TheReturned t1_je26ziu wrote on March 28, 2023 at 9:36 PM

Reply to comment by TheReturned in [WP] In the far future, humanity is facing an existential threat from an advanced alien race. Humanity is on the brink of defeat. However, just as all hope seems lost, a small group of humans discover a long-forgotten technology that could turn the tide of the war. by Smedskjaer

Silently Jackson was cursing himself for not maintaining better situational awareness while his ship was being driven to the one in which he now walked, following a bot on a journey he had no frame of reference for. By his estimates, the alien ship was in the capital class, tonnage in the hundreds of thousands with a keel stretching well past a kilometer.

"Uh, ship? Bot? How long has it been since we landed?"

"Twelve minutes. Your fleet is expected in sixteen minutes." The disembodied voice answered.

"Uh, thanks. Normally I'd be able to tell this for myself, but the war with the Ascendant has limited the navy's supply of fighter helmets. If you're not flying a fighter, you get an analog helmet, like mine." He rapped gloved knuckle against the helmet, a hollow sound echoing in his ears. A welcome sound, a sound of normalcy.

"Your ship is devoid of much information about your species and the war with the Ascendant. What do you know of the war?" The voice seemed genuinely curious.

"They're the first alien, sorry, the umm, correct term I think is xenospecies? That humanity has experienced since we started colonizing new worlds. Until the Ascendant arrived, we only found flora and non-sapient creatures on planets. Never any evidence of sapient civilizations, anywhere. No fossils, no ruins."

"You thought you were alone." It wasn't a question.

"We did. People smarter than me debated whether or not we were truly unique in the cosmos, or we just haven't searched far enough. The galaxy is a big place, after all." The bot turned for a bulkhead that bloomed open upon the bots approach. Jackson felt he'd never get used to that. Beyond the new portal was another stale corridor, more walking, more following the little bot.

"I sort of wish I could have been in the room when the universes biggest 'I told you so!' was dropped." He chuckled at the thought. "The story goes that the Ascendant appeared in one of our systems with the most potential - multiple habitable planets and moons, or near habitable with some minor terraforming required."

"Was this system near the edge of human territories?"

"Not quite, the frontier had moved beyond it, but only by a handful of lightyears. Thing is, the Ascendant ship was small, only a fourty meter keel. A scout. And that's all it took to completely destroy sixth fleet that was stationed there. The colonies stopped responding soon after."

" Did you ever visit a system that went silent after the Ascendant arrived?"

"No, or at least I'm not told we have succeeded in that mission. I think the plug was pulled after the fifteenth or sixteenth scout failed to report back." Being a scout himself, Jackson felt a shiver run down his spine.

"I sense your doubts."

"There's whisperings amongst my fellow scouts that one managed to make it back with pictures and video."

"What they found were horrifying, even by the worst of your human standards." Despite being empathetic, there was a vehemence underlining the statement that caught Jackson off guard.

"Humans are capable of serious atrocities. According to the rumor mill, the Ascendant make the worst we've committed look like child's play." Images swam in Jacksons vision, sourced from merely words and put into horrific pictures.

"They're infected with a nano-phage, turning them into abominations of flesh and metal. Towers loom over the lands made from the bones of those that didn't survive the initial infection. They were the lucky ones. The survivors, fully conscious and aware but totally helpless to do anything, locked out of their own bodies that are forced to ravage the planets resources to feed the Ascendants ever hungry war machine."

"I-uh-yes. The whisperings only spoke of implants and towers made from bone, not the rest." Jackson was too shocked to say anything more.

"We have long fought what you are calling the Ascendant, but ultimately failed to achieve the numbers necessary to meet them head on. They are a shadow, snuffing out the spark of life wherever their shadow touches."

"We? Who's we? How could you not take on the Ascendant? This ship is far more advanced than the tech we've managed to salvage from them. We're behind, sure, but catching up quickly. This ship... You have technology beyond even that of the Ascendant."

A blank bulkhead like all others stood before them, the bot stopped a meter before it. Jackson caught different colors of light bouncing off the wall, the bot sending some sort of signal. Unlike every other iris they passed through since his arrival, this one did not bloom open brilliantly or silently. A hum filled the air, vibrating Jacksons teeth. Haltingly the petals of the iris ground open, not having been used in a very long time.

What laid beyond caught Jackson's breath, a lush garden spread before him. Alien trees proudly stood over grass and moss, a misty haze floating lazily among the scene. Vine like plants hung in great swooping arcs from the branches of the trees. Jackson's eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw insects flitting about. A stark contrast to the sterile appearance of the rest of the ship.

Silently the bot glided forward, undaunted by the sudden change of scenery. Jackson followed, trying to take in everything all at once, craning his head every which way. How he wished he could take his helmet off and smell the air, the trees. He yearned to rip his helmet off, to eliminate this artificial barrier between him an nature. The power of the primal need surprised him, his hands slowly rose to grasp either side of his helmet.

"I advise against that, Casey Jackson. Your biology is incompatible with the environment here. You would die, and unfortunately it would be a slow and painful death." Jackson was surprised, he could pinpoint the voice, it was no longer emanating from the bulkheads themselves.

From the mist a figure materialized. Tall, taller than most humans, but proportionately built. Jackson had no misconceptions about who would win in a physical fight, the alien that stood before him no doubt could easily snap his neck with a flick of their wrist.

"Welcome to the Ididerial, the last ship of the Jinisha people. My people, of which I am the last of."

TheReturned t1_je5qy4y wrote on March 29, 2023 at 4:39 PM

Jackson stood motionless, his mind short circuiting at the sight of an alien standing before him, and one that wasn't trying to kill him, either. "uhhhhh" was all that he could manage.

The Jinisha chuckled lightly, an oddly human trait that further broke Jackson's brain. "I see you are a bit overwhelmed. It is understandable. I will keep speaking until you regain your faculties, is that OK?"

Jackson nodded, his helmet jerking forward and backward from the motion. Something deep within his brain kicked him, nodding may not be understood by this alien." Y-yes." It took tremendous effort to get that single word out, but there it was.

"My name is Oolyai." The alien pronounced his name slowly as ooh-lie-eh for Jackson benefit. "We have been at war with the Ascendant for many years, and obviously we have lost. As will your people, too, eventually. The Ascendant are relentless, a phage that is overtaking the galaxy." Oolyai gently motioned for Jackson to follow him as he turned to walk deeper into the lush greenery around them. Jackson followed, what choice did he have?

"For some years we maintained a stalemate with them, keeping them contained within a specific region. So long as they were left to ravage the region, they didn't push the boundaries we had established. Eventually they ran out of systems to feed their need for conquest. That's when our containment failed." The pair had reached creek, actual flowing water. Near them, a half meter tall waterfall added it's babbling to the sounds of a living space, something Jackson just now noticed.

There were creature calls, insects buzzing, and all the trappings of a living, breathing space. The primal yearning was still there, wanting to rip his suit off and embrace a living, natural space. But he did not give in to that primal urge, partially because his brain was rebooting from it's stunned state.

Oolyai gracefully sat upon a plant that Jackson expected to not support the large aliens body. Oolyai folded his hands in his lap and stared at the creek beside him, mesmerized by it.

"Compared to human technology, even ascendant technology, the Jinisha is a wonder of engineering and technology. I wish I could say that this ship is the counter to the Ascendant, but it is not. It is nothing more than a fancy luxury yacht." Jackson had almost gotten over his shock, but now that Oolyai showed hostile emotion a different circtuit tripped.

Jackson shook his head to clear it, a different emotion welled up burning away the confusion, shock and awe and replacing it with frustrated duty.

"So if this ship isn't some superweapon to help us in the war against the ascendant, why bring me here? Why reveal yourself to us? What is your motivation, purpose?"

Oolyai slumped, suddenly looking older than a moment before. Slowly he reached into the creek, his hand emerging with a small device cradled in his grasp.

"There are a thousand answers to those simple questions, Casey Jackson. I'm lonely. I'm dying. But most of all..." Oolyai gently stroked the device with his other hand lovingly, like a parent. "because my work is complete." he finished in a whisper.

Moments crawled by, then suddenly Oolyai snapped his focus back to Jackson. "This is the Pherelli seed, my life's work and a two fold answer to the Ascendant."

Jackson fought off the urge to take a step backwards, they way Oolyai spoke make it sound like the seed was dangerous, triggering his fight or flight response. "What does it do?" he surprised himself in how firm his voice was, belying his fear.

"Tell me, Casey Jackson, how much do you value your humanity?" Oolyai's question almost sounded pleading. A heartbeat passed and Oolyai continued before Jackson could respond, "Would you be willing to give it up, to become something else, possibly a monster, to save your species?" Oolyai grew visibly weaker, slowly he extended the seed to Jackson, small tremors causing the hand to visibly shake.

"Take the seed, human. Let it transform you." Oolyai's voice became weaker. "It will make you immune to the Ascendants phage, but also allow you to deliver the cure to them. The phage... Is the Ascendant." Oolyai took one last breath and then he was gone, his outstretched arm falling slowly to his side, seed still in it's grasp as his body slumped forward.

Jackson didn't move. A war raged within him, take the seed or leave it? Deliver the seed back to the navy or take it and use it on himself? How would he use it? How does it work? More questions than answers.

He was startled out of his reverie when the little bot appeared next to him. From no discernable source the bot was relaying transmissions from the fleet, they had arrived and were looking for him.

Throughout history, people did things they thought that they would never do. And for the rest of their lives they could never fully explain what drove them to do those things. Angels? Demons? The spirit of a loved one? God's? Biology? Instinct? Any and all answers could be correct, but never verified.

How would history look back upon this moment? Would it be re-written to make Jackson more heroic than following some unseen power driving him forward? No, there had to be a humanity in the future to look back on this moment, to have a history past this point. And that was all Jackson needed to decide - for better and for worse, he decided that humanity needed to survive. To have a history to look back to this moment.

Gingerly he plucked the seed from Oolyai's grasp. "Alright, I've made my decision Oolyai. How do I use the seed?"

"Grasp the seed in your hand. With your free hand press the top of the seed and an interface will appear." Oolyai's voice emanated from the small bot behind Jackson.

"OK, done. What do I enter?" The recording of Oolyai walked Jackson through entering the code despite the unfamiliar symbols. The last one was blue, the Jinisha's preference for a ready status. Taking a deep breath, Jackson pressed the last symbol.

The seed shot needles through his glove and stabbed into his flesh. Jackson would have yelped in surprise, but whatever the seed pumped into his body sent fire through his veins.

Time passed. Consciousness came and went, pain flared and went away. When he finally awoke, Jackson was different. He felt it, he knew it. And he had a new purpose. He rose, a feeling of strength and power coursed throughout his new body. The bot was nearby, waiting patiently for instructions.

"Come little bot, we have work to do." He said as he stalked out of the living chamber. Today was the beginning of the end of the Ascendant.

I really need to get better at being more succinct in my story telling, but as I dive into prompts like this I can't help but world build and delve deep into the story like this.

If you read this whole thing, thanks! See you on the next prompt!