Epilogue
Epilogue
Akitesh slithered onto the bridge, quite grateful that things went as well as they did. The victim, while obstinate about not getting help, had actually done her job for her, and had convinced the natives of her good intentions.
That’s not to say that things had not gone without a hitch. The victim’s abilities, while helpful to her goal, still raised some concerning implications. He had gained access to the Krin computers way too fast; had he been vindictive and unreasonable, Alexander could have easily done even greater harm to the crippled Krin destroyer.
It made Akitesh wonder about the reason why his species was targeted by the Krin traitors in the first place.
“Ah, welcome back, my Priestess,” Second Voice Jedon said as Akitesh took her seat. “The Creator must be smiling on us, for as tense as that was, it did not devolve into violence.”
“Agreed, though this turned out better than we had hoped, we still aren’t out of the swamp yet. Computer!”
“Yes, my Priestess?” The computer asked.
“I’m uploading a memory engram of the victim. I want you to run it against our species database and give me the closest matches to his basic form.”
“Yes, priestess. Note, I do not have access to the Archives, therefore my knowledge will be limited to basic information. Matters of culture and-”
“I’m aware of that, Aliz. I will ask our experts for more information after you give me a match,” Akitesh said with a wave.
“As long as you know of my limitations, priestess,” the computer answered.
With a hum, the view of the planet in front of them changed to reveal the engram that Akitesh had taken earlier. “So that’s him? I thought he’d be more grotesque,” Jedon said.
“He was,” Akitesh said, not even looking up. “According to the natives, they reverted him. Though he’s not completely himself yet, he’s still in far better shape than he was.”
“Ah… A primitive healing technique, no doubt?”
Akitesh shook her head. “Possibly. Though it is far more likely that these people simply do not know what they are dealing with,” she said as she watched the computer monitor start sorting through all the possible matches. “Despite their outward appearance, these equines’ gifts are extremely well developed. They’ve already pierced the leylines for travel, and can transmit unliving matter almost instantly.”
Jedon looked impressed. “But… scans indicate that the highest level of tech they have is type three, steam power.”
“And I’m not sure how that’s relevant,” Akitesh said, waving off Jedon’s comment. “These people have been swimming in a spiritually rich planet for thousands of years. It stands to reason, then, that their gifts would be among the first things to develop. In fact, their reliance on their gifts may be the reason for their comparatively low tech, and may prove detrimental whe-”
Before Aktitesh could finish that thought, the computer beeped, signifying that it had finished its job. “My priestess, based on all available data, I have determined that the subject’s planet of origin is not in our database.”
Akitesh raised her eye ridge in shock. “Really? There is not a single planet that has a mammalian hominid race?”
“Negative, my priestess. There are exactly thirty planets that fit that description, but none of them have the required spiritual field to produce a mage of this quality.”
Akitesh frowned at that, then rolled her eyes. “Aliz, ignore his abilities and only concentrate on his physical form. There is a precedent for life growing on a spiritual wasteland to develop gifts. I think we can count on him being one of these special cases, especially if you consider where he ended up.”
“Acknowledged. With those parameters, there is only one possible homeworld, with a twenty percent margin for error.”
With these words, a small, blue and green orb appeared on the screen, with a diagram of the male and female examples of the dominant species shown on the right. The species was… actually quite tame, to be honest: Bald skin, with only a shock of hair on the tops of their heads as well as a few other places; curious, intelligent eyes; teeth that looked more fitting on a scavenger, than on a predator, and to top it all off, a physique that suggested they rose to the top of their food chain through innovation, rather than physical violence.
“...Huh, what is it about your species that the Krin traitors finds so compelling?” Akitesh said softly. “Computer, what notable information do you have access to about this race?”
“Our ship has very little record of this species, known locally as ‘human,’ but there are a few things of note recorded for emergency situations. Information includes: a moderate predilection towards violence, though that is not regarded as the norm; No known ability to use spiritual power, though that is most likely because of their planet’s abnormally weak spiritual field; The race is currently on the cusp of a type five civilization, with our scientists projecting that they may reach F.T.L. travel in less than a hundred years,” Aliz said, his voice completely neutral. “There are only two real traits that sets this species apart from the others in the galaxy.”
Jedon rubbed his hand under his chin. “What traits are those?”
“The first is an almost unnatural endurance. The wizards who have examined both them and their history have reported the ability to continue functioning far beyond what should be normally capable of a form like theirs. They can endure a level of radiation, heat, cold, pain, starvation, thirst, and exhaustion that would normally incapacitate or kill most known species. Not only that, but they will not only survive these hazards, but in many instances, thrive.”
“While that is impressive, that is hardly a reason to turn these people into weapons,” Jedon said, raising an eye ridge.
Akitesh didn’t move, choosing to instead stare at the image in front of her. “What is the second trait?”
“Their brains are not unique,” Aliz answered simply. “We do not know why, or what circumstances caused it, but their brains are almost exactly identical to a Quzin’s.”
The bridge suddenly went silent. Every single Quzin stopped what they were doing to stare at the monitor in disbelief. “...What did you say?”
“While their genetic makeup is quite dissimilar from our own, their brains have a point zero zero zero zero zero three deviation from common Quzin brains, which is the exact divergence found between any two random Quzin.” Aliz said, not even caring about the shock he had caused throughout the room. “For all intents and purposes, their brains are the same as ours.”
As she sat there, Akitesh briefly saw an image in her mind’s eye; a picture of the victim walking away from her, his head bowed as he hastily made his retreat. There, on the back of his neck, she could see a small, round, metal hole.
A port for a neural interface.
Jedon gulped uncomfortably as he stared at the image. “... Ma’am, I believe we’ve found the traitor’s reason for targeting these people…”
* * *
“Ma’am, we’re receiving a transmission from the vicinity of The Destiny Ascension’s crash. It’s Ilisk again.”
The captain steepled her claws in front of her, interest written on her face. The plan is worthless, now. The pickup took far too long, and it took forever to shake those dirt-eaters. She thought to herself. “What does the message say?”
“It appears to be a video file, with an attached data file, ma’am. Shall I play it?”
The captain thought about this for a second, then shook her head. “No, send the message to my private terminal.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The captain stood up and left the room, the click clack of her many legs tapping out an odd beat as she made her way to her office. The plan is scrapped, now. I wonder how the Emperor will take this news, and how he will adapt? The captain thought to herself. With a bit of a sigh, she opened her door and stepped inside.
Once she was situated, she pressed a few keys on the computer, quickly bringing up the video file in question. “Now, let’s see what Ilisk managed to get his claws on…”
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7142677 ETA: NOW!
Woot! You forgot to mark this story as complete!
Woot!
:D
I approve of this ending.
7155829 Sorry about that, I fixed it.
Don't worry, though. The new book has already been sent to the mods. You guys should be able to see it within the next hour or so.
7155829 Nevermind. IT'S OUT NOW!
7155845 rs303.pbsrc.com/albums/nn131/aly_cute18/Gif%20Reactions/tumblr_md62czfl3G1ruloaco1_500.gif~c200
I don't know what to call it. A plot twist? Not exactly a cliffhanger but still leaves you with a sense of "Hmmmmm....." (in a good ominous sort of way) I like it!!!!
Also, I've lost track. "The Emperor"? Who's emperor? The lizards or the bugs?
7155860 Getting this out of the way right now: The lizards don't have an emperor.
What puny Xenos dare think itself-more violent? We shall travel the stars, punching every foul pretender race in the balls until this heresy is corrected!
Loving this, as usual.:D
Good chapter! :D
new1.fjcdn.com/pictures/Humanity+fuck+yeah+2_c393af_4739694.jpg
for some strange reason, i got a massive ego boost after hearing the first differing trait about our species...
7155860 the ship they were talking about was the ship he was on that changed him. And IILISK was the bad bug he killed. So they are the bugs behind what happened to alex
I finally finished this story, and...
What.
Through the whole language barrier thing I...
I'm so confused.
I am inordinately pleased by the fact that someone finally got it right that humanity evolved from scavengers and not predators.
7155913
Intriguing! I wonder if Weyland-Yutani ever had an idea of just what a weaponized human might bring to the market, they'd say, "Fuck the bugs on LV-426! We've got what we need right here at home!"
Get it? It's the title of the story! Lols!
Ohmygosh it's done!
Been waiting for it to finish before reading it. I enjoyed the previous story, read it a couple of times, and have been looking forward to reading the follow-up. I'll start reading tomorrow morning, I expect.
Well, that was a pretty good story to read overall. Now let's read the next one!
Aliz, I think? I see both that and Alhz a couple times... which confuses me since it's also the computer's name or one of them is, but anywho. Good work here, I've commented a bit in the past on this story and can't think of much to add right now. The Nazi parallel was interesting. It can be difficult to remember that not every member of an enemy faction is a monster. Kudos on the human depiction, as well. In general I've liked seeing the various races get their due in the world building here. A lot of HIE fics really oversell us to the point of silliness while underselling Equestrians. We're not comic book superheroes; but when we play to our strengths it's something to see. Survivability and adaptability... Alex is certainly running on those at least as much as any modifications made to him.
Not sure if you're familiar with Full Metal Alchemist... but Alex is reminding me of Hohenheim. He has a group of old friends living on inside him, and together they're going to save the world. ...Or will they? Time to go start finding out! *Off to read the next installment.*
An intriguing end to that one. I will definitely read the next story.
lol Poop stick. I should have been but I was not quite there in expecting this expansion of the story just yet. Is Nyan-Cat going to have an appearance? It would be ok if *she* did not. But come on.... Nyan Cat; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4
In anycase the story is fine without. I just think NC would do well as a nascent internet cat symbol fitting to the story. Also poptarts.
A great end to this arc. Well done.
7156000
Our ancestors may not have been predators, but there's no disputing that we are.
Ive been wonderwhat ng this for a while, but are the Quzin similar to the Naga in shape? Or are they more snake like?
Story approved?
HNNNNNNNNNNG.
This opens up... possibilities...........
Keep going! ;)
How fragile must everyone else be if we look like space terminators to these guys?
And if they think humans are "unnaturally" resistant to radiation, than how does anything else in this universe deal with stars? Ours can't be the only star throwing that shit around like candy.
I'm enjoying the story, but I'm a bit confused as to why you are splitting the arcs into separate books.
7155913 Reminds me of a post wondering if humanity was akin to Space-Orcs due to our durability.
(warning, it's long)
i.imgur.com/XpThccW.jpg?1
7156867 your link is broken. Here's the proper one:
i.imgur.com/XpThccW.jpg
Also. Yes, yes we are.
7156873 Both broken, from the looks of it =P
7156995 how about now?
7156998 Nope, still broken.
7157132 They work for me. FiMFiction can't display it however.
7156455
If you compare humans to other creatures of comparable biological complexity, we are absurdly resilient. For many creatures, a broken limb is almost a guaranteed death, whether it's quick from the initial shock or slow from internal injuries or inability to care for itself in the several months it would take to heal. Comparatively, humans almost never die from a broken limb, and our bones heal at nearly twice the rate.
We also have hyperactive scar tissue; this means that while we do have a predilection for exceptionally visible scars, we can also recover from an exceptional degree of damage, from big injuries all the way down to the cellular level. In fact, this is the reason why cancer is so much more of an issue for humans than other animals. Although our bodies are generally pretty good about destroying cancerous cells before they can affect us, it only takes one to get away before it snowballs into a tumor, amplified by our natural ability to scar.
However, above all of this is our insane endurance. Humans have greater heart and lung capacity than most mammals, and can sweat across their entire skin. Because of these, our bodies are very good at getting plenty of energy (which comes primarily from the oxygen we breathe) and getting rid of excess heat. It's true that we lack the muscle density and aerodynamics necessary to hit and maintain a speed of ~40 km/h for any appreciable length of time, but we don't need to. The human body processes energy so efficiently that, theoretically, one could take off at a light jog (~10 km/h) and never, ever, stop. The only creatures that can even hope to keep up with us (that I know of) are horses and dogs, and even then just barely, in the right conditions.
So yes, there's a lot of things that limit humans biologically, compared to other creatures. However, when it comes down to it, humans are the masters of persevering, bar none. The reason we look like Terminators is because we are Terminators (minus the whole "total lack of compassion" thing).
Now...NOW this shit is getting good! As if it wasn't good before.
7157407 So to summarize, we are unusually, maybe even illogically, stubborn.
7157599 damn right
7157599
In a biological sense, yes. Humans on an intellectual level, on the other hand, are extremely varied.
Well... that was definitely a plot twist that shed light on a lot of things.
Shocking indeed, and a great way to end this story. Onwards to the next one!
I'm glad you have imbued humanity with relative strengths among weaknesses in our species. It's much more satisfying to read over most fantasies, which set humanity to a vanilla, or almost worthless or fragile norm.
Yeah, that's one of those cosmic coincidences that probably shouldn't happen ever, statistically. Fits the whole scifi theme pretty well.
So I guess that makes them literally snake-people.
As an aside, I think this may have been going a bit too far; or, at least it doesn't really work with the circumstances very well. This isn't the kind of thing you find out and then dump in some database somewhere to forget about. This is a coincidence on a literally astronomical level. This means that they're effectively human, or that we're Quzin, as it were. Disregarding gross physical characteristics, this means the species are effectively identical. They're the exact same creature, just somehow looking different and separately evolved on two different worlds.
This is the kind of thing that everyone would know about. Like, this should send shockwaves through an entire civilization, or at the very least its scientific community. That kind of thing isn't something that's just casually ignored. You might want think up some kind of reason why not only this isn't common knowledge but why the Quzin haven't contacted what are basically their brothers from another world. It seems there should be one.
I'm liking the light HFY angle that was going on there.
Can't wait to get started on the sequel!
7157835 I know it is statistically unlikely, but there is a precedent for it. It's called parallel evolution, and there are documented cases of it on our own planet. I know it is a huge coincidence, but it's what I've been planning from the very beginning.
As for why this hasn't rocked the scientific community of the Quzin, there is a legitimate reason for it. They'll actually be explaining it in chapter 2 of What I Am, during which Akitesh is going to be having some very pointed words with her scientists.
7156455 Our star isn't the only one, but remember, they're looking at our whole history, and how certain scientists *cough* *cough* Marie Curie *cough* *cough* would carry around radioactive material, without any protection, and continue living and functioning after doses that would have been quite deadly to them.
We grow tumors. They wither and die. At least, that's what happens in universe.
7155998 What were you confused about?
7158119
I think you mean convergent evolution there. Yes, that kind of thing exists. What comes to mind for me in specific are the two different kinds of Assassin Spider on our own world - spiders with a giraffe-like neck. It's actually pretty neat. As far as I know, they're structurally rather different, though, even though they're comparatively speaking very closely related to each other. In relative terms, we're more closely related to a mushroom than an actual alien. It's a matter of degrees.
But that's not really important. I wasn't really complaining about the probabilities of it, that's just one of those things that sci-fi stories do. So long as it's addressed somehow, I'm fine with it. It just felt off to me that anyone could actually be surprised by this. It should kind of be a big deal even by the standards of an ancient, space-faring civilization. That sort of thing doesn't exactly happen more than once even in a civilization's lifetime, after all.
7158140
Idk.
Maybe it's because I haven't read it in a while.
Like, why is there a cat?
When was this cat created?
Why is it his friend or ally who used to be human or something?
WHY ARE THERE LIZARD ALIENS?
WHAT IS HAPPENING.