Book 5 chapter 20.5: Incoherence (Final)

The black-coated men stood and waited at the doors as the four approached. They turned their heads as the group stood before them.

“The Lady is expecting us,” Jasmine stated firmly. The pair nodded their heads slowly in acknowledgement, wrenching the doors open for them to pass through. The grand door slid open for them silently, the room beyond concealed in pitch darkness, but the command for them to step forward was becoming too strong…

As they walked further into the darkness, it soon opened into the night sky, a window looking out into the vastness of space. The colours of the galaxy painted before them, there was no telling where the ship ended and the outside began.

The room was cold and open, shaped like an amphitheatre, but chairs and glass workstations followed through the arch, and in front of the empty sky, holographic text dropped down from the open ceiling to the floor.

An illusion surely, holographs or screens to make it seem they were walking out in open space, the four stood their ground as they felt a swelling presence beneath their feet.

Bold, chaotic yet fragile, like sparkling coloured glass…

The floor opened up beneath them and the Lady showed herself, ascending from the ground posed like the statues of antiquity.

She was even more beautiful in person, dressed in gossamer tendrils of silk, her hands dripped in golden chains and jewellery, a crown of gold and diamonds upon her head.

With a sweet soothing sigh of fresh air and floral scents, the Lady gave a whisper of ethereal breath and opened her eyes.

Six golden irises against black ink, striking and unsettling, just the sight made the others step back. Jasmine had to stand her ground.

The lady smiled at her guest's reaction and bowed gracefully.

“My Candidates, I am so happy to see you back safe and sound…” her voice echoed with several tones and freq-pulses, fragmented and overwhelming. It almost hurt to hear her talk.

Jasmine said nothing as the Lady made her way closer, swaying with every purposely paused step, the hairs on the back of the human's neck stood on end.

The black widow drew closer to her prey.

Jasmine did not move as the lady stood over her, towering as so many others with power did in the world.

“It must have been so scary,” The Lady outstretched a lower hand, to comfort the human before her, “to wake up all alone-”

Jasmine knocked her hand away, barely containing her scorn.

“Do not touch me,” was all she could manage through gritted teeth.

The lady nodded her head sadly, withdrawing her hand but not her gaze.

“Yes,” The lady’s voice hissed unpleasantly, “I understand your pain, your anger…” a sadness poured out of the Rajavan, a lamentation and self wallowing “It was never meant to be this way-”

“Then why is it?!(you did this…)” Jasmine snapped, sharpening the barbs in her tone, unleashing an anger she thought buried deep inside, “Why is any of this happening at all?! (why did you bring us here!?)”

Suddenly, the sadness turned to excitement, the freq changing so harshly that Jasmine's skin felt like it was being cut. The coloured glass was sharp and unpredictable.

“I brought you, humanity, here,” She raised her hands and the empty glass dome turned into a gigantic screen, holographic images transporting them from space to an idyllic, alien utopia… “to help save the galaxy!” A sincere and upheld declaration, as passionate as it was unhinged, “To usher in a new dynasty of unprecedented growth and prosperity, to reach beyond the immaterial to achieve complete perfection!”

The group stood there, silenced in their bewilderment.

‘To save the galaxy’? What did the galaxy need saving from? Was there some wider threat they didnt know about? A cosmic horror even worse than the Rajava themselves? What did she mean by ‘achieve perfection?’ that was a fallacy in itself…

“How can ‘humanity’ save the galaxy?” Itsuki asked, his voice as harsh and dismissive as he could muster, “What could we do that you haven't already achieved yourselves?”

“Allow me to explain, I shall start from the beginning…” The Lady waved her hands around like a conductor, willing the hologram room to the change scenery as to better tell her story. Soft warm light surrounded them hues of pink and gold, the dawn’s light.

“We, the Rajava, were designed to rule, to guide the living masses of the universe to a better life, to shed the pain and toil of existence. We governed to bring forth that vision, one mind could not do it alone so we became many, a network of minds focused solely on the task at hand, to solve society's problems.”

A collection of alien silhouettes stood in communion, discussing matters of state in a grand room. Aliens of all shapes and sizes, of colours and hues, most Xant didn't recognise and would probably never meet. They didn't exist any more. To see them here was…upsetting. Their memory wasn't completely destroyed, it was reserved in the Rajavan vidfile banks. Was there more information they hoarded? Did they have the DNA on file and could those lost species be revived?

"Who were these first governers? What dynasty did it start?" But Xants questions were ignored, in favour of the Lady's presentation.

“Logistics, trade, agriculture, economics, infrastructure, culture, laws, medicine, we devoted ourselves to this cause. As the problems became more complex, we altered ourselves to better cope with the planetary scale of our governess. Our minds expanded, exalted, to calculate the trillions of equations to keep civilisation running,”

The council soon diminished in size, from many different beings to the large and swollen brains they were today—centuries of genetic engineering favouring intelligence and abandoning aesthetics.

“...and once we had reached our pinnacle, we decided to tackle the greatest of all problems…”

The Lady looked to the group expectantly, a blind glee radiated from her entire being. Xant looked to his companions, the humans looking at her with an expression he charitably considered disappointment.

Neither Jasmine or Itsuki wanted to give her the satisfaction of presuming to be ‘enthralled’ by the Lady’s story, asking her questions to continue the charade. It was a passive-aggressive prompt both were familiar with, however, after the silence had gone on long past awkward and the Lady had not relented, Itsuki spoke up.

“And what was that?” he spat, rolling his eyes and tightening their grip on the bat,

The lady, oblivious to the atmosphere of the room, answered with resounding excitement.

“The heat death of the universe of course!”

She flicked all four of her wrists and a supernova appeared behind them, blasting bright light until fading to complete darkness… a show meant to wow and inspire, “If we could solve that problem, how to exist once all the stars had burnt out, every other problem would fall in line after that!”

They all stood there stunned at her answer.

It went beyond logical into nonsensical, the heat death of the universe? A concept so beyond any living organism's capabilities to control and they were trying to solve it?

Xant, confused at the lady’s statement, looked to Jasmine and Itsuki, both humans wide-eyed and eerily silent. Their presence dimmed, a subtle shift in their frequencies indicated the pair weren't just confused by the lady’s statement, they were actively afraid of it.

Jasmine’s hands held her sword tighter, while Itsuki reached from something hidden in his coat, the Lady, seemingly oblivious to their reaction, continued on her tale of self-indulgence.

“...Then, our efforts were rewarded with a great leap in technology, the ultimate translator, communication between species and had always slowed progress but now seamless understanding would only propel us closer to our goal! But… we were mistaken. The population turned on us, with new understanding came new ideas and they did not see our grand vision as a priority. Even with newfound longevity, they began focusing on the infatismal and fascisous… we tried to guide them back into the fold, but it only caused more conflict.”

Holographic images of the once orderly system appeared before the lady and with a flick of her wrist, fell into chaos, ships went as they pleased and stations moved from their locations. She explained it all as though the hopeless and tragic situation was unavoidible, instead of the consequences of their actions against the population.

Explosions, many of them, across the galaxy map disrupted the starship routes even further, even at such a small scale the presentation was heartbreaking.

“We recalculated and continued our plan, mitigating undesirable outcomes where we could, and limiting the new population from the variations of the old with great success.”

Xant and Jasmine had seen this part before, the systematic cleansing of the galaxy… Planets and species snuffed out for the sole purpose of completing an unobtainable goal, Jasmine could feel the grief and anger growing inside her, the ability to hold it back diminishing as the Lady spoke.

“It was a grand undertaking, one that would take millennia, no, pentillions of years to complete! So we needed to start as soon as possible, rearranging and using the resources of the entirety of civilization to save it from eventual suffocation…” A ruined map of the galaxy was presented to them, solar systems of the Prosperity Dynasty hovered once glittering jewels teeming with life and lights now nothing more then factory planets. The lady reached in and guided the logistical ships from their planets, shifted asteroids from their orbit, and created stations and population centres. Casually shaping the galaxy to her whims.

“But there was a variable we couldn't account for, of course, a new species…”

The small fleet of council ships fleeing the Rajavan oppression reached the edge of the known galaxy and met the Arvas. The map suddenly expanded to reveal these new worlds, and millions of ships descended upon the ravaged council homeworlds.

“We were blindsided, our patterns and plans thrown into complete disarray, there was only one thing we could do to combat this of course, we had to integrate the new species into our systems and…”

The Lady threw her hands over her face and gave out a painful, mourning cry, her chorus of voices made it sound as though the entire world was crying out in pain.

“We understood… new emotions, new passions, ways of thinking we had edited out of our genetic criteria all came rushing back. All those years of calculating the outcomes we had forgotten why we were doing it in the first place. All those lives lost and destroyed with such callousness…” She gave a pitiful weep and turned away, as though she could not bear to have eyes on her. The display was cringeworthy, making everyone even more uneasy.

“burdened with the knowledge of the suffering we had caused, we vowed to repent, we could not claim to know better when we had destroyed so much… we left our home galaxy willingly, to let civilisation continue on without us.”

The galaxy map faded from view, stars and darkness surrounded them as the rajava, ship sized beings, floating through space.

“We were aimless, consumed by our sorrow and guilt, unable to conceive of a way to repent. We wondered if we deserved redemption at all, how many had we snuffed from existence claiming to be of a higher understanding? We were despicable, detestable, diabolical!” the Lady lashed out at the air, holding herself back and dramatically falling to her knees.

“We were so lost and hopeless until…”

From the darkness, a light, a small blue planet descended from the ceiling, the lady turned her body to the planet, holding out her hands to cradle it lovingly.

“Our salvation,”

She drew out her hands and magnified the planet, and Xant was able to see the earth in all its glory. An aquatic paradise, lush with forests, planes, mountainsides and deserts of every colour whilst white clouds swirled above its surface.

“An untouched planet, teeming with life, alone in the universe… we knew better than to taint it with our touch, so we watched observed, and waited. When at last they ventured past their atmosphere, our enamourment and curiosity were too great and we incorporated their genes into our own, in hopes of finding a new perspective.”

The suillotte of a human was plucked from the surface, squirming and fighting within the Lady’s fingertips and like so many council citizens, melted and consumed by the Rajavan collective.

“And our eyes were opened to beauty and majesty beyond… comprehension. Emotions now hold more intensity, interpretation, imagination, dreams… We were finally complete, no longer living machines chained with guilt, but a new species combining the best of what the universe had to offer. Qzetillian intelligence, Sulin determination, Zenthi comprehension, Arvas zeal and Humanity’s everything…”

Art, music, video and photographs flashed around them, 12,000 years of human civilisation and collective consciousness, the art they recognised from the horrible imitations sleeping in vats.

“We reshaped ourselves in your image, your ideals, took visions from the immaterial and now, that we have the answer, that the world will dream through death, we can reveal it to the rest of the galaxy…” The hologram showed humanity standing over the rest of the galaxy. As imposing and all-knowing as the Rajava had been over the council before. “We owe humanity a huge debt, and we will pay that debt by giving them the stars they have desired for millennia!”

She stood, arms open wide, her presentation complete.

The lights came on and the four found themselves surrounded by dozens of human servants, faceless, emotionless. An audience of amalgamations with their hands raised, clapping for the performance and the Lady had the audacity to bow.

“Thank you,” she said, wiping away a tear from her lower eye, “for listening to my story, I hope you understand now, and decide to help me with our great purpose…”

As the applause died away all unseen eyes turned to the four, awaiting a response.

They were cut off from the exit, unable to sense their companions on the other side, alone and outnumbered.

Both humans glaring at the Rajavan Lady, disgust and contempt burning between them.

“You're ******,” Itsuki spat.

Xant inwardly cursed.

The anger and disgust he understood, betrayal and confusion too, the fear was becoming more apparent as they were now surrounded by an unknown audience, but surely there was still a way to reason with her?

The scientist stepped forward, and spoke with kindness,

“Humanity certainly is a species to admire,” he commented, hoping to coax more from this erratic being and by some time for the humans to cool their systems “are you sure it was wise to go through all of this-”

“Oh yes,” she interupted enthusiastically, “Their composition is wholly unique, no other species has ever been able to feel so much. Millions of nerve endings so robust, yet so malleable,” her hand lovingly caressed the head of a faceless servant, long nails dragging across the glasslike surface of its skull. “The propensity for pleasure, for pain-” Her long nails pierced the amalgamation, its skin cracking like an eggshell, red blood leaking from the wounds, “Council races would buckle under such conditions, but humans soldier on through and beyond!” she released her grip and the servant fell to the floor, lifeless for a moment before solemnly standing to its feet, fluid still pouring from the cracks. “The programs you can command into them are extensive, beyond what we could create during the Prosperity dynasty! Every freq-pulse is distinctive, you understand, I know you do, I can feel you’ve been rewritten…” Suddenly her attention was completely on Xant, all her eyes and movements focused as she closed the gap between them, “such a shame your vessel is so inadequate, perhaps your programme could be copied into a more suitable form-”

His friends quickly rushed to his defence, Itsuki grabbing his arm and pulling him back, Letu and Jasmine raising swords in her face.

“[Threatening/Fear/Courage] Don't you dare! (I will hurt you/consequence)” Jasmine growled, her voice cracking from the volume.

Xant panicked, turning to Itsuki who thrust the bat into Xants arms, a strong command to defend himself.

“I was just trying to reason with-” he started.

“You cant!” the youth cut him off raising the gun Beau had given him with both hands, “Stabbing someone for no reason? Experimenting on animals to make art? Abducting innocent people and dragging them across space because you believe they can dream through death to save the galaxy? None of this is logical or coherent! She's delusional, unreasonable, shes insane Xant, and I would know!!”

“The line between genius and insanity is a fine one indeed,” the lady reiterated, “but I will teach you and in teaching you learn, you will find your place among these stars, and become a Prince of Humanity!”

“STOP!” Jasmine screamed at her, lashing out with the sword and drawing blood,“Just stop! You have no idea how fucking ludicrous this all is! STOP NOW! After everything you’ve been through, you’ve learned nothing!” Jasmine’s voice quivered with fury, tears ran down her red face, “You claim the Rajava had learned the errors of their ways, compassion and empathy but you still decided to uproot and destroy thousands of lives for what?! A fucking dream?!”

Letu took point, raising both blades to the lady’s throat and belly, ready to slice both open at Jasmine's command but the human was not done with her verbal lashing, “Dreams aren’t real!” Jasmine cried, tears of disbelief overwhelming her, she had never wanted to cause anyone so much harm before, “You can’t dream through death! You die. You end. All the pain and suffering you have caused has been for nothing, you monster!”

Letu brought his swords down tearing the Lady’s body open.

There was no blood, no organs or fluid to speak of, the organic puppet flopped over, unmoving from the waist up.

The lady withdrew into the floor and the room faded to black.

The glow from the segmenter swords were the only saving grace in the darkness as the amalgamations charged forward, revealing mouths of sharp teeth, ready to grab and restrain their new prisoners.

“STOP…” The Lady’s disembodied voice repeated, cold and hostile, “stop, stop stop… I… I know that command…I know your voice!”

The human servants lunged out and grabbed Jasmine, knocking the sword out of her hand in the process, bringing her fighting and screaming over to a scanner. They grabbed the side of Jasmine's head and ran a device over the identification code imprinted into her skin.

A blaring red error screen consumed the room.

“The burden of destiny is great for one so young…” The lady’s echoing voices hissed, “You were the cause of all this,”