Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

As Order of Truth spread, its message appealed to many. It said that all Nel were equal, as they were all children of God. That each was given a beginning by God, but that their path in life was their own. Many who were forced to live under the rule of the families, born into the lower class, joined the Order. And soon the followers of Inatuus realized that they were in danger of losing their power, they started a war. The first true war on Nelus. Before then Nel didn’t war amongst themselves. Sure, there were disputes, small battles, but it never went beyond that. The history remembered that time differently than how it really happened. Every Nel now knew that the Order started the war, in the name of their God. The war that resulted in an unimaginable slaughter. Every Nel child grew up hearing stories about the Order, how they believed that Nel came from heaven, and that even now there were Nel out there trying to reunite with their lost family. But while everyone remembered the Order, no one spoke of it in public. It was their greatest shame. A fanatical cult that started a war that forced Nel to fight each other, taking countless lives, something that to this day was unimaginable. Following the Order of Truth was one of the greatest crimes, and has been for centuries.

The truth that Jusan was taught was slightly different. In the version he learned, it was Inatuus that started the war. Going on a crusade to kill every member of the Order, decades of mindless death and destruction. All so they could keep their power. When the Order realized what was about to happen, they decided that the sphere had to be protected. One of Jusan’s ancestors was chosen for the task. He was forced to change sides, to betray his own people. All to keep the sphere safe. His only task was to make sure that it was safe until the time was right for the people to know the truth. But the time never came. His ancestor became a merchant, gained enough wealth to become important. He passed the sphere to his son, with the same task, who in turn passed it to his son. And so on until finally it came to Jusan. Over the centuries the message changed, as both technology and language advanced enough for its message to be understood. Now Jusan knew that there was never anything religious about the sphere, there was no God. Nel did not have their fate already decided. There was only a race, a being, that was their ancestor. Nothing more. But Jusan knew that it will never be the right time for the sphere’s knowledge to be known. The time of the war was never forgotten, the gravity of so much death, made certain that no one would ever try to change things. No one would risk the repeat of history. Since the war, the families stayed in power. And as times changed, as his people learned about evolution, about the stars, the power of the families shifted from religion to simply wealth. Then religion gave way to science, it being discarded as a thing of a time when they didn’t know better. They met another race, and for the first time in their history things started to change. More power was given to the people. Until the Sowir attacked, and the families saw the chance to yet again take the power to rule in their hands. The sphere would erode that power, and they will never let it happen, not when they already let that power almost slip away. Jusan was a part of the ruling council, he knew that Tavaar would stop at nothing to keep the power in his hands. The war with the Sowir had changed his people. What was once unimaginable, was now just another reality. More than half of the Nel total population died at the hands of the Sowir. Tavaar would be willing to sacrifice a few more if that meant keeping power for himself.

But Jusan made an oath, just like every one of his ancestors did. He was the only surviving member of his family. The rest died in the war. He had no mate or children. The only thing he had was his oath. To protect the orb, and show his people the truth when the time was right. And today the message in the sphere was confirmed. So if his people would not listen to the truth, perhaps the humans would.

Jusan reached out, took the sphere of the pedestal and put it in the pocket of his robe. He turned towards the doors, and then up to his offices. He would need to make calls, get his ship ready, if he is to meet with the humans.

March 2171 – Sanctuary

Hyeon Seo-yun, Olympus Minister of Science was not happy.

“Try again.” She said, frustrated.

Mia Hanson, looked like she wanted to argue, but then she turned to one of the scientists at the terminal. “Begin the sequence.”

The man at reached with his hand and touched the screen several times. “Sequence engaged.” He said. Seo-yun looked out the protective glass, and down into the room. A small FTL comm device was in the middle of the room.

“Force field engaged.” The scientist said.

Immediately a greyish field surrounded the device.

“Opening a comm channel in 3… 2… 1… Channel opened!” The scientist yelled out.

The force field held for a second and then started fluctuating.

“Shifting frequency to match the breach!” One of the scientists shouted.

“Damn it!” Seo-yun exclaimed. She could see the field fluctuating down in the testing chamber. And then the fluctuations slowed.

“Field is stabilizing!” Mia said. “The field containment is within the acceptable range, the breach is stable.” Mia turned to Seo-yun smilingly.

Seo-yun shook her head, she almost didn’t believe it. She returned Mia’s smile. She knew how far they came, in so short a time. She firmly believed that there was no limit to what they could achieve.

When Seo-yun didn’t say anything, Mia stepped closer. “Congratulations. We now have two way FTL communications.” Mia said, and then leaned closer and whispered. “Is this really about having live video conversations?”

Seo-yun turned to the rest of the room, “That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we are going to go over every calculation again. We need to make sure this isn’t a fluke.” Her words were met with excited whispering as people started exiting the room. Seo-yun gestured to Mia to follow, and started towards her office.

When they arrived she found her way to the chair behind her table.

“So what’s this really about? We have been putting far too much time and effort into this, and it’s not like we really need it.” Mia asked.

Seo-yun sighed, “You know about the fleet drone program? They are conducting tests right now.”

“Yes, I know.” Mia said.

“Well, one of the most important parts of the program is our FTL comm capability. The drones would be controlled from other ships via FTL comms. And as it was until now, we didn’t have a real two way connection. Each time a new command was sent to the drone computer, it needs to receive it, interpret it, execute, and then formulate and send a response back using its own FTL communicator. Think of it as trying to control a ship using instant messaging. You need to formulate the command send it and wait for it to be executed. If we could manage to keep the FTL breach open for more than a moment, we could control them in real time. And now we can.”

“Okay, I get it now. But did we really need it that much? Isn’t a Fleet Commander in charge of an entire fleet from their ship? Doesn’t the command board do the same thing that the drone teams will do for the drones?” Mia asked.

“Yes and no. The command board allows a commander to send orders. But you forget that the ships he issues orders to, are not unmanned. They have crews and commanders of their own. A Ship Master can act in the time between when he gets orders. And the commands sent through the c-board are not supposed to take direct control over a ship. Fleet Commander sends an order to a Ship Master, and the Ship Master then executes it in whatever manners he or she deems appropriate. For example, a ship received a command to attack an enemy vessel but as it moves to attack, the enemy vessel fires on it. Now the Ship Master will obviously see that attack before the Fleet Commander that issued the order to attack, and will use countermeasures. A drone ship on the other hand will continue under orders to attack, until the one who controls it see the enemy vessel attack, and orders countermeasure. All of that takes time, time that might result in the drones destruction. Basically, there is a lag.” Seo-yun said.