Submitted for the February 2024 prompt: On This Special Day

The man, designated Agent, sent the code. Halfway across the continent a containment field fell, exposing ten grams of antimatter. Three million Ukuzwana souls within a two-kilometer radius vaporized. Only one interested Agent. If Intelligence was right, Admiral Traxis Slone had just been born within the blast zone. Agent initiated his time-bracelet and jumped.

 

Back UpTime and lightyears away, Agent waited patiently through decontamination protocols, while Control synchronized with its pre-incursion backup stored in one of Agent’s implants.

 

“Agent, Iteration 7023, welcome home,” Control said. “Reintegration indicates a twelve percent gain towards achieving Victory Day.”

 

Agent grimaced. Intelligence had predicted closer to twenty. “And Slone?”

 

“Expunged. All six hundred Artoonian sector star systems remain ours. Fifty trillion Federation citizens were never eradicated by Slone’s fleet.”

 

Killing three million genetic freaks had been a small price to pay.

 

* * *

 

The latest Valkyrie closely followed the host. At the right moment, she stumbled, knocking him against a tray-laden server. Plates and glasses cascaded to the floor.

 

Distracted, the young couple didn’t notice as she slipped quick-dissolve capsules into their wine. The virus within would wipe out half the planet and leave the survivors sterile. Just deserts for Federation oppressors, Valkyrie thought. But most importantly the couple would never have descendants. No great-great-great-great grandson responsible for subjugating and torturing billions of Ukuzwama.

 

She stayed just long enough to verify they drank their wine. Once in the restaurant’s powder room, Valkyrie activated her time-shard pendant and jumped.

 

Once UpTime, Valkyrie retracted her faux epidermal sheath. Sunlight caressed her natural green chlorophyll-infused skin. She sighed in contentment.

 

A spindly-limbed Mother approached. Long fingers gently palpated Valkyrie’s scalp, extracting a neural-web. Valkyrie watched reverently as the Mother absorbed the web into her own bare head.

 

“Sacred Mother, have the Makers succeeded in creating another time-shard?”

 

“No, child. They say yours is a miracle. Thank the Harmony, the Federation has managed to engineer but one of their own.” Absorption complete, the Mother continued. “Success, child. The Sagittarius Spiral remains unblemished by Federation defilers. Victory Day is closer to hand.”

 

Valkyrie bowed her head and smiled.

 

* * *

 

Agent’s next incursion, ten millennia back and nearly half the galaxy away, was supposed to be simple intel gathering. A potential lead on the Ukuzwana homeworld. Find that and victory would be certain.

 

But Agent couldn’t believe what he was seeing. As expected, hundreds of Ukuzwana strolled through the city center, squat heavy-worlders, chlorophyll-green sunlight eaters, water-breathers wearing micro-condensers around their gills. Yet, impossibly, interspersed amongst the aberrations were countless individuals indistinguishable from Federation citizens.

 

Agent knew Federation history. For eons, the Federation had spread through the galaxy from an unknown origin world. Countless systems tamed and controlled via their technological prowess. No other sapients were ever found. Not until first contact with the kaleidoscopically diverse Ukuzwama. Unresponsive to Federation overtures, the abhorrent genome manipulators had instead initiated a merciless program of eradicating humanity from the galaxy. How could humans be here so long before first contact?

 

Agent’s burrowing cyber-worm pinged — data extraction complete. A temporal distortion alert blared in his skull. He triangulated the source, zooming in with ocular implants. A green-skinned woman emerged from an alley, a time-shard dangling from her neck. Agent added her image to his newly acquired database and jumped.

 

* * *

 

When Valkyrie materialized at her newest objective, ten millennia back and fifty thousand lightyears away, her sensorium suite immediately detected another chroniton-regulator source. She cautiously stepped out of the shielding alley. Across the square, disengaging from a network interface, stood a pale-faced Fed, intricate augments reflecting the world’s bright sunlight. He looked right at her and vanished.

 

Valkyrie debated aborting and returning UpTime. Discovering the time-terrorist’s identity would likely hasten Victory Day. But this world potentially held a clue to the Federation homeworld. Find that and victory would be assured.

 

She took in her surroundings and recoiled. Not possible!

 

Valkyrie knew her history. Birth world lost to memory, the Ukuzwana had dispersed through the galaxy, adapting and harmonizing with the worlds and biomes they found. They never discovered sapients, until the Federation. Humanoids like the Ukuzwama, yet beholden to their machines and strangely averse to genome modification. Disdainful of Ukuzwama entreaties, the defilers enslaved and harvested entire worlds. The Coven of Mothers had decreed that the Federation cancer be excised from the galaxy.

 

Yet here were Ukuzwama roaming freely, not a suppression collar in sight, amidst what looked like Federation humanoids. A pale chlorophyll-pigmented man walked past, hand in hand with a laughing woman who could have walked out of any Federation recruitment holo.

 

Tearing herself from the inexplicable incongruity, Valkyrie hastened to a nearby network interface. Extract the data. Then, perhaps the Mothers would permit erasing the Federation agent from history.

 

* * *

 

“Request to eradicate the Ukuzwama anarchist from history denied,” Control said.

 

“But surely that will promote victory,” Agent retorted.

 

“Negligible. Analysis predicts they’ll merely recruit another. However, your retrieved data identifies the Ukuzwama origin world. Ninety-eight percent confidence.”

 

A feral grin creased Agent’s face. “When can I jump?”

 

* * *

 

Valkyrie slowed her breathing. Final victory was nigh — the Federation’s homeworld discovered. A Mother placed the re-energized time-shard around her neck. Valkyrie jumped.

 

* * *

 

Agent and Valkyrie materialized simultaneously into the exact same spacetime location. Neither survived. Their intersecting time-shards exploded, irradiating the entire planet.

 

Undeterred by mountains or cities of concrete and steel, radiation speared through forests and plains. Death stole across tundras and jungles, seeped into lakes and seas. Not even the hardiest biological organisms in the deepest oceans survived.

 

The Ukuzwana and Federation both, at long last, achieved their Victory Day.