Song of the Void

”Sometimes it’s difficult for people to accept good things happening to them. They’re used to facing adversity and not getting help from others. They are used to fighting for every inch of ground they manage to travel on the journey to their goals. At best, other people are apathetic towards their goals, hopes, and dreams. At worst, the ‘others’ will do everything they can to see you go down in a glorious blaze of failure. Usually, these people that have trouble accepting the kindness of others are also fairly selfish, for the simple reason that since no one will help them, they will not do anything for others either. Is it any wonder that they regard any good turn of events with suspicion? Any hand extended towards them must hide a weapon. Every clear path must be trapped. Every fortunate turn of events is just a precursor for worse disappointment. These people are trapped in a vicious cycle, but you can’t really blame them considering how they got there.”

- High Ambassador of the Mrrroww

--------

“We got what we came for. And a bit more in fact.” Selendil declared as she teleported out of the containment chamber. “You are free to spend the rest of the time we have exploring and studying the place. Just remember that the facility is not safe. There are still enemies around, and we can’t be sure that the Dawn Collective can’t come up with a way to make things difficult for us.”

"Speaking of, they figured out that shooting at the ship is not a good idea as all missed shots hit their megaprojects and the ship can dodge any incoming fire easily from this distance. They also figured out that we will defend this facility for as long as you're on board so they are now firing directly at the facility, forcing us to use our own shields to block that incoming fire. It’s not a problem yet, but they are bringing more weapon systems online on the surface of the planet.” Haven reported.

“I’ve been wondering about something for a while now. Are the Dawn Collective forces outside the system aware of what’s going on? I mean, the sudden silence of this system might raise some questions.” Xiaoli pointed out a potential issue.

“We have kept up a facsimile of regular communications with Haven, but we’re getting stretched pretty thin here. Sooner or later they will figure things out if they haven't already." Nox admitted. Holding back all the AI’s and faking all the outgoing communications was burdening the AIs quite heavily. Sooner or later mistakes would sneak through the cracks.

“In that case, I think we can leave after we check out the most important part of the facility, the place where all the magic happens.” Nochehuatl decided for everyone. They already got to see Dhar systems at work on Selendil’s ship, so they really only needed to see the part that made this facility special to sate their curiosity.

Selendil led them through the corridors with unerring accuracy. Most of the enemy units had already figured out the futility of their attacks, so they stayed out of the way and stuck with monitoring instead. The main fabrication area was not far from the reactor, though the facility had a lot of smaller fabrication areas further from the center. The enormous chamber they entered really exceeded their expectation. The facility had large extractor beams that ran through the entire length of the facility and those extractors all converged the gathered materials into this room. The extractors could be used to draw materials from anything ranging from black holes and neutron stars to simple meteors.

All the extracted materials were then channeled here where the industrial nanites were used to construct everything you could imagine. The process looked like sand looking particles all converging and coming together inside large beams of liquid light. Eventually, those grains of sand formed something useful, after which large arms tipped with crystalline tools handled any machining that was easier done mechanically than on molecular level. The crystalline tools looked like enormous spider legs that shot beams of bright lights ranging from thin enough to be barely visible to thick beams of laser that made large holes in pretty much anything. The weirdest part was that at some points time seemed to slow down and speed up as fields similar to the stasis equipment used on Selendil’s ship were applied to the ongoing work. Sometimes the fabricator also seemed to create gravitic anomalies for reasons they did not understand.

“Yeah, I think I can now understand the basic gist of it.” Moonshadow muttered with awe. “I mean, I wouldn’t be able to explain how anything works, but I think I get the basic idea. No wonder almost anything can be created here.”

Nochehuatl gave a sigh that sounded more like a mix between a hiss and a sneeze. “I wish we could take it with us for further study.” He stated wistfully.

“I mean, we can," Selendil said, surprising everyone. “Sort of. We can take the central unit along, but its usefulness is somewhat limited without the extractors feeding it raw materials. It’s the extractors that make up the majority of the facility. The processing unit is rather minor in size, all things considered. Besides, the extractors are already empty of most usable material as they moved the facility away from the original position. The Dawn Collective isn't even using this main processing unit anymore, as it's meant for precise and complicated projects and not the large scale simple fabrication that the outer fabricators are used for. I doubt the enemy would even realize this is gone for some time.”

“Uh, then do you mind? I would love to study it under better conditions. The nano-fabricators on board the Enduring Symphony are already great for study, but this one would be even better.” Nochehuatl asked with a hopeful tone.

"Sure," Selendil replied and waved one of her tails in the direction of the central unit. The mechanism and the spider-like arms seemed to fold on themselves and started shrinking. Suddenly the mechanism was surrounded by a bright light, and a small orb the size of a fist floated into Selendil’s hand. “Here we go.”

“I didn’t realize it was so portable…” Xiaoli muttered in shock.

"Most everything we ever created is easily portable if you know how to do it," Selendil replied with a shrug. They all turned and looked at the large extractors that had been left behind. Now they looked like empty funnels that didn't lead anywhere. They looked a little sad all abandoned like that. “Time to go.” Selendil decided and received nods from the others.

-----

“Everyone’s safely on board. Incidentally, the enemy stopped firing on the facility as soon as you left. It seems they aren’t quite sure what to do.” Nox reported as Selendil teleported to the bridge.

"The ship is ready to leave as soon as you want," Amaterasu added, she had stayed behind to keep things running on the ship.

“Before we do, there’s a matter I want to address. Specifically the matter of what to do with the Dawn Collective and the facility.” Selendil declared.

“So you’ve made a decision?” Moonshadow asked over the comms. Most of the people who had come along to the facility were still making their way back from the shuttles.

“In a manner of speaking. When it comes to utilizing the facility, I have to admit that their crime is one of not knowing better. They didn’t rifle through the ruins of our civilization to get the facility either. To add to the problem, the ones who took the facility are the creators of the current Dawn Collective. The current Collective is merely using technology that they think was abandoned. No, the greater crime is what happened to the VI of the facility. On that front, I think it's fair to say they committed something akin to murder. As the one who was lost was the VI, I think it's only fair that Nox and Haven are the ones to decide the appropriate punishment.” Selendil explained her decision.

“That’s…fair, I suppose. Though, one could argue that the creators are at fault for the death of the VI as well.” Moonshadow pointed out. She wasn’t really feeling like defending the Dawn Collective, but she was playing the devil’s advocate.

"True, but in this case, the synthetics also directly benefitted from that death, and they have made no attempt at recompense. Besides, I never claimed to be a fair judge handling a court case in the name of justice." Selendil shot the argument down.

The others remained quiet as the two AIs silently discussed their decision. As their discussion moved at a speed imperceptible by others, the discussion only took a few seconds. “A punishment is in order. They must also be made aware of the crime they are being punished for. We will make sure they are aware. At first we thought it would be fair to make sure that the creators are the ones to suffer the punishment by firing on their stasis pods, but we rejected the idea for two reasons. For one, we can’t be sure to hit the ones that made the decisions and a total genocide doesn’t seem like an appropriate response. Secondly, if we kill them while they sleep, then the enemy synthetics might know why their creators died, but the creators themselves won’t. They would only die in their sleep.” Haven stated.

Nox picked up the explanation. “So we decided that a response in kind would be fair. They struck at a VI, so we will strike at their synthetic intelligences. They used parts of the VI they killed to create that intelligence, so it’s only fair we take that back. Since we have free access to their networks at their very core, the two of us can create a virus that will strike at the parts of their intelligence that come from the VI. To avoid unintended consequences, we will also make sure that the virus will curb their aggression.”

“What exactly will the results be, and how long will this take?” Selendil asked. She liked their decision but also realized it was something that would not happen immediately. The two AIs didn’t have a virus like that ready and waiting after all, and they still had to keep the enemy inactive while developing one.

“The synthetics have already reached sentience and will not lose that just because some parts of them are curbed, but their processing ability will go down significantly. It is also likely that they will be effectively paralyzed for a time, the length of which will depend on how they will decide to tackle the issue. The paralysis could last a few years. As for time, it will take us about twenty hours to create the virus. We are familiar with the parts they took from the VI so they will be easy to isolate, but curbing their aggression will take longer. We will need to stay here though, as this is the best place to spread the virus from, so that it reaches the whole of the Dawn Collective.” Nox hedged the estimate a bit. They could be done faster, but it was better to be prepared for potential problems.

“We also can’t be entirely sure how this will affect the Collective. If they fight the virus directly, it will take them longer to deal with it, but the effects will be lessened significantly. If they will try to evolve around the blocks we place instead, then the results will be very unpredictable. They might turn into pacifists or they might decide that finishing the megaproject is not in their interest after all.” Haven finished with the AI equivalent of a mental shrug. In this case quite literally as they were all sent a hologram of a random person shrugging.

“So wait. For the next few years, all their ships will be dead in space?” Moonshadow asked with sudden interest.

“Yes. That’s part of their punishment.” Nox knew why the Mrrroww Ambassador had asked the question. After all, the two races were at war. And the Mrrroww were sure to take advantage of the situation.

“In that case, I’m all for it. I doubt they will become more aggressive since they’re already attacking everyone around them and we can likely hit their ship production in these few years.” She agreed eagerly.

“Yeah, I'm sure your opinion is completely objective," Amaterasu said a little sarcastically, but she didn't have anything against the idea either. "I'm guessing the enemy will manage to send some ships from outside this system to attack us in these twenty hours though."

“That remains to be seen.” Nox replied simply. “I don’t think we have to worry too much though. If Selendil can get the main power core running, then there’s very little they can do to threaten us.”

--------

Selendil had run every test and scan she could think of, and had gone over every nanometer of the three power cores they had found inside the facility. She was convinced there had to be some sort of trap here, but she couldn’t find one. The two seeds would require some work done by her to make them fully ready to be used, but that only required time. The one core that had been utilized before would not give as much power as a new one, but it would still dwarf the amount of power they currently had available by a million times. They would actually be able to run the ship’s systems properly.

“Did you find anything?” Selendil asked while running a final check on the core.

“In a manner of speaking. The VI had deleted most of the data to stop it from falling into the hands of the Dawn Collective. It had removed any direct reference to the cores to prevent the Collective from trying to force their way into the containment chamber. However, there was something I think might help explain things. Apparently, almost all of the facilities around the Eternal Empire were ordered to stock up on pretty much anything they could make just before the Dhar all passed." Nox replied.

Selendil frowned. “I don’t remember any order like that.”

“You were a little distracted at the time. So was I. And we were likely left outside that order, as it wasn’t meant for us. Have you checked any of the memories left behind by the Dhar you are Keeping from that time?” Nox knew the answer to that question. But it had to be asked anyway.

"I have not," Selendil replied a little angrily. "And you know why. I don't want to relive the final moments of our people again."

“I can understand that. But you might find some answers in those memories.” Nox pointed out. The AI actually already knew what Selendil would find, but thought it was important that she took the step by herself.

Selendil had to struggle with herself. She knew Nox had realized something, and likely knew more than what had been mentioned so far. The AI would not be pushing her like this without a good reason. Facing the fall of her people again was not easy though. It cut right into the heart of her grief and all the things she was trying to suppress. She didn’t want to relive those moments again. But she had to find out. She chose to delve into the memories of one of the final leaders of their race.

She was shocked by what she found. The male Dhar was feeling the sadness over the death of their race, but he was also resigned to it. There was acceptance. The feeling of moving on. And hope. Hope that Selendil herself might still be able to achieve something and bring their name forward so that it would not be forgotten. Towards that end, the leader and others had made preparations. There wasn’t all that much they could do, but they could do some things to help her.

All the various facilities were ordered to stock up on supplies. The warship power cores were distributed into every galaxy, so that every galaxy they had controlled would have at least one functioning one and one seed. There was also a list of such storage facilities in his memories. The list was meant for her. He knew she would eventually go through some of the memories, and he also knew he would be among the first that she would do so. They had been acquainted after all. In another lifetime, with both of them following different paths, they might have been something more, but that was all in the distant past. A possibility lost to fates.

"They were left for me," Selendil whispered quietly, holding back a wave of emotions. Her earlier grief had been diminished by the good feelings and hope of the leader and others of his kind.

“So they were. A final farewell gift.” Nox replied. There had been fragments of a message to that effect among the data she had recovered.