Two of a Kind

the exposition

Liam noticed a pool of light about the same time he heard the footsteps. "Where am I?" He asked the darkness around him as he saw a man step into the light.
  "Nowhere, really. In your head is another answer. Questions answered, answers questioned at the end. Now," he coughed. "In the beginning..."
  Liam smiled ironically at the biblical reference.
  "Billions of years ago then. The universe was a smaller place, this galaxy even more so. Intelligent races sprang up here and there, taking root in rocky planets, in watery worlds and even occasionally in some of the gaseous giants. Rare but it happened a few times. One race was bit more warlike than any of the others. After they developed starflight, they began to destroy other races. Perhaps as many as a hundred worlds were conquered this way before other worlds noticed. For the first time, races aligned against a common for. We pooled our knowledge and our resources and we fought back. We lost many battles, we won some few victories. Enough that we survived after a fashion."
  "And we had the idea that affects you today. Seed ships. An unmanned probe that could search for intelligences and communicate with them, teaching them how to defend themselves. And after that world was sufficiently advanced, the seed ship moved on. We built ten of these ships before the last of us succumbed to the conquerors. The idea was a complete success, though. A new coalition of worlds destroyed the last remnants of those primordial invaders, some billion years ago. The seed ships continued their programming. And I am one of those programs. The avatar of the ninth seed ship."
  "So your makers were humans?"
  "Don't be intentionally stupid. They were no more human than they were English speakers. Your own mind is providing the context for all of this. You are a Primary."