First Contact

Chapter Nineteen (Dreams)

The gold mantis, small only compared to her massive forebearer, deployed a small cube on the floor in front of her. A rod sprang out of the cube and the assembled beings, still shocked from the psionic assault, cringed back with a multitude of gasps. The rod folded around the disk, creating a small disc which the golden mantid stepped on. It hummed and at the command of her cybernetics, rose into the air. She waited for everyone to calm down, her bladearms folded carefully and her grasping hands holding onto the bottom of them.

Finally the chamber settled down. In the city beyond beings moved back to their Tri-Vids, nervously approaching, afraid to look but curious at the sight of the small gold mantis who held still on the hovering dish. Across the world beings shook free of the psychic shock and approached their Tri-Vid, fearful but curious.

"The Precursor War happened because my forebearers, like the one you saw, and the others, of whom records have been lost, could not contain their appetites and, upon learning that even the universe is finite, went to war over who would eat last," Her voice was pure and clear, and she fluttered her wings and preened as she spoke.

The council had learned its lesson and did not interrupt.

"My species consumed not only meat, but emotions and even thought and memories, uplifted species to bare sentience. Able to feel emotions and form memories but not enough to develop civilized thoughts," She said. She signaled with a rune in Unified Galactic Standard the equivalent of a shrug. "What our opponents ate or did is lost to the epochs long past."

Silence reigned for a long moment as she paused to clean her antenna. A councilman opened his mouth but one of the massive robots made a growling noise like steel gears grinding away their teeth against a whetstone. He shut his mouth quickly, his tendrils curling and his crest deflating in fear.

"For reasons that have been lost, but many have pondered upon, both sides built huge mechanized war machines. As you can see, my people tend to be tiny, outside of our warrior and, well, ruling castes such as Speaker was," she said. She used displays to show a little cartoon version of her wildly running back and forth to escape shoes and feet, wearing a big floppy hat with flowers on it and clutching a purse almost as big as she was, with little cartoon spirals floating up from her cartoon head to signify frustration.

There were a few titters.

"That aside, we built intelligent war machines. We conquered, or thought we did, a digital artificial sentient's natural tendency to seek to protect itself by wiping everyone else out, by some means we no longer understand," She put up a rune for a sigh. "Sadly, our knowledge of our ancient language and reasonings are lost to the hunger of history as Speaker was lost to his own appetites."

She paused there to clean her antenna again and take a sip from a drop of water she lifted up from the disc. A holograph of a rune asking for patience floated in front of her.

Although there were questions, the recent events stilled tongues. Those who still would have talked stared at the robots beside them.

The little gold mantis set down the water drop and straightened back up, signalling with a hologram in front of her that she was going to continue. "As records will show, one such as Speaker can even stop and devour the thoughts of digital sapience, providing they can get within range. A reason for our forgotten enemy to build so large."

She flashed a rune for humor. "You can see, by my size, why there's a possibility my people built so large. We are a tiny people, and some are aware a being can be quite impressed with size when perhaps we should not be," a rune flashed for double entendre as she preened for a moment.

There were some polite chuckles through the chamber. Some of the earthier species and beings laughed out loud at the humor of an insect so tiny making such a joke.

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Fear began to be replaced by curiosity.

"Sometime, during that terrible war, where entire planets were wastefully wiped clean, one side's mechanical surrogates realized that the truth that was imparted in them, the reason for the war, also applied to them," The rune flashed for a regretful sigh. "They, also, realized that in a finite universe there was only enough resources for one, and why shouldn't they be the one? Why should they turn it over to biologicals, who have short lifespans and cannot be trusted stewards of those finite resources."

"It was then that first one side's, then the other's, turned upon us, their creators, throwing back our own warcries to one another," The mantid flashed the rune for patience and sipped at a water-drop again before cleaning its grasping hands and flashing the rune for resume. "It went badly for both sides. My ancestors left our, ahem, food species behind and fled, taking a risky gamble. We would have both sides chase us through the scorched wasteland of our war, through the enemy's territory, and then hide while the rebellious servitors destroyed our enemy."

She paused, taking time to clean her bladearms and grasping hands and then her antenna. She flashed the runes for "Please excuse my fatigue, I am discomforted" as she did so.

One of the council flashed a rune for attention. She pointed at it and flashed the rune for assent. The councilbeing stood up.

"Do you need us to go into recess?" The councilbeing asked and sat down.

"Thank you for your kind consideration, but no. It is more than us, whole worlds are watching and eager for the ugly, terrible, horrible truth," The little gold mantid said. She rubbed her wings together and then flashed the rune that she was ready to continue.

On thousands of worlds beings hurried back from the kitchen or nutri-dispenser when family members called out that the little gold mantis was going to continue.

"While the strategy worked, drawing all our mechanical creations after us into our enemy, and beyond, our escape, in the end, did my ancestors little good beyond sheer species survival," The gold mantid said. She made the rune for ironic sadness and the continued. "My species, constrained to a few planets, with only a few space craft, fell to internecine warfare. When the dust settled, only a few scattered planets contained our race. Our space vessels were gone, our advanced technology smashed, just our fore-bearers desperately trying to survive on worlds that were chosen out of desperation."

She flashed holograms of the other mantids at her feet.

"In time, we separated, became slightly different, but the Hive Queens and the Omni-Speakers still ruled over our hives. Each advance, we fell victim to what is called the Fermi Paradox, collapsing again and again. We had our own Fermi Boundary. When one hive split in to two, those two hives would eventually got to war over the limited resources," The gold one paused. The black mantid and the green mantid were signalling holorunes of distress. She waited until they signed runes for continue before speaking again.

"Millions, tens of millions, over a hundred million years passed before we reached space again. Some colonies called out into the void, then were silenced, but we only know that through archeological records. Then, of course, we found our other colonies and went to war, falling to our own Fermi Paradox Boundary of More than One Hive," She said. "Then we discovered signals. Signals meant thought. It was alien thought."

She waited a moment before flashing a rune.

"It was delicious."

All of the mantids flashed holorunes of distress and the gold mantid paused. A holorune representing a questioning speaker flashed and the gold one flashed the "If I am able" rune.

The questioner stood up.

"How are you... um..." she asked. She curled her tendrils in embarrassment and sat down.

"Different?" The small gold asked. The questioner flashed the questioning rune. The little gold one pointed at the big robot. "Thanks to our friends," She said.

There was an inhalation of fear at the thought that little mantid creatures had built those massive mechanical beings.

"No, no, friends," The mantid said, flashing the rune for negation and the rune for reassurance. "That is not a robot. It is a warborg, a human being who has undergone full cybernetic conversion body replacement to amplify their combat abilities. It is driven by a living mind, the mind of a sapient being with morals and ethics, culture and society."

That seemed to relax the gathered body. Tri-Vid cameras moved in and got better angles on the massive "warborgs", some cameras lingering on the belt of 60mm ammunition that gleamed with silent menace.

On the featureless faceplates of the warborgs flashed the Unified Galactic holorune for "I am expressing pleasure at your presence" in calming blue.

Some of the younger viewers laughed.

The little gold mantis gave it a few moments, pausing to take another drink from the droplet and clean her antenna. The other ones flashed that they were calmed again. When she felt the stress in the chamber ease she flashed the rune for attention.

"As I was saying, thanks to our friends, we learned that our ancestors may have been titans striding across the stars smiting our foes and devouring what we pleased, but the great galactic wheel had turned and we were no longer the apex predator," She brushed her antenna and then continued.

"We encountered humans, who approached us eagerly, clamoring they wished to be friends," She signaled the rune for sadness and made a motion at the small cleaner robots who were still cleaning the mess Speaker had made. "Omni-Speakers and the Hive Queens had other plans."

"In cruel betrayal we struck at the humans, and they recoiled," She said. She took another sip of the water droplet as the other flashed runes of embarrassment and sadness. "We thought them instantly beaten. Destroy the Queen you win the war."

She let it pause. Waiting.

"We saw the humans go still, as prey do. We, in our Hive-Queen's arrogance, mistook that reaction for fear, terror, and borderline submission as we assaulted them, linked as one mind, our hunger held together as one, moving each as a perfect cog in the universe's perfect machine. But, we had made a mistake," She paused again. "You see, we had never encountered murderous all consuming overpowering rage.

"Even the Hive-Queens quailed back as the humans exploded. Even the Omni-Speakers screamed in horror as something much worse than the great machines we still dimly remembered came out of every cattle world, every terrible broken and savage world, every shattered ruined city, out of every corner.

"Screaming their war-cry, they overran us, crushed us beneath their armored treads, tore us limb from limb with their armored fists, ripped into us with their very teeth," the others were flashing runes of distress but she powered through, shivering, "Then they found our home planets...

All of the small mantis people were rubbing their wings in distress.

"And destroyed every single Hive-Queen and Omni-Speaker. They used nanites to alter our genome so we would never again produce a Queen and only rarely would we produce a Speaker, scorched away our royal jelly, and loomed over our suddenly disconnected, sundered people, their mailed fists clenched to deliver the final blow.

"They saw our confusion, our panic, our bereavement as we were torn from the hive-mind and even as they screamed their war-cry they suddenly paused," The gold said. "They spared us, embraced us, taught us to live without enslavement."

She flashed for a pause and everyone waited, many staring at the two cyborgs in horror. She waited until the smaller ones flashed that they were composed and ready. She waited for the councilbeings to flash that they were ready. She saw a light for a single question flashing and signaled assent to the questioner.

The gentlebeing stood up, a Shavashan female, her scales dull and her tail thin with age. "If I might ask, gentlebeing..." she bobbed her head in nervousness then looked up. "What was their war-cry? I see it still disturbs you to think of it even though it is centuries past."

All the mantids flickered their dismay icons.

The black one moved forward, extending himself to his full three foot height. "I am Words Spoken We Fear," it announced, lifting it's bladearms up over it's head. "And I shall tell you."

There was a pregnant pause.

Words pointed at the two warborgs with his bladearms. "Speak the Words We Fear!" it cried out in small voice.

The two warborgs took a single step forward, their footsteps shaking the entire room. Their roar lifted to the heavens and more than a few councilbeings felt that it echoed off the stars.

"REMEMBER TERRASOL!"

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MANTID FREE WORLDS MESSAGE

TO: CONFED

now they all know

will you protect us

-------NOTHING FOLLOWS-------

TERRAN CONFEDERACY MESSAGE

TO: MANTID FREE WORLDS

Always. In blood and fire, brothers.

We face the Long Darkness together.