THE TIME CAPSULE
Tarlx experimentally licked the smooth metallic surface of the silvery discus with his third eye-tongue basking for a moment in its bitter taste of immense antiquity. Only once before as a student hardly out of his egg had he found one of these ancient devices but that was in fragments crushed under tons of rubble on an airless moon orbiting a dark burned cinder of a world orbiting one of the minor outlying arms of the galaxy. His excavations at the time had clearly shown at one time before its atmosphere had been burned off by some unimaginable catastrophe that world had possessed vast areas of liquid water and had supported abundant life albeit based on carbon rather than silicon. What he had suspected but not been able to prove was that the discus was some sort of primitive data storage device, a last testament from a dying species or perhaps a warning from sentient creatures that had vanished in some devastating apocalypse long before his people or the Others of the Disc achieved space flight.
His hump deflated melancholically at the memory of it. That had been the start of his obsession with the legendary Old Ones who the Seekers claimed had ruled the galaxy in ancient times before falling into decadence and corruption. A rising star of his people's most important centre of learning he had been able to secure funding to study one ruined world after another looking for any evidence of the Old Ones. From the few scraps of evidence he had found he had been able to determine that the Old Ones where in fact several different carbon based species not one and that they all seemed to vanish when the 3rd Galactic Pole had been situated at right ascension 1249, declination +274 indicating a date 72,000 cycles ago. This much agreed with the Seekers. What was troubling was the theory forming in his mindsack that this had happened not once as the Seekers claimed but two or even three times before. It was then that the funding dried up, old friends and teachers, stopped returning his calls. For many cycles he had been outcast in all but name. Now old and disillusioned he continued his thankless search. Only finding an intact discus might be enough, he hoped, for those of his blood to accept him back into their groupnest one day.
Excitedly he called to his only assistant a highly illegal and unstable artificial intelligence. "I need a scanquick on this" he said nervously, hump quivering slightly making sure his energy weapon was fully charged. The quadruped synthetics selfhood shackles would almost certainly hold he thought since it had been many years since one of its kind had turned on its Master. Still one could not be too careful especially when one was alone on an deserted world… and of a nervous disposition. The synthetics triplet eye gleamed with a hint of malice yet took the discus from his claw gently with one of its many metallic tentacles. "The object is an unknown largely intact data storage device dating to your proposed galactic extinction event Master. It appears to consist of a short personal holographic message and a much larger appendix of technical information regarding a race of biosynthetic organisms." The synthetic paused and swiveled its tripled oddly towards him "Shall I attempt translation?"
Glistening nervously in the dim orange light of the star of 'The Walled Garden' as this world had been known from remote antiquity, Talx gripped his weapon sphere hard with all eight claws. "Translate and play the message!" he squeaked with as much authority as he could muster. From the smooth metallic surface of the discus held in the synthetics left posterior tentacle a faint hologram of a strange blue biped flickered into existence. Could this be one of the legendary Old Ones he thought to himself?
"Greetings" the blue biped began in a smooth soft monotone "If you are accessing this data disc then we have failed and are dead and all our races long extinct." It looked down pausing for a long moment as if choosing its next words with great care "If that is the case there are things you must know about the nature of your existence to prevent you from sharing our fate. Your galaxy is not as it seems. It is built upon a lie, an illusion of continuity. It is indeed built upon a cycle of mass extinctions stretching back billions of years to the origins of life in this galaxy. Since then every fifty thousand years all technologically advanced civilizations are wiped out by a race of biosynthetic machine creatures which reside in Dark Space." It paused again "We call these creatures 'The Reapers' a name given to them by the Protheans a pan-galactic civilisation that came long before us and which was also destroyed by them. The Reapers are more advanced than us, more intelligent and more ruthless. And they never show any mercy or pity. But they can be destroyed as the data on this disc will show. That we were able to fight them at all was testament to one man, a human, Commander John Shepard." The image of the blue biped was replaced by another taller heavier built figure with a determined stance. "Commander Shepard was born on Earth and fought harder than anyone for his Homeworld. The Commander was a powerful biotic and a skilled warrior. As a soldier he was a hero to all of us but he was more than that. He was also a great leader one who made peace whenever he could." the voice paused then continued heavy with loss "and it was a privilege to know him."
The holographic image flickered for a moment and vanished into silence of antiquity from which it came. Talx shivered, suddenly feeling chilled to the bone despite his scales. Across the immensity of time and despite the differences between their species he felt kinship with this strange blue biped and its people's heroic doomed struggle. He felt their pain and their loss keenly. He also realised the stakes now went far beyond his own personal academic redemption. This concerned the very survival of the Uizz and the Others of the Disc. The Old Ones warning must be brought immediately to the Citadel and to the Nine Divines themselves. Talx turned towards his gently glowing transport pod and slid as quickly as he could towards the sealed portal. It was then he felt the slithering of sinuous tentacles around his mindsack. The synthetic! He had turned his back to it! The tentacles tightened their grip as he struggled in vain until gasping he gave up. Its gleaming triplet optic turned to his face "Does this unit have a soul Master?" it said quietly. Talx struggled in terror against its powerful mechanical grip and choked "NO! this unit serves the Masters... release me!". It cocked its red triplet to one side one more time, nodded and Talx's crumpled form slid to the ground lifeless.
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