Galactic Politics

Chronicles of Xanctu

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High above Terrakia’s capital, Exemplar Kaen Zix watched the holofeed in silence. He had lived through the fallout, spoken with its ghosts. Yet even now, the official story felt like a veil drawn over a dream. The stream flickered—a too-distant relay, or perhaps intentional distortion. It was impossible to tell. His hands remained clasped within the voluminous sleeves of the white robe as the holofeed filled the room.

The newsreader introduced the historian, Phrack, a short scholarly type in a red-lined black robe. After exchanging greetings, the newsreader faded and Phrack began.

“Welcome to this historical induction and current affairs update, where we try to bring you up to date with recorded history,” he cleared his throat—looking down at his notes, he continued. “Eons ago, the outermost reaches of the 'Dead Star' cluster first collided with the Great Arm of the MENGEL-3 Galaxy. Faster-than-light travel, through warpspace—or hyperspace, as it came to be known—became reality. Though initially costly and dangerous, technologically advanced species soon began carving their way through the stars.
War eventually broke out between a reptilian Federation and various mixed humanoid cultures. Many thousands of years of conflict ensued. Planets were destroyed and entire civilizations wiped out.

At the battle for the element-rich 'Twinne Yashtoor' system, Pterryxi hordes exited warpspace and threw themselves against the humanoid battle line. During this last and bloodiest clash of the 'Great War', both fleets were decimated. Warp-troopers facing certain death exited their broken ships into deep space, where they continued the conflict in suit-to-suit combat—a fight that turned into a struggle for life support.”
He looked away, as if seeing their pain, before continuing, his voice rising in excitement.

“But during the battle of Twinne Yashtoor, a dimensional rip heralded the unexpected appearance of a spherical ship of shifting blue light, triggering catastrophic systems failures.
This is a period about which not much is known. However, witnesses have claimed that many were pulled aboard the sphere via beams of blue light. This technology is still being sought today, more than a decamillennium later. During this time, troopers claimed to have been resuscitated after flat-lining, while others, without access to communications equipment, reported receiving 'strange messages'—and so the spacer legend of Xanctu was born.”
Kaen nodded, quietly repeating the word, “Xanctu”.

Phrack paused, as if acknowledging Kaen’s response, before continuing. “Legend tells us that all the survivors of 'Twinne Yashtoor' experienced something many of them later called ‘a joining across time and space’. It might now appear that fear was the basic underlying principle behind the mediated peace, because not much is reliably known about what really happened at Twinne Yashtoor, or indeed what caused radically opposed forces to form 'The Supreme Council of Nine'.
What little is known comes from scattered accounts and half-lost transmissions —empirical data is scarce. Some translators have modelled the Xenarchon — our Predecessors — as a technically superior race, conveniently leaving out what cannot be easily explained. Which brings us, inevitably, to the present.

The Rim, as some of you may know, is an uncharted sector thousands of parsecs beyond the direct influence of Galactic politics. It has many mineral-rich systems, none of which are presently claimed by any dominion. At the outer reaches of this starfield lies a single medium-density star called Sol. The spectral intensity radiated by its surface gases gives it a characteristically yellow colour. Sol supports a system of ten planets, but only the third planet is inhabited. Home to a myriad of life forms, it is called Earth by its dominant inhabitants, a standard air-breathing bipedal humanoid species.

Thanks to the Treaty of Twinne Yashtoor, Earth—a world brimming with water, minerals, and myth — has remained untouched for ten thousand years. Despite sporadic landings over millennia, its inhabitants remain oblivious of life on other worlds.

The blockade is managed by the Council of Nine. It is maintained by an automated garrison of unknown capability installed 12,000 solars ago by the Xenarchon on Trixas, an exoplanet in the Sol system. Trixas remains invisible to Earth’s present-day instruments, but due to Earth’s rapidly improving technology, it is predicted that the situation will soon change.

While we can safely deduce that it was the Xenarchon, our Predecessors, who insisted on including this stipulation in the Treaty of Twinne Yashtoor for reasons of their own, their reasons for the blockade remain unknown. Some believe a condition exists that would lift it — but none can agree — or provide verifiable proof of what this is.

Although the Council of Nine is required to review its surveillance procedure, the Council appears to be disintegrating and is probably incapable of making a coherent decision at this time. According to our theorists, current events have created a climate ripe for interstellar war. Any dispute over Sol will likely collapse both Council and Charter,” he hesitated, sombrely adjusting his tone, ”effectively nullifying ten thousand solars of peace.”

“Our priority therefore is to make sure that the Charter is upheld, and that the Promise is kept! Though we have contingency plans for establishing contact with Earth during the next ten solars, until such time as the ‘special conditions’ in the genuine Compact are confirmed, we are committed to defending the autonomy of the Sol system.”

“Xanctu.” The historian made the universal sign of respect, finishing the broadcast with a bow, leaving only the Lifter sigil hanging in the air.

In the quiet that followed, Exemplar Kaen Zix bowed his head slightly, lips forming the reply.

“Xanctu. The Promise will be kept.”

Kaen deactivated the holofeed with a flick of his sleeve, the chamber dimming to silence. For a long moment, he remained still, eyes distant, watching something only he could see.

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© Return of The White Lady (1994) by Mike Kawitzky

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