Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

Slowly, Jusan entered the room. A light source shone from the ceiling directly on the object on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Jusan turned to the terminal inside and closed the doors. Then he walked around the pedestal and the perfect silver sphere displayed on it. After he walked one full circle around it, Jusan dropped to the floor, all strength leaving him. Tears flowed freely down his face.

“They were right. All this time and they were right.” He said.

After some time he managed to compose himself enough to rise to his feet.

“Why now? Why not a hundred years before me, or a hundred years after I died?” He asked the sphere, pleadingly. He looked at it willing it to answer, even though he knew it couldn’t.

“Do you have any idea how many people died to keep you safe? And how much my family had to do to keep you hidden? My ancestors had to lie and slaughter those who shared the same beliefs!” But there was no answer. Jusan knew that the sphere was no more than a message in the bottle. Jusan hated the sphere, not because it did anything to him, but because of what it represented. It made a mockery of his people, of what they thought was true. And it made the darkest point in Nel history all the more heinous. All because the sphere was the ultimate proof. The proof that the Order was right all along. And they were slaughtered anyway. And any doubt that Jusan held onto evaporated the moment he saw the alien, the human.

He reached over and took the sphere in his hand, gazing at it. It was small enough that it could fit in his palm. Its surface was flawless, there were no protrusions, buttons or anything else that suggested its true nature. But Jusan’s father told him, as each father told his son back for generations to the founding of their house. Jusan simply thought it on, and the sphere activated. He returned it to the pedestal as bluish lines started to appear in it. Soon a soft light emanated from it and then a being appeared in front of Jusan. If he didn’t know that it was a hologram, he would have jumped back, it looked so real that even knowing that it wasn’t he was tempted to reach out and check.

The being floated above the ground with its legs crossed. It wore loose gray blue robe, its ends slowly swaying behind it. Every part other than its face and hands was covered. The hands had five fingers like Nel only without any talons. Its skin was smooth, with color somewhere between light blue and gray. It had no hair on its head. The face looked like that of the Nel, only with smaller nose and more flattened. Its lips thinner and a bit smaller. The eyes were the strangest with them being all white, with no hint of an iris or a pupil. They looked blind, but somehow gave the impression of sight. Jusan always thought that it was just the effect of the hologram.

Then the hologram started to speak its message as it always did when it was turned on.

“Greetings my children. My name is Axull Darr.” It said in Nel, Jusan’s family held the records from the time it was discovered, and they knew that the language the hologram spoke changed with time. It learned the language as it changed.

“ If you have found this message, heard its beacon. Then you have reached the level where you are ready to hear my words.”

“We were not ready.” Jusan whispered.

“By now you would have realized that your kind didn’t originate on what you believe to be your home world, although in a way it is. I did everything in my power to shape the world around you, to hide the fact that you are not from there, and to provide an environment for you to grow and learn. I created you, using my own race as a template, gathering what was the best of us, and discarding our flaws. And you are not the only ones. I shaped two more worlds and on them put your siblings. Both are different from you, just as the worlds I shaped for them are, but the core still remains the same.

I did so out of desperation, as a last act of salvation for my kind. We are dying. And by the time you find this message there will be none of us left. My people were the first ones in our galaxy to reach the stars. We learned the secrets of the universe, and we could bend to our will the energies that spread throughout our reality. The galaxy was ours to rule, and we waited for others to join us amongst the stars. But life was rare at that time, and those few that did evolve enough, took too long to reach anywhere near our level. So we reached down and guided them up, shared our secrets. None, it seemed were worthy. They misused our gifts, and we were forced to punish them by taking our gifts back. But loneliness was my peoples greatest failing. We learned to shape worlds, and indeed, the life force itself bowed to our will. We seeded life across the galaxy. Not creating it, but simply helping it along the way. And soon the galaxy was filled with intelligent life, and this time we did not interfere. Letting life take its course. Soon after, my people started dying. And even with our great knowledge, we did not know the reason why. Some said that it was simply our time, we had lived to see births and deaths of countless stars. And nothing lasts forever. But others, others like me were not content to let ourselves die without a fight. We were the masters of life, and so we did that which we never dared to do before. We created new life in hope of finding a cure for our demise. The life we created was not intelligent, its only purpose was to serve as a way for our salvation. But an accident changed everything. The new life form gained intelligence and its fast evolving nature that was supposed to serve as our salvation, proved our damnation. The life form became an abomination, it’s only purpose to feed on other life. It escaped the world it was created on and started spreading amongst the stars. By then there were very few of my people left, a handful only. Seeing what we unleashed we immediately moved to destroy it, but even our power proved insufficient, our numbers too few. At most we managed to contain it. But we were dying, and since we couldn’t destroy it, there was the risk of it coming loose after we were gone from the galaxy. My people devised a plan to make sure the abominations never spread among the stars again, a plan I did not agree on. And so as they went forward with their plan, I went forward with mine. I created you and your siblings. Three worlds in hope that someday you will become great enough to correct our mistake. But also that when we are gone, at least something remains of us. Your path will be your own, I only chose your beginning. I hope that different experiences and paths you take as you evolve will give you the wisdom that my people lacked.

You are my children, the successors of the People.”

With that the hologram slowly faded away, and the sphere’s light dimmed, until it was the same silver color it was before. Jusan looked at it, knowing that it was the main reason for the state the Nel society was in now. It was discovered at a time when Nel were primitive, still building structures with stone. At a time when they have just explored the entirety of their world. It was not discovered because they heard its beacon, as Axull Darr said. But because an earthquake unearthed the artifact. The people that found it immediately brought it to the head of their family. Somehow he and his advisors managed to activate it, and the message played. But Nel of that period had little understanding of the things Axull Darr spoke of. And the sphere was forced to use the words that best translated its meaning. Jusan had read the record of the first playing of the message. As the Nel language of that time had no words for the things the message spoke of, its meaning was very different.

The people that listened interpreted it as a message from a Creator, telling a tale of Nel origin. How they were the children of God, separated from their siblings by evil. Sent by their Father to Nelus to be safe until they found a way to reunite with their siblings in heaven. Soon a religious movement was formed, the Order of Truth. The most spread out religion of that time was Inatuus – the rule of blood. The religion that said that the blood of some was better than that of the others. In fact that religion was the basis for the class and family system.