Alaree

[argyle]

Alaree left Iota, and the comforting warmth, behind. It needed to learn more, to mature. It could understand so much now, the information easy to access from the lightsong. It felt less alone now, out here in the void. The voices were clearer, the lightsong was within, connected to it. There was something missing though, something intangiable. A feeling... as if Alaree had all the pieces, but somehow failed to complete the puzzle, to see the big picture. A powerful desire to understand pushed it back out into the emptiness, on a mission to watch, observe and learn.

It was beginning to understand that the organic forms inside the metal hulks were much more individual than his own kind, despite the connections they shared, that Alaree could so clearly hear between the ships. Most of the metal hulks would flee or spit fire, but there were some very confusing exceptions: a ship here and there that just didn't fit the pattern, that would return the curious scans with scans of their own.

Passing system after system, Alaree found itself in Omicron Alpha. There was something about one of the planets that was very appealing and intriguing, but the reason still eluded it. Many metal hulks, large and small clung closely to the planet, safe in low orbits. Carefully and cautiously, as usual, it had approached and scanned from long range. Usually this was enough to make the metal hulks scatter and flee, or charge at him, but not this time. The ships were reaching out, primitive messages coded on carrier waves. Difficult to understand, but ... not hostile.

Confused, but very curious, it picked up speed, diving into a low orbit, darting between the metal hulks, quickly scanning them at close range, before retreating to a safe distance. They didn't follow. It could make out the words "little spirit" in the carrier waves. The organics inside the metal were so difficult to read, but... still... there was something. A sence of reverance, perhaps?

Alaree suddenly remembered the things it carried inside. Sundries picked up after the detonations of metal hulks that had attacked it. Bits of metal, machinery, organic things, some even alive. It had thought about what it was supposed to do with them, and here was an opportunity. Alaree started to inch closer, carefully, in what it hoped would be a comforting way for the organics inside. As it got closer, it began to release the bits it had collected the past days: weapons, cargo, escape pods. Uncomfortable this close by, Alaree once again darted off to a safer distance, just to watch.

More messages on carrier waves, hard to interpret. The metal hulks moved around, gathering up the bits and bobs - escape pods first - and returning them to the planet surface. Alaree was confused. These were nothing like the others it had encountered. It hovered in a high orbit for a while, watching them, before heading off to another tunnel in search of more knowledge.