Star Force: Temple Wars Read online

  Davis said they were going to where one of the few living Gahana on this station resided in near stasis, and had stayed quiet after Plausious had explained the trial he had just been put through…something that no other visitor to the Maty undergone since Star Force had taken possession.

  The Neofan had been in this galaxy before, on multiple occasions after the building of the Temples, and not in the best interests of the inhabitants. Apparently these forays had been detected by the Gahana’s probes and cataloged, including the purging of the Zak’de’ron, for which he would have been denied entry to the Maty.

  But the wisdom of its builders had made sure to examine the individual rather than just the race, and his desire to learn and grow, along with his exile and other changes to his mindset had triggered a test of intent…which he had passed.

  The superior intelligence here had deemed him worthy of entrance…but had not even bothered to contest Star Force or their guests.

  Which spoke bounds about how benevolent the Director’s empire truly was.

  The pressure in his mind that had challenged him to go back was now gone, but his headache remained…though it was not the same. It was now mobile, and not due to the nanites he now carried. He did not know the purpose of them, but it had been made clear to him that he would not be allowed access into the Maty without them inside him…a demand he had not contested.

  Plausious had explained these things to Davis as they walked, then the Human had let Plausious alone to his own thoughts, clearly sensing his instability. It was as if a spike had been implanted in his head long, long ago and he had become so used to it that he had become numb to its presence.

  But now it was beginning to dislodge, and he was unnumbing as a result.

  It had begun after he escaped the Hadarak planet, slowly, incrementally, with him believing it was just transitional difficulties. The Ren’mak had much larger issues, but it had fully adapted to Star Force habitation by now…yet his own discomfort steadily grew.

  Something here was relieving it, as well as accelerating the spike’s removal. A blind spot was uncovering, and it was not pleasant. But this needed to happen, so the Reignor embraced it rather than trying to lock it back down.

  The walk took forever, and every step of the way he became more and more certain that his destiny was going to be revealed here. Everything he had gone through in his life had brought him to this point, however clumsily it had happened, and the momentous event seemed oblivious to Davis and the other Star Force personnel that they occasionally passed during their slow trek through the station.

  Was he imagining this awe? Or were they so in sync with the Natural Code that this was normal for them?

  He didn’t ask the Director about this or anything else, and they agreeably walked in silence until they arrived at a random section of the station where a hidden door appeared…and inside it was a mix of Gahana and Star Force technology surrounding an egg-like vertical chamber that was an opaque blue.

  Plausious twitched, taking a staggered step forward as his chest ached…and he knew it was from the nanites.

  “Reignor?” Davis asked.

  “There is something here that needs protected, isn’t there?” he asked, studying the room intently.

  “Yes there is. What are you feeling?”

  “The nanites warn me to tread lightly.”

  “What you are a looking at is a Gahana inside a stasis chamber,” Davis said, pointing at the egg. “We modified the ones they used and created a better version, with their considerable help. Inside they are protected from the toxic radiation while having a limited access to the Maty. The shielding only protects a small amount, and if they are too active they will take damage. However, we can transition into the Essence realm to talk to them directly, and this room has been constructed to allow us to do so without them taking any damage.”

  “They allow you to wake them at will?”

  “Yes. I have been here twice before, and once at the Teurty and Snoejy. I have not been to the recently acquired Buenzy in the Core. The Gahana before you is called Apollo by us, though they have machine code identifiers of their own. There were originally 144 Gahana spawned by the lifesprings, and every one to follow has split off from those originals through a reproductive mitosis that incorporates a new Core into an identical body with identical memories. That means Apollo has the memory of one of the originals…or at least part of it. How much he has retained I do not know, but they said their data retention, while massive, was not infinite.”

  “Have you spoke to this one before?”

  “Yes, that’s why we came here. He is the eldest outside the Buenzy and a 6th generation Gahana. The next closest is a 12th, aside from a 4th in Buenzy who had quite a lot of information to give us on the status of the Galactic Core.”

  “You told me these repositories were redundant.”

  “They are, but updates are not constant, and the personal knowledge of the Gahana in them varies. Apollo has seen the most, and his inherited memories will be the most complete with the ancient knowledge here. When activated the center of this room will transition into the Essence realm. Do not try and fly out of it,” Davis said, looking at the Ren’mak. “There are shields to make sure no matter interferes. If you were to breach them, you could rematerialize inside a bulkhead.”

  The Ren’mak gripped Plausious’s shoulder firmly. “I will remain here.”

  “Good,” Davis said, walking inside a glowing circle on the floor that was well wider than the suspended egg. “Step inside.”

  Plausious did so slowly, feeling the nanites tightening in him the closer he got to the Gahana, so he did not approach nearer than one step beyond the line.

  “Here we go,” Davis said, pressing the activation lever on a Star Force console that triggered the automated transition into the Essence realm in the form of a technologically created bubble using stored Essence rather than requiring those seeking an audience to provide it.

  The view around them turned black, with the blue light from the line and egg being the only illumination aside from a few buttons here and there, but both Plausious and Davis could see with their Essence-enhanced vision the various glowing Cores around them in the Maty, but none of the elaborate infrastructure of the Temples that had been built with Essence technology, for the Gahana did not possess it.

  The egg soon cracked apart, and out of it flowed a metallic liquid that slowly pooled on the floor before rising up and taking shape, with the smooth liquid gradually taking on geometric shapes, smaller in detail as the Gahana slowly woke from its slumber to full lucidity…then stared down at the smaller Plausious from its geometric bipedal form.

  “Sean Davis,” it said with a slightly reverberating voice. “Why do you bring these two here?”

  “Reignor Plausious has preborn knowledge that concerns me. His companion goes where he goes. Both have chosen to embrace the lightside. What is your concern with Plausious?”

  “The knowledge contained here is not for all, and his race is treacherous. Why do you trust this one?”

  “Gut instinct,” Davis answered pithily. “Why have you never interfered with any of the other people here? The Dotra especially.”

  “The Hadarak were too great in number to stop, so our best strategy was to stay hidden while restricting key data. As for your guests, none have been this combination of questionable and dangerous.”

  “Why did you implant him with nanites?”

  “I did not. The Maty did because it sensed a threshold within him. The nature of that threshold is a private matter between us and him, and will be dealt with in time.”

  “He is under my protection,” Davis warned.

  “So long as he does not behave hostile, neither will we.”

  “Fair enough. I’ve asked you about the rumored Endgame before, and you told me it was nothing more than a fable, but Plausious has seen…”

  “Something curious,” Apollo finished, scanning his memories through the nanite
s. “You believe we are the result of this Endgame?”

  “I have no doubt of it,” Plausious answered before Davis could.

  “What memories do you have of the galaxy where you were spawned?” the Director interjected. “Was there a lightside empire there at the time?”

  “We awoke in a small sea of particulate, all melded together into one form. There we stayed for a time acclimating before we broke apart and took our first steps in crude forms. We were unaware of the dangers of the galaxy around us, and naïve to most things, but we possessed what you have referred to as ‘preborn’ knowledge and it has driven us to this day. We did not leave our planet for a very long time, and travel to other stars was even longer in coming. We knew we were vulnerable. That we had to advance in solitude, with a yearning for cohesion over exploration. That then reversed at a specific time in our history and we began exploring the galaxy of Maheyna, only to find rubble of many former civilizations. The galaxy was broken, and our pre-born knowledge required us to mend it as best we could.”

  “And the rubble?”

  “I do not have that analysis within me, but it is contained within the Maty’s ancient database. Because it is beyond this galaxy you did not have access to it, but when we return I will unlock it for your examination.”

  “Thank you. Do you remember any conclusions?”

  “They did not destroy each other. The devastation was systematic and the work of an outside force we never encountered. It was believed to be extra-galactic, and we are still searching for it…if it still exists. It is possible it was extinguished in the interim. None we have discovered have our natural longevity.”

  “We have discussed this at length,” Davis said, gesturing to the Neofan who appeared mildly dumbstruck at the towering Gahana. “And we think the Endgame can only be triggered by a lightside empire, with the trigger unknown. The darkside may be instinctually driven to stop this trigger at all costs, and if someone else succeeded billions of years ago, your spawning may be the end result of that Endgame. Do you have any memories that can confirm or deny this?”

  “We have not encountered this theory before,” Apollo said, looking now at Plausious. “Your recent insight is not verifiable, but I see truth in it without specifics.”

  “What did this galaxy look like when you ruled over it?” Plausious asked.

  “We did not rule it, we guarded it. And it was a great deal more quiet.”

  “What did you guard it against?”

  “Internecine and invasion. It is our instinctual mission.”

  “To what end?”

  “Does the universe have an end?” Apollo challenged. “Everything appears to be continuous, and your theory suggests the same.”

  “Did your mission have completion potential?”

  “We do not know. We have never been able to fully articulate the mission, though our knowledge of it has advanced over time. But as long as the toxicity remains, we cannot engage this galaxy on the level we should be…but we will also not abandon it entirely. Wisdom is our only weapon now, and will be until the toxicity is removed,” he said, looking back at Davis.

  “We have located the source, but we cannot get at it,” the Director said apologetically. “The Jedein have negotiated a treaty with the Naivra and others to leave us alone as we deal with the Hadarak, and part of that deal is that we avoid their territory. The source is inside Naivra space.”

  “And?” the Gahana demanded.

  “And we quietly took a look anyway. It is emanating from a tetrahedral star group that is gravitationally impossible, with an object at the center that is not Naivra. Our scouts could not get any further information without risking detection, and without that treaty the Core would turn into an even greater bloodbath. I’m sorry, we can’t get to it now.”

  “Why have I not seen this data?”

  “I sent a new ship to try and get a closer look. It hasn’t returned yet, and I was waiting for at least an image of the object at the center.”

  “There is only one?”

  “Yes. It is dark and non-reflective, but it appears to be a single object and not biological.”

  “The source of the toxicity is a single point?”

  “Yes. Did you expect otherwise?”

  “We could not pinpoint it, and we assumed it was an intersection of multiple sources.”

  “Mercury said as much,” Davis said, referring to another Gahana. “But if there are others, then they are not currently active. There is a single source according to the sensors you taught us to build.”

  “How close did you get them to the source?”

  “We got one within 8 lightyears, after following the others.”

  “How long did deterioration take?”

  “Too fast for us to calculate. But we narrowed its location down via a grid of 6 detections within 28 lightyears, and that led us to the tetrahedron. Each of those deteriorated within .38 seconds,” Davis said, referring to the Essence bubbles used to take small ‘blood’ samples from the Gahana closer to the source to act as divining rods, for they did not break down uniformly. They wore away as if burning under sunlight with the outer layers flaking off to reveal the others beneath. In this way a Gahana would not die all at once, but would gradually diminish in side until its interior regions were exposed to the toxicity as well…but in their shadow the radiation would not exist…and this allowed for basic directional finding that the Gahana had never been able to do within the Core, for their probes could not utilize Essence technology to get the samples close enough to be of use.

  “That is too low,” Apollo said, visibly confused. “Radiation levels here do not correspond with the distances involved to the Core.”

  “Perhaps it’s not mathematically predictable.”

  “All things are with the proper data,” the Gahana said dismissively.

  “Is the Tri’vey always constant?”

  “It’s proximity to the source determines its intensity.”

  “The Tri’to,” Davis said, referring to the Saiolum in the Gahanan term, “moves in currents that increase or decrease based on other factors.”

  “We have never observed this in the Tri’vey, but since there are so few of us that produce it, it’s possible we have not observed large scale interactions…yet that would require the source of the toxicity to also be a producer of the Tri’vey, or an intermediary between us and it to alter the concentration. We have never detected any such concentration of our type of lifeforms. Have you?”

  “Only the PanNari.”

  “They are not truly Tri’vey, and only emit the faintest energy. If there is no medium between us and the Core, the mathematics would be linear. The source should be producing more in order to generate the levels we are reading out here.”

  “How often do you check those levels?”

  “Every 823 years. The last was 221 years ago.”

  “Perhaps you should try again.”

  Apollo suddenly melted, but not into the same goo. His body kept its particulate nature, but flowed like sand up and into the egg, which then sealed up and a countdown timer ensued to give him enough time to return to near stasis.

  When it completed Davis was able to return them to the normal realm, and through his painfully slow connection to the Maty, Apollo ordered an additional radiation check using a small piece of his own body.

  The Maty took it into a nearby analysis chamber and studied its decay rate, with the results returning to Apollo as well as being shown in holo in front of Davis.

  The radiation levels had dropped considerably, but not enough for the Gahana to emerge. Not even close enough for that, but something had changed within the galaxy. Something big.

  A prompt requested Davis return them to the Essence realm, and he did so, with Apollo slowly coming out of his stasis in what was not a quick procedure, made even slower by the rapid transitions, but he eventually came out of his egg and regained bipedal form, with his mechanical face showing utter shock.

&n
bsp; “This has never occurred before,” he said flatly. “What have you done?”

  “Unless the Hadarak are linked somehow, I have no idea,” Davis admitted. “Has the rate ever varied?”

  “None,” Apollo said firmly.

  “Has the Galactic Core been depopulated at any point during that time?” Plausious asked as his preborn knowledge again surged forth, showing him a vision of a higher level form of war. And when it manifested inside his mind, a chunk of the metaphorical spike in his head dislodged with great relief.

  Apollo saw it as well, through the nanites, and knelt before Plausious, though the Gahana was still taller, and looked down at him respectfully.

  “I see your pre-born knowledge as it emerges. We have no such insight. All of ours came at our spawning, but now I understand a bit more, thanks to you.”

  “Care to share?” Davis asked.

  “Our Tri’to energy can fuel the Tri’vey,” Plausious said, having little knowledge of either other than the basic explanation Davis had recently given him. “It can be transformed into it, and Tri’vey into Tri’se, and Tri’se into Tri’to. All have two forms. The Natural Code and the Anti-code. Whatever is producing the toxic radiation is using the Anti-code Tri’to in the Galactic Core to fuel it.”

  “And we’re diminishing its fuel supply,” Davis said, really wishing Azoro was here to chat with as well.

  “If this is true,” Apollo said slowly, “then it means those who are producing the toxicity are of our form. We are not alone in the universe…”

  3

  “Why would it have to be produced by a synthoid race?” Davis asked, using the term that had been coined by Megan-026 and had been quickly adopted by both Star Force and the Gahana…given that they didn’t have a better term to identify what they were. “If it’s using the Saiolum, why wouldn’t it be a biological source?”

  “Saiolum?” Plausious asked.

  “Another name for the Tri’to,” Apollo clarified. “Biologicals have difficulty differentiating nearly identical terms. We do not have that drawback.”