By David C. Daoust
The four men fell away, lost, but not forgotten; they had left their mark, each in turn. Civilization had enlightenment after enlightenment. Yet by the end of the twentieth century, the third man’s followers were building pyramids, echoing ‘never again’, and the fourth’s- were hording wealth. This carried true through the modern age, into arctic habitats and oceanic colonies, to a space age- when mankind finally made the leap, to both Venus and then Mars.
“Venus?” Dakota’s wonder filled thought echoed through the Whole.
The Grandoxa grumbled in discontent.
Venus would prove to be Earth’s twin, yet without the presence of that single moon to steady it. So here, on this planet, the lands were indeed scorched, the skies were dark, and this entire world broiled.
This planet rested closer to the sun than the earth. Yet as the centuries passed, a balance was struck between technology and nature. Venus’s dark skies were tamed, through a method Dakota could barely entertain. The early stations were built; colonists arrived to live out their lives as Venus was fully changed. The lands became welcoming and the civilization spread across the surface.
Eventually, the ‘Age of the Swelling Sun’ dawned.
Venus was the first to be forced from their homes as the blazing Sol slowly encroached. They set their eyes past the over populated Earth, to Mars, a cold red rock in the vast distance. But so too, did the Earth, though for different reasons than the swelling sun. Both civilizations would work to terraform the distant red planet; Venus would have their lands, and Earth would have theirs.
It would prove to be only a matter time until this treaty faltered. Not through any disagreement between Venus and Earth, but through the Earthborn Martians sudden rebellion from Earth.
In reaction, Earth tried to blockade all of Mars. The Venusborn found this costly, and more, felt it was a ploy to weaken them. The two Martian civilizations found themselves in a War for Authority.
Dakota found legend before fact.
The Martian’s name was Danielle Donaghy- She was a great hero of Mars. She was raised upon Venusborn lands, despite being Earthborn. Her fight was personal- her brother was a General of the Earthborn Rebels. Danielle spoke for peace with the Venusborn whenever the rebel Galliants would gather. Again and again she would push for nonviolence. She begged and pleaded for her brother to lay down arms, and finally put an end to the killing.
At last she succeeded, though through great trial and greater loss.
As the story goes, the Opposing General of the Venusborn had a different idea. An idea that involved a bomb, set within the dome that was made sanctuary for these great peace talks.
This bomb was of technology long lost, and Dakota once again found the tech hard to entertain.
Upon its detonation, it not only killed everyone within, it shattered the energy domes, and warped the physics of the natural universe- at the domes very apex, a singularity formed. Where the energy clashed with such great force, reality was said to warp, and made solid.
This solid white shard fell like a giant sword, to impale the planet’s surface. It dug deep into the red soil, surrounded by blasted, blackened, death, on all sides. A great towering mass, made of nothing before witnessed or ever again thereafter; it’s blade said to be harder than anything before known with edges sharper than anything witnessed. It was polished white, nothing of this world could mar it, dirty it, so much as stick to it.
Danielle, still en route, lost all that she cared for to that Venusborn General. Not only those she loved of Venus, but of her brother- that had finally seen the light.
Dakota’s information got questionable here, as the shard was said to be far larger than any human could ever wield, though in the legend, Danielle Donaghy took up the shard, fashioned a form of hilt, and used it as a weapon.
Earthborn lost a great portion of their Galliants- But not all. Danielle rose to her brother’s position, a New General of Mars, many Venusborn, that had also pursued peace over the years, joined her. Together they struck down all who opposed peace on Mars. The war was fierce, though swift. Danielle had lost all mercy for the insidious General and his men.
It is said, at the end of the war, Danielle returned to the shattered dome left in the blasts wake, where peace was meant to be born. Here she returned the sword. It was here that the Great Hero of Mars finally lay down the authority she had taken. Here that she refused to rule all of Mars, as many requested. Here that a new treaty, between the two civilizations, was formed.
The giant sword stood as a central monument to the civilizations to come. At the center of all Martian lore was this symbol, a two edged blade, which would become known as ‘the clean blade’. Upon the hilt that gripped the mar less blades’ edges, were engraved with the words on one side , ‘To take Authority- is the gravest sin’, upon the opposing edge was engraved, ‘To refuse Authority- is to take it’.
Again Dakota found the legend of Danielle Donaghy mind-bending, as the dimensions of the blade alone would fit within a three story building. How could the girl possibly lift it? Dakota switched from file to file; all agreed on the size and still claimed the great hero wielded it.
Dakota dismissed it as legend, though did not miss the smugness of the Grandoxa at her confusion. Ignoring it, she continued her studies of the Age of the Swelling Sun…
Peace spread on Mars, though it was forever precarious among those that still deemed themselves Venusborn or Earthborn- rather than Martian.
Eventually, the sun reached such volume, that the Earthlings began to migrate to the Red Planet, en masse. Mars’ larger moons were made habitable. Eventually colonists’ eyes cast to the great asteroids of the belt, and further to the Jovian moons.
Over the centuries that made up the Age of the Swelling Sun, mankind had accepted running from Sol as part of their nature… part of their purpose, not only to save themselves, but to bring all natural life with them- through the solar system. They took it as their sole responsibility as the only species with the ability to do so.
It was not until the super-scientists of the Saturn Colonials, set their eyes further to the future, that humanity truly accepted the fact- that they would have to leave their entire solar system behind, just to preserve what the slender sliver of Earth had given to the universe.
Thus the Ark Age had begun.
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