Dren

Dren are very thin short spider like beings. Their bodies are about one meter long with four legs, six thin arms. and a small round head containing a ring of six eyes around the middle. Despite their size, they are physically very strong. This is due to the high gravity on their home world and because most of them have bio-tech enhancements. After the Dren Nexus replaced all the matter in her body with short matter, the rest of her people soon did the same. Most Dren are now completely made from short matter, giving them the ability to retain full access to their minds memories and abilities in each lifetime. This is the main reason why they have advanced faster than any other organic species in the galaxy. Until a disastrous misunderstanding ten thousand years ago, the Dren had been the Lights only real allies. The Lights considered them to have been perfected and able to take care of themselves without corrections.

The Dren have a more complicated reproductive cycle than other species. They are each made up of three sexual components, each one being either male or female. Five Dren are needed to initiate a Dren to reproduce. Four of the Dren will detach part of one of their legs, which will attach to a leg of the fifth Dren. Once all four donated parts attach, they begin merging with the Dren who will eventually split into two identical beings. The Dren call this process spawning.

Throughout their history, the Dren have been a mostly peaceful species. Most prefer the pursuit of knowledge, both scientific and artistic. There were a few conflicts early on, each resolved by the Lights performing a correction. The Dren have advanced scientifically and socially far beyond the Lights, but because of their ego's the Lights refused to believe it was possible for any species to be more advanced in any way. Most Dren knew the Lights would probably not react favorably if they saw any evidence proving the Dren were more advance, so they performed their worked in secret. They believed the Lights had lost their way and were no longer acting in the best interest of other species, but they had no idea how to change them. They had tried demanding the Lights stop interfering with other species, but they were scolded like little children and told they had no say in how the Lights run the galaxy.

The Dren Nexus, Eximius, was given a vision by the galactic mind showing her merging a Lights mind with a Nexus mind. She concluded that her new purpose was no longer just protecting and guiding her people, but to also help create minds powerful enough in other species to help find a way to return the Lights to being the protective shepherds they once were. Two Lights Arlon and Mesa, who also believed their people were lost volunteered to be the first Lights to be merged. The human Nexus Jack, and the Juvo Nexus Didov volunteered to be the first Nexus'.

Eximius, had a facility built on the Dren moon Disa where she could perform the merge remotely. Disa was chosen because the Lights did not visit it unless asked by a Dren. The two Lights would be at the facility where a mind merge device would detach their minds from their bodies, then transport them through an empty space used by the Dren to Jack and Didov.

Unfortunately a Light who knew Arlon and Mesa was nearby and was notified of their proximity by his personal monitoring systems. He decided to visit them, but arrived on the moon just as the process for Arlon's merge was starting and Arlon's body was being dismantled. Believing the Dren were destroying the two Lights, Igz rushed in, knocking Mesa out of the device. The devices systems was confused by the extra Light appearing and began to disassemble the bodies of Mesa and Igz. Igz attempted to pull Mesa out of the device despite the plea from Eximius to stop. To make matters worse, Alpha One and Alpha Two were on Diro, discussing ideas other Dren had for correcting Humans when they noticed what looked to them as an attack on Igz and Mesa. They rushed to the moon, pulling the two Lights out of the device and fled. The Dren were still desperately trying to reverse the devices affects and repair the Lights bodies, so they did not pursue them. Eximius decided to destroy the device before it did any more damage, but she was too late. The device had already implanted deconstruction thread in both Lights. After dismantling their bodies, the threads pulled their minds into the Dren empty space to await transport. But without the device there would be no way to track where their minds had been placed. Eximius attempted to contact Alpha One and Alpha Two to explain what happened,but neither one trusted her after what they saw.

Before being lost in empty space, Igz told Alpha One what he saw happen to Arlon, leading him to conclude the Dren had been testing a device which would exile the Lights to the empty space. Unlike most Lights, Alpha One knew it was possible for the Dren to be more advanced than them. He knew if they were left to their on devices, it was possible the Lights could be erased from existence in the galaxy. Although he was loathed to do it, Alpha One suggested building a field generator which could generate a total blocking field large enough to cut the Dren solar system off from the rest of the universe. After the device was built and the Dren isolated, the Lights spent the next four thousand years developing a way to enter the empty space, then the next six thousand unsuccessfully looking for Arlon, Mesa and Igz.

Unlike the blocking field the Lights had used around the travelers world, a total blocking field extended through most three dimensional spaces, with the empty space used by the Dren was one exception. Until the events resulting in the Lights minds being lost no Light knew any being had managed to enter that space. They had believed the Dren only knew how to enter, but not exit. They were wrong. It took Eximius less than a day to get outside the blocking field, find the device, and destroy it. By that time, all the Lights had already returned to Core to work on rescuing the lost minds.

The Dren had become extremely angry with the Lights. They believed the Lights were attempting to execute them all in the slowest possible way by locking them inside a closed solar system. Eximius attempted to calm their anger, explain how the situation probably look from the Lights point of view. But none believed that was a good enough excuse to exterminate an entire species. They wanted the Light to stop interfering and they did not care how it was done.

Eximius realized most of her people could not be convinced to do anything else, so she devised a plan help species create defenses against the Lights while helping them the way the Lights were supposed to be.Most species were like Humans: no knowledge of alien species, no ability to travel to other planets, and often resorting to violence to settle disputes. They concentrated on one species at a time, not moving to another until they were confident the current one no longer needed their focus. During this time Eximius searched the empty space looking for Igz and Mesa, but without any success.

With the Lights gone for almost ten thousand years, the Dren managed to take control of a large chunk of the galaxy. When the Lights returned they were shocked at what the Dren had done, as well as extremely frightened. Many were in denial the Dren could have done anything, instead believing some Lights must have helped them. They attempted to return to their home planets to find these rebellious Lights, only to be forced out by the Dren and told if they returned they would be destroyed. They returned to Core to get help, resulting in a long debate on what to do. Many Lights pointed out it was their own arrogance then got them into the situation. Many believed that a conflict with the Dren would result in many more lost minds. In the end they decided to avoid the lost areas and protect the worlds they still controlled.

Eximius also realized a conflict would be devastating for both sides. She convinced here people to stop expanding to new worlds and allow he to continue with merging minds. Her people agreed, but were confused as to where she would find minds as old as the Lights for the process. She revealed that when the Lights returned, she had been contacted by a few thousand of them who no longer trusted their own peoples judgment. They known Arlon and Mesa and had also wanted to volunteer before the accident. With the new volunteers, she could create Nexus powerful enough to protect their own people and stand up to the Lights.