The Call of the Void

"**The Call of the Void**" (1x16) is the sixteenth episode of Memory=Null, in which enemies are found, and friends are gathered.

## Synopsis

Freshly returned from the planet, everyone takes a break in the Weeping Cock. Soon, Janus arrives, and Thicc updates him on his new discovery about the Vox and the weave. Janus reports that The Ram and The Cauldron (the final members of The Fangs of Tarot) are on their way, and that he has finished interrogating the Vox that they kept alive. After some more discussion and banter, Tina heads off to rest, and Janus says that he will take care of the tab. With free drinks now on the table, Thicc heads over to the bar and orders one of everything.

The next morning, Thicc awakens on the floor next to his bed aboard Adus, with two splemurs patting his face and bearing a water bottle. Over the next few hours, Thicc attempts to recover from his hangover, assisted by muffins and a bloody mary from Sank. She also notifies Thicc that his name is now being added to the “One of Everything” wall in the Weeping Cock. He later heads out into Gunnison 4 to pick up the sirens, and bumps into Janus on his way. As they walk, Janus tells him that during his interrogation of the Vox, he found them to be incredibly egotistical. He also managed to find out where they were spreading to next, and sent word. Meanwhile, Thicc picks up a garish pair of “Bee Happy” sunglasses on the way to help with the light.

Eventually, the two of them show up at Dorian’s office and are let in. Thicc begins to update Dorian on his new findings and his plan to start looking for the Vox, but is interrupted as a massive ship jumps into the system. A Nekram female with dark blue sunglasses answers Dorian’s hail, and introduces herself as Julian, captain of The Pike. She says that, as members of the Crucible of Nine, they are here to aid The Hammerhead. However, as The Hammerhead isn’t here, she orders Dorian to surrender the station or have it taken by force. Meanwhile, both Thicc’s and Janus’ phones receive a message from The Ram, asking what’s going on as they and The Cauldron are both now in the sector.

Janus gently pushes Dorian out of the frame and addresses the captain, telling her to leave or be destroyed. She predictably refuses, at which point Janus messages The Ram to target The Pike and await further orders. He delivers his ultimatum one more time and, after being flipped off, tells The Ram to go weapons free. The Pike immediately splits in half as another ship flies into view. Janus then spins on his heels, introduces himself to Dorian, and introduces the incoming ship as The Ram. He informs them that, as he had been a member of the Crucible of Nine, that there were never nine ships to begin with; there were, in fact, four, and that the final one will probably shoot on sight now. Dorian, exasperated, tells them to go find the Vox, and uncorks a bottle of whisky as they leave with Ninla.

Everyone meets back up at the hangar as Thicc, Ninla and Artis (who has now shown up) head up to the bridge on Adus. There Adus, Ninla and Artis help Thicc to focus and begin narrowing down the area where the Vox could be. Their first attempt lasts about five hours, during which Thicc notices that the dead spaces in the weave are more prevalent in an area towards the north-eastern part of the galaxy. Exhausted, the sirens head off to shower while Thicc heads to the galley for coffee and alcohol. While there, Sank forces Thicc to eat some food. Once sufficiently recovered, they all head back to the bridge for their second session, during which Thicc manages to narrow the location down even further. Though Thicc wants to continue on, the sirens want to continue tomorrow. As the exhaustion hits, Thicc agrees and heads for the cantina.

There he finds Janus, Tina and Sank talking to two individuals. The first, a Lalta Chambran who stands atop a walker which places her at the same height as everyone else, is introduced as Cauldron. The second, a Doormok Thol’, is introduced as The Ram. Cauldron immediately starts poking and prodding Thicc, and continues while he attempts to get some food. He reports on their progress and chats briefly to The Ram before heading back to his room and passing out.

The next morning, after retrieving coffee from the galley, he finds in the hangar Tina, who is showing Cauldron the modified mechs, and Hannah, who is on space Tinder. He chats briefly to Hannah, who shows him footage from the mechs while they were being teleported. He also chats briefly to Tina before heading back to the bridge to meet up with the sirens. They settle in for a third session, during which Thicc manages to narrow it down to four possible sectors.

As the three of them take a break, Tina messages Thicc that The Hammer has arrived. Thicc heads down to the hangar, where Vark and Tina are swapping mech stories. Vark tells Thicc that Silentium might be able to help with trying to find the vox through the weave. However, Vark has to relay Silentium’s thoughts since there are a bunch of Lalta Chambran mechanics moving through the hangar. Thicc and Tina take Vark up to the bridge, at which point Silentium emerges. Thicc hooks back into the navigation chair and begins to traverse the weave once again.

Suddenly, Adus snaps Thicc’s focus back to the bridge, and begins to focus down onto Silentium. Slowly, a thread drifts out of Silentium. However, as opposed to the blue threads that normally populate the weave, this one is red. As Thicc watches, it drifts out towards another thread- this one black, before it snaps back to Silentium. Thicc’s vision begins to follow the black thread, moving faster and faster as stars stream past, until his vision falls on a singular planet in sector 802. The planet is Earth-like, primarily a farming planet, and is covered in black threads.

Thicc’s vision returns to him as he is ejected from the chair. While Thicc is excited, Silentium is nervous. He says that one of the vox might have gotten too close to him, and that they might now know of his existence. He says that he is going to hide, and retreats back into Vark, who then heads off Adus. Thicc goes to take a shower and begins gathering everyone together. The group meets up and heads for Dorian’s office, enduring the most cramped, awkward, and slow elevator ride ever as Thicc tries to come up with a name for the group. They are eventually all shuffled into a large conference room, where they wait until Dorian arrives.

They discover that the vox planet is Actaia, the only inhabited planet in the sector. It turns out that Actaia is the location of a “secret” Omnitech research base. According to Dorian, Omnitech is one of the most advanced corporations, and is ahead in research on mostly everything, including spike drives, and will most likely be the first to reactivate the jump gates. Janus interjects that the illegal nanotech that he had been intercepting was also developed by Omnitech.

As a moment of silence descends upon the room while everyone considers what to do next, Janus takes the opportunity to pass out more Fangs of Tarot cards: Tina receives ‘The Valkyrie’, Hannah receives ‘Hell’, Dorian receives ‘The Rook’, Pippin receives ‘The King’, and Sank receives ‘The Butcher’. Thicc begins considering whether it’s possible to use the jump gate they found in the nebula, and Dorian reveals, with some hesitation, that they in fact have a jump gate here. It was under construction on the planet below when the terraforming failed, and was near completion. While it would take some time to finish it and figure out how to use it, with Hannah’s help, they could potentially use it. Pippin hesitantly reveals that the Lalta Chambran fleet has one of the leading jump gate scientists on board. Unfortunately, it’s also Hannah’s mom. The group decides to raise and complete the gate to get the fleets to Actaia. In the meantime, a smaller group will go with Adus to the planet to do reconnaissance.

In the elevator on the way back down, Hannah has retracted into herself, and Tina is visibly angry. She hands Thicc’s pistols back to him, and says if she doesn’t, she will kill Hannah’s mom. They have a brief quiet conversation, then decide to head to the Weeping Cock. There they spend several hours discussing everything other than Hannah’s mom, but eventually find it necessary to. As they are sitting there, somebody points out something happening on the news. A large fleet of ships has just arrived, bearing insignia that nobody recognizes. Thicc then receives a message on his phone, saying “We have arrived. Holding position.” As Thicc celebrates that reinforcement have arrived, Hannah turns to Tina and blurts out that she is gay.