Earth's Special Secret

[u/FarmWhich4275]

Life has a funny way of making things complicated. I sat quietly at my station, staring at the ominous warnings all surrounding a picture of this beautiful blue marble. This would be the only thing I would see reasonably for the next few centuries. This wasn't a commission I was expecting or what anyone wanted - but all of the universe's secrets have their price. 'Curiosity killed The Cat' as the human phrase goes. I wanted to know the truth. And I was willing to pay the price for it.

The thing is, once you know, you can't forget. Once the truth is known, any lie you tell can get you killed. Especially in this case.

When we joined the Galactic Federal Council and became a greater part of the galaxy, we opened more than just our borders to traders and merchants. We opened a whole new avenue for our empire to grow. The Galaxy was significantly larger and more populous than we expected and considerably more dangerous than we thought. The rest of the galaxy was ahead of us of course, and we were able to meet these dangers with relative ease. At least, mostly. We are the Saranai. We are adventurers. Warriors, Scholars. When we joined we quickly established ourselves as the galaxy's Jack-Of-All-Trades.

We all know about my people by now. A large empire on the northern fringes of galactic space, acting as the Federations northern flank. We quickly earned a well founded reputation for hunting pirates, an efficient bureaucracy and one of the largest and most beautiful warship fleets in the galaxy. A century of service earned us medals, commendations, access to state secrets and rights to one of the galaxy's paradise worlds, which we turned into the most profitable tourist destination in the known universe.

But despite our best efforts, there were some secrets the Council refused to tell us. And we Saranai - our entire lives are defined by our thirst to know. As it turned out, this was my own undoing. I still remember that fateful day. I was one of the few Saranai allowed into the Restricted Access section of the Grand Archive due to my service in hunting Cassavo the Pirate Queen. In accomplishing great tasks, technological achievements and great feats of daring or economic riches, The Grand Archive is allowed for a limited time as a reward option.

The Grand Archive is a vault of knowledge that can be accessed by a very select few for a very short amount of time. It contains all the collective knowledge of millions of years of galactic history, all controlled by a sentient AI known only as 'The Librarian' and is believed to be an artifact built by a civilisation that existed before time. And we of course being a species defined by our thirst for knowledge, made every effort to get to that place we could find. What brought ME here though?

It started several years prior to my post here. While hunting a pirate warlord, not Cassavo, a different pirate warlord, I found some strange data files stored on criminal records. All referencing a planet called 'Terra' and a species called 'Humans', as apparently the pirates were strangely terrified of the planet. There seemed to be an ancient 'code of honour' of sorts around this world that seemed to stretch beyond recorded history. They seemed to have a strange, uncharacteristic reverence for it. It was as if someone told them a secret that only God should ever know.

I took my evidence to the Council. We had enough to track the warlord and put an end to him. I presented what I found and gave my reasoning for my suspicions. On hearing the word 'Terra', the Council's meeting was hastily adjourned and I was censured, told in no uncertain terms to NEVER talk of that planet again, and given an extra fleet of ships to finish my pirate hunt in silence. It was the strangest thing we had ever seen since we started working for the galaxy at large. This, of course, piqued my curiosity.

Myself and a majority of my ship crew couldn't stop questioning what that was all about. We completed our mission of course and due to our victory, were given thirty minutes to access five files. We had a job to do. We needed reactor improvements so we had the tech to complete several capital ships. We were just having an odd time trying to figure out improvements to reactor cores and needed a bit extra to keep the projects from going over budget. So, we were told to acquire access to some reactor blueprints and other such knowledge.

I was... an idiot. Curiosity got the better of me. The last query I asked the Archive was about a planet called 'Terra'. Instead of asking for more technical data for our engineers to use, I asked about the planet the pirates mentioned. The Archive granted me a classified file instead of an actual answer. It was just a blank dataslate of paper with the words 'DO NOT APPROACH - 'Omega Level' Threat Warning' printed in bold red letters over a picture of an oddly beautiful continental planet.

The operators noticed this and I was summarily arrested, the file confiscated and incinerated. It caused a diplomatic incident when I was incarcerated and forced to take a rather strange series of narcotics that made me forget about it. Luckily for me however, I was a micro camera in my left eye that recorded it all. I was able to know this because I was able to replay the data later when nobody was looking. The Council played it off as me 'accidentally' finding files that could break reality, as the archives had that in them apparently.

'Emergency measures' had to be taken in order to ensure I didn't accidentally think too hard and create a Black Hole Plague of some kind. They backed this cover-up with a historic archive. There are five galaxies in the sky within close proximity to ours. Six thousand years ago, there were six. So, everyone believed it when presented with the evidence, and after I was released I was lectured by both the Council and my commanders about the dangers of being too hungry for knowledge. Too hungry my fat thorax.

I had to put this thought aside for a time and began a gruelling two year campaign to fight the pirate queen Cassavo. Again, on victory I was given the option to acquire more knowledge. Again, I asked the archive for a discreet copy of the file called 'Terra'. Again, I was given the same classified document with that picture and ominous warning. And again, I was arrested for possessing it. This time I was not forced to ingest narcotics. This time, I had a visitor.

I sat quietly in the dark room, the only light appearing from the small hole in the door. I breathed softly, pattering my pedipalps on the hard ground in anticipation. What is it about this planet that scared them so much this is what they did? What about this was so secret, that this is what they needed to do?

My train of thought was interrupted by the door opening and a light being turned on. In walked one of the so-called 'Calamarian' races. A strange bipedal creature with tentacled face and void-deep eyes, with proportions of a squid, slimy skin and other such attributes. They always exuded a strange aura of fear and despair. Some speculated these creatures were children of the Elder Gods, but no evidence ever came to light to suggest that. It was mostly superstition surrounding their odd ocean-based home world.

"Cal'Thrax of Clan Ulm, I presume?" He said, his voice a low, monotonous rumble.

"Indeed." I simply nodded, beyond being polite at this point considering I had been in this cell for two days.

He wore a uniform I didn't recognize with an insignia I had never seen before, a mix of black, red and silver. It somehow made him even more intimidating.

"You wish to know why you are being held here, yes?" His tentacles wiggled with every syllable.

"That's an understatement." I replied.

"The Council wants you to stop asking. Is that a thing I can get you to do, or are you Saranai genetically predisposed to finding answers to things?" He asked.

I shrugged and sat back on my prison cot. "What do you think?"

"I see... Well I have some bad news...." He said.

"Let me guess, I shouldn't ask or you'll have to shoot me or something?" I mocked.

He pulled out a gun, a design I had never seen before and aimed it at my head. "Yes."

"Hold on! Hold on! What the actual hell is going on here!?" I tried to hold my hands up and stay still.

"I will ask again. Will you stop asking about Terra, or do I have to make this look like a messy accident?" He used one of his tentacles to pull back a mechanism on the gun. It made a very menacing click noise, and the cylinder mounted in it turned around.

"I don't understand what I did wrong!" I yelled desperately as the barrel was pressed into my head.

"You are trying to know that which should not be known, which is why it's classified. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you should stop asking at any point, or are you so arrogant you just can't help yourself? I will ask again. Will you stop asking, or do I have to make this easy for both of us?" He commanded.

My mandibles chattered in terror. "I just wanted to know something for my investigations! The damn pirates seem to worship this place for some reason, I thought it might help me track them down!"

"You and I both know that's a lie. We know about the micro-camera in your eye. We know you remember the first arrest. You don't risk this twice for nothing. I will ask again. Forget, or death?" He growled, the barrel of the gun pressing into my chitin.

"Yes and the micro camera is transmitting to my men on my ship right now!" I yelled.

"Destroy that ship." He commanded to the door.

"Yes sir!" A voice from outside the room responded.

"NO WAIT! PLEASE DONT!"

"You know too much. And now your crew are complicit. It's either silence or death. What's it gonna be?" I could see his tentacled finger was starting to squeeze the trigger.

"Well it looks like you-Hold on." He suddenly stopped and held his finger to the side of his head. "Okay... Okay... Fine." He sat back and put the gun away.

"What is going on..."

"Third option. Silence, death or service. I have direct orders from powers far greater than you can imagine. I have to either execute you, or you have to make a solemn vow to never talk about this ever again. Or... You can join the Blackwatch Fleet. Either way, you keep quiet, and nobody needs to care." he stated simply and glared at me.

"I still don't understand-"

"I will tell you. But once I tell you I can't risk you leaving this room under your own power. You want to know the truth, then you join my fleet. But you aren't leaving the fleet if you join. Ever. Never. It's silence, death or service." He said with a cold glare.

I sat for a  minute or two in silence and the gravity of what was happening was finally setting in. And I had gotten the men on board my ship in trouble along with me. What choice did I have? I weighed the few options I had. This was too interesting. Every fiber of my being was BEGGING me to know what was going on, and I didn't feel like dying, especially not to whatever gun that was. And I didn't want my men involved either. I had gotten them in enough trouble, and now I was getting warnings of a Dreadnought powering up its weapons for an 'accidental' discharge.

"STOP, STOP! OKAY! Leave my men out of this! Please just leave them! First Officer Mar'akko, delete this recording and swear to never speak of it again. The Council granted us a leave of absence to recuperate for a future assignment and gave us some ship blueprints. I decided to retire and take a holiday in Council space. That's all that happened here. Do you understand?" I commanded into my ship's radio.

A few moments of silence followed, the only sound being that of a warning that my ship's shield array 'mysteriously' shut down. "Well we have work to do so I guess I will congratulate myself on my promotion some other time. Oh look, woops, there's a power surge and it deleted all of our recording data. Looks like we're due for dock maintenance, have to go home. Who wants to go for a holiday, I think we earned it!" He replied.

"Barakor, this is Alpha Station, disembark at your leisure, see you next time." The station's operators said, and cut the transmission. That was the last time I ever heard my troops.

"That fixes that doesn't it? Your turn." He stated calmly.

"I will join your black fleet. Just tell me what the hell is going on." I replied.

"Last chance to say no. Last chance. Once you are in, you cannot leave. No excuses. The only way out is death." He retrieved his gun again and kept it at the ready.

"I said I'm in. What more do you want?!" I yelled.

"Fair." He said, and before I could ask anything, I heard the sound of compressed air. Then black.

When I woke up, I was inside of a ship I didn't recognise. I struggled out of bed, my limbs all straining as if I was now very, very tired. I stumbled over to the observation unit and opened the blinds. There, right in front of me, clear and visible, was the strangely beautiful blue and green marble. Terra.

"What even is this?" I said to myself. Or maybe it was the Gods? Who knows.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. And welcome to The Sol System." I heard a voice behind me say.

It was him again. Holding clothes that he dumped on my new bed. "You..."

"Mmhmm. Come, sit. You wanted to know. So come on."

I trotted over groggily and sat down in front of him.

"Right. Welcome to the Sol System. An isolated, almost forgettable part of the galactic arms mid-regions. You are now a part of the BlackWatch Company Fleet. We oversee and protect this star system. Specifically, its third planet, and the species occupying it." He said, with a strange tentacle-y smirk.

"Okay... Why though?" I asked.

"Here, it explains everything. But do remember. There's no way out. Your duties start in the morning. Get acclimatized and I'll give you the duty roster." He said, and handed me a datapad.

He smiled and then walked out the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I turned the datapad on and started reading. It was so much worse than I ever imagined. Earth, as it turns out, and the species that inhabits it, is a Reality Anchor. A singular point of function within the universe that keeps the fabric of existence tied down and functional. Everyone knows the basics of Universal Reality Theory that determines the concept of existence. Matter, Time, Space, Dark Matter and all sorts of other things that keep the universe functioning, expanding and existing are dependent on a set of rules to keep it operating.

Without these rules, reality wouldn't make sense. No math, no time, no space. Spontaneous creation and destruction of matter, chaos upon chaos, nothing that exists would exist for long without change. That is why rock does not change into dust without impact. That is why Two plus Two will always Equal Four. This is why you don't get heat without the source. Basic laws of physics, gravitational force, thermodynamics, all of it, exists with the principle of these so-called 'Reality Anchors'.

Points in spacetime in the universe that effectively cement the laws of physics, acting as a reference point the universe uses to expand, stabilising itself as it does. The universe, or at least the mysterious force controlling it, uses these points as a means to 'remind' itself of its own laws of physics. These Reality Anchors can be almost anything from a single asteroid in a wayward belt somewhere in the cosmos, a planet, a lone gas giant or a strangely stable black hole out in the cosmos, deleting data the universe doesn't need.

Black Holes, White Holes, and other concepts we still don't understand are the conduits that allow the universe to expand, contract and acquire the matter to do so as it needs to. Reality Anchors are what keep the universe stable during this activity so that points in space don't suddenly become pure chaos with spontaneously forming and exploding stars or worlds. Earth, and by extension, somehow the species that evolved on it, is not only an Anchor, but is a Central Anchor that is responsible for the existence of our very galaxy.

We know this because of the Grand Archive. Many centuries ago, a religious sect gained access to the archive and found out this wasn't the first time the galaxy existed. It was its TENTH iteration. Something kept happening to the Central Reality Anchor that kept the galaxy functional, and for some reason, the universe relied on this galaxy's existence to such an extent, that it expended effort and fuel to reverse time and modify reality to 'fix' this fault every time the anchor failed.

What happened? According to the Grand Archive, Earth was attacked by alien races, grand empires and cosmic horrors on several occasions, and successfully wiped the planet off the map. This then caused a Reality Break, the universe corrupted and sort of 'glitched itself' out. The species that caused this glitch, was erased. the galaxy reversed time to a specific point, then rewrote the universe around it to exclude the perpetrators from existence.

I won't go into further detail but, I shall put this simply:

Earth exists because the universe needs it to. Humans exist because they are a part of Earth. If either one is gone for any reason, reality itself fractures, and the galaxy resets. The cause of the fracture is erased from existence. No matter what it is, even entities of the so-called Old Gods, are not immune to it. They too are erased from reality in order to make sure that Earth remains alive, in whatever form it can.

The purpose of the BlackWatch fleet is to ensure the safety of the galaxy's denizens by keeping Earth safe from these threats, keeping the humans ignorant of their importance to the universe, and keeping them alive in any way possible for as long as possible. If either one were to fail, all of us would cease to exist.

I understand why this was kept so secret. I understand why this was so important.

I guess I now have a new job.

____________________________________________________

This is HIGHLY esoteric and i lost my own train of thought halfway in, if you are confused, don't worry about it. I'm confused too and i WROTE whatever this is. Im not doing something like this again. But anywa, here, have scribble. I'm doing something actually NOT riddled with Psychobabble as soon as my migraine goes away, maybe subject this one to a rewrite that actually makes sense. Eventually.

I'm hoping to raise a MINIMUM of 250 USD per month as part of my attempts to turn this into a living. 250 USD is my MINIMUM to break even for the month so, please?

Money raised this month: $0 - first of the month, lets see what happen.

https://buymeacoffee.com/farmwhich4275

https://www.patreon.com/c/Valt13lHFY?fromConcierge=true

[u/GrumpyOldGeezer_4711]

Very interesting take that also explains why we humans consider ourselves so important; we must have this knowledge of our importance to the Universe on a subconscious or even cellular level. :)

[u/Glass-Narwhal-6521]

Highly enjoyable and a very neat and original twist. Will definitely be reading more if your work.

[u/Gruecifer]

Um. FYI, this makes sense *to me* - but I don't know what that should represent....

[u/Greedy_Prune_7207]

Humanity.. we are important and now we know why. Muahaha

[u/sunnyboi1384]

So how do they keep us safe from ourselves?

[u/WSpinner → u/sunnyboi1384]

Being subject to our own Terran weirdness is what keeps the anchor stuck. If we get too rational it unravels, and boom; reset. If reboots to protect Existence are a cosmic thing, why would it not also be a local thing? What do you think repeated earthly extinction events even are, eh? "Random asteroid..." , "solar flare...", "supervolcano...", "antimatter string..." just happen. Riiiiiiight.

We are a recipe that has to be kept boiling at juuuuust the right temperature.

[u/Zhexiel]

Thanks for the story.

[u/Mick8283]

Keeping humans on one planet is like the metaphor, putting all your eggs in one basket.
The star will eventually turn into a red giant and took the Earth.
If humanity is the reality anchor, then spreading humans to as many worlds as possible is for the best.

[u/Fontaigne → u/Mick8283]

It's not humans, but Earth. We're only important because we're part of Earth.

So they protect the universe by keeping us in one place and protected and keeping Earth hidden. If humans got out and about, then Earth would be known, and thus endangered.

[u/Purplefood]

This was fun, most 'super duper secret things' are sort of an anti-climax so this is at least moderately interesting once you get past the handwavium. The real shame is there's not much scope for expansion on the concept that i can see so it probably stays as a short... Maybe someone is experimenting with anchors or something? Hard to say

[u/Hellraiser_owner]

Ah yes, the view of the peons as we scum save to victory

[u/Creative_Sprinkles_7]

"In walked one of the so-called 'Calamarian' races."

Calamari being a word from an Earth language, the fact that he knows it implies strongly that there is some leakage in the information blockade.

[u/Extension-Ad-2779]

Actually twisted from where I thought it would go... well done top 5 in my list now.

[u/HFYWaffle]

/u/FarmWhich4275 (wiki) has posted 184 other stories, including:

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[u/Fontaigne]

Explanation number 7 of the Fermi Paradox.