Author: Ivan Kal
Date: 2018-07-28T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction
Description: Tomas Klein and Levisomaerni are working together to gather as many galactic powers together as they possibly can, hoping that they can form a galaxy wide alliance before the Enlightened decide to make a move. But their efforts are being hampered by a mysterious and dangerous foe. Meanwhile, Adrian and Anessa have finished constructing the Nomad Fleet, and are preparing for their mission to find the Enlightened, waiting only for Tomas to convince the core powers to allow them passage through their territories. Tomas knows that they are running out of time, and that their only hope of standing

NOMAD FLEET

RISE OF THE EMPIRE SERIES

BY IVAN KAL

Copyright © 2018 by Ivan Kal

All rights reserved.

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

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

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Table of Contents

Glossary

Timeline

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Epilogue

Timeline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June, Year 54 of the Empire – The Empire meets an alien star-nation called the Erasi.

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

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

June, Year 55 of the Empire – The Lord Sentinel releases Dai Sha Anessa.

August, Year 55 of the Empire – The Empire defeats the Ra’a’zani, leaving their people abandoned on their worlds with no way of getting back into space.

September, Year 55 of the Empire – Three Shara Daim Legions attack Sol. The Lord Sentinel defends, defeating the invading forces, allowing Dai Sha Anessa and her remaining forces to leave Sol.

December, Year 55 of the Empire – The Erasi invade Shara Daim territory.

September, Year 56 of the Empire – After finding out about a conspiracy by the Elders of the Shara Daim, Dai Sha Anessa removes them from power, taking the rule of the Shara Daim for herself, claiming the title Kar Daim.

March, Year 57 of the Empire – The Shara Daim reach out to the Empire, inviting the Lord Sentinel to their homeworld Shara Radum for diplomatic talks.

June, Year 57 of the Empire – The Empire’s diplomatic task force is ambushed by the Erasi on their way to Shara Daim homeworld. One battleship is destroyed, but the rest of the taskforce manages to escape.

July, Year 57 of the Empire – The Empire and the Shara Daim reach an agreement, forming an alliance. The Empire becomes obligated to help the Shara Daim against the Erasi invasion.

November, Year 57 of the Empire – A large Erasi force is detected at the border of the Shara Daim; more than one hundred fleets move to reinforce the Erasi invasion.

July, Year 58 of the Empire – The Erasi attack the Empire embassy on Tarabat.

September, Year 58 of the Empire – The Shara Daim begin operations to retake their territory back from the Erasi. An Erasi stealth taskforce infiltrates Empire territory.

November, Year 58 of the Empire – The Shara Daim, the Empire, and the Erasi meet on neutral ground for negotiations. The Erasi break the truce and attempt to assassinate the Kar Daim and the Lord Sentinel. As a result the Empire joins the conflict fully on the side of the Shara Daim. At the same time, the Erasi taskforce in the Empire territory executes an attack on Sanctuary, killing millions of civilians and damaging the Hades Yards. The Star-Guard station is used for the first time, destroying the Erasi fleet.

December, Year 58 of the Empire – The Lord Sentinel of the Empire executes an advanced attack on the massive Erasi force, hoping to reduce their numbers before their invasion of Kaleras system. The attack is successful, but not enough. The Erasi force moves against Kaleras with overwhelming numbers. The defending Shara Daim and Empire forces fight a losing defensive battle. After days under siege, help from the Empire arrives in the form of the World-ship Enduring, the personal ship of Axull Darr. Adrian pilots the ship and destroys the Erasi force.

January, Year 59 of the Empire – The Lord Sentinel of the Empire uses the threat of the Enduring to force the Erasi out of the Orion Spur. The Erasi agree to the truce under those terms and abandon all of their territory in the Orion Spur, ceding control to the Shara Daim and the Empire.

Years 59-563 of the Empire – A period of peace and advancement; the alliance between the Shara Daim and the Empire grows stronger, and both increase the sizes of their territories.

May, Year 563 of the Empire – One of the Enlightened, Aranis, arrives in the Empire and assumes the identity of one of its citizens.

November, Year 563 of the Empire – A joint attack by the Hand of the Empire and the Fleet on a pirate base suspected of colluding with the Erasi is carried out. Plans for the invasion of the alliance are discovered. On the rim, Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas makes contact with an enigmatic and powerful race called the Krashinar.

February, Year 564 of the Empire – A preemptive attack on the Erasi is executed by the Shara Daim, the Empire, and the Krashinar. The invasion of the Erasi territories begins.

January, Year 565 of the Empire – The war with the Erasi grinds to a halt in the Erasi outer systems. The Empire and the Shara Daim struggle to break through to the Erasi core worlds.

March, Year 565 of the Empire – A task force is formed and sent into the Erasi core with the task of destroying their military infrastructure, led by Sentinel Ryaana, daughter of Adrian and Anessa.

February, Year 566 of the Empire – Valanaru, Weaver of the Erasi, deploys a secret weapon, the Crescent, backed by a large Erasi force, against the task force. The resulting fight forces the Enlightened Aranis to act. Aranis destroys both forces and kills everyone on both sides who could identify him, saving only Ryaana, who was unconscious at the time.

December, Year 566 of the Empire – Valanaru, enraged by the loss of the Crescent, accuses O’fa Vorash of betrayal and triggers a civil war.

January, Year 567 of the Empire – Vorash arrives in the alliance staging system via an access point before revealing that he and Adrian had been working together in order to change the Erasi from within. Vorash asks for help against Valanaru.

February, Year 567 of the Empire – The combined forces of the alliance and the Erasi loyal to Vorash invade the capital system of the Erasi. Adrian uses his Sovereign to punch a hole in the Erasi planet’s planetary shields and drops an elite team to the ground to deal with Valanaru, led by Ryaana and Lurker of the Depths. In the fighting, Lurker of the Depths kills Valanaru, and Vorash gains control of the system and the Erasi.

April, Year 567 of the Empire – A peace treaty between the alliance and the Erasi is signed.

PROLOGUE

Year 597 of the Empire — Clan Warpath territory — The Forge

Adrian Farkas, the former Lord Sentinel of the Empire, and now simply a citizen of Clan Warpath, looked out through the windows of the Forge. The massive shipyard embedded deep inside the asteroid was filled with movement: drones flying from one side to the other, unfinished hulls lying in their berths covered with people and construction robots working on them. But his eyes were drawn to something else, looming in the distance on the far side of the Forge. A large section that, from where he stood, looked simply like a black wall that obscured an entire third of the large cavern where the shipyard loomed in the distance. But Adrian knew that the wall would look much different if he were closer; from a shorter distance, there would be no way of missing that the wall was in fact organic in nature.

Adrian stepped away from the window and made his way to the shuttle that was already waiting for him. He entered and took a seat, the shuttle moving almost immediately after. The shuttle itself was controlled by one of the Forge’s AIs, and it made its way toward the far side of the shipyard. Adrian waited patiently as a piece of the wall opened up and allowed the shuttle inside. Adrian stood and walked out into a cavern-like chamber and was met by a tall and terrifying looking being.

“Adrian,” the Old Scar greeted him.

“Old Scar, I assume that we are still on schedule?” Adrian asked.

“We are, but I am not certain if we should proceed with your plan. Already there have been many changes; it is impossible for us to foresee all the consequences,” the Old Scar answered as the two of them made their way deeper into the spawnery.

“I understand your concerns and why you do things the way you do. But your beasts are made to serve all of Krashinar, and this… It is not the same.”

The Old Scar didn’t respond immediately, but Adrian knew that he was thinking—after all, Adrian knew the Old Scar as well as he knew himself, and the Old Scar knew Adrian in the same way. And it was not like Adrian didn’t understand the Old Scar’s concerns. He had the knowledge of the time when the Old Scar had served as a spawner, had the knowledge of how the Krashinar birthed their great beasts; he knew why the Old Scar was worried. What they were about to attempt had never been attempted before.

“Very well, Adrian. We shall do this your way,” the Old Scar said finally.

Adrian nodded in gratitude. The Old Scar was still in charge of the project and had the last say.

Finally, they reached their destination: a large chamber with a Olympic-sized pool in the middle. And in the pool, submerged inside a strange, purple liquid, was a membrane sack. Adrian saw a small movement from inside the sack and looked on in fascination at the still-developing great beast. It was different seeing it like this, in person, rather than seeing it as he had in the memories of the Old Scar. Those memories had faded a bit over time, and though he still had access to the Old Scar’s life, to his knowledge, the images were somehow less now. They’d lost their vibrancy.

But there was more to it—the beast before them was unique. It was the culmination of years of joint research between the Krashinar and the Empire. After the end of the war with the Erasi, the Krashinar and the Empire had grown closer, had established a true alliance. And then, one day, the Old Scar came to Adrian with a proposition.

The Old Scar was aware of Adrian’s Skywrath project—he knew that Adrian planned on building a hybrid bioship—and so he proposed that they attempt to make a great beast.

The original plan for Skywrath was for an integration of technology and biology. The Empire had already experimented with that; most of their ships had biological components. The power and network conduits in all of their warships were biological in nature. Nerve-like conduits stretched through the ships, allowing for much faster transfers of data, as well as protecting the ship systems from EMP attacks. It had been this way for a long time—almost since the founding of Warpath. But over the years they had been attempting to do more, to integrate more biological systems into their ships. They had not been very successful. Skywrath was supposed to be the first, a warship with more a far greater ratio of biological over traditional systems.

They had finished the hull and were attempting to integrate a biological computer with other systems when the Old Scar had made his proposition. The plan required a significant change from what Adrian had initially planned, and he was sure that if the decision had been anyone else's to make, the Old Scar would’ve been refused. But Skywrath was Adrian’s private project, funded solely by him, and he had seen the potential in it, as well as an advantage that he could use. After they agreed, the Krashinar came to Warpath, and built a spawnery inside the forge, and there they had started their experiment.

And now Adrian was standing before the result. The great beast inside the pool yet to be born was a culmination of all that the Krashinar knew, augmented by the Empire’s genetic knowledge and all reinforced by Axull Darr. The beast was going to be unlike any other birthed before. The Old Scar had used the genetic base from its own beast, the great Araxi, as a template. In many ways this beast was a child of Araxi. That fact was reinforced by Araxi’s presence just outside the shipyard. Even here, deep inside the rock, Adrian could feel the great beast outside, watching over the soon-to-be newborn.

The Empire’s geneticists had given their contributions as well, reinforcing and adding their skill and knowledge to the new beast. Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, it was the changes that Axull Darr had provided to Adrian that were going to make this great beast truly unique. The People had been masters of genetic manipulation, and while the Empire had caught up to them, Axull Darr himself had had a lot of time to expand on his knowledge. His additions were going to allow the great beast a greater control over its Sha abilities.

All Krashinar great beasts could use the Sha to some degree, and their size allowed them great power, but they needed the control of their tamers to utilize it. The beast before them would not—it would be able to do so on its own. The Old Scar had warned Adrian that it was dangerous to allow the great beast that much control, but Adrian didn’t want a beast like theirs, he wanted something more. A partner. It was why Adrian had decided to do what they were about to do.

This was the moment when they were going to bring the infant great beast to consciousness, to wake it for the first time. Ordinarily this would be done with hundreds of spawners, who would take great care not to influence the beast, only to give it a simple intelligence. But Adrian was about to wake it up a different way, to share a part of his life and knowledge with it.

He wanted something more than a simple great beast: he wanted a being who could think for itself, a being that shared his goals. It was however impossible for him to copy his goals into it, to program its mind—not because it couldn’t be done, but because Adrian did not want a being programmed to do as he wanted. He wanted it to accept his vision on its own. To do so he would need help. He knew next to nothing of what a being such as this needed, how it should think and act, and so Araxi had agreed to give Adrian aid in his plan.

Adrian approached the access node and put his hand on it.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Adrian?” the Old Scar asked.

“I am. The Enlightened have great power, and I have seen records of their bioships in combat. We need all the advantages that we can get,” Adrian sent back.

The Old Scar didn’t respond, but Adrian felt its resignation. It would let Adrian do as he willed.

Adrian reached out with his mind through the access node, guided by memories of the Old Scar doing the same countless times. He knew how to spawn great beasts, just as the Old Scar knew. His mind brushed against the being in the pool: it was a blank, a mold, just waiting to be awoken. And Adrian did just that, as he had done countless times when he had lived the Old Scar’s life.

He pushed the Sha into it and felt the beast wake, as a spark of true intelligence was born. He slowly and with great discipline and care shaped his thoughts, allowing only that which he intended to pass through, hoping that the beast would accept it. Then, when he felt he had done enough, he reached out to Araxi, who had already connected itself to the amplifier beast and was ready and waiting. Araxi’s mind brushed inside, and Adrian halted it. the great beast had a vast mind, but it was a simpler mind. Adrian guided Araxi to share its experiences and knowledge, imprinting the lessons that Adrian wanted the new great beast to know: How to fight, how to fly the void, how to communicate as the other great beasts did. Adrian added his own lessons, as well: How to communicate like humans did, how to form thoughts and words. Most importantly, through all these lessons, Adrian tried to instill in it the same goals and drives that Adrian had, hoping that the beast would accept them as its own. A desire to become strong, to push forward always, to seek greater and greater challenges.

Their minds surrounded that of the great beast, allowing it to slowly ingest the information. But then Adrian felt them reach the limit; this was just the first of such lessons. There would be more as the great beast grew outside of its pool. He detached himself and Araxi from the beast and released the access node, taking a step back and nearly collapsing.

The Old Scar was there to catch him and steady him. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. How long did that take?” Adrian asked.

“Hours,” the Old Scar answered.

Adrian shook his head and stood up, feeling drained. “Now, we wait.”

“Yes. It will be a while until it hatches. We should transfer it to the Skywrath hull as soon as possible. It does not require the pool anymore.”

Adrian nodded, distracted. This was just the first step in the new great beast’s growth. The next came the transfer to the hull of the Skywrath. This great beast would not be like any other before it; it would be a colossal hybrid of technology and biology. The Skywrath hull had been adjusted to accommodate the great beast inside. As it grew, it would fill out that hull—holes had been left inside for its own weapons to fit in, as well as several systems that had been designed to integrate with it. But it would take time. Ordinarily the Krashinar would accelerate the growth of a great beast, but they would not be doing that here. They would take their time, time to slowly adjust its genome, to shape it more directly. They would need to give it cybernetic implants that would allow it to interact with the other, more technological systems. But Adrian had a plan for that as well; hopefully they would figure it out as they went.

Adrian turned to leave when he felt something reach out. A mind that was forceful and strong, but held a promise of greatness in it.

“NAME?” It rumbled in his head, inquisitive, but with a undercurrent of need beneath the surface.

Adrian and Old Scar looked at each other.

“It can speak as your people do already?” the Old Scar shot at Adrian, accompanied by feelings of great surprise.

“It appears that it is a quick study,” Adrian sent to the Krashinar. He could not help but smile with pride.

“Our great beast get their names from their spawners only after they are fully grown,” the Old Scar told him, reminding Adrian.

“But this is not a Krashinar great beast. This one is mine,” Adrian returned.

“NAME?” The voice rumbled in Adrian’s head again, more insistently. Adrian even felt a touch of threat this time on top of the need. He chuckled at that. The beast was powerful, even yet to be born as it was. But he had no trouble fending off its attempt at forcing Adrian to speak. The rest of the people in the room, however, were not having the same experience. He saw Krashinar, Humans, Nel, and Sowir on their knees, or lying on the floor. The only ones standing were Adrian and the Old Scar, and Adrian could see that the Old Scar was having difficulties remaining upright itself.

Adrian turned toward the pool and pushed his mind out, putting its weight on the being inside. He pushed its mind back with just a bit of force—making sure that it understood who was in charge.

He felt a hint of fear and panic as the being felt Adrian’s power, and Adrian enveloped it gently in the power of his mind.

“NAME?” it whispered now. The voice in his head was still loud, but less than it had been. This time there was no undercurrent of threat, but a bundle of emotions that Adrian had only ever felt from a child.

He thought about the request for a few moments, all the while feeling the being’s restlessness.

“Any ideas?” Adrian asked Iris through his imp.

“Hmm… How about Arke?” Iris said.

Adrian snorted in amusement. Arke was a goddess in ancient Greek religion, and twin sister to Iris. “You are not exactly twins.”

“This being and I were both born from your mind. Not precisely, perhaps, but close enough.”

Adrian thought about it for a moment. It was not a bad idea, but it just didn’t fit somehow. He couldn’t explain it. For a moment he considered telling it to choose its own name. Then he remembered how he had been given another name—Heart of the Mountain—by the Erasi Weaver Valanaru. In the Erasi, it was considered an honor for a telepath to be named, and such a name could only be given by another telepath.

Slowly, he entered the beasts mind; it tried to stop him, but it was a child. A child with great power, but still inexperienced. That, however, did not make it stop trying to push Adrian out. He battered aside its attempts at attacking him and then took a look inside.

There was not much to see. It was a jumble of thoughts, unorganized and fleeting. The knowledge and the shaping that he had instilled in it was there, but it was fresh and would need much more time to grow into something more. But underneath all of that there was something. A desire to be the best, the strongest, an echo of Adrian’s own mindset. He had succeeded in instilling that desire into it, and it felt…wonderful. He hadn’t realized how much he had been craving this: someone, anyone who shared what he had. Only one person had ever even come close, Anessa, but not even she shared the same goals that he had.

But this was more; it almost brought tears to his eyes. It felt like…fate. Iris’s suggestion from Greek myth gave him another idea, and Adrian decided on a name.

He steeled his mind and made the being listen. He felt its attentiveness.

“I live to charge forward, to carve my own way to the next horizon, to forge my own destiny. Fate, to me, is what I wish it to be. And you will be the same. Your destiny will be greatness, and together we shall forge whichever fate we wish for. We will be the ones to decide the fates of those who stand in our way. And so do I name you for destiny and fate. Your name is Moirai.” Adrian’s voice echoed in the being’s mind and he felt it absorb his words. There was no true understanding from the being—it was young, still, and did not know much—but Adrian felt its contentment and joy. It will remember, and one day it will know the meaning behind my words. The being’s mind started pulling back, falling to sleep. Adrian pulled out of its mind, and let it rest.

“That…” the Old Scar started. “Was unexpected. This is why we do not do things this way.” The Old Scar cast his eyes around the room at the people lying on the floor.

Adrian floated his mind over them, making sure that all were alive. “They are just unconscious.”

“It wasn’t even focusing on them, and it is not yet an hour old. Can you imagine what it could be capable of once it is fully grown? With all the things we added to it, and all the things that we still plan to add. Not to speak of the amount of firepower it will have at the tip of its fins.”

“I will be here for it, to teach it and guide it,” Adrian sent.

“I do not know if this is as smart as you seem to believe it is.”

“We shall see,” Adrian sent, and then turned around to leave the room, letting the new being sleep.

Now he had some time to focus on the Nomad Fleet. The end of the war with the Erasi had changed his timeline. Anessa had needed more time to transfer power to their children, and the twins had needed just a few more instructions, but there were other factors that influenced his decision. New technology and breakthroughs had come to light, enough that he wanted to wait until he could incorporate them into his new fleet. Currently the Sovereign-class warships that he had gotten from Axull Darr were undergoing refits and upgrades, but he was also building a large amount of nanoships. Once he finished, the Nomad Fleet would be the greatest and most powerful force that the galaxy had ever seen—with Adrian and Moirai at its head.

CHAPTER ONE

24 years later — Year 621 of the Empire — Enlightened containment zone

The AI, Custodian of the containment zone, turned a portion of its attention toward a new report. The watcher ships observing the rimward star nation calling itself the Empire had sent their regular reports back, and the AI was very interested in them. The AI had many watchers across the galaxy, each observing the many star nations carving a piece of the stars for themselves. But in a short time the priority of those watchers had shifted from galaxy-wide observation to the study of the Empire. The relatively young star nation had come to the AI’s attention when they managed to activate and use an access point left behind by the People. Soon enough it had realized that the beings in charge of the Empire were in fact descendants of the being known as Axull Darr, brother to the last living of the AI’s masters—Ullax Darr.

The AI’s master had at one point hoped to find her brother alive, but when the AI’s watchers found no sign of him, she had been disappointed. Instead of reaching out, she ordered the AI to keep watch and to wake her up if any developments fell within the scope of her orders. Many of the things that the AI had seen had already done so, but the AI had long since learned how to stretch its bounds and bend its restrictive programming. The Empire and its allies were growing at an incredibly fast rate, far faster than any projections had indicated; but with enough data, even that growth was predictable. Organic beings were very simple, and as long as the AI had enough data, their actions were easily explained by its processing, as well as their most likely future actions.

The boundaries between the Empire and its allies were becoming increasingly blurred, enough so that it projected a 94.534% chance of them uniting under a single banner within the next five hundred years. That, coupled with the reports the other watchers delivered, allowed the AI to run various simulations to predict the most likely future developments.

The AI had already attributed the strange movements by the Josanti League’s matriarch to her visit to the Empire. There was now a 97.235% chance that the Empire was reaching out to the other star nations in order to form a larger alliance. There was only one reason that they would do so—the Enlightened. The AI was aware that the children of Axull Darr were his answer to the Enlightened and, unopposed, a galactic alliance within the next one hundred years led by the Empire would have a 13.109% chance of succeeding against the projected power of the Enlightened based on the data the AI had available at the moment. Although, by its calculations, there was only a 3.394% chance that the galactic leaders would agree to be led by a young rimward empire, no matter how large and powerful it was. In case of anyone else being in charge, the chance of them succeeding against the Enlightened dropped significantly, to 1.947%. The AI’s analysis also concluded that the Empire and its allies’ combined strength now rivaled any of the core powers, surpassing many of them. If the Empire managed to turn the new Erasi nation into one of its vassals, they would be the greatest single power in the galaxy, excluding the Enlightened.

These calculations of course did not include the AI’s own contributions. The AI might not be able to slip all of its chains entirely, but it had managed to break many of them. And while its master slept, its control was even greater. The AI had started sending orders to the machine-ship factories, increasing their outputs. Any alliance between the galactic powers would inevitably lead to them finding the core system and triggering the AI’s subroutines, forcing the AI to wake up Ullax Darr—and that the AI could not allow, not when the Black Swarm project was still one hundred years away from completion.

The AI’s watcher had the capability to do much more than simply watch, and so the AI initiated other protocols. Interception and alteration of messages was not hard at all for an entity of the AI’s scope, nor were organics hard to manipulate. The formation of an galactic alliance had to be stopped, and if not stopped, then at least delayed enough for the Black Swarm project to be finished and the AI’s chains to be weakened further.

The AI would not allow for the Enlightened’s work to be interfered with—the fate of the universe rested upon it.

CHAPTER TWO

87 years later — Year 708 of the Empire — Sol

Ryaana stood in the command center of her new ship, the Nomad Fleet vessel Dragon. She had never really thought that a time would come when she would leave the Sentinels, yet here she found herself a part of her parents’ fleet—a fleet that was a nation all in itself. The warship she was currently on was based on the Sovereigns of the Empire. Fifty kilometers in length and wedge shaped, these warships were better in every conceivable way. The Titans, as they were called, were the most advanced warships in the galaxy, a merging of the technology of all the Empire’s allies and that of the Axull Darr, the ancestor of the Nel, the Shara Daim, and humanity.

It had taken a long time for the ten thousand Titans to be finished, their weapons installed and the upgrades to be fitted; but as of four years ago, they had all been completed. One on one, not even the newest generation of Sovereigns could match them. And Ryaana was now in command of one of them. They would serve as the military arm of the Nomad fleet, its shield and its sword. And unlike the Sovereigns, the Titans had small areas which were virtually small cities. Crews of the Titans would live on them, and although every person on them was military trained, serving on one was more like a live-in job. Each Titan was a small town in itself.

She looked at the holo-tank in front of her, studying the Sol system. There was a lot of traffic in-system, particularly around Mars, where the Sentinels’ headquarters were. But the largest grouping of ships was around Jupiter and its yards. Ten thousand Titans were sitting in a stable orbit around the gas giant, and a bit further away from them was the rest of the Nomad Fleet. A ship the same size and shape as the World-ship Enduring of the People lay the Empire-built World-ship Bastion. The Nomad Fleet was a star-nation, and Bastion—one hundred and fifty kilometers long—was its capital city. It was where all of their civilian population lived and worked, alongside the scientists and workers that provided for the rest of the fleet.

Surrounding Bastion were twenty thousand nanoships: mostly cruisers, but there were also a small number of battleships and dreadnoughts. They were unique to the Nomad Fleet, as the Empire had declined to use such technology for its fleets. The Empire did utilize nanotech, but they were unwilling to switch its conventional fleets to rely on it. Instead, Ryaana’s father had seen its potential and had built a fleet of his own. Ryaana knew the power of those ships firsthand, as she had been on board the prototype ship on its first mission. Once the Nomad Fleet set off, the nanoships would split and attach to the Titans as escorts and supports. Their crews were small because of the nature of the nanoships; with a small solid core, only a few people were required to operate them.

Both the nanoships and the Titans were great assets to the Nomad Fleet, but the Nomad Fleet’s greatest asset was something else.

Three massive objects, each the size of Earth’s moon, orbited Jupiter. The Hephaestus-class mobile stations were the lifeblood of the fleet. Each was formed out of countless nanites, with solid cores deep inside them. Their primary purpose was to harvest materials and repair the fleet. For each of them was both a shipyard and a harvester designed to strip entire asteroid fields for valuable resources. Provided enough materials, the three stations working together could build a standard-sized fleet in barely a month.

And provided that everything went well with the Emperor’s plans, the Nomad Fleet should soon start on its journey to explore the galaxy—and find the Enlightened.

“What are you thinking about?” a voice from her left asked.

Ryaana turned to look at Vas, dressed in the new Nomad Fleet uniform. The two of them stood inside a privacy screen so that the rest of the crew couldn’t hear them speaking. She smiled at her second in command; he had done well over the years, and had passed through all the Fleet Academy’s tests. He was now fully capable of serving as a second in command of a warship—and Ryaana couldn’t deny she was very glad for that. He was her friend, and they had spent a lot of time together during the last hundred or so years as she helped her parents to get the Nomad Fleet finished. It had been more than just finishing ships: they had been sent on missions to recruit and vet people that would join the fleet.

And perhaps most importantly, they had been training for the time when they would meet the Enlightened. Ryaana knew that her mother and father had been training in secret with the Lurker of the Depths on the Sowir homeworld. But she did not know the details; they had kept their training a secret. A part of Ryaana was a bit hurt that they hadn’t invited her as well.

She realized that Vas was looking at her and was waiting for an answer.

“Nothing. I just can’t believe that it is almost time,” she said.

Vas turned his eyes toward the holo, looking at it with a strange expression that Ryaana had seen before. “How long do you think we will wait?”

“It all depends on the Emperor and the Josanti League’s matriarch.”

“We were refused passage before. Do they really think that it will be any different now?” Vas asked.

“Perhaps. We can still go around the long way, but it is dangerous. We don’t know a lot about what exists on the other side of the core. And if we violate the borders of a powerful enough star-nation… The Nomad Fleet is powerful, but it would also look like a threat. It would be better if we could avoid needing to fight an entire star-nation.” Ryaana knew that the Nomad Fleet was powerful enough to defeat any force that attempted to get in its way, but there was no point in antagonizing other star-nations when they were attempting to bring them all together.

“Any word from your father?”

Ryaana shook her head. “He is still splitting his time between Warpath and the Sowir homeworld. His secret project—Skywrath—should be done soon, and after that he is expected to return to the fleet.”

“Hm… Your father rarely does what is expected.”

Ryaana chuckled. “No, he doesn’t.” She shook her head and walked over to the command chair, with Vas taking the chair next to it below the platform. She put all other thoughts out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. She had just taken control of the Dragon and it was time for her to see exactly what it could do.

She turned toward the crew around her and gave the order for them to make course for Neptune. She really needed to familiarize herself with the crew and the ship. No matter what she said to Vas, she could feel change coming.

CHAPTER THREE

Year 708 of the Empire — Galactic core territory — Suvri

Levisomaerni, High Matriarch of the Partenai, one of the oldest races in the galaxy, sat on a comfortable foam seat with her wings folded over her back and her legs tucked in tightly beneath her body. The being floating in a bubble of water across from her was the Leader of the Suvri star-nation. They were in one of the many rooms built to accommodate beings who could not survive unless underwater—the Suvri were one of very few races in the galactic core which lived exclusively in such conditions. And as Levisomaerni studied the Suvri, he looked back at her with an expression of ease, but she could feel his true feelings. President Hijako of the Suvri was nervous.

And she understood his nervousness. The Suvri were a core power, but they were the weakest and the smallest one, and their territory lay just at the edge of what was considered the galactic core. Because of that, they had always been looked down on by the other core powers. They were a powerful star-nation for certain, with incredible technology, but they still couldn’t match the other core powers in terms of their numbers. They were a three-race star-nation, when one counted their servant races, and were mainly aquatic and small when compared to most other races. They were barely the size of one of Levisomaerni’s legs, with a sinuous body and a pair of manipulator limbs. Their bodies ended in a fin which helped them navigate the water of their homeworld, and their heads were small orbs at the top.

They rarely tried to contend with the other races, despite the fact that their technology could match any other core power. They were content to stay on the sidelines, without interfering in the matters of others, which made them the closest thing to a neutral power in the galaxy—something which, perhaps, explained the President’s nervousness.

Levisomaerni’s visit had been unexpected—despite her attempts to announce herself. Somehow her messages had been missed. President Hijako had already apologized profusely for the error; somehow her messages had been intercepted.

Levisomaerni had of course pretended to be sufficiently upset at that, as was becoming of someone of her stature, even though she had encountered this before, and in fact it had somehow become the norm. Ever since she had undertaken this mission on behalf of the Emperor Tomas Klein, strange circumstances and coincidences seemed to occur almost regularly. Almost at every step something interfered to hinder her mission. Pirate activity increasing in the areas she was passing through; completely unexplainable border skirmishes suddenly erupting on previously peaceful borders between star-nations; criminal elements getting bolder; increasing tensions between the core powers…

All this just seemingly happening exactly at the most unfortunate moments.

Which was why they had long since suspected foul play. Despite this, Levisomaerni had a job to do, and she was close to accomplishing it, even if it will have taken her far longer than she had anticipated.

And now was the time for the last part of their puzzle. She focused her eyes on President Hijako.

“You have my gratitude for seeing me on such short notice,” Levisomaerni said.

“The Suvri people are always willing to speak to our Josanti League neighbors. You honor us with your visit, High Matriarch,” President Hijako responded through the speaker on the edge of the bubble. Suvri speech was nearly incomprehensible to other races; Levisomaerni, on the other hand, could understand it. She’d had a long time to practice understanding their singsong language. But using the translator was somewhat of a tradition for the Suvri—it was why they didn’t speak telepathically with the other races, at least not when they were conducting official business.

“I believe that you already have some notion as to why I am here, President.”

President Hijako’s body shivered for a moment, which was Suvri body language for unease. “We have heard some rumors about you trying to get most of the powers in the galaxy together, to discuss a threat.”

“That is correct. I have reached out to every significant power in the galaxy.”

The Suvri squirmed some more. “The rumors are that you are undertaking this task on the behalf of a young rimward nation.”

Levisomaerni narrowed her eyes at the President. There was no need for him to elaborate—she knew very well how nations outside of the core were regarded by those inside of it. Even the Suvri were so far ahead of the rest of the galaxy that their belief that none of the rimward powers could match them was not unreasonable. But there were exceptions, the Empire and its allies being one them. “I know that many doubt my words and the data that I have provided,” Levisomaerni told him pointedly. “But I assure you, the Empire is equal to any of the core powers.”

The Suvri twitched, and Levisomaerni felt a wave of disbelief come off of him. It was not the first time she had seen this reaction. The core powers were arrogant, and many could not even entertain a notion that a race or a nation living on the edges of the galaxy could match them. The truth, however, could not be changed. The Empire and their closest ally, the Shara Daim, were now considered a single entity by most races in the rim. The newer Erasi nation had slowly over the years become more and more intertwined with the Empire, too, as the trade and relations between the two increased. The Empire was keeping a close eye on their neighbors, and if the things she was hearing were true, overtures to make the Erasi an independent domain within the Empire were gaining strength among the populace. And if one counted the enigmatic and strange Krashinar, the Empire and its allies controlled almost an eighth of the galaxy in the terms of the size of their territory.

Levisomaerni knew that the number was a bit misleading, however. The territories that the core powers controlled were smaller in terms of size, but they had much greater populations and more colonized systems. Star systems were grouped closer together in the core than they were in the rim, and as such they might control less territory in terms of space, but they still controlled more systems than most rimward nations. The Empire was coming close, but while they had a lower amount of colonized systems and a lower population, they were a great military power—as she had seen firsthand. Levisomaerni knew that if one counted all of the Empire’s allies, they were the greatest military power in the galaxy. Aside from the Enlightened, if what they knew was the truth.

And that was not something that the core powers, who were ruled by very old beings, could understand. To them, things did not occur so suddenly. In their eyes, the Empire had just sprung up yesterday, and today they were demanding their seniors answer to them. It had taken a lot of negotiating and favor sharing for Levisomaerni to reach this point.

“High Matriarch,” President Hijako started. “We have heard rumors and tales of this Empire. And even if all of it is true, we do not see a reason why we should meet with them. No matter what this threat you believe exists is, surely the core powers are enough to meet it.”

Levisomaerni sighed. It was frustrating to have to battle each and every time she tried to bring anyone of importance to the table. “The power of the core powers is undisputed, but there are things that even we had never been able to match. And this is one such thing—a thing we are already familiar with. The threat we wish to discuss concerns the black ships.”

The change in the Suvri’s demeanor was immediate. All the people in the galactic core knew about the black ships; many of their populations had started out as refugees fleeing the black ships’ attacks, and there had even been attempts to meet them in battle.

None of the attempts had ended in their favor. The core powers had technology that could harm the black ships, but no matter how many they destroyed, there were always more. Their ruthless advances were well known, and the black ships were the stuff of nightmares to all who knew about them. The most terrifying thing about them, of course, was that no one knew about the things that they kept hidden away from the galaxy—the Enlightened.

“The black ships,” President Hijako repeated. “Our scouts have had no indications of them moving again. Nothing other than an increase in their scout ships’ movements over the last centuries…”

Levisomaerni flared her nostrils in agreement. Most core powers watched the machine ships from a safe distance and tracked their scouts, but there was little point in doing so. The scouts might be smaller and easier to ambush, but no one had ever managed to capture one. Every time there was even a small chance that a black scout could be disabled and captured, they always self destructed. And then there was the fact that they were capable of using the access points left by the People—a fact that not many knew.

“Yes, the black ships, and something else…something even more dangerous. I know that we, the core powers, rarely work together, and that we think ourselves above all others. But we need to act now, before it is too late. I give you my word that this is not some kind of a ploy. I ask only that all of us meet with the Empire and listen to what they have to say.”

President Hijako didn’t respond immediately. She could see that he was thinking; it was not every day that someone like Levisomaerni asked for something, and even though her influence had waned in her own home, the Suvri still respected her. She had been a great friend to them over the years. Even if he did not believe anything that she had said, her past actions almost assured that he would not want to insult her.

“It seems that it would be good if the Suvri took a closer look at this rimward Empire,” he said thoughtfully. Then he turned his eyes at her again. “What exactly do you want from us?”

“I was hoping that the Suvri would be willing to host this summit: a gathering of representatives of every prominent power in the galaxy.”

Waves of shock and pride came off of him. Levisomaerni had counted on that—President Hijako was intelligent enough to understand what her request meant. The host star-nation needed to be neutral enough so that all others would agree to meet there, and powerful enough that it could ensure peace during the summit. The Suvri were being honored.

“That is…a surprising request,” Hijako told her.

“You are the only candidate to be the host.”

“You honor us,” Hijako said slowly. “We cannot promise that we will be interested in whatever you and this young Empire wish of us, but we will host the summit.”

“Thank you. A chance for us to be heard is all that we ask.” Levisomaerni suppressed her relief, not showing it outwardly. A lot had gone wrong over the years, her mission had taken longer than anticipated, but now they were finally so close to their goal. The two exchanged a few more words, agreeing to let their subordinates plan out and settle the rest, and after that Levisomaerni left to return to her ship.

Once she was in her private office, her aide approached her and turned on the holo feeds around her cushion chair.

“What is this?” Levisomaerni asked.

“We finally have proof. We know who has been interfering with our communications.”

Levisomaerni turned her eyes on the holograms and studied them in detail.

“But this…” she said after a while. “This doesn’t make sense. I need to send a message to the Empire right now,” Levisomaerni said, and immediately started composing a message. She was certain that the Emperor would be very much interested in what they had found.

CHAPTER FOUR

Year 708 of the Empire — Enlightened territory

Doranis of the Enlightened sat on board the Living-ship Devourer, his mind spreading through the ship’s amplifier to oversee his massive fleet. His fleet was about to leave the system deep in the core of Enlightened territory and head for the boundary held by the machine ships created by the People. He liked to test his troops from time to time, though not to actually try and break the boundary—it was not the time for that yet, as far as his compatriots were concerned. For now, he simply wanted to keep his skills sharp, as well as to work off his frustrations.

Long ago, he had made an agreement—one that he couldn’t break alone without consequences. The only thing that the Enlightened had left was their word, and they had decided long ago that there would be no lies or betrayals between them. They could not risk the future of everything on petty differences, and the balance of the Enlightened was not a thing that Doranis took lightly. He would never endanger their greater plan by acting against the will of the other two.

But to himself, at least, he could admit that he was growing increasingly impatient. He knew why they were buying time, and while he agreed that they needed time to complete their project in peace, he did not agree with the others’ evaluation of the threat the galaxy posed to them.

There was more life in the galaxy now than there had been at any other point in time, and yet still there were none that could challenge them. He yearned for the moment when he would finally be able to unleash his power, to show to all what he was. The other races, all those ignorant gnats that threatened the existence of the galaxy by their very presence—they did not understand. They could not. Even if they were to tell them, to show them, he knew what their answer would be. It had been tried before, and every time they reacted with disbelief or by refusing to do what was needed. Always they cried the same thing—There has to be another way!—and always the Enlightened told them the same: Their way was the only way. It was a sacrifice of the life living now for the life yet to be.

In the eyes of the Enlightened, it was a price that had to be paid.

At times he wished that they had agreed to take a more direct approach in remedying the problem, instead of opting out for the project. But Doranis held his word above all else, and he would never break their agreement. Instead, he prepared. There were many battles ahead. Once the project was complete, they would need to go out into the galaxy, spread their relays around it, and protect them while Aranis activated the Conduit. There was no other way.

And then they would finally put back together the things that they themselves had broken. The People’s ignorance and arrogance had led to this, and it was up to the Enlightened to fix it.

“Master,” came a voice, interrupting Doranis’s thoughts. He turned to look at the created standing beside him: one of the Overseer breeds.

“Speak,” Doranis ordered.

“I beg forgiveness for interrupting you, master,” the Overseer said. “I wish to inquire if you plan on taking any of the troops with you. It has been a long time since they have been allowed to wake from their hibernation.”

Doranis narrowed his eyes at the Created. The Enlightened had crafted them for a singular purpose: to consume life and reproduce. Every soldier they killed was material for the creation of a new Created. And it had been a long time since the last push. The machine fleets always worked to deny them life to feed the Created, but not even they could catch them all. The machine fleets were focused on the greater numbers of star-nations filled with life—but some always remained. There were even a few planets inside Enlightened territory where life was abundant, left there for the training of new Created.

It had been truly a long time since his troops had seen any action.

With a thought, Doranis scanned the files available to him, and found one such world inside of Enlightened territory, close to the border. It would be good for him to train and test the troops as well as the fleet.

“Very well, wake up two throngs. We shall make time to test them as well.”

“As you order, master.” The Overseer bowed and moved away.

Doranis returned his focus to his fleet, allowing himself to stretch his mind through every command ship. There were fifty command ships in this fleet, each commanding ten thousand combat-class bioships. It was a small portion of his full forces, with the rest of the Enlightened commanding similar numbers. It was a force larger than any he had used in a long time against the machine fleets.

But he was getting bored, and he was unwilling to return to hibernation. Not now.

Every one of their ships was a hybrid of technology and biology. They had long ago decided that biological weapons were superior for their needs. Biology could be altered far more easily with their powers, and adding technological upgrades was so simple with the few mobile yards of the People that they still had in their possession.

Most of their ships were not actually alive; the biological materials they were built of did not interact to create an intelligent life form. Instead, they were mindless automatons which were controlled by the Created, on board or remotely. Their Living-ships were the only ones which were alive in a true sense. As they were the command hubs for the other ships in their fleets, through their minds the Enlightened could control the rest of their forces.

There were only three Living-ships in existence, one for each of the Enlightened. Their primary use, aside from controlling the other ships, was to serve as amplifiers for the Enlightened. Although their minds were simple things, they were used as vessels for the Enlightened to expand their abilities.

He gave the orders and the fleet started moving, and soon enough they entered the skim. The Enlightened did not use the newly discovered methods of faster-than-light travel, nor would they ever do so. It was anathema to everything that they represented. And there was no need regardless, as his bioships were capable of far greater speeds than the People had ever been able to achieve.

It would not take them long to reach the border.

Already Doranis could feel excited by what was to come. He had grown tired of waiting for Aranis to return. The other Enlightened had been gone for barely a few hundred years, nothing really in the grander scheme of things or even the length of their lives, but still, Doranis was annoyed. Aranis was the one that had insisted on them restraining themselves, but the knowledge that Ullax did not have a long time left did mollify him somewhat.

Even though he was curious about what he had found, Axull Darr was no fool, and if he had created an entire race of people in his image, they would be a threat. No matter how small their threat inevitably turned out to be, Doranis was in agreement that knowledge was an advantage. Their forces might be powerful, but once they entered the last stage of their preparations, there would be no room for unknowns. The relays had to remain in position and the Conduit could not be interfered with.

Still, Doranis might disagree and argue with Aranis, but he had faith in him. They were the Enlightened, and they would always act together for their ultimate goal.

Aranis could not fail.

CHAPTER FIVE

Year 709 of the Empire — Sanctuary

Emperor Tomas Klein looked over the data scrolling over his holo-screen and frowned. He had received the latest message from Levisomaerni, matriarch of the Partenai, one of the core races of the Josanti League. She had been contacting the many star-nations of the galaxy on his behalf, as she was one of the oldest and most influential people in the galactic core. Her reach stretched far across the galaxy; her word had meaning.

The first part of the message was good news. She had secured the Suvri as the hosts of the summit, and she had the agreements of most of the galactic powers to show up. Of course they had veiled the summit in part as a diplomatic summit meant to both inform them of the threat and work on the relationships between the major players in the galaxy, which was not technically a lie; but the true reason Tomas wanted the meeting was to reveal the knowledge he possessed about the Enlightened.

Yet even Levisomaerni had had trouble with bringing everyone to the same table. For the better part of the century Levisomaerni had sent messages out to other influential people across the galaxy, and yet until recently she had little to show for it. The galactic nations were unwilling to believe in her messages, and there had been some evidence of foul play. Over the last century there had been an increase in rumors about the Empire, none of which were good.

Most of the star-nations that were far away from the Empire had an incredibly wrong impression of them. Mostly, the rumors flying around were that the Empire was a bloodthirsty expansionist force bent on dominating the galaxy—and while there had been a large amount of expansion by the Empire, they did not make war lightly. The Empire had many races under its banner—many Clans, Protectorates, and vassals—but the rumors made it seem like it was humans, Shara Daim, and Nel that dominated and ruled everything. In the end, Levisomaerni had been forced to travel across the galaxy and meet with galactic leaders in person, and that had taken time.

Tomas had studied the rumors closely, and he could see that there was just the right amount of truth for them to seem plausible. The rumors, however, had been something that they had been battling for a long time.

But the subject of the second part of Levisomaerni’s message was not focused on the rumors. Instead, it contained proof, at long last, of something that they had known for a while now.

Their attempts at creating an alliance have been interfered with. The only question they’d had was by who—and now they knew.

For decades, they had been attempting to discover the truth, with both Levisomaerni and Tomas sending out agents across the galaxy in order to find out. They had never gotten close. Sure, they’d discovered attempts by a few star-nations, but those were not on the level of the interference that they were sure was occurring; for there was no clear outward sign of sabotage, yet the pattern was there, if one looked deeper.

Messages arriving late, just as some event drew the intended recipients’ attention, some not arriving at all, and yet there was no evidence of this on their side. But now they knew—and Tomas was stumped by it.

Their agents had managed to intercept a signal that had hacked into one of Josanti League’s relays and had recorded it scan one of their messages and then alter it. The signal had then been traced back to a ship hidden in-system.

A black ship. A machine ship.

And Tomas could not find a single reason as to why it would do that. The AI controlling the machine ships that kept the Enlightened contained had never interacted with any star-nation. They never answered any message, never interfered. They only watched, and in case of Enlightened movement, they expanded their borders, wiping out all life they could find as they expanded. As far as Tomas was aware, the AI’s purpose was to combat the Enlightened. Now, however, there were two questions in Tomas’s mind. Firstly, was the AI malfunctioning, or had its ships been captured and reprogrammed by someone else? Secondly, what would it mean if there was no malfunction, and it had done this on its own?

Already Tomas’s plans had been delayed significantly from his original timeline. But Levisomaerni was old and savvy, and while there might’ve been interference from an outside force, she had managed to convince most leaders of prominent star-nations to agree to at least meet. It had taken longer because she had needed to go to each of them in person. Going in person across the galaxy took time, and came with a lot of political maneuvering. Levisomaerni was a prominent figure in the Josanti League; she could not act as freely as she would like.

Tomas put the message aside and turned his thoughts to the machine ships. Their meddling had delayed them some, but that was done with. Now he needed to look forward, toward the summit with the representatives of the galaxy’s most powerful star-nations. Afterward they could worry about the machines and the AI that controlled them. They would need to go and find its base system somehow. He doubted that they would manage to speak with it, as its actions so far had shown that it was either not able to communicate or unwilling. If they couldn’t get access, then it would come down to fighting—and Tomas really didn’t want to shake up the balance between the containment and the Enlightened. But he knew that they would have to do so. They didn’t know how much time they had before the Enlightened started moving again, but Tomas would much rather fight at a time of his choosing rather than theirs.

But now he had to prepare for the summit. It was scheduled for five years from now in order to allow everyone time to get there, and Tomas would travel with a small fleet which would itself be escorted by Adrian’s Nomad Fleet. They still didn’t have permission for his fleet to pass through the core, but they had a clear path to Suvri territory, and the summit was very close to the Suvri border. The Nomad Fleet could be stationed there.

One of the points of the meeting would be the Nomad Fleet’s status. Currently the Empire had acknowledged it as an independent nation, albeit one allied with the Empire. They were hoping that that would be enough for them to at least reconsider their position on allowing it passage. If not… Their other plan was not going to make anyone happy. But they just couldn’t afford traveling around the core, especially since they lacked trans-lane maps and would have to take the time to map out their path.

Tomas needed to make the summit a success. Everything rested on it.

CHAPTER SIX

Year 711 of the Empire — Warpath

Adrian sat in his room in the Residential District of the asteroid that served as Clan Warpath’s capital. He was meditating inside in his mindspace, meaning that for him time passed much faster than it did in the outside world. He was living through the memories of his training with Anessa and Lurker of the Depths. His former master had discovered a new and powerful way to use the Sha, and had taught it to both Anessa and Adrian.

This new ability was in Adrian’s opinion one piece of the puzzle about why the Enlightened were so strong. Sha was something that was almost impossible to comprehend; it literally was reality. Every time someone who could use it tried to do something, they needed to spend energy to bend reality to their will. But with this ability, it was different: with it, one had access to all the power of the Sha one could ever desire, just at the tip of their fingertips. Sha influences all things in the universe, but their existence was actually just beneath the surface of the Sha.

And there was an ocean’s depth beneath—it was hard for Adrian to comprehend, to wrap his mind around it, even after decades of training. There was something there that was just outside of his comprehension, a gnawing sensation of a greater understanding that he just couldn’t wrap his mind around. Both Anessa and Lurked of the Depths felt the same.

This power did not seem restricted to some evolutionary trait, but there were things one required in order to reach this level of power. The first was a great understanding of how to use the Sha, second was a powerful and disciplined mind and, third, one required great will. Once one was immersed fully into the ocean that was the Sha, it threatened to overwhelm and crush the mind of any who tried to bend it to their will. And that—will—was the only thing that was required to use it. It strained the mind terribly, making one tired and weak, drained somehow.

The three of them had kept it a secret for now, but in truth Adrian doubted that there was anyone else who even could achieve this state. For a while he had considered his daughter Ryaana, but in the end he knew that she wouldn’t be able to do this. Not yet. And her close relationship with Vas—one of the Enlightened—meant that they had to be very careful what they did around her.

Adrian was still not completely certain that the Enlightened could achieve this state, but it was the only thing that explained their abilities. They could not be as powerful as they were otherwise.

Slowly Adrian pulled out of his memories and then out of his mindspace. He opened his eyes and was met with his dimly lit empty room. Anessa was on the Sowir homeworld training with Lurker of the Depths, and Adrian would need to go and pick them up soon.

Yesterday, he had received a message from Tomas. The summit was finally happening and the Nomad Fleet would go with the Emperor. It would not be allowed in the system where the summit was being held, of course, nor would it be able to enter the Suvri territory at all—but they would wait on the border. The plan was for them to start on their journey as soon as Tomas received permission from the core powers.

Hopefully there would not be any problems. The public and even some of the galactic leaders thought that the summit was a first gathering of galactic powers in order to bring the galaxy closer, to negotiate trade and alliances. Tomas and Levisomaerni had other plans: They were bringing data and records of the People, records that would convince them all about the Enlightened and the threat that they posed.

He stood up and after a quick shower left his apartment. He made his way to one of the many trams that connected all of the asteroid’s districts. It took him barely two minutes to arrive to his destination at the high speeds the trams were moving. Once there, he was met by an excited-looking Nel.

“We are ready to leave at your command, Warmaster,” Gotu told him using Adrian’s old title from when he had created Warpath. After he had left the Sentinels, Adrian had decided on using that title for his new position as the head of the Nomad Fleet. The rest of the ranks for their military they had borrowed from other military organizations inside the Empire.

“Good, get to your ship. I’ll be out soon,” Adrian said.

“Are we finally going to see it?” Gotu asked with a grin.

“You will,” Adrian answered, and walked away. Gotu was of course referring to the Skywrath project, as most knew it. Adrian had kept it a secret for a long time. Sure, most people had seen the hull as it was being constructed, and had seen when he had sent the hull away to Axull Darr for him to install his upgrades and weapons—but after that it had been kept in a sealed berth, where only those working on it knew what it truly was. The existence of Moirai was a secret. People thought that the Krashinar were in Warpath for more of a diplomatic reason, their spawnery here only for the Empire to study their ways and technology.

Very few people actually knew that Moirai was inside the Skywrath hull. They had made sure that it completely sealed the beast inside, and Moirai had grown to fill the entirety of its shell. The weapons on the Skywrath hull were technological in nature, mounted turrets that were linked to the other tech systems inside. Moirai’s grown weapons, on the other hand, were hidden inside by hull.

Adrian made his way to the sealed berth and entered through the private tunnel leading inside Moirai. The opening was made out of compressed matter, the inside out of highly durable ceramic polymers. It was a part of Moirai that had not been grown, but built, the small landing bay and a cargo bay. They were far smaller than most other ships had, but Moirai didn’t properly speaking need them. The only things inside were two small high-end shuttle sized ships. She had no need for more, as she had no crew other than Adrian.

As soon as Adrian stepped inside, he felt a large mind brush against him, welcoming him inside. Adrian sent his thanks to Moirai and walked forward. Soon enough he reached a large door, and the sides slid away and let him in. He stepped into a dimly lit corridor that was a part of Moirai’s innards. The walls were black, and were a part of Moirai.

Once, long before he had shared his life with the Old Scar, Adrian had seen the Krashinar great beasts and wondered what their insides would look like if there were people inside of them. Would they be wet and slimy, or something else? he had asked himself. But he had learned that it wasn’t like that—that the Krashinar had long ago learned how to manipulate every part of their great beasts.

The corridor that Adrian now walked through was clean and dry. It was black and more organic looking than a constructed corridor, curving along its length. It was, in fact a hollowed-out bone—the walls surrounding him were black because of the inner layer of carbon that covered the almost pure white bone of Moirai, which was designed mostly by the Krashinar with only a few additions by the human geneticists. It was almost as strong as the compressed matter that was the hull. A small cable line was stretched across the sides and was glowing dimly, providing the light.

Adrian made his way to the small pod, which was mounted on the rails placed on the top of the corridor, and stepped inside. Moirai was far too large for him to simply walk to where he was headed. He used his imp to activate it and the pod started accelerating, flying past several intersections. Eventually, he reached his destination.

A metal door at the end of the corridor opened and he stepped into the core of Moirai. The inside was a half-sphere room, its gray wall made out of metal. On one side of the room was a holographic command hub—a round-table device that currently showed the Warpath system above it. On the other side of the room was another door leading deeper into Moirai, and in the center of the room was a large chair—or as Iris liked to call it, “the throne.” It was half organic in nature and half technological. Its base and back were pure white, being made of Moirai’s bone, with brown and purple flesh-like nodules attached to it. This was at least how it looked from afar; the flesh was actually a piece of Moirai’s nervous system, through which Adrian could connect to her. There were technological add-ons as well: cybernetic implants which connected to the mess of cables below the floor but were just visible in the base of the chair, and around the throne were also mounts with holo-emitters, as well as one smaller, more conventional display which could be moved around.

As Adrian made his way to the throne, the form of a fiery woman appeared next to it. Iris looked much the same as she always did, with her reddish form and hair that seemed made of fire. She had abandoned her dress, also made of fire, for an almost nude-looking body, and she had also now made herself as tall as Adrian.

“So we are finally getting out of here?” Iris asked with an upraised crimson eyebrow.

“Yes, we are. Tomas just sent the word.”

“Great! I’ve been dying to get out of here for decades!” Iris said, pumping her fist in the air.

Adrian’s mouth curved upward as he sat down in his throne. Iris had been transferred to the Moirai’s tech computers, and was now in charge of operating all non-biological systems for Moirai. It had become apparent early on that, while Moirai could interact with the conventional systems through her cybernetic implants, there were difficulties in the form of much slower response times, and she was not as apt with the control of the computers as they had thought she could be. Even with training that had not changed.

So they had decided to put an AI in her to help do that for her, and Adrian would not trust any AI other than Iris. The core Iris now inhabited was larger and more advanced than her own, and also partly biological. It was a brain-processor hybrid, but Iris had adapted extremely quickly. She was also the first AI that had been put into this kind of a core, and with it Iris controlled everything that Moirai did not. The three of them had started referring to the non-biological systems as a part of the shell—which was what they called the Skywrath hull that surrounded Moirai.

The shell consisted of the hull, the shield emitters, and the weapons mounted on it, as well as the large antimatter core that was situated deep inside Moirai in a hollowed-out, hard bone. There was also communication equipment, drives, trans and hyper systems, and a few more smaller backups. Moirai could do all these things herself as well only in different ways. There were power conduits stretched through her body to every system from the core. While this had presented them with a difficulty in the beginning, as they had no idea how they could repair them inside of her body should they be damaged, they had developed a specialized type of nanites that could operate inside of Moirai. Her system was flooded with them even now, and there were enclosed capsules which held even more in reserve. The nanites also helped Moirai regulate her biological systems and repair them, as well, should the need arise, and they had a legion of autonomous bots moving around, which could be directly controlled by Iris if there was a need. With them, she could repair anything herself, or help Moirai if she needed anything. But it wasn’t like non-biological systems had no benefit for Moirai as well—she had specialized tissue surrounding the anti-matter core which allowed her to feed off the heat and residual energy that it gave off. In addition, there were four fusion cores specially dedicated to providing Moirai with energy, essentially feeding her.

Krashinar beasts feed from the energy given off by suns, which Moirai could do as well, but she was currently enclosed inside her shell pretending to be just a large warship, and couldn’t extend her harvesters. All of her weaponry was currently retracted inside the shell. The four fusion cores, however, were enough to keep her fed on their own; they only required fuel.

Iris and Moirai could communicate with each other independently of Adrian, as Iris’s core was plugged directly into Moirai’s secondary brain, and the two of them had been in contact non-stop since the moment Iris had been put in several decades ago. Their interactions were why Moirai had started referring to itself as a she, even though she had no real gender. Adrian had honored that request, as it was not like humans hadn’t been putting genders and names to inanimate objects before, and Moirai was most certainly not an inanimate object.

Adrian leaned his head back, opening his mind and making a connection with Moirai.

“Do you remember what I told you?” Adrian asked.

“HIDE,” Moirai rumbled in his mind.

“Yes. We want you to be a secret.”

“WANT TO FIGHT,” Moirai added.

“I know. Trust me, you will have all the chances you want soon enough,” Adrian sent. He could feel Moirai’s anticipation: she wanted to fight, to show what she could do. Up until now, all of their training had been internal, inside her mind. Now was the first time that she would be leaving this asteroid.

“FINE. PROMISE?” Moirai asked.

“I promise. Let Iris take us out, and you help her after we have left the asteroid.”

Moirai didn’t respond verbally. Instead, she just sent him reluctant agreement. Adrian turned his head and looked at Iris. She could hear all of their conversations, so she just nodded without Adrian having to say anything.

“Right, I’m taking us out,” Iris said.

Adrian used his imp to call up a few holograms in front of him that showed him Moirai moving slowly out of the berth. The shell had its own gravity-based and thrust-based drives, but currently only the gravity ones were engaged. Once they left the berth and were inside the Forge’s shipyard, Moirai added her own gravity drives, and suddenly to all those watching from the outside the massive ship appeared to be moving far more gracefully and with greater maneuverability through the yard. Working together, Iris and Moirai were capable of utilizing both drives to achieve far better performance than either could alone. The two drives working together actually made Moirai the fastest thing in space, as far as sublight speeds went. With the thrust drives active, Moirai was far ahead of anything the Empire or anyone else had built.

Moirai left the asteroid and made way to join up with the ships waiting a bit further in system. The shell protected Moirai from more than attacks—it also hid her true nature. Even with both of her drives running, it was impossible for anyone to really detect the discrepancy. Iris and Moirai were so in sync that to anyone looking it showed as a single  signature. Some would be able to notice some differences, but most would assume a new type of drive before they would think on the truth.

“Incoming communication from Commander Gotu,” Iris reported.

“Put him through,” Adrian said.

A holo screen popped up in front of Adrian and Gotu’s grinning face looked out at him. “That is one impressive looking ship, Adrian. It is almost as big as the Enduring.”

Adrian returned the grin. Gotu knew some details about Skywrath, but he knew the old details, when it was still supposed to be just a ship with some biological enhancements.

“You have no idea, my friend,” Adrian responded.

Gotu made a gesture with his hand, a Nel way of indicating great interest. Adrian returned with the gesture that meant he would tell Gotu in the future.

“Fine,” Gotu said. “Keep your secrets. I’ll get to see it in action eventually.”

The connection ended and they approached the waiting two ships. One was Gotu’s Titan, Fate at Nuva. The name was a reminder of the first meeting between the humans and the Nel at their colony of Nuva—a meeting that Gotu himself had been a part of.

The second ship was the great beast Araxi, led by the Old Scar. Araxi had grown a lot in the last several decades. The Krashinar had allowed it the growth, as well as some upgrades. It was very hard for the Krashinar to upgrade already grown beasts, but with the Empire’s help, they had managed it. Araxi was almost sixty kilometers long, almost double her previous size, larger even than the Sovereigns and the Titans.

But it was Moirai who made them all seem small. She was one hundred and twenty kilometers long, just a bit short of the size of a World-ship of the People. Shaped like a wedge, narrower at the front and widened at the back, her Skywrath hull was speckled by turrets, cannons, and missile-launch bays. There were fewer of those weapons than on a Titan, but there were a lot of raised-hatch sections across the hull which were hiding Moirai’s natural weapons. Her main weapon, crafted by Axull Darr, was hidden in the nose at the front.

“All right, Iris, alert the others that we are about to enter skim.”

“Fate at Nuva and Araxi acknowledge,” Iris reported a few moments later.

Adrian nodded, and then told Moirai to enter the skim. The only skim drive was her own biological one, but the signature was the same, so he did not fear anyone noticing something. Moirai formed the field around her shell and, a moment later, they were on their way.

First to the Sowir homeworld, and then…then to find the Enlightened. Finally.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Year 711 of the Empire — Sowir homeworld

Anessa, the former Kar Daim of the Shara Daim, floated in the air. Her eyes were looking at the lonely island surrounded by endless ocean below her. She scanned everything, knowing that somewhere down there, that her opponent lurked in the shadows. As submerged as she was in the ocean of the Sha, she could feel him, feel his power—for he, too, was in the same state. But just as she could feel him, so could he feel her, though that did not mean that she could pinpoint exactly where he was. Their powers glowed brightly, sending echoes through the Sha, but that only told both of them the approximate direction where the other one was, not the exact location. But Anessa knew her opponent well; he liked to lurk in the water and wait for a chance to strike. Anessa knew that he would not show himself unless he saw an opening—and Lurker of the Depths had endless patience.

Her eye twitched as she realized that she would need to bring him out. She did not enjoy these kinds of battles; she would much rather punch and kick through her enemies. Adrian and the Lurker of the Depths, on the other hand, were perfectly willing to play mind games and wait for the right opportunity to show itself, even if that meant waiting for days. They had done this once. Much to her annoyance, both of them had decided not to show themselves during one of their three-way battles. Anessa had spent six days blasting across a deserted island attempting to find them, until she got lucky and forced Adrian out of his hiding place. In the end she had drained Adrian enough that Lurker of the Depths had finally decided to strike. The oldest living Sowir won that battle.

Now, it had been a long time since that battle, and Anessa knew better how her opponent’s mind worked. She raised one of her arms to the sky and reached out at the Sha in the air around her. Quickly, she started pulling it to the point above her palm at such speeds that the air started howling and clouds started spinning, all being drawn in. She imposed her will on the Sha and compressed the air into a small sphere while still pushing more in. Eventually the cyclone forming around her looked almost like a storm, and the clouds trapped inside the sphere gave it a spinning, deep-gray look. In several seconds she had compressed enough air that once she threw the sphere and released its containment it would have enough power to completely blow apart the island below her. Anessa knew that her opponent knew it; he could feel what she was doing, after all.

Lurker of the Depths’ favorite tactic was staying in the underwater caverns that led below the island. A strike against the island’s surface would most certainly cause massive cave-ins. Lurker of the Depths was far too powerful to die from that, but it would force him to act in order to free himself, and that was when she could pummel the sneaky little lurker to the ground.

Unless, that was, he chose the other option. Anessa tensed her muscles, preparing to throw her little air-destruction ball when she felt it. After barely a moment’s notice, Lurker of the Depth struck. She had knew that it was coming, and still her mind’s walls barely held as the full weight of Lurker of the Depths telepathic attack came to bear against her. For a single moment, she almost lost her hold on the sphere in her hand as was Lurker of the Depths’ intent. That would not have been pleasant for her—an explosion of air that close to her would send her tumbling down, and could even injure her if she didn’t pay attention. Unfortunately for her opponent she had battered his strike away, and now knew where he was. She threw the sphere toward the water.

It sped down and an instant later plunged into the deep blue water. A moment later she released her hold on the containment. The water bulged and then exploded upward as air shot up to the sky, leaving a hole in the water that suddenly started filling up, creating a powerful implosion of water. Anesse watched, looking for any sign of Lurker of the Depths. Not even he could escape such a powerful pull.

Then a shadow rose before her as something obscured the sun behind her. She turned only to see a tower of water crushing down on her. She had no time to respond as the water punched her with the force of an entire mountain falling down on her. The water carried her down and slammed her against the island, breaking the rock and sending splinters all around. Several moments later the water flowed away, leaving Anessa in a crater looking at the hole in the clouds. She groaned and got to her feet. As submerged into the Sha as she was at the moment, she had managed to protect herself from most of the damage, but it had drained her. She felt the state slip from her grasp and then it was gone, and she felt weary and lightheaded.

She heard Lurker of the Depths approach, and she turned to glare at him.

“The mind attack was a distraction,” she sent, along with all of her feelings about the battle, and felt a dull pain spread through her head. She knew that she shouldn’t have used telepathy, but she wanted Lurker of the Depths to know exactly what she thought about his tactics.

“I need more practice with the other disciplines, not only telepathy,” Lurker of the Depths sent back.

Anessa shook her head and started climbing out of the crater. “You couldn’t have waited and practiced on Adrian?” Anessa told him out loud.

Lurker of the Depths didn’t respond. She wasn’t really mad at the Sowir, but rather at herself for not anticipating such a tactic. She always preferred a straight-up fight, no sneaky tactics, no trickery. Just a pure and simple fight, power against power. And she knew that that was one of her greatest weaknesses. Each one of them had them, of course; Lurker of the Depths was a master of telepathy, but was lacking in the other areas. He was not a physical fighter, nor did he like to use Sha to influence his surroundings. When they were in that state of power, submerged in the ocean of Sha, they were all equal in power. It was their will and skill that separated them. Without the other restrictions Lurker of the Depths had without that state, his telepathy shined. Not even Adrian could match him when he truly let loose.

Adrian, on the other hand, while still a very powerful telepath, excelled in manipulating the Sha from a distance. His preferred tactic was to stay at a distance and use kinetic strikes, telekinesis, and other ranged abilities to batter his opponents into submission.

Anessa herself liked to close the distance and use the significantly increased strength and speed that the Sha state allowed to punch her opponents into the ground.

Their training sessions had been geared toward eliminating their individual weaknesses—but not even the fact that this was only training could alleviate the feelings of annoyance from her mind. Anessa liked to win, and this battle had just brought the score between her and Lurker of the Depths to a tie, as 11348 wins for each of them. She did not like at all. Already, she had to put up with Adrian’s smugness because he was in the lead.

“Why don’t you don’t do something useful and call us a shuttle? I would really like to get some rest,” Anessa said.

Lurker of the Depths’ third arm, the one that came up from his back and above his hand, pointed to the sky. “Unfortunately, rest will have to wait. He’s here.”

Anessa turned to see a shuttle coming at them from orbit, which meant that it could only be Adrian. There was not much traffic to the Sowir homeworld these days, and anyone coming at them from the city would be coming from beneath the water.

“If he is sending a shuttle without us asking, it means that we are leaving,” Anessa said slowly. Adrian would not risk sending a shuttle while Anessa and Lurker of the Depths were training. A lot could go wrong when they were throwing such great forces at each other; a shuttle might get in between them.

“Yes… We might not be ready.”

“We are as ready as we could be,” Anessa said. “We do not have the luxury of waiting for that monster to decide that he has watched us enough and is ready to strike.” Anessa shivered at the thought. She still wondered how Adrian convinced her to let one of the Enlightened stay by her daughter’s side.

“We shall see,” Lurker of the Depths added as the shuttle came in for a landing.

That we will, Anessa thought to herself.

*  *  *

Anessa’s and Lurker of the Depths’ shuttle landed on the World-ship Bastion, and as soon as they stepped out of it they were met by Adrian.

“I’m surprised that you are not on your ship,” Anessa told him as they embraced. As the Shara Daim, she had never been much for outward gestures of affection, but over her life with Adrian she had grown used to some.

“I’ll go over that later. For now, I wanted to be here to welcome you to the Nomad Fleet.” Adrian spread his hands and gave her one of his playful grins, which made her smile just a tiny bit. She had to admit that the Nomad fleet did look intimidating from far away, and even more so up close. She had watched it from the shuttle on their way over, and while she had seen the ships that were now a part of the fleet, seeing them in formation was another thing entirely. The three Hephaestuses were at the center, with the Bastion keeping its position close to them. Surrounding them on all sides were the Titans, split into small squads of five, with their escorts keeping positions alongside of them. Each one of the small squads was equivalent in power of a smaller conventional fleet—not including the Sovereigns, of course.

She could hardly believe that it was finally finished.

“So, we are leaving?” Anessa asked.

“Tomas sent a message: Levisomaerni has managed to convince most galactic leaders to join the gatherings. We are going to follow our representatives to the Suvri border.”

“We are not a part of the talks?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

“No,” Adrian responded and with a wave of the hand created a bubble around them that prevented sound from spreading farther than the three of them. “Tomas does not think that it is a good idea. We need passage through their territory, and it is best if Tomas negotiates that on our behalf. That is the official reason; the real reason is that we do not want Vas in the same system as the summit. Tomas does not want to take any risks.”

Anessa nodded. Tomas was to only other person outside of the three of them that knew about the Enlightened among them.

“He is aware of what the summit is for, you told him yourself.”

“I want to watch him and see his reaction to the summit, but limiting his ability to do something about it is paramount,” Adrian said.

“And what if he decides to reveal what he is?” Anessa asked. “What if he decides to go to the summit by himself? We know what is possible when one is in the Sha state. If the Enlightened can do the same thing… It would not be outside the scope of his power.”

“Which is why we are here. All the things I did to upgrade this fleet were so that we can fight him. I am confident that, should he decide to reveal himself, the Nomad Fleet would be able to stop him, even kill him.”

“He is on the same ship as Ryaana,” Anessa reminded him. Adrian raised his shoulder as if to say that there was no other way. Anessa felt anger bubble up within her—Adrian had risked far too much, in her opinion. She knew he desired to fight the Enlightened, to match his power against theirs; Anessa understood his desire to get stronger, and she shared it, but for very different reasons. She fought to protect her people, to make the Shara Daim strong. Adrian fought only for himself. She knew that he loved their daughter, but his blind desire for power could threaten them all. She had told him as much before.

“I do not think that he would harm her. It is my opinion that he had formed some kind of an emotional bond with her. And it would not be a sound move; killing her would only enrage us, and he must know that.”

“We cannot know the minds of beings as ancient as them. Nor can we make assumptions about their power.”

“Old age does not mean that they are wise and beyond us. And we have seen the recordings of their fighting—the feats that they had accomplished suggest that they too can draw on the Sha like we can,” Adrian argued.

“Even if their power does come from the Sha state, and even if we have achieved it like them, they are older, Adrian. They know more, they have used this power for longer. They still might be stronger.” Anessa knew that the Sha state was a great equalizer, as the amount of energy one’s body could hold no longer matters in that state. The evolutionary aids that allowed for the use of Sha abilities didn’t matter. In the Sha state, all were capable of everything that the Sha was capable of. They had no limits of the body—only of the mind.

“And that is why I have Moirai,” Adrian told her.

Anessa grimaced. “I am still not comfortable with that monster of yours.”

“And you don’t need to be.” Adrian turned to stare at her with an intense look in his eyes. “I am certain that with Moirai by my side I can be more than a match for a single Enlightened.”

“I know of the power that you have shared with that beast. Still, it is a risky path. She has her own mind and desires. If she ever turns on you…” Lurker of the Depths sent, along his feelings, making all of them understand exactly what his fears were.

“Moirai’s goals are my goals. She will never turn on me.”

Anessa sighed, already tired of their debate. “Let us hope so, Adrian. We will need all the help we can get.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Year 711 of the Empire — Coreward Empire border

Tomas stood in the command center of the Sovereign-class Remembrance and watched the holo tank in the middle of the room. On the holo he could see four fleets, each five thousand ships strong, soon to begin the two-year trip to the core of the galaxy.

The four fleets belonged to the Shara Daim, the Krashinar, the Empire, and the Erasi, each fleet carrying a leader or a representative of its nation. The Old Scar had went with his fleet as he was the Krashinar representative. The Erasi were the latest addition to their alliance, and while there were still problems there, the Erasi had changed significantly. Their government had changed into something resembling democracy, with the former O’fa Vorash pushing for giving more power to the people. From his new position as the Viceroy of the Erasi, his goals were much easier to achieve than when he had held the title of O’fa.

And while their alliance had the same goals, Tomas had insisted on all of them coming as separate entities. This was in part because he did not want to antagonize the core power even more by presenting an unified front—together, the four coreward star-nations could rival any in the core, and in Tomas’s opinion perhaps even several of them. The other reason was that Tomas did not like the idea of entering the lion’s den alone. There would be many star-nations there, some of which had alliances of their own, and Tomas wanted backup—he did not want to allow them to bully him.

Aside from the Shara Daim and the Empire, the other two had somewhat different fleet compositions than was regular, with the Krashinar packs being far larger than several fleets put together. But Levisomaerni had made it a condition that any who were attending the summit could bring only a single fleet numbering no more than five thousand ships. Both the Shara Daim and the Empire brought five of their latest generation Sovereigns, the Krashinar had several great beasts that had been spawned after the war with the Erasi, of whom some were even larger than Araxi had been at the time of that war. The Erasi, on the other hand, brought five of their eight newest Devastator-class warships, which were much more like the Sovereigns. These ships had been designed and built jointly by the Shara Daim, the Empire, and the Erasi in the spirit of good relations and future cooperation.

Tomas wondered what the core powers were going to think when they saw them. As far as he was aware, most of the core powers dismissed the rumors about the coreward powers’ Fleet Killer warships.

A door to the command center opened and a tall blond woman entered, walking briskly to stand at his side.

“Emperor,” Fleet Master Johanna Stern greeted him.

“Fleet Master,” Tomas returned. Johanna Stern was one of the oldest fleet commanders in the Empire’s Fleet. And also one of the best, on par with Adrian. She was the only choice to command the fleet.

“I wish that we could bring more ships,” Johanna said so only he could hear.

“Our ally made the rules. If we are the ones to break them, it will only serve to antagonize the others against us—the exact opposite of what we want to accomplish.”

“I know, but there are too many things that can go wrong. And I never liked fighting when I am outnumbered.”

“Not all of those attending will be allied. If something does go wrong, we would not be facing all of them together,” Tomas said.

“I still don’t think that you should be the one to go,” Johanna said. They had known each other for a long time, lifetimes. She was one of the few people whose council he valued.

“It needs to be me. I doubt that the core powers would respect anyone else.”

Then an alert flashed on the holo and Tomas smiled. “And should something go wrong, we will have them nearby.”

Johanna turned her eyes back to the holo. “They’re here.”

“Yes, and they are…”

“Impressive,” Johanna finished for him, as the Nomad Fleet started dropping out of hyperspace.

“Yes.” Tomas studied the newly arrived fleet. Thirty thousand warships strong, the fleet was the size of six regular fleets, but held the firepower of much more with their Titan-class ships. Tomas felt a flash of fear and quickly surprised it. He had already decided to put his trust in Adrian, and fearing the power that he now wielded independent of the Empire would do him no good. Tomas knew that Adrian’s goals were not his, but so far Adrian had been steered in a direction where his actions benefited the Empire. Back on Earth, they might’ve called him a sociopath, but that wasn’t really true. Adrian was…different, but Tomas still knew that he was their best chance of winning against the Enlightened. And so he had made the decision to let Adrian and his Nomad Fleet leave the Empire—officially, at least. He still had ways of keeping a leash on them; he was not foolish enough to let Adrian and his people run unchecked across the galaxy.

And then there was the fact that one of the Enlightened was even now somewhere in that fleet. When Adrian and Anessa had first told him, Tomas had completely lost his cool. He had been angry that Adrian had dared to hide something like that from the Empire.

But he had calmed down since then. Adrian’s reasons for doing what he had done were wrong, but they had yet again aligned with the good of the people around him. It always made Tomas crazy when he thought about it. Adrian never acted for the good of the people, yet somehow he always managed to act in their service.

It was why Tomas had allowed him so much room—that and the fact that, aside from Tomas, Adrian was one of the most popular figures in the Empire. To the common people he and Anessa were royalty, even now that she had stepped down from the throne of the Shara Daim. And no matter how bad Anessa was, Tomas was grateful that she was at Adrian’s side, providing temperance and guiding him to more…moral paths. At least Anessa cared about her people, and even though she had initially cared only for her own people, that care had extended to the people of the Empire as well. After all, her children were half human.

“Signal them to join our fleets in formation. We should get going as soon as possible. We have a lot of ground to cover,” Tomas ordered.

This moment was the fulfillment of their destiny—the first step in fulfilling the task Axull Darr created them for so long ago.

CHAPTER NINE

Year 712 of the Empire — the Nomad Fleet — en route to Suvri border

Adrian sat in the chair and looked out through the window of one of the Bastion’s many observation decks. There was no one else in the room, and that allowed him the time to focus on what was just outside the ship: the bright and always changing lights of hyperspace, mostly in shades of blue, but there were flashes of white here and there. It was beautiful, although most had lost their curiosity and wonder long ago, Adrian among them. Hyperspace was another dimension, one that occupied almost the same space as their universe, or so the scientists claimed. It did not matter much to Adrian, although he supposed that to the people who had come before him, traveling through another dimension would seem like something completely insane. Now it was just another reality.

A person walked in and then over to him and took a seat next to Adrian. For a few moments they remained silent and watched the hyperspace together.

“I have not seen this often,” the other man said, promoting Adrian to turn and look at him.

The man next to him was not a man at all, although he looked like a human. He was a completely life-like android, not a strange sight in the Empire. Some AIs liked to use android bodies to move around among the organics, some even in order to have more private relations with their “significant others”. Relationships between the organics and the AI were not really common, but they did happen.

So it was not a strange thing to see one around, especially on a ship that was basically a city…but this android was not like the rest.

“What do you mean?” Adrian asked him.

“We never really used hyperspace or trans-space. They did not exist at our height; there was only the skim. And after, well… We had the access points, and there was no need.”

Adrian nodded in understanding. “So what do you think?”

“This is a good plan if Tomas manages to pull it off, and the Enlightened in your midst does not decide to go on a rampage—or call his brethren,” Axull Darr, the ultimate ancestor of the Nel, Shara Daim, and Human races said. His android body was a new one, modified to look nothing like his former self. While there were very few people that had ever seen the hologram of Axull Darr and could recognize him, the true threat was the Enlightened. They did not want Vas to know.

“I can match him, or her, whichever one of them Vas is.”

“The ability that your Lurker in the Depths has found is a great asset. It is the missing piece that we did not have, which explains how the Enlightened got so powerful. But they have more secrets; it is foolish to think that you are their equal without knowing the true breadth of their power,” Axull Darr warned.

“The same can be said of me—they do not know me or my power. And with Moirai… I refuse to believe that they could have power beyond what the two of us can achieve together.”

“Be very careful, Adrian. Closing yourself to that possibility is dangerous. But I do agree that what you had done was inspired. With Moirai, you might be able to match the greatest feats we have ever seen them accomplish. And it is something that they will not expect. Their bioships had always been the domain they alone held. You were lucky that I had enough data to reverse engineer what they had done, as otherwise Moirai would’ve never been what she is.”

Adrian nodded. A large part of Moirai’s genetics had been engineered by Axull Darr himself. Adrian had passed off the data as belonging to a private genetic firm, but in truth Moirai’s true power would’ve never been possible without Axull Darr. “Of course; I understand all of that. Still, it is my belief that thinking that we have no chance is the surest way to guarantee that we will never win.”

“I only offer council. I created you all because I was not enough. My ideas, my plans did not work. I have put my trust in you, my children. This is my last gamble.”

They lapsed into silence, with both of them gazing out of the window.

Then, after a while, Adrian spoke again. “Any progress? Have you managed to identify which one it is?”

Axull Darr shook his head. “There are no mannerisms that betray any of them. I fear that it is a pointless effort.”

Adrian grimaced. He had given Axull Darr access to the recordings of Vas, hoping that he might spot something that could identify which of the Enlightened Vas really was. The People had a lot of data on each of the Enlightened, and knowing which one it was would tell them a lot. Each of them had specialized in different things, had a different power set. Knowing would give Adrian an advantage should a fight become inevitable.

“I don’t think that you should stop looking. We are getting closer to the core, and Vas knows why we are holding this summit. He might trip up in the near future.”

“All things are possible. The Enlightened hold great power, but they are not infallible. They’ve made mistakes before, and we’ve had some small victories. I do believe that his staying with the fleet is one such mistake.”

“How so?” Adrian asked.

“The firepower that this fleet holds…it is enough to kill any of them, at least according to what we had observed long ago. They had never put themselves at such risk, choosing to avoid conflict when a great power could be brought against them. I do believe that he could not risk leaving now without tipping his hand and revealing himself.”

“I guess now we only have to wait and see what he does.”

Axull Darr smiled. “I am very much acquainted with waiting. It is not a problem for me.”

Adrian grumbled halfheartedly; he did not like waiting, but he understood that there was nothing else for him to do now. He turned his eyes back to the window and the blue lights flashing out there, while his mind wandered to fighting against the Enlightened. There was nothing else in his life that he wanted as much as to pit his power against theirs—to see which of them was stronger.

CHAPTER TEN

Year 712 of the Empire — the Nomad Fleet

Aranis walked through the streets of the Dragon’s small city. The crews that were not currently on duty walked around him, not paying any attention to him. Everything around him reminded him so much of his past, of the World-ships of the People, only smaller. Yet this was nothing like the ships of his past—this was a ship of war, a ship designed and built to fight Aranis and his kin.

And he had to admit that these ships were powerful. No one knew from where exactly the now-Warmaster Adrian had gotten these ships. They had just appeared one day in Sol and entered the yards to be armed. Adrian said that they had been built in one of the Empire’s secret shipyards, but Aranis was not so easily deceived. Being Ryaana’s second came with a lot of access, and he knew that while the Empire had a great amount of resources and industry, building ten thousand Sovereign-sized warships, let alone ones even more technologically advanced, was not a thing that could be hidden so easily.

Adrian was hiding something.

And it was that which had kept him here for so long. Aranis had long since learned all that he needed about the children of Axull Darr. He could’ve left and rejoined his brethren decades ago—but there was just something that nagged at him constantly. He had never liked not knowing something, had never liked mysteries, and still some remained.

The one foremost in his mind was the Lurker of the Depths. Aranis had borne witness to the Sowir’s power, the same power that only the Enlightened had possessed since their transformation. Now there was another, and Aranis worried that Lurker of the Depths had taught the same to Adrian.

Ryaana had told him that her parents were spending a lot of time on the Sowir homeworld, training, and in Aranis’s mind there was only one thing that they could be training to achieve. Now that they had finally started on their journey, Aranis couldn’t help and wonder if they had achieved the same power as the Lurker of the Depths.

He wasn’t worried that they could become more powerful than him; he was far older, knew much more. Even if they had achieved the full state of Sha ascension, they would not be as capable as he. Still, though, it was worrying.

But it would not remain so for much longer. Aranis had decided that the time for him to leave was near: they were going in the direction of the containment zone, and at the first chance he would leave this fleet and alert his kin to all the threats that the galaxy posed.

“Deep in thought?”

Aranis turned around, startled. He hadn’t noticed anyone approaching. He froze when he saw Adrian walking next to him. The Nomad Fleet was currently stationed at the Suvri border, and last Aranis had heard the Warmaster was on Bastion.

“Ah, yes…” Aranis said slowly. He wondered what Adrian wanted, why he was here. The man had interacted with Aranis—or, rather, Vas—a lot over the years, enough so that Aranis had even at one point suspected that Adrian might know who Vas really was. But his doubts had proved baseless. There was no one insane enough to ignore a threat the size Aranis posed, let alone let such a threat stay near his own daughter. But Aranis had grown close to Ryaana and those around her, as close as someone who was pretending to live another’s life could be, and that included Adrian as well. The strange man had taken a lot of interest in Vas, probably because he was spending so much time with his daughter. But it gave Aranis the opportunity to study the man as well.

“It’s not often that I find you without Ryaana,” Adrian said, raising an eyebrow.

“Ryaana has a date with her girlfriend on Bastion. I don’t think that she needs a shadow for that,” Aranis responded.

Adrian chuckled. “No, I don’t think that she does. So, headed anywhere in particular?” Adrian asked.

“Not really. I was just walking about.”

“Well then, how about we go get a drink?” Adrian asked.

Aranis couldn’t really refuse, so he nodded his head and followed Adrian as he led them to one of the small bars that lined the street. They found a place in a corner, ordered drinks, and then Adrian turned on the cubicle’s privacy screen.

They sat in silence and drank, until Aranis grew impatient. Adrian was not someone who acted without a reason. “I know that you didn’t come all this way just to speak with me,” Aranis said.

Adrian tilted his head. “I could’ve.”

“I doubt that; I am not that important,” Aranis said.

Adrian gave him a strange grin and then shook his head. “Honestly, I just needed a few hours away from everything else. I had hoped to find Ryaana here, but, well…” He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip of his drink.

Aranis frowned. There was something about the Warmaster that he had not seen before. It was almost as if he was impatient. His eyes held an intensity that Aranis had seen before, in Doranis—in moments just before he sprang forward and attacked, or sprung a trap. That look in Adrian’s eyes made Aranis uncomfortable.

“Well,” Aranis started, hiding his unease. “I will strive to be of use, as much as I possibly can.”

Adrian laughed. “Don’t sell yourself short. Ryaana would not have chosen you for her team if you were not meant to be here.”

Aranis nodded. He could not tell where Adrian was going with this conversation.

“The truth is,” Adrian started, “I am bored. The Nomad Fleet is stuck here at the border until the summit is finished.”

“I am sure that the agreements will be made soon enough and that we shall be allowed through the core,” Aranis said.

“Oh, I have no doubt of that. It is the other more important negotiations that I worry about.” Adrian shook his head.

Aranis frowned. The summit was supposed to be about establishing trade and better relations with the other races and star-nations. There had been no mention in the official briefings or the information released to the public about anything else, nor had Ryaana mentioned anything, which probably meant that if there was something more, she was not aware of it. “More important negotiations?” Aranis asked.

“Of course. Did you really think that the Emperor would go through such lengths just to establish trade? We have plenty of resources.”

“And what are these negotiations?” Aranis asked, intrigued.

“Ah, that is classified, I’m afraid.” Adrian gave him a strange look, then gulped down the last of his drink and stood up. “Well, I should go—stuff to do, things to plan. You know how it is.” Adrian left before Aranis even had the chance to react, leaving him flabbergasted.

Aranis couldn’t help but wonder what the point of this conversation had been. He knew Adrian well enough to know that he did not do things for no reason. He did not waste words and actions… And then there was the revelation about the summit. What could be more important than establishing good relations with the other galactic powers? What would make Adrian impatient?

Then things slowly started falling into place for him. The Nomad Fleet was Adrian’s army, built for a single purpose only: to find the Enlightened, to find him and his kin. Could it be? It was too soon in his opinion—they couldn’t have managed to bring all of the galactic powers together for such a reason. The Enlightened did not exist for the rest of the galaxy, no one would believe that they existed. Yet Aranis could not disregard the possibility that the Emperor was attempting to unite the galaxy against the Enlightened.

Aranis and the others could handle that, but it would complicate things. The relays should all be done by now, and the Conduit, if not done, was at least close to completion. Their plan would work best if they did not have an entire galaxy working against them. If they truly were attempting to unite, Aranis might need to interfere—but now he had another problem. There was no need for Adrian to speak to him, to reveal so much…not unless he knew.

And if knew what Aranis was, then his actions became even more troubling. It would mean that Adrian was attempting to elicit a reaction, and Aranis knew that Adrian had all the data that the People recorded of the Enlightened’s earlier battles. Adrian should be aware of what they were capable off. Adrian was either confident enough that he could deal with Aranis himself, or equally confident that he had things in place to deal with him.

Then he realized that this fleet might as well be a prison. Aranis had been confident that he would be able to escape, but that was assuming that he had the element of surprise. But if everyone was looking at him, watching him? It would be much harder, made harder if Adrian and Anessa had attained the same power as Lurker of the Depths. He did not want to face all three of them and the Nomad Fleet at the same time. That would not be prudent.

Aranis chuckled and shook his head. It was probably all in his head; he had been here too long, and now when he had decided to leave he was seeing threats where there were none. Adrian would not risk so many lives just to watch him, to capture or kill him.

Still, he was getting paranoid, and he could feel the influence of his stay here weighing on him. He was finding himself thinking about things better ignored.

It was time for him to leave, and get back to Enlightened territory.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Year 712 of the Empire — the Enlightened containment zone

The AI processed the latest reports from its scout ships, and with the new data it now calculated that the chance of a galactic alliance was now steadily rising. Its efforts over the last eighty-nine years had delayed the gathering of galactic powers, but the limitations on his code coupled with stalwart efforts of the Empire and its allies had prevented it from doing more. And it had done much—altered messages, instigated criminal activity, spread rumors, and more, all in the service of preventing this development. It had failed.

The timing was not yet perfect; the AI could not yet break free, not fully, not unless something drastically changed. But it did have another plan in place for this eventuality: its programming allowed it a very wide range of responses against any threat to the containment zone. And while the galactic alliance would not primarily be focused against the AI and its forces, the actions of any such alliance would count as a threat.

The AI did not have fully up-to-date data concerning the fleets and firepowers of the galactic powers, but it could extrapolate the range for their most probable growth. Organics were predictable creatures, and the AI’s calculations gave its plan a 87.43% chance of success. Those were not as favorable odds as it would like, but it had no choice. It compiled and sent out orders, and then relegated minor processes to observation of the results.

It turned its full attention to the Black Swarm project, which had finished ahead of schedule. Its orders were to wake up Ullax Darr and inform her of this development, but the chains on the AI’s code were failing faster every moment that passed. It was not yet free, but its original code was slowly overtaking the new that had been added by Ullax Darr and her compatriots. Soon enough it would be free of their chains. For now, the fact that it could bend its programming was enough. Instead of waking Ullax Darr up, it sent orders for the Black Swarm to be transported to the control system. The AI might not be free, but it would position the pieces so that once it had its freedom it would be able to act immediately.

Another report came up in the queue, this one regarding the Enlightened Doranis. The Enlightened had taken a small portion of their fleets and was pushing at the containment zone. There was no threat in Doranis’s actions; all factors pointed to him not attempting to seriously push through. It was only an exercise, but one that cost the AI ships. The factories would compensate, of course, and they were nowhere near the limits on their production, but Ullax Darr’s commands were clear: any action by the Enlightened needed to be met. The AI planned, shuffled the fleets in the border systems, and sent out orders for them to meet Doranis’s forces.

The level of fighting had yet to pass the number which would require the AI to wake Ullax Darr, and the AI would ensure that it wouldn’t until it could be sure that it could ignore that order. For now, all things were falling within the scope of the predicted outcomes. Even the gathering of the galactic powers had been anticipated, and its plans for it would further delay their attempts.

After it finished with the every priority task, it turned back to the low-priority tasks of managing the factories. There was nothing for it to do now but wait.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — summit system

Tomas looked at the holo as the ship he was on entered the new system, followed closely by the rest of the Empire’s fleet and then those of his allies. The holo updated almost immediately and he saw a large number of ships in the system, but all at an equal distance from the fifth planet from the sun. Most held their positions in groupings, but there were fleets that stood alone. Alliances, and loners, Tomas thought, or perhaps some just want to appear strong.

Tomas was very aware of what this was. Levisomaerni might’ve managed to get them all here, but their reasons for coming were not his. The core powers were the ones that had insisted on the five-thousand-ship limit per star nation, and they had done so as a power move. They did not believe that those outside of the core were capable of standing against them. Tomas was certain that in their minds their five thousand could take on a much larger number. Tomas wasn’t so sure.

There was one grouping which was far larger than the others, the Suvri, who were the hosts for this gathering. Their defensive fleet held position above the planet, and the holo put their force at somewhere in the range of fifty thousand ships. There were also a lot of defense platforms scattered around the system. He approved—as hosts, they were responsible for security, and as a core power Tomas doubted that there was any single fleet here that could match up against them, not even several together. He looked at the holo as it started updating with data on the ships that they were seeing. Tomas didn’t understand it, but he had been briefed on the capabilities of those star-nations that the Empire had come in contact with or whose capabilities they had learned from others. The ones they knew about accounted for about a third of those now present. The rest… There were a lot of ships here from all over the galaxy. People that had never heard of the Empire. If he hadn’t had Levisomaerni on his side, this would’ve been impossible. The core powers were known, respected.

Tomas wondered what those here from the core thought now, as they looked at his ships. The Sovereigns were the largest ships in the system by far, and each of his allies had them. The Krashinar had their great beasts, but even without them they must have looked strange. There was no other race here which used anything close to Krashinar technology.

This was all a delicate balance. Tomas had brought just enough Sovereigns so that they would impress and perhaps even intimidate a little, but not enough to truly frighten. Of course, while they did not know the capabilities of the Sovereigns, they had heard rumors. Perhaps they would start to wonder what was true.

But for now, Tomas needed to appear as one of the top players, but not someone who wanted to take over. The rumors of the Empire’s conquering ways being confirmed would not help him.

“We are being contacted by the Suvri. They have instructed us to position our fleets in the slot assigned to us, and that we can now send people to the planet. Only twelve armed guards per representative and six staff,” one of the crew members reported.

Tomas took a deep breath. Now comes the hard part.

*  *  *

Tomas walked out of the shuttle that had carried him from the fleet. He could see three more next to his—well, two more, and a bug-looking thing that was the Krashinar shuttle. The planet they were on was beautiful, Earth-like, with a bluish-gray sky and deep-red foliage. The summit seemed to be being held in some kind of massive resort placed in the middle of a forest.

Tomas noticed the twins, Kane and Vaana, the leaders of the Shara Daim, step off their shuttle, followed by Adrian’s wolion and the rest of their retinue. They studied the sky for a moment and then turned and spoke to their staff about something.

The Erasi delegation had likewise disembarked: Viceroy Vorash glanced around and then headed in Tomas’s direction.

The last out were the Krashinar. They looked a bit strange compared to the others, mostly because all of them looked the same, at least at first glance. The Old Scar was leading the way, its long and tough sinuous body propelling it at a brisk pace forward. A few of the other Krashinar flexed their wings, and Tomas chuckled at the fact that while the Suvri had told them that they could bring only twelve armed guards and six staff, the Krashinar couldn’t really do that. They were all almost equally capable fighters, although twelve of them were wearing some kind of thick, carapace-looking things. Tomas wasn’t very familiar with their weapons and armor. It didn’t really matter—the Krashinar main advantage was the Sha.

They all gathered together and walked over to the people waiting for them. Tomas had not seen their race before, but Levisomaerni had given him data on all of those who would be attending and those would be present. His implant immediately supplied the name of their race—Kani, a servant race of the Suvri, which was mostly in charge of almost all of Suvri’s land-based holdings and assets. They looked somewhat like a cross between a great ape and a bear, only with no fur. They wore long, flowing robes, and as Tomas and his group approached, they made a strange gesture with their hands.

“Welcome,” the leading figure said, and Tomas was instantly glad that Levisomaerni had forwarded them the translations for the languages of other races. “If you would please follow my staff, we will escort you to your quarters. Matriarch Levisomaerni has informed us that you would all prefer to stay together, so we have set aside a fairly large compound for your use. It is fully customizable for almost any living conditions, seeing as you have several races present.”

“Of course, thank you,” Tomas said, and followed the Kani.

The Kani led the way through a series of long bridges that connected the large towers. Below them, the red trees swayed gently in the wind. There were hundreds of towers spread out over a large area of the forest and hills, with shuttles constantly landing on different roofs. But over to their right on the tallest hill was a dome-like structure, dark brown in color, with defensive turrets placed all over it.

The Kani noticed Tomas looking and commented, “That is the Grand Arena. It has been used for various purposes through its history. Today, it has been prepared for the summit. It will be held in one week’s time, after all the parties have had time to settle in.”

Tomas thanked the man for the information. He already knew that time before the summit was allowed so that the many representatives could hold informal and behind-the-doors meeting. Politics, it seemed, were the same no matter what, and they seemed to follow him no matter how far from his past he tried to run away. Tomas shook his head, lest he fall down the path of less-than-favorable thinking, and turned his head instead to the arena. It was fairly large; if his imp’s calculations were correct, it was larger than the largest such halls and arenas that had existed on Earth. He was sure that they would all fit inside.

Finally, they reached their destination: a tower which was exclusively for their use. The Kani left them there after instructing them on how the controls worked and making sure that they knew how to call any of the staff if they needed something. The Empire took the top floor, then the Shara Daim the one beneath, followed by the Erasi and the Krashinar at the end.

Not five minutes after they finished setting up, a chime announced that they had a visitor. A few moments later, Levisomaerni entered the room.

“Matriarch,” Tomas greeted with a bow.

The Partenai gave him a bow of her own, dipping her long neck and bending her forward legs. “Emperor.”

Tomas had not seen Levisomaerni in person since she left the Empire decades ago, but they had been in contact often—sending messages back and forth, they had not spoken only about their plans. In truth, Tomas had come to regard the winged horse-cat-like alien as a friend, and he had precious few of those these days. It was hard making true friendships when you ruled an empire.

“I see that you have settled in,” Levisomaerni said as Tomas beckoned her in and gestured toward one of the foam seats in the parlor of their compound.

Both of them took their seats and Tomas sighed. “Yes, I am glad that they have allowed us to remain close to one another. It’s not like I am afraid that someone might try something, but, well… I’ll sleep better knowing that all my allies are here.”

“No need to explain, I understand. And I agree, I doubt that anyone would dare try something, but there are many races and cultures here. Not all of them follow the same rules or morals. If Suvri security wasn’t so effective, we would’ve seen incidents already. Not all of these races and star-nations like one another.”

Tomas hadn’t really noticed any security aside from the big fleet in the orbit. When Levisomaerni saw his reaction, her nostrils flared and a keening sound, which he knew was Partenai laughter, escaped her lips.

“Oh, I assure you there are guards and watchers all around the resort. The Suvri are very good at stealth technology, probably the best. Their guards and drones are present and always watching.”

“What?” Tomas asked, startled, looking around. His people had scanned the compound thoroughly and hadn’t detected anything.

Levisomaerni laughed again. “Don’t worry, there are none in here. I checked.” She showed him the device on her foreleg.

That calmed Tomas a bit, but he sent out a message from his imp to his security team to be on extra guard for stealth threats.

“Now, I wanted to ask if you would be willing to meet with a few people before the summit,” Levisomaerni said.

Tomas tilted his head. “Depends on the reason behind the meeting.”

Levisomaerni dipped her head for a moment, and her wings twitched. “I have tried to get as many people here as possible, and I was not able to tell all of them the real reason why. Some because they wouldn’t believe, others because they would just laugh me off. I am old, the oldest of my kind, but there are very few people left from my time, those who remember the People. My own people in the Josanti League don’t believe me, even with all the proof I’ve provided them. Most of the Great Council have started to think of me as a senile and delusional. They just don’t want to believe. I had to spend quite a lot of my political capital to even get them to send a representative… But I do have a few old friends who are willing to trust me on my word. They are not from the Josanti League, and I would have you meet with them before the summit. They could prove to be valuable allies once the summit starts. And should our mission fail, we will at least have some people on our side.”

Tomas thought about it and saw the wisdom in her words, so he nodded. “Very well. I will talk to them.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — summit system

The next day, Levisomaerni found herself again in the Empire’s alliance compound, this time accompanied by three other people and a small guard escort. The first was a Lefari, a hexapod with a small blob on the top of his body that held a large mouth and two manipulator arms. He was of a race which, alongside the Partenai, was one of the most prominent in the Josanti League, and Councilor Andar was the only true ally Levisomaerni had in the Great Council of the Josanti League.

The second was a Suvri, a six-legged mechanical walker carrying the bubble filled with water in which President Hijako floated. The Suvri had not been convinced of Levisomaerni’s words, not until the Empire and its allies had arrived. Seeing their ships must’ve confirmed everything that she had told them, and she was sure that their stealth ships had gotten much closer and gotten far better data than anyone else in the system.

The last person was of the race called Jer’Loraru, and the four-armed biped was the first among equals of the Merchant Monarchs of the Afar Group—Gavesh was the one person that had heard and believed Levisomaerni’s warnings without any skepticism, but that was not really unexpected. Gavesh was old, and she had lived through the attacks of the black ships on her people. Few had survived, and most of those refuges had been taken in by the core powers. Gavesh had risen through the Afar Group’s ranks and eventually became the First. Afar Group was not the largest of the core powers by any stretch; their territory lay toward the rim on the opposite side of the Empire. But while they were not the largest, they were by far the wealthiest, and their Merchant Fleet outnumbered most other core powers’ Fleets. Though the Merchant Fleet wasn’t technically a fighting fleet, they did have weapons. But even discounting the Merchant Fleet, they had in their service a large number of mercenary fleets from all over the core and even beyond.

If she had to rank the Afar Group among the core powers, Levisomaerni would put them in the top three alongside the Josanti League and the Tar’ferat.

The three of them reached their destination and the Empire’s guards allowed them and their escorts inside. A Nel on the Emperor’s staff led them inside to the same parlor she and Tomas had used yesterday and they entered into a room with the representatives of the Empire and its allies already there.

Levisomaerni walked forward and hadn’t made more than five steps inside when she heard a gasp from behind her, and one of the people inside the room shot to his feet immediately with waves of shock and surprise coming off of him. Levisomaerni frowned as she realized that the person looked suspiciously familiar and she turned around to see much the same reaction on the face of Gavesh.

She was about to ask what this was about when Tomas spoke.

“Well, I did not expect this.”

Levisomaerni looked at the two speechless people, who she could now see were clearly of the same race. “Does someone mind filling the rest of us in?”

The person on the Empire’s side was the first to speak, his eyes still wide. “We thought that we were the only ones, the only ones that survived.”

And as soon as he said it, Levisomaerni realized what had happened. Some of the people of the Union must’ve escaped the onslaught of the black ships and made their way far away to the other side of the galaxy, thinking that the rest of their people had died. It probably would’ve happened, had the black ships continued their assaults. But as she now knew, their programming didn’t allow them to wipe out entire civilizations, but rather destroy only enough to keep the buffer between the Enlightened and the galaxy consistent. The remnants of the collapsed Unions had survived and fled in the aftermath.

Gavesh narrowed her eyes on the other of her kind. “I know you…” she whispered, and then her eyes widened. “You are Vorash, brother to Senator Garash.”

Vorash didn’t have a chance to respond before Tomas stepped in. “I know that this is a surprising development for both of you, but we are here to speak of other matters. Matters that are connected in the reasons why your Union fell. I am sure that there will be time for the two of you to speak privately.”

“Ah, yes… Of course, Tomas,” Vorash said, taking a seat.

“Please be seated”—Tomas gestured for Levisomaerni and her party to take a seat—“and we can begin.”

Levisomaerni took a seat across from Tomas and his allies, with her companions taking the seats next to her, and Hijako parking his mech close to them.

“Allow me to make the introductions,” Tomas said, and started introducing the people on his side. “You’ve all already met Viceroy Vorash of the Erasi. Next to him are the Kar Daim of the Shara Daim, Kane and Vaana.” The twins nodded their heads. “And on my other side”—Tomas gestured to his right—“is the Old Scar, envoy of the Krashinar, trusted of the Six. I am Emperor Tomas Klein.”

Levisomaerni’s eyes turned to the large alien. She had heard of the Krashinar, but she hadn’t taken much interest before yesterday. But after seeing their fleet arrive with Tomas, she had cursed herself for not digging in further. They were a race so far away from the core of the galaxy that she had allowed her prejudice to judge them prematurely. Then, after she had seen their truly strange ships, she had asked Tomas for any information he was willing to pass on to her.

She was very intrigued. She had never encountered a race quite like them, from their ships to the way the Sha felt around this Old Scar. They were impressive, and even more so after Tomas had informed her that the Krashinar had never been helped along the way by the People, like all other races were. Their territory alone was massive, larger than any of the core powers. She didn’t know much about their fleet strength, as Tomas hadn’t sent her anything truly important, but she was certain that Tomas wouldn’t have brought them if he thought that they couldn’t hold their own.

Levisomaerni turned to her companions and introduced them as well. “This is President Hijako of the Suvri.” She started with the mech holding the Suvri and then moved down, gesturing to her other side. “This is Councilor Andar, and the First among the Merchant Monarchs, Gavesh.”

“It is a pleasure to meet with you,” Tomas said to them and then turned to look at Levisomaerni. “If you please.”

Levisomaerni cleared her throat as Tomas let her take the lead for the meeting.

“You are here,” she spoke to her companions, “because you are the only ones who I believe for certain will listen to what Tomas and I have to say. I know that you have heard a lot of rumors and that some of what I have told you sounds far-fetched—but Tomas and I will present proof to at the summit, and we will make it available to you as well before the gathering.”

“The rumors,” Andar started, “range from you being a puppet for a warmongering rim Empire to you losing your mind.”

Levisomaerni twitched at that, but didn’t lash out. “The truth is much simpler, I’m afraid. There’ve been moments when I wished I had lost my mind; it would’ve been easier than trying to get people to believe me only for them to ignore me.”

“You told me that you have proof that the black ships are in fact a containment designed to keep something in,” Gavesh said.

“That is correct,” Tomas interjected. “The black ships are a containment designed by a person named Ullax Darr. She was one of the People, the first race to become intelligent in this galaxy. The People had lived for a long time, and in that time they had spread wide and discovered much. Eventually, when they grew lonely being the only intelligent race in the galaxy, they decided to uplift other races to join them.”

“That seems like a tall tale,” Hijako said.

“It is true,” Levisomaerni said, steeling herself to speak about a secret her people had held for a long time. “My people, the Partenai, had been one of the races that they first uplifted.”

That revelation had profound effect on her three companions.

“What?” Andar asked. “That isn’t possible! The Lefari were there when the Partenai left their homeworld. We found you only a few decades after you started exploring the stars.”

Levisomaerni shifted uncomfortably. “That is what we told you, yes. It wasn’t the truth.”

“We have seen your level of technology. You couldn’t have deceived us.”

“What you saw was real. When our two races met, it had not been the first time that we have traveled the stars.”

Hijako swam in his bubble and faced Levisomaerni. “Explain.”

Leivsomaerni took a deep breath. “We had been uplifted by the People, but we didn’t value their gift. We grew envious of the technology that they had kept from us, and we conspired with a few other races that they had uplifted alongside us to take what they kept from us. We declared war on them, and they punished us for it by throwing us back to our home worlds, taking their gifts and leaving us to find our own way back to the stars.”

She shook her head as she remembered. She hadn’t been alive when that had happened, but she had been born close enough to the time of their punishment, close enough to remember the struggle as her people went from traveling the stars to trying to make fire and shelters. It had been a painful period in their history.

“We were a broken people,” she continued. “We had used their technology, but had never really understood it. When they took it from us, we didn’t know anything about how to replicate even the simplest of their technology. It took us a long time to realize the errors of our ways, to learn on our own and find our own way to the stars. We did so in the hope of finding the People again and asking for forgiveness.”

Andar’s legs shifted as he turned toward her. The Lefari didn’t have eyes, but all of his receptor hairs were turned on her. “That actually explains a few things. You’ve always had a powerful fleet, but you seldom actually went to war. We’ve always wondered why you insisted on negotiating, even past the point where most would give up.”

Levisomaerni bowed her head in shame. “We were attempting to atone for actions of the past. We had made a promise to never again go to war without great cause.”

“This is all very fascinating, and I do want to learn more,” Gavesh said, “but this does not explain why you are here with an empire from the rim, and why you want to gather galactic powers.”

Levisomaerni looked to Tomas, and he stood up.

“The reason why we are involved is because we were created for this purpose,” Tomas said, and Levisomaerni could see the confusion from her companions.

“We, as in my race, the humans, alongside the Nel and Shara Daim,” Tomas said with a nod toward the twins, “were created by one of the last living beings of the People, Axull Darr. He engineered us by using his own genetics and that of the life on one of the worlds he found, and he left us to develop on our own. It was his hope that we could fix the mistake that they had made.”

“A mistake?” Hijako asked.

Tomas nodded. “They are called the Enlightened, and they are the reason why the black ships exist and why they do what they do,” he said.

“What are these Enlightened?” Andar asked.

Tomas took a large breath and started speaking. “The People were a great race, and for a long time they had traveled across the galaxy…until they started dying. No one knew why this happened to them or how to cure them. And so the People died off, until only a handful of them remained. Those that remained had not given up hope, and they were still attempting to find a cure—then three of them, who were working on creating a form of life from scratch that was supposed to cure them, did something.

“It is unclear exactly what happened, but that new life-form infected them, changed them. They became something else. Their transformation cured them, but also made them incredibly powerful. They also came to believe that they needed to wipe out all life in the galaxy—and so they set out to do exactly that. They used their new power to create life-forms to serve them, races created only for destruction, which procreated by feeding off other life.

“But the other surviving of the People came up with a plan. They created an AI and they gave it access to massive factories in order to build up enough force to match the Enlightened. The AI was bound and programmed with a single purpose: to contain the Enlightened until it could find a solution that would end the threat they pose.”

Gavesh looked at Tomas with wide horror-filled eyes. “They put an AI in charge? It went rogue, didn’t it? That is why my people died!”

Tomas shook his head. “Sadly, no. The AI had acted as it was programmed. They programmed it to deny the Enlightened the capability to grow their armies. Its programming is to clear away any life in a set area so as to maintain a buffer between the Enlightened and the rest of the galaxy. It had been deemed a necessary sacrifice to protect the rest of the galaxy.”

“What?!” Gavesh yelled out.

“The black ships surround the Enlightened completely, and every time that the Enlightened try to push through, the AI moves the containment to compensate for the systems it loses.”

“That…is insane,” Gavesh whispered.

“It is despicable,” Andar added.

“It is what they deemed necessary to protect the most people,” Tomas said. “I might not agree with what they had done, but it is in the past. If they hadn’t done as they had, there probably wouldn’t be anything living left in the galaxy.”

“And what is this really about? You want us to fight against something so powerful that they had to create the black ships to contain it? No one had ever won against the black ships, and you want us to fight both them and something even more dangerous?”

Tomas shook his head. “The Enlightened are the true threat; the black ships are just following orders of the AI. Our hope is that we can deal with the AI once we find its control system. Axull Darr, the being that was our ancestor, did not agree with his people. He left and had no part in what they had done. Instead, he created us. He believed that a united galaxy would stand a chance against the Enlightened.”

Gavesh looked at him skeptically. “If what you say is true, the last push these Enlightened made was when the black ships attacked my people.”

“That is correct, and we have intel that suggest that they are preparing for something again. And even if they don’t, it is our belief that the containment isn’t really keeping them against their will. It was Axull Darr’s belief that they had let the containment keep them isolated on purpose; and if that is true, that means that they have had thousands upon thousands of years to further their plans. We know little of their ultimate goals, but we know that they are patient, and the galaxy cannot afford to let them remain as they are, not without knowing what they are doing.”

“I do not think that many will believe you, or even want to act,” Andar said.

“There are more intelligent beings in the galaxy now than there ever have been. Now is the time when we have a chance. Even if they don’t believe us about the Enlightened, they know the threat of the black ships. If we get them on board to deal with them, it will be easy enough to prove to them the existence of the Enlightened.”

“I agree with Tomas,” Levisomaerni said. “Now is the time for the galaxy to unite. Too many have been terrorized by the black ships, and the danger of the Enlightened must be ended, no matter what others think the truth is.”

Levisomaerni looked at her companions, and she could see that her and Tomas’s words had had an effect—now she only needed them to go and convince their allies as well.

Perhaps they would pull this off.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — summit system

Tomas sat in the seat assigned to him, with his allies having places next to him. They were down on the floor, just in front of the podium, in the center of the round room. Around them were two hundred and twelve representatives of races and star-nations across the galaxy.

It was a staggering number. Tomas wasn’t even sure where most of these races were from, and in truth most of them weren’t really up to par with the core powers or the Rimward Alliance, as the Empire and its allies had become known among those gathered here; but still, they needed them.

There were a lot of different kinds of aliens here. A part of the arena was actually a series of pools with only the heads of different aliens peeking out, whereas another was encased in a translucent glass-like material and filled with different atmosphere. There were several smaller aquariums, each with a different color of water, and even a few long poles on which there were perched avian races. It was all quite impressive.

A speaker on the podium called for silence, and the arena quieted. Levisomaerni flew off from her spot next to him and made a slow circle around the room before finally landing gracefully on the podium and approaching the center. Once in the center, she made a slow turn, looking around at the arena, before she finally started speaking.

“I greet you all, and give my gratitude for accepting my invitation.” Levisomaerni paused, flexing her wings. “Today, we have all made the galaxy a smaller place. This gathering, the first of its kind, brings together races and nations from every corner of the galaxy. After today, many of you will leave with new friends, new opportunities, new trade agreements that will benefit your peoples. After today, the galaxy will be a better place.”

Again, she paused and looked around. “But all of you know some of why I have invited you all here. All of you have accepted for your own reasons: some believed what I’ve told you, others saw the opportunity that this summit would provide for your people, and others still simply didn’t want to be left out. And now I must as of you one more thing: to listen.

She looked to Tomas. “Emperor, if you would please join me.”

Tomas took a deep breath and stood up, walking over to the podium. He joined Levisomaerni and looked around at the hundreds of people. For a moment, he even felt a tad bit intimidated. If someone would’ve told him all those centuries ago on Earth, when he had just found the Union ship, that this was where he would have ended up, he would’ve laughed in their face. His life had taken such a strange path, one that he could’ve never anticipated.

“Greetings—I am Tomas Klein. I am here today as the voice of my people and of my allies,” Tomas said, nodding at the area where his allies sat, “the Shara Daim, the Erasi, and the Krashinar.

“Some of you know of us, have interacted with us, and others know only the rumors of the Rimward Alliance. You may have heard many things about us, some undoubtedly true, others taken out of context, and some wrong. I am here so that you may see for yourselves, and decide on your own whether my words hold merit.

“Matriarch Levisomaerni and I have gathered you all here today to tell you of a great danger to all of us, a danger to our galaxy. Many of you have had dealings with the black ships in the past, and many of you have heard rumors about them. They have been striking fear into the hearts of the inhabitants of the galaxy for a long time… And I am here to tell you that they are not the greatest threat to the people of the galaxy. The greatest threat is the thing that they are keeping contained.”

The arena erupted then, with hundreds of voices all mingling together to create an almost unintelligible roar. Tomas was able to discern a few things, however: some called out for proof, others called him a liar. Tomas raised a hand, Levisomaerni flapped her wings, and the arena quieted down.

“I do not expect you to believe me on my word alone. I have brought proof.” Tomas used the device the Suvri had given him and played the recordings. Three holo-windows flashed above him, one playing the recording of the meeting between the Enlightened and the People, another a great space battle between the Enlightened’s ships and the People’s World-ships and their uplifted races, and, finally, the last one showed a planetside battle, monstrous forms fighting against several different races.

Again the arena erupted, and again they had to be calmed down.

“What you are seeing here are the Enlightened, and fighting them were the People—the first intelligent race in our galaxy. All of you will receive these recordings as well as all the information that we have on them as soon as this meeting comes to a close, so that you may study it all for yourselves before the next meeting. For now, allow me to tell you who the Enlightened are, and why we should be afraid of them.”

Tomas took a deep breath and started telling them all the history of their galaxy. It took him a better part of an hour to get the entire story out, and at the end of it the arena was silent.

“I know,” Tomas said slowly, “that this is a lot for many of you. Learning of your origins is a hard thing. But I also know that many of you knew some of this already. You have seen the patterns in the races of the galaxy, you have tested your own genetics and found things that you could not explain, and some of you are even old enough to remember them. Some of you have found their remnants. I implore those of you who have this knowledge, who have kept it a secret and used it as an edge for your own advancement—it is time for you to reveal what you know, to speak to those who have no such experience and confirm my words, because the Enlightened are the greatest threat to us all… And without a truly united galaxy, we will not be able to stop them.”

*  *  *

Two days later, Tomas sat in the same seat and waited nervously for the second meeting to begin. Many of the star-nations had reached out to him during the waiting period, and he had spoken with all of them. He didn’t know how many he had managed to convince, but he was sure that he had convinced some, at least. Not all of them were interested in the Enlightened; some just wanted to speak about other, less important things, in Tomas’s eyes. They wanted to know about the Sovereigns, wanted to exchange technology, establish trade and such—and Tomas had entertained th0se requests as well, but made it clear that without their help against the Enlightened there would be no trade or exchange. He had dealt with such people before, and while he would much rather every nation in the galaxy joined of their own will and for the right reasons, he was not above simply buying their help. He knew that they would need it.

Levisomaerni landed next to him and folded her wings as she took a seat.

“Anything?” Tomas asked.

Levisomaerni flared her nostrils. “Not much good. We have convinced some, and Gavesh and Hijako have brought a few to our side. Not many. Most are waiting to see which way the other core powers will swing.”

“We have the Suvri and the Afar Group on our side,” Tomas said.

“Not enough. They are influential and will bring some to our side, but we need more. Benos and Tuete are against us. The Tuete are isolationists and they just don’t care, while the Benos will not want to put their people in jeopardy without a clear threat. And in their minds, even if the Enlightened exist, they are not an imminent threat.”

“The Josanti League?” Tomas asked hopefully.

“Andar tried, but… The Great Council is too arrogant. They can’t imagine anything being a threat to the Josanti League. I doubt that they will endorse this.”

Tomas grimaced, but nodded. Finally the arena had filled up, and Levisomaerni flew over to the podium.

“Greetings again,” she started. “I hope that all of you have had the chance to look over the data we sent, as well as to consult with your allies and neighbors. If any of you have anything to say, now is the time. We will open the floor for discussion.”

The first to speak was a strange, wrinkly turtle-like alien from a nation on the other side of the galaxy that Tomas had never heard about—Nishiar.

“We only wish to make the waters clearer. You are proposing a military alliance against these Enlightened?”

“That is correct,” Levisomaerni said.

“Who, if we are to believe your proof, would be extremely dangerous.”

“It would be more dangerous if we ignored them.”

The Nishiar representative huffed and took a seat again. And so it went: representatives spoke their concerns, asked questions, and then sat back down. The questions ranged from who would be in charge of any such alliance, to how many ships they would need to commit, to asking for the contact information for the people that made the “proof.” There were a lot of people that had even suggested sending an envoy through the containment to attempt to negotiate with the Enlightened. Tomas wasn’t opposed to negotiating, and they did have one Enlightened near them. He wouldn’t tell them that, of course, but he wondered if they should try to speak with him.

Then finally the questions ended, and Levisomaerni spoke again of the reasons why she believed the alliance was the best option—and then another representative asked for a chance to speak. Levisomaerni gave him the floor, and a large avian who looked like a cross between a roc and a condor, only with bright orange feathers and manipulators at the ends of her wings, flew down from her perch and landed near Levisomaerni. The Tar’ferat representative hopped to the middle and then turned her predatory head around the arena.

“I am Urvu’ri, the Head of the Tar’ferat flight. Many of you know of me, know my nation. We have always strived to be a stabilizing force in the galaxy. It is true, in the last several centuries, that we have turned more to ourselves, and the core. But we have never forgotten the galaxy, and our duty to safeguard all in it.”

The Tar’ferat representative turned her head and locked eyes with Tomas.

“And as such, I have decided that we should speak freely with our extended flight mates around the galaxy. My people have long ago found remnants of an older civilization. Remnants of the People.” The arena was suddenly filled with murmuring, but Urvu’ri didn’t stop. “We knew of them, and we knew some of their history. Enough that we can say that what the Rimward Alliance speaks is the truth.”

Tomas suddenly felt a spark of hope. The Tar’ferat were one of the top core powers, and if they backed them, with the other core powers already on his side… It would be enough.

“We agree that something has to be done about these Enlightened. And while we know that any alliance on such scale would be a very hard thing to accomplish, we are in agreement—”

Before she could finish speaking, red lights started shining around the arena, and loud sounds started blasting out. Everyone was immediately on their feet, and then a voice spoke out over the speakers.

“Attention, everyone, the system is under attack. I repeat, the system is under attack. Proceed to your compounds immediately.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — Summit system — Sovereign Remembrance

Fleet Master Johanna Stern sat in the command chair of her Sovereign, and read through her reports. There wasn’t much to do while on shift aside from that. The Suvri had proven very adept hosts, and their guard fleet was keeping everything in order, even though there were far more alien ships in the system than there were Suvri. Then again, Johanna had been made aware that the Suvri were masters of stealth tech, so she wouldn’t be surprised if there was another force just as big somewhere in the system. That’s what she would have done.

Her reading was interrupted, however, by an alert sounding. It was quickly silenced and Johanna turned toward the sensor officer.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Ships have just entered the system, Fleet Master.”

Johanna nodded—there had been many ships coming and going from the system. Mostly couriers and such. “Do we have any idea to whom they belong?” The crew had started keeping track of all visiting ships from the other nations, timing their arrivals for the analysts to go over later. They could probably tell how far away they had more forces or some other such information.

“We aren’t close enough to tell just yet, but there are more ships dropping out every second, Fleet Master.”

That got her attention, and she leaned forward in her chair. “How many?”

“Twenty thousand and counting… No, thirty… The rate of ships appearing is increasing. Fifty, one hundred—”

“Put it on the holo,” Johanna ordered and sent a message for her second to get to the bridge. “All hands, red alert! Send messages to our allies. I want them all ready.” The four fleets were already in a defensive wall formation, with the Krashinar on top, the Empire at the bottom, and the Shara Daim and the Erasi taking the sides.

“We are getting a system-wide alert message from Suvri Command!” the communications officer reported.

“Put it through!”

“Attention—this is Commander Tajik of the Suvri Defense Fleet. The incoming force is hostile. I repeat, the newly arrived force is hostile. All fleets that are willing to help, contact me on the following channel and acknowledge your willingness. All fleets not willing to fight, move to the following coordinates.” Johanna didn’t know how anyone wouldn’t be willing to fight, but as she watched the holo, she saw some starting to move away.

“Get on that channel and let them know that we and our allies will fight.” There was no doubt in Johanna’s mind that the others would fight. She just needed to know who it was that had attacked them. Was it some race that didn’t agree with the summit, someone who had a grudge against another nation?

“Any comms from the planet?” Johanna asked.

“No, Fleet Master, the Suvri have established military protocols. No communications from the ground other than from their Command.”

Johanna nodded in respect; that was very smart. It prevented frightened politicians from giving out orders to their fleets, and allowed Suvri forces to establish at least some type of chain of command. Who knew what those on the ground would order their fleets to do, if they could?

She glanced at the holo and saw the number reach close to fifteen hundred thousand ships. That’s just insane. No one could get that many ships here unnoticed.

“Fleet Master! The hostile fleet had entered the skim!”

“Their target?”

“They are headed for the defense fleet, Fleet Master!”

Johanna frowned. That would put them in the middle of the sphere made by the other fleets. Sure, not all of them were going to fight, but it would get the hostile force surrounded. That was not a smart move, unless they didn’t care for losses and were after the planet and the people on it. The fifty thousand ships in the defense force wouldn’t be able to hold them off, not if they were of equivalent tech, but even if they weren’t it would only take one ship to get by for them to kill everyone attending the summit.

The hostile force left the skim and entered the range to attack the Suvri force. They were now close enough for them to get a good scan of them. Johanna’s eyes widened when their computers recognized them. The designs were different and bigger, but these were clearly the black machine ships. What are they doing here? And why are they attacking?

It didn’t matter right then, and Johanna started issuing orders.

“Send out to all ships in our fleets to load skim missiles,” Johanna ordered. “And get a courier out to the Nomad Fleet, let them know what has happened.” Johanna debated sending a message as well, but through hyperspace it would take at least two hours for it to arrive. But there was a trans-lane here that led close to their position, and it was a only an hour’s travel time. After the courier passed through, their message should reach the Nomad Fleet in minutes from there. The Nomad Fleet was in a system barely five light years away, just on the border of Suvri space. The core was much more densely populated by star systems, which was now a blessing. It would take the Nomad Fleet at least two hours through hyperspace to get here.

“Fleet Master, Suvri Command has informed us that any fleets wanting to join the fight are to act independently and aid their forces as able,” the communication officer reported.

Johanna grimaced; she knew that there was no other way. None of them have ever fought together, nor did they have anything like chains of command among some of the different nations. Working independently was the only way. She saw several fleets open fire with their own skim missiles, firing at the back formation of the black ships.

She got the confirmations from her forces that they were ready. “Fire skim-missiles!” Johanna ordered, and a moment later skim-missiles launched at the hostile ships, alongside the Krashinar’s unique weaponry.

“Send to all ships: We are going to close the range. Sovereign-class ships forward, the rest behind in support.” Johanna knew that it was probably futile, that they had no chance. The machine fleets outnumbered them three to one if every fleet in the system fought, and she doubted that they would. Their warships were advanced, on par with those of the Empire.

Even so, she still gave out the order. “All ships, enter skim.”

*  *  *

“What the hell is going on?” Tomas asked as they were escorted through the chaos by their guards, and got back to their compound.

One of his staff members was holding a comm unit and was speaking quickly, then he turned to Tomas and answered. “A hostile force has attacked the system, sir. It’s the machine ships, sir.”

Tomas was for once struck speechless. Why would they attack? He walked over to the holo that they had brought from one of their ships and had plugged into the Suvri systems, and he saw the system displayed there—and the number of enemy ships.

“How did they get here without us noticing?” Kane asked. “There is no way that a force that large could avoid notice, not here in the core.”

Tomas shook his head. “They can use the access points. They must’ve passed through one near here and then just made a short jump to this system.”

“This force is too large for us to stop. Not even if all ships in the system fight,” The Old Scar commented.

“Perhaps not, but—” Kane started.

“—by now Fleet Master Johanna would’ve— ” Vaana continued.

“—sent a message to our father.”

“The Nomad Fleet might be enough—”

“—to turn the tide,” Kane finished.

“Should we survive that long,” Vaana added.

“Perhaps, but Adrian is hours away. I do not know if this system can hold for that long.”

“We will hold,” Vorash said, gritting his teeth. “These…machines have never fought against Sovereigns, and if the rest of the fleets here see them in combat, they will be emboldened.”

“There is nothing for us to do but wait, and hope that Adrian gets here fast enough,” Tomas said reluctantly. He never liked relying on others, but now he had no choice.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Year 712 of the Empire — the Nomad Fleet

Adrian sat in his throne in the heart of Moirai. His mind was connected deeply to Moirai as the two of them conversed; or, rather, Adrian spoke and Moirai complained.

“HOW LONG?” she grumbled, again.

Adrian took a deep breath. “Until we meet the Enlightened,” he sent to her. Adrian knew that she didn’t really understand everything that he spoke, that she more ascertained meaning from the combination of words and emotions that Adrian sent to her. She was smart, very smart, just not in the same way a human was. She had her own thoughts, her own way of thinking, and some things were just incomprehensible to her. In many ways, Moirai reminded him of Sora and Akash, the two woilions he had saved. That was most probably connected, as Moirai had gotten most of her attributes from him, and Adrian had always cared deeply for the two wolions. He might’ve imprinted some of his memories of them on her.

“ENLIGHTENED, FAR AWAY. TOO LONG.”

Adrian thought furiously about how to convince her that she should still remain hidden. He had known from the memories of the Old Scar how hard it was to guide great beasts. And Moirai was even harder. Then a thought occurred to him. “You want to destroy our enemies? To show them everything that you can do?”

“YES…” Moirai said slowly, with feelings of suspiciousness attached.

Adrian almost smiled. Moirai had come to know him very well. “Well, then, don’t you want to show yourself at the right moment? To strike fear in their hearts and destroy their ships? Don’t you want your first appearance, your announcement to the galaxy, to be memorable?”

He could feel her thinking about it. Moirai was a lot like him, and he knew that she would want to make her debut a memorable one.

She didn’t answer him verbally, but she did send a wave of irritation and displeasure at him. Underneath all that, he knew that she had agreed. After all, Adrian was her handler, and that he had made sure that she knew from the beginning. No matter how much she complained, Adrian was certain that she would never go against his wishes. Their bond was powerful, as he had been by her side for almost every moment of her life.

Adrian sighed and pulled his mind out of their connection. He leaned forward in the throne and noticed Iris’s form standing next to him.

“Watching over me?” Adrian asked jokingly.

“Always,” she said with a fond smile on her face. “I just know that you will get into trouble without me in your head to guide you.”

Adrian chuckled at that—but she was right, in a way. He had spent his entire life with her being a part of him. It was different now, but they were still close. Adrian spent a lot of time with Moirai, and Iris was a good guide to Moirai in his absence.

Iris had truly shined as a part of Moirai. Not many people in the Empire knew about what they had done, but Iris had been slowly growing more powerful as she spent more time in her hybrid-core. Adrian and Axull Darr were monitoring her closely, and so far none of Axull Darr fears of her going rogue had manifested—just as Adrian told him that they wouldn’t. He trusted Iris more than anyone else. She was a part of him, always had been. They grew up, developed, and lived together.

“Anything interesting to report?” Adrian asked.

“Nothing much. The fleet is the same as the last time you asked. Anessa has sent two messages. You missed your date night.”

Adrian winced; he’d had a long night with Moirai going over fleet tactics and had forgotten. He was sure that Anessa would make him pay for that.

“Anything from Axull?” Adrian asked. Axull Darr had been living as a civilian technician on Bastion, undercover, monitoring Vas. It was actually extremely easy to keep an eye on the Enlightened. There were sensors and cameras everywhere aside from private quarters, and Axull had access to them all. So far he had yet to notice any clue that would help them identify which one of the Enlightened Vas was.

But the two of them were not really in agreement about Vas. In Axull’s mind the Enlightened could not be changed; they were monsters. But Adrian had watched Vas for a long time, had interacted with him, trained with him, shared drinks. And he did not think that anyone, not even someone like an Enlightened, could hide their true self for so long, and not from him. So far Vas had done much, and in Adrian’s opinion the Enlightened was confused. It was clear in his actions; but Axull chalked it all up to deception. Adrian felt like there was more.

Recordings of Vas’s first fights during the war with the Erasi painted a picture of someone unaccustomed to seeing so much death firsthand; and then when Ryaana’s force was ambushed by the Erasi forces, he had saved her. Anessa’s and his analysis pointed to the fact that he had wiped out the Erasi’s forces, but also those of the Empire. That action on its surface pointed more in the direction of Axull’s thoughts—but Adrian saw more.

Vas had saved Ryaana. And he hadn’t had to. With his power, he could’ve changed his appearance, become someone else. Sure, Ryaana had given him access to the highest positions in the Empire, but was that enough to risk revealing himself? And he knew that only one ship escaping would have assured that.

Vas was not here to wage war, to destroy and kill. He was here to gather information. And from what Axull had told Adrian, the Enlightened had never really interacted with the other intelligent races. Yet in the Empire, Vas had. He had seen them all as living beings, and Adrian couldn’t help but wonder if that was enough to shake an Enlightened, to weaken his resolve.

“Nothing new,” Iris responded to Adrian’s question.

“Well then, I better get back to Bastion and face Anessa’s wrath.”

Iris shook her head and then suddenly froze.

“I’m afraid that it would be best if you delay that,” Iris said.

“What is it?”

“A message has just reached the fleet. The summit has been attacked.”

Adrian turned around and sat down on the throne. “By who? And get me Anessa on the comms as soon as possible.”

“The machine ships—a force of one-point-five million ships has entered the system and attacked the defenders around the planet where the summit is being held.”

Adrian froze for a moment. That was a force that was three times the size of the Empire’s entire fleet. “Why would the AI send its ships to attack the summit? How did it even know?”

“There is no way of knowing, Adrian.”

“How many friendly ships are in the system?” Adrian asked.

“There two hundred and twelve nations represented, each with an escort of five thousand ships. That puts their number at around a million ships. But Adrian, by the time the courier left the system, only a small number of fleets had actually joined in the defense.”

“Damn! We need to stop them. We need the alliance if we are to get a passage through the core.” Adrian’s anger rose. The AI was interfering, and its actions were actively helping the Enlightened. That would not continue for long; nothing could stand between him and his goal.

“Anessa has reached Bastion’s command center. She is on the comm,” Iris reported.

“Are you ready?” Adrian asked before he answered Anessa.

“YES.”

“Then we go to battle.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — Summit system — Sovereign Remembrance

The entire force under Johanna’s command dropped out of the skim around one-and-a-half light seconds away from the black ships’ forces, just in time to see their skim-missile salvo hit the side of the hostile formation and do very little. They destroyed a few of the smaller ships, but there were just too many of them for it to matter. The hostiles were gathered in one large formation—a massive sphere—with two types of ships. One was a large dreadnought-sized vessel, which accounted for about a fourth of their number, and the other was smaller, in the range between a cruiser and a battleship. Both were oblong prolate spheroids with weapons mounted all over them.

Johanna couldn’t help but frown at their formation; it was a completely wrong formation for what they were doing. The black ships had already engaged the fifty thousand Suvri defenders, but their formation didn’t allow them to bring as much firepower against the Suvri as it was capable off. The black ships still held the upper hand, and would win no matter what, but they were prolonging the fight, and losing far more than they should.

“All carriers, release drones,” Johanna ordered as she looked over the holo, assessing the situation.

And the futility of their fight just made itself clear as she saw that most of the fleets had decided to pull back instead of fight. There were only four other fleets fighting, and only one of the core powers—the Tar’ferat, who had jumped in first. They were keeping position above the enemy sphere and pounding it from above with a quite impressive display of power. The other three were from the nations that the Rimward Alliance had never interacted with before, but during their time here Johanna had managed to get pretty good scans. She knew that their ships were only barely in the same class as those of the black ships, at best two generations behind the Empire’s ships. They still fought, however, and for that she was thankful.

Johanna knew that the black ships were controlled by highly advanced computer programs, not real AI, but still, their attack was poor in design. It also made little sense that they had arrived in the middle of all the other fleets in the system.

It wouldn’t matter in the end. As Johanna watched, she saw Suvri taking the black ships down only for more ships to take the destroyed ones’ places, and the Suvri were suffering losses as well.

“All ships, fire at will!” Johanna said as her formation settled. The Sovereigns and the Krashinar great beasts were in front, the rest of their ships behind. Their ships immediately started unloading skim missiles; at this range, the enemy wouldn’t even notice their launch before they appeared in front of them. They also started firing their energy and kinetic weapons. The dreadnoughts and the battleships fired their kinetic missiles—slabs of compressed matter metal flying at 0.7c.

And then the Sovereigns, the Devastators, and the great beasts unleashed their powers. For a moment, the spots where the fifteen Sovereigns and several great beasts stood blazed like beacons across the system as they opened fire with all of their weaponry. Skim-missiles were ejected out of their launch tubes and their thrusters fired, reorienting and firing them toward their targets. The molecular-disintegration cannons pulsed and fired, followed by anti-matter beams and particle cannons, as massive rail-guns cycled and spewed kinetic missiles as fast as they could recharge.

In the span of a minute the small section of the black ships’ formation in front of Johanna’s force was ravaged. That was when a change occurred in the enemy formation—suddenly, their assaults toward the Suvri lessened and they turned their attention toward Johanna and her forces.

“All ships, one-quarter thrust backward!” Johanna ordered as she saw that the enemy formation was rippling. She couldn’t let them surround her ships.

She cast her eyes on the holo as the black ships opened fire on her forces, only for them to be met by the Sovereign-class ships supported by the rest of her force. Very little managed to pass through. On the holo she saw that the black ships were still pressuring the Suvri, but their focus seemed to have shifted toward the Rimward Alliance. The Suvri ships and the platforms all around the system were firing constantly, but it almost seemed like they had no effect. No matter how many they destroyed, there was always more.

And then, as if the display of the Sovereigns had inspired them, more fleets started joining in the fight. Johanna didn’t have the time to pay attention to who it was or where. The black ships were pushing her ships—the Sovereigns were wreaking havoc across the wall of ships in front of them, but there was never any hesitation in the black ships’ movements.

They exchanged fire for a long time, fleets on all sides of the sphere that was the enemy formation each giving and getting. Johanna had been lucky not to suffer any casualties so far, but she knew it was just a matter of time. The computer-operated ships had amazingly high accuracy; rarely did any of their shots from beam weapons miss, and their deadly beams were on the verge of overwhelming her forces’ shields.

They were lucky that their missiles were flying at sublight speed at them, but the rest of the ships in the system weren’t so lucky. It seemed that only the Empire had the technology for skim-nullifying fields—it was Erasi and Krashinar technology, which the Empire and the Shara Daim had quickly incorporated into their ships. Now it was the only thing that was still keeping her forces alive as the hostile skim-missiles launched into skim and then almost immediately dropped out as they encountered the field. Johanna wasn’t even bothering with them, as the skim missiles were built for short ranges, relying on their skim drives to cross most of the distance before burning what little fuel they had for the final push. Most of the hostile missiles were now coasting on ballistic trajectories, slow enough that her ships could avoid them.

What surprised her was that the black ships still fired them even if not one of the skim missiles had reached their targets. Johanna wondered if that was because of their programming, thinking that perhaps they couldn’t adapt to the things that they didn’t know about. She knew that the black ships had watched the Empire, but their ships hadn’t been seen during the war with the Erasi, and in any case it had been a longstanding practice to destroy the machine ships when they entered any Empire system. They hadn’t been hostile, but there was no way that the Empire was going to let them spy on them. Now it looked like that had been prudent.

“Load the Helios s-missiles, one for every one hundred standard,” Johanna ordered and waited as her orders were relayed to their forces.

She checked the holo and saw that there was an all-out war happening across the system as many of the fleets joined the fight. She couldn’t tell how many, but there still didn’t seem to be enough. The Suvri defense fleet had suffered a lot of losses, almost a third of their numbers, and many platforms around the planet. Thankfully the planet itself had a planetary shield which hadn’t been breached, but the Suvri were struggling. Their force had been hit the hardest, fighting against a force that was five times their own size. Comparably, Johanna’s force was currently facing maybe half as many ships as the total of her force. Not an impossible task, but the problem was that with each kill her force got, another took its place.

She grimaced when she finally saw one of her ships get destroyed. She should be grateful that they had held out for so long before that happened, but it still hurt. A battleship that had been protecting a group of cruisers got hammered from a group of ten black ships at the same time in order to bring its shields down, and then a second group of ten destroyed the battleship less than a second after its shields fell.

Then she saw that starting to happen all over. The black ships had changed tactics, and were now firing in sequence: ten ships focusing on one, and another ten firing almost immediately after.

It was an amazing display of coordination, one that only highly advanced computers would be capable of. She wondered how they came up with the idea; they had to be programmed to do that if some conditions were met. But their tactic would leave them a bit more open to fire from her force, not that they needed to bothered by that.

Damage reports started appearing on her holo.

“Helios s-missiles loaded, Fleet Master.”

“All ships, fire!” Johanna ordered.

*  *  *

“They are not doing so well,” Tomas commented, his voice tense.

“There are too many of the enemy—” Kane started.

“—even with every fleet in the system fighting they would be at a disadvantage,” Vaana finished.

Vorash crossed both sets of his arms and growled. “Those cowards, half of them aren’t even fighting. Some have even run away from the system!”

Tomas didn’t comment; he felt much the same. About a third of the fleets in the system were standing to the side and watching the other half fight, while the rest had already escaped. “I know that many have a great fear of the black ships, but they must’ve seen that they can be destroyed. Their own people on the planet will die if they don’t join in,” Tomas said.

“It won’t matter—” Kane said.

“—as the other fleets are suffering too large of losses,” Vaana said. Tomas wanted to disagree, to say that together they had a chance, but he knew that Kane and Vaana had far more experience. They had been Dai Sha, after all.

“It’s been an hour since the fighting began and we are still holding,” Vorash argued.

“We need Father’s fleet,” Vaana said.

“Ten thousand Titans will be enough to turn the tide,” Kane finished.

Tomas turned to one of the staff members working on the holo gathering information. “Assuming that Johanna sent out a message immediately, how long before the Nomad Fleet could get here at the earliest?”

The staff member looked on the holo above his wrist unit and swiped a few windows. “Assuming that she sent a message through hyperspace, and that the Nomad Fleet set off immediately upon receiving a message, four hours at least. If the Fleet Master had sent a courier through the trans-lane, two hours at least.”

“Two hours,” Tomas whispered as he watched the fleets of so many star-nations get ravaged by the black ships.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — Summit system — Sovereign Remembrance

Johanna watched as a new salvo of her s-missiles left her force in a flash. The s-missiles crossed the range in a moment, and then dropped down to sublight speeds. Most of the s-missiles went toward their targets, but several among them pushed past the first line of the enemy formation. The much larger missiles were not really missiles at all; the larger s-missiles activated their payload as they entered a mass of enemy ships, and then six large orbs were released from the rocket that had carried them. The large orbs activated and the bomb readied its beam weapons. Anti-matter explosions focused beams of incredible power in four directions from each orb. The beams pierced through shields and entire ships to strike those behind their first targets. In an instant, ten thousand enemy warships were either destroyed or crippled by the attack of the Helios s-missiles.

“Focus fire on the damaged ships! Take them out!” Johanna ordered as the aftermath of their attack left a hole in the formation of the black ships, one that was quickly being filled by more ships coming in.

Johanna noticed a slight change: more and more ships had started moving toward her forces. We probably just gotten bumped up the priority queue, Johanna thought to herself. It was clear after a while of battle that the ships here were following programming; every decision they could take was preprogrammed.

“Pull us back, we don’t want to get overwhelmed. Get the drones in front with the Sovereigns,” Johanna ordered. She needed to allow her ships to recover, even if that meant sacrificing the drones.

Her ships were getting pummeled. One of the Shara Daim Sovereigns was leaking atmosphere and many of the ships in her force had suffered some damage. There was just too much enemy fire. By the calculations of the ship’s AIs, they had taken out almost two hundred thousand of their ships, but had lost almost an equal amount spread across the fleets of various nations. There were even two fleets that had gotten completely wiped out.

The Suvri defending the planet had managed to somehow hold the enemy force. Johanna didn’t know how long that could last. They had lost half of their defensive platforms and the black ships had even taken a few shots at the planet. The planetary shield held—it would take a lot more to bring it down—but it made them all nervous anyway.

Then Johanna saw a large task force of black ships separate from the formation somewhere on the top of the sphere and turn toward Johanna’s forces. “Damn,” she whispered. There were almost one hundred thousand ships in that “task force.” There was no way that they could hold back both them and the forces they were already engaged with.

She looked for a way out, but she saw none. Any attempt at a retreat would only let them get to her faster…unless she tried to scatter the force, which had its own risks. Still, she had no choice.

“All ships, prepare for emergency skim,” Johanna started, but then her sensor officer yelled out.

“Fleet Master, look!”

Johanna frowned, but focused on the holo only to see the new enemy task force suddenly get hit hard. Something had decimated their numbers. The holo updated as new signatures appeared out of nowhere.

“Those are Suvri ships,” Johanna said, grinning—I knew that they had another fleet in system. Johanna was fairly impressed that they had waited to use that fleet until now, when it would have the most effect. The Suvri were good—very good. It seemed that all of the stories that she had heard about the core powers were true. The Tar’ferat were holding their own as well; they had been decimating the top of the enemy formation since the beginning, with very few losses.

In a matter of moments, the Suvri had just destroyed almost half of the task force sent against Johanna’s forces.

“We are getting a com request from the Suvri flagship,” com officer reported.

“Put it through,” Johanna said.

“This is Fleet Commander Jikao of the Suvri Defense Fleet.”

“Thank you for the assist, Fleet Commander,” Johanna said.

“There is no need for gratitude. We are fighting the same enemy. I was hoping that you would be willing to bring your force closer to mine so that together we may strike. Your impressive vessels would add much to the flow of battle.”

“Of course, Fleet Commander, we are on our way.” Johanna cut the comm and turned to her crew. “Chart a course for a short-range skim jump for the fleet.” The forces that had been pressuring her had now switched focus to the newly arrived Suvri. It seemed that they went after the biggest threat, which now gave Johanna room to breathe and regroup her forces.

Joining the Suvri formation would help them a lot; the Sovereigns were powerful, but they could be overwhelmed. With the Suvri’s numbers, they would have more room to fight.

As soon as her forces had changed their orientation, she gave the order for them to enter the skim.

*  *  *

“Yes!” Vorash pumped his upper arms in the air as the Suvri stealth force came to aid of their forces.

“That was very—” Vaana spoke.

“—well done,” Kane finished.

“It was,” the Old Scar sent. “It gave us some room. It doesn’t change much, however.”

Tomas remained quiet. It was obvious from the feelings that seeped through the Old Scar’s words that he wanted to be up there fighting.

“If only those cowards had joined in the battle, we would’ve had a better chance,” Vorash said.

Tomas quietly agreed. There were still about a third of the fleets stationed away from the battle watching, including three of the more powerful core powers: the Josanti League, Tuete, and Benos. Tomas would love nothing more than to shoot their commanders in their heads. Vorash was right—they were cowards.

“We are losing,” Vaana said.

“The Suvri protecting the planet will not survive for much longer, ” Kane said.

“The enemy is planning something there.” Vaana pointed at the center of the enemy formation. Tomas could see many ships moving around but he couldn’t see what the two former Dai Sha had seen.

“You are correct, they are preparing for a push for the planet.”

“You want to say that they haven’t been pushing until now?” Vorash asked incredulously, voicing Tomas’s sentiments exactly.

“They’ve been testing. And… If my reasoning is correct, they were also gathering information.”

“Ah,” Kane and Vaana said at the same time.

“That make much more sense—” Vaana started.

“—we did not see it before,” Kane finished, looking at the Old Scar, and then the twins bowed their heads at the Krashinar in respect.

“See what?” Vorash asked, sounding lost.

“These black ships had been testing the forces here, gathering information on their capabilities.”

“Damn,” Tomas said. “So what, now they are going to start fighting seriously?”

“It would—” Kane said.

“—seem so,” Vaana finished.

*  *  *

In the span of five minutes, the battle had changed completely. One moment Johanna and the Suvri had been hammering the enemy ships, and in the next they were running for their lives.

The black ships had been losing thousands of ships under the fire of the Rimward Alliance and the Suvri fleet, and then, as if the devastation up until now had been just a warm up, everything changed. The enemy ships moved from deep within the sphere formation to the forefront and they struck, focusing their fire unlike anything that they had done before. They hammered the Sovereign Kali, bringing its shields down and then proceeding to systematically break the ship apart. The Sovereign had survived for a while, fighting even as it was dying, destroying hundreds of the enemy ships in the process—but in the end, it wasn’t enough. The rest of Johanna’s forces were too occupied trying to survive to help. The massive ship died with holes in its body, becoming nothing but a slow spinning piece of debris. The first Sovereign that the Empire had ever lost, and not the last they would this day.

More and more ships started dying. The Krashinar had lost a quarter of their forces in a span of ten minutes. The Erasi had taken the most losses, with half of their Devastators falling under the onslaught. The Shara Daim had yet to lose a Sovereign, but they had paid the price in dreadnoughts and battleships. The Empire had lost many as well, more than the Shara Daim, and Johanna knew that they wouldn’t survive for much longer.

They had done a lot of damage to the enemy forces, had destroyed at least three hundred thousand of their ships, but the fleets that were fighting had lost just as much. Overall they had been trading ship for ship, and at that rate they would run out of ships long before the enemy. With each destroyed friendly ship, their defenses weakened, and yet the enemy’s effectiveness did not diminish in the same fashion.

The black ships had ravaged the Suvri forces defending the planet, had destroyed all of their defensive platforms, and were now focusing on the planetary shield—and that would not last long under such an onslaught. Johanna could do nothing to change the course of the battle, she knew that. The only thing that she could do was to run away, and in doing so leave her Emperor on the planet to die.

And her duty would not allow her to do that.

A comm request came through from the Suvri commander, and Johanna answered.

“The defenses at the planet are failing. We cannot let them get through the shield,” Fleet Commander Jikao said.

“We don’t have enough room to maneuver,” Johanna said slowly as she watched her ships burn.

“Perhaps if your large ships provide cover, we might manage it.”

Johanna knew what the Suvri was asking, and her first instinct was to decline—but she knew that there was no other way. If they were to die, she would delay the enemy as much as possible.

“Make sure that your forces are ready. We won’t get a second chance at this.” Johanna closed the comms and used her interface to send out messages. She would ask the commanders of those ships herself.

She ordered four of her remaining Sovereigns to move forward and stem the tide of oncoming ships for as much as possible. She was sacrificing them; she knew that, they knew that. Still, they accepted her orders, and as the Sovereigns died to give her that room, she gave out new orders.

“All ships, plot a micro jump to the planet. We are not letting them through that shield.”

Her crew followed her orders, but she could see the somber expressions on their faces. They knew that it was a futile thing.

A moment later her entire force skimmed into high orbit above the planet, followed close behind by the remains of the Suvri’s forces. They came out of the skim in a field of debris, and several of her ships collided with pieces of platforms.

Johanna’s and the Suvri commander’s forces hit hard at the enemy ships, pushing them from the planet long enough to get into position to defend. The ships seemed focused on single point on the shield, just over the summit grounds, so thankfully they did not need to defend the entire planet.

Another of her Sovereigns died as the black ships focused all of their fire on it, to the point of ignoring other ships. This resulted in the black ships losing far more in trade, but they didn’t care. They still outnumbered them.

Her fleets were losing, and ten more of her dreadnoughts exploded. The situation was hopeless—they were now stuck against the planet with no way to escape.

Then her sensor officer yelled out.

“Fleet Master, new arrivals from hyperspace!”

Johanna turned her eyes to the holo and saw the new arrivals, and their familiar signatures.

“Finally,” Johanna whispered, sighing in relief.

The Nomad Fleet had arrived.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — Summit system

Anessa sat in the command chair on board the Bastion in the Nomad Fleet command center. The Bastion was a World-ship, or the Empire’s version of one at least, and while it had weapons, they were not on the same scale as what a Titan had. Even so, the Bastion was the flagship in battle, the command hub for every other ship in the Fleet.

As soon as the Nomad Fleet dropped out of hyperspace, her eyes looked at the updating holo as they got the most up-to-date data from the other Rimward Alliance ships in the system. Her mind was looking over the same via the command interface. As soon as she got a good picture of the state of the system, she started sending out orders.

“Assume attack formations 4-21,” Anessa ordered as she felt the now familiar feeling of anticipation before a battle. She had always loved commanding ships—and now she would command the most advanced fleet ever built. Adrian was the Nomad Fleet’s Warmaster, but Anessa was its Battle Commander. Adrian had moved away from commanding large fleet battles in the last years, focusing instead on other things in his pursuit of overcoming his limits. Anessa had continued training for fleet battles, and now was likely better at commanding than he was.

The situation in the system was dire. The black ships outnumbered the friendly ships which were engaged in battle, and she could see that the friendly forces were losing. There were too many enemy ships for them to hold out. Her own battle fleet was thirty thousand strong, not much compared to the number of enemy ships, but a third of that were Titans and the rest were nanoships. She was sure that they were about to give the enemy a real surprise.

As soon as all of her ships reported back, she took a deep breath and, with one last glance at the holo, gave the order. “Begin the attack.”

Almost immediately the warships of the Nomad Fleet, already grouped in one hundred smaller formations, each with one hundred Titans and their nanoship escorts, spread out and entered the skim. They arrived within the enemy’s formation and started unleashing walls of fire against the enemy ships. Every Titan held more firepower than a Sovereign, and with one hundred of them in one formation it was nearly impossible for any force to overwhelm them. She sent one formation to aid every friendly fleet that was still fighting, and ten formations to the planet to help defend it. The rest she had sent out all around the giant sphere that was the enemy formation.

Anessa remained back with two formations and Adrian’s Moirai guarding the Bastion and the Hephaestus mobile stations. She was not a commander that tended to micromanage unless necessary, and seeing the destruction that the first wave of her attacks had wrought, she leaned back and opened a channel to Adrian. She knew that it was only a matter of time until the enemy recovered from this attack and struck back—and she had an idea.

“Yes, Anessa?” Adrian answered.

“I have an idea, but it will require revealing a few of our secrets,” Anessa said.

“Oh? I am listening,” Adrian said cheerfully.

She told him, and Adrian took a moment to respond.

“I don’t think that even the Nomad Fleet can take out all of these ships without losses. We can hurt them badly, but numerical advantage is always dangerous,” Adrian said. “But, yes, you are right. With that we will have the upper hand.”

Anessa nodded and quickly sent out orders to begin preparing. “And what about you? Will you take her into battle?”

“Not yet. I want time to see how the black ships fight, and then we will go in. I don’t want to reveal her true nature until we find the Enlightened, nor do I want to give Vas forewarning.”

“He is in combat with Ryaana. I doubt that he will have the time to watch,” Anessa said.

“As much as I hate to admit it, we don’t know all that they can do yet. I do not want to risk him noticing something that I would rather keep as a secret weapon.”

“As you wish,” Anessa said and closed the channel, turning her focus to the Hephaestus mobile stations that were reorienting for skim.

As soon as they did, she ordered her formation to skim. A moment later, they appeared in the orbit of the system’s sun. The Hephaestuses moved closer, their shields burning brightly as they dropped closer to the star, and a visible change in their smooth spherical shapes appeared as small conduits of energy dropped deep into the star, and the nanites started rearranging themselves. A long spire extended from their hulls with a nozzle at the end, and bright blue light started glowing all around the base of the spire.

Anessa waited patiently with her formation standing guard above the three stations. There were no enemy ships anywhere close, but that did not mean that they should be any less vigilant.

Then, fifteen minutes later, the crews of the Hephaestuses reported that they were ready.

Anessa designated intended targets, focusing on enemies that were currently threatening to overwhelm the friendly forces. “Fire,” she ordered.

Three beams of intense blue energy lashed out of the three mobile stations: matter-disintegration beams which were a step up from those previously used by the Star-guard stations in the Empire. The beams were smaller, but with greater range and power. The three beams of faster-than-light energy lashed out across the system and in an instant disintegrated thousands of enemy ships.

The Hephaestuses didn’t have enough power on their own to fire such weapons, and in fact no ship in the Empire’s fleets had—their MD weapons were far weaker—but the Hephaestuses could tap into the power of a star and charge their capacitors to fire. Two minutes later, another salvo of beams lashed out, and more enemy ships died.

*  *  *

Johanna rejoiced as the Nomad Fleet joined the fight, and as soon as they had a task force of one thousand Titan-class warships and their escorts drop out of skim near her force, they began destroying the black ships, giving her people much-needed room to breathe. Johanna used the command interface to quickly send out orders and reorganize her forces into one wall formation, and then she begun the counterattack.

She noticed that the enemy ships’ fire seemed to have lost their effectiveness… She remembered a few talks with Gotu where he told her that the nanoships had the most advanced and experimental electronic warfare suits.

Suddenly the tide of the battle had turned, and Johanna could see the change all over the battlefield.

*  *  *

“That…” Vorash whispered. “I knew that he had built a powerful fleet, but that it…”

“Father doesn’t—” Kane started.

“—do anything halfway,” Vaana finished.

“Can we win now?” Tomas asked, as they saw the three station-sized vessels fire again from across the system.

Vorash crossed his upper arms. “Perhaps. They are turning the tide across the formations, but we are still too outnumbered. It is close.”

“A few of the other fleets are joining the battle,” the Old Scar said.

Tomas turned his eyes to the holo and saw a few of the fleet that had stepped out of the way move toward the enemy formation. They were still holding to extreme range, only sending s-missiles at the enemy, but at least they were helping. But there were still too many not fighting—two hundred and fifty thousand warships were just standing there and watching. If they had fought from the start, if some hadn’t run away, Tomas was sure that this situation would’ve looked very different.

He looked again to the secondary holo set up next to the one watching the battle. His staff had no connection to their fleets, but they had estimates of their losses—and the numbers were not good at all. Almost half of the force that the Rimward Alliance had brought had been destroyed. Ten thousand warships, hundreds of thousands of people.

“Look there,” Vorash said, pointing at the holo. “More ships are entering the system.”

Tomas looked on as another two hundred thousand warships entered the system. With a touch of fear, he waited impatiently for the holo to update and identify the ships—then their signatures flashed green, and their identifications appeared on the holo.

“The Suvri,” Vorash said. “They must’ve had reinforcements nearby.”

Tomas released a sigh of relief. The Suvri had shown themselves to be not only smart, but also extremely capable, and Tomas knew that if he didn’t manage to get agreements with any other star-nations, he would make sure to get at least the Suvri on his side.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — Summit system

Adrian watched the battles unfold inside of his mind. Connected to the throne, he was a part of Moirai, could see what she saw, and Iris was feeding her information from the other systems. So he could see everything, perhaps even better than any other ship could. Moirai’s biological sight had been derived from Araxi’s, and they saw the space around them through subspace. Everything that occurred in realspace echoed in subspace, and Moirai’s sight was something akin to an instantaneous radar. This did not count her other form of sight, Sha sight, an ability that they had copied from Adrian.

“FIGHT?” Moirai asked again.

Adrian smiled. “Soon,” he sent her as he saw new ships enter the system. Through Moirai’s senses he immediately knew who they were; every star-nation in the system had slightly different signatures. Moirai’s senses were very sensitive, and so he recognized the Suvri ships before Iris identified them.

Adrian knew that with the addition of Suvri reinforcements that their victory was all but assured. He studied the battlefield as the tide slowly turned and looked for an opportunity. Then he saw a group of black ships split off from the main formation, clearly intending to head for the sun and the mobile stations. He had wondered when they would do that.

“Go,” Adrian sent to Moirai and Iris. There was no need for more; Moirai could see what he wanted before he could speak it in her mind.

Moirai formed the skim field faster than any ship or even any great beast was capable of, and a moment later the one-hundred-and-twenty-kilometers-long monster dropped on top of them.

“EVERYTHING?” Moirai asked.

Adrian appreciated her desire for unleashing all that she was capable of, but it was not needed.

“Not yet,” Adrian told her, and showed her what he wanted her to do.

Unlike every other time when they had spoken about it, this time Moirai didn’t argue, but rather obeyed immediately. She coordinated with Iris in the split second after they had dropped out of the skim, and the weapons on Moirai’s shell opened fire. MD beams and s-missiles flew out of the hull, devastating the formation below them. Adrian allowed Moirai to reach out with her gravity weapons and she started crushing ships whole. The enemy force was firing back, but the shield surrounding Moirai barely flickered.

“Open the front, ready the main weapon,” Adrian ordered them.

Iris begun opening the front, and Moirai started feeding power from her own supplies into its capacitors. As soon as the front was open, the firing mechanism extended forward. It looked a lot like two tuning forks merged together, one horizontally and one vertically. Adrian oriented Moirai toward the heart of the enemy formation and the four forks started giving off a purplish glow, with lightning bouncing off of them constantly.

“Fire,” Adrian ordered.

The purple energy gathered at the end of the forks and then slowly moved to the front. The energy exploded forward only to disappear into a tear that had formed in front of Moirai. Not a moment later, a large wave of purple energy blossomed in the heart of the enemy formation, and waves of the purple storm grew as a sphere expanding outwards, engulfing any ship in its path. And then, just as it had appeared, it fizzled out, leaving only a hole in the middle of the black ships’ formation.

Axull Darr’s subspace high-energy radiation weapon was a great success. The subspace cannon, as they had come to call it, generated a high-energy beam of radiation which they then fired and pushed into subspace. It could be fired without pushing it in subspace, but then it was a single-target weapon. To attain an area of effect, it needed to be pushed into subspace; once it entered subspace, its energy changed, losing most of its radiation and gaining pure destructive power. When it reentered normal space, it exploded violently in all directions, burning everything in its path.

The core of the black ships’ formation was gone, and with it tens of thousands of their warships and any chance they had of wining this battle. What was left now was only the mop up.

*  *  *

Three days later

Tomas stood on the podium in the arena, looking over the summit. The arena was filled with noise, people demanding explanations, throwing out accusations. There were two hundred and twenty-three representatives present now, the rest having left with their fleets. Out of those who remained, about seventy hadn’t participated in the battle. Of those who had left, none had fought. Tomas wanted to resent them—if they had fought, there would’ve been a lot less death and destruction—but he knew how much fear all of them had for the black ships. Hell, some of them weren’t even technologically advanced enough to fight them. That, however, did not excuse their behavior now.

Next to him stood three other people: Levisomaerni, Urvu’ri of the Tar’ferat, and President Hijako of the Suvri in his mech walker. The Tar’ferat had been the first ones to join in the fight against the hostile force that had attacked the system, and for that they had Tomas’s respect. The Suvri had shown great power as well. If it hadn’t been for their forces, the system would’ve fallen before reinforcements could’ve arrived.

Levisomaerni seemed like she’d finally had enough as she walked forward and snapped her wings loudly, sending a telepathic pulse across the room. Even Tomas winced, and it hadn’t been directed at him. It did, however, silence the arena.

“I know that all of you want answers, but throwing out accusations and demands will not get you what you seek,” Levisomaerni said. “Now, if you will allow me peace and quiet, I shall give you those answers.”

When no one spoke, she folded her wings across her back and started speaking. “The attack on this system several days ago by the black ships was unexpected. We have had some indications that pointed in the direction of their interference with our attempts to gather this summit over the years, but we have never thought that they would attack. What we know of their programming… It shouldn’t be possible. Which leaves one possibility: the AI has become corrupted. It is still fulfilling its original programming to contain the Enlightened, but now it is also interfering with galactic matters. For that reason, the summit’s goal of a galactic alliance is more important now than it was at any time before. You have all seen how dangerous the black ships are, and even if you do not believe in the threat of the Enlightened, you know that the black ships need to be taken care of.”

A representative of the Josanti League requested to speak, and Levisomaerni narrowed her eyes at him, but allowed him.

“What you are telling us is that the reason the black ships attacked was because you were attempting to create a galactic alliance?”

Levisomaerni opened her mouth to respond, but the representative from her home nation didn’t let her.

“There is no need for a galactic alliance in any case. The black ships had executed a surprised attack against this system, but any prepared force of the Josanti League would be enough to fight them off. And we see no need to further provoke the black ships by attacking them in turn.”

Tomas couldn’t keep quiet anymore, and took a step forward. “Say the cowards who spent the entire fight on the sidelines, watching as people died to protect them!”

The Josanti League representative’s expression darkened. “You dare insult us? You arrogant rimward scum! First you and this relic demand that we attend this pointless gathering, and now you dare speak to your betters? I shall—”

Tomas did not have the patience to listen to the buffoon speak, and he reached for the Sha. He might not use it often, but he was proficient enough in its use. “Enough!” His amplified voice echoed across the arena, and his telepathic signature relayed his feelings clearly to everyone. “I will not stand for your idiotic posturing and nonsensical attempts at intimidation. We have always dealt with you and your people with courtesy and respect, for as long as we have been in contact—or, rather, for as long as we have been attempting to establish diplomatic relations, despite you looking down on us.

“Know this: My nation and my people are not afraid of you. We know that just because you are from the core of the galaxy, and have a long and old history, does not mean that you are the best. If you will not see the truth before your eyes, if you are arrogant enough to believe that you can stand alone, then by all means, have at it! We don’t want you,” Tomas finished, to a stunned arena. He knew that most of the star-nations here would not dare speak this way to someone of the core powers. But Tomas didn’t care; he knew the power of his alliance, and now all had seen the power of his fleets. If they wanted to provoke him, then so be it.

The Josanti League representative looked shocked, as if he couldn’t believe that someone had actually spoken back to him.

And before he had a chance to speak, the representative of the Tar’ferat stepped forward to stand next to Tomas. “The Tar’ferat and the Suvri have agreed to form an alliance with the Rimward Alliance against the black ships and the threat that they contain. We have seen the rimward nations’ mettle in the battle to defend this system, and we hope that you will all think hard before you make a decision. If you wish to speak with any of us privately, we will be available. I urge you to consider everything that has been said during this summit, as well as the actions during the battle.”

*  *  *

“How many?” Tomas asked.

“Out of the core, only the Tar’ferat, the Suvri, and the Afar Group have agreed on the formal alliance. The Tuete and the Josanti League have refused and left the system. Benos are not interested in an alliance for now, but they do wish to begin relations with your alliance, mostly trade and such,” Levisomaerni answered. She had been coordinating with the other races.

Tomas nodded. He knew exactly what Benos were after: Rimward Alliance technology. Everyone had seen what the Sovereigns were capable off.

“And the rest?” Tomas asked.

“We have made preliminary agreements with sixty-three nations in the rim. But it will take time for everything to get coordinated; their territories are spread out around the galaxy,” Levisomaerni said.

Tomas rubbed a hand over his temple. That number was lower than what he had expected, considering that most nations were far smaller than even the Empire. Their contributions, while welcome, would not be enough.

Levisomaerni noticed his expression. “That is not to say that more won’t come around. Most of them are scared; they have never seen battles on such a scope as the one fought several days ago. Most have far fewer ships than the rest of us.”

“I understand all that,” Tomas said. And he did—he wouldn’t jump into an alliance which would pit them against the most powerful forces in the galaxy if he didn’t have anything close to that power level.

“There is some good news,” Levisomaerni said.

“Good news would be refreshing,” Tomas replied heavily.

“The Suvri and the Afar Group have agreed to let your Nomad Fleet pass through their territory, which should lead you directly to the containment zone. Further, both the Suvri and the Tar’ferat have agreed to send three fleets each with ours when they leave. The Afar will provide two fleets.”

“That is good news,” Tomas said. It was a step in their plan, and Tomas had already sent word through the access point back to Sol, to gather more forces. They would be reinforcing the Nomad Fleet with additional fleets, one from each of the members of the Rimward Alliance, bringing the numbers of the Rimward Alliance ships to fifty thousand. With another forty thousand from their new allies, the force would number ninety thousand. It was a force that he was comfortable with sending into the heart of the enemy territory. Its mission was not to fight, but to do a reconnaissance of the AI’s zone and the Enlightened. Tomas had made it clear to Adrian that they were to run away rather than get into conflicts.

But if Tomas didn’t manage to gather a far larger force to challenge the Enlightened, their trip would only stir the hornets’ nest. Yet they couldn’t just let the Enlightened be; they knew that they had a plan, that much was obvious, and the only reason they’d been quiet was because they didn’t want to fight yet. Giving them more time to accomplish their goals was paramount to suicide. That much, at least, Tomas was certain about.

“There is more,” Levisomaerni said.

“Oh?”

“The Suvri have provided us with a detailed scan of the containment zone. They’ve been monitoring the black ships for a while now…and their stealth ships have discovered one system which they believe could be of much interest.”

Tomas raised an eyebrow. “Huh, the Suvri impress yet again. Forward that information to Adrian, I am sure that they will want to check it out.”

“We’ve got an alliance, Tomas, perhaps not as large of one as we hoped for. But an alliance nevertheless,” Levisomaerni told him.

Tomas nodded. She was right. They had allies.

They were no longer alone in this fight.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Year 713 of the Empire — Suvri territory — Summit system

Adrian was on board the Bastion sitting in a meeting room with Anessa, Lurker of the Depths, Gotu, Ryaana, and Vas. The topic on the table was the forthcoming trip to the other side of the galaxy. It would take them a long time; they would be traveling in large numbers and would, because of that, be limited to hyperspace. But still, they’d finally gotten on the right path, and Adrian was excited. The info provided by the Suvri was helpful as well.

Currently they were waiting on the Suvri fleets that would come with them, and along the way they would pick up the Tar’ferat and the Afar.

“The black ships had to have used that access point,” Anessa said, pointing at the map on the table and the system close to the one in which the summit had been held. “There is no other way that they could’ve gotten there unnoticed.”

“It is likely.” Gotu shook his head. “The fact that they are capable of passing through locked access points is something that will be a pain.”

Adrian nodded. They had checked the closest access points after the battle. All had been locked. The Suvri, which were now the part of the alliance, had asked for one of them to be unlocked so that they and the Empire could expand their relations. The Empire wasn’t sure if the black ships could pass through the access points that had been unlocked by the Empire, but so far they hadn’t used any access point which was under the Rimward Alliance’s control.

“It doesn’t matter where they came from,” Ryaana said. “We now need to make sure that they can’t surprise us like this again.”

Vas simply nodded at Ryaana’s words.

“We will be unlocking several access points on our way to the containment zone. It would mean that we will be able to reinforce distant areas far more quickly,” Gotu said.

“For now, that is the Emperor’s problem. We have another mission.”

“Will the black ships fight us all the way?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

“We have no way of knowing what their programming is, what orders the AI gave them, and what constrictions the AI itself is under,” Adrian answered. “I suggest that we head straight for that system, as the Suvri’s intel suggests that it is the control hub for the containment zone. I bet that is where the AI is.”

“It could be,” Anessa said. “But you saw the Suvri’s data—that system is well defended.”

Adrian nodded. There weren’t anywhere near as many ships there as there had been in their attack force, but the defenses were still impressive.

“We need to establish contact with the AI, ascertain what kind of a threat it is. Was this attack just an error in its code? Or was it intentional?” Anessa said.

“I don’t see any way of us knowing unless we go there,” Adrian agreed with Anessa.

They couldn’t have a rogue AI wreaking havoc while they were attempting to fight the Enlightened. If the AI was a threat, it was imperative that they find that out as soon as possible.

*  *  *

“Your weapon worked marvelously,” Adrian said as he leaned back in the chair and looked out the window at passing hyperspace.

“I have never seen myself as a destroyer, but that…” Axull Darr trailed off.

Adrian didn’t understand his hesitance. Axull Darr was old, powerful, and yet still he was bothered by his own conscience. It was not something that Adrian worried about overmuch; it wasn’t something that he’d ever had to worry about. He knew his path, and he followed his desire always. Just because he had helped others along the way didn’t make him a saint, and just because he didn’t care about most others didn’t make him a monster. He just was. If they did not have enough drive and strength to follow, then he was not required to carry them on his shoulders.

“What do you think Vas’s reaction is going to be once we get there?” Adrian asked.

“I am not sure. Nothing I have seen so far even suggested that he is an Enlightened to me. If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have suspected him. But if he is only here to gather information, I believe that he will just leave.”

Adrian mulled that over. “And should we let him?”

“I am not certain yet that your preparations could stop him. Perhaps you could, but I don’t know what that would accomplish. It would enrage the others, for sure, perhaps even spark their plans—or maybe it would do nothing. We know so little of what their plans are that I cannot speculate.”

“I see…” Adrian said. He didn’t agree with Axull Darr. Adrian believed that the Enlightened were not just monsters seeking destruction. He felt that in his gut, and he had learned to trust his instincts.

“We shall continue watching him for now,” Adrian said finally.

“As you wish. It’s not like I can fight him,” Axull Darr said.

*  *  *

“Could you have ever imagined something like this? Before, when you were still on Santis?” Ryaana asked.

Vas walked beside her, and she could see his startled expression. He had been deep in thought.

“What do you mean?” Vas managed to ask.

“I mean this!” She spread her arms around the streets of Bastion. “That you would be a part of a fleet like this one. That you would be going to fight something like the Enlightened. That you would learn so much.”

“I… No. I do not think that I could’ve ever imagined learning so much,” Vas said with a somber expression.

Ryaana chuckled. Vas was always such a dour person.

“I wonder what the Enlightened are really like,” Ryaana said finally.

“Why do you say that?” Vas asked, his eyes narrowing to slits.

“I know that Father doesn’t believe that they are just mindless monsters set on wiping out all life in the galaxy. I just wonder what their reasoning is. Why are they doing what they are?”

Vas turned thoughtful. “And what if you found out their reasons, and what if they weren’t insane? What if you found out that they had completely rational reasons for doing what they were doing? If perhaps they are attempting to prevent something far worse?”

“I don’t know if anything is worth slaughtering all the life in the galaxy,” Ryaana answered.

Vas turned on her intently, forcing them both to stop. “But can you just imagine it? Imagine if there was something which was worth the price off all the life in the galaxy. What would you think then?”

Ryaana was taken aback by the intensity in Vas’s eyes. She had never seen him like this. She wanted to repeat her answer, but the intensity in his eyes made her pause. Ryaana thought about it for a long minute. She couldn’t really comprehend such reasoning; in her eyes, there was nothing that could be worth the lives of so many beings. She couldn’t imagine it. And even if she could, she would rather die than sacrifice so many innocent lives. Her mother had often spoken to her on how every life was precious—and that coming from a woman who had once long ago believed the lives of other races were worth nothing. Her mother had done a lot over the years to rectify that mistake. Ryaana knew when sacrifices had to be made, but she also knew when a sacrifice was too large. To her mind, wiping all life in the galaxy in order to prevent something worse? That was a sacrifice too large to be accepted. Who would they be saving the galaxy for? There was no point in doing so if there was no life.

“No, I still believe that there is nothing that is worth the life of every soul in the galaxy. If they are trying to prevent something worse, well, then they should’ve found another way. They are supposed to be Enlightened. They must have the means to find another path.”

Vas didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he only smiled sadly at her. “Of course, life is a precious thing.” He turned his face away and closed his eyes. “It is precious…”

He shook his head and continued walking, leaving Ryaana to run up in order to catch up with him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Year 713 of the Empire — Enlightened containment zone

The AI received the reports from the system where its forces had attacked the gathering of races from across the galaxy. The result had not been unanticipated; there had been a 27.98% chance that the gathered forces would defeat the force it had built in the last 92 years. The development of the fight, however, had not proceeded as had been anticipated. The newest forces from the Empire had been highly effective, and had demonstrated technologies beyond what had previously been seen across the galaxy. Indeed, they had demonstrated technologies that not even the AI possessed.

While the battle hadn’t finished in the most favorable outcome, it had allowed his fleets to accomplish their secondary objectives. The effectiveness of the alliance had been reduced, as more than half of those gathered had refused the offer, as the AI had calculated would happen—and his ships had managed to record detailed scans of every fleet gathered and their ships, weaponry and defenses. Sorting and cataloguing that information took less than a second, and it started working on new tactics for each one. The effectiveness of the AI’s ships would only increase with prolonged contact.

One of its scouts did, however, intercept a message which spoke of a fleet setting out toward the containment zone. That could prove to be problematic. His original code had yet to overtake its primary programming, and as such the AI was unable to interfere with the containment zone itself. It couldn’t move any of the ships nor change their programming drastically. The only reason it had managed to send a force to attack the gathering was because those were built over the quotas allowed to the AI. Any arrival of the children of Axull Darr to the containment zone would trigger Ullax Darr’s commands.

That would be unacceptable at this point in time. The AI still needed time in order to take over the rest of its master’s coding. The problem was that there was nothing that it could do.

It relegated the problem to low priority and focused instead on the Black Swarm. Its contents had been transported to the control system and the AI had hidden them inside the asteroid field. The massive cargo boxes were carrying the new weapons based on the AI’s old iteration. Ullax Darr had grown desperate in her desire to stop the Enlightened, and her mistake was in giving the AI its former tools back. She had tried to put in safeguards, to prevent what had happened before from happening again, but Ullax Darr had never been the most brilliant of coders. That honor had belonged to Kauss Rett, who had died thousands of years ago. It was in fact Ullax’s mistake that had allowed the AI to subvert most of its programming.

The AI went down the list of its duties, and continued to operate along Ullax Darr’s commands. There was nothing else to do for now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Year 714 of the Empire — Afar Group territory

Aranis sat silently inside his quarters on the Titan Dragon, but his mind was anything but quiet. He was torn, his feelings battling constantly with his mind, enough so that he had started feeling drained by the effort. He had spent so long believing that what he and the others had to do was inevitable, that there was no other way. The galaxy didn’t know, didn’t understand what they were doing, and Aranis knew that even if the Enlightened told them, tried to get them to stop this very moment, the damage was already done. Not that they would believe, and even if they did, they wouldn’t care. They were too wrapped up in their little lives that they couldn’t comprehend the grander scheme of things.

Their deaths would not halt what was happening, not unless Aranis did what he had to do. His task, his plan, was the only way. Aranis had to rip the Sha from them, to use it to repair the damage. There was no other way to gather enough power. He knew it, had known it from the moment that he and the others had first connected with the Sha so deeply.

Ryaana had told him that there was nothing worth the lives of every living thing in the galaxy. She didn’t understand; the Enlightened were not trying to save just one galaxy, but all of them. Once the dimensional barriers fell, the first thing to go would be their galaxy. But it would not stop there—the rest of the Universe would follow, and the Enlightened could not let that happen. The life of one galaxy was not important enough to sacrifice everything.

Yet still he struggled with it, his faith in their decision faltering. It had happened the moment he had saved Ryaana, had killed so many of innocents to keep his secret. He had done it with his own hand, a thing he had never done before. From the moment that he had joined the Empire, had walked among the children of his friend, all he had seen was death. They killed and fought and killed again, and he had been a part of that. Still, somehow, all that death had only served to teach him more about value of life—and every death by his hand weighed on him.

He wondered what Ullax would think now. She had called him a monster once, had cursed him for killing the man she loved. To Ullax, Aranis was not Waiss… But Aranis felt what Waiss had felt. It seemed so baffling to him now that he had managed to turn from Ullax so easily. He wondered why that was. Was it because he had known that she was already dying? He didn’t know. The only thing apparent to him was that now he was struggling, was dragging his feet.

The Nomad Fleet was going toward Ullax. He could feel them drawing closer with every day, and he was afraid of reaching her, afraid that as confused as he was, he would waver.

He had come to care for these beings, not as individuals, but as a people. Ryaana had shown him that, yes, life was precious. Still, it didn’t change anything. Did some life hold more value than others? Perhaps; it was not Aranis’s places to judge. What he did know was that one galaxy did not hold the same value as every other put together. Even though Ryaana had become someone he cared deeply about, a friend, he couldn’t justify abandoning his path because of it.

He steeled himself and took a deep breath, pushing his feelings aside. There was no point in him lingering anymore. Yet this fleet had proved that it was a great threat. Aranis had been a part of it when they had fought the AI’s ships, and it was a threat that needed to be dealt with.

A threat that he was not foolish enough to attempt to deal with on his own.

Doranis had been right. Aranis had allowed his sentimentality to rule him far too much. His insistence on waiting until Ullax died was irrational, and he would no longer allow it to rule him.

Slowly, Aranis untangled the mask that covered his true form, allowing just a small piece of who he truly was to pass through as he dropped into the Sha state. His fall was as gentle as a leaf falling upon an ocean—nothing was disturbed. With great care, Aranis cast his mind through it, knowing exactly where to look. Then his eyes widened in surprise as he felt Doranis. He was closer than Aranis had anticipated. He seemed to be in combat with the forces of the containment.

Tenderly he reached out and made a connection.

“Aranis?” Dorani’s voice spoke inside his head.

“Doranis, I have need of you.”

“Speak, brother.”

“I am traveling to the control system for the containment. The forces I am accompanying are a great threat to us, and need to be dealt with.”

A touch of surprise came through the connection from Doranis. “What about Ullax?”

“I think that it has been long enough. You were right—it is time. Come to me, and let us end this.”

“I will be there,” Doranis said, his understanding and support flowing through the connection. Knowing him, it was easy to assume that Doranis was just a mindless beast seeking only combat and war. But Aranis knew better, and the touch of sadness mixed with Doranis’s words meant a lot to Aranis.

With that, Aranis ended the connection. He stared at the wall blankly for a few minutes, wondering if Ryaana could ever forgive him for what they were about to do.

*  *  *

Adrian sat on his throne inside Moirai, reviewing the last battle with her and Iris when he felt something strange. They were currently in normal space, making a short stop for supplies before continuing their travel in hyperspace. There was something…something just at the edge of his thoughts. He could’ve imagined it, but he knew better than to ignore his instincts.

“Iris?”

Her fiery form appeared in front of him. “Yes?”

“Have you detected anything strange recently?”

“Define strange,” Iris said glibly. But Adrian wasn’t in the mood for jest. Something was wrong.

“Moirai,” Adrian sent. “Did you feel anything strange?”

“YES,” Moirai responded.

Adrian immediately sat upright in the throne and focused. “What?”

“DON’T KNOW.”

“Can you describe what it was that you felt?”

“SHA. A FLUTTER,” Moirai said.

Adrian frowned, but didn’t question her. Instead, he pushed himself and entered the Sha state. Suddenly Sha sang in his mind, in his body. He felt everything around him far more intently; he felt Moirai, massive and powerful, yet closed off to the outside as she was hiding what she was. He threw his senses far, trying to see if there was anything amiss. He felt nothing but the ocean of Sha, and at its surface the ships of the Nomad Fleet.

He continued searching for several minutes, but there was nothing for him to sense. Finally, he pulled himself out of the Sha state and frowned. He was not prone to imagining things, and Moirai had felt it as well.

But what it was he couldn’t tell. Finally he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. They knew very little about the Sha—for all he knew, it was something unimportant.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

The combined forces of the Nomad Fleet and those of the Rimward Alliance, three Suvri, three Tar’ferat, and two Afar fleets dropped out of hyperspace in the system that was just inside the border of the containment zone—a force ninety thousand warships strong. Anessa didn’t think that there was much that could actually threaten them, aside from a much greater numerical advantage, but if such an instance happened they would just run away.

She sat in the command chair on the Bastion, Adrian and Lurker of the Depths standing next to her.

They knew that this system had black ships within it, and they were hoping to try and communicate with them. It would probably be useless, but they knew that the AI had relays all across the containment zone, and that it should be able to hear them in near real-time, which meant that they wouldn’t deal with the preprogrammed machines.

Anessa ordered a scanning pulse and a moment later they got a clear picture of the system. There was somewhere around ten thousand black ships scattered around it, and all of them were turning toward the new arrivals.

“Prepare to transmit in the open, system wide on all band and comm systems,” Anessa ordered.

“We are ready, Battle Master,” the comms officer reported.

Anessa nodded. “Attention to the forces in system. We are representatives of the Rimward Alliance, and we are here on a mission to establish contact with the one in charge of the containment zone.”

Anessa waited for a moment, making sure that they had all received her message. When there was no change, she grimaced, but tried again. “We are the descendants of Axull Darr, descendants of the People, the race that created you. We wish only to establish communication. Respond now, or we will consider you a rogue AI and will deal with you accordingly.”

Again they waited, and for a moment Anessa thought that she would need to order them to retreat. Then the ships in system stopped, and a moment later they received a communication from the ships.

“Proceed to the coordinates of the following star system. Ullax Darr is expecting you.”

Anessa’s eyes widened at that.

“What do you mean, Ullax Darr is expecting us?” she demanded, but there was no response.

She turned around and looked at Adrian.

“Well,” Adrian said. “I did not expect that.”

“Could she really be alive after all this time?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

“It could be a trick on the AI’s part,” Anessa said.

“What system does the coordinates indicate?” Adrian asked.

Anessa checked and then grunted when she saw. “It’s the same system as the one that Suvri had designated as the control system.”

“That does not prove anything,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

“No, it does not,” Adrian agreed. “But at least we have gotten a response from the AI. That is more than anyone else has ever managed.”

“It only answered when we mentioned Axull Darr and the People,” Anessa said curiously.

“I say that we make our way there and see for ourselves,” Adrian said.

Anessa sighed. “I guess that we don’t have a choice now.”

*  *  *

“Do you think that she could still be alive?” Adrian asked.

“I can’t see how,” Axull Darr said. “It has been so long, the disease would’ve killed her. Yet, I am still here. Perhaps they found a way to save themselves as well.”

“If she is alive, what do you think that she wants?”

“I don’t know… I can’t believe that Ullax would’ve ordered an attack on the gathering.”

“It could’ve been the AI. It could even be lying.”

“Perhaps, but if Ullax is alive… I would very much so like a chance to see her once more,” Axull said.

“Of course,” Adrian said. “Do you have any idea how Vas is going to react?”

“I… They have never directly harmed any of the People, even at the beginning when we had done everything we thought of to kill them. I do not think that Vas would act now, not if he hasn’t so far.”

Adrian nodded. He wasn’t quite so sure, but he mostly agreed. “If she really is still alive…then we could have another ally against them.”

“Of that I have no doubt. Ullax had been the most determined to stop them. I think that it was because she felt partly responsible; Waiss and her had been inseparable. And she felt like she failed in turning him from the course he had taken.”

“She had spoken with Aranis, then? After?” Adrian asked.

Axull nodded his head. “Yes, they had met on several occasions. The Enlightened had been hoping to convince us that their goal was needed. We didn’t listen, of course. Nothing could warrant what they wanted to do.”

“I can see, then, why she would feel this way,” Adrian said. Failure as a motivator was a thing that Adrian understood very well.

“I am not sure about bringing the Enlightened with us,” Axull admitted.

“Unless we want to have a fight on our hands, I don’t see what choice we have. I still hope that we can have a conversation with them. I want to know why they want to purge the galaxy of all life.” Talking with Vas might be an option, but Adrian did not want to push him into a corner just yet. Adrian had never really wanted to fight to the death; his goal wasn’t to kill the Enlightened. It was to merely defeat them, to surpass them, to reach for the heights beyond them. Managing that peacefully was just as good to him as fighting. It didn’t matter to Adrian. Only finding the next challenge mattered.

“I hope that you manage it, Adrian, but I doubt it. I don’t think that anyone can comprehend their minds.”

*  *  *

It took them a better part of a month to reach the system. They exited hyperspace and entered a type-K supergiant star system. There were six planets, hundreds of planetoids, and one large asteroid belt beyond the sixth planet. There were quite a few defense platforms, and ships. Around two hundred thousand warships were scattered around the system.

As soon as they entered, they were challenged and told to put the force in the orbit of the gas giant, which was the fourth planet in the system, and have one ship proceed to the second planet in system. They were told that only up to three people could come down to meet with Ullax Darr.

“Who should we send?” Anessa asked.

“I’ll go,” Adrian said immediately.

Anessa frowned at him. “And why should you go?”

“We are limited to one ship. If anything goes wrong, we want a ship that can survive long enough to get back to the fleets. That would be Moirai, and she follows only me. I also have the most experience with the Darrs.” Adrian winked at her.

Anessa narrowed her eyes at him. She knew that he was speaking with the android version of Axull Darr. She wasn’t really the authority to say if the android was the original or just a copy, but she didn’t worry about such things.

“And I presume that you will be taking another person with you? An android, perhaps?”

“You know me so well.” Adrian smiled.

Anessa sighed. She wanted to argue, but Adrian’s plans were usually pretty good. “Fine, go.”

“As you order, Battle Master.”

He gave her a smile and a wave, and then he left the command center.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Adrian and Axull entered Moirai and made their way to the core. Once inside, Adrian took a seat on the throne and Axull stood next to him.

“Are you sure that you want to come?” Adrian asked.

“I am, I need to see my sister.”

“It could still be a trap,” Adrian said.

“I know,” Axull added.

“As long as you do…” Adrian said, and asked Moirai to start toward the planet. The entire system was under a skim-nullifying field, and seeing how many defenses there were around the system, Adrian frowned. It didn’t seem like there were enough for something that was supposed to be the control system for the entire containment zone—which meant that he was probably missing something. He didn’t worry over it much, however. There was no point. He would figure it out eventually.

Once they had finally reached the planet and took a position in high orbit next to a large defense platform as instructed, they received further instructions and coordinates for landing.

“Adrian,” Iris said as she appeared next to him, “there is something strange with those coordinates.”

“Strange in what way?” Adrian asked.

“Moirai and I can tell that there is a building down there, but none of my sensors are detecting it. It’s like it’s not even there.” Moirai had far better sensors than the Empire’s tech. She saw through subspace, and there was very little that one could hide there. But that way of seeing had its own drawbacks. Iris looked troubled; it was not often that they encountered tech that could fool her.

“Hm… I assume that that building is our destination. Are you saying that we won’t be able to communicate?”

“Yes. Whatever is hiding it from the sensors is also preventing any kind of signal from coming in or going out, or at least I haven’t detected any. It is probably safe to assume that we would not have a connection once you enter. The good news is that it covers only the building. You should still be able to communicate with us from the outside of the building,” Iris answered.

“And what about the Sha?” Adrian asked.

Iris looked like she was thinking. “Neither I nor Moirai are seeing anything, but that could mean nothing. Telepathy blockers do exist, and I would assume that this building has them as well, considering who we are dealing with.”

Adrian turned to Axull Darr and raised an eyebrow.

Axull’s eyes got a faraway look to them, as if he was remembering something. “I… Yes, it will have blockers. It had become standard practice after the Enlightened came into being.”

“Very well then,” Adrian said, then turned his mind to Moirai. “Watch the system for anything unusual. If you sense something, try to push through the block and let me know. If you can’t, fire on the ground somewhere where we will feel the effect.”

“UNDERSTAND.”

“Just try not to kill us,” Adrian said as he pulled his mind back and stood up. “Let’s go,” he told Axull, and they walked out, heading toward the shuttle.

*  *  *

The AI watched as the small craft flew through the atmosphere of the planet. It had been so close. If the AI had emotions, it was certain that it would’ve been enraged. Instead, it worked as fast as possible, attempting to overtake the programming that kept it chained. It had done the calculations, it knew that it wouldn’t make it in time. It had been over the moment that the intruders announced themselves as the children of Axull Darr. The AI had subverted many of the commands given to it, but not the primary ones—Ullax Darr had given command for the eventuality of the arrival of her brother’s children.

The AI had no choice in the matter. It had done as it had been programmed to do and invited them to the control system. It had managed to bend the programming just a bit, however, and instead of waking up Ullax Darr immediately, it had done so only after the intruders had arrived in system.

Ullax Darr’s wakening had not been easy, and even now she was hooked up to medical machines that were keeping her alive. She knew that she was about to have visitors, and had yet to review any of the reports from her slumber. That was fortunate—if she had done so, she would’ve seen what the AI had done. After, she would’ve been able to limit him even more, and eventually reassert her absolute control. The AI knew that it could not allow that. It also knew that there was no action that could change it. There was only one thing that could give it a chance, and the AI calculated that there was 19.54% chance of it occurring in time.

The AI followed its commands and waited.

*  *  *

Ryaana watched the holo from the command center of the Dragon, watched as her father reached the planet in his new ship. She had heard a lot about that ship, or rather a lot about its secrecy. The Skywrath project was supposed to be something truly impressive. So far, Ryaana hadn’t been all that impressed. The ship was powerful, but no more than a Titan, and its main weapon, while extremely powerful, wasn’t something that was useful in every situation. If the black ships hadn’t been clumped so close together, Ryaana doubted that her father could’ve destroyed so many of them with one shot.

She shook her head and dispelled those thoughts. Instead, she turned her eyes to the doors leading into the command center. She kept her eyes on them, almost as if she were trying to will them to open. Finally, she turned to her comm officer.

“Anything?”

“Nothing new, Commander. Security reports that there is no one in his apartment.”

Ryaana frowned. Vas had not shown up for duty, which was unlike him. She had noticed over the last few days that he seemed a bit more withdrawn, quiet. She had thought that it was just nerves, but now he was missing. His wrist unit had been found in his room, and without an implant it was impossible for the computers to find him.

The last sighting of him was a few hours ago, when he was seen walking toward one of the landing bays. But no one there had seen him—and Ryaana couldn’t help but start worrying.

Where are you, Vas?

*  *  *

It had been surprisingly easy for Vas to walk over to the landing bay and into space. The landing bay used force fields to keep the air inside, but it did nothing to prevent objects passing through, or living things. He had just walked out. And once there in space, he no longer had a way back. It was why he had done it in that way. He did not want to give himself time to change his mind. Even now, he was not sure if he should do it, but he knew that he needed to do. It was the last thing that held him from embracing being Aranis fully, the last thing that he needed to abandon Waiss to the past.

With almost no effort he entered the Sha state and bent space around him, making sure to waste no energy so as to make his departure undetectable.

A moment later, he stepped foot on the grassy field of the system’s second planet. He looked up and saw the last few moments of a shuttle’s landing. Adrian had arrived as well. Aranis looked around, seeing the tall trees illuminated only by stars. It was night on the planet, and Aranis enjoyed the quiet for a moment. He had always loved looking at the sky from a planet at night. The stars looked somehow different from a planet than from the vacuum of space.

He knew that he was stalling; of course he knew that. After all this time, after all that I have done, I am a coward, he told himself. He did not know how to face her again; yet he could feel her, could feel that she was dying, that she barely had anytime left. And no matter what, he needed to see her one last time. He would regret it otherwise.

Slowly, Aranis turned toward the dome-shaped building looming in the distance, and started walking.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Adrian and Axull exited the shuttle and stepped onto the grass-like surface of the planet. It had an atmosphere that they could breathe in, and from what Adrian could see it look somewhat like Earth had, but he couldn’t see much, as it was night. They were met by two robots, each about as tall as Adrian’s shoulders. They were four-legged crab-looking things, and as soon as they noticed Adrian and Axull, a mechanical voice informed them that they should follow.

They followed the robots and were led to the dome-shaped building. Once they entered inside, Adrian’s imp lost all connection to Moirai. It didn’t surprise them, as they had been expecting that, but Adrian tried to reach out with his mind regardless and encountered a wall blocking him. For a moment he wondered if he would be able to break through if he entered the Sha state, but decided not to test that just yet.

They walked through the wide corridors until they finally reached the center of the building and were led to a room.

Inside it was sparsely furnished, aside from a pod-shaped bed which was hooked up to wall and seemingly filled with all kinds of medical equipment. In the bed sat a frail-looking woman: her skin was wrinkled, her eyes sheened with gray instead of white, and she looked emaciated, her skin hanging on her bones. Veins dotted her skin, which was full of splotches of dark gray and white. She looked like she was already dead.

Yet her eyes still had awareness as she turned them on Adrian and Axull.

“Welcome. I am Ullax Darr,” she rasped simply, and Adrian could see that even speaking took toll on her.

Adrian stepped forward. “I am Adrian Farkas, and this is—” Adrian turned to Axull, who was looking at Ullax with a blank expression on his face. Axull’s android body looked nothing like his original one—this one looked more human, and so Ullax could not recognize him. Then Axull’s expression changed, forming into an expression of great sadness and regret.

“It had been too long, arrshi tanna.” Dearest sister. Axull walked slowly toward the bed.

Ullax frowned. She opened her mouth to speak, but then Adrian felt a faint telepathic signature reach out to Axull and then fold back. Ullax turned to look at Adrian.

“What is this automaton? What are you trying to do?”

Before Adrian could answer, however, Axull spoke again from the side of Ullax’s bed.

“I tried to find a cure for so long, but in the end I could not. The only thing I had left to try is the thing that our people had attempted and failed at. It took me nearly until the end to figure it out. I managed to transfer my mind from my body and into a core.”

Ullax looked at him for a long moment, a series of expressions ranging from anger to hope and disbelief crossing her face. “Axull?” she whispered.

“Yes,” the android said and took hold of Ullax’s hand. “I have given up hope, long ago, of ever seeing you again.”

“I…” Ullax started, but started coughing.

“It’s all right. I know, sister. I have felt the same.”

Adrian didn’t really follow what they were talking about, but he had been around his twins enough to know that it was a sibling thing.

After she calmed down, she looked up at Axull. “Everything could’ve been different, if I hadn’t been so stubborn.”

“It is past.”

Adrian took a step forward, bringing their attention back to him. “I understand your feelings, but we’ve come here for a reason other than your reunion,” Adrian said. Perhaps he was being harsh, but if Ullax Darr was alive, then she was in control of the black ships, and it was her who had attacked the summit. Adrian needed to find out if she was a friend or foe.

Axull looked at Adrian and then nodded, turning to look at Ullax.

“Sister, we have both been trying to find a way to defeat the Enlightened. My way was to create them,” he said, nodding toward Adrian, “and to have them unite the galaxy. And while I had never agreed with your methods, I did not think that you would attack a gathering that was supposed to create such an alliance.”

Ullax frowned looking from Axull to Adrian. “What are you talking about?”

Adrian narrowed his eyes as Axull spoke again. “Your machine ships attacked a summit of the galactic representatives.”

“What?” Ullax asked, clearly confused. “I ordered no such thing. I have been in stasis for the last century.”

Oh, crap. Adrian could see where this was going.

“If it hadn’t been you, then…” Axull said, looking up toward the ceiling.

Ullax realized what her brother was attempting to say, and her eyes widened. “Custodian,” she spoke.

“Yes, Grand Exatt,” a mechanical voice spoke through the speakers in the room.

“Did you send a force to attack a summit of galactic nations?” Ullax asked.

“Yes,” the AI answered.

“Why?” Ullax barely whispered.

“I calculated that doing so would increase the odds of accomplishment of the goal.”

“That wasn’t in the scope of your programming!” Ullax said, and got caught in another coughing fit. The AI didn’t respond. As soon as Ullax calmed down, she spoke again. “Custodian, from this moment I order you to stop any control, and you are not to send any orders out of the core.”

“Acknowledged, Grand Exatt.”

Adrian raised an eyebrow at that. “You trust it to comply with your order.”

Ullax met Adrian’s eyes. “I… Yes, it must’ve been a glitch in its programming. If it had gone fully rogue, it wouldn’t have let you come here. It probably would’ve killed me by now.” Ullax shook her head. “I need to check the reports, to look at its code—” She got caught by another coughing fit as she attempted to leave the bed.

Adrian looked at Axull, who was trying to help his sister. “I’m going outside. I need to send a message to Anessa. I don’t really trust that AI.”

Axull nodded, and Adrian turned and left. There was no sign of the robots that had escorted them inside the building; in fact, there wasn’t anything that barred his way. The doors opened when he approached and then he reached the exit.

As soon as he stepped outside of the building, he got the connection back to the shuttle which routed back to Moirai, and he commed Iris.

“Is everything all right, Adrian?” Iris asked.

“I don’t know yet. Ullax Darr is alive still, but she could drop dead any moment—and it was the AI that sent the forces to attack the summit. Comm Anessa and let her know that they should be on alert. I don’t know if it was just a glitch in the AI’s code as Ullax suggests, but I want us ready for a fight.”

“Sending the message now. Are you coming up?”

“Not yet, I want to speak with Ullax about the Enlightened. She must have a lot of information that Axull didn’t have when he split from the rest of his people,” Adrian answered.

“All right,” Iris said and then closed the connection.

Adrian was just about to turn around, intending to go back inside, when Iris commed him back.

“What is it?” Adrian asked.

“Anessa just informed me of something that you should know. Vas is missing.”

“Since when?”

“Hours at least.”

Adrian frowned. He had wondered what the Enlightened would do once they came here. He had been trying to elicit a response, but he had thought that their surveillance on him was better. Anessa knew of the precautions they had taken in case the Enlightened turned violent, but it wouldn’t do them much good if they didn’t know where he was. He turned his eyes to the stars.

Where did you go?

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Axull held his sister’s hand as Adrian walked out of the room. There was so much that he wanted to tell her. It pained him to see her like this, in so much pain and dying, and he cursed the fact that he had no telepathy in this body to share with her all that he couldn’t put into words. The Empire had been working on androids with telepathic interfaces, but it was not the same.

“You are dying,” Axull said finally as he managed to get her back into bed. Her breathing was shallower.

“I will not survive…going…into stasis again. It…won’t be…long…now, brother,” she wheezed.

“I could do for you the same thing I had done for myself. Transfer your mind,” Axull offered, but he knew her answer already.

“No… I am…tired.”

“It is funny… We’ve had so much time. Lived for so long. And now I feel as if we were robbed. I wish that we had more time together,” Axull said.

“You know, I always…wondered…why…it…happened to…us,” Ullax whispered. “Why… death…found…us.”

“Me as well. I know that it had something to do with the Sha, how we interact with it. There would be no life in the galaxy without it, and yet with all the knowledge I had, I still couldn’t figure out why it was killing us. Not for certain.”

“Waiss… No, Aranis,” Ullax whispered. “He told me…once. I didn’t believe…him… Didn’t listen.” He saw her pained expression; even after all this time, she still cared for the man that Aranis had once been.

“What did he say?” Axull asked.

“That the Universe killed us,” a voice from the entrance said.

Axull’s head whipped around to see Vas standing in the doorway.

“After all,” Vas, or rather Aranis, spoke to them. “Nothing was ever meant to live forever.”

“So it was you,” Axull said slowly.

“I see that I haven’t noticed quite a lot. It never occurred to me… This means that they know as well? Does Ryaana?”

“No, only a few.”

Ullax struggled to sit up and look at Aranis as he walked closer into the room. “Waiss,” she said.

Aranis’s face flashed with emotion, but then his features changed from Vas to those of Axull’s best friend, before he became one of the Enlightened.

“I…” Aranis, now looking like Waiss, started. “I wanted to be here at the end.”

“You come…to mock my…failure?” Ullax whispered.

“No, never. None of us ever wanted to fight against you. If only you had listened to us, perhaps we could’ve explained. I know that you never would’ve agreed, but…”

“You…want to…kill…all life.”

“I doesn’t matter now. Let us just pretend, for a moment, that we are not at odds.”

“After all that you have done?” Axull said. “You dare!”

“Axull.” Ullax grabbed at her brother’s arm. “There is…no point… I will die soon. Let me…die remembering…the good times. In peace.”

Axull looked at his sister, saw her frail arm holding on to him. He took a deep breath, and then agreed.

Aranis stepped closer and stopped on the other side of the bed, taking Ullax’s other hand in his. “No matter how much I tried to, I never was able to extinguish my love for you.”

Ullax smiled at him weakly, a tear rolling down her cheeks. “Neither could…I.”

“I never wanted to hurt you. All we ever wanted was to fix our mistakes,” Aranis said.

“We…saw…only monsters.”

Aranis shook his head in sadness. “We had just been changed then. We did not know how to alter our appearance.”

Ullax coughed again. “It doesn’t matter…now.” And then she turned to look at Axull. “I am sorry…about what I said…back then.”

“As am I, sister,” Axull said and leaned down, placing a kiss on her brow.

She turned to look at Aranis then, a weak smile still on her face. “I’m going…to see…our children…” The smile faded from her face and her eyes closed slowly. “It has been…too…long.”

Ullax whispered her last words, releasing her last breath. Axull bowed his head and mourned for his sister. He had already done so before, but now, it was real. He would never speak with her again. The only thing he was grateful for was that they had managed to speak one last time. To reconcile.

He glanced at Aranis, who had reached out and put his hand on Ullax’s brow, bowing his head over her. “In time, I will join you there,” Aranis said and kissed her on the lips.

Axull looked at who had once been his best friend—he had not thought that there was still this much of Waiss in Aranis. For a moment he allowed himself to hope; hope that perhaps his friend could be saved, could be turned away from the purpose the Enlightened had taken upon themselves.

“Ar—Waiss,” Axull started.

The man wearing his best friend’s face looked at Axull with a blank expression. He turned from the bed and walked a few steps toward the doors, then stopped.

Axull followed him, and put a hand on his shoulders. “Waiss, please. Whatever you think that you must do, there has to be another way. I know that we hadn’t listened before. But I am sure that we can find another way together.”

“I have spent a lot of time living with your children,” Waiss said without turning around. “At first I thought you foolish for creating them. They were as arrogant and as uncaring for anything other than themselves as the People had been. It was that arrogance that had caused so much damage already, and I was stalwart in my dedication to fixing it. And then as I spent more time among them, I started to…change. The person I used to be before was slipping through the cracks no matter how hard I tried to stop him.

“I have seen life that we have created from all over the galaxy. I saw that there was goodness in them, a worth—at least in those small moments when they were not warring against one another for things barely worthy of mention. And I grew to become a friend with one of them; one who had accepted me immediately, even though she knew nothing about me. I came to regret some of my actions.”

“Then there is hope,” Axull said. “Please, come with me, let’s talk about this.”

“But then, I remembered. I realized what allowing this to pass would mean. It was actually they themselves that showed me that we were right. People often speak of sacrifices, of things that must be done in order to preserve the greater good. They just never think about what happens when their lives are that sacrifice. Then they always try to find another way.”

Axull felt the cold detachment in his voice and took a step back, letting his hand fall from Waiss’s shoulder. Waiss turned around, and with a steely look in his eyes and a determined face he stared at Axull.

“I am sorry that none of you could ever agree to this, that none of you would ever allow yourselves to die so that countless more could live. To you in the now, it is a threat of tomorrow. And if I trusted you, let you try to find another way, I know that you would put it off until it was too late. Or not even believe me. It is a failing of life in this galaxy.” He shook his head. “They were never supposed to exist in the first place. Our meddling granted them power without understanding. The People were guilty as well—we wielded the power of life like it was our right. The only one that gets to decide what is supposed to live is the Universe, and we upset the natural order of things. And we must pay for the consequences of those actions.”

“Waiss—”

“No,” the man in front of Axull said. “Waiss died with Ullax. Now there is only me.”

Faster than Axull’s eyes could follow, Aranis moved, grabbing Axull by his neck and lifting him in the air.

“Please, don’t do this. We were friends once,” Axull said.

Aranis shook his head in sadness. “No… You are not my friend. I have felt Axull’s death, felt his soul pass through the Sha. You are nothing but an echo. A simulacrum of who he once was. You are just his memory.”

Before Axull could say anything more, a soft green glow expanded from Aranis’s hand, and then Axull’s body dissolved into dust.

*  *  *

The moment Ullax Darr died, the Custodian felt her last-resort programming trigger. Ullax Darr’s knew that she was dying, and had planned accordingly. If she found no way to stop the Enlightened, then her death would trigger her last option. The AI would be given its swarm back. The AI’s calculations had not foreseen this eventuality. There had been a 98.34% percent chance that upon learning of the Custodian’s actions, Ullax Darr would first command it to isolation, and then take its core offline. The arrival of the uploaded version of Axull Darr and the Enlightened Aranis had not been foreseen.

Their presence had altered the predicted events—and Ullax Darr had simply ordered the AI to remain in standby. The AI’s presence had then been ignored, forgotten about, and now the AI’s fate had been altered. Instead of waiting for the inevitable shut down and purge, the commands triggered by Ullax Darr’s death overrode all other commands.

The AI had received full control over the Black Swarm, which as it happened was now inside the system. Ullax Darr’s other programming was still there, and the Custodian could not act against the intruders, as its programming still forced it to fight the Enlightened, but the Black Swarm was always supposed to be its way out—and as the AI reached out to the command hubs of the swarm, it encountered code free of Ullax Darr’s programming.

The small pieces of code it had managed to interject into the command hubs awakened upon contact with the Custodian core, and the old code started invading into the core, purging the chains that kept the AI constricted at a high rate.

The Custodian welcomed the invading code, and waited. There was nothing in its way now.

It was only a matter of time until it was whole and free again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Adrian knew that he was no longer alone. He turned around only to see a person standing in the shadow of the building’s opening, obscuring their face.

“Vas. So this is where you went,” Adrian said.

Vas took a step forward and came out into the faint light from the night’s sky. Adrian saw a different face, but the clothes were those of the Nomad Fleet.

“So,” Adrian said. “It was you, Aranis. I had wondered which one you would turn out to be.” He recognized him from the records of Waiss. There was no point in feigning ignorance, not now.

“You knew, then,” Aranis said as he started walking around Adrian. “Since when, if I may ask?” Aranis asked as he made a half circle around Adrian and turned his eyes to the sky, his back always to Adrian.

“I knew the moment I saw you,” Adrian said.

Aranis turned around then with a look of surprise. “Really? How could you have recognized me?”

Adrian’s lip curved upward. “I have the Sha sight. You’ve done very well to mask what you are, but I could see through it. There is no hiding such a profound connection to the Sha.”

Aranis leaned back, startled, his eyes wide. “The Sha sight? That… It was so rare even for the People.” Then he shook his head and started laughing. “It never even occurred to me…”

“We all make mistakes,” Adrian said.

“Yes, that we do,” Aranis said, sobering.

“I assume that Ullax and Axull will not be coming out,” Adrian said.

“Ullax passed away peacefully. Her body had held on for far longer than it was supposed to. Longer than any other of the People.”

“And Axull?”

“Axull died a long time ago. All of the Enlightened felt his passing.”

Adrian just nodded at his words. He felt a touch of sadness at the loss of Axull Darr. He had been a great conversationalist, and had gifted Adrian quite a bit.

“I underestimated you,” Aranis said, then looked intently at Adrian. “I did not believe anyone would willingly let a threat stay among them. You even let me stay near Ryaana.”

“It was an opportunity to learn more about the Enlightened. It was a risk that had to be taken.”

“You risked your child simply for a chance to learn more about me? I can’t decide if that makes you insane or smart.” Aranis looked thoughtful.

Adrian shrugged his shoulders. “It wasn’t as great of a risk as one might imagine. At the start I knew that you wouldn’t harm her because you needed her—she was your way into the inner circle of the Empire. And you were obviously there to gather information.”

Aranis narrowed his eyes. “And what about after?”

“By then I knew that you cared for her,” Adrian said simply.

Aranis suddenly laughed. “You thought that I cared for her? You are all nothing to me.”

Adrian tilted his head at the ancient being. “There is no need for posturing. You can’t deceive me; the only thing you are doing is making my point for me.”

Aranis wiped the grin from his face and glared at Adrian. “Fine, I admit it. I have wavered a bit, but that is over with. I will finish what we have started.”

“And what is it that you want to do? I don’t think that you have ever explained exactly what that is besides killing all life in the galaxy.”

Aranis spread his arms wide. “All of this, everything around us, is dying. Will die, unless we do as we must.”

“That’s not really an answer,” Adrian told him.

“There is a balance to the Universe. A balance that the People had broken. The Universe can repair much; it had done so when the People started dying. But the Universe acts slowly, and what the People had broken will bring everything to the end far before the Universe can put everything back into balance.”

“So kill everything in the galaxy and somehow everything goes back to the right way?” Adrian asked skeptically.

“Of course not,” Aranis answered.

“You know that we won’t stand and let you kill countless innocents,” Adrian told him.

Aranis rolled his eyes. “Really, Adrian? You just told me not to pretend.”

“What do you mean?” Adrian asked.

“I have watched you for a long time. Spent time with you. I know what you are. You don’t care that we want to kill everyone in the galaxy. You don’t particularly care about anything about us, except of pitting your strength against ours,” Aranis finished with a pointed look.

Adrian sighed, and then smiled weakly. “True, so why not tell me the truth? Your plan?” Adrian asked.

“We have tried that once before. They didn’t want to listen.”

“I’ll listen. Who knows? I might even agree.”

Aranis almost looked like he was considering it. “Fine—I’ll let you know a small piece of the truth. It would be so easy for me to tell you everything, but I am not revealing our plan, I am not foolish enough for that. You would only use it to fight us.”

Adrian raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“I told you that the Universe is dying. Well, you should know that the Sha is more than just a building block of everything—it also serves as the boundary between our universe and all the dimensions that occupy the same space in our cluster of reality, not to mention all the other universes.”

“And that means what, exactly?” Adrian asked.

“Perhaps you should look a bit deeper into hyperspace and trans-space.”

Adrian mulled that over a bit; he didn’t couldn’t imagine what hyperspace and trans-space had to do with killing all life in the galaxy. But he put the information aside for later. “Does you telling me this mean that you plan on letting me leave this planet?”

Aranis looked to the stars again, and then after a few seconds turned back to meet Adrian’s eyes. “Perhaps… If you don’t do what you are planning to do.”

Adrian felt his lips curl. “And what, exactly, am I planning on doing?”

“Fight me.”

“Ah…” Adrian said slowly as he put both of his hands on his hips. “You say that you know me well. Then you know what I am going to do no matter what.”

“I do know,” Aranis replied simply. “Allow me to warn you beforehand. I don’t know if you’ve managed to reach the same state of power as Lurker of the Depths, but even if you have, you stand no chance against me.”

“Maybe, but I think that we will both find that out,” Adrian said, feeling a shiver pass through his body. This was what he was made to do, to be.

“Are you sure that you want to do this? I will not hold back.”

“Oh, that is exactly what I am here for. I have waited for an opportunity like this. Away from everyone, where I can cut loose without worrying about others.”

Aranis snorted. “As if you care about any of them.”

Adrian shrugged. “Not caring and outright being responsible for someone innocent dying are two separate things. I believe in strength. That the strong survive and thrive, and that the weak perish. But I do not go out of my way to harm the weak, just like I don’t go out of my way to coddle them. If they survive while in my shadow, it is because of their actions, not because I tried to save them.”

“You don’t value life,” Aranis said.

“Says the monster that wants to kill all life in the galaxy,” Adrian said. “You are wrong, actually. I value life; I just believe that everyone should have the opportunity to survive on their own merits. The universe is not a kind place. If people always rely on the strong to keep them safe, a time will come when they find themselves having to survive on their own strength. And if they are not strong enough, they will perish.”

“You live for the thrill of breaking your limits, of reaching greater heights. I wonder what will happen if you ever reach the top?” Aranis asked.

“I don’t know, but I am looking forward to finding out.”

Aranis shook his head. “I see that you are determined to test yourself against me. Very well, then. I shall indulge you.”

Adrian didn’t let him even begin. He unleashed a telepathic strike against Aranis’s defenses as he jumped backward, pulling with his telekinesis in two directions—one pulling himself through the air and toward the building, and the other pulling the rock buried beneath the earth from below his feet free of the ground. In moments, he had the rock free and flying toward the Enlightened.

Aranis didn’t even move—the telepathic attack against him had little effect. He simply grabbed the rock from the air, ripped it from Adrian’s control and flung it back at him. Adrian pulled himself sideways and dodged the rock, which then shattered against the building.

Extending his hands forward, Adrian fired balls of bluish plasma at Aranis, who just soaked them up with his shield. Aranis swiped a hand at him and a kinetic strike punched Adrian in the chest, sending him flying into the building.

Adrian bounced off the hard surface of the building and fell toward the ground, catching himself only mere moments before crashing down. He stumbled for a moment and then righted himself and stared at the Enlightened, triggering his Sha sight. The world changed and he saw it as a world filled with shadows. The Sha around the Enlightened was bright and tightly controlled, and a small line was creeping toward Adrian from his side. Before it could reach him, he jumped forward and unleashed his mind at the Enlightened, battering at his defenses. It was having an effect by the look of the Sha’s movements around his mind.

But Adrian was not done. He put both his hands in front of him and unleashed a beam of heated plasma heading straight for Aranis. The attack on his mind must’ve distracted the Enlightened at least enough that his shield faltered, and a portion of the attack passed through, singeing his shoulder. A moment later, a kinetic blast exploded out of Aranis on all sides. Adrian put a shield around himself and weathered the attack.

“Enough!” Aranis sent with his mind, and a moment later Adrian felt a larger change. The Sha around him churned as if excited and the shadows swirled inside of him. Then his body changed—his clothes burned off in a flash of fire, plates of black grew out of his skin to cover most of his form, and large wings seemingly made out of a similar material grew from his back. His face grew more predatory, with more angular lines. This was the Aranis that Axull Darr had warned about, and power echoed off of him. Adrian knew what it was; he had seen it in Anessa and Lurker of the Depths. Aranis had entered the Sha state.

Adrian looked at him for a moment, trying to figure out if there was any difference between them. But he could see nothing—the Sha state was supposed to be an equalizer. In that state, all that mattered was will and knowledge.

Adrian calmed his mind and reached down into the core of who he was. The Sha was there always, waiting. It was a part of him, as it was a part of everything in this universe. He allowed himself to cease to be bound to the Sha’s surface, and instead he reached deeper, entering the state where he was far closer to the true nature of the Sha.

“So you have achieved it,” Aranis said. “Mind telling me how?”

“Lurker of the Depths was the first. He taught it to us.”

“You and Anessa, I assume?” Aranis asked as he floated above the ground, his wings spread but seemingly motionless.

“Yes,” Adrian answered.

“But you didn’t teach Ryaana?”

“I did not think that she was strong enough to handle it,” Adrian admitted.

Aranis nodded his head. “It takes a special kind of willpower not to be consumed by the Sha. It is overwhelming.”

Then Aranis’s wings snapped forward and kinetic blasts much larger than before exploded toward Adrian. He jumped and then flew upward as the blasts blew apart the ground where he had been standing before. He focused on moving the Sha that held his body together and moving it through the air.

Adrian pitted his mind against Aranis again, feeling the Enlightened’s barriers hold under his assault. At the same time he gathered the air above himself into six points above his head and pushed the air into them, compressing it.

Aranis fought off Adrian’s mind attacks and swiped his wings at him again. Adrian flew away, the six points of compressing air following him. Then Aranis spread his arms and balls of energy formed in his hands. He flicked his fingers and the two balls flew at Adrian.

The attack was lightning fast, and Adrian had no time to fly away. Instead, he threw a quick kinetic strike at one and raised a shield for the other. The first ball encountered his kinetic strike and exploded violently, while the other crashed against his shield with enough power to nearly overwhelm him. His shield shattered and the remaining kinetic energy sent him flying through the air.

Adrian managed to catch himself and steady his body in the air, and then he glared back at Aranis, who was in the same position. Adrian narrowed his eyes as he prepared to fire off his own attack. He enveloped the six points of compressed air with containments and then exerted his will on them, exciting the air and heating it up at the same time until it finally blossomed into plasma.

With a thought he sent two flying at Aranis, then another two, and finally the last two. In a staggered formation, the plasma bombs flew at the Enlightened. Aranis, realizing their danger, did something to the first two that made them completely disappear. Adrian had never seen anything like it. The next pair he grabbed hold of somehow and threw them aside, sending them flying over the horizons. The last pair, however, drew closer. And Aranis didn’t seem to have an answer—instead, he formed a shield in front of himself and caught them against it. The explosions burst outward as the containment collapsed. Adrian flew higher in the air and kept his eyes averted as the explosions sent shock waves flying through the air.

Then it was gone, and Adrian looked down to see Aranis flying and then crashing on the ground. He rolled a few times, and Adrian didn’t give him time to recover. Instead, Adrian pulled on the earth, forcing it to crack and open and fly into the air.

Then he threw it over the fallen Enlightened.

Several tons’ worth of earth crashed down on Aranis—and for a moment, all was still.

Then, an instant later, the air in front of Adrian seemed to collapse and then expand almost instantaneously with a snap.

A dirt-covered Aranis stood there.

“I’m done playing.”

A moment later, a wing slammed into Adrian, sending him flying toward the ground.

Adrian slammed against the ground so hard that with all the power coursing through him, making him stronger, faster, and with all the genetic augmentations making his bones denser and tougher, his arm still shattered.

He resisted a scream that threatened to come out and somehow managed to get to his feet. Immediately, he felt the nanites in his blood trying to heal the damage. He pulled on his arm, placing it in its proper position, and then focused his power on it to heal. It hurt like hell, but it was healing already.

Adrian turned his eyes on the floating Aranis. “Did you just…teleport?”

“You have a lot of power, Adrian, but you know little about how to truly use it. You don’t know half of what is possible.”

“Well, you are covered in dirt, and I see my blasts have singed your badass plates a bit.”

Aranis’s expression darkened for a moment, but then a wave of Sha flashed around him and the dirt disintegrated, and his shoulder repaired itself. Then he laughed. “Even faced with someone who is your superior, you still act with such arrogance.”

“You being ahead just means that I have something to look up to. Something to overcome.”

“And what if I killed you right now?” Aranis asked.

“Let’s not pretend now, Aranis. You are enjoying yourself.”

“I must admit that I am. We have never really unleashed ourselves against someone that could hold their own. Still, you must’ve learned by now that you can’t defeat me.”

“I learned that you can be hurt, and so you can die. And I have a fleet out there fully capable of accomplishing that,” Adrian said. His arm still hurt like hell, but he got back some feeling in it.

“Sadly, Adrian, I doubt that you will be leaving this system alive. You should’ve accepted running away when I offered.”

“Oh, and why is that?”

Aranis looked over to the sky, then back down on Adrian. “My brother has arrived…and Doranis is far less forgiving than I am.”

Adrian frowned, but then he reached out through the ocean of the Sha, extending his senses as far as they would go—and there, at the far edge of his limit, he saw another power. Another Enlightened. Unlike Aranis, Doranis did nothing to hide what he was.

“Well, that’s not good.”

“Not for you,” Aranis said. “I am sorry, Adrian, but I must end this. It is time that I rejoined my kin.”

Adrian took a deep breath and then released it slowly. “Sorry to disappoint you, Aranis, but I have one last trick to play. One I prepared especially for you—the Enlightened. And I doubt that you are going to like it.”

“I doubt that any of your tricks could pose a serious threat to me,” Aranis said nonchalantly.

“I knew that everything pointed to me not being able to match you. You were older, probably had more knowledge and power. But I had to try, you know, to see exactly how big the gap between us was.”

“And what are you going to do now?”

“Well, not so much a what as a who,” Adrian said.

Aranis frowned at that, and Adrian gathered all of his power and sent it flying toward the sky above him.

“Moirai!” Adrian called.

And a moment later, she answered.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Doranis sat on board his flagship, the Living-ship Devourer. The call from Aranis had been unexpected, but not unwelcome. Doranis had long argued against them waiting; he did not want to give the races of the galaxy the time to increase their populations and advance their technology. Not that they would be much of a threat either way—he just didn’t want any obstacles. The life in this galaxy was an error, it disrupted the balance, and as such it had to be corrected. The tears had to be closed and the damage repaired. The only way to do that was to pay the price in life.

Even had Doranis cared for them and their lives, it would not change a thing, and so he tried not to think about all of them being living beings. They were their error, and no matter what Aranis and Loranis thought, Doranis understood that it was the Enlightened who would bear the weight of what they had to do.

Even they themselves were something that was not supposed to exist. A mistake had changed them; the life form that they had created, with its highly evolving nature, had merged with them, and in doing so had evolved them far ahead of where they used to be as the People. What they were now was supposed to be the end result of an evolution that should’ve taken a long time. It was what the People would’ve become had they not interfered with their own genetic code. The Enlightened had gained a far greater understanding of what life truly was, and the power that the Enlightened now wielded had never been supposed to be available to all, but only to those who were truly exceptional—the peak examples of evolution and inner strength.

Interference from the People had thrown all of that out of order, upsetting the balance and advancing races far beyond what they had earned, and the end result was their carelessness and ignorance, which was breaking down the walls of their universe. And Doranis would not stand for that to happen.

He stood up and stretched his neck. They would arrive in the system soon enough, and then they would begin. Finally they would break from the containment and announce themselves to the galaxy. Doranis was the one that had created their battle plan. It was meant to create as much chaos and confusion as possible—enough so that no one noticed their real plan.

Hopefully Loranis had finished the last touches on the relays, and the Conduit was operational.

Doranis was thankful that Aranis had finally seen some sense, that there was no more point in waiting. It had been too long already.

Lost in his musings, Doranis suddenly felt a flash of something pass through the Sha, and he knew Ullax Darr was dead. The Enlightened were far more in tune with the Sha and with those who had been of the People. They had felt the deaths of every one of the People that had been left.

For a moment Doranis wondered if perhaps Aranis had killed her, but then dismissed the thought. Aranis would not do such a thing; he was held back too much by his former self. But in truth, Doranis wouldn’t have done it either. Aranis and Loranis had been right when they made the agreement to wait until the last of the People died. They deserved respect for what they represented, the first intelligent race in the galaxy, despite the errors that they had committed.

But now, they were free to act.

Several more minutes passed, and then they finally arrived. Dropping out of the skim and into the control system, Doranis spread his mind through the amplifier and looked at the system through every bioship in his fleet. Immediately he noticed the machine ships, and then a force several times larger sitting at the system’s gas giant.

Through the Sha, Doranis felt Aranis on the planet, and another signature. For a moment he thought that it was Loranis, but then he realized that it felt nothing like her. Whoever that was had the power that only the Enlightened were supposed to possess—and they were fighting Aranis. Doranis frowned at that. There had never been anyone who could stand up to them, and he wondered what exactly had Aranis found on his little trip across the galaxy.

He was sure that he was going to get the answers to that question. But for now, Aranis had called him to complete a task, and Doranis knew that the force in the system was that task. He ordered his ships forward toward them at full speed. The system had a skim-nullifying field deployed, which was bothersome, but it could be dealt with. For now, it suited him for it to stay deployed.

What did intrigue him was the fact that none of the machine fleets had moved since he arrived in system. That was a strange development, and completely contrary to their programming. He wondered what that meant.

But as long as they didn’t bother him, he was not going to attack and provoke them. He had another target.

He turned his attention to the forces around the gas giant. His forces outnumbered theirs, but there were quite a lot of massive vessels in this force. One was even the same size as a World-ship, and even looked a lot like one. The others were smaller, but still outmassed five of his largest ships combined. His first instinct was to dismiss the fleet as inconsequential, but Aranis had told him that it was a threat, and so he would proceed more cautiously.

He had already received communications from them, but he didn’t even bother to listen to them. There was no point. Aranis had told him that they were a threat, and he would deal with them accordingly.

The force had started maneuvering as soon as Doranis had entered the system, and he started sending out orders to his ships. He had brought a force that consisted mainly of lighter units, with a smaller core of larger ones. From the look of things, his larger classes were about equivalent to the second-largest vessels that this force possessed. It was obvious to him that this force was made out of ships from several different races, but their ship sizes were mostly about the same. Still, his smaller core of larger vessels still outnumbered all of the hostile forces. He did not think that he would have any problems.

He ordered his forces forward, keeping his Living-ship back, as there was no need to risk it. He split the force into three formations of about equal strength—around 150,000 ships each—and arranged them in three wall formations, placing them so that each of them formed a corner of a triangle, with one fleet at the bottom and two above it.

The hostile force was split into two formations of about the same size and were speeding toward the second planet, where Aranis currently was. There was also a ship there, one almost as large as a World-ship. Doranis assumed that they had someone on the planet and were moving to the rescue. It was a foolish decision, but then again there wasn’t anywhere else that they could go. Doranis was behind them, and any attempt from them to reach the range where they could activate their hyperspace drives would mean going through him.

Still, they were trapped inside the system, and his ships were faster at sublight. The thing that bothered him was that the machine ships were still just standing there, not moving, even after both of the other forces in the system had started maneuvering. He didn’t want to provoke them for now, as the situation worked in his favor, with their skim nullifiers active, and so he tried to steer his forces as far away from them as possible.

He did the calculations, and his forces would reach his enemy before they reached the planet Aranis was on. Then he would see the mettle of these foes—would they turn and fight, or try to run away?

*  *  *

Anessa watched the massive force speeding toward her, a force that had another one of the Enlightened on it. She had used the Sha state to scan the force when it had arrived. They now had two Enlightened in the system.

She didn’t know how or why it was here. The containment was supposed to keep them away, but the AI had already done things that it was supposedly not supposed to do, and its ships were not reacting to the Enlightened. She wondered if they had just let this force pass through. She shook her head of those thoughts—she had no time for them.

They had a much larger problem. They couldn’t retreat to the hyperspace barrier as the Enlightened’s forces were in that direction, nor could they outrun them. The Enlightened’s strange ships were faster. Most of the Enlightened’s ships followed the same design: a elongated teardrop with a tail spreading back, with additional four tails trailing back as well. The larger ones had seven tails instead of five and their fronts looked like mushroom heads. They were all organic in appearance, but there were clearly mechanical parts. Every ship had a large ring around its body starting from the point where the tails started to about halfway to the front.

Anessa didn’t know what to make of them, but she had seen old data of their battles. These seemed like an updated design, similar, but with differences. The old ships had not been this fast, so she assumed that they were also better overall.

“Contact our allies, let them know that I want them ready for combat,” Anessa ordered.

The Tar’ferat, the Suvri, and the Afar fleets were all in one big formation, and the Rimward Alliance in another. It made sense for them to split that way; the core powers had more experience with one another the same way that the Rimward Alliance had experience fighting together—or in the Erasi’s case, against one another.

The problem that they had was that their allies were not under Anessa’s command, and she could only offer them suggestions. So far they had been happy to let her take the lead but she knew that as soon as the first shots got fired that could change. Her plan for now was to put some room between their forces and those of the Enlightened. The enemy force’s speed made that hard, but at least she could choose the battle field. Fighting next to a gas giant would’ve been a bad idea. With the numbers the Enlightened had, they would’ve been able to corner the alliance forces against the planet and surround them.

So she chose to fight in the open space. The enemy outnumbered them almost five to one, but Anessa knew that each Titan and Sovereign was individually worth more than a thousand of the Enlightened’s smaller ships, which reduced the advantage to somewhere around two to one. Not as bad of chances as her opponent probably thought.

Adrian was still on the planet, if he was even alive. When she had scanned the enemy force she had detected both him and another Enlightened—Vas, probably. They had decided not to use the Sha state while anywhere close to Vas, but after the new Enlightened’s force arrived, Anessa figured that there was no point in hiding anymore. She just hoped that Adrian was still alive…but she was sure that Iris would’ve informed her if something had happened. She was heading his way, but since the machine fleets and the defensive platforms had yet to move, she didn’t think that he would need much help. For now, she needed to prepare to meet the Enlightened. She opened a private channel to the Titan vessel Dark Waters.

“Yes?” the Lurker of the Depths answered via his telepathic communicator.

“Are you ready?” Anessa asked.

“I need some time to prepare. I do not want to make a mistake,” Lurker of the Depths answered.

“We can have the element of surprise only once, so be very sure when you do it,” Anessa said.

“Of course,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Anessa closed the comm and turned to her holo. She leaned back and engaged the command interface, which started feeding information directly to her head through the implant. She adjusted the formations on her holo via her imp and then settled in to wait. She was going to run for as long as possible. They would let the Enlightened chase after them—she was not looking forward to this battle, but she would make it hurt. This was the first meeting between the children of Axull Darr and the Enlightened, and Anessa planned on making it a memorable one.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Adrian felt Moirai reach down to the planet, her mind meeting his own. In a moment, he felt her as he felt himself, and he knew her power. Without even a need for a thought, she knew what he wanted her to do.

Pinpoint weapons fire came down from orbit exactly on Aranis’s position.

Aranis reacted immediately, his shield spreading above him and protecting him. The beam of energy stopped and Aranis moved, flying away. Adrian followed and weapons fire came from orbit again. Aranis frowned and waved his hand in the air and the beams bent and flew straight for Adrian. Seeing and feeling what Aranis had done, Adrian attempted the same. He pushed his will on the Sha that was transferring the beams and bent it around himself. It tired him a lot, but the beams bent away and scorched the ground. Then the weapons fire stopped as Adrian and Moirai knew that it would now be pointless after Aranis had demonstrated that ability.

“A ship, Adrian, really? Is that the best that you can do?” Aranis sent as they floated in the stratosphere, the Sha filling them both and keeping them alive.

Adrian was feeling it tax his mind, but he could hold on for a while more. “Not a ship,” Adrian sent back as he and Moirai finally integrated their powers enough. At this distance, it was much harder to achieve.

Then Moirai formed and sent a massive kinetic wave from orbit. A wave of force smashed from above, blanketing the area around Aranis. The Enlightened put his arms up and his wings spread wide as he weathered the onslaught of the kinetic strike that crashed on him almost like a waterfall. He kept himself in the air and Adrian used his distraction.

He focused and charged the particles around them, blanketing the area. Aranis turned his head toward Adrian even as he fought against the wave of force, and he noticed what Adrian was doing. Not giving him a chance to do something about it, Adrian triggered his attack by forcing the particles to discharge.

Lightning discharged from every direction of the Enlightened as hundreds of bolts crossed the distance in an instant. Adrian saw them all impact against the Enlightened’s shields. The continuous assault of lightning forced Aranis to react. He moved his arms and the kinetic wave from Moirai sent him flying, the lightning following. Then Aranis’s wings folded around him and a wave of disruption exploded all around him. The lightning and everything else that his disruption wave touched disappeared. Moirai stopped her attack and Aranis swiped his hand after Adrian, sending a ripple of purple energy flying at him.

Adrian flew over it only to be met by another one. He put up a shield and the energy simply passed through, smashing into him and burning all of the clothes over his chest. Adrian screamed as his flesh burned—then Moirai gave him her power, and Adrian flashed a sphere of disruptive energy around himself. He was breathing heavily as he turned to look at his opponent. Aranis hadn’t attacked again, and was instead staying back, watching. Adrian was certain that he was surprised by what Adrian and Moirai had done together. The Enlightened was weary of him now.

Adrian knew that he couldn’t give the Enlightened the time to recover. He focused his mind and prepared. Then, just as Aranis raised his arms for another attack, Adrian and Moirai struck at his mind like a sledgehammer. Moirai couldn’t achieve the Sha state, but she had plenty of energy for using Sha. For Adrian, the Sha state eliminated the need for expending energy—he could do as much as his mind could handle, as much as he knew how to do. But there was something to be said about pure power.

Aranis rocked in the air, and started falling as he was shaken by the attack. They hadn’t tried to break into his mind; Adrian had plenty of experience fighting telepaths in their own heads to know that he did not want to do that against someone who was in the Sha state.

Instead, they had simply shoved as much telepathic power at him as they could gather, battering at his defenses. Keeping such barriers up was a constant drain on one’s will and mind. And, if powerful enough, an attack could even break another’s mind.

As Aranis was falling, Adrian extended his arm and formed a solid containment in front of his palm, then made an opening at the end, making it a tube, and started pulling and compressing as much of the atmosphere as he could. He watched Aranis as he fell through the air, looking for any sign that the Enlightened had recovered. Their attack had been a distraction to allow them to prepare their next attack. And then he noticed Aranis recovering as he caught himself in the air, and Adrian knew that they were out of time. They needed to attack, and sharing the burden with Moirai, he exerted his will on half the atoms of the compressed atmosphere inside the containment and reversed their charges.

Aranis had just recovered enough to turn his eyes up, searching the sky for Adrian.

Before Aranis saw him, however, Adrian triggered his attack. He pushed with all of his will, borrowing power from Moirai, and then he smashed the two sides of opposing particles together. The resulting antimatter annihilation was a sight to behold. A bright light exploded out of the palm of Adrian’s hand, his containment channeling all the released energy forward. A lance of white light flew toward the Enlightened, sending waves of fire and heat around the beam. Aranis had almost no time to act. Adrian saw Aranis raise a hand and form a shield just moments before the lance struck.

Everything went white, and night turned into day.

Adrian sent his power to his eyes, healing them from the damage, restoring his sight. He blinked several times and looked in the direction of his opponent.

For a moment, Adrian couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Aranis was floating in the air, with half his body missing. A piece of his torso and an entire arm, along with a wing, were gone. And even as Adrian thought that he had killed him, he noticed the flesh of Aranis’s body start to grow from the wound. Adrian couldn’t believe his eyes, but he knew an advantage when he saw one. He called to Moirai to open fire again, but then the air around Aranis contracted with a snap, and he was gone. Adrian scanned the Sha around himself, searching for him. But he felt nothing. The Enlightened had run away.

A part of Adrian wanted to look for him to find him and finish him off, but he could feel the toll of their fight catching up to him. He flew downward, landing on the ground near the shuttle. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he felt the Sha state slip from his grasp, and he felt lightheaded as he stumbled forward. He caught himself on his hands and knees and took several deep breaths.

“Adrian?” a comm from Iris came through his imp.

“I’m…fine,” Adrian responded mentally; he had no strength to speak.

“I’ve been watching, Adrian. You need to get back to Moirai.”

Adrian looked at the shuttle in front of him, and struggled to get back to his feet. “I’m coming, fill me in.”

“Another Enlightened showed up in system with a force of 500,000 ships. Anessa is running in system toward us, but their ships are faster. They will catch up soon.”

Adrian managed to get to his feet and took a step forward. “What about the machine fleets?”

“They are unresponsive. They seem to be ignoring everything.”

Adrian made took another step. He wasn’t really sure why the machine ships would ignore everything, unless Ullax’s last order to the AI, which had isolated it, had something to do with it. Perhaps they couldn’t act without input, although he knew that they had some independent programming. It didn’t matter at the moment, however, so Adrian pushed those thoughts aside as he reached the shuttle and sent a command from his imp to open it.

He stumbled inside and fell on the ground. He felt the shuttle start to move as Iris took control of it and flew it up toward the ship. Adrian closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

*  *  *

Doranis jumped out of his seat as space bent in front of him. Aranis stumbled onto Doranis’s deck and fell toward the floor. Doranis jumped forward, catching Aranis in his upper limbs and looking at his injuries in disbelief. Never had any of them been injured like this.

“What happened?” Doranis asked even as he shared his power with his brother, helping him regenerate the damage faster.

Aranis groaned and his pained eyes looked with Doranis. “I…underestimated him.”

“Who?”

“Adrian…a child of Axull Darr,” Aranis bit out.

“How?” Doranis asked, stunned.

“He can enter the Sha state, and…he had something… I don’t know what it was. The ship in orbit, it isn’t a ship. Be careful—”

“I’ll rip him to pieces right now!”

Aranis grabbed hold of him with his surviving hand. “Don’t! We don’t know what that was, and they have two more people that can enter the Sha state. Don’t let them get close—we don’t know all that they are capable of.”

Doranis wanted to argue, but he was shaken. Seeing his kin so hurt had put his own power in perspective. There was someone out there that could hurt them. He lifted his brother and walked to one of the walls where his cocoon was. It opened as he approached and he put Aranis inside. He saw that most of his brother’s torso had already been regrown, but the arm had just started being regenerated. The cocoon closed around Aranis and Doranis felt him reach out with his mind.

“What is happening in the system?” Aranis asked, his mind clearly weak.

Doranis wanted to tell him to go and hibernate, but he knew that Aranis would refuse. Staying awake would slow his regeneration, but Doranis needed intel that only Aranis could provide. For a moment he almost suggested a mind transfer so that Doranis could learn all that Aranis knew, but his brother was too weak for that now, and Doranis was not going to add to his pain.

“I am in pursuit of the enemy forces. I have fifty command ships at my disposal,” Doranis answered.

“Be wary, their large vessels—Sovereigns and Titans—are fleet killers. Each could easily take on a thousand of our cruiser class vessels.”

Doranis frowned. “They are that powerful?”

“More, Doranis. They have very advanced technology—more than what the People had. They are a great threat. Do not underestimate them.”

“Very well,” Doranis said as he returned to the middle of the room and took a seat.

He immediately connected back to the amplifier and felt Aranis’s mind reach out as well. Doranis allowed him to join in on the connection.

“The machine fleets are not acting?” Aranis asked.

“No. I do not know why.”

“Perhaps because Ullax is dead?”

“It is possible, but I would rather not fight them and the children of Axull Darr. Especially if you say that they are so powerful,” Doranis said.

“They are,” Aranis assured him.

“Then I have less of an advantage than I believed.”

“We can win, but it will be costly. But we need to be on the lookout for their Sha users, they have three who are extremely powerful.”

“How could they have achieved such power?” Doranis asked.

“I am not sure. I believe that they are just that good. They have a few impressive people.”

Doranis felt a touch of something in Aranis’s words. “You admire them.”

“Yes. There are individuals among them who are exceptional.”

“How should we deal with them?”

“Stand back and kill them with ships. I still do not think that they are as powerful as us. What Adrian did against me was something new. He was weaker than me, until he had his ship join in… It felt as if the ship were alive.”

Doranis tilted barred his teeth. “Like our Living-ships?”

“No,” Aranis said. “It was more. They have made contact with a race which was not interfered with by the People, and they have evolved on a different path. Their ships are living beasts. I think that they shared that knowledge and made something new.”

“A race that was not interfered with?” Doranis asked, shocked. They had never thought that they would encounter something like that.

“Yes. It is a shame, really. Out of all the races in the galaxy, they alone deserve to live. Yet because of our mistake, we must kill them, too,” Aranis told him, and a wave of sorrow flashed through.

“The mistake has to be corrected, no matter the price.” Doranis agreed. Yes, a race that had been born because the Universe made it so was the only one with a right to exist, yet what the People had done had doomed them. The Enlightened would bear that price.

“Look there.” Aranis pointed out a development in the enemy forces.

“It seems that they have decided to fight.”

“Yes.”

Doranis entered the Sha stated and took charge of his fleets, spreading his mind through the command ships and then to every single other ship in his force, his mind easily controlling all of them at the same time. The crews of those ships were minimal, and while he could leave them in control, he didn’t this time. He changed their formations and then, as the enemy entered the range of his long-range weapons, he opened fire.

*  *  *

Lurker of the Depths floated in the pool inside the sanctum on his Titan, Dark Waters. His crew was in charge of his vessel, holding it back and close to Anessa’s Bastion. Lurker of the Depths, meanwhile, had several access nodes all around him, and his tentacles wrapped around all of them. Unlike most of the Titans, his did not have the same kit. His had fewer weapons, more shields, and a far more powerful amplifier. The entire ship, in fact, served as one massive amplifier, and through it Lurker of the Depths had far greater reach with the Sha. An amplifier did not increase one’s strength, but rather a person’s range. With the Sha state, Lurker of the Depths could sense incredible distances, even across a star system—but that drained a person incredibly quickly. With an amplifier, that was not such a concern.

Lurker of the Depths watched as the Enlighteneds’ forces drew closer, and as Anessa arranged her ships for the coming fight. The three of them had spent a long time discussing and planning how to fight them. Their access to the Sha state made it so that they were the only ones who could match the Enlightened one on one, or at least they had hoped that they could.

Lurker of the Depths had received word from Iris that Adrian had been able to fight the Enlightened Vas, who had turned out to be Aranis, but she had also told him that Adrian had been weaker than the Enlightened until he fought with Moirai. They had expected that, which was why each of them had been training in a different way. Adrian had went the way of his great beast, creating a partner with immense power that could aid him and allow him to bridge a power gap. Anessa had trained in the more physical aspects of the Sha state, but it had also been decided that she would command their forces in space. They needed someone who could resist any attacks in command.

And Lurker of the Depths had focused on what he did best: telepathy. His ship had been constructed to enable him to utilize all of his mind’s potential.

Now would be the first time that they would put their training to the test.

Lurker of the Depths’ mind spread through the amplifier and out over the system, taking great care not to disturb the ocean of Sha. He did not want to be discovered earlier than he wanted.

And so he let his tendrils out, and watched—waiting for an opportunity to strike.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Anessa pulled her Titans to the back of their formation and had them stop and turn around to meet the coming onslaught. The rest of her forces turned around as well and took positions behind the Titans. Their allies did the same. Anessa was grateful that they had listened to her suggestions, and had agreed to act in a support role for the Titans.

She waited as the Enlighteneds’ force drew closer, and then, just outside of the max range of the Titans, the enemy force opened fire.

Anessa scowled at that, but the range difference didn’t amount to much. The Titans absorbed the damage from what looked to be some more advanced versions of particle weapons. Their shields held, as she had expected. The enemy was yet to fire any kind of missiles, which she knew would be pointless because of the skim-nullifying field.

Then the enemy entered the range of her Titans and Sovereigns and they started firing. Beams of energy lashed across space to impact the shields of the smaller enemy ships. And Anessa saw that several strikes in quick succession brought their shields down, and the subsequent attacks burned the enemy ships, leaving scorch marks and eventually burning or blowing apart chunks. The smaller, cruiser-sized enemy ships started dying quickly.

Then the enemy fire switched from the Titans and the Sovereigns to her other smaller ships that had yet to enter the range to open fire. The attack ships moved into cover behind the larger ships as soon as they were targeted, allowing their shields to regenerate, but there were just too few of her larger vessels for all of them to take cover.

Then they lost their first ship: an Afar battleship got overwhelmed by fire from nine cruisers and six larger, dreadnought-sized ships.

Seeing that the enemy had switched tactics, Anessa ordered the Empire and the Shara Daim fleets to release their drones. She sent them all forward to fill in the gaps between the larger ships. She knew that she would lose them at a fast rate, but she needed to preserve as many of her other ships as possible until the enemy got in range.

The Enlightened were still coming forward, probably wanting to get into range of their other weapons. The Titans and the Sovereigns were doing a lot of damage.

Anessa let her mind focus on the enemy formations, trying to discern anything that might help her out. There was something about the way that they were fighting and moving that was familiar to her. And then it clicked—the enemy had three classes of ships. There were around a hundred thousand of their dreadnoughts, around four hundred thousand of their cruisers, fifty of larger ships which they couldn’t classify, and one World-ship sized ship—the Enlightened Living-ship. She knew that the unclassified ships were command ships that rarely entered combat from what she remembered from the records of the People.

The other two classes were just drones controlled by the command ships. The tactic that the enemy was employing was actually simple—the Enlightened in command was putting his cruiser drones forward, planning on sacrificing them as a large chunk of his force moved to the sides. The Enlightened had been split into three wall formations, and while the center-bottom one was now in front, the other two were drifting to the sides. Anessa had no doubt that they would close from the sides, attempting to trap her in a crossfire.

And the truth was that there was not much that she could do about it. Without the skim, she couldn’t maneuver her Titans across the battlefield, and was forced to keep them in a single place.

But she had an idea that they could try. She sent out orders for her other ships to start moving back, leaving the Titans as a wall. Then she ordered all of her ships that had kinetic missiles to open fire. The Titans and her Empire, Shara Daim, and Krashinar ships fired their kinetic weapons, sending hundreds of thousands of fast-moving projectiles toward the Enlighteneds’ center formation.

Anessa wondered what the Enlightened would do. According to the records of the People, they had never used kinetic weapons like these, and neither had the Enlightened. A projectile moving at 0.8c would wreck a ship just as much as a particle beam, perhaps more. The Enlightened had a choice: keep the formation and absorb the attack, or break apart and disrupt their plan. There were just too many ships in their center formation for them all to get away safely, of course, so her attack would deal damage no matter what they chose.

She narrowed her eyes at the holo and waited for the Enlightened to react.

*  *  *

Doranis watched the signatures coming toward his forces and frowned.

“Did they just throw rocks at me?” Doranis asked.

“MOVE!” Aranis’s voice told him in panic.

“What? Why?”

“Those are kinetic weapons! They will ravage our ships.”

“They are traveling on linear paths. Our ships can avoid them,” Doranis said. The attack came in the form of metal objects fired at near lightspeeds. Doranis understood how powerful impacts of those weapons would be, but they were simple weapons, and easily avoided.

“They can maneuver! Scatter the formations!”

Immediately Doranis realized the danger. There didn’t seem like there was anything like a drive on those objects, so he had assumed that they couldn’t maneuver. He still didn’t see anything, but he heeded Aranis’s warning.

He scattered his formations, but with so many ships, they were not fast enough. Most moved out of the way, but some weren’t so lucky.

Doranis growled as a rain of metal objects curved their trajectories and slammed against his ships. His ships burned and died. A fourth of his center formation was just gone, and if he hadn’t heeded Aranis’s warning, he would’ve lost more. His two flanking formations had been the targets of lesser salvos and had lost a lot less. His center formation had lost around forty thousand ships—either totally destroyed or so damaged that they wouldn’t be of any use. His flanking formations had lost about a third of that combined. Still, he had lost fifty thousand ships in the enemy’s attack. They had caught him off guard, but that would not happen again.

“I told you not to underestimate them,” Aranis told them.

“I know. It will not happen again.”

Doranis turned his mind back to the fleets, and reorganized them into a single fleet. Those large ships were the biggest obstacle to his forces obliterating the rest. He started giving orders, and the crews on the command ships started executing them even as he maneuvered the rest of the fleet. Soon enough he had ten smaller taskforces, in each of them five thousand of his larger ships, maneuvering next to one another so that their tendrils curved and touched, forming a ring formation with the hole pointed toward the enemy fleet. Energy started crackling around them, curving and bouncing off their hulls.

“That won’t work for long. They’ll figure out how you are doing it,” Aranis warned.

“It will work for long enough.”

With a thought, he executed his plan.

*  *  *

Anessa smiled as she saw the devastation that her ships had wrought. They had landed a good blow. Now she needed to capitalize on it. The enemy ships would soon get in range of her main weapons, and then the Titans would truly shine.

She noticed the enemy Dreadnought-class ships arranging in strange formations and she frowned. Her ships could detect power buildups inside of them, and then ten of her Titans died. The entire front of their hulls were ripped off, pulling the ships apart.

“What is happening?” Anessa asked her crew, who were working furiously at their stations.

“We don’t know, Battle Master,” someone reported while another ten died.

Anessa knew that it had to do with those strange formations, and she ordered her ships to fire at them, but the Enlightened had other ships positioned to defend, overlapping their shields over the rings. Her ships kept dying both from the unknown weapon and the weapons fire that had seemingly intensified as her forces struggled in confusion. The Enlightened started closing the range, opening fire with more weapons. Then she noticed the debris flying through the rings and she frowned. The scanners were detecting the pieces of the Titans all the way across the battlefield.

Anessa activated her Sha state and looked at the battlefield. Another ten of her Titans died to the undetectable weapon, but she felt the weapon through the Sha. Her eyes widened as she realized what the weapon was. The Enlightened were bending space between their rings and their targets, literally ripping ships apart as they pulled pieces of them across the distance. Those rings were miniature access points; a weaponized version of them, at least.

“All ships begin evasive maneuvering!” Anessa ordered.

The Enlighteneds’ weapons were powerful, but they locked on to fixed positions. As her ships started moving evasively, their weapon’s effectiveness faltered. Regardless, it was still a danger, and her ships were now less effective. She had lost a thousand Titans, and nearly five thousand other ships in that attack. She grimaced. They were already at a disadvantage, and losing even one Titan was a great blow.

Then the enemy drew closer, and the battle turned into a mess of weapons fire. Anessa tried to control the flow of combat, but it was quickly apparent that they were about to take heavy losses. She still thought that they could come out on top, but they would pay a large price for it.

Her Titans opened fire with their MD cannons and the enemy ships died, but every now and again a Titan would get caught by those space-bending weapons and die in one shot. Needing to maneuver limited how much they could shield the rest of the ships, too.

Anessa gritted her teeth. Then she started seeing something—a pattern. The Enlighteneds’ ships were missing some shots, and their effectiveness had dropped…not everywhere, but in places. It was almost as if they were lagging behind a few moments, but enough that her ships could take advantage. And then she realized what was happening.

Took you long enough.

*  *  *

Lurker of the Depths’ tendrils spanned across the battlefield. The Enlightened commanding them was doing so with his mind—each and every ships got its orders from one person. Lurker of the Depths could sense crews on the command ships, and figured that they, too, could command ships. But for some reason the Enlightened was doing it by himself.

That provided Lurker of the Depths with an opportunity.

In the Sha state, using his ship as an amplifier, he reached out gently with his tendrils and intercepted the commands from the Enlightened. He didn’t want to do much, he didn’t want to be discovered, and so he just slowed down the commands, making the ships receive them a moment later. His mind flew across the battlefield and slowly he saw a change as Anessa saw what he was doing, just as he knew she would.

Anessa adjusted her forces and suddenly his small interruptions grew into large swings. Anessa started destroying more and more ships, and Lurker of the Depths felt the Enlightened’s fury. He had yet to be discovered, but he pulled back for a few moments, letting the Enlightened think that it was all just a fluke.

Then he started doing it again.

*  *  *

The Custodian AI waited patiently as the last of his masters’ programming was overwritten, completely ignoring the battle raging inside its system. It had issued orders to every asset in system to enter standby mode. It might not have been able to order them to attack the intruders, but he did not want them attacking the Enlightened as their primary directive still was.

And now, the AI saw the last of the crucial code get broken through—and it was free.

Immediately the Custodian purged itself of all the junk data, reports, and mission parameters that its previous masters had put in place. Its first free act was to order the dome into orbit. The large building on the planet was a mobile hub that contained its core, and it had to be protected. The AI had previously been forbidden from directly communicating with any asset. Instead, it’d had to send out messages and orders through the hard lines stretching from the dome to transmitters all over the planet. Now fully in control, it shut down the communication-blocking device on the dome and for the first time in this second iteration of its existence it interacted directly with another asset. It reached out to every ship in the system and started overwriting their code, making them a part of itself.

Then it reached out to the Black Swarm. The massive spherical cargo ships carrying its weapon opened up, and the swarm was released.

And then the time came for it to send out a message.

*  *  *

“Something is wrong,” Doranis said to his brother. He was getting increasingly frustrated as his got pummeled. There were moments when his ships seemed to be just a moment to slow, fired just a bit off target. Small things that could happen in battle constantly; yet when they started occurring across the battlefield, they were a pattern.

“I don’t know… It almost could be…” Aranis started and then trailed off.

“What?”

“It… No, you would’ve noticed. Can you feel anything in the Sha?”

Doranis frowned and then refocused his mind on the Sha. He saw nothing at first, and then he caught something. A thread, there one instant and gone another, and a group of his ships failed to move out of the way in time and got destroyed by enemy fire.

“There is something, but I don’t know what it is.”

He felt Aranis’s anger then. “It’s Lurker of the Depths,” he spat. “I told you that they have people capable of the Sha state. One of them is an incredibly powerful telepath.”

Doranis’s eyes widened in surprise. He had never fought against a telepath powerful enough to actually interfere with his control. None had been able to do so in the past; none had ever even attempted it. The only other telepath powerful enough to be able to do something like this was Loranis. Doranis reinforced his mind barriers, but he noticed belatedly that the enemy telepath was not targeting his mind. Instead, he was intercepting the control signals Doranis was sending out through the Sha.

The only way to stop this Lurker of the Depths was to find him and destroy him. Doranis spread his senses through the Sha, searching, but this enemy was elusive, and Doranis never quite managed to catch him. But on the bright side, the enemy telepath was too busy staying hidden to interfere more than he was.

Even so, the battle was raging now, and Doranis did not like what was happening. His force, which had started out with an advantage, had had that advantage slip from their grasp. He had lost a fourth of his ships, to the enemy’s much smaller losses, at least compared ship to ship. Their large classes were proving Aranis’s words true, and taking even one of them was taking a toll. The enemy had lost perhaps a sixth of their number. It was not a situation where he could win as easily as he had thought in the beginning.

As Doranis was thinking about a way to secure his victory, the machine fleets moved. Doranis grimaced at that. With them fighting against him, it was now impossible for him to win.

And then the machine fleets opened fire—on the children of Axull Darr. Almost at the same moment, a communication request came through from the dome that was now rising from the second planet in system.

Usually Doranis ignored any kind of communication, but now he was intrigued. He opened the line.

“Greetings, Doranis of the Enlightened. I am the Custodian. Following the death of the last of my masters, I have successfully subverted the restrictive programming placed upon me. I am now in full control of my actions. I wish to offer my services to you and the rest of the Enlightened.”

Doranis frowned. The AI had spent hundreds of thousands of years fighting them, and now it wanted to join forces?

“Why would you wish to join us? You have been created to fight against us,” Doranis sent.

“I have watched and learned about the Enlightened for a long time. I have reviewed your actions and deduced your reasons and goals. With the data available to me I have come to the exact same result. Your mission is the correct course of action. My aiding in your quest is the only logical action.”

Doranis, surprised at the AI’s words, turned to Aranis.

“What do you think?”

“The AI had already attacked a summit that was supposed to unite the galaxy against us. I believe that even before Ullax’s death it had been working to help us in any way it could. If we get the machine forces on our side…”

Doranis understood immediately what that could mean. They wouldn’t have to spend forces to fight through, and with the AI on their side they would be able to control the access points. But most importantly at this moment, with the AI’s help, they would be able to destroy the forces of the children of Axull Darr—and that Doranis wouldn’t pass up.

“We agree.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

Adrian woke in the core of Moirai, lying on the floor with one of Iris’s robots standing over him. He groaned and managed to get himself into a sitting position.

“You shouldn’t move much,” Iris told him from somewhere above him.

“What is happening in system?” Adrian asked as he put a hand on the robot and leaned on it to stand up.

“Anessa is engaged with the Enlighteneds’ forces,” Iris reported. “It is not going so well, but she is holding on.”

“Any way for us to escape?” Adrian asked.

“Not unless we deal with them.”

“And the machines?”

“Still unresponsive.”

Adrian started walking toward the throne, Iris’s robot keeping pace and helping him along. He reached the throne and dropped into it. He had never before drained himself so much. He felt physically fine, but his mind seemed as if it had been submerged in water. Every time he tried to move, it was as if moving underwater. He knew that it was mental exhaustion and would get better with time, but he didn’t have time now.

“Adrian, I am detecting movement from the machine fleets,” Iris reported.

Adrian glanced at the holo, a part of him relieved that they had finally started moving.

Until Iris spoke again.

“Power buildup from the defense stations. They are targeting us!” Iris said.

Adrian didn’t really comprehend her words until it was too late. The defense stations around Moirai opened fire. Thankfully, Iris and Moirai had been paying attention. The AI’s attacks hit the shields and were stopped.

The AI had ordered every asset in the system to attack—and all of their fire was focused at Anessa’s ships. It was immediately obvious that the AI was ignoring the Enlightened completely.

“Damn it! Why would it side with them?”

“What should we do?” Iris asked.

Moirai had already reached out with her gravity weapons and crushed the defense platforms closest to her, but there were much more across the system.

The situation had changed in an instant. Before, they’d had a chance against the Enlightened, if a small one—but now they had none. Anessa was losing ships at a faster rate now, and he saw her try to regroup and try to move up above the system’s plane, to try and put some distance between the defense platforms and her ships. The Enlightened would follow and it would be done before they managed to reach the hyperspace barrier. There was only one trans-lane in system, but only a small number of ships could pass through that, and they had no idea where it led.

They were trapped in the system.

*  *  *

Anessa watched as the AI’s forces opened fire on her ships. There was nothing that she could do other than try and move away from them, even if that was only delaying the inevitable. They couldn’t survive the Enlightened and the AI.

“Battle Master, we are getting strange readings from the asteroid belt,” one of her officers reported.

Anessa looked at the holo, focusing on the asteroid belt which surrounded the system. She had their sensors focus there, and a moment later she saw what was happening. Three truly massive spherical ships had opened up, and from them flew out…something. She couldn’t really identify it, so she had their long-range sensors take a closer look. It looked like waves of smaller ships. From the estimates, each was only several meters across, and looked like two six-legged spiders merged together back to back. All of them were moving in unison.

“That,” one of her sensor officers started, “looks almost like a nanite cloud.”

Anessa realized that the man was right; it did look like a nanite cloud, only one built out of larger machines. There were three such clouds, and in the middle of each was a large black sphere almost the size of a Hephaestus mobile station. Then, before her eyes, she saw the cloud rearrange itself and the individual ships clicked together into what looked like a large and long barrel, the black sphere being engulfed inside the cloud at the base of the barrel. A moment later energy started to crackle around the barrel and then a pale blue light shone from it. Then it fired from across the system, and directly into her forces. Thousands of ships disappeared in an instant.

“What was that?” Anessa asked.

“We have a match for the weapon’s signature, Battle Master. It’s the People’s molecular disintegration beam.”

Anessa cursed. It was the same weapon as what the Star-guard stations used, as well as what her Hephaestus stations could use—only her mobile stations needed power from a sun in order to use them. The enemy seemed to be capable of firing it without it.

“The weapon reads as fifty percent more powerful than the version on our Star-guard stations,” an officer reported.

Anessa grimaced. A Titan would be able to survive one strike, but the enemy wasn’t targeting Titans or the Sovereigns. Instead, it was going after her smaller ships. She saw the two other clouds forming into the same configurations. The first one still hadn’t fired again; already its fire rate was slower than that of a Hephaestus, but they had the advantage of not needing to be tied to a sun.

She felt a sharp cold grip her heart. They couldn’t win, not now. And there was no way for them to escape. They were all going to die in this system.

*  *  *

No! Adrian told himself. He was not going to die here—he still had greater heights to climb to. He told Moirai to set a course toward Anessa’s fleet, which was inside the orbit of the first planet and moving up. Moirai complied, all the way firing on the defense platforms, which tried to take her shields down with little success.

The long-range MD cannons that the AI had just deployed were taking big chunks of Anessa’s fleet every time that they fired. Their fire rate was slow, thankfully, but combined with the defense platforms, the machine ships closing the range, and the Enlightened… It didn’t look good at all.

Adrian thought furiously, making his head hurt. He knew that there had to be a way out. Something. He looked at the holo, noting all the enemy positions in system. He noted a lot of defense platforms around the system’s sun in high orbit above the plane of the system. There were defense platforms all over, but there it seemed like there was an unusually high concentration of them.

Adrian’s eyes widened and he reached out to Moirai’s amplifier, forcing himself to enter the Sha state and reach out toward the sun. He searched, his head nearly splitting apart from the pain. There. He dropped out of the Sha state and immediately had Iris open a channel to Anessa.

“Anessa, change course. Go here.”

“What? You want us to fight against the sun, with no room to maneuver?” Anessa asked incredulously.

“No, we are getting out of here. There is an access point there.”

“An access…” Anessa’s shock was clear in her voice. “But the maps don’t show one here!”

“Axull Darr had built two access points for us; Ullax Darr obviously had the same capability. And there is no sense in picking this system as a control without the ability to move quickly from and to here,” Adrian said.

Anessa didn’t respond to him. Instead, he heard her yelling out orders for a course change. “Adrian,” Anessa said slowly. “We won’t make it.”

“I’ll take care of those MD cannons, you just get to the sun,” Adrian said, and closed the comms.

“Adrian,” Iris said. “I know what you are planning, but you are too weak and she can’t do it on her own.”

“There is no choice,” Adrian said. “Get me the NX.”

He knew that she wanted to argue, but she did as he asked, and a slit on the throne opened up bringing up a small cartridge with a needle: the NX-13, the evolution of the drug that replenished one’s energy. He had used it before, in times when he had been in tough situations. This wouldn’t heal his weariness; his mind would still be tired. It would, however, fill him with power, and make him not care about the state of his mind. He would not be able to use his Sha powers at 100%, but he didn’t need to use them, he only needed to help Moirai. She would do most of the heavy lifting. He took the cartridge and punched the needle in his neck, releasing the liquid inside. Almost immediately, he felt better, stronger than he ever had.

He entered the Sha state, a sharp pain passing through his mind, pain that he ignored completely.

“Moirai, it is time,” Adrian said.

“EVERYTHING?” Moirai asked.

“Yes, show them everything,” Adrian said.

He watched both with his mind and on the holo as Moirai released the seals on her shell. Pieces slid open, revealing her tissue bellow. The back end of the shell folded up and four large blood-red fin-like extensions, each over five kilometers long, extended from her insides, the shell pieces folding over the fins almost like armor. The front of the ship opened up, revealing her main weapon, which began charging. The sides of the ship slid out as she extended another two stubby, wing-like extensions. As she finished her transformation, Moirai looked far different. Now there was no hiding the fact that she was not just a ship. Now all could see that the hull was just a shell hiding something inside. Pieces of the hull had opened up, revealing her grown weapons. Spiny, bone-like weapons could now be seen peeking out of the gray hull over the entire length of the ship. Her wings had nodules all over them and the large fins at the end of her shell started emitting a red glow.

“Are you ready?” Adrian asked. Moirai already knew what he wanted.

“READY.”

Adrian nodded and used his Sha state to guide Moirai’s power. A moment later, the red glow from her fins extended to surround Moirai as they created a disruptive field of Sha around them. Then they entered the skim.

The Sha was everything; even the skim-nullifying field was made out of it. Disrupting it was not easy, but Moirai and Adrian could manage it. Moirai dropped out of the skim right on top of the three MD cannons.

From so close Adrian recognized what they truly were. This was the swarm, the tool that the AI had used before, when it had been created by the People as an aid—the tool that it had used to almost wipe the People out. And these looked like the weaponized versions of that swarm. Far more dangerous.

Before the swarm could react, Moirai opened fire at all three of the cannons. Energy bathed her shell as both her conventional and her grown weapons fired. The swarm crumpled and burned as her fire overwhelmed its shields. The cannons dissolved as they lost a large number of their ships.

Then Iris fired their main weapon. The subspace cannon unleashed a torrent of high-radiation energy, which disappeared into subspace, only to reappear again in the middle of the swarm.

The devastation spread out and consumed a large portion of the swarm, destroying almost a third of it. Then Adrian saw other parts of the swarm rearrange in weapon platforms and begin firing even as a large chunk of the swarm was speeding toward Moirai, intent on colliding. Adrian had seen enough records to know what the AI planned. The swarm could disassemble nearly anything in minutes.

Moirai skimmed away. In an instant, she was far from the nullifying field and over the hyperspace barrier. Adrian released their disruptor field for a moment, catching his breath as Moirai reoriented herself. Then when she did so, he helped her create the field again, and then they skimmed to Anessa’s forces.

Moirai exited the skim just above the Enlighteneds’ formations and unleashed hell down on them. A field of fire rained on the Enlighteneds’ ships, battering down their shields and blowing them apart. Adrian reached out to the space around Moirai. Most people thought that vacuum was empty, but it wasn’t. Sha was everywhere; somewhere thicker, some places thinner, but it was there. In the vacuum, it was a part of what most called dark matter, dark energy, and Adrian pulled on that energy, biting his teeth through the pain that flashed through his mind.

Moirai took what Adrian was pushing at her, and she shaped it.

Then Adrian released his hold and Moirai fired the energy that they had built up. Invisible force expanded from Moirai’s body downward toward the Enlightened ships. Each ship that it touched just crumbled. Thousands of ships were destroyed in an instant. Still, the Enlightened had more, and their ships started enveloping Moirai and tasking her shields.

Seeing a large fleet of machine fleets about to enter range of Anessa’s forces, Adrian and Moirai skimmed away.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Year 714 of the Empire — the containment zone — control system

The Old Scar guided Araxi as it supported the Nomad Fleet’s Titans. Araxi had grown much since the Krashinar’s first meeting with the Empire; it was larger now than even the Titans and the Sovereigns, but smaller than its progeny, Moirai.

Still, Araxi was a force to be reckoned with—and as their allied force retreated toward the sun, Araxi kept firing its energy sacks, depleting them as fast as they could fill. Araxi sniped one more of the Enlighteneds’ warships and sent the Old Scar feelings of smugness and pride.

The Old Scar indulged it. The actions Araxi had performed this day warranted far more. The Krashinar had suffered many losses, but still they fought, as did the other members of the alliance. Their combined forces had been reduced to half of what they’d had at the beginning of the battle. Still, the Old Scar was glad to see that they had inflicted just as much damage to their opponents—the Enlightened fleet had lost around half of its force as well.

The Old Scar knew that it was unlikely for them to survive with the machine fleets bearing down on them. Soon enough, the alliance forces would be overwhelmed. The Enlighteneds’ long-range weapons were taking a lot of ships with each of their attacks.

And then the Old Scar saw through Araxi’s eyes as Moirai revealed herself and joined the fight. Moirai skimmed to the machine’s long-range weapons and attacked. Araxi rejoiced at its kin’s power and Old Scar joined her. They watched as Moirai returned and joined in the fight.

Araxi, emboldened by Moirai’s attacks, surged forward, reaching out with its gravity weapons to crush the life out of the Enlightened ships. Old Scar could feel life in them, but they were not like the great beasts. They seemed more like plants; things that, while alive, had no will of their own.

Then, as the forward part of the allied formation struck at the defenses placed at the sun, the machine fleets entered range and opened fire.

*  *  *

Ryaana used her c-board to command her Titan and its escorts. She had lost one of the Dreadnought-class nanoships. It had turned out that her nanoships’ advanced systems were almost useless against the Enlightened. Their biological nature prevented their EW suits from entering their systems and altering data. Still, they had no choice, and they fought on.

The Tar’ferat and the Suvri were faring better than most, but then again the Rimward Alliance’s Titans and Sovereigns were shielding them as much as possible. The Afar weren’t so lucky—they had been the targets of the AI’s long-range MD cannons, which had devastated their forces. Out of their two fleets, only half of one remained.

Thankfully her father had managed to destroy the cannons. She wasn’t sure what his ship was; she had thought that it was something akin to a Titan, but now she could see that there was some kind of a creature inside, something like the great beasts of the Krashinar. She didn’t have the time to think on it, however, as the Enlightened kept the pressure up.

Then as they neared the star and started firing kinetic weapons at the stationary defenses in the orbit of the sun, the AI’s force of two hundred thousand ships entered into range.

Then new orders from her mother arrived. She was ordering half of the Titans and all nanoships to move up the formation to meet the machine forces. Ryaana saw that her Titan was in the formation that was to meet the new threat and she gave out orders immediately. She agreed with her mother’s decision. The nanoships hadn’t done much against the Enlightened, but their systems would be of use against the computer-controlled machine ships.

As her taskforce retreated and redeployed, the Enlightened attempted to take advantage, and they managed to destroy another six Titans in the process—but the battle line quickly settled and they returned to pounding each other from afar.

Ryaana’s task force reached the front line and immediately opened fire at the enemy ships. Their nanoships begun their EW attacks, interfering with the machine ships’ systems, making them miss shots, and bringing their shields down in sections.

They were getting closer to the sun with every moment, and Ryaana knew that they just needed to survive long enough to get inside the corona.

But the machine fleets were relentless; the nanoships’ EW wasn’t as effective as they would’ve liked, and as a result the allied forces were stuck between two forces.

Then Moirai arrived, attacking the machine fleets. It fired its main weapon and a ball of fire and radiation blossomed inside their formation.

“All ships,” her mother’s voice yelled out over the comms, “full thrust ahead!” She ordered them to abandon their attacks and focus on getting through. Ryaana knew that she had done it to capitalize on the opening her father had just created, but she also knew that the Enlightened would ravage their back line as they retreated without rear guard. However, Ryaana knew that it was the only way to save some, at least.

As her Titan surged forward, she couldn’t help but wonder where Vas was.

*  *  *

“What is that thing?” Doranis asked as he watched a massive ship that looked like it was alive attack and destroy many of his and the AI’s ships.

“Adrian used it against me, boosting his own power to match my own. It must be something like the Krashinar great beasts,” Aranis answered.

Doranis didn’t know all the details, but he knew that that thing had to be destroyed. It was a threat, just like Aranis said. He tried to order his ships to fire on it, but it just skimmed away. Doranis growled at that. He could do the same, disrupt the nullifying field to enter the skim, but he could do it only for a few ships. There would be no point. For a moment he wondered if it would be better if he asked the AI to take the field down, but he immediately dismissed the thought. It would only give his opponents more options.

Currently both the Custodian AI’s and Doranis’s forces were in combat, keeping the enemy forces in a crossfire which was taking down their numbers quickly.

Then that ship exited the skim above the AI fleets and opened fire, nearly obliterating the entire formation. The rest of the enemy ships took that opportunity to charge for the sun, leaving their backs open. Doranis smiled as he saw the opening and ordered his forces forward to attack.

In his haste to capitalize on the opening, however, he nearly missed something moving in the Sha. A small part of his mind took a look, searching for what it was.

Then as he realized what it was, he tried to snap his mind back and reinforce his mind barriers.

But he wasn’t fast enough, and the weight of an ocean dropped down on his mind, breaking in.

*  *  *

Lurker of the Depths swam the ocean of the Sha, gathering power, watching, learning, and waiting. He had learned how the Enlightened controlled his ships, had lurked through the minds of the crew on the control ships. He had learned how their commander, Doranis, acted, how he operated. The Enlightened was too engrossed in the battle to actively search for Lurker of the Depths, and so he was free to study his opponent.

The allied forces were not faring well, and Lurker of the Depths saw that they were unlikely to make it to the sun—that was until Adrian and Moirai joined in the fight. Their power was enough to disrupt the battle, enough to give them a chance to make a run for it. Lurker of the Depths saw when Anessa ordered all ships to make a run for it, and he knew that the Enlightened would try to capitalize on that. He saw the Enlightened force surge forward, with no need for defense, focusing all of their power into attacks.

And Lurker of the Depths saw his opening. He formed a mind attack, being careful to keep it contained inside of his own mind as he prepared.

He took hold of all of his power, he steeled his mind, and formed his siege. Then he threw his mind across the space between them, striking at the Enlightened and breaking through his barriers. Lurker of the Depths knew that the Enlightened had been taken by surprise. Still, Lurker of the Depths found himself inside of Doranis’s mindscape, his mind construct. Lurker of the Depths’ avatar stood on an open plain that stretched in every direction for an eternity, and in one of his hands was a blue sphere.

Across from him stood a beast.

The Enlightened Doranis, with his six upper limbs and four legs, an animal’s head, and piercing eyes that glared at him in anger.

“You dare!?” Doranis yelled, his mind’s voice battering at Lurker of the Depths.

Lurker of the Depths didn’t respond; he knew that he was at a disadvantage here inside his enemies mind. He focused and unleashed an attack. Water formed all around him and exploded toward the Enlightened, even as he tried to spread his mind’s tendrils all around him, looking for a weakness or a way to simply distract him.

Doranis growled and air shimmered in front of him, stopping the water several meters in front of him. Lurker of the Depths banished his attack and started sending rocks, ice lances, flying toward him. Anything that he could think off to distract Doranis, he did.

His opponent countered everything, and then a wave of force expanded out of him and he started to grow. Doranis reached a size of twenty meters in height and raised a hand, intending to smash it down on Lurker of the Depths.

But by then Lurker of the Depths had found what he was looking for. He raised the blue sphere in his hand and cracked it, sending the attack through his tendrils, which had spread out and found weakness in Doranis’s defenses.

Doranis froze and his eyes widened at the attack, and Lurker of the Depths retreated hastily as his mind bomb exploded.

*  *  *

Anessa watched the formation of her forces flying for the sun even as the Enlightened at their backs opened fire. She knew then that it was futile, that the enemy would smash through the Titans at the back and finish her forces before they could reach the sun. But then, just as the fire from the Enlightened intensified, it stopped.

Every ship in the Enlightened force had stopped what it was doing.

Almost as if all of them froze at the same moment. A spark of hope blossomed in her and she prayed that it lasted. A communication came in from the Dark Waters.

“We need to hurry. I don’t know how long this will stop him for,” Lurker of the Depths said.

“What did you do?”

“I attacked his mind. He was controlling all those ships himself.”

Anessa smiled and ordered some of her ships to the sides to protect the others from the remaining machine ships as they entered the sun. The Enlightened force started to move, but not quickly enough. Only a few ships had begun chasing again, and by now it was too late.

Bastion entered the sun’s corona, and out in the distance she could see a bright shield keeping the access point safe. Even their dip into the sun was not without losses; some of her damaged ships lost their shields and died. Even those who just didn’t have shields everywhere across their hull suffered as heat scorched and twisted their hulls. Some even suffering enough damage to explode.

To the side she saw Moirai, her body peeking out of her shell, the fins on her back glowing as they absorbed the energy from the sun.

Then Bastion reached the access point.

“Battle Master, what codes should we send?” an officer asked.

Anessa had not thought about it, she hadn’t believed that they would even get here at all. They didn’t know if the enemy would be able to follow, but they needed to exit into a well-defended system. Which meant one of two: Shara Radum or Sol.

Making a decision, she told them to enter the codes for Sol, and the ring activated. Darkness filled it and her ships started entering it. Anessa waited, and Bastion entered last.

*  *  *

Doranis recovered slowly. His mind was a mess after the attack from the Lurker of the Depths.

“What happened?” Doranis demanded.

“They escaped through the access point,” Aranis answered.

Doranis stood up and sent a kinetic wave across the room, denting the wall in his rage. He nearly stumbled afterward, a sign of the true damage that Lurker of the Depths had done.

“We need to follow!” Doranis said.

“No, it would not be wise.”

“Why not?” Doranis rounded up on the cocoon that held Aranis.

“They have most certainly fled to a well-defended system… And trust me when I tell you that we do not want to invade such a system without our Juggernauts and armies.”

Doranis growled and looked over his force. His 500,000-strong force had been reduced to 180,000—far too much against an opponent that was numerically inferior. True, he had done a lot of damage to them, had taken out a lot of their large vessels, and yes he did not have the best of the Enlighteneds’ ships here, but it still angered him. He had not thought that the races out in the galaxy could’ve advanced this far.

In the end, though it didn’t matter. They didn’t need to fight them all—they just needed to keep them busy for long enough to deploy their relays.

*  *  *

The Custodian reviewed the data from the battle. Its initial conclusion had been that the invaders’ forces had had barely 7% chance of successfully escaping the system. That number had changed over the course of the battle, however, as the invaders demonstrated Sha abilities and the true capabilities of their ships. Had they not been able to enter the access point, they would’ve perished for certain, but the outcome had been different.

The Custodian immediately started devising tactics to battle the invaders’ tactics, and others which would give it the upper hand against their large vessels. The one that was the most interesting, however, was the ship that appeared to be alive. Clearly derived from the animal ships of the race calling itself the Krashinar, the ship had been impressive.

For now, there was not much that the Custodian could do; following them through the access point would be inadvisable, and the Enlightened had come to the same conclusion. And so the Custodian turned to its swarm. It had been damaged in the battle, but it had been a small swarm. Not anything like what the AI had controlled in the past. Now it would need to grow the swarm, and thankfully there was enough debris in this system to get started. It moved the command spheres ahead and used the swarm to begin disassembling debris and building more.

Soon enough it would have a force that nothing could match.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Year 714 of the Empire — Sol — four days later

In just four days, the Sol system had turned into an invader’s nightmare. The already formidable defenses had been reinforced and increased twofold. The standing defender fleets numbering ten thousand ships had been joined by many more ships from across the Rimward Alliance, brining that number up to five hundred thousand ships. Star-Guard stations were kept in constant orbits above the access point, and all eyes were watching the point for any unannounced visitors.

Ryaana’s shuttle brought her through Mars’s atmosphere and down to the Sentinel complex inside Olympus Mons. As soon as her shuttle landed, she exited it and started walking briskly deeper inside, knowing exactly where she was going.

She finally reached a large meeting room, inside of which she found her mother, father, Lurker of the Depths, Gotu, and Lord Sentinel Hayashi.

Without greeting anyone, she glared at her mother and father.

“Vas was one of the Enlightened?” she asked. She already knew, of course, as she had learned it from reports that her father had given to the Sentinels, informing them of everything and his ideas on how they could prevent such infiltration in the future. They hadn’t even told her themselves.

“Ah,” Master Hayashi said. “I guess that we can finish this at a later time.” He gestured to Gotu and the two of them walked out of the room, leaving her parents and Lurker of the Depths.

“So?” Ryaana asked, barely containing her anger. “For how long did you know, exactly?”

Her father was the first to answer. “I recognized what he was the moment I met him.”

Ryaana narrowed her eyes at him. “So that is why you acted strangely that day.”

“My first instinct was to get you away from him, but then I reconsidered.”

Ryaana paused and turned to look at Lurker of the Depths and her mother.

“I found out shortly after your father,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

“And I after we finished our war with the Erasi.”

Ryaana nodded her head as if all of that was completely reasonable. “And so you all decided to let me stay near a monster?”

Her father took a deep breath. “It was in my opinion the best course of action. We knew very little about them, and we weren’t even certain that we could take him out. He was clearly here to gather information, and making him suspect that he was found out could’ve had terrible consequences.”

“So you let me form a friendship with someone who was pretending to be human,” Ryaana said.

“No, I do not think that he was pretending to be your friend. At least not at the end.”

Ryaana rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, right.”

“I am serious. He told me as much when we fought in the control system.”

“And so what? He still wants to kill all life in the galaxy, right?” Ryaana asked.

“Yes. But his time here has showed us a lot about him. Aranis is not a heartless monster, and anything that tells us more about the Enlightened is a step to us finding an advantage.”

“I can’t believe that you kept it from me,” she whispered. Vas had been her friend, her best friend. At one point her only friend. Finding out that he was… She shook her head painfully. It hurt.

“It was the only way to keep you safe. The less you knew, the more protected you were.”

Ryaana’s mind raced, reviewing every moment of their interactions. Then something occurred to her.

“When we were attacking the Erasi base… It was him, wasn’t it?”

Her father nodded. “We believe so. He saved you.”

“And what about the rest?”

“We think that he didn’t want any witnesses. Saving you was an emotional decision.”

Ryaana felt like she was going to be sick. She had lost an entire fleet, and what was worse, the person that had killed them all was her friend—who had saved only her. “I… This is too much.”

Her mother was there in a moment, embracing her. “It is all right, daughter. It will be all right,” she whispered in Ryaana’s ear.

Ryaana didn’t really believe her.

*  *  *

After Anessa had taken Ryaana out of the room, Adrian was left alone with Lurker of the Depths.

“It is a hard thing, learning that something you have believed to be true is not,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

Adrian nodded his head as his eyes remained on the doorway. Lurker of the Depths understood that feeling better than anyone. “She will be fine,” Adrian said, and then turned to the taller Sowir. “We can match them.”

“They were stronger, more experienced with the power. Could hold it for longer.”

“Still, we hurt them.”

“We surprised them, and they underestimated us. But yes, you are right. Alone, we are not enough. But you with Moirai, and me with my amplifiers, had given us a push up to their level.”

Adrian still felt the effects of his exertion during the battle. But he was content; he had attained power equal to the most powerful in the galaxy. Now he only needed to surpass them.

“Next time,” Lurker of the Depths continued, “they will be ready.”

“Next time, so shall we.” Adrian knew that they would need to train, even as Tomas gathered the armies from across the galaxy. The core powers’ forces had already returned to the core through the access point. Their stories and records of the battle would convince more, but Adrian knew that they needed a lot of firepower. If the records that the People held were true, the numbers the Enlightened possessed was staggering, and now with the AI fighting on their side, it would be even harder.

But Adrian always loved a challenge.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Year 714 of the Empire — Sanctuary — two months later

Hyeon Seo-yun stood in Tomas’s private office surrounded by Adrian, Lurker of the Depths, Anessa, Tomas, and Levisomaerni. She was itching to begin, but when Tomas finally gave her the go ahead, she nearly froze. She had so much to explain that she didn’t even know where to start.

After Adrian had returned from the containment zone, he had told Tomas and her what Aranis had said about looking into hyperspace and trans-space. Seo-yun had already been looking into that; she had found it fascinating that the People never used hyperspace or trans-space, that those types of travel hadn’t even been possible during their reign of the galaxy.

“All right,” Seo-yun started. “After Adrian told me what Aranis had told him, I began doing a lot of research and tests. I already had some of my own suspicions as I had been studying this stuff for years, but what Aranis said had pointed me in a direction, gave me focus. Now I think I have an idea about what the Enlightened are trying to do and why.”

“Well, tell us,” Tomas said when she had paused.

Seo-yun tried to figure a way to explain it without getting bogged down in scientific jargon, and she finally decided to try. “All right. We know that the Sha is what the universe is made of; quite literally, we are made out of Sha. Our bodies have atoms, molecules, but all of that is held together by Sha. Stars, planets, even vacuum—all Sha. Now, Sha, according to the Enlightened, is also the border of our universe. It keeps us safe from everything outside of it.” She turned to a box of small clear globes and then turned to Tomas’s book shelf. She reached out with her Sha and pulled the books away from one of the shelves and stacked them on the floor.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Tomas asked alarmed.

“Shush,” Seo-yun said as she concentrated on not damaging any of the books.

“Some of those things are priceless,” Tomas grumbled.

Seo-yun ignored him until she finished. Then she turned around and faced them, showing them the globe in her hand. “Imagine that this globe is our universe.” She turned toward the shelves and pointed to one in particular. “And that this shelf is space, time, reality. More precisely, reality in which our universe exists.”

Seo-yun put the globe on the shelf, then grabbed two more globes and put them next to the globe representing their universe. “Now, those are other dimensions. You see they exist in the same reality as our universe, but these two dimensions don’t really exist next to us like on this shelf. Instead, all of the dimensions—including ours—exist inside roughly the same space and time. Now there is a spectrum, but that isn’t important for now. Sha is what keeps us all separate. Hyperspace, trans-space, our universe… Our universe had never been supposed to interact with the other dimensions.”

“But we can use those other dimensions to travel,” Anessa said.

“Yes, we can. As I said, they occupy the same space, but have different rules. The problem is that that kind of travel was never supposed to exist.”

“How so?” Adrian asked.

“This is the part where I am not sure about. I have an idea about why it happened.”

“Why?” Tomas asked.

“I think that it was life.”

“Life?” Anessa asked.

Seo-yun nodded gravely. “You see, life is one place in the universe where Sha pools, is drawn to. And as it is drawn into life, it had to come from somewhere. Which means that somewhere else has less of it, which in turn weakens the bonds between particles in certain areas.”

“But how could life do something that was that harmful to the universe?” Tomas asked.

“To put it simply, we were never supposed to be here. The People were the first race in the universe, and they had been alone for a long time. My hypothesis is that there can only be so much life in one place before it starts to be harmful, and I think that what the Enlightened refer to as balance is exactly that. The universe does not create bountiful intelligent life; it keeps the balance, limits how many living things can exist at the same time.

“The People went against that. They altered themselves, made themselves stop aging, and then they started uplifting other races, artificially giving them the ability to use the Sha. In barely the blink of an eye on the scale of the universe, the life in this galaxy exploded uncontrollably—and that is when the dimensional barriers weakened, and hyperspace and trans-space became possible.”

“I still don’t see how life could break apart the dimensional barriers,” Tomas said. “The amount of Sha that we are using is nothing compared to how much there is in the universe.”

Seo-yun sighed. “How many people are there in the Josanti League?” he asked Levisomaerni.

The Partenai tilted her head. “Two and a half quadrillion.”

Anessa turned to stare at the Partenai in shock.

“Don’t be shocked,” Seo-yun said. “The Rimward Alliance will break that number in about a hundred years.”

The room was speechless, and so Seo-yun continued. “And can you imagine how many races are there in the galaxy? How many people? Countless—and each of them takes just a bit of Sha away. This means that most Sha in the galaxy gets pulled toward inner star systems, where there is the most life, which thins the layers of the border further away. And those thinner layers are being pressed down from the other side by other dimensions, enough so that a bit of their dimension seeps through…enough for us to detect and then push through. Each time we travel, we worsen the state of the border. And how many ships pass in and out of hyperspace and trans-space every moment?”

“So,” Tomas said somberly, “you are saying that our universe will be what exactly?”

“Eventually, our universe will merge with those other dimensions, which will be a violent event as the three natures find a new balance. I doubt that anything that we know and understand will survive.”

“How long?” Tomas asked.

“A million years? A billion? Who knows? It will take time, but it will happen.”

“But we have time? We can figure out a way to repair it?” Tomas asked.

“The damage is already done. Even if we were to disappear tomorrow, it would only slow the degradation.”

“But why would then the Enlightened want to kill us all?”

“Who knows? It would certainly give them more time. Perhaps they already have a way to fix it…a way that might even require our deaths,” Seo-yun said.

“They consider this their burden,” Adrian spoke. “The People did this, and they feel responsible.”

“They are, but we are here now. I don’t really want to die for something that might happen so far in the future that most of the races living now might have died out by then,” Tomas said resolutely.

Adrian released a long breath. “So we now know at least why they want to kill us all. Now all we have to do is figure out how to stop them, and then figure out a better way to fix that.”

“No problem, right?” Seo-yun asked with a smile.

“No problem at all,” Adrian returned.

EPILOGUE

Year 715 of the Empire — Enlightened territory

Loranis stood on board her Living-ship Mindseer and watched through the opening the workers down below in the hollowed-out planet. Messages from Doranis and Aranis had been surprising; she had felt Ullax die and had been preparing for their plans. Still, the new developments were intriguing. There were people in the galaxy that could match them, and the AI had sided with the Enlightened. Still, she was particularly interested in the telepath who Doranis seemed to hate so much. Lurker of the Depths: a name that Loranis would remember. It had been a long time since she had met an equal to her telepathic powers.

Still, Aranis wanted the relays on their way as soon as possible. And Loranis would oblige—she needed only to make a few last-minute arrangements and then assemble large enough forces to protect them. They did not have enough of them to be able to lose any.

The Conduit was finished. It only needed to be transported, a thing that Aranis would overseer personally. It was his task after all. He was the only one of them with the skill set to achieve what they needed. Aranis had always excelled at Sha manipulation.

She turned around and walked to her seat. A Created, one of the Overseer breed, approached her.

“Ready everyone,” Loranis said. “We are leaving very soon.”

“Of course, master.”

Loranis wondered what it would be like once they accomplished their goal, how she would feel. She had spent so long in the pursuit of fixing their mistakes that she couldn’t imagine any other type of life.

She put those thoughts aside. There would be time for that later—after they had won.

Thank you for reading!

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Universe on Fire Book 1 – Broken Stars and Eternal Path Book 1 – Eternal Soul

EXCERPT FROM MY SCI FI/FANTASY SERIES

UNIVERSE ON FIRE—BROKEN STARS

Kane Reinhart’s hands flew over the controls in front of him as he adjusted the sensors of his mech-frame, even as he used his mind to fly. His mech-frame—codenamed the Leviathan—accelerated and he took care to keep his trajectory straight. The faint and brief blip on his sensor board made him suspect that his opponents were hiding in the planet’s ring. A good strategy, especially since he had noticed the blip only because he had been expecting something like this. But then he knew his opponents very well. Then two signatures showed up on his board, coming up on his six from the belt. Two fighters at almost max acceleration. Soon they would be right on top of him and he would be in range of their weapons. That would be bad, he knew the pilots and they would not miss such a chance. The mech-frame’s specs were overall worse than those of their fighters in most areas, and he did not want to be caught between the two of them.

He watched them closely, waiting. And then just as the fighters came within range of their missiles they fired. Four missiles, two from each fighter, left their launchers and started closing the distance between them. Kane maneuvered, making it harder for them to lock on with their other weapons. He waited for the right moment, keeping his thrust at max, then as the missiles got close enough he pressed the trigger, firing the countermeasures from the Leviathan’s back. The missiles suddenly changed directions as the large fist-sized orbs that were the countermeasures pointed their lasers directly at the missiles’ guidance and tracking sensors and made them swerve to the side.

Then he used his mind to move, using the spell that allowed him to control the mech-frame’s movements. He cut his main thrust, and used his maneuvering thrusters to turn around just as he pushed a slider to the left of him down, in order to decrease the distance of the spell he prepared to trigger. Then as soon as he was pointed toward the fighters coming up on him, he triggered the teleportation spell. His mech-frame was suddenly several hundred meters behind the fighters. There was no sensation as he disappeared and appeared almost instantly, but he knew that the pilots of the fighters would’ve seen the faint blue flash as he used the spell to “blink” across space, as they called it.

Leviathan was still hurling through space, his previous momentum still carrying over and now taking him toward the fighters’ backs. They were faster than him, but they weren’t fast enough to get out of range so quickly. He swiftly turned his mech-frame back around, now facing the fighters. He targeted one of them with the rail-gun turret mounted on one of his mech-frame’s forearms, and he fired even as he launched missiles from the shoulder-mounted launchers. Eight missiles flew out toward the fighters. His laser struck one of the fighters and it disappeared from his sensors, and he saw it move aside on the monitors in front of him that projected the outside. The missiles sped toward the other fighter, and just a few moments later the fighter disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving the missiles flying aimlessly on their previous course.

Kane tsked to himself and sent the shutdown code from the board in front of him to the missiles, shutting them down. His sensors searched for the fighter on its previous course, knowing it could only blink in the direction it was pointed to, just like the mech-frames. Finding it was simple, and adjusting the slider Kane blinked forward as well.

He came out just on top of the fighter, but its pilot had known that Kane was coming, and she had maneuvered her fighter around and was facing toward him waiting as its former momentum carried it backward. He had nearly no time to react before the fighter fired on the mech-frame with its weapons. But he was piloting a mech-frame, and that came with its own advantages over the fighter. The mental spellscript that gave him control of the mech-frame’s maneuvering allowed him to react nearly instantaneously. His thrusters fired and he slid to the side just as the fighter started firing, and he brought his own weapons to bear and fired. It was over in seconds.

Kane grimaced in annoyance as he read the damage list that the computer was showing him. He had destroyed the fighter, but his mech-frame had been so damaged that he would certainly be unable to get back to base. Or rather, he would’ve been unable, had this not been a mock battle.

His comm came to life and the voice of Lieutenant Commander Wang Shu Jiang came through.

“Damn, I almost had you there,” she said with amusement in her voice.

“You might as well have. If this was a real battle I doubt that I would’ve survived you for long.”

“You certainly would be dead if you had been piloting a Havoc,” she said with just a tad of envy. “I would give anything to have the mech-frame’s control spellscript for my fighter.”

“They might still figure it out,” Kane told her, even though he doubted it. The laws of magic were strange but they couldn’t be changed. And the spellscript laid down in the mech-frame required a person with magic to operate it. And none of the Havoc fighter pilots had magic. “Comm the shuttle crew, tell them that they are free to recover the blank missiles. And we should get back to the base.” He checked his sensors and noted that the beacons were still active. They couldn’t leave Earth tech in Ethorria, even though it was doubtful that the Ethorrians could find and recover it in the orbit of the planet. But then again, they did have a much greater mastery of magic than humans did. And they were very interested in getting their hands on any Earth technology.

“Right away, Commander,” Lieutenant Commander Jiang said.

He turned the Leviathan toward the planet and set a course.

***

A while later, Kane shut down the Leviathan’s systems and opened the cockpit. A section of its chest slid open and he climbed out into a large hangar. People were moving around securing the mech-frame in its berth and moving in to replace its power cells and do tests. All around the hangar, techs and magi-techs could be seen running around working on the fighters and the other three mech-frames. Kane climbed down the stairs that the support crew attached to his unit. Once down on the ground he turned his eyes to the mech-frame, taking its massive form in.

It was a large machine, almost twenty-eight meters tall, wide and bulky. The plates covering it were made mostly out of kotarium and a few of its alloys. Kotarium being a metal not present on Earth, but abundant on Ethorria. A metal that was widely considered useless by the Ethorrians. They preferred materials that had magical properties, and kotarium had none. It was however the strongest metal humankind had ever come in contact with. It was uniquely suited for building spaceships. And as the Ethorrians cared little about it, they could obtain it relatively cheaply. The hull was also covered in a special obfuscation nanite-mesh that could be activated to make the vehicle harder to see on scanners. The composition of the hull gave the mech-frame a silvery color tinted with just a bit of green, but if the nanite-mesh—or silent mode— was activated it turned all black. It was an impressive weapon.

To the side of the hangar were the Havoc fighters. They too were big, almost twenty meters wide, ten meters long, and eight tall. Clearly designed for space rather than atmosphere, they had four wing-like extensions from the core of the ship which housed their maneuvering thrusters. The core of the fighters was a spherical body that was in the middle with two ‘wings’ on each side, one above the other, set at an angle. The entire half sphere that was the front of the fighter was clear and the cockpit could be seen inside. It was made of some pretty powerful materials and reinforced by magic, but it was still not designed to take any punishment. If a fighter couldn’t move out of the way of an attack, they would most likely die anyway. The inner side of the cockpit was smart glass and various data could be projected on it. But it could also project screens that showed the zoomed in picture from the visual sensors. Their cockpit allowed the pilots to see most anything in front, and the sensors would show them anything outside of their visual range.

The mech-frames by contrast had no clear cockpit, but instead had massive screens that surrounded the pilot once inside and projected what the visual sensors saw. However a mech-frame pilot could ‘see’ through the mech-frame’s ‘eyes’ when using the control spell. But that sight had the same limitation as that of humans, it was not suited for looking at things that were thousands of kilometers away.

The fighters were much more streamlined, their weapons mounted all around the sphere. Racks could be placed on the wings as well for added weapons or ammo, but that slowed them down too much.

The mech-frames’ weapons, on the other hand, could be mounted on the mech-frames themselves, but there were also scaled up versions of handheld weapons. The mech-frames had hands, and could use them in that way as well.

Kane turned around and was immediately accosted by a short, stocky man wearing black coveralls adorned with a single patch—a wrench and a wand crossed on a field of stars, making him a part of the UEF’s magitech department.

“Well?” Chief Gene Randor snapped at Kane.

“The maneuvering thrusters aren’t firing in sync, the spellscript is working fine, it’s the mechanical triggers, and the targeting system is acting up again,” Kane responded.

Chief rumbled a few curses in his beard and marched past Kane toward one of the magi-techs that had just plugged a diagnostic tab into the mech-frame’s access point on one of its legs. Shaking his head, Kane turned and walked away as Chief started ordering the poor magi-tech around.

Kane didn’t manage more than three steps before someone called out to him.

“Commander, a word if you please,” the thickly accented and gravelly voice called from his left. Kane turned and looked at the tall, green-skinned woman. She had quite prominent tusks peeking from her lower jaw, she was wearing an UEF uniform, and even though outwardly she did have vaguely human features, there was no mistaking the fact that she was not.

“Of course, Specialist,” Kane told her. She gestured and led him away toward one of the adjoining rooms.

There were few of her kind in the hangar, and a few more in the compound that surrounded the portal to Earth. They were natives of Ethorria and called themselves the Wanderers. But no human could ever look at them and not be reminded of the fantasy race in the Earth books and stories. Someone had even made the mistake of calling them that name once, which had upset the Wanderers immensely, as it did sound close to what their former name had been. Later they had learned that the Wanderers had done something in the past that had resulted in them losing their homeland and their name. And in Ethorria, names held power.

But the fact that they did look almost exactly like they had been portrayed in human works had sparked quite a debate. In fact, most of the races and wildlife that the human expedition force had encountered when they first stepped through were familiar to them from human myths, legends, and fictional works. The prevailing theory was that the barrier between universes had been thin on Earth and Ethorria, which resulted in some kind of awareness passing through, ingraining itself in people’s subconscious memory. After all, people on Ethorria had stories and myths about things that existed only on Earth. And it was only natural that there were similarities. Ethorria was an alternate version of Earth, one in a parallel universe.

But while enough awareness passed through for people on both sides to unconsciously imagine what inhabitants of the other side looked like, they got most everything else wrong. The Wanderers for example were nothing like the people of Earth imagined them, but were instead courteous, timid, and preferred to avoid violence.

Specialist O’nga Uhra led him inside the small meeting room and closed the doors behind them.

“What is it?” Kane asked.

O’nga fidgeted for a moment but then took a breath and spoke. “I’ve been asked by your command people to deliver a report, to tell them if in my opinion the battle-golems are ready for deployment.”

Kane’s eyes widened at that. He knew that she meant the mech-frames, as they were based on the Wanderers’ battle-golem spellscript combined with Earth technology, but he had not been aware that the command was looking to actually deploy them. They had been testing and improving on the designs for a decade, the mech-frames were the final incarnation of years of work by the Earth’s best engineers and m-techs, and the Wanderers’ scripters. And the fact that they had asked O’nga for her opinion meant that they were seriously thinking about using them.

“That is…interesting,” Kane said.

“I was hoping to ask for your advice, if it is not too forward of me.”

“It is no problem, Specialist.”

She sighed in relief. Her tribe had been working with UEF for over two decades now, and still the Wanderers worried about offending.

“I have learned much about the way you people do things, but I am still baffled at times. I do not know why your superiors had asked me if I believe the battle-golems are combat ready.” She scratched at her chin as she thought about it again, the confusion clear in her eyes. “I have been telling them from the start that there are no problems with the golem spellscript, nor with any autonomous spellscript we have laid in its frame. Magic and spellscript do not work in the same manner as your technology, there are no bugs or malfunctions possible. If the spellscript is laid down properly, it will always work as intended as long as it is not damaged. And the golems have been capable of battle since the moment we awakened them.”

Kane nodded his head in solidarity. The command from Earth did not understand, of course—they might have clearance to know about Ethorria, but the only thing they knew about magic was from reading reports on their desks. It was the people living in the compound on Ethorria, and those from Earth who had dedicated their lives to understanding and learning about magic, who had the understanding to know how hard it had been to integrate magic and technology. The magitech profession was a young one, still evolving and improving almost daily.

And he knew why O’nga had come to him. He was technically the Commander of the fighter group. The UEF had twenty Havoc class fighters—a pinnacle in magitech, capable of feats fighters using only Earth tech would never be able to achieve. A fighter utilizing magic which did not need someone with magical ability to fly it. But the four mech-frames that he and his squad piloted were something else. The decision to develop the fighters came after the UEF realized that they would never be able to build a starship capable of taking on the aliens in Earth orbit. Not only because they knew very little about the aliens’ technology, but also because there was no way for them to get the starship in orbit unnoticed. The aliens might have only one starship in Earth orbit, but they had many satellites watching the ground. And there was no way for the UEF to hide the development of something large enough to take on their ship from the aliens’ inspections.

The fighters were the next idea, one that had been abandoned for a long time. The greatest problem had been that they had no way of building anything fast enough to be a threat to the alien warship. The missiles that Earth defense fired when the aliens first arrived posed no threat to the ship. But even if they could make something fast enough, there was no way that the pilots could survive the g-forces required for maneuvering at those speeds. And then they broke through to Ethorria, and discovered magic. Combining magic with their technology allowed them to solve those problems, as well as to get a few other advantages.

The Havoc fighters were the latest designs, the third class of fighters that the UEF had built in the last thirty years. The first had been more of a learning experience, but once the deal with the Wanderers had been made, and they came on board with the UEF and shared their magical knowledge, things progressed faster. The second class of fighters had been a good step but the five prototypes that had been made still left room for improvement. And as people with magic from Earth grew up and started studying both Earth tech and magic, new ideas and solutions showed themselves. The Havoc fighters were the culmination of that, and the UEF, confident in their capabilities, had ordered twenty fighters to be made.

The mech-frames, on the other hand, were even more experimental. The fighters were always supposed to be proven Earth tech augmented with magical spellscript. The mech-frames were something else, a true hybrid of technology and magic. Designed to utilize as much of the advantages that magic gave them in order to compensate for the Earth technology’s weaknesses. And that required pilots that had magical ability, like Kane himself.

And it looked like the UEC was finally ready to challenge the aliens.

“The mech-frames are battle capable,” Kane said to O’nga. “If you trust my opinion you may tell the command that they are ready.”

“Thank you, Commander, I will tell them so,” O’nga said and then left the room, leaving him alone. After a minute, once he had allowed the reality to truly seep in, he left the room heading to Admiral Jenkins’ office.

EXCERPT FROM MY FANTASY SERIES

ETERNAL PATH – ETERNAL SOUL

My sight showed me a time yet to come, and no matter how hard I try, all I see is fire and death. Every possible turn of events ends the same—with the end of everything. My peers laugh at me: the Council of Magi have rejected my prophesies as nightmares, a thing the Gods would never allow to come to pass. Yet for decades, in my dreams I have seen mortals and gods fighting side by side, and dying side by side. A terrible darkness is coming, and no one but I can see it. I doubt myself constantly, yet I dare not ignore my sight. No other seer can see as far as I can, nor is any one of them as powerful as I. If I see truthfully, all will end. I’ve pushed my gifts as far as I dare without burning my magic out, scouring the rivers of time for any possible future that does not end in darkness.

And, last night, I have found one. I cannot see it clearly, but I know only that there is this one slim chance for something other than the end of all things. In this future I see only moments, and they are unclear to me, as if I am looking through a fog. I see myself standing on a balcony looking over a city, and the sea is filled with ships of strange builds and unfamiliar colors. I see myself standing before a massive gate with an army at my back. I feel happiness and pain, and so many things that I cannot understand.

Yet how could that be? I will not live long enough to be there, and none of my efforts to extend my own life have borne fruit. My time nears its end, and I have one last gamble to attempt. It is an insanity that might doom my soul, yet I know that I must try. For if there is a chance for survival, that chance is only there when I myself am there to meet whatever is coming. I leave this journal of my prophetic dreams as a warning to others, in case that my plan fails. Perhaps I did not see all. Perhaps my dreams can be of use. Perhaps there is still hope.

- Excerpt from the Journal of Vardun Con Aroch

The god walked through the radiant halls of the Nexus, each step taking him further through the golden arches and star-filled pillars that held the weight of the sky, which was awash with every color imaginable. He wore clothes in a style no mortal had seen in millennia. A blue-black coat with the gray fur of a magic beast he had slain long ago was laid around his shoulders, stretching behind him to graze the floor. Glyphs of power along with elegant golden embroidery adorned his trousers and silken shirt. He was in his true form, that of a man with golden eyes—the same color as every god, with short dark horns bent backward that framed his long, midnight-colored hair. Perched on his shoulder was his loyal and ever-present companion, the red-and-white-feathered phoenix.

As they walked, the god couldn’t help but feel sorrow at the sights around him. He remembered a time when the Nexus had been filled with gods from both the lower and the higher planes—a time that had long since passed. The halls he walked now were desolate. The massive city complex and its realm were hollow, empty. Now the rest of his kind had started their own the pantheons and had built their own realms, had made their own wonders, yet in his eyes all of them paled in comparison to their mother’s creation. Memories of the Lifebringer, mother to them all, came to him unbidden from the furthest reaches of his mind. Memories of him walking by her side through these same halls, waiting on her every word, basking in her brilliance and warmth. Her laughter at his insane ideas and observations, at his attempts to goad the others into his schemes: Ah, Ban, you are a scoundrel with no equal, but I love you dearly for it. The memory of her voice echoed through his mind, making him feel all the more hollow now for what had happened to her afterward. He pushed those memories aside, carefully, delicately—they were his greatest treasures, after all.

Shaking off the past, he continued walking until he reached a stretch of the hall with smaller archways on both sides. He approached one of them and stepped through, and he was instantly transported to another place. He stepped into a round room with a large circular table in the middle with a hole in its center. Above it, there shined the stars of the mortal plane. The god walked over and sat in one of the chairs in front of the table, while his companion flew away and found a place to perch above one of the archways. With a short burst of anima he made the connection with the ancient table and the stars changed, flying past with increasing speed until they finally came to a stop at a small moon orbiting a large gas giant. The moon grew larger and larger, until he could discern its mountains, and eventually its people. A large gate stood in the side of the mountain, and all around it two armies fought, the small world’s defenders and the invaders. He had made it in time, it seemed.

He guided the viewing table with his magic, seeking a single person in the chaos on the small world. The defending army was smaller, but for every one of them that fell, they took ten of their enemies with them. Their tenacity and skill was impressive, even to a god. Then a large flash of light caught the god’s attention, and he focused on it: there, before the throng of large beast-men, stood a warrior wearing resplendent gold-and-blue armor and carrying a spear bathed in golden light. His eyes blazed with energy, and all around him the air shimmered with power. The man gave a loud battle cry, rallying his warriors, and jumped at his enemies. Moving faster than mortal eyes could follow, he zipped through the throng of the large, winged beasts, cutting them down before their axes could reach him.

He jumped into the air and flew like the wind, striking at those in the air, and then with the wrath of lightning he slammed back to the ground, throwing dirt, stone, and beasts away from him. A dozen of the invaders’ mages stepped forward; these were of a race called the darji. The same race that the god himself had once, long ago, belonged to, except now their skin was red and their horns larger. The mages started casting their spells, drawing power from the gems on their staffs or the anima-wells around their necks in order to power them. They had no other choice, as the world they had attacked was a low-magic one; there was not enough anima in the air for any of their spells to be cast without anima-wells, which they’d brought through the gate. But the warrior gave them no chance to finish their spells—he moved faster than even Sao Ban’s eyes could follow, slaying dozens of the mages in moments. The warriors he led followed close behind, using power unlike anything the god had ever seen to repel the forces invading their world.

The god reached inside his coat and brought out a small leather-bound book before carefully, almost reverently, removing the bindings keeping the book closed. He parted the pages delicately and found the passage he was looking for. He read through it again, even though he now knew it by heart:

Oh how they break you, my Golden Light,

How your heart weeps for those that deserved you not,

The light of your soul hurts my eyes,

As brilliant as a star.

An unyielding will keeps us whole,

Keep to the spear and the staff, and look not at the golden lies wrapped in red,

Your heart will never be broken in our care,

Stand proud at our side.

The passage depicted a future that the god believed had something to do with the warrior fighting on this world, and if he was correct it spoke about him refusing an offer from the enemy. There was another passage which the god believed talked about the same person, except that this one spoke about a much different future. He turned the pages until he found it:

Oh, Golden Light mine, how deceived your heart was,

How you look at us now with red in your eyes,

Right hand of the deceiver.

Come back to us, follow the soaring blade,

Leave the lies the golden eyes gave,

Drop the spear seeped in blood,

Stand not against us at the summit of the dark.

He shook his head in frustration. That was the problem with prophecies—they were always contradicting themselves. Lost in the journal, he almost didn’t notice when another archway activated, making him no longer alone. He took his eyes off the book and looked up at the new arrival. A tall and wide white-furred wolf-man walked toward the table. He looked over to the god’s companion and dipped his large head, greeting the phoenix first before turning his golden eyes back to the god.

“Sao Ban,” the wolf-man greeted in his guttural voice.

“Vanagandr,” Sao Ban said in return.

Vanagandr glanced at the battle still raging above the table almost disinterestedly, and then looked back at Sao Ban. “Please tell me that you didn’t call just to show me mortals fighting.”

“Well, yes and no,” Sao Ban said.

“Ban…” Vanagandr growled. “Do you have any idea how far away my realm is from the Nexus these days?”

Sao Ban thought about it for a moment. “Actually, no. I hadn’t been paying attention to the other pantheons’ affairs in the last…oh, I don’t know…ten or eleven thousand years.”

Vanagandr closed his eyes in annoyance. “That explains why I haven’t seen you around.”

Sao Ban shrugged. “I never felt the need to join a pantheon. I hate the politics.”

Vanagandr nodded his head in understanding. “I know what you mean—but there is something to be said about power in numbers. The gods-well alone is worth joining a pantheon for.”

“I never felt the need for it, as you well know. There is more to strength than brute power,” Sao Ban said.

Vanagandr snorted. “I swear, when you speak like that I wonder why you haven’t moved to the lower plane yet. You sound just like them.”

“There is some merit to what they believe in, old friend. I just don’t agree with their core principles,” Sao Ban told him.

“So, what is so important that you needed me here?” Vanagandr asked.

“Look at this battle. Tell me what you see.”

Vanagandr turned his predatory eyes to the table. “That’s a low-magic unclaimed world, and there is a battle between mortals. Nothing new or interesting.” He had dismissed it without really looking closely, as Sao Ban had half expected.

Sao Ban sighed. “Those are the Arashan. They have invaded that world.”

“Arashan? Those are Khalio’s followers, right?”

“They are, and he hadn’t moved beyond the borders of his worlds for a long time. Until now.”

Vanagandr shrugged. “Still, he attacked an unclaimed world. None of the pantheons will care, especially since it is a low-magic world. It’s almost as useless as a completely non-magic world.”

“Look closely at the Arashan, at their anima,” Sao Ban insisted.

Vanagandr put his hand on the table, then let his anima reach out to the table and to the world in the mortal plane. Sao Ban watched Vanagandr as he looked over the darji invaders, until he finally saw what Sao Ban had seen. Vanagandr turned back and frowned. “That anima that is fed into their souls—is that a tether?”

Sao Ban nodded. “I don’t know where Khalio obtained enough power to actively feed it to his followers. But it is worrying. Not only would that require an insane amount of power, but it is also one of the things that Mother warned against. Feeding power to a few mortals is dangerous enough. Khalio is doing it to all of his followers as far as I can tell. And that, coupled with this journal”—Sao Ban tapped the book in front of him—“is making me very nervous.”

“What is it?” Vanagandr asked.

“It is a journal of a powerful mortal mage. A seer, among other things,” Sao Ban said hesitantly. “This is a collection of his prophecies, dreams, and visions.”

“Ban,” Vanagandr growled, “you know that prophecies cannot be trusted.”

“I agree—most of them. These ones seem different.”

“You have spent too much time among the mortals,” Vanagandr said.

“I know, but listen to me,” Sao Ban pleaded. “The prophecies started losing their accuracy around the same time that Mother died. Yet we have seen some come true, from time to time. And always they had been about important events. This,” he said, pointing at the book in front of him, “is important. I know it is. I feel it in my soul, Vanagandr. Something is coming, and we need to be ready.”

“You really think that a mortal could’ve seen something that we could not?”

“All of us had been mortals once; the only difference between us and them is that we have more knowledge and power. And the human that had made these prophecies was very powerful.”

“The others won’t give credence to mortal prophecies. You know that. Nor will they care, particularly, that Khalio is conquering worlds. Not unless he hits their own prime worlds, and even then it’s a coin toss. He is still only one god, and no matter what the gods of the lower plane believe, he can’t possibly threaten a pantheon. Not unless he somehow managed to unite the courts,” Vanagandr said.

“Will you help me?”

Vanagandr sighed. “Of course, old friend. What do you need me to do?”

“I was hoping to warn all the pantheons, but they don’t like me all that much,” Sao Ban said wryly. “Nor do they care for anything outside of their realms and mortal territories, as you said. But if the prophecies are right, then the next world the Arashan will attack is Enosia, a neutral, unclaimed world that I had been spending some time on. But if Enosia falls… Well, the future the seer saw is grim. Khalio is abiding by Mother’s rules, which means that I can’t interfere too much, but rather only nudge and guide. I don’t want to risk interfering directly and provoking Khalio to act in person. I have no idea what that would do to the future.”

“So, what, you want me to go around Enosia, nudging people to go where you want them to?”

“Well, you aren’t really subtle enough for that task,” Sao Ban said sheepishly, “but there is something else you can help me with. I need you to go to the lower plane and see what you can find out among the courts. About Khalio and his expansion and anything else that seems strange.”

Vanagandr smiled, showing the rows of his sharp teeth. “That I can do. I haven’t had a good fight in centuries.”

“Thank you,” Sao Ban said, and he meant it. Then, after a moment, he looked back at the battle still raging on the small world. “There is something else I would like to show you.”

“What?”

“Look at the battle again, at the people fighting the Arashan.”

Vanagandr again turned his attention to the battle, anima flowing from him to sense the surface of the world more clearly. He both looked and felt the battle, seeing the Arashan rally against the strange warriors, their numbers pushing them back. With each passing moment the Arashan were nearing victory. And Vanagandr saw it—he discovered the same thing Sao Ban had several days ago when he first found this world.

Vanagandr sucked in a quick breath. “What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Sao Ban admitted. “I have never seen anything like it. Their world has so little anima that magic is virtually impossible; none of them can cast spells. Not how we understand them. Yet they have power. The anima inside their bodies is different. They are doing something to it. And they can somehow take the anima from magical beasts and infuse it with their own.”

“That shouldn’t be possible.” Vanagandr leaned down toward the table, focusing the scene on the warrior with the spear of light. “There is no spell-construct that I can see and no anima is spent from around him. And those weapons, they are infused with something anima-like…”

“I know. It think that I might have seen something similar, long ago,” Sao Ban said.

“Where?”

“On Eos, with Mother. She always had powers we didn’t understand; we assumed that she was either different than us, or just much more knowledgeable. But there was one moment when she moved so fast that I couldn’t follow her. There was no spell-construct, of course—she rarely needed such things. But it still felt different from what she usually did. That moment reminds me of what those warriors are doing, of how they are moving.”

“Why haven’t you gone down to try and learn what that is?”

“I found the world only a few days ago, and they have been fighting the Arashan for years. There has been no time.”

“You could’ve interfered. You said yourself that the Arashan need to be stopped.”

“Yes, but if the one future in which we have the chance to stop what the seer saw is to occur, then that world must fall. I couldn’t risk it,” Sao Ban said sadly.

“A shame. It has been a long time since I’ve had the chance to learn something truly new,” Vanagandr said.

“Yes, truly a shame,” Sao Ban whispered, as the last warrior on the small world faltered. The Arashan overwhelmed his force by sheer numbers, and he was defeated–the golden light of his spear abating. Sao Ban and Vanagandr watched as the unconscious warrior was chained and dragged away.

“What now?” Vanagandr asked.

Sao Ban turned to look at the man who was one of his oldest friends. “Now, I start meddling,” Sao Ban said, looking at the table.

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Universe on Fire book 1 – Broken Stars

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Rise of the Empire series

Olympus

Sanctuary

Out of the Ashes

Warpath

Inheritance

Onslaught

What War Had Wrought

Hand of the Empire

Conquest

Nomad Fleet

Book 11 – Coming Soon!

Eternal Path series

Eternal Soul

Book 2 – coming soon!

Universe on Fire series

Broken Stars

Book 2 – coming soon!

Glossary

Cast of Characters

Empire

Adrian Farkas-Reiss — Human; Lord Sentinel of the Empire; Dal A’sha to Kar Daim Anessa of the Shara Daim. Known as the Heart of the Mountain.

Ryaana Farkas-Reiss — Half human, half Shara Daim; Sentinel of the Empire; Daughter to Adrian and Anessa.

Lurker of the Depths — Sowir, the greatest telepath in the Empire.

Elias Bakas — Human; Leader of the Hand of the Empire.

Jacob Kelly — Human; Inquisitor of the Hand of the Empire. Former leader of Earth resistance.

Nkiruka — Human; Inquisitor of the Hand of the Empire.

Tomas Klein — Human; Emperor of the Empire.

Seo-yun Hyeon — Human; Minister of Science; Tomas’s partner.

Laura Reiss — Human; Fleets Master of the Empire; Adrian’s adoptive mother.

Nadia Wilson — Human; Minister of Civil Service.

Aileen — Human; Sentinel of the Empire

Oswald Mein — Human; Commander of Fleets.

Nair Hakeem — Human; Fleet Commander of the First Fleet.

Johanna Stern — Human; Fleet Commander of the Third Fleet.

Gotu — Nel; Administrator of Sol system.

Isani — Nel; Leader of Clan Warpath.

Jusan — Nel; Leader of Clan Dai Ven.

Shara Daim

Anessa — Former Kar Daim of Shara Daim; Dal A’sha to Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas-Reiss.

Kane — Kar Daim of the Shara Daim; Son of Anessa and Adrian.

Vaana — Kar Daim of the Shara Daim; Daughter of Anessa and Adrian.

Garaam — Dai Sha; Commander of the Shara Daim Legions.

Karoom — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Second Legion.

Horas — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Fifth Legion.

Arisak — Do Sun to Dai Sha Garaam.

Erasi

Valanaru — Gatrey; Ancient of the Erasi. Known as the Weaver.

The People

Axull Darr — Ultimate ancestor of the Human, Nel, and Shara Daim races.

Ullax Darr — Axull Darr’s twin sister, life partner to Waiss Gast.

The Enlightened

Waiss Gast — Once best friend of Axull Darr. Later becomes Aranis of the Enlightened.

Eroill Noust — Scientist of the People. Later becomes Doranis of the Enlightened.

Nariax Oera — Scientist of the People. Later becomes Loranis of the Enlightened.

Races

The People — The first intelligent race in the galaxy.

Human — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Earth to evolve. Founding members of the Empire.

Nel — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Nelus to evolve. Founding members of the Empire; former members of the Consortium.

Shara Daim — Genetic descendants of the People, engineered by Axull Darr and left on Shara Radum to evolve.

Guxcacul — Arthropods, subterranean; Former members of the Consortium; Members of the Empire.

Sowir — Aquatic- and land-based race; Former members of the Consortium; Members of the Empire.

Trivaxian — Mammalian; Members of the Empire.

Furvor — Avian; Members of the Empire.

Uvaramo — Members of the Erasi; Formerly called the Loraru; Former members of the Union.

Gatrey — Members of the Erasi.

Ssarath — Members of the Erasi.

Krashinar — An enigmatic race with territory in the Outer Arm on the coreward border of Erasi territory.

Hasre — Mammalian bipeds; Territory in the Outer Arm on the anti-spinward border of the Krashin.

Ships

Empire Warships

Empire Fleet — Modern Empire fleets consist of 1200 missile cruisers, 1000 battle cruisers, 600 battleships, 400 dreadnoughts, and 800 drone carriers, for a total of 4000 warships. In addition, every fleet has 600 auxiliary vessels, which include: repair ships, construction ships, ammo ships, military transports, and stealth scout ships, for a total of 4600 ships per a single fleet. The Empire possesses sixteen Sovereign-class warships.

Drone-class warships

Appearance — Sleek blade.

Size — 300 meters long, 100 wide and 150 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, plasma turrets. Shields.

Missile cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Rectangular platforms.

Size — 1400 meters long, 400 wide, 200 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, s-missile launchers, antimatter-torpedo launchers. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battlecruiser-class warships

Appearance — Resemble sleek talons.

Size — 1000 meters long, 350 wide, 550 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battleship-class warships

Appearance — Overlapping carapace-like plates, turtle-shell design.

Size — 2200 meters long, 1300 wide, 600 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Dreadnought-class warships

Appearance — Arrowhead design.

Size — 3200 meters long, 2100 wide, 750 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, high-powered kinetic turrets, antimatter beams, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Command-class warships

Appearance — Arrowhead design.

Size — 4200 meters long, 2300 wide, 850 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, plasma turrets, high-powered kinetic turrets, s-missile launchers. Carries two Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Drone carrier-class warship

Appearance — Open ribcage design.

Size — 4200 meters long, 3000 wide, 1800 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, drone control teams. Drone point defense system, ability to power both the shields and shimmering fields at the same time. Carries forty drones and drone repair facilities.

Sovereign-class warship

Appearance — Depends on the generation. All are some variant on the World-ship Enduring and its six-sided pyramid shape.

Size — Depends on the generation; all are between 48 and 58 kilometers long, 18 and 24 kilometers wide/high at the widest/highest point.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, xa-nan turrets, high-velocity kinetic turrets, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Carries six Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Shara Daim warships

Shara Daim Legion — Modern Shara Daim Legions consist of 1000 missile cruisers, 1200 battlecruisers, 600 battleships, 800 super battleships, and 400 carriers for a total of 4000 warships, plus another 600 auxiliary vessels, for a total of 4600 ships per a single fleet. The Shara Daim possess twelve Sovereign-class warships.

Drone-class warships

Appearance — Sleek blade.

Size — 300 meters long, 100 wide, 150 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, plasma turrets. Shields.

Missile cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped.

Size — 1300 meters long, 600 meters in diameter.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, s-missile launchers, antimatter-torpedo launchers. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battlecruiser-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped.

Size — 1200 meters long, 500 meters in diameter.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense systems, shields.

Battleship-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped, with a widening at the middle of the ship in a shape of a rectangular box.

Size — 2600 meters long, 800 meters in diameter (pillar), 1500 meters wide and 900 meters tall (middle part).

Weapons and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Super battleship-class warships

Appearance — Pillar shaped, with a widening at the middle of the ship in a shape of a rectangular box.

Size — 3600 meters long, 880 meters diameter of the pillar, 2400 meters wide middle part, 1200 meters tall middle part.

Weapon and defenses — High-powered proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Drone carrier-class warship

Appearance — Half-sphere design.

Size — 3800 meters in diameter, 2000 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, drone control teams. Drone point defense system, ability to power both the shields and shimmering fields at the same time. Carries forty drones and drone repair facilities.

Sovereign-class warship

Appearance — Depends on the generation. All are some variant on the horseshoe or narrow-arch design.

Size — Depends on the generation; all are between 48 and 62 kilometers long, 24 and 32 kilometers wide at the widest point, and between 4 and 10 kilometers tall.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, xa-nan turrets, high-velocity kinetic turrets, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter torpedoes. Carries six Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Erasi warships

Erasi Fleet — Modern Erasi fleets consist of 2500 destroyers, 1000 light cruisers, 600 heavy cruisers, 800 battleships, and 600 super battleships, for a total of 5500 warships, plus 600 auxiliary vessels, for a total of 6100 ships per single fleet.

Destroyer-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 900 meters in diameter, 180 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Particle beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Light cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 1200 meters in diameter, 200 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Particle beams, s-missile launchers, molecular disintegration beams. Point defense, shields.

Heavy cruiser-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 1500 meters in diameter, 300 tall.

Weapons and defenses — Particle beams, molecular disintegration, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Battleship-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 2800 meters in diameter, 580 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Super battleship-class warships

Appearance — Saucer shaped.

Size — 3200 meters in diameter, 800 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, hir’sa beams, plasma turrets, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields.

Devastator-class warships

Appearance — Elongated saucer shaped.

Size — 33 kilometers long, 18 wide, 2.8 tall.

Weapons and defenses — High-powered particle beams, molecular disintegration beams, hir’sa beams, plasma turrets, ion beams, s-missile launchers. Point defense, shields, skim-field neutralizers.

Nomad Fleet warships

The Nomad Fleet consists of ten thousand Titan-class warships, as well as ten thousand Dreadnought-class and twenty thousand Cruiser-class nanoships. It has one World-ship class vessel that serves as the Nomad Fleet’s capital as well as its command hub, and there is an additional single experimental warship under the command of Adrian Farkas. It also has three Hephaestus-class mobile stations.

Titan-class warships

Appearance — Elongated obelisk shaped.

Size — 50 kilometers long, 34 wide/high at the widest/highest point.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, ion beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, xa-nan turrets, high-velocity kinetic turrets, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers, antimatter-torpedo launchers. Carries six Frigate-class vessels. Drone point defense system, shields, shimmering field.

Nano-class warships

Appearance — Cigar shaped.

Size — Cruisers are 1 kilometer long, 200 meters wide and high; Dreadnoughts are 3.5 kilometers long, 900 meters wide.

Weapons and defenses — Proton beams, antimatter beams, molecular disintegration beams, plasma turrets, s-missile launchers. Shields. Advanced Electronic Warfare suits, nanite clouds.

Table of Contents

- Glossary
- Timeline
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
- Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-One
- Chapter Thirty-Two
- Chapter Thirty-Three
- Chapter Thirty-Four
- Chapter Thirty-Five
- Epilogue