Short story
Quendrii
The Quendrii were first.
This is the answer to everything.
The Quendrii were first.
Well, in this Galaxy, that is a certainty
But in the Universe as a whole, it still is not known.
The Quendrii originated on a pretty standard rocky metallic planet, orbiting an unremarkable G class star somewhere in the Centaurus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. _Note- For ease of translation, all astronomical references are based on those as used by the Terran's from Sol3._
Their star, the name of which funnily enough, translates as 'The Sun' was one of the earliest 3rd generation stars to light up and their home planet was fortunately situated close enough to the star for liquid water to form on it's surface.
As has been worked out individually, by each and every member of 'The Eight', Evolution is a blind but totally irresistible force. Once the process starts life will flourish. Life will find every possible way of surviving, adapting to any available ecological niche.
The formation of intelligent life is not guaranteed by the process, that is yet a rare find in the Galaxy.
The Quendrii were first.
About 3.2 million years ago, after billions of years or evolutionary preamble, the species that was the Quend that were, began to form societies, refine technology and record history.
Within a few short millennia, they had began to unravel the secrets of matter, had visited in person two of the closest planets in their system and were making incredible advances in data storage and manipulation.
Within the span of some 10,000 years the Quend that were, had conquered their entire solar system and had sent thousands of probes and were preparing for their first interstellar manned expedition.
The next 40,000 years saw the preparation and colonisation of over 60 similar planets within 8LY of Quend.
Alone within their own region of the Galaxy and quite possibly the Galaxy entire, the Quend that were, had a working democratic federation of over 360 Billion Quend occupying a area of nearly 10 cubic LY.
For most of those 40,000 years the Quend that were, searched the nearby Galaxy for other forms of intelligent life. They listened to every frequency of radio spectrum for signs of a signal. Sent probes to possible targets and investigated in Person anything within range of their Sub-Lumina interstellar transporters.
All to no avail.
The Quendrii were the first.
During those same 40,000 years inner space exploration was given just as much focus as the study of any other science and it was from this area that the breakthrough finally came.
Thought amplifiers had been around for millennia but had been generally only used as a link in controlling automated machines in the more dangerous industries and in the entertainment industry.
That is until Rii Quenslissnel made his discovery and instigated the process that would doom the Quend to be the Quend that were.
Rii was, even before his monumental discovery, known as the premier thinker on any of the 61 planets.
In a society of genius' he shone above all.
For a number of years Rii had been studying the way the brain of the Quend that were, communicated with itself.
So the history books say, he had been deep in thought after a particularly nice evening meal, when jumping quickly to his feet he ran into the entertainment room and grabbed one of the console headsets. After pulling them to pieces, changing some of the wiring and adding something from his work bench, he reassembled them and put them on.
In less than a second, he had pulled them from his head and slumped to the floor.
After taking a couple of very deep breaths he determinedly set the headset back on again.
Any lesser Quend would have died from the shock, the shock of suddenly hearing the thoughts of each and every Quend within a few kilometres of where he was.
Rii was made of stronger stuff and used his great intellectual capacity and strength of character to order the chaos around him.
Within the space of an hour Rii could see the one and only future course for the Quend and he saw that the change would be so great that would be very little to connect the Quend that were with the Quend that were yet to be.
