Drivers

Drivers
Drivers are the anglicized word that Desmond gives to what the way station AI. A Driver is a being who can use the functions of a way station. A Driver is also the species that created Duncan and the way station. The classic word for Drivers is unwritable and unpronounceable by human mouths and language.

Drivers are a benevolent space faring species. The origins of Drivers are unknown to even Duncan, though he can see that vast parts of his memory was erased at one time when his creators left. The fate of the Drivers is also unknown. Duncan’s records only state that they created the way station, they created him, that the station was used several times, that they planted seeds of life on Earth, and when proeathans first emerged as sentient life forms that they left. Some other things about Drivers are known, but not what they look like or where they came from or where they went or how they got here or any useful information outside of the building of the way station.

Way-stations
Drivers created way stations across the galaxy. Duncan was the way station for this system. While a full Driver could have used the way station to influence all planets across the solar system as a hybrid Driver Desmond has only the limited power to influence the planet closest to the way station: Earth. The moon was chosen specifically for its size and inability to harbor life unlike other moons in the system. Planets or space objects that could potentially support life cannot become way stations.

The way station activates when it senses a being on the planet that can use it. Duncan can sense those who are most closely like its creators. Duncan then opens the door for the Driver to enter. When the Driver dies Duncan closes the door once more as he is programmed to kill any full life form that enters the way station who is not a Driver. As such the way station can be active for decades, or only a few years if the Driver dies young. To the ancient proeathans the activation of the Unnamed in Atlantis was always a time of great initial panic before research and curiosity overtook their fear. It also happened seemingly at random intervals.

Stadalla
There have been many hybrid Drivers in the Earth’s history. Some Drivers have been proeathans, others human. What makes a Driver is their concentration of ancient Driver DNA. All living things on the planet started from Driver spores left by the species when they made the way station. It is simply a matter of getting the right concentration.

Drivers and the Creation of Psychics
Drivers were naturally psychic beings of great power. They did great feats with their abilities. When they left their mark on Earth in the form of their life starting spores they not only hoped for sentience but also to foster new psychic beings. Perhaps to join them or replace them or simply to exist as they were. Drivers never saw the fruits of their labor for new psychics on Earth, as they left when proeathans began to evolve culture and society.

Both humans and proeathans are children of the Drivers, and as such have psychic abilities though each race expresses them differently. Proeathan psychic abilities focuses on the ‘I’, while human psychic abilities focus on the ‘we’.

The Helios System Way Stations
Not every solar system has a way station. Only solar systems with mineable resources have a way station. The inner planets are rich in mineral resources, while the outer system is rich in gaseous resources. These resources led the Drivers initially to the Helios system where they set up a way station.

These way stations were only usable if a Driver was in them. Other species, if there were any, could not use a Driver’s way station without permission from a Driver. Duncan has no records of any species other than Drivers using the Selene Way Station but much of his memory was erased and his records are not complete.

Way stations were used primarily as refueling stations in conjecture with the machines imbedded into the surfaces of planets and moons. Most of these machines have long since gone into disrepair and don’t work quite as well as they used to. From the way station Drivers could remotely access their other machines to mine whatever resource they needed for their ship. Some also used way stations as a way to make money, mining from the systems it resided it and selling to others who needed the resources. While mining was underway the Drivers could live in their way stations in luxury for however long or short a time they pleased.

Because of their mastery over basically everything Drivers had even mastered time and the creation of matter. While they had yet to discover how to create and destroy energy they could create matter from energy and knew how to manipulate energy. As time is just energy over distance in relation to a body they could even manipulate the flow of time. Humans know it as the theory of relativity, and Drivers could manipulate it meaning they could manipulate the very fabric of space time.

As Duncan tells Desmond: its basically magic.

Galactic Interactions
According to Duncan way stations may only be used by extra terrestrials so long as sentient life does not exist in the way station’s system. When proeathans evolved the Drivers left and never came back. Duncan now broadcasts a message unknown to him that this system harbors intelligent life that is not space faring and is thus prohibited from being influenced or contacted by anyone or thing that might be out there according to galactic law.

If anyone is listening still is yet unknown.

Driver Theories
A later theory about Drivers is that they are a seeding type of species. Meaning they go out into space, find a good system, mine it for a while after planting seeds of life. When their fruit starts to flower they pack up and leave to find another system to start the cycle over again.

When the Drivers leave a system their way station waits until sentient life evolves. The first intelligent life it encounters is the one is then tracks and bases itself around. This is why Duncan does what he does and why he feeds the omnireligion’s idea of the Unnamed and unluck.