“It does seem odd that the Federation would want to build a scientific base here,” Onracey said, thoughtful. “Or use it for a human explorer station. They should have considered a more permanent site. Like Gerryls said, this planet's volcanism will eventually reshape the crust again–and our work here will be undone.”
"I've fed a future scenario into the analyzer." Lierva said, astonishing them with her unusual thoroughness. "Even that beautiful planet–even Celestian one won't survive the upheaval someday without some kind of artificial preparation. Now why do you suppose the Council didn't suggest we use Celestian one to create an explorer station, since that planet is already livable–or else avoid the problem of planetary take-off altogether and create an artificial station in orbit around either planet?"
"I agree with you, Lierva," Kiel admitted after a moment. "But what do you expect me to do about it?" He asked, looking Lierva in the eye. Suddenly, she hesitated. She hadn't anticipated that Kiel already understood, that he felt the same way.
"You know, we haven't heard anything from the lai-nen since we got here," Broah commented, drawing their attention.
"She's right," Kellar added, shaking his head in confusion. "You think they'd have anticipated us coming here after our stop on Kuac2. Strange that they didn't try to stop us then."
"Well, I for one am glad." Gerryls shrugged. "I'd rather not come to a confrontation with the lai-nen, especially since we haven't been given authorization to break the peace."
* * * * *
"Alessia, I need you to do me a favor," Kiel said as the scout party boarded the landing shuttle to descend to Celestian two.
"What kind of favor?" Alessia asked, wondering what it might entail, pausing before she drew on her helmet.
He shook his head, distracted by a sudden thought.
“It’s funny, isn’t it, how you can know a person for so long and never really come to know them? Sometimes we just don’t see what’s staring us in the face.”
“What?” Why was he saying this now?!
“What I mean is that when you think you’ve got all the time in the world–I guess you don’t really pay attention to things. And you don’t allow anything to change, not in your own mind, even something that doesn’t really match your first impression of it.”
“I suppose it’s easier to revert to the same old patterns, rather than to accept the change,” she shrugged, trying to understand him. “Old patterns are hard to break, or rather, hard to break free from. Sometimes you can’t escape them, or else other people won’t allow you to.”
"Yes,” he looked her in the eye, then remembered himself. “Well, I want you to stay here and monitor the surface from the bridge.” He said, watching her reaction. “Actually–the truth is, we need someone to watch for the lai-nen. If you detect their presence in this system, I want you to take the ship into the Great Red Nebula. They won't be able to find it there."
"I don't understand. Why do you want me to stay? Why not Kellar?" She asked, removing her flight helmet, then laughed, remembering Kellar's laments that ever since Kiel3, he was always the one getting left behind.
"Because I trust… your judgment, Alessia.” Kiel replied gravely.
And my sense of duty? She wondered, thinking back to the many battles the explorers had waged against each other on Kiel3.
“So if while we’re gone the lai-nen decide to attack and pursue the ship, I want you to be here to outrun and outmaneuver them.”
She just stared at him, unable to respond.
“Don't worry.” His face cracked a slight smile. “If anything happens, we'll catch up with you after we've finished the atmospheric transformation. Please understand, Alessia. There are things about the lai-nen that we don't fully understand. But whatever else happens, we cannot allow them to take the ship."
"How could they do that?"
Kiel shook his head. "They know the secret of anti-matter production.” He replied gravely. “Ornenkai informed me of this, shortly before we left. So you see, there is a chance that the lai-nen could breach Selesta. But–” he paused. “Not if one of our best remains behind to protect her."
Alessia nodded, suppressing her enthusiasm to go to the surface. "I understand, Kiel. I'll stay on the bridge and keep you informed."
Kiel smiled approvingly. "If nothing goes wrong, Alessia, you can lead the scout party to Celestian one." Alessia's eyes widened, but then she shook her head.
"Kiel, after what you’ve just said–are you sure we have time to tarry in this system considering that the lai-nen are near?"
"Maybe not," he conceded, studying her. "But we were ordered to, and we do what we must.”
Chapter Thirteen
At long last the fragile orb of Seynorynael appeared in the all-encompassing and infinite field of distant stars that created the Great Cluster. The explorers watched as their home world grew in the view monitors throughout Selesta, until the planet's boundaries curved away on the unseen horizon.
As the ship completed its final arc above the sky, daylight descended, baring the land beneath the misty threads of atmospheric vapor. Those who had been watching the final approach into Aryalsynai's largest spaceport noticed the infinite array of space craft coming and leaving; the planet and its two moons, Ishkur and Nanshe, where interracial colonies now thrived, hosted a collection of these vessels in permanent orbits. It proved difficult for Kiel and the others to navigate through the narrow window that allowed them to reach the surface through all the space traffic, but they did so without flinching, used to far greater crises than that of a hectic spaceport.
Moments later, an image appeared in the holo-field on the bridge. The cold image of Marankeil's human clone materialized, glaring down at them with unmoving eyes and careful detachment. Alessia felt suddenly paralyzed by that glare, as though she had reason to fear or remember that gaze, even though her mind tried to reassure her that she had no solid, logical reason to feel as she did.
"Hinev's explorers are welcomed home after their long journey. I extend greeting and invite them to an audience with the Elders." Marankeil’s mechanized voice said, then stopped.
Alessia held her breath, but then she realized that the image and the greeting had only been a recorded message. What? she thought, almost insulted. After all that they had done and considering the importance of their mission, yes, even to the Elder Marankeil himself, he hadn’t even bothered to contact them personally! He could very well have prepared the transmission for general use eons ago, she thought, adding insult to injury.
Yet she had to admit that the Selesta had returned unexpectedly, and without contacting the Federation yet, so it could very well have been that Marankeil and the Federation Council were otherwise occupied and just couldn’t receive them yet but wished to assure them that no insult had been intended, that their return had not been ignored, by sending them a congratulatory message.
The explorers themselves hadn’t expected to return as quickly. Yet the last centipede hole had taken Selesta quite near an untraveled vector close to their own section of the Great Cluster, and they had warped to Seynorynael from there by traveling through a free vector. The others were just as shocked by the message as Alessia was.
As the explorers used their telepathy to look around them, they realized in shock that—
Seynorynael was now the leader of an empire.
* * * * *
Shortly after Selesta’s landing in Aryalsynai, officers arrived to lead the explorers from the ship that had been their home uncounted years to the Seynorynael they had never known.
Hinev’s explorers shared a moment of concealed reservation, then allowed themselves to step across the threshold from Selesta into the Aryalsynai spaceport.
The truth had already began to seep into their minds from the sense of ongoing life around them. They
had tried to keep themselves detached, yet a few oddities gradually drew out their natural curiosity.
The guards wore odd new purple and green colored uniforms unknown since their las departure. The explorers would have asked the guards if any representatives of the Federation Science Building would come to take their data, or if the Martial Scientific Force had yet sent representatives to debrief them, but they had already discovered that the Federation Science Building no longer existed.
How could the planet have changed so much? The explorers wondered, for though many hundreds of thousands of years had passed on the ship, their guide had informed them that only fourteen and a half thousand years had passed since the last departure of Selesta. Part of the reason was that the explorers had journeyed backward in time through a centipede gate on their way home.
Alessia and the others looked into the superficial thoughts of their guard, who turned out to be an officer in something called the Martial Force.
And the Seynorynaelian language itself had changed, dulled through the years and outer world contact. Many of the syllables they used sounded drawn out and lengthened to him in contrast to his own terse and rather harsh enunciation.
Then, as though she had been struck by lightening, Alessia’s feet ground to a halt.
The others came to the same thought in less than a moment.
Their guide was leading them to the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Palace?
The guide felt the sudden pressure descend upon his mind, then shrugged as it quickly departed.
The guide shrugged again, glad he had been chosen to lead them to the Imperial Palace. The other men, his own family and friends would not believe he had come so close to their explorer ancestors!
Where in the Imperial Palace was he taking them? she heard Kiel’s mind push the man towards more relevant thoughts.
To accommodations in the Imperial Palace, of course. At Emperor Marankeil’s order...
Emperor Marankeil?!!
Keil stopped and closed his eyes, then opened them again with pain. There had been little other impediment than Hinev preventing Marankeil from taking over the Federation.
How? Alessia demanded.
The main guard’s understanding of history was rudimentary, so they each searched further, to the minds inhabiting the astroport, Seynorynaelian and alien alike, no longer reluctant, but entirely resolute in their action.
There was information to be had, and they were going to find it.
There was much to learn, as they discovered. It seemed that Marankeil and his Council of Elders, in their embodied clone forms, still governed the planet. But shortly after the explorers had been sent away again, Marankeil had taken over the Federation by force, using his new space fleet. He had subjugated the old conglomeration of planets and created a Seynorynaelian Empire. The oldest constituents had succumbed, seeing the profit to be made by an alliance with the new Emperor. After all, Marankeil controlled the Grand Fleet and all of the system's trading ships, as well as the centipede hole monitors. The rule of the Seynorynaelian Empire led by Marankeil had continued undisputed these past nearly fifteen thousand years.
In contrast, the changing population had advanced in the explorers' absence. Though the proto-telepaths of Alessia's youth had vanished, the general population lived two hundred or more Seynorynaelian years more on average, unless they were of mixed races. And many were. The stigma associated with being half-race children no longer existed because such a great portion of the population was of mixed parentage.
Rather, the prejudices against old constituencies had been re-channeled against new territories and those races who had fought to keep their independence against the Empire. Pure Seynorynaelians still considered themselves slightly superior to all others, for varied reasons: if not for their form, then for their intellect, or for their unusual longevity.
Despite the unparalleled abundance on Seynorynael, a few Marankeil permitted had left that planet to join colonies where their lifespan increased to a thousand or more years, and where they might play a dominant role in their new planet's social and political activities as a reward for their loyalty; the trading ships alone had special passes to all worlds, and moving from one world to another was strictly controlled for ordinary citizens, not least by the cost of such journeys.
Nevertheless there were countless illegal aliens living across the Empire despite the use of capital punishment for any caught illegally living abroad for periods longer than a visiting pass allowed. But the privileged few Seynorynaelians living abroad used their precious visiting passes to return to visit the home world as frequently as they could, to enjoy the bright light of day and rugged beauty of the mountains and the sea, the vast expanses of sacred lyra that had been preserved. Off-world visitors with special occupational all-world passes were also common, as the traffic of a million space ships above the planet suggested.
The spaceship construction that permitted such an amazing number of interplanetary travelers had greatly accelerated shortly after the explorers' second departure. Realizing the danger of the unpredictable natural centipede holes, Marankeil had long ago stopped production on any engines resembling that of Sesylendae, and in time the technology to create an artificial negative pressure singularity engine had been forgotten–deliberately obliterated; only a few of the old ships remained in the Grand Fleet.
However, it did not matter to the Empire–the Grand Fleet's sub-light tachiyon engines were sufficient for travel through and between the centipede holes created or discovered by Selesta. Alessia saw that the military, commercial, and transport vessels' engines had all been based upon the original tachiyon engine design, updated and mass produced for smaller ships.
Only a few merchant ships had attempted the black holes and passage through the black hole gates. The theoretical gates linking black holes to other galaxies and universes had not even been risked by Selesta, but most of the merchants willing to enter them had done so hoping to pass through the time-channels of the black hole and into the past. For profit? Alessia wondered. To tell their past selves what goods would set the fashion?
Or, or perhaps in hopes of changing the past...
The reason no longer mattered. The nearby black hole Kai-rek had mercilessly swallowed all who entered its event horizon or ring singularity. So far, no “black hole gate” had been discovered.
The conquest of the lai-nen civilization while the explorers were gone had provided a wealth of information about the black hole and centipede hole maps and explained why the lai-nen had not appeared to challenge the explorers in the Rigell system; the lai-nen's centipede hole knowledge overlapped some of the explorers' knowledge, but the lai-nen's understanding of the black holes surpassed theirs in a few ways. The lai-nen had also been intrigued by the black holes long before and had lost uncounted ships to its lure; they had discovered the hard way that the centipede holes were the only method of safe space travel.
The explorers discovered that Marankeil's Grand Fleet had followed their footsteps to claim the six galaxy groups so recently discovered by them. As soon as they had left, he had found their connection between Seynorynael's galaxy group in the Great Cluster and galaxy group two, where millions of non-humanoid and humanoid races had thrived until the Seynorynaelian Empire arrived.
Many conquered peoples willing to join the fleet found their own status elevated in the new Empire, though at a great risk. The rebellious native ships that attempted to pass the unmonitored black hole gates near their own systems, back into a time where they could destroy the Empire before it began, simply vanished, lost to time, or space, or the power of the black holes.
And the Seynorynaelian Empire was able to maintain its grip on its infinite worlds with the rapid growth of spaceship technology controlled by Marankeil.
Alessia wondered if the explorer crew's findings about the existence of natural temporal centipede hol
e fluctuations would disturb the Elders, and Marankeil, once they found out. If someone could discover a map throughout time, they might assault and erase the Empire—before it could begin!
But, for all the advances in everyday technology since the Selesta had left, the Empire had never been able to recreate a ship as great as Selesta. Millions of tachiyon-engine ships traveled among the closer Empire worlds of the Great Cluster and galaxy group two regularly, trading and bringing supplies to Seynorynael.
The explorers began to perceive that what they had done to protect the centipede hole gate leading to Kiel3 would likely keep Marankeil from ever reaching the planet, not unless he regained Selesta.
Yet what had happened to Hinev? Had he done nothing to stop Marankeil from subjugating the universe?
It took them a while to find a mind which knew the answer.
* * * * *
One man on Seynorynael had protested against the subjugation of the Federation. During their first mission, he had been called back to Aryalsynai to recreate clones for the Elders, that much they already knew. But it was said that the first return of "Hinev's explorers" had changed him once they departed again, that their departure had infected him with defiant behavior uncharacteristic of a respected citizen, one blessed by the Elders, no doubt given clone incarnations that had allowed him to live so long.
He must have gone mad, the present people thought. For in their histories they learned that Hinev had denounced Marankeil and the Elders and had withdrawn from civilization. He had left Aryalsynai to live in the untamed, dangerous wilds beyond the weather-safe ring, to establish his own colony in the remote province called Celestian, after the planets of the Rigell system.
Legend had it that his descendants still lived there.
Alessia remembered the Feiari delegates they had brought to Seynorynael on their last return and searched for information on their world's reception. She discovered that their planet had been destroyed by a collision ten thousand years ago, and the only survivors were those who had been forced to immigrate to Seynorynael long ago, aristocrats and political leaders held hostage on the Emperor's home world to cripple the planet.