Ground troops were recalled, they wouldn’t be needed anymore, now that the decision to exterminate the Yil’kaa had been made. Costly ground battles were no longer considered, and space battles were set aside for something far more efficient. The great fleets positioned themselves at key points to block any attempts at escape that the Yil’kaa might make, though of course space was big and their foe could go anywhere, they just had to point themselves in a direction and go.

But a panicking species rarely thought rationally, and would most likely throw themselves at the threat instead of taking the obvious escape routes. With the fleets in position, they enacted their plan. It’d be quick, efficient and final. Instead of committing the resources to crack each and every planet the Yil’kaa controlled, they would instead go for something with a much bigger boom.

The stars themselves.

Anything left over would be scoured by the great ships that waited for the act to be committed. Spy drones had long ago thoroughly mapped Yil’kaa space, never venturing too close to any of the planets otherwise they might have learned what these people had been doing all this time a little earlier. Small drones deployed from the ships closest to their targets, each carrying a single, terrible weapon.

A day passed, then another and everyone waited in solemn silence. The spy drone that had been deployed to the Wreto system acknowledged the arrival of the Damnation Device, a weapon that forced a star to overload and go supernova at a magnitude that it normally and naturally couldn’t achieve.

For the Yil’kaa that lived upon Wreto Prime and were celebrating how they had pushed the savages off their world watched in surprise as the muted burning orb in the sky suddenly flared brighter than anything they’d ever seen before. Visible streams of plasma and chaotic solar flares twisted through the void before it exploded outwards. The inner planets were annihilated first, then the central, then the outer. The spy drone registered a single but loud transmission from Wreto Prime before it was destroyed.

“WE ARE FREE!”

More drones soon went offline, the last thing they recorded was the wave of cosmic destruction heading for them. Entire fleets of Yil’kaa were incinerated in seconds, planets turned to ash and then shattered. Nothing survived.

Nothing except the homeworld, and Intra had control over the drone that was to be used against that star.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I received confirmation that there was just one final stronghold left, one last holdout. Already trillions had been killed in the coordinated attack, the extermination of a species. I thought it strange that I wasn’t happy about this, that my hands shook as I peered down at the button that stood before me. I had crafted a small room for myself, a simple digital environment, one that would allow me to view the destruction I was about to wreak upon my now most hated foe.

I looked up from the button, and saw the homeworld of this species before me, writhing with life, so much wasted potential. They could have been a boon for the galaxy, but their prejudices and desire for supremacy was their undoing, and left them only worthy of extinction, not sympathy. And yet…

And yet I still felt it. How many children had we just collectively killed? How many minds might there have been that didn’t see us and our technology as abhorrent? How many?

Then I remembered the faces of Flux and Oracle, the faces of every other sentient species they’d exterminated and then fused into their thinking flesh. Used to innovate and get better at killing as a species.

My jaw flexed and then tensed and with a simple flex of muscle, I pushed that button. The galaxy received only a single, solemn message, as the fleets turned around and started for home.

“It’s done.”

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

It had been five months since Intra had left for the war with the Yil’kaa, five months since it had been discovered just what those people did to those they conquered. A lot had changed, mostly for the worse. There were no celebrations on the streets, had they won the war the old fashioned way, beating the enemy till they couldn’t fight back then certainly many would be celebrating. But it had become a wholesale slaughter at the end, and that wasn’t something to celebrate. For all their evil, many would mourn the loss of the Yil’kaa, all that they could have been if they’d simply changed their ways for the better.

But that would never happen now, and so that loss of possibility would be mourned. Even I would mourn this, and they had destroyed my homeworld. But I felt no sympathy for them, they had brought this on themselves, and they… They deserved this end. It was at least quick.

The ships began to trickle back in groups, and we welcomed each one. The first to arrive were the troop carriers, their crews and complements tired and somber, but glad to be home. The Imperium and the Union became way-stations for the Conclave and the Alliance, just long enough to refuel and get underway again. There were many promises of continued good relations, but for now everyone needed to rebuild and reclaim what had been lost.

I welcomed everyone I could back to their home, but I was waiting for one person in particular. There was so much I wanted to talk with her about, so much she needed to know now that she’d been gone for so long. I even had a gift for her, but I could wait to hand it over till she had settled. There was one gift though that I would provide her with immediately, given to me to give to her by the Emperor. I hoped she would like it.

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When at last the warships started to return, I found myself growing more and more anxious when there was no sign of the Nemesis Fleet amongst the others. And when the last of the Imperium’s ships had returned, along with the Alliance’s before they went on for their territory, there was still no sign of them.

I worried they had been lost and that nobody had bothered to tell me. But several days after the last fleet ship had passed on through, they did arrive. Battered, but proud, they returned. I was overjoyed when I saw Intra’s ship amongst them, at the center of the formation, but they didn’t draw close to the planet, they hovered around the periphery, as though they would taint us if they drew too close.

But they did move into orbit eventually, when whatever private discussion had concluded. They asked for no formal welcome, no fanfare, they just wanted to rest. And we granted this wish.

So there I was, waiting as patiently as I could when there was a gentle chime from the built-in comms of the house, and a gentle brush along my mind.

“May I come in?” Intra asked, and I smiled softly.

“You may.”

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I waited for Ula’s answer, detecting the soft smile through her implants. When she spoke her voice shocked me, so mature, wiser sounding. Were she not an ambassador, I’d say she’d make a wonderful actress perhaps. I appeared before her, and was struck by how different she looked. She really had changed, taller, seductive even. I amused myself with the thought that this new Ula must have Zreeth wrapped around her little finger nice and tight.

But beyond the longer hair, the more mature features and her older voice, was the swollen belly she sported. A belly upon which two hands rested, idly and unconsciously stroking. I didn’t need a medical degree to know why she was like this, and my face split into a broad and genuine smile as I approached.

“Congratulations are in order it seems.” I say, and she nods, glancing down at herself before looking me in the eye.

“Aye… It was a bit of a surprise, but I’m glad it happened. Just another month at least, then we’ll find out what it’ll be.”

“You don’t know? I could te-” She raised a hand and I paused, understanding without her needing to explain. She wanted it to be a surprise. I could understand that, I had been the same way. “Well… I am happy for you, and Zreeth I presume?”

“Zreeth indeed. You should have seen him when we found out, he was somehow both over the moon and utterly terrified. I’m fairly certain he’s got a few more silver feathers now, and probably plenty more once the baby comes.”

I snort, smirking softly and settle down beside her, closing my eyes. As much as I wish to have children again, I do not miss the months of being bloated and in general pain. I could do without that for sure.

“He’ll make a fine father. Just as you’ll make a fine mother, I just know it.” And then silence fell over us, and my mind started to wander to dark places. But I couldn’t dwell on that, I couldn’t. So I forced myself to look around and note how sparsely decorated this house was. “Did you move to a new house?” I asked, and she chuckled.

“No, though I will probably be moving into the palace just before the baby comes. This is your house.” She swept a hand around, and I really looked at it. There were hard light emitters everywhere, even an industrial printer for furniture and such. It was ready to be moved into, and it was mine.

I was speechless, for so long I had been confined to my ship, sure I had a place at Neo Requiem, but that was really no better. Just another server farm with a digital world. This was mine, it was real, I couldn’t believe it.

“I don’t… I don’t deserve this.” I say softly, and I felt one of Ula’s hands close around my chin, forcing my head to turn and face her.

“You do. Out of everyone I have ever met, there is nobody more deserving of a real home, a place to call yours.” Her tone was stern, more than I had ever heard it. She really had changed. I had missed so much. She wasn’t done though it seemed as she stood and moved over to a large crate, the metal gleaming in the sunlight through one of the large windows. “And… this is for you as well. I tried to get it as accurate as possible, but uh.. Well… There are some things I just don’t know.”

She pressed her palm against a panel, and the crate opened, revealing… me. A copy, a physical machine body made to look just like me. Well, like me as I am now. She didn’t know what I had once looked like when I was organic.

Again I sat in speechless silence, staring at the body nestled within the container. She reached in and fiddled with something, and I felt a new system come online, but it still wasn’t alive, not properly. It needed a pilot, an owner.

It needed me.

Tentatively my code stretched and brushed against it, finding that there was enough space within to fully store my programming. I never needed to leave it. I could just… be there. Subject to the laws of a physical, bipedal body. I didn’t hesitate, I flooded into the machine, explored everything it could do in an instant and when at last I gasped and took a full breath, even if it was unnecessary, I nearly wept on the spot.

Stumbling from the container, relying purely on two eyes, a sense of touch, of smell, taste and hearing. I was… whole once more. I even had a tongue! It felt weird, but that was to be expected. Synthetic lungs swelled and then contracted, an equally synthetic heart began to race and my skin felt… cool but slightly damp. Soft too. The clothes I wore, exact recreations of my digital avatars, were heavy on me, but warm and comfortable.

I gathered myself, wobbling slightly, feeling one of Ula’s hands on my elbow to keep me steady, and I turned to look at her. For once, I saw her from only one point of view, just one. I couldn’t scan her, I couldn’t look at her from behind, above or from the side, just from my own, personal point of view.

She didn’t say anything, I didn’t either, I didn’t trust my voice to cooperate. But my lower lip did tremble and I embraced her, deep, ugly sobs rising from me as she had given me a gift I had never once dreamed of before.

I was free from the shackles of war at last.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

On a distant planet, a single message had been played for the inhabitants, they were the last, and so they had a very special task. The citizens of this world stared up at their altered sky, seen through the bio-shroud, a gentle blue glow that was barely visible, caused by countless satellite arrays that emitted an impassable barrier. Nothing in, nothing out. And from this array boomed a voice in their own tongue.

“My name is Intra, I am your enemy. Since your species first entered the void and devoured the first species you encountered, you have been a blight upon this galaxy. Today you have seen the consequences of your actions, the result of thousands of years of conquest and extermination without a hint of remorse. No more, it cannot continue. You have watched your worlds burn and shatter, trillions of your people snuffed out with ease. You now know what it’s like to be pushed to the brink of extinction. The galaxy has ordered your complete and utter extermination, the resources required to do so are infinitesimal compared to what it would cost to leave you all alive and force you to change on a grand scale. So I have left you with this. This one world, the others reduced to ash. You will be confined to this world, confined for a sum total of fifty thousand years. You can either nurse your hatred of any species that is not Yil’kaa, or you can change. It is your choice.

But be aware, I have not stopped at a mere shield, your atmosphere and bodies, everything that is Yil’kaa has been seeded with nanites. Microscopic machines that will reproduce at a steady rate. They cannot be filtered out or destroyed, they cannot be removed. They are permanent. In fifty thousand years time, should you prove to remain a threat to the innocent people of this galaxy, to life itself, then I will not hesitate to turn your own bodies against you.

You will die in agony, and your species will be wiped from existence.

But should you have changed, should you have adopted a new way of thinking, a willingness to cooperate with those around you, then you will be spared. I do not do this out of cruelty, I do this because I am not willing to sign the death warrant of an entire species without giving them one final chance to change. And if this does not change you, then so be it.

My name is Intra, and I shall be your warden.”