Alien Empire

by Anthony Gillis

  “Rift, now!”

  Edad and the remnants of his fleet returned to the operating base, deep in the interstellar void.

  He took count again. He had lost ninety-seven of his two hundred Avengers, and more than three hundred fighters. He wasted no time.

  “Star General Varen, I must report with shame that we have lost!”

  ///

  Meanwhile, tens of thousands of light-years away, at the orbit of Earth’s heavily defended moon, a vast fleet was now ready, loaded with weapons, soldiers and supplies. Three thousand Warden Ships and two thousand transports, carrying seventy million troops, gathered in a world-sized formation, and began moving toward the edge of the solar system.

  44

  Varen had a grim expression as he spoke. “Reports are that the tactic used by the Elders at Anish is spreading. They’re surrounding their bases with clouds of small missiles ready to target anything without a current Elder ID code.”

  “Can we crack those codes?” asked Karden.

  “Doubtful,” said Viris through the speaker in Karden’s office, “As we learned from the Vigilant’s computer system, the Elders cycle those codes through very rapidly, and the ship generating the code has to match, within reason, the mass and sensor profile of the ship that is supposed to have the code.”

  “Could the Vigilant do it?”

  “It would be the only one that could, but I’d still call it iffy. How goes the project retrofitting it with rift generators?”

  “Slowly,” replied Karden, “And it will be painfully expensive to send through each time. Still, the Vigilant could be a way around this problem, if nothing else, it has the shields and hull to survive a swarm of small missiles.”

  “In the meantime,” said Varen, “I think our days of close range hit-and-run tactics are done.”

  “Which is too bad,” added Karden, “Two sector Command Starbases and fifteen production worlds made for an excellent run.”

  “Speaking of which. How goes the revolution?” asked Viris.

  “Enlightenment 95 appears to be declaring for the Protectorate, or at least its leaders are. Unity 23, Duty 84, and Collective Destiny 2 have joined our league. The others seem to be waiting and seeing. We’ve cut off more than a hundred supply worlds from the Elder network, and one of them, named Home by its people, appears to be interested in helping us.”

  “What about Solidarity 17? I heard interesting things.”

  “They have been mounting a major propaganda campaign on our behalf, and have been begging permission to start building warships. They want us to show them how to build rift generators.”

  “So why don’t you?” asked Viris.

  Karden could hear the edge in her voice, that of the rebellious hacker and philosopher of information freedom. He replied, “It is a major step forward in trust. The rift drives are the only real advantage we have, and if the Elders get them and start widely using them, we will lose.”

  “Karden, they’re counting on us to be different from the Elders, to trust them as equals. If this thing is going to get legs, we’ll have to give them that trust. Besides, we’ll need the additional manufacturing power. Harker and his producers can only do so much.”

  “I am aware. As of this moment, Tayyis is on her way to meet with a delegation of their leaders. We’ll see what impression she comes away with.”

  The Liberty was the first of its class, and the most powerful Grounder warship yet. Specially chosen for the mission to Solidarity 17, it featured a crew of thirty, improved shields, four nuclear launchers, batteries of tiny, automated, fast-tracking lasers for point defense against missiles, four gatling rocket pods, and a pair of railguns far more powerful than those mounted on the Avenger class.

  Tayyis watched as they approached the sprawling starport of the planetary capital. Despite images she’d seen, somehow she’d imagined a Production world as a sort of dismal gray and black industrial wasteland. Instead, like all else built by the Elders, it gleamed in silver, gold, and bright colors.

  The air was clear, and seen from the outside, the factories could have passed for museums or art galleries on Ground. Lofty towers, two kilosteps or more high, marked the distant administrative and commercial center. A harmonious and efficient looking network of roads and magnetic rail tracks spread in all directions. Parks and monuments dotted the vast city.

  Tayyis thought in amazement that here she was, again, on an interstellar warship, acting as ambassador to an alien world. Had she fallen into some long sleep and entered a surreal dream? No matter, time to act either way.

  As the ship landed and the ramp lowered, a most interesting and varied delegation awaited them.

  There was a very large being in the center, taller than an Imri and several times as wide. Its broad shoulders supported powerful mottled furry arms, with articulated bony plates running down the outside, and a broad furry head armored on top with more bony plates. He wore garb that looked like the robes of an Elder leader, save sleeveless, and scaled up to the size of a tent. She knew from correspondence this would be Hraragurr, of the Rhurrg species, and the most prominent revolutionary leader on Solidarity.

  To Hraragurr’s right was a shorter being with yellow-green skin, a short-snouted face, black hair on his head much like an Elder, and a wide springy body. He was dressed in Elder-style clothes, proportioned to his body. This was Avtil, a Tsamier, and the interim military leader of Solidarity 17.

  On Hraragurr’s left was something proportioned like a thinner version of an Elder, save with a chitinous body, multi-faceted eyes, and a complex mouth of small moving parts. She wore Elder clothes of what Tayyis knew to be a feminine style. Her full name could not be pronounced properly with Grounder vocal equipment, but Tayyis had been told she went by K’tk and her species was the Vt’k’k.

  The last of those who appeared to be leaders was the most surprising. It was an Elder male, with wispy pale yellow hair, a weathered bronze face, and strange outfit of tattered plain gray tunic and pants under what looked to be a black ballistic vest and some battered black boots.

  As she stepped off the platform, Hraragurr charged gigantically toward her. He started bellowing in a deep voice, “Welcome welcome friend Tayyis! At last, we can meet!”

  Her guards tensed, hands on their guns. She motioned for them to be still.

  Hraragurr scooped her up in a powerful hug, spun her around as if she were weightless, while making a deep bass growling sound, a bit like a purr, and then put her gently back on the ground.

  “WELCOME!” he boomed, “GRRRRR! Friends in arms! Let this day be remembered!”

  The other rebel leaders of Solidarity approached. Avtil bowed his head gracefully in Elder fashion. K’tk made a quick, twitching version of the same, and the Elder, to her surprise, extended his hand.

  “Giuseppe McCoy,” he said in a rich voice that reminded her of Margaux, “I am honored to meet you!”

  “I… greetings! Thank you,” she said, recovering her breath from Hraragurr’s hug. She took the Elder’s hand, but watched him doubtfully. She noticed one thing; Giuseppe was an Elder name, not a title. He was the first Elder she’d ever met who hadn’t used a title in his name.

  Hraragurr noticed her reaction, placed a vast hand on McCoy’s shoulder, and gave it a squeeze that Tayyis fancied might have caused anyone with less than Elder self-discipline to collapse on the ground.

  “THIS,” boomed Hraragurr, “Is the one Elder on Solidarity we know we can trust!”

  McCoy had a wry expression that reminded her of Haral Karden, “Multiple non-commutable death sentences for spreading unenlightenment and sedition have a way of keeping one on the other side.”

  Tayyis was still collecting her wits, “I didn’t know there were Elder renegades.”

  “I’m not by choice,” he answered, “I was, once, a philosopher and academic. However, the authorities didn’t like my ideas about individual liberty and the rejection of duty as a first principal. I’ve been in hiding for the
past twenty-six years, known to and helped by only non-Elders.”

  “So you are comfortable turning against the… other Elders?”

  “I’m not turning against them, only the system that rules them. I’ve been reading up on ideas from your country of Tadine and your planet Ground. At least, what you’ve been transmitting to us. A very long time ago, when we Elders were still known by our true original name of Humans – yes it translates much the same as what you Grounders call yourselves – some of us had similar ideas.”

  “I… did not know. It is an honor to have you with us,” said Tayyis. She knew that Human was the generic term for sentient beings in Elder. It was quite interesting.

  McCoy smiled, “Well, it was six thousand years ago and more that we lived under such ideas, before the original Earth Federation became the Imperium, and then the Galactic Protectorate. We Elders are supposed to honor the past, just apparently not quite THAT far back!”

  Without warning, Hraragurr scooped him up and spun him around, making that deep purring noise. Tayyis laughed and noticed that, renegade he might be, McCoy showed impassive Elder calm while being tossed about like at toy.

  Hraragurr put him down, then gestured to Grounders and delegates alike, “Come on everybody, we’ve had enough standing out in the wind. Let’s go have some food, and talk on full bellies! And Tayyis, we even made sure we have lots of the Elder foods you said Grounders can eat.”

  ///

  Neem and Harker were meeting for the first time in weeks. It was at an outdoor patio table at Neem-Jat labs on a bright sunny day. Harker was even showing a bit of his old good humor.

  “That’s right Neem! And, the first dozen stealth scout ships are ready for delivery.”

  Neem bounced in his chair, “Fantastic!”

  “That is one clever design of yours. Though, I don’t think they’ll hold up so well in fight.”

  “If the pilots use them as designed, they shouldn’t have to.”

  The Interstellar Scouts, the new Snoop class, were tiny two-man craft with powerful but Elder-quiet engines, efficient fast-firing rift generators, a large supply of antimatter fuel, and a complete outer shell of stealth panels like those used on the communication satellites.

  “I’ll let Karden know next, since he needs to put ‘em to work. Too bad I don’t have time to fly down and see him.”

  Neem smiled, “Someday, when we’re finally done with this war.”

  “Ha! Is that you Neem? The arms designer wishing for peace?”

  “Well, the design is more the point for me than war. I’d rather not go to bed wondering if the Elders are on their way to kill us again. Besides, even I can use a vacation sometime.”

  “Especially when it means you could go see that pretty girl of yours, even if she is the President of Bacchara!”

  Neem hung his head and turned a bashful color.

  ///

  Sector Administrator Han was concerned. She’d just received a message, sent weeks earlier from Earth, that her sector, 109, was to be the last supply stop of the Grand Fleet en route to the enemy world called Ground. With her sector already stripped of half its Warden Ships and several of its transports in support of the failed campaign at Malachite, she knew the task ahead would be difficult.

  Still, duty required results, not doubts.

  A message came in and an officer appeared on one of the screens at her desk.

  “Your Eminence, my apologies for interrupting you. I have what I believe to be significant news.”

  “Intelligence Commander, report.”

  “Unusual transmissions have come through the interstellar communications network, Your Eminence. They appeared to be standard updates regarding supply and production numbers from sector 106, until they were decrypted. Then embedded messages got loose. They are spreading through the planetary net even now. We’re working to contain them. We’ve traced the likely actual origin to a Production World, Solidarity 17, in Sector 104.”

  “Contents of the messages, Intelligence Commander?”

  “Your Eminence, they are various calls, under several pretences, for the dissolution of the Galactic Protectorate. Some of them come from… an Elder calling himself Philosopher Professor McCoy.”

  “Even with that, I think we need not fear insurrection at the Sector Capital, Intelligence Commander. However, it is highly likely the same or similar messages are spreading throughout the rest of the interstellar network. Assuming similar release times, this means seditious messages have already reached a hundred or more Production worlds in this sector alone, and will be on their way to others.”

  “Intelligence Commander, issue codes for interdict and reset in the sector network. I will prepare a message recommending that other Sector Administrators do the same, and will inform Earth. In the meantime, we may expect some unrest. Plan accordingly and send me your update when the reset has begun.”

  Han began making and prioritizing a mental list of the officers and officials she would have to contact. Though this further complicated the monumental logistical task ahead of her, she buried any concerns, and set to work.

  ///

  Light years away, Viris Nane was finishing her first interstellar conversation, courtesy of the rift communication network rapidly going up on both Ground and Solidarity 17.

  “You bet McCoy! Glad to have helped. My only regret is that I think we’ll only get this one chance to send a viral message. I hope you made good use of it!”

  45

  On a lovely fresh morning in the International Zone, Karden and Tayyis were giving a tour of the grounds of the future Solidarity 17 Embassy. Their guests were Hraragurr and Giuseppe McCoy. The latter was now dressed in Tadine-style formal clothes, sized for his larger Elder frame.

  Even in the International Zone, heads turned.

  “FANTASTIC!” roared Hraragurr, “Let this be the seal of eternal friendship! We’ll take the war and stick it right down the Elders throats… present company excepted… rrrrr… no offense!”

  “None taken, and that is exactly what we’ll have to do,” replied McCoy.

  “Speaking of which, how goes your conversion to war production?” asked Karden.

  “That is more K’tk’s area,” said McCoy, “but thanks to the ready-made designs and organizational ideas you’ve given us, the short answer is well and quickly. I’m afraid we’re going to prove slower to adapt than you, but on the other hand, Solidarity 17 has an industrial base that is more than twenty times that of Ground.”

  He continued, “We’ve already swept away the restrictive regulations of the Protectorate, and once we shake off what we can of the mindset that went with them, you’ll see something spectacular!”

  Hraragurr made a deep growling Rhurrg laugh. “That brings to mind something we should all be thinking about! Trade! Without Protectorate transports, we’re going to need it, and I’m sure you do too!”

  “Trade on our own terms…” said McCoy, quietly, almost as if to himself.

  “Interesting that you should mention that,” said Karden. “We have an Imri here, one Imni Ilyar Mneoniri, who is founding a trading company using rift-based cargo ships. He’s selling ownership shares now.”

  There was another mighty laugh from Hraragurr. He looked as if he was considering picking Karden up, but then managed to restrain himself.

  McCoy dropped his own smile, Elder reserve for a moment returning to his face. “That is most interesting. I am surprised an Imri trader would join you while the Protectorate still shows every chance of winning. How did you come by him?”

  “He was a prisoner from the Warden Ship Vigilant, until he made a trade with us for information,” said Tayyis.

  “Ah. Keep an eye on him, one can’t be too sure of turncoats,” mused McCoy, in a wry voice.

  “Giuseppe,” said Karden, “As you might imagine, there are a large number of Elder prisoners from the Vigilant. If you wanted to speak to any of them…”

  “You’d be surprised at how unprod
uctive that could be,” said McCoy, “They’ll view me with doubled suspicion and disdain as a traitor. Except perhaps for one or two – in a large enough group, one never knows. But you’d be wise to identify likely candidates before I went. Otherwise, I’ll just end up making things worse.”

  Tayyis and Karden, each in their way, made note of that and considered their options.

  ///

  It was late at night. Karden’s phone rang with Jat’s signal. He groaned sleepily and had an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Ah no, this actually had happened before. He took the call. On the other end of the line, it sounded roughly like someone was chasing a terrified Howling Desert Leaper down a hillside made of rusty storage bins.

  “Darex, please stop laughing, and really, can’t you, at some point, complete a project during the day?”

  “Karden I’ve got it! Ha! I got a rift to work right here, on the surface!”

  Despite his best intentions, Karden felt his nerves jolt awake.

  “How?”

  “Neem’s containment rings! The idea from the hidden satellites. Just needed a few tweaks. We generated the rift INSIDE the ring. And applied lot more power!”

  “You know we don’t need ground rift capability to send communications. What do you propose to do with it?”

  “Who cares! Well, I mean, I’m sure you or Harker or someone will find something.”

  “All right. How large a rift?”

  “About three steps.”

  “Three STEPS! I thought you meant…”

  “I wanted it big enough to be useful, in case we found something to do with it!”

  Karden paused, considering the regrettably inescapable logic of that statement. Three steps was enough for a group of people to walk through, almost big enough to drive a truck through. It certainly had possibilities beyond communication.

  “Darex, I think we can come up with some uses. Does your prototype work reliably enough to use for a wider demonstration?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then let’s get one going the day after tomorrow. I’ll make some calls in the morning. Ah, one more thing Darex… this containment ring will reduce the power cost of a rift opened in space, relative to a rift from a standard generator?”