Guardian Stone 1: Stone Genesis
Page 3
"Well, yes."
"They all were very much as I remembered them, perhaps a bit more lively and engaged. They all look very fit and alive. They looked younger."
### July 5 - C Day minus 56 ###
A week later, Hank awoke feeling very fit and alert. Barana said,
Hank ran to the table, retrieved the device and ran back to the other table placing the device on it. Barana then said,
Hank replied without hesitation, "12.5 seconds."
Hank replied, "220 yards, but, but that is not possible."
"I feel a bit more alert and my body feels very fit."
### August 3 - C Day minus 27 ###
Four weeks later, Hank was feeling much as he had after the first week. He then went for a walk with his grandfather to look over a small portion of the station near their living space. He was due to visit with George Reever in about three weeks and had some thoughts to play with. "Gramps, what do you know about George Reever?"
His grandfather replied, "He is a good and ethical individual, no alarming hidden agendas and Barana has vouched for him, we were hoping you might recruit him for this little exercise. He would be a pretty good barometer for a number of the people you need to talk to. Besides, he may have a surprise or two for you. Trust your instincts, there have been some things built into your enhancements that will help you identify those to trust and those not to trust, but you already had that talent to a substantial degree. Let Barana ride along in your mind when you make your contacts to help you with information to which you might not have access or which you have not adequately assimilated. That will be a good collaboration and you will want all the tools you can muster to make it work well. When you get back, we will give you the grand tour of the station. You already know where everything is from the sleep learning you were going through but it does help to actually see it in person. Everything will click into place. In the meantime, I would suggest you go on over to the military training area. There are people there who will help you acclimate to those enhancements you are loaded with."
### August 13 - C Day minus 17 ###
Even though he was doing well with his adjustment to the enhancements, ten days at the training facility worked wonders. Barana suggested that he was easily ready for increased capability and had increased the physical enhancements to the 50% capability level and most of the sensory enhancements had also been increased.
### August 31 – C Day 1 ###
As Hank was preparing to return to Earth and considering how to approach George Reever, Barana Informed him that Fador had returned to the station and would very much like to meet with him. Hank said that he wanted to meet Fador and when would it be convenient.
Hank was a bit nervous about this meeting but he put that thought aside and replied, "OK, now it is" and Barana transported Hank to Fador's study in his quarters. Hanks first impression was, this is awesome.
Fador rose from an easy chair in his study that looked like a transplant from 19th Century England and said, "Good day to you Henry, I hope you do not mind these surroundings, but I find them
peaceful and most relaxing."
Fador was completely human in appearance, about 6' 1" tall with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was of moderate build and looked fit. As they shook hands, Hank replied, "Not at all, sir, this is really impressive. It looks like an old English library/study. The books look genuine and not what I expected to see. I like it."
Fador said, "That is good and they are indeed genuine, but come have a seat and we can chat in comfort. By the way, my name is Fador and that has the advantage of being short, formal or informal depending on the situation. Sir is not necessary. You and I must meet as equals and be equals. You have accepted a huge challenge from us and for that I and my people are most grateful."
"Very well Fador, but I am sure that I will slip into a 'sir' mode on occasion. Using the same train of thought, my friends call me Hank, particularly in informal settings. Excuse me for saying this, but you remind me a English stage and screen actor who was prominent in the early to mid 1900's, who…"
Fador interrupted, "let me guess, Basil Rathbone and next you will be asking me where my deerstalker hat is hiding." Saying that, he reached behind him and pulled a deerstalker hat from a shelf there and put it on his head.
Hank roared with laughter and when he finally recovered his composure, said, "You Sir Fador are a piece of work." To which Fador quickly and matter-of-factly responded, "I know." Hank knew, as he recovered from his second bout of laughter, that the two of them were going to get along just fine.
Fador said, "I have been wanting to meet you, and everything Barana has told me about you has been extraordinarily impressive. I thought you might want to hear some things directly from me because I can speak on behalf of the Antoran people. I think it might help your perspective if I personally told you a bit about what brings us to this point in time. Some of this you may already know or have reasoned."
"You have no doubt noticed that we Antorans are generally indistinguishable from the people on your planet. The genetic makeup of Antorans is an almost perfect match for Earth. This leads us to believe that Earth may at some point have been a colony seeded by Antor. Oddly enough, the other five planets we have discovered have a similar genetic relationship. That point of research may be difficult to ever prove for we have not located definitive records on the subject but it is at least a theory at this time."
"Just 515 years ago on Antor, we confirmed the presence of the Glarin and their nature. We also confirmed the fact that they were coming our way and would arrive in about 15 years. Antorans are not prone to panic but this was devastating news. When you know your demise is 15 years away you react differently."
Fador paused and said, "Ah, forgive me, I am a terrible host, can I offer you some refreshments, something to drink perhaps."
"Do you have Ginger Ale, or some soft drink?"
"Aha, a Marine asking for something that is not 'alcoholic' is an interesting anomaly that certainly goes counter to stereotype, yes I do happen to have Ginger Ale and I will join you."
After bringing out refreshments, Fador continued, "There are several things you should know about our people that impacted the decisions we made after that discovery. The first thing is that we are very much a peaceful people to the point of complete non-aggression. We have no crime but understand it in an academic sense. If we had been handed a weapon and told that by pulling the trigger, our enemy would be destroyed and our continued existence would be assured, we would NOT have been able to pull that trigger. It is our nature and we can do nothing about it. We tried and it did not work. We literally go insane when faced with that situation. I am not sure that we ever really wanted to change. We could create the weapons, we could provide support for the pullers of the trigger but the act itself was beyond us. Knowing that, we explored what we could do without damage to our psyche."
"The second thing is that we had and still have a very advanced technology base. It was possible for our people to escape to such a distance that the Glarin could not reach us for many years and if we did it in stages they could never reach us. As you have been told, the Glarin ships cannot currently exceed a speed that is six times the speed of light. We had at that point the means to travel at faster than light speeds in the range of 6,000 to 12,000 times the speed of light and some exploration ships had been previously dispatched for exploration at those speeds. We usually limit ourselves to 10,000xSL. We had the power source to drive a very large ship but we needed something that could move 1.5 billion people in the time left to us. Thus the concept of the Type 1 station was conceived. We felt that if we had two such station/ships we could move the entire population in one massive effort. We could place ourselves beyond their immediate reach and construct sufficient stations that we could then move on and never be reachable by the Glarin. We were aware of the existence of the planet at Tau Ceti via some earlier probes. So we determined that we would regroup there."
"We used what were later to become the military sectors and part of the raw material storage for the storage of sufficient food to sustain our entire population for at least two years in addition to what the station could itself produce. We packed everything we could into those two ships. We initially built floors 694 through 774 of the inner habitat dwelling units, both stations, both habitat sectors as stasis chamber containers and then we packed in our people in stasis units to further reduce our needs for food and oxygen. Ninety per cent of our population was asleep in stasis units. We built a third ship without any habitat area and that ship was a massive warehouse. Any tool, any device that could be of use to us, every technology, industrial, commercial, medical, all our data bases, anything that fit in that ship, we took with us. We made a substantial dent in the fresh water supply on the planet. If we could not get it on the ship and it might be useful to the Glarin, we made it unusable by reducing it to its component parts and rendered those non-repairable.'
"It sickened us to do this to our home but the Glarin were coming. We did stop at the point of poisoning the planet but there was nothing useful to the Glarin left. Even the metals in our buildings were removed and taken with us. Oh, mining was still possible and the minerals were still there, but all evidence of civilization was removed. That sort of thing takes a toll on your psyche. Our foundries and fabricators worked around the clock to make as much Herculenium metal as they could and we took it with us. Whatever space was left was loaded with historical records and technology records and we took it with us. All traces of our technology, we took it with us. It must have been very frustrating to the Glarin when they arrived and saw what we left them. Frankly, it gave me a bit of pleasure to frustrate them in this manner."
"The third thing about us is that we are a people of conscience. When we moved those stations to Tau Ceti, we seeded cloaked tracking devices along the way to see what was developing with the Glarin. We, in short order, found that they were moving in this direction and that your civilization and five others, a bit further on, were in their projected path. Had we merely regrouped at Tau Ceti and then moved on when we had sufficient stations, we would have been long gone. Knowing that we had left billions of people on five worlds to deal with the fate we were escaping was too much to bear. We would have been a damaged people. We at least had to make an effort. The notion that we could do little or nothing for the peoples in harms way pushed us down a path that is now reaching culmination."
"We want to become a source for protection of those people. But we had to have someone that could pull the trigger and yet not be so different in their belief structures that we were not compatible. We had several candidates but Earth was the most promising and is next on the Glarin's path. We were worried about your planet and still are to a point but then we saw the creation of your democracies and your rapid development, we became entranced with your potential. We realized that your people had many of the attributes we were looking for and wondered if we might be your conscience in a combined effort. You are also at an age where this plan might just work. We decided to take a chance and see if this ho
rror could be halted."
"We have had many individual candidates in the past 20 years and you were among the most promising. We will let you know who the others were because they are good people who do not quite have your strengths but have a contribution to make."
"We have been stifling some of your talents and have been surreptitiously training you how to use them. We have been guiding you in a sense but have not touched your free will and will not. Some of these talents have not been fully activated but you will have full access to all your talents very soon. Barana will explain that when the time comes. Her judgment in such instances has been precise and accurate. We have provided protection for you at times, most notably at the Kajaki event. The guidance provided there and your actions assured us that you were indeed the person we have been seeking. Your Grandfather had told me years ago that you were the one we were seeking but we were not sure. Now we believe his view and most notably, so does Barana."
"Now that you have committed to do this, I must tell you that my people have decided that this is where we will draw the line even if it results in our demise. It is also time to transfer this Station and all the other stations built, to your command. I will stay on as a figurehead leader for as long as you need me and because you have much to do in recruiting the manpower to operate this tool we have placed at your disposal. You will be governed by our constitution that has been established here. Some of the strictures in our constitution forbid the transfer of any station and certain levels of its technology to any planetary-based government or society. There is much we can contribute to the success of this effort in addition to the hardware and our people. Now we have to start bringing that together. Thank you Hank for giving us a reason to hope."