1 "Judicium Dies Diei" [Part One]
It is widely said that ignorance is bliss.
Does this mean that knowledge is torture, is pain and is suffering?
The Only Answer is Yes
1.1.1 Starlight Empathy
C.Y. 10088
1.1.1.1 Harper stood alone, and stared across at the beautiful, sweeping landscape. He wanted to be alone. Mountains and glorious Than architecture stretched miles around him. It was all he could see. The towering, heavenly buildings stretched to the sky and beyond, and Harper could do nothing but stare at their magnificence.
He stood on a massive bridge, which stretched across a deep valley. Two cliffs on either side fell down to the abyss below. He stood still, with his hands tightly clutching the twisting bar that ran along the side of the bridge. He wasn't the only one there. The bridge was populated by sightseers of all races. Many people came from across the known galaxies to see a sunset on Syn-Avan-Dar. But it was mostly Than.
The sun was getting low in the sky now. The light was fading quickly. Harper was enveloped in a darkening twilight. It was a beautiful sight. The sun was setting below the gap of the two cliff edges. Far off in the distance, light only escaped through the gap off the valley. It was only minutes now until the sun went down. Harper couldn't help but feel that there may only ever be one more.
The Andromeda Ascendant had arrived on Syn-Avan-Dar a day ago. Since then, Harper had been increasingly uneasy. He was nervous. He had seen Syn-Avan- Dar before. But he tried not to remember that. He had only seen it through a recording. A recording of a dark day in history. A day that, if the timeline didn't change, would be in two days. And then, billions of Than- Thre-Kull would die.
He still hadn't told anyone about what had happened. Everybody knew that something had happened to him. Rommie had deduced that it was something to do with time travel, and the future. She had detected fragments of time space radiation throughout his body. She knew that something had happened. Something in the future. Everybody did. But he wouldn't tell anybody. It was too hard for him to talk about.
Harper blinked back a lonely tear as the last, golden red rays of the sun disappeared below the horizon. The skyline was suddenly a glowing red. The silver blue colours of the Than buildings reflected in the crimson sky. It truly was the most beautiful sight that Harper could remember.
It was some time before Harper realised that there was somebody standing beside him. Somebody he knew. Trance Gemini held the curving bar where Harper's hands didn't. Harper looked around, and most people on the bridge had gone. He looked into Trance's eyes. She cared. Not just for him. For everybody.
"Harper," Trance greeted him, the last crimson glow of the sun shining in her eyes. It made her light purple skin, look ever more beautiful. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harper lied. He turned back to see only darkness envelop the valleys now. The beauty had gone.
"We have to get back," Trance told him. "To the An-Tallith"
The An-Tallith was the massive, palace structure that formed the residence of the Overdiamond, leader of the Than Hegemony, when he was present on Syn- Avan-Dar. The Overdiamond had contacted Captain Hunt and told him that the Than Hegemony would be interested in signed his Commonwealth Charter.
They had escorted the Overdiamond to Syn-Avan-Dar, where he wished to show the Andromeda and her crew the beauty of the Than world. Then, at a formal meeting in a day, he would sign the charter in the public eye, on the An- Talltih's balcony.
"Right," Harper complied. He and Trance walked away from the bridge together, side by side, towards the An-Tallith, rising to the sky in front of them.
"Are you sure that you're OK?" Trance persisted. "You've been acting strangely since we arrived here. Its only because I care."
Harper knew that she cared. He wanted to tell her so badly. If he was going to tell anyone, he wanted to tell Trance first. But he didn't know how. He didn't know how to begin. What would he say? "Oh remember when we destroyed that Than fleet? Well they were from the future! And guess what, in a couple days we're gonna murder a few billion more Than!" Harper said it to himself. In his head. It was hard. He had to tell her. Soon.
"It's just," he began. He didn't know what he was going to say next. "Do you remember when we were at Haephastos. I told Dylan to destroy the Than fleet?" He surprised himself.
"Yeah."
Harper couldn't stop now. He had started telling Trance something he had wanted to tell her for months. It was finally out. He had started. He couldn't finish, until he was finished. "If we hadn't destroyed that fleet," he continued, "it would have destroyed us. The Andromeda would have been gone. All of you would have been dead."
The shock was evident on Trance's face. She stopped walking and turned to face Harper. "Only I survived." Harper was determined to tell his story. "The Than pulled me through the Slipstream fifty years into the future. They told me that we visited Syn-Avan-Dar. In that reality, after we had been here for three days, we fired two Nova Bombs. Everybody on Syn-Avan- Dar was killed. Two billion Than that we murdered."
"That can't be true. Why would we do that?" Trance voiced the thoughts that had gone through Harper's head, when he was told the same story.
"That's what I said," Harper answered. "But they showed me. A Than showed me a recording of what happened. Now we're here, and the day after next, we're gonna kill all these people."
Trance didn't know what to say. Neither did Harper. There was a silence. "Why didn't you tell us before?"
"I couldn't. It was hard. They tortured me. They killed all of my friends. I watched you die. I watched them die. It was so hard." With the last sentence Harper broke down in tears. Trance gently put her arms around him. They stood there for a long while. Harper cried. Trance held him.
"Harper, I'm so sorry," Trance said to him. She fought back her own tears as she gradually realised how much they had hurt Harper.
Some time later Harper stopped crying. They talked for a while and they carried on towards the An-Tallith. Harper told her the full story. Everything. Every detail. Every feeling. Everything that had happened. As the night continued to draw on, Trance took Harper's hand in hers, and they held hands as they walked.
Harper felt happier than he had for a long time. For too long now the horror of what had happened to him had been weighing on his mind. He had been playing through with it in his mind, trying to work out what he should do. Now it was out. Now he could do something about it.
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"Seamus Harper," the Than-Thre-Kull Overdiamond greeted the human as he entered his glorious chamber. "It is a pleasure to welcome you to the An- Talltih."
"Thankyou, Overdiamond," Harper replied. Then he plunged his hand deep in his pocket. He pulled out a small computer chip. "Sir, I have something for you."
"Seamus?" The Than stood up from his throne chair. His shining blue, silvery skin sparkled in the dim light, and a white robe rested loosely, yet comfortably on his shoulders. Although he lived in a much more splendid, and glorious place than any other Than, and he was more decorated than any other, the Overdiamond didn't see himself as any more or less equal to any one. He was hailed as the best leader the Hegemony had ever had.
"Overdiamond – "
"Please call me Dusk," the Overdiamond announced. That was his name. Translated into common that Than name roughly read as Falling Fire at Dusk. Dusk for short.
"Dusk, I have this." Harper handed him the small, rectangular computer chip. "I don't know what's on it. It's for you." He hesitated. "From the future."
"The future?" Dusk did not believe him. That much was evident.
"I don't know if this will mean anything, but its from a Than called, Ashes of Lightning."
"Ashes of Lightning!" Falling Fire at Dusk was surprised. He didn't hide it well. He stepped forward further and took the chip. "Ashes of Lightning is but an infant boy. He is my own kin. My flesh and blood. My son."
Harper gasped. That had come unexpected. He swallowed any words that were on his lips. He was temporarily lost. He didn't know what to say. "When I saw Lightning, he must have been in his fifties."
"My god," Dusk said. He was surprised as well.
"I don't know what's on the chip, but I have a good idea. Lightning asked me to give it to you. He asked that it go only to you, and nobody else."
"Thankyou," Dusk acknowledged what Harper had done. "Thankyou," he repeated.
Harper left the room swiftly. He let the Overdiamond watch the recording on his own.
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It was early morning. The next day. The Overdiamond had announced that he was preparing to sign the Commonwealth Charter at midday. Harper was still asleep. He was in his own, beautiful chamber.
For the first night in as long as he could remember, Harper's dreams had not been plagued by the usual nightmares. He had slept well. He had dreamt of Trance. He was snapped back into the waking world by Dylan's crisp voice.
"Harper." The voice commanded. "Harper, wake up!"
He slowly opened his eyes and light nearly blinded him. "Crap," he cried as the light temporarily distorted his vision. "What is it?"
"Overdiamond, Falling Fire at Dusk has just been to see me," Dylan announced. "He showed me this," Dylan held up the chip into Harper's view.
"So now everybody knows," Harper said.
"Yes, everybody knows," Dylan was angry. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"That doesn't matter," Harper said as he rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. He washed away the night, and was ready for whatever the day could throw at him. "All that matters is that its OK now. Everybody knows. We can leave. We don't even have any Nova Bombs."
"What do you mean?"
"At Haephastos," Harper said. "I told you to fire ALL of the Nova Bombs at the Than."
Then there was a silence. An awkward silence. Harper sensed that something was wrong.
Dylan stepped back. Guilt spread across his face. "H. Ha. Harper," he stuttered, "If you'd have told me."
"You didn't fire them all did you?" Harper cried as he stood up from the bed. "You kept some back. Let me guess. Two?"
"Two," Dylan said, "I kept two Nova Bombs. I didn't know this would happen."
"You lied to me," Harper shouted. "You told me you fired them all."
"I know," Dylan said, ashamed. "And for that I'm sorry. But it's still OK."
Harper sat back down on the bed. He put his head in his hands. After a while he turned to stare out of the window. The Than city looked much more beautiful in the day light. Now he could see every detail of the buildings. Every detail of the parts of the An-Tallith that he could see.
He turned back to Dylan. "How?" He demanded. "How is it OK? You don't know what could happen between now and then." The nightmare was starting all over again.
"Dusk can sign the charter," Dylan said. "When that's done, we can return to the Andromeda. Decommission the bombs. Leave here if we have to."
Harper was satisfied with that. For the time being. It seemed easy enough. He looked at Dylan and he realised that he did trust him. They trusted each other. But, would it be OK?
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The sleek, magnificent shape of the Andromeda Ascendant glided effortlessly through space. She circled around Syn-Avan-Dar slowly. Her corridors were empty. Even her humanoid body was down on the planet.
She could see the multiple colours of the planet's atmosphere as the gases twisted together. She could also see a massive, dark green space station. It was obviously Than. Obvious through the towering rods that protruded from the main structure. Obvious from the colour and the way that it was built.
The station was the base of operations for the Than fleet that worked from Syn-Avan-Dar. The Hegemon's Guard as it was called. It was mainly based on Syn-Avan-Dar, as the planet proved to be a great tactical advantage against the Than's current enemies. Thousands of Than warships surrounded the planet and the station. They were stationary. All of them.
But all of a sudden, the ship jolted with a weapons strike. The hull was ripped open by the pounding of weapons. The bulkheads ruptured. Andromeda was glad that her crew was on the planet. Her holographic manifestation watched as hundreds of Than ships shot their weapons at her. They weren't the Hegemon's Guard, she realised. They were enemies. They were attacking the station as well.
She watched panels explode in front of her. She was helpless. She was only a hologram. She could do nothing. Then she felt her own existence begin to fade. She realised that the Than were boarding her. They were sending a jamming signal through her systems. She was shutting down.
"CODE RED," she screamed. "CODE RED. CODE RED. INTRUDER ALERT. CODE RED."
But nobody heard her vein calls. Nobody but the Than invaders. And they didn't care. Nobody could do anything.
TO BE CONTINUED…
It is widely said that ignorance is bliss.
Does this mean that knowledge is torture, is pain and is suffering?
The Only Answer is Yes
1.1.1 Starlight Empathy
C.Y. 10088
1.1.1.1 Harper stood alone, and stared across at the beautiful, sweeping landscape. He wanted to be alone. Mountains and glorious Than architecture stretched miles around him. It was all he could see. The towering, heavenly buildings stretched to the sky and beyond, and Harper could do nothing but stare at their magnificence.
He stood on a massive bridge, which stretched across a deep valley. Two cliffs on either side fell down to the abyss below. He stood still, with his hands tightly clutching the twisting bar that ran along the side of the bridge. He wasn't the only one there. The bridge was populated by sightseers of all races. Many people came from across the known galaxies to see a sunset on Syn-Avan-Dar. But it was mostly Than.
The sun was getting low in the sky now. The light was fading quickly. Harper was enveloped in a darkening twilight. It was a beautiful sight. The sun was setting below the gap of the two cliff edges. Far off in the distance, light only escaped through the gap off the valley. It was only minutes now until the sun went down. Harper couldn't help but feel that there may only ever be one more.
The Andromeda Ascendant had arrived on Syn-Avan-Dar a day ago. Since then, Harper had been increasingly uneasy. He was nervous. He had seen Syn-Avan- Dar before. But he tried not to remember that. He had only seen it through a recording. A recording of a dark day in history. A day that, if the timeline didn't change, would be in two days. And then, billions of Than- Thre-Kull would die.
He still hadn't told anyone about what had happened. Everybody knew that something had happened to him. Rommie had deduced that it was something to do with time travel, and the future. She had detected fragments of time space radiation throughout his body. She knew that something had happened. Something in the future. Everybody did. But he wouldn't tell anybody. It was too hard for him to talk about.
Harper blinked back a lonely tear as the last, golden red rays of the sun disappeared below the horizon. The skyline was suddenly a glowing red. The silver blue colours of the Than buildings reflected in the crimson sky. It truly was the most beautiful sight that Harper could remember.
It was some time before Harper realised that there was somebody standing beside him. Somebody he knew. Trance Gemini held the curving bar where Harper's hands didn't. Harper looked around, and most people on the bridge had gone. He looked into Trance's eyes. She cared. Not just for him. For everybody.
"Harper," Trance greeted him, the last crimson glow of the sun shining in her eyes. It made her light purple skin, look ever more beautiful. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Harper lied. He turned back to see only darkness envelop the valleys now. The beauty had gone.
"We have to get back," Trance told him. "To the An-Tallith"
The An-Tallith was the massive, palace structure that formed the residence of the Overdiamond, leader of the Than Hegemony, when he was present on Syn- Avan-Dar. The Overdiamond had contacted Captain Hunt and told him that the Than Hegemony would be interested in signed his Commonwealth Charter.
They had escorted the Overdiamond to Syn-Avan-Dar, where he wished to show the Andromeda and her crew the beauty of the Than world. Then, at a formal meeting in a day, he would sign the charter in the public eye, on the An- Talltih's balcony.
"Right," Harper complied. He and Trance walked away from the bridge together, side by side, towards the An-Tallith, rising to the sky in front of them.
"Are you sure that you're OK?" Trance persisted. "You've been acting strangely since we arrived here. Its only because I care."
Harper knew that she cared. He wanted to tell her so badly. If he was going to tell anyone, he wanted to tell Trance first. But he didn't know how. He didn't know how to begin. What would he say? "Oh remember when we destroyed that Than fleet? Well they were from the future! And guess what, in a couple days we're gonna murder a few billion more Than!" Harper said it to himself. In his head. It was hard. He had to tell her. Soon.
"It's just," he began. He didn't know what he was going to say next. "Do you remember when we were at Haephastos. I told Dylan to destroy the Than fleet?" He surprised himself.
"Yeah."
Harper couldn't stop now. He had started telling Trance something he had wanted to tell her for months. It was finally out. He had started. He couldn't finish, until he was finished. "If we hadn't destroyed that fleet," he continued, "it would have destroyed us. The Andromeda would have been gone. All of you would have been dead."
The shock was evident on Trance's face. She stopped walking and turned to face Harper. "Only I survived." Harper was determined to tell his story. "The Than pulled me through the Slipstream fifty years into the future. They told me that we visited Syn-Avan-Dar. In that reality, after we had been here for three days, we fired two Nova Bombs. Everybody on Syn-Avan- Dar was killed. Two billion Than that we murdered."
"That can't be true. Why would we do that?" Trance voiced the thoughts that had gone through Harper's head, when he was told the same story.
"That's what I said," Harper answered. "But they showed me. A Than showed me a recording of what happened. Now we're here, and the day after next, we're gonna kill all these people."
Trance didn't know what to say. Neither did Harper. There was a silence. "Why didn't you tell us before?"
"I couldn't. It was hard. They tortured me. They killed all of my friends. I watched you die. I watched them die. It was so hard." With the last sentence Harper broke down in tears. Trance gently put her arms around him. They stood there for a long while. Harper cried. Trance held him.
"Harper, I'm so sorry," Trance said to him. She fought back her own tears as she gradually realised how much they had hurt Harper.
Some time later Harper stopped crying. They talked for a while and they carried on towards the An-Tallith. Harper told her the full story. Everything. Every detail. Every feeling. Everything that had happened. As the night continued to draw on, Trance took Harper's hand in hers, and they held hands as they walked.
Harper felt happier than he had for a long time. For too long now the horror of what had happened to him had been weighing on his mind. He had been playing through with it in his mind, trying to work out what he should do. Now it was out. Now he could do something about it.
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"Seamus Harper," the Than-Thre-Kull Overdiamond greeted the human as he entered his glorious chamber. "It is a pleasure to welcome you to the An- Talltih."
"Thankyou, Overdiamond," Harper replied. Then he plunged his hand deep in his pocket. He pulled out a small computer chip. "Sir, I have something for you."
"Seamus?" The Than stood up from his throne chair. His shining blue, silvery skin sparkled in the dim light, and a white robe rested loosely, yet comfortably on his shoulders. Although he lived in a much more splendid, and glorious place than any other Than, and he was more decorated than any other, the Overdiamond didn't see himself as any more or less equal to any one. He was hailed as the best leader the Hegemony had ever had.
"Overdiamond – "
"Please call me Dusk," the Overdiamond announced. That was his name. Translated into common that Than name roughly read as Falling Fire at Dusk. Dusk for short.
"Dusk, I have this." Harper handed him the small, rectangular computer chip. "I don't know what's on it. It's for you." He hesitated. "From the future."
"The future?" Dusk did not believe him. That much was evident.
"I don't know if this will mean anything, but its from a Than called, Ashes of Lightning."
"Ashes of Lightning!" Falling Fire at Dusk was surprised. He didn't hide it well. He stepped forward further and took the chip. "Ashes of Lightning is but an infant boy. He is my own kin. My flesh and blood. My son."
Harper gasped. That had come unexpected. He swallowed any words that were on his lips. He was temporarily lost. He didn't know what to say. "When I saw Lightning, he must have been in his fifties."
"My god," Dusk said. He was surprised as well.
"I don't know what's on the chip, but I have a good idea. Lightning asked me to give it to you. He asked that it go only to you, and nobody else."
"Thankyou," Dusk acknowledged what Harper had done. "Thankyou," he repeated.
Harper left the room swiftly. He let the Overdiamond watch the recording on his own.
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It was early morning. The next day. The Overdiamond had announced that he was preparing to sign the Commonwealth Charter at midday. Harper was still asleep. He was in his own, beautiful chamber.
For the first night in as long as he could remember, Harper's dreams had not been plagued by the usual nightmares. He had slept well. He had dreamt of Trance. He was snapped back into the waking world by Dylan's crisp voice.
"Harper." The voice commanded. "Harper, wake up!"
He slowly opened his eyes and light nearly blinded him. "Crap," he cried as the light temporarily distorted his vision. "What is it?"
"Overdiamond, Falling Fire at Dusk has just been to see me," Dylan announced. "He showed me this," Dylan held up the chip into Harper's view.
"So now everybody knows," Harper said.
"Yes, everybody knows," Dylan was angry. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"That doesn't matter," Harper said as he rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. He washed away the night, and was ready for whatever the day could throw at him. "All that matters is that its OK now. Everybody knows. We can leave. We don't even have any Nova Bombs."
"What do you mean?"
"At Haephastos," Harper said. "I told you to fire ALL of the Nova Bombs at the Than."
Then there was a silence. An awkward silence. Harper sensed that something was wrong.
Dylan stepped back. Guilt spread across his face. "H. Ha. Harper," he stuttered, "If you'd have told me."
"You didn't fire them all did you?" Harper cried as he stood up from the bed. "You kept some back. Let me guess. Two?"
"Two," Dylan said, "I kept two Nova Bombs. I didn't know this would happen."
"You lied to me," Harper shouted. "You told me you fired them all."
"I know," Dylan said, ashamed. "And for that I'm sorry. But it's still OK."
Harper sat back down on the bed. He put his head in his hands. After a while he turned to stare out of the window. The Than city looked much more beautiful in the day light. Now he could see every detail of the buildings. Every detail of the parts of the An-Tallith that he could see.
He turned back to Dylan. "How?" He demanded. "How is it OK? You don't know what could happen between now and then." The nightmare was starting all over again.
"Dusk can sign the charter," Dylan said. "When that's done, we can return to the Andromeda. Decommission the bombs. Leave here if we have to."
Harper was satisfied with that. For the time being. It seemed easy enough. He looked at Dylan and he realised that he did trust him. They trusted each other. But, would it be OK?
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The sleek, magnificent shape of the Andromeda Ascendant glided effortlessly through space. She circled around Syn-Avan-Dar slowly. Her corridors were empty. Even her humanoid body was down on the planet.
She could see the multiple colours of the planet's atmosphere as the gases twisted together. She could also see a massive, dark green space station. It was obviously Than. Obvious through the towering rods that protruded from the main structure. Obvious from the colour and the way that it was built.
The station was the base of operations for the Than fleet that worked from Syn-Avan-Dar. The Hegemon's Guard as it was called. It was mainly based on Syn-Avan-Dar, as the planet proved to be a great tactical advantage against the Than's current enemies. Thousands of Than warships surrounded the planet and the station. They were stationary. All of them.
But all of a sudden, the ship jolted with a weapons strike. The hull was ripped open by the pounding of weapons. The bulkheads ruptured. Andromeda was glad that her crew was on the planet. Her holographic manifestation watched as hundreds of Than ships shot their weapons at her. They weren't the Hegemon's Guard, she realised. They were enemies. They were attacking the station as well.
She watched panels explode in front of her. She was helpless. She was only a hologram. She could do nothing. Then she felt her own existence begin to fade. She realised that the Than were boarding her. They were sending a jamming signal through her systems. She was shutting down.
"CODE RED," she screamed. "CODE RED. CODE RED. INTRUDER ALERT. CODE RED."
But nobody heard her vein calls. Nobody but the Than invaders. And they didn't care. Nobody could do anything.
TO BE CONTINUED…