Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

answer the question?’
    ’We are done with fighting. After all this time, perhaps we humans
have learned a little wisdom - and humility.’ She squinted up at the
sky. ’We humans took on the Xeelee. Remarkable when you think about
it: savannah apes against a supergalactic power. We did them some
damage, we drove them out of the Galaxy. But the Xeelee are far more
than we ever were; we could never defeat them. And we barely noticed
the true enemy, a foe of both ourselves and the Xeelee and everything
made of baryonic matter, matter like ourselves - ’
    ’Dark matter,’ said Mela. ’The photino birds in the sun.’
    ’In every sun - yes, child. You mayflies encountered them in the
deep past, even found them in the core of Earth’s sun, and you forgot
about them. You found them again later, out in the halo of the
Galaxy, where dark matter dominates - the Xeelee were already
fighting them there, long before our war for the Galaxy - and again,
in a generation or two, you forgot what you saw. You are so
infuriatingly transient!
    ’Well, we can’t fight the photino birds. We never could. Perhaps
even the Xeelee can’t, but they are trying. There is evidence that
the Xeelee are engaged in supergalactic projects, stupendous in scale
- some long-forgotten explorers told tantalising tales.
    ’But it doesn’t matter. We humans are trapped, here in Sol system
itself, between two immense forces, the destruction of the sun, and
the extinguishing of the stars. Yes, Curator, we could wield our last
sword and cut off a few more limbs. But we can’t win. So I think it’s
better we simply vacate the stage, don’t you?
    ’I believe my solution is the right one. The Guardians can do
this, if they have the will - and if they are ordered to. But I can’t
give that order.’
    Symat whispered, ’Which is where I come in, is it?’
    ’Listen, child. The sole purpose of the Guardians is to serve
humanity. But what is humanity? Since the Guardians were first
installed we humans have bifurcated, innovated, rebuilt and
re-engineered ourselves. Even the stock who remained on Earth and
Mars, like your own family, has adapted in its own quiet way. Each of
these subtypes is >human<, in that they can all trace their
ancestry back to the common root. But none of them is identical to
the root stock. And a biologist’s definition of humanity isn’t
necessarily good enough for a weapons system.’
    ’Ah.’ The Curator nodded. ’The Guardians are so old they no longer
recognise the much-evolved descendants of their makers as human at
all. Not even you, old one! What an irony.’ He shook his head and
laughed.
    Luru ignored him. She said to Symat, ’I have found a solution for
Earth - and I need the Guardians’ help to implement it. But they
won’t listen to me. I needed a true human, Symat, at least
>true< in the discriminating eyes of the Guardians. And, as I
was unable to find one, I had to breed one…’
    Genetic engineering had been considered. Even if nobody like the
ur-stock of humanity still existed, there were records of their
biomolecules. But the Guardians would easily have been able to spot
any such engineering; they would have rejected the wretched result as
a fake.
    So Luru had had to resort to more natural methods. She had
surveyed the human population of Sol system. She had identified
stretches of raw DNA in fragments, scattered over the worlds. And she
had begun a programme of patient cross-breeding, seeking to gather
together the strains she needed.
    It took a thousand years. But a millennium was a moment for an
undying.
    ’And it all culminated in me,’ Symat said.
    ’I told you you’re different, Symat!’ Mela said. ’No wonder you
don’t look like your parents. And no wonder the Conclave was watching
you.’
    ’You probably don’t look much like an ur-human either,’ Luru said
dryly, ’but I think you’ll fool the Guardians. And that’s all that
counts.’
    The Curator said, ’And did these generations of toiling breeders
know how you were using them, Ascendent?’
    ’It was safer for the project that they didn’t. A little social
engineering sufficed.’
    ’And this is your master plan? After a galactic war and a million
years of history, the future of man comes down to the decision of a
fourteen-year-old child?… Lethe, Ascendent, what gives you the
right to make a choice that will fix the whole future of mankind -
even through this boy?’
    ’Only I have the vision for such a