by Ivan Kal
For the first time ever, the hologram changed its pose. It jumped up from its cross-legged position to stand, its eyes wide, and real emotion displaying on its face. “What?” the hologram yelled. “When? Did Ullax’s containment fail? Why was I not told?”
Adrian studied the hologram with care—and, slowly, things started to fall into place.
“You lied to us.”
“What?” It seemed surprised.
“You said that you were a digital imprint of Axull Darr, a shadow. I see now how stupid we were to believe it. But then again, we hadn’t been all that advanced, so we just took you at your word.”
He could see the hologram realize what it had done. They looked at each other in silence, until Adrian finally spoke again.
“One Enlightened infiltrated the Empire disguised as a human. The containment was not broken, at least I do not believe so, and no one other than me knows.”
The hologram slowly composed itself and returned to its previous position. “How do you know?”
“Because I looked at him with my Sha sight. I have never before seen anything like him. It was like he is attached to the Sha with thousands of little threads.”
“Does the Enlightened realize that you know?” Axull Darr asked quickly.
“I don’t think so. I believe he would have acted immediately if he had. His disguise is perfect; every sensor that had taken a reading clearly thinks that he is human. His mental signature is human, and one of average strength; even the amount of power that I felt from him was average. It is only because I have the Sha sight that I was able to see through his disguise.”
“You should thank everything that you hold dear for the fact that you possess that ability. It was very rare, even among my people. None of us who remained had it, nor had we seen someone who had it in lifetimes. Whomever it is you encountered obviously doesn’t think that any of you could have that ability. But even if they did, I doubt that they would realize that it would reveal them. Otherwise, all might’ve already been lost.”
“Tell me the truth,” Adrian said firmly. “All of it.”
“You are right. I have lied about many things. About my own nature as well.”
“Then this is the time for the truth. Don’t keep anything from me.”
“Well, first, I suppose, I should explain what I truly am.” The hologram lowered itself to the floor and stood across from Adrian. “Everything I said before about me splitting off from the others once Ullax convinced them about the containment option was true, as was the part where I created the Shara Daim, Nel, and Humanity. The part that I altered a bit is about me being a digital representation—although that, too, is a partial truth.”
“Explain.”
The hologram took a deep breath, then turned its gaze to the side. “As you know, the People were dying. Waiss, Nariax, and Eroill were exploring the possibility of finding a cure by creating new life, one capable of extremely accelerated evolution. During that time, the rest of us pursued other ways of cheating death. Ullax and her team were attempting to alter our own genetic code to make it more difficult for the disease to kill us.” Axull’s eyes widened slightly. “But I was researching a way to cheat death entirely.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow as the hologram continued. “I found a way to upload my consciousness to a digital brain of sorts. It had been tried before, of course, but always we had failed. The resulting being was never the same as the person that underwent the procedure. But at those times, we had always copied consciousness. The original person was still alive. So I tried desperately, until I was close to death. I had already done all that I could for you, my children. So I tried again. But I did not copy my consciousness—I uploaded it. And so I came to live inside the brain I constructed, and my body died. But I lived on.”
Adrian narrowed his eyes. “The spheres? You originally told us that each of our homeworlds had a sphere with your consciousness. But if there is only one you, then…”
“Yes, there has always only been one of me. The spheres utilize technology similar to that of access points to remain in constant contact with each other. In many ways, the spheres are just access nodes. I am not inside of them.”
“So where are you then, really?”
The hologram sighed. “My real ‘brain’ is in a system not far from Nellus.”
“So when you told me about the Shara Daim, how you knew nothing about what happened with them, that was a lie.”
Axull Darr winced. “It was. My original intent had been to raise all three of your races up by guiding you. I planned on being very much involved in your development. The Shara Daim were the first of you to become advanced enough that I could reveal myself. So I did. It went well for a time… But I made mistakes. I hadn’t revealed everything about myself; I acted as if I was a shadow of the ‘real’ Axull Darr. I told the Shara Daim of the Enlightened, and that it was their destiny to defeat them. I told them that they were heirs to the Galaxy. Eventually their council decided that they didn’t really need me, a computer program telling them what to do—they were the heirs to the galaxy after all,” the hologram said sardonically. “They started a war against their neighbors, and leaked the location of the sphere to them. You know the rest. The sphere was destroyed, and here we are today.”
“And the Nel?”
“After my failure with the Shara Daim I decided on a different approach with the Nel. And as you well know, that, too, backfired. They slaughtered each other for the sake of a religion based around me. And so after that, I decided to stop meddling. I never activated the sphere on Earth, and chose instead to leave you all alone. So far my decision with you has paid off.”
“We will speak about that some more, but right now the Enlightened are the priority. We don’t have many options, and I don’t think that I could defeat him right now. Not unless you tell me something that can help me against them. I did consider trying to evacuate Olympus Mons without him realizing and then bombing it.”
Axull Darr’s eyes widened at that. “Be glad that you haven’t! The only thing that would’ve done is destroy your city.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow. “He is that strong?”
“Do you know which one it is? No, no… You’ve never seen them or felt them, you can’t know.”
“I assume that it must be either Doranis or Aranis, since he is male.”
But Axull Darr waved his hand. “No, that means nothing. The Enlightened can change their shape as they wish. Gender means nothing to them.”
Adrian raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“So how strong are they, really?”
Axull studied Adrian intently. Then, finally, he nodded to himself and spoke. “Tell me, do you think that you could use the Sha to destroy one of your grav cars?”
Adrian gave him a confused look. “I suppose, yes.”
“Then what about a shuttle, a military-grade one?”
Adrian thought about it. “Yes… I mean, I know how they are built. I could probably yank a fuel line or ignite the tanks if it were close enough. Or attack the mind of a pilot and have him crash it.”
Axull shook his head. “No, I don’t mean by being smart about it, or precise. Could you use your power to crush it, or rip it apart with raw power?”
Again Adrian thought about it, then nodded slowly. “Yes, I think that I could do that.”
Axull nodded. “What about a ship, then? Let’s say a small frigate?”
“Perhaps, if used every ounce of power I had. I would probably drop dead afterward, though. Why are you asking me this?”
Axull looked Adrian straight in the eyes. “Because I watched Doranis rip an entire World-ship to pieces in space…from his own ship that was thousands of kilometers away.”
“That…that’s insane,” Adrian said disbelievingly.
“Yet it is true. Although, after that feat, Doranis had not been seen in battle for quite some time afterward. It might have taken a lot out of hi
m. Yet still, those are the things that these monsters are capable of.”
“But how?”
“We never really found out what exactly happened to them. We know only what they told us. But the life form that infected them somehow altered their connection to the Sha, and made them stronger beyond belief.”
“So how can we fight something like that?”
“They can, obviously, be defeated. They wouldn’t have taken such great care to protect whatever they were doing in their territory otherwise. Nor would they bother coming here to spy on you. I don’t know how they found out about you, but they must fear you if one of them was here in person to gather intelligence. During our war we’ve never really had an opportunity to strike against them directly. There were only five of us left, and all of us were dying. Yet they are still flesh. Damage them enough and they will die.”
“It still might be worth it to try bombing, or I could blow an entire planet.”
“Unless you are willing to sacrifice millions of people on Mars, you will not fool him and trap him alone on a remote world. And even if you did manage it there is no guarantee that he wouldn’t survive. I do have some reports of them being able to survive in the vacuum of space. If he managed to shield himself from the blast he might be able to survive anything. You need to get him completely off guard, which would be extremely hard with their connection to the Sha. He would see any blast coming.”
Adrian thought about it. Killing one of them might even be worth the price and the risk. But then again, there was no need for it now. Vasily had not acted in any hostile way. If Adrian’s plan worked and he and Ryaana accepted the offer to join the Nomad fleet, he would be able to watch over him. Perhaps he could even learn more about him and the Enlightened’s goals.
“Not yet. What do you suggest I do? I do have a rough plan, but I came here hoping to gather more information to make that plan more solid. Now I would guess that there is a lot that I still need to know.”
“What is your plan?”
“Keep him close, befriend him. Perhaps even change his mind, eventually.”
Axull shook his head sadly. “Ullax had been Aranis’s life-partner for longer than humanity had existed, and he had been my best friend for longer. He still turned against us. All of them had been our friends for longer than some stars had existed. They all turned against us nonetheless.”
“Then I will learn more about them.”
“I truly hope that you find a way to defeat them. It is, after all, why I created you. Otherwise, I fear they will wipe the galaxy clean of all life.”
“Why haven’t they done so yet? You told me once that you didn’t really understand their motives, but that you were certain that they had enough forces to break Ullax’s containment.”
“At the height of the People’s civilization, there had been around a billion of us. By the time the three were changed, the galaxy was filled with life, with the many races that we had uplifted. The Enlightened had created three races to be their servants, yet in order to build them strong enough to battle us and the races we uplifted to fight them, they sacrificed on numbers. The other races of the galaxy outnumbered them. And if they had broken free and started purging the others, the galaxy would’ve inevitably joined together. The Enlightened would’ve been severely outnumbered. I doubt that even they could’ve survived with that many races bound together in their fear of them.”
“But the situation has certainly only gotten worse!”
“It has,” the hologram acknowledged. “There are more beings in the galaxy today than there ever were.”
“So what are they waiting for?”
“We don’t know; however, I do have my own theories.”
“Such as?”
“They must know that there are too many beings for them to fight all at once. They had always been smart, even when they had been of the People. They are most certainly working on a way to overcome that problem.”
“Great, just great.”
“You will need to be extremely careful, Adrian.”
“What do you think would happen if I brought you with me? Showed you to him?”
“I would rather not try that. We have no way of predicting their reaction. We have no idea which one of them it is.”
“And you have no way of knowing which one it is? If I bring your sphere close enough, couldn’t you scan him or something?”
“No. I am sorry, Adrian, but the Enlightened have the ability to completely fool any kind of sensor that I know of.”
“Right… Now, tell me everything about their abilities. All the things you have seen them do, or suspected them capable of.”
Interlude III
A long time ago
Waiss ran through the station, his legs shooting needles of pain through his body with each step. The alarms blared throughout the station. Too loud, so much so that he could barely think. Every sensor had gone berserk. The entire planet was shaking as if it wanted to tear itself apart. And the worst thing was the Sha. It was a storm of power, all pulled to a single point—the bonds of matter around him failed, and walls crumbled. Cracks appeared in the air, and the laws of physics went insane.
And the source was just ahead, in the small laboratory. Waiss stumbled inside only to find Nariax and Eroill already there. Nariax was pounding on the consoles, and Eroill used the disintegration matrix to fire at the life form inside the containment unit.
“It’s not working, Nariax!” Eroill yelled out.
Waiss grabbed another matrix and turned toward the containment unit. Tendrils of black flesh were already pulling through the cracks in the unit. Waiss added his fire to Eroill’s.
“I can’t initiate the protocols!” Nariax yelled back. “The computers are fried!”
The weapons fire from both Eroill and Waiss did nothing to the life form. The Sha was being pulled inside of it, so much of it that everything around them had started falling apart. Nariax walked over to them and looked on in horror as the life form broke free and attacked Eroill. In an instant it enveloped him, consuming him—and it spread, grew, and caught Nariax as well.
Waiss turned to run, to get away. He took a single step, but was too late and too slow. It caught him and pulled him inside of itself. He felt it seep into his skin, through his mouth and every other orifice. He could feel his body decompose and then suddenly rearrange itself. In a moment he was nothing, and everything.
All the Sha that the life form had gathered in itself closed in on Waiss. It bore a hole through him, and suddenly he was aware of Nariax and Eroill.
And then they were everywhere. The entire galaxy stretched around them—everything that the Sha touched, they touched. And they could see. They saw everything. And in their horror, they understood. All of it was their fault.
He didn’t know for how long they had been like that, but it felt like an eternity. And then they contracted, each being pulled back into their own body.
Waiss opened his eyes. The lights were dim, and everything around them was destroyed. His body was stuck in a black liquid, and he slowly stood up. For the first time in a very long time he felt no pain, for there was no disease in his body now. He looked at the others; both of them were struggling to stand—and both of them were changed.
Nariax was almost the same, her features like those of before, only now there was no sign of the disease. She was more beautiful than she ever was, but from her back, black bones jutted at odd angles, curving in all direction.
Eroill looked worse. His head was elongated, and large, sharp teeth jutted from his jaws. His arms were elongated as well, and claws tipped each finger. Waiss feared looking at himself, but finally he turned his eyes down. There were things growing out of his body, plates of black that covered his skin. He glanced at his wings and saw they had grown black as well—and larger.
“You all saw it?” Waiss said, and then realized that he had spoken with his mind. It felt effortless, as if he were speaking with his mouth.
�
��Yes,” both of them answered in the same manner.
“The galaxy is bleeding,” he said.
“We did this. We created the disease that is butchering it!” Eroill growled in his mind.
“How could we have known?” Nariax wailed.
“It is my fault. It was Axull, Ullax, and I that discovered how to do it. It was we that convinced the Grand Exatts to allow us to continue,” Waiss said sorrowfully.
“No! We all followed in your footsteps, we all played with things we should not have!” Nariax sent. “The fault lays upon all of us.”
“And the People paid for our mistake with the death of our civilization,” Eroill said.
“We can’t let it be like this! We need to change it, to heal it,” Waiss said.
“But how?” Nariax asked.
“First we need to exterminate the virus, the thing that is ripping its walls asunder! The dimensional barriers are thinning with every moment that they take the Sha from its true purpose!” Eroill growled.
“There are so many of them. How could the three of us do it?” Waiss asked.
“What about the others, could they help us?” Nariax asked.
Waiss thought about it, but then shook his head. “Look at us. They would take one look at us and see monsters. And they will not believe us, not until they see it for themselves. Do you really think that they will willingly allow us to make them like us?”
“No…”
“We don’t need them! We can kill them all, we must!” Eroill said.
“It would not fix the problem; the wounds would still remain. And the end will not come soon. You’ve seen it. It is a slow death,” Nariax said.
“So we heal the wounds,” Waiss said.
“And how do we do that?” Nariax asked.
“I don’t know yet, but we will figure it out,” Waiss said.
“So what now, Waiss?” Nariax asked.
