“How long it will take?”
“I’m told we’ll be ready in twenty Bellona days, a little bit more than three weeks Earth time. It’s not just transit, but also the time needed to resupply all fleets, reassign personnel, perform the last checks and a million of other details that I’m relieved to pass to Erwain Sen’Dorien, the admiral in charge of this operation. Queen’s prerogatives, for I had more than my share of navy logistics, thousands of cycles ago.”
“Is it true that you used to be a fleet officer?” asks Fiorelli in an unconvinced tone.
“I’ve been what I believe your Navy calls a bridge tactical officer. We have a different name, something loosely translating as ‘the adept in charge of the swarm’s starboard offensive’. Basically, together with Reith I was operating half of the offensive arsenal of a carrier mothership and coordinating the swarm units fire on the right side of the ship.”
“And then what happened. How did you become queen?”
“And then I died, and somehow I woke up in a different body. I truly don’t remember any detail, none of us does. Tendays worth of memories disappearing without a trace, not even a dream of them in seventy thousand cycles. I remember our task force leaving the Bellona system, entering the jump, and then I woke up in the familiar surroundings of my home, planet-side. I remember watching myself in the mirror, confused and scared, and seeing a total stranger.”
We all listen curiously, myself included.
I spent hours talking with Elizabeth, but until now I never met this side of her or better said this side of Ashar. An ancient awareness preceding the Chaos Queen, possibly her original persona, the fleet veteran who died defending her people only to rise and fight again. Did she ever have a choice in the matter? Could she have decided to rest, or live her life doing something else, becoming a teacher or a painter, for example? From the little I understood about Ashar, I very much doubted it. I didn’t think she could ever be anything else than what she was, the ultimate protector of her race, too stubborn to lay down and die, for as long as a single Haillar was left alive.
“So, this was the beginning of the road,” I say, hoping to hear the rest of her story.
Elizabeth was well aware we were pushing her down the memory lane, but she didn’t seem to mind. I guessed the sight of the venerable carrier has put her in a nostalgic mood.
“This was the beginning of the road. We reformed our Warband, twelve total strangers yet utterly familiar with each other. It took us almost a year until we managed to convince the Navy to have us, but we got our commissions back in the end. We fought again, this time on a different carrier, and again, and again, each time more in control of our powers. In time, we realised that our reserves had grown, that we could wield eka to an extent no other adept could, at least not in modern times. One by one we died, and we came back each time, the start of a never-ending succession of avatars that continues even today.”
“How long did it take until you were in total control?”. By now, I was pretty clear how the story would end.
“Almost a thousand Earth years, give or take. Cycle by cycle our power and experience grew, and we initially took charge of the Navy. As time went by, we weren’t a warband anymore, each pair of us leading their own Haillar fleets, supplementing them with our own destructive firestorms when needed. Eventually, the samun war ended with the total annihilation of our long-time masters. By then, we were well-established leaders of our people, and they started to look for our support in non-military matters. We were also the most visible Haillar figures, so the driang and kaverra came to us to discuss pacts of mutual assistance. That was the beginning of the Dominion, and a few hundred cycles later each of our Houses was in control of an equal share of the samun space, twelve queens in all but name. The formal title was almost an afterthought.”
It was a fascinating story of a most peaceful coup d’etat, maybe even an unintended one if Elizabeth’s story was completely accurate. The kind of long term play a being could afford only if she knew she would be alive for millennia. A game of consequences, where one beneficial action led to another until, eventually the queens ended up in control of their people, their voice Dominion law across vast chunks of this galaxy.
I had no doubt that, beyond the Scourge’s clear and present danger, this was the long-term challenge humanity would face on their road to the stars. The insidious influence of twelve well-meaning queens.
Yet I made my peace with this thought and I was prepared to leave this battle to others to fight, not with vessels of war but with human tenacity, our species most powerful weapon. It wouldn’t be an easy battle, and I’m sure we’d have our share of defeats, but I trusted my race to keep its free will, the drive to explore that made Endeavour’s mission possible in the first place.
Meanwhile, we had a war to win, and I had a Queen to cherish and love, a not quite human and not quite alien being, a woman struggling with her own demons but even more fascinating because of this. I failed Liz the first time around, and somehow against all reason I got a second chance I didn’t deserve. But deserved chance or not, this time I won’t repeat my past mistakes. I was scared to love my college friend and I love now an infinitely more terrifying version of her, a force of nature on a galactic scale. It matters not, for in her heart she’s still the same woman, both human and alien sides of her attuned with each other. The painting Liz gave me years ago was supposed to represent my bonded soul, little she knew it was instead her sister spirit.
✽✽✽
Twenty days later, the five of us were in the galley when a familiar face showed by the entrance. This was the third time we came across that feline, and I refused to believe that the kalan’s presence was merely an accident.
“Greetings Serruin, my friend. Should we believe now a kalan pride had made their den aboard the Dorien orbital? Or maybe you have been assigned as an observer aboard The Flame of Ka Loren for the duration of the coming campaign.”
The cat had the decency to flatten his ears, looking peeved.
“I was indeed assigned as observer, but not specifically to the Haillar whale-ship. Though I may board The Flame of Ka Loren, if you do. I happen to be the new kalan attaché to the human world, and in the absence of formal relationships between our two species, for the time being I consider myself assigned to your group.”
That was rich. Serruin, a self-confessed spy, was the first diplomat officially appointed to Earth. The kalan cats were moving fast, trying to beat the Haillar at their own game. Though, yet again the Haillar had an unfair advantage, in the person of their own golden-haired human queen.
CHAPTER 32 (ELIZABETH)
“It’s all set. The fleet is assembled and ready to depart for Aldeea in two hundred beats, my Queen!”
Two hundred beats, a little more than one hour. Unlike the rest of the Haillar, the Navy needs to measure time with minute precision. They can’t exactly coordinate fleet movements while talking in days and quarter-days, sunrise and sunset, concepts that don’t even have a meaning in space. Henceforth, Navy’s entire world revolves around beats and fraction of beats, the universal measure of time that has been in place since the Haillar first raised to the stars at the bidding of their samun masters.
Maybe the association with the samun is the reason I always disliked this time regimented life during my Academy days. Most of us did, and we found the beats system unnatural to the Haillar. The irony is that now part of me, the human part, is entirely at ease with this dreary timekeeping. This is a side of humanity I only recently understood. Who would have thought? Humans are a race obsessed with measuring the passage of time with painstaking precision, a race ordering each and every detail of their lives around exact time intervals: minutes, seconds, hours.
“What about the others, Erwain?”
The Fleet remains a select sisterhood that transgresses sector boundaries and house allegiance, so I have no doubts the Sen’Dorien admirals are up to speed with the status of our mobilisation across the entire Dom
inion.
“The Sen’Shahar are already en route to Aldeea and will be waiting for us in orbit. Unsurprisingly, since theirs is the smallest contingent. The Queen of Darkness is equally keen to fight, so the Sen’Vollar might beat us to Earth despite being in theory part of the second wave. Verdid Sen’Aesir is methodical as ever, mustering her forces at a steady pace, as well as the Sen’Diessa’s fleets. The Ladies of Fire and Frost have the most challenging task: assembling a fleet as large as ours from garrison troops spread all across their sector, but they are scheduled to arrive last, and for the time being they are on track.”
“Very well, my friend, proceed when ready. I will board The Flame, same as always, for the time being only as a passenger. You’ll have the overall command from the Dorien Dream.”
One hour later, carrier by carrier, the mighty Dorien host undocks from Saguna and sets itself in motion, the first of the six Haillar fleets converging on Earth. I’m standing all alone on The Flame’s observation deck like so many times before, part of my people’s fleet but not entirely so, half warrior queen, half mythological figurehead, the embodiment of all the battles past.
***
“Good day to you, Ashar!”
“And a good day to you too, master Serruin!”
I haven’t even heard the cat approaching me, which is entirely as expected, his race being notorious for their light gait.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you found the means to board my flagship. One way or another, you always seem to be in the right spot, always watching.”
“I can’t help being an observant person. I’m here observing the humans on behalf of my people and observing you and them on behalf of Reith. These two tasks aren’t even contradictory, your sister being well aware of my dual nature. After all, she countersigned my assignment on Earth, as an envoy of the kalan and spy.”
Countersigned? Knowing Reith, she most likely has orchestrated the entire thing. While spread across the whole Dominion, kalans’ first and foremost allegiance remains to the Lady of Order, the queen whose unwavering support made them one of the most influential races in our confederation. Having practically grown with Astrid, Reith’s current avatar, Serruin is her perfect choice of an envoy. No doubt my sister is burning to add yet another race to her web of trade alliances, an arrangement from which both kalan and humans stand to gain. An arrangement that would incidentally benefit House Dorien greatly, for we are the machine that makes everything tick.
“I never had the chance to thank you for taking care of the humans on the trip to Bellona. I know you did it for my sister, but it was a favour to me nevertheless.”
“Bah, it was my pleasure. Your new alien friends were very well behaved, and I don’t often have the chance of introducing a new race to the quirks our society, which are mostly Haillar driven if I’m allowed to say. Maybe one chance in two thousand cycles, or so.”
The last race to join the Dominion was the kalan themselves, a little more than two thousand cycles ago, and theirs was no easy accession. The fiercely independent felines bid their time for hundreds of cycles before realising it’s better to be inside our confederation than outside of it, and sadly it took them three worlds lost to the Scourge to finally make up their mind. I really hope the humans would be more reasonable, though my Liz side is sceptical that would be the case.
***
“What’s on your mind, Peter?”
My human friend, maybe more than that, watches me with weary and beautiful eyes. The same eyes Liz has fallen for on her first day at Christ’s, fourteen years ago in Cambridge.
“What do you think we are going to find back on Earth, Elizabeth? Would there be anything to return to? Or just the husk of a desecrated world, the graveyard of an entire race?”
“Oh, humanity will be there, my friend. The Scourge need a live planet as bait, or else they have no bait at all. And besides, they would rather subvert a world and squeeze it of every possible resource before abandoning it.”
“Would that mean humanity is safe for now?”
“Only until we arrive in the system, and then all bets are off. I’ve no doubt they’ll attempt to hold your entire race to ransom. Or maybe use humanity as a hostage shield.”
“All of this is a big gamble, my queen. This entire campaign based on the words of a treacherous Scourge. The terrible risk that all of us, that … my entire race is going to be wiped out in a war most wouldn’t even know about.”
‘Our entire race’ is what he meant, the words being left unsaid. He doesn’t need to complete his thoughts, for now I seem to be able to read them. Oh no, it’s not a Spirit skill, just Liz’s keen sense of empathy born of love. The bond they share, another peculiar concept. How strange, being able to feel someone else’s feelings, to anticipate his words, to complete his thoughts.
“We’ll be there for your world, Peter and not just this fleet. The might of the entire Dominion will be there. I’ll be there for you, for both of us…”
Is this a promise, I wonder? Liz eagerly nods her approval, yet the Ashar part of me is confused. How can this happen, how can I fall for a human I barely know. ‘How can you not?’ my human self asks. This is our chance to make it right, to keep the vow we made to each other in front of the mirror between our worlds, not so long ago.
“Do you want me to call you Liz?” he asks.
“No Peter, please don’t. Part of your Liz lives with me, that’s true, but the words I said when we first met are also the truth. I’m not her, I’m not your Liz. I’m Elizabeth Ashar Sen’Dorien, the Haillar Queen, and that’s who I’ll remain, no matter my avatar, no matter my species. No matter whose memories I share.”
***
Hours later we’re still accelerating towards the arbitrary point in space designated for a coordinated hyperspace portal, the massive rip in space large enough to accommodate the passage of eighty swarm carriers. A fleet-level transition is more efficient, not to mention militarily sound, though no one expects any trouble at destination in the Aldeea system. I’ve never seen a rift this size though, none of us did, or at least not a rift initiated by us. The Scourge portals come close, though. They have to be, given the bulk of the enemy base stations.
The Flame of Ka Loren is in the lead, so I cannot see the other swarm carriers, but I can feel them with my mind, each ship a constellation of thousands of minds, each vessel a dense cloud of eka. They are beautiful and lethal, gigantic birds made of elegant curves, swans cloaked in thousands of ever-shifting colours, each of them reflecting a different affinity.
“Beautiful isn’t it, my Queen?”
I turn to Christine, who joined me on the deck and stands by my side, watching the space with large, spellbound eyes.
“Beautiful indeed. No planet-bound view of the night sky, no matter how spectacular, can compare with this. A curtain of stars, so crisp, so vivid.”
“I’ve always been fascinated by star travel, Elizabeth. I always imagined this moment, flying through the void at impossible speed, riding the waves of space on a sleek, elegant swan-ship. The joy, the power of being part of all of this, being part of an armada of beautiful vessels made of light, while racing to stand in my world’s defence.”
“Indeed, a view to behold” I admit, for the view is stunning. Never before so many Haillar carriers had gathered in one place, so deadly and majestic.
I turn to Christine to point to the fantastic sight of the massive Dorien Dream, the newest vessel in our fleet when I realise that she can’t possibly see it. All other carriers are behind us, so they can be sensed with our minds, but the space panorama ahead is empty.
“Hold on a moment, Christine!”
She watches me with a satisfied and slightly smug smile, which only grows wider as realisation shows on my face.
“For once is my turn to surprise you, Elizabeth,” she says. “Your people and mine, we must be closer than we ever imagined. We, humans, also have our mysteries, something I happen to know better than most. I didn’t rea
lise your world is based on magic until too late, and then you were gone, so the only way to find you again, to learn from you, was to come to the heart of the Dominion. And here I am, by your side, your first human adept, if you’ll have me.”
I stare in horror at the ball of light suspended above her palm on a short pillar of eka. An alien silvery eka of a nuance I’ve never seen before, yet eka nevertheless.
After seventy thousand cycles, I remember the horror of the samun wars as if they were yesterday. I remember the arrogance and madness of the twisted samun adepts, the suffering and pain they rained over the galaxy. The death of a thousand races sacrificed as pawns in their mad contest for power. The death of a hundred planets, some of them smothered by my own hand.
I remember all of this as I watch Christine’s wild smile, and I’m left wondering with dread if the aim of our coming crusade should be to protect the human world, or to destroy it.
The End
If you liked this book and are interested in following Elizabeth’ Ashar’s adventures in HUMAN, the next instalment in this series, please join my Reading List at https://tsalexander.com/haillar/ for updates. It will also mean a lot to me if after reading this book you will find a couple of minutes to rate it and, if possible, provide your feedback and suggestions, by clicking HUMAN. You don’t need to write much (unless you want to), a couple of ideas will suffice. Thank you,
T.S. Alexander
HAILLAR HISTORY
Notes based on Sen’Haillar Archives of Lore
Early History (minus 250,000 - 70,000 Sol years)
The main source of information about Sen’Haillar origins remain the Archives of Lore, maintained by the Sen’Aesir. Such information may be to a certain extent biased, as few choose to cast themselves in a negative light for generations to come. However, one can compare the Lore with chronicles kept by other races as far back as 50,000 years, and there seems to be little divergence as far as key events are concerned.
Human Page 24