by Florian Nagy
Chapter 20
The designs that had been produced by the facility seemed difficult to imagine. Through the android’s translation, Khrrn looked over disruption devices that were extremely efficient and deadly. They used a beam that was only several atoms wide and thus impossible to visibly detect and next to impossible to pick up using a ship’s battle scanners. They could thus fire with undeterred accuracy at ships all around them. The discharge could ignite a catalyzing effect on the surface it touched, destabilizing all the matter in contact with it, making sure it was completely destroyed but causing no damage into the vacuum of space.
There were designs of active hull plating that withstood immense damage. The molecules of the hull itself could be moved at will and charged with energy. Energy discharges fired against the hull could be manipulated and deterred or even fired back at the attacker.
There were atmospheric manipulators that could emulate the hell fires of Venus on a moon or turn the bleak surface of Pluto into a Gaia.
There were genetic modifiers that could be used to manually alter the genetic build of a living specimen.
They found microprobes that could take on the role of a pathogen or of a panacea. They could be programmed to disperse from a capsule into a water supply or into the air. They would spread out and enter any living being. A mere few of them could overpower any species’ immune system and destroy it or wreak predetermined damage to it. The Kher’Somaaw research into nervous systems also allowed the micro-robots to move to the brain and substantially alter its components, making the subject act differently or even alter the factual information it had available.
The microprobes also had the ability to seek out a virus or bacteria and eliminate it. In that case substantially more microprobes were required, but the android assured them that the hospitals were never in short supply. The probes would fan out and carry out a pseudo search and destroy operation, targeting out the invading beings and dissolving them to sludge. The probes could also repair broken bones, cell by cell, nearly identically to their natural form. They could easily eliminate clustered diseases such as cancer, and genetic mutations could be treated with genetic alteration.
With each new revelation, the Skyrrnians’ heads grew light. They felt the weight of the world lifting off their shoulders. Whatever purpose they had had was now gone. They had found the greatest treasure in all of the history of the galaxy. They could not believe their eyes and ears. The capabilities they were imagining seemed outright magical. They could not believe the plethora of practical uses available to them. This was only in the field of micro-technology. Khrnn could only imagine what other world shattering innovations were to be reaped in the fields of construction, engineering, or energy!
The android seemed to be a god to the group. He gave them miracle after miracle from the console. They stood frozen and drew in the epic images as they flooded in.
The android finished his “speech” by reminding the Skyrrnians that not all of the products were finished. Many required several other components to function, and many others required Kher’Somaaw infrastructure to work. Whether in a city or on a ship, the devices needed several things to run, and adopting the heightened technology would take immense time and armies of people to study and learn it.
Not all of the products were ready for use and not all of those could be incorporated into 40th century machinery. Khrnn thought of the implications that this enterprise would bring, but did not think that they were necessarily in a crisis of time. The humans would still be around for quite a while, and as long as their demise was guaranteed, he wouldn’t be upset. Keeping the nature of the revolutionary discovery a secret from the galaxy, however, was impossible.
Yet the android found something he did not know about in the system data banks. There was a significant amount of information on a very large cooperative project with many other research, fabrication, and testing facilities on the planet. There were many messages and communications between all the sections of the venture. There had been countless amounts of time and power dedicated to its development. He couldn’t initially deduce anything except that it dealt with alteration. It was meant to alter something extremely vast. It was meant to use the small molecules of creation and the vastness of space as they had never been used before.
Chapter 21
The people of Somaaw had great power. More and more the world was becoming their servant. Sadly, the drive that pushed them to develop and to create became decadence. They became too proud of their achievements; they became obsessed with their own image.
The force of creation must always be in the image of Somaaw, not in the image of the being.
- The Book of Somaaw Vol.6 Ps.8