Starcraft: Queen and Country

by Wanderer D

Chapter 022: Disconnected

"Nerath."

Jerked from her current project, the short Nerazim turned around to face the interloper. "Father." She tilted her head slightly, studying him. "You seem troubled."

He walked fully into her lab, pacing around a little as he was wont to do before facing her. "I have received a request from Zeratul."

She blinked. "It was my impression that the word 'exile' implied a lack of further contact." She shrugged. "I suppose self-exiles do things differently."

"I wonder if you have spent the many hours you have in here sharpening your wit instead of forging."

"As always, father, you wound me with your astute observations, but I will note that I am still a work in progress."

The taller Nerazim chuckled, shaking his head, but then straightened up, regarding her seriously. "His request is not an easy one, and was addressed to our family's elders. It has been approved."

"I get the distinct feeling that the revelation of the nature of this request is not going to be pleasant for me."

"It is not."

Nerath didn't exactly cringe. She had seen it coming. "What is it, then?"

"He has requested, on behalf of Executor Selendis—and thus with the blessing of Artanis himself—for one of our most talented phase-smiths to assist in a difficult medical procedure that is to remain secret."

Nerath crossed her arms. "Ignoring how unlikely it would be for Selendis to work with Zeratul is hard enough. But why come to our family for that? Surely there are much better prepared healers to deal with the matter of healing. We so-called phase-smiths don't have much to offer… unless…" Her eyes widened. "The void channel?"

Her father gave her a look.

"I'm still deciding on a proper name."

"In any case, that is indeed the case," he responded, once again pacing around the room, and resting his hand on some of her designs as he studied them.

"But father, we cannot give them the designs!"

He glanced at her.

"We can't!" She insisted. "Surely they understand this?"

Her father released a breath and nodded, turning to the table once again for a moment, then finally walking back to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Zeratul has promised that the designs will not be handed to the Khalai, and despite Vorazun's dislike of him, we all know his honor is without question."

Nerath sighed. She knew this was true. They all knew, even as they shared Vorazun's pain over the loss of her mother. "Very well. I shall prepare." She hesitated, walking up to her console and bringing up information about Selendis, although there wasn't anything really new that wasn't widely known to the Nerazim. "Do we really not know what this is all about?"

Her father shook his head. "No. All we know is that Executor Selendis herself requested this of Zeratul, and that it involves a long term mission she is part of."

"Fine." She glanced at the picture. "At least she's pretty."

"Please don't start a war," her father said with a sigh, just as he stepped out.

The echoing voice of the Protoss Templar accompanying him as he turned around yet again.

"Tell me, Gallus of Equestria, does your whole species have so little patience?"

"Griffons?" Gallus snorted, pausing to glance at his companion. "I'm extremely patient, for a griffon. Granted, I might not be as patient as Celestia herself, but I'm not godlike or immortal enough to embrace inner peace to any extent close to that."

Ganox regarded him with that slight tilting-up of the head that indicated the Protoss was amused.

"Tell me, are all Nerazim usually late?"

"I would not know," Ganox said, his voice more an indicator of a shrug than his body language. "For I have not met any Nerazim myself. They are part of the Daelaam, yes, but not of the Khala. With its absence, their thoughts, and their traditions remain a mystery to most of us."

"I suppose that makes sense," Gallus said, starting to pace again. He had repaired his armor as best he could from his experience working under Swann, the blueprints sent by the engineer, and equipment helpfully provided by one of Selendis' phase smiths. 

The metal provided and the sources of energy were less heavy than in the original design, but he now wore enough golden highlights on his blue armor that he now looked like a beefed up version of himself that had somehow joined the Royal Guard back in Canterlot.

If he ever set paw in the Hyperion again he'd probably be teased about it before Swann tried to pry it open to see how it worked.

Ganox shifted. "I am curious, however. Your friendship with Dark Prelate Zeratul is unusual, but you seemed to be more comfortable in your conversation with him, than with any of us, despite us being allies. Why is that?"

Gallus paused, then sighed. He turned to look at Ganox. "Am I that obvious?" he asked aloud, but before Ganox could answer his rhetorical question, he continued, "It's hard for me to understand this Khala of yours. I don't know how I could live with sharing my every thought with my entire species."

It had taken him weeks to get used to wearing such heavy armor, and even though the Hyperion was huge, he would still get sudden claustrophobic attacks if he went into a room and the exit was blocked… and if Zeratul hadn't used his mental powers to help him adapt to the thought of the huge vacuum of space behind a (relatively speaking) thin wall of metal and cables between him and instant death, his life in the spaceship would have been a real nightmare, if at all possible.

Unaware of his thoughts, Ganox nodded lightly. "And so, the fact that the Nerazim have no connection to the Khala…"

"It's that individuality that I can relate to, yeah," Gallus completed, sitting down next to the Templar, who remained standing. Gallus contemplated the lack of… anything really, other than rocky outcroppings around them. "On the one claw, I can relate… sometimes I wish that I could tell everything, absolutely everything to Smolder, or Sweetie, or Silverstream, or any of my friends.

"I know Smolder would tease me, but she'd also stand beside me to help me face whatever was holding me back." He grinned. "I know Yona would offer to pound whatever it was to a flat surface for me. I know Sandbar would sit down and work it out with me. I know that Ocellus would try to find some egg-headed way to solve the problem. I know that Silverstream would be more than happy to cheer me up, introduce me to others that could help and go with me the whole way." His smile turned gentle. "I know Sweetie would offer me her hoof, dust me off, and face whatever I need by my side."

"Indeed, that Khala allows everyone to share in those experiences as you share them, it is not invasive."

"Yes. I understand that, but… I guess what I value out of that in a big part is that they're all individuals and we can't just project our solution to each other with absolute clarity, if that makes sense?"

"It does not."

Gallus rolled his eyes. "Okay, hear me out." He paused to contemplate his words. "The thing that makes all of their effort and support all the more valuable to me, is that each of us, as individuals don't know what the other is thinking, we just know that we're there to help each other. If Silverstream could just… I dunno, transfer her whole idea to me, it… I feel it would lack that sense of choice, that… um, what's the word… will to help? despite not knowing if it's going to or not. It's difficult to explain."

"Clearly." Ganox's voice was not mocking, but he was very much not impressed with his explanation.

"Well, okay," Gallus sighed. "You know Sweetie Belle."

"The Zerg Queen, yes."

"She has something like the Khala that you have with the zerg."

When Ganox's eyes flashed, Gallus quickly waved his claw. "I know it's not the same! What I mean is, she can share all she wants with the Zerg, but she also is part of a greater whole, just like you are part of a greater whole through the Khala, right?"

"...right," Ganox conceded slowly, very much not happy with the Khala being associated with something the Zerg would do.

"When I spoke to her, she told me that she loved the feeling of being part of something much greater, which I think you can understand. But… unlike the Khala, she can never be… absorbed into it. She can never lose herself in that… and although I really understand that it's not an issue for you… it's… a horrifying fate to me."

"And that, strange creature, is why the Nezarim originally rejected the Khala," a female voice said as its owner emerged from the shadows. She had dusky, dark skin, a shade lighter than Zeratul, and was also short, for a Protoss. Like Zeratul, her eyes were green, not blue, but unlike Zeratul's silent confidence, her way of walking and talking revealed a Protoss that somehow was borderline mischievous.

Ganox straightened, studying the female for a moment. "I presume you are here on behalf of the Nerazim to assist us? Are you the phase-smith? You move like a warrior."

"All Nerazim are warriors, Templar," the female responded, "for is not life a battle, and those that continue to battle known as such?"

"Ah." Ganox said. "I begin to see why you would consider the lack of Khala a blessing, young Gallus."

"Oh?"

"I cannot imagine the headache my whole species would get from sharing their thoughts with this one."

It had been somewhat odd that Nerath had been told to meet emissaries on a derelict planet so that she could travel with them to her destination. Usually, the information would have been passed to her, and she would have just made her way there, but she had found herself warped from her fathers ship to the surface of this chunk of rock in order to meet them.

She had immediately cloaked herself and hid as she made her way to the meeting point. Not out of fear of enemies, but because observing her contacts could give her some insight into the nature of their request, and more importantly insight into how they thought.

If they had indicated any intention of stealing her secrets… well. She wouldn't kill them, of course, but there would be no chance of assisting them at all.

Thus, she had watched, observing for the first time the strange creature that had arrived with the templar. At first, she had assumed it was some sort of automaton, or robot as the Terrans called them, but this creature was actually flesh and blood under an odd combination of Terran and Protoss tech. Nothing too advanced that she could see, but functional. Curious.

Their conversation had been enlightening. This Gallus creature knew Zeratul personally. It was perhaps due to him that she was here at all. It also had some interesting thoughts about the Khala, and the more she watched him struggle to identify what had so disgusted her ancestors, the more she could relate to him.

When he finally gave voice to what her tribe had also said so long ago, she decided to reveal herself, and soon they were on their way inside the Templar's ship.

It wasn't until they warped right next to a Zerg Leviathan that she started questioning her life choices, and somewhat regretting teasing Ganox. Her words had surely crossed some Khala-induced cultural taboo and she had unwittingly awakened the desire in him to end all of their lives once and for all.

When the Leviathan did not attack, and simply moved out of the way to reveal the Protoss base on one of the moons of the planet below, the secrecy started to make sense.

It wasn't that the secret couldn't be shared. With the Khala, probably every Protoss that cared knew about it. No, the truth of the secrecy was that these damned Khalai had lost their minds, so that, if they shared what was truly happening, no creature with a semblance of sentience would ever entrust their lives to them.

These Protoss were crazy.