“The enemy grew by feeding on biological matter, on life. They denied them that. They purged all life for ten thousand lightyears in all directions around the enemy, denying them the fuel they needed to grow. That did not stop their growth—there was still materials for them to use—but it did slow it down considerably, allowing the machine armies a chance of slowing their advances through the galaxy significantly. The AIs were programmed to never allow any life inside that ten-thousand-lightyear border. Each time the enemy pushed the machines back, the machines would expand the border, even if there was intelligent life in their way.”
“They were wiping out entire civilizations?” Adrian asked.
“Yes. I argued against it, but others ignored me. They believed that they couldn’t risk that the enemy grew any larger. I left, and created you.”
“You wanted us to fight them? When even you couldn’t, with all your technology?” Adrian asked incredulously.
“I might not have agreed with their plan, but it did give me time to attempt my own. Your three races have our legacy, but you weren’t born in a time when there was no life in the galaxy. You have known struggle, conflict, war. You are much better suited to fight this threat than a group of dying scientists. We were never warriors; already you have adapted technologies we developed to military use, something we never did.”
“But why not find a warlike race and give them the technology, give them time to prepare to fight?” Adrian asked.
“When you are as old as I was, you learn to look far into the future. I couldn’t risk giving technology to someone who would abuse it afterwards in case they won. I chose to trust in my children rather than a race that was young and had no connection to me. The few we uplifted to fight the enemy initially were not as advanced evolutionary as we were; they had very little capabilities with the Sha. And in any case, it would take much more than a single race to defeat them now,” Axull Darr said. “You need to grow, find allies, and raise them with you. Only a united galaxy can stand a chance against them.”
Adrian looked at him in understanding. “You want us to rule the galaxy, just like the Shara Daim believe. You want us to unite it under our leadership.”
“Yes. It is the only way.”
“So the Shara Daim are right; they, or rather we, are destined to rule the galaxy.” Adrian chuckled, “When they heard the beacon, you—their you—must’ve told them that, but when they lost the sphere, the message must’ve been corrupted. They started believing that all other life was insignificant.”
“It is possible. All three of us who inhabit the spheres, are unique, we can think and make decisions by ourselves. I don’t know why he would’ve told them so soon, before they were ready, but there might be something that we are unaware of. Something that made him decide to tell them.”
“How do we even know that this enemy is still out there? Perhaps the others figured out a way to stop them,” Adrian said.
Axull Darr shook his head sadly. “No, they are still out there. The proof was in the ship you recovered on Earth long ago.”
“The Union ship?” Adrian asked.
“Yes. From its data, you learned that the Union was attacked by an incredibly advanced enemy that they had no chance of winning against. I reviewed the data and confirmed that the enemy was the machines my people created. They were pushing the border, eradicating life within it. That means that the enemy has pushed at least forty thousand lightyears from the area they inhabited before I split.”
“That was a long time ago… how much do you think they could’ve pushed since then?” Adrian asked.
“That is a progress of millions of years; the time that passed since the Union was attacked till now is insignificant in comparison. I doubt that the enemy has pushed much further. And you are on a completely opposite side of the galaxy; you have plenty of time before you encounter the machines or the enemy. I planned it like that; I put you as far away as I could to give you time to grow,” Axull Darr answered.
Adrian sighed in relief, then looked at Axull Darr. “You said that your people started dying because you needed more Sha. Did Axull Darr continue searching for the cure?”
“The damage was already too much; his only hope of a cure was to be infected with the artificial lifeform just like the three. And that was not something that he would even consider doing.”
“And what about us, will we have the same problem in the future?” Adrian asked.
“No, Axull Darr made sure that your code contained failsafes that will allow you to evolve even if you meddle.”
Adrian nodded. “So how long do you think it will be before we stand a chance, at least technologically?”
“I can’t say for certain. Your growth was already extremely fast compared to that of other life in the galaxy, even before the knowledge from me. Now you are growing even faster. But it will still be several thousand years at least before you are able to match what my people were at the height of our civilization.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Several Days later — December; Year 55 of the Empire — Bloodbringer
Anessa was one hundred and thirty-six years old on the day she was first called into the Hall of the Ages by the Elders of Shara Daim. She remembered feeling pride, joy, and fulfillment. Her loyalty and devotion had been rewarded, and she was being raised to be the first among the Dai Sha, the leader of the First Legion.
The Elders had spoken to her in person, giving her praise for rising so high so fast. They returned her trust in them, by calling on her personally, by telling her how proud of her they were. Anessa remembered her father, who too had believed that she would one day stand before the Elders as the first among the Dai Sha. She had finally done it. She was a servant of the Elders before everything and everyone else.
She had never strayed from her goal, focusing everything she had and was towards serving. And the day the Elders raised her up was the happiest of her life.
Anessa watched from her chair as Bloodbringer dropped from trans-space, followed by the rest of the ships of the First and Fourteenth Legions, those that had survived the attack on the Empire. Almost immediately, her ships pinged the station that she knew was orbiting the fifth planet in the system and got the real-time scans of the system. Her holo updated, and she saw a Legion in the orbit around the planet, the Seventh Legion. Anessa winced; she didn’t know whether the Dai Sha in command—Barask—was a part of Garaam’s little group, but their presence was a complication.
She could still barely process what Garaam had told her. However, there was too much information in support of Garaam’s suspicions. According to her, the Elders had been killing off powerful Dai Sha for centuries. Anessa couldn’t believe it when Garaam had told her, but the more she spoke, the more truthful her story had become.
There were always nine Elders; once one died, the oldest and the most powerful Dai Sha ascended to the spot, abandoning their previous name and taking the mantle of an Elder. The procedure for a Dai Sha becoming an Elder was simple: when they received the summons, they would go to Shara Radum for a year of contemplation and study. During that time, all records and mentions of their life up to that point were deleted from the Shara Daim nets, and by the end of the year, it was as if the Dai Sha hadn’t even existed. Then they ascended to the mantle.
Only, according to Garaam, that was not what happened. The Dai Sha that was chosen never gained the spot, they simply disappeared. The last time a Dai Sha was chosen had been seventy years ago. Anessa had been a rising Dai Sha then; she hadn’t paid attention to all the other Dai Sha, so she couldn’t remember what he even looked like. And there were no records for her to look through and then compare to the Elders she’d seen on her last visit to Shara Radum. There were few who remembered him now, and even those who did remembered him as younger, and the Elders all looked old. And they rarely met with anyone in person; even their guard rarely interacted with them.