With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

BR549 · 2026-11-05T06:37:20+0000

...yeah, the Gaim would be a little much for somebody not quite prepared.

And 'Matthew' has a Narn shipmate? That's interesting...

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-11-05T07:04:07+0000

Mr Zoat said:
27th April 2258
16:56 G.M.T.

"I am humbled by your presence, princess."

My gaim passenger is faultlessly well-behaved. Even though they're in control of my physical actions, they asked first and haven't cut me off from my senses. It would be simple for me to retake control. But I won't, because this is what we agreed to.

I still wonder if he creates an image of the engram 'riding' him when he's doing this. Gaim appear quite distinctive, especially without their encounter suits. And their designer was a fan of Neil Gaiman and the Endless...

And because I suspect my passenger's sense of contentment is the main reason why I'm not panicking right now. Gaim royals are… Um. Not humanoid. And they're large. And they're… All the worst parts of sea anemone, caterpillar and assassin bug, with a little tyranid thrown in for good measure. The princess I'm speaking to is basically a senior civil servant along with a genetic engineer and brood mother, and completed eggs are being continuously taken away as she and my passenger speak.

As seen on the Gaim page I linked. For the benefit of anyone picturing a Xenomorph Queen or a Hive Tyrant right now...

There's a gaim diplomat on standby, but since I can understand the pure gaim language perfectly well they're mostly staying out of the way.

"The queen remembers you, Koh'dak. The gene strands used to give rise to your mind found much favour in our creative genelines after your disappearance. It closes the book in a pleasant manner to know what became of you."

Ah, so he did at least leave a good impression on his hive.

Because it turns out that my passenger was a great inventor from the gaim's total war period, and they mostly wanted to come back here in case they were supposed to receive punishment from their goddess-mother.

"I-. I am-. I am relieved, daughter-of-our-queen."

...I'm curious if the punishment would have been carried out on Matthew or not. Hopefully it would be the equivalent of a suspended sentence.

"There are not further matters which require your attention. No further duties for you. You may… Rest."

"Thank you." / Thank you.

And… They're gone… I suppose that having their princess tell them that they were allowed to die was… What they wanted.

A comparatively easy job done, especially given the last on-screen one was discreetly finishing a beloved Minbari cathedral...

Huh.

I stand up, trying… Not to look at the princess more than I have to.

Good thing he's not an entomophobe. Though a truck-sized pseudo-insectoid creature would give anyone the heebie-jeebies.

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with my former guest, princess, it-."

"I have decided not to eat you."

…

...High praise, I suppose?

Scan nearest escape route. Ah, okay, that's not too bad.

"I… Have decided not to eat you as well."

The ambassador gaim makes a choke-hiss noise which the ring doesn't translate. The queen -who is quite a bit bigger than me- doesn't really react.

...And because his gaim passenger has left, he's not sure if that's a social faux-pas or not.

"You are not aware. Gaim are materialists. Our queens are our absolute sovereigns, and they are physical beings. We reject all religious concepts. We believe in no gods, no afterlife. The last time a gaim suggesting changing this policy, they were punished with consumption."

As noted in the page for the Gaim Intelligence, their cultural 'ruling council' such as it is.

"And… You just spoke to a dead person."

"Yes. That will have to be… Discussed. Do you have more information on how the soul hunters 'harvest' souls?"

And whether they're actually capturing some spiritual aspect, rather than a simple mind-scan. That'd be a big deal.

"Sorry, no. I've been trying to avoid them."

"Is it a copy of the mind, or something else?"

Whatever they do, it;'s clearly very detailed and very fast, given the subjects are usually dying when it's done.

I shake my head, realising as I do it that she probably can't even see a gesture that small. "I've wondered if they're just engrams myself, but I'm afraid that I haven't been able to find out."

"I am grateful for this new evidence. Often, species attempt to proselytise with make believe. That is irritating."

He is somehow getting Orange Light charge from them, if I remember right. They're thus mentally complex enough to generate Spectrum energy.

"I will bear that in mind."

"Should you discover new evidence, we would be interested to review it."

"If I proved the existence of the soul, I assure you, I wouldn't keep that to myself."

Especially if he finds out he doesn't have one in any proper capacity.

"Good." She… Er… I'm not exactly sure what that is, but she's rubbing it. Since I'm not getting a translation I'm going to assume that it's not an effort to communicate something to me. "You have not mentioned remuneration."

"No. Koh'dak already paid. They assisted me with a personal matter, and I delivered them here. Nothing more is necessary."

Quid pro quo, and all that. I imagine the gaim are very precise about debts owed.

"But we have an obligation, in addition to what you did for Koh'dak."

"Ah… Thank you? There's nothing that I need at the moment. But… If I could bank the favour, in case there's something the gaim can help me with in the future?"

For the soul thing and/or the 'this is what happened to him' thing, I suppose. Better to have the favour and never need it, than need it and go wanting.

"A commensurate favour would be acceptable." That's a relief. "Then if there is nothing else, I declare this audience over."

I bow. "Thank you, your highness."

'Commensurate' covering a lot of potential ground there, depending on how they judge the debt...

And then I turn and leave, a group of other gaim already filing in to discuss… Something. Yeah, I… Know that now they've abandoned their state of constant interhival warfare they're actually pretty easy to get along with, but looking at them is… A… Little off-putting.

And I'm out, and I'm hurrying along the corridor in the direction of my shuttle. Ring, contact ship.

At least they're not like the Spider Guild of DC infamy.

"Are we leaving now?"

"Yep, yep, can't think of a reason to stay."

And less chance of someone deciding he looks like a nice snack. Be a little embarrassing to have to defend himself from that.

"You usually say that you want to see the sights."

"N'chak'fah has a chlorine atmosphere. I can't see anything."

Presumably the gaim have better vision methods than the mk.I eyeball.

"Ah."

"Is there something..? You want to see?"

"Narns on this world are marked for death. I have been keeping away from the windows."

...Okay, nothing to hang around for, then.

Something sharing the corridor with me sneezes at me, and I nod politely back. "Oh? Why's that?"

"We invaded them forty years ago. At first, we didn't realise the planet was inhabited."

Not surprising, the gaim are apparently primarily subterranean. And thus quite uncomfortable in space without solid preparation, I would imagine.

"Reasonable. I can barely see my hand in front of my face."

"And then we didn't realise they were intelligent. I understand that they didn't realise that the rest of the universe existed until they met us. I suppose it was nearly as unpleasant an introduction to other species as we had."

Presumably they would have been claiming the world for mining use, since there's no way you could reasonably colonise it.

"Yes, a giant black spaceship digging a canyon through a major settlement must have been a nasty surprise."

"…" … "I was talking about the centauri."

...Okay, that pushes past uncomfortable introductions and straight into potentially traumatising.

"Oh."

"What black ships?"

Presumably mining vessels related to the claim I hypothesised. EDIT: I stand corrected, they were talking about the Narn's first contact.

"They're in the Book of G'Quan?"

"I haven't read it. Narns generally only read the sacred text of their own faith."

There are multiple 'faiths' on Narn, then? Though probably taken less seriously than Minbari do.

"I haven't read any human holy books. But the historical parts are interesting, if only because it explains what happened to your telepaths."

"We killed them all."

And the mutations didn't keep showing up? Or were they really thorough, even targetting those with the potential to produce telepaths?

"If the Book's accurate, you only killed most of them. And to be fair, we nearly did that as well."

But you did not. And I do not think that you would have gone through with it.

Humans do a lot of things they come to regret later, sadly, especially when it comes to genocides and extinctions.

I don't know. Future people are weird.

I reach the shuttle, and… Airlock, because magicing the chlorine away with the orange light would be a little obvious.

At least the ship will be squeaky clean on the outside? What with contaminants burnt clean off by the atmosphere.

"I'll be up soon."

"We're ready to leave. Unless the hyperspace currents are unusually vicious, we will be back in time for your date."

And if they aren't, Matthew can do the 'tow at FTL' trick, though that's a little more suspicious.

An entertaining visit to a little-known minor race from the show, I guess. Good to see they didn't go for just 'human with makeup appliances' for every race. And a date with the lovely PSI Corps plant he met last time, I suppose? Place your bets now for how likely it is that he'll face being 'disappeared' into PSI Corps custody at some stage?

KharnTheBrotrayer · 2026-11-05T07:26:00+0000

"We have decided not to eat you" she sure is lucky to have made that choice and not the other cause as an OL he could have eaten her AND worse.

BR549 · 2026-11-05T07:30:58+0000

Chojin Patriarch said:
Presumably they would have been claiming the world for mining use, since there's no way you could reasonably colonise it.

That would presumably be how the Narn met the Gaim, yes, but...

Presumably mining vessels related to the claim I hypothesised.

...the 'giant black spaceship digging a canyon through a major settlement' Matthew mentions in the Book of G'Quan would have been Narn's introdution to the cosmos, and is almost certainly a Shadow Battlecrab.

Neruz · 2026-11-05T08:37:35+0000

To be entirely fair to the Narn, not realizing that the Gaim are intelligent is very understandable; because their basic worker drones aren't intelligent.

The Gaim that the Narn first encountered likely were little more than biomechanical robots, it's not surprising that they didn't immediately realize that the worker drones weren't animals.

BoML · 2026-11-05T08:45:52+0000

Ah, back to Babylon 5...let's see what's happening...

Mr Zoat said:
And because I suspect my passenger's sense of contentment is the main reason why I'm not panicking right now. Gaim royals are… Um. Not humanoid. And they're large. And they're… All the worst parts of sea anemone, caterpillar and assassin bug, with a little tyranid thrown in for good measure. The princess I'm speaking to is basically a senior civil servant along with a genetic engineer and brood mother, and completed eggs are being continuously taken away as she and my passenger speak.

Ah, he's on Gaim homeworld now. And if a princess is that big, it makes me wonder if a Queen is even bigger...

Because it turns out that my passenger was a great inventor from the gaim's total war period, and they mostly wanted to come back here in case they were supposed to receive punishment from their goddess-mother.

"I-. I am-. I am relieved, daughter-of-our-queen."

"There are not further matters which require your attention. No further duties for you. You may… Rest."

"Thank you." / Thank you.

Oh, he had two Gaim souls. Well, at least they got what they wanted out of this...

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with my former guest, princess, it-."

"I have decided not to eat you."

…

...thank you???

Scan nearest escape route. Ah, okay, that's not too bad.

"I… Have decided not to eat you as well."

The ambassador gaim makes a choke-hiss noise which the ring doesn't translate. The queen -who is quite a bit bigger than me- doesn't really react.

I'm betting the ambassador didn't expect that response.

"You are not aware. Gaim are materialists. Our queens are our absolute sovereigns, and they are physical beings. We reject all religious concepts. We believe in no gods, no afterlife. The last time a gaim suggesting changing this policy, they were punished with consumption."

"And… You just spoke to a dead person."

I don't remember much about the Gaim, but to my memory, they only recently became spacefaring. Though based on the planets description, I'm betting they barely even had a concept for space.

"Is it a copy of the mind, or something else?"

I shake my head, realising as I do it that she probably can't even see a gesture that small. "I've wondered if they're just engrams myself, but I'm afraid that I haven't been able to find out."

"I am grateful for this new evidence. Often, species attempt to proselytise with make believe. That is irritating."

Well, you could ask a soul hunter, but good luck with that. Or even getting a clear answer.

"But we have an obligation, in addition to what you did for Koh'dak."

"Ah… Thank you? There's nothing that I need at the moment. But… If I could bank the favour, in case there's something the gaim can help me with in the future?"

"A commensurate favour would be acceptable." That's a relief. "Then if there is nothing else, I declare this audience over."

I bow. "Thank you, your highness."

Okay, so Babylon!Paul has a favor with the Gaim he can cash in when he pleases. That will be interesting...

"Are we leaving now?"

"Yep, yep, can't think of a reason to stay."

"You usually say that you want to see the sights."

"N'chak'fah has a chlorine atmosphere. I can't see anything."

Yeah, that would be annoying to deal with. Betting that while the environmental shield keeps him safe, it doesn't really help in seeing clearly.

"Is there something..? You want to see?"

"Narns on this world are marked for death. I have been keeping away from the windows."

Something sharing the corridor with me sneezes at me, and I nod politely back. "Oh? Why's that?"

"We invaded them forty years ago. At first, we didn't realise the planet was inhabited."

...yeah, that would sour relations considerably.

"Yes, a giant black spaceship digging a canyon through a major settlement must have been a nasty surprise."

"…" … "I was talking about the centauri."

There's a bomb to drop on someone. And yes, being regarded as someone's centauri equivalent probably smarts for a narn.

"What black ships?"

"They're in the Book of G'Quan?"

"I haven't read it. Narns generally only read the sacred text of their own faith."

Pity. You probably should at some point.

"I haven't read any human holy books. But the historical parts are interesting, if only because it explains what happened to your telepaths."

"We killed them all."

...great. When Garibaldi brought it up in the series, it was understood that the Shadows had "done away" with them. To know that there were survivors and they were done in by their own people...

The fact that they're trying to get telepathy back into gene pool now....

I reach the shuttle, and… Airlock, because magicing the chlorine away with the orange light would be a little obvious.

"I'll be up soon."

"We're ready to leave. Unless the hyperspace currents are unusually vicious, we will be back in time for your date."

Oh...is this first official date, after the whole meeting thing, or is this a second date?

Two more souls gone, still many more left. And still time for some accidental shenanigans...

Mr Zoat · 2026-11-05T09:22:45+0000

BoML said:
Two more souls gone, still many more left.

Where are you getting 'two souls' from? There was only one gaim, unless I've forgotten something.

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

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BR549

This is filth! FILTH!!

Chojin Patriarch

Veteran Lurker

KharnTheBrotrayer

Not too sore, are you?

BR549

This is filth! FILTH!!

Neruz

HISSSSSS!

BoML

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Mr Zoat

Dedicated ragequitter

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