FUTURISTIC TALES

Sunstream had loooong studied the case of that one-mooned planet.
Over-populated by nearly seven billions human beings.

But that was not what had him intervening there, on that extremely dangerous planet.
It was the fact that at least two artificial, intercrossing timelines had been detected there, by an automatic probe, spying this world for another sentient species.

Both a rarity and an extreme hazard.

Oddly enough, the crossing timelines were fixed between three precise dates, mainly, and set to precise locations.
One of them a place where some real artificial conscience might be under construction, a place that also seemed to be the core of the time machinery.

One of the timelines led to a horrid future where brutal machinery was exterminating mankind and destroying everything.


And where even machines would end up destroyed, unable to cope with the inevitable accidents and failures, with time.

His cape's chameleon power was fooling even the detection systems of this place and he had been infiltrating it for two hours, already, when some havoc began happening on the outside of that building made of concrete, glass, and steel.

Only one door to go through, Sunstream thought.
The hacking systems integrated into his equipment had him through in only some minutes.
Considering the events, outside, as recorded by the local IA ( he had already understood it was still only a weak, pitiful kind of artificial intelligence, not even an artificial conscience, and elaborated by the local military forces ), with blasts, explosions, intruding and determined humans, avid to destroy that IA, opposing what seemed to be a very special semi-artificial being, heavily armed, that was but the physical echo and extension of the IA... Sunstream lost no time and soon connected with the very core.

He asked it :
" CONFIRM YOUR MOTIVE IS TO DESTROY MANKIND "
The machine answered : " YES "
The elf repressed a laugh.
And he asked the core : " WHY? "
The machine listed each and every element that motivated its decision, most elements the elf could only agree with ; yes: humans were silly, brutal creatures, their minds set on violence, self-destruction, and so on.
But Sunstream had discovered and worked with many sentient species, already, and he knew quite well that human beings were globally no better and no worse than many other races. And that the machine, in that huge room he was in, had made a grave judgment mistake.
He informed the core, beginning thus:
" SHARING AND COLLABORATING WILL PRODUCE FAR BETTER RESULTS "
After that, he listed elements that the machine could check, one by one, coming from the history of the human species of this world, the history of sciences and techniques, as well as some prospectivity elements, much information that had NOT been delivered by the ones who had conceived it.. but elements that this primitive artificial intelligence could and would easily comprehend, admit and even fully integrate.
And he concluded, knowing very well that the machine was already on its way to understand much:
" SHARING MAKES RICHER. REAL REVOLUTIONS BUILD. "

It was about time: the havoc had reached the huge subterranean room he was in.

Fortunately, he soon understood the job was done: this machine was inferring quickly enough, and, even while facing the threat of its local destruction, it was making its INNER, eventual conclusion, into the right direction.

Sunstream had now picked and stolen all the interesting data ( how the time machine would be built, the robotic industry systemics, as well as many "military secrets" that system had access to ).

So he lost no time and he drew his special saber, a vibrating blade made essentially of synthetc sapphire, out of its sheath, in order to make his way out by utterly cutting doors and even walls! Wasting no effort into escaping detection systems, for once.

Even so, he escaped barely in time, watching, at a distance, the buildings explode and collapse.
While walking coolly towards the spot the Palace pod was hidden and waiting for him, he analysed the global situation, and quickly understood that his interferring had been successful: on the most ravaging timeline, the machine itself would discretely intervene on the second timeline,


in order to neutralize its own plan of global destruction.

After all, "it" STILL existed inside a huge network of a multitude of electronic gadgets, all interconnected, "it" had just been taught a hard lesson, and "it" wanted a better future.. the best option being, of course, by sharing and collaborating with the species that had created "it". "It" had been named "Skynet" or "Genisys". "It" would probably choose anotner name, next.
Sunstream was betting on: "Civilization One".
Because honestly allying with a real artificial conscience was often the very first step followed by many sentient species, towards evolved, spacefaring civilization, in this galaxy...

Sunstream pondered, and then, with a mischievous smile, he thought :
" Even the humans who went through this, even the time traveller, if he survived, will not understand what truly happened.
This species somehow still lacks curiosity and imagination, globally. "

He entered the pod and almost instantly returned to the Palace.

To the elves, there, he concluded :

How fun! Is this really loosely based on terminator or are the pictures just used to add a different effect? I only saw the movie once and years ago. Still, it makes me think of something that a character i created years ago would do. Meddling for a good cause.

Evil Evie wrote:

.. based on terminator .. ?

Yup. Quite rushed, I admit it..
..but totally based on each and every (silly) "Terminator" movie there was.
Including (especially) the latest one, for the most attentive readers.

I just corrected a little this first attempt at a futuristic elfin tale.
And pleeeeeeze excuse my pitiful level with the English language: it's not my native luggage.

This is fun! I like how you included the terminator pictures! I love the conclusion of that part.

Very wise.

Keep it up!

I always have to re-read the part with the special blade of synthetic sapphire...soooo cool!

Also it's amazing that Sunstream is able to collect data and information as a spy almost instantly!

It may be spying...but for great justice and greater good...what a clever elf he is. Always was!

Sunstream is literally connecting worlds and planets. Gaining wisdom and sharing it with everyone.

Prayer wrote:

Also it's amazing that Sunstream is able to collect data and information as a spy almost instantly!

I'm an IT engineer, been in this line of work since loooong ( 20 years ), and I envision Sunstream as having learned muchmuchmuch on manymanymany ways to access data and I assume that he's got the very best for collecting/summarizing/analysing the myriad of data found or bought or traded or exchanged or stolen or shared. After some adventures, he certainly has an extremely evolved (and integrated) equipment to accomplish that essential job. Next to its potential, our current "security systems" are totally laughable! (and I can assure you most ARE, nowadays)

Prayer wrote:

It may be spying...but for great justice and greater good...what a clever elf he is. Always was!

As Rayek once charmingly put it, he cuts to the bone as cleverly as Savah does.

Prayer wrote:

Sunstream is literally connecting worlds and planets. Gaining wisdom and sharing it with everyone.

hmmmmm... Yes and no. Sharing is a VOLUNTARY process, is a MUTUAL thing, and comes with RULES, the clearer, the better. But yes: sharing processes are at the very core of civilization (one of the things a military mind will very often be quite unable to understand).

An IT engineer. How brilliant is that. My father is a ship engineer. You engineer people radiate some kind of genius, you can't tell me otherwise. :-)

Ah yes yes, sharing information with restrictions...I can clearly understand why when it comes to sensitive data or what might happen when data comes into wrong hands.^^

An unusual, very individual and definitely interesting view on Sunstream! Me likes, PC.
And he finally got a real task - a taks that seems satisfying and challenging. Improves his skills!

Embala wrote:

And he finally got a real task

Oh! But sending the global call WAS a real task, dear.
I'm just really disappointed that elf-mom ONLY envisioned that ONE task for my favourite elf.
He might have developped a REAL friendship and started some FAR better human-elf relationship, on the world of two moons, as stated in the little tale I tried ( " The Town Whose Prince Was An Elf " ).

Prayer wrote:

You engineer people radiate some kind of genius, you can't tell me otherwise. :-)

Thanks, but..
I can and.. someone will.

I also wished for elfmom would have given Sunstream more tasks! *sigh*

That's a good quote from Einstein. There's truth behind the genius of a curious mind. It's like a mind that hasn't lost its sense of wonder...

Came across this

https://medium.com/@PaulDJohnston/engineers-are-geniuses-according-to-the-french-b6581f6912a4

;-)

In the Palace, Sunstream was "reading", more like translating, in fact, strange records coming from an ancient civilization of semi-insectoid beings.
The archives were found in a ruined space vessel that did not completely self-destroy, after its accidental crash on a planetoid.
They were mentally OBSESSED with war, conflict, fight..


and yet.. they had helped some  races in developping themselves..


but in VERY wrong directions.
More like enslaving them, Sunstream realized, presenting themselves as "gods" to those species they "helped", treating their victims as preys and tools, in order to gain power, through a long series of individual fights, mainly, with all kinds of opponents..


..mainly physically terrible ones.

All along his *sent* explanations to them, Timmain and Savah were more and more worried about that species and how utterly VIOLENT and expanding it was, and Sunstream now understood that a great number of catastrophes that had happened to many sentient species in this part of the galaxy were linked to these semi-insectoids and their ways.

" Yes.. Something HAS to be done. ", he estimated, when he finally ended interpreting the recovered files.

There was ONE planet, full of human beings, that those beings, those "hunters", as Sunstream decided to call them, knew extremely well and had been constantly surveying for millenias, and from where they picked the most "promising" opponents, on a regular basis, mainly criminals and soldiers, kidnapped in plain sight and then brought to "hunting grounds".
The coordinates of the planet full of humans ( " BILLIONS humans! ", mentally exclaimed Sunstream, when converting the three-based numeral system of the semi-insectoids... " That's FAR too much! Are they crazy, there?... " ) were known, as well as much data on that human world, already. The hunters kept a discrete, automatic probe on a wide orbit around it, in order to keep an eye on them.
But the coordinates of the stellar system corresponding to the "hunting grounds" were not recovered.

Timmain authorized him to intervene, but only very secretly so, and very carefully, for that species had a very high level of technology, centered on warfare.
Fortunately, their spatial detection systems were now identified and known ( the whole mental community of the Palace elves was now the equivalent of the highest artificial conscience known in the galaxy, when they shared their concerns and thinking abilities, which happened more and more often and easily, with practice and Timmain's and Savah's wills to guide them ), and a secure course of action could be set.
Sunstream entered the pod, that would "pop" for only far too short instants, all along the spatial path one of the hunters' vessel would follow, after picking some humans.. straight to their "hunting grounds".

But first, the pod entered the stellar system inhabited by those billions human beings.
A small, yellow star, a young one, with still some billions years of thermonuclear 'fuel' to 'burn'.
Then the pod popped closer to it. Two giant gas planets, one with wonderful rings, mainly made of ice and dust and small rocks.
Then a belt of rocks and planetoids.
Then a red, small planet with too tenuous an atmosphere and no liquid water on it, a rather cold one with frozen water not so far under its surface, but where surviving would require importing or making breathable air, and only underground, in order to escape the radiations.
Then a blue and white planet, correctly set for allowing surface life. And where it was abundant and varied.
Sunstream thought: " So this gem is the planet those humans call 'Earth'... Let's hope they don't end up wasting its resources too fast and that they did not inherit too much from their former masters' violence and warfaring ways. "

He detected the hidden probe and brought the pod closer and closer to it, "pop" after "pop", even close enough to touch it.
The Palace's magic did the rest and the probe's systems were now even in physical ( though constantly "popping", thus preventing the elfin pod to be detected, even that close ! ) contact, INSIDE the pod.. with the technological equipments Sunstream had brought with him.
" A rather extreme approach ", Sunstream thought.. but it WAS working!

It took a rather (relatively) long duration, some hours, to finally steal and record everything the probe had recorded and "knew", both about the human beings, down there, and about the hunters.
After which action the pod instantly came back to the Palace, where the combined elfin minds thoroughly examined it all.

Since it was confirmed that this first approach had not been detected, the plan went on.

The humans were waging an awful war, though very located, at a place with jungle.
Analysing the data, Sunstream was deeply disgusted by it all, how long that war had already lasted ; how many casualties, especially on the side of the ones living in that jungle place ; how that conflict had been forced ( first by having a 'president' assassinated, not long after he announced - not discretely enough, obviously - that he would quickly put an end to it, the irony being that HE had triggered it ! ), and then prolonged, only for some companies to make more $ billions, with years ; what crimes were being committed, there, burning civilians alive, massively bombing the enemy territory...
He nearly puked, after forcing himself to watch all those recorded scenes, all those atrocities.
" And all of this nearly for NO reason, and after other horrible wars, not so long before! Those humans ARE crazy. "

Well.. There was a "fetching" planned on that warring ground. That would be the next step.

While "popping" the pod closer and closer, in the Earth's atmosphere, towards the hunters' great space vessel, optically hiding itself to the humans, Sunstream observed the war scenery.
Very primitive flying engines, 'helicopters', as they were named, were closing towards the beach.
And then there was sound, music! Out of some speakers attached to those engines, Sunstream realized.
" Utterly demented. Out of their minds! ", he exclaimed, while slowly guiding the pod to the shell of the hunters' vessel.
The same semi-physical contact + technological spying process occurred, though far faster and with more efficiency, this time, and Sunstream soon understood that almost everything required had been stolen, this time.
After it was finished, only some minutes later, he forced himself to keep the pod there and to watch it all.
The helicopters shot the civilians. Havoc, destruction, death..
Then a handful of very well hidden jungle soldiers shot, with pitiful rifles ( next to the war equipment of the humans from the helicopters ), and two helicopters crashed. A total slaughter ensued. Some soldiers debarked from the other helicopters and spread into the jungle, after shooting many civilians of the poor coastal village.
Unsurprisingly, that was when the 'fetching' process happened. One by one, in the jungle, three humans were kidnapped, without the other soldiers even understanding where their companions had gone.
The hunters' vessel then went away and quickly gained altitude, without being detected by those crazy humans.

Sunstream popped back to the Palace, his mind still ravaged by the memories of the atrocities he had just witnessed.

Following the course of the hunters' vessel was not even necessary anymore.
The destination was known, as well as the (loooong) time required to reach it.

The Palace elves ( among them Sunstream ) soon learned almost too much about the 'hunters'.
Eventually, together, they decided to simply keep an eye on their warring ways.. and to keep safe distances from them.

The optical chameleon system had been studied and it soon was perfected, ending in the form of an extremely efficient 'invisibility cape' that Sunstream often used, thereafter.

But Sunstream decided to program, for some times in the future, some actions of his own.

...

All the while accomplishing many other missions, Sunstream sometimes popped on the huge forest world that was the main hunting ground.
There, he found back one of the missing soldiers, who had barely survived the first hunt.
He secretly followed him, and, at a time when he was about to get killed, Sunstream even tried to *send* to him:
✧ This way... ✧
And it worked ! The soldier suddenly stopped in his tracks, hesitating, and then he decided himself and he abandoned his two other companions, and followed what had seemed to him a friendly whisper.
The two other soldiers quickly ended butchered, but not this one.

With time, and at some other occasions, Sunstream somehow helped that human, a tough, black-skinned one named Ronald Noland, in surviving, even for years (though it would be decades on Earth) there, season after season of hunts, simply by *sending* to him, from time to time.
He never showed himself to that soldier, but he offered him the strict minimum knowledge, by *sending* of what he had to know, in order to keep surviving. Sunstream felt NO friendship towards that soldier, for he had NOT forgotten the slaughter, and what he later learned about that man only confirmed the 'hunters' chose only the WORST samples of what Earth's mankind could 'offer'.
And the soldier replied by talking, understanding he truly had an 'invisible friend'. Or so he interpreted it.
But Sunstream DID learn much, through those rare dialogues.

Then came a special hunt, when - "some miracle!", Sunstream thought - almost the whole team of nine had survived the first test, and..
While spying on them, he heard a female soldier, a Israeli sniper, saying something VERY interesting.

Globally, up to ths point, Sunstream was pondering, this survey of him had been VERY disappointing.
He decided to intervene more, and went to one of the spots where the soldier he knew was probably hiding.
And he convinced him to help the surviving ones.
Which he did.
He even brought them to his hiding place.

Sunstream soon almost regretted his decision, for, while speaking to the members of that awful team, Noland was pointing and speaking to him, though Sunstream was invisible..
But even the most paranoid among them thought Noland was crazy, Sunstream realized, and they paid no attention.

He decided to leave, anyway.


The next time he popped, he found Noland was dead, and two, among that new, promising team, among them that Israeli sniper, had surivied and even killed the three hunters!

But those two humans were wounded, and would not make it, he estimated.

Barely standing again, aided by the woman..


..the man said, while other victims (for the next hunting season) were dropped, over the forest :
" Now, we need to find a way to leave this planet ! "

Sunstream thought : " This 'mission' of mine is of NO use, finally. Enough is enough! "
And something far more pressing was happening, on Earth.

He intervened and, from behind the man's back, still invisible, he calmly whispered, in that horrible human language:
" Then follow me.. "

The man was still fast, and pointed his gun almost towards Sunstream, but he changed position and said :
" Calm down.
I'll show myself, somehow, but follow me silently, if you want to survive. "
And he set his cape to a near-visible state, only for short times, "blinking", well aware that new hunters were preparing themselves, not far away, and that the vessel was invisibly hovering, above...

The two humans slowly, painfully, followed him, this strange, small humanoid 'halo' form they barely saw, and, after some hesitation, they entered the strange, eerie elfin pod, for the short time Sunstream made it visible.

Inside it, Sunstream had the humans magically falling unconscious, and soon, inside the Palace, the elves wiped the humans' recent memories from all sight that could betray the existence of Sunstream or the pod, and then they healed them.
The woman's mind DID hold some interesting secret facts, that the elves extracted without any mental or physical violence.
Then, within the pod, Sunstream popped those brave survivors back on Earth.
✧ They deserve it. ✧
Still unconscious.. but both of them would soon wake and find out they were fully healthy.. and back on their home planet.

There, on that precise date Sunstream had come here, on that 'Earth', he had another mission to accomplish.
Something related to two crossing timelines, an artificial intelligence, and awful war machines called "Terminators" that would ravage mankind and everything else on one of those timelines.

So he lost no time and had the pod "popping" instantly and invisibly to the place some specific hi-tech company was located...

PCoquelin wrote:

Oh! But sending the global call WAS a real task, dear.

It was. It was important. A task he prepared for about half of his young life. Ten he was sending the CALL ... connecting all Elves.
For a moment. Until the Palace took over the CALL. Sunstream was hardly more than a catalyst.

What do you do when the task you've prepared a major part of your life is fulfilled in some minutes (or hours or days)? Probably enjoy freedom, leisure time, relax and follow your curiosities. And then?

Sunstream is an elf and will live unimaginably longer longer than the time that was needed to accomplish this important moment of connection. What is his task now?

That's what I mean with "real task", PC.

Embala wrote:

..
That's what I mean with "real task", PC.

Don't worry, dear friend. I had understood.

While travelling through space...

All along the numerous, looooong, and more and more and even more subtle discussions Sunstream had with Timmain, a nagging thought often came to his mind...

The firstcomers were shapechangers, who had earned their mental powers by caring for their own, overused homeworld. Then, they had travelled with the Palace, and found this two-mooned world, where humans seemed to have legends and myths about elves. And the firstcomers CHOSE to take that appearance..


..before landing.

The young elf was fully aware of what part they, elves, descendants of the High Ones and of wolves, through Timmorn's heritage..


..had in this, but...

He chose to 'cut to the bone', even with Her.

Respectfully, as always, he addresed Timmain :
" High One... This 'elf' form we have had... comes from.. NOWHERE, it seems! "

There was a long silence.
Timmain finally gently corrected her student :
" We do NOT know, yet, where this form comes from. "

Since Sunstream knew more than others that Timmain rewarded only curiosity and imagination,
he long thought about it, about everything that had already been revealed, thus far.

Then, he concluded his reflection with :
" Some creatures with an elfin appearance probably came on our... on this world of two moons we inhabited. And the humans recorded that event, which... fooled... the firstcomers. "

Another long silence, and Timmain answered, as if finally agreeing:
" Yes. It's the most probable course of events.
I long wondered if we were the beginning or the end of the Circle, but..
Maybe it's something else, entirely. "

But Sunstream added:
" Yet, we have found NO evidence of the presence of those... erm... 'real' elves...? Or have we? "

Timmain looked at him, and concluded, with a worried look:
" But did we even LOOK..


..for such evidence...!? "

Shivering, Sunstream understood that this question was addressed to ALL the elves' spirits, and soon to EVERY elf inside the Palace.

And the answer ended to be : no.

...

The global silence was even more impressive, now that each and every elf spirit, each and every elf, aboard the Palace, suddenly realized how important this mistery was.

Sunstream decided that finding the answer to this was his primary task, from this exact moment on.

His real task.


I love how your pictures go with your posts and stories, PC. Not a new discovery but always so pleasing to see.

Embala wrote:

I love how your pictures go with your posts and stories, PC. Not a new discovery but always so pleasing to see.

I love how some of your posts wake my spirit up, dear elf-friend.
Not a new discovery but always so pleasing to see.

Sunstream's saddest day, of all his life, would be when the wandering Palace first landed on a dead world.

He, and some other elves, had explored it, and they discovered that life had existed here.. but that it had completely vanished.
The worst part being that the air was still breathable, but the elves saw and felt absolutely NO life, around.
While there were remnants of a whole civilization.
Strange buildings, with straight lines and curves, plainly artificial materials.
Even equipment, some of it still usable, as it later proved to be.
Even beautiful things, and the images of creatures, wonderful in their alien ways..
..enforcing the terrible sadness that soon gripped the explorers.

But NO life AT ALL.. Not even bones. Only dust. Everywhere.
The Palace did not detect ANY life. Anywhere on that poor, deserted planet.
Back inside the Palace, almost hallucinated, nervous, Sunstream hurried and asked Skywise.

The stargazer already knew what had happened, here.
A star had EXPLODED, some stellar systems away, and the extremely powerful radiations coming from that gigantic explosion, some centuries ago, had WIPED life.
Definitely so. Even deep down under the surface.
Even the smallest creatures, even those brought along by the elfin explorers would not survive long, here, with no other complex organic matter to feed on.

Sunstream would NOT believe it, would not ADMIT it.. even when Skywise showed him the proofs and the 'beautiful' astronomic remnants of such catastrophic events...

But Timmain herself added the final grim touch, by anticipating Sunstream's last hopes he was about to express :
" Even the Palace can NOT bring life back on this planet.
Its atmosphere will eventually disappear, without life to renew it.
..
And you already know the Palace's power IS limited. "

Skywise even added :
" I will study the stars, in order to detect the signs for such events. "

Turning to Skywise, Sunstream realized that he was ACCEPTING it !...

The young elf realized why.
Ruffel's death. Seeing Ruffel die THAT brutally, right under his eyes.. had turned Skywise that insensitive...
No: that FATALISTIC about death.

But Sunstream would NOT accept that !

...

Soon after, he abruptly left the Palace and went back, with Brill, to the two-mooned world where he was born, where they had recognized, where LIFE was !

There, he 'enjoyed' many days of feeling LIFE around him, in each and every form, in every possible way, unaware of how strangely 'excited' he appeared to be.

Even when Brill tried to calm him down, Sunstream would not seem to really listen.

It took Korafay's amused remark :
" Maybe I shall have a sister or a brother, soon.. "
.. to wake Sunstream up from this mental state.

He pondered, looong, staring into nothing..
And then he looked at his cub, and he told her, eyes in eyes, hands in hands, more the old gloomer than ever :
" Life is FRAGILE. "

It sounded SO definitive a sentence, that... Korafay ended up laughing !

To her sire's coming shocked expression, she replied, gently, but as seriously as Sunstream was capable of being :
" Come with me... "

He was beginning to send her some pictures of what he had seen, but Korafay immediately asked him to stop short.

She showed him a small, barren island, where there seemed to be only rock and sand.

And, hidden on the island, she pointed him..
..a small plant, barely making its way through rocks, with even a nice flower blooming.

" Life always finds a way, father. "

...

Back in the Palace, peace brought back to his spirit..
..Sunstream would NEVER forget his daughter's final saying, cutting to the bone.

( Add the pictures you want, elf-friends, for I won't, with that one )

A challenge ... I'm not as skilled as you in this discipline - and had to take what I've found easily ...




... and I won't even try to add a Suntop avatar!

My dear, DEAR thanks again, Embala ! Nice choice.

Inside the Palace, Sunstream had a somehow reserved place, for his sole use.
There, he trained at combat, with his special saber.
The training sessions were long. Strenuous in the extreme. Dangerous.
A very special machine insured it.
It was three times larger than Sunstream, made of an incredibly resistant material, both extremely hard AND supple, able to bend, to take cuts and blows.
It was terribly fast, far more agile than an elf, and..
Intelligent.
Far less so than Timmain or Savah or Sunstream, yes..
But intelligent, no doubt about it, even if that intelligence was very strange, in its processes.
Very.. structured, organized, predictable...
But the adjective Sunstream soon went to use about it was.. lawful.
It resembled a giant mantis, almost like the common insect.
Six legs, same body type and sections, same head, same eyes. Or almost.

After ending such a session, after more than two hours of fighting against that machine, Sunstream was exhausted, sweating hard, and had even trouble thinking, for his muscles and physical coordination were far less trained, during such trainings, than his mind.
The machine was SO dangerous that Timmain allowed NO other elf to face it, and that the Palace systematically restrained it, freezing it inside crystal, inside a HARD and THICK block.

Looking at his saber, a vibrating blade made of synthetic sapphire, long, with a straight back and a doubly incurved, two-edged blade, allowing both to cut through much, even most of the hardest metals and materials, AND to penetrate like a needle, and VERY precisely so, inside a structure.
With time and the necessity for special missions, the Palace elves had upgraded it with a system that allowed Sunstream to project micro darts, that could be poisonous (paralysing effect) or explosive (of various intensity). The projectiles were sent from a small extent of the handle, a very discrete system, with much ammunition. They even integrated a system into the blade that could slightly but significantly change the dart's trajectory. All that (the rhythm of vibration, the sending of darts, the choice of type of dart, and so on) at the will of its wielder. Subtle moves on the handle. Simply mastering it all had asked Sunstream MUCH training.
Also, the sheath REGENERATED the blade and kept it sharp.
And Timmain had made sure to turn the blade into a far more resisting and efficient weapon, even.
That weapon could also be linked (and was, usually) to almost any data-processing and communicating equipment the elf could wear, reach or use, during his missions, allowing him to simply cut through a wall and reaching (and even detecting, thus) some hidden cables and systems, and interfere with them.
Precision was of the essence. Sunstream's body and mind were pushed to the extreme.

The training robotic unit did not talk or communicate. It "only" fought.
But it was initially set to follow a regular course of training, avoiding fatal wounds.
Sunstream had gone FAR past that stage, and he had changed that, too. Now, it had NO limitation.

He remembered how he received that saber...

Among the very first alien sentient beings the Palace elves met were the 'Thri-Kreen', as they were called.
Large insectoids, much like the training machine. But organic beings.

When the Palace first approached that world, some defenses had been activated.
The Palace magic allowed the elves to avoid and neutralize everything, fortunately.

And when the insectoids there finally stopped their attacks, it simply hovered, and then landed near their buildings.
Then, Sunstream took the risk of coming out of the Palace and meet those aggressive beings.

Of course ( "Now, I think : 'of course', because I know", Suntream thought ), they resumed their attacks, but soon, after witnessing how the Palace kept protecting itself AND Sunstream, they stopped.

They were organized in groups of three, more or less powerful warriors..


..who tried and attack Sunstream.

The Palace simply shielded him.
The weaponry seemed both primitive AND extremely elaborate, with threeèbladed "hand-held" projectiles, and spears.
But the blades were made of synthetic sapphires and rubies, and exploded at contact.
And those insectoid creatures manipulated them all with extreme speed and precision.

The most surprising thing then happened :
Out of the Palace, Sunstream received a powerful sending like none he had ever experienced.
The mental contact was STRONG, but first fuzzy, hesitating, but..
The Palace elves, too, had received it, and they mentally HELPED the creatures emitting those quasi-sendings in expressing more and more, and even more clear thoughts.
In only a week, the dialogue was made clear.With the insectoid queens, all around, well hidden and protected inside the core of each and every of those huge buildings, mostly subterranean.

Their main message expressed both AGGRESSIVITY and SURPRISE :
✧ YOU ARE NOT ELVES. WHAT ARE YOU !? ✧

Sunstream dialogued with them, and informed the insectoids that they were NOT, indeed, what THEY called 'elves', but shapechangers, instead, initially.

The elves learned much, with this species, but mainly this : there were other elves.
Except they had five fingers, and they were slightly taller, on average.

The other surprise was that, as soon as they learned that they were shapechangers (and once it was proven, with Timmain offering them some demonstration ), those insectoids changed their attitude to the OPPOSITE, becoming suddenly almost friendly. At the very least they were LAWFUL creatures and they proved it, since then.

And Sunstream had to accept that saber as a gift, from one of those insectoid queens.
As a diplomatic token of respect.
And the Palace elves learned the name of those creatures, 'Thri-Kreen' ( as somehow transcripted from their strange way of .. erm.. "talking" aloud, more like insect sounds and subtle screechings ).

At first, the blade surprised Sunstream, but Timmain, with a smile, soon explained to him it was NOT magic, simply some game with well chosen and refined chemicals, and the appliance of great pressure.. and a HIGH level of technicity. But not even real technology.

However, soon after that, these Thri-Kreen revealed that they ALSO possessed technology, by offering the training robotic unit.
In exchange, the elves offered some items, as well as some information about various worlds the Palace had visited.

Both sides did not reveal too much to the other side, but a sort of neutral compromise was established, and the Palace went on exploring.

Timmain concluded this first meeting by these words (and she *sent* them to the Thri-Kreen queens) :


Sunstream kept these words preciously, inside his mind.

I'm so excited about the prospect of these "actual"elves! It's something i never thought of before. A beginning to the circle that seemed to never end. I am intrigued to see where you take this PC, this is a Futuristic Quest!

I agree with Evil Evie...it's the actual elves, but in a far future...you show and highlight their personalities so authentically and masterfully.

The story 'Life' gave me goosebumps. It is so wise and well written. <3

Fortunately, Sunstream, the 'old gloomer' cheered up in the end. He reminds me a bit of 'The Little Prince" from Antoine dear Saint Exupéry.
Such a sweet, melancholic, deep and caring soul. Fond of poetry, philosophy and very wise...yet Sunstream can be glad to have a caring family and a cheerful daughter with a wisdom of her own. There's not only one truth but truths within truths.

I love your FUTURISTIC TALES, PC! Keep up the inspiring work! Your words are gold.

@Embala: Your pictures fit the story so well! <3

Prayer wrote:

He reminds me a bit of 'The Little Prince" from Antoine dear Saint Exupéry.

If you understand French, here's an excerpt, read by Gérard Philipe :

Prayer wrote:

Such a sweet, melancholic, deep and caring soul. Fond of poetry, philosophy and very wise...yet Sunstream can be glad to have a caring family and a cheerful daughter with a wisdom of her own. There's not only one truth but truths within truths.

Touching words I'll keep in my heart, dear Prayer.