SG Nova Roma, Chapter 3.03

3 – Rewritten History

(Spera – Science Lab – Day 151, 0935)

Nikita Aranov was sitting behind his desk. There was a metal box – about the size of a shoebox – sitting on the desk. It had appeared in the Gate Room while he and Colonel Vale had been down on Earth. A review of the sensor logs had shown that somebody had teleported aboard Spera. Alas, the logs had not given them any clues to who had teleported it or why. Nor did they tell them what was inside the box. ~Only one way to find out.~ He took the lid off the box and looked inside. There was book inside.

“What in the world ?” He said as he took it out.

The book was called ‘Rewritten History’ and was written in Latin. Aranov looked at the Valerius family. Octavia was talking to her son, while Attitia had found a chair to sit down. ~The book can wait.~ He turned to Miss Valerius.

“Are you okay, Miss Valerius ?”

“This is….” She gestured to the room. “….insanity. My son vanishes and then returns…from thousands of years in the future. He traveled in time itself.” She paused, leaning back. “And we are onboard a ship that sails between worlds. Like I said….this whole thing is madness.”

“Well, you are handling it well, ma’am,” Nikita began. “My mother would have gone crazy at this point.”

“Perhaps I have,” She pointed to the book. “What is that ?”

“It is…,” He realized that modern books – or a codex – had not been invented in 12 BC yet. “…a kind of scroll.” He opened the book and turned it so that she could see the title page. “It appears to be a tale of some kind, written in Latin.” He turned the page, where the story began.

“Yes. But I do not understand all the words,” Attitia said. “Nicolaus, tell me the story.”

“Yes, ma’am,” He said as he turned to book around. “Thousands of years ago, there was an Old Empire that ruled many places. To control its territory, the Empire had many sky vessels, filled with legions of soldiers.” He wasn’t reading the story exactly as it was written down, but was adapting it make sense to Miss Valerius. “But the Empire was so vast that with the young people serving the legions, there were no people left to become scribes, healer and builders. And so the Empire made a machine that made slaves to fill these roles.” ~Okay, this is part of the story we figured out on Praedones Prime.~ He noticed that Octavia was also listening to the story.

“Is that where these….people came from ?” She asked. “The ones like Decanus T’Zalo and Legionnaire G’Yal ?”

“Yes, we believe so,” G’Yal said. “Scribe Nicolaus ?”

“Not everybody in the Empire thought this was a good approach. What if an illness killed all the slaves ? They feared that a great deal of knowledge would be lost, leading to the collapse of the Empire.” ~And this is where we start learning things.~ “And this is exactly what came to pass. An illness sprang up and killed all the slaves, then turned on their masters. All that was left, was a small city at the very edge of the Empire.”

“But Legionnaire G’Yal would not be here if that was true,” Octavia said.

“The scroll is called Rewritten Histories,” Attitia said. “And G’Yal is here. So….”

“The last of the Imperials found a way to sail through time itself. They could travel to different dates in history as a ship can sail from harbor to harbor. But the machine had not been tested. With so little of them left, the Imperials dare not test it on themselves. And there were no other living beings to test the device upon.” He paused. “Until a vessel named Destiny sailed into their territory.”

“The vessel you are looking for,” Octavia said.

“The illness that had destroyed the Empire had spread to those aboard and they did not have the means to treat it. Destiny runs on…lightning created by leeching fuel from suns.” Attitia and Octavia exchanged looks, but Aranov continued. “While the ship was leeching, the crew used to the Portal to go home. There, they were cured of the illness. But the people of Earth were never able to set foot on Destiny again. It is at this moment that the Imperial decided to use their device. And it worked,” It was at this moment that Colonel Vale and Gaius the Elder walked into the room.

“The Imperials successfully moved Destiny twelve hours back in time. And those aboard believed it was the act of using the Portal that close to the sun that threw them back.” ~I can’t blame Rush for not getting it wrong. He had no way of knowing about Praedones and the Empire.~ “But their acts rewrote history. The Time Sail also worked by leeching upon the star. But it required many times the lightning that Destiny did, and this made the star unstable. And that made the passage created by the Portal unstable.”

“Novus,” Vale said. “They created Novus,” He paused. “They were dying of the illness, so they had nothing to lose. And so, they went through the unstable passage. This send them sailing back in time, where they created a colony named Novus. But the illness…”

“…was cured. In this version of history, however, there were very few people of Destiny left. And the colony of Novus never grew beyond a small town,” Aranov said. “The Imperials took this cure and modified it work for themselves and the slaves. But they had to sail back in time to restore the Empire.” He turned the page and found a schematic. ~How do I translate that ?~ “There’s a drawing here, but I have no how to translate that.”

“May I ?” Colonel Vale asked.

“Sure.”

He gave the book to Marcus, who studied the drawing for a moment. Then he turned to his father. “Father, do you remember that time you had to outflank some bandits ? And the only way to get do that, was to climb a hill. But the hill was too steep, except for a stream….”

“Yes, I had one of the Legionnaires take off all his gear and climb the hill with a rope. He tied the rope around a tree and then threw it down, allowing the rest of the group to climb the hill.”

“That is how the device works,” Marcus began. “Except they did not tie the rope around a tree, but around a sun. And the rope sucked the life out of the sun. Until there was nothing left, but a black heart that crushes anything that gets too close out of existence. A black that heart that began to roam the stars,” He paused, allowing Aranov to realize that Vale had just described a black hole. “And in time, that roaming black heart destroyed the world of Novus, forcing her people to find a new place.” He handed the book back to Nikita.

“As for the illness, the cure was spread and the Empire was saved,” Aranov began. “The illness never infected the crew of Destiny and Novus went from being a small settlement to a vast realm of human worlds. But not all was well. Because the leaders of the Empire did not want to create another Black Heart, those that had sailed back in time, had life out their days in the past. And in doing so, they altered history farther.”

“The Beehive Vessels and the Ballistae,” Gaius the Elder said. “They have not been mentioned in the story so far, have they ?”

“No, they have not been mentioned so far,” Aranov said, while Marcus explained about the command ships and berserker drones. “Perhaps because…,” He turned the page. “….the Beehives did not exist before the Imperials sailed back in time. That is the alteration they made. They created the Beehives Vessels and the Ballistae. And thus began the Great War, which the Empire lost. The last of the Imperials fled to a faraway place, leaving only the slaves.”

“We know what happened next from our travels,” Marcus began. “The Healers, G’Yal’s people, settled in a far away place as well. But the Builders also settled there and the two species did not get along. However, neither could win the war between them and there was a balance. Until Destiny came along.”

“My people became obsessed with Destiny,” G’Yal began. “They believed her secrets would break the balance, allowing them to destroy the enemy. But in order to chase their prize, they had to establish colonies of away from the bulk of their territory. I and many others were born in these places. And we believe that there is more to life then chasing Destiny, which makes us rebels in the eyes of our Empire. Had it not been for Spera and her crew, they would have wiped us all out.”

“So, if you do not care for Destiny and its secrets,” Octavia began. “why are you here ?”

“Because saving Tribune Young and his people is the right thing to do. Not to mention the chance to see the universe. And if we succeed in keeping Destiny from them…well, can you think of a better means of vengeance ? As for T’Zalo’s people, we found them while they were under siege by the Beehive Vessels. They needed help against them and we needed help against the Empire. So we formed an alliance.”

“And then Nova Roma reached New Asuras and Marcus told you the rest of the story,” Aranov said.

“Is that in the scroll as well ?” Attitia asked.

“Yes,” Aranov said. “All of it.” He skipped through the book, until he was near the end. ~Let’s see what we have here.~ “The scrolls is not entirely used. The text ends around a third through the available papyrus,” He looked at the end of the text. “The last piece of text is about us being send here. And the approaching legion of Beehive vessels..,” He looked at Colonel Vale, who gave him a nod. ~Hopefully there will be some answers.~

“In the many thousands of years since the fall of their Empire, the species that we call the Praedones, have replenished their numbers. They are the ones who have seized control of the Beehive ships to destroyed our world. They want to undo all the alterations and return to the original history.”

“But why attack here, in the past ?” Gaius asked.

“Because the world in the future has formidable defenses,” Aranov said. “And according to the scroll, they have no knowledge of our history. They secretly scanned us and learned that Humans existed as early as this years. They believe that if Destiny’s crew ceased to exist, the Time Sail will never be tested and used. Then they can return to the small settlement, cured their people and rebuild the Empire unopposed.” He paused.

“But there are those amongst the Praedones who think this is a foolish move. They believe that if mankind is lost, so will be the cure. And that destroying us might give rise to far greater dangers. So they send us back here and send us this scroll, hoping that we would be able to stop the legion.”

“So,” Octavia said. “How do we defeat several thousand sky sailing beehive ships ?”

The room fell silent, because nobody had the answer. But they all knew that they had to come up with a plan before the command ships got here. Or else, Earth would have no future.