Their powers were incomprehensible. They transformed whole star systems for energy, or for their amusement, or for aesthetic reasons we cannot comprehend. They destroyed worlds for sport, or art, or to make a point, or on a whim. They called themselves – in your language you might say the First, or the Primary, or the Fundamental – but the name we settled on is the Axiom. Because they were not just the most important, not just the first, but self-evidently so, a universal truth that could not be denied, the standard by which all other forms of life must be judged and inevitably found lacking.

But around fifty thousand years ago, the Axiom did a curious thing. They encountered a sentient species, but they did not destroy it. Instead, they subjugated them. Enslaved them. Altered them. I refer to my species, or the original ancestors of my now very different species. You call us Liars. We call ourselves the Free. Back then, we were neither: we were the Servitors, or the Subjugated, or the Enslaved.

We originally lived on a watery planet, even more watery than Earth, and we dwelled in the oceans, though by the time the Axiom found us, we’d made progress toward transforming our bodies so we could explore the land, through selective breeding and directed mutations. When the Axiom ships appeared in the sky, we believed them to be gods. We were not wrong. I have witnessed their arrival, in a faded, fourth-hand way, from a neural bud consumed by one who consumed a bud from one who consumed a bud that came directly from a witness to the arrival.

We speculate among ourselves about why we were chosen, from all the races the Axiom had destroyed, to become their servitor race. Originally, we had seven sexes, and all our sexes could mate with all the others, so we were reproductively robust, and displayed great genetic diversity. We also had the ability, as some bacteria do, to selectively swap genetic material with one another, passing on useful traits to our offspring. The fact that we can share memories easily makes us adept at coordination. Those qualities, and our cleverness, and dexterity, and prowess with tools, made us highly adaptable.