That was a shocking bit of news to both Max and the rest of the Reaver forces who were listening in. There was no mention of that anywhere in the information that they had received from the Alliance, but the Volga had mentioned it so casually as if everyone should know.
It would explain a lot about Volga negotiations as well. If they were used to assimilating enemy leaders into their species, or at least enough that they were partially under Volga control, then they only had to come back every few years until whatever delivery method they were using had worked, and they were able to take control of the leaders of any race that opposed them.
"It is quite an honour to be chosen to become Volga, I assume? Might I ask, what is his rank within the Volga society? Humans don't use the same system, so it would help us a lot if you explained." Max suggested to the Sergeant.
"Oh, he's transformed, so he holds that rank. Until they prove themselves, new Volga are always at the bottom caste, but they can get a lot of respect for their actions since everyone knows that the designation isn't permanent and their children will most likely be born into a higher Caste." The Sergeant answered.
"So, just their children will advance, or do the transformed Volga advance in rank as well?" Max asked, just to clarify.
"They advance through their children. Whatever rank their children get is assigned to them as well. Jordie will most likely be of the management Caste once his son is old enough to be sorted. He is growing up very well, and it is a good sign for Jordie's bloodline.
I think that the next thing you will ask is if that applies to all of us, and yes. That is how we work. If we raise a failure, we will be deemed failures. If we raise a genius, we will be promoted alongside them as a reward for raising the next generation. The only ones who can't fall out of their rank are the Command Caste."
"That is very valuable information. Thank you for your assistance." Max congratulated him, and the Sergeant's arms turned a sickly green, which the Volga's thoughts identified as their species equivalent of beaming with pride. If they were blushing with embarrassment, it would be their legs that changed.
Max had learned that the trait was common in various slug and snail species as a form of camouflage response, but it looked fairly odd on the flabby humanoid forms of the Volga.
Max took the time to look through their ancient history and found that he had been partially correct about their lineage. They came from a species of slug, which all had defined roles. But when one of the Command Caste bloodlines developed the ability to mutate other species by touch, the species began to evolve due to the influx of foreign knowledge and genetics that weren't fully transformed.
[Mary, check this data. I have found out why the Volga Envoy was so bad at negotiating. They would usually mutate and influence the mind of those they negotiated with through contact and make important figures from other species into fellow Volga or subordinates to their leaders. They can do it faster with injections as well, and I've met a transformed Volga among the prisoners. The rest of the data on how their ranks are inherited is in this info package I'm sending you.]
The negotiations might be over for now, but it was valuable information to have, and if they didn't want the Arbiters who were sent from the Alliance to slowly become members of the Volga, it was likely imperative that they take precautions against being influenced.
It took a few minutes before Mary answered, but her message definitely had an annoyed tone when it arrived on Max's screen.
[Standard Alliance agreement Section 419, subsection 4 Paragraph 3: Regarding the dissemination of military secrets to third parties. In that section, it details that both the humans and the Alliance are prohibited from providing information on the military secrets or strength possessed by each other to third parties.
They have a similar deal with the Volga, so just like they didn't warn the Volga that they would all die if they got into an actual war with the Humans, they didn't warn us that contact with the upper Caste Volga would transform most species in a matter of minutes.
It seems that we are immune to the process, though, as none of the staff are showing signs of influence or infection. The Alliance forces are all vaccinated against the effect, as it is considered a contagious disease by their standards.]
Max spent a few moments contemplating the implications of that in future interactions with non-Alliance species before another message came from the Alliance vessel directly.
[All human units, please refrain from direct physical contact with Volga, especially upper Caste Volga. Updated information from our medical team has determined that humans carry a dominant genetic strain that can rapidly mutate the Volga in a deleterious manner.]
Oh, that was rich. The species that turned everyone else into themselves couldn't deal with humanity, and it was making them sick.
The announcement caused immediate panic among the prisoners, as the humans had been cooking for them all day, and the humans provided the shelters that they were in. None of them had been sick yet, and the humans were in augmentic armour, but that didn't mean that none of them would be sick, and they didn't know what the symptoms could be.
Max requested an elaboration and got back a rather long genetic survey, but the summary suggested that the higher Caste Volga devolved to a vegetative state for a matter of hours before losing the Caste markers that they inherited or had injected into themselves if they were changed in caste by a child's position.
That would cause the other Volga to no longer recognize them since the markers were individual. The medics described it as the genetic equivalent of giving them a doll mask and scent blocker. Not even their family could tell who they were.
"Listen up, everyone. The primary symptom is becoming unable for others to recognize you. It is not life-threatening, but if you see someone you can't identify, please send them to talk to one of the officers, who will be provided with data on the effects of the assimilation of human genetic material." Max called out to the crowd.
There were many sighs of relief, and most of the Volga sat back down to pass the time as they were before.
"I don't think any of us are high enough in rank to have that ability, so there isn't much to worry about. But if there were an infiltrator, we would know fairly quickly since nobody here is a stranger to those around them." The Sergeant who had been chosen as spokesperson informed him with a relieved smile.
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