The Arwen Book one: Defender

by Timothy Callahan

  On one side of the screen was Merriam’s casket. On the other was a scan of the hibernation chambers found on the comet. There was very little difference between the two. “Ducket, Merriam didn’t die. He put himself into hibernation. He must have known the Gyssyc might return and didn’t want to miss the chance to defeat them once and for all. If I’m right, and I really think I am, Merriam is alive and he’s fighting his war against the Gyssyc again.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Merriam strolled down the hallway arrogantly avoiding eye contact with those he passed. And why not? He was, after all, a god.

  When they had awakened him from hibernation and told him the Gyssyc returned, he wasn’t surprised. In fact, he knew they might one day return and had planned accordingly. What he never anticipated were the other invaders, those from another world called Earth. The thought of beings other than the Ulliam occupying his world made his blood boil with anger. Ulliam was meant to be occupied by its own kind and anyone else was an intruder who needed to be removed.

  Merriam stood a full head taller than most of his kind. He skin was also lighter, his arms and legs thinner, and his eyes slightly larger. Knowing he must have some Gyssyc genes in him made him uneasy; without them he would be just another Ulliam, with them he was the smartest Ulliam to ever live. It was grand irony the demons would be defeated, once again, by their own creation.

  He walked into what they called a conference room. The leader of Ulliam stood and bowed his respect. Conferences, meetings, compromise, those were ideas from Earth. It will take years to undo all the damage they had done. He would not go back into hibernation for a long time.

  He sat at the head of the table and folded his boney fingers together. President Packard visibly shuddered when Merriam looked his way. “What is the status of that Earth ship?”

  President Packard lowered his head before speaking. “They are still in orbit around Ulliam.”

  “What of the call to other Ulliams to return home?” He spoke very matter of fact like. He didn’t have the time for any discussion with his underlings.

  “It will take time for them all to gather. Messages across space could take weeks to reach them.”

  “I did not ask what the problem was; I asked what the status was. Don’t give me excuses; give me answers.”

  It didn’t seem possible but Packard somehow managed to lower his head further. “Those that have received the message have responded and will meet at the rendezvous point.”

  “When they are ready, the rest will come,” Merriam replied. “I do understand it takes time to build a force of great strength.”

  “What will happen once they arrive?” President Packard asked.

  “We will destroy the Gyssyc once and for all. We will then focus on removing the Earth threat.”

  The president seemed to lift his eyes, as if trying to look at Merriam, as if he thought of himself an equal. “The Earth people have helped us. They are our friends.”

  “If they are our friends then they will help us with the Gyssyc.”

  “As long as they never find out we attacked first. If they can be convinced the Gyssyc are a threat to us . . .”

  “They are a threat!” Merriam yelled, punching the table. He stood so forcefully the chair he sat on slammed against the back wall. “Do you think they came back to be our friends? No, they came back to destroy us! Do not forget who the real enemy is! If Earth does nothing to help then we will destroy them as well!”

  “I haven’t forgotten who the real enemy is,” President Packard replied. “We will destroy the Gyssyc. I just don’t want to start a war with Earth.”

  Merriam walked over to the president who continued to stare at the desk. “Look at me,” Merriam said.

  The president lifted his eyes. Merriam continued to speak, his voice forceful and angry. “Do you really think you are my equal just because the people voted you as their leader? You were chosen by a race of idiots. You are not my equal and you never will be.”

  “I never wanted to be your equal, but you don’t understand the situation. I wanted to teach you how things are now. Earth is our friend and betraying them would be a mistake.”

  This was something Merriam wasn’t used too. Even though every cell in the president’s body was frightened, he didn’t back down. He was respectful of his god, but Merriam knew he had to work on this one to make him obey. “I will take that into consideration. You may lower you head again.”

  “Thank you,” President Packard replied, lowering his head.

  “Now, tell me about this concept of wormhole space.”

  President Packard did not speak for a few seconds. When he finally did, there was uncertainty in his voice. “It is the method we use to travel from star to star. The Earth people brought it to us so we could help explore.”

  Merriam read about the method of travel and found it interesting. What he found most intriguing were the strangelets. Could they be used as a weapon? “Has anyone ever used strangelets in battle?”

  “It is forbidden to use them as a weapon.”

  “But they can destroy everything they touch, correct?”

  “Yes, but it isn’t a controlled reaction and—”

  “We should use them against the Gyssyc,” Merriam said. “I want you to make that happen.”

  “I cannot,” President Packard replied, panicked. “We could accidentally destroy our fleet or something worse.”

  “Something worse?”

  The president was very animated now. His arms waved in all directions. His feet, while still planted firmly on the ground, shifted up and down rocking his body. “If we set the strangelets loose too close to our atmosphere, they could destroy the planet.”

  “Then we’ll have to be sure that doesn’t happen. I want a plan that will allow us to use them as a weapon.”

  The president shuttered with rage, his shoulders slowly curled up, and then lowered as a sign of obedience Merriam wanted. “I will put our best scientist on it.”

  “Excellent,” Merriam said, standing from his chair. “Ulliam will be free again.”

  “I didn’t know we weren’t,” President Packard said, lifting his head slightly.

  Merriam laughed. It was a cruel laugh and one without humor. “It always seems that way until you get a taste of what freedom is. Those years after the Gyssyc left were the golden years here. When I went into hibernation I was confident the next time I awoke we would be well beyond where we are now, but no, you met another race who gave you shortcuts instead of figuring it out for yourselves.”

  “They helped up us.”

  “They did not help us, they sold us ideas and the price we paid for those ideas was the ability to come up with ones of our own. Trust me; with Earth and the Gyssyc gone, we’ll become who we were meant to become, not who they want us to be.” Merriam turned and strolled out of the room without listening to another word the foolish president had to say.

  ~*~

  After Merriam left, President Packard lifted his head and looked at the door. When Merriam wasn’t around he felt he could think clearly. Merriam was such a powerful presence Packard needed to obey him without question. He could easily see how so many Ulliam gave their lives for such a leader. He felt he too would freely give his life should Merriam ask.

  However, after Merriam left he felt different. The part of him that questioned Merriam’s orders surfaced from deep within his mind. It was a part that kept screaming at him to not betray Earth and to not listen to this relic of the past. The need to obey Merriam overrode any rational thought. Even now as he questioned the idea of using strangelets as a weapon, he found himself walking toward the Ministry of the Sciences office to discuss what Merriam wanted.

  He walked into the office of Professor Lysis, the new head of the Ministry of Science. Lysis sat behind a large oak desk imported from Earth and used by every Ministry of Science head since the first. It used to belong to Manny Hullam, one of the many astrophysicists who helped discover the str
angelet. His team was responsible for figuring out how to create a strangelet every time there was particle collision. Without his work, a strangelet would only be produced once every billionth collision. Lysis looked up from what he was reading when he saw the president. He bowed his head and asked, “President Packard, what can I do for you?”

  “Lysis, we’ve known each other for a long time.”

  “Yes, we have.”

  “And you know that I would not, on my own, make this request, but it has come from a higher figure.”

  Lysis was one of the few Ulliam who knew Merriam was alive. He was the one who helped open the casket to revive him. He was the first Ulliam Merriam saw in over two thousand years. Truly a great honor for Lysis.

  “Merriam has asked me to develop a weapon that uses strangelets.”

  Lysis shrugged his shoulders up in surprise. “That goes against every treaty we have ever signed! A weapon that powerful could destroy Ulliam!”

  “I explained that to him but he insisted, and—” Packard trailed off. Lysis would understand why he had to obey.

  “I see,” Lysis replied, his shoulders slumped down again. “I will look into it. But, if we are caught, Earth will not let us go gently.”

  Packard knew that was true. Earth, many years before they met Ulliam, had accidently destroyed one of their system’s moons experimenting with strangelets. They lost many good scientists. A tragic lesson on how powerful one runaway strangelet could be.

  As he was ready to leave, the president turned. His mind felt clear now. He changed his speech to Common when he spoke next. “Lysis, do you think Merriam has some sort of unnatural control over us? We would never do anything like this before he arrived.”

  Lysis stared at Packard for a second, probably wondering why he changed his speech from Ulliam to Common. He replied in common. “Yes, it’s like we can’t think when he’s around, we can only obey.”

  “Do you think you can figure out why?”

  “I can assign—”

  “No!” Packard yelled. “Only you. I don’t trust anyone else. I’m sure Merriam is listening to us right now and I don’t want him to know what we’re looking for.”

  Lysis answered in Ulliam, “That sounds like a good plan, President Packard, I’ll get right on it.”

  “Thank you, Professor Lysis. Good day.” President Packard walked out of the office and into the crowded hallway.

  Merriam had ordered all humans out of the capital building. It was odd to only see Ulliam walking about. Was this the future Merriam wanted? A future where the Ulliam were alone and had to fend for themselves? History told of the times before the Gyssyc domesticated them, times of tribal wars, times of great death. After Merriam was placed in hibernation, the tribal wars had begun again and would have continued if they hadn’t accidently found the Earth base on their moon.

  It was a grand blessing when the Earth people helped them. Earth and its people had always been their friend and now Merriam wanted war with them.

  Packard bowed to the Ulliam he passed and they bowed back. It was a true sign of respect, one that was earned. Merriam was a disruptive influence on his people and he knew it, yet he continued to do what he wanted. When he tried to ask himself why, all he could do was shrug. The answers will come soon, Packard thought, and wondered what state Ulliam will be in when they do.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The regiment of Gyssyc troopers stood in an organized phalanx. In front of them a tall commander barked orders in his native voice. He shouted some command and, as if the group was one living being, they all turned to the left and marched to the other end of the domed room. He gave another order and they turned 180 degrees and headed toward the other end where they turned to face the commander.

  Marjorie watched all this with great fascination. She has seen military demonstrations before so she quickly recognized it for what it was. Lincoln was showing her his army in hopes she would take this information back with her to Ulliam. It took a weight off her mind knowing she would be going home and any threat to her life was over.

  Mason looked down through the glass of the observation room and let out a small gasp. “There certainly are a lot of them.”

  “Yes,” Lincoln said. “I hope you understand why I’m showing you this first.”

  “I understand,” Marjorie said. “It doesn’t matter how many troops you have, Ulliam will not surrender.”

  “I had anticipated that. What you are looking at is just a small fraction of our force. We have over 150,000 Gyssyc on this ship and we can call on any one of them to fight.”

  “If I remember the history module correctly, there was many more of your race when the Ulliam first rebelled and you had to flee.”

  Lincoln didn’t respond and instead turned to have them follow. They left the observation room and entered another hallway. The Gyssyc all stood to the side as they walked, some bowing their respect to their leaders, other glaring at the strangers with what Marjorie could only assume was either disgust or some other emotion she couldn’t read. She had to keep reminding herself these were aliens and what she would interpret as one emotion could very well be something completely different.

  She also remembered Lincoln never answered her question. “Why do you think you can win this time?”

  “We know we’ll lose,” he replied.

  “Why even try then?” Mason asked.

  “Wouldn’t you fight for your home?”

  “I wouldn’t fight if I knew it would cause the extinction of my race.”

  “We have no fear in that,” Lincoln replied. They stopped.

  The corridor wrapped around and Marjorie recognized it as one of their education chambers. Lincoln opened the door and guided them into the room.

  Darkness enveloped them when Lincoln closed the door. She heard Lincoln walking around them and away. Having large eyes helped him see in the dark better than a human ever could.

  “We have mastered wormhole space in ways your people haven’t. Given time I’m sure you will, but why wait?”

  “What are you suggesting?” Marjorie asked, looking toward where she heard his voice.

  “We want an alliance with you against the Ulliam. We know they are your allies but can they offer you the same things we can?”

  From the center of the room, an ember of light slowly grew in size. At first it was disorienting, it felt as if she were moving toward the light instead of it growing. After a few seconds, it was easy to see it was the Ulliam system. Around it orbited three planets, one tiny planet named Runner that orbited close to the sun, the planet Ulliam, and a giant gas planet Glassco which was three times the size of Jupiter.

  The image continued to zoom in until it was right on top of Ulliam. She saw the Arwen, the two debris fields, the Gyssyc ship, and Ulliam’s small moon. “What you are seeing is not a simulation; it’s a real time image of the system. We are looking at it from the vantage point of a tiny wormhole, one no larger than a small speck of dust.”

  Marjorie could not hide her amazement. She had been told it was impossible to have such control over wormholes but now that she was seeing it, it wasn’t a just a theory; it a was fact. They could be a very valuable ally to have. Would the Corps even consider breaking every treaty with Ulliam for such wonders? Her generation had been taught from first grade until she graduated that Earth comes above all else. If there was something that would benefit Earth’s value you needed to jump on it.

  But the Ulliam were their friends. Was it good for the Corps to abandon them? There was no way to tell if the Gyssyc were trustworthy no matter how powerful they were. “This is all very impressive,” she finally said. “But I’m not sure what the Corps will decide. I don’t have the kind of insight to even guess.”

  “I am not here to get an answer from you. I am here to give you all the information I can before the next Ulliam fleet arrives.”

  “The next Ulliam fleet?” Marjorie asked. “The next fleet will be a mix of Corps and Ulliam ship
s, I’m sure.”

  In the dim light, Marjorie saw Lincoln work on the control computer. Once again the image of the Ulliam sun pulled back until it was just a small star amongst millions of others.

  Above her were thousands of white contrails swirling behind what Marjorie recognized as the large force of Corps ships. Battle cruisers, carriers, and their escorts cut through wormhole space as if burrowing through inky black sand. “That is your fleet,” Lincoln said. “They will arrive in about two Ulliam days. If you look closely you will see there are no Ulliam ships anywhere.”

  Lincoln was correct. There were no Ulliam ships in the fleet. “Where are they?”

  The projection swung around and zipped through space toward another location. This time the contrails were not in an organized formation. They flowed through wormhole space from all different directions, heading toward a single point.

  Lincoln said, “We intercepted a transmission a few days after we arrived ordering all Ulliam ships to meet there.” A small green light marked the location the Ulliam ships were heading. “They are amassing a force to attack us. The location is only two days away from Ulliam and we believe they’ll be sending the ships in waves. That first fleet we destroyed was a scout force. We held off as long as we could, hoping you would somehow find a way to stop the attack, but they forced our hand and we had to destroy them. The fleet gathering now has the data from two battles, more than enough intelligence to find our weakness.”

  Marjorie sighed. The Gyssyc ship was more than powerful enough to take out most of the fleet, but probably not all. The Ulliam would win by sheer number. How many would die in the attack? “Before I take this to them, I need to know something. When you first arrived, who fired first? How did that first battle transpire?”

  Lincoln slowly raised the light dimming all the images; giving them a ghost-like transparency. “We will need to go to another room for that.”

  They walked out of the room and down yet another hallway. After several levels, they arrived. Stenciled over the door were words Marjorie didn’t understand. Lincoln said, “The best way to describe this room would be a debriefing room.”