Astralis - The war people

A.J. Mitar

Translated by Maria Burnett

Copyright © 2023 by A.J. Mitar

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Author e-mail: aj@ajmitar.com

Author website: www.ajmitar.com

This novel is dedicated to all the special people who have accompanied my Life and made it complete, especially my family and friends...

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Only through love will

humans express

their full potential.

_________________

A.J. MITAR

Contents

Introduction

CHARACTERS

Part I

1. The ancient mystery

2. Andronis-1

3. Salis System

4. Rebels

Part II

5. Primus

6. Revelation

7. Obedience

Introduction

Two millennia have passed since the discovery of Vanobi (the first exoplanet inhabited by a civilization of extraterrestrial sapiens) and two hundred years since the discovery of Estyr (the second).

Millions of superluminal probes have explored Galaxia Nostrum (new name for the Milky Way) in the vain search for other human civilizations.

Recent discoveries of the lost city of Aknuchia and the Via dei Sapiens have cast more shadows on the origins of humanity.

The entire Galaxia Nostrum is under the protectorate of the greatest human civilization in known history: the Astralis Empire, the only power to possess the technology for intergalactic travel.

When humanity is ready for great expansion in the Andromeda galaxy, the appearance of the alsiers will disrupt imperial expansionist plans.

What is the true identity of the alsiers? Why are they so determined to erase all traces of humanity from the universe?

The Imperial Grand Council is convinced that the attack by that powerful new enemy is linked to the mystery of pre-astralis civilizations.

The nectunt mission investigates the ancestralis, the ancient sapiens people sowing the seed of the human race.

Will thirteen men be able to acquire the knowledge to turn the tide of war?

The Ω-Imperium, the most advanced starship in the Imperial fleet, is departing.

CHARACTERS

Scientists

Liukai Ugolini: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Estyr, origins on planet Earth.

Maya Zhang: female, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Earth.

Akia K'Prock: female, homo sapiens sapiens, born on planet Estyr.

Satik K'Cun: male, homo sapiens sapiens, born on planet Estyr.

Scialat: male, homo sapiens sapiens, born on planet Vanobi.

Sciurt: male, homo sapiens sapiens, born on planet Vanobi.

Spacemarines

Alexander Aleinikov: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on Enceladus-1 station. Colonel.

Thaddeus Schmitz: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Earth. Captain.

Vincent Loganach: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Earth. Lieutenant. Polymorphic pilot.

Cyrus Kadyvar: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on Mars colonies. Sergeant.

Gunnar Silvestren: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Earth. Corporal.

Zeena Igner: female, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Earth. Corporal.

Felix Aguilar: male, homo sapiens astralis, born on planet Earth. Corporal.

Part I

1

The ancient mystery

Under the rays of a dusky sun, small, tapering hands crashed against the colonel's chest.

The man fell backward over a pleasant turf to lie on it; the rustle of wings was heard, and, in the distance, shadows rose with effort. On that wild planet, ornithomorphs were the dominant species.

Lying down, the colonel became intoxicated at the sight of some feminine graces that instantly stirred his manhood.

But he winced in pain. "No! Stop!" He begged, "Please get your foot out of there; how will I satisfy you if you damage it."

"I am the one there to decide the fate of your little one!" She had a ruthless or excited expression. "He must be limp now!"

"But I-"

"I'm your mistress, soak him or I'll kick him!"

He unleashed a warning kick.

"No, stop! Stop, I got it!"

Evolution had given the astralis control of their penis, and the colonel could comply.

But the despot was moody. "Now I want it hard, forked, and black. Now!"

"Your every wish is an order."

"I like it when you obey without objection."

She loosened her long black hair, perched on top of him. "Come on Bugor, don't just stand there."

The colonel breathed voluptuously into her skin, so magnetic and desirable.

With brutality, he pinched her nipples.

"Yes! Yes!" She screamed like a demoniac. "Good Bugor...keep it up."

He allowed few to call him by his battle nickname: Bugor (the shark).

A nickname they had irreverently stuck on him because of the large dissipation ridge on the back of his head; it was made of nanotek and retractable fabric; to the colonel it had nothing to do with a shark fin.

Something nearby emitted high-pitched screams and flew away in a flicker of color.

Bugor closed his eyes and gasped as the woman found what she was looking for and essayed its double turgidity.

"You are mine!" He told her. "Without a chance."

The colonel's nuchal filaments came alive to embody themselves in her nerve plexuses all along her spine.

The woman arched, after a little cry of pleasure or pain. A muscle spasm spread from the cusp of her belly to the phalanges of her feet.

When the bio-synchro surged, they shared the same frantic breathing, the same quivers.

But Hugin IAS broke the idyll with a crescendo of Chopin's Nocturne.

He restored enlightenment. "Mission nectunt. AA 345 30.04 07:00:00 SIC, Awakening procedure. End of dream stasis process in ten seconds - nine - eight -.... -zero."

Hugin's voice had never been so annoying. "Starting standard waking mode for Colonel Alexander Aleinikov."

Swarms of nanotech-destroyers dissolved the hydrating membrane on the colonel's face. Through flickering eyelids, green light penetrated his head like an electrified biblade.

The colonel's EOS self-diagnosed his vital parameters, showing little sensory dips.

The man rotated his head with an amplitude limited by the numb joint. "Shit!"

He stood on deck number two in the control room. "Why now? I was almost there." He would have gladly enjoyed the shapeliness of his virtual lover, in the CVI (virtual induced construct).

The other space marines were floating in midair, a foot above the floor, each in their respective anti-inertial stations; despite their yellowed moisturizing membranes, one could make out their facial features.

The colonel looked up at deck number three; he recognized Dr. Liukai Ugolini through the translucent ceiling and was annoyed to find himself five meters lower.

He would have awakened all his space marines, but protocol called for the awakening of only two officers, before re-entry into Einsteinian space.

"Welcome back Colonel Aleinikov!" Said Hugin.

"Thank you. You may be one of the smartest artificial intelligences in the Empire, but you don't seem to be awake when it comes to awakenings." And an audible laughter erupted, rousing the space marine at the nearest anti-inertial station, toward the ship's bow.

It was Lieutenant Loganach, who seemed in muscle spasms.

"Excuse me! Did I wake you up?" Said the colonel under a grin.

[You were next on the list anyway; it was your turn.] He sent the joke into telepat, but exploded a vowel laugh.

Then, he pars-concentrated on two sensorial shared by Hugin: a report of the crew's physical condition, and an update of the ship's log.

Before the nano-destroyers' arrival, Loganach had shredded the hydration membrane with his fingernails. He occupied the fusion station, which was more complex than the others. To be an Imperial Navy pilot he had to be an astralis with special sync skills.

His eyes relaxed after the EOS stabilized.

He wanted to loosen his tongue. "Have a nice life, Colonel Aleinikov."

"Good life, lieutenant, I will not bring you coffee, but I urge you to initiate protocol in return. Immediately!"

Loganach nodded, and the colonel took sadistic pleasure in being unbearable.

The antigravity beam laid the lieutenant down and then dissolved.

The man lay down on top of a mass of nanotek that looked alive. "Initiating fusion mode!" He said that substance was first absorbed by his body, then rejected by every pore of his skin. The limbs liquefied and flowed out.

[Fusion successfully completed,] Loganach communicated.

Billions of the lieutenant's cells and nanobiotes had poured into the fusion conduits of the Ω-Imperium.

Pilots like Loganach achieved awareness of every single nanotek module of which their ships were composed. But advanced sensing was useless; the laws of sensor physics did not apply in subspace.

"I love subspace, but I hate it." Said the lieutenant; he must have felt in a cage prison, blacked out to the outside world.

On the large holographic screen, subspace flowcharts, probability-route diagrams and re-entry point distributions came alive.

In Colonel Aleinikov's mind, dozens of perspective images of the Ω-Imperium occupied an entire channel of thought. What magnificence, what grace. He thought.

He felt a chill rise from his gut. The ship reminded him of a sea manta ray, but swimming through the billows of space-time.

Would it withstand the impact of a battle with that invincible enemy?

He snapped his lips and said:

"Sorry, honey, for neglecting you all these months for that virtual whore."

The Ω-Imperium slid between the super-chaotic strings of subspace.

Lt. Loganach was tracking the probability course thanks to Hugin's computing power. It was the IAS's job to intersect the re-entry curves.

Every detail had been planned on Enceladus-1, but as a far-sighted astrophysicist, Colonel Aleinikov knew the dangers of the dimensional transition. "Lieutenant! Report."

[Reentry coordinates, elaborating.] Communicated Loganach.

Colonel Aleinikov was heartened by the etymology of the word Hugin, thought, in an ancient Earth language.

[Come on Hugin, show us what you can do.]

[Trust me,] replied the IAS, but colored the bulkheads a faint orange of danger.

"After you truncated me with a double synchronic orgasm? How could I trust you?" He held back a snort because he had to remain totally concentrated. After the transition, the Ω-Imperium would be like a boulder thrown into a body of water. He worried about gravitational ripples, which could be located hundreds of light-years away.

For prudence, the point of re-entry into Einsteinian space had to be chosen in areas of interstellar wilderness, far from the first target, the Gynsian sector, and from the routes taken by the Xentinel and Andronis-1 colonists.

[Graviter ready for gravitational pulse.]

[Transition. now!]

A slight vibration preceded the stillness.

Aleinikov instantly sensed cosmic rays, the radiation of dim stars.

He had the reassuring feeling that Ω-Imperium was where it was supposed to be: in a space of low stellar density, between the outermost arms of the great Andromeda spiral.

"We are in the Merangolo Desert, fifteen thousand light-years from the Salis system," said the lieutenant. According to the navigation code, not everything was to be communicated via sensorial, or telepat, and the vowel was a reminiscence of the past to be preserved.

The Ω-Imperium adapted to Einsteinian space, regaining a more compact and monolithic form.

Inside the ship, the nanotek bulkheads flowed into each other, or disappeared by merging with different structures; at the control room they thinned to translucence. The large observation portholes reappeared.

The ship continued its course by inertia. Then, it slowed with uniformly decelerated motion.

"Prepare the long-range sensors," said Colonel Aleinikov. "EMCON5."

It was necessary to ascertain that the Ginsian sector was clear of danger.

Lt. Loganach shared the feeling of distant space that translated into a gentle breeze on Aleinikov's skin.

"I am not detecting any signs that can be attributed to artificial phenomena," the lieutenant said.

Colonel Aleinikov flashed a bristling smile. "Not bad for newbies in this galaxy."

He turned back to the bodies in bio-stasis. "Time to wake up! Hugin be as cruel as you have been to me!"

Hugin was a pragmatic intelligence and had started the operations to terminate the dream stasis. But he could not keep up with the colonel's irony.

"Colonel to better understand his jokes should allow me to raise the levels of empathy."

"Later maybe!"

All the bodies moved.

Sergeant Cyrus Kadyvar had torn through the moisturizing membrane; young men were the most sensitive to arousal stimuli. He exhibited a turgid penis sprayed with veins that climbed his abdomen like a spider web.

The colonel detected a strong smell of sexual stimulants. [I see you've been at it, sergeant!]

Charging erotic CVIs during bio-stasis was the favorite pastime of all space marines.

Hugin released the bio-mechanical actuators and lowered the anti-gravity. The sergeant quickly freed himself from the invasive nanotechnology and leapt to the ground on his legs.

Barely awake, Corporal Igner looked like a bloodhound on the prowl. He spat out organic residue and said:

"Wow Cyrus, what are your intentions? You know, after nine months of bio-stasis I'm feeling puckish!" He said, rubbing against the sergeant's abdomen like a cat in heat.

The space marine was loose-tongued and sensitive to Kadyvar's testosterone.

It had not escaped Aleinikov's notice that the two, already on Enceladus-1, had become regular lovers.

Kadyvar emitted a burst of laughter. "Hot little star. Let's wake up the others first, and then I'll fix you." He said, as the uniform, which crystallized on 80 percent of his body, muted the sound of an accelerated beat like that of a hummingbird.

Sergeant Kadyvar had a bad temper, but an unimpeachable sense of duty. The colonel himself had wanted him on board.

"Come on Sleeping Beauty, you want a kiss?" Kadyvar hissed at Corporal Gunnar Silvestren, breathing near his nose the fruit of nine months of bacterial fermentation.

Corporal Silvestren moved slowly, tore through the membrane and poked his head out. He was in the state of post-awake disorientation with an expression that seemed to say:

Fuck Chopin and his piano. Fuck the sergeant. Fuck you all around me.

Corporal Silvestren was an invincible war machine, but also a difficult soldier. Managing him would help Corporal Igner, who had a way with men. He had demonstrated this on Enceladus-1 where he managed most of the space station's men.

They mollified their feet.

"Hey Gun, you don't look so good." Said Igner.

[Wait till you say that, I'll let you touch yourself,] Silvestren communicated, snickering.

The woman bent down to stretch, regain control of her numb legs from those months of immobility, or provoke Silvestren.

Captain Schmitz had freed himself from the actuators but was gasping on the floor in a pool of vomit. Resolutely, Igner and Kadyvar helped their captain up.

Corporal Aguilar also successfully disentangled himself from all the nanotechnology inside and outside his body.

The colonel sensed all his men rushing into sensory space as thirsty. The communications between the space marines created a background of telepat signals.

He called them to order. [Spartak Squadron! I would like to remind you that when you are in the presence of bakku, using telepat is forbidden and you must use the vowel; the Lubhan Convention stipulates this].

He first shook his head, then with a quick movement placed his right hand on his left shoulder.

Voices overlapped in a chorus of mighty timbres; bodies synchronized for the pose of the imperial salute. "Glory to the Empire!"

But what was happening on command deck number three, overcrowded with bakku?

The colonel watched one of the two astralis on that bridge, Dr. Ugolini, hold up Dr. K'Prock with a strange thoughtfulness.

"I have blackouts." Said Dr. Akia K'Prock, gasping.

"Don't worry, you have to be patient."

"What?" replied the woman after a greenish ballistic spurt.

"During a prolonged dream stasis, t-nanobiot can't always compensate!" said the man. "You'll have to endure some nausea, migraines and a good dose of neural decay."

"Yes, but where are we? And who are you?" Said Dr. K'Prock. Her almond-shaped eyes thinned and lost.

"I am Liukai Ugolini, we are aboard the Ω-Imperium, we should have arrived in a stellar desert on the outskirts of Andromeda."

He turned to the man, looked at him with a face disfigured with terror. Perhaps thinking about being millions of parsecs from his home planet, Estyr.

"Now I remember you!" She smiled as if something pleasant was caressing her mind.

"IAS show me our relative position to Galaxia Nostrum." He said. Her face stretched with the hologram of Galaxia Nostrum, of its logarithmic arms made luminous by billions of mapped stars.

Dr. K'Cun slumped on his weakened knees; he was not an astralis and at his age could not expect a flexible body at the end of bio-stasis. But he looked like a vigorous man and rose with little hesitation.

The two vanobians, Sciurt and Scialat, looked like puny bakku. They kept spilling their metabolite fluids on the floor, and they vomited so many that the natotek grid took too long to reabsorb each organic offal.

Even a bakku without advanced sensory skills would have understood that the other astralis, Dr. Zhang was on the verge of a breakdown.

The colonel also sensed an accelerated heartbeat and excessive pressure on the optic nerve; he trusted the self-medicating subprograms. Within seconds Zhang's heart returned to normal.

The seven space marines were on deck two, while the six civilians were on deck three, all in fair health, but their beards were long and smeared, their bare chests encrusted with organic secretions.

The astralis had the ability to inhibit their sense of smell to avoid disgust, but the colonel was not the squeamish type.

They scampered off to resolve the sloppiness. In the quarters they could give themselves a shine.

Dr. Akia K'Prock sprinted off with a stride that was no match for space marine speed.

Protocol called for a briefing on deck three, thirty minutes after bio-stasis ended, perhaps too little for female vanity.

But they were all on time to step onto the same deck three. An aseptic place, a polymorphous environment that could have been a command room, a tactical room, or simply a bio-stasis chamber.

In its most used configuration, as a command room, it was semicircular in shape, completely bare.

No astralis needed instrumentation anymore; they could interact with the ship through a techno-telepathic metaverse: sensory space.

Instead, the bakkus needed furnishings and connecting terminals, holocameras, holoemeters, and all sorts of control panels. Primitive systems, but easy for aggregative nanotechnology to generate.

Nine months earlier, Dr. Ugolini himself had issued summons to the space station Enceladus-1 to all scientists.

Instead, the Spartak squadron was commissioned directly by Chancellor Trajan himself, albeit photonically.

Embarkation was immediate and the bio-stasis operations so rapid that there was no time to get acquainted with the entire crew.

Even Ugolini, who was born and lived on Estyr, knew the importance of pleasantries for Earthlings. "Good life Colonel Aleinikov ... how are you?" He said.

He stiffened his right hand and carefully oriented it on his left shoulder; that greeting lacked the soul of the space marine.

The colonel proudly flaunted his two-tone, silver-black, complete with metal buttons, imperial friezes and a glittering array of medals. A concentration of blazon and heroism.

He smiled in satisfaction at that act of respect from Ugolini.

She rewarded him by instantly crumbling any formality. "Hey there doctor, how are you?" He said, as his large hand came down on Ugolini's shoulder, causing him to stagger.

"The imperial salute I demand only from my space marines," and he tensed his lips, but not too much; he did not want to accentuate the first wrinkles of a young septuagenarian.

Finally, Aleinikov's laughter exploded.

Ugolini looked interdicted, paralyzed.

"Don't worry!" Said the officer in the explosion, "I am immune to the euphoria of post-awakening."

With a reputation as a formidable warrior, how could he admit to suffering the effects of prolonged bio-stasis?

Then, he slipped his gaze into Dr. K'Prock's cleavage, a blossoming flower in the quarters, too fragrant to be ignored. And too attractive those breasts compressed by the black nanotek suit, worn like a second skin.

With the AS-1 sensory enhancer, the colonel appreciated that mix of floral aromas, while the pheromone sniffers found that the woman was ovulating. He was pleased that he smelled no emissions of anxiety and fear.

Dr. Ugolini inhaled at length. He too seemed to want to enjoy Dr. K'Prock's nisian berry scent.

And he approached that very woman, instead of the second highest-ranking crew member in order.

The man stiffened at the black eyes; too much to be casual.

Dr.'s lips seemed hesitant on the verge of a smile. From what the colonel knew, on Estrian women, physical contact would be irreverent.

Still, it was Dr. K'Prock Akia who bridged the gap, before Ugolini recited the endless ceremonial Hesotrian greeting. "Have a nice life." she said, extending her hand.

That little hand was supposed to be velvety and sweetly warm, and Dr. Ugolini maintained his grip for a long time.

She lifted herself up on her toes to whisper to him something Estyrian, which the colonel translated as:

"It's been a long time! Maybe five years, hasn't it?"

He struggled to hide an understanding, but thanks to the sniffers, the colonel sensed a tsunami of excitement sweep over Dr. Ugolini.

They were lovers; it was obvious to Aleinikov.

Dr. Ugolini was an earthling born and bred on Estyr who must have felt a great affinity with the Estyrians because he once again skipped greeting Captain Schmitz to turn to Dr. Satik K'Cun.

K'Cun was a typical Estyrian of Cadogj ethnicity: strong-willed jaw, black hair, and ebony skin; although he was only seventy-two years old, he was wrinkled.

Ugolini gracefully contrasted his forehead with K'Cun's. "May the Holy Nume grant you a place in the Ruh'Uk, Satik K'Cun, son of Abek. I am honored to collaborate with Alpha's iconic archaeologist."

Dr. K'Prock's amber lips revealed a crescent of teeth.

Dr. K'Cun was a bakku who had been lucky enough to discover the lost city of Aknuchia (Alpha site). He would never have succeeded without imperial geo-resonators. That discovery increased his fame as a scientist and brought astro-archaeology to the forefront.

The colonel had prepared for the mission as best he could. Still, although he was fascinated by the mystery of pre-astralis civilizations, he was wary of astro-archaeology as a science for winning conflicts. He advocated the art of war, the more traditional one as an idea, like a game of chess: a few simple rules that gave rise to an endless array of creative combinations.

He was impressed by Aknuchia because that city was not just an ancient human settlement of Estyr, one of many in Galaxia Nostrum, forgotten by time and history.

The remains of the buildings comprised slabs of an alloy-like nanotek but assembled using techniques from Earth's Iron Age. It was as if, after increasing with the latest nanotechnology, they had been given to a primitive people to build an entire slum.

Dr. K'Cun had unearthed Aknuchia, but the beautiful Dr. K'Prock hypothesized those plates were the remains of a spaceship of extra-Estherian origin.

K'Cun bent his one hundred and ninety centimeters to complete the greeting ritual. He brushed Ugolini's temples with extreme precision by opposing his index fingers to his thumbs. "May the Holy Nume grant you a place of honor in the Ruh'Uk, to you and a thousand generations of your descendants. The honor is all mine!" He spoke.

Aleinikov snorted.

Finally, Ugolini took care of the space marines.

The entire Spartak squadron waited for the man to give them attention. The soldiers were lined up in descending order of rank, and though despicable, Ugolini reviewed them.

They were proud and formidable. Nine months of bio-stasis had not affected the bodies designed to cope with any fatigue nor the minds psycho-modified to overcome the extreme states of space travel.

Aleinikov knew Captain Schmitz as a courteous and etiquette-minded officer. He was a white Caucasian, human looking. Small ridges of dissipation arranged in a crown on his parietal bones gave him a regal appearance. He was known as Rex—a king, but not of that mission.

The captain performed the posture of the imperial salute.

"Have a nice life, Captain Schmitz. Nice to meet you." Ugolini said to him, passing him quickly to focus on the second officer: Lieutenant Loganach, who was more interesting because he wore the marks from the fusion. He was skinless and with some of his muscle tissue undergoing regeneration. "Take care, we are all in your capable pilot's hands."

Under bionoid appearance, Sergeant Kadyvar's face was a neutral composite of the predominant genetic types on Earth. Nothing to do with somatic traits of bakku, or other bastard humans. Even though he was often intractable, he was a good military man; everyone called him blackbull.

Ugolini approached him too quickly.

To the colonel, the scientist was too stupid or too irresponsible. Or, he had not sensed Kadyvar's high levels of aggression.

"Have a nice life sergeant!" Ugolini said.

The space marine growled; he had the look of someone who despises pleasantries. He puffed out his chest and swiftly crossed his right hand over his left shoulder. "Glory to the Empire!" he shouted in a mighty voice.

The imperial salute was all he had to say, and Ugolini had been lucky to remain unscathed.

Corporal Silvestren was the most powerful of the Spartaks, his large bare arms sprinkled with bio-interfaces, heat-dissipating plates and fins, and extra-body enhancing aggregations.

Low-ranking space marines loved the enhancements, and the corporal was one of those astralis, more like a bionoid than a human. His body was a plastic combination of natural biology and artificial protobiology. The polymorphic muscles were flesh fused to nanotek modules, ready to crystallize into all kinds of heavy weapons.

Ugolini seemed fascinated by the corporal's body; or perhaps horrified.

"Have a nice life Corporal Silvestren," he said.

The corporal remained motionless, breathless, and his eyes calm. He absently stretched his lips.

Aleinikov smiled, proud that his space marines did not recognize Ugolini's authority.

The scientist's disappointment was glaring when he dispensed with the pleasantries and performed the imperial salute toward the remaining troop.

Then, he turned to the third female of the crew, a pleasant woman but different from those with whom Aleinikov liked to brighten his days. Still, she had a certain incomprehensible charm.

"Good life to you too Dr. Maya Zhang." Ugolini told her, bowing his head.

Dr. Zhang showed small, dull eyes and a sweat-soaked forehead. Suddenly she gasped, bent her legs, and chattered her teeth.

Colonel Aleinikov had noticed the collapse of the earth scientist's vital parameters before the physical breakdown. He rushed to support her, grabbed her on the fly, and laid her on the ground. "Dr. Zhang, Dr. Zhang!" He shook her unceremoniously.

"This is a trivial fainting spell," Aleinikov said after a diagnostic on the lifeless body. "She is only debilitated due to prolonged dream stasis."

"But isn't Dr. K. a superhuman immune to our a bakku ailments?" Said Dr. K'Prock with a sly expression.

K'Prock looked like an angel but had the touch of a scorpion.

Why had Dr. Zhang not passed bio-stasis unscathed, even helped by nanobiot?

Aleinikov flaunted astralis pride; he was sure that billions of molecular units in Dr. Zhang's blood would resolve any dysfunction quickly.

Dr. Zhang regained consciousness.

"Dr. Zhang, you need food and rest. Retreat to your quarters!" Said the colonel.

 The woman rose to her feet as if she had suffered no physical failure. "Thank you for your concern colonel, I am fine."

Aleinikov smiled. "You are the only doctor on the ship, and who will treat us if something happens to you?" And with a hand on Zhang's shoulder, he risked knocking her out again.

I hope you don’t humor us for the entire voyage! The doctor's eyes seemed to say.

 The nanoteks of the bulkheads radiated a harmonizing luminescence, and Aleinikov immediately felt a psychophysical well-being.

"Please take your stations; we will begin the briefing," Ugolini said. The three officers, Dr. Zhang and the entire bakku deployment, were also present, but only the civilians came forward.

"Please! I asked you to take a seat."

Aleinikov looked at Ugolini and thought he was a poor deluded astro-archaeologist if he thought he was giving orders to the Spartaks.

To move, the Schmitz and Loganach waited for a nod from their colonel, which did not come.

"Loganach, stand by in the fusion station." Ordered the senior officer.

"Only the two of us will remain on this bridge." Said Aleinikov to Captain Schmitz.

Physical proximity did not affect participation in the briefing, but the colonel did not trust the scientists' whimsical ideas; it was better to have them at close range.

Aggregative technology generated two more anti-inertial stations that completed a circular arrangement of eight.

Ugolini stood in the center of the circle; Aleinikov had confirmation that the man suffered from delusions of self-centeredness.

Gravitational beams invested the eight from above, lifting them up, giving them the pleasant feeling of weightlessness.

They were floating face to face when Dr. Ugolini parsed, and the entire crew was catapulted into his personal universe.

Aleinikov wondered where he had ended up, but thanks to his EOS he recognized the plateau of J'Apcok, planet Estyr.

In that induced virtual context, the feeling of weightlessness vanished.

An aurora borealis stretched like an emerald-green sheet overhead, and Ugolini's avatar had a welcoming expression. "Welcome to mission nectunt." He spoke. "Make yourselves comfortable!"

They took their seats above a sea of windswept grass. The green expanse rose from rolling hills to a rocky range struggling against the sky.

A harmoniously ergonomic armchair appeared behind Dr. Ugolini; it blinded him with its whiteness and supported him by warping slightly. Perhaps he thought he was a member of the oligarchy?

 That virtual place would have been great for stimulating interaction.

The scientist adhered to Estyrian tradition instead of Earth tradition: he looked in K'Cun's direction to give the floor to the eldest of the group.

According to the colonel, a waste of time is quite the opposite of astralis efficiency.

K'Cun's avatar looked younger than the real one. He wore an argent-white ceremonial robe with a slew of Estyrian symbols, of unknown significance, such as gold embroidery, a challenge to Aleinikov's two-tone uniform.

The Estyrians prided themselves on being a spiritual civilization, or at least that was their legacy; then came the Empire to change the Estyrians, for the better.

"Eminent colleagues," K'Cun spread his arms, "I believe we have been brought together to share our knowledge and professionalism. The future of humankind may depend on its past." He turned his head to the left and right.

What's the use of having someone who knows nothing speak? The colonel wondered.

Facial expressions, differing in cross-cultural imprinting, faced each other to express approval. Only Dr. Zhang's avatar remained motionless; the woman must have been pars-concentrated on other matters.

"Now I yield the floor to Dr. Ugolini, the nectunt mission coordinator!" said K'Cun.

"Thank you... My name is Liukai Ugolini, and I am an astro-archaeologist, and historian of the Empire. I was born on Estyr, of Earth astralis parents."

Ugolini's avatar was the same as his actual appearance. Even his long impure-blond hair was tied to the same worn leather lace.

"I've been to Earth a few times, but I think I know enough about it, thanks to countless sensorial and my father's stories," Liukai wanted to clarify.

Aleinikov frowned. How could that man claim to know Italy without ever having basked in the thermal waters of Saturnia with at least three beautiful Italians?

Images of pre-industrial terrestrial civilizations, ingenious stone constructions devoid of nanostructures, appeared in the center of the aurora, flanked by views of mountain ranges with snow-capped peaks and rich vegetation, seas with crystal-clear waters teeming with life. "Earth is a rare pearl in the universe, but it is not the only one."

Another blue, life-giving planet seemed to have been mistaken for Earth were it not for the arrangement of the oceans. "This, on the other hand, is Estyr, before the bombing," Dr. Ugolini said. He had a raspy voice with a calm tone. "Dr. Zhang give me aid." He said it as if it were painful to pars-concentrate on Estyr.

The zoom enlarged an unknown location. Akia shuddered and put her hand on her forehead. She must have recognized a metropolis lying on the shores of a large volcanic lake.

"It is the Arpek volcano of the Koledian continent!" he said.

The streets were brimming with colorful Estyrian humans, who loved to adorn themselves in clothes of a thousand colors. Still, a blinding flash put an end to all that human activity.

From other scenes of destruction, it was clear the planet was under the devastating fury of an unseen enemy. K'Prock threaded his fingers through his hair and let his hand run down to the back of his head.

The sequences paused for a moment and resumed from the viewpoint of a spy-probe sent out on patrol, after the bombardment had ended.

Entire landscapes had been vaporized to make way for large craters.

The Estyrian stared at the gray air of that destroyed sky and the falling ash mixed with radioactive rain. Her eyebrows slanted over glittering eyes as she saw Estyr again inhospitable to life.

Her avatar snapped to her feet, and the long braid hanging down to her buttocks swung several times. "Enough, Dr. Zhang! This is intolerable!" She pointed her index finger at the earth scientist, spitting anger from her mouth.

Dr. Ugolini's avatar also jerked up from his comfortable seat. "Sit down immediately. Dr. Zhang is doing what she does well: helping us to understand."

"But I..."

"Quiet! Don't make me doubt that she is qualified for this mission."

The young woman remained petrified and mute; she dropped onto the lawn.

The colonel made use of sensory space to discover that K'Prock's reaction had not been blatant. For the Estyrian culture, death was taboo in all its forms, and only relatives could refer to their dead outside of memorial ceremonies.

The colonel questioned why it was precisely her Liukai who had humiliated her in front of everyone.

K'Cun gritted his teeth; he was a follower of strict Estyrian etiquette but also as a man of milder temperament than K'Prock. It was also common knowledge that the two Estyrians had had many disagreements in the past.

"I apologize to Dr. K'Prock, Dr. K'Cun, for my lack of knowledge about their culture. I will perform an upload of Estyrian funerary ethics," Dr. Zhang said, but a monotone voice and vacant stare made his repentance ambiguous.

Ugolini continued heedless of the moods:

"Thank you, Dr. Zhang, I'll take it from here!"

A colossal globe submerged in suffocating darkness of the CVI. Everyone recognized Estyr, even devoid of the garish hues of life.

Dr. Ugolini lowered his gaze. "My home, my city, the people I knew no longer exist."

The images followed bottlenecks and tunnels winding their way underground through dark, crumbling shacks.

"The few survivors of Estyr are forced to hide in underground shelters."

No images of death, just filthy Estyrians huddling like rats for food and survival.

In the anti-inertial post, tears were tiny beads floating among Dr. K'Prock's constellations of freckles.

"And to make matters worse, after the destruction of Estyr, all the planets under imperial control have turned against the Empire; every yaman-in sees us as its worst enemy." Said Aleinikov. The angular features stiffened. "Earth, too, may suffer the fate of Estyr."

Ugolini postured in thoughtful silence. "But what led us to this situation?" He said, and he seemed to intend to dive into the Empire's glorious past.

"In the 22nd century, Earthlings were squandering all the resources of tiny Earth by setting the stage for the end of human civilization, or the retreat to pre-technological levels."

Scenes of a sick planet broke in, choked by megacities and mammoth industrial agglomerations spread across continents, oceans, and even the extreme environments of the poles. The rampant, perpetually dissatisfied population revolted against governments, and nations increasingly engaged in grueling fratricidal wars to grab paltry energy reserves.

In the CVI, Ugolini was in control of the elements. When his eyes flashed, golden reflections ripped through the virtual sky, replacing the emerald hues of the aurora.

The relentless exploitation of resources unites all human civilizations... Dr. Sciurt's thoughts translated into a whispering wind that could be heard.

In that virtual environment, thoughts were radiated by undisciplined and passionate minds in an omnidirectional way.

K'Prock shook his head. This madness did not belong to the Estyrians. He thought, and not everyone listened.

That is why your technological advancement has stalled for two hundred years, Sciurt thought. The eyes of the vanobian avatar became contemptuous.

"Dedicating ourselves to our spirituality has made us better than many techno-destructive peoples," Akia whispered in K'Cun's ear, crouched on the lawn a short distance away. Those words whispered with firm conviction spread like a disruptive wind.

Dr. Ugolini seemed to ignore that undercurrent of divergent voices and thoughts. "The great premises of science focused human attention toward the exploration of space." He spoke.

"We knew there were infinite resources and habitable worlds outside our planet."

Someone else's! Dr. K'Prock's thoughts became increasingly impertinent.

"To fuel our technological civilization, we had to go beyond our planet; we would avoid critical exploitation of Earth and give our technology time to perfect itself..."

Dr. K'Prock had an angry grin. The noble aims of the Empire!

"But one thousand nine hundred forty-nine years ago, we made an exceptional discovery: Vanobi, an extrasolar planet with characteristics identical to those of Earth and inhabited by a lineage of sapiens." He made a broad gesture to indicate the two Vanobian bakku: Sciurt and Scialat.

Dr. Ugolini emphasized with scenes from the historical archives.

Images of a location seemed that made Sciurt gasp. "Oh, but it's the Kyria Bridge and the gardens near the historic government building." Said the vanobian, who seemed to be in the throes of euphoria.

But no one cared about the state of mind of Sciurt who sat on the lawn in the background; around him only unsuspecting stares.

All that indifference shocked the scientist, who had a reputation for having an outsized ego. "Are we crazy? I can justify the Estyrians, but the astralis should have recognized the place of first contact between Vanobi sapiens and terrestrials. In those places is history." Said Sciurt.

"But of course, don't worry." Said Dr. K'Prock. The scenes continued to flow.

"That's the garden of conciliation there, where Hickam met the Vanobian delegation, and the one at the bottom of the descent lawn is the obelisk of brotherhood that was erected five years after the first contact." Said Dr. Sciurt, leaving Dr. Sciurt petrified.

In the scene, the imperial delegate of the time, Admiral Hicham, looked like a cyborg with a militaristic gait rather than a flesh-and-blood sapiens leader. His silvery armor hid his face and glittered in the Vanobian sun. It comprised very coarse aggregative units, compared to modern nanoteks.

The admiral went up against a scattered group of Vanobian emissaries with fearful faces.

Sciurt seemed to overflow with pride at observing that scene so poor compared to a sensorial.

He tightened his eyes. "It's wonderful, it's real!" He seemed fascinated by that simple entoptic technology, but one that let him relive the most significant event in Vanobian history: the first contact between his people and extra-Vanobian humans. Sapiens finding other sapiens.

Sciurt's avatar rose to his feet and stood a few inches from one of the Vanobian emissaries. "He is a direct ancestor of mine, Kundat, a hero and symbol of Vanobi."

Dr. K'Prock sighed deeply and slapped her forehead with her right hand. "Felicitations!"

But Sciurt was too engrossed. His eyes moistened at Admiral Hicham's first words, "May the Divine Creator protect you, brother people."

But the protagonists of the first contact vanished like ghosts, leaving disappointment on the Vanobian's face.

The historic Pacification Avenue also vanished into thin air, which gave way to the image of the Balac-class cruiser, Petrenka. The ship lay motionless in the depths of the Vandendat system, parked at the Lagrange point between the moons of Vanobi.

The Earthlings had been generous with that legacy, the starting point of the great acquisitions of Vanobi technology.

The timeline of events shifted forward, and Petrenka seemed caged in a shipyard orbiting Vanobi. On the steep sides of the large battle cruiser hummed thousands of tiny aircraft like fireflies.

Historical sources reported that armies of Vanobi scientists examined Petrenka for about ten years.

The timeline showed the return of the Earthlings. Dozens of war cruisers of the Sol Empire orbited Vanobi.

All Vanobians realized they could not refuse the proposed alliance with Earth.

The Earthlings had returned as promised, and soothing scenes of brotherhood among peoples, with the undercurrent of prosperous cities, ensued.

An overview of the social conditions of the time highlighted the great Vanobian technological leap thanks to Petrenka.

"What was a sapiens civilization, the Vanobian civilization, doing so far from Earth?" Ugolini asked, but there were only embarrassed expressions in front of him. "For years, we have wondered about this without being able to give satisfactory answers."

Ugolini sped up the timeline. He glossed over one thousand five hundred years, the epochs of great human expansions, and the transition to the second imperial epoch in which the small Empire of Sol was transformed into the immense galactic empire: the Astralis Empire. The Milky Way was renamed Galaxia Nostrum.

And he glossed over the ascent to evolution as Earthlings became Homo Sapiens Astralis.

The scenes followed each other at a monotonous pace, and Astralis could have followed them at tenfold speed, thanks to using EOS accelerated consciousness subprograms. Even Dr. K'Prock could have done so if she had not gotten rid of the t-nanobiot-like scourges.

"Then, the first contact with the second extraterrestrial sapiens civilization, the humans of Estyr, and the subsequent discovery of the Way of the Sapiens: a great space corridor encompassing Estyr, Vanobi, Earth, and all planets on which traces of humans have been detected. Thanks to the Way of the Sapiens, Andronis-1 and Oblis were also detected in the very outer sectors of Andromeda."

The sequence of images slowed down as if Ugolini wanted to put a stop to the past. " The great discovery of the lost city of Aknuchia (Alpha) on Estyr is recent history." And he paused like a river sinking underground; perhaps he did not want to trespass on K'Cun territory.

He took a long pause. "Finally, the Primus project!"

In chorus:

"Primus?"

"The legendary planet of origin of the species homo sapiens."

Scialat's eyes were wide and his cheeks red. "You-you mean we are traveling the Way of the Sapiens to reach Primus." He asked as if troubled by the Earthman-Estyrian's arguments. Generations of astro-archaeologists had longed to set foot on the planet of origin of the human race.

"Exactly. Primus is our main goal, but there are also secondary ones that I will tell you about later." Said Ugolini, with the distinctive look of pars-concentration. Unlike bakku, astralis love to bask in the parallels of thought.

Routes of probability burst like holograms on the abyss of that virtual horizon; they translated into a bundle of arcs connecting three points of a known figure: the great spiral of Andromeda.

Xentinel and its shipyards appeared, looking like an intricate maze of tubular structures. Operative robotic systems assembled spacecraft labeled HR (Human Research).

"They are superluminal probes," Ugolini said, "ten thousand of them were launched in different sectors of Andromeda, searching for Primus."

Swarms of HR-class probes twinkled in the spatial darkness as they made their interdimensional leap into the vastness of Andromeda. The scene filled the entire virtual sky.

"It was a success! Before long, Alberion, the IAS who governed the probes, selected the supposed Primus from dozens of homo-class planets.

A blue planet, distant in the frame, burst onto the virtual horizon. Astrometric spheres defined its position in the heart of the Andromeda galaxy; spectrometric parameters established its composition.

Mouths opened wide.

"Don't tell me that's-that's..." stammered K'Cun in spasms.

"Those are the only images of Primus, the closest ones taken by the HR3004 probe two years ago." Confirmed Ugolini.

But that probe stopped working almost immediately, and all the others also stopped transmitting data via subspace."

"At that very juncture, we lost communications with Xentinel and Andronis-1, and an unknown power destroyed the outermost outposts of the Empire, including Estyr. According to the Imperial leadership, the discovery of Primus and the mystery of ancient sapiens civilizations, called pre-astralis, are closely connected with the attacks."

Echoes of intense thoughts came in, moved by a yearning for knowledge, all converging. In what way? How the legendary Primus could be linked to acts of war.

Ugolini picked them up. "We will find out on this mission." He said and paused in a long pause.

"Nectunt could solve an unprecedented crisis," he said. He looked at the entire Spartak team "The Empire is under attack by an enemy the Imperial Navy does not seem able to deal with. An aggressor not interested in communication, but who has only one goal: the destruction of the sapiens."

Astonished looks sought reassurance from other stunned looks. Dismay induced a background hubbub.

"You may be wondering: how can it, a scanty group of men, lift the fortunes of the Empire?"

Everyone nodded.

"Great imperial minds believe with astro-archaeology."

A new undercurrent of thoughts peaked and then died in the silence of anticipation.

"Do you have any more questions?"

"What caused the interruption of the data flow with the probes?" Dr. K'Cun asked.

"We don't know! Each was so heavily armed; they could hold their own against a Balac class!"

"You don't have to be a genius to figure that out!" said Sciurt. "They were destroyed."

"The only certainty is that Alberion's search algorithms determined that it was Primus," Ugolini said. He stood up. "But they will remain only sterile calculations, without the confirmations of a human mission."

Colonel Aleinikov stiffened his facial muscles. "That is why you were chosen among the best."

Dr. K'Cun nodded while Dr. K'Prock had a look brimming with pride.

The other military personnel stopped their cold expressions.

Captain Schmitz's eyes frowned. "I did not know about Primus," he said, "I was told that nectunt would be a tactical reconnaissance to investigate the breakdown in communication with Xentinel and the Andronis-1 colonies."

"Captain do not feel belittled; the GCI arranged what we military people needed to know." Said Aleinikov.

"When I agreed to participate in this mission, I had been told about a new planet with traces of a pre-astralis civilization!" Said Dr. Sciurt. "But it is better than I had hoped!" And his mouth unfolded a smile.

"At my summons, they told me about archaeological discoveries that could unravel the mystery of pre-astralis civilizations." Said K'Cun.

Colonel Aleinikov turned toward the group of civilians. "Scientists were granted other types of information. Only I, Dr. Ugolini, and a small elite of the GCI knew the details of the nectunt mission."

Silence.

Aleinikov smiled. "Come on, guys, it was a top-secret mission, don't be offended!"

The additional memory made him perform a backward time jump.

He was frolicking next to two shapely blondes on the sands of Hanauma Bay, Hawaii; enjoying his well-deserved vacation on Earth, when a high-priority hyper-perceptual message arrived. He was catapulted into the sensory plane without objecting, and that message was pretentious and obscured every other stream of thought.

In the mental void shone imperial effigies: the beloved eagle extending its talons over a spiral of stars.

The inscriptions in archaic languages swirled, on which the characters towered: Galaxia Nostrum.

Nothingness.

Suddenly, eyes of fire blazed in the darkness.

I'll be damned. They looked inhuman and hellish.

The colonel recognized Chancellor Trajan's rank tattoos.

Chancellor Trajan was blatant par excellence, but it took more than fire and trails of light to impress Aleinikov.

Enough of these theatrics. Aleinikov thought.

The chancellor's voice reverberated. "Glory to the Empire!" He spoke.

He used no preamble. "The Empire needs its life."

Like life? Shit. Aleinikov. He watched the fractal environment around him ripple and swirl slowly and sighed.

"Colonel Aleinikov, you are being summoned immediately to Enceladus-1, where you will be given instructions."

There I knew it, goodbye night with the two blondes. What is this going to be about? What do you mean I must give my life? Could they have at least waited until tomorrow morning to entertain me one last time? Now I must dismiss Sarah and Susy; they will think I am gay.

He looked with hatred at that being, advanced simulation, or that sensory manifestation. He had never met the chancellor in person, nor did he know anyone who had seen him in the flesh.

Many suspected that the chancellor was not even a sapien, but an IASand all the other members of the Imperial Grand Council.

No wonder they don't know what life's pleasures are; they don't even have a penis!

"May I know what this is all about?"

"Silence!" Thundered the chancellor.

"I have planted sensory seeds for her that will germinate when the time is right. For now, it is enough for her to know this: Nectunt!" Said the chancellor as he vanished like a ghost. Maybe he was a ghost or who knows what.

He hated sensory seeds, they always brought trouble, but as a military man, he could not object.

Ugolini took on a more passionate expression. "The GCI leadership is sure that this hostile power is planning an attack on Earth and Vanobi."

"The nectunt mission includes two other targets classified as of secondary importance: the planet Andronis-1, and nearby Xentinel!"

Appeared Andronis-1 at the height of its colonial splendor and Xentinel looking like an immense cylindrical skeletal structure, with the linings undergoing epitaxial accretion.

"We are now in the Merangolo Desert, but the next interdimensional jump will take us into the Ginsian sector, to arrive on Andronis-1 and Xentinel."

"Finally, we will reach the primary objective: the planet Primus!"

 A stellar map appeared with a yellow, curvilinear, tubular structure extending from the depths of Andromeda, past the great intergalactic void, and to Galaxia Nostrum, encompassing Esty, Vanobi, and Earth.

That yellow tube was one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the astralis (AA) era: the Way of the Sapiens.

A gasp crossed Scialat's gaze, for the Way of the Sapiens was his discovery. Ugolini noticed the vanobian's passion and diverted the aura of attention to him. Scialat smiled, pleased with that light; he arched an eyebrow, pointed his index finger, and said:

"This space corridor originates in the heart of the Andromeda galaxy, and, from the Gynsian sector, it goes all the way to Earth, through intergalactic space."

Dr. Scialat's avatar's eyes moved quickly, lookinh for signs of puzzlement.

"For those of you who have not read my publications, I hypothesize that about one hundred and ninety thousand years ago, through the Sapiens Way, an ancient migratory stream of sapiens colonists pushed their way to Earth."

Dr. K'Prock threw herself into the debate. "Dr. Scialat, but based on what facts do you assume that its flow is from Andromeda to Galaxia Nostrum and not vice versa? What if there are other routes or crossings? What if Primus himself is in a poorly traveled sector of Galaxia Nostrum?" The Estyrian objected, but she had been too impulsive.

Scialat was retorting to Dr. K'Prock when a large shadow appeared. Sciurt's avatar was leaner and at least twenty centimeters taller than the flesh-and-blood man:

"Look at the dates of all the archaeological sites, all those discovered. Then you'll see what a mediocre observation you've been capable of!" he said with a lopsided grin on his hollowed-out, olive-colored face. Those light-brown eyes seemed to mock Dr. K'Prock.

But the woman ignored him as if he were not even present.

"I am Sciurt, a direct descendant of the great Kundat of Vanobi. I discovered the planet Oblis with its important archaeological finds and the Alsier designation." His succubus expression of pride irritated him.

How could Scialat, the head of the Vanobi scientific commission, be overshadowed like that by the subordinate? Aleinikov would never tolerate Sciurt's reckless egocentrism, not even for all the geniuses in the universe.

"Going from Earth to Oblis the sites become older. This proves that such groups of sapiens colonists traveled from Andromeda to Galaxia Nostrum, and encountered in order: Oblis, Andronis-1, Estyr, Vanobi, and finally Earth. All homo-class planets, ideal for the living conditions of sapiens." Said Sciurt. His great passion for astro-archaeology was undeniable.

"In this debate, any objection and even doubt of established theories is permissible." Ugolini clarified. Perhaps he had not enjoyed seeing his Akia under attack.

"If I were not 100 percent sure, I would keep silent. Thanks to the expedition on Oblis, we found out that about one hundred and ninety thousand years ago, sapiens migrated from Andromeda to Galaxia Nostrum, and the first planet to be colonized was indeed Oblis. And I am sure that an enemy called alsier destroyed the Oblisian colony." Sciurt moved the air with wide spirals of his arms to emphasize his statements.

K'Cun crossed the fingers of one hand with those of the other as if praying to his Holy Nume. "How can you claim that Oblis was the first to be colonized during this migratory flow? There may be other scattered colonies, daughters of an expansion like the Astralis Empire."

Gestures of approval flourished, diversified by traditions.

"For years, we have been scouring thousands of light-years, following the Sapiens Way. We have found no other planets with traces of sapiens civilization."

"At first, we were tempted to think of Oblis as the planet of origin. The planet has been under a thick blanket of ice for millennia due to a long ice age. But, even with the help of georesonators and imperial thermal diggers, we have found no cities under the thick ice layers. The conclusion is that the Oblisians left few finds, and ancient ones, as would a colony that had no time to expand." Said Sciurt.

"From all this, we can make some important deductions!"

"Which ones?"

"The colonization of Oblis and its early destruction would justify the great exodus theory rather than the great expansion theory. That's why the planet of origin would have to be far from the Oblisian sector." said Sciurt.

"So, in your opinion, we are descended from an ancient people of refugees, refugees, rather than explorers?" K'Cun could not hide an expression of disappointment.

"Exactly! That's very likely."

Dr. Sciurt showed no feelings as this was revealed. "Not only do I theorize that the Alsiers destroyed Oblis in that distant past, but they also destroyed Xentinel and Andronis-1 and then Estyr."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm almost certain," replied the vanobian.

But wasn't he talking about keeping quiet if he wasn't 100% sure? Akia thought intensely. Her royal face, in the anti-inertial beam, let a sardonic smile escape; her provocation was a clear and loud intracerebral subvocal for all to hear.

From Sciurt's tugged lips, one could sense restrained fury. The man would not hear and started again:

"Aboard the Dolphin-S, together with Dr. Zhang, we heard the testimony of the asgah, or teyon. A species with which, we Vanobians, fought a long generational war, and we thought they were extinct after the end of the war."

"We were not informed!" Objected Dr. K'Prock; she had a surprised look on her face.

"The testimony goes back a few months before we left for this mission; the GCI knew about it. And I assume Dr. Ugolini did as well." Sciurt replied.

"And what did you find out from the asgahs, or teyons?"

"Those soft yaman-in have mentioned a people they call enfranchisers as responsible for the destruction of Xentinel and Andronis-1!"

"So, you claim that the alsiers and the enfranchisers are the same people?"

"Yes, on Oblis, we found traces of residual radioactivity compatible with the same thermonuclear weapons that destroyed Estyr."

"That is not too much evidence, is it?" K'Cun asked.

Dr. Sciurt followed his course despite the Estyrian. "Supporting my theory that the destroyers of Oblis and Estyr are the same is the origin of the enfranchisers: the Andromeda galaxy. I am sure that the enfranchisers, like the alsiers, originated from Andromeda. If other military powers existed in Galaxia Nostrum, we would have already encountered them."

"But there are other galaxies in the local group!" K'Cun objected.

"The attacks started just as we pushed into the inner sectors of Andromeda. It can't be a coincidence." Said Sciurt.

"What do we know about the Oblisian settlers? What kind of technology did they have?"

"The artifacts found on Oblis appear to be the product of an industry devoted to aggregative nanotechnology. Unfortunately, the passage of millennia and the expansion of glaciers has erased almost everything." Said Sciurt.

"Even the materials to build Aknuchia seem to be compatible with aggregative nano-modules." Said Dr. Akia K'Prock.

"But if we are the descendants of a civilization that traveled between galaxies hundreds of millennia ago, how do we explain this technological regression of all sapiens planets, including Earth?" Colonel Aleinikov asked.

"You see, colonel," Scialat said, "from the theories of colonization, we know that certain specifications must be met for an independent colony to be successful."

"A colony, without a complex industrial support apparatus from the motherland, is doomed to technological regression, with the danger of total annihilation." Said Dr. Zhang. "Unless the Morrs-Brown specifications are met. Only then could a one-to-one society be reproduced to that of origin."

"And what would those specifications be?"

Dr. Zhang's avatar looked tall as he rose to his feet. "A hypothetical colonizing spaceship should have self-preserving and regenerative nanotechnology that can preserve and repair itself for centuries. Multiple experts should be on board, such as theorists, engineers, and numerous other specialists. Several human resources, technological sustenance equipment, genetic material..."

"I get it. That's enough, doctor!" Colonel Aleinikov said. His lips thinned. "Our ancestors did something wrong, and clubs, spears, bows, and arrows came back into vogue on Earth."

After sparking the debate, Dr. Ugolini fell silent. His gaze went beyond the bulkheads to the constellations, and the pupils were in the grip of a chaotic flicker.

He had the reputation of being a gifted astralis, whose youth had been marked by the exercise of mental faculties. Such rapid eye movements were a sign that at least four streams of thought were passing through the man's mind.

He thought he was the king of nectunt and yielded the floor to his queen: Dr. K'Prock, who rose from her semi-recumbent position among flowers of a thousand colors.

"Please, eminent scientists, grant me the floor," said the woman.

In the quarters, Dr. K'Prock had used execcively a fragrant essence, a blade of pure excitement, deadly without escape for Aleinikov. The colonel had to inhibit his sense of smell to not destabilize the tetha-sync, but at that moment, he retraced his steps, and inhaled deeply. To hell with tetha-sync! What could be tastier than the scent of a woman? He said to himself.

He doubted that Dr. Ugolini would appreciate it. He does not know how to enjoy life. The Earth-estyrian seemed to prefer wit over sensuality in a woman.

Who knows if that scent was a trap for Ugolini? Perhaps she wanted to make it up to him, for her impulsiveness, for attacking Dr. Zhang. Maybe she felt the need to make it up to him because she was in love with him?

"Please, Dr. Zhang, we are waiting for your arguments," Sciurt said.

The woman froze.

Through the sniffles, Aleinikov sensed anxiety and worry in her. Was she afraid she was not up to the task? And she would be right, for no bakku mind could compete with an astralis, not even that of a low-ranking space marine.

Dr. swallowed laboriously, brought her hand to her throat, and looked in Dr. Ugolini's direction.

Aleinikov sniffed a dose of new courage flowing through the woman's body.

Perhaps it was thanks to love? Some people give credit for everything good in humans to love. But except for his mother, Aleinikov had loved no one. Yet, he had been hailed for courage, strength, and daring deeds. What could be more virtuous?

"This debate has been enlightening," Akia recited, "I see a common thread in your theories."

"Let us thank the Estyrian Holy Nume!" Said Sciurt in a sarcastic tone.

K'Prock did not mind the vanobian, his avatar stood up, and scrutinized everyone else, dwelling on Ugolini. "Since you are so good with reconstructions, give me help." And he winked.

The man merely nodded.

"Your theories converge; you have generated a coherent chronology of events. I will show it to you!" Said K'Prock.

Meanwhile, Ugolini changed the environmental conditions: a bright starry sky appeared. Orion's arm could be seen against the background of billions of faded stars.

Foreheads wrinkled, some frowned, but curiosity crept in among all present.

K'Cun made broad nods with his hands. "Please continue!"

But Dr. K'Prock tried to buy time:

"I hope I have grasped the essence of your theories."

"Get to the point Dr., please enlighten us as well." Said Sciurt, after taking to rubbing the palm of his left hand.

"One hundred and ninety thousand years ago, Andromeda was shaken by a big war, fought between an ancient sapiens people I will call ancestral and a powerful enemy."

Sciurt stood up. "Of course, there was destruction and, therefore, a conflict, it is likely that a war ended with the defeat of the sapiens. This should be a scientific debate, not a fictional short story."

"Let her continue Dr. Sciurt, even the most bizarre theories are allowed." Ugolini intervened. "Please, Dr. K'Prock!"

"Dr. Sciurt is right, about the outcome of the war. After being harshly defeated, the ancestors had to escape persecution by the victors..."

Dr. K'Prock moved forward with long pauses; perhaps it was her way of regrouping. Bakku brains were sequential, unable to handle multiple streams of thought at once.

"It was the beginning of a great exodus, not a natural expansion! Great colonial spaceships traversed the Andromeda galaxy and intergalactic void space, searching for new habitable worlds."

"Perhaps they encountered Oblis first, just as Dr. Sciurt claims."

Sciurt had a defiant look on his face and looked like he was about to say something.

"Not everyone felt safe on Oblis. Some went further and continued their journey to Andronis-1."

Aleinikov's sniffers seemed anxious again.

The colonel opened his eyes to observe Dr. K'Prock floating in his station. With enhanced vision he glimpsed some abnormal contraction of the woman's musculature; a chill must have shaken her. Perhaps, she had come to a crossroads in her arguments? Was she undecided on which path to take?

The undisciplined mind of that bakku unveiled doubt and some thoughts. She tried to control them, but the attempt to conceal them failed. In the CVI, emotionality was considered a weakness.

When did the colonies split further? When did they face the empty space between Andromeda and Galaxia Nostrum? The woman was wondering.

Her avatar still looked at Ugolini while her natural forehead was moist. Fear had set in.

"But that war was bloody and interminable. Perhaps it lasted centuries, millennia. Too much slaughter and barbarism, too many innocents lost their lives on both sides..." The woman continued to stitch together her narrative.

"I repeat: yours is only conjecture that you cannot prove!" Sciurt scowled.

"By the Holy Nume, silence! Let her continue!" K'Cun had a stern tone.

"Although the war ended, no one could forget all the blood spilled. The victors, perhaps called alsier, did as the Vanobians did with the asgah at the end of the great black: genocide on an interplanetary scale!"

"I see what you're getting at; the ancestors were forced into an exodus so as not to be exterminated. Interesting theory!" Said Dr. Scialat.

"For the Oblisians it was all in vain, their Oblis colonies were destroyed first. Instead, the colonists of Andronis-1 saved themselves by abandoning the planet. Perhaps they had learned the news of Oblis' destruction."

"How do you claim that they abandoned the planet?"

"From the reports on the early stages of colonization of Andronis-1, there was no evidence of bombing on the planet, nor was there any residual radioactivity in the geological layers. The bombing occurred only recently."

Dr. K'Prock strolled back and forth under the reflections of the star swarms, touching her lower lip with the index finger of her right hand.

"So, great colonial ships set out on a long intergalactic journey. How many years did their journey last? We cannot know without knowing what technology these ancient sapiens people had. But I am sure that their destination was Galaxia Nostrum!" Dr. spoke with total calm, more chilling than an outburst of anger.

Aleinikov admired her boldness and perseverance, for extricating herself from the maze generated by her mind.

"There goes the way of the sapiens beyond Andromeda!" Said Scialat.

Dr. K'Prock was an amazing bakku.

"After passing the intergalactic immensities, the Andronisian fugitives landed on Estyr."

"Of course!" Said Dr. Scialat, now succumbing to enthusiasm. "Not all of them stopped; some continued their journey to the innermost sectors in Galaxia Notrum. A division of settlers would have ensured a better chance of survival for the human species. They pushed on toward Orion's arm through the sapiens route, colonizing first Vanobi and then Earth."

"That's what I think too, Dr. Scialat!"

The smug looks proved Dr. K'Prock's success.

The woman had extricated herself from the turmoil of stale conjectures of imperial astro-archaeology. Aleinikov thought the estyriana deserved participation in nectunt.

"I would congratulate you, dear Dr. K'Prock ... if you could prove what you claim," Sciurt said, "but you haven't, although the scientific method demands it."

"Instead, I think Dr. K'Prock has just concluded a cognitive masterpiece on good theoretical grounds: those of us all!" Said K'Cun, "Congratulations Dr. K'Prock."

"Thank you!" Dr. K'Prock gave well-framed smiles.

"However," said K'Cun, "there is a matter, dear to me, which was not considered in your disquisition, Dr.!"

"Tell me!"

"Aknuchia!"

The doctor’s avatr. arranged the black locks that hung over her amber cheeks. Slowly.

"Aknuchia was built from the remains of one of those big colonial ships by a sapiens population with Iron Age metallurgical technology," Dr. K'Prock said, "and the explanation is simple, I'll be brief."

Dr. Zhang's pupils dilated as she waited for those words.

"In order not to be detected, the Estyr escapees decided to dismember the spaceship with all detectable technological systems, or those that radiated signals.

Within a few centuries, knowledge became blurred, and those sapiens peoples regressed to the Iron Age.

To our regressed ancestors, the spaceship appeared as a massive pile of scrap metal, useful for recycling. With them, they built Aknuchia.

Finally, the passage of time erased the city and all traces of the technological past."

Sciurt's face became asymmetrical. "Do you mean to say that only by regressing did the sapiens of Estyr, Vanobi, and Earth manage to survive to this day?" From the tone of voice in which he said this, it sounded like the most absurd thing he had ever heard.

"That's right, until the height of our rise, until we began to be noisy again in the intergalactic scenario."

Dr. K'Cun blurted out a lament as he clapped his hands in a rhythmic cadence, perhaps a dirge of approval from the Estyrian tradition.

That gesture signified the end of any disagreement with Dr. K'Prock.

The other civilians, including Zhang, also imitated it. Only Sciurt stood apart; he was too arrogant to corroborate Dr. K'Prock's admitting theories.

Redness burst across the woman's cheeks, the sniffers picked up something like fear, but the smile presaged satisfaction. The bakkus were legible, but incomprehensible, and contradictory, and Aleinikov was grateful for climbing the steps of evolution.

"I thank all of you ... but the credit is yours alone." Said Dr. K'Prock, grimacing in enjoyment.

The space marines seemed disconnected from that CVI. The training enabled them to control their thoughts, to make them private even if intense.

Sergeant Kadyvar's avatar had cheekbones more prominent than the real thing and a jaw squared off to the extreme. His brainy eyes contracted, and he displayed teeth enhanced to crumble steel bars. "Was it really necessary to pull all these bakku on us?" He said to his fellow soldiers lying on the grass behind him.

"The Imperial Grand Council determined it was!" Said Corporal Zeena Igner.

"At the first problem, I will get rid of them without a second thought!" He said, with bravado.

Ugolini could not pretend not to hear. "He would deal with me!" said his mouth, while his avatar did not interrupt the lesson in the CVI.

Kadyvar's avatar vanished from the CVI. The sergeant descended from the anti-inertial post with enlarged veins protruding from the collar of his uniform. His muscle mass increased by 40 percent due to a subprogram for hand-to-hand combat.

Corporal Igner also came down from his post, but his avatar did not leave the CVI.

Kadyvar was a rocky mountain towering over Corporal Igner.

"Don't make any reckless moves!" The corporal told him, blocking all his passage.

"Don't worry honey, I'm going up because I just want to be affectionate with the doctor! Let me pass," said the sergeant.

Corporal Igner's legs slid backward under Kadyvar's push.

Dr. Ugolini did not move a muscle. In the post, he looked like he was not intimidated, as he continued the lecture in the CVI.

Aleinikov sensed a bio-electric field around Ugolini, which would not block even an earth fly.

The man disappeared from the CVI, leaving the chair empty, and the field around him grew in intensity and expanded until it became a bubble two meters in diameter.

The sergeant stepped onto the bridge, but his feet lost their grip on the nanotek floor outside the gravitational elevator. Something was barring his way to his prey.

"Do you think you can stop me with these tricks?" The EOS of a space marine would have worked out countermeasures with ease.

Colonel Aleinikov feared for Ugolini's safety. Although leaving him in the sergeant's clutches for a few seconds flashed through his mind.

He launched into action to prevent contact between the two. He energized the tarsal offshoot, which sizzled from static electricity, and it ignited, and fluorescent discharges pierced the air to the sergeant's chest.

"Sergeant, move a single muscle fiber, and I will have you court-martialed, as a corpse!" Aleinikov said as Kadyvar was huddled on the ground, rendered helpless.

The sergeant turned off the physical pain but could not do so with humiliation. He had great respect for his Colonel Aleinikov, whom the space marines had given the affectionate nickname: Bugor, a superhero from ancient Russian fiction with a good soul, half-man, half-shark.

Kadyvar perked up. "Colonel!" As he performed the little imperial salute, he said, "Why do we have to take orders from this civilian? He knows it could be fatal. What about those bakku? Have you heard what they think of the Empire? That Dr. K'Prock despises us!"

The colonel collected more energy. "Because the GCI established it! And we are soldiers with an obligation to obey."

Finally, hitting the sergeant's shoulder, he said:

"Now, if you don't want to become a burnt steak, apologize to Dr. Ugolini, and swear obedience to him."

"But I..."

"Now! Do it!"

Sergeant Kadyvar's proud look broke down in anger. "I beg your pardon Dr. Ugolini, I will obey your orders to the death!" He clenched his fist and dug his fingernails into his palm, until he hurt himself.

The colonel had a smug grin on his face. What death was his fellow soldier talking about?

Ugolini showed neither anger nor fear; he did not seem stressed. He could handle his adrenaline levels.

"The briefing was enlightening, but that's enough for today. If you want to understand how we became intergalactic conquerors, I will explain it again." His voice was controlled.

Aleinikov pitied Dr. Ugolini. He was confident that the scientist wanted to convey knowledge, not tension.

The crew instantly left the J'Apcok plateau.

"Gentlemen," Aleinikov sketched a bow, "it was nice interacting with you...please excuse me!" On his face was a crooked smile. He nodded to Sergeant Kadyvar, who followed him toward the antigravity elevator.

On deck two, all the other military personnel were arranged in anti-inertial stations toward the bow. A holographic transposition of the Ω-Imperium towered like the queen of telemetry.

Complex star maps, subspace flow algorithms, Einsteinian gravitation diagrams were superimposed on the ship. The astralis did not need eyesight to read those millions of petabytes of data, but the images comforted them; they were a remnant of the distant past.

[Preparing for interdimensional transition...target: Gynsian sector of Andromeda.] It was an order thought up by Aleinikov.

"Tetha-sync with the ship in progress...three, two, one-zero, start the fusion process."

Colonel Aleinikov admired Loganach's frontal lobes expanding and pulsing in a heartbeat. Within moments, the officer's limbs liquefied, mixing into micro-crystals, and flowing into the ship's fusion ducts. The lieutenant became the blood, soul, and mind of the Ω-Imperium.

Those images also bounced around on deck three.

The colonel heard sounds and biochemical emissions from that deck, thanks to the first-level sensory augmenter (AS-1).

"Fusion with an entire warship is a true wonder," whispered K'Cun. "It is miraculous!"

Few bakku had seen that process. And the Empire liked to securitize its most advanced technologies.

"Only astralis can do that, but there's nothing miraculous about it, it's evolution," said Dr. Zhang. Her voice was the more distant.

"It's an unsolved issue." K'Prock's young voice intruded.

That young estyrian could not hold her tongue; the colonel would rather she used it for her pleasure.

"What?" Zhang objected.

"Generations of philosophers and scientists, throughout the galaxy, debate whether evolution should be a slow and natural process or can be forced in some way."

"The forcing you speak of is an evanescent concept: if evolution is the result of our ingenuity, what is ingenuity but a natural mechanism?"

"My father would say that you are losing humanity because of your evolution. The Almarians you have lost it altogether!"

"Your father and the Almarians are right. The spark of evolution has been ignited ever since we crossed the boundaries of the Solar System. We became intergalactic beings, then a new species, no longer sapiens sapiens, but astralis; it was advantageous to lose humanity!"

The young woman fell silent. Had she run out of arguments, or did Dr. Zhang's cynicism leave her speechless?

The mass of information floating on the big screen could not be deciphered by a sapiens sapiens mind, but Dr. Zhang filtered out the essentials; she made the holograms and data interpretable by all bakku.

The probability streams indicated that the Ginsian sector had been reached, with an error within parameters.

Captain Thaddeus Schimtz floated in the gravitational beam and was tall and aristocratic-looking. He parsed, and the military transposed the orders into their minds while soft orange burst over the nanotek bulkheads of all decks.

The ship vibrated for a few moments during the interdimensional transition. "We are in the Gynsian sector at the predicted Einsteinian coordinates," said Captain Schimtz."

Aleinikov admired the unfamiliar star clusters, saturated with vivid nebulae. Something he liked about space travel.

Every navigational parameter flowed into sensory space, but Schmitz adhered to millennia-old maritime tradition, quoting in vowels, SIC time, exact position, speed, distance to target and rendezvous time, systems status, and sensor status.

Loganach's breath vibrated throughout deck two; in the fused state, his oxygen requirements tripled.

Once tetha-sync was complete, his eyes sparkled. In that state, the lieutenant learned of every nanotek in the ship, one with it.

He sensed no danger within ten light years. "I recommend lowering the power of the sensors immediately to reduce the ship's emissions," he said. The lieutenant was cautious by temperament.

Colonel Aleinikov approved with a nod. "Set course for Andronis-1 at sub-light speed."

According to Hugin's calculations, at one-tenth the speed of light, the Ω-Imperium would take three days to reach Andronis-1.

The ship tapered off because at those speeds, even empty space became a stormy ocean.

A binary system with the star Salis-1 in revolutionary motion around Salis-2 was volumizing on the holographic screen. Andronis-1 appeared in the foreground, a vivid cobalt-blue ball, the fourth planet orbiting Salis-1.

As the colonel looked up to observe the holographic transposition of Andronis-1, he understood that it was only a highly probable prediction of the planet's condition.

The history in aid pointed out that it was the first homo-class planet1 discovered in the Andromeda galaxy in the year AA 243.

Scenes from the first phase of colonization appeared in the year AA 250. The powerful landing vehicles flamed into the atmosphere. And then set down with tenuous turbulence that stirred rich vegetation as far as the eye could see.

The natural colors of Andronis-1 cheered the spirit of the early settlers.

"On AA 340 01.05 21.00 SIC, we lost contact with every colony in the Ginsian sector, including Andronisian." Said Dr. Zhang.

"Have superluminal probes been sent to investigate the communication breakdown?" Dr. K'Prock asked."

"Yes, but they stopped communicating right after they transmitted the first data." Said Dr. Ugolini.

"And what did they transmit?" K'Prock asked.

"Readings on radioactive contamination of the surface of Andronis-1."

Someone enlarged and redefined the planetary record of the transposition several times. It seemed to Aleinikov he saw a class M1 (class one mineral), one of those planets-miniera rich in minerals but scarce in life.

He shook his head. "By now, Andronis-1 is just a dried-up rock," he said, "notice the levels of radioactivity. The planet has been bombarded with dirty nuclear weapons. Given my experience with that kind of weaponry, I don't think there's anything left down there that can't be analyzed with sensors from low orbit."

The conversation moved into sensory space. In the familiar abyss of that metaverse, Ugolini's opinion was a complex multidimensional figure. [Colonel, the Empire's orders are clear: Before we reach Primus, we must investigate Andronis-1.]

Its will was soft, but with sharp geometries; it radiated multiple frequencies of a harmonizing fundamental [I consider it appropriate to descend to its surface. But I reserve the right to change my mind as soon as I can observe the actual condition of the planet].

The colonel smiled; he was satisfied with Ugolini's answer. Maybe I was wrong; he could be a reasonable man with too much power and eagerness for my taste.

"They only intended to make the surface uninhabitable for thousands of years," Dr. Zhang said, "but they ignore that astralis physiology is immune to that kind of radioactivity and that we have the technology to eliminate it."

"What you say is right, Dr. Zhang," Aleinikov said, "and their ignorance could play to our advantage."

Dr. Akia K'Prock, could not curb her curiosity. "Even considering our natural instinct to expand, what need was there to build such populous outposts in another galaxy? As if Galaxia Nostrum was a crowded tearoom!" The young archaeologist expected the answer from the only astralis present on deck three: Dr. Zhang.

The terrestrial scientist took up the estyrian's challenge and dedicated a channel to her. "Imperial minds have no spatial or temporal limitations, permeating the future and hypothetical scenarios."

"Xentinel and Andronis-1 would have also been precursors of the astralis rise in this galaxy. They were part of long-term expansion project, under colonization theories."

"I see something other than an expansion plan there. What did the Empire fear?" He urged the estyrian.

"As you can guess from the name, Xentinel was a border outpost tasked with overseeing the expansion process."

"I repeat. What did the Empire fear?"

"The Empire feared no one.  But the mystery of pre-astralis societies and recent archaeological findings encouraged caution, and Xentinel served to ward off any threat from Andromeda."

2

Andronis-1

From his station in the center of the ship's highest deck, Dr. Liukai Ugolini felt the thrill of leadership. Only the large porthole towered above him, and the stars illuminated the features of his complacency.

He could consider himself satisfied with the crew's health, and because all the bakku, sapiens unfit for interstellar travel, had survived bio-stasis.

Nectunt was about to enter his crucial stages under the impetus of Akia's youthful enthusiasm that had ignited the spirits during the briefing.

A stream of conflicting thoughts saddled him with responsibility for the fate of the Empire.

Will I be up to the task? He wondered as doubt embraced his entire thought process.

Scenes from his past leaked out of memory, unchecked.

He was aboard the Pasterski space station at the edge of the Way of the Sapiens when a hyper-perceptual message of the highest priority arrived.

He let it seep into his mind without resistance. Every channel of thought went dark, and Ugolini plunged into the dark empty of super chaotic strings, a surreal place resulting from advanced simulation.

It was a cramped, eerie metaverse, not the usual multidimensional environment of those so prized by astralis minds.

The darkness was broken by a trail of billions of spiraling rotating stars, the shimmering of imperial effigies, the imperial eagle, and Galaxia Nostrum inscriptions.

This was followed by fire lighting in the eyes and rank tattoos on a glabrous head; finally, a sensory manifestation of a being with a demonic aura appeared.

Ugolini felt a reverential fear of the most powerful being in the galaxy: Chancellor Trajan.

Rumors that the chancellor was not a flesh-and-blood sapien but an IASand all the other members of the GCI caused him even more unease.

Trajan's voice vibrated in Ugolini's head without a preamble. "You are an earthling born on Estyr, an excellent archaeologist and explorer. Therefore, the GCI entrusts you to coordinate the mission that will be codenamed: nectunt."

"Nectunt?"

The chancellor expounded all the purposes on behalf of the dark minds of the GCI. He explained that the mission concerned a chimeric planet: Primus. "I will send you a sensory seed with details and all the available material."

"Primus? What the...? I thought that planet was just an astro-archaeology myth!"

Ugolini could not hide his shock, and he willingly lowered the mental firewalls. A small stream overpowered the data to the partition of his additional memory reserved for the GCI.

He felt the sensation of harboring a foreign presence spying through his orbits, even if it was mere instructions encapsulated in a code.

 "The sensory seed will sprout as soon as it accepts the mission!" Said Trajan. "I hope Primus will stimulate her interest and induce her to accept."

The chancellor was right, and Ugolini tried to control his reaction to accepting out of the blue. "But how did you do it?"

"We tasked Alberion IAS, the best sentient artificial intelligence in the Empire, to search for him. To our great satisfaction, he was able to complete the search in just five years."

Ugolini gasped because he believed he led astro-archaeology discoveries.

For centuries, the search for Primus had cost generations of astro-archaeologists their failure. How could Alberion have found that planet in such a short time?

Or were the rumors circulating about IAS, sentient beings whose minds outclassed astralis in intelligence, real?

Was Chancellor Trajan telling the truth?

He hated becoming a pawn of who knows what perverse purpose.

"We will provide you with a list of names of scientists for you to summon yourself. These are the best scientists in the Empire, I hope will be to your liking.

Colonel Aleinikov and his Spartaks will join you."

"I know the colonel by reputation!" Said Ugolini.

"He is an excellent military man. You will be two divergent figures, but everyone, including Colonel Aleinikov, will have to obey you unconditionally."

"However, we do not know what dangers that unknown space hides. The colonel could take over the command due to strategic-military expertise. And it is superfluous to remind you that cooperating is imperative for the sake of humanity!"

Those words cast a shadow over the true purpose of the mission. But Ugolini liked to think it was because of his doubting spirit.

"If I refuse?"

"You should not even consider that hypothesis, given the importance of what the GCI is proposing to you."

The chancellor approached. "A good citizen does not refuse to serve the Empire."

Was he reminding him that his duties to the Empire transcended vague vagueness? Was it a warning of death threats?

Because of those memories, Ugolini felt an icy gust envelop him.

But the warmth chased away the chill when he saw how gracefully Akia floated in the gravitational beam.

He had remained emotionally attached to that woman, and he would never select her for nectunt.

How had Akia been selected by Trajan? For merits in astro-archaeology, or to keep Ugolini himself in her pocket? Or for both reasons? Had it been a stroke of genius and a CGI idea?

Ugolini's more memory was still stimulated, and the man visualized moments he had experienced with Akia.

Who knows...if she was also thinking about the past? He was overwhelmed by memories as sharp as experienced. He noticed that his evolved super-brain was not immune to melancholy.

He resurfaced a morning so many years earlier, on Estyr, Akia slipping out of the sheets that held her scent and running to the toilet only to reappear more beautiful.

She let those images blur. High spatial consciousness and four- or five-dimensional perceptual abilities would be destabilized by emotionality.

Enough is enough. He thought, and he had to keep an eye on that Colonel Aleinikov with an ego too big to take orders from a civilian.

It would not be easy to control him along with his legendary Spartaks.

Hugin set up the sensors on EMCON3.

Switch to EMCON2, ordered Colonel Aleinikov.

In sensory space, Loganach shared an infinity of Gaussian beams to show EMCON3 was best suited for navigating unknown and hostile places.

"I am aware of this," the colonel said, "however, it is appropriate to reduce the ship's emissions to be as invisible as possible."

Loganach's mind stopped expanding, and the avalanche of sharing stopped as if against a dike. Had being deprived of part of his perceptions embittered him?

The colonel stuck to the ancient ritual of navigation. Military men loved their etiquette. "Captain Schimtz, briefly explain the situation to me," he said.

In sensory space, Schimtz's manifestation glowed brighter for that act respectful of his rank.

The captain cleared his throat to summarize all the navigation parameters.

Between the two decks, the man volumed a skein of colorful arcs that tangled to highlight orbits of planets, planetoids, satellites, asteroids, and the trajectories of every celestial body worthy of consideration in the Salis star system. Countless navigation parameters were intermingled with that tangle.

"This hologram highlights that we are sticking to the predetermined course toward Andronis-1."

A more vivid blue arc came alive to simulate the approach to a planet.

Dr. Ugolini parsed and greedily analyzed that mass of data.

"At this speed, we will enter the orbit of Andronis-1 in two standard days and forty-five minutes." Said Captain Schmitz.

During the approach to Andronis-1, Ugolini noted the easing of tensions among the crew members—credit to the colonel, who ordered the space marines to lower their aggression levels. Ugolini himself had activated an anti-stress subprogram.

Dr. K'Cun scratched his chin. "Sergeant Kadyvar moves sparingly, and it is as if the Holy Nume has left his heart." Personality control was not a general practice on Estyr.

"For astralis, emotions are a waste of energy, and if they fell at the mercy of them, they would not be able to stabilize tetha-sync." Said Akia, "and the absence of passions turns them into perfect warriors, obedient and brave."

"Does being a man mean escaping emotions or facing them? And can the absence of fear be considered courage?" K'Cun asked.

Akia nodded.

Bakku had to live with fear, competition and anxiety. Spiritual practices were the only way to dilute the dramas in their minds.

Meanwhile, empathy between Liukai and Akia increased along with excitement.

Astralis had little sexual interest in bakku. Courtship between sapiens and astralis was a practice that had disappeared centuries ago.

For that, the rapprochement between Ugolini and K'Prock aroused scientific interest in Dr. Zhang, while the biochemical variations of bodies could not escape the spacemarine sniffers.

The Earth scientist saw with cynical scientific rigor that rare ritual between individuals of two such different strains of humans.

"Dr., stop scrutinizing me every time as if I were your guinea pig!" Blurted out Liukai engaged in a clumsy attempt to feign disinterest in Akia.

A standard day away from the orbit of Andronis-1, the Ω-Imperium was plowing the cold heart of sidereal space. The ship was teeming with the energy of hundreds of suns, but Dr. Liukai Ugolini was tasked with checking for a fluctuation in the energy catalyst.

Liukai stabilized tetha-sync with his breath; in a few exhalations, he gained awareness of each of the hundred billion nanobiotes in his body. He tested the ship's catalyst firmware through EOS and revealed the anomaly within seconds; but Akia's sudden appearance changed things.

The synchronization between his EOS and the nanobiot fluctuated to critical limits. By all the stars of Laniakea, how beautiful she is, he thought.

The streams of thought focused on Akia's ebony skin with reddish tones. He imagined its softness and sweet taste.

Hugin can repair the ship at all levels, Liukai thought; my supervision is not essential.

In the silence, the two young men approached each other slowly. But their gazes were already touching in a sensual dance.

A fire rose from Liukai's bowels. Will she still be in love with me? He asked himself. He felt guilty for leaving her without giving her a choice.

He did not like being prey to those emotions. How could, a simple combination of hormones and neurotransmitters, escape the control of my EOS? He asked himself.

Scientists had simplified love; schematized and reduced into mathematical models. There was no more mystery in it, no more magic, spiritual forces permeating the space-time continuum.

Liukai tried to suppress the most primitive form: that of sexual arousal. He ordered his nanobiot to lower the hormonal gradient, but the levels rose again as soon as possible.

He surrendered, and let himself be carried away as he had always done since the first day he met Akia.

Her eyes seemed distracted to him.

What could she be thinking? Liukai wondered himself. I need to know.

Using the sensory augmenter (AS-1) seemed sneaky to him. But what astralis would I be if I could not take advantage of astralis abilities? He told himself.

With the AS-1 he noticed that the extirian's heart rate was increasing slightly. Infrared showed increased blood flow to the erogenous zones. And now that I know she is aroused?

Liukai thought his mind had stalled.

"Fascinating." Said Akia.

She lifted her gaze. "Hugin show me the ship as it stores energy!"

"With pleasure!" Replied the IAS in a warm voice. And he volumed a holographic transposition over their heads. They saw the ship plowing through an ethereal fluid, and the entire hull collector was nothing more than a large energy-absorbing sponge.

"It's amazing-it's available to anyone with the technology to make use of it," Akia said. Her eyes became dreamy. "The universe is always ready to inflate all sails hoisted by sailors, Mother Nature gives abundance."

"It was not easy to understand how to take advantage of the universe's generosity," Liukai said.

"At one time, Earthlings waged fratricidal wars to grab Earth's energy resources. But it would have taken the hydrocarbon reserves of a hundred billion planets like Earth to make the Ω-Imperium travel to the Andromeda galaxy."

Liukai smiled.

"What is funny?"

 "Would you travel by having a bomb explode under your buttocks? That's what the ancient astronauts did." And he let go of the sound of a snort.

Akia's laughter overlapped, and Liukai was glad to have infected her with good humor.

But the light on the woman's face suddenly went out. "You know, I got married." She whispered in Liukai's ear, her gaze turned sympathetic.

Silence.

"I expected that." She knew that on Estyr, marriage was not in disuse as it was on Earth, and every honorable woman had to marry, according to traditional Estyr culture.

His expression was icy, but his eyes recalled disappointment. Who knows if she loves her husband? He wondered, but he didn't care.

For an astralis it would have been illogical to have such a bond as marriage for life and beyond death.

"Why have we made our existence so distressing?" Akia's voice was trembling. "We were predestined to be together forever..."

Liukai turned toward the starlight filtering through the porthole. He took refuge in silence; those questions had caught his multi-thinking brain unprepared.

Akia encircled his waist with a grip that spoke of a love never quenched. They took each other's hands but recomposed themselves by approaching footsteps.

A trio emerged from a changing bulkhead: Scialat, Sciurt, and K'Cun.

"Dr. Ugolini," said K'Cun, "we are in the vicinity of the ringed gas giant orbiting the star Salis-1, I thought you might like to join us on the observation deck...we will be serving a delicious Extrian black tea."

Liukai thought he had to comply.

On the observation deck, the large radio telescope looked through the transparencies of the nanotek bulkhead. Captain Schmitz was the only military man present.

Dr. Maya Zhang stood in the center of the small group of bakku, seeming to tower proudly on the scale of evolution. She sunk her eyes into the astralis sensory universe. His gaze assumed full control of the elements. "Attention, in the center of the hall, your stations are being generated." He said. On the nanotek grid, seven silhouettes bordered by a gray and red-bordered band flashed, accompanied by short sounds.

In a few moments, something levitated from the floor; it comprised the same material as the bridge, luminescence included. The bakku stepped back.

"Please do not be afraid; this is safe magic!" Said the earthling with an unflappable expression. Her vacant eyes were turned toward the bakku-estyrians.

K'Cun grunted something in estyrian and let himself fall weight first into his chair.

"I was unaware that he was capable of irony!" Said Akia without inducing the slightest change in Zhang's face.

Everyone else also sat in the ergonomic chairs generated especially for observation.

"Visual contact with Sagaron," said Captain Schmitz. The image of the giant planet became voluminized in the center of the viewing room. The North Pole was in shadow, but the illuminated part blinded its viewers from the violent auroral storms.

"It has a mass equal to 1.2 times that of Jupiter!"

"That's lucky!" said Dr. Zhang, "Andronis-1 also has its precious protector, as Jupiter is of Earth."

"Sagaron, he was the god of good fortune in Estyrian mythology!" said K'Cun, as he rotated the cup five times clockwise, and five times counterclockwise, according to the ancient black tea ritual.

"Interesting!" Said Captain Schmitz, "Earth culture is also rich in myths."

"It could be considered an additional element of affinity among sapiens peoples, an indicator of a common origin!" Said K'Cun, "Except that myths are also common in most extra-sapiens cultures!"

The ringed giant's remark deserved no distraction. "However, I hope we will explore this topic further, Captain."

"This telescope, it may already point to Andronis-1." Captain Schmitz said. "Although it would only be a low-resolution spot at this distance, the spectrometer readings could prove interesting."

K'Cun looked at the officer with condescension. "Enjoy the beauty of Sagaron; leave the half-transpositions alone."

Schmitz lowered his gaze, his lips folded into a gentle smile. Perhaps pitying the bakku's disinterest in data processing, or the poor computational skills of a single-minded brain.

The standard day drew to a close; the bakku needed to sleep to not go crazy. Astralis were no longer slaves to circadian rhythms and sleep restrictions for hundreds of generations.

During the bakku's rest, desire also burned on Liukai's skin, despite the inhibitory subprograms,

The man, tried to focus every stream of thought on the mission, but Akia was too much of a distraction.

"That's enough!"

He stood up sharply. In an instant, his EOS tuned to the ship's nanotek bulkheads to create a passageway to Akia's quarters. He ran to her; he caught her by surprise from behind as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Liukai what...?"

"I didn't mean to startle you, but..."

Lukai's embrace overwhelmed her. "I have always loved you; every fragment from my consciousness would like to shout to you that I love you..."

She tried to wriggle out of the pincer hug. "Me too, me too...however, you hurt me!"

Liukai knew that a single faithless thought would disturb the eternal sleep of all estyrian ancestors. But he hoped that Akia's guilt would soon melt away. That even the woman would deny her god and be convinced that that immense love would redeem her.

"I want you to be my female farhh'o."

Akia's cheeks turned purple. Perhaps thoughts of incarnate fangs had excited her as they once had?

She responded to that fire more sparingly. "As you run, perhaps a tender earth kitten is better.

But Liukai's hands flowed busily in search of Akia's shivers. The man surrendered to the warmth, the softness of her skin, and winced. The tetha-sync broke, and he fell at the mercy of pure instinct.

The bodies intertwined in a frenzied synchronized dance; Akia swayed on his pelvis while her wet breasts wobbled.

Liukai's arousal fed on that sight; he wanted to be the perfect lover, so he ordered his nanobiot to activate a subprogram to control blood flow that did not work; but there was no need.

They immersed themselves in a surreal dimension throughout the night, free of the dangers that loomed over humankind.

Lt. Vincent Loganach shared his perceptions during a discontinuous phase of his breathing.

Ugolini perceived the lines of Andronis-1's magnetosphere as thin whiffs of wind on his skin.

The planet was only fifty million kilometers away, and Hugin, in all quarters, volumed it as the fourth planet orbiting a star labeled: Salis-1.

"Enough with the transpositions." Said K'Cun, as if in over-excitement.

Except for Dr. Zhang, all the other scientists demanded direct observation, and the radio telescope extended its eye to the planet.

"Look!" Said K'Cun, "It looks very different to me from the probe data."

The decks sank into silence, which Akia broke with an emphatic cough. "And that would be a cold piece of radioactive rock?"

She crinkled her eyes. "I don't see the radioactive cape!" He said, as he admired the cloudy clusters contending in the deep blue, as was the case on his Estyr.

"Dr. K'Prock's impressions are correct," said Dr. Zhang, "I also note we are facing a bio-mass-rich planet."

"But that's impossible!" Said the colonel. "There shouldn't have been those blue oceans."

Dr. Zhang looked like an astralis of those who preferred metaverses to reality. To a bakku, she must have seemed perpetually alienated, in the grip of a sensory obsession.

She did not deny herself when she volumized the planet a few months after the great bombardment.

Gray holograms, desertified heaths with life annihilated by the tremendous thermonuclear explosions, or that would perish later from radioactive dust clouds over the entire globe.

Captain Schmitz showed disinterest in discrepancy. "No signals were detected in the known frequency spectrum, no subspace emissions, no gravimetric fluctuations, no evidence of known technologies," he said, "nothing except a considerable amount of bio-mass on landmasses and in the oceans."

"Approach with standard Eulerian orbit," Captain Schmitz ordered.

"Automatic procedure activated; in one hour and fifty-three minutes we will enter orbit."

Andronis-1 became visible to the naked eye through the bulkhead transparencies, and its disk filled a third of the view and drove out the other stars with its cold radiance.

Parameters on the holoscreen showed that it had a mass 82 percent of Earth's, but there was little land from the waters.

The surface looked like an immense emerald ocean with no continents interrupting its continuity.

"Only 5% landmass?" Dr. K'Prock asked, "Isn't that a little low for extra-galactic colonization?"

The landmasses were represented by archipelagos scattered like brush sketches, with a few islands equaling the size of Japan.

"Yes, but in the 20th century, when an automated probe detected Andronis-1, it presented itself with 10 percent of the landmass, no evidence of sentient life forms, and had a diverse fauna and lush flora. It was a good planet."

"So the pre-colonization entity did not understand what combined effect the two stars, Salis-1 and Salis-2, would have on the water level?"

"The pre-colonization body was strong with centuries of experience; it predicted that with the approach to the star Salis-2, Andronis-1 would become a class homo2..."

"But the GCI still decided to establish a colony there for study purposes because Andronis-1 was the first planet in the Andromeda galaxy where traces of pre-astralis civilization were found." Interrupted Akia.

"That's right."

Liukai filled his lungs with Akia's fragrant essence but focused on Andronis-1 with all the streams of thought.

He had not expected to find a resurrected world.

He could not explain it even with thousands of simulations running in parallel in his mind. Using computing power triggered an alert in his entoptic: his body temperature had increased to 55°C; an automatic thermoregulation system made nanotek plaques aggregate on his neck and shoulders. As he felt his temperature dropping, he realized that he could not find all the answers alone. He turned to Dr. Zhang:

"Dr. Zhang, how can the planet become viable again in such a short time?"

Zhang's small almond-shaped eyes frowned as she stared into interstellar space through the large porthole. "I don't have enough data to answer that."

"You are the most referenced xenobiologist in the galaxy, and this conundrum is within your expertise, you must tell us something." Colonel Aleinikov intervened.

Dr. Zhang raised her head toward the officer. "But I am sure of one thing!"

"Of what?"

"That this is an artificial process. More advanced environmental engineering techniques than ours were used."

"Dr. Zhang is right. Only five years to transform a highly hostile environment for life into a fertile habitat; with our soil-forming techniques, it would have taken at least forty years." Said Ugolini.

Colonel Aleinikov had a watchful gaze. "So there was someone else's intervention?"

"That's what I theorize." Replied Dr. Zhang.

"But who and why?"

"We'll find out." Said Ugolini with a confident look.

Lt. Loganach used the sensor readings to reassure:

"If anyone else has intervened, they have left the planet."

"Hugin show us where the Andronis-1 colonies stood."

The beautiful towns scattered across the temperate belts appeared on the large holographic screen before the bombardment.

Instead, the combined hologram showed large, circular-shaped craters in place of the towns.

Ugolini elaborated on the points of interest. "Zoom in on what remains of Altay," he said.

Altay lay mortally wounded in the magnetic northern hemisphere, perched atop an island little larger than Iceland.

The protective dome of nanotek had vanished; there was no trace of the sober geometries of colonial neighborhoods.

In some outlying urban areas, buildings not razed by bombing looked like giant skeletons of techno-structures folded in on themselves or other nearby structures.

Something drew attention.

"What is it?" Said the colonel.

At that distance, the city seemed to take on a colorful hue between shades of green and red.

"Enlarge."

Dr. Zhang's eyes flickered. "No match in the database compared to known life forms."

"It looks like some kind of mammoth coral!" said Captain Schimtz.

"I would say it is a kind of giant climber rather than a coral!"

"Enlarge to maximum resolution."

A greenish, yellow-striped stem appeared, climbing among the remains of the altar buildings. In some areas, the fibrous stems had encompassed the remains of the buildings.

Ugolini felt those alien plants concurred to climb the skeletons of the buildings to support their weight.

The foliage of that life form was flaking, raining down like blood and snow covering everything.

Liukai perceived no hostility or danger, but he had a pleasant feeling. He was filled with a strong curiosity. "Colonel is that our goal? We will descend near the Altay ruins," he said.

The colonel nodded, "Begin preparations for landing."

 In sensory space, Colonel Aleinikov was a formless emanation with a pulsing core and infinite fractal lengths.

He radiated a searing determination; to the astralis, thousands of tactical instructions and the order to land on the surface were instantly clear.

To the bakku, the colonel appeared as a holographic bust that supplanted the lapis lazuli hues of Andronis-1. "Prepare for descent on Andronis-1."

The space marines' facial microexpressions seemed to say, yes, sir, we would die for you.

But even the civilians seemed to agree; who would stand up to a war hero and one with the reputation of a man of excellent culture?

"Dr. Ugolini and I believe that direct observation on the surface is necessary to understand what has happened to the planet."

"The civilians will all land, except Sciurt!" Said Ugolini. "The scientific minds are the focal point of this ground mission."

Vanobiano gritted his teeth.

"Instead, the space marines that will land with me are: Sergeant Kadyvar, Corporals Aguilar, Silvestren and Igner." Said the colonel.

Ugolini's sniffers sensed endorphins from the summoned and a surge of anger from the excluded.

The colonel's uniform fell like ashes. Within moments, a metallic substance rained down, coating innervated muscles. Structures of nanotek thickened to create enhancements on the shoulders, limbs, and abdomen. Only the head remained uncovered.

Sciurt stared at it with admiration or fear. "You have, see? It must have taken him a second to put on the TAP (polymorphic assault suit)." Perhaps he knew that only astralis could do this so naturally helped by nanobiot.

"You will find landing instructions in the rapid training CVIs." Said the colonel, turning to the bakku.

Scialat and K'Cun welcomed their dose of nanobiot with childish enthusiasm at their anti-inertial stations. Those nanounits were needed to interface with the TAPs.

Wearing the legendary TAPs was tempting to most bakku, but not to Akia, who disliked any artificial molecular unit in his blood, even those programmed to self-destruct without a trace.

She felt an uneasiness that the extirians called modesty because she did not want to denude herself among others.

Someone grabbed her hand. "Follow me." Liukai had an enveloping voice.

The bulkheads crackled and ripped open, creating openings that led them into a bare-looking chamber, like all polymorphic rooms.

Ugolini parsed, and a rounded platform, a few inches thick, was generated in the center of that chamber.

"Undress ... completely." Ugolini's breath was warm against Akia's ear. With his hands, he followed the outline of Akia's hips and grabbed them to pull her close.

Akia bit her lip, and it took only a few movements to slip the clothes off her body. "I didn't know that the TAPs' dressing procedure included an observer."

"Hugin, activation procedure dressing Akia K'Prock."

After a quick genetic scan, metallic filaments came to life from the ceiling and penetrated various places along the length of Akia's spine. The woman sought Liukai's gaze.

"I hate nanobiots!" But by now, billions of t-nanobiots crowded her entire central nervous system.

Akia saw silvery snow raining down from the upper deck. It clung to her body, which seemed magnetized; crystalline and fluid substance spread over every patch of skin and solidified, taking on a milky, semi-translucent consistency.

"For earth, heaven, and spirit!" Akia rarely resorted to her holy imprecations. "I hear a voice booming in my head, saying, Tetha-sync in progress."

"Don't worry. Tetha-sync demands calmness of mind!"

"But I'm blind!"

"What are you saying? You're not."

"Yes, sorry, I'm just not used to all these symbols and inscriptions jumping in front of my eyes."

"It's just the EOS that is interfacing your mind with the t-nanobiot and nanotek modules in your suit."

"It says Personal EOS (personal entoptic operating system) activated!"

"It tells me Tetha-sync completed successfully. Good!"

"Now, a short tutorial from