However, at some point in the past another mind-ship came to a star system that would eventually be known by Humans. Named 37 Geminorum in the future, the currently unnamed system held planets and a world filled with life. Perhaps the Eiyogsha had been enthralled by the rich biosphere to be found here. Perhaps it had simply come to the system by random choice. Whatever the case, the ship arrived in the system, and in time it died there. The ages old mind faded away, and left behind was a vessel, fully operational, but without a mind to direct it. Set in an orbit about an outer planet, the ship remained senescent for millions of years, becoming little more than another moon, at least as far as distant observers were concerned.

It was some 800,000 years ago that certain forms of life on the Gaian world began to learn the arts of agriculture and metallurgy and slowly built up a civilization. Through a quirk of social, psychological, and genetic characteristics these beings did not possess any sort of race-name. Indeed, they had minimal senses of self, and instead were a hive culture based on group actions that benefited the whole. None possessed names, but all knew their identity. They were of the All, and it was for the All that they strived to improve life. In the future they would be known as the ArcBuilders, but for their present they simply knew themselves as... themselves.

Because of this drive to improve the conditions of life, the ArcBuilders were quick to advance beyond their stone age. Knowledge of metallurgy was gained slowly at first, but each successive attempt was built upon the full knowledge of the past. Discoveries and applications came quickly. Divisiveness was absent, and the All quickly reaped the rewards of new discoveries. In only a few thousand years a civilization based on mechanical engineering was achieved, and for the first time in their history the ArcBuilders ceased to search for new advancements, and instead began to spread out across the face of their world. The population began to expand rapidly, and the All eventually fragmented into many different groups. Another first eventually appeared, the recognition of "us" and "them". The ArcBuilders were no longer a unified species, and technological advancement slowed even further. .

Before long minor conflicts began to arise over resources. Groups of one content contended with one another for mineralogical treasures, space to live, places to build. The conflicts grew increasingly violent as new technology was developed. Different groups began to preemptively attack each other. And finally the day came when several groups struck at each other with nuclear weapons. It was 215,000 years ago that the ArcBuilder civilization was nearly wiped out in a nuclear holocaust.

The return to civilization was a relatively swift affair, taking only a few hundred years, but the ArcBuilders themselves were greatly changed by this event. Genetics are difficult to change, even on this scale and in the face of such happenings, but socially and psychologically the species had been scarred, and they had healed themselves into almost a different species. The survivors eventually came together, and those who built up a new civilization still worked for a new All, and for the betterment of that All. But they would not work so swiftly and carelessly as before. They took their time, and they lived life in careful steps. Still, their population began to grow as did their revived technology, and once again they began to spread across the planet. But this time they were careful to maintain their bonds, and a combined will and consciousness was established over the millennia that spread across the planet.

In time it became obvious that the ArcBuilders had to move beyond their world. Despite all of their intentions for survival and cohesion, history would surely repeat itself if they did not find room to expand, and resources that did not need to be fought over. The movement into space was a logical step, and in slow steps the ArcBuilders began to explore their solar system. They began to reap the rewards of asteroidal mining. They learned how to change the habitat on neighboring planets to suit themselves, at least to some degree. And they learned to travel further and further into their system of planets, where they began to spread out. Such exploration and colonization inspired an unprecedented population explosion. But still, through the aid of technology and modified genetics, they retained a group mind. Some elements might be separated by light hours or more, but the thoughts of the All were indeed all-encompassing.

It was at this period of their history that they discovered the derelict Eiyogsha vessel. While their shock at such a find was great, the advancement that was gleaned from the ship was even greater. initially they learned many Galactic truths, dealing with the Milky Way's past, the secrets of worlds visited by that particular Eiyogsha, even many of the aspects of the ship's technology. But the true breakthrough occurred when they learned the workings of the advanced nanotechnology that the ship had utilized in order to survive. And with that knowledge, they learned much more.

Travel to the stars was a foregone conclusion at that point. However, the ArcBuilders recognized that they would have to revert to certain old habits were they to entertain such feats of colonization. Once again the All would be sundered, for while a separation between elements of the group mind by light hours was a strain, one by light years would be blatantly impossible. The risk was too great, and so a way around this was the all consuming task of the species, and indeed, with the help of the Eiyogsha technology, it was achieved.

Promising stellar candidates were observed, and worlds that could be used or terraformed into use were picked, and the ArcBuilders sent out their newest form of technology, automated, semi-intelligent vessels loaded with nanotechnology specifically geared for the creation of what would come to be called ArcWays, the defining achievement of the ArcBuilders. Each system to be colonized would have built a WayGate and an ArcWay. The WayGate would be space-based, built out in the Kuiper Belt of the solar system and would be large enough for spacecraft to utilize, while an ArcWay, sized more for individuals and even large vehicles, would be positioned on a planet's surface. Together they would make travel from one solar system to another as simple and easy as stepping from one room to another. Continuously active, the All would remain intact.

Perhaps it was this which, in time, planted the seeds of the ArcBuilders' fall. For they eventually spread to many tens of systems, and while the Ways remained active, so did the automated ArcWay construction modules. Even when there were no colonists immediately available, new Ways were still opened. The system was growing, system by system, until it spanned hundreds of worlds, spread throughout the Orion Arm. Such an expenditure of energy was perhaps visible in some other plane of space-time. Perhaps it served to foster a new version of the All, one held within the infinite space between the Ways, between "here" and "there". Such a realm was beyond the reckoning of even the ancient Eiyogsha, and it was far beyond that of the ArcBuilders. Whatever the case, some force was either drawn to the ArcWays or created by them, and it wanted nothing more than to be free of the vast emptiness that held it.

To the group mind of the ArcBuilders, it began like a slight disease, in which a small number of cells slowly began to die off. But in this case individual members of the All were being taken over, their minds inhabited by that presence from the ArcWays, and what was there before tossed away into oblivion. The body lived, but it was separate from the All. With such a total and complete severing, it was suddenly as if the undead were walking among the living. Their numbers grew swiftly, these hijacked bodies, and like a disease they spread quickly, taking over more and more individuals. A new group mind was developing, this one in direct opposition to the All. It was thought of as the Other, and it wanted nothing less than the total inhabitation of the ArcBuilder species. The more members that it took, the stronger it was, and the closer to freedom it was.

The All, once it became truly aware and knowledgeable of the threat, reacted swiftly. The ArcWays were shutdown, disconnected, in a single moment of time. The All was sundered, and with such swiftness and finality that it literally dissolved. Even those large portions on a single world were sundered from one another, and as a species the ArcBuilders died. The Other, sundered from its base within the ArcWays, also dissolved in the physical universe, and left behind were hundreds of thousands of mindless bodies, incapable of survival on their own.

Literally overnight, the ArcBuilders had died out, their civilization lost to the erosion of time and the elements. But there presence was not forgotten by the Local Neighborhood. Many worlds retained the ruins of their past presence, while the nearly indestructible ArcWays stood as silent sentinels over them until, they too, were buried by the elements. But they would be found, and through a chain of cause and effect stretching back to the Angelics, another race would spread out into the Local Neighborhood.

Updates

November 7, 2006

• Added a sketch of the ArcBuilder species.

May 6, 2006:  Minor tweak to the page.

March 30, 2006:  Continued and completed work on this page.

March 29, 2006:  Established this page and its data.

Classification:  Primus condoquadrivius (the first builders of crossroads)
Biochemistry:  Carbon-based
Morphology:  Bipedal with a balancing tail; forelimbs are elongated, usable as both manipulative organs and as knuckle-walking organs, possibly aiding is running or fast walking.  Their bodies were covered with a short, fur-like covering.  A very short neck kept the head relatively immobile, requiring the entire body to be turned in order to look in a new direction.  They eyes, however, were arranged in two pairs, actually providing a full 180° field of view.
Environment:  The environment on the world of Alba points to a toleration of a wide variety of suitable environments, as do the worlds that the ArcBuilders had colonized.
Reproduction:  Reproduction was apparently sexual, but limited to one of three sexes.  The two other sexes, male and paramale, were required for full fertilization of internally gestated eggs.
Intelligence:  Historically the species was somewhat insect-ish in that they operated much as a hive, with each member serving a specific function, and nearly all aspects of individuality missing.  However, the lack of a "queen" made such an arrangement quite remarkable.  Following the nuclear conflict, which arose because of the development of many different competing groups, an artificially constructed and maintained group-mind was formed, literally linking the species into a single individual intellect.

On the ArcBuilder homeworld of Alba, of course, there are extensive ruins dating back to these beings all over the planet.  Cities what could be described as diffuse suburban regions often cover several hundred square kilometers, and while most are heavily over grown or even buried by sediments, the construction had been robust enough to survive fairly intact.  Evidence of older ArcBuilder ruins are scarce, however, and are almost completely absent beneath the sedimentary layer that represents their major nuclear exchange, some 215,000 years ago.

ArcBuilder activity on other bodies in the 37 Geminorum system is common, reflecting a period when they had expanded outward, utilizing asteroids, comets, planets, even moons for resources to maintain their growing populations.  However, the most famous artifact would be the nearly stripped hulk of what had once been an Eiyogsha vessel, left in orbit of 37 Geminorum's WayGate.  Once a proud and intelligent vessel, the ship (named the ArcWay Key by archaeologists because it was the technology of the vessel which allowed the ArcBuilders to develop ArcWay technology), it is not an empty shell, looking little like a ship and more like a drifting pile of loosely connected debris.

The ArcWays themselves are the main items of interest, as stated, and it was through these that two other races made the Local Neighborhood their own.  One was Humanity.  The other rose to dominance somewhat before our civilization, however.  But they certainly helped to kick start it, for a time at least.