by Florian Nagy
Chapter 38
Verne rushed to the side and furiously entered the correct sequence to accept the transmission. After his fingers had finished their work, his head slowly looked up and his eyes fixed on the massive ships ahead. He stared intently at them for a moment. He then remembered that the captain was still in his subconscious daze, and he dashed over to waken him. Darius’ head was bobbing slightly and his eyes were closed, but only lightly so.
Verne grasped his left shoulder with his left hand and the side of his face with the other and shook him lightly. The captain gave a small life sign but did not wake up. Verne gave a quick glance around the room, but there was nothing that could have been of use. He shook much harder this time and spoke, “Captain! An unidentified fleet has entered the area! They’re contacting us!”
Darius’ consciousness lingered in limbo for another few moments. His thoughts were not his own. Then something flickered in his head and his eyes shot open. He looked around from his reclined position and then let his gaze stop on the vessel ahead.
In that moment, the communication stream had been established between the new arrival and the Vigilante and the other frigates. A deep rumbling tone first took form. The crew members were frozen in their positions as they tried to discern the sound. The tone then became much more vigorous and life-bearing. Its pitch rose slightly and its rumble became clearly defined. It gave the impression of listening to the slow cracking of thick tree trunks far off in the forest. It sounded like a dull, matted scrape that resonated as if in a drum. The voices went on for quite a while. They twisted and turned and folded in upon each other. It seemed as if several of these jolting lines of sound came together to form an odd form of Morse code.
Then a higher line of sound entered the stream. This tone gave the impression of being agitated. It creaked and ticked loudly and consistently. It sounded like an electric synthetic instrument was pounding out a rapid, discordant tune. It wormed it way in circles and clicked and snapped. After several more moments the voice died out.
The deep throbbing was once again the sole sound reaching the ears of the Vigilante crew. Its tone started to die out to a thin, metallic tapping sound. It played an odd accentuated finale and then died out. The stream was once again complete silence.
The people assembled were struck dumbfounded. They did not know what to make of the mysterious transmission. Some started to whisper to each other in hushed tones. Some suspected that the transmission was sent in a format wholly unknown to the Imperium’s computers and thus played out only as discordant sounds. There were myriads of speculations, but none were grounded in fact.
Darius turned his gaze from the imperious armada assembled in front of him to his tactical console. The transmission was not complete, a string of text followed. The computer asked him if he wished to read it or if it should be read aloud. Darius quickly selected the option for it to be read aloud. The computer immediately began to enunciate the message. The voice was a perfect imitation of a human’s voice. Each and every sound that could be pronounced by a human tongue was expertly incorporated into a system of speech that flawlessly talked like a streamlined voice. The voice was like that of a man who spoke an even compromise of all accents possible.
-Human vessels; one of your kind is with us and will formulate our voice so you may understand it. We are the Kher’Somaaw, in our tongue: the unremitting servants of god, Somaaw. We come from a time that has long past, a time before any assembled here existed. In that time only two sentient beings existed in the galaxy: The Kher’Somaaw and The Others.
In the beginning of memory, the Kher’Somaaw were alone on the planet Acar. We did not know that there were other worlds like ours and that what seemed to be an entire universe was just a small piece in a much larger frame. Slowly, Somaaw revealed his world to us and we began to comprehend his design. The sky became open to us and soon later what lay beyond it.
We began to explore Somaaw’s true universe and answer the questions he had left. Our power and influence became great, yet it still was childlike in nature. We had become fat with our own little dominance, and internal conflict began to mount. Few of our people could foresee a new rise in our people. We had consumed all the resources our own precious star had to offer and were now groaning greedily.
It was then that the First Time of Reckoning came upon us: the first true barrier in our path towards enlightenment and glory. Unlike the tribal squabbles that consume every people in their early development, this war rose to a drastic scale. The Kher’Somaaw were fighting each other, reaping genocide from among their own brothers. Resources and commodities had become extremely limited, and the three planets fought each other bitterly for whatever salvage they could steal. A grim end seemed to be approaching, one that rang out from our distant past: mindless conflict and war, it seemed, were not below us.
It was then that a detachment of workers on Acar’s third space station stumbled upon our salvation. They had unlocked the secrets to the antimatter engines that your civilizations use today to travel the galaxy. After they were able to run a successful demonstration, interest in all the Kher’Somaaw factions peaked, and the people came together grudgingly once more to collaborate in this new effort. They worked quickly and ardently, and in little time ships were able to be outfitted with the new propulsion. A small convoy was put together and they left for the stars. The distance between suns was drastically reduced, and we could dream of fresh worlds ripe for the taking.
Our people pushed outward and spread all throughout our surroundings. With vigorous drive we listened to the sounds of the galaxy around us and ventured deeper and deeper. In our searches we found something that would change the history of our people forever.
We recorded signals that formed artificial patters. An intelligent entity other than us existed somewhere else in the universe. We saw that we were not the only creation of Somaaw. Our two peoples soon met and for a time we avoided each other. Our people stayed to one side of the meeting point and theirs stayed to the other. The more time passed, the more unstable our relation became with The Others. We could not find common ground; our cultures were so innately different. Squabbles ranging from the ownership of valuable planets to the ownership of space routes started to disrupt the peace. There was a ceaseless race to claim the goods and resources available and to expand as much as possible while disrupting the other’s growth.
This primordial galaxy was large and empty, but it could not appease both the Kher’Somaaw’s and The Others’ appetites. Quarrels escalated to conflicts, and soon we were in open galactic war. This was Somaaw’s Second Time of Reckoning.
The Kher’Somaaw people’s hearts were filled with hate and anger. They put down all their previous conflicts and united as one against The Others. All effort was put into creating bigger and stronger weapons and more and more ships to resupply the endless campaign fleets that wreaked war on our enemies. The conflict dragged on and on, and due to the size of both our empires, billions died in the process. Planets were taken and retaken, and fleets were destroyed and rebuilt. The war was bloody and merciless and it seemed to show no end. A stop to the fighting seemed impossible; both sides were filled with a feverish drive for revenge, and the issue would only be sparked again if we were to coexist in the same space.
The Kher’Somaaw’s corrupt minds and hearts caused the damage to continue unchecked, and they worked ever harder to gain every tactical advantage possible. The fighting dragged on for four generations, until it had wiped everyone clean of their humanity in a deadly war of attrition. Somaaw was a tale left to legend and myth. In our arrogant advance we created devices so powerful we were not wise enough to wield them. Our weapons, which had once only bent the physical world to our advantage, now changed fate and destiny as well. We grasped an advantage over our enemies, and we didn’t let go until we had squeezed all the life out of them.
Using our device to change time, we sent a detachment of ships back thousands of years into the past. T
hey flew to The Other’s homeworld and eradicated the primeval beings that were in time to become our enemies. Unable to defeat our enemies head to head, we killed them in the cradle. We, the last remnants of the Kher’Somaaw, are that detachment.
However, we dealt with forces we did not understand, and in the process of destroying our greatest enemy, we had robbed ourselves of our greatest source of motivation and unification. The Kher’Somaaw are far from an enlightened people, and without the one goal to keep them together, the empire grew unchecked. In this new timeline of events, the Kher’Somaaw had spread unopposed throughout all space they could lay their hands on. There could be no central authority strong enough to hold all the people together and so, as abruptly as it had began, our expansion stopped. People became fragmented and cut off from each other. Work and development were mindlessly handed to robotic leaders, and our people lost the capacity to think. Worlds and systems stopped cooperating, and every piece of territory that could escape became hopelessly independent. People didn’t work together, but against one another. Confusion swelled throughout the galaxy, and civilization declined. What things had once been commonplace became luxuries for the elite. Life became simple, and soon the majority of the Kher’Somaaw devolved into simple beings living their lives out on the worlds they were on. The glory of the Kher’Somaaw Empire was reduced to legend. Few still remembered the words of Somaaw and the true story of the life of his creation.
And so the Second Time of Reckoning overwhelmed us, and we were erased from memory. Only a few pitiful ruins on Acar are all that remain of the Kher’Somaaw. We are the only remnant of the Kher’Somaaw Empire that remains, preserved by the malicious pockets of time. We returned to Acar in bewilderment. Your two members have alerted us to the situation of the galaxy, and we were able to confirm our story. Our own decline opened the galaxy for countless other species to live and thrive. The entire history of the galaxy is based upon the fluke created by our arrogance. Perhaps it was Somaaw’s will that more of his children be there to inherit the galaxy.
Nonetheless, Somaaw does not look lightly on the destruction of his creation, and so we will not use it again, not even to repair the past. Enough damage has already been done. The flow of time and happening must not be aware of itself, it must move as it always has, with its natural balance. If we artificially destroy it, then it will not be able to process life. It will loop in on itself, countless factors clashing with each other, endless possibilities changing themselves, history rewriting itself, and the future changing the past, changing the future, changing the past. Time itself will cease to exist, and our entire universe with it. There is a reason why Somaaw gave us almost all his tools to use, but not all. We are not god, we are only his servants, and so we shall stay, the Kher’Somaaw. We have now been given a final chance, and we will mend the wounds that have been caused.
You humans have also tampered with the life of other civilizations in space, but you have not caused catastrophic damage. Still, much of our story can also be found in your own history. Be warned. Those named the Ghenim must forever bask in Somaaw’s life after death, may he look kindly on both their souls and those of the Others.
The Skyrrnian people aren’t destined to destroy Earth; we will repay the restoration of our civilization… with the salvation of yours.-
The communication stream was then closed and everyone looked up in awe and confusion. Darius looked dazed across the blank faces of his crew. Verne looked intently on the domineering armada in front of them. Klaise and Winter were somewhere among those hulks. The only explanation was that they had somehow found themselves with the Kher’Somaaw and had communicated with them. The armada now began to move again. It turned in formation to face the Skyrrnian fleet. The wall never faltered as it slowly moved to engage their adversaries.
Khrrn stood blank faced on the bridge of the Flagship Avenger. The walls of the behemoth no longer filled him with security but with fear. The name of the Kher’Somaaw rang hollowly through his mind and memory. He seemed detached from the world around him. All the ecstasy that had coursed through his veins in the past few years of his life drained out as if he was cut open. Fate had caught up with him, and his conjurations now dissolved all around him. He felt as if he were in a dream, yet a dream that smelled of death. It lingered in the back of his mind and threatened to consume him without ever letting him wake.
Several ships had already tried to ignite their engines and flee the scene of battle but were unable to do so. Khrrn now moved to the helm and completed the jump sequence himself. The engines prepared to begin the reaction, but when they produced thrust the ship remained immobile. It seemed to be caught in the fabric of space itself. Several people frantically worked to analyze the defect at hand. Chatter erupted from the entire Skyrrnian fleet, and it grew more frantic by the second. Soon a dreadful chaos consumed the entire assembly, and all order was lost. People were running in all directions, and brawls had broken out on several of the larger ships.
The speakers came to life on all the Skyrrnian ships. A transmission from the Kher’Somaaw in the Skyrrnian language rang through the halls.
-Skyrrnian people, we are the Kher’Somaaw. You have stolen something of paramount importance from us. The ships you fly, the weapons you fire, but most importantly the fleets you have acquired were never supposed to be yours. Too much damage has already been caused to Somaaw’s beautiful plan for his universe, and we will not allow for any more to be done. What has been changed cannot be undone without causing more damage, but we can make sure you do not cause any more damage. It is imperative that your force be diminished to what it was and that the time manipulation device be silenced forever. The Kher’Somaaw once again draw breath and there is no hate within our minds and hearts, only duty.-
Khrrn furiously worked at the engines, but the ship would not budge. The Kher’Somaaw ships had cast a sort of web over them. Khrrn did not even want to start to think how such an act was possible. The laws of science seemed broken beyond recognition or repair in the hand of the Kher’Somaaw. The Skyrrnian fleets had only crudely salvaged what they could from the Kher’Somaaw technology, they understood almost nothing of it, and could not replicate any of it. The relics that rested on the Skyrrnians ships were are they had.
“There’s no way to outplay an opponent in a game we can’t even understand.” The words left his lips in a discordant jumble that rolled quietly throughout the room. “Fire at will on the fourth ship left from the flagship, give the guns one last voice.”
The weapons arrays on the Skyrrnian ships engaged for combat and targeted the Kher’Somaaw ship. Flaming yellow beams erupted from the guns and left a streak in space as they impacted on their target. The Skyrrnians watched intently, hoping they could even now affirm themselves in some manner.
The dull hull of the Kher’Somaaw ship flashed vigorously and then returned to its dark, breathless state. No visible damage was inflicted, but the molecular integrity of the plating had been chipped. The line of ships fired their conventional weapons upon the ships ahead but these left no traceable damage. Their weapons charged again and then fired again, compromising the integrity of the Kher’Somaaw hull.
The armada of Kher’Somaaw ships had now advanced to directly face their adversaries. Their weapons arrays however, did not show signs of life. Aboard the Flagship Avenger, the fear and tension was palpable. Khrrn thought about how his death would come; he thought that he might skip the wait and bring its end immediately but quickly dismissed the idea. He would not miss the end of his own people; he had to be with them until the end. A race’s downfall is not something one sees often, and he had to be a part of that history.
The Skyrrnians waited, confused that the Kher’Somaaw ships made no move, instead they lingered for several moments. The front line then poised their forward ship extensions, and their weapons arrays began to turn. Like mandibles, the extended arms formed funnels that carried the energy released by the cannons. A deep orange force shot out from
the cannon and twisted and turned on itself in the split second it flew before it hit its target. It was like a deafening cyclone that bore a hole through the hull of the massive Skyrrnian ship. It hit the center of the flagship, and surged all around it; consuming the ship in an electric storm. The orange clashed with the blinding white, frying everything in sight. Khrrn heard crashes and shrieks fill his mind.
The ship lost its form, dilated, and then shattered like glass in all directions, allowing for the bloated beam to pierce through again, a straight and true line. It gleamed a second longer, seeming to stretch out to infinity, a solid streak from which the debris of the Avenger fled quickly.
The rest of the line fired its cannons, and the entire Skyrrnian assembly was consumed in a light-storm. The smaller ships fell much more quickly, creating an array of bright dazzling sparks, one after another. The ships moved their beams, tracing the entire Skyrrnian armada, reducing it quickly into a bright display of fireworks.
After several moments, the rays of energy dissipated, leaving behind a dense, metallic cloud. Darius could swear he heard something in the eerie silence that followed. The cloud carried the souls of countless dead, and they bore into his mind, calling out to him. The darkness after the light was no less agitating, his heart still beat rapidly. He could not comprehend and calculate the situation. The enemies were still out in the void; the only difference was that they were dead. The cloud lingered ominously as if it would breathe life again at any moment.