The Expanding Universe

by Craig Martelle

  The Captain’s thoughts drifted toward the figure standing at the back of his bridge. To date, the man had not been a problem, choosing to keep to himself and not interfere with the Captain’s command, but it still made the hair behind his horns itch. Mages were supposed to be sitting in their temples and maintaining contact with the Warp and Weave. Most were content to lose themselves into the cosmic mystery, but this one was not. He had remained an independent agent, choosing instead to spend most of his time in his personal homestead lands on the colony world of Vernath rather than tending to temple business.

  At least he was a battlemage, proven in war and combat many times over. The Captain had found all the stories told of this particular battlemage, both written and recited in the halls of his world’s temples, and there were many. He had also witnessed the man’s mastery of grav steel firsthand. Every morning when they all gathered for their daily devotional to the ancestors, the mage had proven his ability by recreating each devotion’s symbol using the liquid metal. The skill displayed was almost perfect and the only reason he kept using almost was to keep that one last vestige of rebellious spark alive in his own mind. In reality, he could never detect a flaw, as impossible as that was to imagine.

  Krelth was impressive, and a small part of the Captain was glad the battlemage had joined his raid group. Just as long as he kept his dark-red claws out of the Captain’s command.

  “Your thoughts?” came a cultured, deep voice from behind him. “Do you think there is anything we need to be cautious of?”

  The Captain turned slightly but did not meet Krelth’s eyes. He did not want to, as they unnerved him. Blue was not a normal eye color for a Devlothen and they were one of Krelth’s most notable features along with the huge scar that ran down his face. The mage could easily have had it removed by the medical caste, but chose not to. “No. No, nothing looks alarming. I think they are as advanced as the Felentar, but no more.” The Captain paused before continuing. “Do you still intend to land and go your own way? Not command a troop?”

  Krelth sneered slightly, raising his lip and stared at the back of the Captain's head. He could feel the man’s unease, shifting through him like a serpent protecting its eggs. He knew his presence on the ship unnerved the Captain, making him doubt his own command ability but Krelth had witnessed both his individual and group duels and was pleased with his skills. He was not going to interfere unless things really went badly. “Do not worry, Captain. I am neither interested in or require command of any troops. I…have my own interests here.”

  The Captain turned in his chair, his tail coiling in irritation. “So you keep saying, but you have not told me of these interests. Am I not the leader of this expedition?”

  “Do you need me to answer, Captain?” Krelth said with a slight growl in his voice though he kept his eyes straight ahead to the viewscreen, which showed the target planet sparkling like a jewel in the night. He didn’t really want to chastise the Captain just before they were to make a landing, but he also wasn’t about to be questioned on his own purpose. Besides, he knew he didn’t really have an answer. The Warp and Weave had drawn him to this previously unknown star system, but he didn’t know what it wanted. Still, he was a mage and he knew trying to ignore the gentle whispers of the Fates was a mistake. He just had to trust things would become apparent in time.

  “No,” grated out the Captain, turning away from the battlemage. “No, I do not. Very well, we will proceed to the planet and whatever glory awaits us.”

  The Captain ran his claws over the holo-controls, sending the command to the helm which sent his ship hurtling toward the planet. He knew the sensors on the colony would report their presence, sending these people into whatever preparations they may or may not have made for an attack. That was the first test, to see what they would do. Would they reach out, mewling and crying for understanding or would they silently ready themselves for a battle? The Devlothens would know shortly.

  Krelth watched the captain go back to tending his business and doing his best to ignore the battlemage. It was just as well because Krelth really didn’t want to interfere with the Captain’s task, so he quickly departed the bridge and headed down to the troop caverns. A first-contact raid was rare enough, even with technology extending their reach further and further into the void. In his near thousand years, Krelth had only seen twenty raids and attended two. The first was as a lowly junior adept, the second as a newly trained full battlemage.

  That last one had been the worst, and extracted not only a heavy blood price from the Devlothen people, but drank deeply from his own family. He still remembered holding his youngest child in his arms as she faded back into the Warp and Weave, joining her threads once again into the background of life rather than being one of its active weavers. She had recently achieved the rank of Lieutenant and was leading a small troop against the Grell’na in one of the last battles of that war, eager to prove herself. She had also been his last living child.

  Krelth paused outside the doors of the large barracks room and closed his eyes. Even now, it took him time to push those thoughts of his daughter away. It would not prove wise to go into the troop caverns agitated. The battle-ready men were eager and their blood would be up. He doubted the Captain would appreciate it if he injured some of them on the eve of their landing.

  Finally, he approached close enough for the doors to sense his presence and whisk open. The sound that bathed him in its cacophony was every bit as full of excitement and trepidation as it always was before a battle. In the center of the cavern were holographic projections showing various angles and pictures of the target species. Several of the troops and their Lieutenants clustered around them, talking and conjecturing about the coming fight.

  They were humanoid, which surprised Krelth the most. Humanoids were uncommon in this part of the galactic arm they lived in and Devlothen had only encountered four others. Two arms, two legs, a head and upright body but with no tail. Their skin also ranged in color from dark to light browns and even a pale pink. He wondered if their skin colors designated age as it did in their own race but there was not enough information available. He doubted it because their young appeared to have the same color schemes, but one never knew. His path took him close to one of the holographic projections so he could listen in to what was being discussed.

  “See here?” said the grizzled Lieutenant, pointing to the upper body of the subject, “They have similar musculature as we do, though not as massive. That indicates their movements might be similar to ours, at least for basic movement and speed.” He quickly tapped a control panel, and the image went from frozen to showing various movements. “Computer analysis of several transmissions proves this out, and it appears they favor long range weaponry from the few examples of combat we’ve managed to intercept. Some plasma, but mostly slug throwers. Most combat we’ve seen is against local wildlife, which appears to be large and nasty. We’re not sure about hand-to-hand yet. Not yet anyway. I’m sure you all will fix that for us, eh?”

  The small group of warriors chuckled, nodding and bumping their horns against each other. There were no cowards amongst them. Every warrior on this raid had competed for his or her spot, and Krelth was sure they would thoroughly test the mettle of the aliens. The Devlothen preferred close combat with plasma-edged weapons or, in cases like him, grav steel. Still, it wouldn’t do for them to get cocky.

  He looked down at the two large, liquid-seeming bracers wrapped around his forearms. They were his preferred weapon over any others and sacred to the Warp and Weave. He could form them into whatever shapes he desired within their mass parameters and if he wished, something even larger if he had time to strip the mass from something else to augment them. He let one of them curl out from his wrist and slide over his knuckles before eying the hologram and sending a silver tendril slashing out and bisecting the figure’s head.

  The warriors scattered around it froze, then jumped up to face him. None of them paused or faltered, though all of them
had to have known it was the battlemage.

  Good. Hesitation, even against him, would mean their deaths.

  “Laughing and bumping heads now will get you killed down there,” He grated out, growling at them even as he ignored the half-dozen drawn weapons. “You are taking them too lightly. You watch them kill beasts they have probably had years of killing. Do you see here?” Krelth said, taking the holo-controls from the Lieutenant and pushing forward before pointing at a scene. “What are they doing here? It should be obvious.”

  One of the troops, a large male Devlothen stood. “It appears they are laughing as they carve up the corpse.”

  “Yes, they are laughing.” Krelth spat, “Now tell me why that should give you pause? You who are barely out of your orange skins and know so much of the universe?”

  A smaller warrior answered this time. Krelth had seen her before and watched her practice. She was quick and agile rather than large and strong. Admirable traits. “Because they are not mourning any of their own dead?” the female paused, thinking before continuing slowly. “Also, they enjoyed the kill. They are predators. That creature they are cutting up for meat was easily ten times their own size and obviously dangerous. Instead of avoiding it, they attacked.”

  Krelth nodded and began pacing around the now-frozen image. “Yes, to all of that. They use teamwork, they wear armor, and they have weapons specifically designed to kill. From a distance, yes, but the Grell’na used this to good effect against us in the past. Our personal shields will help, but they are less effective against projectile weapons. Also, note that these specimens are wearing a uniform unlike the rest of the colonists. Do not think this will be an easy victory, and for such, you should be grateful. There is no honor in killing an opponent who is weak. If you have not tasted your own blood in the triumph, then you have gained nothing.”

  The warriors looked thoughtful as he gave control back to the Lieutenant and left them. Once, he had enjoyed leading other warriors and advising their commanders, but now they all just seemed too foolish and too eager for the victory so they could brag about their honor. He wondered if it was he who had changed or them. It could be either or both, but for some reason, he felt it had to be him. The salty taste of victory had turned to ash the day he’d held his last child.

  He left the troop caverns and headed for his own spartan quarters to prepare. It would be several hours yet before they made a landing, and he didn’t really need that much time but he was sick of the company now. He knew it had to do with what pulled him here. The demand kept pulsing through his head louder with each passing second. He would be happy once it was done and he could rest.

  Soon he would have his answers.

  Chapter 2

  Establishing orbit was, as expected, uneventful. There were no ships or defensive satellites and they swept anything else from orbit with their grav lances. Instead of destroying them outright, they simply used the gravity elements of their weapons to destabilize their orbits beyond their ability to correct. It was safer than leaving traces of their weapons’ direct effects.

  As they had come into their final approach, they received numerous variations on attempted communications from the colony. They did not respond but were tireless in their recording of every transmission for later consumption. Their translation algorithm was still a long way from complete, but they all agreed the tone of the communications swept through concern and finally into desperation before they stopped transmitting. It was completely unscientific, but they recorded their impressions in the logs. The science caste would study everything when they returned to their own space.

  “What do you make of these?” the Captain asked, pointing out some strange readings they had picked up while scanning the planet below. “I’ve not seen particles like this before and the sci-heads we have on the ship don’t know either.”

  Krelth leaned over the Captain’s chair and squinted at the numbers, but finally shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve not seen readings like this before or in those concentrations. They seem odd, and the particles start out far apart and only increase in distance. Did the science team have a guess?”

  “They didn’t say,” the Captain said but fidgeted for a moment, his tail flicking back and forth behind his chair. Finally, he grunted and snarled the next words out, “and I didn’t ask, either. Dammit.” Flicking one of his talons, he called up a request and momentarily a thin, dark-red Devlothen’s head popped up on his com board.

  “Yes, Captain?” asked the aging female. She was old by most of the crew’s standards, but her skin was still a few shades lighter than Krelth’s. “What can I do for you? I should think I don’t need to remind you that we’re rather busy at the moment.”

  “Yes, and I wouldn’t have called you if it weren’t important, Tral,” The Captain snapped. “About those odd sensor readings we’ve received, I understand you don’t know what they are, but do you have a guess? Any kind of supposition?”

  Tral paused and her eyes narrowed. Krelth knew the old scientist didn’t like to guess. He’d worked with her several times before and she was disturbingly full of the Warp with very little Weave. It was why he’d egged the Captain into asking because he knew Tral would never volunteer such information.

  “No, Captain, I don’t have a guess,” she finally said but pursed her lips. “But if I were to give a supposition, I’d have to say they looked like bleed-off particles. As if something very high energy were leaving the planet and making its way out of the system.”

  Krelth cursed, almost mirroring the Captain in his choice of words. He was angry enough he forgot himself and spoke over the Captain, which earned him a look. “Did they look like some sort of communication attempt?”

  Trel sighed but frowned, shifting her gaze to Krelth. “I suspect so, though it would be unlike anything we have seen before. I doubt they would have had the capacity to develop something like this. From their other technology we’ve sampled, it just doesn’t seem possible.”

  Krelth shook his head and turned to the Captain, ignoring the arrogant scientist. “This is why we do this, to see what they may be capable of, even if it’s unexpected.” He jabbed his claw at the readouts. “Look here, if it is a data stream of some sort and it does have a decay, it’s accelerating at an almost exponential rate. Trel, how far did our sensors detect this decay, and can you extrapolate how fast it might be traveling?”

  The Captain and Krelth both watched the small scientist turn away, snorting in irritation as she entered some calculations into an unseen panel.

  “This can’t be right?” she said, going a bit pale. She quickly ran the calculations again before looking up. “According to these figures, if it is a communication stream shedding particles, it would be traveling at well over one-hundred times the speed of light as it passed beyond the system radius. However,” she paused, taking a breath, “it was still accelerating as it passed beyond our sensor range. It could be days or even hours away from another planetary system or ship. It all depends on its transmissions and receipt protocols.”

  “Days or hours?” The Captain grunted, shaking his head. “Doesn’t change much from our standpoint, except to make sure we do not overstay our welcome. I imagine the scientist caste at home will be a bit eager to learn more, however. Tral, you will continue to collect information on this supposedly impossible energy effect.” He turned to Krelth even as he began to key in the commands for the troops to depart. “Your shuttle will be cleared to descend a full ten minutes after the raid troops have landed, battlemage. No time to waste.”

  Krelth was already moving off the bridge. He could feel the shudder-boom of the troop transports leaving and knew it was almost time to find out why he’d been drawn to this strange, distant planet.

  ***

  Krelth’s shuttle was by no means a normal vessel. It was an agent’s ship and as such, it held numerous technologies not normally available on smaller craft. The stealth package alone was worth more than three of the fast raider ship
s he’d just left. Once he cleared the sensor net of the Bastion’s Reach he dispersed a cloud of nanoscouts to get his own readings of what was happening below.

  The troop transports were still racing in but unlike the lack of resistance they’d received in orbit, there appeared to be ground-based batteries giving them some trouble. Their shields looked to be holding, but the ground fire was driving them to an alternate landing spot which would mean they would have further to travel before getting any decent combat. Fortunately, he was not being subject to the ground barrage due to his stealth package but he did notice an odd pattern to their fire.

  “Captain,” Krelth said over his personal com channel, tight beaming it back to the ship in his own ship’s shadow. He didn’t want to just speak to the squad leaders as that would bypass his intent to not interfere with the command structure. Still, it was important and if the Captain didn’t respond, he would do it anyway.

  “Yes, battlemage?” the Captain asked. He didn’t sound irritated and Krelth was glad of it. A landing raid was the wrong place to get into a pissing match, at least with your own side.

  “Check the pattern of their defense,” Krelth said, sending his own readings up to the ship. They could parse the information as well as he could, but there was no need to make them work for it. “It should be wider than it is to the Northeast. Is there anything odd in that direction?”

  “Hmmm. No, nothing that is fortified or dug in,” the Captain responded. “There are a few buildings out that way and a lot of life-signs, but the entire region is inundated with life-signs.”

  Krelth mulled it over for a few more moments before speaking. “There’s something there. They could have covered the entire colony but by the pattern of fire, they wanted us to think it was safer to land there. I’d… recommend advising your troop leaders to be on guard for an ambush.” There was something there, he was sure of it. Strangely, the Northeast was where the Warp and Weave were drawing him so he angled in that direction, sweeping out so he would not be coming in directly behind the transports and whatever welcome he was sure they were about to receive.