"Evil is most often measured by the destructive outcome of a behavior-policy. Humans long ago forbade the hypocrisy of intolerance towards the individual, rendering any sort of faith-identity immune to criticism, regardless of how definitely destructive it might be. In their holiness, humans instead began to decipher that certain political policies, were in fact, to blame, and not the superstitions of their various religions." Honored Arbitrator Zanth Middul, a Sunder of impressive prodigy spoke slowly, in the human language. She had continued for years, and was finally in conclusion of all her findings, as she continued:
"It was without a time when three rival politics emerged, each with such severe flaws as to be comparable only in their cause of widespread suffering and destruction. These final governments, almost equal in their final forms were, in order of vicious magnitude: democracy, communism and theocracy. There is nothing in all the galaxy that resembles any of these corruptions of leadership - just as nothing can anticipate the powers of the human mind. Is it not so strange, then, that humans might adapt to thrive in any of these violent and saturnine despotisms? Alone any of these governments would have consumed their populations, isolating and destroying the very individuals who they should have served. No, it is only our benevolent leaderships that serve their people. Human governments must first serve themselves, only giving what is left, with reluctance, to their starving people."
Her suit against the decisions of human governments had taken decades to conclude. The judges listened patiently, while a variety of experts on human powers were called in as witnesses. Each had agreed that humans always decided to retaliate against any perceived threat, in measures that exceeded the danger they were confronting. The excessive use of violence was a purely human endeavor, and they seemed to have no absolute limit to what they could commit to. It was even possible for a human to willfully murder another human, if the circumstances called for it. This appalling fact was referred to again and again.
"Your closure of this case is, I must be honest, a relief to the Cave Gods And Friends Association. Our best judicial resources have handled these proceedings for multiple decades, and we must confess we have grown tired and weary of your suit. It is our decision to eliminate the outcome, and to therefore throw away all of your hard work, and consider nothing." The tribunal of Cave Gods spoke, using special translators so that their ancient language was instantly turned into human words. They noted that the Sunder arbitrator was flustered, her frill beginning to raise involuntarily. They continued:
"We have already agreed that humans have governed themselves according to their nature, and that their nature is spiritually and emotionally sound. We have determined that humans are, in fact, the closest thing to a plan set forth by the Likeliness that we have ever encountered. What else could they be, or why would the Likeliness spark their ways within their hearts, if they were not intended for very great things in our galaxy? You have not addressed these rebuttals, not within the memory of three billion words of conjecture. If you will not state plainly in very few words, your reply to this rebuttal, then court is dismissed." The Cave Gods themselves had spoken.
"Honored leaders, please allow me to ascertain that all of my words were to the composition of such a rebuttal. There cannot be a place in our galaxy for professional warriors, a whole society ready to arms. What threat could possibly justify your endorsement of these unqualified monsters?" Honored Arbitrator Zanth Middul had her frill fully extended in outrage and humiliation, as she defied the court. "Would you enlighten me, so that I may share the burden of your love for these filthy creatures, these nasty-nasty humans?"
The Cave Gods responded: "We will not. But in concert with your efforts, you are commanded thus to become an exile from our ways, until you yourself have individually assessed the dangers that loom against our beloved Milky Way, and you can tell us in a much more concise phrase how the Likeliness was right in crafting humans to be the perfection that they are."
"I will not obey such a command! You cannot enforce it on me!" Honored Arbitrator Zanth Middul proclaimed. The Cave Gods hesitated for a moment, conversing in their own high-pitched whispers before they told her:
"You will enforce your own time as an outcast. When you return, I expect you to be a serpent of prophecy. Crawl away now, for it is clear that even the Sunder would strip you of your jewelry if you returned to them with such appalling degeneracy. Be as a snake, and call not upon your higher faculties as a wise alien, until you have learned about human goodness."
Years, since that day. Years as an outcast, living on barren and spoiled Rhema - a dead world. Destroyed by a war that didn't involve humans. The destroyers, a maddening mystery. They came as monsters, they came as a shadow - scathing and sterilizing worlds in interstellar fury. Were they out of ammunition, is that why their hives sat quietly drifting towards the Milky Way?
Exile Of All Worlds Zanth Middul sat by her campfire, living like an animal on a dead world. She shuddered, having made clothing from her own shed skin, just to protect herself from the bitter desert elements. She ate garbage, she suffered from diseases and she had to fight to stay alive. For a time, she began to reconcile that humans had always lived this way, and yet they had developed compassion and knowledge of their spirits. In a way, she had forgotten both of these things.
The scientists had said that the enemy in the darkness had fired their weapons at the expense of their own power sources, leaving their vessels cold and lifeless. The humans believed the enemy were only dormant, and that the power they had ejaculated onto living worlds to burn them was merely a shock and awe campaign, and that it was over. They had reasoned that if the enemy had more such weapons they would have continued their barrage instead of sending forth their scouts.
The humans had certainly done their part, battling against the enemy scouts wherever they arrived. Such massive monsters were met by the human soldiers in their mech, the same mech sold to the humans from Sunder manufacture. Machines that were designed for battle, that had an odd resemblance to human warriors, except on a larger more mechanical scale. It took a human to pilot one. Robotic defenses were insufficient for defense against the invaders, who could invariably avoid their attacks, no matter how swift or precise they were made to be. No, only human warriors were violent and unpredictable enough to engage the monsters.
The coiled Sunder stared despondently, poking her fire with a long wire she used to hold food over it for cooking. She sighed, as she had known the councils of her people would reject her ideas on the basis that humans were somehow necessary. The only countermeasure to an implacable enemy. But what if the human assault on the hives succeeded? What then?
When their war was over, what purpose would the humans have? Would they then find fault in the wealth and privilege of the Sunder? Would they use force to command the policies of the Cave Gods And Friends Association in their own favor? Would they make war on their neighbors, as they had made war on themselves throughout their history? Humans could remorselessly kill an alien with greater ease than they killed each other.
Zanth Middul did not see the plan of the Likeliness in the humans. She had stopped believing that the Likeliness had a plan at all. Or worse, the Likeliness somehow favored the humans, and all the efforts of the aliens to equip the humans with superior weapons and starships would be the ultimate doom of the galaxy, where the mystery enemy might have failed at total annihilation, the humans would succeed. This dread had made her an exile, and she felt sick in her soul, knowing that she must be right.
As she slept, hibernating in a pained stupor, her fever brought her a dream of a lone human, standing on one leg with the other posed against his knee, with his dark skin painted in stripes of white clay, his eyes staring intently. He spoke to her in her own language, using a soothing rhyme from the year she was a hatchling, so many centuries ago. Zanth Middul listened as he addressed her:
"Oh, Rainbow Serpent, coiled bright. I have found you where you have lost yourself. We need your help, for only you understand the Gate Of Nightmare. I Starsleep for you, with my ancestors in my blood, I am the human, and my spirit requests the wisdom of your counsel."
"Humans cannot Starsleep. I am hallucinating." Zanth Middul tried to reject the vision, but she knew the human was really in her mind. Across distance, the dreaming of Starsleep - the vastness of space meant nothing.
"Yet we have learned to. It was always within us, locked away, an ancestral echo, deep within our blood. We are capable of profound peace, but first there must be war. First, we must protect our friends, ourselves, all living things in our galaxy and even the Dreaming." The human spoke with calmness and then reminded her, the dreams fluttering by in visions of desolation: "This enemy will not relent until they have made our galaxy entirely dead. That is their mission, their purpose. We can see them, now that we Starsleep. We know them, and they have stared back from their darkness outside, and they are watching us, and they are afraid."
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"How could an enemy on a suicide mission to wipe out all life in the Milky Way know fear?" Zanth Middul asked. She danced her confusion, and the human understood her movements, the expression of the Sunder. He said:
"What we call a suicide mission is their entire purpose, they live to destroy us all. They would claim the elevated dimension of thought, the land of dreams, they seek to become one with the darkness, to become as death."
This meant that the enemy was not entirely without cause, not without a weakness. They had their own hopes, their own agenda for the outcome of the war, besides just utter annihilation. The Sunder realized, hissing pedantically:
"Then failure would mean they have died in vain, expending their fuel to power their weapons in the hope of crippling our best worlds. This was their strategy before the advent of the humans. But humans rebuild, stronger - the mended bone does not break again. They have learned that humans never die alone. Is this what you mean?" Zanth Middul recalled her many years of research. Her understanding of humans was complete, or so she had thought. The human shifted his one-legged pose to sit hovering upon the air, cross-legged, and communed in the same reveried voice they shared in the dream:
"Have we not seen their scouts retreat when they cannot win? Have we not seen a decline in the use of their most powerful weapons, as they have underestimated the strength of our defenses? We would have assaulted their drifting hives, blackened husks that seem devoid of life, but we know they are asleep in their fleet. We have a new plan, now that we understand what they want. It is not merely destruction, but mastery over death, mastery over a universe without life. They have found a way through the Gate Of Nightmare. That is where we shall make our final stand." The human told Zanth Middul.
"Now I realize what you want from me." Zanth Middul sounded pleased. "I will help you, Human, I will return to the Combine and meet with your dreamers in person. It will be much easier if we are near each other, to coordinate our sleep and find our way through the labyrinth of the dream places. And besides, I have grown weary of my argument. I have forgotten the gifts of the Likeliness, here on this wasteland world."
With a solemn thought, the human stated: "Rhema was the first target of the enemy. They have the ability to predict the future, and they were certain that the Frendsikeel would be the companions of humanity, and would bring us to the battlefield. They could not yet see us, since we were dreaming in silence, but they knew there must be humans in this galaxy. They too know about the Likeliness, but they rebelled against it - and chose their own path."
"They? The voyagers from the Dead Galaxy? They call themselves - do you know what? They call themselves Silent Empty Eternal Darkness Sailors, that is their name for themselves."
The human looked to her memory of what she had seen, the word was written on the broken rocks their hives clung to, as they moved across the span of endless time and space. She asked with some horror in her voice "Can you imagine their patience? When their journey began, life was merely a cloud of chemicals in our galaxy. The hideous wisdom of these creatures defies the magnitude of the human trouble. I see it now, when I look into your eyes, that you were meant to exist. All your history, all the suffering, the wars and the violence, all of it was for a good cause. I see now how we all owe the human species a great debt."
"Nevermind the debt. We are happy to protect you. But like I said, we shall need your help."
Zanth Middul pondered the moment and said: "It is a strange alliance, to ask for help from the one who wanted humans exterminated so long ago. You hold nothing against me. It makes me hold myself accountable, to have your forgiveness."
The human put his feet down, and said with a steady voice: "Humans can forgive violence. What we cannot forgive is arrogance. Your humility is welcome, but these outsiders, they would deprive all living things, intelligent, animal and even bacteria, just so they might have the pleasure of a silent universe where they can dream forever. It is their arrogance that drives us into our war."
The Sunder moved gracefully, accepting his thoughts on human forgiveness and said: "Very well Human. I will become your ally. Soon I will return to the stars, and come to the Combine. You shall have my dedicated help in finding the Gate Of Nightmare before our enemy can. Would the look on their face, when they see us united against them, would that please you all very much?"
"It would, Rainbow Serpent, it would indeed."
Exile Of All Worlds Zanth Middul opened her eyes, awake. After her deep Starsleep, with the human lingering in her thoughts, she shuddered. The Cave Gods And Friends Association were right, and her banishment had even served a purpose. She realized she had to abandon her fear, and trust the strangers, as intended by the Likeliness.
She slithered to the nearest outpost on Rhema, and asked for entry. Dozens of diverse aliens, all in masks and robes, artists and poets, greeted her. She humbly accepted their hospitality and awaited for a transmission to respond to her emergence from the shattered wilderness.
"Exile Of All Worlds Zanth Middul, what is the need of you in our society, that you have returned?" The Sunder named Hermith Xhion asked her elder.
"I need a ship to retrieve me bodily and deliver me to the Combine. I have made an alliance with the human dreamers, and must be among them to bolster their advance against the enemy." Zanth Middul explained.
"We will notify the humans to send their closest long-range starship. The Desperado is a ship crewed entirely by humans, owned by the Combine Unified Forces. They are not far from Rhema." Hermith Xhion of the Sunder Administration detailed. "Are you offended by the fact that humans have the indiscriminate use of the most advanced secrets of technology?"
"Do I look offended?" Zanth Middul asked, the tiredness and humbleness of her response was so perfectly danced, that for a moment, Hermith Xhion thought she was speaking to a member of the Sunder Administration's highest council members.
"My apology, Honored Arbitrator." Hermith Middul made an elaborate gesture to accentuate her response to seeing such a dance. The apology was to establish the younger Administrator's dominance in the conversation, as apologies were a sign of responsibility and leadership among the Sunder. "I will post my thoughts about this conversation, and insist you no longer be referred to as 'Exile Of All Worlds'. I am convinced you have shed that skin, so to speak."
"Your assessment is appreciated, but I think I no longer hold the title of Honored Arbitrator. Call me 'Combine Emissary'. That would be appropriate, for I have a new purpose."
"Since you have made no plans to return home, may I ask you, while we utilize the last of this correspondence, what has made you change your mind so profoundly?" Hermith Xhion asked. Zanth Middul gestured her personal thoughts were being spoken and said:
"I dreamed of the Human, and he was profoundly good. I have found my place in the plan of the Likeliness."
Three months later the Desperado, under the command of Captain Conner, arrived. His lieutenant, a human female named Pharlie, and of the same cloning, Drastic Conner McFarley - savior of Beebee, stood in greeting. Half a dozen humans of the crew, ground-births - diminutive ones, stood behind her.
"You sure are an awfully big boa. I thought you would be all shipwrecked and leathery and smell bad. Looks like the Rhema folk got you cleaned up and back in finery." Pharlie was smiling and being playful.
"Thank you for welcoming me. I am going to the Combine with you - to help with the war effort." Combine Emissary Zanth Middul gestured politely and danced for the humans to show her gratitude. They all started smiling, amused by her movements. Secretly Zanth Middul congratulated herself for her flawless display, 'I've still got it." she thought, and smiled inwardly.
Captain Conner was waiting inside the ship, and the Sunder was between him and the rest of the crew. Zanth Middul awkwardly positioned herself so she could observe everyone, as the captain spoke in a flat, emotionless tone:
"Welcome aboard the Desperado. You're our second Sunder passenger, after Eshka Layenna."
"It is an honor to be offered her accommodations."
"Some kind of sacred stasis? We can do better for you. You get the captain's quarters, right Conner? Now is my chance to bunk with you - boss." Pharlie sounded teasing and facetious.
"I'll not bunk with you, Pharlie. Our guest will have the second bay, and you and the crew will make sure she is comfortable before we leave orbit." Captain Conner always had the same flat tone, but evidently there were nuances to their exchange, for Pharlie and the crew found his response hilarious.
Combine Emissary Zanth Middul was soon brought to the Combine, where the generals of the Combine Unified Forces interviewed her briefly before sending her to Nubia, the human world where the study of dreams was most concentrated.
There she finally met in-person, her Human.
"My name is Fig Lander. I am the master of our dream efforts, a seminal position, as this whole program is very new. We have thirteen members now, and when we find our target, we are ready to strike."
"Then let us begin." Combine Emissary Zanth Middul decided. She was taken to the bed chamber and offered a nest that was suitable for her slumber.
As they all slept, she led them down the paths of the mind, the stairs and the archways, the meadows and the clouds. When they arrived in the geometric places, they could look and see where all humans slept, no matter what world they were on. Beyond them were the other intelligences, all of them dreaming peacefully.
In the distance was a kind of white-golden hole, a vortex to somewhere else, and within it there was darkness contained. They all woke up at the same time.
"This was only the first attempt. We will arrive at that place as we Starsleep again, and we will hold on to each other. The Gate Of Nightmare is not a safe place to dwell alone. I will be there, I will protect you from your own minds. That is what I can do. The battle against the enemy, that is for you." Combine Emissary Zanth Middul said, and looked at the thirteen humans around her, noticing that the youngest of them was merely a child. She had to ask: "You all are the best at Starsleep, but are not you - little one, are you not very young?"
"The enemy does not care if I am a child, and I Starsleep in the third degree, equal to our master, Fig Lander." She said like a grown-up. "Are you not a disbeliever in the Likeliness?"
"I was, for a time. I lost my way. I forgot what the Likeliness is." Combine Emissary Zanth Middul said honestly.
The girl said: "I see. What would you say the Likeliness is? We all have different answers, yet we all believe in the Likeliness the same. What do you say it is?"
"The Likeliness," Combine Emissary Zanth Middul said carefully in their language "is all that is good."