The Fragments is the given name by of a trans-dimensional species of unknown origin that explore universes.
Biology[]
Fragments are trans-dimensional beings and exist in more dimensions though only the tiniest sliver of a single specimen exists outside three-dimensional space-time continuum. To human mental constructs who are anchored in four dimensional space-time continuum, Fragments literally cannot be seen and if they could humans would likely find the experience disorienting and possibly frightening. In order to interact with lesser begins Fragments employ the use of physical avatars.
Fragments perceive time at a faster pace, and thus time can be seen as slow to their perception. They still utilize physical machines and technology to interact with the three-dimensional world. Distance between members of the species is non-existent as it has been observed that they can communicate instantaneously in real-time. The species also has no genders as such conceptions have no meaning.
Fragments are not immortal in a general sense, they can die. Though have lifespans on the scale of the life spans of stars
Background[]
Earliest Beginnings[]
The origins of the Fragments are mostly unknown even to themselves as no Fragment knows the answer to this question. If it ever was known, it has been lost in time.
Since the immemorial the Fragments have tasked themselves with wandering the universes, always exploring, observing and reporting their findings to their kin.
One young Fragment in particular made their way to the Milky Way Galaxy around 65 million years ago to study its organic life. There they witnessed the rise and fall of many alien civilizations such as the Lormna.
Among its discoveries was a longest-surviving civilization that lasted some 17,000 years before internecine warfare brought them down, and never recovered. Another civilization created a particularly virulent bio-weapon that got out of control and wiped them out. Another polluted their planet so badly it turned into a green-house world not unlike Venus. During its journeys through the galaxy, they discovered the remnants of 157 advanced civilizations, three of which survived long enough to achieve space flight.
Observation of Earth[]
The Fragment discovered Earth, 11,734 years ago, near the end of the last ice age. The planet was of notable interest to the alien as it involved the discovery of a biologically active planet with multiple sentient species in the early stages of evolution. It was regarded as a truly exciting discovery to the Fragment society after the alien reported their findings. With permission of the Elder the Fragment they were permitted to observe the evolution on the planet.
In the period of its observation, the alien noted that humanity was well on its way toward establishing themselves as the dominant species on the planet, having out-competed most other hominids. The Fragment noted humans had potential and continued to observe their development.
For over ten thousand years, the Fragment has learned that while there is much that is admirable and worth saving about the human race, they understood that humans were are not a race to be trusted. This was evident when they often break their promises, and are very good at creating ambiguous situations that keep to the letter of law while ignoring its spirit. The Fragment maintained it’s kind non-interference policy during their observations.
While not observing humanity, the entity created a mining operation on the moon of Ganymede in order to supply material for a base on Europa to support the study of some interesting life forms that live in its oceans.
Great Collapse[]
By the time of the Fragment’s second report humanity had become sufficiently advanced to begin exploring its own solar system. Though the species social development had much to be desired as the time period after Earth’s Great Collapse the Fragment saw the devastating consequences of climate change that resulted in the death of six-and-a-half billion people and near total ecological collapse.
In the aftermath was the rise of fifty-four surviving human enclaves, dominated by thirteen alliances that were ruled by dictatorships, competing with other varying warlords. One being the Christian Republic of America, a militaristic and religious nation that was the considered to be one of the strongest enclaves.
Death Bringer[]
The Fragment detected the threat of a rogue failed dwarf star that was 65 times the size of Jupiter and heading on a trajectory through the Sol System. Within its charted path the Fragment determined that the dwarf star would arrive in thirty-nine years, which then would be when Earth be destroyed, rendering all its species extinct.
The destruction of a world was not new to the Fragment as they had witnessed many external catastrophes that cut other civilizations short, however they sent an appeal in their second report to their kind. They proposed on giving humanity a small technological boost that would enable them to leave their planet and venture out into space before the rogue star destroyed their world. The Fragment’s Elder advised against this, as it was against their Mandate, though the former claimed an exception to the non-intervention directive based on an anomaly in the quantum stream that the Fragment believed was the involvement of a higher power. Though it was seen as just mere unjustified speculation.
Singapore Incident[]
In spite of the advice against intervention by their mentor, the Fragment moved forward to intervene to save humanity. The Fragment seeking to minimize contact with humans but also lead them on the course to help themselves against the emerging threat sent a Bracewell Probe to the Singapore Enclave to establish contact. Upon landing at the enclave the Fragment used the probe to invite all of Earth’s Geo-political leaders for a summit.
Before a dialogue could be opened, a nuclear explosion erupted, destroying the probe, the Singapore Enclave and thirteen human leaders. In the aftermath of the event that would become the Singapore Incident, no alliance claimed responsibility for the atrocity though it was suspected that the attack was opportunistic in nature by one of the other enclaves. Attempts were made by the Enclaves to offer apologies for Singapore, via radio but went unanswered. Additionally probes sent out to take a closer look at Europa and Ganymede went mysteriously silent before they could gather any useful information.
The Fragment had foreseen this, as after it’s first attempt at peaceful contact had failed, opted for humanity to come to the conclusion of the approaching danger for themselves and thus they waited.
Jupiter Mission[]
Twelve years after the Singapore Incident, the Fragment made no move to resume contact with humanity. On the other hand the existence of alien life spurred the creation and stimulation of various alien studies among academia. Unknown the public ten years after the failed first contact with the alien, astronomers from various Enclaves detected the presence or of what they thought was a rogue planet which they named Death Bringer and was possibly a threat to Earth.
Thus began the Jupiter Mission, a secret collaborative effort between the European, Chinese, and Indian space agencies to build a spaceship to carry a team of astronauts to Jupiter to establish contact with the aliens. In the remaining two years since the Singapore Incident, the media leaked news of the secret effect and the doom heading towards Earth.
Sometime in the next few months the Asimov was launched carrying six astronauts with the mission to make contact with the alien and make an appeal for aid. The target of the Mission was Europa which the human mistakenly believed to be where the alien had taken residence. Due to humanity having wasted twelve years by attacking its probe and the five years of time for the Asimov to reach it, time was of the essence. To hasten their arrival, the alien remotely course corrected their AI of the Asimov to be redirected to Ganymede so that contact would initiate. A furnished space station connected by a space elevator to the surface of Ganymede. Though the actions of the alien were met with suspicion, the crew ultimately understood that securing help from the alien was paramount.
Half of the crew journeyed to the surface base on Ganymede while the rest of the crew waited in orbit. Fragment met the humans via a humanoid avatar construct.
Among the crew that came to the Fragment was Dr. Holly Burton, a woman who was of particular interest to the alien as she was a survivor from the nuclear attack in the Singapore Incident and also the one who was casted on the news revealing Death Bringer to the world. Before talks could begin on a plan of action to save humanity, disaster struck again.
One of the crew members one of Asimov, Major Benjamin Clark, had overpowered the two other crew forcing them out of the ship and onto the station, before he forcible disengaged from it, spacing them. He then proceeded to aim the Asimov towards the Ganymede base intent on destroying it using the vessel’s impact with a little aid from a thermonuclear weapon he had snuck on board. His suicide attack went as planned, resulting in the Jupiter Mission being declared as a failure by scientists on Earth who had detected the nuclear detonation from their satellites.
Later it is learned that the act of sabotage was the work of James Braxton Cartwright, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security of the Christian Republic of America. Though he publicly answered to the President of the CRA, Cartwright was the true mastermind behind the action. He was a racist, power-hungry and religious zealot determined to shape humanity and the fate of Earth to his depraved vision.
He had recruited Benny to be a “true patriot” to his nation and human race. After eliminating the previous astronaut that was suppose to be on the Jupiter Mission, Cartwright used his operatives to ensure Benny was aboard the Asimov. The mission was to sabotage the effort to make peaceful contact with the aliens, and to strike a mortal blow against them instead. Through his presidential puppet, Cartwright intended to institute a de facto state of war between the aliens and humans, using the death of two CRA citizens on the Asimov as justification. He expected his supporters in the press to spin it as an unprovoked attack on an unarmed ship on a mission of peace, creating a public outcry that would not just force his own government to go to war with the aliens but most of the world will fall into line to the CRA’s narrative. Cartwright fully intended to destroy the alien presence as he the CRA launched four armed spaceships a few months after the Asimov left Earth having planned for the ship’s destruction in order to take the initiative to recover any alien technology.
Though the gamble was great Cartwright believed that war was inevitable and that aliens were an existential threat to humanity. His fear was drawn from what his European ancestors had done to the Native Americans, of when a superior civilization encounters an inferior one. Hence why he had instigated the Singapore Incident and bombed the alien probe to eliminate the then current President of the CRA to install his puppet to pursue his agenda.
As for the looming celestial body His own people had told him that Death Bringer was survivable. His plan to survive the coming apocalypse was to construct underground cities. It made no difference to Cartwright on whether the aliens came in peace as he refused to put his fate in their hands as it would be equating to giving up independence and power. Fortunately the fleet sent to Ganymede failed in their mission. The alien station was still operational and suffered negligible damage. The Fragment using its defenses destroyed the fleet.
The Emissary[]
Though the Fragment was unharmed during the initial nuclear detonation, the same could not be said of the human astronauts, save for Holly Burton. However the human doctor was badly injured and it two little over a year for her to fully heal. Upon her recovery, the Fragment informed her of the situation and that only twenty-two years remained to save her species and the true scope of danger Earth face, While they could remove the threat of Death Bringer, nor save all of humanity, and neither could not intervene directly to save humanity, the Fragment offered to save a portion of the species by providing scientific knowledge to allow humanity to save themselves. To that end the alien asked Holly to become their representative to speak to the Council of Enclaves on Earth.
Four years after Holly's revival, the Fragment entrusted Holly with her own ship called the Gabriel's Fire to travel back to Earth. Upon arriving in orbit of the Chinese mining base on the moon, her ship was detected by the various government on Earth. The CRA were the first to respond aggressively by sending out a fleet to destroy the alien vessel, ignoring warning from the Chinese outpost that they were infringing on its territory. The situation de-escalated when Holly showed the superior technology of her ship, forcing the CRA to stand down.
Once she landed on the surface of he planet, Holly reunited with her family and friends. Holly then attempted to arrange a meeting with the Council of Enclaves to deliver the alien's message. However her request was not met immediately and was stalled, no thanks to the manipulation of the CRA who were flooding the media of a nefarious narrative of alien invasion. Having enough of the political bullshit, Holly organized a press conference to reach the public and deliver the Fragment's message of Earth's imminent destruction, and that the only hope for humanity laid in the stars. No sooner did she release the news, the press conference was attacked by a mob, sent under the orders of the CRA to silence her. Luckily thanks to the technology she was given by the Fragment, she and her allies evade capture, but her words finally convinced the Council to have an official meeting.
The CRA continued to hinder Holly's work as they intended to go forward with their underground cities, funded by the masses through the development of a war economy geared at the alien threat. Cartwright solicited the aid of Alexander Taylor, a global evangelical speaker who had a third of the planet under his thrall through his sermons. In exchange for a place in the new world order, Taylor agreed to do a smear campaign against Holly and the Fragment painting them as harbingers of the end times.
When Holly finally met with the Council, the Emissary provided the Council the alien's plan and terms for use of the technology so it could be shared. However the Enclave very much in the pocket of the CRA and their self-interests, tried negotiating for more preferable terms. Despite repeated warnings of that the survival of humanity was not up for negotiation, the CRA wasted no time to discredit her humanity, calling her a pawn of the alien. The threat of Death Bringer was trivialized by the CRA, who argued that hope laid in the construction of the underground cities based on their specialists findings. In response, Holly prepared evidence that the CRA's specialist were unqualified quacks and that the sabotage of the Jupiter Mission was in fact done by the hand of the CRA. The CRA then called Holly to be tried as a war criminal without any justification, breaching the sovereignty of another enclave again to capture her. In retaliation against the better interest of humanity, Holly ordered her vessel to destroy the White House, which it complied, though neither the president of Cartwright were in the building.
In the aftermath of the failed attempt by the CRA to capture the Emissary and the destruction of the White House, the CRA were in total denial of its criminal actions. Instead using misinformation to play the victim of the entire incident and discredit the plan for salvation proposed by Horton and the Fragment, with Taylor casting them both as the Whore of Babylon and the Anti-Christ.
The Exodus Company[]
Due the lack of progress of her role in saving humanity, Holly went into a depression, only to be pulled out of it by the Fragment. They encouraged Holly to not give up, citing everything she had to save humanity was within her enhanced mind, and that the Council of Enclaves was not the only organization to bring humanity to the stars. Holly then realized that the Fragment meant she needed to build her own infrastructure. Invigorated, the Emissary went to seek partnerships with private billionaires, who like her understood the magnitude of Death Bringer and wanted to see her plan to fruition and other enclaves that believed in survival. Over time her movement evolved in the Exodus Company aimed in the space development of six arks that would carry 120,000 humans to six different worlds for humanity to flourish. Her movement gained traction so much so that even Alexander Taylor of Ministries International, the evangelical organization that demonized her and the Fragment, requested a meeting with them. Though he offered no apology for his past slandering, he came to accept that the Fragment was not a hostile entity and had humanity's interest, which he then framed that the alien was akin to being God's instrument, akin to the Tolstoy's Parable of the Flood. Since the meeting Taylor then turned a 180 personality and sent sermons supporting Holly's vision.
With majority of the world now focused on the hope of the Exodus Company, the CRA and its British ally were left out of the endeavor. At some point Cartwright opted to forgo ruling from the shadows and assumed the presidency of the CRA. Despite losing the support of the evangelical world, with the departure of Taylor, the CRA proceeded with its plan to construct the underground cities putting confidence in them regardless of their falsified sustainability and chances of survival. The underground cities were not created to ensure humanity's survival, but a one last ditch plan of a mad man who wanted to preserve his religious followers long enough for the event of a global war which he planned to initiate and claim the Earth for his kind of people, Northern Europeans. The truth of the endeavor was only known to Cartwright and his close aides. As the world was slowly coming to realize the threat of Death Bringer, Cartwright persisted to maintain the visage of control. Cartwright now a disease ridden old man, still would not allow the destiny of humanity to be within The Emissary. Ever narcissistic and deranged, Cartwright took offense to the world lottery, which would select the 120,000 souls who would be passengers aboard the arks.
It was due to that the representation of humanity which reflected a multicultural humanity clashed with his white supremacist views as it was his belief of him and his followers that lesser ethnicities should not be allowed to survive to create Humanity 2.0. To prevent this, Cartwright made another heinous plan to hijack the orbital stations that permitted the arks to launch. His plan involved capturing the Emissary and forcing her to ceded total control to him, allowing him to select the people he envisioned for the future of the human species out in the stars. Cartwright orchestrated the attack on one of the sites of the Exodus Company, and while casualties were minimal, the attack was part of a larger agenda to kidnap the Emissary's brother's nice and her children. Horton having deduced Cartwright's endgame for the human race, refused to permit the madman to be given control of humanity's destiny, though she would not allow the deaths of her family so Horton gave herself to Cartwright's forces, though after one of the men threatened to maim her relatives in front of her, she killed most of the kidnappers, until they managed to sedate her. Horton was taken to Cartwright's spaceplane that would lead a space fleet to commandeer the orbitals. As a bonus the man audaciously stated that capturing her for control while his plan, also had a desire to use her nanite enhanced body to cure himself so he would continue his despotic rule.
The Emissary though refused to allow Cartwright to win. Having planned for a contingency, Horton ordered her nanites to cause her body to lose function, effectively committing suicide. The CRA having lost all leverage, were open to attack by the vengeful Exodus Company who viewed the Emissary as a true savior to mankind. Having enough of Cartwright and his hypocritical ways and senseless violence impeding their work, the fleet was target with extreme prejudice by the orbital defense personnel. Cartwright's spaceplane was among the first to be destroyed by the angry vengeful Adrian, The Emissary’s aide, and shortly the rest of the fleet. However the one-sided battle of the systematic destruction of the CRA fleet and pleas of surrender from the fleet caused even the General of the orbital stations to plead to Adrian show mercy. It was reluctantly given after much of the fleet had been decimated.
The Fragment having witnessed Holly’s death was morally conflicted as on how to proceed. Due to their calculations, they did not expect humanity to survive long without the guidance of Holly. Troubled by this the alien contacted its mentor to perhaps review its data. The Elder though surmised that the younger Fragment kept perceiving Holly to be important due to their emotional attachment. The Fragment admitted this to be true, and was resolved to save Holly by intervening, an action the Elder warned against as already their intervention with a younger species was already creating a bad precedent. The Elder urged him from this course of action. The Fragment was resolute as they believed they could not allow humanity to die, believing that the anomalies it saw were the work of the Hand, and that by continuing to study humanity, perhaps the Fragments could understand their place in the universe. The theory was surmised to be just a fantasy, though the ultimate decision was left to the younger Fragment as they Elder made no move to stop it from doing what it believed was the right course of action.
It was hinted that the CRA and British Enclaves were then effectively defanged of their nuclear capabilities. This was done not only to ensure that they would not pose any danger to the Exodus Company and launch a global war, but to allow the world a few moments of peace before the end. After the Fragment revived Holly, she resumed her work to complete the arks which were then launched on schedule eight years later giving humanity a new beginning in the stars.
Culture[]
The Fragments appear to be a geritocracy , adhering to elders. However elders appears to have no official authority over their juniors, serving as mentor figure to advise and guide. The species seem to be dedicated to a policy called the Mandate, which directs their society, which involves exploring, observing and reporting the universe and it wonders. They have strict laws against interfering in lesser cultures. They also hold a spiritual belief in a higher entity known as The Hand, which they believe guides the cosmos.
Source[]
- The Emissary: A First Contact Novel by Michael J Edwards