"Because those ships are of the same ship design your people had when they first came into Alliance space and attacked us all those years ago," responded Roskan.
"Look at the designs of these fighters. Of the smaller capital ships. The way that large command ship hangs back without any protection. You tell me. Who else can it be?" asked Roskan.
"I am not sure admiral, but let me get to the bottom of this with my leadership. Can you allow me a few hours to investigate and get back to you?"
"The Titan may not have a few hours, ambassador!" shot back Roskan.
"Nevertheless, I cannot make the wheels of discovery move any quicker if I do not get started now, agreed?"
"You have one hour, Pon'mot. One! And then I will be back in here. And if I don't like your answers, my next visit will make this one look like a fucking social call!" Roskan said. He turned and stormed out of the office.
A visibly shaken Pon'mot turned to his assistant who had been watching with a slight smile. He addressed the assistant. "Ton'rat, did you know anything about one of our fleets in deep space?"
"No, Most Glorious Pon'mot," Ton'rat said as he looked down at the beverage service cabinet and tried to retrieve a drink. "I have never heard of one of our ships out that far before. Let alone what looks to be an entire fleet of them."
"That was what I was afraid of," replied Pon'mot. "I think I know what that fleet is and why it's here"
"Oh?"
"Yes, Ton'rat. The only conclusion I have is the one I have feared every day of my life."
He paused as he brought himself to say the words "'They have found us."
THE DRAD'EK
Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Serrat System, Drad'ek bridge
"Where did that ship go?" Nal'sek yelled at the praetor, cursing his lineage in the next breath.
The praetor cowered under his verbal onslaught but responded.
"It appears it was destroyed, Honorable Nal'sek."
"And what evidence do you have to come to such a conclusion?" Nal'sek asked.
"There was a huge explosion in the same area of the enemy ship. At one moment we had it on our scans and the next moment, after the explosion, it was gone," explained the praetor.
"Do you see any wreckage?"
"Too soon to tell, captain. All of our ships we sent to destroy the enemy ship were destroyed."
Nal'sek marveled at the actions of the enemy captain. He had sent 3 of his best ships to deal with the enemy ship and all three were dispatched with outstanding cunning and skill. Perhaps the lack of combat, in the decades that he had been in command, had caused his fleet to go soft. He would have to fix that later. For now, he needed to make sure that the enemy ship was destroyed.
"Send fighters to search that asteroid field. I want that ship found either intact or in pieces."
"It will be done Honorable Nal'sek!" shouted the bridge in unison.
***
Over an hour later, Nal'sek decided that he had been kept waiting for too long. He paced the bridge and yelled at the praetor, "What has taken so long to search the asteroid field?"
"Honorable Nal'sek, we have just received the transmission from the fighters. They have found traces of alien wreckage mixed in with the wreckage of the Hant'uk. We believe it was destroyed."
"Good. The deeds of the Hant'uk will be remembered by our people. We shall have a celebration in their honor this evening."
Nal'sek sat back into his chair. "Praetor, take us to the next alien navigation device. We need to find the Gon'cha and I'm not going to tell Her Highness that we have lost the trail, yet, until we've explored every system that these aliens are in."
ALERT
Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Earth
"That damned politician knows something," Roskan said to his aide as he walked back into his office. Roskan threw his bag onto his couch and cursed. "He's hiding something and I want to know what it is."
"Admiral? Is it possible that he is telling the truth? That he really does not know anything about that fleet?" asked the aide.
"No. Did you see his eyes change to red and then to yellow?" asked Roskan. "That fucking bastard knows something."
Roskan opened up communications with central command. The officer on the other side of the communication saluted and addressed him "Good day Admiral Roskan. How can I assist you?"
"Captain, I want the 5th and 9th Fleets mobilized and on their way to the Serrat system in 2 hours. I will take command of the 4th fleet that is currently here in the Sol system. Have them prepared to make way."
"Yes, we just received the communication from Captain Jameson on the Titan. I gotta tell you Admiral, it has caused quite as stir here at CentCom."
"I'll bet it has," smirked Roskan. Quite a stir at CentCom usually meant that someone used a profane word, he thought. He couldn't imagine how fucked the situation was over there after receiving Jameson's warning that an entire Xen battle fleet was on its way.
"And what of the fleets and their crews? What are we hearing from them as a result of this communication from Captain Jameson?"
"Oh, not good sir. There's unrest amongst the crews that are mixed with Xen. Already reports of small skirmishes between our people and the Xen on the Alliance ships."
"Is it manageable right now?"
"Yes sir. But if something is not done, it could escalate."
"Thank you captain, that is all," Roskan said, terminating the feed.
***
Roskan sat alone in his office looking at the framed picture of himself, Noah and O'Malley, just freshly graduated from the Academy. He poured himself a Scotch with no ice as he let his eyes linger over the photograph and tried to remember that day.
The trio were thinner, freshly shaven and had smooth baby faces compared to what they were now. Who would've thought that just a year later they would've been involved in a struggle for Humanity's survival? And that the three of them would play a critical role in winning the Xen War.
And now, he had probably gotten both of them killed on a mission that was supposed to be not more risky than running a grocery errand.
He just couldn't figure out how this had happened. How did the Xen hide an entire battle fleet from the view of Alliance authorities? Was this an officially sanctioned action by the Xen leadership or a rogue group of Xen? If it was a rogue group, this would be easier to deal with. They could just find the fleet, go there, blow the shit out of them and leave.
But if this was authorized by the Xen leadership? It meant war again with the Xen. And that was something he didn't want to contemplate. The last Xen War cost Humanity tens of millions of dead civilians.
He needed to stop this fleet now, before it could reach the Sol system and Earth. But first he needed to contact the President. She would not be happy about this news.
He punched up a communications line and the holographic screen appeared, showing a beautiful brunette woman in a stately office.
"Greetings Madame President, I have some grave news..."
CHAOS
Year: 2564 (Alliance Year: 7), Location: Serrat System
"The enemy fleet is resuming their path to the jump gate to the Resden system, captain," Ensign Torrance said.
"Yes, see the ships retreating from the asteroid field? They think we jumped out of the system or were destroyed," Noah said.
He pointed at the moving dots on the screen. "See how the capital ships flanking the command ship are now moving away from it? Yeah. They think we're gone."
"Orders?" asked O'Malley.
"Are the minor repairs all finished?"
"They are finishing up the last repair now. We still have some internal structural damage that is going to take a few weeks to repair if we do it out here. Only two days in the dock."
"And the hull?"
"Its patched up and squared away for now. Thanks to the new fuel system taking up so little space, we had enough additional plating in the extra storage," O'Malley said.
; "Excellent news. So that means we can resume the fight with the fleet. As long as they think we are alive, they won't jump out of this system. Pugs are notoriously reliable in their bloodlust."
"Can you bounce a signal off of the Oort cloud to make them think we are there?"
"Yes, I can, captain."
"Do it!" Noah said as he started to smile again.
Noah opened the channel to engineering. "Rob, now's the time when we're gonna need that extra speed we talked about!"
The crew hurried about the bridge, carrying out Noah's orders. One of the ensigns called O'Malley over to look at his screen. Noah watched as Kevin walked to the far side of the bridge to take care of the matter.
The door to the bridge slid open and Lur'vot walked in with a thermal blanket covering his shoulders and upper body. He had a gash over his left eye that was bleeding. Noah saw him as he approached.
"I thought I told Doctor Sarduun that you are to be confined to the medical bay. Get off my bridge!"
Noah looked at the guard on the other side of the bridge. "Guard, escort this pug to the medical bay."
He looked down at his datapad and the preparations for reengaging the fleet. But didn't notice that Lur'vot was slowly moving towards him. Suddenly, as if remembering something, Noah stiffened and turned towards him.
"Wait, your guards that were outside the medical bay. Where are they now?"
Lur'vot lunged toward Noah and as he did, his thermal blanket dropped and revealed the Xen ceremonial blade in his hands. His blade found Noah's right side and sliced deep along it as Noah dodged the main assault. Noah fell backwards, clutching his side as Lur'vot raised his blade in celebration of his impending kill. A large figure slammed into Lur'vot and they both tumbled out of view.
Noah scrambled to his feet, holding his steadily bleeding side and watched Lur'vot in hand to hand combat with none other than...
Reggie.
Lur'vot moved to try to retrieve the hahk but another crew member quickly grabbed it. Reggie went low toward Lur'vot's legs. He managed to wrap them up while Lur'vot hammered down onto his back with his injured hands. Reggie lifted him up and slammed his body down with Reggie straddling his chest. He rained blows down on his head until Lur'vot was no longer moving. Reggie got up from the lifeless body and ran to Noah.
"Are you injured badly, captain?" Rig'nak asked. Noah merely shook his head but the blood leaking between his fingers and pooling on the ground below belied his assertion. He started to put pressure on the wound and turned to the crew. "Ensign, get the medical team here now!" Rig'nak ordered.
No one moved. The crew looked toward O'Malley for a signal.
"Do as the XO says!" shouted O'Malley as he began to help Rig'nak put pressure on Noah's wound.
The bridge returned to action on O'Malley's command and minutes later the medical team was treating Noah in his quarters.
***
"There, that local anesthetic I just injected into your wound should help. I'd really like to get you to medical bay so I can close this wound up properly," said the medic.
"I can't. I'm in the middle of delaying that fleet out there and can't afford not to be on the bridge. In fact, I need to get there now," Noah said as he tried to stand up. His knees felt a bit weak but he managed to stand.
"Easy there, mate," O'Malley said as he steadied him upright. "Don't need you falling and knocking yourself out in the middle of a battle. Oh and by the way, the explosives crew just did a sweep of the bridge after finding a detonator on Lur'vot's body. Your chair was rigged with enough explosives to take out the entire bridge. I think his plan was to take you out and blow us all up."
Liana had joined the group by now and laid a hand on Noah's shoulder. "I guess there are some good Xen after all, huh?" she said as she looked down on him.
Noah nodded and grunted through painful gasps. "And some bad ones, too, doctor. Your friend not only tried to assassinate me, but did you see the detonator that is connected to his body? I guarantee that fucker rigged the explosives during the retrofit in port."
"By the way, I just talked to the chief in Engineering," Liana said. "He took a look at one of the chips Lur'vot had on him. It contained a trigger for a subroutine to hijack the ship's systems. Apparently when we integrated with the Xen technology and navigational data, Lur'vot was able to insert that subroutine that would enable him to take over the ship by slaving all controls to the captain's chair. So my guess is that he intended to take us somewhere. And if that failed, he would blow us all up."
Noah turned on his side and motioned for Reggie to come closer. "Rig'nak," said Noah. "How did you get out of your quarters? I thought I put you under guard."
Just then the two guards stumbled onto the bridge and approached Rig'nak with their weapons charged. By the bruises and lacerations on their faces, both of the men appeared to have been overpowered by Rig'nak on his way to the bridge and were now intent on returning the favor.
"Stand down. The XO is fine where he is," Noah said to the guards. They gave Rig'nak an evil stare, then powered down their rifles and took their places by the door. Noah turned again to Rig'nak.
"I want to thank you for what you did Rig'nak. You saved my life and the lives of the crew. Who knows what he would have done if he had managed to kill me."
"You are most welcome captain. However, if I may. I have not been entirely truthful with you and Doctor Sarduun," responded Rig'nak.
"In what way? I thought you were a straight shooter," chuckled Noah.
"My marksmanship is just fine, Captain. However, I should've brought this to your attention earlier. You see that blast on the planet...was no accident. Lur'vot intentionally set off the blast. And that ray of light into the stars? That was a signal, which brought this fleet here..."
"Alright, that's got my attention. What exactly are you saying?"
"Captain, what I'm about to tell you is my people's greatest secret," said Rig'nak, eyes turning a shade of yellow that Noah had never seen before.
"I don't think you've got a lot to lose here, Rig'nak. From the looks of it, your secret is pretty much already out."
"Very well, captain. Though I must warn you, knowing the truth will do little to prevent what is coming."
FULL DISCLOSURE
Rig'nak wrung his hands and stared across the coffee table, trying to decide where to start.
How does one explain the apocalypse to beings who have never heard of the Varak?
O'Malley and Liana were perched, eagerly on the edge of their seats, Captain Jameson had propped himself up with a few pillows, a look on his face that made Rig'nak doubt that any injury would be grave enough to keep him from jumping up and wrapping his hands around his XO's throat if he didn't like what he heard.
Rig'nak scooted his own chair back a couple of inches at that last thought.
He had dreaded talking to humans about this part of his people's history and had desperately wanted to avoid it. But he resigned himself to the fact that it was no longer possible to keep the secret.
"This is not a fleet of my people. It is the fleet of a people that we refer to, as them. The Varak."
Liana's eyes grew big. "Wait, I remember that reference, that's from the history of your people and your flight from your homeworld that was written on that wall. It referenced the word them, numerous times. You said it was a scary children's story."
"Correct doctor. It did reference the Varak. And it is a children's story. We use it to ensure that our children grow up, ever vigilant and wary of the Varak."
"From what I've read so far, that history states that you have been fleeing them, err…the Varak…for hundreds of years. Is that true?"
"Correct again Doctor Sarduun. We have been fleeing them since before any of my people currently alive, were born. Our ancestors fled our home world when the Varak attacked. We have managed to flee them and make good our escape numerous times."
"But you haven't been on the run continuously, you'd run out of fuel!" Liana said.<
br />
"No, we have not. Each time we have battled the Varak and escaped, we have managed to elude them and make our way to systems where we remained hidden from them. Eventually they would find us, but that usually took quite a long time. The shortest period of peace was one year. The longest time we have managed to stay hidden was the one hundred fifty years prior to our people arriving in human space."
"A hundred and fifty years?" Noah said. "How did you manage to stay hidden from the Varak for that long?"
"It's simple. We kept moving. The Varak would look for us, but many times would continue to look in systems where we were not. Think of it as blindfolding someone and asking them to find you in a forest."
"Okay," Noah said. "But what happened if there were races in those systems who already had space vessels and could stop you? Like us?"
"We adopted the policy that if we encountered a species that was indigenous to a system, we would ignore it if it was not space-faring."
"And if it was space-faring?" asked Noah again.
"Then we would eliminate the potential military threat immediately so we could establish a settlement and rest. Once we had rested our people and gathered enough supplies and fuel for the journey to continue, we would move on."
"How long would you rest for?"
"No more than ten years at the most. Usually we would establish an area separate from the aliens and live peacefully with them during that time."
"Kinda like what you did when you arrived in the Lanthian system all those years ago?" Noah muttered.
"Exactly, captain," Rig'nak said while looking away from the trio."We treated you humans just like every other space-faring people we had come across."
"And you lost," Noah smiled.
"We did," Rig'nak sighed. "Thanks to the Destroyer of Fleets."
Liana's face grew red. "So, you would arrive in a system…belonging to a people who had done you no wrong…and proceed to attack and kill them into submission? I have conducted many years of alien archaeological research where the species is now extinct. I wonder how many of these other species were made extinct by your people?"
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