A pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, the first of two sibling variants
“I forgot to tell you the rest of the story about the Sinabarn Guardians, Khadijah, and what happened to our galactic rivals – because of course, they did not admit defeat by the Sinabarn Guardians in their empire. They even came back with the spoils of war.”
So said my uncle, Admiral Benjamin Banneker, as he showed me an image of what appeared to be an intricate piece of wrought golden jewelry with a eerily familiar smile on it.
The first part of the story, here -- would YOU trust that smile?
“That's a nice ringlet link necklace,” I said, “but I would never wear it – I can see those photon boas sticking out in effigy in three places. I wouldn't want to be reminded every day of what happened to so many of my colleagues.”
“But see, your parents raised you to always be honest, and then I reinforced it when you became my responsibility,” Uncle Benjamin said. “You also don't have a huge ego, but what happened to our rivals could have easily happened to the more egotistical among us.”
“You were right in comparing the Sinabarn Guardians to the Ring Admirals, for they do serve that purpose for the carbon-based sentient life in their systems, protecting them from the constant risk of conquest by other powers because of their natural resources. The Sinabar worlds were well known for their gold back when I was a lieutenant commander, and the humanoid and sentient molluscoid population there works beautifully with their gold.
“So, when the carbon-based and plasma-based Sinabarn population sat down and compared notes after the attack, they found out about the lie that was being prepared by those who had attacked them, and came up with a plan … and suddenly, in a convenient place to our unsuspecting empire, a lot of necklaces like the one above became available. The high command had them all bought up and brought back as the spoils of war – as trophies, if you will.”
“They are lovely,” I said. “They made a good-looking lie.”
“They do,” Uncle Benjamin said, “but as I taught you, when your mind is working overtime to support a lie, truth can be right there and you will miss it. In short, Khadijah: what happens when plasma cools down and stands still?”
“It goes down from plasma through gas, liquid, and solid,” I said.
“And I mentioned the abundance of gold in the system, right?” he said.
“Oh, no,” I said. “Uncle, no!”
“Oh yes, Khadijah,” he said. “Each of those beautiful ringlet link necklaces was a whole Sinabarn Guardian, standing still in a coat of 18-karat gold. So, imagine what happened when our rivals got all those beautifully made pieces home and wore them to the big victory celebration, only to have all those Guardians go on and bloom out with their photon nets just at their level 1 power, at that close range!”
A pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, the second of two sibling variants
“It's the worst thing since the Trojan Horse!” I said.
“Set our rivals back two decades,” Uncle Benjamin said. “It is one thing to take the spoils of war. It is another thing to take the ashes of defeat and try to spin them into golden tokens of victory. An ancient word is ever true: 'Be sure your sin will find you out' – and also, so will the Sinabarn races!”