Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

“I can’t understand that. War is a terrible thing I agree. But there are some things worth fighting for, worth dying for.” Seo-yun said.

“Yes, there are. But while my people would almost never dare to go to war with their own, you are perhaps all too willing. That is the greatest difference between us.” Sumia said. After that, they sat there in silence for a few minutes before Lanai Sumia spoke again.

“There was one more thing that the Order preached.” Sumia said hesitantly.

“What?” Seo-yun asked.

“They said that their God didn’t put Nel solely on Nelus, but on a two other worlds as well. And that someday we would be reunited in the heavens.” Sumia said.

“Oh?”

“When we first met and saw the similarities between us, it was a shock. But most thought nothing of it. But now that you have found scientific evidence that clearly shows that we are related, albeit distantly, it has sparked talk amongst my people, here and back on Nuva.” Sumia said.

“What kind of talk?” Seo-yun asked.

“That perhaps Order was right. These talks are dangerous for my people. Every Nel is taught from a young age about the Order, and they are taught about what we did to them. It is the thing we are most ashamed of as a people. If they start believing that what the Order believed was in fact the truth, well that could pose a great many problems.” Sumia said.

“And you want to lie to them? Tell them that we are not related at all?” Seo-yun asked.

“I… Yes – No. I don’t know. I don’t know how to proceed, I am now responsible for millions of people.”

“In my experience, secrets have a way of doing more harm than good. Not that there aren’t some things that are best left untold. But it is your responsibility. You must find the right balance between trusting your people with the truth, and keeping secrets for their benefit. That is what it means to be a leader.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia sighed, and moved her palm sideways and back agreeing, “You are right. I think that I will tell them. What the Order spoke of is most likely just coincidence, and we still know very little about the connection between us.”

Seo-yun smiled. “Your choice.”

Sumia turned to look Seo-yun in the eyes, “You are very wise for one so young.” She said.

Seo-yun looked at her confused for a moment. She studied Sumia, and saw few faint lines around her eyes and brow. Because of her skin tone it was hard to see them on the first glance, and Seo-yun never really paid much attention. If she was looking at a human that hadn’t gone through life extension treatments she would say that Sumia was about forty years old. And then it occurred to her. She coughed uncomfortably, “Ah… How old do you think I am?” Seo-yun asked.

“I would say somewhere around twenty cycles.” Sumia said. Seo-yun quickly had her implant do the conversion. Twenty Nel cycles equaled twenty eight human years.

“I’m afraid you are wrong. I am technically one hundred and seventy years old, close to one hundred and twenty of your cycles.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia blinked, “But you look so young. It is rare for a Nel to reach that age. How long do humans live?”

Seo-yun grimaced, she thought that Tomas already told her. Or that they realized it on their own. But then again how could they? “Humans don’t really have a life span, technically we live forever.”

Sumia’s eyes widened and she looked at Seo-yun in shock. “But, that is impossible.”

Before Sumia could say anything else Seo-yun continued. “It is a recent development. We used to live about one hundred years at the most. Then we found a way to prolong our life a bit more. And finally we found a way to make our bodies live forever.”

Sumia stood up and looked down on Seo-yun. “Yo-you changed yourselves?” She asked incredulously.

“Yes.” Seo-yun said simply.

Sumia looked at Seo-yun for another moment, and then sat back down on the bench. “Well, that explains everything. I believed that you were all just young, it made sense. If one was to colonize another part of space, it would be preferable to send young people. What age is the oldest person here?” She asked.

“There is a woman working on the Olympia station that is two hundred and five years old.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia glanced at her quizzically, and Seo-yun understood the question in her eyes.

“Immortality is a recent discovery. We found it just before we started our trip here. That’s why she is so young .” Seo-yun answered with a twinkle in her eye.

Sumia looked at the garden and laughed softly. “And to think I once thought you primitive.”

Seo-yun smiled weakly, “We are, in a way. We have been in space for more than a hundred years. But in truth everything we have accomplished by now, we did in a couple of decades. And we are still adapting our atmosphere based knowledge to space. But genetics are probably the area we are the most advanced in.”

“Well, I guess that it is me that is a child here.” Sumia said.

“No one here looks at you that way. We value knowledge and skill above all else. And you are obviously a skilled and knowledgeable person.”

Sumia smiled at Seo-yun, and then looked back at the garden. “Do you think that my people could become like yours? I mean to live as long as you do, and to change our society to be more like yours.” Sumia asked softly. Seo-yun couldn’t help but smile at that. If only Sumia knew how much they suffered in order to become so unified, to create Olympus.

“I already have my people working on the life extension. There are differences between us, so it will take some time for us to learn your genetic code.” Seo-yun said.

“You already started? Why would you do that when we are not your people?” Sumia asked.

“Humans always struggle between our two natures. We like to think of ourselves as good. But truth is that each one of us has those evil desires within.” Seo-yun paused, looking at the sky. Then she turned to Sumia. “There is a very old story from my home world from the people called Cherokee. It goes something like this:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”” Seo-yun continued, “A wolf is an animal from our home world, it is used here as the metaphor for our inner selves. Do you understand what the story is about?”

Sumia didn’t answer immediately, instead she took her time and thought about it for a while, “Yes, I think that I understand. I think that it speaks for my people as well. Perhaps my people fed the wrong animal for far too long.”

They remained there, looking at the garden until the sun moved past the horizon and the night fell.

July 2171 – Second Fleet

Fleet Commander Johann Stern sat in her ready room going over the files on Ra’a’zani warships as she waited for her fleet to exit a trans-lane. The Resistance, or more accurately the Olympus Ai Asumy managed to get a few visual scans of the ships. Sadly, there were no more thorough scans available, as they couldn’t risk detection. There were a few classes of ships detected, but the one she was most interested in were the ships that they would encounter in Sol. The ships were around 450 meters long and 220 wide, about half the size of her Monarch, but still larger than her battleships. The ships hulls were covered in scale like plates that overlapped. There were no weapons visible or anything else for that matter save for the drives at the back of the ship. The resistance did however record an instance when the scales moved to reveal launcher that then fired a missile like weapons down on Earth. So they knew that the ships were armed and that the weapons were retracted into the hull. Everything else was a mystery. They didn’t know what kind of weapons they had, defenses or what materials their ships were made of. They knew very little. The more she read, the less she knew, and Johanna worried that they might have rushed ahead of themselves. They had no way of knowing if her ships would be on par with the Ra’a’zani. Although the resistance information from the ground was promising. They said that their military technology on the ground wasn’t all that more advanced that theirs, which meant that their space technology probably wasn’t as advanced as well. Still, Johanna’s ships would outnumber her opponents. And her ships went through a big retrofit back at Sanctuary, getting most of their weapons updated.