Found in ancient scribes from the last remnants of broken planets ravaged by the Ancestors, we have been gathering information on what may have possibly happened to them, and how they left. Their technology bewilders us, and we can make little sense of what information we can gather... but upon seeing them in person, we have connected a few bleaker areas of the mystery.
The first information we found regarded what we can only understand as a ritual. A being able to harness mass amounts of electrical energy (this part we were unable to understand until we saw the Ancestors in flesh), enough so to hold and maintain a cross between worlds.
The second thing they needed were beacons. These were represented by the artifacts that we have found scattered across the universe. These beacons keep the link intact, allowing them to gain knowledge of our universe, ensuring that other aspects of the plan are stable.
The actual ritual, the way they were able to escape to a different universe, is mostly unknown, but something strikes me as strange. In our first contact with them, they said:
"You have have meddled with forces you do not understand! We are the ones you call the Ancestors. Thousands of years ago, we realized that the universe was not big enough for both us and all the other races. We wanted everything."But this doesn't make sense. A race will not show mindless rage, especially one with such intelligence as the Ancestors. My theory is that they were searching for something, and stopped when they found it. That is the true reason why they left us. But why did they leave the universe then?
What were they trying to find on the other side?
...What were they running from?
With one of the Artifacts in my hands, so close to the Ancestors, I can tell that its power is at its strongest.
And it can feel me, too. It doesn't understand what I am. It thinks I am an Ancestor - and it tells me its secret.
I fall to the ground, knees hitting the metal floor of the room. Pain courses through me. The Artifact is weaving its way into my head, into my mind, into my memories...
And I remember. I remember what the Gate looks like. It is perfectly clear in my head, as if I myself had just constructed it.
Without a moment's delay, I grab a piece of paper and a pen and I place onto the paper what I can see in my head, what the Artifact has told me - every detail, every artefact, everything I would need to know to build another.
And then the memory fades, and I look at what I have drawn.
Then I realise something I hadn't even considered. If the Artifact believes I am an Ancestor, then why would it try to tell me what the Gate is? I would already know.
Of course. It wasn't telling me what the Gate is, it was trying to remind me. It wants me to take it back. Just like them - the Ancestors - it wants to go back. It wants to join them. I can feel it; I can feel its hopes, its dreams, its desires.
The Artifacts were never mere machines.