Chapter 014: Survival

The Icarus Accord is one of the two documents that are universally recognized as basic laws throughout the Confederation of Mankind. While the Founding Charter of the Confederation deals mostly with politics and war, the Icarus Accord focuses on the issue of technologies and research. It was signed in the aftermath of the Icarus Massacre, which became the main motivation behind its creation.

The Icarus Accord lists a number of technologies that are completely forbidden and puts limitations on a number of others. Cloning of sapient individuals, active cerebral implants and usage or possession of a wide array of blacklisted exotechs belong to the first category. The research of Hyperspace, genetic modifications of sapients, creation of Class-3 AIs and self-replicating weaponry are limited, typically allowed only with the Confederation’s approval (handed out scarcely) and under its strict oversight.

When a country or organization is suspected of violating the Accord, it faces a trial by the Supreme Tribunal of Mankind. If found guilty, it is automatically expelled from the Confederation. This means it is no longer protected from orbital bombardment and forced mentalsculpting of the population by the Founding Charter.

To this day none of the organizations and countries expelled from the Confederation for violation of the Icarus Accord survived the ensuing manhunt. Several of them (including the Fimbulvinter Protectorate and the Republic of Hades) were subjected to that despite the trial and evidence being classified, leaving the reason for their execution a secret.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 5, page 250

***

EGS Echo - Command Deck

16:01 27.04.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

Commander Lena Drathari entered the Echo’s bridge… and sighed. The sight in front of her was worse than the most horrifyingly wrong images invoked by her imagination. It was moments such as these when she felt the overpowering compulsion to notify the higher-ups of the Guild that the Echo’s crew required urgent psychological help.

The second she entered the bridge, a UI overlay was automatically installed, displaying it as some space fantasy about the Homeworld’s pirates. There was a jolly roger flag beneath the main monitor, sabres, flintlock pistols and tattered flags adorned the walls, and everyone present looked like a pirate. The captain had a wooden leg, a large red captain’s hat, and a parrot on his shoulder. And Lieutenant Commander Innocent…

Maybe I should have stayed in the Navy?

“Commander Drathari! Arrrr!” Captain Keller saw her and said hello, in his own peculiar way. “Sorry for the change in aesthetics, Innocent pointed out that we are technically stealing a ship to sell it for profit, so a pirate look made sense. Better the Homeworld pirates of old than those Discord degenerates of now, eh?”

Of course. Who else could have been the source for this idea? I swear I hear Innocent’s name every time something eccentric happens.

“I thought you were overseeing the boarding from the communication room.” Captain continued. “What brings you here?”

“A message from Chief Petty Officer Sistonen, that I, well, do not understand. So I resolved to relay it to you personally, hoping you will enlighten me.” Captain raised a mug of ale which, under the overlay, was a cup of orange juice. “What does ‘Recovery Team 08 reports second counter falling rapidly’ mean?”

She knew it was something grievous the second Captain choked on his drink. The pirate overlay was switched off, and Innocent abandoned all remnants of decorum by jumping off the command platform to the tactical officer station.

“Em, what the hell is…” She wanted to ask, but she was cut off when the Captain punched the combat alert button. As sirens began howling in the background, the Captain started barking out orders, oblivious to the fact that half of his uniform was stained with orange juice.

“Innocent, every single weapon system on the Jewel, ready to fire on my command. Helmsman, engine on standby. If Lieutenant Commander Mendez won’t arrive in time to plot a course, full steam ahead in the direction opposite to the ship. Lena, tell everyone to run back to the shuttles. NOW!”

***

RTS Pristine Jewel

16:02 04.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

The first sign that something was wrong (at least save for the second counter falling down like crazy) was the temperature dropping. When they landed it was a pleasant 27C everywhere, with the ship exactly as warm as the surrounding Hyperspace. But then, it abruptly fell to -50C. And kept dropping.

Then the gravity started glitching. Followed by the air pressure meter falling down and rising up at random. Then the floor started shaking.

“Uhm, what the hell is happening?!” Ryan asked the obvious question. Ships this big did not ‘shake’ unless something went really, really bad.

“Like I know.” Christopher answered. “I think we should go back to the hang…”

PRIORITY MESSAGE FROM

COMMANDER LENA DRATHARI

To all crew members aboard the Pristine Jewel: Evacuate immediately. Abandon equipment, drop whatever you are doing, and run back to the shuttles. NOW.

This is not a drill.

“All right folks, you heard the orders. Drop everything and run back to the hanga…” Christopher had about enough time to say most of the order and then turn to face the end of the corridor leading towards the hangar.

This made him see the corridor - a five meters wide and three meters high main communication artery of the ship - being crushed. The walls caving-in, a process accompanied by screeching of metal, electrical discharges from broken cables, and torrents of liquids from ruptured pipes. Meter after meter. Closer and closer.

The horrifying screeching noises suddenly came to them from another side. Behind the remnants of the bulkhead destroyed by explosives the corridor was being crushed as well.

“Down the hole, now!” Christopher shouted. They lost a few seconds staring at him in shock. Rukh reacted the quickest and leaped towards the hole in the ground. This broke their shock. One after another they jumped down, some of them screaming half-formed questions which found no answer. Christopher was the last one - the second before he dove in, he glanced back to see the crawler torn to shreds.

Holy SHIIIIIIIT!

He dashed through the secret passage. It was a lengthy and narrow corridor, too narrow for more than one person. This meant that he was running as the last one, the closest to whatever was crushing the corridor.

Whatever it was, it lunged into the passage after them, at least judging from the sound of metal getting crushed that kept getting closer and closer to him. It was so close, so damn close… when he passed through a large bulkhead.

Bulkhead!

He stopped and turned back, only to see the crushed tunnel five meters in front of him… and the bulkhead with the control panel two meters from him. No time to reach it, which became obvious when he saw the speed of the corridor being crushed.

He punched the button with telekinesis, thanking God that he had an idea to set the telekinesis amplification work through a shortcut. The bulkhead closed instantly, stopping the cave-in of the corridor. And the first Mysterious Counter budged a bit, revealing what it displayed.

Not the time for this!

He turned back towards the direction of the escape as the bulkhead started bending. But now gaining some space between him and the pursuer was much easier. He sealed in every bulkhead in this idiotically long corridor, leaving the cave-in behind… but getting further and further from the evacuation point.

He caught up with the rest in the place where the corridor changed into a hall. The hall was insane.

It was… complicated to describe. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were extremely uneven, their surface bending and twisting without any sort of pattern or sense. Hundreds of small robots (each of them a few centimeters wide) were moving around in an equally nonsensical way, each of them carrying something like a pole, but one whose exact shape and length changed with every passing second. The cacophony of noises coming from every direction only worsened the impression.

He saw his team members waving to him from the other side of the pandaemonium, standing on a small island of stability - a platform in the middle, connected with the entrance through an equally stable catwalk. He joined them quickly.

“What the hell was that?!” Everyone was still wearing helmets, making reading emotions harder. Tendrik’s voice was clear to read, however.

“No clue. We got ahead of it, but it’s still coming. Did you find any way out of this place?”

“There is a ladder in the back of the room, but the exit is sealed.” Rukh spoke for the first time during this excursion. He sounded resigned. “We’re trapped.”

“I do not know what this place is.” Tiriel said. “But I also do not know what caused that caving in. I think this might be connected.”

Of course! Now time to figure out what to do with that knowledge.

“Tendrik, did you try to hack that terminal?” There was one on their platform.

“Hacking doesn’t work that way.” The cyborg replied. “Give me a few hours and I might get somewhere, but right now…” Christopher switched his attention elsewhere, Tendrik wasn’t going to help.

“Ryan. Use your magic.” He had no idea how it worked, but it had something to do with the computers.

“My ‘magic’ doesn’t work on computer security.” Ryan explained nervously “Trust me, I tried. their sole reason for existence is to NOT unlock unless the codes and so on are correct, so they always decline to help.”

“Ignore them then.“ Christopher decided that it wasn’t a good moment to inquire into whether the ‘I tried’ part included security systems on Echo. “Persuade the computer to deactivate this place. We don’t have to access the system conventionally.” This idea must have made sense, at least judging from Ryan’s reception. He kneeled beside the computer and put his hand on its main unit. The first counter budged a bit.

Seconds changed into minutes.

“Ryan?” Christopher inquired. If Ryan wasn’t going to help, he had to figure out something else. Not like he had any options left. They could blow open the exit if it was a door, but doing that on a ladder seal would also destroy the ladder itself.

“It’s not that easy, I’m trying. Give me… wait, it worked!” The hue and cry of machinery around them halted… and a few seconds later the second counter raised significantly. It was almost back to normal readings, but it still jumped a bit up and down.

“Try to open the seal now.” Hopefully there was a way of doing it from the terminal. “I don’t think it’s over, but it might have bought us enough time to get the hell out of here.”

***

EGS Echo - Command Deck

19:01 27.04.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

It was mesmerizing, in a way. Terrifying, shocking and destroying the validity of her knowledge about science with its very existence… but also mesmerizing.

The pause in destruction lasted for thirty-seven minutes. They managed to evacuate everyone from the Pristine Jewel in that time, save for eleven crew members who died before the destruction paused.

Then it resumed. The result was the insane and slowly rotating fractal made from a combination of metal, composites and organic matter visible on the wave sensors screen. The fractal used to be Pristine Jewel. She had no idea how it looked from up close. What sort of texture did its surface have? What was inside it? The wave sensors couldn’t tell her. And trying to get closer to that swirling insanity was suicide.

She was on the bridge, watching the spectacle together with Captain Keller, Lieutenant Commander Innocent, Lieutenant Commander Mendez and Lieutenant Commander Athalia. There was silence, but one that couldn’t last forever.

“Well, we had an awful lot of luck on that one.” Keller announced. Nobody replied. Lena wasn’t sure if the captain expected to receive a reply.

“Any chances I’ll get to know what exactly I’m looking at?” The Commander finally had enough of the waiting. “Am I even allowed to know what I’m looking at?” Nobody bothered to tell her what the second counter means, so it could as well be some ‘top-secret-commit-suicide-after-reading stuff’.

“Well, I guess it’s time to explain this to you.” Captain said, and turned his head to face her “You see, the Explorers’ Guild keeps quite a lot of secrets. This also includes…”

“Oh would you just sh…” Athalia interrupted him, only narrowly avoiding telling him to shut up. Lena was shocked. Only now did she notice how angry he seemed. She wasn’t sure what his problem was. There was probably a long list of those.

“If I have to hear one more of your two hours long occult lore dump talks that could be summarized in a few sentences, I swear I’ll remind myself why the Solar Republic considers me a terrorist.” Athalia said, this time slightly tamer in vocabulary.

The Solar Republic what?!

“So how exactly would you summarize that, if you were me?” The Captain didn’t seem to mind the earlier interruption. Lena was shocked again. This practically demanded some disciplinary action, even if you were a biological computer in the shape of man.

“Gentle Interruption: How about ‘eldritch star gods’?” Innocent said. Captain froze for a few seconds.

“There goes my belief that I managed to hide it from you.” The Captain sighed. “So you got the recordings from the shuttle. Anything else you found out?”

“Answer: Everything.” Innocent replied. Lena was more and more lost. “Reminder: I was allowed to take a break from the Society and join this crew at least partially because my superiors believe that they need someone to supervise you and Lieutenant Commander Athalia. You are too dangerous to be left alone. And I treat my work very, very seriously.”

Lena could hear Lith clicking his tongue in the background. She had no idea what it was all about. And she felt increasingly out of place.

“Well, fine.” Captain surrendered. “We’ll have the talk about it later, but for now, I assume that you want to investigate Cadet Hall from up close.” The priest nodded. “Alright. I’m going to have a serious talk with him after this, then you’re free to show him the ropes. Now, back to Commander Lena and ‘eldritch star gods’...”

I’m getting really bad feelings about this.

“The official term for the entity that messed up our day is ‘Extradimensional Entity’. EE or Extradimensional in short.” The Captain informed her. “The ‘extradimensional’ part refers both to their unsure origin which led many to speculate that they hail from some different dimensions and to the fact that they seem to be built slightly differently from us, slaves of three-dimensional space. As a whole, do not expect me to offer you an awful lot of confirmed information. This is the place where occultism meets theoretical physics.”

“Give me a second, please.” It was too abstract for her to process it instantly. “You mean that the ‘real’ world has some lovecraftian themes to it?” She was running out of words to describe what she just learned.

“Well, sort of. Yes.” Keller nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. It’s all physics, just above our level on the Wall of Reason. We actually suspect that at least some of these entities used to be aliens who got to the top of the Wall and decided that being three dimensional is no longer trendy. You’ve seen recordings from the summoning array aboard the Jewel, right?”

The words “summoning array” made it sound like something from a fantasy game. But she did see it. It was incredibly weird.

“It’s not any type of magic.” The Captain continued. “The whole thing was simply designed for its movements to create patterns that do not make sense to us, but are clearly visible to beings of a slightly more complicated nature. One of them came to investigate and you can see the results outside.”

“And the second gauge Chief Sistonen mentioned is… what exactly?” The link between it and the narrowly averted disaster was obvious.

“A small part of the processing power of the suit runs physical calculations nonstop.” Keller replied. “When basic and static stuff like Planck’s constant or Pi stop making sense, it means that someone’s messing with the fabric of reality nearby. Which tends to mean either Extradimensionals or some really abstract exotechs.”

“So the Guild is…” She said, but the Captain interrupted her.

“Yes, we are pretty much the Confederation’s Men in Black. Or the SCP Foundation” Keller admitted. She quickly searched the terms. “To be honest, ninety-nine percent of this work is just going after pirates and making new maps. If the really spooky things weren’t extremely rare, there’s just no way we would have kept them secret, even with the Confederation’s governments supporting us when it comes to suppressing information. But occasionally we have to get our hands dirty.”

“Suppressing information?” Censorship explained why she had never heard of all of this. It was hard to find a country that wasn’t running at least some measures of censorship (or at least memetic engineering on a large scale). But this was something on a whole other level.

“If Extradimensionals spend too much time around, they become a pain in the ass.” Keller continued. “We might be like ants to them, but some humans do notice the existence of ants and become interested in them.”

“So we make sure that people don’t get interested in them, as they could potentially draw their attention.” Lena summarized the talk. “And if they did and the extradimensional understands us too much? What then?”

“Then we get eldritch star gods.” Captain said. “Though the term ‘gods’ is an extreme stretch. In case you ever wondered what sort of religions thrive in Discord, it's these ones. Though once again, the term ‘religion’ is a stretch here as well.”

She wasn’t one to comment on that. Her god and religion weren’t a classic one, either.

“It’s just a bunch of people following often nonsensical orders of possible ancient aliens ascended into different states of existence.” Captain continued. “These ‘gods’ tend to be too demented and out of touch with reality to become a real problem, but their worshippers can be very dangerous. Something that the Silent Sorrow has proven.”

She had heard of the name. A cannibalistic and thoroughly depraved cult that seized control of Discord and led the full-scale invasion on the Core Worlds during the Third Succession War. The war halted as everyone united against them. They were scattered when Liberator, last of the genetic warlords, slew their Hegemon and the internal strife between the warring factions of Discord tore their forces apart. The remnants of the cult were destroyed by the Solar Republic many decades later.

It was famous due to how out of place it was. It was years before the Unification Wars when the crazies ran rampant throughout Human Space. Normal, conventional civil war rages on, and suddenly a screaming army of completely insane psychotic cannibals attacks everyone at once. What’s worse, it would actually reach the Solar System if all factions of the Third Succession War didn’t decide to temporarily work together in order to repel them.

According to some, the existence of the Silent Sorrow proved that the War of Purity marked the end of sanity throughout Human Space.

The idea that the ‘gods’ of this cult actually existed was… breathtaking. And terrifying.

“So do you think that the Republic of Triana tried to summon something like that?” She finally asked the main question. Athalia snorted with indignation in the background. He seemed resigned. His attempt to cut the captain short failed, and now he had to sit through all of it.

“Oh no no no.” The Captain chuckled. “It's far above their paygrade. And far above their technology level. Hereditary President Johnson is vaguely aware of the existence of Extradimensionals, like all heads of governments in the Confederation. But he is also aware that any willing interaction with them is treated as a breach of the Icarus Accord. Even if he managed to turn one into his pet and have him destroy his opponents in the subsector, he’d consign his country and, what’s even more important, himself to oblivion. The Fimbulvinter Protectorate and the Republic of Hades are good examples of that.”

So that’s what happened to them. Wow. It only makes me more curious as to what exactly they tried to do. You do not summon ‘eldritch star gods’ to win a trade dispute.

“All seventeen ships that have disappeared recently in the subsector, including the Pristine Jewel, were produced by strangely shortlived shipyard companies outside of the subsector.” Captain continued. “I believe that someone had installed similar arrays to all remaining ships. Then found them in the Hyperspace and wiped out the crew, deactivating the ship’s reactor while setting the array to activate when the reactor is switched on.”

She understood immediately.

“A minefield of interstellar proportions.” She said. “Targeting us, because it’s the Guild that lands on such abandoned ships.” The Captain nodded.

“Yes, but don’t ask me how the Carmotia’s attack connects with all of that.” He replied. “The same group is responsible, that much is obvious. But Carmotia made no sense. Now, the real problem is that for some reason none of the Guild’s ships have run into a trap in the last five months. Yet we run into one of those almost immediately.”

“Quick Explanation: The regional Guild’s structures are compromised.” Innocent added. “To an unknown, but presumably large degree. The disappearances of three ships that occured seven, eight and ten months ago can thus be considered a way of getting rid of crews that were projected to remain loyal to the Guild and the Confederation of Mankind.”

“Certainly not Discord.” Athalia commented. “Only a few groups there possess the technological know-how. And as Captain Exposition said, most of them are pretty much worshipping beings like this one. You don’t turn your god into a component for a booby trap. This leaves us with only one option. The slightly less known and equally evil counterpart of Discord.”

Discord has a COUNTERPART?!

“Yeah, those guys.” Captain sighed. “I’d have honestly preferred to face the screaming madmen of Discord. They are grotesque and homicidal, but their lack of discipline and so-so organization is easy to employ against them. Now, the Seekers are a completely different thing. Rational, organized, ruthless. This is going to be a tough trip.”

“Seekers? As in… the Seekers of Truth?” She thought they had been destroyed when the Confederation exiled them for the violation of the Icarus Accord.

“Yes. The oldest and most dangerous of the singularitarian cults.” Captain confirmed. “We’re mostly keeping their existence hidden because it hinders their ability to marshal lesser singularitarian cults. We often manage to notice their intrusion before they manage to prove their power and beliefs to such groups. Besides, less people go singularitarian when they don’t know how far the Seekers have managed to climb the Wall.”

“So, we’re going against an enemy with massively better technology which also overwhelms us numerically” Athalia said. “Damn, I live for moments like these.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Reminds me of the old times. You know, back when we lived to see our enemies driven before us and hear the lamentations of their women.”

“Are you sure you’re not missing on the psychotherapy sessions with Innocent?” The Captain asked the medic. Any chances that he was speaking seriously were banished when Lena saw his face. “I think you’re losing contact with reality.”

“Swift Report: Lith Athalia shows an indecent amount of creativity when it comes to avoiding psychological therapy sessions with me, which no doubt will further the wilting of his already highly diminished mental faculties.” Innocent joined the fun. As the medic and tactical officer started arguing in the background, observed attentively by the thus far completely silent Lieutenant Commander Mendez, Lena had time to ask the Captain something that bothered her.

“Where’s Cadet Hall in all of this?” He looked at her questioningly. “Captain, what’s the chance of someone from the far past landing aboard the shuttle carrying you, right before all that mess erupted, yet completely without connection to it?”

“Pretty much zero.” He replied. “I’m almost sure he is connected to all of it. In fact, I’m beginning to suspect that Carmotia was an attempt to assassinate him. The only thing I don’t know is how the Seekers caught wind of him so fast. And why they want him dead, exactly. He was brought in by something, by the way.”

“Something?” She had never heard that part.

“Something claiming to be an angel. A Christian one.” He said. She just stared at him in silence. It went past the limits of her cognition. Too many shocking revelations at once. “I’d have suspected an Extradimensional, but it’s too simple of an explanation. Not all of them are homicidal, but even those who more or less figured us out are still alien and wrong on so many levels. The entity that brought Hall to our times seems strangely well-versed in human culture, history, religion and psychology.”

“So what do you plan to do with him?” She asked. She finally understood the earlier talk, the one when the term ‘eldritch star gods’ was first used. The Captain had hid that part from Innocent too, yet the Lieutenant Commander found out.

“Well, thus far I kept my distance.” Captain replied. “I wanted to see where things go. As I said earlier, though, it’s time to change the approach. I’ll have a long, serious talk with him..”