New Hope: Book 1

Ellie opened her eyes.

Damn it, this is the third time in the last few months that I’m waking up without knowing where I am, she thought irritated. If it was after a bachelorette party, I’d understand, but this is a bit much, even for me, she sighed.

Ellie got up off the floor and stood up, brushed off her suit, and looked around. Weird, where’s the throne and why am I on the floor? she wondered. Did someone move me? Ellie felt strange at this thought. Why would anyone move her unconscious body anywhere? And who would have done it?

The astronaut was in a perfectly white, bright room, without any furniture. She realized that it was completely different from the room she was in a short while ago. Here, the whiteness of the room made it impossible to discern any edges of the ceiling or walls. It gave her the impression of hovering in the air, amidst an overwhelming brightness. Ellie felt uncomfortable in such surroundings, though she probably couldn’t do anything to change the state of things - there were no doors, gateways, or any other architectural details that humans were used to.

Still dressed in her suit and helmet, Ellie took a few steps.

“What’s going on?” she said when she realized how difficult it was with every step she took. There was a heaviness in her walk. She felt like her legs weighed a ton and they’d break like matches under their weight. “I’m heavier than I was before,” she noticed. “How is this possible?” Everything should be much lighter on the Moon. Ellie took a few steps, tripped and fell, crushed under the weight of both her body and the dashing spacesuit.

“Ugh,” she groaned, expressing her pain, discomfort, and irritation.

Although it was much easier in this position to stand the sudden increase of gravity force. Ellie took a look at the display on her shoulder showing the surrounding parameters: radiation, pressure, temperature, atmosphere composition, and the like. She was surprised to notice something that was logically impossible. The barometer showed nearly 700 hectopascals, and the atmosphere composition said there was 20% of oxygen, 78% of nitrogen, almost 1% of argon, and carbon dioxide - a fraction of a per mil. Temperature: 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Air!” Ellie breathed the air deeper into her lungs when she realized someone had, in some magical way, pumped atmosphere into the room of the structure and she could breathe comfortably. As long as there aren’t any pathogens, of course, she thought. She considered it for a minute and decided she can’t move around in the suit anyway. In all the strange turn of events, the presence of atmosphere, though with a slightly lower pressure, like in the high mountains, might be a blessing, if she could only get out of her spacesuit. In conditions of much higher gravity, this task seemed unachievable - even on the Moon, another person’s help was required to put on and take off the suit, but after about fifteen minutes of wriggling around like a bug, and taking off piece by piece alternating between each part, Ellie freed herself from the embrace of her armor and breathed in deeply.

“Mmmm.” The air was pleasantly fresh and electrically charged, like in the mountains after a night storm. When she took off the suit, Ellie noticed that the force of gravity is actually closer to the gravity on Earth. In her mind, it shouldn’t have surprised her much. After all, she had just stood on the Moon’s surface, touching the wall of an ancient building belonging to some alien species. Who knows, perhaps the builders of this construct found some way of manipulating gravity?

Ellie was enjoying being able to move around without the uncomfortable suit when she detected some movement in the corner of her eye. She turned around to face whatever had caught her attention, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

A tall figure materialized a few meters from her and it definitely didn’t look human. When it had sunk in what she was dealing with, the blood drained from her face, and her legs almost gave way.

In front of Ellie stood an alien being. Taking into account their location, it was highly probable that it was the representative of the installation’s builders.

The being had a slim figure and was at least a meter taller than Ellie. Its disproportional arms hung at the sides of its trunk. The newcomer who appeared seemed to be looking at Ellie with a surprisingly human kind of interest. It was as if its eyes were piercing the astronaut. It was a penetrating look but did not emanate evil human emotions. Its skin was gray, almost transparent, like thin parchment. The being’s head and face, if not for the elongated skull, would even look human, though asexual, symmetrical, and completely bald. It was breathing slowly and followed the astronaut’s every move.

Ellie, pull yourself together, she thought. You can’t have any human empathy for this being. It’s not human - you don’t know what its body language or gazes mean, she scolded herself quickly. It may resemble a human being, but it says nothing about what its values are, or whether it will attack me with its sharp claws and teeth, she added to herself, trying to calm down but failing.

Ellie opened her mouth wanting to say something - anything! To her terror, she discovered there was no sound coming from her larynx. The stress and shock had literally tied her tongue. Dr. Johnson closed her mouth and, observing her companion closely, carefully took a step in its direction, still trying to maintain eye contact with the alien. When she stopped about six feet from the being, it spoke. To add to everything, it spoke a language the astronaut understood!

“Hello, Ellie,” said the cosmic being.

Ellie felt as if she had taken a blow to her solar plexus with something hard. The shock made her let out all the air she’d been holding, not knowing what was more improbable: the fact that an alien is speaking to her on the Moon in her language, or that it knew her name.

“How do you know my name?” asked Ellie cautiously.

“I know a lot more about you than you’d think,” said the alien in a calm tone of voice, which had a very soothing effect on the astronaut, taking off the burdens of this world with each word and pouring a peace of mind into her soul. “My name is Elrael, which means “Guide” in your native tongue,” said the alien. “The race creating me in its image, assigned me the task of monitoring the development of your species, Ellie. My role is to observe you from afar, and to establish contact only when certain objective criteria are fulfilled,” it said.

Ellie was listening intently. She couldn’t believe, out of the billions of people living on the planet, she was the one standing before an advanced computer program, it seemed, created by an alien intelligence, and holding a conversation with it. In her native tongue, no less, in the middle of a monumental building on the dark side of the Moon!

Elrael continued its story. “You see, these objective criteria are, first and foremost, certain subtle changes in DNA. As you already know, you’re able to control my makers’ technology to some extent. Do you know why that is?” asked the alien.

“I have some genome mutation which the extraterrestrials’ equipment detects and it activates in my presence, right?” she said.

“That’s only part of the reason, but essentially: yes,” replied Elrael. “A long time ago, my creators influenced the evolution of your species.”

“They did what?!” the astronaut blurted out. “How did they interfere with our evolution? What for? What did they want to achieve? And where are they?!” she questioned.

“I’ll answer all your questions, but let me do so in the order I think is appropriate. It’s important you understand everything. To make sure you do, I cannot jump around the topics without providing you with the right context,” said Elrael. “My creators came to your planet a little over 12 000 years ago in search of an intelligent race, which could help them in a great conflict threatening the existence of their entire civilization. You see, my makers are a very old race, which has been traveling around the galaxy for a hundred thousand years. The Protagonists, as that’s what they’re called, settled subsequent worlds where they created high culture and spread it among the stars. For millennia, without being bothered by anyone, they expanded their influences and reach. Despite the age of their kind, the Protagonists have never experienced armed conflict, and the idea of war...” it paused for a moment, “repulsed them.”

“I see, you want to tell me that your creators are cosmic hippies who hadn’t predicted that not everyone in the galaxy would have a similar approach to life?” asked Ellie in disbelief.

Elrael looked her up and down. “The Protagonists have been searching for thousands of years to contact some other intelligent species. Unsuccessfully. After visiting thousands of worlds and finding simple multicellular organisms at most, they concluded that life in the Universe, at least in our galaxy, must be a rare phenomenon,” it continued. “This lasted for several thousand terrestrial years before the Protagonists encountered a species in one of the new studied worlds, which seemed to be at the verge of obtaining self-consciousness. Natural intelligence, which - like the Protagonists - evolved independently to a level at which it could transform into an intelligent species of beings with the flick of a thumb. Seeking contact with others is a universal trait for self-conscious species, Ellie. The Protagonists were lonely. They had explored a great part of our galaxy without finding any equal partner; nobody with whom they could exchange philosophical views, with whom they could develop and bloom in peace,” said Elrael.

Suddenly, Ellie’s face showed understanding. She suddenly felt enlightened.

“Your creators created aliens equal to themselves, right?”

Elrael smiled sadly, nodding in a very human gesture. “Thanks to a few genetic modifications, they pushed a species I already mentioned forward on the evolutionary ladder and helped it gain self-consciousness,” it said. “There was such joy in the entire civilized world when everyone found out they’re not the only intelligent species in the Universe. Carefully, for the next thousands of years, the Protagonists looked after this kind, helped it in its development, they practically held it by the hand toward enlightenment.” Here, Elrael sighed with grief. “Unfortunately, what is given, and not developed through hard work and own effort, does not portray high values. At least that’s how the Protagonists’ favorites treated their gifts.”

“They didn’t appreciate what the Protagonists had offered them? What happened?” asked the astronaut. She was so immersed in the story that she’d forgotten she was talking with a self-conscious computer program belonging to an alien civilization.

“Pride, Ellie. The Protagonists led the race they had exalted on the path of fast cultural and technological development. Too fast. So much so, they were too late to realize their mistake.” Elrael let down its head in anguish, sighed, and continued. “The exalted race started experimenting on its own with modifications of their genome, trying to raise their own intelligence and match the Protagonists. To some extent, they had succeeded. When the Protagonists figured it out and understood the magnitude of their mistake, which was setting a species that was both too young and stupid in youthful naivety on a path of accelerated and assisted development, a fateful decision was made: to eliminate the entire species and start the experiment from scratch,” said Elrael. “The genetically modified individuals, of whom there were hundreds then, during an armed uprising, hijacked the Protagonists’ interstellar vessel, turned off the transponder, which made it impossible to locate it, and flew off into the unknown.”

“I’ll admit, I’m not surprised they wanted to live. I mean, anyone who found out about a planned extermination of their species would take things into their own hands,” said Ellie. “How could you even think about eliminating an entire species of intelligent beings?!” she argued.

“Ellie, you must understand, the Protagonists are a very old race. Much more logical than emotional people,” replied Elrael. “Their experiment was not only unsuccessful; it led to an uprising of unforeseeable consequences, like a self-modifying species, which has already started showing dangerous tendencies and aggression. “So it wasn’t difficult for the Protagonists to make this decision. A serious threat had to be eliminated. The Sarassians were a threat not only to the Protagonists but to all life in our galaxy.”

“Did...” Ellie paused fearing the answer to her question.

“Did the Protagonists complete their mission and exterminate the whole race? Is that what you want to ask?” asked Elrael.

“Yes, although I think part of me doesn’t want to know the answer,” she replied.

“The Protagonists destroyed all traces of life on the Sarassians’ native planet... Nothing was left,” answered Elrael. “At least that’s what it looked like.”

“Monsters... Call it what you like: logic or survival. In practice, it’s atrocious and a crime. Nobody has the right to annihilate an entire species just because it created it! Life should be priceless!” she argued.

“The Protagonists thought otherwise at the time... Anyway, for the next few thousand years, the Protagonists led a peaceful life, slowly preparing for another experiment. This time they wanted to take a different approach,” said Elrael. “They decided to elevate a different species but not interfere in its development, allow it to mature to meet other civilizations on its own, without disrupting the natural process of reaching a certain maturity. This is where humans come in.”

“The Protagonists created the human being?!” the astronaut was speechless.

“Not so much created as modified it a little. Seventy thousand years ago, they came across quite primitive representatives of your species, which were on the verge of forming society, though it still lived in small groups. The Protagonists made minor DNA modifications to some of the homo sapiens representatives, mainly in the area responsible for religiousness and cooperation in a community. This was enough to begin the dynamic development of humans in the direction your species follows until now.”

“Why religiousness and cooperation? I would have thought intelligence is what makes a species develop,” asked Ellie.

“Without religiousness, no being wants to take any risk that could end its life. Without the spiritual sphere, a primitive species is doomed to stagnation,” explained the alien. “Why go hunting and procure high-calorie meat, necessary for developing the brain, and risk being eaten by a wild animal, if you could just as well eat fruit from the trees and bushes? Why risk finding better hunting grounds, if leaving the current depleted ones could mean a faster death from starvation, even if death is certain anyway but more distant in time? Finally, why risk contact with other people if there’s a risk that strangers who extend one hand could be holding a sharp weapon in the other, which could end our life? Without religiousness, without faith that death is not the end, no species will build a society. Based on trust, true, but also knowing that despite the risk, it has greater meaning. Without religiousness, we cannot have an advanced society,” it replied. “And there’s not progress without society, there’s no collective work for the good of all, there’s no development as a species,” concluded Elrael.

“Wow, I never looked at spirituality from such a perspective! Do you believe that religiousness was sewn into human DNA and it’s something given to us by your creators? That we wouldn’t be where we are today without it?” she asked.

“Exactly right. You also asked why intelligence is not key to the creation of society... Well, intelligence was the reason by the Protagonists’ previous experiment ended in complete failure and the annihilation of an entire elevated species,” it replied.

“I don’t understand why? Without intelligence, we can’t talk about the invention of the wheel, steam vehicles, airplanes, the computer, or the global IT network. There’s no advanced society without all that,” said the astronaut confused.

“That’s true in part, but not like you think. Intelligence is necessary for a species to develop, yes. But without religiousness and cooperation in a society, pathological phenomena will begin to form. Narcissistic traits will start to dominate, people will become extreme egoists, rarely capable of undertaking cooperation for the greater good. Instead, they’ll strive for self-improvement, accumulating power. Too much intelligence at an early stage of development will lead to its debauchery and destruction - if not at the hands of its creators, like in the case of the Sarassians, then at their own. Those are the conclusions reached by the Protagonists over tens of thousands of years,” said Elrael.

Ellie swallowed, trying to digest all the incredible information she received from the alien.

“May I continue my story? You’ll soon understand the role of mankind and how it comes into this story,” it said.

“Please, continue!” She was enchanted by Elrael’s history.

“Alright. Like I said, the Protagonists planned to elevate a different species once again, but before they started the process, the Sarassians appeared again...” said Elrael in a serious tone. “The group of a few hundred runaways, who had hijacked the Protagonists’ vessel and disappeared thousands of years earlier, clearly managed to survive in some part of the galaxy. The Protagonists always thought such a small number of runaways could not survive as it didn’t have the necessary numbers to ensure sufficient genetic diversity,” Elrael sighed, “but they were wrong. The genetically modified Sarassians must have used their extraordinary intelligence and knowledge gathered on the computers of the hijacked craft to artificially introduce diversity into their DNA. Unfortunately, the Sarassians were not idle. Over several thousands of years, they multiplied their population and developed tremendous technology. They proclaimed their return with an unexpected attack on the Protagonists’ native planet, Aurora,” the alien paused and dropped its head.

“Twenty billion beings were extinguished on the first day.”

“Oh, God! That’s dreadful!”

“It got worse. Thousands of years of the Protagonists’ civilization were erased before their eyes. Planet by planet, planetary system after system, the Sarassians were exterminating their creators.

The Protagonists’ civilization was annihilated, and all the planetary systems that contained worlds were destroyed,” it said. “But not all members of the Protagonists were on the surface of the planets during the holocaust. Some were traveling between the systems when they received news of their native planet being destroyed. And although it could be said the war was over and the Protagonists lost it, a handful of their race survived the hecatomb and managed to escape their fallen empire. They settled down over 60 000 light-years from the former boundaries of their territory. Close to a star which, on the third planet from the sun, was inhabited by a certain intelligent species,” paused Elrael.

Ellie suddenly understood. “Humans! Right?”

“Yes, the remaining Protagonists, with a population of only a few thousand survivors, settled in a nearby planetary system. And they want you people to ultimately go there.”

Ellie’s head was spinning for a while now, but this information was too much for her circuits.

“Alien civilizations, ancient extraterrestrials, interstellar excursions, thousands of light-years, and a galactic war!” Ellie started shaking her head. “What else are you going to tell me?!” she asked, laughing nervously. “Okay, receiving more or less everything you’ve said, what is the role of humans in this puzzle? Why did the Protagonists leave this installation on the Moon? Why? What do the Protagonists want from us?” she inquired.

Elrael straightened up and looked studiously at Ellie.

“They want people to stop the Sarassians from dominating the entire galaxy. This race annihilated the gigantic empire of the Protagonists, which had more than 1000 inhabited worlds, in just a matter of a hundred years. This was many thousands of years ago. In the meantime, the Sarassians colonized new worlds, they erased other encountered species and certainly entire civilizations. One day, they’ll get here, too, to your planetary system. There are too few of the Protagonists to face the impending storm. Without the cooperation of humans and the Protagonists, I’m afraid, one day, only these barbarians will remain in this galaxy, or the Milky Way, as your species calls it,” it said morosely.

Ellie was now white as a ghost. The astronaut took a few steps back, leaned against the wall, and sat down.

“How are we supposed to defend ourselves from a threat that destroyed a civilization as advanced as the Protagonists tens of thousands of years ago?” she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. “People have just started flying to space, we’re barely able to make it to the Moon, and even that isn’t always a given! How can we help in a fight against an alien civilization, when the majority of mankind doesn’t even know about the existence of other life in the Universe? There are so many unknowns, I don’t even know where we’d have to begin!” she replied.

“One thing at a time, Ellie,” said the alien calmly. “One thing at a time.”