3 (DSV Nautica) The Curator
Ma'ya'eyr, The Curator of the Ayr'een empire was a patient woman. She stood by as the Curator inferiors sweated, trying to re-acquire the signal they had abruptly lost from their most prized, most sacred, revered ship, Celeste."It will be but a moment ma'am.." one of the inferiors mumbled to her. She smiled in spite of herself, using the old meditation techniques to calm her nerves. They were in the middle of receiving a packet from the ship, when the signal had been lost. The inferiors were doing all they could to try and get back in contact with the ship, so many billions of light-years away from them. The stone in the center of the holographic display began glowing and hummed. The inferiors breathed sighs of relief as the curator brought her palm out from under the heavy robes and garments she wore, gently touching the stone and closing her eyes. Instantly, she was with the ship, So many light-years away, taking in all it had collected these past several years. Her body trembled with energy, the inferiors taking their places and supporting her mind with theirs, taking pieces of the massive database Celeste was giving her, distributing it into the nearby storage arrays and alloys.
"Ma'am, its made contact." the young acolyte panted, bowing in the presence of the Matriarch of the Ayr'een empire. The Matriarch smiled and nodded. "Good." A twitch of fear crossed her mind for but a moment. She swiftly got up, her royal protectorate following her in a heartbeat, never missing a step. She strode the halls of the command ship, long since grounded, to the Curators room, where her inferiors helped her.Matriarch watched the data. Hundreds of planets, galaxies, stars, stellar phenomena, all of Celeste's findings. It was beautiful...The Curator moaned and fainted. Immediately her inferiors caught her, trying to continue with their jobs despite the fact the Matriarch was in the room. They carried the Curator to her bed in the adjacent chamber to rest. As soon as the last inferior came out, the Matriarch honed in on the prized inferior, or rather the Curators favorite"Why is Celeste so quiet? She used to be active.."""Ma'am, with the distance-""Distance never mattered before.""It does now. We have reached the point of 'too far'"
Matriarch knew what this meant. Celeste would struggle to get data home. It could be done, but it would be very hard. They would need a better receiver."The likelihood of dialing?""Unlikely. The power required for the array is too high."Matriarch knew this of course. She was reluctant to accept it. Ships could stabilize themselves across the void, but it required very precise calculations and conditions. These conditions never existed where Celeste went. Nor could they give commands to the ship. Only receive data. They didn't even know where the ship was. Only roughly. That
wasn't enough.She nodded to the young inferior and curtly left the room, followed by her many advisers and guard. It got annoying after awhile, all these people with you all the time. But she had bigger problems. Celeste was too dedicated. Hopefully she could talk across 26 billion light-years.