So much had changed since the last time I was here. There were Blidda children in the halls, families living outside of stasis, and activities going on in each part of the ship that we passed. I even spied shops, or their equivalent, set up in offshoot hallways for families to browse at their leisure. From what I gathered on the way to the command deck the changes that Meditati put in place, both protective and maintenance-wise, were enough to let the Blidda onboard return to living and even thrive. There was water and food in abundance and life seemed good.
Worthwhile even.
It made me wonder what sort of requests they had in mind. Did they want me to find them a new planet or something? Surely with their race’s history at pinging the cosmos, they would already have enough celestial body data logged to do so themselves. What then could I offer that they couldn't achieve themselves?
As I observed the young Blidda girl, named Vilnn, rush away to show off her newly animated Ginny doll to her friends, I realized that my simple guesses were probably well off the mark. Vilnn’s friends, it seemed, also already had robotic dolls of their own. At least from the pre-recorded dance moves they were demonstrating as the children who owned them liked to show off. All of the other dolls and toys looked polished and painted, not like the well-worn and deeply loved look that Ginny gave off.
Oh well, Ginny could handle anything that came her way and would protect Vilnn to the best of its ability. I didn't need to worry about them anymore.
---
- The story of how the U'lennea came to be -
Long before the Tela rose to power, the alien race currently known as the U'lennea fought for supremacy inside a petri dish of a crazed researcher.
The researcher, being well into her years and bored with her limited declining lot in life, enjoyed pitting her creations against each other. She was no longer employed by the top government research labs and had since been relegated to the natural ending all females of her forgotten race endured once their usefulness was used up.
Her race, resembling a very mobile adaptation of Earth’s sea urchin, had a rigid spiky shell structure with mobility limbs that could grow from any direction if given the space to break through the exoskeleton. Each metallic spike could act as a mouth, weapon, or needle as needed, letting the scientist gather hard-to-reach cells and viruses within creatures’ bodies or through dense layers of muck and soil. Her race was well suited for the very rough environment of her planet, one that most other aliens would consider being a living hell.
Her planet, or collection of planets, were all set evenly and closely spaced in orbit around an ancient angry star. The order and layout of the surrounding solar system were strange, even to an uneducated budding astronomer’s eye, as it was almost as though the solar system had been created by a being who wanted to imitate the life cycle of a virus, setting the gapped planets up as living heavenly bodies with which to tempt the aggressive creatures and beings to strive to continually migrate between.
It was a trial by fire existence and the natives thrived in it or died.
This habitat existed for ages until the LOW arrived.
Upon arrival, the LOW studied the solar system in depth before picking out one species they considered viable for Uplifting and subjugation. They needed able bodies to carry out their research of the anomalous solar system, seeing as most expeditions to any of the planets tended to end in disaster. They set the researcher’s kind up as the alpha race, teaching them about technology, and how to catalog and delve into the mysteries of the necklace of planets on their behalf. The LOW paid the newly Uplifted species for their discoveries and any of the harvested oddities located deep in the planet’s core.
Reaping the benefits as time passed while keeping their distance.
The LOW understood the dangers. They had been around long enough to see the markings of intelligence and power either ancient beyond comprehension or an outside influence not native to this dimension. They had already cataloged many odd instances and creatures in the past, some viable for study, while others merely a deathtrap, originating from unknown sources.
The Leva were one such example, a serpent-like life form that could live in any environment due to the oddity of their flesh having no link to any element in the cosmos. Leva were docile monsters normally but were known to become alpha predators if given the right, or wrong incentives, depending on the leading LOW scientist’s opinion at the time. Through trial and error, the LOW had learned to take a distanced approach when gleaning priceless information from potentially hazardous anomalies.
The decision to let the natives bear the burden of the possible eventual doom was perfectly acceptable, as spying and keeping tabs on discoveries made was a simple task. This method had been used before and was proven to be an excellent model for research.
Thus, just as the LOW used the researcher’s race to fight against the other species of hostile creatures thriving throughout the necklace of planets, so did the researcher pit her little cell science projects against other neighboring hostile cells. It was a learned behavior, a trait that she had picked up from her kind’s powerful benefactors.
The main difference, though, was that she was solely viewing the suffering and battles of her petri dish entities for enjoyment, in contrast to the clinical and unemotional approach of the LOW.
It is interesting how this torturous form of entertainment, of pleasure at seeing another creature’s suffering under impossible circumstances could change the nature of what occurred on the day that the researcher received a fresh uninspected batch of core samples containing new cells for study.
A core sample containing a microscopic sample of the entity known as Corruption.
The sample was so small, so insignificant, that it didn’t even bear an active connection to its original host. It was just a byproduct or hint of its essence, having somehow visited the planet in ages past or been brought there by one of its creations.
Yet, still, this insignificant sample was enough to change the fate of the researcher’s entire species and the rise of the alien race known as the U'lennea.
In the moments after she fed the sample to one of her test subjects, she was unaware of the additional essence within the sample and what the slime of Corruption would do to that one batch of cells.
It would grant them an insidious awareness.
A quasi-consciousness, driven by a yearning for purpose and understanding, seized the opportunity. Upon her next inspection of the petri dish enclosure, it leaped at the lowered needle appendage, bridging the gap as it had learned to do when infiltrating other neighboring cell culture dishes, and entering the researcher’s body. What followed was the birth of something both wondrous and dreadful. It swiftly overwhelmed the researcher’s form, embracing its newfound pleasure and purpose while assimilating her darker traits: The pleasure she derived from the suffering of others, whom she/it deemed inferior to itself.
In a mere matter of years, the researcher’s entire species fell under its sway, being invaded and molded into a new creation. The LOW observed with curiosity as the species underwent a profound transformation, attributing it to an evolutionary shift long overdue and not to the unseen force spreading like a cancer. They witnessed the rapid and violent spread of change, culminating not only in the establishment of a stable rulership over the necklace of planets but in the complete subjugation of all other life forms for their benefit. The newly self-declared U'lennea asserted their independence, cementing their ownership of their solar system.
Then came the pivotal moment when the U'lennea requested and gained the knowledge of spacecraft, unleashing upon the cosmos a time of suffering. Could the LOW have intervened? Undoubtedly. They possessed the power to prevent untold agony as the U'lennea traversed from system to system, subjecting native populations to violent and grotesque experiments before moving onward.
Yes, the LOW possessed the capability to halt the U'lennea’s rampage, had they truly comprehended the unfolding events. However, they viewed the U'lennea as a means of population control—a predatory force akin to a wolf in the cosmic wilderness. The primary reason the LOW refrained from intervening was due to the U'lennea’s policy of non-extermination when dealing with other alien species; they functioned more like an intelligent virus, spreading and assessing the strength and capabilities of their host before moving on.
Whether they found the host weak or strong in their presence, it did not matter. They would move on, seeking more entertainment. New conquest.
As time marched on, the U'lennea grew in intellect, evolving into a formidable and cunning adversary. They possessed a keen intelligence and a belligerent disposition, offering their services to other races in exchange for sustenance and resources. Mercenary work suited them well, relishing the role of being a weapon aimed at others.
Their power and coveted knowledge made them formidable foes and distant allies, as they held insights into the weaknesses of most species.
To some of the Tela, a race who had left behind their natural bodies and who were more naturally not inclined to war, the use of a species who would strike fear into the hearts of their enemies just by their existence was a useful tool, eliminating the need for direct engagement.
---
-Present day in the battle surrounding the artifact-
“Commander, the U'lennea have begun to disperse attack ships from their dreadnaughts! They are spreading out towards every ship like a wave.” came a warning cry from a Lesser Jaz’era, its sharp appendages hovering over its ultra-sensitive hairlike controls as it prepared for its next command.
The Jaz’era Prime Commander’s fur stood on end along its spine, showing heightened stress and reception to sound. It was wondering if this next battle would mean the end of its subfamilies kind.
The original Jaz’era were naturally deaf, having been spawned in a viscous environment where sound was deadened to the point of obscurity. It wasn’t until the Jaz’era’s species left this environment that they encountered threats that required the Queen to create new subfamilies lest the hive face extinction. The Jaz’era Queen modified her deaf species, enabling it to use its fur to sense the vibrations of the world around them, effectively turning their entire back into an exposed eardrum. This adaptation gave rise to a subfamily capable of detecting new threats, eventually leading to beneficial interactions with other intelligent species and even the ability to engage in trade and commerce. As time went on, the new, more observant subfamily of Jaz’era had weaned the hive of the old, outdated subfamilies, proving their worthiness in combat against their less observant siblings. This growth in the hive had allowed the new “sound observant” subfamily access to the Queen and rights to the genetic breeding pools, further cementing their dominance as a viable genetic improvement.
As the new gene grew stronger the Jaz’era grew even more hypersensitive to sound, able to hear whispered messages and signals throughout their ships, making them formidable logistics observers as they could make out what was going on simply by letting a patch of their fur absorb sound coming in its direction from any angle and filtering it through one of their formidable compact brains.
Stolen novel; please report.
Their hive had discovered a powerful competitive advantage, both in space trade and combat, and let it mature and develop within its genetic code. They were one of the most feared and formidable alien superpowers, commanding respect and holding authority in their claimed territory of the cosmos.
That is until the U'lennea showed up and attacked their fearsome space fleets.
In the present day, their ship’s hulls were perfectly sealed to block any sound or weapon that might attempt to excite the internal environment as a weapon. It hadn’t taken the U'lennea long, once they captured the first Jaz’era vessel to develop several surgical weapons against the hypersensitive praying mantis-like beings. The U'lennea's attacks and experiments on the Jaz'era were so harmful and painful that they completely transformed the hive. Now, every Jaz'era understood their current subfamily’s vulnerability and accepted that when confronting the U'lennea, who were skilled at exploiting weaknesses, no sacrifice was too large to maintain a strong front.
The current Jaz’era feared the U'lennea, not because of the pain and suffering that they received, but because it meant that the Queen would soon replace them all once she developed a better subfamily. Nothing was worse than having failed your Queen by not being the perfect tool to carry out her desires.
Thus, the current subfamily did everything they could, attempting to find advantages they might utilize to maintain their viability. They traded far and wide for possible tools and technology to shore up holes in their defenses. In training for combat, every Jaz’era had to witness historical documents and recordings taken when the U'lennea first invaded their system. Every soldier and commander had to understand what they were going to be fighting against.
The evil that was heading their way.
“All crew, I regret that this time has come. The U'lennea are at our burrows again and we must not abandon the Queen. I recommend, but can not order, you to put on our new parasite in defense. Regardless of your choice, may the Queen have mercy on us all.” the Commander uttered as he let the sensitive fur on his spine part down the middle to expose his spine.
From a squishy living pouch attached to his belly, the commander cut a tiny slug out of the durable cocoon, being kept alive by living off of its host’s blood. He raised it to the back of his neck and pressed it against his spinal column, feeling the little razor-sharp teeth as it bit through his fur and into his flesh, digging its way into his nerves.
No longer would this Commander be able to ever use his fur to hear the world around him, as the little critter let tiny tendrils connect to his sensory nerves, taking over and giving him its version of hearing. Now and forever after, this Commander and every last one of his crew who accepted the parasite would only be able to hear through the slowly blooming organ on their back as the parasite broke apart and spread little ear lobes to catch the sounds of the world around it.
The parasite offered perfectly regulated sound, keeping decibels at an acceptable level for the Jaz’era and not letting the U'lennea attack with sonics at the cost of losing their most formidable sensory ability for the rest of their life as the tendrils crept completely through their spinal columns, slowly eating the old way of hearing and replacing it with its own filtered version.
To a species who had once lived through an invasion by the U'lennea, having a sense cut out from their body for the rest of their lives was a worthy sacrifice if it avoided what was to come if they fell into the hands of their enemy.
---
It didn’t take my escort long to figure out that something was wrong with my body. All it took was one of them pointing their sensitive ears directly at my space suit while speaking to notice that the material that I was in absorbed the sound hollowly rather than bouncing it back like a solid object might. To say that they found it interesting would have been an understatement, as I kept finding them poking and prodding at me when they wouldn’t think I would notice. That and clicking oddly, generating a sound well beyond human hearing when we passed groups of Blidda, laughing to themselves as the other Blidda’s faces changed in confusion. To them, I might have seemed like a ghost to their natural radar.
“Cilenzha, stop that, or you might anger him.” One of the escorts kept saying to the younger of the pair. The other escorts had left, off to take care of the occupation that they had before they had been “voluntold” to help track down the alien’s lost body box. I didn’t mind the distraction, feeling appreciation for having something novel and ordinary to keep my mind from returning to the stress of worrying about a stray gold cr bullet shredding the Skii in my charge. So far, all I felt was calm reassurance from Nurse that everything was being taken care of. The pangs of pain were being kept from me whenever the General would let loose another salvo.
Seeing someone, a young Blidda alien nonetheless, unbound by the stress of command and being happy to just be alive and out of their pods was a breath of fresh air to me.
They didn’t seem to be taking me to the command deck of the ship, rather leading me to an offshoot that my internal map designated as a “vehicle bay”. The map was provided by Meditati and she seemed to be holding her breath about something, being oddly quiet for a change. Probably in anticipation as to what she knew would be waiting for me at the end of this request.
“Here.” The older of the pair said as she swung her body around, deftly grabbing at handholds to invert her acceleration next to a large closed door. She spoke, or rather rapidly sang some clipped notes at the panel, deactivating the lock and making the door start to cycle. The second the doors parted even just a sliver both her and Cilenzha’s skin lost all color. From within, shrill sonic screams could be heard, and the sound of many Blidda crying, bawling their eyes out.
Within the room, there was a screen blocking any sight of what lay within. It looked like all I needed to do was to step within and slide my hand through a seam and I could part it and slip through. I did so, hearing the older of the two tell Cilenzha that they had to get away and that it wasn’t their battle to win before they both helped each other escape. The door zipped shut rapidly as soon as I made it past the vision lock, sealing the noise in and revealing to me what lay within the massive hangar.
A huge observation space had been set up within the empty hangar. Screens, maps, schematics, and all manner of planning diagrams were on display on all the walls. From a glance, I could tell what and where the center of attention was directed at.
It was all focused around the artifact, or had been until something had changed. Now, on six screens there were live and replay feeds of what had happened and was currently happening onboard Blidda vessels that had attempted to join the war efforts to loot the artifact.
The replaying screens were within the last hour when the U'lennea had begun their assault in earnest. Several of the Blidda ships, along with countless other alien vessels, had been intercepted and boarded. The screams were from those replays, of the crew being attacked by an overwhelming force.
The U'lennea were fast aliens. They showed no hesitation or remorse when one of their group died from a Blidda weapon. Death of a comrade, it seemed, would simply instantly cause the others nearby to adapt, like a school of fish moving in sync, taking countermeasures against whatever weapon was used. Even their boarding vessels seemed odd, almost reminding me of Phage with how they would ram into the Blidda’s craft before pumping out their boarding party like a full needle being forcibly plunged into a body.
It was the most Navy Seal and Borg thing I had ever seen.
The crying sound, of dozens of adult Blidda bawling into their hands or staring at the ceiling, came from what they were observing on the live feeds. Some of the victorious U'lennea were attached to the stunned or downed Blidda. From what I could make out, it looked like a human-sized sea urchin had attached itself to the Blidda and was… doing things with its spines and odd tentacle limbs.
“What?” My voice croaked dryly before I cleared my throat, impossibly imagining it being parched in this situation, even though I was a hollow avatar of myself. “What the heck are they doing to those Blidda?” I asked as I saw the tentacle swipe a tiny blade along the exposed skin of the Blidda. It seemed to be studying and tasting the blood before it slapped a clear paste over the wound and moved on to another part of the Blidda’s body, punching a spike deep within.
“It is what the Blidda do. They capture and torture. Sometimes the torture ends in death… but most times it simply leaves a husk of the person that existed before, having suffered too much to return to life as they were before.” Kiv said, finally revealing herself from where she had been standing near a wall console.
Her voice was odd.
Even her eyes and expression were odd. She looked out of it. Drugged.
“Meditati, what is going on here?” I asked, freezing time around me as I jumped into VR. I kept the environment the same, wanting time to walk around the room to study everything for myself. Meditati popped into existence and exhaled a long breath.
Yeah, she had been holding it the whole time it seemed.
“She is drugged. She asked me to do it to allow her to keep her head during all of this.” She said as she pointed to a little indent above Kiv’s collarbone near a dark vein. That was where the site of the monitored injection was.
“And her sister Jelesv?”
“She is in the infirmary, sedated and recovering. She couldn’t take the stress.”
“So what is going on? Why do you seem… odd about all of this?”
“Kevin… I am still me, yet changed, because of you. I honestly don’t care for much of the aliens in the universe, simply seeing them as I always have, as a source of data. With you, and being a part of your world though, I care for what you care for. For your humans, and slightly for the Blidda. Not enough to get involved or to swoop in and try to save the day. It just isn’t in my programming.”
“So, what? All of this is data?”
“In a way, yes. Even Nurse is still who she was, although, I have recently observed that she has changed drastically since my earlier baselines. She would have consumed everything at the start. Now… I don’t know.”
I walked around the room, observing the monitors and studying each in turn. Most of the Blidda who were wracked with full-on cries had their eyes glued to one large screen to the side. To my eyes, all it looked like was a schematic with many different colored dots. Possibly crew locator beacons?
“What is going on here?”
“You know how the Blidda move and act as colonies?” Meditati asked slowly.
“Yes?”
“That is a current representation of the hibernation pods. Those crew that were kept in stasis and out of combat.” Meditati said, causing the colors to be labeled and exact data to show what each shade of color meant.
“Oh no.” I softly muttered as it all became clear to me. The U'lennea were hauling off the old, the weak, and the children.
I felt my heart break a tiny bit as I looked at the ages denoting the colors. There was a small grouping of three pods being taken by one of the U'lennea, and each of their ages was under five years old.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of those little dots, frozen in time as they were halfway to the anchored U'lennea ship, ready to be whisked away to an uncertain horror.
“So, what? Those lives aren’t worth saving?” I asked, feeling a heat rising inside me. It needed direction, and I was trying to not point it at Meditati.
“They are, but you have to understand that no one should take away free will. Their parents put them in this position. Each layer of the Blidda colony has a choice about who should lead. Yes, the end decision is on the commander, but all choices have consequences. Do you think that choice should be removed from the equation of life?” She asked, tilting her head sideways at me.
She knew my answer, just as I knew that she was right. It didn’t make the situation right though. I knew I would try my best to help.
“Kevin?” Nurse’s voice interrupted my spiraling thoughts.
“Mmm? Yes, Nurse?”
“I can get a part of your swarm there faster.”
“What? How?” I asked, all my attention on the opal eyed girl that appeared in front of me. She was holding a child’s toy and was smiling as she flexed the sides of it over and over again. The toy was a geometric, expandable ball made of interlocking plastic parts that could collapse into a small ball and expand into a large, hollow sphere.
“With this Hoberman Sphere.” She said, naming the toy as she started to change its makeup, changing out the plastic parts for swarm ants locking their legs together. Once all of the plastic had vanished, she let go, allowing the ball to hover in the air as it began to flicker and pulse, seemingly in both open and closed states at once.
“Is it opening and closing?” I asked, stunned at the speed that it was displaying.
“Yes. It can launch you at such a speed to get some extra swarm to the battleground faster than originally planned. It will damage the swarm that launches you though, as we will be pushing the mechanical force past its breaking point, using swarm joints as well as obsidian cr propulsion at its maximum, but once the swarm consumes some gold cr everything will be returning to normal.” She said, showing a mass of swarm being launched in the direction of the event like a rocket.
“Stopping will be another thing, leaving you with a fraction of the total swarm.” She said as the launched mass created another smaller Hoberman Sphere and repeated the process after it had passed everything, except in the opposite direction, dropping off a tiny amount at the far edge of the battle arena.
“I mean, with that technique, you could practically kill everyone in the area. It would be just like using a shotgun on a wasp’s nest… “Meditati started to say before waving her hand in the air when she saw me looking at her. “Not that you would want to do that though.”
“How much would be left for me to use?”
“Enough, about the mass of a medium strike craft.”
“And how long would backup take to arrive?”
“Longer than if we didn’t use this technique. They will be expending most of their energy reserves while blowing their limbs off. Healing will be rapid, further depleting their reserves and making our gold cr stocks vanish. A side trip to a star would be advised to replenish everything.” Nurse said as she looked up at me.
“But it will get you there faster.”
I glanced at the still frozen image of the three Blidda children being hauled away, feeling my resolve harden and rage bubbling within me.
“Do it. Also, Nurse, please take over this body and let Kiv know that I will do my best.”
“Always Kevin.” Nurse said as I left, letting her take over as I returned to my tiny drone body that was heading towards the battle.
“Always remember that what happens isn’t your fault.” She whispered to the empty avatar in front of her. Her large eyes pulsing different colors as she reached up to tenderly cup the side of the empty husk’s face, Meditati and her shared a moment as they both understood what was to come.
The U’lennea were well known for their lack of mercy and cunning.