First Contact

Chapter 923: Edge of Twilight

What was wrought here should be allowed to slip into slumber and sleep a dreamless sleep until entropy sips it away. - Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

Nice little mitochondria you got there, Biology.

Be a shame if something happened to it - Terran Descent Humanity

The Dairy Queen is one of the Hamburger King's brides. A gift of tribute from The Mapleland Empire to the bloody tyrant of the Hamburger Kingdom. Her heart was cold but sweet and the Hamburger King put her in charge of the blizzards and winter storms of the Hamburger Kingdom.

The Dairy Queen is adored by Terrans everywhere, celebrated in song and dance, even through the worst winter storms. She is often depicted by carving ice into her likeness. She is shown smiling, dressed in finery made of frost and snow, and is known for her singing voice. She is often seen moving through storms and blizzards, her voice uplifted in song despite the chill.

The cold never bothered her anyway. - The Myths & Legends of Terra

We do not know who they were, only that they were here. They left behind great works, impossible machinery that once labored for unknowable purpose.

We know these Forerunners only as The Builders. - Kretark Press, 3285 Current Era

You don't get to judge the Devil and the War in Hell from the comfort of Heaven. - Doctor Jachike Pascel, Sailor Moon Sisterhood Project Decommissioning Commander AKA The Grave Watcher, 38 PG

The stellar system was repeated all over the universe. An energetic young star, a few gas giants, a debris ring, and barren rocky planets in various orbits. The number of planets and gas giants didn't matter, they were all virtually the same.

This one was in the middle of the Cygnus-Orion Galactic Arm Spur.

In the middle of what was known to the species capable of space travel as "The Long Dark." A band across the entire section of the spur that was barren of all life, with many of the stellar systems reduced to nothing but scattered gravel where planets once were, smears of gases from where gas giants had once been, and a single stellar mass.

This stellar system had not been reduced to gravel and wisps of gasses, but rather still had the few rocky planets and the trio of gas giants. The star was young, highly energetic, burning away merrily in a stellar signal that it existed. It was not alone, it had a brother, that it danced around in a slow twisting pattern, and they both burned with merry fire.

It had been like that for millions of years.

At one time there had been life. Not much, just a few simple algae and fungus, a few multicelled organisms. Not much, but the beginning of life.

But unliving things destroyed that life, leaving behind long life radiation, siphoning away water and atmosphere both.

The binary stars felt a slight bit of sadness at that, in the strange way inanimate balls of burning gasses could feel sadness.

Something new had arrived.

It was strange, and different.

The stars were dimly curious, watching the newcomers.

There were ten figures within a two light seconds of the binary stars, positioned in such a way that the polar stellar winds of both stars merged and washed over them. Several of them were terribly scarred, their faces and bodies mutely proclaiming that they had been severely injured, almost maimed, in the past. Despite their disfigurement and scarring they, like the unmarred, were inhuman in their perfection.

They were dressed strangely. Short skirts, leggings, short sleeve tops with bows on the front. They all held wands and blades, they all had long flowing hair. Behind them extended gauzy fields of whitish that reached out thousands of kilometers but did not block or cover any of the others. They looked vaguely wing-like, pearlescent energy that gathered in the stellar winds.

Resting in space, they were in the fetal position, their eyes closed, their hands tight around their weapons and wands.

They stayed that way for long days, asleep in a deep dreamless sleep.

They had sent out the call, and now waited on the one they had summoned.

A puff of purple particles, almost smoke-like, appeared above polar-north between the two binary stars. When it cleared a single figure stood in space as if it was standing on a flat surface. Ebony of skin, with long flowing white hair. Her face was haughty and cruel. She was dressed in scant wires of esoteric spooky particle metals that emulated the look of spiderwebs that only covered enough of her to hide her genitals and the nipples on the prominent mammaries.

She surveyed the worlds and gas giants slowly, her eyes full of a cold silver light.

She looked beyond the now into what had been.

Her lip curled in disgust at one point and she reached out her hand. Chronotrons and other esoteric particles flowed into her hand, slowly taking the shape of a bright red apple.

It crunched, despite there being no sound in space, when she took a large bite from it. She chewed the bite, looking over the planets.

When she was done with the apple, she streaked into motion, moving an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, until she was in front of the sleeping girls.

One, her bangs forming a heart on the pale skin of her forehead, woke slowly, stretching and yawning as she did so.

The onyx woman merely waited.

She was old, but the child was even older.

She was feared, but the child was legend made flesh.

She was fearsome in her power, but the child was terrible in her joy.

They were sisters. Two sides of the same dark and bloody coin.

The child smiled at the onyx woman, who merely nodded dispassionately. The child waved at the system with one hand, the wand she tightly grasped leaving behind a trail of glitter.

In the glitter could be seen living planets. Some with hellish atmospheres where burning carbon ash rained from the sky, others with life giving oceans, and still others with iron oxide sands that teamed with microbial life.

The onyx woman looked back over the system slowly, then turned and looked at the two stellar masses with more than just her eyes. After a moment she turned to the young girl and nodded.

At an unseen signal the other young girls slowly woke. They gave the impression of happiness and joy even as they held tight to terrible weapons.

The onyx woman kept looking at the planets. At what would need to be done. Which zone each planet occupied.

To merely cover them with life would not do. That was for a Genysys Device or a G.E.C.K, which were simple toys compared to her obsidian majesty.

She held out her arms at a 45 degree angle to her body, threw her head back, and vocalized a single note that resonated in the coronas of the two stars.

Behind her appeared a dozen females of her species, none as beautiful or well endowed as she was, clad in more clothing, all reclining on furniture made of pale white energy. She snapped her fingers and two dozen males appeared, all dressed in black leather, pants and vests, with heavy boots, all carrying swords made of a dark purple metal that glittered in the light of the stars.

Another snap and an orchestra appeared, all of black onyx and obsidian that breathed in the stellar vacuum of space.

The band began to play, and the males began to dance with wild abandon.

She joined them, her voice upraised, as the girls all watched and added their power to hers.

Reaching out, she lifted mass from the stars, a process known as star lifting, optimizing and extending the binary stars's energy output and lifespan.

To the two stars it tickled and their giggles rippled the stellar winds.

As she danced, runes and glimmers of light streamed from her fingers, speeding out to wrap around the planets.

The planets were swallowed by golden energy.

Still she danced and sang in the darkness.

On the planets, new bedrock was laid, planetary cores were repaired and spun up to restore the magnetic field. Atmosphere was laid, then oceans. Fossil records and geological records of asteroid impacts were applied. The rude organisms that had been wiped out were extrapolated and laid into the bedrock as fossils.

Sixty-five million years of history was laid into the bedrock.

The tiny multi-celled organisms were extrapolated into more complex forms. The skeletons and evidence of those life forms were embedded into the fossil record. Weather formed and erosion was built into the mountains that suddenly thrust there way from the planetary crust.

Higher organisms were laid in. A fossil record, a record of tool use, migration patterns, all were laid down.

The energy cleared, to reveal a single planet bearing life. The other two had failed, existing inside the amber zone.

But they left behind fossil records and scant fungus and microbial life.

The creatures on the single life bearing planet began to move around, began to live lives programmed into their very genetic code. Crude housing and primitive culture was laid down.

And then it was done.

The male dancers slowed their wild dance, bowed once to the watching girls, and vanished.

The band rippled and vanished.

The reclining beings of onyx and silver vanished.

Only the onyx woman remained, her skin glittering with sweat.

She bowed to the girls.

And vanished.

The girls looked over the stellar system and nodded to one another.

It had been restored.

They held still a moment, contemplating, before moving.

They sped forward and vanished in bright silver streaks.

The binary stars agreed that they had witnessed something interesting.

Then they returned to their dance with one another.

On the planet, a species that had been extinguished before it even had a chance to exist began to go about its business as if there had never been an interruption marked by the scream of "ALL BELONGS TO THE HIVE!"

-----

Space was empty with the exception of a small bit of dark matter the size of a coin.

It wasn't dark matter as many races knew it, it was transparent to most scanning systems. A tiny bit of proto-matter that the universe used to heal up tears and scrapes that were just part of the growing pains of a youthful universe.

There was a sudden flash and ten young Terran girls appeared. The leader lifted her voice in song within the vacuum of space.

A single note answered.

They waited, patiently.

The tiny bit of dark matter began to spread out as more and more dark matter began to gush from the tiny bit. Soon, there was a patch of dark matter nearly two kilometers wide, even if it was only a few molecules thick.

A massive black warship slid from inside the dark matter. The thick warsteel armor was covered with beads of the dark matter, like a cold can on a hot humid day. The weapons were cold and dark, offline and silent. The engines burned with a purple light

Code streamed from the massive black warship, bathing the ten figures.

Their eyes closed and their bodies relaxed. They slowly curled into the fetal position.

From the warship came small craft. Ten of them. One by one, each of the figures were gathered up by the small craft, pulled inside. The craft then remained motionless until the last was gathered up and a period of stillness followed.

Code packets were exchanged between the gathering ships and the massive warship.

The little ships swept back to the warship.

The dark matter shivered and rippled and a vast door rose up out of the dark matter, the proto-matter streaming off the face of the doors like water. The sheer size and mass of the doors hinted at something large, something ominous, something terrible deeper in the dark matter.

The doors opened and the warship vanished inside.

-----

The Obelisk AKA Black Box 536169-6c6f72-204d6f6f6e.

Inside were machines of ancient and strange purpose, built to continue working for millions of years. Bulky robots carried out maintenance tasks to ensure the life of The Obelisk.

Through the dark halls moved The Grave Watcher. Heavy of muscle and bone, ancient and crude cybernetics attached to flesh that neither aged nor mortified.

He served the Digital Omnimessian and all of humanity through his works.

At long last he came to a simple chamber.

A cryo-tube sat in the middle of the far wall, covered in frost. Beside it, extended from the wall, were drawers where strange implements sat in custom fitted cushioned slots.

The Grave Walker moved up and rubbed the frost from the capsule.

Inside was a teenage Terran Descent Humanity immature female who was beautiful even in sleep. Her large blue eyes were closed, the long lashes touching her cheeks. Her blonde hair was pulled into a tight braid and wound under a cryosleep cap, but the gap in the middle of the cap showed how her bangs looked like a heart. Her flawless arms and legs were longer than normal, somehow making her aesthetically pleasing instead of freakish. She had a button nose and a cupid's bow mouth, a flawless complexion, and even in sleep she looked as if she was full of joy.

She was inhuman in her perfection.

The Grave Watcher ran through the context menus then, satisfied with the readouts, turned away.

The extended drawer was covered with a clear armaglass panel that showed what was beyond, held in a black warsteel frame. Jewelry, clothing, shoes. He checked the inventory list that scrolled by with cold amber light to the contents, examining phasic and energy levels.

Satisfied, he turned away, moving to the doorway. He reached out and pressed a heavy button.

The cryo-pod hissed and pulled up into the wall. The drawers pulled into the wall. The floor of the room vanished as mist rose to knee height.

He turned away, moving through the door, locking it once it closed after him. A blast door lowered and he ensured that one was locked with a molecular bonding system.

The Grave Watcher made his way to the central control room.

Inside stood a Terran woman of indeterminate age. She wore a black suit, her black hair was in a short cut, and her face was cold and hard, her gun-metal gray eyes unreadable.

The Grave Watcher moved to the pedestal in the middle of the room.

He placed his hand on the top of the pedestal. Data streamed by beneath his hand. Finally, only two words remained.

He stepped back and motioned to the Terran female.

She stepped up and looked down.

DEACTIVATE PROJECT?

She pressed a single icon.

YES

The Grave Watcher escorted her from The Obelisk. Boarding his own grim ship as she boarded hers.

He watched as her ship slipped through the narrowing gap of the slowly receding proto-matter pool in realspace.

Once she was gone, he sat down on a command chair that was more a throne than a chair.

The atmosphere pumped out of the bridge, leaving him sitting in cold vacuum.

He stared at the small pinpoint of dark matter with frost covered eyes.

And waited.