by Michael Kan
***
The so-called remnant was indeed there, orbiting the failed star. It was aimless, scattered across a barely cohesive fleet. Arendi naturally suspected danger. The scans detected drones, cruisers, and orbital weapons roaming through the night. It was more than enough firepower to cut down their shuttle. She placed her hand on the craft’s control board, hesitant. Maybe even nervous.
Farcia, however, wasn’t afraid. To her it was just another ruin.
As they journeyed deeper into the system, the fleet remained cold and comatose. The shuttle was in plain sight, and still the surrounding ships failed to react.
Still no signs of activity, Arendi said.
That’s because they have no master, Farcia replied. Not anymore.
She looked out to the window and into the dull sunlight. The brown dwarf and its violet hues shone over the dormant fleet. The ships were more like dead matter: inert and wandering. In some cases, they weren’t even complete. Nevertheless, Farcia saw the resemblance. It made her think back to the past.
The Unity, she said. When I first encountered them, it was much like this. Machine ships searching throughout space. They were searching for the Endervars. They were attempting to study my kin, trying to find out where they went. Little did they know that I was in control. That was almost twenty-four years ago. When I left Red.
Farcia huffed; her breath was aflutter. She was remembering things she hadn’t thought about in years or maybe ever. Arendi saw her pensive stare. Farcia’s eyes were large and black.
There were always rumors, Arendi said. That the Unity was obsessed with the Endervars.
Yes, they were obsessed, Farcia replied. They wanted to know our secrets. To know all. But they were also desperate. Desperate for power.
She looked back at the neglected fleet. It was dead for a reason.
I never trusted the Unity, Farcia said. No one did. Not even their own kind.
She then went to the control board and dialed in the next coordinate. It was located past the smattering of initial drones, closer to the failed star.
This vessel, she said. This is where we need to go.
According to the scans, it was the largest ship within the fleet. The Ouryan Juggernaut loomed, only partially built. Even without its full mass, the battleship was immense. The bulk of the dark vessel was a long heap of dense metal covered in a construction net. It was wrapped in tubes and spines, as though it were mummified flesh and bone.
Arendi tried to imagine its full form. To her, the battleship was a giant blade ready to be unsheathed.
The Unity, she said. We tried to stop them. We even sent a fleet.
I know, Farcia said. You were aided by someone, weren’t you? Someone who was leaking information.
Yes. A defector. From within the Unity.
Farcia gestured to the window and to the ships in view. This was all once hers
Remembering that, she paused. She coughed in her hand, thinking back to the exact moment years ago. It wasn’t a moment she wished to relive. She had briefly known the woman. The defector had even given her something a final, desperate request.
Farcia touched the security collar around her neck and sniffed. Then she suddenly turned away.
What happened to her? Arendi asked. To the defector?
She’s dead, Farcia said. I killed her.
***
Farcia claimed that she could offer access. Without it, the juggernaut would self-destruct. Arendi didn’t doubt her. Unity vessels were sometimes known to implode when any trace of intrusion was detected. The same might happen here. The battleship might have been hibernating, but whatever was inside was clearly important and probably protected.
Arendi flexed her right hand. Perhaps she had her own solution. The hack from the Destroyer was still located behind the skin inside her right palm. She felt the data chip protrude as the entire hand opened and extended. She wasn’t inside the shuttle, however. She had exited the craft and entered space. Her body had drifted several hundred meters to cross the gap. With a simple push, she flew into the jungle of metal. Her machine systems had calculated the approach.
The juggernaut had no discernible hangar bay. Furthermore, it was caged behind a vast construction net. Web like bars covered most of the outer exterior, barring easy entry, at least for a ship. Arendi looked past the mesh. She sought to cross between the bars through a porous opening large enough for a small drone or a human body. Wearing nothing but a combat jacket over her back, she began the slow descent. She was immune to the cold and lack of air; her android body had been built to withstand the vacuum.
The same couldn’t be said for Farcia. She followed along, donning a space suit its cloth was wrapped in a weave of gold she had taken from the shuttle. Her face was contained behind a helmet.
The two eventually landed on the juggernaut’s outer wall and magnetized their boots to cling to the surface. Arendi was now walking to a possible point of entry. Crouching down, she placed her right hand over the data port. The socket itself was embedded in the juggernaut’s plated exterior. Arendi opened her fingers and inserted the chip. The data exchange quickly began, delivering the Destroyer’s code into the vessel’s systems.
What are you doing? Farcia asked through the comm.
Trying to see if it remembers, Arendi replied.
As she suspected, the juggernaut recognized the code. In seconds the battleship came alive. They both sensed movement under their feet. Just a few meters away, from the data port, a door formed. A beam of light came from the opening. The two went inside.
Arendi half expected a sterile environment. The Unity had always cared little for organic life, and their vessels often reflected that. Most ships were essentially giant computers, largely devoid of any accommodations. Even the juggernaut itself contained no windows. There was only an opaque wall. Inside was a different matter. The door behind them sealed. For a moment, she floated. Then her feet settled. Gravity and atmosphere soon began to arrive.
This is unusual, she thought. They were inside a designated airlock an area meant for nonmachine life. She could smell the oxygen. It was heated. The entryway was also bright. The walls themselves were polished in ivory.
Farcia stood next to her and pulled the helmet off her face.
It’s fine, she said, breathing in the air. This ship is different from the others.
With another several steps, they exited the area and found themselves in a hallway. There was more oxygen rushing in, along with an abundance of light.
Brushing back her ruffled hair, Arendi initiated the scans with her machine vision. From what she could see, the juggernaut’s interior might already be complete. This particular area had also been built with life support. It was also spacious. The ivory walls stretched up to a high ceiling. Across the bulkhead she saw the outlines of actual doors.
Arendi looked down at the floor. At her feet was the symbol of the Unity. It was a circular ring chiseled into the surface. She stepped over it, only to encounter something else. The bright lights converged at the center of the hallway. A virtual white steam began to emerge from the floor. Arendi stopped and stared at the apparition. The hologram spoke, mistakenly addressing her by the wrong name.
Welcome Magnus, it said. The true Unity greets you.
Chapter 35
Indeed, there were rooms here. Many rooms. Probably several dozen people could live or work in this very section alone. Arendi went to her machine vision and saw the evidence of beds, cryochambers, and bath facilities behind each confine. Very strange for a ship supposedly connected with the Unity, a group that generally had no need for such things.
She walked to the other end of the hallway, eager. Her step was fast, and she singled out one area in particular. The hologram had guided her here. Inside this room was the juggernaut’s central bridge. She was about to enter when she looked back to the rest of the hallway.
Farcia was there, a step behind. She was slow, a
lmost dragging. Arendi then heard the crack of Farcia’s helmet fall to the floor. She doubled back and checked on the woman. Farcia huffed. She knelt down and lay her back against the ivory wall. Arendi assumed that she was tired or just flustered. Her eyes seemed small. The skin underneath them was ringed and bagged. In reality, her expression was closer to dread. Arendi didn’t know it, but Farcia felt exposed, sitting here, in this monument to the past.
Savior, she said. What you find there, in that room maybe then you’ll understand.
Arendi pulled the woman off from the floor. She threw Farcia’s arm over her shoulder, and they walked inside together.
The bridge was refined, like the hallway. More spotless white. The surfaces were polished, and almost everything was nearly bare. But in a flash, the empty space receded. The room came online to reveal the stars. There were thousands of them, as all the surrounding surfaces suddenly became virtual windows. Even the ground was transparent; below them was more cosmic light. Off in the distance, Arendi even saw the dormant fleet. In the center of the bridge emerged the hologram she had seen earlier. The white steam rose like a ghost. Arendi noticed the vague trace of a face floating amid the fog. It was etched in a sculpture of glass.
She gently placed Farcia on the floor and began to access the system. The hack had apparently lifted all the security across the ship. Arendi realized it was probably deliberate. The protocols protecting the data had unraveled the moment the Destroyer’s code had entered into the system. To some extent, the juggernaut had wanted to be found. All this time, the vessel had been drifting, carrying a final message.
There’s something here, Arendi said. It was recorded two decades ago.
The juggernaut and its systems then sent out an alert. Farcia lifted her face when she heard the ring. She had no idea what it was. Evidently, the message had been stored in secret. Arendi played it now. The hologram reacted, embodying the voice of the one who had composed it. The voice was feminine. To Arendi, it sounded troubled and desperate.
Magnus, the hologram said, if you’re getting this, I am most likely dead.
Arendi looked up. The face within the fog winced. She then saw the hologram walk across the floor, as though it were alive. The nameless woman behind it was shrouded in guilt.
I’m afraid things haven’t gone well, the voice went on. The Alliance strike force. Your ships. There were complications. I thought the target was vulnerable. But everything went wrong. I can only assume nothing is left.
I’m sorry, the hologram added in a rasp. It’s all my fault. But know this. It’s far more disturbing than I ever imagined. A faction of the Unity has allied itself with the Endervars. Somehow. I’m trying to learn more. I assume we destroyed what they were working on. But the danger it’s still there. Now I’m on the run. I’m moving to contingencies. I would meet you again, but I can’t. The Unity has to be stopped. So there’s something I have to try.
The face reflected a crooked smile. It was both sad and resigned, as though the end were near.
Maybe it’s ill-advised. I know you would definitely protest. But if it works, we’ll be free. Free of the Unity. The false Unity. Our Unity it’s become corrupted. This search for godhood needs to end. They’ll die by our hands. Yours and mine together.
Although the remaining words were certain, the woman’s smile disappeared. In a gust, the face retreated into the mist. All that was left was a pillar of white smoke.
The message had come to an end; the hologram was there but empty. But Farcia had more to add. She sat there on the floor, watching and listening, only to recall the woman’s words vividly.
She was desperate, probably even reckless, Farcia said. She tried to hide from the Unity tried to fight them. But it was too late. The Unity captured her. All of her.
Arendi parsed the phrasing. All of her, she thought. It made her think back to the different rooms on board, and to the surrounding life support. It was built for a reason.
The Defector. This ship was for her, Arendi said. She must have transferred her body to an organic form.
There were multiple bodies. Dozens of them, Farcia replied. But it didn’t make a difference. The Unity found them all.
Farcia twisted in her suit, remembering it. A chill trickled down her spine, and she shivered.
Arendi came and knelt beside her. You were there, she concluded. During everything.
Yes, I was there, Farcia admitted. Twenty-three years ago, I met the Unity. I was their secret.
She twisted again. Her suit seemed to crinkle and twist in ache. As she did so, Farcia stared out the virtual windows at the rest of the sleeping fleet.
I could have crushed the Unity, she recalled. My kin and their full power were at my command. But I needed them. I needed their technology. The Unity was powerful in its own way. They promised they could help.
Help?
To save my people, Farcia explained. To try to save what was left.
Arendi turned back to the hologram. She recalled what the Defector had said. You were working on something together you and the Unity.
Yes, Farcia said. A pact was made. My people our home was dying. We needed a new one. So I sought to build it, but it wasn’t enough. None of it was.
Farcia’s voice chilled as she spoke. She sat there, shriveled, an island in the virtual void.
Arendi rose. She needed to know more. The final message from the Defector might have ended, but there were other files. There had to be. She looked at the hologram and began syncing her systems with the juggernaut.
Computer, Arendi then said. Show me. Show me everything.
***
The simulation came to the bridge. It quickly enveloped the room. The walls around them projected another view of space. This time, from twenty years ago.
Although the data was sparse, it was enough to understand what was taking place. The final logs of the Defector were there to explain. They pointed Arendi to the crucial piece of information. It revolved around an experiment. She found herself there, in the midst of it all. The area was on the rim of the galaxy, away from the Alliance, nearly hidden from all.
During the Ouryan Civil War, the recording said, the Unity fled to this region of the galaxy. They were hoping to rebuild. The Alliance had practically banished them to this backwater.
At the sametime, some of the Unity were also searching for them, the log added. They were searching for the Endervars, hoping to uncover their final fate.
The simulation brought Arendi to a patch of empty space. It stretched on for light-years, with nothing but bits of dust wafting inside. Still, there was something here. Something unique. The virtual pixels met together in the center of the room. Piece by piece, they meshed and melded, forming a temporary screen of white. In another moment, the backbone to the experiment began to appear.
I always assumed that the search had failed, the log continued. How wrong I was.
Arendi took a step back, recognizing the catalyst for this experiment. For a moment, she thought she saw a star. The sphere of white was fairly large. But as the simulation went on, she felt the alien luminescence against her face. It flickered, teeming with a power not of this world.
An Overlord, she whispered. An Endervar mother ship.
It emerged, nearly filling the room. The vessel blazed in an icy white fire, burning with untold energy. The craft was monstrous; it was the size of a moon. Arendi’s whole skin turned pale at the sight. Decades ago, she had fought something like it. In fact, her previous body had died fighting it during the Great War. Prior to that, nothing had been able to stop the massive vessel. Not even entire armadas. The Overlord was power incarnate. It could defy physical laws, and field energies the galaxy had never seen.
Arendi was startled. What is this? she asked.
Farcia lay on the ground, not far away. The alien power though virtual shimmered over her face and body. A desperate attempt, she answered. I rallied the remaining forces, so they came.
/>
There must have been another Overlord, Arendi thought. This one apparently operated on the other side of the galaxy. The historical records had always suggested the possibility. Sporadic sightings had further fueled the rumor.
Arendi took a deep breath. For whatever reason, the massive vessel was now at the heart of this experiment.
Meanwhile, the Defector and her memory went on. At first, I didn’t want to believe it, the log said. But someone now leads the Endervars. A new entity. Her name is Farcia. She claims that her people are dying, that the universe they come from is about to fall apart.
The skepticism in the log turned into fear and worry.
The Unity intends to aid her, the Defector said. To them, it’s a tantalizing offer. Farcia has promised them ships, technology enough power to wage another galactic war.
As the voice spoke, the rest of the experiment began to build. Other objects suddenly came on display. Joining the Overlord was a field of machine matter. It was active and extended outward, surrounding the mother ship.
Arendi looked down at her waist. The simulated objects spilled out into space. She recognized these as well. It was the same Unity structure she had found on Farcia’s habitat. The same pylon that had flung her across the galaxy.
There were hundreds of them now, all facing inward, toward the catalyst. Each one was a building block meant to sustain the experiment’s main goal.
In return, Farcia has asked the Unity to create a new home, the log said. An artificial universe so that her people might live.
It’s essentially a pocket of altered space several light-years across. When the pocket forms, the Unity intends to create a bridge. It will pull Farcia’s people into our galaxy.
Arendi realized that the Overlord would power the whole endeavor. Its energy would flow to the network of machine matter below.
Farcia watched, no longer content to sit. She lifted herself off the floor and lurched over to the sight.
This is it, she said. This is the end.
What?