Coeus?

by Andur

  Sadina's current status: Unknown.

  ”

  -Report File Sadina II

  Galactic Centre, Gathering-Station

  Gideon

  It has been another three months since our last visit to Gathering-Station and our teleportation-project has come a long way during that time. We've a decently sized network around Sol and the Forlorn worlds. Even some of our other neighbours like the slime creatures and others in close proximity to Sol joined in.

  But that's nothing compared to the network which is growing around Gathering. All major species want a direct connection to Gathering-Station. I can't blame them. Travelling for months or years for a single diplomatic visit isn't what I call efficient.

  “Oh, it was such a nice idea to employ Exo as a baby-sitter. I still don't understand how he got fired in the first place. But after everything I heard from Saden about your old school it shouldn't surprise me at all.” Cyla leans against my shoulder while we walk down the pavilion towards the meeting hall. Aether's departure was scheduled to be after a last big gathering between the species.

  “Yes, Dear. It was quite hard to coax him into his new deployment. You know, Exo isn't that fond of me, but I hope that he will warm up to our daughter.” Just tell half the truth and don't get caught in a lie. If don't want my machinations to be uncovered by Cyla, I've to walk a fine line in this matter. She surely wouldn't approve of my methods to secure Aurelia's new tutor.

  It's also a big help that Saden is a bickering bitch when she is alone with other women. I wonder how many times she told Cyla that old story about me almost getting expelled and her saving the day with Paul's help.

  We reach our destination and I guide Cyla to our seats inside the endless seeming hall. Our cabin is placed inside some kind of pulpit which is able to move through the circular stadium with the speaker's platform in the middle while the pulpits form a gallery around it to allow everyone a free view. Once we are seated with our lead diplomat and our fleet commander in the front, the pulpit automatically moves to its position. Paul is also attending this meeting. I notice a small toilet at our backs and start dreading the amount of time we will have to spend here.

  We don't have a special role in this event, but since I am the governor of Aether I've to attend. It's mainly for reasons of showing the other species that our leadership is interested in the decisions which will be made during this gathering.

  From what I've learned it is held to hear our answer regarding the defence proposal by the Anti-Drazi-Faction, as our diplomat likes to call it. I reach for Cyla's hand and listen to the various alien speakers who voice their opinion on various matters like trade, travel-rights and of course the extermination war against the Drazi.

  Up until now I left the diplomats to their jobs and didn't interfere, didn't care at all. But hearing it directly from their mouths or whatever other organs they use to communicate is a different matter.

  There is really a faction which is absolutely against eradicating any form of life.

  Others are a little more practical on the matter and point out that it was the Zeen who gave the Drazi anti-matter technology and FTL-flight. Therefore it should also be the Zeen's responsibility to deal with the threat without involving other species.

  I note down the new piece of information. Up until now we didn't know how the Zeen are related to the Drazi. But if Ayo's way to deal with us is any indicator on how the Zeen deal with others then it isn't surprising that they uplifted the Drazi.

  But uplifting random other species who happen to land in the Drazi's path strikes me as equally bad. Maybe the Zeen feel guilty and struggle with all their might to keep any species in the Drazi's path from going extinct?

  Another faction's speaker points out quite bluntly that the Zeen should give up their leading position among this Gathering. I realize that the Zeen are far from having complete control of the situation. There are other races throughout the galaxy who are powerful enough to speak confidently against the Zeen. But they are still a very clearly cut minority.

  And if you look at it in terms of numbers and percentages, then you realize that the Zeen can probably do anything they want. Yet they just barely don't have the power to shut up those who speak against them? Or they are willing to let them speak up, according to the motto that a barking dog is better than a silent one?

  After three long hours it's finally our turn to make our point of view known. I fail to comprehend why we had to listen to so many other speakers beforehand. Isn't our point of view on the matter the decisive one? Whatever, our head diplomat Gabriel isn't completely incompetent so I will trust his judgement. He was stalling the negotiations for long enough. Seven months! I would have grown impatient after a few days and blown our cover.

  Gabriel rises to his feet and clears his throat, the sound is loudly reverberating through the hall. “My name is Gabriel Sergej, head of Sol's diplomatic corps. We've thought long and hard about your proposal for us to join the alliance against the Drazi.”

  “First let me express our thanks to all the species whom we talked to during our time of consideration. Especially those who pointed out the trip wires in that special contract. But regardless of those who think that we are making our decision too slow, or even those who think that we are acting too fast, we've made our decision.” Gabriel takes a deep breath and utters a single word.

  “No.”

  Suddenly the hall explodes in a cacophony of clicks, shouts and other sounds which could be interpreted as offending if our audience had been human.

  I lean over to Cyla. “I didn't expect them to be that surprised about our decision to refuse their help.”

  “Up until now not a single species refused to join their war against the Drazi. It's like saying that you refuse free weapon shipments while facing a superior army.” Cyla whispers back. “It will certainly affect the Zeen's position.”

  Finally the Zeen speaker manages to calm the masses. Afterwards he addresses us. “Do you know what that implies? You will face the Drazi invasion alone. Nobody will help you. Species who don't join the alliance have to stand on their own. Nobody will help them with advanced technology. The Drazi will sweep over you like a wave and there is nothing you can do about it.”

  Gabriel nods and spreads his hands. “That's exactly the problem. This sharing of technology. Under your alliance every species is forced to share all their technology with every other species. It's exactly the thing which we want to avoid. We won't share our technology.”

  Whispers start rising up, but the hall stays reasonably silent.

  “There are countless reasons apart from being unique and keeping the profit to ourselves. But the main reason, the really important one, is that we don't trust you.” Gabriel starts pacing around the free part of our cabin.

  “The Drazi are a danger. We acknowledge that. But our elders decided that we won't share our understanding of the world with fledgelings who war among themselves. You aren't trustworthy enough to wield that kind of power and the elders won't give you the tools for mass destruction on cosmic scale.”

  Gabriel raises his hand to stop the Zeen from speaking. “We've used our time wisely and studied your historic records about various species. And while many of them have been visiting this 'Gathering' for many, many thousands of years, we haven't overlooked that your governments and their policies change frequently like a leaf in the wind.”

  “Look at the Zeen. You are far from unified. Until two hundred years ago your species was ruled by a king. Before that you had a democracy and before that you were just a few city states. It changes every thousand years and can hardly be called a real civilisation. The only constant is this 'Gathering' here, but it can be hardly called an institution. The slightest problem may shatter it at any time. That's the problem with true democracies.”

  “Our people have been ruled by the elders for a little more than five thousand years. Five thousand years of recorded history without a single war and then you folk barge into
our system and we are drawn into one blood-shedding conflict after the other.”

  Gabriel stops pacing to look around. “Look at you. You are sitting here like you are holding a court! Deciding the fates of others whom you deem as minor. Just because we thought it wise to stay in our own system and deal with our problems instead of yours doesn't mean that we are inferior. We've endured two very crude attempts to steal our technology. The last one even so obvious that everyone who wasn't blind had to see it!”

  A smug grin steals itself on Gabriel's face. “Yet, you all looked away. Probably hoping that you can steal some of the leftovers when Resch is done. Or profit otherwise.”

  Our diplomat places both hands together as if he is praying. “Nonetheless we will use our abilities in your favour. Of course in exchange for an appropriate fee and if you sponsor building more defensive installations for us.”

  The Zeen speaker starts wavering. “Which defensive installations?”

  “Did you think that our teleportation nodes can't be used as weapons? You should have started to think when we used it to abduct the Resch-fleet. But I think a little demonstration is better than words.” Gabriel gestures and a hologram of a world appears in the centre of the hall.

  “That's D-204, a major Drazi outpost ahead of the first big attack wave which is supposed to hit the Forlorn and Sol. Our military advisers believe that the Drazi are sending ships ahead of their flotillas to create big colonies with enough shipyards to manage repair and supply of the fleet once it arrives. This colony is growing at an extraordinary speed and the Drazi are even shipping in food from surrounding worlds, so our assumption must be very close to the truth.”

  Gabriel raises a finger like he has forgotten something important. “That's a live-feed from a group of our reconnaissance-drones by the way.”

  Suddenly the planet folds in on itself and starts shrinking. The crust breaks and seas of lava erupt from under the surface. It's a little unspectacular since it happens in absolute silence. Then four moon-sized chunks of lava appear around the planet and start falling towards its surface.

  One lands in an ocean and creates a visible tsunami. Others splash onto continents and spray ash into the atmosphere. A truly cataclysmic event. Other orbs of lava in various sizes appear above the planet and rain down like the tears of a god.

  The entire scene takes a few minutes, but in the end the blue and green jewel is a dark smudge on the screen, clouded by a thick layer of ash.

  After several moments of worried silence Gabriel starts talking again. “We decided on this demonstration to advertise our teleportation nodes. Teleportation isn't limited by mass, but by volume. If you have someone at the targeted area to supply decent scans and coordinates, the nodes can teleport pieces out of a planet, exchanging them with the vacuum of space. We can use this for mining operations on an uninhabited planet to create even more nodes, or we can destroy worlds as we please. No fleet can stop us from doing so, since each node covers several thousand light years. All it takes is one decently sized sensor array in close proximity to the planet.”

  Our head diplomat sits down on his seat. “So, since you have already allowed us to build up a decent network of teleportation nodes and signed the contracts, you surely won't have a problem if we cover the entire milky way with them. It won't help you to destroy a few of them since their range is decent enough to cover for each other. How we will use them is entirely up to you.”

  75. ~Hidden Machinations.~

  “

  We detected several attempts at hacking Sol's mainframe communication network to insert messages into Earth's news channels. The hacking attempts bear all the marks of Sadina's handiwork.

  Our IT experts are of the opinion that the attack was performed to cover up something else, but they aren't sure what exactly.

  Sadina's current status: Unknown.

  ”

  -Report File Sadina III

  Galactic Centre, Gathering-Station

  Cyla

  Gabriel's threat wasn't that hard to understand and so most aliens kept their mouths shut after seeing the destruction of D-204. Though I can't imagine that there will be no fallout from this. Surely they are already planning countermeasure right now, maybe even uniting against us? What did the elders think when they set this into motion?

  The Zeen speaker seems more than angry and at a loss for words. “This... this... is extortion! It's almost a declaration of w-”

  Suddenly a light starts blinking next to the Zeen speaker and he manages just in time to keep his next words in check. He presses a button and although I couldn't really read alien expressions I would say that he looks angry. “The representatives of Nig want to announce their opinion.”

  The cabin with the Zeen inside turns dark while another one lights up. This one looks more like an aquarium and holds two of the squid-like jellyfish creatures which Gideon and I visited a few months earlier. The Nig flash in a rampant light show and a metallic voice translates their speech.

  “The Humans refused the military alliance which would have forced them to trade technologies. That's within their rights according to article 203394. Nonetheless our contracts say nowhere that this excludes them from any other form of trade or passive intervention by peaceful species.

  The Nig wish to explore these options and want to trade goods and knowledge. Therefore we request to set up these defensive installations in our home systems. It will be very beneficial to us and other swift minds.”

  Another signal activates. This time a Binary gets to voice his/their opinion. “We also wish to have a direct connection to this network. Actually we want all of our primary worlds connected.”

  To my astonishment the Estrim declare their own wish to install a teleportation node, followed by Forlorn, Grahu and various other species. I slowly lean over to Gideon and whisper. “What is going on?”

  “They are divided.” Gabriel smirks. “Those who oppose or dislike the Zeen are seeing a chance to reduce the Zeen's influence. If all the species at the Gathering were united in their wish to get rid of the teleportation nodes, then they could probably pull it off and threaten us into dismantling them. But that isn't the case. As long as there are some species who tolerate the nodes, the others can't do anything about it. The nodes have too much reach.”

  Our head diplomat leans back like he has already won the fight. “This isn't a vote of majority. The Zeen could have opposed us if they had all the other major species behind them.”

  “Major species?” I ask.

  “Those with more than a hundred colonies and who are spread at least over a thousand light years.” Gabriel explains. “There are about seven of them, though there are others who fit the definition more or less. There are the Zeen, Saal, Nig, Binary, Estrim, Savant and the Hijurr. The Hijurr are the goons of the Zeen, so we can't expect anything from them. But that isn't necessary at all. Once the Nig, Binary and the Estrim announced that they tolerate the nodes, we already had won.”

  “So in other words the sphere of influence of these three players covers enough of the known milky way to secure our position?” Gideon asks.

  Gabriel nods enthusiastically. “More than enough. Especially with the other species whom we struck deals with. And I am sure that the opposing species will be forced into tolerating them soon enough!”

  I furrow my eyebrows. “How so?”

  “Those who have nodes will benefit hugely from the node's peaceful applications.” Paul finally decides to join the conversation and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Those civilisations which refuse a node in their system will see themselves fall behind in terms of trade and communication. They will practically become social outcasts. Hill-billies of the galaxy. They will have no other choice than to accept once the economical implications become clear.”

  “That sounds reasonable enough.” I follow the back and forth between the other speakers for a while longer until it becomes clear that the Zeen can bring round neither the Nig, nor the Bina
ry, nor the Estrim. “Have you talked to those major races beforehand?”

  Gabriel nods. “Of course. Meetings like this one are always decided beforehand behind closed curtains.” He gestures around the hall. “This is just a way to make everything official. Why do you think we needed so much time? It wasn't just to build enough nodes to solidify our claim, it was also to test the waters and find supporters. There wouldn't have been a point to such a threat if we were unable to pull it through.”

  After another hour the Zeen speaker calls it quits and announces adjournment to the next meeting. Some species stay behind for a little longer to speak about other matters while our cabin slides silently back to the entrance.

  To my and each other's surprise we are already awaited there. A Mermaid is huddling in a dark corner of the hallway and frantically waving us over. It's the bitch who made an advance on Gideon!

  So I step forward and grab his hand. I don't know why I have such a bad feeling about this alien. But one thing is for certain, she won't get anywhere near Gideon.

  Gideon raises an eyebrow and approaches the messenger, pulling me with him. “Zeil?”

  “Yes, I am honoured that you remembered my name.” She starts twirling her fingers. “In fact most suitors don't even ask for it.”

  I step in front and cross my arms in front of my chest, pushing it up to make a point. “What are you doing here.”

  She reaches up and starts fumbling inside her more than plentiful cleavage, using the low neckline and the stretchy material of her blue dress to her advantage. “I am running an errand for Ayo. He pays well, so I am not bothered to pose as a delivery girl from time to time.”

  Paul snorts. “Isn't that one of the Zeen? Why doesn't he talk to us in person?”

  I note that all the men in our group pay too much attention to her bobbing attempts at retrieving whatever she lost between the folds of her flesh. Finally Zeil pulls out a blue data crystal. “Phew! I already feared that it slipped too deep and that I would have to undress! That's always bothersome in public.”