1.14-Caretakers of Djar

Get the Soundtrack ⁠here⁠: [Transcript]Route between Sevetis IX and Gadrion Gadrion is nothing special. Along the rim of the Lestif Quadrant, nothing’s back there except the occasional wandering pillar drifting over from Gipsum Formations beyond Agora. Was transporting a Lamorae gene seer and a Nelgani technopath through there the other day. Hamark was back on Plaxis to visit the rest of the nanite colony so it was just Zery and I pulling shuttle duty. Zery’s hibernating in the sarcophagus so it’s just me listening to the two gab on in the back. Nelgani don’t get out much and the Lamorae’s telling them a classic yarn. Story’s about a Lamorae and humanoid excavator on Oxrose XI. They’re surveying for geode deposits and find a big ol’cavity under ground. Huge triangular cavern, walls pocketed with chrysalis. I give half an ear as I move to check out some debris on the scopes. It’s too big to fit in the hold with two passengers.Roaming the cavern are the caretakers who tell the Lamorae and humanoid the chrysalises, the Djar, are dreaming. Of what? the Lamorae asks. The caretaker doesn’t respond. The Lamorae and Humanoid leave to tell others about all this but when they come back the strange catacombs are gone.I drop off the two on Gadrion Gadrion, the Nelgani plying the Lamorae with questions about what the caretakers look like. The Lamorae describes them as arachnids with humanoid torsos and I shake my head as I take us back into orbit and the long route back to Sevetis IX. Descriptions vary depending on who’s telling the tale. Adxerxians say they’re worms, Ether-Shrikes call ‘em “boifmitar” for “floating heads,” Voit-consoles don’t even claim they have a body. Everyone’s got their spin on the story, but most agree they are watching over what's in those chrysalises: the Djar, whatever they are. I double back to the debris floating off in no man’s land. Figure it could be worth a little in salvage. Hauling it aboard’s simple enough but when I check the bay to see what it is, I stop.Some sort of creature. A metallic spine growin’ hundreds of legs, nodes–closed eye sockets- run the length. It’s underbelly a semi-transparent pouch alight with a green glow from a liquid or plasma it's hard to tell. Whole thing is maybe twenty - twenty-five meters long, asleep it seems, and wrapped around a canister–a chrysalis