Garek asked the little being, "The Borials are helping to save your people from the Horde?"
"Yes. Help they bring. My people, tall, they are not. The Borials, big, they are. Weapons, they have. Freedom, they bring."
"Freedom from what?"
"Slavery. Worked, we have, for the Horde. Brought, despair, they have, to our people. Deliverance, the Borials will bring."
"My apologies for not explaining before, Stephen," said Neklus. "Gori is a type of spy for us. He heads over to the Horde cities and works along with his people to blend in and gather information." Neklus gave Gori a pat on the back.
"What do you mean 'works with his people'?" Maruu asked.
"I will explain," Neklus started.
Wait," said Maruu. "If we're going to help you, all my senior people should hear this." He turned his attention to a young crewmember who was sitting near him. "Ensign, run and find the senior staff. Tell them to come to Neklus' campfire."
The young Virgo ran off.
Soon all the Virgo's department heads were present. The group sat and Neklus began the tragic tale of what happened to Gori's people, the Aody.
For uncounted thousands of centuries, the Aody had lived in the world-spanning forests of Xenon III. Of course, the Aody didn't call their world by that name. Xenon was simply the name this planet's star was given in Federation databanks. The Aody simply called their planet, "the Forest".
There were not many Aody. Perhaps less than one million across the entire planet. They lived in small villages underneath the boughs of the mighty trees of the Forest. They subsisted by harvesting the plentiful grains, vegetables and fruits that grew naturally in the forest glades in the old days. They made cheeses and butters with the milk of several beasts, but ate no meat. The Aody lived in harmony with the animals.
The Aody were a gentle, peace-loving species that lived in harmony with nature, with the Borials, and with each other. The very thought of violence or discord or upsetting the balance of nature was alien to them. Their minds simply could not touch such a foreign concept. All in all, Xenon III, or 'the Forest' was an idyllic paradise. There was very little here that marred the edenic tranquillity.
So, when the first alien spaceship broke through the planetary energy screen and crashed on their planet ten thousand years ago, the Aody welcomed the visitors happily, with open arms. At first, the Visitors were grateful to their small, gentle hosts. The Visitors' ship had been rendered hopelessly non-spaceworthy, so the Visitors depended on the Aody for their survival.
But as the years went by, then the centuries, then the millennia, a change overcame the Visitors. Most of their high technology was ruined in the shipwreck, and the Visitors seemed unable to adapt to a simpler lifestyle. They slowly reverted back to barbarism. They left the ways of peace, and they left the villages of the Aody. They banded together in larger and larger groups, and slowly migrated to the rugged and cold northern seacoast of the land. They built mighty cities of stone and mighty sea ships of wood, and their numbers grew.
But all these ambitious construction projects required hard, backbreaking labor. The Visitors' attention turned back to the Aody, whom they had left so long ago, but this time their regard was not motivated by gratitude.
The Visitors invaded southward in hordes, burning, trampling and slashing the forest as they advanced. They captured thousands upon thousands of Aody. They killed thousands. The Aody didn't resist, how could they? They had no concept of how to implement violence or aggression. The very idea was so repugnant, that they would rather die than harm another living being!
When their initial campaign was over, the Visitors were known by a new name by the surviving Aody. 'The Horde'. Their capitol city was at Stonefist, a formidable fortress.
Some of the captured Aody were put to work in the Horde's coal mines. Their short stature made them excellent miners. Others were used as beasts of burden. Their powerful legs, normally used for leaping great distances, were well suited to pulling heavy loads. Some were conscripted into the lumbering gangs, forced to cut down their beloved Forest to feed the Horde's insatiable ship building yards.
The Aody suffered under these conditions for hundreds of years. The Horde's conquests grew wider and wider as their need for more slaves grew. Eventually, all but the most isolated stands of the Forest were under the Horde's control: and the city of Noran.
Noran was the capitol city of the Borials, and a mighty fortress in it's own right. It stood high on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean, just as its counterpoint, Stonefist did.
The Borial had taken sides against the Horde in defense of their friends, the Aody. They warred constantly with the Horde, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. They held a small district; the Horde held the planet. Nonetheless, they fought bravely and selflessly. Each and every man had the courage of a hundred. It cost the Horde dearly every time they attacked a Borial position. But each attack weakened the Borials a little more.
Eventually, only the city Noran remained standing of all the Borial cities. It seemed only a matter of time before the Borials fell altogether and the Horde completely conquered this once-beautiful planet.
But just when all seemed lost, the Borials found a new source of hope. Kalmar, one of the Borials' gods, promised help for the beleaguered Borials and Aody. As a result, the Borial defenses solidified, and they were even able to go back on the offensive. The Horde was slowly being beaten back.
Although, the Aody couldn't actively resist, they were able to form elaborate webs of informants and spies within the walls of the Horde cities, especially in Stonefist. They seemed to have an almost supernatural ability to gather and pass on information. Through the use of special volunteers like Gori, this information would eventually find its way to Noran.
At this point, Neklus paused in his narrative. Throughout it all, no one had interrupted, all the Virgos had been mesmerized by the gripping story.
Gori broke the silence with his gravely voice, "Yes. The past, this way it was. Long ago. Tragic, very tragic, it was." His voice trailed off.