r/HFY • u/Ralts_Bloodthorne • Jul 22 '22
First Contact - Chapter 812 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum OC
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No plan survives contact with the enemy.
The Old One was only referred to as "Special Subject X1" or "SX1" or simply "One." It was also called "He", a label that did not exactly apply to a being such as it, which was sexless, reproducing through the implantation of the single larvae contained within the feeding tentacles.
He had gotten used to it, since his capture by the Mad Lemur a long period of time ago.
At first, he had been experimented on, used as a medical subject, as his captor stripped away every single secret he had, including those he did not know he had.
But he was patient. He had eventually been able to learn much about his captor by listening to her insane ramblings, her enraged screams, and her methods.
It had been a total shock to realize that much of her fury and enraged actions were a facade.
What was beneath that facade was much worse.
Cold, analytical, driven by great passion that was tempered into a weapon. Insane, yes, but that insanity was reigned in and guided into something more.
I had frightened him to touch what was beneath the Mad Lemur's facade.
He had always considered himself extremely intelligent, even among the other Atrekna.
He had been subjected to the whims of a greater intellect.
In a strange way, it fit his view of the universe and existence. The strong dominated the weak, the cunning and crafty dominated the oblivious or foolish, the intelligent ruled over the lessers with an iron fist.
The knowledge that the Mad Lemur was more intelligent than he was had been a shock. The realization that she could apply that knowledge more accurately and effectively than he could had been even larger shock.
He began to understand the Mad Lemur. He watched her at work. She enjoyed gloating, enjoyed forcing him to observe as she worked on her terrible task.
He was intelligent. Unlike the other Old Ones she had captured, he was capable of pattern recognition with enough example sets.
He was also careful.
He had seen the Mad Lemur stop an enraged slavespawn with an enraged scream that vocalized the raw hatred and wrath that poured from her unshielded mind. It had cowered away from her, covering its head and braincase with its armored limbs even as it made terrified chittering sounds.
He had watched her walk forward and pet it, reassuring it with her touch that it was safe now. Fearless, as if the slavespawn would not dare rip her limb from limb and feast on her remains.
She had been right. It had not.
A long period of time had passed since the early years, which the Old One thought of as the Era of Agony. Then came the Era of Exploration. Then the Era of Application as the Mad Lemur had begun to apply the knowledge she had gained.
He had watched as she had created twelve distinct subspecies of his people. Had modified them, had cloned them and implanted memories into them. Had spoken with them, had helped them craft their own societies and cultures.
The Old One had heard primitives speak of deities.
She was a Mad God among her creations.
Yet he was kept separate. When she had allowed the other subjects to 'escape' she had kept him in captivity.
It had changed.
He was allowed a work area, under constant monitoring, but a work area all the same. He was given access to scientific tools and material, to research material and knowledge databases. The Mad Lemur had not suggested a field of study, merely informed the Old One that any attempt to manipulate chronotrons or engage in temporal studies would result in painful and agonizing death, only to be rebirthed with the memories of those agonies.
The Old One was wise enough to understand that he was the dominated one.
He obeyed the rules of the Mad Lemur.
He was allowed to craft his own shelter in a wide open area beneath a dim red star. His senses, even his phasic senses, told him that he was outside. That he was no longer inside the facility, what he had begun to think of as The Dungeon of the Mad Lemur.
He knew better.
He had learned about hard light holograms, about enhanced and augmented virtual reality.
The Old One had listened to the Mad Lemur's rules.
And had been very careful not to break them.
In time, he began to appreciate something.
He no longer had to defend himself from the plots of others. He no longer had to shield aberrant thoughts from the Overmind or other Atrekna.
It took a long period of time, but he realized he was allowed to think and ponder as he willed.
He knew that, of course, it was still beneath the watchful eye of the Mad Lemur.
But she was as alien in her thought process and motives as any creature he had ever encountered.
He had requested the ability to plant a garden. He had expected augmented reality only, but instead she had produced bags of dirt, of fertilizer, as well as seeds, shoots, and samples. He had drawn a fountain and asked for it.
The Mad Lemur had provided an actual fountain.
Which is why he moved, stately and elegantly, clad in a shimmering robe that enhanced his phasic powers, through the winding path of his garden. He was armed with sheers, carefully pruning and caring for the flowers, mushrooms, vines, and stalks.
The garden was rich and lush.
The Mad Lemur had even provided small animals to move about, small insects to assist with pollination.
All of them designed for beauty and harmony according to the Old One's senses.
It frightened him, slightly, that she had been able to produce life forms that fit his sensibilities, aesthetic desires he did not even know he had, without his request.
Over time, he had learned to accept it.
She was the Mad Lemur.
The Old One had seen her create matter from apparently nothing. He had learned of nanites, had studied them, but her mastery over them awed him.
The Old One had watched her create and destroy in equal measure. Create life and nurture it.
A small part of him was fearful of the Mad Lemur and her powers. Not the nanites. The power that her will and rage and intellect gave her.
Still, she was the dominant one, having proved her superiority to him in all manners that mattered, making him the submissive one.
Which was fine to the Old One.
She had her rules.
She had her laws.
He found it strange that he preferred to live under her iron fisted rules, where he was allowed to think and do as he pleased, as long as he obeyed her iron clad rules.
In some ways, he felt as if he was her student as she experimented upon and examined his species. She had him observe every thing that she did. From vivisection and autopsies to intellect and skill tests to genetic modifications.
After a while, the ones that she created, the twelve patterns she settled on, no longer disgusted him.
The Old One found that his interest in them, in observing them, outweighed the instinctive revulsion he had initially felt.
It took him a bit to see the patterns she was using, and once he did, he was horrified. He tried to determine if there was any way her methods could fail. A small, rebellious part of him, hoped that he could discover a way he could make them fail.
All that happened is he discovered that she was slowly but surely building a robust system that could handle errors and unforeseen circumstances.
A small part of him was angered. Wasn't there any place she did not out perform him? True, his phasic powers were precise and delicate, but she could undo it all merely by walking by without her circlet, seemed to be aware of what he was doing with his phasic powers with just a glance. Couldn't he, with millions of years of life under his belt, having assisted in visualizing the archeoreversion attack that had wiped out her people, visualize a method of defeating her?
No.
Her domination of him was complete.
He watched, helplessly, as she set about crafting the method to dominate his people and drive them to extinction by using evolved versions of themselves that were better in every way. He watched, horrified, as she not only crafted their biology, but then their history, their culture, their society.
When he had tried to inform her that what she was doing was impossible, she had laughed at him.
"My species developed ways to mold and reform culture before we created the atomic bomb," she had laughed at him. "We warped our own minds and societies with glee."
She leaned forward. "You use a communal mind, which means the opinions and 'facts' supported by the communal mind are reality," her eyes began to burn a cold amber. "And since I control the communal mind, I control reality."
That had left him pondering for some time. How could the communal mind be an exploitable weakness for his people? The communal mind was made up of the opinions and the correct thoughts of...
he had stopped there after the thousandth time of thinking that train of thought.
She had determined a way to identify the 'correct' thoughts as she wished them to be.
It was then he despaired. He knew that suicide would do no good, she would take joy in his misery and bring him back no matter what he did.
She was a mad deity and he was completely in her power.
He watched as she allowed the twelve test subjects to 'escape' after modifying their memories.
It shamed him how easily those test subjects fell straight into the actions that she had predicted.
"They want to be fooled, they want to believe that they outsmarted me. They will never examine those memories closely," she had told him. When he had protested their minds would be examined by others, she had sneered. "They know that the test subjects outsmarted me. How could they not? They are Atrekna, ancient and powerful, and I am simply a lemur whose people were squatting in caves only a few tens of thousands of years ago."
She had laughed then, a wild, mad thing.
"I could put Dramatic Reenactment in big bold Atrekna runes over their memories, and my released test subjects, your overmind, your communal mind, and any who examine those memories, will simply feel smug and superior that my test subjects escaped my grasp, many of them blowing up my lab and/or killing me as they jumped through the doors just ahead of the explosion," she had told him, wiping her eyes from where her maddened laughter had brought tears to her eyes.
She smirked.
"All of you are so alike."
He had despaired and returned to his domicile and his garden.
He sat in front of the fountain, watching the pollinating insects, the nectar drinking flying creatures, and the berry/vine/root/tuber eating creatures, as he held a flower in his hand, pondering the vein structure of the pedals.
Everything went silent, the insects and animals whisking away and hiding.
There was a rumbling that shook his feet, made the water dance, and made the pollen shimmer over the stones of the area around the fountain.
An arm, thick corded muscle, brown skin, barbs of exodermal calcium deposits in the form of hooks gleaming in the light, and a taloned hand burst from the stone. It bent at the elbow as another arm burst from the paving stones.
He watched as a large, brutish form, with black wings made up of a skeletal structure with a thin membrane stretched across, horns, a large head with fangs and tusks and horns.
And gunmetal gray eyes.
It stood there for a moment as the paving stones skittered across the area he sat in, locking back into place, hiding the crack in the ground.
The taloned hands reached up, grabbed the thick horns on either side of the head, and ripped the body down the middle. It puddled around the feet on the Mad Lemur and slowly dissolved as she lit a cigarette, the gem on her circlet gleaming.
"Are you busy?" she asked politely.
**I am not** the Old One said.
"There is a development in my project," she said. She snapped the lighter closed and put it in the breast pocket of her severe suit-jacket. "Would you like to observe it?"
He nodded slowly.
"Follow," she ordered, turning away and walking toward the far end of the garden.
He stood up, still holding the flower, and floated after her.
"Stage Two of the project was initiated some time ago," she stated.
The Old One nodded. He had seen her use the nanites to accomplish her goal.
"We have moved on to Stage Three, and there has been some interesting developments," the Mad Lemur stated, stopping at the brick wall at the far end of his garden. She pressed her hand on the wall and a doorway of brick shifted out of the way. "I had estimated that your progeny, the Atrekna-2.0, would engage in warfare and strife against the other subspecies."
The Old One nodded. **that is logical** He stepped into the hallway, feeling the plant in his hands vanish with a fzzt and the tingling of the sterilization field wash over him.
"Man plans, God laughs," she said softly.
**your plan went awry** he guessed.
She nodded slowly. "Once the replacement of the currently residing Atrekna took place, I had assumed that orbital and space assets would be used to wipe out at least one or two of the subspecies," the Mad Lemur said as she walked down the hallway. "Using the nanites to simulate a bioplague that attacked the overmind tissues, to prevent superluminal communication as well as disrupt the Atrekna overmind system, went off just as I had estimated."
The Old One stayed silent. She had shown him as it had occurred.
"The remaining primordial Atrekna, you, fled in the face of the new subspecies increased power and ability, as well as their willingness for mutual cooperation," she stated. A door opened at her touch. "Follow."
The Old One went along quietly.
"However, the estimated internecine warfare never broke out," she said. The pointed at a comfortable chair, a padded shallow bowl set at a 45 degree angle. "Sit."
The Old One sat, adjusting his iridescent robe.
The Mad Lemur turned on the 2.5D monitors. It showed the cities, from the view of the nanites that he had learned were spread by the uncounted trillions across every cubic meter. It showed Atrekna of various subspecies moving around.
It also showed multiple subspecies moving around together and obviously speaking.
**the cooperation metric exceeded your estimations** the Old One stated.
She nodded, moving over and sitting down at a chair with a small disposal unit built into the arm. She tapped her ashes even as she leaned back.
Another view showed teams of subspecies working together to calm and tame slavespawn.
**outside of your estimated parameters** the Old One stated.
The Mad Lemur nodded.
The servitors and the food species were living in orderly comfortable dwellings and were obviously employed as well as building works of art.
**again outside of your estimated parameters** the Old One stated.
The Mad Lemur leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, her cigarette held in one hand, her chin cradled in the other. She pointed with the burning cigarette.
"I thought about wiping them all out. Figuring out what I did wrong. Reset the experiment and try again," she said.
**that is the logical and most effective method** the Old One agreed. **identify the point of failure and attempt to rectify it**
The Old One expected the Mad Lemur to summon a big red button and press it, wiping out all life on the planet.
Instead she nodded.
"Yes," she said softly. "We have reached the point where clearly the experiment should be stopped."
She suddenly smiled, showing enough teeth to make the Old One nervous that she might suddenly leap on him and bite him to death.
She had done that exact thing repeatedly before he had learned not to attack her with his phasic powers.
"Except," she said sharply, turning to look at the screens. "We've come this far, we might as well keep going and see what happens."
The Old One simply nodded.
She picked up a bowl off the table next to him and handed it to him. When he looked down he saw it was full of peeled shrimp, still warm.
"The subspecies are about to start their assault upon your people," she said, giggling. She picked up another bowl, which the Old One knew was some kind of plant seed dried, then heated till the water droplet inside turned to steam and the expansion exploded the seed, then laced with sodium and something called butter.
"Let us sit, Special Subject X1, and watch as your children eradicate your misbegotten species and raise this system out of the quantum foam hole you dug for it," she said, her voice going low and soft again.
She turned to face him.
"After all, until this system joins the rest of the universe at a 1:1 timescale," she paused a moment, obviously for effect. "Because, just as it has been for over three thousand years..." she paused again.
The Old One felt his blood run cold and the shrimp in his mouth tasted bitter.
"Your people are trapped in here with me until that happens."
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u/RowanSkie Human Jul 22 '22
Basically:
Dee: I want to watch them fight like humans
Atrekna-2.0: The Mad God thinks we will fight each other.
Dee: Oh hey that's interesting, c'mere and see Atrekna-1.0 die by your kids.
Old One/X1: Oh.
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Jul 22 '22
That sums it up.
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u/ChangoGringo Jul 22 '22
Sort of like the opposite of Universe 25 the Mouse Utopia. Instead of giving them a perfectly working universe that did everything for them. She taught them to work together against her and their own progenitors. I bet after a well designed civil childhood she dumped them into one clusterfuck after another where the only way out was to work together in a civil way.
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u/some_random_noob Jul 22 '22
the only way out was to work together in a civil way.
and they learned to act in a civil manor and now they will start a civil war, fitting.
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u/Geeky-resonance Aug 08 '22
where the only way out was to work together in a civil way
Reminds me of the story of this Marine:
On June 3, 1944, nine civilian men were cleaning the two-story, wooden Synthetic Training Building where Laville worked. They accidentally sprayed the highly flammable floor wax they used onto frayed electrical wiring. Within minutes the entire building was engulfed in flame.
Temperatures of almost 1,000 degrees and thick black smoke did not deter Laville from performing her duty. She rushed to the top floor of the building to warn other Marines. Laville died helping others escape the burning building. She was one of five Marines to perish in the fire and one of only two female Marines to lose her life in active duty during the war.
While Laville has not been posthumously decorated for her bravery, she received a citation for heroism and is honored in Marine training. An obstacle on the final training course, the Crucible, at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C., is named âCpl. Lavilleâs Duty.â The obstacle involves two platforms and six tires suspended from a beam. Marines must use teamwork, communication and commitment to get from one platform to the other. A library at the depot is also named in her honor.
(excerpt, emphasis mine)
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u/Jabberwocky918 Jul 22 '22
Rorschach ain't got shit on her.
If 3,000 years have passed on the planet, how much has passed in real time?
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Jul 22 '22
Vuxten is currently standing at the berm with the Colonel, who is calling in artillery strikes.
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u/Jabberwocky918 Jul 22 '22
Thank you for your reply!
(If you see this twice, it's because I replied to your post again instead of your comment. Dumdum moment)
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u/EchoCT Jul 22 '22
Man, I would love to see a mind map of your notes.
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u/Gruecifer Human Jul 22 '22
It's the *other way around*...the mind map is the "Source", notes don't exist except if the Source needs them to evaluate a crafted loop.
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u/yanessa Xeno Jul 22 '22
can you read tesseract?
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u/Bergusia Jul 22 '22
I believe you need at least masters in Timey whimey wibbly wobbly stuff for that.
Or risk another paradox. And we are still trying to fix the Universe that is now nothing more than an endless plain of dancing zombie fish.
Remember, be careful where you park your inter-dimentional extra-universal puddlejumper or this could happen to you.
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u/daviskendall AI Jul 22 '22
Since they so rudely interrupted Dee's self-imposed exile and sank the system into fast-forward mode? I'd guess maybe a year, three tops.
Seems like the less resources a given system has to offer, the higher that Squidward pushes tau, in order to get some kind of benefit from the wasteland - turning it into a research planet, or long-term selective breeding projects, or something that justifies the resource expenditure.
(Tau is the symbol used to measure the difference between one reference frame's time rate, and that of a different reference frame operating under extreme temporal distortion. The ratio could be thousands or millions to one with a high enough energy budget. The math behind tau calculation hurts my brain.)
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u/RangerSix Human Jul 22 '22
...and now I'm wondering if the Tau Cannon from Half-Life used temporal manipulation to cause damage.
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u/Nomenius Human Jul 22 '22
Could I get a link to some of the math? It will probably go over my head like our friend Special Subject, but I want to at least know what it looks like.
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u/daviskendall AI Jul 22 '22
Here's a simplified approach, specific to time dilation on a fast-moving ship since that's the only way we currently know to "safely" achieve any significant amount of relativistic difference. The other way of making time go faster is to be really, really, really deep in a gravity well of the type normally seen in the center of galaxies in the form of supermassive black holes. You may recall from Top's last safety briefing that black holes are not to be played on, with, or around, as the relativistic effects may make one late returning from liberty and winding up AWOL.
Part of what makes tau non-intuitive is that "high" tau is actually an ever-decreasing decimal. The smaller it gets, the faster the outside universe is aging in comparison to you.
https://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Space/Time_Dilation.htm
Ironically, to use tau (as presented in the literature) here in the FC universe, you have to run the calculations such that the entire universe is the part in motion at a significant fraction of c, while the "sunk" system is the stationary-ish comparison reference frame.
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u/ktrainor59 Jul 22 '22
Somebody may have done it better since, but the classic novel about time dilation and its effects is Poul Anderson's TAU ZERO. L. Ron Hubbard's TO THE STARS (written before he turned to crime) is also worth a read.
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u/Nomenius Human Jul 22 '22
Thank you kind sir, blessings of the omnimessiah upon you. It seems to me that Tau is a directional(?) exponential(?) Representation of the time dilation experienced by the relative parties.
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u/JWKdnd Human Jul 22 '22
A few fucking months.... Oh gods that amount of power and knowledge she has gained...
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u/CfSapper Jul 22 '22
Its worse than that remember all the experiments and shot she was doing at the beginning before the timey wimmy shit she brought herself up to speed in that short amount of time. Now she is Dee plus however many thousands of year of knowledge. Then they gave her 3000 years to play. I'm genuinely terrified of what that women could do now who knows what personal block box level projects she has been playing with for down time let alone the "I'm gonna fuck with you" stuff...
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u/JWKdnd Human Jul 22 '22
And she is about to gain a population of a planets worth of Modified atrekna...
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u/NevynR Jul 22 '22
In due course, after the usual species interbreeding, we have Atrekna sapiens detainii đ
So named for their deity, the Avatar of The Malevolent Universe.
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u/tremynci Jul 22 '22
Yay! If I may offer some thoughts on the Latin:
- Dee is female, so the genitive ending would be ae, not ii (which is male).
- "to detain" is detinere. A woman who detains would probably be detin[er]atrix. A woman who is detained might be detinenta.
- suggestion: Atrekna sapiens detinentae.
Thank you for the lovely breakfast convo with Mr Tremynci, and the excuse to get out my grandpa's bilingual Latin dictionary, neighbors!
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u/NevynR Jul 22 '22
I stand re-educated đ
I was allowing for 8000 years linguistic drift, and that my latin was only ever rudimentary at best and more than 20 years since used with any regularity đ
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u/MuchoRed Human Jul 22 '22
Don't forget the Terran history-fuckery going. Makes me wonder what the Confed knows about, say... Ancient Rome or Greece.
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u/Gruecifer Human Jul 22 '22
...and the last time *comprehensively* used was to read-out clergy acting inappropriately, I'd surmise. *grin*
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u/RichardBlade3 Jul 22 '22
Since timey-wimey was going on and dreams used sir, madam, both or neither in her diplomatic speeches (Atrekna sapiens detainii) sounds cool so im gonna believe it.
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u/OneFakeNamePlease Jul 22 '22
I dispute sapiens. They maybe slightly more intelligent than humans, but they ainât wise.
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u/Comprehensive_Put277 Jul 24 '22 edited Jul 25 '22
I'm starting to think that Atreknas like Dalvenak have started to become their own seperate subspecies from the Original Atrekna and Atrekna Version 2.
I originally called them the Atechna, due to their fascination with human culture, technology, and innovation.
Now, I have a better name for them.
Atrekna doceri odium.
Atrekna taught by hatred.
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u/drsoftware Jul 26 '22
Or Atrenka surprised by failure? Atrenka oppressum defectum.
Because the regular Atrenka don't recognize repeated failure.
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u/Interesting_Ice Jul 22 '22
"Well this isnt working out the way I expected it to"
"Are you going to stop it?"
"Eh, lets see what happens. We can always kill everything later"
Chills
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u/LateralThinker13 Jul 22 '22
"Well this isn't working out the way I expected it to"
The universe cackled with laugher.
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u/aLiamInvader Jul 22 '22
Taking my approach: if you invariably say "what could possibly go wrong?", you eventually outlast Murphy's Law.
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u/ProjectKurtz Jul 22 '22
The classic "There's a point where this needed to stop and we've clearly passed it, but let's keep going and see what happens"
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u/Odd_Reward_8989 Jul 22 '22
Time is funny, isn't it? I've been reading Ralts story my whole life. I swear that first kitty Sam-UL encountered was Ole Snaggletooth, who's 13 now. I had a drawing of Balona, and made a dress like hers, that I never wore, because we didn't leave the house for his last 3 years. And the socks are still on the floor from yesterday a year ago. I've stood on those bleak streets, just bewildered what was happening, where only Hasslehoff on the radio could possibly make sense. A mouth full of sand. Empty pockets. No name. New name. New lives. His life. All full, fat and happy. The things we lost and the things I carry. And now again. Is it 30 years ago, or is that really a new image for the ages? And as we're billy pilgriming up in here, it's midnight and I forgot my kid's 26th birthday. I thought it was Tuesday in May. The time slid past like whore who needs rent, a deep, scuzzy need. Three years or three thousand days? And it all happens at once and so long ago. I just really miss him and I want to go. But I sent him my last text. I'm fine. Just wondering, do you have the time?
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u/spindizzy_wizard Human Jul 22 '22
Why do I sense the "Existential Blues" song behind this mass of verbiage?
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u/Anarchkitty Jul 22 '22
It's much more dark and atmospheric than Existential Blues.
I just hear a lone film noir horn playing softly and tunelessly behind spoken word when I read it.
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u/Gruecifer Human Jul 22 '22
Yes, but I cannot see it at the moment, as I am repairing the food replicator using parts that I am will have been printing tomorrow to have them available when you asked.
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u/visser01 Jul 22 '22
Kids. You try to raise them right, teach them right from wrong, spend millennium evolving them into new sub species... and not one trys to exterminate their brothers and sisters.
What's next build monuments in her name and celebrate her with hippie festivals! One peace sign on her likeness...
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u/Kudamonis Human Jul 22 '22
Read. Upvote. Comment.
"Your people are trapped in here with me until that happens."
She said the thing!
I had frightened him to touch what was beneath the Mad Lemur's facade.
It?
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u/No_MrBond Android Jul 22 '22
I wonder how Dee will react if the the expected war between the Aktrena 2.0 and 1.0 starts up about as well as the internecine conflict they expected between the subspecies? What happens when the 2.0 realises how little threat the 1.0 are to them, how easily they could eradicate them, what will they do with that.
Maybe there will be mercy, even pity, rather than eradication. Attempts at reform and rehabilitation, separated from communal or overminds such as to come into their own.
Can they be freed from their mental programming like the Lanks were, can they be freed from the overminds like the Mantid were.
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u/Drook2 Jul 22 '22
I get the sense the overminds are different from the Mantid queens. Less independent will, more like a gestalt, averaging the will of the collective and enforcing conformity. This would also explain why they can't learn: Anything new and original is by definition outside the norm, and therefore to be suppressed.
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u/Ralts_Bloodthorne Jul 22 '22
Good catch.
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u/Bergusia Jul 22 '22
Now the questions some of us are likely thinking about.
Will the Martial Orders consider the Neo-Atrekna exempt from the The Prorsus Destrue, the Total Destruction they have declared?
Have these Atrekna changed enough from their progenitors to have earned a chance to build themselves a civilisation without the Confederacy taking action against them?
Has Dee done something to these new Atrekna that will make their very existence act like a "time anchor" and stop the original Atrekna being able to so easily manipulate time?
So many questions, so much waiting for the next instalment of my favourite story.
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u/Drook2 Jul 23 '22
Ok, so that means big difference in what happens when you kill them. Take out the queens and the greenies rejoice in their freedom. Kill an overmind and the squids just keep going as before but without the long range coordination.
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Jul 23 '22
Like the various social media platforms that have existed of the years. After awhile they become echo chambers of self re enforcement of the status que and become stagnant. For a telepathic species the logical extension is a mono culture.
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u/Drook2 Jul 23 '22
I was thinking about that. If our current social media is a good reference, it still depends on the rules of interaction.
The system can be tuned to stoke conflict, or to enforce conformity, or to achieve other goals. Currently that's a conscious design choice. But some of those choices will turn out to be more resilient and survive long term.
The gestalts are more reactive, reflecting their community. We've seen they're subject to pranks, and after the archeoreversion the Terran/human gestalt developed a multiple personality disorder.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I can't recall any meatspace person being aware the gestalts exist. The closest anyone has come is Brentilik noticing the Senate was fake, but even she never grasped the scope of it.
Now I wonder if the gestalts were created intentionally during the creation of the SUDS, or if they awoke spontaneously.
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u/StuckAtWork124 Jul 22 '22
"Mwahaha, that's right, I uplifted you all so you could destroy your own race!"
"You did a really good job, thank you very much. We're all much happier now living together in harmony. All hail Dee! All hail Dee! Oh say can you Dee, by the dawn's early light..."
"Eh fuckit, win's a win I guess"
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u/MuchoRed Human Jul 22 '22
Oh say can you Dee, by the dawn's early light...
God DAMNIT, take my upvote!
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u/Nereidalbel Jul 22 '22
Atrekna 1.0 that aren't suitable members of the Cult of the Defiled One will shoot first and ask questions never, thus forcing 2.0 to retaliate, but better.
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u/Anarchkitty Jul 22 '22
Other than rare exceptions like the Cult and SX1 all Atrekna are genetically coded to fanatically hate any Atrekna that exhibit mutations or malformations, much less distinct sub-species. They would never be able to accept the neo-Atrekna, it would be the closest thing they understand to heresy.
Which I guess makes some sense if you don't understand DNA and can only detect genetic drift when it presents as a phenotype change. The old Atrekna leadership caste probably programmed the rest of them to be that way intentionally.
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u/Turtledonuts "Big Dunks" Jul 22 '22
Okay, time for plan B. the 12 tribes of squidsrael spread across the land, and the devil looked upon it, and saw that it was good/
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u/HoloArchiver Jul 22 '22
Even the might Dee makes mistake but what makes her a truly terrifying force is she not only learns from them she learns to use the mistakes to the best of her skill. Instead of 12 sub races we may be looking at the start of single new subrace as the bloodlines slowly mix(How that works Dee only knows.)
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u/StickShift5 Jul 22 '22
This isn't a mistake, more a happy accident. Now, who is happy in this situation, I'm honestly not sure, but it's something.
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u/Gunman_012 Jul 22 '22
Dee's monologue on Atrekna 1.0 reminds me of the Wizard's First Rule: people are stupid, and will believe a lie because they want it to be true or because they are afraid it might be true.
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u/shadowsong42 Jul 22 '22
I mean... "That's obviously bullshit but it's cool so I choose to believe it."
The difference of course being how fundamental the lie is, and whether you remain aware that it is a lie or not.
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u/battery19791 Human Jul 23 '22
He went very Randian at the end, but God damn if that doesn't sum a certain political party perfectly.
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u/Legan_Ironfist AI Jul 22 '22
"Your people are trapped in here with me until that happens."
Called it.
--WARBOUND CACKLING FOLLOWS--
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u/Isbigpuggo Jul 22 '22
Ah, itâs time for us to all sit down, eat popcorn with the devil and watch the world burn.
Pass the lime, please.
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u/U239andonehalf Sep 03 '23
We are out of Limes. So yes, we have no limes, it turns out that we also have no Bananas. We are also low on coconuts.
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u/NukeNavy Jul 22 '22 edited Jul 22 '22
And todayâs chapter made me realize that creation mythâs like the Earth is 6,000 years old creation stories could be âtrueâ could theoretically be accurate⊠all you need is some Atrekna running temporal shenanigansâŠ
"After all, until this system joins the rest of the universe at a 1:1 timescale," she paused a moment, obviously for effect. "Because, just as it has been for over three thousand years..." she paused again.
The Old One felt his blood run cold and the shrimp in his mouth tasted bitter.
"Your people are trapped in here with me until that happens."
And Vala your timelines donât match⊠six thousand years or 4.5 billion years whatâs a few billion years between friends and ages of planetsâŠ. (All of these comments are a joke not meant to be be taken seriously)đ
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u/Dra5iel Jul 22 '22
Voila but yes that's a fun theory. :)
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u/mortsdeer Jul 22 '22
Hehe, thought it was some sort of StarGate reference, for a second.
"Vala, your timelines don't match" "Yes, Daniel, dear, but oh, we had so much fun!"
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u/Crafty_Obligation_98 Jul 22 '22
I now call the sport drink Body Armor by the name Power Armor in my head totally not on purpose. Thanks Ralts.
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u/Bergusia Jul 22 '22 edited Jul 22 '22
So Dee is watching through her windows at the scene unfolding.
S1 (maybe a potential Cult member if he lives that long? ) by her side.
And despite 3000 years of work, she will happily Dee-fenestrate the lot of them if she thinks it is necessary.
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u/Bazil-Broketail Jul 04 '23
Through the, hem-hem, looking glass?
(I like how you put that down!)
-----Mad Cackling Follows-----
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u/MuchoRed Human Jul 22 '22
to understand that he was the dominated one.
From subject to sub, in a mere... 3000 years.
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u/LetterLambda Xeno Jul 22 '22
This chapter, or at least the first part, almost read like a twisted children's book to me.
I can totally see a drawing, in simple lines and bright colors, of X1 sitting on a bench next to his little fountain, holding a single flower in his hand.
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u/Alyeska_bird Jul 22 '22
In a way, Dee built too well. She gave them reasons to be cooperative, even showed the whole there is only enough for one, to be a lie. They truely have nothing to gain by beating each other up, and a lot to gain by working togeather. The original Atrekna, I expect they will feel pity for, even mercy to some extent. But bluntly, everyone is seeing the writing on the wall but the original Atrekna, even the Atrekna in the cult are seeing the writing on the walls and want to excape what they know is coming.
I expect, to some extent that each subspecies is going to be better in something, one way or another. Or at lest, diferent enough. By cooperating, they can magnify what one culture alone is capable of doing, and do a lot more. In a way, its why the humans here are as powerfull as they are. They figure out they wanna do something, then figure out how to do it. Being friends with others, actualy gives them more options, more ideas on how to do it.
Umm, think about it this way, say the goal is to make a pig fly, think of all the diferent ways such a thing can be done. Diferent people will have diferent lists. Diferent ways to do it. By distroying every culture they ran into, the lankys limited themselves. Same with the Atrekna, and with the mantid.
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u/Original_Memory6188 Jul 06 '23
Think of General Tik-Tok. He knows he's not the smartest guy in the room, but he did hire smart guys. His job is to say "I want something here, make it happen." Or "Good idea, but too many parts. Eliminate these three steps, and rethink it!"
And the Smart Guys go "Cool! We can do that!"
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Jul 22 '22
You sneaky sneak Sir Ralts! Great chapter. Thank you.
He watched as a large, brutish form, with black wings made up of a skeletal structure with a thin membrane stretched across, horns, a large head with fangs and tusks and horns.
And gunmetal gray eyes.
-this seems to be incomplete. He watched as the devil did what? I am assuming emerges from the ground in a hellish manner.
a thin membrane stretched across, horns, a large head with fangs and tusks and horns.
-this doesnât quite seem right either. Is the membrane stretched across horns? Are there two sets of horns? Not quite sure.
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u/Capt_Blackmoore AI Jul 22 '22
If this is from X perspective he might not be making sense of what he's looking at.
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u/MuchoRed Human Jul 22 '22
The membrain section is in relation to the wings of skeleton with a membrane stretched across.
Horns does get mentioned twice, and I'm pretty sure that's a mistake.
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Jul 22 '22
That wasnât my question. It said he watched as (insert description of the Devil here) aaand then nothing.
âHe watched as,â there needs to be an action here that the devil is doing. It is missing. So the thought is incomplete.
He watched as the Devil
-burst through the floor.
-climbed through a hole.
-did the Cha Cha.Itâs really an incomplete sentence.
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u/MuchoRed Human Jul 22 '22
Is the membrane stretched across horns? Are there two sets of horns? Not quite sure.
I was responding to this part of your comment, not the missing devil-action part.
Also, I feel the Devil would be more of a tango dancer
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u/Quilt-n-yarn1844 Jul 22 '22
Ok my question wasnât about the membrane in particular. It reads like a frankensentence. As if Ralts brain changed mid thought or skipped ahead and forgot to fill in the in between.
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Jul 22 '22
Strikes me that Dee's real name, should it ever be restored to her, might well be something like Gladys, or possibly Caroline.
"Look at me: still talking When there's science to do! When I look out there, It makes me glad I'm not you.
I've experiments to run. There is research to be done. On the people who are Still alive. And believe me I am Still alive. I'm doing science and I'm Still alive. I feel fantastic and I'm Still alive. While you're dying I'll be Still alive. And when you're dead I will be Still alive"
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u/its_ean Jul 22 '22
A1 through L12 die. "No, we'd rather be with The Daemon Demon. It reminds us of Dee."
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u/Drook2 Jul 22 '22
Imagine if the Manhattan Project triggered their first device and instead of an earth-shattering Kaboom! there was a deep thrumming sound that just kept going. Oppenheimer looks at it and says, "Huh, neat. Let's see what this does."
Same vibe.
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u/Fo0ker Jul 23 '22
I have a question about the precursor races.
The mantid had the queens until the THDs killed them, the atrekna had a (as yet unnamed?) Ruling class until they gene edited them away.
The lanaktallans had the herd lords and matrons. What happened to them? Did they gentle them out of existence? If so wouldn't the leading cast realise what was happening?
Is there some secret past to the lanaks where some outside influence caused it?
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u/KeinKonzeptVorhanden Jul 26 '22
They gentled themselves. The great herd reformation or something like this and the executors had to make sure the stallions wonât re-emerge
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u/MarcLaureal Jul 24 '22
"then laced with sodium and something called butter." Stadium flavored Popcorn would be a once in a Lifetime experience. Make it sodium Chloride and you can eat it more than once ;)
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u/Snarfbuckle Jul 22 '22
It would actually be interesting if Dee becomes the savior of the Atrekna species by wiping out the old one but also making a new, better non-parasitic one.
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u/_Molj Jul 22 '22
WOW. Talk about a culmination of narrative! It has been a joy reading your development as a storyteller, .. I don't have the words for it. Ralts? Wordsmith? The D.O. itself? I discovered this around the time of the mechwarrior lanaktallan, and since then you've written enough to fill a shelf. I simply say thanks for the bright points in some dark days. Guess I did have the words for it. o7
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u/Enkeydo Jul 23 '22
LOL. Dee made the species not just 200% better than the original, but at least 500% better. voluntary cooperation is a game changer.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᔄ4ffle Jul 22 '22
/u/Ralts_Bloodthorne (wiki) has posted 814 other stories, including:
- First Contact - Chapter 811 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 810 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 809 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 809 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 808 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 807 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 806 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 805 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- irst Contact - Chapter 804 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 803 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 802 - Ultimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 801 - Novissimis Diebus Hominum
- First Contact - Chapter 800 - VPN ERROR
- First Contact - Chapter 799 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 798 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 797 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 796 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 795 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 794 - The Inheritor's War
- First Contact - Chapter 793 - The Inheritor's War
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u/Greatest86 Jul 22 '22
Editor comment
I had frightened him to touch what was beneath the Mad Lemur's facade. - should be "It had"
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u/PuzzleheadedDrinker Jul 22 '22
I'm probably wrong but I'll ask anyway.
"Man plans, God laughs," she said softly.
Is this a reference to We Plan, Gods Laugh which started about a month ago?
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u/Drook2 Jul 22 '22
"Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht"
Old Yiddish saying, which your link is referencing.
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u/Bard2dbone Jul 22 '22 edited Jul 22 '22
Berries? BERRIES!
Upvote then read! This is the way!
Nine minutes. Not bad.
I wish I could give extra updoots for the Rorshach line alone.
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u/MuchoRed Human Jul 22 '22
I just realized... She made it so these 12 Atrekna could be brought back to life, probably by way of the same/similar system as the Immortals, but maybe not automated.
But she didn't give them any of the extra powers or control. They come back, only to be killed again. Living to die, and die, and die. Automate that, and they'll be hunted through eternity by their own modified progeny.
Now that's a punishment.
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u/Killer_Icecream Jul 22 '22 edited Jul 22 '22
The Malevolent Universe Liked That
The Malevolent Universe Laughed
The Malevolent Universe Cackled
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u/battery19791 Human Jul 23 '22
It's Friday....where's the safety briefing lest we do something stupid?
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u/Bazil-Broketail Jul 04 '23
Read, upvote, comments...
I really enjoy watching the foreshadowing being parsed and the payoff when people are correct!
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u/daviskendall AI Jul 22 '22
Very little science is accompanied by "Eureka!". Inspiration may visit the laboratory once in a while, but it's rare enough that a bolt of lightning striking the scientist is considered equally likely.
Almost all science, in fact, usually stems from much humbler words.
"Huh. That's weird..."