Chapter 86

86 Dead Echoes

“So that’s Godeater, huh?” said Eva. “Some crazy energy that eats battlefields? Is that what it is?”

The Admiral shook her head solemnly.

“We’ve no idea, to be perfectly honest. It swallowed up the entirety of Dendrus. Whole thing up and vanished off the map.”

She made poofing gestures with her hand, and had a tone of incredulity in her voice.

“Worse,” she continued, “anything that touches it vanishes, as though it simply stops existing. We sent in multiple probes to perform planetary scans, but... they were consumed by the planet. We can’t sense or scan the planet in any way with what we have. The only way we even know it’s there is through its gravitational field.”

As a person of science, what had happened to Dendrus was beyond the realm of knowledge, of reality.

But for some reason, that didn’t frighten the Admiral.

Eva and Miko were stunned to hear that it had consumed the entire planet. That it was basically the planet itself at this point. What the hell was it? Was it the galactic version of an atomic bomb? Was Dendrus IV the new Hiroshima?

Were her people reduced to nothing but shadow as well?

.....

“Did the Hegemony make some crazy superweapon or something? I mean, that’s the sort of thing we humans would do, you know?”

“No,” she said firmly. “No-one made it, as far as I’m aware. After Dendrus fell, Federation ambassadors pressed the Hegemony for answers on the weapon – and required assurances there wouldn’t be attacks in Federation territory. The Hegemony was beyond angry. They thought it was us who had detonated a superweapon in their territory!

“The devastation and the confusion about who had a superweapon caused the Federation to initiate a mass withdrawal from Hegemony systems. Of course, the Hegemony let us leave without a hitch. Both nations were afraid to provoke the other, and suffer another retaliatory attack.”

“So both sides believed that the other had a superweapon,” said Miko. “Have they since come to an understanding of what really happened?”

The Admiral scoffed loudly.

“No, course not. We don’t believe each other about it, even now. There’s centuries of animosity and distrust between us, and this whole Dendrus thing’s basically the capstone for that hate. It’s hopeless.”

Miko was deep in thought, but blurted out a question suddenly.

“Why is no-one talking about what has happened on Dendrus? I am searching for Godeater through my DI, and am not receiving any results.”

Eva also decided to take a look through her DI for anything, and found that there was absolutely no mention of it either. Not in the news, or anything regarding the military.

“You’re right,” she said. “Even Dendrus IV is barely mentioned. I mean, there’s this one article that says it’s a battleground graveyard, but that’s it. Just another of the many planets that got destroyed in that war. Zero mention of Godeater.”

“That’s a mutual agreement between the Federation and the Hegemony,” said the Admiral. “Both governments decided to keep the matter completely secret. After all, only the military knew about it, and even then only a few key people. Most who experienced it... died. They didn’t want it to cause massive panic. Rightfully so, in my opinion.”

Eva nodded in partial agreement.

If news of the existence of cosmic annihilation had spread back then, it would have probably led to mass panic, mass chaos. At least for some time.

Entire organizations would have sprung up from that knowledge as well. Crazed religious zealots for one. Suicide cults for another. Profiteers. Deniers. Tourists. No doubt many of all kinds would have made their way to Dendrus and annihilated themselves.

The thought amused her slightly.

“Alright, great, a planet of death exists,” she said. “So what’s everyone doing about it? Are we all just ok with it being out there like that?”

“No, of course not. But it’s Hegemony territory, and we can’t go in. Well, I mean, we do go in, but more hush-hush of course. Of course, we’re doing some stuff on our end, mostly just trying to read the thing. The Hegemony, though? Can’t be sure, and I only heard a few whispers from the Admiralty... But basically, they’re trying to figure out a superweapon from it.”

Eva shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“So ridiculous,” she said. “If you can’t even touch it, or sense it, how can you make anything out of it?”

“Regardless, it is a waste of their resources,” added Miko. “I am sure that indirectly benefits the Federation.”

Admiral Chase grimaced, and looked away for a moment. It seemed as though she was searching for the right words. She spoke after a brief silence.

“Normally, I’d agree with you both,” she said softly. “But since the Federation is doing research, then you can be assured that the Hegemony is, too. I’m sure you’re well aware that technological superiority is critical in deterring war. Nations will wage quiet, shadowy wars between each other, just to maintain that superiority.

“After having seen the devastation on Dendrus, it was impossible not to try to make weapons inspired by it. Yet another reason it’s kept on the down low. We don’t want anyone else trying to develop new tech from it.”

Eva and Miko paled when the Admiral confessed that the Federation was making a weapon capable of planetary devastation. Humans truly never learned from their mistakes.

Before either of them could say anything, the Admiral continued.

“Look, I need to remind the both of you that anything you learn regarding this project, or the Federation, must remain confidential. Neither of you can ever say this to anyone, ever. Your genetic signatures bind you to that. Going against it will make you an enemy of the Federation. Do you understand?”

—

Miko: What do you think? What should we do?

Eva: Let’s just go with it for now.

Miko: What about our channel on Earth? Should we still show this?

Eva: I dunno. I think we’ll still be ok – not like Earth is listed on the contract itself, right? How could a whole ‘nother universe even affect this one?

—

The both of them nodded their heads, after a moment of hesitation.

“Alright. Thanks for your confidentiality on this. I know it’s hard to hear, but yes, of course we’re making weapons. But it isn’t quite based on the shadowy mass – instead, it’s based on that energy that converts things into the shadowy mass.”

Eva jumped up from her seat, astonished at what she was hearing. The urge to scold the Admiral took over her, as if she was the one personally responsible.

“What kind of crazy ass weapon are you guys making? You gonna make some sort of planet-destroying space station or something? Haven’t you all caused enough death already?”

“Calm down, Freya, please. It’s nothing like that... Yes, make no mistake – you and I and little Miko here – we’re all in the business of death dealing. It’s an industry that moves nations. But no-one in this room actually wants to kill. We’re here because we want to prevent killing, alright?”

Eva sat back down. What the Admiral said made sense, and she certainly profited from her more lethal ventures. Sometimes she even enjoyed it. But it was a far cry from wiping out an entire people. That was something that she could never condone.

“Look,” continued the Admiral, “when we fled Dendrus, we weren’t exactly paying attention to any sort of anomalies we might have brought back. When the mecha returned to Sol to be refit, our techs found errors that couldn’t be repaired.

“It was along the lines of that purplish energy – the kind that converted things into that substance. But having been separated from it stopped the conversion itself. So we took that energy, those anomalies, and tried to replicate them.”

“The Federation failed, yes?” asked Miko.

The Admiral nodded.

“It was impossible to replicate in its entirety. Instead, we focused on replicating what it did to the mecha they were found in. The originals were very slightly changed in every conceivable way – in their underlying atomic structure, in their electronic grid, in their software. We figured it was best to try there instead.

“Decades of research and quadrillions of credits went into these replication projects. Most failed, over and over again. But there was one result – one positive one, anyway. The Federation was able to fully replicate the modified Core Operating Intelligence.”

Eva recoiled. She was expecting some sort of superweapon that annihilated entire solar systems. But a computer? They made a supercomputer out of that energy?

Before she could laugh at her own alarmist idiocy, the Admiral continued.

“You know it as Prometheus, and it’s the reason why the Merge is possible at all.”

Silence filled the room as both Eva and Miko processed what the Admiral had just said. Prometheus was borne out of the Godeater...

It took a few minutes before Miko spoke. Her voice was low and quiet.

“We will not be consumed with continued use, will we?”

The Admiral shuddered at the notion, and shook her head vigorously.

“No! No, of course not. Well, most likely not. I can’t be a hundred percent sure... But I honestly don’t believe so. I’ve been practicing the Promethean Merge for longer than you have, and I’m fine!”

She gesticulated as she spoke, as though to validate her normality.

It didn’t help.

“What if our minds get rewritten?” muttered Eva suddenly. “You know, like make us want to go back to Dendrus, and become part of the... whatever the hell it is.”

“I do not think so,” replied Miko. “I did not feel any desire to get closer to it when I saw it. Did you?”

Eva shook her head. Other than curiosity, she didn’t feel the urge to get closer to it. In fact, she felt repulsed by it. And now that she recalled, it came after her when she stepped away from it.

“Don’t worry about that,” said the Admiral, “it’s probably just an imprint. Think of it as remembering someone you met a long time ago. It’s just a memory, and can’t warp you into some mindless slave. Like I said, I’ve been doing it a while, and I’m just fine.”

“I get it,” said Eva. “So the reason why we’re seeing these flashes of the Godeater is ‘coz we’ve done the Merge. It’s like we have some memory of it through the core. That’s a bit weird. But also a relief.”

“I mean, I’ve also experienced the memories. Usually after a merge, just like you. But they haven’t been getting stronger or anything like that. I don’t feel any different than before. I’ll have my brother keep an eye out just in case, but in my professional opinion, there’s nothing to fear.”

The Admiral smiled warmly at them, which helped ease their fears. Everything she said was true, and she felt it deep in her core.

Well, for the most part anyway.