Starburst, page 8
“Those original home worlds of the ancients were not left for some bright shining home,” Cole said. “The ancients mostly died off. Plain and simple. They stopped seeding human populations and they simply died off.”
Ray was now nodding as well.
“They would have had no programs to seed humans without seeding human planets to start with,” Tacita said. “If they stopped seeding human planets, that would have been lost.”
Everyone was nodding. They all knew that the seeding programs were generated from galaxy to galaxy from previous human and animal stock. Once the ancients stopped seeding and only brought in Seeders, they were doomed.
Echo knew it was too stupid to imagine, but the evidence sure pointed to that reality.
“Chairmen Ray and Tacita,” Cole said. “I think you need to confront your ancient friends, get the truth out of them, and if they tell you the truth, we need to invite the old folks back into our society.”
Nods from most of the chairmen on the screen.
“We still have the problem of the vanished mother ships in all these seeded areas,” Echo said. “Where did they go? And why? If the ancients are out in the open, telling the truth, they might be able to join us again and help us figure that out.”
Ray and Tacita nodded.
“We will return with the truth quickly,” Ray said.
With that they clicked off.
“Everyone check our math on this,” Cole said. “We’ll be back as soon as Ray and Tacita get us some real answers.”
With that the screen went back to showing scrolling data about the status of the ship overall.
Echo turned to Cole. “Well, so much for a big exploration mission firing up.”
“Yeah, back on the search again for missing ships,” he said.
“And I really don’t want to know what we will find in them,” Echo said.
And she didn’t. But what she really wanted to know was why and how the ancients would not understand the repercussions of activating all Seeder genes in a population.
There was no chance they were all that stupid.
Something else had happened and that unknown something scared her more than the idea of finding giant ships full of dead bodies.
CHAPTER 18
Cole was stunned that he had barely started into his morning coffee when Chairmen Ray and Tacita called a conference call.
“Star Trail, please have Chairman Guinn report to the command center.”
Echo appeared at his side a moment later, a towel around her neck. She was sweating, but not much, so she must have just started into her routine.
“That was fast,” she said, wiping off her face.
“Guessing they didn’t get anything,” Cole said. “Star Trail, please add us to the conference link and display it all on the large screen.”
The other chairmen appeared on the screen as behind Cole and Echo the command center fell to silence. What they were about to discover might change what they would all be doing over the next decade or two.
“We are sad to report,” Ray said after everyone was connected, “that your theory as to what happened to the ancients is correct. They were keeping their big center functioning in hopes we would fill it once again, this time with humans.”
Cole felt like he had been punched in the gut. It was one thing to have that idea as a theory, but to have it actually happen was another matter.
“Didn’t they understand what would happen?” Echo asked.
“They did,” Tacita said. “They had programs to up the birthrate among Seeders that eventually failed and at first they were still seeding human galaxies and bringing in Seeders.”
Ray nodded. “There was that. But they did not count on one major change. Seeders starting living shorter lifespans.”
Tacita nodded. “When we were born, over four million years ago, the lifespan of a normal Seeder was over a million years.”
“There were fewer of us in any human population as well,” Ray said. “But as galaxy after galaxy of billions of planets were seeded, the lifespan of a Seeder started to reduce. Slowly at first, but as the years went past Tacita and I and many others studied the problem. We found nothing wrong or any solution.”
“And neither did the ancients,” Tacita said. “But it spelled their doom. That’s why they were so interested and sent so many along on these missions, in hopes of finding growing human and Seeder cultures besides ours.”
“How many ancients are left?” Cole asked.
“Fifty million,” Ray said, “most living in our culture and on one planet just outside the old home worlds. They rotate in and out of the command moon for the large center, keeping it maintained and waiting.”
Cole just was stunned. A proud group now living in the bones of their greatest construction, doing everything in their power to keep it going in hopes someone would inherit the old home.
“So I suggest we lift restrictions on the ancients,” Echo said.
“Everyone agreed?” Ray asked.
Cole watched as all chairmen nodded. No dissent or hesitations.
It seemed that now the forty chairmen of the twenty most powerful ships in all known space were the ruling body of humanity. At least for decisions like what to do with the old human culture now camping with them.
“So did you ask them about the missing mother Seeder ships?” Echo asked.
“We did,” Ray said. “They have no idea and are worried.”
Cole suddenly had an idea. “When these groups out here realized their mistake on activating all Seeder genes, would they have eventually returned to get more human stock to start the seeding process over?”
“Yes,” Ray said. “The ancients have done that exact thing on the other side of their home area of planets. The have seven Seeder ships now going.”
“Where did they get the human stock?” Echo asked.
“From our seeded planets,” Ray said, shaking his head. “That was another thing they were very embarrassed about. They had to sneak in and take from planets enough animal and human stock to restart seeding.”
“So there is a chance the old ships from these groups are still out there seeding?” Echo asked.
“Yes,” Ray said, nodding. “There is a chance.”
Cole just stared at all the faces. He had a hunch most of them were thinking the same thought he was.
How did they find them now?
SECTION FOUR
BACK ON THE SEARCH
CHAPTER 19
Echo stood beside Cole next to their command chair and studied the information coming in. All attention had now been focused back on finding the lost mother ships.
Echo and most of the chairmen were convinced that the old Seeder ships, over eighteen hundred in total from the six hundred areas, would not have gotten faster. That kind of advancement was done when not worrying about their very survival.
So it would have taken the ships about sixty thousand years to return to where they could have gotten the right seed material to start the seeding over.
And then another sixty thousand years to return to their original areas. But so far, none of the ships had been found anywhere near their original areas. So they had gone somewhere else.
Echo had no idea why they would do that.
At that moment, behind them, a familiar voice said simply, “Permission to resume my duties?”
She and Cole spun around to see JP standing there beside his station, looking worried.
Silence had fallen over the command center as everyone watched.
Echo felt a surge of joy at seeing him again. She stepped up to his level, moved over to him and gave him a massive hug.
When she let him go, Cole, smiling from ear to ear, shook his hand.
“You may resume your duties on one condition,” Echo said, staring at the man she and Cole had trusted for decades.
“Anything,” JP said.
“No more secrets,” Echo said. “We are all Seeders and are all in this together. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” JP said.
Echo thought the smile would hurt him. In all their years she had never seen him smile like that before. It made her heart feel light.
Around them the command center broke into cheers. JP was not only well respected, but well loved by everyone. It was wonderful to have him back.
After everything had settled back down, Echo turned to JP. “We are trying to figure out where all the mother ships went. Your culture had to borrow from our culture to start new human seeding, what would these groups have done?”
“They would have left one area human only,” JP said. “In our worlds around the center, we had already made our mistake by pulling in Seeders from many seeded planets. When we stopped seeding and then our birthrate experiments failed, and the lifespan dropped, the human cultures we had seeded were too advanced for us to get new material.”
“But you had our culture close by, thankfully,” Cole said.
“We did,” JP said. “Thankfully.”
“Did these groups out here know that?” Echo asked.
“No,” JP said, shaking his head. “There was no contact. But being this far out, the logical thing would be to depend on one area to remain human seeding.”
“Is there any record of any ultimate goal these six hundred groups had?” Cole asked.
“To build a second Center,” JP said, “a second home world.”
Echo turned back to the big screen. “Star Trail, please put up that center location we have all figured would be their destination. Show it with a red dot and show the six hundred plus seeded areas with green dots.”
The image appeared on the big screen.
“Now which green dot would be the closest to that red dot?” Cole asked. “Show it brighter.”
Echo had an idea and if she was right, this was going to turn out a lot better than anyone could have hoped.
“Star Trail,” Echo said, “Assuming eighteen hundred mother ships, all seeding at a normal rate for their time, how long would it take to seed every galaxy in a hundred galaxy diameter path to that red dot from that closest green dot?”
“Approximately three million years,” Star Trail said. “That has a variable factor of a hundred thousand years in either direction.”
“Could we all be that lucky?” JP asked quietly.
“Only one way to find out,” Cole said. “Let’s talk with the other chairmen and go exploring.”
Echo loved that idea.
Especially with JP back at their side.
CHAPTER 20
Cole and Echo stood facing the giant screen as the other chairmen linked in. They had also included Ray and Tacita.
After everyone was linked in, Cole started off. “After consulting with Commander Horshaw, an ancient who we are very happy to have returned to duty with us, we believe we might have an answer.”
Cole turned and nodded to JP, who nodded back.
“We believe,” Echo said, “that the groups out here would have left one group seeding only humans as a back-up, sort of a seed group if you will.”
“The groups here had an intent to build a second major home, a second Center,” Cole said. “We believe they would have left the most central group as human seeding.”
“And they would have picked the area we have studied as a possible future home,” Echo said.
“So if they started from the most central seeded group, the ones assumed to have humans, and seeded humans all the way in a hundred galaxy diameter area with all eighteen hundred plus mother ships, they would have reached their new home in three million years.”
Echo said, “Show the diagram of what we are talking about please?”
An image appeared on the screen with a wide band leading from one green dot to a bright red dot. The wide band was a hundred galaxies wide.
The more Cole thought about this, the more he was convinced it was right and logical. Of course, he had thought that about a number of other theories so far on this mission and all of them had been proven wrong.
On the big screen most of the chairmen were nodding.
“It will take us over three weeks from our location to get to that seeded area. But it would take Star Ray only three weeks.”
Lisa and Jaden were both nodding.
“I would suggest,” Ray said, “That all ships head there. At top speed.”
“Why?” Echo asked a fraction of a second before Cole could.
“Because the ancients at the center believe that might have happened as well,” Tacita said.
“Since your first discoveries,” Ray said, “they have been searching for any records, any information about the overall mission of the different ancient Seeder groups. They always intended, from what can be found, to build civilizations with Seeders only.”
“But they wanted to keep one area seeded with humans,” Tacita said, “to account for what they figured would be a decrease in populations.”
“Just as the ancients here discovered,” Ray said, “the declining lifespan of Seeders combined with the failed attempts at increasing birthrates would have spelled the doom of the original idea.”
“Unless it didn’t,” Tacita said.
Cole had no idea what she meant by that.
“Either way,” Ray said, “that center group will hold a lot of answers.”
“Everyone in favor of heading at top speed for that center group?” Cole asked the gathered chairmen.
All nodded.
“Approach with caution and undetected,” Ray said.
“See everyone shortly,” Cole said, smiling at the rest of the chairmen.
Then he cut the connection.
“Star Trail,” Echo said. “Are all scout and military ships on board?”
“Yes,” Star Trail said.
“Go to full speed,” Cole said. “Let’s go see what we can find this time.”
This excited him. Again they were moving, looking for answers in the unknown. That was what this ship had been built to do and for one, he was very glad they were back doing it.
CHAPTER 21
Echo had managed to keep herself busy for the past three weeks. This morning both she and Cole had taken their coffee and snack bars instead of breakfast to the command center to watch the feeds coming in from Star Ray.
Star Ray was going to be the first ship to enter the area around what they were all hoping would be a fully seeded human culture. It was going to take the rest of the Starburst ships from ten hours up to three more weeks to reach the area. Thankfully, they would be there beside Star Ray in just fifteen hours.
But for now everyone was watching the feeds coming in.
Echo had no idea what might have happened to over one-hundred-and-eighty mother ships if they didn’t find humans here.
“We have a galaxy ahead full of terra-formed planets,” Jaden said.
Echo and Cole were watching the feeds. Behind them everyone in the command center stood silently, watching as well.
“The data doesn’t look right,” Cole said, shaking his head.
He glanced back at the command crew. “Get working on what they are sending us.”
Everyone went to work instantly. Echo knew that each of them had a specific area of the data they would pore through quickly.
“The worlds appear to be dead,” Lisa of Star Ray said softly. “Not like we had found before, but destroyed within a fairly recent period of time.”
“There are a few human survivors scattered on the planets we are scanning,” Jaden said. “Some planets are completely dead. No Gray or Cirrata that we can find at all still surviving.”
Echo felt her stomach twist into a knot as Star Ray held position on the edge of the galaxy and launched hundreds of scout and military ships, all cloaked. She couldn’t believe they were facing more dead human planets like the one she and Cole had worked on all those years before.
As the scout ships went to work quickly, staying shielded and moving in over various planets, the data really started to pour in.
“These were well-advanced human and Gray and Cirrata civilizations,” JP said from behind them.
“When did this happen?” Echo asked as the images of cities came flooding in, most still standing but on closer look they were starting to deteriorate.
“When did this happen?” Cole repeated without turning from the big screen. “How long ago?”
“Recent,” JP said. “Within one hundred years.”
“We’re leaving scout ships here and jumping at full speed to the home galaxy,” Jaden said from Star Ray. “Our ships will track and observe the survivors. We should be at the home galaxy in forty minutes.”
“We will drop scout ships and military ships at each galaxy we pass,” Lisa said. “We will continue feeds of all incoming data.”
Echo just watched the big screen as more and more data started to pour in from the scout ships. Whatever had happened to these planets had happened galaxy wide to every terra-formed and inhabited planet.
Also there was no sign of any ships left in space or any stations left at all. Just floating debris where stations might have been.
And every galaxy Star Ray flashed past, the same story emerged. Complete destruction of what had been advanced and clearly stable human, Gray, and Cirrata cultures.
Recent destruction.
And that scared Echo even more than she wanted to admit.
And brought up horrid memories.
CHAPTER 22
Cole stood beside Echo in the command center and watched the big screen as Star Ray dropped into a holding position outside of the original seeded galaxy and launched hundreds of scout and military ships.
It was clear from first scans that the destruction was the same, only this had been far more recent. Within the last five years on one side of the galaxy. Some planets on the far edge of the galaxy where Star Ray had approached still had buildings burning and the data showed that those planets had been just recently attacked. Not more than a week before.
