Apex Period
There comes a time, when each species hits an ‘apex’. The cheapest way to think about it is self-annihilation. After all, unfortunately, that’s how many species do it; either by simply being unable to set aside their differences and bombing one another into extinction, or a fundamental acceptance of entropy on a level that dictates nothing but total elimination of everything they are.
But extinction is far from the only apex.
Many species have sought out an ascension, or simply embraced the calm, small lives we have to ourselves, or even achieved such an innate, true understanding of the universe that they become beings truly incomprehensible, untouchable, even divine, in a sense.
It takes many, many forms. But each species always hits their apex before they hit ten million years of age since their first tools. Stars blink with ancient wills, foreign minds and unknowable truths that call to each mind, each species, and it’s not even infrequent for a species to have separate apexes. The Inlo can still be found today, as either a people of content nomads who can only be found on their homeworld, or among impenetrable flagships of isolated societies, cocoons that will never again emerge into the outer galaxy.
Neither will change. Neither will grow. In essence, the once mighty Inlo are a relic of the past, gone into naught but the pages of a universal history that fluctuates and shivers with the ripples of conquerors and pacifists alike.
Many species have hit this point of their lifespan, where they, themselves choose to stop growing. Where they become a relic. And the thing is, relics can still be capable of a great many things…
And the longest-lived relic of all, is the Humans.
Their apex was a strange one. In the history pages, Humans were galactic tyrants. Worlds burned at their beck and call, and for a hundred thousand years, the Laniakea Galaxy Cluster was ravaged by humans, bursting from the Milky Way Dead Zone like an angry hive. Stars were forever snuffed from the night sky, and the longest-lasting empire ever seen had ushered in what’s now known as the Age of Darkness in the galaxy.
But the Laniakea Empire went quiet three million years ago, eleven million years after Humanity’s advent of tools, a million years later than the previously-recorded longest time until apex. And what emerged, was the steadiest, slowest apex of a species ever recorded.
Humans could still be found as recently as five years ago. Across the length of their fall, until their recent, official extinction, what became of humanity was the largest humanitarian effort ever committed across the universe. They stopped expanding, and started offering aid, in any form they could. Just not weapons. Never weapons.
It’s still unknown just how many lives were saved, but with the expanse of the Laniakea Empire’s remnants, it’s estimated to be well in the quintillions by the modern day. Human ships were a welcome sight across every corner of the galaxy, each one a harbinger of good health and fortune as they drifted from station to moon.
All they ever asked was that their patients helped others, too.
And they never picked sides.
It was the Third Remnant War that ultimately led to this graceful people finally dying off. By the war’s start, their birth rate had drastically declined, each child cared for and celebrated by a small city as their population dwindled to a mere hundred million. In a war with billions of soldiers, and hundreds of billions of civilians, their aid was seen as a noble gesture to some, a nuisance to others, and, to the few who saw them in action, the work of angels in a sophont-made hell.
They didn’t pick sides. The humans would save Baxis and Ultimuns alike, wrapping pluribus on every bullet hole and shrapnel gash they could find. Alien technologies beyond our understanding brought the dead back to life and stabilized whole continents. And when the pluribus, and the unknowable aid from stars forgotten finally ran out, they didn’t stop there. They tattered their clothes, tying primitive gauzes and using empty rifles as splints. They set bone with their hands, and painfully sewed ribboned flesh together with their nimble little primate paws, even as thousands of them were caught in the crossfire.
In the end, a bloody conflict over a handful of stars that threatened to claim hundreds of millions of lives had its death toll reduced to a tenth of what was theorized. Their city ships ran themselves ragged, and everyone who fought in that war has at least one tale about the human race…
But the Ultimun people were sour about their loss. And their leaders needed someone to blame, else the blame fall on them.
The human xenocide wasn’t even noticed. Retreating home after the war, the Milky Way Dead Zone was always a very difficult galaxy to get messages in or out. By the time we started getting the distress calls, the longest-standing sentient species in recorded history was already dead.
Fourteen million years of history, three million years of generosity, snuffed out as a scapegoat.
There’s not much we can do for them now. Even the subsequent Ultimun War, where their empire was reduced to a complete and unconditional surrender for their crimes, was not something the humans would have wanted done in their names. Clones have already been made, but in all their nigh-eternal essence, humanity is dead.
Yet, it’s not reported on enough about how they still live on, I feel. Their history is a storied one, from the Laniakea Empire, spanning the whole galaxy cluster, to the Apex of Humanity, to their final time extending a hand to us. And each step, each breath, still lives on through those of us who remember.
I am proposing a resurrection of humanity. Not through clones, but through something else.
The Hippocrates Hexway is a little pet project of mine. Instantaneous travel of humanitarian aid can reach war-torn corners of the universe in record time, expand our efforts to explore this realm’s furthest corners, and serve as an early warning to external threats to our known societies. The humans aren’t here to do it for us anymore. It’s up to us to help eachother.
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Bwah, been a while since I've written up anything new! Apologies for that...
Might be a bit rusty, but I hope you fine fellas enjoyed this little short blurb of mine!