::50-75% survival.  Most would be ordinary colonists.  They'd be better suited for lower tech, although how low might be a problem.::

::some of us do. I think we learned more here.::

:: There are many humans on the planet now.  Could they be descendents of the cyro colonists, revived after you were separated from the rest of the crew? ::

:: What kind of psionic abilities do your people have?  What kind of psionic technology does your people have? ::

::Hmmm, yes, that is likely.  And that is good news.  It means we succeeded to some degree anyways.::

She seems cheered.

::Thought reading, blocking, pain, intuition into another (although some claimed this wasn't a psi). and simple luck.::

:: How does the simple luck ability work? ::

:: What psi tech exists in the Tower, and on the ship?  With aliens still in one of the Towers, plus the broken remnants of the defeated Taint lurking about, we may need all of the help we can get... ::

::I don't know.::

I ponder quietly.  There is much to think about, and many leads to follow up.  But which are most needful first?

:: Thank you for sharing with me, Elle.  I am going to depart for a time.  Will you be all right for now? ::

Assuming she will be OK, I withdraw, and reach out to the Tower as she showed me.

:: Tower... *Status*.  Tower...  *Status-History Outline*. ::

You get a quick summary of events.

1. Humans arrive.
2. Begin Terraforming.  Build the Three Towers.
3. Humans land, and set up major civ to the southward.
4. Aliens arrive, and begin war in space.
5. Humans damaged, and aliens largely hurt, but some of their forces are able to land on planet.
6. The Frags appear.
7. Great suffering, and much of the major civ scatters northward and westward to try to escape.
8. Various cures proposed for the Frags.  One is the planting of a genetically altered plant that inteferes with their actions.  Mission with one of the last shuttles was shot down.
9. Aliens take over one of the towers.  Most of its powers are locked out of their usage.
10. Bold alien strike creates the Taint.  And takes out Human Leadership.  Aliens frightened by their own creation, and imprison it.
11.  Occasional spotting of Alien ship over the centuries.  Most humans still in coldsleep.  As terraforming occurs, slowly, the human spread northward.

A low tech society of a dozen to at times two dozen societies forms on the northern continent.  Unknown about southern continent or western one.  This society gathers in yearly moots for trade and intermarriage and legal disputes.

A powerful psi verser sets this up, and reconfigures the Tower to create the Lord of the Sea Tower set up.

More centuries pass.  There is a gradual decline in the number of frags, but they are still very prevalent, but techniques to deal with them are well established.

I stretch out my senses to attempt to passively receive the thoughts of the Captain, particularly hoping to eventually discern how to gain access to further Tower commands...

You stretch, and stretch, reach out, and further, and then catch a glimpse of a Captain's mind, and at the far end of your strength, you grab for it.

And you fall into Mind like a very deep well, ancient, cold, and determined.

A BOLD ATTACK, CHILD.  I AM THE MASTER OF THE ALIENS, THE 'Captain', BUT EVEN IF YOU CONTROL ME YOUR PEOPLE STILL DIE.  BUT FOR YOUR OVER RASHNESS, YOU DIE NOW. PRAY TO YOUR DIVINITY FOR YOU WILL SOON MEET THE ONE.

And...pain....

OOC: I was just trying to reestablish contact with the post-taint human captain, in just the same manner as I contacted him, and the Wayman, and Elle, before.

Did I botch?  Or did the alien captain do something to bring this about?  Or did we just get our wires crossed OOC?  :o

Not precisely a botch.

I am obviously surprised by this turn of events, but I know that I am in Sovereign Hands.  And given such an invitation, I accept it, praying through the link.

:: Dearest LORD, God Almighty, Creator, Sustainer, Judge, and Savior, You know my life is Yours to do with as You will.  I pray that You would be glorified now, that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  I pray in the Name of Your Son and Savior, Jesus Christ...  Amen. ::

My prayer finished, I address the alien.

:: Thank you for allowing me to pray.  I fear not death, but I would like to understand it, if my time to perish has come.  Why do you desire death for me and for my people? ::

"It is the way of things.  For a culture, as for a being, you must either grow or die.  I choose to expand.  Your culture, which has chosen stagnation, or death, is in our way.  And your culture by choosing stagnation admits it desires doom.  I give it what it asks for."

:: I have reached out to you, but not with the intent to attack you.  I desire communication with you.  Is this the mark of stagnation? ::

:: Suppose you destroy all of my people.  How will you grow?  You may expand in lands or in population, but your culture will be the same.  It will be stagnant. ::

:: If you truly seek growth, you need new thoughts, new knowledge, new perspectives.  You need bigger goals than greater quantities.  You need greater quality. ::

:: Are you truly interested in growth that is of consequence?  Or have your goals and thoughts become... stagnant? ::

:: Your remnant is isolated from your people, but you can become greater than they are.  Why continue hostilities?  We can learn from one another, and truly grow. ::

:: Consider well.  What would you choose... and why? ::

"No culture is truly all one thing or another.  Or at least, we in our twenty thousand years have never seen such.  You may be an outlier."

"There is a difference between confused growth, a shambles, and useful growth.  Youch  Kind is much different from us. We can learn little from each other.  But given peace and lands, my people will develop their own new thoughts, but will not turn to insanity."

He shows you a number of cultures of his people and several other alien races attempting to live together. They all failed.  Often in horrifying madness.

"You seek to attack my certainty. You do not understand us. We are born uncertain and remain so all our days.  Your casual acceptance of 'common sense' is the rankest insanity."

"I have already chosen, and the choice remains the same, and I continue to make that choice for the logic is sound.  But I must congratulate your people.  They are a warrior race such as few of the species we have met have been. But in the end, all your valor will be for nought.  The Tower we control will bend the world's weather to our liking, and your kind will perish."

Still, you feel as if God is telling you there is a shadow over the Captain.  Some weakness he hides.

:: It is true that, left to ourselves, we have no basis for certainty in anything.  Such is the curse of creature-based perspective, for all creature-based standards are necessarily Relative.  Only through the Almighty Creator is there any basis for an Absolute Standard and an Absolute Perspective. ::

:: Does not logic itself verify that this is so? ::

:: You have also had the opportunity to see evil, and worse than rank insanity, from your own hands.  Was not the creation of the Taint the work of your hands?  Did you not perceive it, and seek to lock it away? ::

:: Beyond this life, know that the Almighty God shall Judge all things, both the evil and the good. ::

:: And the LORD my God knows you, Captain.  There is a shadow over you, a weakness you seek to hide.  Is it not so? ::

:: You have been isolated here for a vast span of time.  Who knows what has become of the galaxy beyond, and of those that were once your people there?  You, like us, are exiles here. ::

:: You acknowledge traits in my people that are worthy of congratulation.  Is it logical, then, to seek to squander such resources?  We can be stronger working together than spending our strength in hostilities.  Perhaps we are the outliers you need to grow stronger rather than weaker together. ::

:: Just how sound... how certain... is your current logic, Captain, and why?  I exhort you, think well... and choose well. ::

::Indeed, you are correct. We serve the One.::

::The Taint was an example of why we should not mingle. We have done such things to our ownselves, and not had such horrific consequences, or so the legends from far off branches of our species say.  So when we took your madness and our madness, we made something of Terror.::

::It is for the One to judge me, and not you.::

There is a very long pause.

::If you had the means for us to refuel, refurbish, and even build more, so that we could leave to find another star uninhabited, it would be good.  But, alas, you lack this strength.  We are condemned to be here together, and only one of us can survive.::

:: Your people have coexisted with mine on this planet for over two thousand years, have they not? ::

:: On this planet, your people can choose to travel on foot to make contact with my people, or can choose to refrain.  In space, your people could choose to travel by ship to make contact with my people, or could choose to refrain.  The ability to leave this planet merely changes the scale of distance involved, but the fundamental choice to coexist or not to coexist remains the same... does it not? ::

:: How has the One revealed His Will to you?  How do you choose to serve Him?  Would the One have you choose to coexist with others who serve Him, or would the One have you choose to try to destroy others who serve Him? ::

:: Why do you reason that only one of our peoples may survive here?  Are the resources on this planet insufficient to support us both, when they have done so for over two thousand years? ::

I pause in silent prayer for wisdom.

:: Suppose I could find a means to transport your people to another planet.  What would you do there?  Would my aid to your people become the means of you unleashing war upon any new neighbors you might have? ::

::In a state of war. Is that what humans mean by coexisting?::

::Our ideal biome is different than human requirements.  Also, at sublight speeds, another starsytem is practically alone."

::We speak of sacred things.  The first of my race found blocks that they could read tho' no one had taught them, and on them were the Logics of Life.  But some among us chose other ways, and so there was a war amongt  the Firstborn.  Those who survived the First War, and remained True were taken up into Heaven.  Those who saw what fools they had been, were given the land.  And those who turned not back were destroyed in falling fire.::

::My first duty under the duty to the One, is my duty to my own.  Once I fulfill the minimum of that, Ithen I may concern myself with the Third Circle.::

::We would need to go to an empty planet::

:: Suppose that I could find a means to transport your people to a habitable planet in a different universe.  Would that be acceptable?  Or does it need to be in this universe? ::

:: How many would need to be transported? ::

Very long pause.

"Yes. That would be acceptable."

"9,184."

:: If I can successfully arrange such transport for your people, would you teach me the skills needed to restore the crew members used to create the Taint and to restore the fragmented psionic remnants of my people? ::

And I silently pray as I await his answer, for it is not at all certain if this universe supports Ring's ability to open portals to other universes, nor is it at all certain that he has the skills need to restore the psionically afflicted, nor is it at all certain that he would teach me the skills if he has them.  But it is a glimmer of hope for those that dwell here, for the afflicted, and for the unafflicted humans, and for the aliens... if only this path could be successfully traversed.

"We have some with limited ability in that area. But I would require proof."

:: Understood.  I have successfully opened portals to other universes before, and I am not in fact from this universe originally.  But not every universe supports this capability.  I will need to do some testing. ::

:: Do you wish me to do so, and to inform you of the results? ::

::I am aware, which is a major weight in the decision graph in the favor of your plan. Please do so.::.

The contact is broken. And you're dripping with sweat, and aching in your muscles from the killing force the Captain almost unleashed fully upon you.