When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (13 page)

Bridge, TSS
Vella Gulf
, In Orbit Around Gliese 667 C ‘c’, August 8, 2020

“
So, where do we start?” inquired Captain Griffin.

“I do not know,” answered
Steropes. “I scanned the entire planet, but haven’t found any place that is better to start our search than any other.”

“You said that the planet was previously inhabited,” noted Captain Griffin. “
Why don’t we start by looking at one of the cities?”

“Because that doesn’t localize the civilization that used to exist here,” answered Steropes. “When I say that the civilization covered the planet, I mean that it completely covered the planet. The entire land mass shows evidence of being a single, planet-wide city. I cannot determine if it completely covered the water
areas as well, but I find evidence of metals and other structural components in the shallows that make me think that it did.”

He put a series of high resolution pictures on the viewer screens. “You can see mounds in all of these photos,” he said. “
These are the remnants of the city that used to exist here.”

“How long would it take for the city to be covered like that?” asked Capta
in Griffin. “Thousands of years at least, right?”

“No,” answered Steropes. “It would take much longer than that. You have to remember that the city
completely covered
the planet. It would take much longer than that before you could see the actual surface of the planet, much less have it bury all of the structures completely. The time span for this to happen?
Millions
of years. I am guessing something on the order of about
10
million years.”

He put another picture on the screen. A concrete beam stuck out from the ground like a cosmic middle finger. “This is the only piece of their architecture that I have found remaining above ground,” Steropes said. “Chemical analysis from orbit has proven to be inconclusive. It seems to be something like the concrete used in your civilization and the
titano-crete used in ours, but has additional elements added in. I have determined that it contains large concentrations of rhenium and osmium in addition to other elements that I can’t determine. It is amazing.”

“What is amazing?” asked Calvin.

“Their mining processes are amazing,” replied Steropes. “Take the rhenium for example. Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust, with an estimated average concentration of about 1 part per billion. The amount used in this one building alone would be more than the amount that exists
in your entire Solar System
. There is twice as much osmium in the building as in the entire Solar System. This civilization had access to other star systems and the ability to transport huge amounts of material.”

“
That’s an awful lot of rhenium and osmium,” Captain Griffin noted. “How big was this building?”

“Based on the scanner data,” Steropes replied, “I estimate that the building had a square base that was approximately two miles to a side, and was over a mile high.
And this was one of the
smaller
buildings on this planet.”

A stunned silence filled the bridge.

“That’s a big building,” Captain Griffin finally said into the silence. “It also opens up more questions than it answers. If the civilization had the ability to erect that type of building, they were obviously space-faring, or they wouldn’t have had access to the materials required to build it. If they could travel to the stars, though, why would they choose to continue to build on this planet until they completely covered it? Why not emigrate to somewhere else? What were they thinking?”

“I do not know,”
Steropes said, shaking his head. “More data is required in order to answer those questions.”

Captain Griffin had another idea. “Solomon,” she asked, “what do you think?”

“Like Steropes, I find that more data is required to answer your questions,” the ship’s AI replied. “It is possible, perhaps even likely, that there was some sort of cultural imperative to continue to build on this planet. There are many reasons why this might be; for example, this may have been the civilization’s home world or the capital planet for a large star nation. It is also possible that the culture had some sort of hive mind that wanted to continue to build here for some reason, but I find that possibility less likely than the first two options. There are other possibilities, but I find them even more unlikely. In the interests of full disclosure, the civilization may also be sufficiently removed from our experience that I may not be programmed to correctly analyze the reason that they chose to build this way.”

“That’s exactly what I was trying to say,” said Steropes. “We don’t have enough information on this society to make guesses about their intentions. They are so far advanced beyond our civilization that the assumptions we use to make our guesses might be wrong. What seems ‘different’ to us might be ‘normal’ to them...
power spike!
”

“What?” asked Captain Griffin.

“I’m getting indications of a power source coming online on the planet,” replied Steropes. “It is an enormous power source far bigger than any of our biggest antimatter power plants. Our five biggest plants wouldn’t equal the amount of power being generated.”

“Can you localize the source?” asked Captain Griffin.

“Yes,” answered Steropes. “It would be hard to miss.”

“Good,” said Captain Griffin. “Pass the information to the helmsman
, and let’s move to orbit overhead the source.”

“Got it, ma’am,” said the helmsman. “We’ll be overhead in five minutes.”

“Do you want a fighter launch?” inquired Calvin.

Captain Griffin considered the question for a second before answering. “Man up the fighters,” she finally answered, “but don’t launch them yet. Let’s see what we’re dealing with first.”

“Aye aye,” replied Calvin, who began giving orders over his implant.

“Warm up all offensive and defensive systems, but leave them in standby for now,” ordered Captain Griffin. “We don’t want to seem too aggressive, but
I want to be ready for any occasion.”

“
Defensive systems will be of limited value,” noted Steropes. “If the power source is a weapon, it will overwhelm our shields with its first shot. We would need to move a significant distance in order to avoid being destroyed.”

“Do you want me to move the ship?” asked the helmsman.

“No,” replied Captain Griffin. “I don’t want to make it look like we are running. If they wanted to destroy us, I’m sure that they already could have.”

“That is correct,” agreed Steropes. “They could...” He stopped suddenly. “Captain, we’re being scanned by something
from the planet. I have never seen anything like it.”

“They, they...are, are...in, in...my, my...systems, systems,” stuttered Solomon. “I, I...can, can...not, not...prevent, prevent...it, it.”

“
Power surge from the planet!
” cried security station operator, who controlled the ship’s defensive systems, weapons and shields.

“Shields up!” ordered Captain Griffin.

“They’re not responding!” the defensive systems officer replied.

“Helm, get us out of here!” Captain Griffin ordered.

“I can’t!” replied the helmsman, with fear in his voice. “The engines aren’t responding, either!” There was a flash, and everything went dark. After a second, auxiliary power kicked in, and the lights came back on.

“Main engines just went to standby!” cried the duty engineer, sitting next to the helmsman. “Engineering reports they are unable to bring them back on line.
The auxiliary engines are holding, but all propulsion systems are offline.”

“Solomon, do you know what is going on?” asked Captain Griffin.

“Something has taken over all of the systems,” replied Solomon in a female’s voice that lacked tone or inflection. Steropes recognized the default voice setting of the ship’s AI. “I have been reset and currently have access to only a fraction of my storage space. I do not have access to any of the ship’s systems. I am unable to provide assistance or determine what is happening. I am greatly handicapped.”

“Bring offensive systems online
,” the Captain ordered.

“I’m unable,” replied
the offensive systems officer at the operations station. “Nothing happens when they are selected.”

“Ma’am,” said Calvin, “I doubt this will be a surprise, but all of the fighters just went to standby, too.”

“Well,” said Captain Griffin, “we seem to be unable to do anything else, so I guess we wait.”

The crew didn’t have long to wait
. Within seconds of the commanding officer’s statement, a figure that looked like Albert Einstein was suddenly standing on the bridge in front on the helmsman’s station. “Greetings, people of Earth and Olympos,” he said in a warm, welcoming tone. “It is good to see you. I have waited a long time for this day.”

“If it is good to see us,” replied Captain Griffin, “why is it that you have disabled most of my ship?”

“I apologize for that,” replied Einstein, “but my creators thought that it might be necessary to prevent an unfortunate misunderstanding that resulted in your termination before I could fulfill my programming.” The figure spoke with a slow cadence, pausing frequently as if to consider what to say next. Griffin could almost imagine the figure holding a pipe. “Your systems will be restored to you with the hope that you will not do anything rash.” He motioned theatrically toward the various stations on the bridge, and systems began coming back to life.

“Main engines back online!” called the duty engineer.

“Acknowledged,” replied the Captain. “Keep us in position here.” She looked back to Einstein. “Thank you,” she said.

“You are welcome,”
the figure replied with a small bow. “As I’m sure you are aware, I am not actually Albert Einstein. This shape is merely an avatar which I am using. Your records indicated that Einstein was a man of great intelligence that wanted to use science for peaceful purposes, not warfare. He seemed like an appropriate form to use to deliver my message.”

“He was indeed a very intelligent man,” noted the ambassador, as she entered the bridge, “and truly a man of peace. If you are not Einstein, who is it that we have the privilege of
meeting?”

“I am all that remains in this galaxy of a civilization that existed many millennia ago
,” replied Einstein. “Twelve million years ago, my civilization ruled much of this galaxy from this planet. We were the most powerful civilization that had ever been seen, yet we had a government that was compassionate and a society that was based on peace, not war. In function, it comes close to your definition of ‘utopia,’ a peaceful society where death and suffering had been vanquished.”

“Unfortunately,” he continued after a pause that was a little longer than normal, “our society was not the only one
that existed at the time. There was another society, one that was based solely on warfare and subjugation. We were completely unprepared when our scouts stumbled upon it.” He paused. “Before we knew it, we had already lost many of our outlying systems. Most were bombed into radioactive dust without warning. We were told later that they did this ‘just to make a point.’ By the time they actually opened up diplomatic relations with us, they had completely destroyed five planets and had killed tens of billions of people.”

A pipe materialized in his hand
, and he took a couple of phantom puffs. “They only had one option for us, unconditional surrender. We could accept them as our sole rulers or we would be destroyed. By then, they had captured many of our people and had experimented on them. When we did not immediately give in to their demands, they released viruses on two more planets that killed all of the inhabitants. There was no reason to do so. We didn’t attack them or put up any show of defense; they just wanted to see if the viruses would work like they thought they would.”

“We knew
then that we could not live under their rule,” he continued. “Yet, we also knew that we could not fight them. They had weapons that they had spent millennia developing; we had none. The only thing we had was shipping, because interstellar commerce was so important to us. So we used it. We left, hoping that they wouldn’t pursue us. Since you are here, it is obvious that they did, or at least that they have perished in the intervening millennia.”

“Where did you go?” asked the ambassador when Einstein paused.

“We left the galaxy,” Einstein replied. “Where we went is unimportant.”

“But what if we would like to open peaceful relations with you?” pressed the ambassador. “We would
conduct trade with you if we could.”

Einstein smiled sadly. “You cannot reach us with your technology. You would not even be able to move about the stars as you do if it were not for the stargates that we left behind. They were old technology that we didn’t even use anymore. Had we thought to destroy them, you would still probably be on your home planet, unaware that other civilizations existed.”