Exodus
My first serious writing attempt at age 13.
Prologue
Through the expanse of space, the shining of the light in the darkness, is the light we must reach for, however futile. For there is no light without the dark-and that is where Humanity, masters of their world, will face their first and most daunting challenge.
The stars shone with a brilliant brightness, even here, light years away, in the vastness of the interstellar void. A certain star-not any brighter than the others, yet unique in a way: Sol. The home of Humanity. Millions of years ago, on the vast plains of the African continent, a few tree dwelling primates learned to walk upright on two legs-their descendants learned to use tools, to use fire, and grew bigger brains. Every step they took moved them farther and farther away from their animal ancestry.
Eventually, they learned to speak, to farm, to write, to smelt metal, to make gunpowder, to make gleaming towers of steel and glass, to harness the power of the atom, and, their most impressive achievement yet, they went to the place where no other being yet known reached-man reached the final frontier, space. But mankind’s achievements and endless growth did not stop here-first he unified the planet under one government, then he colonized the planets Venus and Mars, and got to work making them in the image of Mother Earth.
But then, a war struck.
This war was known as the War for Sol, an interplanetary conflict between two autocratic empires in the Inner Planet Alliance, the Martian Hegemony and the Holy Venusian Empire, against the Collective’s predecessor, the lunar ecumenopolis of Luna Orpheus and its colonies and allies. The war cost tens of billions of lives on both sides, but the advanced technology and boundless morale of Luna Orpheus won the war, and the Venusians and the Martians surrendered in 2112, after a full three decades of ceaseless war. The Treaty of Mercurius formed the Collective, as to prevent such a disastrous war from ever happening again. And so a golden age began. The Great Age of Mankind.
At the dawn of the 22nd century, as Man expanded beyond his small domain and throughout the solar system, Man began to wonder, were there any beings like him out there, in the nigh-infinite Universe, or was he the mediocre apex of life, unchallenged master of his domain. Man, in his infinite arrogance and ignorance, concluded that he, indeed, was the only being who had reached this level of development in the entire history of the Universe-that he, indeed, was incredibly special.
Little did he know, his rule was about to be challenged.
Part One-
Modus Operandi
How does one commit a criminal act when one has a mind thrice removed from human minds? How can you hope to understand such a being?
Chapter 1
Dr. Lawrence, or ‘Doc’, as everyone called him, was a white haired, skinny, and tall white man with brown eyes and a unassuming appearance. He was not pleased with his position as Senior Astrophysicist of ES-69, a research station at the fringes of Collective space, under the jurisdiction of the Association of the Sciences, located on the desolate asteroid of Eros. A laid-back sort of guy, his appearance concealed his great skills. In fact, he was one of the most intelligent people in the entire solar system, with a record IQ of 232, and with many achievements under his belt, with a Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the Lawrence Equation, an equation which was crucial to the creation of the first Kugeblitz black hole. Sadly, it only made his current job more and more uninteresting. His job was to sift through mountains of data generated by the huge space telescope drilled into the side of the asteroid, in case if there was something interesting.
He turned to look at his calendar. January 12, 2176. It had been a month since he first arrived here, and he was leaving on the 16th on the cycler. He was not sad to go. Ironically, his 40th birthday was on that very day.
“Why couldn’t they just place me at a place like Plucharon, where there at least are more than a few people around, or around the cylinder at Neptune, where everything doesn’t look dead and gone,” he thought.
“Well, at least I’m not stuck on Io, what a relief. Who wants to be on that hellhole year-round?!”
Only then did he realize he was speaking out loud. Shawn Trigos, an intern from the Academy, a young, vigorous, and attractive young man of 21 with brown hair, brown skin, and blue eyes poked his head inside Lawrence’s room. As the intern of the great Dr. Lawrence, he was a very intelligent guy, but also laid-back, just like his boss.
“You all right, doc? I know this job isn’t very interesting nor very enlightening-I wish I was stationed somewhere else too-but cheer up! We’re going back to Mars in a couple days on the cycler,” he said.
“I know, I know. I just wish that I wasn’t here in the first place. The only good thing about this place is that it doesn’t stink,” he chuckled.
Lawrence got dressed and walked to the observation room.
“Time for the daily survey, eh?”
“Yeah,” Shawn replied.
“I’ll do the observations today, you do the data processing.”
Lawrence began activating the telescope for the scan, and Shawn went to the data processing unit so he could run through the data to sift for interesting occurrences. Recently, there had been nothing of interest for a while now.
A couple of hours of searching had come and went. Nothing. This was turning out to be another boring day at the Exclusionary Site.
“…Well, it could be worse, and we’re going back to Mars in a couple of days,” he thought.
Suddenly, Shawn came into the room.
“What is it?”
“It’s an anomaly,” Shawn replied.
“Really?”
Lawrence looked at the data for a couple of minutes, then looked up.
“Another false alarm.”
“Dammit.”
Shawn left the room, and Lawrence began controlling the telescope again.
Suddenly, he heard a shout.
“Lawrence, come here! This is absurd!,” Shawn shouted.
“What, what!?”
“Look at this.”
Lawrence stared at the screen in disbelief.
“C-Call the Association, now!”
Chapter 2
Robert Lawrence, brother of the esteemed astrophysicist Doctor Charles Lawrence, and Chairman of the Association was being swamped by reporters from across the solar system, here on Orpheus One, capitol of the Collective. A well-built, handsome man with jet-black hair, white skin, and brown eyes, whose two characteristics were the only similarities he shared with his brother, as he was very organized and hardworking-and quite intelligent, just not as much as his brother. Today, he was annoyed.
“What does this data mean?”
“Is it true that Proxima Centauri has disappeared?
“How and when did it disappear?
“If Proxima Centauri is gone, will it appear again?”
“What does this mean for the Proxima colony? Has there been any signals from the colony so far?”
“What does this mean for the stellaser that was being built there?
“I am terribly sorry, we do not have any further information at this time, but we will hold a press conference as soon as we have more information about this bizarre occurrence,” Robert said.
Robert, escorted by his security guards equipped with graphene armor, opened the door to his lev-car, and slipped inside. “Chairman, where to?,” his robotic driver asked.
“The Association Headquarters,” Robert exhaled.
“Very well sir, the trip should take approximately 5 minutes.”
As the lev-car began to move, Robert began to think about all the things that happened today.
“Brother, what should we do, what should we do…”
Robert felt the lev-car stop, and he stepped out and looked up towards the gigantic pitch-black pyramid that obscured his view.
Somehow, it made him feel apprehensive.
The Pyramid of Orpheus One was one of the largest buildings to be built in human history-it served a purpose similar to the ‘White House’ of the old American nation.
Robert took a deep breath, and walked inside.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Hello, Chairman,” the automated assistant said.
“What floor?”
“The 1000th,” Robert replied.
The mag-lev elevator began to move upwards. Robert could not feel it, but he knew he was moving at hundreds of miles per hour-but he felt like he was standing still. The elevator’s arrival on the thousandth floor was signaled by a ding, and he stepped out of the elevator. The immensity and majesty of the room was great, and the contour lines of the glinting walls and ceiling bellied this work of art. He walked through the immense corridor, and into the meeting hall. Little did he know, that what he would say today would be taught to future generations for millennia to come.
“Welcome, Chairman! Hurry, everyone is here. Let us begin the meeting,” said his secretary.
Robert hurried into the conference room, and sat down at the desk reserved for the chairman of the Association.
“So, what’s the situation?”
“...”
No one spoke up.
“Out with it!”
“Sir, we aren’t even sure what happened,” said a young astrophysicist.
“Well, what do you know?”
“Well, on January 12th, 13:34, a day ago, ES-69's telescope detected a decrease of 99% of luminosity from Proxima Centauri... and it hasn’t appeared again since.”
“How can a star disappear?!,” shouted Robert.
“We can’t be sure of that, sir.”
“We have a couple ideas, however,” said an elderly physicist.
“It seems that something either is blotting out the light from the star entirely, or the star has indeed disappeared-both scenarios cannot be caused by any known natural astronomical phenomena,” explained the physicist.
“Your s-saying...”
“That is not all, precisely when the star disappeared, our colony stopped sending signals. Sir, this has only one reasonable explanation. This disappearance of Proxima Centauri and our colony is due to the activities of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.”
A silence enveloped the room.
“A-Are you sure? We haven’t even discovered alien life at all yet. But, if what you are saying is true, do you think these aliens are hostile?,” asked Robert.
“Think about this as well. Everything that happened over there happened over 4 years ago. Whatever could have destroyed our colony and Proxima may be on its way right now,” elaborated the physicist.
“Then... what do you suggest?”
“Prepare for the worst-but do not tell the public until you absolutely must. Make a cover story that the star was snuffed out because it was absorbed by Alpha or Beta, and our colony was destroyed in the event.”
“Let’s have a vote,” said Robert.
“Say ‘Aye’ if you are in favor of releasing this information to the public.”
No one raised their hand.
“Say ‘Aye’ if you are in favor of carrying out our senior physicist’s plan,” said Robert.
All of the people in the meeting, 15 in total, replied with a resounding ‘Aye’.
“It is decided then. Let the preparations begin.”
Chapter 3
Two weeks after the meeting, Robert travelled to the Pyramid again to greet his brother. So far, the preparations were going smoothly-the press bought the cover story, and preliminary preparations were going on with the creation of a Grand Navy.
“He said he would be here…but where is he?”
He looked at his watch.
“Well, well, well, look who’s here.”
Robert looked up.
“Charles! You’re finally here!,” exclaimed Robert.
Behind Lawrence, Shawn was standing awkwardly behind him.
“Who is this, Charles? The intern?,” asked Robert.
“Yes, his name is Shawn,” answered Lawrence.
“Hello, and nice to meet you, Chairman,” said Shawn.
“Likewise.”
“I presume we have much to talk about with the Association?,” asked Lawrence.
Robert nodded his head and motioned for Shawn and Lawrence to follow him.
“So, what’s up with Proxima Centauri? It’s still gone,” said Shawn.
“…you’ll see soon enough,” responded Robert.
Robert, Lawrence, and Shawn got into the lev-car.
“Where to, sir?” asked the robotic driver.
“The Pyramid,” replied Robert.
“It’ll take 10 minutes, sir.”
“Robert, since we are now in the car, would you mind extrapolating on the current situation?,” asked Lawrence.
“Well…are you willing to believe me?,” replied Robert.
“Robert, you know that we both trust each other,” sighed Lawrence.
“Very well. On January 12th, 13:34, you and Shawn detected the disappearance of Proxima Centauri and our colony. Based on concurrent evidence, the disappearance was perpetrated by a non-human intelligence.”
“What? Are you sure?,” exclaimed Shawn.
“I feared that something along those lines was the case…,” murmured Lawrence.
“Yes, but we are not sure what kind of intelligence it is and whether it destroyed our colony on purpose,” explained Robert.
“On purpose? Of course they destroyed our colony on purpose. There’s no way they didn’t know what they were doing!,” exclaimed Shawn.
“We can’t jump to conclusions, Shawn. What my brother is saying here is a reasonable assessment of the situation. What is the Association doing about it?,” said Lawrence.
“We are preparing for the worst,” replied Robert.
“A wise plan. How long do you think it will take them to reach us if we are indeed their next target?,” asked Lawrence.
“We don’t know how fast they travel-all we can be sure is that they likely can go much faster than us.”
“So, we have less than a decade, possibly,” said Lawrence.
“In the most optimistic scenario.”
“This is very concerning.”
“Do we know anything about the aliens? At all?,” asked Shawn.
“Well, yes. We know that they are far more advanced than us, and that they are likely a Type II civilization, given that they destroyed a star,” replied Robert.
“A high type I against a type II… this does not look good for us,” remarked Lawrence.
“We are not too behind-we have an incomplete Dyson Swarm, and we have the advantage in resources and the home front,” said Shawn.
“Well, if these aliens aren’t looking for a fight, it would be best to let them be,” said Lawrence.
“That’s a big if,” said Robert.
“We can only hope,” said Shawn.
Suddenly, there was a ‘ding’ sound.
“We have arrived at the Pyramid, sire,” said the robot driver.
“Well, let’s get in!,” exclaimed Robert.
Robert, Shawn, and Lawrence got out of the lev-car and walked to the west entrance to the Pyramid. They strolled into the building and into a vacant elevator.
“What floor, sir?,” the robotic assistant asked in a pleasant voice.
“The 1000th floor,” answered Robert.
“Very well, sir, setting course for the 1000th floor.”
It took less than a minute to arrive to the selected floor, but it felt like an eternity to Robert, Shawn, and Lawrence.
“…”
The inside of the elevator was silent.
“Ding!”
The elevator doors opened, and Robert, Shawn, and Lawrence stepped out.
“The conference room is this way,” said Robert.
Shawn and Lawrence walked behind Robert to the doors.
“Listen up-be as cordial as possible. These people are the most esteemed scientists in the solar system, so be on your best behavior.”
“Understood,” said Shawn and Lawrence in unison.
The door opened with a ‘clack’, and the trio entered. The 14 scientists and scholars that were present at the central table all turned their faces towards them.
“Finally, they’re here!,” exclaimed the elderly scientist.
“Sorry for the delay, there was a bit of traffic,” Robert apologized.
“It’s fine, chairman.”
“Thanks for understanding,” said Robert.
“No problem, sir.”
“Well, let us start the meeting,” exclaimed Robert.
In the meeting, Shawn and Lawrence heard about the disappearance, the preliminary preparations that had began, and the true significance of their discovery.
“Well, did you send a radio message towards Proxima?,” asked Lawrence, after he had heard about the preliminary preparations.
“We did, but we aren’t even sure whether the aliens, whoever they are, are even coming towards us. We are just preparing for the worst,” replied the elderly scientist.
“Currently, the Association on Mars is monitoring in the direction of Proxima Centauri, both for any signals, and for the reappearance of the star,” elaborated Robert.
Suddenly, a ‘Bra-a-a-ng!’ was heard. Everyone turned their heads towards the source of the sound. The holo-screen resonated with red light, which meant a urgent message had been sent.
“What? What’s this?,” exclaimed Robert, who was interacting with the screen.
“Oh…Oh…Oh my god…”
Chapter 4
Robert’s eyes widened and his mouth gaped.
“Robert! What’s going on?,” asked Lawrence, with concern.
“…”
Robert was silent for a moment.
“There’s been a message beamed towards us from the direction of Proxima Centauri. The signal matches up with the colony’s transmitter-and it seems to have been sent right after the destruction of the colony.”
Gasps ran the room.
“What does it say!?,” exclaimed Lawrence.
A silence swept the room as everyone waited for Robert’s answer.
“It has been translated as a form of old Latin-it means ‘Forthwith we are coming, with the greater good you resist,’ but we have not translated the complete message.”
Confusion and panic filled the room.
“Everyone calm down!,” shouted Lawrence.
An elderly scientist muttered, “These entities apparently know much about our culture and language...”.
“So…this means that there is not doubt about it?,” asked Shawn.
“Yes, the message has been reviewed by our crypto-analysts almost a hundred times.”
A morbid silence swept the room.
“But how are you sure?,” asked Shawn.
“What do you mean?,” replied Robert with a quizzical expression.
“Well, y’know, like in science fiction, where the aliens are testing humanity. Doesn’t this seem a bit too obvious?”
“Preposterous! You th-,” Robert exclaimed.
“Robert, he has a point,” interrupted Lawrence.
Before any further discussion could be determined, an alarm rang out on Robert’s screen. It was yet another urgent message. But from whom this time?
Robert stared at the screen for a second.
“H-how is this possible?!”
“What is it!?,” asked Lawrence.
“The advance station on Apollo is gone. No, the entire planet has been destroyed!!”
“B-b-by what?!,” exclaimed Shawn.
“…”
“Don’t tell me… from Proxima Centauri?,” questioned Lawrence.
“It’s in the same direction, but we shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions just yet-“
“I knew it!,” yelled Lawrence.
“These aliens would have sent some sort of advance attack of some sort towards us, it’s too convenient! Quick, check if anything is out of the ordinary near the remains of Apollo!”
“We now have footage from a nearby station, by way of hyper-relay,” said Robert.
He opened, the footage, then pressed play. The screen showed an ordinary, usual Apollo, until a blinding flash of light appeared on the northern side of the planet, and when the light dimmed enough for details to be seen clearly, it showed a field of debris and molten plasma and an almost vaporized Apollo-and there it was! An unmistakably metal object, which at this distance was quite small-looking, but when the telescope zoomed in enough, it was seen that this object was a rhomboidal crystal, made of what looked like some sort of metal-but in sharp contrast to it’s surroundings, the crystal was unscathed.
The crystal was emitting large amounts of gamma radiation, the measurement devices showed, and it seemed to be exponentially increasing in size.
“W-what is it doing?, asked Shawn with a shocked expression.
“It looks like it’s… somehow absorbing the plasma and expanding itself. Could it be-a Von Neumann machine?,” said Lawrence.
Suddenly, the crystal stopped emitting radiation, and it stopped absorbing matter.
“Huh? Why did it stop?,” asked Robert with a confused tone.
It then proceeded to begin accelerating with alarming speed, away from the ruins of Apollo it had created.
A great argument began in the conference room, about what in the world that crystal was.
So, it was not a surprise when no one saw that the crystal was heading closer and closer to the inner solar system, at speeds more than a fourth the speed of light.
Chapter 5
Four weeks later, Admiral Kellor Nasmar Jr, leader of the 21st Fleet, was bored.
He had been manning his station for over 5 months now, deep in the Kuiper Belt, leading a fleet of a couple hundred thousand antique battleships and a few tens of thousands of Cannoneers. He wanted some action, but after the Treaty of Mercurius over 60 years ago, little to no conflicts had broken out in the Solar System. Kellor envied his father, the great Commander of the Luna Orpheus Fleet, who had defeated Venusian and Martian fleets and led Luna Orpheus to victory, whilst sacrificing himself at the final Battle of Mercury, destroying the Gravity Render Field generator and saving the day. He was only 5 at the time, and his 67th birthday was in a few months. A gruff and heavy-set Chinese man with gray hair and black eyes, Kellor was a capable commander, as he had fought with scavengers and bandits in the post-Sol War era. He didn’t want to admit it, but he missed his father, and rather looked like and acted like him.
In his long, cone-shaped flagship, over 15 kilometers long, he surveyed the rest of his fleet. Only his ship and a few others held men-the rest were remote controlled, but they were almost identical in appearance-Regulars. That way, he did not need much manpower and in case of defeat, less casualties. His fleet was mostly of the cone-shaped kind, but there were a group of ships with a different shape-a long cylinder with a front end that could open like a flower-his Cannoneers.
“Hmph,” Kellor sighed.
All was normal-and boring.
Suddenly, an operator sitting in the detection station hurried over to him and exclaimed,
“Sire, we have an unidentified ship approaching the fleet hot at 2 o’clock, speed 0.26 c!”
“What!?,” Kellor shouted.
Kellor was shocked.
“…”
After a moment of indecision, he gave the order for all men to go to battlestations and for the rest of the remote controlled fleet of ships to get into position. As the blip in his detection screen got closer and closer, he finally made out the ship from a distance-it was a crystal-like rhomboid, with a smooth, metallic surface.
“What the…”
The crystal visibly slowed down in front of the 21st Fleet, and came to a stop a couple thousand kilometers away. It was huge-it towered over the fleet, at over 1,000 kilometers tall. Kellor regained his cool and hailed the ship.
“Unidentified ship, identify yourself, we are the 21st Fleet of the Collective!,” said Kellor as he hailed the ship.
There was no verbal response-instead, the crystal began spinning rapidly.
“Sire, the radiation levels of the crystal are skyrocketing!,” yelled an operator.
“Ready the shield field and prepare to engage!,” Kellor shouted.
Suddenly, the crystal released a huge radiation blast towards the fleet-and was barely reflected by the shield field.
“I’m gonna blow you to kingdom come! FIRE!!!,” Kellor shouted with all his might.
From the massed ships of Cannoneers, a bright iridescent field emerged, and hit the crystal with terrible energy-but the crystal was unscathed.
“It has an electromagnetic shield, it seems. Why don’t we use the gravity field instead?”
This time, the entire space the fleet occupied visibly began rippling, and a invisible shockwave hit the crystal. When the proverbial smoke cleared, The crystal was showed to be heavily damaged.
“Fire another volley! Blast this thing back to the darkness from whence it came!”
The ships shot volley after volley of gravitational pulses towards the crystal. Eventually, finally the crystal stopped emitting radiation all-together.
“Did we do it?,” asked Kellor.
“I think so…,” an operator replied.
“Report this to command immediately-we are returning to Luna Orpheus,” said Kellor-he left no room for argument.
***
For the third time in two months, the members of the Association’s Council met at the Pyramid.
“Have we found the location of the crystal yet?,” Lawrence asked.
“Yes, and the Council of the Collective will be joining us,” said Robert.
Gasps ran the room.
“The Council?”
“Truly the Council will be joining us?”
“How big is this issue?!”
“Everyone, calm down!,” Robert shouted.
Everyone became silent.
“They are going to be joining us virtually shortly. Wait, they are here.”
Suddenly on the holo-screen, a couple of faces were shown. They were of the Council and it’s president.
“Hello, sire,” said Robert.
“No need for pleasantries, let us begin the briefing,” said the Council President, a bald, white skinned man with blue eyes.
Robert explained the situation and the need for more observation to the best of his ability-but when he was done, the Council President told him a surprise.
“No need, Admiral Kellor Nasmar Jr. and the 21st Fleet successfully met and destroyed the crystal in battle using gravitational pulses.”
“What!?,” said an open-mouthed Robert.
“B-but then…”
“Yes, they attacked us first, so we know they have hostile intentions,” said a member of the Council.
After a couple more minutes, the meeting adjourned, and Robert and Lawrence were the only ones left in the room.
“Robert, you know what this means right?,” Lawrence asked.
“…War it is, war it must be,” replied Robert in a shaky tone.
“Only time will tell whether this is the right decision or not-until then, all we can do is hope-and prepare,” said Lawrence with resignation.
Chapter 6
All around the solar system, the great industrial might of Man began to create great, and terrible, and powerful weapons of war on a scale never seen before. Instead of weapons that destroyed cities, Man now designed and made weapons that could decimate planets. Man created new types of spaceships and engines, designed to carry and power these monstrous weapons. Man fortified his planets and cities with great shields of energy and power. Man prepared and prepared and prepared for half a decade. Alas, one thing was consistent with the mentality of man-the drive for more, the drive to succeed-and most importantly, to survive.
These preparations mirrored the actions of nations and empires in advance of the wars of old-but with one difference. The terrible destructive power and carnal lust for death and destruction which is present in every human being, was, instead of being used to kill their own kin, for the first time in Man’s lengthy career, channeled into an irresistible force for a ‘greater good’-for a war for the survival of the human race, to defeat these alien and unsympathetic and inhuman beings, to fight for Man, and man as one. As in the face of a common threat, Humanity will surely unite.
But would it be enough? As time drove on, and Man’s military force increased, people began to doubt. What if these preparations were all but futile? Besides, Man was faced with perhaps the most powerful enemy-a enemy possibly eons older than the earliest man-ape on the African savanna, aliens that may have destroyed uncountable stars and planets in the great heavens. What could Man hope to do that would do more than agitate these entities? And, the most horrifying thought of all-what if by attacking these aliens, Man made an enemy of an even larger threat?
If these beings had destroyed Proxima Centauri for whatever unfathomable reason they had in mind, and they did not care about humanity, what horrid things could they do to us, if we attacked them first? Should we not be careful where we tread, lest we anger a slumbering god? Humanity began to doubt. They had made these mistakes before, and, scarred with the memory of the last war on Earth, were not fond of repeating them. And hence, Man faced his most deadly enemy of all—himself. His own self-doubt undermined his preparations, and left him vulnerable to attack.
And in this state, this state of self-doubt and insincerity, is where Man faced his greatest opponent.
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