The Black

It had been three days since Captain Yasushi had ordered the capture of an alien ballistic missile and the exploration of its launch point. The security and structural engineering team was still clearing the alien command post and silo of safety hazards before the irreplaceable scientists departed. The reports back were… disturbing….

The security team had been forced to enter using their EVA uniform function with rebreather tanks. It turned out that the installation’s occupants had sealed themselves into the structure and attempted to wait out the antimatter apocalypse of their world. Their computing systems were rudimentary at best but appeared to function well enough. The security and structural teams had been forced to stabilize several hallways and seal off others for fear of collapse. Archeological teams would have to escalate the more dangerous locations at a later date. There were three other ‘active’ missiles in the silo section itself, and the race was on to get enough linguistic material to figure out which computer system contained Fire Control.

The initial infiltration, of this structure, had given the team their first glimpse at what the natural inhabitants looked like. So far, 25 perfectly preserved bodies were in Excelsior’s Morg; being kept preserved inside of forcefield contained air that replicated the air readings inside. 12 males, 7 females, and 6 children: 4 girls and 2 boys. These beings stood a striking resemblance to humanity. That appears to stand roughly 1.6 to 1.7 meters tall, and had eye positions to allow for binocular vision, and their snout was slightly longer than a human’s but shorter than a lycans. The individuals in the bunker also had a pronounced bony ridge that ran down the middle of their nose.

They appeared to be bipedal, but they retained an extra set of arms jointed just below the shoulder. Their skin was distorted by the mummification process, but tufts of short hair suggested a coarse-grained, short, full-bodied fur was likely. Autopsies would have to confirm this, but the set and shape of the ears suggested an echolocation ability.

Yasushi set the report down as a notification popped up on his ready room computer. He eyes narrowed as he read the update. The security team had found a message….

—————————————————————-

Admiral Gwen sat in the living room of Mac and Lyri’s lodge with the four of them.

“You are too valuable to the mission to go alone.” Clint said flatly.

“This is the mission, Clint. I do not think I have a choice if we are to get answers. The situation has become…. Complicated” Gwen stated calmly

“How much more complicated can it be?” Mac asked sitting down next to a worried Lyrian.

“There has been news from the exploration fleets” Gwen stated, “It’s… not good news. And it requires the answer to questions that I cannot ask anyone else.” Gwen paused taking a breath, “To date, every habitable planet that the exploration fleets have found…… have been murdered worlds… “

“The ‘20years’ between Sol and the Unity isn’t natural…” Mac’s voice was dark, “Jesus…” He pulled Lyri to himself.

“We need to know what we are walking into… our species depends on it.” Gwen’s resolve was firm. “This is possibly our only shot to find out.”

“Shit” Clint spat, closely followed by Mac’s own distaste.

Lyrian wrapped her tail around Mac’s waist as he took a slow cleansing breath. “Aunt…. What do we know about this Aericastum…” Mac asked slowly.

Gwen thought for a moment, “Admiral Karmarin is bound by oath. He told me what he could, which wasn’t much.”

“This reeks of a trap…” Clint remarked, his own expression dark.

“We have no choice do we… too much has happened too quickly since Mac made it here…. It’s not adding up…” Lyrian said quietly.

“It’s settled then” Gwen stated... Slowly the rest nodded.

—————————————————————

Aiericastum’s Tetrarchy starship, a familiar massive 1000km long obelisk, blinked into existence just outside the beacon zone as began burning past Port Royal for Delmar.

Silu stood on the observation deck of Ops. The long trapezoidal behemoth’s stately progression past his station was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. He nodded to Philip, whom approached to stand next to his commander. Silu suppressed a smirk as the young man stalked up. Young Philip had never shaken his human walking gate and would regularly scare the void out humans and Delmar alike just by not making enough noise. Philip blamed it on his growing up with his uncle who enjoyed hunting in his people’s traditional manner, with spear and cunning. Silu had yet to take the man up on a hunting trip down on the planet yet.

“She’s still refusing hails.” Philip mentioned softly as he stood beside the older Delmar, contemplating the view before him.

“Did she transmit codes?” Silu glanced at Philip as he nodded, “It will have to be good enough.”

“1st and 3rd fleet arrived last night. They are currently mobilizing to… escort the vessel to orbit. 4th and 5th are taking their place.” Philip turned to leave, “Unless you need something, Commander.”

Silu shook himself from his thoughts, “Ah, yes. Quite right. Thank you, dismissed Philip, I’ll be along shortly.”

——————————————-

Mac, with lyrian, exited the lift onto the battle bridge of the USN Galveston, quickly waving off her captain's call to attention. “As you were” he said quickly, before reaching to shake Cpt Harrison’s hand. “Well Bill, we never did stand on ceremony; let’s not start now.” he grinned at the 40-year-old captain before activating the fleet-wide channel from his wrist pad. “First Fleet! This is Commodore Grarzia speaking. I’m not one for speeches, so this one is short! The ambassador will be boarding the Tetrarchy ship once we are in orbit over Delmar. Our mission is one of equal parts escort, and equal parts security. 3rd fleet will screen Delmar from our visitor, our job. To screen our visitors from incoming threats, and allied shipping from our visitor if need be. We will be on full alert in one hour ladies and gentlemen. That is all.” He closed the connection.

“How long will the Ambassador be meeting inside that ship?” Harrison asked.

“I honestly don’t know. Oh, Captain Harrison, Lyrian “FIZZ” Mackenzie Grarzia. Lyri, Captain Samual “wild bill” Harrison. “

Harrison’s eyes sparkled with amusement, “A pleasure to meet you, Lyrian.” He smiled at her surprise when he turned her handshake into a peck on the top of her hand “Anyone brave enough be married to, and back seat for, this crazy fuck has my admiration.”

Mac chuckled as Lyrian glances a confused look at him, “Wild Bill here is an…. Old Soul... we just roll with it.”

Harrison barked a laugh and waved them to sit down, “It will be a while before anything starts. So tell me, how did you too meet...”

The conversation meandered about until the time came to beat to quarters. 1st and 3rd fleets were not going to clear for action. Instead, their ships were to man combat stations in shifts, but leave the weapons systems and shields fully energized, but on standby.

“The ambassador’s shuttle is on approach, one soul on board.” the sensors station reported

“I didn’t know the Ambassador could fly a shuttle?” Harrison mentioned.

“This Aiericastum was strict about coming alone. I gave Gwen a crash course on basic shuttle maneuvers. Her orbital insertion and reentry is automated, but she can land and take off a maneuver well enough to do the rest.” Lyrian stated.

Lyrian could feel Mac’s anxiety spike with hers as the shuttle disappeared onto the floating obelisk...

———————————————————-

Gwen winced as the shuttle thumped down a bit harder than she had intended, it took her a cheat sheet and few minutes to properly shut the shuttle down. By that time the landing bay she had flown into had filled with breathable atmosphere and some gravity had returned to the cavernous hanger the shuttle had come to rest in. She checked the sensors to confirm before unsealing the shuttle and lowering the boarding ramp into the unknown.

Gwen was met with a human-formed hologram with a small hovering drone projecting the androgynous form from inside the hologram.

“Greeting ambassador, welcome to the UGN βίαιος ποιητής (violent Poet). Please, this way.” The bipedal artifice turned and began walking without further communication. Gwen raised an eyebrow and followed. For several minutes, Gwen followed her artificial guide. They travelled through identical, featureless pure white hallways until the hologram drone stopped and a seam appeared in this part of the wall as an opening received itself.

“Aiericastum will see you now” the hologram stated before shimmering and disappearing, leaving only the drone, which was already leaving. Gwen stared at the drone before taking a breath and entering the door. It snapped and sealed shut behind her and she felt vertical motion as the lift she had stepped in began a rapid ascent. Gwen watched herself fly up the wall of a titanic chasm inside the ship only to have to brace herself when the lift stopped. The window she was looking through moments before became a door as she stepped onto a walkway 4 meters wide that was the only thing lit in the room.

“Please, take a seat Ambassador.” A titanic voice echoed through the chamber as Gwen purposefully forced herself to walk calmly to a light-indicated chair, settling into it before crossing her legs and setting her hands on her lap.

A full minute went by, and Gwen was about to start talking when a low whirring of machinery stopped her. A titanic metal featureless face swung into view with its chin just above the other end of the platform that Gwen was sitting, “thank you for coming ambassador,” the face said before a scanning beam swept across Gwen. It made her hair stand on end as it swept her 3 times before stopping.

“What is the meaning of this” Ambassador Gwen stated, realizing that she could not move during the scanning process. The scanner ceased and she was released, causing her to jump up. “What the fuck did you just do!” She felt weird all over. Like millions of creepy crawlers were pricking every skin cell on her body.

“Please sir admiral. You have been externally sterilized for my protection. I no longer possess an immune system such as you know it.” The voice said as Gwen shook herself off and finally sat back down, staring angrily at the titanic Golem’s face. Her eyes widened as vapor hissed from about its seams and the face opened vertically by hinges about its ‘hairline’. A ramp extended from its chin and a small being with distended head and long weedy arms walked out in a slow waddle, taking a seat that rose from the floor next to Gwen as it walked by, eyeing her up as Gwen did the same.

“I see Humanity has kept its edge.” A much quieter, timid almost by comparison, voice stated as the being sat.

“You’re a….. I guess those were not all-weather balloons and animatronics” Gwen said finally. Taking in a breath, “Aiericastumi presume, I guess I should thank you for keeping my species out of another war for extinction.”

“It was necessary.” the being said simply, “Ambassador I do not have time, this form cannot survive outside of the Mech for very long. I fear I must start from the beginning for you to understand” Aiericastum began, “my species, the Corth’ Lithral, are extinct in all but finality. I am one of 4 left of my kind…”

The Corth’ labored slightly before adjusting a small contraption on her arm and sitting up straighter, “I know you have questions, so please wait until I have finished” She held Admiral Gwen’s gaze until the Human woman nodded, “Very well, our species… we’re not always as you see here. We trace our roots back over 300 million years to the capital planet of the Unity itself. We were a proud people, strong, smart, space faring. We believe that we may have been one of the first to reach another star system. In our Hubris we thought to improve ourselves. About 200 million years ago, my people began customizing our own genome sequences, but it was not so simple. We Corth’ became obsessed with maximizing our brain power and logic functions to the detriment of everything else. Including our bodies…. And our reproduction capabilities. Our race introduced cloning… and we were able to duplicate ourselves, combine ourselves, or combine any others of ourselves to create our ‘children’. The smartest among us were cloned regularly. With splices of the parents for legality’s sake. Of course, a faction of our people believed that we should be focusing on physical power and adversity resistance for the conquest of the galaxy. They became known as the Vorath’ Lithral. An uneasy peace was held for the next million years or so. We were all Lithral, it did not matter if you were Corth or Vorath… until the day it did.”

Aiericastum paused, tapping her controls to have water brought for the both of them. “That’s better, the day came to explore the part of the galaxy now Barron of life in it, or so we thought. We Corth’ were the first to find a planet inhabited. We naively showed ourselves to the locals… they were just out of the Iron Age…. Their response was bloody, And we lost many before we could agree to talks. That race was the Kri’Klis’erklae. We eventually were able to communicate with them. But the Vorath’ saw this as Corth weakness. They began crushing underdeveloped sapient species under their increasingly physical prowess. The Corth were livid. Then, we were subjected to the same treatment. The Vorath Leader Legatus the first took his fleet to surround the Lithral homeworld and executed every Corth council member. It was ludicrously easy. The last million years had seen the Corth increasingly frail in body and strong in mind. This sparked a galactic conflict…. One for our very survival… the Corth had just begun to explore in the direction that would eventually lead us to Terra… the Vorath followed…. Chasing the metamaterials and energy-rich deposits your species never had want for. For the next 150 million years we fought… entire planets were murdered by the Vorath antimatter bombs to deny the Corth assets and Allies….. we returned in kind throwing engines on asteroids and sending them into Vorath stronghold worlds in desperation.”

Aiericastum’s eyes fell, “Our first Asteroid attacks surgical. They were successful without permanently damaging the ecosystem and peoples indigenous to the planet. We succeeded in crippling the manufacturing of the Vorath, allowing our Drone swarms to swing attrition in Corth favor. We eventually pushed the Vorath back from Saturn in your sol system, back to our home world.”

The Corth took a moment to gather herself, “The last battle was over Termistrius Prime. The Corath Prime fleet, against what we thought was the last of the Vorath armada… we were wrong. The Vorath had always outbred us because of our need for cloning pods. What we truly faced was their rear guard… It was a trap, not for our Prime fleet.. but for everything else… Before that battle, the Vorath had evacuated most of their civilian and military population on Termistrius and departed for another Arm of this galaxy. They had sacrificed a huge force of aging ships to Make us believe we had defeated them… Then They revealed that they had learned well from us.. 65 million years ago the first of the Vorath asteroids hit earth... we didn’t know how many they had sent at the time. But all across the galaxy, Asteroids had been selected, and prepared with subspace drives. These Asteriods, sometimes in clusters of smaller ones.. sometimes in one large one; appeared over the planets rich in resources we needed to rebuild. All of them carried an antimatter core charge in them ensuring the unusable nature of those planets for Millenia to come… It was the final nail in our coffin. We call this time, ‘The Calamity’. These last suicide missions ensured that the Corth had neither the energy, materials, nor genetic diversity to survive as a species… I remember the first hit on earth.”

The Corth looked Gwen in the eyes, “We figured out how to render ourselves functionally ageless, but we require a high level of medical automation such as this monstrosity you see behind me. It was never going to be enough. We were doomed, We knew that. We would fade from protectorship of this part of the galaxy and the Vorath would eventually return.. We knew what genes we needed, We could not artificially create them. And our population had been decimated to the point where those Genes… They simply no longer existed naturally.”

“And you couldn’t recreate them through natural means.” Gwen nodded.

“Indeed. But I digress, Earth was dying. It was also the most promising of the doomed planets because of the fact that the Antimater Charge in the asteroid aimed at her detonated deep in your oceans, smothering its poisonous potential. We had been watching a group of Saurians, they had started making tools. We tranquilized them and used them as a flagship experiment to see if we could reseed These worlds. We left a long-term mission crew on earth and left to do the transplant. 40 million years later, and many transfers as crews died out or retired, we figured out a stasis solution to immortality. The final Crew was to wake every 1 million years, observe, and send a report. Then rejuvenate and hibernate until the next wake update. We watched the Dinosaurs die out even as our small transplanted clan grew to become one of the most spectacular species in our Unity. We watched a couple of species spring up in the aftermath of apocalypse, but then a miracle happened… Humanity Happened...”

“You mean, the Corth created us?” Gwen was more than a little incredulous.

Aiercastum wheezed a chuckle, “Oh no. We never could do anything like that. The Miracle of Humanity was your own. You possess an abundance of everything we Corth threw away. Yes, your skin was different. Your species is much more prone to violence, and your life spans are almost as short as ours were before we began ‘Anti-Gerone’. You were naturally producing DNA combinations that we believed could save our race.. If we had had enough people left to do so. We were but a mere 500 Corth when Humanity made its first steps into the stone age. We had retracted quietly from public life, perpetuated our own extinction story; and quietly infiltrated the halls of power to form the Unity. Our hope was to create a Multispecies unified front to face the Vorath after we were all gone…”

“I’m guessing that the Unity of today is not what you envisioned it to be,” Ambassador said levelly.

“No… but we could only do so much from the shadows. We chose to focus on Humanity as an option. You Were a species that could rival the Vorath’ Lithral in physical strength as well as intellect. Your Natural Violence made you willing to fight. The most important part was Terra. Your world is the most violently hostile habitable world the Corth have discovered. Every other planet we encountered that we counted as worse, has been barren. We needed Humanity to succeed... So we... dabbled... minimal changes to aid in your development using the lessons we learned from our own failures. The jump from Neanderthalensis to Homo Sapiens was our first genetic nudge. Our second nudge was philosophical… Ancient Greece.”

“Wait… Your ship’s name… It’s not in your language. I recognize it. ‘Violent Poet’ I believe it says, roughly” Gwen’s eyes widened as it all connected, “That’s not Greek… That’s your language.. You gave ancient Greece your language, your philosophy…”

“A version of it, yes. Modified to what we thought would be compatible with your species. We could project holograms well enough to fool the ‘locals’. One of our team, on Terra, was on the council of Alexander the Great. The human never knew it, but he was our first attempt at creating a higher culture for Humanity. It didn’t end up the way we had hoped, but over the centuries it bloomed into something we could work with. Our greatest struggle was keeping you from obliterating yourselves.”

“We came close…. Several times...” Gwen conceded, “How long did you have a hand in Humanity’s course?”

“I am unsure, We received reports from our team until your early 20th century. We could not do much of anything by then. Our team was dying out. They, sadly, tried a few times to extract DNA from some humans to help aid them in surviving their mission. In the reports at least, they claimed to always use non invasive techniques and keep the patient alive and fully healed upon their return. I was not happy about that, but Mystrius let it slide ‘for the greater good’.” Aiericastum shrugged uncomfortably.

“Jesus Christ… That explains what we found in the Trench” Gwen stated, “We found your team. They had been dead for centuries, we could not date them because of a strange compound in their system. Area 51 in testing that compound as we speak”

“What compound?” the Corth asked

“We don’t know, but I can show you the preliminary” Gwen slowly removed her wrist data pad and handed it to the Corth after pulling up the report

“By the Void…. That’s Anti-Gerone… We lost the ability to produce that twenty thousand years ago. The team had been taking it sparingly but were reporting reduced affects...”

“That matches up with the preliminary reports as well. Your team, if they were human, were showing all the signs of chronic drug resistance… the Anti-Gerone started being rejected by their bodies… How long had the oldest one been taking it?” Gwen asked.

“Arelious… um.. my last son… started his treatments 65 million years ago..” Aiericastum whispered.

Gwen stood up and began to walk over to the Corth woman, “I’m sorry. No parent should ever have to bury their child. How are you still alive?”

“the Golem…” The Corth said, “It brute forces any anti-aging we need.. I basically get printed a new body every 40-50 ye…”

The lights in the room started flashing and a strange wailing sound started warbling. The Corth stood quickly waving her hands in the air as if sifting through something…

“Gods… they sent one…” She waved her hand again before shuddering, and turned to Gwen, “the asteroid attacks of recent, we think they are the Vorath testing the Unity’s strength. We don’t know from where, but an asteroid just dropped out of subspace, on the opposite side of the system to your beacon. You are the only species besides us to figure out what you call “Triangulation”. The Vorath know it too…”

The Corth started to wave her hands again and a blinding white light contained Gwen holding her in place, “I am sending you to your ‘Galveston’, you must hurry. This Asteroid is targeting me. And I cannot jump due to interference from its antimatter charge... Delmar will be destroyed if you can’t take it out! Now GO!”

Gwen felt her insides lurch, and everything went white right before she found herself standing in the middle of the USN Galveston’s Battle Bridge.