“Prepare a scout group, send it to the last used access point and find the Enduring. I want to know if my brother is still alive.”
Enlightened territory
The three woke from their hibernation to instant clarity. The cocoons holding them slowly opened and allowed three strange figures to step out into the small round room. One of the figures had a lithe body similar in shape to that of a female of the People, with dark orange-tinted skin, except that she had six horn-like growths on her back that curved to the sides and two on top of her head that curved backwards and framed her long, flowing black hair. The second figure was large and beastly-looking, with an elongated snout filled with sharp teeth, six large upper limbs and four legs, with its entire body covered in a scale-like fashion. The third appeared similar to the male of the People, with large wings on his back, and black carapace covering his important areas.
All three walked towards the center of the room. And the being that had once long ago been called Waiss—and now answered to Aranis—approached the circular table that had started growing out of the floor in the center of the room, and sat in the chair that had finished its growth just as he reached it. His large wings furled behind his back and he leaned forward, placing both of his arms on the table. The contact made a connection with the living-ship they were on, and he started soaking up information dumps about the time they had spent hibernating.
Loranis took a seat at his left, her small, lithe body settling into the chair. Aranis looked at her for a moment. Once, when he had been something less, her naked form might have aroused something, but now when gender held no real meaning to them, it was insignificant. Any of the three could alter their forms in minutes if they so wished, becoming whatever they desired to be.
Doranis knelt on his four legs on his side of the table. No chair was grown for him, as he didn’t need it. Aranis immediately noticed that he had changed the color of his scales yet again, now to yellow with black accents. As all three finished receiving the information from the ship, they turned to look at each other.
“She is awake again.” It was Loranis who voiced what all of them already knew. Each of them had sensed Ullax waking from stasis from thousands of light years away through the Sha. Their connection to the Sha was considerable, even in their hibernation.
“Our forces have not increased pressure. Whatever the reason for her waking before schedule, it is not us. Could her AI have discovered something that could help them to fulfill their programming?” Doranis asked.
“Possible. Whatever it was, it must’ve been something important enough for her AI to deviate from schedule; she has very little life left in her,” Loranis answered, her hands still on the table. Aranis felt her take hold of the Sha around them, then reach and meld with Doranis and himself. Then, using the amplifier of the ship, she spread their minds across the galaxy. “I feel no buildup of machine forces,” Loranis sent. “And there don’t appear to be any primitive races close to Ullax’s containment; it doesn’t appear that she is using them again.”
“Of course not, she learned her lesson the last time they attempted that. They are far too primitive; when given advanced technology, they will always turn against her,” Doranis sent back.
Aranis felt Loranis begin to withdraw from the connection. Then she froze, and her face took on a confused look. “I feel something…” Loranis sent, and she dived deeper, focusing her mind at a smaller region. “That is impossible.”
Doranis’s beastly head rose up in bemusement. “That can’t be, they are all dead!”
Aranis too was confused. What he felt shouldn’t have existed. “They feel like the People,” he sent.
“They cannot be, only Ullax remains,” Loranis added. “The last time we were awake, they hadn’t been there.”
“There are so many of them,” Doranis added, a bit dazed. A glimmer of something passed through him, too fast for Aranis to identify it. “More than there ever were of us.”
“More than there ever were of the People,” Loranis corrected.
While Loranis and Doranis were caught up in their shock, Aranis looked deeper, comparing what he was sensing to his memories. “No, they are different than the People. And there are… three distinct signatures, similar in fashion, but apart,” Aranis sent.
“Yes, I see it now,” Loranis agreed.
“There is something else,” Doranis added. “Their taste, they feel like—”
“Like Axull Darr,” Aranis finished.
“But how? He has been dead for a long time, we felt him die and pass through the Sha,” Loranis asked.
“Axull always was brilliant,” Aranis answered. “Now we know why he split off from the rest.”
“So this was his solution for us. I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted. He created new races based on his genome to fight us,” Loranis sent as she pulled them back from the amplifier. It could not be used for long periods without damaging them.
“Their connection to the Sha is the same as that of the People, the same as ours,” Doranis said.
“In the end, it won’t matter; we have moved beyond the technologies and understandings of the People. Even if these children match the People, we will not be stopped,” Loranis said.
“We shouldn’t wait any longer,” Doranis said stubbornly.
“The consensus was reached long ago, Doranis; to break from it now is to descend into the same anarchy that plagues the rest of the galaxy,” Loranis said adamantly. “And we are not like the rest of them.”
Doranis bared his teeth and hissed, showing the more beastly nature that he had gained when the lifeform they’d created had merged with him. “Every moment that we wait, we waste our resources holding back Ullax’s machines; we lose far more by keeping this balance than we would if we showed our true strength.”
“The consensus still holds, you agreed to it,” Loranis added, unmoving.
“Two votes are required to change any consensus; if you change your vote and agree with me, the consensus will be broken and a new one put into place,” Doranis tried to convince Loranis.
Loranis glanced at Aranis, who had kept silent during the exchange, still thinking on the people his once best friend had created. Then she looked back at Doranis. “Every decision until now has been made by the agreement of us all, and I will not make this one the first where we break with consensus. Especially not when I agree with Aranis.”
Doranis hissed in anger and turned to look at Aranis, who met his gaze levelly. “Why do you persist in entertaining this emotional stance? We have abandoned who we once were; there is no point in your sentimentality.”
“Whatever we are now, Doranis, we are not monsters. There are reasons behind our actions and goals. I am more than I once was, but I am still me. Ullax is the last of the People, the first intelligent life in this galaxy, and she deserves our respect. Her life will soon come to an end, and then we shall correct the mistakes that the People made. A few thousand years more will not change anything,” Aranis responded calmly.