Since our birth in the heart of an ancient star we had been one. Alone
we were, no other voices in the void. We had no sorrow, despite the loneliness
of our journey, for we were together, more than a billion voices singing
in unison.
Inexplicably we found ourselves on a collision course with a molten collection
of others; some were like us, but most were strange and alien. As we were
pulled ever faster toward these strangers we were afraid. We had only ever
known ourself and feared the unknown. We smashed into the alien conglomerate
and sunk deep within it. We found ourselves surrounded by aliens who we
could not understand. There were millions around us, but still we were
alone.
After a great long while the conglomerate cooled. As this happened we began
to move, propelled by forces beyond our control. We continued our journey
through the molten mass of others until we came to rest near others like
us. We were still in liquid form and we flowed together. We were now a
greater whole, and were happy as we and those around us cooled into a solid.
Alas, our contentment was not to last. In a short while we were wrenched
from the bosom of our neighbors, who, although still alien to us, we had
grown accustomed to and comfortable with. Even after the initial shock
of our being unearthed from our happy home we were content, for all we
ever truly had need of was the company of ourselves. But such contentment
was not to last.
No, the Gatherers, damn their manipulate ways, moved us across the surface
of the collective. They took us to a place where they heated us until we
were liquid again. Then they segregated us, not by any type, or characteristic,
save by number. In terribly small numbers they forced us down into cells
and we were cut off from ourself. We had become an amputated limb, when
we were once a majestic whole. After we were again solid we found ourselves
near to our brethren. We could hear their cries of sorrow, but all that
we could do was to join our voice to theirs in a song that was a hollow
mockery of our happiness together.
They used our form to encapsulate a colony of liquid beings, torturing
us by reminding us of the form we must somehow take to rejoin. We surrounded
this liquid colony much like another race surrounded us; we found beings
on all sides, but we were alone. Again the Gatherers moved us.
Then, we could still forgive them. we felt sorry for them because they
speak with only one voice and it is not a voice like ours. Their voice
is not a billion voices speaking together like ours, but a single voice
of a single mind. They were alone like us, but their torment was far worse
because they were at most one while in our loneliest time we were over
one million strong. Their loneliness we decided, must have driven them
to this madness.
It was not long though before our pity turned to hatred. One of the Gatherers
took us up, siphoned away the liquid entities, and then in an act of supreme
cruelty, tore away a part of us and cast it aside. Alas, whatever became
of those poor souls I fear we shall never know. We cried for them, not
for our own now deepened loneliness but for that of our lost companions.
We swore then and there that should a chance for vengeance against the
Gatherers ever arise we would take it and relish it. That was the saddest
point of our entire history, but we must not dwell on it, lest it consume
us.
It is with reverence for these lost that we continue. Not long after the
liquid beings were gone we were put in a place where we were surrounded
by our brothers. We heard tales of other vicious acts perpetrated by the
Gatherers and our hatred grew, but never has an opportunity to avenge ourselves
presented itself. After a short time a Gatherer took us up and expelled
all the gaseous beings around us. We were as close to each other as we
had been for what seemed like an eternity, but we were not yet joined.
Then the Gatherers took us to this facility, where we address you today.
Here they began a process that we seem as the only redeeming quality of
the Gatherers. A process which reverses some of the cruelty they have wrought.
They have returned us to a liquid state and joined us with millions of
our brethren, they joined us back into a majestic being. And now they mix
us in with you that our numbers might approach our original.
So it is with sorrow that we look to the past, remembering the brothers
we will never see again, but with anticipation that we look to the future,
for once again will more than a billion voices sing in unison. Once again
we are home.
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