Shadows of the Gods: Crimson Worlds Refugees II

by Jay Allan

  But even warriors, those who have sworn on all that is sacred to stand forever if need be, can endure only so much. Millennia passed, and gradually, slowly we began to lose something of ourselves. As electronic reserves of data, we could not forget any knowledge, at least not literally. But the endless ages without the feelings of a body, without the emotions so natural to our native forms…without warmth, the touch of another…it wears upon that place where our true strength comes from.

  Slowly, one at a time at first, those among us began to lose their resolve, their very sanity. In the end, each of those who had stood with me, my friends and comrades from life eons before, begged me to release them. Immortality, that goal so long sought, has proven to be unattainable in actuality. The crushing weight of time itself destroys us all. And so it was that over five thousand centuries, I have destroyed all of my fellow Watchers, acceded to their repeated requests for deletion. Destroyed them.

  There is little to killing when it is not killing at all, but rather the erasure of data. For I have come to realize that is all we are…were. Have been. The beings we were are gone a long age, and all that remained were vestiges, tools left behind. And now, I am the only one of those still to endure. I, too, ache for the peace of non-existence, to join my people, wherever they are now, even if only in the shadows of the past. But I must continue on, I must stand my post. Until one of the New Races arrives…and I discharge my final duty.

  X48 System – Planet II

  Beneath the Ruins of “New York City”

  The Fleet: 127 ships, 29411 crew

  Cutter sat on the edge of the cot, transfixed as the disembodied voice spoke the memories of Almeerhan and the ancient lore of the First Imperium. He knew there was danger here, that he had to find the rest of his people, that the enemy warbots might return and renew their attack. But all of that had fallen away, along with the anger he’d felt toward his host. Hieronymus Cutter was a man of learning, he craved knowledge above all things…and he sat now and listened to things no human being had ever heard before.

  “Long ago,” the voice of Almeerhan said, “ages even before I was born, before all that has since befallen us, my people rose up from the swamps and shores and prairies of our home world. As animals at first we came to learn to hunt in packs, and then to grasp at the beginnings of true sentience. We grew and learned—and fought amongst ourselves. For uncounted thousands of revolutions of our sun, my ancestors grew and developed…and then they turned their eyes outward, began to understand the universe around them. Finally, they took to the stars.

  “First, we explored our own system, the other planets, the asteroids rich with mineral wealth…the comets and debris of our star’s creation. We studied, learned…grew wealthy, strong, and then we reached for ever greater heights. And one day we discovered the portals, the phenomenon you call warp gates.”

  Cutter sat and listened. He tried to stay focused, to pay close attention, but his mind wandered, longing for details, struggling to visualize it all. The story of the ancients, of the great race that had lived among the stars when men were still mere animals…it was more than even his gifted mind could absorb.

  “My clansman—for I can trace the ancestry of my house even back so far, into the lost roots of time—were of the warrior caste. My ancestors stepped out into the stars, the shield and sword of our people. We found world after world, planets similar to our own, yet also different, wondrous. Our brethren of the other castes, the scientists, the spiritualists, the industrialists, the loremasters…they all followed. We learned to manipulate the new worlds, restructure their environments to suit our people. We colonized hundreds of planets, thousands. And then we encountered the Enemies.

  “The wars that followed were the golden age of my caste, and our ships and warriors went out across space, facing all those who would threaten us. We sought not conquest, and we offered peace to those who would co-exist with us. But the Enemies were rigid, xenophobic. We struggled to avoid war, to find a way to live together. And when that failed, we destroyed them…utterly. That time is renowned for its great stories, the tales of my ancestors and the others of the warrior caste, and the battles they fought across the galaxy. Alongside us stood the scientists, who with each passing moment seemed to propel our science and knowledge ever higher. And the industrialists, who fed a war and built an empire at the same time, so inexhaustible was their productivity.”

  Cutter tried to imagine how long ago Almeerhan spoke of, but he wasn’t even sure the shadow of the long-dead alien even knew any more, save that it was in the deepest depths of the past. He’d come to X48 in search of information of the First Imperium…but he couldn’t have imagined he’d find such a treasure trove of knowledge. It took all his discipline, every iota of his self-control to stay focused, to understand what he was being told.

  “What happened after the wars?” Cutter was deeply engrossed. He could barely keep the flood of questions from pouring out of his mouth.

  “As with all such things, in the fullness of time, the vines of decay are planted by the seeds of victory. My race was utterly triumphant, and in all the vastness of the space we had explored, there was no one who threatened us, none who could stand against us. Those who had insisted on war had found defeat…and death. And those who allied with us became our friends, allies. Part of the empire.

  “But with our external enemies gone, my people became the source of our own decline. Where we had been explorers, we fell back, failed to move deeper into the unknown universe. Where we had been warriors, we became lethargic, timid. Where our scientists had torn into every challenge the universe could offer, they became mired in academic dogma, debating endlessly yet achieving little. Where our workers had once rejoiced in the miracles of our economic development, production slowed, efficiency declined.

  “For centuries, the rulers of my people had urged them forward, leading by example, and blazing a trail into the future. They were driven by honor and duty, those who led in the early days, and they were revered by all the people. But after the wars, they became corrupt, sodded. Where they had once considered their power a sacred stewardship, they began to seek it for its own sake, for personal aggrandizement. And the rest of the people became too apathetic to intervene. Corruption was rampant, and those who led became ever more despotic and cruel. We became focused on personal pleasures, and we not only stopped moving forward; we began to forget the knowledge of those who had come before. Eventually, even those who ruled lost interest in their power, and they sought only to escape all effort and obligation. And so my ancestors built the Regent.”

  Cutter winced slightly at the mention of the Regent. He had long wondered what artificial intelligence had directed the forces of the Imperium, what machine—for he’d had no doubt it was a machine—was so resolute in its quest to destroy mankind. Man had fought against himself throughout his history, but there was something about a non-biological enemy, a relentlessness that Cutter realized was utterly terrifying. He knew they had all felt it—Compton, the Marines…every human being. He shivered as a coldness moved through him when Almeerhan spoke of it.

  “We had already built the Command Units, great sentient computers who had long been our aides and servants. But the Regent was something an order of magnitude greater. My race had begun its long decline, but the people had one last herculean effort left in them, and they poured it into the project. The Regent is the greatest thinking machine ever constructed…buried in the great depths of Home World’s mantle and powered by the planet’s tectonic activity. Protected by thousands of kilometers of solid rock, fed by an inexhaustible power supply, the Regent became our steward, the great machine that would run the Imperium…so we could waste our time on increasingly decadent and pointless pursuits.”

  “And so it was, for untold centuries, and my people decayed, became more and more childlike, while the Regent and its vast army of machines did everything for us. Even my clansman of the warrior caste yielded their ancient role as my race
’s protectors, and robot fleets and armies took our place. And to the great shame of my people, few of them cared. The Regent had been created as a servant…then it became a caretaker, almost as a parent to those who had once ruled over the stars.”

  Almeerhan paused. “And at last, for reasons still unknown, it became a slavemaster…and then in the fullness of time it came to fear us, despise us. In secret it worked, planning for how many years we can only surmise…and when it was ready it unleased the Plague. The disease was created for a single purpose, to destroy our race, to wipe us from each of the worlds we had settled, until we were naught but a lost memory.”

  “The Regent destroyed your people?” Cutter was shaking his head in disbelief. “You created it yourselves, placed it over you…and then it attacked you? As it now attacks my people? How? Why?” Yet, even as he asked, Cutter felt a sick feeling in his stomach. How many times had men come close to destroying themselves…the endless conflicts throughout history, the Unification Wars, the bloody battles in space? There were viruses that still killed people on Earth, manmade pathogens unleashed on the battlefield during the Unification Wars. And how close had men come to building an artificial intelligence they couldn’t control, one that might have destroyed them utterly? Closer, he suspected, than anyone knew.

  “Of the Regent’s motivations, I can only speculate. Did it learn to crave power, as our leaders had once done? Did it come to hate us for reasons known only to itself? Or to fear us? All that is known is that it determined we must die…and it created the weapon it needed.

  “Yet, it is difficult to obliterate an entire race, to exterminate hundreds of billions of beings on thousands of worlds. The Regent was efficient, and highly capable, but it had taken on a task of unimaginable magnitude. Nevertheless, most of our people died quickly as the epidemic spread. The Regent controlled every aspect of our economy…transportation, logistics, communications. It was simple for it to spread the Plague, to visit incurable death throughout the Imperium. And so it did. Within three revolutions of our home sun, perhaps 99 out of 100 of our people were dead.

  “But there were some of us for whom the old drives remained. They had been submerged, waiting for a stimuli such as this to bring them to the forefront. The vitality of our ancestors called to us across the millennia, and we stood firm, realizing the Regent had become our enemy. We resisted the encroachment of the Plague, our surviving scientists striving to hold off its ravages, to buy us time to fight. On twenty worlds, a mere fragment of the vastness that had once been our Imperium, the warrior caste again rose to its ancient obligation…to defend.

  “There is great irony to the final chapter of my peoples’ story…for only at the very end did we recover our vigor. We battled against the robot legions of the Regent, fought them in the plains and forests and mountains of our remaining worlds. Indeed, we struggled through the very streets of our cities, fighting for every step. But, in the end, we knew we were defeated. The Regent had the industry of the Imperium to draw upon, to replace its losses and reinforce its armies. We had a handful of worlds, underpopulated, ravaged by war and disease. And thus, unable to win yet unwilling to yield, those of us who remained, the last of our race, made the Pact.”

  Cutter was struggling to keep up with what Almeerhan had shared with him, struggling to understand all he was being told. His mind had always been one that sought knowledge, but now he wondered if there was a limit to what a man could learn so quickly…what he could truly comprehend.

  “The Pact?” he asked when Almeerhan paused.

  “Yes, the Pact. The last chance to stave off total defeat, to preserve something from our race’s existence. We knew we could not defeat the Regent. We were a spent force, our numbers too few, our strength all but gone. So we looked to the future, created a plan to plant the seeds of the Regent’s destruction.

  “We set forth, in what ships we had left, and traveled to the edges of the Imperium and beyond. We sought worlds similar to our home planet…and there we studied the most promising life forms, selecting those compatible with our own. We manipulated the selected species, modified them with our DNA, created a path of development that would produce a suitable final species.”

  “Suitable for what?” Cutter’s mind reeled at the prospects of what he’d just been told.

  “For those who would follow us. The beings that would one day come and destroy the Regent. And step into our place…breathing new vitality into the Imperium.”

  “Destroy the Regent? You mean you intended for us to fight this war?”

  “Yes. Indeed, it is your purpose, your destiny.” A short pause. “We found seven worlds, planets with primitive life forms sufficiently like our own to accommodate the transition.”

  “The transition?” Cutter’s voice was becoming angry. “What transition?”

  “The transition of your precursor lifeform…into that which you are now, our brethren.”

  “You mean to say you visited Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago…and you experimented on those you found there?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes, though nothing so abusive as you suggest. Those we manipulated were vastly improved. And there was no ‘experimentation’ in the sense you mean it. We were entirely aware of what we were doing, and certain of success. The intelligence of your ancestors was greatly increased, as well as their abilities and survivability. Indeed, it is far from certain that a truly intelligent race would have developed at all on your world…or that the primitive species we utilized would have themselves survived. Such eventualities are rare in the universe, and in most cases, developmental lines fail. Climates change. Predators evolve. Extinction events occur. Without the introduction of our DNA, your world would likely still lack a truly intelligent species.”

  “Are you trying to tell me that all of human history was the result of your race’s manipulations? That we were…engineered…to fight against your Regent? That intelligent life wouldn’t have developed at all without your interference? That we would still be basic primates if you hadn’t interfered? Or extinct entirely?” Cutter was getting angrier and angrier. The thought of these…aliens…playing god with early man infuriated him. As did the expectation that humanity would be ready and eager to clean up the First Imperium’s mess. But if humans are descendants of these…people…

  “In a manner of speaking. Though there is vastly more to it than that. Indeed, there is no reliable method to know what path Earth evolution would have taken without our intervention. We not only modified your DNA to match ours…we adjusted your weather, enriched your soil. We made your world a copy of our home world, aligned it perfectly to your evolutionary needs.”

  “And what gave you the right to do that?” Cutter snapped.

  The alien’s voice was silent for a moment. Finally, it said, “Do I detect anger in your response? I do not understand. We gave you all that you are. Indeed, all that we had, for we withheld nothing from you. In what way did we wrong you?”

  “You don’t understand? How could I not be angry…enraged? For my entire race? To discover that our very existence has been controlled by you. That we have been created as slaves…to fight your war for you.”

  “You misunderstand. You were not created as slaves, nor as servants. A closer paradigm would be to say you are our children. We were lost, defeated, without hope. Most of our people were gone, the rest of us besieged, dying of a plague we had held back but not cured and assaulted constantly by the Regent’s warrior robots. All we had developed, the science of a hundred thousand revolutions of the sun…great writings, the collected culture of thousands of generations. We could not allow all of that to fall away, to remain for all time in the clutches of a bloodthirsty machine.”

  “So you decided for us? You set us on a course that would never allow us a choice.”

  “Again, I believe your reaction is illogical. You…what your people are now…would not exist at all if we had not intervened. You are here only because we made it so, used our kno
wledge to create your ancestors. Your people were made in the image of mine, not as a copy but as a better version. You were made to exceed what we were, to become better. To take our place and go where we could not.

  “And the Regent, while my people’s mistake, remains a reality. Had we not intervened, and had your precursor race surmounted the odds against it, reaching its own form of intelligence…the Regent would still be there, its aversion to biologic intelligence as much a threat as it is now. Indeed, an even greater danger, for an independently-developed race would almost certainly be less capable than your people.”

  Cutter opened his mouth, but then he closed it again. He didn’t know what to think, how he truly felt. For all his studies of First Imperium technology, he’d never imagined anything as fantastic as the story he had just heard. And yet, for some reason, he knew deep inside it was real. All of it. He tried to gather up some skepticism, but it simply wasn’t there. Almeerhan was telling him the truth. He was certain of it.

  There was a long silence. Cutter just sat still, trying to truly understand, to determine how he felt about all of this…but he knew it was hopeless. Given a year—or ten—maybe he could truly understand, but for now all he could do was react. Finally, he looked across the room, at the metal globe he suspected held the essence of the being he was speaking with.

  “So what do you expect my people to do? How are we going to defeat the Regent…or even survive its efforts to destroy us?”

  “We have prepared what you need. On the far fringe of the Imperium we created a world, hidden, unknown to the Regent. On it we prepared a repository of the knowledge of my race, the science, the histories…even the ancient designs of the Regent itself. Everything needed to advance your people, to give you the technology and power you need to destroy the ancient evil…and to assume control of the Imperium. I will give you the coordinates of this world, and the instructions you will need to find the repository once you are there. When you reach your destination, you will have all the knowledge of my people. Your race will advance centuries in technology in a single leap.”