Unholy Star, Beyond Faith

Sen's finding

[At the halls of Learning, Qura Amara, the living platform]

"So what did you find?" Bast asked eagerly after Sen had burst into his room, she was beaming at having found something amazing, as she described it.

"I can't tell you even though it's one of the most important discoveries in hundreds and hundreds of years."

The young auger sat up on the edge of his bed where he'd been lazing, his blind eyes opened wide, a natural muscular reflex, considering that his eyeless sockets were now utilised as compartmental cavities for augmentation technology rather than living eyeballs. "Wow! That's so cool, are you sure you can't tell me?"

"No, Zoro says I can't tell anyone."

"Aww, not even your best friend ever?"

"No, not even my bestest best friend."

Bast knew he needed a strategy, so feigned disinterest knowing that would drive Sen crazy. "Oh well, It doesn't matter, it'll be just good to be able to get back on the processor now that you won't be using it as much."

Sen stood there, momentarily taken aback by her friend's incredible lack of curiosity, at least expecting to make him beg for a few more minutes. But, then she, guessed what he was up to and decided play at his own game, "Okay then. I'm going to go and find Xe'ed and ask her what she knows about rogue planets. See 'ya!" She made the hand signal for the door to open, the door slid open, and she slowly began to move through into the hallway

"Okay! You win. Tell me what it is, and I promise I won't tell anyone."

Sen about faced, "Promise?"

"Yes, I promise. Did you discover a rogue planet?"

"Oh, it's so much better than that." She stepped back into the room and waited for the door to slide closed, before continuing with a whisper, "I didn't know what it was at first, because it was all code-like, but the processor helped me work out what the pax was all about. The hidden message. Well, not really a message, more like a map, a treasure map." She jumped up on Bast's bed.

"Wow, treasure." He said in awe.

"Yes, its hidden somewhere in the gravity mass of two giant rogue planets that have been flying through space blindly for billions of years, the planets are called Ouro...boros, yeah, Ouroboros."

"Cool and that's where the gold and gems and legendary weapons are hidden? On these planets?"

Sen shook her head, disappointed at Bast's childish fantasy. "No, and No. Firstly, you can't land on these planets they're gas giants--silly--and secondly, it's not that type of treasure. The map is a special algorithm that will allow us to generate phase shift coordinates to the system that's been lost for over a thousand years because it's not following a predictable orbit or anything--it's just flying through space."

Disappointed, Bast's shoulders dropped. "Oh, that's not all that amazing."

"No, that's not all." Sen explained further, "So these planets have been collecting moons and stuff as they travel through star systems, somewhere in the satellite jetsam that orbits these planets, is a backup of the processors' sentience routines."

It took Bast a moment to digest what he just heard, "So, what does that mean?"

At some point, their discussion had dropped back out of whisper mode, but Sen leaned in close to her friend and send in the quietest voice she could manage and with the widest grin of excitement, "Zoro says, if we find this treasure, it will allow the processors, all of them, to be people again."