Galactica: Book 1 - Via Lactea

 

The Being, shocked beyond reason by the apparition of 15 strangely shaped life forms that shone in his path, freaked out and sent a powerful and deadly pulse of Magic from his entire body. To its (yes, its, since there was no indication of sexual dimorphism apparent) surprise the Magic met the forms and made them glow a light blue. Frustrated and even more panicky by the failure, it increased the intensity by a hundred-fold, only to see the bluish hue become more saturated.

From inside their FSS suits, the Atlanteans saw the hallway redden slightly and then turn a darker shade of red.

"Oh, oh! The suits are absorbing Magic. Harp was right to force me to include that in its design. Guys, let us occupy the hallway side by side, three deep. That way our individual force fields will merge."

The Atlanteans did as Paschal requested and saw the reddish hue vanish almost completely. For the Being, the bluish hue did the same, increasing his panic by another dozen notches.

"Will the absorber saturate?" asked Spit Snake.

"That is unlikely. It does not even register on the scale. We did some tests, and even Harp had difficulty to trigger a quivering in the sensors. Initially, the absorption was invisible, so I added this colouring to show something. You know how fireworks impress the powerless."

"I do not think that this Being would consider himself powerless... under normal circumstance!" said Metronome, an Orc, as she watched the cascade of light, that was now turning to deep ruby.

"Maybe we should try to contact it? I do not feel it would be conducive to good relations if it burned its magical core on first contact," Kalseru suggested.

"You are right. Harp?"

"Yes?"

"Get in a FSS and port here directly. We have need of your services," said Paschal.

"Okay. I shall be there in a few seconds."

The sudden materialisation of another form increased the Being’s fears. What were they to be able to move inside its home so freely? Meanwhile Harp began sensing the Being for mental telepathic frequency. He did not have much search to do. It was just below Atlantean Prime frequencies, between the higher Humans and Atlanteans. In a way, he felt relieved. It meant that the Being was less powerful magically than a M-8, somewhere around M-8.5 or M-8.8, not really a threat. Adjusting his own wavelengths, he began listening on the Being’s thinking process. What he discovered was fear, and lots of questions. Harp decided to send out some questions of his own.

«Who are you?» he asked.

The Being, shocked, stopped spending magical energy uselessly.

«Who asks?»

«I am Magic.»

«Show-off!» muttered Paschal.

«Who said that?»

«My older Brother, the Architect.»

«What is Architect?»

«Oh, Brother! We are not out of the woods!»

«What is Woods? What is Brother?»

«Let me explain,» began Harp. «A Brother is a member of a group of individuals who are related either by virtue of sharing common Origins, such as Parents, or common Goals. Now, before you ask, a Parent is one that either reproduces or adopts another, already living, entity.»

It was clear the Being was lost as to any such structure, and would need an in-depth education on the dynamics of even the most basic family. So Harp continued.

«As for your other question, an Architect is one that designs and builds things. As for woods, they are the label given to a type of relatively ligneous entities called Trees. I would have said that Trees are unable to move but we have met some that can, and we are holding in stasis a group of Trees that we consider highly dangerous, called Ogres. Getting out of the woods is getting out of a difficult situation. This is because when you are in the woods, you do not know what lies around you because the Trees hide everything from sight except very close objects, and even then, some objects may lurk above or below you, out of sight, but nonetheless dangerous. As to whom we are, it is a rather difficult question. A label would not suffice to explain much.»

«I try to understand, but I do not.»

«We are aware of that fact. So, to complete my explanation, if it is one, we are collectively known as Atlanteans, because our first planet, our Home World, was named Atlantis. We are travelling the Stars aboard our third World, Thebes. Third, because both our Home World and our Refuge World were destroyed, the first by those that seem to have occupied the derelicts we see outside this ship, and the second by a natural phenomenon that was probably unexpected, or so we hope.»

«This is not really an explanation, as you said. However, I notice you said you know of these objects that seem to hide most of the outside world. You call them derelicts. What is that?»

«A derelict is the name we give to ships that have lost all functions and are no longer able to perform their tasks. In this case, these ships were, to the best of our knowledge, warships that seemed to have been attacking all those around this one, including this one.» explained Paschal. «There are millions of these derelicts, layered around your compact group of ships, with very little space in between them within a layer, if any. Each layer is separated from the other by a much more considerable distance.»

«I do not understand.»

«We could send you an image, if you let us get close enough? That would show you what we saw. But I would understand if you wish further explanations before accepting,» suggested Rockhook.

«Another ‘Brother’?»

«Yes. And his suggestion is a good one,» replied Harp. «From what we understand of this place, a giant battle occurred, pitting your ancestors and those of the derelicts. The result seems that your people won, but at a very high cost. These derelicts belong to a group we call the Cubes, or Cyborgs, Borgs for short. They are, or I should say were, a group that combined machine with life in a very intimate way. We found one of them dead in a derelict ship we explored. All organic matter had been liquified, leaving only the inorganic matter behind. We can not be certain that all Cyborgs are dead, since we have not explored all the derelicts. It would be too time-consuming, and also extremely dangerous. Your ancestors have used very sophisticated weapons to defend themselves, including time mines and bacteriological weapons that eat up the metals of the Cyborg ships. However, the quantity used was insufficient to dispose of all metals and, at a certain point, the result was far from satisfactory. I am not saying it was a bad idea, far from me to suggest such a heresy, just that, apparently, your ancestors ran out of resources.»

«We observed that it is only the surface of the ships exposed to the void of space that are eaten up to a certain point. The product is still active, as we discovered while we tried to take a sample. It ate right through our sampler tool. Passing through these layers without proper protection is suicidal,» commented Paschal.

«Why did you come here?»

«We noticed the external shape of this ship, and it matches closely a ship that visited our second world before we arrived there,» began explaining Colibri. «This is why we decided to inspect it more closely. We believe that you are what we call the Founders, the first to travel the Stars and begin the process of Elevation we are now continuing. Your Ancestors began this, and probably continued it for quite some time, bringing thousands of species into space-faring capabilities, but I suspect they did not expect the result because they forgot the most fundamental rule of life: the need to complete for resources and space. Since they have seeded the Galaxy, there has been numerous inter-stellar wars, millions of planets flourished to flounder later, and I think that the attack by the Cyborgs took them by surprise. They had set a trap to destroy one of the most ugly of all space-farers, the Elohim, that feed on emotions and destroy their food supply. They set that trap around our second home, well before we became aware of our need to leave our own world. Once we landed, we were trapped in that world with the Elohim, and suffered immensely from the wars these Elohim triggered to feed on our emotions. We completed the work set forth by your ancestors. The Elohim are no more in this Galaxy. We also took out the Cyborgs, those that evolved from the ones that escaped this battle. We also destroyed a wide range of Scavenger species that feed on the residues of civilisations. It is surprising they have not tried to eat their way through these shells, but then, they might have tried and failed. It might explain the diversity of ships composing the layers.»

«We were not specifically searching for you, but, somehow, the Heir was driven to choose this direction and to come here. Just so you understand better, the Heir is the one that will replace our current leader once he decides he has enough of this role. The Heir’s intuition is such we trust his decisions even when they seem far-fetched, because it has paid off handsomely every time we did. Coming here may well be the next success of his leadership,» Kalseru stated.

«If this ship is any indication, you are a Child of the Founders. We never hoped to find you still around. This is a miracle,» added Colibri.

«You say you come from beyond what we see. What could be beyond what we see? Is this not all there is?»

The Atlanteans were shocked. How far back had the Founders fallen if, for them, the universe was limited to this sophisticated prison? After trying to figure out how to explain things, Greywolf took over.

«The universe extends far and wide, with billions of stars. By the way, a star is a heavy-metal production factory. We shall explain more in depth what this means later on. It has started some time back, and is currently expending at an ever-increasing speed. It is this increase in speed that led to the following question: where is the universe going? Our capacity at viewing the future has revealed to us that the universe will tear itself to shred in 49,000,000,000 years, and that, in turn, has us trying to rescue as many life forms as possible if its development warrants it. It is our ultimate goal to save at least a reasonable variety of intelligent life-forms and merge them with us in their diverse forms. As you can see, we have succeeded within this limited sample.»

«We noticed the ships are linked by what can best be described as passages, in a rigid lattice that links several hundred ships. You must be numerous?» enquired Harp.

«We are actually few roaming the Home. We are merely Watchers, whose role is that of Custodians of the Souls. We keep the Home functional, we repair whatever defects occur, and patrol the Home to see if things are as they should be. I am on such a patrol. That no alarm was triggered by your arrival is astounding, and very worrisome. After all, we can not be everywhere all the time.»

«I admit your worries are justified. Had it been one of the Cyborgs, you might not have survived long. And I am not even considering the impact of meeting the Elohim. These are even more a danger to you than the Cyborgs,» replied Harp. «Please verify your sensor array. We shall help you diagnose the issue if you need help.»

«The sensors are in that cubicle,» noted the Being, as it pointed toward where the Atlanteans had first materialised.

«Harp, this is where we ported inside,» Paschal informed the Prince, and, by ricochet, the Being. «It allowed us to gauge the thickness of the hull and adjust our port accordingly.»

Harp nodded as the Being opened the door and led them inside.

«This solid hole allows two things: it lets us monitor what is outside and acts as a trap and detector for invaders. It was our belief that anyone would try to drill their way through the hole since it looked a lot more fragile than the rest of the ship. The entire immediate vicinity is designed to sustain massive decompressions. But you said you managed to enter without drilling a hole?»

«Kind of like I did to get inside,» replied Harp.

It then came back to the Being’s memory that it had seen this one appear right in front without any displacement. It looked around and could find nothing wrong with the integrity of the hull. As it looked outside, it noticed a major change, well, several major changes. First, the gap in the Inner Wall was visibly bigger, but most importantly, a new object now occupied the area separating the hull and the Inner Wall.

«Ah, you spotted Thebes. It really looks nice, does it not?» said Harp.

«But it looks so small! How can it hold a world?»

«It only looks small from the outside. Inside is another story. We call this a tessaract, but I doubt it would mean much to you. The gist of it is that space is folded differently inside than outside, allowing for very high compression ratios.»

«I do not understand.»

«Do not worry, I do not either. All that matters is that it works,» replied Kalseru.

«Now that you are reassured about the hull integrity of this ship, how about giving us a tour?» asked Harp. «We might as well meet the others too.»

«Follow me. I have informed the others of your presence and our exchange.»

«We noticed.»

The Atlantean delegation followed their guide quickly through a labyrinth that would have lost any but the most seasoned Navigator. Harp kept a mental list of the changes in the magical field. It kept changing at intersections, clearly indicating that a section had been added at a later date, or that keeping magical alignments was not a priority for the Constructors of the lattice. After about an hour, the group reached a rotunda that had couches spread around its periphery, with monitors displaying images from inside and outside the ships.

«This is our monitoring room. I see the outside cameras are active. This has not occurred for a very long time. We never thought anything could make its way this close to us since who knows how long.»

«We understand that. It was not easy, believe me! There were mines all over the place, and then these ships you see around your own to cross, all in several layers. We had to blow our way through the mine fields, and then open the gaps to allow our ship safe passage.»

«This leaves us vulnerable to attack.» said another Being.

«That is very unlikely, since those that forced you in this situation are now star dust. There might be others, but for now, you are safe. We left our own mines in the holes we blew up, thus making the area safe for us. We were not in the mood to be attacked on our back in tight quarters,» Harp said. «That was decided after you left by the God of War, guys, so do not gawk at me like Fishes out of the water.»

«Why are you hidden?»

«Hidden? Oh, you mean why are we wearing a FSS? There are two main reasons for that: to protect ourselves from any agent contained in your atmosphere, and second, to protect you from any contaminant we might harbour. Your atmosphere is abnormally sterile, and this tells us your immune system is probably extremely weak. Killing you by negligence is not our goal,» replied Colibri.

«FSS?»

«It stands for Fighter Space Suit or Fighter Space Ships, depending on whom you talk to. These suits are in fact autonomous space vessels that allow us to fight under any conditions whatsoever. They have all sorts of integrated defences and weapons and can move over vast distances instantly. They have saved our lives a number of times,» explained Greywolf.

«Such as?»

« We can survive directly in a star, in the void of space itself, under gravity conditions that would crush us otherwise, or in micro-gravity.»

«You keep using words that we know have meaning, but we lost these meanings. Could you give definitions?»

«We could, but I believe it would be best for you to undergo our primary knowledge dump, that would help put you on a similar footing,» replied Harp. «The fact that you so casually use Magic should help a lot as well.»

«There are many issues to resolve before we do that, my Prince,» said Colibri. «First, we need to assess biohazards on both populations. Second, we need to determine if they are interested in joining us, after full disclosure of our origins and our goals. Third, we need to determine, with their help and if they so decide, how to move them from this environment to ours, the later being partially contingent to their numbers and if they wish to keep their ships as they are, separate them, or leave them behind.»

«Brother, your concrete thinking always amazes me. You are right. So, we have a lot of work to do together. I understand you are somewhat afraid of us, given what these cameras display outside of your home. However, I can assure you we have no intention of imposing our views on you. We believe you are able to discern what is the goal of our actions when we have exposed the facts as best we know them. However, in order to lighten the load and speed up the process, we would like to deal with some tasks in parallel.»

«Which tasks?» asked another Being, looking at Harp with questioning violet eyes that contrasted immensely with its almost translucent skin and a rather revealing dress made of an arachnean tissue of the most immaculate white with a diaphane figure etched on the breast. No body hair was visible, and their face was soft, with round traits and no wrinkles, giving these people an ageless, almost babyish appearance. If it were not for their rather impressive height, they could have passed for albino versions of the Goblins.

«Let me see,» began Colibri. «We could distribute the tasks as follows. We need to determine why this place is so sterile, and that is my task. Then there is the need to establish your numbers, which Greywolf and Kalseru can undertake with your assistance. Then there is the need to establish how to move this structure into a tessaract, either whole or in segments. That task is best managed by Harp and Paschal. I shall ask the assistance of Enron, not currently present, to assist me in the study of the biological conditions and parameters of this complex structure. The others will assist as needed, as they are less specialised.»

«Why do you distribute these tasks in such a manner?» asked the one that had guided them to the meeting.

«Harp is the Prince of Magic, and is best suited to evaluate the magical requirements of a massive move; Paschal is the Architect who designed and assembled Thebes, amongst many things, and he can see issues with the move we would miss. Paschal and Harp also are highly versed in computer sciences, and to run this place effectively, computers must be in use. Greywolf and Kalseru are well-versed in numbers and the use of these tools in establishing a census, since they have done the last one on Thebes. Yours should be a drop of water compared to the complexity of a census on our home world. As for Enron and I, we are best to determine the biological conditions and see how you can be affected by such a move.»

«At least,» added Paschal, «your gravity is close to our, at 1.3 G. You should feel slightly lighter once the move is completed. It tells me your planet of origin was of similar size and composition to our Home and Refuge Worlds.»

«You keep referring to a ‘move’. Why should we do so?» asked another Being the Atlanteans had begun to identify as the Founders in their own mind.

«Two reasons, really: one, for your safety. Space is, by far, the biggest battlefield ever. We have cleared up some rotten nests, but it is far from over. Second, the Universe will one day come to an end, and the only chance for your species to survive in whatever form you will evolve into is to be with us. Given the work load of exploring the Universe to collect intelligent life-forms, we can not be expected to come back into this Galaxy before the Universe shreds. Even spending a single year to explore a Galaxy and move on, we shall be short on time. And I have no idea how many rogue Planets there are in-between Galaxies, and, unless proven otherwise, we shall not focus on them because it is next to impossible to find them. If life is on these desolate pieces of rock, it is on its own.»

«We seem to have lost so much. However, we can not decide on our own. We must consult the Oracle.»

«The Oracle?» wondered Paschal.

«There is this Voice that tells us what to do and when to do it. It has not spoken much to us lately, and seemed to be ignoring your presence.»

«Can we accompany you to talk to this Oracle?» asked Harp.

After looking at each other briefly, one of the Beings invited them to follow as it moved toward a side-door.

«The Oracle is close by. We need only move one level down, toward the core of this ship, and we shall find ourselves on a carrier that will bring us to the Inner Sanctum. The others will resume their work. We have our tasks, and we can not delay maintenance much longer. Our days are tiring.»

«While you visit that Oracle, we could help fix some issues if you explained what they were,» suggested Spit Snake, «After all, the issues of Ship maintenance has no secrets for us.»

«You would? That is marvellous! We have a big issue in one of them that we can not reach safely. It is one of the multiple energy sources. It seems to have stopped producing energy and we do not know what the issue is.»

«Guys, accompany your colleague Snake and help in fixing their energy problem. We shall be safe,» Harp ordered.

«At your command, Prince of Magic!» replied the Decurie in a single voice.

The Atlanteans split in two groups, while the Founders left the area as well, in pairs of two, to resume their tasks.

***

The Decurie followed two Founders along a hall and then dove into an elevator shaft for several hundred levels before coming to a rather narrow passage. There, the Founders took them on a mobile conveyor belt for a short distance before boarding a rather spacious capsule.

«Sit down and tie up, the acceleration is rather brutal!»

The Atlanteans and the Founders sat down, and, as soon as everyone was tied up, one of the Founders pressed a button that closed the dome over the passengers. Once it sealed, the capsule accelerated well beyond 10 G, before passing through a pair of rather closely set shutter doors. Then the capsule moved quickly outside the hull, headed for another ship. At regular intervals, rings flashed by, and some lights zipped at very short intervals.

«From the two shutter, this tube is empty of atmosphere. I can see the light reflect on its inside surface. From the pulses I feel as we travel, this is a magnetic levitation carrier,» completed Spit Snake, much to the amazement of the Founders.

«We are travelling at 20 times the speed of sound as well,» added Oberon, the Orc, not telling the Founders it had been calculated from the inertial systems incorporated in the FSS, shocking them further.

The capsule passed through several ships, not stopping in its mad dash toward the selected objective. After twenty minutes, the capsule entered a last ship and came to a very brutal halt.

«We have arrived. Please follow us. We are surprised you did not lose countenance. Usually, when one of us is first taken out of sleep, this experience turns them off and we have to wait until they come back.»

«I think you are trying to tell us their mind shuts down from shock. We are used to far, far worse than that,» Oberon replied, barely able to hold his serious demeanour.

***

Meanwhile, Harp and the leaders of the exploratory group followed another pair of Beings. While monitoring the Founders’ exchanges, they also kept their own conversation within Atlantean bandwidth.

«There is something that bothers me,» began Kalseru. «They seem so... How to say this? Different from what we had portrayed the Founders to be.»

«How did you think they would be?» asked Colibri, who had been asking himself questions along the same line.

«Oh, I do not know? All-knowing, snobbish, arrogant, over-confident, abrasive? They are like Children. Trusting, unsure of who they are, and above all, ignorant of some fundamentals of the Universe.»

«Much like we were not so long ago, if you think about it, Kalseru,» replied Harp. «It feels like yesterday that I thought the world was limited to my parents’ farm, a flat place with some bumps here and there, with invisible Gods making rain fall, pushing clouds, and making things grow. We have made huge inroads in our ignorance due to the deep hypnosis lessons we received in the Pyramids and the gradual recall of our ancestral memory. In fact, my Dragon Brother, it is what lacks to these people. They have lost the memory of their history, their culture, and therefore of their identity. Whatever greatness they possessed was lost when their memory of past events vanished. They may be able to regain this coveted status, but it can only be reached by the recovery of their roots, and of that, I am not certain. I have a bad feeling about that entity we are to visit.»

«The Oracle?» asked Colibri.

«Yes. It may see us as a threat, and act rather irrationally. I feel I have met that thing before...»

«How could that be? And you say ‘the thing’, as if it was an object.»

«Do not forget we are reincarnations. Yes, I am Merlin in his new form,» said Harp, «but there is no reason to limit this process to two bodies, or, for that matter, to a limited subset of species. Who can say if, at some point, I did not live the life of a Founder and have issues with the Oracle, whatever it is? The only thing that stops me from jumping to the later conclusion is that this structure is totally foreign to me. As for the second part of your comment, I do not know what brings out this feeling of ‘object’ rather than ‘life’. Let us not hammer on that nail for now, we shall know shortly what we are facing.»

Just as Harp finished his sentence, the Beings came to a halt in front of a rather impressive round door. In front of them was a full two racks of 88 black and white keyboard that brought to mind a two-bridge Italian Harpsichord. The Being stood at the keyboard and began playing a series of notes hesitantly. As Harp listened to the piece, it triggered a memory that gradually had him whistling in tune with the piece. The Being stopped, shocked at hearing the soft sound that kept on singing in his head even after he had stopped playing the key.

«Who dares!» he thundered, «Who dares play the Holy of Holy?»

«I do!» said Harp. «Why did you stop?»

«I stopped because this is where it stops!»

«No, it does not! Look at the keys! They are only partially activated! Not only is the piece incomplete, but it is played at the wrong rhythm! Move out of the way and listen!» replied Harp forcefully.

The Holy Keys²

The Being looked at the rather impressive Harp, and moved back too scared to say anything more, and waiting to see what would come out. Harp began playing a piece of music that had not been heard since the Cataclysm, Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor, K. 517. The lights, which had been a sickly yellow, gradually turned to an intense blue, and then continued to progress until the entire set, blindingly blue, flashed at each quick keystroke. By the time Harp had finished, a complete set of lights were visible. As the last sound left the musical instrument, a rumbling was heard. The Beings jumped back.

«What?» asked the two Beings, too taken aback by the development to fully express their question.

«You seemed surprised?» asked Colibri.

«It is a fable come to life! It has been many generations that the Doors of the Inner Sanctum have actually opened. We can see in it but never get inside! What miracle is this?»

The Being had barely finished uttering his question when the Door rotated on itself and a hiss could be heard as pressure equalised between the Inner Sanctum and the Grand Hall that held the Keys to Sagacity as the musical instrument had been named by the Founders.

***

The Decurie followed the Beings through a short hallway, and then climbed on another conveyor belt to be whisked away.

«We are near our destination. We shall need to walk to reach the last part, and you will understand why shortly,» said one of the guides.

Ten minutes later, they were invited to jump off the conveyor belt, which immediately came to a stop as its last passenger left. The Atlanteans were guided further and reached a lock quickly.

«Beyond this is a blind spot. We have no idea of the situation and what to find. All sensors are dead.»

Rogntu, a Fairy well-versed in electronics, stepped forward and began studying the lock.

«Do you have a map of what lies beyond this point?» asked Spit Snake.

«A map?»

«A drawing, or something similar, so we know what is the expected disposition of the elements beyond?»

«I can tell you what is beyond. It is similar to this. Before it closed, we never even noticed there was something to cut the passage off.»

«I shall port across,» decided the Fairy, getting a nod from the Decurion.

Shortly after vanishing, the Fairy reported his discovery.

«The atmosphere is still present, but ionised. There is a high level of gamma radiation. I am walking along the hallway. I think the door closed to seal the area off.»

«Radiation? What is radiation?» asked one of the Being, looking bewildered.

«Radiation is what constitutes light, or electromagnetic radiation and composed of photons, and beta radiation, which is the emission of beta particles, composed of electrons or positrons. There is more, but that explanation should suffice for now. Gamma radiation is highly energetic photon radiation,» Oberon explained.

The Fairy made his way toward the end of the hall and, using the incorporated Geiger counter, managed to locate the source of the ionising radiation rather quickly.

«I found the problem. That room we were headed to was an energy source, right?»

«Yes.»

«Apparently, one of the containment vessels got perforated by a micro-meteorite and leaked its contents in the room. The FSS is literally sparking from all the radiation. The outer shell of the ship has sealed itself, which tells me this is an auto-sealant compound. It has reduced atmospheric loss, but also kept the contaminants inside the room. The analyser says this is tritium, a very rare form of water indeed, and that it is probably the coolant used in the core of the reactor. It is sloshing around on the floor, waist deep. I am moving to the reactor itself. Luckily, it has shut down or you would have had one messy explosion. These reactors are notoriously sensitive to meltdowns.»

«Do you need assistance in the repairs?» asked the Decurion.

«I need to assess the extent of the damage first. I am examining the control rods. They seem to be intact and to have kept their hexagonal shape. This is probably why the shutdown occurred completely. Ah, here is where it exited the containment vessel, near the top, at a weak soldering point. If I follow this... Okay, it perforated the containment vessel about half-height, met with the water, which vapourised on its passage, then exited near the top, after doing a couple of rebounds on the floor and the reactor core, which began leaking fuel. The detectors immediately noticed the pressure spike and then the drop and the control software took the proper action, bringing down the control rods in an emergency procedure. From what I see, the whole thing took less than a minute. Send me a laser solder tool. I shall repair the inner leak. It is not an auto-sealant wall, unfortunately.»

«I am in contact with Thebes’ Bridge. We should have the proper equipment in a few minutes. What do you plan to do to remove the tritium?»

«I think we should siphon it out, and put it in a series of barrels whose inner surface is covered with Trilobites. They feed on radiation and will profit of this,» said Uhura Elf, a marine Biologist incorporated into the away team. «Try to estimate the number of gallons of water present, Rogntu.»

«Okay. The FSS sensors say the radius is 50 feet and the height is 20 feet, so 157,143 cubic feet of water maximum. I must subtract the inner reactor core, again 20 feet height, but of a shorter radius. The core is somewhere around 15 feet in radius, so it occupies a volume of 14,143 cubic feet. The net volume of water is the difference, or 143,000 cubic feet or 25,490 barrels. That, again, is the top estimate. There must have been some leakage outside of the ship before the seal occurred.»

«Okay. The soldering equipment just arrived, Rogntu. I am sending Oberon with it. It is a bit massive for you to handle. We are expecting the pumps shortly,» said the Decurion. «The issue is finding a place to store the barrels while the Trilobites feed on the radiation.»

«There is also the need to decontaminate the barrels before putting them in storage while we wait on the Trilobites to do their work.» Uhura said. «It has to be able to store the barrels with some ventilation between them so they do not overheat.»

«Keep it simple,» said Spit Snake. «Port them outside of the ship and tie them up to racks. They might be more radioactive than outer space, but who cares? If and when we decide to move that segment of the ship into a tessaract, we can advise and reduce the volume to a more manageable size using the mining Spiders’ differential acceleration of ionised gases. I am sure the Trilobites would appreciate a pre-digested meal.»

«Spit has a good idea, but I suggest we do this a bit differently. We can put a Spider in the process line and separate the ionising atoms from the rest, thus cleaning up the mess and concentrating the radioactive residue for the Trilobites’ enjoyment. That will reduce the number of contaminated barrels considerably. Even with the high radiation level we have here, the number of atoms actually radioactive is restricted,» noted Uhura. "And we all know that concentrating the atoms speeds the degradation by cascade reaction.»

«The Bridge is asking the size of the hallway we are in. The mining Spiders have a minimum size which is not negotiable,» said the Decurion.

«Who said it needed to be inside? I heard Paschal had developed tubing that had a portal at one end that could be synchronised to another portal in another tubing. I heard the idea came to him after seeing Zen King Cobra shed his skin. I never understand how he works,» mused Spit Snake.

«Do not worry yourself so. No one does, but he is regularly inspired by nature,» said the Centurion. «Seth’s tongue, which supports the retractable drawbridge of Kantar, is such an example.»

«Thebes’ Bridge crew approves of the idea and Ian is off to Paschal’s laboratory to get the tubes. Also, expect a fully functional Spider on the outer surface shortly as well as a service Spider to anchor the contaminated barrels.» the Centurion informed the others.

«We are done soldering the repairs inside, Centurion. What is next?» Oberon asked.

«Expect a pump and a transitional tubing. I am expecting a short piece of scroll to illustrate the connections and the task of filtering. Ah, the Bridge is signalling the external parts are ported and the assembly Spiders are setting it up. They tell us that your part of the system should be in the hallway outside the containment room already. According to Thorsten, there are two pumps, one to siphon the water out, and the other to reuse the decontaminated tritium to wash up the area and decontaminate it. He says to set the siphon on the lower floor and to pass the hose over to wash down the containment room and the hallway. He says something about using gravitational anchors so the pumps and the tubes are not in contact with surfaces to hinder the cleanup.»

«I think I see what Ian wants us to do,» said Oberon. «Snake, can you join us, please? I had a look at the set-up and I think I shall need your capacity to inspect the tubes from the inside before we seal them up.»

«Sure.»

***

Once the sealed door leading into the inner Sanctum had finally opened, the Being indicated they were letting the Atlanteans enter the Inner Sanctum first. Harp was reluctant, but given the invitation was becoming insistent, he and the others moved in, followed by the two Founders. The Atlanteans and the Founders began exploring the Inner Sanctum slowly. Around the walls of the room were wide glassy panes that reflected the light. At the far end, there were a series of seats that seemed to be much wider and deeper than what the Founders would need, set in an arc on three tiers, for a total of 36 seats. In front of the arc was a podium with a lectern. Between the podium and the first row of seats was an oblong box covered in dust, as were all horizontal surfaces. The lectern was not empty: on it rested a rather thick-looking book, already opened at a certain page.

«Do not touch anything, please. We must install stasis field around the book and everything else to stop them from degrading further,» asked Harp, getting an approval nod from the Founders, even if they had no idea what a stasis field was. Harp moved around and quickly generated the fields that shone a light blue around each object he decided to protect. Noticing the seats had what looked like labels on them, he also enclosed them in a global stasis field that protected all of them and the raised dais on which they rested.

Colibri looked at Harp expectantly, wondering what was his next move. After some thinking, the Prince of Magic spoke up again.

«Use Magic to remove the dust at a molecular level. Make sure to pass it through a filter and sort the particles by size and composition. We may be able to date the layers of dust and thus the last visit to this place. I think they have lost that information as well,» he said, nodding toward the two Beings.

Much to the astonishment of the Founders, the dust which carpeted everything began to lift off every flat surface and condense in small transparent containers, that vanished as fast as they filled up, with labels stuck around them.

«What is happening?» asked one of the Founders.

«Several things, really: we are cleaning up the place, as stated earlier; we are separating the particles by size, composition and layer, thus allowing us to date each layer; and finally, if we are lucky, we may find genetic material in the dust, allowing us to study the genetic evolution of your species, assuming it has not degraded too much. The bottles are labelled to tell the laboratory where their contents was taken, at what depth in the dust, and what is the nature of the contents. We should get the results shortly. As for the genetic material, it is spliced and reproduced until it can give the genetic map of whatever is available there.»

The Founders watched with awe the process continue for some time. After an hour, the last layer of dust was removed, revealing a carpet with brilliant dark blue hues and, in the middle, under the oblong object, was a spiral that seemed to symbolise the galaxy. Five arms were visible, and a thick milky bar seemed to pass perpendicular to the oblong object’s longest axis. Between each whitish arm of the spiral were deep dark areas with some reddish spots.

«This, gentlemen, is where you have been living all those years, the Galaxy you have travelled for unknown aeons. This seems to be an old representation of the island of stars in which we are embedded. There are some star clusters that are missing, and there is a lot more dark matter than what is current, telling us that the formation of the stars was still in its infancy for this galaxy,» explained Rockhook. «Your race, if this is the correct representation of how they saw the galaxy, is indeed the Founders, the first to travel the stars and begin the process of Elevation for other life-forms. In a way, we are your Heirs, albeit the goal has changed over time. Now, the goal is more focussed on saving intelligent life rather than simply to get them to travel the stars. We have not abandoned the concept of Elevation and actively pursue this process with a wide range of life.»

The two Beings looked at the Atlanteans with some trepidation. Could it be they would finally recover what had been lost? As Rockhook made his impassioned plea, Colibri made his way to the rather low-lying desk that occupied the centre of the carpet and covered a good part of the image of the galactic core and, after looking around it for a while, gave a hand signal to Harp. He pointed to a square, greyish-looking protrusion. Harp nodded and Colibri pressed on it. The button, for this was such, released a series of locks, but nothing else occurred. Surprised, Colibri set his fingers under the top’s extended edge and began sensing with his fingers. He quickly realised there were indeed hinges on one side and none on the other so he moved to lift the unhinged segment. At first, there was immense resistance, as the corroded hinges refused to budge, but the immense strength supplied by the FSS outmatched the rust’s stubbornness. The cover lifted slowly and came to rest vertically as a couple of struts extended diagonally until they locked in place. Harp and Colibri then had a clear view of the contents of the oblong object. Shocked, they whistled loudly, attracting the attention of everyone and stopping Rockhook in his long-winded explanations.

***

Spit Snake’s inspection of the tubes went without a glitch, and the tubes were sealed to the pumps and Spiders using thermal wraps. The process of cleanup began in earnest, with the decontaminated water being reused to force radioactive material off the inner walls of the container. Once the cleanup of the outer wall was done, the Atlantean team cut the reactor down to manageable pieces and ported them into a Spider that reduced the components to tiny pieces before injecting them into the ionising oven before the atoms got accelerated for differentiation. Yet, the process did not reduce radiation significantly, quite to the contrary. It took the removal of the spent fuel rods to notice a drop, and the reconstruction of the inner wall of the containment canister for radiation to drop. Meanwhile, the hallway outside the containment vessel stayed as radioactive as ever.

The Atlanteans delayed tackling the hallway after a well-needed rest and told the two Founders to abstain from intervening until they were back.

«The reason is simple: contamination can spread quickly, and our team in the hot spot needs a rest before continuing. An error is not a good idea in these conditions. And I must add that you are under-equipped to do anything without getting killed,» declared the Decurion. «Anyway, it is not a few hours of rest that will change anything to the result. The reactor must be rebuilt from scrap, if it ever gets rebuilt.»

The two Founders had the good sense to recognise the visitors knew more on the subject than they did and accepted the halt.

«While my hot team rests, can we visit some more of your ship?»

«Certainly. What would you like to see?»

«First, let us visit the control room of this specific ship. There must be one, because it used to be able to travel on its own. And we need to verify the cargo.»

«We have no idea of what you ask for.»

«Why am I not surprised? Tufik? Are you finished running the nanobots to map the ship?»

«I just finished, except for the area currently contaminated, Decurion,» replied a Fox. «We are in an extension that got added at a later date to supply energy for what looks like stasis Pods. The destruction of the reactor seemed to have deprived a good 2,000 Pods pf energy, killing their contents and revealing a conception defect, namely, the lack of a redundant power backup system.»

«That is sad. Let us visit the Pods. Maybe we might be able to recover some genetic material.»

«Follow me. We need to go back some and move to the inner core of the ship. The Pods seemed to have been concentrated in the middle of the ship.»

The roles were reversed as the Founders followed the Legionnaires through passages long forgotten and moved ever deeper within the ship. After twenty minutes of turning, climbing, twisting and making arduous progress, the leading legionnaire came to a halt, pointing at a door.

«Behind this safe door is the main cargo hold of the ship. It contains, according to the nanobots, several racks of stasis pods, some of which, as I told you earlier, were suddenly deprived of power when the meteorite pierced the containment vessel, triggering the emergency closing down of the reactor.»

«Do you know the code to enter there?» asked the Decurion.

«No, we never knew this place existed.»

«Tufik, port across and report what you find.»

The Fox did as asked and quickly came back with some news.

«I found the decommissioned pods, sir. They are occupied by bipeds similar to the Founders, but slightly bigger and more muscular. They have frozen over. I do not know if we can recover them and rebuild bodies from the genetic material.»

«That is the biomedical experts’ domain, Tufik. Anything else?»

«There are several racks of fully functional pods, sir. Some are way bigger than necessary, but since their top is opaque, I can not verify their contents.»

«Okay. Return to our location.»

After Tufik returned and explained to the two Founders what he had seen, the group moved off further, headed toward the prow. Another half an hour was required to reach the Bridge and its dark controls. For the Founders, this was a total revelation. For the first time ever, they had a clear view of the outside of the ship and could see thousands upon thousands of differently shaped vessels spread around their location, all linked together by transparent tunnels whose shape could be guessed by the sparse lighting marking their inner travel areas.

«This is a ship’s Bridge,» explained the Decurion. «I do not know how to operate this one, but I can recognise the Helm and some stations, such as Navigation and the Captain’s Chair. We shall need to call upon our crews to man this ship, once it is repaired. Somehow, I doubt many of you are proficient in this domain anymore. It is sad. Thebes wants some information. Uwibami, how about testing if these controls respond to Magic?»

The Dragon, which had just joined the Decurie for some exercise, was a bit surprised at the request, but obliged. After some preliminary tests, all of which resulted in not even a flicker of a response, the Dragon lifted shoulders in a very human gesture that the Decurion understood clearly: no Magic controls.

«The cleanup team is back already. They used a pod to speed up the rest cycle. Spit Snake is telling me we need to get ready to return to the meeting place, since they are finishing the last clean-up and are done putting the finishing touches to the repairs,» noted the Decurion.

«Can you bring us back to the conveyor belt? We are lost,» replied one of the Founders.

A quick move of the head invited them to follow Tufik, who took them through a short-cut and dropped them just at the proper level for boarding the transporter. The trip back took less than half an hour, much to the Founders’ surprise.

***

Greywolf, Rockhook, Paschal and Kalseru, as well as the two Founders, joined Harp and Colibri to look into the oblong container. What they saw also shocked them. Inside was a fully dressed skeleton. There were many metallic objects, but what caught their attention was a gold band around its head. Th band itself seemed to emit sparks at random intervals that were absorbed by a crystalline structure into which the head had been inserted.

«This is a surprise,» said Paschal. «I had considered this approach to control Thebes, but decided on magical controls instead. This system is a direct neural interface, and, as you can see, it can continue running well after the control brain is dead and reduced to dust. We must be extremely careful from now on. To be honest, it is lucky for us we can not communicate verbally, because I am sure the residual entity would be working double time to figure out what we are saying to each other and probably consider us a danger to itself. For the moment, it considers us as negligible quantities. Let us not reveal our true potential unless absolutely necessary.»

«What do you mean by residual entity?» asked one of the Founders.

«The brain potential of this individual got transferred into the crown. This is the main reason that people of high social status wear them: they act as foci for intellectual power and, when they are properly synchronised with the wearer’s brain, they can amplify the mind’s prowess and, if the person is magical, its magical capacities as well. The only inconvenience it it can also amplify the bad side of a person. This explains, in part, why those of power are also the most cruel, vindictive or prone to abuse others. This is also why we do not wear ours except in ceremonial circumstances.»

«Yet, we must take control of this place, if only to free the Founders from its grip.»

«I agree, Greywolf. It is the how to proceed that boggles me.»

«What if we copied the contents of the crown, in effect putting it in an avatar, then neutralised the potential?»

«Rockhook, that is a good idea, but what is the capacity of that piece of junk?» asked Kalseru. «I am sure the entity would not see with a good eye its contents moved to a powerless container and the transfer must be so quick it will have no time to react.»

«Yet, Rockhook is on to something,» said Harp. «Look around. There must be some plans of this object and, more importantly, of the crown.»

After searching for hours, the Atlanteans and Founders were tired. Everyone sat down in a chair except Paschal, which continued to search for another half an hour before sitting down on the chair found on the front dais. At first, nothing seemed to result of this, but gradually, Paschal noticed he could hear some strange sounds.

«Did you hear that?» he asked.

No one had, so they joined Paschal in a telepathic bond, except the two Founders, who watched the Atlanteans gradually become immobile. After asking some questions and getting reassurances that all was fine, they sat to wait out the strange behaviour of their visitors. The Atlanteans merged and began to hear what Paschal was hearing, and finally to see what his brain saw as well. Deep in trance, the strange language spoken to Paschal gradually made sense.

«Who are you?» finally came clearly across the telepathic bond.

«Prince Paschal, Architect of Atlantis. Who are you?»

«The Guardian. You are not of us.»

«No. We are not. We are travellers. Those that lived before we came are either dead, or in stasis pods, or have lost the memory of their identity. We are the first to enter this sacred room for a very long time, because those that maintained the ships lost the memory of the code to do so.»

«Did you break in?»

«No. The Prince of Magic played the code. It was stored in our genetic memory. We believe we are the Heirs to those that built this place, for this is the only way for us to have known the code. It was stored well before we came here, and probably activated in time by a trigger we have no knowledge of.»

«Where is the Dominus Spiritus Sanctus?»

«If I remember this language properly, you are asking for the Lord Holy Spirit, or, in short, the one that should lead these people. Look at my memory of what we found, Guardian.»

The Guardian did as asked and saw what the Atlanteans had found, but also the presence of the two Founders.

«Why are they not here?»

«Physically, they are. It is their mind that is not powerful enough to join in the bond. We left them outside for their own protection.»

«I followed your exchange with them as I explored your memory. I am regretfully forced to admit the spiritual guide is dead and that the knowledge was lost.»

«Maybe it is not. We can probably retrieve the information stored in the crown and stabilise it for reference purposes. However we are loath to simply download that without proper protection and to do this we must understand the design of the container, its capacities, and its protection mechanisms.»

«It is my turn to extend help, then. Here is the design. The crown, as you call it, is a mental accelerator that lets the mind of the one wearing it control the entire collection of ships even if the wearer is in suspended animation. Apparently, the individual refused to release the controls as planned every 500 cycles and died before transferring them to his designed successor. And you are right to wonder where that successor is.»

«I have asked for a memory crystal to be transferred from our ship. It measures about the size of my thumbnail, and has enough memory to store the contents of this crown and then some.»

«I must inform you that the crown is but the tip of the set. The core memory is under the stasis pod and has a density of storage vastly superior to the crown itself. From your memory, the thinking process is probably located in the crown and the data on which it operates is in the base of what you call a stasis pod.»

«Thank you for the information. I just added a dozen more memory chips that can be linked in a serial cascade or in parallel. I think I shall opt for the later since it allows for quicker transfers and should saturate the capacity of the entity within, allowing us the time to disconnect the crown from the memory and its controls. Harp, use Magic to adjust the circuitry while they are in transit. We can not risk the entity detecting what is coming up by figuring the role of these chips.»

Harp intercepted the transiting memory chips and held them in-between dimensions for a few seconds while he changed their connecting circuitry. As soon as they materialised, the Atlanteans pushed the chips in place on the sockets that the Guardian had revealed to them and watched with satisfaction the crown flash desperately, trying to stifle the flow of information to the memory chips.

«Get ready to disconnect the crown from the crystalline structure as soon as it stops flashing,» the Guardian told Paschal.

«That is Harp’s task. He will port the crown out of the crystal, thus rupturing the connections. Here it is now. Harp! It is now under your control!»

Harp eyed the crown from above and waited some more. The reddish flashes gradually became dominant, until, finally, several fully red flashed enveloped the crown and the crystals. The moment it became continuous, Harp ported the crown out of the crystal vessel and deposited it in an alternate dimension, effectively disconnecting it from its means of action.

«It is done. I stored it in dimension six. That one is rarely used and no one should be able to take it out except me. I encrypted and compressed the matter matrix.»

The Guardian was shocked at the power expanded so casually by Harp. If that one was an example of those that had inherited of his old masters, he could serve them with honour and gratitude.

«How much data is recoverable?» asked Rockhook.

«It is still being processed. There is redundancy, and also checksums. We should know in two hours,» replied Paschal. «Meanwhile, Guardian, let us inform you of other developments since you last had the leader of your people sit where I sit.»

Paschal and the other Atlanteans transferred as much information as they could to the Guardian, surprising the entity by the vast knowledge of time, space, and science they possessed. It also confirmed to them the role of the Founders in triggering Elevation for thousands of species, but also their despair when their Children turned on them to gain power which was not theirs to weld.

It confirmed one aspect that had been on Harp and Paschal’s mind ever since they had managed to read a partial dump of the memory core of a Cyborg cube: they had originated in the second tiers of the galaxy at its origin, and had been one of the first life forms elevated by the Founders. The original population of which the Cyborgs had been developed had been very war-like and had spent most of their energy destroying themselves. The Founders had kept an eye on them and hoped they would self-destruct. Unfortunately, the Cyborgs escaped their own home world and began a campaign of destruction unparalleled since. The Cyborgs had considered any technology not under their control a threat, and destroyed any emerging civilisation well before they reached space capabilities. By some grace, they were few and kept warring with each other, so some civilisations did manage to develop, including the different Scavengers and the dreaded Elohim. That was another mistake the Founders had paid dearly for. The Elohim became the enemies of any mentally capable species, and scoured the galaxy like rabid animals in search for food. The Founders decided to intervene and set up a trap to attract them to a planet rich in potential, in the hopes of starving them to death. The plan had backfired: yes, the Elohim were trapped, but not all of them were. And furthermore, they began changing their methods and, to the astonishment of the Founders, to create a species that could sustain them in the long run. The arrival of the Atlanteans in the mix had taken the Founders by surprise and they had planted the information in the Humans about themselves, hidden so deep that the original Atlanteans nor the Elohim could find it until specific conditions were met. Apparently, these conditions had been too lenient and had been met well before either species could put it to use. By the time the information had reached the Founder Armada, it had been encased in the sphere for a long time and nothing could be done to fix the errors of the past.

«It is time for us to ask you the ultimate question, Guardian. Will you allow us to rescue the Founders and rebuild them to their former status?» asked Harp.

The Guardian was taken by surprise once more and took his time to think things out.