Story: Unveiled

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By Holbenilord. Site A6YH and its contents.

Chapter One

Archaeo-site A6YH, Hesion, Yathra System. 4.000(.019) AM

Dalon watched his breath condense into the cold air, a puff of white cloud that came from his mouth and faded into nothingness as it drifted away into the sky. He hugged himself tighter, for despite the thick insulating coats he wore, an uncomfortable coldness reached his skin and made his eyes water.

Looking down into the hole they'd been digging, he sighed. Three weeks of shovelling dirt had only got them two metres down into the frozen soil, and they'd found absolutely nothing. A few of his students were still down there, beneath insulation tents, carving deeper down into the compacted grit. A grid of fibres had been laid out over the surface of the dig for classification purposes, but it only got in the way. Dalon watched it shake gently in the wind.

A long, segmented tube ran from the truck to the hole, powering the lamps, ultrasonics, and the geophysicists' magnetic and seismic scanners. Frost had been melted away around where it touched the ground, and it was the only frost-free object in sight.

They'd chosen to dig here because of the magnetic anomaly below- upon passing over it, the scanners beeped madly and went haywire. By rights, it should have been just below the surface. In reality, they hadn't even found anything other than cold dirt.

Archaeo-site A6YH was an archaeological dig funded by the Salsene government on the backwater, inhospitable planet Hesion. It wasn't worth the effort- the average temperature was five below zero were they stood, which was only twenty degrees or so north of the equator. The planet was around one hundred and ninety million kilometrons from a G6-class star, and it showed. The only life lived in the thin, cool sea around the equator.

Apparently, it had been a happier place in the past. They'd found coal and oil, and lots of it. Traces in the ice showed that three million years ago, the planet had lost the majority of the CO2 and methane in its atmosphere- which he was told there had been a lot of- and as a result had cooled down rapidly and efficiently. There were fossils and petrified forests, revealed by marching glaciers around the equatorial sea. But this wouldn't have warranted a dig from the Salsenes.

The planet had previously carried a number of Veiled One buildings. Every race in Viperius held their name in regard- it was whispered with a kind of ridiculous awe by next to everyone he knew. Particularly the Salsenes. They claimed to have got their first Hyperdrive from that old civilisation, which was possible, but Dalon wouldn't have bet on it. The Salsenes cared so much about the Veiled Ones that they'd set up a site on a frozen, creator-forsaken rock orbiting several hundred light-years outside the standard galactic habitable zone, despite their well-known intolerance for sub-zero temperatures.

So, of course, all the Salsenes on site stayed warm and comfortable within the command centre, drinking alcohol and laughing at holofilms, while the Zyrothans and Atrenids they had dragged along were stuck scraping permafrost away with toothbrushes.

"Dalon!" He looked as his name was spoken- it was Mazia, one of the Atrenid students who had been convinced that this planet would provide great material for her thesis. Of course, it had disappointed.

"Yeah?" He dropped down into the pit, keeping one hand on the edge and allowing his four feet to hit the bottom at once.

She had a large brush in one hand, caked with snow, and an ultrasonic emitter in the other. A wide smile could be made out under her hood. Dalon gave her a questioning look, and she pointed down at her feet.

At first, the old Zyrothan saw nothing. Then, he made it out- amongst the white flecks on brown, a smooth, white surface, curved up like the top of a sphere, just peeking above the bottom of the pit. A little light glinted from its bald scalp.

Dalon crouched in front of it and scraped away around the object with his gloved hands. Mazia joined in, and the other students were beginning to form a loose circle around the discovery. Eventually, it was half exposed, glinting furiously.

It was indeed a sphere. Pure white, and with not a single marking or line upon it, it was around five inches in diameter and rang quietly when tapped.

"Yira?"

"Hm?" A Zyrothan looked away from the object and at Dalon. She was quite small, with a particularly thick coat that flared slightly due to the wind, and held a datapad in one hand.

"Could you type this up for me? White sphere, untarnished, nine centimetrons diameter, grid... F5."

She tapped away at the virtual keys for a few seconds and then looked back up. "Is it doing anything?"

"Not that we can see, at least. Kal! Can you bring the EM kit over?"

A gangly Atrenid in a coldsuit picked up a box with a number of screens and buttons on it- all dusted gently with frost- and carried it over. He took the receiver from its holder- a small cup-like shape on the end of a coiled wire, and held it over the sphere, then fiddled a little with some dials and flicked the 'on' switch.

The displays lit up reluctantly and began to show waveforms. Some were a series of regular peaks and troughs, and others were flat lines. Nothing out of the ordinary, and the object didn't seem to have any magnetic properties.

Then, there was a spike amongst the low peaks, causing the box to click loudly. The flat lines all leapt up a short height on their grids and then maintained position.

"It's emitting a weak magnetic field. Around five microterrels, if this thing is working properly. About the same as a fridge magnet. If you know what they are."

"I do." Dalon stood back up. "Is that all?"

"Seems so. It's not changing at all."

"Hey, Yira?"

The female Zyrothan had been looking up at the sky, and not paying any attention. "Huh? Uh- sorry. What was the question?"

"What's happened to your datapad?"

She looked down at the tablet in her hand and then stumbled backwards. Upon the screen, previously full of text and numbers, was a corrupted black-and-white image showing an erect biped, though none of its body could be seen under its thick veil- which was simultaneously plain and patterned.

"Well krag."


Outpost Nahus 5637, Hesion, Yathra System. 0.489(.301) AM

Raeva laid her head back on the cushion which rose up from the floor to meet it, and looked up at Hesion's sun through a display filter that dimmed the star itself, to allow the Veiled One watching to observe its gentle corona, a ghostly white glow around the raging sphere of plasma that produced it.

She thought for a san-straw to emerge from the ceiling, and it did, offering liquid to her mouth that she eagerly accepted. Savouring the taste, she thought for it to retract, and it did so.

A drone bobbed silently in the air beside her, watching with its various sensors. It was small- small enough to fit in a pocket- and doughnut-shaped, with a pure white shell and a small blue dot that rotated around its equator, pointed at the Veiled One. Or was it the robot that was rotating, and the dot that stayed in place?

"What's so interesting, Ix?"

The drone replied, though from no visible mouth. Its voice was surprisingly thoughtful and deep, and it spoke carefully, as if not wanting to offend. "You always follow the same routine every morning. Wake, bathe in coronal light, drink composition twelve-fifteen from the san-straw, and then head to the matterscope. I've never seen you break it."

"Why should I? It's the best way to start off another day of watching stars flying around aimlessly through space and then altering the courses of neutron stars and white dwarves towards the recyclers. Can't I do something my way?"

"Oh, I'm not complaining. It amuses me how you express your individuality through rigidly following a millenium-old structure."

"You're always quick to project your machine values on other people, aren't you? And haven't we had this conversation before?"

"We have. Several times."

"What does that say about you, Ix?"

"That I can keep myself amused?"

"I was going to say that you repeat yourself too much."

"Perhaps. But perhaps you need the reminding."

"Everything I experience is recorded and catalogued up here." She tapped her head. "I can access any memory at any time. I don't need reminding."

"If you say so. I'll remind you of that."

She snorted loudly and turned back to the display. The spirit-like halo of whiteness remained there, around the filter-dimmed sun, and then Raeva sighed. The device deactivated and the wall was white again.

The drone continued to float, still as quiet, and then flexed its manipulator fields. It was an old model, at least a millenium behind current standards, but you couldn't get rid of a sapient being for being out of date. Ix could always have himself upgraded, but had chosen not to, preferring his current shape to the more streamlined 'new' bodies.

Raeva got up from the chair, and it sank away into the floor, as it was dissolving from the bottom up. She looked down at the drone.

"What's on your schedule today?"

"I'm going on holiday."

"Oh? I wasn't told."

"I've only just decided. I'm going to the Vallatis universe. It's only a few hundred thousand years old, and currently full of superstars billions of times as big as that little ball we're orbiting. There's going to be supernova tomorrow."

"Well, have fun."

"I won't be away long. And I'm always just a Voi-wall away."

"Of course."

"I'm sure you can keep yourself amused. Perhaps you could bring yourself to bend the rules a little- crash some white dwarves together or something."

"I'd love to, but I can't. I've told you before."

"Your choice. I know what I'd do."

She smiled at him. "Perhaps I might let you have a go some day."

"That'd be nice. I shall hold you to that. But for now, goodbye."

"Goodbye, Ix."

The drone was gone in a little burst of light, and then Raeva was alone. She stretched and then thought for the matterscope controls to reappear.

Chapter Two

Archaeo-site A6YH, Hesion, Yathra System. 4.000(.019) AM

Dalon carried the bag in which he had carefully placed the white sphere into the control room. A number of Salsenes looked up, startled.

"Hey, Dalon, shift's not over yet."

"I know. We found something."

Three pairs of eyes widened at once. The Salsenes looked at each other- Kreer, Laklan, and Palli, if Dalon remembered correctly. Kreer was short and stubby; Laklan was tall and gangly; and Palli was a sickly woman who always wore a rather silly-looking leotard. The Zyrothan always found the three of them quite amusing.

Laklan stood up slowly, his head hanging slightly too far forwards on his neck. "A... a real Veiled One thing?"

"Yes, a real Veiled One thing. It transmitted a picture to us."

"Oh man, oh man, oh man!" Kreer chuckled. "This is going to get me known!"

Palli smiled excitedly and put down her vidpad.

Dalon pulled out the white sphere and put it on the table. He then stepped back to allow the Salsenes to all step forwards, which they did, staring down at it.

Laklan frowned. "What is it?"

Kreer gave him a funny look. "It's a Veiled One thing, man! It could be a planet destroyer or it could cure all diseases nearby or some reck."

"Let's break it open, and see what's inside."

"Yeah!" Kreer took a geologist's hammer from the rack. Dalon didn't try to stop them- Veiled Ones built their machines to last. A Salsene with a hammer wouldn't succeed where millions of years of erosion had failed.

The fat Salsene hit the top of the sphere, as hard as he could. As predicted, nothing happened. He hit it again, and it rang slightly, but remained untarnished. Finally, Kreer raised the hammer as high as he could over his head and brought it down on the object, closing his eyes as it came down.

Something broke, but it was the hammer's head. Kreer began swearing and held one hand to his mouth, hopping around wildly. The Zyrothan sighed. Let them learn the hard way- they wouldn't listen otherwise.

Laklan was staring at the object. "You hit it really hard, Kreer. It must be really hard."

"Yeah, it must, mustn't it?" Dalon scooped it back up and put it in the bad. "You could write a paper about how incredibly hard it is for the journal."

The Salsenes didn't seem to understand the sarcasm. "Yeah, we could do that! What do you think, Palli?"

She shrugged. "Sure."

Kreer had stopped hopping and now turned back to Dalon, breathing hard. "Hey, man, thanks for bringing that here. Was there anything else?"

"Well, yeah." He took out the datapad and transmitted the image to the room's holoboard, allowing it to take shape. The form of a Veiled One, rendered in various shades of grey, slowly took shape. "We got this."

"It's not very good quality, Dalon."

"It is several million years old, Laklan."

"Oh. Yeah." The Salsene stopped to think about this for a moment.

Palli turned to Dalon. "This was from the sphere?"

"Yeah. Transmitted straight to our datapad, but no other screens nearby. It was accompanied by the appearance of a weak magnetic field around the object." He pocketed the datapad again. "Now, I'll put this in the vault and then get back to the digging."

"Oh. Good idea." Laklan sat back down on the sofa, a confused look on his face, and reached for the holovision remote.

The Zyrothan sighed once more and headed back out into the freezing air outside, taking care to close both of the 'coldlock' doors on the entrance. Creator forbid that the Salsenes should have to leave their comfort zone and get a little chilly, he thought to himself with a hint of amusement.


Outpost Nahus 5637, Hesion, Yathra System. 0.489(.301) AM

A matterscope was a device that allowed the remote manipulation of matter, subtly altering courses or increasing and decreasing speeds, all in the name of recycling. A neutron star or white dwarf was, as far as the Veiled Ones were concerned, dead matter, and was to be sent over to the vast recycling plants around the galaxy to be torn to shreds by tidal forces and then the pieces used. Neutron stars gave the Veiled Ones their neutronium, and white dwarves their whitemetal, which were important construction materials used particularly in warships and these new-fangled planet-stations that seemed to be the latest fad.

There was another big construction project going on, too. Raeva wasn't allowed to know about it, but apparently it needed lots of neutronium, and so that was where the processed stuff was going after it had been dealt with by the machines.

It was odd. The Veiled Ones were a society dedicated to the freedom and rights of their individuals, and this was the only time she'd been kept in the dark about just what they were doing with their products. She'd heard rumours- it was being used to create substantial gravity on asteroids, said some, and it was the main component in the latest drone brains, said others. Neither seemed particularly plausible to Raeva, since what did the Veiled Ones need with asteroids, and how was neutronium superior to quo-technology for computing?

It wasn't really important, though. It didn't really affect how she did her job, and so she didn't doing anything about it. She'd asked Ix, and he hadn't known or cared either. The drone was probably orbiting one of those superstars he had talked about right now, and Raeva did feel a tinge of sadness about missing out.

A small blue light, bearing a pattern like a rotating gear, flashed on the ceiling. She looked up and smiled slightly- Ix was calling. She thought for the message to come through.

"Hey, Raeva."

"Hey, Ix. How's the giant star?"

"Taking its time, but they think it'll blow in the next few minutes. I have a front-row seat, in as much as you can, but..."

"But?"

"Take a few minutes off. Come through the Voi-wall. Watch it with us- there's a few really nice people here who are here with me. They'd like to meet you."

"Ix, you know I'd love to, but I'm busy right now. I can't go off and-"

"You can. It's not as if your targets are No-Ships, Raeva. They'll be pretty much where you left them when they return."

"It's not that, it's just-"

"Just that you don't like watching hypernovae?"

"Even for a machine, you've always been good about knowing which buttons to press. Alright, I'm coming."

"Thanks."

"No, I should be thanking you."

She walked up to the Voi-wall, and was instantly transferred to the same type of device in the Vallatis universe, on board a bow-shaped station composed from neutronium-metal that orbited a few million kilometres from the seething blue surface of the superstar below.

Ix hovered over to welcome her, with two other Veiled Ones and a drone in tow. "I'm glad you came, Raeva. These people are Axas and Pheron, and the drone is Torroz-phi-herrel, or Torz for short."

Greetings were exchanged, and then the display flashed to call their attention to it. They all turned.

Ix began to whisper. "You know about what's going to happen, yeah?"

"Yeah. But explain it anyway."

"Right. This is one of the first generation of stars in this universe- instead of being formed from the debris of supernovae, it formed from the primordial hydrogen and helium produced by Vallatis' Big Bang. It contains over 250 standardised stellar masses of matter, which is being steadily fused in its massive core. Of course, being so big, it can't live long. It will soon decay in a hypernova. Stars with less than 250 stellar masses will decay in a pair-instability supernova, but these stars are so large that photodisintegration can occur, lessening the temperature and pressure around the core, so it does leave a large black hole behind. In addition, relativistic jets of heavier elements are sprayed out from the poles. And there could be a GRB."

"You simplified that a lot."

"I did. A member of a class VI civilisation could have told you that."

"Let's see it, anyway."

A symbol appeared in the bottom left hand corner of the display. "Core collapse has begun. Collapse is extremely fast- about 23% of light speed."

The screen changed to false-colour to show the emission of neutrinos, which made the star begin to turn intense blue. The blue continued for a few minutes and then faded as the neutrinos were trapped by the density of the core.

The core had reached the density of a neutron star, and was at a temperature above 100 billion degrees kelvin. The heat created neutrinos and antineutrinos in pairs, which made the screen light up blue and red again, several times brighter than before, and still brightening.

"This is the main energy output of the event- about 10% of the star's rest mass' equivalent in energy will be emitted as a ten-second burst of neutrinos. The outer core layers have received tremendous amounts of energy, which will cause the visible supernova. Brace yourself."

Sure enough, the screen was replaced by blazing white light. Nothing could be seen through the brightness until the filter adapted, though Raeva suspected it had been deliberately slow to show them the sheer power of the thing.

And then it was over, though two enormous columns of white-hot particles were shooting out from the black hole which now sat amongst those thin shells of gas, shooting out into infinity at relativistic speeds, to become the second generation of this universe's stars. Raeva couldn't help but smile.

Ix nudged her with his manipulator fields. "I told you so."

"Yeah. Yeah, you did."

They continued to watch the stellar remnant below for a few moments, and then turned to go back through the Voi-wall, laughing amongst themselves.

Chapter Three

Archaeo-site A6YH, Hesion, Yathra System. 4.000(.019) AM

Dalon clicked his tongue, and stared at the white sphere, as if trying to force it to open up with his mind. It remained resolutely intact and still, the reflection of the lights up ahead shining off its surface. What was inside? The datapad in his hand had it titled as 'Spherical Object #01', as it was spherical, an object, and their first discovery here.

He found himself wondering whether the Salsenes really would write a paper about how it had resisted attack by hammer, and found himself unable to put it past them. Knowing them, they'd be able to write pages of nonsense on the thing, and get it published, too.

Only one of Dalon's submissions had ever got through- 'On the thermal, chemical, and mechanical resistance of the Veiled One spire on Hethac IV'. He considered it one of his worst, but that was what had succeeded, and the far more interesting 'Possible uses of a Veiled One artifact discovered in the Teraal Trench' had been rejected. However, between them, those Salsenes had managed to get over twenty through the board. Perhaps they had friends amongst the reviewers.

But what did it matter? This object wasn't material for an archaeological paper. Perhaps someone could write one about how it had transmitted a millions-of-years-old picture to a datapad in a decipherable format, but that wasn't Dalon's field of expertise. He needed it to open up and reveal its secrets.

But it didn't, and it was just a solid white sphere, sitting there and doing nothing. It was irritating him.

A cough came from by the door, and he turned to look. Mazia was standing there, watching him.

"Yeah? Something happened?"

"You could say that." She grinned. "There's a fight going on."

Dalon got up quickly, shoving the sphere into his jacket (the pocket was too small and bulged out, but he didn't care) and heading after her. "Who?"

"Kreer and Kal. They had a disagreement."

"Did Kal say something about Palli?"

She looked impressed, but then hid it. "It's possible."

They walked into the holo-room to see a small ring of spectators around the two combatants, who were on the ground. Kreer was trying to strangle the Atrenid, his face dark with childish anger, and Kal was holding the stubby hands away from his neck.

The Zyrothan strode in and pulled the two of the apart, then forced them onto their feet. "Alright. Enough."

Kreer looked daggers at Kal. "He called Palli a-"

"I don't need to know. Kal, please apologise to him."

The Atrenid looked at his feet, and then sighed. He mumbled 'sorry'.

"There, see? That wasn't so hard. Now." He looked at them each in turn. "Stay away from each other for a few days, or at least until you don't feel like killing each other on sight."

Laklan and Palli walked in at that point, to see the crowd and Dalon holding Kreer and Kal apart, the two last mentioned both bruised and exhausted. Laklan scratched his head. "You alright, Kreer?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine, man." He continued to glare as he walked back to join the other two Salsenes. "You better watch your back, Atrenid."

"Kreer, don't make threats." Dalon sighed.

He noticed that the white sphere had fallen from his pocket, and picked it back up from the floor. Forcing it back in, he turned to go.

"Remember, shift starts at five tomorrow, people. Get some sleep."


Outpost Nahus 5637, Hesion, Yathra System. 0.489(.301) AM

The room was empty. It was a box, sterile white and empty of any items at all. There were no right angles, only gentle curves where the walls and ceiling met, and where the walls met too. However, the black-coated Voi-Wall covered the centre of the rear wall, a rectangle of solid and brooding darkness.

There were two flashes in a row, and both Raeva and Ix reappeared from the Wall, back in the outpost. A seat came up from the floor to receive the Veiled One, and she dropped down onto it, then released a loud sigh.

Ix instructed the outpost to grow slightly, and it did, the walls lengthening and the ceiling moving steadily upwards until the drone was happy. Then, it stopped, and it was as if the room had always been that way, with the far wall several hundred yards further away from the two sapients.

"It was cosier before." Raeva sat up.

"Perhaps, but I need the space. I'm going to build a defense turret."

"The outpost is already fitted with whitewaves and sapphire ballistae, along with Eden knows what else. It has a whitemetal hull, hyperrepulsors, shieldwaves, and annihilation fields. Do we need more?"

"Probably not, but I like having a project to work on."

"What are you planning, Ix? And how scared should I be?"

"Very scared. I'm going to make an anti-gun."

"Anti-gun?"

"It fires the target towards you at very high velocity."

"Uh-huh. Why would you use one?"

"To see the look on their faces."

"Well, good luck with that. I shall be throwing neutron stars around."

She called down the matterscope display and controls, and watched them emerge from the ceiling and floor respectively. She checked the objects she had been working on- all going on the proper trajectories, and nothing broken while she had been away.

But then the computer notified her of something, and she frowned.

A Boltzmann entity- specifically, a Pentos- was flying through Viperius, straight towards them. It had not responded to automated messages designed for Minds, and was approaching rapidly.

"Weird." She whispered, leaning forwards.

Chapter Four

Archaeo-site A6YH, Hesion, Yathra System. 4.000(.019) AM

The morning was cold, like the last hundred before it. Dalon stepped out and hugged himself for warmth, imagining what it would be like to have a shivering reflex. He had a feeling that he'd missed out there. Having hair to stand on end and produce a little warmth would be nice, too.

But he was hairless. His scales provided a little insulation, but not much. These coats were necessary.