Well for this week’s inspiration Monday I thought I’d play a bit with idea of a how people forget that there a lots of highly skilled people out there who aren’t at the top of their field but nearly as good. I also wanted to try out a bit of a sci-fi theme so I decided to create the introduction for a race that exemplifies that quality. So here goes.

The E-dem-ra

When the E-dem-ra entered the galactic stage it was to great fanfare and celebration. But like all things new the shine quickly lost its lustre. They had no art or culture worth mentioning. They prized the collective, science, and engineering. However their skills and knowledge in these areas left much to be desired. And so a proud people expecting to make their mark upon the galaxy sadly found themselves marginalized, and forgotten. They were reduced to a fringe world with nothing of value to offer the Core.

But they are just the people I needed. A master of any art is rare and expensive but what people forget is that for every master there are a thousand experts just below who can be hired for a fraction of the cost. The collective brain power and thousand hands of the E-dem-ra would be put to my use.

The Ma-tee-do greeted us at the docking area. He was short and stalky wearing a copper coloured survival suit coloured with iron bands and a white face plate. I’m not sure what the E-dem-ra looked like under their protective gear but I gather they evolved from a small prey animal on this volcanic world.

“Greetings , Salutations to the Timeless one and collective of the Toy Box.”

“Ma-tee-do I’m honoured that you’ve come to greet us in person.”

“Rumours of you reach us. Your prospectus intriguing. Follow details we discuss.” Apex handed me the scorched case it was still sealed tightly. The torus had survived the destruction of at least one vessel and four hundred years in the vacuum of deep space inside that case. If there was safer place for it I couldn’t think of one.

“Glitch, Apex you to know how much of the Toy Box is still a wreck and what we have to trade, do what you can while we’re here.”

“Sure thing boss man. I’ll keep an eye on our girl here.”

“You do you your thing Apex I’ll do mine. I’ll be happy if we can get the engines up to 50% efficiency on a fringe planet like this.”

“You’ll have to forgive my crew Ma-tee-do. Lead on.”

“Offense taken none.” A capsule shaped flyer flew the Ma-tee-do and I through the city. The burning heat at its base could be seen even from this height, glowing red light between the thin towering buildings of black glass. The Mat-tee-do ‘s office was in a building as none descript as the rest of them. But it was cool, with numerous consoles and a large crescent shaped table of some kind of brown granite.

A team of engineers were waiting for us when we arrived and immediately got to work analysing the torus of black dwarf matter.

“Curious if true. The ring older than universe.”

“The properties it possess that we discussed will you be able to apply them to my vessel?”

“It will take time. Much work I can assign an engineering and science team to the project.”

“How many people is that?”

“Ten including the supervisor.”

“I want you to put a hundred teams on it.”

“No project that size done ever.”

“E-dem-ra are experts at working as a collective who but you could accomplish such a feat.”

“Flattery accepted. Attempt will we.”

“Excellent. There is one more thing I’d like you take a look at. Something special that needs building while everyone is focused on the ring.”