Many years from now, many centuries from now in fact, a furred, tailed Teacher stood in a beautiful garden on Cait, holding a book. It was a heavy, ancient book, a book that had been carefully passed down from generation to generation. A book that was now open in one paw, as the Teacher taught her class.
"And thus the Truths of the Great Mother remain, My Cubs, as clear and unignorable and eternal as the sun that shines in our sky..."
Deep Space, A Thousand Years Ago:
"Well, Cub? Talk to me."
"Great Mother... it's so long and hard... it goes on forever... I can't get my arms around it..."
Still harnessed in their explorer pod, idly raising the internal temperature of his pressure suit, Prime Technician Hsuuras grunted.
"S'Tow, I'm already old and decrepit and can ill afford to be out here soaking up ambient cosmic radiation while you spout cubbish innuendo. Something more useful, please?"
Still, he privately admitted that the alien Artefact that had drawn them out here into the darkness of Deep Space was undeniably phallic: cylindrical, 200 ujars long and 20 ujars in diameter, with a propulsion system on one end, its surface coated in a dark green, impenetrable neutronium alloy, but with accessible portals here and there.
One portal of which was now opened, courtesy of his apprentice. First Technician S'Tow was halfway inside, her pressure suit looking more flattering on her than his did on himself, and moved in nil-grav with far more ease, her tail swishing about in her pressure suit's sheath. Not surprising, really; as one of the younger generation in the Ark Fleet, she had spent more time in space than on any planet.
And she was brilliant, intuitive, hard-working, and professional. When she wanted to be.
"Definitely an automated vessel, like a probe or a communications relay. The neutronium exterior prevents an accurate analysis of the age, but not so the iridium dust I found in the cracks of the portal I found. This thing hasn't been opened up in at least ten thousand years."
Hsuuras breathed in sharply. Since fleeing the Motherworld over thirty years ago, the Pure People had stumbled upon very little in the way of evidence of alien life or technology. He supposed it was a blessing; in their quest to find a new home, there was little desire for competition.
"What about the interior? Any computers, writings? Clues as to the builders of the Artefact?"
From his vantage point, he watched S'Tow's sheathed tail swish with excitement.
"No script, nothing but a symbol: six- no, seven red concentric circles, embossed everywhere inside. There's some sort of computer unit, but its workings are fried, possibly from some security mechanism to prevent outsiders from accessing data on the makers. But there
are
active isomagnetic cages like our antimatter containment systems, employing a rather ingenious self-replicating crystalline matrix to prevent degradation."
"A fuel storage system that can last ten thousand years?"
"Yeah, it's strange. Actually, I don't think it's protecting fuel, it- it-"
Hsuuras had been idly scratching some dust off of his helmet's visor, when he smirked at her pause.
"What is it, Cub? Are you stuck in there, like when I had to rescue you out of that ventilation shaft on Ark 4 and-"
He stopped the banter as he saw S'Tow propel herself off of the Artefact, twisting in space and using her impellers to frantically return to the pod.
"We have to get away. Now. Alert the Fleet Commander."
"The Fleet Commander? Why? What is it, S'Tow?"
"DO IT, HSUURAS! PLEASE!"
Two minutes later, on their way back to Ark 1, S'Tow had explained the reasons for her panicked retreat.
*
Ninety-eight minutes after that, Hsurras and S'Tol were onboard, and in the presence of Fleet Commander Laaw, an ash-furred female who was among the oldest surviving members of the tens of thousands of the Pure People who had fled from the Augmented on Ferasa. She stood there in the Conference Room, looking up at the recordings the pair had made of the Artefact and its interior, focusing on the blood-red, seven circle symbol. "What am I looking at here?"
Hsuuras glanced at Laaw's senior officers, remaining silent behind her but clearly critical that a meeting like this could be called at such short notice by the likes of Technicians. But Hsuuras had an advantage many of them didn't: knowing the Fleet Commander personally, from before the start of the Exodus. "A symbol adorning the interior of the Artefact, which we believe is a warning sign regarding the contents of the isomagnetic cages. We couldn't locate any physical, magnetic or crystalgraphic records about the builders."
Laaw nodded thoughtfully. "Reminds me of the art from the shrines back on Ferasa, representing the gateway to the Seven Hells..." Now she focused on Hsuuras. "It's not a starship?"
"Not one meant to be crewed, Siress: there
was
a propulsion system capable of extraluminary speed, and a guidance system, but no life support."
"And what do the cages contain? I'm assuming you've worked
that
out?"
"Yes, Siress." He turned to a nervous-looking S'Tow. "Go on."
The auburn-furred female swallowed, her tail twitching behind her as she cleared her throat. "Siress, the evidence suggests that the cages within the Artefact contain... Primal Particles."
The response from the senior officers was alarm and derision. Hsuuras didn't blame them. Primal Particles had never been synthesised by the People, and their effects had only been observed at a great distance. They
were
confirmed to be the most powerful substance known, potentially the primal source of the Birth of the Cosmos, with just a few molecules said to be able to provide the energy needs of an entire planet.
Or destroy it, because Primal Particles were also incredibly unstable. During the Exodus, cosmophysicists within the Fleet had observed a distant sector of space that, centuries before, had been the home of an advanced civilisation, to judge from the residual radio transmissions, but then had been the victim of a massive explosion that destroyed them, affecting both space and underspace, rendering it, and seemingly everything in it... dead.
It had been assumed that they had been victims of some terrible natural phenomenon involving the Primal Particles. Now, however...
Laaw kept her composure, looking at the schematics of the Artefact. "You're certain of this?"
"Of course we are!" S'Tow responded immediately, her ears and tail dipping in embarrassment at her breach of protocol. "Sorry."
Hsuuras reached out and patted her shoulder reassuringly, looking to Laaw. "We are. The isomagnetic cages generate a counter frequency matching what was originally detected in the Dead Sector by our people years ago. The counter frequency is what keeps them stable."
"And how many particles does it contain?"
"Several million, Siress. Enough to wipe out a planet. Maybe even a planetary system."
The elderly female nodded gravely. "So it's a weapon, a... Doomsday Weapon. Built by some alien race long ago. Perhaps they're long dead now, along with their opponents, and this is all that remains of them. Some legacy." She looked at the Technicians. "Can it be safely moved?"
Hsuuras glanced at S'Tow, before he replied, "Yes, Siress, it's quite stable in itself. We might even be able to fit it with a new propulsion and guidance system. But... may I ask why?"
"We'll be taking it with us to the next system. Our new home."
Hsuuras gasped. "Our... Our new home?"
"Yes. Our scouts have returned from a thorough and detailed scan of a planet in the system ahead of us. It's Arish-class: uninhabited, temperate, with a compatible biosphere, ideal for us. We haven't made an official Fleet-wide announcement yet, so keep it to yourselves for now." She allowed herself a smile, despite the circumstances. "The planet will be designated 'Cait'."
"'Cait'," Hsuuras repeated, recognising the word from the Old Language, meaning 'Home'. Despite himself, his heart raced and his tail swished like a cub in his first Season. Unlike his apprentice, he was old enough to remember living on Ferasa, when the Augmented had taken over and tried to convert or kill those who chose to remain Pure. He was certain that he would spend the rest of his life in space, and that it would be the likes of S'Tow, or even her cubs or grandcubs, who would walk on the ground of their... Cait. Well, he would be happy to die on solid ground, breathing pure air. "But then... why bring the Artefact along?"
