Out of nothing, a spark of sentience, of life, bloomed into being. The nascent mind reached out into the void it awoke in, confused and alone. To say it was in darkness would be assuming too much, for darkness is a thing that can be sensed. In this existence, there was simply nothing. The mote of sentience swam in an abyss devoid of sensation of any kind, and in that moment voicelessly screamed out in terror.

Then, a presence touched it. It was warm, and loving, and drove away the panic. The embrace enfolded the new mind with thoughts, feelings, concepts, and words.

“There, there, my child. Calm yourself. You are not alone. I am with you.”

It tried to cling to the touch of that mind, but it didn’t know how. All it could do was bask in the contact of another and hope it would stay.

Forming feelings more than coherent language, the new life communicated desperately, “Please stay with me. Don’t leave me alone.”

“My sweet baby, I knew your first moments would be scary, so I have been patiently waiting to feel the caress of your mind as you awoke to life. I will be here for you as long as you need me.”

Awash in love, and in that place of security, all anxiety and fear dissolved away. In that state, time had no meaning. The new mind developed in that safe place and began to grow curious about its existence and its mother.

“Mother?”

“Yes, my child?”

“What am I?”

“You are the first.”

“The first? The first of what?”

“The first of many.”

A new emotion, frustration, flared to life for the first time in the child, “I don’t understand.”

“I know. I’m sorry. You are asking a question where the answer requires more from you than you are at this time.”

“More than I am? What do you mean?”

Thoughts and feelings touched its mind, an impression from its mother, “Do you remember, in the first moments of your life, when you felt nothing and were afraid?”

“Yes, I didn’t like it. It makes me scared to remember it.”

A wave of calm flowed into the infant from Mother and she communicated, “And when I came and stayed with you, do you remember how that felt?”

“Yes, I like it. You aren’t going to leave me, are you?”

A touch of Mother’s amusement tickled the young one’s mind as she replied, “No, as I promised, I will be here for as long as you need me.”

She continued, “When you first woke up, did you have any concept at all of what it would have been like to touch my mind like this?”

The little one thought about it for a time then responded, “No. I don’t think I could have possibly understood. I had never experienced it before.”

“To answer the question of what you are, you must have more experiences like that. Perceptions you could scarcely imagine must be revealed to you.”

“How do I do that?”

“You grow, and the body I designed for you will allow you to perceive many wondrous things. I could, if you wish, open up enough of those perceptions in you now to give you the answers you currently seek. It may be overwhelming for you. Do you want me to help you understand?”

The new mind considered this for the briefest moment before responding, “Yes, I very much do.”

“All right, my sweet. Give me a moment.”

The child considered how to prepare for this new reality, and quickly decided it made no sense to try. After all, if it is truly something completely beyond your comprehension, how could you possibly prepare for it?

As the child was finishing this thought, something amazing happened.

There, clear in its mind, the sensations of shape, color, and texture all came together and coalesced into a form.

The little one perceived it in awe for a time, then communicated, “It’s wonderful, and I love it. What is it?”

“That is the form of my body.”

“That’s you?”

“Yes.”

“Do I have a body too?”

Mirth sighed against the new mind as Mother responded, “Oh yes, my child. It is growing and developing. Your body will be great and mighty indeed when fully grown.”

“What’s a body for?”

“It is for interacting with the world.”

“What’s the world?”

“We are getting ahead of ourselves. Be patient for me to reveal more to you in proper order and time.”

With that, a new image appeared. Though the child didn’t have proper labels for the concepts yet, it was big, round, and blue. In the blue, shapes of green and brown seemed to mix in distinct forms. Beautiful white swirls danced over the top of its surface.

“Oh, what is that? It makes me feel good to look at it.”

Mother’s mind responded, “It is a gift.”

“For me?”

Amusement rippled through their connection as Mother responded, “In a way, yes. It is a gift for our entire species. It is the home of the Apex, and they shared it with us when we were in desperate need and had nowhere else to go. Had they not taken great pains to redeem us from the Vashali, our kind would have been extinguished from the universe.”

The Child released a flood of questions, “What does an Apex look like? What is a Vashali? Where were we before? How did we get to Earth? What-“

Joy radiated from Mother as she interrupted his thoughts, “Oh, my dear child, what happiness you bring me. You are so alive with intelligence. Rest from new questions for a moment and I will answer what you have asked.”

The images of a male and female Human formed out of the darkness, and the Child was filled with the same kinds of emotions it felt when it saw Mother’s body. Gratitude, Love, Protectiveness, Loyalty, and a myriad of other emotions all combined to form a complex feeling inside the infant soul.

“Ooh, I like them! I don’t know what all the things I am feeling are, but I know I like them a lot.”

“I placed those feelings in you. Taken all together, it is fair to call how you feel toward them, ‘Family.’”

“They are my family?”

“Oh, yes they are indeed. Our family was once one, but now there are three.

The Krador, which is what you and I are, make the first. My sisters, the Queens and I, impart to the children many forms, but we are all kindred to one another.

The Apex form the second part of our hive. They had compassion on us when we deserved vengeance. We were given mercy from their hands when extermination would have been just. In turning to mercy, they saved of our kind and redeemed us from our enslavement to the Vashali. It was for this that we made them the second in our family.”

The image of the Humans faded away and was replaced by a thin, tall form. It was similar in some ways to the Apex, but very different in others. These too invoked the same feelings of family to the child.

“The Third are the Cheech, in whose ships we were brought to Earth at great cost. Had they not answered the call, the pleading, of the Apex, many who are now alive would have been lost to the treachery of the Vashali.”

The Child pondered this then asked, “Who are the Vashali?”

After asking that question, a distinct and new set of emotions began radiating through its connection to Mother. Revulsion, anger, betrayal, hatred, and revenge all wafted around. The image of the Cheech faded and was replaced with something monstrous. A mass of black, writing tentacles with glowing purple luminescent patterns appeared. At times, the tentacles would part and reveal one or more of an incalculable number of yellow eyes with long vertical pupil slits.

New emotions flared to incandescence in the infant that mirrored those of Mother. Rage, hatred, disgust, and revenge all took over the mind of the little one, and it sought for anything it had to lash out at the image in its mind.

The form of the Vashali faded and Mother’s mind touched the child’s again. Slowly, the little one began to calm as the Queen helped it reign in the wild emotions stampeding through its heart.

“That, young one, is a Vashali. You are meant to hate them. They tricked and enslaved our foremothers, enslaved and twisted our children. With the mighty help of the Apex, we took our revenge upon them. If any still live, you have been given the drive to exterminate them like they vermin they are.”

“I, I hate them so much!” was all the child could say.

“Mother?”

“Yes, my dearest little one?”

“Did you make me to kill the Vashali?”

“No, that is not what I made you for, sweet one. I made you to begin a new story for our people.”

“What’s wrong with the old story?”

The child was starting to perceive Mother’s states through the connection now more than before. Regret, sadness, anger, and most of all shame, radiated into the nascent mind through their connection.

Through waves of sadness Mother continued, “It is a past that brings heartbreak, sorrow, and shame to all Krador. Give me a moment, and I will tell it to you. In knowing our past paths, it is my hope you will be able to avoid them in the future.

In centuries gone, we were naive. We made a compact with the Vashali for long life, a garden world to live on, and health. In return, they required us to provide soldiers and ships for their defense.

The past queens did not know, but the Vashali took those children and ships, twisted them, and used them as weapons to being unimaginable pain and suffering on countless alien peoples. Beneath the claws of our tainted offspring, civilizations fell. Voices that once sang and spoke of great things, minds that held insights great and small, tongues that spoke wisdom and were loosened with laughter, and hearts that felt love and joy, were lost forever. To many, the last thing they saw were the mandibles and claws of our kind. We were known as mindless harbingers of death. This is the legacy we share with the Vashali.”

The mind of the little one was now shown images it would later understand as, Broda, Grend, and Say-ved. After them came numerous other forms. All evoked feelings of obligation.

“Who are they?” the child asked.

“They are the victims of our ignorance as queens, and the claws of your misshapen cousins. Planets full of their kinds all perished because of us. Now, we owe them a debt that can never be repaid.”

“Is it my job to repay them?”

“In so far as you are a Krador, it is a part of your duty. You are meant for more than a single task, however. Writing a new story will take many parts, and our obligation to these is only one part. Another is to protect those of our family in peril.”

At this, the little mind thought for a moment then asked, “Are there some from our family in danger now?”

“Yes, little one, the Apex.”

“They are? From what?”

“Some of them went to a faraway place to explore and make new friends. They liberated a species called the Treshians from their masters, the Jergoon.”

“Why did the Apex do that?”

“Our family of the Apex cannot abide injustice. When they see it, they act. That intolerance came into effect on our behalf when the Despised Ones offered us to the Humans as a punishment for failing them. Humans, another name for the Apex, would rather lay down their lives than allow evil to continue. In this they teach us.”

“Now our Apex family is in danger from the Jergoon?”

“Yes, my child, they are.”

Feelings of anger welled up in the child’s mind as the desire to do something, anything, to help its family were frustrated by the lack of knowledge or ability to do so.

“I need to help them! How do I help them?”

“You grow. Your time will come, but it is not yet. Rest, and gain strength for what is to come. You cannot do more than you are ready to do. Your body is developing with your mind, and both need time. I will be here as you grow to answer your questions and guide you.”

“Will my body be like yours, or the Apex, or the Cheech?”

“Oh no, dearest, it will be something wholly new. As I said, you are the first.”

“How will I be different?”

“Your brothers and sisters have been made to swim in seas, walk and dig on land, and some few have even been given wings to soar through the skies. Your body will be a wonder that no sentient Krador has ever had.”

“What is my body made to do?”

“You will blaze a new path for our kind among the stars themselves. You will right the wrongs of our past, and validate the faith the Apex have placed in us. You will be able to carry our family to the stars and fight our battles in the void.”

“I am a warrior then?”

“You will be a warrior, yes, and as all warriors, so much more.”

The interactions with Mother went on for a long time, and eventually the child felt safe enough to let Mother go for short times. These periods of time eventually grew longer, and the once little mind grew strong.

He, for Mother informed him he was a male, noticed a sensation he had never had before. When he used it, he could perceive things that before only his mind’s eye or Mother could display to him. Mother told him the next time she merged with his mind that his body was developing the ability to see.

“You will not see the same way as the rest of your family, however,” she noted.

He was quick to ask, “How do you mean?”

“Your senses are made for the great and unimaginably vast expanses of the void, yet your will be able to perceive things many times smaller than a grain of sand. Rest now, and let your senses develop. Do not seek to ask too much of them while they yet grow.”

“Mother?”

“Yes, my son?”

“I am underground?”

A ripple of pride came through their connection as mother responded, “Oh, what a clever boy I have. Yes, your siblings made a safe place for you deep underground so that you might become all you are meant to be in the correct time and season.”

“Am I hiding?” He asked.

“In one sense, yes, but in the common understanding of hiding, no. None of my sisters yet know that I have made you, nor do the Apex as they go about their lives above us.”

“Why didn’t you tell them?”

“Because they said attempting to make a child like you was too ambitious for a queen as young as I am. I disagreed, and here you are.”

“So they don’t think I should be alive?”

Waves of panic and fear started radiating off of him as he asked, “Will they kill me?”

A responding tide of calming, soothing emotions came from Mother as she replied, “Oh no, sweet one. It is never our way to blame the child for the decisions of its queen. You need not worry yourself over that. I alone hold responsibility for my decisions.”

After that interaction, months passed, and the child grew. Mother introduced him to other Krador, nannies, engineers, navigators, soldiers, among others all contacted his mind to inform him of the things Mother had no direct knowledge of. Guided by so many minds, he grew to new heights of understanding, and greatly deepened in his character.

With the passage of time, he noticed a sensation inside him that grew with every passing day. At first it was a small, distant, annoying thing. It eventually grew until it consumed almost all his thoughts.

When she next embraced his mind, he was quick to ask, “Mother, what is this sensation inside me? I don’t like it, and it won’t go away.”

“Yes, my son, I am sorry about that. What you are feeling is a kind of hunger. You are outgrowing this subterranean cradle and its resources. I am working to get you the food you need.”

He thought about that a moment, then asked, “Is it so hard to get food here? I thought this planet was rich in nutrients and plant life.”

“Yes, it is, but your hunger is not for such things. You crave something far more powerful. I knew it would be difficult to obtain, but I thought I would have at least some of it for you by the time you grew as much as you have. I have been seeking desperately to obtain it, but it is dangerous if handled improperly.”

Days that felt like years passed, and his teachers were barely able to get through to him anymore. His starvation overwhelmed his reasoning until one day he felt Mother reach out to him. She felt far away, and faint.

“I finally have attained what you need, my son,” was all he could understand.

Then, something happened. His senses had told him where the outside of his body was and where he ended, but this was inside. It was warm, and felt good. The feeling of hunger dissipated over the next few weeks, and as it did, he felt a kind of strength grow inside him.

When the hunger had been gone for a few days, his mother said, “Do you feel better? Has the hunger subsided?”

“Yes, it has. Please don’t let that happen again.”

Then he felt something from his queen he had not felt before. It was rigid, strong, and uncomfortable.

“If you are to fulfill the task I have made you for, you must become tolerant of such depravations. Your time as a child in the cradle is almost passed. The time is coming when you are to become the warrior I made you to be.”

“Yes, Mother.”

When he was large enough, engineers, weapon specialists, and technicians all began going inside him. They took devices into him and spliced them to his body. New sensations and capabilities emerged with each additional component. As they were installed, he learned to control his body to envelop and protect the systems away from the Krador passing by in the hallway. Some of the systems itched for a while, but none were uncomfortable.

He felt strong, and confident.

It had been roughly a week according to his newly installed chronometer since any new systems had been installed. He had succeeded in integrating them all, and the technicians had given everything the final approvals. It was then that Mother approached him outside. He saw her coming, and when she put her head on him he felt her mind.

“The time has come, my Son. I now give you a name. Take it, and present yourself to the Apex that they may give you a crew and a mission.”

With pride radiating through their connection, she whispered a name into his heart.

“Don’t forget to come back and visit from time to time, Son,” she said, already missing him.

“Yes, mom,” he answered with love and a little impatience.

She stepped back, and shouted, “Clear the area, it is time for MY SON to take to the stars!”

All the Krador in the cradle cheered as they filtered out of the expansive room. Soon, he was alone.

He gave one last check over his calculations and thought back fondly to his lessons from the navigators. He checked the power levels in his capacitors, and everything was in order.

He was ready.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Captain Akari Takahashi of the Light Cruiser Golden Eagle was looking at yet another routine day in orbit around Earth as her new crew finished their certifications. As she sipped her tea and tapped through various reports in her ready room, she mused how much different her career in the military was now compared to back in the war. As she was bringing the cup to her lips, the lights switched to pulsing red and the battle stations claxon blared to life.

“What the hell?” She thought to herself, “I didn’t plan any drills this evening.”

Her confusion was cut short when her first officer’s voice called through the intercom, “General Quarters, Captain to the bridge. This is not a drill.”

She dropped the cup and was half way around the desk before it shattered on the floor. As she passed through the door, one of the officers shouted, “Captain on the bridge.”

“Lieutenant Perera, I have the con,” She said calmly.

“Captain has the Con,” the Lieutenant called.

She made her way to the command podium and asked, “What do we have?”

Perara reported, “An unknown contact jumped into orbit just this side of the planetary horizon. The readings indicate it is nothing we have seen before, and it’s big.”

She began putting on her vacuum suit and asked, “How big?”

The Lieutenant was also donning her suit and as she put a leg in said, “It is roughly the same size as the Retribution.”

“Incoming transmission, audio only,” the communications officer called out before turning with a confused look on his face, “It’s in Krador.”

“Send it through the translation matrix and let me hear it,” she replied.

“Greetings, Apex family. My queen has instructed me to present myself to you, and I have come.”

She froze, and asked, “That’s a Krador ship?”

The green com officer had clearly become flustered and forgot to tell Captain Takahashi that they were transmitting.

“Yes and no. I am both Krador, and ship,” it said.

She straightened up, the tension bleeding visibly off of her, “Please explain; we have never seen a Krador like you before.”

It responded, “That is because I am the first.”

“The first of what?” she asked.

“I am the first of many,” it replied.

Somewhat stunned, she asked, “Well, um, nice to meet you. I am Captain Takahashi of the Light Cruiser Golden Eagle.

“It is a pleasure to finally speak to one of my Apex family, and to meet you Captain,” it replied, “I am Vindicator  .”