Perilous Expedition

Heather, Charles, Kim; and Arthomus are sent to the Grob home world of Mananėin. This is after the Grob telepathically communicated to Arthomus, and to the quadlet, to get their consent to be sent. Normally beaming people from other planets is nearly impossible; but Art, being a concentrated center of psychic focus, acts as a signal intensifier.

Once inside of a Grob hanger:

“Hello.”

“Hiya”

“Yada Yada mission detail.”

“Yada Okay.”

“Yada, don’t know what to think of Earth Men yet; consider this an audition of your way of being.”

“Laughing, leaving.”

Mission goes okay.

The team is mostly separated from mission. A few Grob remain with them. They stumble into a mystery and lose communication.

The Ha'dar are livestreaming the (assisted) struggle of the Galactic boondockery. It is called the Zilm. Ha’dar citizens can freely view Zilm content. Some have jobs related to the Zilm. Including directors, inventors, covert instigators, etc. It is considered very important that no “lower” beings ever discover the truth of their being fucked with. Wether one decides to influence bacteria or sentient beings, one must remain absolute secrecy. Pulling invisible strings from a distance.

Before they can explain anything to anyone, a disaster strikes. The Ha'dar send Art’s psychic energies on overdrive. The resuslt is the explosion of mining site they were investigating. Deciding they lacked the time to explain what happened, the group go into hiding.

Once they have enough evidence to support their case; they go out of hiding. The fate of the whole group, including the Grob (And one Borg) sympathizers depends on a Galactic courtroom proceeding.

The case of Art’s innocence in the original explaosion is sufficiently made.

The council is also convinced of the existence of the Ha'dar. And of their doings. Their doings, which always visible but never recognizable.

Art wants to know what it takes for him to not be so controllable by the Ha'dar.

The Grob, Borg, and Earth part of the Galaxy (Lil’ Way) all team up. They have to:

Look natural so the Ha’dar are never the wiser.

Make a plan by which the Galaxy can rebel.

Communicate this plan with others, again keeping the Ha’dar in the dark.

They eventually decide the best option is to secretly help everyone else pass the challenges. They play the Ha’dar game their way.

The Ha’dar know the “lesser” are joining up. They expected that.

They also know Art is helping them. They know everything he knows.

Art discovers a way to control his powers, and control the influence of the Ha’dar over him. It is later determined that what Art must to do to free himself of remote Ha’dar influence, is to incorporate element of Ha’dar already inside of him. Once he does that, the Ha’dar can no longer directly “toy” with him. His acceptence of this element of his being removes this kind of influence. But this is fair, because that lost influence is being made up for.

The harder Art tried to fight the Ha’dar part of him, they more directly they could influence him.

Instead of the Rebels wiping out the “Empire”; the war is fought well enough that the Coalition of Pipsqueeks gets the Ha’dar to agree to play their game from a further distance. That the peoples of this Galaxy have earned more “breathing room”. WIthin this space, it is discovered what they are made of. They are still being interfered with, but only in ways they can’t really pinpoint. The influence moves one discrete level up the continuous hierarchy of “un-noticeability”.

Basically, the Ha’dar do not crush the Milky Way naturals. Because one, its really hard to do that. Killing 99.99% of anything is simple enough, but that last bit is always a bitch. So that’s one reason why the Milky way doesn’t get crushed for its fight against nature’s diplomats. And what fun is a dirty city full of squashed insects? But also because they earned t. They earned their freedom. They earned a new layer of sovereignty, and the Zilm can only become more interesting for the Ha’dar appreciation of this fact

What Won the day for the body of Heather was also what won the day for our Galactic region (Grob and Borg not wiping each other out.) was also what won the day for the Milky Way. And that is:

Voluntarily Toughening oneself in the face of adversity.

Taking the self interest of all involved into account, and finding the middle ground of Truth.

Incorporating the destructive element into being.

Not underestimating nature, or the enemey.

A willingness to be wrong.