Date: 74 PST (Post Stasis Time)
“The Terran Alliance was pushed from the planet by the Estorian Empire.”
That sentence made Zantari pause for a moment, staring down at the screen hovering in front of themselves. They understood the words, of course, Zantari hadn’t spent their thousands of years of existence being illiterate, but one of them was a new word, one they hadn’t seen before.
“Terran”
Zantari liked to consider themselves well-read and up to date on the latest goings-on in the universe. In fact, all of his species would consider themselves as such. Most species can be defined as having one goal or another, one word that broadly describes their culture. Warrior, explorer, conqueror, trader, healer.
The Ghirlinn could be described as watchers, archivists, cataloguing and learning about the millions of species that inhabited the near infinite universe, over the near infinite number of galaxies.
When you got to the technological level of the Ghirlinn, there really wasn’t much else you could do. Sure you could go and conquer planet after planet with your technological advantage, but not only was that boring, eventually your grand empire would either collapse into infighting, or worse, you would end up attacking a species with some form of higher protection. Becoming a god was a thing, although there were only so many types of life you could create and civilizations to form before that becomes stale too.
Ascending to a higher form of existence was always an option, and something many Ghirlinn had chosen to do at this point, although Zantari didn’t quite feel that their hundreds of thousands of years of physical existence had been enough yet, and wasn’t quite ready for that next step. Besides, you couldn’t get a stiff drink after ascending.
So, instead, they watched. The millions of species, trillions of people, all doing interesting, special, and fun things. Like a never ending soap opera: they fought and loved, they laughed and died. Seeing betrayals and alliances form as various empires and governments rose and fell made for a level of entertainment. Which was why Zantari was confused that they didn’t know the word “Terran”. It wasn’t a species in the Ghirlinn’s central repository, and finding something new was always interesting.
Zantari sat in the comfortable ‘den’ of their creation, a mass of blankets and snacks suspended in a white void, perfect for some light reading about the goings-on in the Milky Way. In the middle of this pile of comfort, lay the Ghirlinn. Describing a Ghirlinn is a difficult thing, since they can choose their appearance as they see fit, able to shift and change their entire being with a mere thought. Right now, they chose to take the form of a small furry brown mammal nestled snugly in between the literal mountain of white soft pillows and duvets.
No, this wouldn’t do at all. This is the environment for chilling out, not for doing research on an unknown species.
In an instant, reality moved at Zantari’s mere prodding, the room changing to a simple study of brick walls and oak furniture, faux books lining a shelf on one wall, and a roaring fire on the other. Their own form took on a more reptilian professional appearance, adorned in silken robes of red and gold, six fingered hands covered in light grey-blue scales, all four of their arms reaching out to various hovering interfaces as they started looking through this galaxy’s various repositories for more information on these ‘Terrans’ and their alliance.
They soon found what they needed in various textual descriptions. A species of primate, recently appearing on the galactic scene a mere [74 years] ago. B+ level technology, and if their propaganda was to be believed, hadn’t just built an AI that didn’t kill them, but claimed to live together with their AI, unified under one name. Now that was a rarity. They weren’t the first species in the universe to survive the creation of an AI, but most of the time it ended with a ‘mutual separation’, where creator and created decide to go their own way. There were several Ghirlinn AI civilizations scattered around the universe, and their creators wished them well, but left them to do their own thing.
Whoever these Terrans were. It sadly wouldn’t matter. Having to fight the Estorian Empire as a newcomer to the galaxy was a harsh introduction to the universe; It was highly unlikely this single species could stand against the terrible power of the five shitheads that made up the Empire.
Although calling your new alliance after yourself was a little bit arrogant.
Normally new species went for something more optimistic, “The Council of Stars” or something like that. A little bit of curiosity caused Zantari to go looking for who exactly the Terrans had allied with, to the extent that they’d be willing to go to war on the Terran’s behalf. Upon finding that information, they paused, stopping for a moment as they looked at the list with a moment of confusion.
This had to be wrong. There is no way this is right.
There were 428 names on that list. Two of them had joined after the war had been declared. The species had only been on the galactic scene for 74 years, this wasn’t possible for a civilization to garner this many allies in such a short period of time. Sure, most of the names on the list were smaller 1-2 system governments, but they could see a handful of heavy hitters looking down the gigantic list of names. Zantari checked once, checked twice, then decided that this was worth further investigation.
How did a civilization creating this Alliance get missed in our records? This should be worth some note.
Their confusion was driven deeper as they investigated who was responsible for logging, cataloguing and maintaining diplomatic relations with that area of the galaxy. It was a Ghirlinn by the name of Xanara, based on the same station as Zantari was currently on. There was a meeting booked to start proper diplomatic relations with the Terrans in [25 years, 3 months and 2 days] time, just slightly under the [100 year] deadline upon discovering a new species. This was even more confusing, suggesting that Xanara hadn’t missed this huge alliance forming out of nowhere, but instead had purposefully avoided adding it to the records.
Well, I’m going to get to the bottom of this.
The room disappeared in a moment, leaving Zantari in the public area of the Ghirlinn station, as they shifted their form to that of a giant green avian. They took flight, taking to the air as they moved towards the known location of Xanara’s quarters. They could have just teleported of course, well… teleported was the wrong technical term for it. You couldn’t transport atoms without destroying the original object, but it was far easier to just move the rest of the universe closer to your location. Still, Zantari chose not to do that, always enjoying the feeling of flight as they moved through the station, taking a moment to gather their thoughts.
Like all Ghirlinn stations, size wasn’t really a measurable thing, since the physical limitations of dimensional constructs were no longer being heeded. The station was both the size of a pinhead, and larger than most planets, allowing Zantari to fly through corridors through it in a matter of both years and seconds. It looked nothing like any ordinary vessel, the various rooms and areas of the station refusing to follow any logical or even Euclidean rules.
Sprawling landscapes of wildness gave way to voids of crystalline light floating in the air. The birth of a star could be found at the bottom of an infinite staircase to yesterday, a side door took you to a quiet diner, serving warm comforting food while it continually rained outside. When dimensions and physical reality cease to be the limiting factor of a species technology, the only limit left to break, is that of your imagination.
Eventually, after a period of time unable to be measured, Zantari arrived at their location: Xanara’s quarters. The beach was vast, an infinite horizon of golden sands stretching out to infinity, above it a sky lit up with a never ending supernova. They could see Xanara in the centre of it all as they approached, the Ghirlinn taking a long flat form, stretching for miles and having buried themselves slightly, enjoying the sensation of the warm shifting sands cascading around the large surface area of their chosen form.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Zantari felt the words enter their mind as they approached, giving a polite wave of their wing before responding in kind.
There was a pause, a most noticeable pause as Xanara slowly got worried.
The space changed, the never-ending beach being replaced with a more formal setting: A well furnished office with no other distractions, various floating screens and interfaces allowing access to a universe of information. Xanara also changed, choosing a more professional form; the same reptilian bipedal form Zantari had used while researching. Zantari shifted themselves as well, doing the same out of politeness.
There was a moment before a visualization appeared on one of the screens floating in between the pair of Ghirlinn. A Terran, unclothed, arms and legs stretched out, showing their furless, bipedal and tailless form. Zantari made a small coughing noise, struggling for a moment to remain professional. This creature… was adorable. It was like a child who hadn’t gone past their larval stage, hairless and with only four limbs. Somehow the small tufts the Terran did have upon their tiny heads made them even cuter. Zantari had the distinct urge to give this creature hugs and candied treats.
Noticing the other’s reaction, Xanara continued, making a gesturing motion to the image.
The image changed again, this time showing an actual image of one of the Terran’s military leaders. Zantari’s professionally completely broke this time, emitting an actual physical noise which could only be described as ‘A Squee of Cute overload’.
Zantari slowly calmed down, both feeling a regret that they didn’t know about this adorably cute species that took themselves too seriously, and a confusion as to why Xanara looked so worried.
Xanara spread their arms out wide as if the other Ghirlinn had proven their point.
It took a few seconds of thinking before Zantari realized with absolute horror the issue at hand.
Zantari started to think. Solutions had to be available, there was no such thing as impossible to the Ghirlinn.
Zantari brought up the list of over 400 species once again, looking through it more carefully this time. Xanara was right, every single member on this list was a contradiction to the other. By any reasonable accounts, this organization should have fallen to infighting about 5 years after it was made.
Xanara stared at Zantari for a moment, the latter realizing that ‘whether the Terrans going to war was cute or not’, was not the point of contention.
Well that wouldn’t work, just waiting for it to solve itself, that kind of problem never did. It was a classic Catch-22. You didn’t know how to solve the problem until you triggered the problem itself, and then it was too late. Zantari stared at the list of names once more, when an idea occurred to them.
Xanara looked taken aback for a moment, before waving their limbs in agreement and excitement.
It wasn’t considered polite for Zantari to respond to that question, so they didn’t, instead waiting patiently as the other Ghirlinn got to work, pulling up lists of contacts and possible meeting dates, going through the logistics of contacting as many diplomats as possible.
Something new indeed. Once again Zantari stared at the list of names, hundreds of species, each one as varied as the last. Warrior races, traders, single planet species who only just got FTL and multi system empires. There was no sense to it all, no rhyme, no reason; but there must be. There must be a reason why all these different cultures agreed to ally themselves with these adorable primates, a central rule that explains what these Terrans stand for.
All Zantari had to do was travel around the galaxy and ask these species to explain why they joined the Terran Alliance. To ask them to explain, when these Terrans asked them to join:
Why we said yes.