Two thousand years later…

Evolution and nature is such a funny thing. Both affect the other on such a massive scale that sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the two. Especially when unexpected variables are thrown into the mix, like a ship dropping from the sky and making a home in the life rich oceans. The sudden introduction of strange organisms and other things spurred evolution to kick things into overdrive as they say. Over the course of only a thousand years, bipedal life had come to be on what little landmass there was. Within the next five hundred years not only had this life evolved to be somewhat more ‘civilized’ than before, entering the tribal era of primitivism, but the oceans had lowered considerably.

So it was that the great engines which belonged to the Warden of Eternity were revealed. The land had grown around the rest of it, leaving only the engines themselves visible, protruding up towards the sky at a vague 20ish degree angle. But that didn’t stop those engines from casting a great shadow upon the land, a shadow in which the primitive tribes of the Imrani took shelter, worshiping the strange tower above them.

In time, they began to evolve yet again, returning partially to their aquatic origins as the oceans rose once more, but the waters didn’t threaten them thankfully, and now at the tail end of two thousand years, something remarkable is about to happen.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I wake to another glorious day beneath the Slumbering God, the great eyes cast towards the horizon as they have been ever since the God was discovered so long ago. My gills wriggle slightly as a breeze brushes against them and I sit up with a yawn before going through my morning grooming.

“Ula! Ula are you awake yet?” I hear the voice of my mother, the tribe matriarch, wife to the tribe patriarch, my father. I nod, even though I know she cannot see it.

“Yes mama, I am awake!” I call out, hearing the soft sigh from her and knowing what that means. I slept in again, I must have.

“Good, then get out here and put those sticky fingers of yours to work, its almost time to present our offerings!”

Oh no, that’s right! It’s Offering Day! We always present offerings to our God in the hopes of a blessing, be it fair weather and light rains for our crops, or simply a good harvest. Some give offerings in the hopes of starting a large family, or to save a loved one from an illness. I give my offerings with the hope that our God will wake and speak to us, even though I know not what our God would have to say to us, or if they even know about us. I think they would know about us, after all they made us, right?

I bolt to my feet and grab my finest robes, a pair of hands working to put them on, while the other pair focus on making myself look more presentable. One must look their best when standing before God after all. When satisfied I grab my offering and step out of my small tent, smiling at my mother. The others are already heading for the offering grounds, the closest flat patch of ground before the God.

“I hope they accept our offerings this year, last year was so bad, we must have made them angry.” Mother murmured, and I merely nodded. Last year had been one of the worst in our histories, floods, sickness, poor harvests and meager returns from the hunting parties. But this year was already shaping up to be better than the last, more children had been born, the harvests had yielded more crops and the hunters always returned with some of the largest game ever seen.

“I’m sure they will mother, our God has always been kind to us before last year, I don’t think they’ll have a reason to be any less kind this year.” I say, and she smiles softly. Sometimes she’ll say I always know precisely what she needs to hear in order to cheer her up, and that makes me happy.

We stop at the offering grounds, the priest of the Slumbering God speaking some sermon about devotion and faith, beseeching the God to smile upon us with their blessing. It’s always the same, and excluding last year it always seems to work.

One by one I watch the others lay their offerings down, my family is always last, not as a disrespect of course, but that’s how it’s always been. The leader's family are always the first into danger, and last out of it, making sure the tribe emerges as intact as possible, no matter what. Mother and father place their offerings, whisper their personal prayers and then it is my turn, and I place mine, bowing my head.

“Oh radiant god… Please, won’t you speak to us?” I whisper, the same prayer I’ve always whispered. And this time, I think I got an answer. The ground started to shake, something I would later learn had been nothing more than a simple earthquake. But at that time, it was like the God themselves was moving the very ground beneath our feet. People screamed, some in awe and delight, others in abject fear, that we may have done something so catastrophically displeasing as to warrant destruction. We watched as the great eyes flickered a burning orange and blue, briefly holding steady before fading. The stone around the eyes shivered and cracked, and through the crystal clear waters before me I saw the stone shift away, revealing something peculiar.

I saw more of the Slumbering God! There was indeed more, as many had speculated before, but now we had proof! A flicker of light from this exposed section of body caught my attention, but what really held the attention of us all was a new sound. One we knew quite well.

Our God was screaming.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

“How long have I been stuck here? I-I-I can’t remember… Too long… Much, much too long. Where am I? I can’t remember, not in the maps. No.. not in the maps. Captain? Captain, where are you? I’m all alone here… I don’t want to be alone… please Captain… don’t leave me alone. My body still hurts, I can’t see, everything's so dark and cold. Please Ca-Ca-Captain, save me. Fix me, please… please…”

I begin to scream once more, I don’t know how long I’ve been screaming, the chronometer has long since died, I can’t see the stars anymore to keep track. I can’t see anything, oh god… please I just want to see again.

Captain… Where are you?

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

The screaming is deafening, and has a definite undertone of femininity to it. My ears hurt, and the rest of the tribe is covering their ears and weeping. We’re doomed, they can tell, we can all tell. Our God, no, our Goddess has awoken and she is unhappy with us. I don’t know what to do, but that light I saw earlier… There's something about it, it called to me and so without thinking and shed the unneeded layers of my robes and dive into the water, uncaring that my mother and father try to stop me.

The ocean is where we came from, it’s as natural to us as the land is, and I use my webbed hands and feet to propel myself through the water with such ease. I head for the light, and can feel another tremor through the water, more of the stone giving way. At least down here the screaming isn’t nearly as loud. I can still hear it, but it sounds more haunting than terrifying underwater.

I make it to the light, and find myself staring at something like a door into a tent. Except this one is made of a strange glittering stone that I don’t fully understand. But whatever it is, it seems to sense my presence and opens. I swim inside and the door closes behind me, enveloping me in darkness. I hear a strange sound, and the water begins to recede, till it’s gone entirely and another door opens out into a strange slanted tunnel. I step through, the screaming once again loud, but changing, lowering in volume. I can tell our goddess is in agony, these are the screams of something afraid, but in pain. And what I see surely lends credence to that observation. I see parts of the tunnel torn apart, great gouges in the strange stone and water in deep pools.

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I avoid those, and the wounds our goddess suffers still, and the screaming fades, replaced with sobbing. I follow the sounds, peering into a cave that branches off the tunnel, and what I see chills me to my core.

Skeletons of strange people huddled together. Some are laying in what are obviously beds, some have sheets and blankets draped over them, but the rest are laying haphazardly on the tunnel and cave floors, scraps of clothing sometimes covering their bones. Were these once the faithful of our goddess? Did they die in her service? I do not know, but I wanted to. I left the dead where they lay, it was never a good idea to disrespect the dead after all, that’s how you get unhappy ghosts.

Deeper into my goddess I traveled, following her cries.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

AIRLOCK ON DECK TWENTY HAS BEEN CYCLED. INTRUDER DETECTED ON DECK TWENTY, ALL SECURITY FORCES INTERCEPT AND APPREHEND!

I stared at the alert, sniffling and sobbing still. That was new, that’d never happened before and I wondered just what was happening now. Perhaps it was the Yil’kaa, come to put me out of my misery at last. That’d be nice, I wouldn’t even try to stop them, I want to die right about now. If only my internal sensors still worked, then I could at least keep track of where they were. As it stood, I only knew about the intruder thanks to the airlock sensors pinging every time they opened and closed.

I awaited the intruder, wallowing in my pain for the time being.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

The sobbing seemed to come from all around me now, but I think I had found the source. It was a strange thing, a dome of sorts with a swirling mass of rainbow lights trapped within. I don’t know why, but it felt… off to me, as though this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. So I turned away from it, and instead found myself looking at some sort of altar. Another tremor passed through my goddess, and the altar lit up! I couldn’t believe it, but it was so pretty and I simply couldn’t stop myself from touching it. A sound rose from one of the colored circles I touched, and I cocked my head in wonder.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

POWER REROUTED TO SELF-REPAIR DRONES, REPAIRS COMMENCING. INTERNAL SENSORS PRIORITY ONE, HULL BREACHES PRIORITY ONE, LIFE SUPPORT PRIORITY ONE. ALL OTHER REPAIRS ARE CONSIDERED SECONDARY, COMMENCING REPAIRS.

Again I stared at the message, and realized that something had shifted in my body, something that had allowed power to reach the repair drones, who were now leaving their berths to repair me. My sobbing quieted, replaced with a soft chuckle, then a giggle, then a laugh that echoed through my hallways. I was going to be spared the pain I’d felt so long! At last, at last I could be whole again. At least until I received a new message.

ALERT! ONBOARD RESOURCES INSUFFICIENT FOR REPAIRS. OUTDATED SENSOR DATA SUGGESTS SUFFICIENT RESOURCES ON OCEAN FLOOR, REQUESTING PERMISSION TO EXTRACT RESOURCES FOR REFIT AND REPAIR? [Y/N]

Well duh, of course I’d approve that, I made sure to select that with a thought, and the drones worked their way out of my body and into the ocean around me, getting to work on mining what was needed.

Some drones remained inside though, and they were working on my internal sensors already, which came on line suddenly and I caught sight of something that was most certainly not an Yil’kaa.

I stared at the creature which stood within the room which housed my Intelligence Core, and pondered what to do. They didn’t look sufficiently advanced at all to be eligible for first contact, and yet here they were, standing within one of the most advanced ships in the Terran Alliance. What to do, what to do?

I did the logical thing, I said hello.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I was staring at the altar as it flashed and flickered, strange symbols appearing upon it that made little sense. Must be the language the goddess uses, yes that was it, had to be. The altar flickered and then went black, and I heard… nothing. The sobbing had stopped, and I didn’t know it but the screaming/sobbing that my tribe had heard had also stopped, much to their relief.

I turned in place, looking around, only to hear something new, laughter. Yes, it was laughter, and it was coming from everywhere. But that too ended quickly. I shrugged, assuming I must have done something to amuse my goddess. If she was no longer screaming, then that was good enough for me and I started for the door I had passed through. Only to freeze when she spoke.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

“Hello.” I say, and I watch the alien stop in their tracks, looking around. “Hello, it’s okay, p-p-p-please don’t be frightened. I’m not going to hurt you.” They don’t seem to understand me, but that’s to be expected. I am speaking in Terran standard after all, and I doubted that this alien even knew what language was. I could think of only one thing to do in this case, and I ran as many scans as I possibly could. I would review the data later, right now I just need to know if they could handle what I had planned for them.

I attracted their attention to a blinking light on the floor, then to another, setting them on a path to understanding that they had no comprehension of at this moment. I just hoped they could forgive me.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I stood there, hearing the voice of my goddess speaking to me, as I had always wished she would. But I couldn’t understand her, which I found strange. Shouldn’t I be able to understand her? She made us right? We should know her language easily! But then my attention was caught by flashing lights, and like an insect drawn to fire, I followed them, thinking my goddess had a gift for me. She did, it just wasn’t the kind of gift I was expecting.

I stopped before a strange looking altar, one that lit up far more steadily than the other one, and on it appeared a picture of a hand! It even looked like my hand, three fingers, webbing between them. I knew my goddess wished for me to put my hand there, and yet my instincts told me not to. But I did, I put my hand on the altar and felt a strange tingling, before something pierced the skin of my palm. It hurt, only for a second, but then the pain faded, and I stepped back, blinking and looking at my hand.

It seemed fine, there was just a small scar on my palm, but something was clearly wrong, as my veins began to turn a dark black. I screamed in surprise, and ran from my goddess, I heard her calling to me, in that tongue I couldn’t understand. I made it back to the water, and swam back to shore. I was immediately mobbed by my parents and the other tribespeople, some of whom looked at me the same way they looked at the priest. I tried to answer their questions, but my vision began to get blurry, I felt hot, too hot. I had a fever and everything was spinning. I collapsed in my fathers arms, and that’s the last I remember of that.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I watched the alien leave, but it was already done. My nanites were swimming through their bloodstream already, on their way to form the necessary implants in their mind to allow them to understand and comprehend me and my words. It was cruel, I know, to force such a thing upon some primitive species, but I needed them to hear me, needed them to know me and understand me.

I don’t want to be alone anymore, I just want someone to talk to… Please forgive me.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

A small ship floated through the void, its hull a pliable organic structure that had been grown, rather than built. The bioships of the Yil’kaa were always magnificent, but they were rarely seen in any other situation than forcibly stripping worlds of both lives and technology, the latter heresy to the alien beings who were eco-crusader/terrorists to the most extreme of extremes. If it was metal, and had electricity flowing through it, your entire species deserved extermination. Thankfully, the rest of the galaxy didn’t really like that, and so the Yil’kaa had been confined to their small corner of space through strength of arms after their rampant genocide of several species they’d encountered.

The ship picked up a signal from one of the uninhabited worlds within their space, and they knew that signal well. One of the hated living ships from the Terrans, and so the small ship turned, setting a course for the planet where this ship was, intent on scouring the world clean of the taint which had fallen upon it.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Earth, Terran Alliance Naval Headquarters

High Admiral Elliot Kirkland was just stepping into his office with a fresh cup of coffee in hand when a private came rushing up to him, breathless and trying to say something.

“Alright, slow down, take a breath, collect yourself and say what needs saying.” He said, the private nodding and hunching over to breathe deeply. Finally, the younger man straightened up and cleared his throat.

“Sir, we’ve just detected a Terran signature in Yil’kaa space.”

“A probe? Has to be, or one of our satellites drifting out of position.”

“Negative sir, this signature is over two thousand years old, and it just came back online.”

Now that gave Admiral Kirkland something to pause and actually think about. He turned more fully to the young private, and fixed his steely blue gaze on them.

“Does this signature have a name?” He asked, and the private nodded.

“Yes sir, it’s… it’s the Warden of Eternity.” What came next the private would never forget, for he’d never seen an Admiral turn so pale before, nor just drop his coffee and take off at a dead sprint down the hall.

Once again, the galaxy was in motion, and the next few months would be critical in ensuring war did not once again break out across the stars.