JC Stearns’ Warhammer 40,000 short story Voice of Experience takes a look at the T’au Empire through the eyes of its auxiliaries, exploring how the t’au interact with their gue’vesa allies. Having turned from the Throne and firmly embraced the Greater Good, Captain Kalice Arkady of the Follaxian 113th is now the highest-ranking and most trusted human on the orbital shipyard Suu’suamyth. When a series of worrying accidents seem to suggest sabotage, she’s called upon to investigate on behalf of the ruling council, and in the process comes to question her understanding of – and place within – t’au society.
Told in relaxed, conversational first person, this is essentially a buddy-cop procedural, Arkady and her new Water Caste liaison Por’ui Fi’rios Kau’kartyr (Kartyr to his “human friends”) gradually getting accustomed to their new partnership while they track down clues. Questions of trust, loyalty and racial integration arise as Arkady investigates her own people at the behest of her xenos superiors, and it’s a rare opportunity to see the t’au philosophy from an internal and human perspective, Arkady’s viewpoint on the status quo challenged by glimpses of the darkness beneath the Empire’s veneer of wide-eyed innocence. It’s a smart, unusual angle from which to see the t’au, and Stearns displays a deft touch with another of 40k’s intriguing xenos races within an entertaining, deeply satisfying story.
