34.
“The decision of the Yonohoan government to broadcast the sound only transmission without applying translation matrices to it remains controversial, especially to our non-human allies who do not appreciate the cultural significance or the musical quality of simply hearing the human voice,” The female commentator said.
“While the musical sections of the forty-eight hour transmission, which must be listened to in its entirety in order to receive a translated version of the monologues and lyrics involved, are enjoyable by all musically inclined species, those species who retain ancestral or genetic fear of the human voice claim that they are being discriminated against. They claim that it is a violation of the spirit of the treaty of Eodar that they must subject themselves to trauma in order to receive the translation matrix for the English language, which the Yonohoan government confirms the Earthlings have fully cooperated in creating.
“Details about the Darkworld known as Earth remain sparse and far between. It is unconfirmed how long ago humans were introduced to its ecosystem, who introduced them, which biological archetype the flora and fauna of the world possessed before they were introduced, and which genetic line of human was used.
“Many speculations have been made by the two confirmed images that have been shared by the Yonohoan government of Earthlings. The Rocktala transmission of the Brother of the Last Son of Eodar is still making its way through the ancient network of repeaters. Due to the latency involved in the obsolete and archaic network, this outlet has yet to receive a copy of the Rocktala transmission itself. It is not expected to hit our local network for another two point one years.
“Based on the descriptions of those who have reportedly witnessed the recording, which may only be watched once per device due to the ancient protection protocols of the Rocktala, the Brother of the Last Son of Eodar has black hair, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin, and features resembling the Weslesten gene line of humans.
“Controversially, the other confirmed image of an Earthling shows a woman with Otanesha features. This has caused experts to believe that this world was established towards the end of the Liberation Wars by retiring veterans. That would put the estimated age of the human population of Earth between forty and sixty thousand years ago.
“The humble acceptance of the Toormonda gift suggests that the level of their technology is rather low. Some experts have suggested that they have forgotten their history to the point where they do not understand the capabilities of the ancient relics which their forefathers left behind. It is unknown whether or not they restored their relics to working order or if they reverse engineered their relics into a functional spacecraft.
“Initial reports of tensions between the Yonohoan and their Darkworld visitors seem to have been disinformation, as evidence by the two confirmed announcements by Earthlings.
“Meanwhile, the hunt for Earth is under full swing! While the legal scholars all agree that the treaties of Eodar, Holam, Tonada and Soramba prevent a government from actively seeking out Darkworlds, that restriction does not apply to individuals or non-corporate entities with possession of their own spacecraft. Millions of explorers are exploring all worlds within ten thousand light years of Yonohoan space for the source of the Earthling spacecraft. Experts agree that the discovery of the enigmatic Darkworld is only a matter of time.
“We take you now to one of those explorers who hopes to study earthling culture before they are contaminated by intergalactic pop culture …”
“That’s enough Bob. Please transcribe the text of that broadcast and send it to the Seeker . Mark it as urgent. Both of the captains need to see that,” Diego said. “Make certain that Captain Moon sees it.”
“Of course, Diego. I am happy to assist,” the AI said.
Diego sat back. He was in his stateroom, with several info-tainment and news programs pulled up. He was adapting to consuming media in this format. He had entered search criteria of his topic of interest, which was ‘Earth,’ and the ship was filtering the news for mentions of his home planet for him from several of the largest and most popular news feeds that passed through the flagship of the Topokan fleet.
Which was nearly all of them for a billion light years.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Without the ship, he’d just be channel surfing, and it would take him decades to cycle through one percent of the feeds which he had available to him.
“One small step for a man, one giant ripple through the puddle of the universe,” he muttered to himself. “Bob, how long do you think it will be until some idiot in a personal space ship stumbles upon Earth?”
“That is very hard to estimate. It is illegal to coordinate searches for Darkworlds by several intergalactic treaties. The individual vessels would have to scan each star individually, and due to the lack of a cohesive search pattern many of the stars will be searched in duplicate many times. Unfortunately it will mostly come down to random chance. I could refine my estimate if I were allowed to know where Earth actually is, but I am presently restricted from speculating on the matter,” Bob answered.
Diego watched as a small, furry alien with a surprisingly deep voice spoke about the possibility that they had finally found the human origin world.
“On the one hand, exposing the humans to the vulnerability of the Temporal Dissolution Matrix would fundamentally shift the status of the universe. Much of the current stability of interstellar politics rely on a powerful human police force enforcing the treaties laid down by the heroes of the Liberation Wars. Losing our human allies would be devastating, even should their legacy and the advancements that their clever minds and the pressures of the millennia long war for their freedom thrust upon a grateful universe remain.
“While the TDM has been used multiple times in history, the ultimate weapon of mass destruction remains poorly understood and the effects of unleashing it are not well understood. The creation of a paradox spreading a speed of light and the ability to spread information at faster than light speeds creates a paradox in which the resonance of the weapon spreads from its origin point, creating a universe in which humans would never have existed.
“At the same point, the information from the universe in which humans have always existed would be able to pass from the portion of the universe that remains unaffected by the shockwave. This has led to certain proponents of using TDMs on humans, a stance which I emphatically oppose but must report on despite the distaste that it brings me, have claimed that while the result would likely be trillions of deaths, the wonders and works of humanity would remain. Species which complain that the treaties keeping them in check are ironhanded and tyrannical believe that wiping humanity from existence is the only way to secure their future.
“On the other hand, some scholars have suggested that humans have reached a point in which it would be flatly impossible to remove them from this universe even with the TDM. Humans are tenacious creatures. Traditionally when a TDM has been used in retaliation to the use of another TDM, the result is the extinction of both the species who initiated the attack and the retaliator’s species. Humans, who accept the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, are largely immune to this rule due to their ability to send through the shockwave with the acceptance that the crew aboard them will die in order to fulfill their mission.
“Some experts have suggested that this ability, coupled with the wide spread of humanity, means that they are immune to the paradox wave that the TDM creates. Others claim that wiping out the initial genelines which populate the universe will result in total annihilation of human society. With temporal mechanics in play, the simple answer is that nobody knows what would happen if humanity’s homeworld were attacked. While the universe would likely survive the shockwave, despite many alarmist’s claim to the contrary, the effect on society would undoubtedly be devastating beyond belief.
“Proponents of the ‘made whole’ theory of human evolution believe that the most obvious solution to the human paradox is that they were a collaborative creation by several members of the pre-collapse empire. They claim that the TDM would be useless against the humans unless it was used against the homeworld of their creators rather than the humans themselves.
“Voices of reason, however, point out each of the last three thousand seven hundred and eighty three times that a Darkworld has emerged from isolation and rejoined the universe, this same conversation occurred. They say that if humans still live on the origin system, they likely do so in ignorance of that fact, and that the human origin system is likely not a darkworld at all but one of their many fortress worlds. These voices remind their friends and allies that humans will do anything to protect their species, including lie to both themselves and their closest allies.
“Some say that they would even turn their origin system into a rock of screaming isotopes, destroying their history in order to save their present. These voices claim that rather than the origin system being a darkworld, the more likely alternative is that it is a closely guarded brightworld, or one of the many worlds ravaged during the wars of Liberation.
“That said, let’s spend some time speaking about the hypotheticals of what would happen if the origin system were discovered in the modern age.”
“Bob, flag that broadcast for the Seeker as well. Highest priority,” Diego said.