Chapter Twenty-Two: History

Razim and Emilia helped Jason sit up as the crowd dispersed.

‘Why did you do that Jason?’ Claire asked.

‘We’re family Claire. We should start treating each other like it,’ Jason asked. ‘Plus I’ve wanted to hit Heath for the last couple of days’

‘Fighting Heath is not a smart idea,’ Razim said. ‘And I’m not just saying that because it goes against my religion’ he added.

‘Yeah, it was probably a good thing you lost. Heath wouldn’t give up if you had won. Help me pull him up’ Emilia said. Jason groaned as he was pulled up and dragged along the corridor.

‘Speaking of losing, I’ve never seen you lose a fight Jason’ Claire said.

‘That’s because I haven’t. And technically I didn’t lose this fight. I was winning up until I was jumped by that second bloke. A few more seconds and Heath would’ve passed out’ Jason replied, groaning as Razim’s elbow pushed against his side.

‘Sorry’ Razim said.

‘We’ll take him to quarters. I can treat him there’ Emilia said.

‘You’re a medic?’ Jason asked.

‘By definition, yes. I was planning on becoming a doctor’ Emilia replied and five painfully slow minutes later, Jason was sat down on the floor in his, Claire’s, Razim’s and Emilia’s quarters.

‘Ok, this going to hurt. Take your shirt off’ Emilia said.

‘What?’ Jason replied.

‘Just do it!’ Emilia said.

‘I’d be careful, he tends to like controlling women’ Claire said. Jason replied by giving Claire the finger before taking off his shirt.

‘Holy crap. Is he-‘

‘Bleeding internally? Yeah he is’ Emilia said.

‘Can you do something?’ Razim asked.

‘Best we can do with what we have is to apply pressure and hope it heals on its own. Pass me my bandages’ Emilia replied.

‘You have bandages?’ Jason asked.

‘Yes, and they weren’t easy to acquire I can tell you that,’ Emilia said. ‘Arms up’ Jason did as he was told. Lifting his arms was painful, but what was more painful was having the bandage wrapped around his chest.

‘I want to Claire. We have some things we need to talk about’ Jason said, slowly putting his shirt back on.

‘Alright’ Razim said.

‘Privately’ Jason responded. Claire nodded at them.

‘Go’ she said, and reluctantly Emilia and Razim left.

‘We need to find a way to work together’ Jason said.

‘Do we?’ Claire asked.

‘If we are going to rescue Sarah and get out of here, we can’t be working at cross purposes. We need to be on the same page’ Jason told Claire.

‘So in other words you want to know what I’m doing?’ Claire retorted.

‘They told me you wander off and carve symbols into the wall. Where do you go? Why do you carve symbols into the wall?’ Jason asked her.

‘I’ve been working. Working on a program that should allow us to communicate with the Tallentiri’ Claire answered.

‘So the symbols are letters?’

‘Letters, numbers, I don’t really know. I won’t know until I can access a Tallentiri computer system’ Claire replied.

‘Claire, hacking a Human computer is one thing, but hacking an alien computer with no knowledge of their language is going to be impossible’ Jason said.

‘You’re wrong. Hacking in was easy, but their systems are incredibly complex. Human computers can’t comprehend their systems that well. The files are either corrupted, or are seen in binary. I can’t read binary. I would need to be physically at one of their computers, then I can finish program’ Claire told him.

‘How long would it take?’ Jason asked.

‘On Human computers, years most likely. On their systems… it’s difficult to say, it depends on how fast I can learn their language’ Claire answered.

‘Bare minimum?’

‘Assuming I can make a copy of some sort that’s compatible with Human computers, thirty minutes. Then it’s just a matter of translating their characters, which I’ll have to do by hand, which could take weeks, maybe even months’ Claire told him.

‘Well keep working on it, in the meantime, I’m going to find a way of getting Sarah out the science wing’ Jason said.

‘Not right now you’re not. Area’s off-limits, trespassing is punishable by death and, even you must admit that you are in no condition to walk around’ Claire said. Jason conceded it was true. If it weren’t for the bandages, he wouldn’t be sitting up on his own right now.

‘You said we should start treating each other like family. I’ve been thinking that too. I mean, for now at least, we are on the same side. Since I’ve been here I’ve learned so many things about the Tallentiri’ Claire told him.

‘Such as?’ Jason enquired.

‘We’ve met before. Millions of years ago, back when the Earth was just a ball of molten rock’ Claire said.

‘How’s that possible? Life didn’t exist here millions of years ago’ Jason replied.

‘Because we didn’t meet here. We arrived here,’ Claire said. ‘Some of the readable documents I read through… it’s extraordinary. The entire History of the Tallentiri is there. I suspect what is just a small fraction of it, but I’ve learned so much about why they’re here, what they’re doing here’ she added.

‘Let’s hear it’ Jason ordered.

‘Ok,’ Claire said as she started pacing the room, talking with her hands. Jason knew she was in her element; she loved history. ‘Millions of years ago, possibly even before our Solar system was even formed, the Milky Way Galaxy was teeming with life.  Among that life, was us. For, I don’t even know how long, all the races lived in near perfect harmony, trading with each other. The most dominant race, militarily at least, was the Tallentiri. But they weren’t very industrious, they had great problems building things, such as ships. Shortly after they enslaved another alien race, war was declared. Alliances were made, between several races, including ours, but the Tallentiri… they stood alone. They believed they didn’t need an ally, because no one could hold them off.

‘Our earliest ancestors,’ Claire continued. ‘Were enslaved by the Tallentiri when they invaded Osiris, our natural home world. Even millions of years ago,  Humanity was very industrious, exactly what the Tallentiri needed; a slave labour force capable of building their war engine from scratch, very quickly. But Humanity had a strong alliance with the most technologically advanced race they called the Empiricals-‘

‘Wait, I thought you said you couldn’t read Tallentiri?’ Jason asked.

‘The Tallentiri translated their history into English. I guess they plan to educate us on why they’re here before they kill us or do God knows what to us. Anyway,’ Claire said dismissively. ‘The Empiricals made a daring attempt; they had found a way to jam the Tallentiri weapon systems, several Tallentiri ships were destroyed before the Tallentiri were forced to abandon Osiris, but they took some Humans with them.

‘This happened millions of years ago,’ Claire told him. ‘The Tallentiri were beaten off the worlds they had invaded and as far as the Empiricals knew, eradicated from the Galaxy. The Tallentiri were really escaping to a planet they had found thousands of years previously, hundreds if not thousands of light years from Earth, on the other side of the Galaxy. The Humans on board knew that if they made it to that planet, it would be over. The Tallentiri fleet would be re-built, and they would dominate the Galaxy again. So the humans sabotaged the ships’ engines, causing it crash-land into the Earth. That happened, two and a half million years ago.

‘A local war raged on Earth, the Tallentiri held the clear advantage by numbers, but Humanity managed to send a signal to the Empiricals who arrived and, over five hundred thousand years of fighting, beat the Tallentiri off Earth, but were forced to leave shortly after as Earth’s atmosphere wasn’t habitable to them. The Tallentiri who escaped the Battle of Earth colonised other planets in other solar systems and were unable to build ships fast enough. That’s why they returned here two million years later. They believe the original ship that crashed is still here. It holds powerful technology which in their hands would bring them to power again, but in our hands it would defeat the Tallentiri once and for all. They’re here searching for that ship’ Claire finished.

‘We have to find that ship before they do’ Jason said.

‘Agreed’ Claire said.

‘If we built the ships, would have that technology?’ Jason asked.

‘No. When the Tallentiri were beaten off Earth, Humanity lost the tools required to build ships. Many factories were burned to the ground. Even if the tools had remained on Earth, I doubt they would’ve wanted to keep building ships, for the time being anyway. They didn’t completely understand Tallentiri weapon systems and shielding. Besides, ship building knowledge was lost over hundreds of Human civil wars’ Claire answered.

‘Ok, step one; enter science wing. Step two; break out of this prison. Step three; find that ship’ Jason said, excitedly. Now they had something to concentrate on.