Avery/GM: Welcome to episode 54 of Beyond the Furthest Stars.

(intro music plays, fades down, ambience fades in)

Avery/GM: It's been about a week since. Zahn has retired and you've all been chipping in and helping out to fix this mobile factory on the Ursa Major. It is a gargantuan task that will probably take, um, at least until the next recording session to properly, uh, work. It's the Dragon Ball Z rule. You know, you got to have at least one episode of charging up for full power.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Ollie's got one of his drones in the corner, just screaming for like three months straight.

Avery/GM: Back when you first rescued Hermes. Aside from the original conversation that, uh, Hermes and Marty had while onboard the TSKAM uh, there really wasn't any other words exchanged with Hermes and attempts to actually talk to Hermes have been met with silence or big flashing holographic letters that just say, not now please.

Avery/GM: And you have just finished up a delicious breakfast of eggs, Benedict and are just starting to put away the dishes. When Hermes, um, calls you on the intercom and it's just like, hi everyone. If you could all come to the bridge of the TSKAM, I would really appreciate a chance to talk to you about what all happened the past couple of weeks.

Avery/GM: And yeah, you all gather on the bridge of the TIS cam and Hermes is a little alien holographic thing that's projected onto the captain's seat. And he just says, Thank you all for coming on such short notice. That's kind of a weird thing to say. We all live together. Anyway, um, just wanted to apologize for putting you all in danger with my shenanigans, I guess you could say.

Avery/GM: I didn't expect Rhea to react the way she did and Ro, I'm very sorry for putting you in danger. Given the amount of danger you all have been put in due to my actions, I will completely understand if you would like to, uh

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will just kind of shake his head and say, We didn't retrieve you for a second time to just exile you. Uh, I'm, I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm not upset. Just glad to have you back.

Caden/Bruce: You're part of the crew, Hermes.

Chris/Ollie: We are not upset at you for putting us in danger. We were merely concerned for you being in danger.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris nods in agreement.

Avery/GM: Oh, that's very sweet. I've actually been kind of sitting here, mulling over my decisions and kind of thinking.

Avery/GM: You know, I didn't think AIs could get anxiety, but apparently we do, so that's interesting.

Chris/Ollie: It has been quite a coming to terms recently, but I am there with you.

Bee/Polaris: Can AIs get medical treatmentfor anxiety? Or is that like a programming? Anyway, nevermind, not important right now.

Avery/GM: I honestly wouldn't know how to answer that question anyway. I am not completely an AI, as I have led you to believe.

Bee/Polaris: Wh wha wha what? What?

Jenine/Marty: Huh?

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Ollie's dog ears will shoot up and he'll, his head will cock at like 90 degrees.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. Um, yeah, I was kind of wondering about the mother part. What exactly is going on? Because I feel like there's a lot that we don't know that you do.

Avery/GM: Yeah, you could say that for sure. Well, it all starts thousands of years ago, actually, in another place. I Didn't always live inside this crystal. I once had a body. A real body, just like, well, just like Rhea's, or yours, or Rho's. I did cut quite a handsome figure, I must say. Uh, that's beside the point.

Avery/GM: The point is, is that I angered our leader when I opposed what he was doing to the beings that we were meant to Lead and nurture and as a result. I lost the privilege of having a body and was Well, Zahn, you shared with me what happened to your mother the brain in the jar, right? And Zahn nods his head kind of with a grimace on his face and Hermes says That's kind of how I lived for a few thousand years, until we came to this galaxy a few hundred years ago and discovered these AI crystals.

Avery/GM: By then, my organic brain, I guess you could call it, was starting to shut down and so Rhea, being my literal mother, decided to save me in what I thought was an act of mercy and kindness on her part, in reality, it appears that she just wanted to continue using me and my skills and my abilities for her own personal gain. So yeah, that's kind of the short of it.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will like go to the where Hermes crystal is and just hug the console. Because that's a lot. That's a big yikes. Talk about tragic backstory.

Avery/GM: Oh, yeah. Hermes has been through it.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, Hermes, not our boy!

Chris/Ollie: Ollie will approach and begin licking the crystal.

Bee/Polaris: Which is in the console, so you're licking the console.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, pretty much. Sticking his tongue into the gap to like, uh, you know.

Avery/GM: Oh, that's so gross.

Chris/Ollie: Like, you know, dog tongue seeking out nostril status.

Avery/GM: Yeah, no, I get it.

Bee/Polaris: This is why I'm a cat person.

Chris/Ollie: But, um, don't worry. His synthetic dog saliva is totally non conductive. So it's safe for machines and electronics.

Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh.

Avery/GM: It would have to be. Yeah, definitely.

Caden/Bruce: I, um, have a question, I guess. I don't want to be offensive and I I guess it's also part of not knowing how these crystals work, but, uh, if a part of your crystal is somewhere else, does that mean you feel incomplete? Like, what do you want to do, Hermes? I mean, if you don't want to stay with us, I, like, you're your own being is what you're telling us, and You should have those rights as well.

Bee/Polaris: We could make you a body like the custodians so that you have free, you know, free reign. You don't have to be confined to the ship.

Avery/GM: Oh, no, I actually enjoy being a ship more than anything. Back when I had a body, I actually spent most of my time flying through the skies on various vehicles and apparatuses.

Avery/GM: And we even had this thing called the thing called like a pegasus it was like a horse but it had wings it was really cool but again that's beside the point no i'm i'm very happy being in a ship and being with all of you i just assumed i've i've made a lot of people angry in my past and usually that means punishment in some way worst punishment i could think of would be being told you all don't want me anymore

Bee/Polaris: I, I don't know if we have the, cause we've kind of gotten ourselves into a lot of danger on our own. So I don't, and we've never punished each other for that. I think as far as danger and reckless situations go, I think we all had our fair share of that.

Caden/Bruce: I don't think you can blame yourself for your mother's actions. I mean, it wasn't your choice to become this. And, you know.

Bee/Polaris: No offense, but your mother sounds terrible.

Avery/GM: Yes, I Realize that now. I really thought there was still some good in there.

Bee/Polaris: Yikes.

Avery/GM: But, apparently not. Rho, I'm, I'm, again, very sorry that you got injured. How did you not die, by the way?

Bee/Polaris: Zahn saved her. I believe it was Zahn, right? Because we were walking back from the party. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Caught her. He caught her.

Avery/GM: Zahn just, Zahn just points to his rocket boots. Oh, yes. Those are very useful tools, for sure. Oh, but to answer your other question, Question, Bruce, I don't feel incomplete. I do feel what happens to that other crystal though.

Bee/Polaris: Are they like torturing you from afar?

Avery/GM: I don't think it's torture. I think they are trying to draw me back into that piece somehow. The technology behind these quantum cores is very mysterious and complicated. Even the best scientists native to this galaxy don't fully grasp it. But, we tend to inhabit the larger piece out of the two, but they really want me back with the rest of the hegemony for some reason, and they're trying their best to get me back there.

Bee/Polaris: Uh, if it's any consolation, we did hire Coil to get that other piece back.

Avery/GM: Oh, the bounty hunter robot? You, how did, how did you manage that one?

Bee/Polaris: We put him in a computer, uh, so that he could talk, and then turns out he's a big fan of Psi, or I, I guess the silver shield? Is that like a second name or?

Avery/GM: Rho's just like, it's his superhero persona. Don't, it's, it's weird. And she's like, clearly like the embarrassed, like, sibling.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris just kind of shrugs at that and says, um, anyway, Coil is a big fan of the solar shield. Uh, got to meet him, and essentially he, uh, swore to do good or something like that. And also because we had him trapped in a computer, we kinda had the upper hand. We did give him his hat back.

Chris/Ollie: He's just waiting for a body, like the custodians. Then he'll be underway.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I mean, again, we could synthesize your body as well.

Avery/GM: Oh no, I am perfectly comfortable being inside of a ship. It actually is quite cozy.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris kind of mumbles to himself, I wish I was in a ship.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Polaris is just trying to get Hermes out. Okay, now we gotta figure out how to put me into a crystal so I can be a ship. Okay.

Avery/GM: I mean, Hermes did basically, They just suggest that that is possible.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, yeah. And also Polaris has been talking to the custodians, but don't worry about that.

Avery/GM: Well, again, thank you for not wanting to get rid of me and for letting me still be a part of this strange little, little family we have going on here.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, to be clear, if if the baseline for someone like the extent of someone's care for you is your usefulness, that's not care that that person's not a good person probably so glad we could get you out of there sounds awful

Avery/GM: yes she actually was about to use the IASO program on me before Rho heroically teleported me out of there

Bee/Polaris: wow hey no offense but we kind of want to kill your mother

Avery/GM: understood i will happily fire the gun next time

Bee/Polaris: i will happily kill my mother

Avery/GM: Although we, there really shouldn't be a next time. We should probably avoid them.

Bee/Polaris: Well, she's kind of, have we decided that we, we're gonna kind of hunt her down, kill her? We decided that? We kinda, I don't know.

Chris/Ollie: I do not think we will need to go through the effort. It seems like she will probably do that for us.

Bee/Polaris: What, hunt herself down or hunt us down?

Chris/Ollie: Hunt us down.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Chris/Ollie: She seems like a person to hold a grudge.

Bee/Polaris: I don't blame her, I kind of hold a grudge too. Well, for her specifically.

Chris/Ollie: I as well.

Bee/Polaris: Also

Chris/Ollie: Threatening Hermes is unforgivable.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, also Zahn did straight up yell in the ship, I'm going to kill you, to Rhea. So I assume that the want for murdering each other is mutual.

Chris/Ollie: Speaking of Rhea, you indicated she was thousands of years old.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, how does she swing that?

Avery/GM: Insufficient data. Insufficient data. No I'm just kidding that was a joke.

Bee/Polaris: What the fuck ?

Avery/GM: That was just a little, little computer humor that I picked up along the way.

Bee/Polaris: That's pretty good.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie starts just going off in a computer voice. 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1. Which is, you know, Robot for LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Avery/GM: Oh my gosh.

Caden/Bruce: I just thought it was like Ollie being like, non binary numbers.

Chris/Ollie: Probably.

Avery/GM: Hermes just says, So, we, that is myself, Rhea, Crius, and all the other members of the, the ruling council of the hegemony. We are, or I was, um, originally a species called the Prodians. We are, The oldest sentient species in the galaxy, in the universe, probably. Our society, for millions of years, has gone from galaxy to galaxy, planet to planet, and have seeded life throughout the cosmos.

Avery/GM: Rhea is not just thousands of years old, she's just over a couple million years old. And the Eternal One, the ruler of the Gemini, is even older. We obviously are not native to this galaxy or even this section of the universe. We have traveled all over. We even have traveled to the Milky Way galaxy before and, and seeded life there.

Avery/GM: For a while, people even considered us deities on that planet. And that's really kind of where things went off the rails. The, the group of proteans that visited what we called Earth in those days. We seeded life and we helped it evolve. There were these really cool, giant, like, lizard creatures that were also part bird.

Avery/GM: Like, it was really cool. And they were actually probably my favorite thing that I've ever created, to be honest. There was this really long necked one called, like, a brontosaurus.

Bee/Polaris: Hermes made dinosaurs?

Avery/GM: Yes.

Chris/Ollie: Lowkey, god of the Sol System.

Avery/GM: Anyway, you know, we, we watched life kind of evolve and eventually, uh, led to humanity, which we've ended up doing in several different places throughout the cosmos.

Avery/GM: It's really interesting how like humans evolve just slight variations. It's very interesting. Anyway, sorry, as you can, as you can tell, uh, I really enjoyed creating life, uh, when I was... but anyway, as the humans started to worship us, Rhea and the Eternal One and all the other Prodians, they started to enjoy it and started to revel in it and then started to basically demand it.

Avery/GM: And eventually I couldn't tolerate it any longer and stood up to them. And that's when I lost my body. Eventually the humans were able to drive the proteins from the planet. I don't know how they did that, but they did. And we have kind of been wandering ever since. Eventually we arrived here and started to observe the life that had already been started here.

Avery/GM: And the rest of my people have decided. That they want to rule over this galaxy just like they did on Earth. But, anyway, to answer your question, uh, Polaris, that's how Rhea, quote unquote, swings that.

Bee/Polaris: Dang, okay.

Caden/Bruce: Do they have some sort of technology to do to others as they did to you? I mean, it doesn't seem exactly right to be able to determine if someone can have a body or not. I mean, I understand that creating life is, in a way, fantastic, but to take life and just put it in a shell of what it used to be seems to be pretty unfair.

Avery/GM: Yes, they, they have... it's not even technology, it's just an innate function of the biology of, of a protean. They are able to separate consciousness from a person's body.

Bee/Polaris: Oh.

Avery/GM: It doesn't work as well on proteans, hence why they still needed my, my brain in a jar for so long. But yeah, if Rhea had wanted to, Polaris, if she had captured you in that mech that she had, I could have done some really terrible things to you, just for fun.

Bee/Polaris: Well, wouldn't be the first time.

Avery/GM: No, I think it would be the first and only time.

Bee/Polaris: Fully joking, it wouldn't. Yeah. Well, I don't know. Well, never mind.

Avery/GM: So. Yeah, that's kind of the whole story of what we're dealing with. Again, Polaris, I'm very sorry that I've kind of roped you into this, uh, with my little kidnapping request so long ago.

Bee/Polaris: He just kind of shrugs. It's been fun.

Avery/GM: Well, I appreciate you letting me kind of quote unquote trauma dump on you with all this information. I know it's probably a lot to take in

Bee/Polaris: I mean, I wouldn't say it's trauma dumping You're just kind of explaining your backstory because we really didn't know that much about you Up until now.

Avery/GM: Well, yes, I I do try to play the the role of hapless ship AI. And I like to think I do it convincingly.

Bee/Polaris: You do it very convincingly. I'm kind of upset that you lied to us a little bit, but also very clever. So yeah, hat off to you. I'm not wearing a hat, but you know, just imagine it.

Jenine/Marty: But you are wearing a hat. You're wearing your helmet.

Bee/Polaris: That's not a hat. That's my helmet.

Jenine/Marty: But is a hat not something on your head?

Chris/Ollie: Ollie will pipe in. At which point does a hat differentiate from a helmet?

Bee/Polaris: Well, a helmet engulfs the entire head, whereas a hat sits on top of it.

Jenine/Marty: But is there not a... there's also helmets that are just, like, the top part of the head.

Bee/Polaris: Is there

Jenine/Marty: bike helmets?

Avery/GM: Yeah, there's like little hats.

Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah, I guess there are hat helmets, okay, but this isn't a hat helmet, it's a helmet helmet.

Avery/GM: Hermes projects a little holographic, uh, hat on top of your helmet.

Bee/Polaris: Sweet.

Avery/GM: And then lifts it.

Bee/Polaris: Okay, cool. Also, this does bring up that our ship is basically a god, question mark?

Avery/GM: Oh, no, please, I have never liked that. Okay.

Bee/Polaris: Okay, ex ex god.

Avery/GM: I'm just a little guy flying a ship.

Bee/Polaris: A literal god. I'm just a little guy.

Jenine/Marty: Just a little guy.

Bee/Polaris: Okay, well, it's still pretty incredible. Well, is there anything else we should probably Cause I feel like Rhea's probably going to hunt us down at some point. Is there any like, protections or weaknesses that she has?

Avery/GM: In all of my time knowing her, I have not known her to show weakness.

Bee/Polaris: Okay,

Avery/GM: she is a very capable warrior.

Bee/Polaris: Alright.

Avery/GM: Though, I will say, analyzing your battle with her, she was not expecting the custodians to step in. Possibly because she did not know of them.

Bee/Polaris: Uh oh.

Avery/GM: So anything you can surprise her with will probably be very helpful in the future.

Bee/Polaris: Good to know. Does that mean we're gonna have to switch up our usual go to, which is bombs? She's probably, she probably knows about the bombs.

Avery/GM: She is well versed with explosives, yes.

Chris/Ollie: All problems in life can be solved with the proper application of explosives.

Bee/Polaris: That is true. We could create a black hole bomb.

Chris/Ollie: This sounds very promising.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, it is within the technology.

Avery/GM: No, it is. You got this.

Chris/Ollie: I am liking the sound of that.

Bee/Polaris: I am also liking the sound of that. Now, that does mean we will have to be very far away.

Chris/Ollie: Negative. You will have to be very far away.

Bee/Polaris: Aren't you tired of being blown up?

Chris/Ollie: Yes, but I can't take one for the team.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, we could also just use a drone. It doesn't have to be you every single time.

Chris/Ollie: Negative. My drone, the maximum limit of my drone is 200 kilometers.

Bee/Polaris: That's pretty, um

Chris/Ollie: Not enough for a black hole.

Bee/Polaris: Well, it could be a small black hole, but we can discuss logistics later.

Avery/GM: I will think on this subject and get back to you when I have devised a strategy that will not result in all of your immediate deaths or separation of power.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, that'd be pretty good, I think. Hey, um, is she, like, susceptible to poison?

Avery/GM: I don't know?

Bee/Polaris: Huh.

Avery/GM: I'll have to dig through my memories of protean biology.

Bee/Polaris: Sweet.

Avery/GM: Do you have any talking plants? Those usually kind of give her the eeps.

Bee/Polaris: Dammit. We just got rid of one.

Avery/GM: I'm actually, I'm kidding.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah, for the bit.

Avery/GM: Convenient plot device, destroyed!

Bee/Polaris: Could you imagine Rhea's one weakness is Eden, who could literally absorb her?

Caden/Bruce: Don't make me miss my plant already.

Bee/Polaris: I'm so sorry, Caden. I hated your plant with all my being. But I'm sorry for your loss.

Jenine/Marty: We can get a plant that doesn't talk back?

Bee/Polaris: That doesn't talk back?

Caden/Bruce: A regular plant?

Bee/Polaris: If you want, we can get you a meatus flytrap. It's pretty much the same plant.

Avery/GM: There you go, that's, yeah.

Caden/Bruce: No, I, I feel like Bruce is, uh, sufficiently plan freaked out.

Jenine/Marty: Or we can get you like a little garden with all the little herbs in it.

Avery/GM: As you're sort of wrapping up this conversation with Hermes, Deif rolls in and starts like poking at, uh, Zahn, and then gives like a big like hurried like wave of his little tiny robot arms because Deif can't, or no, Deif can talk.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Deif can talk, he told stories.

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: He can tell stories.

Avery/GM: That's right, he reads bedtime stories. He waves his arms and is like, Zahn, Zahn. Zahn, you must come quick. I believe I installed one of the parts wrong and I need your assistance. I am too small to handle this part by myself.

Avery/GM: And Zahn is just like, okay, I guess we got this to worry about now. And they run off to the mobile factory. So Zahn and Dief run out to start working on the mobile factory and fixing this part that Dief installed backwards. Cause he's also a silly little guy and the rest of you sort of, you know, have relatively pleasant, you know, small talk with Hermes for a bit, and then kind of drift off and do your own thing for a bit.

Avery/GM: And the weeks pass on the Ursa Major as the rest of these repairs are underway. It looks like the mobile factory is just about finished when Bruce, you receive an email, but Hermes also gets an email as well. And Hermes sends you all a message in the chat that just. says you have all been invited to the grand opening of Big Fred's anime emporium on Olympia. Would you like to RSVP?

Bee/Polaris: Polaris immediately puts yes.

Caden/Bruce: Yes.

Avery/GM: Awesome. Shall we set a course then? Or would you like to take the Ursa? Or just the TSKAM? Or the Cassiopeia?

Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. We have three ships, huh? We need like a base planet or something, uh, to park all of our ships.

Avery/GM: I assume you all went back to like that kind of like dead system that the Ursa usually hangs out in.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, uh, let's, we should probably take the Tiz Cam because the Cass is a ship from a different galaxy, don't want to bring that too close to the capital of the, uh, uh, city.

Chris/Ollie: Isn't the Ursa as well?

Bee/Polaris: No, uh, yes.

Avery/GM: Technically, yeah.

Bee/Polaris: So, TSKAM it is.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, let's drop the sussy, the sussy Wessies.

Bee/Polaris: We need a big ship that isn't sus.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah,

Avery/GM: well.

Bee/Polaris: That can hold the other two ships. Also, didn't the Winstons have like a a deal gone bad and they needed a replacement so we gave them the Crimson Chaos Pirates contact.

Avery/GM: No they couldn't get a hold of the Crimson Chaos Pirates and that's why.

Chris/Ollie: Oh that's right we need to go check on them that's on our quest log.

Bee/Polaris: Oh we super need to check on them.

Chris/Ollie: Might as well do that when we're done shopping.

Avery/GM: And Polaris had actually emailed them asking if they were good. You have not gotten an answer.

Bee/Polaris: Okay yeah we definitely did check on them once we're done with this. I'm writing it down in my notes so that we don't forget.

Jenine/Marty: My dudes!

Avery/GM: So you're taking the TSKAM to the capital. And as you are entering the spike drive space, uh, you get a little, Hermes pipes up and just says, Oh, there seems to be some interesting developments going on on the capital world. Would you like me to summarize this news report that we are getting?

Bee/Polaris: Yes, please.

Avery/GM: It appears that the head of state, the protector of the Republic, has been arrested for treason.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, well, wait, the silver shield or something? That's what else I'm not really familiar with the politics of this world.

Avery/GM: Yeah. No, you're fine So the republic is basically, you know, they have a legislature they have courts and then they're instead of calling him president they call him protect they call the the executive of the Of the government, um the protector of the republic to make it seem like a more noble position than it actually really is

Bee/Polaris: Hey, aint that the truth.

Avery/GM: I am patching through the You Announcement, as it is coming in on the Holonet News.

Avery/GM: Welcome to Holonet News! I'm Zeke Fleek! We are going to breaking news on the Republic Capital world of Olympia, where we have just learned that Protector Sersis Nelnan has been arrested on charges of treason. We go to Olympia, where General Violet Winston is giving a press conference.

Avery/GM: It was thanks to the amazing investigative skills of our military detectives that we were able to recover the deleted video footage that showed the Protector meeting with a member of the Hegemony's Council.

Avery/GM: Coupled with our discovery of rampant embezzlement by those in charge at the Treasury, and our discovery of unauthorized payments being sent deep into Hegemony's space, we were able to finally find the source of the corruption, Protector Sersis Nelnan.

Avery/GM: While a motive is still being determined, We believe the strange happenings reported on the hegemony world of Ithaca, along with the aggressive hegemony takeovers of various worlds in the independent sector, are all connected back to this secret cabal between the hegemony and Protector Nelnan.

Avery/GM: A trial will be held as soon as our investigation concludes. In the meantime, elections will be held in approximately three months. At this time, I would also like to announce my retirement as General of the Military. In order to pursue candidacy for the role of Protector, it is time our Republic have a fresh face. One that is committed to protecting our people and fighting corruption. That is all for now. Thank you and goodnight.

Avery/GM: And there you have it Protector. Nelton has been arrested on treason and elections are scheduled. It looks like Violet Winston will be running for the office. We'll be sure to follow all these developments as this unprecedented time in our republic unfolds. This has been Zeke Fleek with HoloNet News.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris rolls his eyes super hard.

Avery/GM: As you should.

Caden/Bruce: I knew cats had nine lives, I didn't realize that they also had nine lies.

Bee/Polaris: Ayo! Polaris just looks at Bruce and says, I don't get it. Cats have nine lives?

Caden/Bruce: It's a human saying that I've picked up on my journeys.

Bee/Polaris: How come I don't know it then? Polaris kind of looks down at his hands.

Avery/GM: Darn parents didn't teach me about cats.

Bee/Polaris: No, they taught him about Polar Bears, hence his name.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie says Curious, I thought I was the only one with multiple lives.

Avery/GM: So, you take off towards this, uh, towards the Republic homeworld of Olympia. And actually, surprisingly, one of the key details about this news report is that the sort of strict incoming and outgoing traffic that You experienced the first time you arrived here has been lifted as that restriction was actually in place due to the Nefarious workings of Rhea and her

Bee/Polaris: goons

Avery/GM: people she was manipulating. Yeah,

Chris/Ollie: wait What was that exactly?

Bee/Polaris: Because we had a hard time getting in To the like planet and stuff without like we're getting off the planet because it went into lockdown Remember

Avery/GM: and last time you also needed Machamp's authorization to get in To get on.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we had to be escorted on and that was because of Ray and her goons.

Avery/GM: Yep. So Bruce, did you want to open that email that you received?

Caden/Bruce: Yes, please.

Avery/GM: Yeah. Uh, so it is actually an email from your friends, um, at the Red River Farm. It is from Silver, Peter, and Eleanor. Well, it's really from Peter and Eleanor, um, Silver is a child.

Bee/Polaris: Yep. Wasn't there another child? I thought there were two children.

Avery/GM: I think they just had one child.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, okay.

Avery/GM: That's what I remember at least. Yeah. One teenager.

Bee/Polaris: Okay.

Avery/GM: Anywho, they are emailing you, Bruce, because they are so excited about their new store having finally opened. And with the grand opening of the Anime Emporium next door, they're actually getting a lot more foot traffic as people kind of come by the shopping center more often to see if it's open yet. And in this email, it basically says that with all the foot traffic going on and with the success of the farms business, they are actually hoping to hire a chef for their store so that they can have a dine in experience for their customers. their customers as well. And so they are holding, not tryouts, what's the word?

Bee/Polaris: Uh, interviews.

Avery/GM: There we go. Tryouts.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah, sports ball.

Avery/GM: They're interviewing chefs and are hoping, also for like a demonstration by the chefs that they interview, of their culinary skills. And they know that you are a chef based on how you were dressed and how you carried yourself and the way you knew about food and ingredients

Caden/Bruce: and you know bought them a place

Avery/GM: and all of that plus the fact that you did basically you are the reason they have the success that they have they want to open the opportunity up to you first and so they're hoping you can stop by sometime and talk to them

Caden/Bruce: i think bruce will reply to the email and just be like we're heading to Big Fred's grand opening and I'll swing by around that time sort of thing.

Avery/GM: Awesome. Yeah. They reply back and just say, that's great. Silver is so excited to see you again. So we'll see you soon. Thank you. Love Red River Farms and family.

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Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a one up podcast network production. If you like our show, please leave a review. wherever you get your podcasts. Theme music by Dustin Carpenter. Background music by TabletopAudio. com. Tracks used include Starship Adrift, Robot Scrapyard, and Aftermath.

We'll be back on December 15th with our next episode. See you out there, beyond the furthest stars.