Tanya established communication with the three settlements in sequence, broadcasting on standard frequencies while Genesis maintained a careful distance beyond their weapons range. Each conversation revealed the depth of animosity that a century of isolation had bred into what should have been a unified society.
The northern mountain settlement responded first, their transmission crackling with the interference of industrial electromagnetic fields. The figure who appeared on screen was clearly of the Beta-2 ruling class with enhanced cranial structure, eyes that held the calculating intelligence of someone accustomed to complex problem-solving. But those eyes also carried the paranoid wariness of someone who had spent decades planning for war. There was no trust there.
"I am Commander Voss of the Northern Accord," the man said, his voice carrying authority tempered by suspicion. "You claim to represent the original experiment creators. Provide verification codes."
"I don't have codes," Tanya replied honestly. "I was directed here by Lady Flowers of the Holy Order, who provided these coordinates and basic information about Experiment X3012. I'm here to offer you something your creators never did—a choice."
Voss's expression shifted to guarded interest. "What kind of choice?"
"I need skilled workers for interstellar construction projects. Your genetic templates make you ideal candidates for roles that baseline humans struggle with. In exchange, I can provide transportation off-world and integration into galactic society."
"And our enemies?"
"The same offer extends to all three settlements. Your conflicts are irrelevant to my purposes."
Voss leaned forward, his enhanced intelligence immediately grasping the implications. "You would give interstellar travel technology to the coastal raiders and desert scavengers? To people who have spent generations trying to exterminate us?"
"I would give it to whoever chooses to accept it. What you do with those choices is up to you."
The transmission ended abruptly. She didn't even get the part of the offer where she was willing to offer them the technology, even if they hadn't agreed to work for her.
The coastal settlement's response came an hour later, their signal carrying the clear quality of superior communication equipment. The woman who appeared was obviously Gamma-5 crafting class and her movements carried the fluid precision of someone whose nervous system had been optimised for technical work. Delicate hands that could perform microsurgery, but which currently rested on what appeared to be a combat knife.
"Captain Torres of the Coastal Federation," she said with clipped efficiency. "We monitored your transmission to the mountain fascists. You're either genuine, or this is an elaborate psychological warfare operation."
"It's genuine. I need skilled workers for large-scale construction projects. Your genetic modifications make you valuable for roles that—"
"That requires sacrificing our independence for your purposes," Torres interrupted. "We've heard promises before. The mountains offer us 'integration' if we submit to their leadership. The desert dwellers want us to abandon our technology to 'preserve balance.' Everyone wants something from the Gamma-5s."
"I'm not asking you to submit to anyone. I'm offering transportation to a galaxy where your skills would be valued rather than exploited."
"While simultaneously making the same offer to people who have spent decades trying to steal our fabrication facilities and enslave our populations." Torres's expression hardened. "Your neutrality serves their purposes better than ours."
The second transmission ended as abruptly as the first.
The desert settlement took the longest to respond, and when they did, the figure who appeared was massive even by Alpha-7 standards. Enhanced muscle development was obvious, but so was the scarring that marked decades of combat. When he spoke, his voice carried the weight of someone accustomed to making life-and-death decisions.
"Warlord Marc of the Desert Clans," he rumbled. "Your offer is noted. But understand—my people have bled for every meter of territory we hold. We will not abandon that struggle for promises of distant worlds."
"I'm not asking you to abandon anything. I'm offering you the chance to take your people to places where they can build rather than fight."
"Build what? Cities for your empire? Factories for your profit? We are Alpha-7, bred for strength and endurance. But we are not slaves."
"You're slaves to this conflict. You're dying on a planet that can't sustain you, fighting wars that serve no purpose beyond perpetuating themselves."
Marc's laugh was bitter. "Purpose? The mountains control the rare earth mines. The coast controls manufacturing and communication. We control food production and energy generation. Take any faction off-world, and the balance collapses. Your 'rescue' becomes genocide for whoever stays behind."
The transmission ended, leaving Tanya staring at a blank screen. This resistance hadn't been unforeseen, but it was still frustrating to deal with. The three groups' next action did take her by surprise.
Within hours of her communications, all three settlements began mobilising for war.
The northern mountains activated mining equipment that had apparently been converted into siege artillery. Massive boring machines designed to tunnel through rock were repositioned to target coastal fortifications. The coastal federation launched naval vessels equipped with weapons that could bombard both mountain and desert positions. The desert clans began moving heavy equipment that suggested they were preparing to sever the supply lines that connected the other settlements.
"They're more worried about their enemies getting off-world than they are about getting off-world themselves," Amara observed, tracking the military preparations through Genesis's sensors. "A century of conflict has made destroying each other more important than survival."
"This is insane," Tanya said, watching heat signatures that indicated massive troop movements across all three territories. "I offer them salvation and they start the biggest war in their history."
//Intergenerational conflict creates psychological patterns that transcend rational self-interest,// Sage observed. //Each faction views the others' survival as an existential threat to their own identity. Removing that threat takes precedence over personal survival.//
"So what do we do? Let them kill each other while we watch?"
Amara studied the tactical displays with the calculating attention she brought to complex negotiations. "The breeding castes are key. They're distributed across all three settlements, but they're the genetic bottleneck. No faction can survive long-term without access to Delta-9 populations."
"You want to target civilians?"
"I want to target the one group that all three factions depend on, but none of them completely control. The breeding castes have their own leadership structure, their own facilities, their own interests that don't necessarily align with the military factions."
[I could extract the breeding populations using workshop dimensional manipulation,] Sage suggested. [Teleport them to Genesis before the factions realise what has happened.]
"Absolutely not," Tanya replied immediately. "I'm not kidnapping entire populations against their will."
"What about a smaller group?" Amara asked pragmatically. "Extract the leadership from each breeding enclave. Bring them aboard for face-to-face negotiations away from factional pressure."
Tanya felt she was being cornered into bad options and worse ones. "That's still kidnapping."
"It's temporary detention for the purpose of preventing genocide," Amara corrected. "Sometimes leadership requires making decisions that feel wrong in service of outcomes that are right."
The logic was sound, but Tanya hated it. Every choice seemed to require compromising principles she had thought were non-negotiable. But watching the three settlements prepare to annihilate each other, she couldn't see alternatives.
"Minimal extraction," she said finally. "Leadership only. And only long enough for negotiations."
Genesis moved closer to the planet, positioning itself within range for Sage's dimensional manipulation capabilities. The workshop's expanded systems made it possible to interface with the planet's communication networks and identify the key figures within each breeding enclave.
The extraction was surgical, with twelve individuals teleported from their respective locations in the span of minutes. Three from each settlement, plus three additional figures that Sage identified as influential leaders within the breeding castes' independent hierarchy.
When they materialised in Genesis's conference room, the result was immediate chaos.
The representatives from the mountain settlement immediately positioned themselves defensively, their enhanced cognitive abilities letting them assess the tactical situation with frightening speed. The coastal delegates began examining the room's technology with the obsessive focus of people whose modifications made them compulsive problem-solvers. The desert clan leaders tested the strength of their restraints with systematic efficiency.
But it was the independent breeding caste leaders who surprised Tanya most. Rather than showing fear or confusion, they displayed calm professionalism that suggested they'd been expecting something like this.
"You're the interstellar representative," said one of them, a woman whose genetic modifications were subtler than the others but whose bearing suggested absolute authority. "We've been monitoring your communications."
"Then you understand why I brought you here," Tanya replied.
"You brought us here because your diplomatic approach failed and you're desperate enough to try coercion." The woman's smile was sharp. "We are not ignorant of galactic politics. The breeding castes maintain their own knowledge of what happened before we were left here."
The factional representatives began arguing immediately, with accusations, threats, and demands that made it clear the century of warfare had created wounds that couldn't be healed through simple negotiation.
"Enough," Tanya said, raising her voice to cut through the chaos. "You're fighting over resources on a dying planet. Your atmospheric readings show complete environmental collapse within fifty years. Are you going to spend those fifty years killing each other, or are you going to work toward a future that doesn't end in extinction?"
"Our future ended when the mountains betrayed the original colony charter," snarled one of the coastal delegates.
"The coast abandoned their agricultural commitments and forced us into military action," replied a mountain representative.
"Both of you destroyed our water reclamation facilities and forced us into the desert," added a clan leader.
The independent breeding caste leader watched the exchange with the patience of someone who'd heard these arguments countless times. "War debt," she said simply. "Each faction believes the others owe them compensation for decades of losses. No one can forgive because forgiveness would mean accepting that their sacrifices were meaningless."
Tanya looked around the room at twelve people whose genetic modifications had been designed to create a perfect society, but whose history had turned them into implacable enemies. The scale of hatred was almost incomprehensible. What they had was not just political disagreement, but existential animosity that had been refined over generations.
"So what's the solution?" she asked. "What would it take for you to stop trying to destroy each other?"
"Justice," said the mountain representative.
"Reparations," said the coastal delegate.
"Recognition," said the clan leader.
"Impossible," said the breeding caste leader. "Each faction's justice requires the others' destruction. Each faction's reparations would bankrupt their enemies. Each faction's recognition denies the others' legitimacy."
Tanya was ill-equipped to handle problems from cultural forces that had been building for a century, psychological patterns that had been reinforced by genetic modifications originally designed to promote cooperation. The enhanced intelligence of the Beta-2s had been turned toward military strategy. The reflexes of the Gamma-5s had been weaponised. The strength of the Alpha-7s had become tools of war.
Even the Delta-9s, designed to be neutral breeding stock, had developed their own factional loyalties and independent agenda.
"There has to be something," she said, though her voice carried doubt. "Some common ground you can build on."
"There is," said the breeding caste leader. "Mutual extinction. If current trends continue, all three factions will be extinct within two generations. Perfect equality through annihilation."
The room fell silent as that reality was laid bare for them. Tanya understood she was looking at people who had been shaped by forces beyond their control—genetic modifications that had interacted with cultural pressures to create something monstrous. They weren't evil, but they were trapped in patterns that made peace impossible and survival unlikely.
She had offered them salvation, and they had chosen war. Now she had to decide whether to abandon them to their chosen fate or find some way to save them from themselves.
The question was whether salvation was possible for people who no longer wanted to be saved.
Looking around the room at twelve faces marked by a century of conflict, Tanya wasn't sure she had an answer.
But she was going to have to find one, because the alternative was watching an entire civilisation choose extinction over compromise.
And that was a choice she wasn't prepared to accept.