First Journey Chapter: 16

Chapter: 16 Kermac Approximately one million standard years ago, a human sentient species, the Ker developed faster than light travel. The Ker left their original home system located somewhere in the outer limits of the Coreward sector and moved their entire society across half the Galaxy to a garden world 20,000 Light-years closer to the galactic core. No written history exists that explains why the Ker separated into different civilizations. The Ker originally were part of a culture of five closely related races, differentiated by skin color and physical size. These species were the Ker, the Mar, the Mac, the Blue, and the Golden. Sparse information exists concerning this nation, but according to scholars familiar with the subject and from limited documents still retained by the Blue, the Ker engaged in a systematic war of genocide to eradicate other races. Aided in their quest by the technology of an advanced non-Ker civilization that most scholars suspect is the Universal collective. In the distant past, many scholars believe the Ker, Mar, and Mac groups united and called themselves Kermac. The Blue refused to join in the genocide and removed themselves for the pact. They gathered their people and left the Milky Way galaxy. Only to be rediscovered by Union explorers in the Andromeda galaxy (see Blue, the Union Members) The Golden became nomadic existence and developed a society based on traders and merchants, operating galactic trading posts, they call bazaars on isolated moons and large asteroids that can be found all across the Galaxy. All Kers possess varying degrees of psionic abilities. The Kers are the strongest, and the Goldens are the weakest in terms of psionic powers. The Ker are usually strong telepaths with the unique ability to hypno suggest, that is to force their will upon others. Rare instantaneous of telekinetic talents exist, and no teleportation gifted Kermac have ever appeared. The Kermac believe they are the oldest sentient civilization and the only species worth existing as they are the only perfect one. They use a special and unique Kermac device, known as the Will Amplifier that allows a small group of 20-30 Kermac to take over and maintain control of an entire planet's population. The Kermac feel superior to all other races and demanded servitude. They bestow great blessings on those allowed to serve which kept those races in check. Those species and races they cannot control via psionic means, they use military force to dominate via their many Thrall species. The Kermac extended their control and sphere of influence over an enormous area of space, and at about 20,000 years ago controlled over 845 sentient space-faring species. Then they met the Ult and before the religious event that turned the Ult peaceful. The Ulta Amphibians proved to be immune to the Kermac psionic power and abruptly halted the expansion of the Kermac. During that time the Kermac also met the Saresii who were older with much stronger psionic talents and a very sophisticated psionic energy-based technology. It was at a time when the old alliance of sentient species, centered on the World of Old had collapsed. The Kermac hatred the Saresii and their interference which nullified the very power Kermac had over others. The Kermac declared genocide on all Saresii and war broke out. The Saresii freely shared their Psi shields with anyone wanting it including the Sarans and the Klack. The Kermac-Ult-Saresii war lasted over a thousand years with no real advancements on either side. The Saresii had no interest in gaining territories and the Kermac unable to win. Then the YAll arrived for the first time. The Galactic Council was formed from the Kermac proposal to put aside all aggression and create a new alliance. Although the Galactic Council had some success, its doom still seemed inevitable. The Wurgus lured a majority of the YAll fleet into their solar system and then ignited their Sun creating a Supernova, which destroyed over two-thirds of the YAll armada. The YAll became even more aggressive and were out for revenge. At this time, The Narth revealed themselves. Legend states that YAll seeing only a single Narth ship turned and fled, leaving the Galaxy. Kermac grows to about 150 cm, have no body hair but use false beards to hide psionic enhancers and psi-tech inside those beards. Selective breeding and genetic tailoring have erased all outer sexual differences between the genders and they all appear to be male. The Kermac use extensive skin bleaching and genetic alterations to turn their skins into a paperwhite shade. The arrogant wizards or leaders of the Kermac distinguish themselves by having the whitest skin. Kermac shun physical labor and extensively use slave and thrall species for every form of physical exertion, fighting and research.<<< The Grand Wizard of unimaginable power, immense wisdom, Bearer of all military citations ever issued. He of the Military Might and Kermac Galactic Dominance no longer wished to be addressed by his full title. He would have liked to be just called by his name, Feif-Nachacht. But, the Most superior Great Wizard of supreme power, Possessor of all reaching Wisdom and omnipotent intellect. Had again addressed him with his full title, as he had done every time he discussed the military Wizard during this meeting. All nine Kermac Section leaders had assembled in the Most-Important-place-of-them-all-blessed-by-the-presence-of-the-ones-above-all-Gods-hall. Feif-Nachacht threw his hands in the air, sitting on the chair elevated ten meters above the floor, lit by a spotlight, like the other eight in the otherwise dark space. "Yes, you heard me right. I propose we drop all the titles and litanies. It takes us longer every time to greet each other. I know who you are and you know who I am. We all know we are above everything and more important than others. Let us accept that as a fact and move to more pressing matters, or we never come to any solutions that way." The Culture and Arts Wizard whose section was the least powerful, but in the eyes of his mind, the most important, of course, blew up his cheeks and pounded his spidery finger on the armrest, "I insist on being addressed with all my titles. Must I remind you that culture and the fine arts are the very definitions of civilization and refine speech?   Manners and the recognition of greatness are hallmarks of our way of life and must not be maintained to separate us from the mob." "Fine then, be silent, and no one will address you," The Military Wizard snapped back. "Let me recapitulate why I called this session of the Grand Wizards together. About two thousand Dai Than pirate tribes with all their ships have done the unthinkable, and they joined the Union." His words did not have the effects he hoped they had. They looked at him as if he told them his menu choice and were not very interested, "Do you not understand?  Do you still believe the same lie we tell ourselves now for 500,000 years? We need to open our eyes and see reality. Otherwise, there won't be any Kermac left." This time he got a reaction, and the Central Grand Wizard raised his voice, "What traitorous words you dare to utter." He waved towards the Wizard of Control and said to him. "It appears our esteemed Warrior has a confused mind and needs a demotion and replacement." There was no one more feared than the Lord Wizard almighty of Peace who had tritrilltronic-clad control of internal security, all police forces, and both civilian and military intelligence power. However, the Wizard of the ministry of control slowly shook his head, "I am sorry Most Superior Wizard, but replacing our military Wizard for the 56th time in only sixty cycles will not solve the problems we are facing. I say we let him speak and make decisions worthy of Kermac, as you know even the Most Superior Wizard are replaceable." The one in the Superior could not suppress his anger. Did that Wizard threaten him? A replacement of a Superior Wizard has never occurred. "Do we keep on squabbling about trivial things or do we face the seriousness of our situation? The Military Wizard makes decisions and orders without consulting you, and as this gathering shows, we should have done so again. I concur with my colleague. If we do not alter the way we come to decisions, we will be a side note of Galactic history in no time." " You speak Nonsense. We are the Kermac and are superior to all. We have been before all others and shall be after all others. We command 467 Civilizations they will fight to the death for us," proclaimed the Superior Wizard. Vier Vorneun, the Intelligence Wizard sighed, "Do you even use that mind of yours for thinking? There once have been 845 at the height of our expansion. There were 587 thrall civilizations before there was a Union. We lost one hundred and twenty.  Of which, Forty-one has joined the Union including the X101's who hate us more than anyone. Seven thrall species have decided to become neutral after they got Saresii Psi Shields and do you know what happened to rest? Seventy-two space-faring civilizations? I am talking about hundreds of planets, billions and billions of individuals"  He almost screamed at the Grand Wizard. "They are utterly destroyed, eradicated, exterminated and wiped out in the three wars we had with the Union so far." The military Wizard continued, "You also know, of course, that we lost each of those wars? That we skirted destruction and extermination the last time was because our hated cousins the Blue miraculously reappeared, being a mighty civilization all on their own in the far distant Andromeda galaxy and interfered on our behalf and brokered the truce." The Grand Wizard sounded less confident, "Then our Cousins will have to broker another deal. The Blue have technology as advanced as the Saresii, or so I have heard." Nachacht slapped his hand onto his forehead, "It becomes clearer to me by the moment why we are doomed. A Grand Wizard who is not as smart as he thinks he is and knows less than a Plato slave. You are right, the Blue our distant cousins we exiled and treated so badly have built themselves a fascinating new civilization in the Andromeda Galaxy. They came back to broker peace out of pity for us. Do you know why the Union listened to them and accepted the armistice? They could have kept going, and we would not have this discussion today." The Grand Wizard decided to put away with both of these upstarts then and there, but he shook his head. "The Blue is not Kermac, their skin is blue, and their psionic powers are punny, to state the oblivious. We dealt with them fairly and let them go. We could have exterminated them instead. But tell me then, why did they broker the truce?" Nachacht stood up spreading his arms and yelling. "Because they are Union members. You do know the United Stars reached the Andromeda Galaxy with their marvelous bridge." Sechs-Biszwei the Culture and Arts Wizard who had sulked till now had to force himself not to use the title litany and said. "What is so marvelous about a string of space stations? Anyone can build space stations. The Seven chipped rocks our most celebrated artist Ein-Zwidrai unveiled yesterday, now that is marvelous." Vorneun gestured frustration and hissed. "Creating a string of eight hundred gigantic space stations across two million light years to another Galaxy, connecting them with space trains, communication and doing that in less than 100 years is nothing less than amazing. The logistics alone would overwhelm even the Hythagh our most industrious Thralls. I, personally, would love to see it." The Superior Wizard tended to agree with the Cultural Wizard. Both the Military and the Intelligence Wizard seemed way too fascinated with this insignificant upstart civilization. He decided to express his opinion. "The Union is not Kermac, and therefore everything they have done or will do is inferior and unimportant. We should return to formally addressing ourselves, and then I want to hear from you how we are going to wipe the Union out of existence." Vorneun clenched his fists and hissed, "Open your eyes listen to what we are saying and help us to come up with a plan. If you keep ignoring the problems we are facing, I will personally kill you right here and now." " Don't test me, you arrogant fool." The Superior Wizard snapped his mouth shut and leaned back. " This is not the end of this debate, so do go on Mighty Wizard of the Military." Nachacht was grateful he could talk but the way Vorneun insulted the Grand Wizard, was more than alarming and he would need to take steps to clip that mans wings soon. Aloud he said. "At least two thousand Dai families joined the Union. A large portion of the remaining Dai tribes did not like that and tried to stop that from happening. We sent every Nogoll ship we had in the area to the border to observe, but those cursed Nogoll did more than observe, they joined Dai, crossed into Union space and flew right into a well-planned trap of the Union. Dai were a serious threat a few weeks ago, and today the ones remaining are a shadow of their former strength. It was a planned massacre by that Demon Stahl. Thousands of Dai Tribes were utterly destroyed, not to mention that only eighty of two thousand capital Nogoll ships returned. It will take the Nogoll years to rebuild the losses in material and trained crews, and we are forced to crawl on our bellies. We are forced to apologize to that arrogant monkey, and we need to send a diplomatic delegation to make amends." The High Wizard of Communications said. " But why? Why are we apologizing?" "Because it was the Nogoll who broke the treaty of Free space and Stahl had a massive fleet at his hand and was eager to keep going. You know our tactical analysts gave it a ninety percent chance of Stahl being in Orbit around our world right now. We feed our Computronics with all available data about their and our capabilities, and in 98 of 100 Computronic simulations, the Union wins. Only if we assume the Shiss and the Nul fighting on our side and the Klack deciding to declare war on the Attikan Commonwealth, we win. None of it is even remotely going to happen." The Communication Wizard made a surprising gesture. "The Attikan are too far away, and they are not involved with this galaxies policies. We should send Psi Command enhancement drones there and see if we cannot gain them as Battle Thralls." The Military Wizard laughed coldly, "And you are the Communication Wizard. What have you done in the last three cycles? Polish your head, selecting new robes? Thinking of new fancy and worthless titles for yourself?" The Intelligence Wizard did not spare with critique either and added. "The Attikan are Union members with all 96 Commonwealth Species. Saresii Psi Tech protects them from our powers. Our intelligence speaks of a new to us unknown species called the Leedei. According to reports they are even better psi users than the cursed Saresii, and I have it on good authority they are using psi technology far advanced to anything we could even imagine. Did you ever read the reports created after that ill-conceived attack on that jungle planet? Can you even begin to realize what it means to have Union ships with Attikan engines? Or Attikan ships with Translocators?" The technology wizard tried to hide in his exposed chair with little success as Vorneun glared at him."How come we do not have instantaneous communication? Why is it we cannot defend ourselves or replicate Translocator Cannons? Tell me why don't we have Space trains?" The Tech Wizard waved his hand. "Because you have not been able to procure the schematics and technical details in all that time. It was a predecessor of the Control wizard who tried to gain the secrets to the Translocator technology. We suspect they still aboard an old Celtest ship buried somewhere on a world they call Green Hell. I did read the reports, about our attempts to gain access to the Leedei tech and that tele-listener they supposedly possess. Besides Space trains are old news. They got Trans Matter Tunnels now. Union engineers plan to have the first Trans Matter tunnel connection between Terra, Sares, Ulta and Saresii Prime ready within the next twenty cycles." His Eyes glistened. "Now that's technology I doubt even the Celtest control. Not instant communication, but instant travel and matter transfer." "And how come you have better information than the Intelligence network I run?" Dreih Nachzwei, the technology Wizard, held up a Union PDD. "You mock us, and yet your intelligence network is as inefficient as you claim we are. Why is it not possible for you to get me the specs of Terran Para dim shields? I am reading Union Tech Magazines, and that's how I know about the Trans Matter Tunnels." Vorneun sighed, " Maybe this illustrates our problem better than anything. Our Technology Wizard using a Union PDD. We should not need to steal their technology. Are we not Kermac? Why haven't we developed such marvelous things on our own?" Dreih did not back down, " Since we are speaking openly, let me be just as frank. We have not developed any new technology for a long time. What we have is taken from other species using our psionic abilities, and we let other species develop and research. The cursed Terrans are only around for about 3000 of their years, and yet they are bound to Tech Level Nine eventually. Yes, the Sarans have helped them, by giving them Tech three. Do you know how long it took us Kermac to go from three to four? 25,000 years. The Terrans and the Union reached Tech 8 in less than 4000." The Grand Wizard in the middle finally was done sulking. "Then let war be upon them. The Nogoll have started it. Let us mobilize all our forces and end this. We are the Kermac." Nachacht was about to jump and strangle the thin throat of the Grand Wizard, " Did you not hear what I said? Fighting them now would mean our end. Since we violated Freespace, I am sure the Nul will not be happy about that and neither the Shiss. The Nul alone is a tough opponent to fight. Immune to our psionics and more than our equal in technology. The Union, on the other hand, is powerful enough to face us all. You know, of course, that even the Narth are Union." " The Narth are only Union to be left alone. They have not participated in anything, "The Grand Wizard spat."I doubt they even exist. They are not Kermac." Dreih activated his PDD and increased the field screen so they all could see. "Because of that cursed Union system, not even a thousand Dradystn from here, I can connect. That is a recording of a GalNet News Cast from six cycle orbits ago." The displayed bubble projection showed a purple throat Shiss beneath the SII-News Logo seemingly floating before the Sphere of Assembly on Pluribus, and the Shiss said. "For the first time since their application of membership, the Narth has sent a representative to the Assembly and expressed that the Narth want to take a more active role and participate as Union Citizens. Narth is the most ancient civilization in the known universe, and their counsel and opinion will have great weight in the Assembly. Analysts of all News channels and political scholars agree that this is a historical event of great importance." Nachacht saw his most dreaded fears come true. "I know you will not hear this Grand Wizard, but compared to the Narth we are children. They have existed before the Uni and the Pree. If the Narth adds their knowledge and power to the Union, then we might as well release our thrall civilizations and join the Union." The Grand Wizard slowly shook his head. "We are the Kermac and to regain our rightful position as the foremost species we will use the Caller again. The first time we used the Caller we formed the Galactic Council and the others accepted our superiority." Nachacht shivered., "Even the Uni Voice warned us never to use Caller again. It nearly destroyed us as well the first time. The second time it took the Union to stopped them. What makes you believe they still exist or will heed the call? And if they come, will they not be stopped a third time? The Union is bigger and more advanced. Back then they had one ship with TL Cannons. Now they all do." "Because the Caller can be used to call those who sent the YAll." "And who is that?" "No one knows. The Caller has never made that call. If whatever comes is mightier than the YAll. Then how can we make sure they won't destroy us as well?" "I am the Grand Wizard with the knowledge and wisdom you lack. I alone have access to the Center Shaft of Deep Keep and the crystal tablets of the Uni." Nachacht and the others fell silent. Vorneun finally spoke. "The legends are true then?" "Yes, they are. The Dark Ones had come to find it; the Uni, the Pree and the Celtest have paid the ultimate price of utter termination defending it, not even knowing what they are defending. The Union is a mere shadow to these ancient powers, and they have failed. The Dark Ones will return and wipe this Galaxy clean of all our enemies." Vorneun was no longer as forceful and arrogant as he was before the conversation. "Do we know what these Dark Ones are searching?" "This is knowledge the Supreme Wizard alone holds." Nachacht was less convinced, but he too knew the Grand Wizard of many ages ago unleashed the curse of the YAll upon the Galaxy and he knew of the legends of a mystical demonic force that wiped out the Celtest, punished the Saresii and eradicated the First League of sentient species over a million years ago. He knew the Uni fled the Galaxy to escape destruction. He knew of the whispered ancient legends that spoke of the Narth hiding from that force. "Do you know what you are doing? Do we know what the Dark Ones are? And what is it they seek? Will they not also vanquish us? "No, they will worship us for we will give them what they seek." The Grand Wizards eyes sparkled with a light that almost looked like madness. Vorneun was certain the Grand Wizard was playing with powers and knowledge that was beyond dangerous, even suicidal. He too knew about the legendary tablets and the warning the ancient Knights of Light and Order have spoken so long ago to the First Wizard.  " The master was defeated with the price of a Universe and must never be woken again. It would be wise to heed the masters and obey The Rule." "Silence you sniveling subordinates. You called this meeting to gain answers, and you received your answer, be still." A tiny Thimthal fly still a common insect on Kermac Prime, sat not too far from the wizards on a dark wall, then flew across the dark chasm crawled onto the Grand Wizard and rode, hiding in a fold of the robe to the outside. Once under the open sky, the little fly buzzed up upward in the air, not noticed by anyone. Thimthal flies weren't swift or could fly very high. But, this tiny insect flew faster and faster and further into the sky. No one heard the snapping sound as it went Trans-sonic. The Kermac could have found it, but they never searched for bugs. They relied on psionics and expected their thrall species to maintain technology. The little fly was a product of advanced technology, not nature. With many times the speed of sound the fly passed through the last layers of the atmosphere, and little ISAH pod, most likely the smallest in existence, started to glow blue, and the fly went superluminal to reach its creator and deliver its weekly intelligence report. A Kermac operator noticed the tiny blip of Trans-dim energy for less than a second on his scanner, but dismissed it as a system glitch and reset it.