~
Tyscio looked at his Retainer blankly and Hespante exhaled loudly knowing that Tyscio's questions held reason.
As he contemplated what he would say having been cornered by his Caprician charge he heard the boy tap his feet impatiently.
Hespante decided to come from a direction the boy would not expect. Heck, the simulacrum just about patented the oblique approach to questions so why stop now?
"Do you believe that people change over time?" he asked cautiously.
Tyscio's eyes narrowed in a slow irritation that the Retainer would not directly answer his question. Then his mind considered the question and his own experiences.
From Almania and his encounter with the Sith Lord Recon Klain to his travels with Leia on Endor to the Conquest of Capricia.
He knew his perceptions had changed.
"Yes," he finally answered, "I believe we are changed over time by experiences."
"Good. So you aren't a total fool." the simulacrum offered in response becoming gruff knowing that he would reveal something he felt he really shouldn't.
As Tyscio bristled at the tone, Hespante hurried on. "Now let me set the stage for you harking back to Ages past. The war that ended our Commonwealth Union of Worlds was by no means a simple matter. There were many converging forces.
The Force.
The Angelis.
Our own Solarians.
Our own arrogance."
"Hespante.." Tyscio began, clearly irritated now.
"Just wait!" the Retainer snapped and Tyscio's mouth closed. "You do not remember and I am trying my best to convey to you the world in which you were born into. I want you to understand!"
Tyscio found a nearby chair, sat down and crossed his arms. "Go on." he stated flatly, still put off by Hespante's tone.
"The Commonwealth Union of Worlds was an arrangement of our young galaxy that had no rival. Look at me! Our technology was second to nothing and I was but the tip of the iceberg (as they say). Now that may seem a great accomplishment and it was. But you must also realize that many many races known now were just crawling out of their caves and discovering fire."
"Everything was a curious and curious adventure. Ideas on traveling to the next galaxy, several to be sure, ever outward were prominent. There were also ideas on travelling inward."
"Inward?"
"Of course. For what piece of work life is!" Hespante recited and Tyscio felt a wave of uncomfortable familiarity with the phrase wash over him.
"The Question of Origins was debated on a grand scale."
"Origins?"
"Of course. I had a designer. A complex simulacrum like myself. But I am not the perfect biological entity of a complex living organism. My capabilities are still tied to something whereas you, humans, aliens, life are truly independent organisms. Who was your designer? Does life have a designer? Or did life .. just happen?"
Tyscio's brow furrowed. "Did anyone ever find the answer?"
Hespante laughed a sad laugh. "Oh the debates raged. You see, with all our technological advances, we could find no hard physical evidence that clearly established the existence of GOD. The fact that this GOD chose not to interact with us prompted others to deny said God's existence. Then others claimed that Simulacrums could deny the existence of their creators, could halt all interaction with them as well but that did not mean their designers did not exist. Who were we to think we were this great thing to be admired and fawned upon like spoiled children."
Hespante's smile faded. "An Age came and went and we grew. The galaxy became more crowded soon the Origin Question fell to deaf ears as we became our own GOD. Simulacrums reached the critical factor that sparked a frightening self awareness. And so we became integrated into the growing society.
And then, we thought we could better ourselves under Unification. For our Commonwealth to truly be a Union of Worlds, we needed tighter cohesion and so the cornerstone worlds were selected and set up. These cornerstone worlds were the birthplace to our greatest achievements in human genetic engineering. The concensus between the leading races was that the human form was more functional and suited to bearing the burden of administration of a more complex Union.
Your inherent genetic markers, the inherent Caprician genetic markers give you abilities no other group of humans possess."
Hespante glanced down. "Because the Caprician people were engineered."
"Clones?" Tyscio whispered in shock.
"NO!" Hespante looked up angrily. "You are not clones! You are a living, breathing entity! There was a great move to create as much variety as possible on the cornerstone worlds.
The great sphere of Brindheir that encircled a star was completed and that is where the great races were created while their worlds were terraformed and engineered to be a home that would last for Ages! And there was much celebrating as your kind awakened to the welcoming arms of your own creators.
It was truly a moving moment. Almost our finest hour of accomplishment! You were not just citizens of the Union, you were our leaders! Long lived! Incorruptible!"
Tyscio's mind was aflame with questions but Hespante held his hand up stilling his mind. "An Age or two passed again and our great Commonwealth Union of Worlds still stood. Our cornerstone worlds had aged and aged well.
It was thought that all frontiers except the frontier of space and time had been crossed."
"And then?"
"The Nephys was discovered." Hespante said flatly. "The midichlorian connetion and the Force. There were always indications but they were brushed off. There were things we did not know regarding this aspect of life. Midichlorians are not like mitochondria. They cannot be studied the same way or compared the same."
"What clued them in?"
"Their living creations on the cornerstone worlds running the Union. You see, they began to procreate which was a desire not really instilled in your species. Your numbers began to grow outside of being engineered and soon, there was no need for engineering for your numbers were growing naturally.
And that was a fantastical time for you and those like you. To discover the joys, heartache and frustration of raising children and having families. In fact, the family unit became a most powerful unit within your social circles."
"Family circles?" Tyscio whispered.
"From families to houses. From houses to clans. Capricia has always had a powerful familial society."
Hespante agreed. "But with this change came perception changes. The idea of creating in a lab what was happening naturally suddenly became offensive. A perversion of what life began to take over. You see, Capricians did not have midichlorians in them. They were not designed with them but as time moved forward and as you began to procreate, your bodies adapted to life around you. Gradually, your long lives lessened. Even your inherent mental abilities disappeared, except the rare instances as seen during the First and Second Invasions. Remember the Jedi mantra. Life creates the Force. Makes it grow. The moment life entered your engineered bodies, the groundwork for the midichlorian's growth was secured.
And as the galaxy became more and more crowded, so too the potency of the Nephys, the potency of the Force increased. Where extreme emotion could give rise to extreme power. But even then, the Union stood strong.
Had for Ages."
"So what set off the spark?" Tyscio asked.
"The discovery of Vall."
At Tyscio's questioning eyes, the Retainer continued. "There was a planet discovered that seemed to have undergone a plague of epidemic proportions. The society was advanced in some areas, in others lacking. But what was confusion was that we could not find out what happened to the people."
"Didn't they die in a plague?"
"If plague had taken them all, there would be evidence. And we did find evidence of many dying but a handful of survivors were working feverishly for a cure. Or, what we thought was a cure. Apparently, they had come to the conclusion that they could not defeat the plague on it's own terms and so they accelerated an obscure branch of science. Records indicate that the resources for their entire race went into this."
Tyscio, curious inspite of himself, couldn't wait. "Did they find..?"
"We found a machine that had no explanation as to it's use. It was an artificial accelerator."
"An artificial accelerator of what?"
"The physical body."
"What?"
"You see, there are theories that our bodies are set in a state of perpetual, progressive evolution. Like it is written into life on a genetic level. There is speculation that the next great step of our natural evolution os to shed physical bodies for ... something else."
"So, rather than wait naturally, they moved the evolution date up and shed their bodies artificially." Tyscio concluded. "They banked their salvation on speculation?"
"Well, they were also a religious lot which seemed to be the driving force behind this science. To become Divine and take your chances in the court of God." Hespante said flippantly. "Still, it showed us that there were areas of investigation that we had never considered. And so our collective curiosity once more aroused, we began efforts to not only find out if the ancient people of Vall found their salvation but we began to wonder what this meant for us?
The Origin Question was revived. Things are only supernatural if you cannot explain them. Given time, money and investigation, the supernatural will become scientific theory.
And so our resources went into similar acceleration projects and eventually, we found them. Or rather they found us. We termed them the Angelis though there was not much interaction with them. At least at first. But the more we experimented, however, interaction came in the form of force. They attacked our efforts viciously.
At first we thought it was simply a misunderstanding and tried communicating. But as our science progressed so did their efforts to stop us and it became clear that their realm was one that we were not welcome too.
And collectively, we recoiled in offense."
Hespante smiled sadly, "Our efforts increased and the Angelis began to strike more frequently on our own plane of existence. It was truly a frightening time."
"Where were the Capricians during all of this?" Tyscio asked shocked.
"The Cornerstone worlds (of which Capricia was one), Brindheir the capital, were running the Union. The sciences were never controlled by your kind. They remained in the hands of the predecessors of your designers.
While you were legally equal, you were not quite equal in the minds of those considering themselves of natural (real) 'life'.
Arrogance began to polarize our society views and the government, the cornerstone worlds and Brindheir, valiantly tried to stem this tide but the indications were overwhelming that a war was coming.
And when the Angelis began to appear frightening, inhabiting, possessing...doing what they could to break our will to reach their plane, we went mad.
There were those who considered themselves powerful trying to use the Force against these creatures. And when these creatures would materialize inside the body of one of these force users, oh the damage they would sow!"
"The cornerstone worlds decided to create the Union's first military force to combat these Angelis. And so the Solarian Simulacrum was created. The people did not want simulacrums like me, like simulacrums who could be considered equal in law and mind. We were considered more equal, ironically, than you were as we were around much much longer than you. The people wanted a military force that would follow orders and viewed things with a clarity of simplicity. And when the Solarians went online, they were simple. And they were powerful."
"There were fights between Solarians and Angelis but I do not think a simulacrum was exactly the match to these creatures as we had hoped. Eventually, the Solarian's figured out that the Angelis would stop their presence if we stopped our endeavors along that branch of science.
The Solarians massacred the team on Vall and destroyed anything and everything relating to the science that they could. Oh how they took the Union by surprise at what was considered the Solarian Betrayal.
The attacks of the Angelis stopped and as the years began to crawl by, the Solarian hold on the Union was becoming ever oppressive for they did not consider their function, their purpose over. Really, what is left for a creation who finds the reason he was created invalid?
We were the architects of our own doom.
And so a great war broke out between the governmental cornerstone worlds, the scientific populous who considered themselves 'real' and the Solarians. The Solarians had their power sources, you had your inherent abilities and the rest had the force.
And the Union was destroyed.
You were born at the tail end of the fall. The Solarians had finally retreated, disappearing into the void where they reside never to be heard of since then. But the negative emotions that your designers displayed soon crossed into your world Tyscio. Capricians and the cornerstone worlds began to believe themselves the heirs of Brindheir. Your father severed the transit crystals to the capital plunging the Union into darkness, planet cut off from planet, system from system.
It was his wish, that after a time, his sons would leave Brindheir with fleets of ships to rebuild the old transits and pull the galaxy out of the ashes and reestablish their utopia.
A general, called Bane, though caught the royal family over Capricia before the final transit could be made.
The capital was severed, and most of the transit crystals were destroyed but none of the old leadership remained. Your family was killed and you, Korban, the third son of Stettin were injured. As your Retainer, my responsibility was clear and you were hidden to heal."
"We went to Almania?"
"It wasn't called that at the time, but yes. Bane consolidated his hold eliminating his rivals and set up his own kingdom. Then came your return and the return of hope.
The old armies marshalled during the wars rallied to your banner and you set out to reclaim your family glory and your throne."
"I remember a woman named... Brandt?"
"Of Ferendi Clan. Suffice to say that you found happiness once more on Almania. She was at your side and led a wing of your soldiers."
"Bane captured her?"
"She was a passionate woman, fierce and strong in the force. Bane captured and twisted her thinking to his ends. And in doing so, led you and your armies into a trap, he destroyed them and captured you.
The girl redeemed herself in the end getting you out of Bane's hands. You killed him but she was mortally wounded. You took her ancient saber and ended her suffering."
"I.... I remember vaguely that. It was in my mind when I awoke once more on Almania."
Hespante sighed. "That encounter changed something in you, Tyscio. I took you back and placed you in stasis until you healed once more to awaken again. To date, you have awakened ten times and have had countless adventures. Each time a little bit different. Each time trying to reclaim old glory even as Brindheir, the cornerstone worlds, Capricia, the Commonwealth Union of Worlds and everything you grew up with faded from memory, became myth and then forgotten.
It burned inside what you had lost and each awakening, after the last failure twisted you more. Ages past between awakenings and the galaxy changed. Forgotten was your beginning, forgotten were your adventures, forgotten was your world and life. And in incredible loss arose incredible anger. You were not the boy I once watched play with his brothers. You were no longer ..Noble."
"Noble?" Tyscio's face reddened and he began to feel a sense of shame even though he could not really remember the experiences Hespante talked of.
"In our early efforts to preserve our way of life after Bane, the Noble House was formed. Your personal soldiers, guardians of the old way. But even they found it hard to wait for the next awakening, when the strength would be marshalled once more for another round of conquests. Like all things with time, the Noble House changed; even as you changed."
"So why can I not remember, Hespante?" Tyscio asked bleakly.
"Because I wanted my charge back!" Hespante cried out, shaking Tyscio out of his melancholy. "If your life's experiences were the catalysts that brought about your black heart, I would reach in and rip them out! And I did! I tricked you out of your fortress on Onderon to Almania and, in rendering you unconscious, had my way with you." The simulacrum gave a passable representation of a leer. "I wiped your mind, threw you into stasis and retreated to Kendra to await your return in fear."
"In fear?"
"I was not sure it would work. And as time passed you awoke to find yourself on a world you knew nothing about, in a galaxy you knew nothing about. No rise of the Sith. No Hyperspace War. No founding of the Republic or it's descent into Empire."
Tyscio spoke as if in a haze, "I awoke and found the Sith Lord Recon Klain trying to turn Iriana to the darkside. I tried to sacrifice myself to save her.." Tyscio's eyes looked to his wrists that he had once slashed feeling that it was the right thing to do at the time. "She healed me but still followed Klain along a dark path."
"That's where I picked up Lono," Tyscio mentioned thinking of his wolf companion running the length of the forests outside Theed with his familial pack. He grinned at the thought. "In her healing, she imparted to me the ability to speak to animals."
His eyes narrowed. "I still had some memories. I remembered Brandt and went to locate the ancient saber that had somehow been lifted from the building above my hidden stasis chamber. I tracked it to Tatooine where I met a Jedi woman named Amalia Braska. She too was to face Recon Klain. I always wondered how she and her family fared."
"Then, residing on Naboo, at the edge of the forest, I met Leia and we traveled to Endor. She had issues with her father's memory and I found portents of the coming attack on Capricia. I still did not know who I was but I realized my connection with my homeplanet of Capricia."
"And then the Conquest." Hespante listened silently at Tyscio's tale. It still shocked him how the boy could have died before the simulacrum realized he had awakened.
"I sensed your presence on Capricia during the war and appeared on that underwater station."
Tyscio's lips parted into a grin, "Leia was injured. She told me you sounded insufferably arrogant when you two first met."
"I was used to raising and tending to noble brats. If that is not an accomplishment to brag about, I don't know what is." the simulacrum snapped back without heat.
"So now here we are."
"Here we are," Hespante agreed. "Your people have grown with the passage of time whereas you jumped across ages. That is why you seem still young and you will still age slower than your average Caprician. But your lifespan is not as great as what it once was with your people. In fact, of all the cornerstone worlds, I think Capricians are the only ones left who still retain their identity. The other planets are abandoned ruins, if nothing else. Capricians have gone ahead in virtual obscurity clinging to traditions and names that have lost their original meanings. In fact, I dare say that unless you took extremely detailed genetic testing, you probably could not tell a Caprician from a human. For all intents and purposes, you ARE human and you are all that is left of that old time. They say the more advanced a civilization, the less there is left over once that civilization declines and dies. You will not find much of anything that has survived time."
"The ruins from Elrood?"
Hespante shifted uncomfortably. "Those recordings were made long after the fall. When you were bent on rebuilding the Union through conquest. During your dark times. I was not there when you made them but I would be wary.."
Tyscio laughed. "Hespante, I don't remember. Do you think I'll fall to the darkside or something?"
"I don't know. You did change once. Whether that indicates turning to some religious darkside or not I do not know. But I do know that you must learn to come to terms with loss. There is no more power in the stasis chamber. There is no more future Age for you. Your life begins and ends here.
So, my boy. Make the most of it."
Tyscio put a hand on his old Retainer's shoulder. "You've been with me since the beginning, Hespante. And I thank you for answering my question. It means alot to me."
The Simulacrum sighed. "Well it was time, my boy. It was time."
"Make the most..." Tyscio whispered and as his mind raced with the possibilities of a truly unknown future, he grinned mischievously. "Hespante, I am going to ask Leia to marry me."
The Simulacrum groaned. Loudly. "Boy, you are a glutton for punishment."
Tyscio's grin widened.
"I must have scrambled something when I zapped that head of yours." Hespante lamented.
And the Caprician laughed.
Soon his companion began to laugh with him.
There was a world of possibilities before them....
