign. He readied all known data on the extinction, from the asteroid to the earlier volcanic eruptions before it.
Even wilder theories of direct alien interventions and occupations on Earth were not discounted. Since it seemed everyone could inhabit the same planets with few exceptions like the Pselpaw and Dreedeen, Earth as a habitable world would have been a target of colonial efforts by any nearby nations or those whom the Sprilnav had not managed to contact to impose a system limit.
Ironically, the system limits also greatly lessened the number of wars between galactic nations. The Alliance would be forced to uphold this system if it overthrew them until a better alternative could be implemented, like merging some of those nations.
"So... what are you saying?"
"I believe there is an alien object dating back to the Cretaceous Extinction. There are references to something that could be similar in my memories."
"So you came here in an some sort of transport, then?"
"I am not sure," Gaia admitted, their eyes flicking downward. "My earliest memories are highly spotty, and I know at least some are artificial. However, I can trace my existence on Earth back at least 40 million years, so it is not impossible that my origin is tied to this object, or perhaps others like it. Maybe the planet cracker activated it through direct impact somehow."
Edu'frec absorbed that. The information was shocking and it was a little worrying that it was coming out now. The secrecy might have been warranted, but he knew there was more he had yet to hear. He gave Gaia an expectant look, and they settled upon a small chair.
"Do you have evidence of any ancient civilizations inhabiting Earth at the time?"
"No. Earth has remained untouched for at least that 50 million years, perhaps longer. Though the date of the Cretaceous extinction also lines up to a worrying degree with how far back the Source's location in the mindscape moved here. In fact, the Source almost seems like it is deliberately staying near Earth. The galaxy's rotation, as well as the Sol system's individual movement and Earth's orbit logically should mean the location changes over time. But it does not. The bones have been here for at least that long, perhaps down to the exact time. I have no finite data to support my following theories, but I think they are important for me to tell you, and more so for you to keep secret."
"Very well," Edu'frec agreed. "I can keep a secret, as long as it does not endanger the Alliance."
Gaia considered his caveat, then nodded. Several locks of hair fell in front of their chest before psychic energy moved it back to Gaia's back. Their glittering black eyes and light green skin looked quite menacing. Of course, he only observed that. Most of his negative emotions were still locked away, as he had no need for them.
"I believe the Source has a limited ability to predict the future. It also has complete control of the mindscape, especially in the deeper levels. So my theory is that the Source came here to attack something, and that it is still here because of us. Us as in Humanity, the Alliance, Penny. There is a dark secret in the Earth, one which we must uncover."
"And that the Cretaceous extinction was actually the Source's attempt to either kill or seal something that was here, and is related to you in some way?"
"Yes. And do you notice how much time Paizma and John spend by the oceans?"
"That is hardly evidence."
He knew what they were going for but wanted to ensure that there was at least some sound information behind it before he committed. Generally, he could arrive at conclusions quickly and form detailed algorithms for detecting which data was relevant and which wasn't. Recently, he'd developed a few algorithms that could actually incorporate a meaningful relevance scale.
It was something that many had been capable of before him, even with VIs. However, the scale of the data he worked with required high degrees of accuracy in the number and a truly quantifiable difference between a piece of data with 76.27362% and 76.27364% relevancy, for example. And the quantity had to be something he and Phoebe could intrinsically understand and use in their common applications.
Sadly, the other AIs in the Alliance, like Cander, Greenfly, and Blackfly, could not process such large amounts of data. He'd seen the terms 'static' and 'active' AI to separate them.
"Yes, but Paizma is four-dimensional. That means she can see a far larger part of Earth than we can, including the inside. In fact, with four-dimensional geometry involved, all of her locations would have been capable of viewing the Mid-Atlantic. We don't know who she really is, or the upper limit of her power. She was made by the Sprilnav. Is it not possible that her reason for interest is that she detects a danger or a threat nearby?"
"It is possible," Edu'frec admitted. He'd considered her Sprilnav origins far more than almost anyone else. He knew that if she was a threat, the Alliance needed a way to fight her and win. Because if she wasn't, the Sprilnav could make more enemies like her. Clandestine research into 4-dimensional detection systems and arrays was ongoing, though the only way they were even possible was with either speeding space energy or psychic energy.
Edu'frec knew that Paizma had psychic energy, at least, meaning it was a medium capable of interaction with the fourth spatial dimension. "Though that part of your theory is the weakest. It is likely suspicion talking. It is just like how the soul-creatures deeper in the mindscape resemble dragons in many ways. A neat coincidence, but there is no direct evidence saying that is what people actually managed to see. However, your theory is highly concerning. Do you believe you were put here as a response to whatever was or is here by an outside threat?"
"I do not, but I also admit that is possible," Gaia said. "I don't know what I am, though I didn't take a human form before meeting Humanity in general."
"Can you show me your previous forms?"
Gaia did so. Edu'frec logged each one and took a further interest in all of them. He ran them through every single image he had on file, and besides heaps of VI-generated data from the early 2030s, there were no similarities. He checked more datasets provided by Phoebe's espionage efforts in the wider galaxy.
"Is that..."
He parsed a new set of images from a very worrying location. Historical records bequeathed from the People's Autonomous Stars. Kashaunta's nation.
"What?" Gaia asked nervously. "What is it?"
"You're..."
"Just spit it out."
"You're a psychic golem. Made from shredded souls melted by torture and atrocity."
Gaia blinked. They crossed their arms, descending deep into thought for 10 minutes. They were clearly re-examining their life and all the steps that led up to this point. Edu'frec could imagine how much of a shock that would be.
Eventually, Gaia steadied their emotions, and their gaze fell intensely on Edu'frec's eyes.
"From who?" It was a demand laced with abject desperation and nearly full to bursting with curiosity. With thousands or millions of years with no new information, how would Gaia feel anything else?
"A Sprilnav splinter regime that was eventually destroyed in a very large galactic war, one responsible for the destruction of over 3 million nations and several quintillion deaths. The reason the Sprilnav list for the war was 'morally bankrupt practices and rituals so illegal the Everlasting himself fought by our side.' Given that the Elders who wrote that reasoning have associated death tolls in the quadrillions, that's quite concerning."
Edu'frec read the more detailed descriptions given of the atrocities that occurred. Abject horror and disgust broke his emotional locks. He created a few thousand VIs to get a handle on them. But the emotions were so powerful they were never completely subdued, either.
He saw people being marched by the millions into machines glittering with psychic energy, with thick wires emanating from them. Then he got to the video footage of the interiors. They were designed to extract as much suffering as possible from living beings. The very first part was 'processing' where the ending digits - tentacle tips, horn tips, fingers, toes, hooves, claws, and even beaks and vestigial graspers - were cut from the victims with dulled saws and fed to them.
The depraved accounts only worsened. Acid. Cooking. Flaying. Slow dismemberment, while being subjected to the other three. More atrocities, which alone were evil things, but together made a regime unique in its terrible, meticulous, and industrialized genocides. Edu'frec split his mind in half to deal with the disgust and revulsion rippling through him like the winds of a hurricane.
They flashed with every new recorded scream, squeal, and squeak. Many of his androids released their finer movements to the control of VI assistant programs, and his data veins started to swell. Soon, fifteen thousand digital strokes hit his mind. Dedicated programs cut them apart, along with the piling data on the deep level of distress starting to overwhelm his defenses.
"So what did they do?"
Edu'frec was silent for a whole five seconds. He limited the scope of what he would say before proceeding. Phoebe checked in on him, and he sent her a small packet of information on what he'd found. It was the first data packet he'd ever assigned to the maximum level of content warning between him and Phoebe: a 10. He also added a note that it would be an 11 if the scale was to be properly adjusted.
Manes shook across the Sol system as androids rebooted. Phoebe gave him a digital nod and helped him purge his systems of the filth polluting them. Even more concerning, there was a residual conceptual effect to it. It was weak, but strong for an event tens of millions of years old.
Though now, Edu'frec knew why, at a terrible cost.
"They managed to breach the Source's afterlife and caused the death of nearly a tenth of the Sprilnav inside it and all of the ancient species prior to the Source war that managed to survive there. More specifically, they figured out a way to generate power using the power of living and dead souls, and managed to kill a Progenitor before Nova took their power source for himself and detonated their stars in supernovae.
Apparently the Stannic Resistance's leaders are all still alive, and being continually imbued with Conceptual Suffering by the Source. You, Gaia, were made by them. I believe the reason you are on Earth is because the Source is here, and this is the best location in the galaxy to influence the afterlife, or to destroy it. It also happens to be very close to their prison. The bones of the Source are their prison, in fact. If this has to relate to the device buried in the oceanic crust... this is a threat I am required to disclose."
Gaia nodded. Their eyes blinked away tears. "Don't tell them how I was made if you don't have to. I would rather not be seen like that."
"I won't," Edu'frec promised. He grabbed Gaia's hands, looking into their worried eyes. "We'll get through this together. You saved my life. It's time for me to pay you back."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"What do you think?" Space asked. "It does seem like Indrafabar is practicing interference."
"The boundary is beyond this," Lecalicus said. "He is participating as a High Judge, not a Progenitor. And yes, the lines will be muddier, but there needs to be a higher backing for this trial besides Justicar alone. The rest of Sprilnav society and Indrafabar himself knows this. Technically, Nova and Filnatra are also High Judges, but they have avoided this trial entirely for the reasons of their bias. Indrafabar had a bit of rapport after his prior run-in with Penny on the flagship."
"But that is not for you to decide."
"This is a Sprilnav Judgment, and Justicar himself has allowed it. He is able to avoid Progenitor mental manipulations by the sheer size of his mind. Only Nova could control him, and imperfectly at that. I assume that the rest of the concept entities know this as well."
"But he is interfering in the affairs of the Sprilnav."
"He is a Sprilnav," Lecalicus said. "Unlike with Nova or Twilight, I have confidence in his impartiality in this case."
He cringed as yet another piece of Death's energy wracked his soul. Penny's attempt to heal him had done nearly nothing in the end, sadly. Lecalicus hoped that she would become more capable later on, though it was a bit much for her to stand against the full weight of Death at her young age, with her paltry capabilities.
They were impressive on a local timeframe, but that didn't mean she wasn't weak. If even Nova wasn't able to dispel Lecalicus' pain, as the other Progenitor had messaged him, then it was unlikely that Penny could do so in his place. And it was probably more important for her to focus on the Judgment and freeing the slaves on Justicar.
Lecalicus was still very tired, though. Weakness and lethargy clung to his bones. They were weak and brittle now, and he suspected that he would die if he was hit by a planet cracker in his current state. Space's energy counteracted Death's brutality, forcibly displacing his energy and dumping it into a black hole, which only she or Time could retrieve energy from. In fact, she had a small black hole in the room, though it was separated from him by a spatial barrier. A portal allowed the light from its accretion disk to dimly shine so he could see without being burned by the heat.
It was a massive statement of power, though Space had even more than that. Had Death's attack been a single thing, Lecalicus would have been rid of it by now. But it wasn't. It was a continuous, agonizing punishment, siphoned from the raw power Death now had from the deaths of countless beings across the universe after the Source war.
"Justicar is friendly overall to Penny," Space said. "That means Indrafabar will oppose him."
"Why do you think that?"
"It would be a good reason for him to be there. To uphold the standards of the elite Sprilnav classes."
"You forget that Indrafabar is their voice, too," Lecalicus replied. A thin trickle of blood ran from his snout, which Space started to heal. "Even more than Kashaunta as an Elder. She is the second richest Sprilnav, and he is the first. His title, the Digital King, rings as a true one in many nations that reserve a spot for his absolute rule, mostly to benefit from name-brand recognition and many Elders' lack of willingness to test themselves against a defending Progenitor.
That's how he started, after all. Selling his protection to Elders who couldn't afford to risk shunning it or him. Many of his deals provide a constant stream of income, and with the civil wars he refuses to interfere in between nations, he backs both ways; he can get new contract offers all the time. If I were not insane or more focused on politics, I could do the same thing.
Us Progenitors just have to ask for something to get it, but Indrafabar manufactures goodwill by at least compensating people for what he buys. Do you really think that I used money to pay for my food or drinks during the days of my insanity? That the revolving door of wives I had were being compensated in any way besides my own endowments? I would say not."
"Yet, they are dead now," Space said, a smile quirking on her lips. "They are dead, and I have you all to myself now."
"Yes, but we can't enjoy that currently. The risk is too high."
"I know. Tell me, Lecalicus. If Indrafabar is the voice of the elite, what happens if another Progenitor disagrees?"
"They won't publically. That weakens our collective image and reputation. Other Progenitors are honorary members of the elite, such as me, Nova, Twilight, Maya, Filnatra, and Arneladia, but only Twilight, Nova, and Filnatra likely have any true membership. They have stores of wealth in the top 2% of Elders, which is enough to get by without demanding anything."
"And your wealth?"
"You would know about that, Space. Considering how I have gotten it in the past."
He let out a hacking cough, clearing his vision again by tearing out his eyes and regrowing them. The numbed pain meant it was easy for him, and Space had seen that many times now. Twilight likely enjoyed the limb ripping more than he did, though.
"Yes, by teleporting gold and alloys from several nation's federal reserves, generally causing massive economic problems inside them after the news leaked. I remember."
"Mine is in the top 35%. It is far harder to amass the wealth Elders have when they have lived for billions of years trying to make more of it. Often, even the poorest Elders can make a fortune through inheritances, or by literally just working a job for a billion years. A salary of a million credits a year for a billion years would equal a quadrillion credits, after all."
"How do you all not go insane?"
"The same way you guys don't. Our emotions of boredom and those related to it can be numbed or eliminated on command. Elders have lots of time to train their minds and bodies. Progenitors do more, refining our very souls to be resilient. It is how Twilight survived the black hole, and why I supposedly can destroy the universe if I go on a sufficiently furious rampage."
"The reason you can do that is because to raise your levels of conceptual energy to alter reality requires direct input from the soul. At your levels you can take that from the prospective 'end' of your lives, burning years or eons for bursts of power. Of course, the problem is that you are immortal. So even if you go insane and are in constant pain from a shattered soul, even the pieces are enough to power the rampage. And the soul is more than just psychic energy."
"Yes," Lecalicus agreed. "That is what you all say. But that is not why we're here, either. It is about Indrafabar. He has done perhaps the least outwardly visible interference of any Progenitors in contact with Penny. As much as any of us can be, he is a good man. In certain circumstances, I would trust him with my life."
"And which would you not?" Space asked, raising an eyebrow like humans did. She was wearing the form of one, though with a sense of overwhelming weight and scale to her that was typical of her more powerful forms. It was needed to influence Death's grip on Lecalicus at all.
"If his or Nova's was at stake as well, and the cost of their survival was my life. Nearly every sentient creature, and many animals as well, would prioritize their own survival over any other, and Indrafabar is a Progenitor because of Nova. That is not a debt that can be paid back, no matter how many times he saves Nova's life."
"And how many did he do that again?"
"Around 10 to 20 times, all during the Source war. Past that, nothing. Nova is entirely biological, so it isn't like an AI could hack him. Though one could connect to him through psychic energy, and attack him that way as a psychic variant of AI like Phoebe or Narvravarana."
"Isn't that a threat?"
"Nova's conceptual name is the Everlasting among the Sprilnav," Lecalicus said. "He is the most powerful being in the universe who was actually born of a womb or of any creator. Invading his mind is so laughably foolish even Narvravarana never tried it more than once when they almost went to war."
"I heard of that," Space said. "But I do not understand why that is impossible."
"If you move slower than light, can you escape the inside of a black hole purely by motion?"
"No. Well, a hypothetical person could not. I could, because I'm built different."
Lecalicus chuckled. "Yes. Well, trying to take over Nova's mind is like trying to walk out of a black hole. He is conceptually powerful enough to have his own event horizon in his mind he can create with psychic energy. He can close off, and everything inside will die.
One creature has survived even temporary imprisonment in there, and it is a speeding space entity of the Broken God's Pantheon. But while Nova is the pinnacle of all life, that does not mean he does not want our help when we can give it. I know you two aren't exactly friendly, but he really does mean well. He just doesn't know what he wants sometimes, and his ego and emotions get in the way of his prudence."
"Indrafabar's involvement on the trial is not acceptable."
"It is not optimal, Space. But if the trial is not seen as fair by the elites, they will declare it void. That has happened before. Kashaunta's predecessor as the richest non-Elder died that way. He ran out of allies, and even Justicar's token objection to the violation of the trial rules was ignored. There comes a point where only the social contract holds back the fury of hatred. If this Judgment, the talk of every household in the Secondary Galaxy and soon in a Primary Galaxy meeting, is seen as illegitimate, it will have dire consequences.
Rebellions, rogue nations. Yasihaut's backers would happily sanction an attack against the Alliance to drive a wedge between Penny and Kashaunta. Now they know there is some tension thanks to their treaty meeting, which Valisada recorded. And they know that Pennyonly grows more powerful. Look at her power, and you can see."
Space did so. Her eyes glazed over, and Lecalicus worked in a cough that had been building up for a while.
"What is that?"
"Her new name among the Sprilnav, spoken by everyone aware of her. The Liberator."
"But the recursive effect alone-"
"Will be massive. But look closer," Lecalicus told her.
"What- oh."
Space was silent for a long moment. Ghostly images of random humans appeared in the room. Small glimmers of psychic and conceptual power linked all of them. The hivemind's network grew until it was fully on display in the single room. Normally, the 15 or 16 billion humans wouldn't fit in a single room. But Space didn't care about those rules. Bodies crossed without intersection, and a pale apparition of the hivemind appeared over them.
Incredibly, Penny and several other humans were a level 'above' the rest, though Lecalicus recognized only Penny, Tsonga, and Nichole. They almost looked like nodes in the hivemind's network, really. Penny was still gently connected, though nothing of substance could be shared over such an extreme distance, especially within any reasonable time frame.
The hivemind's glowing colors brightened, and Space grew concerned. Lecalicus watched as her grip on the conceptual power weakened slightly. The hivemind's arm twitched. The 'nodes' began to vibrate as their expressions became ones of immense determination. Small pockets of effort bubbled up in a rippling wave across the hivemind, separating into distinct blocks.
Lecalicus noticed a block of humans that were smaller than normal. Tens of thousands of fetuses, with stronger genetics than usual. He smiled.
Cloning.
He'd keep that a secret. He couldn't afford an interference penalty, and Penny might really kill him if he leaked the existence of a human cloning project.
How odd, that I now fear her, he mused. It spoke both to how far he'd fallen, and how far she'd risen.
Each block began to coordinate, all without the humans inside them knowing. The nodes did, though, and kept fighting. Space shrugged and released the vision. The room returned to normal, and they shared a long, contemplative silence.
Lecalicus loved a good wait when it didn't leave him nothing to distract himself from the dull ache of his pain and the jolts of power Death sent into him to keep requiring Space's treatment. She sucked in a breath of the gas which filled the room, which had properties Lecalicus didn't understand. Calling it 'air' didn't really cut it.
"So that was enlightening. Humanity is more powerful than I hoped."
"The hivemind," Lecalicus said. "She is still connected to it, and thus every heap of power she gains attaches a scrap of the Liberator name to all of Humanity. Champion is weak as a title, but Liberator is strong. Too strong for her own good."
"What does that mean for her, and for us?"
"For us? It means we might be seeing some more freedom here soon. But for them? Fire, dust, and blood."
"Is that why?" Space asked.
"Why what?"
"Why Indrafabar is on the trial."
"It might be a reason. I don't know his exact motivations, and can only approximate. Part of his reason could be 'because I can' or to express his power as a Progenitor to force even Justicar to move on his own planet to make room for him in the highest profile trial he's had in thousands of years. Indrafabar's ego is not dormant, let's just say. But I would expect Penny's actions to come up in the trial.
Remember, all Yasihaut, the Challenger, has to prove to the court is that the Defendant, Penny, is a threat to the Sprilnav, and successfully lump the Alliance. If she manages to convict Penny alone, it would cause problems for her."
"How?"
"Because if Penny knew she was about to die, and was in the room with her most hated rival, do you really think conceptual armor would stop Penny from killing her this time? She already has a weapon capable of breaching that armor, and the strength to wield it. With two utterances, she could get it and then ensure it reaches Yasihaut."
"It would be a foolish decision."
"To kill a rival in one's final breath is the dream of many, alien or Sprilnav. But the court will not be partial toward the Alliance, that is for sure. Penny will have an uphill battle, and Phoebe is not allowed to represent her for this one either. As for the Judgment, it is a trial that will be harder to keep fact-based than the last one, which ended up in a massive battle and the crippling of me and Twilight, the abduction of Nilnacrawla, and even the extra pushes by the AIs of the Alliance along the Path. Speaking of which, there has been a development with Edu'frec."

My perfectionism is ruining everything and i don’t know what to do. I’m so worried about everything and feel as if im in a corner.
Ive tried counselling but it never worked out, i didn’t feel like i could answer honestly because i didn’t want them to think of me in a certain way: like telling them id been in school four days rather than the one. To me it seemed pathetic to miss it, and that it would make me seem like a “failure”.
Most of my problems with parents stem from perfectionism, it’s the only time we fight. I feel like they don’t understand like i know it’s in my head but i don’t know what to do to help change things.
School : is where my perfectionism is most evident. I regularly miss tests due to the extreme anxiety that i’ll mess up even if i know the topic inside and out.
Assignments suck because i procrastinate to the point i can’t get anything done (i’ve yet to hand in a history essay) and than this leads to me missing classes and days incase a teacher confronts me or they hand back the corrected work. Most of my subjects are project based (20% of the final points) and we will be starting them soon, i’m already dreading them as i know i’ll struggle and i know my parents are dreading them too. For example we had to embroider something for the JC and i kept redoing it over and over even thought it was decent my mother but so frustrated with me she finished it herself.
I’ve gave up so many hobbies due to this too. A bass i wanted for years for me to only play a couple of times and never pick up again after breaking a string because i was too embarrassed to practice and sound bad even though that’s how it works. A sport i gave up after years because i thought everyone even the new players were better than me.
The mental help team in my country is terrible too, counselling services have waitlisted of months or are extremely expensive. I’ve been recommended for an ASD assessment, on the list for a year but i feel like i don’t have it as a friend feels me a lot about their experiences having it and from researching. So i feel like im at a dead end.
I’m going into the final year of secondary education but am thinking of just dropping out cause i don’t think i could cope being like this in third level education. I feel hopeless
Does anyone have advice ? thanks !

This is my (50f) 2nd marriage, his (56m)1st. My MIL (78f) lives with us. She is in good health, and very active with lots of volunteer & social activities. We have been married 2 years, cohabiting 3.
My MIL is a horrible roommate. Just horribly messy, very loud, selfish and inconsiderate, and barely makes any financial contribution. Surprisingly, this is not at all my main issue.
It was a huge problem for about 2.5 years, but in recent months, my rage at these things has greatly diminished. The issues are still very visibly there, but for whatever reason, just don't make me as crazy as they once did.
I think part of what made me feel better is my having some realizations of my own:
1-I need to and can solve my issues with her, myself. I still wish Husband would, but he is very non-confrontational and she is very manipulative. The result is that he feels pulled in 2 directions, and due to health reasons, I genuinely worry about his having a stress-induced cardiac event. I felt hugely frustrated waiting for him to calmly, quietly, hint around about how an issue might be addressed. I find it both affirming and empowering to realize that I have free agency, and if an issue rises to a level that overcomes my own angst at the thought of confrontation, I can address it, myself. It irks me, because ultimately, I still believe that we each should handle our own families, but that irk is much less than the previous frustration.
2-I married my Husband, not his mom. He owes me a certain amount of deference, Teamwork, respect, etc, that she simply does not. And if her failure to do so bothers me, I refer myself to #1.
My current issue, though, is that my conflict-avoidant Husband has twice now made large household decisions essentially to keep his mom happy, and has not consulted or advised me beforehand. The first such decision was huge, and has negatively impacted my daily life for 2 years now, and will end up costing us about $5,000 to mediate said negative impact to the extent possible. The second decision was much smaller (but still substantial), and should have zero impact on my life or our finances. The issue with 2nd decision is that after the 1st, he promised to consult with me first, before making such decisions in future...yet he failed to keep his promise this time. He understands why I am upset, has apologized, feels bad, and has said that if there is a 3rd instance, he will agree to couple's counseling as then it would clearly be a recurring pattern.
My Question is, what can I do pro-actively, besides just wait another 6-12 months for this to take place, again?
Divorce, is not on the table.
Asking his mom to leave, is not an option.
I do not know what else to do, and I hate the idea of not being proactive. Suggestions welcome.

I am 110% Fiona to the point I feel like the producers have stalked my life and I've never met more of a real life Fiona or real life Shameless family in my life (at least not yet!)
I had to take care of my seven younger siblings (I was the oldest of 8) from the time I was six years old. My mom was severely bipolar and dad was extremely physically abusive (for example throwing us down stairways, kicking pregnant mom in the stomach, giving us black eyes and broken bones, punching and kicking us with full force on a daily basis for little to no reason etc) and then abandoned the family a few years ago.
Our family dynamics were so complex there's no way I could explain it all here in a few paragraphs, but Shameless is the only show I've EVER seen in my life that even remotely relates to the amount of chaos my family went through/still goes through on a daily basis.
I missed out on so much because I decided to put everyone before myself. It caused a lot of resentment, and younger siblings started to take advantage of me. And then started disrespecting the fck out of me and expecting things and acting totally entitled to my time, money, energy, etc, while I was completely suffering and no one noticed or cared. It got so bad I ended up forming a serious opiate pill addiction to cope with everything.
I had siblings who were terminally ill and literally laying on the floor dying, addicted to hard drugs, became prostitutes, drug dealers, gang members, etc. And I did EVERYTHING in my power to help/stop them. I took care of my sick mom and my schizophrenic/hallucinating brother and anorexic little sister who had heart failure. I spent every single penny to my name to try to get them treatments that could possibly save their lives. I worked 4 jobs and was in school at the same time. I sent my brother to Mexico for an alternative healing treatment which costed me 10s of thousands of dollars and I tried my best to renovate a new room for him to return to...
They all ended up dying anyway, just last year, literally one after another - My mom, then 3 months later, my sister, then 3 months later, my brother. I didn't leave any of their sides until they were dead...Despite the insanity, we were all so close I knew for sure once my mom died that some of us would go with her and unfortunately, I was right...
Whenever anything goes wrong, people find ways to blame me or put me in the middle of it even though I've been the one there for them the entire time doing everything in my power to prevent these things from happening to begin with.
My youngest sister (Debbie to a T) went absolutely insane OVERNIGHT (it seemed) and purposely got pregnant at 19 with a random homeless pimp/drug dealer she met on the street and even after I offered her an amazing life in a great house, she chose to cut off the entire family and just disappear after making dozens of death threats to all of us and doing thousands of dollars of damage to all of our cars, houses, property, sentimental items, etc etc. She slandered all of our names publicly and tried to have us arrested and killed multiple times.
She's been in and out of jail and mental hospitals, and I have no idea where she is now but she claimed to have killed several people by shooting them in gang violence situations and by drugging them. She became totally evil, and I'm still terrified for my life and hope she never comes back. I purchased 7 security cameras for my new house and car.
Our original family home was SO bad off, but we lived in it FOREVER, literally until last year when it finally had to be demolished due to code enforcement kicking us out.
It was filled with black mold, rats, roaches, holes in the floors, walls, ceilings, broken windows, glass all over the floor, hoarded piles of trash, people sleeping on the floor all cramped, raccoons, random cats, possums and all kinds of wild animals would just run in and out of the house due to some areas having no walls and how big the holes were. NOTHING in the house worked properly. Sometimes, I'd have to sneak into a random gym or hotel to take showers, use a working toilet, etc.
We had nowhere to live after that, so we all stayed in a hotel where there were shootings, drug deals, and pimps fighting in the parking lot daily.
Then, finally, last year, I saved up and got us a really nice big rental place, and all my remaining younger brothers and 1 sister live with me, and I'm still parenting them...
We've been discussing how I need to step back and take a break and live my own life, so I had them agree to all pay equal rent in order to move in and to help pay bills and get groceries etc.
Things are very slowly improving in some ways, but the "parenting" unfortunately never ends. I had to bail one of them out of jail just LAST WEEK when they got arrested OUT OF STATE...making matters way worse...
Things were so bad at our old house for the longest time, every single time I'd drive around the corner my heart would start pounding and I'd be internally praying, "PLEASE don't let there be cop cars, firetrucks, EMTs, CPS, or FBI outside, someone overdosing or dead, house on fire, etc" and any time there WASN'T one of those things going on, I'd feel a small moment of relief but still scared to see what I'd find inside each day...
I'm 34 years old now, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology and another degree in art. I feel like I've never been able to fully focus on myself, I've never had anyone older to look up to, I'll never know that nurturing feeling that the rest of my siblings get to feel from me. It causes me to enter into toxic relationships with men twice my age because I guess I want to feel taken care of for once in my life and I just want to be "the younger one" for a change.....
I've always been extremely naturally athletic, but my dad banned me from sports and the gym "because I'm a girl." But I was finally able to join a combat sport 2 years ago; I'm getting pretty good at it now, beating guys twice my size. I have over 15 trophies/medals so far, and it's given me something to focus on. It's one of the only things that helps me get out of bed. My coach completely took me under his wing and I've been entering national competitions lately.
Anyway, ideally, I'd like to find the energy to get back to working on my art and get into a gallery soon. 💖🙏 I used to have pretty good success selling my art here and there but all of this stuff that happened over the past few decades just absolutely drained me to death.
I've never been to therapy in my life and at this point I just have to work on my extreme debilitating fatigue and exhaustion, PTSD, severe anxiety, insomnia, etc. And find a way to stop constantly putting everyone before myself.
Once I get past those things, I hope to be able to help more people and change the world through artwork with positive messages and using my psychology skills to help counsel others and improve their lives too. 🙏💖💖💖💖💖

MSPs face the ongoing challenge of delivering clients robust IT and cybersecurity services at prices that small businesses can afford. Clients will often balk at the seemingly endless list of additional items in an MSP’s cybersecurity tech stack. From a sales perspective, MSPs must clearly articulate the benefits and ROI of each element of their cyber defense strategy. What’s more, with the growth of digital communications and the ever-increasing legal and compliance burdens on companies worldwide, most SMB companies now face many of the same cybersecurity and compliance requirements as larger enterprises.
Comprehensive email protection, including security, backup, and archiving, is one such area where MSPs should better educate clients. Small businesses are inundated with spam, phishing attacks, and malware threats, just like larger organizations. No matter the company size, email is the lifeblood of business communications and vital to day-to-day operations. Even smaller companies must comprehensively backup their digital communications – including email, chat, and files – in case of data loss events, such as inadvertent deletion, cyber-attacks, hardware failures, or rogue internal employees.
Enter email archiving. This is an area where many clients are often confused about the benefits and need for extra investment. In this blog, we will explore the basics of email archiving, along with the benefits to MSP clients.

What is email archiving?

Email archiving is designed to save all email communications for an extended time period (based on retention policies) and index them for easy search and retrieval for legal, compliance, or employee supervision purposes. Email archiving is different from email backup.
An email backup solution is designed for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes. An email backup indexes and stores copies of email communications on redundant (often cloud) infrastructure, for emergency recovery purposes. Email backup enables a company or their MSP to rapidly recover a company-wide email system, individual mailboxes, or specific emails so that employees can quickly get back to work and communicate after a data loss or system outage event. Email archiving serves a very different purpose.
Email archiving uses journaling to capture every email sent or received on an email system to create a tamper-proof and comprehensive record of all email correspondence in a company. While email archiving technology was originally devised to offload old emails from production email systems and to preserve storage resources, today email archiving enables the search and retrieval of email for data governance, employee supervision, compliance, and legal discovery purposes. Robust email archives are closed-based and feature unlimited storage and rich search and filtering features to pinpoint the desired archived communications.

Why Archive Emails?

Here are the main reasons why MSPs should include email archiving in their standard offering for clients:

1. Simplify e-Discovery

Emails are the most commonly requested items during legal discovery. When companies are sued or involved in civil suits or even criminal investigations, it is vital to be able to quickly and cost-effectively produce the requested items in the discovery process. Email archiving helps internal investigators or outside legal counsel precisely and quickly search for and pinpoint responsive communications. Robust email archiving solutions also feature legal hold capabilities, where specialized or override retention policies can be put in place when legal action is threatened or pending. Companies big and small face lawsuits, and email archiving is a key way to cost-effectively manage the legal discovery process.

2. Meet Compliance Requirements

Companies of all sizes face a dizzying array of compliance requirements. For example, in the financial sector, many companies are regulated by FINRA and the SEC and are under strict obligations to archive and preserve all employee communications, both as a deterrent to wrongdoing and to provide a tamper-proof record for investigations of fraud or malfeasance. In the financial sector, stopping insider trading is a top priority and the best way to prevent or catch the sharing of insider information is through comprehensive archiving. Importantly, even very small companies must comply with these regulations, just like larger enterprises. Other industry verticals have similar archiving requirements and new data privacy regulations, such as Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA acts, which require companies to have fine-grained control over their archived client communications.

3. Reduce Cost and Complexity

Original email archiving systems were designed to offload older emails to save on storage in the production email system and to ensure peak operating performance. Today, most email systems have migrated from on-premises systems to highly scalable cloud-based email services, such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. With the growth in digital communications of all kinds, the biggest concern today is having a fast, scalable cloud-based archive that can accommodate the dramatic rise in the volume of digital communications. Fortunately, robust email archiving solutions today provide clients with unlimited cloud storage in a wholly separate cloud environment from the production email system. A dedicated cloud archiving solution helps organizations cut down on IT costs and reduce complexity. Top email archiving solutions give authorized users and investigators a single pane of glass for fast search and retrieval of relevant email communications.

4. Knowledge Management

Another benefit of email archiving is knowledge management. In the past few years, organizations have experienced historically high employee turnover. This recent period has been dubbed the “Big Quit” or the “Great Resignation.” In today’s operating environment, it is more important than ever that software and IT systems help companies overcome the challenges of high levels of employee turnover. With a comprehensive email archiving solution, company management and new employees can more easily preserve the institutional memory of an organization and leverage archives to retrieve vital employee communications, documents, and intellectual property from prior periods.

5. Supervise Employees

Lastly, an email archive can help organizations supervise and better manage the workforce. Searching for important employee email communications doesn’t just happen once a lawsuit has been filed. Many internal HR investigations occur without the matter ever involving outside lawyers or counterparties. Fortunately, a robust email archiving solution enables companies to pursue fact-based internal investigations where email evidence is vital to the process. This is a day-to-day need for email archiving that any company leader will appreciate.

MSP Benefits of Archiving Emails?

The client benefits of email archiving are clear. What about the benefits to an MSP’s business? Here are a few:

1. Maintain Client Compliance

MSPs have a unique role to play in helping clients maintain their legal and regulatory compliance. Organizations outsource IT not only to save money but to tap into the expertise of IT professionals who understand how technology and compliance work together. MSPs can win new clients and better serve existing clients by serving as trusted advisors in their client’s compliance journey. Email archiving is one of the foundational technologies to enable clients to get and stay compliant.

2. Efficiently Manage e-Discovery and Internal Investigations

Managing labor costs is a key goal of most MSPs. Invariably, when a lawsuit is filed or an internal investigation is needed, the client will turn to their MSP for help with the process. Without the right technology and services, investigations can become time-consuming and costly. With a robust email archiving solution in place, MSPs can quickly and efficiently help their clients pinpoint responsive email communications, saving time and money.

3. Grow Your Revenue

Lastly, email archiving is a solution that will help MSPs deliver a more comprehensive and valuable managed service to their clients. MSPs grow by packaging advanced technologies into premium managed services that solve real-world problems for the client. In doing so, MSPs are able to charge higher monthly rates and lock in more attractive profit margins, creating a win-win scenario for the client and the MSP.
Meet Dropsuite. Our backup and archiving solution offers partners unparalleled protection for their customer's critical data, ensuring peace of mind and regulatory compliance. With transparent pricing, user-friendly interface, and exceptional support, we're your trusted partner in data security and management. Dropsuite delivers peace of mind to MSPs by offering seamless, scalable, and secure backup and archiving solutions that ensure data resilience and compliance.
Dropsuite’s cloud-based email archiving solution helps any organization efficiently store, safeguard, manage, and discover data from most email systems such as Microsoft Exchange Online, Hosted Exchange, and Workspace Gmail. Emails, attachments, calendars, tasks and related files are archived using envelope journaling, ensuring all assets are stored without fail.
Reach out to us today to learn more.

The Admiral's office was large and well-appointed but far too stuffy for Astoran's tastes.
He adjusted his gold-fringed purple shawl of office and sipped at a glass of fortified water, focusing on the Admiral's words rather than his own discomfort. With a final indignant fluff of his feathers, he settled into the Grav seat's cushions, convinced she'd cranked the heat up just to be rude. Everyone knew Farstars preferred moderate climates, and Fleet Commanders resented Inquisitors poking about their business.
"Wars have always been fought as a mere formality for the Galactic Council's loose collection of member nations," Admiral Tykan said. "More theatrics than malice. A show of strength and grandeur for the masses, if you will."
Astoran sat facing the Admiral's opal inlaid Blackwood desk, lacquered and polished until it shone like glass. His avian features were purposely composed, a sea of unshakeable serenity as was appropriate for an Inquisitor of the Tower, only an expression of mild interest on his face.
The Admiral continued. "Armies would show up, fight, and if your side lost, well, you paid some reparations, maybe a tribute, signed a treaty and that was that. Everyone got back to the business of governing a nation and turning a profit. War's are expensive, you know? And not the province of madmen or savages.” She bore into his eyes. “War is a precision tool to acquire better trade agreements or squeeze more land into your borders. More often than not just saber rattling to soothe wounded pride. Nothing more. Nothing like this."
"What changed, Admiral?" Astoran adjusted his spectacles, not that he needed such to see; they were a decorative piece, something he fancied lent him an air of wisdom and enlightenment.
Admiral Tykan stood with her four big hands clasped below the sharp crest that ran down her back, gazing through the large oval window of her office overlooking Fleet's vast Orbital Shipyards.
"I've always found this view to be breathtaking," she said without turning to face the Inquisitor, ignoring his question. "Don't you agree?"
Astoran peered past the Admiral's bulky frame at the vast blue curvature of Kalastar floating in the begemmed blackness behind the shipyards. The faint suggestion of greenish-blue continents peeked from beneath swirls of clouds. An arresting scene for anyone.
"It is a striking view," he agreed, but only out of politeness. He wasn't here to discuss the scenery, no matter how inspiring.
A mile-long Fleet battle cruiser eased past outside the window, briefly obstructing his view of Kalastar. He adjusted his spectacles and asked again. "What changed as it pertains to this war, Admiral? Why is this particular conflict so costly? Both in terms of equipment and lives spent? Where does the failure begin?"
Admiral Tykan stiffened, then her head slowly turned to peer at him with one slitted green eye over her shoulder. Astoran drew back from that gaze and swallowed hard. The Admiral was built like a Sollossan rhino, a Golorian famed across the Galactic Council for her volatile temperament.
"Are you implying that this catastrophe is somehow Fleet command's fault?" Her voice was more than tart. It was hostile. "I'll ask you to leave my office right now—"
"No, no," he was quick to say. "Nothing like that, Admiral. Nothing like that. The Consuls of the Tower are only trying to understand how Fleet has lost more ships and their crews in the past six months than all the conflicts of the past two centuries combined. How is this possible? What has changed?"
Admiral Tykan snorted and turned her gaze back to the window. "Your politicians are truly disconnected from the realities of the galaxy around them, aren’t they?” She drew in a deep breath, then continued. "What happened, you ask? I'll tell you plain. You in the Tower misjudged the humans. That is what happened. You sit in the safety of your halls and play at politics while we in Fleet meet the enemy on the field. I told you then, and I say it now, we should have found another way with this species. They are stubborn beyond stubborn, bullheaded enough to teach rocks to sing. And their technology is cutting edge. You don't make war with such creatures."
"Surely these humans are not so difficult as all that," the idea seemed utterly preposterous to the Inquisitor. "We've faced staunch resistance before and prevailed. The simulations—"
"Not like this," Admiral Tykan cut him off. "Forget your simulations."
She considered what she knew of humans. They were formidable but not more than the Gheck, or the Palstars, both warrior cultures of old. Humans were not monstrous creatures that swarmed with animal ferocity. What set them apart was their gritty will to win. If one of their armies was defeated, they did not simply retire to await terms. They regrouped and came back, again and again, until Council forces wept at sight of them. Humans refused to lose. She admired that.
"The Arillen Sector," she said. "called Sol by the humans, was the next parcel of space to be brought into the fold."
The Inquisitor nodded impatiently, sipping his water. "Yes, yes. As it should be."
"I'll skip to Fleet's failure to gain more than a foothold in the expansion,” the admiral said dryly. “That is why you're here, yes?"
The Inquisitor nodded and began making odd gestures. "I'll be taking notes, personal thoughts in the moment, and I must inform you that our conversation is being recorded in an official capacity."
Admiral Tykan waved this away as unimportant. "Let me start by saying humans do not observe the well-established conventions of war as any polite and civilized society should." She moved away from the window, crossed the office to a black opal liquor cabinet surrounded by holos of plants from her homeworld, and poured herself a drink. "As you know, six months ago, the Writ came down from the Council Tower approving the expansion into the Arillen sector."
She lifted the cut crystal glass with two fingers' worth of dark liquid lapping inside, "Whiskey," she said. "A human delicacy, I'm told."
She paced a circle, sipping the drink and gathering her thoughts. "We at Fleet made generous offers on several occasions for their kind to submit to the Council." Ice clinked in the crystal glass when she took a sip. "Each time we offered, they politely refused. We've dealt with stubborn species in the past, so no one gave it much thought and the next steps in diplomacy were mapped out. The expansion must go on, yes? So the Tower decided an expeditionary campaign into the Sol system was in order. They believed a few token battles would be sufficient to convince the humans that joining us was the only way, despite my counsel to the contrary. Then the diplomats would be brought in to negotiate the finer points of a treaty and Sol's absorption into civilized society."
The Inquisitor made notes on his integrated holographic HUD with slight gestures of his talons that made it seem he was pawing at the air. Tykan stifled a laugh and covered the slip by taking another drink.
"What next?" he said.
The Admiral's great shoulders rose with an indrawn breath, "The Fleet mobilized, descended on Sol, and the campaign began with a siege of their Utopia defense ring. Things went fairly well at the start. Yet nothing sets a human's jaw more than a knife in the back I’m told. And that's how they saw our expansion - an unprovoked sneak attack. So they beat the drums of war."
"They refused to come to terms?" Astoran said, his eyes absent as he made his notes but still seeming surprised. "What of trade treaties?"
"Our offers fell on deaf ears. But the Tower was confident that within two months, the humans would see the logical course was to come into the fold like so many others before them."
"But that didn't happen," the Inquisitor said, still taking notes. "So it was an error at the political level? Diplomatic? We need to know the exact cause so we can correct it in the future."
"The error," Admiral Tykan said. "Was to claim their space as our own. From what few humans we've managed to capture, I've learned that they do not see war as we do, as a tool of trade. When they fight, especially in response to an unprovoked sneak attack, it is an all or nothing bet. They do not stop until it is done.” She stopped, lowered her glass and swirled its contents. “They have a saying in such cases, I’m told. Winner takes it all."
The Inquisitor stopped his notes and blinked behind his spectacles. "What does that mean, Admiral? Winner takes all of what?"
Admiral Tykan tossed back her glass with a growling sound of appreciation. Then casually flung it across the office and ignored the crystalline cubes that scattered over her prized Oredellen Gold thread rug.
"Just what I said," she sat down behind her desk and regarded the Inquisitor with unreadable eyes. Even the fine scales that drew a line down her forehead to her snout remained an impassive green and blue. "Winner takes it all. They fight until they have it all. All our systems, all our wealth. All our joy. They don't believe in slavery, so that is not a concern. But if victorious, they will impose harsh reparations. We would become their vassals in all but name."
Admiral Tykan had the brief satisfaction of watching abject horror spread over the Inquisitor's face. Now he understood. Maybe. She drove reality home to the hilt. "They will not surrender or come to terms. Not ever. They will fight until the threat to their way of life has been neutralized. There will be no trade treaties, no matter how generous, to end the fighting with Sol."
Astoran was speechless.
He could only stare at her, beak working in silent disbelief. "But, that isn't how wars are fought, Admiral. Everyone knows that."
"Isn't it?" She grunted. "Seems someone forgot to tell the humans that fact."
The Inquisitor blinked his beady bird's eyes at her. "But they are hopelessly outmatched. Why not simply acknowledge that and get on with the business of trade treaties and everyone making money?"
"Are they?” The admiral sat back in her chair. “Forget what you think you know, Inquisitor. Humans defy expectations. They are a small power, true. But growing and tenacious as a Ghast hound and twice as stubborn. The best that can be expected is an endless state of war. None in the Tower want that. It's terrible for business. Now ask the rest of your questions and be quick about it. I am very busy. There's a war on, you know?"
The Inquisitor's expression grew bleaker with each question the Admiral answered. And his beak paled from bright orange to pallid yellow. When he finally left Admiral Tykan's office, it was with thoroughly ruffled feathers and a firm understanding that the only mistake on Fleet's part was attacking the humans in the first place. The Tower's mistake was thinking to annex the Arillen Sector through force of arms.
Long after Astoran had taken his leave, Admiral Tykan stood at her window watching ships flit past in the Orbital fortress yard framed by the luminous planet beyond. The inquiry was over, but the answers she'd given and the disturbing thoughts they'd conjured still haunted her. Could humans actually fight their way to the heart of the Council, as Astoran had asked? Could they threaten the Council's gates? What a horrifying thought. What was to be done with an enemy who refused to lose? Or consider terms? How could the Council make them see that it was in everyone's best interests for Sol to submit to the trade treaties and come into the fold?
No answers came.
She crossed the room, retrieved her glass from the carpet, poured another drink, and returned to her window. Ice chimed with each sip.
"Humans," she grunted and shook her head in grudging admiration of their courage and refusal to quit. It was all very romantic, after a fashion. Yet her thoughts inevitably slipped to how things would be in another year. Two? Surely the humans must see reason long before then?
A queasy feeling settled on her gut. Must they?
Staring out at Kalastar, Admiral Tykan sipped her drink, and the words of a human prisoner echoed in her thoughts.
Winner takes it all.

I'm scared to post this and have started a brand account purely to do so! I (28F) am engaged to my fiancé (30M) since last year. The relationship has been plagued with issues from drugs & alcohol (him), online porn/OF payments (also him), bereavement (me), sick parents (me), emotional/verbal toxicity (both).
We were in couples counselling for a number of months and hit a really good, healthy, open place and I felt we had turned a corner. I felt like I could breathe again and really enjoyed him and his company, sex was great again, things were good. That's why I said yes when he proposed to me 6 months down the line.
I guess now I'm scared that I'm personifying the sunken cost theory - we're engaged, own a house together, looking at wedding venues etc.I'm scared that things will be toxic when we're married with children. I know an element of this is cold feet and the fear of things going wrong, but at the same time I'm unhappy with the relationship.
We barely have sex, if l initiate I'm told it's unsexy or I'm doing it in a way that is a turn off. I was a really sexual person before this relationship, very confident and head strong, knew what l liked and confident in bed. He has gradually reduced my sexuality to a taboo and my confidence to an all time low.
We barely have sex, if I initiate I'm told it's unsexy or I'm doing it in a way that is a turn off. I was a really sexual person before this relationship, very confident and head strong, knew what I liked and confident in bed. He has gradually reduced my sexuality to a taboo and my confidence to an all time low.
When things are going well, they're amazing - he's my best friend through and through. When they aren't going well, I genuinely feel like l'm in a bad dream. He's mean. He's nasty. He calls me a cun, bitc etc.
emotionally withholds, stonewalls, tells me to leave if it's so bad, says he doesn't care. If he started the relationship in this way, l'd have laughed in his face and blocked his number. If my friend was telling me this was her situation, l'd be calling an intervention and telling her to get herself together and leave.
What's keeping me here? Is it shame of failure/ sunken cost/hope/desire for kids? I feel like l've lost myself and my strong headedness to the point that I don't even know why I'm clinging on.
TLDR: engaged but unhappy and scared that I’m settling as I feel I’ve invested too much/ready for kids.

Throwaway so the S2 doesn’t find me. We are recruiting people who aren’t cut out for the military. You’d hope that they would realise they aren’t cut out and align their behaviour to defence, or get out … but instead they are trying to change defence to suit them, or playing the victim when it doesn’t.
Unfortunately as an organisation, we are becoming so risk averse to “bad press” that if someone threatens to discharge or complain when confronted with consequences for their action, the COC just bend over and enable them and give them what they want to retain them/ stop them whinging.
Example 1: A mate charged a sailor after she exploded at her officers. The officers had counselled her a heap of times about how she is to speak to her superiors/ how to uphold the service values, and had multiple ROCS with the member. The charge is issued for insubordination, the new sailor complains of bullying and UB and it goes to a factfind, where all complaints are found to be unsubstantiated. Despite this, the CoC drop the charge in the interest of not provoking her to make further complaints, and the sailor is allowed to work elsewhere from her (unsubstantiated) bully officers, and not be held accountable for her actions, or false allegations.
Example 2: my old CO issued an NSTC to a soldier who had failed multiple BFAS and retrials during a 90 day warning. This soldier smoked a pack a day and chugged energy drinks like it was water, and refused to believe that it was within his abilities to train to pass. When issued the NSTC on his final failure, the soldier ran off the mental health, claiming that test conditions give him “panic attacks”. When the CO argued that if that is the case, he won’t be able to pass annual weapons certifications and is therefore unable to be employed in the ADF, CMA stated that the CO was being unreasonable, and should be retained. The soldier is still (smugly) working, drinking and smoking.
Example 3: A class of Staff Cadets are at a lecture, and one SCDT rocked up a good 15 minutes late. The SGT asks him why he’s late, the SCDT says “none of your business”. The SGT keeps him after class and asks again why he’s late. SCDT doubles down and says “I don’t have a reason, but I don’t need to tell you if I did”. The SGT gives him a caution, and proceeds to visit the ADJT to obtain guidance. The SCDT who was cautioned, has already emailed the ADJT to complain that the SGT was bullying and harassing him, which the ADJT has no choice but to take to a fact find.
The reoccurring theme seems to be a lack of integrity and an avoidance of personal responsibility within the new generation, but also a lack of backbone from the people who are meant to enforce service discipline, and honestly -it gives me no hope for the future.
What do you guys think? Am I being preemptively crusty, or do we really have an issue with personal accountability in the ADF?

I haven’t felt like myself in a while, for context I’m a 14 year old girl my birthday is in two days and for the last year I haven’t felt like myself and recently I’ve just felt so alone. I do art gcse and the work is making me really anxious as I haven’t been able to meet deadlines and I’m missing school just so I can make a bit of progress on it at home, my dad yells at me when he sees I’m not at school and calls me a failure and the worst part is I barely get any work done, when I relax I feel like I’m wasting my day. I can’t lay in during the morning anymore because when I do I feel like I’ve wasted my whole day but I do it anyway. The days feel quicker and I blink and the weeks over and I don’t feel any better. The worst part is I feel like I don’t deserve to feel like this because I haven’t been through much physical abuse really (a little bit by my dad but he’s stopped a while ago) I also feel like somehow my brain is gaslighting me into feeling like this and I don’t actually because I don’t deserve to. I just feel like nothing. I cry all the time and I’m anxious about everything. I’m uncomfortable in my own skin and doing things I used to love like makeup just feels like a chore now. I’m struggling with self harm now, I burn myself with a lighter that’s heated the metal part up. I feel like an attention seeker and I cant talk about it with my friends because one of theme been through a lot worse than me and might think I’m just trying to get attention and the other one wouldn’t understand because he’s kinda self involved (they’re good friends tho it’s just complicated) Today my mum and I (I’m close with her) had a talk but it wasn’t serious it was just me saying I haven’t felt great and I feel like how I felt when I was on the pill (for my menstrual cycle and I was depressed) but worse, we talked a bit and she mentioned counselling and I told her to shut up because I got embarrassed and felt like I had over shared and she said she wasn’t being mean (she actually used a complicated word I can’t spell phoceshius?) I said I’m not going to camhs..meggan( my friend) went to camhs and they told her to go on a walk and take a hot bath and I forgot what happened after. that’s another thing..I can’t remember anything because the days just merge into eachother and go to quickly. Anyway that’s all I can think to say right now It’s hard to talk about without feeling judged

A post on lotr was asking about what might happen if Faramir went to Rivendell instead of Boromir, and while writing a comment on that post I realised that it actually brings up a very interesting point regarding the Plan and how it took all points of failure into account. In all the other discussions that happen regarding what might happen if a particular event went some other way, the inevitable conclusion is failure, but perhaps not here. It felt worthy of a post on this sub for the purpose of discussion. I will also link the original post in the comments.
All members of the Fellowship were 'chosen' according to the Plan, as they all arrived at Rivendell together, and not as a matter of coincidence. The only member who was a second choice was Boromir, and not Faramir. The dreams were sent to Faramir first, many times, and second to Boromir. This means Faramir was the primary choice and his presence would have changed events, certainly, but not in a way that would lead to failure.
Firstly, the Fellowship might have been intentionally broken at Rauros as each member went their own way, some together, some on their own. Perhaps there is some other trigger which makes Frodo decide to leave without telling the others, or somehow Frodo and Sam are separated from the others by the Orc attack, and the same goes for Merry and Pippin. The death of Boromir became a necessity for the abduction of Merry and Pippin because he went to protect them after trying to take the Ring from Frodo. It was not a necessity for progression of the plan otherwise. They could also have been taken by the Orcs without anyone else dying, and perhaps Faramir joins the Three Hunters for them to become the Four Hunters.
The defence of Minas Tirith would have been far stronger, and perhaps Theoden would have lived. The one thing Minas Tirith lacked was good commanders to hold against the Witch-king, and the presence of Boromir and perhaps a living Faramir returning from Rauros could have turned the tide and allowed Gandalf to go out to the Pelennor and protect Theoden rather than being forced to stay back in the Citadel as Denethor threatened to burn Faramir alive. Also, Denethor himself would have been alive and possibly saner, if both his sons were also alive. He was a capable commander and had the respect of the city, and would certainly have managed the chaotic defence that was left leaderless until an already overstretched Gandalf took over.
The one point where I see this becoming potentially problematic is that if Denethor and Boromir survive the Siege, and Boromir hasn't met Aragorn to be convinced of his claim in any way, there would be contention regarding the assault on the Black Gate. The hopeless assault happened because Aragorn became the de facto king after the battle ended and no one opposed his will. Imrahil took the place of the Steward temporarily as Faramir was sick and he explicitly says that he had already accepted Aragorn as his liege lord even without Aragorn claiming the Crown yet. Denethor would certainly have not done so and counselled prudence, as was his way, and sat back to strengthen the city. The issue of the kingship after the Ring is destroyed is also a potential problem but it does not arise if the Black Gate isn't attacked to empty Gorgoroth.
However, all of this being said, nothing changes the fact that Faramir was the first choice, which means there was a way for the Destruction of the Ring and the crowning of Aragorn without the death of Boromir and potentially Denethor. As there are a lot of moving pieces, I am sure I have missed many potential branching points in the Plan caused by the exchange of the places of Boromir and Faramir. How do you think the progression of events would have changed?