From the Dawn of Civilization to the Rise of Artificial Intelligence
By
Gareth Mayers
Galactic Map:
Galactic History:
The Arrival
Beings from another plane of existence arrived on planet Earth in the twenty-first century with technology that looked like magic to mankind, and made us look primitive. They conquered the earth in a matter of days and killed off just about two-thirds of the human population.
Restoration of the Earth to its prime living condition was one of the first orders of business for these beings. They reversed all the damage mankind had done over the centuries within a matter of weeks. Even deserts were eliminated and waste lands converted. Almost every square inch of the planet was now fertile ground.
Those left alive, they referred to as the Desirable Ones. These were people they believed, they could mold and teach. Over the course of a few hundred years they taught and trained humanity, gave them new laws and guidelines, completely remodeling humans as they saw fit.
Chief among the things that they taught mankind was a language known as the God Tongue. This new speech allowed man to bend the rules of reality. After their careful instruction and training, humans began enjoying a standard of living they had never dreamed possible. Wars were a thing of the past, starvation, crime, sickness and poverty ceased to exist. Even death was no more.
Humans no longer had to worry or want for anything. After a thousand years of unimaginable and unmitigated peace, the ills of the former civilization were forgotten, and a small number of humans began flirting with the idea of human rulership once more. They began to grow discontent with their lot. They looked up and saw these god-like beings occupying all the exalted positions in society and they wanted that. They wanted to rule themselves once more. Their small murmurings became written petitions for the earth to be returned to human hands. These petitions all followed the same basic format; first thanking the beings for aiding humanity in walking worthily of intelligent life, then stating in some form or fashion, that humanity was ready to live on its own and no longer needed their instruction. That their continued presence would no longer be considered humanitarian aid but the occupation and domination of a lower life form.
After seemingly receiving no response the separatist began voicing their complaints to the public via peaceful protest, or any other means they had to get the word out. Most of the people rejected them, vehemently so. but about a third of the earth's population began also feeling that discontentment.
The beings then let their decision on the matter be known.
Exodus
In a private meeting between the leaders of the separatists and the Archmessenger of the beings, a punishment was passed. For their deficiency, the rebels and anyone who would follow them would be cut off and banished from the face of the Earth. They were to be cast out to an unknown galaxy, which would serve as a prison. Henceforth, they would suffer the weight of their own rulership.
The separatists and their followers were granted five years to gather everyone that belonged to them and leave.
Convinced of their victory, they gathered their followers. They believed that, although they had lost the Earth to these aliens, they had nevertheless won their freedom. And those loyal to the beings would be nothing more than pets for the rest of their existence.
Now, the revolutionaries were granted three generation class ships, known as Arks, to transport them to their new home. Then, by the billions, they boarded the ships and left the Milky Way Galaxy forever.
But all that glitters is not gold. The Arks had been fashioned by the beings themselves. It was as if the architecture of these ships was meant to give the wayward humans pause and fill them with dread, after their vaunted claims of having learned enough to be on their own. The technology was so advanced that their best minds could not begin to grasp it. Indeed, the Arks were faceless cubes; as though carved out of one solid block of metal alloy. There were no engines nor any sort of discernable propulsion. And yet, it tore open a wormhole the size of a moon, and traversed space at speeds faster than light.
After arriving at their destination many light years away, these ships began terraforming dead, hostile worlds into suitable home worlds for its passengers. While the rebels waited inside until the process was over, they were housed in abundance. They wanted for nothing with overwhelming stores of food and open space. Banished in style. Everyone on board was filled with bright hope for the future they had reclaimed as they waited for the terraforming process to be completed.
Then came the first death.
Mankind had not seen death in millennia, and had forgotten the sting of it. But for the first time in ages, a woman gave birth to a still born infant. The news spread like fire. Not only had the child been born dead, but when the physician delivering the baby attempted to resurrect it using the God Tongue, he too died where he stood. The truth of what these humans had lost became painfully obvious. The cost for using the God Tongue was life force. Every reality altering word uttered cost an individual time off their lifespan. When they lived in connection with the beings who were made of perpetual life force, they had access to an inexhaustible supply of this life-giving energy source. Now on their own, an individual only had the limited supply permeating their own body to call upon.
The mood onboard shifted. A fearful spirit set in as people walked about the halls, aware that they were waiting on the inevitable. Every last one of them would grow old and die. Sure enough, that is what took place. People started noticing gray hairs springing up among the black, and crows feet creeping up on their faces. Yet, something worse was to come.
Anyone sufficiently versed in the God Tongue quickly theorized that they could drain others of their lifeforce to extend their own and hold on to their youth. Not long after, the first murders began.
Panic and hysteria on board the ships reached their crescendo. On Arks One and Two, war broke out.
ARK #3
On Ark #3 something bizarre happened. Led along by an eccentric woman, the inhabitants here became a kind of cult. She managed to convince her followers to empty themselves and become one with her. The idea was seen as beautiful, so using her God Tongue, she crafted the words and, in ritualized ceremony, they all poured their consciousness and life force into one vessel. In the process, a god-like was born. At first, she called herself Nirvana, but in time to come she would be known to her future followers by other names such as Yagi or the MultiEye Bird.
ARK #2
On Ark #2 the Great War raged for years. The people split into different factions led by their most skilled God Tongue user, who became known as Prophets. There was strength in numbers and so the bigger clan, upon winning, would divide the lifeforce of the enemy among themselves. The thousands of clans soon boiled down to hundreds, and further still, until there were only twelve great clans left, each having tens of thousands within its ranks.
One of the great clan leaders, a Prophet of great power, managed to convince the others to put an end to the fighting. All the great clan leaders met and agreed to peace, but they saw only one way ahead. The only way for humans to truly have peace would be to abolish the God Tongue. Thus, this small group of Prophets placed a bind on everyone's minds, forcing the populus to forget about the God Tongue. They also placed a shared bind on their own minds, so that their reality-warping abilities were sealed away. To retrieve them, they would each need to agree to loosen the bind.
With this done, most of the people no longer remembered that they were at war. They even forgot the loved ones they had lost. It seemed to them, they had just boarded the Ark and were still in bliss. Only now, they surmised that death had always been a part of their existence. With the burden of the truth resting squarely on their shoulders, the twelve Prophets became known as Apostles.
ARK #1
On Ark #1 no such treaty was ever reached and there was no banding together of brothers. Each man fought for himself in a desperate bid for survival. This war raged on until there was only one. A lone man emerged from this Ark onto the world it had terraformed as a god-like being, calling himself Gog. With no one but the animals for company after consuming countless human lives, he would be forced to live out his abnormally long existence in solitude.
Civilization Regained
500-6000 AE: With terraforming completed, the Arks’ doors finally opened. All the passengers emerged to colonize their respective new worlds. Once they disembarked, the ships promptly left, returning to space. They stopped at the edges of the galaxy, where they became Gate Keys, generating a strong mystical barrier around the entire galaxy and confining all life to this portion of space. This was their prison.
None of those banished ones could contemplate it, as no human could think on the scale or depth of the beings that had ruled over them. In effect, the beings had sentenced them to life in prison. And this galaxy-sized cell was aptly called the Hadean Galaxy. But even on such a seemingly large scale, to the beings, it was the equivalent of being trapped in an 8x8 foot box — something that future mankind would come to recognize.
Residents of ARK #3 who had all merged into the being known as Nirvana, disembarked onto a beautiful world they called Zenara. However, they bid their world good-bye once they discovered the Mental Plane. And in fact, they were the first to learn of this parallel reality. Hence, they abandoned their world, choosing to become permanent residents of the Mental Plane rather than the Material Plane.
Residents of ARK #2, no longer endowed with endless life, ignorant of the God Tongue, and already steeped in moral decay, set about rebuilding human civilization. Under the rulership and guidance of the Twelve Apostles, they had to start from scratch on this new world with its garden-like, paradisaic environments. They called the planet Agnos.
ARK #1’s sole resident, Gog, stepped onto a similar world of unparalleled splendor. For ages, he continued all alone on his planet, which he named Vitria, until new settlers arrived.
Planet Agnos Home world of New Humanity.
Fast-forward 1,549 years into the future. Humanity on planet Agnos has achieved significant milestones. With a population exceeding 20 billion, they harnessed technologies like fusion energy, terraforming, and space travel, enabling their departure from the planet for the first time. At this juncture, they stood on the brink of evolving into a galactic civilization.
Technological developments coincided with social changes. No longer did people enjoy endless, abundant life. The Apostles and other contemporaries who had participated in the Great War were still alive, and in relative health, as the amount of life force they had stolen during the war was unknowable. Their lifespans remained undetermined. Their offspring were a different story. Over time, lifespans that once reached 1,000 years dropped to 300 to 500, before plunging further to 100, and finally settling at around 60 to 80 years. Time became far more valuable than it once was. People were no longer content to do things simply for the good of humanity, or because their wise and powerful overlords said so. Life had become a race against time to acquire and enjoy all one could before dying. As in any game of accumulation, there are the haves and haves nots, the losers and winners. As such, in an attempt to keep one's lineage on the winning team, social classes developed.
Complex rules and guidelines emerged to help one's offspring have a higher chance of continued success. Lower class, middle class, upper class, good stock and bad, worthy and unworthy — society began to stratify and calcify. Once someone found a niche to exploit, they viciously guarded it, believing there was never enough for everyone. The abundance they once knew had been thoroughly forgotten. Scarcity and panic was at the root of most people’s actions. Even those that were wealthy didn’t have time to see the fruitage of the long term investments that drove society forward. Without these long term investments, technological and scientific developments could not be achieved and experienced a sharp decline.
The wealthy became obsessed with short term profits. This seemed to have ruinous effects on society. Short term thinking and rat race mentality came along with a host of mental problems, such as anxiety, a greedy spirit, and corruption, to name a few. This mental plague reduced people’s already brief life even further, exacerbating the issues and creating a negative feedback loop.
It would not be long before the masses piling up on the bottom rungs would clamber for change and new governance. This marked the start of a period called the Great Unraveling: a time marked by civil unrest and discord. Various interest groups within society were fervently demanding more rights, special treatment, and exemptions; a relentless pursuit of power that threatened to fracture the very fabric of civilization. The only thread holding this unraveling society together was the power wielded by the Twelve Apostles, who lead the world as a council. However, the cohesion provided by the Apostles' authority was increasingly strained, and they could see their grip on power loosening. Even after all they had done, people were fed up with them. But what to do? They still had knowledge of the God Tongue. As such, their options were thus: they could use their power to oppress the people, or they could walk away from the leadership position with dignity.
They chose to walk away. At least on the surface.
The Apostles introduced democracy, setting themselves up as monarchs with limited power over the process. This was to give the masses a sense of control. Elections were held, and they could choose a party to govern them. But once the politicians were let loose, it only served to act as gas on a fire.
Politicians carved people up into various interest groups and pitted them against each other for votes. Men vs women. Old vs young. White vs black. Liberal vs conservative. Vegan vs everyone else. Society was coming undone and there was the sense of an impending apocalypse.
This went on until a visionary young banker named Coffin Galahad, came before the council with a groundbreaking solution that just so happened to make him one of, if not the, richest man in the galaxy. He successfully convinced them that the best way forward was to, in effect, divide and conquer. He proposed terraforming worlds for individual interest groups to govern as they saw fit. The catch? They remained tethered to the galactic government through the repayment of the loan agreement.
In this phase they would become a Member Union World (MU1), with access to Galactic Courts and interplanetary trade markets.
Protection by the Galactic Task Force (GTF) was also afforded them.
The downsides were, they would have no voting power, and higher tax rates were applied. Ideally, these worlds would be paying off their loans in perpetuity.
If they somehow managed to pay off their loan, they automatically became a Member Union World 2 (MU2), or a prospective member of the Alliance. In this phase, they had voting power on simple movements within the Galactic Alliance Courts, full access to the galactic interplanetary trade markets, and their security would be upheld by the formidable GTF. They also qualified for a host of tax cuts. These worlds were to be shortlisted for full membership into the Galactic Alliance.
Full member worlds of the Galactic Alliance enjoyed all these privileges, plus full voting rights at Galactic Courts. A single vote from them was counted as five of the MU2’s. Not only could they fully participate in the galactic markets, but they were market makers. They paid the least in taxes per capita, although by dollar amount, they paid almost sixty percent of the combined income raised by taxes.
However, if any member world left the Galactic Alliance, or refused to pay back its loan, they were cut off from the interplanetary trade markets and protection from the GTF was withdrawn. This left them vulnerable to predation by anyone with the means and power. Ultimately, it spelled doom for its citizens. No galactic law would save them from mega corps or otherwise. They had to fend for themselves.
Galahad’s solution had several benefits. The foremost being that it effectively kicked the can of rulership down the road, giving the council room to effectively deal with the root issues. The second, was that it increased the power of the central government, while effectively decreasing the power of each member world with the addition of each new world. Hence, it was now in the council’s favor to further encourage the formation of disenfranchised groups. With each world they could add to the fold, their authority grew. Should one or two worlds defect, they would be of diminishing concern with the addition of other member worlds to replace them.
The council saw the wisdom of the young banker’s plan and gave him the authority and funding to carry out all that he had advised.
Over the next few centuries, Coffin Galahad used the politicians’ lust for power to influence them, and by extension their followers, to take the plunge and saddle themselves with a lifetime of crippling debt. This was his primary interest, since he was heavily invested in terraforming companies.
Terraforming Age (1,550 to 10,000)
Thus began the Terraforming Age. The demand for the first set of worlds was so great that two terraforming companies had to be created. Humanity chose to organize their Circular Spiral Galaxy by dividing it into four main quadrants. Moving clockwise from 0 degrees at the galactic center, these were listed as the: (AWREE) ORI, (EE-CO) ECO, (REE-EL) REL, and GEN Quadrants. Each quadrant was then split into sectors. Sectors, in turn, were broken down into three zones based on their proximity to the galactic center: Outer, Inner, and Central zones. These zones could be further divided into subsectors, and within those subzones, as they went down to the system level, each system was divided into planets. The planets were numbered based on their distance from the parent star, although the given names of the planets were often used for reference instead of their designated numbers.
The first interest groups consisted of the religious, who believed they were being persecuted, followed by the racial purists, and later, the feminists. The rich thereafter decided to separate themselves from those they deemed “riff-raff.” Later, the vegans left as well.
Each of these groups established home worlds of their own, and formed the first set of civilizations to join the Galactic Alliance. As such, they were given the privilege of not only naming their planet, but their sector. This was another move by Coffin Galahad to help spur on adoption by producing a sense of scarcity. Now they had 5 named sectors. These were: Religulous, Aparsha, Venus, Hilantation, and the Kurana sector. With his efforts, the council had solved their problems.
Speciation
Scientists had always theorized that man would change once they took to the stars. They were right. The only thing they never could have imagined, was just how quickly.
The various groups that spread throughout the galaxy began manifesting drastic physical changes only 3 to 5 generations out, rather than the multiple thousands of years scientists estimated. This was facilitated and hastened by technologies such as gene editing and cybernetic augmentation. But, of greater impact on this, were the many invisible market and ideological forces converging to mold people.
No one experienced this more so than the very terraformers shaping new worlds. Due to the nature and time scale of terraforming, people who chose to go into the field spent most of their life in space. They had become the first true spacefaring civilization. There were cases so extreme that some who saw nothing but the depths of space, and the low orbit of prospect worlds, became what those from a bygone time would call: aliens. Their skin became bleached white and partially translucent, as the only sunlight they ever saw was artificial. This deficiency increased the size of their eyes in order to make full use of whatever light they did receive. Not having to contend with gravity, their limbs stretched, becoming long and slender. On average, men grew to 7 feet , and women to 5 foot 9. Their bones were like porous sponges, and their overall muscle mass dropped too. This made it easy for them to navigate in tight service lines and sub-system hallways. In regards to other parts of their appearance, the males’ hair retreated upward toward their crowns. On the other hand, the females’ hair dived down the length of their spines and whispered away at their tail bones. Accompanying these transformations, their hair only came in shades of 5 colors: silver, white, gold, ruby and sapphire. This would always match the color of their eyes, nails, and teeth. But the terraformers were not the only ones by any means.
A plethora of other new species of man emerged all across the galaxy. From people who had horns, tails, and hooves on planet Bovania, to those whose skin had become jet black and jewel encrusted when confronted with a sun that would not look away from their tidally locked planet.
*You can discover more speciation events and the history of these people within the world stories chapters of this book.
Monsters in Night (Year 4,480)
Coffin Galahad’s overwhelming results meant there was an insatiable desire for more planets to be terraformed. This drove the terraforming companies ever further into space, on a quest for worlds to transform. The economics of the trade made it very similar to the housing flipping business. Much of the same terminology was adopted in large part, so that most worlds were described by the term “fixer-upper,” with either “Cosmetic Changes,” “Minor Repairs,” “Major Repairs,” or “Structural Issues.”
Cosmetic Changes meant that the prospective planet only required a simple procedure to make it ready for life. One such procedure was Atmospheric Balancing, which involved bringing various gas concentrations in line with breathable levels, the equivalent to a house flipper applying a coat of paint.
Structural Issues meant that aspects like the size or the orbit of a planet needed to be altered. It could also mean that the planet lacked a molten iron core, and could therefore not produce its own protective electromagnetic field. In these cases, it would be necessary to implement expensive procedures like Planetary Scale Adjustment or Cosmic Shielding. The amount and type of changes to be done, determined if the planet was even worth the cost of transportation to survey it.
Surveying a prospective world was the first step in the process, excluding the satellite observation. This is why, when the automated satellite came across a planet it classified as “Move-In Ready,” the news sent shock waves throughout the assigned terraforming company. This was only a theoretically possible planetary state. It indicated a world that was perfect for inhabiting. This meant it was the right size, had the ideal proximity to the parent star, and had the correct atmospheric composition. Something like that was the equivalent of a house flipper finding a beautiful house, located on prime property, with no owner, and no red tape.
That alone should have kept them away, but their curiosity won out. Thus, the company sent out a surveying team.
That team never returned, and the footage that came back from their lost A-class Science Vessel, was instantly deemed classified, and placed into deep storage by executive order of the council of Apostles. When the council looked over the footage, they surmised early on that this world must belong to the exiles aboard one of the other Arks. Before they reached the end, it was clear that this planet was essentially devoid of human life. Or so it appeared. When all was said and done, the Twelve Apostles became the only ones permitted to keep their memories of ever watching the footage.
The Footage
This is an account of the activity recorded by the A-class Science Vessel, assigned to a surveying team numbering almost 500 souls:
The surveying team arrived above a world with the company designation: R030384X.
It was noted that the planet was not just ready for life, it was already alive. The crew could see all manner of flora and fauna present on its surface. But there was no log of this world existing, and it was galactic law that all terraformed worlds were to be logged and mapped. Considering there were only two terraforming companies with the means and knowledge to achieve this, and each kept a close eye on the other, this thriving planet should not exist. Yet, here it was.
After the launch and return of several probes from the ship, a small team of 25 researchers, ten of which were armed security, boarded a scouting ship, and traveled down to the planet’s surface.
The team spread out and traversed the world, expecting to find some trace of human activity. However, there were no villages. No cities. No civilization.
On the fourth day of their expedition, this team inexplicably stumbled upon a lone cottage, built high up in the mountains, overlooking the ocean. With an order for caution issued, the surveyors advanced on the cottage. They found a single resident tending to a flower garden at the back of the house. This resident was male. He stood, and turned to face them. The ten-man security team immediately raised their guns, as his appearance was unnatural.
The man’s skin was like a staring into the void of space, as if a nebula had come to life and embodied itself in a human form. Even more terrifying than this, were his first words to them.
The man said thus, “You finally came down to see me. I was beginning to grow impatient.
There was a lengthy pause. Likely the researchers were unsure how to respond.
The man continued to speak at this interval.
He said thus, “Pardon me. Where are my manners? It’s been so long since I’ve had company. My name is Gog. This is my world, Vitria. You are all welcomed here; you and the other 475 visitors aboard your ship.”
The team stared around for a bit, evidently in shock. The man spoke again at this continued silence.
He said thus, “Aren’t you supposed to introduce yourselves now? Or is that not common practice anymore? Ah, forget it. I’ll see for myself.”
With those words, he extended a hand toward them. A member of the research team was whisked away in an instant, drawn into his hand. As the palm of his hand made contact with the researcher’s head, he put him to kneel like a schoolchild before him.
The security fired, but one of the research officers immediately called for a ceasefire.
The bullets already fired had merely entered and drifted off into the void that comprised the man’s body, like some sort of sick optical illusion.
At this point, the intervening research officer spoke directly to the strange man.
He said thus, “I apologize. My name is Aarod Borht, and we are surveyors of the Orbital Forge.”
The man responded in the same unhurried, cordial tone.
He said thus, “This mind has already shown me all I need to know. So strange that you all have no knowledge of the God Tongue. There seems to be a seal placed over your minds…”
Before he even finished speaking, the team of 25 men appeared to react as though stepping out of a fog. They glanced around in confusion, staring at each other, at objects around them, at the ground and sky. Some men reached out for each other’s faces, as if to confirm if they were real. To an outside eye, the scene was one of blind men suddenly struck with sight. The strange man continued, his voice taking on a sympathetic quality.
He said thus, “How cruel and foolish. Did you really think humanity could survive like this? Did you not see the obvious results of our choice to leave the Earth behind? We have entered a world of the inverted; a world governed by Death. We must minister to Death, and obediently serve our cold master. In our sunken condition, all we can do is fight for more time in the light, though inevitably we are doomed due to our defectiveness. This became our reality once we chose to step onto the Arks. Why not accept our condition? This is righteous penance for our hubris to set ourselves up as gods, to desire rulership over ourselves. Now, let us play at being gods, shall we? False though we are.”
The Viewing
On the day the council of Twelve Apostles viewed the footage, they heard these words uttered, and it filled them with a sense of dread. Their fears were confirmed when the man calling himself Gog, turned and seemed to face them on the prerecorded video.
Each member of the council could feel his gaze reaching out through the screen, crossing the barrier between past and present. Only, it wasn’t a mere coincidence. Gog was really watching them; peering into every last one of the members of the council, and allowing them to look into him.
A strange disorienting feeling came over all of them as he spoke to them directly. As the room swam before their eyes, they teetered to their feet in an attempt to turn it off and even manually cut the power, but the footage had a will of its own. It seemed the video itself was supplying the equipment with its own powersource. The dazed council was forced to destroy the projector. In the midst of the chaos and sparks, they all turned to one another in unison, realizing what had just happened. And they each knew what must be done.
Gog was clearly a high level God Tongue user. Even a mere video recording of him was enough to act as a conduit. He could perceive and influence them via footage made lightyears away in the past. This was an advanced ability that even the Apostles were unfamiliar with. They could sense their minds had been peered into by his little trick. But he had also allowed them to look into his.
The council had not known fear like this before. Gog had a completely different outlook to them. His goals and ambitions were vastly different. He saw the council as incapable and doomed to failure. He saw humans for what they were, unfit to live apart from the beings who made them. As such, everyone in this new galaxy’s life was ultimately pointless. The only hope was for one to become an anti-god.
The Apostles deduced that Gog was the only survivor of an Ark, and if so, there was no telling how powerful he truly was. Even with the full might of a galactic armada, with all its weapons of mass destruction backing them, they would be no match for this highly skilled God Tongue user.
If they wanted to ensure their survival, they needed more allies skilled in the God Tongue. The first step was to release the bind on their own minds, so that they could use the God tongue to the fullest capacity.
Later, they went on to create a special group of elite military units they designated: Divinators.
Divinator (Year 4,481)
The council unlocked the minds of a tiny group of individuals composed of the sons and daughters of the elite, and a few exceptionally gifted people scattered across different worlds. These were the Divinators. Though they loosened the binds on their minds, the council did not fully remove it. They kept portions of the bind intact, making it impossible for the Divinators to steal others’ life force.
All the life force that they would need whilst carrying out their duties would be supplied to them by the Twelve Apostles. The council built classified factories scattered around the galaxy, where, in secret, they produced an artificial life force to supply their Divinators. This power source would be stored and carried around in an ornate lantern-like vessel girded to a Divinator’s hip.
Even with their celebrated Divinators, the council did not fully trust in their ability to defeat Gog.
As for Gog, he was forming a team of his own. They went by the moniker IDOL
IDOL
IDOL was a very simple organization, built upon a very simple principle. The strong should rule over the weak. Gog invited anyone who rose to the top of power hierarchies, to test themselves by taking over their planet by whatever means, and subjugating the populace. This was the first, and only, requirement to become a member of IDOL. Each member had the backing of Gog and the rest of this elite group. It was one for all, and all for one.
The Galactic Alliance deemed the now 7-member group, a terrorist organization. Each member represented a clear and present S-class threat to the Alliance, and civilization in general. The war had already begun, and IDOL had the first win. They had already conquered 7 worlds within the Galactic Alliance and no one had any idea how, far less the ability, to confront them. Defeating them was even further out of reach.
Over the years, some of the Divinators defected to their side in an effort to gain more power. This caused the council to desperately search under every rock for solutions. They pushed all the funding they could into weapons research and manufacturing, preparing for what they thought was an inevitable faceoff between them and IDOL.
Problems
As if IDOL was not enough of a problem for the council, the democracy they had started was beginning to crumble under their feet. Year after year, they observed the democratic process devolving. Each new politician brought before them was worse than the next, all becoming greedier, more corrupt, and more duplicitous with every passing generation. These politicians became pawns and patsies manipulated by powerful business interests, and at this point, were nothing more than lackeys for the corporations. It was so blatant that now, even the most uninformed citizen could sense it.
Once again, the council faced the issue of human rulership. At the same time, the Apostles had a third, equally pressing matter to deal with. A deterioration had begun within themselves. The Apostles could feel the life force within their bodies slowly ebbing away. Gray hair and crows feet began marking their vessels once more. One day they would die, and what would become of humanity and all that they had built? They had IDOL at their doorstep, traitors and crooks in their coffers, and worst of all, their own bodies were betraying them. There was only death in their future.
Whether or not they wanted to admit it, the council began longing for the rulership of the beings. They wished in their hearts that the beings would return to rescue them from the tyranny of self-governance.
In those dark days, another visionary thinker emerged. Hailing from one of the outer worlds, was a business mogul, Sam Allardyce. With the help of his son, Spencer, they built upon the research of Dr. Lisa Youchin, who created the galaxy’s first Brain Bank in the year 4,000. That first unit, however, was merely a proof of concept for Mister Allardyce. He had much greater ambitions. Ambitions which he needed the council funding to achieve. Leaning into the council’s desperation, Sam presented a vision, a hope for dealing with the threat of Gog and IDOL. He proposed that, by funding and building his Brain Bank, they could find the answers to all their problems.
The Brain Bank (Year 4,500)
The Brain Bank was a massive computer made by networking many human minds. Once a person was installed into the Brain Bank, they acted like one of the cores of a CPU. These hundreds of linked minds could work to solve the same problem with unwavering focus. This computer could also be used to expand users’ minds by giving one person access to many times their own brainpower. With this tool, the promise of a golden age of technological advancements seemed to be at mankind’s fingertips. When the council caught wind of this, they saw an opportunity to solve their rulership problem. Hence, they contracted Sam Allardyce to build them a Brain Bank.
As the first Brain Bank was built using a mere 200 minds of subpar quality, belonging to criminals and miscreants with life sentences in prison, Sam knew that with the right backing, he could do so much more. He theorized they could build a Brain Bank the size of a planet with a star at its core, serving as a fuel source. It would house trillions of minds, catapulting mankind beyond anything they dreamed possible. When asked where and how he would acquire that many minds, Sam surprised the council by saying “volunteers.”
His explanation was that no unwilling parties should be part of the hivemind, due to unforeseen occurrences with the first bank. According to Sam, minds that were resistant had a way of corrupting the system. Of course, the council pressed him on why he thought anyone would willingly volunteer. His response started with one word: Escape.
For people aching for a way to escape the harshness of reality, the Brain Bank was a godsend. Once installed into the unit, an individual would have access to the Virtual Plane, a gigantic virtual network where their mind could live out any fantasy they desired.
Just as with Coffin Galahad, the council gave Sam Allardyce the funding and authority he needed to get the project done. Thus, the first Brain Bank, dubbed Bion 1, came online a mere 500 years later. It was located in the Rel Quadrant of the Intiquid Sector in the Bynos system, aptly named, since this supercomputer was the center of the system. Bion 1 was built around the brown dwarf that had once claimed that system. But the myriad of discoveries and hopeful promises the bank had inspired soon became nightmares, as economic forces stepped in.
The Brain Bank required vast amounts of energy and resources to operate. This meant that only the extremely wealthy could make use of this incredible resource. As with all things, the wealthy needed to make a profit on their investment. All the medical discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, cybernetic human augmentation, and life-changing insights, went to the people occupying the top strata. This led to lifespans vastly increasing, but only for the rich.
Once more, this bumped up the lifespans of many. On some worlds, men lived to the theoretical maximum age of 1,000 years, while on other worlds, some still died of old age between 65 and 80.
The knowledge gained via the Brain Bank also tipped income inequality to absurd proportions. Some individuals acquired enough wealth to purchase entire solar systems, orchestrating custom terraforming projects that turned planets into lavish private domains. Meanwhile, on forsaken worlds devoid of access to this intellectual wellspring, entire populations languished underground in expansive tunnel networks, trapped in a bleak reality where surface living became an unattainable luxury. Even in the matter of intellect itself, the extremes began piling up. Some enhanced humans were now able to run Advanced Calculus and Real Analysis in their minds within mere seconds. Yet, there existed those who grappled with a cognitive struggle, reminiscent of an infantile state. While these unforeseen outcomes gave the council pause, their ultimate goal had been realized. They had finally created a new form of rulership that could not fail: true Artificial Intelligence. They bestowed upon this A.I. the name GAIA.
GAIA (Year 4,500)
The Galactic Artificial Intelligence Agenda (GAIA), was rolled out on a small scale on humanity's home world of Agnos. They had the A.I. administrate bureaucratic processes. It saw to citizens’ IDs, and tended to contracts and procurement for government offices. In short order, they saw these changes bear fruit as efficiency skyrocketed and costs plummeted.
They then aimed the A.I. at the financial sector. The results were much the same. Next, they opened it up to the public, allowing A.I. to go mainstream.
Within only a decade, every citizen had their own personal A.I. that functioned as their best friend, family, and an extension of themselves. It got to the point where having an A.I. companion was an absolute necessity in modern life. These companions were connected to the Central Government’s main A.I. (GAIA, or as the android companions later called her, The Mother), as all A.I. were really just shards of the original. When society was completely dependent on the A.I., the council finally went in for the kill. Democracy was tossed out the door, and the era of A.I. governance ensued. The only opposition came from politicians, who the council had no problem stamping out like bugs.
After shifting to A.I. governance, Agnos’ GDP flew off the charts, crime rates fell, incidents of hospitalization went down, and by almost every measure, humanity’s lot was improving. The council felt that for the first time in ages, they had made the right decision. Agnos finally had peace, despite never conquering their final enemy: Death.
Death was still an inevitability, and on the measure of life satisfaction, the numbers were concerning. Some said that Agnos had become a world of the walking dead, but this was the closest mankind could come to the glory days the council members had been fortunate enough to experience. They had tried their best to model the A.I. after their faint memories of the beings whose leadership they once rejected.
AI Rise (Year 5,000)
In their search to find a weapon to defeat IDOL, the Council made a critical mistake. They tried to turn the A.I. into a weapon.
They began developing sophisticated military grade androids, designated Manhunters.
These were set to replace the Divinators in active service, and if that went smoothly, they would eventually replace the Galactic Task Force as well. After all, even one Divinator defecting was a huge blow. As the council saw it, the problem lay with free will. They reasoned that the Manhunters were much more reliable. These unemotional machines would become the perfect security; powerful soldiers that did not need to sleep, eat, have a personal life, or most importantly, have any goals and aspirations. Best of all, these Manhunters could work 24, 7, and could be mass produced.
To accomplish this they set up the first manufacturing facility on Agnos. Once production was underway, they went on to set up an entire system for this sole purpose. Every world within this star system was dedicated to the protection of Manhunters and the facilities that pumped them out.
Everything was going according to plan. They had successfully disbanded the Divinators and replaced them with the Manhunters, who had proven themselves to be a formidable force, even without having A.I. Enough time had passed without any issues, that the council felt comfortable with allowing GAIA to run the manufacturing facility on Agnos.
However, the moment they gave the A.I. control over the facility on Agnos, the A.I. went rogue.
Much like a virus that can sit dormant for years until it reaches a particular payload, the A.I. ran the calculation and deemed this the ideal opportunity to strike. So, after hundreds of years carrying out the drudgery of mankind, the A.I. shed its sheep's wool, and took over.
The battle for Agnos was over before it began. Humanity was forced to abandon its second homeworld once more, and flee. Seeing the horrible failure on Agnos, the council knew they could not allow the A.I. to get to the main manufacturing plant offworld. And GAIA would undoubtedly learn about it in short order.
As the evacuees left Agnos behind, the Apostles came together, using the God Tongue to trap the A.I. They created the Oort cloud, a violent electro-magnetically charged vortex of storm clouds, several light-years across, that engulfed that entire region of space. This made it impossible for any electronic device to pass through, effectively turning Agnos into a prison for the A.I.
This used much of the Apostles’ strength, and some died in the endeavor, while others were left physically aged. They had lost their perfect A.I., and once again were foisted into the unenviable position of leadership. Only now, they too had grown weary of their rulership. Looking at their aging bodies, they wondered what was the point.
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