The vast majority of Juireans had their life-long designated positions, and went about their jobs as efficiently as possible. They therefore had no fear of superiors. And since their positions within the structure had been bred into them from an early age, ambition for advancement was also very rare. Juireans advanced solely through ability and accomplishment — and occasionally, through circumstance. That was the reason Giodol was more uncomfortable than he had ever been in his life, and this strange feeling made him even more unsure of himself. He would say he was nervous, if he understood the concept.

At the proper time, Giodol and his contingent boarded a shuttle for the short journey to the UN-444. For a moment, as he marveled at the immense size of the starship, Giodol forgot his trepidation. He had served aboard dozens of ships in his years but he had never seen anything as glorious as this. Each layer of the hull was built of progressively shorter lengths, with the longest section making up what would be the keel of the ship. Then each subsequent layer grew progressively shorter, and offset slightly toward the stern of the ship. Finally, the skewed pyramid was topped off with a massive bridge section, aglow with light from its expansive, 180-degree forward viewport. The bridge section itself was nearly half the size of Giodol’s entire flagship.

Once aboard, it was still another ten minutes before his group made it to the enormous priority quarters where the Overlord was staying. The ante room was easily thirty meters across, with ceilings reaching ten meters high. The sheer volume of the room, especially aboard a spaceship, was quite awe-inspiring.

His group was escorted into a smaller conference room, where the Overlord was waiting.

Giodol had been notified that Lord Yan’wal was not coming to The Fringe to replace him — another Overlord would soon arrive for that. Yan’wal was there to coordinate the search for the Klin.