The Scalian Legacy

“What’s wrong, boss?” Henry asked as a despondent Rivas entered.

Rivas sat down, sighed and put his hands over his face. He seemed completely spent, as if all the energy had been sapped from him. “We can’t make it,” he said plainly, as he removed his hands from his face. “There’s even talk among the Drumans of reaching out to the Scalians and trying to reason with those animals.”

Jack couldn’t help but think that Rivas probably shouldn’t be sharing this kind of info with them, but then again he may only have a few more hours of existence, so why not?

“Why?” Henry asked.

“We thought we could figure out how to destroy the Redeemer in time, but as we run through the simulations, it’s become clear that their defenses are too thick. We just can’t get through their defenses quick enough. It’s not even close. We have about five minutes before that Redeemer goes through the wormhole, and we need a lot more. They’re talking about some crazy maneuvers, but there’s no way they can make up that much of a gap. We’ve been at it for nearly three hours, but just can’t figure it out.” Exhausted, Rivas seemed ready to give up. The odds were bad enough before, but now they just seemed insurmountable.

Jack couldn’t help but to jump in. “Since we are going to hack into their systems, why don’t we do some more damage rather than simply open up one section of the sphere?”

“We had thought of that,” Henry said. “The problem is that all defense system commands require secondary approval from the command center of whatever location you land on. We can’t fire weapons, move ships, bring down defense systems or anything like that. We’re lucky that bringing down one section of the sphere doesn’t require secondary approval because it’s a remote command or all would be lost.”

“Well, how does this Redeemer work? Is there anything we can do to disarm it?” Jack asked.

“It’s a fairly complex device,” Rivas said. “On its exterior, there are hundreds of antimatter explosives that alone will cause tremendous damage, but their true purpose is to transport a deadly virus far and wide as quickly as possible. The virus is protected by small shields during the explosion. The interior of the sphere is also protected by their typical shield and it then releases more of the virus after the explosion tapers down. Whatever isn’t killed by the explosion is wiped out by the virus.”

“How is the explosion initiated?” Jack asked.

“As soon as the Redeemer experiences a major impact,” Rivas replied, “it is programmed to explode. By our calculations, most livings things on Earth will have perished within weeks.”

“How about if we crash into the Redeemer and have it explode prematurely?” Jack asked.

“Yes, the admiral and others have that as an option, but it’s protected by The Seguura’s shield, so we would need to disable it, and that takes quite a bit of time.”

“Well, can we walk through it? What are the steps involved with getting that weapon through the wormhole?” Jack wasn’t ready to give up on his idea just yet.

Rivas nodded for Henry to walk through the steps. They began to verify each command for secondary approval. Near the end, they ran into something. “That’s interesting.” Henry started. “The Redeemer doesn’t have a propulsion system of its own, so the plan is to use The Seguura’s repulsion system to push it through the wormhole—and the repulsion system does not need secondary approval. It can be shut down without approval.”

Rivas perked up immediately. “That makes sense, as it’s mostly there for noncombat operations like towing, but disabling it will raise an alarm. They’d lock Jack out right away. We’d be risking that Jack not have time to open the shield before they lock him out.”

“Under normal circumstances, yes,” Henry said. “But remember the situation, boss. Jack will just have blown up a decent section of their interior. There will be so many alarms going off that no one would even notice or have time to focus on this one, at least not for a while. Also, opening the shield doesn’t help much if we can’t stop them in time, anyway.”

Rivas thought about the possibility. “Still,” he began, “it’s a local command, so this would only work if he was brought on board The Seguura, whose repulsion system will be used to push the Redeemer through the wormhole. If he lands elsewhere, he won’t have access.”

“Agreed, but since they only have three space forts and two battlecruisers out there, it’s at least a one-in-five possibility,” Henry said, while Jack waited with baited breath as Rivas thought this through. It was amazing to Jack that he was possibly contributing to the salvation of humanity by helping advanced humans with some logistics.

“It’s worth a shot,” Rivas finally concluded. “It will only buy us another five minutes, and we need a lot more, but every little bit helps. How long will it take you to create another nanobot command module for Jack?”

“I can get it done in less than an hour,” Henry responded excitedly.

“I’ll let the admiral and others know.” Rivas stood up and began to walk out when he stopped and turned to Henry and Jack. He hesitated briefly and then added, “Thank you, guys.” He walked out.

“He’s not the most expressive of fellows, is he?” Jack asked after Rivas departed.

Henry chuckled. “No, he’s kinda serious all the time, but he’s got a good heart. He looks out for us.”

“So, do I get a prize if I make him laugh?” Jack added whimsically.

Henry laughed as he walked away to get started on the new nanobot kit for Jack. Meanwhile, Jack returned to reviewing the schematics of the vessels, but he could sense the anticipation and tension building within him. After just a few minutes, dinner was brought in for Jack, as he was not allowed to leave. Henry decided to sit and eat briefly with Jack to keep him company, while the other two technicians went out to get some food.

Jack ate a slab of colorless meat that resembled poultry. He was going to ask what it was, but decided against it. This was likely going to be his last meal, so he figured it was better to simply enjoy it, blissfully unaware of its origin. As they ate, Jack decided to ask something that had been bothering him. “Henry, do we know why the Scalians behave like this? Why do they have this unquenchable desire to destroy all other sentient life? It seems unreasonable, at best, for an evolved species to act in this way.”

“They actually seem to be very honor driven, but just with themselves. From what we can tell, it’s baked into their beliefs—or, I guess, religion.” Henry went on to explain that for thousands of years the Scalians believed in a deity they called Nagaran. He preached strength of will and respect to all. Then, the tenets of this deity changed somewhat when he came to visit them twice in person long ago. When Nagaran visited, he told the Scalian people that his tenets did not apply to other species and predicted that they would soon meet other species. He provided them with a wealth of advanced knowledge to guide them for centuries. This was intended to allow the Scalian species to dominate other species when encountered—and to end them. If they did not use this knowledge for that intent, they would be stripped of all of it forever and banished into slavery. On his second visit soon afterwards, he stressed the same and added that Scalians were to blindly follow their leaders, or the repercussions would be the same. Both times, after he had conveyed as much knowledge as needed, he vanished before their eyes, solidifying his standing as a deity.

Over the centuries, the tenets became firmly entrenched, and when the Scalians finally met other species, the conflicts began. According to what the humans had deciphered, whenever the Scalians ceased to follow Nagaran’s instructions to dominate other species, famine and heartache fell upon them. Then, when they began to pursue their goal once more, success and good graces resulted. The prophecy seemed to fulfill itself over and over, until finally there was no other way for them to behave. “Or at least that’s what we have gleaned over the years,” Henry said, completing his short tale.

As Jack took this in, he couldn’t help but think of something that others may never have considered. “When did this supposed Nagaran visit them?”

“Let’s see, about three thousand years….” Henry stopped himself as he said the words. Chills ran down his spine. Across the table, Jack was nodding his head. “Yeah, now you are thinking what I was thinking.”

“Holy shit! You think they basically altered their own religion by going back in time and teaching their ancestors about modern technology?” Henry asked.

“It would line up from a timeline perspective, and why not? That’s the first thing you would need to do in order to mobilize your species. Also, it makes sense that they would stress following your leaders.”

“So, then that was likely their first use of the wormhole?” Henry was trying to wrap his head around the ever-evolving mayhem of time travel repercussions.

“Who knows?” Jack said. “We are probably so far from the original timeline for our galaxy that it’s anybody’s guess how it all started.”

“But what about the fact that this was reinforced over the centuries with tragedy when they did not follow these directives?”

“Hmm. Don’t know about that,” Jack responded.

“I guess I’m not sure it will matter, but I’ll let Anterian know about our theory when he returns. It explains a lot, though. They believe in this completely. That’s why they are so committed. You should hear them talk about it.” Henry shook his head in disbelief at how this was all unfolding.

As Jack heard this, once again, something didn’t add up. The way Henry was talking, it was as if Scalians had spoken to humans about this, but that didn’t make sense. These Scalians would rather kill themselves than even start a conversation with another species. Also, the background information they had about Scalians seemed very personal. Jack could see he had made Henry quite comfortable, so it was time to see if he could get him to explain himself inadvertently. “Must have been hard to get info out of those Scalians, huh?”

“Oh yeah, we…” Henry stopped himself. He realized he had lowered his guard and had slipped up. “Well, yeah, their computer systems were as complex as ours.”

These giant humans were different in many ways, but Jack could still spot a bad liar. “Sorry,” he pushed Henry, “but that didn’t seem like what your first answer was going to be.”

Henry smiled and stood up. “Don’t be silly. Let me get back to work, so we can stop these crazy Scalians.”

It was obvious to Jack that Henry was changing the subject, and he wasn’t having any of it. “Henry, I can read people pretty well, especially those who suck at lying. What are you holding back?”

Henry chuckled and tried to blow it off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jack.”

“Then let me clarify,” Jack said. “You said I ‘should hear them talk about it’, implying that you had heard them. Yet, from what I understand about them, there’s no way they would ever speak to you or anyone else. So, what’s the deal?”

“That’s all I can say, Jack,” Henry pleaded. “Don’t push it. Okay?”

That was all the confirmation Jack needed. They were hiding something from him, and Jack had an idea what it was. He was not about to let this go. “I’m about to commit suicide for the human race. I think I’m allowed to know just about anything I want to know.”

Henry sighed and dropped his head as if he knew he was going to get in trouble. “You’ll need to talk to Anterian when he returns. I can’t tell you anything.” He then sighed once more and turned to go back to work.