22/04/2020 - The Death of Grandfather

Droyne Empire at its Peak

Another 5,000 years pass in the Empire of the Droyne. Their technology continues to advance. Teleportation is now ubiquitous. It is possible to teleport between planets and Star Gates allow ships to instantaneously jump between Star Systems. An ansible network also allows instantaneous communications across hundreds of parsecs.

Grandfather’s Sons have transformed the Empire. Each rules a sector of the Empire and runs it in Grandfather’s name, mimicking the structure of the old Empire in their sector.

Technological advancement has moved into what the Travellers would class as super-science. Each Son researches his own area of science, but this has begun to hamper progress as the Sons are no longer working together but pursuing their own interests separately.

The Consensus has re-emerged from obscurity as the League of New Thought, rejecting the control of the Sons and the technological “corruption” of Droyne society.

Cordillion – a Cultural Celebration

The planet of Cordillion has developed over time into a successful Cultural Hub for the Empire. It is a shining beacon of cultural enlightenment, but unfortunately it has mostly been neglected as the Sons concentrate more on advancing the physical sciences.

The High Council, which has little power now and is mostly ignored by the Sons, continues to try to keep track of its experiments and it recognises the success on Cordillion.

The Human civilisation on Cordillion has advanced to Tech Level 8 and is now ruled over by the Droyne from a floating city high up in the atmosphere. The Humans are given a great deal of freedom to express themselves and as a result they are most culturally productive planet in the Empire.

The High Council has decided to hold a celebration on Cordillion to recognise its achievements and the Travellers are high level Droyne officials charged with organising the celebrations. They arrange for visitors to come from all around the Empire, including the local Son Seventeen-Four, who has a laboratory space station in the Cordillion solar system located in close orbit to the sun.

Assisted by robots and AI, the Travellers arrange an elaborate celebration with guest speakers and presentations. Guests begin gating into the system in their hundreds and the floating city is soon packed with visitors.

Droyne social technology has advanced until everyone has their own social media data halo, which is used to advertise their personality and ease social interaction. They notice a group of visitors whose data halos take a moment to start up, suggesting they are behind technologically. They instruct their security robots to keep an eye on these guests.

Seventeen-Four is Absent

As the ceremony proceeds, the main person conspicuous by their absence is Son Seventeen-Four, who should have turn up an hour ago but has not. A number of guests came specifically hoping to meet him and his absence rises to the top of an automatically generated “Most Discussed” list amongst guests.

Attempts at communicating with Seventeen-Four’s space laboratory result in just an automated message saying that Seventeen-Four is busy with his researches. He appreciates the message and will give it his full attention in due course.

The Travellers keep the ceremony going, getting other guests to stand in at the point where Seventeen-Four was due to make a speech.

They then receive a communication from the Ansible Network from Son Two-Twelve in the next Sector. He abruptly asks them why Seventeen-Four has failed to turn up when he is expected. They tell him they have tried to communicate with him but had no reply. Two-Twelve tells them he has had the same result and abruptly tells them it is not good enough. They need to do something about it at once and then cuts off communications.

Seventeen-Four’s Space Station

They leave a message with Seventeen-Four’s comms system telling him other Sons are demanding to know why he is not following up on his obligations. They get his robot assistant to respond, who tells them Seventeen-Four is currently engaged in an important experiment and cannot be disturbed.

They decide to go visit him directly in a shuttle. They fly to the inner system near his laboratory and notice it has been upgraded to quite a large armoured space station.

Their close proximity and tenacity eventually prompts Seventeen-Four to come on the comms. He is rude and short with them, saying his is in the middle of an important experiment into stellar gravity and he does not have time to talk to idiots. When they mention Two-Twelve he looks concerned and demands to know why Two-Twelve has become involved. He must have a specific agenda.

They are unable to confirm or deny but remind him he had committed to come to their ceremony. He tells them his experiments are far more important than the petty affairs of morons. They should go away and not bother him again – then he ends the communication.

Stellar Catastrophe

They have no choice but to return to Cordillion. One thing they notice while in the inner solar system is that the sun appears to brightening. Cyrus is able to work out this is significant and Seventeen-Four must be manipulating the Sun.

As they land on the City above Cordillion, there is a bright flare from Cordillion’s sun. Technological devices suddenly begin failing. The power system on the station goes down and the Star Gate shuts down while a ship is in the middle of passing through. The ship is broken in half and begins to explode and spiral down onto the surface of Cordillion.

A chaotic disaster unfolds in which some ships crash down onto the surface of Cordillion and others simply fail. The Travellers work on helping people evacuate the City, though there are not enough escape capsules and the replicators to create more are off-line.

They are also forced to deal with the failure of the City’s flotation system, which means the whole City has begun spirally down towards the surface of Cordillion, which would potentially be a cataclysmic event that would kill millions on the planet.

Through hard work they are able to jettison and detach parts of the City, crashing them harmlessly into the sea or mountains, while scrapping up enough power such that the City’s descent onto Cordillion is slowed to a few months before impact.

Gamma Ray Burst

As things begin to calm down, another problem becomes apparent. Radiation levels in the system have spiked massively, hundreds of thousands of rads of gamma rays are pouring from Cordillion’s sun. They realise every living being on the side of the planet facing the sun will already have absorbed enough radiation to be die over the next few hours. Some of the survivors evacuated to the planet will have taken a high enough dose to have been fatal too!

The floating City has been absorbing the radiation and is in danger of being radiated itself. They are able to Counter-Radiate as best they can but they lack the power to do a full job and the City will slowly succumb.

Attempts to send communications outside the system fail as the Ansible Network is down. Even ships in orbit on the night-side of the planet cannot use the Network. As well as Gamma Rays the Star must be giving off enough tachyons to disrupt any communication attempts, which pass straight through the planet, unlike the Gamma Rays which the planet does block.

What the Hell can we do?

They realise they must evacuate the City and they notice a transporter, similar to the one they found in Komesh orbit, is safely on the dark side of the planet. They instruct the AI computer on board to bring the ship to the edge of the dark side and launch a module at them so they can escape in it, which they do, leaving the City’s AI to continue to maintain the systems as best it can.

Once on board the transporter, shield from the radiation by Cordillion itself, the Travellers consider their options. Seventeen-Four’s space station is very powerful and protected. It will take some considerable firepower to take it down – firepower they do not have.

A Cunning Plan

After some discussion, they try having a small warp-capable ship fly at the station by remote control. It hits and causes some damage, but not enough.

Del considers getting an asteroid to crash into it, then Cyrus suggests that they abandon the transporter and have it fly over to the City and attempt to fly itself and the City at high warp into the space station. After some discussion they resolve to try this, leaving the transporter for a smaller ship.

The transporter has some difficulty taking the whole station with it. When it attempts to move, the City begins to break up, but a significant section of it moves with the transporter. They move it out of the atmosphere of Cordillion and have it quickly accelerate to warp, smashing into Seventeen-Four’s space station and causing enough damage to destroy it.

A Chat with Grandfather

The Travellers become aware that the resultant explosion killed Seventeen-Four’s body, but he is not dead. His memories have been backed-up in a “Family Bank” and he will automatically be cloned and his last saved memories downloaded into the mind of the clone.

Unfortunately, that sort of technology was not available when Grandfather cloned his Sons, otherwise he would have done that too. Instead, his Sons, while highly intelligent, lacked Wisdom, the accumulated experience of the 20,000 years Grandfather has already been alive by then.

The Travellers are now themselves again and are sat on mats around the cross-legged figure of Grandfather, like a Master and his pupils. He wants to communicate with them directly now.

Grandfather and his Sons

Grandfather has the Travellers reflect on his decisions concerning his Sons. At the time he created them, he needed help otherwise the Droyne Empire would have collapsed and his 20,000 years of work would have been set back severely.

At the time, cloning technology was sufficient to create exact duplicates of Grandfather physically and his Sons inherited all his physical and mental ability, but he was unable to give them his accumulated life knowledge. They were as children.

He took them in as his children and educated them as best he could. They listened and absorbed all the things he told them and initially did everything he said. They administered the Empire and assisted him in his research.

Over time, though, as they matured and reached their “teenage” years, they begin to want to do their own things and not be told what to do. They began to ignore first the High Council and then even direct instructions from Grandfather himself, instead choosing to follow their own way.

This would not have been a problem with ordinary children, but the Sons were as powerful and intelligent as Grandfather, in positions of power scattered across the Galaxy.

Grandfather’s Solution

Their behaviour became more and more erratic. They neglected their duties as Administrators of the Empire, focusing on their dangerous experiments. Some of them ignored their population. Others began to rule over them as Gods and even forcibly augment the Droyne under their control. They even began to fight amongst themselves over petty rivalries.

Grandfather realised that he had created 420 monsters and had to consider what to do about them. By this time, AI had evolved sufficiently that he could create robot assistants who were as intelligent as he was and would follow his instructions.

Seeing the total destruction of the Empire he had forged, he had a fateful decision to take on how to deal with his failed creations. After considering all the possibilities and options, while running complex predictions on what the outcomes could be, he came to the conclusion the only way to deal with them was to kill them all.

The Ancient Civil War

Grandfather admits the results were worse than he predicted. He was unable to kill all his Sons outright in his initial strike, there were too many of them scattered too far around the Galaxy. Also some of them had begun to consider that he may strike against them and had taken counter-measures. They were, after all, as intelligent as him and had similar minds.

The Galaxy descended into civil war on a cosmic scale. Incredibly advanced technology was used to destroyed planets or at least render them uninhabitable. Beck’s World is an example of such an action. Even 300,000 years later, it is barely habitable by life.

The worst atrocities included suns being sent supernova and entire solar systems smashed. Trillions and trillions of sentient life forms were killed, sometimes only to facilitate the destruction of the “Family Bank” to ensure permanent death, sometimes just because the life forms were perceived to be working for “the other side”.

Absolution?

Grandfather is embarrassed by his actions during this time and glosses over them a little. He turns now to the Travellers and asks them what they would have done. His mental powers are such that they are unable to tell him lies.

Del tries to give a more eloquent answer but finds Grandfather digs into his mind for his genuine opinion. Del says that it’s likely in the circumstances that he would have made the same sort of mistakes and life is a learning experience.

Cyrus is of a similar opinion and accepts Grandfather’s decision as what he thought best at the time.

Grant finds it hard to give an opinion such a massive decision and he may have done the same.

Drent tries to be diplomatic but ultimately thinks that Grandfather went too far and should not have done what he did.

An Ancient Shadow War

Grandfather tells them that the war raged for many years, but eventually it died down after nearly all of his Sons were killed or fled into hiding. He grew tired of the carnage and decided to hide what he did by finishing off the destruction of the Droyne Empire and ensuring his advanced technology could not be used by primitive beings.

He then retreated into his pocket dimension to continue his researches in private, aided by his robot servants. He kept an eye on events in the Galaxy and attempted, when one of his Sons revealed himself, to destroy them. Sometimes this worked, other times he was tricked and killed, although he was always able to restore using his “Family Bank” in the Pocket Dimension.

Both sides acted stealthily to avoid the existing sentient populations from realising anything was happening. They did not want their technology to fall into the hands of “primitives”.

Manipulated by Seven

Grandfather tells the Travellers that they have been the pawns of Seven, one of the more difficult of his Sons and a survivor of the Civil War.

Seven has been trying to find the location of the dimensional gateway into Grandfather’s pocket dimension for millennia. When the Travellers found the ship in the atmosphere of Komesh, a ship Grandfather thought lost, it gave Seven an opportunity. He had his agent, Grant’s Uncle Vlen, communicate with them and using psychology cause them not to trust him and move instead to the pocket dimension, allowing Seven to find the entrance. They were used by him to get to Grandfather.

Lacking the combination to open the dimensional gateway, Seven has been bombarding the gateway with radiation at velocities faster than light, which is why they have been seeing the bright lights in the sky. Now he has broken through.

The ship they saw is not the vessel that Seven is travelling in. He is the vessel. His “body” is a super-powered space ship.

The Death of Grandfather

The Travellers are snapped out of their imaginings back into reality. They are on the space station that Grandfather has been constructing. It has just been finished and is a powerful weapon. Seven is now within firing range of the station.

As Seven approaches and prepares to fire, Grandfather opens fire with his new weapon first. A beam of unimaginable power bursts forth from the space station and strikes Seven – but Seven’s defences deflect the power away and he is undamaged.

Seven fires back, striking Grandfather a beam that cuts through his station and disintegrates him before the station can raise its defences.

Seven launches dozens of smaller ships that head to the nearby planet and begin bombarding it is massive thermo-nuclear explosions that eventually will vaporise the entire planet. Meanwhile, he directs the firepower of his main ship to the space station, which begins to take damage despite its defence fields now being active.

The Travellers by this time have been approached by one of Grandfathers robot assistants and without being asked are told they must evacuate. The robots drag them over to a Teleportal, which is activated and they are thrown through.

Underground Cave

Reeling from comprehending the events that have just happened, the Travellers stumble out the other side of the Teleportal into the anti-climactic atmosphere of a dark, underground cave. The Teleportal immediately powers down and turns off behind them.

They look around but there is no one and nothing else in the caves. The atmosphere is breathable and their suits are compromised so they take their helmets off. They explore the caves and find their way out of it. They are on a wooded hillside. Further down the hill they can see the artificial lights of a settlement of some kind.

The night sky looks very similar to the planet they were on where the Ilimdaki and the Hunters lived, but this does not look like any part of that planet. It looks like they are now on the third world in Grandfather’s pocket dimension.

They find a local stream and drink from it using purification tablets to ensure it is safe. They eat from the provisions they took from the Cloning Machine. Soon they fall asleep, not posting any guards as they are too tired mentally and physically.

Local Farm

Hours later they awaken to sunshine, it is day time. They proceed down the mountain towards the settlement they saw the night before and find it is a farm, with the main dwellings inside a clear protective dome. The technology level looks low, around Tech Level 5 or 6 (21 Century Earth). There is a combustion engine-powered motor vehicle which looks particularly low tech compared to the buildings.

They go to the door of the dome and are greeted by a local Human farmer, with his son and daughter. The Farmer carries a slut weapon. Del tells him they come from the stars and the Farmer says that’s nonsense. Everyone knows only Grandfather comes from the stars – unless they work for him?

Del shows his energy weapon to demonstrate their knowledge of advanced technology, to the delight of the Farmer’s son, but the Farmer himself is suspicious and sceptical. Del soon loses patience with him and speaks to him rudely, prompting the Farmer to close the door and end the conversation.

Droyne

They were able to find out that there is a city of 8 million people only a few miles away and they resolve to head there. They are surprised to find that the road network is not well developed and the roads in poor condition. Low tech motor vehicles drive past occasionally but there are not many of them even on the main roads.

They decide to follow the road to the City. While they walk along, they see a group of Droyne flying over them. They stare at them and attract their attention. One of them flies down and asks these “Humans” what they are doing, but the Droyne is generally dismissive of them and flies away with his friends.

They realise that the Droyne was speaking to them in its native language, which the Travellers now appear to be able to speak after their experiences with Grandfather inhabiting the minds of past Droyne.

Church of Grandfather

Cyrus remarks that they now know who the dominant species of the planet is and this is confirmed as they approach the City. It is around the same Tech Level as the farm but has a lot of tall structures with many Droyne flying around above from platform to platform. At ground level, Humans live and their facilities are clearly less developed and lower tech.

They wander through the streets of the City and see human shops and businesses that look like the slums of the City. The Travellers’ bizarre appearance in space suits draws strange looks from the passers-by. When they pass a Church to Grandfather they decide to head in and explore.

They find the Priest in the Church is a Droyne but he is welcoming. He does however remark at their appearance. They learn from him that Grandfather was the creator of this world and everyone on it. He expects them to follow his laws and stay away from the Sky – that is Grandfather’s realm.

They ask about a sacred place to Grandfather and are told about his first landing site, but it’s not on this side of the planet and will take a month for humans to sail there by ship.

Attracting Attention

The Travellers talk amongst themselves in a corner of the Church and wonder whether to make a scene and use their advanced technology to get to see someone important, or to try to blend in. Cyrus speculates that Seven won’t ignore this world for long and they need to do something.

The Travellers are not particularly quiet and their discussion causes a few heads to turn in the church and the Priest they talked to looks worried and heads into a side room.

They decide to ignore this and continue their discussion. They decide to head up to the higher levels of the City and exit the Church, but as they do so a number of Droyne in what look like Police uniforms, carrying slut weapons, fly down and surround them.

A leader officer steps forward, brandishing an ID card and tells them they are under arrest by the Bureau of Security.

End of Episode Three