Lacuna: Demons of the Void (16 page)

[“Is that all I am? Just a prisoner to you?”] Saara’s yellow eyes belied a sincere sadness at Liao’s statement, her tail drooping slightly.

“Of course not,” Liao started, giving the Toralii woman’s hand another squeeze. “I was speaking about how they saw you, not how I did. You should know by now... While technically you’re still being held here at our pleasure, well...” Liao shrugged. “We’ve come to understand a great deal about you and your people. No matter what anyone else says, you are – and shall forever be considered – my friend.”

Saara’s smile lifted Liao’s heart. ["I am glad to hear it. I feel the same way... And although I have served the Toralii enforcement fleet for some time, and in my duties encountered several other species, none have taken me quite as humanity has... You are a strange and interesting people, Captain Liao, and if it were possible I would enjoy learning more about you."]

Liao considered this, her mind ticking over. “I don’t know if that will be possible. I may consider you a friend, and on this vessel my word is law, but the command structure of my people will almost certainly see it differently. They will see you as a threat, I fear, and I’m not sure what I can do to change that.

“The species of man is a collective of good people... I believe that right down to my bones. But our history is chequered and marred by countless atrocities. Accordingly, we have evolved a kind of... suspicion of the outsider. That which is not like us is something to be distrusted, hated and feared all in equal measure.”

["You sound just like us, my friend, and your words could just as easily come from the mouths of any Toralii.... My people do not instinctively trust outsiders. Many species do not. It is a common trait... It probably evolved under similar circumstances as those you describe for humanity. As I explained earlier, our own species is not without its wars, its atrocities, its lies and its betrayals... usually conducted by those who were not part of the ‘group’."]

Liao took a breath, closing her eyes for a moment. She continued to hold Saara’s hand. Lieutenant Yu mutely watching on, observing the situation with his curious eyes. Eventually, Liao spoke again.

“The Toralii are not without their hypocrisies either. You preached to me about peace earlier, but your kind attacked humanity without any warning or without mind of the civilian deaths your actions would cause. Doesn’t that strike you as hypocritical?”

Saara regarded her with sad eyes. ["...Yes, and I wish it were not so, but the irony of our situation is not lost on me or... others of my kind.”]

Liao rested her hand over Saara’s. “Which leads me to my next point. There... was one question I was never able to get you to answer. Why did the Toralii attack Earth?”

Saara spent a moment studying the human, her expression unreadable. To Liao she seemed to be debating, internally, some great tribulation.

["...You had Voidwarp technology."]

Liao looked to Yu, nodding her head in encouragement. “Voidwarp... you spoke of this before. You said we could not possess it... but, why not?”

Saara hesitated again. ["Before I answer, Captain, I should explain something.”]

Melissa nodded encouragingly. “Go on...”

[“The Telvan... my people, they believe that if you save someone’s life, that person is indebted to you. Left in Sheng’s hands I would not have survived, so... a life is owed to you. I should give you answers at least.”]

Liao did not know what to do or say regarding Saara’s pledge, but she did have other questions that needed answering.

“Answers... answers are good. Why don’t we start with the supply depot you told Sheng about?”

Saara gave a wry grin. [“The coordinates I gave him were deep space... empty. Had he jumped there he would have just been wasting his time. The Telvan learned long ago that torture is only useful for confirming information you already know, since its victims will say anything just to end it...”]

Liao pursed her lips a moment. “Well, Sheng never was the wisest of men, was he?” Shaking her head, the woman remembered something that Saara mentioned earlier. Leaning forward, she raised a curious eyebrow to her friend. “Do other species have Voidwarp technology, or is it just the Toralii?”

[“Three others that we know of. Our reach is not unlimited, however, and the universe is vast, so... there may be others.”]

Melissa pondered that. “So at least three possess it now, but... I’m guessing that others have tried in the past, but were stopped by the Toralii.”

["...Yes, a great many have tried. Every species we’ve met who possess it give it a different name, but they all have the same underlying mechanism. And they are all equally dangerous."]

“Dangerous?”

That was a new word, only recently learned by the humans. Yu and Liao looked at each other again, a little concerned. Liao did not like the direction that this discussion was heading. The jump drive on her ship had never even been used, and if what Saara was telling them were true, she’d rather it stayed that way... at least for the moment.

“The jump drive – what you would refer to as Voidwarp technology – is dangerous? How so?”

Saara stared back at them with alien eyes that held an entirely human sadness. ["It is the most destructive power in the galaxy that our species has discovered... Regrettably, we discovered it far too late. I wish – our people wish – that we stood where you stood, Captain, that our species had made the sacrifices yours has, instead of what befell us..."]

Liao and Yu exchanged another glance. “I’m afraid I don’t follow,” offered Melissa, her voice quiet. “As far as our scientists have determined, the jump drive is very difficult to get working, but once it does it’s safe... It either works or it doesn’t. Failure just means a failed jump, nothing more.”

["We thought so as well, but... there is a third outcome."]

Exhaling and shaking her head, the Toralii female looked between the two Humans, her bright yellow eyes displaying a depth of emotion Liao was surprised to see. The more she learned about this so very alien creature, this friend of hers, the more of humanity she saw in her.

["I will do my best to explain, but I am only a pilot. The... mechanism behind a Voidwarp engine’s transportation is complex and beyond my understanding, but when they activate there is a potential for a cataclysmic event to occur. The exact circumstances of what causes this event elude me, but what
is
clear is that when it occurs a... ‘singularity’... is formed at the origin point."]

Pausing a moment to let the two humans digest what she had just said, Saara continued, her words slow and clear so that the two who were learning her language may absorb them.

["This singularity never closes, only grows endlessly,” she continued, “and in time devours all around it. Planets, stars, solar systems... all are eventually consumed by the raging stellar tempest. There are three in existence that we know of... We call them Uraj-tor, Khali-tor and Majev-tor. They grow every year and we have seen no sign of them ever slowing down.

["Uraj-tor was the first of the void-tempests, and it was created by us nearly six hundred years ago. It was a golden age for our people... Our world’s various nations had allied under a single banner, coexisting in peace. War, strife, chaos... these things were gone from our people’s lives. It was a time of great scientific achievement and progress.

["Our home world of Evarel was the testing site for the first Voidwarp engine, and what a success it was... From there, we established dozens of colonies in the Hijaai system, our home, and we spread ourselves into space. Soon we were colonizing other solar systems, too, making other homes amongst the cosmos. Colonists, explorers and settlers went out into the black, and their reports told us that they had found hundreds of bountiful planets capable of sustaining life.

["We believed we were on the cusp of achieving the destiny of our species. Space travel became commonplace; every day hundreds of ships, vast and tiny, left Evarel’s warp-points, departing for any one of hundreds of destinations... trade between the colonists and the homeworlders flourished, all because of the wondrous Voidwarp technology. The words on every child’s lips were full of joy and hope.

["How far away those times seem to us now."]

Despite the vast gulf in culture and biology between the two species, the grief on Saara’s face was plain to see to the humans in the room. Her pupils were dilated, her ears lay back against her head, and her voice became high-pitched and strained. The heavy stones of the wall that guarded her emotions from the ravages of the story weakened under the effort of its retelling.

["And then the cataclysm came. A simple merchant ship, the ‘
Makaani’,
engaged its Voidwarp engine. When it did, a great black fire sprung forth from where it left – a spiralling trail of nothing that grew and grew, slowly forming a great rift in the sky. Evarel screamed and thrashed as the singularity pulled her ever closer... But despite the best efforts of our scientists and our military, she and her moons were all swallowed. Six billion Toralii died, including almost all of our leadership, our scientists, our artists, philosophers, and intellectuals...

["Word of the disaster spread slowly... After Evarel was consumed there was no one left to send word of what had happened, and attempts to return to our home world were thwarted by the lack of a warp-point where one was expected. The singularity put out so much gravimetric distortion that jumping into the system was impossible... So finally scouts warped into the edges of the Hijaai system and saw the destruction first hand. It was they who relayed to us the terrible news that our home world had been destroyed.

["The pain this caused to the Toralii was utterly unimaginable. The coalition the colonists had forged with our home world, this union of peace and prosperity, disintegrated without Evarel’s influence. In mere weeks we turned on each other in a series of rapidly escalating wars, as each faction squabbled over the scraps of our civilization’s technology, labour, ships, medical supplies, females, food, and water... All became commodities to be bartered from the strong, extorted from the weak or stolen from the weaker.

["It was not until the dust had settled, at the cost of so many lives, that our species finally reunited under the banner of the strongest of the colonies, known simply as The Toralii Alliance. The Telvan were part of it, as was everyone, and this new coalition did all they could to try to close the ever-hungry maw of Uraj-tor, but he could not be satisfied. Eventually the Alliance gave up, moved the survivors to a safe location, and let the entire system be consumed.

["We tried teaching the first few species we encountered... sharing our knowledge with them, giving them weapons and food and medicines. This met with some success, and we did find some allies, until we encountered another species we called the Kel-Voran. They had not yet developed Voidwarp technology... so we gave it to them.”] Saara took a deep breath. [“...but the Kel-Voran were not like us. Vicious and warlike, they saw the Voidwarp technology not as a tool for ushering in a period of peace, but instead as a way to impose their will on all species around the galaxy.

["And so, soon enough, our two species fell into war. We struggled, as we had struggled with so many others, to make them see the danger in the wonders they had discovered... but our messengers were met only with gunfire, and our communications were ignored. They fought us at every turn, until another singularity appeared... and Khali-tor opened his insatiable maw and, just like Uraj-tor did to us, swallowed their home world. It was at this time the Telvan split from the Toralii Alliance.

["From our encounters with the Kel-Voran we knew that we could no longer rely on diplomacy to educate about the harms of the Voidwarp. Instead, we are now forced to employ violence, a strategy that has worked for every species we have encountered... And we no longer share our technology with those we find to be friendly.

["The truth is that we are a peaceful people... We have no desire to harm or kill, but every time a sentient species develops the Voidwarp technology they must be taught not to use it. They must not be permitted to use the Voidwarp engines without knowing the safe limits to which they can be pushed... the learning process is long, and the risks are great. Too great."]

Saara’s eyes narrowed as she looked between Liao and Yu, her black fur rising slightly as though reflecting her rising emotional state.

["Although we wish it were not so with every fibre of our beings, the reality of the situation is that no species aside from the Toralii may be permitted to own or operate the Voidwarp devices. This is our law... our uncompromising, unyielding law. It exists for a very good reason... I hope you see that now."]

Liao nodded thoughtfully as she digested everything Saara had told her. It was a lot to take in, but in a way it only confirmed what the humans already knew. The aliens’ arrival and bombardment was not a coincidence and the attacks on Earth were linked to the discovery of the jump drive.

“Unfortunately,” she began, “humans... are a curious people, but we are not entirely reckless. Had we known of the dangers, we would have been more careful with the technology and taken the time to learn it. We would endeavour to be like you; we would want to understand this mysterious and strange technology. We would want to use it safely.”

Saara’s eyes seemed to piece through the Asian woman.