by Ivan Kal
“Hello, my friend.” Said an image of a four armed alien.
Startled Seo-yun watched as an image of an ancient Ai told the story of events that transpired since Olympus left Earth. The more he told her, the more her feelings changed. And then when his tale neared the end disgust for the way people of earth threw their lives away fighting among themselves turned into fear and then helplessness as she listened of what the alien race called Ra’a’zani did to her homeworld.
***
“We lost six hundred and fifty eight people, with another one hundred and seven injured, forty of which are critically injured with very little chance of survival.” Laura read. “We lost two ships, light cruiser Talon, and heavy cruiser Valkyrie, which is just a wreck. Rescue crews managed to save thirteen crew members from the wreck, but most of them are critically injured. Other ships sustained various amounts of damage. Light cruiser Conqueror is barely able to move, and its power grid is constantly going offline. Battleship Protector has problems with their cores, which are on the verge of going critical. Heavy cruiser Freedom and Enterprise, and light cruiser Sting got off with light damage. Battleship Battle Song also got of lightly a couple of hull breaches, but, it could have been much worse. Dreadnought Leviathan while being in the middle of most of the fighting is still operating at near full capacity. A few of its weapon grids are offline, but should be up and running in a few days. And then there is light cruiser Swift, which somehow managed to get through the battle with no damage at all. They have also almost depleted their ammunition, they will need to fabricate more. ”
“Thank you Laura. Elias, what about the fighting on the planet?” Tomas asked.
“We got through much better, at least our forces did. We lost two soldiers, when the Sowir rushed our positions and got close enough for melee.” Elias said, “Nel on the other hand, had a lot of casualties. Their militia lost twenty nine hundred, out of their four thousand. And they lost over three thousand civilians when one Sowir group managed to get in one of the shelters. Our people got there too late to stop them.” Elias said softly.
“God.” Laura said.
“How was that possible, weren’t they protected? Did Nel even prepare?” Tomas asked.
“Poorly, at least by our standards. Tomas, they didn’t know how.” Elias said.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. Their tactics were pitiful, it was on the level of children playing. No, not even that, our children would have done better.” Elias said grimly.
“Why? How could they not know?” Laura asked.
Elias grimaced, “Company Leader Okoro had a theory, after speaking to their Laas Rett, and reading through their history. He thinks that it’s as simple as that they never learned. They know how to police, but war, at least on the ground they know almost nothing about. I have no doubt that they know what they are doing in space, most likely more than us. And rightly so, they were in space for longer than us. But ground warfare…” Elias said, shaking his head. “They never warred against themselves. They never had a war on the ground. Not even the Sowir. The planets Sowir took were won in the orbit, and then fought against police and civilians on the ground, not trained soldiers.”
Tomas got a faraway look in his eyes, “War.” He said.
“What?” Laura asked.
“Just something Seo-yun told me a long time ago. When we found the Union ship. We were surprised that most of their technology wasn’t all that more advanced than ours, at least military technology. She said that it was because we progressed much faster. The reason behind that being so, was war. Humans have fought against each other since before we learned how to write.” Tomas said.
Elias nodded. “That makes sense. No matter how much we try to deny it, our history is one bathed in blood and war. Well, at least now I can guess why our soldiers outmatched the Sowir and Nel so much on the ground.”
“What do we do now?” Laura asked.
“I don’t think that the Sowir will be back anytime soon. Their transport ship will take at least a few months to report back. Until then we start with exploring translanes around Sanctuary and Nuva. We send as much as we can to help fortify Nuva, and then we will see, after we get our shipbuilding operations back online.” Tomas said.
“Adrian had some suggestions for that.” Laura said.
“We will go over them later, I’m sure he has a lot of insights as to what we need to do for our new ships.” Tomas said.
Then the doors opened and Seo-yun entered the room. Seeing her expression Tomas immediately got up.
“What’s wrong?” Tomas asked.
“Earth has been enslaved.”
Epilogue
March 2170 – Earth
Aileen no name, stood at the head of the table behind her master, Vit’r’an Dakar of the clan Ooruvan, overlord of the planet Earth, while he finished with his meal. It was a part of his practice to have her standing behind him as he ate, it was a part of Ra’a’zani creed to never turn their back to an enemy, and this gesture was a way of him telling the humans standing across the table that he did not consider them a threat.
Though the humans across of him had no knowledge of Ra’a’zani creed and the gesture was lost on them. Aileen’s presence only served to remind them that they were slaves on their own world, which in a way made the gesture work in Vit’r’an’s favor.
“Master Vit’r’an w-”
“Dakar Vit’r’an.” Aileen interrupted the man, he looked at her angrily, but knew better than to lash out at a Ra’a’zani’s pet.
“Apologies, Dakar Vit’r’an, as you know we here represent the humans that have accepted your rule, and we are here to discuss some additional benefits for our continued support.” The man said, he was speaking in Ra’a’zani, and to Aileen’s ears was passably good at it. As much as a human can be good at a language that their mouths weren’t designed to speak. The Ra’a’zani language was harsh.
Vit’r’an continued to eat not responding to their words. Looking at a Ra’a’zani eating can be disconcerting for a human. The Ra’a’zani were carnivores, and ate uncooked meat, and one of Vit’r’an’s favorites from Earth was dolphin meat. The sight on the eating table was enough to turn anyone’s stomach, a dolphin was laid in front of Vit’r’an and he proceeded to bite into the flesh and innards alike, ripping them apart with his powerful jaws and teeth. Blood dripped from his face and from his claw like fingers. Ra’a’zani didn’t wear clothes, unless they were going into battle, then they wore armor suits. They had no need for clothes as their bodies were covered by hard scales. The scale color varied from white to dark brown, Vit’r’an’s scales were gray in color. Vit’r’an lifted his lizard like head from the meat and proceeded to swallow the piece he had bitten off. Ra’a’zani didn’t use chairs as their four legs could be locked in a position that leveraged their weight so that they could rest. Vit’r’an unlocked his legs and rose to his feet now towering over the humans with his full two and a half meters height. His legs weren’t straightened all the way, in fact, none of Ra’a’zani could do that, their legs looked vaguely like those of a crab.
“No.” Vit’r’an said.
“Dakar Vit’r’an surely you can see the benefits of having our continued support-”
“You humans are such vile creatures. Did you know than none of the other vermin we enslaved have ever betrayed their own kind? But you, you jump at the chance to do so. And then you want rewards, ‘benefits’ for your betrayal… Alright, I will give you your deserved reward.” Vit’r’an said.
“Thank you, you will not be dis-” The man didn’t have time to finish the sentence before Vit’r’an launched himself across the room the claws of his right hand biting into the man’s throat ripping it out as he turned to the other two. He grabbed the head of the man closest to him with his claws biting through the man’s eye sockets and into his brain. The last man tried to run, but one of Vit’r’an’s legs shoot out and pierced his back. The boney sharp spiked e
nd of Ra’a’zani leg protruded from the man’s stomach, he looked down before Vit’r’an pulled his leg back, the man was dead before he hit the floor.
Vit’r’an stood there for a moment his chest rising and falling quickly, Aileen watched him without moving, she knew that he was in a trance, as he always was after fighting. It was the animal part of the Ra’a’zani brain, he needed a few moments to snap out of it.
After he cooled of Vit’r’an turned towards the door on the left with Aileen following, the next room was a Ra’a’zani bathing chamber, basically it was a pool.
He stepped in the water and submerged, Ra’a’zani could spend up to half an hour underwater. Aileen moved to the edge of the pool, she could see the Rasari, the fish that Ra’a’zani brought from their own world, start eating the blood and gore from Vit’r’an’s scales, it was their way of cleaning themselves. Ten minutes later he resurfaced, his face now clean, but didn’t exit the pool, instead he rested his back on the edge of the pool and looked at Aileen.
“I will never understand how some of you humans can remain so indifferent to the deaths of your own kind.” He said, commenting on Aileen’s blank face, it was a face that she had to perfect in order to survive.
“There are worst things than seeing death Dakar.” Aileen said.
“Perhaps there are.” Vit’r’an said, his lizard like head tilted back, a pose that meant he was thoughtful. “Tell me again, why did you betray your people to us?” He commanded.
“To survive, Dakar.” Aileen answered, Vit’r’an enjoyed asking her that question, even though she always gave the same answer.
“You were taken care of, you were doing what nature intended you to do. Your life wasn’t in danger.” Vit’r’an said. So it’s going to be one of those. Aileen thought, Vit’r’an usually left it at her answer, but sometimes he liked to poke deeper, he fancied himself an expert on human psychology, and always tried to peek further and discern the reasons for our actions.
“Nevertheless, I needed to survive, Dakar.” She said. Against her wishes the wall in her mind between the past and the present cracked, she closed her eyes and images poured through. Cold, her back scraping against the stone floor, grunts above her, crying. NO! Don’t go back to the dark place. Slowly the wall went back up and she opened her eyes, Vit’r’an was studying her, she must have given something away, but he didn’t push further. He submerged himself once more, and then resurfaced and climbed out of the pool. He went to the corner of the room and entered a small chamber filled with mist. A minute later he exited now dry, the mist had collected all the water of his scales. He went back towards the dining room, with Aileen following. The room was now clean, some of the other slaves did their job and cleaned it. He passed through the room and into the main area, a comm unit was placed in the middle of the room, with another Ra’a’zani sitting in front of it.
“Anything important?” Vit’r’an asked.
“No, we still haven’t been able to identify the strange reading from the belt, and we are yet to find the shuttle that disappeared, Dakar.” The other Ra’a’zani answered.
It was rare for Ra’a’zani to lose track of their assets, but accidents do happen, the Solar system was a big place and they couldn’t monitor it all. What made this instance strange was that they lost all sensor capability prior to the shuttles disappearance in that area.
“Inform me immediately if you learn something.” Vit’r’an said. He walked to the rack mounted on the wall by the front entrance and took of a belt, it contained a pulse pistol, a comm device and a few other items. He then exited the door with Aileen following. Vit’r’an always took Aileen with him everywhere, she was his trophy, a way of saying to the other Ra’a’zani that he was the one in charge of all of the slaves, he also liked to question her about humanity, Aileen didn’t care as long she didn’t go back.
They stepped out and onto the streets of what was once Rome, the Ra’a’zani leadership decided that they would make their base there amongst the ruins of once great city. Aileen believed that they didn’t know the significance of the city before they chose it.
As they walked the streets Aileen could see other humans hurrying about doing their master's bidding, there were few Ra’a’zani outside, they preferred to spend the days in their baths.
“Do you think that it was the resistance?” Vit’r’an asked after a few minutes of walking.
Aileen knew that he was talking about the missing shuttle.
“Perhaps, Dakar.” She said. She had long since made peace with the fact that humanity will never again be free.
“Why do you think they would need a shuttle?”
“There are many reasons. Perhaps they simply needed one, or they plan on using it to sneak up on you, Dakar.”
“Yes, I always forget about your cowardly tendencies. We will watch for that. Why do you think they acted now? There haven’t been any activities from them in years.”
“I don’t know, Dakar.” Aileen said.
“Perhaps it was only an accident, I believe we showed you what happens when you try to rebel.”
“Yes Dakar.”
“We could make another demonstration. Perhaps you need to be reminded that we are in charge.” Vit’r’an said thoughtfully.
Aileen remained silent.
“But we have no proof that it was the resistance. We wouldn’t be very good masters if we did things without a cause, and it would send a message to the other clans that we can’t control our slaves. No, we will wait and see.” He said.
They arrived at a walled off building, with armored Ra’a’zani standing guard, big metal towers were constructed on every corner of the rectangular wall. They were immediately let through, as the guards recognized Vit’r’an. It was the Ra’a’zani headquarters, monitoring all activity on the planet.
They went to a few other security checks and then entered a large command room.
“Anything new?” Vit’r’an asked his second in command.
“We have another batch of slaves ready for shipment to the clan Grakkova, and the breeding group is ready for transport to the home world.” Sa’r’an Tekar of clan Ooruvan said.
“Good, the trip to the home world is long, so make sure that everything is in order with the stasis units.”
“Of course Dakar.”
Aileen felt her chest tighten, Breeding group. That could have been me. She quickly buried the thought, No, I escaped that fate.
“Anything else?”
“We estimate to be able to expand our mining operations deeper in the system in five rotations, as the first of the slaves out of the initial breeding programs reach maturity.”
“That is good, the increase in production will give us a lot of influence with the core, it has been a while since we found so rich a solar system.” Vit’r’an commented, looking at the hologram on the left wall, showing the entire system. He walked up to his usual place on a railing overlooking the room, he locked his legs and just watched as his underlings worked. It was a part of his daily routine, they would spend the greater part of the day here watching over the work. Aileen found a comfortable pose and prepared herself for another long day.
*** END ***
Book 3 of the “Rise of the Empire” series coming March 2015
Contact the author: [email protected]
If you liked the book, please leave a review on Amazon.com