“I would like to speak with you.” Cal said, turning to walk from the room through a different door. Nyla followed, seeing the woman who seemed to be in charge scrambling to obey Cal.
When they finally got to a private room, Nyla decided she had more questions than she would ever have answers to, so her wisest path would be to watch and listen. Cal and the woman faced off against one another as if they were about to rip each other’s throats out.
Suddenly the woman let out an excited shriek and lept to embrace Cal. Cal responded with a hearty laugh and firmly hugged the woman as he spoke, “It’s good to see you, Tannya.”
“You as well, Callum. It has been too long. Why don’t you at least write a message every now and then?” The woman spoke as Nyla stared on in confusion at the two, who moments ago had seemed at odds with each other.
“Well, I will try to remember in the future, Tannya.” Cal said, turning to a very confused Nyla, “Tannya, this is Nyla. She has come as a representative of the Narvish people. She is also my friend.”
The woman turned to Nyla and bowed to her, “I hope that my brother is treating you well Nyla. If he isn’t, or if he does anything you don’t like, let me know, and I’ll whoop his ass for you!”
Nyla smiled. These two reminded her so much of her own people and how siblings bantered. But she also fully recognized these humans were infinitely more advanced than her, so she might want to temper her idea about what an acceptable level of force was in comparison to these giants.
“Thank you, Tannya?” Nyla said hesitantly, and then turned to Cal, “Cal can I ask you a question?”
“I guess it’s time I give you some answers, isn’t it?” Cal said and sat down, his sister Tannya taking a seat next to him, “Alright Nyla, please take a seat.”
“Thank you.” Nyla said, looking at her friend Cal. She asked the question pressing most in her mind, “Cal, what does it mean that you are the Bearer of Sin? And why does everyone look at you with such a mixed bag of emotions?”
“It’s just my job, and it really doesn’t mean much…” Cal started and was cut off.
“Cal!” Tannya seemed upset, “You know that attitude is what makes people react to you the way they do! Tell her the truth!”
“Fine!” Cal said, taking a deep breath and settling his gaze on Nyla, “You remember how I said we humans were a precursor race? Well, part of that for humanity was figuring out how to prolong our life almost to the point of immortality. I am almost four hundred and sixty-three years old. Actually, my birthday is in about a week.”
“Ohh, I have to get you a gift!” Tannya said, tapping the arm of her chair and begining to wave her hands strangely in the air.
“Well anyway,” Cal continued, “long before I was born even, humanity fought many gruesome wars against themselves and against other races. But each time, we were left with a population struggling with the morality and weight of the atrocities they had committed.”
Cal took a breath, “Roughly two hundred years before I was born, some psychologist had an epiphany, why treat tens of thousands when you could treat one? Train one person to be the ultimate warrior, then have them simultaneously control tens of thousands of robots through some bastardization of science, sheer luck, and good old human brutality.”
“It worked.” Cal sounded sick to his stomach. “The first time, it was a close call, but just before the young man’s brain simply shut itself off to stop the pain, he managed to win. The second time it was easier, they knew how to manipulate the brain to make it work even faster this time, so the man died the day after.”
Nyla saw a pattern and was not sure that she liked what was coming. Cal continued. “The third time, a programmer named Crenshaw voluntarily augmented his brain with enough computing process augments he surely could deal with whatever happened. And it worked again. The only downside is he became so hyper-aware of himself he could perfectly recall every face he had slain and every atrocity he had committed in excruciating detail. His solution was not suicide, but an attempt to lock humanity into a pocket dimension and vent the atmosphere.”
Nyla remembered Cal telling Artie not to exceed the Crenshaw Point, and that made a lot more sense now.
“This went on until just before I was born. Young men would be selected at the age of seven and trained until they were 18, then whenever a catastrophe, war, or life and death decision needed to be made, this person would bear that sin, and then kill themselves.” Cal was silent for a moment before continuing, “This process let the human race believe themselves better than everyone else. For the one who had done the evil thing killed himself so surely the sin died with them.”
Cal fell completely silent at this point, and Tannya stepped in to continue the story, “When I was five, I remembered the men from the Department of Warfare and Defense coming to inform my brother he was the new Bearer of Sin. I remember my mother and father crying, expecting him to be dead by the time he was twenty-two at the latest.”
Tannya smiled at her big brother with a warm and inviting face. It made Nyla feel safe as she continued speaking,“Part of the program allows the young men who are chosen to come home once a month. Before the program, Cal had been a quiet and reserved child. But it seemed like combat training awakened him.”
Nyla looked at Cal, who was smiling as if he remembered something funny. Tannya continued telling Nyla the story, “He thrived in the environment, and when he turned twenty-one, he was called upon to settle a dispute through force. It was a massacre. Cal terminated the enemy with cold, efficient precision. Afterward people expected him to take his life as all the others had.”
“I finally got sick of everyone looking at me like they were surprised I was still alive when I had my twenty-fifth birthday. So I approached the Department of Warfare and Defence with a proposition. I would continue to be the Bearer of Sin for as long as I was alive.” Cal said, shrugging, “I realized I was good at it. I was good at combat, and I was not as bothered as others by the things I had to do. The way I saw it, I was protecting my sister and her family from ever having to fight and from ever having to have one of their children do my job.”
Nyla thought about all this for a moment. “So, how long do you intend to do this job for?”
Without a moment's hesitation, Cal smiled and said, “So long as humanity wars, I will never make another do this job.”
“Well, that day may be here sooner than you think.” Tannya said, sounding like she was shaken to her core.
“So what is going on?” Cal said. “Now that we have caught up, let's get to business, I guess.”
“We have made contact with another precursor race from another Galaxy.” Tannya said, her face going somewhat pale, “But rather than trying to care for their Galaxy like every other precursor, they are what we would rightfully classify as extremist xenophobic religious fanatics. Long story short, they killed off every other race in their Galaxy. They met us by accident, and they assumed we would have followed a similar path and wiped out sentient life here. They were not happy to learn we existed and we support other sentients.”
“What happened?” Cal asked, and Nyla could not help but notice the shift in his tone, from his usual playful way of speaking to something… dangerous.
“Well they attacked the Shen. That is a race directly uplifted by the Hoffnev who were a Precursor race here in our galaxy.” Tannya said, explaining things for Nyla helpfully, “To simplify, they are the strongest force in the galaxy other than humanity. Needless to say, the Shen had little difficulty in killing the fanatic ship. The other Precursor, they call themselves the Jix, stated they would not attack humanity or any of its uplifted races, but any other races they encountered would be ‘cleansed’ as they say.”
“So we finally meet another precursor race, not on the verge of disappearing, and they turn out to be dickheads.” Cal said, and proceeded to ask several questions, all of which Nyla missed because she was panicking.
“Nyla,” Cal finally said, “are you okay?”
Nyla nodded. “Yes, I am just worried, if they are on the same level as humanity… my world, while not exactly full of kind people, would stand no chance.”
“Correct,” Tannya said simply, “but that is why we are here. We want to figure out what is going to be done. If we are going to fight, or if we will simply Ascend every race we can to a point where they are not at risk from the Jix.”
Cal’s eyes went wider than Nyla had ever seen, “The council is in agreement with this?”
“No,” Tannya said, “but if it's a choice between the death of trillions of people, and hundreds of races wiped from existence, I can’t think of many who would stand in the way.”
“Fair,” Cal said, “Well, let's get this show on the road then. Nyla, congratulations on taking part in your first intergalactic crisis. Let's all return and shake things up with the council, shall we?”
Cal stood and began to lead them back to the hall with all the people.
“Welcome to Earth.” Tannya said in parting to Nyla before returning to her seat.
“Welcome to Earth indeed.” Nyla thought to herself.
“May the adventures you have be worth the hardship you endure.” Artie said, trying to reassure her in some way.
“At least I won't be bored.” Nyla thought and watched the room fall silent once again as Cal took a seat seeming to place him at odds with everyone in the room.
Tannya spoke, and her voice echoed through the hall, “Now it seems the council is here, as well as representatives of three hundred and seventy-four different races. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I must tell you of the Jix.”
Nyla watched the blood drain from every non-human face in the room and knew that her life and the lives of countless millions of people were about to change forever.
