Portal Wars 1: Gehenna Dawn (23 page)

Taylor opened his mouth, but he couldn’t find
any words. Everything T’arza said made perfect sense. Yet Jake
couldn’t quite accept it all.

The Tegeri saw he had Taylor’s attention. “My
people did not build the Portals. We call those who did the First
Ones, though we know little more about them than you do.” T’arza
paused briefly. “We evolved on our own world, as humanity did upon
Earth. One day, we discovered a Portal.”

Taylor was silent, listening to T’arza’s
words. He still regarded the alien with anger and fear, though his
companion’s conduct and demeanor were so calm, so rational…the
intensity of those emotions began to fade.

“It is obvious, even by cursory visual
inspection, that our races share some genetic link. Perhaps those
who created the Portals also sowed the seeds of both of our
peoples. Or, possibly, there is some other connection between our
races, long in the distant past. We cannot know. But in a universe
of almost infinite diversity, we are far more alike than not.
Shockingly so. Would you not agree?”

Taylor looked at T’arza, but he didn’t
respond. After a few seconds he nodded silently, grudgingly. It was
a minute gesture, barely perceptible, though it did not go
unnoticed.

“There are crucial differences, however. By
whatever accidents of time and evolution, my race achieved a state
of technological advancement several millennia before yours.
Perhaps this was by design of those who came before, or maybe it
was nothing more than some infinitesimal difference in our
environments. Or simply random variation. Several thousand years is
but an instant in the context of the evolution of our species. I do
not know the answer. Clearly, my people are more advanced than
yours in many ways…yet equally obviously, we are slowing losing the
war. Indeed, we have much in common with each other, yet we differ
in some ways too.”

T’arza looked down at Taylor as he spoke. The
alien had two eyes, not unlike human ones, but deeper, more three
dimensional on close view. “My brethren – the Tegeri, as you call
us - are fiercely independent, so much so that we do not fully
understand the ways in which humans can form large monolithic
groups. Like armies. We cannot defeat you at war, because you are
far more suited to sacrificing your individualism and accepting
orders without question. Indeed, my people would likely have
destroyed each other long ago, however, while we cherish our own
freedom, we lack the will to take it from others, to impose our way
of thinking on those around us. Thus did we peacefully exist for
centuries before your people came through the Portal.”

T’arza’s tone changed for the first time, as
if he was trying to be careful in what he said to avoid offending
Taylor. “Your people, on the contrary, are extremely susceptible to
suggestion and driven to impose their will on others. Indeed, it is
the primary reason we severed contact so long ago. Your people were
known to mine long before you ventured to a Portal world. My race
spent centuries on your planet, mentoring your ancestors, teaching
them.” T’arza spoke hauntingly, as if from personal memory. “We
sought nothing in return, but the ancient humans began to regard us
as gods, seeking out our favor in their own conflicts. We came to
form the basis of many of your ancient religions, though through no
effort or desire of our own.”

T’arza paused. His tone was hard to discern,
but Taylor thought he detected something there. Sadness,
perhaps.

“Soon, some among your people began to use us
to seek to control others. They waged wars in our names, and
exhorted men to murder other men under pretense of appeasing
us.”

Taylor sat quietly and listened. He was
skeptical, his mind unwilling to accept what this enemy was telling
him. But he couldn’t bring himself to discount what T’arza was
saying either. It felt somehow…true.

“So we left your world, fearing the damage we
might cause to your then-primitive forefathers. We resolved to
guard the Portals and wait for your people to mature…and to join
us.” He stopped speaking for a few seconds, giving Jake a chance to
consider what he had been told.

“Indeed, we needed your race to step through
the Portals. My people are a dying race. It has been many centuries
since any have been born among us. We have never been able to
determine the cause of this…perhaps we were only meant to exist for
a certain time…or some ancient research of ours unleashed something
terrible upon us. We are long-lived, vastly more so than your kind.
Yet humanity shall outlast us.”

Taylor found himself almost hypnotized, lost
in what T’arza was telling him. His fear of the alien was draining
away…and his hatred as well, leaving only confusion. The being
speaking to him was so rational, so empathic. So different from
most of the people Jake knew. His doubts began to crumble.

“We waited for your people to come, to take
up the mantle as guardians of the Portals. But we saw what was
happening on your Earth. Again and again, your people allowed evil,
inferior men and women to lead them. They submitted themselves to
be ruled by those unfit for such authority. They surrendered their
judgment, their self-determination.” T’arza looked at Jake
unwaveringly as he spoke. “We began to despair, to fear that
humanity would never mature, that we would have none fit to whom we
could pass control of the Portals. We debated intervention, but we
could not truly grasp the motivating factors of your behavior…nor
could we discern any way to prevent it, save using force and
imposing our own will on humanity. This is an option that has
always been repugnant to us.”

Taylor pulled himself up, propping his back
against the cushions so he could look directly at T’arza as he
spoke. The headache was subsiding, and he was becoming more and
more focused on what he was hearing.

“We created the beings you call ‘the
Machines’ to replace us, to maintain the structure of our
civilization as we dwindled. We had hoped they might become our
free-willed successors but, alas, we were never able to achieve
what we sought. They are little better than slaves, though it was
never our intention to make them as such. We had the technology to
create them, but not the knowledge or power to instill in them the
spark of true life. We were never able to give them truly
independent thought nor make them self-replicating, like a natural
species. Every one of them that exists was manufactured. Every
attempt at creating a reproductive capability in them has
failed.”

“So the Machines were not purpose built as
soldiers?” Taylor finally spoke. His instinct still told him to
doubt what T’arza told him, but the alien’s words seemed so
genuine, his skepticism was fading.

“Indeed, no.” T’arza’s tone changed again,
sounding as though the very topic was distasteful. “My people are
morally repulsed by the idea of creating a race of slave soldiers.
The entities you call ‘Machines’ were intended to replace us when
the last of us dies out, not to serve us in wars of conquest.” He
paused for a few seconds before cautiously continuing. “When the
conflict with your people began, we had little choice but to employ
them in a defensive role.” T’arza’s expressions were not easily
readable, but Jake recognized sadness passing again over the
alien’s face. “My people are now far too few to wage a war of this
size and duration. We were compelled to manufacture more of the
Machines to defend the Portal worlds.

Taylor sat and listened. Again, the facts
supported everything he was being told. The Machines fought
competently, nothing more. He had no doubt that T’arza’s race was
capable of building better warriors if they so wished…if their
ethical constraints would allow it.

He closed his eyes, trying to organize his
thoughts. He couldn’t reconcile this gentle, intelligent alien with
the atrocities committed on the first Portal worlds. With the
savage race that turned man’s first contact into a bloody crusade.
“But why did you attack the first colonies?” Taylor’s voice was
strained, tense. “We didn’t come to attack…we came to settle, to
explore.” Anger was creeping back into his tone, as the scenes from
the early colonies ran through his mind. The Machines, slaughtering
men, women…children. Burning down the tiny new villages. “And the
Machines killed them…they killed them all.” Taylor was practically
screaming as he looked right at T’arza. “Why?” It was a cry of
anger and a plea for understanding.

T’arza’s expression changed again, though
Taylor couldn’t read the emotions behind it this time. “I do not
know if you are ready to accept the truth, Jake Taylor, but I am
about to provide it to you.” He paused. “I fear you will find
it…unsettling.”

“What truth?” Taylor was angry, but confusion
was once again supplanting rage.

“My people are not responsible for the acts
that started this war.”

Taylor was incredulous. “You murdered unarmed
civilians! You massacred every human being that set foot on those
worlds!” Taylor was shaking. “What did you expect us to do?”

“We murdered no one.” T’arza spoke calmly.
“The entities you call the ‘Machines’ murdered no one.”

Jake stared back, his mouth open but
silent.

“The events you describe, the horrors
inflicted on your initial colonists…that was the work of other
humans, Jake, not of my people.”

Taylor felt a new rush of anger. “That is a
lie! I saw it…I saw it all on the videos.”

“I understand this is a profoundly disturbing
revelation for you, Jake, however it is completely factual.” T’arza
hesitated, giving Taylor a few seconds to collect himself. “When
humans at last came to the world you call New Earth, my people
rejoiced. At last, we thought, the humans have found the Portals
and come to join us. We had long considered your people, not as our
children exactly, but akin to younger siblings. We welcomed your
colonists, and we sent emissaries to greet them. We brought gifts,
and we sought to share our knowledge of the Portals.”

T’arza spoke slowly, with reverent respect
for what he was saying. “Your colonists welcomed us. We were
familiar with humans, and we had little difficulty communicating.
Your ancient languages were still familiar to us, and your modern
ones were simple to learn.”

There was definite sadness in the Tegeri’s
commentary. It wasn’t so much a tone of voice as an overall
demeanor, almost a feeling. But Jake was convinced that the alien
was speaking of something he thought of as a terrible tragedy.

“We spoke with your colonial leaders. As with
all human social groupings, there was an obvious and rigid
administrative hierarchy in play.”

Taylor winced slightly, feeling a little
defensive hearing T’arza characterize human behavior. He didn’t
disagree with anything the Tegeri was saying, but he still didn’t
like hearing it.

T’arza could see that Taylor was
uncomfortable. “I do not mean to say anything that may offend you,
Jake. I am not judging human behavioral norms, simply describing
them.” He looked silently at Taylor.

Jake nodded his head. “Please go on. I am not
offended.” Taylor was lying, but T’arza had his attention. He
wanted to hear the rest of the story.

“We told your settlers about the true extent
of the Portal network…something humans have still not discovered.
It is vast, and it leads to many places in the universe…to wonders
you can only imagine.”

Taylor was staring back, waiting for T’arza
to continue. He didn’t know what the alien was going to say, but he
was starting to see shreds of it come together in his mind. He
tried not to guess, to let his imagination run ahead of the facts.
But he couldn’t ignore the pit in his stomach.

“Then they came.” Taylor could feel the
ominous tone in what T’arza was telling him. “Soldiers, fully-armed
and ready for battle. They attacked us and killed many before we
fled. We tried to communicate, to tell them we had come peacefully,
but they ignored all our entreaties.” T’arza hesitated before
continuing. “After we withdrew, we watched in horror as the
soldiers turned their weapons on the villages.” The Tegeri’s
mannerisms were different from human norms, but Taylor could tell
how upsetting this was for the alien.

“Soldiers, what kind of soldiers?” Taylor
felt his doubts again. What troops, he thought, could have attacked
the Tegeri? There were colonies from seven different nations on
those first two worlds, and all were destroyed.

“They came through the Portal. They destroyed
the settlements, burning them to the ground. They pursued the few
survivors, shooting them down as they fled. They murdered them all,
even the children. My people watched in shock, in horror. Our race
has had no live young born in uncounted centuries, and even in our
oldest memories, children held a special place in our civilization.
To see human soldiers butchering the colonial children was
something none of my people will forget.”

Taylor’s mind was racing, wondering whether
to believe what he was being told. Could it really have been some
human force? Why, he wondered…what reason would other humans have
for attacking the settlements?

The answer was forming in his head, slowly,
hazily. It was something so terrible, so inconceivable, that his
mind fought it desperately, not wanting to face it.

“Indeed, Jake…what I tell you is true. The
attackers were humans, and they came through the Portal from
Earth.” T’arza was speaking, but Taylor was too consumed with his
own thoughts to listen fully. The alien’s voice sounded far off
now, a distant whisper.

“What of the videos?” Taylor’s voice was
desperate, trying to think of any way to argue against what he had
already begun to believe. “They showed us videos of the
massacres.”

“Any videos you saw were false, Jake.” T’arza
waved his hand and a screen on the wall flickered to life. “They
had many dead Machines to model, and creating false video is a
simple feat.” He waved his hand a second time. “This is the true
image of what happened that day.”