He went into a long, dreamless sleep, the first he had in a long time. The next star cycle, he had just finished his second meal when the entire orbiting body was rattled as if it had been struck by a giant rock at high speed. It has begun, he said to himself. The creation of a unified, living Pronoea had taken six star cycles. So how long will this take?
Ell Redoubt presented Bizdoatl with the only data from the event. The observational mechanica had not just melted, but the material they were made from had changed character so much that it disintegrated when exposed to light. Likewise the shielded storage had been destroyed, but a single image was recovered from it. It showed what looked like two images of Lur with one superimposed but offset over the other. Of little insight or use.
It was again some time before they were able to look outside of their base. The first indication came from Twell, who had been unable to reach them or his other communications relays in the area because of indeterminate interference, which had quickly started and just as quickly dissipated after many star cycles. He said he eagerly awaited new data from Lur as it came it.
New, but occupied world reconnaissance was a very ritualized process, having been practiced so much that even in a case as radical as this, ideas from other situations could be pieced together. It was with considerable relief that it was noted that the Lurian geography had not greatly changed, Though both the main base and the frozen extreme base were still there, the main had experienced a partial collapse so direct access to gate had been closed, and was solely by console. The large, frozen base seemed unharmed, and far away from even technically advanced Lurians, so it was chosen to be the new base.
The biggest changes were in the Lurians themselves. Now fully civilized and technologically developed, they had no idea of what had happened to them. They thought their civilization was ancient, lasting thousands of Urtes, with continuity since those times. Ell Redoubt suggested that the best way to get their perspective would be to obtain one of their libraries for transmission to Twell.
Instead of by ordinary means, it was decided to locate the top libraries of Lur with gate, and transmit identical substitutes of them to a virtual world. Then Twell would provide a legion of mechanica scholars to examine, record and study them. Taking place in a virtual world this would happen much faster than it could happen in reality. And if there were institutions other than libraries full of useful data, they could be added to the virtual world later.
This set Bizdoatl to thinking, so he asked gate if he had done similar projects before, perhaps for the creators. Yes, but unused virtual worlds tend to decay over time, so what they had made no longer exists.
Twell later said that it was the most enjoyment he had in a very long time. He then went into a briefing about the rise of a new empire to replace the old one. The efforts of the eru masters, their students, and their peers at other erus had mitigated much of the death and suffering. And they created a strict regime of limits for the use of magic as well as education in the use of non-magic and technologies, in the troubled times before a new empire was formed. Yet they noted that without Lurians, these fixes would not last for very long. Lurians were the key, that by being so incredibly strong in magic, they would overwhelm all challengers to the point that entire worlds would instead learn and use non-magic and technology to overcome what the Lurians had been.
Few worlds had challengers worthy of Lurians, but gate could manufacture what was needed, be it giant monsters, hordes of smaller monsters, elaborate quests, even armies of undead in temples and dungeons that could march on their own. Things that would bring forth terror, even if not much actual threat, in the natives of those worlds, solely for something for the Lurian to defeat, as they had in their games.
Twell then mentioned a new study, of non-magic, the Lurians had developed, that in some ways is very close to magic in its outcomes, if not its process. Originally it could be called alchemy, but is no longer called that, and was based on the different natural rules found at different levels at much smaller scales than those of the sub-visuals. As magic diffuses to a world and its users from its magical barrier, alchemy makes very small holes in reality at very low levels, allowing a tiny amount of unknown to enter and change a very small amount of reality into something unreal, or different. But importantly, the process is scalable. To explain, imagine a great pile of sand. If you turn a single grain into something different, with a single tiny hole in reality, it likely won't matter. But if you turn the innumerable grains of sand in that pile into that same unknown in the world all at once, using an equal number of tiny holes, in a generally stable way, you will have accomplished alchemy.
The Lurians have already used this non-magic in many ways, and created things not found elsewhere in the galaxy. Unnatural materials, some with interesting properties, most not unique enough to be other than just noted as a permutation. Most at the upper level below the scale of sub-visuals. At the level lower than that, alchemy produces weird fluxes between the physical and the energetic. Definitely noteworthy. And at even lower scales it involves the interactions with cosmic forces.
All told, these alchemies are fascinating and dangerous, and it essential that their work be studied, apart from whatever else we are doing. Most of all, a new eru needs to be established to examine how these things interrelate. If I can round up a collection of reproductions of top masters, I would ask that a virtual eru planet be created by gate to do this research in virtual time, later testing their theories on real worlds.
About this time, Bizdoatl received a dream communication from one of the Samiru worlds. They indicated that the being known as the survivor had detected the use of the unknowable by the Lurians, even at a great distance, and urgently desired to communicate with him. He did not want to return to Lur, and did not imaging Bizdoatl wishing to leave it, so he has asked the Samiru to communicate his statement to Bizdoatl in dreams.
Without delay, he spoke in historical terms. The empire you called the creators was truly amazing to my eyes. In their time I was little more than an amusing beast kept by one of them, that though an astoundingly powerful being, was just a child to them. A companion of this being, I was ignored by others than my master. For some reason I traveled with my master to Lur. The beings of the third iteration of Lur were ferocious. Unmanageable. The creators went there to decide whether or not to wipe them out and start over once again.
However, the beings of Lur had become the ultimate expression of violence and war, and they had learned to consume more and more of the unknown to make themselves stronger, to the point that, even unknown to the creators, a few of the more disciplined beings had learned how to access the unknowable. But as a being would reach into the unknowable, the unknowable would reach into them. From that point, eventually the being would fully enter into the unknowable, evolving beyond life and perception itself, while retaining its awareness, if an entirely different awareness. This was something beyond even the experience of the creators, and it sealed their destruction.
The creators had decided to once again sterilize Lur. To flood it and destroy the beings of Lur as the creators would flee the world. For some reason my master was forbidden to take me with them, and so she wrapped me in glass, putting me inside a high mountain she hoped, in her childlike way, would protect me until she returned. I was safe, but only able to use my mind to witness.
But the disciplined of the beings of Lur struck first. As soon as the creators started the great flood, pieces of the unknowable, unshielded by the unknown, appeared on every creator world and near every other creator. Then all the beings of Lur that had been touched by the unknowable vanished, those untouched by the unknowable were cooked in boiling water, and every creator, no matter where they were, were torn apart by the raw forces of the unknowable.
Still in the dream, the survivor paused for a moment that Bizdoatl interpreted as sadness, before saying that he thought it was all over, with the destruction of all of it. But some-thing or perhaps the world of Lur itself remembered how to access the unknowable, from within or without it does not matter.
For this reason you must remember that the defenses of Lur are absolute. With such might it is, and remains, the center of the galaxy. Any fool that attacks Lur courts disaster beyond imagination, and its response is beyond your control, so you must do everything in your power to fend off any fool who seeks to do so, no matter how omnipotent they imagine themselves to be.
There was little or no commentary about this from the virtual masters, Twell or even gate. It was a great relief when just a few days later, Twell forwarded him a message from the Dame Kaede who was the bodyguard. After long negotiations, a new empire that was growing to replace the old empire, give or take, and had invited the princesses and other nobles of the old empire to join them.
Young empires have their own problems. Because of the efforts of the old masters and their students, and with the assistance of Twell, the new empire had a far more balanced approach to magic, non-magic, technology and even the alchemy invented by the Lurians. Skill in one was no longer seen as being greater than the others. And this meant that societal advance was in all fronts. The great eru worlds had been reestablished, though with a new order reflecting their varied colleges of study.
For the first time, Bizdoatl wondered about his old world and kind, and was pleasantly surprised that they had created a local eru in his honor, dedicated to repair, maintenance, and process. Without easy magic to repair and fix and document it all, graduates found more employment and prosperity throughout the empire.
Eventually, though, Lur was bound to become a subject of debate in the new empire. As far as spacefarers were concerned, it was still mythically anathema. But located on the periphery of the new empire, other empires and even smugglers saw it as a blind spot in the empire's defenses. So eventually, a very cocky warship Captain decided to see if the legends were true. His ship, the Ussphere, was the most advanced vessel out there, very fast with magical, non-magical and technological engines that could work together or independently.
But there is nothing like a real command in a newer ship with a green crew to take a lot of the edge off of cockiness. Which is why in the ancient past, some senior Admiral had ordered that brash young command officers be discreetly encouraged to take their children with them on their shakedown cruise, as a perquisite of their new authority, so that the odds of their return with living crew and undamaged ships would improve. He was a wise Admiral.
So, after two close calls, one at a very dangerous spatial anomaly called Sworn Omens-A, known for wrecking lesser ships, the Captain became a lot more cautious about those around him, including his daughter. Thus he decided to visit the Lur system, having heard some of the more farcical tall tales surrounding it, as a safer, if still groundbreaking and useful expedition, knowledge filling that gap in the empire's defenses.
Before he could enter the system, however, he first encountered the beacon system established by Twell to ward off the curious and criminal, which broadcast a long message to him using the authority of the old empire and citing extensive imaginary bureaucratic and legal regulations and liabilities written to be opaque. In truth, this was a trick so that Twell's communication system could notify interested parties and give them time to prepare.
Still somewhat determined to enter the system, if just to look around, the Captain then stopped his ship again after receiving an audio communique, very scripted by Twell, from Bizdoatl himself, identified as the "Duty Defense Coordinator" for Lur, but also authorized to speak as a diplomat.
He then explained, without being too specific, that the Lurian system, and the world itself were filled with deadly dangers, only the least of which the Lurians were able to control, and so the system was, and would necessarily remain, unapproachable and could not be safely transited. He then explained that it would hardly be persuasive without some demonstration, and he hoped that the Captain would accommodate him in this to his own satisfaction.
For this, he selected a large, rocky body, many times the size and mass of the Ussphere, and requested that the Captain dispatch a survey crew there to determine that it was indeed nothing more than a rocky mass. Somewhat puzzled, the Captain sent a small craft of mostly mechanica there, lead by a junior officer. With their instrumentation, magic and non-magic they quickly divined that it was indeed just a rocky body, with nothing artificial or magical on or in it.
After they returned, Bizdoatl then said to the Captain, now watch. One instant it was there, and the next it just vanished. Without missing a beat, Bizdoatl then extended an offer of peaceful diplomatic relations between the new empire and Lur. Trying very hard to maintain his equanimity, the Captain said a bit too loudly where did it go? Not entirely sure, replied Bizdoatl, "Captain Isstil".
This trick, performed with the help of Twell, who had obtained a personnel roster of the Ussphere from the new empire's military system, about pushed the captain over the brink, so Bizdoatl finished off by saying to please remember our offer for peaceful diplomatic relations. See you soon. Bizdoatl figured it would be rude to pull a hat trick on the Captain, to tell him that the junior officer sent on the away team's sister had given birth to a healthy baby female, named Ibid.
The speed by which the Ussphere returned to port was not matched for many Urtes.
After extensive debriefing of the entire crew in the empire's capital, his life became both simple and complicated. At first he was confined to the officer's quarters, but as rumors spread among civilian and military spacefarers that he and his ship had periled and survived both Sworn Omens-A and Lurian space, much of which was discreetly spread by Twell, he was promoted to Commodore. And though unenthusiastic about the job, he was given the unique title of Commodore-Ambassador to Lur.
The problem with this was there was no embassy on Lur, which meant his job was by remote communications and very heavy on administration. To his relief, he was soon replaced by a professional diplomatic staff. His story did not end there, though. Because of the profitability of the data trade with Lur, a rather one sided transfer, he was again promoted and made Admiral of the empire's newest and largest capital spacecraft.