Neymi was quite pleased, as Shora and Kricka revealed there were no actual charges against them. The hybrid resisted the urge to flip off Rhi as a boast of this small, personal victory. A grin played on her lips, Neymi prepared a response to the council's questions, only to have Darion speak up before she could. She whipped her tail annoyed behind her and gave him a look, but let the human speak uninterrupted. She nodded at him as he finished, apparently glad Darion managed to be diplomatic this time.<br/><br/><span style="color: blue">"The commander zaid most of what there is to zay. Honestly, we exchanged only a few lines with these phantoms. Zo I can really only give a personal impression mixed with zome assumptions on my end."</span>Neymi gestured at the holographic display with her hand, the virtual image of the ship splitting up like it had when fighting the Kryslin ship.<span style="color: blue">"Whomever these phantoms may be, it is important to note that my and the zhip's zcans reported millions of microscopic lifeforms aboard this vessel. Zuch lifeforms would've been too zimple biologically to even achieve zentience, zo for these phantoms, a person would be composed of thousand of individuals, just like how the cells in our bodies build up to one being."</span><br/><br/>Neymi briefly stopped talking to run a hand through her hair, before continueing.<span style="color: blue">"Zuch a unity zuggest a hivemind structure of intelligence, only..." </span>There was a hesitation in the hybrid's voice, reluctant to speak on matters she herself was doubting already.<span style="color: blue">"...Only it didn't feel like that at all. I had a distinct encounter with the Kryslin hivemind to know enough about how that feels like it, but who we zpoke to didn't give that impression. It was a captain. First amongst her crew, whatever that crew might be. Not just that, but zhe was also an incredibly powerful psionic, and not the only one aboard that vessel. Zhe felt disembodied, yes, but that felt like it originated from an emotional distance."</span><br/><br/><span style="color: blue">"An expert could zay more, but I have personal experience when I zpeak of this. An emotional distance is usually a way of masking some greater emotion. Pain, terror, fear, hatred. Easier to turn your emotions off and be cold than flip on the happy zwitch. The phantoms, these Guardias, are focused in their goal and behaviour in zuch a frightening manner. Above all, it zeems that they hate the Kryslin."</span>Neymi was silent for a short while, lost in her own thoughts as she mulled over her own emotional distancing.<span style="color: blue">"These phantoms zeem focused only on their hatred for the kryslin. The zort of hate where you don't care about the fire around you as long as <i>they</i> are also burning. I doubt these guardias have any desire to be a foe of the alliance, but neither are they very interested in being an ally it zeems. After all, they know of us but we don't know of them."</span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>