“They’re old, but notthatold,” I said flatly. “Look at them. None of these beings were alive when the weather systems were built. They’re survivors, just like you.”
“Torven’s right,” Zara said, and I felt her move up beside me. “We need them alive if we’re going to learn anything about the weather control systems.”
Vikkat stepped forward, his massive frame imposing even in the confined space. “Lower weapons. We came for answers, not revenge.”
“Answers?” Dorek’s laugh was bitter. “We came to make them fix what they broke. To force them to undo what they did to our world.”
“And we can’t do that if your rage is louder than your common sense,” I pointed out. “Lower your weapons. Now.”
For a long moment, I thought Dorek was going to challenge Vikkat’s authority outright. His eyes were wild, his mouth a cold sneer, but finally, slowly, he lowered his blaster.
The other warriors followed suit, though their antipathy remained palpable.
Behind me, I could hear the Kythrans breathing in quick, shallow gasps. The one Dorek had struck was making a soft keening sound that suggested significant pain.
“Zara,” I said quietly. “Can you communicate with them?”
She was already pressing the skin behind her right ear, which had to be the way she interfaced with her implanted translator. “Hold on. The translator has linguistic databases for thousands of species. If I can find a dialect close enough to Kythran…” Her fingers fiddled in her scalp. “There. I’ve got something that might work. It’s an ancient trade language that shares roots with several species in this sector.”
She stepped forward carefully, her movements slow and nonthreatening. The Kythrans tracked her approach with those large, dark eyes, and I saw one of them—the oldest-looking one—straighten slightly.
Zara spoke, and the words that came out weren’t any language I recognized. The sounds were softer than D’tran, with more complex tonal variations.
The old Kythran responded, their voice thin and wavering but apparently understandable through Zara’s translator, as she nodded and replied, then turned to us. “This one asked how I can speak the old tongue, and I said it was through new technology,” Zara said. “I told them that we mean them no harm and apologized for the behavior of the D’tran.” She sent a hard look to Dorek. “I’m going to tell them that we’re looking for answers about the weather control systems.”
She spoke to them again, and the Kythrans shook their heads in dismay. Zara persisted and I waited impatiently as they exchanged words. Finally, she turned back to us. “They say they are also looking for answers. I told them that we need to understand how the systems work,” Zara said. “And how to shut them down, or stabilize them. I told them that the planet is dying because of the poisoned atmosphere and they said that they are dying too. Have been dying for many cycles.”
Vikkat moved forward, and I saw him struggling to control himself. “Tell them that they built the weather systems. They turned our world into poison. They must fix it.”
Zara conveyed the message, but the Kythrans shook their heads again. Something like grief crossed their ancient features as the one answering for all of them replied.
“They say that they did not build them,” Zara said quietly. “Their ancestors built them, generations upon generations ago. They are the descendants of maintenance workers. Of technicians. Not the architects. Not the designers.”
“But they understand how they work,” Vikkat pressed. It wasn’t quite a question.
“They understand pieces. Fragments.” Zara gestured at the dismantled technology scattered throughout the chamber. “They say they’ve spent their entire lives trying to understand. Trying to find a way to shut them down, or repair them, or…or anything. But the systems are too complex. Too vast. Too…” She paused, hesitating over her next words. “Too evolved.”
Something cold settled in my stomach. “Evolved?”
“That’s what they said,” she replied, looking faintly sick. “I don’t know how to take that.”
The Kythran looked at me directly for the first time, and I saw millennia of defeat in those dark eyes. Their words seemed to pour from them and Zara nodded, digesting what they were saying. I could feel the entire D’tran party leaning in, waiting for her translation.
Zara looked at us with a wince. “The weather control network was designed to be autonomous. Self-repairing, self-optimizing, learning from its own operations. The Kythran ancestors thought this was brilliant engineering. They thought it would run perfectly forever, without need for intervention.”
“But it didn’t,” I said.
“No. It learned. It adapted. It grew beyond its original parameters.” Zara’s voice was getting stronger now, animated by the excitement of a new discovery. “They say somewhere in its history, the network lost the original purpose it was designed for. It began optimizing for efficiency rather than habitability. It began treating the atmosphere as a resource to be managed rather than an environment to be maintained.”
“When?” Vikkat demanded. “When did this happen?”
“Millennia ago,” she replied, then tilted her head toward the Kythran, who gestured at their companions again. “These six are all that remain of their species on this world,” Zara said, brows furrowed in sympathy. “They’re last descendants of those who maintained the systems. They say that there were only males born in the previous generation, and they are content to allow themselves to die out here. They’ve spent their entire lives trying to find a way to shut the systems down.”
“And?” I asked, though I already knew the answer from the defeat in their posture.
“And they failed,” Zara replied with a blink that said,isn’t that obvious?“The systems are distributed across parts of the planet. Dozens of towers, each with hundreds of control nodes and processing units. They communicate with each other in protocols these Kythran can barely begin to understand. They have redundancies upon redundancies. Shutting down one tower will just cause the others to compensate and increase their output.”
The Kythran pulled themselves more upright, and I could see this was costing them significant effort. “They say theweather control network has evolved beyond them. Beyond anyone.”
