Date: 2016-08-21T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction
Description: At Sol, Adrian Farkas - Lord Sentinel of the Empire, prepares the defenses for the inevitable attack by the Legions of the Shara Daim - the third race created by the human and Nel ancestor Axull Darr. The Shara Daim come for the device left by their common ancestor, intent on claiming it for themselves, their Elders planning to use it to fulfill their goal of ruling the galaxy. But Adrian has plans of his own. But even as the Shara Daim Legions assemble for their invasion of Sol, Adrian and the Empire's fleets move to fulfill a promise made long ago to the race that had enslaved and destroyed
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Onslaught

Rise of the Empire series

Ivan Kal

Copyright © 2016 by Ivan Kal

Art/Cover Copyright © 2016 by Nikola Nikolic

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Editor: Tom Shutt at Main Line Editing - http://www.mainlineediting.com/

Contact the artist - chmiky.design@gmail.com

Table of Contents

Map

Timeline

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Epilogue

Timeline

November 2103 – A faction of humanity—Olympus—leaves to colonize a planet in a star system 600 light years from Earth.

February 2159 – An alien race called Ra’a’zani conquers Earth.

May 2164 – Olympus arrives at their destination; they name the planet Sanctuary. They get involved in a conflict against an alien race called Sowir. Ally themselves with the Nel of Nuva.

March 2170 – Resistance from Earth contacts Olympus on Sanctuary, asking for aid.

December 2171 – Olympus and Sowir Dominion make a pact of non-aggression.

January 2172 – Olympus fleet arrives in the Sol system, engaging Ra’a’zani forces in the system. The battle for Earth results in narrow human victory, but the cost is the Earth. Ra’a’zani weapon makes the planet uninhabitable.

March 2172 – Year 1 of the Empire – Tomas Klein leader of Olympus creates the Empire.

December – Year 30 of the Empire – Sowir attack Nelus system, homeworld of the Nel. Empire breaks the non-aggression pact with Sowir by simultaneously sending aid to Nelus and invading the Sowir territory. Clan Leader Adrian Farkas overuses the Watchtower command interface, falling into a coma.

January–March Year 31 of the Empire – Adrian Farkas wakes up and hears the telepathic beacon from the sphere left by the originator of the human and Nel races, unlocking all the knowledge and technology contained inside.

March Year 36 of the Empire – Empire wins the war against the Sowir.

Year 36–Year 54 of the Empire – Empire at peace, focusing on exploring, developing technologies from the sphere of the People, expanding their borders to reclaim Sol.

June Year 54 of the Empire – Empire meets an alien race called the Erasi.

July Year 54 of the Empire – Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas meets Dai Sha Anessa of the Shara Daim, the third race created by Axull Darr. Anessa attempts to capture Adrian, the fight ends in narrow victory for Adrian and his people. They take the Dai Sha prisoner.

January Year 55 of the Empire – Shara Daim Elders recall all of their forces for an attack on the Empire, seeking the device left by Axull Darr.

Prologue

February; Year 55 of the Empire – Shara Daim territory

Narrasak, Dai Sha of the Third Legion, commanded his forces from the flagship of his Legion, the Ravager. The force amassed against him was great in numbers, but disorganized, cobbled together by many races. Ships of every shape and size were present, forming an uneven sphere of ships. The fleet, and calling it that was a stretch, moved without order, small groupings of ships trying to act as a unit without actually being a part of the whole.

The force outnumbered his Legion, with their exact count being 6843 ships, compared to his Legion, which numbered 2000 warships with another 100 auxiliaries—like all the Legions of the Shara Daim—it seemed overwhelmingly stronger. But ultimately it was nothing compared to his force.

His opponent’s fleet was put together by dozens of races, those who wanted to stop Shara Daim expansion into what they considered their territory. Most of them, save for a few races, were weak and had territories so small that they were of no consequence. The Shara Daim had moved into the new area of space, ignoring other races, colonizing worlds that they wanted, engulfing territories of entire civilizations. Those who held a territory larger than a single system or two were warned to stay out of the Shara Daim’s way. But sadly they had not listened.

They had gathered allies from other races in the area, those whose future expansion was threatened by the Shara Daim. And now they had a fleet of ships that they believed strong enough to threaten the Shara Daim, to intimidate and force them to pull back.

The enemy fleet had been trying to establish communications since they’d entered the system, but Narrasak had ignored every attempt, there was nothing to discuss. In a way this act had made him respect them more, they had shown him strength and determination to protect what they believed was theirs. But, unfortunately for them, the Shara Daim would not tolerate anyone standing in their way.

Narrasak watched as the last ship in his opponent’s formation entered well into his Legion’s weapons range. With a thought, he sent the order. Every ship in his Legion fired at the same moment, and beams of dark blue crackling energy connected his fleet and that of his opponents. Wherever the beams hit, hulls disintegrated; crackling energy arced from the impact point to scorch and eat into the rest of the ship. His opponents tried to evade, tried to turn around and escape, and their superficial unity collapsed as clusters broke off in different directions.

The Third Legion continued firing, destroying ships even as they tried to escape. A few clusters among the mass held ships from the more advanced races, but their numbers and even their level of technology was not enough—they too would die.

Narrasak was ordering his Legion to pursue the fleeing ships, intending to destroy every single one of them, when one of his subordinates interrupted him.

“Dai Sha, we have received a top priority message from Shara Radum,” the Va Sun said.

Intrigued, Narrasak reached with his mind to the console in front of him, engaging the privacy screen around his chair, and then opened the message from the homeworld. An Elder appeared in front of him and started issuing him new orders. Narrasak’s eyes narrowed as the message finished, and he disengaged the privacy screen. He turned to his subordinates.

“Send the orders for the fleet to halt,” he said as he watched a few of the enemy ships burning as hard as they could in order to escape. “Let them go.”

“Dai Sha?” his Do Sun and second in command asked.

“The Legions have been recalled. It appears we have a new worthy enemy,” Narrasak said.

“How many Legions are being sent?” Do Sun asked eagerly. It had been a long time since more than a single Legion had been sent against an enemy.

Narrasak turned to look at his second in command, and gave him a wicked grin before he responded, “All of them.”

Chapter One

One month later — March; Year 55 of the Empire—Mars—Olympus Monss

Adrian jumped through the air; six heavy steel-lead balls the size of his head were spinning around him in synchronized orbits, held there by his Sha. As soon as his left foot hit the ground, he turned around in a dance-like spin, switching his legs and making a swiping motion with his hands. The orbits of the balls expanded; his Sha pushed the balls faster and each struck a different plastic pillar in front of him, set at varying distances. The pillars exploded in pieces as the balls struck and smashed through them. Then the balls returned to their smaller orbits around Adrian.

Adrian took a deep breath and flicked his right hand forward, sending the balls to hover in the middle of the debris from the pillars. He closed his eyes and concentrated, remembering the battle he had had with the Dai Sha of the Shara Daim on Tarabat and the feeling of her using her Sha. Searching deep within his own Sha, he found what he was looking for.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his outstretched arm. He released his telekinetic hold on the balls, and the balls started to fall towards the ground. Then Adrian closed his fingers, making a fist. The balls lurched, suddenly pulled back towards a single point above the ground, the plastic debris flying off the floor and towards the same point with a soft whooshing sound. Adrian felt the power of his Sha as his arm shook, and he watched as everything at that point was compressed into a spherical bundle. Then he felt the last of his power leave him and he lowered his hand. The bundle of plastic and lead fell to the floor, making a loud thumping sound.

Iris appeared in front of him, floating in her usual fiery form. “You got the hang of it.”

“Yes...finally,” Adrian responded.

“You should be proud of your achievement, creating a localized implosion with only your own power is impressive,” Iris said.

“But ultimately nothing compared to what she can do,” Adrian countered.

Iris’s expression turned to one of distaste. “You don’t need to compere yourself to her.”

“Of course I do,” Adrian said. A comm message interrupted their conversation. Adrian read it and then sighed and started walking towards the exit of the training room; the two wolions that had been sleeping near the door woke and followed him out.

“I am needed at the hub,” he said to Iris, who huffed and disappeared.

***

“The station has been moved,” Gotu said.

“Good,” Adrian responded. “Iris, is everything ready on your part?”

“Yes,” Iris said as her fiery hologram appeared in front of them. “I have conferred with Atlas; we will make sure that everything goes according to your plan.”

“Great,” Adrian said.

“I’m still not so sure about this...” Gotu commented.

Adrian turned to look at him. “Trust me, it will work. We need to do this.”

“Fine.” Gotu sighed. “I guess that I will have some time to finish the rest of the preparations as you take that trip to visit the Ra’a’zani.”

“I know that you want to do this some other way, but we need to make them see that they are wrong. I need to plant enough seeds for the things to move according to our plans,” Adrian said.

Gotu turned his palm sideways and back in a Nel gesture, agreeing with Adrian’s words.

“See that Veritas is ready; the fleets will be leaving for Ra’a’zani space in a matter of days,” Adrian said, and then turned and walked out of the Mars command hub, passing people working at their stations. Iris floated to his side, following him.

After they turned a corner, she floated up in front of him, flying backwards with her hands on her hips. “Are you still planning on releasing her?” she asked disapprovingly.

“Yes,” Adrian said simply.

“And you really think that is wise?” Iris asked.

“Yes,” Adrian said with a smile. “She has learned a lot about us, both from me directly and from what she probably observed or inferred by herself. But in the end, she knows only what I wanted her to know; she doesn’t know our strength. And the Shara Daim would attack whether she is here or not; they planned it from the moment they learned about us from the Ra’a’zani. My actions only accelerated their plans, and gave us forewarning. If the seeds I planted take root, we will have the upper hand.”

“She is not stupid, Adrian; she must’ve realized that you are trying to manipulate her. I doubt that anything you have told her has made her doubt her people’s ways,” Iris said.

“I still have other plans in motion. Convincing her to change ways would be a great victory, but in the end, I’m not placing all my hopes on it.”

With one last long look, Iris disappeared. Adrian knew that she didn’t really like their prisoner, Anessa of the Shara Daim. Mainly because she had tried to kidnap Adrian. There were reasons as to why he needed her, and why she could serve his purpose better back with her people. The Shara Daim would come for the Empire. They would attack because they wanted the sphere, the device left behind by Axull Darr, the originator of the human, Nel, and Shara Daim races.

The three races were very similar to one another; their genetic code—or rather their core code, the part that came from their ancestor—was very close. The Nel were generally taller than humans, averaging at around 210 centimeters tall, and were usually slimmer, while humans’ average height was around 190 cm and they were a bit bulkier and stronger than the Nel. The Shara Daim, on the other hand, were the tallest of the three, at least based on what they had learned. His prisoner towered over Adrian at 241 cm tall compared to his 186 cm.

Nel had pale gray skin, a result of evolving in caves and under the thick gray skies of Nelu, their homeworld, which prevented a large portion of their sun’s radiation from reaching the surface. They had tails, evolved to aid them in keeping balance as they moved through the large underground chasms and deep tunnels. The Shara Daim were the complete opposite; their homeworld was bathed in a high amount of radiation, resulting in the need for defense against it. Their skin was obsidian-colored and highly resistant to their sun’s radiation.

But not even the common ancestry between the three races would halt the Shara Daim’s hand. They wanted the sphere that contained all the knowledge of the People, their ancestors and the first intelligent race in the galaxy.

Each of the three races had received its own device, hidden on their homeworld until they’d evolved enough to hear its telepathic beacon. Humans hadn’t found theirs before Earth was lost, and the Nel had found theirs by accident before they were ready. Only the Shara Daim had found it in the way it was intended, and then they had lost their sphere. Now they were coming for the Empire’s sphere—the one found by the Nel—and Adrian was not going to let them have it.

The Shara Daim were an arrogant race, one that believed itself above all others. They took what they wanted by virtue of strength and power. Compromise was not something that they entertained. Adrian had hoped initially to get his prisoner to see value in peace between the Empire and the Shara Daim, but he had quickly come to see that that was impossible. They would not allow for rivals to exist, especially rivals that they perceived as weaker than them. Their race had never lost a war, never been beaten. They didn’t know how to work with others because, in their eyes, everyone was inferior.

The Empire could not win an all-out war against the Shara Daim, not without sustaining heavy losses. They had a far larger territory and vastly greater resources and population. Technologically, the two civilizations were closely matched, at least based on what Adrian’s people had managed to learn from the Erasi, another large alien force that the Empire had recently encountered, one that was equal to the Shara Daim. But unlike them, the Erasi welcomed other races; it was composed of many who traded freely inside Erasi territory.

The Erasi traded in everything, and Adrian had sent people back to one of their worlds in order to establish a closer relationship, one that had already borne fruit. The Erasi had provided the Empire with information on the Shara Daim. The numbers of their ships, population, size of territory, and perhaps most importantly, data on their technology.

The Shara Daim tech was close to that of the Empire; their ships used different kinds of materials for construction, but they were close to equal in strength. The path to discovering better technology wasn’t a straight line; there were infinite routes one could take in order to advance. But the path of the Shara Daim was not like that—theirs was predictable. One look at their technology and Adrian knew that they still kept to the path set before them by the knowledge inside the sphere of the People.

There were a few technologies that were unfamiliar to Adrian, and those had probably been acquired from other races. But most of them were directly derived from the data in the sphere. The Emperor and his advisers had decided to use the technologies from the sphere like guidelines, and not strict paths to follow. They still relied on their old weapons, only more developed and enhanced by the knowledge in the sphere, and other new things that they had developed that their ancestors hadn’t conceived of.

But Adrian was sure that in a battle of equal numbers, the Empire’s fleets would hold their own, maybe even have an edge. But the Shara Daim could bring much larger numbers against them. And that was why he needed to either make peace with them or force them to do what he wanted them to. But to change the mind of an entire species, he first needed to change the mind of one.

Adrian reached his destination. He nodded to the four guards standing outside of the doors, and then entered.

Chapter Two

Anessa was seven years old, and already she was taller than every other child was in her school. However, she was the only one who had yet to gain her Sha abilities. It meant that she was not really a part of her class. She knew that they talked about her with their minds by the snickers and looks they gave her whenever she entered the classroom. The only one that spent any time with her was Garaam. The short, white-haired girl liked spending time with Anessa for some reason that she never quite figured out. But she was thankful for it, and because of that simple fact, Anessa swore that Garaam would always have her friendship in life.

Today, Anessa was the one charged with cleaning the classroom. She didn’t understand why it was necessary; her parents had machines that did the cleaning, so there was never the need to do it by hand. But the teachers said that it was supposed to teach them responsibility. She didn’t really care one way or the other, so she always just set about doing the task. Cleaning wasn’t a hard task, and she could usually tune it out, think on other things while she worked.

However, this day was different, as something kept nagging at her. Her body felt strange, her mind somehow clouded. But she didn’t tell anyone; she didn’t need to be sent to the medbots, or far worse—home. Already the other kids called her weak because she didn’t have the Sha; if she was sent home for being sick, she knew it would only get worse. Kids with the Sha rarely got sick. So she pushed herself to the limit, not showing any outward signs of her unease. She tried to hurry her work, finish as fast as possible and then leave for home, but her hands tingled and it slowed her down.

The sound of the classroom door opening startled her, and she turned around to see two boys and a girl enter the room. Seeing who it was, Anessa’s stomach dropped, but she didn’t shy away from Tarasks’s cruel look. He approached, followed closely behind by his two companions. She didn’t know them well, as she tended to avoid the other kids, except for Garaam.

“Look here, it’s the freak!” Tarasks said laughingly, his companions joining in a moment later.

Anessa looked around the room. She was almost finished; the teachers might not even notice if she doesn’t finish. It was better than staying here, and if the teachers did notice, she would rather take their punishment than being insulted and bullied by the kids with the Sha.

She turned and started to leave the room, but something grabbed hold of her leg, keeping it in place. Anessa froze as she realized that one of them had used his Sha to keep her leg in place. It was impressive, Anessa knew; Tarasks was being called a prodigy with the Sha. She had overheard the teachers one day talking about him; they were saying how being able to use Sha to grab and lift objects at such a young age was amazing. They said that he might even one day become a Dai Sha. She turned and saw Tarasks pointing a hand at her leg. He was shaking a bit at the effort, and then suddenly Anessa could feel his hold slipping.

“Where are you going? We want to speak with you,” Tarasks said. He walked over to her before she could try to free herself and grabbed her by the shoulders. He pinned her against the wall with his hands, letting go of his Sha. Anessa could’ve pushed him away easily; she was bigger and stronger. But there were three of them, and all had the Sha. They might not be able to hold her for long, but it would be enough.

“Are you sure that you are a Shara Daim?” Tarasks asked. “I mean, you don’t have the Sha; how can you be like us?”

“It doesn’t come to everyone at the same time,” Anessa murmured.

“You trying to convince yourself that you aren’t a freak?” Tarasks asked laughingly while he poked her in the middle of her chest.

“I need to get home. Please,” Anessa said quietly as she tried to move away. The tingling spread over her entire body now, and she could barely think straight. She only knew that she needed to get home.

Tarasks didn’t let her get away. He pushed her against the wall hard, and Anessa hit the back of her head against the wall. Suddenly she only saw darkness, and pain, and then something spread through her body like fire. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, her hands extended in front of her, and someone was screaming. She realized that it was her that was screaming. Her throat was hurting, and she stopped. She looked around and saw Tarasks’s friends looking at her in horror as they backed away slowly. Anessa turned her eyes in front of her, looking for Tarasks.

She saw him in the middle of the room. He was suspended in the air; red stained his clothes and was dripping down onto the floor. Chairs and tables were all around him, broken to pieces. Six long, pointed legs of the tables and chairs were piercing Tarasks’s body, keeping him impaled above the ground, the twisted tables and chairs beneath him.

Anessa woke up in the bed in her quarters on the Empire’s base, where she was being kept as a prisoner. She shook off the memory that had come to her in the dream; it had been a long time since she had thought back on the moment she’d finally received her Sha. The life she had had before the Sha never really seemed real to her; it was not who she was now. And now for the first time since she was a child; she found herself without the Sha. It was not a feeling she liked experiencing.

She looked around the quarters as she stood up; they were spacious, but strangely arranged. The quarters were separated with walls into different rooms, which wasn’t the case among the Shara Daim. However, it was still far from what her people would have given to their prisoners. But this Empire was strange in more than one way. She moved her shoulder and was immediately reminded of the device there, piercing her skin and the Nursha organ inside her body, draining any energy that it stored, making it impossible for her to use the Sha. The device didn’t interfere with her movements—she could barely feel it—but its existence was a constant reminder of her failure.

However, while she couldn’t use any of her advanced Sha abilities, her body still had enough passive energy for her to have very limited access to her less demanding mental Sha abilities. Which was how she felt her visitor before he entered her room.

She sighed and got to her feet as he stepped in, followed by two beasts that always seemed to follow him around. She turned around and gazed down on him, ignoring the beasts. She towered over him, like she towered over all the others she had seen here, both Human and Nel. Anessa had noticed the respect the others gave him, the presence he had among them; he was obviously the most powerful one among them. Anessa knew that her size meant nothing against him; in a fight without Sha, she was outmatched.

He was looking at her face, refusing to lower his eyes and look at her naked body. She had noticed his uncomfortableness the first time he had come to her room and encountered her naked. Shara Daim wore their Shur At at almost all times; they could be formed into any shape and size imaginable and were very comfortable clothes. But she no longer had hers, and was forced to use the clothing provided by her captors. And while they were comfortable enough, she was not yet used to them, and preferred to not wear any clothes inside the rooms given to her. The fact that it made her captor uncomfortable was an added bonus.

She stared at him until he finally spoke.

“I would like to show you something,” he said. His words would have been instantly translated into her language by the Erasi translating device on her temple, but he had spoken in her language. She had been teaching him her language, just as he had been teaching her his.

Anessa tilted her head, then turned around and grabbed the clothes from her bed. She then proceeded to put them on slowly, all the while using all her senses to feel out his reaction. He had great control, but his mastery of the Sha was not perfect. She’d noticed a handful of instances when his control over his mental abilities slipped, just for a moment. Too short of a period for anyone to take advantage of; in fact, too short for most to even notice it. However, she was a Dai Sha, one of the most powerful Sha masters in the Shara Daim. She could take advantage of it, even crippled as she was. The most she could get was a snippet of his emotions, a stray thought here and there.

She knew that he found her attractive, which had surprised her the first time she’d felt it. Since then, she had paid a bit more attention to his reactions, and had found that he wasn’t unpleasant to look at, only different than what she was used to. But those things mattered little to Shara Daim; they looked for different qualities in mates. And Anessa only involved herself with those who were her equals.

“What is it that you want to show me?” she asked as she finished dressing.

“Come and see,” he said.

Anessa’s face twitched. Her captor seemed reliant on theatrics. That was to be expected, if she had been dealing with any other opponent. However, this Human had never been an ordinary opponent. He had given her information freely that had given her an edge over him; he had, in fact, tricked her into revealing things to him that under ordinary circumstances she would never have done. She gave herself a bit of a pass there; she had been injured, and for the first time since being a scared little child, had found herself restrained and without the access to most of her Sha abilities.

As they walked out of the room and through the long hallways of whatever construct they were in, Anessa reflected on her situation. She’d been a prisoner for some time. A well-treated prisoner, for sure, but a prisoner all the same. She had given her oath to not try and escape, and she had abided by it because she had been promised that she would be returned to her people. And because she was certain that she couldn’t escape or harm them enough for it to be a worthy death. To die a pointless death was the worst fate a Shara Daim could imagine. But as time passed and she was still imprisoned, she found herself growing more and more impatient. Adrian had assured her that she would be sent to her people in time.

And even if she wanted to escape, she wouldn’t be able to. She didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know how to operate their technology, and she had no access to the majority of her Sha—she didn’t want to try and remove the device on her own and risk crippling her own abilities. And without it, she doubted that she could get far. She was never allowed outside of her room without Adrian present, and without her Sha, he had the advantage. She was stronger and faster than him, but his fighting capability was superior despite that.

She had no choice but to trust that he would honor his promise. Four guards followed them with weapons held ready, but Anessa knew that they had no Sha. She had only encountered two who had it, Adrian and the female that she fought with on Tarabat. And she hadn’t seen the female since they had arrived here. Adrian had told her that they had awakened Sha only recently, and that they were not born with it. It was one more bit of evidence that they were not worthy of possessing the knowledge inside the device.

Adrian was trying to convince her that peace between the Shara Daim and the Empire was possible, but he did not understand. The Shara Daim’s goal was to rule the galaxy; they would not accept an outsider, someone inferior to them, as partners. Yet, as more and more time passed with her still imprisoned, she had started to wonder. The Shara Daim had never entertained the possibility of making alliances with other races simply because others were inferior. But the Humans and the Nel were descended from the same people as the Shara Daim. Or rather, created by the same person, as Anessa had recently learned.

The Elders of the Shara Daim kept much hidden. Once she had thought that that was their prerogative, that they knew what was best for their people. Now, she had seen how things were in this Empire, and found them similar to her own people. Were the Shara Daim truly better than their two sibling races? Or was that just the arrogance of the Elders and the rest of her people? The ordinary people of the Shara Daim knew nothing but what the Elders allowed to be known; the history the people learned was not the truth, and if they had lied about one thing, what else did they keep hidden?

Anessa was conflicted. She believed that her people were destined to rule the galaxy, just as their ancestors once did. She had been raised to know that Shara Daim were superior to all other, and to know that the Elders of her race always acted for the good of Shara Daim, but the more time she spent away from her people, the more she wondered whether the Elders truly had the good of all Shara Daim in mind. If they did, why keep secrets? The truth about their origins had not changed Anessa’s thinking; it would not change the thinking of the rest of her people.

They walked for a short time, passing other people walking about their business. One small group caught her eye. It was three people: a Nel man, a human woman, and a child. She hadn’t seen a child during her captivity, so she stared for a moment. The child had human eyes, without the secondary eyelids that both Shara Daim and the Nel had, but it also had a lighter skin tone of the Nel and a tail.

Adrian noticed her studying the child as they passed and looked at her strangely.

“We don’t usually have children here,” Adrian said. “Families usually choose to live deeper in our territory. This family is here only to visit relatives.”

Anessa looked at him, confused. “You mean, the two of them are the parents?” she asked in disbelief.

“Of course,” Adrian responded.

Anessa looked at him, not knowing whether to feel shock or disgust. It had never occurred to her before. She knew intellectually that their races were related to each other, but this was something more.

Adrian must’ve noticed her inner turmoil, as he explained, “It’s true that there are differences between our three races. But Axull Darr made sure that any of the three races can reproduce with the other two.”

Anessa tried to reconcile that knowledge with her belief; it was one thing to know that your race was engineered and that there were two others who had been created similarly, but to actually see proof…she didn’t know what that could mean.

Adrian turned and led them away, walking a short distance before they reached their destination. As they approached the door, they opened to let them in. Anessa wondered how her captor did that; she’d not felt any telepathic interfaces anywhere, and yet the technology operated by some unseen means, and she was sure that it didn’t respond to motion. It was another mystery she hoped to solve.

They entered a large room filled with people standing or sitting in front of holographic displays. They walked to the center of the room to a large round table, above which a hologram was showing a large fleet of ships. There were too many for her to count, but she could tell that they were greater in number than a single Shara Daim Legion, perhaps more than two.

“Is this supposed to scare me?” Anessa asked. “Do you think that this will somehow change my mind?”

He gave her a smile. “No, this force is not gathered to impress you. It, and us along with it, will leave for Ra’a’zani space tomorrow. And after, I will release you to go back to your people.”

“You think that that is wise? Starting a war with the Ra’a’zani, just as my people are to attack you?” Anessa asked guardedly. He paused, outwardly retaining his confident aura, but for a moment Anessa caught a stray emotion as it slipped through his blocks. He was unsure. She kept her new insight to herself and waited for an answer.

“There is plenty of time for us to deal with the Ra’a’zani before your people arrive,” Adrian said.

“My people have been at war with the Ra’a’zani for decades. What makes you think that you can do better?”

“You fought with only one of your Legions, and started the war with the Ra’a’zani at the height of their power. They are nowhere near as powerful now as they were then,” he said, and again a snippet slipped through—he was confident in his words.

Anessa narrowed her eyes at him. The human had a lot more information than what Anessa had told him. He knew about the particulars of her war on the Ra’a’zani, which could only mean that they had acquired that information from the Erasi. And it would be problematic if the Erasi were actively selling information to them.

“And how will I be returned to my people?” Anessa asked. “Your ships would not be allowed to leave our territory should you enter.”

“My ship will not be staying in the Ra’a’zani territory for long. We will visit Tarabat and I will purchase a ship for you. I assume that that will be adequate.”

Surprised, Anessa responded immediately, “Yes.”

The prospect of going back to her people immediately invigorated her; she had been approaching her limits. She knew that plans for the invasion of this Empire would already be in motion; the Elders wanted the sphere too much to wait. And if the Empire had dealings with the Erasi, that meant that their location was known. It wouldn’t take long for the Shara Daim to find out the Empire’s location. But over the time she had spent as prisoner, Anessa had learned a great deal, and she was no longer as sure that the Shara Daim could roll over the Empire as the Elders thought. They still believed that they were dealing with a weak race, one that had allowed itself to be enslaved by the Ra’a’zani. But even though she disagreed with their views, she knew that the attack had to come now, before the Empire had the chance to utilize more technologies from the sphere.

Adrian gave her another of his confident smiles and was just about to speak when one of his subordinates interrupted him.

“Lord Sentinel, we have an unauthorized trans-space transfer from the Luna lane,” the Nel said.

Adrian turned back to the holo just as its image changed to now show four ships sitting in the empty space. The markings and labels of the holo were unfamiliar to Anessa, but she quickly realized that what she was seeing was a trans-space entry point into this system. And she recognized the ships—three Erasi cruisers escorting one of their diplomatic vessels. She quickly moved her eyes across everything on the holo and stored all the information that she saw, just as the holo changed again and Adrian stepped into her line of sight.

“I apologize, but I’m afraid that our trip needs to be cut short. Let me escort you back to your quarters,” Adrian said, leading her away from the room.

Chapter Three

As soon as the doors to the prisoner’s quarters closed, two people stepped out from around the corner where they had been following out of sight. Adrian started walking towards the two, Akash and Sora following a few steps behind. One of them stood on his three tentacle-like legs; the other was Gotu, the Nel who was Adrian’s second in command. Both were waiting for Adrian, who walked with languid, confident steps. As soon as Adrian reached them, they started walking back towards the command hub.

“So, what do you think, teacher?” Adrian asked the tall Sowir telepathically.

“You were correct. Even with your device, she can sense you telepathically,” Lurker of the Depths said.

“What did he say?” Gotu asked, sounding annoyed, as he felt left out of the conversation without telepathy.

“That I was correct,” Adrian answered.

“Good, at least we have that going for us. Were you successful?” Gotu asked.

Adrian turned to Lurker of the Depths and quirked his eyebrow. “Well?”

“She did not realize your deceptions. She believed the ‘telepathic leaks’ to be genuine,” Lurker of the Depths responded.

“Good. And what about the arrival of the Erasi?” Adrian sent.

“You don’t need me to tell you that she noticed what you wanted her to notice. Your two people have much in common in how you express your emotions.”

“True that. Now I just need to make sure that I don’t give away too much and make her suspicious,” Adrian sent.

“Your telepathic ability is superior to hers. She might have more power, but she lacks finesse,” Lurker of the Depths sent back.

“Good, because in every other Sha ability, she is leagues ahead of me. The only reason I survived our battle was because of our numbers advantage and because she was trying to capture me unharmed. She could have crushed me like paper in her hand if she so wished,” Adrian sent.

“It is good that you acknowledge your limits,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

They walked in silence, with Lurker of the Depths drawing looks from the Nel residents of Olympus Mons as they walked past.

“There is still a great deal of distrust pointed at my people,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

“You can’t expect them to forget. Just them accepting you as a part of the Empire, no matter how unofficial your status, is a great step forward,” Adrian responded.

“I know,” Lurker of the Depths responded, sending a glimpse into the abyss of regret he felt for his people’s actions in the past. “What we have done might never be forgiven. We understand that. And yet, those of us who remain are stalwart in our desire to make amends.”

“Gotu has accepted you. Others will too,” Adrian sent.

“He might be willing to work with my kind, but it is only out of his respect for you. He feels the same anger as the others of his kind,” Lurker of the Depths sent regrettably.

Adrian was surprised, since it was something he hadn’t noticed. His telepathy might have had the potential to be more powerful than that of his teacher, but he was still not at the level of Lurker of the Depths. The Sowir’s only means of communication was through telepathy, and they had become very good at it. And Lurker of the Depths was Sowir’s greatest and most powerful telepath.

Telepathy was an amazing tool, but it was not what Adrian had imagined it would be before he gained it. A person with telepathy could not read the mind of another, at least not easily. And it was near impossible for a telepath to retrieve information from someone who didn’t also have telepathy. That required multiple powerful telepaths working in concert.

And reading the mind of another telepath required both knowledge and power, and even then it was extremely hard. At most one could get at the information that the person didn’t value much. Things that were truly important to a telepath were buried deep and protected well.

Adrian had learned long ago how to skim through the surface thoughts of non-telepaths, how to put ‘noise’ into their minds in order to distract. But doing the same with another telepath was tricky. They usually had defenses against such things, and were far more sensitive to any kind of invasion. And while Adrian was a great telepath according to the Sowir standards, he still wasn’t as good as his teacher in the arts of reading another telepath’s mind without them realizing it. Which was why Adrian had called the older Sowir to help him.

Adrian glanced at Gotu, who was walking to his left, and studied him. There was no sign of unease or anger from him toward the Sowir, but then, Nel were very good at keeping their true emotions to themselves. He reached with his mind and tried to get a feel for his friend’s mood. After a few moments, Adrian caught a glimpse of what his teacher had seen so effortlessly.

Gotu turned and caught Adrian studying him, and he made a Nel hand gesture that meant curiosity at Adrian. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Adrian said, responding with another gesture that told Gotu that he did not wish to speak of it at the moment, just as they reached the command hub. “Can you handle the Erasi diplomats?”

“Shouldn’t you do it?” Gotu asked.

“Not really. It was always the plan for you to administer and run the Sol system from here. Dealing with diplomats is your job,” Adrian responded.

“Alright, then. I assume that you want me to put their embassy in the south wing?” Gotu asked.

“Yes. And see if you can get them to give us any more information on the Shara Daim.”

“Sure,” Gotu said, and entered the room.

Adrian led Lurker of the Depths away and towards the area of Olympus Mons delegated to the Sowir, who had arrived a few days ago. They entered the large hangar-like room, with dozens of Sowir moving equipment from the end of the room where a large pile of crates was to the large pool at the other end of the room. Adrian knew that most of the equipment would be installed inside small rooms underwater, some submerged, others filled with pockets of air. The Sowir living quarters were also down there, as they preferred water despite the fact that they could survive on land.

“How long before you and your people are ready to start the constructions?” Adrian asked.

“A couple of days, no more. All of our construction vessels are in orbit and ready; we only need to settle in down here,” Lurker of the Depths responded. “Granted that the fabricators you promised arrive on time.”

“They will. Isani informed me that they are on their way from Warpath,” Adrian sent.

“Good. This will be a good thing for my people. Until now, we were kept isolated inside our home system. Interacting with others, including those we have wronged, will start the process of healing. I am thankful to you for that, Adrian,” Lurker of the Depths sent, showing Adrian his gratitude.

“It was time. Isolation would have only allowed the wounds to fester,” Adrian sent.

Ever since their defeat, the Sowir had been kept isolated in their home system. At first they had been left alone, bound to their worlds, but as time had passed, the Emperor had allowed them more freedoms. Eventually they had started building civilian vessels for the Empire; then they’d moved to mining equipment and eventually to building stations. And now Adrian had brought them to Sol to help him develop and construct a new defense grid and stations for the system based on technologies from the sphere, augmented and adapted for Sol’s needs.

It had taken some convincing to get them here. The Guxcacul and the Nel were not happy, but thankfully their inclusion to the Empire meant that they had to leave their personal feelings aside. After a bit of convincing from Tomas, they’d agreed to allow the Sowir outside of their ‘prison’ system.

The Empire’s unity, its bonds, came from a simple thing—knowledge. Tomas knew that knowledge was the great equalizer; it gave everyone the same starting point. Lack of dissidents in the Empire came from the fact that everyone had equal rights and opportunities. All could get the education they wanted; all could live freely and with the same quality even if they decided not to give back to society. But that happened rarely; from the moment a child in the Empire was capable of learning, it was taught that life was about advancement, about always improving oneself, never allowing yourself to stagnate, always moving forward in every direction.

“I have seen the data on your assembling pools. Any chance that we could use them?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

“We are still experimenting with the technology; it isn’t yet up to par with the fabricators. There are defects in finished products that we haven’t been able to correct. Hopefully in a couple of years the technology will be ready,” Adrian responded.

“A pity. What you are asking of us would have gone much faster if we could use that.”

Adrian was about to respond when he heard Iris’s voice in his head.

“A message from Aileen has arrived for you, Adrian,” she said.

Adrian brought it up on his HUD, and after a few moments of skimming through it, he turned to Lurker of the Depths.

“I will have to leave you to get your people settled. There is an urgent matter I have to take care of,” Adrian sent, and turned, walking away and leaving the Sowir behind.

***

A couple of hours later, Adrian stood in the Olympus Mons base’s hangar bay watching a shuttle from the Second Fleet’s flagship—the command ship Decisive—slowly lowering itself to the floor. After it landed and its doors lowered, he watched as a blonde woman wearing the Fleet uniform with the rank of Fleet Commander slowly made her way towards him.

“Johanna,” Adrian said as he shook the woman’s hand.

“Adrian, I hope that this is important. I have much work to do before we leave tomorrow,” Fleet Commander Johanna Stern of the Second Fleet said as she turned and gave the two wolions a pat on the head each.

“It is. Come, let us move to someplace more private,” Adrian said, and led her to a small meeting room attached to the hangar.

“What is this about, Adrian?” Johanna asked once they were inside the room and seated.

“I have received a report from Sentinel Aileen,” Adrian said. He had sent Aileen on a mission to Tarabat, to establish a presence and develop relationships with other races present there, but also to lay a foundation for an information network. That was what a Sentinel’s job was supposed to be, to evaluate and learn about races outside of the Empire’s borders. “She sent me the coordinates for the place where the fleets should wait for her,” Adrian continued. “The Erasi might be willing to sell information to us about the Shara Daim, but something tells me that they will be doing the same for our enemies.”

Johanna nodded. “So, is there anything we should know before we leave?”

“The Erasi were less than forthcoming concerning Shara Daim military movements; they insist that they don’t know anything. But Aileen managed to...obtain a few pieces of information from other sources,” Adrian said.

“And?”

“The Shara Daim Legions are mobilizing, just as we suspected. But the word she sent back is that it isn’t just a few Legions; the rumors that reached Aileen’s ears are that they are mobilizing all of their Legions,” Adrian said.

“All of them?” Johanna asked incredulously. “For us?”

“Yes. It looks like they really want our sphere,” Adrian said with a grim smile.

“How many are there?” Johanna asked.

“Our intel suggests anywhere from two dozen to fifty. Each comparable in size to our fleets.”

“We can’t fight those numbers, Adrian. We have six fleets, with another three on the way by the end of the year, not counting the system defenses, but those are all old ships and drones. We might be able to raise the fleet numbers to sixteen in four, maybe three years. But it will still not be enough if they hit us fast and hard.”

“It isn’t as bad as that. Tomas and I have plans. If it comes to all-out war, we might not match their numbers, but we will have enough to defend ourselves. The good news is that their territory is so large that it will take years for all of them to reach us. The bad news is that they have three Legions close enough that they can attack in six months. The problem is that for my plan to work, I need them to attack with those three Legions before the other Legions arrive,” Adrian said.

“Why?” Johanna asked.

“I want to make peace with them—we need to make peace, but the Shara Daim are not like us. They want to rule the galaxy, and they believe everyone else to be inferior to them. We need to make them see us as their equal, as someone worthy.”

“There must have been other races that have been close to their equal—the Erasi, for example. They did not succeed in changing the way the Shara Daim look at them, so what makes you think that we can?”

“Because the other races were not made by Axull Darr. The entire Shara Daim culture rests on the notion that they are the heirs to the galaxy, descendants of the people who once ruled it, which we are as well. We are not so different from them; our goal is to rule the galaxy as well,” Adrian said.

“But we do not go around eradicating other cultures towards that goal,” Johanna said.

“Don’t we?” Adrian asked. “We might not use destructive weapons, but the result is the same. Any race that joins our Empire leaves who they were behind in order to become something new. We have destroyed cultures of every race that had joined our Empire.”

“Perhaps, but how will you make peace with them?” Johanna asked.

Adrian’s expression turned hard. “I am going to do what the Empire had been doing since its founding: I am going to destroy their civilization. I am going to shatter their belief that they are special, that they are the ones destined to rule the galaxy. I am going to force them to change. And the only way to do that is from within.”

Chapter Four

One month later — April; Year 55 of the Empire—Tarabat—Erasi space

Aileen, Sentinel of the Empire, walked into the small establishment, struggling not to rip the uncomfortable breathing mask off her face. She was in one of Tarabat’s domed cities, built to accommodate races that couldn’t breathe the air of Tarabat. She had spent the last few months on the planet’s surface, expanding the Empire’s influence with the Erasi and other races in the region. But she had also been trying to learn more about the Erasi, their practices and goals.

As she stepped inside, she noticed that the ceiling of the establishment was low, and she had to hunch in order to not hit her head. Before she’d the chance to take more than a few steps in, she was met with a strange insect-like creature which was almost all spindly appendages coming out of two larger round sections. Its head was at the end of a short and somewhat thicker ‘neck’ and was circular with multifaceted eyes and three sets of mandibles above them. Her implant immediately provided her with the information about the alien race on her HUD; its race’s name in its native tongue was unpronounceable by Aileen, and most other races, which was why they simply called them Hav. The alien was wearing the Erasi translation device, as all did here on Tarabat.

“Welcome I-you,” the alien said. The translator might have been an amazing piece of technology, but there existed races whose speech patterns were just too strange to translate precisely. The Hav were one such race.

“Greetings,” Aileen said. “I was told that I might find what I am looking for here.”

“What, looking might you be?” the Hav said.

“Information about the Weavers,” Aileen said slowly.

The Hav froze for a moment, his multifaceted eyes looking at her intently. Aileen reached out gently with her mind, trying to get a feeling of the Hav’s emotions. The Hav did not possess telepathy, which meant that it would be much harder for her to feel anything. But soon enough she got a few snippets from his mind—the Hav was frightened.

“I was sent by Narateth,” Aileen said quickly, and the Hav immediately relaxed upon hearing the name of the Jugat who had become a great help to the Empire’s people on Tarabat.

“Good, should told-know that before,” the Hav said, then turned and started walking towards the back room. “Come.”

Aileen followed and was led into a room that was half filled with some kind of green fog. She stepped inside the larger room, the fog reaching to her hips. The Hav was almost completely submerged, hidden except for its head.

“Here, information is,” the Hav said, and turned and left confused Aileen inside the room. She looked around, seeing nothing but the fog. She reached out with her mind, fearing some kind of a trap. Then something brushed against her mind, just as the surface of the fog rippled. Aileen took a step back and readied herself for a fight when a voice boomed inside her head.

“Fear me not, child,” the voice boomed.

Aileen shuddered at the intensity and the strength of the mind that spoke. “Who are you? Show yourself,” she sent.

The fog rippled again, and a head slowly rose, with a scale-covered, snake-like body following behind. The triangular head with large horns curved backwards rose to look down on Aileen, and the being opened its mouth, allowing her to see three rows of sharp, jagged teeth on both the upper and lower jaws. The being released a surprisingly soft and musical sound from its throat before its jaws closed and it lowered itself to be at eye level with Aileen.

“You may call me Jurr, although that is not my name. Others call my kind the Uraasat, though that is not the name of our kind,” sent the being, Jurr.

“And what is your real name?” Aileen asked curiously.

She felt the being’s amusement. “You would not be able to comprehend it in your tongue; Jurr and Uraasat will suffice. And who might you be, little child?”

“My name is Aileen, from the Empire that has recently made contact with the Erasi,” Aileen responded, embarrassed for not introducing herself immediately.

“Ah, I have heard of your Empire. You who dared kidnap a Shara Daim Dai Sha, whose ship shrugged off Shara Daim attacks and escaped so effortlessly,” Jurr sent, again with the hint of amusement.

“We are planning on returning the Dai Sha to her people soon,” Aileen added, chagrined. Something about this creature made her feel inadequate.

The Uraasat released a rasping sound at the same time as Aileen felt laughter from its mind. “Tell me, what aid might I provide to a people such as yours? Few find my doors without needing knowledge of something special.”

“I wish to know about the Erasi, about their Weavers,” Aileen sent.

“Ahhh...May I ask how you learned about them?”

“Erasi have good security measures, but we have been able to acquire a few snippets of information. We don’t know much, only that they are...instrumental in the Erasi,” Aileen said.

Jurr tilted its head and studied her with its dark red eyes. “The Erasi seem like a great and free society; many different races are allowed to live and trade freely among themselves within its borders, with the Erasi there to ensure that the contracts made are honored. And yet they are not at all what they appear to be.”

“How so?” Aileen asked.

“Nothing is free in the Erasi, a payment first.” Jurr sent, Aileen was already warned on how much this audience will cost, so she reached into her coat’s inner pocket and grabbed preloaded credit chip and extended her hand towards the creature. One moment later the chip floated off her palm and down into the mist.

“Who rules the Erasi?” Jurr asked.

“Their founding races, the Gatray, the Uvaramo, and the Sorvani,” Aileen answered.

“Yes, and they have ruled for a long time...How many would you say are close to their level?”

Based on what Aileen and her people had learned, she knew that there was no race that could match the three founding races. For all intents and purposes, they were the Erasi.

“You are saying that that is by design?” Aileen asked.

“The Erasi has existed for a long time; it was built on the promise that all who join will grow equally. Yet the original three hold more territory, more warships, than all the other members combined. The others are used and exploited; the Erasi get a cut of any deal they enforce, and they control the distribution of technology. The races that join have no choice but to accept the Erasi terms, because without them they would be vulnerable, whether to their neighbors or stagnation,” Jurr sent.

“There doesn’t seem to be any discontent with the other races, as far as I have seen,” Aileen sent.

“And that is where the Weavers come in. They are the manipulators behind the curtains. They make sure that events transpire in the manner that benefits the three founding races. They make sure that the right people are in power, by bribing, intimidating, and assassinating when necessary. And their influence reaches far outside Erasi territory. They have toppled the governments of races that did not even know that the Erasi existed; they have instigated wars between peaceful neighbors, and made peace between mortal enemies, all so that they may grow more powerful,” Jurr said with a hint of anger. “My kind were once their victims. Unseen, they pushed another race to attack mine, and then they came and offered us aid which allowed us to destroy the attacking race completely. But the aid they provided was only enough to just barely ensure our victory, leaving us weak and broken and with no choice but to join the Erasi when they offered. Then, over the next couple of hundreds of years, they slowly drained us. Events happened that made us lose our interests, coincidences and accidents that forced us to downsize our holdings until we eventually lost all our territory. A disease that had no cure suddenly appeared among my people, leaving us infertile. And so over a relatively short period of time, they had ended my race.” Jurr’s rage and sorrow slipped through the connection and into Aileen’s mind.

“Why did they do that?” Aileen asked.

“A simple reason: because of fear,” Jurr said as his head rose above her. “My kind possessed power greater than theirs: telepathy, telekinesis, and other abilities. They did not wish to allow us to grow, fearing that one day we might become a threat. They will do the same to you, but unlike the Shara Daim, who will come after you openly, the Erasi will pretend to be your friends while manipulating events against you behind your backs.”

Aileen nodded, a gesture that was lost on the Uraasat. Adrian already had suspicions about the Erasi, ever since they had allowed the Veritas to leave Tarabat unopposed with a Shara Daim prisoner. It was why Aileen was here, to find more about them. “We had suspected some of this,” Aileen sent. “I assume that you have more than just your words to back this claim?”

Jurr tilted its head again. “You do not trust my words?”

“I did not know you yesterday, nor had I ever heard of your kind. And our short talk is not enough for trust to be built.”

Again, Jurr released a rasping sound that Aileen now knew was laughter, then it focused its eyes on her. “Yes, I have more than just my words to back that up. The question is, what can you offer me in return for it?”

“Didn’t I already pay you for information?”

“What you desire is more than simple information, for something like this I require more than simple credits.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to see the Erasi burn, their civilization crumbled to ash,” Jurr sent forcefully.

“That I cannot promise. We will protect our interests, but destroying the Erasi is another thing entirely,” Aileen sent. Jurr rose to tower above her and she felt him starting to speak, but she interrupted him, “But, there is something else that I can offer you that you will find worth equal or even more than what you ask.”

“And what might that be?”

“You said that your people have been infected with a disease. If it is in fact a disease artificially manufactured by the Erasi, or even if it is not, we might be able to help you. My people have a great knowledge of genetics and biological manipulation; we have eradicated all the diseases that once plagued us. We might be able to find a cure for your people,” Aileen sent.

Jurr lowered its snake-like body until its head was again on the eye level with Aileen. “To see my people restored, to see a youngling of my people again, that would be a gift greater than anything else,” he sent. Then a small box rose out of the fog slowly and stopped in front of Aileen, held there telekinetically by the Uraasat.

Aileen reached out and took it in her hands. She opened the box and found six small Erasi datachips. She closed the box and turned her eyes back at Jurr.

“That is all that my people and our associates know about the Erasi Weavers and the three founding races. Hopefully it will prove useful to you,” Jurr sent, then more intently continued, “I will be sending some of my people to you under the guise of traders, so that you may make tests on the disease that plagues us.”

“I can only promise that we will try,” Aileen said.

“That is more than any other in the Erasi have done,” Jurr said, and slowly disappeared into the fog. Aileen followed his signature remotely. She felt him move further and further away, meaning that there must be passages below the fog. Aileen was aware that there were many lower levels of the Dome. Homes to creatures that liked different kind of environments.

Aileen waited until she could no longer feel the Uraasat, and then she turned and left the room, going back to her people.

Chapter Five

Several days later — April; Year 55 of the Empire—Veritas; trans-space

Anessa was twenty-three years old, and she had been studying to become a Dai Sha for seven years now, ever since she had finished her basic schooling. Dai Sha training was long and hard; more than ninety percent of all who were admitted into the program failed. However, Anessa knew that she would not fail; this was who she was meant to be.

She remembered clearly that day when her Sha had awakened, when she had almost killed a classmate. She remembered the adults speaking when they thought that she couldn’t hear, saying how what she had done was impossible, that her power equaled that of a grown person. She was called a prodigy, a Sha user unlike any who had been born in recent memory, perhaps ever.

She recalled her father’s words on his last day. He had been old when she was born, well into the last chapter of his life. He had called her to his room when she was twelve, and Anessa had gone, sitting on his bed and holding his fragile hand as he spoke to her. He’d told her how proud he was of her; he’d told her that there was no greater honor in life than to serve the Elders directly as a Dai Sha. And he knew about that; he had been a soldier, one that had reached to the height of the elite. He had been a Do Sun, serving under a great Dai Sha. He’d told her that she would be a weapon for her people, a Dai Sha unlike any before her. One that would protect her people. And she had believed him. From that day forward, her only desire had been to serve the Elders and her people. She had followed that desire.

She had been invited to study and become a Dai Sha by the Elders themselves, via holo-message, an honor never before heard of. She flew through the training easily; nothing was beyond her reach. The things other struggled with, she did with no effort at all; nothing forced her to use her full power or abilities. And she was among other people like her. Her fellow students were all unique, all talented with the Sha like she was. Few were close to her level of power, but all had the talent.

One of her fellows approached her as she walked towards the practice hall for her next lesson. When he was close enough, Narrasak grabbed her and pulled her to him, lowering his mouth to her neck, biting her flesh softly. Anessa allowed him his displays of affection in public. She had only recently discovered the pleasures that a man and a woman could give to one another, and she was enjoying herself. And Narrasak was a worthy partner; he was one of the strongest students in the program alongside Anessa.

“Narrasak, we will be late,” Anessa said, as she slowly disengaged herself.

“You’re right,” Narrasak said, his eyes gleaming with passion. “We will continue tonight.”

Anessa hit him in the shoulder as she passed, not bothering to respond. She could hardly wait. They reached the practice hall, and entered just a moment or two before their instructors.

After the practice, one of their Sha instructors asked her to stay behind so that he could speak with her alone.

“You are holding back,” he said once everyone had left.

“I’m not holding back, I just have no need to use everything I am capable of,” Anessa responded calmly.

“That is true, but it is not the whole truth. There is something that makes you pull back, and someday that might cost you your life,” the instructor told her. Anessa dismissed his words. What did he know? Already she could squash him like an insignificant pest. She knew that none of her instructors were truly her equals in terms of power.

Anessa woke from another dream of her past. It had been more than a century since she had last thought about the beginnings of her training to become a Dai Sha, or Narrasak. Once, she had thought that he would be her Dal A’sha, a life partner, but that dream had ended terribly. She shook her head and stood up from the bed, going to the cleaning room. She had barely had the chance to finish when she felt a familiar mind in front of her doors. She sighed and moved to clothe herself.

A few minutes later, Anessa stood across from Adrian, staring at him, still processing his words.

“You were serious?” she asked incredulously. She hadn’t really believed him when he came to her quarters and asked her to come with him so that they can spar. The two of them were the only people in the large room on his ship, obviously designed for training, with various machines and training courses lining the walls. “You captured me. Does that not tell you all you need to know?”

Adrian smiled at her, “I will not use the Sha. I want to spar with you, only using our physical abilities,” he said.

“You are a better fighter than me,” Anessa said slowly, still not understanding the point.

“I am not an idiot, Anessa, I felt your power when we fought. You weren’t fighting with your full capabilities; you were trying to capture me unharmed. We surprised you and outnumbered you, and we got lucky. I’m under no illusion that I could win a battle to the death if you had access to the Sha.”

Anessa looked at him calmly, knowing that his words were true. If she had fought with everything she had, Adrian and his people wouldn’t have left alive. But then, she had needed him alive. She couldn’t have risked harming him before she had had the chance to interrogate him, and she had underestimated him. A mistake that she will not repeat again. “Then what is the point?” she asked.

“Even without the Sha, you are stronger and faster; it is a good challenge for me. I can train fighting a stronger opponent. And you can learn more about my people’s way of fighting,” Adrian said. “Is that not the Shara Daim way? To always seek more strength, to reinforce your place at the top?”

Immediately, Anessa realized that this was a great opportunity for her to learn. “Our way is that of blood and death. To become stronger through spilling our enemies’ blood,” she said.

The two had touched upon their people’s philosophies only a bit, and Anessa had learned enough to know that the Empire’s way was far weaker. They valued the lives of lower creatures, and they even went as far as to uplift them, give them power that they did not deserve, and that made them weak as well.

“You are not worried that I will kill you?” she asked.

“You gave your word not to, but even if you did, what would it accomplish?” he asked, and then when she didn’t respond, he continued. “So, shall we?” Adrian said, and took a strange stance.

Anessa had never seen the kind of fighting style that Adrian utilized, for Shara Daim all styles relied on strength and were designed to fight non-Shara Daim opponents. Battles between Shara Daim were always decided by their talent with the Sha.

A chance to learn even a bit of Adrian’s style was a great boon which would make her stronger. Both of them wore the ‘skin-suits’ of the Empire, only they didn’t have the added over-garment that everyone Anessa had seen wore. She took a stance of her own, slightly spread feet and hands raised in front of her head.

With a last confident smile at Anessa, Adrian launched himself at her.

He was fast, but she was faster. She stepped forward, raising her right arm above her head and bringing it down in a powerful strike aimed at his shoulder. Adrian simply twisted his upper body, grabbed her arm as it was passing him, turned, and put his back at her front. She tried to grab hold of him with her other arm, to put it around his front, but before she was able, she found herself flying over his head and hitting the floor with her back, hard, her right arm still held by his. He twisted and put his knee at her elbow, somehow locking her entire body. Every time she tried to move, he would exert just a bit of force on her elbow and she was forced to stop or risk him breaking her arm. He looked at her from above for a moment or two before letting her go and stepping back.

Anessa slowly got to her feet while she kept her eyes locked on him. She had never felt more helpless in a fight. She didn’t have her Sha. She was stronger, faster, and bigger, yet she hadn’t been able to do anything to stop him as he threw her to the floor.

She charged him, lowering herself to catch him in his midriff, but he simply dropped to the floor and rolled, tripping her legs with his body. Anessa placed her hands on the floor and threw herself over her head, landing on her feet. She turned immediately, ready to defend herself, but Adrian was standing out of her range, watching her.

Anessa grinned at him smugly, and Adrian quirked an eyebrow before running straight at her. He jumped and twisted in the air, swiping his left leg at her torso. Anessa blocked and went in for a grab with her free hand. Adrian caught her hand, then placed his leg on her chest and pushed himself into a backflip, landing on his feet just as Anessa reached him again and tried to grab him. Her hands caught only air as Adrian danced away, hitting her in the side as he moved behind her. The punch barely stung her, and as she turned, he made a gesture with his hand that she didn’t recognize but whose meaning was apparent: ‘Come.’

She narrowed her eyes as she was thinking of likely strategies. He wasn’t slower than her by much, but it was enough that she should’ve caught him already, yet he somehow managed to avoid all her attacks. It was as if he knew what she was going to do before even she did. No, it wasn’t that, she realized; it was as if he read her moves just as she started them. In theory, that was what every warrior trained for, but to actually do it in combat at those speeds was another thing entirely. But if he was reading her so fast, then there were things she could do to mitigate his advantage.

***

What felt like hours later, Anessa and Adrian were still locked in a never-ending struggle. She was still trying to catch him and he still evaded her. She knew that she could’ve landed a few blows, but by some unspoken agreement, they had established that was not the purpose of this training exercise. And that was exactly what this was; Anessa had realized that Adrian was indirectly teaching her his way of fighting, and she was soaking everything as fast as she could.

His style was unlike anything she had seen, fluid, ever-changing to the situation. It didn’t rely on strength and speed, but on controlling his opponent’s movements, by using her strength against her. It was amazing. And as more and more time passed, she tried to stop relying on her strength and instead tried tricking him into a position favorable to her. She never did manage it, of course; he was always just a breath away. What she in the beginning had believed was him barely evading her, she now realized was intentional; he never made a move that was more than what was required, evading only enough to be out of her reach, taunting her, forcing her to be better.

Both of them were covered in sweat, their breaths coming quicker, but both of them had wide grins on their faces as they enjoyed the challenge, and Anessa couldn’t help but compare this to her own training in the Shara Daim.

Her training had been nothing like this; it had been a painful ordeal, and it had never been restricted only the physical aspect of combat. Their trainings always included the Sha, as there was never a time when they were without it, not until now. Anessa now knew that Shara Daim hand-to-hand prowess was lacking. They had never had the need to train it; why would they, when they could just throw their opponents with the Sha or keep them frozen long enough to land a hit?

She had been trained since she was a small child, since her talent with the Sha was discovered, always taught that Shara Daim were superior. She knew that one day she would be the first among the Shara Daim, a Dai Sha. She had been trained in the use of the Sha, pushed to her physical limits countless times, and always she’d returned stronger from that edge. But now, she could feel herself getting better, without the physical pain, all the while doing something that she enjoyed—fighting a worthy and strong opponent. She did not remember the last time that she had felt such simple joy.

Anessa’s goal was to restrain her opponent, and by now she had gotten a feeling for his movements. She prepared to make her final move. While she now had a basic understanding of her opponent’s style, she was nowhere near proficient enough to mimic it. But she had other advantages. Over the course of their ‘fight,’ she had slowed her movements to match his speed, used less strength, giving him a false sense of security. She allowed him to dictate the tempo of their movements.

And then she suddenly changed it; she moved faster, changing the target of her attack mid-way through. Her palm slammed on his wrist and she grabbed with all her strength. For a moment, she was surprised that she managed it. The moment was enough that she lost her balance. She reached over and took his other hand in hers, and Adrian took advantage of it. He pulled his hands back, her own hands following; she tried to regain her balance by leaning her weight on her opponent, but in the end both of them fell to the floor with Anessa on top of Adrian.

Her weight pinned him to the floor, her hands still holding his. Both of them were breathing hard, and she could feel his muscles tremble, just as hers were, from the effort of their exercise. She looked into his eyes. They were not like the eyes of Shara Daim; he had a brown ring surrounding the black pupil, and the ring was surrounded by white tissue, unlike her eyes, which were a white ring surrounded by black tissue. Humans did not appear to have secondary eyelids, although the few Nel she had seen seemed to have them.

For a moment she gazed down at him. He was looking back at her with a grin on his face. It surprised her how similar they were, despite the differences. She’d caught him, and that single act made her feel extremely proud, especially since she knew that her opponent was much better than her in terms of fighting. She returned his grin with one of her own. They stayed like that, time lost to them as their breaths mingled, and then Anessa remembered where she was. Her grin disappeared and she stood quickly, taking a few steps away from her enemy.

Adrian remained on the floor for a moment, his smile frozen in a half grimace, and then she saw understanding in his eyes. His face settled into an emotionless mask and he stood.

“Well, I hope that this was an educational exercise,” he said. “I know that I have learned a lot.”

“Yes, I too have learned a lot,” Anessa said tersely. She had forgotten, lost herself in their dance. Her attraction to him was more than she had initially thought. They watched each other for a few moments, until the doors to the training room opened, interrupting them.

“Lord Sentinel?” the Nel said. “We couldn’t reach you on the comms; you are needed at the command center.” Five armed guards followed the Nel, probably there for Anessa.

Adrian turned to face him. “I shut them off, I’ll be right there.” He then turned to look back at Anessa. “The guards will escort you to your quarters,” he said expressionlessly, and started walking towards the exit.

Anessa followed behind as the guards took positions around her, still replaying the last hours in her head.

***

Adrian walked quickly, leaving the young Nel adjutant trying to keep up with his pace. He reflected on what had just happened. For a moment he had forgotten who she was, and what he was planning to do to her people. Had forgotten why he needed her. He was attracted to her, had been almost from the beginning, but as he spent more time with her, that attraction had grown. It had snuck up on him. He wouldn’t have called it love, or even affection, but she fascinated him.

She was strong, powerful…beautiful, and she sought the same things that Adrian did. It was not such a surprise to him that he had grown…interested in her, and if he read her right, she felt the same. It would not change his plans, and he doubted that it would change hers. Both of them were the type that could put their emotions aside and do what they believed to be right.

Through their talks, he had realized that he had much more in common with her and the Shara Daim than he had with the rest of the people from the Empire. There were things on which they disagreed, important things, but at the core of who both Adrian and Anessa were, they were the same, even if they had different reasons.

Adrian’s goal, his life’s purpose, was to push his limits, to always strive to improve himself, to gain more strength—not for the sake of being the strongest, but for the simple fact that he welcomed the challenge. The Empire’s basic creeds, the basis for their civilization, rested in pursuit of knowledge. Every child was taught that it was their duty to always learn more in whatever field they chose, and to expand their views by studying more and more different fields, all in order to improve the Empire. Adrian himself had branched his knowledge base, from military disciplines, to tech, diplomacy, history, and more. The tattoos on his arms were the proof of that, of different aspects he had learned. He’d had the time for it.

However, Adrian was unique even in the Empire; he lived for the challenge of pushing his limits and overcoming them, having strength for its own sake. Others lived for the pursuit of knowledge and bettering of those around them, to protect, to broaden the knowledge of the Empire. Similar, but not the same.

The Shara Daim had similar values to the Empire. They too pushed themselves, but they did it to be the strongest. If what he had guessed from Anessa’s words was the truth, all Shara Daim were warriors. But their drive wasn’t to improve themselves, but to stand above all others and further the goals of the Shara Daim. Both of their philosophies had the same end goal—supremacy—but one set out to do that while pushing all those around them down, while the other hoped to pull them up with them.

But the core of the Shara Daim doctrine lay in the fact that they believed, with no uncertainty, that they were superior to all others. There was reason for that belief; they had never lost a war, never felt outmatched. It bred arrogance, and it was that belief that Adrian needed to shatter if he had any hope of changing them.

But what had shaken him was just how easy it was to forget that Anessa was his enemy. How easily he had relaxed in her presence and how easily he had trusted her. They had fought and trained like friends, like more than friends. Both had given their trust to the other so easily. To fight an opponent so openly with no guard was to know them as intimately as you know yourself. And he had never before allowed himself such a level of trust; he had never fought as he had now with Anessa. The two of them had been open books to one another. Every movement of her body, every attack or defense, told Adrian more about her. Every decision and deceit taught him about her character, what she was willing to do and what she wasn’t. And he knew that she had learned as much about him as he had about her.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Adrian asked on his internal line to his personal AI. “That’s why you didn’t like me spending so much time with her.”

“I suspected,” Iris said. “I knew that no matter how you feel, you would go through with your plans. And I did not want to see you get hurt, not again.”

Adrian knew that Iris was referring to Bethany, and how he she had died because of his mistake, because of his orders. And how he would’ve done the same thing again even if he had known beforehand that she would die.

“This is not like Beth,” Adrian said.

“No. But I can see, Adrian, how much it pains you to be alone. There is no one in the Empire who could be your partner, an equal. They do not understand what drives you,” Iris said solemnly. “And she is your equal. She is one person that might understand you and know you for who you truly are. Both of you are the best of your people, and she is your enemy.”

Adrian kept silent; he knew that Iris was right. And he had no answer.

Chapter Six

One month later — May; Year 55 of the Empire—Empire’s attack fleet

Johanna Stern sat and watched as a lone ship closed the distance and joined her fleet. The holo identified it as the Sentinel ship Jewel, commanded by Sentinel Aileen. As the ship reached its spot in the large joint fleet, a small shuttle exited it and flew towards Johanna’s flagship, the command ship Argo.

“Two more weeks, and we will reach the first Ra’a’zani world,” Adrian commented from her side where he was standing. While Johanna would be in charge of the actions against the Ra’a’zani, she had invited Adrian to be on her flagship during the initial assault on the first Ra’a’zani world before he took his ship and his prisoner to Tarabat. She thought that he would have wanted to stay on his ship and watch with his prisoner, but for some reason he had eagerly accepted her offer.

“And we finally make them pay for what they had done to Earth,” Johanna said.

“Emperor’s orders were clear,” Adrian added.

“I know, but a part of me wants to do the same thing to them that they did to us,” Johanna said.

“In a way, what Tomas has planned is a far worse fate,” Adrian said.

“Yes, in a way,” Johanna agreed.

One of Johanna’s subordinates interrupted them, saying, “Sentinel Aileen is onboard.”

“Good, order the fleets forward to the next trans-station,” Johanna said. Two more weeks, she thought to herself as the massive joint fleet moved as one.

***

Adrian sat at the table in the small meeting room on board the Argo. Across from him sat Aileen, preparing to give her report on what she had learned on Tarabat.

“So, how right was I?” Adrian asked.

“Completely,” Aileen responded. “The Erasi have stealth ships in our systems, under the command of their Weavers. The intel I recovered indicates that there are five such ships. We don’t know where they are, but I have info on how we can detect them.”

Adrian nodded. “I received a message from Gotu: the Erasi ambassador has offered us help against the Shara Daim—for free, of course—in the form of blueprints for defense nets and platforms. The weakest of their designs, but still military-grade. And he dropped a few hints about other technologies they can offer in the future.”

Aileen frowned. “I’ve seen the data on their defense platforms; those are the same as the ones in Tarabat. They are inferior to ours.”

“Yes,” Adrian said, “which tells me that their stealth ships hadn’t reached our core systems. Sol is at the edge of the Empire; our most populated and defended systems are in former Consortium territory and around Sanctuary. We still don’t have full defensive nets in systems around Sol.”

“Wait, if they are in Sol, they must’ve seen the defenses there,” Aileen said.

Adrian smiled. “I think that Erasi were aware of our expansion, but don’t really know anything about us. Why would they? Their territory and resources are vast; we were probably low on their threat list. I think that our actions in Tarabat changed that. They must have sent ships to spy after we returned to Sol.”

Aileen nodded in understanding. Adrian had already started preparations for the Shara Daim attack, and the stealth ship must’ve used hyperspace in order to stay hidden, meaning that it had taken them a while to reach Empire’s territory, and by then Adrian had hidden most of Sol’s defenses. “So they don’t know as much as they think they do…”

“We still can’t rule out that they are faking. They might well know everything about us, but I think that that possibility is low,” Adrian said.

“Either way, you were right; they are trying to manipulate both the Shara Daim and us into a prolonged war,” Aileen said.

“They want us to keep the Shara Daim occupied. I doubt that they are thinking that we can weaken the Shara Daim enough for them to move in, but then again, we know nothing about the Erasi military strength aside from rumors. For all we know, they could roll over the Shara Daim at full strength,” Adrian said.

Aileen scratched her head as she thought about it. “None of the races that trade under the Erasi know anything, only that the Erasi have vast fleets. They are technologically inferior to the Erasi, so there is a limit to how much they can find out. Even the lowest members of the Erasi were reluctant to share anything. But I did manage to learn about the last time that they called one of the ships-of-the-line from their core,” she said, and put her hand in the inside pocket of her overcoat. She produced a small box and opened it to reveal several small data-chips. She placed one on the table and a hologram appeared above its surface.

“Approximately sixty years ago, one race broke the contract they had made with another race. The contract was verified by the Erasi, and the harmed party called on the Erasi to reinforce the deal. The Erasi sent one of their fringe taskforces to reinforce the deal, which meant that they weren’t their top ships, mostly ships from smaller and newer members.” The holo showed a group of ships, numbering twenty-six; they were of various shapes and sizes, but none was as big as the Empire’s battleship.

“The ships were fairly advanced, though nothing that could be a match to our ships now; more on the line of old Consortium ships,” Aileen said. “But they were still more advanced than what anyone in the region had.” The holo changed to show a star system. “Once the Erasi arrived in this system, they were met with fleet far larger than what they had expected.”

Again the holo changed, receiving commands from Aileen’s implant, now showing ships of a different make—cylinder shapes, in various sizes but all following the same design. “The offending race had broken its contract because they were funneling too many resources into shipbuilding. They had built a massive fleet in secret, almost six hundred ships. The Erasi ships were slightly more advanced, but they were outnumbered; all except one were destroyed, which returned to Erasi territory and reported what had happened.”

The holo changed again, now showing much larger saucer-shaped ships. “A year later, the Erasi fleet arrived, two hundred ships strong. They destroyed the aliens’ ships and wiped them out, making an example of them. No one has tried to defy the Erasi since.”

Adrian studied the Erasi ships. “Saucer-shaped ships are their real military ships?” he asked.

“Yes. They are usually kept back in the more important systems, or on borders with hostile civilizations. The rest is handled by smaller members of the Erasi and their militaries; their ships-of-the-line are all constructed in the core and are crewed by their more important members,” Aileen answered.

“There were a few of those ships at Tarabat,” he commented.

“They weren’t there when I went back. And I couldn’t find anything about why they were there, or why they left.”

“Hmm…Did you find out anything new about their military ships?” Adrian asked.

“They are mostly the same classes as they were sixty years ago; data on them is scant. Gravity drives and energy shields are confirmed, but we don’t know their strength. From few records I managed to dig up, we know that they use energy weapons and missiles. No kinetics recorded. But if information they gave us about the Shara Daim ships is true, then we can assume that Erasi ships are of comparable strength. I doubt that the Shara Daim could have such reputation in the Erasi if they couldn’t be a threat to them.”

“Agreed,” Adrian said. “And they don’t appear to have normal space FTL tech. Coupled with the rest of things we have, I would say that we are superior in technology.”

“What are our chances against the Shara Daim, real chances, if your plan fails?” Aileen asked.

“Tomas and I have a few contingency plans. Based on what we know about them, and if we assume that our projections of their numbers and tech are correct…” He paused, making a Nel gesture that she couldn’t identify. “We could take them, if we manage to sucker them into a few battles that favor us. But we would suffer heavy losses, and if they decide that it is worth it to them to sacrifice a large chunk of their Legions, they might still take us. If we slow down their initial attacks enough, the technologies from the sphere will give us an edge.”

“How long until we can be sure that our systems are safe?” Aileen asked. She knew that Tomas was focusing the system defense technologies from the sphere.

“Seven years for Sanctuary and Sector One, nine for the rest of the Empire,” Adrian said.

“It will take the Shara Daim time to gather a force big enough to get past Sol. Especially if they first attack with insufficient numbers,” she said. “And if your plan works, we might not even need to fight them anymore.”

“You know that changing the mind of someone who has spent their entire life thinking one way is a tricky thing. It took years for those we saved from Earth to change their views to that of the Empire. I have only one person to work with. Even if I manage to plant the seed of doubt in Anessa, we will still have war; they will come to Sol regardless.”

“Perhaps…But if she starts speaking for peace, it might give us enough time.”

***

The massive fleet exited the trans-lane and entered the Ra’a’zani system behind the sun of its target, giving them some time before the Ra’a’zani were aware of the Empire’s fleet. The fleet moved slowly, with no urgency; the 6402 ships of the fleet had nothing to fear from the Ra’a’zani in this system. Out of those 6402 ships, 5132 were warships, 870 were auxiliaries—support ships and army transports—and another 400 were large transport ships, more like freighters, added to the fleet in order for it to fulfill its mission: the rescue of the humans taken as slaves by the Ra’a’zani decades ago.

Johanna knew exactly what to expect from their enemies in this system. Ever since they had learned location of the Ra’a’zani, the Empire had been sending scout ships to verify all the information that they received from the Erasi. There was nothing that could threaten her fleet here, nor anywhere in the Ra’a’zani space. Their war with the Shara Daim had weakened them too much; they had sacrificed most of their war fleets in order to set up and hide at their furthest colonies, in order to get time so that they might have a chance of rebuilding. But sadly for them, the Empire had come to settle a promise.

Their first target was a system held by the clan that had enslaved Earth, and so had the most human slaves. According to their scout ships, most of the human slaves were held on the planet, in two different kinds of camps. Many of the slaves were in work camps, working in Ra’a’zani assembly lines and mines. The rest were in breeding camps, mostly women and children, with some elderly to take care of them. According to Aileen, the slaves that proved themselves to their overlords would be given leave to visit the breeding camps and reproduce.

And then there were the thralls: humans raised by the Ra’a’zani, indoctrinated and completely loyal to their masters. Johanna knew that they would have problems with the ordinary slaves. She remembered the people who they had rescued from Earth; they had had a rough time adjusting to the Empire and freedom. They had known nothing about humanity, and slaves here would know even less; many of them would have been born there, on an alien world, and would have no knowledge of anything other than what the Ra’a’zani told them. It was doubtful that there were any slaves still living that had seen Earth, who even knew anything about who they were.

But there would also be another race of slaves, the Yunkari. Johanna’s mission was to liberate them as well.

As the fleet moved out of the shadow of the system’s sun and into the open where the Ra’a’zani could see them, Johanna turned to Aileen and Adrian, who were standing by her chair. “You ready?” she asked Aileen.

Aileen closed her eyes and then nodded. “Yes.” She would be the one to make the first contact with the Ra’a’zani; she knew them best, as she had once been their slave.

“Good,” Johanna said, and then turned to her subordinates sitting on their stations below her dais. “Skim the fleet to alpha position.”

“Skim in fifteen seconds, Fleet Commander,” the Navigation Handler responded.

Johanna watched the holo in front of her as the fleet prepared to make an FTL transition within a system, what was supposedly impossible to do. But thanks to the knowledge in the sphere, they had attained the technology that allowed them to make short transitions through normal space, which meant that they were not forced to abide by the restraints of hyperspace travel.

Then the holo changed; the markings above the fleet and its representation started to move incredibly fast across the holo, crossing the 20-light-minute distance in a little over twenty seconds. The fleet ended its skim at around 400,000 kilometers from the planet.

“Fleet-wide skim available again in fifty-two minutes,” the Navigation Handler reported.

Johanna nodded. The technology was amazing but required a lot of power, which was why it took so long to replenish the skim-dedicated capacitors.

The holo now showed countless stations, assembly yards, and defense platforms in the orbit of the planet, ships moving between the stations and the planet and the two moons that orbited it. The moons had many facilities on them that were surrounded with large defensive weapons.

Johanna glanced at Aileen. “Go ahead,” she said.

Aileen stepped up to the holo, raising her hand and opening a channel to the Ra’a’zani.

***

Dakar Tag’r’ron of Clan Ooruvan entered the command room in haste, the alarms still blazing throughout the headquarters. As soon as he entered, his subordinates informed him of the situation.

“A large, unidentified fleet has just appeared close to Lu’tal,” one of Tag’r’ron’s taskmasters reported. The rest were moving around the room with almost panic-like haste. But all were doing their jobs.

Tag’r’ron glanced at the large holographic display, which now showed icons representing the unidentified force. “How did it get here unnoticed?”

“We don’t know, Dakar; one moment there was nothing, and then they were there.”

“There is no transfer point there,” Tag’r’ron said. The Ra’a’zani might not have been able to use the transfer points that the devils could, but they had learned how to detect them.

“No, Dakar, and there was no indication of such a large transfer. They just appeared out of nothing,” the taskmaster said.

“Have they found us?” Tag’r’ron asked.

“Their signatures don’t match, Dakar. It is unlikely that it’s them.”

Tag’r’ron watched the holographic feed. The numbers and other data concerning the ships was still being updated, but already, deep down, he knew that this fleet was hostile. There was little reason for anyone to send so many ships, and that they had just appeared from nothing suggested that they had greater technology. Already, the five hundred ships protecting this system were moving, adjusting their positions to protect the resource processing plants in orbit of Lu’tal. The fleet had two hundred class 2 warships, which had always been the backbone of the Ra’a’zani fleets. Another thirty class 3’s and twenty class 4’s—the strongest ships they fielded—and the rest were class 1’s, the weakest of their warships, which were ordinarily used for patrolling.

“We are receiving a communication request from the unidentified fleet,” the taskmaster said, forcing Tag’r’ron to bring his attention back to him. The taskmaster then exhaled through his snout in surprise. “The communication is using our outdated codes, Dakar!”

“Open a channel,” Tag’r’ron ordered.

The holographic display in front of Tag’r’ron changed, and a being stood there watching him. “A Human?” Tag’r’ron exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, Ra’a’zani,” the Human female said in Ra’a’zani language. “We have come to settle a debt that your kind owes. We have come for our people. I am offering you this one chance to surrender, or we will destroy you and take our people anyway. If you surrender, you have our word that you will be left in peace once we have taken all your slaves and destroyed all your military assets.”

Tag’r’ron’s first impulse was to demand the slave to bow to him, but he kept his mind. The Human world was destroyed, their people only stragglers. He knew that they had colonies outside of their homeworld, but he was having trouble believing that the force now attacking his system was Human. It didn’t make sense to him, that the race his people had conquered so long ago was now demanding things of him. Slaves did not demand from their masters.

He glanced at the holo; the preliminary scans of their ships were starting to come in, and already he could see that those ships were not like those that had taken back the Human system. These were warships like those of the devils. But Lu’tal was the only hope for his people’s survival; it was here that all the material for their shipbuilding was processed, here that they mined more than half of all of the materials they used. If Lu’tal fell, the Ra’a’zani would die; whether by the hands of these Humans or the devils, it didn’t matter.

“Ra’a’zani don’t answer to slaves,” Tag’r’ron snarled.

“Exactly the response we expected,” the human female said grimly. “Your surrender doesn’t matter in the large scheme of things. We know why you had to run away, and we know who hunts you. But your plans for rebuilding and defeating your foe will not come to fruition; the end of the Ra’a’zani starts now. You are nothing now. Your civilization will end by our hand,” she said, and closed the channel.

Tag’r’ron watched the empty space where the holo of the Human had been, his mind still not believing that this was happening. The rest of the room was quiet, no one saying anything, until suddenly the holo showing the Human fleet started flashing.

“Dakar! The Humans are opening fire!”

Chapter Seven

As soon as Aileen closed the link, Johanna ordered the fleet to fire. While Aileen had talked with the Ra’a’zani, she had assigned targets to her fleet. Her ships opened fire with their missiles and long-range energy weapons, and the Ra’a’zani ships and defense platforms started dying.

“How much do you think before they are ready to talk again?” Johanna asked.

Aileen grimaced. “They might not, but if they come to their senses, it will be after we take the orbit.”

Johanna nodded. That had always been a possibility. “You should get ready; we will move to the surface and the next stage after we clear their defenses.”

Aileen nodded, a bit shaken, and walked out of the command center. Johanna leaned her head to the back of her chair, and the access points on the back of her neck made connection with the Watchtower interface in her chair. Her vision changed as she suddenly found herself in space looking at her fleet. With a thought, she started sending orders to her ships.

***

Force Leader Andros Venter sat in the command chair of his ship—the dreadnought Risen—and watched the holo in front of him attentively. Orders from the Fleet Commander came through the holo and Andros acknowledged them. His ship was in the front line of the fleet, leading the assault on the Ra’a’zani fleet. Half of the Ra’a’zani fleet was composed of their class 1 ships, the same class that Andros had fought at Sol, 450-meter-long patrol ships. The second most was their class 2 with 200 ships, which were about a kilometer long and equivalent to the Empire’s cruisers. Lastly, there were 30 and 20 of their largest ships, classes 3 and 4, respectively. Their class 3 fell somewhere between the Empire’s cruisers and battleships at 1750 meters in length, and their class 4 was larger than the Empire’s battleship at 2500 meters in length, but still smaller than the Empire’s dreadnoughts. All Ra’a’zani ships followed the same design, that of squashed, irregular boxes covered in small, scale-like plates.

As Andros watched the battle and the Ra’a’zani class 1 ships dying at range, he saw their larger classes moving from the back to shield them. One of their class 4 ships moved in front of the Ra’a’zani formation, just outside of the range of Andros’s ship.

“Move us into position and target that ship’s drives, Weapons Handler. Full spread proton beams, three seconds cycle. Prepare k-turrets one and three for fire,” Andros ordered as he highlighted the ship in question on his c-board.

The 3000-meter-long arrowhead-shaped dreadnought moved out of the fleet’s formation, its laser point defense striking down any missile that drew close enough to the ship.

“I have a lock,” the Weapons Handler said.

“Fire,” Andros ordered.

“Firing.”

The new Empire ships were much different than those before them; they had sacrificed the sheer amount of kinetic weapons tonnage for more power. The dreadnoughts still had a much larger arsenal than the other classes, but gone were the times where they could cover the space with countless kinetic shells; there was no need for it.

The dreadnought class possessed twenty-two heavy proton beam emitters, an upgrade of their particle beam weapons. A simple frequency shift and a particle discovered in the data from the sphere had increased the power of their weapons by 900 percent, and one side effect was that the beam was now visible to the naked eye. Each emitter was capable of holding the destructive beam for five seconds before needing to cool off.

The dreadnought’s weapons swiveled and targeted the Ra’a’zani ship; a single beam of dark green energy struck the Ra’a’zani ship, impacting its shimmering field. The shimmering field tech was an amazing discovery, a field that dissipated any energy hitting it. It was a tech that the Empire had stolen and improved on. The current Ra’a’zani field tech was now leagues behind that of the Empire.

The field held for barely two seconds before collapsing, allowing the green energy beam to strike the ship’s hull. The beam burned away into the hull, arcs of crackling energy jumping out of the impact point to scorch and damage the surrounding areas. In one second, the beam had already done significant damage. Then, just before the beam shut off, another took its place, burning into the hull for another three seconds before yet another took its place, allowing for constant damage to the Ra’a’zani ship and enough cooldown time for the proton beams.

The Ra’a’zani ship tried to roll, tried to bring to bear an area where their shimmering field still worked, but they were too slow. The beam blew through their drives, leaving them without maneuvering. But even with that, the massive ship was still a threat, still firing its weapons at the Empire’s ships.

“Their drives are down, Force Leader,” Andros’s subordinate reported.

“Lock k-turrets one and three, one shot each,” Andros ordered.

While the Empire had downgraded the number of their kinetic weapons on their ships, they had not removed them from their arsenal. In fact, they had upgraded them significantly with the help of the knowledge they had received from the sphere.

Two kinetic slabs of ri-steel exploded from the Risen’s turrets, traveling not at a scant fraction of the speed of light, but at one third. White streaks of light slammed into the unmoving Ra’a’zani ship, ignoring their shimmering fields completely. Two shots blew the largest class of ship that Ra’a’zani fielded to pieces.

“Nice shooting, Weapons Master,” Andros said. “Keep up the missile fire on the enemy’s smaller ships. Let’s see if we can find some more of their class 4 ships to destroy.”

***

Johanna watched as the Ra’a’zani ships and their defense platforms exploded under the fire from her ships. The Ra’a’zani field defense tech was no match for the firepower of her fleet. Their missiles were slower and weaker than her own, and the combined point defense of her fleet didn’t allow a single one of the Ra’a’zani missiles to pass through—and even if they had, Johanna was certain that the energy shields on her ships would’ve held.

The Ra’a’zani were trying to disable her fleet’s missiles using their defense, the same they had used in her last battle with them. But now the Empire knew what it was, and their missiles were shielded against it. It was ingenious, really. The Ra’a’zani system locked on to the frequencies that the missiles oscillated at. Everything in the universe had a unique frequency—everything vibrated. By sending a vibration on the same frequency as the missile through sub-space, the Ra’a’zani were able to produce a reaction and the missiles exploded. But now her missiles were shielded, their frequencies almost impossible to lock on to, their defense useless.

A few of their class 3 and 4 ships braved the missile fire and closed the range, firing their main weapons. Bolts of white-green energy flew towards her drone ships. The crew remotely controlling them tried to evade but were unable to move the 760-meter-long drones in time. Three bolts of energy struck one drone’s shields, briefly making the shields visible in the area of impact. The Ra’a’zani weapon was something that they hadn’t been able to identify until they’d gained access to the sphere and its knowledge. The weapon utilized what the People had called Xa-nan, named so after the woman who had discovered it, Xa Gannan. It was a type of plasma-like substance that could literally break down solid matter, as long as it had energy.

The three consecutive impacts on the energy shields did nothing, as the weapon was completely useless against shields. Its only strength was against solid matter. The drones fired their main weapon, high-intensity lasers, which the Ra’a’zani field’s dissipated but not completely; a small portion of the lasers’ destructive energy was transferring to the hull, scorching and melting it. The Ra’a’zani ships found themselves surrounded by drones, and hammered by intense beams of light and heat. Johanna sent the order for a couple of her battleships to change targets and finish the Ra’a’zani warships with their more powerful weapons.

Her fleet’s missiles were hammering the Ra’a’zani ships, kinetic weapons blew their defensive platforms to pieces, and proton beams destroyed their ships. The Ra’a’zani were outmatched in every possible way, and soon the fighting drew to a halt as the last Ra’a’zani ship died. She had lost three drones, and had one lightly damaged cruiser; the Ra’a’zani had lost everything.

Johanna disengaged the Watchtower interface, and started giving orders for the fleet to take up positions in the high orbit of the planet while the drones destroyed all the Ra’a’zani orbitals—their stations and processing plants—while her cruisers handled the planetary defenses and covered the fleet. Her larger ships were on their way to deal with the Ra’a’zani presence on the two moons and the rest of the system. It was time for stage two.

***

Anessa was brought to the command room of Adrian’s ship escorted by six guards. She could see that all inside the room were engrossed in their stations. Orders were sent and relayed much like they were on a Legion warship. In the center stood her captor. Leaning on a railing, he gazed at the holographic display in front of him. His two beasts sat on their haunches, attentively watching Anessa as she approached. As she stepped close enough, he turned to look at her, then gestured to the display.

Anessa turned her gaze and studied the holo. She didn’t understand any of the markings or data, but she knew that what was in front of her eyes was an aftermath of a battle. She recognized pieces of Ra’a’zani warships, and knew that the Humans had done what she couldn’t—they had found Ra’a’zani territory. Empire ships had besieged the planet on the holo, and many were lowering themselves to the ground. It was an invasion.

Immediately, she felt anger. It was supposed to be her Legion that was destroying the Daksinn—the Ra’a’zani. She turned her eyes to Adrian, seeing him studying her.

“I wanted you to see this,” Adrian said.

“Why? Do you think that if I see you defeating these weaklings that I will change my mind, counsel my Elders not to attack you?” she said harshly. She couldn’t contain herself; this was her blood call. And she was seeing it fulfilled by another.

Adrian gave a sad shake of his head. “You told me that this was important to you, to see the Ra’a’zani dead for massacring your people.”

“I thought that your Empire doesn’t wipe out weaker civilizations. Does that cover only those races that didn’t have the chance to harm you? Are you perfectly fine with killing others when it is out of revenge?” Anessa asked sarcastically.

“You think that you know everything, that you know what my people are ready to do,” Adrian said as he turned towards her, his expression harsh. “We don’t wipe out entire civilizations when there is another option. You think that that makes us weak; I assure you it does not. The end of Ra’a’zani civilization begins now, not because we are vengeful, but because they are a blight on the universe. They made a conscious choice to enslave others with full knowledge of what they were doing, and they cannot change. Their culture, their economy, and their industry all rely on slaves. We gave them several chances to surrender. They refused.” He calmed down a bit, taking a deep breath.

He turned to look at the planet on the holo. “What we are about to do, we do with full understanding of what the consequences will be, and with a heavy heart. But taking a life of a sentient being should never be easy.” He turned to look at her. “You would’ve bombed this planet and wiped out all life on it, with no regard for those that the Ra’a’zani had enslaved, thinking that they are weak. But they are not; they just haven’t had the opportunity to become strong. We are going to give that to them, but the choice of using that chance is ultimately theirs. If they squander the chance we give them, they will remain weak and we will let the universe decide their fate.”

Anessa grimaced. Everything he said went against all that she knew. “And how will you end their civilization without bombing their worlds? Will you become like them and enslave them?” she asked. The Shara Daim abhorred slavery, both the slaves and the slavers. It was a weakness.

A hurt expression came over his face for just a moment, and Anessa realized that her believing he would allow such a thing hurt him. But quickly his emotions disappeared behind a blank mask. “No, we will not enslave them. We will kill them all, because they are too far gone to be saved. We have devised a pathogen that will make all of them infertile. They will not be able to reproduce; this will be their last generation. We will leave them on their worlds with no means to reach space, to die of old age. Their race will not end with a loud bang of a planetary destruction; it will end in a soft exhale of the last Ra’a’zani’s dying breath.”

Anessa looked at him, shocked. To create such a thing was an amazing achievement, one that her people would’ve never attempted, partly because they didn’t have the knowledge, and partly because they preferred to fight and grow stronger from the battles against the weaker races. But to end a race like that, it was a fate far crueler than what she had believed this Empire capable of. She couldn’t imagine living with the knowledge that her people would die, and that there was nothing that she or anyone else could do about it.

“So,” Anessa said, giving him a level look, “you will wipe out an entire sentient species from the universe, and yet you frown on the actions and beliefs of my people.”

“You still don’t understand,” he said slowly, pityingly. “The Ra’a’zani will be gone, but something new will be born out of their ashes. It was never your actions that bothered us; what you are doing is the rule of the Universe, the strong survive and the weak perish—we understand that. It is your core beliefs that we take issue with, those that say that you are better than everyone else, that you are destined to rule. You don’t fight against other races because they have harmed you first; you do it because they are in your way.”

Anessa watched him, wanting to ask him about what he meant by that, but with a glance and a gesture, he dismissed her. Sending her back to her quarters under guard, his face filled with disappointment. And somehow, that disappointed expression hurt her more than anything had in a long, long time.

Chapter Eight

Military transport; Inside Lu’tal’s atmosphere

Commander Sahib Adin waited patiently for his drop-pod to be launched out of the military transport. The fleet was hammering the Ra’a’zani planetary defenses, opening a path for the transports. Suddenly, Sahib’s comm chirped and the pilots informed him that they would be dropped in fifteen seconds.

The chatter from his squads washed over him as he steeled himself for the uncomfortable drop. Fifteen seconds later, his pod launched out of the transport with a lurch. G-forces pressed at him even with the absorbing foam and the dampener field. Then the landing burst initiated and the pod slowed down abruptly, the dampener field working overtime to counter the forces that would’ve splattered him otherwise.

Once the pod was safely on the ground, the pod’s front panel exploded outwards and he stepped out, his weapon at the ready. Twenty-eight other pods were arranged around him; twenty-seven of them were his people wearing combat armor, but from the last one emerged a female figure wearing Sentinel armor. Three blue glowing lights were embedded into hard plates on her chest. Her torso and feet up to her knees were also made out of hard plates and painted silver; the rest of her was covered in small black, scale-like plates. Sentinel Aileen walked over to him and shook her head. “I don’t know how you do this every time you deploy somewhere, but I am never doing that again,” she said slowly.

Sahib grinned inside his battle armor. “Well, we don’t do it every time.”

“Once is more than enough,” Sentinel Aileen said as she shook her head.

“It will take us twenty minutes at full run to get to our target. You sure you can keep up?” Sahib asked.

“I could leave you in my dust, soldier, finishing our mission before you even arrived. But I will match my speed with yours; no point in me taking all the fun,” she said jokingly, but Sahib knew that she wasn’t really joking. He was Adrian’s friend, after all, and was perfectly aware of what a Sentinel could do.

“Right, then. Wolf Platoon, move out.”

***

Twenty minutes later, they reached their target: a larger complex inside a mountain. Two large anti-air turrets prevented any air support from approaching, which was why they were here on foot. Their mission, operation Last Chance, was to take the complex and disable the anti-air turrets, allowing for shuttles to land and pick up their cargo, which was deep inside the building.

“So…a frontal assault?” Sahib asked.

“Yes, and they will be very protective. We need to move through them quickly, killing all in our path, before they decide to barricade themselves into the birthing chamber,” Aileen responded.

“We know what to expect from their guards and soldiers, but do you know what we will find inside the chamber?” Sahib asked.

She shook her head. “I know only what I overheard, which is little. I know that Ra’a’zani females rarely leave the chamber, but I don’t even know what they look like or what they are capable of.”

“Well, then, let’s get going. Move out.” He ordered his platoon forward. They crossed the distance quickly, entering the courtyard unopposed.

“We should’ve been challenged already,” Garth, one of his teammates, said over the comms.

“We could’ve gotten lucky, they might’ve sent their people to help defend their cities,” Loca commented.

“It could be, but the Vanar—the female guard—will remain,” Aileen added.

“Move inside,” Sahib said.

They entered the large building, and Sahib ordered his people to split up and secure the complex, and to find and disable the anti-air turrets.

Sahib’s team and the Sentinel moved deeper inside, towards where they believed the birthing chamber was supposed to be.

“Well, this isn’t creepy at all,” Loca said after a long stretch where they still hadn’t encountered anyone.

“Keep your eyes open, Ra’a’zani are tricky opponents,” Aileen said.

“Contact!” someone said over the comms.

“Report!” Sahib said.

“Found half a dozen of the bastards in a room that looks like some kind of a control hub,” the voice said. “Managed to take them all down. It looks like this is the anti-air control room.”

“Disable the defenses and call the fleet,” Sahib said, and they continued moving forward. They rounded a corner, and found themselves right in front of a squad of Ra’a’zani.

The Empire’s troops were the first to open fire, and bullets and plasma ripped two of the ten large aliens to pieces before they even managed to raise their weapons. The others started firing at his squad, who moved back behind the wall to take cover.

One of his teammates grabbed a fist-sized device in one hand and pressed a few buttons on it with the other, then threw it at the enemy. The device fell among them and activated. The area filled with gas, and a moment later, a high-powered laser’s photons knocked the electrons from the gas’s atoms and flash froze the enemy combatants. Sahib and his people left the cover and finished the enemy quickly. Behind them, they saw large closed doors, with ornamented handles and unique symbols painted on their surface.

“That it?” Sahib asked.

“Yes, if I am remembering the descriptions right,” Aileen answered.

“Not many people guarding it,” Sahib commented.

“They have been fighting a losing war against the Shara Daim for decades. Their best are already gone, and their world is under attack. Their soldiers must be elsewhere fighting against us.”

“Good point. Shall we?” Sahib said, and motioned for his team to open the door.

The massive door slid open and the team walked in. The room was vast, with multiple leveled platforms and stairs leading to them. Each one held large and elaborate golden-colored baskets, and in them were dark brown eggs the size of a small child.

“Secure the room, the shuttles and the retrieval teams should be here soon,” Sahib said, and no sooner had he finished than did a loud snarling noise rip through the room. A six-legged Ra’a’zani at least four meters tall stood to their left, and slowly started moving towards them. His team leveled their weapons, preparing to fire.

“Hold your fire!” Sentinel Aileen ordered. “We can’t risk the eggs.”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Sahib asked.

Aileen stepped forward and spoke in a guttural tongue, Sahib’s implant translating everything she said. “Step aside, Ra’a’zani. There is nothing you can do to save your race, and we will not harm your eggs. They are the only hope you have that something good will come out of your end,” Aileen said.

The large Ra’a’zani—obviously a female—looked at Aileen with her teeth bared and spoke in the same guttural tongue. “You will not touch my offspring, slave!” the Ra’a’zani said, and charged the Sentinel.

Sahib was about to order his teammates to fire when the Sentinel charged towards the Ra’a’zani, meeting her halfway. She jumped over her head, evading the arms that tried to catch her. And just as she was above the alien’s head, she twisted in mid-air so that her head was pointed towards the floor and the Ra’a’zani. She froze in the air as she pushed her hand down towards the alien beneath her.

The Ra’a’zani smashed into the floor and stayed there, held by invisible forces that the Sentinel commanded. The Ra’a’zani tried to move, but she didn’t have enough strength to separate herself from the floor. Sahib ran forward and smashed the butt of his rifle into the head of the alien.

A moment later, Aileen fell downward, twisting and landing with her feet on the floor. She walked to Sahib and slapped his shoulder. “Thanks.”

“I doubt that you needed my help,” Sahib said as she passed, and reached one of the eggs. Sahib followed and peered down at the brownish egg. He saw something moving inside.

“So, are we taking them all?” Sahib asked.

“Yes,” Aileen answered.

“That is a lot of eggs,” Sahib commented as he looked over the chamber; there were thousands of eggs inside it.

“They will birth a new race,” Aileen said simply.

Sahib nodded. His friendship with Adrian had also made him privy to the plan for these eggs. A new race indeed, he thought to himself. He motioned for his people to secure the room.

“What about her?” He nodded towards the unconscious form of the Ra’a’zani female.

Aileen tilted her head, the smooth plate of her helmet making the action look strange. “She wasn’t a part of the plan. Bind her; we’ll set her free before we leave,” she said.

Sahib relayed the order to his team.

Chapter Nine

One day later; Slave breeding camps

Aileen walked over the corpses of the Ra’a’zani slave masters; their broken and scorched bodies lined the hallways. Her Sentinel armor was deployed in its battle mode, and it was covered in Ra’a’zani blood and grime from fighting. She had led assaults on several slave camps, both human and Yunkari. But she had never stayed for the actual transport of slaves; there were still more camps on the planet to be taken. She reached the end of the corridor and the three soldiers waiting for her.

“Ma’am,” the leader said. “They are inside. The Ra’a’zani taskmaster got away and took a slave girl hostage. We could’ve taken him out, but that would’ve risked the girl, and we know your standing orders.”

“You did well, I’ll take care of it,” she said giving him her rifle, and entered the room.

Inside was only a small cot in one far corner, with a bucket-like object in the other. In the middle of the room stood the Ra’a’zani, holding a girl that was no more than sixteen years old. She was wearing nothing but rags. One of his clawed hands was pressed to her neck. The girl wasn’t even upset, and her eyes seemed bland; she no longer cared what happened to her.

Aileen knew that look. It had looked back at her in the mirror for far too long.

“I want safe passage from this camp. Only then will I release the slave,” the Ra’a’zani said in his native tongue. By his faded skin color and stature, she knew that he was old, at least three hundred years.

Aileen tilted her head and responded in Ra’a’zani, “Release the girl, and I will give you what you ask.”

“You don’t give orders here, slave,” the Ra’a’zani snarled, his claw biting into the girl’s neck, drawing blood. The girl barely even reacted.

With a command from her imp, Aileen retracted her armor, the black scales compressing back into the plates on her torso and legs. She looked at the girl and saw her eyes widen a bit when she saw Aileen. The poor girl probably didn’t even know what was happening, only that someone had attacked the Ra’a’zani and she was now being used as a bargaining chip for the Ra’a’zani’s life. It was the least of the crimes inflicted upon her.

Aileen didn’t take her eyes of the girl as she spoke in the Ra’a’zani tongue. “I know how you are feeling right now, but I promise you it will get better. One day you will be alright.”

“What are you talking about? If you don’t get me out of here, I will rip her throat out!” the slave master threatened.

Aileen gave the girl a smile, and then she pulled on her Sha. She reached with her telepathy to the Ra’a’zani; she was still not as good with it as she would have liked, and the Ra’a’zani had no telepathy of their own, which meant that she could only distract for a moment or two. But that was all that she needed.

The Ra’a’zani’s eyes got a faraway look to them and Aileen sprang into action. She jumped forward, grabbing the hand at the girl’s throat and twisting it away and breaking it. Snatching the girl with her other hand, she took her from the Ra’a’zani and threw her behind her.

Ra’a’zani regained his wits, and his jaws moved towards Aileen’s face. She sent a kinetic blast from her hand at his jaw, snapping it closed and throwing the Ra’a’zani backwards. She jumped, putting her legs on his shoulders and her arms on its head. She twisted with her arms and broke the alien’s neck, dropping down to the floor on her knees and with Ra’a’zani between her legs.

The soldiers had entered the room as Aileen stood and reached the girl. When she tried to give her a hand, the girl recoiled in fear, looking at the Ra’a’zani corpse and back to Aileen.

“It’s alright, you are safe now, and no one will hurt you ever again,” Aileen said, and nodded to the soldiers to take her. The girl was still fearful and reluctant to leave the room, but the two soldiers didn’t give her a lot of choice.

The leader stayed and nodded at Aileen. “Thank you, Sentinel.” And Aileen nodded back and retrieved her rifle. The soldiers retreated, leaving her alone in the room.

Aileen looked around, seeing her past. She had been in this kind of room before, long ago. She had been that terrified little girl, once. She had been afraid that coming here again would make her weak, would make her stomach churn, but it hadn’t. The person who had feared this room no longer existed. She was not that scared little girl anymore. With a sigh, she activated the command for her Sentinel armor, and walked as it encased her in scales. There were still more Ra’a’zani to kill.

***

Command Ship Argo

Johanna stood and watched the holo as the last remnants of the Ra’a’zani were wiped from the system. The only place where they remained was the planet—Lu’tal, as the Ra’a’zani called it.

“The pathogen has been released into their water supplies across the planet and into the atmosphere. By our estimates, the entire population should be exposed in a week or two,” her second-in-command High Prime Narani said, his tail whipping back and forth as he spoke. For a Nel, that could have meant hundreds of things, and she wasn’t as familiar with their gestures as she would have liked, so she ignored it.

“The eggs and the female have been secured for transport, and can be sent back to Sanctuary on your command,” he added.

“Good, give them the go-ahead,” Johanna said. “What of those liberated?”

“We’ve been putting them onto transports, but there are problems,” Narani said. “Some don’t want to leave, fearing the wrath of their overlords, at least the humans. The Yunkari are more willing to go with us; they have apparently managed to keep their resentment of the Ra’a’zani close, and are thankful.”

“Tell the army that they are authorized to put those most problematic into stasis units, we’ll let the people back home worry about acclimating them to their new reality,” Johanna said.

“Right away, Fleet Commander,” Narani said, and moved towards the Communications Handlers to rely her orders.

She watched the holo for a few more minutes before her imp informed her of an incoming private call from Veritas. She sat at her command chair, engaged the privacy screen, and accepted the call.

“Adrian,” she said in acknowledgement as his face appeared in front of her.

“Johanna, I just wanted to let you know that I will be leaving in an hour or two. I have accomplished what I wanted here, and it’s time to send my prisoner back,” Adrian said.

“Of course.”

“Let Aileen know that she should get back to Sol as soon as she finishes.”

“I’ll tell her,” Johanna said.

Adrian nodded and closed the channel. Johanna sighed, and then turned her eyes back at the holo and Lu’tal. This was only the first of six Ra’a’zani worlds that she needed to take care of, but even though her job was hard, she didn’t envy Adrian’s in the slightest.

Chapter Ten

One month later — June — Veritas

With a short burst of violet light, Veritas entered the Tarabat system one month later. The two massive defense stations protecting this trans-station immediately took notice of an entry into their system, and Veritas was challenged. The Empire’s FTL tech allowed it to traverse space much faster; they had no need of moving from trans-point to trans-point limited by the speed of light. Adrian’s people sent their identification codes immediately and they were allowed to pass the stations and move into the system.

Veritas made its way to the slot given to them in Tarabat orbit, close to one of the stations, and stopped there. Adrian opened the channel to the compound that his people had purchased on Tarabat. The holo in front of him turned on and the figure of Björn Borg appeared.

“Björn, it’s good to see you again,” Adrian said with a smile.

“Likewise, Lord Sentinel,” Björn said.

“Did you do as I asked?”

“Yes, it was surprisingly easy. Small trans-capable ships aren’t that rare or expensive, it seems,” Björn answered.

“Good, and it can fit into Veritas’s hangar?”

“Of course, that’s what you asked for.”

“Sorry,” Adrian said with an apologetic face. He knew better than to ask; there was a reason why Björn was trusted as much as he was.

“The ship is in orbit. One of our pilots has taken possession of it; I can have him move it to Veritas immediately, unless you wish to stay at this cesspool for a while?”

Adrian chuckled. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll be leaving as soon as you can get the ship to Veritas.”

“Very well, I’ll call the pilot right away,” Björn said, and closed the channel.

Sometime later, after the purchased ship landed in Veritas’s hanger, Adrian ordered his ship to skim to the hyperspace barrier and set a course towards a system in the direction of Shara Daim territory.

***

Five days later, they entered the system from which there was a direct trans-route to the nearest Shara Daim system. Veritas skimmed to the trans-station and took position just outside of it.

Adrian stood in front of the doors leading into Anessa’s room. For a moment, he hesitated. All the months of laying subtle hints, allowing Anessa to see things that she shouldn’t have, all the while trying to convince her that they didn’t need to go to war. He still didn’t know what she would do. Had he given her enough information to spur her people into action? Had he shaken her beliefs enough for her to go to her people and ask questions? Try to change their opinions? He didn’t think so, but he couldn’t be sure until she left, until she was back with her people and could look back on all she had seen and reflect.

Adrian sighed and opened the door. Anessa was already waiting for him; she had known that he was in front of her door.

“It’s time.”

Ten minutes later, they were standing just outside the small ship—a shuttle, really, but one that could travel through trans-space.

“I will need to inject you with this,” he said, holding a small injection gun.

“What for?” she asked suspiciously.

“In order to remove the device. Without this, there might be damage,” he said.

Anessa glared at him, but finally consented. Adrian reached up to her neck and injected the contents. He waited several seconds and then placed his hands on the device on her shoulder. He sent the command through his implant, and the device removed the needle from her organ, the nanites from the injection moving to repair the damage immediately. He removed the device, and the small pinpoint hole in her skin closed almost immediately, aided by the nanites.

Anessa hissed as the device left her body, and then she closed her eyes. He felt the minuscule amount of energy starting to gather in her organ.

“The maps to your territory are loaded into the computers. I assume that you know how to handle Erasi systems?” he asked.

“Of course,” she responded as she opened her eyes.

“Good, well…I have kept my word,” Adrian said.

“You have, and I have kept mine,” she responded, looking down at him.

“Anessa…” he said softly. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Go to your Elders, tell them that we don’t need to be enemies. We will negotiate with them. I speak with the voice of my Emperor; I can make binding agreements on his behalf. There can be peace between us.”

“Shara Daim do not tolerate rivals,” she said just as softly with her melodic voice, just a glimmer of uncertainty on her features before her face cleared. “Our Elders have never steered us wrong.”

“There are so many things that you don’t know about, things that you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I don’t know what your Elders know, why you put faith into things that are wrong, but go to them, demand the truth, and you will see that the way the Shara Daim are now comes from twisted truths.”

Anessa dipped her head down, palming his face with both hands and turning it upwards to look at her. For a moment, he hoped she would dip her head just a bit lower, but instead she spoke. “And it is you who knows what is right and what is wrong, isn’t it? I should weigh the teachings of thousands of years of history against your words and find them greater? I am a Dai Sha of the Shara Daim, and my beliefs are who I am.”

She turned and left him there watching as she disappeared inside the ship, the ramp closing behind her. He turned and left, heading towards the command center. He reached the command center in time to see her small ship enter the trans-station and engage its trans-drives. One moment it was there, and in the next there was a violet flash of light and energy, and she was gone. His plan to plant a seed of doubt might have worked—there were signs—but he hadn’t changed her mind, or if she did have any doubts, her belief and trust in her people was still greater. He only hoped that his other plan worked.

Adrian stared at the empty space for a while, and then finally turned to his people. “Set a course for Sol.”

Chapter Eleven

Tarabat

“What did you find out?” Hanaru, Weaver of the Erasi, asked his subordinate.

“The ship they purchased left with their capital ship, the same ship that took the Dai Sha prisoner. And they left in the direction of the Shara Daim territory.”

“Sending her back as an emissary, perhaps…Can we intercept them?” Hanaru asked.

“Doubtful. Their ship’s normal space FTL gives it an enormous edge, and we don’t have enough assets to draw them into a trap where we can be sure to destroy them.”

“Shame. We need to spur the Shara Daim into action before their Dai Sha gets back to their Elders, if she in fact intends to act as an emissary. We can’t let them start talking; we need them at war,” Hanaru sent.

“Three of their Legions are gathered at their border, waiting for others. If we give them information about the defenses at Sol and the let them know that the Empire’s forces are involved in battle elsewhere, they might jump at the opportunity.”

“Dai Sha Anessa would already know about the forces leaving, if they didn’t keep her completely in the dark. My understanding is that she was more of a guest than a prisoner. But she might not know about their defenses,” Hanaru sent thoughtfully.

“There isn’t much, save for a few defense platforms around the fourth planet.”

“There are those strange readings that the ambassador reported, out by their gas giant and in the asteroid belt. And we still don’t know the purpose of those large stations they have orbiting their sun,” Hanaru sent.

“Does it matter if they have something hidden? We want them to keep the Shara Daim occupied.”

“Yes, but there are too many irregularities with this Empire. Too much that makes no sense. How are the hacks proceeding?” Hanaru asked.

“The agent on the ambassador’s staff hasn’t yet had the chance to place the devices; the Empire’s people are watching them constantly.”

“There will be opportunities, there always are. Until then, we will rely on the data from the ambassador,” Hanaru said. “Which Dai Sha has overall command of those three Legions?”

“Narrasak of the Third Legion.”

“Hmm…He is rash, always seeking to overthrow Anessa as the first among the Dai Sha. He won’t listen to her advice, not if she cautions restraint. Leak the info. Let’s see what Narrasak does.”

***

Two weeks later —Var Dara system; Shara Daim territory

Anessa was one hundred and seven years old on the day she walked the ruins of an alien world. Beside her walked her best and only friend, Garaam, who had also become a Dai Sha, and only a few decades after Anessa. Anessa was glad that Garaam had followed in her footsteps; now both of them were Dai Sha, the best of the best, protectors of the Shara Daim and servants of the Elders.

The dead lined the streets, and Anessa had no pity for them. Their leaders were fools; they had been told not to interfere in the Shara Daim expansion. Their three systems were small and insignificant; the Shara Daim would’ve let them be if only they hadn’t been stupid. But the alien leaders had understood that if they didn’t oppose the Shara Daim, they would find themselves surrounded with no prospect of expanding further. So they had attacked, and destroyed a Shara Daim transport ship, killing eighty-four people.

The Elders had had no choice; they had needed to make an example. The aliens had attacked their betters, and now they had paid the price. Anessa’s and Garaam’s Legions had wiped out all of the enemy ships, had destroyed all of their major cities and all their assets in space. A fraction of their population had escaped to the wilderness, hiding like the lower lifeforms they were. They would survive, living like savages with no technology; her people had made sure of that.

“I almost pity them,” Garaam said as the two of them walked.

Anessa turned to look at her friend. “Why would you pity them? They brought this on themselves.”

“Only because we gave them no choice. We would’ve done the same in their place,” Garaam said sadly.

“It was the will of the Elders,” Anessa said.

Garaam looked at Anessa, not speaking for a few moments, but then she finally agreed. “Yes, the will of the Elders. And who are we to question them?” she said strangely, and then walked ahead.

Anessa narrowed her eyes and was about to ask her what she meant by that when her Do Sun called out to her. Anessa turned to more pressing matters, her exchange with her friend forgotten.

Anessa walked down the corridor of the station escorted by two Va Sun. Finally back to wearing a Shur At, she hadn’t realized how much she had missed the garments of her people. She’d arrived in system almost ten hours ago and had found three Legions assembled, which meant that the Elders had already called for the forces to attack the Empire. She had known that they would; they desired the Human device above all else. The Elders knew what the knowledge inside the device could do to change the tide of a war; perhaps they wanted to make sure that the Empire had no chance to use that knowledge. But even if they know that the Humans have the Sha, they don’t know about the Nel, nor that the Empire already has access to the device.

Anessa shelved her thoughts as they reached their destination. The Va Sun stepped aside and let her enter the room alone. She stepped inside and was met by three people sitting at a round table. The person closest to the doors stood and bowed deeply to Anessa.

“Dai Sha, I’m glad that you have managed to escape. Forgive me my inability to prevent your capture,” her second-in-command Do Sun Arisak said.

“There was nothing that you could’ve done, Arisak, it is forgiven,” Anessa said.

The second person then stood, crossed the distance, and grabbed Anessa in a hug. She was only slightly shorter than Anessa, with white hair clipped short on her head. “Glad to see you, Anessa. I worried that our enemies might’ve killed you,” the woman with orange eyes said as she gave Anessa a reassuring smile.

“And I am glad to see you too, Garaam,” Anessa said.

“I wanted to come after you immediately, but the Elders overruled me. Do you happen to know why they did that?” Dai Sha Garaam of the Fourteenth Legion asked. “I thought that they would’ve been the first to call for blood, after our greatest Dai Sha was taken.”

“I have some inkling, yes,” Anessa said, and turned to look at the last person in the room, who hadn’t bothered to stand. He had let his black hair grow almost to his shoulders, something that warriors rarely allowed themselves, as it could be a weakness in a fight. It was why Anessa had gone through treatments to remove the hair from the top of her head permanently.

“Narrasak,” Anessa said.

“Anessa,” Dai Sha Narrasak of the Third Legion said.

It had been a long time since they had seen each other; their last parting had been less than pleasant. Once they had been close, had shared intimacy, but Narrasak had grown jealous of Anessa’s status as the first among the Dai Sha. He had always been in her shadow, even when they were in training to become Dai Shas. He had grown to resent her later and they had split ways.

They watched each other in silence, the tension in the room rising with every moment that passed.

“Narrasak,” Garaam said, drawing his eyes at her. “This is not the time or place.”

Narrasak sneered at her. “Fine,” he said, then turned back to look at Anessa. “I am glad that you have returned to us, Dai Sha Anessa. I am sure that all here are very interested in how you managed to escape.”

“I didn’t escape,” Anessa responded simply. There were rarely any secrets among the Dai Sha; even with the history between the two of them, they were bound by a great bond.

“Oh, and how did you then leave your imprisonment?” Narrasak asked, suddenly intrigued. Anessa knew what he was doing; she had suffered a great blow to her honor and standing by being captured, and Narrasak delighted in seeing her diminished.

“I was released,” Anessa said.

“They released you?” Garaam asked, surprised. “Why?”

“In return for me giving an oath not to try to escape and harm anyone, I was promised that I would be set free,” Anessa answered.

“Why would you give such an oath?” Narrasak asked, sounding genuinely curious.

Anessa turned her head to look at him. “Because I had no hope of escaping on my own.”

Narrasak threw back his head and laughed. “Great Anessa, not able to escape a group of weaklings!” he said through laughter.

Anessa ignored him and turned to look at Garaam. “How much do you know about the Empire?”

“The Elders told us that they are descendant from the People, just like us, but that they are weak and have just reawakened the Sha. That they had been enslaved by the race you were charged with destroying.” Garaam paused, glancing at Do Sun Arisak before continuing, “From our agents in the Erasi, we have learned the rough location of their systems and that they have advanced technology, their ships probably on par with us or just about, and that they possess a way of traveling through normal space at faster than light speed. This was confirmed by Arisak when you were taken.”

“Did the Elders tell you anything more about our ancestors?” Anessa asked.

Garaam frowned. “No. Why?”

“Nothing, just a thought,” Anessa said. The Elders were still keeping secrets from their Dai Sha, but did it really matter? The truth wouldn’t change anything. Unless they have hidden other things as well. She pushed those thoughts down; she didn’t need to second guess the Elders. She was a Dai Sha, and would not allow a few words from an alien to lay doubts to a life she had led for almost two centuries. “And what are the Elders’ orders?”

It was Narrasak who answered her question. “We are to gather forces and attack this Empire, sweep them from every system we find. But the most important task they gave us is to find and take possession of the weaklings’ homeworld. We are charged with retrieving a device that the Elders believe is there, a powerful weapon that belongs to us by right.”

Anessa looked skeptically at Narrasak? “And did they tell you what this device was? How it looks like? How to even find it?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I am not in the habit of second guessing the Elders,” Narrasak said through his teeth. “But they said that the device is most likely on their homeworld. That they might not even be aware of its existence. And that we will hear its beacon once we land on the planet. That only the true heirs can hear it.”

Anessa kept her face emotionless as she considered his words. The Elders were withholding information, and they thought that the Humans hadn’t yet heard the beacon of the device, which was true in a way; their device was still on their homeworld. The Elders didn’t know about the Nel or their device.

She opened her mouth to tell them about the second device but stopped herself. They didn’t know anything but the stories that the Elders allowed to become the truth. And it didn’t change their mission in the slightest.

“How many Legions have been recalled?” she asked instead.

“All of them,” Do Sun Arisak said. “Ten of the Legions have been ordered to reposition in strategic points throughout our territory so that they may respond quickly if any of our other enemies notice and try to take advantage. But the rest are all to gather here.”

That left forty-two Legions for the offensive against the Empire, the largest force they had ever used for an opponent. But the Elders knew that they needed to end the Empire quickly, and a smaller force would’ve taken longer, giving the Empire the chance to use more knowledge from the device.

“When is the invasion supposed to start?” Anessa asked.

Garaam turned and glared at Narrasak. “We are having some disagreements concerning that,” Garaam answered sourly. “After your capture, Narrasak was given the overall command of the Legions. And he means to start the invasion within days, with the three Legions we have here. I have been trying to convince him to wait for more forces.”

“You have seen the information our agents stole from the Erasi. That system has no defenses,” Narrasak argued from his place at the table.

“Can I see that information?” Anessa asked.

Narrasak keyed the telepathic interface and a hologram of the system appeared above the table. “Our agents recovered data sent by the Erasi ambassador; we have their scans of the system, and while they are incomplete, it is a great opportunity. Their trans-space entry point is not guarded; we can enter inside the system and take it before they have a chance to do anything,” Narrasak said.

Anessa recognized the system immediately; it was the place where she had been held. She pointed at the third planet from the sun. “That is the Human homeworld,” she said, looking at the devastated planet.

Narrasak’s eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“That is the system I was held in. My captor showed me that world and told me that it was their homeworld. It was conquered by the Ra’a’zani decades ago. The Humans retook it only recently, but not before the Ra’a’zani deployed a weapon that did that to the planet. And the device the Elders want is still there,” Anessa said.

Narrasak looked at Garaam, with hunger in his eyes. “This is the world the Elders ordered captured. Doing so now would bring us much prestige with the other Dai Sha.”

Garaam narrowed her eyes. “That is true, but we don’t have any verification on this information. You want us to enter through the trans-point; if they have defenses there, they can hurt us badly. There is a reason why invasion forces rarely attack through trans-points.”

“They are weaklings, you heard Anessa—they just recently recovered that system; they haven’t had the time to make it defensible,” Narrasak pressed.

“I do not doubt our strength, but to enter a system through a defended trans-point is folly,” Garaam insisted.

Anessa sighed. “Narrasak’s information is correct, that point isn’t defended,” she said reluctantly. “I was in their system-watch center when the Erasi diplomats arrived, and there were no defenses there. And I accompanied their force into the Ra’a’zani territory; their forces are not there. But with their FTL tech, they might be able to return before we arrive. Their leader seemed to think so. I don’t know if he was lying or not.” She knew that she was aiding in Narrasak’s plan, but there was no reason for her to keep that information to herself.

Narrasak turned and grinned at Garaam. “See, we should attack before that changes. We can secure the system and use it as a staging point for the invasion of the rest of their territory.”

“Do you think that we should attack?” Garaam asked, turning to Anessa.

Anessa thought about it for a minute. “It is a great opportunity, Narrasak is right about that. But I have spent time with these people, and they are not as weak as the Elders think,” she said slowly, thinking about Adrian. Their fight had given her a lot of insight into who he was, but in the end, it was she who had won that fight by restraining him. “But we are Shara Daim; none can stand against us. Narrasak has command, so it is his call in the end. I would only advise caution.”

Narasak was given command by the Elders, Anessa might be the first of the Dai Sha, but her seniority only allowed her to assume command in emergencies, otherwise all Dai Sha were supposed to be equal. But the personal honor and respect from the other Dai Sha came into play, Anessa was very respected, powerful, and usually she would take command. But now her standing was harmed by the fact that she was captured. Not enough for her to lose her position, but enough to make her trying to take command from Narrasak complicated. And it was pointless anyway, Narrasak was about to do something that she agreed with.

“We are attacking,” Narrasak said in triumph. Then he turned to Anessa. “Will you go to the Elders to report? Or will you come with us?” he asked.

She was tempted to go to the Elders, to ask them for more answers, but that somehow made her feel as if Adrian had won. It was what he wanted her to do, and she would not let his words poison her actions. And it would take several months of travel to reach Shara Radum in order for her to speak with them in person. She trusted the Elders still, and their original orders to her had been to recover the device. And she knew that the human device was still on their ravaged homeworld. There was no choice.

“I’m coming with you.”

Chapter Twelve

One month later— July — Sanctuary

Emperor Tomas Klein sat at the head of a long table and listened as the Clan Leaders of his Empire discussed new resource allocations and mining rights.

“Clan Gudólfr was supposed to provide us with one third of our requirements for military shipyards, and now those materials are being funneled to Warpath. Not to mention that Warpath and Dai Ven have reduced the resources trade with other Clans by sixty percent. The shortage of resources will delay our projects by at least a year,” said Clan Leader Barbara Brown of the Terran Clan.

“Warpath, Dai Ven, and Sanctuary are on war footing; they need those resources to build up our forces. Forces that defend all of us,” Clan Leader Isani of Warpath added.

“I can understand that, but Dai Ven trade with Guxcacul and Nelus Clans has continued with no reductions, and they are not required to aid the three Clans with a percentage of their own production. We only ask that if we must suffer these reductions, then the rest should too,” Clan Leader Brown said.

Clan Leader Annbjörg Johansson of Clan Gudólfr shook her head. “Guxcacul and Nelus are the newest clans, their needs are lower than yours; they are barely getting ten percent of your yearly quota. There is no point in reducing resources going to them, it wouldn’t make a difference. They still need time to grow to the level of other Clans.”

“Annbjörg is right, cutting resources going to them wouldn’t increase our production, but would cripple their expansion. And their production is nowhere near the size of other Clans; their contributions would be minuscule,” Clan Leader Sumia of Nuvan Clan added.

Clan Leader Brown sighed in defeat. “Fine, but I expect an increase in Terran Clans quota after the war footing ends.”

Clan Leader Jusan of Clan Dai Ven turned to look at Brown. “We can do that. I will add ten percent of your yearly quota from our reserves for two years after the war footing ends. I assume that that will be enough?”

Brown nodded. “It will.”

“While we are on the subject, is there anything that Guxcacal and Nelus Clans wish to add?” Tomas asked, startling the Clan Leaders. He usually kept back and let them discus things on their own, but today he had an agenda that he needed to bring up.

Clan Leader Nimuse of Nelus Clan turned to Tomas. She now looked like a young Nel woman; it was a great change compared to how she had looked before Nelus had joined the Empire. She had been an old woman, but now after the rejuvenation and immortality treatments, she would look young for a long time.

“Nelus has nothing to add, sir. The expansion of our production and processing plants is proceeding as planned.”

Then Clan Leader Sisstra of the Guxcacul Clan spoke, “The same as Nelus; everything is proceeding according to plans, sir.” Tomas knew that she had spoken in her own tongue, but he heard her words in Empire standard, thanks to the technology sent by Adrian from the Erasi. His scientists had adapted it and integrated it into their implants, and as all races in the Empire had one, it made it much easier for them all to communicate. They no longer had the need to use translators that had lag.

“Well, now that we have finished with that, I have two matters to bring to your attention,” he said as he looked around the table at the nine Clan Leaders. Five of them were Nel, three human if he counted himself and Sanctuary, and the last two were a Guxcacul and a Trivaxian. He could not have imagined all that time ago that he would end up here.

He looked over the Clan Leaders at the table, and at the ever-present agent of the Hand who sat opposite of him observing the meeting. “All of you are aware that we expect an all-out state of war with a hostile race we recently came into contact with called the Shara Daim. What most of you have not been aware of is that they are like us, human and Nel. They are the third race that is our genetic sibling. You know the human and Nel history, and are aware of the knowledge we received from our ancestor, which should tell you how dangerous Shara Daim are. They too had access to that knowledge, and for longer than us,” Tomas said evenly. “But we have intel that indicates that they lost their sphere some time ago, so the amount of knowledge from it that they currently possess is unknown.”

“Can we match them?” Clan Leader Brown asked.

“We believe so, at least technologically. They have a much larger territory and population than us. Nevertheless, we have plans for a prolonged war. I’m telling you this so that you can prepare your own colonies for invasions. I don’t think that it will come to that, but I want you all to be aware of the possibility,” Tomas answered, and then turned to the Trivaxian Clan Leader. “Tofor, Trivax is the first major world that would be hit if our border systems fall. But I have spoken with Fleets Master Laura, and we will see to moving some assets into your territory to bolster your own.”

“Of course, thank you, sir,” Clan Leader Tofor of Trivaxian Clan said.

“And the second thing is to warn you that the Erasi have stealth ships in our territory, which is not altogether surprising, since we have our stealth ships in their territory. We believe their purpose is espionage, and we have a response ready to implement against them. I just wanted to warn you that you might be seeing some strange fleet movements and ghost signatures in your systems. If you notice anything strange, please have your people forward it to Fleet on Thanatos.”

A chorus of affirmative responses followed his words, and Tomas nodded. “Good. If there is nothing else,” he said, and moved to stand. The rest followed.

***

Seo-yun moved anxiously behind a group of solders as they carefully loaded their priceless cargo onto a military transport. After they slowly lowered the box on the floor of the shuttle and secured it, the leader turned to look at Seo-yun.

“Don’t worry, Minister. We’ll make sure that it reaches its destination in perfect condition,” Commander Talluah said as she put out a hand for Seo-yun.

She grasped and shook it while looking the commander in the eyes. “You better. If not, you will answer to me,” she said seriously.

The commander nodded and entered the shuttle. Seo-yun stepped back as the shuttle took off for the ship waiting in orbit. She shook her head as she walked back into the Sanctuary’s science and research center; she still could not believe that Tomas had actually managed to convince her to send the sphere to Adrian. It was what the Shara Daim wanted, and if they got their hands on it, there would be no stopping them. Thankfully, she and her team had transferred all of the data to several other devices that they had built according to the specifications from Axull Darr, but only the original device contained his consciousness.

She knew that Adrian had a plan that required it, but she still worried that it could fall into Shara Daim hands even with all the precautions that Adrian had in place.

She walked through the large building and made her way to one of the main research rooms. Inside, a squad of scientists worked on their stations. Holographic images of Ra’a’zani in all of their stages of development were scattered amongst the working stations. Seo-yun approached a Nel woman sitting at a desk in the center of the room.

“Sevani, any progress?” she asked the woman.

“Yes, actually, I was just about to call you. I think that we got it,” she said with a human smile. Sevani was young and brilliant, and as she had been born out of the progeny centers and then raised in a mixed home, with both Human and Nel caregivers, she was perfectly fine with expressing her emotions through facial expressions, unlike Nel who were born out of purely Nel families.

“Really? Show me,” Seo-yun said.

“Here is what their reconstructed DNA will look like,” Sevani said as a holo of a helix appeared above her table. “We have added defenses against the cold, rewritten a portion of their original code substantially. They will look similar but will be slightly smaller in order to better retain heat and survive on their new world. We had to remove their scales and add fur.” She sighed. “I know that you didn’t want that many physical changes, but there was no getting around it; we are still not as good at this as the People. Unless you want to reconsider and put them on a warmer world?” Sevani asked.

Seo-yun shook her head. “No, this is as much a test for us as it is their new chance. In addition, Tomas wants them to grow in a completely different environment from the originals. What else?”

“Well, we made sure that the females will be able to lay only six eggs during their lifetime, in three periods about ten years apart, with a much better egg fertilization success rate. That should ensure something like family units to be established, or at least give the females more freedom in their society to find a purpose other than egg laying. Moreover, there will now be a fifty-fifty chance of an embryo in the egg being male or female; it should level their society out a bit. We put in markers that would allow the team on site to adjust this if something unforeseen happens,” Savani said.

“And what about the Sha package?”

“We put in the limited package, yes: telepathy, telekinesis, and vitakinesis, buried in their genetic code with the same triggers that Axull Durr put into us. We found instructions on how to make genetic memories for alien races not descended from the People, but we will not know if we nailed it until we try. And we needed to design a slightly different energy organ more suited for their physiology.”

“Good. The eggs we recovered from Lu’tal should arrive in a couple of days, and we’ll get more once Johanna takes their other worlds,” Seo-yun said.

“So did the Emperor decide on a name?” Savani asked.

Seo-yun sighed tiredly. She had tried to have him choose some other name, but he had been persistent. “He renamed the world Jötunheimr, and plans on naming them Jötunn.”

Savani looked at her quizzically. “Does that have some meaning?”

“Its human mythology. In one of old human religions, Jötunn were frost giants banished to the world of Jötunheimr.”

Savani shrugged. “Well, they will be banished in a way, and they will need a new name. That one is better than nothing.”

“New name for a new species. Hopefully they become something better than what they are now,” Seo-yun said.

***

Later that day, Seo-yun was walking through the palace on her way to her and Tomas’s quarters, the Ra’a’zani still on her mind. There had been a time when she would not have even considered doing what they planned to do to the Ra’a’zani and their offspring, when she would have opposed it vehemently.

However, that was before she had studied the historical data from the sphere. Before she’d realized that the People had aided most of the life in the galaxy. That their fingerprints were on most of the intelligent races in the galaxy. They were the first, and for the longest time, the only race, and they had used their knowledge to help life along, to guide it into becoming intelligent. Now their descendants were going to attempt something similar.

The People had never modified a race without its consent, not once a lifeform achieved intelligence, but then they had never involved themselves in the matters of other races. They had stood above, both in technology and age. They had never had to fight a war against another intelligent race that they could lose, had never known what it felt like to be inferior and at the mercy of another. The Empire, on the other hand, lived amongst the other races, fought and suffered at their hands. They understood that sometimes they needed to do the hard thing, that the universe was not a nice place. It had taken Seo-yun a bit of time to come to peace with that, with the power and responsibility her people wielded.

She reached and entered her living quarter. Seeing a light coming from the library, she changed direction. Inside, she found Tomas sitting in his reading chair with an old book in his hands. He raised his head and smiled as he noticed her. She walked over and sat in his lap as he put the book aside, then gave him a peck on the lips.

“How was your day?” he asked as she made herself comfortable.

“Fine. How was yours? Did you have to yell at the whole room of people again?” she asked cheerfully.

Tomas rolled his eyes. “They are not children. They can behave…sometimes,” he said, referring to the Clan Leaders.

“That’s not what you said last time they were here,” she said, smiling. “If I remember correctly, you came home threatening to send them all to caregivers to learn manners.”

Tomas gave her a smile of his own. “Thankfully they were more cordial this time.”

“Good,” Seo-yun said, and then she sobered. “Did Laura give you an update on the fleets?”

“Yes,” Tomas said, his smile disappearing. “She is sending the First and Fourth fleets to Adrian. Johanna’s Second, Fifth, and Sixth fleets will stay under his command after they finish with the Ra’a’zani, and the Third will remain in Sanctuary. Sanctuary shipyards should have the Seventh Fleet finished in three weeks, but that one is to be stationed in Sector Two. And Warpath’s Forge should finish the Eighth Fleet in about a month.”

“How long does it take the Forge to complete a fleet?”

“Nine months for the Forge, but they are also building defensive platforms and weapons for stations. Sanctuary’s shipyards are focusing only on warships, so we can build one fleet in seven months, and the shipyards in Sector Two are building drones for system defense,” Tomas said. “The rest aren’t really equipped to build advanced warships.”

“If they get past Sol…”

“They won’t, I trust Adrian. Even if they did, they will break their forces against us, and there is little chance that they can take Sanctuary; it is a fortress. They would be forced to use trans-space to enter the system because of the nebula, and if they do, our defenses will rip them apart.”

“I trust him too, but he risks too much. We shouldn’t have sent the sphere to him. There are a thousand things that can go sideways,” she said.

“He knows what he is doing; he has trained and studied for these kinds of situations. That is what Sentinels are supposed to do you know.”

“I know…” Seo-yun said, and settled close to Tomas, closing her eyes.

Chapter Thirteen

One month later — August — Sol

The woman beneath Adrian writhed with passion. Both were breathing heavily. She bit his lip as they moved in a dance. He moved his palms over her soft, dark skin as she arched beneath him. He could feel himself reaching climax, and the white eyes looking at him told him that the same was true for her. Then, a sound intruded on his mind. He tried to ignore it, to stay with her, but the sound kept intruding…

Adrian woke with a start. His comms were going off. He blinked and brought forth his HUD, answering the call from Gotu.

“What?” he said crankily.

“We need you at the hub,” Gotu said.

Adrian closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll be right there.”

He sat up in the bed slowly. He remembered the dream; his body was still hot from the memory. He remembered Anessa’s bright white eyes looking at him with such passion. He shook his head. It had been a long time since he’d had this kind of a dream. It seemed that Anessa had gotten under his skin a lot deeper than he had previously thought. And no wonder—she had spent a better part of nine months as his prisoner. More of a guest, really. They had talked about their people, about their beliefs; he had walked and talked with her almost daily. He had a sense of who she was, even though he didn’t know really anything about her private life. With a sigh, he stood up and went to the bathroom. He needed a cold shower before he went to the hub.

Less than an hour later, Adrian leaned on the railing and looked over the data on the holo. The Olympus Mons AI’s hologram stood to his left, an image of a human in Warpath uniform, and Iris floated above his shoulder.

“And they don’t realize that we’ve detected their hack?” Adrian asked.

“No,” Gotu said from his left, “Atlas caught their malware the moment they triggered it, and he isolated it and made a virtual net where the malware is trying to break through our ‘defense.’ We weren’t sure how you wanted to handle it.”

Adrian turned to look at the holo of Atlas. “There is no chance that this malware can escape?”

“No, Lord Sentinel. It is inferior to our defenses; it appears to be a part of an AI, but one severely limited and constrained,” Atlas responded.

“So, can you make it seem like it uncovered something? Feed them false information?” Adrian asked.

“Of course,” Atlas said.

Adrian grinned. “What are they looking for?”

“Information about Sol’s defenses and anything about our weapons technology, such as skimming technology, and how many warships we have.”

“Alright, let’s come up with something that is to our advantage and seems plausible.”

***

Adrian sat in his quarters, Akash and Sora sleeping on the floor by his chair. He levitated a perfect silver sphere above his hand, and in the middle of the room floated the hologram of Axull Darr with its legs crossed. The human-like being was wearing long robes that left his hands and head free.

“So, what do you think?” Adrian asked the copy of his ultimate ancestor as he rotated the sphere in front of him.

“There is much that can go wrong with your plan. And even if she comes back, she can die in the resulting battle,” Axull Darr answered.

“Our assets in Shara Daim territory have confirmed that their Legions have left the system—Sol is the only place they could be headed, and I doubt that she would’ve let her Legion go to war without her, doesn’t seem like her,” Adrian said.

“You can’t control what happens in the heat of battle. You more than anyone should know that,” Axull Darr cautioned.

“Yes, I know that unpredictable things happen. However, I have done everything I can to minimize that. And once she sees that there is no chance for victory, she will listen,” Adrian said unsurely.

“You told me that the Shara Daim are proud, arrogant, and dismissive of other races. To me, they do not seem like people that listen.”

“If it was anyone other than her, I would’ve agreed. But she knows that we don’t want war. She will talk with me,” Adrian said.

“And you think that you can convince her now when you failed before?” Axull Darr asked.

“My plan was never to change her mind before sending her back. Her belief that they are the strongest can’t be shattered by my words alone. I needed to plant the seed that she and I are not so different, that we are not weak, so that when I do shatter the Shara Daim illusion of strength, she will lose faith in what she has always known to be true. Then you and I will show her the truth about their ancestors.”

“And what do you think that will accomplish? You think that she can convince her Elders and the rest of her race to change?” Axull Darr asked.

Adrian shook his head. “No, the Elders are the problem. They must have access to at least some information, and yet the rest of the Shara Daim don’t know about it. But she is influential and powerful. I can only show her the truth; it is her job to do with it as she wills. If she decides that her people are still right even after she knows everything, then that is her choice and we will go to war with the Shara Daim, one in which only one of us survives.”

“I hope that your plan works. It would pain me to see my children killing one another.”

“We shall see next month, when they arrive.”

***

Adrian stepped off the shuttle and onto the Jupiter shipyards. Hundreds of humans, Nel, and Sowir walked around doing their jobs. A single Sowir stood close to the shuttle and waited until Adrian walked over to him.

“Teacher,” Adrian sent as a way of greeting.

“Adrian,” Lurker of the Depths responded. Lurker of the Depths motioned for Adrian to follow, and they walked over to a small room already prepared for their meeting.

“Progress?” Adrian asked once they were alone.

“We have done as you asked; the production will be done on time,” Lurker of the Depths responded.

“Good, and what about the special project?” Adrian asked.

“The technology is unstable; we can’t power it long enough for it to be useful weapon,” Lurker of the Depths sent, allowing his frustration and apology to underline his words.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get it. I’ve brought you some help,” Adrian sent with just a hint of amusement. He reached into his pocket and brought out the sphere, throwing it in front of him and catching it with the Sha to keep it in the air.

“Is that…?” Lurker of the Depths asked slowly.

“Yes,” Adrian said as the hologram of Axull Darr appeared in front of them.

“Greetings, Lurker of the Depths,” Axull Darr sent telepathically, or rather using the telepathic transmitter of the sphere.

“Greetings,” Lurker of the Depths responded respectfully.

“Axull Darr here will help your people get the weapon done by our deadline,” Adrian sent.

“Then we should get to work immediately, there isn’t that much time left,” Lurker of the Depths said. Adrian gestured and sent for him to lead the way.

***

Tarabat

“Our people at the embassy finally managed to get us something,” Hanaru’s aide Ubvaru sent.

“What do we have?” Hanaru asked.

“We have confirmed the status of their defenses in the Sol system; they have only a few defenses. The signals in the asteroid belt are mining stations and mining ships; the construct at their gas giant is a storage base, a shipyard, and a research facility. And it seems that they are using the designs for our defensive platform—we found test records,” Ubvaru responded.

“And do we have anything on their normal space FTL technology?” Hanaru asked.

“Unfortunately, no. However, we always knew that it was unlikely for them to have that kind of sensitive data there. We have recovered some data about the number of their warships.”

“And?”

“They seem to have four advanced fleets, those that have their new FTL tech, but we didn’t yet find any details on their armaments, and we only assume that these fleets have the FTL tech because of some data we recovered about their movements. Their warships at least have advanced shields, as we saw from their skirmish with the Shara Daim. The rest of their ships seem to be obsolete and are used strictly for system defense, much slower than even our regional guard, using completely primitive kinetic kill weapons,” Ubvaru said.

“Really?” Hanaru said, surprised. “Did we really overestimate their capabilities that much?”

“We were right about their technology; they should be on par with Shara Daim and us. But only their new ships. Their technology is new; they haven’t had the time to upgrade or build new ships.”

“Then they can’t hold the Shara Daim occupied for nearly as long as we initially thought. Why are the Shara Daim mobilizing all of their Legions? They could’ve taken them with only ten Legions,” Hanaru asked.

“We leaked a lot of information about the Empire to the Shara Daim; they might think that the Empire has more ships than it really does,” Ubvaru answered.

“They called for all of their Legions as soon as the Empire kidnapped a Dai Sha. Could it really be only because of that…? A Dai Sha has never been kidnapped before; they might want to make an example of them,” Hanaru mused.

“So what do we do? Narrasak and the three Legions under his command have already left for an attack on Sol, and even without the rest of the Legions, they will surely take the system,” Ubvaru said.

“We should have an extraction strategy for our people there. Moreover, I need to inform our superiors about the Empire. I must counsel them to accelerate the plans; we should strike now while the Shara Daim Legions are out of position, rather than wait for them to engage the Empire. If Narrasak takes Sol, they might even decide that they don’t need all those Legions and send them back, and we can’t miss this opportunity,” Hanaru sent.

“It will mean a much larger timeframe between waves than what we initially thought; Legions will be able to respond much quicker. We will have more losses during the first wave,” Ubvaru added.

“Yes, but there is no other way, the onslaught must begin now.”

***

August — Ra’a’zani space

Johanna sat on board the Argo, above the last Ra’a’zani world, and watched as a group of transports disappeared into trans-space on their way to the Empire’s space with the last of the freed slaves. It had been a tough few months; her fleets had hunted down every Ra’a’zani ship, destroyed all their space assets, and bombed every piece of technology and infrastructure on their planets. The surviving Ra’a’zani had no factories, no material processing plants, and no power. They would not leave their planets in their lifetimes, and would have no offspring; all of their worlds save this one had been infected.

The army had secured enough of their fertilized eggs that they could ensure that their genetic code survived—maybe altered, but still there would be something left. But the Ra’a’zani as a race would die. Johanna was surprised at how little the Ra’a’zani truly had; the Shara Daim had all but destroyed them. Their population had already been decimated, their best and brightest having died fighting the Shara Daim, and they had had few warships left. They didn’t really stand a chance against Johanna’s fleet.

The freed slaves were being sent back to Sector One where they would go through acclimation programs, and with that last group of transports, her job was almost finished. She had only to release the pathogen on this last world and then return to Empire territory.

Chapter Fourteen

One month later — September; Year 55 of the Empire — Bloodbringer

Anessa was one hundred and twenty-one years old on the day she passed judgment on a fellow Dai Sha. Jassarak, former Dai Sha of the Thirty-Second Legion, was on his knees in front of her. Six Do Sun kept him immobilized with the Sha. He had defied the Elders; instead of destroying the last remnants of an alien race that had defied Shara Daim demands, he had allowed them to escape while he stalled for time.

“Why did you defy the orders of the Elders?” Anessa asked him curiously. She couldn’t imagine ever going against the Elders’ orders.

“Because they were wrong. We are not better than other races, they have the same rights as we do,” Jassarak said.

Anessa angered. “We are the heirs of the galaxy; there are none who can stand alongside us.”

“You are wrong. You sit on your ship and reign chaos and death on the people that you don’t even know, certain in your Elders who gave you those orders. If only you would spend time with them, you would see that they are the same as us,” Jassarak said.

“The Elders are the ultimate authority of Shara Daim, the wisest of us. You knew that to defy them is paramount to suicide,” Anessa said.

“I knew. Better that I die knowing I have saved innocents from the cruel fate you would’ve rained down on them than to live as a coward hiding behind their orders.”

“Well, you will get your wish granted. You will die,” Anessa said as she stepped forward, a ball of orange plasma forming on her palm.

“You are worse than them, Dai Sha Anessa,” he said with a voice full of sorrow. “You have been granted gifts beyond anyone else. You could have been the best of us, and yet you are nothing but a slave,” Jassarak said, looking her in the eyes.

“To serve the Elders is the greatest honor there is,” Anessa said as she burned a hole through his chest.

Bloodbringer dropped out of hyperspace at the hyper-limit, followed by more than six thousand other ships. Three Legions assembled and immediately started moving deeper into the system towards the trans-exit point, the direct path to the Human system.

“Anything on scanners?” Anessa asked as the joint force accelerated in-system.

“Nothing, Dai Sha,” answered the Va Sun at the scanners. Then, a few minutes later, the Va Sun spoke up. “We got contact—a ship just powered up and is moving towards the trans-point.”

Anessa narrowed her eyes as the ship entered the trans-point and engaged its drives, effectively locking the point for the duration of its trip, which was only four hours. Something didn’t feel right. She knew Adrian was smart; if they had no defenses at their trans-entry point, then it made sense that they would have assets at the other end of the trans-point. But the ship was either powered down or had stealth capabilities. If the Empire was even close to Shara Daim and Erasi technology, they should have FTL comms, which meant that they already knew that the force was coming. That ship could have observed the Legions as they passed; by closing the point, they had gained nothing, as it would take the Legions a little over four hours to arrive at the point. The ship could’ve waited until the Legions were closer and closed it then, buying them more time.

Anessa turned the privacy screens on and requested a channel to Narrasak’s flagship, the Ravager, and Garaam’s Soulsworn. A moment later, two holograms appeared in front of her, both sitting in their own chairs.

“What is it, Anessa?” Narrasak asked from the command of the Ravager.

“I don’t like this, that ship had no advantage for leaving now,” Anessa said.

“Are we sure that they have inter-system FTL comms?” Garaam asked from the Soulsworn.

“We have never seen proof of them using them, but with all the other technology they have, I assumed that they have them,” Anessa answered.

“They are weaklings, slaves. They might’ve gotten lucky and scavenged technology far above them,” Narrasak said dismissively.

Anessa started to respond but paused. A year ago, she wouldn’t have questioned Narrasak; she would’ve agreed that their enemy could not have possibly pose a threat, even knowing that they had the device of their ancestors. After all, the Shara Daim had had it once and still had data from it, and it had still taken them a while to grow as large as they were now. If she hadn’t spent time as a prisoner, she would’ve dismissed her enemy. She thought about her response for a moment before responding, “We should send a scouting force first,” she said.

“What?” Narrasak asked incredulously. “That would give them another eight hours to prepare!”

“We are attacking a system through a trans-point on information that might be outdated. We should take every precaution,” Anessa answered.

Narrasak fumed. “We are Shara Daim, we are the strongest! You insinuate that we have something to fear from them!”

Before Anessa had the chance to respond, Garaam interjected, “I agree with Anessa,” she said evenly. “We are the strongest because we are the best, raised to understand war. Because we don’t take foolish risks. Sending a scout force is smart.”

Narrasak glared at her for a couple of long seconds, and then finally relented. “Fine, I will assemble a scout force.” And he immediately closed the link.

Anessa turned to look at Garaam, who remained studying her. “Your time in captivity changed you,” Garaam said, and Anessa made a conscious effort not to let any of her internal turmoil show.

“How so?” Anessa asked.

“We are raised to know that we are better than anyone, that other races pose no threat to us, that they are beneath us. Our belief is tempered by our training and ability, but that belief is always there, because our ancestors once ruled the galaxy through strength. Before, you would’ve never counseled caution against an opponent that was beneath us, a race that had allowed itself to be enslaved, who helped the weak,” Garaam said.

“Why did you agree with me, then?” Anessa asked.

“I am not stupid enough to believe that we couldn’t be led into a trap and that we couldn’t lose. I have fought against many races that were more than a match for us. I won because I was a better commander than they were, not because I somehow could not lose. Narrasak has spent his days leading his Legion against opponents far too inferior to truly test himself; his victories have only reinforced his belief of invulnerability. Our technological advantage has made us think we are superior against everyone. However, fighting an opponent that has the ability to harm you is another thing entirely,” Garaam said, and then studied Anessa, looking for something.

Anessa looked at her longtime friend as if she was a stranger. She acknowledged her words and closed the channel. She couldn’t believe what she had heard; Garaam was one of the most respected Dai Sha, but her words were heretical. The Anessa of before would’ve heard those words and looked at her in disgust, perhaps even going as far as to execute her for her blasphemy. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Now she knew that she could be defeated. She had been captured, and that had shaken her. Then, she had spent a long time as prisoner, learning about an alien culture and customs from the source, something she had never done before. Once, she would’ve looked at a race that lived by rules other than strength and thought it weak, but now she wasn’t sure.

Now she couldn’t help but wonder if there were more Shara Daim that felt like Garaam did.

***

Several hours later, the Shara Daim force were still waiting for word from their scouts. They had sent ten of their destroyers and eight of their cruiser-class ships to scout out the trans-point. And they should have been sending back word to the flagship any moment now.

Anessa waited impatiently, until finally the Va Sun at the communications station spoke up.

“We received an update from the Ravager. The scout force has arrived in system and reports that the Empire’s point is filled with debris; they lost one destroyer and have three other damaged. They caught Empire ships as they were pushing the debris inside. They destroyed the Empire’s ships and are proceeding to clear the point. There doesn’t appear to be any enemy warships except for a dozen or so at the fourth planet, so they will be able to clear the point before we arrive. Ravager orders the force to move into the trans-point.”

Anessa ordered her Legion into the point. Putting debris into a point was a very effective strategy, if you knew that the force coming against you was large enough to fill the point, and you had the time to put enough debris into it. The point was a large spherical area in space, and the larger the force coming through it, the closer the ships had to be to one another in order to fit. Their three Legions were not the upper limit, but if there was enough debris, it could’ve been bad. They wouldn’t have lost the larger ships, but the smaller ones would’ve either been destroyed from impacts or severely damaged. It was lucky for the scouting force that standard procedure for going through the trans-point was to spread the forces across it.

They would now be using their energy weapons to clear the debris, and since they had reported that they could clear it before the Legions passed, it meant that there wasn’t a lot of the debris, but even a small amount could’ve been a blow to the Legions.

The Legions took formation inside the trans-point. Narrasak’s Legion took the center, with Anessa’s and Garaam’s taking the sides, waiting only on the order from the Ravager. Then the order came, and the Legions disappeared in a flash of violet light.

Chapter Fifteen

Sol

The holo showed the Shara Daim advance taskforce clearing the debris from the trans-station using their energy weapons. The scanners recognized the weapons as a type of high-intensity lasers, about ten percent more powerful than the Empire’s of the same class.

Adrian studied the enemy from his chair in the Olympus Mons command hub. There was no point in him being on a ship when he was more defended on the planet. There were two types of enemy ships. A smaller class, 850 meters long and 200 wide and tall, and another that was a larger class, 1100 meters long and 400 wide and tall. Both classes were shaped like long pillars with weapons mounted around the hull, with a wider base where their drives were and with a narrow tip.

From the data they’d received from the Erasi, he knew that the smaller ones were destroyer class, and the other a cruiser. Veritas had encountered two more classes of Legion ships in Tarabat. A heavy-cruiser class, at 1400 meters long and 600 wide and tall, and what the Shara Daim called super battleships. 3500 meters long and about 800 meters wide and tall, its back and front looked like rectangular pillars, but its middle was wider, making them look like a hammer that had the hammer’s head lowered to the middle of the handle. Their Legions also had a battleship class, which was a smaller version of their super battleships, at 2400 meters long and 600 wide and tall, with the central part being about 1400 meters wide and 800 tall.

They had powerful ships, and Adrian knew that what he wanted to accomplish wouldn’t be easy. The Shara Daim ships finished clearing the points and moved aside, preparing for the arrival of the rest of the force. There was still debris outside of the trans-station, as the drones hadn’t had the chance to push all of it inside the trans-station, and some of that was there by design.

Twenty minutes later, a violet flash of light announced the arrival of the Shara Daim force. Six thousand and three hundred warships had just entered his system.

“Alright, people, this is it. Follow orders, remember the plan.”

He leaned into the chair, closed his eyes, and accessed the Watchtower interface. Suddenly he was floating in space between the planets of the solar system. The Legions still held position at the trans-station, and Adrian looked over the force. He had already known the composition of the force, of course; the Empire had sent their stealth ships into both the Erasi and Shara Daim territories as soon as they’d discovered them. Three Legions, and from the data Aileen had recovered, he knew that they were the First, the Third, and the Fourteenth Legions. He didn’t know who led the Third and the Fourteenth, but the First was led by Anessa. And since no ships other than the Legions had left the system she had arrived in once he had released her, he knew that she was with her Legion.

A group of ships was speeding away from Mars in the opposite direction of the incoming Shara Daim force and towards one of the outgoing trans-stations. The Erasi diplomatic ship and its escorts. It didn’t really surprise him they were ready to leave even before the Shara Daim arrived, and must’ve known about the attack.

The tachyon probes around the system were constantly scanning, giving him a real-time picture and scans of everything in-system. With a thought, he zoomed in on one of the Legion ships. According to Aileen, the ship was called Bloodbringer, and was Anessa’s flagship. With a thought, he marked the ship and sent the orders regarding it to the drone control. Then he saw the Legions start to move. Adrian waited for a moment and then sighed. It was time for the battle to start. He focused and sent the orders.

***

Two signals flew through space from Mars towards the invading fleet, its target hidden in the debris field that surrounded the incoming trans-station. The Shara Daim Legions ignored the debris, as it was no danger to their ships. The pieces of scrap floating around were inconsequential to them; their scout force had already informed them that they had caught the Empire ships that were pushing the debris in and destroyed them.

A ship at stealth received the first signal, one of 150 Specter-class stealth ships, surrounding the trans-station. The commander relayed the order, and all 150 ships released the missile pods they were carrying. Each ship carried 10 pods, attached to their hulls. A moment later, the 1500 pods got locks on their targets and fired one third of their loads towards the Shara Daim in the center, 100 missiles each. Six seconds later, they fired the second. One hundred and fifty thousand missiles sped towards the Shara Daim ships.

The second signal found its target as well, and a simple command turned it on. All over the debris field, large missile-like devices powered up and received targeting solutions from Olympus Mons and the stealth ships. A moment later, their drives sent them on their way towards the unsuspecting ships, following only two seconds behind the first wave of missiles.

***

Anessa watched as the Legions slowly advanced. The trans-point was located between the orbits of the third and the fourth planets, and it was fairly close to the fourth planet in its current orbit. There wasn’t much in the system, at least not on the scale of an older colonized system. Most of the traffic in system was between the fourth and fifth planets and the asteroid belt in between them. A few faint returns came from the orbit of the sun and from the ring of the gas giant, but they were obscured and too far away to be seen clearly, so she focused on their target. There were several stations in the orbit of the fourth planet. And around twenty objects that her ship’s sensors recognized as Erasi defense platforms.

Anessa frowned at that. The Empire couldn’t have purchased the plans for those platforms because the Erasi didn’t sell their military-grade technology, even if it was outdated. Which could only mean that they had given it to the Empire, and since the Empire used it, that meant that they didn’t have anything better. And that didn’t make sense. She hadn’t seen any of their technology in action, but she was positive that they had taken at least one Ra’a’zani world, although she didn’t know the particulars of that action. The Empire could’ve lost a lot of ships, or the Ra’a’zani force could’ve been small, and easily outnumbered by the Empire.

She was still musing about that when alarms started sounding around her command. Red blips started appearing all around the three Legions, and lines appeared connecting them to their likely targets.

“Incoming missile fire!” the Va Sun at the sensors reported at the same time.

“Establish the net and move us above the formation,” Anessa ordered.

No one wasted time to acknowledge her orders, they just executed them. All the ships in the attack force instantly made connections, synchronizing their defensive fire. As soon as the missiles entered the range of point defense, lasers opened fire, burning and blowing them up.

The enemy missile count was high, and the missiles were powerful, only ten percent weaker than those of the Shara Daim, and more than one hundred thousand missiles came from the debris field. Anessa watched the holo and the scanners trying to find their source, but they were unable to, which meant there were either stealth ships or the missiles had been mixed in with the debris and powered down. Immediately, several possibilities went through her mind. She knew how Adrian liked to fight, never using more power than what was enough, always maneuvering his opponent into position that worked in his favor.

She realized that the debris field was never intended to cripple the Legions; he had placed only enough so that when they sent scouts, it would appear as if the danger was gone. He had placed the Legions at exactly the position he wanted them. It was a valiant effort, Anessa acknowledged grudgingly, but it wouldn’t be enough. If he had used that number of missiles against a single Legion, he might’ve had a chance of doing some damage, but with three working in concert to take down those missiles, almost nothing would pass through, and those few that did wouldn’t even drain their shields.

“Secondary launches!” the Va Sun reported a few seconds after.

Anessa watched as the first missiles died. Their evading capabilities were impressive, and she revised her conclusion: some would pass through, but still not enough. Even with the second wave coming behind it.

She watched her holo and tracked the progress of the defensive fire, when she noticed something odd. There were two types of missiles among the first volley; the majority of them gave off regular missile readings, but the sensors had a problem penetrating the shielding of a small percentage of the volley. Those strange missiles were larger than their ordinary ones, and somehow no defensive fire was directed at them. She checked the projected trajectories for those missiles and realized that they ended in space between the ships; not one was on a trajectory toward a ship. That told her why they hadn’t been targeted; the defensive fire gave priority to the missiles on direct trajectories to the ships.

The missile volley reached the Legions, several passing through the defensive fire and hitting the shield, doing almost no damage. The Bloodbringer took a hit from four missiles in quick succession and took only a 0.7% dip in their shield strength. She glanced to see if the second missile type would change trajectory now that they were inside the formation, and saw no change.

***

The two thousand Icarus-class missiles entered the Shara Daim formation, then their drives shut off and disengaged, leaving only the spherical canisters that were 10 meters across floating in space between the Shara Daim ships. A moment later, gas thrusters placed the spheres in a gentle spin.

Two circular holes opened on two opposite sides of the spheres, and harsh blue light shone from the openings. A second later, the powerful capacitors in the spheres started draining as intense ion beams exploded out of the spheres.

The Shara Daim formation was dense, and the Icarus missles close. The majority of the beams struck the Shara Daim shields point blank, the spin of the sphere sending the beams across multiple ships during their 3-second firing time.

The ion beams were specifically designed to punch through the shields. A large number of Shara Daim ships suddenly found themselves with their shields gone or extremely drained. Just as the Empire’s second volley arrived.

***

Confusion reigned among the Legions as the Empire’s beam weapon wreaked havoc among them. Ships were reporting losing their shields and some even reported damage. Bloodbringer itself had caught one of the beams for its full charge and had its shields dropped to eighty percent. But Bloodbringer was a super battleship, and they had the strongest shields out of their ships. The rest were not so lucky.

However, there was no time for them to figure out what had happened—the second volley of missiles entered their effective range. The defensive net had suffered in the confusion, as many commanders tried to evade the hellish beams. And now many of the missiles passed through to hit the ships of the Legions. The missiles seemed to be targeting those ships who had lost shields or whose shields were close to failing.

Anessa watched in horror as the first Shara Daim ship exploded.

Chapter Sixteen

Olympus Mons

The Shara Daim ships exploded as thousands of missiles struck at targets of opportunities. But soon the Shara Daim defensive fire put an end to the Empire’s attack.

“Nice targeting,” Adrian said, and Iris appeared in front of him.

“Thanks,” she said.

It was she who had used the Watchtower interface to control the missiles. Adrian could’ve done it, but she was better at going by percentages. And this was a perfect example of when an AI could be deadly. She had targeted only those ships that they had the chance of destroying with the number of missiles that had passed through the Shara Daim fire.

“That will piss them off for sure. They don’t like being used as target practice,” Adrian said.

“Yeah, but that is what you wanted,” Iris said.

“Yeah, I did. Well, it’s time for the next phase.”

***

Anessa read the reports. Six hundred and fifty-four ships—four hundred and ten destroyers, one hundred and eleven cruisers, one hundred and thirty-two heavy cruisers, and one battleship. The Legions had lost six hundred and fifty-four ships in a span no longer than a couple of minutes. They had not lost that much in such a short period of time for centuries, certainly not during Anessa’s lifetime. She couldn’t even remember the last time a single Legion had taken such losses, even when fighting overwhelming numbers.

Her comms chirped and Anessa turned on the privacy screen, then accepted the request from the flagship. A moment later, a livid Narrasak and a hard-looking Garaam appeared in front of her.

“What was that?” Narrasak asked furiously.

“I have never seen such a weapon,” Anessa said.

“Me neither, and the way the attack was executed was ingenious,” Garaam added, a hint of respect in her voice.

“I want their commander captured alive; I’m going to rip his heart out myself,” Narrasak said through his teeth.

“First we need to reach the planet,” Garaam said.

“Their defenses are insignificant, and that trick will only work once. We are going forward,” Narrasak said, and closed his link. Garaam remained, looking at Anessa.

“You know their commander. Should we expect more difficulties?”

Anessa took time to choose her words carefully before responding, “Before he released me, he seemed confident that they could defeat us. I disregarded his words because he is not Shara Daim, but yes, he will have more plans.”

“It sounds like you got to know him a lot more than what you let on. Is there anything that we should know about him?” Garaam said.

“He is like…” Us, Anessa almost said, but managed to stop herself. Even if Garaam was more open-minded, saying that an enemy, an alien, was equal to the Shara Daim was heretical. Yet I almost said it, Anessa thought. She shook her head and continued speaking. “He is smart. Do not trust any opening that you see, even if it appears like it was made by their mistake. He will try to manipulate you to where he wants you.”

“I will keep your words in mind,” Garaam said, and closed her link. Orders arrived from Narrasak, and the three Legions adjusted their formation, with the Third Legion taking the central position and Garaam’s and Anessa’s surrounding it.

Another alarm brought Anessa’s attention to the fourth planet, and the ships that were just now coming from behind it. She waited until all of them were visible and she was sure that no more were coming, and then she looked at the scans.

There were exactly 4500 ships, and all were the same size and shape: 760 meters long, 380 wide and 180 tall, shaped like boxes and smaller than her destroyers were. The scans showed them moving slowly to engage her fleet, probably intending to keep the Legions away from the planet for as long as they could.

But their enemy must’ve known that those ships couldn’t stop the Legions; not even ten of those destroyers together could stand a chance against even a single one of her heavy cruisers, not to mention the battleships. They were simply in a completely different class.

The enemy soon entered range, and both forces opened fire.

***

The Shara Daim ships fired their missiles just a few moments before Adrian’s drones, and dark blue proton beams reached out to smash into the drones’ shields. The drones returned fire with their less powerful laser beams. Adrian started sending orders to the drone control teams, assigning targets, choosing to focus on the Shara Daim smaller ships and those whose shields had taken a hit in his previous attack.

His drones might have been a bit smaller than Shara Daim destroyers, but they were drones and had no need for living quarters and other areas that were necessary for a manned ship. His drones also had almost twice as much firepower than the Shara Daim destroyers. They could continue to function for as long as they were receiving signals from control, and most importantly, they were expendable.

The drones were being controlled from Olympus Mons, using signals sent through both hyperspace and normal space, with thousands of signals blanketing the space to prevent any attempts at hacking the control signals. Usually the drones would have been controlled from command ships, at least in fleet actions. But the drones had been designed for system defense long before the fleets that existed now. And Warpath had built a lot of them in the nineteen years since the end of the war with the Sowir. They had been updated a bit since then, of course, but Adrian knew that they didn’t really stand a chance against the Shara Daim Legions. But then again, he wasn’t trying to simply win. He needed to make a point. He used the Watchtower interface to guide the flow of battle, using the drones to a devastating effect.

***

Anessa moved the Bloodbringer and her other heavy ships in front of the formation to shield her smaller ships. The enemy’s small ships were firing with laser weapons, something that the Shara Daim hadn’t been using in a long time for anything other than point defense, but they could keep those beams of concentrated light for longer periods of time on her ship’s shield, eventually overloading them. She had already lost six destroyers to the enemy ships’ lasers and missiles.

The enemy ships would coordinate their fire in order to interrupt defensive fire around a single ship, then gang up on it until it lost its shields and eventually a few missiles found their way through the defensive fire, destroying the ship. The missiles were powerful, but even her smaller ships could usually take a few hits and survive. The problem was that they also focused their lasers on the ships, weakening the hull enough for the missiles to do more damage. And the number of missiles that the enemy had fired was impressive for ships that size; already the individual ships had fired more than the loads on her destroyers and showed no sign of running out.

The Legions were winning the exchange, even though they were losing some of their smaller ships. But although the enemy was losing ships fast, they were still closing the range. She watched the movements of the enemy ships, noticing them moving in strange patterns; damaged ships would move in front of those still unharmed, and some ships would sacrifice themselves in order to give the other ships a chance to destroy one of the Legions’ ships. Anessa frowned. She looked at the scans of the enemy fleet, noticing a strangely high amount of traffic between them. She called two of the Va Sun from the communications and sensors to her.

“What am I looking at?” Anessa asked them.

“That is strange,” said the Va Sun in charge of sensors.

“It looks almost like…but no, that’s impossible, there are too many of them at the same time,” the Va Sun from communications said.

“What?” Annessa said.

“Those look like control signals, for unmanned vessels. We use them for controlling our mining crafts in asteroid belts. But, Dai Sha, to control so many of them at the same time, you would need extremely fast and powerful computers. And they can be hacked easily…but there are so many of them…” the Va Sun said.

Anessa looked at the holo and the battle, and it clicked—that was what she was seeing. The ships were smaller than her destroyers were and had more firepower. They moved to sacrifice themselves with no hesitation. That was because they were unmanned. Anessa keyed her comms to send a message to Narrasak when new alerts started appearing on the holo.

***

Adrian was losing drones at an alarming rate; he was already down to two thirds of their original number, with only about 3100 remaining. But he had expected that; the drones were not up to par with the rest of the Empire’s ships of the line. The drones were an older generation; they had no advanced weaponry that the other ships had, still using lasers as their main weapons. They had shields, although they were much weaker than those on the newer ships that were close to their size, simply because they didn’t have the room to put stronger energy shields in them. Their missiles were the only piece of technology that was up to par to the true fleet ships, and since they had no wasteful space, they could have larger missile loads than other ships of their size. Their purpose was not the same as that of the other ships. They were meant to be a cheap and expendable way to occupy the enemy.

But the drones had one more advantage. Unlike the newer ships that had abandoned the regular kinetic weapons that the Empire had used before, the drones hadn’t. The new-generation kinetic weapons were ship killers, single-shot monsters that had more power than their older versions. The use of kinetics had become very limited, especially now that the ships they were encountering could achieve speeds of half that of light.

But as Adrian’s martial arts teachers had once taught him, the usefulness of any weapon depends on the situation. And Adrian had just positioned the Shara Daim into a situation where the drones’ kinetic weapons could shine.

The drones closed the range. The space between the two forces was filled with missile explosions, as both sides took down the opposing missiles. Still, a lot of them passed through, mostly on the Shara Daim side. Their beam weapons destroyed the shields on his drones, and the missiles finished the work.

With a thought, Adrian opened a channel to his people at the Jupiter facility. An image of Lurker of the Depths appeared standing beside him; it was a manifestation of his mind and not a real hologram, as he was inside his own mind while using the Watchtower interface.

“Send them,” Adrian said simply.

“Understood,” Lurker of the Depths said, and then disappeared. He didn’t really say the words, but the interface used and translated his thoughts into words.

Then he sent an order to the drone control. The drones suddenly increased the rate of their missile fire, doubling the number of the missiles on their side as they expended all of their missile ammunition. Then their rail gun turrets locked on to the enemy ships and fired. Thousands of ri-steel rounds exploded out of the drones on their way towards the Shara Daim just as new signatures appeared all around the Shara Daim force, exiting out of their skims.

He knew that, alone, those kinetic weapons wouldn’t finish that force. If they hit, they would hurt. The energy shields were great at stopping missiles and energy weapons—slabs of metal traveling at fractions of speed of light, not so much. The shields would be able to stop a lot of kinetic fire, but would also be drained faster. And Adrian knew that his enemy’s ships could move out of the way easily, even at the distance they were now.

Which was why he needed to keep them in position. Forty of the largest freighters that the Empire had in use appeared around the Shara Daim force. Their cargo containers opened and released the newest of the Empire’s defense platforms. They were spherical in shape and 100 meters across, and each of the 6-kilometer-long freighters carried fifty of them. Suddenly the Shara Daim force found itself surrounded by 2000 defense platforms, each armed with three dreadnought-class proton beams and laser point defense, making it hard for the Shara Daim to maneuver and evade the incoming fire from his drones. The only available action for them was to move back towards the trans-station.

Then, just as the Shara Daim forces realized that, a massive station skimmed and moved to just outside the trans-station, at the position it had occupied before Adrian had had it moved. All of their newer stations had skim capabilities now; it was the only way they could move them quickly across the Empire from the areas where they were constructed. The station was a prolate spheroid seven kilometers tall and four wide and deep, with four fin-like extensions on the two sides and top and bottom that stretched another kilometer from the core station. It was a jointly designed and constructed by Warpath and the Sowir, meant to protect trans-points in important systems.

The Shara Daim knew that they were trapped, and their super battleships started firing missiles towards the station. The station started sending its own missiles at the enemy and firing its powerful proton beams. The station’s laser point defense took down a lot of Shara Daim missiles, but some still managed to sneak through, and those exploded inexplicitly. Adrian knew that the station had started using the new weapon that he’d had Lurker of the Depths and his people install—the GPW, or graviton projector weapon. It used artificial gravitons to create localized gravity events. It required a lot of power, but was effective as both a defensive weapon and an offensive one.

The station’s operators targeted one of the Shara Daim heavy cruisers, and Adrian watched as one of its ends suddenly crumpled in on itself in a bundle of twisted hull, and the ship exploded. Adrian checked to see how Anessa’s ship was doing and found it on the front of the Shara Daim formation, shielding the smaller ships from the drones’ attack. He resent the order for that ship to be left alone, unless it was a danger to the station that had people on it. Then he started giving orders to the drone control that would make the most of the situation.

Chapter Seventeen

Bloodbringer

Anessa had known that this had to have been a trap all along the moment those ships appeared and those platforms exited them. And she had been made certain of it the moment that that large station appeared behind the Legions, in a place where she knew it was always supposed to be. How had it not occurred to them that they could use their FTL technology to move such large stations? Adrian had allowed the Legions in; not only that, he had manipulated two empires, the Shara Daim and the Erasi, making them both think that their system was undefended. All those times when she had seen things that she wasn’t supposed to, had felt his emotions and thoughts slip past his blocks, all those had been planned. He had wanted them to attack his system before they had greater numbers.

The unmanned ships in front of the Legions fired thousands of kinetic shells. Anessa knew what those primitive weapons were; the Shara Daim had encountered a few races that used them, and all had perished against the Legions. Now those primitive weapons would shred the Legions; there was no space to maneuver. The platforms were firing energy beams that even her ship’s shields felt, and at the back of their formation was the massive defense station that was mauling anything that came close enough.

The kinetic shells hit the front of the formation. Her and Garaam’s Legions fared better; the two of them had their larger ships in front, and their shields could take the hail of fire. However, Narrasak had his destroyers and cruisers up front taking the kinetic fire, while his heavy warships were in the back being destroyed by the large station, and his ships were losing their shields rapidly, the platforms surrounding their formation picking off any ship without them.

She was losing ships fast. Already she had lost almost a quarter of her Legion, and the losses of the other two Legions were even worse. But they still had the numbers advantage, at least in heavy warships. If they reorganized and punched through, they might be able to escape this death trap and defeat the enemy.

Anessa ordered her cruisers and destroyers forward, away from the station at their back, but she knew that they had to do something; if they stayed on the defensive for any longer, they wouldn’t have the numbers to attempt anything. Then she noticed Narrasak’s ships tightening formation and moving ahead towards the unmanned drones. She checked the holo and saw that there had been no orders from the Ravager. She tried to open a channel, but Narrasak ignored her. She knew what he was doing; he was trying to push through the front and get to the planet. But she also knew that in the process he was going to lose a lot of ships.

Anessa opened a channel to Soulsworn. Garaam appeared her eyes determined.

“That idiot is going to kill us all,” Garaam said.

“Close the hole his fleet makes, and let’s move away from the station and towards the platforms. We should be able to break through while Narrasak keeps them busy,” Anessa said.

“So we are running,” Garaam said, her voice bitter.

“We can’t win, Garaam. With Narrasak, perhaps; without him, we would certainly lose almost everything, and if losing our Legions is the cost for taking this system, then I don’t want it,” Anessa said forcefully. She was angry—at Narrasak for going off on his own, at herself for hearing alien words in her mind, and at that alien for tricking her and proving his words true.

Garaam’s eyes flashed. “Alright, and I hope that they smash that moron to pieces. At least his idiocy might buy us enough time to get out of this.”

***

The Empire’s defense platforms fired dark green proton beams at the Shara Daim, even as they returned fire with their own versions, which painted the space around them in dark blue lines. The platforms were taking down Shara Daim missiles that were targeting them, but a few passed through their defensive fire only to impact against the platform’s shields. The drones were firing with their lasers and kinetic weapons, as they had expended their missiles.

Adrian noticed the Shara Daim ships changing formations. One of the Legions, the one in the central part of their formation, moved in front and set a direct course through his remaining drones. The other two were closing the hole that that Legion made, and changing course towards the wall of platforms, away from the station and the Legion trying to push through the drones. He saw Anessa’s ship among that formation, and sent out orders for the platforms closest to that formation to target the damaged and smaller ships of that formation. The rest of the platforms he pointed towards the foolish Legion that was trying to break through his drones.

Unfortunately, all the Legions had moved out of the range of the station’s gravity weapon, and were on the edge of the range of its proton beams. However, the station had already exacted a terrible price to those ships that had been in its range; hundreds of burned or crushed hulls floated in front of it. The enemy ships were still in the missile range, so he ordered the station commander to send his missiles towards the single Legion and allow the two that were trying to push through the platforms to get away.

He focused all the firepower he had available at the single Legion. Its commander was putting its smaller ships in front and sacrificing them to the kinetics of his drones, but Adrian’s platforms and missiles from the station were wreaking havoc on them from all sides.

Adrian focused the platforms on the Legion’s super battleships, even as he moved the drones to prevent their passage. The Legion commander must’ve realized what Adrian was doing, but it was too late, his ships were already on intercept courses.

The first drone sped up and smashed into one of the Shara Daim ships, a cruiser, the resulting explosion blowing pieces of it into the other ships. The Shara Daim ships died from the fire of the station and the platforms, the debris field in front of it damaged any ship that tried to pass, and the platforms around the planet finished them. Whoever was in command of that Legion hadn’t realized that his ships were drones and that he could use their hulls as weapons too, that they were expendable—or else the commander was willing to sacrifice his ships just for a chance to get to the planet.

But even through all that fire, six ships—two super battleships and four battleships—limped close enough to the planet and fired their missiles at the stations and platforms in orbit. Shuttles left their ships on the way to the planet.

Olympus Mons’s defenses activated. All around the mountain, turrets lifted out of the ground and started taking down missiles and shuttles. Nevertheless, out of hundreds of shuttles, one managed to pass through the fire and crash land on Olympus Mons, just as the last super battleship died in orbit. Adrian commed Aileen to take care of the intruders—if any had survived the crash—as he focused on the remaining two Legions that had just escaped his trap.

***

Aileen ran through the corridors of Olympus Mons as her armor closed around her. She had spent the battle in the command hub watching as Adrian commanded. Now they had Shara Daim troops on the ground and inside the complex. They had managed to crash their shuttle through the ‘front door,’ so to speak. Atlas had reported nine hostiles, and Aileen knew that if they had even half the strength of their former prisoner, they could make a lot of trouble. Behind her ran a ten-man team of Warpath warrior adepts dressed in combat armor and carrying plasma rifles.

“Atlas, where are they?” Aileen asked the Olympus Mons AI over the comms.

“Second level, they are just passing the elevators.”

Aileen nodded and took a turn left, entering the stairs that led down. “What about our people?” Aileen asked.

“Our people are following your advice and are engaging from afar, and retreating before the enemy can close the distance. Their weapons don’t appear to do any damage to their armor,” Atlas said as her HUD split and a small window appeared with a direct link from the cameras on level two.

The Shara Daim wore the same kind of armor as Anessa, which seemed resistant to the weapons that the adepts engaging them used. But thankfully Aileen carried weapons that she knew could get through their armor.

Aileen and her team arrived just as the Shara Daim closed on the nine soldiers. One of the Warpath adepts was lifted off the ground and a bolt of white hit him right in the chest, throwing him against a wall.

Aileen raised her weapon and opened fire across the room; a moment later, people behind her did the same. They caught the Shara Daim in the open, plasma bolts hitting them on their armor. The Shara Daim were obviously aware of the danger, as they tried to evade and fire from their forearm-mounted weapons.

Aileen felt a buildup of Sha from one of the Shara Daim, and immediately ordered everyone to focus fire on him, using her own Sha to disrupt whatever the enemy attempted. She grabbed his legs telekinetically and held him for barely a moment, but in that time more than fifteen plasma bolts hit his armor and burned through, killing him. Suddenly she felt three others build up the Sha, and she yelled for everyone to get clear. Her team jumped towards the adepts, where they were hiding behind a short wall.

The enemy kept firing at them, holding them pinned behind the wall. Aileen felt one of them try and grab one of her people from behind the wall with the Sha, and she peeked over and threw the strongest kinetic strike she could at them, disrupting whatever they were trying to do. It also dropped her to half of her reserves. She had nowhere near the level of skill and power that Adrian had, and was probably even inferior to her enemy.

From her HUD, she noticed that reinforcements were coming as she detected their imps, but it would take them at least two minutes. Olympus Mons was a large facility, and they had moved many people to Jupiter or to the fleets prior to them leaving for Ra’a’zani space.

Then she felt a wave of something through the Sha, and heard thumps from the positions of the Shara Daim. She stood up and looked over, seeing the Shara Daim writhing on the floor. Behind them stood ten Sowir, walking slowly towards them.

“You need to stun them; we can’t hold them for much longer,” a voice said in her head, and Aileen immediately jumped over the wall and started giving out orders.

“Thank you,” she sent to the Sowir. Her people moved towards the Shara Daim, beating them unconscious with their weapons and binding them. Aileen sent a request for the devices to drain their power. She sent an all-clear to Adrian and assembled a team to go and secure the crashed shuttle, and formed a few others to check the surroundings in case any other shuttles managed to drop down.

Chapter Eighteen

Olympus Mons

The two remaining Shara Daim forces punched through the wall of defense platforms. They were severely crippled; both of the Legions were down to perhaps half of their strength, with a combined number of 2389 ships. Most of their larger classes showed signs of damage, although few of the two Legions’ battleships and super battleships had actually been destroyed. But there were only a few ships of their smaller classes remaining. The Third Legion had been in the center of the attack, and had taken on the brunt of Sol’s defenses.

Adrian saw that Anessa’s ship was having trouble keeping its shields up, and there were a few scorch marks on its hull from the fire it took to shield the smaller ships. The force was speeding towards the hyperspace barrier in the opposite direction of Mars. Adrian sighed. He had sacrificed a lot of drones and new defense platforms to make a point, and now it was time for him to ram it through in such a way that even a Shara Daim could understand it.

Adrian disengaged the Watchtower interface and opened his eyes, seeing the holo in front of him showing the Shara Daim ships, and people working around him. He keyed his comms and opened a channel to a ship hiding behind Jupiter.

A hologram of Johanna Stern, Fleet Commander of the Second Fleet, appeared in front of him.

“It’s time,” Adrian said.

Johanna only nodded, and closed the comm. For several minutes, nothing happened, and then new signatures started appearing around the Shara Daim ships. Five of the Empire’s fleets exited their skims from their positions at the edges of the Sol system where they had been hiding behind planets or the Sun. Ten thousand warships kept pace with the running Shara Daim ships, outside the range of their energy weapons. No shield was raised, no weapon was powered; there were no threatening moves. Three fleets took positions around the Shara Daim’s sides, and the other two at the front and the back.

Adrian waited for a while, letting it sink in, and then he had his Communications Handler point a transmission at one of the Shara Daim ships.

***

Dai Sha Anessa of the First Legion watched the holo in disbelief as ships started appearing around her and Garaam’s Legions. She recognized some of the designs from what the Erasi had provided and what she had seen during her captivity, but the majority of their number were the same unmanned ships as those that had just dealt with Narrasak. And there were five ships that were larger than any that Anessa had ever seen. Her comms chimed and she answered immediately.

Garaam appeared, her eyes wide. “Anessa, we need to close the formation. We can get through if—”

“They don’t want to fight us,” Anessa interrupted through her teeth, barely keeping her voice level. She had realized what all this was about. Garaam stopped and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Anessa glanced at the holo, then back to Garaam. “Their ships are outside the range of our energy weapons, and their shields are down.”

“It could be a trick,” Garaam said.

“Garaam, they could’ve brought these ships to the battle at any point; why did they do it now?” Anessa asked, seemingly uninterested in the answer.

“I don’t know,” she said slowly, then asked, “Anessa, what is this about?”

Anessa opened her mouth to answer when her Do Sun spoke. “Dai Sha! We have an incoming communication request from the enemy; it’s directed at Bloodbringer.”

Anessa turned to Garaam. “We are about to find out,” she answered Garaam’s question.

“Open the channel,” Anessa said. Garaam’s hologram moved to the side, and another appeared in front of Anessa. Adrian sat in a chair very similar to Anessa’s. To his left stood a Nel with his tail bent and moving up and down to his side—Gotu, she believed he was called—and to his right sat the two beasts that always followed him. She heard a few gasps from those around her; they were aware of the Humans, but none had known about the Nel. Anessa had told that only to her higher-ranking people and the two other Dai Sha. Adrian looked directly at her; he couldn’t see anything else on her ship, only what she allowed. Garaam could see and hear everything.

“Anessa,” he said with a slow dip of his head, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Adrian,” she said slowly, and then without consciously doing it, her head dipped as well. She could see Garaam’s shock at that small gesture of respect she had allowed her enemy, but Anessa didn’t react.

“Do you remember the last thing I told you, that night when I showed you Earth?” Adrian said in her tongue, ensuring that all who were listening would understand his words.

Anessa did remember. I will change your mind, he had said. I will show you who we are, and I will prove it to you that your people are wrong in thinking they can just roll over us. Her mind supplied the memory, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

Adrian smiled. “I see that you do. Did I succeed?” he asked in a whisper.

Anessa’s expression hardened. She wanted to tell him no, to tell him that she was still right, that they were weak. But she couldn’t. The Shara Daim had never lost a full Legion, not in the two thousand years they had been in space. Now he had done it, all to convince her that she was wrong.

“Yes,” Anessa said finally.

Adrian kept his eyes locked on hers for a minute without responding.

Anessa was the first to break the silence. “And what happens now?”

He tilted his head. “Now, I ask you to come to Mars to speak with me before you and your ships leave Sol.”

“And if I refuse?” Anessa asked. She wasn’t really enamored with the idea of becoming a prisoner again, but Adrian had kept his promise to her once before.

“Then I order my fleets to destroy you all,” Adiran said simply. Anessa felt the anger in the room around her; she knew that they could not understand this. Shara Daim did not surrender, and they did not negotiate with their enemies.

Anessa closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at him. “I accept,” she said, and closed the link. She was met with outrage and shock from her own people and Garaam, who had watched the entire thing.

“Anessa, we don’t surrender,” Garaam said harshly.

“What do you want to do? To fight? We could, and we would lose. They defeated us with only unmanned ships and defense platforms, Garaam. Narrasak is dead, just like his entire Legion,” Anessa said.

“That’s why we must fight them! They killed a Dai Sha!” Garaam yelled.

“We would die a pointless death, not doing anything to further the Shara Daim!” Anessa yelled in return. “Narasak’s death was his own fault, he lost his mind at the first show of something he couldn’t handle easily! He died a pointless death, without even killing one enemy.” At her words, Garaam snapped back in shock. That had gotten through to her. To die a pointless death was the worst fate a Shara Daim could suffer.

“We don’t surrender, Anessa,” she said again, now more controlled.

“Then it’s good that we are not surrendering,” Anessa said.

Garaam looked her strangely. “You have a plan?”

“Yes, to do exactly what he asked of me.”

“But—” Garaam started, but Anessa interrupted.

“He didn’t ask for us to surrender, he asked to speak with me before we leave the system. And I want you with me when we go to meet with him,” Anessa said.

Garaam narrowed her eyes and glared at her, but then Anessa saw her relax. “Very well. I will do as you say, Anessa,” she said, and closed the connection. Anessa knew that if it had been any Dai Sha other than Garaam, they might not have agreed to follow Anessa’s lead, just as she knew that if she hadn’t chosen to come with the Legions, all who had entered this system would’ve now been dead.

Chapter Nineteen

Anessa and Garaam sat in the shuttle, an armored variant designed for troop transport, and waited as the shuttle dropped down to Adrian’s base. She knew that the armor of the shuttle would do little to prevent them from being destroyed should Adrian wish it; the base’s defenses were still active and tracking as the shuttle slowly lowered itself through the thin atmosphere of the planet. Anessa and Garaam had reached the planet on their super battleships, which had their shields lowered and weapons powered down, escorted by ten Empire ships.

Her Do Sun, Arisak, had tried to convince her that they should fight, that her going to the planet was a trick of their enemy to get her back as a prisoner. But Arisak didn’t know Adrian. If he had wanted to destroy the remainder of the Legions, he would’ve done it by now. And he didn’t need her as a prisoner. Anessa knew that there was only one thing that Adrian was interested in, and that was peace between the Shara Daim and his Empire.

The shuttle reached the surface and they followed the instructions, entering a large hangar that had opened in the side of the mountain.

“Remember what I told you,” Anessa said to Garaam. “Don’t use the Sha on them at all, and don’t threaten them. We are only here to talk.”

“And if they threaten us?” Garaam asked.

“They won’t, but if something like that happens, let me handle it.”

The shuttle landed, and they stood and walked to the ramp that was already lowering, Anessa taking the lead. The hangar was almost empty; there was no activity anywhere around them. In front of her shuttle stood twelve people in battle armor with their weapons held in their hands and pointed at the floor. A few of them were Nel and others Human, at least based on their shape. On both sides of them stood another twelve aliens that she had never seen, standing taller, with three limbs on their upper body and three strange ‘leg-like’ limbs on which they stood. Anessa’s eyes widened when she felt their minds and realized that they had the Sha.

In front of the soldiers stood three figures. One was a Nel dressed in a normal Empire skin-suit with an over-garment that had a symbol on it; she recognized him both from her captivity and the communication with Adrian from her ship. She had heard him called Gotu; whether that was a title or a name, she didn’t know, but she was sure that he served as something similar to her Do Sun.

The other person wore a set of armor that the Dai Sha had only seen once before, on the day that she had tried to capture Adrian. She couldn’t see the face, but she could tell that it was a female. Whether it was the same one that she fought on that day, she didn’t know, but she stood a step behind on Adrian’s right. Adrian wore the same armor as the person behind him, only his wasn’t deployed.

“Anessa, I’m glad that you accepted my offer,” Adrian said once she was close enough, his eyes somehow soft at seeing her. “And I see you brought a friend.” He quirked his eyebrow in a way she had seen him do a thousand times, but now for some reason it made her smile slightly.

“Yes, this is Dai Sha Garaam of the Fourteenth Legion,” Anessa introduced her friend, and watched Adrian for a reaction.

Adrian bowed his head slightly. “I am Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas of the Empire.”

He didn’t seem at all concerned that Anessa had brought Garaam with her, even though he must have realized how potentially dangerous the two of them were. Together and fighting without restraint, they could do a lot of damage. But Adrian simply gestured for the two of them to follow him. The rest of his people took positions behind them and they walked through the base in silence.

They walked through a part of the base that she wasn’t familiar with, and after a while finally reached their destination. The soldiers, aliens, Gotu, and the female in the armor took positions around the door while Adrian led Anessa and Garaam inside.

Anessa was surprised to see that he had led them into what could only be living quarters. He gestured at the seating furniture in the middle of the room and took a seat across from the two of them. He didn’t speak, he only studied her, casting a glance or two in Garaam’s direction from time to time.

“Why are we here, Adrian?” Anessa asked finally.

Again, Adrian’s eyebrow rose. “I am here because this is my home. I hope that you know why you are here, or do you wander into other people’s systems attacking them at random?”

Garaam frowned, and Anessa sighed. “Don’t play your games now, Adrian, I am not in the mood. We have just lost a lot of our people and are now sitting across from the one responsible.”

Adrian’s expression cleared and settled into his expressionless mask. “Yes, you have lost a lot of people. But I warned you, Anessa, I begged you to go to your Elders and find a way for there to be peace between us. We have never done anything to your people, and yet you decided that we are weak and that you somehow have a right to what is ours. You and your Elders are the only ones that are responsible for the deaths of your people.”

Garaam started to move. Anessa felt her reach for the Sha and quickly put her own hand on hers to stop her. “Don’t,” Anessa sent, and for a moment she thought that Garaam wasn’t going to listen to her, but she pulled back.

“What do you want, Adrian? I told you once that Shara Daim are loyal to our Elders; we won’t change our minds just because you say so, or because we lost people,” Anessa said.

“You told me also that the Empire is weak. Do you think that that is still true?” He asked.

Anessa wanted to say yes, but she knew that she would be lying. “No,” she said. It didn’t mean that she no longer believed in everything she had been taught, though; it only meant that she acknowledged him as a worthy opponent, nothing more.

Adrian nodded and reached with his hand into his over-garment. Anessa felt Garaam stiffen when he pulled his hand back and showed them a spherical object.

“Do you know what this is?” Adrian asked.

Anessa looked at the unimpressive globe; it was silver in color with no markings whatsoever. “No, should I?” Anessa asked.

“Of course you should, this is what you came for. The reason why your Elders sent you against my people,” he said nonchalantly.

Anessa’s eyes widened as he levitated the sphere above his palm. A telepathic pulse came from the sphere, and Anessa knew that he was telling the truth. The Elders had told her that the beacon was unmistakable, and it was.

“This is the device your Elders want. Do you know what it is?” he asked Garaam.

“It is the device left by our ancestors, holding all of their knowledge,” Garaam said, sliding closer to the edge and leaning forward.

“It does contain all of their knowledge, yes. But it also contains the consciousness of Axull Darr, or rather a copy of his consciousness,” Adrian said.

Garaam frowned. “Axull Darr?”

Adrian looked at her strangely. “Axull Darr, one of the People, the one who created our three races,” he explained, and then turned to look back at Anessa with a question in his eyes.

Anessa grimaced. She knew about Axull Darr because she had pressured the Elders into telling her, but everyone else still believed that Shara Daim were direct descendants of the People.

“We are descendants of the People, we weren’t created,” Garaam said with a hint of anger, turning to look at Anessa, but the look on her face must’ve told her the truth. “Anessa?”

“The Elders kept some things from the rest of us. We are not direct descendants of a colony left behind. We were created by Axull Darr from his own DNA, infused into a lifeform on our homeworld.”

Garaam looked shocked, but before she had a chance to say anything, Adrian interrupted.

“I brought you here so that you may learn the truth right from its source.” He placed the sphere on the table. “Axull Darr,” he called, and lines started appearing in the sphere. Anessa felt a telepathic vibration in the Sha, and then moment later, a being was floating above them. It looked vaguely like a Nel, or a Human, or a Shara Daim, but it was different.

“I am Axull Darr,” the hologram spoke.

Adrian stood and moved towards the doors. “You will not have this device. Try to fight your way out and both you and your people in my system will die,” he said, allowing a bit of his certainty to leak through his mind. “Talk with him, ask about anything that you want to know. I will wait outside.”

As soon as Adrian left, Garaam stood and grabbed the sphere; Axull Darr didn’t react.

“So they lied about more things than we thought,” Garaam said under her breath.

Anessa frowned at her. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Garaam turned to look at her, an embarrassed look on her face. She remained silent for a moment, enough to look at the sphere in her hand and then back at Anessa. “There are things that you don’t know. There are some of us who have been having…let’s say suspicions about the Elders.”

“Suspicions,” Anessa said, shocked.

“We should speak of it later, away from enemies.” Garaam turned to look at Axull Darr but kept speaking to Anessa. “Are we sure that this isn’t some kind of a trick?”

“You felt its beacon,” Anessa said, giving in to Garaam’s change of topic, with every intention of speaking about her suspicions later.

“I did,” Garaam said. “He said that you are a copy of our ancestor’s consciousness,” Garaam said to Axull Darr.

“That is correct, I have all his memories and knowledge. I am him, in a way, a digital version of his mind,” Axull Darr responded.

“So if we are not descendent from a colony, why did you create us?” Garaam asked. And Anessa turned her complete attention on him, interested; the Elders had given her only snippets that she wasn’t even sure were true.

“We, the People, were the first intelligent race in the galaxy. We lived for a long time, but eventually we started dying off, until finally there was only a handful of us left. We tried to find a way to save ourselves, and inadvertently we created something that shouldn’t exist, a horror that we were too weak to stop. Some of us fashioned a plan to contain it, but I disagreed with their methods. I split off from them and came to this area of space; I found three different worlds and merged my DNA with the emerging lifeforms of those planets: Nel, Human, and yours—Shara Daim. This was in the hope that someday you would grow powerful enough to stop what we created,” Axull Darr said.

“Our history, our beliefs, are that we are destined to rule this galaxy through strength and power, just like our ancestors did before us,” Garaam said unsurely. It must’ve been a shock for her to learn that the Shara Daim had been created.

“My people never ruled the galaxy through strength. We were the first intelligent race in the galaxy; there was no one to oppose us. Over time, we spread across the stars, and then grew lonely, so we encouraged other life, uplifting them and guiding them to join us to the stars. We never had wars, never conquered anyone; we were simply too far ahead of anyone for them to be a threat to us. We helped younger races through turmoil, mediated between them, showed them how to master technology. But we never thought ourselves better than them; we were older, wiser, not superior.”

Garaam was looking at him, her feelings reflected on her face, and Anessa could see that her friend felt the same way that she did. His words went against everything that she knew to be true and that she had been taught. It was hard, so hard of Anessa to accept that as truth. She had been fighting doubt since that moment when the Elders had told her a part of the truth, and then even more as Adrian had tried to convince her. And now she could feel her belief disappearing; the core of who she’d thought herself to be was tumbling down.

“May I ask you a question?” Axull Darr said, jolting both Anessa and Garaam from their thoughts.

“Yes,” Anessa answered quickly.

“Why are you aging?” Axull Darr asked.

Anessa and Garaam looked at each other in confusion.

“What do you mean?” Anessa said.

“The sphere’s sensors have just finished their analysis of your code. The genetic markers required for preventing the aging process have been disabled. I was wondering if you know why your people decided to do that,” Axull Darr said.

“You are saying that we shouldn’t age?” Garaam asked, a hint of anger entering her voice.

“Once you gained the Sha, your race would stop aging; the two evolutions are tied together. Unless you did something like what the humans did. They stopped their own aging long before they gained the Sha; in a way, they stopped themselves from gaining it in the manner that I intended. But there are no signs that something like that has happened to you. Your DNA followed the path laid down by me exactly; the genes were disabled after they were active, and that could’ve only happened on purpose.”

“They must’ve done that, too,” Garaam said, agitated.

“Garaam?” Anessa said.

“We need to go, Anessa. If this Human will let us leave, we must go now. We knew that they had been doing things to keep their power, but now it makes sense,” Garaam said.

“The Elders?”

“Yes. We must talk, on one of our ships,” Garaam said, now impatient.

“May we leave now?” Anessa asked.

“Of course, I’ll let Adrian know,” Axull Darr responded.

***

As they were escorted back to their shuttle, Anessa paused and turned to look at Adrian. He stood behind her, watching her intently. Garaam noticed her pausing and used just a bit of Sha.

“Anessa?” Garaam asked.

“Go on, I’ll be right there,” Anessa said.

She stepped forward and stopped in front of Adrian. He was looking up at her, and again Anessa was struck at just how different they were. She was larger than him; he almost looked like a child compared to her. And yet anyone looking at him could see the presence that he had; his eyes held depths that spoke of a long life. She had hated him once, looked down on him as an insignificant pebble standing in her way. However, gradually, as she’d spent more and more time with him, that had changed. She no longer hated him, not even now when he had killed so many of her people. She respected him. She knew that he had done only what her people had forced him to do.

Something drew her to him. There was a sense of power around him, unlike anyone she had ever met. But it wasn’t just that she felt herself attracted to him in a physical way, it was more. His mind, his skills, all of those appealed to her. He was someone that was always driven to become stronger, someone who demanded respect by his very presence. Who, like her, possessed great power. In his heart, he was a warrior that only cared about a worthy challenge, just like her. If he were a Shara Daim, she would have involved herself with him by now. But he was not, and their people were at war.

Adrian quirked his eyebrow at her, a gesture that made her smile again. She put her hand on his face affectionately, not being able to help herself. “Goodbye, Adrian,” she said, and turned around, leaving him behind, feeling his eyes on her back as she stepped onto the shuttle.

Chapter Twenty

Three months later — December — Veritas

Adrian sat in his quarters on board the Veritas as he waited for his ship to enter the trans-lane on its way to Sanctuary. Sora and Akash were lying at his feet sleeping, and Axull Darr was floating in the center of the room above a table. It had been three months since the Shara Daim forces had left the system in a hurry; something about the fact that the Shara Daim were aging had upset the other Dai Sha. Adrian didn’t know why, but at least according to what Axull Darr had overheard, not all Shara Daim believed blindly in their Elders, which was a good thing for the Empire. Unrest and division among the Shara Daim could only give the Empire more time to build fleets. No matter what he had led Anessa to believe, the power he had brought to Sol was almost the entirety of what the Empire had. All Shara Daim had to do was to split their large force and attack multiple systems at the same time and the Empire couldn’t win.

Those last words from Anessa still kept him awake, which was an achievement, as he generally didn’t sleep for more than two or three hours a day. There had been something in her eyes when she’d looked at him, an echo of how he himself felt. But her words at the end had told him that she understood the same thing that he did. Their people were at war, and the next time they saw each other, they might be forced to fight against each other again. And this time he wouldn’t be able to hold back.

His gamble had paid off; he knew that destroying an entire Legion had shown them that the Empire could fight them on equal ground. It broke the illusion that they couldn’t be beaten. Adrian was only sorry that he’d had to do it by killing so many. He knew that the relations between the Shara Daim and the Empire would suffer for it, but what he had gained was time, which was more important. Already the Fleet’s shipyards across the Empire were working tirelessly to build ships, and Warpath’s Forge was close to doubling its construction rate.

Now he only hoped that Anessa could change her people. Before she’d left, Adrian had given her some of the data copied from the sphere so that she could have proof that the Shara Daim version of history was severely edited. If she managed to convince enough of her people, they might be able to change; if not, they would either descend into a civil war or outright split. Both were options that worked well for the Empire. If they still wanted war, the Empire would give it to them.

Adrian now had room to breathe, and pursue other projects while he waited to see what happened with the Shara Daim. The thing he was most looking forward to was a breakthrough in genetics that would now allow Seo-yun to give him more of the upgrades for his Sha, and he now had time to leave for Sanctuary. He left Gotu in charge of Olympus Mons, with Aileen going back to Tarabat, and five fleets were still in Sol under Johanna’s command.

Adrian looked at Axull Darr, debating whether to ask him a question that had been on his mind for a long time. He knew that Seo-yun had tried to ask him the same thing but Axull Darr wouldn’t speak of it. Finally, he decided that he could lose nothing by asking.

“You told us once that you created us to fix the mistake you made, but you never told us what that mistake is,” Adrian said.

“Because you can do nothing as you are now,” Axull Darr said.

“But what harm can there be for us to know if we can’t do anything about it?” Adrian asked.

“You are young and rash; my people were old and far wiser than you, and still we made a mistake. I do not want you to fall into temptation and start experimenting with the same things we did. Already you are too close for my comfort.”

Adrian frowned. “We are? Why not tell us then so that we know what to avoid?”

“I…It is not that simple, the temptation is great, and already your knowledge is approaching the level where you can abuse it,” Axull Darr said.

“You have seen the history of Earth; we know about temptation and the price of succumbing to it,” Adrian said.

“Yes, and it is the one thing that gives me hope that you might not follow my people’s footsteps. You are not like us. We didn’t have any obstacles; we pushed sciences in all directions unopposed, never thinking about the consequences because we had never suffered because of them,” Axull Darr said.

“So why not trust us?” Adrian asked.

Axull Darr remained silent for a while. “Perhaps you are right, perhaps I see too much of myself in you. Very well. I will tell you the story about what we did.”

Adrian leaned forward attentively as Axull Darr started to speak.

“You know that my people were dying. We didn’t know why, but we believed that it had to do with the Sha and our use of it. To understand why we thought that, you need to understand what the Sha truly is,” Axull Darr said, his blank eyes somehow focusing on Adrian. “And that is hard to explain to someone like you who doesn’t have billions of years’ worth of knowledge; your people don’t even have terms for most of what my people knew. Imagine a force that binds the entire Universe together, something that makes it all real, that keeps it from falling apart. What allows stars to exist, and what allows for gravity, and all the other things that exist in the Universe, the background on which the Universe resides. That is the Sha. The mind is a vessel that allows a being to influence that force. And like anything in the Universe, it requires energy to be used. Most lifeforms evolve the interface that allows control of the Sha naturally, each slightly different. Your friends there, for example.” Axull Darr pointed at the sleeping forms of Akash and Sora.

“They have evolved a way to feel and influence emotions, to bend this force just a little to achieve that. We evolved it naturally as well, and we added to it, pushing our abilities further artificially. And for several billions of years, everything was fine—until we started dying. We didn’t age, much like your people don’t, but suddenly our bodies started to deteriorate; bonds that held our body fell apart and we died. For a long time, we couldn’t find the cause, and nothing we did could help us. Then there were only eight of us left, and we were desperate. We didn’t want to die, so we tried to find a cure. One of our suspicions was that we had somehow grown dependent on the Sha, but that our bodies and minds couldn’t process enough of it. We had different ideas and projects, and three of my closest friends ran one of our more promising ones. They made a base in a system at the edge of the galaxy, and there they created a completely new lifeform using both our technology and the Sha, something we had never done before. The life wasn’t intelligent. It was an organism that could evolve rapidly; we thought that if we introduce our DNA into it, it might evolve and cure whatever it was that was ailing us. Show us how to allow our bodies more access to the Sha.” Axull Darr paused, his face dropping.

“But life was never meant to evolve so fast. It takes millions, billions of years for the Universe to create life. And when we did it in a matter of a couple of years, it turned out wrong. Our DNA gave it access to the Sha and a sort of primal intelligence. It got loose, infecting the three that had created it, merging its DNA with theirs. DNA that had evolved far beyond what we’d designed it to be. The three became something else; the infusion of the artificial life cured them, making them a new lifeform, one with the experiences and knowledge of what they once were. They were more evolved, smarter, stronger with the Sha, and driven to consume and grow more. Our goal of resurrecting our people was corrupted in their minds, and they used that life that we created as a blueprint to create a servant race of highly intelligent beings that answered only to them. This race they created used life and matter as fuel to reproduce, to build a kind of hybrid biological and technological ships and weapons under the guidance of the three. Before we realized what was happening, the three had dismantled the system they were in and built an army and fleets of ships. The rest of us weren’t all there; we had different projects all over the galaxy, and by the time we noticed what was happening, it was too late. The three had left that system and found an intelligent race that lived in a system nearby. They killed them all, using their biological matter to grow their army even more and to build more ships,” Axull Darr said, and grew quiet.

Adrian swallowed, hard. “What happened then? Did you try to stop them?” he asked.

Axull Darr nodded. “Of course. We had ships still, powerful ships, but there were only five of us left. There was nothing we could do against armies and fleets that had the same technology we did, more advanced even, as it was augmented with biotech that we had never really used. The three had perfected it. We went to younger races and asked for help, uplifting several of them to fight our war. We did what we could. The armies and ships of the three relied on biological matter for food and fuel, so we destroyed planets, vaporized entire star systems, but we only slowed them down. The races we uplifted were losing; every soldier that fell was food for our enemy. In the end, we were forced to build machine armies to fight our enemy, but we knew that they couldn’t defeat them; they had no Sha and were at a disadvantage, as every enemy soldier could use it. Eventually, four of my people decided that it was a lost cause; they wanted to change the parameters of the AIs fighting the enemy from destruction to containment. I disagreed with the methods they wanted to use to enforce it and split from them.”

“What did they want to do? How did they contain them?” Adrian asked.

“The enemy grew by feeding on biological matter, on life. They denied them that. They purged all life for ten thousand lightyears in all directions around the enemy, denying them the fuel they needed to grow. That did not stop their growth—there was still materials for them to use—but it did slow it down considerably, allowing the machine armies a chance of slowing their advances through the galaxy significantly. The AIs were programmed to never allow any life inside that ten-thousand-lightyear border. Each time the enemy pushed the machines back, the machines would expand the border, even if there was intelligent life in their way.”

“They were wiping out entire civilizations?” Adrian asked.

“Yes. I argued against it, but others ignored me. They believed that they couldn’t risk that the enemy grew any larger. I left, and created you.”

“You wanted us to fight them? When even you couldn’t, with all your technology?” Adrian asked incredulously.

“I might not have agreed with their plan, but it did give me time to attempt my own. Your three races have our legacy, but you weren’t born in a time when there was no life in the galaxy. You have known struggle, conflict, war. You are much better suited to fight this threat than a group of dying scientists. We were never warriors; already you have adapted technologies we developed to military use, something we never did.”

“But why not find a warlike race and give them the technology, give them time to prepare to fight?” Adrian asked.

“When you are as old as I was, you learn to look far into the future. I couldn’t risk giving technology to someone who would abuse it afterwards in case they won. I chose to trust in my children rather than a race that was young and had no connection to me. The few we uplifted to fight the enemy initially were not as advanced evolutionary as we were; they had very little capabilities with the Sha. And in any case, it would take much more than a single race to defeat them now,” Axull Darr said. “You need to grow, find allies, and raise them with you. Only a united galaxy can stand a chance against them.”

Adrian looked at him in understanding. “You want us to rule the galaxy, just like the Shara Daim believe. You want us to unite it under our leadership.”

“Yes. It is the only way.”

“So the Shara Daim are right; they, or rather we, are destined to rule the galaxy.” Adrian chuckled, “When they heard the beacon, you—their you—must’ve told them that, but when they lost the sphere, the message must’ve been corrupted. They started believing that all other life was insignificant.”

“It is possible. All three of us who inhabit the spheres, are unique, we can think and make decisions by ourselves. I don’t know why he would’ve told them so soon, before they were ready, but there might be something that we are unaware of. Something that made him decide to tell them.”

“How do we even know that this enemy is still out there? Perhaps the others figured out a way to stop them,” Adrian said.

Axull Darr shook his head sadly. “No, they are still out there. The proof was in the ship you recovered on Earth long ago.”

“The Union ship?” Adrian asked.

“Yes. From its data, you learned that the Union was attacked by an incredibly advanced enemy that they had no chance of winning against. I reviewed the data and confirmed that the enemy was the machines my people created. They were pushing the border, eradicating life within it. That means that the enemy has pushed at least forty thousand lightyears from the area they inhabited before I split.”

“That was a long time ago…how much do you think they could’ve pushed since then?” Adrian asked.

“That is a progress of millions of years; the time that passed since the Union was attacked till now is insignificant in comparison. I doubt that the enemy has pushed much further. And you are on a completely opposite side of the galaxy; you have plenty of time before you encounter the machines or the enemy. I planned it like that; I put you as far away as I could to give you time to grow,” Axull Darr answered.

Adrian sighed in relief, then looked at Axull Darr. “You said that your people started dying because you needed more Sha. Did Axull Darr continue searching for the cure?”

“The damage was already too much; his only hope of a cure was to be infected with the artificial lifeform just like the three. And that was not something that he would even consider doing.”

“And what about us, will we have the same problem in the future?” Adrian asked.

“No, Axull Darr made sure that your code contained failsafes that will allow you to evolve even if you meddle.”

Adrian nodded. “So how long do you think it will be before we stand a chance, at least technologically?”

“I can’t say for certain. Your growth was already extremely fast compared to that of other life in the galaxy, even before the knowledge from me. Now you are growing even faster. But it will still be several thousand years at least before you are able to match what my people were at the height of our civilization.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Several Days later — December; Year 55 of the Empire — Bloodbringer

Anessa was one hundred and thirty-six years old on the day she was first called into the Hall of the Ages by the Elders of Shara Daim. She remembered feeling pride, joy, and fulfillment. Her loyalty and devotion had been rewarded, and she was being raised to be the first among the Dai Sha, the leader of the First Legion.

The Elders had spoken to her in person, giving her praise for rising so high so fast. They returned her trust in them, by calling on her personally, by telling her how proud of her they were. Anessa remembered her father, who too had believed that she would one day stand before the Elders as the first among the Dai Sha. She had finally done it. She was a servant of the Elders before everything and everyone else.

She had never strayed from her goal, focusing everything she had and was towards serving. And the day the Elders raised her up was the happiest of her life.

Anessa watched from her chair as Bloodbringer dropped from trans-space, followed by the rest of the ships of the First and Fourteenth Legions, those that had survived the attack on the Empire. Almost immediately, her ships pinged the station that she knew was orbiting the fifth planet in the system and got the real-time scans of the system. Her holo updated, and she saw a Legion in the orbit around the planet, the Seventh Legion. Anessa winced; she didn’t know whether the Dai Sha in command—Barask—was a part of Garaam’s little group, but their presence was a complication.

She could still barely process what Garaam had told her. However, there was too much information in support of Garaam’s suspicions. According to her, the Elders had been killing off powerful Dai Sha for centuries. Anessa couldn’t believe it when Garaam had told her, but the more she spoke, the more truthful her story had become.

There were always nine Elders; once one died, the oldest and the most powerful Dai Sha ascended to the spot, abandoning their previous name and taking the mantle of an Elder. The procedure for a Dai Sha becoming an Elder was simple: when they received the summons, they would go to Shara Radum for a year of contemplation and study. During that time, all records and mentions of their life up to that point were deleted from the Shara Daim nets, and by the end of the year, it was as if the Dai Sha hadn’t even existed. Then they ascended to the mantle.

Only, according to Garaam, that was not what happened. The Dai Sha that was chosen never gained the spot, they simply disappeared. The last time a Dai Sha was chosen had been seventy years ago. Anessa had been a rising Dai Sha then; she hadn’t paid attention to all the other Dai Sha, so she couldn’t remember what he even looked like. And there were no records for her to look through and then compare to the Elders she’d seen on her last visit to Shara Radum. There were few who remembered him now, and even those who did remembered him as younger, and the Elders all looked old. And they rarely met with anyone in person; even their guard rarely interacted with them.

Garaam and her group believed that the Elders never raised a Dai Sha to the mantle, but instead someone who they molded for the spot from birth. Their theory had some holes, though. For instance, the Elders didn’t die at the rate they were supposed to; it was usually anywhere between ninety and one hundred and fifty years between the deaths of an Elder. The Shara Daim lifespan was around four hundred years, and coupled that the youngest Dai Sha ‘raised’ to the mantle was three hundred and twenty, the Elders should have been changing their members much more often. Garaam had told her that they believed the Elders had something that allowed them to extend their lives, but now with what they had learned from Axull Darr, there was another explanation: the Elders didn’t die at all. Everything about them was a farce, their old appearance only one of their lies. They didn’t even know how old they were. Anessa remembered them talking about how the Shara Daim had lost the device. She remembered their tone of voice, the conviction in their words. Almost like they had been there to see it.

Now with the knowledge that Shara Daim shouldn’t age and die, there was too much evidence to support the theory that the Elders had been lying all along. Everything that had once seemed perfectly normal now made Anessa suspicious. The fact that there was no information on the Elders, that they never left Shara Radum, that they had doctored history, kept their people in the dark—it all pointed to the conclusion that Garaam and her group were right. The Elders had been manipulating the Shara Daim in order to keep themselves in power.

Now Anessa and Garaam were going to find out the truth, even if it meant destroying what the Shara Daim were. Anessa opened a channel to Garaam, and a moment later, her friend appeared in front of her, her expression furious.

“The Seventh Legion, are they a part of your group?” Anessa asked.

“Yes, but we have a problem. I just spoke with Barask. The Erasi have attacked the Har Aras, Har Kaleras, and Har Nara sectors. We have already lost six systems.”

“What?” Anessa demanded, caught off guard.

“The system guards were overwhelmed; the Erasi invasion force is believed to be around sixty Legions strong. Our Legions are out of position; the closest ten Legions are months away, the trans-routes back would take longer. And the Elders have ordered twenty Legions assigned to the invasion of the Empire to go back to defend,” Garaam said, and Anessa understood from where the anger came.

“Only twenty? With those numbers, they can do nothing but slow them down!” Anessa said.

“Yes, the Elders have made clear that the priority is the capture of the Human homeworld and the device,” Garaam said.

“Even if our people are dying in the meantime?” Anessa asked incredulously.

“They believe that taking the Human homeworld is more important.”

Anessa didn’t really want to believe it; even if the Elders had lied, they had still guided Shara Daim for a long time. But their reaction to the Erasi invasion only served to push her over the edge, convince her that they didn’t really care as long as they got what they wanted. “What are the other Dai Sha saying?” Anessa asked. “I can’t believe that they are happy with those orders.”

“They are split. Some believe it is a wrong call but accept the Elders’ orders; others want to disobey the Elders but they don’t dare. It is all they know.”

“We need all the Legions to defend our people, Garaam.”

“I know, but there is nothing we can do. We should go to Shara Radum and find out the truth about the Elders. If we get proof, we might be able to remove them from power,” Garaam said.

Getting the proof would be hard. If they were right, the Elders had had millennia to cover their tracks. And Anessa knew that they didn’t have the time to be stealthy, to gather information and proof to show her people. No, they couldn’t wait. Even if most of what she knew was a lie, there was one thing that was still the truth. Shara Daim were warriors at their core; they lived for a fight, for war and conquest and honor. Something in Anessa cracked; all that she had believed in had been shattered. But there was one thing that Anessa couldn’t allow; out of all of her beliefs, there was one that still held true. Anessa was supposed to protect the people. And to do that, Anessa knew exactly what she needed to do.

“No. I am going to send a message to all Legions through the net, ordering them to gather for the defense against the Erasi. I’m the first among the Dai Sha; in emergencies, I command all of the Legions,” Anessa said authoritatively.

Garaam frowned. “That is true, technically. You are the first because you are the strongest, but I don’t know how many would defy the Elders to listen to you.”

“Enough will. They already want to go, I will just give them a little push.”

“The Elders will countermand your orders as soon as they learn of them,” Garaam added.

“By then I will have reached Shara Radum,” Anessa said.

“We don’t have enough proof to remove them from power, Anessa,” Garaam said. “Going there will only get you imprisoned for ignoring their authority.”

“No, we have proof. The Elders are ignoring our people; they are leaving our territory vulnerable to invaders, just because they want more power. They are willing to sacrifice millions for greed. Their actions are all the proof I need. Send me everything that you and your group have discovered, and take yours and Barask’s Legions and go to the Har Aras sector. I’m going to order the Legions to go to the closest invaded sectors. Once you are there, take over command for the defense,” Anessa said.

“What are you planning to do, Anessa?” Garaam asked uneasily.

“What I was raised to do: protect the Shara Daim.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

One month later — January; Year 56 of the Empire — Sanctuary

“I can’t believe that you got him to tell you,” Seo-yun said.

“I think that it had to do with the fact he met someone from the Shara Daim. I think that there are still things that he is keeping from us,” Adrian said.

He, Seo-yun, and Tomas were in their study, the two of them sitting on the couch and Adrian in the chair across from them. He had arrived in Sanctuary only a few hours ago, and had already returned the sphere to Seo-yun’s research department.

“Why do you think that?” Tomas asked.

“Just a feeling. Some things just don’t align perfectly with his story. I can’t point anything out, I just feel like there is something that he is holding back. And then there is the other thing that I have been wondering for a while,” Adrian said.

“What?” Seo-yun asked.

“Have you ever wondered where the remains of their civilization are?” Adrian asked. “They were living in this galaxy for a great chunk of its existence; there should be something left.”

“Axull Darr said that they had been dismantling and destroying everything as their population dropped, only keeping enough to sustain the current population,” Seo-yun answered.

“I think that there is more to it; they couldn’t have possibly destroyed everything. They built things to last. But it doesn’t really matter right now, what does matter now is this enemy.”

“Axull Darr said that it will take a long time for us to encounter them,” Tomas said.

“Yes, but we need to start preparing now. I told you everything that he said. They have the technology of the People, in addition to whatever they’ve discovered since then, and their biotech,” Adrian said, “We can’t rely on the technology from the sphere; we need to start researching in different directions, revise every technology they have and try to improve.”

“We are already doing that, Adrian,” Seo-yun said.

“Yes, but it isn’t enough. I know that you think that this is a problem for the far future, but we can’t afford to think about it that way. We need to make sure that we are ready when we do meet them.” Adrian turned to Tomas. “And we need allies. Adding other races to the Empire is a great way of boosting our strength, but not every race will want to join us, not at the price we are asking. We need to make alliances that will last.”

“The only candidates for alliances are the Erasi and Shara Daim,” Seo-yun said. “If everything we’ve learned about the Erasi is true, then even if they allow different races into their empire, they are manipulators and elitist. And the Shara Daim are…well, you know what they are.”

Adrian nodded. He did know. “I still have hope that the Shara Daim will change. Perhaps Anessa will manage to convince her Elders. The Erasi, well…We’ll see how they respond to our message. Laura told me that the Fleet has plans for their stealth ships in our territory.”

Tomas shrugged. “We’ll meet other races. Already I have reports from Laura that some of our exploration fleets in the coreward and anti-spinward directions have encountered spacefaring races. The galaxy isn’t empty.”

“No, it isn’t. But we need to alter our plans, Tomas. We need to expand faster.”

“First, we need enough ships to defend ourselves. The plan is for fifty fleets in ten years, five fleets per year, and that is in addition to the stations and defense platforms we are building,” Tomas said.

“I know, but we can push the Forge more, and you can pressure the Clans to pause their projects and focus on shipbuilding. With every Clan, we can do it in half that,” Adrian said.

Tomas shook his head. “That would be a hard sell. They need to expand in order to sustain their population growth. Half of every Clans’ resources goes to expanding their infrastructure and colonization.”

“Then issue a new population law, lower their progeny centers’ output. It would free their resources.”

“I don’t know…”

“The reason we devised the progeny program was because we didn’t have the numbers, because there were barely ten million humans left. The Empire had a miniscule population. Now population isn’t a problem—we have billions of Nel, Trivaxians, and Furvor in the Empire. There are more than a billion humans alive now because of the progeny centers. We can slow down the rate of births.”

“The plan was for the progeny programs to continue for one hundred years, until our population passes fifty billion,” Tomas said.

“Then, the Empire was only humans and a few Nel. Now it isn’t; we have plenty of people.”

“I’ll think about it, and I will ask the Clan Leaders.” Tomas lowered his head and looked defeated for a moment, and then he focused on Adrian again. “What will you be doing now?”

“I’ll go check up on the Sentinel training program, then I have appointment with Seo-yun and her torturers,” he said as he smiled brightly at her.

Seo-yun rolled her eyes and looked at Tomas, who was frowning at her. “We are going to do some more genetic treatments on him. We’ve learned a lot since his last one, and can fix a few things that we missed the last time, and we figured out a way to trigger some changes that we weren’t able to the last time.”

“Oh, well good luck with that,” Tomas said, shuddering.

“You know that we will need to start doing these treatments for everyone, right?” Adrian asked him.

“I know. I just worry about the dangers of it,” Tomas said.

“The Sentinel program has borne enough fruit that we can start triggering the changes in embryos by the end of the year. Next year, we’ll be having children that will be able to use the Sha from a young age. We need the rest of the population to follow.”

“I know. Seo-yun already has scheduled treatments for the Hand, the military, and the Fleet. But it will take time for everyone to go through them,” Tomas said.

“We have several facilities spread out through the Clans; when we start, it won’t be as long as Tomas thinks,” Seo-yun said.

“And what about you two? When will you do it?” Adrian asked.

Seo-yun turned to look at Tomas with a raised eyebrow in a gesture that told Adrian immediately that they had had this conversation many times. Tomas looked at her helplessly, then turned to Adrian.

“Seo-yun wants us to do it now, but I have convinced her that we should wait until after the Hand goes through them.”

“He’s scared,” she said pointedly.

“Of course I’m scared, I would be an idiot not to be. I didn’t survive so long and accomplish so much by ignoring my fears. I understand that I need to go through the treatments, and I will; I just need time to understand it better,” Tomas said.

“Well, there isn’t really anything to be afraid of. You might have difficulties at the start when you don’t know how to control the Sha, but you’ll learn fast,” Adrian said, and then stood up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other appointments to keep.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

One month later — February — Sanctuary

Adrian watched from the corner as Clara and Meifeng instructed a group of twenty Warpath adepts. They were teaching them control by making them levitate a single round object around them. About half of them managed to do it with at least some fluidity, although the orbits were erratic; the other half barely managed to keep them in the air, and theirs were moving in short, choppy bursts.

But this was a beginners’ class, and with only a month of training, the students had accomplished much. Adrian took a step forward, taking hold of the Sha as he walked. Both Clara and Mei knew that he was there; they had sensed his telepathic signature before he’d even walked inside the building since he wasn’t hiding it. But the students were too focused on their tasks to notice someone walking up to them from behind.

He reached out and grabbed all twenty balls, freezing them in place. Frowns and questions started coming from the students as they tried to move the balls. Adrian had only added his Sha on top of theirs, he didn’t try to interfere with theirs, so they still felt the connection with the balls, they just couldn’t move them. And they didn’t yet know how to feel the Sha outside of themselves. After a few seconds of them trying to move them, Adrian yanked them back towards himself. The balls flew past the students, making a few of them duck to avoid being hit; they couldn’t know that there wasn’t any chance of that happening.

The balls flew at Adrian and seamlessly settled into various orbits around him. By then, some of the students had noticed him and whispers started. He could hear some of it, “Lord Sentinel” being the most common words whispered. Adrian was still walking forward, the balls now spinning faster and faster around him, until he raised one hand and all of them shot a few meters in the air and froze there. Then slowly they lowered and started orbits around the students.

“Alright, that’s enough showing off,” Clara Bengtsdotter said.

Adrian grinned and pulled back, and the balls dropped to the floor.

“That’s it for today. We are meeting here tomorrow at first light,” Meifeng Zhao said, and the students started leaving the room. As they passed, they gave him shallow bows, and a few murmured, “Lord Sentinel.” He simply inclined his head in acknowledgment.

“Finally got the time to visit?” Clara asked as she stepped close enough to throw a punch at his shoulder.

“Well, I was a bit busy, you know, fighting off an invasion and all that stuff.”

Mei walked up to him and gave him a quick hug. “So what do you think about our students?”

“They are good for beginners. How are your advanced classes going?” Adrian asked.

“They can use most of the Sha abilities that we can; they still don’t have the reserves to match us, but it will come in time,” Meifeng said.

“That’s good. We are going to start triggering the change in children soon. And the Hand will be going through the treatment soon.”

“Finally,” Clara said.

“That means you will have little children capable of using the Sha soon. You sure you are happy about that?” Adrian asked.

“Ugh…Didn’t think about that,” Clara said with a grimace. “What is the plan, how young will they start training?”

“According to sphere, the Sha manifests sometime between six and eight years of age. We will be admitting children to schools as soon as they gain the ability. You need to start deciding which of your more advanced students will be capable of teaching.”

“How many do you think we will need?” Mei asked.

“As many as you think can do it. Don’t sacrifice on the quality of teachers for numbers, though, we will make it work. Just choose good teachers. I’m also going to have some Sowir come in and teach advanced telepathy, first to your students, and later perhaps even to children. I’m going to send you everything that you need to know; you’ll be in charge, so decide what you will need and send it to Tomas’s office. He’ll make sure you get everything you need,” Adrian said.

“New facilities?” Clara asked coyly.

Mei hit Clara’s shoulder with the back of her hand, evoking a yelp from the much taller woman. “What was that for?” Clara asked, but Mei just glared at her.

“You need new facilities?” Adrian asked, looking around at the room they were in. It seemed sufficient; it had everything that his own training rooms had.

“Well, we had some ideas…” Clara said slowly, looking at Mei askance.

“As I said, you are in charge. Just prepare a presentation for Tomas, explain what you need and why, and if he agrees, you’ll get it,” Adrian said.

“Great, we will do that,” Clara said, satisfied.

“Anyway. We heard that Seo-yun has some new treatments. Any chance that we get them soon?” Mei asked.

“Actually that is one of the reasons why I came,” Adrian said. “I’ll be getting those upgrades soon. I wanted to let you know so that you can plan ahead. Once I finish and test them out, you’ll be able to do them too, but only if you have replacement teachers.”

“We’ll find people. What are the upgrades?” Mei asked.

“They learned how to trigger the latent genetic triggers that they couldn’t do in adults up until now. I’ll be getting some things that my abrupt change couldn’t handle, mostly growth of tissue and organ enhancements. A small gas chamber attached to the lungs that will store gas for use by a few Sha abilities—the plasma shot, for one, meaning I won’t need to use my own blood anymore. Then there are some of our scientists’ upgrades for my muscles, giving them even more density and strength.”

“Hm…That will be useful. But for strength…why don’t you grow your body? They can do that, give you a bigger body, I mean. You’ll be stronger. Not that you are short now or anything,” she added quickly.

Adrian smiled. He was right about average for a human at 186 cm. But he understood what she meant. “Well, for one, doing that would probably cripple me a lot. I have complete control over my body, my mind is familiar with it perfectly. Growing it out would mess with my brain’s control over the body. I grew with this body; getting a new one now that my mind is developed fully would be very hard to adapt to. I might never gain the same ability I have with this body. And second, with these upgrades, now I won’t need it. I’ll be much stronger, but remain the same familiar size.”

“Makes sense, but you know that some of the others are planning to do that too?” Clara asked.

“They don’t have my mind. They might be able to train and adapt eventually, but I can’t risk it with mine. We don’t yet know what exactly happened to me; without knowing and understanding it, the benefits of staying like this far outweigh the disadvantages,” Adrian answered.

“So how long will the treatment take this time?” Mei asked.

“Three months, plus a few more for recovery.” Adrian sighed. “I decided that now is the best time to do it. I doubt that the Shara Daim will be back soon; Sol is protected, and there is nothing really for me to do other than wait. Best I get it out of the way now.”

“Well, I don’t envy you. It sucks not being able to move,” Clara said compassionately.

“Yeah it does,” Adrian said as he remembered the last time he’d undergone these kinds of treatments.

***

Adrian dropped down to the floor as an orange ball of plasma shot towards his head. Anessa was running towards him, ready to attack. Or rather, his mind’s version of Anessa. Adrian’s body was undergoing upgrades, but he had retreated himself into his mind-space for the duration. Inside, time ran differently, and he could think and train. The fact that he had complete control of his body meant that he didn’t need muscle memory; any move he devised in his mind-space, he would be able to replicate perfectly in real-space.

Now he was fighting his imagination’s version of Anessa. His mind had analyzed her movements and attacks, and could recreate a passable image. Adrian needed to train against opponents stronger than himself—and Anessa was the strongest he had ever encountered.

Thankfully, he would have a long time in mind-space to develop techniques and tactics to fight opponents with the Sha that were much stronger than he was.

Chapter Twenty-Four

One month later — March; Year 56 of the Empire — Erasi battleship Highborn

Hanaru Weaver of the Erasi stood in the sanctum on board his ship in orbit of Tarabat. Around him floated holograms displaying various data that he was studying. The war against the Shara Daim was proceeding according to plans, at least for now. The invasion force had caught their leadership off guard and their Legions out of position, and yet their response was nowhere near what the Weavers had expected.

The projections had predicted an immediate and powerful response, which was the reason why they had chosen to attack while the Legions were out of position. Waiting for an all-out war with the Empire would’ve been preferable, but they couldn’t risk them somehow coming to an agreement. Therefore, the Erasi forces had struck earlier, blowing through the Shara Daim system guards. The expectation had been that the Elders of the Shara Daim would recall their Legions to defend their territory, leaving a smaller force to deal with the Empire. Instead, the opposite had happened; they’d recalled only a small force to deal with the invading force.

Hanaru wasn’t sure if the Shara Daim believed the Empire a greater threat than the Erasi, but it was a stroke of luck for them. Then the Shara Daim attack on the Empire had happened, and the Erasi ambassador had witnessed it. The Empire had been hiding a lot of their power; they had completely dominated against the Shara Daim, destroying one entire Legion and allowing the two surviving to leave. That bothered Hanaru and his superiors; the Empire clearly had the means to defend itself, yet they constantly pushed for peace.

However, the battle in their Sol system wasn’t what had Hanaru worried. It was what had happened just a few weeks ago, and of what he’d learned just now. The Empire knew about the Erasi stealth ships in their territory, and they had chosen to make sure that he and his people knew it too. Three weeks ago, at the exact same time across multiple systems, every single stealth ship had been pinged with a powerful tachyon-based scan. The scans weren’t omnidirectional; they had been targeted directly at the ships. They had known exactly where they were. Hanaru had suspected treachery, an information leak; it was unlikely that they could’ve found every single ship, but he was convinced once he read the next report. Each time a stealth ship entered an Empire system, it was immediately pinged.

They knew where the ships were, had a way of detecting them that the Erasi didn’t know about. That, coupled with the way they had manipulated both the Erasi and the Shara Daim, told him that they were far more dangerous than he and his superiors had initially believed. Now they had an excuse to pressure his people at a time when they couldn’t afford to split their attention. Even with the numerical advantage over the Shara Daim, the Erasi couldn’t afford to split their resources to deal with the Empire, not yet anyway. Which was why the ambassador in Sol had been instructed to mend the fences and stop any attempt at information gathering, at least more invasive ones, and the stealth ships had been pulled back.

They couldn’t afford to antagonize them, not now when the Shara Daim had apparently changed their minds. After their defeat in Sol, most of the Legions had turned around and set a course for the invaded sectors. Hanaru still couldn’t account for why the Elders had suddenly changed their minds. Before Sol, they had weighed the attack on the Empire of greater importance than the invasion of their own systems. Something had changed, and Hanaru would find out what in the end—he always did.

He read the other reports; the First Legion was heading in the direction of Shara Radum, while the Fourteenth and the Seventh headed towards the Har Aras sector. He didn’t know why Dai Sha Anessa was going there, but something about that made him suspicious. He had wanted to get teams in place to monitor the First Legion’s Dai Sha closely after her return from the imprisonment by the Empire, but his superiors had denied it, and they had allocated those resources elsewhere.

Dai Sha Anessa’s interaction with the Empire was important, he knew it; he just didn’t know in what way. There was something about the Shara Daim and this Empire that he was missing, but there was no way for him to find out, not now. The invasion was under way, and his superiors wanted him focused on tracking the movements of the Legions. And Hanaru was always an obedient subordinate.

Chapter Twenty-Five

One month later — Jun; Year 56 of the Empire — Warpath

Adrian pushed with his legs and jumped forward through the air. He was stronger now after the upgrades; his legs pushed him two meters off the ground in an arc. He dropped on the ground several meters in front of his starting point, both of his hands coming up with extended palms outwards. A moment later, orange balls of plasma launched from both of his palms, four from each palm in quick succession, as he moved his arms in between each plasma shot to hit a different target.

After he was finished, he heard someone whistle in appreciation from behind him. He turned to see Master Hayashi walking towards him. Adrian smiled at his first true teacher and walked over to him.

“That’s something else,” Master Hayashi said, indicating behind Adrian.

Adrian turned and glanced at the eight targets that had meter-deep craters burned in them and were still smoking.

“Yeah, but that is about as much as I can manage. I don’t have enough for even one more plasma ball now; eight seems to be my limit at the moment,” Adrian said.

Hayashi smiled. “Always wanting more, eh, Adrian? Are you going to teach me how to do that?”

“You need the new upgrades for it,” Adrian said.

“A shame,” Hayashi said as he grabbed one of the balls on the floor telekinetically and whipped it at a target. He too had gone through the first original treatments, one of the few people that hadn’t been part of the groups that were getting them, but once he’d learned the basics from Clara and Meifeng, he had decided to leave the school and improve on his own.

“So what do you need?” Adrian asked.

Hayashi stepped back, faking a hurt expression. “What? I can’t visit my best student?”

Adrian rolled his eyes. “You never come to just visit.”

Hayashi grinned like a five-year-old. “I guess that I don’t.” He composed himself and took a deep breath. “I was thinking about becoming a Sentinel.”

Adrian looked at his old master in surprise. “Really? Why now?” Adrian had offered him a place among the Sentinels a long time ago, and he had refused.

“I’m bored,” he said.

“Bored? Aren’t you teaching martial arts? That’s what you’ve always wanted to do.”

“Yeah, but that will change soon enough. Once the Sha becomes widespread, we will have new martial arts that incorporate those abilities. And I might have the Sha now, but I don’t know nearly enough to teach it. Perhaps later, once things settle and find new balance. For now, I think that I should go out there, see what I find,” Hayashi said.

Adrian nodded. He understood his teacher’s point of view. “Well, of course. You know that you’ll need to study; Sentinels need to be versed in diplomacy and xenology.”

“Of course,” Hayashi said. “I’ve already started classes on diplomacy.”

“Well, then, as soon as you finish, you can go to Clara or Meifeng for them to test you,” Adrian said. “You didn’t really need to ask me, you know. Anyone from Warpath can take the tests.”

“I know, I just felt like I should,” Hayashi said.

Adrian nodded. Hayashi had been Adrian’s teacher since he was kid back on Earth. Now things would be different; Hayashi would answer to Adrian. “I understand.”

“Good,” Hayashi said, relaxing. “So how about a little sparring match?” he said mischievously.

***

Two days later, Adrian looked through the giant window looking over the Forge. He saw hundreds of shuttles moving from one dock to the other and to the outside of the massive asteroid. Dozens of yards were filled with hulls in various stages of construction, but his eyes were drawn to one that was closer to him. In that particular yard lay Veritas, undergoing some small upgrades to its systems, and an overall maintenance check.

Adrian felt the presence of someone approaching him. His eyes glossed over as he drew the Sha, accessing an ability he had discovered after his latest upgrade. An image of his surroundings formed in his mind, and he could see everything from the floor and glass to people walking around. Only he couldn’t really see features, it was more like shadowy impressions. One of those shadows reached him, and Adrian turned to look at him.

“Isani,” Adrian said, looking at the Clan Leader of Warpath. In his eyes, his image was overlapped by shadows, and then as Adrian let go of the Sha, Isani cleared.

“Adrian, what do you think?” Isani asked as he turned to look at the Forge.

“It’s impressive, but there is still a lot more room to grow,” Adrian answered, indicating the empty rock walls.

“Yes. Hopefully one day it will become something truly unique. I read your report on the resin assembling pools; they are fast,” he commented.

“They are, but we still can’t manage to build anything more complicated than a shuttle,” Adrian said.

“A few of my people looked it over; they think that you might have success if you utilize them to build parts that you assemble later,” Isani said.

“We thought about it. It’s pointless; this is supposed to increase our construction times tenfold and replace the fabricators. If we do it in parts, it is just as efficient as our current-gen fabricators. No point in doing it that way when we gain almost nothing.”

“At least you can build shuttles really fast,” he said.

Adrian turned to glare at his expressionless Nel face. He knew Nel well enough to know that that was a jab.

“Funny. If we could make it work, we could build an entirely finished battleship in days compared to months,” Adrian said.

“We’ll figure it out, we always do,” Isani said. “I saw that Veritas is scheduled to depart as soon as the work on it is done. You going back to Sol?”

“Yes, Gotu might have everything under control, but I think that it is time that I start expanding the Sentinel facilities beyond Mars.”

“There has been an increase in people testing to become Sentinels.”

“Yes, the only way to get the Sha early is if you are a part of the army, Fleet, the Hand, or a Sentinel. Well, for most people.”

“We aren’t going to be able to build ships for all of them,” Isani said.

“I know. Jupiter shipyards are building them as fast as they can, but without the Forge, we won’t meet the demand. But thankfully I have a system to build up. I’ll keep them occupied.”

They lapsed into silence, watching the movements from beyond the window for a few minutes before Isani spoke.

“Tomas wants a vote to bring the Sowir fully into the Empire,” he said.

“I know, I recommended it,” Adrian said.

“Gotu has urged me to vote yes. Apparently the Nel and Sowir in Sol have found common ground.”

“They’ve been forced to work together; their crimes aren’t forgotten or forgiven, but Gotu understands their right for a chance to make amends,” Adrian said. He then turned to face Isani. “You understand why he wants a vote, don’t you? He doesn’t need to have a vote; it is his decision.”

“I do. He wants us all to agree, to test if his Empire is as united as we like to believe…I will think on it. Until we see each other again, Lord Sentinel,” Isani said, and gave Adrian a very human-like smile as he walked away.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Tarabat

Aileen entered the small building that served as the human base/embassy to the Erasi on Tarabat. After she got through the security check, she made her way to the meeting room where Björn was already waiting for her.

“Sentinel,” Björn Borg said when she entered the room.

“What do we have?” Aileen asked.

“A few traders from the Erasi core systems arrived two days ago. According to our Jugat informants, the rumor is that the Erasi have been moving a massive force towards the edge of their territory, and not just any force—it’s their ships-of-the-line. A lot of them. None of these traders have ever seen or heard of a force so large. This was almost a year ago; by now, those forces have probably already arrived at their destination.”

“Do we know where they were headed?” Aileen asked.

“The word is that they were headed coreward with an spinward tilt,” Björn said.

That meant that they were moving in the opposite direction of the Empire, which was coreward and anti-spinward of the Erasi territory. But the only thing in the direction they were supposedly going were the Shara Daim.

“So the Shara Daim, most likely. I doubt that the Shara Daim would try and attack two opponents of comparable strength at the same time,” Aileen commented.

“Probably not, and they had peace with the Erasi for a long time. The only thing that makes sense is that the Erasi took advantage of the Shara Daim preparations for an attack on us.”

Aileen nodded. “Yes, they mobilized their Legions. The Erasi could’ve attacked as soon as they saw an opportunity. We need to find out more. I’ll send a message to Adrian. He is still receiving reports from our stealth ships in Shara Daim territory; he will know more about their status.”

“If the Erasi attacked them, then their actions with us make more sense,” Björn said.

“How so?”

“They offered us defense platforms that could arguably stand up to Shara Daim ships. If they have attacked, it is in their best interest to keep us and the Shara Daim at war.”

“Makes sense, only we kept things close and they didn’t know what we had. They still don’t, not now when we’ve forced them to remove their stealth ships from our territory,” Aileen said.

“If they knew the truth, they wouldn’t be so scared of us now,” Björn said with a chuckle.

Aileen smiled too. The Erasi were treading very carefully around the Empire these days. And if they were at war with the Shara Daim, it explained why they couldn’t afford humanity taking to the offense.

“And there haven’t been any movements against us from the Shara Daim, at least none that reports from Sol mentioned. If the Erasi attacked them, it would explain why there have been no follow-up attacks; they are too busy defending,” Björn said.

“This gives us an opportunity to take risks, get a network up in their space,” Aileen said.

“Speaking of networks, how did your meeting go?”

Aileen grimaced as she remembered her meeting with the Uraasat called Jurr, the large, snake-like alien that had given her the information about the Erasi Weavers and their stealth ships in return for her trying to find a cure for his people’s infertility.

“Sanctuary discovered the cure, so he is happy. And he wants us to take in a large number of his people, help them set up a colony in the Empire’s territory.”

“In return for?”

“Intel. The Uraasat have a vast network of spies across the Erasi territory,” Aileen answered.

“We don’t have any assets in the Erasi core systems; our relationship with the Jugat only covers systems they are allowed in, which are frankly only unimportant systems at the edge of the Erasi territory,” Björn said.

“I know. I will probably agree. But Jurr is a vengeful being; he wants revenge against the Erasi.”

“Do you blame him?”

“No, but we can’t afford being connected with a faction of Erasi that is opposed to their rulers. From what I learned, Uraasat have connections with many races that live in the Erasi. And Jurr’s ‘organization’ has members in almost every race in the Erasi. If they do something and the Erasi find out that we have been helping them, it would go badly,” Aileen said.

“Then make sure to have a very precise deal in place, what we will do and what we won’t. If they break it, the deal is off,” Björn said.

“If we take their people in, we won’t ever really be able to break off relations.”

“Ask yourself if that is a risk worth taking to get intel on the Erasi. You are the Sentinel on site; these are the decisions that you are supposed to make.”

“I know,” Aileen said, releasing a long breath. “I’ll think it over.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Two months later — September; Year 56 of the Empire — Shara Radum

Anessa was one hundred and thirty-nine years old. She and Garaam had been enjoying themselves on a resort planet in Shara Daim territory. And while Garaam would rather bathe in the warm ponds, Anessa would much rather read about the history of the Shara Daim.

She had always been interested in the ancient history of her people. A time before they had gone to space and before the Sha, when the creeds of blood and death had originated. To fight and become stronger was the greatest honor. To be a warrior was a holy calling. The old Shara Daim had followed only the strongest; it made them ever-changing, since every leader ruled only for as long as he was the strongest. Rulers would fight off challengers for their rule constantly, but eventually every ruler lost, and a new stronger and younger one took his or her place, molding the Shara Daim into something new.

Anessa was fascinated with the old Shara Daim; they had had no Sha, and had fought simply and perhaps more barbarically. But still they had had honor.

“How are you not bored with reading that?” Garaam asked as she leaned on the edge of the pond and looked at Anessa lounging on the warm rocks with a reading device in hand.

“You could learn a lot from our history, Garaam.”

“Yes, I can learn about the most barbaric ways to take power,” Garaam said.

“They lived by their strength, more so than we do now,” Anessa responded.

“We are more civilized.”

“Perhaps, but there are still lessons to be learned from the words of ancient Kar Daim,” Anessa added. Garaam sighed in frustration and turned her back to Anessa, swimming away.

Anessa walked through the great Hall of Ages, under the high-reaching arcs, and past paintings and murals depicting the Shara Daim history, reminding her of who her people truly were. A race of warriors who had never bowed down to weakness. Only it had taken a defeat to teach her what strength truly meant.

Behind her followed Do Sun Arisak and eight of her best Va Sun. Immediately upon entering the system, the Elders had ordered her to come to them. They had provided no reason as to why, but it wasn’t necessary. Anessa knew the reason; the Elders had learned of her orders to the Legions. She had sent the message only to the Legions, making sure that the message didn’t pass through the Shara Radum relay, which meant that someone had informed them on purpose, as she had known someone would. But the circumspect relay had given her time.

Anessa and her party reached the end of the hall and the ornate doors leading to the Elders’ sanctum. Two honor guards stood in front, as they always did. There were no other guards in sight, which probably meant that the Elders, while displeased with her, didn’t plan on having her arrested. That was interesting, but then, she was their greatest Dai Sha; they couldn’t really arrest her without a great cause. They would want to talk, demand a reason for her actions. And Anessa would give it to them.

She turned to Arisak and motioned for him and the Va Sun to stay there. They already knew what to do. Her Legion knew everything—all the information they had about Axull Darr and the suspicions about the Elders. And they were loyal to her.

Anessa inclined her head to the two guards wearing the traditional brown chestplate armors that covered their torso and left their arms bare presenting the white markings going around their forearms. Anessa stepped through as they opened the doors. She entered the dark room and moved down the stairs toward the podium in center of the room, dropping to one knee before the nine Elders that were sitting on high-backed chairs on the pedestals in a half circle in front of her.

“Elders, I answer your summons,” Anessa said, keeping all emotion out of her posture and voice.

For a few beats there was no response, but then the Elder sitting directly in front of her spoke. “Rise, Dai Sha Anessa,” he said, and waited for her to stand before continuing, “You have been summoned as a courtesy. We want to give you a chance to explain your actions.”

“And what actions are that?” Anessa asked.

A female Elder to her right was the one that spoke. “You have failed to report the results of the attack on the Empire’s system of Sol, and you have issued orders to the Legions that are in direct conflict to our own. You have overstepped your authority. The only reason you are not in chains is that we can’t afford to lose a Dai Sha of your power now, but make no mistake, there will be punishment,” the Elder said, her voice booming through the room.

Anessa tilted her head and looked in the direction of the Elder. “You wish for my report? Very well. The attack on Sol failed; Dai Sha Narrasak and his Legion were destroyed, and both mine and Dai Sha Garaam’s Legions sustained heavy losses to our forces.”

A series of exclamations came from the Elders, each disbelieving. The Elder directly in front of her spoke loudly enough to silence the others. “Enough! What do you mean failed? The Humans are weaklings. Their system was undefended; Narrasak sent us reports before you left.”

“The system wasn’t undefended, it was a ruse. Narrasak died because he was weak and unworthy of the position he held. Once faced with an equal opponent, he lost composure and charged blindly into an enemy trap.”

Again the Elders voiced their disbelief, and again they were silenced. “And if you lost, how is it that you are here now before us?”

“The Empire’s commander let us go.”

“What?”

“But not before he allowed me and Garaam to speak with Axull Darr,” Anessa added before they could ask anything else.

Silence reigned in the room. Then a voice from her left broke it. “What did you say?”

“I spoke with Axull Darr, or rather the copy of his consciousness stored inside the device you sent us to retrieve. But I’m sure that you know all about that; there must’ve been records of what the device was.”The Elders were silent, so Anessa kept talking. “I learned a lot of things from him. It seems that a lot of what we believe isn’t actually true. Like our people being destined to rule the galaxy, or our ancestors ruling it through strength by dominating other races.”

“Really? And you believed this deception?” another Elder said, but Anessa could feel his voice shake.

“You told me that I would know the device was real if I heard the beacon.”

“Well, you are obviously wrong; the device didn’t have anything like that, only data,” yet another Elder said, only the words came out in a rush.

“Perhaps you are the one that is wrong? The device was lost long ago, far before your time, Elder,” Anessa said. “Perhaps it was simply not documented.”

“If what you say is true, we will need to reevaluate a lot of our history. It is interesting. We will need you to write a full report about all that you learned. We shall meet again to discuss it after you provide us with everything. For now, we shall give you quarters on Shara Radum until we have investigated this matter,” the Elder in front of her said. “You are free to leave for now, Dai Sha Anessa, but await our summons.”

He dismissed her, but Anessa didn’t move.

“Dai Sha?” the same Elder asked, his voice sounding strange.

“We still haven’t discussed me sending orders to the Legions,” Anessa said slowly, taking a step forward, closer to the Elders.

“Ah…Yes, we will speak of it during the next meeting. You have given us a lot to think and debate about,” the Elder said quickly.

Anessa drew just a bit of the Sha, enough so that her eyes could see in the dark, but not enough for the Elders to notice. The darkness disappeared and she saw their faces, saw their fear.

“I did it because we are Shara Daim. We do not abandon our own people; that is what our teachings always say. The Legions were created to defend our people and to be a bastion of our strength. We do not sacrifice our people for greed and power.”

The Elders were now shifting uncomfortably on their large chairs, their minds connecting with the Sha as they started to speak mind to mind. Anessa took another step forward.

“Dai Sha Anessa! Leave this room now, or we will summon the guards to remove you!” the Elder in front of her said, but his words sounded weak, pitiful.

“Tell me, why did you make us age?” Anessa said in a whisper that carried across the room. She saw the eyes of the Elder in front of her widen, and she knew that Garaam was right. The Elder’s hand moved quickly to the armrest of the chair, moving towards the button that would summon the guards, but Anessa didn’t let it reach it. The Sha filled her and she stopped the hand.

“Wh-What do you think you are doing? Using the Sha against an Elder is a death sentence!” a female Elder from the left yelled out.

Anessa didn’t care, something in her snapped. She bent her knees and jumped forward. In a split second, she reached the chair of the Elder in front of her, his face now filled with fear and disbelief. Anessa’s hand covered his face, and using all of her considerable strength, her fingers tightened around his face, keeping it in place as she moved his head forward and then smashed it back against the back of the chair. The Elder’s skull burst into pieces from the force of the attack; brain matter and blood covered the chair and her hand. As she let go, the body with a pulverized head dropped over the armrest and then onto the floor, breaking the shock of the other Elders.

She heard some of them pressing the buttons on their own chairs, calling for the guard; others were standing up trying to get away. It wouldn’t matter in the end.

Anessa drew on the Sha as she had never drawn before. She had never used her full power; a part of her knew that she’d never had the need for it, just as another knew that she had been afraid of her own power ever since the moment it had come to her and she had almost killed someone. Anessa was the strongest Sha user in living memory, perhaps the strongest to have ever lived. The greatest Dai Sha, her talent and ability with the Sha had no equal. Her time as a ‘prisoner’ had taught her a great deal, and the most important thing she had learned was to abandon her arrogance, to never again lose because she was caught off guard or was keeping herself back.

There were eight Elders left alive, and Anessa moved. She jumped across the room to the chair on the far left. The Elder there had just stood up from her chair as Anessa dropped to the floor, her left arm grabbing the Elder by the shoulder and slamming her back against the chair, keeping her immobilized. She positioned her right hand above the Elder’s head and a ball of orange plasma exploded out of her palm, vaporizing everything above the shoulders.

She turned and saw two of the other Elders closest to her running towards the back door. She reached with the Sha and crushed their ribcages with a force strong enough to break stone. None had even tried to defend themselves. None had drawn on the Sha. She put her hand on the headless corpse of the Elder beside her and looked inside her body. She saw that she was healthy; there was no signs of aging in the Elder, which meant that their outward appearance was only for show. She dug deeper and realized that the body was only healthy but not fit, not by the standards of any other Shara Daim. She knew what she was seeing; these were the signs of someone who did not care to train his or her body.

With a scowl of disgust, she turned to the others. They had reached the front door, and were trying to open them, but of course, they couldn’t. Arisak had his orders. Anessa walked slowly towards them. Two of the Elders saw her, and she felt them take hold of the Sha. Anessa didn’t react; she watched their sloppy and pitiful attempt to grab hold of her and keep her in place. With a thought, she sent a surge of power around her, nullifying their attack.

“Pathetic…For how long have you lived?” she asked with revulsion in her voice. “How much stronger could you have become if only you hadn’t wasted that time?”

“Wait! Wait! We can make you like us, give you immortality. You would never die!” an Elder said. Anessa sneered at her as she moved impossibly fast forward. She grabbed the Elder by the throat and threw her back across the room, where she hit one of the chairs with her back and a bone-crunching snap. The four remaining Elders tried to attack her mind, but even that attempt was nothing. They were weak, no more powerful than a Shara Daim just out of academy was. Anessa walked over to the closest one, her hand covering the Elder’s throat. Her fingers squeezed, her nails biting through the skin and into the flesh as she crushed and then ripped out the windpipe out of his throat. He dropped to the floor, dying slowly in a pool of his own blood. The last three looked horrified at her, and she didn’t care.

One moved forward, throwing a kinetic attack that made Anessa take a single step backwards, and his fist followed quickly with a punch aimed at her head. Anessa moved out of the way, grabbing the Elder’s wrist in a move she had learned from Adrian. She twisted the wrist around, breaking the arm. She grabbed his head with her other hand, and then let go of the wrist to grab the back of his head also. With a quick twist, she broke his neck.

The two in front of her dropped down on their knees begging for mercy, but she ignored them. Shara Daim did not beg, but then, these were not Shara Daim. A plasma ball burned a hole through the chest of one, prompting the other to try running again. He managed a few steps before she snatched him up with the Sha. She kept him in the air and pulled. He screamed as she tore him in half, his torso flying in one direction and his hips and legs in the other.

Anessa looked over the room; bodies and blood lay everywhere. She spied movement at one of the chairs; the Elder she had thrown across the room was crawling on the floor towards the back door. Anessa walked over and grabbed her by her shoulder-length gray hair, pulling her up as she screamed in pain. She put her against a chair and dropped to her knees, looking in the Elder’s eyes.

“It’s all your fault,” Anessa said, her voice empty. “You twisted us, made us believe in lies. Nothing that I believed in is true. I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

The Elder returned her look. “You have destroyed us,” she gurgled.

“You lied to us! You were prepared to allow our people to die for your greed. Whatever you are, you are not what Shara Daim are,” Anessa said. “And I don’t even know what Shara Daim are supposed to be; everything I was taught is a lie. But I do know that I will not allow our people to die to fuel the greed of weak masters. I will find out what it means to be Shara Daim, and I will forge us into something better.”

“We had to,” she wheezed out. “The enemy, they are out there. We n-need to be strong.”

“Did you have to make us age? Did you have to deceive us, and feed us lies? You didn’t make us strong, you gave us false strength. We were as strong as our leaders, and you are weak.”

“We needed to guide.” She paused as she coughed, blood trickling down her chin from her mouth and nose. “We were the only ones that understood the threat.”

“No, you were just greedy. You wanted power to rule, but you didn’t want to take that power for yourselves; you stole it from others, kept us ignorant and complacent. You were weak, and you made us follow you,” Anessa said, disgust dripping in every word. “You turned us into this perversion of what our ancestors were—” Anessa’s voice broke. She took a deep breath and composed herself. “But you may find comfort in the knowledge that we will be strong without you. We will become Shara Daim.”

Anessa placed her hand on the dying woman’s throat and squeezed until she died. She stood up and sent a telepathic signal to Arisak as she moved to the central chair. She moved the body in front of it to the side with the Sha, and sat down in the bloody chair. Her own Shur At was covered in blood and bits of flesh and gore, but she ignored all of it, placing both of her arms along the armrests as she waited.

The large ornate doors opened, slowly bringing light into the room. The first inside were two Va Sun with their Shur At deployed, but without their weapons. Behind them followed Arisak and ten honor guards, with the rest of her Va Sun entering last. All held the Sha, but there had been no death; Arisak had been instructed to keep them from entering, not kill them.

They froze once they noticed the bodies and the blood. Not even her own people had known exactly what she had been planning to do. A part of her hadn’t known either. She had told them only that the Elders would no longer rule. The leader of the honor guard was Jar Sun Tarrasi, a large man with his white hair cropped short and half his face filled with white markings that showed anyone who looked at him his position as the head of the Elders’ guard. The position in the guard had always been highly regarded, but it wasn’t really sought by those who chose to become solely warriors. The guard was filled with third and fourth sons and daughters of rich families, those who had nothing to inherit. They did train to be warriors, like all other Shara Daim, but there had never actually been a need for the guard to protect the Elders. Jar Sun Tarrasi was different; he was an heir to an old family, but still he had chosen to become a guard. Some said that he even had enough power and skill to be a Dai Sha.

Anessa watched as several emotions cycled on the man’s face, from disbelief to rage, shock, and fear. One of the other guards stepped onto a piece of bone that crunched under his feet. He stepped back and immediately turned and threw up over the floor.

Jar Sun Tarrasi looked at Anessa, and finally gathered enough courage to speak. “What have you done?” he asked in a whisper.

“What needed to be done,” Anessa answered him, keeping her voice and face calm, even though inside she was a mess. “The Elders were weak. They lied to us, kept us in the dark so that they could control us and use us for their own gain. They gave orders that would’ve resulted in the deaths of millions of our people. They were not Shara Daim,” she said.

“But they were the Elders!” Tarrasi said. “We owe them allegiance. They must’ve had some plans!”

“The only plan they had was to satisfy their greed for power,” Anessa said, leaning forward. “They were weak; most didn’t even attempt to defend against me. They were not true Shara Daim; they were only pretenders who had committed many crimes against their own people.”

She took a deep breath and stood up. The guard and some of her own Va Sun took a step backwards in fear as she looked at them. She realized that she was still holding the Sha. She took a step forward.

“The Elders doctored history, lied to us about our origins. But that stops now. From today onwards, there will be no secrets among the Shara Daim. From this day forward, the Shara Daim will never again bow to weak leaders.”

Her eyes hardened as she looked at the guard leader. “I was a Dai Sha, the first and strongest of Shara Daim. From this point on, I am a Dai Sha no more; from this day forward, I am taking the reign of the Shara Daim by the right of strength, by blood and death. Just like our ancestors did before we left our homeworld, in a time when strength and blood and death meant more than anything, so do I now take the title of the Kar Daim—the ruler of all. Let any who disagree come and challenge my rule with combat, and all others bow down before me.” Her voice boomed through the room.

Arisak kneeled first, followed by her Va Sun. Most of the honor guards took only a second to decide to kneel, but Jar Sun Tarrasi kept standing and looking at her. Anessa didn’t speak or move; she matched his look, keeping her eyes on him. Then, Jar Sun Tarrasi knelt, as she had known that he would, because even though she had just done something unthinkable, even though he had been taught to obey the Elders, a sliver of who Shara Daim were before the Elders had taken power still remained, and they still followed strength.

“Now, before we tell the new state of things to the Shara Daim, we have a lot of work to do.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

One day later — Shara Radum

Anessa walked up to the chair in what had once been the sanctum of the Elders and was now her throne room. The room was now brightly lit. All but one chair had been removed, along with any sign of what had happened a day before. The room was filled with people, high officials of Shara Radum, the chosen few that had been informed of the events of yesterday. No one outside of the former Elder compound knew anything, except for Anessa’s people and the honor guard.

Last night, after her proclamation, she had had Jar Sun Tarrasi inform the rest of the guard, with the orders to keep it within, which wasn’t really hard as no information left the compound without their approval. She had given all the proof that Garaam’s group had accumulated over the years to Jar Sun and the rest of the guard, cementing their decision to follow her, at least until they found more proof. Then she had taken Do Sun Arisak and Jar Sun Tarrasi to the Elder palace.

No one had been allowed there for centuries; the guard was responsible for keeping all save for the Elders out, and to not allow anyone to leave. They themselves had never entered, as the palace supposedly had its own guard. The palace was staffed with families that had been living there for generations. At least, that had been the rumor.

When Anessa and her people had entered without the Elders, they had been met with attendants, servants, and even guards. However, none of them were like the rest of the Shara Daim. They had no Sha, no concept of the outside world. They had been bred to serve the Elders. Families, living in the palace almost since it had been built, always serving. The things they had found there had made her repulsed, and had convinced her that what she had done was right.

In the chamber of one of the Elders they had found a dungeon with three children chained to the walls, used and abused for who knew how long. She had cursed herself for giving that Elder such an easy death the night before by ripping his throat out; he’d deserved a much harsher death. And once the children had been returned to the families, they didn’t want them, fearing the wrath of their gods. That was what they’d thought the Elders were—gods who never aged and protected them from the outside world. To them, Anessa and her people were the heretics that would be punished by their gods.

If any of the guard had doubted Anessa before, they didn’t now. They had found the Elders’ private records, their archives, and there was the truth. Garaam’s people were right, the Dai Sha that were supposed to become Elders never did; they had always been poisoned and killed, the illusion of the Elders changing maintained.

But the most important thing that Anessa had found was the origin of the Elders. They had been there during the war with the Nazaari. They were scientists that had been working on the device, from a time when not everyone was a warrior in addition to their calling. Her people had found the records from the device, which matched what Adrian had given her. He had been right all along.

There were more of the ‘Elders’ in the beginning, but over time the nine had killed them. They had taken power slowly, over several centuries. They had had the knowledge from the device; it had been easy for them to manipulate.

They were also once part of a group advocating the total destruction of the Nazaari. According to the records, the war had started after they had received the Sha, and the device. The leaders of the time had wanted more resources, and had provoked the Nazaari, starting the war that they’d known they would win. With the knowledge from the device, it had been easy, but the Nazaari had surprised them and managed to destroy the device before they were wiped out. The group that was in power then slowly doctored the events, and the ‘Elders’ took over power with the help of the data they controlled. They had poisoned the Shara Daim against other races, perverted what they once were.

The Shara Daim had always been warriors, but once they had lived in peace with Nazaari—they had even trained together, helped each other. According to the old records that they’d found, there were once even yearly contests organized where both Shara Daim and Nazaari competed. Anessa had found the proof she needed to convince the rest of the Shara Daim that what she had done was necessary. And with it, she would change the Shara Daim, forge them into something better.

Now Anessa looked over the people assembled in the ‘throne’ room. They had been given the data after her people found it, and then they had been brought to the Hall of Ages and told about the change in leadership. She had given them time to study the data, and now they would decide whether they wanted to bow to her or challenge her.

She waited for the Vallar Havasse to speak, as she had been chosen as the voice of the leadership of Shara Radum. She was an old woman, age clearly seen on her face. A stoic and great speaker, she struck the visage of a true Shara Daim lady. Like all Shara Daim, she was trained as a warrior. Not on the level of a Dai Sha, but still, she understood strength. If Anessa had the support of Shara Radum, she would have a much easier time of convincing the ordinary people to support her, who might resist even with all the proof she planned to release to the public.

“We have reviewed the data you supplied, Dai Sha,” Havasse said.

“Kar Daim,” Anessa corrected. She did not intend to give any ground. The Shara Daim would be hers, one way or another. Protecting her people was the only thing she cared about. As long as she lived, she would not allow anyone weaker than her to lead.

Havasse gave her a look filled with steel, her face as unmoving as Anessa’s own. Then, Havasse looked away and sighed; she turned and looked around at the faces behind her. A great majority of them were scared, of Anessa, presumably. Anessa understood their fear.

Finally, Havasse looked back at Anessa. “I will speak truthfully with you. We came here with no intention of accepting your rule. We thought to bully you in giving the power over to us. But I see now that that will not happen. These idiots behind me are scared of you, but they are more scared of change.” Anessa heard a couple of gasps from behind Havasse, but she ignored them, keeping her eyes on the older woman who continued speaking.

“The Elders lied; everything we accomplished since we left our homeworld was built on a lie. We thought that we were better than anyone else is, superior in every way, but the truth is far from that. We who control our trade and commerce know very well that that is a lie,” Havasse said sadly. “Our economy is weaker than that of other empires our size. We don’t trade with other races nearly enough to satisfy our size. The only area where we excel is the military, and only because every citizen of Shara Daim is a soldier. But you know that even our Legions aren’t undefeatable.”

Havasse shook her head, her two long gray braids swinging lightly behind her. “The Elders and their lies crippled us with their teachings, filled us with false arrogance, so much so that it was only a matter of time before we crumbled. The Erasi attack might yet break us, especially since their orders left us vulnerable.” She locked her eyes with Anessa’s again determinedly. “Even with all the lies of the Elders, they have not been able to erase what we truly are deep down. So I will not follow our plan. Shara Daim are warriors, we believe in strength. And we must change if we are to survive.”

Havasse lowered her old body to a single knee with a grace unbecoming her age, and then she looked up. “I will have you lead us, Kar Daim.”

Anessa allowed herself a small smile as the rest of the room followed suit and dropped down to their knees.

***

Two months later — December; Year 56 of the Empire — Shara Radum

Anessa let out a moan of pleasure as the man beneath her moved in unison with her. She put her hands on his chest, feeling the hard muscle there and noting the difference in their skin color. In the back of her head, she found that strange; Shara Daim didn’t look like that. But it didn’t matter. The strange brown eyes looked up at her as she shook in ecstasy.

Anessa woke up, her breathing hard and her body hot and drenched in sweat. She lay in her large bed in a renovated wing of the palace, thinking about the dream. She had known that she was attracted to the Human, but what she had felt in the dream went far beyond that. Her mind was a mess. So many things had changed; it wasn’t strange that she was confused. She remembered the dream and immediately felt her body shiver. Adrian was strong, he was smart, he was a great commander, and she had seen his people give him respect. He was also manipulative and prepared to do everything to win. She remembered their fight, how he’d moved. At that moment, they hadn’t really been fighting. It had been more of a dance; they had been completely in sync, lost in each other. She had never felt that way with anyone before. She shook herself off, went to her cleaning area of her quarters, and then returned to bed. Now she was unable to sleep, the same thoughts always coming to her mind unwanted.

She didn’t know who she was, not really. She had always believed that she was a servant of the Shara Daim, that her duty was to follow the orders of the Elders. And now she had taken the reins of leadership from the ones she had been taught to obey without question. She couldn’t allow herself to go down that path of thinking, not now. Because even though she didn’t know who she was, she couldn’t let her people die. It was one thing that kept her from bowing down to the demands of those who didn’t agree with what she had done.

Anessa had brought the Shara Daim under her rule; the relays had spread the word much faster than any ship could travel. She had the loyalties of the Legions; she had been one of the Dai Sha for a long time, and they respected her. There were some who weren’t completely on board with her rule, but for now they were silent, at least in her presence. Anessa had recalled ten Legions to Shara Radum under the guise of reinforcing her rule, but the truth was that six of those Legions were the ones that had refused her orders to defend the Shara Daim from the Erasi, those who hadn’t disobeyed the Elders. None of them argued with her rule now in public—she had too much proof of what the Elders truly were—but it was best to keep them close, perhaps even goad some of them into challenging her and taking care of that problem permanently.

She didn’t have the problem with them following orders; she had the problem with the fact that they hadn’t even argued to the Elders for protection of the people. Being Shara Daim needed to mean more than just following blindly, especially now when she had revealed all. Everyone knew about their true history, both of their ancestors and the history doctored by the Elders.

In the first month, she had been challenged three times over the fact that the Shara Daim had been engineered. But after she had made a point of ripping the third challenger in half in front of all watchers, she had suddenly found herself with no new challengers.

Dai Sha Farran was the most ‘vocal’ one of her opposition, speaking against the changes she was trying to implement in the Shara Daim society. She knew that she needed to deal with him, but he was very respected, and powerful. She could kill him, but she needed him to issue a challenge. And he wasn’t that stupid; he knew that she was much stronger than him.

She knew that she needed to change the Shara Daim. The looking down on other races needed to end, and expansion politics would need to change as well. However, even with all those changes, she would not change who the Shara Daim were at their core: a warrior culture that valued strength.

Now that she had taken rule, her first task was to defend her people. She had given the command of the defense to Garaam, and all save the ten Legions were now on their way to the invaded sectors.

She had ordered every shipyard to begin war manufacturing, to build ships and weapons. But as she had found out, the production rate of the Shara Daim could barely sustain their current needs; they needed more materials, especially now that their limited trade with the Erasi had ceased. She needed to find a new source of materials to build up her war machinery.

There were a few contenders, races, civilizations, empires, large enough to be able to provide them with enough materials. The problem was that none of them would deal with the Shara Daim in good faith. The Erasi had probably already made sure that they wouldn’t trade, and she had no forces available to force their hand.

Which left only one choice—the Empire. She knew that they wanted peace. She could probably get a trade deal with them. But her people couldn’t change overnight; she needed to force them to change. And that meant them interacting with others. But more than a simple trading agreement, she needed help. She was trained as a Dai Sha; she knew that Erasi had more forces, that they already had a foothold in Shara Daim territory that would be hard to take back. The Legions might be able to stop them eventually, but many Shara Daim would die in the meantime, and they might never regain the territory they had lost.

Again, the only ones who might even entertain the possibility of helping them were the Empire. Moreover, she knew that the Empire would want a lot more for help than they would want for simple trade. And that was without the problem she would have with her own people resisting any kind of an alliance. She would need to convince the Empire and her own people to agree. And she knew of only one way that her people would accept help, which was if they witnessed strength.

Anessa smiled in a predatory way as an idea started to form in her mind. It seemed fitting. Adrian had manipulated her once before. Now she would do the same to him, and take care of two problems at the same time.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Three months later — March; Year 57 of the Empire — Sol

Adrian entered the command hub of Olympus Mons, summoned by Gotu.

“It should arrive any moment now, Lord Sentinel,” Gotu told him as he approached.

Adrian nodded, and waited. They were expecting a courier ship from the Shara Daim to come out of trans-space. Their stealth ship in the Shara Daim staging system had seen it leave, and their assets on the other side of the trans-lane had seen it enter on its way to Sol.

Adrian was intrigued. He didn’t know what the reason for it coming here was, but it must have been something interesting. Since the battle, a lot of things had changed. The Erasi had launched a surprise attack on the Shara Daim, and the forces once bound for the Empire had now reversed course and headed back, presumably towards the areas attacked by the Erasi. The Empire had stealth ships in border systems of both the Erasi and the Shara Daim; it allowed them to observe the activities in those systems. But they didn’t really have a source of information from the Shara Daim; they couldn’t listen in on their secure communications, and they had no assets that could give them information. With the Erasi, it was another thing entirely. Their system was much more open, and they had assets that could obtain information for them.

Which was why the arrival of the courier ship was such an interesting development. The courier ships were used to send messages between different societies. And the arrival of the courier meant that the Shara Daim wish to open a dialogue, or at least speak with the Empire. Adrian didn’t know if Anessa had managed to change the minds of her Elders, but the fact that they were now ready to speak meant that something had changed.

“Here they are,” Adrian said as the ship entered the system and was met by the large defense station. They made no threatening moves, and immediately answered the defense station’s challenge, telling them that they were on a mission to deliver a message from their leadership. The station allowed them through, and they started on their way towards Mars.

An hour later, Adrian, Gotu, and a squad of adepts and Sowir moved to the hangar as the ship asked for permission to land on the planet. They waited for the white cylinder-shaped ship to land, and then met with the people who exited it. It was three Shara Daim, all wearing their Shur At that looked like a loose bundle of something that was a cross between a robe and tunic on top and a loose pair of pants at the bottom. Two were men and one a woman. They, unlike Anessa, had hair on their heads; all of them had it cut short to the head. The men had white hair, and the woman black that almost melded with her skin tone.

The man in the lead stepped up to Adrian’s group, with the two behind him following a few steps away.

“Greetings,” the Shara Daim said, his tone sounding somehow unsure to Adrian’s ears. He of course understood Shara Daim language, as he had learned it from Anessa. But even if he didn’t, his implant now had a device based on the Erasi translators, like every other implant in the Empire. The Sowir, on the other hand, had a device much more similar to the Erasi version on the top of their heads closest to their brains.

After a short pause, the man continued speaking. “I am Va Dan Reisi, envoy of Kar Daim. I’m here to deliver a message for the leadership of your Empire. I was instructed to speak with someone bearing the title Lord Sentinel,” Va Dan Reisi said slowly.

“I am Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas,” Adrian said, then turned sideways and gestured. “Let us move to someplace more comfortable before you deliver your message.”

The Shara Daim followed, their movements unsure, edgy. They seemed like they were battling what they really wanted to do, which Adrian assumed was to fight him and his people. He led them through Olympus Mons towards one of the larger meeting rooms close to the command hub. Once inside, Adrian guided them to sit at the round table, with the three of them sitting on the one side and Adrian and Gotu sitting on the other, with one Sowir, Song of Silence, standing behind them, a precaution on Adrian’s part. The Shara Daim could for sure feel that the Sowir had Sha, they might not know what they could do but Adrian hoped that they would think twice before they did anything hostile. The Sowir were much better telepaths than the Shara Daim or anyone else the Empire had encountered with the ability. The rest of his people remained outside of the room.

“So what is the message from your leaders?” he asked.

“Our Kar Daim wishes for peaceful talks to be established between the Shara Daim and the Empire,” Va Dan Reisi said in a rehearsed way, with no actual emotion behind the words.

Adrian allowed himself a little internal cheer. Something must’ve changed. Anessa and her people might’ve changed the Elders’ minds. He was aware that it could be a trap, but everything he knew about the Shara Daim told him it wasn’t. Then he remembered something that the envoy had said.

“You said that you are the envoy of Kar Daim? I am unfamiliar with that title; is it another name for your Elders?”

All three Shara Daim suddenly looked unsure, and if his study of Shara Daim expression from Anessa was solid, just a bit afraid.

“No. Kar Daim is an old title for the leader of Shara Daim,” Va Dan Reisi said.

Adrian frowned. An old title for the leader of Shara Daim, he thought to himself. “Do we have any data on that title?” Adrian asked Iris internally.

“There is nothing on the data we received from the Erasi. And we don’t really have anything directly from the Shara Daim,” Iris responded.

“Are the Elders not the leaders of the Shara Daim?” Adrian asked. There was a chance that he had missed something. They only had data from the Erasi and what he had gotten Anessa to tell him, but she had been a prisoner; there was a possibility that she hadn’t told the entire truth.

All three Shara Daim now looked very uncomfortable, but Va Dan Reisi answered, “The Elders no longer rule the Shara Daim.”

Adrian’s eyebrow quirked in a gesture completely lost on the Shara Daim. He knew that if Anessa and her people dug deeper, they would uncover the truth, perhaps enough to change the minds of their Elders. But he hadn’t anticipated that they would overthrow them completely, and not in such a short period of time.

“And this Kar Daim now wishes to start peaceful relations with us?” Adrian asked.

“Yes. The Kar Daim wishes for you to send a team of envoys that can make agreements on the behalf of your Emperor. If your response is affirmative, my ship is to escort the envoys to Shara Radum to speak with the Kar Daim. Only two military escorts aside from a ship carrying the envoys will be permitted in our territory,” Va Dan Reisi said.

“I will need to consult with my Emperor first, but I believe that those terms will be acceptable. Meanwhile, we will provide you quarters here on our base,” Adrian said, he debated pushing for more information on this Kar Daim, but he felt the Shara Daim’s reluctance and unease when he spoke of him or her, and Adrian didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize this chance. Adrian stood, with the rest following. With his imp, he called an adept from outside the room and gave them instructions. An adept entered. “Adept Sunai here will escort you to your quarters,” Adrian said, gesturing at the Nel woman. The Shara Daim inclined their heads and followed the adept out, Song of Silence trailing silently in their wake.

Adrian remained inside with Gotu.

“You think that they had the time to organize and remove their Elders from power?” Gotu asked.

“Hmm…We don’t know how their society works. Not really. Everything we know comes from the Erasi, and the little Anessa spoke of,” Adrian answered.

“It could be a trap,” Gotu cautioned. “Only three ships in the heart of their territory.”

“I don’t see what it would accomplish. They can’t plan on getting our technology; they must know that we would destroy our own ships before we allow them to take them. That is assuming they manage to catch us.”

“They could be trying to kill you. You did destroy one of their Legions,” Gotu said.

“That is true, and I did tell Anessa that I can make agreements on the behalf of the Emperor. Any attempt at diplomacy would mean me…But I doubt it. It’s too much trouble just to kill me, and they would destroy any chances they have of having peace. And the Emperor would not allow my death to go unavenged; we would attack, and with them already fighting the Erasi, we could do a lot of damage,” Adrian said.

“True, but you can’t always apply logic to other races. Not everyone thinks like you do; to them it might be a matter of honor. They might not even have any choice but to attempt to kill you,” Gotu said.

Adrian remained silent. Would Anessa counsel their leaders to do that? Would she even want to kill him? He knew that there was something between them, a mutual respect, attraction, but was it enough for him to be able to trust that the Shara Daim leaders really wanted to talk? It didn’t matter in the end. He would go. Tomas would agree because he didn’t want a war, and this was an opportunity they couldn’t pass.

“I need to speak with Tomas, it’s his decision,” Adrian said, and left the room, going to his own quarters to make the call in private.

***

Adrian sat in his private office reading a book as he waited for a response from Tomas. Even with the relays, there was some lag and they couldn’t speak in real-time. The lag between Sanctuary and Sol was around twenty minutes in one direction now, with relays between the two systems placed at every fifty lightyears along the way.

Finally, his comm chirped, announcing that the lag of forty minutes for his message to reach Tomas and his response to come back had ended. Adrian continued reading, as it would probably be some time before Tomas sent the response back. He would take time to listen to Adrian’s message and then formulate an answer. Adrian had sent him a written report along with the video message. Another hour later, his comm chirped with the sound of an incoming message, and Adrian accepted.

A hologram of Tomas appeared in front of him and started speaking.

“Adrian, I guess that your gamble paid off in the end. Of course we will accept the Shara Daim’s offer and send an envoy. Your request that it be you is, of course, granted. You may choose your escorts from the fleets in Sol; I already informed Laura and she agreed. As for what we are prepared to grant, that will depend on what they want. They are in a state of war with the Erasi, and while the Erasi have tried to infiltrate and manipulate us, we would rather not do anything that could be construed as us entering in this conflict. That being said, we have a lot of evidence to support that Erasi are not really good long-term ally material, but neither are the Shara Daim. It will be up to you in the end; I trust your judgment. I’m sending you everything that our analysts have on the Shara Daim and Erasi conflict, as well as what the most likely outcome of it will be. Good luck,” Tomas’s hologram said, and then it disappeared, the message ending.

Adrian’s imp had already downloaded the data Tomas sent from Olympus Mons servers, and he settled in to read it over. He would need to know as much as possible if he was going to deal with this Kar Daim.

***

Adrian sat on board the Veritas as it skimmed towards the outgoing trans-station flanked by two battleships, the Inglorious and the Fortunate. Johanna had refused to let him go with only cruisers, even though he had argued that there was no need for her to send him with battleships, as he didn’t want to take so much firepower away from the fleets. But in the end, she had won, not wanting to send him to ‘hostile’ territory with anything less.

The Shara Daim envoy stood to Adrian’s side. He had managed to convince Va Dan Reisi that the trip to Shara Daim homeworld would go much faster if his ship was in the hangar of the Veritas and they skimmed across the systems they passed through. The trip to the Shara Daim border system of Var Dara would take about three to four months for a Shara Daim ship, and another eight months to Shara Radum. The Empire’s ships could get there in less than four months. The fastest route utilized both trans-lanes and a couple of hyperspace routes, but with the skimming, his ships could move across entire systems almost immediately, which cut into the travel time considerably. And as it turned out, the Empire had slightly faster hyper-drives.

Veritas and its escorts dropped from their skim right on top of the trans-station, and then they entered into trans-space on their way to Shara Radum.

***

Tarabat

Hanaru, Weaver of the Erasi, looked over the latest report from the ambassador to the Empire. A Shara Daim courier ship had arrived and a few days later left with three Empire ships, presumably on their way to Shara Daim. The only explanation was that they were envoys, and the Erasi could not allow for any kind of dialogue to take place, or even worse, the creation of an alliance. Especially now when they were at a critical point in their invasion. It would be another sixteen months before the second wave arrived. They couldn’t afford the Empire complicating things; they needed to hold on to the key systems in the Shara Daim territory and prepare for the arrival of other fleets.

His suspicions about the Empire and the Shara Daim grew daily, especially since they had learned about the change in Shara Daim leadership. Dai Sha Anessa had killed the Elders and taken over the rule of the Shara Daim. The same Dai Sha that had been a prisoner of the Empire, and then later attacked the system where, after they were defeated, she was allowed to leave. It made no sense, unless somehow the Empire had put the Dai Sha in position to take the power, but there didn’t seem to be any evidence of them meddling.

Changing a government of an empire was something the Erasi would do, but this seemed too fast. The Empire had just recently moved into the area; there was no way for them to have had the time to orchestrate a change in Shara Daim leadership. Unless everything that the Erasi believed about them was a clever lie. Already they had seen too much that didn’t make sense—false information, deceptive strength…Who knew what else that Hanaru believed about them wasn’t true.

Whatever their true motives were, Hanaru knew one thing: he couldn’t allow their ships to reach Shara Radum. An alliance between the Empire and the Shara Daim would be catastrophic at this time. And Hanaru had no time to let his superiors know and ask for guidance; he needed to act immediately, because he was the only one in position to intercept the fast Empire ships. He only had a small taskforce, one stealth ship, ten destroyers, eight heavy cruisers, and two battleships, but that would be enough to stop the three ships.

Hanaru started making plans, finding the perfect system to lay an ambush. The Empire ships would never reach their destination.

Chapter Thirty

Several days later — March; Year 57 of the Empire — Shara Daim border region — Har Aras sector

Dai Sha Garaam of the Fourteenth Legion walked into the meeting room on board her flagship the Soulsworn. Around the table were seated twenty-two other Dai Sha. All were there as holograms, comm-ing in from their ships that were around Garaam’s Legion. Garaam took her seat at the head of the table and looked over the other Dai Sha. There was an air of unease among them, and it had nothing to do with their upcoming battle and everything to do with the changes on Shara Radum.

A part of Garaam still couldn’t believe what her friend had done. They had known each other since they were children, and Garaam knew that Anessa had always believed in the Elders unconditionally. She had honed her skills for the sole purpose of serving and one day becoming an Elder herself. That devotion was why Garaam had never told her friend about the little cabal she and several other Dai Sha were a part of. Their group had had members across the Shara Daim, from every position, people who believed that there was something wrong with the Elders’ rule, or people that didn’t agree with the Shara Daim policies against other races.

Garaam herself had had dealings with other races, and she had seen honor among many of them. Yet according to the teachings of their Elders, they were not equal to Shara Daim. Now she knew that that was a lie constructed to use the Shara Daim for the Elders’ purpose. So when she and everyone else in the Shara Daim had received the message that contained the proof against the Elders, she had rejoiced, until the last part of the transmission, when all had learned that the Elders had been removed from power by Anessa and that she had taken the title of Kar Daim along with the rule of the Shara Daim. The transmission didn’t mention how she had taken the power, but soon enough the word had gotten out. Anessa had killed them all, and if the word was true, she had done it in a very brutal way, all by herself.

Anessa had demanded obedience from anyone who didn’t want to challenge her, drawing back to the old laws and customs of the ancient Shara Daim. And a part of Garaam was elated, while a part was horrified. The cabal had wanted to oppose Anessa; they didn’t want to replace the Elders with someone worse, and in their minds, Anessa was somehow even worse. And Garaam would have agreed with them if it had been the Anessa from before her return from imprisonment. Before, she had been a zealot, believing blindly in the Elders and their teachings. Now Garaam had seen how different she was. She was more open-minded. The fact that she had killed the Elders told her how different she truly was; Anessa of before wouldn’t have defied the Elders for anything. Garaam didn’t know what had happened to her, but something had changed her.

So Garaam had counseled the cabal to accept her rule. She had told them that Anessa was different, that she wouldn’t allow what the Elders had done to happen again. And thankfully they had listened, and had given Anessa a chance. And already the Shara Daim had seen the beginnings of change. She had shared everything, put all the secrets out there for people to know. She focused the entirety of the Shara Daim to defend against the Erasi. Already Garaam had heard about talks of changing the ways things were done. The teachings in the schools were being changed, children no longer taught that Shara Daim were superior to all. And she had assembled teams of the smartest people the Shara Daim had to offer in order to make them better.

Slowly, in these past months, Anessa had gained allegiance among the Shara Daim. Not from everyone, but most. Some truly believed in what she was doing, while others were too afraid to do anything. Garaam and the cabal had had a dream of wise, strong, and truthful leaders that worked for the Shara Daim. But she knew that that was just a dream; the Shara Daim were not a people that would follow just anyone. They needed someone strong and powerful, someone who could instill fear into their bones and loyalty into their hearts. They needed Anessa to bully and force them to change, and Garaam would do everything in her power to help her friend.

The first part in doing that was to stop the Erasi advance. Garaam focused on the Dai Sha around her and spoke.

“Our mission is simple,” she said calmly, reaching out with her mind and keying the telepathic interface on the table to bring up a hologram of the Shara Daim territory. “The Erasi must pass the Var Gares system if they want to take and hold the Har Aras sector. Their forces in this sector number at around thirty of their fleets, the equivalent of thirty of our Legions, with the forces in the Har Kaleras and Har Nara sectors numbering fifteen each. That brings their confirmed number in our territory at sixty fleets,” Garaam said, looking at the Dai Sha.

Garaam had twenty-three Legions at her command to defend the three sectors; the last nineteen Legions that Anessa had ordered to the front would arrive in two months’ time. Then Garaam would have forty-two Legions to defend, plus the system guards—the same number that the Elders had planned to send against the Empire. The Erasi had obviously planned for this attack for a long time; their attack had come at three different sectors at the exact time when the Legions were out of position.

“The Erasi forces in the Har Aras sector are divided into three forces; eight of their fleets are guarding Var Tero, which they are using as a staging point. All their supplies arrive there, and it is where their fleets resupply. The other two forces, each eleven fleets strong, are currently on their way to two of our systems that they plan on taking next,” Garaam said. When she said that the Erasi were taking a system, she meant that they were moving inside, destroying any infrastructure, and then leaving. They were only actively taking systems that had strategic value, like Var Tero.

“We could move and take Var Tero back. That would deny their fleets resupply. But I don’t intend to go there just yet. Our first target will be here”—Garaam pointed at the system—“Var Harsi. That is where the biggest Erasi force is moving to attack, and we can get there just after they attack and pin them against the defenses. We will have the numbers advantage, and I believe that it is more advantageous for us to take out as many of their ships as we can now. As soon as they figure out that we have moved back in, they will start grouping more forces. Lowering their numbers now will give us an advantage,” Garaam said.

“But we will be leaving our other systems undefended,” Dai Sha Barask said.

“We need to cut their numbers now while we still can. After we take this fleet, we will be splitting our forces in order to defend as many as possible. And already the guard flotillas from our other sectors are arriving to bolster the defenses,” Garaam said. They had no hope of reaching the Har Kaleras and Har Nara sectors in time to help any of the systems that had already been attacked. Had the Elders sent the Legions to defend immediately, they might’ve had a chance of defending every sector, but for now they could only stop the Erasi in Har Aras. Once the reinforcements arrived, Garaam would be free to send more Legions to the two other sectors.

“Are there any questions?” Garaam asked, and no one spoke up; they already knew that this was the best plan they had at the moment. “Very well, then, we are off to Var Harsi.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Two months later — May — Shara Radum

Anessa sat in the room that she had turned into her office, inside the palace. A lot had changed since she had taken over. She had turned the palace into a hub for the government. She had created a group of advisors, both military and civilians, and she had daily meetings as they slowly adjusted some laws and started the transformation of the Shara Daim. For now, things had been going relatively smoothly. No one questioned her rule—at least not publicly—and she had the support of the military with the Legions and the system guards. The fact that they were under attack and on the defensive had made everyone compliant. But probably the greatest help to her rule was the support from Vallar Havasse; she had influence in many civilian areas, but it was her advice that was the most useful.

Anessa read a report from Garaam. Her forces had engaged the Erasi in Var Harsi and had managed to destroy half of the attacking forces, and they had successfully defended the system. The first battle between the Legions and the Erasi and it was a Shara Daim victory. Anessa knew that things would be much harder now; the Erasi wouldn’t allow themselves to be ambushed again. But the system guards’ ships would soon reach the Har Aras sector, along with another nineteen Legions, which would give Garaam more room to maneuver. She would need to spread the Legions in order to defend as many of the systems as possible. The Shara Daim were on the defensive now; Garaam’s job would be to stop the Erasi advancement until the shipyards could bolster their numbers enough for a counterattack.

In the meantime, Anessa was moving system guards and defense platforms from the rest of the Shara Daim sectors to help the defense of the three invaded sectors. She wasn’t stripping all of the defenses, but she was still weakening the other sectors. The Erasi had twelve Shara Daim systems under their control, two of which were hubs—systems with an unusual number of trans-space points both to and from the system. Taking those back needed to be a priority, but they simply didn’t have the forces to take them back yet. The Erasi had moved their defensive platforms and fortified the systems too much for them to be taken quickly.

Anessa didn’t want to enter into prolonged sieges when she couldn’t spare the ships; every Legion engaged in a siege would be one fewer to defend other systems, and the Erasi would take advantage of that. Taking back their systems was going to be hard. The Legions would stop the Erasi expansion, and then it would be a slow war, with both the Erasi and the Shara Daim bringing in reinforcements as they were ready.

The Erasi had struck a big blow, and they now had an advantage; their lower members defended their systems while the fleets of their core members were free to keep the pressure on her territory. And as Anessa had realized since she had taken the ‘throne,’ Shara Daim manufacturing was probably not going to be able to keep up with the Erasi.

The Elders had made Shara Daim success dependent on fear and power of the Legions, on the technology they had been exploiting for thousands of years. There had never been a need to replace an entire Legion, and now she needed more of them, and fast.

But what she really needed was to finish the conflict with the Erasi quickly, push them out of her territory and make sure that they didn’t think on attacking again. And she knew that there was little chance of her doing that anytime soon, not alone. Ever since she had killed the Elders, she had been struggling with her rule in privacy. For so long she had been an instrument of the Elders, and then during and after her time with the Empire, she had learned a lot of things that had made her waver in her beliefs. Then when she had learned of the Elders’ lies, she had snapped, and had seized the power for herself because she was the only person that she could trust with it.

Adrian would be arriving to Shara Radum soon, and she hoped to get him to make an alliance between his Empire and the Shara Daim. She knew that in order to change her people, she needed to make them see other races differently, something that even she struggled with. But the Empire had Humans and Nel in their number, two races that were like the Shara Daim; it would be much easier to get her people to agree to deal with the Empire than with anyone else. But first, she needed to convince Adrian.

Chapter Thirty-Two

One month later — June — Shara Daim territory

Hanaru watched as a small taskforce entered an almost empty system in Shara Daim territory. The system itself was mostly barren, only a few planets orbiting a very old star. But what made it perfect for an ambush was the fact that the trans-space point that led out of the system rested close to one of the system’s moons. And that was the trans-point that the Empire’s ships that had just entered the system would try to use.

Hanaru had studied the data they had on the Empire’s ships’ FTL drives extensively, and had realized that they had never used them close to stations, or large stellar bodies. They always dropped out of FTL a certain distance away from anything. And he could use that.

If they followed the same practice, they wouldn’t drop from their FTL right on top of the trans-space point; it was too close to the moon. They would drop out a short distance away, giving Hanaru the opportunity to close the point and ambush their ships. As the Empire ships exited hyperspace, he made sure that his ships were ready. It wouldn’t be long now.

“Prepare the jamming system,” Hanaru said, and waited.

***

Veritas

Adrian entered the command center of Veritas just as the three ships dropped from their skim near to the system’s moon. Va Dan Reisi walked with Adrian, as he made a point of being present for every trans-space entry. Just as he set foot inside the room, his Sensors Handler spoke out.

“I’m detecting something inside the trans-station, Lord Sentinel.”

Adrian frowned. “What?”

“The sensors can’t identify it. We could go active with the sensors,” he suggested. Then his station chirped and his expression changed. “Trans field detected!” the Sensors Handler said just as the holo showed a flash of violet light that signified a trans-station activation.

Adrian knew immediately that someone had just closed the trans-lane, just as his ships were approaching. He moved quickly to his command chair and keyed the comms to his escorts.

“Go to full battle stations immediately,” Adrian said over the comms just as his holo detected a hyperspace communications jamming field slide into space.

“We lost our FTL comms, Lord Sentinel.”

Adrian nodded. The last time that the Empire had encountered jamming technology had been in their war with the Sowir, and to this day they hadn’t found a way to counter it other than leaving the range of the field or destroying its source.

“Go active on all sensors,” Adrian said, and a tachyon burst left all three ships.

Adrian turned to Va Dan Reisi, who was looking at him nervously. Adrian doubted that this was an ambush by the Shara Daim; the Va Dan wouldn’t have accepted for his ship to be carried inside the Veritas if that were the case. “Do you have any idea on who this might be?” Adrian asked.

“No, Lord Sentinel. But I am certain that it is not any Shara Daim,” Reisi said.

Adrian turned back at the holo, waiting for the ambushers to show themselves. A few moments later, sensors picked up ships coming out of the shadow of the moon, and instantly the computers recognized their signatures.

Twenty Erasi warships moved to intercept Adrian’s force, ten destroyers, eight heavy cruisers, and two battleships.

“Erasi,” Reisi cursed.

“Hail those ships,” Adrian said.

“They accepted, Lord Sentinel.”

Adrian straightened. “Erasi vessels, I am Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas of the Empire. State your intent, or I will consider your actions hostile and respond in kind.”

A few seconds later a hologram of a Gatray appeared in front of Adrian. “I’m afraid that you will not like our intent, Lord Sentinel.”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed at him as he recognized the voice. “Hanaru,” Adrian said, and the Gatray dipped his head.

“The Erasi cannot allow any kind of agreements between the Empire and the Shara Daim.”

“This attack will mean war between the Erasi and the Empire,” Adrian said calmly.

“No one will learn of how your ships got destroyed, and sometime later, information indicating the Shara Daim will come to light.”

“And you think that you can manipulate us like that?” Adrian asked.

“You have some impressive technologies, that is true, which is why we can’t allow you and Shara Daim to make peace. I would’ve wished to interrogate you, learn of what actually happened between you and Dai Sha Anessa. But you can’t be allowed to interfere with Erasi plans,” Hanaru said.

“We are not dead yet, and you should’ve learned a lesson from what happened in Sol with the Legions,” Adrian said, and closed the link.

The Erasi had more ships, but they didn’t know the capabilities of either the Empire’s battleships or his Sentinel ship. And the Sentinel class was bigger than a dreadnought, though it had less firepower, about the same as a battleship. It was designed with long-term operations away from the Empire in mind. Neither the Erasi nor the Shara Daim had seen the Empire’s true warships in action, which meant that his ships had a slight advantage.

Adrian looked at Va Dan Reisi. “You better get to your ship, Va Dan. If we can’t defeat them, we will cover your ship as you leave.”

Va Dan Reisi looked at him in surprise. “You would sacrifice yourselves to help us escape?”

“Well, I will be sending you records of this ambush; if we don’t make it, I want you to let my people know what really happened.”

The Va Dan looked at Adrian with a strange expression, then he inclined his head. “As you say, Lord Sentinel.” Then he left the command center.

Just as he left, the holo started flashing with missile launches. Adrian’s face settled into a cold expression as his body and mind fully settled into his ‘battle persona.’ The three ships were already connected in a point defense grid, and as the missiles entered range, the lasers from the three ships opened fire, taking them down.

“Set a course towards the hyperspace barrier, shortest route,” Adrian said. He glanced at the holo and the timer for the skim drives—forty-four minutes. They had dropped out of the skim eight minutes before; now they needed to survive for forty-four minutes until they could use the drives again and get away from the Erasi force.

The shortest route to the hyperspace barrier was below the sun’s plane on a course directly beneath his ships’ current position. He didn’t really need to get there; in fact, it would take too long. He only needed to make the Erasi think that he was rushing towards the hyperspace barrier. What he needed was to buy time for the skim drives to recharge.

The Erasi were in a concave wall formation, with the two battleships in the middle of the formation and the destroyers and cruisers surrounding them. All were firing missiles at Adrian’s ships.

“Order all ships to lock on missiles at the destroyers and cruisers,” Adrian ordered. He debated using the Watchtower, but it had been designed for large fleet battles; there wasn’t really much that he would gain by using it now. So he brought up the command-board interface instead.

“All ships have a lock, Lord Sentinel.”

“Start firing,” Adrian said, and almost instantly the three ships started firing missiles. Soon they had almost matched the number that the enemy’s larger force was putting out. The battleships were designed for that, for holding points in space and blasting anything that came near them.

The Erasi were gaining on them, their gravity drives apparently more powerful than his ships’ hybrid drives. They had already entered the outer range of his proton beams, but they hadn’t yet opened fire with them; either they were waiting for some reason, or theirs couldn’t reach as far.

A few missiles went past the point-defense and hit the battleship Inglorious’s shields. The shields flared, and Adrian checked the holo for information. The seven missiles striking in quick succession only dropped the shields of the Inglorious by six percent.

Adrian debated for a moment waiting and keeping the full capabilities of Empire’s ships a secret, but then decided against it; there was no point now. They might not survive otherwise. Adrian used the c-board to monitor the battle and make adjustments to his orders. Iris was busy using the Veritas to guide the missiles, increasing their effectiveness, and soon the Empire’s missiles started passing through the enemy defensive fire, impacting their cruisers and destroyers. Adrian highlighted the ships that were hit by his missiles.

“All ships lock proton beams on these cruisers and destroyers and open fire.”

***

Erasi battleship Highborn

Hanaru watched as the area between the two forces was filled with exploding missiles. The enemy’s ships had a surprisingly high rate of fire, high enough that they were putting up almost the same number of missiles as his taskforce was. But he knew that they couldn’t keep that up forever. Still, a couple of their missiles passed through to impact on the shields of his cruisers and destroyers. Their missiles were powerful, and the shields of the cruisers and destroyers too weak, dropping dangerously low from those few impacts.

Then dark blue beams of energy lashed out from the Empire’s ships, striking the ships that had low shields, blowing right through them and mauling Hanaru’s ships.

“What is that?” Hanaru asked with his mind.

“An energy weapon, Weaver. The computers have a ninety percent match on the weapon; it is similar to the Shara Daim main energy weapon, but theirs have never demonstrated this kind of range,” Hanaru’s subordinate answered.

“How long before we are in range of our main weapons?” Hanaru asked.

“One minute, Weaver.”

Hanaru settled in to watch as the Empire’s beams mauled his cruisers and destroyers. He couldn’t do anything about it, not now. In a span of the minute, he had lost one of his destroyers and one heavy cruiser. But then his ships entered the range of their own energy weapons, and Hanaru ordered all ships to open fire.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Veritas

Fire from seven different enemy ships struck the Veritas’s shields.

“Shields down to ninety-six percent and dropping.”

Adrian had feared that happening. His ships were formidable, but they were still only three ships against almost seven times that number. The Erasi would overwhelm his ships’ shields, it was only a matter of time. He glanced at the timer—another thirty-six minutes left. He looked at the shields of his battleships and saw them dropping faster than those of Veritas; already the Fortunate’s shields were at sixty-seven percent.

They weren’t going to make it, not all of them. Time slowed down for Adrian as he considered all the possibilities. He went through hundreds in a span of second, until he finally found one that could work. He opened a channel to the commanders of the two battleships.

Their holograms appeared in front of him.

“We are not going to make it, not all of us, and not while we are running away and can’t fire all of our weapons,” Adrian said matter-of-factly.

The two Ship Masters had grim looks, but Adrian saw understanding in their eyes. They were ship commanders for a reason, and they too knew that Adrian’s options were limited.

“What do you want us to do?” the Ship Master of the Fortunate asked, her eyes resolute.

“I need both of you to put all of your non-essential personnel on skim-capable shuttles and skim them away from battle to these coordinates,” Adrian said. It wouldn’t be enough people. He knew only a couple hundred people combined from both ships could fit, even if they were crammed in the shuttles. The battleships had crews of one thousand two hundred each.

“I understand,” the Fortunate’s Ship Master said.

“Veritas will drop back and cover the shuttles’ escape. After that, your two ships will turn around and hold the Erasi long enough for Veritas’s skim drives to recharge, and we will pick up the shuttles afterwards. If you have a chance to use your drives as well, you will follow. If not…” Adrian let his words trail off. He could see that both understood. Protecting Veritas wasn’t only about keeping Adrian and the Shara Daim courier alive. Veritas had the most room and could accommodate people from the other two ships, while it also had a crew of three thousand.

“It has been an honor, Lord Sentinel,” the Ship Master of the Inglorious said, and closed the connection. The Ship Master from the Fortunate followed right behind.

Adrian kept his cold face on. It wasn’t the first time he had sent people to their deaths. He knew that it was necessary, the only way to save as many as possible. He didn’t feel guilt over it; the people on those ships had known what they were signing up for. What he felt was sadness that they would die before their times, and anger at the Erasi for making him give those orders.

“Pull Veritas back and cover the shuttles’ escape.”

***

Sentinel ship Veritas slowed down just enough for his two escorts to move in front of it, and almost immediately it became the target of the Erasi ships. Veritas returned fire with its proton beams and missiles. Their missiles supply had already dropped below half of what they carried.

Adrian watched as another of the enemy’s destroyers exploded as his ships’ proton beams got through the shields and hulls. But all his ships were limited in how many weapons they could actually bring to bear; they were firing behind them, and only a third of Veritas’s and the battleships weapons could be fired on the enemy. And the distance was an issue as well; they couldn’t use their kinetic weapons or their plasma guns. They had ion torpedoes, but without a distraction—and when there wasn’t an overwhelmingly large number of missiles in space—they would stick out, and probably be picked off much sooner. Their ships’ ion turrets were mid-range, but even if they weren’t, none of the ships could fire those behind them.

Adrian started to see the benefits of the Erasi ships’ design; the saucer shape gave them the ability to fire in almost every direction. However, the Empire’s ships couldn’t yet build such powerful gravity drives as to justify getting rid of their conventional drives.

On the holo, Adrian saw the twelve large shuttles exit the two battleships and almost instantly skim away. The battleships immediately started pulling back, following the plan.

“Put more power in the drives, get us ahead,” Adrian said as he glanced at the timer. There were twenty-two minutes left until their skim drives were back online.

***

Erasi battleship Highborn

Hanaru felt the air leave his lungs as he watched the Empire’s small shuttles escape. He hadn’t considered that their smaller craft had the ability, and them escaping spelled the failure of his plan. He couldn’t catch those ships; they would contact the Empire and the Shara Daim and let them know what had happened. He knew that he should retreat, but he couldn’t. His mind supplied small hopes that he could still salvage the situation. He doubted that their shuttles were equipped for long-term travel; they probably didn’t have trans capabilities, perhaps not even hyperspace. Their FTL tech had to occupy significant space, and they weren’t that much larger than Erasi shuttles. Perhaps they had only put the new drives in to allow them greater mobility within a system?

If he destroyed the enemy ships, he had a hope of catching them, perhaps even intact, and getting their technology. Hanaru grabbed on to that hope, just as he saw the two Empire battleships turn around and stop, waiting for his taskforce.

As they had turned, their rate of fire also increased as more of their weapons got into range. Energy beams bombarded his ships, killing another two destroyers and one cruiser.

***

The battleships Inglorious and Fortunate rained fire on the incoming Erasi ships, destroying another destroyer and a cruiser, while they left the two battleships virtually untouched, focusing on destroying the advantage in numbers that the Erasi had.

The Erasi were adjusting their formation, so that they would surround the two battleships from both sides, but it was too late; they had closed the distance enough that the Empire’s ships could use their other weapons.

Suddenly the space between the two fleets was filled with bright yellow plasma balls as the two battleships fired at the remaining Erasi destroyers. The three destroyers that had already suffered damage suddenly had dozens of plasma balls from each ship striking their shields, punching through and then burning through their hull. Within moments of the attack, one of the destroyers blew up.

The Erasi focused their fire on the Fortunate, whose shields were close to failing, pouring all of their missiles, energy beams, and their own versions of the plasma weapons into the assault. The ships’ shields failed and the enemy started scorching the Fortunate’s hull. But the Empire’s ships were made out of heavy ri-steel alloys; they were much denser than the Erasi materials and could take more punishment. Therefore, even though the Fortunate was being hammered, it still kept pouring fire into the six cruisers, while the Inglorious shifted its fire to the two untouched Erasi battleships. Six kinetic ri-steel slabs of metal exploded out of the Fortunate’s turrets, smashing through two of the cruisers’ shields and punching right through the hull with such force that they snapped one ship into pieces. And then the barely alive Fortunate joined the Inglorious in firing on the two Erasi battleships, leaving the last few cruisers and destroyers alone.

***

Hanaru watched another each of his cruisers and destroyers explode. He couldn’t believe it; the Empire’s ships had proven far more formidable than what the Erasi had thought possible. He was left with five destroyers and four cruisers; he had lost almost half of his force against a force much smaller than his. His battleships were being hit with powerful energy, plasma, and even primitive kinetic weapons that were far more powerful than anything he had ever seen. The enemy no longer had missiles, but it didn’t seem to matter. Hanaru ordered his ships to focus fire on the Empire battleship that had lost its shields, while keeping their distance enough that they could evade the enemy’s kinetic weapons.

He knew that he had failed. Even if he got past these two battleships, the other ship was too far away now for him to catch.

He watched the enemy battleship being pummeled into scrap, with areas being opened to space while it still refused to die. Then, finally, several missiles and energy beams punched deep enough that the ship bulged and exploded in a blinding flash of light.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Veritas

Adrian watched as the Fortunate blew up, while the Inglorious still fired at the enemy battleships, with its shields almost failing. He glanced at the timer, seeing six more minutes. If the Inglorious survived for six more minutes and its drives were still operation, it would be able to get away.

Adrian watched on the holo as the minutes ticked away. The Inglorious was fighting, firing all of its weapons and even managing to take down one of the battleships’ shields, scoring a couple of hits on its hull.

The timer entered the last minute, just as Inglorious’s shields failed. The Inglorious’s Ship Master started firing kinetic weapons at the battleships, forcing them to move to evade and buying him time. The timer hit zero, and Adrian held his breath as he watched the holo. Then he saw the Inglorious enter the skim, and he heard a cheer from his crew.

The Inglorious was leaking atmosphere when it entered the skim, and it didn’t have time to orient and point itself towards Adrian; instead, they went in the opposite direction. But that didn’t matter; they would exit the skim beyond the hyper-barrier, and from there could escape the system.

Adrian watched the Erasi forces. They had remained in space, and Adrian knew that the Inglorious entering the skim would have messed with their electronics. That was why Empire’s ships always engaged the skim away from stations and ships that weren’t entering it, as creating a skim field protected the ship inside.

Adrian kept Veritas on the same course for a few minutes, scanning actively for the Inglorious to drop out of the skim. Then, a minute later, they appeared on his holo and he opened a channel. They were outside the jamming field now.

He was greeted with the hologram of the Ship Master with a sad expression on his face.

“You made it,” Adrian said.

“We did.”

“Set a course for Sol through hyperspace. It will take you longer, but it will eliminate a chance that you will be ambushed along the way. Send a report for the Emperor informing him of these events, and give a copy to Master Gotu at Olympus Mons.” There were no relays between the Shara Daim and the Empire’s territory, so it was actually faster for them to go to Sol than to try and send a message from here.

“Yes, Lord Sentinel. We will need to do some emergency repairs, but we will manage it before the Erasi arrive, if they choose to pursue us.”

“Good luck,” Adrian said, and closed the channel. He then ordered the Veritas to the rendezvous point with the shuttles.

***

Several hours later, after they had picked up the shuttles and settled the people on board, Adrian sat with Va Dan Reisi in his office. The Veritas had entered hyperspace, and on Reisi’s advice had taken a slight detour to Shara Radum.

“The Erasi really don’t want us talking,” Adrian commented.

“It seems not,” Reisi said.

“Tell me, how is it that this Kar Daim of yours managed to get your people to reach out to us? I believe that that goes against everything you believe in.”

Reisi looked uncomfortable. “Most of us don’t know what to believe in anymore. The Kar Daim showed proof of our history, of what the Elders were in truth. We…our beliefs are compromised, based on lies. But we still believe in strength. And we follow strength.”

“And the Kar Daim is strong?” Adrian asked. “Was the Kar Daim chosen from among you?”

“No, the Kar Daim killed the Elders and took the rule of Shara Daim by the right of blood and death,” Reisi said, and Adrian detected a touch of fear in his voice, the same fear he had heard in Sol. And he understood, this Kar Daim had somehow taken the rule by force, and was formidable enough to terrify the Shara Daim, who were all warriors. People that looked down on all others with no fear.

And he was going to meet and negotiate with this person.

“This might not end well,” Adrian said through his implant.

“You are just now figuring this out?” Iris said.

“I guess that willingness to talk is a big deal, but this Kar Daim might be even worse than their Elders.”

“Well, you can’t change your mind now, so why bother worrying?” Iris said.

“You’re right,” Adrian said. He just hoped that he and the Kar Daim could agree to some kind of deal that didn’t involve ‘blood and death.’

Chapter Thirty-Five

One month later — July; Year 57 of the Empire — Shara Radum

The Veritas moved through the Shara Radum system slowly, following the path given to them by the Shara Daim. The system was a large one—fourteen planets and more than two dozen moons, with two distinct asteroid belts. The space was filled with satellites and stations. Ships moved all over in an organized fashion. Every planet and many of the moons had colonies, or at least some kind of facilities built on them. The asteroid belts were filled with movements, and large stations stood close by as ships from the belts moved back and forth.

And large armed stations stood in seemingly random spaces around the system, but Adrian knew that those were trans-entry points into the system. Defensive platforms stood in orbits of nearly all the planets, and some even close to the stations guarding the trans-points. Thousands of warships patrolled the system; all were of an unfamiliar make, but seemed equivalent to the Shara Daim heavy cruisers. Adrian knew that those were the Shara Daim system guard; they served almost the same function that the Clan guards served in the Empire, policing and protecting the system.

But in high orbit of Shara Radum were the real warships, ten Legions that orbited the planet. Twenty thousand warships, almost double than what the Empire had in total, and it was barely one fifth of their true numbers. And yet the Erasi feared an alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire. It was laughable. If the Erasi only knew the true numbers of the Empire, they wouldn’t have been so worried. But then again, the Empire did have a slight technological edge in military technologies. Just giving the skim drives to the Shara Daim could be enough for the Erasi to lose.

Adrian watched as Veritas slowly settled in the orbit of Shara Radum, and then he and a group of five warpath Sentinels he had brought back from Sanctuary all trained in use of the Sha, wearing their Sentinel armors, joined the Va Dan Reisi on his courier ship for it to transport them to the ground. He debated taking Akash and Sora, but he decided against it, he didn’t know anything about what was going to happen, and he didn’t want to antagonize anyone.

Once the ship landed they were guided to a large domed building, once inside they first used something like a cart to move faster through the building, until they reached a set of large ornate doors.

“The Hall of Ages,” Reisi said as they walked up to the doors. “No one outside of the Shara Daim had ever walked through it, and even for Shara Daim it is a great honor, one that few have been given.”

Adrian kept silent. His followers were asked to leave their weapons, and they did, as Adrian had warned them beforehand that that might happen. Then they entered the Hall of Ages. Instantly, Adrian was struck with the sense of history and awe. There were paintings and murals over all the walls. Tall pillars rose to the domed ceiling, each with gem-embroidered cloths that stretched around them. Some of the images showed things that were clearly events in the history of the Shara Daim, but Adrian didn’t have the opportunity to take a closer look.

They finally reached the end of the hall and another large door that somehow seemed even more ornate than the one they had used to enter the hall. Two Shara Daim dressed in some antique-looking clothes, and whose obsidian skin was tattooed with white markings, opened the doors as Reisi and Adrian approached.

They were allowed into a well-lit room already filled with people. Reisi asked Adrian’s escorts to stay at the entrance of the room, and the two of them descended the stairs. It was then that he noticed the large throne-like chair at the end of the room and the person sitting in it.

He almost missed a step when he recognized Anessa. She watched him as he walked down the steps with no expression on her face. She was wearing a Shur At, only this one was white, and somehow molded to fit tightly against her body so as to appear as if it was wrapped around her, showing all her attributes. The clothing widened a bit after her forearms, making something that looked like a loose sleeve. Dark blue strips of cloth seemed to be attached at her hips and fell loosely to about mid-calf length.

As they walked down, Adrian could hear murmurs from the crowd, but it was too low for him to discern what they were talking about.

“I didn’t see this one coming,” Iris commented.

“Neither did I,” Adrian responded.

Reisi and Adrian reached the bottom of the steps and walked to the center of the platform where a podium stood. Reisi had received instructions from the Kar Daim—Anessa—on how Adrian was supposed to greet her. So once they reached the center, Reisi dropped to his knees, and Adrian made a half bow while keeping his eyes fixed on Anessa’s.

“I greet you, Kar Daim. I have done as you have asked and brought an envoy from the Empire. Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas,” Reisi said as he gestured in Adrian’s direction from his knees.

“I greet you, Kar Daim,” Adrian said.

A shocked silence followed, then several angry shouts that were silenced by Anessa starting to speak. “Thank you, Va Dan Reisi, you have done well,” she said, and dismissed him with a somehow regal gesture of one hand. She then turned and looked at Adrian. “Welcome to Shara Radum, Lord Sentinel,” she said in her melodic voice.

Adrian was about to respond when a voice rang out. “This is what you summoned us here for?” A large man stepped forward from behind Adrian. He had dark red hair cropped short, as most of the Shara Daim that he had seen, wearing his Shur At molded in the same configuration that Anessa had worn when he had first met her.

“First you try to change our customs, and now you invite an alien to Shara Radum, to the Hall of Ages! You let this filth infect our sacred place and insult you by greeting you as an equal!” the man shouted.

“I do as I please, Dai Sha Farran. I am the Kar Daim. Or do you wish to challenge me?” Anessa said calmly, tilting her head in an inquisitive gesture that Adrian knew she had gotten from him.

The Dai Sha’s expression darkened at that, and he didn’t speak for a few moments. But then he glanced at Adrian and back to Anessa.

“You allow this alien here, and not just any alien. I have heard whispers that this Lord Sentinel is the one that fought against yours, the Fourteenth, and the Third Legions. That he is responsible of the death of Dai Sha Narrasak.”

“Uh-oh, this isn’t good,” Iris said, but Adrian remained silent, keeping his eyes on Anessa. Her mannerism looked strange to him. He was missing something.

“You are correct. The Lord Sentinel defeated my Legions, and killed Dai Sha Narrasak,” Anessa said.

“And still you invite him in this hall!” Farran shouted. The people around him had various expressions. Half were terrified, and their fearful eyes went from Anessa to Farran as if they were expecting Anessa to rip Farran to pieces. And the other half appeared uncomfortable, and as if they wanted to be anywhere but here.

“The Lord Sentinel is our guest here. I have extended to him all the same rights as any of my citizens. It is my prerogative as the Kar Daim to do so, unless you want to sit here and make decisions yourself. But you know that there is only one way for you to gain this throne.” She quirked an eyebrow in another expression that she had gotten from him.

Things suddenly clicked in place. She was playing, goading the Dai Sha into something. However, by the time Adrian figured out what it was, it was already too late.

“Of course, Kar Daim,” Dai Sha said venomously. “But, if this alien has all the same rights as our people, then I challenge him!” Farran pointed at Adrian. “By my right as Dai Sha, I challenge him to a fight to the death, as trial for the death of Dai Sha Narrasak of the Third Legion!”

The moment Dai Sha Farran finished speaking, Adrian saw Anessa’s lip curl in a victorious smile that disappeared almost instantly. She turned to look at Adrian with an expectant look on her face.

“Do you accept, Lord Sentinel?” Anessa asked.

“Well, fuck,” Adrian said in his head.

“She set you up,” Iris said angrily.

Adrian looked at her for a moment. He understood that she had somehow orchestrated this. She wanted him to fight the Dai Sha. He debated his answer for only a moment. He could refuse, and perhaps manage to leave with his life, but that would be cowardly, and the image of the Empire in the eyes of the Shara Daim would be damaged beyond repair. There was really only one choice. He used his imp to tell his people not interfere. Then, he took a deep breath and answered.

“I accept, Kar Daim,” Adrian said.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“I accept, Kar Daim.”

Anessa looked at Adrian, satisfied that he had done exactly what she’d needed him to do. Farran had been one of the more vocal parts of the opposition against her, questioning every change she had done to their laws and customs. No one was really doing anything, but she couldn’t allow them to get any ideas. She could’ve killed him herself, but that would’ve only made his voice stronger, making others that thought like him more eager. She needed a way to silence him and any opposition that spoke against Anessa’s plans to increase interactions with other races. And he had played right into her plans; the moment he had issued the challenge, he was dead.

She had learned a lot from Adrian from the way he had manipulated information about his system, and goaded the Shara Daim into attacking when they thought his system defenses were weak. It hadn’t taken much to manipulate Farran, and that disappointed her a bit. It had only taken a few choice words in his presence, a leak of the knowledge that Adrian—the person that was responsible for Narrasak’s death—was also the envoy from the Empire, and an instruction for Adrian to give her a bow of an equal. And Farran had acted exactly how she had expected him to act: he had loudly protested, and she had only had to remind him of the challenge, say that Adrian had the same rights as a Shara Daim, and he had jumped.

Moreover, Adrian was a perfect tool for removing Farran. He was an alien, yet she knew that he was strong enough to silence all those who still believed that every other race was inferior and weak. She needed him to kill Farran right here in front of all, so that the rest of the Shara Daim could hear of it from people other than her supporters.

And she had no doubt that he would win. She knew him. Farran was not as strong as Anessa, but he was still a Dai Sha, a powerful one. But Adrian had experience fighting a Dai Sha, and he would see through Farran’s weakness.

“Very well. You will fight without any weapons or armor, unarmed and with the Sha. Lord Sentinel, remove your over-garments,” she said, and Adrian removed them, leaving him only in his skin-suit, which Anessa knew was nothing like the Shur At and couldn’t make itself hard for protection. Farran had removed parts of his Shur At, leaving his chest and legs bare, and only his groin covered.

“The fight is to the death. Don’t spare your opponent,” Anessa said, mostly for Adrian’s benefit, as her honor guard moved them to opposite sides of the podium, and had the people around make a half circle around them.

Adrian stood and watched his opponent, seemingly hesitant, his posture unsure. Anessa knew that it was a farce. Adrian didn’t outwardly show anything that he didn’t want to show. She grinned as she looked at him. Excitement bubbled up inside of her, as she knew she would see something incredible. Adrian might not have been her equal in raw power, but he was amazing and terrifying in his own way. She remembered the dream she had had about him, and her blood heated up. She leaned forward intently.

A few of the people closest to her noticed her expression, and she saw their confusion. She didn’t care; she kept her predatory grin still focused on Adrian. The honor guard spoke out that both Adrian and Farran were ready. Anessa gave one pitying look to Farran, then spoke in a clear, loud voice.

“Begin.”

***

The Shara Daim with strange white markings escorted Adrian to the edge of the podium, which was some ten meters across. He turned and looked at his opponent. The Dai Sha was of course taller than him; not as tall as Anessa, but it didn’t really mater. With Adrian’s new upgrades, he knew that he was close to Anessa’s strength, and even if he wasn’t, he knew that he could keep up in a physical fight. The problem was that this wasn’t going to be a physical fight. His opponent would use Sha.

Adrian glanced at Anessa. She was looking at him with an intensity that made his blood heat up, but he forced himself to look back at his opponent.

“You are allowed to use only your natural abilities, including the Sha. You do have the Sha, don’t you?” the guard asked.

“Yes, I have the Sha,” Adrian responded. The guard gave him a dismissive look, one he had seen before on Anessa when he had met her on Tarabat. Now her eyes told him that she was confident that he would win. He didn’t know why she had orchestrated this battle, why she needed that man dead; he was still trying to grasp the fact that she now ruled all of the Shara Daim.

He analyzed his opponent. There was no fear in his eyes, but that wasn’t a surprise. Adrian made his movements unsure, hesitant, creating a persona that was afraid of the coming battle as he tried to come up with a strategy.

He could see that this Dai Sha was like how Anessa had been when he had first encountered her. Arrogant, believing in his own superiority, he was looking down on Adrian. And Adrian could use that. He was probably the better fighter, but his opponent was definitely stronger with the Sha. The Dai Sha was also afraid of Anessa, he didn’t want to challenge her to a battle; that meant that he was weaker than her. But Adrian didn’t know by how much. He couldn’t risk getting drawn into a full Sha battle. During his upgrades on Sanctuary, Adrian had spent a long time inside his mind-space devising tricks and moves that would be useful against a Sha user stronger than himself. He knew that he needed to end the battle fast, in the opening few seconds.

“Are you ready?” the guard asked.

“Yes,” Adrian responded as he decided on what to do.

The guard spoke something, but Adrian barely heard him. The people around the podium disappeared as his mind stopped processing their images; color left his vision and his opponent sharpened. Adrian took a deep breath, feeling the oxygen pumping through his veins, adrenaline surging.

“Begin!” Adrian heard in the distance, and his stance changed. He bent his knees as his opponent looked at him furiously and walked towards him. The Dai Sha still hadn’t drawn on the Sha, and that arrogance was his first and last mistake.

Adrian’s mind knew and had complete control of his body. The limits on his muscles faded away as his legs extended and he jumped forward so fast that he could barely be tracked by the eye, drawing on the Sha mid-flight. In a moment, he was in front of the Dai Sha, who was surprised by Adrian’s sudden movement and started to draw the Sha, building up to an attack. Adrian’s arm moved in an arc in front of him, hot orange plasma spewing forth in a stream in front of him, as he didn’t contain it in a ball.

The Dai Sha realized what was happening, and a Sha ability Adrian was unfamiliar with blew most of the stream back, but a few ‘drops’ passed through and stuck across his chest, making him shout out in pain and anger. He fired of a kinetic attack at Adrian in front of him, but Adrian was long gone.

Adrian swiped the Dai Sha’s legs from the side, dropping the larger man to the floor with a loud thump. Adrian jumped at him, drawing on the Sha as his hand moved towards the Dai Sha’s heart. Adrian felt and saw the Dai Sha’s fear and horror, his arms moving to block sluggishly compared to Adrian’s speed. The Dai Sha tried to draw on the Sha, and a shimmering started appearing in front of him, but Adrian threw open his mind and smashed through his opponent’s defenses easily. The Dai Sha’s mind talents were no match for those of a Sowir, and Adrian had learned from the strongest Sowir in memory.

The field disappeared as Adrian wrecked his opponent’s mind with a powerful mental attack, and his arm stopped just above his opponent’s chest. An orange stream instantly exploded from his palm, burning the Dai Sha’s skin and liquidizing his insides. There were no screams from his opponent; he was too lost in his own mind to realize that he was dead.

Adrian stood and watched the blood leaking out of the Dai Sha’s eyes, nose, and mouth. The fist-sized hole in his chest was smoking, a red mist rising from it and the edges of the wound cauterized by the heat of the plasma.

He turned his eyes to the people around him. All watched him in disbelief. The room was completely silent. Adrian turned around and looked at Anessa. She had a pleased expression on her face, an expression that told him that she had known all along that he would prevail. A part of him rejoiced at the fact that she trusted in his abilities so much. But another part of him, the colder one, knew that he had also been used to remove someone that was in her way. And used to remove him in a very ruthless way. And Adrian was bothered to realize that that ruthlessness only made him want her more.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Anessa looked over the dead body of Dai Sha Farran in satisfaction; Adrian had done it even better than she could’ve hoped. It had ended in barely a couple of seconds, and Adrian had dominated every aspect of the fight. Farran had been outmatched from the beginning, ever since the moment he hadn’t taken his opponent seriously. If he had drawn on the Sha at the start, he might’ve been able to do something, but giving Adrian that small advantage was fatal.

She knew that Adrian didn’t have as much power as the Dai Shas did, but it didn’t matter here; he hadn’t allowed his opponent the time to bring his power against him. And the way he had moved, it was incredible; she knew that none of the people assembled here had ever seen anything like it. And then there was that mind Sha. She didn’t know what it was, or how it was even possible, but she was sure that every person in the room had felt its power. Farran had probably been dead before plasma even entered his body, his mind torn to pieces.

She shuddered at the thought of having to fighting Adrian again. During their first encounter on Tarabat, she had tried to attack his mind, and had felt an incredibly powerful defense push her out. She had suspected since then that while he might lack in the power of other Sha abilities, his mind powers were far stronger. And now she knew for sure. His attack had blown through a Dai Sha’s defense like it was nothing.

Anessa glanced at the people assembled; most were looking in disbelief at both Adrian and the lifeless body of Farran. Only Vallar Havasse was looking at Anessa, something very akin to surprise and respect in her eyes.

Anessa stood, drawing the attention of all in the room.

“Lord Sentinel Adrian, you are the victor of the challenge made against you for your part in the death of Dai Sha Narrasak of the Third Legion. As your right by blood and death, your part in his death is to no longer be held against you by any in the Shara Daim,” she said loudly.

Adrian’s eyes narrowed and he bowed in the exact same half bow he had last time, keeping his eyes on her. Anessa walked down her platform and onto the dais. She glanced at the honor guards, who were now looking at Adrian like he had suddenly become someone else, someone far more dangerous. They stepped closer to him and Anessa as she approached.

“I wish to speak with you in private, Lord Sentinel,” she said in a commanding voice, then she turned to her guard. “Clean this up. And as for the rest of you,” she said, looking over the crowd of the Shara Daim top officials, “you are dismissed. I shall call another gathering at a later date,” she said, and then motioned for Adrian to follow her. She waited until he looked at his people and gestured for them to stay behind.

She turned, and he followed just a few steps behind her as she led him out of the ‘throne’ room. She walked from the hall to the palace proper, her guards following behind. They walked a long time until they reached her private quarters. She stopped at the doors and turned to her guards.

“Stay here, I wish to speak with our guest privately. Don’t let anyone interrupt us,” Anessa said.

The leader of her guard looked at her and then at Adrian. “Kar Daim, we shouldn’t leave you alone with…an alien.”

“Lord Sentinel is no threat to me,” Anessa said, and entered the quarters with Adrian following.

Shara Daim rooms were different from the Empire’s ones, at least the ones she had seen. In the Empire, the quarters were usually separated fully, creating different rooms. Among the Shara Daim, the quarters were open, with no full walls. In the center of the room was a long table with chairs. To the one side were seating furniture for relaxing and a holo-table. At the far side was her sleeping bed, which was much larger than the beds in the Empire. And to the other side of the room was a small half wall that sectioned off her cleaning area. But there were no full walls that would separate the quarters into rooms. She debated leading Adrian to the table in the middle, but the chairs and the table were larger than what he was used to, and it might be a bit awkward to sit and talk like that, so she led him to the side and the relaxing area. She sat on one wide, backless sofa and had him sit on the other.

She knew that her guards would speak of her meeting with him in her quarters in private, but these were the only rooms where she knew no one would be eavesdropping. Anessa wasn’t a fool; Vallar Havasse might have supported Anessa, but there was a reason why she was feared as she was, and knowledge was power. Anessa didn’t begrudge her spying, but she needed to talk with Adrian without others listening in, at least at first. He would ask her about Farran, and she didn’t want others to realize that it was she that had goaded him into doing that.

Anessa and Adrian looked at each other for a few minutes in silence, studying each other. Then Adrian spoke.

“So, Kar Daim, what do you wish for from the Empire?”

***

Adrian waited in silence for her to answer him.

“What you have always wanted: peace,” she said finally.

“Peace…didn’t you once tell me that Shara Daim don’t consider other races worthy of consideration? How is any peace we make going to last?” Adrian asked. “Your people don’t seem to be all that excited about me even being here. And already I had to fight and kill one of your people; how is that any good foundation to make peace?”

Anessa’s expression darkened. “I want to change my people. Already my people know the truth about our ancestors. And I have started the changes concerning their views of other races, to do that I need to make them interact with other races. Yours is the one they will have the most ease accepting.”

“And your views have changed?” Adrian asked.

Anessa hesitated. “They have. My time with you taught me a lot. It just took me some time to accept it.”

“And why did you push me into killing a man?”

“Farran didn’t want for things to change; he was an obstacle. I could have removed him myself, but having you do it will show the others who think like he did that you aren’t weak. It will make them question their superiority and temper their arrogance,” Anessa said calmly.

“Reisi said that the Kar Daim killed the Elders and took power. That was not what I intended when I let you talk with Axull Darr,” Adrian said.

“And what did you think would happen?” Anessa asked angrily, her eyes hard.

“I didn’t know what your Elders knew, how much was a product of corrupted history and how much their own fault. I only wanted you to know the truth,” he said softly. He hadn’t thought that Anessa would take it upon herself to seize the rule of the Shara Daim, that was for sure.

Anessa stood and glared down on him. “The talk with Axull Darr revealed many things, and we figured out who the Elders truly were. They deserved death and more.” She took a step closer to him, making him bend his neck upwards to keep eye contact. “They lied about everything; they twisted who we were supposed to be. I couldn’t stand by and let anyone else rule us. I couldn’t risk them being the same as the Elders. I was the only one I could trust with that power,” she said.

“I don’t know if you should’ve done that, Anessa,” Adrian said. It came out as an accusation, but he didn’t really mean it like that. He himself didn’t know what she was supposed to do. He wanted to take the words back, and explain better, but it was too late.

“What?” Anessa asked loudly. She reached down and grabbed him by his suit at the shoulders and effortlessly lifted him up from the sofa and the floor, bringing him up so that they were at eye level. “You judge me?” she said incredulously. “This was all your fault! I am here because of you. It was your voice that wormed its way inside my mind, whispering things that made me question everything that I am.” She took two steps and slammed him against the wall.

“It was your manipulations that broke the basis of my beliefs, your ‘truths’ that accused my Elders. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have been forced to do any of this! I was supposed to be a servant of the Elders, the greatest Dai Sha in history, and one day I was supposed to become an Elder myself, guiding my people with the wisdom of all the years I have lived. Now half of my people are terrified of me. I made them terrified because they can’t accept what must happen any other way.” Her hands on his shoulders tightened. “My people are dying, and I couldn’t let them be guided by the weak. I killed those that I had worshiped for centuries, because to turn a blind eye would’ve meant failing the oath I gave to protect the Shara Daim. I chose the oath to my people over that to my leaders! Without you, I would have still been a Dai Sha!”

Adrian kept himself from reacting as he hung in the air, held by her arms. He looked into her angry face, seeing that she was lost, struggling with the fact that nothing she had believed in was true. “But would you really have rather lived in ignorance?” Adrian asked softly.

Anessa glared at him, and her anger slowly dissipated, the tension in her arms leaving her. He never for a second thought that she would have harmed him.

“No,” she whispered.

Adrian brought his arms up and rested his palms on the sides of her face. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them and looked directly into his.

“I’m sorry for what I said,” Adrian said, “I didn’t mean to judge you, Anessa. The Shara Daim are not like my people. I don’t know what the best action was. But I’m glad that you are trying to change your people, and I understand that your ways are not like those of my people. I believe that you are better suited to lead than your Elders.”

“I apologize as well,” Anessa said, the words sounding unfamiliar on her lips. “I know that you didn’t mean to judge me, I know who you are. It was my own frustration, at what I have done, my choices and my beliefs,” she said honestly.

Adrian’s eyes softened. “If you truly want to change your people, then there will be peace between the Empire and Shara Daim, that much I can promise you now.” He realized that his hands were still cupping her face, so he let his hands drop down.

“I might want more than peace,” Anessa said.

“For anything other than that, we would need to discuss much more, and when I’m not suspended in the air,” Adrian said, adding the last part in a lighter tone.

Anessa glanced down at his feet, which were not touching the ground, and then up at his face. Her eyes narrowed a bit and a side of her lip curled slightly up. “So, we are at peace now, are we?” she said softly.

“Uh, yes?” Adrian said unsurely, the change in her tone and demeanor catching him off guard.

She pulled him off the wall, still keeping him in the air as she walked around the sofas.

“Anessa?” Adrian asked as she reached the large bed at the end of the room and threw him on it.

Adrian rose to a sitting position, just as she grabbed her Shur At by the shoulder and pulled. The clothing changed and slipped off her effortlessly, leaving her in all her naked glory.

She reached down at his shoulder and tugged at his skin-suit. Almost instinctively, he sent a command through his imp and the suit loosened and turned into a two-piece. She tugged the top off and then pushed him down onto the bed. Common sense went out of the window the moment he removed his leggings and she straddled him, her hands dropping to his shoulders, keeping him in place.

A part of him knew that he shouldn’t do this, not now at least, but another part of him was eager. He had thought about her like this for a long time, and he doubted that he could stop himself, or her, for that matter. He looked over her body, tracing her curves with his eyes, and watched as one of her hands left his shoulder and moved slowly downwards over his body until she found what she was looking for, and then guided him as she lowered herself slowly onto him. Both of them sighed in satisfaction at the feeling. Anessa lowered her mouth down onto Adrian’s neck; he felt her teeth gently bite his skin. She started to move, and soon both of them found a rhythm.

There was too much need and passion for it to be anything slow and steady. Their movements were fast and urgent, both seeking release as fast as they could, and when it came, it was glorious. Adrian watched as Anessa’s back arched, and Adrian’s fingers traced the softness of her skin over her hips and thighs as she shuddered above him. Finally, she leaned back down close enough for Adrian to put his arms around her neck and pull her head down. He put his lips on hers and sought entry with gentle movements of his tongue. She didn’t react for a moment or two, but then she hesitantly opened her mouth, and followed his lead unsurely.

After he let her go, she raised her head and looked at him curiously. “What was that?” she asked.

Adrian frowned, and then it hit him that they were really two different cultures. “Uh…it’s a human way of showing affection,” he answered lamely.

“Hmm…” She licked her lips in a way that made him hot all over again. “I like it,” she said, and put her lips on his again.

Sometime later, Adrian watched Anessa’s body sprawled on the one side of the large bed, her limbs stretched across the bed grabbing as much space as possible. Her dark skin glistened with sweat in the lights from the ceiling. She was asleep, and Adrian watched the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest as she slept. The bed was far larger than any humans used, so both of them had sufficient room. They had exhausted each other. During the second time, they had realized the differences that they had ignored the first time. She was much taller than him, and that made things awkward a bit and took a bit of getting used to, but they had managed.

And there were other differences as well. They were different races, with different norms and ideas about sex, but those differences only made them more interested in each other. Although the things worked pretty much the same. Adrian wondered if the Nel and human couples in the Empire experienced something similar. They had experimented, forgetting the outside world completely.

But Adrian knew that the outside world was waiting; already they had been in this room for several hours. Too long of a time for a simple talk. The guards outside must have been getting anxious, but so must his people. Now after the excitement was past, the magnitude of what they had done truly hit him. He had slept with a ruler of a foreign empire. He knew that it wouldn’t really change the way he would approach any negotiation, but it could still pose problems for both of them.

He had enjoyed himself, and he cared about her. She was not like anyone in the Empire; the morals of Shara Daim were not the same as those of humanity or the Empire. She had manipulated him ruthlessly into eliminating someone in her path. And no matter how much she said she wanted to change, how much intellectually she understood that her people weren’t superior to others, she would still look down on the weak. She would always be arrogant to some extent, respecting only strength. There were serious differences between them, social and moral norms that were completely different. She might never understand his human morality or thinking, but she understood that other part of him, the one that made him different than anyone else in the Empire. She knew him and he knew her, on an instinctual level.

And Adrian was fine with that. He had given up ever finding someone who could understand what it was that drove him to push himself forward, what drove him to act. And she did understand. He came back from his inner mulling to find her white eyes open and focused on his.

***

Anessa woke slowly. She felt satisfied and more relaxed and rested than she had been in a long while. She moved her head and noticed the person lying on the other side of the bed watching her. Immediately, she remembered their intimacy earlier. It had been amazing, strange, and new. They were different enough for it to be intriguing and similar enough for it to be more than satisfying. But it was also more than just an experiment, more than just release.

She had feelings for him, strong feelings that she hadn’t felt in a long time, but that were also more fulfilling. Adrian understood her. He knew that she was different than him and his people. And he cared for her in the same way that she did for him. She had suspected it, but after what they had experienced together, now she was sure. There was a closeness between them that made her feel at ease. It had been present even while she was a prisoner, only both of them had kept it suppressed.

And he was not afraid of her. She remembered picking him up and pinning him against the wall; he hadn’t even tried to defend himself because he had known that she wouldn’t have harmed him. There was no envy in him towards her power, even though she was stronger both physically and with the Sha. She remembered her pinning him to the bed and being in charge. A Shara Daim man wouldn’t have been so at ease with letting her handle him like that.

She crawled over to his side of the bed and lay down an arm’s length away, keeping her head leveled with his.

After a while of studying each other, Adrian spoke.

“I should leave. Your guards must be getting anxious,” he said.

Anessa’s lips curved into a smile. She knew that they would be losing their minds by now, but their fear of her was too big for them to try to interrupt, especially since she had given them a direct order not to.

“You should,” she said, and then after a beat, “I don’t want this to be a one-time occurrence.”

Adrian opened his mouth to respond, but then he closed it and frowned. He looked in her eyes for a few seconds, and she saw him debating something with himself. Then his face cleared and he responded.

“We should first talk about the relations between our two empires. Then after that we can talk about ‘this,’” he said resolutely.

Anessa’s face cleared as well. She understood. Both of them had a duty. They would talk first, as he wanted, but afterwards they would have a much different discussion. “Yes, we should talk first.” She stood and grabbed her Shur At from the floor, putting it over her shoulders, and with a thought activated it. It started molding itself to her body.

Adrian put on his own garments and then stood, watching her. Anessa walked to him and grabbed him behind the head; she lowered her mouth to his neck and bit hard. She raised her head and turned to walk towards the doors. They would have their diplomatic talks first, and then, she would make him hers, to stay by her side always.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Shara Radum

Two days later, Adrian and two of his soldiers walked through the Shara Radum palace escorted by six honor guards, as he learned they were called. One of the guards was giving Adrian a strange look, but then Adrian was pretty sure that he was one of the guards who had been in front of Anessa’s quarters during their ‘discussion’ in private. Once the two had left the quarters, the guards were somewhat surprised, and if they were anything like his escorts, there were rumors a-plenty.

They were headed to a meeting with Anessa, this one a much more formal one than their last. They had already agreed to peace, with Anessa and Adrian both sending the documents for the agreement for the other party to read through and agree on. Now they would officially confirm those agreements, and start the discussion for anything more than peace. He didn’t really know what Anessa had in mind, but he could guess. He didn’t know how much success the Erasi had had in their attack on the Shara Daim, but they had certainly caught the Shara Daim off guard, and had a larger force. Aileen had reported somewhere around sixty fleets, which was more than what the Shara Daim had. The fact that the Shara Daim were the defenders was in their favor, but he knew that if the Erasi had a foothold in their territory, it would be extremely hard to push them out.

They reached their destination, and Adrian and his two escorts were led into a medium-sized room, with an ornate table and chairs in front of them. One of the chairs was a bit different, and Adrian assumed that that one was for him. The regular Shara Daim chairs were all just a bit too low for him to sit at a table comfortably. Already sitting were Anessa and a woman that Adrian recognized from being in the crowd when he had fought Farran.

He bowed to Anessa and dipped his head to the woman, who surprisingly returned his gesture.

“Lord Sentinel,” Anessa said, her melodic voice even, not giving a hint of what had happened between them.

“Kar Daim,” Adrian acknowledged.

“This is Vallar Havasse. She is my advisor, among other things. She will conduct most of these talks. I have been trained to be a warrior and a commander; she has more experience with negotiating than me.”

“Of course,” Adrian said as he took his seat, his two guards taking positions behind him while Anessa’s took positions behind her. Adrian put a small black object on the desk, and immediately a document appeared above it. It was one of the Erasi-made universal data chips with a telepathic interface. The Empire’s ones wouldn’t work for the Shara Daim, as their interfaces were implant-controlled.

“I read the document, and this is acceptable for the Empire.” The document affirmed the current borders of the Empire and the Shara Daim on the sides where they were facing each other, and an agreement for splitting the uninhabited area between the two empires equally and therefore establishing a new joint border. The rest were agreements of non-aggression between the two, but which also absolved the Empire of the deaths of the Shara Daim people in Sol, and Anessa’s kidnapping. That part had already mainly been fulfilled by Adrian killing a Dai Sha that had challenged him for that reason.

“We have read your document as well,” Vallar Havasse said. His document was basically the same thing, only reaffirming what theirs said from the Empire’s point of view, with them absolving the Shara Daim for the attacks on the Lord Sentinel and Sol. “It is acceptable.”

The holographic interface changed to show both documents, and a prompt appeared for both parties to sign it with their telepathy, making unique signatures. Adrian used his telepathy and signed his part; Anessa used hers to sign her part.

“Now, with that finished,” Vallar Havasse said, “the Shara Daim would like to open the dialogue for a possible alliance with your Empire.”

Adrian nodded. He had thought that this might be what they were after. Adrian was authorized by Tomas to make whatever deals and agreements he saw fit. Initially, he hadn’t been prepared to go further than trading deals. But then the Erasi had attacked his ships and destroyed one battleship. They had also attempted to hack into Sol’s systems, tried to manipulate them into a conflict with Shara Daim, and had stealth ships in the Empire’s systems. He didn’t really blame them for the stealth ships or the hacks—the Empire had ships and people in their territory as well. He was still not completely prepared to give the Shara Daim direct aid against the Erasi.

“What would you consider as a part of this alliance?” Adrian asked.

Vallar Havasse glanced at Anessa and then back at Adrian. “First, we would like an open trade agreement between us, meaning that any corporation in Shara Daim may openly trade with any in the Empire,” she said.

Adrian nodded again; that was something that he could do. Open trade would mean that the Shara Daim could get most of the civilian-grade tech, which included conventional and bio-fabricators. It would also mean nanotechnology, which he was pretty sure the Shara Daim didn’t have. But the Empire would get a lot in return. Most of the Shara Daim military tech had been derived from the sphere, but their regular tech had been developed by them or appropriated from other races.

“That is acceptable,” Adrian said, and waited.

After a beat, she continued, “We would want an exchange of military technology as well.”

And there it was. Adrian knew that they were after the skimming technology. It would give them a huge advantage over the Erasi.

“That would be a bit harder. The Empire doesn’t trade military technology with other races, not unless the relationship between the two was much more involved,” Adrian said.

“We would be prepared to pay you additionally for certain technologies,” Vallar Havasse said.

Adrian debated continuing the back and forth, but there was really no point. Tomas, Adrian, and the rest of the Clan Leaders had discussed what they would require of an ally for them to share the technology of the Empire long ago. The conditions were the same.

“You want an alliance; you need one because of the Erasi attack,” he stated. “The Empire isn’t prepared to go to war with the Erasi just yet. Giving you our technologies would give the Erasi cause to consider us hostile. And we can’t do that, not without other assurances.”

“What kind of assurances?” Vallar Havasse asked.

“If you want our military technologies and support, you would need to agree to a real alliance. And frankly, the history of Shara Daim is such that we don’t really know if we could trust you enough for that,” Adrian said. He glanced at Anessa and saw her looking at him with her expression darkened. He knew that she wanted to change her people, but there was really no guarantee that she would succeed.

“The leadership of Shara Daim is changed, I will not allow the same things that the Elders did,” Anessa said.

“I understand that, but it still doesn’t change the fact that you have spent the great chunk of your history destroying other civilizations,” Adrian said.

Anessa moved to say something, but Vallar Havasse interrupted her. “What are your conditions for an alliance?”

“Completely open borders, freedom of movement for both military and civilian ships and personnel. Several joint colonies to be established in both territories, with mixed settlements and educational programs in order to bring both people closer. Exchange of military instructors, full sharing of military technologies. Agreement of mutual defense. And an agreement of conduct.”

Both Anessa and Vallar Havasse looked at him as if he had grown an extra head. “An agreement of conduct?” Havasse asked.

“A set of rules by which both empires conduct themselves in dealings with other intelligent life in the galaxy. For example, if a planet with an intelligent lifeform that hasn’t yet reached space is encountered, that planet and the systems in the range of ten lightyears will be left alone as the right of that race, with no contact to be established until they have reached space. Would you be able to agree to something like that?” Adrian asked.

Havasse and Anessa exchanged a look, and Adrian felt them speak with their minds for a short interval. “We could; it isn’t that much different than our current policy,” Havasse said.

Adrian knew that Shara Daim ignored other life unless it was in the way. Adrian brought out another data chip and placed it on the table. “This is the list of all the requirements for a full alliance that the Empire needs from their allies. Some are negotiable, others are not.”

Havasse took the data chip, and spoke with Anessa privately again. “We will study this document and continue these talks afterwards, if that is acceptable to you?”

“Of course,” Adrian said, and stood to return to his quarters.

***

The next day, he found himself back at the same table across from Anessa and Vallar Havasse.

“We have looked over your requirements, and we can abide by them. But we have a few additional requests,” Vallar Havasse said.

“What kind of requests?” Adrian asked.

“We would like to be given historical data from the device left by our ancestor,” she said.

Adrian thought about it, but then concluded that there wasn’t really any reason not to grant that request. “Alright, but you still haven’t given me a reason to believe the Shara Daim will be trustworthy in the future.”

“We understand that our past makes it difficult for you to trust us. Many of our people will have trouble accepting the new ways, but we are adamant to change. Even before Kar Daim removed the Elders from power, some of us were seeking a change,” Vallar Havasse said. “So in order to win that trust, we are prepared to eschew the right to your military technology. We would provide all the rest of what your agreement requires. But in return for this, we want your immediate direct military aid against the Erasi invaders.”

Adrian scratched his chin as he thought about it. Without the Empire’s military technology, the Shara Daim would be at a disadvantage, true. And it would give them time for the two people to grow and trust one another. Tomas and his teams had projected that the Erasi were going to be a threat in the long run. Their practices were shadowy, and they liked to manipulate other races; it was only a matter of time before they did the same thing to the Empire as they had just done to the Shara Daim. In addition, their laws allowed for anything and everything to be bought and sold in their space, including slaves. Both the Shara Daim and the Empire didn’t allow for slavery. Then there was the fact that both of the races were descended from Axull Darr. That kind of connection was a solid foundation for them to build on.

Giving them military aid, on the other hand, was a bit different, mainly because the Empire didn’t have as many assets that they could commit to a war. By now the Empire should have around ten fleets, a fifth of what the Shara Daim had. Committing any of those fleets would weaken the Empire considerably.

He mulled it over a bit more, thinking about what Tomas would want. His orders were clear: the Empire needed to expand and make powerful allies. The enemy that the People had created was out there, and they needed to start preparing now. Coming to a decision, Adrian turned to Anessa and Vallar Havasse.

“I could accept that, but as far as military aid goes, the Empire can’t commit a lot of resources to your war,” Adrian said.

“How much could you commit?” Anessa asked.

“We could probably send six fleets, around the same number as six of your Legions. All fleets equipped with our skimming technology,” Adrian said.

“Skimming?”

“Our name for the normal-space FTL drives our ships use.”

“Six Legions isn’t much, but your technology does give you an advantage,” Anessa mused.

Adrian decided that there was a bit more that the Empire could add. “We could also provide you with our defense platforms; we could build them in our systems and ship them over to you. I don’t know if you have something better.”

“Ours are about the same strength…” Anessa said, “That would be useful as well. How many could you provide us if we make an agreement today, and how quickly?”

“Two thousand in one shipment. It would take several months for them to get here, though; we would need to set up relay point between here and the Empire to get the communications between us faster. We can build two thousand platforms every eight months in Sol,” Adrian said.

“Eight months?” Anessa and Vallar Havasse both said, shocked.

Adrian nodded. “Yes, we have a manufacturing technology that allows us much faster construction than by conventional assembly.”

“And would you be willing to share that technology?” Anessa asked quickly. He detected that it would mean a lot for them. She probably knew that it would take Shara Daim shipyards much longer to replace the losses against the Erasi. The fabricating tech was technically a military technology, which they would share with their allies. He thought about it and then an idea struck him.

“We would be ready to share this tech, but in return for something,” Adrian said.

“In return for what?” Vallar Havasse asked.

“I want several of your best Sha instructors to go to the Empire and teach my people. In return for that, I will give you our fabricating technology,” Adrian said.

Both Anessa and Havasse looked taken aback, and they conferred mentally. After several minutes, they both turned to him. “We can agree to that,” Havasse said.

“Then I will have a document drawn up and sent to you as fast as possible, outlining everything that we have discussed.”

***

Two days later, Adrian found himself sitting in Anessa’s quarters again. They had just finished having a meal together, prepared by her chef. The food had been delicious, but a bit on the dry side compared to human meals. The conversation during the meal had been friendly, with no talk of deals and war; they had both signed the document agreeing to the alliance yesterday. Instead, they had talked about their childhoods and how they differed. It was an interesting conversation, and Adrian had managed to get Anessa’s age out of it. She was one hundred and seventy-seven years old. A bit older than Adrian, who was eighty-six—or technically one hundred and forty-six, but he had spent much of the sixty-year trip in stasis, waking periodically to check up on things during Olympus’s hyperspace trip from Earth to Sanctuary. He didn’t really know how much time he had spent awake, but it was several years at least. And then there was the time he spent in his mind-space, which several decades at least.

After the meal, they had moved to the sofas, which were a bit strange to Adrian in design but comfortable nonetheless. They had continued their conversations, talking to each other about trivial things with no other things on their minds for the first time since they met each other. But eventually their conversation trailed off, and both of them were aware of the real reason Anessa had called him to her quarters.

Then finally, Anessa stood and moved to his sofa, sitting down beside him, facing him. “So we are having the talk about ‘this,’” Adrian said, gesturing between them.

“Yes,” Anessa said. She paused. “I want you to stay here as my Dal A’sha,” she said seriously.

Adrian frowned at the unfamiliar word. He had the translating software disabled, as he had learned the language, but he turned it on and checked with his imp to find the meaning of the word, it had the complete database from the Erasi devices. He did a double take at what he found. After a few seconds of reading the meaning over and over, he looked at Anessa.

“What does that mean, exactly?” Adrian asked, not really trusting the software.

“It means someone who is a life partner,” she said calmly.

Adrian blinked slowly.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Anessa continued speaking, “I want you to stay with me. If I am to change the way my people think about other races, I need to show them. Having you here would be a perfect way of doing that.”

Adrian snapped out of his confusion, and his lip curled up in a smile. “So, you want to use me to change the way your people are thinking about aliens. Consort with an alien and lead by example,” he said, grinning.

“Yes,” she said without shame, “but also because I care about you, and I know that you care about me. We understand each other. You are strong and powerful; I trust you. And I will need help in trying to change my people,” Anessa said with a serious expression on her face. “And also, if you stay with me, you could make sure that the alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire is honored. You can make sure that our people grow together. But do not mistake this for purely an emotional decision, you are right, I need you in order to change my people.”

Adrian thought about it. His first instinct was to refuse her; he had a duty to the Empire, and he couldn’t set it aside for personal gain. But then he thought about it more. He was a Sentinel, and they had been created to live outside the territory of the Empire and make relations with other races, to be diplomats and envoys and spies. The alliance with Shara Daim was important, and he couldn’t let it fail. What Anessa had said was true; if he stayed, he could make sure that it succeeded.

But she was not asking him to stay as a diplomat. She wanted a relationship with him, a lasting one, if he was not mistaken. He thought about it logically. He knew that he couldn’t stay Lord Sentinel and remain here. But there were others who could take his place, and knowing Tomas as he did, he would like the idea of having someone he could trust at the side of the Shara Daim ruler.

But then there was the other side. Did he want to stay with this woman, make a life with her? He had thought that he would never do that with anyone after Bethany. And Anessa was certainly not Beth. Anessa was a tyrant; she ruled her people with fear. She loved fighting, and killing. She didn’t care for the weak, nor did she allow anyone to truly question her. And he doubted that she would ever change much; her beliefs might mellow, but at her core she would remain who she was. It wasn’t like Adrian was any better, but ultimately he only sought to better himself. And Anessa understood his drive; she was the same. And he did care about her. When he was with her, he felt whole, alive in a way that he hadn’t been ever before. Both of them would never allow their emotions to interfere with what they perceived as their duty, only in this case it seemed that what they wanted to do and what they needed to do coincided.

He looked into her eyes. She was silent and waiting for his answer. In the end, he had much more in common with her than with anyone else.

“What do you think?” Adrian asked Iris.

“I will always be where you are, Adrian. I don’t want to see you alone anymore. No matter who she is, she does make you happy,” Iris said.

Adrian took a deep breath and focused on Anessa.

“Yes, I will stay,” he said.

Anessa smiled a radiant smile that made him weak. She leaned towards his neck in the customary Shara Daim form of affection, but then she stopped and put her lips on his. After, she stood and took him by the hand, leading him towards the bed.

Adrian stopped her. She turned and looked at him quizzically.

“Wait, if we are doing this, there is someone you need to meet,” he said just as Iris appeared over his shoulder in her fiery form.

“Hi, I’m Iris,” she said.

Anessa looked at the floating fiery woman, then at Adrian, and back again at Iris, her expression bewildered.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Three months later — November; Year 57 of the Empire — Sanctuary

Tomas read the alliance agreement with the Shara Daim. It was a large document, detailing obligations from both empires. Adrian had made sure that all the points Tomas was adamant about were in the agreement, and the things added by the Shara Daim were understandable. There was no problem with the agreement, and Tomas agreed with Adrian completely. He had known that Adrian would make some kind of an alliance with them; it had been a plan of his from the start. And with the aggression by the Erasi and their destruction of one of the Empire’s battleships, Tomas was in a much more favorable state of mind towards the Shara Daim. Even though they had actually attacked an entire system, intent on conquering, Adrian’s tactics had ensured that there were no casualties on their side.

And the change in Shara Daim leadership had come as a great surprise to Tomas. He trusted Adrian, but hadn’t been sure that his plan would work. As it turned out, it had, perhaps even better than he had planned. But what he hadn’t seen coming was Adrian’s decision to stay on Shara Radum, nor his relationship with the Shara Daim’s new leader, Kar Daim Anessa. Adrian had sent Tomas a private message detailing everything about their relationship and what the Kar Daim had asked of him. Instantly, Tomas had seen the value in having Adrian as a partner to the leader of Shara Daim. He didn’t have a problem with it; he trusted Adrian implicitly, and had known that he had had trouble finding someone in the Empire. If this was what made him happy, Tomas had no problem with it. He knew that Adrian would always look out for the interests of the Empire.

Laura, on the other hand, was another story. Tomas glanced to the other side of the room, where Seo-yun was trying to calm Adrian’s adoptive mother down, unsuccessfully.

“I can’t believe he is going to stay there with that…that…I don’t know what she is!” Laura said as she frantically waved her arms around.

“Calm down, Laura,” Seo-yun said, trying to guide her to the couch.

“I haven’t even met her yet!” Laura said. “And she is…Urgh, I’m going to kill him.”

Tomas shook his head and tuned them out. Adrian had sent him a list of people who could replace him as Lord Sentinel, but he thought about whether he actually needed to replace him. A plan was forming in his head. He would need to get a few things together, but perhaps he could pull it off.

***

Shara Radum

Kar Daim Anessa sat on her throne looking over the room and the people gathered there, leaders of different systems that had arrived to Shara Radum to pledge their loyalty and seek favor. She was forced to sit and listen to their words of admiration and praise as each leader had a short time to greet her and pledge his loyalty. And this had been going on for days, as more and more of the people from the remote systems of Shara Daim arrived. Some came in person, other sent proxies, but for now, no one had refused to come.

Coming to see the new leader of Shara Daim was high on almost everyone’s list, but now they had one more reason to come and kneel before her. And that was to look at the person standing at the side of her throne and his two beasts that slept beneath her feet. Adrian stood wearing a white Shur At molded in the same style as Anessa’s, with blue strips falling from his hips matching hers. But the most important piece of gossip and rumors was the relationship between the two of them. Adrian now bore a white marking on the side of his neck, the exact same as the one she wore on the side of her neck, announcing to all that they were Dal A’sha—life partners.

It had made quite the stir that first day when Anessa had entered the throne room with Adrian and his two beasts following behind her, dressed in the Shur At and with both of their markings showing in plain sight. There had immediately been whispers, some outraged, some confused, others disgusted. But none dared say anything to either of them. They knew Anessa’s strength, and the word had spread about Adrian’s duel with Dai Sha Farran. And over the months, his presence had become a bit more accepted in the palace and on Shara Radum, as Anessa never went anywhere without him.

The people quickly realized that what they had once known abstractly, that the Humans, Nel, and Shara Daim were both created by the same person—with the same base DNA—was true. Havasse had been instrumental in the acceptance of Adrian and the other humans and Nel that now had an embassy on Shara Radum, mostly by interacting with them and being seen in public with them. It went a long way for the common people to start changing their views.

Adrian was now acting as the lead representative of the Empire to Shara Daim. And as he told her, he would be the ultimate commander of all forces that the Empire would send to aid Shara Daim, coordinating with her own in their efforts against the Erasi. But until his forces arrive there wasn’t really much for him to do.

She knew that there were people that disapproved, that found it abhorrent, but it didn’t bother her as long as they followed her lead. Most of her time was spent dealing with the demands of the various systems. The Elders had delegated that to other people, only stepping in when they wanted. Anessa wanted to be involved in as many things as possible. In public, she portrayed an image of a strong and ruthless leader, with Adrian walking beside her, never saying anything but making everyone uncomfortable and off their guard by his very presence.

Adrian had moved into her quarters along with the two beasts, Akash and Sora. It had been a challenge for her to accept that the two beasts were intelligent, that they could understand the spoken language, and an even greater challenge to accept that they had some Sha abilities—until they demonstrated their intelligence and Sha. Since then, she had grown accustomed to their presence, and almost understood why Adrian liked to have them follow him everywhere. They were large and imposing; it added to her image of the ruthless Kar Daim.

Then there was the AI that was somehow imbedded under Adrian’s skin, and the Empire’s implants. She had been wondering how the Empire’s technology worked if not by telepathic interfaces, but once she learned about their implant technology, it made sense. She never felt them use it because it wasn’t Sha, it was technology. The AI, Iris, was a bit harder to accept. The Shara Daim had AIs, but none of theirs were as advanced as Iris seemed to be. And she had been with Adrian for most of his life, always there, watching through his eyes. It was going to take some time to get used to that.

Adrian and Anessa spent most of their free private time talking about their lives, learning their respective histories, among other more enjoyable things. They had touched upon a few cultural conventions that were a bit hard for the other one to accept. For example, Shara Daim duels to the death. It seemed normal to her, and was a way to settle large grievances. In the Empire, there was nothing like that; they had something like duels, but it was much more controlled, and not to the death.

But in the end, those little things didn’t matter; they understood each other despite those differences. And that was all that mattered to her. She had struggled with her identity ever since she had taken the rule of the Shara Daim, but with Adrian, all her worries went away. She knew who she was, what her purpose was.

The Shara Daim had already begun the change. A lot of her people had wanted it for a long time but had been stuck in a belief of worship towards the Elders. Anessa had taken the Elders away from them; she had thrown change after change at them and forced them to accept them. The Shara Daim weren’t capable of changing easily and without bloodshed, she knew that. They liked fighting and killing. She needed to channel those desires into another direction, and right now that direction was the Erasi.

Adrian had told her that the Empire’s forces were on their way to Shara Radum, along with the first shipment of defensive platforms. And the two of them had started planning on how to best throw the Erasi out of the occupied Shara Daim systems. Once his forces arrive both of them would leave for the Erasi invaded sectors, and assume command directly. Already her decision to have him stay by her side had paid off. Adrian was a brilliant strategist, and she knew that together they would be a force to be reckoned with.

Epilogue

Shara Daim — Erasi border; Unknown system

The Empire’s stealth ship Scarab sat in the shadow of the moon orbiting the gas giant of the Erasi system. It had arrived there only two months ago, and per its orders had set up a monitoring grid across the system, watching and documenting every supply ship passing through the system on its way to the Erasi-controlled systems in the Shara Daim. This was the Empire’s part of the deal now that they were allied with the Shara Daim, as the Shara Daim didn’t use stealth ships. And the traffic in the system had been significant; large transport ships passed through regularly, and every now and then larger cargo ships that the Empire knew carried defense platforms headed for the systems the Erasi had taken and were now planning on holding.

There wasn’t much to do in the system; they were hidden both by their ship’s stealth and by the interference of the gas giant and the moon, getting the information about the system from stealth probes scattered across the system. The post was a boring one—until an unscheduled Erasi entry into the system.

The High Prime of the Scarab called her Ship Master immediately after they started receiving data from the probes.

“What do we have?” Ship Master Sshaat said as he walked into the command center on his six legs. His large Guxcacal body settled just behind his High Prime. The integration of the Erasi translators into the Empire’s implants had made it much easier to operate for those members of the Empire that had languages that were more difficult to speak.

“Hyperspace entries into the system. Erasi warship signatures, and a lot of them. They are still coming in,” High Prime Jaqueline said.

Ship Master Sshaat leaned and peered at the holo, looking at the ships dropping from hyperspace and moving deeper into the system. “Warships…must be reinforcements. But why are they using hyperspace? It would have been faster to go through trans-space,” Sshaat wondered. There were already thousands of warships, at least two fleets’ worth.

“I don’t know, Ship Master,” Jaqueline said.

They both settled and watched as ships kept coming, seemingly without end. Once the computer counted the ten thousandth ship, Sshaat clanked his upper claws together. “I guess that we know now why they didn’t use trans-space, they wouldn’t fit,” he said.

High Prime Jaqueline kept silent and watched as even more ships kept dropping out of hyperspace, the rate of them arriving actually increasing. Another half an hour later, there were around forty fleets assembled and moving deeper into the system, and still more ships kept coming. Then another hour later, the flow of ships started to ebb. Already there were close to one hundred fleets in the system. Jaqueline thought that it was over, when one more ship exited hyperspace.

The sensors immediately noticed the much larger signature, and both Sshaat and Jaqueline watched in disbelief as the computers calculated their size and generated a holo-image of the ship. It was shaped as an elongated saucer, but much larger than even the Erasi super battleships. The computers displayed the size; it stood at 8200 meters in length and 3200 meters in width. Their surfaces covered with weapons and hatches, it joined the fleets and started on a course towards one of the planets in system.

“We need to let the Fleet know,” Jaqueline said.

“Yes,” Sshaat agreed. They could send a message from here, but without comm relays, it would be months until it reached Sol. On the other hand, they could go in person, abandoning their post and getting there much sooner. Still, even going to Sol in person would be take too long; the Shara Daim territory was much closer. Although they were now allied, it was still very early, and going through their territory might be risky; there might be misunderstandings. Sshaat debated for only a moment. He knew a lot about the Shara Daim defending forces from the briefings, and their Har Aras sector was much closer than Sol. By the time he arrived, there might even be an Empire force there. He gave orders for the Scarab to make its way towards the hyperspace barrier.

The stealth ship used its gravity drives to slowly leave the orbit of the gas giant, and set a course in the opposite direction of the Erasi forces. Going as fast as possible without compromising their stealth, Sshaat didn’t want to use the skim drive and give them away. The fleets didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave for the Shara Daim territory, and he didn’t want them to change their plans if they suspected that their force had been detected. He had to warn the Empire that the Erasi were bringing another one hundred fleets against the Shara Daim.

The Scarab creeped across the system for half a day before it reached the hyperspace barrier, and then it slowly moved for another three days to put the Erasi force behind the system’s sun so that they couldn’t see the Scarab’s hyperspace entry. Once satisfied that the Erasi couldn’t see them, Ship Master Sshaat took the Scarab to hyperspace on its way to Shara Daim territory.

***

Hanaru’s taskforce exited trans-space and entered the Varat system. Immediately his ships detected the massive force gathered in the system. As soon as he saw that force, Hanaru felt a deep fear settle into his bones. The second wave of the Shara Daim invasion, waiting only on the last few supply ships before they started the next stage of the plan. It was an amazing force; one hundred Erasi fleets, enough to terrify anyone. But the force itself was not what made Hanaru feel terrified. Once he had reported his failure, he had been instructed to meet the force of the second wave for punishment. Now, upon seeing the the devastator warship, he understood what that punishment was.

Devastator warships were the pinnacle of Erasi military power, and had rarely been used. He remembered stories about them devastating entire solar systems all by themselves. But the true power wasn’t in the warships themselves; it was who commanded them. The Ancients, beings so old that they had seen entire civilizations rise from being primitive tool users to traveling through space. Tens of thousands of years old, they almost never left the core of the Erasi. The devastators were their flagships, their weapons, and Hanaru had never heard of one leaving the core, not in his lifetime at least.

As soon as his force was detected, Hanaru was ordered to come on board the devastator End of Hope. Hanaru couldn’t help but think about running away once he heard the name of the ship. Of all the devastators, that one was the most infamous. The one that had burned out seven suns in order to break the spirit of a race that had been at war with the Erasi, destroying entire solar systems and killing trillions. And its commander was one of the oldest living beings in the Erasi, an Uvaramo named Garash, but most commonly known as the Son of Carnage. He was one of the pivotal people in Erasi history, one of its founders.

Once, Garash’s people were called Loraru, and had been a part of a Union of species on the other side of the Galaxy. But their Union had been attacked by an unstoppable foe that slaughtered all in their way. He and a few others had escaped and had arrived at what was now the Erasi core. There they had encountered the Gatray and the Sorvani, and together the three races had used their superior technology to conquer everything in their vicinity and create the Erasi. And if any of the old stories were true, Garash was responsible for most of their military victories.

Several hours later, Hanaru was escorted through the corridors of the massive warship, and then led into the sanctum of the Ancient. He entered the room with dim lighting that all Uvaramo preferred and stopped after only several steps inside. He looked at the floor, and not at the back of the Ancient standing at the end of the room. Hanaru had trouble breathing; it was as if the very air around the Ancient was heavy and somehow opposed to Hanaru’s desire to breathe.

He stood there struggling with getting air into his lungs for what seemed like days, until the Ancient finally turned.

“Weaver Hanaru.” The Ancient’s voice boomed with such power through Hanaru’s mind that his vision darkened and blurred.

Hanaru kept his eyes on the floor as he struggled to keep his balance, and he answered, “Ancient one.”

“You have failed. You made an unauthorized decision that backfired. You might have just pushed this little Empire into an alliance with the Shara Daim. And that…is a complication,” Ancient Garash sent.

Hanaru kept silent and didn’t answer. He hadn’t been asked a question, and he had no intention of trying to justify his actions.

“Do you know what your mistake was, little Weaver?” the Ancient asked.

“Yes, ancient one. I have underestimated my opponent. I miscalculated,” Hanaru answered.

The Ancient stayed silent for a few beats and then he walked closer, one of his arms grabbing Hanaru’s head and tilting it upwards. The Uvaramo had two sets of arms, and stood on two legs. They were only a little bit taller than the Gatray, but wider in the shoulders, and their heads were triangularly shaped with curved hornlike appendages at the top of the head. They had six eyes arranged in three rows of two, placed with the bottom pair being the closest together and the top pair the furthest from each other, making a V shape. Their skin was usually brownish, sometimes with a green tint.

The Ancient looked nothing like the other Uvaramo Hanaru had seen. He was taller, his arms and legs larger and with bigger muscles. One of his ‘horns’ was broken in half, and his eyes had a strange red color to them that Hanaru had never seen in a Uvaramo. He was intimidating, his very presence enough to make Hanaru weak.

“Yes, little Weaver. You underestimated your opponent. That is a good answer; had you given any other, you would’ve been dead at my feet now.” The Ancient’s voice rang clearly through Hanaru’s mind as he added, “To learn from one’s mistakes is to grow. And you have proven to me that you can learn, that you are not blinded by your failings.” The Ancient paused, apparently lost in thought. Hanaru felt a pressure move through his mind, looking through his memories, studying them closely. Hanaru didn’t even try to resist; he knew that it would have been hopeless.

Then Ancient’s voice returned to Hanaru’s mind. “Yes, you will do nicely, little Weaver. I have a mission of great importance for you, Hanaru, Weaver of the Erasi. Fail me, and it will mean your death. Succeed, and you will have a place by my side. Do you accept?” Ancient Garash asked.

Hanaru knew that there was really only one answer that he could give. “Yes, I accept, ancient one.”

*** END ***

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Rise of the Empire series

Olympus

Sanctuary

Out of the Ashes

Warpath

Inheritance

Onslaught