Invardii Series Boxset

by Warwick Gibson

  The design team would then change nearly everything, that was how design teams worked, but they needed to have some idea of what SarSanni was trying to achieve.

  He sighed. It was going to be one gut-wrenching production run. No one had ever tried to do what they were trying to do, and do it all from scratch. It wasn’t just a matter of copying Rothii technology, and it wasn’t some small improvement on an existing model.

  They had no experience of a major developmental push, and no successes behind them to prove they could do it.

  That would be his main task, he saw with sudden clarity – to keep the team believing they could achieve this. He headed for his quarters feeling inordinately excited, and quietly dismayed, at the magnitude of the task he had taken on.

  CHAPTER 19

  ________________

  Although Sumerians didn’t dream, as Humans did, Sarsanni often found himself in the middle of an intense daydream that relived the death throes of the huge, black Rothii space station he had been living in, torn apart by a great ship of fire.

  He didn’t give these daydreams much of his attention, and forcibly evicted them when he was very busy. They seemed inconsequential next to saving the Sumerian race.

  Still, progress was slow. After three weeks in the deep-sea research facility, SarSanni and his team hadn’t come up with much. They had so far made two changes to the standard Sumerian warship design.

  Their prototype had a greater structural integrity – due almost entirely to Human advances in alloys – and new theories about the Orscantium decay sequence had helped the ship go a little faster, but that was all. The automation of many routines and the centralising of the remainder did mean that it could be run by a much smaller crew.

  The main problem was that even the more flexible Par’Sanni found themselves bound by the way things had always been done. There had been a rigid structure within the Sumerian empire for hundreds of thousands of years. The Par’Lock engineers, while sometimes innovative within a small part of a design, did not seem able to grasp the overall picture, and suggest useful changes.

  What was the Human ability that allowed them to think impossible things, growled SarSanni to himself. He was walking backward and forward on a wide deck above the construction cavern of the seabed facility.

  How did the Humans make such great adaptions to what they already had? How could they make so many changes in an existing design, just to see what would happen, and not go mad?

  OrLock sat implacably by the wall, ready to act as a sounding board – or call the design team together one more time.

  The news of the Sumerian defeat at the binary system (coded BN5608 on the Sumerian star maps, or BN5 in shorthand), had refuelled SarSanni’s anger. The Reaper ships had killed all of the Sumerian research team on the Ragnaroth space station except himself and two others, and now the Reaper ships had destroyed 48 warships and all their crews.

  SarSanni knew his people had to change their way of thinking. If they didn’t stop blindly repeating what the Rothii had done, they would not have a future to look forward to.

  There was a quiet clearing of a throat next to him, and Orlock handed over a folded sheet of paper.

  “This has just come in,” he said.

  SarSanni took the piece of paper with surprise. Normally messages were in some electronic form.

  “It is a first translation of the Reaper ship message at BN5,” said OrLock.

  SarSanni reflexively held the piece of paper more tightly. This was an unexpected breakthrough. The compressed squeal of data from the Reaper ships at BN5 had been recorded, a standard procedure, and the Sumerian government had been trying to decipher it ever since.

  SarSanni sat down beside Orlock, with his back against the rough wall of the rocky cavern. There was a flash of light and a sound like cloth ripping as an energy weapon tested a shield prototype in the cavern below them. SarSanni hesitated, uncertain whether he was ready to read the contents of the message just yet.

  “When did we decipher this?”

  “We didn’t,” said OrLock, looking away to the closest gantry. One of the new alloy panels was hanging from it, and flickering in lurid bursts of light as its surface cohesion was tested.

  So, this translation was not an ‘official’ one, thought SarSanni, and he was to understand he did not get it from OrLock. Interesting.

  OrLock continued, studiously examining the arched door set in the rock face to his right, his voice carefully neutral.

  “ParapSanni has an association with one of the Regents on Earth. A copy of the message was sent by a cloaked pigeon ParapSanni has been given, some sort of Rothii technology, and this translation came back.”

  SarSanni was astounded. ParapSanni had done the unthinkable with this. Involving Earth in Sumerian affairs was bad enough, but working with Humans with stolen Rothii technology would give the Sumerian government fits. Then SarSanni drew a deep breath.

  On the other hand no one had been directly harmed. ParapSanni must have had good reason to trust this Regent, who was clearly a confidante of his on Earth, and did these things matter when everyone was facing the imminent threat of the Reaper ships.

  Did the ends justify the means? It seemed many good things had to be overturned for change to come, but where was the line that told the agents of change that they had gone too far?

  SarSanni drew another deep breath, and blew it out slowly through his mouth. His ‘nose’ was tiny, and largely for detecting temperature and vibration. He unfolded the piece of paper, and read the contents.

  It was not a translation he held in his hands, it was a commentary on the translation. He began to read.

  “The document referred to us for translation is largely an armistice agreement between the Rothii and a people referred to by many names, but most noticeably recorded as ‘Invardii’ or ‘The Invardii’. It is exceedingly legalist and makes provision for every minute eventuality. The degree of detail is exceptional, and verges on the paranoid.

  “The document is repeated in several languages, most of which are unfamiliar, and which so far defy analysis. Fortunately, one of the languages is a form of Rothii. It shows a purity of form quite different to the Rothii database language, suggesting it was in use well before the disappearance of the Rothii 200 thousand years ago.

  “The documents are sufficiently different in length and construction to suggest several parties may have been involved in the armistice, with injunctions that differ somewhat for each party.

  “The tenor of the agreement between the Rothii and the Invardii is substantially that the Rothii cede to the Invardii the unconditional obedience of themselves, their descendants, and their trading partners (or slave races, insufficient context to discriminate meaning) in perpetuity.”

  There was a little more along the same lines, and then an appended psychologist’s report (off-world Ontology, cultural division).

  “As noted above, the attention to detail verges on the paranoid. While working from a limited cultural sample, and in one only (legal) format, it is likely this document was produced by a civilisation obsessed with control and the need to dominate. The construction of the document around such underlying issues as obedience, while little attention is given to the more practical ceding of resources or territorial matters, tends to confirm this.

  “Such a civilisation will hold both mediation and cooperation in very low regard. The actions of the Invardii (the Reaper ships) to date are evidence of this deeply imbedded, dismissive, attitude to all life.”

  SarSanni leaned back against the wall. Sumerians were very sociable, at least among themselves, and would have great difficulty understanding that the Invardii could be like this. He felt a sense of despair just on reading these words.

  The ‘armistice’ document raised more questions than it answered. It seemed inconceivable that the Rothii had been forced to cede the Sumerians into slavery 200 thousand years ago, as the result of a conflict between species.

  The docum
ent could not possibly be morally binding on the Sumerians, as they had not been a signatory to it, but it seemed likely their capitulation would now be forced upon them.

  He thought for a moment. Why wait 200 thousand years before claiming the proceeds of a war?

  “You’ve read this?” queried SarSanni of Orlock.

  “I know of the contents,” replied the engineer. He looked at SarSanni for a long time before he spoke again.

  “I think it means we need to get on with the prototype. We know what these Invardii intend to do, we just don’t know how much time we’ve got to build a fleet of warships. Something that might stop them from tearing our planets apart.”

  SarSanni nodded.

  CHAPTER 20

  ____________________

  Regent Cordez closed the vidlink connection to the Secretary of State for EarthGov. There had been no further progress on a formal alliance with the Mersa, but that didn’t matter much. He had his first batch of Mersa scientists already on Prometheus, and things would go ahead quickly from there – officially sanctioned or not.

  The other major problem he had was disturbing him more. The Sumerians were reluctant to intervene on Aqua Regis, quoting their usual rule of ‘non-interference’ in races without star drive. But that wasn’t how Cordez saw things. The Hudnee were dying, hell there were plant and animal species going extinct all over the planet. He had to do something!

  When he had first set his sights on being Regent of the South Am trading block, Ebert Florez, his mentor, had said, “don’t forget the little guy. You never know when some underdog will pull off a match-winning trick.

  “Let the big guys huff and puff, and posture all they want. While they’re doing that, spread your net wide, support the weak and the helpless – they will return the favour one day.”

  Aqua Regis was a test case to Cordez. If Human and Sumerian interests helped Aqua Regis with its problems, it was a precedent for a cooperative neighbourhood, and a true alliance encompassing all of the Spiral Arm might follow. Cordez didn’t think Earth would beat the Invardii any other way.

  Sallyanne popped her head around the door. She was his secretary in name, but she was also Earth’s best off-world sociologist. She only worked as his secretary because, as she said, ‘that’s where the action is in interstellar affairs these days.’

  She often dropped in to see if she could help him in some way. Her workload liaising between the village leaders on Alamos and EarthGov was sporadic, and she found the lack of movement on a formal alliance as frustrating as Cordez did.

  They both enjoyed the safe environment in his office where they could say anything about their work, and she turned up often. She raised her eyebrows enquiringly.

  “Ten minutes,” said Cordez briskly. He needed time to make some notes about the Aqua Regis problem, and make a call, but after that she would be most welcome to drop by.

  He tapped in an enquiry to Asura Ming’s private number, using the highest level ‘inviolate’ security code. He was told she was available to receive calls.

  He paused for a moment with his finger over the ‘connect’ button. The two most important women in his life, Sallyanne and Asura, were about as different as you could find anywhere on the planet. Though both exuded an air of mental toughness, and both were extremely competent at what they did. What would a psychologist say about that? Then he pushed the thought from his mind and put a call through to Asura.

  He summarised their discussion a few minutes later.

  “So, in short, you’ll talk to the South Am and Asian traders, and get them to put pressure on the Sumerian traders. That might make the Sumerian government more open to the idea of helping Aqua Regis.

  “I’ll contact ParapSanni, and see if he can bring pressure to bear on the Sumerian government through his Par’Sanni Reform Party. He’s had a lot of help from us and I think it’s time to ask for a favour.”

  Asura was proving an invaluable ally. She had her own network of contacts, and all the power of the Asian trading block lay behind her. Her vast family fortune might yet prove an ace card if the Earth and Sumerian governments didn’t mobilise against the Invardii fast enough.

  Cotdez had funded some of the Prometheus project from his own reserves, but had hidden many of the other costs within the great pile of paperwork that ran the South Am trading block. He couldn’t keep doing that forever.

  “One last thing, Asura. I’m going to send somebody to scout out HK42, the binary system where the Invardii ships seem to have settled for the moment.” He could hear her intake of breath. On the screen her eyes widened.

  “Wouldn’t that be a suicide mission?” she said. “The Reaper ships are so far ahead of us in technology. They’ll detect any ship we send, and destroy it without thinking.”

  “I know,” said Cordez, “but I have someone very special in mind for the job, and I know he can do it. Dammit, Asura, we’re on a war footing now, despite the fact no one else can see it, and desperate times call for desperate measures!”

  She nodded, but it was clear she didn’t think it was the right thing to do.

  “Believe me,” he said earnestly, “if anyone can do it, this man can. He’s proved himself in difficult situations before, and he will be in and out of there without the Reaper ships noticing a thing.”

  She nodded again, a little less hesitantly this time.

  “And the news from Prometheus is really that good?” she asked.

  “Yes,” said Cordez. “A team of starships, fitted with modified ramjet engines, should be able to skim the upper atmosphere on Aqua Regis and make a significant difference. The idea is to convert enough oxygen to ozone to shield the planet and reduce the temperature. We’ve built the ramjets so they provide enough lift without having to use star drive engines near the planet.

  “It all looks good on paper. The Prometheus team are building the first modified ship now.”

  “I’m so glad,” said Asura, with real feeling. “All those people, and a whole planet, just dying while we did nothing.”

  “Yes, I know,” said Manoba quietly. It was coming up to the time he should break the link with Asura, and he found that increasingly difficult these days. She was the only other person who knew the whole picture, the only one he could freely discuss everything with – the only one who was able to share the most difficult parts of his burden.

  “Thank you for your help,” he said. She saw the renewal, and the peace, on his face, and she understood. She, too, knew what the burden of command was like.

  “I’ll get back to you as soon as I know what the traders intend to do,” she added quickly.

  “Thanks, thanks for everything,” he said, and broke the connection.

  Sallyanne had returned and was talking to his secretary, so he took the opportunity to call her in. They sat in the comfortable chairs in the corner of his office, ordered some light refreshments to be brought in, and started to kick a few ideas around.

  “You think Fedic can get in and out of the binary system without getting his head blown off?” said Sallyanne, never one to shy away from a colourful phrase.

  “The man’s a magician,” said Manoba with a grin. “He’s out at the Mars colonies now. He will be begging, borrowing or stealing whatever he thinks he’s going to need.”

  Sallyanne looked at Cordez with a mischievous little smile. He looked happier, he looked refreshed somehow. That meant he’d been talking to Regent Asura Ming again, she was certain of it. Why didn’t these two realise it was not a crime to need someone else, and spend a bit of time together on a holiday island somewhere?

  Manoba turned toward her. “What are you smiling at?” he said suspiciously. “You look like you’re up to no good – what are you planning?”

  “Oh, nothing, just something that popped into my mind,” she answered evasively. Why were some people the last to know what was happening to them?

  “To the indomitable Fedic Vits!” she cried, hoisting her coffee cup high.

 
“To Fedic Vits!” echoed Manoba.

  Then Sallyanne began to look more thoughtful.

  “This conflict with the Invardii is going to get worse, isn’t it,” she said, fixing him with a pointed stare. “Someone will have to become a figurehead, something for the people to rally behind in difficult times.”

  He nodded slowly, wondering where she was going with this.

  “And that person is going to be you.”

  Cordez looked decidedly uncomfortable now.

  “Oh come on!” she said exasperatedly, “you must have thought about it.”

  “Yes, it has been part of my contingency planning,” admitted the Regent, “but I thought perhaps Regent Emens from the Euro-Russian trading block, or a Senator from EarthGov.

  “Too unisexual,” cut in Sallyanne. Manoba raised his eyebrows.

  “You’re thinking too politically,” said Sallyanne. “Whoever becomes ‘king’, or ‘emperor’ even, has to inspire the workers on the factory floor who build starships for the war effort. Whoever takes the job has to be a people’s king.

  “Being a figurehead for the people of Earth is very different to being a Regent. Emens is too complex a man to be king, there are too many grey areas in his thinking. Similarly Senators have too much bureaucracy in their backgrounds.

  “You, on the other hand, stand for things that are more black and white. You also stand for direct action, and bypassing bureaucracy, and that’s what the people want to hear.”

  “You mean I’m dumb enough for the job,” said Cordez with a smile. Sallyanne was pleased to see his self-deprecating humour was back.

  “So, despite the fact that you’ve built yourself a cosy little base here as head of the South Am trading block,” she said, “you’re going to have to step up for the top job. Because there’s no one else.”

  Cordez felt himself relax. Sallyanne was right, and the thought had been in the back of his mind for a while. It was good to get it out in the open.