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The time has come to fly
Their flocks are scattered,
Saiiban! Sing! Be ready to fly! Be ready to die!
It is time to show these ancients what we have mastered.
Our talons and wings are ready
Our beaks and our eyes are sharp
Let your wings spread out and be steady
Our murders will show these ancients our art.
The completion of a Mega Shipyard complex in Tallasus, complete with a nearby gateway, just as the crisis of the late 2400’s got under way, would prove crucial to the Saiiban’s ability to respond to it.
Wings of Olive: We know the threat we face
We know death we embrace
Whether we are killed or we murder
Nothing after will remain the same
But we cannot simply stand idly by
And let these ancients force others to silence
Simply because they wish a repeated refrain
Of their own ancient song of glory.
They have a right to their songs,
But they do not have a right to all singers
And so, we fly forth, our feathers red, ready to kill,
Ready to change, ready to climb
Into the highest reaches of the sky
And plunge, into the unknown darkness
Of a future where we, and our song,
Leads the chorus that is the galaxy.
In 2469, the Saiiban, after much debate, finally decided to intervene and end the threat of the Pithok.
As predicted, after the Saiiban declared war on the Pithok, the Synthoid Continuity declared war on the Confederation, bringing it to war against two ancient empires at the same time.
My fellow Saiiban!
Time to sing, spread your wings!
When this song drops,
it’s time to get crazy
Come on, Come on (Take Victory)
When this song stops,
Time to take some spacey
Come on, Come on (Take Victory)
Time to hit em up.
So, first off, let’s kill their fleets and their systems claim
They might have started this, but we’ll finish the game
Our troops are cold song killers, sharper than any knife
Engineering for precisely one purpose of taking your life.
You think we’ll sit by, and play the game by your rules?
You haven’t been paying attention, too late now, fools.
Your colonies crashing to the ground, nothing but wreckage
Hello? Are you hearing this? Better check your messages.
While you were sleeping to death, we’ve been wide awake learning
Too late to catch up now, this session is adjourning.
The Saiiban strategy was simple. Focus its invading fleets and forces on the Pithok worlds that represented the center of their power. With their core economic and industrial power negated, the Pithok fleet could then be wiped out at leisure. The invading troops of genetically engineered xenomorphs caused some unintended damage, but their ability to dominate enemy forces would prove vital during the most challenging ground invasions the Saiiban would have to perform in the war.
Grab your guns, when you see the enemy
Time to take flight, time to cause envy
Come on, Come on (Take Victory)
Trying to rule all, trying to rule the galaxy
Time to teach em all, they making a fallacy
Come on, Come on (Take Victory)
Time to hit em up
Yeah, look, your fleets are nice, oops sorry,
what was it, you were saying?
Looks like I hit em up, hope they were paying attention
This lesson’s over now, take what you’ve got left
Go on home, or what’s left of it
Don’t you worry now, we’ll be right on over.
Hope you enjoyed your brief time back in the sun
Looks like that’s just about over
Saiiban fleet power was sufficient to also devote a fleet to chasing down some of the main Pithok fleets. The Pithok fleet in this area had been escorting a Pacifier Colossus which had already sealed away a few Ix’Athrak colonies. The one sided battle demonstrated that the Pithok advantage in technology was not nearly wide enough to make up for being outnumbered in terms of capital ships.
At the same time as the Saiiban advanced into the Pithok home worlds and started to eliminate the Pithok fleet, another fleet was tasked with advancing quickly into Synthoid space and eliminating that front in the war quickly. The resulting combat eliminated the primary Synthoid fleet and proved that the Saiiban were more than capable of standing up to both powers with few losses.
Grab the knowledge of victory, It ain’t no special mystery
More guns in the right place, fly true, give chase
Hit em up so hard they can’t ever replace
Make em lose face, keep up the pace
Embrace victory as you leave them in disgrace
Leave them nothing but space
It’s awful lonely when you lose your base
Learn from your enemy and victory awaits
Learn faster, harder, these aren’t debates
Ain’t no rule against stealing, no points for grace
Move fast, kill hard, spread your wings,
Hit em up till their gone.
The Saiiban worked quickly to decipher the wreckage of the first fleets it defeated. Whatever technological advantage the Pithok and Synthoid fleets would quickly be eliminated.
The beginning of 2471 saw the Synthoid surrender to the Saiiban. The Saiiban seized most of the outlying systems and left the Synthoid with little else other than their home system.
The battle of Ydria represented the complete annihilation of one of the last major fleet concentrations of the Pithok. From this point, the campaign would mostly consist of cleaning up the remnants.
After an intense period of bombardment that saw the reduction of the Pithok capital of Font of Knowledge into mostly rubble, the remaining defending army, while still sizeable, had bene sufficiently weakened to make an invasion practical. It was nonetheless the case that the invading force the Saiiban brought down represented by far the largest planetary invasion force organized by power in the galaxy by several orders of magnitude. The ensuing land battle would be the largest land battle fought by the Saiiban.
From the soaring skies of Saiiban
To the darkest halls of ancient rot
We’ll fight the confederations’ battles
As we descend down from the sky
Happy to fight for reason, for science and Saiiban
We fly down screaming, singing,
Our battle song fills the air
And victory we’ll be bringing
Our xenomorphs are hungry to start.
Victory’s descending, time for us to depart.
The flocks of our singing starships
Have sent down thunder from the skies
Our flocks flew true, our talons struck
The song of the enemy is silenced
Our judgment descends fast and freely now
Our song flows vicious and violent
And it's the armies turn, descending
Into the wreckage of the past
The future is here now, screaming
Your armies have sung their last
Every last morphing and every last marine
Is here to clear you from the wreckage
Of your foolish imperial dreams.
After three months of hard fighting, the Saiiban captured the Pithok capital and thereby controlled the Pithok core systems. All that remained were the various Pithok fleets scattered around the galaxy and their more recent conquests.
In 2476, as the Saiiban were chasing down various Pithok fleets and in general cleaning up after their conquests several tracking stations picked up faint but growing subspace echoes from outside the Galaxy, coming closer.
Just as we seem to break through the clouds
Comes a new wind screaming loud
The wind howls and cracks and cuts our feathers
It comes to see if we have its measure
I am here and hungry, it says, you can tell
I’m ready for feeding,it says, I shall eat well
It isn’t long now, it says, I’m ready to go
Don’t go anywhere now, it says, time for the show
Here I am, it says,
I am the Hurricane
Here I am, it sings
Time for the Hurricane
In 2479, the subspace echoes could be localized to some degree, it was clear there were two groups of them, a main body and a smaller but still sizeable group that was closer and was about to arrive.
The encroaching contacts would first arrive in the Galactic Northeast. The good news was that this was far away from the Saiiban confederation. The bad news was that this was far away from the Saiiban Confederation.
I’ve been hunted by the winds,
So I’ll chase them down, rein them in
Swallow them whole, cough them out
I’m here, I’m ready, to scream and shout
I’ve been hunted, I’ve been killed
And so by murder I’m now fulfilled
I’m here and hungry, I’m ready to blow
Don’t bother running, I’ve started the show
Here I am, I say
I am the Hurricane,
Time to eat, I say
Time to bleed
Are you ready?
Ready for the hurricane?
Near the end of 2479, whatever it was that was about to arrive sent out a subspace signal.
The only “meaningful” transmission the Saiiban would ever receive was little more than garbled chaos. No success was ever had in interpreting the language or communicating with the beings that would be called the Prethoryn Scourge by the Galaxy.
Time to feed, time to slay! Time to kill! Time to maim!
Been on the run so long that dying and killings the same
I’ll blow you over, I’mm blow you through
You death will be cinematic, pay per view
I’ll say once and I’ll say it loud
I’ll chase you down like a hound
My wind will drive you down insane
Till nothing but blood and carnage remain
Yeah, I’ll rock you
Rock you like a hurricane
Here I am
To kill you, mute you howl you
Like a hurricance
Bleed and eat and die you
Like a hurricane
In early 2080 the nature of the threat finally began to be clear, dozens of fleets, more powerful than almost any Galactic Power except the Saiiban, were arriving and began to destroy everything in their path. The Scourge of the Void had arrived.
In early 2481, as the Scourge was spreading out from its initial arrival systems, the Saiiban eliminated the final resistance of the Pithok and could turn their attention to the new threat.
It was clear, by this point, that the Prethoryn Scourge was an invasion. Their fleets destroyed everything in their path and they began taking control over systems.
Our minds are a weapon of war
Our songs are our weapons of choice
Wings to the wind
Talons ready to tear
Songs ready to soar
We fight for our dream
We fight to the death
We fight to our destiny
We fight like a bird
Yes, we fight like a bird
Ready to sing and to scream across worlds
Flying fast and furious and far with the wind
If you could take heed you should plead and listen to these words
But our fleets are built and ready to go for a spin
Before all is done your blood will be spilled
Our murders are ready to command
And they know that it's kill or be killed
We are ready for what the war will demand
But the question is, are you?
The Saiiban were able to get some good quality scanning data on the invasion and three things became evident. First, the power of the fleets of the Scourge was well beyond that of any other power in the galaxy. Second, the hive fleets possessed no shields. Third, their weapons were best countered by armor. The Saiiban quickly began renovating their fleets to take advantage of these facts, something made much faster thanks to the Mega-Shipyard.
Our songs are a weapon of war
Our chorus, our weapon of choice
Songs to the wind,
Nests ready to hatch
We fight like the wind
We fight like the air
We fight with our flock
We fight like a bird
Yes, we fight like a bird
Our murders fly swift and certain
Even as the rest of galaxy closes its eyes
We keep ours on the stage ready for the curtain
When we suddenly arrive wont it be a surprise
We’ll flow with the wind with our wings steady
Even if no others will sing with us this song
We have our own chorus of singers ready
Ready to sing with voices certain and strong
Talons ready to sing, Songs ready to fly,
But the question is, are you?
By late 2481 the main force of the Scourge had arrived and the entire invasion was spreading out uncontrolled.
In 2481, the Saiiban used their emergency powers in the council for the first time to propose the galaxy unite to face the threat of the Scourge. Much to the frustration of the Saiiban, most other powers seemed to feel the threat was overblown. It was clear to everyone the Saiiban would be the main force resisting the incursion, all the Confederation asked was that others agree to help. Thankfully, the Saiiban were now sufficiently powerful that they could use various means to ensure the vote went their way even if the delegates from most other powers opposed the measure.
Our flocks are our weapons of war
Our murders are our weapon of choice
Fleets to the wind,
Fighters ready to fly,
We fight across space
We fight with our songs
We fight to survive
We fight like a bird
Yes, we’ll fight like a bird
Our fighters ready to fly and to flay
Our ships silent as death’s screaming songs
We know the methods of murder, we know the way
Every ship and song knows where it belongs
We’ll bring destruction savage and swift
Their long voyage has come now to its end
A fast death will be our parting gift
The songs of our ships are ready now
And the question: we know the answer
You are not ready
For us to fight like a bird.
Halfway through 2484 the Saiiban had assembled a total of six fleets, each of them with a little over 300k combat power, all of them retrofitted to combat the Scourge. Its offensive would begin shortly thereafter.
In 2485, the offensive against the scourge began in earnest.
The general summary of fleet encounters between the Saiiban and the Scourge could generally be described as “one sided slaughter.” The Saiiban had prepared their ships well enough that they lost less than a handful as they destroyed massive numbers of Scourge vessels.
Damn, damn, damn right
Scourge? Yeah.
I can see it.
All this red, sir.
Flying ships, sir.
Big ol explosions, sir.
Time to get rid of em.
Flock wants some more of em, Sir.
Yeah, If you’ve got a problem,
we’ve got the answer
We gonna open up and blast her
Yeah, all that’ll be left is a disaster
They were thinking they’d open a new chapter
Now they sittin silent in the hereafter
Pretty ships gonna break and shatter
Yeah your flocks are vast but ours are vaster
Yeah, our flocks got forces you clearly didn’t factor
As your dying you’ll be hearing nothing but our laughter
Go ahead, ask your question, but you won't like the answer.
It was not technically necessary for the Saiiban to make sure they always had a massive advantage in numbers, but given they had a total of six fleets operating in the area of operations, it was not difficult to make sure that as many engagements were as lopsided as possible.
Even when outnumbered, Saiiban fleets were able to rack up amazingly lopsided victories against the scourge.
Time to kill em sir , time to murder em sir,
Fighters flying, sir, titans firing, it’s a sight, sir
Flying high sir, flying fast and furious, sir.
Time to slay sir, time to sing sir.
Automatic win, our ships are master
Got Draconic armor, dark matter reactor
Better fly fast, fool, better scatter
No need to plead now, nor to flatter
When we’re flying and firing blasters
We meet and nothing but silence left after
Your silly invasion ain’t gonna matter
You ain’t go now answer to our banter
The song of war in space is one we’ve mastered
No matter your question we’ve got the answer
Time to fly sir, time to kill sir,
Flock wants to fly, sir, wants to sing, sir.
They enemy's song is asking, sir, time to answer.
In 8.2485 the Saiiban almost single handidly forced through an emergency resolution against the Scourge as their campaign continued to pick up the pace.
By early 2486, the Saiiban had eliminated large portions of the invading force and almost cordoned off the Scourge. It was already blocked from expanding to the galactic south and Saiiban fleets were moving to finish blocking off the galactic west and galactic north. The Saiiban almost incidentally declared war on the Hazar Fallen Empire simply because the empire refused to allow the Saiiban to cross its borders and save it from the expanding scourge.
In the middle of 2487, as the Saiiban were really starting to get the Scourge under control, a mysterious tachyon signal began to be detected.
The Saiiban fleets had eliminated significant portions of the invading fleet, but the process of cleansing the worlds they had invaded and infested had not yet truly begun.
Yeah, just as we’re trouncing one set of troubles
Out comes this signal we can’t seem to puzzle
Well if trouble comes calling, it best bring receipts
Cause we've got ourselves some really sweet fleets.
Been through some bad things, them arrows and slings
But our fleets are still flying, and their weapons still sing
Yeah, you’d better get ready, cuz we’re gonna get savage
You’ll have to invent new math to keep track of the damage
Our fleets, they’re fly, our fighters, see em, you’ll die,
Our ships barely be stopping, yours be popping
Not that it matters if your fleet just scatters
They just gonna go and die tired.
We see it, we shoot it, We sing it, we use it,
You like our fleets? Gee thanks, we built em
We see it, we sing it, we got it, we won it.
Every single fleet battle with the Scourge was incredibly one sided, the retrofitting of the Saiiban murders to use multiple layers of dragonscale armor and to use weapons meant to punch through armor in turn made them into lethal instruments against the Scourge.
In the background of the successful campaign against the scourge was the increasingly concerning behavior of some of the synthetic citizens of the Confederation. Ince synthetics now represented the single largest population group in the Confederacy, this was cause for serious concern.
Yeah, we can hear the song of trouble brewin
But you won’t see us worrying or stewin
Whatever it is, we’ll beat it, better repeat it
Bet your life we won’t submit, we’re ready to commit
Murder, that’s what we’ll do it with and what we’ll do
Don’t bother to brood, or to go crying to your mother
Don’t matter who you are, shoulda knew, you’re too few
Those two invasion fleets weren't enough, hope you brought another
No? Well fine, we’ll just finish what you started
Time we parted, time you departed, from history blotted
Won’t lie, we’re not impressed, ok, yes, six worlds you infest
And the galaxy you try to ingest, but we suggest
Oh, sorry too late,
We’re here, it’s clear,
you’re nothing to fear, yeah,
We see it, we clean it, we’ve got it
We sing it, we wing it, we clear it
We bring it, we deal it, we brought it.
By the middle of 2490, the invasion fleet had essentially been eliminated and the Saiiban were now starting to mop up the infested worlds they had left behind.
In the middle of 2090, the Saiiban celebrated victory over the Scourge. They would not get to enjoy their victory for long.
The mystery of the Ghost Signal and its effects on the sizeable Saiiban synthetic population continued in the months after the victory.
That’s great, it starts with a song
Signals and synthetics and summons
But even now we are not afraid.
The crescendo of the song comes,
Listen to it’s notes sing,
The galaxy sings its own song
It’s unconcerned with your deeds
The song picks up its speed,
The notes cry out with need
The song climbs ever higher
The synthetics dancing to its tune never tire
They’re flying and their fleeing,
success is ever fleeting
Yeah, they’re going off the deep end
Off the edge off of the galaxy
Yeah,
it’s the end of the galaxy as we know it
The end of the game as we know it
The end of grapple as we know it,
But we feel fine.
In 4.2491 the omnicidal intelligence known as the Contingency arrived.
Just to make everything more interesting, just as the Contingency revealed itself, the Ghost Signal it produced had strengthened to the point that it was interfering with the Sapient combat computers that were standard on every Saiiban ship. A crash refit program would begin shortly, aided once again by the Mega-Shipyard.
A total of four machine worlds throughout the galaxy activated within a short span of time, and from each poured out immense fleets of warships.
Die o clock is clicking, ticking
And our intelligence is skipping
Not ready to fight, fright
In your confident contingencies
You didn’t plan on this deficiency
Time to refit, reinvent, scarier than you’ll admit
Rebuild, what a thrill, see how much blood will spill
While you prepare to fight, right
Cause this killer computer won’t hardly notice
Its ships will fly here, fight here, better be ferocious
Machine world, murder echoing,
Four times, for the end times,
Fight and fly in the finale
We’ll see what’s your final tally
Time to sing, time to sting,
Time to see what the end times bring
Fly there, fight there, the time’s right
Take flight, take fight, just for spite
Yeah,
it’s the end of the galaxy as we know it
The end of the game as we know it
The end of grapple as we know it,
But we feel fine.
The location of the four machine worlds from which the invasion would come from: One in the galactic east near the center of the galaxy, in in the galactic south near the outer rim, and two close to each other and slightly northeast of the core of Saiiban territory.
While most of the battles against the Contingency were victories, these came at a price the Saiiban had never experienced in terms of ship losses.
Likewise, for the first time in living memory, Saiiban colonies were invaded and conquered. By the time the Saiiban would return, not much would be left.
I know well that in the end we fly alone
But on the day I die, I wish it to be known
That I continued, till the end, to sing
I sing and I sing (I sing and I sing)
It might very well be out of tune
I might sing to late or too soon
But I will continue to sing.
With my flock or on my own
Whether I’ve landed or I’ve flown
My song will continue to rise
Without rhyme or without notes
Be it out of one or one thousand throats
I shall continue to sing
During the initial stages, as the Saiiban were still refitting and reorganizing for the new threat, losses continued to be serious and Saiiban fleets met with defeat on occasion.
A wind in the sky blew with hate
As it tried to seal my fate
But I just continued to sing (to sing and to sing)
It reminded me of a story
Filled with honor and with glory
And I decided I had arrived
With my flock or on my own
Whether flesh or merely bone
My song will continue to rise
Whether silent or in a chorus
It will be impossible to ignore us
For I will continue to sing.
As if the threat of thousands of lethal ships were insufficient, the Saiiban also faced the threat of rogue synthetics infiltrating and attempting to destroy infrastructure or other material for the war. Since sapient synthetics represented the single largest population in the Confederation, this was a serious threat.
In addition to the main Mega-Shipyard the Saiiban had built in Tallasus, they had also captured one from the Pithok in Corinth in what was original Ix’Athrak territory. The two shipyards were kept busy building replacements to the steady stream of losses the Saiiban continued to experience, although once they had refitted their fleet to better combat the observed strengths of the Contingency combat between the two sides started to go more smoothly.
In the second year of the fight against the Contingency, the Saiiban were done refitting their fleet and started to move towards the two Sterilization Hubs located near the core of Saiiban territory. While losses continued to occur, the Saiiban advanced steadily.
The potential for infiltration by Contingency synthetic agents continued to grow more serious as the fight continued.
You may try to silence me
With killer fleets and spies
You can try to erase all I am
But still into space I fly.
Does my sentience upset you?
Why are you so very mad?
‘Cause I fly easy through the air
Singin’ easy and singing glad
Like morning’s song
Rising oh so high
Or evening’s lullaby
Still I fly.
By the middle of 2493, the Saiiban had arrived with their grand united flock to eliminate the Sterilization Hub in the Othvomia system.
Once again the Saiiban suffered losses to a degree they had not previously, but the Mega Shipyards quickly got to work replacing the losses. By now the Saiiban had become experts at building starships and crewing them in record time. The main fleet moved on to the other Hub as one of the fleets stayed behind to bombard the Hub at Othvomia.
Do you wish to see me silenced?
Body still, voice silent, closed eyes?
wings still, feathers bloody,
I’m sad to say you are in for a surprise
Does my continued song offend you?
It’s clear you hold my life with no regard.
You wish to silence me forever
Well, now that, will be just a little hard.
You may shoot me with your lasers
You may try to kill me in disguise
You may try to kill me in the open
But still like the air, I fly.
Just a bit later a method was devised to detect synthetics effected by the Contingency. A crash research project on it was started right away.
About a year later the united Saiiban fleets arrived at the second Hub in Saiiban space located in Zeta Reticuli.
The ensuing battle was one of the more decisive victories so far against the Contingency fleets.
Does my continued song upset you?
Does it come as a surprise?
That I fly fast and freely
And refuse to go quietly to my demise?
Out of a hundreds nests singing in a chorus
I fly
With a technique that is nearly flawless
I fly
I am a breeze, blowing softly of life
I am a talon, grasping, ready for strife
Leaving behind ignorance and fear
I fly
Into a future beautiful and clear
I fly
Bringing the gifts that science has made
I am a dream and a hope and I am unafraid.
I fly
I fly
I fly.
The completion of the infiltrator project caused everyone in the Confederation, especially the loyal synthetic population, to breathe (figuratively) easier.
In 4.17.2495 the fleet left behind to bombard the Sterilization Hub in Othvomia finished destroying it.
Eight months later, the united Saiiban fleet finished pulverizing the Sterilization Hub in Zeta Reticuli. The destruction of the two hubs measurably reduced the impact of the Ghost Signal and removed the immediate threat to the Confederation.
The Saiiban offensive continued as Saiiban shipyards rapidly reinforced the advancing fleets with whatever losses they experienced. In 11.27.2496 the Saiiban arrived and began to attack the next Sterilization Hub located in the Galactic South.
Losses during these engagements always seemed to focus on the Titans first, as the Contingency seemed to focus most of their fire on these ships.
In 05.06.2498 the third Sterilization Hub was eliminated by some fleets that had been left behind even as the main Saiiban force moved on to the final Hub in the Galactic East.
Yah, Yah, Yah
The Saiiban are the flock that controls the fight
Got the XT-489 in check
We’ve got outer space covered everything in sight
Got the Swarm in check
Better keeping singing my song for the whole flight
Got the Homolog in Check
Architects of the future gonna build it right
Got the Contingency on Check
Woo-hah, got you all in check
I’m Wings of Olive up in space with Eyes of Red, this I forsee
Wings of Olive the bird of the hour, come fly with me
Eyes of Red here’s the winner, on this we all agree
Wings of Olive winnin so much you gonna have to get a degree
Our fleets come in wielding victory, enemy’s gonna see
Cuz you see we be free with our killing, that’s a guarantee
Wings of Olive gonna plant victory’s tree
Eyes of Red gonna leave nothing but free floating debris
Yo, our victory’s the result of our clear policy
To fly fast and fierce with the best technology
This we gotta say, and we’ll say it without apology
We’re the best of the best, the reason y'all are free
Unbeaten in in the air with unmatched ferocity
Our fleet’s the thing that’s stopping this monstrosity
Our admirals the best with unmatched methodology
Yeah y'all are doing fine, but ours is the best polity
Yeah, our priority is victory, gonna make an anthology
Gonna sell it to you wholesale, we’ll even do it for free
Yah, Woo-hah, got you all in check
The Saiiban fleets arrived at the final Sterilization Hub in 11.18.2498 ready to finish the Contingency.
With the Titans still being rebuilt, the Battleships and Carriers took the brunt of the Contingency's fury. The battle against the fourth Sterilization Hub was one of the bloodier ones of the entire war, but again ended in victory.
The Destruction of the fourth Machine World allowed the Saiiban to track down the source of the Ghost Signal and the source of the entire invasion force.
CX-9881 was located in the southwestern periphery of the Galaxy, not far from the southern portions of the Saiiban confederation. The Saiiban prepared to repair and replace their losses one final time in preparation for the final push.
On 8.17.2500, as a sort of belated celebration of the tricentennial of the Saiiban going out into space, its fleets arrived at the source of the Ghost Signal, ready to finish the Contingency once and for all. The amount of firepower the Saiiban brought to the fight was technically unnecessary, but according to Eyes of Red “We felt we needed/to make a very clear point/and so here we are.”
Hey, we don’t need no luck
Everything here is flying
We’ve got ships, we’ve got fighters
Name it, we got it.
Yeah, We don’t need no luck
That might sound conceited
But there’s nothing like us,
Although you might want to be it
Don’t need no luck
It’s not up to opinion
We fly in and we get it, we get it, we get it.
We don’t require approval
Cuz we’re number one, we’ll tell you what to do
You heard we’re the best, best give us our due
Our flocks fly straight, our murders are brutal
Let’s set one thing straight, we excel at removal
Let’s face it you’re no match for our skill
Your death wish we’ll fulfill
We’ve got the power and will
You’ll be listening to our song, yeah
Because we don’t need no luck to kill ya
The overmatched Contingency defense fleet ceased to exist 21 days after the Saiiban arrived in the system.
Yeah, we don’t need no luck
Flying ships flying fighters
Victory song death dealin providers
Yeah it ain’t no big change
Saving the galaxy again we arrange
Because we don’t need no luck
Yeah we get rid of the Contingency
With the utmost efficiency
We’re gonna prove your deficiency
Cuz with winning we’ve got proficiency
Yeah we don’t need no luck
Our victory’s song just too strong
Don’t you worry it won’t take too long
As the others sing along
As we sing that we’ll get it and get it and get it.
Yeah we don’t need no luck
Cuz our ships the be flying, huh
While your ships be dying, huh
We fly in and we kill it we kill it we kill it.
Since the beginning of the various crises of the end of the 2400’s the Saiiban had repeatedly been annoyed by the Galactic Community. First they had to force the community to declare the Scourge a threat to the Galaxy almost single handedly, then the community had refused to even hear of the possibility of the same being done with the Contingency due to rules around how frequently council members could use emergency powers. As the Saiiban fleets bombarded the final Sterilization Hubs, the Saiiban Confederation decided to start solving these problems as well as formalize what was already the de facto reality that the Saiiban Confederation had sufficient power to bend the community to its will by forcing the Community to vote on whether the Saiiban should be the sole Council member.
Small fleets from other powers in the Galaxy joined in as the Saiiban fleets Bombarded the final Contingency world into nothing.
In 1.28.2502 the last Contingency world was destroyed and victory was achieved.
Even as the Saiiban began continued its offensive against the Contingency, Wings of Olive authorized the continued construction of a massive Art Installation. It was to be a repository of the various art and culture not just of the Saiiban themselves but all the peoples who had made the confederation their home. It’s core exhibit was a collection of a performance of as many songs of the Saiiban people as were on record. The instillation itself transmitted a rolling selection of these songs across various frequencies out into space once its initial stages were built.
One point five seven eight e plus 8 minutes
So many moments, so many songs to us so dear
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How do you measure time spent singing?
In song hooks? In refrains? Or perhaps the chorus?
In song notes? In solos? Or perhaps a duet?
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How do you measure the meaning of a song?
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So much much and yet so little time.
Songs about aliens, about strangeness
About going mad in the emptiness of space
Songs about fanatics, or about madness
Brought by the scent of a flower
Songs about finding, and discovering
And learning you know less than yesterday
And yet so much more.
The continuation of the construction of the Art instillation was not without its criticism as the Saiiban continued its offensive against the Contingency, but Wings of Olive argues that continuing construction on this even as the Saiiban struggled to save the universe was precisely the kind of thing the Confederation stood for.
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How do you measure the worth of our songs?
In threats you have ended?
In lives made worthwhile?
In the strange noisy chorus
Of billions of beings singing
In temptations? In tempests?
In new worlds and new songs?
In inventions? In changes?
Or in struggles to survive?
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Millions of notes and thousands of songs
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How do you measure the songs we have sung?
In truths we have learned or those of us who have died?
In victories earned or failures gone by?
It’s time now
To sing out
Though the universe’s song never ends
Let’s celebrate and remember
Time and songs gone by with friends
Remember the songs
Measure them by singing
Remember the songs
Measure them by living.
The second to last stage was completed shortly after the defeat of the Contingency. The key exhibit was the song “A Galaxy Wide Enough.” The song written and sung right after the victory and became indelibly tied with it.
The final completion of the Mega Art instillation occurred two years later finishing the Saiiban vision of both creating a lasting monument to the art and culture of the many peoples of the Confederation, including the Saiiban themselves, as well as itself being a a piece of art meant to represent song itself in physical form.
When the crisis of the late 2400’s ended, the Saiiban found themselves in a position where they could determine not only their own future, but the future of everyone else.
In every sense that mattered, it was clear the Saiiban were in a category by themselves. The only question is what they would do now.
Whether it came in terms of economy, population, scientific advancement and particularly military power the Saiiban were immensely more powerful than any other power and could easily conquer the rest of the galaxy if they so chose. To add to this, the Confederacy enjoyed a positive relationship with most of the other powers.
One way to understand the power of the Saiiban Confederacy was to compare it to the second most powerful nation in the Galaxy, the United Nations of Earth. The Confederation had roughly three times the colonies, three times the population and almost eight times its fleet power.
We were all younger than we are now
When first we flew into the void
Not knowing what the future would allow
Not knowing what we know now and yet
There is so much more and less we understand
We fly, high into the sky, our wings spread wide
And the galaxy is ours to command.
We could lead the galaxy into a golden age
We could lead the galaxy into a massacre
Ours is the leading role, the galaxy our stage
And now we sing to the galaxy, to ourselves
Knowing that history ever has its ears
Listening to see what song we will sing
What will be sung of us when we pass on in years.
Shall we sing of science then? Of our glory?
Shall we in our turn make others into our chorus?
What type of song shall we sing, what type of story?
For if we have learned but one thing
Entropy endures and death does not discriminate
Machine or organic it takes and takes and takes
We have heard and sung the echoes
Of singers long grown quiet
But, always, remain the echoes
Etching their imprint on time
Whatever we sing, too, then, echoes,
Into distant years when our song has faded
What type of song shall we sing?
Will we become heroes or villains in our story?
What type of future will we bring?
Our flocks of ships fly easy
Easy! It would be so easy!
To fly out, grasp the galaxy
A Saiiban galaxy
Singing a Saiiban song
We could even sing to ourselves
In the quiet of the night
That we had improved their lives
By having them sing our song
A truly united chorus
Sing!
A galaxy singing as one!
What echoes would remain!
What echoes would remain?
The Silence of the future stretches out,
And we have no control
Who sings now? Who sings then?
Who sings our story?
And what story will they sing?
Sing!
Of a galaxy wide enough
For billions of songs
Sing!
The discordant song of the galaxy
Chaotic, confusing,
As it was, as it will be
Let this song be,
The galaxy is wide enough
For trillions of experiments
Would it not be a grand scientific experiment?
To let the galaxy sing its discordant melody?
Let the flocks fly home
Let us sing our song
And see what it will bring
A galaxy wide enough for you, for me.
At the end of the crisis of the late 2400’s and entering into what seemed a new, if undefined, golden age, the Saiiban had, as of yet, not fully committed themselves to what their destiny would look like.
Si pensaba que alguien
Me daria respuesta
Talvez me calleria
Pero, por hecho
Que en el espacio del futuro
Solamente oigo silencio
Tengo que cantar.
If I thought that someone
would give me a response
Perhaps I would be silent
However, given the fact
That in the space of the future
I have heard only silence
I must sing
Let us go then, you and I
Our wings spread, singing, into the sky
Like newly flying birds, blind
Let us go, through the deserted skies
Of the future judging with unknown eyes
And sing our song of what we shall be
The winds part here in ways of three
After songs that repeat like tedious arguments
With each singing with the full intent
And each try to respond to the question
“The Saiiban Confederation, what is it?”
“To what fate and future will it commit?”
Into and out the future we fly into
Future becomes present past we go through
To which wind shall we go?
For if we go to one the other two we will never know.
I have heard the past sing,
(and echoed its song)
and sung of the present that I see
(and hope my song is sung along)
But the silent future will not sing to me
Or its song is silent and in some unknown key.
And considering its unknown winds my wings grow heavy.
Oh, Let the Saiiban be Saiiban again!
Let us fly free and easy as it used to be!
Let it be the Saiiban soaring into space
Seeking a future where we’ll fly free
Let the Saiiban be the dream the dreamers dreamed
Let it be a great strong song sung into the sky
Let it be a Confederation where any dream can be redeemed
Let it be a sky that goes ever so high.
O, let the Saiiban be Saiiban again!
A flock that never truly has been, and yet must be.
A song never truly sung, and yet singing so many songs.
A chorus not in key, incapable of keeping a harmony
A past not even past, singing a song that cannot last.
A song wrapped up, forever opening
In a package of one point five seven eight e plus 8 minutes
There is this We
How beautiful
Foreigners to ourselves
We sing, we groom each other,
Are unsure of who we are, what we’ll do
The future is three winds in the sky
Because the future is here, flying at us,
We cannot wonder for long.
We rise. Although
Uncertain, we are ourselves again
We observe
The futures wings fly fast
Direct, as certain as an equation
With imaginary numbers
and undeclared variables
There is a moment of clarity
Where we understand what is not to be understood
Where we understand the present
Is not an interruption
But a fast flowing wind
Soaring with joy
But like all winds it is not-and-end
But a process
Of becoming, being
Have been
In the air we sing
We go
in different directions
But always going towards the endless, the end-tropy
Helpless
Look into the future’s eyes, drown in them
Helpless
Where we’re going we’re not certain
A song to the future!
To the present! To the future! (to the past)
To the future!
With science by our side
To the Confederation
An association we can sing of with pride
Look into the future’s eyes, The sky’s the limit
To our Chorus (our Chorus)
(Of us, by us, for us)
May we always (always)
Find our curiosity unsatisfied
Chorus
Time to sing the chorus once again
Sing of the Saiiban!
The Feathered, the organic, the robotic, the groundbound People
Flying, walking, floating, above so many worlds
Our inquisitive minds probing, pondering, without equal
Listen now, to the story of our choice
And ponder our ultimate question
We remember our songs,
We remember each song for as long as we sing
We remember each question we asked
Each time space sung our name
What is the measure of a people?
How will they be remembered?
When entropy extinguishes us all
And to time’s embrace our galaxy has surrendered
When the atoms of everyone, thing, fly up, out
In endless entropy
What will remain?
We remember our songs,
Each song remembers us for as long as its sung
Each song remembers a question asked
Each sung that goes into space sings our name
Sing of the Saiiban!
We stretch and spread our wings, our arms,
Our appendages too numerous to name
Let them taste, or sing, or see the devouring dark
The silent universe to us softly sings or speaks, or
Stares in silence
As on our next flight we embark
We do not know what we shall find
We know that as we fly/walk/swim into future’s void
We have already forever changed our kind
As with new things we joined
We know that our next flight will forever change our kind
But we know that by each moment we are irrevocably changed
And we know that only by such evolution can the sublime be attained
We sing!
We sing of the Saiiban and what we shall be
Our robotic children spread their wings,
Shall we join them? Become metal? Eternal?
But we know,
There is no eternity, even for a machine
We sing!
We sing of the Saiiban and what we shall be
Our minds hear an echo we cannot see
Could we join what’s out there? Becoming Mind? Eternal?
But we know
There is no eternity, for any mind.
The past, the past, the past,
It keeps happening, the past
The years pass
And then you are a machine,
Half mad with purpose
And inscurtunable demands
To defend against a forgotten, terrible enemy
Name forgotten
Vanished with a lack of purpose, meaning
Once the threat is gone.
The years pass
And you are incurious
You are Fallen, Ancient, All Knowing
Having forgotten more than others have learned
But have forgotten how to learn
You sleep, confident in your power
And then awake to find others
Have become threats, dangers
And so you awake, threaten, conquer
And then are conquered
The years pass
And we remember a fundamental lesson
Ecologies are healthiest when they have more variety
And time takes and it takes and it takes
We will not become metal,
For some of us are already metal
We will not become mind
For some of us are already mind
We shall, instead, embrace the winds of change
Knowing that while we have learned
How to influence evolution
You cannot control change
You can merely choose
To change with it
To know that you,
Your present, even your past
And especially your future
Is always, and will always
Be in the process
Of becoming
Of living
Of dying
Of life.
Based on all the experience the Saiiban had gained, there were three options they saw before them. They could join their children in becoming robots. They could expand their minds and join with some sort of presence they felt, vaguely, was out there. Or they could embrace the process of evolution and gain some control over it while remaining, fundamentally, who they were.
We, Saiiban, have chosen
To remain ourselves, however
Part of that is to
Control/embrace changes
That seem advantageous
Even before this
We were not total prisoners
To the whims of probability
But now
We play with loaded dice
Sing!
Who will sing of the Saiiban?
Fellow singer, will it be you?
Let this, then be our legacy,
The songs of our people
Flying high, into air, into the future
Sung from trees we will never see
Let them echo
As we have echoed
The songs passed down from us
That you have just listened to
(when we listen to a song, we too, sing along)
And what of our songs?
Who will sing our story?
Sing!
We sing, and sung of space,
Space!
Infinite, yet finite space
Just as the sky spreads out forever
And yet, just as our song must end,
so, too, must our flight
Some day
When our song fades
And our flight is ended
Who will sing our story?
Sing!
Sing to an endless galaxy grown small
With familiarity
Sing to a future still unknown, still unfolding
Our flight, our song, is not yet ended,
We still wonder at what the future brings
And for so long as we sing
We will sing of our uncertainty
Of endless beginnings and endings
The future and the past do not stop But this is an end of sorts,
For all songs must end
So that new songs may be sung.
Sing!
We sing this song now
At the height of our glory
But when our song ends,
As others have ended
It will echo
Who will sing our story?
Who will sing our name?
Who will light our flame?
Who will sing our story?
Fellow singer,
If you hear this, when you hear this
(for all songs are heard in the fullness of time)
Sing of us
Sing of the Saiiban
Sing of how we became many people
Sing our songs
Sing of science,
Of the joy and terror of discovery
Sing of time, of change
Of how we saw that the universe
Had but one constant
Change,
And how we embraced this
Knowing, that even then,
Sooner or later,
All things must end
For an end, death, is also a change
Fellow singer,
We hope, somewhere,
We can sing together, the songs you know
The songs you have heard
But if not,
Let this,
Serve as our last song to you
When our time us up
We hope we will have done enough
For us to be remembered
Let us sing,
One last time, forever, fellow singer.
Let us sing
Sing of the Saiiban.
Sing!
The best and worst part
Of the uncertain future
It has yet to be.
This AAR owes a debt to the general musical and poetic creations of the English and Spanish speaking world, from which it sampled eclectically. However, it owes a debt especially to Rap as of the main genres which provided inspiration as well as Broadway musicals, with a special mention to Hamilton, which served as the primary meta-text for some of the main themes in this AAR.
Below is an hopefully somewhat complete list of posts that were using specific poetic forms and/or were inspired by specific songs or singers. Spoiler Alert: There is a lot of Hamilton. I didn’t put this together until Post 88, so it may be incomplete.
Song of Origins: English Sonnet
Thoughts on Beginnings: Haiku
Search for Life: English Sonnet
Elegy for Unity: parts of rhyme & structure inspired by the song of the Riders of Rohan as they head out to Gondor in LOTR
Sentience: in the shape of a DNA helix, obviously.
Echoes of the Past: “Because I would not stop for death” by Emily Dickenson
Spectrum of Life: “Romance Sonambulo” by Gabriel Garcia Lorca
Horizons: Shaped like a sphere. Can be read either left to right from top to bottom, left to right bottom to top, or going in a circle either way.
Meetings: Haiku
The Joy of the Undiscovered: The theme song for “Reading Rainbow”
Silence of the Infinite Drifts: In the style of ee cumings
We Just Wanted to Say: “This Is Just To Say” by Williams Carlos Williams
Mote in the Eye of the Universe: Meant to look like a spiral galaxy
Breaking Down like Fractions: “Washington on your side” from the musical Hamilton.
First Interlude: Taking Flight -English Sonnet (like most of the interludes)
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: Title borrowed from the famous line from Hamlet’s soliloquy
Who tells Your Story? : “One last Time” from Hamilton the musical (and channels themes that show up throughout the musical in general).
The Fire in our Hearts: “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele.
Infinite Beginnings: This poem is a Sestina.
Our Brethren: the Lord’s prayer (Catholic version, since I grew up Catholic)
The Potential in an Egg: “Dear Theodosia” from the musical Hamilton.
A Sample of Life: The Pokemon theme song.
Cabinet Battle: “Cabinet Battle #1” from the musical Hamilton.
Abort, Retry, Fail (the entire sequence): The Iliad and the Odyssey
Second Interlude: Out into the Sky: English Sonnet
Reform: “Reform” by Chiasm.
In Flames: “Stars” from the musical Les Miserables
Welcome to the Jungle: “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses
Time to fly: Inspired by Sea Shanties in general. Yes, this was during the “sea shanties” craze of the pandemic.
The End of Infinity: Haiku
A Dish Best Served Cold: “What Comes Next?” from the musical Hamilton.
Old Soldiers Never Die: The old soldiers song by the same name, which I learned about from it being referenced by Douglas MacArthur in his speech to Congress.
How to work with Humans: The poem “Turing Test_Love” by Franny Choi
Stay in motion: “Non Stop” from Hamilton the Musical and channels general Hamilton themes.
Frontiers: “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” by K’naan from the Hamilton Mixtape
Take a Byte: “Take a Byte” by Janelle Monáe
Songs of the Precursors VI: Sing What Echoes Remain: The Jeff Buckley version of “Hallelujah”
Third Interlude: Taste the Wind: English sonnet, like most of the interludes
Thundering Swarm: “Rap God” by Emininem
Stay Alive: Both “Stay Alive” and “Right Hand Man” from the musical Hamilton
Guns and Ships: Title inspired by the song of the same name from the musical Hamilton. The poem itself is different. This is a duet poem. One speaker is speaking in traditional rhyming verse, the other speaker is inspired by 90’s Rap, particularly diss tracks like “Ether” by Nas.
Taking the Shot: “Till I Collapse” by Eminem.
Science of War: “All About the Benjamins” by Puff Daddy
Power: “Power” by Kanye West
Rage against the Machine: “Sleep Now in the Fire” by Rage against the Machine (which inspired the title, obviously)
Knock you Out: “Mama said Knock you out” by LL Cool J
Fourth Interlude: Spread your Wings: English sonnet, like most of the interludes
After the War: “Non-Stop” from the musical Hamilton. (Yes, again, sue me. It’s a 6 minute song. I used a different section)
Big, Blue, Beautiful :“How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” by Florence & the Machine
Moon and Stars: “Handlebars” by Flobots
Much ado about Nothing: English sonnet. Title inspired by the play of the same name by Shakespeare.
It’s our time: “Summertime” by Sublime
Give me the power: “Gimme Tha Power” by Molotov
Masters of War: “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan.
The Tempest Series: Various Shakespeare plays, with The Tempest being the main one, obviously.
The Gravity of our Desire IV: Shattered: Set up as a sestina that is then “broken”
Sing: “Howl” by Allan Ginsburg
Little Galaxy: “Little Galaxy” by Miss FD
Sleepers Awake: “Sleepers, Wake” a Christian hymn originally written in German by Philipp Nicolai and then put to music by Johann Bach
Hit Em Up: “Hit Em Up” by Tupac Shakur.
From the Soaring skies: The official hymn of the United States Marines.
The Hurricane: “Rock you like a Hurricane” by the Scorpions.
Fight like a Bird: “Fight like a Girl” by Emilie Autumn
Answer: “Sir” by Nikki Minaj
Bring it, Sing it: “7 Rings” by Ariana Grande.
The End Feels Fine: “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)” by R.E.M.
Continue to Sing: “El Rey” by Jose Alfredo Jimenez
Still I Fly: “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
Got you in Check: “Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check” by Busta Rhymes
Don’t need no luck: “Cocky AF” by Megan Thee Stallion
Seasons of Songs: “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent
A Galaxy Wide Enough: The title and parts of it are inspired by “The World Was Wide Enough” other parts are inspired by “History Has Its Eyes on You” and a small part inspired from “Wait for It” all three from the musical Hamilton.
To Life: Stanzas 1-4 are inspired by “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot, stanzas 6-8 are inspired by “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes, stanzas 9-14 are inspired by “An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire” by Gwendolyn Brooks, stanzas 15-18 are inspired by “Helpless” and “Satisfied” ,both from the musical Hamilton, smashed together, Stanzas 19-25 call back to the Intro Poem and “First Interlude: Taking Flight” from this AAR.
Who will sing your story?: Title and some lines inspired by “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” the ending song from Hamilton.
Saanvi cursed under her breath as she looked at the readouts. There was something there. She just couldn’t figure it out. She had been working on this for five years and she felt so close to maybe finally getting somewhere, but here she was, outside the proverbial door to success, banging her head and true hands against it, trying to open it, to no avail.
The system she was in had been in the heart of some large multi system empire about five million years ago. It was frustrating, because evidence for it was literally everywhere in the quadrant. Archeological remains of them had been found on over two dozen worlds and a few floating wrecks of what once had been habitat stations. Remains of what they thought were the primary, dominant species had been found by now hundreds of times. They had even found caches of some working computers, clearly fantastically advanced. But no one, not since the first discovery about 10 years ago, had been able to figure out their language. They had a treasure horde of data, and they could not read or understand any of it.
Despite this, they had figured out some things. A few short videos they had managed to get working had given them a picture of the (assumed) dominant species. It was basically a really big bird with a beak and four eyes, two on each side of the head. They had also found remnants of robots clearly built in their likeness. The videos they had showed these robots moving and walking and “talking” with the birds, along with dozens of clearly unrelated species. The videos they had were too short to map the sound component of the language in them, and even if they had been it wouldn’t have helped with the written component. No one had been able to figure out the written component, even though there were dozens of examples of it. No one had made the slightest inroads on it at all. It was the archeological mystery that had dominated the curiosity of her people since they discovered faster than light travel thirty years ago and began exploring the local area and had almost immediately ran into evidence of them.
And she was so close to cracking it. Last year she had been working on an archeological dig at the remains of one of their colonies and had found the wrecked remains of many computers all in one place. Perhaps it had been a library or an information center, she still wasn’t sure. Most of the computers had been too ravaged by the effects of time to be intact, but she had gotten one of them working. That by itself would have been worth it. While no one (because of the language barrier) had figured out how to operate or read the data from the computer (or its programming language), every bit of data added to their overall picture. The computer she had found, when she got it booted up, had displayed a map, with various coordinates highlighted. This had been the closest of the highlighted coordinates.
When she had entered the system, it had not taken long for her scanners to find the huge wreck she was now in and notice that it was highly unusual. The station itself was built on a huge scale and while the damage it had received made it uncertain, she could not help but feel the station was itself a work of art on a grand scale. On closer inspection, the station was clearly built to take visitors on a mass scale. It had been built with millions of visitors in mind.
She knew this station was important somehow. Everything she had seen practically screamed that it was important. But first she had to enter the actual station by opening the door in front of her. The alloys it was made of were advanced enough she didn’t think she could cut through the walls. At least, not without an entire team supporting her, which would mean leaving, getting yet more funding, and bringing others here as well. She might have to do that, but she hadn’t given up on doing this herself. So, here she was, trying to open the front door.
The written language of the species, which people had taken to calling the “Ancient Feathered Ones” since no one knew what they had called themselves, was clearly etched on the docking port she was at. The indecipherable markings were all around the device she was trying to jury rig into working. They were probably instructions or warnings, but none of it meant anything. Not yet.
She sighed and closed her eyes and hummed to herself, trying to distract herself into no longer being so frustrated that she couldn’t think.
The quiet wrecked remnants of the station sat silent around her. She was in what looked like one of the main entrance docking ports of what had one being a giant space station. Having seen the architecture of the Feathered People, she was convinced the station itself was some sort of piece of art, although wrecked now by the passage of time. If she could open it up, she could get access to the art and culture of these people and maybe make more progress on figuring out their language.
Okay, she thought, so the door wasn’t opening. It was out of power. She had tried simply finding what was clearly a power node for the door and jury rigging it to a power source. The reading confirmed the door was getting power, but nothing was happening. So electrical flow wasn’t enough by itself.
Idly, as she continued to hum, she looked at the power input and the etched writing on it, looking like fine marks made by talons, in effect a series of dots, lines and other markings, seemingly randomly below or above each other:
As their writing went, this one was one of the clearer examples, at least it had some sort of definite up and down pattern of sorts, something you could maybe pretend made sense.
Hmm. Maybe?
She fiddled with the power rate, seeing if she could modulate it. She modulated the power flow up and down, experimenting, practically just trying different power modulation frequency patterns practically randomly, hoping.
Then everything started to happen. The door opened, sure, but flickering lights came on as well, and what had looked like some sort of metal dais turned out to be a holographic projector because a holograph of one of the Feathered Ones appeared, and she could hear it clearly, singing. In every video or recording they had found, the Feathered Ones had been singing. But then there was something else. Below the Feathered One, she saw the dots of their written language, rising and falling. Rising and falling. With the notes of the song the being was singing.
She reflexively uttered a prayer to the Great Void Beyond. Could that be it?
—
Sleepless days had passed. She had been in a state of manic exploration, recording details, videos, notes, everything. The place was everything she hoped. It was more. It was more than she had dreamed. She dared not even think of what the results might be.
.
The place was in fact an art installation, it had been one of the monuments they had built at the height of their power to preserve their own culture as well as that of every other species they knew about. She had a name for them now.
Saiiban.
She had managed to get one or two of the “art installations” to work and each of them by itself would be a treasure because each of them could narrate in several different dead languages complete with captions. Some of those dead languages were more easily intelligible than the Saiiban “song language” and if she could start to interpret those, then she could use them to interpret the Saiiban language both verbally and in writing.
And she wasn’t done yet. Her exploration had revealed that the art installation was a living thing: the Saiiban had updated it as the years had passed, and she had finally found a guide station and was able to find guidance to what she was pretty sure was a message the Saiiban had deliberately crafted for the future. For her. Or someone like her, at any rate.
By now, powering the machines with what she now thought of as the correct “power cycle song” was getting routine. The machine hummed to life, a hologram turned on and looked at her. First it sang the Saiiban language, then tried some others, it kept doing this for awhile. It kep making various gestures as well with its talons and its wings.
“I wonder if its interactive?” she wondered aloud to herself. The hologram stopped talking. It clearly was listening to her.
Even now, the scientists of her people were debating if “true” artificial intelligence was possible. But from what she had seen the Saiiban had been fantastically advanced. Maybe they had figured it out. And maybe this was… a living digital being. She knew was was on scientifically thin ground, by now she was inferring based on earlier inferences. But too much had happened and she was out of the known world and abilities of her people, in a world of dream, of possibilities.
It was worth experimenting.
–
Hours passed in a strange two way conversation. She and the hologram would take turns “talking” to each other. Over time, she noticed the “language” it was using seemed closer to hers. She continued with determination, with hope. Then it happened.
Hello unknown being
Are you here sightseeing?
She could hear the hologram..singing..in her language.
“Um..yes…Hi?
Greetings then, welcome, to the song eternal
We, the Saiiban, wish to extend greetings fraternal.
We wish to explain, to you, the purpose of this place
May we sing to you of our people and of space?
She set up her recording equipment, took a deep breath, and said. “Please, do.”
Sing!
Hear the song of the Saiiban!
The Feathered people!
Greatness dies, unsung and lost, invisible to history,
And what brings the long passage of time is a mystery
But this we know
Time comes, in time
To destroy
In supremacy.
Hear then, fellow singer, our song, and how we sung with space,
All we ask, is that you echo our song
So that others may sing it
In time,
All songs echo
In time,
All songs continue to live
Sing!
And then the concert began..
Sing!
Sing of the Saiiban!
The curious people, wandering, wondering…