The Six-Eyed Beast
Copyright© 2025 by BenLepp
Chapter 39: The Planet of all Times, Part Three
March 18th, 2279
The Rubicon’s crewmembers that were from the past – namely Nocks, Tafu, and Mender – the latter one still simply back in stasis tagging along frozen whilst the future Rubicon was going about her very important war business, were kept separate from the rest of the ship, never encountering anyone but Captain Mourane, future Nocks, and the two in medbay. It made sense to all of them, as seeing or knowing too much of the future would surely change their behavior, leading to outcomes impossible to predict, something Mourane was keen to prevent, as things were stable for the League at this point in the otherwise chaotic operation on LL5 – plus, there were events in the Rubicon’s future that would be a close call and it was impossible to predict changes to said events. Mourane wasn’t actually in charge of the whole LL5 thing, but since she was the one commanding the Rubicon and future Nocks who had already gone through a version of all of this, her influence on decisions was substantial, also because the League’s leadership had taken quite a few losses in earlier stages of the invasion and around LL5, were made up of newly appointed and promoted admirals and generals open to have someone else making decisions, thus being blamed if things went South.
Mourane now had to deal with past Nocks relentlessly asking for a meeting while Tafu was under Boddins’ four pupils watching many numbers go up and down on his instruments, hoping they would calm down and stay in a range he assumed to be normal for Sillerin. Finally, Mourane relented, also keen on finding out what the reason for Nocks’ perseverance was, fearing an angle to the story she might have missed. As past Nocks sat down in front of the tired captain on her 5th coffee in 6 hours on 90 minutes of sleep per day for weeks, the thought crossed her mind that Mourane was slowly turning into a version of Basil, just with better habits to start with.
- Captain ... You know your whole story does not make sense at all, yes?
Mourane was too worn-out to react much, ignoring the possible hostility in the question, staring into the empty cup before her. Generations prior, people had actually tried to guess the future based on coffee dregs and the like, and Mourane smiled as she wasn’t much better at guessing what would happen next on LL5, even though her ship could actually travel into the future (and past), which kept changing as both the enemy and the League kept reacting to one another.
- Do tell me, Lieutenant-Commander.
- The temp tunnels. Why would the Tripodes go back 220,000 years in four tunnels and never go back?
Mourane found no answers in the cup, thus looked up at Nocks’ inquisitive gaze. The last thing she now needed was past Nocks making up conspiracy theories and becoming her investigator, as the delicate dance to achieve the exact outcome future Nocks had achieved in the first go-around of the story – intact time tunnels, Nocks and Tafu alive, and highly developed Tripodes – was still very much up in the air. Mourane took a hearty breath through her nose and wiped a coffee stain off her table with her thumb.
- No clue. Listen, we – meaning the leadership of the Leage here and I – have no direct contact to them. Never met them in fact. All I know about them comes from your future self and the Nillit, who had some time for Archeology before all of this was pushed back into their sphere. Wanna hear my guess? They did something to themselves, going back there, fixing some genetical or societal issue. Remember, they know the whole history of their race, we do not.
- Okay, but we’ve got even bigger issues.
Mourane tried her stare to get rid of the nuisance, but to no avail. Nocks kept talking.
God, and I have been told she used to be the silent type.
- Why would the Tripodes create temp tunnels that lead to the 80,000 years where their planet was burning in the Weltenbrand? Think about it. A good portion of the tunnels end there, why jump to certain death?
- No idea. Not even a guess. Well... someone once speculated they saw the future and made sure the League would survive, creating the tunnels the Nillit would find, so Basil would know, so the whole operation would happen.
- What? That...
- Jesus, you do realize half of our military is present on LL5? We’ve debated all of this before, we’ve even imported some philosophers from the core sectors, ok? We’re barely ahead of you with understanding this, every single step of this is a stab in the dark. Remember ... I tried explaining it with a circle, that’s how we visualize this mess. Paradoxes WORK on this planet, they seem to be the key factor cracking time into submission.
- How?
Mourane rolled her eyes, which she did a lot but without consequences, as she had no visible pupils, so Nocks didn’t notice except for a weird twitch making her eyelids go up and down.
- Take one example. The teleportation device. We’ve got our current ones from the Nillit. They only figured out how the defunct reconstruction Basil gave them works when they found some differently-built examples deep underground in the tunnel cities the Tripodes built, guessing they ran out of space on the ground or above. The difference between the two devices gave away their workings, just like two tools for the same job tell you what kind of job it likely is, like a beam-cutter and a chemical cutter. We call them type A and type B. But the Nillit only had the time to figure this out since they sent all devices to one of their bases in the past. Anyways, both you and your future self both get one from us, and both of you leave one device in the past – that’s why we sent you the reminder “RELIC”. In the first instance of your mission, your future self was actually asked by a very much still active Tafu to leave it behind for the Tripodes, since he was picked up earlier than he was in your version of the mission and wanted to leave an item so advanced that the Tripodes would have something to aim for, a relic so to say. And exactly THIS TYPE of device – not the ones the spy used – shows up in the tunnels and is found by the Nillit. See where the story does not match?
- Yup, there is no point of origin for type ... B?
- Exactly. It goes around in a circle. A paradox. We have them but we do not know when or where they were introduced into the circle.
- So that’s why you think the tunnels are so conveniently created? They were remade after the Tripodes learned their future use?
- Yea, maybe it will be you who explains it all to the Tripodes and they create the death tunnels for us. Which you should not be able to, since the tunnels need to be there before you can tell the Tripodes. Another paradox. Then again, maybe it’s completely different, we do not know.
- Okay. Next question. You’ve got hundreds of tunnels leading to an empty planet after the Weltenbrand. I get that the Nillit were first hampered by constantly walking into tunnels. But now that you all know where they are, you could jump back and do research in peace for thousands of years, why aren’t we completely crushing the enemy?
To Nocks’ surprise, Mourane actually seemed to find this one funny, smiling and leaning back, looking forward to the obvious.
- What do you think we’ve been doing? We have bases hidden in the past. There are some tunnels we know of leading to a cozy 25,000 years in the past.
- So?
- Time is not the only factor in research. For once, these bases have to be hidden and defended from the enemy, in case they wander into this tunnel or one before and remain. Then, we need actual people who are willing to give up their whole life in this time and live and die underground and slowly build up a base isolated in the past. We’re not exactly looking at a lot of applications for this. Then, any advanced research needs a ton of supplies, a whole supply chain of materials, foodstuff, equipment, fluids, you name it. And finally – we’ve made some great advances we just cannot show you but you saw the Rubicon in action – research needs brains. So, the bunker people – the people we sent in the past to live in several bases – live there for several generations. And what we have seen is that they actually degrade in this isolation, even if their base grows and their population reaches thousands, they DO NOT have access to a whole planet’s civilization to give them inspiration, growth and most of all the VERY RARE birth of very intelligent specimens that are ahead of their time. And we can’t really send them many of our own brightest, since we cannot win this war solely with morons.
- Wait, so the original Nillit plan was stupid?
- If they had had the time to grow a planet-wide population in peace, it would have worked. But we’re constantly under attack, the enemy leadership 7 years from now is learning. These bases are obviously sensitive, but I can tell you of one. It was found and destroyed by the enemy. Then, we went to the original tunnel and told them to hide it in a different spot, hide it better. There, the conditions were tougher – fewer tunnels already dug into the planet by the Tripodes. We supplied them as much as we could with new people and equipment but said base fell apart due to the tough environment and isolation. Means we went back to the original tunnel and told them. This led to a tougher leadership in the base, which led to strife and no progress at all until they started fighting each other. Meaning, we went back to the original tunnel and told them that and they were wholly confused as to what to do next. Do you see the picture, now? Whichever ... biological material, meaning race we send there, they cannot just follow the goal to provide progress without a whole civilization sustaining them in every way. Progress happens best sitting comfortably in a prospering civilization without any set goals, except existing and procreating. You cannot just send researchers to the past and expect them to do well, you need billions and then their smartest can work from there.
- What if you cycle one base’s progress back every 5 years?
- You still need people who understand what you send them. If I sent you your own programming from your future self now, would you be able to work with it immediately? It’s not only the result, it’s also understanding how you got to that result. So, you don’t make 5 years of progress, you make maybe a few months since first, people have to study their own future thoughts. And don’t forget the personal progress people make in their lives. Nobody who isn’t an idiot thinks the same way now as they did 10 years ago.
- Ah, I see. So, you either have a giant population which this planet currently cannot reach or you have minimal gains.
- Exactly.
- Erm, ever tried to use Axxi? They live like that and like it.
- We still only have a few Axxi. Cannot tell you specifics but there were cracks in the League and cooperation diminished due to mistrust. Also, the Axxi are defending their own space against the same enemy, they are not exactly in the position to lend a leg as they say.
- And why does nothing return from the future here?
Mourane was tiring of this quickly, she had spent what felt like months or years already going over the same circle of 20 questions with Admirals, Generals, her crew, Basil when he was still around, future Nocks and now she was repeating it for the 87th time for someone who frankly didn’t need to know that much about the future.
- That’s a short answer. We know now, but it does not concern you at all. Suffice to say, we’ve been told in no uncertain terms about a cutoff date for all of our operations, around 10 years from now. The enemy does also not matter after this, trust me.
- Okay, I’ll ignore that issue. Last question, why didn’t you pick up Ivern last time?
Finally, something about the actual step 2 of the mission. Mourane was praying it was actually the last question.
- Oh that, yes. Well ... your future self isn’t exactly keen on this topic as well. You have already been told in her go-around of this all, Mender was killed on the surface, Lavern was simply picked up by us, Tafu was picked up by you earlier and Ivern ... we left her in the past.
- Holy crap, that’s cruel. Why?
Mourane was slowly turning her coffee mug by pushing the handle, avoiding eye contact, which was the wrong term in this instance, since both women didn’t really have biological eyes anymore.
- Risk vs. reward. The risk of you going back to the high civilization of the Tripodes and influencing them just before they unleash their war on themselves – changing the tunnels – versus Ivern who in our previous assessment didn’t play a huge role in the future of the Rubicon was too high.
- Damn, that’s even more cruel. Poor Ivern.
- Yes, but we have decided to get everyone back this time around.
- Why?
- See, we KNOW that you and Tafu will be important for the Rubicon. But Ivern and even Laverne are an unknown quantity. And since not everything ... frankly, not a lot is going to go that well for the Rubicon in your future, we have decided to risk it. Ivern and / or Laverne might help, if they are alive and able to.
- Wait, so you’re saying you are risking the whole of the time tunnels and the whole war to improve outcomes on one ship?
- In short, yes. Simply because said ship was twice very close to achieving a very favorable outcome in other events, improving the situation we’re in when this all happens. We’re hoping Ivern – who is very much central in the social structure of your past ship – and Lavern, who’s got some serious skills he showed in our version of events, will help Basil. Or prevent him from doing something stupid, depending on how things go.
- But no time tunnels means the end of the League???
- Not if we’re in a much better situation overall when the enemy attacks and have some aces up our sleeves.
- Without the time tunnels, you cannot possibly have that.
Mourane smiled knowingly.
- It’s paradoxical, isn’t it? Let’s just say we’re pretty confident as of now that the tunnels will remain.
Past Nocks wasn’t sure if she was being fed propaganda like the poor marines in the past were, if Mourane was just winging the whole thing or if there was another player on the field she was wholly unaware of, steering events above Mourane, backing her plans. At least, the captain seemed confident in this, so she decided to take the slightly improved clarity from this conversation and run with it.
- Another question.
- You do realize I am captain of the Rubicon and quite busy, Mariam?
- Yea, sorry. But why do I not know the name of the enemy?
- Ha, we kept their name from the news, only a few know it.
- The Splintered, correct?
- Correct. But keep that to yourself.
- Why, why does it matter?
- Because the goddamn Diral will be making a sudden appearance in the fucking Senate just before this all starts, telling us we have no chance and we have to run. Almost the whole worthless Senate took off in their private ships after that, causing quite the vacant leadership just before the Splintered go and make it worse by hitting our chain of command first. We had whole planets simply surrendering to the Splintered in the early stages, until Basil reacted...
- How?
- You will still have to work with the man, so you better don’t know. But the official story is we have never heard about the Splintered and Diral, that’s simply a conspiracy theory on the Grid and this enemy is nameless, numerous, but can actually be beaten.
- Damn. Okay ... Erm, thank you for this ... What are my actual orders now?
Mourane was feeling a wave of relief, she had survived another inquisition about her decisions amidst this whole chaos. She was almost alone with all of this, shouldering responsibility the whole Senate should be shouldering, but they ran and left the fleet and marine corps on their own, thrusting her and some admirals and generals who were capable but in deep waters into a chain of events simply consisting of endless reactions to new information. And past Nocks was key to all of this, so handling her was important but sensitive.
- Your orders are next to start step two and pick up Ivern. We know which channel she went into and you will take Tafu as well as Perlas with you.
- They are barely alive?!?
- Boddins tells me Tafu at least is awake. And the Tripodes should react well to their God’s return. They might even be able to help him and Perlas.
- Okay, and what keeps the Tripodes from blasting us when we exit the tunnel? They’ve been getting nothing but enemy troops in the tens or hundreds of thousands all over their history, whatever they have prepared at the end of the relevant tunnels must be severe.
- Don’t worry. We’ve been launching probes telling them to expect a Toucan.
- Did they get the message?
- We don’t know. Relax, it’s a highly advanced civilization aware of us as their displaced allies. They surely scan before they shoot. Unless they blame you for the whole thing and you find out how their legal system works.
- Great, just perfect. I’ll be on medbay then.
- Good luck, Lieutenant-Commander past Nocks.
- Thank you, usurper of Basil.
Mourane laughed, for the story with Basil was yet to come but much more delicate than that.
Down in medbay, Ensign Lin could not hold back tears as 6 legs stretched out to 10 legs on neighboring medbeds. The two friends were slowly waking up, shaking legs and exchanging weak greetings in some Axxi or Sillerin dialect the translator wasn’t aware of. Boddins as a Visser didn’t have tear ducts and only knew the concept of crying from his medical training and watching Lin cry a lot, but if he could have, he would. He was proud, proud of the work he and Lin had done in Exobiology, getting very quick responses from the shuttle that was sent out of the atmosphere to contact the Axxi Web for medical advice in the present (without telling them what exactly had happened), he was proud of Nocks for finally coming through for a species she disliked for so long, and he was overjoyed to see the two friends who should by now both have died of old age slowly heal, albeit with white stripes on their fur that would forever remain. In front of him lay the only two known members of Arachnoid species with a lifespan comparable to humans. If that was what they were psychologically made to handle or not remained to be seen, but they kept chatting for hours in their secretive language, likely updating each other on their timeperiods, which they weren’t supposed to do, hence the dialect.
Future Nocks was also in medbay, waiting for past Nocks, as now, their stories had diverged from each other, and it was unclear what would happen next. Past Nocks was immediately pulled to the side by her other half.
- Listen, haha ... I mean I have to talk to you.
- How are Perlas and Tafu?
- Weak, but seem to be recovering. But both of them almost died and have been or are being genetically modified to restart cell production in their aged bodies. We can’t be sure how they will act when back to full strength, we have little knowledge on their brains and especially not under these circumstances. For now, they seem normal enough.
- Good, as I am ordered to take them with me.
- Wait what, why are we risking them?
- Mourane seems to have changed her calculations of risk versus reward.
- Yea, I was there when we decided to get all of you back. But sending Tafu back might cause a stir with the Tripodes.
- Hell do I know what she knows. Do you trust her?
- Mostly. Long story, but you will know.
Nocks shrugged at another secret of the future yet to reveal itself and went over to Boddins, grinning from two sets of teeth as he saw her, much unlike their last personal encounter on the past Rubicon when be banned her from medbay for giving Mellir an AI with the info of all known wars on it, turning him into an eternal warrior.
- Lieutenant-Commander Nocks, welcome back.
All his pupils mustered her top to bottom, comparing it to when he last saw her on the now future Rubicon after the jump from the Toucan into the Battle of the Horizons as it was now called, still raging.
- No fighting this time?
- Not really, got lucky.
- What do you need, then?
- What do you know about the Tripodes? I mean the later ones. Gonna be off to meet them soon.
- Oh, not much, we’ve only gotten a fossilized skeleton from the Tillin ... Nillit. Want to see it?
- Show me.
- Boddins went over to the busy morgue section of medbay, but before letting Nocks get closer, he deactivated the nametags on the hatches, so she would not know who would die. There had been a lot of names, that much she could see, deciding not to use her enhanced eyes since she didn’t really want to know. Then, Boddins pulled out a flat slider, upon which a petrified Tripode body was, still partly submerged in stone.
- What era is this one from?
- Dating the radiography – which is insane on this planet – just about 100,000 years ago, meaning around the time they start fighting.
- These are not the same Tripodes I saw.
- Ohh, do tell me.
Boddins’ pupils enlarged and his tentacles got sweaty upon the sensational news, as he was planning to publish an article on the insane development of a species disturbed in their natural progression, an environment no known species had come up in.
- For once, this one is larger than any I saw.
- Natural development in civilizations that get better food over time.
- Does not explain the legs. This one has barely any legs left. Plus, I always figured they’d grow an arm or something for fighting? Holding stuff?
- They must have found another way.
- Strange, so I will simply meet little pyramids. Eyes got bigger, though ... Anyways, are any of the arachnoids ready to travel?
- Absolutely not, we’ve connected their immune systems and fluid systems to aid each other in transforming the base cells into what they need.
- So, if I take both and keep them hooked up to each other?
- Highly risky, would not advise that. If anything goes wrong, one of them dies – the other ones goes, too. Nothing will help in such cases.
- Sorry for this doctor, but I have my orders. Looks like we’ll turn the Toucan into a provisional medbay for them.
- You better explain the situation to them and ask them yourself.
- They don’t really have a choice; it was made for them by Mourane.
Boddins laughed, for he had made great strides with future Nocks working together on keeping Mellir more on the human side of things, but was now reminded of the disagreeable nature Nocks originally came with.
- Do what you must.
Past Nocks approached the whispering mess of legs.
- Tafu, Perlas, how are you?
Tafu extended a leg for Nocks to shake, which she did without hesitation, regretting it immediately, as her hand got sticky from his thread glands he wasn’t in full control again yet.
- I owe you great gratitude for finding me and bringing me home. I wasn’t really counting on that, just hoping to see my friends again after all that time. Thank you.:)
Past Nocks wiped her hand on her uniform, almost getting it stuck on her leg. She had just gotten a new endosuit and uniform and would have to run back to the synthesizer, fearing she might never get out of the Toucan’s pilot seat again.
- Unfortunately, I need you again. I’ll be going to the high development phase of the Tripodes and the Captain ... Mourane thinks you two might be of help.
Perlas’ weak voice was now heard, he also extended a leg, which Nocks shook with the same hand, cursing in her mind as Perlas was also dripping threads, showing how severely weakened both of them still were. Apart from talking they could not do much.
- What are you hoping to achieve? We’re basically useless, will be for months. And we both feel very ... foggy about things, our brains did take some damage.
- I am hoping that bringing their Eternal Friend and the Friend of the Eternal Friend they read so much about might help our case. They might be slightly angry we pulled a war over them...
There was some more whispering between the two aliens, but soon there seemed to be agreement.
- We’ll help in any way we can.
Boddins was hovering nearby, but tired of fighting Nocks – or Mourane for that matter as he seemed always to be in disagreement with whoever took the chair on the Rubicon – he simply went to his office in the next room and started to compile a list what the two Arachnoids would need to survive this trip.
The Toucan soon looked even worse than on their first trip, with two Arachnoids on little stretchers behind the pilot seats, hooked up to various medical equipment and to each other with tubes connecting their vital systems. After boarding the Toucan for the next flight, Nocks made sure both herself and her two passengers would be strapped down well, since she expected trouble exiting the temp tunnel that would bring them to the assumed peak of the Tripode civilization, based on spotty Archeological evidence, as well as the beginning Tripode World War – which was again based on spotty evidence – simply relying on how the temp tunnels looked. Nocks wondered how big the chance was that she would be blasted out of the sky within seconds after arrival and made sure to ask the Rubicon to send some more drones through this and other tunnels largely going to the same timeperiod to reduce her calculations of immediate death a little more. She turned to her passengers, remembering how averse she had been to Tafu’s presence just weeks before from her point of view, and now she had two Arachnoids aboard and felt more like their pilot than having anything against them. She would not return to the Rubicon as the same person, that much was ensured by her being thrust into an unwanted adventure she could still do without.
- You ready back there?
Both answered at the same time, giving their already multi-layered Arachnoid voices even more pitch.
- We’re ready.
Nocks smiled and turned the seat around. It was time to get to the temp tunnel. The Rubicon had already done some jumps prior to the launch of the Toucan to get them safely to their departure point, and after launching some more drones announcing their arrival loudly on all channels – and in short words since the drones were not expected to last long – the Toucan entered the channel. It had been planned well, but what both Mourane as well as past Nocks were unaware of was that the further collapse of the tunnels meant they were intersecting randomly, leading to a busy winding tunnel suddenly, as a later tunnel that was accessible to the enemy in their future landings 7 years later was crossed with the tunnel leading to the Tripodes.
In fact, this issue had been discovered many times before, but by troops deploying into combat, none yet having managed to send someone back to report anything, as they either lost their lives in their designated AOO, were struck by the enemy mid-transit, crashing into the tunnel walls – badly deforming their matter – or simply didn’t manage to reach a tunnel leading back to anyone in charge to tell them – mostly because they didn’t know who was really in charge back in the future.
That didn’t matter much anymore, since Nocks was on her own as two smaller enemy vessels suddenly crossed into her tunnel behind the Toucan. The confusion on both sides lasted but a moment before Nocks started using the whole tunnel width to evade the incoming fire, behind her ten legs reaching out to all walls to further keep the strapped-in Arachnoids from moving too much in-between their medical equipment keeping them alive, but to their credit, they did so silently, well-aware they could not do much but shut up and hope Nocks had some bright idea.
The enemy vessels were smaller craft, around the size of the Toucan but each laden with around ten enemy soldiers, expecting to drop into battle soon and now also holding on for dear life as their vessels tried to get a clear shot at the League fighter in front of them. The Toucan didn’t have any rearwards weaponry, designed as a stealth fighter which would only see combat in a stealthy hit-and-run attack with short-burst frontal beams. There also wasn’t anything she could drop and the cloak had failed the very second they entered the temp tunnel, unable to keep up a cloaking field in the claustrophobic channel and much changed physics of an unknown world in-between the times. The Toucan had been faster than the dropship in their last encounter, but these were smaller craft now and speeding up in a tunnel whose walls wanted to murder you wasn’t recommended as well. Nocks was also wondering why the always helpful Arachnoids didn’t yell any suggestions from behind her, suspiciously quiet for a race that always had something to add to any situation in life.