-The Citadel, Luna, Nova System, Noviran Socialist Union-
-April 13, 3413 CE, Four Weeks Ago-
The Citadel is the main government building of the Noviran Socialist Union, located on Luna, the moon of Nova Mondial, the homeworld of three of the Union's races. It was formerly called the Diplomatic Forum, a place where members of all species and nations met to discuss important issues.
Sahria, the premier of the Union, strode out onto the main balcony of the Citadel, her robe flowing behind her. She gazed out across the city of Luna, illuminated by the reflection of the home planet and by its own fabulous lighting of all varieties, skyscrapers almost too high to comprehend, shining with the logos of the various major cooperatives. She sighed and looked down farther, seeing the thirteen magnificent bronze statues that lined the boulevard heading to the Citadel, each depicting a member of all the sentient species, past and present, ever discovered.
"Premier Sahria?" voiced a being behind her.
She turned and examined the other Catopian who had hailed her. Roughly average, gray fur, and green robe denoting a government worker. "Yes, what is it?"
"It is time for the biannual meeting of the Union governments."
"Already?" responded Sahria wearily. "I have enough to deal with as it is. Very well, I will be there in a moment." The assistant nodded, and departed.
With one last glance at the horizon, Sahria turned and walked back inside.
---
"Premier Sahria present." At that announcement, the assembled twelve sentients rose and bowed, before returning to their seats as Sahria gestured.
She glanced around, to examine the leaders of the various governments she represented, but (most) that had little to no power in reality beyond management duties. First, General Secretary Rajos of the Catopian-Greelian People's Republic, the most influential of the leaders assembled. Secondly sat Toka High Prime Torol, of the Tokan Mining Principate. Thirdly, President Carival of the United Provinces, followed by Emperor Zolus of the Nawu'Rawu Empire, and Unconstrained Equilibrium, the leader of the Adanaia Dominions.
She almost missed the Greelian delegation, who had just walked in. Though ostensibly represented by the General Secretary, the Union Treaty had guaranteed them the ability to attend in their own right. Two Organizers had always volunteered to travel to these meetings, not usually the same ones. The Greelians were a peculiar race not least for their autonomous nature, but also due to their unique system of government, the Organizer system. Unlike many of the other races, Greelians seem to have no sense of ambition and so the only people who volunteered to organize things were those with a genuine interest in helping. Sahria had long contemplated the alienness of their demeanor, despite evolving from the same planet.
"Welcome, all of you, to this meeting. While we have been unified for over a hundred years, I believe that this is an important ritual and necessary to the health of our relationships, not just for the purpose of meeting, but for a reminder of the past. I will once again recite the story of our existence, the story at the heart of each of our species, the story that brought together six proud species into one
indivisible nation."
"In the year 2101, war was beginning. After the destruction of the unified Catopian Empire due to the Hive War, the Catopian species, my species, split up into three factions, each believing that their way was correct, and seeking to exterminate the others at whatever cost.
The Catopian-Greelian Republic of Nova Mondial, Catopia and the Firan System, pledging its allegiance to the ideals of truth, democracy, knowledge and free markets. The United Catopian Socialist Planets, unified under the ideals of socialism, communism and equality for all individuals. And the Catopian Empire, stressing the importance of discipline, order, and subservience to the state in a massive political machine. And on that day, their three fleets met, and the world was forever changed. Fleets burned and debris rained from the sky, missiles rained onto the planets, cities were razed, soldiers perished in battle, and worlds burned. The worlds we have cleaned of debris, and now maintain in balance with the environment grew heavy with pollution and destruction. At the same time, plague afflicted the Catopian race. Other nations, other species, chose their sides and fought. The Adanaia and Normans joined the CGR in battle, the Karterieans and Dromo the UCSP. The Catopian Empire fought only with the help of two primitive species they pressed into service, but nearly overpowered the two combined, with the fruit of seven colonized systems. And in the end, with billions murdered already, a desperate nation chose to use their ultimate weapon, an unspeakable terror, and destroyed the planet of Catopia, the capital world, along with the over ten billion people that inhabited it, in one terrible instant."
All of the leaders bowed their heads, as Sahria paused in honor of those lost.
"When the war ended and the dust cleared, no one won. But as we rebuilt our worlds, as we resurrected our civilizations and met once again with new governments and new ideas, we agreed on one thing."
"Never again."
"Never again would our species and nations commit such an atrocity, to destroy an entire world and all its people. From that moment onward, we made that technology forsaken, and agreed to never pursue such a weapon again."
"And in 3277, we finally met to end war between ourselves for good, and we formed the Noviran Socialist Union with that aim. And for one hundred years, we have maintained that peace and prosperity for all our people. We are the Union. We are the Catopians, politicians, farmers, and scientists. We are the Toka, miners, builders, and workers. We are the Dromo, officers, managers, and soldiers. We are the Greelians, thinkers, philosophers, and authors." We are the Karterieans, warriors, special forces, and martial artists. We are the Adanaia, traders, artists, and investors. We are all one.
"And now, we meet today-"
The doors behind Sahria burst open, and a Toka in the blue robes of a scientist flew in, saying, "The stars!"
All of the assembled leaders glanced apprehensively at the new arrival.
"This is extraordinarily important."
"Very well," responded the Premier. "Continue."
"The Toka caught his breath. The entire universe. The entire universe is gone."
The Premier's jaw dropped. "What?"
"Every single star that was at any point in the universe is gone, and they have been replaced with an entirely new universe." The scientific officer pulled out a recording device, and placed it on the table before pressing the play button on the screen.
A hologram rose from the device, showing the orientations of the stars before, and then after a few seconds changed, showing the entirely different (and much sparser) sky as it was now.
"Even more disconcerting is this," continued the Toka scientist. Sahria thought to herself that there could seldom be anything more disconcerting, but was proven wrong a few seconds later.
"Our radio telescopes are now picking up signals that are decidedly not noise." He pressed the play button again.
Distinctly alien speech bubbled from the device, with some measure of static.
"-e have breaking news... the Greater German Reich has announced the formation of a *static*-ession treaty with the Soviet Union, ca...*buzz* Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Stalin annou... *buzz*"
Shaking her head, the Premier said, "Well, I definitely can't understand that. Do you have any idea what happened, or why we're receiving these signals?"
"My colleagues believe that what has happened is something of a wormhole that happened to occur right on top of us and at around the same dimensions as our local group of stars. We've lost contact with our colonies outside of the Nova stellar cluster, however. I do hope they survived whatever calamity did befall us, but the net effect is that our core systems have emerged virtually into an entirely alien universe, which at the very least appears to have one type of intelligent life. The signal appeared in the middle of the stellar cluster, however, with no apparent origin, so it gives us very little to work with."
Sahria turned to the assembled leaders. "In light of this crisis I believe it may be appropriate to bypass the legislature and declare a state of emergency."
"Agreed." spoke General Secretary Rajos roughly. Until things return to a sense of normality, we must remain firmly cautious and in control."
The vote was held, and when it was finished, it was ten to two, with naturally the Greelians voting against.
---
-Gren, Nova Mondial, Noviran Socialist Union-
-May 10th, 3413 CE-
As Trir drove to work in her hydrogen-powered minivan, she turned on the radio. There was an absurd traffic jam as usual, what with the Wigglyites (and any other nutjob) on every street pronouncing the end of days, and people with their own concocted "supply lists" for people to survive the impending apocalypse, which she honestly couldn't care less about even if it was true. The voice of the announcer spoke out of the speaker, "-ews. We have received a report from the government on Luna that the mysterious reorientation of the stars is in fact an indication of our mysterious placement in a new and alien universe. Contact has entirely been lost with the colony of Fista III in the neighboring Prospero cluster, and a Union-wide day of mourning is declared for their presumed deaths. It is believed-"
Trir turned her radio back off as she got out of her van, and as she filed into her office she was hailed with a flurry of questions from her Dromo and Toka colleagues about what she thought about the news, but she said, "Not now" as she made her way to her seat.
Her coworker turned to her as she sat down. "Did you hear they discovered an alien signal?"
Trir rolled her eyes, and replied, "You know, I don't really care about the stars or the aliens."
"You don't care? Why not?"
"As long as they don't bother us, why should we care?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Well...." he sputtered.
"Personally, I think maybe now that we know there are other threats out in the universe, those bureaucrats might actually get up off their behinds and figure out how to stop it and maybe build a few more fleets to defend ourselves. They want to contact us? Send them a friendly plasma shell. Better yet? Rebuild the Molecular Disruption Devices. See how they like those."
"Trir, you can't possibly mean that," her coworker anxiously said. "After all the trouble that caused us?"
"Of course I do. If the universe needs to know anything, it needs to know this: stay the hell away from us."
-Outskirts of the Neruu System, Noviran Stellar Cluster-
"Lunaris Command, this is Hada-1, reporting in. Hada 2-7 are in formation, standing by."
"Roger, Hada-1. You are cleared for jump. Remember, we're scanning for any trace of alien signals or ships. If there's smoke, there's fire. And good luck."
"Faster-than-light drives engaged," the frigate commander replied. "Will do, Lunaris Command. Appreciate it, I expect we'll need it."
A small blue portal opened up ahead of the seven frigates, and as they disappeared through one thing was clear: a new era had begun. Whether it would be wondrous or terrifying was left merely to the whim of fate.
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