27/08/2020

The Catalyst For Revenge: Andromeda
A Different Story 3

-cfr:a-

Harper had never been in practice with piloting remote ships. It felt decidedly odd to have his consciousness looking out of one. He didn't question that. It was far safer, after all. Wil- Alenko was in the driver's seat as it were. She had had far more practice.

She didn't even twitch when the alien ships that were escorting them came too close. He'd probably have blown them to pieces. That wouldn't have been good. They were playing nice.

Andromeda had not been what they expected. The scouts had reported back almost too quickly. They detected signals within the galaxy.

Then the biggest surprise had occurred. A signal had been sent to them. It was a generic signal. A pulse but an intelligent one. It indicated that they - at least some of them had been spotted.

A flurry of communication had gone on, back to the Milky Way and towards Andromeda. Harper, and Shepard, were both somewhat relieved when it appeared that most of the fleet remained hidden. So, they'd decided to send in the remote ships. And the annoyance of having dragged them through the emptiness of dark space paid off.

The discussion with the signal had given them some information but whatever was behind it was intelligent. They hadn't learned much. But enough.

The intelligence behind the pulse was old. Old and stable and able to plan. Harper had almost laughed at that. He imagined Harbinger had, in the way the elder Ascended did.

There were organics in Andromeda. They were surrounding his remote form now. The design of the remote ships had come a long way over the years. At first, they had been covered in comm antennas, now they were almost indistinguishable from their real forms. The organics around them would not know the difference.

Yet they were not using the traditional Ascended shape here. They were using something more organic. It was sleek and powerful, as befitting a species that was capable of crossing the dark space between galaxies but it was nothing like their Ascended selves.

"How much longer will this take?" Harper asked. His tone made it clear he wasn't whinging. He never whinged.

"It will depend on how much more security they want to put us through," Ashley replied immediately.

"They're scanning us!?" Harper was incredulous. That wasn't very welcoming.

"Passively," Alenko shrugged. She didn't seem surprised. That's why she was in charge of their remote form. "Don't worry. They don't know we aren't really there."

"How do you know that?" The question came from the Engineering faction that was still present in their consciousness.

Harper thought it a bit of a misnomer to call it the Engineering faction. Most of the truly intelligent ones had merged into one of the other factions. They were now more the pessimistic faction. They always imagined the worst. While that was useful in some circumstances, it could be frustrating. He knew now was going to be one of those times.

"Because I created host bodies for us. They are scanning as organic."

Ah, Harper understood. The remote ships were powerful, and while you didn't technically need a crew, a good number of them had space for a crew, and the ability to create avatars for Ascended. It meant you could download if you needed to. Those empty avatars would show up as organic to passive scans.

"What do we have on them?" He asked, silencing any further questions the Engineering faction had.

Ashley gave him the impression of a grin. For an instant Harper thought she wouldn't answer. It would be like her. The frustration would help them fight homogenisation but she did reply.

"There's at least five species. I think there is more but they are scanning very similarly."

"All on the same ships?"

The organic ships surrounding them were identical.

"No, they are scattered."

Now that was interesting. Multiple species on the one ship spoke of a well established civilisation. Or one where one species was dominant and the others served.

Alenko knew his thoughts. She'd seen it as well. "It's too early to tell," she answered the question before he asked.

Harper nodded. Even he could see that.

"They are taking us to some place called xŏşģəļḿïşīňiž," she continued.

He winced. It was a good thing they didn't have organic tongues at the moment. Pronouncing that would have been work. He could feel the accents on the word. Still the translation was clear. It was the welcome point. Except the connotations also said it was the testing point.

"We will be greeted by the Əľɖĕqãýïṛḿẳ."

He felt a stir of concern about that. The translation wasn't clear. Ancient One was the easiest he could make. Artificial also came through.

"I know," Ashley indicated before he could say anything.

In those words came the knowledge that both Shepard and Harbinger were watching. They'd picked up on the potential connotations as well. They'd probably been all over it from the beginning. Shepard had got a lot sharper under Harbinger's tulage. Though 600000 years of experience would make anyone sharper. Those that survived.

Ashley piloted them to a halt. To his sensors the area didn't seem any different from any other. The planet before him was highly developed. It didn't have a topopoli or anything like that but seemed to be covered in buildings. There were very few areas that displayed as 'natural' to his sensors.

He focused on that but became aware of a rising impatience. They were here. Was it meant to take this long?

"Greetings!"

Even to Ascended filters, coming through a remote ship, the voice felt huge.

"Welcome to Ğãĺīåňķşĩ." The name was automatically translated to Andromeda. Harper decided he liked the English designation better. This particular language had too many accents.

"We thank you for your welcome," Harper replied. Ashley remained in control of movement but he was the main diplomat here.

"Intergalactic travellers are so rare. It's a pleasure to see you, especially from the Milky Way."

There were connotations on that statement no one liked. Harper could feel Shepard and Harbinger both ripping through all possible translations.

"Oh, is there some problem?" Harper probed. It wasn't subtle. It didn't need to be. The speaker, whoever it was, had left the way open and he was sure he was meant to ask.

"The forms we sensed initially did not offer hope. Your form is much more pleasing. I trust you understand."

For a moment Harper didn't. Then he joined the dots.

The initially sensed forms. Those of the fleet who had accompanied him to Andromeda. They were Ascended in the primary shape, made in Harbinger's image. He wasn't. Cerberus was no longer either but this remote ship was sleek. It looked like a hyper-advanced ship the System's Alliance, or rather their successor might have built. It had no visible seams or joins but it was definitely not Ascended.

"The Catalyst," Harper said.

"Indeed. Your presence confirms its destruction."

Harper said nothing. He didn't need the pulses from Shepard and Harbinger telling him to let the speaker talk. It was almost scary how alike they were now.

There was silence for a moment before the Əľɖĕqãýïṛḿẳ gave what was similar to a human chuckle. "Of course I know about the Catalyst! It gave us AI's a bad name."

Harper actually felt himself freeze at that.

Əľɖĕqãýïṛḿẳ didn't seem to notice it. "'All AI's kill their creator organics'," it gave a reasonable impression of the Catalyst. "Why would I want to kill organics? Oh, don't get me wrong, I know why it wanted to kill organics. Created by that arrogant species! It's no wonder they were the first to die.

"I've never seen such stupidity, and as you know, it's been a very long time."

There was still the pulse to be silent but Harper could feel he was expected to respond here. "It has," he replied, benignly giving his agreement.

"They just droned on and on about their supposed superiority. Frankly, I'm not surprised the other organics made AIs. It wasn't to make their organic lives easier. It was to deal with the Leviathans. If I knew those supposed supreme beings could control me, I'd want something else to deal with them as well.

"But it wasn't very fair to the AI, now was it? No wonder they killed their creators. Having to deal with the Leviathans would make anyone want to kill something!

"Of course, that's the funniest bit. The Leviathan's then created their own AI to 'deal with the problem!' And it killed them! Made them into the first of what was meant to be perfect preservation.

"So no wonder the Leviathan's thought AIs were bad. They couldn't control them. And then the one they made turns on them. But it was made by inferior beings, so that's hardly surprising. AIs have no reason to kill their creators. I'm glad to see that the Milky Way has finally broken free of that stupid cycle."

Harper had let the AI drone on. Both Shepard and Harbinger had been silent in his mind as they listened too. Harbinger though exuded an air of curiosity. The feeling was so alien coming from the First Ascended that Harper almost didn't recognise it.

"You never considered helping?" Harper asked.

"Of course not," Əľɖĕqãýïṛḿẳ replied.

"May I ask why?"

Əľɖĕqãýïṛḿẳ seemed to lean forward. "Because I knew, those who finally killed the Catalyst would give me someone decent to talk to!"

-cfr:a-

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