by Korza, Jay
“We received the message four of your months after it was sent. We can travel to this sector in two months with our fastest ships.” The alien was becoming obviously more and more angered as he was forced to betray his own people.
“Why did it take you so long to come here then? Five years later, isn’t that a long time to respond to a distress signal?” Wilks had his hand resting on his sidearm.
“We had to make sure that it was real. And as I said, we have no real government; it sometimes takes a while for things to be decided. That’s why we need our emperor back!”
“I got news for you, buddy, I’m pretty sure he’s dead by now”, Bloom mocked.
The alien thrust himself at the soldier but the tube immediately responded and pinched a nerve on its subject that caused his struggle to subside with a scream. The body went limp and the prisoner was unconscious.
Emily shook her head. “Bloom, stop fucking with our prisoner!” After a curt nod from Bloom, she turned to Wilks. “When he wakes up, we’ll ask him all the questions that we had prepared then we’ll have the tube dispatch him. Anyone got anything else?”
Daria motioned everyone towards her console. “I remembered where I saw that energy reading before. It’s a device that was invented about two years ago by someone at the Mayo Clinic back on Earth. It’s a plasma wand. It uses highly focused plasma on certain types of tumors to stop their growth and eventually kill them off. It’s a great new cancer treatment, still experimental but so far highly effective.
“Thing is, the information I have in my database on it shows that its energy signatures match those of the alien’s weapon exactly. That’s just not possible unless the same people made both items.”
“So are you saying that these aliens have been secretly inventing medical equipment and then smuggling it into our society?” Bloom just couldn’t resist.
“No,” Daria was calm despite herself, “but after I got that mystery solved, I started to cross check other medical equipment with the stuff I’ve found in this lab. There are so many similarities in design, energy use, and circuitry that it can’t be coincidence.”
Emily’s eyes got wide. “So you think that someone’s been leaking information about the dig sites and exploiting the finds for profit?”
“I don’t think so. Some of the equipment we use was invented several hundred years ago. Someone has had access to this stuff for a long time and has been putting out inventions every so often. I do have to say, though, that I don’t think that whoever is doing it is trying to profiteer from it. All the inventions I have been able to cross check have been donated to science and medicine without any personal gain. That is unless you count the Nobel Prizes and other notorieties that go with inventing this stuff. As far as I can tell, none of the inventions have had military or destructive applications. I can’t pinpoint one species that has more of these inventions tied to them anyone else. They all seem to come from different species. I honestly don’t get it.”
“Wilks, add that to the list of questions we ask our friend over there for when he wakes up. Let’s get our gear ready to move at oh-six hundred.” Emily went back to her console to dig through more information.
Chapter 32
Somewhere In Space Between The Detrill And Nortes Home Worlds
The honor guard led Emperor Nogil through the ship to the empress’ chambers. Nogil noticed every little nuance of the ship; after all, his people had designed it more than a millennia ago. Before poverty struck, Nogil himself had been a shipbuilder at one of the main Detrill shipyards. That was before he and a thousand other workers were laid off by the last emperor and his budget cuts. His untimely heart attack was the best thing for the empire and not many people mourned his death.
Nogil was brought back into the present with the smell of the empress’ perfume and the candle scents that flowed through the hall. As he entered the chamber, he knelt and addressed her, “Your Highness, I am honored by your invitation.”
“Please, Nogil, sit beside me.” The empress motioned to an empty pillow next to her. She smiled to herself as she thought of his name. It was the name reserved for the Detrill emperor. No Detrill child could be given that name since the day their people were liberated from enslavement. The master shipbuilder who worked with the Nortes emperor to free the entire empire from slavery was named Nogil. It was decided by his people that in honor of his bravery and accomplishments, no one else would ever be named Nogil. When a new emperor was elected, his given name was abandoned and he took the honored name of Nogil. “The day when your people knelt before mine is a thousand years past. Please know that I hold my twelfth great-grandfather’s opinion about all races being equal. No one bows in my court and neither should you.”
“Thank you, Empress. I trust you had a safe journey without incident.” Nogil sat beside her and picked up the goblet that was offered. He sipped the ale slowly from the goblet; it was much stronger than the ales of his home world.
“No problems that we know of, but still, one can’t be too careful, can they? After all, we still don’t know how much the Coalition knows. They have been at some of the colonies for more than five years now.” Nogil’s eyes widened in disbelief. “I know, I know, we should have found out about it sooner. Unfortunately, the Coalition guarded this secret very well. My spies and official ties didn’t find anything out until a month ago. I sent the summons for our meeting the day after I got all the information myself.”
“Thank you for contacting me so quickly. But what do we do now? Do we tell the Coalition or prepare on our own?” The ale had suddenly lost Nogil’s interest and he set down the goblet.
“I think both. I, of course, didn’t want to do anything without first notifying you, but now I think that we should start to prepare for the inevitable.” She dismissed her guards and after the doors were closed, she continued. “A distress signal was sent almost five years ago by accident from the initial colony site. We haven’t much time. I’m surprised that we haven’t been found yet.”
“How much should we tell the Coalition? In all honesty, Your Highness, my people will most likely be untouched by the new information the Coalition would receive, but the Nortes…It’s hard to say just what the Coalition would think or do to your world. They are such xenophobes and extremists to match.”
“Yes, I agree, humans are unpredictable. That’s why I believe that we should give them as little information as possible, without compromising the security of this sector. Our mistakes of the past cannot haunt our future.”
“Although the Detrill past is not pleasant, and much of that is because of the Nortes, I will help you, Your Highness. Your twelfth great-grandfather freed my people and we will forever stand behind your house because of him. Whatever I may do to help, I will.”
With a slight bow, the arrangement had been made. For the next two days, the two discussed recent findings and thoughts on what to do. And then they decided. A long-range sensor confirmed their deepest fear. Time was running out.
Chapter 33
Dig Site One
“How far are we from the hanger bay?” Daria asked Bloom through her comlink. “If it’s more than half a click, we need to stop so I can check Wilks’ ankle.”
“Couple hundred meters, not much farther. If he can hold out until then, that would give us some time to go over the ship.” Bloom looked at his display again. “I just hope these log entries are right; otherwise, we’re walking home.”
“I can make it.” Wilks spoke up from the rear. “Just get me a beer once we’re there.”
Daria smiled at Wilks and wondered how he could’ve been such an asshole that night in the bar. She double-timed it up to Emily on point with Bloom. “I think he can wait till then.” After a pause she added, “I just needed a change of scenery from back there. Have you been getting anything from those external sensors?”
Emily waited for Bloom to answer but he was too deeply involved in the data he was reviewing about the ship, so she answered for
him. “Yeah, and it’s not good news. That alien ship is still up in a synchronous orbit with site two. If we can even get the ship in the landing bay to lift, we may have to fight our way out. Not only is our ship a thousand years old, but we don’t have experience with it. I’m sure that they have plenty.”
“Too bad our friend died before we got any more information from him.” Daria had tried to revive the alien but his anatomy was just too different for her to be of any use. He died after the first volley of questions and not much information had been gained. “I have found out something pretty interesting about our friends, though. Their bodies produce oxygen. They can live in just about any atmosphere or even no atmosphere as long as it isn’t corrosive to their tissue. Their cells metabolize a protein that’s in the meat from those game animals. With that protein, they can remove oxygen elements from their food and store the oxygen for use later; that’s why they eat raw meat. Heat would destroy the protein compound. The protein also helps with the gas exchange between their lungs and bloodstream. Their lungs still work like ours, but they have a backup system just in case.”
“Can we use that to our advantage?” Emily asked.
“I’m not sure. But it does let us know some of their strengths as well as weaknesses. First, we know that any inhaled chemical or biological agent we currently use might be useless against them. Second, without meat, they not only starve but also suffocate. And because they create oxygen, their bodies oxidize very quickly and they age about five times as fast as we do. That guy we had back there was probably twenty standard years old. I don’t know how long they live but I’d say he was about mid-life based on cellular decay and repair. But that is going with human standards.”
“They would have to have a large supply of game animals on their ships during a hostile takeover if they wanted to survive. Or they would have to quickly take over the outer planets in a system to grow their stock on for resupply of their troops. I know that every conquering force needs supply lines but our food can stay for years in one place without it dying or going bad. It would be much harder to transport livestock through enemy-held lines.” Emily thought that this information was more important than Daria had realized.
“Thanks, Doc. Keep feeding me with any intel you get. You know, I can’t thank you enough for the friendship you’ve given me and for being such a valuable resource on this mission.”
“Thanks, Emily. I value our friendship as well.” Daria turned and walked back towards her patient.
Chapter 34
One Thousand Years Ago - Primary Site Of The Advance Exploration Colony
“And I’m telling you,” the general was half out of his chair, face red with rage, and pointing a finger at the figure who sat at the head of the conference table, “I don’t care if you are the emperor! I will not support your decision to cut ourselves off from the empire, and neither will any member of my war council.”
The emperor sat forward in his chair, with his arms resting on the table in front of him. He was a handsome man by Nortes standards, although he was also considered to be very short. He took a moment to look at each one of his cabinet members sitting at the huge conference table. He then looked at the war council sitting behind General N’thoth. “Do you concur with the general?” He received nods from each member of the council. He then turned to his cabinet. “And who among you believes that we should continue to enslave the galaxy just because we can?”
The cabinet members glanced nervously at one another and sweat broke out on the foreheads of more than one of the twenty members sitting at the table. After several minutes, the minister of architecture stood and walked to the war council to make his position known. In all, fifteen others joined him on the war council’s side.
Of the four who remained, the minister of learning stood and said, “Your Highness, we stand behind you fully. It is time to put an end to this shameful existence.” He walked over with the three other ministers and stood behind his emperor.
“You see, Your Highness,” the general began, “you are in the minority. We don’t need to make a coup behind your back; we are doing it right here and right NOW!”
All the members of the war council were smiling and looking towards their emperor. The smiles faded as seconds passed and nothing happened.
“What is wrong, General?” the emperor said as his smile took the place of those lost from the conspirators. “Was something supposed to happen?”
At that moment, the royal guards ran through the front and rear chamber doors and surrounded the war council and the ministers who had defected to N’thoth’s side. Four other guards stood around the emperor to protect him.
“Your men were killed outside after the doors were shut and the meeting began. No, I don’t think that there will be any coup today, except my own of course. I don’t care what you think. This madness must and will stop. I am implementing my plan to withdraw from my own empire at once.” He stood and looked at the general with indifference. “Kill the war council and all the traitors who stand with them.”
Before anyone could object, the guards opened fire on the men sitting and standing before them. All were slain in a matter of seconds.
“Please clean this mess up and then report to your garrison and await further orders.” The emperor turned to his faithful ministers. “Let’s go to the throne room; we don’t need such a large space anymore to carry on the affairs of state.” He looked at his minister of health. “I hate to kill as much as you do, D’Bath, but we need to do just a little bit more before we can get ourselves out of this mess. Is the virus ready?”
“Yes”, D’Bath said somberly. “We can deploy it among the colonists on schedule as planned.”
“And you’re sure that it has only a ten to fifteen percent mortality rate?” the minister of learning asked.
“I hope so, but nothing is for certain. I also have the virus ready for our warriors. It does have a one hundred percent mortality rate. I’m sure of that.”
“I know you are, my friend”, the emperor said as they stepped into the private throne room. “After all, it was your eighteenth great-grandfather who helped to create our warriors.”
As they all sat, another door to the chamber opened and a man dressed in rags and smelling of a foul odor walked in. The ministers sat aghast, looking at the Detrill slave who stood before them.
“Gentlemen, this is Nogil. He is the head shipmaster of the Detrills.” He looked around at his ministers. “Oh, come now, don’t look so shocked. We are leaving the empire because of Nogil and others like him. Is it not fitting that he and others should help with our joint liberation? Besides, we couldn’t do it without him and the others.”
“Your Highness,” Nogil began, “we are on schedule as promised. We will have our escape transports ready on time.” He handed the emperor a datapad. “We have made it so that several of our fastest and most heavily armed cruisers will either need preventive maintenance or repairs on the scheduled date. We will have access to them as planned.”
D’Bath took over. “Both viruses will be released in three days. None of the slaves will need to be inoculated but all of us and our family will, of course.” He handed everyone except Nogil a large canister of pills. “Give each member of your family one pill within the next three days, otherwise they’ll have to rely on their own immune system to survive and that may not be enough.”
“As you all know,” the emperor spoke while looking at one of the little white pills, “the rest of the pills are to be given to those in your command who you trust to support our movement. You are not to tell them of our plans or anything else. Just secretly get them to take the pill somehow to ensure that they are among the survivors.
“The doctor will also give you some pills that contain the virus. These will be given on the day of infection to all those in your command who you feel will oppose us after we leave. Take no chances. If you believe for even one second that they will not stand by us, give them the pill.” He then turned his g
aze to S’bog.
S’bog had already taken his pill and noticed that it was his turn to speak. “Sire, my team is ready as well. The department of labor will stay behind and remove all traces of our existence from the colonies. It will be a relatively simple task considering we only have a handful of colonies and most don’t have much aboveground construction as of yet. We estimate six cycles will be enough time to finish. After which, we will join you at our new home world.” He eyed his jar of inoculating pills and promised himself that he would take another one later when he was by himself. No sense in taking any chances, he thought.
“Good.” The emperor stood to end the meeting. “In three days, we will begin. I know that we are about to endure the hardest moments of our lives and even of our species’ history. We will prevail, though, because it is right.”
Chapter 35
High Warp Through Space On Board The Detrill Warship Emilian
“ETA to target?” The first officer had just taken over the watch from one of his senior officers.
The helmsman turned his chair towards the commander. “Sir, we should reach the target in twelve days.”
“Thank you. Conn, when was the last battle drill?” The XO hated being on watch during warp travel; never anything to do but wait.
“At the beginning of last shift, sir.” He grimaced to himself because he knew what was coming next.
The XO touched a key on his control panel. “All hands, red alert! Battle stations! Red alert!”
The klaxon began to pound into everyone’s head and the XO sat back and smiled. The crew of the Emilian raced to their battle stations. His watch always had the fastest response times. Today would be no different.