The Scalian Legacy

As Captain Malarde’s senior team walked back into the conference room to meet the admiral, they were surprised to see the admiral and the captain already there on a conference call. More than a dozen other participants were displayed in holographic fashion at one end of the conference table, with the admiral and captain at the other end. Several Drumans, Pendorans and humans were in the holographic group. Most were familiar senior leaders in the region, including the senior Druman and Pendoran admirals in the area.

Dr. Simon couldn’t help but stare a bit at the Drumans. Even though he had met some of them before, he simply couldn’t get used to their variability. There were so many species that even the Drumans didn’t keep count. Five of them were displayed in the room…and they all looked quite different. One was particularly odd. It had many bright colors and a mostly fluorescent-purple face—or at least that’s where they had their eyes, so that’s what humans would consider the face. There was no mouth, nose, or ears. Even the eyes were bizarre: the four of them looked more like shiny silver jewelry than eyes. This particular Druman was a bit shorter than most at about four feet tall. It was fairly round and had many appendages coming out from all angles. Some appendages draped over the front of his body, while others were at his side. The leader of the Drumans was a more typical example of the species: mostly green, quite tall at well over nine feet, with more of a thick rectangular stem than anything else.

Five Pendorans were also displayed in the room. While the Pendorans were odd as well, with their six-to-eight arms and their face near the top of their wide torso, at least they were fairly consistent in size, shape, color and form. So, it was easier to get used to them. Also, unlike the Drumans who rarely wore clothing, since they needed to absorb radiation from the sun, the Pendorans were always dressed, so any other odd-looking features were at least covered up.

Admiral Alterman started. “Welcome,” he said. “Please take a seat as we have some information to share.” Commanders Liu, Johar, Simon and Rivas all took their seats. “As you can see, we have gathered all of the squadron and battlecruiser leaders in the sector and have just briefed them on our situation here with our new unique guest. Before I continue, I would like to hear from Commander Rivas on his findings.” Alterman paused and stretched his arm in Rivas’s direction. “Commander,” he said.

“Yes, sir.” Rivas started, feeling a bit on edge with the entire leadership in the sector suddenly focused on his every word: “Well, we pressed...uh...searched for information about any time travel or old Earth initiatives and got nothing. We then expanded our search to attacks planned on Earth and did get some vague references to something called ‘Rarjee Pedronos.’ We couldn’t get any direct information on this, so this must be a top secret project, but there were certainly multiple references to it and they seemed related to some attack against humanity. Sorry, it’s not much, but it’s all we were able to obtain.”

“And how was this information obtained?” a robotic voice sounded. It was a Druman neural interpreter interface speaking the thoughts of one of the Drumans. Simon knew it was the smaller colorful Druman only because his conference screen was slightly lit to indicate the thoughts came from him.

“We’ve explained our information-gathering techniques in the past,” Admiral Alterman quickly jumped in. “This is not the time to review this again.”

“Sorry, my Scalian is a bit, well, nonexistent, so can someone translate ‘Rarjee Pedronos’ for me?” Dr. Simon asked.

“Project Redemption,” Rivas replied somberly.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Dr. Simon added in a low tone as he leaned back in his chair.

“No, it does not—and there’s a lot more,” the admiral continued. “What I am about to share with you is classified information and we ask that it remain within this group.” The admiral looked around the room to see everyone nodding. The admiral then placed his hand on the table and spoke to the computer:

“Display file Scalian secure 958de, authorization Alterman 2343.”

The holographic displays of the other leaders split down the middle and moved to the side, allowing a larger single holographic image to dominate the center of the other end of the table. The image was a topical view of a planet from what seemed to be several thousand feet above it. The planet seemed to be a barren desert, darkened by thick, blowing sand, with a fairly large black circle at the center. The view began to descend. Jagged edges appeared around the black circle, as well as the outlines of some structures in the distance. Soon, it was obvious that the circle was actually the bottom of a very large sphere whose top had been removed. Furthermore, it slowly became obvious the sphere was actually rather deep into the ground and very little of what remained of it was above the surrounding surface level.

“This object was discovered a little over five years ago on Helos 4, one of the Scalian bases closest to our portion of the galaxy. At first we didn’t give it much attention, but as scientists descended on the planet, they discovered that the Scalians were not the first inhabitants of this outpost. In fact, most of the planet seemed to have had a rather sophisticated society, and the structures were not compatible with Scalian architecture or needs. Over time, we were able to determine that this civilization was destroyed about three thousand years ago and that this sphere was just about that old as well. The speculation was that this sphere may have been a part of an attack on this planet; however, there weren’t many other signs of destruction other than the areas where the Scalians had built their newer infrastructure.

“As we took over more Scalian outposts, we started to look for similar evidence, and sure enough on Tatos 3 and Excelia 4 we also found evidence of advanced civilizations that ceased to exist about three thousand years ago. While we did not find the same remains of a black sphere, we did find similar deep indentations of the same size, with traces of the same elements that the Helos 4 sphere was made of a metal compound that did not appear to be native to any of these planets. As if that were not enough, all of these indentations occurred at the equator of each planet. Lastly, given the state of the sphere on Helos 4, it was fairly obvious that the Scalians were taking it apart to use its contents. Thus, our speculation was that the Scalians had completed this effort on these other planets. Everything seemed to indicate that all of these civilizations were ended by the same form of attack about three thousand years ago.

“Now, we know that this fairly unique metal compound that these spheres were made of, is used to build Scalian ships. However, this wasn’t too surprising, since it seemed fairly obvious that the Scalians had been scavenging it for years from these large vessels at these sites. Also, since it’s our understanding that Scalians were barely escaping their own atmosphere that long ago, we came to the conclusion that there was some other mysterious species that dominated this sector three thousand years ago and caused devastating destruction. However, if that were the case, where would they have gone and why weren’t the Scalians affected? While the investigations have continued, there were no further breakthroughs until today.

“The discovery of a three-thousand year-old human who claimed to have boarded a Scalian ship near the equator of Earth raises the distinct possibility that all of these other attacks were actually performed by Scalians in an effort to terminate other species in the past, when they could not be defeated in the present. And if that’s true, humanity appears to be slated to be the next victim.”

The admiral stopped and let the evidence sink in.

However, Dr. Simon, eyes opened wide as if he had seen a ghost, didn’t hesitate to ask for clarification: “Wait a minute! Are you saying that there were other timelines, where all of these civilizations lived up to the present day or beyond?”

“That’s exactly right, doctor,” the admiral said solemnly. “And then at some point in those other timelines the Scalians went back in time about three thousand years and ended their enemy species before they could stop the advance of the Scalian Empire.”

“So, we may have known these other species in these other timelines? Dr. Simon continued to think through the bizarre possibilities. “They may have been a part of a coalition like this?”

“Very possibly,” the admiral said. “It is certainly our belief that what we are experiencing today is not the original timeline—or at least not for this section of our galaxy.”

The doctor remained shocked. He was not the only participant in that state. After a few seconds of awkward, chilling silence, the doctor finally spoke up, softly, more to himself than anything else: “What a legacy…the serialized genocide of entire planets.”

A Pendoran captain then spoke up. “Agree.” As with all Pendorans, his voice bubbled as if he were speaking underwater, and his English was less than perfect. Still, he was forceful and confident. “And legacy now ends. When we attack?”

This drew agreement from many, mostly in the form of head bobs from humans and, from the Pendorans, some derivations of “yes.” As usual, the Drumans were fairly quiet. Admiral Alterman had made his case well, but he needed to give the Drumans time to come around, as he needed everyone onboard to succeed. “I realize that charging back into a war that we all had hoped was over is something that none of us wants. However, we all remember what happened the last time we decided not to act. As all of you know, per our truce agreement with the Scalians, given that we are so far from our home sectors, we must notify our leadership back home. However, this group has the authority to renew the conflict if any of our species declares themselves in grave danger. I am now declaring that our species is in such danger.”

The group listened intently as Admiral Alterman continued: “Now, in order to re-engage with the Scalians and end the truce, there must be a unanimous senior leadership vote and a majority leadership vote. Before I call for this vote, I would like to allow for questions, as this is a very serious decision that we must undertake. A decision to re-engage will certainly cost many lives, but inaction may cost us everything. So, questions?”

Several Drumans asked questions regarding the certainty that the human aboard the admiral’s ship was truly as old as the admiral said he was. Other Drumans asked whether there was any chance the human could be a plant to trick all of them into deciding to go to war. One human leader asked how the Scalians could possibly have traveled back in time, and Commander Liu explained his knowledge of time dilation wormholes. The discussion went on for over thirty minutes. Alternative possibilities were theorized, but none lined up with the facts. Finally, the questions died down, and everyone was ready for the vote.

The admiral tallied the vote. With the exception of a couple Drumans, the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of re-engaging the conflict.

Admiral Alterman ominously announced, “Leaders, we are now officially at war with the Scalians once again.”