Chapter Twenty-Nine (Dreams)

Dreams of Something More arranged the guest area a little more and settled down on the woven grain mat. She glanced around, taking comfort from the decorations adopted from a culture her people had almost destroyed. One of TerraSol's warrior cultures from an island. A culture that had gone to war against a titan a hundred times its size and lost. It had fought bravely, had sought a single battle or quick series of battles to convince the larger culture that victory was inevitable.

The larger culture had answered back with atomics.

It reminded her of her own people's mistake.

The little meter high standing at full extension Mantid wiped her grasping hands and leaned back slightly. She nodded to the two warborgs in her chamber, then signaled the door to open to permit a guest.

A Shavashan Councilbeing entered, looking about nervously. Dreams could see it was female, older, no longer able to produce the fat storage along the tail, scales dulled by time despite the attempt at vanity wax and polish.

The one who had asked questions during the initial meeting.

The Councilbeing entered carefully. Dreams was amused that despite being three times her mass the guest watched Dreams closely, glancing now and then at the two huge warborgs behind Dreams.

"Have no fear, they are not here out of fear you will do violence," Dreams said softly through the omnitranslator.

Behind her she could feel, through her sensitive antenna, the two warborg's minds growl and snarl at her telepathic senses.

It soothed her to know she would never harm another, even if her implosion wire malfunctioned.

The other being, Speaker Hashknesh, nodded slowly as she lowered herself into the cushion. The mantid seemed so small compared to the white one that had first spoken. A third of its height, yet it had an innate sense of nobility and made Hashknesh want to attend to the Mantid's commands.

"Is this a social visit or business?" Dreams asked through the translator.

"Could it be both?" Hashknesh offered.

"We are politicians, diplomats, it is always both," Dreams said, signalling amusement.

The Shavashan diplomat signaled amusement.

"I feel I have previously deduced the reasoning for your visit, but I would hear it from your own jaws," Dreams said. She used a bladearm to delicately spear a chunk of raw and spiced fish. Other Mantids prefered synth-flesh, but Dreams enjoyed her luxuries.

"The Councils all appreciate the assistance of TerraSol in repelling the Precursor machines, especially out in the Outer Rim, but are concerned about something that keep occuring on certain worlds," Hashknesh said. Dreams made a mental note that out of all things going on, this one was what they chose to have somebeing enter her presence to complain about. Speaks Words that Others Fear would never let her live it down that he had been right. The gold mantis pulled her attention back to the Shavashan diplomat. "Despite being the property of various business entities of various power and names, some whole systems have been turned over to races that are not even civilized."

"I see," Dreams said, sliding the tray aside with her bladearm. It would not be a good thing to eat while this being complained. It made her implosion wire worry.

"On nearly a dozen systems they have destroyed all presence of the Precursor machines, but then turned right around and, instead of the owners, turned the system over to a different species," Hashknesh said.

"The species that owes its genesis to that world," Dreams said. She did not trigger her questioning holorune. "Those lesser beings that somehow struggled to dim sentience on that world are being allowed to stray from their appointed path and the Terrans are returning the planet to them no matter how slim a claim they have on the planet they merely evolved upon."

"Exactly," Hashknesh said, "This has caused much consternation among business and industry beings, some beings that are even considered withdrawing support for this war unless those worlds, and the species, are returned to their control."

"The Terrans have accomplished something unique to them, probably back before they mastered fire," Dreams said, lifting a droplet of water and sipping from it.

"What?" Hashknesh asked, wondering what this had to do with the release of servant species and the refusal to return those species's homeworlds back to the Unified Councils.

"They broke free of the chains of their DNA," Dreams said. She tilted her bladearm and let the water droplet slide back into the small pool of water. She stared at her guest, reached her bladearm out and stirring the water.

The Shavashan triggered the rune for mental confusion.

"I looked at your record, Honored Speaker, and do you know what I found?" The Mantid asked, a sudden apparent non-sequitur within the change of subject.

"What?" Hashknesh asked, frowning slightly.

"You have been forced, by biology, to take no less than fourteen hiatuses from your work here in the Council. Forced no less than fourteen times to return to your homeworld, I assume because of your rank and not some biological imperative that mandates your species can only breed on your homeworld, so that your body could ovulate, fill your abdomen with eggs," Dreams said. She stopped stirring and folded her arm up, going perfectly still. "Then allow a male to fertilize those eggs before laying them. Probably in sand selected by some standards you barely understand. Biological imperative might have even insisted you raise those young for a period of time."

"Of course," Hashknesh said after the pause stretched out and she realized that the Mantid expected her to reply. "How could there be anything else?"

"Why, do you suppose, that you never volunteered for sterilization?" Dreams asked.

Hashknesh rocked back at the thought. Only the worst criminals, with genetic lineage that would pass on criminal tendencies, were sterilized.

"There it is. You object to such a thing at a primordial level," Dreams said softly. "What about some sort of implant to control ovulation?"

Again Hashknesh reacted with revulsion. "Why? What if it malfunctioned and I lost the ability to procreate?"

Dreams shook her little head. "Would it shock you to know that Terran youth often have ovulation and sperm production control implants? What if I told you that Terrans consider that a legal right? How much would it shock you to know that roughly 2% of all Terrans ignore biological urgings and not only refuse to procreate but refuse to engage in any type of sexual conduct?"

Hashknesh goggled at her host. "But, who else will carry on your..." she came to slow stop looking at the two warborgs.

Dreams hummed, then lifted up a grasping hand. "You are still bound by the chains of biology, of DNA," she made a motion at the warborgs. "They are not."

She paused for a moment. "Does your species perform DNA scans to see what each individual would be best at?"

Hashknesh nodded. "Of course. How else will they achieve happiness and completion?"

"How indeed," Dreams said. She flashed the rune for wry amusement. "The humans do also. Would you care to guess at what percentage follows the dictates of DNA?"

Hashknesh signaled confusion. "Oh, they seem to thrive on chaos, so I guess... umm... 80%. That number seems quite low, but reasonable."

Dreams flickered the laughter icon. "Oh, my, no. Much less. Try about 4%. On a good year," she waved at the two warborgs. "The one on my left is a tailor, the one on my right a bricklayer, according to their DNA. Yet both have fought and prevailed upon a hundred worlds."

Dreams flickered the amusement icon again.

"We are all slaves to our DNA, despite our high technology. Yet somewhen, back on ancient Lost Terra, some human who was genetically a hunter, looked at another human who was chipping flint and said: I want to do that."

"Why would they do that? Do they not seek contentment?" Hashknesh asked, looking at the two warborgs.

"Have you met a human?" Dreams trilled her laughter and flicked four different icons, including a violent Neko Marine emoji, all of laughter. "Too often a content human looks around itself and thinks: 'hm, should I break that?' while you are willing to just sit there, content, your brain turned off, humming to yourself in contentment. For a human, happiness and content are fleeting and lead to boredom."

"What does this have to do with what is going on out on the Outer Rim?" Hashknesh asked.

"Because humans broke their chains, freed themselves from their DNA before they mastered fire, they understand freedom is not only a right that all living things have, but a state the universe itself prefers," She slid her bladearm through her mandibles and looked at her guest. "In the same way light seeks to escape a star, particles attempt to escape an isotope, a human shrieks and screams and fights for freedom."

She folded her bladearms. "So no, it does not surprise me that the humans are freeing your servitor species."

"Why hasn't that tendency been gentled through DNA and breeding?" Hashknesh asked, the idea of denying her DNA mandate disgusting her. "Surely it interferes with their society and culture. Surely someone would suggest or assist them in such an endevour."

"To quote a human philospher: You and what army?" Dreams said. When she saw her guest didn't get it she shook her head. "So, which races shall you volunteer to force the Terrans to kneel to the determination of their DNA and biology?"

The Shavashan opened her jaws to answer but the gold flashed a wait icon.

"Choose ones you never want to see again, because I will promise you that those races won't survive the attempt," Dreams told her guest. "And do it somewhere you don't mind losing. An odd star cluster or two, maybe part of the galactic arm spur. Because that fight would be so legendary galaxies not yet born will awaken to see "OH GOD IT HURTS!" splashed across dying stars still reverberating with the screams of the dying."

"Surely it won't..." Hashknesh started to ask when Dreams interrupted her.

"Stop thinking as a politician of the Unified Blah Blah Blah Council and look at what is behind me. Two. Two Humans," Gold triggered a sound-meme of a man laughing. It was a joke but the other politician didn't get it. "There's nothing on this planet that can stop them. No orbital weapons are in position. By the time they stopped this place would be wreckage. This is not hyperbole, this is fact. And I promise you, right this second, they've already run simulations wondering: hmm, should I break that?"

Gold shook her head and speared a piece of fish a little too hard and her bladearm point tacked a small dent into the tray. She slowly ate the fish meat, staring at her guest, flashing the wait rune. Once the fish was gone Dreams folded her grasping hands and sighed.

"Your Unified Science Council has already determined that the majority of your 'civilized' races show signs of genetic manipulation, of uplift, correct?" Dreams asked. Hashknesh nodded. "That was my race. You were food."

The wire tingled.

"We left, and after a hundred million years, all you've done is step into our shoes," Dreams shook her head sadly. "You don't know any better, I guess. Even cattle want to rule over somebeing."

Dreams waited, watching the Shavashan struggle with the realization that she was looking directly at the race that had modified hers.

To eat.

Dreams deliberately stabbed another piece of fish meat rolled in rice and plants, dipped it in sauce, and delicately nibbled it away, staring at the other politician.

The words so many humans had uttered bubbled up in her mind as she stared at the lizard in front of her.

Yeah, it's like that.

To break the tension Dreams flashed the rune for 'heed my words' after she had cleaned her bladearm. She could tell the Shavashan wanted to leave but was frightened to.

"These worlds, in this area of the spur, were, well, probably cattle worlds. Probably gentled to ensure that nothing would hurt your species. You had that advantage. Some archeological records suggest it was done all across this broken off area of the galactic arm spur," Dreams said. "Even the races that rose up later, during our 100 million year absence, benefited from such."

"There has been evidence of terraforming," Hashknesh admitted. "But didn't the humans have someone help them rise up? Destroy the dominant life form, a feathered lizard if I'm correct, so that they could rise up?"

Dreams chuckled. "Despite human suggestion at times to the contrary, nobody did it to them. It was complete random chance. Just luck of the draw. The most is that maybe a ship nudged a chunk of rock that led to the meteor impact, but no. By the time that happened the war had been over a couple thousand years. We know that much."

"Oh," Hashknesh had hoped to puncture a hole in Dream's statements.

"Go back, tell the massive corporations and conglomerates and such that if they want the humans to give back their slaves and those planets, they're free to force the Confederacy to do so," Dreams said.

She stabbed another piece of fish.

"Just remember Speaker for how well that goes."