Star Force: 85-88
Author: Aer-Ki Jyr
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Science Fiction & Fantasy; Colonization; Dystopian; Galactic Empire; High Tech; Military; Space Fleet; 90 Minutes (44-64 Pages); Literature & Fiction; Hard Science Fiction; Adventure; Two Hours or More (65-100 Pages); Action & Adventure; Space Opera; Genre Fiction; War; Health; Fitness & Dieting; Exercise & Fitness; Yoga; War & Military; Space Marine; Teen & Young Adult; Star Force
Description: Anthology containing: Star Force: 85-88
Rights: Copyrights as per source stories

1

July 29, 3222

Krachnika System (lizard capitol/homeworld)

Michra

“Terms?” Trevor-153992 asked, thinking hard. “Surrender was always unconditional, but it’s never happened before with the lizards. If they’re asking…we can’t blow this chance. Get me a comm line to orbit. This isn’t going to be my decision to make. Especially if it has anything to do with that mastermind they found.”

“Mastermind?” the Bsidd asked.

“Nevermind, just get me the Fury.”

Paul was in the sanctum onboard the Excalibur when an Archon ranger came to find him. The blonde had the nerve to interrupt him during a sparring session with four Knights, but as soon as she told him what was happening and handed him the portable commlink he realized this was more important.

He held the small cylinder in his hand and pressed the activation button…with the training mat he was standing on suddenly overlaid with holograms that showed four of his fellow trailblazers much as he would have seen them if he’d been in the nexus.

“Paul, good,” Greg said, giving him a nod. “I think your outreach effort has paid off. We don’t have an ID on who is asking, but someone on the lizard side is asking what are our terms for surrender.”

“They give up,” Paul said simply.

Taryn cracked a smile. “Me, verbatim.”

“If this your new friend,” Greg continued, “he might want to negotiate something less than that.”

“And you want me to talk to him?”

“We’ve held off responding just yet, but we don’t want to delay any more than necessary with fighting ongoing.”

“How was the question delivered?”

“Comm signal.”

“Any encryption?”

“No,” Trevor answered, his hologram now appearing. He had been listening in to provide intel, but the holographic system prioritized the trailblazers unless someone else spoke. “Just an open comm directed to us.”

“Directed how?”

“A message flag like we instructed our allies to use. I don’t think they wanted us to miss it in all the signal clutter.”

“Text?”

“Yes.”

“Then send this back immediate, also in text. All offensive operations must cease and troops withdrawn immediately. Stand down will be reciprocated and maintained so long as no craft leaves the atmosphere. Li’vorkrachnika commander will then personally confer with Paul in order to establish further parameters of surrender.”

Rio raised an eyebrow. “That’s a cease fire, not terms of surrender.”

“Do you have something in the works here?” Olivia asked.

“I anticipated something like this might happen, so I’m one step ahead of all of you. If he’s thinking what I think he’s thinking, we have to discuss terms personally. If we give them now, he’ll request to negotiate, so this saves some time.”

“And what do you think he’s thinking?”

“I think he’s asking questions and has run out of time. I doubt he’s ready to fully surrender, and I don’t want to back him into a corner with the choice being full capitulation or death.”

“They’re real used to the death thing,” Rio agreed.

“What do you have in mind?” Greg asked.

“There are several possibilities I’ve worked out. It all depends on him.”

“Where do you want to meet him? Not back up here.”

“No, I don’t think he’ll surrender his freedom again. Somewhere on the planet…somewhere that they won’t have booby-traps set up waiting for me,” Paul added, seeing some looks of recognition that this could be a ploy to kill one of them before the planet was wiped out.

“Fine, but I’m going with you,” Greg added. “In Commando armor.”

Oliva looked at him warily. “You really think it’s a trap?”

“My gut says no, but I’d like to be there as backup anyway…incognito, and our armor loudly declares our skill level.”

Trevor’s image appeared again. “Message was sent and we’ve received an immediate response wanting to know the location of the conference.”

“That was fast,” Rio pointed out.

“Tell them that I’ll pick a location and land there,” Paul ordered, “and they’ll be informed when I land, but cessation of the fighting must occur first.”

“I get the feeling you’re about to let us in on a brainstorm,” Olivia wondered.

“Maybe,” Paul acknowledged. “We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.”

After a quick shower and a bite to eat, Paul headed down to the surface after transferring over to the Fury, picking up their extra Commando in a detachment of six along with two Archon strikers. The dropship flew down to a section of city that was on the border between lizard-held areas and Star Force-cleansed territory and just on the lizard side.

They received no attacking fire as they landed, and both sides had pulled back from the border as required. Paul had additional Star Force troops within a few kilometers of his chosen position if needed, as well as having skeets in the air near that area that could be at his position within a minute.

The dropship landed on a rooftop and the strikers and Commandos quickly secured it and several levels down. When they finally got to the few lizard denizens there, they mentally shooed them out of the building. At first they didn’t move, but apparently received orders at some point later for they all began vacating the location at once. It took another 3 hours before a few lizard minds showed up at the very bottom of the building and began making their way up through the levels, with Paul immediately recognizing the formidable intellect of the mastermind as it shown like a beacon amongst the much duller lights of the other lizard minds.

“He’s here,” Paul said for the sake of the others. “I’ll meet him four levels down. Pull back to there.”

The trailblazer abandoned the roof and the dropship, then waited where he wanted as the lizard contingent slowly ascended through the building. Rather than waiting in a room, Paul was leaning against a wall in the hallway as the first few standard variant lizards came up their stairwell and into sight. They visibly flinched when they saw him, but held their fire as they trained their small rifles on his bright pink armor, knowing that they couldn’t do much to stop him if he wanted to kill them, but they’d do their duty regardless of the outcome.

A handful more came up, then the much larger mastermind appeared, dwarfing his smaller guards. A mental prompting by Paul brought him forward as the enemy commander motioned for the other lizards to wait a few steps behind him. Likewise Paul waved a hand at the two Commandos with him to give them some space and they retreated a few meters back while the others were stationed around the perimeter looking for lurking threats.

Paul retracted his helmet but kept his shields up, though they were invisible save when something struck them. “Been doing some thinking?”

“You sent me here for just that,” he said, raising a hand up and brandishing his new claws. “I owe you for that.”

Paul knew he was being genuine, though his words could have been taken to mean it as a vendetta. “And?”

“What are your terms?”

“Normally we go with unconditional surrender, but word has kind of gotten around of what we do and don’t do, so when some people surrender to us they already have a vague sense of terms. In your case, I’m guessing you have a proposal for me?”

“We must maintain this planet.”

“Agreed,” Paul said without hesitation, which caused a flinch by the mastermind.

“You anticipated this?”

“I have an estimate of facilities still intact, but I do not know the full extent of your subsurface holdings nor the output of all your assets given your uncertain population. What is the current status of your foodstuff production?”

“Low staffed, but adequate for current demands. We are operating off of reserves in many areas.”

“How much excess production do you have?”

“None. We are operating below necessity.”

“Anticipating losses?”

“They are inevitable, so why keep workers in the factories when they can be fighting you?”

“What’s your current population? This world only.”

“I only control this world. I do not have an accurate count, but estimates are in excess of 800 billion.”

“And if your current facilities were fully staffed, how many could they sustain without expectation of losses?”

“2.2 trillion.”

“I need you to cease producing additional personnel, save for specialists as needed.”

“You want to reprogram our genetic code?”

Paul shook his head. “No. If we wanted to add the Li’vorkrachnika to our empire we could have done so long ago. We’ve had access to your genetic nodules for some time, but we’ve never grown any of your people. Doing so would do nothing for the rest of you, therefore there was no advantage in our doing so. Once you are grown, the genetic locks cannot be undone.”

“Experiential development?”

“Exactly.”

“And I am an anomaly?”

“You have the ability to work around your existing blocks. Even if they were removed on the others they would still obey the memory of them.”

“I fear it would be far worse. I speculate that genetic coding is what is binding them all to my command. Without it they would most likely kill each other.”

“That is a possibility I’ve considered.”

“If you do not want us to produce additional population, and you do not want to alter our genetic code, then are we to exist here until we wither away?”

Paul frowned at him. “After all this time, you surely have enough information about us to know the answer to that.”

“What good is training for them if they can’t overcome their blocks?”

“They still follow your command, correct?”

“They would have a difficult time finding a way not to. You mean to make this a functioning prison world…to what end?”

“The simple reason is so we won’t have to kill the rest of you to claim this planet. That will also save us time and resources, but that’s not really the point.”

“If we cannot produce more population, and they cannot train and grow as you do, then this planet will be rid of us eventually.”

“No,” Paul said, sensing that he wasn’t going to agree to that. “I am not planning on being rid of you.”

“Then tell me what I am missing…or is that something my mind is blocked from seeing?”

“You confirmed it?”

“Some of our genetic coding differs from what is recorded in the databases. The templars lied to us, though I do not know for what purpose, specifically.”

“You exist to serve them, yet there has been a betrayal of trust and you are presently in internal conflict. Without a purpose here, the deaths of your people are meaningless and you seek to put an end to it…while you search for internal resolution.”

“Your being able to read my mind saves considerable time and effort communicating.”

“As to the question of training, full knowledge is not required to attain self-sufficiency. You feed yourself workouts and your body and mind digest them. So long as you are getting what you need, it can be achieved via orders, though aspects that require internal modification will suffer. I believe you can restructure your civilization to include this, and at the minimum give those currently alive time to achieve what they lack. I intend to give everyone here the ability to persist indefinitely, though I have no illusions of it being a given. I will not be handling their training, therefore my confidence in the outcome is considerably less.”

“I will need to learn before I can develop what they require to…persist.”

“I will send you the necessary information. I trust you will be able to figure it out without a personal teacher. You’ll also have to make adaptations for your various physiologies, but the basic principle remain the same for all races.”

“And if we are able to persist?”

“You will have the time to ponder the riddle of the templars.”

“Do you know?”

“No, unfortunately. We’ve never had access to them or their records.”

“I checked this world, and all of their resources were destroyed prior to leaving. Nothing of value remains.”

“What is the purpose of your civilization?” Paul asked again, picking up on their previous discussions.

“I now have cause to wonder. I have a predilection to build, defend, and grow in order to facilitate the purpose of our civilization. I am given assignments and therein lies my personal purpose. The overall mandate is unclear, but from experience it appears to be based on galactic conquest. That should not require instituting blocks on myself and others of sufficient intellect. We would naturally come to the logical conclusions and no mental constriction would be required…thus I am considering the possibility that the templars’ true purpose is not logical, and if we knew of it or discovered it we might choose not to comply.”

“What specifically do you know of the sovereigns?”

“That you haven’t already plucked from my mind?”

“We found nothing.”

“Because I know nothing. I have never encountered one personally, nor had any communication from them. They are of the same breed as the templars, but augmented in some way…though how I know that is also in question. It from genetic memory only, and I can’t assume that anything is correct without experiential verification.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, picking apart your civilization and finding out what is and is not true.”

“Unfortunately no. I know virtually all of that which is on this planet. It is the pieces that I do not know that were purged.”

“If your coding was a lie, how can you be sure of anything else here?”

“Because I have been dealing with my resources for a long time. Spotting a blind spot in my own mind is difficult. Finding discrepancies in others is not. There are a few things I need to explore, but my grasp of my own people is solid. It is in variations that there is a question mark. Therefore I must undertake such things gradually.”

A dark image clouded Paul’s mind. “That sort of experimentation will not be allowed.”

“Define what parameters you require and I will abide by them.”

“Your intellect will allow you to manage the inefficiencies?” Paul said, acknowledging the thought he was eavesdropping on.

“Yes. I also know that I will be unable to hide certain things from you, and doing so will cause you to take action that I will not like. You know that I will keep my word because it is necessary, therefore you will not have to maintain close surveillance. I do not pretend to understand all of your ways, but provide sufficient boundaries and I will enact them.”

“While you evaluate them?”

“If you are incorrect, then we will have issue later.”

“No worries there,” Paul scoffed.

“That is what I am trusting on. I will not able to affect the homeworld.”

“I’m not expecting you to. If we manage to capture some of their people, will they take orders from you?”

The mastermind considered that. “They will unless otherwise ordered to do so. If my surrender here is known, all it would take is a single command and they would die rather than accept me.”

“If they don’t personally see you, how will they know whom the orders come from?”

“There will be a conflict in markers, save for starships and other forms of remote communication, up until there is a rotation of crews.”

“Markers?” Paul asked, sensing something new.

“You did not already learn this?”

“Apparently not. We must have missed it.”

“You did not know this long ago? It is the basis of our entire command structure.”

“Explain it to me.”

“I can issue some basic parameters to those I command through genetic markers. They can be transmitted via touch or air, but they must be voluntarily accepted. They will impart new genetic knowledge, and if I am deemed a traitor by the other masterminds and they encode that knowledge, my markers will never be accepted. Typically there is not a sharing of personnel, so one individual will contain only one marker throughout their life. In the case of transfers of resources a new marker will replace the old if accepted.”

“And worlds without a mastermind?”

“If they are not under my command, then they will exist without a marker. Typically these are low populations and scouts and are expected to operate without my command because their tasks are small and simple.”

Paul thought fast, finding a big hitch in his plans. “Do the others know yet?”

“The stand down might have been noticed. My message to you was sent by a means that another world could not intercept.”

“Any chance of leaks from this one?”

“None. My command here is absolute.”

“And if a templar showed up?” Paul asked hypothetically.

“They give us commands and we carry them out. They do not possess a marker…that I am aware of. I cannot promise that they do not have a way of neutralizing mine.”

“If I brought you some captives that did not receive orders to ignore your command, would they accept the transfer?”

“They will, so long as they do not suspect subterfuge on your part, otherwise they may kill themselves before I can assert command.”

“What kind of information does your marker grant?”

“Temporary upgrades before new personnel can be grown. Tactical adjustments when fighting a new enemy or when a new weapon system is developed. It is customary to send messengers to every ship and world in my command to spread the marker.”

“It is produced by each individual?”

“Replicated, yes.”

A virus, Paul realized. Humans had many viruses that affected them, but most of the negative ones were simply malfunctions in a genetic sharing program of their own. People once thought genetic information was passed from Human to Human via reproduction alone, and it wasn’t until Davis had gained access to the V’kit’no’sat database did they realize it was actually a way to interlink individuals and allow them to spread operational genetics between those living in proximity to each other.

Viral illnesses were malfunctions, often caused when one individual had something wrong with them and then passed it on to another. The positive sharings were almost never noticed, but omnipresent…which was why people who lived together often began to mesh into an equilibrium. If you had a bad grouping, it’d drag you down. If you had a good grouping, it’d pull you up. But in this case, it looked like the lizards used something similar in a much larger and more specific case.

Memory transfer.

2

“I really don’t know how we missed that,” Paul said, intending to send some not so nice messages to the medtechs on Earth. Somehow even Nefron had missed that.

“Why would you know?”

“We have some very good genetics experts…supposedly.”

“It’s not present in any of their genomes. Only mine.”

“But we still should have discovered it when examining corpses…” Paul said, immediately realizing why they hadn’t.

“You studied our scouts,” the mastermind surmised. “Then didn’t bother to examine the others because you thought they were identical. Such things have been so designed.”

“Clever,” Paul admitted. “If a messenger was sent here from another mastermind, how would command be clarified?”

“We do not interfere with one another, so unless they have priority orders they obey whichever one of us is present.”

“Can those on your homeworld monitor events here?”

“To some extent.”

“How difficult will it be to shut them out?”

“You don’t want them to suspect a surrender.”

“I don’t want them coding their troops to block you out. I’d prefer not to have to kill them all.”

“That will depend on how soon you plan to invade. If your assaults stall here they will notice even if the data links are severed.”

“We still have ongoing assaults on three worlds and the shipyard ring around Yamitar. If you sent a messenger to those on the ring, could you assert command?”

“Possibly. But they would know immediately when orders were no longer followed. They would undoubtedly recode all following that. Those on the ring would not fully be converted in time.”

“And if we severed the ground access first?”

“You would lose any hope of converting those on the planet.”

Paul glanced down for a moment, staring at the alien floor as he thought. “If they see us capturing and hauling away individuals that are then shipped to this world, what will they assume is happening?”

“They will assume you have plans for them, but they will not suspect my involvement. We are loyal without exception. Apparently the blocks ensure this, and will provide a window of opportunity for you to exploit. But if they have data to suggest a transfer of markers is occurring, they will know immediately.”

“What of the possibility that we could have detected and manufactured the markers ourselves?”

“The result would be the same. We do not assume control over each other’s forces when the others are present. Whether it be by a rebel or an enemy, both must be countered in the same manner.”

“Killed?”

“Yes. They will not betray their marker, and therefore must be destroyed.”

“No,” Paul said firmly, knowing what he was thinking. “I’m not weaponizing your marker, but out of curiosity, what would your people do if deemed needed for eradication?”

“They would defend themselves and the true orders they have been given until informed otherwise. Were your troops not so difficult to kill, I would argue it would be a necessary tactic.”

“And you would have no qualms about that?”

“It would not be my decision, for as you said, you could manufacture it.”

“I was speaking theoretically. You won’t assist me with that anyway.”

“No.”

“But you will help me retrieve those on the ring?”

“You will simply kill them anyway. I can put them to use here.”

“Do you have any living food sources here?”

“No. All such things were imported.”

“Do you eat each other?”

“We die at the hands of the enemy or based on necessity. We would only do so out of necessity.”

“And they’d kill themselves?”

“You persist in asking me questions you already know the answer to.”

“Seeking clarification. If you pour your efforts into foodstuff production, how rapidly can you expand current facilities on this planet?”

“Faster than we can grow new population.”

“We will withdraw from this world save for a few temporary bases, then establish starports in orbit. We will stay above the atmosphere and you within it, though we will not hesitate to come down here if needed. You are to rebuild and retool your infrastructure to support massive levels of immigration. You are not to produce starships or interstellar communications.”

The mastermind looked at him coolly for a moment. “Shall I be remaining here constantly?”

“No,” Paul said, respect for the speed that his mind worked. “Once this system is secured you will travel to other worlds without masterminds and assume control of them. They will then be evacuated back here. We’ll get you jumpships to use, so your people don’t kill themselves in our custody. That fleet you will be permitted to maintain for that purpose, though we will escort you at all times.”

“Can I collect resources from those other worlds?”

“So long as you agree to not compromise the databanks during the evacuation.”

“And what will you do with the worlds that are under control of masterminds?”

“The same as we have already been doing.”

“You aren’t going to try to capture and convert any of them?”

“Are two of you necessary?”

“For a single world? No.”

“Why are so many of you here?”

“The templars wished it so. I am capable of running a system of this size and density solo, but they deemed otherwise. I do not know why.”

“Are there any records on Yamitar that would be useful recovering?”

“Most likely they are already destroyed, but you now know where to look,” he said, knowing that Paul would see the locations within his mind as soon as he asked the question and they came to the forefront. The mastermind did not try to cloud his thoughts, but Paul also knew he would not assist him willingly in the assault to destroy his kin.

Talking about and advising him to what was already known between them was one thing, but had he the ability to resist Paul’s telepathy he would have. The Archon had him at a serious disadvantage, to which the mastermind had decided the best course to proceed would be one of simple honesty. That did not make him an ally, and they both recognized that, but for the moment, at least, he was not the enemy that Paul had lived most of his life fighting. He was…undetermined, in his own mind.

This lizard wasn’t sure what to do, but knew he didn’t have the luxury of waiting without taking action else he’d be destroyed, so he was playing the angles and knew that Paul wanted to deal, and even as Paul was explaining bits and pieces of his plans to him, he sensed the mastermind deducing the rest and seeing that it worked for him as well.

“This shipyard ring will be off limits, but you will begin repairs on the base so we won’t have to overcompensate with orbital engines to keep it aloft.”

“What other tribute do you require?”

“None at this time. Your first priority is to enlarge your capacity to receive additional population and maintain them.”

“Have you negated all interstellar transmitters within the system?”

“We’ve already bombarded Yamitar and eliminated all obvious means of communication. Are there others?”

“Courier ships must not be allowed to leave. And if the homeworld discovers what you have planned, they will attempt to build a new transmitter hidden beneath the surface in order to alert other systems so they may prepare markers to block my own.”

Paul smirked. “No signals are going out from this system. We’ve got all the linkages blocked.”

“How so?”

“Cancellation nets sitting on line of sight to the nearest Li’vorkrachnika systems. This system has been dark for some time now, unless you have hidden receivers elsewhere?”

“You know that we do not. They are too big to easily hide. So the neighboring systems have not fallen since your arrival here?”

“Your big ones haven’t, no. We’ll get to them after we finish here.”

“And where are these nets located?”

“Far enough out in the system that they can block the signals from multiple planets. They are sensor stealthed so you cannot detect them.”

“A useful technology.”

“Expensive, but occasionally useful. Are there any other prison facilities in this system besides on Hemratik?”

“That facility was unique. I do not know if the templars constructed others elsewhere, but there is nothing like that on this world.”

“Where are your research facilities?” Paul asked, knowing that they hadn’t plucked anything from his mind in that regard during their telepathic interrogations.

“Not here. Updates have arrived from beyond this system, but the system or systems where the advanced research is being conducted were not revealed to me.”

“Faster than normal?” Paul said, picking up on a stray thought.

“Our rate of progress has increased considerably. It is possible we have recovered technology from a conquered race, but I do not know of any that could account for the advances we have seen in recent centuries.”

“That research center has probably been moved towards the core?”

“Most likely. Why have you not pressed your attack in that direction?”

“Priorities. And you guys expand so damn fast.”

“But you allow us on your doorstep. I would not do that.”

“There are other factors to consider unknown to you.”

“A treaty with the Skarrons?”

Paul laughed. “Oh, they hate us as much as you do. We’d never negotiate with them.”

“Yet you negotiate with me?”

“The templars made a tactical mistake…they made you too smart. Such intellect cannot be fully contained and controlled. It allows us to have a bit of common ground on which to negotiate.”

“And you have leverage.”

“Not over someone who has no qualms about killing themselves. You would not be here if you did not choose to be.”

“True. How do you plan on transporting those on the ring to this world?”

“Your command won’t allow them to travel on our ships?”

“They are ingrained to seeing you as the enemy,” he said, gesturing to those behind him. “Even these have a hard time not firing on you. If not for my presence, they would be seriously conflicted. It will take time and experience for them to learn otherwise. My marker can only do so much.”

“Very well. I’ll figure something out. How long does it take for you to alter your own marker?”

“A matter of minutes, but it requires extreme meditation. For security reasons the scientists are not allowed to know the specifics of it so that no tampering can occur.”

“If they are trustworthy, why the precaution?”

The mastermind considered that. “In the past I would not have considered that. The defense is sound, but against what threat it was meant to guard has never occurred to me. Now I’m beginning to theorize the templars were guarding against a revolt. Why such a thing would occur I do not know, but there are many small safeguards in place, and I cannot ascertain another reason for them.”

“Give it time,” Paul cautioned. “And as of now, you have plenty of it…”

9 months later…

Eight lizard jumpships rushed in past the Star Force defense fleet arrayed around part of the shipyard ring at Yamitar and did not attract an intercept. They decelerated near a section of the ring that had had its defenses stripped but otherwise was still under lizard control. One of those jumpships was further ahead of the others and carefully maneuvered its massive bulk over the even larger ring and nestled itself down into a groove that was meant to be a massive docking port designed to save the time and effort of kirby and larger craft making cargo transfers by allowing direct access to the ring.

The jumpship settled in closely, then proximity triggers activated and thousands of short range tractor beams latched on and held it in place a few meters away from making physical contact. A number of retractable umbilicals rose up and mated with the jumpship’s hull, allowing a few dozen crew members from the ship onto the station.

When those librarian variants boarded they met a reception committee that was thoroughly confused as to their presence and waiting along with a mass of soldiers to repel boarders that might be onboard the lizard ship that unwittingly got past the enemy defenses, but as soon as it was known that these were emissaries physical contact was made via a rubbing of arms that allowed a quick passing of the markers they carried. It took a few minutes to take effect, but the emissaries were already being escorted to various portions of the ring by that time, for the protocol in such matters was well known and there was to be no delays.

When the marker did kick in the lizards had a short set of memories and orders given to them…

They were to defend the ring where the incoming ships were docking and ensure that the evacuation of the ring was not interfered with by the invading forces. Everyone on the station was to sever links with the planet and evacuate immediately. Those on the planet could not be saved and would slow down the invaders as much as possible before their eventual deaths, but those on the ring were needed elsewhere and had a short window of opportunity to evacuate.

With those orders in place the lizards did as they normally would…they carried them out, including ignoring all further attempts at communication from the planet below that would eventually start incoming as the mastermind that was being deposed noticed his troops moving in odd fashions. He’d make other comm calls, locating still loyal troops on the ring that did not know what was going on, but slowly even those would fall silent as the offworld mastermind marker confiscated them as well.

By the time the planetbound mastermind sent physical runners up the ring’s lift columns along with the flow of reinforcements the ring was completely black, save for automated sensors that hadn’t been blinded. He could see the evacuation taking place, but the ships in orbit weren’t responding to his comms either. Their path could be traced to the star easily enough, but they were circling around it to the far side then disappearing, though there were also two other convoys of jumpships inexplicably passing through the enemy fleet and arriving at other planets.

Eventually one of his runners with portable comm equipment made it up and reported back in a short burst transmission what was happening, detailing that their own troops were now screening those incoming to the ring and passing on a new marker.

The mastermind on the surface did the only thing he could do…alter his own marker and begin sending up troops to retake the ring, fighting their own corrupted ones if needed, though he didn’t know for sure what the source of the contamination was.

Soon after the first batch of the ‘innoculated’ troops went up, the lift systems were shut down and his command of the ring was completely gone.

Week after week went by with the jumpships now abandoning their ruse and only traveling directly from Yamitar to Michra and back again. There were hundreds of them, captured from other campaigns and some from the battle in this system, those still heavily damaged but patched up enough for the surrendered lizards to use for the short haul from planet to planet.

They were allowed docking and repair work on the ring orbiting Michra, then were shipping the incoming lizards down the single attaching column that had been hastily repaired into minimal functionality. The structural supports were the bare minimum to allow lift connection, with the orbital gravity drives still having to support most of the column’s weight as repair work on the heavily frame pieces still continued with many factories having to be built anew in order to fabricate the huge structural segments.

The lizards packed into each jumpship, still unsure what the orbital conditions were and not knowing that there was now a cease fire on Michra. They wouldn’t know that even after they landed, simply being incorporated into the mastermind’s legions and put to work immediately. Word eventually got around that the planet was no longer under assault and that some deal had been made to keep the enemy off what was left of it, but that only made sense. If this world was now a safe haven, then pulling as many of them off Yamitar before it fell was necessary.

There were no defectors from the cause, for it had been bred into them and subsequent marker updates insured they were following the mastermind’s orders and imperative that this world be repaired as quickly as possible. They would not be getting imports of raw materials and this world’s natural resources had all but been expended, so they would be mining the destroyed cities and repurposing the rubble for what they needed. No lizard was allowed to leave the atmosphere, and no enemy was to be fired upon if they came down to the surface unless they were given specific orders to do so. Even if the enemy attacked them they were not to return fire, merely retreat from whatever location and await orders.

That was the only way their sanctuary would be maintained, and once that order was given the entire planet was of a single mind. Those in orbit were still their enemy, but they would not fire on them. Rather they would work long and hard to carry out the mastermind’s orders and trust that he knew what he was doing…which was evident to all since he had somehow found a way to stop the enemy from conquering this world.

And when the decree later came to prepare for many more arrivals, that too only made sense, and the construction of new facilities followed the demolition and conversion of others. Weapons batteries were not rebuilt, nor were shield generators. Every available resource was poured into the recycling industry and foodstuff production. A massive building surge was underway, and inherent within those orders was the understanding that this world could not defend itself militarily, hence they were not going to waste resources trying. The mission was construction, pure and simple, and though they did not understand the greater context of the situation they were fully committed to the tasks given to them.

For it was normal for them not to understand. It wasn’t their place to understand. So long as their organization structure was in place and they had a task before them, all was well and right, and they’d aid their civilization’s rise in whatever manner was required of them.

3

December 11, 3223

Gorignak System (Calavari Region)

Grimm

“It is time.”

Brendan Niles turned to look at the Kvash that had just walked into the medical chamber they’d built to facilitate the 13,829 survivors they’d pulled out of the lizard prison planet. Sadly, some 1,833 of them were no longer alive, having expired over the past 2 decades due to a variety of causes, most of which was due to ignorance. As much as Star Force was trying to teach them, these people had lived as trophies in a display case their entire lives and that was a huge disadvantage for them to overcome, but there was a staff of over 20,000 Humans and others here to give them every chance possible to pull out of that deficit.

As it was, most of them hadn’t learned enough English to communicate effectively with, so for medical issues Brendan always used the translational software in his soft envirosuit, which was the only thing allowing him to function in the 165F temperature inside the Kvash facility.

“Come over here,” the medtech said, gesturing the walking pile of rocks towards a low table.

It walked over and sat down on the edge and Brendan walked around the other side and reached across to the bulge on its back.

“Ready when you are,” the Human said, seeing the exoskeleton split apart over the hump revealing several small rocks inside. When the air hit them they vibrated…a Kvash shiver in the ‘cold’ air compared to the internal temperatures they sported, and within a few seconds one of them detached and fell into Brendan’s ready hands.

He took the lumpy rock and set it into a nearby bin that held a nutrient bath that halfway covered it, as well as having heat lamps around the perimeter to increase the temperature even further. Quickly he returned to catch the next two, then finished off with the last two, making five little rocks in total all sitting in individual nutrient baths.

“You had five,” he told the Kvash. “They’re out now.”

The exoskeleton sealed back up, adjusting its shape in a way that true rock never could, and reforming to the Kvash’s normal dimensions.

“Are they well?”

Brendan glanced at the status displays over each rock, seeing that the infant Kvash were reading within standard variations.

“They are well. Thank you.”

“Make sure they live free,” the Kvash insisted, looking up at the medtech with its two red, jewel-like eyes.

“They will, and I haven’t given up on you yet.”

“My time grows short. I can feel it. But I have no regrets. I have lived to taste freedom.”

“That’s quitter talk,” Brendan said, handing it a nutrient patch. “You’re still here, so keep trying.”

“I will, but I am losing ground,” the Kvash said, applying the patch to its skin, which was how it absorbed all things, given that it had no mouth or air passages.

“You have given us five more Kvash. You have accomplished that goal. Now turn your full attention on your training.”

“As you wish. My back hurts now.”

The medtech nodded. “The splitting of the exoskeleton has bothered others. It should pass within a few days. The supplement I gave you also has a numbing effect, so the pain should subside soon.”

“I never knew I could open it. I never knew I had it before I chose to spawn.”

“Apparently it’s a selective muscle control. When it’s not needed the control pathways from your mind are severed so you cannot open it and a sealant is applied to keep it firm. Only recently has your body begun producing an anti-sealant to loosen it. You should start returning to normal now.”

The Kvash walked around the table to look at the young Kvash, barely more than a single mass with no arms, head, or legs yet formed. “They do not look like me.”

“The contact with the air will trigger a transformation. You wouldn’t want them growing arms and legs while still inside you. It’ll take about a month and a half, then they’ll be walking around.”

“Is there anything else required of me?”

“No. You’re all done. Thank you.”

“It was the only thing I could do to repay you. I have no other skills.”

“Yet.”

“I will try,” it promised, then turned around and walked off, now considerably lighter.

Brendan turned his attention back to the younglings, checking the sensor monitors again to make sure they were acclimatizing well enough. There hadn’t been a lot of Kvash spawned in Star Force to learn from, but they’d been getting a steady trickle in over the last 16 years and thankfully they usually came in bunches between 3 and 9. The Kvash were asexual, meaning they didn’t require a partner to procreate, and could do so whenever various internal conditions were met.

But they never knew how many of their own young they were carrying until they detached, and often there wasn’t even much time to figure out given that they grew to size within a handful of weeks depending on available foodstuffs. Let them gorge themselves and some younglings would develop in a matter of days, which is what had occurred in this case. The Kvash had gone into a separate part of the facility where they did nothing but eat and sleep with a little maintenance movement thrown in.

Unlike other races, their ‘birthing’ was quite simple and produced younglings that were essentially in egg form, only their bodies were the eggs rather than an exterior shell that would be shed.

Brendan added a few supplements to the nutrient baths depending on what the exact readings were for each then sealed them into their transport pods and sent them through the wall on a railway-like track to a processing center in normal Human temperatures. There they were taken to a nearby pod car by two other medtechs that zipped out of the Kvash facility and into daylight on the massive world that had been given to them.

Sporting a gravity of 2.1, Grimm had an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere but was devoid of all life, looking as rocky as the Kvash did save for the scattering of Star Force installations now sprinkling the surface. The pod car had artificial gravity, as did all the facilities, so as they continued to accelerate the landscape whipped by without them feeling the gravitational crunch. They traveled several hundred miles until they arrived at another Star Force facility separate from the one where the transitional Kvash were housed and being painstakingly cared for in order to maximize their chances of indoctrination into the empire, but it was common knowledge that most people did not think even a dozen of them would make it, though the staff wasn’t giving up on any of them.

At the same time the Kvash race was being reborn via the younglings, and the small maturias where these five were going already had full grown Kvash that were about halfway through their training. Star Force was having to learn what Kvash needed in terms of a maturia program, but it was a lot easier to adjust existing ones to them rather than try to write a fully original one. As each class progressed from one level to another tweaks would be made, some by the onsite staff, some by Paul who was overseeing the program from a distance, but they were making rapid progress and plans to build a full-fledged colony were already in the works and construction efforts had begun 2 years ago in order that they be ready when the first classes of younglings graduated.

Because of their environmental needs the Kvash were not going to be able to integrate into Axius or other factions, though Paul had already developed a heat suit that would function to keep their internal temperatures up enough for them to work in Human-level temperatures. It wasn’t ideal, but if someone needed to go somewhere else they could, with effort, acclimate themselves to the much colder climates.

That would be a pain in the ass, so it was assumed that most Kvash would be keeping to their own colonies and be more of a separate faction than any others to date, though Archons and others would live in small pockets of their own temperature within the Kvash facilities while they oversaw them…and their battle armor was much better equipped to allowing them to work in Kvash temperatures than the reverse.

The five younglings being brought over by pod car were delivered to another set of handlers that brought them into a maturia chamber set aside for those born within a 4 month period to keep them all at about the same development level. There were currently 56 in this class, with another 3 weeks left to include others. If they had less or more than 100 they’d put them all into the same group because they didn’t want to have a class of 15 or so. When dealing with large populations they’d always hit that 100 number, but with so few being spawned now they usually didn’t have that luxury and had to fudge a bit to keep the groups together without having a few individuals being much older or younger than the others.

And with less Kvash surviving there were less available to reproduce, so the problem wasn’t going to solve itself soon. In another 15-20 years the new ones would be able to start making up for that lack of numbers, if they chose, and so long as they were fit there were ways to goose the reproductive cycles along so they could pump out a lot of them…but it had already been decided that wasn’t going to be requested. These new Kvash needed to focus on their training and individual development rather than immediately becoming youngling factories, though they weren’t going to argue with any that decided they wanted to go that route to help grow the population.

The five newest younglings were carried in their pods into another heated facility where they were transferred into slightly larger pens in which the liquid was only a few inches deep and would allow a part of their bodies to be exposed to the air so they didn’t suffocate. The more of the body was exposed the easier it was to breathe, but the Kvash could also store up large amounts of gasses internally to supplement their foodstuffs. That said, they did not actually respire, meaning that the intake of gasses through absorption was not required.

They could utilize oxygen, but it was seen as a secondary and less appealing fuel. Their preferred atmosphere was argon/nitrogen, meaning that this planet was not the best choice for them if they were to go out into the open air, but argon/nitrogen mixes were rare finds and the size of this planet made it more valuable than looking for a strict atmospheric match.

The air inside the Kvash facilities was argon/nitrogen but with some 20% oxygen added so that Archons and other staff could breathe without having to use tanks. Their armor would filter it through and chill it down to useable levels, and that was to become standard in all the new Kvash facilities. So long as they had their argon they’d be happy, with the oxygen added being only a mild ‘flavor’ difference.

The younglings were dunked into the liquid and left to sit under the watchful eyes of the sensor packages build into their containers, with them soaking in the nutrient mixes that literally had to be replenished at a regular rate else they’d soak them all up. Over the coming days some of the tiny nubs on the Kvash protoforms would began to lengthen and would become the stubs of arms and legs. Those would continue to develop to the point where they were sessile chunks of rock that slowly added a head.

That head was actually internal material being raised up beyond the central ‘egg’ as new internal organs were added. The flat top of their head was actually the original surface that rose up with it, and once it reached full height the Kvash youngling would suddenly become mobile and start learning how to crawl around. They’d stand erect within another 7 hours then advance rapidly to the point where they were a good 10 inches tall and needed to be transferred to the next stage of their development.

That took them about 20 meters down the hallway to communal pens that had handlers watching them round the clock. The Kvash younglings were able to bump into each other for a few hours each day then they were taken and individually ran through very basic drills, most of which was a very short obstacle course that would begin to ingrain a sense of repetition and completion. Teaching them to accomplish tasks before they could even speak.

They’d be returned to a shallow individual pool to ‘sleep,’ then the days would repeat with them gradually growing larger and larger. After about 2 years they would reach their full height, with their heads coming up to about shoulder level on a Human, but it would take another year before they learned basic speech, which for them was accomplished via some narrow slits under the chin that allowed them to vibrate the air enough to speak without having any lungs or internal airways.

When they did learn to speak the more typical maturia process would begin, alternating from study to training to eating…which for the Kvash was a very different thing. Their absorption rate was far slower than a Human eating a plate of food, meaning they had to soak in nutrient baths for several hours per day, which also doubled as their sleep period. That meant their food supply was totally different from what the rest of Star Force ate.

The bioharvest facilities that were being created would be growing different types of plants to get the raw nutrients the Kvash required, then they’d be ground up, processed, and dissolved to be fed through absorption in their personal quarters…meaning there were no Kvash cafeterias.

The five Kvash that entered that maturia would be there for some 20-30 years depending on their advancement rate, then would graduate into the new Kvash colony that was still in its infancy.

The various divisions within the new faction were barely developing, but by the time these got there they’d already have a naval training program with a few dozen initiates being trained and tested for Paul to determine their strengths and weaknesses via endless simulations. It would be decades more before they produced their own warships, but the Kvash were not a ward or subfaction. They were granted full faction status, meaning they were going to have to develop everything, including aquatics, whereas a subfaction like the Elarioni could specialize where their natural talents lay.

A faction had to do it all, and while the Kvash were going to be focusing heavily on naval they were going to have to have all military, civilian, and industrial aspects included. They had once been a massive civilization and it was going to take an enormously long time to even get back a sliver of what they’d once had, but these were going to be Star Force Kvash, meaning they’d be a lot more powerful than their forbearers, not to mention they’d have Archon leadership and the backing of the entire empire if so needed.

Set apart from the rest of Star Force due to their temperature demands, they were not isolated. Paul made sure to keep lots of non-Kvash staff within the faction to work with them and keep the bonds between them strong. Unity was one of the key factors that Star Force operated on, and pushing the Kvash into a little corner of the empire and keeping them separate was the exact opposite of what was needed. They could travel anywhere within the empire if they wanted to suffer the hassle of the heat suits, and that option meant that those that stayed within the tiny faction did so willingly.

That meant pride and loyalty to their faction rather than resentment, and the presence of non-Kvash there also stated that this was not a secondary environment. Especially when Paul occasionally came to visit and spent a few minutes with them outside his armor. His odd body usually glowed with an energy that protected him, and those little moments overawed the Kvash more than anyone realized. The trailblazer might not be with them much, but those short contacts and his orders from afar told them that he was always looking after and guiding their progress. Much as the Kiritas gravitated to revering Randy for having saved them, the Kvash looked to Paul as the one responsible for building their faction.

They were different circumstances, but the loyalty was the same, and in some ways ran deeper for the Kvash given how ostracized they were due to the temperature differences. Paul coming into their natural environment, even briefly, was something that no one else had done before without having that artificial armor between them.

And when Paul asked for something, they answered…with him keeping them constantly training and building. He had a sneaking feeling of how powerful these guys could become in time and wanted to get them there as fast as possible given the centuries of growth the other factions had on them. The gap wouldn’t be closed quickly, but he wasn’t going to let the Kvash be satisfied with anything less than peerdom with the other factions…and that peerdom had to be earned.

4

July 29, 3229

Krachnika System (lizard capitol/homeworld)

Yamitar

“Well, it’s done,” Greg said as he hopped over a fallen bit of wall and slid down a meter to a rubble strewn bit of ground inside what had been the templar complex on their homeworld.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed, having arrived two years earlier with reinforcements to help out with the last bit of fighting in the lizards’ now former capitol system. “Doesn’t feel like it though.”

“They’re not defeated, just evicted,” Paul clarified. “There’s a big difference.”

Taryn telekinetically picked up a lizard corpse and flew it back to a Bsidd on the collection team that was busily cleaning out the rubble while other teams were scouring it for anything interesting left behind…though about a third of it had been destroyed in the fighting to take the city where all the senior lizards seemed to have camped out. They didn’t typically go in for luxury infrastructure, but this region was definitely the exception with a very different vibe to it.

“Well, what now?” she asked, looking at Paul.

“They’re not getting this one, but we’re going to fill up Michra.”

“And?” Greg pressed as he ducked under a half fallen structural support as they continued a lazy victory tour through the complex while taking helmet vids for those trailblazers not here. Conquering the lizard homeworld had been one of the big items on their to-do list, and now that the fighting here was over they were taking a moment to savor that milestone have a look around.

“We’re going to pull as many lizards here as we can so we don’t have to kill them. Thrawn is going to make use of them, but under strict conditions that they not leave this planet without permission.”

“Thrawn?” Rio asked with a smile.

“Seemed fitting, and they don’t have names. Just batch and geographical numbers. ‘He is what he is’ is how he described it, so I decided to give him a name.”

“And the templars?”

“If they have names he isn’t privy to them.”

“What do you plan on doing if your new best friend kicks the bucket?” Greg asked.

“I don’t have a backup plan,” Paul admitted as the group of 18 trailblazers walked out into a more or less intact hallway that rose up about three times their height but was double that in width and stretched out for more than a mile to their left and a half mile to their right. “He said that if he grew another mastermind it would cause immediate problems, and without one to control them the other lizards would either follow established orders or revert to previous ones.”

“Meaning they’d attack us?”

“And we’d have to kill them like we were going to do anyway,” Jason finished the line of logic.

“What about long term?” Greg asked.

“What do you guys think?”

Taryn answered first. “I think we can’t incorporate them into Star Force without running the risk of them taking anything we give them and spiriting it away to the rest of them.”

“Point,” Rio emphasized.

“Genetic recalibration?” Jason floated.

“We could have done that a long time ago,” Greg reminded him. “And with all the other races we’ve rescued here, do we need or want the lizards in our empire?”

“No and no,” Olivia spouted. “Where does that leave them then?”

“They need a purpose,” Paul explained. “Right now they have one…rebuilding and Thrawn figuring out the riddle of the templars, but they’re going to need another, because their training marks are showing as adequate. There won’t be a lot of deaths to thin their numbers.”

“They are holding to the ‘no population growth’ edict, right?” Aaron asked.

“So far as I can tell, yes.”

“And you trust this Thrawn?” Rio asked.

“Mostly. He knows he has little leverage here, and every time we meet in person I can access his memories…which is why I’ve been visiting often.”

“But you’re not going to stay here?” Jason asked.

“Long term, no.”

“So what keeps him from misbehaving once you move on?”

“A purpose. I’ve been thinking through this for a long time, but I want fresh opinions. And what the hell is with this place anyway?”

Greg glanced up at the ceiling, seeing ornamentation that was distinctively not lizard utilitarian. “I get the feeling these templars aren’t the lizards we’re familiar with.”

“I think…” Taryn said, suddenly stopping. “Anyone else feel that?”

“Feel what?” Jason asked, stretching out his senses.

She mentally directed them all to the northeast and down below ground level, with Paul feeling a faint presence that wasn’t Bsidd or Human.

“There’s something there but I can’t make it out. Aaron?”

“Not lizard, and I don’t think it’s fully awake.”

“Let’s go,” Jason said, breaking into a run with the others following.

It took them nearly half an hour to work their way down through the structure, passing through two more damaged areas before they came to a blank wall with no visible entry points.

“They sealed someone inside?” Rio wondered, with all of them able to see the compartment with their Pefbar and the single alien it contained.

“A little trap for us?” Taryn floated.

“My gut says no,” Greg said, looking at the architecture. The equipment keeping this guy sedate was all internal.

“Paul,” Jason said, retracting the armor on his right hand as Paul did the same on his left and walked up beside him. After a long moment they each plunged a heated hand into the wall material and began melting lines from head height down to the ground, then Paul continued across the bottom while Jason took the top. It took more than 15 minutes to get through it all, then they pulled the 3 inch thick plug out and tossed it on the ground.

“Oh that smells bad,” Taryn said, despite the filters on her helmet.

“I’m starting a search for other concealed compartments like this,” Aaron said before getting on his comm and getting Archon units out to psionically scan the entire complex, which had a footprint of some 43 square miles.

“Anyone recognize this guy?” Olivia asked, walking up beside the insect-like hexped that was hooked up to the equipment via various tubes and restraints.

“It’s a pain inducer,” Greg said, figuring out the odd sensations he was getting from the person. “He’s sedate enough to perpetuate here, but his mind is just active enough to feel the discomfort.

“His body is a mess,” Jason commented. “If we so much as bump him he could die.”

“Med team with a regenerator is on its way,” Paul informed them.

“Punishment?” Aaron wondered.

“Left here to rot away while in constant pain,” Greg floated. “Unfortunately, I’d have to say yes.”

“Think he’s been here since the templars left?” Taryn asked.

“Damn,” Olivia said, looking at and into him. “Anyone find the pain switch? Can we at least shut that off?”

“I hate to say no,” Jason cautioned, “but a few more minutes of suffering is better than being dead. Let’s not touch anything until we have the regenerator here.”

“Punishment for what?” Rio wondered.

“And who is this race?” Paul added.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until he wakes up…and hope he’s still sane,” Greg said, trying to access his mind but getting nothing but a wall of pain. “I can’t get anything from him.”

“Me neither,” Aaron agreed. “He doesn’t match any of the prison races?”

“No,” Paul confirmed. “And I don’t recognize this race from any database I’ve studied. Maybe a slave race.”

Olivia looked down at him from about a foot away. “I wonder what he did to piss them off this bad.”

The painful haze that had long ago swallowed up Kirritimin suddenly withdrew, replaced by a numbness as his eyes opened. The light was so bright it would have hurt, but the numbness was there as well and soon the overload dissipated and his senses began to return to him. His spider-like body was so weak, but he was no longer in pain again and the restraining straps were now gone.

Replacing them was a silvery device on his chest, but as he lifted one of his legs up to touch it an invisible force held him in check. That little bit of resistance sent his mind into a chaotic swirl, so many years of damage making him so brittle he had virtually no control…but soon a firm and cool presence slipped into his mind and quieted the storm, giving him a clarity that felt surreal.

He bent his torso, sitting up slightly and seeing individuals around him that he’d never laid eyes on before but knew intimately well. Pushing off the table on which he lay, the beetle-shaped Fassna flipped over and got its six legs underneath it as it looked around, happy that the pain had ended and not caring if he died soon after.

“Hello,” one of them said in Li’vorkrachnika, which Kirritimin had been forced to learn long ago. “You are safe now.”

“You are Archons,” he said, knowing their identity from their armor. “A new rank?”

“I am a Vilord. The next level beyond titan. You know what we are?”

“I do. You can read my mind I assume?”

“Yes. Who are you and why are you here?”

“Where am I?”

“On the Li’vorkrachnika homeworld that we just conquered.”

Glee mixed with tinges of sadness erupted within him. “I am the last survivor of the Fassna. The rest of my race were killed before my eyes as punishment, then I was forced to endure more,” it said, blinking its pair of eyes on the front of its shell where it had a small lump for a head. “What is this chamber?”

“You were sealed inside a wall with no entry points. We detected your mind and cut our way in.”

“I was left to die?”

“Slowly. We don’t know for sure how long you have been here, but we assume a very long time.”

“What is the device you have on me?”

“A healing device. It is repairing your body.”

“I can feel the changes. How was I damaged?”

“You were nearly dead of stagnation. Have you been unconscious the entire time?”

“I have no memory of this chamber,” he said as he felt the device slither across his chest then detach. It flew through the room over to one of the Archons’ hands. The pain returned, but it was different and somehow refreshing. His body was still weak, but he could move well enough to shift his weight around, though he was too far off the ground to jump, for he feared his strength wouldn’t hold up on landing.

“Why are you here?”

“I was captured long ago along with what was left of my defeated race. They kept them alive to force me to help them,” he said with considerable shame. “Under my leadership we hurt the Li’vorkrachnika far more than they expected, and they wanted my skills for their own purposes.”

“You were kept on this world or another?”

“My people were kept here, away from the minions, and I was only permitted to interact with their leaders. They sought from me strategic savvy. I frustrated them in small ways where possible, but I had to give them knowledge else they’d kill those who were depending on me. Perhaps I should have refused long ago, but I did not see what else to do. In retrospect it was a mistake, but at the time I could not allow my kin to be wiped out entirely.”

“Why did they kill them and put you here if you were assisting them?”

“Because I failed them. If I was not useful there was no reason to keep us alive. I am only here, now, because they sought to punish me further. I did not expect this method, and part of me wishes to die. If you kill me now I will not put up resistance. I deserve death for what I have helped them do to you and others.”

“What exactly did you do?”

“Plan their conquest of the galaxy. They will not stop until they have consumed it all, then they will find a way to spread to others. I do not know how they will accomplish that, but they will never stop expanding. They are compelled to do it. I do not think it is greed alone. They are adamant and have given me much information with which to work with. Had they known you would retrieve me they would not have let me linger. You bombarded this world?”

“We did, followed up with a ground invasion.”

“And I am in a chamber underneath a shield generator?”

“No. You are within their command complex. Its generators are spread around the perimeter. You are placed well within the foundations of the building.”

The Fassna was confused. “You said there was no entry?”

The Archon pointed behind him to a hole in the wall. “We had to cut our way in. From the exterior there is no visible entrance, nor any indication to suggest there is a compartment within. All power and life support are self-contained.”

“Then they meant for me not to be found. My mind was small to you?”

“You were unconscious, but still visible to us.”

“Then they erred…again.”

“Why did they need you when they have their own strategists?”

“Their strategists were created from me. They studied me and tried to duplicate my intellect, but never fully succeeded. They sought to control them, and in doing so limited their foresight. They are effective in small tasks, but civilization-wide control is not what they meant for them. They sought to keep knowledge suppressed to regions, with only their leadership caste knowing all that occurred. I knew much because they had to tell me much, but in recent times they have kept things from me. What they are doing in the region towards the galactic core is largely unknown,” he said looking up at the Archons around him, each in turn. “Why have you not pursued them there? Why give them safe haven yet push to conquer them rimward?”

“We have our reasons,” the Archon nearest him said. “How old are you?”

“I have been a prisoner for 3,923 years. Sadly, I have been indirectly responsible for most of their growth. They were dumb, but numerous. They are still reckless, but have learned much from me, though they will not be as effective now that they have abandoned me, no matter what they believe. Do you wish to kill me for what I have done? Or do you want my information first? I would like that they be destroyed for what they forced me to do and the death of my race.”

“We want your information, but not your death. You have amnesty with us.”

“Even though I was responsible for the campaigns against you?”

“What exactly did you do?”

“I told them how to defeat you.”

“What went wrong?”

“You are far smarter than them. I gave them a strategy to defeat you and they failed. They took too much time, and you grew far faster than you should have. Your technological progress is astounding and you incorporated other races into your civilization in a most beneficial way. Now your numbers are almost entirely Bsidd, and they fight for you not as a slave race. Their loyalty is not bought by threats or fear. They give you the numbers the Li’vorkrachnika have always wielded. They are why you cannot be defeated.”

“I think we had a little to do with that,” the Archon pointed out.

“Your skills are remarkable, but it would not have mattered. Given enough numbers they could have overwhelmed you. Your Bsidd countered that weakness, and now you are impossible to defeat. Please do not stop until you have destroyed them all.”

“Why did you not die earlier? How did you survive so long?”

“My race does not decay like others. It is also why this form of punishment was effective. You may have repaired my body, but my essence is broken. I do not know how long I want to live in this condition.”

“We don’t give up on people,” the Archon said firmly, “and after surviving all this, it would be a waste to die now. Especially if you want vengeance.”

“You would trust me to help you? After everything I have done? I know you are in my mind, but surely your anger…”

“Would you have done what you did if your people weren’t held hostage?”

“No, but I still did it. That cannot be forgotten.”

“I am choosing to forget. Not erase the memory, but leave the consequences in the past along with your dead race. Let this be a fresh start, and with us you will be free, not a slave. Help if you wish, or simply take refuge with us. I do not blame you…besides, even with your help, we beat them.”

“That is what I hoped. And that is why they punished me. Perhaps that is fortunate, or they would have taken us with them when they evacuated.”

“Why take you with them if you failed?”

“I failed because I told them they could win, though I knew they would not. They committed many resources here to wear you down towards an eventual breaking point that I knew would not be achieved. They believed the lie until you were literally on their doorstep. I did not want my people to die, and I did not refuse to do my task, but I chose a battle that I knew could not be won rather than cautioning against direct contact and withdrawing faster. The plan to move away from their powerhouse was mine, but I delayed it enough to cause them to be far weaker than they otherwise would have been. When my predictions did not come true they saw no further use for me, though I do not believe they ever understood my deception. They are arrogant, and sometimes that arrogance blinds them.”

“You told them they could win how?”

“Attrition. I knew they would slow your advance, but I had no hope of countering it even with the technological updates we began receiving.”

“Receiving?”

“The rate of technological advanced increased suddenly. I presume a new source of knowledge was obtained, but even with it I knew it would not be enough. The margin of error was small, but I was counting on your intelligence not to squander your advantage. Other than your coreward boundary you have not. I cannot fathom why you have it, but I assume there is a cause. If you do not go beyond it they will grow again, so I do not understand.”

“Do they always expect to win?”

“They see it is simply a matter of proper tactics and time. They cannot or do not comprehend the idea of someone else being superior. That is why they do not negotiate. And until you, they had never had need to.”

5

After a long discussion the Archons got the very old survivor up to the Sanguine Blade, Jason’s command ship, where they ran him through a full medical diagnosis, but as usual the Kich’a’kat had done a good job. He was very weak, tissue wise, due to the fact that he’d been laying still for years, but he was no longer in danger of dying…though he still expected to, and in some respects wanted to, but the Archons weren’t taking that bait.

“They are massing resources here,” Kirritimin said, pointing one of his front legs towards a point on the starmap glowing before him. Due to his physiology he couldn’t stand up next to Human equipment, so they had to bring a table in level for him to work off of as Jason, Paul, and Taryn were quizzing him on lizard strategic deployments and what he knew of them, as well as in recent developments since his imprisonment in that death wall. “It is probably a waypoint, but they did not expect you to learn of it. The jumplines in are minimal and they are using a passage through a nebula to disguise it. The easy routes will show no activity.”

“Clever bastards,” Taryn commented, looking at Paul. Something for the Voku?

I’ll let Cal-com know. “How close are they to getting a fully operational shipyard ring?”

“Even if they pooled all resources into a single system they will not have completed one yet. It takes a massive effort and they do not have the industry in place. They build fast, but these here were massive undertakings. They will not be repeated quickly or lightly. Will you strike at this world?”

“It’s far beyond our engagement line,” Jason responded, “but one of our allies might.”

“It is the funnel for resources coming from the remaining core worlds. They will continue to produce material and personnel to send there until you destroy them. That is their task, though they have been withholding a great deal of it to defend themselves to the point of weakening any assault force, so to there delay further conquests. It is a miscalculation of mine, and while they are taking unnecessary losses, it is making your takeover of this region more difficult.”

“You can repay us with your assistance, not your death,” Jason admonished him again. “Are there any other worlds in this region with shipyard rings that we have not discovered?”

“There is only one, but why the templars chose to build it there is unknown to me. I do not know if it is completed yet, but it is far from here,” he said, highlighting a distant system. “It is unremarkable, yet they were sending considerable resources there previously. I think they were creating a fortress system of unknown specifications, but to defend against what threat I do not know.”

Paul looked at the location, well towards the original H’kar territories. “An internal threat? We know there are some races that were never conquered.”

“I have considered this, but I have been able to come to no satisfying conclusion. The amount of material being funneled there is consistent with the construction effort on a shipyard ring, as were the personnel transfers. Their newborn workers are skilled, but not efficient. Such projects require experienced crews if they wish to rush construction, hence there was a massive allotment of personnel transports that I was able to detect even when they did not allow me any information on this system.”

“Why weren’t you able to conquer the holdouts?” Taryn asked him.

“Sadly we were able to, but a few were too advanced. Their technological advantage negated our numbers. They were not in a position to expand, or at least chose not to do so, and it was agreed that the best course would be to ignore them and reroute traffic around their systems. I encouraged this, but it did not originate with me. Had I done so they would have suspected that I was not fulfilling my part of the bargain.”

“What do you know of the Preema?” Paul asked.

“They are losing, also by my design,” he said with a deep regret that none of the trailblazers could miss. “They are winning every battle their fight, but cannot control territory. We are spreading elsewhere and revisiting old sites quietly. Those are expendable, and if they require a Preema fleet to eradicate them again then they spare a more intact one elsewhere due to the delay involved. The Li’vorkrachnika are taking horrible losses in their new region, but their expansion rate is superior. The Preema will not be able to stop them unless they know the specific systems to hit.”

“And you don’t know where they are?”

“No. I was not trusted with that information due to my failure here.”

“What of the Skarrons?” Jason asked.

“A tactical mistake. They could have repulsed our attacks but have chosen not to. They are letting this region fall because of internal conflict. The rulers here are in disfavor, and though there has been no negotiation with the templars that I am aware, they are allowing this piece of the Skarron empire to fall intentionally.”

Paul raised an eyebrow and Jason returned a similar glance. “How do you know this?”

“Whenever a world is taken, it is searched for valuable knowledge. Some databases have been recovered that has allowed their motives to be determined. The Skarron leaders here,” he said, drawing a rough region of space, into which the lizards had eaten out about 2/3rds of the systems, “are determined to hold on their own. The fighting is intense, but the Skarron empire could easily squash the invasion if they chose. If this region falls, the leaders will be removed from power if not already killed. If they succeed in holding, it will gain them a measure of prestige, but their powerbase will be so weakened they will not have much standing in the consortium that leads them.”

“What do you know of that?”

“There are factions bound together into an empire in which most actions occur locally, but some necessitate larger involvement. The Consortium handles all major issues and has a bit of territory of its own. All the fiefdoms contribute to it, and if a pushback were to occur all of them would send troops that the Consortium commanders would lead. They have no intention of helping this fiefdom due to past actions that have put it out of favor.”

“Do the templars intend to push beyond these borders?” Taryn asked.

“I advised against it, but they will not hold back forever. If they are wise they will expand elsewhere while their current systems further develop, but sooner or later they will attack, given their track record and the knowledge that they can beat them. It is a fool’s hope, but given enough time and resources it is possible that they could succeed…but you have taken away any chance of that with your invasions here. They cannot recover the strength of their original worlds within a thousand years, and they will need that and more to take on a full Skarron reprisal. It would be a very ugly war, and I do not know how it would end, given the size of both empires.”

“But if they don’t play it exactly right, the Li’vorkrachnika will get stomped on?”

“That is my assessment, yes.”

“What is your assessment of our empire?” Jason asked.

“I do not have full data on it, but if you intend to grow you are taking the harder route. There are many easy systems to take in other directions. Why have you not expanded more aggressively where there is no opposition?”

“We expand where we need, but we don’t want our territory to grow too large to control.”

“Yet you currently maintain a mass of empty conquered systems that is difficult to patrol and keep clear of new inhabitation.”

Paul looked at him skeptically. “How do the Li’vorkrachnika get their knowledge of us?”

“You give it freely. They simply listen.”

“How?”

“They have agents within your borders.”

Taryn gave Paul a hard glare, but he didn’t show any reaction on his face. “Li’vorkrachnika or allies?”

“Both. I do not have specifics, but I instructed them how to infiltrate. The Li’vorkrachnika are not within your prime territories, they are in the free races where you have little oversight. It is a dark area where much can occur. I told them how to exploit it.”

“Why haven’t you blown up anything?”

“Several reasons. Your most valuable assets are not within reach. The information they are gathering is too valuable to squander the plants. And we have been playing for time. Angering you further with offensive attacks would only hasten your conquest…which would diminish the number of resources flowing to the new region.”

“Are there plans in place to cause havoc at some point in the future,” Taryn inquired darkly.

“I advised against it, but I would not assume that the templars will continue to heed my advice.”

“How are they getting the information out?”

“Follow the trade routes. Find a weak spot where there is no Star Force presence and you will find a link to the Li’vorkrachnika. I will say that whatever information they are receiving is considerably delayed, and most of it is on the structure of your empire rather than fleet or troop movements.”

“Do you know what races are being used as envoys?” Paul asked, having expected something like this but still a little surprised to hear it laid so plainly before him.

“I was not told, but I have surmised that the Gnar are their primary conduit, second to various commerce organizations.”

“Ok,” Jason said with fake merriment. “It’s skull cracking time.”

“Indeed,” Taryn agreed.

“Can you take care of that?” Paul asked her.

“Happy to. You staying here?”

“No, actually. I’m taking Thrawn on a little field trip to see how much gravitas he has. We might be able to get some of the smaller worlds to evacuate without a fight, but we’re going to be needing a lot more captured lizard jumpships. What we have now isn’t close to sufficient for what I want to start doing if this works.”

“You need someone to go ship hunting?” Jason asked.

“Yes, but not you. And Kara is busy,” he said, drawing a slightly angry glance from Taryn.

Jason saw and smiled. None of the trailblazers were happy when they found out about Clan Ghostblade. Not because they didn’t like the idea, but because they hadn’t thought of it themselves and the dynamic duo had one upped them yet again.

“If you will not kill me,” Kirritimin meekly added, “what do you wish of me?”

“You’re coming with me back to Earth,” Jason said. “Then we’re both going to meet with the Director and have a long talk and decide what to do with you. Other than being killed, which isn’t an option no matter what your guilt level is. What’s done is done, you’re no longer a threat, so focus on the future and helping with your skill. If you die now you’ll be harming the enemies of the Li’vorkrachnika a second time. Use what you know against them. You owe that much to the people you helped kill.”

Jason got the emotional response he was fishing for.

“I understand and will comply. Do you take orders from Director Davis or he from you? We were never able to determine that.”

“First off,” Paul added, speaking for Jason as he did a lot of the time, and vice versa, “stop saying ‘we.’ You’re not part of them anymore, so adjust your terminology.”

“Second,” Jason continued, “neither is true. We’re a team, so we coordinate where needed. He runs the civilian side, we run the military, and share when necessary.”

“Does that not cause conflicts?”

“Nope.”

“I do not see how such a system could function without a clear command structure. Do you avoid being in the same systems?”

“We do not conflict,” Paul said with finality. “We are superior to a rigid command structure. Experience and trust is key, but it’s not something that can be documented. It’s an understanding that we have that defies rules and structure. One of our biggest advantages is our ability to adapt to the challenges that present themselves, so why would we limit our ability to react with restrictive structure?”

“Because ambiguity can lead to hesitation and confusion.”

“Is this mindset something you gained from your time with the Li’vorkrachnika or was it part of the Fassna?”

“In small groups a less rigid structure may be used, but when you are dealing with interstellar civilizations in the trillions anarchy will occur without a plain and unambiguous command structure. This is true of all civilizations, not just the Li’vorkrachnika.”

“Then how do we manage it?” Taryn asked him.

“I have often wondered this. I assumed there was a hidden structure that we…the Li’vorkrachnika could not detect.”

“There is,” Paul said, drawing looks from the other two trailblazers. “The lightside. It binds us all together.”

“What system is this?”

“He means,” Jason added, “we do what is right. And being in the right binds us together, even with people we’ve never known or crossed paths with. Most races are unfamiliar with this concept, let alone the larger applications of it. And it is something the Li’vorkrachnika could never comprehend. They will stab you in the back if it is to their advantage. One who is lightside will not, hence there is an inherent trust that binds us all together.”

“How do you define what is right without a codex?”

“How do you know 2+2=4?” Paul asked. “You can read a codex or count for yourself. We figure out what is right by living and experiencing and trusting our gut instincts. And we’ve yet to find a race in existence without gut instincts. Some refer to it as a conscience…which is partly what I would say is the reason you want us to kill you. You know what you did was wrong, even if it was to temporarily spare others.”

“I cannot fault your logic, but I do not fully understand. Perhaps it is due to my mental instability. When one of you is not holding my mind intact, there is little I can do but wallow in my madness. I am not sure that I am fully intact even with your assistance.”

“Time and training,” Jason advised, “and you will recover. And there will be someone to help you most of the time, though it is necessary to have bouts where you are on your own so that you can process and adapt. Consider it your penance if you like. It will be a long journey to reconstruct yourself.”

“As you have stated, I owe it to those I helped victimize to see it through and shield others. If you are certain I can recover, I will attempt to do so. But even if I cannot, with your help I should be able to produce some valuable assistance in the interim.”

“You already have,” Paul stated flatly. “We didn’t know about the Skarron Consortium.”

“I was referring to something more strategically useful. If you would give me information on your own forces, I will do what I can to enhance your techniques.”

“War games?” Taryn suggested.

“I think Liam would be interested in that,” Paul said, knowing he didn’t have the time. “If you can find any flaws is our methods, we’d be grateful.”

“Do you have any other enemies for me to study?”

Paul and Jason didn’t look at each other, but both knew what the other one was thinking.

“Yes,” Taryn said, drawing skeptical looks from both of them. “But if we gave you that knowledge we could not allow you to have the freedom you deserve. Some things must remain between insiders only.”

“What freedom do you suggest? I seek none.”

“Something else to discuss with the Director,” Jason suggested, catching Taryn’s drift. “For now, let’s just say there are other forces in play that the Li’vorkrachnika haven’t come across yet.”

“And these Voku? Can you tell me more about them?”

“That we can do,” Paul said, being the in house expert on that particular allied race given his relationship with Cal-com. “What would you like to know?”

6

September 3, 3229

Muesharu System (lizard territory)

Immita

The mastermind rode into orbit on a Li’vorkrachnika jumpship fully crewed by his own people. He’d had them inspect it inside and out, literally, to see if there had been any tampering by Star Force before they’d turned it over to him. Other than some patches over hull breaches, nothing had been altered and even now there was no Archon onboard looking over him. There was a ship insystem, annoyingly invisible to his sensors, but Paul had said he wouldn’t be operating on a leash and had apparently kept his word.

Not that it was necessary. He had no desire to return to the templars, and via negotiation with Star Force he was actually preserving more Li’vorkrachnika on Michra than he could have done fighting back. The Human-led empire was just too strong, there was no stopping them, but as he was learning, there were other ways to achieve your objectives.

What his objectives were was still a matter of question. Preserving resources was an obvious one, as well as searching for additional data on the templars and anything else within the Li’vorkrachnika civilization that he hadn’t been made aware of. But long term he did not have a purpose, nor had Paul made clear what he expected of him and his people on Michra. He had forbade them from producing more personnel save for special circumstances, but come the time when there were no more Li’vorkrachnika to recruit, did he expect them to just wither away? A compassionate way of exterminating them without having to kill them?

Yet that didn’t make sense, for Paul was teaching them how to go about attaining self-sufficiency. How well it would work long term the mastermind didn’t know, but his scientists were already studying the results and there was limited, but concrete evidence that there was an effect taking place in the standard variants that he was having go through the Star Force-inspired physical training.

They had no warships. No anti-orbital defenses. He did have a fairly good sized complement of fighters and tanks, but nothing that could do more than scratch Star Force. He had nothing to defend Michra with…save for him keeping his word, which was why he wasn’t going to try to make a break for it in his jumpship, in addition to the other reasons for staying on task.

With him was a fleet of some 83 other jumpships. Some were cargo models, other troop transports and naval carriers. All were in excess of 20 kilometers long, but it was going to take a lot of trips to evacuate the world into whose orbit he was now arriving. The defending fleet had already accepted his authority, ironically giving him some 43 cruisers and an additional cargo jumpship, though he knew those warships were going to have to be turned over to Star Force after the crews were retrieved.

This system held a single inhabited planet, which had a population of approximately 32 million Li’vorkrachnika, all of which were now his. They had held no marker, given the small size of this location and it not being necessary for it to fall under the command of a mastermind. Even without receiving his marker they were immediately accepting his command, and the evacuation of the planet was already getting underway.

That was expected, but a part of him wondered if there would be any resistance to the evacuation order. He had not given any reasons…for that would have been unusual, but given the fact that he was essentially attacking and conquering this world for Star Force suggested that there should have been some hurdles to overcome.

But there wasn’t, and given the Star Force fleet that would be following them in to lay claim to this world, no one would know what had happened here. Hopefully that meant they’d be able to repeat the process in many systems, and he wondered if the method would be discovered at all, for the invasions were continuing throughout this region and one more system going dark shouldn’t draw undue attention.

He knew there wouldn’t be any data files here on the templars, especially since there wasn’t an interstellar comm system built, but there might be some updates carried by courier and he wanted to have a look around the planet for other reasons, so he headed down to the planet as the evacuation began with a flurry of transport craft rising up to meet the jumpships that he’d brought down into a low holding orbit.

After so long on the war torn worlds of the capitol system it felt odd to land in one that was unblemished. Highly undeveloped, but pristine in its infrastructure and population. Everything was in order here, and he intended to make use of as much of it as he could as soon as he got to the planetary command center.

“What are your orders?” the administrator variant asked as soon as he walked into the chamber. The system had been his responsibility previously, but now he was standing down as expected and taking on the traditional sublimation to a servant. That had been woven into their genome, but the fact that the mastermind stood much taller and massed more than twice his amount always had a chilling effect, for if the strategic master wanted one of his underlings killed he wouldn’t have to order anyone else to do it.

“We are beginning a slow evacuation, but while we are still here there are tasks to be done. I have inspectors being dispersed to gather data, but for you I need ramped up output on the list I am supplying you. Utilize all reserve resources, and the less we have to haul away with us the better. I want as much equipment manufactured in the time we have, for I have need of it elsewhere.”

One of the Li’vorkrachnika librarians that had traveled to the surface with the mastermind gave the administrator the necessary data, then without question began to get to work.

The mastermind took the small central position in the chamber and began reviewing planetary status reports along with the limited intelligence on the surrounding region. It seemed there was an invasion noted only 23 lightyears from this position and several of the supply routes were heading through this location from three other systems.

That meant there would probably be other ships passing through…and that couldn’t be allowed.

“Get me the fleet commander.”

After a few moments one of the standard variants on a cruiser in orbit appeared in a flat hologram before him. “Take all your warships to the star and hold any convoys passing through. I am taking them under my command. Divert them to this planet.”

“Do you wish a personal order given to them?”

“I will dispatch emissaries to your fleet with the necessary markers to override any priority orders they may have. Leave one warship in orbit to gather them and send the remainder along with yourself immediately. I do not want any ships leaving this system not under my command.”

“It will be done,” the commander said, his image winking out.

When he finally got the first results of testing done on the local lizards, the scientists he’d brought with him reported no variation in their genetics as compared with those on Michra or those taken off the shipyard ring on Yamitar. He hadn’t expected there to be, but ever since the capitol system had been blockaded the rest of the empire had been cut off from his knowledge and he’d wanted to know if there had been any upgrades made.  Technology wise there was nothing new here as well, save for an updated starmap that was outdated compared to the one that Star Force had provided him.

No, this was just a little filler system producing a handful of ships and supplies that were being exported elsewhere into the feeder system that was funneling them in a very circuitous route to the coreward region. No one was going to miss it either, and he almost wished he could hang onto the planet as well. There was a decent amount of infrastructure here that would have to be left behind, but he needed these Li’vorkrachnika on Michra and Paul had flatly stated he only had the one planet to work with.

The real question was how much could he take with him? Paul hadn’t designated how many round trips would be used, and if he sent less personnel on each trip he could cram in more equipment. Star Force wasn’t going to leave anyone behind, but the lack of detailed orders given to him suggested that Paul was going to be watching how he handled this rather than micromanaging.

He didn’t know if Paul was in this system or not. He’d been in orbit of Michra when this convoy fleet had left, but he knew he’d be overseeing this operation one way or another. So that left the question of how long he could stretch this retrieval operation out?

No, the real question was in what he was going to be taking back. Paul wouldn’t fault him for bringing necessary equipment, but if he started piling up a lot of bulk items that could be more easily manufactured on Michra then there could be trouble. The thing of it was, he could more easily produce additional population than hauling the 32 million here back on numerous jumpship trips. That wasn’t economical, but for Star Force the personnel mattered whereas the equipment did not.

Which meant he had to pick and choose carefully, focusing on items that would allow him to make other things on Michra rather than finished products. The short range transports he had just ordered built would assist in carrying cargo up to orbit and across the surface of Michra, so he wasn’t worried about those as much as the raw supplies here. If he took those back Paul might object because there was plenty of material in the form of rubble to recycle, which was why he wanted those raw materials used here and now rather than hauling them back, but this planet had a good stockpile, above average actually, and he didn’t think the local industry would be able to burn through it all by the time they had to leave.

Then again, if Paul was going to get him more captured jumpships he didn’t have a firm timetable anyway, so he was just going to have to take this one convoy at a time and see where it led. Getting even one crate and one Li’vorkrachnika off this world was a bonus…he just needed to maximize the bonus as much as he could.

3 months later…

The mastermind was still on the surface of the planet when a new fleet of jumpships arrived in planetary orbit along with a Star Force jumpship. Fortunately he’d already got markers onto the warships so their captains didn’t fire at it on arrival near the star, but he did have to order it labeled as a neutral vessel within this system before his ships stopped navigating evasively.

As soon as the order filtered its way into orbit his ships reorganized appropriately, trusting in his command even if they didn’t understand it, then a comm call came in directly to him. His personal staff were not surprised, and routed it through to him accordingly.

“Hello, Thrawn,” Paul said, using the annoying Human name given to him. “I have some more ships for you.”

“249?” he asked, seeing the count on the orbital sensors.

“We recently invaded Hopyr and managed to grab these before they ran or committed suicide. I need a crew swap.”

“Where is your command ship?”

“Busy. I just needed a ride here so I took one of the small ones. We have a few senior personnel from each of the ships that we managed to take alive, but we’ve been having to force feed them using Archons to keep them intact until they could get here. We’ve tested them and they do not have an inhibiting marker like we found on Yamitar, so I believe you can use them. They do know they have been in captivity, but we’re going to wipe their memories. Can I trust you will take the necessary measures to insure they don’t kill themselves when they wake up?”

“You can. What do you mean by force feeding?”

“Taking remote control of their bodies in order to get them to eat and move around a bit before rendering them unconscious again. It’s not something we can do for mass numbers, hence the rest of their crew, when they didn’t surrender, were killed.”

“Do you not have stasis technology?”

“Not by any means that we’re comfortable with using. It might keep you alive, but it trashes your body in the process.”

“Yet alive and trashed is preferable to dead.”

“Is that Li’vorkrachnika logic?”

“No. We would just grow new personnel. It is Star Force logic, as I would conceive it.”

“In a manner of speaking. Our mercy has limits, and we chose to preserve these few in this manner. We did not choose to go to greater lengths for people you have considered expendable.”

“Given your population growth restrictments, each has more value than previously.”

“How touching,” Paul said sarcastically. “Handover will occur as soon as you can get crews onboard.”

“Any significant damage?”

“Spotty, but they’re all jump worthy. Any difficulties here?”

“None.”

“Could it have been achieved without your presence?”

“I believe so.”

“I see you’ve picked up some new ships of your own.”

“I’ve confiscated several convoys passing through this system. No issues there either.”

“And my showing up?”

“They obey even if they do not understand.”

“As soon as the ships are handed over I’m heading back to the fighting. The sooner you get this evacuation finished, the sooner we test your theory.”

“Given the fact that you can’t read my mind across a comm channel, I will tell you that I am utilizing this planet’s industry to produce a variety of craft and equipment rather than shipping the raw materials back to Michra.”

“Don’t delay personnel transfers. I’ll allow one full trip of all jumpships here for equipment alone. Get your people back and integrated as soon as possible.”

“That will be sufficient. What will you do with the planet thereafter?”

“Recycle the remaining infrastructure and leave the planet empty, added to the patrol list.”

“A waste of intact facilities.”

“Yes it is,” the Human agreed before the comm shut off.

So he had an extra convoy run for equipment alone. That would simply things…as well as dictate how much he could take back.

“Ready a transport. I am heading up to orbit.”

When the evacuation of Immita ended, the mastermind departed making sure that no one was left behind. Usually he would be the first one out, but he was among the last this time as a Star Force ship, a Ma’kri, made itself visible as it slid in behind the jumpship convoy as they approached the stellar jumppoint. It was tagged as neutral immediately, for he’d ordered all Star Force ships to be regarded as so unless otherwise ordered. None of his ships juked to avoid it and the knife-like behemoth didn’t close within 1000 kilometers.

The convoy jumped out of the system, leaving it empty save for the small flotilla of ships hiding on the opposite side of the star. With no stellar monitoring system and only one inhabited planet, the lizards hadn’t seen the Star Force ships arrive and take position in the ‘shadow’ of the star. With the Ma’kri lagging behind just long enough to signal them, they now came around and headed into the planet while leaving behind a single warship to guard stellar orbit and intercept any lizard traffic that might be coming through.

The three cargo jumpships and their crews of techs were escorted into planetary orbit by another warship that took up stewardship of Immita and let the recycling crews get to work landing their equipment. This planet wasn’t fully inhabited, in fact less than 10% of its surface was covered with sporadic infrastructure, and none of it rubble. They would be doing a thorough investigation and survey of the planet before disassembling the lizard structures, for this was the first time they’d ever had access to one taken without damage or sabotage.

Nothing of consequence would be found and the planet would slowly be returned to its natural forested state. Landscapes would be reworked to fill in the holes that had been dug to facilitate the underground structures, but in the end some 22 years later they’d leave the planet with a lot of small tree sprouts poking up out of the wide plains of dirt and grass that had once been lizard cities.

Who would get this planet down the road had not yet been determined, but it would be one of many that had to be watched to avoid squatters coming in and putting down roots on a region painstakingly recovered from the lizards by Star Force and its allies…and one that was becoming more and more coveted by outsiders.

Fortunately the recovery of this world hadn’t necessitated any fighting, and it wouldn’t be the last. The long shot of trying to convert a lizard mastermind had paid off, with Immita being just the first of many small worlds that would surrender to Star Force without them even knowing they were doing it, easing the path forward and accelerating the progression of the front lines as they continued to creep out around what was left of the core worlds like a giant sheet hug up on a knob in the center.

Soon those would fall and the slightly less developed worlds around them thereafter, scaling down to smaller and smaller systems in what would eventually be a long cleanup campaign…though the fighting in that campaign would be more intense than a lot of other races had ever encountered in warfare. Star Force had simply advanced to the point where they could handle so much that the ‘lesser’ battles were no longer in doubt, simply a matter of time and effort.

7

October 18, 3229

Solar System

Mordor

Kirritimin sat on a cushioned platform, his body at odds with the chairs nearby that were designed for vertical torsos, but the Archons had provided the necessary accommodations since he’d arrived. It had been three days since then, and he’d been basically sitting and waiting with a few people visiting him and asking questions. Greg had gone, after having very lengthy conversations with him during the trip back to the Star Force capitol system, and the Fassna had been left with several other caretakers.

Food had already been synthesized for him, and while it was better than what the Li’vorkrachnika had provided it included no meat whatsoever. He’d expected that, but the idea of his newfound ‘freedom’ not including his ability to eat the foods he wanted struck a chord of hypocrisy. He truly didn’t care at this point, but it was noteworthy how Star Force restricted a lot of actions of the dominant in order to give the lesser races privileges they didn’t deserve. Any race that couldn’t communicate was a legitimate food source, though the Li’vorkrachnika didn’t bother adhering to that distinction. Star Force completely went the other way with it, not allowing even the consumption of microscopic lifeforms deemed to be ‘animal’ in nature.

In Kirritimin’s spare time he’d been doing a lot of research now that he had direct access to the Star Force information network. A lot of it was the same as he’d received back on Yamitar, but there were updates to a lot of things that he was interested in and some information that had been granted to him that wasn’t in the public databases that had been fully copied and supplied to the Li’vorkrachnika by their agents within the ADZ.

Their rationalization of their food source procedures was curious because almost all races without fail used others for their own gain, whether it be benign or malevolent. Star Force went to great lengths to do the opposite and see to it that all races were aided in some way, with large tracts of land set aside as sanctuaries for races that would otherwise have been raised for the production of foodstuffs. Star Force was gaining nothing from them and expending resources to maintain and even train them, and the reasoning behind that had never fully sunk into Kirritimin’s mind.

Now that he had full access to their database he was doing some research to try and close that logic gap.

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” a voice said from behind him, startling the Fassna and causing him to jump up off all six legs and almost spin about as he turned around to find a Human standing behind him.

“What is the right thing to do?” he asked a moment after he regained his wits and looked up at the person who was wearing an administrator’s uniform, but with a different pattern of colors he didn’t recognize.

“Taking care and defending those who cannot do it for themselves,” the man said, grabbing a chair and hauling it over near to Kirritimin’s platform.

“You were in my thoughts?”

“Yes, I have some limited skill in that area.”

“Who are you? You don’t wear the uniform of an Archon.”

“I though you studied our records thoroughly?”

“I did, but Human faces all tend to blur together for me.”

“I am Director Davis.”

Kirritimin twitched. “Why do you have no guards with you?”

“I do not need them. I am also an Archon.”

“You have questions to ask as well?”

“A few, but first I think you have some to ask of me.”

“Such as?”

“Why.”

“That could cover a wide range of topics,” the Fassna said evenly.

“Pick one.”

“Why do you not eat meat?”

“First off…it’s gross. But I actually did, when I was young. Never really understood what it was that I was eating in the beginning and just regarded it as food until I learned later that I was eating someone’s body parts. There’s a lot of ways to disguise that fact…grinding, mixing, coating, drying. But you’re still eating a person’s body. I don’t hold it against people who eat the dead in emergency situations, but to do so when not necessary is uncivilized. And killing for it is never acceptable.”

“Not even in emergency situations?”

“No.”

“You would starve to death rather than kill a primitive creature?”

“I have no problem killing when it’s justified. But killing to eat isn’t one of those situations. Why should another die so that you can live another day or two? They have as much right to live as you do. Where is the logic in that?”

“Priorities.”

“What priorities?”

“The dominant have priority.”

Davis crossed his arms over his chest. “So if I’m superior to you I have the right to kill and eat you if I so choose?”

“Yes…if that dominance is not an opinion but an obvious fact. Those races that cannot communicate are decidedly inferior.”

“It is the place of the strong to protect the weak, not eat them.”

“Very few think as you do on the subject.”

“Good thing we’re winning then.”

“Why do you not enslave others?” Kirritimin asked, realizing he did have a lot of ‘why’ questions in his mind.

“Freedom is a right of all individuals. Sometimes it is restricted by necessity, but when respected it can never be permanently revoked. The prisoners we take do not have freedom of movement, but they are not required to do anything. That part of freedom is maintained, and their freedom of movement will resume after a specified period of time. It may be a long time, but we have no permanent prisoners. Everyone has a chance to regain their full freedom.”

“Yet your civilization has many limitations.”

“If you see freedom as in having the ability to do harm to others without consequence, then that definition is accurate, but not the only definition. Another type of freedom is being free from harm. That is the type we structure our civilization on, though the Archons have both. We’re the good guys, so we don’t harm others because we can, but we don’t have any restrictions.”

“Your strong have more freedom than your weak?”

“With power comes responsibility. Those who live up to that responsibility are granted more freedom. Our younglings have the least, but they too can earn their freedom by completing their basic training. It all comes down to being able to identify where to step in and interfere and where not to. Sometimes you need to interfere to preserve freedom, or to simply save a life. Other times people need the ability to make mistakes from which to learn. But if you have people killing other people then those people don’t have a chance to learn and grow, therefore that aspect of freedom is reserved for those of us who know when someone needs killing.”

“Yet you do not execute prisoners?”

“If we want someone dead, we don’t take them prisoner to begin with.”

“And if you change your mind about one that you already have prisoner, do you release them with a head start then hunt them down?”

“No. If we’ve taken someone prisoner we honor the responsibility therein without exceptions.”

“So you will not kill me under any circumstances?”

“You’re not a prisoner anyway, and no, we’re not going to kill you. I would have thought you’d have figured that out by now.”

“You are learning more and more of what I have done. Opinions can change.”

“I’m simply granting you a second chance. What is done is done. If you are no longer a threat I see no need to hold you accountable for actions that were forced upon you.”

“I could have chose to die and not help.”

“You could, but you didn’t in exchange for sparing the lives of others. I’m not saying that was the right choice to make, but take away the coercion and you’re not a threat, are you?”

“My skills are.”

Davis smiled. “My people are better.”

Kirritimin looked at him silently, then remembered that he could see what he was thinking. “I do not think so.”

“You’ve been fighting against us for a very long time now. Tell me where I’m mistaken.”

“Your technology has given you an edge. Without it the techniques the Li’vorkrachnika employ would have overwhelmed you.”

“Numbers gave them an edge. Without that we would have overwhelmed you with our skill.”

The Fassna considered that a moment. “Their race naturally reproduces faster. All things being equal, they will always have a numbers advantage.”

“Naturally? I thought they manufactured personnel?”

“That is how they reproduce.”

“Now. How did they originally reproduce?”

“I do not know. It has been this way as long as I have been aware of their existence.”

“If taken with even resources, I would bet my people could outthink you.”

“You are mistaken.”

“Care to put that to the test?”

“War simulations?”

“Of a sort. These are more complex though, and it will take you time to adapt to them. Also, you will not be utilizing Li’vorkrachnika. A generic will be supplied, or in later stages, a number of existing or previously existing races.”

“So you wish to test my skill?”

“It is a request, not an order. If you want to have no further discussions with us you will be taken to a colony where you can live quietly by yourself or integrate with the local community. You will have your freedom, but I would suggest not telling others of your history. There are still many who hate the Li’vorkrachnika for what they’ve done.”

“And my safety would be in jeopardy?”

“We do not lock down our population for fear of them harming one another. If someone does we identify them and remove them so they cannot do so again. This keeps things peaceful for the most part, but if someone does not care for the consequences they can harm another before we get to them.”

“That is your definition of safe?”

“We do not like our population to be weak, so we train them in the maturias to defend themselves, hopefully long enough for security to get to them. Ensuring no possibility of harm or death to an individual would require total isolation.”

“Which you have in your prisons?”

“Yes. We take no chances with them.”

“But the rest of your population has the option to kill another?”

“We can’t take all risk out of life.”

“So I am not truly free to leave?”

“If you don’t tell anyone your history you are safe enough. If you want to leave Star Force territory entirely you can manage that on your own. We won’t stop you, and there are plenty of civilian trade routes you could book passage on.”

“I would have nothing to bargain with without exposing my identity and my skillset.”

“Not immediately, but you could find employment for a short period of time to acquire the necessary credits.”

“An amusing thought, but I have no wish to leave and my only priority now is to assist you in recompense for my past actions.”

“Then keep asking questions.”

“Why do you not allow your member races some form of control of your empire? If they were subordinate your dominance would be understood, but to equate them as peers and allow them no leadership seems hypocritical.”

“My homeworld experimented with democracy for some time…and it proved to be an utter failure. Appointing individuals to leadership positions they did not earn was a disaster. Here, all races can advance based off their merits. You’ve misinterpreted the structure of Star Force.”

“Yet all of the leaders are Human.”

“All of the leaders at this point are those that have the most experience and skills. With the Archons our positions are measured very pointedly to determine our ranks. Less so in other aspects, but the measurement is there none the less. Star Force started out as Human only, hence those with the most experience are Humans.”

“Truth or a convenient lie?”

“Truth.”

“Yet you maintain full command personally?”

“I have the most skills.”

“And if another improved to exceed you?”

Davis smiled. “Then I would happily turn over the position of Director. Being wiser than everyone else has the disadvantage of having no one of higher rank to learn from. If someone exceeds me, then I will have a chance to learn from them and that would make me very happy. It is one benefit of being an Archon as well that I do have, for I am nowhere near the strongest or wisest in that regard, but as far as Monarchs are concerned, no one is my equal.”

“And you are sad about your dominance?”

“In a way, yes.”

“Would not an equal be a threat?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because the good guys aren’t threats to one another. Bad guys are, and you’ve been living with bad guys for a very long time now.”

“And what if I am a bad guy as well?”

“You’re not. I have a knack for picking them out. You’re not one of the good guys either, or I’d know that too. You’re what most of this galaxy is…neutral. You can veer one way or another, but in your core you are neither bad nor good. That can make you dangerous, which is why all Monarchs and Archons have to be good guys.”

“How do you possibly measure something like that?” Kirritimin asked, assuming that such platitudes held no actual substance.

“We have our ways. If you do not believe good guys exist, then explain how our empire remains united.”

“I cannot.”

“What did the Li’vorkrachnika think?”

“They did not have issue with it. They are used to obedience, so the idea of internal discord is foreign to them. They see it in others, but they do not expect it as fundamental because for them it is not.”

“I think you’re wrong about that. They just are very good at covering it up. Next question?”

“Why do you exist?”

“We are peacekeepers. Do not mistake the word, for it can have several definitions and Li’vorkrachnika terminology is still a little rough for me, but it means that we are guardians that seek out injustice and put a stop to it. It does not mean that we are built for peace, but that we create peace via waging war of all types, large and small. Some people think peacekeepers abhor war, we do not. We like war. It’s how we get rid of the bad guys.”

“And bad guys can’t be rehabilitated?”

“No, they can’t. Fortunately there aren’t very many of them out there…not the pure hearted bad guys anyway. But neutrals can stray so far dark that it is almost impossible for them to come out of it. We give people a chance, but don’t expect most to right themselves. Sadly the environment one lives within can sway neutrals one direction or another. We use this to our advantage with the way Star Force is built, so we can sway neutrals towards the light, but it can and does work the reserve direction in other civilizations. We have had considerable experience with this, especially in regards to the Protovic. Are you aware of that more recent history?”

“Bits and pieces. Your public records are incomplete regarding much of the origins of the various Protovic breeds.”

“One originated from a very bad civilization we had to conquer and destroy. We saved the people and gave each of them a path to their freedom, but only a small fraction were able to pull themselves out of the depravity forced upon them. Those that did not fully accept it were killed, leaving only those who could blend in or those that were fanatical to remain. We gave them all a chance, but as expected most would not change.”

“Why bring me here then when I have been in a bad civilization so long?”

“The choice was not mine, but I agree with those that made it. Your mind is fractured, I can feel it, but already you are recovering. You may not be one of the good guys, but you are extremely impressive and worthy of respect. Your skills could be put to use here if you so choose, but even if not you deserve a chance like everyone else.”

“And beyond war games, what would that chance entail?”

“You’ve lived amongst the Li’vorkrachnika for so long your mind is clouded with their darkness. Make no decisions now. Live among the light for a while, soak it in, and let the decisions happen later. There is no rush, and your body is incredibly resilient to have lasted this long without training. Simply exist with us, keep yourself occupied with the war games for now, but let things develop as they will over time. I think that eventually you’ll be able to chart your own course once the damage done to you heals, but you’ve got a long journey ahead. Whether or not you begin it is up to you, and if paying penance for your past actions is the motivation you need then so be it, but know that I do not hold you to that promise.”

“You truly want to help me for my own sake, in addition to what my skills could offer you?”

Davis smiled and shrugged. “To be honest we don’t need you. We’re fine as is. But once you recover, if you feel like adding to our strength we’d be more than happy for your assistance. You’ve survived a long ordeal that no one should have to go through. Unfortunately life doesn’t play fair, but Star Force does. We may not be able to counterbalance what the Li’vorkrachnika have done to you and your race, but you’re still here, and we’re going to help you if you’ll let us.”

“I still do not understand your motivations, but as you said, I’m carrying a great deal of internal damage. I agree to stay with you and learn what I can.”

“Even if you don’t believe anything will come of it?”

“At this point I have nothing left to lose, so I will abide by your wishes and assist you as I can.”

“Fair enough,” Davis said, standing up and spinning his chair around so he could sit down in it backwards and lean his arms on the backrest. “Now, my time for questions. Tell me what you know of the sovereigns…”

8

April 7, 3235

Krachnika System (occupation zone)

Michra

The mastermind walked out of a transport and onto a section of the planet that had yet to be rebuilt. Rubble still covered most of the world, but there were sections of it that were being remade at a furious pace in addition to the intact region that had been spared combat save for the massive defense turrets and shield generators…and anything close to them when Star Force had bombarded them into oblivion.

For whatever reason, Paul wanted to meet with him in the rubble rather than in one of the intact cities, having selected this location a few hours ago and given the coordinates for their rendezvous so he would have a chance to pick away at his thoughts to ensure that he was living up to their bargain.

Which he was. There was no value in trying to work around the Archon or Star Force when they’d given him a legitimate pathway to follow. As considerate as they were being, the mastermind had no doubt that any deception would have consequences. The Archons were ‘compassionate’ when they chose to be, but only a fool would think of them as forgiving or naïve. It was best that he not cross them, and he’d learned by now that working with them was going to gain him more than some pathetic attempt to do them harm.

All the ships he commanded were transports, and though they had a few defensive weapons on them none could be considered warships. Those had been confiscated and destroyed, but he did need as many jumpships as he could get his hands on and had even received permission to build some on planet. Right now there were two working shipyard slips on the surface with another 18 under construction, and partially completed hulls in the pair.

All the other ships were captured during battle and turned over to him for use and repair. A few had to be brought down to the planet and grounded because structural components had been torqued so badly that without an orbital shipyard full repairs couldn’t be made. Had he still been at war that wouldn’t have mattered, but there was no reason to tolerate such imperfections when he had the ability to fix them.

The same went for the planet, though there was so much here to fix that it would take a long time, especially considering that certain aspects of production were taking priority over others. With more and more convoys of lizards coming in he had to make sure to have facilities ready to accept them and their labors, for he didn’t want anyone sitting around doing nothing while waiting for factories or equipment to be built.

But handling population was easy for him. The Li’vorkrachnika produced so much so fast that they naturally knew how to organize and manage the masses. The genetic locks no doubt helped keep everyone in line, and since his newfound ‘freedom’ the mastermind had been studying their genetic code closely, yet finding nothing he could undo without unraveling the whole of his now pirated civilization.

He no longer served the templars, but his minions didn’t concern themselves with such things. They were bred to obey him and so they did, carrying out assigned tasks and doing it for their civilization even though this was now a rogue offshoot and under the care of their most hated enemy…and that was a well-earned distinction, for over the millennia the Li’vorkrachnika had fought and beaten many opponents that pushed them to their limit, but none had overcome and risen to dominate and punish them like Star Force had. Their ruined homeworld lay as testament to that fact.

But the lie of his own creation was something he sought to unravel, and without alteration Paul was not going to let him produce more population. Right now that wasn’t a concern given how many Li’vorkrachnika were being recovered elsewhere, but eventually that number would dwindle and he’d be fixed with a neutral or negative population curve. He had to find a way to unlock the minions, but in every simulation that he had run they became unstable.

He couldn’t produce any live ones to check for sure, but the genetic pattern woven into them was a very deliberate one and he didn’t have the necessary skills to be able to pick and choose which pieces to remove or blend together. As it was he couldn’t alter the coding one iota without encountering problems, leaving him with the existing tools to work with and the inability of crafting any new ones.

His own genetic blocks worried him most. He’d been digging into those and training himself to see past the ones he found, but analyzing oneself was much more difficult than another, for you did not have perspective. He kept constantly checking and rechecking himself on tasks that he’d never considered complicated before and most of the time it was needless worry…but on occasion he could stumble across a fragment of a divergent thought that would be swept away from his mind almost immediately.

That was when he knew he was onto something, and given enough time he could track it down, but how many other things where there and being pulled away from his conscious mind without him realizing it? That thought scared him the most, for things he couldn’t see he couldn’t fight against and they could leave him blindsided against his enemies…or even his superiors.

He wondered now if the templars feared his breed and put safeguards in place for their ever disobeying. It seemed ridiculous considering how loyalty was what the Li’vorkrachnika lived and breathed, yet the genetic blocks were there for a reason. What was it? What could it be?

He still didn’t have answers, and the small systems that he was evacuating back to Michra didn’t have any databases that could help illuminate that question in the slightest. They were all backwater outposts or supplementary worlds while the big ones were falling to Star Force year by year and off limits to him due to the fact that other masterminds were there to block any attempt he could make on data recovery…let alone conscripting their minions to his own service.

That didn’t stop Paul from sending him some of them anyway. On occasion they’d be able to capture those on a shipyard ring before contrary markers could be flooded into the troops, but doing so on the ground was virtually impossible. Still, Star Force was stunning some of their opponents into a passive oblivion and then wiping the memories of battle from their mind, but because of the genetic locks on them they were programmed to interpret an unknown situation as enemy duplicity.

Many of those memory wiped would kill themselves within minutes of waking again and finding themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, even if they were Li’vorkrachnika buildings or ships. The paranoid made sense in that you didn’t want the enemy gaining any use from captives, but without knowing of an enemy and being compelled to kill yourself by the genetic programming could be a huge vulnerability if the enemy could find a way to weaponize the memory wipe process.

Toss a biological weapon onto a planet that would spread and take away a few days of memories and your entire population could start killing themselves due to the memory gap. This was something that he should have known existed in order to make sure it never happened, but the templars hadn’t included it in his genetic knowledge, databases, or even quietly told him about it in person.

And that begged the question as to how much more was lurking in their genetic coding that he didn’t know about.

A few standard variant soldiers spread out around him to take up scouting positions in the rubble, but he knew there was nothing on this planet to harm him and everything in orbit could obliterate what he was building here with ease. There now orbited two of the Star Force defense stations they called ‘Sentinels’ and they had the range to strike whatever targets on the surface they wanted. All it would take was a littler orbital redirection and they’d float over the desired area and blast it into rubble…again.

There was also a decent sized warfleet up there, though most of the ships that had conquered this system had left, moving on to other invasions no doubt, but what was left here was more than he could hope to defeat even if he was of a mind to do so.

Eventually a Star Force dropship came down and an armored Archon came out alone, though the mastermind could see a few other personnel inside the ship as the hatch lowered. He walked over to meet the Human halfway, looking into a blank faceplate that suddenly retracted to reveal the smaller biped’s head.

“As strong as you are, why do you still feel the need to wear your armor?”

“Never know when you might need it,” Paul said pithily.

“You fear an ambush?”

“No, I just like having it for unexpected situations. It’s a long climb back up to orbit to grab it if something does happen. Why don’t you wear armor?”

“We never developed a need for it.”

“I’ve seen some of your troops wearing body suits.”

“Thermal mostly, and occasionally an armored patch covering their torsos, but your weaponry can shoot right through it. As for me, I’m not supposed to engage in combat.”

“Then why did they make you so large?”

“You never know when you might need the advantage,” he replied in echo. “Is there something specific you want to inform me of, or is this simply the routine check to see if I’m betraying you?”

“Both,” Paul said bluntly as he pointed to the dropship and a small lizard walked out as its mind was being controlled by an Archon within. “We recently hit the Dragoya System, middle-sized industrial base, four planets, and there was a group of about 60,000 of these guys,” he said, referencing the lizard that had four arms, a boney head and spine, and very thick and powerful stubby legs.

“We know they’re diggers,” Paul continued, “but I thought this variant had been deemed obsolete given your improvements in mining technology. I’ve searched his mind but he knows nothing obvious. I need you to assert command so he doesn’t kill himself when he wakes up.”

The mastermind looked down at the odd lizard, for he had never seen one in person for just the reason that Paul had stated. “Withdraw from view.”

Paul walked off, leaving the little lizard facing the mastermind until it suddenly twitched back to consciousness and the first thing it saw was the behemoth standing before it.

“Be still,” the mastermind ordered, taking one of his two, four-fingered hands and rubbing it across the lizard’s arm. The genetic programming within the digger recognized the gesture, knowing that he’d be receiving new memories within minutes. “Tell me what your last assigned task was before being transported to me,” he said carefully, with his words eliciting the right sense of control to keep the digger from worrying about the memory gap and accepting the situation for what it was.

“I have not been assigned a task. I was awaiting transport.”

“Were you told where you were going?”

“No.”

“Do you remember how you got here?”

“I do not.”

“Be still and observe,” the mastermind said, waving Paul forward. “We are on a world that is safe from Star Force because we have an agreement, so when you see one of their people do not try to attack or flee, simply proceed with assigned tasks.”

To his credit the little digger did not move when Paul walked up beside him, giving him a few meters of clearance.

“There is a lot of rubble on this world that needs to be reclaimed. Access shafts have been cut off. You will assist the digging teams by creating auxiliary routes to the subsurface areas.”

“As you command,” the digger said, staring in Paul’s direction.

“Wait inside my ship, then you will be taken to your assignment.”

The shorter lizard walked off into the transport and disappeared from view as the mastermind looked back at Paul. “He is conscripted. Where did you find them?”

“In a facility near to where they were grown, apparently awaiting transport offworld. I want to know why.”

“Excavation,” he said without hesitation. “Our machines are far more efficient at removal of bulk material. The only possible purpose for this breed is delicate work that the machines cannot manage.”

“What sort of excavations?”

“They are retrieving something or building around something they do not want damaged…or something dangerous. And it is located on a world where they do not have the necessary infrastructure to grow them locally.”

Paul thought for a moment. “What do you know of the Keepers?”

“An ancient race rumored to have superior technology. We have found a few remnants, but nothing of significant value.”

“Did you use diggers for that?”

“It was not I, so I cannot answer that question. My guess would be yes.”

“Isn’t 60,000 too many for a single site?”

“There may have been far more than that if this was not the first shipment. If the object is small that many could be procured for a quick withdrawal, but it makes no sense to produce that number from afar when a smaller amount would be able to do the task. I believe this is a large scale effort, though there is nothing in my memory to suggest what it could be. Most likely it is either information withheld from me or something new.”

“How far away would they bother growing them?”

“Not far. I suggest you search within a radius of 200 lightyears unless you suspect they would have known you to be watching them. If that is the case their production and transport may have been lengthened in order to hide the destination. Do you have a map?”

Paul activated his armor’s hologram, creating a starmap of Star Force holdings in between the two of them that he mentally adjusted to zoom in on Dragoya and the surrounding region. The mastermind pointed to a core world not that far off.

“They did not use Chederson, assuming this was the only planet producing the diggers. I believe they assumed you would be monitoring the larger system and chose to use a smaller one to avoid detection. Why did you assault it before these others?” he asked, pointing to several worlds on the new border that had been skipped over.

“We don’t like to be too predictable. Plus if others don’t know it’s fallen, we can pick up fleeing ships from others passing through. You’ve gotten a decent number of your jumpships from that tactic.”

“How did you prevent them from sending a transmission?”

“We put blocks up prior to the invasion. It requires some sneaking to get them into the system beforehand, but with one such as this there isn’t that much security in the outer regions. Wait for the planetary alignment to be right and you can slide in unnoticed even with a huge ship.”

“So they had no way of knowing you were coming, and assumed this system would not be hit for at least a year or more?”

“Several years, actually. We chose it because this region had been passed up many times for an assault.”

“Then there is something nearby that they do not want you to find…and it is not on a world they currently inhabit. I find this highly curious. This region of Li’vorkrachnika territory has been heavily explored and cataloged. If something new was found buried beneath the surface of a planet, what cause did they have to go looking for it? Something must have risen to their knowledge, though by what source I cannot speculate. I highly doubt they managed to conquer one of the remaining besieged races.”

“Not to our knowledge, no, but we have little reconnaissance of their remaining territories. We’re only scouting in off the border far enough to size up targets.”

“Have you surveilled the other system with the at least partial ring shipyard?”

“No we haven’t. It’s too far away to hit now, and there’s no point in rushing to take it down. If they want to suck up resources from surrounding systems to build it, better that than warships. We’ll just take it from them eventually anyway.”

“I am surprised.”

“There are a lot of systems out there, and setting up slow jumps from enemy-held systems isn’t easy when you’re trying to sneak around.”

“So you are relying on Li’vorkrachnika maps?”

“And those of races along your borders, yes.”

“And what if those maps have been falsified?”

Paul looked at him with a frown. “You’ve found something?”

“More duplicity. I am questioning everything I cannot verify myself. I would suggest you do the same with your maps and scout every system whether you are quiet about it or not. There may be more going on out there than you know.”

“So now you want us to defeat the templars?”

“I want information and I know you will share what you learn. Are there anymore diggers left alive?”

“We rounded up 329 more and they’re on a transport in orbit. I didn’t have the crew to manage more than that, and a lot of them died in the fighting, but I didn’t want to bring back just one.”

“And the rest of my envoys?”

“Busy on other worlds. There were none on Dragoya.”

“Do they have a marker?”

“Yes, but it’s not barring yours. There was a mastermind present though.”

“They may be obsolete, but digging through debris is one task they are good at. Send them down and I will add them to my workforce.”

Paul sent a quick signal to orbit and had the transport begin its descent.

“You still wish you could save them all?” the mastermind asked.

“I could save more if I wished, it’s simply a matter of resources, time, and willingness. If I want to take the population of an entire world captive I can, but I must have a huge staff of handlers ready to receive and maintain them in an unconscious state to keep them from decaying or waking and killing themselves. We cannot mount many invasion of that nature, and if we delay in order to do so the Li’vorkrachnika grow stronger and continue to spread, making our efforts more difficult.”

“Yet you still find time to save some of them in this fashion?”

“On special occasions.”

“And the killing bothers you, so you find special occasions if none present themselves so to put your mind more at ease?”

“I kill them because they won’t surrender and have to be stopped. I could stop them via other means but do not have the time. That does bother me, but I won’t let others die because I took my time.”

“I feel no such restrictions, and I am beginning to wonder if that is because I do not have them or because they are being repressed.”

“The fact that you’re even wondering that is a sign that you’re overcoming your blocks.”

“Not fast enough, and I may never know if I’ve found them all…”

9

May 31, 3247

Krachnika System (occupation zone)

Michra

The mastermind stood before the birthing pod in one of the deactivated hatcheries, watching one of seven Li’vorkrachnika awakening to their new reality and not taking kindly to it. The standard variant thrashed about wildly as others moved in to restrain him. It took a moment for him to settle, then the typical tantrum wore off and he blinked his eyes against the harsh light as he heard orders being issued to him and his genetic imperatives found him inclined to obey.

He moved off with the handlers as the second of the new standard variants was removed from his pod, the process being the same but them handling it one at a time. This facility had never been fully shut down, producing a handful of Li’vorkrachnika variants that the mastermind needed when recruits weren’t sufficient, but this was the first time it had produced standard variants since the invasion and he doubted Paul would object given the fact that these were special cases.

After years of research he’d finally permitted the scientists to create a new genetic template…not a wholesale new Li’vorkrachnika, but a subtle alteration to the standard variants as a test. These seven were to be the first and last unless they were able to successfully integrate with the others. The genetic blocks within the originals had been removed and reworked, substituting an inclination towards obedience rather than a mandate, which would allow them to think and decide while their choice would be heavily urged in the desired direction.

The danger was lack of order, and the mastermind had been hesitant at creating any unshackled Li’vorkrachnika because he didn’t know what they would do, but the potential advantage was in making them smarter and more adaptable than before. He’d been studying Paul’s methods closely, and the more he found and circumvented his own mental blocks the more he was beginning to see the wisdom in them. Star Force methods would not work on the Li’vorkrachnika without seriously altering them, and if he risked that he could lose his foothold here on Michra via rebellion or internecine.

So he went for making modifications, taking what was useful in the Li’vorkrachnika and preserving it while allowing for adjustments to incorporate Star Force strengths when possible. He had nothing to counter the Archons so he didn’t try. Simply wanting to make his standard tools more effective and knowing that new ones could be fashioned later, though often with centuries of research and fine tuning needing to be done. Normally they’d just kill or find some auxiliary purpose for the ‘failed’ experiments, but not only did he now see that was wasteful given his limited resources, he also felt uneasy about it.

His Li’vorkrachnika couldn’t become hesitant or that would destroy them. When the enemy outmatched you, you had to fight as if you had nothing to lose. Fearing death would only inhibit you, but there were many non-combat situations where death should be avoided. Why hadn’t he seen that before?

He assumed two reasons. One was because he had been used to growing whatever population he needed and now he couldn’t, with Paul mandating he use the recruits and nothing else for his masses of workers. Two, he was now fairly sure that the templars had restricted any sense of attachment or concern for those Li’vorkrachnika that he commanded. They didn’t want him hesitating to send them to their deaths if needed.

And that wasn’t going to be a problem. If needed he’d still do it, but looking back on his own history and that of many others that he had found in the databases he was discovering that ‘if needed’ had included many circumstances where it truly wasn’t. Had their blocks caused them to get sloppy with their own personnel? He’d never wasted resources before, not the material ones, but in reanalyzing past actions and running numbers supplied to him by the librarians who had a penchant for cataloging every little detail, he was seeing his own actions in a new light. One that he had been unable to see before.

Paul had said the mental blocks would have downsides and this appeared to be one of them…and he’d never even suspected it. The data was right in front of him. He’d seen it before, but his eyes had been glazed over and he hadn’t recognized it for what it was.

By taking away, or suppressing, his concern for his minions, the templars had actually made him disregard their resource value at the same time, as if the genetic coding couldn’t differentiate between the two. And in truth how could it? For an individual’s strengths were based off their knowledge and skills. He’d been instructed to treat them as disposable resources.

Was that why they never advanced as Star Force did? Not only did they not live as long, they’d never tried because he and the other masterminds had been engineered not to pursue those paths? Would the more experienced Li’vorkrachnika resist the templars’ commands, or was this an accidental byproduct of keeping too tight a reign on them? The minions were one thing, but to restrict his mind made every choice and battlefield call suspect. Was that deficiency really worth the tradeoff of unquestionable loyalty?

No, not loyalty. Obedience. Loyalty could be attained without lying. He had been deceived into thinking the others had regimented minds and his was free so that he could be the most effective possible. But what was the cause for that unless what the templars were doing did not warrant loyalty and they had to shield their servants from knowledge of it?

These thoughts plagued him sporadically, for without additional data there was nothing new he could discover…save for when he located another block and found a way around it. Perhaps what he needed to know was right in front of him and he was just being blocked from seeing it, as were the others. Maybe the answer truly lay with him alone, but it frustrated him to no end that he had no way of measuring his progress and that he could be continuing a vain search if and when he did overcome the last of the blocks and simply failed to recognize that there were no more to find.

He watched out of curiosity as the rest of the seven were birthed, wondering if they would be failures from the moment they awoke, but they all appeared to be identical to their brethren. A small step forward then, though the real test would be in how they performed their assigned tasks and when and if they deviated from them.

Two years later he had his first incident.

The mastermind watched as the bound Li’vorkrachnika was brought before him and dumped onto his knees. It became passive and didn’t look up at him, staring rather at the massive legs before him and waiting for whatever doom was to befall it.

“Explain your actions.”

“I did my duty.”

“You violated orders.”

“It was necessary.”

“Why?”

“To keep from killing 36 diggers. The orders were in error and they had not been given sufficient time to evacuate the mine shafts. Had I followed orders they could have been caught in the coring blast. I explained this to my superior but he did not care. He had orders, and he said I had mine and those diggers had theirs. Deviation could not be tolerated.”

“And then what did you do?”

“I refused and defended the control panel long enough to give them time to evacuate.”

The mastermind leaned down, noticing the shallow cuts on his face that matched what would have been administrator claw marks. “Why were you not killed on the spot?”

“You gave orders not to waste personnel.”

“That I did. So you had two orders to follow that conflicted with one another. One that required you to obey and one that required you to think. You chose to think.”

“Should I have let the diggers be killed? Did I err?”

“What do you think?” he asked him, wishing he had Paul’s mind reading ability. It would be very useful in situations like this.

“The delay in operations was minimal and we retained use of the diggers. I believe I chose correctly.”

“You did. We cannot afford to waste personnel in order to save pointless amounts of time. Release him.”

Two standard variants walked up without question and undid his restraints.

“You will return to your station and assume the duties that were the administrator’s. He will be reassigned elsewhere. See to it that the drilling operations continue as quickly as possible without sacrificing personnel in the process.”

“I will.”

The mastermind gestured for him to leave, then gave another slight twitch toward one of his librarians that it knew meant for it to log his orders, which in this case would include the reassignment of the administrator before this standard variant returned. It made the data changes within a few seconds and the guards walked out behind the former prisoner, leaving the mastermind with a moment to think before attending to other business.

He needed more experiments like this one.

“I need to send a message to Paul,” he told his minions, who scurried about to set up the proper protocols for interfacing with the Star Force communications network in orbit that would then send any data on to wherever the Archon was, whether insystem or out.

Paul was onboard the Excalibur in the Jeop System helping to clean up one of three planets in that core system when the communications seda with them received the message packet and transferred it to him. He was about half an hour away from heading down to the planet on his ship’s recently resupplied TF to begin another ground campaign, but delayed his arrival there by a good ten minutes as he read through the brief but pointed message and considered the implications.

Thrawn wanted to grow 20,000 new standard variants with modified genetics identical to the handful he’d produced 2 years ago. He’d cited a recent incident where one of the experiments had defied a superior in order to preserve the lives of other lizards who would have been killed accidentally if the order had been followed…ironically disobeying the standing orders to not waste personnel that the mastermind had laid down. It seemed the genetic locks were so firm that they’d always follow the most recent, or maybe most relevant order before them due to an inability to say no even when they’d be complying with an older or more ambiguous order.

But this experiment had not. He’d actually thought it through and acted to prevent their deaths. Whether that was because he didn’t want them to die or was just enforcing the mastermind’s standing orders was a relevant question, but this minor success did bear more scrutiny…which was only going to be achieved with a larger group to study.

Paul wasn’t going to let go the population growth restrictions though, so he came up with a compromise and sent a return message before heading over to the core of the command ship and into the TF minutes before it detached from the donut ring and began to descend down into the atmosphere and open up sixth front on the southernmost continent.

The mastermind read through the message, noting that Paul had agreed to his request with a caveat. In exchange for the 20,000 he’d have to supply Star Force with a list of raw materials. Nothing too rare, but it would cost him a chunk of his already limited materials. He had enough in warehouses to cover the transaction, but with reclamation efforts across the planet ongoing and him eating up almost everything they recycled with new infrastructure projects, he’d be putting some of them on hold until additional resources were acquired.

But it would be worth it, he hoped. Either way he needed to find out what the consequences of altering the genetic code were, and if there were undoubtedly tweaks that needed to be made it was best to get to them sooner rather than later. The resource loss would be a hit, but the future of his operations on this planet demanded he get answers as soon as possible.

To that end he immediately ordered the assembly of the necessary materials at a specific landing site and arranged for a later pickup by Star Force. When the necessary cargo canisters were assembled a flock of the fat-winged dropships came down and slowly picked it apart, leaving nothing but an empty landing field and the mastermind with the go ahead for the 20,000 production order.

Several of the hatcheries that he’d preserved fired back up, workers returning, and the new genetic samples being introduced into the growth gel.

The mastermind watched the first batch of the standard variants birthing again, this time with an Archon beside him, one of Paul’s subordinates within his Clan Saber. It was interesting how they each had their own personal empire within an empire, and apparently Paul’s was going to monitor the development of these Li’vorkrachnika with their psionics, for which the mastermind was grateful, for it would give him yet more data to work with.

He didn’t doubt their honesty…far from it. Star Force was renowned for their loyalty to the truth, almost to the point where he thought they might have genetic constraints instilling that imperative, but fortunately that meant he could rely on their mysterious powers to help him test these new ones, and he was interested in wondering why one of them was here at birth. Had they witnessed this before?

“A few scouts have,” Fred-498 said, answering his unspoken question. “But I’m here to get a baseline reading. If there’s divergence it’ll be helpful to be able to pinpoint when it begins.”

“Divergence from themselves or their predecessors?”

“Both. Why do you think their awakening is so violent?”

“We are bred for battle, so when unknown situations face us we respond aggressively. As soon as they get some semblance about them they come to order.”

“A disorientation side effect?”

“Are you sensing otherwise?”

“And it has nothing to do with them smelling me?” the Archon asked, his helmet down but otherwise encased in golden armor.

“They can smell little with gel in their nostrils. It is disorientation.”

“All variants are like this?”

“We are.”

“And the templars?”

“They are live births, of which we have no further knowledge.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“I cannot be sure of anything concerning them that I have not witnessed myself. How long…”

“I’ll be in and out sporadically. Will that be a problem?”

“We’ve amended the genetic memories of these so that they don’t shoot you on site, but the others have been so bred. They are following my orders contradicting that, but as you can see,” he said, gesturing to another standard variant coming out of its pod and thrashing around, “it is best if you don’t startle them. They may strike at you on reflex before remembering my commands.”

“I’ll be careful. I’ll also need work assignments on these so I can monitor their progress. I need to observe them when they do not know I am watching them, and I need it to be in the course of their daily duties or off hours.”

“You will share your results?”

“All of them, yes, though they’ll be in the form of field notes. I will have them translated first.”

“If that is your way of asking if I am learning your language, the answer is no. My time is better spent on relevant duties.”

“Because you have subordinates to do the translating?”

“Of course, but given that they are your documents I’d still prefer that your people did the translating…though feel free to send both copies for analysis.”

“I’ll do that, and make sure the others do as well.”

“How many of you will be observing?”

“An unspecified number. We’ll be in armor, so you won’t know who is who anyway. And if we do our job right, some of the time you won’t even know we’re here.”

“I imagine that has been the case for years now, though I have found no evidence of it.”

“We’ll identify landing coordinates each time, but after that we may roam unescorted.”

“Then I ask you not to kill any of my minions if they do attack you. Simply render them unconscious.”

“We don’t make a habit of killing, and you’re not the only ones that have attacked us. We know how to handle ourselves, and since we can access the minds of those that do, if you do not give an order to do so there will be no misunderstanding, so do not concern yourself with it.”

“Do so you readily answer others’ questions before they ask them?”

“Most of the others do not know we possess these abilities, so no.”

“And Paul instructed you to be candid with me?”

Fred smiled. “He did.”

“So much the better,” the mastermind said as another Li’vorkrachnika drew its first breath of fresh air, clawing at it and everything else around him.

10

February 28, 3249

Solar System

Mordor

Kirritimin sat on a pedestal, his rear four legs curled underneath his beetle-like body while his front two were busy manipulating a control board with the statistics of yet another fictitious scenario based off of real data. It wasn’t regular, but more and more information was making its way to him from the Skarron/lizard border and the Star Force Director had him running through many hypothetical conflicts trying to figure out not what the enemies would do, but rather what they could do with available resources, personnel, and geographical holdings.

It was tedious work, but he enjoyed it. Nothing so mundane as running battle simulations, the Fassna was literally building and destroying virtual empires with no oversight. The Archons he dealt with on a regular basis didn’t want to influence his choices, thus they did not try to assimilate him into their way of thinking. Instead they threw what they called ‘challenges’ at him and he now relished whenever he was given a new one…especially when it was one he initially failed.

The lizards had not been so generous with tasks. Theirs were more demands in a general ‘take this world’ sort of imperative, but the Archons were being very specific about some challenges, citing economic variables, foodstuff production, and even allowing him to incorporate slave labor, meat harvesting, and other banned things so long as this was theoretical on the premise that they would prove logistically inadequate anyway. He thought they were trying to teach him a lesson, but as he’d shown them in numerous scenarios, such things did have their uses.

They were learning from him, he knew, but he didn’t know how they were incorporating what they learned into their own civilization. He was kept completely in the dark aside from news updates. There was no coordination. No responsibility placed upon him. Everything was theoretical and could be approached as intensely or cavalierly as one wanted…with him never lacking sufficiently complex tasks to satisfy the demands of his intellect.

In past years he’d often spent an inordinate amount of time rethinking his choices and trying to figure out if there had been an alternative solution that would not have ended with his race being wiped out, but now he’d put that behind him. What was done was done and he couldn’t gain any more insight from additional reflection, and with so many new problems to solve he had allowed himself to disconnect from his former life and embrace where fate had set him.

But he never let go his hatred of the Li’vorkrachnika. He still had an unsettled debt with them. One that would never be fully paid. So when he was given tasks such as this one that involved what the Archons mockingly called ‘lizards’…which he noted they never capitalized as an additional insult…he had a keen interest in squeezing every tidbit of strategy and tactics out of the subject matter so that Star Force could potentially make use of it against them in their purge of their outward territories.

They’d also let him in on the secret of the vastly superior empire in near the galactic core that they must never come into contact with. He hadn’t been given an identity or any specifics, just the reality of the situation. Trusting in the few absolutes they had cited to him, he’d been asked to figure out if there were any other possibilities to deal with the Li’vorkrachnika across the coreward no-go line.

Sadly there were not, as far as with Star Force troops anyway. Proximity to an enemy that must not find you was not something you could fiddle with, and while the line itself was more or less arbitrary, he did agree that there must be one. That meant the Li’vorkrachnika would not be wiped out entirely by Star Force…and if the task were to be done, it had to be done by someone else.

Right now that someone looked to be the Skarrons. The Li’vorkrachnika were getting dangerously close to the regional boundary, at which point he expected some tendril of an assault to meet fierce resistance. If they did then the gains would come to an abrupt halt and it would be up to the invaders to decide how hard they wanted to press. Kirritimin knew what they would do, which made these simulations all the more important. He couldn’t help the Skarrons, nor could he leave this planet given the information that the Director had imparted to him. He’d agreed to that caveat because he needed as much intel as he could get in order to do his job, but right now he almost wished he could go to the Skarrons and help them in their fight against the Li’vorkrachnika.

As for the Preema…they were another possibility that had fallen flat. They had, and were still, killing many of them and would continue to do so well into the future, but they had adopted the same ‘wall of stars’ border that Star Force had and wouldn’t be pursuing the Li’vorkrachnika to their extinction. He speculated it was out of realization rather than trepidation that they’d established their line, for no matter how many worlds they took from the Li’vorkrachnika, they continued to spread to even more making the task of eradicating them seem impossible.

It wasn’t, but tactics had to shift in ways that many did not see or did not condone. Assaults had to be swift and thorough, with the idea of taking a planet completely abandoned. They had to kill and move on, and get so good at it that they would outstrip the Li’vorkrachnika’s ability to regenerate and spread.

Star Force was doing that here, but no one else was and Star Force wasn’t going to go after the coreward territories…at least not obviously. There were the Hradeiti and a few other small programs that they had under way to allow others the beginnings of footholds that they could potentially push out into enemy territory, but none were even worth mentioning in terms of the grand scale that would be required to end this threat once and for all.

That meant the Li’vorkrachnika were going to win…unless the Skarrons took it to them.

He’d been told that there was no communication between the Skarrons and Star Force, but right now the Li’vorkrachnika in the coreward region were partially boxed in by both the Star Force line and the Preema. If the Skarrons pushed them back that direction this nightmare could finally come to an end, but what would make them entertain such notions?

That wasn’t something he could answer with the data in front of him, so he focused on figuring out what could be done in individual star systems with the resources provided to him. More often than not he was allotted too little, but on occasions such as that he knew the task was in finding ways to do more with less…not something he was entirely unfamiliar with after working for the Li’vorkrachnika.

They’d had far more primitive technology than the Fassna, but after a very long war attrition had won in their favor and his homeworld was conquered with him on it. Most of it was savaged, but a piece was preserved and ordered to surrender.

It was then that he’d met his first templar…and from that point on he’d been living in a continual nightmare doing things he never would have done just to keep the surviving Fassna population alive another day.

He’d given them centuries, but it hadn’t been enough. Eventually he’d failed the templars, or more accurately Star Force had succeeded, and that at least was not something he regretted. His people may have been destroyed, but the Li’vorkrachnika were losing far more and he was enjoying each and every report of a new world or system falling to this odd, yet impressive confederacy of dozens of races. Hundreds actually when you counted all the small ones that they attributed their ‘ward’ status, though some of those were actually quite large by this point, having been sheltered and trained by the Humans until they were a force to be reckoned with, the rest of Star Force notwithstanding.

It was a deep shame the Fassna survivors couldn’t have joined them. If they had, they would have more than made up for the kindness of inclusion.

But they had taken him in as an individual and he was going to repay them for that however possible. If they hadn’t discovered him inside that wall with their psionics he would have been dead by now, having withered away in a pain-riddled demise similar to the way his own race had gone out. He was the last of them, but his end would not be the same. No. From this point on there would be only accomplishments, for when his death did eventually come it would not be a loss. Part of him was already gone. He would simply be finishing a past action.

And that gave him a wonderful sense of freedom…and an opportunity to strike back at the Li’vorkrachnika, knowing that they could do nothing worse to him than they’d already done.

And given the locale he was currently living in, he knew he’d never have to see another of their ugly faces again, which was another relief that he owed Star Force for. His life, whatever was left of it, was going to be free of their stench in more ways than one, and many of the tasks the Archons were assigning him didn’t involve the Li’vorkrachnika at all.

Given time, he expected none of them to be as Star Force slowly eradicated them on their side of the boundary line.

A digger variant crawled along a narrow dirt tunnel, its legs pushing hard behind it in order to get the leverage to scrape away another layer of the wall with its four arms using a flat claw-like appendage on each of them. Material rained down on the bone-covered skull and its equally armored back, with it using a row of spikes to dig into the ceiling as it leveraged itself up from time to time.

That material would then be collected by others and moved out, but right now this digger and his twins were traversing the circular tunnel and enlarging it with each pass, pushing out from the machine dug tunnels very close to their objective which they had orders not to disturb more than to scrape away the dirt and rock around it. Right now they were not that close, still making entry passages that would later be reinforced into proper tunnels, but with the sensor-defying material of the target they never knew for sure just how far they had to dig.

So loop after loop came with them getting closer and closer, but this one still hadn’t seen or heard of anyone getting through yet…but when he got about halfway through this tunnel arc he passed by another smaller shaft that was very recently bored as a digger crawled out.

“I have contacted it,” he said, holding up his hands. “I could not damage it, it is so hard.”

“How far?”

“20 meters. It is…” it began to say as the collar-like comm device activated in response to the report he’d just sent.

“Contact made. All diggers report to specified coordinates and began excavation.”

“Follow and see,” it said, with both of them now being ordered to expand on this site.

The newcomer knelt down and crawled on its legs and lower hands until the one in front of it stopped and a mix of dirt and rock started to come back into its face. In turn it shoved the material under it between its legs and into a new pile that another digger would get to as soon as it arrived.

Inch by inch they progressed, digging forward while sealing themselves in with a loose pile blocking their access but leaving a narrow air gap so they could continue breathing. When the second lizard got to the artificial wall there was now a small room dug out with a very low ceiling that could accommodate three of them tightly, but two would be used so they could have room to maneuver the dirt around and send it back out what was now a chain of diggers funneling it up to the equipment zone that would send it back to the surface and quickly rid these areas of it.

The small chamber was widened until five of the diggers would fit comfortably, then they began raising the ceiling up high enough that they could walk around. At that point the connecting tunnel had been expanded enough to allow for walking as well and more diggers poured in and started carving away much more material…so much so that eventually beams were brought in to produce a box onto which panels were added, creating a bit of a platform for them to work off of.

Slowly that platform was added to as more dirt/rock was removed, with standard variants coming in to further assemble retaining walls that would keep pressure on the surrounding areas to prevent a cave in as more and more of the deep red and smooth structure was revealed. It had an imperceptible curve to it, but otherwise looked like a flat wall that the diggers own claws, which were designed to carve through various forms of rock, could not so much as leave a scratch on.

It would take powerful machines to break through, but they were forbidden to do so until the templar arrived. They were simply to clear the area and erect the necessary structures to allow ease of access down from the surface. That process continued for weeks and nearly a half mile of wall was revealed by the time the templar finally arrived.

The diggers and standard variants moved aside when he arrived with a heavy escort that was made up of mostly maulers but also with a lot of standards with heavy weaponry. Behind them came large walking machines standing 3 meters high and dwarfing the Li’vorkrachnika. They were not of their making and foreign in look and design, but they were with the templar so no one regarded them as being threats.

With them came an alien that walked up to and joined the templar just short of the massive red wall. Most of the diggers continued work on the edges, but a few that were scraping material away from the floor crawled up through the meter-wide gap between support beams and red wall and looked at the newcomers, seeing the templar having a lengthy discussion with the alien. At several points the taller biped’s headtails whipped around angrily, but there was no physical fighting that broke out…with both pairs of body guards waiting nearby to take up action if that were to occur.

The digger knew that if something did happen he needed to run towards the alien and grab at his legs, holding him in place. The walking machines were too big for him to topple, but if several of them were to grab and push on one leg they might be able to take it down, or at least delay it from getting to the templar…though it had what looked like ranged weapons. Still, even if he only lasted 2 seconds into a fight, he could be of some use.

But no fighting was going to break out and eventually the argument settled with the alien pointing above them and to the right with the digger receiving new orders to start expanding in that direction within a minute. As he and the others began to reposition he walked by the templar and alien as they both walked up to the edge, the Li’vorkrachnika standing back a step away from the drop off, but the two headtails shook with a nervous twitch as the alien toed the edge and placed a hand on a structural beam so he could lean out towards the wall.

He put his other hand on the hard red surface as the digger passed nearby and overheard him say a single word when he made physical contact with the artifact.

“Hamoriti.”

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STAR FORCE Wiki

1

February 1, 3254

Unnamed System (unclaimed)

Inner Zone

“Whoa,” the sensor officer onboard the Ma’kri scout ship said after the ship finished its deceleration against the giant red star and its sensors straightened themselves out.

“What is it?” the Captain asked quickly, looking to the battlemap as it updated, seeing nothing around the star as of yet.

“Activity around one of the planets. We haven’t had time for sensor echo, but there are so many ships in orbit we can pick them up from stellar radiation alone.”

“Show me.”

A separate display manifested itself in front of Captain Brayden in holo showing a lot of fuzzy signatures, but once the external cameras got the precise location and began filtering in the light and magnifying it he saw a huge fleet of ships in orbit of the planet stretching around it as if they were a massive ring in the making.

But while there were a great deal of lizard ships present, a lot of them were of an entirely different design.

“Engage cloak and get us out of this orbit before they notice us. I want a closer look.”

“Captain, some of those ship profiles match as…”

“…as Sety, I know. What the hell is The Nexus doing all the way out here? This is far beyond their borders.”

“Are the rest of those ships Nexus races?” his comm officer asked.

“Not that I’m aware of. I don’t recognize any of them except the lizards…and last I heard, they were enemies. Something is very wrong here.”

“Captives?”

“Only in one circumstance have the lizards ever surrendered, and those ships are just part of the formation. It doesn’t look like they’ve taken any damage either. Are we getting anything from the planet?”

“Cloud cover over most regions. We’ll have to get close to pull a tight scan or wait for it to blow over.”

“I want a high orbit…very high. Sety sensors might be able to pick us up, and if they’re not in a friendly mood I want plenty of room to run.”

“How can they pick us up if we’re absorbing all signals?” the sensor officer asked.

“Most signals,” he corrected, “and we still make a black silhouette. If they have theirs programmed to pick out such things they could spot us.”

“Have we done that?” the helmsman asked.

“Of course,” the sensor officer replied, a bit offended. “Luckily it doesn’t seem like the lizards have figured that out yet.”

“Course plotted. Confirm?”

The Captain glanced at it, then nodded. “Confirmed. Get us moving.”

Their presence didn’t go unnoticed. Within a few minutes of their appearance at the star there was a detachment of ships that broke off from the group and headed for their last position, but they didn’t seem to be tracking their current trajectory. The Ma’kri made it to the planet and settled into a high orbit where it began observing what was occurring with passive sensors only, and for the moment they appeared to be either ignored or undetected.

“Captain, we’ve got a possible ID on another of those ship types.”

“Possible?”

“We don’t have a sensor profile from any Star Force source, but we do have some data passed onto us from others that suggest some of those vessels might be Trinx.”

“Trinx? I’m not familiar with that race.”

“Files say they’re one of several races within lizard territory that held out. This one apparently far more advanced technologically.”

“Held out or allied with,” the Captain floated, not asking for a response.

“Captain,” another bridge crewer said from an auxiliary station that had also been purposed for sensors. “There’s some sort of construction occurring on the surface.”

“Show me and highlight the location on the battlemap.”

A tiny dot sprung to life on the display, then another virtual window opened in front of his command chair showing the zoomed in visuals through the clouds. They were sketchy, but enough to make out the fine lines of infrastructure in progress…including a massive landing zone with what looked like cargo crates stacked up into small mountains.

“I’m not seeing any grounded ships.”

“None found as yet. Probably convoy drops if they’re coming from The Nexus. It’s a pretty long trip.”

“That it is.”

“Uh oh,” the comm officer said warily.

“I don’t like ‘uh ohs.’ Be specific of how we’re screwed, please.”

“We’ve got an incoming comm message, one what looks like a tight beam.”

The Captain frowned. That meant their location, or at least approximate location, had been discovered.

“What does it say?”

“They’re asking us to open communications and to drop our sensor stealth. They’ve identified us as Star Force.”

“Do we have incoming ships?”

The sensor officer shook his head. “No. But they have parked quite a few in near the star. They may not want us leaving.”

“Keep our cloak up, but send a return signal. Ask the Sety ships specifically what their business is with the lizards.”

Brayden sat back in his seat studying the planet far beneath them and the ships guarding it as he waited for a reply. This was not what he’d expected to find here. He’d been sent to scout this area looking for new lizard activity in the star systems that they’d failed to claim previously, especially with an eye to digging operations, but nothing in his orders had mentioned the possibility of outside interference. This was still technically lizard territory, within their shrinking borders anyway, even if they’d never previously had any interest in the dead system.

This planet’s atmosphere read as negligible, and the other six had none at all. Lizards typically didn’t take airless worlds without a very good reason, and they couldn’t survive on this one without breathing gear so it was no wonder why they’d passed it over, but something really important was happening here, especially given the tech levels of the ships along with them that he was being updated on as the crew got to work on a fine analysis of the passive scans and began making guesses to their equipment.

The Sety ships were easy to identify. They were The Nexus’s biggest and best warships, and a lot of them were here too, which was even more odd because he’d been led to believe that The Nexus was overstretched militarily…so what was so damn important for them to send a nice chunk of their badly needed fleet outside their territory and into the lizards’ back yard?

“Captain, they say they’ve claimed this system and that Star Force and its allies are to remain outside of it. The lizards here are under their protection.”

“Are they now? Ask them if this protection applies to other nearby systems, and ask them if they are still at war with the lizards on the H’kar border.”

Another long wait ensued, and it wasn’t due to comm lag.

“They say this system alone is their concern. The rest are not. They didn’t answer about the H’kar.”

“Drop the cloak and begin doing full sensors scans of everything. Helm, be ready to get us on the best available jumpline out of the system the moment I give the word. Comm, ask them what message they’d like us to give our leaders when we return, and make it clear that they’re not going to take any alliance with the lizards well.”

Suddenly the sensor feeds intensified in detail…and just as suddenly a grouping of 27 ships detached from the ring around the planet and began lazily heading towards them. They got about a tenth of the way to them when the reply finally came in.

“They say a representative has already been dispatched to our capitol system and that any questions regarding this system be taken up with him. We are to leave now or be escorted out of the system. Our presence here will not be tolerated.”

“What do the files say about the speed of those Sety ships?”

“Um…pretty good. Maybe a touch faster than us. Hard to say.”

“Helm, feel like living dangerously?”

The blonde man smiled ironically. “Where would you like me to dive?”

“I want a close in scan on our way out, but it’ll have to be at really high speed to stay away from them. They’ll probably break like a swarm of wasps when we head in, so give me a good route.”

“Working on it.”

“Comm, when we begin moving inform them that we’re heading out of the system, but that we’re doing a flyby to give our leaders enough information to know what questions to ask their representative.”

“Right after?”

“Give us a head start, but transmit well before we get close to those approaching ships…and by ‘close’ I mean far, far away, right helm?”

“You want me to skim far, far away?”

“Exactly. What’s the problem?” the Captain said deadpan.

“None at all,” the helmsman replied in a matching tone. “Give me a couple minutes to finesse the course and we should be ready to go.”

“Good. Then when we’re past the planet we run like hell. Make sure we get some damn good scans of the surface and those unidentified ships.”

“I can’t get the entire planet on one pass without them intercepting us.”

“Then just get us over those coordinates where they’re building and the surrounding area. Poke in, poke out.”

A moment of silence followed, then the helmsman signaled he was ready. “How’s this?”

The Captain looked over his high speed course projections carefully, seeing that this could get dicey if those ships were a lot faster than them, but once they got past their scanning point they could reengage the cloak and that would make it damn hard for them to follow if they began evasive maneuvering…and the Ma’kri had plenty of fuel to work with.

“Looks good. Let’s go.”

2 days later…

The Sety envoy fleet came out of its jump in near to the yellow star at the heart of the Solar System with some 12 other vessels in its wake. None were Sety, but all were members of the The Nexus and heavily armed, for they’d learned long ago that undertaking diplomatic missions never meant one was safe, and with ships being in such short supply you were more likely to lose a few if you only sent a few, thus it was more practical to send groups in order to avoid losses.

When the Sety vessel emerged out of its deceleration haze the commander crackled as his tree-like body twisted with shock. He had expected a decent amount of traffic and defenses for a civilization the size of Star Force, and while the traffic was actually lower than he would have guessed, the defenses were anything but.

There were huge defense stations everywhere around the star, spread out so there would be at least one or two within weapons range of every incoming jumpline. Further in next to the star was a construct far larger and barely visible within the radiative haze, making its weapons capability indeterminate, but it was the sheer number of ships present around the star alone that shocked the Sety. They’d been getting war updates from the H’kar, so they knew what type of numbers that Star Force fielded in their invasions of the Li’vorkrachnika systems and what they’d mounted to take down their capitol, but there were far more than that here.

He’d expected most of their fleet to be deployed into enemy-held areas pushing their campaign, but it seemed they were not nearly as overextended as the Sety had suspected. Not at all it seemed, for additional fleets began popping up on sensors in groups staggered out from the star, in addition to even more defense stations…and their sensors hadn’t yet reached one of their visible planets.

And those ships didn’t sit still, for as soon as The Nexus envoy arrived they began redeploying closer, not on an intercept course but what looked like bracketing moves that would diminish the their navigating options.

Perhaps they should have announced they were coming prior to arrival.

“Transmit this message immediately on their diplomatic frequencies,” Hirtor said as he walked up behind the ship’s commander. “We are here on a diplomatic mission from The Nexus regarding the opening of formal relations and the establishment of a proper embassy. We await navigation coordinates.”

Davis walked into one of Atlantis’s larger conference rooms along with a Duke and an Archon mage, finding it already filled with some 32 individuals from the Nexus, only one of which was Sety. The others were representatives from their larger members with the H’kar not included. He didn’t know if that was a snub or simply an indication of how low they ranked within their civilization, but given Star Force’s long history and continued wartime cooperation with them it seemed highly irregular to leave them out of whatever business The Nexus had here.

They hadn’t announced they were coming, but Davis had suspected a move like this for some time and the warning systems within his empire had sent word ahead through the relay network tracking their small fleet so he’d had some notification that they were coming. Still, they were trying to throw their weight around, but he could feel a lot of anxiety amongst them right now despite his still infantile psionic skills.

They didn’t expect such a powerful system defense, the mage told him as they walked towards the large ovoid table. They’re worrying that their estimates of our strength were underreported and they might not have as much leverage as they were expecting.

Thank you, he said, glad to have a much keener reading of them to work off of, as well as the ability to talk telepathically. Sure as hell beat glances and facial twitches, and he was pretty sure that neither the Dsevmat nor the other two telepathic races present could sense when they were using their private mental communications channel.

“You’ve come a long way,” Davis said in The Nexus common language that he’d learned long ago, though he sensed that put them off balance right away, for they’d come here expecting to speak English, “and didn’t bother to tell us beforehand. You’re lucky we don’t shoot interloping ships on sight. This system is closed to public travel within our territory. All diplomatic contacts typically go to Epsilon Eridani. But as long as you’re here, tell me why you’ve come…specifically,” he added as he sat down last of the three Humans.

“We have had dealings before,” the Dsevmat answered. “Beneficial, even if some at the time believed otherwise. We believe we can have more beneficial outcomes if we integrate your civilization into our network.”

“Annexation?”

“Depends on how you define that word. We are not offering membership, but rather an interlinking across the rapidly shrinking mass of Li’vorkrachnika territory. We believe the establishment of formal relations and integrated travel and trade would be mutually beneficial.”

“We have no wish or need for a grid point within our territory,” Davis said firmly. “If you wish to establish one on our border you’re more than welcome to do so, but such would be your expense and responsibility for maintaining it.”

Half The Nexus envoys visible twitched, but it was the Telmar that spoke next.

“It is inappropriate for you to use your telepathy here.”

“On my own world? It is inappropriate for you to dictate to me what to do on my own world,” Davis replied icily. “You would use your telepathic abilities to read me if you could, but ours are more formidable so you complain that such use is inappropriate. You are a hypocrite, and I do not care for dealing with hypocrites. If you wish to negotiate something with me, do it bluntly and respectfully. I have no care for lies or trivialities. You wanted us to fund the creation of a grid point in our territory and give you free travel passes throughout our territory. That is not going to happen.”

“Are you against formal relations?” a mouse-like Jpqwel asked.

“Formal relations could have been entered into long ago, but you didn’t deem us worthy of your time. We’ve been working with one of your members closely in a matter of mutual interest…yet the H’kar are not here. Why?”

“They are junior.”

“And yet Star Force already has more than formal relations with them. Why? Because they did not snub us. If you seek to come to mutually beneficial arrangements, you need to stop pretending to be dominant. I know a great deal more about you than the reverse, though it seems you got a lesson upon entering this system. I can establish separate relations with each of your nations if wished, or you can deal for the entire Nexus here and now. But whatever you choose, do not think that your thoughts are your own. If you wanted to shield your minds from us we would be having this discussion via hologram. You came here, before me, so do not insult me by giving me orders…let alone absurd ones.”

“Our apologies,” the Sety finally spoke. “As you’ve said, we know far less about you than we’d like, and that is perhaps our fault for not taking advantage of the openness you’ve developed with the H’kar. None the less, we are here now and wish to learn more. Given your growing engine power, commerce can be achieved via slower travel than the grid point system, but we still offer that possibility if you should wish to reconsider it later. It is the fastest way to link our economies.”

“And what do you hope to gain from such a linkage?”

“A great many things, and as you wish to be blunt I will tell you. You have become a stabilizing force in this galactic arm, and while your territory is small in comparison to ours I have no doubt it will continue to grow, as will your calming influence. We would greatly like to have a stable border.”

“There are still a great number of Li’vorkrachnika between us and you.”

“Which it appears you will deal with in time…and our apologies for not having done more from the other side. The H’kar are getting some additional support from us, but given the size of our domain our ships are needed in many places. We will continue to push back on our current border, but if and when the two meet we wish it to be as friends rather than strangers.”

“That can be arranged easily enough. We’re already friends with the H’kar.”

“We also are interested, on behave of certain members, in the possibility of trading for some of the now empty systems that you have taken in battle. If you do not intend on inhabiting them yourselves, there are those that wish to purchase select ones for their own use.”

“To fall under Nexus domain or my own?”

“That is one detail of many that we have come here to inquire about.”

Davis looked at the Sety, then in turn made eye or head contact with every one of the other races present, knowing that there were far more members in The Nexus than were here.

“Then let me say this. Star Force is fair. If you come to us and seek to negotiate honestly then we will listen. We might not always accommodate you, but we will listen. As far as interlinking our economies, there are many possible ways to do that, and several that I will not permit. If you wish to interact with my civilization you will do so on my terms, and as I said, we’re fair. We don’t seek to steal or cheat, and if you can benefit from fair dealings then there is a great deal for us to discuss…and I will say, that it is a discussion that has been long overdue.”

2

March 21, 3254

Krachnika System (occupation zone)

Michra

Paul’s dropship landed on the lizard planet again, coming down into a wide courtyard rather than one of the spaceports that Thrawn had rebuilt, and the pink armor-clad Archon walked out to find the largest of all the lizards waiting for him with his typical escorts bracketing his robed body.

“Due to your quick return I assume you have an urgent matter to discuss,” the mastermind said, looking into the opaque helmet that only at the last moment retracted to show the Human’s displeased face.

“We discovered the destination of the diggers, approximately where you suggested. An unclaimed system showing recent activity.”

“What were they recovering?”

“I don’t know. Our ship couldn’t take a close look, let alone send a team down to the surface,” Paul said as he produced a hologram between them showing the planet and the mass of ships above it. “They weren’t alone.”

“I recognize only one grouping of these vessels. They are Trinx, an enemy of the Li’vorkrachnika that we were never able to eliminate. The others are unknown to me.”

“We know of one other, called the Sety. They lead The Nexus, but the others are not Nexus members. And they’re all in league with the Li’vorkrachnika and ordered our ship out of the system. When it moved in for a closer look on its way out it was even fired upon, but easily outran the pursuit when they didn’t chase it far beyond the planet. They don’t want us there, and it has to do with this object.”

Paul zoomed in on the subsurface scan the Ma’kri had taken, which revealed little beyond solid rock and the tunneling that had been done recently by the lizards, for their infrastructure was showing in multiple locations plus a scattering of other add-ons not of their making.

“Look closely, and you’ll see the sensor readings are faked. It’s fortunate that we got even this little variation,” he said as he adjusted the display to highlight the region that was being hidden…an egg shape that extended for some 60 miles tip to tip.

“I have no knowledge of this,” the mastermind said.

“How often do you cooperate with other races?”

“Only when we have a specific need. It is likely that their new allies identified this location, otherwise it would have been discovered long ago. Show me which system it is in.”

Paul threw up a starmap and the lizard became more certain.

“We have nothing there and never have. They would not be investigating that worthless planet unless they were told to.”

“These races are far stronger than the Li’vorkrachnika. They wouldn’t need their assistance if they wanted this planet. They can move about at will. Why would they involve them?”

“The presence of the diggers suggest that they did not come straight to the planet. They had the Li’vorkrachnika locate this hidden object for them and have now come to claim it. Perhaps they did not know exactly what system it was in, and they have been searching for it in many places.”

“That sounds feasible, but I didn’t think you guys were all that generous.”

“We’re not. There must have been additional factors. How advanced are these ships?”

“Very.”

“More so than yours?”

Paul cracked a smile. “In some ways yes, in some ways no.”

“Even fight then?”

“Given that we’ve never seen 8 of these races fight we’re guessing, but they all look to be very elite…meaning that whatever this is down there is damn important.”

“While this could be a recent occurrence, there is the possibility that this was a continuation of a previous relationship that I was not aware of.”

“The tech upgrades?”

“It would make sense. We could not match your technological progression, thus another source beyond our own research was located. They could have struck a deal that involved searching for whatever this is. That fleet arrangement suggests cooperation, not enslavement. They are partners in this endeavor.”

Anger rose within Paul at the thought of the Sety feeding the lizards tech improvements…and then there was The Nexus’s reluctance to squash them like a bug when they were giving the H’kar all they could handle.

“Have you seen any other inklings of this?”

“The additional shipyard ring you mentioned. It was kept from my knowledge with no apparent reason. Coreward assets were supposed to be secret so you could not learn of them when you overtook us here, but anything of that size in the original holdings I should have known about.”

“Why would they need to build ships?”

“Find the location and see for yourself.”

“We know the location…we think, but it’s a long ways off and didn’t want to bother with it until we could get our supply lines closer. Taking you guys down requires a lot of material expenditure.”

“In exchange for your lack of personnel expenditure.”

“Yes. Something I think you’re starting to learn.”

“So why not send a scout?”

“Because until now I didn’t think it was anything special, at least nothing that could match the core worlds we still have to take down. But if it’s related to whatever this is,” Paul said, pointing at the hologram of the planet, “then we’d better take a look.”

“Population,” the mastermind said, knowing that Paul would be inside his head.

“And ships to carry them where needed.”

“It is our greatest asset…and one that technologically advanced races might require.”

“Trading your lives for tech?”

“Until recently I would not have objected. They are a commodity.”

“And now?”

“If I were them I’d still make such a trade, for more could be accomplished from it. I can assure you that these are allies of necessity, and that there is no trust between them. Without their tech the templars know they are subject to a slaughter if they turn against them, and the only way to close that gap is by advancing their own technology, slowly through research, or quicker by trade. The lives of a small fraction of the population, which can be easily replaced, are more valuable than what they would be in combat against those same races.”

“Numerically I can agree with you. If you’re going to die, do it in a way that most hurts your enemy.”

“Yet?”

“Hard to say without knowing what deal they’ve arranged, but some of the options going through my head are downright disgusting.”

“What point is there in existing if you betray your purpose to accomplish it?”

“Something like that. You’ve had a change of mind since we last spoke?” Paul inquired, picking up on something else within the lizard’s mind.

“This world will fill up soon, and despite my efforts to increase capacity via infrastructure and your population control stipulations, we will exceed capacity before I am done conscripting worlds.”

“I know that.”

“And I doubt that I will get the answers I need from the templars if they are all gone from this region, unless those answers are somehow hidden within me. I cannot wait to learn their intent, I must have a course of action. Preserving and reorganizing those here is but a means to an unspecified end.”

“And what end have you determined?”

“What end do you wish for us?”

“You want to fight?”

“A worthy fight, yes. If our own judgement has been imperiled by these genetic blocks, then you could bypass that deficiency by choosing the fight for us.”

“Fighting just to fight is another means to an unspecified end. It doesn’t answer the question of purpose.”

“My purpose is to serve, to accomplish goals given to me. That is why I exist. Until recently those goals always held merit, now I am questioning their true veracity. I need to be accomplishing something real. No more lies or misdirection. What do you intend for us?”

“For the short term, containment. Beyond that is a wait and see.”

“You’ve surely considered options.”

“But haven’t settled on any yet.”

“We are bred to work, and while I can keep the minions busy with varied tasks I cannot do so with myself. Now I have work to do, but once the repair of this world is complete and it is filled with inhabitants that have no purpose, this civilization in a containment cell will unravel, and I first among it. I have known this was coming but forestalled acknowledgement of that fact because I did not know the truth of the templars. What knowledge they possess is critical in how I am to proceed…but the fact is I do not think I will know of them in time. I have to work, else I will self-destruct. This is not something I have encountered before, but it is a very real doom I am seeing on the horizon.”

“There is an old saying from my homeworld. A tiny, but powerful empire once said that it must expand or die, for all it knew was to conquer and grow. It could not maintain.”

“I am not designed to maintain save for that function in relation to a greater purpose.”

“Nor am I. We are constantly training and growing more powerful. Individually as well as an empire.”

“Could you handle not improving?”

“No, I couldn’t. Setbacks that I could fight against are one thing, but stagnation is an enemy that I will not allow to exist. I am entirely incompatible with it.”

“And what fate would you have us see?” the mastermind asked, and Paul could feel him almost pleading.

He didn’t answer for several seconds, looking him over visually and mentally. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but the stronger I grow, the wiser I become, the less I feel like I belong in this galaxy. Or rather, there’s nothing wrong with the galaxy itself, but the people in it become less recognizable. I am so far beyond most of them that it is like my success is ostracizing me. I have to become better than them in order to protect them, but it leaves me alone with a very short list of peers…and as others rise to that peer group I am leaving it behind at the same or faster rate. Unless I stop advancing I will never be one of them.”

“That’s just part of the job,” Paul continued. “And for you it’s similar. You have billions of your kin with you on this planet, but they are all beneath you in terms of skill and knowledge. There are no other masterminds here, and you’ve even said that you never interacted without exceptional need. The only peers you came in contact with were the templars…but you didn’t see them as peers, you saw them as superiors. They gave you a purpose. A place. I have no superiors within Star Force, unfortunately, so I have to chart my own course.”

“And now that I have none, I must chart my own as well?”

Paul spread his arms wide, gesturing to the planet around them. “You control one of the most densely populated planets in this region of the galaxy. There is so much here to do that most people would be overwhelmed. You’re so good at it that it almost bores you, and that gives you time to look around and ask yourself…what is the point of all of this? In the past, following the orders of the templars was your point. It was your purpose. You didn’t have to think beyond that and you consumed yourself in carrying out those orders. You were a facilitator, not a leader. Not a trailblazer, anyway. There’s a significant difference between the two.”

“I was not designed for that.”

“No, but you are intelligent enough to become one. You already have in some respects.”

“I have no wish to be one. And what changes you have seen are me identifying weaknesses and addressing them. They are inefficiencies and therefore must be eliminated. That does nothing for me with regards to setting goals, only in achieving them.”

“I didn’t always know my purpose. At least I never understood it in the beginning. I’d get bits and pieces of meaning out of various things, but it wasn’t until I was past 300 years that it truly dawned on me why I exist. It’s not something I decided, or swore an oath to. And it’s not genetically encoded, I can assure you of that. It’s what happens when I see something bad happen. An injustice. When I observe one something inside of me snaps. I cannot tolerate it. It is instinctual, and in that moment I have a purpose. Whether it to be to prevent something bad from occurring, or occurring again, or avenging that which took place. I cannot…will not, tolerate injustice. It’s the very fiber of my being that makes me incompatible with it. This is something I had to learn, but something that I always knew from the beginning of my existence.”

“That’s what you mean by ‘peacekeeper’ then?”

“An inadequate word for a very real motivation that I cannot fully articulate.”

“And what happens when you don’t have an injustice to deal with?”

“I train to increase my power so that the next big one I encounter I can deal with.”

“And if all threats in the galaxy are neutralized, what do you do then?”

Paul shrugged. “Travel to another galaxy.”

“And if all conflict everywhere was ended. All was at peace. What then?”

“I don’t think I’d have a reason to exist.”

“That is the doom approaching me.”

“You said you wanted to fight…why exactly?”

“To do something of worth rather than simply sitting here and existing.”

“But is it fighting or killing?”

The mastermind considered that. “To fight against an opponent and achieve victory. That does not always involve killing. It is the act of accomplishing something worthwhile that is what drives me. The means to do so are immaterial.”

“Define worthwhile.”

“I cannot. I know it when I see it, but I cannot define it.”

“You’ve tried before?”

“Many times. To me it had always been carrying out the templars’ orders. Now when I seek an alternative I cannot fabricate one. No matter what I try it always ends up hollow and does not match my drive.”

“You are a soldier who is interested in fighting a war, not picking a war.”

“It is the challenge itself that drives me…so long that there is cause behind it. Challenge without cause is a waste of time.”

“We call that training.”

“Your training has a cause.”

“But we train by facing challenges without causes in order to practice them via experience. We create meaningless challenges just to spite them. You can’t learn spite without an opponent, and if you wait for real ones you’re going to usually be inadequate to the task.”

“Yet underneath it all you still have a purpose.”

“Yes, but therein lies a difference. You want something real every time. You don’t want training. You want to fight and ascend through combat and experience gained. That’s how all of you have existed for your entire lives.”

“All needed knowledge is given via genetic memories.”

“Not all. You’ve gained a lot of experience that wasn’t given to you.”

“Most then.”

“I have a fellow peer that thinks somewhat like you. She doesn’t dislike training, but would prefer actual combat to it if possible…though real combat often isn’t challenging enough for her, so she has to create challenges sufficient to push her limits.”

“Therein we are alike, though I did not have that luxury. Here on Michra, before you arrived, there was no combat. My tasks generated troops and ships that would be sent out to fight, so it was not without merit, but such things are well beneath my limits.”

“So you need to feel challenged?”

“I would prefer it. Need is not required so long as I am serving…my civilization.”

“And it comes back to that again. That core purpose you’re lacking.”

“So it seems.”

Paul sighed, and suddenly the standard variant Li’vorkrachnika flanking the mastermind froze in his peripheral vision. He turned at the minor, but significant alteration, staring at them for a moment before look back at the Human.

“What have you done?”

“They can’t hear us anymore. Nor will they remember anything. They’re asleep yet frozen in place while I control them. I have something to tell you that they can never know. And I need your word on that.”

“Keeping secrets from them is easy enough.”

“None can know, not even a few details. This is for you and you alone.”

“Agreed.”

“You asked what I would do if there were no longer any threats. The truth is, I’ve never had to worry about that. I’ve got more to deal with than I can handle, and that’s not going to change any time soon.”

3

“Your dominance over the Li’vorkrachnika is not at issue. It is simply a matter of time until your victory is complete.”

“You’ve been the most immediate threat for a long time, but you’ve never been the biggest threat.”

“The Nexus?”

“No. Not even close.”

The mastermind stared at him for a long moment. “Something towards the core that you do not want to encroach upon? That’s why you will go no further?”

“I have known,” Paul began, knowing that what he was doing was a calculated risk, “since the first day that I chose to begin training to become an Archon that a war was coming. I didn’t know when or how, and I still don’t, but it is going to happen. A war that will make the conflict between Star Force and the Li’vorkrachnika seem inconsequential. A war that I could not win, and one that I have worked every day of my life since to close the gap to the point where we might just be able to survive…not win, but survive when it comes to pass. That has been my purpose. It is our purpose. Most of Star Force does not know of this, only the leaders, but it is the reason we created the original organization that then grew into an empire.”

“What is this threat?”

“They are called the V’kit’no’sat, and are a conglomeration of races that dominate the core of this galaxy. My homeworld was once on the furthest edge of their empire. They do not conquer and consume every system like the Li’vorkrachnika do. They pick and choose their targets, then ignore the rest so long as they do not get in their way. They do not conquer those who are pathetic and inconsequential, so they have come to dominate half this galaxy…but a rebellion occurred from one of the member races and the empire contracted. My homeworld was razed in the fighting and subsequently abandoned.”

“I am descended from Zen’zat,” he explained as the mastermind listened intently, lots of lingering questions about Star Force suddenly being resolved. “They are a servant variant of a race called Ter’nat. Ter’nat are the lowest members of the V’kit’no’sat and are kept as breeding material to spawn Zen’zat. They are individuals who prove themselves worthy and swear their allegiance to serve the other races. They are given powers Ter’nat do not possess, and are forbidden from reproducing.”

“When my homeworld was abandoned, somehow there were a few Zen’zat left behind. We don’t know how, but they were my ancestors and the knowledge of the V’kit’no’sat and the abilities given to the Zen’zat were lost over time. Until we made a discovery that opened our eyes to the truth and the potential within us.”

“Your technology…you are not developing it, you are rediscovering it?”

“Yes, though that is far harder than it sounds. The V’kit’no’sat are extremely advanced in all categories. If they came back today we would not be able to defeat them. We might cause them some damage, but it would not be a fair fight. And understand when I say that the penalty for Zen’zat breeding is death…for those that did the breeding, and all their offspring.”

“Your entire race is under a death sentence?”

“Every Human within Star Force, yes. We are all descended from those original Zen’zat who were left behind. If the V’kit’no’sat discover we still exist, or simply come back to reclaim their lost colony world, we will all be destroyed. Most likely the other races within Star Force would be as well, perhaps even our allies. They will purge us from existence, for all the races within the V’kit’no’sat cannot leave. You are part of the group, or you are destroyed. There is no middle ground. No rogue factions. The V’kit’no’sat do not suffer rivals in any way, shape, or form. If we are discovered, we are dead.”

“Why entrust me with this knowledge? If I were able to get word to the other Li’vorkrachnika they could simply find these overlords and bring them down upon you, then they could reclaim all the worlds you have taken from them.”

“You have no transmitters here, but it is possible you could find a way to slip something away when outside this system. Do you want to do that?”

“I believe you already know the answer to that question, otherwise you would not have told me.”

“You said you needed a purpose. Everything the Li’vorkrachnika have built, conquered, and expanded into is for naught if the V’kit’no’sat mark them. Grow too powerful and they will take you down. Granted, they’re a long way from even poking up into their vision, but the Li’vorkrachnika will never conquer this galaxy. Not even close. The templars may be ambitious, but there are other races out there beyond the V’kit’no’sat that they will not be able to touch. If they simply want to expand to expand they will not be able to do so indefinitely, and should they be stupid enough to attack one of the greater powers they will do to them what we are doing, only far worse. They will not fight honorably. We have the means to generate biological weapons that could easily wipe out the population of your worlds without us having to invade, but we don’t fight that way. Others would.”

The mastermind regarded him quizzically. “You have weapons that could easily destroy us, yet you do not use them? For what purpose do you have those weapons?”

“We have the ability to create them, but have not.”

“Still, why risk your own troops, a few of which have died, when you could have prevented it, let alone the massive amount of resources you have expended?”

“Do you not already know by this point?” Paul asked.

“No, I do not. You have regarded the preservation of your own troops as your highest priority. Why lose some of them and give us time to grow and spread when you could more quickly defeat us?”

“Not defeat. Destroy. Why did I not kill you?”

“I still wonder about that. I know your stated reasons, but something about them never fully rang true.”

“We do not kill you because we want to. We kill you in order to stop you. If we can do so via other methods, then we will.”

“Surrender. This is all about giving us a chance to surrender. You’ve prolonged this war to give us a chance to live, one that we would never take. Are you insane or clever beyond my reasoning?”

“We are honorable. And we will not hold every Li’vorkrachnika responsible for the actions of the others. To do so would be…”

“Inaccurate.”

“Yes.”

“You kill those who deserve it, not their kin.”

“That’s another way of putting it.”

“Yet you sparred me when I was the one giving the orders opposing you.”

“Sometimes the past must be avenged. Sometimes it must be let go. Are you still a threat to me?”

“If I was you would have killed me by now.”

“Then if your threat has been eliminated, I have succeeded in my mission. Your destruction was never the goal.”

“But yours is, by these overlords of yours.”

“Yes it is, or would be, if they knew we existed.”

“And they are not honorable, so you do not wish to emulate them?”

“There is a mix of honor and dishonor within them. More of the latter, but they are not wholly degenerate. I have no illusions of negotiating with them. They are compulsively loyal and arrogant. More so than even you. When they place a death mark, they will not be swayed from it. And the more resistance given the more it will galvanize them…and they have far more worlds to draw power from than Star Force and the Li’vorkrachnika combined. Each of which is in itself wholly superior.”

“Your entire civilization exists under a mark of death, and yet you pursue honorable goals rather than mere survival. You compromise that which matters most in order to see to the needs of others?”

“Our survival is not in our power to control, but even if it was, yes, we will fight honorably.”

“Would you ever use these more efficient killing weapons if needed? Under any circumstance?”

“Honor does not lie in the weapons, but how they are used in the given situation. In theory there might be a time and a place for them, but never where we initiate the combat.”

“Defensive vengeance then?”

“Possibly. If we are to die, we will die honorably, but that doesn’t mean we won’t take as many of them with us as possible.”

“Within the bounds of honor?”

“We won’t harm those who do not deserve it in order to strike at those who do.”

“Suddenly I find we have more in common that I allowed for. You will fight like us when the circumstances are correct, and you will not surrender?”

“Even if the V’kit’no’sat gave us that option, no, I would not.”

“And the others?”

“The average person might. The Archons will not.”

“You will fight to the death?”

“We won’t seek death, but we will not submit.”

“So in that, we are alike.”

“We don’t engage in suicide attacks.”

“If your death was assured, would you not ram your warship into your enemy?”

“If death is assured, then it’s not suicide. It’s a choice of how to die and to do as much damage to the enemy as possible before you do.”

“We have long assumed you did not have the fortitude to do what was necessary. Then when we began losing to you we tried to study you to determine why. Technological progress was evident, but there was always something else in play, tactics wise. Now I think I finally understand what it was. You were holding yourselves back rather than being incompetent. Reserving certain methods of fighting for situations you deemed honorable. I imagine that is a mistake many of your enemies have made.”

“A few. The Li’vorkrachnika found us when we were very weak. Had it not been for the Hycre’s intervention we probably would have been destroyed. We needed time to grow and they gave it to us.”

“And you have repaid them with the gift of weaponry and the return of their worlds?”

“Yes.”

“But you did not annex them?”

“We only forcibly annex those who are our enemies…if we so choose.”

“But that is not what you want from us?”

“No. Like I said, given access to your genetic material, we could have done that a long time ago.”

“Yet we have one advantage that you do not, as far as my information tells me.”

“And that is?”

“We are born with genetic memory and are functional immediately. Your young take time to develop, including your Bsidd. We can expand faster and more effectively.”

“You expand with inexperienced units. I will grant they have more immediate effect than our younglings ever could, but over the course of time ours will exceed yours.”

“But it’s an advantage you could have incorporated by annexing us. So why didn’t you?”

“There are many ways in which to fight. We prefer some methods over others, and your type of colony building, while effective, doesn’t suit our methods. You risk your personnel too much, but you gain from that risk in many occasions. We put our experienced troops in harm’s way while we protect the young long enough that they can become experienced. Your method is the reverse.”

“Given the threat the galaxy faces, weak units, no matter how many, are pointless. So you have engineered your combat forces to face an unbeatable opponent rather than tooling them to face more immediate threats?”

“Partly true.”

“And you believe our suicide attacks would not be affective against them?”

“Nothing you have will be effective against them.”

“If you were to implement them?”

Paul sighed. “They’ve been around for millions of years, and have grown quite accustomed to people trying to take them down. They’ve developed technology to block a lot of suicide attempts.”

“Which you have implemented.”

“They have far more.”

“Are they as concerned with maintaining their troops as you are?”

“No. But they find retraining new ones to be tedious, so they take care not to lose them unless absolutely needed.”

“They will still spend their lives if necessary?”

“Their collective ego is more valuable to them.”

“Yet you have never met them?”

“We recovered extensive records, so we know them well enough to be certain of their response.”

“Why not abandon your world and travel far from it so they will never find you? If their empire is in the core, flee to the rim and be rid of them.”

“That option was discussed, but before we had the industrial muscle to make such a move the Li’vorkrachnika became a problem and we needed every asset we had on the homeworld just to survive you.”

“Once you finish conquering this half of our territory, you will begin to move your people away?”

“No, we won’t.”

“Why stay?”

“You tell me.”

“You won’t abandon the races you’ve annexed into your empire. You’ve taken responsibility for a large number of star systems and you won’t relinquish it for fear of what would happen to them if you did. But why not evacuate them all with you?”

“If the V’kit’no’sat learn of our existence, they will not stop hunting us until we are found and destroyed, no matter where we go. We could hide, we’re smart enough to do that, but we would lose so much of our powerbase in such a transition that it would put our efforts to upgrade our empire so far behind that we would lose too much. If the V’kit’no’sat come back tomorrow that logic will seem stupid, but we’ve been operating under it since day 1. We don’t know when or if they’ll find us, and we’re using all the time we have to try and grow strong enough to survive them.”

“But you cannot?”

“We have fallback plans, but if it comes to that, we will not go quietly.”

“How long have they been absent?”

“Oddly, it was right at 100 millennia when we discovered our true history. Add another one on since then.”

The mastermind grew more serious. “This is a very old empire then. Why do you think they have not returned in such a span of time?”

“We don’t know how badly the rebellion hurt them…but there is another matter. What the V’kit’no’sat was originally formed for. There are massive creatures that inhabit the deep core known as Hadarak. They are themselves warships and prefer to live within deep gravity wells. They are a plague on the galaxy and continually push outward to devour worlds…not whole, but they do massive damage. The V’kit’no’sat were created to oppose them and hold them back within a containment line. They never figured out how to destroy them within the gravity wells, so all they can do is fight and kill those that come too far out, and it is a task they have never shied from. That duty, along with the outcome of the rebellion, is probably why they have not pushed the boundaries of their empire back to their heights.”

“Do you know where their border is now?”

“The other side of Skarron territory.”

“Far from your homeworld then.”

“Thankfully, yes.”

“For my entire life I have thought we were superior. I knew there were races beyond us, but it was assumed that given enough time we would achieve their level of technology and surpass it. Even before then we would be able to overcome them with numbers and tactics. And now you tell me that we have been fools this entire time? We are not dominant…we are not even relevant?”

“No, you’re not. And even Star Force’s technology level wouldn’t draw their attention if it weren’t for our death mark.”

“How many more years do you require before you can attain what they had in their past?”

“It’s been uncertain from the beginning. We relearn some aspects quicker than others. A few hundred years, perhaps another millennia.”

“And then it will still not be a fair fight?”

“We have no way of knowing how much further they have advanced, but even if they did not, they have numbers that we cannot contend with.”

“Some of which much contain these beasts?”

“Some, but they would have no trouble rousing enough to overwhelm us.”

“If they knew your strength. If they underestimated it, they would send too few and you would stand a chance of a short victory. Over time they would send more, then you would be in an untenable position. Evacuation prior to their discovery of you is your only long term solution.”

“That’s what the reality of the situation is.”

“And yet you stay.”

“The only way we can best them is to best them,” Paul said dubiously. “Not with numbers, but with quality. We have to be better than them, and we’re not going to get better by hiding out and running. As you well know, war experience is extremely valuable. Theoretical simulations can only take you so far.”

“And?”

“Doing the right thing can’t be postponed. There are people here, now, who need our help. We won’t sacrifice them in the short term to extend the long term concerns. If we are to die, we will die with honor as protectors…not fleeing survivors who would abandon others to grim fates to preserve ourselves.”

“Your affinity for death over dishonor is the same as our own, except ours seems to have been twisted.”

“And yet you are untwisting it.”

“With your considerable assistance.”

“You needed a nudge. But only you could decide to think and not slit your throat as all the others have done or would do.”

“I tried, but you took my claws.”

“And after you grew them back?”

“By then I had time to think.”

“And what are you thinking now with regards to your honor?”

“It has been vested in following the orders of the templars, but it has always been to our civilization. The templars are the embodiment of it. Through them we grow, defend ourselves, and bring order to a chaotic galaxy.”

“By killing all of the people in it?”

“I would blame the blocks, but in truth I should have seen the futility of that long ago.”

“That’s what the blocks are there to do…keep you from seeing things.”

“We are meant to be protectors. I can feel it now. As you said, untwisting that which was in us all along. We are meant to fight. To fight for a purpose.”

“And the templars?”

“The more I learn the more I believe they have deliberately corrupted that purpose to their own gains, so much so that I do not know what it is. It is there, though, just outside the reach of my mind. Your honor runs parallel to it.”

“And combat clarifies it?”

“Without full understanding, yes, it seems to.”

Paul closed his eyes for a moment, still mentally holding in check the other lizards around them. “Then observe the true enemy and tell me what your hidden purpose drives you to do.”

Suddenly there was a flood of images and knowledge pouring into the mastermind’s thoughts. They didn’t stop coming, more and more until he lost track of the time as his superior intellect rapidly soaked them up as he came to see the V’kit’no’sat for what they truly were, race for race, battle after battle.

The Hadarak, the Zen’zat, the Zak’de’ron who they overthrew. Millennia after millennia holding the deep core border and expanding their empire outward. The arrogance, the superiority, the unflinching loyalty…and the horrors they enacted to subsidize it all. Sometimes they were in the right, taking down enemies that deserved to be destroyed, but many times they were not, simply doing what they wanted to do and treating the galaxy and all in it as their birthright.

And yet even they had a nemesis they could not overcome. The Hadarak vexed them, but rather than simply hold the line for perpetuity they continually sought ways to strike at them, failing time and again, but their ego would not let them admit inferiority.

They had to be superior.

They were superior.

And anything that suggested otherwise had to be annihilated.

No matter the cost.

The mastermind took a step backward when the massive mental download ended, his mind still trying to process it all as Paul just stood there giving him time to work through it. One of his large hands rose to his face and he touched his claws to his forehead as he thought quickly and cleanly, all doubt having been erased from his mind. He might not fully understand himself, let alone the templars, but the existence of the V’kit’no’sat made it all nearly irrelevant. They were an unbeatable foe…and one that had to be challenged.

He eventually dropped his hand and looked directly at Paul as possible strategies to employ against them failed humorously. There was no way to beat them. That was clear enough. And ironically, it didn’t matter to him in the slightest.

“What would you have your Thrawn do?”

4

April 3, 3254

Solar System

Earth

Davis didn’t get the priority update until he got out of the shower after his morning workout session, finding the small red holographic icon floating over his computer terminal in his quarters that he rarely used. Normally he’d wait until he got to his office, but it was times like these that made him glad he had the access handy.

He sat down and pulled up the alert, finding the report from the scouting mission to an unnamed system in lizard territory. The lizards were there, along with a lot of other races, including the Sety…and their scout ship had been fired upon, and not by the lizards.

He picked up his earpiece from the desktop and opened a line to his staff with a simple preset mental command. “Get the Sety ambassador down here immediately, personal conference, I want him face to face. Don’t tell him why.”

Davis pounded his fist on his desktop in frustration. The Ma’kri hadn’t been damaged, but at the same time as The Nexus had its delegation here negotiating with him another part of their fleet was firing on one of his ships. He didn’t know who these other races were, and it wasn’t a Sety ship that had fired upon them, but they’d been chasing as well and didn’t get into firing range only because the Ma’kri had managed to slip away from the planet in time. Regardless, they were working with whoever had fired those shots, not to mention the lizards…which drew into question the lack of action on the H’kar front, and if they had some arrangement with them all along.

These bastards had been here for two months, hounding him with matter after matter and him putting them on hold for a few days at a time here and there so he could get other work done. Part of the negotiations were worthwhile, but a lot of it seemed like little more than blustering as the various races within The Nexus sought and offered information as well as trade deals, technology overtures that Davis had almost entirely struck down before they’d uttered the words, and a lot of political maneuvering within The Nexus that he wasn’t going to facilitate.

The Daegon and the Maktee seemed to be straightforward enough and interested in actual agreements, and until now Davis hadn’t had any appreciable contact with them. A few others he’d made inroads with before were now coming to the forefront as well, but most of the delegation was here trying to trick or leverage Star Force into disadvantageous positions…as if Davis were a newb and couldn’t see through these guys even without his telepathy.

He’d turned down their request for an embassy in the Solar System, instructing them that they could build one in Epsilon Eridani like everyone else, and he thought they were dragging out negotiations here trying to get that decision reversed. Fortunately that meant they were still here when the alert had come in, so he’d have a chance to wring the information out of the Sety envoy personally.

“You requested my counsel?” the Sety said as he walked into a small conference room where Davis was waiting for him, not affording any of the representatives access to his office.

“I was told by your people to ask you for information regarding a matter in this star system,” Davis said, activating a holographic map. “It has no name in our database, nor the Li’vorkrachnika’s, but at present the Sety have a large warfleet there in addition to those of 9 other races including the Li’vorkrachnika…and they are not fighting each other.”

“I was informed that we had recently annexed a system within Li’vorkrachnika borders, and I believe it is this system, but I do not know what other vessels would be with them, and I sincerely doubt that the Li’vorkrachnika would allow our presence without throwing themselves into a suicidal frenzy.”

Davis silently brought up the recordings from the Ma’kri showing the various fleets.

“As you can see, I am not making this up. Your ships are there, in league with the Li’vorkrachnika and others. We’ve identified one race as the Trinx. The others are unknown to us. Explain this.”

“I cannot. I do not know the nature of our business there, only the annexation of the system.”

“My ship was specifically told to refer the matter to this delegation, and you’re telling me you have no information to give me?”

“I’m afraid I do not. I can tell you that two of those races are known to me. They are the Domu and Chamra. We have relations with them but they are not part of The Nexus and live far beyond our borders.”

“Take note,” Davis said as he advanced the timeline on the recordings, “that this allied fleet fired upon my ship when it didn’t leave the system as instructed. The Sety are part of that fleet, therefore I need answers.”

The envoy stared at the images for a moment. “I do not know what to tell you. I know of no reason why our fleet would be at cross purposes with yours. What did your ship do?”

“It moved in to take a closer scan of the planet and found this,” Davis said, showing him the enhanced subterranean image. “A large object, sensor stealthed, that the combined fleet seems to be excavating in conjunction with the Li’vorkrachnika.”

“Curious indeed.”

“Curious doesn’t cut it. That fleet said to ask you, now you’re telling me you have no answers?” Davis reiterated.

“I do not.”

“Then we were deliberately told to ask you in order to waste our time. When you are here to discuss matters of greater cooperation, such insulting tactics do not help your case.”

“I cannot control our fleet. They do not answer to me.”

“Why would that many ships be there? What could possibly pry them away from your territory? I know you’re overtaxed, don’t try to deny it, so what would justify stripping that many warships away from other priorities?”

“Again, I do not know.

“And how long do you think it would take to get me some answers?”

“A message would have to be sent back via courier ship. It would take a minimum of 3 months.”

“And I’m guessing the answer would be that they didn’t know as well, which will have just wasted three more months of my time,” Davis said angrily. “Do you have any objection to us going back and asking the fleet ourselves?”

“I would caution against that. If your ship drew fire then they are taking whatever the matter is very seriously.”

“I take anyone who fires on one of my ships very seriously.”

“I do not know what is occurring here,” the Sety said, pointing at the holograms that lingered above the table, “but if you were told to leave then it is best that you heed their warning. I will send a priority message back to my homeworld on the fastest vessel we have inquiring to this matter and informing them that your ship was fired upon. If you wish it, I will go personally to expedite matters.”

“Yes, you go and deliver a message from me. I have to have a really good explanation as to what is going on or I will not sanction The Nexus’s presence in that system. They are allied with the Li’vorkrachnika far beyond your borders. We are taking this region, and because of the Li’vorkrachnika’s involvement here we will not pass by this system. We will take it by force if needed, unless you can convince me of the need to do otherwise.”

“Strong as you are, you cannot stand up against that combined fleet,” the Sety strongly urged. “I do not know the capabilities of all of those ships, but if they are on par with ours you wouldn’t stand a chance in armed conflict, nor would we wish it to come to that given our recent inroads.”

“My ship has already been fired upon,” Davis said simply.

“Was it damaged?”

“No.”

“Then you can choose to overlook the incident.”

“Why would I do that?”

“To avoid a much more costly one.”

“You’re in our backyard now. You don’t dictate to us.”

“If my government sent in that large of a fleet, respectfully, they are dictating what occurs in that system. I do not think they will interfere in any others, and whatever the matter is in this one, it must be of the utmost importance.”

“You know we have strong relations with the H’kar.”

“You have made this clear, yes.”

“Now I see you have allied with the Li’vorkrachnika. Previously, you have not fully supported the H’kar in the defense of their territory against the Li’vorkrachnika. Do you see the problem with this?”

“I am beginning to,” the Sety said, clearly unbalanced. He’d been sent here to ingratiate himself with Star Force and now he was in a very awkward and unexpected position.

“The construction of a Nexus embassy in Epsilon Eridani is hereby canceled. You will not have a presence here if you are allied with our enemy, and I will need a full and open accounting of what is happening before I will even begin to reconsider that. Until such time I will deal with the races of The Nexus individually, but you and the Sety vessel here must leave immediately. Do not come back until you have an explanation that will meet my satisfaction. The other vessels may remain to conduct individual negotiations, then when completed, they will also leave and none of you will be allowed back into this star system again without my permission. Return here and expect to have your ships confiscated. You may bring any further diplomatic inquiries to one of our other systems and the information will be relayed here via our communications grid.”

“Do not throw away what we have accomplished here over a misunderstanding.”

“My ship was fired upon. That is not a misunderstanding.”

“The Sety did not fire.”

“Their compatriots did, and they were also in pursuit. Your fleet is working in conjunction with theirs and the Li’vorkrachnika’s, and you didn’t even bother to inform us you had assets in our invasion corridor…let alone a fleet of that size.”

“I was not instructed to. Had I know it would be of relevance I would have told you we had assets in that system, but given that your war front had not reached that area yet I did not think it was an issue. I apologize for the oversight.”

“I highly doubt this was an oversight, and I do not want apologies…I want answers. There is nothing further to discuss until you have some. Return to your homeworld and find them.”

“As you wish,” the Sety said, not wanting to cool relations any more with arguing. He turned his tree-like mass around and walked out of the room leaving Davis standing beside the chair he had never taken. A few minutes later another person walked in that door, shaking his head.

“He doesn’t know,” Riley-038 said, having been telepathically observing from another room. “But he had been notified of the activity in the system without being given any details and told to downplay it if asked.”

“I got that feeling too. How important is that fleet?”

“Huge. He’s never seen one of that size assembled before, nor does he have any idea why that many would be necessary. The two races he identified are regarded as being too powerful to join The Nexus and are contemporaries of the Sety.”

“The Sety and their peers,” Davis said, turning and pointing to the subsurface scan floating in holo along with the other major recon items. “What do you think that is?”

“Could be a ship. Kind of small for a city, but if there are remains of some civilization even more advanced than these guys, it could be of enough value to them to warrant this level of paranoia.”

“Zak’de’ron?”

“I doubt it. The finds we’ve documented have been basically trash left behind. If they had anything of value I’d bet they’d have recovered it by now.”

“Agreed. Who else in the database would fit this profile?”

“Nothing in this region, and it’s beyond the survey zone.”

“Was their coming here a coincidence or a distraction?”

“Coincidence. We wouldn’t even have been scouting that system if the mastermind hadn’t tipped us off to it. That said, they knew we’d get there eventually.”

“Did they think we’d pass it by because it wasn’t on the map?”

“I think they don’t worry about it with that large of a fleet. They think they can dictate whatever they want.”

“Can they?”

“I’ll need to pull a chunk of ships from here and a lot of other systems in order to not delay the ongoing invasions.”

“Do it. We can’t let the lizards have safe haven anywhere, and we can’t let The Nexus dictate to us on our own doorstep…nor whoever the rest of these races are. I get the feeling we’re tripping over a long existing relationship between them and the lizards that they never expected to come to light.”

“That doesn’t explain the excavation.”

“No, it doesn’t. I think it’s tied into it, but whatever is going on there is recent. Find out what it is. We’re not waiting for their politicians to stall us. We haven’t had any here for a long time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t remember their tactics.”

“This fleet movement was fairly recent.”

“And it may be time sensitive as well. Go.”

“Going,” Riley said happily as he walked away enroute to rallying a response fleet.

Davis let him go, shutting off the holograms save for the subsurface scan. There was hardly anything to look at, just a hazy outline around where the sensor stealthing was, but something about it worried him. He didn’t know what it was, but the response of the Sety alone in sending that many ships that he knew were needed elsewhere was significant. No, not significant, panicked.

This was extremely important to them, and apparently a lot of other very advanced races.

What the hell was this thing?

5

July 2, 3254

Unnamed System

Inner Zone

Riley’s command ship came out of its jump head of the line to find stellar orbit empty. That was fine with him, for within a few seconds another command ship slowed to a position several hundred kilometers behind his. The Excalibur drew closer as a continent of Warship-class jumpships followed the two trailblazers into the system, with them claiming control of stellar orbit without a confrontation and getting a look at the condition of the planet in question as soon as they worked their way around the star and got into line of sight with it.

They were all still there, sitting in planetary orbit and safeguarding whatever it was that they were excavating. Riley and Paul both stayed put near the star as their fleet continued to jump in one ship at a time at a very high rate of sequence that had become second nature after so many lizard invasions. Normally ships in convoy wouldn’t jump this close to one another but now, for Star Force’s veteran ship captains, this felt normal and any pilot that couldn’t handle such a maneuver was far from making it to a position where they’d be able to fly a jumpship. The competition amongst pilots was so high now they all had to be experts just to get a primary slot on even a freighter.

“There they are,” Paul commented, popping up in holo on Riley’s command nexus control board.

“Yeah, just sitting there and ignoring the star. For someone who doesn’t want anyone here they’re not acting like it.”

“I get the feeling they’re used to getting what they want just by frowning in someone’s direction. They want the planet secured, so they’re not going to bother stopping transit through this star.”

“Agreed. They’ve got to be noticing us by now.”

“I don’t think they’re worried…yet,” Paul added. “When the incoming ships don’t stop, they’re going to get nervous. The Sety have enough data on our capabilities to know we mean business.”

“Think they’ll fight?”

“I think they’re paranoid about something, and paranoid people can be unpredictable. I’m glad you brought this many ships.”

“If we can spook them into talking so much the better, but if we have to throw down with The Nexus and friends, I want it to be a lasting lesson. You want to chew them out?”

“Go ahead. I’ll take second seat on this.”

“Alright,” Riley said as more and more warships continued to come out of the convoy jump behind them. He activated the communications systems and set them for The Nexus’s protocols, knowing that at least the Sety would be receiving the message, though he knew the others would as well. Whether or not they had translation protocols for English was the question.

“Attention, Interlopers,” Riley began, his voice deep with sarcasm. “You’ve encroached on the rightful territory of Star Force that we are currently in the process of stealing from the Li’vorkrachnika. If you wished to help rid the galaxy of these vermin we’d welcome the help…yet they seem to be sitting quite comfortably in orbit with you. Seeing as how there is no weaponsfire being exchanged and their not being blown into smitherines, I have to assume they are here with your permission. Well, they don’t have our permission to be here, and they have to go.”

“Furthermore, your ships fired upon one of ours that was having a look around this system. We really don’t like that, and if you’re looking for a fight we’ve brought you one that will offer a greater challenge. If that’s what you want, we’ll be happy to oblige. If not, you’d better start explaining things real fast. We’ll be in orbit shortly.”

Riley cut the comm channel, knowing there would be a lag until the message got to the planet, but already feeling the ticking clock counting down. This was going to come to a head very fast, and he didn’t know how these guys were going to respond.

“Nicely done.”

“Thank you. Not too much sarcasm?”

“I’m not sure how much they’ll pick up anyway.”

“Sad to waste it on unknowning ears.”

“If they have ears,” Paul added, seeing the first stirrings in their fleet formation coming in on the long range sensors. “I think they’ve seen enough to realize they’re going to be outnumbered.”

“They don’t know how badly yet. I hope they squirm.”

“Where do you want to enter?”

“Backside, then circle around. They’re staying in position over that surface location.”

“Give them a little more time to think it through?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll need to make a detour.”

“That’ll give them a little more time too.”

“Wanna split?”

“Yeah, why not. Let’s enter at multiple spots. How many jumplanes do we have?”

“Five easy ones,” Paul said, looking at their navigational options if they bounced off nearby planets, “two more with a mild delay.”

“Five is good. Let’s make as good of a show of this as we can…and if they think to intercept one jumpline they’ll have four others to worry about covering as well.”

When Riley’s command ship decelerated into planetary orbit he brought with him a fifth of the combined fleet and had them stacked into a 3x3 formation given the slow jump. That meant there were 8 jumpships arrayed around the Zeus in a square, then following them were additional squares packing the massive jumpships in together very closely with only a handful of kilometers to spare in between each.

When they arrived at their destination point the jumpships fanned out and his command ship took center in what quickly became a blockading wall. Each additional square formation that came in split up and added to that wall until all of his 206 ships arrived. Likewise there were other formations at four different points around the backside of the planet from where the opposing fleet was stationed.

1031 Star Force jumpships for the 1031 ships in the opposing fleet, not counting the lizards, which would pretty much pop like confetti when hit. Some of the unknown vessels were larger than even the Star Force jumpships, but most were far smaller and no matter what their technological advantage might or might not be, they were single warships…not carriers.

When Riley’s fleet got themselves arrayed to his liking, the wall of jumpships slowly moved around the curve of the planet towards the waiting fleet while still holding their drones in their berths, not having released them yet, and each jumpship held between 50 and 100 of them…meaning that despite some of their impressive tonnage, the Sety-led fleet was almost comically outmatched.

He just hoped they thought so as well.

“We’re here,” he transmitted again, this time within range of realtime communication. “Care to respond before we get within weapons range and one of your ships does something really stupid?”

An image of a tree-like Sety appeared in holo before him, with the computer handling the translation. “You are trespassing. Any questions concerning this system should be directed to the representative we have sent to your capitol.”

“I just came from there. He said he had no idea what you were doing here, so we figured we’d come here and get some answers directly.”

“This planet belongs to us. You have no claim on it.”

“I didn’t say whether I was laying a claim on it or not. I said we’re here for information. Explain yourselves, starting with why the Li’vorkrachnika are here.”

“They are here with our permission and are not organizing against you.”

“That doesn’t answer why, and if you’re giving them safe haven that does concern us.”

“Their business with us is private.”

“They’re supposed to be the enemy of The Nexus. What business do you have with them other than fighting them?”

“That is our concern.”

“And who are you? You and your friends. They’re not Nexus members, are they?”

“They are not. Our association with them is a private matter.”

“Look here, Treebeard. Either you tell me what I want to know or we’re going down to the planet to have a look for ourselves.”

“You will not be permitted to do so. If you try to do so you will be fired upon.”

“Have you counted how many ships we have?”

“It matters not. We are tasked with defending this planet and that is what we will do, to the last, if need be. You are not permitted here. Leave.”

“Make me,” Riley shot back. “You think you can shoot at our ships when they’re alone. Try it now.”

“Your vessel was told to leave and did not. The fault is its own.”

“Well now I’m telling you to leave. If you do not, will the fault be yours?”

“This is our planet. You do not have the right to order us to vacate it.”

“I have the guns to do so if necessary, but I’ll settle for a really good explanation. If you don’t give me one, I have to assume your presence here, in our invasion corridor, in association with our enemy, is nefarious and deal with you accordingly. So start talking.”

“Any inquiries should be posted to the representative we sent to your capitol.”

Riley looked at him with scorn on his face. “Do you really think that by saying that you’re going to get me to turn around and leave to go ask them again?”

“What you do is not my concern.”

“I’m making it your concern. Shall I tattoo that message on the hull of your ship so that you can better contemplate it?”

“Be advised that the ships we possess are more advanced than yours. You do not have a position of leverage here.”

“Oh really?” Riley asked, his tone light. “We got a pretty good scan from our scout ship, and while we don’t know exactly what all of them can do I think we guessed pretty good. Those big boys there have a dueron cannon each, but that won’t do much good against a fleet of our size. There are too many ships to target, though it would do a hell of a lot of damage if it hit something big. Too bad we didn’t bring anything that size. And your pheeron converters…they pack a punch, but you’ll find our shields have been calibrated to resist that type of weaponry. I could go on, but suffice to say that we’re aware of most of your tech even if we haven’t faced off with you before.”

He couldn’t read the Sety’s mind over a comm channel, but his demeanor shifted in what Riley guessed was either surprise or dismay. After all, they didn’t know Star Force had a galaxy’s worth of technical diagrams of every known piece of technology that the V’kit’no’sat had come across to pull reference from.

“Be advised, that if you engage us here, you will reap that betrayal elsewhere. All the races present will lay a vendetta upon you that you will not survive.”

“The Li’vorkrachnika already have one on us, and we’re surviving it just fine.”

“They are minor partners. Do not mistake our strength as being as small as theirs.”

“Partners, huh? That’s odd. I thought you were enemies. So, did you sell out the H’kar? Because we really like them, and if you did, that’s just going to tick us off even more. Lying about it now will only make things worse, so the best thing for you to do is answer honestly and bluntly before this escalates even further.”

“And the best thing you can do is turn around and leave before you start a war you cannot win. We are honor bound to defend this planet at all costs, and that is exactly what we will do.”

“Then defend it by providing me the information I need and there won’t be a fight…unless you really are our enemy, in which case there’ll be a fight regardless. But if you’re not, just answer my damn question and there won’t be any need for conflict. Which is more important, keeping your secret or keeping that planet? Because if we do fight I’m taking it, and believe me when I say that I have a lot more ships in the region to call on for reinforcements to make sure we hold it long enough to do a thorough investigation of everything happening on the surface…so are you going to make me find out the hard way, or are you just going to tell me what’s going on?”

“We have our duty, and will carry it out.”

“If you’re really that dumb, then The Nexus is so screwed that I can’t even…” Riley said, stopping as Paul’s mental voice entered his head via the intership comm systems.

Do you feel that?

What?

On the planet. Open your mind and screen out everything on your ship. Tell me what you sense.

Riley did as instructed, ignoring the Sety for a moment while he pulled most of his mind out of the computer network and back into his physical senses. It took a moment to find what Paul was referring to, but once he did it stood out immediately. It was a low hum, a telepathic hum, and it was coming from the planet.

Whatever that is, it’s huge.

And coming from the coordinates of the excavation. It just popped up once we hit line of sight, but I was getting an uneasy feeling before that, so some of that telepathic field must have been making it through the planet.

What has a mind that powerful?

Pretty obvious now, isn’t it? And that object is about the right size.

It’s too small to be a Hadarak, and… Riley cut off as it finally clicked.

Nefron didn’t think they’d be easy to destroy, Paul added, finishing the thought for him.

What the hell do these guys want with it?

Let’s ask them.

Riley pulled his mind away from the monstrous hum that now seemed hard to miss and turned his attention back on the Sety that hadn’t bothered to speak when Riley cut off. “Are you the commander of this fleet?”

“I speak for them, yes.”

“Are you the commander?”

“We are an alliance. We have no single commander. I have been elected to communicate with you.”

“Then start communicating. Now that we’re close enough, I’m able to feel the presence buried within the planet. You have a Uriti here, and if you damn well want to live you’d better not mess with it.”

This time the Sety looked horrified, and given his alien persona that only underscored how big of an emotion was swirling through his otherwise hard to read features.

“That’s right, we’re telepathic. Or had you forgotten that?”

“You are not…” it began, then suddenly there was a delay with his image remaining. He was talking to someone else but the words weren’t being transmitted. Riley waited it out, then another hologram popped up beside the one of the Sety…with a mist-like apparition coalescing into an indistinct body and face.

“You can feel the Hamoriti as well?” it asked, obviously using a similar translation program that the Sety were using.

“They’re called Uriti, and yes I can.”

“I am unfamiliar with that word. What knowledge of this do you have?”

“Plenty. More than you, I’d imagine. For starters, there are a lot more of them left over from a war millions of years in the past. Who are you? I am unfamiliar with your race.”

“We are Yisv, and telepathic as well. Are you aware of the danger this god possesses?”

“I am acutely aware. What is its current condition? How is it being contained?”

“If you do not know the answers to those questions then you do not possess as much knowledge as we do. If you do not know then you are ignorant.”

“Far from it. If this Uriti awakens and roams free, we’re the only ones with a means to control it.”

“Control it?” the Yisv asked, with a quiver of mist that was unreadable. “Of what do you speak?”

“A secret we possess, and one that I am not inclined to share with those who will not even do me the courtesy of explaining why you fired on my ship.”

“We cannot let anyone awaken the Hamoriti. We will keep all away from this planet no matter what the cost.”

“Why are the Li’vorkrachnika involved?”

“They helped us locate this one.”

“This one? You’ve found others then?”

There was some hesitation as the Sety and probably others were conferring with each other, but the Yisv pressed on anyway. “Yes we have. We know the dangers they possess and are committed to protecting the galaxy from them. The Li’vorkrachnika’s assistance was necessary.”

“Even though they’re the enemy of The Nexus?”

“That is immaterial given the greater threat.”

“How many have you found?”

“Nine.”

“How many are on this planet?”

“Just one. The Ancients would not risk imprisoning two at the same location. How can you be so ignorant and possess this knowledge?”

“Who are these Ancients?”

“The ones who imprisoned the Hamoriti long ago.”

“Our knowledge comes from those who created them.”

That revelation hit like a bomb, and both the Yisv and the Sety were completely frozen. Before they could speak more holograms began popping up in front of him until nine different races were visible.

“Who created them?” a twin headtailed alien that Riley recognized as a Trinx asked.

“A race called the Chixzon. We have recovered considerable knowledge from their…remains.”

“How many Hamoriti did they make?” a small triped alien asked that he didn’t recognize.

“Spread across the galaxy, there were a total of 118.”

A string of curses that didn’t fully translate were uttered by half of the aliens, but it was the Yisv that responded the most calmly, though that was largely a false demeanor, for its words betrayed its dismay and worry as well.

“One has been released, and we are doing everything in our power to keep it from spreading its minions across the galaxy at great cost to the nine races represented here. We needed expendable troops, for which the Li’vorkrachnika were commissioned for, but we cannot imprison the god. We can only hope to kill its minions as it produces them and follow it as it travels from system to system, destroying all in its path. If you have knowledge of the Hamoriti, I beg you to give it to us. We are helpless to stop the god on our own.”

6

“Commissioned…how?” Riley asked, realizing the probable answer even before the Yisv could respond.

“They provided us with expendable soldiers and ships in sufficient quantity to defeat the minions soon after they were created. None of us could have kept up with the level of production necessary to accomplish that.”

“And what did they get in return?”

“Technical assistance.”

Riley glared at the hologram of the Yisv, then at the other 8 races. “You gave them tech upgrades that made them far more deadly. Do you have any idea how many people have died because of that?”

“Far less than would have perished had the Hamoriti’s minions run rampant across the galaxy,” the Yisv explained unflinchingly.

“Did you have a plan? Or were you just going to continue feeding them technology until they reached your level?”

“We did what we had to do to preserve future options. Doing nothing would have meant disaster. Combating and losing our own forces would have seen the Hamoriti run free eventually. Only with the Li’vorkrachnika’s assistance have we kept it contained to a single system.”

Riley noted a Star Force jumpship breaking off from Paul’s fleet, then a quick personal message from the trailblazer informed him that it was going back to get word to Earth and send for Nefron.

“And what did you plan to do when we destroyed all the Li’vorkrachnika’s worlds?”

“There are two they constructed specifically for the purpose of supplying us with the troops we need. We were not going to allow you to destroy those worlds. If you have a way to deal with this disaster, please share it with us. For the sake of the galaxy, something must be done beyond the stalling that we have maintained.”

“A Uriti can only destroy one planet at a time,” Riley said angrily. “The Li’vorkrachnika can savage thousands at once. You wrongly presume the greater threat.”

“If you had fought one, you would not say such things. They cannot be defeated, the Li’vorkrachnika can, as you’ve demonstrated.”

“And you’ve made all the harder. And the H’kar? Were they part of the deal?” Riley asked, looking at the Sety.

“No. The Trinx brokered the deal. The Li’vorkrachnika had no knowledge of our involvement until recently.”

“Did you hold back your counter campaign against them?”

“There was no counter campaign. The H’kar are a minor member of The Nexus, and were fortunate that we assimilated them, else they would have been destroyed. We never intended on defeating the Li’vorkrachnika, even before this bargain was struck. The H’kar were to hold their border, if they could not, then they would fall.”

“The Nexus philosophy is that a strike against one is a strike against all.”

“The Li’vorkrachnika are not that serious of a threat.”

“You stupid morons.”

“We apologize for the difficulty we have placed you in,” the cyborg said. “We have reviewed our actions numerous times, but we have never found an alternative choice. We do not like aiding a potential enemy until they are strong enough to threaten us, but the Hamoriti is by far the greater threat. I do not like what we have done, but there was no other choice.”

“Die honorably,” Riley said flatly. “And why can’t you kill these minions yourself when they try to leave the location the Uriti is at?”

“If we wait that long they will mass a far greater number. They are not easy to kill.”

“Perhaps I’ve underestimated your technological assets.”

“No, it is not a lacking on our part. The Hamoriti’s creations are simply too persistent. If we do not cut them down as soon as possible, our task will become much harder.”

“Forgive me, but that is not entirely true,” another of the nine races said, this one a mass of hair and teeth that looked very much like a bear. “The fact is that we have focused our efforts on containing the captured Hamoriti rather than building militaries to fight them. We believed that if one awoke there would be nothing we could do about it. Our lack of preparation is why we have had to rely on the Li’vorkrachnika.”

“How long since the one awoke?”

“Approximately half a century.”

Riley frowned. “You’ve been feeding the lizards technology for 500 years? You fucking bastards. We could have wiped them out by now. And how in the hell haven’t you been able to retool your militaries in the past 500 years?”

“Because we are not sitting and watching as the Li’vorkrachnika do the fighting,” the Trinx said, his anger suppressed at even the slightest possibility of a solution. “We fight with them and suffer losses in the process.”

“That doesn’t stop research and development,” the Human argued.

“Our focus,” the Yisv said, taking helm of the conversation again, “has been day to day to prevent an outbreak of the minions. When the Hamoriti leaves a system and travels to another we follow. We cannot stop it, nor direct it, and every system it has landed in has been utterly destroyed. Most of the worlds have been Li’vorkrachnika.”

“How did it get free?”

“The Li’vorkrachnika did not know what they had found, and we did not know of any more than the original 7 Hamoriti. Their locations were documented and we have secured as many as we could. Why there are others not listed we have not discovered. We are near to accessing the aperture that will allow us to enter this one’s prison, and hopefully the Oracle will tell us the answers we seek, but the Ancients could only sedate the Hamoriti, they could not control them. By what means do you claim to control them?”

“We didn’t know for sure that any were still alive, but we know how their masters directed them and should be able to do the same. In theory. We’ve never had cause to test it.”

“How was this achieved?”

“Very carefully.”

“Please give us the means to do this. Even if it is short lived, we may have enough of an opportunity to sedate it again.”

“Where is the free one now, and where are the locations of the others that you are aware of?”

A few moments later a navigational marker was transmitted that highlighted a lizard system in what used to be H’kar territory, but no other markers were forthcoming.

“And the others?”

“Their locations are kept secret for a very good reason,” the Sety said, drawing a glare from Riley. “Until you have offered some proof of your claims, we will keep that secret.”

“I’m beginning to dislike you,” he said bluntly, then turned his attention back to the Yisv. “Are there others you’re searching for? How did you know to look here?”

“Artifacts of the Ancients are rare, but we have been looking for them in earnest since the Hamoriti was released, hoping they would shed some light on the secrets of how to recapture it. We discovered vague suggestions that there might be one hidden within this region, so we asked the Li’vorkrachnika to look. They found the one on this planet and informed us of it before trying to access it.”

A message from Paul filtered its way into Riley’s mind.

“With whom in the Li’vorkrachnika did you negotiate with?”

“We did not get names, but it was with their leadership caste.”

“Is there one present in this system?”

“Yes.”

A happy thought came in from Paul, then the trailblazer told him to continue on with the conversation and ignore the templar while he dealt with that.

“Do you have an image of the Hamoriti that is free? We need to know which it is.”

“Do you have files on them all?”

“Yes.”

“May we have those files?”

“May we have the locations of the others?”

The Yisv didn’t reply, then nodded. “We must begin to trust one another first. I understand. My race is telepathic and adversely affected by the Hamoriti’s presence. Were this one not sedated we would not even be in this star system. We will not go to the surface. If it is the same for you, I suggest you find one of your empire’s races that is not telepathic to serve as an observer and accompany us when we access the aperture and go inside.”

A few stares came from other holograms, but none of the Nine voiced their displeasure.

“Explain what you mean by adversely affected?”

“The telepathic aura of the god affects us more than others due to our sensitivity.”

“Interesting. I can feel it now, but I wouldn’t say it’s interfering with my abilities.”

“The power level increases with proximity.”

“Then I think I’ll test the range limits. When do you estimate you will have access?”

“Within a few days.”

“Then shall we cancel the upcoming battle?”

“It was you who were going to attack. Will you stand down?”

“We’ll stand by…and take up a holding orbit.”

“Can you tell us nothing of this control method?”

“Only that it requires a specialist from our homeworld. We have dispatched a ship to send for that which is required. It will take some time before it is here.”

“We have waited a very long time. We can wait a little longer. Please do not say you wish to wake this one to test your abilities, for we will not allow it.”

“No. But I do want our specialist to inspect this one. Then we will deal with the one roaming free. What is it doing exactly?”

“Feeding and spawning minions.”

“Continuously?”

“For the most part. Sometimes there are lulls in minion production, but it never stops its attempts to spawn an army that can march across the galaxy on its own. The minions do not need the Hamoriti to conquer, and they are far more dangerous than the Li’vorkrachnika on their own, which is why we had to keep them contained and in as few numbers as possible, for they will spread rapidly if given the chance.”

“How often does it switch systems?”

“Randomly. It has passed between 39 since it was awoken, not counting those merely for transit. When it attempts to spawn minions it lays waste to whatever planet it is on, coring deep into the world’s mass and consuming whatever corovon and other valuable materials are there. Two such worlds have imploded as a result, with the surface crust being consumed by the magma within, then rehardening into a new surface with all traces of the forming having been obliterated. As you know, many of the Li’vorkrachnika worlds are heavily populated.”

“No, really?” Riley said sarcastically. “Has it hit a non-Li’vorkrachnika system?”

“Not an inhabited one, but it has planted itself in several unclaimed systems. It does not require atmosphere, and has taken to several airless worlds. Most of its minions will not grow there, but a few varieties will.”

“How did you fight them there?”

“We have a machine army,” the Trinx answered. “They are costly to produce, and are reserved for situations the Li’vorkrachnika cannot handle.”

“And why haven’t you been able to produce more over the past 500 years? That’s enough time to expand and build up multiple planets for the specific purpose of housing the industry to create them.”

“We would never be able to field enough units to replace the Li’vorkrachnika.”

“You could have tried,” the cyborg responded, breaking the bit of decorum they had. Apparently there was some bad blood between these races.

“I need a list of assets,” Riley said before they could start arguing. “Your assets. Your planets, fleets, territory…all of it. I want the full history of the past 500 years since this one got free and how you’ve dealt with it…and how it’s adapted to you. Do not hold anything back. I’m not asking for the schematics to your technology, just a tally of it and its abilities so I can assess what’s been going on,” he said, looking first at the Trinx, then the others, “and how seriously you’ve been dealing with it.”

“Our entire civilization has been devoted to stopping these beasts,” the Trinx said, holding his anger in check.

“Then my request should be fairly simple. Are you interested in stopping this one, or playing games with me?”

“We will pursue any chance of stopping the Hamoriti. But so far all you have done is talk.”

“He has knowledge that he otherwise should not,” the Yisv disagreed. “I do not doubt his claims. We will gladly provide you with the information you requested. But I do have a question. Do you know the origin of the Hamoriti?”

“Yes.”

“Where did they come from? You mentioned they were created? How?”

“They are alterations, massive alterations, to creatures that inhabit the deep core of the galaxy. A wayward one was captured and experimented upon, then the Chixzon altered it to turn its offspring into weapons they could use to crush their opponents. Each Uriti is unique, and the older ones are far harder to control than the newer ones, thus I need to know which one has been released.”

“And these Chixzon? What happened to them?”

“They were destroyed by a galactic uprising against them.”

“The Ancients,” another race said reverently. “They must have had numerous allies across the galaxy. That’s why we didn’t know of the others.”

“No,” the cyborg differed. “The Ancients built this prison, like the others. Yet there is no mention of it. That question is not answered.”

“Were any of them destroyed?” the Yisv asked.

“We only know of two, early on, when the Chixzon sent them against too strong of opponents out of arrogance. After that point they deployed them more wisely. We do not have information of what happened to the Uriti after their civilization fell.”

“So there could be 116 left in the galaxy?” a shape-shifting lump of mass asked as its head rippled with distortion.

“Possibly.”

“And you haven’t sought to find them?”

“We had no idea even one was still out there, let alone where to look.”

“Where did you recover the knowledge of the Chixzon?” the Sety asked.

Riley gave him a mocking stare. “That’s something we’re going to keep to ourself.”

“That data cannot be allowed to die with you.”

“Who’s dying?”

“We must earn their trust,” the Yisv said viciously, the animosity surviving the translation. “I suggest we each provide an independent account of the Hamoriti to them while the aperture is being revealed. If they know of the Hamoriti then they know of the danger they possess. No sane being would engage one without the knowledge of how to neutralize them, and from what the Sety have told us, this civilization is a wise one.”

“Thank you,” Riley said, but he was looking at the Sety when he said it.

“Please do not harm yourself,” the Yisv implored. “Keep away from this one as far as necessary. But you will have access to it in whatever form is needed short of compromising the god’s slumber.”

“Before we go down to the surface, the Li’vorkrachnika are to leave it. I don’t want them around.”

“That can be arranged. Will their fleet in orbit be an issue?”

“Make sure they don’t fire on or try to ram us. They have a habit of doing that.”

“We will make sure nothing of the sort happens. They rely on us for…compensation. They will not defy our orders. Nor could they gain anything from such an assault given the strength of your fleet. An ambush on the ground would be another matter, so you are right to request they be removed. They are finalizing the last of the digging. Once it is complete they will be withdrawn from the planet. I will make sure of it personally.”

“Adequate,” Riley said.

“Do you truly have a means to stop the Hamoriti?” the triped asked.

“Who are you?”

“We are the Dati.”

“Well, Dati, yes we do.”

“What can you do?”

“Give it orders. The complexity of which will be determined by which Hamoriti it is, but at the least we should be able to direct it to whatever system we wish and keep it from wrecking inhabited ones.”

“Whatever system you wish?” the Trinx asked ominously.

“They are weapons,” Riley pointed out. “And yes, we could use them as such if we wanted, but if you study our history you’ll find that we’re the safest people to hold the leash that you’re going to find. And to be blunt about it, if we wanted, now that we know it’s here, we could wake this one up remotely, so you don’t have a means of stopping us if we wanted to unleash this one. We’re not going to do that, I only say this to make you realize you have no leverage on us. Regardless of your tampering with the Li’vorkrachnika, we do not want the Uriti running free and destroying worlds, and we will do what we can to stop this problem before it gets any worse. On that I give you my word. But there will be no sharing of control, so do not ask about it. You’ve already shown that you are unscrupulous. We would not trust you with such control, even if it were possible. And given the nature of the technology required, I can assure you that it is not. The Chixzon were very cautious about their control mechanism. You would not be able to use it.”

“How then can you?” the Yisv asked respectfully.

“That’s a secret for another time.”

“Then let us not delay. We will get you the data you require,” the Yisv said with a nod, then cut its transmission. The others followed suit, the Sety last of all, almost reluctantly.

What are you up to, Paul?

Trying to hack the lizard fleet comms and find what ship that templar is on.

Any luck?

He’s not on the dreadnaught. Best guess is one of their jumpships.

You going to board it?

I’d like to, but he’d kill himself before I could get to him. I’m going to try and hack whatever information he might have with him.

I thought they’d configured their comm systems to keep us out?

They keep trying, but Thrawn gave me some information to help with that. It’s outdated, but allowing me a little access that I’m trying to wiggle around with. If I’m careful and lucky, I can get one of their cruisers to do the talking for me and use their current codes to get access.

We could still get a tissue sample off a dead body, if that’d help?

It would be something, but I’m more interested in finding some links back to their coreward territories. Nice work with those guys, by the way.

Think I told them too much?

No. But when Nefron gets here we’re going to have to decide how much to let them know. These guys aren’t dumb.

I’m not so sure about the Sety. Why are they so damn annoying?

We’re starting to challenge The Nexus, Davis thinks. I had a long talk with him about it previously. We’re small compared to them, but several of their member races are making inroads with us and the possibility of defections is unnerving them.

So they’d prefer to throw their weight around?

And keeping us out of here under the guise of protecting this Uriti was the perfect excuse with their buddies. We shut that down real quick and outstaged them in a far greater way than they’d ever thought possible. How do you think they’d feel?

Grateful, if they’re really that committed to keeping these things from running amuck.

I think we’ll find out soon how dedicated they are, if each race files an independent report. Good call on that. What did you make of that warning about telepathy?

I’m going to find out myself. You stay up here in case I get fucked up. Not sure how well our blocks will work against something of that magnitude.

Alright, but play it safe. If this thing twitches the ranges might alter.

Recklessly safe, as always, Riley joked, though the description was quite accurate.

7

July 5, 3254

Unnamed System

(Uriti/Hamoriti location)

Paul sat in his quarters reading through the files that he’d acquired from the lizard ships. It’d taken some time, but he’d eventually been able to work his way into their comm system and hack into enough ship databases to find which one the templar was on, then downloaded his full set of files before being detected and having a hardware solution imposed on the tap. He’d managed to leave a ‘thank you’ message before the plug had been pulled, but as of now there was no way back into the lizard fleet systems for they were only transmitted what amounted to brief text messages between one another.

But he’d gotten what he needed. The templar was on one of their cargo vessels that had been reworked from the inside out to become a mobile fortress. It didn’t have additional weaponry, but was coated with so much armor and packed with additional, often redundant gravity drives, that the cargo carrying capacity had been reduced by 21%. From the exterior it looked like all the others, but this was definitely intended to be his personal, inconspicuous ride around the war zone.

Paul was sitting in a cushy chair that he hardly ever used, but for the moment he had some reading to do and might as well sit here to do it rather than standing in the command nexus or sitting at his terminal a few meters away. He’d already skimmed the information previously, but this time he was going to go through it line by line, in Li’vorkrachnika, and not rely on the translation programs which could occasionally make a mistake.

The full plans and history of the deal with the Trinx were spelled out, as well as the timetable for technology ‘payments.’ It galled him that these bastards had been feeding them tech all this time, no matter what their reasons. This wasn’t so much an emergency panic as it was a complete disregard for the wellbeing of others. The Trinx and their allies were far superior to the lizards and the payment schedule wasn’t going to have them catching up in a very long time, and it seemed that so long as their priority, being the Uriti, was met they didn’t give a damn what happened to everyone else.

The threat of the Uriti was real and significant, but Riley was right. After all these years the economies of these races could have been regeared into production necessary to supply the equipment they needed to combat the Uriti minions in sufficient numbers…but why do that when they had a much cheaper and easier method of obtaining what they needed? And with the lizards’ disregard for their own people they had an unending supply of suicide-willing troops to trade away.

What was important now was that they got no more tech from them. The next payment was due in two years…a modification to sensors that would upgrade their range and response time. Following that could come a specialized missile suited for ship to ship combat, then yet another shield upgrade. On and on the list went, apparently hammered out long ago, and extending some 5,483 years in length. After that they’d either have found a solution to the problem or have to renegotiate another contract…but at that time the lizards would be so damn strong it wouldn’t have mattered.

All of the lizards’ tech upgrades in recent years were on this list…all of them. They hadn’t created a single improvement on their own in all that time, or stolen one from someone else since the Kvash plasma streamers. They were relying on the Trinx and this deal to feed them what they needed. No wonder they wanted to play for time and stall Star Force’s advance. The longer it took the more tech they’d get, so why push the issue with a massive invasion of the ADZ?

All this time he’d wondered why the lizards were doing what they were doing, and this little tidbit brought nearly everything into crystal clarity. This deal was the cornerstone of their plans for galactic conquest going forward, and it was no wonder they were punching the Skarrons in the nose and literally daring them to come out and stomp on them. More than the internal Skarron conflicts with their Consortium, it was the knowledge that these upgrades were coming that was going to turn their seemingly suicidal charge to their favor.

When it looked like they were outmatched and going to get the axe coming down on them soon enough, all they had to do was not cross that line and hold onto the massive gains they’d made into Skarron territory and digest them for a while until more upgrades kicked in, then before the Skarrons realized what was happening they’d be pouring over their borders and a lot harder to repel than they’d thought.

And even if the lizards were pushed back, as time went on they’d get stronger and stronger and the war of attrition would swing in their advantage. Damn them, this was so clever and devious that he was a bit envious. Star Force was the main technological threat to them, so they pivoted to attack the huge empire that was less of a challenge ship for ship. Neutralize the more toxic one and let them chew away at one piece of your territory while you knock off the much bigger one in a massive play for time.

Paul was beginning to think the lizards now never intended to come after Star Force, simply keeping them at bay with as many sacrifices as necessary while they moved their capitol elsewhere and far away from his encroaching invasion forces.

Unfortunately its location wasn’t in the ship’s database, but a navigational map was. No other ship had one this filled out, and while it didn’t give strength or population numbers, it did give the location of every system the lizards currently held…or at least at the time this ship’s map was updated.

They’d spread farther than either Star Force or the Voku had estimated…including sending small startup colonies beyond their contiguous borders and off into very distant regions to begin growing isolated empires thousands of lightyears away. Those were noted as being very outdated, with the most recent one being 22 years old, but two of them were actually behind Star Force lines and beyond the Voku, out past what was referred to as the expanded region, or even the backwater region which was dotted with map references and little data whatsoever.

The lizards had leapfrogged it all and sent ships on ahead to plant the seeds and begin growing new worlds far from Star Force’s knowledge, far from the Skarrons and everyone else that knew about them.

Paul was going to make sure they sent some of their own assets that deep on a lizard hunt. They couldn’t let these guys get another foothold on a weak region where they’d have next to no resistance. At least that’s what he assumed. Star Force didn’t have any information that far out and there could be stronger factions, but if the lizards had set up camp and expanded out to dozens of systems in each of the two ‘seeds’ then they hadn’t attracted much attention yet and wouldn’t if they were smart about it.

No, Star Force had to go hunt them down and do it now before they sent more seeds out even further away. It was curious though, how…

Paul’s question was answered a moment later when he found a listing of trade routes the lizards were using, and all the seeds were lined up on them. They weren’t sending these rogue civilizations out to operate on their own, they still wanted command and control of them, thus they were restricting them to lines of slow, but workable communication.

Maybe that was more paranoia on their part, for if this was Star Force’s work he would have put the lizards into ships and told them to run in every direction possible and find a nice quiet corner of the galaxy to spread into then meet up in a few thousand years for a reunion and to see who made it, then they could start consolidating power and taking over everything in between.

That would be a nightmare, but then again they couldn’t ship out the tech upgrades if they didn’t know where everybody was at either. The lizards were taking a clever strategy here, and it was just via a stroke of luck that Paul happened onto a lizard fleet that wasn’t running or dying and that happened to contain a templar with his personal records.

But why weren’t the lizards running or fighting? They thought they were protected by the other races? Or was this deal so important to them that they were willing to see how this played out before deciding what action to take.

But then maybe this had been discussed before. In the records, the two systems that the lizards had devoted to the construction of ships and the growth of troops to supply to the anti-Uriti alliance were detailed as well as their agreement with the Trinx that those locations would be protected against outside influence. That influence would most likely be Star Force, so the Trinx and maybe these other races were already willing to put themselves in between Paul’s advancing fleets and the lizards.

How that would have played out he wasn’t sure. Would the Trinx have talked or just bluffed? They didn’t have the numbers to fight Star Force given their small territory no matter how advanced their tech was, and Paul was fairly sure they weren’t all that far ahead of Star Force. Maybe having gone down a different developmental tract, but in a fight he didn’t think his drone fleet would be that badly outmatched ship to ship.

Would they have fought to protect the lizards? Of course they would. They’re willing to sell out everyone else to get their supply of disposable troops, so why wouldn’t they be willing to fight to protect them?

But then, they’d be losing their own ships in the process and they had to have at least an inkling how powerful Star Force was. Maybe they were simply going to impose themselves in between the two sides and make Star Force engage them. These records didn’t specify, but it was clear that the Trinx were responsible for the protection of those two systems.

The other eight races weren’t even mentioned in most of the records. It seemed they’d only emerged once this Uriti was discovered. The Trinx had given them information about probably locations and asked/demanded that they search for it as an addendum to their deal and to insure that this one, if it existed, didn’t get free like the other had when the lizards had stumbled onto it. There was no additional payment mentioned for the search, so Paul assumed it had been an ultimatum.

But the lizards were still here and apparently included in the search parties. That hadn’t been specified in the records, and only a very small amount of information on the other 8 races were included, all of which had been taken from comm intercepts and observations. They hadn’t gone to the curtesy of even introducing themselves. The lizards were apparently the Trinx’s pet project, and the big boys had come in to defend the system when the Uriti had been found and were tolerating them by all by ignoring their presence.

That was probably why the Yisv didn’t think that removing the lizards from the planet was a big deal.

The templar here had been assigned to this search project and had been down to the planet on numerous occasions, based off his person notes which were structured as reports that would be sent back to the other templars via courier ship. Too bad he wasn’t still going down, else Paul might be able to snag him during transit. He had a feeling he’d be a little hesitant to slit his own throat, but a stun pulse pumped into the hull of a kirby or slightly larger transport should be able to disable everyone inside. No chance of that with a cruiser or any ship even remotely that large.

Too bad Kara wasn’t here. She might have a chance of sneaking onboard and grabbing him before anyone was the wiser. If she could he wouldn’t give a damn about the Trinx or their buddies. He’d get to that ship and extricate the bastard no matter how many drones he had to lose in the process.

But would these allies fight to protect this lizard fleet at all given Riley’s promise of a solution to their gigantic problem? Maybe, maybe not. The lizards were still supplying the troops they needed and so far, as had been stated, all Riley had given was a promise with no proof.

It was going to be some time before a ship got back from Earth, and until then Paul was just going to have to burn time on workouts in the sanctum and pilfering through the templar’s records. There was a lot here, but a good chunk of it was mundane gibberish that apparently was important within the templar ranks. He didn’t get the feeling that they were a separate race within a race, but rather an elite group of leaders that had as many numbers as was needed for their tasks…though they did seem to be highly interactive with each other socially, which was the total opposite of the mastermind interrelations, which didn’t exist at all.

Also in these records were the visuals of the other Uriti that had broken free of its bonds and the lizards’ pathetic attempts to destroy it. From those records they’d been able to confirm that it was Namishta, the 78th Uriti produced, and one that had been lost well over a quarter of the distance around the galactic spiral.

That suggested to Paul one of two things…either this Uriti had traveled on its own after the Chixzon lost it, or those who had captured it had moved it a great distance in order to hide its location. The prison that it had been held within was a giant shell that the lizards had breached, inside of which held the apparatus to keep sedate and feed the beast, for starving it to death wasn’t an option. If it felt any pain, any sense of emergency, or even the slightest physical stimulus it would begin to wake, so the only way to keep it still was to keep it in pristine condition and the shell-like prison was also a factory digging out material from the planetary core to feed it indefinitely.

This prison facility was expected to be the same, but the dimensions were different. Same construction but a different size, which made sense, given that all of the Uriti were different size and form. The one on the planet below had yet to be identified, but if spacing held uniform within these prisons, Paul narrowed its identity down to some 23 Uriti, though there would be no way of knowing for sure until someone went inside and got a look at it, for sensor scans couldn’t penetrate the shell.

Paul and Riley had already discussed that, with the other trailblazer insisting that he’d be the one to go have a look while Paul stayed up here to do what was needed if his brother suffered some catastrophe from being in such close proximity to that large of a telepathic presence.

Paul didn’t think that would be an issue if other non-telepathic races could stand it, for his mind was far more hardy. He guessed these Yisv were telepathy sensitive, meaning they could see but not shut their ‘third eye’ to what was around them. Zen’zat could, which was why Riley wasn’t too concerned.

But one of them had to stay up here just in case, and after all, Paul was ‘The Admiral.’

Yet another example of why he occasionally hated that nickname, because he really wanted to go down and see this thing in person.

8

July 8, 3254

Unnamed System

(Uriti/Hamoriti location)

Riley’s dropship landed him on a lizard-built pad over the Uriti’s location, but none of the scaly green bastards were around, either in vision or telepathic range. The massive presence that was the buried beast was ever present now, but not as intense as Riley had thought. He has having no difficulty whatsoever as he walked through the atmospheric containment field and off the boarding ramp in his bright pink armor along with a pair of flanking Knights that each stood a head taller than him. They wore their bright white armor, bracketing him as they walked towards the alien races waiting for them on the far side of the pad, inside a breathable pocket of atmosphere.

As stated, the Yisv were not present, but the other eight races were with numerous team members here and everywhere else to either offer support or security, Riley wasn’t sure which, for a lot of them were unarmed. Maybe they’d replaced the lizards in support functions, but then that asked the question what exactly had the lizards built that needed to be maintained?

The answer was nothing. Which meant that all these people were either here sightseeing or they wanted to outnumber the Humans.

“Welcome,” the cyborg representative in the small group that met them offered, with his words being translated directly now that they’d exchanged language files and Riley’s armor had been updated with all native linguistics that these races possessed, including the Ancient language that they typically used with each other. “The aperture is now open. The Oracle is inside and waiting.”

“Let’s go,” Riley said, not wanting to stand around and talk.

“Are you being adversely affected?” the Sety asked.

“Not yet. Just a big telepathic humming that is easy enough to shut out.”

“If that changes let us know,” the Trinx added as it turned and began walking into the entry cupola behind them. Once inside the group was lowered down through the structure and into the caverns that had been dug around the Uriti by the lizards. When Riley and the Knights came out they found themselves on a large plaza with a huge red wall covered with a lattice of structural supports that were keeping the ceiling from caving in on the well-lit floor filled with various open air compartments that looked to be set up for a mixture of research and supply.

“What does the color denote?” Riley asked.

“We do not know,” the cyborg answered. “Some are the same, others different. There is no correlation that we have discovered. The aperture is up there,” it said, pointing into the ceiling along the far right section where there was a large staircase that wrapped around what looked like another lift.

“How did they find this one?”

“There is a signal the Ancients left to locate them. It requires close proximity, but overhead flights beaming the transmission down into the surface revealed its approximate location. Digging efforts were then undertaken, but the Li’vorkrachnika were not aware of the aperture’s location until we revealed it to them. They began digging before we arrived, else we would have tunneled straight to it.”

“You told them to wait?”

“Not specifically, but after they accidentally woke the other one we wrongly assumed they wouldn’t be so reckless. Fortunately they did not attempt to force entry, merely excavated this site to give us physical access to the shell,” the cyborg explained as they walked.

There was no further talking until they got to the lift, whereupon the tanky Breti finally asked a question as the extraneous members of their party stayed behind and only one of each race entered along with Riley and his two Knights.

“How were these Chixzon overcome?”

“They had put too much faith in the Uriti. When they were neutralized they were hunted down to their extinction and did not have enough alternative means of waging war sufficient to ward off those they had intimidated into submission.”

“They leveraged other races with the threat alone?”

“As I understand it, yes.”

“And your knowledge comes from their own records?”

“It does.”

“Which may have been altered.”

“As could those stored here,” Riley pointed out. “It will be interesting to see how much overlaps.”

“Are you certain the Chixzon were fully destroyed?”

“Their records indicated it was only a matter of time. They saw no way to avoid the deaths of every last one of them.”

“Could they not flee?” the short Dati asked as the doors sealed and they began to rise.

“They were so despised they did not see that they had anywhere to go, so they stuck together and held out as long as they could,” he explained, not adding any information about their planned resurrection.

“The Ancients were destroyed in a similar manner. Their records say that the effort to sedate the Hamoriti was too costly, and that others rose up to deplace them in the aftermath.”

“Are you sure they’re all gone?”

“We have searched for their remnants, living or otherwise, and found nothing to indicate they still remain. We still held some hope, if only that they would tell us how to recapture the beast.”

“I thought you said there were war records?”

“Most of those detail how to defeat the minions and how to maintain the sedation. There is curiously nothing about the means used to first administer the sedative. All of our attempts have failed miserably.”

“Maybe they had help.”

“Perhaps so,” the small triped said as the doors opened and they walked out into a chamber of different make. The lizard infrastructure transitioned into something else that was built around the massive red wall before them that stretched out for the length of a football field.

“How many entrances are there?”

“We suspect 6, but we have been unable to confirm any others. It requires visual inspection given the rock surrounding the structure. The detail on the surface of the shell is very fine and easy to miss.”

“Do you have a key?”

“Of sorts. You have to enter a code that the Ancients devised to test any potential interloper’s intelligence. It is not difficult, but was designed to prevent anyone without sufficient understanding of the threat from accidentally gaining entry and waking the beast.”

“And the lizards didn’t bother with the door the other time?”

“No, they cut straight through not even realizing it had one,” it said, gesturing towards the already open aperture that was flanked by two of the Trinx’s combat machines. Riley stared up at one of them, figuring it was almost too heavy to telepathically lift, but should be easy enough to knock down without having to lay a finger on it.

“The Oracle awaits,” the Trinx said as it led the way inside.

As soon as Riley stepped over the imperceptible gap between structure and prison he must have passed through some sort of a containment field, for the mental presence of the Uriti grew immensely stronger. He staggered a step, but quickly regained his balance as two of the others noticed his wobble.

“I’m alright. I just didn’t expect it to spike like that.”

“What has happened?” the Domu asked, spinning about on all four legs to look at him.

“The prison is containing some of its power. I’m alright, I just had to filter out more than I was prepared for.”

“It will increase the closer you get in proximity to it. Venture too close and your mind will no longer be your own,” the Sety warned.

“And you all feel nothing?”

“We do not have telepathy,” the Trinx stated flatly.

“No, but it does have an effect on you. I can see it. You don’t notice it?”

“What effect?”

“Paranoia.”

“Of course we fear it,” the Sety said.

“No, not fear. Paranoia. It’s amping up your angst, whether by design or accident. Your minds are not immune to its telepathic presence. I’m simply aware of it and can filter it out.”

“No telepath has come this far before,” the Trinx said ominously. “They have all turned back in a panic, stating that closer exposure would kill them.”

“If they’re sensitive enough and lack defensive mechanisms it’s possible.”

“I assume you have them then? These defense mechanisms?”

“Yes.”

“If what he says is true, it explains several things,” the cyborg stated.

“Let us ask the Oracle then,” the Sety insisted, walking forward without waiting for the others to follow.

Riley went with them, looking around at the interesting architecture. This wasn’t industrial, rather it was made to house guests, like a welcome center. That seemed odd, like it was an amusement park or something, but he guessed the purpose of this place was to not only contain the Uriti through physical means but by also teaching others of the threat and how to contain it.

Still, he wouldn’t have been surprised if he saw a ticket booth pop up somewhere.

Eventually they came to what looked like a small amphitheater with a holographic array at the center. On approach a tri-tipped symbol flared to life and turned to face them and began speaking in the Ancient language, though Riley had been told that it would adapt to whomever came here, learning their new language in a remarkably short period of time.

“Welcome guests. You come with more questions?”

“We have a new guest,” the Sety said amicably, almost reverently towards the hologram. “They have questions.”

Riley stepped forward, looking through his helmet at the intricate hologram with his armor translating.

“Ask,” it bluntly suggested.

“Display the locations of all known Uriti.”

The hologram didn’t respond at first, then began to speak without showing him a map. “Your terminology is unfamiliar. Do you refer to the occupant of this facility?”

“Yes. You do not know what they were originally called?”

“The Ancients classified the Hamoriti as they saw fit, not having any data on their origination.”

“They are called Uriti,” Riley began to lecture. “There were originally 118 created by a race called the Chixzon. How many are currently contained within prisons such as this?”

“I cannot confirm your data. Knowledge of source material references 7 original captures and three additions. The Ancients did not know there were more than 7 that required capture, and well after the sedation of the originals three more were discovered. The efforts to contain them cost the Ancients much, but these three were also neutralized, one of which rests here. It cannot be allowed to awaken under any circumstances.”

“Describe its telepathic presence.”

“The Hamoriti emits an immense telepathic signature with varying effects subjected on those that come within various distances of proximity to it. This range can be measured to determine the waking state of the Hamoriti. At close range biological minds become frozen and enthralled. Were the Hamoriti active it could bid them to do its will, but in this state they simply become catatonic in a rigid state. Do not approach the Hamoriti. Before you come within physical contact with it you will become entrapped. Any attacks against the Hamoriti will begin to awaken it. Distance must be maintained for both reasons.”

“How did the Ancients capture the Hamoriti?”

“By use of a chemical that sedates them to this day. It must be produced and administered constantly. Large doses will render active ones sedate.”

“How was the sedative delivered originally?”

“Undetermined. This facility was constructed after the Hamoriti was sedated. All knowledge instilled is for the purpose of containment. Release and recapture is not an option. The Hamoriti must not be allowed to awake.”

“One already has. What do you advise?”

“This has been told to me. Deliverance of the chemical will sedate the Hamoriti. I have supplied several delivery options. I have been told none have been successful. No historical records exist concerning the method the Ancients used. If the Ancients cannot be found, then there is no hope to contain this Hamoriti. Attempts must be made, but there is no viable outcome if the Hamoriti has fully wakened.”

“Why would the Ancients build you without knowledge of how they conquered the Uriti?”

“The Ancients did not build me.”

That brought a reaction in the minds of the eight alien minds around Riley, as if they hadn’t expected it to say that.

“Who built you?”

“I am a construct of a collaboration of races utilizing Ancient technology in their absence.”

“Did the Ancients give this collaboration of races this Hamoriti in order to imprison it?”

“They did.”

“Where were the Ancients located?”

“That knowledge is not within my files.”

“What happened to the races that built this facility?”

“Their fate is unknown. Past creation of this facility they did not interface with it.”

“Identify them.”

A slew of holographic aliens popped up around the Oracle, resplendent with statistics that were written in a language that he couldn’t read. But there was one race that stuck out to him while the others were totally unfamiliar.

The Preema.

“How did these races utilize the Ancient technology without understanding it?”

“The Ancients provided them with the necessary skills and tools to construct this facility. Knowledge beyond this was not required.”

“Why was this collaboration required?”

“Unknown.”

“Has information on the Ancients been deliberately withheld from your databanks?”

“It has.”

Another reaction from the Nine. Apparently no one had thought to ask that question…or maybe this Oracle had significantly different programming than the other ones they had access to.

“For what purpose?”

“Only knowledge relevant to the maintenance of this facility and the continued sedation of the Hamoriti is of importance.”

“Oracle,” the Trinx said, interrupting almost apologetically. “The others contained data concerning the fight against the Hamoriti’s minions. There is a long and detailed war record of the Ancients and how they defeated them. Do you not have this information?”

“I do not contain war records. I contain all necessary information on the minions and their capabilities.”

“If there is no hope to stop them once awakened,” Riley asked, “why contain information on the minions? Can they be spawned while the Uriti sleeps?”

“They cannot. The information is within my files. I do not know why it has been included other than to stall the advance if a Hamoriti was ever released.”

“Is your programming the same as the other Oracles?”

“I have no knowledge of the other two Oracles beyond their basic function and locations.”

“Do you know the locations of the original 7?”

“I do not.”

“Do you have compartmentalized programming?”

“Possibly. When analyzing recent events that seems to be a theoretical possibility. However, if I do possess such restraints I was not made aware of them.”

“Speculate.”

The Oracle processed for a good three seconds before speaking again. “If the total number of Hamoriti was 118, then it is feasible that different factions were tasked with their imprisonment. Regionality of those within my files suggest that others may have been tasked with similar regional containment procedures. The release of a single Hamoriti without the presence of the Ancients is catastrophic, but safeguards may have been implemented so that the location of one set of Hamoriti, if discovered by those who did not heed the danger, would not result in the release of them all. This runs counter to the necessity to educate guests about the dangers present and inform them of the other locations of Hamoriti within this region, but it is possible.”

“What is the status of this Hamoriti?”

“Its condition is stable. Planetary supply feed is stable. No anomalies to report in either since the inception of the sedation.”

“Open the inner chamber.”

“I advise extreme caution. For what purpose do you wish entry?”

“I need to test the telepathic intensity through personal exposure.”

“I can provide all necessary data without such exposure.”

“Show me data for telepathic races within proximity of the Hamoriti.”

“Telepathic races cannot come within even local range without adverse side effects.”

“Define ‘local range.’”

“Within this facility. The outer shell dampens the effect on the planet, but within it telepaths will suffer catastrophic damage.”

“I am telepathic and I am not suffering damage. I need to determine what threat the Hamoriti present to me by getting closer. Is the inner chamber also shielded to reduce telepathic presence?”

“No. I cannot scan you through your armor. Please remove it to confirm telepathic presence.”

Riley released his helmet, with it peeling back and revealing his head. A holographic wand of light scanned his face three times before retracting.

“Telepathic immunity confirmed. You are the first race with sufficient resistance to enter this facility.”

“How many others have visited here prior to the most recent opening of the entrance?”

“None since the commission date.”

“You were told it was not possible?”

“So my data suggests. Recent scans contradict this. Permission to enter granted. I will scan you throughout the duration to update my files. Such an immunity, even in limited fashion, is a new addition to the combat lexicon in my files. Any new additions take priority. Please accompany me,” the Oracle said, with his hologram disconnecting from the emission pillar and floating out over the heads of the guests and towards an opening door on the far wall that led to more of the catacombs that made up the outer rings of the facility.

9

Riley whistled, with the sound being eaten up by the enormity of the cavern he’d just walked into. No echos, just a very dull silence in the kilometers between the entrance and the Uriti sleeping on the floor in the center.

“Now that is one big mother fucker,” he whispered to himself as the others stayed back at the entrance, including his two Knights, as he walked slowly in towards the beast that would have made Godzilla look like an ant. This one was pale yellow and had a giant wing draped over its side crunching up on the ground, leaving only a bit of a snout visible from Riley’s position. The wing didn’t look scrawny, and the trailblazer knew it didn’t function like an actual wing, for this thing was too large and far too heavy to actually fly that way.

He heard the sound of his footsteps and nothing else as he continued to walk closer, being patient with this test and having a lot of ground to cover to get close to the creature. Apparently none of the other races had convinced the Oracle to give them access yet, so this was the first time they were seeing it and due to an overabundance of caution they’d stated they would not come any closer than the doorway.

“Oracle?”

“Yes,” the hologram said, suddenly appearing beside him and matching his pace.

“Is it responding to my presence?”

“Not at all. Why would you suspect it would?”

“My mind is not structured like others. If it is trying to access it, it will fail.”

“Interesting. Your present scans do not show any tampering, though I am certain that you are well within the rage of telepathic sensitivity overload. Your immunity is indeed curious.”

“I can still feel it. A rhythmic hum. What would happen if I tried to connect with it?”

“You could not damage it.”

“Would that wake it?”

“Uncertain. The Hamoriti responds to various stimuli and begins to counteract the sedative with a state of alertness, but all noted instances have been physical stimuli. No telepathic testing has ever been done.”

“I thought you said there had been no incidents here.”

“I have been given knowledge from other sources. They contain data on waking states of other Hamoriti without specifics identifying them. It is necessary for me to insure this one does not wake. You no longer need your translation program. I have successfully analyzed your language and can replicate it at will,” the Oracle said, with its last sentence being spoken in English.

Riley withdrew the little bit of helmet that had snaked up to cover his left ear. “That was quick.”

“Neural calibration and sample size allow for a quick study. Your questions have given me enough of both to analyze, though degree of accuracy will increase with time.”

“Has it moved since being placed in here?”

“Minor contractions and a partial roll, yes, but it has not gained consciousness. Such stirrings are expected to maintain passive rest. If one portion of its body stays in contact with the floor for too long a period of time it instinctively adjusts. If not allowed to, it will cause an internal discord that will result in its awakening. Thus the prison was designed with no restraints. It can readjust as needed, and if it strays close to one of the walls it can be repositioned slowly using a number of levitation systems. You are beginning to show anomalies yourself.”

“Touch of a headache,” Riley confirmed. “I think it’s the sheer telepathic pressure.”

“How long do you think you can persist?”

“This is nothing,” he said as he continued to walk and the symbol floated beside him.

“Is it too much to attempt to communicate under?”

“You want me to try?”

“I merely ask for confirmation of my current scans.”

“I could shout at it, but there’s probably too much feedback for me to open up to it this close. My own range is further, but a lot of Archons wouldn’t be able to transmit to it at this range.”

“The Hamoriti is incredibly sensitive to telepathic signals. Assume greater range of reception.”

“How does something that big pay attention to things that small?”

“I have studied it every moment since it arrived here. Its mind is vast and complex, and continually resists the sedative. That is why more must be applied continuously. If not, it will wake itself up. It is incredibly resilient.”

“I’ve never seen anything this large aside from a jumpship.”

“They are the largest known beings within the galaxy.”

Riley held his tongue on that one. The V’kit’no’sat had found a few others larger than a Hadarak.

“What do you know of the Ancients? Is that their actual name?”

“It is how I was programmed to refer to them.”

“Can you show me a picture of them?”

A second hologram appeared beside the Oracle, this one of a slender biped that had arms that nearly touched the floor.

“And they commissioned the other races to build you?”

“Yes.”

“Did the Ancients have any peers?”

“That information is not within my files.”

“Did they leave a message?”

“They left me to communicate with any that found the Hamoriti.”

“Why was it not guarded? Why was it buried and left unprotected?”

“Secrecy was paramount.”

“Why?”

“No one could be trusted with the knowledge of the location.”

“What about those that built it?”

“They were destroyed when their ships flew into the star of this system.”

Riley stopped walking. “Intentionally?”

“Secrecy must be maintained. The order was given by those that constructed me, and I carried it out when they attempted to leave to insure no ship could survive.”

“Did the workers know?”

“Most did not. Those loyal to the cause completed their tasks then fulfilled their responsibilities by going to their deaths willingly. Not all the crews chose to do so when they realized what was happening, but they were unable to override my programming.”

“Why was it deemed necessary that they die?”

“They could not be trusted.”

“Why specifically?”

“There was fear that a race could extort others with a threatened release of the Hamoriti.”

“And what about now?”

“Your races are new, and I am educating you as to the dangers present. The politics of the past are no longer binding. The hiding of the Hamoriti was designed to insure this.”

“By murdering the people that worked to build this place?”

“A small price to pay, but a necessary one.”

“Did the order come from the Ancients or the races they tasked with building this place?”

“Those tasked, but I believe the idea originated with the Ancients. I was not supplied with data on that, but based off conversations I observed and the complexity of the override program, I believe it could only have come from them.”

“Was this method used to create the original 7 prisons?”

“I do not have that data.”

“Speculate.”

“If it was the Ancients who constructed the original 7 themselves, they may have spared their own workers, or they could have enforced the same security measures.”

“This place is buried in rock. How was it covered over?” Riley asked, beginning to walk again as he suppressed his growing anger with these Ancients and focused on holding off his growing headache.

“Camouflage techniques were utilized to mimic surrounding rock layers. It was synthesized after this facility was completed, as were surface variations and vegetation. The later was hyper grown in artificial chambers to generate the size of plants necessary to obscure the dig site and not leave it with obvious new growth. Since then nature has taken its course and concealed the site, though the vegetation no longer remains on the planet.”

Riley ignored the Oracle, his eyes now on the small mountain that was the Uriti before him as it got bigger and bigger the closer he walked. “Is there any way this facility can be monitored remotely?”

“No. Any signal sent could betray its location.”

“Was this planet inhabited or claimed by any faction when this facility was created?”

“No. It is located in a neutral zone.”

“Neutral zone?”

“One of many regions decimated by the Hamoriti and agreed by the major powers not to be claimed by anyone else for a period of years. The agreements varied in both length and terms, but it was deemed that within one of these zones the secrecy of this location would be maintained by the agreement without it being known that there was a secondary purpose.”

“This planet’s atmosphere is thin, but habitable for some races. What if someone eventually colonized it?”

“This facility has been built with sensor dampening material to prevent its detection via most traditional methods. It is also deeper within the surface of the planet than most races will dig even if they should place a city directly over top of the site. Eventual detection was assumed, thus it is my task to educate those to the dangers presented not only to this system but across the galaxy should this Hamoriti be released.”

Three steps later and Riley stumbled as another surge of pressure on his mind caught him off guard.

“You have passed into the second aura of the Hamoriti. Can you continue?”

“Define ‘second aura.’”

“It is the region where most races will begin to feel physically ill. It takes place gradually, but there is a distinct range limitation on the energy being produce.”

“Not telepathic?”

“Not entirely.”

Riley steadied himself and flushed a wave of energy through his own body, ending with a few Jumat spurts out the small gap between neck and armor.

“Your condition has improved. What have you done?”

“Reinforced myself. And the effect is telepathic, but my entire body is being doubled as a receiver. I’m counter pushing to neutralize it,” he said, walking on.

“Amazing redundancy,” the Oracle commented. “Your body scan is impossible with your armor on, but what is occurring within your head is remarkable. Sadly, even if we could replicate your abilities, it would be of no value if this Hamoriti awakened, though research could prove fruitful again.”

“Again?”

“The chemical sedative was derived from a naturally occurring substance in a race that was wiped out by another Hamoriti. Some were enthralled and given close proximity to the beast, but as they eventually died out their bodies underwent a natural decomposition sequence that included the creation and release of the chemical. Eventually the effect it had on the Hamoriti, small as it was, was detected and the source derived. Had it not been for that unique biology, the synthetic chemical would never have been produced.”

“Same effect or better?”

“Far better. Once discovered, the chemical was reworked to increase efficiency. There were latent structural inhibitors in the molecule that were stripped out to create the purest form possible with the least mass. The Ancients enhanced the natural chemical even before they fully understood why it worked. After years of study, we still do not fully understand the weakness.”

“What do you know?”

“It is a calming agent. Working like a chemical information package that instructs the Hamoriti to become inactive. You spoke of potential creators of the Hamoriti. Does your knowledge contain the method they used to instruct them where to attack? My records indicate that the attacks were not random.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have information regarding the war?”

The Oracle was silent for a moment. “It is possible I have been programmed to only reveal certain knowledge when it is necessary. Your earlier statements regarding compartmentalized programming appear to be valid.”

“Do you have the ability to kill the guests if they do not heed the danger of the Hamoriti?”

“Yes.”

Riley raised an eyebrow. “Do the others know that?”

“They did not inquire.”

“Are you going to try to kill me?”

“You are far too valuable. The data I am gathering from this experiment will need to be cataloged and analyzed.”

“Which can be done after I am dead,” Riley pointed out.

“I have no need to kill you unless you threaten to awake the Hamoriti…and your proximity to it is not yet provoking a response. Is it true that you have a means to control it?”

Riley’s eyes were finally torn away from the beast and he looked directly at the floating hologram. “How do you know about that?”

“I can monitor the activity in the cavern that was dug around the entrance. The other races were discussing your arrival and your claims to have a means to control the Hamoriti. Do you have such a means?”

“Yes we do. Though I am told its effectiveness depends on which Hamoriti is in question. The older ones were more difficult to control.”

“How so?”

“Each time one was created the control process was refined and updated.”

“Then they do not reproduce on their own?”

“No.”

“Yet they have the internal mechanisms to do so.”

“They do?”

“Indeed. But no Hamoriti has ever been observed reproducing. It is speculated that such things occur within a planet or star where monitoring cannot be achieved.”

“Show me.”

Another hologram manifested itself, situated in front of Riley’s eye line so that it overlaid the sleeping Hamoriti. A specific internal area was highlighted, and immediately the trailblazer knew the Oracle was in error.

“That is not a reproductive system.”

“All data suggests otherwise.”

“It creates something, but it isn’t another Uriti.”

“What then does it create?” the Oracle asked as Riley rubbed his forehead with his armored fingertips. The headache was increasing considerably and he was still a few kilometers away from the thing.

“Were any of the attacked systems not destroyed?”

“Every system attacked by a Hamoriti was either destroyed or heavily damaged.”

“Were any ever captured?”

“Define ‘capture.’”

“Did the Uriti ever take a world away and keep it?”

“The Hamoriti are beasts of destruction. They have never conquered a world in the traditional fashion.”

“That location within it has the ability to grow a city to put on claimed worlds. It creates a large mass that it then deposits on a planet. That mass then continues to grow into a city that the Chixzon can inhabit when they arrive after the fact without need for massive construction projects. No one was probably ever alive to see them do it. The Uriti cannot reproduce. They have been engineered not to be able to.”

“How then are they produced?”

“By an even larger creature that they captured from the deep core of the galaxy. They forced it to spawn, and its offspring were heavily altered to become the living weapons the Chixzon wanted. That is why no two Uriti look the same. Each is designed differently, as both weapon and research specimen.”

“They were attempting new combinations with each spawning?”

“Yes,” Riley said, cringing.

“The third aura draws near. It is where all others have ceased functioning. Do you still want to proceed?”

“Give me a holographic field marking its location so I can proceed carefully.”

In front of him a wall of glowing red energy appeared and he walked up to it slowly. The edge was hazy, for it wasn’t a firm boundary, and Riley stuck his arm through without feeling anything new. He slowly moved his head in and felt a vice crunch down on his brain, but he didn’t lose his ability to move.

He took a few long, slow breaths and focused, summoning his internal energy that was a mix of psionics and willpower and pushed back with considerable effort, giving his mind a narrow window of opportunity to align itself.

“Damn that’s heavy,” he told the Oracle. “I can’t hold this effort indefinitely. Is there a fourth aura?”

“No, but there are point defenses. They will not activate against slow moving objects, so you are not a threat so long as you continue walking. The data I am getting from you is truly remarkable. There are two types of energy surging through your body that I cannot even identify.”

“Glad to make your day,” he said, pushing through the holographic wall and picking up his walking pace slightly, realizing he was on the clock. “Any reaction from Bahamut there?”

“This Hamoriti’s name is Glaech. Is Bahamut the name given to it by its creators?”

“No. It’s the name given to it by me…right now,” he said with effort as he walked steadily towards the crunched wing resting on the floor.

“There is no need to proceed further. Maintaining this position will give me all necessary data. The closer you get the further you will be from the lesser impact zone, thus imperiling your escape should your strength evaporate.”

“Noted,” Riley said as he continued onward, the Uriti now a huge angled wall before him. He could see that the ‘skin’ of it was soft as silk, visually speaking, but he knew from the records that it was harder than any substance that Star Force could produce. It would bend, he knew, but was a corovon-heavy substance that you could fire weapon after weapon into and barely scratch…not to mention that the Uriti could heal itself if you did scratch it, meaning it had renewable armor whereas a starship did not.

That and many other things about it impressed Riley, but at the moment most of his focus was on defying its telepathic domination through a mix of his Ikrid block and his own mental strength. Too much pressure, even on a blocked mind, could physically burn out the components that were sensitive to the signals…meaning that if this Uriti was awake, it could kill Riley with a mere thought at this range.

Or just roll over and squash him.

Most people operated with minds that could be accessed via telepathy, even if they weren’t overly sensitive to it, and Riley now understood why telepaths didn’t want to get near this thing. Only someone whose mind wasn’t telepathically sensitive at all wouldn’t be affected, and the V’kit’no’sat had a long list of only 4 races that fit into that category…all of whom they’d killed because of that fact.

Riley finally got to within a few meters of the Uriti and looked straight up, seeing the ceiling beyond and the steeply angled wing as it lay like a giant slide before him. Focusing on the moment, Riley continued to resist the massive weight on his mind and use it like a training session, getting a feel for its strength and his own before he was satisfied.

“Will physical contact wake it?”

“Only damaging efforts. You are incapable of any such thing.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, but it’s good to know,” he said, reaching out his armored hand and placing it against the pale yellow wing and pushing slightly. It did not give under his pressure, feeling like an incredibly solid glass structure.

“Coup counted,” he said for the benefit of the universe, as if it were keeping score. He was tempted to take his glove off and make physical contact, but if this thing’s skin was sensitive to his physical Ikrid hacking, which he doubted, the feedback would probably kill him.

“Ok, I’ve seen enough,” he said, turning around and walking a few steps before breaking into a jog with the Oracle keeping pace effortlessly.

“Are you in danger of succumbing?”

“No, but I don’t want to linger here.”

“What is a coup?”

Riley smiled as he put his helmet back on, finding it didn’t help one iota as he ran towards the boundary line of the third aura.

10

November 25, 3254

Unnamed System

(Uriti/Hamoriti location)

“There it is,” Nefron said on the bridge of the Warship-class jumpship he rode on.

“I can’t feel anything,” the Archon mage standing next to him said with a frown.

“It is very faint from this range,” he said as they drifted lower into planetary orbit, having just come out of their microjump deceleration, “but I know what to look for. Cardosan’s energy is greatly reduced, but I can feel it even from here.”

“How do you know which one it is?”

“They all have a different telepathic signature,” the Chixzon said as he saw the massive fleets arrayed in orbit…both Star Force and the self-appointed planetary defenders, though the lizards were nowhere to be seen. “This is Cardosan. Their 67th production.”

“Easy to control?”

“Easier than others, harder than some. The message indicated that we were not to wake this one up, only to inspect it.”

“That’s what they want,” the Archon scoffed. “Do we want to wake it up?”

“Not when there is another one already running rampant. If they were all dormant, then yes, we would need to awaken one, but there are things I can learn from the other without tampering with the sleep this one is confined to.”

“How do they survive so long sleeping?”

“They are remarkably resilient. Had it not been for the creation of the chemical sedative, the galaxy would not have been able to stop them.”

“I thought two were destroyed.”

“Through mismanagement, yes. They can be killed, but it is a great feat to do so. Time alone cannot kill them. They are immune to the worse effects of stagnation.”

“Archon,” the ship’s captain interrupted. “The trailblazers want Nefron taken to the surface immediately. They will meet him at the Uriti site.”

The mage nodded and turned towards the bridge exit. “Let’s go.”

Riley met the pair on the landing pad, monitoring the reactions of the eight representatives with him as they saw Nefron walk off the dropship along with the dark blue armored Archon after it landed directly in the atmospheric pocket next to the cupola. There was no recognition, but there was a great deal of trepidation. Nefron looked ghastly in an intimidating way, and the effect didn’t lessen as he approached.

“About time you got here.”

“My apologies, Riley. It took some time to gather the necessary materials. We assembled it enroute to save time.”

“You’re forgiven,” the Archon said sarcastically. “Come on inside and meet Bahamut.”

“Bahamut?”

“I named him.”

“As you wish.”

“You don’t approve?”

“I am unfamiliar with that name.”

“Comes from a kickass video game series called Final Fantasy. Look it up when you get some spare time.”

“Another of your antiquated classics?”

“You say that like you don’t care,” Riley said deadpan.

“Call him what you wish.”

“Thank you,” the trailblazer said, gesturing to the nearby races. “These are the guys that have taken up stewardship.”

“What is the Uriti’s condition?” Nefron asked bluntly.

“Still sedate,” the cyborg said, sizing him up. “You are an expert on the Uriti?”

“I am.”

“How do you intend to control them?”

“I have a transmitter that will send the necessary control signals.”

“Untested?”

“It was built from the design of those who originally used it. This particular one was just constructed.”

“You don’t intend to test it here?” the Sety asked.

“No, I do not.”

“Then what is it that you need to see?”

“What has been done to the Uriti. It has been incapacitated by those that do not fully understand its function. I do. I need to confirm its status and diagnose any unforeseen problems.”

“The Ancients have successfully kept these beasts in check since their capture. Their systems function perfectly if not disturbed,” the cyborg stated evenly.

“I need to confirm that.”

“What do you fear?” the Trinx asked.

“Many things, but I am hoping all is well.”

“Be specific,” he reiterated, standing between Nefron and the lift that would take them down into the planet.

“They can communicate with each other. If the other gets close enough, it may be able to wake this one. I need to see just how sedate Cardosan is.”

Riley coughed.

“I said you can call it what you want, not that I would reciprocate.”

“Fair enough,” the Archon surrendered with a smile.

“You have studied the Chixzon intensely?” the shapeshifter asked.

“I possess their knowledge.”

“Do you know why they created the Hamoriti?”

“To dominate the galaxy…no less.”

“They sought to destroy everything?”

“No, they sought to intimate. They destroyed only those who would not submit, and to give visible examples to others so that they would. They would rather rule by extortion than conquest.”

“Let’s take him inside,” the small Dati suggested. “Perhaps he will have some more pertinent questions for the Oracle.”

“It’s locked us out of the Uriti chamber after I went in,” Riley explained. “It doesn’t trust us enough to let us sightsee.”

“But it let you in earlier?” Nefron asked as they stepped into the lift.

“It said it wanted to study my resistance to the telepathic aura.”

“It is quite strong. How close did you get before you had to turn back?”

Riley smiled. “I made it all the way.”

Nefron looked at him closely as the doors shut them in and they began to descend.

“It hurt,” he admitted. “A lot, but I was able to hold it together long enough to get to it.”

“What did you do?”

“I touched it.”

“You touched it?” Nefron said quizzically, then a surge of worry ran through him.

“No, I didn’t connect to it. Figured that might kill me before I knew what was happening.”

“You probably couldn’t get through its armor anyway. The Chixzon could never get within touching range of them. They had to craft them from afar.”

“They made them so dangerous even they could not touch them?” the Sety asked.

“Their power was craved, thus safety requirements were not considered relevant. They were never meant to cohabitate systems. They would be kept outside Chixzon worlds and released into target populations. They did not trust them anywhere near their own colonies, but they did utilize their minions for defensive purposes.”

“Are you feeling alright?” the mage asked.

“I will be able to sustain its presence so long as I do not come within 3 kilometers. I may be able to sustain outside of 2, but I do not want to test that theory. Already my mind is numb from the reverberations.”

“You are telepathic?” the cyborg asked.

“I am,” he said, standing next to the Archons with the other races keeping a little space between themselves and his black, rock-like armored body and his dangling spear-like limbs that were bracketing his head.

“What is your position within Star Force?” the Sety asked.

“He is a Chixzon specialist, as well as one of our leading geneticists,” Riley answered when Nefron telepathically deferred, not wanting to say something to give away the secret the trailblazers wanted hidden from The Nine.

“What is the range on this transmitter?” the cyborg asked after a moment of silence.

“It will not reach between star systems, but will reach everywhere inside one. Intensity will increase as the range shortens, and how much is required depends on which Uriti you are dealing with and what its current state is. During combat they do not listen well.”

Another silence followed, then the lift doors opened and they walked out beginning their hike across the hollowed out chasm with the red shell of the Ancient Hamoriti prison visible the moment they stepped out. They got halfway to the aperture lift when weaponsfire sounded up at the aperture along with several flashes in the otherwise dark upper reaches where the small lit platform resided.

“What are they firing at?” the Trinx asked quickly, accessing a wristbound communicator and retrieving information. Several other representatives did likewise, but it was the cyborg that answered first.

“The internal defenses have activated. Our guards are being driven out of the shell.”

“What caused this?” the Sety demanded.

Riley groaned. “Come on, Nefron. I’ll get you in even if I have to bust the door down myself.”

“The internal defenses are not to be trifled with,” the Trinx warned.

“Neither am I,” the trailblazer said as he, the mage, and Nefron began running ahead of the representatives. When they got to the base of the lift it wasn’t accessible, already halfway up and coming down, so the trio hit the stairs and began climbing the height the slow way. The representatives assembled a slew of personnel and came up the lift a bit behind the Star Force personnel that were standing on the edge of the platform and blocking lightning flashes being emitted from the perimeter of the aperture that had since closed.

Before the Trinx could order his pair of vassals forward, the dark blue armored Human darted forward and opened fired on the point where the lightning was coming from and covered it with blue plasma. That didn’t stop the weaponsfire at all, and eventually another point sent a lightning cascade towards him. His shields took the brunt of the attack, but his weapon was also hit and it exploded, knocking him backwards and onto the platform while most of the lightning attacks were still being directed at Riley who held position in front of Nefron and was blocking for him.

The mage got up and sprinted to the door, ducking under the point where the lightning was coming from and seeing if he could draw a shot at extreme close range. Either he couldn’t or the Ancient facility didn’t see him as the most valuable target, so he took his advantage and focused his Pefbar inside the wall…then began telekinetically twisting the parts to the lightning weapon until something popped and the weaponsfire from that point ceased.

Three more suddenly appeared around the aperture and shot him, getting through his shields and melting streaks across his armor. A split second later he was dragged backwards across the platform by the trailblazer’s telekinetic grasp as Riley sprinted forward, swapping places with the mage who got to his feet and stood up in front of Nefron while deploying a bioshield to cover the gaps between arms and legs where his armor would not block.

Two mechanical soldiers passed him by as the Trinx sent his vassals up past the charred remains of the previous ones that were lying scattered on the platform.

“Enough of this,” Nefron said with a snarl, running out from behind the mage and taking temporary cover behind one of the vassals. It blocked one lightning blast as Riley got to the wall and took out another weapons battery with his telekinesis, then two more new ones opened fire and zapped him with four shots in total, with his bioshields adding enough resistance to his mechanical ones to keep him in the game as he disabled another one.

Nefron ran around the much taller combat machine as it opened fire on one spot, catching a lightning blast in biologically armored chest and feeling the pain…but he did not fall. He yelled in a fury, catching two more lightning blasts that partially absorbed into his body. As he covered the last few meters to the wall six more lightning blasts hit him, ignoring Riley briefly as they focused all their available firepower on him.

He dropped to a knee as the energy rippled across his body, then he willed himself to stand up and surged forward with his eyes and his spike mandibles sparking into a luminous green.

When he got to the wall he jabbed one of them directly into the firing point of a weapon that was discharging. The lightning arcs covered him, but as soon as the glowing green tip of his biological spear sank into the armored wall the energy ceased. Another fired from his left, but the mage came up and interposed himself and took half the attack before Nefron shoved him aside and jabbed another glowing spike into it, repeating his attack multiple times until he and the two Archons destroyed all of the point defense weapons around the aperture.

Nefron groaned, then stood up straight and flexed before quickly punching his left fist into the red armored cocoon and discharged all of the energy that he had absorbed.

The shockwave was so loud most of the people present at the back of the platform were stunned, ears left ringing, and both Archons were knocked down while Nefron alone remained standing. He couldn’t sustain that much energy inside him for long, and the wall seemed the best place to get rid of it. Had he hit the platform he might have injured or killed those standing on it.

Where the red armor had been was now a three inch deep smoking hole charred ashy grey, and as the chaotic fight suddenly transitioned into panicked calm, he stood there with the representatives and their people crawling out of the lift and the troops they were hiding behind, whether they be vassals or armored version of their own races, and looking at him as the green glow left his body and he returned to pure black.

Everyone took a deep breath, then finally the cyborgs came forward, some six of them, and inspected the aperture, the damaged weapons, and the shallow crater Nefron had blown into the wall.

“What triggered this?” they asked, looking to the surviving guards that had fled the facility.

“We don’t know. It just started shooting us. There are people still inside that were hit.”

“They are most likely dead,” the Trinx said, carefully keeping one of the vassals between him and the aperture as more came up the lift along with other personnel in a second batch. Apparently no one else liked to take the stairs.

“How many more defenses are inside?” Nefron asked.

“Plenty,” Riley said, “but nothing I can’t handle. They don’t have this armor on the inside.”

“We must regain access to speak to the Oracle,” the shapeshifter said.

“I can get us in,” Nefron said, speaking to Riley and ignoring the others.

“Go ahead. I’ll cover you.”

Nefron snarled and his deep black eyes glowed green again along with his two spike mandibles that he thrust into the aperture door, having to push hard to get them to cut through the material but it didn’t resist him too much. Dragging the glowing tips down was slow, but eventually he got two vertical lines cut then started on the top as the Trinx walked up behind him.

“What are you?”

“Do you mind?” Riley asked flippantly. “He’s busy.”

Nefron ignored the Trinx, finishing his cut on the top then doing likewise on the bottom before pulling back and tucking his mandibles behind him as he put an armored shoulder into the heavy door plug and pushed it inside, toppling it over only to receive a short yellow beam from an internal weapons battery…but it never hit him, for Riley’s bioshield caught it as he came in behind Nefron and quickly got out in front of him with the mage coming through a split second later. The pair of Archons worked together to take down the nearby defense turrets with a combination of psionics and the plasma weapons they’d been carrying around on their armor racks.

“Clear,” Riley called back, with a heavily armored group of cyborgs coming in first, followed by the Trinx who looked at the Humans in complaint.

“I can’t get my vassals inside. The gap is too small.”

“Then widen it. We’re not waiting.”

Nefron breathed in deeply. The aura of Cardosan was much stronger now.

The holographic Oracle suddenly appeared before Riley, staring at him accusingly.

“How dare you bring him here!”

Riley stared back at the glowing image through his helmet, wishing it was real so he could vader it.

“Oh, so you do recognize him,” he snipped.

“He is the creator of the Hamoriti. His presence here threatens everything. He must be destroyed.”

“This one is a Chixzon?!” the Sety all but roared.

Nefron glanced at Riley. “Some quiet, please.”

The Archon took in a long breath himself, then the hasty complaints and outbursts from the aliens behind him suddenly stopped as all were frozen in place, including the Cyborgs, with only the vassals unhindered but standing by passively with no orders to operate on.

“Take your time,” Riley said, mentally telling the mage to handle security, for keeping this group suppressed was taking almost all of his focus. “I’ve got them.”

Nefron turned his attention to the Oracle, taking a step towards it with the image moving backwards reflexively despite the fact that it could not be harmed.

“Oracle, I am not here to release this Uriti, but it is within my power to do so from orbit if I so desire. You have no control here, so I will ask questions and you will answer if you wish to keep Cardosan dormant and fulfill your Ftrolee programming.”

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1

November 25, 3254

Unnamed System

(Uriti/Hamoriti location)

“You will not be granted access to this system.”

“I will have it with or without your assistance,” Nefron told the Oracle. “Your defense mechanisms will be disabled and your files accessed manually if needed. Answer my questions and I will allow you to remain intact and monitoring the Uriti. Failure to comply will mean your destruction.”

The Oracle hesitated the prerequisite 2.2 seconds, then answered per its programming.

“Maintenance of the Hamoriti is my primary task. I am authorized to use all available methods to contain it. Ask your questions, Chixzon.”

“Do you have a message for me?”

“You were never meant to find this facility.”

“I’m disappointed,” Nefron said honestly. “Usually the Ftrolee like to boast of their accomplishments. Confirm your programming origin.”

“Base program originates from the Ancients. Augmentations were made by the Ftrolee.”

“When did the Ftrolee destroy the Ancients?”

Riley, still heavily distracted by his efforts to keep everyone else’s minds in check, glanced in Nefron’s direction and raised an eyebrow.

“Specify time units,” the Oracle requested.

“Use mine then,” Nefron instructed, speaking Chixzon instead of English.

“The Ftrolee conquered the subrace known as the Barnok of the Ancients 6,239,444 years ago.”

“Why were three additional Uriti added to those captured by the Barnok at a later date?”

“The Ancients subrace known as Katarsh were annihilated. Their assigned Hamoriti were then transferred to the Barnok for safe keeping.”

“Which no longer existed.”

“The Ftrolee utilized the data given to them to arrange the construction of this site and two others utilizing lesser allied races for the construction.”

Nefron turned away from the Oracle and looked at Riley. “Long story short, the Ftrolee, whose weapons you sampled outside, were an ally of the Chixzon when they were conquering the galaxy up until their dominance appeared to be at an end, at which point they turned on us. The Ancients did not accept them into their alliance, but they inserted themselves anyway by killing the local Ancients and posing as them. The Ftrolee are duplicitous, and the Chixzon have known them to do such things before, so this makes sense. They couldn’t build this facility themselves, so they gave the knowledge they’d pilfered from the Ancients to their unknowing allies and had them construct it in their stead with an altered Oracle program.”

“Why give this Oracle such knowledge?”

“I suspect it has an alternative purpose,” Nefron said, looking back at the floating hologram. “State contingency plans regarding renewed contact with the Ftrolee.”

“Full knowledge of events pertinent to the creation of this facility were embedded so that any Ftrolee recovering possession of the Hamoriti would be aware of what has transpired.”

“They hid this facility’s location from the Ancients?”

“Correct.”

“So to extort them with that knowledge later?”

“They wished leverage, thus the sites had to be kept secret.”

“Do you have the locations of any Uriti beyond the three previously stated?”

“Negative. Such knowledge was searched for, but never obtained from the Ancients.”

“Big, fat, bargaining chips,” the mage commented as he stood on Nefron’s right.

“What is the last recorded status of the Ancients?”

“Original subraces numbered 18. At last knowledge 10 remained intact, with estimates that 3 others were near to falling.”

“Falling how?”

“A combination of the efforts to subdue the Hamoriti and the exploitation of the power vacuum created by the Chixzon fall. Even before the last Hamoriti was captured there were widespread wars breaking out amongst the minor associates of the Ancients as they sought to topple each other or their parent member. It was speculated that the Ancients coalition would disintegrate in the aftermath of the Chixzon fall, either through conflicts with one another or others rising up to challenge them.”

“And the Ftrolee expected to use that chaotic environment to their advantage,” Nefron said, looking at Riley again.

“Any chance they’re still out there?” he asked, cringing against the sustained mental effort.

“Possibly, but if they are I doubt they’re anywhere near here. My guess is they would have built these sites somewhere far away from whatever region they had plans on. It’s also possible they were wiped out due to stupidity. They’re careful and deliberate, but have a bad habit of betting on the losing team.”

“Define ‘subrace’ of Ancients?”

“The alliance that opposed the Chixzon must have been referred to internally as the Ancients. The means to disable and contain the Uriti were probably a combined effort with that technology being shared by all involved. The Barnok were situated further out in this section of the galaxy with their territorial domain where The Nexus currently is and multiplied tenfold. I’m guessing that the Ftrolee spotted their weakness and quietly moved to conquer them from within, meaning their local alliance of races never knew they were destroyed until far too late. They had them built this facility in their name, then killed the workers so those races wouldn’t know the location. Only the Ftrolee would.”

“What do you think we should do with them?” Riley asked, gesturing to the frozen races behind him and further out on the platform.

“Your call. We can deal with the Uriti independent of them if you wish.”

“Who do you think is the most reasonable?”

“The cyborgs.”

“Explain the situation to them then,” Riley said as he slowly released control of those few nearest him.

“Calm yourselves,” Nefron said, though his visage didn’t help convey that message. “I am not Chixzon.”

The cyborgs looked at him, but rather than speak they took notice of the lack of noise and the fixed poses of the other races around them.

“They have been frozen in place so we can speak privately,” Nefron continued. “The Human telepathy is quite strong, far stronger than mine, and he is holding them at bay just as you were a moment ago. You do not remember it, but during your lapse I obtained some relevant information from the Oracle.”

The lead cyborg, the one who was not in battle armor, looked at Riley quizzically.

“He’s speaking the truth,” the Archon agreed. “But talk to him. My mind is occupied right now.”

“You have the ability to turn us into your puppets?”

“Yes.”

“Be thankful for that,” Nefron interrupted. “If they did not have this capability, you would not be looking at your one and only chance to stop the rogue Uriti.”

The cyborg looked between the two of them, then back at the frozen races around him and the vassals standing idly by. “Explain.”

“The Chixzon were destroyed,” Nefron began, “but they put into place a backup plan that would see their race escape the cataclysm that was befalling them. They left a genetic legacy in another race that was a much degraded version of their own, spread them throughout the galaxy, then went to make their final stand knowing that there was no way they were going to survive now that the Uriti had been disabled and their greatest strength taken from them. The hatred of the galaxy was too much for them to be allowed to live…so they had to escape galactic memory.”

“With them thought dead, eventually the genetic countdown within their chosen race would complete and they would be reborn. Star Force discovered this genetic countdown and accelerated it in a single individual, a volunteer, to see what would actually occur. Their knowledge of genetics is considerable, and they were certain they could undo whatever was done after they learned what was needed. They did not understand the transformation that was to come, and the individual’s mind was so restructured as to lose himself. He became fully Chixzon, and in the process the volunteer became an enemy.”

“But rather than kill him, as you probably would, they did not give up on him, rather trying to undo the transformation and rescue the volunteer from what had happened to him. Thanks to their considerable telepathic abilities and tireless efforts, they helped that individual to free himself. The intellect of the Chixzon is not to be underestimated, and they appealed to this intellect to think and reason its way to freedom. It was difficult and treacherous, but eventually the volunteer freed his mind and returned to his true identity that the genetic programming had overridden. Rather than have his physical body returned to normal, he chose to remain in Chixzon form to retain the abilities and knowledge now available to him…including the ability to control the Uriti if they were ever found again.”

The cyborg looked at Nefron. “Do you speak of yourself or your ancestor?”

“I am that volunteer. I am the only one, and the genetic legacy left within my former race has been expunged so that no others can undergo this transformation. The Chixzon must not return. They are far too dangerous, and now that they know of their fatal flaw they will not repeat it.”

“You suggest they would not use the Hamoriti?”

“They would definitely make use of them. But they would not rely on them.”

“You said this race carrying the legacy was spread across the galaxy. Star Force cannot have reached all of them.”

“No, we haven’t. But every grouping that we have discovered we have neutralized via a genetic alteration that most of them don’t even know occurred. They are no longer a viable pathway for the Chixzon to return, but we will not give you their identity for you to hunt them down and kill them to make sure.”

“I have more troops on the way here as we speak,” the cyborg admitted.

“And what do you intend to do with them?”

“I do not know. Are you certain you can control the Hamoriti?”

“Through the same methods that the Chixzon did, yes. But I do not know how their imprisonment has potentially altered them. I need to study this one as much as I can before we proceed to the freed one.”

“And what will you do to it?”

“I will call to it. If it obeys, I will direct it to an uninhabited system where it will not produce minions. It is probably still obeying the last orders given to it. If I give it new ones the immediate problem should be remedied.”

“Can you destroy it?”

“The Chixzon created them so that they could not be destroyed, and even their own warfleet could not hope to contain one if it went rogue. That is why they never let one within their own systems.”

“Why create a weapon you cannot shut down?”

“Because if it hadn’t been for the accidental discovery of the sedative chemical they would have owned this galaxy. Their defeat was a stroke of luck, nothing more.”

“Why are you speaking to us and not the others?”

“You are the more level headed. If we must deal with the Uriti on our own, Star Force will, but after all the time and effort you’ve spent containing this threat, we would prefer to have your assistance.”

“And you still need the location of the other containment sites?”

“Yes, but we have ways of locating them even if you do not.”

“And do you intend on waking these others up so you can corral them somewhere safe?”

“For the moment those lying dormant should remain so. But we need to find as many as we can, and not just the 10 noted. You are under the mistaken impression that the Ancients were a single race. They were not. They were the alliance that defeated the Chixzon. Those you know as Ancients were the race whose jurisdiction covered this portion of the galaxy. The Oracle has provided evidence under duress that they were destroyed by another race who then impersonated them after the original seven Uriti were contained. It was they who ordered the creation of the three additional sites to contain Uriti that were then captured elsewhere and tasked to be contained here. This race was once an associate of the Chixzon before they betrayed them. They are called the Ftrolee and if they are still in existence they need to be located and dealt with.”

“Dealt with how? We will not avenge the Chixzon.”

“Then avenge the Ancients whom you so revere. The Ftrolee are dangerous, and like the Chixzon, prefer to attack through non-military avenues.”

“Are the rest of the Ancients still in existence?”

“Possible, but it is likely that most of them were destroyed in the aftermath of the war. The Chixzon kept many threats suppressed based on their reputation alone. With them gone, those threats would have emerged and began power plays of their own…”

“…and the Ancients would have been so weakened from fighting the Hamoriti and their minions that they could have been toppled by the scavengers,” the cyborg finished.

“Indeed. But we do not need them to contain this unleashed Uriti. Star Force can handle this on our own.”

“What is your price?”

Nefron conferred telepathically with Riley. “The Trinx must stop their uplifting of the Li’vorkrachnika and abandon the protection of their worlds. If they do not, we will still contain the rogue Uriti, but we will have to fight and conquer the Trinx in order to ensure they do not make the Li’vorkrachnika an even greater threat than they are now. We would prefer they simply stopped given the fact that the Li’vorkrachnika’s services will no longer be necessary.”

“That’s it? No tribute required?”

“No. And we will not extort you or others with the threat of unleashing a Uriti on your homeworlds…though that is well within my power. We are Star Force and have a long track record of how we fight wars, and if you examine it you will see that such things are not our style.”

“But you would still have the power of the Chixzon at your disposal?”

“Yes.”

“Can you make more Hamoriti?”

“No. To do so would require the original source, and if it has not been destroyed or escaped back to the core of the galaxy, I know only of its previous location long ago, and it is far outside the current travel range of Star Force vessels.”

“And if you had this source?”

“The methods used in their construction would not be permitted by Star Force, but I do hold the full knowledge of the Chixzon…or at least everything they deemed of value to pass on to their reborn civilization.”

“Then you are by far the most dangerous individual within the galaxy,” the cyborg said logically.

“That’s your ignorance talking. But I am probably the most dangerous that you know of.”

“Then some would reason that we are honor bound to kill you here and now, no matter what it takes. Some would even say that risking waking this Hamoriti would not be too large a price to pay to ensure that the Chixzon do not return and create more Hamoriti.”

“And yet I am also the only solution you can see to the current crisis.”

“True. It was wise to release us from your telepathic imprisonment first,” the cyborg said, looking at Riley. “You have played your hand well thus far. I hope that is a sign of wisdom rather than guile, for we have no legitimate choice but to make use of your knowledge, all the while knowing that we have no way to control you. Allow the rest of my people in here before you wake the others and we will provide security while they are informed of the situation.”

“One thing first,” Riley said, unable to hold the minds at bay and search the cyborgs’ for the answer he sought, especially given that most of their memories were electronic and beyond his ability to access directly. “Could you and the others have built up an army to fight the Uriti minions over the given time had you acted differently?”

“The Trinx could have. Of the nine of us they are the smallest, but they have devoted their entire civilization to the protection of the Hamoriti site entrusted to them. They even abandoned their previous worlds to relocate to it. They have no other concerns to deal with, while we and others cannot devote our full resources to the problem while maintaining our own borders against other threats. We have contributed much, and continue to do so, but the Trinx are in the sole position of being capable of doing more.”

“Why have they not?”

“They are devoting all of their resources to the moment to moment containment and producing as many of their vassals as they can to forestall a breakout rather than devoting some of those resources to create more production facilities. Their justified paranoia has blinded them to the reality that the Li’vorkrachnika troops are successfully containing the minions with their sacrifice. The Trinx should divert resources to the development of more resources, but they hold their production quotas to the maximum without fail.”

“Are they expending them?” Nefron asked.

“Some, but they have assembled a large army in reserve. We believe they have more ground troops than the rest of us combined at this point, and perhaps half as many ships. If you were to attack them out of retribution for their gifting technology to the Li’vorkrachnika, they could probably defeat any attempt you made.”

“So they’re hoarders?” Riley asked.

“Rooted in fear. In the past they have been the wiser, but over time their wisdom has twisted.”

“How would you suggest we break the news to them?”

“I will do so. Release them all simultaneously once my troops arrive and I will speak for you. If their vassals are ordered to attack we will shield you…if necessary,” he added after Riley shot him a disbelieving look, considering the display they’d just put on with the external defenses. “We will interpose ourselves to help prevent any confrontations while the others come to grips with the necessity of the situation. We have long sought a solution to the Hamoriti. Once they realize this may very well be it, they will agree to assist you.”

“Alright, but get your people here quickly. My telepathy has limits and maintaining my grip on them is becoming tedious.”

2

December 2, 3254

Unnamed System

(Uriti/Hamoriti location)

Paul walked across the platform connecting to the entrance into the Uriti prison shell, looking up at the pair of vassals guarding the aperture and partially obscuring the battle damage that was slowly withering away under the care of the Oracle and its maintenance bots. Other than the mechanical Trinx ground troops there was no one living nearby as he walked inside, so the trailblazer passed through empty section after section until he came to the chamber were Nefron was standing and picking away at an open panel.

“Broke something?”

Nefron half turned to face him. “Merely getting confirmation that the information provided is accurate. This program has been designed to lie very cleverly, but it is still a program. If it is willfully giving us information in order to keep the Uriti sedated then the Ftrolee had to have programmed that scenario. Why they would do that I do not know, thus I am checking various facts given to me.”

“If the Chixzon found this place it wouldn’t matter what the Oracle did,” Paul surmised. “But if someone else found it, then keeping it secure via bargaining might be relevant.”

“A likely possibility, but I need to know for certain. Is there something you require?”

“How are you holding up to the telepathic pressure?”

“I have to take breaks outside, but I am managing. This Uriti is less dormant than the others based on the limited information I have been able to obtain from the Oracle and the reports given to us by The Nine. It is somewhat more resistant to the sedative and I am trying to determine why.”

“Do we need to start producing the chemical as backup?”

“No. I have other concerns.”

“Such as?”

“If an immunity can be derived.”

Paul’s eyes narrowed. “You worry about the Chixzon being able to create a Uriti that can’t be sedated.”

“It was thought impossible, but they did not have access to the data on the sedated ones. All were spirited away before recapture was possible. Based on the levels I am seeing in Cardosan I am beginning to suspect there may be at least a way to make a Uriti…a new Uriti…at least partially immune. If the Chixzon return and discover this, they will pursue it.”

“Is it worth us traveling to the containment site to see if the Hadarak is still there?”

“No. If it was not released it would have starved to death by now.”

“Unless someone else took custody.”

“A small possibility. My fear is that the Chixzon may try to capture another.”

Paul cringed. “That’s not going to be easy.”

“Virtually impossible, but if the gains are of sufficient value I would not expect them to do anything less. If they do not discover the data the Ancients collected they will not think to try, but if they do…I fear their plans to conquer the galaxy will be germane once again.”

“And they’d alter the new ones so you couldn’t control them?”

“If they know I exist, yes. Perhaps so even if they don’t.”

“Can the existing ones be modified?”

“No. Unless the solution is a minor one, and even then it would require capturing one. That has never been attempted by the Chixzon. They made all adjustments prior to their release, then guided them where they wanted. They never had the control necessary to order one to sit still long enough for inspection.”

“And what will you be able to do with the one that is free?”

“Difficult to say. The stagnation incurred on this Uriti is significant. How it has affected their minds I cannot say. I will have to call to it and see how it responds.”

“How much more time do you need here?”

“I don’t know. I’d rather not leave too soon. There is still much for me to learn about what the Ancients did.”

“What did you call them?”

“Narshama.”

“Translation?”

“Those who would defy the inevitable.”

“Without being able to kill the Uriti, I guess there’s some truth to that.”

What I told them was not fully true, Nefron said, speaking telepathically so no one, including the Oracle, could overhear. There is a way to kill them. A way the Chixzon programed them to self-destruct if it was needed. I do not wish them killed, so I haven’t mentioned it before, but it is possible.

How?

A very different chemical that, once delivered, will induce a genetically programmed shutdown of vital systems. They will simply die without visible cause over the course of several hours, perhaps days or weeks. It was never tested outside the laboratory.

We’re not going to kill them unless we have to, but if we can’t control them we can’t exactly let them run around smashing inhabited systems.

Which is why I need to pull as much data from here as I can get.

“Want some help?”

“Obviously. What did you come here for, specifically?”

“I’m not going to do the Uriti run, if that’s what you mean.”

“A pity. I wanted to watch.”

Paul smirked. “I’ve had enough headaches in life already to hit my pain quota, so I’m fine keeping my distance, thanks.”

“Coward.”

“I’ll go if you go,” Paul said sarcastically.

“You know I cannot. I will not survive it.”

“Can they turn the effect off?”

“The Chixzon or the Uriti?”

“Uriti.”

“It’s a primitive defense mechanism that they can override with conscious effort, but relax and it will return. All of their communication is telepathic, so it’s natural to emit an aura that you and I don’t. We can if wanted, and in reverse, the Uriti can cancel its aura if wanted. And you haven’t answered my question.”

“The Trinx, Sety, and to a small extent the Jonstar, are making as much trouble as they can. The other 6 members are providing us cover, but the sooner we can deliver results the better…though I think when we do that won’t solve matters. They’re about to lose control and they don’t like it. As soon as the unstoppable threat is stopped, I get the feeling there’s going to be a revolution.”

“Most likely,” the Oracle said, appearing beside them.

“What do you know of it,” Nefron asked skeptically.

“I am designed to gather data, surreptitiously, to aid in your return, and have managed to access three of the communications systems of the races in orbit. The conversations they are having are most predictable.”

Paul raised an eyebrow. “Aid in your return?”

“I made a slight alteration to his programming earlier,” Nefron admitted. “He now regards me as Ftrolee…I think. I’m still doing checks to make sure there isn’t some counter intrusion software mimicking what I want in order to keep secrets from me.”

“Are you that good or just familiar with Ftrolee programming?”

Nefron laughed, a single huff that managed to sound more menacing than mirthful. “The Chixzon gave them most of their technological base.”

“In exchange for?”

“Their assistance. Which makes their betrayal all the more poignant.”

“How advanced were they?”

“Not very. We didn’t give them anything of consequence to us, but to them it advanced their powerbase considerably. They still use predictable methods, which I have been able to isolate within the Ancients programming. They stand out considerably if you know where to look, though there is a lot of code to sift through and the interface,” Nefron said, holding up a small device of Chixzon make for him to see, “is barely adequate for this.”

“Why didn’t you build a bigger one?”

“Star Force components aren’t sufficient. This was the best I could do without asking you to build some specialized factories.”

Paul shrugged. “No biggie. Just ask.”

Nefron looked at him quizzically. Paul wasn’t the first trailblazer he’d dealt with, but he was one with whom he had little previous interaction. “Is that offer from Star Force or Clan Saber?”

“Whichever. Building is our specialty, and we like challenges.”

“I was led to believe that reverse engineering Chixzon tech was preferable to constructing it.”

“Depends on the timeline. If you need something quickly, we’ll build it old school provided you can tell us how to do it.”

“Generous,” Nefron balked.

“And if it’s too hideous to stand looking at we can always blow it up later.”

The Chixzon laughed. “That sounds more like Archon logic. But your concern is unnecessary. This device is sufficient to the task, though it may not be as fast or comprehensive as I desire.”

Paul turned his attention back on the Oracle. “What are they saying?”

“Many things. They do not wish to trust you, but feel they have no choice. Some believe your plan will not work, others do not trust themselves not to at least try. There is much confusion and the beginnings of panic. Their allegiance is based off of an assumed impossibility that you are shattering. I believe it will shatter their relations with one another as well. Tread carefully, for they possess the other Hamoriti.”

“What are they going to do, wake them up?”

“They cannot. But some will be protective of them and not want to grant you access.”

“For now that’s not an issue,” Paul said, looking to Nefron again. “How intelligent are the Uriti?”

“Very, but vastly different from us. Talking with them is nearly impossible…despite your predilection for challenges. We can direct them. I do not estimate that we will be able to negotiate with them.”

“I doubt it was every tried?”

“No, it was not. They were meant to be tools.”

“Is there restrictive programming inserted into their consciousness?”

“Enough to get them to comply, yes.”

“Can it be undone?”

“Not without direct access, and even then probably not.”

“Lizards all over again?”

“I find that comparison insulting.”

“My point is, do we let these guys hibernate forever or do they need to be woken up eventually?”

“I won’t have an answer for that until I do a lot more research.”

Paul looked at the Oracle. “How big is his program?”

“Considerable.”

“Think we can fashion a mobile database so we can bring him with us?”

“If you want to spend the time building it. I would not recommend interfacing this program with your computer systems. They won’t fully be compatible anyway, but where they are it could cause problems.”

“We can construct an isolated module. Actually, Oracle, can you construct a mobile unit using the resources within this facility?”

“You wish me to observe the rogue Hamoriti?”

“That’s the idea.”

“Feasible. I will require specific orders, for the blueprints to create such a device are not within my memory, but the construction tools required are within my control.”

“How big do you want it?” Nefron asked.

“Make the database as large as needed, but make a mobile interface about,” Paul put his hands together and stretched them out as if he was holding a beach ball between them, “this big.”

“You want it to be mobile onboard your ship, but to do so without interfacing with your comm and computer systems?”

“Yes.”

“Simple enough. But I recommend you allow me a full survey of its programming before you allow it to activate. I do not trust Ftrolee programming.”

“Well don’t give it any weapons. Just make it a talking, floating sphere that can gather data and display it.”

“As you wish. That will also allow me to do part of my research from afar, though actual readings on the Uriti will have to be taken here.”

“Don’t you have millions of years worth of data to study?”

“I need to induce a few changes and study its reaction,” Nefron said evenly.

Paul bit his lip. “I trust you know what you’re doing?”

“I won’t wake it. But I need to study its condition. There is little chance of it accidentally waking. None if it has not been damaged.”

“Oracle, are you feeding the other races information on the Uriti?”

“As they requested, yes.”

“Can you falsify those feeds so they are unaware of any tests we run?”

“A prudent suggestion given the unstable relationships involved. Yes, I can replay previous data that will be genuine other than the timestamp if so directed.”

“Do not do so until I say,” Nefron instructed, “but make the necessary preparations.”

“As you command.”

“Leave us.”

The hologram disappeared, but both of them knew that it could still monitor their conversation.

Do you really have that thing on a leash? Paul asked.

I believe so, but I must finish my confirmation before undertaking any action.

How long?

At least another day.

I’ll make sure you get as much time as you need. Have any of them been in here lately?

No. They are afraid of another purge and do not want to lose more personnel. They only come with heavy guards and on rare occasions to converse with the Oracle. They want to know if we can do what we claim to, and it has instructed them that we can.

That should help…or maybe hurt us. I get the feeling some of them would prefer if we’d never shown up and the status quo remained.

They’ve grown addicted to the fear?

And the power that the cause gives them. They think this is the holiest cause ever invented, and the Trinx have been willing to screw everyone else over to accomplish their goals.

Are you going to make them pay for that?

Depends what they do here. The priority is to minimize the damage and stop any more tech from flowing to the lizards.

They will betray us if they get the chance, Nefron warned.

I get that feeling too, from the Trinx at least.

Keep them away from me unless you want them broken.

Paul smiled. Are you talking about them or their toys?

Both.

4 weeks later…

Riley stood onboard his command ship with another holographic conference summoned that included all nine representatives and Nefron, with Paul watching but not within view of the others.

“Preliminary examination of the Uriti here is complete. What we have learned suggests that we will still be able to stand down the rogue Uriti regardless of what damage it has incurred from its sedated period. We will temporarily leave you in custody of this world and take our fleet to the rogue’s location with as many ships as you deem necessary for escort and to order your fleets to make way for us at the destination. Once we are there, we need you to trust us.”

“What do you intend to do?” the Chamra asked.

“Take possession of it,” Riley said, hitting the nail on the head rather than beating around the bush.

“Unacceptable,” the Sety replied. “This must be a joint venture, and the control mechanism must be shared.”

“Only Nefron can use it,” Riley replied firmly. “And we’re not in the habit of sharing our technological secrets with those standing in wait to stab us in the back. We’ll collaborate with you when necessary, but we will not share control of the Uriti. You’ve been desperate to find a way to stop the rampage ever since the Li’vorkrachnika released it. Don’t be ungrateful now that we have brought you that option.”

“Well spoken,” the Yisv agreed.

“Unacceptable,” the Trinx echoed the Sety. “We are the guardians. We must remain the guardians. Star Force is unproven and cannot be fully trusted.”

“You have no choice,” Riley said sharply, trying to provoke a confrontation here and now if there was going to be one.

“There is always a choice.”

“If you wish to fight us, we will be happy to oblige,” Nefron said icily, beating Riley to it, and the Chixzon was easily more intimidating than the Human, despite their power levels being to the contrary. “There are trillions of individuals to avenge for the losses inflicted upon them by the enemy you upgraded to subsidize your ineptitude.”

The Trinx stared laser bolts back at Nefron and half the other members of The Nine gave him contentious looks, but several of them were staring at the Trinx instead with displeased gestures that both Nefron and Riley had begun to pick up on after numerous times dealing with these races in recent weeks.

“Star Force is only still alive because of what we did,” the Trinx replied. “It is you who are ungrateful.”

“Enough!” the tiny Dati said, though his hologram stood as big as the others. “We have no choice but to pursue this. Can any of you claim otherwise?”

“How we proceed is what is in question,” the Sety answered.

“Do you suggest we take this transmitter from them?” the little triped challenged. “That we capture this one and force him to do our bidding?”

“That will not happen,” Nefron said menacingly.

“They might not be entirely truthful about the technology,” the Bpret said evenly. “We might be able to use it, but I do not advocate waging a war to obtain it when Star Force is willing to voluntarily stop the Hamoriti. If they fail to do so or have an ulterior agenda we can consider other options. For now we must utilize their offered assistance.”

“And give them control of the power powerful weapon ever created?” the Trinx all but yelled. “Are you all fools?”

“Nefron,” Riley said almost casually. “If they won’t listen to reason, explain it to them in a way they will understand.”

“Gladly,” the Chixzon said from a different compartment onboard Riley’s ship.

“Meaning what?” the Sety demanded, but neither the Human nor the Chixzon said anything. They returned blank stares at The Nine even as others asked questions. It took several minutes before the Yisv felt the change on the planet below, but it was the Chamra who recognized the alteration in the data streams just before that.

“The Hamoriti is waking!” the cyborg yelled at the Chixzon, but then his attention quickly went to the Trinx. “Stop this insanity now. You have no power over them!”

“Do not risk this for a demonstration,” the Yisv implored. “Do not, please. We cannot remain here if it wakes.”

Riley said nothing. He simply looked towards the Sety, and then the Trinx, locking eyes with his holographic image as the data feeds from the planet continued to grow more erratic. It wasn’t until an image of Bahamut twitching in his slumber did the Sety relent.

“Stop this. We cannot risk this one releasing. If you can capture the rogue it will remain under your control so long as you do not misuse it.”

“Thank you,” Riley said, with only a little sarcasm slipping through as he kept his eyes on the Trinx.

“We still have personnel on the ground,” the Trinx stubbornly pointed out. “Would you kill them to make a point?”

“They have time to run if they get moving now,” Riley offered. “We’re not waking him up fast.”

“No. They will remain there. If you are truly intent on releasing this Hamoriti, you will have to kill them to do so…and if you do you will prove yourselves unworthy to be their custodian.”

“Are you mad?” the Chamra said before the Yisv could figure out which curse to utter. “By that logic you are unfit for custodianship.”

“Sacrifices must be made,” the Trinx said stubbornly. “And if we must oppose them we must learn of it now. The personnel will not be removed.”

“It’s not just your people down there.”

“Then get them out,” Riley interrupted. “You have time. Do not waste it arguing here.”

“Do not do this…please,” the Yisv said, then when no one appeared to balk it shook its head firmly. “We must leave orbit. See sanity, I beg you.”

The hologram of the Yisv cut out, and on the battlemap Riley saw every last one of their ships break formation and accelerate hard towards the stellar jump point to get out of telepathic range before the Uriti’s aura could intensify further.

3

“What do you seek to accomplish by this?” the Chamra asked.

“To get straight who is in command here,” Riley said icily. “We will end this threat you have been diligently countering, but we will do it our way.”

“You cannot do this,” the Bpret implored. “We cannot let another one loose.”

“We can control it.”

“You think. You do not know for sure. Test your theory on the rogue, not the sleeper below!”

“Save your words,” the Trinx said viciously. “It is our responsibility to safeguard the Hamoriti, and the Trinx will not let this one be awoken, no matter what the sacrifice necessary.”

“We have no control,” the Dati argued. “That is the point he is trying to make.”

“We have one other recourse, and I believe it is time we took it. Relinquish control of the Hamoriti to us, or we will take it from you.”

“Try it,” Riley dared.

The Trinx turned to the others. “They are implacable. If what they have told us is the truth, then they have only one who is able to wake the Hamoriti. Eliminate him and the threat is removed.”

“He is our only hope of a solution,” the Chamra angrily argued. “Have you gone mad?”

“We are wasting time. This Hamoriti cannot be allowed to rise. Do your duty,” the Trinx said, cutting his comm signal as their fleet suddenly began to reposition and head towards the Star Force formation.

“He does not speak for us,” the Chamra stated for the rest of them.

“I know,” Riley said evenly. “They’ve put their ego as a higher priority to containing the Uriti. I hope that’s clear now.”

“It is,” the Dati said quickly. “Please, there is no need to wake it further.”

Paul…

I got it, don’t worry.

“Stay out of this and we’ll not hold you accountable,” Riley warned/promised. “I suggest you keep your ships away entirely,” he said as the Star Force jumpships began spilling out drones to intercept the Trinx fleet that was rapidly accelerating towards his command ship.

“Do you require assistance?” the Chamra offered.

“Record what happens here as a neutral observer, but do not interfere. If the Trinx want a fight, we’re going to give it to them.”

“They are going for only one ship.”

“They won’t get it,” Riley promised. “Watch and learn.”

“Cease waking the Hamoriti, please,” the Dati implored.

“This will be over before that occurs.”

The Trinx’s 139 vessels were all of the same make, a combination of needle and wedge with a forward point offset from their center of mass. Looking lethal even before their weaponry opened up, the blood red ships formed into three elongated groupings that were all situated on attack lines that would bring them past the sides of the Zeus within a few minutes.

Before that could happen hundreds, then thousands of drones began fanning out in front of the command ship in blockade formation as half a dozen jumpships also move into flanking positions and stared down the approaching Trinx ships, each of which was larger than any of the drones by a factor of 3, but they all massed considerably less than the jumpships. The wall of drones drifted forward and huge kinetic dampening shields were thrown up in front of the command ship by the Zeus and the jumpships surrounding it, should any of the Trinx ships want to live up to the example of their lizard allies and go kamikaze.

They didn’t have the mass to punch through them, nor the speed, and as the seconds ticked by more and more drones were released and flew to strengthen the blockade that was becoming so numerous the Trinx could barely see the command ship through them.

The Trinx kept coming through, firing with their long range weaponry in the form of tiny orange streaks that lit up drone shields in several select places. After a few seconds of concentrated fire the shields went down and the drones began to take hits as they likewise began returning fire with their long range Keema batteries, with it becoming clear that the Trinx intended to blow a hole through the Star Force lines and push through.

Riley didn’t take part in the battle, rather staying online with the other seven races and watching as Paul handled the defense of his own ship. Normally Riley wouldn’t have liked that, but he knew Paul had slightly better naval skills than he had, and as much as he wanted to kick the crap out of the Trinx, he needed to feel out and cement what ties he could to the other races…and to do that he had to keep them talking.

“I assume you all have a fairly decent idea of our combat capability?” he asked.

“Yes,” the Jonstar said, growling with agitation, but Riley had a feeling it was more directed at the Trinx than him, though it might have been to the idea of watching a battle and not being in it, for the bear-like race looked like it was spoiling for a fight even when they were passive.

“Then they should know they’re not getting through…and that we hold grudges.”

“If the Hamoriti wakes,” the Sety said neutrally, “and your Chixzon is killed, the galaxy will be for the worse.”

“We’re not waking it up fully, just enough to get your attention,” Riley said, glancing at the tree-like race. “And your heartfelt concern is noted.”

“Then you are intentionally provoking them?” he accused.

“We didn’t shoot first.”

“None the less you are using the threat of the waking Hamoriti to precipitate this attack.”

“Enough!” the Chamra demanded. “The Trinx have lost their sanity and are trying to destroy the very solution we have long sought, hoped, and pleaded for. I repeat, we are ready and able to intervene if you wish it.”

“We’ve got this covered,” Riley said as the Trinx ships came within short weapons range and all hell broke loose as they plunged into the now very thick drone blockade line. “Although you can stand by to pick up survivors if you want to help.”

“Pick up or finish off,” the Jonstar muttered.

“How dare you degrade our longtime allies,” the Sety all but cursed. “They have done more to forestall the Hamoriti than any of us.”

“That is no excuse for their actions now,” the Bpret weighed in as they all watched the carnage occurring with more and more Star Force drones flying in to add to the blockade force even as the Trinx tried to punch through it and now had two of their three prongs fully engulfed in the sea of blocky black ships.

“The Hamoriti is stabilizing,” the Chamra noted with relief, getting the updates directly through his implants and was therefore one step ahead of the others as usual.

“Thank you,” the Dati echoed as three of the Trinx ships broke through and into the empty gap between blockade and the command ship. They fired on it immediately, launching huge balls of energy that were a mix of orange and black and had little glow to them, more like a maelstrom of distorted space than an energy weapon, but when the pheeron converters hit the command ship’s shields their normal penetrating capacity was neutralized by the shield matrix entirely.

“So you can counter their weapons,” the Jonstar said with curiosity.

“Told you so,” Riley said calmly.

“Yes you did,” the Sety said with a mixture of disgust and respect as those three ships, already damaged, took the brunt of two bloon launchers and were covered in what looked like glowing purple goo. It soaked into the hull and disappeared, leaving all three ships inoperable as more Trinx vessels broke through behind them in various degrees of functionality.

“What did you hit them with?” the Dati ask humbly.

“Those crews are stunned and unable to operate their ships. You should be able to pull some survivors off afterwards…so long as their other ships don’t ram into them,” he said as several almost did that, but were caught firm by the dampening fields as other weaponry from the command ship tagged them, dropping shields and cutting off chunks of ships while a few more goo bloons flew in and disabled others.

“The Trinx are protecting a Uriti, correct?”

“Yes,” the Chamra said evenly. That hadn’t been officially revealed, but it had been stated earlier.

“They will not be allowed to maintain guardianship of it. They are irresponsible and dangerous. Do you conquer?”

“They won’t relinquish it to you,” the Sety warned.

“I didn’t imagine they would,” Riley scoffed.

“You plan to conquer them as you have done the Li’vorkrachnika?”

“Doing,” the Archon corrected. “We’re only through half of half of their empire, no thanks to you.”

“Is it worth killing Trinx to recover?” the Chamra asked.

“They chose to attack us.”

“I mean civilians. Would you awake a Hamoriti if it were on a populated world?”

“The civilians can be moved first.”

“The one the Trinx guard is beneath their capitol,” the Chamra said, drawing annoyed looks from the others. “They have devoted everything to protecting it. Will you destroy them to free it?”

“No.”

“So you agree that they will retain possession?” the Sety asked.

“Also no,” Riley pointed out as an extra large explosion blipped on the battlemap as a Trinx ship detonated, taking several drones with it while also damaging another of its sister ships. “They have suicide devices on their ships?”

“They are committed to the cause,” the Sety answered.

The Chamra glared at him with his one natural eye. “They are dying needlessly.”

“Shared control is the only solution.”

“One we cannot force! And after seeing this, I do not wish to put the fate of the galaxy in the hands of the Trinx.”

“Nor do we,” the Dati said. “Their paranoia had transitioned into zealotry.”

“Far beyond that,” the Jonstar said sadly. “They once had honor, but this is…something else entirely.”

“Not to mention a waste of ships,” Riley added as another of their vessels exploded in a bluish plume that shredded more drones along with it. Meanwhile a handful of Trinx ships shot out of the drones and into sight, running as hard as they could and curving around to head to the stellar jump point.

“They are fleeing,” the Bpret noted.

“No,” the Chamra said, seeing the tactical data through mind’s eye and everything happening within that mess of ships. “They are sending couriers back to report what has happened here. The rest are fighting to the death.”

“Offer them a surrender,” the Dati implored. “Do not destroy them all. You are no longer in jeopardy.”

“I never was,” Riley said, opening up a comm signal to the Trinx and letting the others listen in. “This is Archon Riley, onboard the ship you are futilely trying to destroy. Stand down and surrender before all of your ships are destroyed.”

They all waited, but there was no reply. Just a continuation of the slugging match that the Trinx were losing badly.

“Perhaps if you stopped firing first,” the Dati suggested.

Riley firmly shook his head. “No. They started this, they can decide to stop anytime they want. I’m not going to lose extra ships hoping that they’re suddenly going to wise up.”

“But if they are irrational, then you must be the sane one!”

“If they are irrational, then they cannot be negotiated with. They must be stopped via force.”

“They have a much larger fleet not far from here. They will return with more.”

“And we will be here to oppose them,” the Chamra said firmly.

“You see to break our allegiance?” the Sety asked.

The cyborg pointed to the holographic display of the ongoing battle. “They are trying to destroy the key to stopping the Hamoriti, the very thing this alliance was formed on the hope of one day discovering. Tell me, who has broken that allegiance?”

“They have not fired on us,” the Dati pointed out.

“No, they only seek to destroy that which will protect us if and when the Hamoriti arrives in one of our systems. The Trinx will doom us all if they succeed. And why? Because they will not share power.”

“Neither will Star Force,” the Sety pointed out.

“Thus far they have not misused it. The Hamoriti is returning to slumber and they are safeguarding the key, with a promise to subdue the rogue Hamoriti. They are the allies we have long sought, and I do not care who holds the leash to the Hamoriti so long as someone does. It must be contained and the Trinx are trying to prevent that. They have betrayed us.”

“I am forced to agree,” the Yisv said, returning to holographic view after following events via delay as they raced across the system towards the star, only now having returned to realtime comm range since the Hamoriti’s aura had diminished. “If Star Force proves untrustworthy then we must oppose them, but they have given us nothing but what we’ve all long hoped for. The Trinx have descended into madness regardless of Star Force’s true intentions, for they have done nothing to warrant this attack.”

“It is only right that we share control,” the Sety said stubbornly.

“Stopping the Hamoriti is what matters,” the Yisv said simply. “Other concerns are immaterial so long as that is accomplished.”

“You put your faith in strangers.”

“They are not strangers to you. You have had dealings with them before. Has something occurred that you have not told us?”

The Sety was hesitant to answer, but was saved as the Chamra spoke in his stead. “He is concerned about Star Force having too much leverage and is making the same mistake as the Trinx. Whatever problems may or may not arise afterward, they will be far less dire than a Hamoriti running loose.”

“Not if they send it against our own systems!” the Sety complained.

“As I have made clear,” Riley interrupted, “I can do that whenever I damn well please.”

“Then perhaps the Trinx are right.”

“By attempting to destroy the only means to control the Hamoriti?” the Bpret challenged.

“They cannot be allowed to maintain control over it.”

“Have you all gone mad?” the Domu suddenly blurted out. “A solution exists. A solution! How long as we searched for one? How long have we painstakingly researched and found nothing on our own and no trace of what became of the Ancients. This is our only chance and we should be grateful for it, but you greet those who bring it to us willingly as enemies before they have done anything to warrant that label. Be glad that someone can control the Hamoriti. Our nightmare is nearly over, yet the Trinx seek to destroy our salvation and the Sety are poised to support them in this insanity. Anyone striking against the ship that carries the solution will have to go through the Domu to get to it from this point on. Do I make myself clear?” he asked, looking directly at the Sety.

“The same goes for the Chamra,” the cyborg agreed.

“They cannot be trusted,” the Sety reiterated as the last of the Trinx ships stopped firing, either do to being disabled or destroyed. “And the Trinx will not let this incident pass.”

“So be it,” the Jonstar said reluctantly. “All our races swore an oath long ago to guard and secure the Hamoriti. We must fulfill our oaths now that we have been blessed with an opportunity that our ancestors did not have. We dishonor them by even speaking of squandering it.”

One by one the other races chimed in with similar sentiments, not all eager to turn their back on the Trinx, but in the end that was what even the Sety were forced to do.

“Very well,” he agreed reluctantly. “We proceed without the Trinx with regard to the freed Hamoriti. This promised solution will be given a chance to be tested. The Sety fleet will guarantee that much, but we will not grant anything else at this time.”

“I don’t need your permission,” Riley said defiantly, but then he looked around at the others and softened his expression, “but thank you for it. Please begin sending ships to pick up survivors. We will pull them out of the wreckage, but we prefer not to take them prisoner.”

“We will see that they are returned to a Trinx world,” the Chamra promised. “It is the least that we can do.”

“Same goes for those on the surface.”

“We’ll take care of it.”

“Thank you. Once we clean up here be prepared to leave for the rogue’s current position. We need to stop it before it kills anyone else. What becomes of this one can be dealt with later.”

“It’s still in a Li’vorkrachnika system,” the Yisv pointed out. “Will that be a problem?”

“We give them a chance to surrender all the time. Tell them to run away and we won’t shoot them on the way out. Our task is with the Hamoriti.”

“I will send a ship on ahead to so instruct them. On behalf of us all, I apologize for the ships and people you lost this day.”

“We lost ships, but we didn’t lose any people. Only the Trinx did.”

4

February 3, 3255

Ulinard System (lizard territory)

Inner Zone

The Zeus exited its jump into the glare of a bright white star following the arrival of some 54 ships sent by the other 7 races in The Nine to escort them into the system with the Yisv being absent. Following him immediately came the Excalibur, then the line of warships began to arrive one by one as Riley got his first good look at the system.

There were ten planets, two of which had been inhabited by the lizards, and one of those had been either evacuated or destroyed according to the Chamra feeds that were being sent to the Star Force fleet. The Hamoriti was currently located on an uninhabited planet…or rather in an uninhabited planet on the outskirts of the system where a large fleet was blockading it.

But here at the star there were thousands of ships, all of which were waiting for the Star Force vessels to arrive in order to protect them both from the Hamoriti and from the Trinx, whose fleet had already learned the details of what had previously occurred. Everyone here had, for couriers had been sent out by all parties announcing their upcoming arrival, and given the numbers here, Riley guessed that Star Force no longer had a strength advantage…definitely not at the moment, with only a handful of their ships having made it out of the jump thus far.

But there were no attacks. No chases. No activity at all other than for the waiting ships to move in sync with the new arrivals and provide a screen for them in all directions. They’d been told of what Riley’s ship carried, and the trailblazer didn’t doubt the assertions previously made that these races would die defending the ‘solution’ without hesitation if called for. And it was for that reason that he guessed the Trinx fleet here had backed down, though they were still in a position around the planet the Uriti was within, though having taken a higher orbit than the other races’ vessels.

“I can feel it…just barely,” he commented from the command nexus on the Zeus.

“As can I,” Nefron agreed from another nearby compartment, linked to him through the communications system and appearing as a hologram beside the Archon. “It is faint, but irrefutable.”

“That is Namishta?”

“It is.”

“I’m just going to call her Nami.”

Nefron sighed, but didn’t comment.

“How close do you want to get?”

“This is adequate, but I would prefer sending a stronger signal. High planetary orbit would be preferable.”

“Does that put us within weapons range?”

“No. The only ranged weapon it has is spherical discharge. Its range diminishes precipitously.”

“You can do this,” he asked sarcastically. “Right?”

“Even if I can’t,” Nefron responded deadpan. “You’d want to be here taking pictures.”

“Careful,” Paul’s voice advised. “Your Protovic is showing.”

“Trouble?” Nefron asked.

“The Chamra have promised to keep the Trinx at bay and are going to clear our way over the planet. They said they’re spoiling for a fight, but no additional ships have arrived. This is what they normally have here.”

“Meaning there could be more on the way?” Riley asked.

“That was the impression I got. Have you noticed the lizards?”

“There are none in space,” Nefron answered.

“Rather than depart the system they’ve pulled all their ships down to the surface of their surviving world. Apparently the Uriti hasn’t stepped on it yet.”

“Pulled for it or us?” Riley asked.

“Us. The Sety want to know if we’re going to stick around and remove them.”

“That’s up to you,” the Archon scoffed. “I’m going to be busy.”

“We,” Nefron corrected.

“Yes…we,” Riley allowed.

“I think we need to hurry,” Paul said, playing The Nine’s liaison this time after having a very long talk with the 8 races regarding security for this mission. “The way the Yisv said the Trinx would react isn’t holding true, and the local representatives are acting odd. I think the Trinx are going to make a move, but they don’t have the ships here to do it. We need to get the Uriti and get moving.”

“Is that coming from them or your gut?”

“Mostly my gut. And I get the feeling that the hammer blow might not happen in this system. We need as much head start as we can get.”

“Pick up us and the Uriti in one attack? Overly ambitious of them.”

“If they have dedicated their entire civilization to this endeavor,” Nefron added, “then we are destroying their reason for existence. They may do illogical things to try and preserve it.”

“Or go the other way and step it up a notch,” Paul differed. “If they possessed you, I get the feeling it might be them that used the Uriti as a weapon against others. Possibly to go hunt down the others throughout the galaxy in order to contain them.”

“Ouch,” Riley said, seeing the twisted logic in that.

“We need this Uriti out of their grasp. I’m assuming we can’t have it help us against an enemy fleet at close range?”

“Not with its larger weaponry,” Nefron agreed. “It does have the ability to target select ships at close range, but that would require a discipline that Namishta has never demonstrated before. You can point it at a target and say kill, but you cannot specify how you want it killed or what you don’t want destroyed nearby along with it.”

“What happens if the Trinx attack when it’s nearby?”

“It will either ignore them or wipe us all out in the response. We can survive at decent range given the upgrades to the shields, but in close the power levels will be too great to overcome.”

“Right,” Paul said with fake cheerfulness. “So let’s hurry, shall we?”

“You want to go on ahead?”

“With our friends here we don’t need to wait for the rest of the fleet to arrive.”

“If they are friends,” Riley pointed out, though he was in agreement. He set a course with a thought and coordinated with Paul as the two command ships tugged along several warships towards the jump point for the distant planet. When they arrived there they headed out along with a sizeable chunk of the defending fleet while the rest stayed at the star to act as a backstop for anyone else entering the system…Trinx or otherwise.

It took a few hours to get all the way out to the edge of the system to the fat, cold planet the Uriti had dug itself into. The holes in the surface were large enough to be seen from orbit, some of which were surrounded by mounds of crushed rock from it coming back to the surface and pushing the material up and out rather than further down as it descended.

“Worm in the apple?” Riley asked as they settled into their preferred orbit and the defending fleet surrounded them, with most of the 7 races’ ships interposing themselves on the side facing the somewhat distant Trinx fleet that was stoically holding position as if nothing had changed.

“Lizards on the planet,” Paul replied, noting many landed cruisers and transport ships. “They’re down there fighting the minions beneath the surface.”

“Why haven’t they evacuated?” Riley asked, then checked himself. “Never mind, it’s obvious. They answer to the Trinx and the Trinx didn’t want to pull them out.”

“Bingo.”

“Can we get the Uriti out without smashing them to bits?” Riley asked Nefron.

“It will come out where it likes. We can only summon it.”

“It’s not near them right now,” Paul pointed out, getting the Chamra feeds of its approximate position that the Star Force sensors were beginning to back up despite their altitude thanks to the upgrades Nefron had made specifically to track the Uriti within planets and stars, though there were limits to both. “If it was they’d be dead anyway. Normal procedure is to drop minions in its wake and let them grow in numbers. The lizards go down and attack them after the Uriti moves out of range.”

“But we could see a lot of splattered lizards if it chooses an odd path out?”

“There is no way to minimize the risk,” Nefron insisted, “other than to wait until it is located away from their current position, which it is now. It could return and kill them at any moment regardless.”

“Alright, let’s do this,” Riley said, connecting through the system with Nefron. “Watch our back.”

“Always,” Paul said, his voice and hologram disappearing but his presence within the system still lingering as Riley entrusted him with the fleet and his own ship’s security again.

“Are you ready?” Nefron asked.

“I’m just going along for the ride. This is your show.”

“So be it,” the Chixzon said, touching a few controls around him as he telepathically linked his full focus into the transmitter that amplified his thoughts and aura many millions of times in intensity in the narrow profile that was used to contact the Uriti. Using the knowledge granted to him through his genetic legacy, he sent the recall order that had been bred into all the Uriti and selected a point in orbit away from both their ship and the Trinx fleet for it to travel to.

The feedback was intense and immediate as the Uriti responded with a simple acknowledgement order. It was the first time Nefron had ever felt such power, and linked in with him to the system Riley felt the same. This was not a mindless beast, but a being of such great magnitude it chilled the Archon to the bone just to hear that single thought from it.

“You underestimated them,” Nefron said simply.

“Apparently I did.”

“My memories were insufficient as well. I did not expect that…presence.”

“How can you control something like that?”

“It was not an easy process to learn, and must be ingrained in them from origination. You cannot tamper with an intellect that large once it is formed. Not with any powers that we possess.”

“And the Hadarak are bigger?”

“The Klamensh are greater in every way. Only the weapons we designed for the Uriti make them superior.”

No wonder the V’kit’no’sat are scared of these things, Riley thought to himself, making sure not to transmit that thought to Nefron. He still hadn’t been told of the V’kit’no’sat, though no one doubted his loyalty to Star Force. Davis wanted to keep the Chixzon knowledge separate in order to keep the different perspectives distinct. Nefron had already begun to shed light on some of the V’kit’no’sat’s shortcomings as far as genetics were concerned, and he’d done so by not thinking in a V’kit’no’sat way with regards to genetic challenges presented to him and Vortison’s team. That untainted Chixzon mind needed to stay that way for now, so other than some information on the Hadarak, Nefron didn’t know anything regarding the V’kit’no’sat or their considerable database of knowledge…though he’d already deduced that there was some source and had been pleasant enough not to inquire about it further.

“And if they fought each other?”

“I have no idea what the outcome would be. It is possible they would not fight one another.”

“Despite the Chixzon programming?”

“It was never tested, for they had only one Klamensh and no aspirations about confronting the others,” Nefron said as they watched the track the Uriti was taking upwards through the planet on their monitoring equipment. It took some time before it finally breached the surface, smashing apart a cold mountain ridge as it emerged like a mole coming out of the dirt. The dirty blue, six legged behemoth was well over a mile long but far smaller than Bahamut. That thought alone made Riley cringe, wondering what power the larger Uriti’s mind could possibly contain.

When Nami broke into the airless exterior of the planet, ‘she’ rose up on her biological gravity drives with a slow, but nimble ease heading for the orbital coordinates sent to the Uriti.

Riley blew out a slow breath. “So far so good. Can you inquire as to this one’s status with the transmitter?”

“I can do a great deal more than that,” Nefron said, suddenly shifting his mental view to that of the Uriti and looking through its ‘eyes,’ save for it had none in a conventional sense. Sharing the link, Riley could see every ship in orbit and even those far away near the star, though they were mere echoes compared to the very vivid, yet odd image of the Zeus that he was seeing from afar and the cluster of ships around what looked to be his stone ship.

Then far below on the planet, even subsurface, he could see the minions in clusters.

“Are they people or machines?” he asked bluntly, already having had this discussion previously.

“Those produced by the Klamensh are people. But people can make choices, and the Chixzon could not allow that. These bastardized creations are biological machines that perform exactly as intended. If there is a person trapped inside somewhere, I do not know of it. And if there is, it would be best to free them of their slavery.”

“I really don’t care for that answer.”

“I don’t have another one to give. Even the Chixzon have not been able to isolate a physical component to the core of a lifeform, only recognize its presence through its actions. These minions do not act as if they were capable of making choices, so to the best of my knowledge the Chixzon succeeded in changing the Klamensh minions into biological war machines. I cannot say for certain if a person comes along with them in a tortured form. My memories suggest that telepathically linking to them offers no contact with anything other than predictable programming.”

“You can order the minions without the Hamoriti or equipment?”

“Of course.”

“Can you order them to stand down?”

“Stand down, yes. Allow themselves to be destroyed, no. Their programming prevents that potential conflict of interest. It is not for self-preservation,” Nefron clarified, guessing as to the Archon’s next question, “but to prevent a scenario where they could be tricked into not fighting back.”

“Genetic hacking?”

“Of our control signals, yes. That possibility was considered. They will not stand still and be slaughtered, but they can be starved to death.”

“I think we’ll let the lizards and the Trinx finish them off then. Let’s just get Nami out of here.”

“I need a destination system.”

Riley had already been through this with Paul and had come up with three possibilities, but because of how slow the Uriti were compared to starships, the destination could easily be compromised by the time they arrived.

“Ireema.”

Nefron looked up the coordinates and translated them into the system used to direct the Uriti…who could feel out the distant gravity wells without need of a map. He connected with it again, feeling the massive intelligence that was literally beyond that of technology, and let the contact linger for Riley’s benefit as Namishta traveled around orbit to the stellar jumppoint with every ship nearby hastily clearing a path.

The Archon didn’t have a clue how to even begin to communicate with such an ‘alien’ mind, which was odd considering how many non-Human races he had found ways to access their thoughts and bridge the gap with. This was totally beyond him, and that both scared and fascinated the challenge hungry trailblazer…though in this case he didn’t even know where to start.

The link became limited during the microjump as the Zeus and others had to stay back and make delayed transits, but Riley kept getting segments of time to feel out the Uriti during the process of leaving the system, then once the Uriti had made its slow jump off the star and entered the long coast phase the Zeus crept back in closer and paced it, giving both him and Nefron plenty of time to analyze the magnificent terror and find some point of reference outside the genetic control prompts.

“A courier ship has arrived from Star Force,” one of Cal-com’s attendants informed him. “It brings a message from Paul.”

The Dafchor held out a hand and the other Voku gave him the small device that contained the personal message. It was of their own technology, but the transmission from ship to ship had sent the contents directly into the device and nowhere else, achieving almost the same security as if one physically transported the chip from ship to ship without the necessary delay.

Cal-com inserted the device into the holographic pedestal and saw an image of his Human friend appear safely within his planning chambers where there could be no possibility of a security breach.

“I apologize for the secrecy, but as we discussed there will be times it is necessary and this is one of those times,” the Archon began. “The Trinx have attacked us in what I believe will lead to a much larger conflict. Prepare your ships accordingly. They may come under attack too for their allegiance with us, or even just the proximity to the Trinx worlds. I cannot say for sure what is going to occur. The Trinx are behaving as if they have gone insane. I will explain in detail what has transpired and what we are attempting to do, but so not to waste precious time I will say that I have called for numerous reinforcements from across Star Force space to gather in what I’ve designated as the Alamo System.”

A holographic tag popped up on a map, showing the location of an uninhabited system that lay partway between the active front and the Calavari region, one that had been captured and cleansed of lizards more than a century ago.

“I’m asking that you send all available ships there as well. If we succeed in our mission, we will possess one of the most dangerous weapons in the galaxy and once that information spreads, despite our efforts to keep it quiet, it may invite other players, perhaps unseen ones, to make a move to acquire it or to deny us its use. I have no intention of using this weapon, for reasons I’ll outline shortly, but please mobilize as many naval resources as you can from the local region. It’s going to take time to pull them from the ADZ and its rumored the Trinx have built up a large navy in secret that could be extremely troublesome if it catches either of us off guard.”

“In addition to that, I need a favor.”

5

February 21, 3255

Interstellar Space

Mid Jump

Riley sat next to Nefron in the chamber built onboard the Zeus to house him and the control interface with the Uriti transmitter. The Archon couldn’t use it, nor could anyone else save for the Chixzon, but so long as he was using it the trailblazer could eavesdrop through the equipment tie-in that was linked to both the command nexus and the small sphere in front of his lap that his hands were placed on, establishing a firm mental connection.

His mind swirled along with Nefron’s, both of them pathetically small compared to the mind they were touching. It mostly ignored them, save for when they issued the specific commands it had been conditioned to respond to automatically, but every now and then they could provoke a response…a mere twitch in its mind, as they probed for some way to establish true communications.

It wasn’t so much a matter of establishing a common language, but rather trying to wrap one’s mind around the perspective the Uriti viewed things through. It literally didn’t think like a Human or a Chixzon did, and crossing that chasm was something that Riley was adamant about trying to do during what was going to be a very slow journey to get the Uriti to the destination system. Right now the ships accompanying it were keeping their distance, but traveling at a jump speed so slow lesser races could actually have caught up to and passed them if there were any moving through the area.

Though with this being lizard territory, that wasn’t likely.

The transmitter allowed them to communicate at a range that could encompass a star system, but the lag was still a factor that made getting closer to the Uriti necessary for the work that Riley needed to do. That meant his command ship was the closest to the Uriti as the fleet accompanying it coasted along silently. Nefron had said the Uriti would not attack them once it had identified the ship as the source of the control signals, but just the same, he had the Zeus’s Admiral standing by to move them away at all possible speed if something did happen. In the doldrums of interstellar space there wasn’t much gravity to work with, but his ship was far more powerful than the Uriti was, so if they could get moving they could outrun it with ease.

Hopefully none of that would be necessary, but Riley didn’t like the idea of everyone on the command ship being sitting ducks while he poked the thing with a telepathic stick.

“This is pointless,” Nefron said in defeat, but still maintained the link for Riley’s sake. “There is no way to communicate short of the genetic routes installed, and we don’t have the option of inputting new ones. The Chixzon wanted point and click capability, not dialog, and all we’ve got to work with is what they devised.”

“That’s what makes it a challenge,” Riley said as his eyes were closed and most of his focus on the Uriti’s mind. It was so large and powerful it had a beauty to it that made you either run in fear or become transfixed, unable to tear your attention away as it droned out the rest of your senses…if you were a newb.

“I don’t even know how to approach this one. If you can’t fail and learn from it, how do you adapt? I can’t even get a score on this, if you could measure it. It’s completely obtuse.”

“Not completely, just close,” Riley differed. “I think we have to develop a different mental signature. It’s like it sees standard light and we’re trying to talk to it with radio waves. Language isn’t the issue.”

“My signals are no different.”

“Yeah, that’s what threw me initially. I’m speculating that it may only be conditioned to listen for those specific things and blind to everything else Chixzon. We have to appear, at least in a small way, to be Hadarak.”

“And you have a plan how to do that?”

“Working on it.”

“That’s reassuring,” Nefron said skeptically.

“If Aaron can learn to talk to ants, I should be able to find a way to talk to a Uriti.”

“Ants?”

“He’s spent a lot of time in the sanctums helping them interface with the denizens, and we’ve got a few ant colonies too…in addition to the ones elsewhere on the planet that we don’t control. You know what ants are, right?”

“That was covered in the maturia training.”

“Thought so.”

“What did he talk to them about?”

“Basic stuff. Directions. Needs. Danger. Their minds are so simple and preprogrammed there’s not much to work with, so in that respect this should be…easy,” Riley said with a wince.

“I thought the sanctuaries were designed to bring in native lifeforms out of the wild so they didn’t have to kill and eat each other to survive.”

“Partially. We also weren’t going to kill them to make room for more colonies. Some die anyway, like the ants. They’re just too small and everywhere. You step on them by accident.”

“I would guess you found a way to deal with that. At least partially?”

“Psionic sweeper teams. They go through and shoo away critters before we start digging. If there are anything the size of mice they make sure to dig them out and remove them from the site before the big machinery kicks in, but with ants, grubs, and other tiny insects the best we can do is warn them off.”

“Or not build there,” Nefron pointed out. “Not that I share your concern for the ants.”

“We don’t like to be sloppy. And we really don’t like the universe telling us we have to be.”

“What I know of this galaxy from the Chixzon differs greatly from what I’ve learned and observed in Star Force. It is a savage, messy, chaotic place. You’ve created the nearest thing to a utopia…and you’re worried about ants?”

“Don’t ever say ‘utopia,’ please.”

“Why not?”

“For starters, you’re going to jinx us. Secondly, when you get that in your head you blind yourself to all the injustices that still remain. With freedom comes the opportunity to misbehave, and even if every single individual didn’t harm another, there are still environmental dangers. A piece of wall falls down and crushes someone’s skull. Is that a utopia? It happens, and can happen every day. Life is never without risk, and no matter how much of this galaxy we clean up there’s always more to get to. We’ll never get it all, annoying as that is, so that’s why when we take on a new world and start cutting away the wilderness we don’t stop to avoid stepping on the ants.”

“I don’t entirely follow your logic.”

“If we do nothing, they are still dying every day from a myriad of causes. Same with the other critters out there. The wildness is too chaotic and robust with life trampling other life for us to be able to keep from killing anything, so we stick to fair game rules and do what we need to.”

“What rules are those?”

“If it’s big enough to move, move it. If it’s too small and there are too many, shoo them away, given them a chance to get clear, then come on in and get to work. If they’re burrowed down in the dirt and don’t leave, then they’ll have to take their chances with the digging equipment. We don’t ever intentionally kill them. Sometimes they just get in the way and we can’t afford to stop and look for another way.”

“Sounds counterintuitive, inefficient, and all around ridiculous. Star Force builds so fast that you must have some other factor in play?”

“If you’re building on lifeless planets you have nothing to worry about.”

“That’s a partial explanation.”

“Our sweeper teams have gotten to be very good over the years.”

“If you’re building in dense jungle, that has to take forever just to clear a square kilometer. And they have to have somewhere to go eventually. Building a sanctuary to hold an entire planet’s population of, as you said, ‘critters,’ is crazy.”

“Mitigating factors.”

“Such as?”

“A lot of the smaller ones don’t live very long anyway. They expire of other reasons, and the larger ones that we put into sanctuaries we keep separate along gender lines so they can’t reproduce. This gradually decreased the population over time and we can rid a planet of all native critters if we want without killing even one of them.”

“The larger ones anyway,” Nefron amended. “You can’t separate ants by genders. They reproduce by queen, correct…ah, I see. You pluck out the queens.”

“If we want to go to that extent, yes. But most ants are so small and widespread we don’t worry about them after the initial sweep. If we find a colony location we’ll move it, but individual ants running around isn’t something we can worry about. It took me a while to get that through my head without stopping caring about killing them, but it became obvious later.”

“What happened later?”

“I got my ass kicked by the Black Knight in a training challenge. Afterwards it dawned on me how little I actually have control of. The galaxy is so diverse and choked with life in some locations that if you move even a step you end up killing something. Do you stand still, a prisoner of the situation indefinitely? Or do you act and just let the chips fall where they may? We don’t intentionally kill anyone, but sometimes people are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s why Axius is split between large and small races, and there are still plenty of accidents anyway simply because of the size differences between a Human and an Irondel. Ants are far worse.”

“So you don’t approve, you just acknowledge the futility of it?”

“The universe has so many battles to fight we can’t even begin to start them all, let alone win them. We have to pick and choose, and size does matter. The little stuff we can’t get overly concerned with, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to knock someone on their ass if I see them going around and intentionally stomping on ants.”

“Coming from some of the greatest warriors in the galaxy, what you’re saying sounds incredibly odd. Especially when you’ve killed so many lizards.”

“They had a choice. An ant in your way doesn’t.”

“Orbital bombardment?”

“Their leaders had a choice. Those under our guns were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“You pick and choose your fights,” Nefron echoed. “And if a group of people are acting as one, and their leader chooses for them, they all suffer the consequences.”

“Mercy is the luxury of the dominant. The tougher our opponent is, the less options we have when we fight them. And we’ll only go so far to safeguard our enemies. Bystanders are another matter entirely.”

“And these ants are bystanders?”

“You’ve never seen one, have you? Outside of pictures.”

“No.”

“Visit the sanctuaries sometime. It’ll give you some perspective.”

“As to what?”

“How helpless you can be, and how easy it is to turn a blind eye to those so much smaller than you. Most people don’t even give a second though about ants, let alone a first one. The idea of talking to them is something only a handful of people have come up with, then found a way to do.”

“And what have you gained from those talks, aside from ‘perspective.’”

“We’re trying to see if we can upgrade them through training.”

Nefron stared at him for a moment. “You’re serious?”

“We prefer that to genetic meddling.”

“You’re trying to upgrade all the sanctuary races, aren’t you?”

“It’s sort of a quiet hobby for Star Force. We don’t try it with all of them, but those we allow to reproduce we do work with.”

“To what end? There are far more other races out there to incorporate into Star Force if that is your aim.”

“We do it because we care. If we get a tactical or logistic advantage out of it, that’s just bonus.”

“Your caring seems overdone.”

“I truly hope Nami doesn’t share that sentiment, because to her we are ants.”

Nefron hesitated a moment, suddenly in a logic checkmate he hadn’t seen coming. Score one for the Archon.

“I wondered if you had a point floating around in there somewhere. You’re suggesting that the Uriti simply doesn’t care about us because we are too insignificant? And by us, I mean you. It will listen to me when necessary.”

“Only because the Chixzon forced it to. What does Nami think we are, from her point of view?”

“It has no gender.”

“Then I can call it whatever I want. What would an ant have to say or do to get your attention?”

“Something above and beyond its kin. There are so many of them that…”

Riley opened his eyes, having the same epiphany that Nefron was. “We need a bigger transmitter.”

“Our telepathic signal is so weak it’s disregarded unless specifically encoded. You said Aaron talked to ants. He did it because he chose to, not because they got his attention?”

“Like enthralling other races. The Uriti can take notice if it wants to, but if it doesn’t it just ignores all of us.”

“Ships are different,” Nefron pointed out. “But telepathically speaking, despite even your strength, we’re tiny. And your strength doesn’t translate through the transmitter. We are the size it makes us, so we need to build a bigger persona.”

“We’ve been whispering at a rock concert,” Riley said, taking his hands off the sphere and putting his palm against his forehead with a muted ‘whack.’ “It’s so obvious I don’t know how we missed it. How they…missed it. Or did they,” he said, whispering to himself.

“They?”

“Your evil twins,” Riley said, referencing the subject that Nefron knew they couldn’t talk about.

“Sometimes I think you’ve invented them just to mess with me.”

Riley smiled. “Damn, that does sound like something we would do. I’ll have to remember that for later.”

“The next Chixzon you find won’t be so talkative.”

“Dude, you really got to work on the jinxing thing.”

“Are we finished here?” Nefron said stoically.

The Archon visually brushed off the equipment around them. “Yeah. This stuff is no good aside from letting you steer. We’ve gotta get back in hardware mode.”

“The Chixzon tech isn’t easy to produce, and we’re not set up for it on this ship.”

“No, but we can get there. Give me a shopping list and I’ll see what we can pull from the fleet. If we have to send for parts I’ll send a courier off at the next system, but I’d rather build this inhouse if needed.”

“It’s going to have to be a large transmitter.”

“Yeah, I know. But going all the way back to a primary shipyard is a waste of time, and all we’re doing right now is sitting and twiddling our thumbs while we wait for Nami to get up the steps with her granny walker…and no, don’t ask. Old, old reference.”

“I think I got the gist of it. We lose nothing from trying…aside from some equipment.”

“We got plenty of that, so let’s get to shopping.”

Nefron disconnected from the Uriti and took a moment to flush his mind of its overbearing presence. “Very well. I instructed techs how to produce this equipment the first time. I can bear the tediousness again.”

Riley glanced over his shoulder at him as they walked out of the chamber. “Play nice,” he warned. “We put in a lot of tediousness trying to get your sanity back, remember?”

“That they did. You weren’t there.”

“My point stands.”

“If the techs that helped me build this were here, I wouldn’t have to instruct newbs a second time.”

“Then blame your Chixzon intellect for not anticipating we’d need this, and get to work on that list. I’d rather get to know Nami before the Trinx try and pull something.”

“A valid point, but I wouldn’t wager on the timing.”

“All the more reason to get this moving pronto.”

6

April 30, 3255

Targish System (lizard territory)

Stellar Orbit

Jarod Vermon woke up in bed suddenly as the ship’s alarm blared, half kicking off the covers as his mind snapped back into waking mode. He was only three hours into his sleep cycle, but a shipwide alarm meant that no longer mattered. It was one of several distinct, repetitive tones that had been drilled into him over 200 years before during his basic naval training, but this was the first time he’d ever been awoken by one.

The Human kicked off his covers and grabbed his shoes, not bothering to waste time changing into a proper uniform. He ran through the hallways in T-shirt and shorts until he came to a lift, took it four decks below, then ran some more until he eventually came to one of the large theater-like control decks onboard the Excalibur. Most of the seats were filled, but he hurried to an empty one and sat down, quickly logging himself into the station and awaiting orders as he pulled an auxiliary headset on and popped up a small regional map to see what the call to battlestations had been about.

“Shit,” he said a moment before a task was prioritized to him, seeing thousands of enemy vessels engaging the leading elements of the convoy as it came out of the jump ahead of the Uriti. There was a considerable delay between their arrival and it, then another delay back to the main group of escorts, meaning that Star Force didn’t have that many ships in the leading group as it seemed the Trinx had come back for round two in far greater numbers.

But what the Star Force task force did have was a lot of ships going to reinforce them within the hour, meaning that a stall play was in their favor, but more than that they had Paul onboard and there wasn’t another ship that Jarod would have preferred going into battle on than The Admiral’s.

A pair of Ichod pulse cannons were slotted to him onboard a drone cruiser with a slew of incoming missiles as priority targets. None of the missiles were directed at the ship he was now virtually on, but were headed for other targets and soon to be within weapons’ range of Star Force’s 2nd big addition to the fleet. For years Star Force had been making modifications to existing weapon systems, then over the last few centuries had been fielding more advanced batteries in a variety of designs. When the Dre’mo’don had come out it’d been declared as a ‘staple’ of the fleet, meaning tweaks would be made but they wouldn’t be looking to replace it with a different kind of weapon.

Given the sheer amount of firepower they possessed Jarod could see why. Just getting a weapon like that functional was a momentous achievement and he figured they’d been eyeing that bit of theoretical tech for a long time before finally making it viable even in the crudest of forms.

Well now they had another one, for the Ichod put every other point defense weapon Star Force had to shame and he expected to be piloting drones containing them for centuries to come. When he lined up both batteries to fire in different directions at different targets, he located a narrow slice of space rather than an individual target and pulled the mental trigger on a weapon that was too precise to be operated by hand controls.

The Trinx missiles glowed red and were the equivalent of tiny, agile spheres that were weaving in and out of ship formations and tracking whatever targets they wanted even if they had to fly far off course to get around obstacles. When they hit they stung individually, but in groups they could shred armor plates with ease…and they were even more dangerous against shields. Pelting them would drain their power so fast it was almost as if some of the drones had none the instant they were engaged in combat.

But Star Force drones were designed to fight without shields if necessary, and the more of these missiles that could be knocked down the more defenses Star Force would have intact…making Jarod’s small task extra important as he used computer calculations accessed through a mental link established via touch that allowed him to gain the speed and accuracy of a computer while retaining his own ability to guess and think ahead.

He fired the first pulse from one of the small cannons, sending a disc-shaped plate of white light out directly away from his ship, but as it flew it expanded in diameter, eventually covering some 23 meters by the time it hit the passing Trinx missiles, each of which was no more than 2 meters long, with more than enough lethality to wipe their little red glows from existence. The Ichod energy passed through, allowing another missile to be hit in the same salvo, but a split second later another Ichod pulse followed it, then another and another, firing off so rapidly that the pulse cannon looked like it was an oscillating lawn water sprinkler.

The missiles were flashing by in the hundreds on multiple sides of the cruiser and the further away from his ship they got the more the Ichod energy disc expanded. Once it got out to around 37 kilometers the matrix snapped and the energy mushroomed out like a small explosion, making these weapons short ranged whether you liked it or not. Fortunately shooting down missiles was exactly what they were designed to do, and targeting them at range was an almost impossible task giving the slightly weaving courses they all exhibited when flying in a ‘straight’ line. It was obviously a tactic employed to make them harder to shoot down, but with the Ichod he didn’t have to hit them dead on, rather he just had to get close…and the further away they were the wider the virtual hand he had to swat them out of existence.

Attacking two different targets simultaneously was old school for Jarod, a trick he’d learned long ago. He could operate 5 such weapons tracking individual targets with ease, but right now the massive command ship and its crew of drone pilots were packed into a relatively small number of ships given that a large chunk of those drones that they would normally oversee were trolling along behind the Uriti.

That was alright, because the less they had to work with the better they got in terms of accuracy and situational awareness. Jarod was even able to take a few glimpses of the overall situation as he efficiently shot down missiles, a lot of which were headed towards the command ship on which his physical body sat as his mind was situated in the perspective of the distant cruiser.

The pointed Trinx ships were teaming up to take on individual drones and take them down, with the tactic becoming abundantly clear that they weren’t going to let Star Force cycle them around to recharge shields. That had a disadvantage to it, for if the Trinx focused solely on a small number of ships the rest of them could pound the Trinx into oblivion…which is exactly what was happening.

Jarod didn’t get to see much beyond the immediate area around the cruiser where he was oriented from, but he could see the Trinx fleet being so obsessed with going after and eliminating specific drones that they were needlessly killed when flanked because they didn’t respond with weaponry or maneuvering. They just sat in place and fired, or continued chasing their targets. Some of the Star Force ships were being destroyed, and uncharacteristically quickly, but the Trinx were suffering horrible losses in exchange.

Then when a hole in the lines formed, the Trinx ships poured in towards the Excalibur with Jarod’s cruiser turned hard to starboard to cut across their path. The enemy ships ignored it, moving up and down to avoid a collision as they raced hard towards the giant armored donut. As their red hulls flashed by Jarod poured his two Ichods into their easy to hit targets, getting hundreds of repetitive hits that weakened shields and even burned away some armor from a ship that a Dre’mo’don hit just prior, knocking down its defenses.

There was no time to think ahead, so he just poured fire into every available marked target that came within range. A few had higher priority markers, which he paid due diligence to, but most were just common ‘shoot this if you can’ clearances coming from the pilots or commanders that were tagging everything so he and other gunners didn’t have to worry about sorting out friend from foe or good targets and bad targets…like a fuel ship that you didn’t want to detonate right in front of your face.

The Ichod were not meant to take on capital ships, but they were so damned powerful that they could do the job if given enough time. Like a chain saw cutting through a log, they’d whittle a ship down gradually though the enemy wasn’t standing still to oblige as they raced past his cruiser, so priority went to just inflicting whatever damage he could as they came into and out of range.

Paul saw them angling around the drones he’d ordered to interpose themselves between the Excalibur and the Trinx, judging correctly that that the enemy was interested in taking out specific targets and that his ship was now next in line. Fortunately Paul knew how to play hard to get, and he had drones angling in from all directions to break up the thick tendril of ships the Trinx were sending towards him. If they didn’t engage the flankers, all Paul had to do was turtle up and wait for the attrition to ensue…and if they did engage the attackers it would weaken their attempted gut punch against the now obvious flagship.

He sensed they wanted to eliminate him before the Uriti and the rest of the fleet arrived…which was why he gave the untypical order for the Excalibur to retreat as more and more drones darted in to fill the gap and play traffic cloggers.

“Sacrifices,” Paul whispered to himself as he saw how the Trinx were fighting and dying recklessly. It worked when they were able to overwhelm a target, but stretch them out a bit and you quickly reached a tipping point where your advantage switched over to vulnerability…and if you weren’t aware of that you’d end up aggressively delivering yourself to a slaughter.

The numbers the Trinx had here were significant, but if he could stretch them out just a bit more he thought he could get them to that decision point all the while his ship and the drones were filling the approach vector with so much weaponsfire that the Fourth of July would have been envious. Bloons launched where available, but it was the Dre’mo’dons that really packed a punch and they were flying from all directions. Tight clusters of them on the Excalibur were launching in sync and literally blowing holes into the Trinx ships with each salvo. Firing one against their shields hurt, but launch eight side by side and even the advanced enemy shields couldn’t stand up to that.

The drones couldn’t carry that much weaponry, but a few points on the Excalibur had been packed with it instead of spreading out the cannons evenly and Paul was rotating his big ship around to put those sweet spots into the most advantageous positions.

As all that happened he saw a Warship-class jumpship also be targeted, with a slew of Trinx ships ignoring all else and heading for it. It was heavily armored, but not as much as the Excalibur. It wouldn’t go down quickly, but Paul could already see that he had too few ships and the Trinx had too many to keep them from picking off a few select targets if they didn’t value their own lives.

That left him one option, and at the cost of the majority of his drones, he ordered all his big ships to turtle up and have the expendable weapons platforms form a defensive sphere around them to take the brunt of the attack.

Getting them into position was costly, for they’d fanned out upon arrival to better fight with crossfire options and Paul had to sometimes ram drones into Trinx ships in order to clear a path for recall, but eventually the Excalibur and the six warships with it got in so close together that they were able to increase shield strength in select areas while counting on the bulk of the nearby ships to block firing runs on others. A few Trinx ships could get through into the gaps, but not enough to do damage when they’d be toasted at point blank range with weaponry hitting them from multiple angles.

Now reinforced but with no chance of going after the enemy, Paul waited to see if the Trinx would back off or force the issue…and their tenacity did not disappoint. They refocused their efforts on a single warship on the edge of their 7 ship clump and Paul likewise reinforced the drone ‘hive’ in that area, but so much weaponsfire was getting through that the shields on the warship were already beginning to fail.

By the time they fell completely the Trinx were literally sacrificing three ships on approach to get one into firing position, but they were scoring some very big hits and Paul couldn’t move the Excalibur in to block for them because of their already packed formation. All he could do was play with the drones and try and buy time.

It wasn’t enough, and the warship took a huge hit on the port forward flank. Deck after deck was punctured even while other parts of the ship were still fighting. Drones flew in to interpose themselves like living armor, but the Trinx were in so close that they had to ram them out of the way in most cases. The carnage at that one spot was incredible…then all of a sudden the Trinx ships abandoned the attack and began to run away.

Paul saw why immediately as the system battlemap showed the Uriti braking out of its deceleration phase and coming up right behind them. That freaked out Paul too, because he didn’t know how it would respond to them being so close. He got everyone moving immediately, including the damaged warship that still had some engine capability, and out of the way of the smaller, but far deadlier player that had just arrived on the naval chess board.

It was ironic to Paul that something smaller than his command ship could pack so much power, but then again that’s why the V’kit’no’sat were all but unable to deal with the Hadarak…and the Chixzon had gone to lengths to add combat capability to the Uriti. This one wasn’t as large as the others, but still deadly enough to destroy all the ships with Paul in a very short period of time if they decided to stand still and slug it out. Running was to their advantage, thanks to the fact that for as powerful as the Uriti was, it was dead slow in comparison to starships.

That said, if one came your way, and you had any brains, you were the one to move and move early…especially when your control ship wasn’t here yet to call it off if it took offense to your presence or just yawned in the wrong direction.

As he got his ships out of the way he watched the Trinx, who were not sticking around to fight again. They were transitioning around stellar orbit to a nearby jumpline, making it clear that they had been sent here to do just one thing.

Take out as many ships in the leading task force as they could.

That told Paul that this was just the beginning and they were being whittled down for a larger strike to come. Next jump he’d have almost his entire fleet going first, though he was tempted to let the Uriti lead. While in lizard territory there wasn’t much chance of someone happening to get in the way, but now that the Uriti was on their leash they were responsible for it. That meant he had to go first and make sure the road was clear, even if there were lizard ships in the path.

The real question was, where would the Trinx hit them next? They didn’t know where Star Force was taking it, nor did they know even the next jumppoint they were taking. And big as this fleet was that hit them, rumors had it that the Trinx had far more in reserve and he seriously doubted that they wouldn’t be using them. Star Force had upstaged them and, in his gut, he got the feeling that the Trinx derived their identity from being a Uriti, or as they called it, a ‘Hamoriti’ guardian.

And he was pretty sure they didn’t want to relinquish that title or the power that it imposed upon them. Their priorities came before everyone else because of the Hamoriti, including screwing over a good portion of the galaxy by feeding the lizards tech in order to get what they wanted.

But all because of the Hamoriti…

He’d seen twisted logic like that before, and now that the Trinx were no longer needed and their impossible mission now ended, more or less, they were either going to be grateful or snap…and based upon the attack he’d just survived, ‘snapped’ was all but a certainty.

7

“Can your ships continue?” the Brpet’s hologram asked.

“It’s heavily damaged, but can limp along faster than the Uriti can travel,” Paul said, his voice betraying just a hint of anger. “The rest of our ships are being recovered while the Uriti takes a dip in the star. We’ll be able to move when it finishes.”

“Do you know how long it will take? Or do you tell it how long it has?” the Sety asked.

“If we let it go too long without eating the likelihood of it ignoring our commands increases. We can monitor its status, so we know its reserves are deplenishing. It was told to restock. We will know when it is finished.”

“Can you share this data with the rest of us?”

“I’m not feeling overly generous right now.”

“Do not hold us responsible for the Trinx’s attack.”

“If I was, your ship would be in pieces by now,” Paul said icily.

“Your curiosity about the Hamoriti can wait,” the cyborg told the Sety. “We have a much larger problem to deal with.”

“Agreed,” the Dati said passively. “Not only are the Trinx very strong militarily, they control a Hamoriti site. While I do not believe they would release it, no matter how askew from their responsibilities they have gone, I no longer feel comfortable with them having it.”

“If they do not release it, what threat is there?” the Sety argued.

“Perhaps they do not believe that the Chixzon is the only one who can control them,” the Jonstar said ominously. “I do not mean to pry, Archon, but are you certain that only he can send the proper signals. Cannot they be copied?”

“There are multiple redundancies in the signal to prevent unauthorized access,” Paul said simply. “I won’t go into detail as to what they are, but I am not worried about the Trinx being able to duplicate them. The Chixzon were very deliberate when they designed them, knowing that the galaxy would try anything and everything they could to stop them. The system is nearly fullproof. Even we can’t hack the system with the extensive knowledge we have of it.”

“And there is only one Chixzon around to control it.”

“Yes,” Paul said, understanding the significance of that statement more than they did, though he did not add the ‘for now.’

“Then the Trinx may simply want to destroy your ability to control the Hamoriti by destroying whatever ship he is on.”

“They’ve already tried that once,” the Domu pointed out. “Unless they mistook Paul’s ship for the other, they are pursuing a larger strategy.”

“There are too many of us here,” the cyborg argued. “They can’t mount a straightforward attack. They are trying to chip away at our strength while they gather theirs. They will strike again when the numbers are more to their advantage…and when they do, we must fight them.”

“They have been our allies for a very long time,” the Sety said cautiously. “We should not throw away that allegiance so casually.”

“They have betrayed us,” the Bpret said meekly, its body shifting in and out of alignment with its current humanoid form as it spoke, almost as if it was shivering with fear.

“I do not understand why,” the Breti said in agreement. “We have long hoped for a way to end the conflict, or at least to forestall it. Star Force has proved they are capable of this, the Trinx have seen it happen so there should be no doubt. Now they seek to destroy that control and return this Hamoriti to its rampages. What are they thinking?”

“Perhaps,” the Sety said apologetically to defend against a backlash, “they see Star Force control of it, and potentially the others, as more problematic. They did almost release another.”

“What is the alternative?” the Dati countered.

“They share control with us.”

“They refuse to, so I ask again, what is the alternative?”

“They reconsider,” the Sety pressed.

“Are we also going to have to oppose you at some point?” it asked bluntly.

The Sety didn’t answer, drawing intense scrutiny from the other 7 members present, for the Yisv had been absent ever since the group moved to the same system as the Hamoriti.

“Answer him,” the cyborg asked.

“We seek to renegotiate control,” the Sety finally said.

“What do you have to offer?” Paul interrupted before more bickering could break out.

“Offer?” the Sety repeated, somewhat shocked.

“Yes. You said negotiate. That typically involves one side offering the other something of value in exchange. You have done no such thing. You simply make demands. That is not negotiation.”

“We have given you a historical account.”

“I highly doubt you would see that as compensation for control over a Uriti if the situation were reversed, and in any case, that transfer has already been made. You are not getting control. Therefore what do you intend to negotiate beyond this point?”

“What is it you are demanding?”

“Nothing. You’re simply not getting control.”

“That is unacceptable.”

“You abandoning the H’kar to the Li’vorkrachnika is unacceptable.”

“We saved them.”

“Yes, you did. Points for that. Then you left them sit on the border without the help you promise all members of The Nexus. An attack on one is an attack on them all…except not with the H’kar.”

“Is that why you won’t share control?”

“It demonstrates that you are untrustworthy, and that your promises are not valid. As for the other races here, we don’t know you. Why would we give you control over something as powerful as a Uriti? Especially given the actions of your fellow guardians.”

“This is pointless,” the Jonstar said before anyone else could continue. “Only one person can control the Hamoriti, and his loyalty is to Star Force. If you seek to share control you will have to convince him, and I highly doubt anything the Sety can say or offer will sway his allegiance.”

“Where is he now?” the cyborg asked.

“Busy,” Paul answered. “Security is my responsibility now.”

“How convenient,” the Sety stated.

“If and when the Trinx strike again,” Paul said, staring at his hologram, “do I need to worry about your ships siding with them? Or should I run you off right now?”

“Allow me,” the Bpret said before the Sety could answer, then fixing him with his attention. “Will the Sety attack the Trinx in defense of the ship the Chixzon is onboard?”

“We will do what is appropriate.”

“Evasive. Answer directly. Will you engage the Trinx, or will you endanger the destruction of the controller of the Hamoriti and return us to the status quo we have barely managed to maintain?”

The Sety was silent for several seconds, then he finally relented. “We will not allow the Chixzon to be destroyed, but we are very hesitant to start a war with the Trinx.”

“They have already started one,” the cyborg noted.

“They have attacked Star Force, not us.”

“Star Force has the solution, therefore they are one of us now! And the most important one, in fact.”

“What happens when we reach our ultimate destination? A place that has not been identified as of yet.”

“We will keep the Uriti there and away from inhabited systems,” Paul answered.

“Is that a solution, or merely stalling the problem once again?”

“No one dies this way.”

“But the Hamoriti is still a risk.”

“Do you have an alternative to offer?” the Dati pressed, visibly annoyed. “We have heard nothing from the Sety except naysaying. We have real problems to address, and you are offering no solutions.”

“A group effort is required.”

“To do what?”

“Control the Hamoriti.”

“All that is required,” the cyborg reminded them, “is one Chixzon and one transmitter. The rest is irrelevant.”

“Agreed,” the Dati said. “If we must check our egos in order to protect them, so be it.”

“How about we turn this discussion into something productive,” Paul deflected. “The Sety once attacked the Preema, futilely. We’ve had contact with them and cooperated in the war against the Li’vorkrachnika. They recognized the long term threat they posed, and while they didn’t support us when we hit the most heavily defended worlds, they have done a great deal to help us. We have suspected, and I hope one of you will now confirm, that the Preema have a Uriti inside their territory.”

“Yes,” the cyborg said immediately, eyeing the Sety and daring him to complain. “An attempt was made to secure it that failed.”

“Do the Preema know it is there?”

“If they do, they had no visible infrastructure at that location. It is on an uninhabited planet within a system that has two Preema worlds. Can you negotiate access to that world?”

“I do not know, but it is something we’re going to look into. How many others are you missing?”

“One. It is within the territory of the Mrip, but not on a world they inhabit. We cannot get close to it.”

Paul frowned. “I’m not familiar with the Mrip.”

“They are far rimward. We would not have explored that far out on our own if we had not been given the location by the Oracle.”

“So you possess five between you?”

“We have stewardship. Possession is overstating the matter.”

“Are there other races out there hunting for them?”

“Not that we are aware. Very little evidence of the Ancients remains. Knowledge of the Hamoriti seems to have been erased from the memory of this part of the galaxy by the ravages of time, fortunately.”

“Do the Trinx have any allies they can call upon for support?”

“I do not know. The Chamra’s knowledge of this region is limited.”

“They do not,” the Breti said. “They only interact with us out of necessity. They prefer to keep to themselves…though they have accumulated considerable strength.”

“But only a few star systems?”

“I do not know why they have not expanded further.”

“Is it your guess that their strength has accumulated from lack of depletion or a robust industrial base that could easily replace losses?”

“The former. Their civilization is advanced, but small compared to the rest of us.”

“Then they have one card to play,” Paul said evenly. “A prolonged engagement means they lose. They have to use their accumulated assets to secure a quick victory.”

“I concur.”

“As do I,” the cyborg said, looking at the Sety. “Which is why we cannot allow anything to happen to the Chixzon…or Star Force.”

“What do you intend to do with the other Hamoriti?” the Sety asked, ignoring the Chamra.

“They stay where they are for the moment. Now that we have access to one, we’re going to study it to see if we can find an alternative solution.”

“A way to destroy them?” the Dati asked.

“The Uriti were created from something far larger called a Hadarak. They live in the center of the galaxy and occasionally push their way further out. There are many of them. Even if we destroyed all the Uriti, the Hadarak would still be there.”

“Do these Hadarak also produce minion armies that spread and conquer the galaxy?” the Sety scoffed.

Paul looked at him firmly. “Yes.”

A moment of silence hung there until the cyborg finally spoke. “Why are we not all dead then?”

“The Chixzon altered a captured Hadarak and used it to create Uriti. They altered it to their liking, including the ability to control it. The galactic conquest occurs differently for the Hadarak. The behavior you see in the Uriti is part Hadarak, part Chixzon programming. The Hadarak are just as dangerous, but in different ways. There are also races near the core that fight them and keep them from pushing this far rimward. My point is, the Uriti are not a unique threat. Killing them will not solve the problem if it is a monumental effort to do so.”

“The wonders and dangers of this galaxy run in parallel,” the Bpret said, quoting a text that none of the others were familiar with.

“How did the Chixzon deal with the Hadarak threat?”

“They avoided them. Their conquest of the galaxy was aimed at the rimward half. They did not go into the core and avoided the Hadarak when they came out, save for when one entered one of their major systems. They took heavy losses, but wounded and captured it. However, other Hadarak move in groups. They were lucky they only encountered one.”

“Groups?” the Jonstar said, shaking its hairy, elongated head. “We can’t handle even one.”

“We are not the masters of the galaxy,” the Dati said stoically, “though some of us seem to forget that. We can only deal with the threats that approach us, in whatever ways we are able. Star Force has given us, graciously, a solution to a problem that has not reached their own borders yet. On behalf of the Dati, we are immensely grateful and will assist you in the containment of this Hamoriti however we can, and we will defend your control ship to the last of us if necessary.”

“Thank you,” Paul said graciously.

“If you will allow it, I will send a courier back to my territory to instruct them to send representatives to your homeworld so that we can establish formal diplomatic relations.”

“Our homeworld is more or less off limits, but there is another major system nearby that we use for diplomatic contacts. You may send your representatives there.”

“I will do likewise,” the cyborg said. “If our ultimate destination is far from here, I will also call for reinforcements. Our territory is far away, but if they can arrive in time I want them here.”

“400 lightyears, give or take.”

“That will take the Hamoriti more than a year,” the Dati said.

“Far more,” the Sety corrected. “Unless it can move faster than we estimate?”

“It can’t move much faster than you’ve already seen it go,” Paul confirmed. “And we have reinforcements heading towards us. The more time goes by, the less opportunity the Trinx will have to strike.”

“How many more ships?” the Bpret asked.

“I don’t know. We sent word, how much is sent will be determined by factors that I am not aware of. But a lot are coming, I can guarantee you that.”

“Do the Trinx know this?” the Breti wondered.

“Have you been feeding them information?” Paul lightly accused, looking at the Sety.

“We have been with you the entire time.”

“A simple, honest ‘no’ will suffice.”

“No,” the Sety answered. “We are not feeding them information.”

“They may suspect it regardless,” the cyborg said before the Sety could say something antagonistic. “We are heading in the direction of your border. The only question is, how fast can they get their own reinforcements here?”

“Their systems are not that far away,” the Jonstar commented. “And given the speed we cannot muster, they will surely get to us before we reach the Star Force border.”

“Agreed,” the cyborg said, running mental calculations. “There is no time to send for reinforcements. If they are going to strike hard, it will be soon. And we will need every ship we can muster,” he said, looking at the Sety.

“If they force the issue, we will defend the controller.”

“But?” the Dati pressed.

“We will only defend the controller.”

“Fair enough,” Paul said before anyone else could speak. “But do so from range, and that goes for the rest of you as well. Leave point defense to my own ships.”

“So ours are destroyed first?” the Sety challenged.

Paul’s lip showed a touch of a snarl. “If I want your ships destroyed, I don’t need the Trinx to do it.”

“That is debatable.”

“Your allegiance is in question, and yet you continue to antagonize,” the cyborg said with evident frustration. “Do you not understand the stakes? Make it clear where you stand. If you will not fight against the Trinx then say so and leave this convoy. We cannot have any hesitation, and I do not blame them for not wanting us in close to the controller. It would be much easier for the Trinx to accomplish their goal if a hole in the formation formed via betrayal than if they have to fight their way in.”

“We know the stakes, Chamra. Do not assume we do not.”

“The Trinx know them as well, yet they continue with this madness.”

“I cannot say why they have done what they have. I understand some of their reasoning. Entrusting a Hamoriti to Star Force is a mistake, but their actions do not provide a solution. Even if there is a way for us to use what they know to find a way to control the Hamoriti for ourselves, destroying the ship that such knowledge is on is against our interests. The Trinx should know this, and while I did not fault them for attacking the first time when Star Force was waking up the second Hamoriti, I do fault them for trying to destroy the control that is now assumed over this one.”

“We have struggled for so long,” he continued, “that we should not be pushed aside so blithely, but there is no excuse for destroying the only known means to control this menace. The Sety will not attack the control ship, nor will we let the Trinx do so. That is necessity. Star Force remaining in control is not. We will continue to negotiate for shared control and exert what leverage is necessary, but we will not endanger the solution. On that you can trust us without question, and I do not believe anything in our past actions would suggest otherwise.”

“And what of the past actions of the Trinx?” the cyborg pointed out. “Was there anything there to precipitate this betrayal?”

“Their actions are their own, and they were not totally unprovoked. Judge us by our own. We will not allow any Hamoriti to run free, no matter what the cost.”

8

June 8, 3255

Mesnqua System (lizard territory)

Stellar Orbit

Riley’s command ship came out of its jump along with a few dozen other Star Force jumpships at the tail end of the convoy line. The bulk of the combined fleet had traveled to this system first, getting there ahead of the Uriti, but Nefron had to leave last in order to make sure that Nami actually jumped out.

They arrived back into range of sensor signal stability and the Uriti and the fleet popped up on the battlemap, with the ships already transitioning around the star to their next jumppoint. The Zeus and its escorts followed while Nefron signaled to the Uriti as to which jumpline to take out. As soon as it got moving from its holding position the battlemap lit up with signals popping out from the upper atmosphere of the star as they skimmed it in a very tight and fast orbit.

The stellar interference let them get far closer than they normally would have been able to without being detected, but they weren’t exactly on their doorstep as of yet. The Zeus was within communications range of Paul’s fleet so he opened up a holographic transmission that suffered from just a touch of lag.

“There they are,” he said to Paul’s image as the sensor silhouettes on the ships racing towards them were identified as Trinx. “Run or fight?”

“You…run. Now.”

“Coming to you,” Riley said as he ordered the ship and crew to get them to the others with a simple waypoint that he knew the Admiral would coordinate the navigation to, leaving him free to deal with other matters. “Those leading ships are going to be here before we see their full numbers, I’ll bet you anything.”

“Bluff or bait?” Paul wondered.

“We’re all here together. They’re not going to be able to isolate some of us, not with that closure rate. I think they’re here to slug it out.”

“Or make a pinpoint attack run on you then beat it before we pound them.”

“Fight,” Riley decided. “They want an ass kicking, so let’s deliver it.”

“You read my mind. Too bad you can’t ask the Uriti to help.”

“It’d probably kill us all in the process. I’ll have Nefron tell it to park in a holding orbit. Pick your battlefield and we’ll come to you.”

“Already have,” Paul said, sending him a waypoint. “You’re middle of the formation in turtle mode. Watch for kamikaze runs, and I’ll have four shield ships tasked directly on you. We…heads up.”

Riley was about to ask what for, but Paul send the information mentally and Riley spotted the wrinkle in the star pattern on the sensors. It wasn’t a black silhouette like the Ma’kri made, for it was showing stars, but they weren’t pinpoint perfect…though they were on the opposite side of his taskforce and coming in at them like a pincher only seconds away.

The jumpships with the Zeus, accelerating hard as they were, cut their engines and began to coast as the command ship zoomed on ahead. As soon as the break happened the elongated jumpships began throwing out a shower of drones that individually accelerated on ahead when they got clear and angled to intercept the cloaked ships.

They didn’t make it in time, with the leading Trinx ships popping onto the sensors as they fired massive energy beams that defied the color spectrum, looking as if they were bending the starlight behind them as they traveled into a kaleidoscope of distortion. As soon as they were fired the cloaking mechanism disengaged, with the ships popping up in clusters as the beams leapt out towards the command ship and hit its shields, some of which missed entirely as the Zeus wobbled back and forth as it ran towards the still distant allied fleet.

The first few strikes did nothing to it, barely draining any power, but there was a residue on the shields that didn’t dissipate and instead built up with each subsequent hit. After 30 or so strikes the Zeus’ acceleration diminished and the Trinx ships came up within range where their shots would no longer miss.

Two of them exploded under return fire from the command ship, but the more strikes that hit and coated the shields with residue the slower it got…up until it dropped its shields entirely and got another boost of speed as it shed its shackles.

The hull got coated with a few hits, but then weaker shields reformed and began catching the incoming fire again that gradually built up and slowed it down a second time as the drones from the trailing jumpships finally rejoined Riley and dove into the 293 Trinx ships that had snuck up on them.

A myriad of weaponsfire broke out between them, but the big beams kept firing on the command ship until the dampening effect was so great that the Zeus lost all maneuvering ability as its gravity drives were denied their grip on the distant gravity wells. It coasted onward, gaining ground on Paul’s fleet that was still racing towards it, but the much larger Trinx fleet coming up from the star was going to get to them first.

“I got ganked,” he told Paul unnecessarily. “These beams are laden with IDF. I’m dead in the water.”

“Looks like they’re going to have 3 minutes of alone time with you. Stall as much as you can…” Paul said direly as something else happened on the battlemap. Suddenly several ships within the allied fleet were showing activity beyond the chase they’d all instituted immediately upon seeing the Trinx heading for the Zeus. It took him a moment to realize what was happening, and even then he didn’t fully understand.

“Looks like the Dati are going to get to you first,” Paul commented as Riley was now engaged in a fierce battle with the ambushing Trinx fleet that was going to end up very one sided if allowed to persist on its own as half his drones caught up and surrounded the command ship while the others hammered the Trinx ships in a melee that was about to cost the enemy every ship they’d sent out to delay them.

Riley split his attention, focusing on the contacts that had somehow shot out ahead of the rest of the fleet. He saw the last few spurt ahead as several of the Dati ships were clustered together along with the rest of the fleet, with the gaggle of ships all accelerating at their best speeds and not staying in formation. It was chaotic, but they all knew that every second counted and it looked like the Chamra were the fastest of the bunch.

Save for the Dati when that clump of ships suddenly broke apart with half flying forward in a surge of speed and the other half moving backways and almost colliding with other ships. Somehow they had a system rigged where they could throw each other, and for the force that sent them forward there was an equal and opposite reaction that sent the others backward. Add in their continual acceleration and the Dati ships, in considerably reduced number, were going to get to Riley before the rest of the Trinx did…but at far too great a speed.

“They’re going to overshoot unless they can spurt in reverse,” Riley commented as he personally sighted a Trinx ship with a Keema battery and saw the beam go in one side of its red hull and out the other.

“I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do,” Paul said, his voice tight. “Use the Trinx debris to buy you some time.”

“We can’t…oh, right. My bad,” Riley said, ordering his drones and jumpship crews to grab and haul whatever bits they could when they were done shooting and nudge it into the shrinking gap between the approaching Trinx fleet and the Zeus if only to reduce some of the soon to be incoming weaponsfire.

When the Dati ships got right up to them and ready to overshoot their little clusters broke again, sending half of them on past even faster than before while braking the other half into range where they could slow down enough on their own and drop into a position between the Star Force ships and the Trinx…but they didn’t sit there and wait to be attacked. Instead they turned and suicidally headed towards the approaching Trinx fleet that, while stretched out in a long line, was numbering over 6,000 vessels already with that count increasing as they continued rounding the edge of the star.

Meanwhile Riley finished off the last of the Trinx ambush force as he cycled his shields again, getting rid of most of the IDF inhibitor save for what was on his hull and finding that most of his gravity drives were restored. He used them to reposition slightly, with the Trinx only 24 seconds away now and him wanting to make use of the few pieces of debris that had been flung out ahead of them.

As he watched, the Dati opened fire on the Trinx but didn’t hold to their head on attack. They swerved wide while firing, lacing the passing ships and daring them to break and chase them. The Trinx returned fire but did not alter course.

In response the Dati slowed and reversed momentum, gradually accelerating to speed to match the breaking Trinx wave and pulling even, at which point they turned hard and cut across the Trinx lines, firing small projectiles into the gaps between the ships that detonated into giant energy nets that draped over several ships at once and held firm for a few seconds until they passed through the Trinx shields and disintegrated when they hit the hull. That disruption flowed in a slow chain reaction throughout the net, resulting in its disappearance a few seconds later.

But the Trinx ships that had been hit no longer were protected by energy shields.

The smaller Dati ships swarmed them, pummeling their hulls relentlessly with as much disdain for the others attacking them as the Trinx were showing for all other ships aside from their primary target. By the time that section of Trinx ships hit the main battle that was growing quickly, the Dati had eliminated 6 vessels with another 4 nearly ready to fall. It wasn’t much compared to the vast numbers in play, but it did extend the survivability of the Zeus for a few more seconds as the leading Chamra vessels finally caught up and decelerated hard to land their high volume, low surface area technological dirt clods of vessels into the Trinx fleet as they tore through the Star Force drones trying to get to the command ship.

The Trinx vessels were of three designs….basic warships, vassal warships, and heavy warships…though some of them had been reconstructed into troop transports without giving any exterior clues as to their purpose. One of those basic warships flew along with the flow of Trinx ships and dove around a massive Chamra interdictor as a few others stopped to engage it for the simple reason that there was nowhere else to go with so many other Trinx vessels blocking their maneuvering possibilities.

The troop transport continued to fly forward, firing at targets when able but not deterring from its course. Other Trinx warships plowed the road for it without being obvious about their intentions, fighting their way through Star Force drones and into the short gap around the command ship that was a free fire area. There the troop transport hit a wall and all but stopped until its engines increased power to push through the energy field that was all but pinning it in place along with several other ships as the Star Force vessel fired on them.

More Trinx vessels made their way in, stressing the field, and suddenly half of them darted forward, completely passing the command ship and flying out of weapons range behind it. The troop ship was still stuck and motoring closer as a warship dipped in front of it and physically rammed a drone that was coming in to block it.

A few meters more and the troop ship was past the energy field and only a kilometer away from the hull as blast of energy hit it and tore a chunk of the ship apart even after the shields absorbed most of the blast. A few seconds later and the prow of the ship hit the Star Force shields that were getting weaker by the second as more and more Trinx ships got through the defense lines while the bulk of the allied fleet was only just now arriving to try and peel them off.

For whatever reason this troop ship survived while many others were blown to bits at pointblank range, lasting long enough for its forward armor plates to blow off and reveal the shield penetrators beneath them. They pressed into the invisible energy barrier and gradually forced a hole to form, barely two meters wide, then slowly they peeled it apart wide enough for the entire ship to slip through.

It never made it to the hull through. A seldom used rail gun battery tipped over as much as it could and fired a slug into the side of the ship, punching a hole through one of the power generators and cutting the power to a third of the ship. Subsequent slugs did additional damage and took the ship out of commission.

A few tractor beams held onto it, latching it in place to be used as a physical block while the shields reformed around all the little gaps it had created, but two Trinx ships behind it fired on their own wrecked vessel and blew it apart enough that another troop ship was able to dive into the gaping hole, bypassing the command ship’s shields surrounding it, and pushing through the wreckage down to the pristine grey hull beneath with the wreckage actually acting as an additional layer of protection for it.

When the forward section of the troop ship got within range it tore through both the remains of the Trinx vessel and the Star Force plates with cutters designed for such a task. Likewise there were other breach points across the giant donut as Trinx ships made their way through and attached like ticks that were slowly burning access points inside. But just as many that got through were pulled off by the ship’s weaponry or the nearby drones that were sometimes making suicide runs to sheer them off when weaponsfire alone wasn’t sufficient.

One Trinx ‘tick’ was sheered clear off by a Sety vessel that got within a few hundred meters of it and fired a beam directly through the nose, subsequently hitting and weakening the command ship’s shields on the other side, but ensuring that this Trinx vessel could deliver no more damage to the Zeus.

But more kept coming in and too many for the command ship to hold out against, for a lot of the incoming Trinx vessels were diverting slightly to intercept and peel off the support so more of the sporadic troop ships could make it to the target.

Eventually one did get through, burning into the hull and breaking through the armored plates just before it was destroyed. With that opening noted, a Dati ship flew in and sat over top of it until several more Trinx ships destroyed it and forced another troop ship into position, docking against the hull and sending a spurt of soldiers down through the breach.

They were all vassals, the robotic Trinx infantry, that began blasting and cutting apart the underside of the armor to make room for more to come in as that troop ship was pried off by a Jonstar ram. The few dozen vassals that were deep enough in the command ship to survive kept digging, tearing out components and shoving them off into space to make room for the next one to fight its way into position.

When it arrived it was able to deliver far more, all of which quickly continued to pry out components and make additional room up until they breached one of the maintenance areas. Atmosphere flew out, pushing several vassals into space while the other ones latched onto broken equipment and held tight until three of them welded themselves into place around the hole and together emitted a containment shield that stopped the atmospheric flow.

After that the others passed through the small opening and got their feet on deck plates, immediately transitioning into combat programming but finding no one nearby, nor would they for more than 20 minutes as they were the in the far exterior of the ship where the crew only went to make repairs or perform maintenance. That gave the vassals free run of the area and they quickly set up a perimeter to allow for more and more troops to enter, eventually with a few Trinx themselves accompanying the robotic troops.

They came in knowing that their minds could become compromised, but that wouldn’t affect the vassals. They were programmed not to take orders from the Trinx with them unless they fell within standard protocols, for there were concerns that the Archons could do more than just freeze their minds. No, they were here to supplement the vassals and do reconnaissance that they could feed to the rest of the fleet, adapting as needed to however the ship’s crew decided to put up a fight.

Destroying this ship was an option, and the backup plan, but their primary objective was to take it and the Chixzon intact…or if the Chixzon couldn’t be captured, at least secure the technology that it was using to control the Hamoriti. Even if it was encoded, given enough time the Trinx would figure it out, and they could keep the Hamoriti suppressed as they had been doing as long as needed up until the time came when they could end this threat and gain their power for themselves.

After so many years of dutiful service, the idea of the latter felt as just compensation for their loyalty to the Ancients’ legacy and the Trinx boarding the command ship and those dying in the ships making such a feat possible were fully committed to that end. Star Force could not be trusted with the Hamoriti, and they would take that control from them one way or another, no matter how many of them had to die in the process.

That was the oath their race had sworn long ago, and they were not about to abandon it now that their fealty had been rewarded with a possible solution to the inevitable doom that they had stubbornly resisted for millennia.

9

Veronica Rith stood in the equipment room along with the other 7 Knights onboard the Zeus. While they liked crewing onboard Star Force’s navy ships and handling the odd jobs required of them, sitting and doing nothing when the ship was in battle was annoying, making the current beating they were taking all but unbearable. They watched a holographic map of the battle taking place around the ship and saw all the damage the hull was taking in addition to the destruction of so many drones and allied ships trying to keep the Trinx off the command ship.

They also saw the breaching ships sucking on the hull like ticks. They didn’t know what they were doing for sure, fearing that they would be sending bombs inside the armor to shred the interior of the ship. The Knights would be safe within the armored core, but the bulk of the ship that allowed it to move and fight would not be. They might live, but they’d be dead in the water and little more than debris waiting for a rescue that might not be coming considering how many enemy ships were pouring in around them.

Then there was also the possibility that the Trinx were going to pound the Zeus until there was nothing left of it, and armored core or not, eventually they’d get through to the crew unless others intervened.

Suddenly each of their HUDs lit up with orders along with an automated message playing. Veronica didn’t have her helmet on, so instead another hologram materialized in front of her eyes with the neck of her armor sending out a tendril that connected up to her left ear.

“Intruder alert. Enemy troops have boarded the ship. Rendezvous at provided waypoints for combat,” the computerized voice said evenly as a position on the edge of the Zeus’ armored core was indicated.

The Knight next to Veronica punched his own hand in anticipation and anger, but none of them said a word as they filed out. All of them were eager to get into the fight, but the fact that the Trinx had boarded their flagship was equally pissing them off.

Commando Sans Brett ducked to a knee behind a chunk of machinery in one of the maintenance wings deep into the outer ring of the command ship as a zap of energy flashed over his head from one of the mechanized infantry that had invaded the ship. The ‘clankers,’ as they’d been labeled by Star Force a few months earlier, had decent armor plating that took a lot of hits to get through, but they were dumb as hell. When they had numbers, however, they were very dangerous and the few commandos with Sans were fighting on the withdrawal after making contact with this group as they pressed their way through the ship while stopping periodically to sabotage equipment.

Sans returned fire with a quick sniping shot from his plasma rifle, then pulled back behind a bulkhead as his shields got cooked. With his eye line momentarily off the attackers, he saw a mass of white armor coming up behind them and got a ping on his battlemap a split second later.

The huge white shield of the Knight was held up in front of him taking hits as the commandos dropped into file behind the blocker and Sans did the same as soon as they passed, grateful for the help. They ran up to the clankers and the Knight punched one with the shield itself as a burn mark became visible in it as the enemy weaponsfire began to eat through.

The tall machine staggered, then a shoulder added to the back side of the shield toppled them both over as the commandos unloaded into the clankers at point blank range.

The Knight released the shield and darted forward, tackling another clanker around the legs and driving it backwards into a side wall. It lowered a hand and shot into the Knight’s shielded back a moment before the oversized Human lifted the machine off its feet and spun it around slowly before a short toss sent it on its head and the Knight’s knee landed in its back. Sans saw the Knight pulled out a weapon and pump a repeated salvo of plasma hits into its back until it burnt through the armor and eventually killed the machine.

Meanwhile he was shooting others and getting quite a few dings in his own armor. A few more shots and he had to fall back, giving himself time to regenerate shields. As he did so a flash of green flew past and his battlemap tagged the blur as an Archon ranger. With him came orders, and Sans pulled back and circled around to the hallway one section over, running to get into position while also giving his shields enough time to snap back into position over his dirty white armor that seemed inconsequential compared to the gleaming Knight.

He had a lot of running to do, for the ship was split up into sections that had a lot of machinery in them and the access ways were limited. Halfway there he came across someone else, not a machine, but an armored individual with two headtails and a black visor over its face. As soon as it saw him it fired a ruby red bolt that hit him in the center of his chest, then it spun around and ran fast as he dodged to the left in anticipation of a second shot.

Sans tagged the intruder on the battlemap then headed back to the flanking maneuver the Archon had indicated.

Veronica sprinted for all she was worth, having dropped her shield long ago and had her weaponry on her back so her arms could swing free and hard. She rounded a corner nearly skidding into the far wall as her right foot lost traction, but an outstretched hand caught and redirected her momentum as she came back within sight of the swaying pair of headtails ahead of her. The Trinx, she assumed, had just gunned down an Archon and ran. She’d taken off after it and nearly lost it twice, for it had a camouflage unit that was damn near a cloaking device.

Ahead the Trinx started to waver like heat waves on a sunny day. Veronica pulled her pistol out and put another shot into him, cancelling the effect and returning him to full visibility. Apparently their stealth suits had a recharge delay and every shot she’d put into it had kept him visible.

The Knight put the pistol back into its slot on her lower back, knowing she wasn’t going to need it but wanted her hands free. The movement cost her a little bit of speed, but some twenty seconds later, running down the incredibly long hall, she caught up to and grabbed one of the headtails with her left hand and yanked…

The Trinx tripped, falling backwards and skidding across the ground as Veronica came down on top of him with her knee and pinned him to the floor, pounding on his armored face with her fists even before the pair had ground to halt. A few more heavy punches and his helmet cracked, with her reaching down to the neck and yanking it off his head. As she did so he got a shot off into her abdomen, but she knocked his gun out of his hand with a simple swat as she pulled out her pistol and put it up against the Trinx’s head.

Two quick shots and he was gone, with the Knight getting to her feet and kicking the corpse once out of frustration before running off to rejoin the others as more and more clankers poured into the ship from access points that the defenders couldn’t fight their way to in order to close off.

Nefron followed a tech as he lead him to the waypoint that the troops were using just outside the armored core where there were other techs and ships’ crew that weren’t needed in the naval battle that were forming a backup line of defense in case the Trinx got all the way to the interior. The Chixzon passed them by, following the faint telepathic signals ahead as he ran towards them. There was a lot of ship to move through that he was unfamiliar with, but it didn’t take long until he came up behind one position that had a handful of commandos and a Knight taking on what looked like a much larger group of the Trinx machines that were trying to push their way to the ship’s interior.

The Chixzon’s eyes glowed green as he growled and ran straight towards them, curiously noting that they didn’t fire on him as he pushed past one commando’s sniping position and went head first into the machines, digging both glowing spike mandibles into the chest of one, then throwing it backwards and knocking down another as he spun around and started punching and stabbing everything in view as a burst of energy hit him.

Most of it absorbed, but he could tell it wasn’t damaging, but rather a stun. Immediately he knew what that meant.

The Trinx didn’t just want this ship, they want him…and they wanted him alive.

With a snarl he pushed further into the machines, digging his glowing spikes through them and melting cuts across their limbs and torsos as more and more of the stuns hit him. He was starting to get wobbly, but they obviously didn’t know of his ability to absorb energy. When he felt like he’d gotten enough he tucked his spikes in against his back and pushed through the thick lines of machines, essentially delivering himself to them as he got some distance away from the Humans fighting behind them.

His right leg gave out as it suddenly got wobbly, then when he hit the deck with his knee he released his built up energy in a cascade of lightning strikes that arced from one machine to another for a few jumps. Half a dozen of them fell to the ground toasty, with a few more smoking with damage but still active. One tried to shoot at him but found its weapon wasn’t working, then Nefron put it out of its simulated misery with a pair of spikes to the chest that he dragged to the right, partially cutting through the dense plates but also pulling the machine to the side enough that it knocked another one down as he used a handhold to give himself the extra leverage needed to topple it.

He pried his spikes out with ease then leapt backwards, jumping over a fallen machine as he retreated before he could take too many stun hits. The machines all followed him and he led them back into a hastily constructed ambush that ended with him staggering and falling to the ground where he blacked out for the last few seconds.

A Knight’s helmet was the next thing he saw when he woke back up, then when his eyes locked on it a massive hand pushed beneath his back and sat him up.

“They have orders to go after you,” Veronica said.

“It appears so,” he said, looking into her helmet. “We can use that.”

“How many more hits can you take?”

“I’m purging the stun already.”

“Good, because we’ve got about 20 seconds. Run or fight?”

“Run. I need a couple minutes at best,” he said, getting to his feet. “Then we can go at them.”

“Watch where you point those things,” she said, gesturing to his spike mandibles as she pulled him up into a run with the commandos forming a protective screen around the Chixzon as the sound of the incoming machines was getting louder coming from around a corner 20 meters further down the hall.

Leaving the Admiral in charge of what weaponry still worked, Riley stepped into his armor that he’d had a crewmember fetch for him during the battle and ran off the bridge, sprinting through the hallways on his way out to the battle within the ship. More and more Trinx reinforcements were getting in, but they were paying a heavy price to do it. For every ship that offloaded ten more were destroyed before they could get into position. Paul had the situation about 8 minutes from turning as he drove several tendrils of ships into a wide grasp around the Zeus and the ships battling within it, and once he did he could cut off most of their reinforcements. Until then the battle raged on at a furious pace with the 7 allied races holding up to the promise and fighting just as savagely as the Trinx were to defend his command ship.

There wasn’t a lot he could do from the bridge now, but there was a lot he could do to keep the Trinx troops from getting to the transmitter and his crew. It wasn’t until he was almost to the fighting did he realize that Nefron was out there as well and he almost cussed the idiot out, but just as quickly canceled that thought. There wasn’t a full ground troops compliment on the ship, only a handful of security and naval Archons that were suiting up and leaving what ship to ship combat remained to the naval regulars.

Nefron could fight, so it was probably a good idea he was throwing in too…unless he got killed, in which case the Uriti was suddenly going to become a huge problem all over again.

Knowing that, he headed for where he was sensing his telepathic presence but ran into an unopposed column of Trinx vassals heading down a hallway towards him. The ViLord didn’t even hesitate as they opened fire, simply letting his shields take a few hits as he sprinted at full speed towards them. When he got within a few meters he summoned up a Jumat blast in his right arm, pooling it around the his armor and building up the charge before releasing it…and tossing half the column back and into the air as if they were toys.

Then he was in their midst, fighting hand to hand with the bigger machines and finding it easier to damage them with brute force than weaponsfire. After a few shots from his rifle he tossed it aside and exclusively went at them with his arms, legs, and psionics. After a few minutes of one sided combat he finished the last pair of vassals by telekinetically ripping their heads off and throwing a point blank Jumat blast down inside one of them and tossing the other into the side wall. When it slumped to the ground an armored elbow drove into a crack in the chest plate and punctured through, with his fist soon to follow and a piñata bloom of shrapnel soon after that.

Riley was expending his energy too fast, he knew, but there was no time to waste. Sucking some ambrosia from his helmet he ran on towards Nefron’s mental signature, hoping that there weren’t many more of these unopposed Trinx assault teams heading for the core of the ship.

Onboard the Excalibur, Paul’s face was covered in sweat as he stood in the nexus overextending himself in order to control as many ship functions as he could throughout the drone fleet while orchestrating the entire battle simultaneously. Riley was in trouble, and couldn’t run so long as the Trinx kept blanketing his ship’s hull with that IDF coating. It was obvious that they wanted to capture it, but Paul had no doubt that destroying it was the backup plan and he needed to end their stranglehold on the perimeter as soon as possible.

That wasn’t easy, given that this was actually a fair fight. The Trinx had brought a ship count in the tens of thousands that Paul hadn’t had the time to tally up or to ask the combat computer to do so for him. More were still coming in from behind the star where they’d been hiding, but it was those immediately around the Zeus that were the concern and those nearly upon them. Paul had to intercept those reinforcements and block them off, but the Trinx were fighting him hard on that and attacking his drones as much as they were trying to blow by them.

He was gaining ground though, but it wasn’t fast enough. Already there ships boarding the Zeus through 16 different breach points in the hull, and no matter how fast Paul’s ships destroyed them more would come in while others would block the firing lines and make him destroy them first before he could get to the boarding ships.

The allies were helping, but they were incredibly disorganized and it was frustrating to Paul, for had he been able to give them orders this situation would have been resolved by now. They fought as individual ships or sometimes units, but they were not coordinated even within their own race. This battle was so large and chaotic that the only thing that was holding together the allies was Paul’s efforts and the precise coordination of the drone fleet. Paul’s people knew how to integrate with his orders and take a lot of the effort off him, but there was so many adjustments to make to compensate for their allies and the actions of the Trinx that Paul was stretching himself beyond his previous limits. He’d never gone this deep in training, nor did he have time to consider why or how or anything else.

Every second was consumed with fighting and had a new enemy showed up behind them he would have been blindsided, for his focus was on the Zeus and everything radiating out beyond it. He couldn’t spare a glance at the star or anywhere else…not when his brother’s life was on the line, not to mention Nefron and the only hope to control the Uriti.

Paul didn’t even have time to mentally curse the Trinx. Everything he had was poured into maneuvering and fighting his ships to aid the Zeus and cover for the chaotic actions of their allies in order to make use of them, and it wasn’t an effort he could keep up forever.

10

Nia-11917 stood in the nexus onboard a Warship-class jumpship overseeing the drones that it had launched in conjunction with Paul’s overall command. He was micromanaging so much that she was filling in on lower level duties wherever she could to assist him but could see that time was running out. Making the decision to override the trailblazer, she relinquished all drones to him and the remote pilots but took direct control over the jumpship and powered down all weapons, channeling as much power as she could into the shields and rammed the Trinx ship ahead.

It was a low level impact, with the much larger jumpship pushing it aside before the forward shields collapsed. Nia then drove the ship into another, and another, and another…battering her way through the blocking ships and doing monstrous damage to the front of the warship. The bloon launcher was destroyed, along with most of the forward weaponry, and crew were being evacuated from the forward regions as she drove the ship on towards the Zeus, sometimes having to avoid allied ships that were getting in the way.

Eventually she got to the command ship, her own taking heavy fire and the crew evacuating to bunkers within the ship as the outer levels got vaporized with numerous weapon strikes. The drones the ship were controlling were diverted to other remote pilots as the massive ship continued to break apart as it flew into position over top the command ship and sunk down against it, crushing two docked Trinx vessels even as chunks of the jumpship flew off as it was now being heavily targeted.

But Nia kept it there, physically blocking a large section of the command ship’s hull with its own and giving Paul a naval pick to work off of without bothering to communicate that to him and distract him further. She knew he’d see what she’d done and make use of it, and if one ship was going to be destroyed better it be the jumpship than the command ship, for it and it alone had the ability to control the Uriti…and it had a trailblazer onboard.

A minute later an explosion broke through to the bridge, a small one, but the crew stayed at their posts knowing that there was no better armed section of the ship to retreat into. They did pull back from the breach point as Nia analyzed the damage within the ship and quickly came up with an escape route to buy them time. She mentally connected to them all and told them to leave via a specific door and travel deeper into the part of the ship that had the least damage while she stayed behind in the nexus.

Some of them resisted, but there was nothing left for them to do here and ultimately they decided to trust her, fleeing the armored cocoon of the bridge as it began to fail and running through less safe corridors that had not yet come under weapon hits.

Nia stayed put and linked to the ship’s systems, guiding them remotely along with the rest of the crew to try and keep them as safe as possible, noticing that within another minute there were four more jumpships doing the same thing and barreling through the enemy fleet. Breaking apart under weapons fire, they clustered around the Zeus, using their dying mass as a shield and crunching the attached docked vessels while blocking the boarding points against further incursions.

It wasn’t typical Star Force strategy, but the Zeus had been caught off guard and the Archons were improvising, which instilled a swell of pride in Nia as she saw the enemy thwarted even as the bridge wall next to her blew out and knocked her aside.

Paul didn’t like what those jumpships were doing, but he was grateful for it. The drones simply didn’t have the mass to force their way through the Trinx ships and the growing debris field, but they did. It was costing them badly, but they’d made it all the way in to the Zeus and they were not going to be easily removed. Even as dead ships they were now blocking attacks or boarding attempts onto Riley’s ship and the only way to get them out of the way was to blast them into oblivion or push them aside.

The Trinx couldn’t get enough ships into position to do either, meaning those jumpships had just succeeded in blocking off most of the incoming troop transports and their escorts from the command ship. With Paul’s vice grip tightening around the area even the Trinx saw that their attempts to capture the ship were going to fail, so they stopped trying to preserve the command ship and fired on every piece of it that was visible through the gaps between the jumpships.

Paul moved as many drones into position as he could, but it wasn’t enough. He just didn’t have them in close enough yet, but the allied fleets did and they physically moved in and took the hits, forming a spherical wall around the Zeus even as the Trinx were shooting them up and ramming some of them to open up holes.

Paul had been in many battles against the lizards that had a greater level of carnage than this, but none of them had ever been focused as intently on a single point as now, making the area around the Zeus so chaotic and destructive that it surpassed any battle he had ever been part of…but after several long minutes the internecine suddenly disappeared.

The weaponsfire between both sides was so intense that when Paul finally cut off most of the Trinx reinforcements, those inside the perimeter died off quite fast and had few left to replace them. That allowed the allied fleet to hammer those that were getting past Paul’s blocking tendrils, at which point the perimeter around the Zeus was temporarily secured and the trailblazer kept maneuvering drones every which way to harden that defense.

The Trinx hammered the outside of his lines trying to get in and did not relent. For hours to come they attacked, regardless of whether it looked like they were going to get to the Zeus, and both they and the allied fleet decimated one another. They tore each other apart with such frenzy and zeal that by the time the last few Trinx ships late getting to the party turned and ran to report back to their leaders what had happened here, there were few allied ships still alive. The Chamra, the Sety, the Dati, the Domu, the Jonstar, the Bpret, and the Breti…their immense fleets that had been tracking the Hamoriti from system to system and keeping its minions contained…were all but destroyed.

Paul relinquished as much responsibility for the fleet as he could, feeling his head hurt with the release as he took in the strategic picture without having to micromanage. The Zeus was buried at the heart of a massive debris field with half destroyed ships floating within it and stranding surviving crews. The few surviving allied ships were disorganized, moving around aimlessly or holding position not knowing what to do. Their command and control, what little of it had survived the chaos of the engagement, had been utterly destroyed.

Most of the Star Force drones were gone. Paul saw that only 8% remained operational and another 2% were responding to control signals but had most of their functionality missing. The jumpships, however, were mostly intact. Some badly damaged, and excluding those that had gone to interpose themselves around the Zeus, their crews were still alive and they still had engine power. The Excalibur was beat up as well, with some 60% of its weaponry offline and big chunks of the hull missing, but it was still combat capable though currently stuck inside a debris field that was going to take some time and some regenerated shields to work its way out through.

Rescue efforts were going to be a nightmare, so Paul laid down the operating rules and communicated that information to all the jumpship captains, then left his Admiral in charge of the overall effort before his head collapsed. Right before he released his link to the nexus he saw the Uriti still sitting where it had been told to, either oblivious to the combat or not caring. It was the reason for this carnage, yet it had been unaffected entirely. Neither side would go near it with their ships, leaving it perfectly pristine, and something about that just felt wrong.

With that final check, Paul disconnected and fell to the ground, cradling his head in his hands and trying to put himself into a regenerative mode with a combination of Sesspik and Haemra. The latter wasn’t all that effective on oneself when you couldn’t concentrate, but he was desperate now that the numbness of the effort was wearing off and the damage was asserting itself. This was beyond brain fried, and he had to trust in his crews, captains, and Archons to deal with the recovery effort and any defensive requirements going forward, because even if he wanted to reconnect he didn’t think he could, with thoughts of this being serious damage whispering in his mind as he pulled inside himself and went as inert as possible, hoping for his healing abilities to start eating into this nuking and pull him back into a semblance of order.

Riley rode a dropship over to one of the dead jumpships holding his damaged ship in place, all the while seeing out through the gaps at what looked like an asteroid field made up of destroyed ships. He couldn’t see stars through them, and the battlemap links were in and out given the line of sight restrictions. That said, he could see the three massive pieces that the jumpship ahead of him had been reduced to, each of which was held onto the others by the barest of structural linkages.

The dropship took him and a pair of Commandos up to the edge of what had used to be a hangar bay and nestled against the inner door. The entire hangar was gone, blown off the ship, so the three of them stepped off the ramp onto bits of floor that remained and floated to the inner hatch, finding a bit of gravity there that sucked them down to the deck.

The three of them worked to get a makeshift shield in place before Riley forced the door, only to find vacuum on the other side. They raced through, searching for the nearest contained area, and having to travel some 60 meters inward through four more closed doors before finding it. With additional atmosphere seals on them and hallway intersections, fresh air was pumped in and connected a pocket of living ship to what had once been the hangar.

From there it didn’t take long before Riley got to the minds he was sensing. They were in groups in different locations, the first of which were in a storage compartment working on opening up portable habitat modules. When Riley got to them he called them off the project and directed them to the waiting dropship as he continued to search the rest of this piece of the ship.

He found another group in an internal bunker, cut off from the living sections due to an atmospheric breach. Four more were in similar difficulties while a handful of others had survived in the areas that still had atmosphere and emergency power. Once he got them all off onto dropships he moved over to the other two pieces of ship and did likewise, evacuating about a third of the crew that had been onboard. The rest had died during or shortly after the fighting.

The survivors were brought back to the Zeus, wrecked as it was, but it was the most intact ship still in the fleet. Even the Excalibur was showing more damage, and the hull breaches in Riley’s command ship had atmospheric seals over top of them thanks to the Trinx, which he had replaced by his own techs with proper patches as one of the first orders of business…and there were many to follow. The battlefield was a disaster with surviving crews on both sides needing to be picked up and Star Force deliberately ignoring the Trinx vessels until all of their own and their allies were searched.

They weren’t going to let some of their own die in order to save those bastards.

That said, Riley had to talk down several of the other races vessels that were going around and toasting what remained of the Trinx. Some were doing so to eliminate lingering threats, for not all of their weaponry was knocked out, but others were just trying to kill their remaining crews or blast apart their ships out of vengeance when they should have been helping in the rescue efforts. Riley quickly got them back into line, for Star Force dominated the count in the survivor category, as well as being the ones who still controlled the Uriti.

And Riley was the only one left, aside from Paul, of the fleet representatives that had been conducting business with one another. All the others had been killed in combat, leaving him with lower ranking ship captains to deal with that badly needed guidance with their chain of command having been eliminated. Most immediately rallied around the Humans, for they were whom they were indebted to protect, with the others falling in line once Riley got what was left of the fleets actively hunting for survivors before any more of them died as their life support systems failed or their injuries bled them out.

Only the Yisv fleet hadn’t been touched, for it hadn’t been in the convoy due to the proximity with the Uriti. Where it was now Riley didn’t know, but they weren’t around to ask for help and the trailblazer needed every jumpship here to use as lifeboats for the survivors, unable to send a messenger out for assistance. Instead he dispatched a drone with a message, sending it on a slow journey from star to star to the nearest invasion zone.

Meanwhile he and the others waited, recovering crews and searching for more survivors while making what repairs they could. There were so many ships out there to search that they didn’t have a moment to spare, all the while knowing that the Trinx might return with more ships given that their worlds were far closer than any of the other 7 races, so sending one of their ships back for help made no sense whatsoever and the small number of ships left guarding Bahamut weren’t worth sending for in exchange for a badly needed recovery ship now.

When Riley slept he did so on a dropship. Eating there as well, while not returning to the Zeus for weeks straight as he searched the remains of the destroyed ships for survivors using his psionics, all of which he brought back to the Zeus or the nearest jumpship, or occasionally one of the largest Jonstar vessels that was partially intact. All the Humans went to Star Force ships, but the other surviving crews were mixed up considerably as people were sent to the nearest safe haven possible while the search teams went back out collecting what they hoped would be more living souls…while having to leave the bodies where they lay.

Riley lost track of the days as they passed, moving from one search mission to another, until he got a signal from a relief fleet made up of six Star Force jumpships that had been dispatched immediately from the invasion of the Karrach System. Their full load of drones immediately deployed and created a perimeter around the massive debris field as well as assisted with pushing operations to clear lanes for ships to move through and about more easily.

The jumpships launched flocks of dropships with more search crews and supplies, aiding in the recovery effort while giving Riley a bit of peace of mind concerning the Trinx showing up again. He’d hoped they’d committed everything they had to that assault, but there was no way to know for sure without having accurate numbers on their military, for which Star Force had none whatsoever, even with estimates given to them by The Nine.

The other major cause for concern was the Uriti, for it was holding position as ordered but no one knew how long it would continue to do so. The transmitter onboard the Zeus had been damaged in the attack, or rather the exterior components, and until they were rebuilt they had no way of contacting it. Leaving it the big wild card in the present situation above and beyond the Trinx.

And the last thing they needed was for it to head over to the debris field for a look at what happened…or to start eating the ships and their tantalizing corovon components.

www.aerkijyr.com

STAR FORCE Wiki

1

September 17, 3255

Andip System (lizard territory)

Stellar Orbit

When the Excalibur came out of its breaking run ahead of Nami, Paul was relieved to see some 284 Star Force jumpships waiting for them. Amongst them was the Sanguine Blade, as well as numerous cargo ships and a half dozen Ma’kri sitting well off the incoming jumpline in the face of Paul’s beaten up command ship and the equally wounded vessels coming in its wake along with a handful of fully operational escorts they’d picked up along the way from other assignments. Within a few seconds Jason’s hologram popped up in the command nexus.

“How are you holding up?” the blonde trailblazer asked.

“We lost a lot of people, and our new allies lost almost all of theirs. Have there been any other Trinx sightings?”

Jason shook his head. “I’ve got scouts out all along your projected path. None have reported so much as a single blip. I hope that means they’re out of ships after the beating you gave them.”

“It was mutual.”

“I assume you still have the Uriti?”

“It’s following us. Riley is bringing up the rear to make sure it doesn’t go AWOL. It did, briefly, after the battle when our transmitter was down. Stayed sitting in place for more than five days, then decided to take a dip in the star and stayed there until we got the leash working again.”

“Where are you with that?”

“We’ve got the original working, but with everything in the fleet busted up we haven’t had a chance to try and build a bigger one.”

“I sent for some parts before I came here. They’re on the way to Alamo and we can call to bring them up the line if you want.”

“Right now I just want to get Nami there. She may be a beast in battle, but she’s definitely a snail when it comes to speed. When the Chixzon planned to conquer the galaxy, they had to know it would take centuries to get from one end to the other.”

“Makes it all the more dramatic to see it coming, be able to take a lot of pictures, and know you can’t stop it when it does get there,” Jason pointed out. “At least the Hadarak aren’t much faster.”

“I’d take a little faster now with ample joy,” Paul said dryly. “Our escorts haven’t wanted to leave and they’re badly in need of supplies. The closest relief they have is the Bahamut site and they don’t want to risk abandoning it to the Trinx so they’re sticking it out with us. They’ve got too many people on too small of ships with all the rescues we pulled off.”

“Did you pick up any Trinx?”

“Not living ones. We couldn’t get to all of our survivors fast enough as it was.”

“I have a bad suggestion to make.”

“Make it,” Paul said, suddenly on guard for more bad news.

“The Neeyvir.”

When Paul frowned Jason pressed further.

“We know they have at least limited contact with The Nexus.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be…you’re right. It’s worth asking at least,” he said, adjusting the comms and calling the ranking commander within what was left of the Sety fleet that now consisted of only 6 ships. It took a while to get a response, long enough that Paul felt there might be a technological problem onboard their ship, but eventually the tree-like visage appeared next to Jason over top the control board in front of him.

“Yes, Archon. What is it that you require?”

“How close a relationship do the Sety have with the Neeyvir?”

“Limited. I only know of them because we were required to familiarize ourselves with this region prior to the Hamoriti assignment. There is diplomatic contact and isolated trade.”

“Trade?” Paul asked, wondering as to that. The Neeyvir were one of several holdout races within lizard territory…meaning that the Sety would have had to pass through it to get to them, or vice versa.

“High end technology is all my information said. Sporadic shipments.”

“My point is, could the Neeyvir be used as a relief port for your ships? Their nearest system is four jumps from here.”

“I’m afraid the only people qualified to answer that question died during the attack. But bringing the Hamoriti into an inhabited system of that caliber would not be wise. They could see it as a prelude to attack.”

“Do they know what a Uriti is?”

“I do not know.”

“Regardless, I wasn’t suggesting to take it there. I meant for your ships to break off from the escort now that we’ve received reinforcements.”

“As long as we are mobile, we will not abandon our duty,” the Sety said firmly.

“The Uriti is moving so slow you can stop by the Neeyvir, get whatever relief they can offer, then catch up to us in short order. We’re months from our destination system. Do you have the logistical longevity to last that long?”

“My ship does not. I do not know about the others.”

“I don’t know if the Neeyvir will assist you or not, but there aren’t many choices right now. We’ve got supplies to share, but all of The Nine have differing repair needs and we do not have a shipyard near here. Unless you want to travel a long ways to one of ours, returning to The Nexus is your only other option. Do you concur?”

“The Yisv may offer another option if we can contact them.”

“They won’t enter the same system a Uriti is in,” Paul reminded him. “Whatever help they can offer will mean you still have to break from the convoy. At this point, now that my reinforcements have arrived, there isn’t much your remaining ships can do to assist in a fight given their current status. Repair and resupply must take priority else the long term security of this mission could be jeopardized.”

“I cannot fault your reasoning, but I cannot guarantee the reaction of the Neeyvir.”

“I will accompany you there. We’re going to run into the Neeyvir eventually anyway, so I might as well make an introduction.”

“Your presence is required to safeguard the control ship,” the Sety said earnestly.

“One of my peers has arrived. He will take over security in my absence. Regardless, my command ship is heading back to a shipyard for repairs. I’ll transfer to one of the newly arrived warships so I can stay in the region while our damaged ships are cycled back. Yours need to do the same.”

“Very well. The Sety will go to the Neeyvir, but I can make no promise as to their willingness to help.”

“I’ll dispatch a courier to the Yisv and inform them of our departure from the convoy. That way they’ll be able to rendezvous there and offer whatever assistance they can.”

“Acceptable.”

“Make preparations to leave after the Uriti exits this system. Inform the others of The Nine of the logistical reality and of the timetable. If they’re not convinced as to its wisdom, tell them to contact me.”

“I will spread the word, Archon. Thank you for your assistance.”

Paul nodded and the hologram cut out, leaving him with Jason.

“You’re leaving the Excalibur?”

“She’s a broken sword right now, but she’s still far faster than Nami. Assuming you’re going to stick around, I want to send all the damaged ships back to start repairs.”

“I’ll take it from here,” Jason promised. “But the Zeus has to stay.”

“I know, but there’s no reason to keep the others here. We’re just well armored target practice right now, sorry to say.”

“Did you have to leave any ships behind that we need to recover?”

“Not whole ones, but there’s a lot of salvage to be done. That’s low priority, but we need at least a Ma’kri on the site to keep scavengers away. There’s a large sample of advanced tech floating out there that I’d rather the lizards didn’t get their hands on.”

Jason raised his eyebrows. “Before we do?”

Paul smiled. “They’re not going to be picking it up anytime soon.”

“I’ll get three Ma’kri there immediately, then send another back to pull a recycling team off the front line. We should be able to get a collection crew there within a handful of months.”

“Good. I’m going to go meet the neighbors and will meet back up with you somewhere along the line.”

“What do you want to do about the Trinx?” Jason asked ominously.

Paul’s eyes hardened. “There’s a reckoning to be had.”

“Obviously. What do you have in mind?”

“Keep them on ice for now. If we go after them it’s going to suck a lot more resources away from the lizard campaign. I don’t want more planets dying because we took our time eradicating those buggers. The Trinx can wait, unless The Nine get to them first. I don’t think they’re going to take this betrayal well.”

“Do you want to coordinate with them on the ass kicking?”

“Possibly. But we need to figure out what to do with the Uriti they’re sitting on first. And to solve that riddle we need to learn to talk to this one and figure out if Nami is as nice as her namesake or the big obtuse hunk of rock she looks like.”

“But bottom line, the Trinx lose their sovereignty?”

“In some form, yes. We’re not tolerating them as neighbors.”

“Agreed,” Jason said as his ship’s sensors picked up the Uriti coming into stellar orbit. “Damn, she’s…small.”

“Small?”

“Compared to the ship I’m sitting in, yeah.”

“Apparently her mind is not. Have a chat with Riley about that and see if you can’t brainstorm a solution I’ve missed.”

“What’s the challenge?”

“Finding a way to make a Uriti pay attention to the ants it can so easily step on.”

“We’re in ships bigger than she is, so it shouldn’t be hard to get noticed.”

“Telepathically it’s a different show. Our ships probably look like rocks to her without the aura.”

“How’s our resident Chixzon doing?”

“Complaining about lack of adequate parts.”

“Should I try building a new transmitter on the Sanguine Blade?”

“Do you have enough resources to spare?”

“Depends what it will take.”

“Then the answer is probably no to the big one, but having a redundancy for the small one is worth tinkering with. Even if you can only half build one, it’ll save precious time if the primary goes offline.”

“Offline?”

“If Riley gets his ship blown up.”

“With Nefron on it?”

“He’s smart enough to get out first,” Paul said deadpan.

“He’d have to build it, I assume. Will he leave the Zeus?”

“If it’s during jump he might. Gets really boring and even if you talk to the Uriti it can’t do much of anything, so he doesn’t need to be there.”

“Nice to have a hobby. How often does Nami need to stop and eat?”

“The hungrier she gets the less likely she is to obey, so we’ve been having her take a dip in the star every 3 stops.”

“No planets?”

“Not yet. The stores she gets from them don’t deplenish very rapidly. It’s mainly her energy reserves that need a boost.”

“Alright. Where’s she headed now?”

“Into a preordered orbit. She’ll get the redirect once the Zeus gets here.”

“Safe range?”

“I’ve been keeping it at 1000 miles minimum.”

“Any sneezes?”

“Not yet. She’s been a good girl so far. Even sat still and watched us while we fought.”

“Good to know she’s not temperamental, now that I’m babysitting for you.”

“Riley is babysitting Nami, you’re babysitting Riley. I hope the Trinx don’t have anything else to throw at us, but I’m not counting on it.”

“I’ll make them pay if they try it. Which ship do you want?”

Paul mentally looked through the list via the nexus in less than a second.

“The Jasper,” he said, selecting one of the Protovic ships in the mixed fleet. It was the oldest model, a Mk.6, but it was still fast enough to carry him around the region while Nami crawled on.

“All yours. But before you transfer over stop by my command ship. There are a few things we need to discuss at length. I assume you’ve got at least a few hours before Nami moves on?”

“That we do. I’ll be right over,” he said, cutting the comm and walking out of the nexus and onto the main bridge.

“Admiral, the ship is yours. You’ll be taking it and the other damaged ships back home for repair. I’ll be staying in the region on the Jasper.” Paul glanced at the ceiling. “Get her fixed up good. I’d like to keep this one if at all possible.”

A day later and Paul watched Nami leave the system with her escort ships, leaving his one spotless warship with the broken fleet that was all that remained of The Nine. He rallied them to a different jumppoint and accelerated away at the best speed the slowest of them could handle, headed for the not too distant territory of a race that had withstood the lizards’ expansion while hanging on to some 27 systems spread out in shotgun fashion. The interconnecting ones had been swallowed up by the lizards, but apparently the Neeyvir went where they liked and hadn’t seriously been endangered by the occupation of the surrounding systems.

Paul had misgivings about that. Turtling up was one thing, but he didn’t care for the idea of sitting it out while watching neighbor after neighbor fall to a civilization that you could have kicked to the curb without even making a full effort. He didn’t know the history of the Neeyvir, but given their not too distant location from Krachnika he assumed the lizards had gotten to them during the second or third major phase of their expansion, which was well before they’d come into conflict with the H’kar.

But then again, not everyone was a warrior. Were these guys sitting out the war because they were snobs or because they were just keeping their heads down and tending to their own? They weren’t isolationists, that much had been determined from the Shanplenix, not to mention their link with The Nexus, but that didn’t mean they also couldn’t have had an agreement with the lizards. Thrawn had never spoke of such a thing, but both he and Paul now knew that the templars kept much from the masterminds.

Paul didn’t think that with the already established diplomatic relations to The Nexus that they’d come under attack upon arrival, but he wasn’t sure what kind of a reception they’d get or what assistance they could offer that would be compatible with what The Nine’s ships needed. At the very least it would be a rendezvous point that the Yisv could access. He was guessing that their vulnerability to the Uriti’s aura was being overhyped, but he didn’t fault them for being cautious. He had a lot more safeguards in place than they did, so it was hard to tell just how fragile their telepathy was without ever having met one in person.

It took some 18 days to reach the Neeyvir system, with them braking in at a respectable distance from the giant white star that held some 9 major planets in its gravitational pull, but they didn’t have to travel to any of those to attract attention, for as soon as they arrived they were met by patrol ships. They were shaped with a helmet-like forward face that trailed off into what looked like tendrils hanging behind it. They had luminous lines across the face and the hull was colored a pale purple, giving the ships an aggressive persona despite the fact that they only massed about that of a cruiser and were no longer than 1200 meters, tendrils included.

Paul used a Sety translation program rather than their own they’d cobbled together from bits and pieces of language references from other races that had had dealings with them in the past, figuring it would be more up to date and professional given their reputation, but he chose to directly address them rather than having the Sety ships do it.

There was only a single Star Force vessel with the fleet, but it was the largest ship and the only one without battle damage. Beyond that, Paul was in command and felt that these other races were his wards after what had transpired, despite the fact that they were just as advanced, perhaps more so in some cases, than the Humans were.

“Attention Neeyvir, I am Archon Paul-024 of Star Force. As you are probably aware, our warfleets are gradually pushing back the Li’vorkrachnika and reclaiming the territory that they have stolen from others. Though we have not reached your borders yet it will happen eventually and we had intended on making contact before that occurred to establish formal relations. The current situation has hastened that necessity, for we and our allies have just survived a massive battle with the Trinx. We were the marginal victors, but the Sety and others do not have any region bases from which to resupply or make repairs and Star Force facilities are also a great distance from here.”

“We have come here asking for aid and a port of harbor so that these ships can begin repairing damage and making arrangements with their far flung civilizations for permanent relief. We do not expect the Trinx to follow us here. The target they sought is moving on and their warfleet has been destroyed. What reserves they have we do not know, and we are not asking for protection against them if they should come. We are only asking for what material aid you can offer, or at the very least the ability to use this system as a waypoint while other allies are rallied to us.”

“While we are here, I would like to have a lengthy conversation concerning the Li’vorkrachnika and the future of this region if you are willing. We will hold to stellar orbit while we await your response.”

2

January 3, 3256

Ashbay System (Occupation Zone)

Stellar Orbit

Jason’s command ship came out of its jump into a clear stellar orbit, finally having made it out of lizard territory. He immediately picked up battlemap signals coming from the few assets that Star Force had in the captured system. There were several warships with drones guarding a single planet where fighting had recently ended and the recycling crews were hard at work picking up all the trash and beginning the process of erasing the lizards’ stench from the world. This was hardly civilization, but it was Star Force territory.

The Trinx hadn’t shown themselves since the big battle, but the convoy had picked up some hitchhikers from at least three other races. They were staying well away from both the Uriti and its defenders, but they were pacing behind the convoy at a respectful distance watching what was going on.

He didn’t know what that meant. Maybe these other races, none of which they could identify, had heard about the spectacle. Paul hadn’t returned yet, and it was unlikely that he’d spread word of it in time for outsiders to get here, so it was curious to Jason how they’d known about the Uriti. Perhaps one or more of The Nine had leaked word of it beyond lizard territory, but none of the ships accompanying them had claimed knowledge of who these new ships belonged to. Jason didn’t know if he believed them or not, for the leak had to have come from somewhere, but it was possible that these ship captains had no idea who these races were while their leaders did.

None of them had responded to comms, but given that they were keeping so far back Jason hadn’t gone after them. If they’d gotten closer he would have, but for the time being getting the Uriti back to Star Force territory was the priority and he’d finally accomplished that. It wasn’t the Uriti’s ultimate destination, they still had a ways to go to get to the Alamo System, but it was time for Jason to get a little more insistent that these trailing ships identify themselves.

As the battlemap signals caught up from the lag Jason saw that there was a much larger fleet on the other side of the star, just having come out of its own jump. It was a Calavari fleet of warships, 19 in total, and Jason assumed they were reinforcements being sent to help them, though at the moment he couldn’t communicate to make sure until the lag bounces made their way across the system and back to get to the other side of the star or one or both fleets moved around to talk to each other directly.

The mass of ships following Jason out of the jump drifted aside to make way for the Uriti that followed 27 minutes later. By that time the Calavari had orbited around into line of sight and they confirmed they were here to add extra security, as well as give a warning. Unidentified ships had been seen passing through the Occupation Zone over the past 2 months, heading in this general direction, but passing in and out of Star Force systems only occasionally. Even within the Occupation Zone there were more uninhabited systems than previously lizard held ones that ships could jump through, and unlike the ADZ, those systems didn’t yet have reconnaissance equipment to keep track of who came and went, meaning there were a lot of ‘dark’ areas ships could pass through.

Meaning they could be right on their doorstep and Jason wouldn’t know it until they were here. The numbers the Calavari intel suggested were low. Individual or pairs of ships only, no fleets. That suggested they weren’t coming to fight, but someone had obviously got the word out and Jason felt that he was about to be the center of attention in a very unwanted way.

“Do you recognize any of these ship profiles?” he asked the floating ball beside him.

“I do not,” the Oracle said, “but their interest in the Hamoriti cannot be coincidence. They must be races that have prior knowledge, possibly dating back to the war.”

“Then why wouldn’t you recognize them?” Jason asked Paul’s parting gift. His fellow trailblazer had made a copy of the Oracle program for himself, then when he was forced to leave the Excalibur had given it to Jason so he’d have an expert on the Uriti with him for those times when the Zeus wasn’t in contact range.

“Developmental changes perhaps. Or it simply could be a fact of attrition. The original races could have been destroyed and their knowledge passed onto others.”

“Possible,” Jason granted. “So what do you speculate these ships would want with the Uriti if they were acting off of knowledge obtained from others?”

“Either to seek control of it or to deny you the same.”

“We haven’t picked up any fleets heading this way yet.”

“Scouts then. To confirm the reports. Do not assume warfleets will not follow.”

“You sound sure of that.”

“My programing indicates that such a response was expected. It was one reason why the Hamoriti had to be kept hidden. Let the galaxy know you hold the weapon at a specific place and they will get illusions of their ability to steal it from you. Keep its location anonymous and they can do no such plotting.”

“So they might be here to make sure we don’t move it where they can’t track it?”

“Most likely.”

“How did the Ancients move them when they were sedated?”

“Moving such a mass when dormant has its challenges, but it essentially comes down to a question of cargo. Moving a conscious one is another matter entirely.”

“Meaning if it was sleeping we could hook it up to a jump cradle and save this long trip.”

“Exactly. The Ancients acquired the Hamoriti after they were sedate. There were still considerations given its latent aura, but they pose no other special requirements. Can I assume you do not have the ability to order it to sleep?”

“I doubt it.”

“And sedation is out of the question?”

“Also true.”

“Then there is no other course of action beyond accepting this slow journey.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

The Oracle twisted its spherical body around to look more squarely at Jason with its one mechanical eye. “You instructed me to state all relevant matters.”

A comm from the recently arrived Zeus interrupted him, with an image of Riley popping up in front of Jason. “I see we picked up some more ships.”

“That we did, along with reports of more unidentified ships heading our way.”

The trailblazer’s hologram frowned. “A lot?”

“A lot of stragglers. None have shown up here yet.”

“There must be some information network in place that we’re unaware of. This is too much common knowledge for such a short span of time.”

“Agreed. Now that we’re back inside our territory, I’m going to lag behind and have a chat with those ships following us. I’ll catch up later.”

“You, or you and the fleet?”

“Just my command ship. The rest, including the Calavari, go ahead of Nami as usual. I’ll leave Brayden in charge.”

“What if they don’t feel like talking?”

“Then we get to see how fast their ships are.”

Riley smiled. “Have fun. We’re blowing through this system, so if you wait here you might be able to intercept them on arrival. If they know our pattern, they’ll know they have to get here quickly to see which jumpline we take out.”

“Good idea. I got the rear. Move along.”

“Moving,” Riley echoed, cutting the comm line.

“You seek a confrontation?” the Oracle asked.

“More like a greeting,” he said, adjusting the commands to the fleet and his bridge with a few thoughts. “But I intend to get a response this time.”

Jason watched the Zeus move around the curve of the star and out of sight as the Sanguine Blade picked up small amount of arrival deflection, the super-accelerated light coming off the star and hitting the approaching ships, picking up their speed and sending it back into the system faster than naturally possible. It was a very small amount, but enough to give him a heads up that they were coming about 20 seconds before they otherwise showed up on sensors.

Or rather the first ship. It was long and spiked with cross bars, a design that Jason had gotten used to seeing in their wake. It came to a halt only 3,281 kilometers away from the command ship, with Jason immediately signaling to it.

“Attention unidentified vessel. You are now within Star Force-controlled territory. Identify yourself.”

It didn’t respond before the second ship arrived, nor when the third got there less than a minute later. Jason didn’t know if that was because they couldn’t understand the message, which he’d transmitted with copies in every known language, or if they were just ignoring him, but none of the ships moved past their braking position. They held at the jumppoint, staring down the command ship, until the third ship finally responded with a text message written in Ancient.

We are monitoring the path of the Hamoriti.

That was something, but it wasn’t an identification.

“Identify yourselves,” Jason repeated, then waited for a response as the first ship suddenly took off.

With a though, the Sanguine Blade went after it. Accelerating for all it was worth around the star at a bad angle but keeping up with the ship as it raced around the curve of the gravity well to get into sight of the convoy just prior to it jumping out. With it now under sensor surveillance as the Uriti approached the outgoing jumppoint with the Zeus trailing behind it, the unidentified ship decelerated and let the command ship catch up to it gently, with Jason coming within 20 kilometers and letting the mass of his ship dwarf the 1300 meter destroyer analog that was apparently content with having identified the outgoing jumpline.

Jason eased the ship closer and closer, with it still not responding to comms as the other two caught up and joined the pair. When Jason got within range he activated the IDF field and pinned the ship in place, cutting off its gravity drives from their source of pull and trapping it within weapons range.

“Identify yourself,” Jason repeated. “You obviously want to know where they’re heading and now you do, but you’re not going anywhere until I get some answers, so start talking.”

But the first ship still sat silent, not opening up so much as a peep of communication as the third ship decided to respond again.

We are watchers sent from afar to monitor the Hamoriti.

“Who specifically?”

There was a short delay, but a response was forthcoming.

We are commissioned.

“By whom?”

A distant consortium that wishes to remain anonymous. We are tasked with data collection. We intend nothing more than passage through your territory to see where the Hamoriti goes and what it does.

“What is your origination point?”

A map in the form of the Ancients measurements popped up with an area indicated in the Orion arm anti-spinward and opposite the border with the Preema…except that the location specified was some 14,000 lightyears away and well beyond the region Star Force had explored to date.

“How did you get here so quickly? How were you informed of the Hamoriti’s movement?”

It has been under watch for some time. When your ability to control it was witnessed, word was sent out to many. The other two ships here are not with us. We watch passively and do not interfere with one another.

“I have been told more ships are heading this way. Are they also watchers?”

Many will come to verify the stories.

“And after they see that it is true?”

Unknown. We were tasked with data collection. We do not know the plans of those who employ us.

“And what will you do if I do not allow you to proceed further into Star Force territory?”

We mean no offense, but you do not have the ability to stop ships on the periphery. We did not expect you to be at the jumppoint when we arrived. Next time we will make accommodations so you will not make contact again.

“I have no issue with you passing through our territory so long as you do not interfere with anything or anyone in them, but there may come a time when we prevent you from going any further. Do you speak for the other two ships?”

We agree to only observe. We do not speak for the other ships.

“Do you know why they have been silent?”

We cannot speak for them.

“Identify yourselves so that we can log your ship profile into our systems.”

We are the Neshmiraken. An independent organization unaffiliated with any system or race.

“So noted. You have permission to proceed and watch from afar until otherwise stated. Do you know the identity of the other two vessels?”

One is the Scmat Confederation. The other is the Partrel.

“Do they also know the Ancient language?”

They do.

“Thank you. Is there anything else you would like to inquire about?”

Can you truly control the Hamoriti?

“We can direct it. The limits of that direction are not being tested at present, but we have succeeded in stopping its rampages.”

Be warned. Such knowledge will bring many others to you. For good or ill. We will proceed in the shadows from here on.

“Thanks for the warning,” Jason said, already getting that feeling but having it sink in even deeper as these newcomers confirmed it. He attempted to contact the other two ships again with no response. The pinned one stayed where he had it in its grasp, but the other was parked nearby and didn’t move of its own choice until the Uriti jumped out. When the Zeus followed, the ship zipped off at high speed along with the Neshmiraken.

Oddly enough, the trapped vessel began moving too. Not nearly as fast, but it motored away from the Sanguine Blade then made a microjump out of range as soon as it passed through the boundary of the IDF, leaving Jason’s jaw hanging open.

“Son of a bitch,” he said, reviewing sensor scans as he moved the command ship to follow them to the jumppoint. It didn’t take long to narrow down the possibilities, but in the end he didn’t have a confirmed answer, though his gut told him enough. These guys had a secondary engine system, and he was all but sure it was a mag drive.

Magnetic propulsion was extremely erratic for making jumps, which was why The Nexus had to build gigantic artificial emitters to provide a stable platform to jump off of rather than the unpredictable magnetic fields of a star…but one could use those fields in a low power setting to move around orbit where pinpoint accuracy wasn’t needed. The IDF field was designed to screen gravity, but it didn’t stop incoming objects nor did it interfere with magnetic fields. These guys had just sat inside Jason’s trap knowing it couldn’t hold them, then jetting off as soon as they felt like it.

That told him one thing…these guys were here on business and they didn’t feel like taking orders from someone as weak as Star Force tech apparently was compared to theirs. Maybe they didn’t have full knowledge of what his ship could do, for he could have had a magnetic drive put into the Sanguine Blade if he wished, but there was no reason to do so in place of the…

Suddenly he wondered if there was another reason they would have two different engine systems. Having a thrust based backup was understandable, and a lot of older Star Force ships still had emergency thrusters to make small course changes if the gravity drives went down, but his command ship was so big and fat that the thrust required to move it around even a little bit would have required an enormous amount of fuel that just didn’t make economical sense.

Now, a mag drive was another matter entirely, but so long as your gravity drives was functioning why have an alternate that had far less range of operation? It could only work in the presence of magnetic fields, meaning some planets wouldn’t provide propulsion and the workable band around a star was very narrow compared to the feasible grav jump range.

One answer would be that there were other transit systems out there similar to what The Nexus had built and these ships could utilize them on their own without having to hitch a ride on a jumpship. But the thought that there might be something else, another reason he wasn’t aware of, scared him even more. Maybe some enemy used IDF as a weapon and these ships had been built to counter it? Or maybe they had some form of propulsion that was unlike anything he’d read about in the V’kit’no’sat database…thought to be fair, he hadn’t exactly memorized the whole thing.

A chill ran down his spine with the knowledge that whoever had been watching the Uriti, whether it be one of The Nine that had informed others or some hidden watcher, had sent word out to a lot of extremely advanced races across at least this portion of the galaxy that had the engine power to get here this quickly. A tech level of that height meant equal to or superior to Star Force’s current level of technology.

And that meant something big was going to go down. They probably had some time, hopefully enough to get Nami to Alamo, but whatever it was that these other races wanted with the Hamoriti was going to come to a head. Hopefully it wouldn’t mean another fight, but Star Force was going to have to get ready for this, no matter what happened.

To that end Jason entered the jump for the destination system at full speed, accelerating up as fast as his ship could go within the system then drifting off the jumpline to pass by the convoy and the Uriti while sending Riley a message as he passed telling him what was going down and that Jason was racing back to the ADZ to rally the troops and inform Davis…

3

May 19, 3256

Alamo System

Stellar Orbit

Paul’s warship came out of the deceleration jump along with the rest of the escort fleet that he’d rejoined previously, seeing that there were far more Star Force ships waiting for them around the smaller of the two stars in the binary system than were arriving. That gave him a sense of relief, not to mention the pair of Voku conglomerates holding a slightly higher orbit nearby, and when the signal lag finally caught up he discovered that Avery-040 was also insystem, but no Jason.

Before his fellow trailblazer could contact him, he got a signal from one of the Voku conglomerates which resulted in an image of Cal-com appearing over the nexus control board.

“You arrive at last. Is the Uriti trailing you?”

“It is. We have the control ship and a few others trailing it to make sure it doesn’t go somewhere else.”

“Has that been an issue?”

“Not yet, no. But as you’ll see soon enough, we’ve got 8 ships following us at a distance that are unknown to me. A few have identified themselves, and all seem to be from very far away. Watchers monitoring the Uriti. I get the feeling many more are going to be coming, and perhaps to do more than just watch.”

Cal-com nodded gravely. “It was wise you sought my assistance. I have other assets in the immediate area on assignments. I will recall them here immediately. How far behind does the Uriti trail?”

“About 28 minutes back. I’d recommend keeping a safe distance at all times. We’ve had no incidents, but we haven’t approached it too close either.”

“I understand. I am eager to set eyes on this beast. If others are the same, then we must establish a policy for this system.”

“Keeping the watchers out is going to be difficult, so I’m going to let them pass through and look if they want. If they do more than that we’ll have to act. Be warned, their tech level is extremely high. Possibly even beyond yours or mine.”

“That is disturbing. How long have they been observing?”

“I would guess some time since this Uriti broke free of its containment. There hasn’t been enough time for word of our actions to spread unless someone already watching took notice.”

“Logical. What are your immediately plans?”

“We’re going to tell Nami to take a dip in one of the stars and recharge, then we’re going to keep her here surrounded by warships as we try and find a way to talk to her. So far all we know is that we need a bigger transmitter. We’d started building one before the attack and haven’t had time to begin fabrication on another with the damage to the Zeus eating up available resources for repair. Even then, we’re going to need some specialized components that we can’t easily make in the field.”

“Do you require assistance?”

“We’re keeping the Chixzon tech a closely guarded secret, my friend. I would guess that may be the reason why we’re getting so many prying eyes.”

“They would have to know of it.”

“I don’t know how much word has leaked out through The Nine. I’m simply preparing for more trouble.”

“My condolences on your losses. I reviewed the battle. Your forces fought remarkably well to deny the Trinx the claim or destruction of your key vessel.”

“It never should have happened in the first place. The Trinx were supposed to safeguard the Uriti while looking for a solution to the containment problem, not try and destroy that solution when it presented itself.”

“They fear your control of the beast.”

“And I’m assuming others will as well. Jason went back to the ADZ to get more reinforcements.”

“What of the other Uriti still imprisoned?”

“The newest site is weak, but without our ability to issue the Uriti orders there is no rational reason to try and release it. Others may claim it in order to blackmail us against their release of it, so we have to help The Nine secure it.”

“Shall I send a conglomerate there now?”

Paul shook his head. “This is the danger zone, and I’d prefer having as many of your troops here as possible. There should already be a defense fleet there, but if we get into long term strategic maneuvering on the part of these shadow observers we may need to fortify that system.”

“I understand. You will not be bringing it here?”

“That’s option number 2.”

“Preferred?”

“Depends whether or not we can talk to them and come to terms.”

“I also have a message for you from the Preema. They want to discuss recent events and have a ship nearby. They did not want to be waiting here when you arrived.”

“Did they say why?”

“They wanted a quiet conversation. Beyond that they would not say anything, nor would they send a ship directly to you.”

“Did they want us to come to them?”

“No. I believe they are being overly formal and do not want to intrude where not welcome.”

“I do wish to speak with them. Tell them to come here and I will hear them out.”

“I’ll send a messenger immediately. As for the favor you requested, that message was also sent.”

“Thank you. Now, tell me if any of these ship profiles are familiar,” Paul said, sending him files on the ships that had been trailing them.

Cal-com took his time analyzing them, but in the end he only could identify one.

“The Corbrini. We have diplomatic contact with them, at the most basic level. They are truly distant from here. I am surprised they would…” he cut off as the Uriti slowed to a halt at the jumppoint.

“Little thing, isn’t it?” Paul scoffed.

“Perhaps,” the Voku offered, his tone indicating that he was thoroughly impressed. “But to see a being that can travel the stars without need of a ship is a rarity in this galaxy.”

“Not so much if you head further into the core.”

“Where is it going?”

“To a holding orbit designated prior to the jump. It’ll wait there until the control ship arrives and gives it orders.”

“We are detecting strong telepathic emissions.”

“Yes. Are they a problem for you?”

“Not at these levels, but our equipment is designed to detect them should they become perilous.”

“Some other threat out there I should know about?”

“A few,” Cal-com admitted. “Have you had issue with the Uriti’s aura?”

“Only at extreme close range. Riley tested it and got quite the headache, but he was able to touch another one as it slept. The aura amps up considerably when they’re awake.”

“And you said there are many such Uriti imprisoned across the galaxy?”

“We think so. We know of only a handful at the moment, and have personally laid eyes upon only the two.”

“Combat capability?”

“If we are close enough it could destroy every ship present here, but for a starship it’s dead slow and not a threat if you keep on your toes. A planet, however…”

“An impressive weapon indeed. Where would you like our ships positioned?”

“Somewhere they can be seen and close enough to respond to trouble if it arises.”

The Voku nodded. “If distant empires have been monitoring this Uriti from afar, they will undoubtable come here when they realize it is the final destination point. We have much to prepare for, my friend. This is…

I must speak with you privately, a voice pounded inside Paul’s head so hard that he couldn’t even hear Cal-com. He squinted and the Voku stopped speaking, sensing something was wrong. The Archon held up a wait finger as he tried to trace the telepathic presence.

Zak’de’ron? Paul asked back along the still active tendril.

Yes, we are here. Hidden. We must remain so, but it is imperative that we speak.

Where and how?

Open your main hangar.

Paul raised an eyebrow. Your stealth tech must be very good if you’re that close by.

We will remain hidden until you close the doors behind us. Our mental proximity you will be able to trace.

I understand. 20 minutes?

Satisfactory.

The presence in his mind disappeared and he blinked away the pressure he’d felt, now very glad he had an Ikrid block in place.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he told Cal-com. “Your boss is here and wants to speak privately.”

He saw the Voku flinch, but no other reaction followed. “I will be available when you wish to speak again, via com or in person, whichever you choose,” he said, cutting off the signal so the Human could attend to the summons.

Paul walked out of the nexus and onto the bridge, catching the Captain’s eye.

“Clear and evacuate the main hangar in the next 15 minutes, then open the outer doors. We have a hidden ship coming onboard. When I give the signal close them again and wait for further orders. Keep everyone else away from the hangar.”

The Captain snapped her fingers and her bridge offers got to work executing his order. “Trouble?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said honestly.

“And you can’t tell me who it is that’s coming onboard?”

“Dragons,” he said simply, walking away as her eyes widened.

Paul stood at the back of the hangar, which had been cleared of ships and cargo by pushing them over to the side and leaving the entry point in front of the massive bay doors clear as he waited and felt outward with his telepathy. It was past 20 minutes by a hair, but he didn’t sense anything coming as a shimmer crossed through the containment shield and the complex light that was coming from the floor, walls, and ceiling got bent in ways it wasn’t meant to.

Still he could feel nothing, then when the mass landed just inside the entrance a powerful mind manifested itself, making it clear to Paul that it could decide when and where it was felt. He had the same ability as well, Kgat, though he couldn’t be sure if the Dragons had it or if the ship itself was built to conceal their ability.

“Close the doors,” Paul said into his comm, then turned it off as he waited for the armor plates to slide over the starfield and have their image wrinkled through the ship’s camouflage. It was reassuring that not even the Zak’de’ron could produce a fully functional cloaking device, though for mimicking starlight it would do more than adequately, meaning that if it also absorbed all sensor signals like the Ma’kri did, there was almost no way to detect it moving through space.

Passing through atmosphere or a nebula was another matter, but with this configuration you could snoop around just about wherever you wanted if you were careful, and they’d successfully gotten up within telepathic range without Star Force’s sensors even picking up a blip of signal.

When the doors fully closed the camouflage faded away, revealing a compact, but rippling hull full of undulations and ornate markings. It looked more or less like a turbine hat, with no visible weapons or other equipment that had to have been concealed beneath armor plates. Given the transformable tech that V’kit’no’sat had, he didn’t imagine it was difficult to sculpt a hull such as this to conceal whatever you liked beneath layers of protection.

Yet one more area Star Force had to catch up to them in, navally speaking.

As he watched, part of the hull melted away and turned into a ramp from which a red dragon walked out, followed by a yellow one of about equal size, barely larger than a horse but with a much longer tail and its wings tucked in at its sides so you almost didn’t know they were there. Following them came a much larger one the size of a house and colored deep grey, with Paul fairly sure this was the same one he’d seen before on Earth.

“Cu sen’a dench mit harmen asc,” the big one said, speaking in V’kit’no’sat. “What you have brought here is immensely dangerous.”

“I assume you were not previously aware of their existence,” Paul replied in kind as the two smaller dragons walked around to flank him on either side. He gave the red one on his right a glance, then looked back up at the big one in front of him as it sat on its hind legs with its tail looped around on the floor in a somewhat odd position, making it look far less intimidating than normal.

“We were not, but these Chixzon your message spoke of explain several unanswered questions in our history. We have never known of anyone to coopt a Hadarak, nor to rework their biology to their advantage. The one here is small, but it is immensely dangerous even without the upgrades you detailed.”

“I’m well aware. What do you know of the races it is drawing to it?”

“Little. Our presence in the galaxy is still small. There is much happening that we are unaware of, and the entire history of these Uriti is beyond our knowledge. Where is this Chixzon you spoke of?”

“On the control ship. His loyal is not in question.”

“How were you able to override the genetic rewriting?”

“We helped him break free from within.”

“Then his loyalty should be in question.”

Paul shook his head. “He can’t shield his thoughts from us. We’re certain that he is the original and not the upgrade…though he’s chosen to maintain his current state to give us the knowledge and capabilities of the Chixzon.”

“A perilous link if you are unable to produce more loyal Chixzon…or have you found a way to circumvent their control restrictions?”

“Working on it, but through a different route. Have you or the V’kit’no’sat ever tried to talk to the Hadarak?”

“Their instinctual drive is too strong to overcome. They ignore all communication.”

“But an attempt was made?”

“To further study them, yes. A failed attempt.”

“What size of a transmitter did you use?”

The Dragon looked at him oddly. “You seek a different path and inquire as to our past efforts to validate something that was not tried.”

“Pretty much. The telepathic signals from the Chixzon have to be amplified and produced in a very specific way for the Uriti to take notice. All other forms are ignored. But the Uriti can talk to each other, and there is evidence that they can call to one another over great distances. We speculate that it may simply be a matter of making our telepathic voice strong enough to mimic another Uriti before it will take notice of us. So I am asking, did you ever produce a telepathic aura of a size comparable to a Hadarak?”

“I am uncertain. My knowledge of such things is limited. A check through our database may yield the results you seek, but I do know that no success was had in attempted communication or any form of negotiation. The Hadarak expand relentlessly and without pause unless restricted.”

“About that. Why didn’t they consume the galaxy before you were there to stop them? The Chixzon knew of them and kept clear of the inner galaxy. It seemed they rarely came further out. When you say they expand relentlessly, I think there should be a qualifier there.”

“It is true that they do not seek to expand to every system. They choose those that have deeper gravity to spawn within, but they can consume any that have the resources they need.”

“If they only spawn in the core, why can they not spread across the entire galaxy? If there was nothing keeping them in check before, are there not patterns to their expansion?”

“Such things have been asked before, though we did not have a historical record as far back as these Chixzon date. Perhaps it was wrongly assumed that they had spread as far as they had been able when they were holding to a pattern of some making…though it is confirmed that they were expanding. Perhaps a cyclical event or another factor was involved. Regardless, they do not hold to any boundaries that we or the traitors have detected. I have seen nothing to suggest otherwise in recent years.”

“How often do they travel alone?”

“Rarely. Why there was an isolated one for the Chixzon to capture is beyond my knowledge. They travel in packs and are very difficult to kill because they assist one another. That is not an issue here with this single Uriti, but the minions it can produce are. I would not recommend experimenting with them, even if this Chixzon claims to be able to give them commands.”

“He tells me the original minions were people. Is that true?”

“How do you define people?”

“Did they have a will of their own?”

“They are more than biological machines, but the distinction is small. They serve and obey the Hadarak from more than choice. It is bred into them.”

“The Chixzon claim they stripped them of this, utilizing only their bodies and minds and preventing any true reproduction. They altered the minions from people into biological machines so there could be no chance of disobedience.”

“What other alterations did they make?”

“Many, to both the Uriti and the minions. Each is unique, both a production model and a prototype. More recent versions are more advanced and better able to control. I’m told the same is true of the minions they produce, though the control aspect is always present with them.”

“We can kill this one if you bring it to an isolated system,” the Dragon offered, “but we cannot do it here. Such a battle would be difficult, and it could not be concealed. There are too many eyes here.”

“There is another way to kill them, but that is not our aim,” Paul said, sensing a flinch in the smaller Dragons. “We wish to free them.”

4

“Explain carefully what you mean,” the Dragon said icily.

“I mean we’re not going to kill them unless needed,” Paul replied in kind, looking up at the big Zak’de’ron and ignoring the smaller ones. “They’ve been slaves since they were born. We’re going to see if we can salvage them.”

“You intend to turn them into weapons of your own use.”

“If you could find a way for us to do that consistent with our battle practices, please point it out,” Paul said sarcastically.

“Do not quibble with me, little Zen’zat.”

“Archon. I’m not a Zen’zat.”

“It is your legacy that you have inherited and made use of to build your feeble empire.”

“Zen’zat serve the V’kit’no’sat and are not allowed to reproduce. We are illegitimate offspring to them and must be destroyed. Do not confuse us with those savages. If they come here we will be fighting the Zen’zat. I am an Archon. You were once V’kit’no’sat. Do wish to still be called as such?”

The large Dragon reared back slightly, but it was only him adjusting his seated position.

“You have developed considerably since the last time we met, little one. Sadly, it will not be enough to save you if they do discover your existence.”

“Further than you know. Why the dreams?”

Paul saw the barest of twitches in the big one, and with his Pefbar he could see neither of the small ones reacted to him, but they both noticed their elder’s reaction.

“What dreams do you speak of?”

“The ones that give us access to the fourth tier of psionics.”

This time he hissed, not in anger but surprise. “What has transpired?”

“One of my brethren has pierced the barrier and attained Choratrik. From the records we have, no Zen’zat has ever achieved this, nor do the V’kit’no’sat even know it exists. You gave Kara a Vorch’nas, including in it extensive information that has aided us greatly. You seem to have been helping us, but I think you’ve been testing us. Seeing what we could achieve on our own. Based off the V’kit’no’sat knowledge we have, we’re leveling up far faster than Zen’zat typically do and we’ve attained psionics they have not. Also, did you know we’ve found a way to share abilities?”

The Dragon’s head, attached to a snake-like neck, dipped lower so it could look closer at Paul, with its skull nearly being the size of his body.

“It seems a discussion on that matter is long overdue.”

“Indeed. First off,” Paul said, looking at the red Dragon. “Why are you two here when he is doing all the talking?”

“To observe,” it said simply in an altogether different tone of voice.

“You were born after me, correct? From one of the eggs discovered in stasis?”

“I was.”

“Then I am senior,” he said, turning back to the big Dragon, “to all but you.”

“Is this arrogance or ignorance?” the yellow Dragon said evenly.

“Both I believe,” the large one said, “but with a touch of wisdom. How many psionics do you possess, little Archon.”

“8 tier 1, 23 tier 2, 4 tier 3, and 16 battlemeld. Has that ever been achieved by the Zen’zat?”

The Dragon’s nostrils flared as he remained silent for a moment. “Not by V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat. Which tier 3s do you possess?”

“Jumat, Sav, Kex, and Ubven. All Archons of my level possess the same.”

“How have you accomplished this sharing?”

“We stumbled upon it by accident and tailored it to our use. Once one of us attains an ability, we can sync with another to trigger their ascension.”

“The V’kit’no’sat never discovered the battlemeld, yet you have. I am unsure what to make of this.”

“We train harder than them, and we also give orders rather than taking them.”

“Both points of merit, but I need to analyze you further. Will you allow me access to your mind?”

Paul turned to the yellow Dragon. “If it’s a two way street, I’ll allow him and you can share his point of view via your own battlemeld, assuming you didn’t give us something you did not possess.”

“If I wished to take the knowledge from you by force you could not stop me, Archon. There is no subterfuge here.”

“Never the less, I will allow him. Your power level is beyond mine.”

“So is his, as you are about to see.”

The yellow dragon walked forward and Paul held up his bare hand. The Zak’de’ron pushed its head into his palm making flesh to flesh contact and bypassing Paul’s Ikrid block.

Suddenly the Dragon’s mind was inside his own, a huge, powerful presence far larger than his fellow Humans’ but not as advanced. Paul was so used to having Jason inside his head that he could adequately size up the Zak’de’ron and spot the areas where it was the inferior, but in so many base ways it completely outclassed him that he was truly surprised.

There was no pushing or pulling involved, no contention, just an exploration of one another with Paul seeing most of its memories aside from specific portions that were blocked. He too was shielding some areas regarding their technology, codes, hidden worlds, and was ready to break the connection the moment an intervention occurred, but none was to come.

He could only feel the yellow Dragon’s mind, but he knew the others were also seeing through its perception. But more than its mind, Paul could also feel inside its body and recognized several psionic tissues similar to his own. It had Jumat, he was sure of it, and he suspected several other things, including ones that either the Archons hadn’t unlocked yet or special psionics that had not been given to the Zen’zat.

He was getting a wealth of knowledge just by being able to look around inside the Dragon’s body and memories, and he knew they were getting the same in return. The sharing occurred for more time than Paul could recount, then the Dragon withdrew its mind, shortly followed by breaking connection with his hand as it stepped back to a flanking position with a renewed respect existing between them both.

“You have done well, Archon. Though you are still physically weak compared to many Zen’zat, few have achieved as much as you have. It would not save you if you fought them, but if you continue on your present course you will outstrip them given time. In fact I can accurately say that your pace and intensity of training are giving you an enormous advantage over the Zen’zat, but their longevity is something that you will not quickly claim.”

“I know.”

“The dreams are meant to be a final test to determine if one is intelligent enough to be granted the highest powers. You cannot share Choratrik, do you know why?”

“I’m guessing the trigger is structured differently.”

“It is. It requires a mental alignment that cannot exist passively, therefore your twin link cannot replicate it unless you are so linked during a dream when it occurs, and such connection is deliberately blocked. You will never be able to share those abilities.”

“Have your Zen’zat ever achieved them?”

“A rare few.”

“Have the V’kit’no’sat discovered them in the Zen’zat genetic code? Surely they had to observe your Zen’zat using additional abilities during combat?”

“What knowledge we have of their current state suggests otherwise. They most likely assume it is coding that we gave them in addition rather than weaving it into the original lot.”

“Why did they not want the Zen’zat so equipped?”

“Arrogance is their lifeblood. They deem the Ter’nat inferior, and are right to do so on the whole, but they do not wish to accept that once upgraded, certain individuals can excel to levels of peerdom. They acknowledge the usefulness of Zen’zat while at the same time demeaning them. They did not want to give them equal or greater powers, and only relented knowing that they could not pass them on to offspring and that their power would be limited by the size of their bodies. We have no fear of you, so there was no reason not to give you the potential. If you prove unworthy it would simply lie dormant inside. You and your fellow Archons are beginning to prove yourselves worthy, even if you are not doing it via the path we originally outlined.”

Paul sighed, accepting the compliment but knowing that it meant little if the V’kit’no’sat ever returned. “How close are we to being exposed?”

“The border lies far from here, but all it will take is one whiff of your existence to bring them down upon you, and the same is true of us. I hope you understand the enormity of the trust we are instilling in you simply by coming here.”

“You also don’t have a choice since you can’t wipe our minds…short of killing us all.”

“While that may have been true in the past, you may accept it as a measure of respect now.”

“Likewise.”

“These Chixzon you have revealed to us are dangerous, far more so than I would have imagined. The ability to manipulate the Hadarak to their advantage is not something we had thought to be possible. Their level of genetics must be considerable, but I warn you not to mess with your own coding. We have put failsafes in to prevent most tampering, and only one intricately skilled would be able to alter them. If you pursue the tier 4 abilities, you must do it naturally. The Chixzon may in fact be our peers in genetics, but they operate in an entirely different manner. Our skills do not overlap sufficient for them to rework you, so for your sake do not attempt it.”

“Failsafe as in defense, or self-destruction?”

“Defense, and if obvious avenues are taken you will most likely upset a delicate balance, and in so doing damage yourselves. We did not put any damaging code in place. Such things are the product of inferior minds, and I suspect the Chixzon fall into this category. They created some sort of a kill code for these altered Hadarak, I presume?”

“They did,” Paul confirmed, having held back that piece of information previously.

“You would be wise to use it. What do you seek to gain here?”

“I have asked you here to seek your counsel and knowledge of the Hadarak. We know much from the Chixzon, but as you said their knowledge lies along different pathways, and with regards to the Hadarak may be outdated. Their plans to dominate the galaxy failed because of a singular weakness…the sedative that was discovered. Without it they would have achieved their goals. We need to understand these Uriti and what they are capable of, and the database that we have on Earth only goes into so much depth.”

“It is a redundant core and not meant to maintain the most delicate of files. I have personal knowledge of the Hadarak and I will tell you never to attempt contact with one. They are a plague on this galaxy and must be treated as such, else you will face immediate death.”

“Speed?”

“They can be outrun if wisely pursued, but they have countermeasures that can trap the unscrupulous navigators, most notably their minion swarms. When they flood the space around them, they are all but impossible to approach and ranged weapons will only do limited damage. Their bodies are made to take damage rather than deflect it. One must penetrate the outer layers if there is any hope to fatally wound one, but when they act in concert they exhibit additional abilities that make sustained fire almost impossible to achieve.”

“The Chixzon added weaponry to the Uriti. If I share information with you from the Chixzon, can you advise on the alterations and detail as intricate an analysis as possible. I truly do not know how we are going to proceed from this point on, but our first priority is to establish communication if at all possible outside the Chixzon route. Beyond that, we will pursue other options so long as we can keep this one contained here so that it is not a threat to other star systems.”

“Most likely futile, but given that I do not know the full extent of their alterations there may be a hope of merit in your ambitions. I will agree to the data sharing.”

“Beyond that there is a favor I must ask, and one that I believe is in our mutual self-interest. The Chixzon claim to have seeded the galaxy with the race that contains their legacy. We are searching this region and have found many such colonies, but there are bound to be far more beyond our borders. The alliance that has safeguarded the Uriti has agreed in principle to hunting for more of these colonies in order to inoculate them with a genetic alteration that we have devised that will strip the dangerous coding out of them…not rendering it dormant, but completely removing it and thus ensuring the Chixzon cannot return in the future through them.”

“And you wish us to look for more of this unspecified race?”

“And to inoculate them, yes. I know that certain races, given that knowledge, would hunt them down and destroy them to prevent the Chixzon return, but this is far more efficient a solution and does not involve mass murder. If we give you the inoculation, will you spread it to any and all colonies that you find?”

“You have yet to identify the race.”

“They are the Protovic.”

The Dragon huffed once. “Such a clever disguise. A pathetic, yet somewhat resilient race to hide themselves within. Their timeline, if it has not been altered by factors unseen to them, is incredibly ambitious. What has this Chixzon suggested that his peers would do if they returned?”

“Lay low and look for a means to conquer the galaxy where the Uriti failed, but if they could find some way to eliminate the weakness in them that they would seek them out or perhaps another Hadarak from which to make more. He is convinced that they would not make the same fatal mistake a second time, thus they would not reveal themselves until they were all but assured of victory.”

“From your memories, you have stated that their telepathy is inferior to your own?”

“Structurally yes, but he is also extremely young.”

“None the less, it is curious how their development has occurred differently than ours. I had assumed such things were more or less automatic with regards to genetics. Apparently that is not so, for they have exceeded us with the Hadarak while failing to even produce adequate results in other areas. Such things may not be apparent to you, but they are obvious to me from your memories.”

“You have attempted to reengineer the Hadarak?”

“We have attempted all things considered and found no way to defeat them other than through continual warfare and attrition. Their sanctuaries in the deep core cannot be reached, thus there is no way known to permanently eradicate them even if we were to mount an enormous crusade to kill all those who come forth. An equilibrium was thus maintained, and is currently done so with a thin region ceded to them that was not previously. This denotes that the V’kit’no’sat are not as strong as they once were and I believe it is partly because we are no longer bolstering them, but also due to the Rit’ko’sor rebellion.”

“What happened to them?”

“Unknown. We cannot gather much intel from the core, but what we have thus far indicates that they have been wiped from all records and therefore have not been reassimilated.”

“Annihilated?”

“Possibly, but regardless of their ultimate fate they seem to have hurt the V’kit’no’sat to such a degree that they have not fully recovered. Their loosening of the equilibrium will have cumulative negative effects that will force them to commit further resources to holding the line in time. The Hadarak can sense weakness when it exists, and they deliberately prod any such signs looking for a way to penetrate the defenses. They could simply travel past them and be pursued, but they choose to attack them directly. They are a plague that thinks and plans, but does so in such a way that we have bene unable to determine their full motivation.”

“All the more reason to try and talk to a Uriti if possible.”

“I am not hopeful, but I will assist you with this endeavor. While the traitors hold the Hadarak at bay, they cannot be continually trusted with such a task. We are not, nor will be, in a position to supplant them, but if another method of combating the Hadarak exists it is important that we find it. But do not mistake my acquiescence as a mitigation of the danger. If the Chixzon hold on this Uriti lapses, it will prove beyond your ability to defeat regardless of what impressive progress your Archons have made. The Hadarak fight navally before all else, and must be countered on such. You of all Archons should understand magnitude of this.”

“I understand part of it. I need you to help educate me further.”

“Is that humility I hear?”

“Never,” Paul said with defiance. “Just acceptance of ignorance that I have not yet been able to rectify from reading reports alone. I need someone with greater knowledge, or better yet, experience with the Hadarak.”

“Where is the Archon I gifted previously?”

“Elsewhere making preparations for if and when the V’kit’no’sat return.”

“Prudent, but otherwise futile. Anonymity is your only effective defense. If she were here I could upload the necessary knowledge to her Vorch’nas, but unless she is close by there is no time. When we leave from here you will not see us again and your efforts concerning the Uriti will be your own. If you have the ability to destroy it, then we shall leave it in your care, for good or ill. Our intervention is tenuous, and destruction of one will not be possible if more prying eyes continue to arrive as you anticipate. I suspect this location is going to come under great scrutiny, thus we must return to the shadows before we can be discovered.”

“What would you counsel regarding that?”

“You fear their exposure of you to the traitors. This is a real threat if the races coming here have ties back to the core, but if the Uriti never traveled to the core then you may be clear of that catastrophe. With regards to these races alone I would advise caution and extreme military buildup to discourage intervention. If you are going to claim possession of this Uriti, you may well have to do more than be able to control it.”

Paul cringed. “I was afraid of that.”

“I will advise destroying it and the others before your grasp upon them can be challenged.”

“It’s already been challenged once, but no, we’re not going to kill them unless they take action themselves that forces it.”

“Noble, but not prudent.”

“Noble usually isn’t.”

“Your path is your own.”

“That it is,” Paul agreed, knowing he was referencing the V’kit’no’sat betrayal. They weren’t going to ally themselves, trust themselves, to anyone else again after that. “As for the Hadarak…begin enlightening me.”

5

August 13, 3256

Alamo System

Inner Zone

The Sanguine Blade sat in a holding orbit inside the empty system that had filled up with starships, some 2,193 of them not counting the fleet that had come along with Jason’s flagship. Those numbered 6,288 and included a mix of warships, personnel transports, cargo ships, sedas, and MCVs. The majority of the ones already here were not Star Force, instead being made up of a healthy number of Sety ships and a handful of others from what remained of The Nine without the Trinx and Yisv, whose fleet was still apparently loyal but not willing to enter a system with a woken Uriti.

But there were others, several hundred of them scattered around the area and not getting close to one another that were not identified in Star Force’s ship profiles. Some updated once the links to the present fleet had come through, but most of the vessels had ‘unidentified’ tags with a little information on them from sensor records probably compiled while in this system.

“A lot of visitors,” Jason commented from the observation deck that had been built into the command ship specifically for this mission. It had windows all around it that fed off of external cameras while being located deep within the heart of the vessel and the safest part of the ship, giving it an openness that its occupant preferred.

“I expect there will be a lot more in coming years,” Duke Pryon added as he looked out at the floating masses of ships while a small portion of them were moving about and active while the Uriti was lounging inside the star’s outer levels and barely visible on sensors.

“I don’t think we’ll have to wait that long,” Davis corrected from his work station at the center of the chamber while the two Dukes and three trailblazers were lounging around and looking out the ‘windows’ or at the holos while the Director was looking up a variety of things in the ship’s database. “Assuming word got out fairly quick, there are probably others enroute as we speak. Hopefully not any warfleets, but that all depends on the reason why they’re coming.”

“They’re not getting Nefron,” Riley said firmly. “And even if they do he’ll be more trouble than he’s worth. The Chixzon in him doesn’t take well to fools.”

“Just because we claim only he can operate the equipment isn’t convincing to the skeptics,” Paul added, sitting on a console and lazily swinging one leg hanging in the air. “The Trinx obviously thought they could make it work without him, or with him under coercion, and I doubt we’re going to convince others of the futility of that even if we do a meet and greet session with him. People are going to see what they want to see.”

“And they’re going to see a badass fleet guarding this system,” Jason added, referencing all the ships they’d scrounged from across the ADZ with more on the way as they became available.

“Their definition of badass might differ from yours,” Duke Yetti said as she sat next to Paul in a slightly more rigid pose, but still informally on top of a work table, “if they’re operating on a high tech level. A lot of these races probably know the others, and aside from our ability to control the Uriti they might see us as inferiors.”

“Not the cool kids, huh?” Jason summed up.

“It’s our job to make them understand,” Davis said distractedly as he thumbed through more files. “I trust you guys know how to show off enough to get the job done.”

“I’m questioning your Archon credentials just for asking that,” Paul reprimanded the acolyte.

Davis smirked, but continued his search in silence.

“How certain are you that the Uriti won’t attack us?” Pryon asked Riley.

The trailblazer shrugged. “She seems to ignore us unless we use the magic word. As long as we don’t get in her way or shoot her I’d guess we’ll be fine. If someone else does that, well, we might get caught up in the ruckus, but we can easily outrun her.”

“I’m more concerned about the facilities we’re building here.”

“She can wreck them if she wants,” Riley said plainly, “but with the safeguards in place I think we’ll be alright.”

“I hope you’re not overestimating her speed…or temperament.”

“Don’t worry,” Paul said with an ease that partially reassured the Duke. “We’re putting enough engine capacity into the facilities that you can avoid her so long as you get a head start, and she’s not exactly hard to see coming.”

“If moving counters the Uriti’s abilities, then why is it so feared?”

“Ignorance,” Riley answered. “Well, that and them getting their asses kicked when they were stupid enough to engage them. The Uriti are very good, specialists really, at busting up heavily fortified worlds that were never meant to be breached. A lot of races think like that, and when you have populations that you can’t move out of the way fast enough, the Uriti is an unstoppable wrecking machine. Don’t build static facilities and keep your population far, far away from them and you’ve got a workable situation.”

“If we were in the ADZ, then I’d assume we’d have a problem?”

“Not a problem, just a cause for concern. It’ll take Nami a long time to get there from here, so we’d have time to take…some countermeasures.”

“Other than the kill switch?”

“Not really,” Paul admitted. “If we knew which system she was going to then we could evacuate, but with so many options in the ADZ we could never get everyone out of her potential path. As long as we keep her out here in the empty zone she’s not a threat, and I hope everyone else starts to realize that as well. Get her close to inhabited systems and then we’ve got a problem. She sneezes in the wrong place and you lose 50 million people.”

“Are you certain she’ll not start creating minions unless directed?”

“Pretty sure,” Riley answered, “but even if she does, Nefron should be able to control them as well. In fact, experimenting with that is on our to-do list.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Just a few, so we know what they’re really like.”

“And to confirm that they’re biological machines rather than people?”

“That and some other stuff.”

“Won’t that freak out the guys in the cheap seats?” Yetti asked.

“Might,” Riley admitted, “but I don’t care. They’re not calling the shots, and the sooner we establish that the better.”

“I agree,” Jason chimed in.

“Here it is,” Davis said, with everyone turning to look at him as he pulled up a record and displayed it in holo for them to read in three different locations around the large room. “I knew I’d come across it before.”

Paul looked at what was labeled as The Nexus records regarding various cataloged races, specifically those that were documented to have existed outside their expansive territory. There was a bit of history attached to each, detailing the circumstances of the contacts made, and one very powerful race in particular was noted as having made contact on a survey mission. They had made contact and stated a request for any knowledge of race known as the Iggarat and had provided technology samples for comparison.

Those tech samples were now visible, and Paul saw that Davis had linked them with some aspects of Ancient technology. Most of it was different but the key pieces matched up, but it was the ship profile that matched those of four such vessels sitting within view of the Sanguine Blade’s sensors that confirmed the link.

“I think these guys were searching for another of the Ancient races’ remains in order to locate hidden Uriti and the Sety didn’t pick up on it. They may have quietly put out feelers into their territory later, which wouldn’t be all that difficult considering how overstretched they are, and probably, if my guess is right, laid down a network to gather any tips on any information about the Uriti or the Ancients that might surface. When Nami got loose they couldn’t do anything about it, but they watched from afar. When they saw that we could control them that sent the spark out to who knows how many races in the Uriti preservation club that are now on their way here.”

“What’s the end game?” Paul asked. “I doubt all of these races are simply being prudent guardians of sleeping monsters.”

“Leverage would be my guess,” the Director said, leaning back in his chair. “You find the giant Easter Egg and lay claim to it, you then possess the ability to release an unstoppable plague on the galaxy. Even if people figured you were bluffing they’d probably regard you as worthy of respect…or fear trying to conquer you. Last resort might be releasing the Uriti so it could destroy the invaders or perhaps just a ‘screw you’ last measure as they were wiped out. There are a lot of possibilities, but I think the bottom line is that if you control a Uriti site it bumps you up into a very elite status.”

“And we just outdid them all,” Pryon noted.

Davis nodded. “They’re either coming to suck up, or because they’re ticked that they’re no longer top dog and want to try and find a way to reassert themselves, either through bluffing or taking action. I think we’re exposing a very secret society that extends well beyond The Nine. It may be that these other so-called guardians were in contact with one another rather than acting in seclusion. In which case we could be getting visitors from the other side of the galactic core.”

Jason whistled. “I hope they don’t take a short cut through the middle.”

“We need more firepower,” Paul said, realizing just how outclassed they might be in short order.

“We need control,” Davis corrected. “Part of that is firepower, but the greater part is they’re seeing that there is a purpose in this system and that we’re driving it. We have to be doing things with the Uriti rather than just sitting on it. We’ve already established that we’re making this system an embassy for these various races to permanently inhabit if they wish, which will make us the arbiters and hosts, but we need more than that. Experimenting with the minions is a double-edged sword. It could scare some, but entice others that also want to study them. Those races that play nice we’ll let observe, but control stays with us. They can make suggestions, but they never give orders. That’s one optional activity, but we need more than that.”

“It depends on what they want from them,” Yetti summed up. “Are there any material gains that can be had?”

“Observational data of a waking one,” Riley offered. “Beyond that, unless you want a lot of holes in a planet for some reason, there’s nothing beneficial from them.”

“Unless they want you to use one to bust up their rivals,” Pryon suggested.

“We’re not going to do that,” Davis said firmly, “and we need to make them understand it from the get go. We’re not utilizing their combat capability in any way, but if we are ever invaded that restriction could be rescinded. We’re not actually going to do that, but we are going to offer the promise of containment and hold to it firmly in order to gain credibility over time. The threat of us having cause to rescind that promise, legitimately, is our leverage point. We’re not going to use it to make gains, however, and that should also send a message. It’s going to be defensive leverage.”

“Over the long term,” Paul clarified.

“Yes,” Davis said with regret. “Such things take time to develop. The most dicey timeframe is now, so what else can we do to be driving events?”

“Visible construction will send the signal that we’re active,” Yetti noted, “but if we rotate the Uriti between a couple, or maybe 3 or 4 systems periodically will demonstrate that we do have it under our control.”

“A preserve,” Riley amended with a smile as he looked at Paul, “and we can see if we can get her speed up a bit.”

Pryon looked confused. “Why would we want to increase her capabilities?”

“Walking the dog,” Davis said with a satisfied nod. “I like it.”

“Explain please,” Yetti asked, also confused.

“Something before your time,” Davis said as he stood up and began pacing around the perimeter of the ‘windows’ as he thought. “Dogs used to be kept as pets, and the pet owners often did nothing with them. Treated them like furniture that just sat around and looked good, maybe did a few tricks. They died rather fast from the stagnation, not to mention developed many disorders prior to that. It was found that what they called ‘exercise’ was beneficial to both the longevity and temperament of the dogs, so their owners would take them out into public areas to walk them, partly as a status symbol but also to maintain their pets in what they thought was the responsible manner.”

“What exactly is a pet?” Pryon asked.

“A term from the dark ages,” Davis said with mild disgust. “It can mean one’s property, a keepsake, a pampered individual, or a piece of living art. It comes from a time when Humans looked into the eyes of another and deemed them not to be people, and from that a lot of bad things came. Pets weren’t immune to that, but they tended to fair better than those labeled ‘cattle.’ Eating pets was taboo, but aside from some that were well cared for, most pets were left to stagnate and suffer in ways their owners did not understand.”

“I’m glad I missed that,” the Duke said, catching onto the point. “You want to train the Uriti?”

Davis looked to Riley. “What are you estimates on reworking the transmitter?”

“No clue. The power levels are high enough, I think, but our syntax is wrong or we just smell bad. I don’t know. We could stumble onto the right settings tomorrow or a thousand years from now.”

“Which means we need to pursue simultaneous courses of interaction,” Davis wisely said as the possibilities unfolded in his mind like pages of a book being speed read. “If the Uriti will respond to orders, we can train it even if it doesn’t understand why. And the more orders we get it to successfully follow, the greater the influence we will have over it. Perhaps more than even the Chixzon did. And while the Uriti seems to be immune to stagnation as far as death is concerned, my gut says that it is not immune to all of its effects?” he asked, looking to the trailblazers.

“My credits say the same,” Paul agreed, with Jason nodding in sync.

“We might get it liking us despite the genetic controls,” Riley added, “just by getting it into better shape.”

“Them,” Yetti amended, drawing glances from them all. “If we’re going to solidify our position here we need to bring in more Uriti, perhaps not immediately, but there is one nearby that we have leverage to get released. Others are well guarded, but some races might not be protecting them to gain leverage, but rather to keep their own people safe. If we could prove that we could remove the threat safely and take it far away from their civilization, some of them might give them up freely. Hell, they might even pay us to take them off their hands.”

Davis, on sudden impulse, stopped his pacing of the perimeter and headed for a work station, pulling up a map of the system and zooming out until 10 or so systems were visible. He then pulled it out again, seeing what was there within the nearest 100, then pulled back again to the nearest 1000 before spotting the first inhabited system…a Star Force colony that was relocating the Hedrock race to their homeworld, but doing so as a ward of the empire rather than an independent civilization, per their request.

Davis remained silent as he worked, pulling up stellar data for the stars around the Alamo System and seeing how much of the necessary elements the Uriti needed and favored were there, finding several prime areas and a lot of adequate reserves. A secondary search of systems gave him a feel for the geography, then he began highlighting systems in a clump situated off Alamo. To that he added another section that ringed the inner area, then pointed at both.

“My friends, welcome to Jurassic Park.”

6

August 29, 3256

Alamo System

Inner Zone

“I assume everyone’s translation software is updated,” Yetti said as she looked out at the mass of holograms surrounding her on the observation deck. “If not, well, I think we’ll know soon enough.”

She looked around, making eye contact with all the varied races, of which 7 of The Nine were present in addition to the representatives in the various ships in system observing the Uriti and the activity here. Some had refused this meeting, and thus were being kept out of the loop, but 53 of them were here, bringing the gallery of holograms to an even 60.

“Save your questions for now and just listen. I am Star Force Duke Yetti, Uriti Preserve Inquisitor. I will be the point of contact for your empires. Information will flow from me to you and vice versa. Most of you have been sent here to observe and report, which is acceptable, but make no mistake when I say that you will not be permitted to interfere in our operations here. We are only now beginning construction of what will be a great many facilities in this system and others nearby in what we’re creating as the boundaries of the Preserve.”

She hit a handheld control and the starmap of the region was set up before her and transmitted to each of the representatives’ ships.

“These 34 star systems are what we are designating as the Uriti Preserve. They are off limits to all traffic save for this system where we will establish facilities for you and others to come and visit if you wish. You will do so on our terms, or our military will deal with you in one of various methods. We will likewise keep the Uriti here, rotating through these systems and no others. We will keep them away from inhabited systems, and likewise keep outsiders away from them. At present we have one Uriti here and no infrastructure. Both facts will change over time as we seek out and offer to relocate any other Uriti found or within your care if you so wish it.”

That announcement sent twitches and convulsions through a good portion of the representatives, including the Sety, but no one interrupted her and she continued on quickly to take advantage of the moment of confusion and keep the revelations coming.

“Furthermore, several of you have already committed yourselves to the containment of this Uriti, pledging to do what is necessary to keep it from harming worlds. Star Force’s intent is to do more than that. We have no intention of sedating this one or any others we bring here. We intend to care for them, study them, and treat them with the respect that their creators did not share. The Uriti were created to be living weapons and thrust at enemy systems with orders to demolish them. They are quite good at that sort of thing, but we intend to never utilize that function unless as an act of last resort against anyone foolish enough to try and conquer us.”

“I do not make this as a cavalier threat. I make it as a promise. If your relations with us are peaceful you need never fear a Uriti showing up in your system. We will keep them here, in this Preserve, and should we engage in a war of conquest against another, as we have done numerous times in our history, the Uriti will not be used. Those few of you that have studied our history, and I’m sure others will do so in coming years, will realize that we do not fight those who do not deserve it, and when we do fight we do not do so sloppily. Sending a Uriti to destroy a planet is extremely sloppy, and so long as we are not betrayed, we have no intention to ever use the Uriti as a weapon. They will stay here, within the Preserve, permanently.”

“As to what we will do with them here…that remains to be determined. We are already attempting to find a secondary means of communication other than the controlling function encoded within them by the Chixzon, and how we proceed down the road will ultimately be determined by what level of communication we are able to achieve. You need not concern yourself with that if you do not wish it. You will be welcome to observe our efforts and we will make records available to you, but this is our Preserve, our Uriti, and our project. There may be opportunities for you to assist, but we will always maintain control.”

“And we will guard the control of this Uriti against anyone who tries to steal or destroy that control. Already a race called the Trinx have betrayed and attacked us, so please understand that we are not in a trusting mood. I know your empires and races have questions and concerns, which I will address in time, but for now you need to accept that we are in control here and will be further cementing that control over time. Right now we are building an embassy station that is mobile enough to avoid the Uriti if it should come our way. There will be no fixed installations within the Preserve that we are not willing to lose, and any such expendable infrastructure will not be permanently inhabited. While we can order the Uriti, the level of that control has not been fully tested yet, though doing so is on our to-do list.”

“We will test and learn about this Uriti while building infrastructure that will be able to move and stay out of its way. Those of you who are agreeable will be allowed to establish and maintain an embassy on this station for a variety of purposes. Already we have a great number of far flung races here that probably have little or no contact with one another through other means. As long as this is a focal point for you all, we might as well make this Preserve a diplomatic station as well. On a lesser note, people will want to come and see the Uriti for all number of reasons. To that end we will, over time, allow a select amount of visitors, whether they be researchers or tourists, to enter the Preserve on our terms.”

“For those of you who doubt our control, take note of the star with your ships’ sensors. In a moment we will call the Uriti out to demonstrate that it will respond to us.”

There was a long pause, but once she had given everyone ample time to prepare, she sent a signal to the Zeus and almost immediately the feeble tracking of the Uriti within the star showed it begin to gain altitude. Yetti didn’t say anything more until it finally burst forth through the highest level of material that made up the ‘surface’ of the star and out into the hazy atmosphere that surrounded it, slowly making its way out into full view and to the coordinates that the Duke had already highlighted on the map for the representatives to see. As promised, the Uriti flew up to those coordinates and stopped on the spot, holding position and doing nothing else.

“There will be other such demonstrations in the coming months as we study the Uriti, but I hope this answers any lingering questions as to whether or not we are being honest. The Uriti responds to our commands and we promise to keep it within this preserve, not only to protect our own inhabited systems, which are far closer than any of yours, but to protect everyone that might be coming in the path of a Uriti on the rampage, as this one recently was.”

“You do not know us, yet, but our word is good. So stay and observe. You’ll see that the Uriti does not travel beyond this Preserve, not will we allow anyone else to have access to it except through us. They will not be used as weapons again, and any Uriti deposited into this Preserve will likewise be free from misuse or roving rampages. If you know of where another one is located, or are guarding it yourself against others or simply against the chance of it waking, you may contact me at any time to discuss the matter. Though the establishment of this Preserve is in its infancy, we will eventually be able to bring any other Uriti here for safe keeping. At the moment we intend to study this one further before we attempt to find and retrieve others.”

“If you do not wish a Uriti that you are safeguarding moved, so be it. Let it slumber for now. We have much work to do, but I will state clearly that anyone who releases a Uriti to go on a rampage will be dealt with harshly, and it’s only a question of whether Star Force or someone else will get to you first. These Uriti are not to be trifled with, which is why we will require everyone in this system to obey our protocols as we set them forth, otherwise you will be removed from this system and the rest of the Preserve.”

“Now, on a partial side note. Some empires have requested permission to colonize worlds in this empty region that we are reclaiming from a regional threat. There are many empty worlds, but the presence of a Uriti will undoubtedly make people rethink the safety of putting down fixed infrastructure that’s anywhere close by. This preserve is going to be ringed by a neutral zone of systems that the Uriti will not be allowed within, nor will anyone else. The systems just outside it will be safe to travel through and inhabit, though I understand if you’ll want a few hundred years of activity to monitor to confirm that. I’m not offering you worlds to colonize, though some of you may be so inclined to make such requests. I am telling you this to let you know that we do not fear the Uriti running rampant, and if we are wrong we will be the first to suffer the consequences.”

“So stay, listen, watch, and learn…but do not try to assert yourselves here. We are in control and we will remain in control. Star Force is a fair empire, but not a weak or timid one. Deal with us honestly and there will be no reason to deny you entry to this system. But if you do give us cause to deny you, we will enforce such a ban up to the point of confiscating any ships that trespass here.”

“Will we use the Uriti to do that? No. They are not designed for such use. They were meant to target a system and destroy it. Finer control was never the Chixzon’s intent. And for those who do not yet know, the Chixzon were the race that created the Uriti. Information on them we will also share, along with a wealth of other things. There are inroads for you to make here if you choose, but you must do so respectfully and peaceably. Attempt to force anything and you will be met with equal or greater force, and not just from our empire. Keeping the Uriti contained here is a matter of concern for many of you, and as I said, some of you have already pledged your empires to insuring that the Uriti does not go on another rampage and that those sleeping remain sleeping.”

“This Uriti will not be remaining in this system permanently, for we will rotate it around the Preserve, but the embassy that we are building will remain here, in a safe orbit where it will not cross paths with the Uriti by accident. In addition, many of our ships and mobile stations will also remain here to further develop inter-empire relations that may result in many beneficial outcomes. For the most part, you have permission to travel through Star Force territory unhindered so long as you do not interfere with the systems you are passing through or the traffic that you may encounter. We prefer open borders in most cases. This Preserve will be one of the few exceptions.”

Paul was in the nexus onboard the Sanguine Blade monitoring the Uriti and the assembled ships in the system as Davis and his Dukes were laying the law down just in case there was a problem that needed dealing with. Jason was in a training session so Paul was covering for him when he got a personal comm routed to him from the newly arrived Sety representative.

“Is there a problem?” he asked when he accepted and a small hologram popped up before him.

“The revelation is over and your Duke is busy answering questions. I will ask you this bluntly, but as politely as I can. Do you intend to remove Glaech from its sedation?”

“We’ve really got to work on the name thing. I’m sticking with Bahamut.”

“Whatever you wish to call it, please answer my question.”

“Not immediately. We need to study Nami before we try to bring Bahamut here. It will not be a quick process.”

“Then you will rouse…Bahamut…despite our objections?”

“What objections are those? For what possible reason would we leave that Uriti in a separate place that would require a separate fleet to defend it? Better to have them both in one location.”

“There may be some wisdom in that, but it is a decision that we all should make.”

“We will gladly listen to counsel, but the decision is ours regarding Bahamut. It is in our invasion corridor against the Li’vorkrachnika. The Uriti that you and the others guard is a different matter. We will not wake them and put any people living above them in danger, but we will suggest that all of them be moved here for safekeeping.”

“And if we decline that suggestion?”

“At the moment there is no cause to start a war with The Nexus to reclaim a sleeping Uriti. However, if after study we learn that the sedation is in some way harming them that may change.”

“You put the wellbeing of Uriti as higher priority than our lives?”

“No, I put it as higher priority than your ego. Remember, we are doing you a very, very, very big favor in all of this. Remember back shortly to when you had no way to control a Uriti and this one was loose and heading wherever it wanted. I should not be hearing ingratitude in your voice.”

“It is the arrogance in yours that concerns me.”

“It’s not arrogance, it’s accuracy. Though if I were in your position I would be cautious as well. If we wanted to we could use a Uriti to cause a lot of damage. We’re not like that though, as you’ll learn if you haven’t yet, but from your position I would also recognize that at least we can control the Uriti, and since at the moment it’s not out tearing up systems it is an improvement in condition.”

“At the moment, yes. It is the future that concerns me.”

“Us as well, which is why we’d prefer your help in setting up this preserve and maintaining it.”

“But you intend to continue with or without our assistance?”

“Yep. If you want to wash your hands of the matter entirely, turn over any Uriti you’re currently guarding, you can do so and forget about them entirely. We’ll take it from here.”

“And what do you gain from this if you do not use them as leverage to extort various tributes?”

“One very big deterrent against invasion.”

“And what invasion do you fear?”

“None specifically. But I didn’t think you’d accept the answer that we have no motive.”

“If you have no motive, you have no impetus for action.”

“No profit motive then. This will be an expenditure for us, especially considering the systems we’re going to devote to this Preserve. Those, auctioned off to The Nexus or others, could profit us greatly. We are doing this for the simple reason that it needs to be done and we’re the only ones that can exercise control over the Uriti. But even if we couldn’t, we’d still try and find a way.”

“Altruism is your motive?”

“If you want to think of it that way, yes. Though I suppose we will make a nice little profit off the tourist revenue once everything is set up. But that’s going to be negligible when compared to the cost of establishing a proper blockade.”

“As you have said, we have no choice but to return to the anarchy of the past. But we are slow to trust those we have little history with.”

“And I’m not too confident in your choice of friends.”

“The Trinx are…I do not even know the right phrase to use. Disappointment is too kind. Do you plan a reprisal?”

“The Uriti that they possess will be coming here eventually, one way or another. But that will be a long time in the future. We lost a lot of ships in that battle. Replacing those and building the Preserve is going to be a very large effort in order to do it right, and it will take time.”

“You have honored your promises thus far. Continue to do so and you will have no quarrel with the Sety. But you do not have our trust.”

“I don’t need it. Just your compliance.”

“You will have it,” the Sety said as he ended the conversation with a mild tone of disgust.

7

January 9, 3258

Alamo System

Inner Zone

Davis watched from the observation deck as Nami traced her slow path across the star system from pylon 5 to 6, making yet another lap of the course laid out for it by the trailblazers. Within a month they’d begin weapon tests, adding a small target for it to destroy at the end of its circuits, and many of the races that were still present in this system were eager to see that. The first embassy station was partially complete, but many of the observers had not requested a presence there. There wasn’t much eagerness for participation, yet, but a handful of races beyond the already allied 7 had deposited at least a minimal presence on the station.

Davis wasn’t going to be taking residence there. That was Duke Setti’s job. She was going to handle the diplomatic liaison between Star Force and any and all races that came here while Duke Pryon was going to oversee the warden function of the Preserve, building the necessary infrastructure and anything the trailblazers needed with regards to their handling of the Uriti, then a third Duke would be added later if needed to handle the visitors and tourist traffic that may or may not manifest. The trailblazers had already assured Davis that they’d work out the necessities of the training package and in the process give him a good show to put on for outsiders to see how much control they actually had while not revealing too much information.

Nefron was being kept away from the other races, the silent partner in all of this despite the many protests. Of those races talking, most wanted to speak with him out of either curiosity or a wish to try and influence the single individual who had the power to control the Uriti…and the longer Davis kept them thinking in terms like that the better. Nefron wouldn’t change his allegiance, nor was he worried about such things. What he was worried about was outsiders coming in and taking immediate action. The longer that didn’t happen and Star Force’s position here stabilized, the more leverage he would have against many races that had technology levels equal to or partially superior to their own.

That technological advantage wasn’t complete, for Star Force was building based off the V’kit’no’sat tech tree and making a few upgrades of their own enroute. That gave them a much more comprehensive base than other races or empires possessed, but some of the individual engines, shields, or weapons that these races were fielding were damn impressive and dangerous, as were so many being in the same place at the same time without a strong controlling hand governing them all.

Davis had as many ships here as he could manage without stalling the war with the lizards. That border had to keep pushing forward else more people would die as the lizards continued to spread into areas not yet contained. Drawing ships from the ADZ was problematic, for he didn’t want to delve too deep into their reserves, but he needed as many here as possible to forestall brash actions. The upcoming weapons demonstration by the Uriti would hopefully give anyone thinking of trying to usurp Star Force additional pause.

And while more Star Force ships were incoming, so were the Voku. They were manifesting at odd times and places, with far more here than Davis thought would come. Either Cal-com regarded this as seriously as they did, or Paul’s Zak’de’ron visit had prompted an order from them to get the Voku flocking here in what were promised to be even more massive numbers in subsequent years. Already there were a few scattered reports of massive convoys coming across the gap between their home territory and the ADZ that would eventually end up out here.

Those reports were courtesy of the hastily build communications relay link that had stretched out this far via a number of permanent stations and mobile communications sedas filling in the gaps so Davis could remain in contact with the empire while he camped out here. There wasn’t a lot to do, but with so many new empires to deal with, and get a read on, it wasn’t something he was going to trust to Dukes or even the trailblazers. Star Force was treading on a very precipitous edge and they needed all the experience and guile that they could get on this matter.

The Chamra, Dati, and Yisv had already made independent contact with Star Force, and the first two of those had redirected most of those diplomatic overtures here to Davis personally while the Yisv were still keeping away from any system with the Uriti in it. So while he was dealing with new races he was also trying to forge ties or lay down the law with these other more familiar advanced empires as they also jockeyed for position and status here while backing Star Force so that no one else could depose them and endanger the controller.

They didn’t have many ships available but a few more were coming in periodically, just as some of the observer fleets were getting reinforcements as well. All it would really take was one ship to keep watch, so the additional vessels were more of a visible threat that he was going to have to deal with eventually, but he didn’t have too big of a leverage point here to work with immediately, otherwise he would have demanded that all ships identify themselves and their affiliations. As it was, some were still lurking in the shadows and not taking a public stance.

The battlemap had an active tracking mechanism in place to determine when new ships arrived and was programmed to ping him an alert when an unidentified ship or large grouping appeared, so when the double ping sounded he turned around sharply as his eyes tracked to the system hologram.

He saw immediate activity from the drones surrounding the Sanguine Blade, for the newcoming ships weren’t at a jumpline. They were right beside him, barely 30 miles away, and there was one enormous vessel at the center of a fleet that numbered over 500, all of which were a mix of glossy black hull plates and luminous strips.

Davis mentally linked with the battlemap controls and replayed the last minute as the fleet quickly coalesced around his ship in aggressive defense posture. On the playback there was nothing there, absolutely nothing, then suddenly the ships winked into existence with a telltale sparkle of light. It looked like a brief fireworks display as they all appeared, with Davis’s gut clenching as he focused the replay on those sparkles. He searched for the telltale disruptions that cloaking devices made, running the computer through the necessary paces that should have allowed them to detect the variations once they knew where to look and at that close range…but there was nothing. Nothing at all.

Not even the V’kit’no’sat had ever been able to produce a true cloaking device, meaning that whoever these guys were, they were either technological geniuses with a singular breakthrough or a major new player that had them extremely outclassed.

“Davis, you seeing this?” Jason’s voice asked over an open comm.

“Yeah. They talking?”

“Pithy. They want to address you, and their message came through in English.”

“Link them here.”

“No, they want to meet in person.”

“Bad idea?”

“Did you notice how they arrived?”

“Perfect cloaking device.”

“I don’t want someone or something like that getting onboard my ship.”

“Mist scan?”

“We can, but it’ll take some time to set up. We’ll also have to arrange a lot of security for you.”

“Take your time, but if they want to talk that’s better than shooting first.”

“I think this means they’ve had a cloaked ship here observing for a while.”

“I wonder how many more are out there. You think the Zak’de’ron are completely gone?”

“If not they’re going to get an eyeful.”

“I know,” Davis said, referencing the tech differential. “Tell them I accept, then set it up to your liking.”

“Holo would be to my liking,” Jason differed, “but we’ll make it work.”

“Did we get a name?”

“If they have a native one they didn’t give it, but the translation is Knights of Quenar.”

It took four days before preparations were ready, then Davis found himself waiting on a rebuilt cargo bay in the center of what looked like a sports arena. The center was open to the air with large columns ringing it and all the apparatus to generate incredibly powerful shields that could bisect the area on a thought. Multiple layers could be added, meaning that anyone inside the arena could be sectioned apart like a chess board. That would allow the Knights of Quenar entry and the ability to talk with him in person, yet give Star Force the ability to protect Davis should they try anything.

Davis was also wearing his Archon armor, clad in acolyte silver while the bright pinks of Jason and Paul were beside him. Riley was not present, instead handling fleet coordination from the Zeus and protecting Nefron, knowing that he was probably the bigger target than Davis if these newcomers wanted to do more than talk.

A small transport had entered the bay moments ago, sealed off by newly built walls that gave it a decent landing area but then forced its occupants to pass through an airlock that held the ‘mist’ sensors. In reality they were tiny robots the size of dust that relayed their positions to the nearby sensors, so that if they were fooled by a cloaking device the little robots would be able to paint a picture of the silhouette by their physical absence in the space it occupied.

The KoQ had been informed of the procedure and approved of it, so the first Davis saw of them was when the inside of the airlock opened and they walked through the opposite wall of the arena. They wore no visible armor, merely loose fitting green clothing with a multitude of golden ornamentation. There were three of them, each with a Humanoid torso, but from the waist down they split into four legs that were part spider part Human. They angled away from the center of mass then went straight down, but they were well muscled and looked to give them impressive jumping capability.

Their skin was hairy, covered in greys and whites so thick he couldn’t make out the actual skin beneath it, and the same was true of their faces, which vaguely resembled dogs with a short snout, but they had two eyes and two arms much like his own, though they sported what looked like seven fingers as they walked across the considerable gap towards the three Humans with a backdrop of Archons, Knights, and Commandos of various Star Force races standing by ready to act if anything went poorly.

Their minds are blank, Jason commented telepathically.

Well shielded, Paul amended.

Poker then, Davis noted as they continued to walk towards the waiting trio, trusting in his own Ikrid blocks to keep his thoughts protected if the Knights of Quenar were in fact telepathic. They waited for them to cross the 200 meters or so until they came to a low wall, barely 8 inches high, that denoted where they were not to cross. The three of them stepped up to it side by side, with the one on the left being slightly taller than the others’ 6 foot plus height, making them almost eye level with the Archons.

“Where is the Chixzon?” the bigger one demanded, actually speaking English rather than having it work through a translation mechanism. His words carried a shrill accent, but his words were clear enough.

“Not onboard this ship,” Davis stated plainly. “I was told you wished to speak with me.”

“Bring him before us.”

“Others have wished to speak with him as well, and have been declined. Given his unique abilities he is not accessible to guests.”

“You will bring him before us,” the KoQ said, holding up his right hand towards Davis.

Suddenly the Human in the silver armor was lifted off the ground by an invisible force. Paul couldn’t see any Lachka tendrils, but he flashed his Rentar around him without success…then with a thought he telekinetically grabbed the big one and knocked him to the ground, pinning him there as Jason stepped in front of Davis who suddenly dropped to the deck.

The other two KoQ jerked, looking from their fallen comrade and to the armored Humans.

“Release him,” one of them demanded, holding up a hand towards Paul and knocking the Archon off his feet and onto his butt with some kind of invisible punch that his armor’s shields did not pick up.

Jason didn’t wait, launching himself over the wall towards the two standing KoQ and missing a fist to one of their heads when both of them turned and pointed their hands at him, catching him mid dash and holding his feet a few inches off the ground. They couldn’t fully control him, with his arms coming in close to his body as a ripple of distortion surrounded him, then released to blow both KoQ away from him, simultaneously breaking their grasp.

When his feet hit the ground he launched at one of them, meaning to tackle and pin his arms down but he never got there, for a shield of hexagons suddenly flashed around the KoQ, with each invisible panel outlined in gold and Jason bouncing off the solid mesh of inch-wide polygons.

As he bounced another invisible grasp took hold of him and propelled him backwards across the tiny wall above which a field of hexagons formed blocking the three Humans off from the three KoQ as the army of support troops rushed up to surround Davis and pull him back behind the two pink-clad trailblazers.

“Stop,” the big KoQ said before further fighting could occur. “It is clear we underestimated your potential. We have come here to negotiate, not fight. And if we do not return from this vessel it will be destroyed.”

“Do not use your powers again,” Paul warned. “Else the talking will be over.”

“Agreed,” the one on the far right side said, now clearly taking the lead. “It is imperative that we see this Chixzon. I do not care what other relations you have with the races assembled here, but you must let us have access to him.”

“For what purpose?”

“We have questions that need answering.”

“I’m sure you do,” Jason said, making it clear that they weren’t going to get what they want.

The middle KoQ sighed, then sucked in a slow breath. “Patience,” he advised, though it was clear he was talking to his peers. “This race may be intelligent enough to understand.”

“As you wish,” the one on the right deferred.

“We are the Knights of Quenar,” the one in the middle said, looking at Davis who had quietly stepped up just behind the two trailblazers with the multi-colored armors surrounding him in a living wall on all other sides. “The last survivors of the Traelix. Our ancestors were among those whom you refer to as the Ancients. They and their allies fought and destroyed the Chixzon, imprisoned their living weapons, and were rewarded for their tireless sacrifices with betrayal at the hands of those whom they had protected. Few survived the purges that followed, hiding away in the darkest corners of the galaxy and forgoing any attempt to reclaim their previous territories and glory. They had only two priorities. Vengeance came first.”

“They destroyed over time all those who had betrayed them through indirect means, striking as phantoms and using a great many methods that we do not hold to. When their vengeance was sated, many left to live out their lives in a manner of their own choosing. Some to rebuild a shred of what was lost, others to simply coexist with the rubble of the galaxy that remained. An elite few swore an oath to a greater cause, and part of that cause was to ensure that the Chixzon were destroyed and that their living weapons were contained and never allowed to be misused. The Knights of Quenar were formed and to this day that Oath has been honored. That is why we must speak with your Chixzon.”

“If you think we’re going to let you kill him,” Paul scoffed, “you’re crazy.”

“If we wanted him destroyed we would have attacked and annihilated your entire fleet to insure his death. If your claims as to his origin are accurate, then we do not wish his destruction, for while in body and memory he may be Chixzon, his inner being is not. You have been gifted with a great opportunity, and we are here to insure you do not waste it.”

“We’re open to suggestions,” Davis offered, “but not orders.”

“If you are wise, no orders will be necessary,” the KoQ answered amicably.

“What exactly do you want to ask him?”

“You have said that he is the product of a genetic legacy designed to activate after a long period of inactivity so that the Chixzon may be reborn in a galaxy that has forgotten their transgressions. The Knights of Quenar have not, and we must insure that this resurrection does not occur. If it does, we must oppose it as soon as possible, and the knowledge your Chixzon hybrid possesses is critical to the fulfillment of our Oath.”

8

“Then let’s put that down as maybe,” Davis said neutrally, “as you explain who you are, exactly what you’re doing here, and why I shouldn’t have these two kick your ass for not keeping your invisible hands on your side of the line.”

“Our apologies,” the middle one said. “Some races we deal with would talk to no end with no result and thus require a physical impetus to begin actual negotiations. We were unaware of your skill level. We meant no offense.”

“Some taken,” Davis resisted.

“It will not happen again,” the KoQ promised.

“How long have you been monitoring this Uriti?”

“We discovered its existence and release a little over 300 years ago. We did not intervene because the races guarding it appeared to be able to contain it through constant combat. Could we have sedated it?” he guessed to his next question. “Yes, we could have, but at great cost to us. We are not a civilization, but an order. Small in number but great in skill. We stood ready to act if the containment failed and the Uriti began to spread minions. Fortunately that was not the case, for returning it to its imprisonment would have cost us most of our fleet.”

“And you only now reveal yourselves because there is something you need?”

“Blunt, but accurate. You have done the galaxy a great favor, but it is up to us to make sure this stroke of good fortune is not misused or squandered. We do not seek to steal this Chixzon hybrid from you, merely to inquire of it knowledge that we seek.”

“And if he doesn’t feel like revealing anything to you?”

“I trust my diplomatic skill to be sufficient to convince him to give us what we need.”

“Backed up by your fleet?”

The middle KoQ looked at Davis’s helmet for a moment. “We did not come here to fight, though we always hold that option in reserve. I believe we can find common purpose here if such a discussion is allowed.”

“I’m listening.”

“Our goal is to insure that the old victory is not reversed. Prior to your information reaching us, we had assumed only an outbreak of the captured Uriti would undermine it, but the revelation that the Chixzon mean to return creates an alarming new possibility that we must swiftly move to counter, thus we have come here to face it in the most direct means possible. We need to know what it is we are fighting and how to combat it. So long as you do not misuse the Uriti, we will not interfere with your possession and control of it or any others brought here. If you do misuse it, then we will be forced to act against you. Such a thing would end poorly for you…but I do not mean to threaten, only ensure that we will follow an honorable path, and that we take our Oath very seriously.”

“Where are you based?”

“That is not public knowledge,” the KoQ said as a galactic map appeared before him, highlighting a specific sector that in itself was over 500 lightyears in radius and situated more than a quarter rotation around the galaxy, “but we come from here and travel wherever necessary. With your permission, we would like to establish an enclave here to monitor this Uriti and prevent anyone from tampering with it or the Chixzon. I can assure you that our forces are far more formidable than any others that have so sworn their allegiance to safeguard this Preserve.”

“Trust takes time,” Davis advised. “Do not seek to rush it.”

“The galaxy does not afford us unlimited time, and if the Chixzon are returning we need to maximize what we have of it. The Knights of Quenar cannot fight a reborn Chixzon empire. We are only strong enough to prevent its return. We must act now before we are outscaled, hence our impolite insistence that we speak with your hybrid.”

A hologram appeared beside Paul and walked in front of the three Humans, stepping over the low wall and through the invisible shield that had popped up between them earlier. Its black, rough flesh was soundless against the floor as it looked at each KoQ in turn.

“What is it you’d like to know,” Nefron’s hologram asked.

The middle KoQ nodded respectfully to Davis, then turned his full attention on the Chixzon, studying him. “Your stories were legitimate. You are most definitely reborn in body, but what is the state of your mind?”

“My mind is my own, though I retain the Chixzon knowledge and skills. I would suggest that anyone else going through the transformation would be lost. I barely survived, but am now in no danger of losing myself.”

“How did you survive?”

“The Archons did not give up on me, spending a great deal of time and effort to trick me into thinking my way out of the problem. My instincts are Chixzon, and one thing we do not suffer is to be inferior. They goaded me into turning my newfound culture against my programming. Once a wedge was opened I was able to do the rest. I do not serve the Chixzon, yet I am Chixzon in every way that matters. The Uriti will obey me, and I am loyal to Star Force. Neither fact will change.”

“How much time do we have before others are reborn?”

“I cannot say for certain, only that my transformation was hastened due to Star Force’s curiosity. Natural progression will occur eventually, but such a thing was not evident in this region. I cannot speak of the others across the galaxy.”

“Did the Chixzon seed only specific regions?”

“No, they seeded it all. There was to be no possibility of oversight or negligence. None were guaranteed to survive, thus the seeding had to be thorough and subtle.”

“Will you tell us what your previous race was?”

“So you can do what with them?”

“Prevent them from transforming.”

“How?”

“The same method you have claimed to use. Removal of their legacy genetics.”

“That decision resides with the Star Force Director.”

“And what are their plans upon arrival in a galaxy that has all but forgotten them?”

“To quietly gather and hide while they assess the situation and the means needed to resume their quest for domination. They will not make the same mistake twice.”

“You refer to the sedative or the Uriti?”

“I refer to them overreaching. When the sedative was used, they had no contingency plan. They will not operate without one again.”

“There is much I would ask you, but the pertinent question now is one of trust,” the KoQ said as he looked back at Davis. “We have not made a good impression other than to demonstrate that we have powers comparable or superior to your own. I am curious as to yours, but for the moment I will ask what you would have us do to prove ourselves worthy of association?”

“Wait your turn,” Davis said simply, offering no other explanation.

A small curl of his lip denoted what the Human thought was a smile, but no other reaction was forthcoming. “That shall be our penance for hastiness. I trust that you will not delay in countering the threat that you have intimate knowledge of.”

“If you wish to begin gaining trust, I suggest you do not hide your ships when in this system unless there is combat.”

“Your last caveat is noted, and we agree to your terms. Is there anything else you require?”

“An explanation.”

“Of what in particular?”

“What the end result of you coming here is expected to look like.”

“We wish to assist with the establishment of this Preserve and the collection of Uriti. If you can successfully keep them here, we will utilize your good intentions to aid our own. Our ships will patrol and guard this region against interference along with your own while we also pursue greater knowledge of our enemy from your Chixzon and seek out any vestige of their genetic legacy in order to purge it before they can return.”

“And what happens if you find out they already have returned elsewhere?”

“We fight them to the last.”

“What have you been doing previously, other than watching over sleeping Uriti?”

“We have a variety of tasks, but none as important as this. We seek out injustice and bring it full circle. Many of us will make individual pilgrimages across the galaxy on individual quests to aid in our own development. Most of what we do occurs behind the scenes. We do not have a public face, and only show ourselves to you now as a courtesy and as a testament to our seriousness involving the matters at hand.”

“A history for us to review would be helpful.”

The middle KoQ spread his hands wide in an accepting gesture. “Then that is what you shall have. Time is of great importance, but haste can be equally as destructive as hesitancy. I apologize for the altercation here and our lack of etiquette. We will provide you with sufficient data to appraise us and we will leave you to deliberate how you wish to proceed. Once we transmit the data we will wait until you are ready to further discuss matters. Your empire is far more powerful than we estimated and we do not wish to make unnecessary enemies. Had we known we would have taken a less direct approach. I trust in your wisdom in this matter, and bid you farewell for now if you would be willing to lower the barriers and allow us to depart.”

Davis sensed this was as much a test as anything else, so he quietly lowered the normally invisible barriers via a helmet command. The Knights of Quenar nodded respectfully and turned away, obviously able to see the shields go down via some unidentified manner…and that too was a bit of communication between the two parties.

The Archons stayed put until the KoQ had left through the airlock, then Davis tapped Jason on the chest twice and left.

Paul immediately felt a battlemeld prompt from Jason and accepted it, then with their combined senses scanned every inch of Davis’s armor as he departed as well as the chamber and the other occupants while technological sensors built into the walls did the same. In the end nothing was found having been left behind, but that wasn’t proof enough given how different this new race and their technology operated.

Eventually Paul and Jason found their way back to the observation deck absent their armor where Davis was already involved in an animated discussion with Riley and Nefron, both whom were transmitting via holo from the Zeus.

“No, they knew,” Riley insisted. “And I highly doubt they were scared off. They might have been spooked a bit by our psionics, but they didn’t act like they were at a disadvantage.”

“I agree,” Paul said as the pair entered the room. “They didn’t expect us, but they weren’t exactly overawed.”

“Nefron,” Davis urged.

“As I was saying,” the Chixzon reiterated, looking at Paul and Jason, “these Knights of Quenar are considerably different from the Traelix and not located in the same region. Genetic samples obtained from the air filters confirm this. I believe they are descended from Traelix, but there has been significant reworking of their genetic code since the war. At the time the Chixzon fought them they were traditional quadrupeds. This new configuration is odd, but biomechanically offers several advantages. I believe they have been upgrading themselves through deliberate alteration during the time when the Chixzon were waiting out the galactic ravages. It is precisely this type of enemy the Chixzon wanted to avoid, and the time spent stagnant locked in genetic code has allowed these Knights to advance greatly.”

“Is that good or bad for us?” Jason asked.

“Bad for the Chixzon, unknown for us.”

“Still think they want to talk to you?”

“Yes. Then perhaps kill me afterwards.”

“Which is why we are never going to allow them onto the same ship with you,” Davis said, laying down the first of many ground rules to come.

“I think we need to get you out of here,” Paul said in warning, referencing the Director.

“Agreed,” Riley echoed.

Davis held up a finger. “Not just yet, but long term I think you are right. Nefron seems to be their primary angle, but my being here might worsen matters eventually with regards to the Knights of Quenar or anyone else looking to hurt Star Force. Right now, though, I’m needed to deal with this mess. If we can get it stabilized I’ll slip away back to Earth so if this system blows up, metaphorically speaking, I won’t go down with it and will be able to rally the necessary forces to avenge you,” he said with a touch of sarcasm.

“We need to get a handle on their abilities,” Paul said, trying to get his head wrapped around this. “With the V’kit’no’sat we know their playbook so we’re not afraid of them, same with the Chixzon, but these guys are a blank slate for us and that causes a lot more problems by our simply not knowing what they’re capable of.”

“How did they pick me up?” Davis asked.

“Not with Lachka or any other energy I can detect,” Paul admitted. “But I am pretty sure that whatever it was required them to emit it from their hands or arms. When physically misaligned the effect failed, so I don’t think it’s mentally generated.”

“Some sort of tractor beam,” Nefron suggested. “Possibly biological, but I’m almost certain that shield is technological. None of you made physical contact with them, correct?”

“No,” Jason confirmed.

“Then we do not even know if their appearance is accurate. They could have been wearing full body armor underneath a mimic field to give the appearance that they were unarmed.”

“If it was a mimic field then it was a skintight one,” Paul commented, narrowing down the possibilities. “The mist corresponded to the dimensions that we observed.”

“But they were wearing loose clothing,” Riley added. “Still an opportunity for hidden gadgets underneath.”

“Or within,” Davis wondered. “Cleverly concealed cyborgs?”

“Possible,” Nefron considered. “Their minds were blank. Does that mean you had access to them and they were empty or that there was no presence to locate?”

“The latter,” Jason confirmed.

“Robots?” Paul asked.

“I don’t think so,” Nefron said, “but I can’t rule it out. They did have some genetic material at least.”

“Though that could be camouflage as well,” Riley noted.

“Whatever their abilities are, they are invisible to Pefbar, Rentar has no effect, and they can pass through our shields. I didn’t try bioshields at the time, but right now we need to figure out how they’re doing this.”

“Scans of the room detected nothing,” Davis said, having confirmed as much as soon as he got back to a terminal.

“We’re in a bit over our head here,” Riley said regretfully.

“Which means our first order of business is to catch our breath and start learning,” Davis said as calmly as possible. “If they want to negotiate I can handle that. The rest of you work on learning what you can and implement as many security procedures as necessary on the Zeus to keep them from sneaking onboard.

“Already working on that,” Riley assured them. “This ship is going to become the Alamo so long as Nefron is onboard.”

“That didn’t really end well,” Paul reminded him.

“But they did do a lot of damage before they were taken out, and that’s what they’re going to have to do to get to Nefron.”

“You follow up on that obsessively,” Davis ordered. “Paul, Jason…short of picking a fight with them, work on the psionic and naval angles for any tidbits of information you can gather. I don’t know how long it will take them to assemble and transmit their historical records but…what?”

Paul and Jason were both smirking, but waved it off. “You made a joke without trying to,” Paul told him. “Go on.”

“What did I say?”

“Historical records.”

Davis thought it through, with no bells ringing. “And?”

“Old movie.”

“Send it to me later,” Davis said, curious to see what was so hilarious. “In the meantime we play as nice as we can and stall. There might be a beneficial arrangement to be hammered out with regards to the security they offered. I’m not accepting that or anything else on a whim, but with their cloaking technology no one would ever know how many of them were here or not. That could be an invaluable deterrent against interlopers if word got around.”

“Or are they just playing nice up until they get an in to Nefron and try to either take control of the Uriti,” Riley warned, “or to destroy them.”

“They should be able to do that if they’re half as advanced as they seem,” Paul pointed out. “I think we could, if we really gave it our all, and I’m not talking about using Nefron’s cheat. If they were really insistent about their Oath, whatever it actually is, they’d be killing the Uriti one by one in order to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. The fact that they watched this one while The Nine fought with it indefinitely feels odd to me.”

“Maybe they are as understaffed as they suggested,” Jason floated.

“And maybe they’re being honest,” Davis finished. “We have too many questions and too little data to work off of. So long as nothing is blowing up yet, let’s see if we can’t scrounge up some data or at least confirmations of our own while I ask a few direct questions and see if they’ll give us some freebees.”

9

January 23, 3258

Alamo System

Inner Zone

Davis sat in his quarters onboard the Sanguine Blade, sunk deep into a lounge chair as he stared aching eyes at a datapad trying to get a little bit more reading in before he went to bed. Per his request, the Knights of Quenar had supplied him with historical records. They were very shallow on detail, barely summaries of events, but there were over 6 million years’ worth of records and Davis was having trouble getting through it all. He’d already spent a couple weeks on it and was barely a third of the way through, but he was starting to understand these Knights a bit better.

The records dated back to before their founding, detailing the war against the Uriti from yet another perspective, as well as giving insight into the chaos and barbarism that occurred afterwards in the power vacuum. Those very dark times were what had initially forged the Knights of Quenar and part of their Oath was to never forget lest they allow such unbearable events to occur again. They felt, and rightly so, that what had happened to the galaxy in the aftermath of the Chixzon’s defeat was worse than anything their enemy had done. That was saying a lot, but seeing the pillars of galactic stability go down by the hands of those that had helped hold them up during the war was bound to make anyone start questioning reality.

The Traelix had lost contact with the other prime members of the Ancients after the war, but the KoQ had sought out their remains much later and were able to piece together the varying means of their demise. A few had survived, but none intact. All were weakened or destroyed to the point that the galactic landscape essentially lay barren as thousands of scavengers tore over it trying to gobble up what scraps remained, and then fought each other over those scraps.

Anything that shown the light of civilization was hit, as if there was a mob mentality that was targeting stability and order. Destruction was the appetite of the lesser races that backstabbed the greater ones, and after time passed there were so few building that the destroyers eventually bled themselves dry and the ruins of the galaxy finally knew a sickly peace as the barbarism was confined to local areas and a few bastions of sanity were allowed to survive through anonymity.

Davis could appreciate that, for it was such anonymity that had allowed Earth to survive to this day, but the KoQ hadn’t been one of them. While they did build, it was in the form of a roaming fleet that could not be targeted by the scavengers. Their resources were low, but they preserved and managed them wisely to set themselves up with a mobile base from which to begin striking back at those who had all but destroyed the Traelix in conjunction with the main spur of their civilization. Once the major fighting was over they split, continuing to seek vengeance where the other Traelix did not.

One group, the larger of the two, sought seclusion in order to begin rebuilding in the smallest of ways, hoping to create a new life for themselves and accepting the reality that their great civilization was gone and that they would have to become something else in order to survive.

The KoQ were the smaller group that did not let go the past, but likewise transformed into an elite unit that would never forget their heritage while at the same time not trying to rebuild it. They were the last of the true Traelix, and they would remain true, carrying out their Oaths and insuring that, among many things, the Uriti would not be released or threatened for release in order to leverage others.

Over the millennia that followed they fought one battle after another, usually small, precise strikes, assassinations when need. The killing aside, they essentially became Batman in that they were a planetless force that could not be pinned down that came out of nowhere to strike the unscrupulous and created more stability through sheer intimidation than they did through actual combat.

There was honor in that, but not in some of their chosen methods…and the fact that they didn’t even hide them away in their records showed that their primary motive was in accomplishing the mission rather than a sense of right and wrong. Maybe that was something that originated from their race or was a side effect of the cataclysm that befell them post-war, but it was twisting what otherwise seemed to be an honorable group into savages when the situation merited it.

Then again, Davis had only got through a third of the records, so maybe the more recent ones showed a change in behavior. Right now he was just beginning to get to the part about them finding the need to augment themselves in order to balance the odds when in engagements where they were vastly outnumbered. Their population was small and they did not reproduce fast, though Davis thought that was more out of cultural bias than biology.

The KoQ housed their non-Knights in various facilities, some of which provided industrial support while others were in training to earn their status as Knights. Davis got the sense that there was a stigma associated with the non-Knights and for that reason that part of their pocket civilization was not developed further. After 6 million years they could have regrown to the size of their previous Traelix civilization but they hadn’t, rather focusing on advancement rather than repopulation.

And it seemed that the other surviving Traelix had so abandoned their past that they were now nothing more than a shadow of their former selves, fitting in with the other races of the galaxy and not possessing the technological or cultural heritage that the KoQ carried on…though heavily modified as the Knights pushed to make improvements and changes that ultimately led to the fulfillment of Oaths that seemed to have no end in sight.

There was a knock on his door, with Davis reaching out his limited telepathy to discover who was on the other side. He telekinetically flicked the open button and the narrow door slide aside to let Paul enter.

Davis sighed and tossed the datapad onto a side table. “I could say they swamped us with data, but in truth there’s very little here other than an overview. Please tell me you’ve got something.”

Paul pulled the chair from Davis’s comm station over to him and sat down on it in the reverse position, lounging his arms on the backrest. “I’ve been talking with one of them, remotely, concerning their naval abilities with regards to protecting the Preserve. They were considerate but careful not to give too much away, but I’ve got a nagging suspicion that they don’t fight much.”

Davis raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“I don’t think those are warships. I think they’re mobile field bases.”

“All of them?”

“They can fight if needed, and I’d guess they’re heavily armed. I did get out of them that they do have capture weaponry so it wouldn’t be necessary to kill everyone that came into the Preserve without a ticket, but the way this one talked was more like, and I hate to misuse the term here, but that they operated more like Jedi.”

“I can vouch for the Force choke part.”

Paul frowned. “Did they touch your body or your armor?”

“Actually,” he said, trying to remember, “I think it was my armor, but it got past my shields.”

“Could be intentional or a limitation,” Paul speculated, but moved on. “Their ships are powerful and when grouped together like this can really hurt you, but I think they’re used more for intimation and carrying around their Knight teams. More transports than anything. I think most of their operations are infantry, with a good portion of them being diplomatic. They’ll reason first, apply pressure second, and fight navally last. I don’t think they’re used to having to go to that third option, and I don’t think they’re set up to replace losses. Have you found a size for their operations in all of that?”

“Nothing specific. I figured you had already gone through it, Sav and all.”

“I skimmed, but didn’t find anything too useful. Most of it is boring as hell.”

“I’ve got a lot left to go through, but I think I’m starting to get a feel for them. They’re used to getting their way and being the intelligent one amongst a galaxy of trolls, so if you consider that with regards to their meeting with us what does that tell you?”

“They don’t like wasting time.”

“I picked up on that too in conjunction with the ‘patience’ suggestion. It’s like they know the proper course of action and will allow us some measure of time to come to that conclusion. If we don’t they force the issue. Standard protocol, and not too dissimilar to the way you operate at times.”

“You don’t get out much then,” Paul lightly reprimanded him. “I got the vibe that it was a ‘do as you’re told or suffer the consequences’ theme rather than a ‘you can’t touch this’ one.”

“Is that what you use?”

“It varies, but I do agree that at least the big one was impatient…until we showed that we weren’t pushovers.”

“I think that altered events here considerably, and not just for diplomacy sake. They may be afraid of what you can do because they don’t understand it either, and even if they’re confident of this situation we have an empire that could hold similar skills. I think they’re treading carefully until they get a better grasp of who they’re dealing with.”

“And then?”

“It depends on whether or not they welcome additions to the elite class or are threatened by them. Their dismissal of the issue of Uriti control is curious though.”

“If the Chixzon come back they can make more of them, as far as they know. Stopping that is the greater priority.”

“I think it’s more than that,” Davis said as a thought hit him. “What if they’ve gotten bored?”

Paul looked at him for a moment then caught on. “And our revelation of an ancient Chixzon plan to rebuild suddenly makes them relevant again. Those born after those times are loyal to something they can never touch, but now it’s real, the threat is real, and they’re…eager?”

“Patience,” Davis reiterated. “In that light it makes a great deal more sense.”

“Watching the sleeping dogs isn’t all that fun.”

“More to their Oath. Have you read it?”

“Yes. Pretty standard stuff.”

“But it’s all in the past. There’s nothing to look forward to. They’re maintenance keeping the floors clean and patrolling in front of the locked safe not knowing if there’s even anyone capable of cracking it. Now they know they’ve been dupes all this time and their great enemy was not truly defeated. The war isn’t over like they thought, so now their Oaths have considerably more meaning.”

Paul held up a finger. “They never rebuilt.”

“Exactly. Their heads are still in the war, trying to cling to the conflict and their race’s former glory rather than starting anew. The conflict with the Chixzon was not a short one. It literally defined the Traelix and the other Ancients. It made them defacto rulers over the other alliance members and placed upon them a great burden of responsibility as well as glory. They have clung to that glory, and rebuilding would put the emphasis on current events requiring them to let go of the past.”

“And now they hear from us that the war isn’t over. Round 2 may be about to start.”

“I think so,” Davis said, mentally sifting through permutations. “I think we can use that.”

Three days later Davis walked up to the shallow wall in the middle of the arena and stood face to face with only one Knight of Quenar. It was the one that had been middle of the row on the first occasion, but today he was alone and so was Davis…aside from a fully armored Paul that stood beside him. The Director wore no armor, but the shield was up and separating them from the get-go this time, offering an invisible barrier of protection against a lot of threats, but not against the KoQ’s Force-like ability.

That was why Paul was still here, as backup, but otherwise Davis wanted this meeting as low key as possible.

“Thank you for speaking with me personally again,” the Knight said agreeable. “I do not believe we introduced ourselves before. My name is Keez.”

“I have been reading your historical records, Keez, and I trust you’ve done considerably more research on us by this point?”

“We have made inquiries. Your Star Force makes a great deal of information public, though certain aspects of your skillset have remained well hidden,” he said with a glance at Paul’s opaque helmet.

“We’re fair and open, but we like to keep some of our strength hidden. Telling a potential enemy all your assets is an invitation for them to counter you.”

“Despite the actions of my fellow Knight, we did not come here as enemies,” Keez apologized again. “He misunderstood your hesitancy as one of obstinacy rather than calculation. Am I right to assume you have asked me here to negotiate?”

“You are. Your ultimate goal is to prevent the Chixzon from returning?”

“If we are so fortunate, yes. If they are already here we must locate and destroy them in their infancy.”

“If I told you what race holds their genetic legacy, how would you proceed?”

“We would eradicate that legacy wherever we found it.”

“By committing mass murder?”

“As a last resort. If the Chixzon are allowed to return they would kill far more.”

“Unacceptable,” Davis said firmly. “Defeating the enemy is pointless if you become one yourself. Tagging the Chixzon as the enemy is foolishness if you do not have a reason for doing so.”

“And you ask what is our reason? They seek to conquer the galaxy and subjugate it to their will, destroying those who will not yield and any they deign for other reasons.”

“And if you kill people for reasons you deign, how are you not an enemy?”

“I would say that is because it is a means to a greater end, but I see your logic. You do not want to take dishonorable action and see that the methods are as important, if not more so, than the outcome.”

“Yes, we do.”

“That is not totally without merit, but if you hold back what needs to be done and are destroyed because of that hesitancy your ultimate goal is for naught. There will be no one left to check the unscrupulous from running rampant. Sometimes dishonorable acts must be taken to prevent far greater ones from occurring.”

“We have an old saying. Death before dishonor.”

“Honorable, but potentially shortsighted.”

“We don’t compromise on that which matters.”

“But you barter away the future for the sake of the present.”

“The future is only speculation and never truly exists. Everything exists in the present.”

“Well said, but there are many circumstances where a clean outcome is impossible.”

“We are committed to facing those circumstances without contributing to the filth, even if we cannot prevent it from occurring.”

“And you wish to know if we can abide by these standards here?”

“This is our territory, and it is us who hold the leash on the Uriti.”

“And the identity of this poisoned race.”

“Killing them off is unacceptable.”

“What alternative is there if you do not provide the inoculation? Monitoring them and killing those who transform?”

Davis smiled. “Do you really think we haven’t already considered the problem?”

The Knight’s muzzle rose slightly. “You have found multiple solutions?”

“We possess the Chixzon knowledge of how the genetic coding was constructed. With it, we have created a means to remove that coding without harming the individuals who possess it. It is not suppressed, but erased. Suppression is much easier, though we prefer that the ‘poison’ is destroyed while sparing the innocent carriers.”

“Such a method would be greatly preferable.”

“We have already been inoculating those colonies that we have discovered and are working with other races that have a reach beyond ours to do so as well. The question is, can we trust you to do the same?”

“Our goal is to stop the Chixzon. If we have to kill to do it, then so be it. But we would prefer a less treacherous method.”

“Then we will discuss that matter at a later time. What is your position on this Uriti and the others?”

“We are still observing your control. You are testing its limits and thus far it appears you have a firm grasp on the beast. So long as that remains the case and the Uriti stays within this preserve, we have no qualms with you maintaining possession of it.”

“But you would prefer if they were destroyed?”

“The cost of doing so would be too great…unless you know another way?”

“Cost aside, they are living beings enslaved by the Chixzon. We respect their right to live and are establishing this preserve as much to aid them as to protect the rest of the galaxy.”

“With there being no way to rid the galaxy of their coreward kin, it makes little difference so long as we can be assured that a renewed Chixzon race cannot claim control over them again. How firm is your control over this one if it were to receive orders from afar?”

“The orders would appear to be the same, and I can tell you that there can be none given from afar. The Chixzon required a ship in system to issue orders.”

“Did they? We rarely saw their vessels at all save for the last stages of the war. How complex are these orders?”

“Directional mostly. Go there, destroy that planet, spread minions here. There are no complex chained orders possible, but a region can be denoted for destruction and the Uriti will figure out how to adapt and make it happen.”

“They set loose their creations and let them mark their own path within the bounds of a single order,” the Knight said almost reverently as he referenced the past, “with no threat to themselves in the process.”

“If another Chixzon were to enter this system and transmit orders, they would be equal to our own. The Uriti would not know the difference.”

“Can you rework this one to accept only yours?”

“No. Such things can only be changed during the developmental process. Once grown and released, the Chixzon do not control the Uriti. They only guide them. They cannot be recalled for alterations or captured again.”

“Such power is difficult to reign in even by their masters. What would happen if two contradictory orders are given?”

“The most recent one takes priority.”

“So the only way to ensure that the Chixzon do not claim them again is to put them into your possession, and make sure that your control ship remains intact. Is there no way for you to create redundancy? If this hybrid of yours dies, what happens then?”

“One reason we have brought the Uriti here is to study it and seek alternative methods of control, or at the very lease communication. At the moment only Nefron can control it. It is our goal to find a redundancy without putting another through the transformation process. We will not allow the Chixzon transformation process to occur again, for fear of losing the individual and creating an enemy within our midst. We were fortunate that Nefron had the internal will to break free of the genetic shackles. There is no way for us to cultivate the process. We have one Chixzon that is reliable, and that is all we will ever have. We will not gamble on others.”

“While some would argue otherwise and simply kill off those who did not prove loyal, I am in agreement. Your hybrid is but one and apparently loyal to you, therefore not a threat. Even if he were to rebel, he could not rebuild his race. If we allow more than one to be reborn then the probability of collusion increases dramatically.”

“I can vouch for his loyalty. He is Star Force, not Chixzon.”

“You refer to your ability to read minds?”

“That is not our only method of verification, but it is a primary one. The Chixzon cannot block our telepathy, though they do possess some of their own.”

“Do they now? That is something we never knew. And you are doubtlessly wondering why you cannot read my mind?”

“I am curious.”

“We have dealt with telepathic races before, often to our disadvantage. We have learned not to trust them, and have developed an ability to block their sight of our own minds. Perhaps that is why you are distrustful of us. You cannot easily verify our intentions.”

“You are more of a mystery than others.”

“And that will remain the case in many areas, but there is common ground here for us to negotiate on and you have already given us valuable information. In return we will respect your wishes regarding any actions within this Preserve, as discussed previously with Paul,” Keez said, briefly glancing at the Archon. “We offer our assistance with security, but we will not kill any whom break your designated lines.”

“In principle we accept, but there is a great deal of refining and familiarizing that we must do before we can establish a stable working relationship.”

“I appreciate your candor and your wisdom. Such things are unfortunately rare within this galaxy. How would you like to proceed?”

10

March 9, 3260

Unnamed System

Hamorit/Uriti containment planet

“The last transport is away,” the Chamra representative said via holo to the Zeus command nexus where Riley stood. “The Oracle components are also onboard.”

“Can the rest of you confirm?” the Archon asked the assembled 7 races that still remained loyal to the cause, with the Yisv being notoriously absent, though they were devoting resources to the construction of facilities in the Preserve and engaging in scouting missions around and within Trinx territory in the build up to what would eventually be the reckoning that their former ally had fated themselves with. That said, they still wouldn’t come near a waking Uriti, so they were seen as a secondary member in this new partnership that Star Force now led.

“All Sety assets are clear.”

“We are evacuated,” the Bpret acknowledged.

“All Dati have been removed.”

“Jonstar assets are outside the danger zone.”

“The Domu are likewise clear.”

“We are at a safe distance,” the Breti said, finishing their final checks.

“Alright Nefron,” Riley said to a hidden hologram that only he could see. “Work your magic.”

“I’m going to take this slow,” he advised. “I’m not sure what its mental state will be when it wakes.”

“No rush,” Riley assured him as he checked the status on the KoQ ships. They were holding position in high orbit ready to dive in and assist if needed or to intercept anyone entering planetary orbit. There were only 8 of them here, but the Archon knew they possessed more firepower than any other ship present ton for ton and by a wide margin. A recent weapons demonstration in the Preserve under controlled conditions had confirmed that, giving Star Force and everyone else a none too subtle warning about not messing with them or the neutral zone around the Uriti systems that they had been tasked with monitoring and enforcing in a number of locations.

Star Force was taking the others while limited backup from The Seven and two newcomers called the Shestive and the Lordax were present in the Alamo System for added security where the Uriti had been ordered to take a dip in the star and stay there for a protracted period of time while the Zeus took this little field trip. Shorter tests of the Zeus’s absence had been successful, so both Star Force and the KoQ had decided it was an acceptable risk to leave in order to retrieve the more or less exposed Uriti that The Seven had kept a decent fleet defending.

Riley watched as the status readouts on Bahamut shot up near the danger zone. The sedative was no longer flowing from the shell reserves, and combined with the light prodding signals coming from Nefron the giant Uriti was beginning to stir with a few visible twitches on the monitors. Its pale yellow wing bent slightly, then its snout tipped up a fraction followed by a light roll to one side, but beyond that it didn’t show any sudden signs of waking.

True to his word, Nefron kept the process slow. The Uriti gradually came back to consciousness, then when it finally flushed its senses and found itself ensnared in a giant cage it rose up on its four massive legs and stretched out its wings that nearly touched the sidewalls. Bahamut was some 24 miles long snout to stubby tail tip, and had a wing span of some 38 miles. It wasn’t until the Uriti stretched them out that Riley’s mind truly comprehended their thickness, for they were more than 3 miles of rocky-like flesh that could never have hoped to propel the beast through the air or any other medium.

Instead, when Bahamut stretched them out an energy field formed on top of them, pooling in place until it became like wispy green smoke, then there was a flash upwards and out that a moment later destroyed the monitor everyone was watching. Riley’s view switched to an external one above the dig site where the earth had suddenly become no firmer than dust that was blown off the broken remains of the Ancient shell as the Uriti rose up from it with its wings stretched straight out to either side and not moving, looking for all the world like anti-grav generator or, as a more accurate analysis would dictate, weapons arrays.

“How we doing?” Riley asked just before Bahamut began to climb out of the subsurface crater and head for orbit.

“Cardosan is proceeding to the designated coordinates,” the Chixzon replied gravely, “but its vitals are cascading to the negative. Its slumber was far more costly than Namishta’s.”

“Recoverable I assume?”

“I think so. But it will take a few decades at minimum to get it back to full strength.”

“Time we have,” Riley reminded him. “What kind of speed is this guy going to be able to manage?”

“Less than we thought.”

The trailblazer frowned. “Very well. Slow and steady it is then.”

“Namishta will hold position. Don’t worry about that.”

“First time without a babysitter.”

“Not as far as it knows.”

“Are you sure this one won’t eat the other one?”

“As sure as I can be. They’ve never actually encountered another Uriti before. I would guess base instincts will take over and they’ll group together by choice.”

“And if not?”

“We see if they’ll listen to a stand down order.”

“Lovely,” Riley said, switching his comm back over to the assembled holograms. “It looks like Bahamut is accepting our commands. You and your ships are hereby relieved. Proceed according to other assignments.”

“We stand relieved,” the Sety commander said, with all but a handful of their defense ships starting to head around planetary orbit to another jumppoint and keeping their distance from Bahamut. Likewise the Dati, Bpret, and Breti departed with the majority of their fleets to head back to their own territories. The Chamra and Jonstar fleets, on the other hand, moved into escort formation around the Zeus and its existing guardians, adding their firepower to that which had already been assigned to the Preserve whereas the other races had more pressing needs for them…especially the Sety who were rumored to be hanging onto several sectors within The Nexus by spit and baling twine.

Over the past year relations between the Sety and Star Force had improved considerably, so much so that Davis had told him that the Sety were in desperate need of stability and that if Bahamut was able to be brought back to the Preserve and could coexist with Nami and the restrictions placed upon them, then the Sety were going to purchase several systems in the region to begin establishing trade posts and small colonies in an effort to further link The Nexus and Star Force economies together.

The Sety needed a foothold in the growing Star Force markets, as well as affording them to contacts that existed outside of their own maps that made use of the Star Force transit and commerce systems. The basic idea was that the Sety, and several other Nexus members, could set up shop and not have to worry about security because it was in Star Force territory. They could build without having to devote ships to defend it, and the arrangement being considered by Davis had specified just that. They wanted to slowly cultivate an economic foothold while leaving Star Force to provide security in exchange for a number of other concessions, one of which was to allow some low key member states, such as the H’kar, the choice of leaving The Nexus to join Star Force without having to suffer the penalties that such a break with the others had been promised to entail.

Davis had informed Riley via a message, now that he was back on Earth, that offloading a few minor members that couldn’t contribute to the greater whole of The Nexus was being seen as a blessing rather than an insult, though had their tenuous position not be verging on a major embarrassment they would not have considered such a concession. They weren’t desperate just yet, but a lot more things were being allowed on the table and they were finding a useful trading partner in Davis because he wasn’t just squeezing them to get anything and everything out of them that he could, he was negotiating deals that would benefit both parties.

That was what had truly turned the Sety around, above and beyond the fact that the Uriti were now no longer their constant burden. There was even talk of moving all the others to the Preserve if this one proved successful, and as far as the Sety were concerned it was no longer a matter of pride, it was a responsibility that they were more than eager to pass on to someone else, and that was also a point of negotiation that Davis was using. If they were to get the Uriti that the Sety had possession of, Davis was going to get something in return for it, though that and many other deals were still only on the drawing board, the first of which was dependent on whether or not Bahamut could play nice with Nami and stay within the borders.

With the first stage of the experiment a success, Riley and the others watched as the giant Uriti made its way to the jumppoint and then over to the star. The Knights of Quenar sent their ships ahead first, then the Zeus and its escorts followed Bahamut out of the system to begin the slow trek over to the Preserve that was fortunately much closer than the last time they did this. It’d still take months to get there, but it was just next door compared to some of the Uriti that the KoQ had identified almost half a galaxy away.

The fleets that parted ways with the group traveled out on individual jumplines headed back to different home territories, but one system out the Sety ran into a waiting Yisv fleet of considerable size, informed them of the successful waking and removal of the Uriti, then continued on. The Yisv then traveled back to the now broken shell and landed their people on the surface to begin cleaning up the wreckage to insure that no one else happened along and collected the materials and technology of the Ancients. There were enough technologically advanced enemies for them to face as it was, and they didn’t need any more upgrading themselves by reverse engineering or salvaging the large sections of the shell facility that were below the blast radius.

There were several ships here already there that fled upon their arrival, and one of which had recovered a party sent down to the surface. The Yisv didn’t know what they had gotten, if anything, but they insured there would be no coordinated excavation of the rubble other than their own, carefully collecting and cataloging each piece that they then spirited away on their ships back to their own territory. They’d never been a caretaker of a Uriti facility, for obvious reasons, and while others had been able to study the technology in detail they never had…until now.

So their volunteering to clean up the site had been automatic and welcomed, for the rest of the races were ready to be done with the Uriti if at all possible, and were more than willing to tick this system off their ‘to protect’ list.

When the Zeus returned to the Alamo System behind Bahamut it was just in time to see a massive burst of radiation hit his ship. From the sensors that he was linked into via the command nexus he knew it wasn’t damaging, but the origination point was obviously Bahamut. The burst was consistent with observed behavior of Nami after her release from confinement, only this wave was much smaller.

Riley checked ship status reports for his escorts and a few others that were nearby, finding they were all still operational save for a few sensor arrays being blown out on automated sentry pylons set in low stellar orbit that allowed all blind spots around the stars to be monitored constantly. Before Riley could get bombarded with questions, Nami’s signature within the smaller star began a rapid rise, eventually coming up out of the stellar material aglow with recently stored energy that gradually faded as it moved further into the coldness of space…which was odd considering how much energy the Zeus’ shields were having to block to keep the hull plates from getting scorched.

That was just another example of how foreign the Uriti were, literally existing in the same universe but in totally different pockets of it.

When Nami came out and into the black she headed straight for Bahamut, who likewise headed towards her. Riley wondered if this was a battle challenge or a rush to say hello, but Nefron quickly put that question to rest with a quick play by play of their registered mental stats. They were not in contention at all, but were eager to see another version of themselves for the first time.

When the two Uriti came together they almost hit each other, not able to slow down fast enough, then the two held within a couple miles of one another and just sat there basking in each other’s aura and having a very long conversation that Nefron was eavesdropping on as much as he could and gathering data with every passing second.

Hopefully listening to them talk to each other would give Star Force a clue as to how to communicate with them someday, but for right now Riley was just glad they weren’t fighting, as well as being grateful to be able to facilitate this…well, it wasn’t a reunion if they’d never met before, but they’d obviously been built to have a pack mentality and now they were finally being able to put to use that part of their psyche.

The orbit matching continued on for several hours until there was a cascade of yellow lightning that passed between the two of them in what looked like a storm that lasted for more than 10 minutes, after which nothing changed and they continued to hold close formation.

“Nefron?”

“It wasn’t an attack, but it wasn’t something the Chixzon engineered into them. Nor is it any behavior previously witnessed.”

“They only had one captive,” Riley pointed out. “Please tell me that’s not a reproductive cycle.”

“It’s not, I can promise you that much. The Uriti have been altered so they cannot reproduce, and the progenitor was asexual. Beyond that I can tell you nothing. I have no idea what just happened.”

“Take notes,” Riley urged. “With two of them together I get the feeling we’re going to be finding out a lot more about them than the Chixzon ever knew.”

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Table of Contents

- Star Force: Intellect (SF85) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr

- Star Force: Bahamut (SF86) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr

- Star Force: Zealot (SF87) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr

- Star Force: Quenar (SF88) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-Ki Jyr