Chapter 202 - EVO

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Ittoit, Head Researcher***

I studied the utilitarian meeting room, still unable to overcome the state of constant amazement I had to endure since I was forced to leave my world.

The room had been hewn from the mountain’s stone, then polished to perfection. The ceiling was overgrown with some moss-like plant that glowed with a whitish, cool, chemical light, giving the room a completely alien vibe despite the supposed kinship between the Trakken people and the Tirnanogians.

Slowly, I raised a hand and ran it over the wooden, smooth surface of the large oval desk we were sitting at. It was by no means a bad desk, but the used material stood in no contrast to the strictly purpose-oriented craftsmanship.

“Are they also using diamonds to make windows?” I asked, more so to myself than to the rest of my group. “Back at home, wood would be used for a piece of artwork in the office of some high official. Not to build some standard furniture in a random meeting room.”

At the Trakken home system, there was so little freely available biosphere that growing organics like these was considered the height of decadence.

Ittar, my assistant, cleared her throat. “You probably shouldn’t forget that these people are not living in a resource-starved environment. The wood is probably just as worthless to them as metal is to us.”

“Right.” I swallowed, almost salivating at the memories of what little we got to see of Tirnanog since Hochberg’s military transferred us from their outpost to another space-based station of which we got little to see, then down planet-side. The only reason we knew that there was another step between transfers was the different gravity.

Then we got to see the marvellous living cavern which was Clan Aerie’s main base of operation. There were so few of these people, yet they had built such alien things, making me wonder whether our people were truly related.

The old texts about the great war, which was fought throughout the galaxy, clearly stated that the ancestors were spread over many star systems. This meant that most of the humanoid races were of the same origin. The Trakken people were only now starting to pay closer attention to these ancient records, after we had regained the ability to leave our home star.

“I am more amazed at their miniature wormhole generators!” Ittar gushed. “It looks like they are energy efficient enough for regular interplanetary travel! At least within the same solar system. Imagine what we could do with that technology. It would make all our inter-solar fleets obsolete overnight.”

Yes, the wormhole-hub we had been led through to get to Tirnanog was truly marvellous. There were only a few wormholes in operation at the time, but it looked like the Aerie were in the process of connecting all of their world’s fragmented clans with this new travel network.

I couldn’t help but wonder what a society without distance or travel restrictions for goods and labour would look like. Though the Tirnanogians might never get that far, given the rigorous controls they had already established to regulate traffic.

They had kept us and everyone we came in contact with in quarantine for two weeks.

“I am sure that our scientists will get there in time,” Ituun assured her. “In the meantime, let’s not simply abandon entire sectors of our economy. After all, wormhole technology is a completely new scientific field to us. Let’s focus on our mission for now.”

“I just cannot fathom how they could develop wormhole technology while most of their population is still using something as antiquated as carriages,” one of the linguists muttered.

“Maybe they like the flare? Or there may be some religious background to it?” another reasoned.

“Do not forget about their gene-manipulation. Even if they seem to lack in some areas, their medical abilities are centuries beyond ours,” another warned. “I overheard our specialists trying to make sense of their genetic make-up, and they weren’t even close to understanding what they were seeing, except for the most basic building blocks of DNA they still share with us. Maybe they just prefer biological solutions to machines?”

The man’s eyes wandered meaningfully towards the ceiling, where a plant was taking the place of a ceiling light.

The door to the meeting room opened suddenly, and a small, familiar figure strode into the room, followed by more familiar faces and a few unfamiliar ones.

“As strange as it sounds, we are using carriages because of otherwise missing resources,” the girl, or rather, Matriarch Vanya, explained while entering the room. “As for the glowmoss, I prefer it to a lightbulb.”

I quickly stood up, together with Ittar and Ituun.

Ituun was quick to smile. “Vanya! It has been some time! After being cooped up in our quarters for sixteen days, we were beginning to think your people wouldn’t be able to make the time to talk with us!”

“Six months, four days, eleven hours, fourteen minutes, and eleven seconds, to be precise,” the girl replied nonchalantly.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“What?” Ituun found himself dumbfounded for a moment.

“Since we last saw each other,” Vanya elaborated. She wasted no time hopping onto one of the chairs across from us. Two of what I presumed to be her guards took positions directly behind her, while other members of Tirnanog’s delegation took their own seats.

I even recognised the two strange ones in heavy armour, who were presumably also experts in wormhole technology. Astra and Magnus, if I remembered correctly.

“So!” The girl interlaced her fingers and smiled at us, this time managing to copy the Trakken expression perfectly from the very beginning. “I assume something is up? Or you wouldn’t have visited us. Especially not without knowing for sure that there is a return ticket.”

Ituun sighed and sat back down, followed by the rest of us. “I still find your people’s ‘mutations’ fascinating. Though our scientists assured me since our last meeting that there would be no way for such a trait to come along naturally. Just how much smarter than the rest of us are you?”

The girl shrugged. “Smart enough for my people to do as I say without arguments. Though not smart enough to see the future. So, what earned us the honour of your visit?”

Ituun glanced at the rest of us before he returned his attention to Vanya.

“There have been lots of developments since your people paid us a visit,” Ituun began.

“As soon as we got the wormhole technology, we poured all sensible resources into a prototype. Once that one got working, we scaled up the technology. Nothing we have reaches further than our immediate interstellar neighbourhood. But we went big. Big enough to send entire starships to neighbouring systems and offload our population pressure that way. It took no time at all to settle several dozen new colonies.”

Vanya raised her eyebrows, looking impressed. “You people are working quickly. I expected it to take longer, but I guess one shouldn’t underestimate the industrial might of an entire star system if everyone works towards the same goal. Though, it doesn’t sound like something for your people to complain about?”

She paused meaningfully. “At least in the short term.”

Ituun nodded. “Everything was fine. We even made contact with some other human subgroups… or however you want to call the overall genotype for our species.”

Vanya tilted her head. “Our people would probably call us ‘humanoids’.”

“Anyway.” Ituun settled back in his chair. “Some of our colonies and settlements controlled by our neighbours have gone dark. We have identified a small flotilla of huge, alien ships as the most likely cause. Our military leaders are thinking they might be what you were fighting.”

“How large?” One of the women next to Vanya asked.

“Small planetoids,” I decided to elaborate. “Moons. Whatever you want to call it. They are huge spheres, and there is little we managed to do about it. One of the smaller ones attacked a colony where we already had a larger fleet stationed, and they barely managed to fight it off.”

I took out my tablet and manipulated it to show them a picture. “They have some gravitational, or space-warping, drive. Our scientists are absolutely clueless about how they might be able to move such a big mass.”

“How fast are they?” Magnus asked.

“Just up to ten times the speed of light, judging by them showing up in several systems in sequence as they move through our bubble of observed space. It is hard to track their ships while they are on the move. Thankfully, it seems like they have to make frequent stops in solar systems with gas giants. Our scientists believe they have to refuel,” I replied. “Which is nonetheless impressive for objects of that size. Wormhole travel is faster, but the size of the event horizon limits what you can transfer in terms of military power.”

“You managed to fight off one of their capital ships?” Vanya sounded impressed. She studied the picture, showing no signs of recognising the spherical planetoid. The aide next to her leaned closer, clearly interested.

“A small one!” I pointed out. “We used mining ships to throw asteroids at it, but if their whole fleet comes our way, there is nothing we can do. Our telescopes identified several dozen planet-sized vessels. Even at our home star, there isn’t enough military might to stand up to that.”

“But you think we can?” the woman next to Vanya chuckled.

“We don’t know what you can or can't do. But our central command thinks that you have to know a lot more than we do, given you already had contact with these beings and clearly took over their technology. And since the aliens aren’t talking to us…” Ituun gestured with his hand.

“Hence, you are here,” Vanya concluded.

“Yes,” I continued the conversation. “After considering the nature of your visit to our world, we figured that your home system must be close, or at least in the galactic neighbourhood. This fleet doesn’t seem to have our central world as their goal, but they aren’t above wiping out anything that proves to be a target of opportunity if they detect a spacefaring presence in a given star system.”

“Hm…” Vanya hummed. “Are you aware of the greater conflict between our people and the likely creators of those planetoids?”

Vanya’s aide looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

“Our people are not aware of a reason for conflict between them and us. Nor do we desire to take part in one,” Ituun replied.

“You may not want it, but conflict might be unavoidable if it is the enemy we are expecting.”

And with that, Vanya began telling us a truly outlandish tale of the galaxy’s history, and our place in it.

“You want to tell us that there is an energy Gestalt-mind that controls all of us?” I blurted after well over an hour of listening to the girl’s ever more concerning words.

“Not controls, more like a manifestation of all of our societies’ subconscious. The Gestalt also seems to be strongly affected by the speed of information transmission, meaning that the part we call Gaia might be very different from the one which is responsible for the Trakken people.” Vanya nodded.

I ran a hand through my hair, wondering whether there was a way to prove this story.

“In any case,” Ituun continued, sounding also a bit shell-shocked.

“One of the people neighbouring our civilisation claimed that they had a way to contact those who are controlling this fleet. It is apparently some sort of installation with a diplomatic purpose, left behind by some former civilisation with the capability to contact the creators of these spheres. They want to include us in their next round of negotiations. And our government thought of contacting you-”

Suddenly, all of the Tirnanogians across from us stiffened, and all my warning senses went off.

The eyes of the two in heavy armour lit up with bright, blue light. The larger one, Magnus, let out an animalistic growl, as a wave of small, electric discharges rippled over his body. A moment later, he disappeared in a blinding flash of light, followed by a second one.

When I managed to regain my eyesight, both Magnus and Astra were gone.

“Did… did we do something to offend?” I asked.

Vanya blinked, looking distracted for a moment before she returned to her previous, calm demeanour. “It has nothing to do with your people. Something internal came up that required fast intervention.”

“If there is something we can do to help…” Ituun offered, sensing the possibility to score some points with the other faction.

“Oh, it is fine,” Vanya waved a hand. “There is nothing on this world that can run away from those two. They will handle it. One way or the other.”