Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel 1: The Deimos Artifact (39 page)

Chapter 48.
Guardians.

Voltaire Crater, Deimos, July 17, 2676
.

Zack and the other two newly-minted "Guardians" gathered together near the entrance to the chamber.

So we are to be "Guardians?"
thought Zack,
is that why he had experienced such powerful impressions of Ariane during the scanning process? If that was so, why didn't he remember any impressions at all of Sergei?

"I do not know why I have been selected for this honor," said Sergei, shaking his head, "I have been nothing but a failure since the beginning of this entire affair."

"I don't know how you define 'failure,' Sergei," said Ariane, "The way I see it you're a respected, veteran military commander and you have more experience with these 'Custodians' than almost anyone in the human race. Surely those count for something? A better question might be why choose Zack and me? We're only junior officers in our respective services."

"The two of you successfully protected and transported the artifact to this place," said Sergei. "Zachary actually placed the device on top of the base unit. These are far from trivial accomplishments. As for me having more experience than anyone with these Custodians, I suggest that there are almost certainly a number of people in the Political Branch of the Soviet Military who have been working with the vile creatures directly for quite some time and have far more experience with them than I, curse their black souls! If I excel at anything, it is in my hatred of those loathsome monsters and any traitor to the human race who would be so depraved as to work with them." He shook his head and looked at the floor, "I do not know if I can ever convey how sorry I am that I pursued you and fired on your ship."

There was a short silence. So much had happened in last few days that Zack realized he'd all but forgotten about the incident.

Ariane took the lead, "It's obvious that you were unwittingly following orders from these same Custodians," she said, "and, as it turned out, we didn't suffer any damage. Look, Sergei, that whole incident could have turned out much worse than it did."

Sergei gave her a questioning look.

Ariane took a glance at Zack before replying, "We probably would have done a lot more damage to your ship if our pulse projectors hadn't malfunctioned when we opened fire." She paused, "Worst case, you might have even been killed." Zack nodded in agreement.

"I had no idea," said Sergei.

Ariane nodded, "I say let's put the whole thing behind us and move on. We're playing under a different set of rules now."

"Indeed. Still, it would give me some peace if you would accept my abject apologies for my part in the incident."

Sensing how much it meant to him, Ariane responded, "We accept." Again, Zack nodded in agreement.

Sergei's relief was obvious. He exhaled deeply and said, "Thank you."

"If these creatures have infiltrated your government," said Zack, "then it's easy to see why you were picked."

"Please explain?" asked Sergei.

"I'm thinking that placing the artifact and selecting representatives is only the beginning of what's going to be a long, hard road. My gut tells me we're going to run into some opposition, not just from these Custodians but from the forces in your government that are allied with them. Your knowledge of how things work within the Soviet Bloc and your reputation among those who are not colluding with the Custodians could be invaluable."

"I hope that you are right," said Sergei. He looked back and forth between the two of them, "It is easy to see why the two of you were selected."

Neither Zack nor Ariane were quite sure how to respond.

In the meantime, the teaching and learning session for the Representatives seemed to have been completed. The three Representatives sat blankly in front of their now inactive stations before slowly coming to their feet and shuffling over towards the Guardians with mildly glazed looks on their faces.

"The Guardians will now take a station for their own orientation,"
said the machine.

Zack slid onto one of the stone block benches and sat up straight, starring at the monitor in front of him. On either side of him he saw Ariane and Sergei take the other two stations. They each waved their hand over their respective activation lights and were immediately subjected to what looked to be the same beam that the representatives had been exposed to. After a brief period for the machine to calibrate itself to their individual brain patterns, they experienced what seemed very much like an orientation video. At the same time, on a level barely above the subconscious, they were inundated with a flood of additional information on a wide array of subjects.

Zack was treated to a breathtaking top view of the sprawling, spiral conglomeration of stars that was Milky Way Galaxy. The spiral was rotating slowly and majestically against a black backdrop flecked with the more distant, and thus smaller, spirals, discs and globular clusters of countless additional galaxies.

A voice began to sound inside his head,
"The Grand Amalgamation of Galactic Civilizations consists of over five hundred separate civilizations."
A series of small green circles began to appear here and there within the gently rotating model of the galaxy until the entire spiral was dotted all over with them. Zack noted that only a few of the circles seemed to be located anywhere near the dense and presumably very inhospitable central galactic core area.

The view shifted to the interior of an immense and opulent building of some kind. Zack was reminded of the videos he'd seen of the United Federation Parliament facilities. The voice continued,
"The Grand Amalgamation is governed by the Grand Assembly."
The camera, or whatever it was, panned around the vast space of the Parliamentary chamber, showing seats filled with alien creatures of all descriptions. Some of the seating areas contained enclosures filled with liquid or gas to accommodate the special needs of the individual delegates.

The view then changed to one of a smaller but, if anything, even more opulent chamber. Within the chamber, members of five individual species were gathered. Like a judge in a courtroom, one individual faced the other four from behind a massive and very impressive bench. The voice continued,
"The Grand Assembly is presided over by the Supreme Council under the overall leadership of the Chief Councilor."

The view cut back to the slowly rotating galaxy,
"The goals of the Amalgamation are to preserve peace and prosperity for all of the member races."

And so the orientation video went, providing myriad details and continuing on for an indeterminate time. Zack learned that the Milky Way Galaxy, in spite of the fact that it was a conglomeration of stars so vast as to be beyond comprehension, still suffered from space limitations, especially in some regions. Though numerous, inhabitable planets were still exceedingly rare and, understandably, highly sought after. Most of the galaxy's civilizations, in addition to occupying their home planets, had moved outwards, colonizing the desirable planets closest to them within roughly spheroid blobs of space with their home planets usually somewhere near the center.

The Grand Amalgamation had originally been formed when, first two, then three, then five of the original members found that their spheres had begun to overlap. Several very costly and very bloody wars later, it was determined that some method of settling territorial disputes outside of intergalactic war was imperative. More than that, the advantages of providing a framework for trade and economic cooperation between races offered benefits to all. After some inevitable "growing pains," the Amalgamation stabilized into the governing body that it currently was.

The mechanisms for mediating disputes between member races were well-established and, for the most part, very effective. However, there were just under a hundred "undesirable" civilizations who, for some reason or another, would not or could not be incorporated into the organization.

These were turned over to the control of the Custodians.

The Custodians, who were not members of the Grand Amalgamation, were a civilization that had been encountered early in the organization's third century. They were an extremely aggressive, very warlike race and they utterly refused to play along with the Amalgamation's proposals. Analysis of their capabilities after a couple of appallingly brutal altercations between them and members of the Amalgamation indicated that perhaps the bloodiest conflict in the history of the Organization loomed. In the compromise that was reached to avoid this conflict, the Custodians were granted control of civilizations that did not qualify for membership in the Amalgamation.

The arrangement had maintained peace within the galaxy for some five thousand years.

Early on, the Galactic Sentinel network had been set up to monitor civilizations that were on the verge of being able to qualify for membership. The system was designed to keep potential member civilizations out of the hands of the Custodians and to ensure that civilizations posing any risk to the Amalgamation were identified early and placed under the control of the Custodians. The "Guardians of the Galactic Sentinel" had been formed, in part, to monitor the Sentinel network and to keep an eye on the Custodians, who had never demonstrated any qualms about influencing the status of potential member races.

To qualify for membership, a candidate civilization needed to be economically viable and pretty much at peace within its populace. It appeared as though the Human Race was potentially qualified for membership, but would need to settle a number of disputes within its populace, some of which had been festering for a very long time, before they had any chance of success. The narrative went on to cover a number of other matters, none of which was as important as the material covered at the beginning of the presentation.

Suddenly, the learning session was over and Zack came back to reality to find himself still sitting up straight on the stone bench and staring towards the monitor. The beam had shut off. His back and neck were stiff and fatigued, indicating that the session had probably been as long as it had seemed to be.

As the Representatives had done before them, the three Guardians slid off from the stone benches and headed somewhat dazedly towards the entrance to the chamber where they had gathered before the teaching session began.

Zack emerged from the learning process with two over-riding questions: First: How was the Human Race going to reach some kind of consensus within its populace when some of the intractable problems they faced seemed to date back to the very dawn of their species? Second: Just who in the hell did this Grand Amalgamation think they were? In Zack's eyes they were a bunch of simpering cowards who were allowing this "Custodian Race" access to all of the resources of any civilization who didn't happen to meet the Amalgamation's arbitrary standards. Could they not see how
wrong
this policy was? He wasn't sure if he wanted the Human race to seek membership or not!

The alternative, of course, was even less attractive. Zack felt a cold pang of fear nip at the pit of his stomach. As powerful as these Custodian creatures had to be with all of the resources that were simply being handed over to them, what was to keep them from steamrolling this self-delusional Grand Amalgamation under whenever they felt like it and taking over the entire operation?

The nip of fear in Zack's belly distilled into a cold and spiky iron lump as the reality of the situation flooded his consciousness.

The Grand Amalgamation proudly stated that they hadn't had a war for over five thousand years. The shared delusion of the collected civilizations would have been laughable if the consequences of their folly hadn't been so dire. Was Zack the only one who could see that they had
been
at war this entire time? Not only that, by merrily sauntering along on their carefree and clueless way, they had also been in the process of gradually losing this war for every single one of those five thousand years! It might not happen today or even within the next few years, but Zack could sense that a day of reckoning was not far off.

It appeared as though he and his fellow Guardians were destined to have some interesting discussions with the Representatives.

Epilogue.

Grand Amalgamation of Galactic Civilizations Supreme Council Chambers

First Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy, August 24, 2676.

The Supreme Council had reconvened for their scheduled meeting. All five of the elders, Chief Councilor Naift, of the Aveans, Helspar of the Hylidians, Neasterum of the Sauropsids, Joroaster of the Lycans and Her supreme Honor sub-queen Sithia of the Thenarim aquaticus race were again present. The Supreme Council was discussing the cases of two candidate races that they had been observing for some time.

"The last time we convened, there were two races under consideration for membership in the Grand Amalgamation, the Hordea and the Humans," said Chief Councilor Naift, "Helspar of the Hylidians, you have been assigned to present the special case regarding the Hordea. Do you have a report?"

"I do," replied the nervous little Hylidian. He went up to take his place at the podium, his iridescent crest fluttering slightly due to his currently agitated condition. Though he was a more than competent speaker, he did not relish the activity. "As our distinguished chair has reported previously," he began, "the Hordea are very unusual candidates. They are actually a race of intelligent plants."

He was interrupted by Neasterum of the Sauropsids, who was noted for his bluntness and willingness to break with protocol. The out of order Councilor rose up from his perch and spoke rudely, "Intelligent plants? Why are we wasting our time on them? Such races are not mentioned in our rules and therefore are not even worthy of consideration."

"Neasterum, you are out of order, as usual," said the Chair, unable to keep from ruffling his breast feathers, such was his agitation, "As was stated earlier, the Hordea are a special case that may require a close examination of the regulations. Take your seat if you please. There will be time for discussion after Helspar has concluded his report."

The Sauropsid, who didn't appear to be chastised in the least, flicked his black, forked tongue several times as he settled back behind his desk.

Helspar continued, "The Hordea have succeeded in discovering their Sentinel key and placing it on the base unit. They have even succeeded in selecting a group of Representatives. However, there is a problem," the little Hylidian paused for moment before continuing, "Individuals of this race are not very long-lived with most of them having a lifespan of only about three years."

"How can we work with a race such as this," said Neasterum, again speaking out of order, "How is there to be any continuity?"

"Neasterum, please," said the Chair, "Allow Helspar to complete his report."

"Very well."

The interruptions had done nothing to make Helspar any less nervous and it took him several long moments to regain his composure and continue his report. "They compensate for this relatively short life span by passing memories, and it appears, experiences directly to their offspring."

"How is this possible?" said Neasterum. This time the Chair decided to ignore the interruption.

"It is accomplished by a sort of chemical memory transfer. Each offspring obtains all of the memories of their parent and any additional knowledge that they themselves obtain during their lifespan is transferred to their own offspring. The Hordea are male for the first part of their life cycle and turn into females after they have mated. The female parent dies soon after reproducing. As I have been saying, they are a very unusual race."

"Are they mobile?" asked the chair.

"Oh yes," replied Helspar, "they are quite mobile and flexible. They can also produce specialized limbs and even produce individuals with specialized body types if needed."

"How very interesting," said the Chair.

"They have other unique and remarkable traits," said Helspar, "When you speak to the offspring, it is exactly as though you are speaking to the parent. You almost need to experience it to understand what it's like. There is more. They have a dormant period each day during which large numbers of them gather together in a common bed of soil. Once there, they exude a network of minute feeding tubes into the soil to absorb the moisture and nutrients required to sustain themselves for another period of activity.

These feeding tubes also provide a means of intimate communication between individuals. Not only do they absorb materials from the matrix, they can also secrete materials into it. The tubes of adjacent individuals intertwine and the entire bed becomes almost as one individual. This process enables them to chemically exchange recently gained knowledge and experiences through the medium of the soil. Any individual who spends time in the common bed will have all of the information of his or her companions.

Whenever an isolated group has a visitor, the visitor is encouraged to spend at least one rest period in the common bed to share the memories and experiences of its group and, at the same time, absorb the same information from the host group. It really is quite a powerful system and explains why they have been able to accomplish so much in spite of their obvious limitations, like the extremely short life span of the individuals."

"Do you think they are strong candidates for membership?" asked the Chair.

"I confess that I really do not know," replied Helspar, "We have no precedent. One difficulty that I see is that they, unlike the Humans who are next on our agenda, seem to be almost too passive. They have advanced to the level of interplanetary space travel but it seems the feat was achieved more out of desperation than for curiosity or any other reason."

"And that need was?"

"They had been developing on their planet for such a long time that some of the trace elements that are required to sustain their lives were becoming scarce. They were forced to leave their planet to procure these elsewhere in their star system."

"Very unusual," said the Chair, "What do you propose?"

"I suggest that we continue to interact and to monitor them but, in the end, they may not have the proper qualifications for membership. I am concerned that if they cannot qualify for citizenship that they are so passive that the Custodians will completely overrun them. I think it would be a terrible tragedy."

"...or a regrettable necessity," added Neasterum.

"That will be decided," said the Chair, "Thank you, Helspar; that was very informative. We will all need to ponder this case carefully before our next meeting."

Helspar gratefully gave up the spotlight and returned to his station.

"The assembly calls Joroaster for a report on the Humans."

The distinguished Lycan made his way to the podium and took his place behind it. He was a much more confident speaker than the Hylidian who had preceded him and it showed.

"Since my last report, the Humans have succeeded in placing the key, activating their Sentinel device, selecting Representatives and are beginning the citizenship orientation. They have done remarkably well considering the fact that they had only a limited amount of time to get the process completed."

"How is their candidacy proceeding?" asked the Chair.

"Not badly...but not well either," was the reply.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Neasterum, who, in addition to his other strong opinions, was known to be extremely skeptical about the Humans.

"They are still in the early stages of the test but they are indeed a very aggressive and divided race. An alarming number of new conflicts between factions of their race have flared up since the dream programming was implemented."

"We haven't had a case like this for thousands of cycles," said the Chair, "but you say they have placed the Sentinel artifact and selected Representatives?"

"They have," said Joroaster, "and Sentinel Guardians have also been selected. Proper procedure dictates that we must now accept them on a probationary status."

"What kind of nonsense is that?" asked Neasterum, flicking his tongue aggressively as though welcoming a confrontation.

"It means we allow them in to the Amalgamation on a limited basis for a defined time period, monitor their behavior and reconsider their case when the time period expires," replied the Chair.

"I predict that they will fail," said Neasterum.

"Your opinion may be correct but your declaration is somewhat premature," said the Chair, "Protocol dictates that events be allowed to run their course."

"I have a suggestion," said the Lycan.

"Please, Joroaster, go ahead."

"There have been at least ten occasions in the distant past where we had more than one candidate race at a time that was considered to be marginal for membership. On two of these occasions, the candidate races were galactic neighbors and their territorial spheres were on the verge of intersecting. They were contacted by the Sentinel Guardians and encouraged to interact peacefully with one another before any 'misunderstandings' or outright hostilities could occur. I submit that we have a similar situation here."

"So these two civilizations are adjacent to one another?" asked Sub-Queen Sitha who, up until now, had been silent.

"Yes" replied the Lycan, "The territorial spheres of the Hordea and the Humans are very close to intersecting and will probably do so within the next five to ten years even if we don't intervene."

"You are suggesting that we actively intervene?" asked Sithia.

"That is correct," replied Joroaster, "Perhaps if the two civilizations are encouraged to interact, a balance of some kind can be achieved by both of them. The Humans are probably too aggressive for their own good and the Hordea are too passive. If all goes well, the Hordea could learn how to be more assertive and the Humans could learn how to be less belligerent."

"Though you will readily admit that the consequences of such an interaction remain far from clear?" said Neasterum.

"I would," replied the Lycan, "but it seems to me to be well worth trying. By the way, all four of the candidate races from the prior two 'experiments' went on to become respected members of the Amalgamation."

There was silence in the chamber as the council members contemplated the unusual suggestion. Finally the Chair, as was his right, made a decision.

"See that representatives of the two races are introduced to one another and allowed to interact for a time. If that goes well...then we shall see."

Even Neasterum agreed that it was a good idea though it might have been because it was, in his less than humble opinion, doomed to fail. Joroaster was taking a somewhat risky path by making this suggestion and his status within this Council would no doubt rise or fall with its success or failure. With the failure of one of the Sauropsid's peers came the possibility of advancement. Fortunately for Neasterum, events could sometimes be influenced. He would have to inform the Custodians of these new developments immediately.

Discretely, of course.

The End.