Star Force: Legacy of the Ancients (Star Force Universe Book 59) Read online

  “No blocking is necessary. The lack of skill is what will prevent you from activating the portal.”

  Randy smiled. Bingo.

  “What is the range of the portals?” Scott-992034 asked.

  “They do not reach across the galaxy. The range of the portals varies depending on time and galactic spin. Those noted on the map are those within range.”

  “And what if our destination is not one of them? Do we have to hop from one Temple to another until we reach it?”

  “Indeed, which is why one Essence charge will not be sufficient if your destination is far away.”

  “Which means we might run into another Vargemma Temple enroute,” Randy said, kicking the toe of his boot into the floor in frustration.

  “We don’t even know which way to go.”

  “Yeah,” the trailblazer said. “One problem at a time. Where are the interfaces for the portals? Where do we activate them from?”

  “Direct interaction with the portal is necessary to activate it. There is no auxiliary control point.”

  “Can they be deactivated to prevent arrival?”

  “They can be deactivated to prevent entry, but if a traveler is sent regardless, they will arrive on the barrier shield exterior. Protocol demands that no such travel be allowed without prior permission for entry.”

  “How is that achieved?”

  “Activation signals are sent regularly indicating which paths are open and which are not.”

  “How fast do those signals travel?”

  “A matter of seconds.”

  Randy felt his jaw drop. “You can send transmissions through the Essence realm, from Temple to Temple, in a matter of seconds?”

  “The greater the mass, the slower the transmission. Activation signals have negligible mass.”

  “Can you teach us how to do that?”

  “Yes, but such learning, while preferred, is unnecessary. The Temples provide such technology to the denizens once they obtain certain skill benchmarks…”

  2

  Jack worked through mural after mural, getting every bit of information out of them via hidden little Essence procs as a research team made recordings of everything…and there was a lot to get through. Beyond the war against the Hadarak and the mysterious apocalypse monsters, there was a great deal of information regarding the progression of life and the advancement to Essence level.

  The murals didn’t suggest that it was natural, but that it was the result of individuals pushing themselves beyond the genetic memory that governed most people. Learning to get oneself off autopilot and access the potential that all life had to adapt and advance was critical to getting to the point of being able to use Essence. Those changes in individuals would then be passed on to the next generation genetically…but if that generation didn’t learn to go beyond their autopilot, they wouldn’t progress further.

  So in order for a race to get to the point of using Essence, there had to be a succession of individuals pushing beyond the norm. This would increase the ease of breaking that barrier, and apparently Humans weren’t anywhere close to this. A lot of the progress the murals spoke of was not present in Humanity, though some of it was in the V’kit’no’sat and a lot in the Zak’de’ron. They should have been closest to making it as a race, but the loyalty bonds they operated off of actually hindered their breaking the barrier, for if you were self-constraining to your society’s rules and standards, then you were not of a nature to test boundaries.

  But the Archons were. It was ingrained in their culture to not accept anything at face value and test everything. Curiosity was the most important trait that the murals spoke of, and that was something that could not be encoded genetically. Curiosity came from a person’s Core, and it would run parallel with genetic instructions and nibble away at them, but it took an amount of courage or extreme events to cause a person to break off from the instinctual path and chart their own course.

  The murals also noted an important characteristic that popped up in countless races that made it to easy access Essence level, and it was clear that the Knights of Quenar were an example of this anti-romance vibe. Their existence was based on a mission, a quest to fight and destroy the Uriti, and that was their societal priority above and beyond their genetic instructions. Most races put an enormous amount of time and effort into romance and reproduction…because that’s what their genetic instructions valued as the greatest priority, else their race would die out.

  People didn’t realize this was why they did things. They thought it was for other reasons, but a tell-tale example of people constrained to their genetic instructions were those societies that were obsessed with romantic and sexual relationships, and Humanity did qualify in that regard. The lower levels of Star Force society were more focused on who was involved with who than they were in the Hadarak, fighting pirates, or even just maintaining the food supply. They’d only deal with these things if they were thrown in their face and they had no choice but to respond to them…but when they were handled by others the ‘normal’ person in Star Force spent most of their time chasing romance or other permutations of that basic genetic imperative to pair up and reproduce.

  But go beyond the tier 1 colonies in Star Force and you had people that had different priorities. Continue up the ranks and at the top of Star Force you had individuals who did not reproduce, did not mate, did not date. This wasn’t because their genetic instructions told them not to, it was because they, as individuals, had risen above that basic instruction and took control of their own lives.

  Essentially they turned off the auto-pilot because they didn’t need it anymore, and that was symptomatic of races reaching towards widespread Essence use. The trouble was, the people that got to that point weren’t reproducing…so their genetics were not being passed on to the next generation. Only the lower and mid-level ones were.

  Jack wasn’t upset about that. In fact he was glad. He didn’t want Essence powers for the general population. He wanted it to be damn hard to achieve, but in many races it wasn’t…and that explained, in another mural, why the Vargemma were so apt to infighting. In order for one to break through the barrier and gain Essence skills, you had to think as an individual and, in some ways, disobey your genetic instructions.

  So if the transition was easy, you were going to have people with a rebellious streak getting through that barrier before they learned any other skills…such as teamwork. Archons had to be aggressive, but reckless aggression was a problem, and they all had to learn and sculpt their own emotions into functionality early into their Archon training so they wouldn’t be a threat to themselves or others. Newbs needed to want to crush things, but after you got good at that you needed to learn when to do it and when not to. If you didn’t get to that lesson before you broke through and got Essence skills, you might get the idea that you didn’t need any further lessons…hence you got a bunch of crazies running around with Essence powers.

  That was the main reason the Caretakers had orders to put down any rebellions and enforce a no-kill policy. If forced to live together long enough, it was theorized that the rebellious breakthroughs would stabilize over time and learn from those who attained Essence through less reckless means.

  But that didn’t feel right. The Vargemma had been around for a billion years minimum. Why were they still going after each other’s throats? And for that matter, why hadn’t they reproduced like rabbits and filled all the Temples?

  Another mural depicted the act of an Essence user taking a ‘normal’ and giving them the ability to use Essence…along with a warning that this may have negative side effects if the individual is unworthy, and that the universe kept the unworthy ones away from Essence by requiring them to break the barrier individually. However, given the threat of the Hadarak and the need for more Essence users, there was a way to help people break the barrier, both by individual to individual interaction as well as technological transition.

  That meant there was a Superman box here somewhere,
but if there was, why didn’t the Vargemma have 100% Essence use in their population? The Paladin had reported there were large chunks of them that could not use Essence yet. Did they advance too many people this way and that’s what was causing the instability? Were they trying to counter it by making the newer population achieve it the old fashioned way? Whatever the case, it seemed the more Jack learned from the murals the more he realized that something was seriously wrong within the Temple network beyond the iceberg nature of this one.

  The reason for that may be due to the automated nature of them, for as intricately as they were designed, the Founders were not here. That was made clear, as was the fact that they would not return until certain benchmarks were achieved by the inhabitants. They were on their own here, with the toys left behind by races far superior to them. If they learned how to play with them well enough, they’d be contacted by an ambassador of sorts. If not, they’d be ignored. Jack got the impression that not a single Founder was even in this galaxy, and this was a total shot in the dark hoping that some Essence users of decent skill would arise to give the Founders a badly needed ally…but one they were not counting on appearing.

  It was like a resource box buried in the ground out in the wilderness with a map to find it hidden inside a city in case of catastrophic circumstances. The people who hid the box and left the instructions never intended to come back. They were leaving them behind to help those in a time of need if and when it ever occurred. Star Force had many such resource boxes hidden across their empire, and nobody ever checked on them because they were meant to remain hidden until needed. If you sent people out to monitor the status of the boxes, you might alert the wrong people to their existence.

  And given that the Temples were extremely well hidden, the Founders coming here might alert the Hadarak to their existence. The murals made it clear that the Temples could fight and kill a Hadarak, but they could not hold out against an army of them. They had to remain hidden and as inaccessible as possible…hence their lack of a centralized gravity well for the Hadarak to use to travel here.

  It was also made clear that the Founders were not a single race. The Temples had been built by a coalition of races, all left unnamed and undescribed, so the technology here was either an amalgamation of their various techs or resulting from one superior Founder race that the others couldn’t add much too other than labor to help build them. Regardless, the technology here was superior to what Star Force possessed in most cases, not all, which meant Jack and the others had their second major windfall to study, with the first having been the V’kit’no’sat pyramid.

  That pyramid find had elevated Star Force beyond measure, and the Temple technology was going to upgrade them again. Jack didn’t think it would be such a grand surge forward. How could it be after how far Star Force had come thanks to the V’kit’no’sat knowledge? But the knowledge here, both in the databanks and the actual construction of the Temples, came from races not millions of years old, but billions of years old, and that meant Star Force had a lot to learn from the legacy of the ancients.

  But first they had to get the Vargemma to stop attacking Star Force worlds and murdering billions of people. How many Temples did they possess? Nobody knew. And if they couldn’t be convinced to broker a deal for a cease fire, Star Force was going to have to invade them all before the attacks would stop. But to do that they had to get inside with their fleets, or at least allow the Paladin to spread from one to another…which they couldn’t do without supplying the Essence for the portals.

  The trailblazers had to get to them, or find a way to bring a fleet into this one. And so far they didn’t even know where this one was. Randy was going to try and get a starmap of the exterior from the Responder, and from that they could figure out themselves where in the galaxy they actually were.

  There was nothing here to indicate that, which Jack found odd. The Bridge endpoints were marked, but not this or the other Temples. Probably a security issue, in case some Essence users got here then turned around and taddled to the galaxy where the Temple actually was. Making the location secret until you leveled up made sense, but if you had to have Essence to get here what were they worried about? Was the Essence barrier not active here? Could it be penetrated by some method that Star Force hadn’t figured out yet?

  When the wealth of information in the murals was finally exhausted, a wall opened up on its own leading to a tunnel. Jack frowned and walked up to the entrance as the rest of the Archons and techs waited behind him. It had only opened up after he finished the last bit of information, then closed down that mural back to its basic state. Were they meant to ‘read’ them all first?

  A section of the floor in front of him and just inside the tunnel cracked open, then a green obelisk rose up to stand half again higher than Jack, with the floor resealing around it with plenty of walking room on either side to access the tunnel.

  Jack felt himself grabbed by it and his mind read, accessing his language memories. He let it play out, then he was released and the strange aura of the obelisk lessened slightly.

  “Greetings new arrivals. You have familiarized yourself with the function and history of this Temple. Now it is time for you to take up residence. The tunnel beyond leads to transportation that will take you to an empty city that will provide you with the necessary sustenance and equipment indefinitely. You may remain here without worry of ever returning from where you came, though you may do so through the Bridge as desired.”

  “Why is the Temple frozen?” Jack asked, hoping this green one would have more answers than its counterpart on the other end of the Bridge.

  “The Temple is uninhabited and operating off minimal resources. The cities are unaffected and ready for your occupation. You may also build cities of your own elsewhere in the Temple, but additional resources will be required to bring the Temple interior temperature up to sustainable levels.”

  “How can we provide those resources?”

  “They are not for you to provide. The Caretakers will provide them. What we ask, in exchange for the privilege of inhabiting the Temple, is a regular donation of Essence that we will then use to fuel certain mechanisms and more fully awaken the potential of Temple for your use.”

  “And if we don’t provide the Essence?”

  “The Temple will remain yours to explore, but much of it will remain asleep.”

  “Where do we deliver the Essence to?”

  “Any input that requires Essence can absorb small amounts. These walls required you to give such, and they were absorbed. For larger donations, utilize the blue versions of myself. They are designed specifically for Essence relocation and will contain all the answers regarding the transfer and requirements of various mechanism relying upon such. You will find them throughout the existing cities at convenient locations.”

  “What is the travel time to the nearest city?”

  “6 minutes, 8 seconds.”

  “And we can return to this location at any time?”

  “Yes.”

  Jack turned around. “Gary, Scarlet. Wait here. Everyone else, let’s go exploring.”

  Jack and more than 300 others walked down the tunnel large enough to easily encompass two Oso’lon side by side until they got a half mile away and a few dozen meters lower in elevation, coming out into a terminal that had a number of barge-like floating platforms waiting along an elevated dock. The entire group of personnel was easily able to fit on one of them, and with the press of a small blue orb the barge detached and moved towards a wall that melted before them, exposing the frigid exterior without letting any of the cold within.

  When they passed through the energy field protecting the dock Jack expected the temperature to plummet, but a shield rose above the barge to hold in the warm air as they flew across the icy wastelands towards a nearby mountain range that was not made of mountains…but rather a huge city wall dozens of miles high and flat as flat could be.

  As predicted, it took a little over 6 minutes to arrive a
t the wall where they slid into a mid-level hangar bay and the barge docked with an identical platform inside another pocket of warm air separated from the exterior by first a shield, then solid doors as they soundlessly flowed in and solidified to cover the hangar opening.

  “Well, we’re here,” Jack said, stepping off the barge under the gentle glow of yellow illumination strips lining the walls and ceiling. They looked artistic, perhaps in an unfamiliar language, or maybe that was just how the Founders made lights. Either way, it felt odd with all the light in that spectrum, and it didn’t change when they entered the city.

  Thankfully the temperature maintained its consistency, and Jack retracted his armor back into jewelry mode, as did the others, aside from a few techs that were overly cautious. Not far inside the city they came out into a large plaza in which several floating Caretakers were waiting for them.

  “Hello,” Jack said, looking at the floating robots.

  “Greetings,” one of the four said. “We are here to acclimate you to the city. We can supply food, clothing, and other amenities. We will guide you to where you want to go, provide lodging, training facilities, storage for your existing equipment, and other requirements as they arise. What do you currently require?”

  “Can you show me to a control center for the city?” Jack asked.

  “Indeed I can. Follow me,” the Caretaker said, slowly floating off as Jack followed at a walk.

  Explore, but don’t get lost, he said telepathically to all assembled. Rally back here in 4 hours.

  “Hello,” a tech said, walking up to another Caretaker as a fifth arrived from an elevated wall niche to replace the one guiding Jack away. “Can you show me where we can get water?”

  “Can you show me where we deposit Essence?” another Archon said, and down the line they all asked a Caretaker to show them to something, with as many Caretakers arriving as necessary to meet their demands…and very quickly Star Force got acclimated to their tiny piece of the barrier city that stretched millions of miles across the Sphere. And from here, they began the very long and tedious examination and mapping mission that would continue for hundreds of years to follow, as many more personnel were scheduled to arrive soon and assist them with claiming this Temple and finding a way to access the portals that would get them to the Paladin and the Vargemma.