I'm not sure I can believe this.
How the ancients knew the importance of the Triad stars, I can not fathom; look at them! The yellow star holds ultra-rich Maalor, the red star shines upon the Guardian itself, and the green star, in perfect alignment with them, is just-discovered Rha ... which, like Artemis itself, harbors the still-standing ruins of an ancient civilization!
Like Artemis ... and entirely unlike it. Here are no pristine cities standing among ocean waves, seemingly sealed and prepared like monuments just before their people's end! This arid world harbors glimmering crystaline ruins, many-faceted structures that must once have been vast cities like collections of shining jewels, all of them long since fallen, their broken pieces gleaming in the green light of the local sun. Signs are everywhere that they must have begun their decay even while they were still in use, sometimes seeming to have collapsed from overuse and undermaintenance. Here is no sacred-seeming emptiness untouched for centuries; signs are everywhere of recent activity, some time in the past few hexades, of explorers perhaps as small in number as my scouting pilots, but far less careful of the planet's artifacts. In some of the streets, I can see partially fossilized corpses, already exposed by digging, and whenever I look into the best-preserved structures on the planet's surface, I see recent, obvious damage, where artifacts and installations have been forcefully torn or cut away from their places, leaving little hint of what they could once have been. Thankfully, the planet's records have not been equally defiled; all have been accessed recently, but none actually tampered with, removed, or destroyed. Eagerly, I mine them for what data I can find of their last years - the history entirely missing from the Artemis files. The corruption of these files with time and wear is even worse than on Artemis, but at leas there has been no deliberate purging of the data ... and I learn how the people of Rha perished. A plague of such unimaginable horror that I can not bear to describe its effects swept the planet, and slowly, in perpetual and increasing agony, destroyed every one of its people. I find records everywhere of hopeless searches for a cure, images of horribly deformed people stumbling or crawling to do what they can for each other and themselves, references to the immunity of prepubescent children that brought faint hope to the wretched, dying adults in their constant pain and horror, but proved impossible to retain into maturity or to duplicate in mature subjects before the world had died. Could a plague this horrible have spread galaxy-wide? If the Artemisians succumbed to it, especially if they had no childhood immunity to give them false hope of a cure, might they have prepared their planet like a tomb, and taken a swift and tidy death together rather than proceeding in slow and horrible agony? I could almost believe it ... but that it seems impossible that the people of Artemis should give up the fight against such a disease!
2355-66: New Light, and Growing Darkness
Even as I seek deeper among the jewel-like ruins of Rha, I at last divine means of improving my ecological restoration work across the empire, and turn my thoughts to the matter, long delayed, of Controlled Toxic Environment technology, to allow the colonization of such worlds as rich, poisonous Artemis and fiery Ryoun. And in the meantime, I'm making the best I can of my existing colonization technology!
Ukko advances our Silicoid front, Bootis does the same for the Humans (in addition to being a terrific world wherever it lies!) and Anraq fills in the nearest neighbor to Artemis itself! Progress is being made on every front, including my quest for knowledge, and my hope for survivors of the ancient, catastrophic plague! Secret records uncovered on Rha suggest that the last adult survivors finally found a way to combat the plague, concentrating all the energy of their world to create an energy lattice large enough to kill all the pathogens within an area the size of a large building. The plague would only return at once from the surrounding area, and no means could be found of destroying it once it was attached to a living host, but the people of Rha were able to make a final, desperate bid for the survival of their species. All the children that could be found still young enough to be sure of immunity were gathered aboard a colony ship and sent out into space, with a secret destination that I believe had been a nature preserve set aside by some form of galactic government. As soon as the ship passed out of Rha's atmosphere, and could no longer be reached by invading pathogens, every power generator on the planet was red-lined, and the energy lattice was activated, burning out its generator and melting it into slag, but purging the ship and creating a small hope for the survival of Rha's single sentient species. The rest of the planet's tale can be well imagined, as the people died, and the disease migrated to the most closely-related animals, persisting for hexades before it finally killed all its possible hosts and so itself as well. Never before had I dreamed of such a horrible and all-consuming disease!
I hope to learn more from the surface as well, but that will have to wait, as a pair of Psilon ships are now approaching. I try once more to make contact with their pilots, and though the colony ship is clearly unarmed, its companion is a Star Blazer which hurtles toward us around Rha's asteroid fields. It fires nuclear missiles, which my Scouter dodges, hoping to prove my peaceful intentions by evading without returning fire (indeed, my ship bears no weapons with which to do so)! The attempt is in vain however.
Even as I colonize Klystron, the Star Blazer expends its missiles, closes, and fires on my Scouter with a heavy laser cannon, forcing me to retreat. (If you look closely at the screen, you can also see a cluster of nebula-delayed transports on approach to Kailis, quite close to the first shipments from Kailis up to Bootis, the latter with an arrow, like the one from Gion.) This does not bode well for my relationship with the enigmatic Psilons! Even granting the potential knowledge to be gained from those ancient, ruined cities, what could possibly make a peaceful species so desperate to secure a once-diseased star for themselves that they would attack the unarmed starship of an unknown would-be friend, without even taking time out to speak? I must know, and I must know quickly; as the Psilon and Bulrathi pilots won't talk to me, and I can't yet project my thoughts to the homes of their rulers, I work through the Silicoids to propose something extraordinary: All the leaders of all willing species should form a council to rule the galaxy together! I'm counting on their very jealousies to drive them to this council, as without it, it is clear enough that the galaxy will soon be ruled by me - but it is not power that I desire, and they are welcome to take part in this, if only they'll talk to me! The Silicoids report that the Psilons have agreed, and soon thereafter that the Psilons themselves have persuaded the Bulrathi. With all the rest in agreement, even Lasitus dares not refuse attendance, and we gather for the first time - as distantly transmitted images only, but it's something - and I look upon them from Imra, at the heart of the galaxy.
The other races are interested in discussing only one thing - I think the Humans proposed it: choosing an absolute ruler of the galaxy - but I barely notice the question before us, abstaining with my six votes (just enough to hold a veto on any rash decision, just as it should be; I was wise to assure everyone that a two-thirds vote would be needed) as do the Silicoids and Psilons with their two votes apiece. Lasitus manages to assemble seven votes against me by nominating Monch of the Bulrathi, who therefore casts his four votes with the Humans' three, but that's not enough to make a difference, and all my attention is taken up with the Psilons anyway. I have found the answer to my question - that high brow, that narrow ridge of hair, those bright green bulbous eyes, those four slender upper limbs; everything in the Psilons' form declares it: I have found the children of Rha!
I long to speak with them, but their emperor cuts himself out of the conference as soon as the vote is concluded. Monch, on the other hand, appears pleased by the meeting, and stays long enough to introduce himself and open diplomatic channels with me. To my deep amusement, he appears to believe he will one day rule the galaxy - after all, he received seven votes in our very first election! - and is kind enough to say he hopes I will prosper under his rule. I like this simple emperor with his easy-going nature and friendly feelings, the more so as he immediately agrees to trade with me!
Our 225 BC trade package quadruples my level of inter-racial commerce; it is a pleasure to deal with an alien who doesn't hate me from the moment we meet. He has a reputation as an agressive ecologist, but Lasitus was reputed to be "honorable," so I'm not sure it means anything. It occurs to me that I should take advantage of my war with the Humans to make my own reputation, as a trusty friend and fearsome enemy, but I don't feel prepared to take action yet - though in the commanding position I've already achieved, it mght be a mistake to wait.
OOC Note: First here, and again in 2363, my turnlog takes note of an opportunity to make (diplomatic) headway through battle. I waited for a handful of techs to come in (construction and weapons were in percentages by 2361, propulsion the following year, and computers and force fields within the next five) but probably waited too long. This wasn't my biggest scoring mistake leading up to 2375, but I do think it cost me a fair number of diplo points.Meanwhile, at a biolab on Sol, my spies find the Humans' plans for cheaper, simpler colony bases than those aboard the Live Queens, specifically for colonizing barren worlds like Bootis. Controlled Barren Environmentis also valuable simply as technology - every little bit helps, believe me! I also speak with Sedimin again and increase our trade package to 100 BC, really just as an excuse to talk to him; even with all my constituent Klackons, I fear I sometimes grow lonely.
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Next: Monkey Trouble
