Right after Dhanyl finished what he said, a plethora of hysterical and slightly mischievous thoughts rushed into him.

Laudmas then said to Valorum, "A very important thing to know. The act of making newborns is generally considered taboo in many other races." He then flicked his visor a little, resembling a wink. "I really don't recommend talking enthusiastically to opposite genders." 

The way Valorum turns his head to Laudmas gives everyone the impression that he's rolling his eyes, replying with a surprising hint of sarcasm in his voice:

"Thank you, Laudmas. I'll keep that in mind in case I suddenly have the urge to reproduce."

He then holds up a hand and replies to Dhanyl sincerely:

"That won't be necessary. I don't need to know all of the details and we'll have far more important things to do. It will...make for an interesting read, though."

When Zeroes approaches as formally as he does, Valorum is visibly surprised by his manner of speaking; he shifts a little in his seat, trying to mask his discomfort at the extremely reverent address and replies:

"Ah...I take it you're the Automaton I read about. You...you may do your work, but please, there's no need for such formalities. I'm just your captain, and you can just call me Valorum."

"Well, Laudmas, if you're that knowing about things that will never affect you, I guess you know things that concern you even better. So I don't need to get off my break to tell you about how stressful a job it is to keep a spaceship flying, and how much a curious creature wandering around without anybody keeping an eye on it can do in damage. Understood?", Ylona mentioned in a relaxed tone.

With the same tone, she turned towards Zeros and asked: "Next time you go and take apart my bridge, could you inform us what you're doing?"

Frame looked up at Ylona, down at the console it had remove the panel from, and at the piece it was in the process of installing, then back to Ylona. A note of embarrassment crept into Zeros vox.

"Oh, right. My apologies, I'm used to just performing tasks."

Frame held up the sphere. They both appeared to be comprised of the same materials, albeit without the same coruscation of Dust evident in the sphere. Zeros lent the vox to Guide. It was much better at such explanations, the voice emitting from the vox took on a more youthful quality, resonating with the exuberance and excitement of a Sophon showing off a new piece of tech.

"This is a relay drone, once I finish installing the transceiver,"

Frame indicated the piece it was working on in the console. Arms gesticulating wildly in an effort to match the increasing energy of the vox.

"It will serve as a direct link to my central systems. This will enable an immediate transfer of data to and from this console regardless of my physical location on the ship. Going into detail of the mechanics-"

At the point the vox cut back into Zeros, and Frame returned to it's more elegant, subdued arm motions. Returning to work on the console.

"Will undoubtedly take up much time. Essentially, once I am finished it should be able to crew some aspects of the com even should I be located somewhere else on the ship conducting repairs. It will not however be able to perform any service other than simple re-directing of data though. Were we come in contact with lifeforms that require translation, I would need to be physically present to assist."

With this last statement Frame replaced the panel and manipulated the sphere in a way that caused four segmented retracted legs to extend., placing it gingerly on the keypad of the console where it began to interact with the console using several smaller manipulators, then leaning back into the chair to relax and see where the conversation would go.

Valorum decides to remain silent as Zeroes does his work. Whether it's because of that sharp remark in a different tone or simply because he found it more productive to keep reading Corvus' file, nobody could tell. Again, facelessness had its perks. As Zeroes explained his work and finished his task, Valorum's gaze turned back to him.

" As long as it doesn't sacrifice safety and increases efficiency, I have no complaints. I have one question, though; is it not a natural feature of Automatons to wirelessly link friendly computer systems? I thought that was a primary form of communication for your race, and Sowers as well, or am I wrong?"

"It is indeed. However that ability is not without its limitations, limited range being the least of them. When it is active my conciousness enters into a type of virtual reality interface. Although his enables me to interact with cybernetic systems quite efficiently, it severely inhibits the funtionality of my physical form. Juggling while riding a unicycle is infantile compared to to rigors of attempting repairs while, not only effectively blindfolded, but also distracted by a whole other reality. The best simile I can come up with is that its like attempting to lucid dream an accurate recreation of your surroundings while sleepwalking, and then trying to make a meal. Terribly imprecise."

"That sounds like me when I'm cooking", Ylona joked. In her mind, she added, or when I'm using Dust. She nervously fingered the chain around her neck. There'd probably be no way to avoid using the stuff on a trip like this, but she still hoped that the moment when she had to was a long way off. Thankfully, Tianquitzli was inaccessible via cosmic strings, so the chance to run into pirates was tiny.

She looked around, noticing how the room had gone rather silent. Maybe it was Decius lurking at his consoles. Pretty much any crowd would fall silent when confronted with a Craver. It definitely intimidated her, despite trying to think of the large creature as a crew member.

Hoping to keep the conversation flowing, she was about to ask if anyone here considered themselves a good cook, but thankfully remembered her audience before saying something so stupid.  This mixed crew took some getting used to compared to mostly human co-workers. Not able to think of a naturally following question, she instead changed topic: "Anyone want to bet on what planets we'll find when arriving around Tanye?"

After listening so long without speaking Dhanyl felt the urge to enter the conversation again. Turning to Ylona he repeated Decius Question.

 "Good question, Is there an actual kitchen at this Ship? Because, if so, I declare myself the inofficial-part-time-Chef of this Vessel! Also, I would like to learn it's location, I am slowly growing hungry.

Anyways, at the Topic of betting, I first would like to receive some information, I don't like to make completely uneducated guesses. So what Information do we have about the System?"

Valorum simply responded 'hmm' to Zeroes before pulling up a star chart of the constellation the Saviour was currently in. He chose to ignore the new conversation about food since it was mostly a pointless topic to him, and after a few long moments of reading the map, decided to take Ylona's wager and responds:

"Since the system doesn't appear colonised, I'd hesitate to guess any temperate worlds are there. I'll bet that we'll find... a Snow planet. I'd like to find a snowy world orbiting..."

The Vodyani pauses, leaning towards his screen a little and staring before slowly pronouncing:

"...Tlahuiz...calpante...cuhtli...I believe that's how you pronounce it..."

"Close enough", Ylona reassured the Captain, "but just call it Tanye, has less syllables. So, one count for snow, one for no atmospheric silicates, and I'll go with cold desert. Tanye is an old star, pretty weak. The whole cluster is ancient, otherwise we wouldn't be flying there." She scribbled down the bets while talking, then turned to Dhanyl.

"So, what's preference? Oh, and there's a mess on the ship, with kitchen. I think we got somebody working there, but I'd need to check the crew roster. Also, I'm not going to cook there, or it's a literal mess."

((I'll leave the NPC inventing to somebody else))

Without thinking long he formed his Hypothesis and explained to his audience. And without even noticing, he instantly fell into his 'Lecture-mode', one hand behind his back and gesturing with the other on.

 "Hm, If it is that old, it's Stars won't give a lot of Heat,"

At this point, he even to go in a little circle.  

"so it will be a cold Planet. But, at a somewhat high chance of having once inhabited Live, so no baron Planets. So, coming to a conclusion, I'll say, Ice planet."

Suddenly stopping, noticing that he had nothing more to say, he froze in his position, slightly confused, remembering where he was and then pulling himself together again.

Valorum looks up at Laudmas, interested at the mention of a manuscript. After the old machine describes the theory of many planets being transformed by Dust, the Vodyani suddenly speaks, reciting one of many verses that had been engraved into his mind as well as the markings on his Cloth:

"'All that breathes, walks, and thinks, all do so by the Virtual's grace. Through their power, they sowed the seeds of life on thousands of worlds and changed the face of the universe eternally. Black skies turned blue, vast craters filled with water, grey soil grew brown and rich, and green bloomed over the hills and mountains; all for naught but a glimmer of divine gold.'"

Valorum cocks his head a little when he finishes his recital, as if he had even surprised himself. He clears his throat and sits up out of his reclined position, explaining:

"The Compendium of Reflections, Passage One, Verses One through Four. It's one of many translations of Endless temple scrawlings that Vodyani seekers have compiled over the century. It might have been the manuscript you read, though I hadn't any clue that Vodyani writings had gotten outside of the Church. Perhaps some passages were donated as part of missionary work..."

Valorum then grabs his glaive and stands up, walking towards the model of the Tanye system projected on the main holotable and examining it. After a few moments, he raises a hand and rest his chin on it in a gesture of contemplation before musing aloud:

"Regardless, you bring up an excellent point, Laudmas. To find Tor, we must understand its inhabitants, and Tanye's worlds may be the best place to start our search. The sun itself is a old and weak, meaning any planet that orbits it will most likely have cooler climates. I'm sure even you can support me on this, Dhanyl, but the few Endless temples that I've seen have more often than not been in cooler climates; cold planets, moons, some have even been burrowed into asteroids. So long as the environment was even barely above 0 Degrees, a temple was likely to be there. And where there's a temple, there's long dormant knowledge waiting to be found."

"You're mixing up effect and cause there, Captain", Ylona corrected him, then added as an afterthought: "With all due respect."

She sat up slightly straighter in her seat, then started lecturing: "We find temples in cold places because small cold suns last longer. They could have built lots of them around hot suns, too, but they're all gone now. Burned up when the star turned giant or went nova. Circle of life, I'm afraid. Give it another few billion years or so and you're not going to find anything from them any more."

While speaking, she tried to look around inconspicously. When Decius entered, she'd taken her eyes off Laudmas' glob of goop, and now the creature was nowhere to be seen. Without her wanting it, one of her hands went towards the knife again, in dreading anticipation of tentacles climbing up her leg.

"Of course, when you want to keep something, it's always good to put it in a cold place. Decay, both by organisms or just chemical decomposition, works better with more energy. If you want to fight entropy, it's best you get a cold place out of the sun. That's why Vaulters live so long", she joked.

"And not to diss anyone's religion, but Virtuals terraforming places? If I got this right, they're just programs, what do they need a nice planet for. They just need a server farm and a few solar cells. Should actually be better on a planet without atmosphere, then you don't have storms knocking over your stuff."

Valorum responds to Ylona:

"True enough, but I assure you, Sister, I am not confused. I was just speaking more from the perspective of psychology and biology rather than physics and astrology."

To prove his point, Valorum manipulates the holotable display to show the Oyera system that the Saviour would soon leave behind. Tapping the marble-sized projection second from the sun, the display zooms in and displays the world's information:

Oyera II

Terrain: Boreal

Temperature: Cold

Habitability: Teeming

Population: 8 Billion (5o% Pilgrim, 25% Sophon, 12.5% Vaulter, 12.5% Lumeris)

Anomalies: Dust Ruin, Minor Hyperium deposits

Output: Strong Science, Moderate Dust & Food, Weak Industry

As the readout finishes displaying the information, Valorum elaborates:

"No matter what race you are, one always takes comfort in the familiar. The UE's oldest colonies are on temperate planets, Deyuvians colonize gas giants sooner than any terrestrial world, and Mavros would pick a lava planet over a barren one in a heartbeat. During their time in this galaxy, the Endless were no different, and the temples dotting cold worlds is proof of that eternal rule. Regardless of why it exists, the pattern remains visible and we can still exploit it."

As an afterthought, he suggests:

"And I'd guess that the Virtuals still had an appreciation for nature, regardless of their forms. I'd say you could ask a Sower for a better answer, but you probably don't have a solar rotation to spare to hear the full reason."