Amara watched through the docking bay viewport as a standard shuttle returned from Stephen's ship. Only Tanya disembarked as Janet and Cameron had stayed behind for "a day or two," and Tanya had apparently accepted this without argument, without her usual comments or body language. That was the first warning sign.
The second was Tanya's demeanour as she walked through Genesis's corridors. Her movements were mechanical, efficient, but there was something missing. There was no casual check-ins with crew members, the quick assessment of ship status, the natural leadership rhythm Amara had come to expect. Instead, Tanya moved like someone carrying a burden that was too heavy for her.
When Tanya headed directly to her workshop instead of stopping by the bridge or crew quarters, Amara knew something was seriously wrong.
"Amara, I need to brief you on something. Privately," Tanya said, her voice carrying an exhaustion that went deeper than simple fatigue."
The workshop felt different with just the two of them and Mera's gentle luminescence. Tanya started explaining everything. The Builder City, the Scourge, the cycle of civilisations being consumed, the Lady's ancient authority, Sage's restored memories about forge worlds and evacuation fleets.
She presented it all factually, almost clinically, like someone filing a technical report rather than describing the potential end of galactic civilisation. She had noted that Sage had been awfully quiet as well.
"The scale is... overwhelming," Tanya finished. "We're not just building ships anymore. We're supposed to establish planetary manufacturing infrastructure capable of evacuating entire star systems."
Amara let her finish completely before responding. Then she said something simple and devastating: "You're slipping."
"What do you mean?" Tanya asked, though her tone suggested she already knew.
"Not panic. Not fear. Not incompetence." Amara studied her friend's face with the analytical attention she brought to market analysis. "Compression. You're being watched, evaluated, pressured, and positioned by entities that operate on geological timescales. And you're trying to absorb all of that responsibility without deflecting any of it."
Tanya was quiet for a long moment. "Someone has to."
"No, they don't. Not alone." Amara pulled up her tablet, already running calculations. "Let me handle the negotiations with Raymond and Lady Flowers. You focus on the technical challenges."
"Amara, these people are—"
"Dangerous. I know. But you're easy to read, which makes you a target. I'm not." Amara's smile was sharp. "Let me be the one they underestimate."
Tanya hesitated, the control instincts warring with practical necessity. Finally, she nodded. "All right. But be careful."
"Always am."
The negotiation with Raymond proceeded with refreshing efficiency. He was polite, prepared, and transparent about his requirements. Navigation beacon technology for scouting operations in exchange for complete neural interface research, prosthetic integration protocols, and consciousness-machine boundary studies.
"Your beacons would allow us to establish monitoring stations in regions conventional sensors can't penetrate," Raymond explained through the secure communication channel. "The Scourge approach will likely utilise dimensional masking that requires enhanced detection methods."
"And in return, we get everything you've learned about consciousness integration?" Amara asked.
"Complete technical packages. Research methodologies. Ethical frameworks we've developed to prevent the exploitation of integrated subjects. No summaries, no redacted sections."
The deal was struck within twenty minutes. Raymond was honest, transactional, and refreshingly free of theatre or manipulation. But his comprehensive knowledge of Genesis's capabilities and Tanya's work remained unsettling.
"One question," Amara said as they finalised terms. "How long have you been monitoring our operations?"
"Since Eden-Five," Raymond replied without hesitation. "Zero identified Tanya as a potential asset after her dimensional navigation demonstration. We've been tracking her progress since."
At least he was honest about it. But it showed how far behind their crew was and the needs for an information specialist. Not that Amara believed humans could keep out the gardeners, but it seems their own gardener had been slacking.
Lady Flowers required a different approach entirely. Amara refused to meet in person, keeping Genesis sealed and maintaining a defensive posture throughout their holographic communication. Proximity wasn't necessary for someone like Lady Flowers to exert pressure.It only increased the risk.
The communication channel opened with Lady Flowers appearing in her characteristic, elegant robes and her customary cup of tea, but something in her bearing immediately set Amara on edge. This wasn't the diplomatic figure who'd negotiated with Tanya. Instead, this was a predator who was dropping the pretences.
"Amara," Lady Flowers began with warm familiarity that triggered every one of Amara's instincts. "It's wonderful to see Genesis again. I have such fond memories of her early days. She's changed so much since then, grown into her potential. Just like Tanya has."
Amara recognised the destabilisation attempt immediately. References to Genesis's past that Amara couldn't verify, implications of long observation, and the suggestion of proprietary interest in both ship and crew. This wasn't a conversation but a psychological positioning designed to establish authority and create vulnerability.
"The data you're requesting," Amara said, cutting through the nostalgic manipulation. "You already have access to it, don't you?"
Lady Flowers smiled with maternal patience. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean."
"The battleship experimental records. The neural interface research. You either have the capability to access Genesis's archives directly, or you already possess equivalent data from your own sources." Amara kept her voice level, professional. "The keywords you offered weren't assistance. They were provocations designed to test Tanya's reaction to moral pressure."
The silence that followed stretched just long enough to confirm Amara's suspicion.
"That's an interesting interpretation," Lady Flowers said finally, her tone shifting subtly cooler.
"It's the correct interpretation. You weren't guiding her or trying to help; you are studying her. Testing her ethical boundaries, measuring her resistance to manipulation, cataloguing her responses to authority pressure." Amara leaned forward slightly. "The question is why. What exactly are you preparing her for?"
Lady Flowers' expression remained pleasantly neutral, but something flickered behind her eyes. It looked like annoyance at being read so accurately, perhaps.
"You're making this more complicated than necessary, Amara. Tanya and I have a working relationship that predates your involvement. These arrangements serve everyone's interests."
"Whose interests, specifically? Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like Tanya provides advanced technology and moral legitimacy while you provide vague promises and psychological manipulation."
"You seem upset," Lady Flowers observed, her voice taking on the tone adults used with difficult children. "Perhaps this conversation would be more productive if Tanya were present. These matters involve Gardener relationships that operate beyond normal human understanding."
There it was—the authority play Amara had been expecting.
"I don't need Gardener authority to recognise predatory behaviour," Amara replied evenly. "And we humans are done being leveraged in games we didn't choose to play. Done being test variables in experiments we weren't told about."
Lady Flowers' pleasant mask slipped slightly. "You're not bonded, Amara. This conversation operates above your clearance level."
"Actually, it doesn't. Because this isn't about cosmic responsibilities or Gardener hierarchies—it's about consent. And Tanya's consent is being manufactured through information manipulation and emotional pressure."
Amara pulled up data displays on her tablet, projecting confidence she didn't entirely feel. "Let me guess how this works. You provide just enough information to make Tanya feel responsible for problems she didn't create, then offer solutions that require her to compromise her principles. Each compromise makes the next one easier to justify. Classic conditioning."
The silence stretched longer this time, Lady Flowers studying Amara with new attention.
"We're not children, we aren't ignorant of the games being played," Amara continued. "We're not going to accept benevolent guidance without accountability, or trust power structures that treat consent as optional. That includes Sage, by the way. Gardener authority doesn't automatically equal human compliance."
"You seem to be under the impression that humanity has alternatives to cooperation," Lady Flowers said, her voice carrying subtle menace.
"I'm under the impression that cooperation requires mutual respect. Which requires recognising that humans have agency in decisions that affect human lives." Amara's voice remained calm, but she let steel enter her tone. "I've spent the last two years protecting Tanya from people who want to exploit her talents. I'm very good at recognising the patterns."
"And what patterns do you think you see here?"
"Someone with centuries of experience in social engineering, targeting a brilliant but ethically driven engineer who carries guilt about unintended consequences. Someone who understands exactly which emotional buttons to push to get compliance without triggering resistance."
Lady Flowers leaned back in her chair, reassessing. "You're more perceptive than I expected."
"I'm a business strategist who's worked in grey and sometimes the black for many years. Manipulation is my professional language." Amara set down her tablet with deliberate finality. "The question is: are we going to continue this dance, or are you going to tell me what you actually want?"
"What makes you think I want anything beyond what I've already stated?"
"Because if you just needed the experimental data, you could have taken it from Genesis's archives. If you just needed crew solutions, you could have provided the coordinates without psychological pressure. This elaborate performance suggests you're trying to achieve something specific with Tanya's psychology, not just her technology."
Lady Flowers was quiet for a long moment, studying Amara with the attention of a scientist examining an unexpected result.
"You're protective of her," she observed finally.
"She's my friend. She's also the most important shipwright in the galaxy, which makes her a strategic asset that requires protection from exploitation."
"Even from Gardener guidance?"
"Especially from Gardener guidance. Because they operate on timescales that treat individual human lives as expendable variables. Tanya doesn't." Amara's voice hardened. "I don't fear your authority, Lady Flowers. I don't fear Gardener hierarchy. But I will act if Tanya is harmed by manipulation disguised as mentorship. You are not the only one who can play the game"
Not a threat. A statement of policy.
The subtext was clear. Amara would use human networks, human unpredictability, and human refusal to play assigned roles in cosmic dramas they hadn't auditioned for.
"You cannot protect her from what's coming," Lady Flowers said quietly. "The Scourge doesn't care about human agency or consent. It consumes everything equally."
"Maybe. But she'll face it as herself, not as someone you've conditioned to serve your agenda." Amara met Lady Flowers' gaze directly. "If you want her cooperation, earn it honestly. If you want her trust, stop treating her like a resource to be managed."
Another long silence, then Lady Flowers smiled. It appeared genuine this time, carrying something that might have been respect, but it was difficult to tell with such an experienced player.
"You're quite remarkable, Amara. I can see why Tanya values your counsel." She transmitted coordinates and access codes. "Research facility. Abandoned before Genesis went into hiding. Your crew shortage problems may find genuine solutions there. No strings attached."
"Why the change of approach?"
"Because you've demonstrated that standard conditioning techniques won't work with your group. Adaptation is necessary for survival." Lady Flowers paused, seeming to choose her words carefully. "Also because I suspect we'll need humans who can think independently when the real crisis begins. Conditioned compliance might not be sufficient."
When the communication ended, Amara felt like she had lost despite achieving her objectives. Lady Flowers had still controlled the tempo, still controlled the outcome, still revealed nothing of her deeper agenda while extracting valuable information about human psychological limits and resistance patterns.
But at least the manipulation had been acknowledged rather than hidden. That was something.
Maybe.
But at least Tanya had been protected from direct pressure.
Amara found Tanya in the workshop, working on modifications to Marv's gravitational array with the focused intensity of someone using technical problems to avoid emotional ones.
"Negotiations are complete," Amara reported. "Raymond's deal is straightforward. We provide navigation tech for neural interface research. Good value, honest terms. Lady Flowers provided coordinates for a research facility that might address crew shortages. Also gave us a master class in psychological manipulation, which wasn't part of the original agreement."
Tanya nodded, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "Thank you. For handling it."
"That's what partners do."
As Amara left the workshop, she reflected on the larger patterns emerging. Gardeners planned in cycles that were counted in geological spans of time where individual human lives barely registered. Humans plan in moments, immediate crises, personal relationships, and decisions that matter right now.
But moments could break cycles. Individual choices could disrupt plans that assumed human compliance with cosmic authority. She wasn't sure what her next steps would be, but she be keeping an eye out.