Naero's Valor

by Mason Elliott

  No wonder they had all made it so hard on themselves.

  Spheres! Of course each Song of Making resonated within the frequencies and possibilities of its own special sphere.

  Once they learned the proper spheres they would be able to learn the Songs that much easier.

  Shetharra had once told them that each song was like a dimension or universe all to itself. They had not been in tune enough then to understand just what that meant.

  Even Khai began to understand the situation more. He wasn’t able to sing his songs any better right away, but he could manipulate the matter and energy that he did produce in new creative ways.

  Naero was still their lead Dreamer, and with the insights of her little duck, she continued to stagger and stumble forward faster and further.

  With each exploration and teknomancy exchange, new insights were being gained and gradually applied in practical ways.

  Within another week or two, the tek and construction teams stepped up their techniques to make better warships and naval fleets that continually performed stronger, tougher, and faster.

  Eventually there was always trouble that started heating up somewhere.

  The Alliance was now keen to watch for such things and just as quick to respond.

  This time, the trouble began far away along the colonial border regions of the Delta Quadrant, of all places, another outbound area that had never gone hot before.

  14

  Khai read the latest reports to Naero while their fleets shot out across vast distances, using the latest wyrmhole tek to speed their way on yet another dire mission. Naero kept her weary head nestled comfortably in her beloved’s muscular lap, her drowsy mind at peace for once. The comfort of her lover’s hands soothed her as he petted and caressed her shining, blue-back geisha hair that pooled around them both.

  When Khai had washed her hair in their nano-tub a few hours earlier, she had him infuse it with essences of hyacinth and jasmine. Those scents now hung in the air around them, filling it with fragrance.

  She listened along with Om, recording the data from the reports, but she almost did not believe their content.

  “Out of the black,” Khai said, “acting completely unilaterally on their own, a very large fringe splinter group has emerged from the unallied lander worlds, the Alliance, and even from among the 49 Spacer Clans!”

  Doing such things was technically an illegal, outlaw move, but in the Unknown Regions, current Interstellar law was not entirely clear, or legally binding.

  Surprisingly yet again, this new group declaring their questionable sovereignty was made up of very odd bedfellows indeed.

  Khai read on. “They call their group the HFM: The Human Future Movement, openly announcing themselves to be a human-centric political and military force. They have their own fleets, a surprisingly large number of them. These fleets even include some Spacers, older merchant Spacer warships, and even some older version Kexxian fixer nebulae. But the bulk of their fleets are basically at the tek level of the old Gigacorps bulk surplus fleets.

  “They have no advanced, first or second generation Alliance level Ultrium fleets or spyfixers, with the most current tek and weaponry.” They have never been part of the Alliance, so that isn’t surprising. They would have never had access to such advanced tek in any case.

  “Their slightly blustering HFM rhetoric is not exactly militant or provocative, but everything is about defending the rights of humanity to explore and colonize the Unknown Sectors for the good of humanity–and with impunity. They make one thing very clear. This movement is all for, and all about humans, racial Terrans as a dominant species. Humans First!”

  Naero sighed, slightly irritated by this turn of events. “This is going to cause no end of trouble, Khai. We won’t have to wait very long for that to begin.”

  She could feel her husband shake his tawny head. “How could it not, my heart? This idiotic platform of theirs deliberately excludes near humans, humanoid aliens, and non-human aliens—even those already integrated into many of the former Gigacorps worlds.

  “This large group of trillions of souls actually boasts and brags about being a ‘Humans First,’ movement. Many humans are still flocking to their banners, after being given safe passage to the edge of the Delta Quadrant colonies. The leaders of these imbeciles are offering the hordes of lesser morons what they will never be able to deliver.”

  “This is bad,” Naero said. “All along, small groups of Spacers have despised landers. But don’t you see what’s happening now? They still need raw numbers to hurl into the void to help carve out an empire for them within the exploding, expanding not just interstellar, but intragalactic community of the four quadrants. They will manipulate and use larger numbers of hungry lander colonials as cannon fodder to create such an empire. Who is leading the HFM?”

  Khai found his place again and then searched further into the fact finding report.

  “Hmm…their political face, their Prime Leader and spokesperson is Shaul Joshua, one of the many grandsons of Nathan Joshua of Joshua Tech. But he’s just a front man. We think that some of the real secret financiers might actually have ties to some of the old Gigacorps.”

  “Of course they do. Among all of those mouthpieces,” Naero said, “there must be at least a few ambitious malcontents.”

  Khai chuckled. “Many state that Shaul is quite savvy politically, and regularly gives the Humans First Movement the positive spin that it needs to sound legitimate, acceptable, and expansive.”

  Naero grunted at that. “He does come from a political family.” She and Khai went on to discuss the various ramifications at length.

  Normally, such a breakaway group would be an anomaly, more or less a joke, but this group, and this case was very different. This many fanatical reckless fools could do some real damage.

  From the outset, the HFM not only declared absolute dominion over the Unknown Sectors—but it also brazenly seized the entirety of the Delta Quadrant itself, and all that it contained, for all time no less.

  They laid total claim to all of this vast territory, despite the fact that they had yet to explore a single system within the Delta Quadrant proper. It also ignored the fact that the Galactic Sentient Alliance was already in the process of exploring, mapping, and searching the entire galaxy with self-replicating fixer nebulae.

  That included all four galactic quadrants.

  Naero found it strange that this expansion group included Spacers who very clearly still hated landers–normal humans. But these Spacers also wanted to break off from the 49 Spacer Clans so badly, that they were willing to ally themselves closely with a large number of ‘lesser’ humanity, landers/regular non-spacers who they clearly had no respect for. Their past rants, both private and public made that clear.

  The large population of overeager lander colonials joining the HFM in droves were going to be used as tools, shock troops, and weapons.

  Naero, Khai, and the GSA arranged a high level meeting with Shaul Joshua and some of his supporters at the neutral ground of a colonial space station orbiting Cortez-4. They brought one of Shaul’s uncles, David Joshua to help with the initial fact finding and negotiations with this new group.

  The Alliance contention stated clearly that no group, human or otherwise, could outright claim to own one quarter of the galaxy. Even the Alliance did not claim to own the galaxy or any of the quadrants. But they did see it all as a protectorate, sorely in need of protection, for the sake of all sentients in the galaxy, and not just for humans.

  The Great Adversary was real, and it was out there, doing whatever it wanted. That fact could not be contested. And there were countless other threats also waiting out in the black.

  The Great Adversary existed, it was a major threat, and it was currently on the march apparently everywhere. It just had not fully reached them yet.

  “For another thing,” Khai said, “any galaxy is simply too huge, and there are truly too many other non-human sentients in it—in every qu
adrant, who also deserve liberty, freedom, and their own sovereignty. What voice will they have or insist upon?

  “How can a small group of over-reaching human explorers claim to own one entire quarter of all of that?” Naero asked.

  Naero and Khai volunteered along with the initial negotiation team as active advisors and witnesses.

  She wanted to talk with the HFM military Spacers who were being led by a retired Spacer General, who now fashioned himself the Admiral of the HFM Navy, Blake Elkins. She didn’t know him at all. She had never fought beside him, but the galaxy was a huge place.

  There were, after all, hundreds of billions of Spacers she could say that about, many from her own Clan.

  Elkin’s military record looked solid but there wasn’t much distinction.

  He hated landers, from his past rhetoric. That much was very clear.

  Yet that had not been uncommon during the Spacer Wars.

  Naero had once hated landers herself, and with much good reason.

  But all of that was in the past these days. It had to be.

  Some Spacers who had suffered greatly due to the landers could not let go of those parts of the past.

  Naero understood, but that still did not make any of that hatred and folly right.

  These days, everyone needed to stand together against the Great Adversary.

  The G’lothc did not give a great golden shit whether someone was a Spacer or a lander, or the weirdest sentient alien or energy being out there.

  They wanted to wipe out all life in the universe, no matter what kind it was.

  That was the truth that all sentients needed to understand.

  “Khai,” she said, “I want an update from Klyne on those secret wyrmhole relays that we requested, and that we establish in both the Beta and Delta Quadrants. The High Command is swamped, we know that. But we need those relays yesterday. Send out our own spyfixers and probes to help set them up remotely if we must. We aren’t using them right now. What do we need them for?”

  Khai licked his lips. “You know they won’t like that, my heart. We keep pushing the High Command too hard. Everyone is stretched to the limit.”

  Naero took in a deep breath. “Someone has to push, even if it pisses people off. Now on top of everything else, we have to drop everything and deal with these HFM goofballs!”

  Khai, Naero, and their negotiation team met together with the delegates of the HFM in a medium-sized convention room at a local hotel, with some added security for both sides.

  The arrangements were so last minute that the usual smattering of political protestors had not been able to locate the venue.

  Even INS and the galactic Webnet were not covering the meeting. It had not been widely advertised or promoted.

  Naero, Khai, David, and three other diplomatic negotiators sat across a common rectangular table, outnumbered by Shaul, Admiral Elkins, and twelve other oily-looking advisors and grim guards.

  Both sides had been briefed enough to know what all the names were to match with the faces present.

  David Joshua broke the ice by warmly greeting his nephew. “Hello, Shaul. I hope that this meeting finds you happy and well. Tender my affections to your partner, Petren. I hope that your children, Thamar and Giissii are growing up well and enjoying school on Netharra-2.”

  Naero carefully studied both men.

  “Thank you, uncle. I will pass your affections along. Yet I doubt that we are all present this day to discuss minor family matters. Let us dispense with the preliminaries and accept the facts as they now stand.”

  “And what facts are those, nephew?”

  Shaul did not seem to be so cordial. In fact, he acted very cool and stiff in his demeanor, as well as reserved and even dismissive with his responses as he pushed on.

  “The Human Future Movement is moving ahead with all of our forward thinking plans. Our efforts will assure that Humanity and its concerns are not lost or given away within an alien melting pot.”

  David knitted his hands together and spoke evenly, without missing a beat. “HFM Prime Leader, with respect, your colonizing goals for the Delta Quadrant are, to say the least, extremely ambitious. Some would even say brazen and reckless.”

  “They need to be,” Shaul said. “We hope that they are.”

  “Yet the Galactic Sentient Alliance is already well ahead of you in almost every regard in these matters. We already have more of a real presence in this quadrant than your fledgling organization does.”

  Shaul waved his hand in dismissal and made a slight grimace of contempt. “That will change, very shortly, and others need to accept that evolving reality. We do not count drones and rudimentary auto mappers. Only human exploration will matter, led by actual people.”

  “Let us be clear then. Just because you say all of these things with a straight face, that still does not make them so.” David let those words sink in before he continued.

  “Nonetheless, the fact remains that you will be going in after us, using many of our openly published findings, and duplicating many of our efforts. The HFM goals, as stated in your bold platform, seem to be designed to dominate as much territory and claim as many systems as possible—as you go along or even before. That seems hyper-aggressive, to many, and goes well beyond normal open parameters of exploration and colonization.”

  “That is one opinion, Negotiator. It is also an opinion that we do not share. The HFM merely wants to make our sovereignty clear to all parties from the outset, so that there are no unpleasant disagreements on these matters later on. We do these things in order to protect the future interests and rights of the human species and to assure peace. No one can deny us these rights.”

  David smiled briefly. “No one is trying to deny the HFM anything. But it is simply ill-advised and unwarranted for any colonial group to declare dominion over such a large unexplored territory. And the potential dangers are simply too great to even imagine.”

  “You mean to say that in the same exact way that the GSA has already claimed our entire galaxy for its own purposes?” Shaul exclaimed. I see. So, the big pot calls the little one black! How is the GSA warranted in all that it has done, and why can we not do something slightly less?”

  David only blinked once and stayed on point. “Allow me to clear up that misunderstanding, Prime Leader. The GSA has never in any way claimed to possess, own, or wield total control over our galaxy, or any quadrant in question. We do not own anything or anyone. The Alpha Quadrant, often referred to by all as ‘the human quadrant,’ has been in contention since humanity expanded into and explored the black. Most parts of it are still in contention to this day, especially after the downfall of the Gigacorporations and Corps’ dominion over nearly half of that quadrant.”

  Shaul waved a hand again, as if that validated anything. “You speak in meaningless political technicalities from the past. You clearly own and control those quadrants by direct force, if need be. De facto force. Do not try to deny it. GSA fleets and military forces move throughout them with impunity and dominate the black, in both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. Nowhere do they ask permission for anything that they do from anyone. We simply declare those same rights in the Delta Quadrant. The GSA is welcome to the other three. We are not greedy. We only claim the one quadrant, for Humanity, and into perpetuity.”

  David shook both of his hands in the air in front of him. “That is the major point of disagreement in a nutshell, Shaul. You are not correct. The GSA does not own the galaxy or any of the quadrants. For the sake of all sentients, by agreement and treaty, any attempt to do so has already been made illegal. This makes any such declaration, including yours invalid and utterly void from the very start.”

  “That does not apply to either the Delta or Beta Quadrants, David,” Shaul insisted. “No laws have ever been established. The GSA has no authority in either one.”

  “Not yet, but then by that same standard, neither does the HFM.”

  “That is why we are declaring it to be so now, and for
all time. We will make things this way and enforce them.”

  “You do not have enough fleets,” Naero said flatly, cutting through all of the bullshit floating around in the air. That was the reality. “None of you have any concept of what is waiting for you in an unexplored quadrant. I do. And I have helped fight all of the major battles in two quadrants. If you go into the Delta Quadrant, thinking that you are going to conquer and subjugate everything and everyone you find, good luck to you! You will blunder and bog down very quickly, I assure you of this.

  “First, even by estimation, there are simply too many other sentients already out there. You will not be able to take them all on and defeat them. And that doesn’t even count the energy beings of the Interdimensions there; you have no capacity to engage and defeat them. Nor does that take into account the forces of the Great Adversary that are most likely lurking out there as well. If you come up against forces of the G’lothc anywhere near their current tek level, you will be quickly overwhelmed, slaughtered, or enslaved. That is what awaits you, and no amount of bluster or bravado is going to change that on any level.”

  Admiral Elkins jumped in, speaking calmly. “You can’t frighten us, Admiral Maeris. Spacer and human ingenuity and courage combined will always prevail.”

  “Admiral Elkins, I’m trying to educate you, honestly, from one Spacer to another. You know me. You know my record. I’m telling you–things are that bad. Haisha, we’re fighting for the entire universe, not just one galaxy. We still don’t know if we can win out against this foe, with all that we have at our command. And you people want to take all of that on, with the little that you have?”

  “Then you will be more than busy dealing with all of that,” Elkins said. “Your so-called Great Enemy is clearly tied up dealing with all of you Leave the Delta Quadrant to us. We’ll take care of things there.”

  “With respect, Admiral,” Khai said, “I don’t believe that your forces can. And we don’t think that we can allow you to do so.”

  Negotiator David Joshua broke back in. “Shaul, you are free to colonize as much of the Delta Quadrant as you are able, according to the standard open colonial charter and exploration rules. But you must avoid all contact with pre-interstellar and early sentient cultures, and respect the rights of other interstellar civilizations and their sovereign rights to manage their peoples, their worlds, and their territories. You cannot merely roll over them. That will make you a conqueror and an aggressor. That will not be tolerated.”