Klackon Blessing:2349-54: The First Signs
May the Triad awaken in your time, with no need of trust in the Lone.
I colonize the beautiful jungle world of Kailis, its rainbow-feathered birds calling over the heads of my Klackons as I assemble my first habitations among the lush greenery, and at long last, projecting my thoughts through my two million Klackons on Kailis, I am able to reach other peoples: Peoples of the Lone, who each have themselves only, and share none of their thoughts except through action and speech with even their closest family. By the very nature of their loneness, they are beings rife with secret jealousies, and even as we first meet, the Hew-Mince are discordant and Silicoids uneasy with me - no doubt in dread and envy of my widespread reach - but I hope to show them the path of trust and peace and safety, so that even alone, they can come as close as any lonely being can to happiness.
Our new 25 BC annual trade with Emperor Sedimin and his Silicoids is a mere pittance, but hopefully enough to build trust between us, as I prove my good intentions in such other ways as I can. Sadly, the suspicious, aggressive technologist might be difficult to convince, at least in the early years.
There was no GNN report when the Silicoids reached 6 systems, or at least none displayed on the Artemis screen. They are yet to achieve their seventh though; we'll see how many more they manage to reach. You may notice one of my Scouters near my cursor, approaching Cryslon - another, right at the center of the triangle comprising Kailis, Misha, and Rayden, is on its way to the Rayden colony as well - a fact which will no doubt cause the Silicoids distress, though I could not have known when those ships departed that the planets in question were inhabited. You can also see in this picture that Kailis, though just founded, is already receiving its first shipment of minerals and energy crystals to help it build its infrastructure as rapidly as possible. I would be heartbroken if anything happened to that lovely jungle world, and it's my nearest colony to two of the Lone!
The second is of course the Humans (for reasons that escape me, this is their preferred spelling of the name) whose ambassador is arriving at Kailis even now. It appears that they reside at all three of the yellow stars where I supposed they might ... but only those yellow stars! Also notice their position relative to Kailis and therefore the Silicoid stars. (You can also see that I am re-examining Bootis, as I am so fond of doing - I can't wait to add this world's riches to my Klackons' supply!)
Their ambassador is wearing flamboyant clothing and a silly hat, of which he appears inordinately proud. He shouts, "Hey there!" loudly enough to be heard back on Sol, introduces himself as Jimbo Trustmeonthisone and reaches out his hand.
Uncertain of how to respond to this gesture, I similarly reach out with one of my Klackon's pincers as I tell him through that Klackon, "I am Reflexive Biological Organism #11, RBO-11. I am all Klackons, and all Klackons are myself."
He spreads his lips wide to show his teeth - reportedly a gesture of friendship, though this is hard to believe - and cries out, "Ref!" (Ref?) "Pleased to meecha!" while taking my pincer in what is obviously meant to be a crushing grip. My Klackon's chitin exoskeleton thwarts him of course, and I refrain from returning this part of the gesture, as his meaty hand would then require surgery. ("Ref"? Seriously?) He claims that Lasitus is an "honorable industrialist," and proceeds to tell a long and intensely boring story about Human history. I barely pay enough attention to him to get the holotransmitter codes to reach Lasitus and perform actual diplomacy. I can already see that this relationship is going to be ... interesting. My local Klackons lead Jimbo off to a comfortable room with padded walls, where I will cycle them through periodically so no one has to be subjected to his conversation for long - no one except of course for me. Thankfully, I can send my thoughts elsewhere, and at once establish a small annual trade package with Lasitus - the least he would consider was 45 BC.
These trade deals are a hopeful sign; the Lone will see that we mean friendship truly, and that it is in their self-interest to preserve good relations and increasing trade with what will seem to them a vast and powerful empire. Our friendly intentions will be manifest, and...
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Well ... that didn't take long. The ink hasn't dried on our trade contract. The "time after time" that they have "attempted to reason with us" has consisted of: 1) Saying hello, and 2) agreeing to a trade deal which I initiated - both occuring just last year!!! I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the first action of one of the Lone would be to start a war with me. Jimbo regretfully departs, and we not-at-all-regretfully see him to his spaceship. Lasitus - honorably, I suppose - decapitates my ambassador in a gruesome public ceremony. Inxitylixiys 978343 is not truly lost however; like all Klackons who perish, he lives on as part of me.
I would like to find a way to prosecute this war with minimum loss of Klackon or Human life, to bring a swift resolution and restore peaceful relations. This will require a great deal of deep thought ... but sadly, I can't be bothered. I'm busy thinking about the Humans' clothing.
The Humans' disgust with their own forms is significant, though nothing in comparison with that of the Artemisians. The people of our Atlantis designed extraordinarily beautiful costumes, masks, and clothing of all kinds, always all-concealing - in the past few years, I have even seen historical examples of Artemisian weapons of war which, apparently in an attempt to make them terrifying, shared certain characterisitcs with Artemisian anatomy. The Humans do not go this far, but to judge by their most popular forms of artwork (many of which are apparently meant to sell clothing or something called "beer") the amount of clothing that is considered appropriate is inversely proportional to the Human's beauty. "Delia Hotstuff," an obviously important individual, though I can't discern her role in society apart from posing for beer-related art pieces, habitually wears almost nothing, even or especially in art meant specifically to praise a line of clothing. Lasitus, by contrast, always appears in a full-dress uniform, for reasons I'm sure you can understand if you've seen him.
My first spy report on the Humans indicates that completely ignoring their war effort is probably the right move, as their ships can't reach Kailis and seem to be armed with slingshots throwing wads of old chewing gum, so I just press on with my research and colonization efforts. Dissecting a number of rusting Artemis maintenance droids helps me improve my factory building efficiency in 2351, and also dovetails with my cultural research to suggest a means of building "costumes" that would protect against environmental contaminants and Human attacks (even large wads of chewing gum)! I just hope I never need to test that last use for these "Battle Suits" - but I'll want them if the need arises! Then, in 2353...
It's good to see the ancient viewscreen is still functioning, and that the GNN droid is still transmitting, even if it only ever talks about me. Better still, I was able to trace the signal! The GNN message appeared on-screen just as the receiver antenna and interpretation array sprang to life behind it, all in response to a single tightly-encrypted burst transmission from somewhere near the center of the galaxy. I still haven't managed to decipher the encryption, even now that I know what its final form will be, but I was able to triangulate from sensors at all my dozen worlds, and confirm that the source of the transmission was at the red star indicated near the middle of the screen ... a red star I recognize all too well! I had assumed the "G" in GNN stood for "Galaxy" ... but could it be the Guardian itself that's making these transmissions? And if so, might it be possible to communicate with it by some other means than battle? I can only hope.
With the Silicoids feeling better about me, I suggest that we increase our trade agreement to 75 BC per year, the most they can handle for the time being ... and then come across something deeply intriguing in a forgotten computer core on Artemis: With the same language as our ancient legends, it refers to the "Birth of the Triad" in what can only be 2300! Moreover, it identifies two other key years - 75 and 150 years after the "Birth" respectively - as the "Rise of the Triad" and the "Great Reckoning!" I at once seek deeper knowledge of the Rise of the Triad, now less than four hexades away, but it's slow going; I see only confusing references to something called "Dog Mode" and mystical objects called "Shrooms." These are clearly glitches in the data caused by the loss of centuries; their true intended meaning will probably never be known.
OOC Note: Heh. I remember watching my college roommate play Rise of the Triad. (I commonly misclick when playing strategy games! First-person shooters are ... not my strength. But I was happy to watch others play at that age!) I miss the days when even FPS games were able to laugh at themselves consistently - before they became a massive, graphics-driven, multi-zillion dollar industry. Uh ... not that this has anything to do with the Klackons, obviously. But do I get my bonus points?There is no reference to which stars compose the triad, though I think I could deduce it from the ancient Klackon legends if I set my mind to it - and I might try! I imagined in 2300 that other races might take note of the same phenomenon we did, but I had no idea that a centuries-dead race would have had any interest in the matter, and call it by the same name as ours! It appears that the triad represents three stars of mythological importance (to us - their importance to Artemis, I can't divine) - one red, one green, and one yellow - and that its birth represents the beginning of their linear alignment in the eons-long galactic cycle; the period of nearest alignment lasts a full 25 Hexades - 150 years - but I'll have to review the legends again to be sure of anything more.
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Next: The Triad Discovered
