As this planetary survey shows, they had conquered the galaxy, in spite of four-front war...
...without ever building a missile base at any of their worlds.
Yet there are no records anywhere that speak of a 2500 galactic council. The matter seems nearly inexplicable, but the facts are there. In the final years of war and in the years of peace that followed, the Alkari had neglected to build colony ships to take advantage of the newly-vacant worlds throughout the galaxy, and a self-recriminating entry in what purports to be a copy of RBO-26's personal diary suggests that this might have been the problem: Some ancient law that forbade a council meeting unless at least two thirds of the planets in the galaxy were claimed. At all events, whether or not the Galactic Council met, no resolution came. The Alkari belated swarmed the stars with colony ships and claimed every planet on which they could live, but years would pass before the next council could convene - years in which the reconciliation and sheer power of the Alkari could be forgotten. Before long, the other peoples of the galaxy would re-declare war. An earthquake passed on Lyae Prime apparently unnoticed - at least with no notice surviving outside of a GNN report - outside of that star system. And then the ultimate tragedy struck - or ancient feelings came to the fore; so few records survive that the question is debated still. The Mrrshans continued to send nuisance fleets into Alkari space until at last a force was sent to Dolz, the the last remaining Mrrshan star system, to destroy the remnants of their military infrastructure. But in error or by instinctive will, from inattention or from some ancient racial hatred kin to what the Mrrshans felt for them, they sent too large a force.
Perhaps the destruction of the Mrrshans provides some hint to the final fate of the Alkari and the other ancient races of the galaxy. Perhaps something can be learned from the strange case of the Meklar, who declared war just before the Mrrshans were destroyed: Not long thereafter, a still-surviving GNN report claimed that the Alkari ambassador had attempted to assassinate INT-986 without the sanction of his government, in spite of the fact that no such ambassador was present; the Meklar people were still refusing any diplomatic contact with the Alkari. It was already my understanding that such an assassination attempt inevitably led to war no matter how strong relations were between two races, even between allies and best friends - but there was one circumstance in which I thought war would not be declared in immediate response to this event. And I was wrong.
The Meklar empire took the opportunity to declare war on the Alkari ... with whom they were already at war!
Thus, we come to the final surviving record of that ancient interstellar era, before the era of Alkari rule that would last for centuries before its abrupt and still-inexplicable end. Perhaps this ancient recording too holds a clue to the fate of the Alkari; when first I saw it, it sent shivers down my spine. It is a still frame from a historical documentary on the ascension of RBO-26 to High Master of the New Republic in 2425, and the foreground shows only the vote, which could have been inferred: All the non-Alkari leaders voted for Granid in a meaningless gesture, while RBO-26 was elected by the vote of the Alkari alone - an overwhelming majority. But fading in from the background in this still fame, the words that will presumably head the next section of the documentary can just be made out in this frame.
Orion, Throne World of the Ancients! Is this Alkari propaganda of some kind, or can it be that even in the ancient times of which these fragmentary records tell, the Ancients of Orion were already matters of legend? Could it be that not one, but two or even many civilizations have risen only to inexplicably disappear from the galaxy? What connection does Orion have to this? And what does it mean for the future of our own civilization?
[End Report, Henrry Gaurrr, professor of archaeology, Kodiak University, Phyco, AR 3192]
_______________
Back to the Front Page
