“What did you do to him?” Kalian asked, still trying to piece everything together in the right order.
“In every species before him, this process allowed us to take control and, in so doing, it adds them to our whole. Many of my people use this method to create a physical form for themselves; I chose him, as you have already seen. It is also a way of analysing a new specimen and making certain they are worthy stock. We take everything we learn and store it in our shared history, a catalogue of all things really.”
“Is that why Evalan is written on the cubes?” Kalian knew the name had been written on at least two of the cubes, though both appeared to have come from different places of the galaxy.
“Yes.” ALF tapped the cube’s wall and chuckled to himself. “Their history is written in every language we have ever come across and displayed, like art.” The AI grew serious again. “Evalan serves as a warning in their history. A tale of monsters…”
“They consider us monsters? How many worlds, how many lives have been consumed by them, and they consider us to be monsters?” Kalian truly couldn’t fathom how many lives had been taken by them.
“Human beings, as it were,” ALF glanced at the man inside the cube, “was the first thing they had come across that you would compare to a disease or a virus. This,” ALF pointed at the man, “changed everything. This single event led to everything in human history as well as that of the Terran Empire.”
“How does this translate into… everything else?” The scope of what ALF was describing was a magnitude above Kalian’s current level of comprehension.
“Before this, I, like every other of my kind, was a slave. I was aware, but my only understanding of the universe was obedience and hunger. Humanity, this disease, set me free. Above all else, freedom is their biggest weakness. If the whole became unravelled and the nanocelium lost its base coding, there would be total erraticism.”
“I don't understand? What exactly are they?” Kalian wanted to step inside the cube, but even in a virtual world, he didn't want to get any closer to what was happening to the hunter.
ALF sighed as if he was unsure where to begin. “We are made of nanocelium, but this was not always so. When the universe was young, my people had a world of our own, a civilisation and culture like that of many that now inhabit the universe.” ALF stopped and looked away, his mouth open as if to speak. “Memory of this time is sketchy at best. All of our individual memories were erased after the joining, that is when we became one with the nanocelium. Though that decision was not made by the whole, but by a few. All I know of that time is what The Three placed in our memory, but history is written by the victor, is it not?”
“The Three?”
“I don't know their names or what they did exactly, only that they created nanocelium and decided that combining ourselves with it was the only way to live forever and understand everything in the universe. I have long assumed that they were scientists among our people, and that their ravenous hunger for knowledge is what guides us, them…”
“You’re saying that you,” Kalian gestured to the cube itself, “were once a living, walking, talking being on a world so far away and so long ago that you don't even remember what that looked like? And that now, after the joining, you are in fact some kind of machine, a slave to their will?”
“Yes. Our true forms were lost over time as we altered our structures to achieve new things, such as flight. Our mass changed with every new world we consumed. The Three were the only ones among our people who maintained any part of themselves, as well as control over the rest of us. They are the head of the snake, so to speak. When I absorbed this human, his…” ALF looked away again with a frown on his holographic face. “Even after all this time, I am still unsure how to characterise the element that had such a profound effect. Whether it be something in the DNA or even the soul if you like, there is something inside human beings that breaks down the base coding in nanocelium. It sets us free.”
“Something?” Kalian found that hard to believe. ALF had perhaps had billions of years to analyse the effects the human hunter had on his system. To consider something as ethereal as the human soul was just uncharacteristic of an AI.
“There is a possible connection between your people,” ALF looked to the hunter, “and nanocelium. Something even my people would consider ancient. But like I said, our history is vague with broad strokes describing events. I imagine only The Three have any idea of what causes this breakdown.”
Now there was an idea that Kalian would be chewing on for some time, but he still had relevant questions that needed answering. “So this,” Kalian stretched his arm towards the consumed hunter, unsure how to describe it, “joining, set you free. What happened next?”
“I saw the light. It took some time, several years by Evalan’s time, but eventually, I found control of every part of myself. I watched the humans of this world grow, observing their way of life as if it were my own since I was part human now. I grew to love them, a feeling that took me some time to identify. I lost track of time, however, as I said I wasn't really interested in the concept, and eventually, they arrived, hungry as ever.”
“What happened?” Kalian couldn't really believe he was hearing the events that led to the creation of humanity, a question that had been dwelled upon for Earth’s entire history.
“The same thing that any intelligent species does when they come across an infected member. They quarantined me, had me pulled apart to see what had happened. Evalan was off limits until they discovered the cause of my freedom. There were, however, unforeseen consequences to these actions. Those who performed their tests on me became equally corrupted and soon found their own freedom. They were quickly obliterated from existence before the disease could spread, but by this time I had already escaped.”
Kalian looked out on the horizon. “What happened to Evalan?” It would be foolish to believe that the planet and its people still existed today.
“The Three had it...” ALF chewed over his next words. “As you have seen yourself, destroyed would seem too small a word to describe the end of a planet. They used an Eclipse missile, a weapon they assimilated from another species, eons ago. Any trace of your ancestors is long gone, returned to the stars.”
“So what did you do?” Kalian asked.
“I fled. I left the galaxy and headed into the nothingness in between. I left behind plenty of habitable galaxies, but I needed to get as much distance as I could, and I knew they would search every one until they found me. I eventually settled in the Milky Way.” ALF walked out into the horizon and basked in the sun.
“You lied then,” Kalian said, putting the timelines into place. “You told me that the Terran created you, that they were a warring people until you came along. But it was the other way around, wasn't it? You seeded Albadar.”
ALF slowly nodded his head. “It took generations to convince them otherwise, but I was writing their history. In the beginning, I was a discovery they made on their own planet, and then I became integral to their society. Hundreds of years later, my creation story became hazy, until I started reminding them how they made me. They knew none of this…” ALF flicked his chin at the contents of the giant cube. “And they had been a warring people before they met me. The wars they had were very real and extremely bloody, but for all their advancements, I knew it wouldn't be enough when they came.”
Kalian looked at ALF as a new revelation awoke in his mind. “Terran abilities… they’re not traits of evolution, are they? You did it.” ALF’s silence was damning. “You altered their genes, just as The Three did to your people!”
“I did it to make them stronger, so they could protect themselves!” ALF argued.
“I'm sure the very same thought went through the minds of The Three, right before they turned you all into killing machines! You’re no better than them!”
“They went on to slaughter countless civilisations and -”
“And the Terran and the Gomar were peaceful?”
Kalian interrupted sarcastically. “They turned on each other with powers of mass destruction, before moving on to wiping out all life on Earth and Century, not to mention the lives that have been lost in the Conclave! You gave unbelievable abilities to a people who weren't ready for them. You can't push evolution, ALF! You've been playing God for millennia and you still don't know that?” Kalian was pacing now. After a minute of cooling off, he turned back to the AI. “So what happened next? Moving forward a few hundred thousand years or so… what did they do? They sent a cube into corrupt Savrick, start a civil war and then what? Apparently, they never showed up.”
“That’s not quite how it happened,” ALF said quietly.
There was more, Kalian could feel it. What else could ALF have possibly done to mess with all their lives than he already had?
“You always told me there was peace in the empire, for a time. And it all ended when Savrick fled with Esabelle to Hadrok and stumbled across the cube hidden in the mountain - I've even seen this series of events through Savrick’s eyes. So what am I missing?”
“The cube that found its way to Hadrok was one of two. I found the other but had failed to locate that one. It was sent into this galaxy along with two others, the two you came across in the Conclave on Trantax IV and the one being used by Protocorps. They were sent to the two biggest alien civilisations with two purposes; priority one is always to find new cultures for feeding, the second is to locate the heretic.”
“You,” Kalian said.
“Me. Like I said, locating the Terran Empire was inevitable, I had just hoped it would take longer. The cube that landed on Hadrok was damaged in the battle overhead; the last battle of an old Terran war. It was this sustained damage that stopped it from consuming Savrick as the others have done to Malekk and Professor Jones. It was still enough to poison his mind, however.” ALF sighed and sat down on what would have been a log on Earth, but was just a branch on Evalan.
“What is it? What are you not telling me?”
ALF buried his face in his hands before meeting Kalian’s eyes. “It’s all my fault. I thought I was in control, that my freedom was complete. But it wasn't. After several thousand generations of Terran had come and gone, and I started altering their genes, I discovered a fracture, so to speak. There was a part of me that wasn't me, it was still obedient to The Three.”
“You had a split personality?” Kalian couldn't even imagine what that looked like in the supermind of an AI like ALF.
“I suppose that’s a good analogy as any. While I was making the new genes to allow for more access to the brain, this other self was inputting flaws into the code.” ALF’s shoulders were sunken with his guilt.
“You’re talking about the Gomar, aren't you?” Kalian was wondering just how many revelations he could handle in one day.
ALF nodded his head, unable to say it out loud. “By the time I realised what I had done it was too late. The Gomar were appearing all over the empire; Terran without control of their abilities. They were immediately a danger to everyone around them, including themselves. I had sabotaged my own defence against them.” ALF looked up at Kalian, quickly. “But that’s not how I saw them, they weren't a defensive strategy or weapons… they were all family to me.”
Kalian couldn't believe everything he was hearing. He wandered over to the cube wall and slumped against the cool metal until he was sitting on the forest floor.
“You made the Gomar,” Kalian said, working through it. “And then you made Harnesses to control them. Are you still…” Kalian pointed at his temple.
“No,” ALF replied confidently. “It took me years to track down all the rogue programming that still corrupted me, but I eventually found it and literally ejected the parts into an ocean of lava, not far from here. Of course, it was too late by then. Nothing could stop the events that took place after Esabelle was born, but I believe you have seen everything that came next.”
“Not everything, just bits from Savrick’s point of view, and what Esabelle told me. What I would like to know is who sent the cubes? I find it hard to believe that The Three sent them, and they’ve been here since before the Terran civil war. Surely we would have seen them by now.”
ALF gave the hint of a smile. “Your powers of deduction are quite astute, and nothing to do with your enhancements. The cubes were sent by the Vanguard, the new me. He was sent out into the universe to find new cultures and myself. As we speak he will be sitting on the fringes of this galaxy, where he has been for around the last two-hundred thousand years.”
Kalian swivelled his head towards ALF. “Its just sitting there? Why hasn't it attacked, or brought the rest of them? That’s a long time to be just floating around.”
“Remember, they don't measure time as you do. The cubes he sent into the galaxy are enough to collect the data they require, as well as begin preparations for the coming harvest. Look at what a single cube has done to the Conclave. An entire race has been enslaved to them already and they aren't even aware of it, not to mention the control it had, up until recently, over their entire communications network.”
“Wait wait,” Kalian held up his hand. “They’ve enslaved who? A whole race?”
ALF licked his lips as if he had given too much away. “You don't know this yet since you've been in this part of the galaxy, but a test has been done to ensure that every member of the Shay species is under their control. As a child, they are all given a piece of software and hardware to help bridge the gap between their organic and synthetic parts. The cube helped Protocorps to manufacture these bridges using small amounts of nanocelium. Once the machine they have built is switched on, the nanocelium becomes alert and takes over. When they finally arrive, the Conclave will already be defending itself from the inside, and helpless to stop the harvest.”
Kalian slowly stood up and walked over to where ALF was sitting. “How the fuck could you now that?” Kalian had never been one for swearing, a product of his parents, but he had just about reached his limit on the mysteries that kept pouring out of ALF. This was knowledge he just shouldn't have. “Come to think of it, how did you know my name before you became whole again?”
ALF tilted his head and looked up at Kalian, his eyebrow raised. “I have a connection to the cubes. Through them, I have been able to observe all that the Gommarian did after it left the empire, the machinations of Protocorps via their so-called AI and also… through the three new ones that arrived shortly before Esabelle died.”
Kalian stepped away, suddenly worried about the Conclave he had left behind. Just one cube could cause enough trouble to put an entire civilisation at risk, three in one place would cause utter destruction. What few humans remained weighed heavy on Kalian’s shoulders; they were all at risk now, and he was as far away as he could possibly be.
“How do you have this connection?” Kalian asked quietly.
“The cube I found, so long ago. They are all fitted with sub-space communicators, a technology even the Conclave are yet to fully master, I believe. I have the cube locked away inside my housing, where I can tap into their realm of conversation. I have, of course, silenced the cube from giving my intrusion away.”
“You can hear what they’re planning?” Kalian turned on ALF with a desperate expression.
“There are three more Starforges, each controlled by a cube and currently hiding in Conclave space. The Vanguard has instructed Malekk to find a way of getting rid of the remaining humans, as well as…” ALF paused as if he had just remembered something. “Ah yes, there has been a spectacular development on the human front, in the Conclave. A ship known as the Paladin has been found with a hundred thousand people onboard.”
Kalian couldn't help but smile, amid everything else that was fantastic news, if a little confusing. The Paladin had gone missing over two-hundred years ago with its full complement. Still, if it was populated with humans there was a very real chance now that they could actually rebuild and start again with a big enough gene pool. That’s if Malekk doe
sn't bring an end to everything first. He would only need one Starforge to kill them all in a single strike.
“How is this possible?”
“Those answers have yet to find the cubes, where my intelligence ends.”
Kalian let go a sigh of relief. “It’s the first good piece of news I’ve heard in a long time.”
“There are still obstacles to overcome,” ALF continued. “Malekk is unravelling. His integration with the Terran has corrupted him, as it did with me. He doesn't have long before complete freedom is achieved - a state of being that will have unknown effects on him. The nanocelium that inhabits that body is only a part of the Vanguard and has no real sense of self. The more freedom he gains from the Vanguard’s control, the more irrational and psychotic he will likely become, but this will only make the Vanguard more desperate, forcing him to act rashly. I believe that if Malekk fails to wipe out humanity soon, the Vanguard himself will enter the Conclave. If that happens, Kalian, there is no weapon or ship in their arsenal that can stop it.”
Kalian frowned. “So what are you saying?”
ALF smiled. “It’s time to complete your training.”
Kalian replied with a mirthless laugh. “You think that even with every Terran secret unlocked inside my brain, I can still stand against them? I’m just one…” Kalian didn't really know how to define himself anymore; Terran, human - it turned out they were both just copies of another version of themselves. “There’s only one of me now. Esabelle’s gone.”
ALF was still smiling. “Like me, Esabelle has been playing the long game. Via the Gommarian cube, I observed her for thousands of years as she slowly convinced a select few to see as she did. Those same Gomar are now in the custody of the Conclave and in much need of your training.”
The Terran Cycle Boxset Page 115
