Resolution (7 page)

The guards in the room before John disappeared in a flash of light.

"Guardian, I have returned the guards to the throne and severed all channels with the Grays. Thank you for returning my systems to my control," Selnia replied.

"It was our pleasure, Selnia," Chloe replied.

"Malthis, would it be possible for you to assemble a small panel of individuals to assist Selnia in correcting the damage done to them in a manner that they will accept?" John asked. "For the time being, she will have to act the part of the 'Goddess' in order to stop the war, and begin the healing process for the Tammerain."

"We monitored the discussion you had with Selnia. Your reasoning has merit, and we are already acting on it. We are also acting to assist Selnia to heal the mental scars her imprisonment has caused. Thanks to your actions, many lives have been saved this day. You have done well this day, Guardians," Malthis replied.

––––––––

O
f the existing crew of the Flyer, all but five accepted the offer to become a Promethean Guardian. The five that declined said they felt too much animosity toward the Tammerain to let go of those feelings. When he returned to the ship, John spoke to each of them, and agreed that they had made the right choice.

He also spoke to a few more that he thought might have had trouble with letting their feelings go, but was satisfied they too had made the right decision. Each of the new Guardians visited the Promethean medical center for the system upgrades John and Chloe had received. When John asked if they could still have their base on the world of Bethel's Anvil, Malthis nodded agreement.

"John, you now have access to our complete transit network, as well as most of our facilities. The physical location of your base is mostly irrelevant. Bethel's Anvil is very close to Tammerain space, which will aid in stabilizing relations between the two nations. That will be important in the coming years. The extensive construction that has been done under the surface of that planet will also help with the commerce having such a base there will create," Malthis explained. "Only repairs will be needed, and very little reconstruction."

"I had heard that they found extensive runes under the surface, but I had no idea there were entire cities underground," John replied when Malthis showed him a hologram of the planet.

Malthis also gave John the information on the hidden artifacts and transit points that the Promethean had built. The network truly spanned the entire galaxy.  John also found out that there were several facilities like Selnia, as well as other installations, abandoned and hidden thousands of years ago.

In one very large trinary star system, there was a ship building facility that was so vast it had to have mass shifters in place in order to maintain the stability of the star system. The facility itself was mostly automated and could mine, refine, smelt, forge and assemble almost anything it was given a design for. Even though it was mostly automated, it would still require maintenance staff of at least twenty million just to service it's many systems.

"Since your former countrymen are aware of our existence, we have decided to offer to relocate an unassigned living computer to their Xanadu system to assist them in their research. She will not offer any of our technology, but her mandate will be to observe and assist with calculations if requested," Malthis said. "We felt it would be a good gesture for you to offer this to your King."

"I will certainly pass the offer on to Marcus on your behalf, Malthis. However, will that not send the wrong message?" John asked.

"I do not understand, please explain," Malthis replied.

"If I am the one to offer this facility to the Human King, will that not tell them that I have control over your facilities? I do not believe that is the message we wish to send is it?" John explained.

"Actually, it is," Malthis replied. "Our facilities are at the disposal of the Guardian organization we are trying to build. You are the head of that organization, so you have the ability to assign, relocate, activate or deactivate all of our facilities. The message we want to send the Galaxy is that the Guardians have control of our technology."

John cocked his head to one side. "That is not the truth, you and the council should retain control over it."

"You forget, John, we are dying. We chose you and your fellows to protect and serve, much like the policemen of old Earth. However, your mission and mandate will not stop there. You will also be required to guide and nurture. We have chosen you to be the custodians of our legacy, using it to help to improve the lives of those that live here. We may ask your reasoning for actions from time to time, but the control of our facilities, and most of our technology, is already in your hands. As we get closer to our end, we will release more data to you. We will use the Guardian organization as a way for the races of our galaxy to gradually assimilate our legacy in a way that does not cause strife."

"I understand, Malthis. I have to admit, I did not think you would give us control of this much, this quickly," John replied. "We will have to be vigilant; the potential for abuse or misuse will be high."

"Indeed, we are certain that you will not be idle once our technology begins to be disseminated," Malthis replied.

"We will need more people," John nodded. "I had meant to ask Selnia to keep an eye out for possible candidates among the Tammerain."

"I am certain she would not mind if you contacted her in order to relay your request. She is quite grateful to you for freeing her and assisting to correct the horror that she was forced to witness over the centuries," Malthis replied. "I believe you have a friend in her, John."

"She's a fascinating entity. She has a strong personality and fine sense of purpose. I would be honored to be counted as her friend," John said. "I was going to ask you if the facilities such as herself are encouraged to interact socially."

Malthis looked thoughtful for a moment. "It was not included as part of her programming, however, our discussion is making me see the benefit that such interaction could have."

John nodded. "They are sentient beings, as such, they should have the same rights and privileges as other citizens, although it might be difficult if she decided to go shopping."

"That would present some difficulty in her present form. It is possible for a cybernetic body to be created for citizens such as she; perhaps that is something we should consider offering to all of the sentient machine intelligences," Malthis replied. "When do you plan on returning to the alpha quadrant?"

"We would like to go soon. Before we depart, we would like to know if the Grays know of this facility and its location," John asked.

"You fear retaliation upon us?" Malthis asked.

"I do," John said. "If I try to put myself in their position, after finding out that you have created a force that will prohibit their plans of dominance, it would make sense to make a preemptive strike in an attempt to gain control over the remaining facilities they see as their heritage from you. I admit I do not know them at all and I am attributing human-like characteristics to them, but based on their past actions, I feel they will now take a more direct form of action against you if they know where you are, or can find you, or against the humans they seem to hate."

"It is possible they know of the existence of this facility, but doubtful as to its location. A side effect of the process used to correct the illness is a loss of memory. When we first began using it, the patient had to go through re-education as a part of the treatment. At that time, this facility was an ongoing experiment that we had planned to use as a seed colony. When we saw the long-term results of the treatment, the procedures were halted, and the remaining population was relocated to this facility. Its existence was not common knowledge. In effect, we hid ourselves away from them in order to prevent them from gaining control of more facilities," Malthis explained. "If they had known our location, it is believed they would have already made the attempt you fear.

"Attributing human characteristics to them is not an error in this instance. As a population, they are acting very much the way your race did during your second world war and the cold war that followed. Your assumptions are not unreasonable."

"You believe you're safe then?" John asked.

"We do, as I said, they would have already attacked us if it were in their power. Patience is not a strong personality trait among them at this point," Malthis replied. "We feel that if they do not begin to take steps to correct this flaw in themselves soon, it will eventually destroy them; much as it almost did with your own people." 

"Wanda mentioned to me that the Grays seem to be de-evolving in relation to you. While you have progressed in peace, they seem to be becoming more warlike and violent. According to your monitors, they have not made any significant scientific discoveries in the past thousand years and crime against each other is becoming more prevalent."

Malthis again looked thoughtful. "That is an intriguing hypothesis, John. If there is time, perhaps we should study this phenomenon."

"With your leave, I will return to my ship and prepare to return to the alpha quadrant. I will make the offer you described to King Marcus, and request his permission to use the planet Bethel's Anvil as a base of operations for the Guardians," John said.

"You have my leave, my friend," Malthis said. "Feel free to call on me if you have questions or need something. We will do our best to assist you. There is a large data file in the memory store of your ship, in this file you will find a description as well as the locations for several facilities capable of upgrading your ship as well as build new ones. Its current location is on this edge of the alpha quadrant, and much further core-ward. You will be able to use transit points to arrive there."

John simply bowed to Malthis. "Thank you, Patron. We will make use of that facility very soon, although, we may decide to relocate it closer to our main base once we decide on that location."

"Have you not decided on the base at Bethel's Anvil?" Malthis asked.

John nodded. "For the time being, while we begin to build the force that will be our base. I think we should wait to make a final decision on the location of the main facility until we have more Guardians. That will make for a broader range of ideas and suggestions."

"That is wise," Malthis replied. "However, consider the location of the main base is, in reality, irrelevant. The transit points make spatial distance all but meaningless."

"Spatial location was not the consideration I am thinking about. When we decide on the location, there will be political considerations. It will be much easier to secure a nation's support if a facility is located either in their territory, or very close to it," John explained.

Malthis nodded agreement. "I believe you have made a good beginning, Guardian. Go in Peace."

"Thank you, Malthis. If you have need, call for us." John replied and used his implants to activate the transporter to taking him back to the
Flyer
.

––––––––

"C
hloe, before we depart, could you contact Selnia and ask her to keep an eye open for any potential recruits among the Tammerain?" John asked.

"Sure, I was going to call her anyway to see how she was doing," Chloe said. "All personnel that have chosen to join the new Guardians have been modified, and are back on board. We are ready to get underway."

John nodded. "Thank you. Tami, have you been able to puzzle out how to use the Transit points yet?"

"Yes Sir, its way simpler than ours are; each transit point has a small, limited intelligence operating it. As you approach, you just enter a destination and it gets you as close to that as possible. It's really slick," Tami replied. "Most of the devices are being stored out of phase temporally as a form of cloaking to keep them from being captured by the Grays, however, they will 'uncloak' to allow us transport. You know, the transit system is really wide spread. If we ever get to the point where we can allow commercial use, there won't be any problems with shipping."

"I got that impression as well. In fact, it's one of the bargaining points I was going to use to help convince the Tammerain as well as the Realm to enter into trade agreements. We have a lot of work ahead of us to bring peace to our galaxy. The Grays won't just sit idle while we destroy their dreams of dominance," John said.

"What are we going to do?" Tami asked.

"Well, the only thing I can think of for now is to isolate them like the Prometheans did to us when we were still too immature to join the galactic community. The difference here is that the Grays will know they have been isolated. We may have to take a more active role to keep them from destroying each other before they can mature enough to return to the community," John said.

"Wouldn't that be the ultimate insult for them?" Tami asked.

John thought about it for a minute before agreeing with her. "You might be right, Tami. If we do have to do that, then we'll have to be very subtle about it."

"Selnia was really happy to hear from me. She said she would be very happy to do that for us. She also reported that she has gotten the Tammerain to issue the retreat order for all their forces. She's still working on the speaker; apparently there was more done to her than just drugs. She was implanted with a cerebral control unit," Chloe reported.

"She's been enhanced?" John asked in surprise.

"Not like us, no. She has a module in her head that has total control over her. Selnia says it's almost the same as what they did to her. Selnia is working repairing the girl's psyche to the point where the module can be removed," Chloe replied.

"That's good. No one should have something like that forced on them," John replied. "Former enemy or not, we need to try to save her if we can. Please let Selnia know that she can call on us if she needs anything and we'll see if we can make it happen."

"Will do," Chloe replied.