~
"Categorization has sped since the improvements were announced, but there are many hurdles. The indexing of sentient species may have irreversible effects on the surviving insentient species. We will have extinction events and irreparable environmental harm on at least 18 worlds. Current projections estimate post-archival cataclysm on as many as 31 worlds. The paucity of sentience has been a blessing in this regard."
The costs are high, he thinks. They're always high. He and his race play a high-stakes game with the mind lurking in the darkness for the future of the universe. Just that while he's playing big and blind, his opponent can see every single card on the table. The odds are stacked against him. All he can do is hope that fate deals him a favourable hand. He stands on the flagship's bridge, waiting for the enemy's move.
~
"Would that it were my choice. I have committed to this course because it's the right thing to do. We no longer have the manpower or material to excise remedial measures at a planetary level. I certainly can't justify using the [transit measure] to save my own skin when there are still so many innocents to protect and index."
He looks down at her missive. He wishes he had her resolve. He wishes he could be as noble as she is. He wishes she was here with him. But she's refused every transport she's sent. He can't understand why she has to put herself in danger on planets so far away, when she can just as easily administrate the indexing efforts from the safety of their stronghold.
And the danger is growing. Despite the fleet's best efforts, they continue to be outmanuvered, outnumbered, outfought. Already, they've pulled back and left billions to the parasite. Billions more to swell the parasite's ranks. Billions more than stand between him and her. Already, she's nearly cut off.
But there's still a chance. The Maginot Sphere is the best defense the fleet's come up with yet, and Medicant Bias could turn the tide of the war. Medicant Bias could cripple the parasite where it hurts the most.
An ancient text recites, "Kill the head and the body will follow." Medicant Bias will do just that. He'd better. He's their only chance to save their way of life. Medicant Bias is the only chance to save her. She won't return otherwise.
~
In the depths of night, he lies awake, watching the stars high above him. The bed is cold and empty without her, and he yearns for her touch. It's been decades since he last held her in his arms. Decades since he's whispered his love in her ear.
He recalls their youth, the hours spent in the sun of worlds long burned to a cinder by the relentless enemy. The hours they used to spend in the sunlit flower fields, in the dappled light of forest clearings. He, a promising cadet in the best military academy civilisation had to offer, and she, a brilliant student in medical school.
Now, they're lovers separated by eons filled with supernova and dark matter, a gap too far for even the bridges of proverbial birds from Heaven to cover. He's the one shouldering the immense burden of the galaxy's defence, while she ensures the future of a million innocents at the expense of their own.
He should hate her for leaving him behind. Hate for for disobeying his direct order. No one disobeys him, even on the pain of death. There's thousands of willing, eligible women clamoring for the attention of the famous Didact, the much vaunted bastion of strength against the parasite. But he doesn't. It's her inner beauty that draws him, the same beauty that gives her the strength to resist his call.
In the end, he can't bear to forcibly remove her. He loves and respects her too much for that. It's her choice to make, and his lot to drown in the separation's sorrow.
~
"We have no time to spare, Didact. Every vessel we can fill, we send to the Ark. I dare not cease the mission. Not now, not until I've done all I can. Each one of these souls is finite and precious. And I'm so close. Close to saving them all."
Even now, she refuses him the comfort her usage of his real name would provide, choosing to address him by his title. Rationally, he knows what she's doing. She's distancing herself from him, trying not to distract him from his duties. But his heart and soul cry out across the spiral nebulae to her. He wishes she wouldn't hurt herself just to try to spare him some pain. It wouldn't work anyway.
She's close to saving them. But the parasite's even closer to victory.
And in all his years, even before he'd even known of her existence, he's never felt further away from her.
~
Bleh. Continue later.
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