Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2020 14:46:54 GMT
The End of the Galactic Patrol
Introduction
Long ago, a great peacekeeping organization, the Galactic Patrol, was created to maintain law and order among the many worlds of the Galactic Confederation. The Order of Odium favored anarchy over civilization. Not for the first time, and not for the last, Odium managed a powerful strike against their enemies…
Setting
A secret Galactic Patrol base on the rogue planet Ekluabdyalbker, well outside of the Milky Way Galaxy: ~100,000 years ago
The Last Agent
The Galactic Patrol was about to die. And Iredok Jur Diah was about to kill it. For centuries the Galactic Patrol had been the greatest force for unity, peace, and order in the Milky Way Galaxy. Iredok was one of the greatest champions of the Galactic Patrol, yet he knew he must destroy it at the peak of its power and influence, because the Patrol’s greatest enemies, the Order of Odium, had discovered a way to turn the Patrol’s greatest weapons to the service of Odium.
Selected members of the Galactic Patrol were equipped with the Glove and Globe, the use of which allowed them to control the power of the Glow. Each Globe was a conduit, tapping into the Hawking radiation emitted by the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy through a subatomic wormhole.
Each Glove was a weapon capable of storing, discharging, and manipulating energy drawn through the Globe. A Glove was charged by placing it in contact with the Globe for about a minute. Each Glove contained a highly advanced, non-sentient artificial intelligence. An agent of the Patrol sent mental commands to the Glove, where they were interpreted by the artificial intelligence within, which released and modulated the stored energy to achieve the results the Patrol agent had requested.
The energy output from the Glove was a glowing off-white, as if someone had illuminated a giant pearl from the inside. This glowing white energy was usually called the Glow.
The Globe and Glove were much more than simple weapons. The Gloves also served as identification badges for each Patrol agent, and allowed Patrol agents to communicate telepathically with all known intelligent species in the galaxy.
The Order of Odium sought to rule the galaxy, which made them natural enemies of the Galactic Patrol. Minions of the Order of Odium had recently found a way to subvert the Glow. A weapon similar to a computer virus had been devised and introduced to the black hole at the galactic center, contaminating the Glow energy. Each time a Patrol agent charged a Glove, the contaminated energy flowed into the Glove, and the Odium virus infected the Glove’s artificial intelligence. Each time a Patrol agent used a contaminated Glove, the Odium virus attacked the Patrol agent’s mind.
Some Patrol agents were able to resist the effects of the Odium virus long enough to remove their Gloves and then destroy both Glove and Globe. Others were unable to resist and became agents of Odium. These corrupted Patrol agents were able to wreak havoc on their civilizations, killing billions and destroying many civilized worlds.
When the Odium virus struck, Patrol agent Iredok Jur Diah was working with another Patrol agent named Zolru. Iredok was working undercover without his Glove. He was able to observe changes in Zolru’s behavior each time Zolru recharged his Glove, and from these behavioral changes, he deduced that something was wrong with the Glow.
Realizing that he couldn’t possibly fight a Patrol agent wielding the Glow without his own Glove, Iredok took his own still-uncontaminated Glove and Globe and fled. His destination was the Galactic Patrol research base on the rogue planet of Ekluabdyalbker, which existed well outside the galaxy. This base was equipped with highly advanced research equipment, as it carried out sensitive experiments in the dark, empty space between the galaxies. The base had been temporarily abandoned when all Patrol agents were recalled to address the problem of the Odium virus.
In this secret Patrol outpost, Iredok began his study of the Odium virus.
Iredok constructed special equipment that could siphon off just a little contaminated energy from his Globe and then store it so he could study it. Eventually, he worked out a counter-virus. But he knew that the effects of the counter-virus would be devastating — it would, in fact, destroy every Glove and Globe, as well as kill every Patrol agent who wore the Glove. Yet it had to be done — the Glow was too powerful a weapon to leave in the service of Odium.
He also realized that he would die when he released the counter-virus, but because his Glove was not yet infected, it would not be destroyed. His Glove and Globe might be returned to the service of galactic order, if he could arrange it. So, before he released the counter-virus, he completed another project.
Iredok knew that, immediately after the destruction of the Galactic Patrol, Odium and anarchy would be ascendant throughout the galaxy. But the loss of the power of the corrupted Glow, which Odium was already taking advantage of, would weaken the ascendant Order of Odium, and inevitably the forces of galactic order and civilization would regroup. Iredok created an automated probe, a small interstellar vehicle, to carry his own uncontaminated Globe and Glove to a region of space which he calculated was most likely to see the resurgence of civilization. Automated machinery would place his Globe and Glove into the probe and launch it after he died. It would wait patiently until its sensitive receiving instrumentation detected complex radio signals indicating a new civilization, after which it would land and seek out an appropriate recipient for the powerful tools. The AI in the Glove would instruct the recipient in his new mission - to fight for truth and justice and aid in the reestablishment of the Galactic Patrol.
There were some logical flaws in Iredok’s plans, but his thoughts and feelings at that time will always remain unknown. He had been isolated on a planet far outside the galaxy for several years while the Galactic Patrol and galactic civilization were destroyed, while he worked frantically to destroy the organization to which he had given his life and his soul. His personal actions would kill millions of Patrol agents, not the least of whom were his best friends and former partners. Without the Galactic Patrol, the many civilizations in the Galactic Confederation would slip into anarchy, trillions of sentient beings would die as a result, and more trillions yet to be born would live their lives in misery and anarchy before order and civilization would be restored. Is it any wonder, then, that his thinking was flawed?
Finally, he was ready. It was ironic that the last Galactic Patrol agent would destroy the patrol in the name of the ideals the Patrol had promoted for centuries throughout much of the galaxy. But he had no choice. Iredok released the counter-virus into his Glove. He then donned his Glove and charged it one last time.
As planned, his Glove transmitted the counter-virus into the Globe and in turn to the black hole. At the black hole, the battle between the counter-virus and the Odium virus produced a violent energy feedback surge, which fed back through Iredok’s Globe and Glove, killing him instantly. In nanoseconds, the counter-virus attacked and totally destroyed the Odium virus at the black hole. But the virus still infected every other Glove and Globe.
The next time anyone in the galaxy charged a corrupted Glove, the counter-virus flowed through the Globe into the Glove and fought the Odium virus inside them. The counter-virus seemingly always won, if destroying every Globe, Glove, and Galactic Patrol agent could be counted as a victory. The galaxy was free of the threat of the Odium virus. But the price was terrible — the Galactic Patrol was decimated.
Iredok’s other project was initially a failure. He had directed the probe to a location near the center of the galaxy, where the stars are close together and where he expected civilization would recover first, but his hurried programming instead carried it out near the edge. Where it waited for 100,000 years for the complex radio signals that would activate it.
See where the Globe and Glove end up in 1987: Master of the Glow