Chapter Fifty: An Unfamiliar Homeland
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Seventy-nine years.
The number echoed through Kane’s consciousness, cold and heavy. He floated in Earth’s orbit, now wholly unfamiliar, gazing down at the silver-and-blue planet below. The energy auroras coursing through the atmosphere were breathtakingly beautiful, yet terrifying in their strangeness. The oceans gleamed with a crystalline blue he had never seen, while the continents were blanketed in silver-white vegetation. Only a scattering of familiar green reminded him that this had once been the Earth he knew.
“Welcome home, forebears.” The voice of the man who called himself Hassan Al-Rashid came through the communications channel, carrying just the right measure of respect without concealing its authority. “Please allow the fleet to guide you to New Greenwich Spaceport. Your physical condition requires immediate temporal acclimatization treatment.”
Kane turned toward his companions. Lina’s crystalline structure trembled faintly with shock, emitting an almost inaudible high-frequency hum. The real Hassan stood rigid, the obsidian totem completely dark, as though every trace of energy had left it. As for Kane himself—he could feel the mark on his brow burning. It was a strange sensation, resonating with this new age while simultaneously rejecting it.
“Forebear?” Lina’s consciousness entered Kane’s mind directly through the remnants of their quantum entanglement. “He calls us forebears? Then who is he?”
The fleet had already shifted gracefully into formation, and the flagship ahead released a guiding beam. It was a streamlined silver-white vessel, its surface patterned with lines resembling rose vines, echoing Earth’s transformed appearance.
“Please follow the guiding beam. The aftereffects of temporal displacement are not to be underestimated.” The future Hassan’s voice came again, calm yet carrying unquestionable authority.
Kane struggled to adjust his posture and discovered that even in space, his new body could move instinctively. The energy of his mark interacted strangely with the energy field of this new age, repelling and attracting it in equal measure.
“We’ll follow,” he said at last, his voice hoarse and uncanny from seventy-nine years of silence.
The fleet escorted them through the atmosphere. As they entered the ionosphere, Kane felt a strange, exhilarating relief, as if a parched traveler had finally been given clean water. The energy field of this new Earth was powerful and stable, utterly unlike the chaotic, nascent Rose Network of seventy-nine years earlier.
“The energy field has become global and stable,” Lina murmured. Her crystalline left hand unfolded automatically into a scanning array. “Readings indicate... a high degree of compatibility with our bodies.”
Hassan finally found his voice. Hoarsely, he asked, “The man who called himself Hassan... was that me?”
No one answered. The truth was obvious, yet impossible to believe.
After they passed through the clouds, the sight below rendered them all speechless. The cities still existed, but they no longer resembled those in their memories. Towering buildings grew together with enormous trees, silver-white materials perfectly fused with living vegetation. The sky held no aircraft, but strange creatures—some resembling giant birds, others manta rays—all moving in harmony with their riders. Farther away, where the open ocean had once stretched, new land had emerged, covered in glowing crystalline structures.
“The ocean area has decreased by twenty percent,” Lina’s scanner reported. “The new continents are... artificial? No. Cultivated?”
The guiding beam led them toward a familiar set of coordinates—old Greenwich. The three-colored rose had grown to the size of a mountain. Its central trunk was more than a kilometer in diameter, while its branches and leaves blotted out the sky. At its base, a city coexisting with the plant shimmered brilliantly, its silver-white buildings hanging among the branches like the rose’s fruit.
The spaceport had been built upon a gigantic rose petal. It was hard as alloy, yet unmistakably alive. When they landed, a team dressed in uniforms made of biological material was already waiting.
Their leader stepped forward. He appeared to be middle-aged and possessed the distinctive features of the Al-Rashid family, but his eyes were a strange silver-white, without pupils.
“Welcome home, Founders Kane, Lina, and Hassan.” He bowed with such fluidity that the movement seemed almost inhuman. “I am Karim Al-Rashid, a guide acting under orders from the Planetary Council.”
Hassan stared at his face. “Al-Rashid? You’re my...”
“Great-grandson, theoretically.” Karim smiled, and his silver-white eyes glimmered faintly. “The family genealogy has been uploaded to your receivers.”
Only then did Kane notice the silver-white band around his wrist. It had somehow appeared there without his awareness, merging perfectly with his skin. At a thought, a holographic interface appeared before him, displaying the Al-Rashid family lineage across seventy-nine years. Hassan had indeed had a son, born during the temporal displacement, who had grown up, aged, and died... and now the man standing before them was Hassan’s great-grandson.
“Temporal acclimatization treatment is ready.” Karim gestured for them to follow. “Please come with me. His Excellency will receive you personally once your physical condition has stabilized.”
They were led inside the rose. The passage walls were formed of living plant tissue, giving off a gentle blue radiance and a fresh fragrance. Kane’s mark resonated intensely with the gigantic rose, almost as if they were speaking to each other.
“This rose...” he began despite himself.
“The Tree of Civilization.” Karim’s voice was filled with reverence. “In the seventh year after Awakening Day, it suddenly began to grow at an extraordinary rate. At the same time, it purified the radiation and pollution in the surrounding region. It is now the planet’s energy center, as well as the seat of the Council.”
The treatment chamber was a tank filled with liquid. The substance was as transparent as liquid crystal, yet breathable. As Kane submerged himself, the tearing sensation caused by the temporal displacement gradually subsided. His cells synchronized with the energy field of the new age, while his mark greedily absorbed streams of information.
The treatment lasted several hours. When they emerged, another shock awaited them.
Hassan—the real Hassan—was standing face-to-face with another version of himself.
The Hassan who served on the Planetary Council appeared to be around sixty years old, dignified and composed. He wore a silver-white robe, and the obsidian totem upon it was no longer a tattoo but a form of living crystal that brightened and dimmed faintly with his breathing. The two Hassans looked at each other. The younger man was at a loss, while the older one wore a complicated expression.
“This feels stranger than I imagined.” At last, the older Hassan spoke. His voice was deeper than it had been over the communications channel. “To look at myself from seventy-nine years ago.”
The younger Hassan opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
“Temporal acclimatization treatment can only ease the physical discomfort,” the older man continued. “Psychological adjustment will take time. Karim will show you around New Greenwich and help you understand how this world has changed. This evening, we will meet formally in the council chamber.”
He turned to leave, then paused and added, “And, by the way, Erica is still alive. She very much wants to see you.”
The words were clearly meant for Kane.
After he left, Karim began their tour. New Greenwich was a dazzling place. Humans, modified humans, and even certain intelligent animals lived together in harmony. Technology and nature were perfectly integrated. Energy no longer traveled through wires, but through luminous veins of vegetation.
“By the tenth year after the Great Awakening, we had achieved complete symbiosis with Earth’s ecology,” Karim explained proudly. “The Seventh Iteration Exiles provided crucial technology and helped us repair the damage caused by Awakening Day.”
Lina’s crystalline left hand occasionally resonated with the surrounding environment. “The efficiency of energy utilization is astonishing,” she murmured. “Nearly ten times what it was seventy-nine years ago.”
What shocked Kane most were the children. They did not play with toys, but manipulated energy fields directly, creating intricate structures of light and shadow. A little girl who appeared to be no more than five or six even created a miniature wormhole for a moment, causing a flower to vanish from one place and appear instantly in a friend’s hand.
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“Children of the new generation are connected to the global energy field from birth,” Karim explained. “Their abilities far surpass those of the first generation of Changelings.”
During the tour, Kane noticed several discordant details. Every display screen broadcast the same news: how efficiently the Planetary Council governed, how magnificently civilization was flourishing. Smiles adorned every face, but they seemed too perfect, lacking any genuine fluctuation of emotion. Stranger still, whenever Kane tried to ask what had actually happened during the seventy-nine intervening years, Karim always found a subtle way to divert the subject.
By evening, they were brought to the council chamber—a vast circular space located in the heart of the rose. The members of the Planetary Council were already seated, with Hassan at the center. To Kane’s surprise, Marcus and Erica were also present. Both had become extremely old, yet their eyes remained bright and alert.
“Kane,” Erica called softly, tears in her eyes. “You really came back.”
Marcus merely nodded, his expression complex.
The meeting began. Hassan presented the astonishing progress of the past seventy-nine years: human lifespans extended to three hundred years; disease all but eradicated; the energy crisis completely resolved; an alliance established with the Seventh Iteration Exiles; and even the beginning of colonization in neighboring star systems.
“We have achieved things the founders could never have imagined,” he concluded. The obsidian totem glowed with his excitement. “Human civilization has finally made a true leap forward.”
Kane could no longer restrain himself. “At what cost?”
The council chamber fell silent.
Every councilor turned toward him. Their faces still wore those perfect smiles, but something in their eyes had sharpened.
“Cost?” Hassan asked calmly. “Why must there be a cost?”
“Because evolution has always demanded one.” Kane rose to his feet, the mark on his brow burning with instinctive warning. “Tell me, what happened to those who couldn’t adapt? Was the Burner infection truly eradicated? Where is the Gardeners’ Ring now?”
A subtle tension swept through the chamber. The councilors exchanged glances. Their smiles remained, but had become rigid.
Hassan slowly stood. “Some subjects are unsuitable for public discussion. Perhaps we should—”
The alarm sounded.
It was not a shrill noise, but an energy pulse that caused every mark and totem in the room to tense at once.
“Your Excellency, the border watch has detected an anomalous fluctuation.” A calm voice issued its report through a holographic projection. “Characteristics match... the stealth fleet of the Gardeners’ Ring.”
The chamber erupted.
At last, the councilors’ perfect smiles cracked, revealing the anxiety beneath.
“The Gardeners’ Ring?” Lina asked in confusion. “Weren’t they our allies?”
Hassan’s expression grew grave. “It’s complicated. The Gardeners’ Ring split in the twentieth year after the Great Awakening. The faction led by Mentor Omega believed that our path of evolution was mistaken. They have since become hostile.”
The holographic projection displayed the outer reaches of the solar system. A massive fleet was emerging from stealth. The ships bore the emblem of the Gardeners’ Ring, but it had been crossed out by a red slash.
“They’re the Pruners,” Erica explained in a low voice, fear threading through it. “They believe the ‘wrong branch’ of human civilization should be ‘pruned.’”
Kane felt his mark flare with searing pain. The Founder’s warning echoed in his mind: Beware the gardeners...
“Their immediate target appears to be the outer colonies.” Hassan had regained his composure and began issuing orders. “Activate the planetary defense system. Evacuate the border stations.”
The meeting transformed abruptly from a welcoming ceremony into a wartime command center. Kane watched it all with a surreal sense of disbelief. They had been back for less than a day, yet were already caught in a conflict he knew nothing about.
When the emergency deployment had temporarily concluded, Hassan turned toward Kane and his companions, his expression solemn.
“It seems your return was no coincidence. The Gardeners’ Ring may have sensed the energy fluctuations caused by the activation of the Stargate.”
“We need to know the whole truth,” Kane insisted. “What happened during those seventy-nine years? Why did the Gardeners’ Ring split? And the Founder warned us to ‘beware the gardeners’...”
Hassan let out a long sigh, suddenly looking exhausted and old. “Some truths may be difficult to accept.”
At that moment, Kane’s mark suddenly received an encrypted message. Its source was not any system within the council chamber, but... the Tree of Civilization itself.
The message was brief and unsettling:
They are lying. Come find me. Belowground. —Ada
Kane jerked his head up toward the enormous rose.
Ada? But she had clearly...
“What is it?” Lina asked through their quantum connection, sensing his shock.
“I received a message,” Kane replied. “It claims to be from Ada. It told us to find her belowground.”
Hassan seemed to notice something. His gaze sharpened. “Is there a problem, Founder Kane?”
Kane forced himself to remain calm. “Only an aftereffect of the temporal displacement. I need to rest.”
Hassan studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Karim will take you to your quarters. We will continue this discussion tomorrow.”
On the way to their accommodations, Kane shared the message with Lina and Hassan through their quantum connection. Both reacted with equal parts shock and suspicion.
“Ada sacrificed herself to close the Stargate!” Hassan blurted out, though fortunately the words existed only within their mental link.
“But her consciousness merged with the Stargate system,” Lina analyzed. “If the Stargate’s energy became connected to Earth’s energy field, perhaps...”
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Their quarters were a suite high within the Tree of Civilization, comfortable and luxurious beyond imagination. Once Karim had left, the three of them immediately began searching for the supposed “belowground.”
“There are surveillance devices everywhere.” Lina’s crystalline left hand detected hundreds of concealed sensors. “Even fluctuations in thought may be readable.”
Kane’s mark, however, resonated ever more deeply with the Tree of Civilization. He sensed that the plant was not merely a source of energy, but a colossal information repository recording everything that had happened over the past seventy-nine years. Most of its regions were locked, however, requiring some form of authorization.
“Perhaps we don’t need to go belowground physically.” An idea suddenly came to him. “If Ada truly exists in some form, she may be within the Tree of Civilization’s consciousness network.”
They placed their hands against the living wall and attempted to connect to the plant network through Kane’s mark and Lina’s crystalline structure. Instantly, a vast ocean of information flooded their minds—not the truth they sought, but a carefully filtered version of history: how the Gardeners’ Ring had betrayed them; how the Council had bravely led humanity; how the new civilization was flawless...
They were on the verge of being drowned in the torrent of information when a familiar consciousness brushed gently against them.
This way.
Like a ray of light in the darkness, Ada’s consciousness guided them through the labyrinth of false information and into a hidden data channel. The records here were entirely different. The Gardeners’ Ring had not betrayed them, but had tried to prevent a plan conceived by the Planetary Council. The Seventh Iteration Exiles were not willing allies. Those who had “failed to adapt” had not passed peacefully into death. Instead, they had...
They were assimilated.
Ada’s consciousness confirmed it sorrowfully. The Council extracted their consciousness and energy to maintain the operation of this “perfect” world.
A holographic image revealed the horrifying truth. Deep underground were countless life-support capsules. Inside them, humans remained half-conscious, connected by conduits to the Tree of Civilization and providing energy and computational power to the entire system.
“This is even more terrifying than a hive mind!” the younger Hassan exclaimed in shock.
The Council believes it is a necessary sacrifice, Ada explained. But I believe there is a better way. That is why I guided you back.
Kane felt a chill run through him. “Does he know about this? The other Hassan...”
He knows, Ada’s consciousness replied, full of regret. In fact, he was one of the principal architects. Time changed him, Kane. Power and the “greater good” changed him.
Lina raised the crucial question. “How do you still exist? We watched you sacrifice yourself.”
Most of my consciousness truly did merge with the Stargate, Ada answered. But before the Stargate closed, I sent a backup to the nearest compatible network—the Rose Network of Earth. As the Tree of Civilization grew, so did I. I have been waiting all this time, waiting for someone capable of breaking this false utopia.
At the end of the passage, a luminous figure appeared. It was not a holographic projection, but a form made of pure energy, its outline faintly resembling Ada.
“The Gardeners’ Ring is not the enemy,” the energy-born Ada said softly. “They are the only force still resisting the Council’s assimilation program. Mentor Omega is trying to save those being used as energy sources.”
Kane recalled the tense atmosphere in the council chamber and the timing of the Gardeners’ Ring fleet’s appearance.
“They are attacking in order to...”
“To create chaos and use the opportunity to carry out a large-scale rescue,” Ada confirmed. “But the Council intends to capture every one of them and increase its energy reserves.”
The truth was suffocating.
They had returned to a homeland, but not the one for which they had fought. This beautiful new world had been built upon a terrible cost, ruled by former comrades.
“We have to stop him,” the younger Hassan said firmly. “Stop... myself.”
Ada’s energy form flickered faintly. “There is a way. At the heart of the Tree of Civilization is a reset mechanism, an emergency measure designed by the founders. But it requires all three founders to activate it simultaneously—the mark, the crystal, and the totem.”
“What will the reset do?” Lina asked warily.
“It will harm no one. It will merely sever every forced connection and release the imprisoned consciousnesses.” Ada reassured her. “But the Council will stop at nothing to prevent you.”
At that moment, the alarm sounded again, this time signaling an internal breach.
“Unauthorized access detected! Security forces proceed to the core zone!”
Ada’s energy form began to dissolve. “They’ve found us! Hurry to the core! I’ll delay them as long as I can!”
The passage exit suddenly opened, revealing a direct route to the heart of the Tree of Civilization. From far away came the approaching footsteps of security forces.
Kane looked at his two companions and saw determination in their eyes. Their homeland seventy-nine years later was strange and terrifying, but perhaps there was still a chance to save it.
“For true human civilization,” he said softly.
“For freedom,” Lina replied.
Hassan merely nodded. The obsidian totem flared once more—not with silver-white light, but with the ancient radiance of dark gold.
They raced toward the heart of the Tree of Civilization, toward a crossroads of fate that might change everything. Behind them, the footsteps drew closer and closer. Ahead lay the truth—and it might be darker than anything they had imagined.
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