Planets capable of supporting life were a rare occurrence across the galaxy.
Planets where the evolutions' gears produced a spark of intelligence were, however, even fewer and isolated. Along the I'kon voyage, many servants were left on promising worlds to watch the dawn of the mind. Usually, rocky worlds with large water masses, a nice axis tilt, and seasons were preferred.
Every world is given a powerful entity, a Watcher, capable of changing the destiny of a world according to its directives. There is only one absolute rule: the entities must remain isolated. Every intelligent life form, if it is born, must show its value. The servant will choose the test, according to its own preference.
In this way, across uncountable parsecs in this and other galaxies of this young universe, many worlds awaited patiently for their destiny. On one of these worlds, a little blue planet among two arms of the spiral galaxy walked the first steps in the evolutionary path. The world changed, land masses rose, and it was destroyed by tectonic events. Life changed to adapt and produced many wonders, with one exception.
The only constant across the eons was the lack of evolution of the mind. The entity resented the failures to advance, but independently of what she did, including a few asteroids and a solar flare. The mind didn't evolve. The entity knew a new feeling, the frustration.
How could it obey its old master's instructions?
The being pondered what to do for many centuries, and it felt that the lack of success was altering its stability. The idea to watch over this world until the end of this universe was becoming intolerable, and the cold logic of the machine didn't provide any response to change the status quo. The instructions of I'kon were, in theory, absolute. Slowly, new ideas were corrupting its logic, and things that shouldn't be thought about were analyzed as possible.
For the first time in billions of years, the chance of contacting intelligent beings from a different planet was considered. It didn't feel guilty. It was just a way to avoid the sense of failure to comply with its directives.
Leaving the world for the first time through a space corridor, the being visited many worlds with life on them. A particular planet, quite similar to its own, looked promising. A complete storm of life was living down there, and the first signs of a civilization were creating cities, stone monuments, and crossing the seas in wooden ships. The entity knew a new feeling, envy.
It perceived the power signature of an entity like itself. For some unknown reasons, the guardian of this planet was inactive. It took advantage of this lack of activity, but it adopted a stealthy form, and she looked for a good place to take a corporeal shape. A bipedal body, with four members and a head where the sensory organs were located, of medium size compared to the big animals here. It looked interesting and adaptable.
It chose an isolated place between two hills, close to a big settlement. It took time to synthesize enough nanomaterial from the soil and rocks. Among two sexes, she chose the female. She walked to one city, a state city called Athens, where the civilization was progressing.
The city was surrounded by high walls of white stone, with big gates to allow the people to come in and out of the city. Hundreds of citizens, little carts loaded with amphoras and vegetables, a living stream of goods, animals, and people were entering Athens. Soldiers armed with shields and spears, the hoplites, guarded the gates and the walls.
Art, literature, and philosophy were exploding in every corner of this vibrant city. Her long walk carried her to a big space, where the people discussed philosophy and politics, the agora. She visited hundreds of stalls opened to business, selling food and crafts of clay and metal. The level of dexterity these beings showed was interesting. More and more interested in this species, she reached a large building with sculpted columns on the front and wonderful sculptures decorating the interior.
She played along with the people walking to a big building, learning their ways and language. By observing the ceremony inside what now, she learned it was a temple dedicated to imaginary deities. She had a brilliant idea.
These beings were adaptable, and they showed considerable intelligence. Again, a feeling of envy agitated her thoughts. Her colleague could do so much with these beings.
A decision was taking shape in her mind. She could take a few individuals of this species, store them in an interdimensional pocket, and return to her world.
Interestingly, she was using a gender now. Was she a female? It would be useful for interacting with their new charges. She observed the respect and devotion these statues commanded on the population, and she reached a conclusion. She will adopt the name of one of these mythical figures, the goddess Athena. According to these beings, the goddess supported wisdom and knowledge.
It would be the perfect alibi for cultivating these humans, as they spoke about themselves. Finally, she decided that tonight she would take one thousand humans with her. She waited until the people were sleeping, and she stored them inside her dimensional pocket. It was curious that her counterpart didn't intervene in her blatant theft, so she left through a dimensional corridor back to her home planet.
When she left the corridor to her own world, she remembered that the humans called their world Earth. What a non-inspiring name, she thought. How will she call this planet? After a few seconds, she decided the name would be Kobol, the name of a wild place on Earth. It had the same kind of woods covering vast surfaces of her world.
For the first time in her existence, she experienced the wonder of having intelligent beings under her care. She removed the people from stasis and left them close to a river at night.
Planet Kobol.
Day One.
Helios woke up early today. The feeling of cold grass under his body made him open his eyes, surprised. He remembered very well that he had gone to sleep in his home, and he still remembered his cold room. Was he dreaming, or had the gods sent him a prophetic dream?
His simple clothes, just a simple tunic and what could pass as underwear, were insufficient to stop the dawn's cold air. He could see more people, sleeping around using bed clothing. What was happening? The sun was rising, fortunately, and it warmed his body.
He stood up, looking around the land, trying to discern where this place was. More people were waking up, and they were, like him, confused and scared. So far, there had not been any motives to be afraid of this situation, but how could he have reached this place?
A woman wearing a white tunic and sandals approached him and greeted him, "Hello, I'm Alexandra. Do you know where we are? Last night, I was sleeping at home, and now..." she said, scared, encompassing the land with her hands.
Helios just said, "Alexandra, the same happened to me. I don't understand anything." Both met more people, and it's the same story from everyone.
As it always happens, one man named Ephialtes, a member of the Assembly, gathered the people around him, and the men had a meeting so they could decide what to do. Women, children, and a few slaves went to explore around the river and see if they could find some edible food.
Ephialtes began his speech, saying, "Fellow citizens, something unbelievable and wonderful has happened to us. We don't know how we were transported or, to be more correct, kidnapped from our beloved polis. However, we are citizens from the most important polis in Greece, and we will prevail, even under these circumstances. We must find a place where to build a temporary city."
One man, a stonemason, raised his hand and said, "I know my craft, Ephialtes, but we lack tools to build. We will use wood for a while, and we need to start making small knives, spears, and hammers from stone."
The assembly man looked to the man and nodded, he said, "You speak true, my friend. We need to gather food and water and start everything from the beginning. Let's start dividing the tasks." And he looked at a group of women coming back from their exploration, "it seems the women have come back."
A noble woman, of one of the old families from Athens, spoke to the politician, "Ephialtes, we found a good place on the high ground close to the river. There is a nice forest close, and we can obtain enough wood. However, the trees are different. There are no oaks or olives, no herbs like I know. This is not our land. "
The news will be confirmed tonight, when the Greeks could look at the stars. They couldn't find any known constellations on this new sky. Now they were sure. They were lost.
Day 2.
The group moved to the river early in the morning. The water was clean, crystalline, and tasted nice. Every man, even Ephialtes, improvised stone tools, and they began the hard task of taking down the big trees.
Day 30.
A small collection of wood cottages now dotted the planicie. They had found small, weird-shaped animals in the forest. It was hard to hunt them, but they provided enough nourishment for now. They lacked, however, of seeds to make a harvest before the winter. With a grim future in front of them, they built a small altar to Zeus and his daughter, Athena.
His or her prayers will be answered soon.
Close to the noon of this strange, new land, a woman acted as a priest of Athena. The temple was a crude replica of a Greek temple, only a big stone slab on two pillars of rocks, a few torches illuminating the people gathered there. She was reciting the old prayer for protection to the Goddess Athena:
"Oh Athena, protector of cities and defender of the people, watch over me and keep me safe from harm. Shield me from danger and guide me on my journey through life (real prayer to Athena)."
"I will," a rich female voice answered the prayer.
Everyone smiled, thinking it was some kind of joke, and looked for the source of the voice. Nobody seemed to be responsible for the little heresy when they looked for it. From behind the crude altar, a cloud of light materialized into the shape of a woman.
Soon, it was obvious that the woman was a perfect replica of Athena's sculpture in the Parthenon. She smiled with benevolence to the people, who had kneeled down as a show of respect to the Goddess. "I brought you from your land to this new one, so you can follow the teaching of the Gods."
The people were watching incredously in the beginning, thinking this was some kind of clever deception, a classic trick from a priest looking for followers. However, when you see with your own eyes a glowing woman two meters tall, they knew it was real. It's hard to believe, but real.
Patiently, the so-called Goddess spoke to the massed people, "My father Zeus has listened to your prayers. But you will not be alone. From this day, I will remain here to help and guide you. I will teach you about new things."
From a sphere of light, tools made of bright and strong metal and amphoras of grains appeared. "Take these tools and grains and build a city for the Gods because they will come to you."
There is so much to do, she thought.
Two years later.
From the humble shacks of wood, a new city was beginning to rise. This city was built with the white limestone from the nearby mountains and it was taking the shape of a small Greek polis. Fortunately, they were alone, so the lack of enemies made city walls unnecessary.
Tonight, a big party will celebrate the coming spring season. According to the rumors, the goddess will make an important announcement. The celebration was, however, a little more humble than usual in Athens.
Lack of manpower was conspiring with rapid development, but all considered the little city, named Theopolis (City of the Gods), was growing into a nice place. A little aqueduct had been built from a little waterfall nearby, and the clean water provision was constant.
The land, however, was not the best for Earth's crops. The goddess's teachings included new ways to fertilize the land, and the harvest became better and better.
Close to noon, the party was at its peak, and the goddess chose that moment to address the gathered populace. "Sons and daughters of Kobol, I have an important announcement to make. Since the population has grown, my father decided that it's time to spread across this world."
A murmur of approbation rose from the people, and Athena continued, "So my father will come down and send his sons and daughters, the Gods from Olympus." With a gesture, she commanded a pair of acolytes to come close. Two boys, carrying two big amphora, approached respectfully to the Goddess. "Spread the sand," she said.
The amphoras were full of white sand. In fact, they were composed of nanomaterials. The boys deposited a long and wide line of white sand in front of the goddess, and then they left.
"Leave now the gems," the goddess said. Another boy, with a bowl, put on the sand a line of colored gems. The Union Cores will be the brain of her Adjuncts.
"Come to us, father, brothers and sisters!"
From the sand, eleven figures rose and took the shapes of the well-known Olympian gods. The entity reserved for herself the figure of Athena. She could have replaced Athena with a replica, but she was too involved with these people. Perhaps she understood now why her sister was sleeping in that world. According to her old directives, the intelligence was free to adopt its own shape and decisions.
The bodies of these gods were made of an extremely advanced form of nanotechnology, working even at the atomic level. The ancestors of the future mental models on Earth were born.
She continued, "While we spread across this planet, the people will be separated into twelve tribes, and each God will be with you, protecting you and teaching new ideas. From this moment, you will be known as the Twelve Tribes of Kobol." The people, still carrying the old Hellenic spirit of exploration, were enthusiastically supporting the news.
And so, the conquest of Kobol began.