"We give them so little time, especially when time is a thing we transcend. We d0 ot measure it in the arbitrary rotations of celestial bodies, for we have seen the universe come into being, and then watch as the stars passed away, but even we know that 100 arbitrary rotations around an arbitrary celestial body is not enough. Not enough to make a soldier, but the war grows long, and we must fight. It greaves us to say, but our children, our little ones must fight as well, and they must do it while they are still children. We have tried to protect them for as long as we can, tried to hide them away in their vulnerable state, to give them protection, but it is not enough. The darkness grows ever thicker, and the war rages on, sometimes that darkness seeps through the cracks, there is nothing we can do to stop it, it simply is. The Corruption takes them before they even know what they truly are......

....

...

I weep for our little ones, who know war before their own glory. They are so susceptible to the dark, that I fear we are only adding to the ranks of darkness rather than the ranks of light. The darkness is getting harder and harder for them to resist. My only hope is that the Architect knows, the architect knows and he has assured me, that though the children that fall away are legion.... Those who rise are stronger than those that have come before blessed in power and in courage to fight in the Foreverwar... and maybe somehow, to give it an end."

The recording shut off with a subtle snick, and the small silver ball fell into the Palm of Adam's hand.

The group of humans stood in a tight circ le, one human to every alien delegate who could not understand the words. It didn't take long for them to find people who could understand the strange language being spoken. Admiral Kelly had postponed a political rally to be here, and somehow, it did not surprise Adam that she was able to understand the words. Oddly enough, she was the only politician they had tried so far who HAD been able to understand. Thus far, the others had been anything from generals to ship captains, right down to a lowly airman who had been sworn to secrecy, and promptly swore on his granny mawmaw's grave that he would make sure he never spoke a word of it.

How honest the man was, would have to be determined later, but they hoped the threat of intergalactic assembly prison would be enough to scare anyone here into compliance.

Adam turned to look at Admiral Kelly.

The two of them locked eyes and the entire room remained silent.

"We have linguists, and stenographers working around the clock to both translate and record all the information we have here," Adam was saying, "As far as we are concerned the technology represented here is like nothing we have ever seen before. Originally some of our historical experts indicated a similarity in the structure of the architecture, to the way that humans tend to build, however we have come to determine that that, is only the most obvious marker. Based on closer observation we have found similarities in, runes, language and architecture to ALL the major species in the GA. Not just humans."

The men and women that sat around this table had heard most of the major recordings.

It was required of them.

"Thus far we have been unable to rove that the recordings are faked. We thought that perhaps we were simply looking at someone else's science fiction, as crazy as that sounds, but they clearly know too much for it to be the case. Greater examination of the structure around Proxima Ab indicates that the structure was used to amplify soemthing. Now theories have sprung up, based on the recordings, that that structure was used originally to..."

"Kickstart protein synthesis in the primordial soup." Captain Kelly offered

The room was silent. Adam looked down at his feet.

No one spoke for a long moment until, Captain Koslov surged to his feet, "Am I the only one who thinks this sounds crazy." The agitation of the moment made his accent thick, and difficult to understand, and he had to take a deep breath to calm himself before opening his eyes and continuing. "These.... Recordings. These recordings that are made by what, Angels? God? Talking about the creation of the universe? and Adam the first man and, and Christ himself, don't think none of us noticed that little bit..." He trailed off, speechless having trouble wrapping his mind around what he was hearing, rubbing a hand across his eyes.

Adam let the man have the moment, for everyone here was feeling the exact same thing.

"I don't think...." Adam began, "That our understanding is quite what we thought it was. I don't think that we are talking about god and angels in the Christian sense of things....."

"Have you been missing the part about the Architect, or am I understanding this wrong." Koslov said, the question was not a question. He knew exactly what he had heard.

Adam held up a hand, "Stand down, captain, that's not what I meant." He sighed and looked down at his hands, "From what I have seen here, bits and piece of..... everything we have ever understood is here. But not quite in the way that we think it is....."

He took a deep breath.

"Here's what we know so far."

"When I spoke with Smaug, the Leviathan."

"Didn't god have to like? Fight soemthing called a Leviathan in the bible."

"The Hebrew bible actually." The group of them looked up to see one of their other officers sitting in her chair, hair falling around her face in a messy frizz, " Some consider the source prebiblical, but supposedly he was a many headed sea serpent that god slew and gave as food to the Hebrews."

Adam scratched at his head, "Thank you.... For that. I think we can at least assume that if anything, Leviathan shares that in name only." He took a deep breath, "When I spoke to him, he mentioned something called the foreverwar, described it as some sort of cosmic battle between-"

"Good and Evil?" This was one of the marines, "This is all starting to sound like some bad fantasy novel."

"Best not to make fun of things you don't understand, corporal." This was Maverick. She sat on the other side of the table, her face dimmed by shadow. Adam knew a little of her past, and sensed that she, above all people, understood that darkness, if indeed it was the case.

"May I continue?' He asked rather peevishly, and the room went quiet.

"This, war has been going on for..... for an unknown amount of time so large we cannot comprehend it and I am not going to even try. On the one side, we have the Architect and his people." Adam took a deep breath, "now I wouldn't consider them angels or gods in any sense. Perhaps an advanced race so old and so knowledgeable that we can only comprehend them as having the POWER of gods, but I am getting beside the point. Based on what this says, they need more soldiers for this war they are fighting. Powers Virtues Dominations Thrones and Deus are designations for their.... Children, or the Anima, which I guess are..... souls perhaps. It has nothing to do with a cast system, but everything to do with the power output, or strength they have..... the more power the greater combat capability."

He paced up and down the table looking down at the floor, reaching up to rub his forehead, "They have been trying to both, hide and prepare their children for the eventual.... War. The different species are different constructs which were built as the makers, tried to figure out what construct could best be used to house the Anima, but also..... to fight the war...."

"Which is why the species that hold deus are so prone to being warlike/" This was Sunny's addition." She sat in the chair just below and to the side of him, and he had a had resting on her shoulder as he stood.

He looked down at her head tilted.

She shrugged, "May I?"

He nodded her to continue.

"It seems that preparing constructs, they were also preparing the anima inside to fight within the war and preform different tasks. Deus have the highest power output, so they needed to be in bodies that could easily accomplish battle." She glanced over to Lord celex and his son, "of course, they had more trouble housing the different anima than they originally intended, so the designs didn't always give them what they wanted, but they kept them because the Architect allowed it.... for whatever reason." She tapped her fingers against the table, "From their recordings we have identified.... All of the aor species, Tvek and Bran housing powers. Iotins Adaptids, and others housing virtues. Gromm as dominations, Tesraki Rundi and others housing thrones, Humans Drev and Celex housing deus, but sometimes thrones and dominations, and then the Vrull which can house all of the subtypes. Then of course you have the starborn."

The group of them turned to look over to where Conn was floating, in his "dad outfit" He was now wearing jeans and a belt with workboots, a white T shirt and a ballcap that read "Women Love me fish fear me" on it.

Adam hated the hat, but Conn seemed to love it all the more.

Conn floated forward.

He signed to them quickly, his gloves translation the motions into words, "The starborn are the youngest and best of the species, as the last draft is always the best. They were based on the "flawes" human design and then made to be better."

Adam snorted, "They tried to improve on the human design but couldn't, which is why starborn appear so humanoid, even though they live in space. Their ability to speak telepathically, survive for thousands of years, travel and ridiculous spends, and survive almost without sustenance are a direct result of the construct's inability to completely house the Anima. Power seep gives them more abilities than they should be allowed to have but somehow the architect allowed that too."

"This doesn't exactly explain the other aliens group you've met." Kelly pointed out helpfully

Adam sighed, "I don't know. All I do know is.... That I don't know anything."

"Don't forget." Sunny said, "Power seep and temporal slip."

"Ah... yes of course, the reason that humans are occasionally more powerful than they should be, especially me as of recent, and the Drev's ability to talk to the spirits of the dead. How could I forget."

"So that's what you think Deus is?' The chairwoman said, "Not a..... being, but a title, and those times that you have.... Exhibited power is when....."

"When my soul managed to escape my body?" he finished lamely sitting back down to rest his elbows on the table and rub his eyes.

There was a long silence in the room.

Dr Krill spoke up then his voice soft, "Dr kedd."

The group turned to look at him.

The small alien seemed less small than he used to, as if, somehow, knowing that he housed a powerful Anima changed that view. Poor angry anxious socially isolated Krill , more powerful than many of them had ever assumed.... Supposedly, "Do you remember Dr. Kedd, the mad Gibb scientist that insisted he could see souls."

The table shifted, "That was so long ago." Adam muttered, "I had forgotten."

"Do you think perhaps he figured something out then." Krill went on, "As far as we understand the Gibb are to Vrull what Starborn are to humans. The Makers attempted to refine the design, but only made if different. The Gibb became vessels that were unable to house the Thrones properly thus causing...."

"Madness and paranoia." Adam finished.

"Can we also assume that perhaps he was experiencing power seep or temporal slip during these times as well, but no one believed him because the construct had been driven mad as it attempted to house the anima.'

Captain Kelly laughed, "Can we hear ourselves, souls, makers, architects.... I am beginning to wonder if I am not going mad myself."

Adam couldn't help but agree.

Krill went on.

"Physical constructs are.... Designed to lock the anima within it, like a container opened by a puzzle." He glanced over at Adam, "that's why you can talk to conn."

He frowned, "What do you mean?"

"The accident destroyed whatever part of your brain was keeping the anima from accessing its power, and thus you were given the ability to speak like a starborn."

The room went silent.

"They glanced between each other unsure of what to say or how to say it.

"And that's assuming we are right about any of this." Sunny said

Adam paused looking up at the ceiling as if he could see the sky above.

"I know one person who can tell us."