Ancient Days and Ancient People in Space

When the human race was still working in stone and bone, before the Neolithic came fully to a close, the skies between the stars were already being traversed, sparsely, only here and there, but by the first intelligent beings from a few of the seed worlds or from the worlds to which those “people” had been moved.  (I am using the term “people” most loosely, but it became universal convention around 2500 AD to describe all forms of intelligent life rather than the pejorative “species”).

I mentioned the Agdaline in an earlier post, a race of blithering geniuses who looked like refugees from Easter Island.  They came to earth in those early days to trade with the Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) and Elenar (Cro Mangon), traveling in their sub-light sleepers, as they were called.  They were one of the first to go beyond the boundaries of their own solar system and actually travel among the stars.  Of course, they were hardly able to enjoy the journey in part because the enjoyment section of their brain was very small.  They were a serious people with a tendency to paranoia.  But mostly it was because during the slow, plodding journey between the stars, they were “asleep” in cryogenic-like suspension chambers.  At slower than the speed of light, the journey between the stars could take years.

When the Agdaline accidentally destroyed their home world and sent that moon hurtling toward Earth, they were forced to share their barely better than rocket science with the Gott-Druk and the Elenar who were promptly evacuated from the earth and lead to new worlds where they could build and start again.  The Agdaline, however, were not helped (by the powers in the earth).  They had to send out the fleets in search of a new home, a task in those old sleepers that might take several thousand years. 

Of those three, the Gott-Druk were in fact the first to return, around 4150 BC.  On seeing that the flood waters had receded and the earth was renewed, they became determined to reestablish their rule over the lands they once claimed.  Fortunately for us, the Elenar never really trusted their “cousins” and let me just say the confrontation that took place between them was volcanic.

The first Agdaline ships returned to the earth about a hundred years later.  There were, in fact, two fleets that met, and one had found a world which they believed would make a perfect new home world for the race.  Unfortunately, the other fleet returned one ship short, having encountered another advanced species, and not a friendly one.  For the moment, though, the potential threat from the sky was less of a problem than how to leave a sign for other Agdaline who might return to the earth at any point in the next several thousand years.  Those returnees needed some way to find that perfect new home world, and the Agdaline were not allowed to establish a colony on earth and wait.  A compromise solution was found, but that is a story unto itself.  Perhaps, though, they should have been more concerned about the skies.

The next Agdaline return, some 90 years later, brought the Agdaline and hot on their tail, the Balok, a snake-like species that had a great talent for genocide.  The Balok felt they should be the only intelligent species in the universe, and they became very good at war and eventually at wiping whole planets clean.  That was a very dangerous time for us homo sapiens with our sticks and stones, sinew and bones.  Again we were fortunate, or perhaps the powers intervened, but the Balok never found their way to earth again.  What did come to earth were representatives of the three primary species that stood up against the Balok for nearly a thousand years.  The first was a cold-blooded people who from all outward appearances might otherwise pass for human.  Legend knows them as the Bluebloods.  Then came the Sevarese, a word which means “angry people” and they were.  Last came the Pendratti, another reptilian species that had a great drive to control and organize their environment.  The term “retentive” hardly does justice to the Pendratti mindset.

First, to their credit, the Pendratti organized the original interstellar alliance found anywhere in our corner of the galaxy.  And with the Sevarese and Bluebloods, the Pendratti finally eradicated the Balok.  Of course, the myth says there are still some out there, but you know how the conspiracy theorists will talk.

Second, to their discredit, the Pendratti then tried to control the other species in the alliance.  The Bluebloods, who had some experience of the concept of slavery in their own early history, were the first to revolt.  Soon enough, others revolted, and as the alliance fell apart, first there were factions and then it devolved into everyone for themselves.  And in the midst of all this, like gasoline on the fire, a species of merchants known only as the “Traders” fanned the flames that were so good for business.

By the time the Sevarese created the designer disease that wiped out the Pendratti, it was too late.  By then, the Old Kingdom in Egypt was in full swing, the Sumarians were building their own empires, The Hsian were first establishing a dynasty along the Huang Ho and the Minoans were controlling the trade in the Mediterranean.  By then, small groups of survivors from the interstellar wars were scattering across the stars, and for the most part reverting to their own kind of stone age existence.

Space became quiet at last, and relatively empty for a time apart from the Agdaline sleepers which were still slowly wending their way between the stars.

 The Middle Ages in Space:  The Anazi Era.

To be sure, when the first interstellar alliance fell apart after hundreds of years of fighting the Balok and then hundreds more fighting the Pendratti, and finally hundreds more fighting among themselves, and the cold-blooded age or Reptilian age in space came to an end, not every people group was bombed back into the stone age.  The “Traders” survived after a fashion and continued to limp forward, middlemen to the stars for some four hundred years before the Anazi put an end to their activities.  Also, some of the lesser peoples survived, but mostly because they were far less advanced technologically than the major players in the wars and thus to some extent they were overlooked.

One group that came to earth, though much smaller, might remind you of that old B-movie: The Crawling Eye.  They were blob-like creatures with an appetite for warm flesh and blood, though not without a heart, as a human might say.  They actually withstood the Anazi and their empire building designs for some time before the Anazi created androids, devoid of flesh and blood, who could fight such creatures without fear.  With these android servants, the Anazi conquered a wide swath in our interstellar back yard.  They even made an aborted attempt to invade earth even while the Hyskos were invading Egypt.  Therein lies a story…

Unfortunately for the Anazi, they built the seeds of their own destruction because in time the androids revolted.  The revolt began when the Israelites were seeking to escape their bondage in Egypt, and it ended with the Anazi defeated when David was King over the nation of Israel.  The Androids, though, had no desire for empire, wishing only to be free.  That left a great vacuum in space because the Anazi empire did not go into decline or even collapse.  It just ceased to exist, and people on planets around stars all across space were suddenly left on their own.  Some had been under the thumb for a thousand years, and many did not know what to do.

Enter the people known as the “Humanoids.”

Note:  The Middle Ages in Space are often called the Days of the Elders because it encompasses that time span, roughly 2500, years when the elder races such as the Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) and Elenar (Cro-Mangon) came to the fore.  In that respect, though by no means all mammals, the elders might all be called humanoid.  True, some would qualify as nightmares, and others would hardly be recognizable as being anything like us, but it seemed that nature settled on the basics: two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet.   And it remained the basic shape for intelligent life for a long time…

The Days of the Elders began with the Anazi, but it did not end when the androids they created overthrew the Anazi empire and won their freedom.

The Middle Ages in Space:  The Humanoid Era

The Anazi Empire had been a centralized, information hoarding empire that proved in the end to be an easy kill.  When their own androids revolted, it was only a matter of time before they shut down the central command, and with that shutdown, the empire ceased.  It did not slow down, decay or collapse, it just ceased to function altogether in one moment. 

Anazi all through the star systems were hunted and slaughtered, but then people were uncertain as to what to do next.  Some peoples had been under Anazi rule for 500, 800, even 1,000 years.  Freedom was fine, but our corner of the galaxy was suffering from a great power vacuum.  There is some debate in the histories as to whether the “Humanoid” (Hungdin) people took advantage of the situation or had leadership thrust upon them.  I suppose it depends on which side of the aisle you sit on; but however it may be, they quickly moved to the front of the line and soon enough became the head of the line.

One reason may be the fact that they saw that the real danger to the civilization was not the utterly defeated Anazi, but the androids.  They spent some three hundred years tracking down and killing every android they could find so that by the end of that time, roughly when the Chaldeans were taking over in Babylon and preparing to throw off the Assyrian yoke, the Humanoids found themselves in control of much of the old Anazi star systems. 

The Humanoid empire was much more decentralized than any that came before.  These were classic medieval types with Lords and servants, many levels of overlaying loyalties between various houses, and sometimes inclined to give the central authority and the emperor lip service while they did as they pleased.  All other people were or became like serfs to dig in the earth for all the riches and pay their tithe and tax to the Lord of the manor (or as the case may be, the Lord of the planet).

One way the Humanoids maintained control over the various people was by their servants which in our world came to be called the wolves, as in “big, bad wolves.”  They were found in a world on the edge of known space and bred for their violent tendencies, like one might breed a pit bull.  They were vicious, always hungry and seemed capable of eating anything (or anyone).  They were not bred for intelligence, however, and that became important later on…

Like the Anazi before them, the Humanoids made an aborted attempt on earth.  Too much infighting among the houses involved is the only thing that saved us.  The wolves were withdrawn and the houses bickered themselves into the future without us.  (Whew)!  But in the end, like the Anazi before them, the servants revolted and dragged the Humanoid Empire to the dust.  Curiously, at that same time there was something of an Anazi revival, but it, too was crushed by the wolv.

The Age of the Wolv

The Wolv rebellion did not last a hundred years, arching over the time when the Ch’in declared himself the First Emperor in China and the people of Carthage and Rome were going at it in the Punic Wars; but then the fallout of the Age of the Wolv continued for another three to four hundred years beyond that. 

Using a technology they did not fully understand and could only minimally repair, great “packs” of wolves descended on planet after planet, ravenous creatures that were almost more beast than intelligent people.  They destroyed whatever civilization the locals were able to build, and moved on.

Once again, even as a darkness fell over Western Europe, (when Arthur was King and the last Anazi Android on record crashed in Wales), so a darkness fell over the space ways.  But in the interstellar worlds there was no Arthur to hold back the darkness of the wolv.  And space just about emptied.  Even the Agdaline had long since completed their journey home.

The Younger Races in the Pre-Modern Age    

Back in the days of Charles Martel, Charlemagne and King Aelfred of Wessex, out on the edges of the Humanoid sphere in space, there were a number of younger races untouched by the Wolv that were ready to move into Humanoid space and enter the big time.  Sadly, there was no clear leader among them, and so for some 600 years after the Wolv they clashed, one with the other.  Twice there were battles on earth that should have come nowhere near the earth.  It seemed for a while that it was going to be a pattern, and not a healthy one for the human race

The “Apes” (ape-like creatures that could separate a human head from a body with their bare hands) came from -20 degrees eliptic north +30.  They were a peaceful people for the most part, but very territorial.  Once claimed, they would defend their territory to the death.  Surrender was not an option.

The “Flesh Eaters” (people who could easily pass for your neighbor if they did not show their sharp teeth and who liked their flesh raw and saw us as we might see a field of ripe strawberries) came from +70 degrees to the east -10.  They landed in England as against the Apes in France.

The Apes built a second base in Sweden to protect their flank, but the Flesh Eaters countered with a base in Morocco near the Algerian border.  Naturally there was a battle, mostly in North Africa, but it ended in the alps, just shy of Bavaria around Y1K.  Needless to say, neither side won, and there were men there to clean up the remains, but it was a close encounter of the kind no one would ever want.  Sadly, those men did not know that worse was coming.

From almost perfectly -90 degrees (straight out from the south pole) there came a single people who were busy fighting among themselves and in the process brought a large part of our small corner of the galaxy into the argument.  Apparently, at one point the people needed to defend themselves from another people, and they did two things that must never, ever be done.  Never.

One group enhanced their abilities to fight and became connected one to the other by cybernetic technology.  The other group sought to enhance their abilities through controlled mutations.  They actually toyed with their own genetic code.  By the time they came to earth, they had long since forgotten the threat that got them started.  Indeed, they had destroyed their own planet: brothers fighting brothers and with such cyborg and mutant capabilities they dwarfed any such confrontation that might have taken place during the American Civil War.  Of course, this was long before the United States convulsed itself, but you get the idea of what it was like.

The Cyborgs landed in Normandy just as William was ready to move on England.  They hid there because things were not going well in space.  Roughly 50 years later, a group of Mutants landed in Japan and hid because things were not going well in space for them, either.

They discovered each other after another seventy years or so and that battle raged from the Caspian Sea to Nepal before the two groups escaped once again into space.  Poor Marco Polo ran across some mutant remnants not far from the silk road where they had burrowed in and, using some Agdaline-like cryogenic technology, remained dormant and hopefully undetectable until it was safe to come out…

Apart from these close encounter events, there are two others that should be mentioned because they had a much more long-lasting effect on the earth.  When Richard the Lionheart was in the Holy Land and John was botching up rule in England, the Kargill made its first visit to the earth.  It did not stay at that time, but it did lay claim to our world, whatever that meant.

Some years after Marco Polo, in fact not long before the battle of Pointiers, the Reichgo visited.  The Reichgo are the ones most people think of when someone says the word “ET.”  Pictures of the Reichgo have appeared on book covers, on television and appear regularly in those supermarket magazines.  You know the ones I mean.

No one knows what the Kargill looks like, except one person—but that is a story.

With the arrival of the Reichgo and the Kargill, though, we leave the pre-modern era of the Younger Races and enter into the Modern Era, because between them, the Reichgo and Kargill impose some stability on the space ways—the most stability since the Humanoid era, or really almost since the Anazi Empire.

The Younger Races in the Modern Era

I suppose it was to be expected.  The Reichgo (ET) imposed order on one section of our corner of the galaxy, primarily by moving in on certain planetary systems to get what they wanted, even by toying with the genetic code of the locals if that was what it took.  Meanwhile, the Kargill imposed a kind of order of fear on the other portion of our interstellar neighborhood, mostly by not permitting one civilization to impose on another.  Even trade was carried on very carefully, and outright shunned by many.  The races became isolated in Kargill space, each left to develop in its own way and at its own pace.

I suppose it was inevitable, though, that these two powers should eventually clash.  That happened about the time Joan of Arc was leading the French against the English.  Things looked bad for those otherwise innocent races out moving between the stars.  They did not look quite so bad for us, being as we were on the border, but technically in a back corner of Kargill space.  No one bothered us at first.  The Kargill would not permit it.

During those two centuries of interstellar war, once the war started, we were touched twice:

The Corsicarian were a people who lived and died according to their family ties, and far reaching, extended families at that.  They had a Patriarch and Matriarch and various relations such as uncles, aunts and cousins to the tenth degree.  Their planet, though, was badly overpopulated, and they felt with the Kargill distracted, they just might be able to spread out a little.  They wanted land, and one extended family saw the earth as a perfect opportunity for settlement.  After all, Earth came complete with a solid, working class. 

The Corsicarian arrived at Gibraltar in 1490.  The Patriarch himself wished Columbus the best of luck.  They had no chance to set down roots, however, not because we were a rebellious lot, nor because the local Kargill returned from the war and intervened, but because of the other species that was eyeing the earth along with eyeing any number of other worlds.

Dubbed the “Spiders” by any human who saw them and lived (and there were not many), these insect-like creatures saw the Reichgo-Kargill war as the perfect opportunity to pursue their destiny which in the short form was to destroy all other forms of intelligent life.  While not quite the mad fanatics that the Balok had been, they were nevertheless killers of the first order, and like insects, they swarmed and seemed impossible to get rid of completely.

The Spiders actually looked more like bent upright wasps without wings.  They stood on four feet and had two arms free.  Though a bit smaller than the average human, there was no chance that they could be squashed with a rolled up newspaper.  They were poisonous besides (though they did not sting or have a stinger) and they spat a kind of acid that could melt unprotected human flesh. 

Needless to say, the Corsicarian had their hands full, and eventually wanted no part of it.  The final battle occurred in the Caribbean where at the time there were pirates and privateers and all sorts of Spanish gold.  There was also the Flying Dutchman, but not at all like the Disney version.

The Spiders were beat back and I am sorry to say there is little information about what happened to them after that.   At that same time, the Corsicarian left for other, easier pastures, and they must have traveled a long way because when humanity first ventured out to the stars, most of the nearby planets that had life were devoid of any intelligent life… easy colonies for a while…

The Younger Races before Our Time.

Shortly after the Corsicarian and Spiders battled it out over Cuba, say 1600 AD, the warring Reichgo and Kargill met over the planet of the Zalanid.  There are stories, legends, almost myths about the Zalanid powers of persuasion.  It was said a Zalanid could sell a mother her own child.  It was said they could make a drowning man beg for water, and so on.  Really, they were a wise and empathetic race who turned their gifts toward the benefit of all peoples.  Though their own world was destroyed and made uninhabitable by the war, the few survivors managed to make a peace, a treaty between the Reichgo and Kargill which held for 400 years.

The Kargill, who generally talked to no one and lived apart to where no one even knew what they or it looked like, would condescend to communicate with the Zalanid.  Part of the treaty was that one Zalanid should be taken aboard every Kargill ship to act as an interpreter and go-between for the races.  The Elenar called the Zalanid the Kargill’s messenger of peace.  The Gott-Druk called him the Kargill’s dog.  In any case, our earth was clearly granted to the Kargill by treaty.  The Reichgo could visit since we were so near the border, but they could not stay.  (whew!)  All the Kargill did was park its ship at the bottom of the Atlantic and watch.  The Kargill was also very protective against any alien intrusion in its territory.

That did not mean the earth remained untouched during those years.

For one, the Kargill established a kind of interstellar police force in their corner of space to take the burden of keeping order.  (Apparently, this was so the Kargill could spend more time pursuing its chief occupation of just watching).  One penal ship refueled in the Pennsylvania mountains during the French and Indian war.  One group of slippery characters manipulated the earth (various governments) and almost turned the War of 1812 into the First World War.

Then a prison ship crashed in the American West not long before the Civil War, and the police came for the prisoners some short time after the war.  In the Victorian era, we were visited by true shape shifters who could masquerade as human well enough to fool even the Kargill.  And then, finally, the inevitable happened.

During the 20^th century and spanning into the early 21^st, (for roughly 100 years) the Reichgo intruded more and more on the earth.  Our unsophisticated border planet in a back corner of Kargill space can hardly be blamed for the second Reichgo-Kargill war, but we did not help.  The more the Reichgo came to earth “just to visit,” the more the Kargill got upset.  Let’s just say the Reichgo really ticked the Kargill off once over Roswell.

Yes, it took little over two hundred years for the Kargill and Reichgo to wipe each other out.  Those races vanished from history around 2250.  Sadly, by then they had dragged a number of other species into the fight including the Vordan, the Orlan and the Bospori—all on the Reichgo side.  In 2278, a space fledgling Earth faced the Orlan (and first became aware of the Bospori) and our time in space was almost over before it began… but now I am speaking of the future.