A couple of months had passed and they were making progress on filling up the empty ship. The boys had modified the Eous into a resource gathering drone that could be piloted remotely using the instant communication technology they developed earlier. This allowed for each of them to take turns piloting while remaining on board the Golden Chariot.
The boy also converted parts of the Aethon to create some makeshift fabrication and refinery equipment. This allowed them to create more functional and larger equipment. The Chariot scanners had also allowed them to plan optimal paths for collecting resources. The scanner could locate and identify the best raw resources in the asteroid belt.
As the days went by each of the humans would work on improving themselves. Null and Jania would spar and develop their combat techniques. Lisa and her son Chris would study the limited databank of knowledge the dwarves had given them access to. Lisa was keen to develop her scientific knowledge while Chris was more interested in the structure and cultures of the outside solar system.
Infy would lock himself away inside of Null in a state of mediation studying the voice of the universe. He was sure that everything they had been told wasn't right or didn't fit with his and Null understanding of the universe. Infy had developed numerous ideas over the last two months but wasn't sure if he should try and implement them. Some of them were for new material, some were for gadgets and others were for spells.
Before Infy could come to decision they were all called into a meeting with Vark and Bolat. The humans hadn't seen much of the dwarves since they had entered the ship. The two had locked themselves away in the dwarven section of the ship. The meeting location was a new room that the dwarves had added to the communal space.
The room itself was made from a black glasslike material.
"Oh, I can't see inside the room, that black material must be blocking all forms of energy" said Infy using their communication drone.
"Oh then I should get it installed in my room, so you can't peek" teased Jania. Lisa and Chris both chuckled at the confused look on Null face.
Null and Infy were confused why would they peek?
Once inside the room, the twins also noticed that the voice of the universe was also altered and almost muted. Vark and Bolat were both sitting at the end of a table and motioned for everyone to sit. Vark gave everyone a communication device so they could communicate mentally.
Vark started the meeting
"Sorry for not being available the last few months, but it took longer than expected to source this material and to confirm some other suspicions. This room is the most secure room we could build and everything said in here via a mental link should be completely confidential."
"Do we actually need that level of precaution? Who are we hiding from?" Lisa hadn't seen this level of precaution even during her military career.
"Yes we need this level of precaution, we are hiding from the other dwarves and any other races that might try and put surveillance in place, like the Valtaui. What we are to talk about today needs the utmost secrecy and can not be talked about outside of this room even via a mental link." Once Vark had finished speaking everyone in the room started to pay closer attention. They had no idea what could be so important.
"The Watcher had explained to you, how there are 5 major factions in the galaxy. Membership of these factions is decided by the races evolutionary path, but what about the other option. Why couldn't there be a faction based on the way they used the fields? Among the scholars of the galaxy, this hypothetical faction is referred to by many names, but we dwarves call them True Magi."
Chris was quick to realise where this was going. "You think Null and Infy belong to this group of people?"
Bolat answer before Vark could. "We believe they are a True Magi. This is significant as there has never been a recorded case of a True Magi existing."
"Wait, that either means Null and Infy are first of a kind out of trillions or something happened to the others." Lisa now realised why they had to be in this room. It was more likely that there had been other True Magi before but something had happened to them.
"I believe it is likely the second option, and I think the council is wiping them out before anyone can find out. The only reason they would do that is if they were a threat to the current balance." said Chris. He was no expert but from his studies, over the last few months, he believed he had gained some understanding of the galactic society.
"Wait, before you two continued with conspiracy theory, how do we even know if they are a True Magi or whatever you say " Jania believed in evidence and wanted to see it before worrying too much.
"I think it's because we can do this" as Infy was saying this there stood 5 copies of Null standing around the room. This was a new spell mirror image. "The best we can tell the difference between us and everyone else is that we interact directly with the universe while they interact with the field and program it to interact with the universe. In essence, you can think of us as living Zallium.
The humans continued to surprise Vark. He had prepared for this meeting over the last month and had a speech prepared but it seems they were able to fill in the gaps and had guessed most of the important things already. He had also learnt more about exactly how the boys magic worked. He still wanted to know how their new spell worked but that was a question for another day.
"It not only that they can cast spells without Zallium but they can also change the properties of the material they work on. Myself and Bolat have studied the alloy they created that blocks the mass field. The one that is used in the Aethon and Eous and it shouldn't work. We tried to recreate it and could not get the same effect. It turns out that they have fundamentally changed its properties and how it interacts with the universe"
"So they are a True Magi, why do we need the secrecy and why does it matter?" asked Jania.
"It matters because if anyone finds out. They will want to capture the twins to study them. I think we can assume both The Watcher and the Valtaui representative also worked it out. It can also be assumed that whatever cause Null and Infy to gain this power is related to the human side. Energy and organic hybrids are well studied and so are Angel's abilities." Answered Vark
"So what you are saying is, if their existence is exposed then humans will be caught between the anvil and hammer. The council who seems to have wiped out any trace of true magic users and those that want to replicate the outcome for more power." Chris was getting concerned these issues were too large for them to be dealing with.
"if that is the case won't they just come to kill us now? That what I would do" Jania didn't need any complicated thinking. See a problem fix the problem.
"Because they don't have a justification and they don't need to. We don't have enough power and they have set the board in a way where we have to act in a manner that will justify them intervening." Chris knew the council plan didn't require any deep thoughts but was still impressed by how they had already been put into check.
"Chris is correct. They don't have any justification but we still have to be careful we don't understand the reasoning behind the lack of True Magi or what lengths the council will go to. We have to prepare for the worst and hope it doesn't come to fruition." Vark then spent the next little while explaining his plan.
He outlined the need for plausible deniability. Any interaction with humans or new inventions created etc needed to have airtight and documented explanations. Starting that day they would put in place a series of procedures that could be used to obfuscate the truth. This included faking reports and sensors reading but the most important thing was for them to collect a large amount of Zallium.
"Zallium is the key, we can use it to mask any inconsistency or develop methods of using it that mimic true magic. There are three ways we can gain the Zallium we need. We can mine it, trade for it or work for it. Mining isn't possible as the known Zallium deposits are under council control. We can't trade for it as we have nothing of value. The only option to accept contracts to do missions to earn it" Vark laid out the options, he knew there were other methods but he wanted to steer them towards his solution.
"what type of mission? Will I get to fight?" the idea of fighting or going on an adventure excited Null.