Veloran and Asymmetran

Captive breed veloran [link] of singer caste is participating in some kind of asymmetran [link] science research aboard asymmetran spaceship.

Velorans are sentient species and can be very powerful in large groups, but are completely not prepared to work alone. If they would be kept single long enough they would try to socialize with every moveable object nearby. (Human left alone also can talk to football, but single veloran need it even more) Other, hostile to them sentient species can use this behavior very easily for their own purpose. If they manage to separate single specimen from its colony of course.
Asymmetrans are solitary sentient species (they live only in pairs, and avoid contact with other specimen of their kind) and it is very hard to imagine how two asymmetrans could own enslaved velorans other way than buying it from humans. No one likes velorans, so giving few specimens to asymmetrans looks like a good way to impair velorans. With their technology asymmetrans may find very useful techniques to harm velorans, but it is rather no reason to expect they would tell anything interesting to humanity. Asymmetrans have good reasons to fear and hate humans almost as much as velorans.
On this picture device visible in the upper right corner and emitting Cherenkov radiation is exploratory instrument used by asymmetran. Shape of this structure may suggest something about its true purpose.

It is unique in asymmetran technology that they never use separated biological section on their spaceships, and so all chambers here are covered by fat layer of algae and other vegetation. Of course if we try to put human made computer in environment like this, it would get broken very soon, but asymmetran artifacts work well even buried in mud and with plants growing inside them. So asymmetran spaceships looks incredibly messy inside, but they don’t have to waste limited space inside ship to build biological section, like other sentient species do. Asymmetran spaceships are able to produce oxygen and food in every chamber of its volume.

Of course environment asymmetrans live in, cannot sustain velorans life, and if asymmetran wants to keep them alive they must be kept in suitable terrarium with access to Coatlicuan plants. Asymmetrans are like velorans arsenic based life forms, so they can touch each other with no great risk, but asymmetran flesh is still slightly toxic to velorans. Asymmetrans are much more toxin resistant, but still cannot consume any Coatlicuan life forms for simple reason that veloran amino acids have D-configuration, while asymmetran ones have L-configuration.
And velorans need thicker atmosphere and higher temperature than asymmetrans but in 80 Celsius for not very long time, they both can survive.

Most asymmetran artifacts are made of strange substance, hard almost like diamond, but elastic. It is constructed by countless nano-robots what wander inside pores of structure, building, extending and repairing it, like termites in their nest. Whole system is powered by some kind of nuclear process inside crystalloid structure. It creates very resistant, self growing and self repairing material what don’t need any external power supply. Its only disadvantage is it is noticeably radioactive, but it don’t seems to harm asymmetrans. In fact asymmetran are amazingly resistant creatures, probably not only because their natural physiology, but also because they have some kind of medical nano-robots also diluted in their anthracite black blood.
Of course humans tried to steal this wonderful asymmetran crystalloid technology, but never realized how to manipulate its growth. Under human control material grew into unpredictable feral shapes what could not be used to anything. Asymmetrans control it by their touch language, similarly to playing on piano, but even precise copy of way they touch crystalloid didn’t bring any useful effects.