by Doug Farren
“You are conflicted.”
“Damn right I am!”
“Terrans have a phrase that I believe is appropriate—you are being asked to choose between the lesser of two evils.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“It is in one of the historical records your ship’s AI sent me.”
Melissa ran her hand through her hair starting at the front. She could feel the grease when she rubbed her fingers together. “God I need a shower!” she said, rubbing her hand on her pants. “Please don’t kill any more people while I’m aboard.”
“I will allow the crew of the transport to surrender and abandon their vessel,” the warship replied.
“Will you consider not harming civilians in your quest to end a war that has already been fought?”
“I will consider it although it is inconsistent with my current goals.”
“At least that’s a start. Thank you.”
* * * *
As asked, Melissa was in her spacesuit and laying in the chair when the warship made the jump to the Ba’Rutu mining operation. As soon as the jump was complete, several icons appeared on the tactical screen in front of her. One of them was one she’d seen before.
“Is that a Ba’Rutu warship?” she asked.
“It is. They are powering weapons.”
“You knew it was going to be here, didn’t you?”
“I did not. Its presence significantly alters my original plan.”
Melissa wanted to cry. “More killing,” she said.
“Not necessarily,” the warship replied. “Listen. Attention Ba’Rutu warship. Your vessel has been targeted. Surrender and abandon your ship or you will be destroyed. An immediate response is required.”
There was a ten second delay during which Melissa held her breath. She was grateful that the warship had allowed her to listen in on the translated conversation.
“This is Captain Tovara. We are carrying a crew of civilian workers. Will you guarantee the lives of my crew as well as the lives of the civilians we have on board?”
“I will spare your lives provided you make no attempt to sabotage your ship. You will leave the hangar doors open and all internal security systems disabled. Failure to comply will result in the forfeiture of your lives. Will you comply?”
“We will. Please allow us some time to get everyone aboard the shuttles.”
“I will give you 15 minutes. Attention cargo transport! Abandon your vessel.”
The reply from the transport was nearly instantaneous. “I’m already in my shuttle. Leaving in just a minute. The ship is yours.”
“You let them live!” Melissa shouted.
“Apparently, the logic of your people also applies to Ba’Rutu. Once again, I must thank you for your advice. Instead of engaging in hostilities and taking a damaged warship by force, I have obtained a fully operational warship without having to fire a single weapon. I am at a loss as to why the Ba’Rutu would allow me to do this.”
“To be honest, so am I,” Melissa admitted. “That was almost too easy. But people don’t want to die and I’m sure they realized you were going to get that warship and the cargo ship no matter how much of a fight they put up. They would have died for nothing.”
“If this is how wars are fought, then winning the war will be far easier than I anticipated.”
“So you aren’t going to exterminate the Ba’Rutu?”
“My prime directive specifies that I win the war. If this can be done without killing all Ba’Rutu, then I will consider it. This does, however, raise another significant question: If I allow a significant number of Ba’Rutu to live, then what is the point of fighting a war? To win a war is to force your enemy to submit to your rule. I am a warship, not a ruler. I need to reevaluate what is to become of the Ba’Rutu if I allow them to surrender.”
“What would the Akuta have done?”
“I do not know. I have no knowledge of the customs of my builders. There will be time for me to decide what to do with the Ba’Rutu once I have won the war. Given the availability of this new tactic of allowing them to surrender, I anticipate the war will end much sooner than I had originally estimated.”
Chapter 30
“What you are considering is extremely dangerous,” Minister Curach said.
“I disagree,” Aryth replied. “Mental manipulation of aetheric energy cannot be detected by any known technology.”
“True, but the effects of that manipulation will become obvious.”
“The Akuta never knew about our ability to control aetheric energy. The warship will not have this knowledge either. If we are unable to have any effect on the crystal’s stored energy, then the warship will never know anything was attempted. If we do have an effect on the crystal but are unable to cause it to detonate, it will believe the crystal suffered some sort of internal damage. If we destroy the crystal but fail to destroy the warship, then we can attack the vessel without fear of having it strip the armor from our ships. There is also the possibility that the warship will be destroyed when we detonate the storage crystal.”
“Assuming you can.”
“We’re en route to my ship,” Aryth replied. “We will use some of our spare power crystals to see if we are able to turn them into a bomb.”
“Very well,” Minister Curach replied, nodding his head. “Assuming you find a way to cause a power crystal to explode, you have my permission to ask the Terran government to agree to this plan. They must not, however, know of our ability. The council is not pleased that there are Terrans who know this.”
“Merlin is aware of his error in judgment,” Aryth replied. “It will not happen again. The humans have been sworn to silence.”
“But can they be trusted? You should know that there was a vote in the governing council to detain Captain Zak and his wife because of what they witnessed. It failed to pass by three votes.”
“I will personally vouch for their integrity,” Aryth said. “Has our request for a portal generator been considered?”
“The council has agreed to your request. The ship will arrive in Earth orbit in six days. You do not, however, have permission to use the machine until a satisfactory explanation can be provided to the Terrans. It must be activated on the surface and even though they are not familiar with aetheric energy, Terran technology will most likely be able to detect the energy surge.”
“Please pass on my sincere thanks to the governing council,” Aryth said, bowing her head.
“You should thank Orlem. She presented a powerful argument to the council. You are lucky to have friends in high places. Curach out.”
The screen went dark as the Minister terminated the connection. Glancing past the pilot, Aryth could see that the shuttle was slowing as it approached the ambassadorial ship. An icon on the communications sub-station she was using indicated they had an incoming call. Touching the icon brought up the image of Captain Hanept.
“We have six crystals available for you to experiment on,” the Captain said as soon as he noticed the connection had been made. “Let me know when you are ready.”
“Go ahead and send out the first one,” Aryth replied.
“Acknowledged.”
Aryth opened her mind and established a full link with Merlin. This merging of the minds caused a huge increase in their abilities. Closing their eyes to limit any outside stimuli, the Aryth and Merlin fusion reached out with their special sense and tried to find the power crystal that was being carried into space by a small drone. Aetheric energy was very diffuse in space and a concentrated amount of such energy was easily identified.
“We sense it,” Aryth told the Captain. “Release the crystal.”
There was a short delay then Hanept said, “The drone is clear.”
Their first attempt did nothing more than cause a tiny flash of light in space. After retrieving the crystal, Captain Hanept said, “The crystal appears to be undamaged. The drone reported only a short burst of energy.”
“Give us
another one,” Aryth said.
The second attempt sent a bright ball of concentrated aetheric energy off into space. The third attempt was even less successful as the energy contained within the crystal simply drained away.
“Give us a few minutes to think about this,” Aryth said. Loosening their link, Merlin and Aryth talked about the results of their experiment so far. The conversation was silent and carried out at the speed of thought.
Victor leaned over towards AJ and Heather and said, “Even though I’m not merged with them, I can feel their power.”
AJ shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t feel anything.” Looking over at his wife, he asked, “How about you?”
“Sorry,” she replied. “Nothing.”
“Captain Hanept,” Aryth said. “Release another one.”
There was a pause of about a minute then the Captain announced, “The drone is clear.”
This time, AJ saw a bright flash through the cockpit window.
“Detonation confirmed!” Hanept said.
“I think we’ve got it,” Aryth said. “Send out another one so we can confirm.”
AJ stood up and walked to the front of the shuttle. The pilot lifted a wing to give him some room as he approached. Swinging his head around, the pilot noted that AJ was looking in the wrong direction. “Over there,” he said, pointing in the right direction.
A moment later, there was a brilliant flash of light like a flashbulb going off.
“Detonation confirmed!” Captain Hanept reported. “Congratulations!”
Aryth unlinked her mind with Merlin’s. “Thank you,” she replied. “Clear the hangar, we’re coming in. Inform the President’s envoy that I need to speak to the Terran President as soon as possible.”
Heather slid over to the seat next to Merlin. “Can you explain how you did that? Those things were out in space!”
Merlin shook his head. “How does a bat fly around a cave in total darkness without hitting the walls?”
“They use echolocation. It’s sort of like radar.”
“How do you imagine they sense their surroundings?”
“They see with sound,” she replied, trying to figure out where Merlin was going with this.
“But you can’t actually see sound waves,” Merlin replied. “They don’t ‘see’ anything. Echolocation is also far more omni-directional than eyesight. Shivaro, the Ilvinishem word used to describe the ability to sense aetheric energy, is a lot like echolocation. I can sense the presence of shivara, or aetheric energy, and I can discern its concentration and other characteristics. But I don’t actually see it.”
AJ joined them and asked, “The warship’s power crystal is inside the ship. Does that mean you can see through walls?”
“Aetheric energy is multidimensional,” Merlin explained. “This is what allows us to sense it through what we perceive as solid matter.”
“But isn’t altered matter multidimensional?” Heather asked. “Won’t it block your ability to see through it?”
“I hope not,” Merlin replied. “Altered matter has components that still retain a link to other dimensions but most of it has been forced to exist in our dimensional space.”
AJ scratched the back of his head. “Earlier, you told us that this aetheric energy can be controlled by your thoughts. Does that mean that telepathy is a form of multidimensional energy?”
Merlin nodded his head and smiled. “Exactly! Ba’Rutu scientists have been trying for centuries to understand the nature of aetheric energy and telepathy and how they relate to each other. They’ve developed hundreds of complex equations, but nobody has been able to adequately describe aetheric energy in non-mathematical terms.”
“Sort of like quantum theory,” Heather said. “We can write down the equations but when we try to understand it in terms our brains can relate to it simply makes no reasonable sense.”
“You are exactly right,” Merlin replied.
“I guess if you don’t have it, you’ll never be able to understand what it feels like,” Heather said. “Can you teach me?”
Merlin looked at Victor who had been listening in and smiled. “Not unless you’re bound to a dragon.”
“You were the first you know,” Victor told Merlin.
“The first what?” Merlin asked.
“To be bound to a dragon,” Victor replied.
“There were others before me,” Merlin replied glancing at Aryth.
“What’s the dragonverse like?” AJ asked.
Victor put his head back, closed his eyes, and smiled. “It’s like living in a world of fantasy. The Ilvinishem are kind, resourceful, and prefer to live a simple life. You would call them elves. They live in harmony with the dragons and their bound humans. The ogres have learned to leave the elves alone. Shivara is plentiful and is the primary power source for Ilvinishem society. Technology as you know it does not work there.”
“So, if we were to travel there, we would see dragons, elves, and ogres all living in a society powered by what we would call magic?” Heather asked, her eyes wide with wonder.
“Yes,” Victor replied. “They were here once, in this universe I mean. That’s where we got our myths and legends of their world. And Merlin,” Victor turned and put a hand on Merlin’s shoulder, “was there at the beginning. You’ve become quite a legend in two universes.”
“It was unintentional, I assure you,” Merlin said.
“I am still stunned by the fact that you and Aryth are bound,” Victor said. “Aryth is Ba’Rutu. She’s not a fusion of dragon and Ilvinishem as my beloved Ithnara is. How is it that you are bound?”
There was a slight thump as the shuttle was locked down in the hangar bay. Aryth walked past them and stood by the rear hatch. Looking at her, Merlin said, “We’ve always had a special relationship. The first time we met, she landed in a field not more than three meters from me. We were close enough for me to look her in the eyes. But instead of being afraid, I was calm and at peace. Even so, it took many months before we achieved our first light bonding.”
“And now?” Victor asked.
“We are inseparable. Sometimes, when we are deeply linked, it’s hard to distinguish one from the other.”
“My great grandfather had the same connection with Glahmelia. When they were fully merged they were of one mind. The Ilvinishem called them the umshivataka.”
An indicator flipped and Aryth touched the control to open the hatch. Looking back at the others, she said, “I need to speak to the Terran President. Merlin will take you to one of the guest rooms. Please wait there until I return.”
Aryth stepped through the hatch and quickly made her way to the envoy’s stateroom. “President Cheng is waiting for you,” the envoy said as soon as the door opened.
The envoy escorted Aryth to the conference room where the face of the World President was displayed on a large wall-mounted monitor. She was a beautiful woman of Chinese descent with long black hair which she preferred to let naturally fall.
“Ambassador Aryth,” she greeted her. “I’ve been informed you have an urgent matter to discuss with me.”
“I do Madam President,” Aryth replied. “We may have a way of stopping the Akuta warship but we will need your approval and your assistance to do so.”
“I’m listening,” she replied in a noncommittal tone of voice.
“The warship’s greatest threat is its use of an aetheric energy weapon that’s capable of destroying our hull plating.”
“Right. The altered dark matter material I’ve heard about.”
“Correct. After a great deal of research, we’ve discovered a way of remotely detonating the device used to store this energy. To do so, Merlin and I will need to be aboard the shuttle sent to retrieve the Terran currently aboard the ship.”
“I will need to know the risks as well as the chances of success before I can make a decision,” the President replied. “If you fail, the warship will most likely declare Earth as a hostile force. We can’t defend ourselves
against a ship like that.”
“I am aware of this Madam President,” Aryth replied. “The chances of success are high and the risks are low. The method employed cannot be detected by any known instrument including any we possess. If we fail to destroy the storage device and only damage it, the warship will conclude that the device suffered a malfunction. No matter the outcome, Earth will be blameless.”
“The instructions from the warship were quite explicit. We are to send a shuttle with only a pilot to retrieve Melissa. Nobody else is allowed aboard. Does Merlin know how to pilot one of our shuttles?”
“He can pilot one of ours. It should not take him long to learn how to fly a Terran shuttle. The warship will use a thermal scan to identify how many people are aboard. We have ways to hide my presence from the sensors. I will not be detected.”
“Merlin will have to learn how to fly while en route then,” the President replied. “The Rutherford is due to launch in less than 12 hours.”
“I was not aware of which ship had been chosen,” Aryth said. “I take it we have permission?”
“You do. I will ensure the Rutherford is informed of the change in plans.”
“Thank you Madam President. We will gather our equipment and transfer over to the Rutherford as soon as possible.”
“You’re not going to be very comfortable,” the President warned. “The Rutherford is a relatively small ship and isn’t built to accommodate Ba’Rutu. You’re probably going to have to stay in the cargo bay.”
“I will make do.”
“Good luck ambassador.”