Revelation

I stared at the Wanderer, blankly, not comprehending anything he had just told me. I didn’t even pretend to understand.

“You’re going to have to repeat that. What is a Xenomind, exactly? You’ve mentioned it a few times now.”

“Forgive me,” the Wanderer said. “A Xenomind is what you would call a Voice. It is a higher consciousness that acts as a communication hub for all the xenolife under its thrall.”

“So, it is real,” I said. “Ashton and Samuel were right. If we can take out this Voice…”

The Wanderer held up a hand. “Let me continue. There is more to it than that.”

I nodded. I supposed that was probably true.

The Wanderer continued. “Think of the Elekai and Radaskim as alien tribes. Each side has its own Xenominds, who in turn have their own goals and motivations. The Xenominds would be like gods to your eyes. The xenolife under their control follows their directives without question. Some Xenominds allow their xenolife a great deal of latitude, allowing even sentience. This is all beside the point I’m trying to make. I’m only trying to illustrate that there is great diversity of values and goals among all Xenominds. Not all of us are bad, and in fact, many of us are good, and do not want this to happen to Earth.” The Wanderer paused. “We Elekai want to save it.”

“Okay, let me get this straight,” I said. “There are lots of Xenominds, and they are at war with each other? Even on Earth?”

The Wanderer nodded. “There are two Xenominds on Earth. I am the Elekai Xenomind. And to the north — in Ragnarok Crater — is the Xenomind called Askala, who leads the Radaskim. This is the one you call the Dark Voice. This is who you are fighting.”

I had to pause a moment to think. It was difficult for me to comprehend that there were two sides of this. I had always thought of the xenovirus as a single entity, trying to conquer the world, as Samuel and Ashton had always said. That in itself was confusing enough: we were being colonized, so that when the aliens came, they would find us gone, and a world ready to receive them, shaped to their specific needs.

The Wanderer was saying the opposite was true. There were no “aliens,” no equivalent of humans coming in their starships to colonize this world. The aliens were already here, and they have been fighting their own war against each other for millions upon millions of years across the cosmos.

“You said there were two sides,” I said. “Elekai, and Radaskim. Can you explain the difference?”

The Wanderer nodded. “It is key that you understand both sides, and what they want. That said, one side cannot exist without the other. Both are encoded into the xenovirus, which infects all xenolife, regardless of its allegiance. However, one day there will only be one side. And this is a war the Radaskim are winning. Probably will win, in the end.”

This was a lot to take in, but I did my best to follow. “So, there are two alien sides. The Radaskim are the ones who are killing everything, spreading the Blights, trying to take over the world? And the Elekai are trying to stop the Radaskim from doing that?”

The Wanderer nodded gravely. I had a feeling that I had only scratched the surface, even after everything the Wanderer had just told me.

“The Radaskim seek perfection in all things,” the Wanderer went on. “They kill in order to attain that perfection. Their xenofungal networks contain genetic information of a thousand races, all now dead, across hundreds of worlds. They live in perversity, creating new monsters in their pools. When you see crawlers, or the dragons, or the birds turned by the virus, you see the creatures of a thousand worlds, evolved and perfected by the xenovirus. If genes are incompatible, the xenovirus finds a way to make them work. The Warrens, in Ragnarok Crater, is where most of this is done, where most of these creatures are birthed and evolved. The Radaskim’s goal is to create an unstoppable army, using the genes of the worlds they conquer, against unconquered worlds. And they only get more powerful over time. So far, no one has been able to stop them, on any world. Not even the Elekai.”

“Why are they here, then?” I asked. “Why are they killing us? You said they want genetic perfection. Why do they want that?”

I remembered asking the Wanderer why we were being attacked, over two months ago when we had run across him in the Wasteland. I hadn’t even known the xenovirus was alien, then. The Wanderer had not given me a direct answer to that question, then, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to give me a direct answer now.

“You speak of the Eternal War.”

I didn’t realize I’d spoken of the Eternal War. I waited for the Wanderer to explain.

“The Xenominds are ancient beyond compare,” the Wanderer said. “They are old — older even than many stars. They can exist for so long because they are not bound by a single body. They are comprised of many elements of life, elements that can replace themselves as they wear down. By this definition, they might not even be alive by human reckoning. They grow and evolve themselves over the eons, albeit slowly. As long as xenolife persists, they do, too. Any information they acquire is stored in the fungus.

“But even as old as the Xenominds are, they are in a race against time. You see, because they are so old, the Xenominds experience time much differently. A hundred years is but a breath to them. Communicating over the vast light years between star systems, which would take many human lifetimes, is just a thought to them. All this means that the End, for them, comes much more quickly.”

“The End?” I asked. “The end of what? I thought we were the ones coming to an end.”

“The Xenominds do not see it that way. They can only see the grand picture, and the Radaskim in particular see opposing life forms — aliens, in their eyes — as insects that must be brushed aside, or made useful, to pursue their goals.”

“You said the Xenominds were in a race against time. Are they coming to an end? You said they’ve existed for three hundred million years.”

The Wanderer gazed at me, so piercingly that I knew what he was about to say was the crux of everything. Why we were being invaded. And, maybe, how we could stop it.

“The Radaskim are trying to stop the End of All Things.”

I stared at the Wanderer, dumbly, not sure if I had heard him right. What he had just told me was so unreal, so unfathomable, that I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

“All things? You mean…the death of the universe?”

The Wanderer didn’t respond, and his lack of response was my answer.

“I’m sorry, but the end of the universe? That’s not supposed to happen for, what, billions of years? Trillions?”

“An eternity for humans,” the Wanderer said. “A lifetime for the Xenominds. You see, in the grand scope of things, they still see themselves in their infancy. They still believe they have a chance to stop the End, before the stars expand so far apart that they will never have that chance again. ‘Catching the stars,’ they call it. They intend to catch them all, if possible, but it may be an exercise in futility. The cosmos is so vast that even with all the time the universe has to offer, it won’t be enough. This does not stop them from trying, however. They are even seeking ways to invade other galaxies, with technology so advanced that it will surely seem as magic to you…”

The Wanderer paused, giving me time to process what I had heard. I didn’t even know if I could process it. He was speaking of things I had never thought of before.

“The Elekai believe this race against time is futile, not to mention evil. Regardless, the Radaskim are interested in discovering what they call the Secrets of Creation — secrets that will allow the Radaskim to reset the universe, before it fades to cold, eternal death. The Xenominds have time — billions of years, in fact — and the knowledge of a thousand advanced races, now dead, locked in their networks. Whether this knowledge is of any use in attaining their goals — no one, least of all me, can say.”

“Who are the Elekai, then?”