10. Celestial Palace

Lucien watched the family leave guided by his oldest android, meanwhile he asked Avant to send a summons for a meeting at the "Sky Palace" the last great fortress that humans created before things started to go downhill.

It is also important for the fact that it held firm despite all the disasters that followed, with natural disasters, disasters caused by weapons and the effects of MATER radiation (of which there were many), the Celeste Palace resisted and managed to be that last bastion , until he was taken over by a bunch of madmen after the last semblance of order fell and wiped out the lairs and the few soldiers and scientists who had taken shelter there, until he was freed by Lucien and the other survivors who remained, and who still they were more rational.

Since then, the palace has become the main meeting point for discussions on matters considered of great importance, whether they managed to make contact with any of the former Union forces, a new laboratory, bunker, military installation, etc., that has been discovered and/or liberated. recently, reporting on the operation of MATER radiation refinement plants, advances in new research or restoration of old data, among several other topics.

And finding a new rational species, capable of rationalizing, having emotion and advanced emotional intelligence to the point of having a culture similar to the first recorded people in human history (and other non-humans), is certainly a matter that would need urgency. Even more so because Lucien suspected that these group, or more likely groups, of beings might not be the only beings to develop to this point, an idea that was soon confirmed by the warning that followed a few minutes after he told Avant to send the summons.

[CALL NOTICE!!!

Sender: Lin-Wú, Kalina, Alyssa

Subject: new sentient beings found.]

[CALL NOTICE!!!

Sender: Lauriel

Subject: new sentient beings found]

[CALL NOTICE!!!

Sender: Maeelus (Laniel)

Subject: possible new sentient beings found]

[CALL NOTICE!!!

Sender: Ulik, Etherl

Subject: possible new sentient beings found]

[CALL NOTICE!!!

Sender: Rosemary, Mussa, Lorelai

Subject: new sentient beings found]

Almost everyone else sent summons messages for the same reason, and considering the distance between them, Lucien seriously doubts they would all report on the same beings. Even more so to Rosemary, Ulik and Ethel since these were one of the members most dedicated to their "hobbies", well not as much as Maeelus, Camilo, Amari and Ad-juru, but they still rarely paid much attention when it wasn't necessary.

'Well at least we'll all be able to agree on one thing unanimously. Our period of idleness is probably over.' Lucien thought anxiously and at the same time apprehensively.

********************

Unlike when he slightly folded space to go to places in the domain responsible for him, getting to the Palace was a little more complicated due to the shields and preventions against practically all psychic abilities and the use of nanobots in an externally aggressive manner. The only reason it had been taken millennia before was the simple fact that the cult of madmen who had done it focused on cybernetic enhancement surgeries and performance-enhancing drugs, both of which were so crude that it was amazing anyone survived.

Under other circumstances Lucien would have preferred to simply fly to the palace on his "flaming bike", but as he was now in a hurry he forced his way in using the special access codes he and the others had to allow the opening of a warp passage to inside the Palace, something that Lucien has done and sent the first message, really at these times the security measures that they had put in place were irritating.

A little headache later and Lucien was already in the transport wing authorized only at the Palace. Honestly, Lucien always considered the name a bit pompous but he couldn't help but admit that the large structure reinforced a long time ago deserved that name more than all the other palaces he had ever seen in historical records, both on Earth and on other worlds.

And this didn't just refer to its grand appearance that commanded immediate respect from anyone who looked at it, with large pearly white walls, resplendent windows that resembled crystals, lush gardens with plant specimens from various worlds now inaccessible and others lost forever, a small and beautiful village that had once served as a place of habitation for a lucky group of civilians, lakes, streams and small artificial waterfalls that flowed both from the inside out and from the outside in and in some places defying gravity forming arches of water that they formed several rainbows.

It really was a vision that words are not enough to describe, just seeing it to understand how grand the structure was just in appearance, but in terms of structure it was a little easier to understand. After all, despite its name, the palace was built to be the highest point of fortresses in more than a quintillion worlds to be used in the Secessionist war, a fortress made of the most resistant metallic alloys ever created with the combination of the most powerful metals and minerals. strong on more than a quintillion worlds, with engineering techniques, programming, infrastructure and designs so advanced that this fortress could withstand the full force of a hypernova without suffering a scratch or having any trace of cosmic radiation, and in a way that only its builders and planners could fully understand, it could even withstand the gravitational pull of the resulting black hole. Yes, all of this had already been tested, and more than once it must be added.

Because of this, the few leaders that were still left from the ancient golden age of humanity collected the fortress when the new radiation appeared, to use it as a kind of last bastion if necessary, and having the construction plans that had been kept only Inside the fortress itself without any back-up, they believed it would be possible to build shelters with similar armor, albeit of inferior quality, to protect as many people as possible.

Great idea, terrible execution.

Many of the necessary materials had already been exhausted with the war against the Secessionists and with attempts to restore devastated worlds (even though they were limited to only the worlds in the galactic arm that contained the Milky Way, many resources were still needed).

For these reasons, the shelters did not work as expected and many ended up becoming death traps, killing several civilians and making an already horrible situation even worse. However, even with all the disasters that followed, with natural disasters, disasters caused by weapons and the effects of MATER radiation (of which there were many), the Celeste Palace resisted and managed to be that last bastion, until it was taken over by a band of crazy after the last semblance of order fell, until he was freed by Lucien and the other remaining survivors, who were still more rational.

Since then, the palace has become the main meeting point for discussions on matters considered of great importance, whether they managed to make contact with any of the former Union forces, a new laboratory, bunker, military installation, etc., that has been discovered and/or liberated recently, reporting on the operation of MATER radiation refinement plants, advances in new research or restoration of old data, etc.

Lucien decided not to waste time and went towards the meeting room at the top of the main tower, as a matter of courtesy he did not teleport there immediately, to give time for the others to arrive and be able to appreciate some of the architecture that mixed luxury of ancient earthly palaces with the maximum technological efficiency of different races in an impressive harmony. 

Lucien didn't admire every corner like he did the first few times he came and when he lived in the Palace, but he still took a few glances here and there, seeing the slight changes that always happened when he left and came back, a new painting, a different wall color, a new armor from a forgotten world added after it had been restored, new rooms that the drones had added after determining such a need, etc.

Lucien made a note in his mind to see if any of the changes were significant and or could help with the plans he had for the small family he will direct to a small cabin almost on the edge of his domain.

Less than 5 minutes after he arrived, Lucien was already facing the huge double doors that led to the meeting room, he didn't even feel the climb up the various steps thinking about his future plans and what new beings the others had encountered.