BOOK III: ERIC OLAFSON

This is a very old version of the Eric Olafsons Story

GALACTIC CHRONICLES

GALACTIC CHRONICLES

By V. Ravencroft

BOOK III: ERIC OLAFSON

© 2004 Brady, TX

Epilogue
Galactic History

There are more than 125 Billion Galaxies in the known universe. Our Galaxy; Terrans called it The Milky Way in the time before the Ascent (because they could only see one of the spiral arm and it was visible as a “milky band” from Earth); the M-0 Galaxy. It contains about 400 billion stars. Is 10,000 light years thick at the central bulge (or Galactic Center) and a little over 100,000 Light years in diameter.

Our galaxy is home to many life forms and civilizations.

A civilization that breaks the light barrier and travels to other stars “ascents” to the galactic stage and eventually meet other space faring civilizations. Such meetings usually  have an  enormous impact on the involved civilizations. It is an event unlike any other affecting the future development of a civilization. Such meetings can take any shape. To break cultural and language barriers to communicate is often more difficult than traveling faster than light. Such meetings  can be peaceful and lead to cultural and technological exchanges, or can be quite violent and end up in war and destruction. If such a first contact is made between a newcomer to the Galactic stage and an old established species it usually comes to great surprise to the newcomers that there are indeed other civilizations and life; that there are borders, alliances and conflicts some lasting for aeons.

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During the later half of the 20th century it seemed Earth was making great progress in terms of space exploration. In only a relative short time Humanity unlocked the power of the atom and send manned explorations to their moon and unmanned robotic probes to every celestial body in their solar system. But with the beginning of the 21st century space exploration had taken a back seat and was not deemed important to most Earthers and their politicians. One of the Terran national states, the United States dominated Earth with its military and hunger for natural resources. But the United States was like a pretty fruit, nice and shiny on the outside and rotten to the core on the inside. Their politicians waged war on other nations for natural resources, especially fossil energy. This leading nation placed no importance on Education, instead religious groups battled with lawyers over petty and historical meaningless issues. Science had to take a back seat to religion, just as it did in the dark ages. Established scientific facts where obliterated from educational material because religious fanatics, who had forgotten what real faith was all about, deemed them not consistent with the Bible. The Bible was a religious book, a manifest of sorts. It had its roots in pre industrial times and was compiled from ancient scrolls and texts. It was written to be understood by a pre technology society yet modern 21st Century American religious groups insisted it was to be meant literally and when someone challenged them they screamed bloody murder and used their political weight to force their believe onto everyone. If the Bible didn’t fit their visions, a new translation was made to fit their believe system. Countless sects and sub religions where ample proof that the Bible they held in such esteem was open to just about any interpretation and anyone could find just exactly what they needed for their arguments and claim God was on their side. Logical or methodical thought had no place and anyone criticizing was not just attacking them but God himself and nothing less than total damnation and death was the appropriate punishment.

Religion was the biggest global sociological problem of Earth. Not faith, but religion. While true faith produced the finest pieces of art and music, propelled ordinary men to great humanistic deeds against incredible obstacles, religion caused pain, death and suffering and kept the entire human race from achieving any substantial progress.

Jesus himself knew man and called them sheep and warned them of false shepherds. It did little good, most men where followers unable to function unless someone told them what to do. If that someone put religion on its banner, no matter how ridiculous his views and opinions where he or she found followers to do whatever was asked. Murder, mass suicide, genocide where just a few topics in the catalog of things men would do in the name of their religion without hesitation.

Other nations didn’t do much better. Population was steadily growing and resources steadily declining. Global warming during that time was a source for concern, but instead of realizing that their planet went through warming and cooling periods long before man walked upright, it was blamed on industrial gasses and the so called Greenhouse effect.

While the Greenhouse effect was a serious and real problem, it wasn’t man that caused it and there was nothing man of that time could have done to stop it. The average Earther had the same closed mind as his Stone Age ancestor. Despite satellites and images of Earth and the Universe the average man had no concept just how big a planet was, and how little effect he had on it. A single volcanic eruption spewed more carbon compounds and gases into the atmosphere than all fossil energy pollution. Volcanic eruptions where viewed as rare events. To take a global view point and look at the planet to actually comprehend that a million years was nothing to a planet was beyond the ability of almost every man, including those who made politics and led the others.

21st century man believed to live in the information age because more people had access to knowledge than ever before. But that was not the case. The information available was not used. Entertainment in any shape or form was far more important to those who had access to all that information. Yet most inhabitants of the planet had neither access nor the resources to use the internet. And some didn’t have the freedom to do so. All this led to the Cataclysm of 2100.

The United States, one of the stabilizing factors to this mess finally collapsed. Torn by Civil war, eaten from the inside by illegal immigration. The United States where founded by immigrants, but these new Immigrants did not acclimate to their new home but insisted on their own cultural ways, even languages. Instead of growing they divided and thus created racial tensions and dual class systems in a system that claimed to have no classes. That climaxed in a civil war where rich fought poor and the color of skin was once more the only reason needed to kill and attack neighbors. And then the United States was attacked by its archrival China who had no longer the resources to feed its masses and needed a war to focus their people’s attention at an enemy instead on their own failed leadership. It began slowly with Taiwan being attacked, but escalated like a wild fire into a world wide conflict. North Korea saw its chance and launched a nuclear missile and it detonated in Paris killing millions. Iran had been attacked twice by Israel to prevent the radical Islamists gain Nuclear weapons in the past years, no one knew where they got their weapons from, but two nuclear bombs detonated over Jerusalem.

Israel retaliated and bombed Teheran and Cairo. It was a dark time and it seemed Humankind was bombing itself back to the Stone Age.

In 2112 however two events changed everything. The Sarans, an extra terrestrial civilization send space ships to Earth and Terrans learned they where not alone in the Universe. The Sarans looked like humans in every way and where even genetically almost identical. This genetic similarity made the Sarans believe that Earth was a forgotten colony of theirs and that is why they revealed themselves and warned Earth about a great danger.

Earth, so the Sarans explained to the Earthers was located inside an area of space that was claimed by a non humanoid, extremely aggressive species called the Xunx. The Xunx lived in cycles and every 500 years they left their planets and swarmed out seeking garden worlds to take all the biological matter they could find. Like locusts they descended upon a world and literally ate any biological matter they could digest. According to the Sarans, in 2000 years the Xunx had not found anything they couldn’t.

The Sarans wanted to help but did not have the means to defend Earth against the Xunx, mainly because the Xunx where at the same tech level and the Sarans where already involved in a civil war of their own. They offered to evacuate a small percentage of Terrans and resettle them on their worlds. Since they     also did not have the resources to evacuate all Terrans, so they proposed only to evacuate those who meet their criteria of intellect and ascetics. The Sarans said they would leave and come back within a year with as many ships as they could spare and hoped  to evacuate as many humans as they managed to transport, by their own estimates not even close  to one percent of the world population.

When the Saran ships left the Solar system, the second event took place!

A black robed being appeared to each and every man woman and child and at the same time and spoke to everyone in their native tongue; this is what the being said:” I am the Guardian and I am a machine. I was left on this planet when your forefathers picked up rocks and clubs  for the first time to claim their right to this planet and fought against another humanoid species. You called the others Neanderthals, the true natives of this world. I was left here on this planet and my single purpose was to wait until the day Earth would ascent to the Stars. This day has come. The time for national states has past. If you can not unite as one people you are doomed to perish.

Local politics and ethnic divisions are no longer relevant. I will select 200 of you and give them the power and the knowledge to guide you, to become what you are meant to be, a civilization that takes its rightful place in this Galaxy and the Universe.

I watched you from your first steps to this day and I know you like no other. I know how stubborn you are, how fanatic you can be. Therefore I will eliminate anyone that tries to interfere. Some will label me dictator, some will cry about their freedom to choose. But I know you! Most of you are like sheep and you follow blindly whatever leader appears. May its title be king, Dictator or Prophet. You follow and few rule. As long as you have bread and entertainment you are content. There is however another factor that makes you special; you carry the spark of greatness, the seed of my makers and the promise to be a great civilization spanning Galaxies.

I will select these 200 from all over this world. They will be your leaders and each of them will have a special task. I will not interfere with their decisions. I will however give them the tools and knowledge to make those decisions.

As you can see it is easy for me to see you all, each and every one of you. No one can hide from me no matter where you are and I will watch you until I know you understand what is at stake. I do not judge you for stealing or murdering your brother. I will however eradicate you if you plot against the 200, if you think you can interfere and put your own agenda in place. I am warning especially those so called religious leaders, politicians and nationalists. You have 24 hours to vacate your offices and become productive members of this new society.

To show you I am not a powerless projection. I will now heal each and every one of you and restore you to perfect health. I do this to demonstrate my power and while I have the power to heal I also have the power to eradicate. I will do this only once. Neither death nor disease is eradicated, but you have a great start. Welcome to the Universe, Terrans!”

The world was stunned and for the first time in Human history there was global silence. No one spoke for many moments. Cripples weren’t crippled no more, blind could see, deaf could bear! Not even a headache or a hangnail had escaped the miraculous power of the Guardian. In Philadelphia one man proclaimed himself High priest of the Guardian and wanted others to follow him and pray to the new God. The man exploded into nothingness right before the eyes of the group he already had gathered.

A Muslim extremist leader suffered the same fate as he preached to attack those who didn’t believe in Mohammed and Allah.

A Chinese Party leader never made it to the microphone he wanted to address his nation.

Similar incidents around the globe proved that the Guardian was quite serious.

On the fifth day after the Guardian spoke he reappeared and said:” It is done. The two hundred Mentors have been selected and conditioned for their task. A new government will form and it will have its seat on the South Pole. Built a new city there called Cosmopolis.

This is the last time I will speak to you. Once the Mentors are established and begun their work, my task is done and I will cease to exist. Fare well Terrans, I grew quite fond of you over the millennia. My time has ended yours is now beginning!”

The 200 Mentors had been selected from every race, every corner of the world and from both sexes.

The first step they took was to establish a new Constitution which was surprisingly very similar to the original text of the American Constitution, only it now applied to each and every one.

It even called for free elections of a President and Senators for a new Senate. There would be no House of Representatives.

In 2113 as promised the Sarans returned to find a completely changed society.

Terrans rejected the evacuation proposal much to the dismay of the Sarans who feared certain doom was now the fate for their lost colony.

(Saran culture resembled in many ways the ancient Egyptian civilization on Earth and later research confirmed that Sarans had visited Earth 4000 years earlier. It was also determined that Earthers despite their similarities was never a Saran colony. Nor did the Sarans build the pyramids but they did influence the culture and style of Egypt back then.)

Sarans left a Hyperspace comm. Unit behind and a library of technological knowledge.

In 2116 the first Terran Trans-light space ship left Earth orbit for its maiden voyage. The journey led the crew of the United Earth Space Ship UESS Savannah to Alpha Centaury and back. This first flight was uneventful in itself but an enormous step for humanity.

Almost every planet and moon in the Solar System was now crawling with humans, carving out new cities in hostile environments and gathering resources. They even found extra terrestrial life in their own solar system. The oceans of Europa where full of life forms, all developed quite similar to those found around Deep-sea hydrothermal vents on Earth.

In 2136 twenty years after the first Trans light voyage. Earth ships visited the Saran Home world.

Much to the surprise of the Sarans and even more surprising was the fact that those Terran ships where not as primitive as they thought they should have been. (Sarans left Earth with knowledge of Tech Level three, while they had reached tech level 5)

But the Sarans welcomed the Earthers warmly and offered every support they could give.

The mission of the Terran ships was to establish two way contact, perhaps even trade but most importantly they wanted to know everything about the Xunx.

Sarans gladly supplied Earth with the locations of Xunx worlds and other data.

In the same year another Terran ship made contact with a Pan Saran Battleship.

Earth learned the nature and reason for the Saran / Pan Saran civil war. For Saran was a matriarch society, ruled by a long line of Queens. Men where unable to attain high ranks or important, ruling positions. However Saran Colonies far away from the rule of the Queen changed that and rebelled against the home worlds. In their search for their own identity, Pan Saran ships had visited Earth around 25 BC. Unlike their saran ancestors they did not establish open contact but observed especially the Roman Empire. Much to Pan Saran delight, the Romans surpassed the Egyptians which of course symbolized old Saran to them. So Pan Sarans copied many aspects of roman Culture and made it their own.

The Terran Ship captain was more than astounded when he hailed the Pan Saran Ships and a Centurion complete with polished brass plate answered in a language that was almost identical to Latin.

Meanwhile the Xunx stirred and started to build their invasion fleet. Only a few more years and they would once more terrorize and devastate everything in their reach.

It never came to that however, because in 2138 Terran long range robot bombs rained on every known Xunx world. Dozens of bombs impacted on every moon or planet known to harbor Xunx colonies. , each one designed to rip a planet apart.

Xunx received their orders from their queens, who always remained on the planets buried deep below. The Terran bombs obliterated 41 planets in one single stroke. The Xunx where utterly unprepared and not a single bomb was intercepted as far as anyone knew.

Terran warships hunted for remnants of Xunx fleets and ships that did not even raise their shields without instructions from their queens.

Terra appeared on the Galactic Stage not meek like most new comers but with thunder and lightning. The upstarts from that fringe world Terran, no one really heard of, obliterated, and exterminated one of the old civilizations.

GALACTIC HISTORY

We place the age of the universe at more than fifteen billion years. The oldest

Stars in known Space are dim red dwarfs some ten billion years old.

Life developed early on and Civilizations came and went, some reached great heights and ruled vast sections of space during one time or another.

The earliest such Civilization we know of where the Primeval.

Not much is known about them. They existed some 200 Million years ago and not much remains of a civilization after such long time.

About 1 Million Years ago a humanoid species, the Mythor reached tech level 11 or 12 and where spread all over the galaxy.

Some scholars believe it was the Mythor who are responsible that there are so many humanoid life forms in the galaxy today, but no real evidence has been found to support that theory.

Legend speaks of another civilization suddenly appearing who we only know as the Dark Ones. The Mythor fought the Dark ones. The Mythor lost and their civilization ended in a cataclysmic event of unknown nature. What happened to the Dark Ones, no one knows. There is not a single artifact known to exist that belongs to the Dark Ones. Mythor artifacts on the other hand can be found and are the most precious objects.

Two known species that still exist today have roamed space back then as well, the Saresii and the Narth.

The Saresii fought on the side of the Mythor and lost all their colonies. This event made the Saresii give up on space exploration for a very long time and cast them back into a feudal society. Saresii blamed Men and male aggression for all the problems and banned anything male from their society. What the Narth did during that time is unknown, but they built an energy force field of incredible magnitude that completely engulfed their solar system and cloaked it from eye sight and most sensors.

About 500,000 years ago another species rose above the others and proclaimed itself masters of the Galaxy, the Kermac.

Their home world is located closer to the galactic center than any other known species and these facts made the Kermac believe they had been chosen to lead and to be superior to others.

The Kermac began to conquer other worlds and species and made them their slaves. They where aided by their vast Psionic powers that allowed them to psionically control and punish other sentient beings. At one point the Kermac Empire included over 300 space faring vassal species they used to fight and conquer for them.

In the Upward sector another species began aggressive expansion. The amphibians from Ult reached a Tech Level equal to the Kermac and them where completely immune to Kermac Psionic suggestions. Both empires clashed and war broke out. At first it appeared the Kermac had the upper hand, but during their space battles they came across yet another previously unknown species, the Nul-Nul. The Nul-Nul did not ally themselves with anyone but their ships and the Nul-Nul itself proved nearly indestructible and fought both sides with great success.

The war already lasted many decades; inter stellar wars where slow due to the enormous distances, even with Trans light technology. Battles, when they occurred happened in solar systems or on the surfaces of planets. Neither Nul-Nul, Kermac nor Ult had yet mastered the technology necessary to fight ships at near light speed. Any known weapon system was simply to slow to fight ship to ship.

This changed with the appearance of the Klack.

An insectoid species that controlled much of the core ward sector had attained technology that allowed them to fight star ships.

The Klack where so many and quite advanced it seemed certain they would prevail against all the others .The Klack and the Nul-Nul could not be influenced by the Kermac as well.

At the height of conflict what became known as the First Galactic War an Armada of almost a billion ships arrived suddenly in the galaxy, they seemed to have come from another Galaxy and came from the general direction of the Andromeda Galaxy. None of the galactic species could establish communication with the new comers, who immediately attacked everything and everyone in their way. The Kermac called them Y’All which was the word for Terror in Kermac language.

The Y’All devastated Klack worlds, Nul-Nul Colonies, Kermac planets and destroyed several Ult planets. How many other species unknown to the others encountered by the Y’All and perished is not known.

It was the Kermac who called for a conference to lay down all hostilities and fight the Y’All together.

The Conference led to the founding of the Galactic Council and Klack, Nul-Nul, Kermac and their Vassal species pooled their resources and fought the Y’ All together.

Once they combined their efforts and Kermac ships possessed Klack weaponry, Ult sensors and Nul-Nul shields, they where able to destroy Y’All ships. Despite the initial success it became clear there where simply to many Y’All and for every Y’All ship destroyed 20 coalition ships where lost.

During a battle that was already lost for the Collation, a previously unknown species, the Wurgus made a sun go supernova. this destroyed thousands of Y’All Ships but also the remainder of the collation fleet. The Wurgus had scarified their home star and what was left of the Wurgus left in 200 gigantic space ships. For more than 1000 years no one knew where the Wurgus had gone or seen them again. Know to be the most skilled and advanced solar techs of any species.

The remaining Y’All, still an incredible fleet turned around and left into the same direction where they came from. It was then the Y’All transmitted their only message.” We will be back!”

10,000 years ago

The Galactic Council had grown and representatives of the Saran Empire, the Shiss and the Freon’s where among a dozen other new species that had accented.

The Kermac held the first seat, much to the dismay of Ult and Klack. While there was no open conflict there where constant tension among the members of the Council and nothing more than talking and accusing went on during the Councils sessions.

The importance of the Council faded. The Nul-Nul recalled their representative and warned any of the other species to stay away from what they claimed was their space. The Shiss immediately attacked Nul-Nul colonies who where in their sphere of influence.

The Klack where next and severed all communications with the Council and its remaining members.

The Wurgus had been sighted. They had completely abandoned planetary life and lived aboard their space ships in slow moving colonies.

Another nomadic culture made its first appearance during that time. The red skinned Dai-Thaan lived in clan fleets and the center of each clan fleet was a Dai Mother. Dai Mothers where the largest most powerful space ships anyone had ever seen to that time. The Dai than sustained their space born life by attacking colonies and inhabited worlds and robbing them of resources. The Dai where had technology as good as anyone and where considered the best space fighters.

5000 Years ago

Terrans appeared on the galactic stage. The almost defunct Galactic Council called an emergency session. This is what happened during that emergency session: