The Interpreter

Sahara Saber was an accomplished space military captain in her home universe, where political turmoil spanned across the galaxy and oft-centered around great godlike machines that paired with capable pilots dedicated to attuning themselves with them. This is not a Friends at the Table fan-character. This is just a tribute. She had attuned and allied herself with one of these machines before, but war is... well, it's war. Things happen. She managed to get out of there, and thanks to a desperate, but clever final maneuver, the battle was won and we was awarded for her actions. She would choose not to go into battle with another of these. Was this really worth commendation?

The greater military structure she served under, Signal (so named after the god-machine central to its organization), would for years after this largely send her on scouting missions. Sometimes leading a squadron, other times alone. Her reconnaissance skills were noted, and she had the clout to request less front-line combat missions with little issue. On one of these missions, the signal she was sent to investigate (it's what Signal does) was particularly peculiar. It took her to an allegedly abandoned asteroid research station. Practically a shack meant to study ore samples, or so it should have been. The front door of the station slid open effortlessly, thought it should have been secured with an electric lock. Inside it, instead of what she expected (a lab and crude living quarters), there was an entire shopping mall. Classically styled, as if it came straight from thousands of years in the past.* And certainly much larger than the meagre laboratory should have been able to hold.

She'd been seen upon entering by one of the mall's inhabitants, but they'd seemed uninterested. Had she been transported elsewhere in the galaxy? Not entirely unheard of, particularly with god-machine powers. But the signal was still in here, so surely Signal would have found a duplicate of the signal if it were elsewhere. Further investigating, she'd managed to find that the signal got stronger and weaker as she explored the mall. She also found that things were a little bit of a mess here. Clearly there had been fighting between the staff of various stores, half of them shuttered up, apparently working on repairs. Asking the inhabitants, they seemed to revere the shopping mall as if it were alive, and uncaring. She had not been the first to stumble her way upon the mall, and in fact, everybody here came from different worlds entirely, hoping for something better, and finding chaos. (Most of them also still claimed it was, actually, still better despite the complaints)

As she approached the source of the signal, a simple, empty back office sized room, the presence felt familiar. Not distinctly recognizable... but a certain power to it like she'd been able to feel in an old friend.

Was this mall one of them..? Certainly some god-machines were large enough to be considered locations into themselves, but most of them were mobile. Still... she may be uniquely qualified to do what the others within the mall were either unable, or unwilling to do.

Talk to it.

Closing her eyes and feeling the strongest source of the signal, she had what may have been the first conversation the mall actually had with anybody in a long time, if ever. It mostly seemed confused. It seemed like it wanted the best for those within it, but not everybody was enjoying their time within itself. It seemed to thrive on chaos, but gone unchecked, the chaotic elements it imported would simply cause problems for others. It wanted to be a home for those with nowhere else to go. At least, these were what Sahara managed to interpret its swirling mess of emotions and thoughts as. It was not human, and did not understand humans, or most living species really, as it certainly had more than just humans living within it.

Sahara made up her mind faster than she had expected. She would stay and help. Nobody else could interpret the mall, at least, not like she could. She had a knack for management, and could relay information from the mall's occupants to the mall itself, and the other way around. She would be the Interpreter. The war back home... could do without her. She no longer believed in what she had fought for anyways, and perhaps this was the excuse she needed to escape.

She tried to get a name, but mostly got a vague sense of what it stood for. Which, of course, she was no stranger to. That was how God-machines worked anyways. The mall stood for keeping things interesting, and exciting experiences. It stood for ushering others into the unknown. Given its form, naturally it stood for commerce.

She called it Venture.

^{*A different calendar of years was used by her time, since months and days by Earth standards doesn't make sense across hundreds of planets, but by our standards, her year would have been about the 4500s.}