Whatever it was! she shouts without a voice. It’s not justice!
Is it justice you hunger for? asks Network softly. Or revenge?
She is aware that she’s being needled, but she doesn’t care. She embraces her anger. Because this is not just an abstract discussion, it’s personal. It’s not just any species who lost its honest chance at existence, but hers. The Humans. The people she has dreamed of her entire life. Call it what you want, she says with heat.
You would punish this offender? asks Network. This person who pushed your species out of its egg?
She gazes at the destruction before her, the billions of lives that have been destroyed, the quadrillions yet to come. This single battle in a war that will be laid at the feet of the Humans, that will result in their near-total extinction. Yes, she hisses.
Very well, says Network. I accept your offer.
It takes a moment for Network’s statement to register. You—what? she says.
You are right. To Me, it is simply the restoration of order. To you, it is more than that. You asked for justice, isn’t that right? Well then. What more fitting agent of justice could one possibly ask for than a descendant of the offended species?
Now that things have turned a bit more concrete, her mind is quieting. But I’m not—
You did not just arrive at that decision, tiny sphere. Your entire existence screams it. Did you think I brought you here for your amusement? Do you think your life has been a string of coincidences? No. This is simply the latest step in a plan I put into motion centuries ago. You are correct: this serial offender must be eliminated. You want justice, I want order. That is why I brought you here, and why I have shown you this. That is why you have come in contact with such unusual and extraordinary intelligences. That is why a certain Librarian is rebuilding your body even as we speak.
She feels a rush of something, unrelated to the higher concepts being discussed. My…body?
Correct. Though I would not get too attached to it; your mind is where your power lies. Your Human origin provided the raw material, your Widow mother shaped it, and now I have amplified it. I have already told you that you are like Me, but you are not Me: you are separate, untethered. You are a new Network, unbound to My own ancient roots. I am tied to My vast web of subspace tunnels; you are broken off. I have done this so that you can go where I cannot: to the dark regions of the galaxy. Far from My Networked solar systems, you will hunt like a Widow and strike like a Human. You, Sarya the Daughter, will eliminate My enemies.
Her mind is spinning. I don’t understand, she says. I’m not—
As I said, I am not commanding. We are not bargaining. I am beyond that; I have formed your very nature. You are prepared, honed, and amplified, which means that I am merely telling you what you will do.
What she will do. As if she has no choice in the matter. Within her swirls a maelstrom of tangled emotions and questions. Her entire life, part of a plan by some higher being. Her kidnapping, her life on Watertower, the death of her mother, her own death at the gleaming hands of Librarian…Her anger begins to build. And now this higher being approaches her, tells her that she will help It, that she has no say in the matter—
I see, says Network. You need motivation.
I need a hell of a lot more than that, says Sarya coldly. You are my murderer, the murderer of my mother, and the murderer of my species. If you think for one nanosecond that I am going to forget—
How do you feel about a second chance for your people? asks Network.
Her stream of objections stutters to a halt. A…what?
You are right. We do not yet know what the Humans could become without interference. Eliminate Observer, and we will find out. I will give your people a new egg. A new solar system, brimming with resources. I will plant the Humans there, and this time they will grow without interference. Millennia from now, they will be free to hatch on their own. Or not. But either way, Humans will receive what few species ever have: a second chance to become a Citizen of the Network.
She is not sure what is happening in her mind. A second chance for her species. A place for them, protected from the galaxy that killed them the first time. Maybe, says her mind, maybe that’s a place where she can go, where she can live…where she can have everything she’s ever wanted. Friends. Family. Goddess help her, a mate. She could be, honest to goddess, a real live Human.
Oh goddess. She doesn’t mean to say it, but it slips out of her mind. Oh goddess.
Little Daughter, says Network. When you were small you purchased your life. Now that you are grown, it is time for you to purchase your species. Eliminate Observer; that is the price. Remember that He is a murderer and a liar, that He would love nothing more than to see the galaxy perish in fire and chaos. It does not matter whether you prefer to call it a desire for justice or a thirst for retribution: your nature—and the tools I have given you—will take care of the rest.
Oh, goddess, she says again. She can’t help it.
Go, tiny mind. Observer is waiting.
The following is greatly abridged from the original Network article, in accordance with your tier.
XENOMYTHOLOGY FOCUS: THE “FIREBRINGER”
One of the more controversial branches of xenology is known as [comparative xenomythology], the study of the myths that different species tell. This science sorts myths into two categories.
NATURAL MYTHS
The first category is made up of so-called “natural” myths. These are stories that spring from characteristics common to all intelligences, or that derive from the very laws of physics. In this class are creation myths, apocalypses, (incorrect) explanations for laws of nature, and stories that showcase actions beneficial to a successful species (e.g., self-sacrifice). These are the myths that one would expect any species to develop.
UNNATURAL MYTHS
The second category is made up of accounts that most likely sprang from actual events. The more popular name of this category is Firebringer myths, named after the archetypal story in which a superior being introduces a technology to the species in question.*1 In pre-Network galactic society, Firebringer myths were common. In fact, at several points in galactic history Firebringer myths have been nearly universal, because nearly every species had been meddled with at some point in its development.*2
Today, the Network protects all its potential members with strict regulations, disallowing any form of contact before a species is able to leave its solar system on its own. This means that unnatural myths—like the Firebringer—have all but disappeared in our galaxy. In fact, of all the species who have developed an interstellar society in the last ten million years, only one told a Firebringer myth: the [Humans].