Messengers of War

 
Mayla
Shilann spoke of a machine that guards the city.

But the one who walks toward us looks like a woman, not a machine.
What does a machine need with long, shiny, red hair?

And a beautiful smile.

She walks with a grace that reminds me of the Bizra.
And a glow that comes from the Feldin.

Her clothing sparkles as she stands before me.
When she gives me the greeting of palms, she holds the greeting for much longer than usual.

She’s soft, but solid — not an image.

“I’m Mayla,” she says, as she turns to the others.
“Yagrin and I have met before.”

She gives each of the others the regular greeting of palms.

“We met briefly,” I tell the others, “when I was in a training simulation.”
“But Mayla couldn’t speak freely then.”

“Right,” she agrees.
“With Shilann’s death, I was placed into a maintenance mode.”

“I was limited to preserving the city and the dreamschools.”
“And sending a warning message, in case of danger.”

“But your arrival in the city releases me from maintenance mode.”
“I’m free again!”

“Are you alone in charge of the city?” asks Balshown.

“In a way,” she answers.
“But I prefer to work with others.”
“And I can’t operate for long in free mode, unless I have a person to report to.”

“Yagrin is the bird, the one destined to open the city.”
“With his arrival, I’ve activated the command protocol.”

“Command protocol?” I ask.

“I now report to you,” she says.

“Am I supposed to give you orders?” I ask.

“I don’t need orders,” she answers, seemingly offended.

She pauses for a moment.
“Think of it like this,” she says.
“I’m fully in charge, but you’re my senior officer.”

“I act independently.”
“But sometimes, I consult with you and others on key decisions.”

“And if you do give me orders, I must follow them.”
“Of course,” she adds, “I may try to convince you to change your mind.”

“Why do you call me the bird?” I ask.

“You know why, Yagrin,” she answers.
“Because you’re the bird on the mural.”

“The one who designed the murals was a DreamHunter, someone who can see the future.”
“She said that the bird would open the city.”

“Even in your current form, your energy glows in a special way.”
“You’ve been blessed by the feldin.”

“What kind of machine are you,” asks Shazira, “that you have feelings and can see the energy web?”

“My body is mostly organic, and my awareness can rest in it, although not all of my memories.”
“My awareness also lives here in the city, in machines buried deep below ground.”

“The body is conected with the machines, but I am aware in both places at once.”
“And the awareness in the body can exist without the city.”

“Shilann made me to love being with people far more than watching this cold city.”

“That’s why I held the greeting so long, Yagrin,” she adds.
“You’re the first person I’ve touched in a thousand years.”

She rises up in the air a few feet.
“Shilann also designed me,” she says and smiles, “so I can ride the energy web.”

“You look like his bondmate, Tila,” I say to her.

“You’re right,” she says.
“Shilann modeled my appearance and personality after Tila.”

“But how do you know about Tila?”
“Shilann’s message doesn’t discuss her.”

“I’ve seen the launch, and the journey through the gate,” I tell her.

“How?” she asks.

“I can follow a person or object into the past,” I say, “and see all the events that surround it, for miles in all directions.”
“I’ve seen how the war with the Fiklow started, and the energy war after it.”

“Can you see the future of an object?” she asks.

“I saw a glimpse of the future, once,” I answer, remembering my vision of Berek marrying Keela.
“But it wasn’t tied to an object.”

“It never occurred to me to follow an object into the future.”

“How can someone see the future, anyway?” I ask her.
“Isn’t the future uncertain, and full of alternate possibilities?”

“I spoke once,” Mayla says, “with the DreamHunter who designed the murals on the city walls.”

“She said that the future is full of infinite, branching paths.”
“There are too many paths to follow.”

“And those who can see the paths often develop a crazed hunger to follow path after path.”
“Their bodies whither away while their mind pursues its madness.”

“A few DreamHunters learn to see patterns of events that are found across the majority of paths.”
“These patterns typically come true.”

“I have a training program for DreamHunters,” she says, “if you have the talent.”
“But even with the training, it’s extremely dangerous.”

“No, Yagrin,” says Shazira, grabbing my hand.

“Don’t worry,” I say, holding her hands to my cheek.
“I’m not interested.”
“I have enough danger in my life already.”

 
Guilt
Mayla stares at me.

“What are you staring at?” I ask.

“You said that you’ve looked into the past and seen the energy war,” she says.
“Did you see Botzar, and the role he played in the war?”

“Yes,” I answer, without explanation.

But then I look at Berek and Tzina, and realize that they know almost nothing about him.
So I tell the detailed story of the destruction, and the role that Botzar and B’tzel both played in it.

I tell everyone that Botzar and B’tzel are still alive in the old ship that circles above us, in orbit.

Mayla looks concerned.
“It’s not good,” she says, “that they’re still alive.”
“Who knows what they would do to the world if they got free!”

She turns to the others.
“Yagrin has a different personality than Botzar, but his genetic material seems identical.”
“Yagrin looks just like Botzar, except for his facial expressions.”

“Botzar lived a thousand years ago!” she says.
“The technology for cloning was destroyed after the war.”
“It only exists here in the city.”

“How can you be Botzar’s twin, Yagrin?” she asks.

“We don’t know,” answers Makish.
“We assume that the Bizra had something to do with it.”

“I don’t think the Bizra were involved,” says Balshown.

“Why not?” I ask.

“I believe that the Tshuans are responsible.”
“Shortly after your mother became pregnant with you, your mother was kidnaped by a Tshuan.”

“She was returned unharmed after a few days, and the Tshuan was found dead.”
“There was no sign that anything had been done to her, except that she had no memories of the kidnapping.”

“I was a member of the guild council at the time.”
“We asked the Tshuans to investigate the incident.”
“The Tshuans claimed that the dead man was mentally unstable, and acted alone.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me about this before, Balshown?” I ask.

“Until now, Yagrin, it seemed insignificant.”

“In ancient times,” says Mayla, “the Tshuan kings prepared cloned embryos of themselves.”
“The growth of the embryos could be accelerated in an emergency, and the mind web of the king could be transferred to the new body.”

“I’d guess that somehow, a cloned embryo of Botzar was kept alive, and the Tshuans implanted it in your mother.”

“But why did they choose Yagrin’s mother, instead of a Tshuan woman?” asks Balshown.

No one can answer.

“We have much to think about,” says Mayla.
“Perhaps Botzar or someone else planned his return, using your body, Yagrin”

“But meanwhile, there’s an urgent threat that we have to face!”

“The warning,” I say.

“Yes,” she says.
“Watch!”

We see an image of space.
Then we see a large ship appearing out of nowhere.

“It appeared a couple of weeks ago,” she says.

“I have no records of a ship with that design,” she says.
“But I scanned the ship, and the beings aboard it are from the race of our ancient enemies, the Fiklow.”

“The ship sent a probe here.”
There is a display of an orange sphere flying through the atmosphere, and traveling around the world.”

“The probe looks identical to their ancient probes.”
“That’s the strange part of all of this.”

“Why,” asks Berek.

“In a thousand years,” says Tzina, “their probes would change as dramatically as their ships.”

“Right!” says Mayla smiling, pleased with Tzina’s answer.
“It’s as if they wanted us to recognize their probe.”

“What was the probe doing?” I ask.

“Probably gathering information about weapons and military targets.”
“Also, it was probably sent to look for the artifact.”

“But the artifact’s energy is well-shielded within the heart fountain.”
“I don’t think that the probe can detect it here.”

Then Mayla shows us images of me confronting the sphere.
“After you destroyed it,” she says, “the ship moved toward this world.”
“It’s now in orbit above us.”
“That’s why I made the warning more urgent after you destroyed the sphere.”

“I didn’t exactly destroy it,” I say.

“Where is it, then?” she asks.

“I sent it to a place of chaos, where it quickly disintegrated.”

“How?” she asks.
“I traveled to the Balancer from the old ones’ temple.”
“It gave me a gift, although I didn’t know what the gift could do at the time.”

“when I faced the orange probe, I knew what to do, and I sent the probe away.”

“The balancer is just a legend, Yagrin,” she says, “who is described in my library.”
“And like the other legends, it doesn’t exist.”

“Then explain Yagrin’s vision, and his power to send the probe to another world,” says Shazira.

“I can’t,” she answers.

“Mayla,” I say, “for now, can you just accept that it might be true?”

“I can do that,” she answers.

“Are we in danger from the ship?” asks Balshown.

“Probably,” says Mayla.
“There are weapons within the city that we could use to attack the ship.”
“These weapons are more powerful than the weapons that our enemies once had.”

“But that was a long time ago.”
“We have to assume that their new ship will have new weapons.”

“You could move the ship to a place of chaos,” suggests Mayla, “as you moved their probe.”

“Maybe I could,” I say, “but I’ve never tried to move anything that big, and the Fiklow may have shields that will block my actions.”
“Besides, they may be able to return from that place, since their ship can travel between dimensions.”

“I want to speak with them before we decide what to do.”
“We’re the ones who started this war when we took the artifact.”

“You’re planning to give it back,” asks Mayla.

“Do you know how powerful it is?”
“What if the Fiklow know how to use it against us?”

“You’ll give up the heart fountain, and the artifact.”
“And Tila and all the others will have died for nothing!”

“What would Shilann do, Mayla? I ask.

She looks troubled.
“Almost all records of the Jiku were destroyed,” she says.
“Shilann told me that the war was our fault, although he would never tell me why.”

“Why didn’t he tell you?” asks Berek.

“He said that I would think less of him.”

I tell her that Shilann was the one who found the artifact, following orders.

“It wasn’t his fault,” says Berek.
“What could he have done after he found out the truth?”

“He was no different than Botzar,” she says sadly.
“Neither meant to hurt others, but they were still responsible.”

 
Contact
We hear some kind of loud, beeping sound.

“What’s that sound Mayla?”

“Someone’s trying to contact us.”
“It must be the ship in orbit.”
She touches a panel, and a screen lights up.

The image on the screen is startling.
It looks like a control room with about a dozen strange beings.

The room is filled with liquid.
The creatures have physical bodies, but they look like the image I saw of the Balancer.
Did the Balancer somehow evolve from these creatures?

I reach out to their ship with energy eyes, and analyze the liquid.
It seems to be ordinary salt water.

“Are we transmitting yet?” I ask.
“Not yet,” she says, “but we’re receiving.”

“I understand their language,” she continues.
“I’ll translate the message as I receive it.”

“Are these the Fiklow? I ask.
“Yes,” she answers.

The creatures speak first.

“Greetings,” they say.
“We sent you a copy of an ancient probe in hopes that you would recognize it, and try to communicate with us.

“When you destroyed the probe, we wondered if you would attack our ship.”

“I removed your probe,” I say, because it killed those who came near it.”

“The probe,” they say, “was programmed to defend itself against any perceived danger.”

“You look like the Jiku,” they say.
“And one of their ships is still in orbit.”
“Are you descended from them?”

“Yes,” answers Mayla.

“Do you know who we are?” they ask.

“You are the Fiklow who wiped out the Jiku civilization, and killed Trillions,” shouts Mayla.

“Yes,” they say.
“Our ancestors did that.”

“But we mean you no harm.”

“The artifact can destroy the entire universe.”
“All we want to do is get it back, and seal it away for all time.”

“And if we don’t agree, you’ll kill us all,” I say.

“We don’t want to kill anyone,” they respond.
“Please, just give it back.”

“Why don’t you just take it, then!” I say.

“We can’t find it.”
“If you still have it, you must have shielded its energy somehow.”

“But we can send out a pulse of energy, that will cover the planet, and briefly activate the artifact.”
“When we do this, the artifact will send out a destructive wave of energy, large enough to destroy any shield, and reveal its location.”

“But we don’t want to harm anyone.”
“We’ve become much more peaceful in the last thousand years.”
“And we regret all the killing.”

“Let’s meet to discuss this,” I say.
“Can some of us come aboard your ship?”

They speak together for a few minutes.

“We would welcome you if you come without weapons,” they say.
“But our ship has no place that would be safe for air-breathers.”

“With your permission,” I say, “those who come will change into your form.”

“You can do that?” they ask, incredulous.
“There are legends of shape shifters, but we’ve never met any creature that can actually do it.”

I demonstrate by shifting between various forms including the Bizra, the great birds, and the feldin.

“We’ll send a small ship to bring you here,” they say, clearly disturbed by my changing shape.
“Tell us where to land.”

Mayla sends them underwater coordinates, near the small island where I encountered the probe.

“We need one day to prepare for the transformation,” I say.
“Meet us one day from now in that place.”

They agree, and the transmission ceases.

“You don’t need a day to transform, Yagrin,” says Shazira.

“No, but I need a day to see the Heart Fountain, and the world behind it.”

“World?” asks Mayla.

“The artifact,” I say, ” is a gateway to a world of energy beings.”
“It’s a place of pure energy where there are no physical forms.”

“How do you know this?” she asks.

“I saw a little of the world,” I answer, “while we were still outside the city.”

“I’ve never heard of this before,” says Mayla.
“Some who enter the fountain speak of visions, but no one has reported another world.”

“A day is not much time,” she continues.
“It will take you an hour or two on the learning machine to learn their language.”
“Then, I’ll take you to the fountain.”