//------------------------------//
// Chapter 40 
// Story: Return to Sender 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

Felicity needed no magic to sense the fury around her. She would've known it even if her scent-organs were destroyed, and she were trapped in a clear jar. The native life might not have any knowledge of positioning, but she saw their body-language. The way they withdrew, tightening around the scaffold.

She saw pulses of motion pass along their body, like waves. Were those thoughts, as it considered what to do with her?

Delta withdrew again, far tighter than Felicity herself. This was the effect of absolute terror, a being unable to imagine what to do next.

Felicity radiated calm and comfort as best she could. She focused on her own confidence, her determination to accomplish her mission. The Grovetender might not have the same focus and ruthlessness she did, but she could share it.

"I have not come to threaten or intimidate you," she continued. "I am here to inform, then to ask for your decision. You can demand we leave at any time—but if we do, the fleet circling you will atomize this vessel. They have not done so to provide us this opportunity to speak."

"Or you could be destroyed," echoed the room all around them. It might be silent, but the scent was overwhelming. "Thousands of zealous protectors wait in all directions. You should be torn apart for this sacrilege. Your blasphemy is vast, beyond the aspiration of lesser creatures. Your punishment will be similarly vast."

"Perhaps," Felicity said, unmoved. Her companion was shaking so violently that she looked like she might lose most of her leaves and completely fall apart. "If we do not return, you will still be destroyed."

It was a terrible gamble, one she would not have made before spending so many years with the growing people. She bet on their intellectual flexibility, to be able to comprehend the alternative she offered to simple destruction. If their religion was too rigid, they might just kill her, unable to imagine any outcome that did not conform to their faith.

The plant didn't call for reinforcements. The doors didn't open, and their guards didn't arrive to cut her to pieces. Not yet.

"Speak quickly," they said. "What do you require?"

"The return of the captured remnant of my ship, with any of its living occupants or their remains intact," she said. "You may've forgotten it. The vessel visited centuries ago, to make peaceful contact with you. I could give you a detailed description if you need it."

"That is... all you ask?" came the response. It no longer shouted, or overwhelmed her with its volume. If anything, it seemed suddenly cautious. Hopeful, even?

She shook her head once. "The Varch’nai have colonized many of the remote bodies of this system. The... ones who conquered you. They will plan to leave, but it might take many centuries for them to assemble their fleet. You must allow them to continue to harvest those small rocks and moons."

“You know what else we demand,” Manny whispered, directly into her mind. “Simply extracting the survivors is no longer enough. We will not leave the minds of this system to wither, and let their uniqueness be destroyed.”

Felicity thought her acknowledgement, but did not speak up instantly with new demands. She had some idea about how demanding every member of the species get genetically modified would go. But there were other ways to give the same instructions.

"We accept... predators prowling the skies above our home," it said. "Defiling this sacred system, and harvesting its resources. We abandon the charge the sun gave us. What do we get in exchange for all this? Your promise not to destroy us, as soon as we give you this... wreckage?"

"That," she said. "And more. We have brought great knowledge to share with you. We know why your species withers. We know why you are losing the ability to move, and dying out on your homeworld. We're prepared to offer you a cure, as part of the peace we bring."

Now she felt its intensity. Thousands of eyes locked on her, staring from every part of the sphere. She had struck a nerve, maybe even a useful one.

"How is it you have seen what our greatest minds cannot, invader? How do you know this truth?"

Could they even handle the answer? Felicity watched Delta, who had at least uncurled herself and floated freely in the water, clinging with one vine. She had grown tremendously over these last few months—she had proven just how versatile the natives could be.

Even this conglomerate organism had to have some of those same traits, didn't it?

Felicity had already gambled with their lives. It wasn't as though things could get any more dangerous.

"Your creators never intended for you to learn the answer," she explained. "They wanted you to build on their behalf, then wither and die before they arrived. They would inherit your hard work, and not have to fight to claim it from you.

"I think maybe they designed your way of thinking with certain—blocks. You can't build many kinds of machines, even though you understand how every part of them works. You were meant to wear down and die."

More angry ripples passed through the room around them. Some of it was anger, sure—but she smelled recognition too. Not all of this collective mind was prepared to reject what she said outright. 

"I don't want you to die out. I want you to overcome your limitations. If you surrender, we will share this information. We will give you the knowledge now, as a show of good faith. When you trade the wreckage over to us, we will exchange it for machines. Enough to jump-start your recovery."

Felicity wasn't sure how long it would take for such a powerful mind to come to a decision. It spoke of faith, yet it did not respond with irrationality. All it had to do was decide their blasphemy was too severe to let them live, and that would be the end for negotiation and Felicity's life. It would be so easy.

“I follow your intentions,” Manny said. "Electro-thaumic emitters could be designed to integrate all individuals exposed to them into the Harmony. We will require certain constructions be erected locally to allow this—datamines, mindarcs, and stable power. This single high-complexity individual would serve as an excellent first recruit."


"We do not understand why you... go to such lengths," the First Witness said. "If you are able to destroy us whenever you wish, you could've claimed this system for yourselves. Those outsiders are predators, they cannot grow. They are an endless swarm of mouths, always feeding."

"There are ways to feed without harming other creatures," Felicity replied. "We did not come here to feed on you. We came because we were... desperate to find others who can think. We don't want to be alone."

It was a simple answer, but one the plants could understand. They never grew on their own. Some part of her wasn't sure they even could. They had vast communities on the ocean floor, and impressive towers rising above it.

"We will test your words," the First Witness said. "And judge after. Share this knowledge you have found. If it is true, then we will accept your terms."

Felicity swam closer to one of the walls—not close enough for those vines to grasp her. But close enough to still-living plants for them to feel what she was about to do.

"I don't know why you built the magical traps out in space, the ones that disabled and destroyed my first ship. But whatever reason—they are killing you. The field they produce strangles all the magical energy in your system. This radiation is what you are missing. If you weren't so far gone, the traps we've destroyed might be enough to help you recover. But you've been deprived for so long the background radiation won't be enough to save you. You need a stronger medicine now."

"Lies!" they exclaimed. "You claim we depend on something invisible to survive? You claim to lay the trusses for our growth, to dominate just as you accuse some unseen ancestors of doing!"

Felicity didn't let them keep screaming. If they did, the guards would soon follow, and death not long after.

So she cast a spell, using as much of her magic as she could. The dampening aboard the custodian ship drained her power rapidly, making it difficult to cast.

But she had Manny's help. She only needed the magic to last a few seconds.

She filled the chamber with light, briefly overwhelming the center illuminator. But it wasn't simple light she shared with them—the spell was rough, blasting magic all around with as much force as she dared. 

The flash was powerful enough that even she started to feel it, despite what Manny said about deadening her senses. Being aboard this ship was cold along an axis that she could not easily describe. The magic she brought was her first touch of warmth.

The power ran out quickly, taking with it any chance she had for escape. There would be no casting death-spells and teleporting around the ship, with all her energy vented directly into the water.

"That is what you are missing," Felicity said. "We will give it back to you, if we can find peace. We will not rule over you—when the fleet is gone, your system will be yours again. But we hope you'll decide to keep us around after that. There are many from my home who want to get to know you."

For a long time, there was no answer. Whether seconds or hours, it was hard for Felicity to tell. The future of an entire system hinged on this moment.

"We would... not make this decision so rashly," it said. "Or speak with the friends of predators. These are strange times. Those who grow struggle to endure in the fading light of the sun. We speak as the First Witness, dwelling in her holy glow. We imagined you had come to bring righteous destruction for our enemies. We will accept salvation in its place."

The rest was not easy, exactly. There were many specifics to negotiate—a matter best left to the professionals. Manny was far better at communicating with the plants than she was, once he interfaced directly with their strange hive-mind. 

There was just as much tension in the negotiation that followed, when Felicity was forced to take the terms of their surrender back to the Varch'nai. 

It was not in their nature to accept an enemy that had been less than totally destroyed. The growing ones would not be the only alien culture forced to expand their horizons and adapt to a wider world. 

But there was no way to argue with the promise of freedom that the Varch'nai so badly craved, or the return of Harmony's dead that it demanded. Though she had arrived by strange means, it was exactly the goals she was sent to achieve. 

There were several loose ends to tie up. Most of those would not require her help—keeping the Varch'nai honoring their deal, and not taking out their remaining anger on the growing ones. Negotiating how to spread magic to the population, and dismantle any remaining traps. 

And of course, making sure that magic would grow Harmony's invisible network in the system. The preservation of all the uniqueness of life was non-negotiable.

But none of those things needed Felicity to supervise. There was only one task that she insisted on being part of. She had not flown all the way out a second time, only to let someone else wake her crew.

When Harmony finished assembling them from recovered backups, she would be there. 

She wouldn't miss it for the world.