Euthara

by Michael McClain

  “I don’t know what your game is but I’ll try to do what you ask,” Breq said.

  “Try not. Do or do not, there is no try,” Jon said in his best Yoda voice.

  “What?” Breq said.

  “It’s a famous quote from my planet by an alien named Yoda,” Jon said. “It means don’t try to do anything, you either do it or you don’t. To just try at something means you have already half given up on what you’ve set out to do.”

  “So, your people have been in contact with people from other planets before?” Breq said. “I thought the Sol system was too far out of the way to be bothered with, and your race was considered to primitive by our standards.”

  “Gee thanks,” Jon said as he scoffed.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Breq said.

  “It’s ok, I know what you meant, I was just giving you a hard time,” Jon said. He gave Breq a disarming smile. “To answer your question, Yoda was a character from a movie.”

  “What’s a movie?” Breq said.

  Jon blinked in amazement at the thought of someone who had never seen a movie. It was so common place on Earth that he never gave it a second thought. “It’s a form of entertainment we have on our planet.”

  “You invited other races to be in these movies?” Breq said. “Strange, I’ve never heard of these movies before.”

  “You know what,” Jon said. As he relaxed back in his chair a bit. “Never mind, it was a bad joke, and we have more important things to get on too. I’ll explain movies to you later, if that’s ok. Right now I would like to hear about how these Crystari came to arrive and set about killing everything in their path.”

  “Right,” Breq said. He seemed to relax and take a few deep breaths before he continued speaking. “It was decided that we needed to expand our borders away from the Eutharan border as there was really nothing of interest in this direction. Euthara sits at the end of a spiral arm in the galaxy and there’s really nothing past it but empty space. We only expanded for two reasons, conquest or more viable worlds to sustain life and we knew there were at least two more races in the direction we wanted to expand.”

  “Funny,” Jon said. “Euthara sits very close to you and has a viable planet and several major installations just ripe for the taking. Yet the Emperor and Council decide to go the opposite way. Now why would they do that?”

  “I had the same thought and when I asked my father he said Euthara was being taken care of. That if we waited long enough the planet would be ripe for the taking,” Breq said.

  “Strange and why are the Drovasian not a part of the Empire?” Jon said. “That is something that has been eating at me for a while now.”

  “Why should they when you can buy them for whatever price you want?” Breq said. “They’re simpler to leave alone and simply employ when needed. In the past forty years they have cut off all contact with other races. It was said there was an internal change going on and they were preparing for something. A priestess named Nefeit had taken control of the Drovasian Empire and instituted massive changes as they prepared for this event. Three quarters of the Drovasian Empire supported her and her interpretation of the prophecies. There was a massive civil war that lasted thirty years. Nefeit and her supporters won, and as a result the losing Drovasian were put to death.”

  Jon raised an eyebrow as he thought about what he had just heard about his newest wife, something she had failed to mention to him.

  “What?” Breq said.

  “Nothing, I’m just listening,” Jon said. He shifted a bit in his chair and took another sip of his coffee.

  “Something is bothering you,” Breq said. “You paled when I mentioned what had happened in the Drovasian Empire. The Drovasian are here and I’m going to guess you didn’t know about that little bit of history and it makes you nervous.”

  “A bit, I’m married to Nefeit,” Jon said.

  “Interesting, so you’re the new High Priest of the Drovasian Empire?” Breq said. “Congratulations. I assumed they were here because the event they were referring to was the emergence of the Crystari and now I find it’s your arrival.”

  “I don’t know if I like the idea of being associated with a mass murderer,” Jon said.

  “What do you mean?” Breq said.

  “I mean she killed all those people,” Jon said.

  “It’s the way of her people and has been for thousands of years,” Breq said. “Anyway, I said that’s what the reports said, not that that was what really happened. The Drovasian Empire is very hard to spy on effectively and mostly we have to rely on second hand reports. If you want a good spy or counter spy you hire a Drovasian operative and they’ll get the job done.”

  “Thought they were fighters,” Jon said.

  “Not so much,” Breq said. “What makes them effective is their ability at spying and learning an enemy’s weakness. Then they exploit that weakness until the enemy fixes their weakness but by then the Drovasian have another weakness to exploit. Don’t get me wrong their shock troops are very effective and highly trained.”

  This all made Jon suspicious of Nefeit all over again and he knew they were going to have a long talk once he was done with Breq.

  “Talk to Nefeit as I don’t know what has really changed in the past forty years or so,” Breq said. “Don’t jump to conclusions to fast. Something you’ll have to learn is that each race out here has their own policies as to how they handle things. That’s something you will have to deal with if you expect the ADF to succeed.”

  “I see,” Jon said. His voice told Breq he was unconvinced.

  “One thing my father did right was allow the different races to deal with their respective people on their own terms. He tried to force them to rule the way he wanted them too and all it did was create problems. Once he let go and let their governments have free reign on how to govern their people things changed and the races became content. They still didn’t like being forced into the Empire but they dealt with it as long as they were allowed to do their own thing. The rulers of the races answered to him and their people answered to them and it made things much smoother. I’m suggesting to you to do the same,” Breq said. He gave Jon a small smile.

  “Well that’s all good and fine unless you’re part of the ruling body,” Jon said. “I’m ruler of the Human population out here, head of the ADF, soon to be ruler of the Eutharan people, Ga’sahde House Primus, ruler of the Drovasian people and the supreme leader of the Castanian people through Sa’oliq,”

  “You wear a few hats I see,” Breq said.

  “You can say that, it’s confusing sometimes,” Jon said. “I’ve kind of rolled it all into one and deal with everyone the same. For the most part I let Nefeit and Sa'oliq run her people and my sister run her people. I’ll probably leave Deatra to her own devices when and if I take the throne with her. That of course is dependent on what’s going on here and I have a feeling it’s a lot deeper than I think.”

  “You have no idea how deep,” Breq said.

  “I get that and any information you have would be helpful,” Jon said.

  “From what I’ve heard, my father has an agent here seeing to things,” Breq said. He sat up a bit straighter in his chair. “It’s one of the reasons we were told not to worry about the Eutharan people. We were to keep them in their system and to let time deal with them.”

  “Hrm,” Jon said. He got a far off look in his eyes as he thought about what he had just been told. He was wondering how much Breq might actually know and how much he was holding back. “So, you know about the strange bunker like structures the Crystari attacked from space?”

  “What structures and when was this attack?” Breq said. He sat forward as he listened intently waiting for Jon’s reply.

  “These Crystari beings jumped into Euthara orbit and attacked something on the ground close to this position,” Jon said. “They were engaged by my ships in orbit of the planet at the time. They seemed to pay more attention to the planet than to what was going on arou
nd them. They left just as fast as they came.”

  “How many of your ships did you lose?” Breq said.

  “None, and light to moderate damage to those that were engaged,” Jon said. “It really drew my attention to this structure. When I started inquiring about the structure the King seemed to get tight lipped about it and warned me, in not so many words, to leave it alone.”

  “I take it you did the opposite,” Breq said.

  “Well, were sitting here pretty much on top of it,” Jon said. He let a grin slip on to his face.

  “I see,” Breq said. He sat back for a second as if collecting his thoughts. “That’s strange activity for the Crystari. They usually don’t leave much in the way of survivors and because of that we really don’t know much about them. The race as a whole is pretty impressive, not that we know anything about them. Their ships are smaller than ours and have twice the fire power and seem to be resistant to any type of damage. Their ships are made of a crystal substance which is why we’ve given them the name Crystari. It means ‘Crystal Ships’ in my native language.”

  “Then based on what you’re saying their attack on Euthara falls out of their normal attack routine,” Jon said.

  “Very much so,” Breq said. “It appears they were after something here. Some unknown objective they needed to achieve. I would like to get a look at these structures if I can.”

  “I can arrange that,” Jon said. “One thing bothers me though, if they’re so strong why don’t they just come in force and conquer everything in one move?”

  “They’re afraid,” Breq said. “That is the one thing we know.”

  “If they’re afraid of something we can use it against them,” Jon said. “Do you know what they’re afraid of?”

  “Of course,” Breq said. “You.”

  “Me?” Jon said. “Why me?”

  “That we don’t know,” Breq said. “But, we know you have something to do with it. Every time you’re around they retreat from the surrounding sectors and wait for you to leave before resuming their actions.”

  “Strange,” Jon said.

  “Maybe they have a prophecy of their own and it involves you somehow,” Breq said.

  Jon rolled his eyes as he spoke, “Let’s not start that up.”

  “We know they have a watcher race that works with them and will take action from time to time,” Breq said. “That’s actually what drove us to try to expand. We wanted their cloaking technology for our own ships.”

  “Wonderful,” Jon said. “Now we have to worry about ships that cloak.”

  “We actually had the Itaros on their last leg before the Crystari intervened and began pushing us back,” Breq said. “We had learned to detect their ships, which seemed to exist in two dimensions at once. They could shift to the other dimension and disappear from this one. Most of it is speculation but we believe it’s an alternate universe and they could move about in hyperspace while shifted in this other universe. They could also watch both universes no matter where they were and communicate between them.”

  We had learned to detect this rift in our dimension and if you lay enough damage down it would force them to come back here to deal with the threat. It was hypothesized that their ships existed in both dimensions at the same time and could never cut the link with one side completely for some reason. Once you forced them out of their shift they were just as vulnerable as anyone else and were easy targets.”

  “Why would a race as powerful as the Crystari ally with another race? It’s not like they need the help,” Jon said.

  “Oh they have more than one race behind them,” Breq said. “We know this from scout missions that went deep into their territory. They have several races in their territory but their involvement in the Crystari military is unknown. The scouts never seemed to get very far or very much information and they never made it back. We have a few system scans the scouts sent back.”

  “Really?” Jon said. His face seemed to brighten up a bit. “You think that my team can take a look at them?”

  “Sure, I don’t see why not,” Breq said. “They don’t really show much and we didn’t find any useful information in them.”

  “Maybe you just need a fresh set of eyes looking at them,” Jon said.

  Breq shrugged as he continued, “Anyway the war was going very well. We pushed the Itaros back to their last system. The funny thing was that every system we took had no life on it, just ghost towns as if all the people had disappeared.”

  “Strange, maybe they shifted away before you arrived or were shifted while you were there,” Jon said.

  “We thought of that but never found any evidence of the cities being inhabited,” Breq said. “Dust covered rooms and power plants that were powered down for years.”

  “Maybe you were fed misinformation,” Jon said.

  “That’s what most of the upper command staff thought and in a way it was correct,” Breq said. “When the Crystari came we got pinched between three small fleets. The ambush was well coordinated and took out half the fleet before we got the orders to retreat from command. We dropped back to a rally point and waited for reinforcements to arrive. They’re very hard to kill but we managed to take a few down in the battle and when they didn’t come storming after us we assumed that was the reason.”

  “You actually destroyed some of them?” Jon said.

  “Yeah, though it was luck that we managed even that feat,” Breq said. “I still don’t know the whole story on that one. I wasn’t there and most of this story is what I read in reports.”

  Breq took a sip of his water before he continued. “Anyway, we held our ground in their systems for a few weeks by jumping around and playing hide and seek with them. We took heavy losses while doing so. Reportedly we would destroy one of their ships and they would retreat but slowly they were whittling our fleet down. That was until an engineer found out that they were using our shields against us. Their weapons leeched power from the ships they struck and they did it through the shields. The engineer developed the modifications that we gave you and they worked for a while. Almost turning the fights into an even battle but in the long run they would win out as it was just a matter of time before they got through the shields.”

  Then before long a new weapon was introduced but it wasn’t very effective and it would just shove the Crystari ships around. Enough of the new guns aimed at one of their ships could knock it out of combat for a while. This gave them pause and we were finally able to stand our ground, at least for a while. They wised-up and started hitting us in our home systems trying to force the fleet to break up. This whole back and forth went on for about five years. They would take a system and we would rally and take it back. On and on it went like that. In the systems they took an average of five percent of the population would just disappear. No one knew what happened to them just that they were gone.”

  Then, just out of the blue, about six months ago, they started razing whole planets and killing entire populations. It was as if they were saying we’re through playing with you and now it’s time to get serious. With nothing left to take back our job became one of protection and response to attacks. Because of this our fleet dwindled as we lost ships and couldn’t replace them fast enough. Now here we are, it took them less than six months to burn through our main systems and I would bet they’re going to be headed here or to Ghost Station next.”

  “Why would they change their tactics six months ago?” Jon said.

  “That's pretty much the time you started showing up,” Breq said. “I figured it had something to do with your arrival which is why I saved you. If you are a key piece and the person the prophecy talks about then I had to take action even if it meant exposing me to my father.”

  “I don’t believe in prophecy,” Jon said. “I hate to think I have my fate laid out before me and I have no control over my choices.”

  Breq smiled and then got serious as he spoke, “An Emperor yet to rise in power shall save the one destined to set the un
iverse on its right and true path.”

  “Oh let me guess, it comes from the holy book of the Invaru,” Jon said.

  “Close, it comes from an ancient Invaru holy book written three thousand years ago by one of the most renowned clerics in our history,” Breq said. “There’s more but since you don’t like prophecy I’ll wait until you come to ask me about it.”

  “That will happen in like never,” Jon said.

  “Oh you will,” Breq said.

  “And you know this why?” Jon said.

  “Because,” Breq said.

  “It says it in the holy book,” Jon finished with him.

  “I knew it!” Jon said.

  “That’s why all that nonsense about the Invaru not being in the ADF isn’t going to happen,” Breq said. “I know I’ll be around.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Jon said. “That depends on how you handle this council thing.”

  “I still don’t understand why the council matters,” Breq said.

  “Because, everyone should have an equal voice,” Jon said. “I’m thinking that will happen once you get this little problem fixed.”

  “But, why hang the acceptance of the Invaru Empire on such a thing?” Breq said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Motivation,” Jon said. “Like I said before, relax, I’m doing you a favor.”

  “If you say so,” Breq said. “I still don’t understand.”

  “You will,” Jon said. “Trust me. Well, I think I need some time to think about this. You need to return to the station and coordinate your people and any ships that arrive. I’m going to call Sa’oliq and Gabriel and let them know I want you over-seeing the refit and repairs to your ships. You have our facilities, including personnel at your disposal.”

  “Thanks,” Breq said.

  Jon stood up followed by Breq and the two shook hands.

  “No problem,” Jon said. “I would like your people to coordinate through ADF space command on the station. If you don’t mind we’ll be using your ships as they’re repaired in patrols.”