CH14

“And? Anything useful there?” I asked, looking incomprehensively at Ilmine’s back.

Above the console hovered a weird holo. To me this yellowish pattern resembled some twisted version of a DNA double helix. It appeared right after our friend here had placed the device she called a memory dice on the bridge terminal. I had no idea if that was what she has been looking for.

“I.. don’t know,” Ilmine hesitated. “AI, could you translate it? I do know Sa’der language, but their alphabet is too complicated and they don’t let outsiders learn it. It would be a blasphemy. I can’t decipher something like that.”

“Unfortunately, I cannot comply with that request. I do not possess any data samples regarding their culture or language. I also do not have any software that would make translation possible,” the butler avatar informed. “Actually, I do not have any software at all besides, of course, what I have been given upon my creation. That is the only reason I am still in control of this ship and its systems.”

The blue girl seemed irritated by such response.

“I know you don’t have any software! I’m the one who brought you back online!” she barked. “But you’re still an AI. You can analyze it, right?”

“That I can,” the AI did not seem concerned with Ilmine’s mood. “What should I be looking for?”

“Umm… How should I know? I’ve never even seen anything like that!” Ilmine seemed uncomfortable with her new role of a leader.

I did not even try to interfere. Not my league. Whatever it was we were facing, I was still glad we had that girl with us.

“Look for irregularities in the in the pattern. Something that doesn’t fit, like pieces of other language or symbols… anything,” Ilmine said after a while.

“…As you wish,” the avatar closed its eyes. It looked as if the AI wanted to tell us how terribly vague were given instructions.

God, I had a feeling as if he was a real guy. Seriously, how was that possible?

We stood in awkward silence for couple of second staring at the seemingly frozen butler. It was just so surreal; the weirdest thing was that I just could not make myself to feel anything more than amusement. Aliens, super advanced AIs… Just another day of our vacation!

“Ah, here it is” the AI finally spoke. “Is that what you were looking for? This sign repeats itself thirty four times in the presented pattern.”

The space above the control panel cleared and the spirals vanished. Instead, we had now what looked like a stylized V letter lying horizontal. It was completely different from the earlier gibberish, but…

“Yeah, that tells us a lot,” Draco muttered sarcastically.

He was losing his patience, but I shushed him. We were in no hurry and if being a dick could help us we would have already been back at the Academy, enjoying cold beers, hot meals and comfy beds. That is what heroes do after all.

“Yes… Yes, it does!” Ilmine, on the contrary, got excited. “But no… why would they… that doesn’t make any sense. But who else could that be… and the technology… it all adds up!”

While she mumbled, I tried to make sense of that. No luck with that.

“Could you please enlighten us, primitives, what the hell are you talking about?” I finally interrupted her.

When she looked at me she seemed confused. Did she forget about us?

“Well, yes. But it’s a long story.”

For hundreds of years the know galaxy had no ruler. Constant wars and chaos had spread among the stars as those more advanced and older were using lesser races to resolve their conflicts and avoid casualties among themselves. There was no peace in the galaxy. Whole planets were being destroyed, whole cultures eradicated.

And above all this stood Scholars.

They were the most technologically advanced race in the known universe at that time, but also the most merciless. Not because they fought against other species. Not because they tried to ensure their superiority. No, they only wanted to learn.

The only thing Scholars had deemed valuable was progress. Constant advancement of their race. To achieve this goal they were ready for anything. Not concerned with petty morals nor basic rules of ethic, they experimented. At one time, Scholars would uplift primitive races on different stages of development and turn them against each other only to find out who would win the struggle. Sometime later they would plunge whole Star Systems into civil wars while testing which ideology is more effective. They were very methodic and their only desire was knowledge. The whole universe was their laboratory and nothing could stop them on their path. Or so they thought.

Finally, one of their experiments failed spectacularly. Although, it may have been a success for Scholars, just not the kind of success they had probably hoped for.

One of the young races they had experimented on, Alphas, turned against them. They used the power bestowed upon them by the oppressors themselves and, after uniting with other species, Alphas declared an all-out war on Scholars. They were ready to overthrown their masters or at least die free.

And so the Galactic War, known also as the “First Triumph”, begun.

Fortunately for Alphas their opponents were no warriors. Even despite their technological advantage, Scholars simply did not know how to fight. Oh, they knew the concept of war very well, they knew its political and cultural aspects and all the theories. After all, Scholars were very good at instigating and analyzing conflicts. But those were only theories and Scholars had never fought a war against themselves, and certainly not against any inferior species. The very thought of them being attacked was alien to them. When one of their experiments failed they could simply exterminate the entire race with their technology if they wanted, destroy the ecosystems on their planets and erase them from the face of the galaxy. The Galactic War was different. They acknowledged Alphas’ challenge but did nothing to stop them. The event like that was something new to Scholars and they wanted to understand it properly. They wanted to learn.

On the other hand Alphas were nothing but fighters. It remains unknown to this day whether they had been enhanced by Scholars or a product of natural evolution. Either way, the origin of their race was of no concern to themselves or their allies. Strong and intelligent beasts, they became the backbone of the rebelling forces.

The war itself… was not really a war.

Somehow, Alphas had learned about the greatest weakness of their foe. Numbers. Scholars were so few in comparison to the others spacefaring species that they did not even had the need to colonize other star systems. All of their population was focused on a single planet while AIs took care of all their needs. Nobody knew what was the reason for that. Low birth rate, controlled breeding… there had also been rumors about Scholar’s being immortal. For Alphas, and also most of their allies, the reason of such behavior was secondary.

What was important for them was the location of the enemy’s home world. The secret was well guarded but Alphas did not give up. After decades of careful searching they finally obtained it and at that point Scholar’s fate have been decided. The biggest armada the galaxy had ever seen gathered, under Alphas’ leadership, flew towards the system where Scholars had had their home.

There was no warning or negotiations. There was no mercy. The whole Armada unleashed their full destructive power to wipe out the hated masters of the galaxy and not one of them was spared.

That is how tyranny died and freedom triumphed. That day Alpha Empire was born.

Hail our ancestors!

Hail Alpha Empire!

After Ilmine ended her story I had more questions than ever. At least the Empire thing she was talking about earlier was more or less clear now. And at the same time it was not. I could recognize propaganda bullshit when I heard it, most of the time.

“So we have super-evil super-advanced ancient aliens defeated by a ragtag bunch of not-so-ancient, but nice and determined aliens? Seems legit.” It sounded more like a low budget VR game plot. “And I suppose those Alphas are the top dogs in the neighborhood right now?”

“It’s only the official version, yes, and there are many loopholes. Probably those Scholars were just an advanced race, more advanced than any other back then. Were they as cruel as the Empire claims? Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe the only reason why the war started had been to stop their growth and seize their technology, ” Ilmine waved her hand dismissively. “It is hard to say what had really happened. The First Triumph was… let me check it… using Earth’s time it should be more than six thousand years ago. And, since then Alpha Empire have always been the “top dog” as you said.”

Huh, maybe those aliens were not so alien after all.

“It’s very interesting, no doubt, but what does this have to with us?” Draco asked and pointed at the V symbol, still hovering above the main console. “Are those Scholars behind this? If so, I wouldn’t mind giving them a lesson or two if the last one was not enough.”

Ilmine only snorted.

“What? No, no way! They had been completely destroyed by the Armada, their world turned into wasteland. But there are other forces,” she turned to look at the symbol. “Apparently not everybody hated Scholars. Some races treated them as Gods and saviors, those who could give them power. That would support the theory that Scholars had been uplifting others species and offering them technological support. Those races, after the war, had been mostly assimilated into the Empire’s structures, but there were some… radicals among them, who disagreed. For them, Scholars were more important than their own races and they couldn’t accept the fact that their masters had been killed. Said radicals created an organization, or should I say a cult, whose only purpose was to bring back the old order. And this… this is their signature. They called themselves Disciples.”

Great. That was what we needed, alien sects. And what the hell did they want from us? What did they want from Earth? Of course, we had to take into account that what Ilmine just said may have been total bullshit. But why would she do that? There was no way of verifying her words, bur I could not deny that she already saved our lives once and we had that deal. For now, we had to rely on her like little kids. Blind and mental little kids.

“And nobody stopped them? Why not just wipe them out too?” Blaze had a surprised expression. She always liked simple solutions.

“The Empire was still forming and the galaxy is huge. For the first couple of centuries the very fact of their cult’s existence was a mystery. Now Disciples are just a curiosity, a relict, and the Alphas’ rule is unquestionable. Hundreds of years ago they had resources and support of whole governments, whole star systems. Not that it’d made any difference. Their goal was unreachable either way. No technology can bring back dead, not when all that’s left is a pile of ashes.”

Well, that was kind of reassuring. Through this whole time I had this feeling a serial rapist could have had while on a date. It is just not how we work. When we had been operating across the Union, we could at least be sure of our targets’ identity. The intelligence section of the Brotherhood was probably our greatest asset.

This time we would need to improvise.