Coeus?

“Everyone has his own personal purgatory. That's why hell isn't the same to everyone. Therefore a faceless always has to think carefully before choosing a proper punishment.”

-Verse VIXII of the faceless codex.

***30 years later, Coeus-2***

***Aurelia***

“Stop drumming with your fingers, Ares! We are on a mission here!” I reprimand my brother who is making noise in his pilot-chair. His black hair and eyes make him look very similar to Dad, but his personality is entirely too carefree.

“Sorry, Sis.” Finally Ares stops his attack on my ears and returns to his duties.

There is only so much I can tolerate. We are about to enter a potentially hostile system which should be currently holding a ship of the silent gods. I lean back and try to relax while we slowly approach the star at ten percent light speed.

Ares calls up a chart of the system and turns his attention towards me. “I guess I am simply nervous. There are so many rumours about ships simply disappearing. The various alien species don't even try to investigate the silent gods any more.”

Yes. But that's because their technology is inadequate for the task. The Coeus-2 is humanity's first real warship. All the previous ships were nothing more than rigged together from already existing systems. They were a fast and dirty approach to get done what is needed. Of course that didn't make them bad ships, but they weren't what was needed to make a statement to alien forces.

The Coeus-2 is a spherical Leviathan on the scale of a small planetoid object. The singularity in its core is providing more than enough energy to roast a planet and with a diameter of a hundred kilometres it rivals a mid-sized colony like Aether. Only that there is no living space on this ship. The entire thing is just armour, drives, weapons and sensors. Like I already said, a ship to make a statement.

Before we went on the final part of our mission we took a little detour through the teleportation network which is enclosing the entire galaxy. It wasn't really necessary to do this, but it's never a bad idea to show that the real owners of the network aren't a joke.

Establishing the network was easier than making everyone understand that it is ours. Many species tried and are still trying to steal the technology. Sol's government isn't going easy on them. Everyone who gets found out has to deal with massive repercussions and military intervention.

Seen in that light, our little patrol round is as much for their benefit as for ours. Normally we don't venture far out of our home systems which makes some aliens forget that the teleportation node in their system has an owner.

Our visit to the Zeen homeworld was also very important to show that we haven't forgotten about their underhanded attack on us.

The Zeen haven't exactly lost power after the exposure of their machinations. But they certainly lost a lot of trust among the various races, which limits their possibilities to act. For them that's almost as bad as having lost several fleets of their own ships.

The positive side about their culture is that they would never engage in open warfare if it is avoidable. They only try to play others against each other.

When their nature was exposed to everyone, they lost the image of a nice older brother. It became a lot harder to control the younger races.

I grin upon remembering their reaction when the Coeus-2 showed up above their homeworld twenty years ago. We didn't fire a single shot, yet the southern coast of their main continent was devastated. The artificial singularity's gravity was enough to influence the planet's tidal forces, slowly flooding over the intertidal zone.

They were mad like hell, but couldn't really complain since we didn't fire a single shot. In the end they drafted up a law that banned our Leviathan class from entering an orbit around planets with an ocean or a weak crust.

It's one of the very few accomplishments they had in the Gathering of civilized races since we exposed their nature. But after our little demonstration it was only a matter of time until other races would come up with a similar proposal.

“Stop dreaming and concentrate. We are about to close in on the other ship.” Ares wakes me from my personal reminiscence. “You could have said that you don't want my drumming because you want to sleep!”

“Yes, yes. Then close your suit.” I answer lazily and glare at him, closing my helmet. The cockpit is small and has just enough space for three pilot chairs, one of them empty. There is no sign of the big command bridges like they are depicted in my father's movies. Such a concept is simply not practical. Why would any sane person divert the control over a ship among several independent sentients?

“The ship of the silent gods seems to be in an inactive state above the fifth planet. There are several pylons reaching down into the atmosphere. I strongly suspect that they are space-lifts.” Nina's voice echoes through the cockpit.

Oh, yes. How could I have forgotten that our goddess is whereever she has a decently sized quantum computer available. “Are there any signs of an attack?” I raise the shields and magical countermeasures to their maximum, just in case. Then I concentrate my attention on the silent gods.

It's a huge ship. Almost as big as the Coeus-2. But that isn't surprising. Building a ship much bigger than the Coeus becomes impractical very fast. The bigger the ship, the easier you can hit it with something nasty. There are enough doomsday weapons like an FTL-drive for example. A single ship could damage the Coeus gravely with a kamikaze attack.

I enlarge the ship of the silent gods and admire its beauty. The entire ship seems to consist of some kind of blue crystal. It's shaped like a shield and pointing down towards the planet. “Is there a way to analyse the material?”

“The material is unknown, but I strongly suspect some form of grown crystal like the dome above Aether.” Nina answers immediately.

“Are we already inside the dangerous area?” Ares asks.

I look at the scale of the magnification. “We are still outside the range which is deemed as unsafe by our information.”

We approach the ship in silent anticipation until we reach the point at which a ship normally gets destroyed. Just a few light seconds away our anti-magical systems spike once, deflecting an attack.

“Just now the other ship tried to open a spacial rift inside our ship.” Nina's voice reports coldly. “If we hadn't put up wards against that the Coeus would have taken serious damage.”

Ares whistles between his teeth. “Don't you need a quantum computer to do that? Only the cores of the mainframe would be able to create a rift that's big enough to damage a ship. But who would need that much computational power on a vessel.”

I raise an eyebrow, a strange thought worming its way through my brain. “Aren't our big cores using such quantum entanglements to communicate across the galaxy?”

“Yes. They need to be big to bridge the distance.” Nina explains patiently. “Don't tell me that they just tried to communicate with us? There is no reason to create such a big rift just to communicate with a ship that close. We are right next to them!”

Ares spreads his hands. “Who knows how they think? Is there a reason to tune the volume down if you have a big speaker and enough energy? Maybe they don't have any ships without big cores.”

I wet my lips, dreading what I am about to say. “Nina, do you think we can connect to their computer? We also have a rather large computer, haven't we?”

Nina stays silent for several moments and I already start fearing that something happened to our connection. Then she finally answers. “Connection established. Trying to translate their protocols.”

Another minute goes by, which is an eternity when you compare it to Nina's speed. “I gained access and the other ship confirmed that we are allowed to go on board.”

“Okay? So we simply teleport there? Or do we have to take a shuttle?” Ares asks, gesturing at his screen with the alien ship.

“I got teleportation coordinates.” Nina answers and in the next moment I find myself sitting on a crystal floor. “Hey! Warn us the next time! Just be glad that we were already suited up!”

“Sorry. But if you weren't, I wouldn't have teleported you.” Nina's voice comes out of my suit's microphone.

Both Ares and I get to our feet and my brother starts his own rant. “I am too young for this! That was irresponsible, Nina. What if there is something dangerous here?”

“Hush! Our father was younger than us when he went on his first adventure.” I reprimand him and read the information on my suit's HUD. The atmosphere is breathable, but not very healthy for humans. Too much CO and other nitric oxides. The silent gods must have one hell of a metabolism to live of that.

Then I survey the small niche in which we appeared. It belongs to a long, curved corridor. Both ends aren't in sight. “This is much like one of our teleportation chambers. So the silent gods had magic.” I draw my knife and try to scratch the floor. The entire ship seems to be made out of the blue crystal. Nothing. Not even a scratch. “Well, seems like it stands up to our monomolecular blades.”

Ares gestures at the wall and points his suit's camera at it. “Nina, you must have translated their language. What's written there?”

“I haven't translated as much as you might hope. The ship's communication with me is very limited. I need direct access to their network.” Nina's voice is a little frustrated, but turns hopeful upon deciphering the text. “To the left you will reach something control related and to the right seems to be something like crew quarters or recreational areas.”

I turn left. “Then left we go. There has to be some kind of computer access.”

The corridor winds itself in circles upwards until we reach a door which slides open upon entering the room. Ares gestures at the doorframe. “At least they didn't think much of security.”

I enter the empty room and recognize consoles and strangely shaped seats for ten people. The one in the middle of the room doesn't have a console, but instead there is just a roughly shaped crystal floating in front of it. There are no aliens and the room is completely clean and empty. “Seems like there is nobody at home. But why is everything so clean?”

“There are no dust particles in the air, so there is no reason for the ship to become dirty while the crew is away.” Ares answers my question. If I had bothered to spend a little more attention to the air's composition I could have answered it myself.

I click my tongue and gesture at the floating crystal. “Nina, you think that may be the main console? Can you link up to it over my suit?”

“Only one way to find out,” my Grandmother answers cheerfully.

I touch the crystal and it lights up, projecting something like a three dimensional avatar two metres in front of it. The alien is humanoid and very close to a human woman. If there weren't some strange additions to her body she would be fine among us mages. Her features may be a strange combination of several ethnic groups, but that became the norm in our society long ago. What identifies her as an alien are the horns on her head and the snake eyes. She also comes with a lizard-like tail which is very active. The scales shimmer in different colours as the light is reflected by them.

Then the avatar starts speaking in a strange tongue. Obviously another language.

“I am sorry, but I don't understand.” I try to answer, but the avatar simply continues speaking without taking notice of me. “Seems like we hit the answer-phone. Do you get any of that, Nina?”

“Not completely, but I am getting better since I've got access to their network. Keep your hand on the crystal.

Apparently she is giving you a short story of her species. Her people evolved and lived on their world until their star died. By that time they already had the technology to leave their planet.

They travelled out into the galaxy, but didn't find many hospitable worlds. After a while they found a new world and rebuilt their society. Having learned from their mistakes they decided that their heritage could only survive if they spread as far - and became as multifaceted - as possible. Never again should something less than a catastrophe on cosmic scale threaten their existence.

In absence of a better solution they decided on automated seed ships which spread their genetic code throughout the galaxy, changing indigenous lifeforms on some planets, while creating complete ecosystems on others.”

“So the aliens weren't wrong when they called this a seed ship.” I mumble, watching the exotic alien.

“It is what the ships do. Nothing much to get wrong about interpreting their actions.” Ares replies.

My mind is in a haze. “How old are these ships? Are the silent gods still around? Why don't they check on their vessels.” I gesture at the avatar who is still speaking. “Is there no AI in their network to keep watch?”

Nina's answer is sobering. “I am afraid that there is no AI on this ship. As for their entire network I can't tell yet. But you don't have to worry about the silent gods. I highly doubt that they are still around.”

“What's that supposed to mean.” Ares asks dumbfounded.

“This ship is old. And when I say that I really mean it. I haven't found a reliable reference to their time unit, but when I look at the ship's path and take into account that it is flying at relativistic speeds... millions of years. Even if the silent gods are still around in some form, they must have long since moved on. Either by dying out or evolving into something completely different. It seems like the seed ships are a project that was abandoned for a long time. They focused their efforts on another project, another means to secure their existence. The latest logs speak of something they call transcendence, but what that actually means eludes me. There are no detailed descriptions.”

Ares sighs. “At least that means that they pose no new threat. Though now that we are here I wish that there had been a little more adventure to it.”

I straighten up and look at my brother. “I'll never get you. First you complain about the danger and now this adventure was too boring. Just think how much genetic data and starmaps this ship must have accumulated! This is a treasure trove beyond belief.”

Nina's chuckle interrupts me. “Oh, there is so much genetic data. It'll be a real pleasure to work myself through that information. Totally unlike the problem I had with Ed's infertility. That was a really trivial problem compared to this.”

Ares's expression turns surprised. “Since when is Ed infertile? He has five children with Nina and four with Sadina! I pity the guy! Babysitting children for thirty years is no fun!”

“There are some things men don't have to know.” Nina answers mysteriously.

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