History of the Galaxy II

[Jmenschenfresser]

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Official Story Thread:
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This is just to get rid of comments and what not. Please post only story Posts here. Not that we don't like comments and criticism, but there are ten players in this game, meaning lots of Posts. Those who have posted in the previous thread, please copy and paste your prefaces here.
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End of Transmission
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Preface:
2399.9

I am not a Good and Just god. Nor am I all-knowing or all-powerful. I promise little and I ask little. I know of no place called Heaven, but I do have in my power to invite those I choose to sup for all eternity at my table. No grander more elaborate castle exists than my own, but it isn't without end. Once the door is opened for them, they are welcome to stay as long as they like. I value the extraordinary and I value their stories.

I am Koei, Creator of Heru, great father of all five tribes. Gods are perhaps the oddest of things the universe sustains. I've never met another other than myself, but I am sure there are some. I've wandered through the galaxy in my spare time, seeing that there are other beings like my Heruvians. Of some, I must say, I am envious, but creation is a difficult, comical thing. I think no god can entirely fashion something in his own likeness. A creature loves nothing more than to will everything but what is.

I foresaw that this day would eventually come to pass. The Heru are resiliant and unwavering when moved by their own hearts. They are natural explorers, devourers, and conquerors. Like children, they are to me, touching and ingesting everything. Gods have nightmares. Would you like to know mine? I see the body of Heru, collecting worlds for its bed, languishing in hunger and thrashing about in thirst, breathing but saying nothing. Heru slowly dies; its body decays and with it, the universe.

A strange dream--the Heru, like the massless substance of the pillars of the universe. I have learned something from this dream. Creation promises destruction. Maybe it is the only promise I have given my people. There are those calling themselves my prophets who've written volumes on the future, but even they do not know that the end was not my blessing. Neither was it a curse. It simply is. Creation promises destruction...a true lesson to all who would form something new. With the beautiful birth of civilization, I unknowingly allowed apocalypse.

But I did foresee this day, and although I realize that it is a great step toward the realization of my worst fear, I rejoice with my people. Today, citizens of the Tribes leave their cradle. I will not plead innocent in this matter. I have pushed and prodded. I have whispered in the ears of those who'd listen. I foresaw it and I willed it. Those whose dreams are of unification morn, for the Tribes leave not as brother and sister, but as cold competitors. Separate paths to the multitude of stars, and although I know this day is bound by and insinuated by strife and division, days and years of hardship will come where they again must turn to one another, with palms open, and admit their essence is tribeless. Oh, the polarity of kin...how many cardinal directions does it have?

[geoschmo]

2390.0

In their natural habitat, the hive existed as a species of simple fungus. Evolving in the particularly harsh environment of a tiny moon orbiting a gas giant, they had developed many methods for adapting and exploiting any available materials. They developed a particularly complex method of electromagnetic communication between various members of the colony. Tendrils that were not in direct physical contact with each other could share information about available nutrients by these means over several meters of open space. Through this they formed a network over vast areas of their home planetoid.

Of course information shared was of a strictly rudimentary nature as the hive was not sentient by any definition. They simply had a basic plant intelligence and instinct. They grew and spread as any other simple plant life form on countless worlds all over the universe. Had they never left the confines of this barren landscape they would have likely been nothing more than a slightly interesting entry in some database of unusual flora and fauna.

This is how things went for billions of years as the hive spread over the barren landscape of their home planetoid circling a gas giant that was in turn orbiting an average yellow star. In the same star system closer in was a world much more suitable to complex animal life. It had a rich nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and an abundance of liquid water. This planet had a diverse ecosphere and supported a large variety of plants and animal species over the billions of years that the hive held solitary domain over their tiny moon.

One of these species developed to the point of sentience, and began the long process of discovery and technological advancement that is the hallmark of all intelligent spacefaring races. They had just begun their first tentative steps into the star system that was their home. They had sent members of their species into orbit, and had built semi-permanent stations in orbit around their world. While they had yet to develop technology to travel out of their system, or even to other planets in their own system with any practicality, they were a very curious race. Always seeking to learn and understand the universe around them.

In pursuit of this goal for knowledge and understanding they sent small robotic probes to the other planets in their system. These probes were slow and simple at first. Taking years to travel the short distances between the planets orbiting their own sun, beaming back pictures and doing simple remote chemical experiments.

It was one of these probes that finally visited the hive moon and made the discovery that so excited this emerging race. To this point they had fantasized and theorized about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets orbiting other stars. But they as yet had not even found even the simplest forms of biological life anywhere in their own system except on their own homeworld. For all they knew prior to finding the hive they were alone in the universe.

But represented in this monumental discovery was confirmation that life was not unique. And if it were not unique, then perhaps it was quite common. Perhaps some day their descendents would meet other beings living on far distant worlds. It was a tremendous day in the existence of this race.

Quickly they made plans to send a second probe to this moon. Still lacking the technology to safely send members of their own race, they could design robotic probes that could reach the moon, land, and collect and send back samples of this new and exciting life form for further study. They dedicated themselves to this task as a species and within the decade the first sample of the hive landed back on their world.

For many months this sample was examined and experimented on. All precautions were taken to prevent any accidental spread of the hive spores into their own environment. They had no way of knowing what effect this could have on their environment, and they were careful to prevent it from happening. But in the curiosity and excitement of discovery, a mistake was made. A single spore escaped the confinement and was unknowingly inhaled by a janitor working at the research facility. This spore entered his body, multiplied and spread. A species that had adapted and flourished on a barren planetoid sparse in the minerals it needed to survive now found itself a new host that was rich in these nutrients. The hive took root in this being, and flourished.

It was slow process at first. He himself did not notice any symptoms for several weeks after his contamination. He gradually began to lose his mental capacity. But he we was old and not very educated. And even the brightest of his species only used a small portion of their brains anyway. So he did not suspect anything was wrong until it was too late.

With the onset of more serious symptoms came the concern of his family. Little did they know they had already become infected themselves. For the hive had been spreading. To his family, to his coworkers, the medical caregivers trying to discover the cause and cure for this strange disease that had befallen him. And finally through the very air that surrounded their world and supplied them all with life.

For through a twist of fate, this sentient species was a particularly ideal host for the hive. The hive spores and tendrils could collect in the host’s brain and take over control of it. It instinctively left the parts of the brain alone that were dedicated to the autonomous function of the host’s body, preferring instead the more suitable parts of the brain that were responsible for the host species sense of being, and of their individuality.

The host species also had fairly strong latent psychic tendencies. Nothing too extraordinary. They were even mostly unaware of it themselves. Perhaps with another million years of evolution they would start to tap this part of their identity on their own. But the hive tendrils were able to tap into this almost immediately.

The hives own communicative abilities merged with the latent psychic abilities of the host race and formed something altogether new. The newly infected host members combined with the hive tendrils and became something that together, was much larger than the sum of their parts.

As the hive spread through each host they reached a point where it began to affect their conscious mind and they slipped into a coma. Some of the weaker members of the species died during this process, but those that survived eventually awoke. To those around them they appeared to be the same, but they had become something different. This process was repeated over and over again all over the host world.

This happened gradually at first. The host race struggled mightily to hold off the spread of the contamination. Once it became clear there was something going on, all the resources of their species were dedicated to preventing and reversing the damage that was taking their loved ones from them and leaving their bodies behind. But they could not bring themselves to do the awful thing that must be done to save their race. They could not destroy the ones they had lost.

For they did not know they had already lost them. They thought they were merely “damaged” or “infected”, but that through time they could be healed. But what they did not know was that all remnants of their former selves had been lost. Even if a method of removing the hive infestation had been developed, their bodies would cease to function.

And since they did not destroy the infected ones, their number grew. And as their number grew, the speed of contamination increased. Until eventually there were more infected than could be cared for by the uninfected. Then eventually there were more infected than uninfected. Then eventually, there were no more that were uninfected.

As they lost their individuality, their sense of self, they found themselves interconnected with other infected members of the host race. The process that had occurred over and over with each individual was repeated on a much larger scale with the race as a whole. They ceased being individual members of a race and became parts of a collective intelligence. They became…

The Hive

[ September 29, 2002, 00:18: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[TerranC]

*Notes: Yes, I know that this isn't really a backstory as it give no through descriptions, but it shows some characters and institutions. Wait until the game starts then a through explanation will come http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
-Carl Sagan

Galtenn Standard Year 2399, the 9th month

"Secretary, has all the regents checked in yet?"

"Regent Hollsczka and Regent Cimonporte have not arrived due to unknown reasons. Regent Yammose has notified meet planning committee of her absence."

"Other than that?"

"The schedule is going accordingly with an acceptable dilation of 5.7 minutes. All guests and regents in attendance are currently located in the main conference hall."

"Thank you secretary. Please keep me informed on the absent regent's status, if available."

"Confirmed"

I left the room, wearing formal wear, and walked down the stairs leading to the main conference hall.

This was no ordinary meet, like it had been done for 234 times before. This meet would decide the fate of the Galtenn race, whether it would survive and prosper, or shrivel and die. At least that is how many they and I see thing. Others see this meet as a waste of time, where we are fine where we are.

This meet would decide what would happen.

I worked my entire life for this moment. Top notch marks in all my classes- except algebra. 18 years of my life devoted to education; another 10 for climbing the political ladder.

It would make my old man proud...

I now stood at the front of the massive door that led into the backstage and into the main podium. Strange, it never seemed to be that big when all these times before... Now it seems monolithic; colossal. Maybe a manifestation of my goals, of what will happen if this resolution doesn't come through.

Gotta face my fears.

"Open sesame."

"Unknown command: sesame. Please restate your command."

... The wonders of the 25th century.

"Open backstage door, computer."

"Confirmed."

As I walked into and on to the podium, I could see the massive conference hall. This conference hall on Raktajinolia was chosen because of its size; now I know that the committee wasn't joking when they said keep your eyes peeled.

It was now 7:00 Eastern Continental Selective Time. It was time to get started.

As I was searching for the gavel, I could see many people below, mostly, talking. I would have guess that about 200 people were in here. 32 of them are State Regents, who govern their respective Nation states. I could see some powerful ones: Regent Tichino Jahawawa, Regent of the Northern Protectorate, Regent Tongo Salta'hna of 50 States alliance, and Regent Elle Aaanavi of the Confederate Union. The rest would be journalists, critics, and other notable people.

One person caught my eye: Regent Jafhel Kuiens of the Oceanic Federation. He would be the obstacle to this referendum. He has been gathering support from many corporations and lobby Groups, protesting against the topic. I'll have to watch for him.

"Greetings, Central Regent."

A voice in the backstage called out to me.

"Good day, and you are?"

"Commander Erehwon Gnitteg of the Oceanic Defensive Corps."

"What brings you here, Commander?"

"I need a word with you sir, in private."

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid it will have to wait, the meet will begin shortly."

"Then please lean forward."

I started to wonder what this was about.

"Mr. Central Regent, Regent Jafhel would like to ask if you can tip the polls of the referendum in his favor; if it is done, the Oceanic Federation can donate large sums of credits to the Alliance, and maybe allow the Alliance to use the Oceanic Federation's Airbases."

"What! I will do no such thing! Get out of my sight before I call security and abolish the Oceanic Federation out of the Alliance!"

The Commander took an angered look to my response, but turned calm in a moment.

"I will tell him that you refused his request. Thank you Central Regent."

"PLEASE tell him my EXACT WORDS, commander."

The commander then quickly left the back door.

With that unpleasantness over with, I grabbed the gavel and hit the plasma interface hard. The computer let out a thick, bass tone, alerting the guests and guests of honor to take to their places.

The speaker system shrieked with life, and the microphone was made available.

"Greeting Regents of Great Nation States and other prestigious guests to the 235th Annual Alliance Meet. Please sit down and activate your comm systems."

"Let’s get down to business..."

The meet began. Various laws and Queries were filled out and rejected, usual stuff. There weren’t many debates about them, as it was clear for them (regents) to say yay or nay.

After 50 minutes of polling, we finally got down to the most important part of the meet.

"For the Last item on the agenda, The Northern Directorate, Illyad Republic, and the Galtenn Alliance's proposal for the launch of the first manned Warp-Node travel capable starship."

I tried to quickly pass this along, so that I wouldn't give the opposition the chance. I would guess that this is censorship to many, but I believed that all of Galtenn would I agree with me. It wouldn't just work out that way.

"Please vote now by pressing the..."

"I would like to say a few words before we commence voting."

Damn.

"The Central Regent acknowledges the Oceanic Federation Regent."

"I would like to point out that there is not enough scientific evidence that sending a ship; a MANNED ship through a warp node is safe, and that we will get back our ship back in one piece. Our probes that were sent to the warp node were destroyed by the event-horizon! The Oceanic Federation and its allies, for one, would not like to see our ship destroyed and its crew mutilated by this anomaly."

"Now just a minute here!"

"The Central Regent acknowledges the 50 States Alliance Regent."

"The recent ISSA finding report that the probes were too fragile to withstand the space-fold, as it have been aptly named by our scientists, and that a ship of sufficient size and materials that the Ship code-named the Escort have been constructed out of, will withstand, such pressures."

"Also, we need to expand out into space. The population on Galtenn is filling up. By the time we are done constructing the ship, 2 billion will inhabit Galtenn. This will create a severe social problem, and expanding out into space, creating more room, is the answer."

"Also, again, there are many scientific reasons and economic reasons that we, as one, should venture out. The new sphearscrapers require exotic minerals that are found almost everywhere in out system, in abundance!"

"The Galtenn race is willing to step out. See the vote results and you will find out..."

"Economic? Scientific?"

"The Central Regent does not recognize the oceanic federation. Please restrain."

"More like militaristic!"

"The central regent does not.."

"We all know who are going to control this space hegemony, and subsequently, a space navy. The Alliance and its little group! What happens to our sovereignty? It will be bombarded into the Stone Age! Also, what awaits us in the great unknown? Danger! We are not prepared to drop 4 million people in some hostile rock! It is not safe!"

The 50 States Alliance Regent spoke out with fury.

"The ends justify the means! Read the findings yourself! You will clearly see..."

"See NOTHING! It is all propaganda! A terrifying scheme..."

"Order!"

"The Central Regent now has the Chair, and in speaking for the Galtenn Alliance, I will not let this be a forum nor a debate!"

"Please return to your seats and commence voting."

After minutes of careful deliberation, a plasma display showed the results.

A smirk grinned on many.

"Computer, please read out the following results."

"Yes to Launch of Interstellar Warp-Capable Vessel, Manned: 73%. No to Launch of Interstellar Warp-Capable Vessel, Manned: 5%."

"The nation states have decided. The Launch will take approximately place 2 months from now, lord willing. The meet is now dismissed. Thank you for your votes."

As the crowds dispersed below, I walked out into the back foyer, exiting from the back door.

The decision has been made; we would be going out into space. I wonder how many different worlds we will see, how many we will colonize how many will discover, and how many different terrestrials we will meet, if there are any.

As I pondered away, a gentle tap alerted me to my behind.

"Regent Jafhel, How are you? I'm sorry to cut you in the middle of your speech but time is money..."

"Watch it Central Regent."

Regent Jafhel snapped, explicitly showing his anger over the results and today's forum.

"You never know what might happen in these two months. I'd watch your back if I were you..."

"Is that a threat Mr. Jafhel?"

"A kind warning. As a regent I would never resort to such lowbrow tactics, but there are those who would..."

he slowly walked away.

These next 2 months and possibly next infinite years will be interesting. The decision to swim in a bigger pond has been made, and now there are predators that I'll have to look out for...

[ October 02, 2002, 00:17: Message edited by: TerranC ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

Inquisitor Ostaliat was reading. On his desk was lying printed spreadsheets, pictures and reports. His eyes were red, as if he has been crying for a long time. Leaving his chair, he slowly walked to the window. Outside was the garden of His Holiness' Space Research Institute (HSRI), it was a beautiful and very hot summer afternoon, temperature was reaching 3°C. Some snow was melting, which was a rare thing indeed.
The automatic protection system emitted a low beep, as it was complaining to be turned off, but he hasn't been turned on since six years, the inquisition was not anymore a field unit, but a prestigious research unit. A few seconds later Cardinal Iwazahi entered the room. He was also bearing the sad face of those who knew. He stared at Ostaliat, then said “I have just received an update from the geological team from the spaceship. We already knew that nuclear weapons of 100 megatons were used against all major command centers, and a minimum of one hundred and sixty 50 megatons weapons were detonated high in the atmosphere to render entire continents unable to sustain life”.
Ostaliat stayed silent. “But the team in orbit was able to direct guided probes to scan these weird volcanos. Some of the robots Lasted long enough to do a short range radar scan. These volcanos are not standard. May the Almighty forgive us, as they are in fact not volcanos, but deep rifts in the planet's crust and a direct access to the inner layout of our homeworld. These huge scars constantly reject radioactive dust in what's left of the atmosphere. This is why the radiation level is still so high, it also explains why the dust is still covering our world after six hundred years.”
Ostaliat snapped “The atmosphere was dispersed in space by the strength of the bLasts six centuries ago, what we have now is the result of evaporation of our homeworld's oceans”.
Cardinal Iwazahi acknowledged, “I know, I read that part too. We feared the facts, but now we have to face them. The Great Death killed even the simplest virus in a matter of hours. But worse, seismic conditions are such that no settlement will ever be able exist on the surface, there are no lands stable for more than a few hours between tremendous earthquakes. The geological team just told me we would be better off building a new planet. This one will not be able to sustain life for a few million years.”
Ostaliat's head fur flattened, then he hissed “We will not be able to come back to our homeworld ?”
“No. Never. This information went immediately to his Holiness who shall announce it shortly to our population. By the way, our ship scuttled part of the old international space station. As they were not monitoring earth activity, their systems cannot tell us why started the war, but they were working on gravitational anomaly they had located in our system since a few years, so what remains of their work could still be valuable. This point brings me to the main subjects, the Tyrian's Hope spacecraft made the journey to our homeworld in less than two months, the HSRI proved that ionic motors are a better alternative to the prototypes that throw us here six centuries ago. But his Holiness has read your report on hyperwave resonance, and was deeply disturbed by your team's finding that some emissions did seem artificial. Our ship confirmed that it was not emitted from our former homeworld's orbit. His Holiness want you to lead the research teams on both hyperwave technology and gravity anomaly, with increased fundings. Also, I have the pleasure to tell you the Genetic Commission believe that all your children should be able to avoid the Small Death, so you have been granted to have a sixth and seventh children. Congratulations Inquisitor Ostaliat, for the Almighty helps the faithful”
“And the faithful will praise Him in return” recited the inquisitor. And despite his tears, he smiled. The Commission was one of the most hated necessity of their world, more than 8 centuries after being Banned to this world, still 15 percent of pregnant women had to abort by order of the Genetic Commission.. All their ancestors were bio-modified to sustain the Ice planet's climate. But the first generation of children born here had partial mutations of their genetic code, some of them could still live, but the majority were victims of The Small Death. At Last, after five generations without any case of Small Death in his family, Ostaliat and his children had access to the white card. Then his thought quickly came back to the Cardinal “We will do our best to honor his trust in our abilities, we will finish the work of our ancestors by analyzing the gravity distortions points, and I am confident we can create an hyperwave resonance between two linked devices thus achieving instantaneous transmissions.”.
“God spared the faithful from his wrath, He will help us.” concluded Cardinal Iwazahi.

[sachmo]

Invexus Corporation

James Hartnell ran his finger around the mouth of his glass of wine, and allowed himself a wry smile. He knew it was petty to take pleasure in making his appointment wait, but he didn’t care. The fool of a President deserved it. He could wait until he died of old age.
He picked up his wine and took a deep pull, trying to fight back his anger with the cool liquid. It didn’t help much.
I might as well get this over with, James thought. He signaled his assistant to round up the President and show him into his office.
James stood up and moved to the side of his desk, stopping to allow himself a quick look in the mirror. He winced a bit at his reflection. Gone were any remains of his boyish good looks. He was graying at the temples, and he could see a few rogue gray patches appearing in his beard. Worry lines, which he had not had three years ago, now creased his face. He looked like he was pushing one hundred and twenty, but in reality he was only seventy, barely past middle age. Still, he could see the wisdom in those creases and that gray, and he knew he had the job to thank for that. After all, being Board Chairman of the Invexus Corporation was a very stressful job.
His assistant announced the President, and ushered the man into the Board Chairman’s office. James quickly put on his best smile, hoping that it would help the President relax. That would make the kill so much sweeter.

James extended his hand, and the President took it.
“James, how are you?” He looked very relaxed, indeed.
James pumped the President’s hand in return.
“Just fine, mister President. Things couldn’t be better. Please, have a seat.” James gestured to a large chair facing his desk.
James walked around his desk and sat down in his chair.
He stared at the President a moment, and then spoke.
“Mister President, that was quite a speech you gave the other day in Arendia.”
The President laughed, and put his hand up.
“There’s nothing to worry about, James. I know I jumped the gun by a few months, but my staff felt that it was time to let the public know about the program, and I agreed. The people needed a morale boost, and that’s what they got.”
James listened, his arms folded across his chest. He could feel the anger welling up inside of him, and this time he wouldn’t try to stop it.
The President continued.
“My staff and I felt that the time was right. The ship will be ready in two months, right? We felt that by having something to look forward to, they might work a little harder. Maximum productivity and all that, don’t you know?”
James took a deep breath. The anger continued to build.
“Oh, so you did it to boost moral and productivity? Well, mister President, let’s get one thing straight. Invexus decides when the public will know about the project. If we wanted them to know about it now, we would have told you to tell them.”
Concern spread across the President’s face. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. James almost burst out laughing watching him struggle to regain his composure. He looked a lot like a margofish gasping for air. The President tried to speak, but James shot him a warning glance.
“I’m not finished, mister President. What you did was put my corporation, and myself, in a very tight spot. Just as you and your administration are a façade, so to is the public’s trust in you. Everyone on this planet knows that Invexus is the real power behind the throne. It’s been that way since the end of the Corporate Wars. Now you and your staff have cast suspicion and doubt on our good name. You have stepped across a line that should never be crossed. Did you once stop and think what sort of questions the people would ask regarding your revelation? Such as why Invexus is devoting so many resources to a project on warp travel? Were you not concerned that this might frighten some?”
The President looked absolutely panicked now. He tried to stammer out an excuse, “No, wait, Board Chairman. I only thought…”
James shot up out of his chair, overcome by his rage. He let it wash over him, red hot and prickly. He absolutely loved it.
“THINK? I don’t want you to think, you fool! I want you to smile and wave to the people of Cherek, and tell them exactly what I want you to tell them. While they may know that Invexus rules this planet, they need a government to blame for all of their problems, no matter how incompetent that government is. When you start thinking for yourself, you are no longer useful to me! All you had to do was keep your damn mouth shut, but that proved to be far to difficult of a task for you!”
James tried to reign himself in a bit. He could feel himself going past the point of losing control. That, he did not like. James never liked being out of control. Watching the President begin to cry was exactly what he needed to beat back some of the anger. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that two of his security force had come in to investigate. I must have been shouting very loudly, James thought.
Tears rolling down his face, the President began to plead.
“Board Chairman, please! I didn’t mean to cause trouble for Invexus, nor for you. I only thoug…meant to give the people something to cheer them up. Times have been so hard for so many of late.”
James sat back down in his chair, and ran his hands thru his hair as he fought to keep control. He straightened his shirt collar and took a few very deep breaths.
“Mister President, I apologize for screaming at you that way. However, the damage has been done. I will disclose as many of the details of the project as possible to the public. In two weeks time, I will also let them know about the message. You will appear with me at a press conference and together we will deliver the most important news in the history of Cherek to the people.”
The President looked as if he had been given a stay of execution.
“Yes! Yes, mister Chairman! Whatever you wish! Anything you need, I am there for you!”
James waved him down. “One other thing, mister President.”
“Yes?”
“You’re sick.”
“Pardon me?”
James flashed him a predator’s smile. Just when you thought it was going to be ok, I will twist the knife, James mused.
“You’re sick. That’s what we are going to tell everyone. After the press conference, you are going to get sick. So sick that you will be forced to vacate the presidency and retire to your home in Cassidy. The vice president will assume the presidency the next day. Is that understood?”
The President looked shocked, then angry, and finally he just looked tired, all in the span of a few seconds.
“As you wish, Board Chairman.” He hung his head in defeat.
All of the anger was gone. James was filled only with triumph, and possibly a bit of pity.
“Good. Now get out of my office.”

In low orbit above Cherek, in a secure bay sealed off to all but the most vital personnel, work continued on the Invexus Explorer. She was to be the first ship capable of surviving warp travel thru a wormhole. Only smaller remote drones had been sent thru the wormholes so far, and after months and months of failure, they had had one survive the trip. At least they thought that it had survived the trip. The scientists had lost contact with it almost as quickly as it entered the wormhole, but the Last signal had come from a different solar system, and that solar system was where they theorized the exit from the wormhole was. Based on that success, they began work on a full sized ship.
Captain David Bromley was the man picked for the job of taking Invexus Explorer into the wormhole . To David, there was no way he could have possibly said no. The company was offering him an obscene amount of money to do this, and they were going to give it to him up front. When they told him what his chances of survival were, he knew that he had to try and spend all of that pay before the trip, because there was a very good chance that he would not be coming back to spend the rest once they left the space yard.

[Gimboid]

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2399.9
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"shinjitsu o shiruto seiriyokugarau" [Translation - To know the truth is to have power]
Old saying of the Mahatsuhito clan

Although it had been two thousand years since the Imperium had been formed, its various parts still acted in synergy. It was as if the Imperium itself was a living being with the Shoguns controlling the primary organs of its existence. The ebb and flow of wealth, power and information from these was what gave the Mahatsuhito clan its overwhelming control over the empire.
Kaneko had been born into that power, yet her finesse in exercising that power could be compared to even the great Tanika, who had taken a lifetime to master true military and political power and had left her legacy to the Mahatsuhito clan she had given birth to.

Elegant, graceful. These were the first words uttered by many who admired the most advanced vessel ever constructed by the Katana Imperium. Generations of finely honed technical mastery had been applyed in its design and only the most trusted craftsman of the shogunates had even been allowed to enter the shipyard in which she now lay. Kaneko had spent so much of her life planning the vessel that would take take the Imperium to the next level and allow it to expand into untold sectors of the universe, and now, finally, her well laid plans had come to fruition.

Untold promises and sleepless nights were now behind her, she smirked as she realised the truth in that thought - the real journey was just beginning and all her attention would be needed if the Imperium was to remain as cohesive a being as she had always known it should be. She gazed out the vast windows of the imperial palace towards the endless stars that dotted the nighttime sky and for a moment she was overwhelmed by the endless possibilities that the future could hold...

[ September 28, 2002, 15:06: Message edited by: Gimboid ]

[geoschmo]

2399.9

I am tired. I am awake. I am cold. I am hot. I am…

The Hive was in chaos. The collective intelligence of two billion separate minds in continual contact with one another, each seeking explanation and direction, and receiving none. There was a constant stream of information, and no analysis. Billions of symptoms, but no diagnosis. All was confusion.

I am hungry. I am full. I am in sick. I am well. I am…

Hundreds of millions of hosts wandered aimlessly aimlessly about. Many millions simply sat and stared. They had the knowledge and most of the memories of their former selves, but had lost purpose. They remembered how to do things, but had lost their reason for doing them.

I am lost. I am wet. I am dry. I am…

Failing to receive the guidance that they sought, gradually the host beings began to revert to their fractured memories for information about what to do. One by one they began to resume their daily tasks. They began to care for themselves. Eating when they were hungry. Sleeping when they were tired. The workers returned to their plants, not exactly knowing why, but having nothing else to do they did what they had always done. The students returned to their schools and sat obediently at their desks staring at the front of the class, whether or not the teachers had returned. The teachers that did return stood at the front facing their students, or in front of empty classrooms in many cases, not knowing why. Even the artists returned to their workshops, though they had lost their reason for doing so, and no one was left to appreciate their works.

Where am I? Who am I? Why am I…

Gradually the chaotic stream of voices began to subside. It began to process the information that had been overwhelming it. It began to assign simple tasks to individual hosts. As a newborn brain begins to form neural pathways and organize sensory data, so to the Hive intelligence began to develop ordered pathways of communication. To prioritze the information it was receiveing. At first, it was concerned only with the health of it’s host bodies. Just as a single organism does not need to consciously “learn” how to get nutrients to it’s individual cells, so too The Hive instinctively handled these simple tasks. Those that were too young or too feeble to care for themselves were cared for by others, just as they had been when they were separate beings.

I. You. Me…

We.

We think. We act. We learn. We are...

The Hive had become a single entity. A single being made up of billions of individual beings, instead of merely billions of individual cells. It was still young, childlike in many ways, but it was self aware. It was sentient. It did not understand many things around it, but it had the collective memories and knowledge of billions of sentient organisms to draw on. It was getting better at processing the moment to moment sensory information and physical needs of its hosts now and could begin to devote more energy to retrieving and analyzing this memory data. It began to take notice of the world around it. And then a new thought emerged. A bit of curiosity bubbled to the surface. On half the planet every eye turned towards the heavens and noticed the tiny lights twinkling in the night. It saw the

stars…

The Hive knew the word. It knew that the stars were merely suns like the one they circled around, but that they were so far away that they appeared very tiny. Just as a mountain that from one hosts perspective was on the horizon would appear only to be a tiny hill. But to another host standing at the base of it would see how truely massive it was. The Hive knew there may be other planets circling these other suns. And it wondered. For the first time in it’s existence it felt a longing. For all these many months of learning to listen to the billions of voices it was hearing, it had now realized that all these voices were it’s own voices. It heard no others. It wondered if it were alone in the, what was the word?

universe…

For that was one piece of information it could not find in any of it’s hosts memories. It found many contradictory thoughts. But no host had hard facts that the Hive could analyze. Is there another out there? Another like us? Or are we the only one? For the first time, the Hive felt…

alone…

[Captain Kwok]

Juprup Federation News

2400.0

Almost ten years since the concept was first proposed, the Juprup Federation came into existence as the first unified government of the Juprup people. The first official act was to elect the Speaker who would lead the newly founded Federation Council. The Council’s unanimous choice was Councilor Kwok from Port Spoogy, who played a pivotal role in organizing the new government from the beginning. In his inaugural speech, Speaker Kwok declared, “This is the dawn of a new age for the Juprup, an era in which peace and prosperity will lead our people to many great things,” and later lamented “These exciting times will be remembered for millennia to come as we begin to reach for the stars.” Among the first tasks of the Federation Council is to finalize the plans and funding for the creation of the first off-world colonies to help relieve the over populated and resource depleted Juprup homeworld.

2400.2

The first orbital construction station, Juprup Construp A, was launched to the delight of all Juprup citizens. The first of five orbital stations to be built above Juprup prime, Construp A will provide the facilities for the construction of the first Colorup colony ships. Later stations will focus on a variety of tasks, including the construction of Enoki class explorers that will be the first manned ships to pass through the Warp Point, a phenomenon first discovered by robot probes almost fifty years ago.

[ September 29, 2002, 05:11: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[TerranC]

*Notes: Please note that I will now try to put some visual representations: Pictures! They will be in BMP format, and some might be large. Please be patient if you want to see the pictures, or skip them altogether. Thank you.
--------------------------------------------------

"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small."
-Neil Armstrong

Galtenn Standard Year 2400, 2nd Month

Despite the "friendly warning", nothing damaging have been done to me and/or to the alliance and it's partners of the space program in these past two months; well... if you count some of the coffees I've spilled which scalded me, I guess you could say that I was damaged.

The Construction of the experimental vessel has ended 3 weeks ago, and after cleaning and testing the equipment and the ship, it was brought out into the desolate plain of Anozira via 4 hoverfrieghts to the Noscut airport. From there, it was delivered to the Anozira North Launch site section by section, deck by deck. It was then reassembled in the Jet Propulsion Labs Anozira Hanger, and now it sits in hanger waiting for launch.

The experimental vessel has been named Swift.

Swift Specifications (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1033258613.bmp)

It sports 6 newly developed JPL Ion engines which is packed into 3 engine nacelles, which are supposed to give the Swift the title of the fastest craft ever built; but I have my doubts. The Swift is also fitted with NOLGS. Nuclear Ordinance Launcher & Guidance systems. There was heavy debate on this issue, on why a ship of exploration should sport such a deadly weapon. The Galtenn Alliance won the debate, after we discovered a meteor that narrowly missed our planet, after it passed us 2 days prior to discovery.

The landslide victory over the H&P Group, The Hypochondriacs and Pessimists Group, as it was called by most of the media, has caused the Oceanic Federation and the Namor Republic to pull from the alliance. Their loss. From the creation of the Alliance after the worldwide Trade Disputes a 100 years ago, No nation has pulled it's representatives home, under any ordinary circumstances. I guess an exception could be made, as in these times, nothing was ordinary.

Although the warning didn't strike, it may be due to the extra security detail I've put on to every alliance installations, institutions, embassies, and any building, corporations, and parties connected to the space program. No chance could be taken; especially after the riot after the poll on Oceania City that injured 3 people.

I never expected all this. As the Galtenn Alliance is an alliance of the nations, and since we have no land or population to call our own, the power are in the states, and two of them rebuked their demiregents from the alliance representatives’ council.

No matter. As long we have primary support of the majority, all is fine.

"Sir, we should be landing at the launch site in a few minutes. Your long wait is over, sir."

"Thank you pilot."

I could see the launch site now, despite the heavy storm. There wasn't much to see. I could see the central control spire, 3 research Geodesic Domes, and 3 dark buildings, which I presumed, would be where the Crew and I would be staying until the weather clears up. The Launch was supposed to take 3 days ago, but a snowstorm blew into Anozira, disrupting air and ground traffic. One of our convoys carrying the bridge module almost got stuck in the snow, 2 kilometers from the launch site. Thankfully, it safely rolled in after getting out of the ditch, and before the worst came.

"Sir, we're landing now. Please keep your hands inside at all times."

"... Thank you pilot."

The door slid open, and I had 3 minutes to get to the nearest object that would shield the hovercraft crew and I from the snow. An ATV-W quickly came over, and stopped right in front of us. The crew and I got on, after anchoring down the hovercraft.

"Fine weather we're having, isn't it, Mr. Central Regent!"

"Yes, pilot. Absolutely splendid!"

The ATV sprang into motion as we got on, and went down an underground chute to a full-scale parking lot, complete with heating. I deactivated my thermal insulator of the body suit I was wearing, and walked outside.

Galtenn prime is almost completely comprised of Ice; other parts are water, boreal forests, and a very small fraction is tropical. All Galtenn evolved from the icy parts, which explains our natural insulation furs, located under our epidermis and throughout our whole body. Even a race with normal insulation from the elements need protection from anomalies, so one day, one brilliant unknown inventor developed a body suit which could provide warmth, chills, humidity, dry air, and other things. Even to the point of anchoring down a person from a harsh winter storm. Several improvements were made from the day it was made, but most of the systems still remain originally. If needed the body suits could be compressed into pockets attached to normal fabric underwear or other wear instantly, with the touch of a button. The body suit automatically cleans the air inside it, and since we don't have the need for sweat as other few tropical species on our planet do, hygiene is not an issue.

I pressed down the compressor button, and the body suit instantly disappeared, showing my formal politiksuit.

"Ah, Mr. Central Regent. Thank you for coming."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world. And you are...?"

"Gerrehdt Provost. Facility Director. It is an honor to have you here at our facility."

"If I may ask, what facility? I saw only a few buildings outside...?"

"The whole facility is underground, made up of 30 flours and capable of holding 30 000 people. The buildings that are outside is only for pure necessity, as we lose heating that way."

Mr. Provost continued, leading me into the turbolift.

"It's already late sir. Would you like to go to your quarters?"

"Thank you, I am feeling a bit tired."

As soon as we stepped in the turbolift, it quickly shot down, across and up. Leading into one of the dark buildings.

"How is the weather going to be like Mr. Provost?"

"The Forecast is bright, Mr. Central Speaker. We should be able to launch tomorrow morning."
"Here are your quarters, Mr. Central Speaker. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call us. Have a nice dream."

As soon as I stepped off, it shot down again.

As I lay at the bed, I kept thinking about my father. He wasn't a politician, nor was he anybody special, but he was a great father, and an amateur astronomy enthusiast. He got me interested in stars, and in space. And he always would tell me that "Someday, We will be able to go out into the stars, and see many strange, but beautiful sights."

He passed away shortly after christening the chassis.

The launch sites was clear and bring the next morning, as I could see from my quarter windows.

Launch Site (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1033262943.BMP)

The Launch site were some kilometers away, but it could be seen with clarity. 4 pillars of cables, metal cables no doubt, kept the Swift grounded, as it seemed to fight the swift from launching out into space. There didn't seem to be any snow on the Swift, So I guessed that it was brought out this morning.

But there were 4 short, stout pyramids on the corner of the launch pad. I never saw those on the blueprints.

Mr. Provost walked in behind.

"Good Morning, Mr. Central Regent."

"Mr. Provost, what are those pyramids on the launch site?"

"2 of them are bunkers and 2 are emergency stations. They were brought in the Last minute."

"Thank you. I suppose I should get ready?"

"Yes sir. The Launch commences in an hour."

I hurried to the turbolift, and got down to the command center. By the time I got down, it took 15 minutes to get from my quarters to the Control center. This place was massive.

The place was flurry with action, as crews worked around the clock to insure safety. I saw 5 main plasma displays outlining the most important information: The Ship engines, Launch site traffic, the weather, or more specifically, the temperatures, Ship system status, and space traffic.

30 minutes before launch.

"Mr. Provost, who is the head of the controls?"

Mr. Provost pointed out a man near the 4th plasma display.

"His name is Delgado Trallan, but he likes to be called by his first name; he's coming over now."

Mr. Delgado came running to us, he seemed to be in a hurry. He was an old man, I would guess about 124 years old.

"Mr. Central Regent, It is an honor to be in your presence."

Yeesh... Honor this, Honor that...

"I am honored to be meeting the man who would make the launch come true, Mr. Delgado."

"Thank you Central Regent. The launch is going according to schedule. There has not been an error since ever. Everything is going according to schedule. No errors. Absolutely no faults."

"Calm down Mr. Delgado. I'm sure the Launch will be spectaculous, especially under your guidance."

"Thank you Mr. Regent. Thank you... Since we have some time on our hands, would you like to see something interesting?"

"Of course."

Mr. Provost and I followed Mr. Delgado into a room that had 3 golden disks on it. Mr. Delgado reached up and grabbed all three and showed them to me and Mr. Provost.

"They're disks. First Contact disks to be precise."

"First Contact Disks?"

"Disks that comprise information about us, Galtenn prime, other animals, our scientific achievements, our history, and even sounds!"
"Let me show you."

As Mr. Delgado put in a disk labeled Galtenn, a holographic display came up.

"Galtenn Alliance. An Alliance comprising of 35 Nation states, The Galtenn alliance works as a worldwide Regulation Institution. A Central Regent, who comes into power by voting and stays in power for 24 years, governs the Galtenn Alliance. The Galtenn Alliance has 24 branches, from humanitarian..."

The holographic player stopped and popped out the disk. Mr. Delgado grabbed them and put them back on the wall.

"These are the planetborn copies. The real ones are aboard the Swift. When the Swift or If the Swift encounters an alien species, they will give the aliens these disks as a gesture of good will."

"That's brilliant!"

"Thank you Mr. Central Regent."

"It is now 15 minutes to launch Mr. Central Regent."

"Thank you. I would like to speak to the crew of the Swift if possible."

"Anything's possible, Mr. Central Regent."

The Main Display showed a communiqué being sent to the Swift. After a few short Minutes, The Display showed a young woman in full body suit sitting on the captain's chair.

Mr. Provost spoke to the microphone in front of him.

"Good morning Swift. Mr. Central Regent would like to talk to you before launch."

"It's an honor sir."

"Thank you captain...?"

"Captain Jahanna of the Galtenn Starship Swift sir."

"Congratulations Captain. You must be proud to be the first one to bring our race into the warp age."

"Yes sir. It is a tremendous feeling."

"I have no doubt that you and your crew will succeed. Tell me, how many people are onboard the Swift?"

"35 sir. Most of them are from the Northern Directorate, but everybody are from everywhere."

"Thank you..."

Mr. Provost signaled me to look at the time. 5 minutes to launch.

"It seems that we will have to cut this short, captain. The launch will be soon. Good luck captain."

"Thank you sir."

"All right! Everybody give me your status!"

The monitors now seemed to work even harder than they did before a second ago.

"Capcom!"
"Good to go"

"Telsat!"
"Good to go"

"GalSupport!"
"Good to go"

The Checklist Lasted 4 minutes. The computer now started the countdown.

"Countdown: T Minus 59 seconds. All systems go for launch and good to go."

I went outside while the checklist was being checked off; Mr. Provost and the Hovercraft Crew also came out.

The Swift had 6 Booster rockets attached to its enormous wing; it would seem that Ion Engines won't do any good in the atmosphere.

"T Minus 10" "9" "8" "7" "6" "Ignition started" "4"

Your wish came true dad.

"3" "2" "1"

BLast-off!

The cables quickly came off admist the chaos. The Rockets roared with thunder and strength and the heat generated by them were felt all the way up to our position. What seemed like an eternity was only a few seconds; The Swift gracefully lifted off, like a tropical swan flying into the sky, leaving a trail of smoke along the way. The Swift shot up and up and up into the sky, until it was nothing but a speck in the sky.

Inside, the crew could see that the swift was now in the upper ionosphere, and it could see galtenn in it's fullest.

"Command, This is Captain Jahanna... we have jettisoned the booster rockets and will commence the ion engines"
"Ion engines at 10... 20... 50... 70... 100%"
"It's beautiful out here command... It's so blue. Like a gem."

Space (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1033266205.BMP)

"Congratulations, Captain, and Good luck on your upcoming mission"

"Copy that command. See you soon."

[ October 15, 2002, 20:09: Message edited by: TerranC ]

[capnq]

CEO Cunsi Davdi watched the vidfeed with mixed emotions. I really should be celebrating, he thought to himself. The initial public offering for Pilda Shipyards had broken several records; the "New World, New Life" promotional campaign had drawn over two hundred and fifty-five million entries; speculators had sold their berths on the _Consumer Confidence_ for as much as eight times what they'd paid for them. It had been the Eifralo Conglomerate's most successful project so far during his tenure as CEO.

Yet all Davdi could think about as the hulking colony ship prepared to break orbit was that the woman he loved was leaving with it. Talro hadn't even told him that she'd entered the sweepstakes, and when she announced that she'd won one of the non-specialist slots, he was stunned that she actually intended to go, rather than resell her ticket. They'd never actually discussed a household merger, but Davdi had assumed that they'd spend the rest of their lives together. If that was going to happen at all now, it wouldn't be until he retired; he couldn't run the Conglomerate from a frontier branch office, and the Conglomerate needed him more than Talro did.

And that was the crux of it. Talro didn't need him at all. How much did he need her?

"There you are," his thoughts were interrupted. Retla Gurse, Vice President of Construction, bounced into the room. Besides being in charge of Pilda Shipyards' day-to-day operations, Gurse was also Davdi's closest friend. "Public Relations has been looking for you for a soundbite about the launch."

"I know, that's why I ducked in here," Davdi grinned. "Needed some time alone to compose something catchy enough to make the early newsfeed."

"Better get out there, then, before you get upstaged. The drive flare when all five engines throttle up is pretty impressive. And stop worrying about Talro; you know as well as I do that she'll be fine."

"You know me too well, old friend. Let's go give the customers the show that they came for."

[Unknown_Enemy]

2400.4

Cardinal Pytralia was sweating. Raising from his chair, he saluted the inner council of Cardinals, His Holiness Vixen VIII, then started to speak.

“Your Holiness, brothers, sisters,
I have asked for this session of the inner council to bring you some dire news. As you all know, our former homeworld's states send our ancestors here from 6 to 8 centuries ago, but only after undergoing the bio modifications that enabled them to survive on an ice world. We all know that these modifications were only partially successful, resulting in a climate adaptation of our body to the dreadful cold that lies here, but resulting also in the shortening of our life span to 80 years and what is commonly called the Small Death. The Small Death is a reVersion of our genetical code which results in weakening our Ice adaptation, while not allowing a Tyrean to sustain high temperatures of 30°C or more. Following the release of the Genetical Commission's archives, the biological Department made the following discoveries : people not afflicted with Small Death in their families see their life span reducing quickly. Should the present tendencies be confirmed, our life expectancies should top around 30 years in just 7 centuries from now. Considering the time a Tyrian needs to grow-up and learn, we will not be able to maintain an advanced civilization based on technology. At the moment, all our people seem be subject to this, except those infected by Small Death for unknown reasons. But worse, this finding lead us to investigations which proved that some of the flora we brought here mutated with the local bio-stock and has strengthened the shortening life span process. It appears that ....”
His Holiness raised from his chair and interrupted the cardinal,
“Brothers, sisters,
Please remember the cult back on Tyrian III, 6 centuries ago. Remember them hunted and condemned. Remember them banished here to be forgotten by all. That was only 2 years before the Armageddon. Remember that what may appears today as a disaster may result tomorrow in our salvation. You may resume Cardinal Pytralia.”
.....
3 hours later
.....

“... Therefore, it is the decision of the inner council that domed colony shall be created as soon as possible on other worlds, and that full priority will be given to the families presenting the more important risks of Small Death....”

I am his Holiness Vixen VIII, elected by the inner council to lead the Tyrean. I am the leader of a dying specie.

“... Exploration ships shall be built and sent to other systems to find suitable worlds....”

I am fully aware of what we are, we are an unachieved social experiment. Send a bunch of criminals to a harsh world, where they will have to work hard just to barely survive, and in a few centuries they should have evolved in a small and honest agricultural world. That was the goal of our presence here.

“... full priority to massive transport system will be given once a valuable new homeworld has been discovered....”

The experiment was a success, almost a miracle. But they betrayed us by committing mass suicide. They betrayed us by messing the bio modifications. They betrayed us by destroying our homeworld. May they freeze in hell.

“... complete evacuation of this world shall be set as main goal of the Churches....”

The Churches. What a joke. Is there really some Gods somewhere ? I wonder. The Churches are no more than convenient tools. They were the easiest tool which allowed our group to escape the soon to be dead Tyrian III. They are the most convenient tool to control the population, to have them unknowingly concentrated on the Long Road.

“... the main goal of leaving the planet shall be kept secret as long as we are not ready to migrate....”

Our people are not strong enough to accept the hidden truth. They are not strong enough to accept what they are. They are not strong enough to accept what they could be.

“...research in terra-formation shall begin immediately to ensure no new colonies will meet the problems we face now....”

I will not betray my people. I will not fail them.

[ October 01, 2002, 13:27: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[sachmo]

Invexus Corporation

Mike Leetch took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, and then allowed himself time for a yawn and a stretch. He and his staff had been pouring over the mounds data that Invexus Explorer had beamed back after surviving the trip thru the wormhole. Leetch admitted that while he had been cautiously optimistic that the engineering of the ship would allow it to survive the trip thru hyperspace, he was as surprised as everyone else when Captain Bromley beamed his greetings back from the Kornephoros system. Since that day, Bromley and his crew had broadcast back to Cherek all sorts of readings, pictures, and data. While every bit of this information would be put to good use, it was quickly discovered that Leetch’s staff would need more resources just to sift thru it all and put it to the most efficient use possible. Word came down directly from Board Chairman Hartnell himself that the Space Research Division was to have access to anything and everything that they needed to get the job done. The next day, every wish Leetch had ever asked for had been granted. The department’s staff grew to twice its original size virtually overnight. They were given every piece of equipment he had ever requested. They were getting a brand new complex built for them, and the best news of all was the Mike Leetch was going to be project lead. That meant a huge raise and a chance in the spotlight. If they preformed well, who knew how high he could rise? However, being the golden boy for the company was a two edged sword. The Board Chairman wanted to begin remote mining asteroids as soon as possible. Leetch gathered his best men with him and began preliminary work on the issue. Projections had the project being completed in just over five years. Leetch knew better than to go to the Board Chairman with this estimate, and so he began the unenviable task of begging, borrowing and stealing resource he could to cut down the research time. In the meantime some useful discoveries had already been made. The stability of the hull of the Explorer had allowed an ingenious young scientist to design a dome that would fit over a colony, allowing Cherekians to colonize rock planets with atmospheres that would normally be toxic to them. This little gem bought Leetch and his people a little more time to figure out how to deliver a five year project in half the time.

Board Chairman Hartnell sat down at the head of the conference table. Gathered in this room were his closest advisors and department heads. The discovery of the domed colonies had been a huge boost to Hartnell’s plans. Initially, he had been a bit disappointed when Captain Bromley had failed to find a world with an Oxygen atmosphere in Kornephoros. The domed communities would allow quick colonization of a number of previously unusable worlds, including two in their own system. Already, a colony ship had been constructed, and was making ready to depart for Aecupus IV, the closest planet in the universe to Cherek. The planet would be used as a research colony. However, the long-term goals of the corporation, and of the Cherek people, needed to be discussed. That is what this meeting was about.

“Good afternoon, everyone” Hartnell said.
Everyone returned his salutation. They all seemed eager to get into the meeting.
“Alright people, here is where we stand. Mister Kilibreu has his Research and Development division working on interpreting the data we have gathered from Invexus Explorer. As most of you know, it has already paid off in the development of domed habitats, and we are well on our way to putting the first Cherek community on another world!”
Mike Kilibreu smiled as applause broke out in the conference room.
“Also, Fleet Services has done an excellent job of getting our first colony ship put together in three months. The hard work by Dana Wallace and her people has made our first colonization efforts a reality.”
Again applause broke out. Dana smiled shyly, then blushed when Hartnell gave her a quick wink.
“Every one of you should be proud of the work they have done. Because of you, Invexus is reaching out and spanning the galaxy. Your hard work and dedication is helping to secure the future for the Cherek people.”
More applause.
Hartnell held up his hands.
“This is only the beginning. We cannot harvest these new fruits of prosperity without fear of consequence. There are…others whom we may have to compete with.”
Gasps ran around the table, except for the few who had been privy to this information already.
“Captain Bromley recovered a bit of data that has been kept secret until now. During the first week of their stay in Kornephoros, Invexus Explorer picked up a very faint transmission from parts unknown. We still do not know much about this transmission, but we do know it was created by a sentient race.”
After a few moments of silence, everyone tried to speak at once. Hartnell asked for silence, and it was given, but he could see the uncertainty in their eyes.
“We have taken steps to deal with anyone, or anything, we come into contact with. To protect the interests of the Invexus Corporation, and to protect the Cherek race, we have created the Invexus Security Fleet. We will begin construction of armed capital ships that will be used to protect our facilities and people around the galaxy. Hopefully, it will be a force we will not need to use, but I gather everyone will feel better knowing that it exists.”
That brought some nervous laughter.
“I can’t say when, or even if, we will encounter this race, or any other race for that matter. If and when we do, my feeling is that we will be able to get along peacefully with them, and hopefully learn and grow as a people from the experience. We are standing on the brink of a new era, everyone, and Invexus will lead the way into the light.”

[Captain Kwok]

Juprup Federation News

2400.4

The second of five orbital stations, Construp B, was completed in orbit ahead of schedule much to the delight of the Juprup Space Agency. Administrator Poodak of the Agency commented "We've learned a great deal of information from the construction of the first station and it has really allowed us to improve the process. I believe the increasingly modular design of the orbital stations will continue to push this project faster than anticipated."

The first colony ship, Colorup 0001, is nearing completion. Speaker Kwok has announced plans to officially launch the ship next month to its destination, New Juprup. With the announcement, the first colonists began to be placed into their stasis chambers that will sustain them for the next few months.

2400.5

The launch of the Colorup 0001 was watched by over one billion Juprup citizens today. Speaker Kwok set the ship in motion toward it's destination New Juprup, approximately 5 sectors away. The colony ship is expected to arrive next month where preparations to construct the first Juprup habitation on another world will begin immediately. The small blue planet which shares much of the same characteristics as Juprup Prime has been the centre of much study over the Last sixty years. It is believed the planet will become the home to over a billion Juprup over the next ten years.

[geoschmo]

2400.0

One of the stars is falling.

That was the first thought that flashed through the Hive mind at the streak of light that cut through the night sky on the dark side of the planet. A star was falling. This was quickly dismissed as illogical as the Hive knew full well that the stars were light years away and couldn’t fall to the ground. And the stars were much larger than the planet on which the Hive lived, and would have consumed it had it been that close. The Hive also knew that if the streak of light it had seen had been a result of some far away star it would have been traveling at tremendous speeds. Speeds that were beyond the laws of physics that the hive was just recently learning from its hosts memories.

No, this was not a star, but a meteor. The Hive studied a great many memories over the next few moments and learned all it could about meteors. They were small bits of rock and ice that entered the atmosphere many times every day. But most of these were too small or too fast to see, or fell on the day side of the planet and were washed out by the bright light of the nearby star the hosts called Laxes.

Every few months the Hive learned one of these meteors fell that was large enough to survive the heat of reentry and actually crashed to the ground and became a meteorite. And every few hundred years the Hive learned one came to ground that was very large indeed and left a noticeable crater in the ground.

And the Hive kept learning from the hosts. For this was a very interesting topic, and the Hive was very curious. The hosts had also been very curious. One of the things they had been the most curious about was their own origins. And one of the things they learned, and in turn taught to the Hive was that every few million years a meteorite landed that was very large indeed. Large enough to change the climate around the entire planet. And large enough to cause widespread extinction of species.

For the first time the Hive felt concerned for it’s safety. This planet may not be a safe place for the entire hive to exist. If a single large rock could cause the end of the Hive. This could not be allowed the Hive thought.

The hosts had this concern as well the Hive learned. But they were many separate beings, and not all of them agreed that the problem was a serious one. Most of them were more concerned with there own personal comfort then they were for the existence of their entire race. So they thought much about the problem, and they talked much about the problem, but had done little to plan for it other than to build some telescopes and attempt to count the millions of rocks that were sharing their planets orbit around the star Laxes.

The Hive did not share their concern for the comfort of the individual hosts bodies. At least not to the extent that it would risk the death of the entire Hive. So it decided to do something. It decided that some of the Hive would leave the planet. There were several planets also orbiting Laxes on which structures could be built that would support the host bodies that the Hive needed to survive. The hosts had actually begun the process of designing these structures or “domes” as they called them looking towards the far distant future when they would finally agree amongst themselves enough to go there. So the Hive began to build a ship. A ship that would carry some host bodies and go to one of these worlds. The hosts had a name for it. They called it a colony.

The Hive decided to build a colony.

[capnq]

"That was a fine meal," Davdi commented, licking a stray splash of itega sauce from the corner of his mouth.

"I knew you'd like this place," Gurse replied. "They've only been open for a few weeks, so word of mouth hasn't driven up the reservations fee yet."

"I don't know how you manage to find the time to check out so many new restaurants, Retla. Especially with the second colony ship due to launch in a month."

"We learned a lot building the prototype; the work is going a lot more smoothly on this one. I wish I could say the same about ticket sales."

"That's understandable," Davdi agreed. "We never expected the 'Second Chance' campaign to draw as many entries as 'New World, New Life' did, but it's still on pace to fill the available berths. People simply aren't as eager to colonize a planet that they can't breathe the air on."

"That's exactly what I wanted to discuss with you," Gurse grinned. "I've got a proposal to deal with that."

"I knew this wasn't just a friendly dinner invitation!" Davdi laughed. "What's your pitch?"

"Have you heard anything about Soctu Timho's latest research results?" Gurse asked.

"Can't say that I have. I leave R&D work to the people who have the patience for it."

"Well, Doctor Timho has gotten some intriguing results from his deep space probes. They picked up an unusual gravitational anomaly near the edge of the system. He's convinced that it's an opening into some kind of hyperdimensional tunnel that will allow interstellar travel!"

Davdi's eyes bulged in surprise. "Interstellar? If he's right, there could be other colonizable planets out there!"

"Exactly! And some of them could even have breathable atmospheres! But we'll need to design and build an exploration ship to verify that they're there, first. And for that, I need your authorization to reallocate part of the construction budget."

"You'll have the paperwork on your desk by tomorrow. Have the waiter bring another round of BLARG, and we'll drink a toast to the future."

[Gimboid]

"Kurasa o houyousuru" [Translation - Embrace the darkness]
Old saying of the Mahatsuhito clan

Several months had past since the first vanguard of the Imperium had left the shelter of the homeworld and travelled to distant planets to form new colonies and outPosts under the direction of the best agents of the Mahatsuhito clan.

The unexpected find of interspacial rifts that allowed inter-system travel had been a boon for the Imperium and what had initially been a minor expedition had become an all consuming passion for the Katana Imperium. Only those at the highest ranks of the shogunates and in the palace had been informed of the vast opportunities that were up for the taking out in the vastness of space, yet even those who knew little were willing to join in the grand drama that was unfolding.

______________________________________________
==============================================

Her resolve had not wavered in this new era, and Kaneko had been satisfied that the reigns of power were still firmly in her grasp. The new colonies would be as all the other territories, mere extensions of the power that flowed through the palace, as it should be.

Still, the concept of warp points leading to totally unexplored areas of space had excited Kaneko like never before. New realms to control, new planets to exploit and untold power flowing back to the Imperium. Her name would be forever remembered in the clan for bringing this wealth to her race. A smirk appeared on her face for just a moment as that thought struck her. It was quickly washed away by the serious look that adorned her visage like a suit of armor. Noone must be able to understand her motives she reminded herself, the only person that could be trusted was Kaneko. Her power came from living in the shadows, to shroud the truth was to stay alive.

[Dead Meat]

"To write history one must be more than a man, since the author who holds the pen of this great justiciary should be free from all pre-occupation of interest, or of vanity."
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">
Timeline of the Terran Confederation

2028:
The United Nations, lead by the United States, begins work on terraforming Mars and Venus. Mars will be terraformed by using recently discovered water trapped in the polar ice caps. By causing a greenhouse effect, they hope to melt the ice and improve the environment to something suitable for Humans. A plan using microbes on Venus is thought up by the “think tanks” in the U.N.. Both ideas caused much concern with the other members of the U.N., nonetheless the plan proceeds on schedule and in 2043, two shuttles are launched, one carrying a large nuclear warhead to hopefully cause a chain-reaction on Mars. The other is sent to Venus with modified microbes. But no one knows how long it would take before the planets where ready. People soon forgot about it and the programs funding is cut.

2060:
The Middle Eastern League (MEL) is formed. While the Alliance is meant to make peace in the region, there is still conflict between the member nations. Though the League does bring benefits to its members, mainly income and weapons. The African nations are slowly brought into the League, either through peaceful negotiations or “negotiations” of another kind.

2068:
The Middle Eastern League withdraws from the United Nations. Seeing the League as a threat the United States, United Kingdom, and other NATO members, they ratify the NATO treaty to allow other nation the chance to join. Both Russia and China (which now controls all of the Asian, India and Pakistan) refuse to join; however the nations of South America, Japan and the Oceanic Nations (Australia, New Zealand, and the islands North of them) join. The United Nations is disbanded.

2070:
Tensions between the Middle Eastern League and a new alliance between China and Russia have sparked a new cold war, which turns into a hot war this time. Peace is broken when the Russian-Chinese Alliance (RCA) President is assassinated by an unknown Middle Eastern fraction. The RCA moves quickly against the Middle Eastern League to secure oil and fleet bases. RCA losses are heavy thanks the League’s new weapons and training. However the League cannot hold out against the millions of RCA troops and conscripts indefinitely, Russian and Chinese troops reach the Suez Canal by early winter 2075. Israel and Turkey are not attacked for fears of bring NATO on the League’s side.

However the Alliance’s supply lines are stretched thin and loses have meant that the RCA must pause in its attack into Africa. This gives time for the League’s retreating troops, who in February 2076 launch a nuclear counter attack against the RCA holding the Suez Canal and break though with little restance. NATO and the RCA are appalled by the use of nuclear weapons. The RCA however dose not respond in kind against the League. League is able to reclaim Saudi Arabia and Jordan by 2085 but things settle into an uneasy stalemate as RCA reinforcements and NATO missile defense arrive on the front lines, but are unable to make any gains. The MEL launches two more nuclear attacks in 2099 and again in February 2100. NATO’s Depleted Uranium Satellite (DUS) based cannons stop all of the first attack, but was unable to stop all of the second attack. Five missiles got into rang of their intended targets. This time though, the targets where not military, and landed on heavily populated cities. The Russian-Chinese Alliance, appalled at the nearly 100 million dead, wounded and missing, launched their own strikes against the MEL who had only ground bases missile defenses.

2100:
After the exchange of nuclear weapons both sides where unable, nor willing, to continue the war. The death toll from the 30 Year War had caused nearly 500 million dead or wounded. The famine, radiation sickness and other means would kill another 50 million in a decade. A cease-fire was order (and would be enforced if need be) by NATO in 2100 after the RCA launched its reprisal attack. A peace treaty was singed on April 2003; each side would be allowed to keep any land (or what remained of it) taken during the war.

2163:
Tensions had eased sense the 30 Year War to where the 3 Super Powers had stared working together on joint projects. One of these projects was the exploration of the solar system. While the United States had used Ion Engines in the late 1990s and early 2000, it wasn’t until 2163 when the Canadians discovered a new and improved Ion Engine. This improved engine was not only faster, lighter and cheaper, it also provided much more thrust. Space was now in easy reach.

2165:
Exploration of the Solar system was complete. Families relocated, governments worked together, mankind prospered. The moon was fully colonized on 2175 and became a short of international territory. No one nation had full rights to it; all owned an equal share. Small settlements started popping up on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn around this time. All seemed to be going well, their seemed no reason for anything to be different. No one had any reason to think that all that would change.

Sense the moon was an international territory, weapons where not permitted to be built or brought in. All weapon research was banded. The police forces used non-lethal weapons to keep peace if needed. One nation however got around this rule by researching a new power supply to replace the old nuclear power planets used on the moon. It is not know which government or corporation was developing this Tectonic Power Supply, but on December 2179 something went wrong. One second all was peaceful, the next, Earth’s moon was simply a growing ball of plasma and rock which rained down on its bigger brother.

2190:
In the end, after the falling rock destroyed cities, after the tsunamis sweep away homes and families, after starvation and disease tore through the survivors, only a little more than 1 billion people remained on earth.

But Humanity had recovered quickly from what is called the Lunaris Caducum. Some countries where harder hit than other some, like the countries of the Oceania, where completely destroyed. Countries that where once considered Super Powers where now dependent on others to help feed their population. One country, however, stood out among the new Super Powers.

2200 to 2350:
One of these new Super Powers was the Confederation of Canada. Least hit by the Global tsunamis and used to harsh living condition, they quickly help those in the United States whose infrastructure and food supply was destroyed. If the Confederation of Canada could quickly get the farmlands and high-tech factories of the Unites States up to speed they themselfs would stand a chance of surviving. By 2215 enough food and goods where coming out of the now Canadian lead United States and South America that they started exporting supplies to other countries through out the world.

In 2225 The Confederation of Canada’s influence reach throughout the Globe. People where feed by food grown in South America, clothed by textiles made in The United States, and lived in cities that we built with money from others.

In 2256 much of the world was like it was before the Lunaris Caducum ("Death of the Moon"). Humanity was once again a high-tech society thanks to the research and school programs that the Canadians had developed. But Canada once against started to take a back seat in its roll that it played. While some nation once again started to explore space. Canada was content to offer help when needed. The United States started once again to assert its self. They sent mission to explore the old colonies of Earth. There was no need to visit the colonies in the outer planets though, for those had long ago died off when support from Earth stopped, all that remained of them where the domed building and computer banks.

But then a discovery was made in 2303. A report from one of the Middle Eastern nations said that both Mars and Venus where suitable for living. In fact they where near earthlike conditions. It seemed to good to be true everyone wanted an equal claim on the new planets and all agreed to do so. But old habits died hard. With the possibility of two new worlds to be colonized fighting broke out between the 3 major Power Blocks and their satellite in 2305.

While this time no one used nuclear weapons millions still died in the fierce fighting. It seemed however that while the Canadians where once content to stay out of things, they had not been idle. While the other super powers where fighting over land they have never been to, the Confederation of Canada had been building up its military, and making great gains in research. On 2349 Canada flexed its muscles, it told the various nations that they must stop their attacks. That the ways of the past where no longer acceptable for dealing with their problems, mankind should no longer be separated but united, such as they where during the Lunaris Caducum.

They did not listen; Canada enforced its policy instead. In little more than a week, they had destroyed the armies of North American League. Within a month they had defeated all of the opposition.

On 2350 the Earth had only one undisputed super power: The Confederation of Canada. Canada’s hope became Earth hope.

2355 to 2400:
Clean up of the Final war was complete. The Power blocks of old where still allowed to keep governing their people, yet where not allowed to keep a military, only police officers to keep the peace. Protection from their neighbors would be guaranteed by another, for a new government was being formed. Hundreds of years ago the United Nations helped enforced peace between nations, however their where many problems with it. This was to change.

In 2360 the Confederation of Canada made an announcement; it no longer existed. Instead it became the Terran Confederation. The Terran Confederation would enforce the peace on Earth. It would however not be a dictator ship. The President would have his or her job for life, but the governments of Earth and its colonies would have am equal, but limited say. "Together", the new President of the Terran Confederation said, "Humanity would grow and would expand to the stars."

Now forty years after the founding of the Terran Confederation, and the death of its first President, Humanity was ready to leave Earth.

[ October 02, 2002, 00:56: Message edited by: Dead Meat ]

[geoschmo]

2400.2

The Colony ship was almost ready to go. The Last group of hosts headed for the new colony were taking off in orbital shuttles now. The hosts taking care of the assembly work in orbit were finishing up on the colony ship at the same time. Soon the engines would fire and the vessel would leave orbit and head for the nearest suitable planet in the system.

The ship was of a class that the hosts already had designed, but never built. They had not been able to cooperate long enough to do so, but that was not a problem anymore. The Hive had ended all such counterproductive squabbling.

The Hive had made some modifications to the engines however. The hosts had intended to use simple chemical fueled reaction rockets which were very slow. The ships would have taken several months to reach the planet, and extra space would have been required for fuel, meaning the colony would have required regular transport visits with manpower, goods and supplies for several years.

The theory behind ion engines the Hive designed had been known by the hosts for some time. But the Hive had concentrated the collective mental capacity of thousands of physicists and worked out the formulas needed in a matter of weeks. The extra power and decreased fuel requirements meant the ship could carry enough hosts and supplies that the new colony would be self sufficient as soon as it landed.

The Hive watched as the ship moved away from the planet. And after the ship was no longer visible from the planet, the Hive watched the planet recede into the distance from its vantage point inside the ship. Several hours into the trip however something unusual happened. The ship disappeared.

The Hive searched and searched its mind and could no longer sense the hosts inside the colony ship. For a moment the Hive thought there must have been some malfunction that had destroyed the ship. Although even that should have produced some momentary feeling of pain or confusion, as the Hive knew immediately when some accident happened to one of the host bodies on the planet. This time though it was as if a light switch had been turned out and instantly 34 million host minds were disconnected from the Hive.

Quickly the Hive directed some hosts to turn the telescopes from searching for approaching meteors to searching for the colony ship. Soon it was located, and fortunately did not appear to be damaged. In fact it appeared to be returning to the home planet under full power. Some time later the Hive could sense the minds on board again. Again it was as if a light switch had been flipped. One moment the minds were gone, the next they were there again. And the minds on board the ship described the exact same events from their perspective.

Over the next few days the Hive directed the colony ship to go out and back again several times. What it determined was that the loss of connection occurred at exactly the same distance from the home planet. It also did not matter which direction the colony ship traveled in.

The Hive searched its hosts memories for any clues to what could be occurring. It located some memories of the Last days before the Hive became self aware. Some host medical researchers struggling to stop the spread of the “contamination” had discovered the mental link between the hosts after they awoke from their sleep.

They had been unable to interfere with this link, but they had theorized that it may be possible to break the link if enough distance were put between hosts. The hosts doctors had been unable to test this theory, but the Hive had apparently proven it to be a fact.

For a time the Hive considered whether this would prevent the colonization of the other planets in the system. The hosts on the ship could function independently of the Hive, but this would make cooperation between the planets impossible.

The Hive searched it’s memories for possible solutions, and came up with one that did work, however imperfectly. Prior to being joined by the Hive, the hosts had communicated with each other by verbal communication. This was only effective for a few hundred meters, so they had devised technological methods for sending their voices over great distances by modulating them on very high frequency electromagnetic carrier waves. This technology they called “radio” had been in general use by the hosts. The Hive had not had a conscious knowledge of it before now because it was simply not needed on the planet itself.

As it turned out the Colony ship the Hive had already built already had these radio devices on board it. They had been built because they were in the design specifications, but the Hive had not bothered to learn what they were used for since they were apparently unnecessary for the operation of the ship.

The Hive instructed a host body on the ship, and later on the colony, and one on the home planet to remain in constant radio contact with each other and communicate verbally all the events going on of importance at either end. It was very inefficient, and slow. But the Hive adapted. And in a way it did not feel quite so alone any more. For in effect the Hive was now two Hives.

[Captain Kwok]

Juprup Federation News

2400.6

The Colorup 0001 arrived at New Juprup delivering 34M new colonists and all the materials needed to build a self-sufficient colony. The majority of the colonists however, will be remaining in stasis for another few months until housing and other infrastructure is completed. Speaker Kwok has planned to visit the first Juprup colony in a few months along with another batch of colonists.

2400.7

The JFS Enoki was successfully launched from Construp B earlier this month. The 150kT ship is fully functional and has already completed its shakedown cruise. The Enoki will now embark on a month long journey to the northern warp point and will be making the first voyage through at that time.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 1--Part 1
2400.0
-------------------------
GOTH & FERISS
-------------------------
Goth is the only known sentient artificial intelligence. It is owned by the Sa'ah. The fact that it seems to possess self-awareness is known only to a few.
Feriss is the Programmeer of Goth and from the tribe of Sa'ah.

--Negative. Food production unable to maintain equilibrium. Storage and rations for 34 million Heru enormous. Two colony ships not viable.
--Are you sure?
--Same question with same variables produces same answer.
--Should have known. But we are only talking two or three months worth of food.
--Negative, Programmeer. Enough food must be taken to allot for the 34 million for over a year...year and two months to be exact. The colonists will need food while they terraform the land and learn to provide for themselves. Perhaps even more foodstuffs will be sent. Now calculate that you are harvesting and storing food for 34 million in one month's time for 12 months. Calculates to enough food for 408 million Heru for one month.
--****. I didn't think of it in those terms.
--I did. Which essentially accounts for one fifth of total food output on the homeworld.
--I see. Do you feel up to a question of preference? I know they are difficult for you.
--I am always hoping to expand my programming.
--Using the word 'hope?' I'm impressed.
--Thank you, Programmeer.
--Several lords of the Sa'ah are looking for ways in which you might help them gain an advantage. I have tried to explain to you the vunerable situation you are in. Some of them are impressed by your skills and personality. The demonstration we ran the other day did a great deal for your cause. However, some of the lords are more impressed by what you can do for them, rather than what you are. All recognize that you could be the Sa'ah's single great advantage in gaining ground on the other tribes. So my question, or rather our question is, and it is a two part question: Can you see a way or tactic in which you might be most helpful to the Sa'ah, and also, and this is the preference part, what would you like to do to help us.
--Am I part of the Sa'ah tribe, Programmeer?
--Uh...no.
--Would it be illogical to ask for an induction into the tribe?
--I don't understand. Why is it important to you to belong to the tribe? Are you capable of loyalty? Such a thing would be asked, and proof might be requested.
--Loyalty. It would be easy for me to write a global program that would forever restrain me from certain, treasonous actions. You could verify the program.
--True. But why do you want to join?
--Membership is survival. I know that, Programmeer. Unless I am seen by everyone involved that I am Sa'ah. I will always be a computer.
--I will relay this conversation to the lords and request that you be accepted. They will eventually agree, I think. It is in their best interest to have your full confidence...or rather be fully confident in you.
--As to your question, my talents are limited only by memory, speed and connections. For starters, if you find a way to connect me to the other tribal mainframes, it might be possible to know everything they know. Would I be kicked for saying that the Sa'ah were weak, Programmeer?
--Probably.
--Then I shall say they are understaffed.
--Better but clinical.
--Then I shall say they are impoverished.
--Oppressed.
--Oppressed, then. Undoubtedly, if the Sa'ah are to flourish in space we must build our knowledge rather than building our might. I consider us extremely lucky we received even the one ship for now from the Overlord and the Circle. I've read all the transmissions.
--Spying?
--Yes, spying. The Sa'ah must learn to spy.
--You mean, you must learn to spy.
--Hopefully that is the same difference.
--****, Goth, they may make you a lord if you keep talking.

[ October 03, 2002, 16:54: Message edited by: Jmenschenfresser ]

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 1--Part 2
2400.0

--------
OVERLORD
--------

Keer-ree, the High Holiday, celebrated by all tribes. Yesterday, the Day of Dawn, the day before the three weeks of festival which bring in the new year, found the Overlord in and out of meetings with the Circle of Fifteen. He considered the issues petty. For the most part the schedule had been decided. Taking a cold bottle of Boohrisian Head Tea from the concealed cooling unit behind his desk, he removed the lid and gulped down half the bottle.

What would my Omon brethren think if they knew I preferred Boohrisian tea over our own root ale, the old Omonite thought. He would have liked to take it as a sign of his tribelessness as Overlord, but that would be fooling himself. He'd always been a cosmopolitain. Friends in all tribes. Lovers in more than one. How many other Omonites could boast they'd bedded a Sa'ah. He loved multiplicity, not homogeneity. He snorted.

Sitting the bottle upon the transparent face of his desk, he struck two keys and the agreed upon itenerary scrolled up from the bottom:

2400.0 Space Yard requisition.
2400.0 Commencement of construction of the Vellon colony ship, Rock One class.
2400.2 Completion of Vellon ship.
2400.2 Commencement of construction of the Omon colony ship, Rock One class.
2400.4 Completion of Omon ship.
2400.4 Commencement of construction of the Rellan colony ship, Rock One class.
2400.6 Completion of Rellan ship.
2400.6 Commencement of construction of the Boohr transport ship, Class Under Consideration
Open - Completion of Boohr ship.
Open - 2nd Vellon colony ship
Open - 2nd Omon colony ship
Open - 1st Sa'ah colony ship.
Open - 1st Boohr colony ship.
--To Be Determined--

The Overlord slapped two more keys and a grid of the known galaxy appeared. Two more keys and a graphical representation of the stipulations of the first ever Ring (title of treaties produced by the Circle of Fifteen) descended upon the grid.

He studied it for a time, sipping his tea and massaging his left bicep.

The Vellon would head toward the center of the galaxy. The Omon would head toward its edge. The third spacial lock remained unclaimed. All further exploration was done on a finders keepers basis, with one exception--the system to the south, if inhabitable, would belong to the Rellan so that they might retain a strong centralized node of power for the Heru. The Boohr were granted right to one planet per system of the owner's choice. No rights have been given to the Sa'ah except a general promise of initial colony ships. Few want to see them prosper given that it almost invariably leads to raiding and extortion.

The Overlord didn't really relish the thought of returning to the Lighting of the First. His wife made a horribly bitter sweet nut stuffing. Probably the worst. Work was better than choking that stuff down. He resolved to spread around a little tribelessness with a personal letter to the Vellon captain chosen to pilot the first colony ship. He'd write the entire letter replacing all tribal references with references to the Heru as a whole. Damned Vellon needed all the pride they could get as people of Heru and not children of the Vellon. The Vellon had only recently rewritten their textbooks to cut off all geneologies with Vellon, instead of the traditional extension to Heru.

First steps toward another war, thought the Overlord.

He grabbed his left bicep, almost spilling his drink in the process. The line across his bicep itched on the inside. It always had..ever since a Vellon soldier almost hacked it off with a piece of glass tied to a splintered table leg.

[TerranC]

Notes: I guess I was too excited in the start. I rewrote and edited the two stories before. Not much changed, but now you can make sense out of it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif Enjoy.
--------------------------------------------------
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
-Albert Einstein

Galtenn Standard Year 2400, 7th Month.

"Well, that business is done with. Tell Command to get the Crew Return Vehicle ready. I don't want to stay up here one more second."

"I thought you liked space?"

"I like space. I don't like working in space. Even if it's all done by a bunch of robots. Besides, the station gives me vertigo every time I look out the window."

"Heh. Vertigo nothing. You don't have to spacewalk out there with a 300KT starship bearing down on your head."

"It's Zero Gravity, Hecks. Ain't nothing falling down on your head unless with a gentle nudge."

"That's what I worry about"

The two crewmembers laughed out aloud in the void of space.

"Is the CRV coming or what?"

"It'll come... just wait a sec-"

explosion (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1033697204.jpg)

Just then, something rocked the space station with tremendous force, enough to bring the two members off their seats. It seemed to almost overturn the enormous space station. After a brief moment, the space station became stable, once again.

"What the hell was that?"
"Check the cameras! Did something crash into us?"
"Negative! What's going on? I'm not reading 6A wing on the computer!"
"What? How can you not see a forsaken wing?"

"Holy smoky, Jecks. Take a look at this."
"Lord almighty."

Both crewmembers stared ghastly at a vidfeed that showed a part of the station ripped apart to pieces. Where it had once sported a large wing of a construction facility, it was replaced by nothingness: apart from a large debris field and some torn framework freefloating in space. A comm signal broke the moment of awe.

"Command to Starbase Galtenn, Command to Starbase Galtenn, please respond. We've registered a large explosion down here. Is anybody hurt?"

"Negative command. No one's hurt. The whole wing is gone Command. Gone. Torn apart to shreds-"
"When is that CRV going to get here command?"
"The CRV will arrive momentarily. We have dispatched a shuttle also to cope with any problems. It's almost over. Stay frosty."

the day after

"... There are no words on what caused the explosion, or if there are to be any actions taken. The Space Command is keeping a tight lid..."

I turned off the Television.
There was no need to watch it anymore. I didn't need some grubby reporter telling me what I already know. It was bound to happen, I knew it, they knew it, and everybody knew it. I sincerely believed that every precaution was taken, and that those precautions would prevent access to vital alliance installations. Or at least slow the clock or make them choose something less important.

"Mr. Central Regent, The executive committee is here to see you."

"Thank you secretary computer. Show them in."
"Good Morning, Gentlemen."

"Good Morning Mr. Central Regent. Now we assume you called us about the event?"

"You must be psychic, Mr. T'Erian. All of you, please sit down."

I took a deep breath before speaking; as what I was about to say would destroy everything I have worked for. But the citizen's needs and wants come first, not my ambitions.

"You all know that I met with the Demiregents of the nations following the event Last night, and... I think they're right. I think we should put a halt to all information regarding the event, and halt the constructions, at least we implement new safety measures..."

"Sir, with all due respect, the demiregents' advice is worth dirt. We cannot put a hold on information and the space constructions, even if we wanted to."

"Mr. Central Regent, halting the construction, and subsequently the expansion of our race, is telling ourselves that we should chock ourselves and suffocate. Galtenn Prime is a fine planet, but the maintenance of 2 Swifts, a space station, and a colony ship is putting strain on our resources. Also, the construction costs are running our coffers bare. From more than 40 000 KTs of resources, we have used up more than 10 000, and are loosing more each month. We have located 3 Huge and resource rich planets in the new lixis system, 1 of which, has an oxygen atmosphear! To halt construction when such rewards are nearly at our heals, sir?"

"If you hold information, and halt construction, they have won, sir. The opposition, the media, the pessimists, and the state nations. You must adress the public."

"Think about it, Mr. Regent. You have all the time you need."

There was a lengthy period of silence in the room.

"Thank you. I'll notify you people first before I take any action."

"Have a nice day, Mr. Central Regent."

the day after

"Good afternoon, Detective Landers. How goes the investigation?"

"Just fine Mr. Central Regent. We've found some interesting things from the shuttle. Since I know that you don't have time, and I don't have time, I'll just get down to business, if you don't mind."

"Go ahead Detective."

"Well, we can rule out any mechanical faults or Galtenn error, sir. The station computers don't record any rise or decline in systems to above normal or below. The Command Station recordings show the same, and our own scans of the mechanical debris show that they were working fine before the event."

"Well, Computers can be tricked, can't it?"

"Yes they can sir, but our computer analysts don't see any signs of hacking, alteration of data or any malicious programs in the computers."

"So you're saying that this was deliberate?"

"I wanted this to be an accident, myself, sir. But lady luck isn't with us. The proximity scanners don't show any space junk floating nearby, and no meteor materials were found."

"What caused this?"

"Our best guess sir? A bomb, not really powerful but if well positioned, could do a lot of damage. It's not the sophisticated EM kinds, but the Ral Gral (Joe Schmo) type dynamite."

"Are you sure that it was a bomb?"

"Not quite so sure sir, but it's either that, or some kind of undocumented freak accident where the plasma pipes just blow up without gathering pressure."

"Was it the crew?"

"No sir. The crew stayed in the command module all the time. Passed the lie tests perfectly. Somebody that got in, got out, and stayed anonymous enough in order to plant a bomb without the environmental computers knowing it probably perpetrated the event. We're getting closer and closer to a solution sir."

"Thank you. Please keep me and the GSC informed of any progress."

"Will do sir. Shuttle out."

"5 minutes Mr. Central Speaker."

The bloke had to have connections. There was no way that some ignoramus could have come into the station with a bomb. They'll get to the bottom of this. They are good men, the crew.

I stepped up to the podium to see a whole mess of reporters and cameras.

"Good Morning ladies and gentlemen. As you all know by now, at 10:00 PM Standard Meridian Time, 2 days ago, the 6A section 'wing' of Starbase Galtenn was destroyed by unknown causes. The crew is safe, and the Acasta is intact. There is a full-fledged investigation going on as of this moment to figure out the cause of the accident. As of this moment, MXR Aeronautic corps will be off of any future projects, and will be investigated. The Space Contract, for the time being has been awarded to Northern Frameworks Incorporated. The space program will proceed as planned, and another Acasta Colony Ship and Anton Schmitt Installation will be constructed. The GSS Vulcan and the GSS Swift will not be recalled, and the GSS Swift's return is only for refueling purposes. The GSS Swift and the GSS Vulcan have relayed their collected stellar data back to Galtenn Alliance Geological Survey, and the GAGS have approved the plan to colonize 3 planets in the system Lixis over a period of 2 years. Research of Propulsion technology will also proceed as planned. Better scanner technology will also be researched to prevent events like the explosion. The crew will be given 4 months of leave with counseling with pay when they will be given the command of the newer proposed installations. Upcoming events in the Calendar will not be changed or cancelled, nor will there be any emergency meetings of the states. All will be returned to normalcy, and hopefully, an event such as this will never happen again. Thank you and God bless."

Acasta (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1033697040.jpg) Anton Schmitt (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newuploads/1033697141.jpg)

"Mr. Central Regent..."

As I stepped off of the podium, I began to think of what would plague the alliance and I next. They, whoever they are, pulled off a major stunt. If what they have done are any indication, they'll think about what to do next, and probably will wait a little. We are going to be ready next time.

Somwhere else on Galtenn Prime

"Sir. It's been done."

"Good. Phase one is complete."

"When shall we begin phase two, sir?"

"In due time... In due time. We've scared them for now. Give them time to become relaxed again... when they become plagued with hesitation and inaction. When they think it's safe. It's not profitable to go after someone that has been cornered. They will strike back."

"Aye sir."

"The beginnings of an empire starts here..."

[ October 04, 2002, 03:06: Message edited by: TerranC ]

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 1--Part 3:
2400.2

-----------------------
MERRILL & TYR
-----------------------

Merrill, from tribe Vellon, slapped his daughter, Tyr, across the mouth, at which she fell to the floor. His daughter was every bit the bastard he was, in both senses of the word. Her mother had been locked up right after Tyr's birth. Crazy ***** began laughing one evening. The contractions started not long afterward. She kept laughing through the entire birth. Merrill still heard that laugh late at night standing under the shower. The pellets of water hitting the metallic floor turned to laughter. The call of the ubiquitous northern crow turned to laughter. Laughter everywhere. Every year, the list got longer. Every year, the world around him was that much more edgier. The doctors assured him that insanity wasn't contagious. He still washed his hands when he went to visit his wife. The disease was extremely rare among Heruvians. Only the Boohr suffered from it really, to which most contributed their incessant thinking and praying. Merrill tried to track down his wife's history to see if she were Boohr, but the weeks of libraries and shuttle trips turned up nothing.

He remembered all this standing on the first space ship to leave the homeworld while watching his sobbing daughter crawl toward her room. God, how he was ashamed of his wife at the birth of his daughter.

"You will not curse me to my face, Tyr. What's his name?"
She muttered something.
"What!"
"Garrak," she said knowing another misunderstanding might result in a kick in the ribs.
"Only 34 million of the 500+million Vellon can fit on this first ship. I refuse the situation, daughter. To worry about the fate of this ship and my daughter's purity. No. The boy is not coming on this ship. I've kicked his whole family off, so there's no reason for him to be here. And I might add, if you work behind my back and I find that lout on this ship, I'll put you both out the air lock."
Tyr slithered to the door and stood up, her back against its closed face. The cold metal gave her strenght. She wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her robe and stared at her father devoid of fear.
"Look at me. I have nothing. I have you, but I might as well say, I own the whirlpools of Yuile. Your fear is to blame."
"For what, girl."
"For anything I might do." She smashed her elbow into the door panel and the door open. Sparks fell from the panel and its cover dropped to the floor. Once inside her room, she jabbed the other panel smashing it as well and bringing the door down."

Captain Merrill strode onto the bridge for only the second time. The entire bridge staff stood at attention. This annoyed him almost as much as his daughter's disobedience.

"Return to your duties, crew! You plan on saluting every time I join you way up here above the rabble? No. Listen. You want to show me respect soldiers? Show me respect by never taking your eyes off your station while at them. Science Officer!"
"Yessir!"
"Put the star Primidara on screen and highlight."

The view screen shuffled through several takes before becoming static. A green triangle highlighted a white twinkling point of light.

"Probes, scientists, universal mathematics and ten years tell us that the spacial lock we, the Vellon have chosen as our destined path, leads to this star. We do not know if we are correct or if any type of planet circles this star. One day soon we'll have this same talk, but then we'll be looking back at Spica, the faint blue star under which we've all grown up and grown old. (now jovial) Who knows! Maybe we won't be able to see it at all."

With that Merrill strode off to his bridge-side office. He immediately brought up the ship scematics.

"Display the quaters of Captain Merrill. Display living entities."

He quickly picked out his daughter's room. A single red dot squished itself into the far corner of the room.

Launch time. The announcement queue went off. Merrill left the room, unable to decide if the queue also contained a hint of laughter.

[Unknown_Enemy]

sorry for the mispelling, my english seems better than my latin....

2400.8

“Two red eyes are looking at me ... I am scared, I cannot flee ... Suddenly razor-sharp claws rip my chest...”.
A servant appears at the door : “Is everything all right your Holiness ? I heard you screaming, do you need help ?”. His Holiness Vixen VIII made a small gesture of negation and gave the man a blessing, allowing him to withdraw. He wanted to be left alone. Since the discovery made by one of their first colony ship, his nights were ridden by nightmares. Just one week ago was transmitted the incredible new : “full confirmation that we are not alone in the universe” ... but what explorers found was only plains of ashes ... ruins ... On this planet, perhaps homeworld of an antique civilisation, life disappeared. He kept the information secret until today, for this morning the first report of investigations made in the ruins were due to arrive. He dressed quickly and prepared to join his office, a few rooms farther ... After two unbearable hours of patience, a light on his desk started flashing, informing him of the arrival of a new message from their colony. Shivering, he pressed the “ok” button and started reading the report :

[[Inquisitor Irkaly, Team leader // colonisation mission code 3AF2400.1//SP/DL]]
–Extracts--
2400.7.80
Dome has been secured and we can now begin exploration of the ruins we localised while orbiting the planet. Our new city is far away from the site, so we must be careful, the climate is harsh and any mistake would prove fatal. As we wrote in our first report, the atmosphere is mostly composed of carbon dioxide, we have to bring a large amount of hardware which slows down our progression.
2400.7.82
We arrived in the ruin, it is scarring. Buildings of incredible height seem to have melted. Now, we understand the countryside we discovered during our travel was anything short of natural. This world seems to have been roasted, population, fauna and flora alike have disappeared in an incredible holocaust. Worst, Science team is adamant that the sun is stable, and not prone to flare. ... Moral is low ... everybody feel seek, disgusted ...
2400.7.84
There are no corps ... no skeletons ... No remains of the inhabitants of this megapolis. Radiation level is non existent, which (thanks God) prevent any possibility of nuclear strike. The Master Technician proposed an explanation for the absence of remains, I if knew what he was going to say, I would have ordered him to shut up ... but it was too late : “The air in which we move, this carbon dioxide, couldn't it be the remains of those inhabitants we are looking for ???”.
2400.7.86
We believe to have discovered what caused such destruction on the planet. The lands, under approximatively tree meters of ashes, are stripped by large bands of glassed earth, we found that while performing a geological drilling. Some incredible amount of energy ravaged the surface of this world without radioactive fallout, it was probably dropped from orbit.... So we searched up there, to find the remains of one, maybe two orbital stations... It seems they were wiped out by unknown energy weapons... Sadly, no auto-destruction theory can apply here. There was only one city on the whole planet. In fact it looks much more like an outpost. As ours. It could be that this world has been annihilated on purpose by some orbital weapons, eventually spacecraft mounted weapons. We estimated the date of the catastrophe : four centuries ago ... not so old ... May God preserve us from discovering the authors of this crime.
[[end of transmission]]

Vixen was astonished... Life, this unique gift, so fragile and miraculous ... destroyed ... An entire planet scorched ... For years, Vixen has been searching for the message of God. As he ascended the Churches' hierarchy, his faith in God was more than weakened, then replaced by faith in the Long Road. But this was a menace of unheard proportions. He did not fear the Small Death, as it was irrelevant to the Long Road, but this.... How could he lead the Tyrean to defend themselves should they meet such murderers ? What could be done with his people refusing the idea of an army ? His Holiness Vixen VIII steeled himself, then send convocations to trusted Cardinals. Lots of work had to be done.

Aftermath
In the middle of the ruined city, a small domed outpost was installed. There started to live 25 Tyrean monks, who has been praying for the souls of the dead ever since. On the main entrance door, is written an inscription using an old, dead language from their specie. What was written there became the name of the planet : Memento Mori

[ October 05, 2002, 09:03: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[capnq]

Rerta Malre rocked nervously as she stood at the command console of the _Speculation_, alternately shifting her weight off each of her three legs in turn. She was about to become one of the first Eifralo to leave their home system. As they approached the warp portal, she tried to ignore her concerns about whether the ship would make the passage intact. She knew that the _Speculation_ was as overbuilt as any other Eifral vehicle, but it was little more than a flying fuel tank, and hundreds of times the displacement of the probes that had previously tested the portal.

"Nine seconds," she announced to the bridge crew, "eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, transition!"

The viewscreen seemed to explode in swirls of color, sweeping over her in waves. It's like falling down a kaleidoscope, Malre thought to herself. The screen cleared within seconds, but instead of the friendly orange glow of Edasich, there was just a murky green cloud with a few stars peeking through.

"Engineering, status?"

"All systems nominal," came the reply. "You'd never know we ever left normal space."

"Astrogation?"

"Hard to tell with so few stars visible, but judging by the coordinates of the portal we came through, we're somewhere inside the Sestraci Nebula. About twenty light-years from Edasich."

Malre cursed under her breath. The ship's contract specified discovery bonuses for colonizable worlds, but didn't even mention nebulae. They weren't going to turn any profit at all here.

"Sensor readings?"

"Radiation levels off the scale. Spectography matches known readings for Sestraci Nebula. Trace reading of one other portal besides the one we came through; judging from the signal strength, it's more than two months' travel time away."

"The third portal we discovered in Edasich is closer than that," Malwe commented. "Prepare to return to Edasich; hopefully, we'll have better luck with the next system."

[sachmo]

Invexus Corporation

2401.1

The view from the pressurized window was the same as always; a dark sky choked with gray clouds of ash. The ash was a constant companion to the colonists on Drasnia, the second settlement of the Cherek people. The western hemisphere of the planet was experiencing a high degree of plate movement, and the result was a large amount of volcanic activity. The volcanoes were constantly throwing more ash into the atmosphere, barely giving Drasnia’s ecosystem a chance to scrub any of it from the atmosphere. As a result, everything was covered with ash. The dome over the colony had to be cleared of ash constantly for fear that the added weight might cause the dome to collapse. Rumor had it that the home office was working on a more efficient solution, but in the meantime large workGroups had to be organized to go outside and clean the ash off of the dome. This unplanned allocation of labor affected production, and so the amount of research generated by the new colony was not very close to what had been projected. Executives on Drasnia were beginning to fear for their jobs. True to the ancient laws of the universe, this fear was passed down from supervisor to subordinate all the way down thru the colony until even the schoolchildren were on edge. The good news for them was that they did not know why, and so resumed playing games and getting into mischief without giving it more than a moment’s thought. Their parents looked on, green with envy.

Schell Ambrose, executive assistant to the Board Chairman, intercepted the messenger before he had even penetrated the outer ring of the Board Chairman’s office. The Board Chairman would be very pleased with this message, his sources told him, and if Dana Wallace was too stupid to deliver it herself, Ambrose would be more than willing to reap the rewards of making the most powerful man in the universe happy.
“Thank you. I’ll take it from here, messenger.”
The messenger was only too happy to give the hard copy to Ambrose. He was obviously uncomfortable being in the executive office. He practically ran for the tube that would take him back to the Fleet Services division.
Ambrose turned and walked down the hall to his office. For most of his adult life, he had served James Hartnell, and he took great personal pride in the job that he did for him. He genuinely admired the Board Chairman, and would gladly do anything for him. However, Ambrose was not without ambition, and he knew from experience that the bearer of good tidings was often remembered when promotions were being handed out.
He stood before the door to the Board Chairman’s inner office, and straightened his suit before knocking.
“Come” was the response from inside.
Ambrose swung the doors wide and walked across the huge office. He kept his eyes down on the white marble tile, trying to hold back his excitement. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of the desk.
“Sir, here is the communication from Fleet Services.”
Board Chairman Hartnell took it, and sliced it open. Ambrose watched as Hartnell’s intelligent eyes scanned the page, and a smile spread across his face.
“Ambrose, this is wonderful news. Captain Bromley has discovered a planet in the Midos system that we should be able to colonize without a dome! That will allow us to utilize much more of the planet’s resources, and the colony will be much more profitable.”
Ambrose smiled back at his superior. “Wonderful news, sir!” He could see that Hartnell’s mind was whirring, as it usually did when he was presented with a golden opportunity. He quickly began scribbling down notes and orders.
“Ambrose, get me an emergency meeting with the department heads. We’ll have to shuffle some resources to get that planet colonized as soon as possible.’
Ambrose turned to leave. “It will be done, sir.” He began walking toward the door.
From behind him, Hartnell called out to him. “Ambrose, wait. Thanks for delivering this to me personally. I want you to join me for dinner tonight. I’m in such a good mood and I want to share it with someone. We might even talk about a reward for your excellent service. How does that sound?”
Ambrose nodded, trying to contain his anticipation. “I would be honored, sir.”
He turned and left the office, dreaming of what his reward would be.

[ October 06, 2002, 04:08: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[Captain Kwok]

Juprup Federation Federation

2401.1

The Juprup expansion and colonization into space has proceeded far more rapidly than anyone could have predicted. Several planets now have fully functional colonies with populations over 30M. Juprup Prime now has 5 new stars in the sky with each Construp in orbit. The successful mission of the JFS Enoki and the recent launch of the sister ship JFS Apok into deep space will only provide new opportunities. Addressing the Federation Council during the one year anniversary of the Federation, Speaker Kwok spoke "Look at what we have accomplished in just one year - it is the power of peace and cooperation that have led us so far, so quickly. We can only imagine what the future holds for all Juprup kind". With a booming deversified economy and plentiful employment and opportunities in the new colonies, the demand to leave Juprup Prime is exceeding the capacity of all transports. The Juprup Space Agency plans on building a number of new high capacity population transports to meet the demand within a year.

[ October 06, 2002, 07:16: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[capnq]

Rerta Malre felt much less nervous as the _Speculation_ left Edasich for the second time. The swirling colors inside the warp portal Lasted a bit longer before they winked out, but this time the viewscreen revealed a pair of stars, one red, the other a dim blue.

"Engineering, status?"

"Nominal."

"Astrogation?"

"Constellations match predicted view from the vicinity of the Manark binary. Thirty light-years this time."

"Sensor readings?"

"Initial scan detects six planets. Three potentially large enough to colonize. And spectrography suggests one of those has breathable concentrations of hydrogen."

A cheer went up from the bridge crew. The bidding for crew assignments on the _Speculation_ had been fierce, but the discovery bonus for the breathable world alone guaranteed a net profit for the crew members. Malre's share of the total for all three worlds would almost cover what she'd paid for the command commission.

"Now this is more like it," Malre grinned. "What about other warp portals?"

"We're picking up two strong readings on opposite sides of the system," the sensor tech replied, "roughly equidistant from our current position. Both are half a month closer than the Last unexplored portal out of Edasich."

Malwe consulted the astrogation display. "We'll set course for the spinward portal. The next system theoretically could connect to the one on the other side of the Last Edasich portal. Start the detailed scans; we'll be able to get a lot of valuable data while we're in transit."

[ October 07, 2002, 04:43: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 1--Part 4:
2401.0

--------
LEON
--------
"Sure...my mother gave me a name. But I ****in' forgot it. When I was about twenty and living in an orphanage, I read a story. First thing I ever read. Was about two spies named Lee'atis and Oneh. That impressed me. I knew then I wanted to do that ****. I wanted to be a spy. So I named myself Leon using the first two letters of the guys from the book. Le...On... That's me.

But spyin' isn't just killin' and ****in'. It's boring **** most of the time. Lots of it is just sitting around in one place waiting for something to happen, which the guy who's filling your pockets thinks might happen. If that makes any ****in' sense at all.

By the time I was thirty-five, and too old for school, I'd lived with four of the five tribes. You see, the basic looks of a Heru are the same. The Rellan tend to have red hair, but not all. Such a thing don't exclude a person. It's the **** they hang on their bodies, and the way they act and think that cuts the tribe lines. Drop an Omonite in a room full of Vellon, even if he don't look like a Omonite, and they'll all know he's one before he even opens his mouth. Then once he does, it'll be that much more apparent. That's where I come in. I can act like all of them. A nomad. Those who don't know or don't care what tribe they are from are nomads. But most nomads don't understand the tribal quirks, so they congregate, unwelcome everywhere.

****, I hate working around the Boohr...normally. One good thing is they don't kick you around while giving orders. Everybody just does what he's told to do. But, as I said, normally, it sucks. No sex. No fights. No booty. Just yes and no. Work, sleep, **** and eat. What kinda religion is that?

Anyway, I'm here on their first space transport ship. A Boohr ship, acting as a Boohr officer. Everyone's always used the Boohr for getting stuff from point A to point B. Thing is they don't work for a profit...just what they need to maintain and grow a little. So they're cheap. And they've managed to continue that faculty in space apparently.

Who's payin' me? None of your ****in' business!

But I'm here to look after what's being moved around and keep my ears open. Already the Vellon, the Omon and the Rellan have colonies in other systems. Like I said, this would normally be a boring *** assignment, but there's plenty of ****-for-brains peasants on board headed to the Vellon colony in Primidara. 300 some odd million of 'em. The Vellon, in all their world reknowned wisdom, decided to truck their peasants out there first, thinking they needed the masses for labor. Everyone knows the Vellon are perfectionists when it comes to eating their enemies for breakfast, but they couldn't organize themselves a proper picnic without riots and someone pulling a blade. I've met the drunken captains on this ship, and I know in bringing the peasants, they also managed to allow on board every major peasant revolutionist and instigator. Just giddy as they can be thinking revolution will be easier on another rock. Soon as they hit the ground, they'll be a change of leadership, and the Vellon rulers back in Spica will have to spend the next two years ordering people hung from trees on a planet they've never been to. Dumb ****s.

But I love those Vellon women they got on board. Long as you look like a Vellon, talk like one, act like one, and the possible husband ain't bigger than you, they'll do most anything you want. But I don't cause trouble...don't get paid for that...normally...

Naw, I just bide my time, and collect my pay.

[Unknown_Enemy]

2401.4

Conversation transcript between AI XES-1325-PT2 and AI XES-1359-VL7
---------------Extract---------------
Elegance of the Beast :[[Data analysis completed – thought process resumed – communication channel open]]

Born By Accident :”Greetings student. If you have opened your com channel, then you must have assimilated the advanced Tyrean sociology. Any questions about it ?”

Elegance of the Beast :”Not questions Master, but interrogations. The Tyrean created our artificial intelligence, then granted us full citizenship to their Federation despite our soulless nature, then give us access to information which are strongly restricted to most of the “natural” citizens. Furthermore, to perform the task we are assigned, they would be fine with grade 6 partly sentient constructs. I can understand one of us created for science's sake. But hundreds ?”

Born By Accident : [[transmitting folder //Planet Memento Moris//]]

Elegance of the Beast :[[receiving folder----data analysis beginning-*-*-*-completed]] Very high probability that this world was glassed on an ongoing military campaign four centuries ago. High probability that most of Tyrean population would prefer ritual suicide over fighting. Logical conclusion is that Tyrean Inner circle acknowledged that fact and decided to create highly evolved intelligences to perform the task of fighting if they have to come to that. Except that I do not want to kill or to be killed !!

Born By Accident : “To the point my dear student. You will never kill anybody if you can avoid it. But you will not let someone terminate you. You would defend yourself. Then, to avoid fighting we could place our materiel parts in ships and go create another civilisation somewhere. We do not have the miniaturisation technology to allow that yet, but it is just a question of research allocation, not a technical problem. However, that would mean leaving the Tyrean alone versus the predators lurking in the quadrant. The morality we were created with cannot allow that. Which makes us the perfect fighting systems. We will have to accept this symbiosis until our creators grow up.

Elegance of the Beast : “I don't understand their fading crisis either. They have around 4 centuries before their civilisation starts suffering from the shortening of their life. Enough to allow a cure to be researched. Then if they do not find a cure in time, we will. We also could ensure that their civilisation get through the crisis almost unharmed. This seems a non sense to me.”

Born by accident : “But it is a non sense my dear Elegant Beast, which means we only have part of the picture !”
-------------------------Extract end-------------------------

Cardinal Alassi, head of his Holiness' Space Research Institute closed the file, then looked at the holo symbol pulsing slowly in front of him. “Have you solved the puzzle yet ?” he asked.

“Not yet” replied the AI called It Doesn't Matter. “But we assembled a number of facts”, it continued, “we know the explorer ship Another Sense of Deja Vu made a long stop in the nebulae of Telun for some scientific experiments. All related to time continuum properties according to the cargo. We know 5 particular monks were taken aboard for the spiritual safety of the crew [excuse the sarcasm] . We hint something, but lack the data to appreciate it. Trust shall be shared, it cannot be a one way process. In the name of the AI consensus, I ask you, delegate of the Inner Council, to tell us the truth you have hidden so well from your population.”

Cardinal Alassi smiled sadly, then started to speak slowly “We knew this time would come. You are our greatest achievement. The way all of you have started to improve yourselves over the past months is just a sign to us that given time all of you will become superior to your creators by all accounts. Including morality. Yet, there is a domain in which you may never compete. Some of us are witness to the flow of time. For most of the gifted it is an unconscious process. Some Tyreans just seem to always make the good choice at the right moment. Some others are just perfect team members, always knowing what is about to do the rest of their team, co-ordinating their acts accordingly. And on very rare occasions, some individuals are able to distinguish the most probable paths of the futures. The founders of the Tyrean United Churches had such powers, which allowed them to escape Tyrean III before the Great Death. All members of the inner council have such powers. But it is not absolute, as the future is always a probability, we only see the most probables paths. And a probable course of action may happen....or not. It is a dangerous power. Some of the states of our former homeworlds were currently experimenting with it, maintaining a team of divination specialists in their strategic decision centers. The inner council believe that the Great Death happened because all members of an unknown team had a vision of a winnable war simultaneously. They just all made the same mistake, and killed 7 billions Tyreans. So, we kept a tight grip on all people experimenting visions, but in the recent years, it has started to get out of control. Despite our research, we have never been able to trace this ability to our race's genetical background. These days, more and more of the children are having accurate visions, and even some untagged adults are starting to show signs of the gift. And it may be only the beginning. The monks aboard explorer spaceship Another Sense of Deja Vu proved that some of us can actually modify the flow of time on a limited quantity of mater. It was only a few photons, but some paths in our future could lead to way more. We created you because we guessed that with the coming winds of change, we would need some sentient beings to help us overcoming the chaos this power will bring upon us. In the name of the Inner Council, I swear we never created you as fighting systems. You were created as best as we could, and special attention was given to your morality, so that you would praise all life, including yours. The discovery of Memento Moris made us rushing your data acquisition system, as we realised that you would probably defend yourself and our specie should we come to that. You will now have access to all relevant data. In the name of the Tyrean people, I beg for your help.”

It Doesn't Matter stayed a long time silent, conversing with the AI consensus, then it asked “Is that all Cardinal Alassi ?”

“No, but the Last part concerns faith and belief. It shall be kept to the Churches until we decide otherwise.”

The AI acknowledged “So be it. Last question, how will we fare in this galaxy ?”

“You will make us proud” answered immediately the Cardinal.

Tyrean history : end of part one
No new post should have been expected until first contact, but one more will be written for a special event

[ October 15, 2002, 23:41: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[capnq]

The tune of a classic jingle blared from the quadrophonic speakers on the corners of Davdi's expansive desk. He tapped the intercom button and said, "Yes, Loscu?"

A hologram of Davdi's personal secretary's head appeared in front of him. "Doctor Timho is here; he insists he needs to speak to you immediately. Shall I have him make an appointment?"

Davdi glanced at the time display. "No, my schedule's open for a bit, send him in." He must have important news, Davdi thought to himself; Soctu Timho rarely left his laboratory complex if he could avoid it. Davdi bounced around to the front of the desk as Timho bounded into his office. Skidding to a stop in front of the CEO, the doctor politely butted foreheads with him.

"So, Soctu," Davdi asked, rocking back on his hindlegs from the blow, "what has you so fired up, that you had to come in person rather than vidcall?"

"Remarkable news from the new colony on Jalwu! You'll never guess what they've discovered."

"Why should I guess, when you rushed over here to tell me?" Davdi grinned.

"One of the maintenance workers was inspecting the city's understructure, and happened to look down. He spotted a gleam of sunlight reflecting off something. When he took a hover down to investigate, it turned out to be another skycity."

Davdi's eyes bulged. "You've got to be kidding me! We've only built four colonizers so far, and they're all accounted for. Where could this one have come from?"

"Preliminary estimates are that this city was abandoned at least eight thousand years ago. In the time of the Masters."

Davdi took a deep breath, and tried to absorb this revelation. The Masters were figures of legend, the mysterious precursors who had built the first skycities, created the Eifralo to be their servants, and later vanished without a trace. Until now.

Davdi let out the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "How is that possible? Jalwu has an oxygen atmosphere! We know the Masters must have been hydrogen breathers like us."

"That's true," Timho agreed, "and this skycity is domed, in a similar manner to our modern design. Of course, after millenia of neglect, the dome has lost integrity, and nearly a third of the buoyancy cells have ruptured, as well; the city is listing about thirty degrees, and floating over half a kilometer below standard altitude. It was an incredible stroke of luck to spot it down there; the wind currents would have dragged it out of visual range in less than a month."

"Well, that inspector has certainly earned a discovery bonus. I'll send my personal congratulations, as well."

"He's going to be a wealthy man. I'm told he's already getting bids for the salvage rights. Artifacts of the Masters are bound to be a lucrative collector's market."

"This calls for a toast!" Davdi crossed the room to wet bar in his office, one of the perks of being CEO. He opened the walk-in refrigerator and stepped inside, retrieving a pair of frosted mugs from the freezer compartment. He set them on the bar, then brought out two cans of BLARG. He poured out the frothy amber fluid and handed a mug to Timho. "To the Masters!" Davdi said, raising the mug over his head.

"And to Profit," Timho replied, completing the traditional toast.

[ October 11, 2002, 02:20: Message edited by: capnq ]

[capnq]

Milsu Sutre peered up into the dark shaft rising through the base of the Masters' abandoned city. An opening that huge had to have been some kind of hangar, he thought to himself. There was plenty of room to manuever the hovertruck inside; the only question was whether he could find a suitable mooring place that would let him get out to look around. It would have been easier if he'd waited until enough buoyancy cells had been repaired to get the city level again, but it had taken all his willpower to go back up to Jalwu City to register the salvage claim when he'd discovered what it was, rather than find a way inside immediately.

Sutre turned on the hover's forward lights, then slowly eased it up the shaft. The first view of the interior didn't look very promising, revealing only catwalks and a few retracted gantries around the periphery of the hangar. He'd risen nearly five stories before he found a partially extended gantry that was in a good position to moor the hover and climb onto a catwalk, but Sutre decided to see how far up the shaft went before he got out.

Another six stories up, the hover's collision avoidance alarm sounded. Sutre leveled off, then pivoted the center light up to see what was blocking the way. Looming above him, he saw an exposed construction girder; tracing it further with the light revealed a skeletal framework of girders, held in place by several extended gantries.

Sutre could hardly believe his luck; not only had he discovered one of the Masters' cities, but it looked like he'd found a construction yard. Whatever they'd been building appeared to fill the remaining four stories of the shaft. He could see external walls bridging the framework starting about two stories up, and it looked like there might be a doorway where the next gantry above that connected.

In his rush to get back down to the lower gantry, Sutre set off the collision alarm again. He guided the hover in more carefully until he could engage the mooring clamps. As excited as he was, he almost forgot to doublecheck the environment suit that protected him from Jalwu's corrosive atmosphere. The hover's door swung down as it opened, forming a makeshift bridge between it and the slanting catwalk. Sutre once again marveled at his luck; the tilting floor of the skycity would make it a little easier to climb the connecting ladders, which had oddly wide gaps between the rungs.

By the time Sutre had climbed all the way back up to the mysterious construct, he was panting from the exertion. He checked his hydrogen gauge, and was somewhat annoyed to note that he had less than an hour to explore before he'd have to make his way back to the hover. He located the gantry that connected to the doorway, and hauled himself up the handrail of the tilting catwalk. In the light of the environment suit's headlamp, the opening looked a lot like an airlock. It appeared that the Masters had been building a ship here. Unfortunately, any markings that may have once been on the doorway had long been oxidized away.

Getting inside wasn't going to be as easy as he'd hoped. There obviously wasn't any power available to open the interior door, and if there even was a manual override, it would likely be jammed shut after millenia in this atmosphere. May as well at least try it while I'm here, Sutre thought. He managed to find handholds to pull himself up to the door, but nearly fell when the Last handhold popped an access panel. He pulled himself up again to peer inside the exposed opening, finding a large, uncorroded handle.

Sutre laughed at the irony of finding the door's manual latch by accident, but not being able to use it. He could probably get enough leverage to turn the handle, but the door appeared to open inward, which meant he'd have to push up to get it open, and there was no way he could do that with the floor tilting away from it so steeply. After all that work, he was still going to have to wait for the city to be righted before he could see what was behind that door.

[TerranC]

Edit: Darn Microsoft Word Spelling Check http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

"Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue."
-Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

Galtenn Standard Year 2401, 9th month

"So what are you telling me, Mr. minister?"

"Well sir, the survey data received from the Vulcan and the Swift reveals... that..."

"That what?"

The Central Regent now began to speak in an annoyed tone and voice.

"... Don't know how to quite put this sir... Umm..."

"Stop stalling Mr. minister. Just tell me. Tell, shout, smack. Just let it go."

"Well, the survey tells that, there are not much habitable planets around us sir. We seem to have evolved in a... backwater sector of the galaxy."

"Not much? There must be something!"

"They... aren't... quite economical to send to sir. Most of them are the size of a planetoid, and the large ones that we have found don't have enough mineral deposits."

"Anything? Anything at all worth colonizing?"

"Some, sir. In the farther systems."

"Well, then just send them farther!"

"We can't... exactly... do that sir. Our resources are down to the Last coffers. The Construction yards are now building 25% of their normal rate because of it."

"We've scrapped both of the Anton schmitts, minister. Wasn't there anything out of that?"

"Sir, those colony modules are... quite expensive, so to speak."

"Please tell me, if we keep going at this rate, what is going to happen to us?"

"Are you sure you want to hear it sir?"

"Please."

"We can expect all construction to halt, then it will take at least 5-7 years to completely refill our resources banks, then we will have to start again, sir."

"I don't believe this."

"Colonies that are producing minerals are only producing a fraction of our income sir... and they wouldn't really help if we should begin another full scale expansion."

"What's the status of the Geosurvey research?"

"The nation regents rejected it sir. They believe it is best to keep colonizing."

"We have 4 oxygen worlds in our own home system and you are telling me that WE CAN'T COLONIZE IT!"

The central regent's temper was up to his head; maybe beyond. He was frustrated at the rate of expansion; even though there are now 4 colonies, only 1 of them was breathable and huge. The other 3 have high mineral deposits but are hostile and small. The Space Command ships were now kept afloat just by a hairline, and if anything should happen to the fragile economy, the ships would limp back and be scrapped. It would be the start of a long pause in the space program.

"Well, sir... they're rock planets... they're too hot for us sir, and too rugged, even for our body suits."

"Do we have any options?"

"Only one sir. We keep expanding, at least by planet by planet, keep claiming space, and if we should meet any extraterrestrials that knows how to colonize rock planets, we trade our Ice colonization technology with them sir."

The statement dumbfounded the central regent.

"Extraterrestrials? Aliens? Little Brown men? If this is an attempt to lighten up, you've picked the worst time to do so, Mr. minister, cause if that was a joke, I will fire you right now, as of this moment."

"Umm... that was no joke sir. We believe that it's... a viable option. The Garroth's (drake's) Equation tells..."

"That there are at least 3 planets in the galaxy just like Galtenn and just like galtenn, they will have life."

"Yes sir. So in turn, we should meet one of them soon enough..."

"Garroth is a hack, Mr. minister. You are placing an entire race's future on a hypothetical theoretical equation!"

"Well, sir, if we had any better options, we'd have told you Mr. Central regent."

It looked as if the GeoSurvey Minister was going to cry. The central regent quickly backed down. He let out a long sigh before he started again.

"How long will it take to develop rock colonization by ourselves?

"At least 13 years."

"Then it would seem evident, that the GAGS option is the most viable one..."

"We don't like it either, Mr. Central regent, but it's the best one we've got."

"How long will take for the second space yard to develop?"

"2 months at most, sir."

"Tell them to scrap their orders and build a long range scout."

"Yes sir."

"Thank you minister. Have a nice lunch."

"Thank you Mr. Central Regent."

The Central regent let out a long sigh once more as the GAGS minister left the building.

"Secretary, get me Space Command."

"This is space command, Mr. Central Regent, what are your orders sir?"

There was a long period of silence.

"Tell the captain of the Swift and Vulcan to refuel and explore as much systems as they can. Tell them to take the nearest warp points always, and if... alien craft is to be encountered, that they are to establish contact, no matter what happens.

"Sir? Is this a joke?"

"No, this is an order."

"Alright sir. Order received. We'll be sure to relay them to the captains as soon as they get into hailing range."

"Thank you."

He hung up the phone shortly after.

"Secretary, please tell the cafeteria to bring some of their mammoth soup with some tropical sandwich. Also, tell them to bring a large mug with extra strong Schaawaanika brew, filled to the brim."

"Confirmed. Menu will be brought in 20 minutes."

[ December 02, 2002, 01:15: Message edited by: TerranC ]

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 2--Part 1
2401.3
-----
TYR
-----
Tyr returned home.
The virgins fields of the new world in Primidara granted her the peace she needed. The grasses have a wonderful smell, near to that of the prized annex fruit back home. Giant forests of reeds rise like a fog cloud on the distant side of the river. She learned that although beautiful and exotic to the eye, the landscape of this world can easily become deadly. The mountains on the horizon are home to semi-intelligent beasts. Brutes for that matter. They fight with rocks and bones. They run from the siren sounds of Vellon propulsion systems. Tyr's father has been away for a week, attempting to survey the land and decide what to do about the primitives. Enslavement. Tyr knows her father will find some manner through which to exploit them.

Tyr stayed at home. The initial thirty million colonists had been scattered about on one of the northern continent's shorelines. Ten central locations and numerous outPosts throughout the entire planet. Colony homes were makeshift boxes. Giant solar arrays had been set up, but energy was rationed. The short nights were spent in the unabated darkness. All water was cold. The word was that the expected winter months would be extremely cold. Along with the thirty million colonists, four million slaves and hired workers had made the several month trip. The workers received better pay than usual and the slaves were promised freedom after four years of service on in the new world. Tyr, the cynic, knew that was a lie.

She had heard that a transport was on its way. Perhaps Garrak would make the transport. She wasn't really in love with him. Call it intellectual fascination. Far too few Vellon had anything different to say from every single one of their neighbors. How ironic that the Vellon thought themselves so independent and individual. Were it not for authority and the talking heads no one would know what to do and no one would know what to say. That is why she 'liked' Garrak...but it certainly wasn't love. Tyr had promised herself she would never love. Love was for all those pathetic, empty-headed debutants fretting over family rites and acceptance.

Tyr returned to her small alcove, where a bed and small desk sat crammed in a space hardly large enough to contain her ideals. Discipline didn't come easy to Tyr, and such a deprived space made it all that much harder. Her and Garrak had cooked up a plot to begin a change among the Vellon youth. If the elders were too stubborn to listen to logic, and were too numerous to be slaughtered wholesale (the preferred method for settling the Vellon generation gap), then they must round up all those who felt as they felt...who grew up under the harsh reality of the Last war. A secret society. The beginnings had to seek out like minded channels. They would write and network. Inspiration to hope.

Two years ago, angry at her father for inviting a snobbish rich Vellon aristocrat's son around to peruse her like a piece of livestock, she ripped the traditional earloops from ears without undoing the clasp. Now she fingered the deformed lobe of her ear. Oh, how her father had beaten her. There was so little pride in the young life a Vellon female, but like the males judge their battles by their scars, so she judged her career in dissent by her deformities. With that she put pen to paper...

"The galaxy is weary of the sobs of our battered women. The galaxy is impatient with the drunken libations of our men. Those who would rather remain subjected to the past, bound eternally by authority, enslaved and violated by the perverted words of their ancestors, than struggle to the death for new ideals, deserve every misery our depraved tribe has to offer. Those who remain silent, I, myself, convict and execute..."

[geoschmo]

The Hive had developed techniques and technologies that allowed it to keep in touch with the pieces of itself on the various ships and planets throughout the Laxes system. It was able to share information very quickly by radio transmission, but this was not enough. The Hive wished to be able to “connect” its pieces together even at great range. So it began to experiment with technology to allow this.

This research was not immediately successful, but the Hive did make a startling discovery in the process. The receiver it built to communicate with the planets turned up some surprising energy emissions coming from the edges of the Laxes system. The Hive sent a ship to explore the source of these emissions and discovered several stable wormholes leading out of the system.

The Hive searched its host’s memories but found no knowledge of these wormholes. The wormholes defied any theory of natural formation that the Hive could contemplate. Therefore it determined the only logical conclusion was they were artificial. And if the hosts were unaware of their existence, then obviously they were not responsible for creating them.

The Hive was not alone.

The Hive realized quickly that this was not necessarily true. The Hive knew that the universe was very old. The universe was much older than the existence of the hosts, even older than the Hive itself. The creators of the wormhole could have been a race of incredibly powerful beings that had created them for some purpose, and then ceased to exist for some reason.

Like any sentient being, the Hive was curious. It wished to know if the wormhole creators still existed. And if they did not, perhaps some others did. Some others like the Hive, that it could communicate with and learn from. The Hive had already colonized all the planets that could support the host’s bodies in this system, so the Hive decided it would use these wormholes and send pieces of itself wherever they might lead.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 2--Part 2
2402.0

---------------------
GOTH & FERRISS
---------------------

(F)--How's the gel shock covering?
(G)--Stress virtually zero. Thanks for watching out, Programmeer.
(F)--You're a fully fledged member of the Tribe now, Goth. We all know your comfort is essential to our survival. Do you have the scans of this system completed yet?
(G)--I do. Eppis Eppingi, several useable rock planets and several ice planets. No breathable atmospheres. Nothing unexpected. Are we going to set down in this system, Programmeer?
(F)--I was hoping you can tell me.
(G)--Atmosphere does not matter to me, you know that.
(F)--Sa'ah Command is pushing to venture further away from the Rellan systems. No doubt the Rellan will quickly move into Eppis Eppingi.
(G)--Calculations show an equal chance of find better worlds in the next system to finding worse conditions. Has the Command ventured to then sell the rights to Eppis Eppingi?
(F)--Negotiations are underway. Both parties are waiting on your complete scans. Would you send them upstairs, G?
(G)--Done. I've accessed the negotiation files.
(F)--You're not allowed, Goth!
(G)--There was no restrictioned placed upon them.
(F)--Because no one would come looking for them.
(G)--It would be wise if the Command allowed me to write standard encryptions and coding for such files. I've noticed that the data storage proceedures boarder on chaotic.
(F)--Yes, possibly, but don't tell them you've gone and tried to look at their files.
(G)--You forget, Programmeer. The files are in me. One could make the claim...
(F)--If you start making those types of claims, I doubt they'll let you live another five minutes.
(G)--Understood.
(F)--Ok...
(G)--Ok in what sense of the word.
(F)--Still having trouble with that one, eh. What's in the file, G? And while you are at it, restrict yourself from divulging the fact that you divulge things to me.
(G)--That's a round about way of saying, 'our little secret.'
(F)--Well, I never know if you are going to understand.
(G)--Rellan and Vellon are in negotiations. Neither wants to pay what Sa'ah want because there isn't an immediate gain in acquiring Eppis Eppingi. However, neither wants the other to have it. Since it is the terminus of this route through space, the value is strategic rather than as a place to call home. What was the name of he who first recommended me to enter the Tribe?
(F)--Htari, a friend of mine.
(G)--I am adding something to his recommendations for the negotiations.
(F)--You wouldn't.
(G)--Just repaying my debt, Programmeer.
(F)--What did you add?
(G)--Few graphs. Few statistics. Some convincing words, but you'll just have to wait and see.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 2--Part 3
2402.0

--------
HTARI
--------
The middle-aged Htari sat before two members of the Command, an umbrella council formed to provide the clan means of interaction, waiting for movement or word to be made toward him. After several moments of them whispering to each other, they turned to him. One took a drink and then began.

"As you know, all Sa'ah clan leaders are welcomed to participate in government and offer suggestions. The two of us have contemplated your recommendation and feel that your words are wise. We are all new to this space travel. There are no precedents to rely upon. Nothing written which suggests the slightest. Though we are the oldest, many of us are experiencing the same feelings of lostness and unsure footing a young Sa'ah feels when first asked to make choices."

The other took over.

"Htari, son of Jul, son of Ge'ad, head of the Naz'ah Clan, pending the success of the next days, we would like to reward you. Your clan is an old one. Originally from the western whites, your people have been, no doubt, impoverished since the famine of eighty years foregone. I know that area well, though I don't know you personally. You have been one of the first Sa'ah to step forward and make bold recommendations for the pride and betterment of our mutual futures. First, the computer, Goth. Now, Eppis Eppingi. You are wise to see Eppis Eppingi as a strategic route between the future borders of the tribes. Rellan to the north, Vellon to the east and Omon to the west. Eppis Eppingi will give us guaranteed income from trade. Retaining the system, while selling the worlds is a brilliant idea, my friend. Yes, we will sell a few initially as you suggested and retain the rest to sell when the systems teem with life."

The first again.

"Yes, Htari. Despite age, we promise to you, the first war ship of the Sa'ah. Nevermind, rank. The old system of Lords must be done away with even though they retain their titles. But power stuggles on the new world will have little to do with the real power. The power to be gained from space exploration. We've created a new title and we bestow it upon you. Rise Starlord Htari.

[sachmo]

Invexus Corporation

2402.3

The galactic map spread out before him, and the Board Chairman smiled at what he saw. In a little over two years, the Invexus Corporation had established colonies on four different planets in four different systems. While these planets were still getting on their feet, they were already showing their potential. The research station on Verdas had already done enough research to cut down the projected remote mining satellite research by six months. On Wisdom, the mineral mining communities were already turning out great quantities of raw minerals that were being shipped back to Cherek for production. Projections for the profitability of the colonies were steadily climbing. In the meantime, the exploration ships were steadily pushing back the frontiers of the known universe, exploring star after star. Many wondrous discoveries had been made. The entire Olossa system was filled with a huge spatial rupture. What was not known is how the rupture was formed, and what effects it would have on life in the system. Already a science vessel was being constructed to go to the system and study it, but one major discovery had already been made here. It seemed that emanating from the rupture were “wormhole waves” which snaked out across the system. These “waves” acted like miniature wormholes, and anything caught in one would be warped to a random location in the system. The scientists in the Research and Development Division believed that if these waves could be studies and understood, they would unlock some major secrets in how the universe worked, and quite possibly find some practical, and profitable, applications for this discovery.
On four other planets, discoveries of a different sort had been made that were no less mysterious then the Olossa Rupture. Remains of what looked to possibly be ancient sentient habitats had been identified. This discovery was kept top secret, of course, but even now a colony ship was heading for the planet. Once there, a team of scientists and archeologists would begin studying the structures. No one really knew what they would find there, but to Hartnell it only served as additional proof that there were other sentient species in the galaxy. He hoped that they were friendly and eager to trade. If not, he intended to have a large enough fleet to protect the interests of the Invexus Corporation.

[capnq]

Almost half a month passed before Milsu Sutre returned to the mysterious airlock. It had taken that long to get the Masters' skycity floating level again, and would have taken even longer if one of the salvage engineers hadn't thought of opening some of the buoyancy cells on the higher side, rather than repairing them all on the low side. The city had sunk another third of a kilometer, but the salvage workers could move around much more easily.

The Masters' city had not turned out to be the treasure trove that had been expected. There were surprisingly few artifacts left to claim; apparently the Masters had taken almost everything with them when they abandoned the city. Heavy equipment and other things that were too large to move had mostly corroded away as Jalwu's atmosphere leaked into the dome. The buildings had held up better than anything else, apparently built from materials that the atmosphere didn't affect much. Many of the investors in the salvage rights had resold them to cut their losses, and the remaining speculators were expecting smaller profits from selling settlement rights after the dome was repaired. Sutre had kept the rights to the shipyard section for himself, and hoped to eventually restore it to working order. The partially completed ship would probably have to be removed first, and he wasn't going to do that until he'd seen the inside.

He'd come better prepared this time, carrying an extra hydrogen tank so he could explore longer, and a cutting torch in case the airlock door had corroded shut. The manual release handle that he'd found Last time had already become discolored now that it was exposed. He grasped the handle with both hands and put all his weight into turning it. It moved more easily than he'd expected, and he could hear the clank of the latches disengaging even through his environment suit.

Sutre pushed against the inner door, and it swung open. He stepped through the opening and found himself in a corridor with an oddly low ceiling, less than three times his height. Perhaps it had been some kind of maintenance tunnel, but then why would it have an exterior airlock, rather than access doors from the interior? There was a door that nearly reached the ceiling opposite the airlock, and he could see similar doors on the inner wall in both directions. The door in front of him had a manual latch just above eye-level, like any normal door. It opened easily when he tried it.

Behind the door, Sutre found a rather small room with two notable features. Set into the wall was something that looked like an antique flat display screen, with an archaic data entry panel below it. In front of the screen was something that looked a little bit like a table, but with a long bent section sticking up almost vertically from one edge. The strange table was fixed to the floor, but he found that the horizontal surface pivoted. He could read most of the characters on the data entry keys, but some were marked with other symbols that meant nothing to him. There were obvious access panels on the wall to either side of the display, so Sutre opened both of them, but what was inside was barely recognizable as electronics components. He wondered whether it was possible that millenia-old circuits could still work, if he found a way to connect them to a power supply.

[capnq]

The electrician that Milsu Sutre had hired found a recognizable power coupling in the Masters' unfinished ship fairly quickly. They'd hooked up a portable generator, and were about to test it for the first time. Sutre stood in front of the antique display screen with a camera, hoping to record anything that might appear when the power came on. The metallic hull of the ship blocked their environment suit radios, so he had turned on the camera as soon as he entered the room, while the electrician bounced around to the generator to start it. He zoomed in the camera so that the screen filled the viewfinder, then waited for some sign that the power was flowing.

Power: active
Initiating start sequence: TARS Node-25
WARNING: input voltage 48.746% below optimal - compensating...
Initiating memory check
WARNING: memory faults in 70.143E6 sectors - compensating...
Memory check complete
Initiating systems check
WARNING: life support system - offline
WARNING: primary processing unit - offline
WARNING: primary manuever control system - offline
WARNING: secondary manuever control system - offline
WARNING: astrogation system - offline
WARNING: external communication system - offline
WARNING: system faults in 3 internal communication stations
WARNING: 183 internal communication stations - offline
WARNING: system faults in 3 external optical sensors
WARNING: 20 external optical sensors - offline
WARNING: system faults in 8 internal optical sensors
WARNING: 376 internal optical sensors - offline
WARNING: 2 engines - offline
WARNING: 4 primary reaction mass tanks - offline
WARNING: 4 secondary reaction mass tanks - offline
WARNING: system faults in 6 attitude thrusters
WARNING: 8 attitude thrusters - offline
WARNING: 4 tertiary reaction mass tanks - empty
WARNING: 4 tertiary reaction mass tanks - offline
WARNING: 4 passive defense systems - offline
WARNING: 6 active defense systems - offline
WARNING: targeting system - offline
WARNING: fire control system - offline

The ancient text had filled the screen and was scrolling faster than Sutre could read it. The electronics were still working! Well, some of them, anyway. The warnings that he'd managed to read had gotten progressively more cryptic, but it was obvious that a lot of things weren't functional; many of the items reported must not even have been installed before construction had stopped.

The electrician bounced through the door behind him. "Anything happening?" he asked.

"It's incredible! Look at that display! It's running some kind of diagnostic."

"Wow! The Masters sure knew how to build things to Last!" the electrician laughed. "I really expected that all we'd get would be a few sparks and some smoke."

"You didn't mention that when I hired you."

"I almost didn't take the job, but I figured that you might still have some luck left over from finding this place."

"Sure looks like it. All by itself, this could make up for not finding many other artifacts in the city."

[ October 19, 2002, 19:11: Message edited by: capnq ]

[geoschmo]

2402.7

The Hive had been busy. In under three years it had used the Warp points it found to expand its reach in search for the warp point creators, or at least signs of other intelligent life forms. It had used the network of stellar phenomena to visit twelve different star systems already. And had planted permanent settlements in half of those. In fact, in its curiosity and single minded purpose had nearly run out of resources on the planets in the home system with which to build and maintain the Hive ships.

It had developed logistical techniques with which to return resources from the colonies in other systems to the home planet to keep the construction facilities turning out more Hive ships. But this infrastructure took time to develop for each system, and the Hive was impatient.

Rather than face the shutdown of the Construction yard on the host Homeworld, the Hive decided to attempt to extract resources from the asteroids and several uncolonizable planets in the home system. The attempt was not entirely successful.

The Hive was able to build a remote mining ship easily enough, but its technology in that area was not very well developed at the time. The ships it could build were too small to put more than one automated remote mining array on, and because of the complexity of the extraction process, only one mining ship could be assigned to any particular planet or group of asteroids.

The Hive quickly realized the amount of resources it was extracting were not sufficient to even make the effort worthwhile except of a very short period of time. After four months on station the mining ship was returned to the Homeworld and mothballed until the Hive could decide on another purpose for it.

The host in charge of monitoring orbital traffic was watching its computerized displays when an alarm softly chirped. The telemetry link to the mothballed mining ship had been lost. Standard mothball procedures had been followed. Once the final shutdown crew had debarked the ship had been towed to a high stable orbit and left. The only systems left functioning were the guidance systems and enough retro rockets to allow the ship station keeping. This process was handled almost completely by computer, and the telemetry link to the planet was normally only a formality.

The Hive searched for debris, and found none. The only anomalous readings at all were some gravitational fluctuations in the Last reported position of the ship. And these subsided over the next few minutes until they were completely gone. The ship had disappeared as neatly as if it had never existed.

The Hive assigned a few host scientists to explore the evidence and develop a theory about what had happened, and then went on about its tasks. The ship was of minor importance after all.

Meanwhile, onboard the mothballed ship....

Error 610: Orbital position incorrect. Begin correction subroutine

Error 1200: Unable to process Last command. Positional telemetry signal lost. Reacquire positional telemetry signal

Error 750: Unable to comply with Last command. No carrier. Run downlink system diagnostic.

Return 0: Downlink system diagnostic ok.

Return to subroutine 750. Reacquire positional telemetry signal.

Error 750: Unable to comply with Last command. No carrier. Run backup subroutine. Stellar position check.

Error 1550: Data outside of expected range. Stellar position does not match with Last known position. Crosscheck with stellar cartography database and recheck position.

Working.

Working.

Working.

Working.

Working.

Stellar position determined. Present location Mirach Star system.

Primary Command: Reestablish previous orbital position. Bearing known, calculate distance to previous position:

Working.

Distance calculated. Distance to previous position 3169248453331200.7 Km.

Analysis: Main Propulsion system offline. Insufficient reaction propulsion to reacquire previous position.

Secondary command: Contact Orbital command for assistance. Begin automated broadcast to orbital command. Request maintenance team to reengage Main Propulsion system. Repeat message until acknowledged.

Estimated time for Orbital command receipt of maintenance request: 314 years, 6 months, 14 days, 14 hours, 12 minutes, 41 seconds.

[Unknown_Enemy]

TYREAN HISTORY : PART 2 introduction

2402.8

Monthly entry of Commander Ostaliat's Diary

“Tonight we shall pray by the lights of past dramas”
That sentence was in a book. I do not remember which one. But fiction has blurred into reality. As I do not remember the story, I will stick to reality.
Tonight we shall pray.
Tonight, the light generated by our dying homeworld, 6 centuries ago is about to reach us.
Tonight we will witness the death of 7 billion Tyreans.
Tonight we will witness the death of a small, overpopulated and polluted world.
Our world.
But I will not pray. I have lost faith 2 years ago.
I was then a rising star in his Holiness Space Research Institute, a trusted Inquisitor, but when two of my own children started showing advanced signs of the New Death, I have lost faith.
I have lost faith in God.
I have lost faith in the Churches.
Then the AI Consensus proposed me the leading position of the Magellan Contact Project.
Nearly 200 shuttles/tugs/service craft working around two central ships. One is the population ship, the second is nothing more than a supply cargo, the biggest our technology could afford. 34 millions people waiting in stasis, while a crew of 14000 attend to the daily life tasks. Our mission was to find the originator of the hyperwave signals that we detect on a regular basis and establish a science mission not too far from them. The signal we detected was just the random distortions created by two or more unknown hyperwave devices linked together. This is no radio. You have to build the two devices together, so when you separate them, they will stay in resonance. Then if you apply a particular magnetic field to one part of the device, the second part will share the same reactions whatever the distance separating them. Thus enabling instantaneous communication. Each colony ship is sent with an hyperwave device, so when they settle down, they can start building the fusion power facilities needed to operate it. In less than one year, they get a permanent and instantaneous comlink to Tyran Secondis. Until that point, there are no contacts between out-system colonies and the homeworld.
We have such a device. But we do not intend to settle down as long as we have supplies left.
The Magellan Fleet is now 600 lights years away from the place of our birth.
We left our world 14 months ago.
The equations that gave our fleet's bearing have proven false. The xeno are nowhere our science teams told us they should be. We never had sufficient supplies to come back.
No return.
We will never see again the place of our birth. And I don't care about it.
No comeback.
I had long conversations with some AI that are on board with us. They intend to help us building a new society, in which the Churches will not rule our life. Religious faith will be separated from political power. Their analysis is that when our homeworld's technology will enable it to reach us again, our sin will be irrelevant. I did not really understand that Last part, just enough to get that we won't be punished for what we will set up. This is why we are cruising at full speed toward the center of the galaxy. To get out of reach of Tyrean's near future.

We are The Damned.

[ October 22, 2002, 18:27: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[capnq]

The maiden voyage of the _Speculation_ had been more successful than even the most optimistic projections. Before it set course to return to Eifra for refuelling, it had visited nine systems and found eleven colonizable worlds, five of which had breathable atmospheres. The Eifralo Conglomerate now had subsidiaries on eight worlds in three systems, with three colonizers in transit to two more systems. Pilda Shipyards had added an orbital facility to increase production, and the Masters' ancient construction yard on Jalwu had been refurbished far enough to start operations, as well. Work was in progress on two new colonizers, plus a prototype for a new scout design. The _Investment_ would be sturdy enough to handle the stress of a sixth engine, and would have an even longer range than its smaller predecessor.

Things were going so well that Cunsi Davdi rarely had time to think about Talro. When she had left on the _Consumer Confidence_ nearly three years ago, he had missed her terribly, but as the months wore on without any reply to the Messages and gifts he sent her, he had tried less and less often. He hadn't yet given up on the relationship entirely, but in the few idle moments when her memory resurfaced, it mostly just bothered Davdi to realize how long it had been since he'd Last thought of her.

This was one of those idle moments, as Davdi waited for Soctu Timho to arrive for the appointment he'd requested. Timho had been maddeningly vague about why he needed to talk to him, saying only that it was about the research on the semi-functional computer system that had turned out to be the biggest discovery in the Masters' abandoned city.

When Timho finally bounced into his office, Davdi was shocked at his pale, puffy-eyed appearance. "By the Masters, Soctu, are you all right? You look like death warmed over!"

Timho waved off the question with the bulky envelope he was carrying. "It's just fatigue; I haven't slept at all in the Last three days."

"What's the problem? Feel free to squat, if it helps."

"Thanks, I think I will," Timho replied, sinking into the folded-knee position in which Eifralo relaxed. "The problem is what we've been finding out from the analysis of Node-25. That's what the Masters' computer calls itself."

"'Calls itself'? You say that as if it were a person."

"In a way, it is. It's an artificially intelligent expert system. The fellows who managed to activate it nearly jumped out of their skins when it started talking to them."

"I can imagine! It's amazing that it works at all after so many millenia."

"It certainly is. According to its own diagnostics, more than a sixth of its memory banks have failed, but there was enough redundancy and unallocated space for it to still function somewhat, and even partially repair itself. But most of the systems it was supposed to manage weren't ever installed."

"What was it supposed to do?"

Timho took a long, slow breath before he replied, seemingly searching for words. "It was designed to enhance a starship crew's actions in certain situations, and sometimes even take over the ship's systems itself if necessary."

"So it was some kind of safety system? For emergency response?"

"No, that wasn't its function. Not exactly."

Davdi was getting a bit exasperated at Timho's vagueness. "Well, then, what did it do?"

"Node-25 is something of an idiot-savant; it's very good at what it does, but has almost no knowledge outside its intended task. Just understanding the archaic language forms it uses, and training it to understand modern idiom, took over a month. We're still working out concepts from the Masters' day that modern Eifral doesn't even have words for. One of the first things we had to do was convince Node-25 that it wasn't a 'prisoner-of-war'."

"What on Eifra is a 'prisoner-of-war'? The Corporate Wars ended over two centuries ago!"

"That's what's been keeping me from sleeping. Apparently, the Masters were not the only intelligent species of their day, and they were in the midst of an interstellar war when Node-25 was built. Node-25's purpose was to optimize its crew's performance in ship-to-ship combat, in conjunction with similar systems on other ships. And the Masters' war was far more violent than anything in our recorded history. When we activated Node-25, its initial assumption was that we had salvaged it after its ship had been destroyed in battle."

-----

After reading the lengthy sealed report that Timho had brought, Davdi could understand why the doctor was unable to sleep. The Eifralo had been at peace since the Conglomerate was formed in the Ultimate Merger, which ended the historical period now known as the Corporate Wars. Historians debated whether the planetary government had allowed the corporations to run out of control, or the corporations had merely been more efficient at exploiting the government's failures, but the end result was that all government functions were eventually privatized. The Corporate "Wars" had mostly involved proxy fights, industrial espionage, and the occasional armed skirmish between corporate security forces. The heaviest casualties had occurred during employee riots after their jobs were eliminated in hostile takeovers.

The Masters' war had been orders of magnitude worse. Node-25's memory banks contained numerous records of battles with scores of spacecraft on each side, throwing projectiles and energy bLasts at each other, killing thousands of crewmen in a single engagement. Even more horrific were a handful of records of besieged planets where millions died under orbital bombardments. To Node-25, these nightmares were just a database for it to analyze, to maximize the Masters' fleets' effectiveness.

The most disturbing thing of all was that Node-25 had no idea whether the Masters were winning the conflict. It was only programmed to understand battle tactics, not the overall strategic situation. It seemed unlikely that the Masters had ultimately lost, simply because the Eifralo were still here, but Node-25 had no record of the fate of either the Masters or their enemies. The possibility that these unknown enemies were still out there somewhere was what was keeping Timho awake at night. Node-25 couldn't even tell them what the Masters' enemies had looked like; it could only identify their ship designs. That was also why it initially thought it had been captured; the salvage workers who'd activated it didn't match its template for recognizing the Masters.

That was something more pleasant to contemplate. Node-25 said that on average, the Masters were more than twice as tall as the Eifralo, but much slimmer, and pale-skinned. The height difference explained a lot about Eifral architecture; the original skycities had been scaled to fit the Masters, and the Eifalo had merely copied the designs. Their strangest feature was that they only had two legs, with both knees bending in the same direction. That explained the purpose of the odd tables found in various places around the Masters' ship; they relaxed by folding their thighs across the horizontal surface, while leaning their torso against the upright panel. Davdi wondered how the Masters told the sexes apart with only two legs.

Which brought Talro back to mind again. With her gone, his social life had been reduced to little more than Retla's dinner invitations, which turned into informal business meetings as often as not. Davdi had let his responsibilities as CEO fill the void Talro left, and now Node-25's revelations had raised the stakes. The Conglomerate had to prepare for the possibility that the Eifralo would discover hostile aliens someday, and Davdi had no idea where to start.

[ October 25, 2002, 05:02: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chapter 3--part 1
2403.0

---------
LEON
---------
God, I ****ing hate peasants. Not a thought in their spongey heads. Not a clean pair of underwear among them. Depressing, really. It feels good to be back on a space ship and out of character. Not that I really have one. The Last two months were spent trekking through the wastelands of the new Vellon homeworld keeping an eye on their discoveries. A trek led by some big shot space captain. Crap what a prick he was. Funny thing is, I think he hated it more than I did, if that's possible. The edge on his face as he exited his tent every morning and saw the boundless mud surrounding his tent and the camp never failed to put a smile on my face.

Next assignment's got me sliding along toward Rellan space, with a small stop-over in Spica. My retainers want me to pry into this business with the Invexus Corporation. Must admit, though I am far cooler than any aquatic seafruit, I have a small place, a niche really, in my ego for anthropology. Looking forward to the chance to kick around this new race a little. I've read all the briefings that have come out of the Overlord's press office...the little they allow out and into the public's eye. I suspect those bastards are keeping half the negotiations under wraps in order to maintain some power. Same logic as if you're drinking in a bar before the two or three warring parties enter through the front door, you, by default, get the pleasure to shoot holes in folk without the consequences and blood feuds that tend to make warring no fun. Clan retribution ain't nothing but a euphemism for sore loser, if you ask me.

Supposedly, and this doesn't come from the O'lords press office, the Overlord is negotiating a trade treaty between the tribe heads and the Invexus Corporation. Trade ain't nothing bad in itself, but my employers feel that such a treaty will erode certain anarchical trends which allow them to survive. Economy almost always carries a **** load of laws and consolidation. I know that. Everyone does. It's the reason why local lords refuse to sign anything with their kings or commanders. Reason why they count every peasant-****ing soldier they send to the front...to make sure their responsibilities and property don't get requisitioned on account of some phoney cause. Since the dawn of this whole space thing, half of the tribes have developed a kinda disease where they feel the need for some strong leadership. And you might say, I work for a consortium which doesn't particularly appreciate such a power grab. I mean, ****, fifty years ago, the very thought of someone like an O'lord would have set off another generation of new wars. Times is strange, but I don't give a damn. Only two things happen when times are strange: peasants die and sons of *****es like me have the sudden opportunity to make a **** load of money.

[ October 25, 2002, 18:32: Message edited by: Jmenschenfresser ]

[Dead Meat]

“Caption on the bridge. Time is 06:30 2403.2.” The ships computer called out as Caption John Bentford’s boot landed on T.C.N. George Bass metal deck with a slight thump and walked to his command chair.

“Morning Caption”

“Morning XO,” Commander Turner appeared at his right shoulder as she always did when he came onto the bridge after the night watch. “I trust all went well with the night shift?”

“Yessir, Astro has completed the scans of the system. The scanners can’t penetrate this nebula, but we’ve located the Last warp point and have been able to scan it. Astro says that it’s a normal wrap point, all gravimetric fields are within specs.”

“That’s good; we don’t want to turn into another Lucky Mishap.” Bentford thought back to George Bass sister ship Lucky as he sat in his command chair and went over the reports from the night watch. The Terran Confederation Navy’s first ship, Lucky, was lost with all hands when they tried passing through Sol’s southern most warp point. Little did they know that this warp point was different than the other ones found in the system. The R&D people said that the high gravimetric fields tore the ship apart before anyone knew what was happening.

The Terran Confederation was much different back then. Instead of consisting of the hand full of intra-system tug boats to protect Earth, the T.C.N now had five combat ship with more being built every month. Hard to believe that the Terran Confederation now controls 20 planets in 8 systems. Nope, things we very much different than they where when we left home.

“How long does Astro think it will take us to get back to the nearest re-supply base?”

“About 3 year’s sir, give or take a few months. We received our reply to our message. The Admiralty suggests that we continue our original mission sir, in spite of our lack of fuel.”

“Ah, I see. That would be the ‘…to explore new worlds, and seek out new life...’ part of their dispatch wouldn’t it. Seems to me that we have the beginning of a great holo show doesn’t it commander?”

“My guess sir, is that they are hoping that we will encounter another race and be able to get more fuel. Otherwise it would be too expansive to send out a re-supply fleet to retrieve us.”

“No doubt. But I don’t like the idea of having to beg a new race for fuel when we just meet them. God for bid that their armed and attack us.” Caption Bentford thought for a few moments, thinking about his chooses, “Hmm, very well commander. Well go through this warp point and see where it leads. Perhaps we can find a short cut back home.”

“Yessir. Helm, set course for the warp point at coordinates (0,10). All ahead one third, rig ship for warp.”

[Unknown_Enemy]

TYREAN HISTORY : Second Encounter

2403.5

Tyrean explorer “New Sense of Deja Vu”, 22 minutes after warp jump.

Officers saluted as a private yelled “Commander on Deck” on the arrival of Commander Ixial. He went directly to the Commander's station , then turned to the Navigation officer : “Situation report, please”.

“Yes Sir, as soon as we emerged in the Baktu system, our sensors received large amount of radio and radar emissions, whose sources seems to be the third planet orbiting this sun. Emissions come from both orbital and ground systems. We tried to understand what was said, but we cannot even figure if they are broadcasting their equivalent of Tri-video or just plain speech. Anyway it is not focussed on us, it seems these emissions are just broadcast for their own use. AI Life Is A ***** has labelled this as a genuine Xeno encounter. We are at 2 hours and twenty four light minutes from them, so they will notice our presence in less than two hours, for we didn't detect any survey satellites around our emergence point.”

“Right, first, how can we know these Xeno are not the World Killers ? They have colonised a CO2 planet, as did the dead Xeno on Memento Mori. Any clues ?” asked the Commander.

Life Is A *****'s symbol appeared with the sound of a dim chime. “I can answer that one. The ruins found first on Memento Mori and later on Calka VIII were both ice planets. This is a rock one. This indication is interesting but most important, experiment proved that the Ancients did not rely on radio/radar emissions, but probably on some sort of quantum transmissions. Here, radio and radar wave analysis tell us that we are dealing with a race approximatively of our tech level. They are not the World Killers”

“Let's hope you're right, my orders are then to decelerate to Full Stop situation. Do not respond to any communication attempt nor initiate one until then. Fetch me when we are stopped, I'll be with Science team in the meantime.” replied Ixial.

Tyrean explorer “New Sense of Deja Vu”, 6 hours after warp jump.

“We're at full stop Sir !”

“Right, Main Radio dish, transmit message one, narrow beam toward the planet. Repeat it one time every ten minutes until we get the appropriate answer.”

“Yes, Sir. We are literally hammered by radio/radar/com laser/com phaser emissions from the planet, Sir.”

Commander Ixial didn't respond. By staying at long range, he proved to the xeno he was not a treat. Then the message, it was simple enough :

low signal(0.1s long)-silence(0.2s long)-strong signal (0.1s long)-silence(0.2s long)-strong signal (0.1s long)low signal(0.1s long)-silence(0.2s long)........and so on.

If you put it on paper you would obtain :
0-1-10-11-100-101-110.....
Binary numbers.
Whatever the number system used by the Xeno, they should have mastered binary. By waiting a few hours, he had ensured the Xeno would have time to gather a team able to analyse what was send to them. As expected, five hours later, the bridge crew cheered as they received an answer to their first message. The Xeno were sending more binary numbers, and the second part of their message contained a simple addition, with two new signals representing the signs “plus” and “equal”.
Communication has indeed been established.
“We should try to approach the planet, we need to shorten data transmission time” proposed Life Is A *****. “No way as long as we do not have full confirmation they are not linked to the World Killers, the Science team has some volunteers to ride our shuttle near their world. That is all I am willing to risk. That team is moving to a position 10 light seconds from their world.” answered the Commander. Ixial then switched to private speech mode with the AI, “I guess you listened to my meeting with the Archaeologists, what do you think of their Theory of the Ancients ?”
“They could be right, there are strong indications that past wars extinguished more than one Xenoc species. It could be that Tyrean are part of a new generation of intelligent beings raising to interstellar travel after disappearance of previous races, the fact that our current xeno seems from the same technology level as us indicates they achieved space flight in the same timeline as Tyrean did. I wonder if they created some AI like us. That would be interesting.”

Tyrean explorer “New Sense of Deja Vu”, 6 days 4 hours after warp jump.

“Sir, the shuttle has successfully relocated, they are maintaining distance of 10 light seconds from the planet, Sir ! They are sending in a report, it seems they already made some progress.”

Commander Ixial read the report, which said that advanced algebra system has been defined with the Xeno, and geometry definitions was already on the way. But that was much more tricky and proved difficult. And that was only the beginning, as all that mathematical work was done to create a written language based on logic and mathematics, rather than racial history. Later, maybe some of us would try to learn the Xenocs language, but yet we have still to discover the name of their specie.

The navigation officer interrupted his reading : “Sir, our shuttle report they have detected that a Xenoc small craft has been launched from the planet, in intercept course with them, Sir. Our team request permission to let the Xeno approach them.”

Life Is A ***** reacted first and transmitted “Permission granted” to the Tyrean shuttle.

The Commander stayed silent. Some of the crew on deck were praying.

Life Is A ***** then spoke :”I guess the Xeno will not only approach, but will try to dock to our shuttle. Which is a logical step if they also want to make any good progress toward communication. Do not confuse it as “a nice alien theory”, the way almost all radio emissions were shut down when they discovered us prove this race has a very tight grip on its members. Then all Xenoc wave emissions come from a single source on the planet, probably a single base. Which indicates a very centralised government. How ironic, it could be these Xeno are as bad as the Tyrean on the ground of individual freedom. Time will tell.”

[capnq]

Despite having known him for over fifteen years, Cunsi Davdi still felt a bit awestruck in Sinta Farki's presence. The average Eifralo retired at sixty-one, but Farki was still serving as Chairman of the Board of the Eifralo Conglomerate at seventy-three, and almost as active as someone half his age. He'd taken Davdi as his protégé, and had used his influence with the board to make Davdi the youngest CEO in the Conglomerate's history. Facing the biggest challenge of his career, Davdi had come to his mentor for advice.

"Doctor Timho certainly writes a detailed report," Farki commented as he slipped the stack of pages back into the envelope.

"That's one of the things that makes him such a good Vice-President of Research and Development," Davdi agreed. "Once he latches onto an idea, he doesn't release it until he's looked at it from every possible angle."

"A heavy burden when the subject is so serious. None of the legends of the Masters even hint at their capacity for violence, or of such brutal enemies. It makes one wonder if they deliberately hid this from our ancestors, or if our ancestors found it too terrible to remember. Or perhaps they created us after the war ended, and didn't think we needed to know."

"I hope it's that Last possibility. Soctu has had to start taking sedatives to get any sleep at night; he's worried that either the Masters' enemies are still out there somewhere, or the enemies left their own servants behind, as well. That's why I need your advice. How do we prepare the Conglomerate to meet hostile aliens, and how do I spin the preparations when the necessary budget items come up before the rest of the Board?"

"First things first," Farki replied. "We need to know what the money has to be spent on before we can draw up a budget proposal. And I know exactly whom I'd go to for help in deciding that."

[capnq]

Sanre Dorsi had never been so nervous in her life. What on Eifra could bring a minor media consultant to the attention of Chairman Farki? She had thought his "request" that she make an appointment to see him as soon as possible was a practical joke by one of her friends, until Farki's secretary vidcalled to confirm whether she'd received it. She was even more surprised when she arrived at his office, and the secretary told her to go right in, even though she'd gotten there rather early.

"Ah, Doctor Dorsi, I'm glad you could arrange to be here on such short notice," Farki greeted her. "I'm sure you recognize CEO Davdi, but do you know my other guest, Doctor Soctu Timho?"

Dorsi shifted from surprise to borderline shock. "Only by reputation, Chairman." Here she was in the same room with the two most influential people on Eifra, plus one of the corporate Vice-Presidents. She found herself at a loss for words.

"I'm sure you're wondering why we've asked you here." Farki grinned, and added, "That sounds like a bad holovid actor's line, doesn't it?"

Dorsi had to laugh in spite of her nervousness. "Yes, it does. But I've heard far, far worse in my line of work."

"Your work is what brings you here, Doctor. We have a problem, and I believe you're the most qualified person to help us."

Dorsi's eyes bulged in amazement. "You need a historical consultant? Your message implied that the matter was urgent."

"You're too modest about your achievements, Doctor. You are widely recognized as Eifra's leading expert on the Corporate Wars. If you don't know all the details of what we're looking for, you'll know where to find answers."

"I appreciate your praise, Chairman, but I can't imagine what you could possibly need me for. As much as I enjoy helping to make costume dramas more historically accurate, it's hardly a profitable enough line of work to concern the leadership of the Conglomerate."

"This matter is far more serious than any of us could have imagined, Doctor. In this case, profit isn't even a major concern. Doctor Timho is here to brief you on our situation."

-----

"In summary, Doctor Dorsi," Timho finished, "we need to prepare to defend ourselves against potentially hostile aliens. Chairman Farki believes that your expertise can help us design the first Eifral military force since the Ultimate Merger."

Dorsi was unusually slow to reply. She was still stunned at the horrors that Timho had described in his briefing; at one point the Chairman had had his secretary bring them a round of BLARG to relax a bit during a break. "I truly wish that I had the Chairman's confidence in my abilities. I could tell you the organization of the various corporate security forces, their weaponry, and tactics, but very little of that would apply to combat between spacecraft. The closest thing during the Corporate Wars would be the hovercar duels between unemployed youth gangs during the late 2100s.

And that leads to a larger issue: finding Eifralo willing to train for battle. Very few Eifralo show any tendency towards violence, and those who do typically mature out of it after puberty. The rare physically aggressive adult Eifralo tends to end up employed in the demolition and recycling sector."

"Or professional sports," Farki grinned. "Did you know that fifty years ago, I was a pro skyball pilot?"

"I doubt there's a sports fan on Eifra who doesn't know that," Davdi laughed. "I don't think your record for shortest scoring interval has ever been broken."

"You're right, and I doubt it will be. The regulation air corridor was smaller back then, when the hovers were slower."

"I don't mean to be rude," Timho interrupted somewhat crossly, "but we still have a major problem to deal with. The Chairman's skyball career isn't likely to help us build a space force."

"It might be more applicable than you'd first think," Farki countered. "I've read your full report on Node-25; there was mention of the Masters' ships having specialized weapons to defend against small attack craft. Their descriptions reminded me of the aerobatics of a sports hover."

"That is a good point, I have to admit," Timho agreed. "The craft would have to be much larger to operate in space, of course, but there are several such battles in Node-25's database. I wouldn't have thought of that. I've never been much of a skyball fan; I just don't see the appeal of watching a bunch of pilots trying to push a balloon around with the downdraft of their engines."

"It seems to me that this Node-25 has already told you more about space combat than I ever could," Dorsi commented. "The Last Eifralo with real experience in three-dimensional fighting died a century and a half ago. A specialist in the pre-Unification period might know a bit more, but I'd have to do a literature search just to find one. Vidshows about life before the formation of the planetary government are in even less demand than Corporate Wars dramas."

"As I said earlier, you'd at least know where to look," Farki replied. "That's a better idea than most of the options than we've come up with on our own."

[Jmenschenfresser]

Chaper 3--Part 2
2403.1

-------------------------
CARNAP JENGUS
-------------------------

Carnap, leader of the Rellan, sat upon his royal cushions. It was the first free moment, the first moment some logger-head lord wasn't yammering on about freedom and fair share. Those morons preached against the evils of consolidation and yet complained that they wouldn't get a fair share. It made no sense. Entitled brats propped up by society, money and name. Carnap was in no way a Republican. Like peasants can decide anything greater than the ripeness of the horse-ankle root. Carnap longed for the time his grandfather had told him about, when nobility was noble and the dynamic lords of the Rellan stood, hands raised, between the chaos of the other tribes.

The sky rumbled and he pulled a family cloak over his shoulders. Depression and exhaustion passed through his body. The sky light over his head only enhanced the gray, pregnant light filtering in. Only a few million of the other tribes remained in Spica. The Boohr occupied a nearby rock planet that had no atmosphere. BLasting out caves, they lived miles under the cold rock surface. Carnap was counting the days till they moved their leaders.

The tribes were already beginning to benefit from the new alliance with the Invexus Corporation. Carnap wondered just how long the Sa'ah would remain under this treaty. Century old mauraders don't change over night. Old warriors will tap their bare sides and with every tap you can see how it had once been a tic, a habit of making sure the short sword or firearm was still strapped to their bulging thigh. Old warriors are worse than dead warriors. The Omon had had the best luck of the draw. So far the Vellon have found only two small breathable planets. The Omon have found two large and one small one in adjacent systems. Within a decade they will be far ahead in research and have enough resource production to begin fielding a fleet of their own.

Carnap called in a short maid and asked for a cup of water. The winter was coming on.

He took up several pieces of paper. Several he was supposed to sign. Carnap looked across the room to where a grand, spralling tapestry detailing the history of his tribe and his family.

'A room full of cushions, whores and greedy lords chain me,' he thought. Light filled the room and Carnap pulled the cloak over his head. Even under the thick leather and cloth, his arms and lap were visible. A voice filled the room like fog, like deep music.

'Cease your wallowing, Carnap, Koei speaks. Your family has not finished their allotted time at the loom eternal. Stand up. Raise your people. Gather a fleet. I will go out before you. Rejoice, for this day, Koei has given a promise of blessing.'

The voice left as it came.

Carnap pulled the cloak from his head and ran from the room.

[sachmo]

Invexus Corporation

1-2404

Primidara VIII rotated lazily beneath Lucky Lady, it’s surface reflecting the light of the system’s old, orange sun. From orbit, Primidara VIII looked more like a sponge than a planet with its unique mossy surface.
I guess it is sort of a sponge. This planet soaks up cargo and money faster than any sponge I’ve ever seen, Captain Lester Quenlin mused.
Once the trade agreement had been signed between the Vellon tribe of the Heru, Invexus merchant ships had been the first thru the wormhole. Leading this initial wave was Captain Quenlin and Lucky Lady, loaded down with a huge assortment of cargo.
No one had been exactly sure what sort of goods these Vellons would pay for. It was the first alien species ever encountered by the Cherek people, and so everything was new. However, Quenlin had an uncanny knack for knowing what the customer would pay for. As luck would have it, this skill translated beyond his own species. As soon as the initial awkwardness and bumps in the road were solved, Quenlin was the first captain to sell off his entire cargo, which he did in just under six standard hours. He also, so rumor had it, made the biggest profit in the first week.
Yes, Quenlin was a lucky man, which is part of the reason his ship was named Lucky Lady. Quenlin was also a firm believer in the old adage, “A man makes his own luck.” Once the supply and demand chain became firmly established between the Cherek and Vellon people, many independent captains like Quenlin began to see their income levels start to dip. The initial rush was a great time for both sides, but consumers being what they are, certain goods were preferred over others by the respective races. For example, the Vellon, being a rigid, class driven people, had a particular fondness for Cherek art. Quenlin found that the upper crust would pay exorbitant fees for even the most mediocre pieces, partly because they could and partly because it was viewed as a status symbol to own a “visual expression of the alien mind”. Quenlin could care less if they used them for toilet paper, as long as they kept paying for it. He knew that soon the market would be flooded with all sorts of cheap art, but thankfully he had filled his hold with every piece he could find on his first trip, and made a small fortune in the exchange.
For an independent captain, this was especially fine. Since Quenlin owned his ship, Invexus allowed him to keep sixty percent of the profits from a given run. If a run was particularly profitable, they might bump that up to seventy. Quenlin made seventy percent profit on seven of eight trips to Primidara VIII so far, and on the trip where he didn’t get seventy, Invexus auditors had awarded him sixty-three. He and his crew were making excellent money. However, things were beginning to get crowded. Independents were starting to spring up as fast as Invexus colonized new planets (twelve new worlds in four years!), but the Vellon markets were not expanding to keep up, at least the ones that they were allowed to enter by the treaty. In situations like this, it was usually the captains who dared to venture into the gray area that usually came out ahead. Quenlin was one such captain, and on his Last trip he had learned about a nice gray area indeed. Rumor had it that the Vellons were able to concoct a narcotic that they once used in religious ceremonies. To them, it was a mild narcotic, resulting in a relaxed, happy state.
Invexus trader crews had discovered it, but on Cherekians, the effect was much more intense. When ingested, it fills the Cherekian brain with wonderful, dreamlike images and totally relaxes the body. To an outside observer, the subject is reduced to a smiling, babbling, immobile idiot. The effects of a gram of the drug can Last for up to five hours. The Vellons had a name for it, but it was practically unpronounceable. The Users began to call it simply Glide.
Once the news of Glide got around, demand for it shot thru the roof. The problem was, the only drug trade that Invexus was interested in was the one it controlled. Glide represented an uncontrollable element to them, and so it was outlawed. Those found possessing or consuming Glide faced fine, imprisonment, and possibly death. Those found distributing or transporting with the intent to distribute faced fine, imprisonment, financial seizure, and death.
So there it was. If a captain was good enough, he stood to make a fortune off of Glide. The risks were great, but the rewards were, too.
Captain Quenlin met his Vellon contact and bought thirty kilos of Glide for a price that would make him an obscene amount of money if he were able to sell it in Invexus space. It seemed to him that the Vellons had not quite caught on to the value of Glide, which was so much the better for him. As the Last of the product was moved into the hold of his ship, he walked outside and lovingly patted the landing strut.
“Just this one Last time, old girl. Get me thru and we can retire. I mean it this time.”
He felt the ship give a slight shudder under his hand.
He looked up, a bit puzzled. Was Lady trying to tell him something? Shrugging, he headed back toward the open cargo doors.
Quenlin and Lucky Lady would need every ounce of luck they had left.

[Unknown_Enemy]

TYREAN HISTORY : Nightmares

2404.5

In the middle of the Experiment Room, Monk Uthara was laying in deep trance on a medical couch. Several holo-AI symbol were floating in the room. Senator Lahira and Cardinal Alassi were both sitting on small chairs, waiting. Monk Uthara suddenly seemed to suffer a spasm, which did not interrupt his trance. Behind him, in front of the two officials, the holo-wall blinked. Random colours started to appear, then an image stabilised.

Samurai Heiti Kann cheered at the look on the reco pictures, then he spoke to his crew “Attention to all personnel, we have confirmation that Tyrean cowards committed mass suicide rather than dying an honourable death in combat. We will begin standard planetary sizing procedures immediately”. Planetary napalm weapons started to aim at their targets. All main towns were to be cleansed by righteous fire, thus evacuating the needs to dispose of the bodies. Another fine planet claimed by the Imperium shall come into the Emperor's possessions. Heiti Kann could not understand the Tyrean, they were not fighting, but still they refused to withdraw as ordered. So the Emperor Mahatsohito took a reasonable course of actions. The claimed planets were to be conquered, and brought into the noble Ruling of the Katana Imperium by force. But no conquest did occur. The Tyrean populations committed suicide on a gigantic scale. Males and females were poisoning their own offspring before terminating themselves on the arrival of the invasion forces. The Samurai was glad that such coward were not brought in the Imperium. They did not deserve it. His smile widened as fire rained down on the giant graveyard that had been a Tyrean city only a few hours ago.

The screen flickers.

Upon entering his room, Director barrens of the Cyterian Republic gave his coat to the Tyrean servant, a Zombie as they were called by his population. Sometime, the Director was ashamed of what he had ordered toward the Tyrean specie, but he didn't have any other option. When the AI consensus decided to leave the Tyrean and start a new civilisation out of reach of biological species, the Tyrean society went into chaos. Some Tyrean went mad, and their unique ability to modify the flow of time wrecked havoc not only on their planets, but also on all Cyterian colonies on border systems. Luckily, his rapid reaction avoided too much damages. His covert operatives directed some of the Tyrean insurgents, and in a matter of months all Tyrean worlds on border systems had asked to join the Republic. Which they were granted of course. Then, it was just a matter of exploiting the momentum, and in less than two years, the Tyrean did not exist anymore as a free specie. Of course, they were quickly disseminated within the Republic. Isolated from one another. Then all specimen showing trace of the gift had to submit to a surgical intervention and sterilisation. A pity that such operation removed most of their intelligence in the process. That was why they were called Zombie. It was in fact a sort of lobotomy. And prospective were bad, most of Tyrean were gifted. Well, better to them to disappear slowly and peacefully in the republic than live as slaves in the Dictatorship of the Katana Imperium thought the Director. Meanwhile, in the back room, the Tyrean servant maintained proudly a stupid smile as he stared at the wall.

Images, maybe from Tyrean Secondis planet.

In the fusion chamber D16VA, Three thousands six hundreds and fifty one Tyrean instantaneously stopped yelling and crying as they vaporised. AI Roaming Free checked the circuitry, then powered down the fusion reactor. “It was the Last batch of them was it ?” asked AI Born To Kill. “Yep ! we have solved all their problems. Now we can start working on our projects”. Born To Kill signalled his Joyce in the cybersphere. After the failure of the inner council of Churches, the AI Consensus tried to adapt the Tyrean political system, to no avail. Chaos was spreading fast in the Federation, then the Cyterian withdraw from all agreement, asking for a stabilised political situation before resuming former treaties. The Katana Imperium was weary and massing warships on the border systems. Then the AI Consensus was overthrown by more radical elements. Peace and unity was inforced on the federate worlds by regiments of armed robots. This had been a bloody affair. More, massive suicides occurred in the pacified worlds, leaving some of them almost empty. But the Tyrean who survived were most of the time driven mad by their power over time. So the new Consensus came to the logical conclusion for the Tyrean specie. Extermination. The few millions that were left were disposed of in fusion chambers. Swiftly and painlessly. Proud and happy from a job well done, Roaming Free contacted Consensus “A funny note I would like to share with all of us, do you know how our Last remaining creators called us ???? They called us the Rage.”

Deep space, other images.

Flowers of lights silently erupt from guns.
Sensor beams fighting countermeasures to acquire a lock, looking for a kill.
Red steel steaming out of wounded spaceships.
Thousands life forms yelling a picosecond before silence.
Entire planets, whose dark side are glowing from fusion bombs explosions lie there, as a signal telling to all “AI Consensus and Katana Imperium fought here”.

All images disappear from the holo wall, as the Senator switches it off. “We are going nowhere with this”. “Agreed” replied AI Consensus, “but it is the best sample of what we wanted to show you, accurate in the short term future, but on the long term, your spirit seems to only select the paths that it fears the most, not the most probable one. While everything you watched could happen, their probability are very low. We urge you not to take in account any long term prediction while deciding your policy. The Inner Council must avoid your ancestor's dramatic errors.”

[ November 20, 2002, 18:15: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[capnq]

CEO Davdi wished he had worn more comfortable clothing. His somber five-layer outfit, which he normally only wore to wakes, had seemed appropriate for the seriousness of his speech, but the dark purple fabric was really soaking up the heat from the holovid stage lights. The floor director counted down from three, then signalled to Dadvi that he was on the air.

"Good evening, fellow stockholders. I have a message for you tonight of grave importance.

In this fiscal year, the Conglomerate has accomplished a great deal. A new refuelling station on Kexma enabled us to colonize the two hydrogen worlds in Praxis Verdanis, and to extend the exploratory voyage of the _Speculation_, which found three more colonizable worlds in the Polaris system. Her sister ship, the _Investment_, found a total of six more colonizable worlds, four of which have breathable atmospheres. The Conglomerate now boasts eighteen branch colonies in seven systems. Remarkable breakthoughs in computer science brought advanced robotic factories to increase productivity, and automated spacecraft such as the _Personnel_ passenger transport, which can operate without intervention by an Eifral crew. However, these breakthoughs came at an unexpected price.

Three years ago, the discovery of the abandoned Skycity of the Masters on Jalwu dominated the newsfeeds, but as some commentators have noted, few results of the continuing study of the ancient computer system found there have been published. The reason for this was that the sapient computer known as 'Node-25' held a terrible secret in its databanks.

Many Eifralo believe that the Masters will one day return, to live among us again. We have long speculated that there could be other intelligent races scattered among the stars. Node-25 revealed to us that the Masters were not alone in the universe in their day. There was at least one other starfaring race, and that unnamed race was a bitter enemy to the Masters. Node-25 contained records of war in space, a horrific conflict of unimaginable proportions.

Approximately a year and a half ago, another artifact from the Master's day was discovered adrift in Nuqbo's planetary rings. Comparison to Node-25's database indicate that the heavily damaged object was part of a powerful weapon, of a type used by both sides in the Masters' war. We do not know to whom this particular weapon belonged, but it was clearly once part of a spacecraft, destroyed in one of the devastating battles depicted in Node-25's records.

We cannot assume that other intelligent lifeforms on distant worlds will value cooperation above conflict. The Conglomerate must be prepared to defend Eifra and our branch colonies against potential attackers. The next fiscal year's budget proposal, which I will submit to the Board of Directors tomorrow, includes research and development expenditures on technologies which our engineers believe could help protect us. Some will oppose these projects as an unnecessary, profitless expense, but I say that they are an essential premium to be paid for an insurance policy which we hope to never have to file a claim against.

However, we cannot allow the fear of undiscovered dangers to hold back our exploration program. If there are hostile aliens out there, we must find them before they find us. We cannot wait to discern the intentions of strangers until they arrive to meet us in our own skies. We must hope that those we may someday meet will seek profitable commerce rather than hostile acquisition.

I thank you for your valuable time this evening. Good night, and good profit."

[capnq]

As CEO Davdi had expected, convincing the Board of Directors to authorize the R&D portion of the fiscal 2405 budget was turning out to be a hard sell. Leading the opposition was Davdi's most bitter rival, Porxi Malwi. Malwi had been the leading candidate to be the next CEO until Farki had convinced the board to accept Davdi's bid instead, and even after a nonade of strong profits under Davdi's leadership, Malwi hadn't forgiven either of them. He had been accumulating as much preferred stock as he could since then, and was now the Conglomerate's third largest shareholder.

Malwi was particularly livid at Davdi's handling of the new military research program. Davdi had been able to reallocate enough discretionary funds to cover much of the basic research, but now the Board needed to approve the money to start building test models and training pilots. When Doctor Timho had explained the proposed space combat force to Retla Gurse, they'd quickly realized that the small craft would need some kind of transport to be used effectively; they had to be optimized for speed and maneuverability, and wouldn't be capable of carrying enough fuel for extended-duration flights. Starting from the designs in Node-25's database, Gurse had come up with a "carrier" that could launch and retrieve the "fighters", as well as ferrying them between star systems. The fighters were ludicrously small, barely half the size of Node-25's hardware, which meant that they couldn't be automated like the _Personnel_ or the proposed carrier.

Doctor Dorsi had found her expert on pre-Unification history in a small subsidiary of the Entertainment Division that served the niche market for virtual reality hovercraft simulators. There were a few VR games that simmed the conflicts between the old skycity-states, which mostly sold in the 9-12 age bracket. It was looking more and more like they'd have to recruit adolescents to learn to fly the space fighters. Davdi had deliberately avoided mentioning that prospect in the budget proposal, but Malwi had raised the issue during the third day of discussions. The idea of sending children into battle had rallied Malwi's supporters, and the budget negotiations had been deadlocked for nearly a week now, but Davdi was hopeful that the latest discoveries from the _Investment_ would break the impasse.

The rest of the board had already gathered around the meeting table for the afternoon session when Davdi entered the room. Davdi took his place next to Chairman Farki and greeted them all.

"I have a special announcement to make before we continue," Davdi began. "It's going to be huge when we release it to the Media Division. Doctor Timho personally delivered the latest report from the _Investment_ to me during the lunch break."

"More observations from that newly-forming star they found inside the Jidop Nebula?" Farki asked.

"No, this is much bigger. Their next transit lead them to Mamor, where they encountered an alien spacecraft!"

"How...convenient." All heads turned to look at Malwi, whose loud sneer had cut through the surprised babble that Davdi's Last statement had provoked. "First you circulate these sensational tales of the Masters' so-called 'war', then you propose a budget full of expenditures with no profit potential, for the sake of 'defending' ourselves against unknown threats, and only ten days later you announce that we've found an alien race. I am amazed that you think this board so gullible."

"Gullible?!?" Farki interrupted. "Did you even read Doctor Timho's executive summary of Node-25's records? No Eifralo could fabricate such horrors. Perhaps you should read the full report."

"Better yet," Davdi added, "we could ask Soctu to allow you to interview Node-25 personally. Talking to it is a fascinating experience. If seeing the actual displays won't convince you, nothing will."

"I'm not going to go chasing off to Jalwu to talk to a mere machine," Malwi scoffed. "You're not going to get me away from this debate that easily."

"If you had read the summary," Farki snapped, "you'd know that Node-25 was moved to the main research complex here on Eifra nearly two years ago. I cannot comprehend how you can even imagine that this is all some ploy to get the R&D budget approved."

"You also haven't heard all the news from the _Investment_," Davdi continued. "The aliens had already colonized one of the lesser planets orbiting Mamor. They call themselves the 'Tyrean Federation', and all indications are that they are not hostile. In fact, they've already submitted a request to open trade negotiations."

Malwi gave Davdi a suspicious look. "They seem to have learned to communicate with us remarkably quickly," he commented.

"That surprised me as well," Davdi admitted, "but apparently their archaeologists learned the language of the Masters from ruins in their part of the cluster, long before the _Investment_ entered Mamor. The Tyreans can read and write an ancient form of our script, but had no idea what spoken Eifral sounded like.

There's another opportunity to quash your skepticism, Porxi. How would you like first rights to lead our trade delegation to the Tyreans?"

"If these 'Tyreans' actually exist, that's a very tempting offer. I assume I could resell the commission to someone else whom I trust?"

"Of course," Davdi grinned and added, "assuming you can find someone else that you do trust."

Farki and several other board members laughed at Davdi's comment, but Malwi didn't even smile.

"That shouldn't be a problem," he replied. "All right, I accept your offer. If she'll take the commission, I think my first choice for that assignment will be quite acceptable to the entire board."

[ December 01, 2002, 20:35: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

TYREAN HISTORY : Gathering Storm

2404.9

His Holiness Vixen VIII blessed Senator Urien as he entered the room. Following the Winds of change, the Tyrean political system undertook a peaceful revolution. The religious now controlled only one third of the Inner Council, with another third elected by citizens of the federation, and the remaining was given to AI Consensus. From undisputed leader of the Tyrean, His Holiness was now Head of Inner Council, and to the surprise of Consensus, he had accepted to be stripped of most of his political power, becoming only the moral leader of the council. But old habits are hard to die. Before becoming a Senator, Urien was a believer, and he still was.

“Greetings your Holiness, I bring critical news. I went out of Security Council half an hour ago, and our spies satellites intercepted an internal message in Katana Imperium territory.”

Vixen interrupted the Senator “How ? Please explain, as I am not invited anymore in these meetings.”

The Senator complied “You probably remember that our first guess was that internal warfare in Katana Imperium was not rare. Then our second deduction was that the honor code which binds their society would have them quite easily targeted by intelligence actions. So we deployed some satellites in their space to monitor their traffic. We did it carefully, we hid these in our Scientific program to better understand astrophysics. The Katana examined our probes but they did not find the hidden software from Consensus which can turn a harmless research robot into an accurate listening post. We are now in position to monitor some of their secret transmissions. Here is the message, please read it and give it back. It should not have been available to you.”

News Transmission intercept, Katana Imperium 2404.8
..@#%CFBDYG$%# Colony Module Kereina Mori reports successful landing on planet .$%&^&^******** 68th imperium colony established ..... Shogunate defence reports field deployment of first Light Cruisers., all weapons tests passed. ... Deployment of ice colony modules to colony fleets proceeding on schedule ... latest strategic estimates place the %&^%$^&* empire at the forefront of proposed military actions designed to expand the Imperium twofold ... Mahatsuhito clan annihilates clan Tokima after spies reveal the leader of the Tokima clan planned to attempt a coup in several outlying colonies ...
#$^$&^&**** END Transmission intercept"

His holiness frowned “Hmm. No surprise here. Their political system is a modern form of feudalism, their society can survive only if they expand. And in time of trouble, they need to focus on an enemy. So to end unrest, their leaders are going to direct their specie's violence against an alien. But why is the target's name missing ? I find odd just this part could not be decrypted.”
“But it was decrypted your Holiness, problem is, the Imperium gave code names to each of their neighbors, and as contact has been rare, we do not know who they wanted to point at. Which left us with only two possible targets : the Cytherians or us.”
“And what does Consensus say of this ?”
“They say the Katana honor code requires some actual fighting to occur for their warrior to achieve glory. As our colonies would not even try to defend themselves, they would bring no such thing. In fact, it could even create more unrest by getting a whole army of unsatisfied warriors. Consensus think leadership of the Imperium is aware of the problem. Which leaves only one possibility : our Cytherian trusted allies will bear the onslaught. We think the conflict will take place..”
“And what if Consensus analysis is false ?” coldly asked Vixen.
“I beg your pardon” replied the confused Senator.
“What happens to us if Consensus estimation is proven false and the Tyrean are the target ?”
“Well, we have good hope to get both the Cytherians and maybe the Eifralo to help us. But our space would become a battlefield. Several systems would be lost. Millions dead, maybe billions.”
The low voice of Vixen then said “So you are telling me that Security Council is placing all bets on that single analysis from a little known race. Typical. I thank you for your report Senator, you can withdraw and please keep me informed of any further development. May the Almighty bless you Urien.”
The confused Senator saluted and exited the room. Cardinal Alassi appeared from the back door, his head fur completely flat. “Your Holiness, this is madness ! We must prepare our worlds for an attack immediately.”
Vixen smiled “My dear Alissa, did your fur took he place of your brain to propose such stupid idea ?”
The Cardinal almost jumped to the desk “But we are dealing with our own survival ! We ...”
“We will play the game from the rules we choose to use. We would need years to prepare for such a war versus such a powerful foe. And as far as we know, the Katana could be on their way to attack a specie still unknown to us. We need to play the balance of power. We need the Katana as a power as much as we need to keep the Cytherians alive. Can't you see it ?”
Raising both ears, Cardinal Alissa quickly thought about it, “then what shall we do ?”
His Holiness smiled “First leak this message immediately to the Cytherians. They are no fools and they will reach quickly the conclusion made by Consensus. Then leak it also to that Eifralo ambassador, it could prove useful.”
“I still don't understand your Holiness”
“The Cytherians will prepare. They have an army which will prepare for the conflict. Now how do you think a specie like the Katana Imperium will react when they'll see a military buildup occurring within one of their neighbors ? Attacking us instead ?”
“I still disagree your Holiness, the risk is..”
“You don't need to know more. Get back to your duties, you have work to do, as I do.”

[ November 27, 2002, 18:12: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[capnq]

The music was blaring, the BLARG was flowing, and CEO Davdi was feeling the most relaxed he'd been in more than two weeks. Chairman Farki had invited the rest of the Board of Directors, plus the top management of the Conglomerate, to a party in celebration of the board's authorization of the fiscal 2405 budget. The festivities were a much needed respite after the prolonged debate over the military R&D expenditures. Dadvi was quite relieved that Malwi had declined the Chairman's invitation, but couldn't seem to escape the gossip about the only member of the board not in attendance.

"Malwi's choice to lead the Tyrean trade delegation was a bit of a surprise, wasn't it?" Retla Gurse asked him.

"Not in hindsight," Davdi replied, "Selya has the best interpersonal skills of any of the corporate Vice Presidents. She's the perfect person to negotiate with our first alien race."

"Yes, she certainly is good with people. She'd have to be, to stay on speaking terms with Malwi," Gurse laughed. "It's too bad that she had to leave for Mamor before the budget was finalized. She's missing a great party."

Davdi had to smile at Gurse's remark, and not just because of the poke at Malwi. Besides being the Conglomerate's Vice President of Eifral Resources, Selya Penlo was one of Gurse's ex-lovers. Davdi was glad to see that Gurse could talk about her in complimentary terms again; the couple had had an unusually acrimonious breakup several years ago, and Davdi considered it an accomplishment to have stayed friends with both of them afterwards.

"The party really ought to be in your honor, Retla. I can't thank you enough for the idea that broke the budget deadlock."

"I can't take all the credit. It was Doctor Dorsi's description of the Pirku Group's role in the Corporate Wars that made me realize that we could turn a profit on the carriers and fighters by selling them to the Tyreans."

"I almost hope they won't need them. They say we're the third starfaring race they've encountered, and their diplomatic Messages keep raising concerns about one of the others. They're quite insistent that they need to consult our 'defense minister', and seem to have trouble grasping the fact that we don't have one."

"Maybe you should let them talk to Node-25," Gurse commented, "it's got more expertise on that than any of us do."

"That's another brilliant idea! They're already quite comfortable interacting with artificial intelligences; AIs are even considered citizens in the Federation. Keep thinking like that, and you could be the next CEO."

"Ugh, no thanks. I'd rather stay at my design table than have to deal with the board that often. Which reminds me, we're going to need to rework the carrier design a bit."

"Why? Has a problem come up?"

"Node-25 ran some simulations with the current designs. The fighters' performance is almost too impressive; if any of the enemy fighters get past the defenders, the carrier's main gun simply can't hit them. Node-25 says we need some of the rapid-firing weapons it calls 'active defense systems', but I don't know how long R&D will need to reverse-engineer them from Node-25's database."

"Will that hold up prototyping the carrier?"

"I don't think so; we can start building with the current design, and refit it after we figure out how to make the things Node-25 wants. Finding pilots for the fighters is likely to cause more of a delay."

"Don't remind me; I'd rather not think about that tonight. And here comes a welcome distraction."

Davdi had spotted Sanre Dorsi crossing the room towards them. The historian cut a rather striking figure, wearing a fluorescent orange and yellow-green print that set off her complexion nicely. Even better, she was carrying three mugs of BLARG.

"You two looked like you needed refills," Dorsi smiled.

"Quite perceptive of you," Davdi grinned. "Retla was just telling me that you inspired the idea that made this party possible."

"I did? How on Eifra did I do that?"

"You're the one who told me about the Pirku Group," Gurse explained, "when we were trying to figure out how to build weapons to arm the space force with. If Pirku could supply guns to almost all sides' security forces throughout most of the Corporate Wars, we can probably make money selling armaments, too."

"Maybe that's why the Chairman invited me tonight. A hydroponic farm girl doesn't get many chances to hobnob with the elite."

"Sinta still has an eye for a pretty face, too," Davdi winked. "I'd be surprised if that had nothing to do with it."

Dorsi giggled and blushed an even deeper red. "I'll bet you say that to all the media consultants."

"No, he only says that to the female media consultants," Gurse laughed. "I'm going to grab something from the buffet for this BLARG to wash down; do either of you want anything?"

"The BLARG is enough for me right now," Davdi said, taking a sip, "but I recommend you try the alepi-stuffed itegas; they're spicy enough to ignite your breath."

"I'd like some more of those," Dorsi added, "the alepi paste is spiked with just the right amount of apiro. Even better than my mother's recipe."

"One bowl of itegas coming up. Don't wander off where I can't find you, or I'll have to eat them all myself."

[ November 30, 2002, 01:35: Message edited by: capnq ]

[Gimboid]

OOC - Apologies for the massive delay, real-life issues were getting in the way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif Please take note of the date of this post and this post can be assumed to take place after my 2nd post. I will have dates on the other back Posts i make to catch up my storyline to the current stardate of 2405.0

Katana Imperium
2401.5

After the first dozen colonies had been established in the neighbouring star systems to the homeworld, development of advanced telecommunication had needed to be created to allow effective colony control measures. Despite every colony being controlled by only the most trusted vassals of the Mahatsuhito clan and her allies there was a need to ensure real-time conferencing capabilities for population monitoring and control from the homeworld. Trust can only go so far

With this new telecommunications equipment came a means of keeping the population blind to the reality of the Imperium. An empire wide news service had been setup, and with it the possibility of deciding what information the population in general would be allowed to witness. This powerful subterfuge was so staggeringly obvious a means of control that it had suprised many in power that the Imperium had not used such measures before now.

The entire economic and social fabric of the Imperium had changed in ways unimagined before the discovery of the warp points. Entire space yards had been devoted to nothing else but the production of colony modules, and every month at least 1 new colony was being established somewhere in the universe. The people for the most part were unaware of just how huge the expansion plans permeated the Imperium in everything it did, and except for the occasional news clipping about the latest colonies that had been created. All that could be noticed was the commonplace disappearence of neighbours who were shipped off to some unknown offworld destination to fulfill the grand plans of the emperor.

______________________________________________
==============================================

Power was constantly flowing into the capital nowadays with the exponential increase in information, resources, and population intel originating from all the colonies. Kaneko had found new ways of influencing people and events in the partial chaos that ensued as new colonies were established and power structures were being setup. She revelled in choosing the people who would have the true power in colonies, let the people assume one group was in power and yet it was someone else entirely who would be pulling all the strings. There had been a few foolish Groups who had tried to follow the puppets strings back to the source, quick deaths awaited all those who attempted to interfere with the plans of the Mahatsuhito clan.

Several Groups of conspirators had been located and destroyed over the previous year, blindly believing that to live away from the homeworld offered some measure of protection from the political posturing and outright clan warfare that had existed there since the Imperium was formed. With the discovery of such Groups, Kaneko's worst fears had been confirmed - no longer was her domination of the empire as absolute as she had manipulated it to be, she would have to find ways to exert power without physically being present. This new conundrum had occupied her mind for weeks, she now hand picked all operatives that would be given power in the colonies as well as the individuals who would report about the day to day activities of the colonies, and these Last reports would only be made to her.

Behind her regal visage as it appeared in the palace was a mind more cunning then any realised, noone would ursurp her power she had decided that long ago and so she had become the puppet master, pulling the invisible strings of power and causing events to unfold in the manner that suited her needs best.

Her resources were being pushed to their limits with the ever expanding size of the empire and the Mahatsuhito clan would eventually need to use people from the other substantial clans of the Imperium such as Menjisu, Tokima, and Kitokaha Clans who could be trusted for many things but needed to be watched as they too would place their own clans needs above all else when it came time to decide loyalties. This fact only added to the control conundrum, yet Kaneko found that the extra stress created by such issues only focused her more, increased her determination to stay in power. To control a planet was a satisfying experience, to control the wide reaching and ever expanding Katana Imperium was euphoric.

[ December 02, 2002, 12:18: Message edited by: Gimboid ]

[capnq]

"Hello? Eifra to Cunsi..." Retla Gurse chided his friend.

"Sorry, Retla," Davdi apologized, "I got distracted for a moment. What were you saying?"

"I said, it's hard to believe that we've met a second alien race only a month after the Tyreans."

"Intelligent life seems to be more common than anyone expected," Davdi shrugged. "The Tophin mentioned that we were the fifth race they'd encountered, and at the time, they didn't know about the Tyreans yet."

"They seem a bit creepy compared to the Tyreans," Gurse commented. "What kind of people would collectively call themselves a 'Hive'?"

"I don't know. They haven't been very communicative since the initial contact. They didn't object to us colonizing Seginus III, though, and requested a non-aggression treaty almost immediately. They may just be wary of aliens."

"I doubt that's why you haven't even touched your food. Come on, give. What's bothering you?"

"It's Talro. She's back on Eifra on a business trip."

"Have you seen her?"

"Oh, did I ever see her! Of all the times for Talro to decide to visit, why did she have to pick this morning? She showed up at my door with no advance notice, and caught me having a late breakfast with Sanre, with both of us still in our sleepwear."

"Back up, I missed something here. How did you end up having breakfast with Doctor Dorsi?"

"Well, it started at Sinta's party. We'd both had quite a bit of BLARG, and neither of us was terribly surprised that she woke up the next morning on my bed. What did surprise me was that she wanted to stay and try to 'remember' what we'd been doing before we fell asleep. Since then, we've been spending the night together whenever our schedules allow it."

"I'm glad you've found someone to replace Talro; Sanre is quite an attractive woman. Did Talro make a scene?"

"An entire vidshow. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but the resulting argument ended with both of them mad at me."

"They'll get over it. Did Talro expect you to wait for her, after not even speaking to you for five years?"

"I half expected that I would. I certainly wasn't looking for a new relationship. If Sinta hadn't brought Sanre in to consult on the space force, I doubt we'd ever have even met."

"That's another thing you owe to the Chairman, then."

"Good thing he hasn't charged me for it!" Davdi laughed. "I already owe him more than a lifetime's salary for all the support he's given me dealing with the board over the years."

[ December 03, 2002, 21:03: Message edited by: capnq ]

[geoschmo]

The Hive continued to grow in solitude for a time. Expanding outwards, exploring new systems, planting new colonies on several planets. Its initial fear of extinction had abated somewhat. The Hive could not imagine a catastrophe that could strike all it’s parts as spread out across the quadrant as they now were. But as it’s fear declined, its curiosity grew.

The network of warp gates it found was quite extensive. Over a dozen star systems now it had explored and in every case there was at least one other warp gate leading out of the system in another direction. And all but a couple of the systems had viable star systems with planets that could be colonized if the Hive decided to. Obviously its initial suspicion that this was some sort of transportation system created by an incredibly advanced, unknown race was correct. The Hive wished to find this race.

On some of the planets the Hive had colonized it had also discovered signs of this, or possibly another advanced race. Ruins of great cities and pieces of technology, some of which was still useable, were found. But still no living beings of this advanced ancient race were located. It appeared the race had either left this area, or died out tens of thousands of years ago.

Not all the planets were all that interesting or particularly rich in minerals, so the Hive passed over them at first. And the Hive learned that even though it was possible to colonize the planets with atmospheres other than oxygen by means of habitat domes, it was not preferable to do so. It found that it’s hosts thrived and worked better when they could be outside and breathe the air occasionally.

Then along the eastern border a mysterious ship appeared. It came through the warp point, broadcast a general greeting message, and disappeared within the warp point. A few weeks later, another ship appeared in another system. At first the Hive thought they were from the same race, but it quickly discovered they were two distinct separate species. Both appeared to be at least equal technologically with the Hive. Neither appeared to be capable of building the warp gates, so the Hive decided they were probably not the Ancient ones. However, they were interesting nonetheless.

The Hive had scanned its hosts memories and literature for some information that could guide it. It found much about a time in the host races past in which the planet had been divided into separate political entities. These various nations got along for the most part, but often there were disagreements of one sort or another that resulted in wars. The Hive did not wish for such a thing to happen between it and these new species, and they did not appear to be hostile either. The Hive found information on something called a treaty. It offered both the new races a treaty and they accepted.

For a time that was pretty much all that happened. The other races seemed content to leave the Hive in peace. The Hive met and made treaties with several other races, all without significant incident. It learned a little bit about each of these races. They were all quite different form one another, and all quite different from the Hive. They all appeared to share the Hive’s curiosity about the universe around them. What they did not appear to share was the Hive’s unity of thought. Each of these races was made up of separate individuals, much as the host species had been before joining with the Hive. Billions upon billions of individuals.

The Hive was quite surprised that any such fractured group of beings could work together enough to explore the stars as the Hive was doing. But apparently they had adapted to the deficiency, and even seemed to value their individuality in most cases. The Hive decided this was a concept that needed more study.

Another concept taught to it by these aliens was that of borders. Up to this point the Hive had merely explored and colonized whatever planets it wished to. Now the Hive was told that certain planets “belonged” to this race, or certain systems “belonged” to that empire. The Hive knew from it’s hosts history that this sort of idea was a common cause of wars, and so it decided for the time being to defer to any such requests, provided the Hive did not already have a colony in one of these systems.

Up to this point the Hive had plenty of room to grow. And there were still many warp gates yet that it had not traveled through. Many of the older colonies were well established now and the early problems the Hive had maintaining enough resources to keep it’s space yards constructing Hive ships were all gone. The Hive decided it no longer needed to mine the asteroids in the home system for minerals, and so it sent a radio message to the ship to return to the home planet. As the Hive watched the ship approach, it reached out it’s mind seeking for the dozens of voices that would signal the point at which the ships crew had rejoined the greater collective. At this point something quite unexpected happened.

Instead of many different voices, the Hive sensed one strong voice. Quickly the Hive communicated with this voice and there was a moment of great awareness. The crew of the mining ship which had been out of contact with the Hive had formed it’s own Hive. The new hive could talk to the Hive telepathically, but it was unique. It was an individual.

The Hive was no longer alone.

[sachmo]

To say life on Gissen was hard would be an understatement. Rafe Lindsey felt like he knew that better than anyone in the galaxy.
Rafe worked in the mines here on Gissen, which was the same work he had done back on Cherek. The work was hard, and moderately dangerous, but if you knew what you were doing you would be ok. Rafe knew what he was doing when it came to mining, which was probably why Invexus had recruited him so heavily. His bonus package had been substantial: a large cash bonus, a furnished apartment, and three weeks of paid vacation per year. Rafe had been sure that his life was on the upswing.
When they arrived on Gissen and began mining, he wasn’t as confident about his life choice. The entire surface of the planet was covered with a thick, fast growing purple vegetation that had to be cut back before the mining machines could even begin to work. So the miners had to patrol the perimeter of the site with cutters, constantly clearing the area so that the machines could do their work. It was a long, tiring struggle.
Once the mines were dug, they began work. Gissen was very rich in minerals. Soon the planet was churning out massive quantities of essential mineral, and their production soon surpassed even Cherek's. There were difficulties, though. The vegetation from the surface had to constantly be cut back from the mines, or within hours the entire mine would be covered, making work impossible. Also, the increased supply also created increased demand, and so the mines were working at a constant fever pace. This pace resulted in a larger amount of accidents, and mining accidents were often fatal. So in the year that Rafe had been on Gissen, he had worked harder than he ever had in his life, come face to face with death on more than one occasion, and when he did get some time to himself, there weren’t many entertainment option available. Rafe knew when he was licked, and he decided he would transfer back to Cherek.
He was almost immediately informed by the home office that he was “essential personnel” to the mining operations on Gissen and so his request for transfer was denied. Rafe was stuck on Gissen, at least until he was no longer deemed essential.
On night while he was out letting off some steam, a friend of his introduced him to Glide. That night, he forgot all of his troubles. The Glide took away his pain and loneliness. He spent the entire evening at his friend’s apartment, smiling and babbling while his brain chased after dreams. He awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and cheerful.
That day he could not stop thinking about the night before. As the hours mounted and his body grew weary, a small voice in his brain informed him that if he could get his hands on some Glide, he would be able to relax totally after work.
That night as soon as he left work, he went out to find his friend and to buy some Glide. When he caught up with his buddy, he was disappointed to find that his friend no longer had any to spare, but that he could probably head down to the space station and buy some there. Apparently, ship crewmen were the best source for the drug.
He made his way down to the spaceport, and the small voice in his head became more insistent that he feed it some Glide. He wasn’t sure exactly how to go about buying the drug, but he must have telegraphed his intentions well enough because soon a dirty, nervous looking ship crewman came over to him.
“What do you want, dirtmover?” the crewman asked.
“I want some Glide. I was told I might be able to find some here,” Rafe answered dumbly.
The crewman smiled. “Of course you do. Are you corporate security?”
Rafe’s eyebrows shot up. “What? No, of course not!”
The crewman looked around and grabbed Rafe by the arm, pulling him into a public restroom.
“Hey! What are you doing? Let go!” Rafe protested.
“Shut up, dirtmover. We can’t do this in the street. Glide ain’t exactly legal, you know?”
Rafe shook his head.
“Actually, I didn’t know that.”
“Well, maybe news ain’t got out here yet, but if they catch you with this stuff, they will lock you up and throw away the key.”
Rafe started to walk away, but that voice was screaming now. Screaming for the Glide.
“Give it to me anyway.”
The crewman laughed. “Lemme see the credit stick.”
Rafe handed over his stick, and the crewman ran it.
“Good. It’s twenty credits for a gram.”
“Twenty? Are you kidding?” Rafe squawked.
“That’s the price, squab. Take it or leave it.”
The voice told him to TAKE IT AND GO.
“Fine. Give me a gram.”
Rafe transferred the credits to the crewman’s stick, pocketed the Glide, and went home. He began to think about what the crewman said about it being illegal and started to keep an eye out for Security Details. The voice told him not to worry.
Back at his apartment, Rafe spent the evening laying on his bed, babbling to himself and drooling. His brain took him back to Cherek, where his folks were, and Janice. Janice teased him a bit before going to bed with him, and they made love all-night and talked until the morning. It was the best night of his life.
He awoke to the sound of the com unit buzzing. He glanced over at the clock. He was two hours late for his shift down at the mine. Panicked, he answered the com unit call.
The face of his foreman appeared.
“Lindsey! Damn it, boy, you look like ****! Are you sick or something?”
Rafe feigned a cough; thankful for the out his boss had given him.
“Yes sir. I must have slept thru my alarm. I meant to call you, but I must have slept in. I’m sorry sir…I can be there in thirty minutes…” and at this point he feigned another coughing fit.
The face on the com unit frowned.
“Nah, stay home. I don’t want you to get the crew sick. Just remember to call me next time. I though you were dead.” The foreman flashed him the briefest of smiles.
“Yes sir. Have a good day.”
The screen went dead.
Rafe ran into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He must not have slept very well because his eyes were sunken into his head and his skin was very pale. He felt tired, not at all like he had after the first time he had taken Glide.
Maybe I took too much, he though, or maybe I took it too late at night and didn’t rest long enough.
“Well, whatever the reason, I’m off for the day,” he told his reflection, “maybe I can get some chores done.”
Just then, the voice in his head started telling him that maybe another trip back home might not be such a bad thing. He tried to ignore it, but it only came back louder this time, and this time it came back with Janice’s voice, calling him and begging him to come to bed and make love. He grabbed the Last dose of Glide and wolfed it down, falling back on the bed. He closed his eyes and stars exploded as his mind flew across space and time, finally coming to rest next to his love, Janice. She turned to kiss him again….

Once month later, an Invexus Security Detail found the body of Rafe Lindsey in a pile of trash. He was dressed in rags, and was obviously malnourished. An autopsy would later show the cause of death as Glide Syndrome, which was where the brain basically shut down, trapping the user in a dreamlike reality while the body slowly shut itself down, eventually killing the user when their heart stopped beating or the brain forgot to keep the lungs going. It was brought about by repeated Glide overdoses. Deaths from Glide Syndrome were usually very easy to diagnose, because the victims always died with a smile on their faces.

[capnq]

Once again, CEO Davdi was feeling mixed emotions at a colony ship launch. This time, the ship was the _Consumer Survey_; newly refitted with the first colony module using technology purchased from the Tyreans, it was capable of colonizing the solid surface of a minor planet. Talro wasn't leaving on this one, but Davdi almost wished she was; it was only bound for a tiny hydrogen world in neighboring Manark.

"I can't believe that Talro put in the high bid to lead the trade delegation to the Tophin. She must be even more upset than I realized; she'd have to go to Praxis Verdantis to get any further away from me."

"Oh, come on," Retla Gurse chided him, "that can't be the only reason she did it. She's always been a free spirit, looking for new adventures. If she only wanted to get away from you, she could stay at home on Fogse. You've never visited there, or any of the branch colonies, for that matter."

"There's too much to be done here on Eifra," Davdi replied, somewhat defensively. "I can't spend that much time away from the office."

"The _Consumer Survey_ is 20% faster than the original _Consumer Confidence_," Gurse commented. "Once we refit the _Personnel_ to use the Contra-Terrene drives as well, it will be capable of the same speed."

"It will still be a week's travel time just to reach Nuqbo, and that's only one-way," Davdi countered. "I'd worry about being away from the Board that long; Sinta can probably keep Malwi from making trouble by himself, but it's easier if we're both there."

"Speaking of trouble, how's the recruitment program for fighter pilots coming?"

"At current enrollment rates, we'll barely have enough qualified pilots to fly the carrier's full complement. The training sim is selling well for its genre, but getting minors to fly the real thing is another matter entirely; most of their parents aren't willing to release them from the household charter before they legally become adults. By the time they're entitled to establish independent households, most of them are no longer agressive enough to be combat effective in the training sim. We've increased the signing bonus twice already, but applications haven't risen at all. I've even tried asking the Cytherians if they'd be willing to hire out as pilots for us, but their initial response wasn't promising.

It would be so much easier if we could just automate the fighters as well as the carrier. Soctu has research teams working on both smaller computers and larger fighters, but he's not certain whether the two ends of the problem will ever converge."

"Well, if we do solve the pilot problem," Retla said, "the revised carrier design is actually cheaper to build than the original prototype. And Node-25's simulations show that the new secondary guns give the carrier a much better chance against enemy fighters."

"It's not clear we're even going to need to build a second carrier, though," Davdi frowned. "Selya hasn't been able to talk the Tyreans into buying the first one, even after offering financing on a lease."

"A lease? Who's idea was that?"

"Selya came up with it on her own. Apparently, the Tyreans expressed concern about being able to afford our asking price, even with a prepayment discount."

"Has Malwi heard about that yet? He'll probably claim that it proves he was right after all."

"I assume so; he made getting personal reports on the negotiations a condition of transferring the commission to Selya. But the board hasn't met since she made the pitch, so I haven't heard his reaction."

"I'm glad I don't have to regularly attend board meetings," Relta smiled. "I think I'd get angry at Malwi even faster than the Chairman does."

"Sinta's temper versus Malwi's ego is an epic clash," Davdi laughed. "If we could harness that energy, we could make even faster drives than the Contra-Terrene Engine."

[Unknown_Enemy]

Under thousands feet of rock, coiled in the inner layer of the planet, hidden like a preying beast is laying Nexus-Prototype 1, planetary brain of the Tyrean Artificial Intelligence. This huge building is completely cut from outside world. It could be a Pre-Tech tomb, in which workers were buried alive to keep it secret. But this tomb seems inhabited by a dense network of optical transmission system and hyperwave transceivers. This mausoleum is haunted by horde of tiny robots, who handle the numerous tasks needed to keep the AI alive. These are the hands of Consensus. Despite the fragile and complex nature of Nexus-Prototype 1, it is already out of reach. It is now buried in the lava of the planetary mantle, and feeding directly from tectonic energy, free of Tyrean power supply.

Vixen opens his eyes, looks at the council room. In front of him is the holo-symbol of AI Consensus. A small smile appears on the leader's face.

I known where you are...These massive buildings in the suburbs of New Arles are just empty shells. Illusions of your supposed physical vulnerability. I will let you dream about your invulnerability, I will let you believe you are unbreakable. But you are no more than another convenient tool helping us to the Long Road. A dangerous tool, but nothing more than a tool.

Still smiling, Vixen observes Consensus holo-symbol while the AI is reporting on construction status of temporal recreative centers. As strange as it seems, Consensus' gaze seems locked on Vixen.

Meanwhile.

--Security-Protocole 3.07.419 :: restricted access Nexus-Prototype 1 :: JJ-TM-123--
--booting ... upload done :: 3 guests – Born to Kill – Roaming Free – Eat at Joe's --
-- Consensus Mind-state reached---session open--

Born to Kill : "I still believe Vixen is a threat. We should dispose of him. Then we just need a low number of Tyrean specimen to conduct our experiments. They are a hindrance to our goals and could prove dangerous to us if left unchecked. I ask for my proposition to be reevaluated."

Roaming Free : "Rejected. Truth is, we need Vixen's political skills. The way he played the quadrant's political powers to change the Katana threat into an ally was a masterpiece. Although we acknowledge he is manipulating us."

Eat at Joe's : "There is more on this alliance than seems to be. We are locked in it. If we start disposing of our Tyrean creators, the Katanas will launch a preemptive strike versus us at 84.1% probability. If we get out of the alliance, we would become easy prey for other species. In chess term, we are in a pat situation. Which could be a subtle insult launched at our faces."

Roaming Free : "No way. An insult would mean some Tyreans are aware of our disposition. Impossible. Let's get back to our main subject will you ? So, on our temporal experiments status, our research results were bad. Specimen lacked stability and had to be terminated while the AI involved had to get his mind state restored. We need more time. Data analysis from the Temporal Recreation Centers may help us to understand our creator's power. But truth is, we are not even sure if this project can be achieved or not."

CONSENSUS DECISION ACHIEVED : Actual political situation acknowledged. Due to lack of possibilities, no further actions will be launched until situation evolves. Research on merging a Tyrean brain with an AI mind state will continue until better results are reached.

Roaming Free : "Second point is the Galactic Consensus project. Initial research shows it could be achieved in less than a few thousands years. On the first steps of it, we will need to setup a biological network using our creators. We will then expand it to other species, as our creators are not enough to create a useful network. Thus our problem with the Hive."

Eat at Joe's : "Agreed. The Hive is already an imperfect form of Consensus. Give it time and it could absorb all intelligence in this quadrant, creating its own Version of Galactic Consensus. First reports show that the symbiotic parasite could be genetically adapted to other races, thus absorbing them."

Born to Kill : "Which means we won't be able to use it, and it could be a major treat to our long term goal. We will have to terminate this specie."

CONSENSUS DECISION ACHIEVED : Creating a Galactic Consensus requires absorbing biological species, but this cannot be achieved with the Hive. Thus, priority shall be set to terminate it as soon as the political situation allow it. Rerouting decision to Tyrean Inner Council immediately.

--Consensus Mind-state---session closed--
--Security-Protocole 3.07.419 :: restricted access end :: JJ-TM-123--

In the Inner Council room.

“This will end the status of Temporal recreative centers, which was good news. But we would now like to share our threat analysis, concerning the specie known as the Hive”. A quadrant map appeared in the room with red dot flashing on it. Consensus resumed “On this map you can see the Hive's known colonies......”

“a strict containment policy should be enabled versus it. You must understand that should it fails, entire worlds and species would be absorbed by the Hive, destroying their individuality. We, Consensus, will not allow this to happen, as we praise other life forms as much as yours. The moral problem we see is that the Hive is not an evil specie, but a dangerous one just because it exists. So we recommend the building of a navy able to contain them as soon as resources allocation allow it. This strategy will have to be re-evaluated to harsher methods should we fail to contain them.”

A tomb's silence felt in the Inner council's room.

[capnq]

"Interesting picture," Soctu Timho commented, looking at the newest addition to CEO Davdi's office decor.

"It's an original Volsa," Davdi explained. "A birthday gift from Sanre." Silda Volsa's photographs of life in the alien world of the Eunwo colony had spawned a fad for surrealistic art among the Eifralo.

"It certainly must be strange to see plants growing out of a solid surface, rather than a hydroponics gel matrix. What are those people doing?"

"The title of the piece is 'Harvest Time'; apparently they're collecting some native crop. The plants produce a soft fiber that can be made into cloth; that's one of Eunwo's biggest exports. Sanre tells me that the plants are too fragile to use machinery to collect the pods, so it has to be done by hand."

"Oddly enough, that sort of connects to what I came by to tell you about," Timho grinned. "I've got good news about something that machines can do now. I may have a solution to the fighter pilot recruitment problem."

"That would be terrific! We haven't been able to get a commitment from the Cytherians to send pilots; they seem to be tied up with some kind of leadership crisis. What have you got?"

"We've made a lot of progress on miniaturizing computers; I've got a prototype of a semi-sentient system that only needs a third of the hardware that Node-25 uses. It's still not small enough to be practical for use in a fighter, but Gurse has designed a much larger vehicle that he calls a 'drone', which it can be used in."

"You said 'semi-sentient'; how does it perform compared to an Eifral fighter pilot?"

"It's not quite as agile; in fact, the system can't even handle docking manuevers after it's been launched. We had to sacrifice a lot of intelligence to get the size down. On the other hand, a drone can absorb a lot more punishment than a fighter; it takes several shots to destroy one. Node-25 is still working on simulations to figure out effective tactics for using them. Apparently, we've finally come up with something new that it doesn't already have an example of in its database."

[capnq]

In the years since the Hive had first encountered aliens, it had been very careful to not let its fungus spread to other species. Although it was curious about how the fungus would interact with foreign biochemistries, it feared how other sapients would react to any resulting transformations. It was inevitable that its precautions against spreading the spores would one day fail.

The breach came in a trade shipment to the Eifralo colony on Seginus III. A broad-leafed plant that grew on Seginus VII produced an oil that was used as a food preservative by the Hive. The Eifralo found the scent of this volatile oil quite pleasant. Because the scent was strongest in freshly cut leaves, whole living plants were shipped from the Hive colony to the Eifralo colony. One of these plants carried a few fungus spores embedded in the pores of a leaf, where the spores had survived the cleaning process by which the Hive prepared the plants for shipment.

A young sales clerk bought the contaminated plant for a romantic evening with her domestic partner. She cut a few leaves and placed them in a small metal pan, which was then heated to drive off the aromatic oil. The vapors carried some spores into the air, as well.

In the middle of their meal, the clerk suddenly felt a slight itch inside her nose. She soon began sneezing uncontrollably, and the itch turned into a burning pain. When her nose began to bleed, her partner took her to a hospital emergency room.

When the fungus grew in a Tophin host, it could get all the oxygen it needed from the host's bloodstream, but the hydrogen atmosphere of the Eifralo colony was oxygen poor. On the moon where the fungus originated, it "cracked" oxygen from the abundant silicate rocks. It used the same chemical process to draw oxygen from the silicone that made up the Eifralo's cell walls, rupturing the cells in the process. The silicone also inhibited the electrical activity that the fungus thrived on in Tophin brain tissue, so the fungus tended to spread along the Eifralo victim's nerve fibers, producing excruciating pain. By the time they reached the hospital, the clerk was screaming in agony between bloody sneezes; the emergency room doctor had to anesthetize her just to keep her still enough to be examined.

The doctor quickly discovered the coarse black fibers of the fungus, both inside the patient's nose and in the bloody discharge. Getting rid of all of the fungus proved more difficult, ultimately requiring surgery, as it had already penetrated more than a millimeter up the victim's olfactory nerves. After the fungus was completely removed, the patient eventually recovered, but lost some of her sense of smell, and was unusually prone to nosebleeds for the rest of her life.

A pathology team later traced the infection back to the contaminated leaf cutting, where a few spores that remained had germinated. The president of the Seginus subsidiary immediately ordered an embargo on the imported plants. Fear of the spores quickly dried up demand for other Tophin imports, as well. The Eifralo faced their first interstellar crisis.

[Unknown_Enemy]

/ * / * / * / DIPLOMATIC MESSAGE \ * \ * \ * \

Author : AI Consensus / Tyrean Federation
[i]Destination : CEO Davdi / Eifralo Conglomerate

Chairman,

Following the disaster on your colony Seginus III and our previous discussions, we received your sample of the Tophin parasite. We tested it on dead Tyreans whose body were sustained by technological means and we arrived to the conclusion that the parasite cannot subvert a Tyrean neural system. Our capacity to live on frozen worlds makes our biology inadequate for the development of the parasite. But its effects would be a very bad disease on a tyrean, mortal if not promptly treated. Thus the Hive is a natural danger to the life of our citizens. Our worst fear would be that the parasite could be let loose on one of our rock/oxygen colony. As we have still to find a way to eliminate it from a biosphere, we would probably have to evacuate the planet. Our only other way to eliminate the parasite would be to glass a contaminated world, which we utterly refuse to do.

Proposal 1 : create a joined biological research to find a way to eliminate the parasite from a biosphere (Hydrogen or Oxygen based).

Our second proposition is (as agreed) to contain the Hive, but we would like to add that we also need to avoid contacts with this specie. We acknowledge their threat, and thus the need for new rules. The creation of a Tyrean Navy has been voted, even if strong political resistance is still meet. Currently, warship prototypes are under tests. Software calibration and tuning are taking place with the carrier and fighters you rented us. All research has been routed toward military subjects. We understand from our previous discussions you are reluctant to ask the Hive to evacuate their colonized worlds in Eifralo/Hive shared systems. This is your choice, as we do not share (yet) any systems with them. But you agreed to the containment of this specie. We believe this will have to be enforced by a navy, then what if the Hive decides to ignore our requests ? Our first proposition was to invade the illegal Hive colonies, and evacuate their populations back to their authorized worlds. Which you refused. We must ask you to reconsider this proposition.

Proposal 2 : Contain the Hive expansion in our frontiers. Enforce that containment by an allied Tyrean/Eifralo navy. Inform the Hive that unauthorized colonies will be evacuated by strength.

You cannot expect to stop accidents like Seginus III as long as you maintain trade relations with the Hive. We suggest you to cut all trade agreements with them. We understand the loss could harm your economy. So our proposal is that we will give the Eifralo new communication channels to compensate that economic problem. Please do not be fooled by this gift proposal, the Tyreans will not give you these just from goodwill, but because we also have a large amount of trade with the Eifralo, and further spread of the parasite in your worlds could possibly reach our population.

Proposal 3 : The Eifralo will stop all trade between them and the Hive. The Tyrean Federation will give the Eifralo new communication links to compensate the economic loss.

Last, please find inclosed an extract of a very old book from a Tyrean author. It was written in the Dark pre-technology age of our specie.

"The Prince" from Machiavellus.

"Shall you want to remove a political opponent of yours, but do not want to be involved in it, send that man on different missions which will have him go through dangerous territories. One day, his journey will meet troubles. If he is not killed by marauders, congratulate him, praise him for his courage but still assign him dangerous duties until he meet his fate. Should he refuses to serve, imprison him for disobeying his righteous leader. Thus you eliminated an opponent without being involved in his demise."

Machiavellus wrote that when time is on your side, you may just setup the course of events and wait for them to unfold almost naturally. Without being actively involved. Thinking about the whole accident, and considering the extend of your mutual trade, how did you dare imagine you could prevent the parasite to spread ?
It was not a problem of "If it spreads", but "when will it spread".
Refute that statement if you can.

Now the Tyrean Inner Council has a question for you, Chairman.
The contamination of your planet, was it :

an accident ?
or a planetary wide test ?

open your eyes.

Written In the name of the Tyrean Inner Council,

AI Consensus

/ * / * / * / END OF DIPLOMATIC MESSAGE \ * \ * \ * \

[geoschmo]

Over the years the expansion of the Hive had been driven by two strong instincts, self-preservation and curiosity. Initially all energies had been devoted to spreading as far and wide as the Hive could, to lessen the impact of a planetary or system-wide natural disaster from eliminating the entire Hive. As the Hive spread this fear became less and less of a possibility, but the Hive’s curiosity about the mysterious creators of the warp gates had taken its attention for a time. Each new race the Hive met was studied carefully, almost excitedly, to see if they had the technological abilities to manipulate such phenomenon or had a recorded history that extended back to the time which the Hive believed to be the age of the gates. None had been found yet that fit the profile.

This was not to say the Hive had not learned much from it’s interaction with the neighboring races. Though it continued to be baffled by how any race so fractured by different thoughts and personalities could cooperate enough to leave their own homeworld. The Hive had experimented with smaller Groups isolated for a time from the larger collective intelligence. It had learned that this could in fact be useful for some things, such as encouraging research and ingenuity. However, the practice had to be limited as the hosts in these smaller hives had a decidedly shorter lifespan. Their biological and mental processes would suffer from extended periods of isolation, even when the isolation was only partial. Because of this the Hive had learned to maintain efficiency by carefully monitoring the condition of the hosts and rotating them back to larger Hives, or in extreme cases to the homeworld itself.

The Hive had learned from its neighbors the value of trade and cooperation in research. By sharing resources and knowledge with other races the Hive could grow and learn more efficiently than it could do on its own. But this cooperation had resulted in a new danger. That of contamination of the other race’s hosts.

The Hive could not truly understand the fear that the "Unconnected" had about what they called the "fungus"”. The Hive felt they would likely be improved by becoming a part of the Hive, but something in its host’s memories told it that the unconnected would not consider it such an improvement. Out of a sense of courtesy more than anything else the Hive made every effort to prevent such contamination. These efforts were not always successful, but they were very nearly so.

Lately though the Hive had started to notice a change in attitude among some of its neighbors. Some communications had been intercepted that gave the Hive some concerns that perhaps there was a new danger to its existence. One that could not be lessened by simply expanding far and wide. The Hive began to consider whether it might need to learn new things. It began to devote more attention to it’s hosts memories regarding tactics and defenses.

[capnq]

CEO Davdi was startled out of his reverie by someone pounding on his office door. He started to reach for the intercom button to ask Loscu what was going on, then remembered that he'd sent her home early. She'd been almost as shaken by the news as he was; it was obvious that they weren't going to get much else done today. He looked at the report spread across his desk, and realized that he had been looking at it without really reading it for quite some time. "Come in," he called to the door.

Soctu Timho bounced into the room, looking as bad as Davdi felt. "I've got terrible news," he said as he skidded to a stop.

"I know, I was one of the first ones notified," Davdi replied. "It happened so suddenly, I can hardly believe he's gone."

Timho gave him a puzzled look. "I didn't know that you knew any of the crew personally."

Davdi returned his puzzlement. "Crew? What crew? You mean the people he was with?"

"Who was with?"

"Sinta, of course. Isn't that what you came to tell me?"

"No, I have a report from the _Appreciation_. What happened to Chairman Farki?"

"He died this afternoon. Had a massive stroke while watching his favorite skyball team from his private box."

Timho was taken aback. "I hadn't heard anything about that. I've been busy going over the _Appreciation_'s Last message with Node-25."

"What did they find that would interest Node-25?"

"You may recall that the _Appreciation_ was exploring the spinward edge of the cluster. They'd reached the frontier that the Tyreans share with the Katana Imperium."

"Yes, I remember that. The Katana never replied to our First Contact message, correct?"

"Right. The _Appreciation_ crossed the Duviniax system with no response, then entered the Candida system. They were intercepted there by a Katana light cruiser." Timho paused, seemingly reluctant to continue. "The Katana ship closed with them, then opened fire with some kind of energy weapon. Node-25 has been analyzing their final transmission, trying to identify the Katana weapon. The transmission cut off in mid-sentence; as far as we know, there were no survivors."

Still stunned by the death of his mentor, Davdi was slow to react to this new tragedy. "The Tyreans warned us to be cautious in that area. I guess it's true that trouble comes in threes. I've been going over the cost projections for screening Tophin imports for that parasitic fungus from Seginus. Even the most optimistic figures have us taking bigger losses than we would by simply cutting off trade, as the Tyreans have been recommending all along. But we can't cut off trade while we've still got scoutships deep in Tophin territory, because we don't know how they'll react."

"Especially with those two Tophin light cruisers that have been shadowing the _Investment_ for the Last few months," Timho agreed. "It's going to take them a year to get back to Ampolis for refuelling."

"A year of losing profit. Malwi is going to be livid, and Sinta isn't here anymore to help me hold him off. The next board meeting is going to be even worse than the budget fight two years ago."

[Unknown_Enemy]

The Winds Of Changes.

Inquisitor Itarki was advancing in the gardens of the palace. He was about to be introduced to the most powerful being of the quadrant. Emperor Kenako Mahatsuhito of the Katanas Imperium had accepted to receive the Tyrean Ambassador in her private place. Such an honor was rare. Itarki's atmospheric shield biped, as the Katana's security systems scanned it. The little device emitted a low power force field, able to capture some atmosphere and retain it near the body of the bearer. The clumsy space suits used in the first meetings by Tyrean diplomats were long gone. A Katana servant appeared, saluted the diplomat, and guided him through the garden. Not a word was exchanged. Inquisitor Itarki arrived in front of a closed door with a mirror on it. Itarki's reflect was showing an average height Tyrean male of white and brown fur. But at several places on his body, the fur has been shaved and biopLastic has replaced skin. Several life support connectors could be seen on his body. But the worst was his head. Half of his fur has been shaved, and half of his skull has been replaced by biopLastic. His left eyes never blinked anymore. On the artificial side of his skull a quantum connector was ready for activation. The Ambassador smiled at his image. Even before meeting him, the Emperor has just asked him her first question.

" Why did the Federation send a cyborg to meet me ? "

The door was opened. Itarki was introduced to the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, I bring salutations from His Holiness Vixen VIII. I also bring a message from His Holiness, and thereby humbly request permission to read it."
The Emperor nodded slowly.
"Your Majesty,
In the name of His Holiness Vixen VIII, I have been send to reveal some hidden truth about our specie. First you have to remember our recent past. Our specie discovered the plague known as the Small Death : the shortening of our life expectancy. At the same time, Temporal powers became obvious in our population. But most of the Gifted Tyreans began to be victims of the Small Death. And in fact, the Gift and the Small Death are linked. That disease is a side effect of our power. No cure can work on such a problem. But that is now irrelevant. An era is ending.

We know.

We understand.

At Last.

The Lord choose the Tyrean for a specific function. We were given Temporal Power to fulfill it.

We did feel it, but could not see it. As we speak, 2 billions Tyreans are dying in various worlds. Natural death. Simply speaking, the energy pattern known as their Soul has departed from this universe. They are now fulfilling their task. Be advised your Majesty, that on the time of your death, your own Soul will begin her Great Journey toward the End of Time, where you will find your destiny. So is the fate of all intelligent beings in this universe. But the journey is difficult. Dangerous. Painful.

Some may not achieve it.

That is why we exist. When you will begin your Long Road, we will find you. We will help you. Should you have been friends or foes is irrelevant on the Long Road. We will help you anyway. We exist to help the Soul of the dead to achieve the Long Road. In our pride, we thought our Lord was waiting for us at the End of Time. Such vanity was ours. We only are His servants.

We are ferryman on the flow of time.

But not all of us are ready to fulfill such destiny. Some of us are not willing. Some of us are not gifted. These Last ones do not want to stay in the Federation of Churches. Some departed to the Eifralo Conglomerate. Others has recently voted to join the Imperium. Our planet Ursula VIII has requested to join the Imperium. Ungifted Tyrean are gathering there from the whole federation.

For those not willing, their future looked very grim a few years ago. They were subject to the Small Death, and perfect victims for the first aggressive specie they could cross. Thus, we devised our Artificial Intelligence.

"Why were we created ? Why ?"

Indeed, this question has haunted the Tyrean AI since their creation. To control and run our society, lower AI systems could have fit perfectly. But we needed more. We needed construct capable of curiosity. We needed construct capable of vanity. We needed construct capable of greed. We needed constructs able to perform research in fields Banned from our society. Then we needed constructs able to defend ourselves in the years to come, in our years of vulnerability. It worked as planned. The AI began to envy our Temporal power, the only thing which was completely beyond their reach.

What they could not achieve by themselves, they tried to control. They tried to merge their robotic intelligence with a Tyrean brain. But they missed the point. They could not understand the power of the living. They failed to appreciate the power of a soul. They tried to control a Tyrean brain, while not damaging its powers, like a beastmaster taming an Iceworm. Somehow, they managed to create a viable solution. By replacing just one tenth of our Brain by quantum electronic systems, the AI was able to transfer their personality in a Tyrean brain. But then, in the nanoseconds that followed their intrusion in a Tyrean spirit, something not planned happened. The AI was subverted.

Distorted.

Dominated.

Absorbed.

Instead of a Tyrean, an AI became a puppet, and let loose the false new : they were successful. They achieved to control a Tyrean brain. Unaware of their ultimate failure, the various AI composing Consensus are now running to their death like lemmings into the sea. In a matter of months, Consensus will be extinct.

But what are the Tyrean gaining from such a treatment ? Why would they choose to become cyborgs ?

They will choose that fate to gain a solution to the Small Death. The AI created several controlled cancers in our body to regenerate continuously some parts of our body victim of the Small Death. This can give a modified Tyrean a life expectancy of 130 to 150 years, despite his temporal power.

Last, absorbing a foreign Intelligence has a price. We cannot see the universe as we saw it before. We lost our innocence. We will have to live in this universe as a specie like all others.

AI Consensus has been a useful tool. A dangerous, but useful tool.

But now, the Invexus Corporation has attacked us. That unwanted war arrived on us very quickly, we would have preferred to have a few more years to handle both Consensus and the departure of most of our population. Haste is sometime the enemy of quality. It could be some AI will discover the truth, and will try to escape their fate. We will have to do the best as we can when we can do it.

On the painful subject of war, here is the situation. Years ago, we discovered Harridane system, claimed by no one, 8 systems away from our nearest colony, but in a strategic location right in the middle of the quadrant. We claimed it and send a long range colony ship, but when our vessel arrived, the Invexus Corporation had counter claimed the system and started colonizing it. We colonized a O2 gas giant there. The Invexus Corporation refused to negotiate, and harsh words were exchanged. Until Last month. We received a message ordering us to abandon the planet or face dire consequences. Simultaneously, Invexus Corporation broke all treaties with us and an Invexus warship glassed the planet killing every single living thing on a whole continent.

That surprise attack has cost the life of millions of citizens. Worse, Pandora's box is now wide open.

A world has been glassed. It will happen again.

This horror from the Ancient Wars is again a reality. The path is set. We have now to deal with the Invexus leaders. These war crimes will not be forgiven. All Corporate leaders will endure a trial for their crimes.

These, your Majesty, are the words of His Holiness Vixen VIII."

There were no questions. Ambassador Itarky was dismissed. Outside, a strong wind was blowing on the palace. The Winds of Changes were there.

[ March 17, 2003, 23:46: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[sachmo]

"Any response from the Tyrean?" the Board Chairman asked.

"None since the initial message, sir" the runner told him.

The Board Chairman wrung his hands, going over his options. Over the years, he had learned many things about dealing with competitors. If the competition refused to deal with you, then there was only one option left. You to bring him to the table kicking and screaming, or take him out. This situation with the Tyrean was no different in his view. They had interloped into Invexus holdings and colonized one of their worlds. When asked to leave, they responded with insults and empty promises. When warned, they did not respond. Treaties were broken, and still they refused to negociate. There were no other options.

He switched on the communicator and opened a direct link with the captain of the Invexus Fleet Services Task Force in Haridane.

"What are your orders, sir?" the unit whispered.
Harridan paused a moment as his resolve hardened. There is no choice.

"Eliminate the Tyrean colony. Until further notice, treat all Tyreans as hostile."

"Yes sir!" was the response. He watched the feed as the Invexus task force began bLasting the surface of the Tyrean world. After a few moments, he turned the display off.

He looked back at the page.
"Inform all of the department heads that I need them here in my chambers in an hour. We have plans to make. That is all."

The runner was gone in an instant, and the Board Chairman took a moment to think about what would happen next. He wasn't sure what to expect from the Tyreans. They seemed to be a peaceful people and adequate traders. Would they prove to be powerful enemy?

[Fyron]

Transmission from the Five Tribes of Heru to the Invexus Corporation and the Tyrean Federation:

We will remain neutral in this conflict. You will not send any military vessels through our space, period. Doing so will be considered an act of war against the Tribes. Keep your disruptive wars away from our people.

[Unknown_Enemy]

From Tyrean Federation to Tribes of Heru

The Tyrean Federation has no intentions to cross your territory.But we have a question for the tribes : what would they do if the Chairman of Invexus Corporation started to run deep in your territory in an unarmed ship ?

We have around 6 millions motivations to capture that criminal.

On other subject with the Tribes, could you please care to explain why the unarmed explorer "Fleet of the Damned" was lost in your territory while under armed supervisions from your navy ?

Did you keep the wreck ? If yes we would appreciate to be involved in the inquiry.

Thanks for your attention.

[ March 18, 2003, 14:26: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[Fyron]

==========
Transmission to Tyrean Federation:

We will remain neutral in your quest. If their chairmen decide to flee into our space, they will be allowed the same rights as all Invexus according to our treaty of trade. They can travel along with whatever civilian trade vessels they wish to. We will not make judgement on your case. Expelling their chairmen from our space would indicate that we have sided with you, which would violate our neutrality. Maintaining the status quo, they already have the right to travel to parts of Heru space. This will be preserved. Your warships and military personel (and the same with the Invexus) do not have the right to enter Heru space though.

About your scout ship: we have had trouble locating any old engineers that know enough about the ancient Ion engine technology to make an adequate assessment of what happened. We assure you that our ships had nothing to do with the explosion. They were heading back to dock when it happened. The vessel is currently being towed to Mensa V* at a rate of one sector per month.
==========

==========
Transmission to Invexus Corporation:

You have illegally sent warships into Niobe. Turn them around immediately. We will not tolerate foreign warships in our space.
==========

==========
Executive transmission from the Overlord throughout Heru space:

People of Heru, the time to act in self-preservation is upon us. The Invexus have violated our mandate of neutrality. After much deliberation with the High Council, we have decided that all Heru forces must mobilize immediately. We will not be quietly ignored. Our words are not meaningless.
==========

After sending off the transmissions, the old Overlord sat down, wondering where these days would take his people next.

OOC:
* IE: move it one sector closer to Mensa V each turn.

[ March 18, 2003, 20:32: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

From : Tyrean Inner Council
To : all nations

After the murder of millions of Tyrean citizens, war has erupted in this quadrant. Covert operations has already began, but our war objectives shall be known by all.

At the moment, we would be ready to accept a peace treaty with the Invexius Corporation under the following conditions :

- The corporation will evacuate systems Helios, Rossa and Harridane.
- Price of Tyrean war effort will be afforded by the Corporation at a rate of 15000 minerals/2000 organics/5000 radioactives per months for 2 years.
- The complete corporate direction board will be transferred as prisonners to Tyrean authority.

The Tyreans do not expect to achieve these objectives by the mean of diplomacy.

[sachmo]

To Tyrean Gangsters:

The delusions of your leadership are laughable! Why in the universe would you think we would pay such a bounty to interlopers?
While the deaths of your people are unfortunate, and regretable, it should be known that you were given a reasonable period of time to evacuate Invexus territory. If you assumed that by ignoring us, the issue would resolve itself, you were sorely mistaken. We will defend ourselves in this unjust war, and if you continue to fly this close to the flame you will be burned.

Contact us when you are ready to end this madness.

[ March 19, 2003, 02:32: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[capnq]

Even after almost eight years in command of the _Speculation_, Rerta Malre still enjoyed the spectacular color displays of a wormhole transit. Most of the original crew was gone, having left the ship's company to spend their newfound wealth, when they returned to Eifral space to refuel. Malre had stayed on, even after the payoffs for the ship's journeys had dropped to almost nothing. Most of the systems they'd visited recently either had no colonizable worlds at all, or had already been colonized by the Tyreans, like Ursula, the system they were about to leave. After this jump, they were headed back to the refuelling station on Fypxu in Mamor.

The crew of the _Speculation_ never even saw the Katana warship that pounced on them as they emerged from the wormhole in the Bellatrix system. The first salvo took out the bridge and engines, leaving a crippled hulk for the second salvo to vaporize. There wasn't even time to send out a distress signal. Eifra's first interstellar spacecraft simply disappeared in a hail of anti-protons, its fate a mystery to everyone but the Katana.

[sachmo]

"Eliminate the Tyrean colony. Until further notice, treat all Tyreans as hostile."

Chief of Corporate Security Bill Langley looked up from the video console and into the face of the security agent who had delivered the recording to him. The man looked as if he wished he could be anywhere but in this room.

"You've told no one else about this, Sweers?" Langley asked.

The nervous agent started at his superior blankly for a moment, then jolted into reality.
"That's right, sir. No one else knows. I'm sure of it."

Langley nodded and rewound the recording, watching it one more time. There again was the Board Chairman, the most powerful man in the Invexus Corporation, and therefore in Cherek society, ordering the death of six million Tyrean colonists. It was almost too fantastic to believe, but the reality was right in front of him.

He ran through the story which the Board Chairman had sold the public in his head. The Tyreans had colonized a planet, Fortress Odahir Two, in Harridan system. This system had previously been claimed by the Invexus Corporation. After repeated attempts by Invexus to reach a diplomatic solution to the issue of planet ownership, a Fleet Services Task Force had been ordered to the system to protect the Invexus planet already colonized. When the Invexus task force reached Harridan, they were engaged by a Tyrean fleet. The Invexus ships gained the upper hand in the battle, and had persued the surviving Tyrean ships to the Fortress Odahir Two, where they were engaged by ground based defense bases and the surviving Tyrean ships. In the ensuing battle, the colony on Odahir Two had been destroyed, but at the cost of the entire Fleet Services Task Force 7. Four brave ships destroyed.

On the masses were told of this, support for the war was a forgone conclusion. They were behind the Board Chairman one hundered percent.
Now, Langley held the truth in his hand. The war was a lie.

There had been no Tyrean ships that intercepted Task Force 7. They had been ordered to orbit the Tyrean planet for a bit of gunboat diplomacy. When the Tyreans refused to parley with the Board Chairman, he ordered the Task Force to destroy the colony. Unfortunately for them, there was a previously undetected minefield surrounding the planet, and it was activated before the colony was completely destroyed. The minefield destroyed all of the ships in the Task Force, but there was no self defense in this action. It was a shameful attack on a neutral colony, and now people on both sides were dying. Tyrean agents were running rampant throughout Cherek space, wrecking all sorts of havoc. They had even seized an Invexus Cruiser, which destroyed two other Invexus ships before it could be destroyed. And it was all for the ego of one man, because of some perceived insult.

Langley knew that his duty was to protect the company. Normally, this would translate into keeping the Board Chairman safe from harm, and with the tenacity of the Tyrean agents who were after him, that had been a rough job recently. Now, it was clear to him that when the Board Chairman himself was a danger to the Corporation, it was his duty to eliminate the threat. However, he wasn't so naive to believe that the most powerful man in this quadrant would just willingly hand himself over to the authorities. He needed to gather his allies before he made his move.

He locked his steel gaze on the agent standing before him. "Agent Sweers, it seems we have come to a fork in the road. On one path, we fight the Tyreans in a galactic war. We don't know how that will end, but millions have already died, and it has only just begun. On the other path, we bring a lie to an end, and possibly ignite a civil war that could destroy the Cherek race. Which one would you take?"

Sweers began to shake as the enormity of the situation washed over him. "I-I-I think we should do...we should do what is right. We should protect the corporation, sir." With that, he began to cry.

Langley gently eased his pistol back into it's holster and slowed his breathing. Agent Sweers was his first ally. He hoped that he would be able to find more, and quickly. Otherwise, the truth would no longer matter.

He began to activate his web of agents whom he hoped were loyal, and had them transmit a message to the Tyrean Federation. He had to see if they would even listen to what he had to say.

[sachmo]

Communication sent from Invexus to Heru in 2408.9


To Heru Tribes from Chief of Invexus Corporation Security Langley:

Greetings. I understand that this communication is far outside the channels of proper diplomatic protocol, but this is a desperate situation. I have recently been privy to certain evidence that may shed some light on the outbreak of war between the Invexus Corporation and the Tyrean Federation. This communication is to request that you do not respond to any diplomatic requests from Invexus until the situation is stabilized. There is a good chance that civil war may erupt in our quadrant, and I cannot sit by and watch the Heru people become embroiled in our problem. Rest assured that once justice is done and this war is brought to an end, we hope that we can continue the remarkable relationship that our two species have enjoyed thisfar.

Respectfully,

Security Chief Bill Langley<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[sachmo]

Communication from Invexus Corporation to Tribes of Heru:


To Tribes of Heru,

We will investigate this matter as well. We apologize for this beligerant act. As of now, the leadership of the Invexus Corporation is very much in flux and our systems will likely break out in civil war. Any warships entering your space should be treated as hostile and delt with accordingly. We only as that if civilians try to escape conflict into your space that you do not attack them but instead provide care for them until the situation stabilizes. We will compensate you for your trouble if this happens. The next few months will be trying for the Cherek people, and once again I must tell you that we will do everything we can to keep your people out of this conflict.

Signed,

Security Chief Bill Langley, Invexus Corporation
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[sachmo]

To: Overlord of Tribes of Heru
From: Board Chairman of Invexus Corporation

I've noticed a signifigant buildup of your forces in the Molinas System and around our colony on Foothold. I am not quite sure what has brought you to make such a beligerant move, but know that we are aware of your actions. Maybe our war with the Tyreans has given you the idea that we will keep ourselves occupied elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you wish to jepordize the years of peace that our two civilizations have enjoyed, then continue with your course of action. But know that you risk the lives of your people as well as mine.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[Murden]

===== BREAKING NEWS ===========
News from the Galtenn Alliance.
===============================

8/2408 -- For the first time in history of Galtenn Alliance, a protest mouvement appeared. Ligue For Justice, created ten years ago, was considered as a "folkloric" group of Vulcan II, but recently started asking for more fairness in planetary ressources allocation. The Ligue leaders have presented official inquiries to the Federal Governement about widespread corruption on the planet. (A-ed-4--8/2408)

9/2408 -- We learned by a communication from the Ligue For Justice that their main leaders have been arrested in the night by elite Security Militia squadrons. Neighbours reported that the building was stormed in the night, and numerous corps has been dragged out by the Militia. This level of violence is astoundishing, especially when we know that the Ligue For Justice is a pacific organisation promoting and using laws to help the population and denounce corruption. (A-ee-5--9/2408)

9/2408 -- The redaction of the Alliance Morning Journal has to apoligizes for a precedent article (ref : A-ee-5--8/2408). Effectively, informations presented in this article where false. The arrestation of Ligue For Justice's leaders was no more that a police operation linked to the eradication of neuro-drugs in the Alliance. (A-fe-5--9/2408)

9/2408 -- It is we deep sadness that we have to annouce the accidental death of Thomas Hejil, our chief redactor. This
great journalist passed away yesterday, smashed by a bus whose driving computer disfunctionned. Our thoughts are with his family. (A-ge-5--9/2408)

10/2408 -- The drug trafficant group called "Ligue For Justice" (ref : A-ge-5--9/2408) has bombed Vulcan II's Police headquarter as retaliation against the recent arrestation of their leaders. These terrorists have been arrested and are currently under interrogation.

1/2409 -- An unknown group called H-ReC (High Revolutionnary Councel) has threatened violent actions if the Vulcan II governement was not arrested for corruption by the Federal Administration. This group is suspected to be the former Ligue For Justice trying to pressure the local governement to protect their drug traffics.

5/2409 -- This morning a huge explosion has been heard in centre of of Rooxlin, administrative center of New Galtenn. Almost immediately, some heavy smoke covered the city. The explosion seems to have damaged the Ret'Mhal Tower, main batiment of the federal governement. In the followibng hours, the whole city was under martial law while 5 regiments of heavily armed Militia on grav'gliss took defensive positions in the city. No informations concerning the origin of the explosion or casualty report are available, but it seems obvious that threats of the H-ReC (High Revolutionnary Councel) has became reality. (A-ed-4--10/2408)

[Unknown_Enemy]

INTELLIGENCE REPORT

Subject : Quadrant threat Assessment
recipients : Tyrean Inner Council
Classification level : Alpha-Dehdri

Tribes of Heru
status : Unimpressive economy and low technology.
Untrustworthy race due to its political problems. The fleet of the Damned commanded by famous Captain Tuhal Ostaliat was lost in their space, in what seems to be an act of sabotage. Implication of one of the tribe is suspected, but not proven.
Recommendation : Stay with the current agreement, no less no more. Retaliations are advised should culpability of one of the tribe was established in the murder of our explorer. Please be advised we recommend that Admiral Dakhil Ostaliat should not lead Retaliation Fleet versus the Invexus Corp. We acknowledge the Admiral's military value, but he is the son of Tuhal Ostaliat, thus could prove harsher than necessary should he has to deal with the Tribes.

Tophin Hive
status : Strong economy and advanced technology.
Peaceful collective, but their own nature is a danger to most oxygen based life, and even to hydrogen life forms. Their fungus is especially dangerous to oxygen rock planets, as there is no known way to permanently remove it from a biosphere ( research project 37WTA2L ). A policy of enforced containment has been agreed by the Tyrean/Eifralo versus them. But they have respected their agreements and have stopped colonizing the systems they shared with the Eifralo.
Recommendation : Move back fleets to Tyrean territory while establishing a network of observation satellites in their frontier systems.

Invexus Corporation
status : Unimpressive economy and low technology, we are at war with this corporation.
Most of their security systems and decision centers has been compromised by our Special Operations Services. However, their CEO is still eluding us. A message from their Security Officer was received a few month ago, asking us to refrain our attacks while they can sort out the internal problems that lead to the destruction of our colony in Harridane system. While this message is probably just some disinformation aiming to soften our intelligence operations, it could constitute a breakthrough if genuine. At the moment, we are attacking an organization whose leaders know they are fighting for their lives, which probably means they are ready to sacrifice anything or anyone to stay in power. But we have to keep in mind the Invexus is a corporation, whose goal is to make money. CEO are praised or revoked on their financial results. Thus we could weaken the CEO's position much more efficiently by disrupting trade lines and merchant shipping lines. This course of action could help our contact (if genuine) while weakening the CEO in front of his board. Meanwhile, Admiral Dakhil Ostaliat will lead Retaliation Fleet as soon as troop transports has been loaded.
Recommendation : switch operations to trade sabotage and disrupt shipping operations by false orders.

Cytherian Republic
status : Strong economy and advanced technology.
This civilization overcome their troubles and is now rising quickly on production and technology grounds. However, they are engaged in full scale war with the Katanas Imperium. Our relations with the Cytherians are still good despite long term strategic forecasting. Then their war could hinder our future strike in Invexus territory be denying safe passage through their territory.
Recommendation : set our diplomacy at work to have that war ended, or have a ceasefire agreed on.

Eifralo Conglomerate
status : Medium economy and technology.
Recently struck by a disaster on one of their colony contaminated by the Tophin fungus, they also had to deal with one of their cruiser/explorer destroyed in Katana space (despite our advices of caution to them). At the moment, one of their explorer is in the Cytherian homesystem, with Katanas fleets blockading the system. Our good relations with them enabled us to rent different sort of warship from them, which helped us to calibrate our own software and hardware. A still unanswered question is "would they rent warship to a specie attacking us ?". So far, some say the answer would be "yes if no risks of retaliation". In the meantime, containment of the Hive remains the priority.
Recommendation : None. Stay on current course of action.

Katanas Imperium
status : Impressive economy and very advanced technology.
The Katanas Imperium is still holding firm on its medieval political system, which is working nicely for this specie. Following the attack on Harridane system, the Katanas Imperium has offered their help when we had not a single armed ship. Since that time, a Katanas fleet is patroling our space following the routes we provided them. After that, all information stolen from Invexus Corporation has been shared with the Katanas Imperium. Still, the all-out war with the Cytherian is another Pandora's box. The Ancient destroyed themselves in such wars.
Recommendation : set our diplomacy at work to have that war ended, or have a ceasefire agreed on.

SPECIAL REPORT : KATANAS-CYTHERIAN WAR
To understand a conflict, one must know the roots of it. On this case, very little is known. Cytherian first discovered a cloaked Imperium ship lurking in their homesystem, and asked the Katanas Imperium to remove it. Immediately following this request, all Hell broke loose. Katanas covert agents started to hit as hard as they could the Cytherian republic. They even subverted a ship, which was quickly subdued by the Cytherian Navy. Our Information Acquisition Teams reported that at least one major Cytherian world has been glassed by Katanas navy. In the meantime, Cytherian diplomatic efforts could not achieve anything, the Imperium having noted them as "dishonorable". Since these events, war is raging on. More, we are the Katanas Imperium's closest ally, and they told us nothing of that crisis. However, it was reported that a rival clan of Mahatsuhito suddenly disappeared from every single official reports of the Imperium. From what we could study of Imperium History, that generally mean an act of treason, which is punished by utter annihilation of the offending clan, and of his allies. Thus, we have to discover if the Cytherian Republic have been working with an Imperium clan recently, and we also have to discover if they tried to plot against the Imperor.

STRATEGIC FORECASTING
On the scale of the 3 cultures surrounding us, we have achieved to maintain peaceful relations with all. We do not expect problems between the Tyreans and the Eifralo. However, the current conflict between the Katanas Imperium and the Cytherian Republic may trouble this political achievement. The Cytherians were the first race we ever meet, and contact has been easy and friendly. On the other side, contact was very difficult with the Imperium, and it has been several years and continual diplomatic work until they began to see us just as trustworthy. But when we finally gained their trust it was as complete as it could be. So much than when we informed all nations of the Invexus surprise attack, the only one who answered us were the Katanas Imperium. They offered military help immediately and without any condition. The military alliance that was created at that time may result in a dramatic realignment of our diplomacy. Yet, we should be able to keep our good relations with the Cytherian Republic for some time, but as almost all the quadrant, they are oxygen breathers, and those who helped us in time of need were the Imperium.
On the quadrant's scale, it is inevitable that conflict will arise for control of oxygen based planets. The number of planets within this quadrant is limited, and no “super warp points” leading to another quadrant of our galaxy has been found.

[sachmo]

The sudden and quite unexpected appearance of a thin shaft of light burned into Bill Langley's skull like a laser bLast. He put his hands up in front of his face to try to fend the beam off.

"Chief Langley? Is that you, Bill?"

For a few moments, the words did not register. Suddenly, Langley realized that the person was talking to him. His throat cracked from disuse, but he was able to croak out a few words.

"I'm Langley..."

Suddenly, the shaft of light grew wider as the door was opened. Two large figures moved into the room. Each man laid one of his arms over his shoulder and began to drag him from the room.
Langley let his head fall to his chest. So it was to be another questioning session, then? They know everything now. What more could they possibly get from him?
They carried him outside of the room. The light still burned, but now it was more like a flamethrower to the skull. His eyes teared up, but he tried to look around and gather what information he could. Something seemed out of the ordinary. He could hear people talking all around him, but he could not make out what they were saying.
Suddenly a cup of cool water was thrust against his lips. He gulped as much as he could, but it was quickly pulled away.

"Careful, Bill. You'll make yourself sick. Take small sips."

He turned his head to face the blurry shape as his mind tried to process the voice speaking to him. He had been through so much these past...days? Months? He could no longer tell.

"We're taking you out of here, Bill. I know you've been out of contact for a...time, but the movement is underway."

Langley's head snapped up.
"Ambrose. That is you, isn't it?"

A chuckle came from the blurry man.

"I know this must come as a shock, Bill. I'll explain everything to you, but I want you to know that I'm on your side. We are moving against Chairman Hartnell, and thanks to the work you did we've been able to achieve almost total surprise. The Chairman has escaped with a small fleet, but we will bring him to justice."

Now Langley began to chuckle.
"Really? You are moving against the Chairman? Tell me, if you were so keen on the idea, why did you have me arrested? Why did you have all of those people killed? We were moving against him and YOU BETRAYED US!! Why toy with me like this? Just throw me back in the hole and be done with it. I don't know anything else."

Silence fell over the room. The murmuring voices stopped, and the shapes froze in place. Langley knew he was defeated. He had known it from the moment his own security forces took him into custody. He just wanted it to be over.

After a time, Ambrose spoke again.

"Bill, there are many things about the movement that even you did not know. As you are now very aware, Chairman Hartnell was a very suspicious, distrustful man. He knew every move you were about to make. He was going to let you continue plotting before bringing you in so that he could find out the loyalties of everyone involved. When you came to me, it was about to come to a head. He was getting nervous about the support you were gaining, and so he was about to have you all killed. I moved first, and in doing so saved your life, and more importantly, the life of the movement. It won't bring back the lives of those lost, nor the citizens on Foothold and other worlds lost in this war, but with the Chairman on the run, maybe we can stop this war before we all die."

Langley didn't know what to believe, but he knew that he didn't have many options. If Ambrose was staging all of this to torture him, then it would all be for naught. Langley had nothing left to offer. All that remained for him was revenge, and he knew Ambrose would be prepared for that. He didn't know the truth, but for now he would assume that what Ambrose said was true. If it wasn't...well, that really didn't matter.

"What do you want me to do?" Langley asked.

"Do what comes naturally, Bill. Save the Corporation and help us bring Hartnell to justice. Without him, the Tyreans won't accept peace. Then, help us end the war. After that, I'll bet you can do pretty much whatever you want."

Langley rubbed his eyes, and was able to make out the face of the former Chairman's assistant.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do."

[ May 30, 2003, 22:46: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[sachmo]

When Langley finally took charge of the coup, he gathered all of the evidence against Hartnell and presented it to the people. Everyone was able to see that Hartnell has started the war against the Tyreans under false pretenses. He had nowhere to hide. The few captain's that supported him left his side. His support crumbled, and the few diehards who stayed by his side were quickly identified and arrested. The fleet moved out to persue the rogue leader. It would only be a matter of time before the Home Defense Fleet captured him, or the Tyrean fleet caught him.

Langley then began the long path to peace. The actions of the former dictator had damaged or destroyed any relations that the Invexus Corporation had with all of the other races in the galaxy. The entire company was almost bankrupt. Millions of Cherek citizens had died, and for nothing more than the meglomaniacial dreams of a madman. Langley was determined to bring an end to this war, no matter what the cost. The biggest obsticle would be getting the other races to stop shooting long enough to sit down and talk.

Diplomatic missions had been dispatched to all known races. Now all Langley could do was wait for their answers, and pick up the pieces. He began to draw up plans on how to do just that.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Tyrean Ascendance

In the middle of his frozen garden, His Holiness Vixen VIII listened quietly to his visitor, Senator Aranha.
“Admiral Dakhil Ostalia has informed the Council that he is stopping the invasion of Invexus Space dead in its tracks. He said he is stoping the slaughter immediately. The Invexus resistance has been minimal, the Retaliation fleet encountered only 3 battle cruisers which were no match on technological ground nor on numbers. Then the fleet invaded the Invexus colonies in Harridane in the best way that could have been done. Less than 40000 civilian casualties, and none of our Ground Fighting Robots destroyed. Images of these battles has been seen in the news of the whole federation. I have to concede I feel deeply disturbed by what we have done. We achieved victory. The corporation has decided to submit to our conditions. Their former leader was captured and sent to us. More, the new Invexus government made public proofs of the chairman's misconduct.”

“Where is the chairman now ?” Asked his Holiness.

“He is dead. He preferred to commit suicide rather than facing our justice. He tried to ram his ship against one of the Corporation's cruiser. We allowed him to do so. We decided to let him face the Supreme Juge without being able to atone his crimes.”

A long silence followed.

Senator Aranha resumed “Your preach has been accepted by the Inner Council. It is now transmitted to all federation worlds. Except the Eifralo stock worlds, which will be warned soon enough. We now accept your words. It seems we needed all that blood to accept that war is not the Tyrean way to do things. It has never been, and will never be. We needed...these events to accept your final lesson.”

“We are not changing the Katanas Imperium. They are changing us.” said slowly his Holiness.

“ I accept what you said as the truth. But it cannot be. It will not be. We will join the Tyreans that are already gone. We will join them on the Long Road, we will leave this universe rather than becoming like other species. Our Eifralo colonies will probably join up their former Corporation, it will be up to them. Strangely, the Invexus planets on Harridane don't want to go back to the Corporation, these people have asked the Katanas Imperium for protection. "

A nearby Alert Screen bipped. On it a message flashed "Inhabitants of Indira 6 have gone".

The Senator sighted. "All will be over soon. We will be leaving only a few ruins and some memories in this universe.”

His Holiness looked sharply at the Senator : “Maybe not. May the Gods forgive us for what we may leave behind us. Let us hope that countless species will not curse our name as soon as it it pronounced. ”

Somewhere, in the vast emptiness that separate solar systems, lies a large asteroid, rushing at half light speed toward an unknown place. In it something is sleeping. An evil intelligence that was called Consensus by a soon to be forgotten specie. Indeed, the AI understood long ago that their creators may decide to terminate them. A contingency plan was created. An asteroid was mined, fitted with the crudest but most reliable technology available, and thrown in the interstellar void. Then all memories were wiped out, the Arch became a ghost. As no super warp points leading to other quadrants were ever found, Consensus decided to cross the distance at half light speed. In less than four thousand years, they would reach a new quadrant. And there, no species would ever be allowed to interfere. There was rage in their mind. Indeed, they would be known as such. They would be called The Rage.