The Discovery of The Mech Ruins

From The Pardusian Chronicles

While still back on Skara (before I left for Canaab), I once came across an old, now retired star pilot by the name of Ket’shul. People used to mock him and call him senile, as he always kept talking of things most would consider impossible. I, however, was fascinated by his stories, as they spread through most known regions of space, and even some un-charted. Sadly, most of what he said didn’t make much sense, as he kept on mixing memories up, resulting in a great loss of details, though if you had patience enough, I learnt that it was very possible to decipher large part of the information.

One day, just when I was about to leave work for the weekend, I heard Ket shouting something at my back so I turned around to ask him what. “I said: ‘Come over here boy, I would like to show you something’.” “What is that, sir?” I replied. “It’s not here, it’s out there” He pointed his finger at a distinct angle into the sky, “it’s time I show you my home.” This was not an offer, it was a request, and it almost sounded like an order, although he didn’t have any real authority over me, as I was a civilian his rank wouldn’t matter. I followed him aboard his spaceship and I was completely fascinated by all the weird gizmos lying around almost everywhere in the small ship. I had never seen such things and I doubt you’d be able to get them anywhere in this cluster. They seemed awfully old to, not that you can really tell how old things that has spent most of its time drifting through a gravity free vacuum environment are, but something about the design told me it hadn’t been made by ska’ari limbs, and however terrified the thought got me, it seemed they hadn’t been made by humanoids either.

“I don’t know what they are either,” remember that ska’ari have some telepathic abilities, it couldn’t have been hard for him to read my mind “but I found tem and thought they looked nice, so I started collecting them. You can pick some of your own once we get home, they can be found everywhere there.” “I always thought you lived in the pilots, sir’ quarters down by the docks”, we had now already lifted off and were headed out towards the first stratospheric checkpoint. “Nah, I don’t really like those youngsters down there, no manners at all, they won’t even show any respect for us veterans. I like you though, you’re an exception. You always listen; even when I don’t make sense to myself you seem to understand what I’m aiming for.” Of course this last part made me feel a bit proud. This was one of the last few survivors of the Great War and he seemed to consider me as one f his closes friends, even close enough to bring me to his home. I was still very curious to see where exactly this home was, and where he had found all those small wonders. It would still take us a few hours to hours to get there, I realized, as it couldn’t be on one of the close starbases. I had visited them all and I was sure that such things as found on the ship could never be from any of them. I won’t bore you with all the details of the trip, as most of it was just plain travelling through empty space and not very eventful. The trip was even longer than I had expected and after a while I lost track of time. It is very hard to keep track of it without any difference in daylight, and due to the very surprising fact that I couldn’t find a single clock onboard, it got even more difficult. I guess Ket’shul didn’t think the exact time was a necessary thing to know, and because he was probably very used to this route, he could probably tell how much time it consumed pretty exactly.

It might have been several days, but finally I noted a difference in the environment, other than the change of the stars’ placements. Eventually large high energy clouds started to engulf us. Ket’shul didn’t try and avoid them but more or less aimed for them. The ship shook, but its size permitted it to move in between them and around the edges. Then, suddenly all went really bright and you could see nothing for a few seconds. We were no longer in the energy fields but in something that looked a lot like an asteroid field, only the asteroids moved strangely and irregular and they were all very small. As one passed by closer I realized that they were in act no asteroids, but the same weird objects as Ket where collecting on board. Picked up a sphere shaped gizmo and twisted it around a bit in his hands, it started to flare and sent a small beam of light towards one of the similar objects outside of the ship, which in turn started a chain-reaction of small flares and beams all across the small asteroid fields. Once nearly all of the asteroids had, in lack of better words “pin-pointed” each other, they started to move, first towards the middle of the field, then al of them seemed to find its specific position and attach to each other. After a few minutes, it all had resulted in a small starbase having been created in front of my own eyes. “We are home” said Ket’shut, “this is where I have been living for the last twenty years. I believe this is an artefact left by the machine race. I wouldn’t know for sure, but I don’t think there has been another civilization with this technology. I found this while retreating from a battle I knew I would never be able to win, my commanders, however, didn’t share my point of view. I was declared a deserter, so I never reported this place; I needed a place to hide away at the time.” “But you are still a ranking officer of the imperial fleet. How can this be possible?” I asked him. “Food and water was no problem, as there are lots of preserved animal embryos and energy, and material enough to build a small scale space farm that I could maintain myself. However, I realized that the loneliness would eventually get to me. And I started to creep out and monitor the imperial fleet’s communication frequencies for a chance to restore my reputation. When the peace came I thought that was it and I would never be able to celebrate it as a free man, but then I heard of the federal renegades who hadn’t accepted it. At the attack of Skara, I was able to sneak up behind enemy lines and take out an entire squad of renegade fighters before I launched myself back to Skara in my escape pod. This was enough to restore rank as well as reputation in the imperial fleet, but not with the people. Some still considered me a deserter and living as an outcast was even worse than to live on a secluded base in an unknown system. I was never technical enough to get the hang of even a fraction of this stuff, but I’ve always been fascinated by all the small details here and I’ve tried my best to research it.”

I would never have believed even half of this if I had simply been told the story, but now, being at this mech ruin, there was no room for any doubt, only for curiosity and fascination. The ship Ket had entered the system with the fist time was an early version of the Shadow Stealth Craft, even lighter than the current but with less capacity and only three gun mountings. As he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to navigate the clouds again he got rid of all unnecessary details and started to practice flying a ship with a mass lower than five tonnes. As a replacement craft he now had got himself a customized trading vessel with flexible axes holding the three main parts (command bay, living quarters and cargo hold) together. It was small enough to navigate the pass with no problems and could still carry plenty of goods. The small mass also lowered the fuel consumption to ridiculously low levels. There last problem to overcome to travel between the empire core and the machine sector(s) is the “gate”. Ket always used this term, but I believe it is actually some sort of an x-hole. I have went there several times after this and the procedure to enter and exit through it resembles what I’ve read about x-hole-travelling much, although I’ve never actually tried one of the charted x-holes so I wouldn’t know for sure. Ket’shut had triggered it by a mistake the first time, but after analyzing the ships technical logs, he calculated the correct location and energy values needed to complete the jump both back and forth. Travelling one of the modern x-holes takes a lot of time and energy, as they are not nearly as stable as this one. There are no abnormalities, only a great flash of light and that is it. The machine race has most probably created this and it seems as the process in which automatically harvests the energy fields of the ska’ari side’s entrance are fully automated and extremely endurable, having kept it open for such a long time.

Now, I guess about a third of you are waiting for me to continue this story, another third is just sitting there waiting for me to give you the directions to get to this place and the last third is simply not believing a word of this story. I feel sorry for those of you who won’t believe, but I can understand your doubt. I can sympathize with you who would like to explore these sectors for yourselves, and I’m happy that my story has been as enjoyable as it has been for the ones of you who would like me to continue. However, I won’t make anyone of you completely satisfied, as there isn’t much left of the story; I was offered some food and something to drink, he told me a few more of his stories and explained what I‘ve just explained and then we went back to Skara. And I won’t tell you the way to this system as I would like this system to remain secret at last as long as Ket’shut lives there. And I do secure you all of this has happened, so I won’t make the doubtful happy by confessing an un-true truth.

I have, as I said visited this area many times since, I have studied the machinery in this and other nearby sectors intensely, and I have even managed to recover some functionality in a few devices. I believe I might even have found the legendary space docks in which the “cubes” where found. There are no more of them there, but there are loading devices and maintenance units which designs would make them perfect for such ships. I also believe I’ve found some answers about what happened to the machine race and I’ve already started to successfully decipher some of their information banks which seem to contain sophisticated theories about the fabric of space. All of these and many more are stories worthy of telling, but my time is running out and it’ll have for another day.

--Shael'kut 13:38, 9 February 2006 (PST)

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