PEGASUS (FARSIDE SAGA: BOOK TWO)

"What happened?" Mike asked, concerned, as everyone stared at the screen.

"Report says something came through the hub, attacked the planet and kept going." Hugo said as he typed a few keys on the holo console.

The screen changed to Hyderia rotating against a starry background, a large gray planetoid sized metal ring orbiting the planet. The ring lit up with blinking lights as the inside began to form a purple and black vortex. After a few seconds, a large log-like structure emerged. Jason thought it was another Shadow Walker until the image zoomed in and he could see it was made up of some type of dark purplish pink looking flesh. It slowly covered the planet as it continued on it's path. The planet was left partially covered in oozing flesh as large fissures began to form along the planet's surface. The fissures began to glow bright orange until suddenly, the planet exploded.

"I am now the last Hyderian left..." Hugo said as he shed a single bluish crystalline tear. "...We no longer have a source code. I fear this may be the end of the Hyderian race." He said as he reset the screen.

"Source code?" Jason asked, curious.

"To explain that, I would have to tell you the history of Farside from the very beginning." Hugo said.

The screen changed to a star chart with a white line marking their location going to an empty section just inside the outer edge of the Galaxy.

"We're heading to Xein. It's a cloaked nebula. The Krev there can give me more information about whatever that is, plus there is something I need there. The Krev will be delighted to know the human race still exists. In the meantime, I can explain the Hyderian and Kregorian dilemma and finally put an end to this childish squabble with the Peacekeepers." Hugo said, looking at Kurie as the floor configured into chairs for each of them.

Kurie was slightly confused and taking. Almost hurt by the sudden stare from his old teacher, he was just about to ask what did he mean when Magi cut in.

"Ummm, what's a Krev?"

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The water on the planet's surface began to churn and form a very large whirlpool, uncovering a large cube-like ship ascending through the swirling waters. The ship rose further up, exciting the planet's sheilding, until it was sitting in front of the Impala, almost dwarfing Jason's ship in size. The Ebonice quickly rose from the planet and the pilot docked it with the Impala. A section of the cube ship opened and engulfed the Impala as it looped around and headed off into deep space in a greenish streak of light.

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Hugo pushed a few of the plagues into different slots along the wall next to what appeared to be a server station before returning to his seat.

"Farside is just a name established in the beginning of the second generation. The Galaxy itself has been around for far longer, but this is only the second generation that has inhabited the whole Galaxy." Hugo said as he placed the last two plagues in his lap.

"Who was the first?" Vanessa asked.

"The first were carbon-based lifeforms, much like yourselves and others from your Galaxy." Hugo answered.

"It's fascinating to know a whole galaxy of Artificial Intelligence." Jason responded, looking around.

"I'm afraid you barely know the surface of that story..." Hugo said. Jason raised an eyebrow, listening more intently.

"...Before all of this, organics thrived throughout...then it was known as Vizion 3. Towards the end, one particular species began to develop a sort of... super artificial intelligence, if you want to call it that. It saw an extinction-level event coming and unified the Galaxy as a whole. In order to save them, it would have to convert their organic matter into a sort of digital storage. Most were afraid and refused, others chose their fate. Those that were converted, didn't quite work as planned. Only their consciousness was transferred, leaving their bodies to be destroyed in the event. The gamma wave didn't affect any of the structures or equipment but the dark matter properties sent the sentient machines into a sort of stasis, so for centuries, the Galaxy lay dormant before the first standby light even clicked back on. With an adaptive learning ability, the A.I. began searching for survivors. With no organic life, microscopic or otherwise, to start over with, the A.I. started self-production using discarded cybernetics and nanotechnology..."

"Wait, so everything here is artificial?" Magi cut in.

"Yes. Aside from a very few select plants and livestock from your galaxy, you are the only organic matter in Farside..." Hugo answered before continuing where he left off.

"...It created the very first generation of Kregorians. The Kregorians rebuilt Vizion 3 according to each planet's technology, even creating new sentient intelligence for new worlds. The Krev being one, and to answer your question, Mr. Chung...." Hugo said as he turned his head towards Magi, then back at the group.

"...the Krev are nanosentient intelligence, much like....myself..." Hugo paused for a second as he almost said Hyderians, then remembered he may be the last one for a long while.

"...except they do not have an endoskeleton. They're completely independent of each other and doesn't require an A.I. to govern them, but work in conjunction to form accommodations, such as our arrival. Now to continue on, once every piece of technology was rebuilt to function on there own, the Central Artificial Intelligence placed the conscious minds that did come into each one. Of course, there were more A.I.'s than conscious minds so it programmed those that we're left to mimic the fallen ones it had in its archives, and after a while, they began to live like the organics. The only other remnant from the past beside the Hyderian race...I'll get to that in a second..." Hugo said as he saw everyone'expression of shock. Even Kurie was surprised to hear his teacher is a descendant from a past he never knew about.

"...but the only other ones are what was known then as the Kal' kar. They were highly intelligent organic plant and water type life forms that lived in harmony together, but they transcended a few millennia before the gamma wave. They come around from time to time and the select few that know of them refer to them as the Ancients. Vizion 3 grew from that point on and was renamed Farside later on in proxy to it's relative distance to a recently discovered galaxy....yours, but that wasn't until later. Before then, the Kregorians then initiated their second protocol, Guardian. It was then when they began calling themselves Kregorians. For many millennia the Kregorians held the job of the Peacekeepers, only...a little more aggressively. Slowly, and little by little, one day, they began to remember who they were. Kregorian's original consciousness we're from a species called

Bolarian. Bolarians were explorers and scientists in their last, but their natural violent and territorial aggression was still their base mentality. The Guardian protocol ran off that base mentality. When they began to remember, they went through what was referred to as The Awakening and their preprogrammed algorithms activated and they began to evolve into the Hyderian race...me, " Hugo said as he spread his arms.

"Wait, so you're saying you and the Kregorians are one?" Kurie asked, not believing their enemy And their most valued ally are the same.

"Not exactly. This is where the source code comes in. Each Hyderian has the same unique electrical impulse. It is our primitive consciousness stored in a dormant file within our central core. The source code was a revised edition of the original Central A.I. that went dormant after the Kregorian evolution, we no longer needed a source code. Our own consciousness operates the functions of this vessel. Once the Hyderian race was established, they hid the source code and the last Kregorian in a sort of stasis container. Too afraid to test the new programming, it was deemed only to be used when necessary. So for thousands of years, aside from a few small internal wars, Farside has lived peacefully...until the 856. The 856 was Farside's first intergalactic war. It lasted for 856,000 years, hence the name. Hyderians have a habit of being too curious. A new quantum energy particle called Beta 9 was discovered. It's unstable properties gave us the means to open what you would call wormholes, and a central hub was setup near Hyderia. That gave us the opportunity to explore outside our galaxy and expand into what was known as the Hyperion Dynasty. We ran into other life, most organic, others...from other things. One galaxy in particular, was known as Lasko 7. The galaxy itself is argon based, so the lifeforms there didn't take to kindly to us. They attacked us before we could establish communication. Now at this time, the source code was forgotten...sort of speak. After a while the Hyperion Dynasty fell, and the Hyderians were nearly extinct. It wasn't until, by accident, a Hyderian found and reactivated the source code that we were saved. The new source code acts as a sort of reset button. Although not as aggressive, the second generation Kregorians still ran off the original program, but not all Hyderians were reverted. Only a select number is required to build what is needed to defeat whatever threat comes. One of the other unique functions that we lost as a Hyderian was that Kregorians have an absorption rate unparalleled to ours. Not only can they absorb different energy, they can convert any matter. After the Kregorians defeated the Argonians is when the Hyderians discovered the flaw in the programming. They would have to wait the same time span to evolve again. The source code recognized this and placed the assimilated Argonians in a sort of reverse hyperbolic time stasis to kind of speed up their evolution phase, leaving the second generation Kregorians as guardians for the remaining Hyderians, which is why you two are into it." Hugo said as he once again looked at Kurie.

"You're fighting a battle that you won't win. You don't know it, and we understand the mistake, but they won't stop attacking until you return the codex. They don't see it as a misunderstanding, only as a threat against us that must be corrected. That's why you have our help in technology. Be glad this is only the second generation." Hugo said.

Sudden realization kicked in as he mentally connected to Udar, who was now back aboard the Impala along with the others, telling him not to lose the codex and that he would explain later.

"Can't you explain that to them?" Magi asked as he looked back and forth between Kurie and Hugo.

"That would be like telling your holoscreen to cook an omelet. It's not in their program to reason. We can't reprogram them because the original A.I. was replaced with the new source code and that technology was lost to us after The Awakening..." Hugo said.

"...I don't mean to make this sound cocky but this would've been over with on Outpost 3 if it wasn't for this new threat to Farside. I was in a diplomatic negotiation with the High Council when the Nexus was called to assist on Outpost 3. That's why I wasn't on the planet when it was destroyed. I was too busy reconstructing myself after the destruction of your first order fleet..." Hugo said as he stood up.

Now Kurie understood why he saw his teacher's skimmer on the Nexus.

"...I will continue this discussion at a later time if provided, but for now, we're here."