by P P Corcoran
At the last moment, it had taken a Human fleet commanded by Admiral Ai Jing to save the day. The alien shapes of battleships and heavy cruisers of the Terran Defense Force filled the space around Alona and formed a wall of speeding missiles and blinking coherent light which at first slowed, and then halted the enemy’s advance.
Under Jing, the Human Battle Fleet advanced and took the fight to the Others. Pushing forward repeatedly and leaving a trail of wrecked, atmosphere-spewing starships in their wake, Jing’s forces ripped the heart from the Others’ attack.
With victory assured, the Human Fleet had not paused to take breath and receive the heartfelt thanks of the Empire, before vanishing as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the surviving units of the once proud Imperial Navy to pick up the pieces of the titanic clash and to relegation to a tertiary role, in the defense of its own home.
It was not the Human’s victory that would be Rikel’s abiding memory of that day, it was the look on the face of Grand Admiral Raga as he left the bunker on the conclusion of the battle. The admiral’s face reflected the shame of the entire Imperial Navy, they had failed in their one responsibility; the safety of the Empire.
On that day Lieutenant Commander Rikel, along with every other officer and rating of the fleet, had sworn that never again would the fate of the Empire rest with outsiders.
A deep, double tone sounded from the speakers concealed in the ceiling warning of an impending announcement. After a pause, the transport captain’s voice addressed the ship’s crew and passengers.
“All hands, this is the captain. We have arrived at our destination.” A smile tugged at the edges of Rikel’s lips as, even now, the announcement conspicuously left out the name of the secret base.
“We’ll remain under power for approximately two hours, as we make our approach to space dock, where all passengers will disembark. At this time, I would remind all passengers and crew that all data devices, no matter how secure, must remain powered down until they have been inspected and passed by space dock security.” Absently Rikel reached for the personal comp which was a permanent fixture on his belt. During his time on the Advanced Tactics Course he had found himself growingly intrigued by how rapidly the naval forces of the Commonwealth had adapted its weaponry and tactics as it faced the ever changing and various threats of first the Others, then the Turak and now the Black Ships. Rikel had been actively encouraged by the course instructors to research and produce a thesis which, and Rikel took great pride informing anyone who would listen, would become part of the courses curriculum once he had completed it.
The captain’s thumb brushed the power down icon; however, his thumb only partially covered the icon, the other part of his thumb came to rest on the power up icon. The circuitry controlling the small device registered the conflicting commands and, as there was more pressure on power up, decided to remain operational. As per its programming when it failed to detect any further inputs after thirty seconds the small display screen went dark. Anyone giving the device a cursory glance, including its owner, assumed that it was powered down.
Rikel’s attention returned to his discussion with Tova, oblivious to the state of his personal comp.
✽✽✽
ABOARD THE SAVIOR
If an artificial intelligence had the ability to physically display emotion, then Chera would have been the epitome of frustration. Despite her best efforts over the past five months she had failed to penetrate the veil of security that the Alonans had draped around their computer cores. As she had explained to Commander Okal at length it was not that the Alonans had superior firewalls or computing power to block her efforts to invade their systems. Rather they had gone for a far simpler solution. They had either powered down every non-essential computer core going as far as physically disconnecting every cable and interface or, where computer assistance was essential, it had been scrubbed clean of all data not required to perform its immediate task.
The growing number of completed warships that were being moved to holding areas around the system for trials prior to being commissioned into service were doing so minus all but the most limited of navigational data. Barely enough for them to navigate around Foram without plunging themselves into some local planetary body or rocky asteroid. With Okal’s permission Chera had gone a step further in her efforts to secure more information on the Alonans. The AI had developed piggyback programs that she had covertly inserted into Captain Calan’s personal comp. The Alonan officer had been assigned to Okal as his personal liaison and had become the Saiph ship commanders constant shadow. However, Okal and Chera’s plans had been thwarted by the good captains end of day routine. Before Calan returned for his nightly briefings with General Lura and Chief Scientist Kilor in the command center the Alonan stripped out of all the clothing he had been wearing while in Okal’s presence and put on a fresh uniform while Calan’s personal comp remained secure in a locker ready for him the following day. The discarded clothing was then vaporized. It may have struck some as an extreme measure however, it was effective in preventing Okal or any of his crew from attaching a listening device to the Alonan.
During Okal’s initial meeting with General Lura and Kilor the Alonans had gone to great lengths to lay out the danger facing their empire. Okal sat through a well-orchestrated and rehearsed presentation where he was subjected to image after image of ravaged worlds laid waste by the unwitting, fanatical Others and, once revealed, the puppet masters themselves. The Black Ships of The Leader. The general gave Okal a detailed briefing on the defeat of an alliance of worlds called the Commonwealth Union of Planets. This alliance had been made up of the remains of what Okal had identified as the remaining Seed Worlds and, to Okal’s horror, even their combined strength had not been enough to overcome the single minded purpose of the Others to rid the galaxy of any threat to The Leaders plan of Saiph domination of the galaxy.
Okal recognized that as the last remaining Seed World the carefully constructed plans of the Elders were within a hairs width of being destroyed. The current perilous situation that the Empire found itself in was only compounded in Okal’s opinion as Kilor detailed how the Empire had been able to match and, in some areas, supersede the technology employed by the Others. However, matching the technology of the Black Ships was simply beyond the Empires capability.
Okal was forced to agree with General Lura’s analysis of the Empires current predicament. Facing the numerically superior, though technologically inferior, forces of the Others, in the balance of probabilities, the Empire had every reason to assume that they would be victorious. The Black Ships were another matter entirely. Lura’s explanation for The Leaders decision to reveal himself and his forces was that he could see the Empire was gaining the upper hand in their war with the Others so he had therefore decided to strengthen the Others hand by employing the Black Ships and their technological edge to secure victory at crucial points in the ongoing war.
The Saiph commander had found this piece meal tactical employment of the Black Ships puzzling. As Kilor had gone to great lengths to explain the Black Ships were generations beyond anything the Empire had the ability to build. The Black Ships energy shielding made them virtually impervious to any weaponry the Empire could bring to bear while the Black Ships antimatter warheads could lay waste to any target of their choosing. Why had The Leader not seized his obvious advantages and sought a swift and decisive battle to end the war? Why, if he had already defeated this Commonwealth and scoured their home worlds clean of life, had The Leader not done the same to Alona? The version of the truth that General Lura and Chief Scientist Kilor were spinning was too full of holes for Okal to swallow. The final straw had been the look in Captain Calan’s eyes as he had stood silently throughout his superior’s brief. The junior officers face may have remained stoically impassive however, the man’s eyes showed the turmoil behind the mask. Then and there Okal resolved to re double his efforts to get to the real truth behind what was happening beyond the limits of the Foram system.
For the time being though, he and his crew would play along. Whatever else was behind the Alonan’s attempt to deceive him Okal was in no doubt that the long dead Saiph Elders would have wanted him to extort every muscle and sinew to salvage what he could from their grand plan to ensure that some trace of their legacy survived. A legacy which The Leader and his followers with their warped idea of Saiph genetic superiority appeared dead set on destroying.
Okal’s thoughts filled with images of the Savior’s storage banks. Safe and secure within those rows upon rows of glass vials was the Elders last gasp gamble at ensuring a future for the Saiph as a race. Seeds of every description. Fertilized embryos of every living creature on the planet at the time of Savior and her sister ships launch. At the time it had seemed to many, even some of the Elders, that they were being overly cautious. The Leader and those misguided souls that followed him had fled and vanished among the stars. Okal and his crew had not even been born until two generations after The Leaders escape from prison. However, the Saiph were a patient and thoughtful race. No decision was ever rushed. Every move was carefully planned, its ramifications considered to the Nth degree. History weighed heavy on the Elders.
Long ago, when the Saiph aspired to be a benevolent guiding hand among the less developed worlds, a misguided intervention on a primitive, warring planet had ended in cataclysmic failure. This failure had seen the Saiph physically withdraw from space in all but the most basic of ways. The plans for vast fleets of ships which would spread out from Saiph and carry multitudes of eager colonists was scrapped with only a small number having ever been completed. The events on that distant, primitive world had been burned so deep into the Saiph physic that never again would the Saiph physically set foot on another world or intervene in an established civilizations growth. Instead, the Elders would select worlds in the early stages of development. With a genetic tweak there, and a helping hand there, the Saiph would ensure the success of a single evolutionary line. And embedded within that species DNA would be traces of Saiph. When, inevitably, the star around which the world of the Saiph orbited, died, taking the Saiph with it this plan would ensure that something of them would remain.
Now, however, it fell upon Okal to intervene once more in the affairs of the galaxy. The Alonans had taken Commander Okal at his word when the Saiph had offered technological aid in their struggle against The Leader. Members of the Savior’s crew worked shoulder to shoulder with Alonan engineers adapting ship and weaponry design. Overnight the Imperial Navy made advances that otherwise would have taken generations. All that was required was the crews that would man these new ships. And it was the transports carrying these crews that Chera had identified as the new target of her attempts to secure the information Okal had commanded of her.
With subtle ethereal tendrils Chera infiltrated every Alonan computer and communications system she could. Searching for the answers that Okal needed without success. A tight beam transmission between Foram port control and an arriving transport had carried an extra few lines of computer code. The highly sophisticated program had given Chera unrestricted access to the transports on board systems. The lack of data held in the ships navigational systems had come as no surprise to Chera. Two sets of coordinates. A point of origin and a destination. The encrypted communications logs were similarly free of anything useful. The transports manifest held only the barest of details on the ship’s crew and passengers. Names and ranks with no indication of previous duty stations. Chera had to grudgingly admit that the Alonans took their security measures seriously.
Spreading out through the transports internal systems Chera tried in vain to access any electronic systems which were being carried as cargo. The simple expedient of air gapping the cargo and removing their power sources denied any potential information source to her. Onward through the transports systems she swept. Remorseless in her hunt. Then, a brief flare in a spectrum that no eye conceived by nature would ever spot but which stood out to Chera like a star going supernova. A single, steady signal source attached to the transports power conduits. A device sipping minuscule amounts of energy as it kept itself fully charged. Chera barreled toward it like a subway train down a tunnel. Chera flung herself across the radio link between the power transfer node and the devices receiver. Impatiently the AI crashed through the inadequate encryption protocols into the mass of data beyond.
The low beep at his waist caused Captain Rikel to look down where his eyes fell upon the steady green light illuminated on the control panel of his personal comp. “What!”
“Security are going to give you hell, Rikel.” Chided a softly chortling Tova.
Rikel mumbled a string of expletives as he pulled the comp off his belt and forcefully thumbed the power down icon before flicking the small device over and slipping out the power source tapping a finger against his nose.
“What security don’t know can’t hurt them.” He said to the older man.
Both Alonan captains chuckled at their shared contempt for the officers of Imperial Security returning their attention to the conversation going on around them expounding theories of their eventual destination.
✽✽✽
The tingling of Okal’s subcutaneous implant connected by wires finer than the thinnest strand of hair directly into the speech and hearing centers of his brain alerted the Saiph commander that the ships AI had an urgent message for him which she did not want to share with another’s ears. That other was currently sharing a lunch time meal with the commander and the Savior’s chief engineer.
Okal discreetly glanced across at Captain Calan smothering an amused smile as the poor Alonan’s eyes glazed over with incomprehension as the Savior’s chief engineer began a highly technical explanation of the intricacies of the energy shielding employed by the Black Ships and how to overcome it. Okal guessed that he had at least a few minutes to communicate with Chera before Captain Calan managed to maneuver the conversation around to something he at least had a chance of understanding.
“Go ahead, Chera.”
“Commander, your suspicions are correct. The Alonans have been lying to us.”
A grimace formed on Okal’s face before he quickly blanked his features hoping the ever observant Calan had not noticed his momentary slip of composure. The sound of the ongoing conversation between the engineer and the Alonan gave no hint that Calan was aware of anything unusual.
“How badly?” Asked Okal already feeling a growing sense of foreboding before Chera answered.
“Let’s say that the Alonan’s version of the war with the Supreme Leader is more fantasy than truth.”
“Very well. Compile a full report for senior staff and we shall convene this evening after the majority of our Alonan friends have left for the night.”
“Understood, Commander.” Replied Chera terminating her link leaving Okal with his thoughts. The Saiph commander raised his head from his food eying the Alonan captain who, despite himself, Okal had come to regard as a friend which only made the sense of betrayal hurt even more. The chief engineer shared a joke with Captain Calan catching with a mouth full of food which turned his laugh into a spluttering cough, eyes filling with water he reached for the glass of water on the table before him. Calan’s reaction to the bad joke only made the engineer laugh harder. Distracted, Calan failed to notice the sad look which cast a shadow over Okal’s features. By the time the Alonan recovered and his eyes cleared the Saiph commander had a wide smile fixed on his face as he too pretended to enjoy Calan’s discomfort.
✽✽✽
The small gathering in Okal’s private quarters had sat in growing disbelief as Chera had relayed to them the salient points of the Alonan Rikel’s diligent research for his academy paper. For his part, Okal had spent the time watching his officer’s reactions having already gone over this new intelligence with the Savior’s AI. Throughout Chera’s presentation there had been the occasional gasp of horror, followed by shakes of the head and the odd muffled curse. Okal understood his subordinates’ reactio
ns completely for Rikel’s paper did not pull any punches. The Alonan captain had succinctly and without prejudice covered everything from the Alonan’s first encounter with the pre-Commonwealth humans, the conflict which had spawned the Commonwealth’s formation and the Alonan’s refusal to join it, through to the ultimate defeat of the Others by this multi race Commonwealth and the discovery of the true extent of their holy Ehita as they scoured the galaxy of all sentient life in the name of the Creator.
It was this final revelation that had led to the sullen silence that had descended on Okal’s quarters. It appeared that although the version of events that General Lura had shared with Okal where peppered with lies, the core truth had remained. The Saiph were responsible for a genocide which had spanned the stars killing countless billions. The weight of history lay heavy on every shoulder in the room.
“Friends.” Okal’s voice was low and soft. “As we suspected, the Alonans have lied to us.” There came grunts of agreement and nodding heads. “However,” Said Okal his voice firming. “If we’d been in their position would we not have done the same?” Okal scanned the room for a disagreeing voice but there was none. “As I thought, so, my decision to aid the Alonans has not changed…” Okal paused as heads came up sharply, mouths opening ready to voice objections. Okal raised a hand halting any disagreement. “For the moment.” All eyes in the room locked onto their commander as the officers focused their attention awaiting Okal’s plan.
“Chera, display the star chart.” Instantly a mass of stars appeared. Hovering in the center of the room and rotating slowly. “From our unwitting Alonan source Chera has plotted the star systems under Alonan control.” The display expanded to show Alona, seat of the Empire, and Geta, the second life-bearing planet of the system. Similarly, Chera had highlighted the Alonan colony worlds of Balat, Kathan and Opero.