Rumors of Wars: The Askirti Chronicles - Book 2

by Danny A. Brown

  “Can we question them as well?” asked Cedric the Fifth of the Lucian Empire.

  Jackie’s eyes glowed green for a moment when she answered, “they did not survive their interviews.”

  After more than one official had gulped loudly, she continued, “we did find more disturbing news. We found where ‘The Chosen’ were sourced. And the pirates, we found their chief benefactor as well.”

  This was a major announcement. It had been a huge mystery how piracy had become so rampant in recent years, how they obtained so many warships, how the Zikar war came about, and just what part The Chosen played in these events.

  “Well don’t keep us waiting!” Josh exclaimed.

  “Does anyone see a representative here from the United Planets Alliance?” she asked, making a show of looking around. After more than a few gasps she continued, “We have found definitive proof, a money trail that leads all the way back to the UPA. We have also uncovered information that points to The Chosen being a black operation based out of the UPA. We’ve already seen what they have done to the Commonwealth, orchestrating the Battle of Wellington and how they decimated the leadership of the Westerly Federation. They had a lot of say with the Zikars as well.

  “The Zikars had three major fleets. One to attack the Commonwealth, one for the Westerly Federation, and one for the UPA. We found out the fleet meant for the UPA invasion never hit them, though they were ordered to do so. Those orders were changed by a high ranking Zikar official who was a member of ‘The Chosen’.”

  Everyone’s face in their virtual representations went pale.

  “So, what does this mean?” Josh asked nervously.

  “It means we’ve only dealt with the symptoms, not the sickness. Yes, the Zikar government was bad, and perhaps they did not need much of a nudge to go to war, but there is another player here, and that appears to be the UPA.”

  “Well, crap!” said Tom in an exasperated voice. “I don’t think any of us want more war.”

  “Your Eminence, I don’t either. Looking at the planetary weapons that none of us knew the Zikars possessed, I have to wonder what other surprises are next, and we have to be ready. Now is not the time to relax, nor to become complacent, but we must ready ourselves. There is still much to be done, and we will gladly accept new partners. But let me make this clear,” she said looking around at each representative present, “our time of tribulation is upon us, and we must unite, not divide. I have alliances with the Commonwealth, the Reslorians, now the Westerly Federation, and the Zikars.” At this declaration, a lot of people sat straighter. “My job is to make us safe, and we are safer together than we are apart. I am not here to dominate any of you. My domain is a few thousand acres on Avalon, which I miss dearly. Ask the Reslorians how much they feel I dominated them?”

  She failed to mention her secret facility at San Agustin, her soon to be acquired black sites in deep space in the form of rogue planets, and her pending deal with the Westerly Federation to turn over ownership of the desolate home of humanity, Earth. Jackie had been in secret negotiations with them as she wanted her home back. To satisfy her relationship with the Reslorians as her host nation, Earth would become part of the Reslorian Empire. Jackie’s vision was to one day restore it to pristine condition. While the Westerly Federation was not big on giving up territory of any sort, Earth was at the bottom of the barrel of importance for them, having no value whatsoever.

  “Your combined populace and planets are nearly as great as that of the big players we have here put together. Together we are strong. No one will be forced to sign anything, but if you want to be a part, this is your invitation.”

  “An alliance with you at the top,” said the Mpho representative, staring coldly at her.

  “Yes, an alliance with me at the top,” she answered matter of factly, holding the woman’s glare.

  After the meeting, more than half of the minor nations that were present happily signed on to be members of this alliance, headed by the Askirti Federation.

  ##

  Pari, the planetary defense system. Have you been able to analyze it any?

  <>

  I’d say so. With a bit more time, we wouldn’t have a fleet as nothing we possess can stand up to it. So how about designing me a ship-based one?

  She could almost hear Pari laughing.

  <>

  Humph. And what are the restrictions and the reliability?

  <>

  Why not?

  <>

  And the reliability issues?

  <>

  Okay, send the specs to the shipyards. All new heavy lasers for the largest ships are to use this design moving forward, and we’ll include it in the refits for existing ships going in for repairs.

  So, next question, how do we defend against it?

  <>

  Jackie knew there was no time to lose as a possible confrontation with the UPA was looming over her. While her allies were a huge help, everyone’s resources were stretched to the limits between the war effort, the occupation of Zikar space, and the rebuilding of the Westerly Federation.

  ##

  The Great Zikar purge had begun. As more of the guilty parties were found, “off the books” cleansings that had come to light, the number of individuals receiving the death penalty climbed sharply up to sixty-eight million. Each of those sixty-eight million had thoroughly documented evidence against them, and their executions were videoed individually such that anyone living in fear of a certain someone could easily see if that person was still alive or not.

  For those convicted of lesser, but serious crimes, one of the barely habitable Zikar planets was evacuated, having a population of twenty-two million who were happily relocated to the core worlds, having been forced to live there by their government. That planet was then turned into a penal colony where a hundred and ten million Zikars were sentenced to life, all male. They were chemically castrated and dropped onto this planet to live out the rest of their days. The people sent there were those guilty of severe crimes such as torture, aggravated rape, human trafficking, pedophilia, and slavery. Food would be dropped to them for a few seasons, after which they would be on their own. The system would have a permanent guard in the form of a space station and a small task force.

  The fates of those executed or banished were well publicized within the Zikar borders as it was a clear message that justice was served and to communicate the fate that awaited those who would pursue such crimes moving forward.

  With almost two hundred million of their populace removed and mostly influential members at that, a significant restructuring was undertaken that would transform the Zikar Empire dramatically. None so much as equal rights and opportunities for women, who would now receive a full education, and in time would serve at all levels of Zikar society.

  ##

  Julie Newman watched from the street marveling at the media from all over cov
ering the event. She felt nothing about the demolition of the palace from which the now deceased Jim Roberts ruled over tens of billions with an iron fist. Yes, it was a symbol of oppression, and the video of its destruction would make many happy, but she knew there was so much to do, many large, daunting tasks to perform.

  The High Queen, now her queen, had a job for her. After learning the truth about what happened to her people, and how women in other nations were treated as equals to men, she was fully committed to seeing the Zikar people reformed. What she could not believe was the pace at which change was being asked for, as aggressive metrics were put in place for education and employment of women, including working for the government and the military.

  She did not object to the role she was asked to play as she had yet to latch on to the fact that she had a choice in anything, other than to do as she was told. But the High Queen saw something in her, said she was a prodigy and how it was a shame that Julie had been held back for so long. But with the anti-aging treatments, plus modern medicine, she could expect to live to a ripe old age of two hundred and fifty. There was still time to reach her potential, time to implement and oversee all the changes to her nation.

  She was asked to shadow the current Askirti leader assigned to govern Zikar space, a temporary assignment that would last three years. The High Queen said the people would not stand for a foreigner any longer than that, and to overstay their welcome would breed problems they did not want to have. After that, a Zikar citizen would be appointed for the first six-year term as president. Once that term was over, elections would be held every six years as the people would choose their leader.

  The concept of freedom was so foreign and so overwhelming to her that she was beside herself. But her strategic brain, that extreme intelligence she was gifted with, was already hard at work thinking about how to change her nation.

  She was granted unlimited resources and connections to make these changes happen, along with a comm unit that linked directly to the High Queen herself and her ancient AI, a resource like none other.

  ##

  A few days later, Jackie was on the battleship ARNS Hehewuti still in the Canton system. They were visiting the outer asteroid belt, believed mostly to be worthless rocks as scans indicated they were either mined out or did not contain anything valuable.

  “Hard to believe this is right here in the Zikar home system,” Jackie said aloud.

  “Hopefully it won’t be the ‘movie theater’ Pari previously eluded to,” Rick answered with a smirk.

  What they were looking for was one of the few active Homem sites that Pari had still been able to communicate with while still integrated into the Wellington facility. The AI did not have any idea what was here, only that it had a faint and intermittent connection to the same subspace network that was common at the height of the Homem Empire.

  Approaching a large asteroid that Pari indicated was the source of the sporadic transmission, Captain Glaude issued orders to scan the rock. The ship began thoroughly scanning the asteroid from all angles, taking about an hour to do so.

  “Anything?” Jackie asked.

  “Nothing we can see. Looks like a worthless dirtball,” answered Rice, reviewing the results himself. “Pari, what do we do next? You found that beautiful dreadnought with all the holes in it. Any way you can access this ‘movie theater’ for us?” he was laughing as he said it.

  “Well,” the AI’s image appearing in the flag bridge, “I suppose you have to have the secret handshake!”

  “But seriously, we’re here. You said there were a few sites left you could communicate with. The coordinates for one is right in front of us! Can you not say hello? Are you still reading a signal from this so-called facility?”

  “Yes, yes, I am! It is a real installation, I don’t know what it’s for. It could be an empty warehouse or it could be a top-secret military research installation similar to San Agustin. Only one way to find out!”

  Pari sent a signal out from the battleship to the asteroid just ahead. To the surprise of all, there was movement. A small section of the surface moved inward, then out of the way like a pocket door.

  “What do we have here?” Jackie asked.

  “Looks like a hanger,” the AI said. “The door is open, anyone care for a visit?”

  An hour later, Jackie was on approach to the asteroid in her pinnace, along with Rick, and a few marines in light armor.

  “This just doesn’t feel right,” Rick said.

  “And what doesn’t feel right? It’s an abandoned facility almost as old as the dirt in this asteroid belt,” Jackie responded.

  “Yeah, I just wish you’d let us clear it first, or at least bring our PAUs.”

  “You know the deal, if it’s Homem, and still powered, which it seems to be, it will need the correct authorization to access the interior, and that means me. We also don’t want to provoke any built-in defenses coming in armored up.”

  Landing in the hanger, everyone was surprised that the atmospheric levels appeared normal for humans, even though the door to space was wide open.

  “Interesting,” said Jackie.

  “Yeah, that’s all well and good, but I must insist everyone wear their helmets,” Rick said.

  Nobody argued.

  As they exited the small ship, the hangar was bright white and completely spotless. There were two sleek looking dark silver shuttles tucked in the side of the hangar that looked like brand new. Jackie’s breath caught at the thought they may have working craft from the height of the once mighty Homem empire. This find alone was significant.

  Noting her suit also said the atmosphere was human standard, to the surprise of all, she removed her helmet and took a deep breath.

  “Feels good! Smells good too! Let’s go!” she said excitedly, moving towards the door leading into the facility.

  There was a pad to the right with what looked like a hand scanner. She removed her glove and put her hand on it, causing it to illuminate.

  Next was a verbal announcement, to the surprise of all it was in Standard.

  “Authorization granted. Welcome to the Taima Institute, High Queen Jacqueline Campo! You are expected!”

  Epilogue

  “Well, shit!”

  “Sir, we can still recover from this.”

  “I don’t see how Reese!” The General said.

  “Time, we need more time! We need to push back the schedule, sir!”

  “Time is something we don’t have.”

  “Sir, I know you’ve been overly stressed. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.”

  Indeed, The General was taking it out on the slave girls brought to him. Usually, he kept them a week or more, before murdering them, but now he was going through one or two a day, with the means of death increasing in brutality.

  The girls were a distraction to keep him focused, but he was losing focus, thinking more and more about how the sequence of events only made things worse.

  “None of it was, we were supposed to be the hero’s, Reese. Stop the apocalypse and all that good stuff. But look at us now, people are uniting. A unity that wasn’t possible before all of this.”

  Chewing on his cigar, he was decidedly unhappy and getting more dissatisfied each passing day.

  “We still have an edge, sir! But we can’t push ourselves any further. It’s time to hold, remain still and gather our strength!”

  “I hear you, boy! I just don’t know if I believe you! So much is on the line! We’ve come so far, and fought so hard! And the problem is worse now than ever!”

  “Listen, let’s just hold for six months, and revisit it from there.”

  “Six months,” The General sighed. “The Darkness could be upon us then! I don’t think there is more I can do at this point. Reese, I’m tired, and this isn’t going as I hoped. Increase your team’s funding by thirty-percent, we need more results!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Be sure to send orders to the seventh and eighth fleets to hold
and go no further than they already have. Now isn’t the time to stretch ourselves any further.”

  In a knee-jerk reaction to the direction the Zikar war had gone, The General had ordered the invasion of several nearby minor nations, if for anything, than to have access to their vast resources. While they had plans to go further, he put those on hold for now as they needed to regroup.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Now it’s time for me to relax,” he said, walking out the door.

  He entered an elevator, taking it all the way down to the basement. Walking in, there was a sight of great misery. In one cell, a woman was restrained and being electrocuted in random intervals, tears streaming down her face while her voice was hoarse from screaming so much. The next cell over had a man who had chemicals injected into him at intervals, making all touch extremely painful, all the while he was being constantly beaten. And yet the third cell, another man was having his fingers and toes cut off, one knuckle at a time, howling each time.

  The screams of the innocent always relaxed him. As the real leader of his people, he led from the shadows. He deeply despised that idiot of a mouthpiece that was the president of the United Planets Alliance, and could not wait to send him to the basement here to serve as entertainment, helping The General to relax in his “me time.”

  Once the time was right, he would come out of the shadows to lead his people as he should, in broad daylight, to be seen by all and recognized as the leader of over three hundred worlds and sixty billion souls, and humanities greatest champion.

  Afterword

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my second book! I love science fiction and have been so excited about sharing my own vision regarding that genre.

  If you would like to see the Askirti world go on, please leave a review on Amazon! Verified purchase reviews are weighted heavily in the rankings, which in turn Amazon uses to sell more books! Feedback in the form of a review is always appreciated!