Her superiors once again pressed her to obtain more information regarding Earth, or reveal new details she might have remembered from McDowell’s memories. Superiors who were taking orders from the elders, elders who are trying to please the Architect as if it was some sort of angry god.
Nereid and Pierce continued their swim through the city once again. The more she showed him, the more he began to open up and converse with her. This in turn helped her recover more of the hidden memories and emotions in her head regarding McDowell’s past. He lived in one of the many countries that once divided the planet Earth. He had the choice to study at college or university to better himself. He had access to many privileges none of her people had. True, not all humans were lucky to have the level of freedom he had, but not all humans were oppressed either. The Hashmedai Empire tried to take that away, but the humans fought back and won.
“I was thinking about this planet,” Pierce said, interrupting her thoughts. “Everything my people knows about the system suggests that life here would not have had enough time to evolve given the youth of the system. But if your people came here from across the stars then that would explain that, but what about the sea life? Where did that come from? And what about the life on the other planets in this system?”
“Come with me,” she said, and guided him with her psionic thoughts closer to the surface.
Their ascent came to an end as they arrived at a blockade consisting of several patrolling ships capable of undersea travel. Between those ships were circular shaped platforms where heavily armed Architect soldiers stood watch at the entrance alongside Undine that devoted their lives to the Architect.
“Your people are correct, this is a young star system,” Nereid said.
“Then why is there life? Surely not all of it was transplanted here from other worlds?”
“It was the Architect’s doing.”
“There’s that name again.”
“The Architect has had complete dominance over this system for thousands of years, molding every planet in their image.”
“Terraforming?”
“More than that.”
“The domes on the Poniga world, the Architect built those didn’t it?”
“Yes, one of many examples of how it uses their power to control the evolution of all planets in this system.”
She pointed upward directing Pierce’s eyesight to the edge of a temporal bubble, one that encompassed the platforms and everything below them including the cities of the Undine along with the surface of the oceans floor. He looked closer to see what she saw. The ships above the platforms looked almost as if they were frozen in time, unmoving. Fish that swam past them toward the ships stopped moving instantly as they crossed the threshold of the temporal bubble. The rippling waves also looked as though they came to a near standstill beyond the bubble they had been inside.
“This is the answer to your questions,” she said to him.
“Another shield?”
“It’s a temporal sphere, generated by abandoned technology from the goddess. Time outside of the sphere accelerates at the same speed the universe does. Inside, however, time accelerates at a slower rate.”
“Time dilation.” Pierce gasped in shock. “My god. That explains it.”
Nereid demonstrated another example by creating a plume of air bubbles within the waters that surrounded them. The bubbles rose up and outside of the time dilation dome and then stopped moving. Only they didn’t really stop, but rather time was accelerating so fast from their point of view, that anything beyond the time dilation dome appeared to have come to a standstill.
“The Architect simply slowed time on the worlds while it went to terraform them.”
“That’s why there’s so much life in the system,” Pierce said. “The planets here, due to the time dilation, are much older than the stars they orbit. I suppose that explains the name ‘The Architect’ they designed the worlds in this system.”
“This planet is different from the rest however. It is the only one with its, as you call it, time dilation still active.”
“And not encompassing the whole world, why is that?”
“The Architect controls the technology used to operate them, he is using it as a means to control our people.” She directed his attention to the platforms above them. “You are familiar with the Lyonria correct?”
“Was wondering when that name was going to be used.”
“We study and deconstruct their relics with these facilities. It’s a process that takes years . . . centuries. The time dilation speeds it up in the eyes of the Architect.”
“Amazing, what sort of things have you discovered?”
“It’s all taken away by the Architect, including our people that learnt anything of value.” She frowned and spun away from the platforms, tilted her face back down facing the city in the darkened oceanic abyss. “So, it is not an amazing experience. It’s a death sentence since those people are never to be seen again.”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know it was that bad.”
“The Poniga are in a similar predicament, they are forced to excavate Lyonria ruins and artifacts their whole lives while worshiping the Architect or serving in its army. Their people were carefully bred to perform specific tasks.”
“Slavery,” Pierce slowly muttered. “What you’re saying is your people and the Poniga are slaves.”
“We tried to rebel, but without ships and the Undine and Poniga not working together it’s impossible.”
“The two of your people share the same burden, you need to work together to overthrow the same power that binds you.”
“There’s too much bad blood between us. My fellow sisters rely on Poniga males for reproduction over our males.”
“Right, the more you crossbreed with another species, the more your kind evolves.”
“And the increased chances of a Nereid like me to be born, though I’m the first one to be born here.”
“That’s why Poniga males were forbidden from not having a wife, it was to deter young men from being lured by your kind.” He looked to the skies past the seemingly still rippling waves and paused. “My god, I’m an idiot.”
“How do you figure?”
“We’re in a time dilation bubble, time moves at a faster rate inside here. I’ve been here for at least two years. How much time has passed beyond the bubble since my arrival?”
“One year here is equal to one Earth day beyond.”
Pierce began to smile in a way Nereid had never seen since she first met him or saw via engrams of others that interrogated him. “I’ve only been gone for two days! Yes, yes! My ship, it might still be around, I just assumed it was destroyed or left the system since there were clearly no signs of its crew exploring this planet.” Pierce placed his hands across Nereid’s shoulders and excitedly asked. “Tell me, what does it take to cross the time dilation bubble?”
“It’s forbidden, unless you are meeting with someone from other worlds to trade or are confirmed to be truly loyal to the Architect.”
“Or lure a male.” His smile grew brighter. “I need to get back to my ship. Can you help me do it?”
“As I said it’s—”
“You said yourself you need ships to aid in a rebellion, we could help. And from what it sounds like my people already encountered the Architect forces, so like it or not, your enemy is now ours. Help me, so I can help you, please.”
NEREID HAD IGNORED all telepathic messages her superiors had sent her over the last two days. She couldn’t bring herself to show them what she experienced, and became worried that traces of McDowell’s memories might bleed into the engram despite her best efforts to keep it secret. Her superiors and the elders, while their intentions were focused around the preservation of the Undine people, it was achieved by appeasing the needs of the Architect. Earth, humans, the empire, McDowell’s memories, and the development of her unwavering devotion so the Architect could have a Nereid in their ranks, that’s all they cared for, and at one point so did she, until another way out was discovered.