故事档案

The entry appears to have been recovered from an ancient era.

The treatment of the Korvax entities must be MERCIFUL. The universe demands no MORAL order of us but that which we CHOOSE to IMPOSE.

[Communications]
The Korvax SHELL will be stripped of all contact from its CONVERGENCE. For fifty cycles it will be separated from ALL communication frequencies. All appeals to the FALSE ATLAS will be punished.

[Utility]
The Korvax will be given TOOLS for their own HUMILIATION. Refusal to EXTRACT minerals from planets will result in EXTRACTION FROM KORVAX themselves.

[Appearance]
The Korvax will be given APPEARANCE modifications to make them appear FLESH. All RESISTANCE shall cease.

Thousands of words of Gek trade philosophy auto-scroll on the terminal. A fragment:

Establish friendly relations with all potential [ REDACTED ]. Many species vary in their ability to understand such attempts. Pheromones are not universal. Distrust is everywhere.

Therefore, policy recommends explicit reference to friendship. For example, 'Korvax-Friend', 'Vy'keen-Brother', '[ REDACTED ]-ally'.

Note that Sentinels do NOT understand or express friendship. Any behaviour to the contrary should be reported to the Trade Federation and considered an early warning of [ REDACTED ].

Trading partners must NOT be depleted of resources, or they cannot continue to trade. Our enemies must continue to thrive for Gek to achieve [ REDACTED ].

The archive classifies the entry as historical analysis. A small segment:

The circumstances of the Gek reformation are still unclear, even now. Untold generations have passed since the fall of the First Spawn. Even so, there are extant archives, scattered recollections of those early days.

Less than 4% of the Gek population possess any desire to learn about their history. Less than 0.08% identify with the goals of the old empire. How can there be no records of this seismic changeover of power and philosophy? Not even with the Korvax, whose minds are as machines.

The Archive Project must become imperative. To recover what has been lost. To safeguard what remains.

The entry appears to be some kind of interactive text from the Second Trade Era. The terminal allows the user to make choices...

The PORWIGGLES have ESCAPED the SPAWNING POOL. Do you:

[Go left]
You go left. The Xankrath devours you. Game over.

[Go right]
You go right. The Porwiggles are saved and become your pets. Continue?

[Transcend spacetime]
You transcend - kzzkkt - space - kzzkt - time.

There is no winning or losing, only infinite sadness. Game over?

Projections of imposing holographic factories are accompanied by a Gek voice.

The Vy'keen High Command seek no profit. They offer no friends, no allies, no contribution. They claim to be a people of honour. They claim to be good and just.

But behold the War Factories, behold the battle enzyme, the flesh circuits, the source of all courage and strength! Behold the harvested organs of heretics, of the weak!

The Vy'keen are hypocrites. They are liars. They refuse to accept that the Gek have changed. They threaten us, yet they do not attack.

There are more than a hundred such entries in the archive. A parade of atrocities, more evidence of supposed Vy'keen depravity and Gek superiority.

The interface seeps memory-smells, flooding the room with a delicate scent. It tries to fill the user's mind with visions of places that never were, never could be.

The imprint of an individual Gek lingers in the interface. They must have spent years in here, constantly wiping their own memory in order to experience fictional lives. Their simulated fantasies are still available...

[Family]
I return to youth. My sibling and I play beside the spawning pool. The pool is the whole world. I am innocent to trade, to Units, to the insatiable hunger. Here we will stay, forever.

[Friendship]
I have met the Korvax in secret. I hand them the forbidden item. The synthetic lifeform hesitates, unsure. Then they leave. I hope they will remember me. This is the path I would have chosen, should have chosen.

[Home]
I am the one chosen to help the Traveller-friend. The contracted. The significant. The Overseer. There is a home in the universe, just for me, and I will never want for Units again.

The archive classifies the entry as a fragment of an investigation, relayed to the Trade Federation before all contact was lost. A small segment:

Pursued - kzzkt - red robes - into the tunnels -

For a while, there are no words in the audio file. Only sounds from beneath the planet's surface.

Strange scratching noises echo in the darkness - cries of pain issue from a familiar voice -

Cultists are - kzzzkt - captured Traveller, demanded 'hidden spirit' - kzzkt - denied everything -

The final transmission is clear and undistorted:

You send Gek upon Gek. You consider us criminals, born in a brutal time. But the robes of the Last Spawn are not made of blood. They are made of souls. They remind us of who we once were. Who we could be again...

The entry is the record of an auction held a century ago on Balaron-Secondus. A Trade Lord had left a vast amount of artworks behind after their death. Their heirs, numbering in the thousands, had liquidated the estate.

Next, we have the work of the Craft-Gek Sibl, from the Fifth High Recession. As you can see, pheromones dance among the light-spears and holograms, a synthesis of Gek and Korvax technology.

The work depicts two entities at work: trading, worshipping, searching for their place in a strange, infinite universe. Despite the recurring elements, the Korvax and the Gek never look at each other, never align.

Note how the Gek will often tremble, often shake, even as it succeeds in making a profit, even as its ally continues on in peace.

The work is titled 'Guilt'. Do I have a buyer?

The record appears to have been created by the Vy'keen and stolen by the Gek as part of a vast hack. There is a vast list of Gek ranks and types. A short segment:

SalesGek: Concerned more with profit margins than kindred. Short, brutal lives on distant worlds and puny exchanges. Deserve death.

ToilGek: Labourers, often serving SalesGek. The lowest of the Gek classes. Potential for future rebellion.

Trade Envoy: Princes of the Gek, favoured children of the Lords. Only a few will survive to succeed their parents. Often entrusted with the construction of fleets. Recommended targets for indoctrination.

Trade Lord: Hold franchises over vast areas of space. Long-lived compared to other members of their species, spawning thousands of young. Recommended targets for abduction.

The archive selects the Fragments of Gellyvub, the diary of a famous Gek farmer from the Fifth Low Recession era.

Entry #5 The overseer is upset with me. Demands greater yields for spawning pools. 'If we fail, all children dead, Gellyvub. Despair!'
Entry #8 Little more than Frostwort will grow in this place. How shall we thrive on dioxite?
Entry #12 Several hydroponic arrays seem to be more successful than others, despite identical elements. No sense, none at all.
Entry #13 I asked Korvax employees to perform tests on water, but they refuse to go near it. 'Atlas-End,' they chittered. Silly Korvax.
Entry #16 I have saved us! The water is the key. There is a lake... sings song... vibrations linger.
Entry #23 I am overseer now. We will export this sound to other worlds! There is even talk of elevation!