by Ivan Kal
“I can’t understand you, Adrian. The more power you’ve gained, the less human you’ve become. Now, I don’t know if you can even be considered human anymore. And I…I cannot trust you anymore.”
They looked at each other in silence, both understanding that there was no coming back from this. Too much had been said, truths hidden deep finally spoken. After a while, Adrian stood up, picked up the box on the table, and turned before walking toward the doors.
He paused a step before the exit and turned.
“I will always be thankful to you and the Empire, Tomas. You gave me a safe space to be who I needed to be, to grow and become who I am today. The Nomad Fleet will stay as a part of the Great Alliance. If you are attacked by the Enlightened, we will be there—but I will walk my own path. Stopping the Enlightened is more than just fighting them. It is understanding their motives and means. Aranis had spent more than a century living among us, and I know from that that they are not the monsters that you all believe them to be. I agree that they need to be stopped, not because I particularly care about life, but because without doing so I will never have the chance to meet all those who have the potential of being my peer in the future. I seek one thing only, Tomas…but as always, our ultimate goal is the same.”
With that, Adrian left the room, leaving Tomas alone with his thoughts.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Year 717 of the Empire — Scutum Centaurus galaxy arm — galactic rim
Loranis walked through the streets of the city that rested on the southern continent of the Garaf homeworld. The Garaf had fought hard for their worlds, but in the end each had fallen, until finally her forces had reached their home. Here, their last stand was even now taking place. Her Overseers led her Created in the assaults across the planet, and each Garaf death was a new Created for her armies.
This area of the city had not yet been attacked by her troops. It was the last free bastion of the Garaf, and Loranis, in a body of a Garaf, walked among them, listening, learning, committing to memory this people that would soon disappear from the galaxy forever.
The Garaf were a short race, with humanoid features similar to those of the People, with green skin and patchy fur. They had put up a good fight, even though it had been hopeless. Loranis had respect for them nonetheless, for their struggle and their place in the galactic tapestry.
“Dava,” came a voice, which made Loranis turn her head to the side. An older female Garaf walked next to her. “You’ve come back.”
“Yes,” Loranis answered simply.
“What is the word? Is the army having any success?” the woman, whose name was Bera, asked.
“No. We are still losing,” Loranis as Dava said.
“This is punishment,” Bera said solemnly. “We’ve angered the gods, and they are punishing us.”
Loranis shook her head. “No, there is nothing divine about this. We are just in their way.”
“How can anything evolve to be like this,” Bera whispered, horror slipping into her face. “Did you see? When they feed and take our dead to create more of theirs?”
“I have. It is…sickening,” Loranis said, only half lying. She had never been a fan of the way the Created reproduced. But they were not just their armies—they were more. They gathered the Sha into themselves, ripping it from the life forms they fought and stored it within themselves. A portion was then used to mold the biological mater of the dead into base components that they then used to create more Created, or to grow their bioships. But the other, much larger portion was transferred to the Living-ships, where the three had then used it to create the Conduit. That was no longer a necessity, however, as the Conduit itself was finished—the only thing left was for the finishing touches to be done when it was placed in the amplifier and for the relays to be positioned around the galaxy. That meant that there was more Sha now available to increase their numbers.
And they were going to need them if they wanted to fulfill their mission. The galaxy had grown more dangerous than they had anticipated.
The two of them continued walking through the streets, heading toward one of the city’s food stations. All around them were refugees from all over the planet, all under the watchful eyes of the Garaf military. Everyone tried to put up a strong face, but to a telepath like Loranis their masks were easy to see through. Under the surface was despair, and hopelessness. Their pain was real, and it struck at her heart. But she knew that they would all die anyway, and so she steeled herself.
Up overhead the shield that covered the city flickered as orbital bombardment began anew. The city’s shields had proven very powerful, enough so that they had survived her fleets’ attempts to take it down. But it wouldn’t matter much in the end; the shield was a half sphere that covered everything above them, but not below. Already, Loranis could feel her Created nearing their objective.
Loranis and Bera reached their destination, and got in line to wait for food, but Loranis knew that it would not be long now. The people around her were keeping their heads down, trying not to acknowledge the lights flashing above them. A few would look up from time to time and shudder, then turn to their fellows and speak of meaningless things, trying to pretend that everything was all right. Those in the military were different; they watched the sky, and in their minds Loranis knew that they knew how this all was going to end. They only didn’t know how long it would take. It was why they didn’t notice the soft rumbling of the ground beneath their feet.
The ground exploded upward, and the throngs of Created surged forward, attacking the Garaf around them with abandon.
These Created were of the simple warrior breed, and had almost no intelligence except what Loranis had embedded into their minds. The warrior breed was taller than the Garaf, and thin, with two legs and two arms that ended in claws. They were gangly, with tough brown hides that looked more like bark that could be found on many trees across the galaxy, the altered forms of the plant life of the homeworld of the People. From their backs curved bone spikes, which loomed over their heads and pointed forward. Their heads were elongated with snouts filled with teeth. They unleashed the Sha stored in their bodies to devastating effect. Their spikes glowed and energy flashed forward, striking and killing.
Every death released the Sha inside the Garafs’ bodies, and the Created sucked it all up, fueling their Sha more. There was no hope for the Garaf; this was not the only location where her Created had surfaced. Soon, the entire city would fall.
Bera turned to Loranis, grabbing her hand and pulling, trying to lead them away to safety. Loranis stayed in place. Bera turned around, confused and scared, and looked at Loranis, who gave her a sad little smile. The other woman had no idea, but Loranis was grateful for what she had tried to do, and so in an instant she plunged into Bera’s mind and put her to sleep. The woman slumped and Loranis caught her, and then a moment later she pulled all the Sha that Bera had in her body from it, forcing it to abandon the molecules that held the woman together. The woman first shrunk, and then broke apart into dust. Loranis watched through the Sha state as a ball of compressed Sha floated in her hands, then looked around before seeing one of her Created nearby. She sent the Sha flying into the body of the Created, who soaked it up and shone for a moment to her senses.
The Created noticed her then, and a few even charged her. Loranis chuckled at the Created and assumed her evolved form. The Created diverted their course and kept running, now moving around her as if they had always intended to do so. She grew taller and lithe, then horns sprouted and curved back from her head as her skin turned deep orange, and flowing black hair grew and fell below her shoulders. Another six horns sprung from her spine, curving to the sides. She was naked, and aside from her skin tone and horns looked much like she had before she had become one of the Enlightened.
When the life form they had created attached itself to them, their natural evolution had been accelerated. They had evolved in moments in what would’ve otherwise taken millions of years. Their connection
to the Sha had intensified as they were bombarded by the sheer ocean that the lifeform had gathered from their surroundings, and they had seen everything when they had for the first time ever been thrown into the Sha state.
The others had evolved differently than her. Doranis had grown into a beast with five sets of limbs, whereas Aranis was covered in a carapace, and his wings grew wider, larger, more powerful. Their faces had changed, became more ethereal, more predatory. They had moved beyond what the People had been.
Loranis knew that the only reason they had achieved the Sha state was because of their unnaturally accelerated evolution. It was the culmination of what life was supposed to be. Loranis and Aranis had had many conversations on the topic, and both agreed that had the People had survived for long enough. Had they not meddled with the Universe’s plan, they would have achieved such states as well—or at least, those most exceptional would have.
This knowledge was what made the fact that the children of Axull Darr could do the same all the more impressive. Aranis and Loranis suspected that it had something to do with the fact that they, too, were similar to the Enlightened. They were two distinct lives merged together: life Axull Darr had found on their worlds, then adjusted, enhanced and upgraded, with his own genetics. They were both of the People and of life naturally occurring. That was what most life in the galaxy was now; yet there were not many people who could enter the Sha state. Only the exceptional, the strongest and the most capable had what it took to achieve it.
She shook her head and turned her attention back to the events around her. The Gafar military was fighting her Created, but they had no hope to stop them. Loranis looked around and saw her Created attempting to climb a wall on which the Gafar had fortifications, but their turrets were cutting into her Created and keeping them from climbing.
Loranis unfurled her mind, and thousands of threads of Sha exploded out of her and stabbed into the simple minds of the Created. She walked forward as her Created stilled, and then exploded into action, guided by her mind. They raised shields in front of themselves and overlapped them to make them stronger, and to cover the entirety of the throng. Then she sent the next orders—holes in the shields appeared as half of the Created leaned forward and opened their jaws. Plasma streams left their mouths and fired through the holes, bathing the walls and burning the Gafar forces to nothing. Loranis walked through her throng as the Created who had spewed fire dropped to the ground dead, as they had depleted all of their Sha. Loranis did not worry; the Created warrior breeds were tools for the Enlightened to use, and she could always make more.
She reached the still superheated wall that was melting and ordered the Created forward. They jumped at it and smashed into it, punching, kicking, head-butting, even as they damaged themselves, killed themselves and trampled one another. They could not disobey her orders.
As the wall caved in, Loranis sent her Created through with their shields deployed in front of them. The Gafar in the military base fired and her Created soaked the fire with their shields. But the Created did not have as much Sha to be able to use it for long, and their shields started failing, but Loranis always had another Created ready to step in and keep them all safe. As they created a beachhead, Loranis walked inside the walls and looked at the Gafar soldiers. They looked at her with fear in their eyes. She could imagine what they were thinking; they had never seen her before, never seen anything but her warrior breeds. Now they had seen her, the master of their nightmare.
She did not let them ponder on the meanings of her presence for long. She reached into their minds and nudged them to where she wanted. The Gafar turned on one another, firing weapons and killing their friends, brothers and sisters in arms.
With the Sha state thrumming inside of her, she cast her mind across the city and saw that all of her Created were now in position. Loranis walked a few more steps forward and stopped at the exact center of the city. Through the Sha, her mind spread to all of her throng, and through them she sent a telepathic attack that slammed into the minds of every living Gafar inside the city, no matter where they were or how they attempted to hide. A moment later, silence descended on the city as it became no more than a graveyard.
Loranis gave orders to her Created to go through the city and gather all the dead. Their biological material would serve well for the creation of new warrior breeds.
Her job done, she bent space and returned to her ship up in orbit.
The Gafar were no more.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Year 717 of the Empire — Sanctuary
The victory in the Orna system had made for a great morale boost among Johanna’s forces. Their first true engagement against the Enlightened, and they had proved that they could take them on. She looked through the reports, seeing to minor issues as her forces secured the system. The system no longer needed them, but they would stay and reinforce the system and the rest of Orna territory unless they received orders from Sol to move elsewhere. Already, Johanna had assembled patrols and had them on routes through Orna territory.
The traffic in system had already returned to normal as Orna freighters moved their materials from their processing plants to the access point and then to Sol and other systems where the Great Alliance had need of them.
As she was focused on her tasks, one of her officers approached her.
“Fleet Master, we have a visitor from Sol,” the man said nervously.
“Someone from the Fleet?” Johanna asked.
“No, it is Moirai with Warmaster Farkas,” the man said slowly.
Johanna turned to look at the man. “Did he say what he wants?” she asked. She was truly curious, as she knew that the Nomad Fleet had refused to fight in these, as Anessa had put it, smaller engagements.
“He announced himself, and said that he has business with the Krashinar. He asks for permission to travel through the system.”
Johanna snorted at the idea that Adrian needed permission to go anywhere. She doubted that there was anyone who could stop him. Regardless, Johanna was already too occupied to deal with Adrian, so she waved her hand at the man. “Fine. Tell him that he can move in system as much as he wants.”
The man bowed and turned around, leaving her alone. Johanna put Adrian out of her mind and focused on her job.
* * *
“FIGHT SOON?” Moirai asked for the tenth time since they had left the Kenos system. Adrian sighed again. He knew that Moirai was bored, but he hadn’t really thought through what it meant to have a sentient beast as his warship. He turned his eyes to Iris, who was floating close to him and trying to look innocent.
“You had to tell her, didn’t you?” Adrian accused his oldest friend.
“How was I to know that I wasn’t supposed to?” Iris replied, faking naiveté.
Adrian knew better. “You basically share a half of a brain with her, and you are trying to tell me that you didn’t know how she would get?”
“FIGHT SOON?” Moirai rumbled again.
Adrian rubbed his temples and reached out with his mind. “Soon, yes. Be patient.”
“PATIENCE STUPID, WANT NOW.”
Adrian closed his eyes in frustration.
“Someone’s cranky,” Iris said, and Adrian opened his eyes to glare at her.
Sure, she was right, but that didn’t excuse her behavior. He knew that she had done it on purpose, to make Moirai pester him and take his mind off what had happened with Tomas. He just didn’t appreciate it. It reminded him too much of the time long ago when he had been trying to get drunk and she’d had the nanites in his system neutralize the alcohol. It had been a simpler time, then, when heartbreak had been the worst of his worries. If he remembered correctly—and he did, as he had a perfect memory—she’d said that she wouldn’t allow him to get drunk and wallow in self pity.
“We need help if we are going to be fighting against the AI’s forces. We are here to ask for it,” Adrian told Moirai, choosing to ignore Iris’s comment.
“AI? COLD MACHINE
BORING. DOESN’T SCREAM.”
Adrian closed his eyes again. He was pretty sure that Moirai was just playing with him. Cold machine? She couldn’t have come up with that by herself; she probably heard it from Araxi. The Krashinar had such stupid names for the metal ships of other races.
He knew that Moirai understood far more than she pretended to. Adrian opened his eyes and glared at Iris, and for just a moment he saw a smirk on her face, which was then immediately gone.
He didn’t for a second think that he wasn’t supposed to see it. Iris controlled her avatar fully, and he knew that she could hear what Moirai was saying because her second brain shared a part of Iris’ core.
“All right, enough. I am not in the mood.”
Iris stuck her tongue out at him and then disappeared.
“NO FUN,” Moirai sent, and now allowed him to feel the full breadth of her emotions. She was amused, and thought that poking at him was fun.
Adrian growled and stood up from his throne, walking out of the room. Moirai and Iris knew where they were going, and there was no need for him to stay back there and be mocked by them.
* * *
A few minutes later, Adrian exited one of Moirai’s shuttles and stepped into the inner hollow of the great beast Araxi. The Old Scar was there to greet him, and Adrian walked over.
“Old Scar,” Adrian sent.
“Adrian,” Old Scar sent back. “To what do I owe this visit?”
They walked deeper into the great beast’s belly, and for a moment Adrian entertained the idea of waiting until they were someplace more secure, but then he remembered that it didn’t matter in this case, not with the Krashinar. There was no technology here that the AI could listen in on, and the shuttle was completely under Iris’s control.
“I need your help,” Adrian sent.
“Speak,” Old Scar sent back.