113.5 – Infinite Intermission

113.5 – Infinite Intermission

Trazyn the Infinite

Trazyn felt thrilled. A museum wasn’t quite a museum without visitors. History was meant to be appreciated, not forgotten or destroyed like so many of the short lived races tended to do.

A civilisation that didn’t learn and honour their history was a civilisation doomed to repeat their mistakes until they eventually resulted in the downfall of their civilisation.

It was inevitable. Short sightedness was also inevitable when one lived for a scant few decades and had to worry about daily sustenance.

Unfortunately, despite Trazyn’s Infinite Galleries being the most expensive and — if he was being honest with himself — greatest museum in the galaxy, it hardly had any visitors.

Not of his own fault of course. Few among his fellow Necron saw the appeal of his collection. Many only wished to look into the future and forget the past ever existed, like that damned Orikan.

Other races were even worse. He would sooner send his collection into the nearest black hole than invite an Aeldari into his sanctum. Orks were not the best crowd for an intellectual conversation and humans ... well, they were the most receptive, though still lacking in many ways.

He had to threaten the last group of visitors every few minutes with a painful death so they would stop trying to kill him. Then he put mindshackle scarabs in their heads, but that only made it worse. He felt like a fool, showing around a group of puppets who let his words go in one ear and out the other.

Anyway, with all that said, one could easily understand why he was delighted to show around his newest visitor.

The manner in which she got here was ... well, unconventional. Usually visitors were supposed to enter a museum on their own volition, not through a Prismatic Labyrinth.

Oh well. He wasn’t one to care about such little details. The female being of a yet undetermined species was a willing visitor. No, she was better. She was paying attention, asking questions, and learning.

She wanted to be here and seemed to enjoy herself.

What a dilemma. What a brain-twister.

Then she offered an alternative- No, it was partly a threat, wasn’t it? Hmm, he wasn’t sure whether it had any teeth to it. Could she really do anything to Solemnace, even if that ‘avatar’ was just one of many she controlled?

He doubted it. Solemnace held a Star God prisoner. It was one of the most magnificent pieces of Necron ingenuity and technology in existence. An entire planet made of living metal powered by a star at the core of it all.

No upstart bio-morpher — or whatever she was — would bring it down after having stood the test of time for 60 million years.

Still. She mildly resisted the containment field, and claimed to be capable of detonating her body. Some exhibits could be damaged as a result. That meant negotiation it was.

As for the danger she posed to his person? None. Trazyn long mastered transferring his consciousness. If, by some miracle, she managed to destroy his body, he had millions more all around the planet he could inhabit in a moment. Echidna was hardly the only one who could play the multiple body card.

Not that any of those considerations mattered in the end. Her offer was good. Stellar even. She would willingly leave her avatar behind, and if he wanted, she would fight for him for compensation in the form of organic samples.

It was better than what he originally wanted. Some drops of blood were hardly important to him. He also understood he was partially ensuring she would never have all of her avatars destroyed this way. Perfect.

And he could take her out of stasis to get her opinion on new exhibits too. Another impartial opinion was always useful and that one Magos he tended to bother with it was dreadfully dull when anything other than fiddling with organic matter was concerned.

Trazyn agreed to her terms with barely contained glee. Things didn’t tend to go nearly as well for him as this had, but he would be taking a free win when offered.

A single thought ran through his mind as he watched the strange woman’s still constrained avatar freeze as the stasis field came online.

Her help might be more than useful when the time comes to visit Cephris. I imagine the tomb of Nephret will be heavily defended, even after all these years and with the planet having suffered an Exterminatus.

Yes, I think I will take her with me.