by Peter Kratky
The legend of Darwan I: Ragnarok
Author: Peter Kratky
Revised and extended edition.
ISBN: 978-1497428843
Cover: Antonio Rodríguez Cano.
A note from the author
This work was going to be one more of my short stories. Four to ten pages maximum. But a drawing of a painter friend caught my attention. Somehow, I connected the drawing (which is part of the cover page) to the end of my story, and the story began to change quickly.
Today this text has become the first part of a trilogy, with the general title “The Legend of Darwan”, this first part being “Ragnarok”, the name that in Scandinavian mythology is known as the end of the gods. This volume has two additional chapters compared to the original version, and a new and complete revision and correction of the text.
To thank my friend and companion Cano for his design, which was the basis that inspired this work.
Finally, this trilogy is part of the “Saga Aesir - Vanir” which will consist of twelve books, and some short stories detailing the next 4 billion years of human history in the galaxy. Four more books will finish the story. If I don’t die before of course.
First Spanish version. Barcelona, September 2013.
Second extended version. Barcelona, 21 March 2015.
First translation: Barcelona. January 2018.
Table of contents
A note from the author
Sand and wind
The Discovery
The decision
Only humans
A bridge between minds
Introspection
The Great White Room
The getaway
The origin of the Age of Chaos
The First Threat
Re-encounters
Wounds
The General
Epilogue: Ragnarok.
The call
“Sometimes, you must pay a visit to Hell in order to get your ticket to Heaven”
(Helen Parker).
The encyclopedia.
Those who only fly with their wings will never be able to reach the sky (known as LauKlar).
Galactic Encyclopedia: The first species of the Galaxy.
... Research into the origin of life and consciousness is as old as the emergence of the first technologically intelligent civilizations. It is estimated that the original galaxy inhabited was created when the universe counted only a few hundred million years since the Last Reiteration. The first stars of type I, basically hydrogen and helium, without the presence of heavy elements, were generally gigantic, and this meant that the number of supernovae was much higher than in later periods, with less massive stars known as type II.
These first type I stars produced, at the moment of becoming supernovae, a large quantity of heavy elements, which allowed the creation of stars with less mass and greater concentration of these elements with helium weight, as well as planets formed in many cases by these elements, the so-called “rocky planets”. Thanks to the longer duration of these type II stars and rocky planets (whose outer layers are made up mainly of silicates, water, iron, and carbon) the first living beings could be generated, and later the first intelligent species.
Archaeological data presented by different species have shown signs of life soon after the start of this stellar phase II, and intelligent life not long after. It can be inferred from this that the first worlds with intelligent life appeared in the Galaxy when it was about one billion years old. Since then, many intelligent species have been born, grown, and perished in the galaxy to this day. At present, the galaxy, known simply by the name of Galaxy, in capital letters, as a result of the fusion of two ancient galaxies known as Milky Way and Andromeda, is coexisting with thousands of technologically advanced species. Of all of them, the LauKlars stand out...
Sand and wind
“It's too big! Much more than in the pictures!”
“Yes, it is. And it will grow much bigger, you can be sure.”
“How far?”
“Until it occupies the whole sky.”
“Will I be able to see it when I grow up? Kirak waved his wings up, a gesture of sympathy and fun.”
“I don't think so, Nahr, at least not much bigger than it is now. It's got to be several hundred more years yet. But in universal time it is a moment.” Nahr seemed saddened. “Wow!” He said at last. “I wanted to see it explode like a balloon!”
“Like a balloon?” Kirak laughed. “When it reaches its end it will shrink again, and leave a beautiful and wonderful halo of light around it. It is the usual cycle in the stars of the so-called Main Sequence. Like the photo I showed you the other day, remember the old photo, the one in the planetary nebula?”
“You bet!” cried Nahr, recalling that halo of bright light, which in the midst presented a small dying star.
As Nahr stared in amazement at the huge star, which spanned an area that over time had taken up an ever-increasing portion of the sky, someone approached him and watched him with interest.
“He's a very curious boy,” he said, addressing Kirak.
“It is, as was his mother...” The words seemed to weigh as they came from the corners of his sharp bicentennial beak.
“I was very sorry for your loss. She was a good friend and a great colleague. Her research work was outstanding. And her admirable temperance and determination”.
“Yes, but that's the way it is...” replied Kirak meditating. “We've always been exposed to these things, and when they come suddenly, you can never get the idea. After two hundred years together, I was part of my life. But I appreciate your support, Garrin. You've always been there, wing to wing, flying together, in the good times and the bad times...”
Garrin turned his left wing slightly in a gesture of approval and gratitude, revealing the soft, wavy front feathers. The old expression “flying together” contained an acknowledgement to someone for having been of particular help in a particularly important way. But in the case of Garrin and Kirak, the phrase took on a full meaning. They had worked together in the last one hundred and fifty years until they discovered the Original Planet, the one where the LauKlars had developed, before emigrating to conquer that quadrant of the galaxy. And they had flown literally thousands of miles together, doing research on more than two dozen worlds.
The Original Planet had become a legend in the last fifty thousand years, and its interest in knowing its location had grown over time. “I'll fly to our mother who saw us born” was an expression used since time immemorial. It signified, among other things, the desire to know the origin of their own existence, when in the course of time, many thousands of years ago, the LauKlars had abandoned their planet of origin for some cause hitherto unknown, a cause whose exact reason had been lost in the past. Rediscovering the world that gave birth to the species, after thousands of lost years, was a challenge, and its achievement an unprecedented success.
“You know you can always count on me,” Garrin said as he rested the end of his wing flat on the ground. That gesture was a sign of sincerity and camaraderie. “We're not just colleagues. We're friends. We've been through a lot. You and Blanrek were by my side when I needed you, and it's only fair that I'm by your side now.”
Kirak held a quiet, thoughtful moment, staring down at the floor, as if a spring of memories passed through his two brains. Blanrek had been a friend and a tireless companion. She never ceased her efforts to go beyond what others had gone to find the Original Planet, and much of the success was due to her dedication and success. Finally, he raised his beak and exclaimed:
“Nahr, come on! We have to keep collecting samples! And you said you'd help us!” Nahr flapped his wings slightly and rose
a few feet. His youth, only 58 years old, gave him enormous vigor, but even so he was overwhelmed by the experience he was living.
“Of course, I said it, and I will!” he answered enthusiastically, as he rose at full speed and then fell down, resting nimbly.
The three took flight and headed east on a fast flight of visual exploration at medium altitude, recording the area visually and with the help of an integrated scanner system. They were flying over an area that had once been a vast ocean, but was now reduced to a series of small lakes. Lakes that in a few decades, or at best some centuries, would dry forever. The life that once flooded this marine landscape had long since perished, and the remains of flora and fauna that many centuries ago populated those waters could be found everywhere, little by little that a skilled excavator sought with some tenacity. Only some bacteria were able to resist even in the few remaining humid areas, adapted to this heat- and windbreaking environment. To the LauKlars, anyway, that was a dead planet. They did not consider that bacterial life alone would grant a planet the status of a living planet. Bacteria always appeared whenever there was a minimal chance on a planet, and many planets did not get past that phase of microscopic life before it, for various reasons, disappeared.
Three years earlier, Kirak, Nahr, Garrin, and another two hundred thousand LauKlars (literally, “those who see the sky”) arrived on the old planet, which they called the Original Planet, in search of its most remote history. The world, once a verge of life, perished forever, victim of its star, turned into a red giant.
It wasn't the first time it happened. Since the origin of the universe, on the first planets after the formation of galaxies, billions of worlds had flourished from the first planets, and many of them had then been destroyed, and their precious life extinct, by turning their star into a red giant. In other cases, simply by the explosion of a nearby supernova. And in others, by the action of very powerful gravitational fields caused by neutron stars and black holes. In others, brutal collisions of large bodies led to massive extinctions, sometimes with devastating effects. In other cases, the planet's tectonics were responsible. Thus, the case of the Original Planet was one in millions.
The LauKlars traveled on huge spacecraft, often trying to collect nearly extinct species to transport them to other planets, give them a new chance and allow old and nearly extinct ecosystems to regenerate. It was a work among the thousands they developed, but it was certainly one of the proudest of the old race. Also, if they found a planet fit for life and morphology, they could colonize it and turn it into a new home. The exploration vessels, such as the Yusimat T-102 from which Kirak, Nahr and Garrin came, were fifteen kilometers long by seven and a half kilometers wide and three deep. Other ships, those dedicated to transporting settlers to new planets, were more than a hundred kilometers long and in themselves artificial worlds, capable of accommodating millions of individuals.
The LauKlars had saved species of all kinds, including intelligent breeds in different stages of technological evolution, but unable to meet the challenge of fleeing a dying planet. In general, these species were collected in gigantic spacecraft of massive transport, up to three hundred kilometers long, and transported to planets where they could rebuild their lives.
But this case was different. This world was their world. Their home planet. The place from which the species departed. Finding it seemed like a dream, something basically impossible. But there were very few things that the LauKlars could not achieve if they proposed. It was a peaceful race dedicated to exploration and research, and one that would have naturally become extinct if it had not been for its advances in science. In fact, the LauKlars were sterile, and their diet was based on compounds of carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, lipids, water, in solutions that allowed them a complete vital development and without nutritional deficiencies. All this is generated in hydroponic farms by creating artificial organic compounds. Not a single living being was employed in their natural diet. For the LauKlars, life itself was untouchable. It could have been said to be sacred, if the LauKlars had any kind of religious belief. But it wasn't like that. Since ancient times, the LauKlars had understood that the universe was a self-contained whole, without the need for gods or mythological heroes of any kind. Although they themselves continued to refer to some ancient myths and rites that had remained alive in their mental and written language.
While the three LauKlars flew over the dry places of the Original Planet, Nahr, not without enthusiasm, but somewhat bored by the landscape they flew over, he asked:
“Is it all the time like this, so deserted, so arid?”
“It is,” Kirak replied mentally, as Garrin watched the area closely to detect any interesting details. The warm rays of the red sun were powerful and unforgiving, but the invisible protection of energy that enveloped Kirak, Nahr and Garrin allowed them to move freely during sufficient hours to carry out their work.
Nahr was the first to realize that something was shining in the distance. Soon Kirak and Garrin saw it too. They were the remains of a huge steel and glass structure, of an ancient civilization already extinct. Kirak exclaimed:
“Behold, there is the dome we saw from space.”
“I saw her first!” Nahr protested. Kirak and Garrin looked at each other with complicity.
“All right, all right, Nahr,” said Kirak. “We'll name this discovery after you. What do you think?
“Great!” Nahr exclaimed.
“Never mind the species,” Garrin whispered to Kirak. “All young people are the same.”
“It's true. She has the character of her mother.”
“I won't question that!” Garrin replied.
As they altered the flight to the top of the structure, their sensors began recording data from what they were observing. Nahr was amazed at this work of megalithic dimensions, which undoubtedly would have belonged to a very advanced society, at least in the aspects related to architecture.
“Did these beings populate the planet before?” asked Nahr interested.
“Yes,” Garrin replied. “For what other groups have been able to find out in the days before our arrival, they were a species of the planet, with a name, after conversion to our language, which could be called as the Xarwen. A highly evolved bipedal anthropoid race of the saueropsides family, which was on the verge of discovering the physics of hyperluminal travel.”
“Sauropsides? “Nahr protested. “We too are saueropsides!”
“It’s true, at least in part,” Kirak replied as Garrin explored the area. “But their structure, as far as we could tell, was very different from ours. The closest word we have found is reptile. And apparently there was also a very ancient species, when the planet was much younger, which was similar in some way to reptiles and us, and which could have evolved into an intelligent form. But, as so often happens, a natural disaster prevented it. Some suspect that those beings may have a connection to our more remote ancestors. Anyway, we're still investigating.”
Kirak looked around as he continued his explanation. Nahr was absorbed while listening.
“Fine. According to the latest data we have obtained in other excavations, the Xarwen understood that, what are usually known as the laws of nature, are only derived from the basic structure of the universe, formed during what they called the Primordial Birth. They believed that this birth was the birth that gave rise to the origin of the universe and to such natural laws. They also believed that these universal laws, as such derived from the Primordial Birth, can be conveniently altered with appropriate technology. They understood that the values of the constants and masses that make up matter and energy have the values that correspond to a universe determined by a specific configuration, but that this is only one of billions of possible combinations”.
“Kirak,” interrupted Garrin. “Come and see this.”
“I'll be right there,” replied Kirak.
“Go on, Father! “Nahr demanded.
“Well, well... This step, understanding that o
ur universe is one of many, and understanding it from a scientific, not metaphysical point of view, is usually given by many intelligent civilizations, but the Xarwen had begun to work in a practical way on the problem. Apparently, some of their knowledge was acquired from an intelligent civilization that previously existed on the planet, extinct when they had not yet developed superior intellectual abilities. But the Xarwen failed to finish their dream before they perished. As it happens so many times, the summit of its civilization was the point and end of its history. The final motive is a mystery.”
“Are we going to find out, Father?”
“No doubt, with your help, young discoverer.”
“I'm serious!” Kirak continued:
“I know, Nahr, but relax. This research work is usually slow. Patience is a virtue, remember that.”
“Yes, Father.”
“You should know that this planet has had at least one technological civilization before our own and the Xarwen's during its history. The first of these was very, very old, about five billion years old, and they were similar in many respects to the Xarwen, but very different in many respects from others. They weren't sauropsides, that seems clear. They called themselves “humans”, and are catalogued within an extinct group called “mammals”. It was a rather interesting species in some respects, although they have certainly not made history because of their merits.”
“And where are those humans?” Garrin smiled and intervened as his father continued to investigate the area.
“They're extinct, Nahr. They disappeared. In a process that the paleo-scientists call “death by technology”. It is a simple concept: a civilization develops technology, and that technology enables them to thrive. At one point, this same technology becomes the cause of its disappearance due to lack of controls and adequate scientific evolution. They perished long before they found other civilizations and developed the hyperluminal reactor. From the paleo-scientific point of view, they were a classic model of technological evolutionary failure. Technology is a powerful tool, but misused is a first class extinguishing tool. Moreover, their evolutionary model had led them to believe in fantasies of gods, and a very deep religious and mystical basis. With that background, it is very difficult for a species to survive and reach the stars. We also suffered a mystical phase, but we were able to advance and evolve in a satisfactory way and move away from those ideas. Not all species do.”