Chapter 34
“… finally, it led us to this situation. This is what remains of Acar, the homeworld of the Kher’Somaaw…”
The android served as a mediator between the big, bulky figures and the humans. They were in another hovercraft, orbiting the red planet. Most of the cities still had various artificial intelligence units active, chaotically trying to make order from the disaster. All intelligent organic life had forsaken the planet.
Klaise and Winter had explained that in their time there was no trace of any of the things that the Kher’Somaaw knew of. They listed the few space-faring cultures that existed in their time and plotted out their homes and domains on a map of the galaxy. The grim-faced figures understood that the galaxy was entirely different from what they knew it to be. They also knew what had occurred, but could not come to believe it.
They were the Harbingers of the Divine, the most elite group of soldiers ever to exist in the Kher’Somaaw ranks. They discussed the truth of the matter at hand in quick tones with the android, who was almost seen as one of their members. Their slow, cracking, groaning voices splintered in the air and seemed to bounce hollowly off the ears of the humans, who felt as if they were listening to an orchestra of metaphysical sparks.
The Harbingers of the Divine had completed their mission successfully, only to return to an empty and lifeless planet. Some great disaster had occurred on Acar, but they could not place it, for they had been gone only an instant! Then they had found the android frantically signaling them on a high-priority channel and had gone to investigate. He had told them all about his experience with the Skyrrnians and of Acar’s future.
Together, they deduced the effects and the power of the time manipulation device. It had shredded a huge hole through time and if left unchecked, would do so again, possibly causing exponential damage to the galaxy. The more elements were changed, the more drastically different the galaxy would be. They feared that eventually, the galaxy might even cease to exist, or become a place so entirely different it would be unable to support life.
They thought that they could try to undo the damage they had done and in the process maybe even save some of the lives that had perished, but the risk was simply too great. The device threatened to rip apart space, and it had to be extinguished as soon as it could without further being used. The Kher’Somaaw’s power had gotten the better of them, and they had to expunge it. They would have to move quickly before they, the Harbingers of the Divine, would unwillingly wreak their “divine judgment” upon their own people and all the species that lived and ever would live in the galaxy.