All Tomorrows

Furthermore, the Gravital did not constitute a singular, indivisible whole whose entire purpose was to wreck the universe. True, their technological advancement had allowed them to form a pangalactic entity, but within itself the Machine Empire was divided into political factions, and even religious faiths. Superimposed over these fault lines were the daily lives and personal affairs of families and individuals. Like any sentient being, they had a sense of identity and thus, differing agendas.

Nor did the Machine invasion mean the end of everything. There certainly was a widespread destruction of life, but what was lost was ‘only’ organic life. Consuming energy, directing it for reproduction, thought and even evolution, the machines were as alive as any carbon-based organism. Despite the turnover, Life of a sort survived, and as would be seen, even preserved some of its organic predecessors.

Subjects (Many descendants of the Bug Facers)

The Bug Facers; racially shy and xenophobic due to their background of repeated alien invasions, became the first species to face the Gravital onslaught. As ironic as their fate seemed, the Bug Facers were the luckiest of the post-humans. Instead of being exterminated like the rest of their cousins, they survived as the only organic beings in the Machine Empire.

The precise reasons for their retention remain unknown to this day. Perhaps the Machines hadn’t perfected their ruthless apathy by then. Or perhaps they pitied the poor organics, and allowed them to maintain a stunted parody of an existence.

Whatever the reason, the Bug Facers endured. But they hardly resembled their original ancestors anymore. Genetic engineering, the lost art of the galaxy-threading Qu, (and later, the Tool Breeders as well,) was mastered almost as comprehensively by the Machines. Not hesitating to warp the beings which they did not really consider to be alive, they spliced their way into the Bug Facer DNA, producing generations of literal abominations. Would a woman or man of today show any apprehension towards re-assembling a computer, or even recycling trash? Such was the attitude of the triumphant Gravital.

Thus, multitudes of Subjects were produced, distorted to such an extent that even the meddling of the Qu seemed comparatively timid. Most of them were used as servants, caretakers and manual laborers. These were the lucky forms. Some sub-men were reduced to the level of cell cultures, useful only for gas exchange and waste filtering. Others were molded into completely artificial ecologies; baroque simulations that served only as entertainment. Some machines, with their still-human ambitions, took this practice into a new level and produced living works of art; doomed, one-off creatures who existed purely as biological anachronisms.

Be it as tool, slave or entertainment, Humanity narrowly held on to its biological heritage, while its Machine cousins reigned supreme for an unbelievable fifty million years.

The Bug Facer archetype, flanked by two of his twisted descendants. To his left; a phallus-bearing polydactyl, bred as a sacrificial offering in one of the many different Machine religions. To the right; a one-off work of art; designed to play its modified fingers like a set of drums while ululating the tunes of a certain pop song.

The Other Machines

Recall that despite its Galaxy-cradling might, the Machine Empire was not homogenous. It contained dozens of differing factions that did not always agree on everything, including the treatment of their downtrodden, biological Subjects.

Some Machines, over a process involving several religious, social and philosophical doctrines, began to comprehend the universality of life, and the common origin of organic and mechanical humanities. Initially such individuals lived in seclusion or withheld their beliefs from the world. They secretly engineered lineages of Subjects that could live, move and think as freely as they could. In a few memorable instances the engineers fell in love with their creations, and their martyrdom inspired other Machines to think just a little differently.

Eventually, the ideology gained enough momentum to be practiced openly in everyday life. However, the sect of Toleration soon ran into odds with their hardline, pan-mechanical rivals. The seething intolerance between the two factions finally broke when some Tolerant Machines wanted so set several worlds aside for the unrestricted development of biological life. All hell broke loose and the Machine Empire; the apparently seamless monolith of the galaxy, experienced its first short, bitter civil war.

The war did not cause any lasting damage, but it plainly illuminated one fact. The greatest entity the galaxy had ever seen was not without its problems.

The Fall of the Machines (Return of the Spacers)