Shadow Stars (Universe on Fire Book 2)

by Ivan Kal

  “No,” Ethan’s voice said, and Grimm nearly fell to his knees, but Ethan held him up.

  Grimm opened his eyes and looked at Ethan, remembering the times when the boy had laughed, as rare a occurrence hearing a Dragon laugh was. “Why?” he whispered. “I deserve it.”

  “We are not really human. We were never raised like a normal person is supposed to be. We do not place the same values on familial connections. We know about our parents, but we never knew them; they are strangers to us. You do deserve death, but only because you violated them, stole from them. In order to protect humanity, we were taught everything there is to know about it. We know of the despicable actions that humans are capable of. It is in your nature. But for now, you are more valuable to us and to humanity alive. Killing you now would serve no purpose,” Ethan said.

  Grimm didn’t know what to say, if there was anything else to say.

  Remi stepped forward. “We will want a list of who our parents are, we want to know.”

  Grimm nodded, he did have a list, but he knew who the parents of the two of them were. The first two to wake up from their augmentations. Ethan caught Grimm’s look.

  “You know who our parents are?” He asked.

  Grimm nodded and responded immediately. “You and Remi are biological children of Captain Kane Reinhart and Commander Jane Jamison.”

  Ethan got a strange look on his face, one that Grimm hadn’t seen before. “Huh,” he said, as if he was surprised. “I didn’t think that it would matter... knowing I mean.”

  Remi had a similar expression on her face, but then she smiled at her brother. “At least we aren’t McCullagh’s. I can’t imagine what the ones who have his genes will think.”

  The group smiled at each other. Grimm could see the others wanting to know who their biological parents were, but he didn’t know from the top of his head.

  Grimm was reeling, he could barely put together a coherent thought, but a single thing came to his mind. “What would you have done, had I tried to lie?”

  Ethan and Remi exchanged a look, then answered him. “We would’ve killed you, and then taken Senka. After that we would’ve gone to Earth and decided if it was worth protecting, or if the Qash’vo’tar were right and you are far too dangerous to be allowed to spread among the stars.”

  Grimm’s heart pounded in his chest as he realized how close to the end they had all been. A single errant word from his mouth could have ended humanity. There was no doubt in Grimm’s mind that they could do what they said they could. McCullagh had some measures in place to prevent such a thing, but Grimm knew that there were no measures that could stop them now. They would’ve gotten control of Senka and the most advanced technology and magi-tech Earth had.

  They had created monsters, and only time would tell if the Dragons would watch over them from the shadows…or burn them all to ash.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Aiko sat in the rooms given to them by Norvi. It was a lavish suite with several connecting bedrooms and a large living room. Kane sat on a couch next to her, and across from them sat Norvi with Captain U’koll standing next to him.

  “I must again thank you for helping protect my home,” Norvi said.

  “No problem,” Kane said. The room looked spotless, as if the mansion hadn’t even been attacked. Kane had watched the clean-up, Norvi’s people were efficient. He was just disappointed that they hadn’t recovered any Val’ayash technology. Their suits had disintegrated along with all the dead bodies. The Val’ayash had also done something which had taken down all recording devices, there was no proof that they had ever been here.

  “For your help, I have decided to give you a gift,” Norvi told them as he pulled out a small datapad and gave it to them. Aiko reached out and took it, then glanced down. She was surprised at what she saw there.

  “You are giving us the FTL comms? I thought that the Val’ayash took most of the things in the vault?” she asked.

  Norvi inclined his head. “They did clear out most of the vault, mostly ancient tech. But the FTL comms were never there. I have another, more secret vault where I keep the more valuable things in my possession.”

  Aiko nodded, impressed. “Thank you, this will help us greatly.”

  “I am sure that it will… I just hope that you and your people will remember Illos, and continue nurturing a good relationship with us.”

  “I am sure that we will,” Aiko replied.

  Kane leaned forward. “I still don’t know why the Val’ayash would attack your auction here. I don’t think that they even need such a device, as their technology is so far ahead of everyone else’s—and it was their cache which contained it.”

  “Yes…” Norvi started. “Unless they don’t have that technology.”

  Aiko frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Think about it,” Norvi said. “The war between the Val’ayash and Zhal’Qash ended a long time ago, and yet the Val’ayash have remained hidden until now. My reports tell me that they only started moving more openly in recent years, although there are reports dating hundreds of years back of mysterious ships in the neutral zone. But there are only two reasons as to why they would attack my auction. One is that they don’t want the technology of the Zhal’Qash to fall into the hands of other nations—they don’t want anyone to be powerful enough to stop them once they return. I doubt that this is the case, since they could’ve just as easily destroyed my entire mansion and everything with it.”

  “And the second reason?” Aiko asked.

  “They, like us, are looking for ancient tech.”

  “We’ve seen their warships in battle, they don’t need any old tech,” Kane said.

  “But how do you know if that is what they had at their height? The only thing for certain you could say is that they are more advanced than the other nations—which might mean that they have some of their old technology back, but not necessarily all. You must remember, the Great War lasted for a long time. It toppled an empire and left an entire swath of space uninhabited. Many systems are even now completely inaccessible due to the terrible energies released from the war. The Zhal’Qash are thought to have been victorious, as it was their remnant who survived, and the Val’ayash’s numbers might have been reduced greatly in the war. The reason why they hadn’t shown themselves for so long might’ve been because they had been reclaiming what they lost, just like the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar,” Norvi explained.

  “That’s possible,” Aiko said. “But that means that they didn’t come here specifically to get the FTL comms. They might not have even known about it. They were loading up every crate they found because they knew there was going to be an auction here selling ancient tech in general.”

  “There are few people who know that I deal in such technology, which would mean that they have agents who could get that information,” Norvi said slowly.

  Aiko grimaced. Kane told her about what Kovac said. If the Val’ayash could compromise the bio-implants, then that would mean that anyone could be their agent. Every person in this area of space used the Zhal’Qash bio-implants to help them understand each other, but no one truly understood them. They couldn’t even make them from scratch, they could just replicate them. Aiko knew that the Val’ayash couldn’t hack into Zhal’Qash implants, they had said so themselves when they’d had Kane captured—but that only meant that the Zhal’Qash had had protections in place. The people now had none.

  Earth scientists and researchers had discovered why that was. In the Val’ayash database they had found a lot of information about Zhal’Qash technology; most of it was corrupted, but some had remained usable. Through it they had discovered that newly made bio-implants are in what the Zhal’Qash called the “basic setup mode.” Remaining in that mode allowed the Zhal’Qash to access the implants’ functions.

  On Earth they had found out how to put them in a closed mode, which was why Kovac’s device didn’t work on Kane. But the data didn’t mention the Val’ayash being able to control other pe
ople’s actions… The truth was that they just didn’t know enough about the Val’ayash to be able to tell their capabilities for certain.

  “We thank you for your gift,” Aiko began. “But we really need to get back to our ship, and get back to our people. The Val’ayash acting in the open is…worrying.”

  Norvi stood up. “I understand. I’ll make my transport available to take you to the station. Remember that you will always have a friend here on Illos.”

  ***

  A few hours later, they were up on the Prometheus and already moving away from the station, rushing to get back to Earth. They knew that it was against their orders, that they would reveal much to the Qash’vo’tar and the Zhal, but they had to warn them if the Val’ayash were coming.

  “How certain are we that this isn’t just some elaborate ruse? Kovac had been with the Val’ayash for years, and if they are controlling him…” Jasmine asked the table. The rest of Aiko’s officers were sitting there in a circle.

  Kane shook his head. “I don’t think that it is. I can’t be certain, of course, but their control didn’t seem so absolute, and he could still act autonomously. Which makes sense, as absolute control over his every action wouldn’t be useful—they would have to program him to act in every situation. I think that it is more like he has to obey their orders, but how he executes them and what he speaks, is up to him.”

  “We can’t afford not to act on the information, not if Earth is in peril,” Aiko said.

  Her officers nodded in agreement. With that, she turned to look at Chief Randor.

  “What can you tell me about the FTL comms?” Aiko asked. There was nothing that they could do for Earth, and there wouldn’t be anything for months, but they could focus on other things which could be of use.

  “It is an amazing piece of machinery, and I have no idea how it works,” Randor said. “It will take time, and people far smarter than me to figure it out.”

  “Keep looking at it. Any progress will make our people’s job easier back on Earth,” Aiko told him. After that, she dismissed them.

  Now they had a long trip back home—and bringing the news of a possible Val’ayash attack was not how she had imagined her homecoming going.

  ***

  It was a two-month trip from Illos to Earth, and that was inside the wormhole. Outside of it, in real space, more than eight months had passed. Aiko couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious as they exited the wormhole and entered Sol. Everyone on her bridge watched the holo anxiously, waiting for it to update. A few moments later, they started getting updates. There was no traffic in system, which immediately felt wrong to Aiko. She knew that Sol’s industry was expanding, that they had mining ships moving all over the system.

  “Captain, we are detecting ships in Earth orbit. Trinity station is dark, and we are detecting a lot of debris in system.”

  Aiko’s heart nearly stopped as she heard her sensor officer give her report. “What about Earth?”

  “We have confirmation: the ships in Earth orbit match data we were given from the Qash’vo’tar. I read three Val’ayash battleships, three battlecruisers, one light cruiser and six transport ships.” The sensor officer turned to look at Aiko. “Captain, there is no sign of our ships, nor Qash’vo’tar or Zhal ships in system.”

  “Battle stations! Get the squadrons ready, power up all weapons,” Aiko said. She turned to look at her sensor officer and opened her mouth to speak, but her comm officer spoke before she could. “Captain! I am receiving a data transmission. It is coming from a nearby defense-network satellite that just came on-line.”

  “How did we not detect it before? And how did Earth see us already?” Aiko asked.

  “The satellite just self destructed, Captain. My best guess is that it was shut down, and I believe the response was automatic. They must’ve set its systems to stand-by until a UTS ship came close, then it powered up and sent the transmission.” The comm officer tapped her board quickly and Aiko’s updated with the data. It was a transmission from UTS Council and Fleet: data about the Val’ayash invasion of the system and instructions on what to do next. Inwardly, Aiko released a sigh of relief. She had dreaded having to make a decision herself. She skimmed through the data and frowned—but now she knew what to do.

  Jasmine was reading through the same data she had and she frowned, too. “They want us to go to an empty system?”

  “I want a wormhole to Jar Allera ready as soon as possible,” Aiko ordered as she sorted through the message. She didn’t have the time to see records of the battles, but the part about them going to an empty system had to be connected with helping Earth. There was no reason to send them there otherwise.

  “Jar Allera? That is in the opposite direction of the coordinates they gave us,” Jasmine said.

  “If the Zhal can read wormhole signatures, so can the Val’ayash. We will exit the tunnel early and then set a course to the proper coordinates.” And if the Val’ayash try to follow, at least Jar Allera had formidable defenses.

  Jasmine nodded in understanding.

  “Captain, we have movement from the Val’ayash ships,” her sensors officers reported.

  “Get that wormhole opened right now,” Aiko ordered. She knew that Val’ayash ships could travel at FTL speeds without the use of wormholes. She didn’t know what limitations those drives had, or even if they had any, but she was not going to have her ship sitting here while a Val’ayash battleship came calling.

  “Opening the wormhole now,” Jasmine reported.

  Aiko watched anxiously as the wormhole formed in front of her ship, obscuring their view of Earth. A few moments later they passed through, and the wormhole closed behind them. Aiko sighed in relief and looked at her crew, who looked at her with expressions of fear and worry.

  “Jasmine, call an officers meeting immediately,” Aiko said as she stood up and started for her ready room. There was more data in the transmission than what she had the chance to skim through, and she planned on studying it all.

  ***

  “According to the data packet we received, the Val’ayash arrived in Sol twelve days ago, with a force of four battleships, four battlecruisers, two light cruisers, and six transport ships,” Jasmine said to the room. The Prometheus had already left the wormhole toward Alpha Centauri and turned toward the coordinates provided to them. They expected to arrive in just over two days.

  “There were seven Val’ayash warships in Earth’s orbit,” Kane commented.

  “The others were destroyed in battle—the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar had one battleship and two heavy cruisers each in system, and along with our five carriers they fought the Val’ayash,” Aiko said and accessed the holo of the table. A moment later, the records of the battle appeared in the middle.

  They could see a massive wormhole opening a long way above Mars, and ten warships exiting from it, followed by six large transport ships. The records were accelerated, but they could clearly see the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar react. They moved away from Trinity station and moved to intercept. The UTS system defense opened fire and satellites and defense platforms fired missiles and lasers as the Val’ayash entered their range. Almost none of the missiles got through the Val’ayash battleships’ point defense, which were covering their entire formation, and the lucky few which did detonated harmlessly against their shields. The Val’ayash started taking down the defenses like they were nothing.

  The five UTS Atlas-class carriers deployed their fighter squadrons and rushed to join the fight, and by then the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar were engaged in battle. Aiko remembered watching the recordings the first time and having been surprised to see the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar battleships holding their own. Both races’ ships were about the same mass as the Val’ayash battleships, but the Val’ayash were clearly more advanced, and they outnumbered them. The Zhal battleship fired a beam of some kind and the Qash’vo’tar deployed missiles far faster and more powerful than what Aiko had ever seen. They hammered at the Val’ayash, focusing on a
single battleship—while their escorts, the four heavy cruisers, attempted to keep pressure on the other Val’ayash warships.

  Meanwhile she could see a stream of transports leave the Trinity station and head toward Earth, evacuating the personnel to the planet.

  The amazingly coordinated attack from the Qash’vo’tar and the Zhal managed to take down the Val’ayash battleship’s shields, but they had taken a beating in the process. Val’ayash missile salvos were getting through their point defense, and beams of purple light were hitting the battleships and carving chunks of their kotarium-based hulls away. Aiko had seen those beams destroy a cruiser in a single shot, but she knew that those beams, or whatever they were, lost power over distance.

  Then the UTS fighters arrived and started doing attack runs on the Val’ayash cruisers. They were losing fighters at a rapid rate, but then one of the battlecruiser’s shields failed as the Zhal and Qash’vo’tar cruisers focused fire on it, and a few moments later several missile salvos from the fighters slammed against its hull and blew it up. Immediately afterward, though, the Zhal battleship was hit by several missiles and another Val’ayash battleship fired its main weapon, piercing the hull, and the Zhal ship stopped firing back. The Val’ayash missiles already targeting it slammed into the undefended hull and the ship was blown to pieces. A Qash’vo’tar cruiser followed close behind it, and then a Zhal cruiser. The Terran fighters tried to help the remaining Zhal and Qash’vo’tar ships by taking down missiles, but it wasn’t enough.

  Then the Qash’vo’tar battleship surged forward, firing with all of its weapons: lasers, plasma, and missiles left the ship in a wave of fire, all slamming into the Val’ayash battleship. The fighters followed the battleship, helping to screen it from the rest of Val’ayash fire, and dying. Then the battleship punched through the Val’ayash battleship’s hull, and a squadron of Terran fighters blinked in close and fired everything that they had left. The Val’ayash battleship buckled and was then torn to pieces as explosions rocked it apart. But the wounded Qash’vo’tar battleship had taken too much damage, and the rest of the Val’ayash group finished it off. The remaining cruisers were taken out quickly after that, leaving only the five human carriers, and the surviving fighters which were speeding back toward their ships to resupply.