Give Blood Knowledge for Life was the writing on the wall, the Key turned the wall into a doorway and Garret Weller stepped through. On the other side he was alone inside the chambers of Knowledge that Balgarath and his Eldest Son walked years ago. The walls were a smooth unknown stone that looked both well worked and organically grown, the floor was stained with puddles of blood from those that came before him. The place had a story to tell, it had a message to share, it wanted an audience, and it demanded the price be paid. Garret did not know what there was to find, but he was willing to bleed to learn what he could, and so the crimson of his life was added to the pools upon the floor and smeared across the surface of crystals.
Time became an abstract as he passed from chamber to chamber watching entire Species rise from a variety of humble beginnings, acquiring sentience, becoming a People, a Culture, a Society. Every beginning was beautiful, each People grew and strived to reach their full potential. Generation after Generation came to pass, each laboring to make the best of their lot, and each striving to see the fruits of their labors passed down to their future Generations to come. The People Loved and were Loved. They discovered Art and Song. They struggled and they overcame. They had Science unlike anything Garret had ever imagined. They were everything a People should be, and everyone of their stories ended.
Every story ended in Extinction, and Garret Weller watched unblinking. Everything the was washed away in tragedy. Garret was not the witness of alien extinction, They were not distant long dead races, They were not from another time and place. They were Garret’s People, each and everyone of them. He had watched them Rise. He witnessed their struggles and celebrated their triumphs. He Knew who they were, He Knew where they had come from, and He Knew where they could go as a People. He Knew the Heights they reached, and He Knew the Stars they still reached for in the End. He felt their loss as his own. Each cycle of Extinction was his own End. Never again would His Song be Sung, Never again would his Children’s Laughter greet the Day, Never again would their be a Child to Laugh.
Garret Weller was not alone as he staggered. The place was his companion. It wanted him to be guided, It wanted him to bare witness to what was, and so it appeared as a friend. The memory of Spencer Belcathias is how It knew to appear a Friend. It knew how to lead him, It knew how to keep him staggering forward to learn more no matter how much blood he lost or anguish his mind came to know. Together with It, Garret bled his way towards the Story that waited to be told. Unknown to him, Chancellor Anya Hosmod followed behind him, adding her blood to those that came before her, and with a Guide of her own.
In the final chambers, It shared with Garret, It’s own Story. It showed Garret how It came to Know It’s Self as more then a passive observer. Garret Learned how it came to learn how to exert It’s will. It showed him how It saved others from Extinction, and Garret learned true horror.
It could have saved them. It could have cured their sickness that was a blight upon the Them. It could have ended the drought that crumbled the Them to dust. It could have stopped the shifting of the plates that crushed the Them. It could have put an end to the War that slaughtered the Them.
Instead It saved them from all the elemental dangers they faced and may ever face by replacing their bodies with imperviable Crystal. It then saved them from any danger they were to themselves or may ever be to themselves, by replacing their Sentience, with It’s own.
Garret’s mind reeled with the realization that all the People that were, all of His People, could have been saved. Instead they were consumed by this tyrant. They were made It’s tools of Conquest. It would not stop until all People in all places were made constructs of It’s design. Garret swayed on his feet pressing forward for an exit. The realization echoed in his thoughts and his mouth went dry, All People of All Places made Mindless Automatons of It’s making.
Within the next chamber, It made the Offer. It offered Garret the opportunity to join. It offered Garret the opportunity to embrace the inevitable. It wanted Garret to Know that he would never again Know pain, he would never again need fear, hurt, hunger, sorrow, or suffering in any form.
Looking down upon what was once Balgarath’s Eldest Son. Looking down at what was nothing more then a Vessel of Crystal nearly complete. Another exertion of It’s will nearly prepared to continue the Conquest of All People and All Places. Garret knew that It was asking for his Surrender.
It was asking Garret to sacrifice himself, not just his life, but who he was, and it wanted to use the raw materials to build. It wanted another tool of conquest, another mindless extension of It’s will to subjugate others.
Garret made his way towards what looked like the exit. He stopped only for the sound of a familiar voice. Looking back he saw Chancellor Anya Hosmod enter the chamber. She was accompanied by what appeared to be her father. Garret watched as It made Hosmod the offer. Garret called out to her, and then fell silent as She accepted It’s Offer.
His mind raced in endless cycles of Why? Why would Balgarath’s Son give himself to This? Why would She? What did they understand that he did not? Did they offer themselves to It, so he and Balgarath may leave? Were they only Sacrificing themselves because they believed in It’s cause of tyranny and conquest? Did they really believe It’s denying the ability to ask questions, was the Answer? Did they think so little of People? So little of themselves?
Garret had to make an effort to bleed onto the platform that would raise him to the Navigator’s Chamber. The wound needed to be thumbed open, he needed to flex his hand several times to get what was left of the crimson out of his veins and onto the floor. Eventually though the platform began to rise, and Garret arrived to the killing floor.
It was a large Chamber full of violence, and the Navigator stood in the eye of the storm, expressionless. All of his companions were working in earnest to kill each other while It watched. Without regard, Garret took action, It needed to die. Mendoza was a hair faster then Garret though, and she unleashed her rifle. Several blasts caught the Navigator square in the chest, and it turned It’s unflinching gaze upon her. Without a word or gesture she was consumed in crashing waves of destruction that wiped her life and body away. The blast from Garret’s Psi-Revolvers left everyone wounded, and yet It stood tall and unphased among the wreckage of the control crystals. With a call to arms, Garret charged over the wreckage to face the Enemy.
In response, It simple reached out to Garret Weller and washed him away in waves of destruction. It was then that Garret died.
By the time the Psi-Crystal Ravanon provided had done the work of reconstructing Garret Weller, already several of his companions laid slain upon the floor. Standing naked he surveyed the carnage. Stern Whal was a monstrous plant of wanton destruction, D.A.V.I.D. was a crumpled heap upon the floor, and the room was ripe with chaos and death. He watched as the Navigator stood inside the heat of what must have been the ship’s engine. Garret watched as the Navigator stood there cooking Thint’s flesh from the bone. He knew this was not a battle that he could win, and he Knew the War could not be lost.
Opening his wrists once more, Garret splashed his life’s blood across the control crystals. When the Door Opened, he ordered Peyton to run through it. The door needed to be an exit, and the People of Hexisan and the Milky Way needed to be warned. Scooping up his battered Psi Revolvers, Garret ran barefoot across the hellscape towards what he needed to be the exit.
Mon Aug 10, 2015 9:50 pm
