by Aer-ki Jyr
Paul raised an eyebrow. “Explain.”
“We can hurt you, and as you’ve recently demonstrated, you can hurt us. If this war continues we will both be damaged and others could take advantage of the situation. That would benefit neither of us. Make no mistake, we despise you, but your strength is not to be underestimated and we know that you will damage other enemies with certainty, therefore we believe there is mutual advantage in negotiating an ceasefire arrangement.”
“Do you know why we are at war with you?”
The Zargor trio looked shocked at the question, as if they didn’t have an automatic answer for it and thinking hurt their angular heads.
“You seek dominance in this region.”
“Partially true. We stepped in when The Nexus withdrew in order to protect and stabilize this region. You can call that dominance if you wish, but it does not involve invading worlds that do not give us cause to.”
“And if we no longer give you cause and remain within our own borders and out of a list of worlds designated here, will that eliminate the cause you have for invading ours?”
“Not entirely,” Paul said honestly. “We have many allies that coinhabit the regions where we hold dominance. They must obey a list of rules, and if they do we leave them alone to do as they like. If they do not obey those rules, we will intervene. If you withdraw from your current attacks we will stop hitting your worlds in the short term, for we have other places that need our forces, but if you continue to misbehave in other ways you will attract our attention eventually, so I cannot agree to any permanent cessation of hostilities without a code of conduct.”
“We are not interested in debating the merits of what we do on our own worlds with you. We only offer a ceasefire to the present conflict between us.”
“There is room to negotiate there, but no agreement will ever be used as a shield to condone misbehavior. That said, there are a lot of civilizations out here that need to be taught a lesson or conquered. Lowering yourself on that list will cause us to leave your territory alone in the immediate future.”
“And will turning our fleets into territories that you do not claim dominance over draw your ire?”
“Probably, given the way you operate.”
“We are here to negotiate. If you do not wish to do so state it plainly.”
“I will state this plainly,” Paul said, crossing his arms over his chest with a very defiant look on his face. “You’re losing. If you weren’t you wouldn’t be coming here to talk. You would be taking and destroying whatever you want. We will never tolerate races that do so, but we are stretched thin right now. We have a long list of enemies to deal with and you’re at the top of that list. You’re hitting so many worlds we can’t defend them all, so we’re going to hit you hard where it hurts and keep hitting you until you choose to stop or no longer have the resources to continue. Is that plain enough?”
Two of the three Zargor snarled, but the third held a more amused expression. Paul couldn’t sense their minds over a comm channel, but he could tell that the middle one respected the art of intimidation.
“So you admit we can hurt each other?”
“You can’t hurt my forces much, but you can hurt those we are here to protect,” Paul clarified. “If you wish to strike a deal that will spare them continued attacks, then I’m open to negotiation. What specifically were you considering as terms for this ceasefire?”
“A defined border that neither side will cross.”
“No.”
Silence followed his quick denial, but Paul let it hang in the air until one of them finally spoke.
“Any such deal is dependent on that. It is not a caveat, but a functional staple of a ceasefire.”
“I said no.”
The middle one snarled this time, but it was obvious that they had been sent here to get a deal and walking away wasn’t their first available option.
“Shall we make it more simple? We stop attacking you, you stop attacking us.”
“No,” Paul repeated.
The three Zargor exchanged looks that ranged from aghast to desperate. They wanted to be the impetus behind the terms, but they weren’t able to get any leverage with Paul being so outwardly defiant.
“This world will be destroyed if we do not reach a deal and we remain at war. You have already stated that you wish to protect those under your domain, and the Vedran you have already adopted into your empire.”
“If this world is attacked, I can promise you that the ship you are on will be destroyed during the fighting.”
“Our lives are immaterial. We serve the pack.”
“Never the less, you can count on me honoring that threat even if I can’t stop the destruction of this world…and you can also count on the vengeance that I will enact upon both your homeworld and your capitol in due time. Protection is our first priority, but if we cannot achieve that we will avenge those that are lost.”
“In that we are the same, and you have struck against our territory. Such an offense must be punished.”
“And yet you can’t do it, can you?” Paul sniped back. “You don’t negotiate, you kill. You are here because you cannot see a way to win and you believe you can manipulate us into legitimizing your conquests in other areas. We will never do that. If you want the fighting to stop, you have to stop misbehaving. If you want to temporarily avoid fighting, you have to withdraw from your current incursions so that my top priority becomes others who are misbehaving. Fortunately for you there are many of them, otherwise we would be conquering your civilization right now instead of just raiding it. We typically do not let those who do what you do retain their sovereignty, but these are special circumstances and we must make the most of what few resources we have. If you want to take advantage of that, I suggest you think it through carefully instead of assuming I’m a mark you can manipulate with false offerings of peace or threats of more war. I am a defender. It’s not peace I seek, its protection, and I do not dislike fighting. I’m very good at it, more so than others, and if needed I will demonstrate here and now if you strike at this world.”
“That is enough,” another voice said as the hologram expanded and a fourth Zargor walking into view. The other three exchanged glances with him, then they departed and the newcomer’s image grew to fill the air above the control board in front of Paul, looking down on him slightly.
“And you are?”
“The one who has the power to negotiate.”
“A Hafren or a Treemach?” Paul guessed.
The Zargor’s eyes widened a touch. “You have studied us.”
“Of course we have. We’re not that overstretched.”
A deep, reverberating laugh answered him that needed no translation. “Very good, Human. Very good. You are not the timid caretakers we were mistakenly told about.”
“Bad intelligence?”
“Of a sort. I have studied you as well, and you in particular. Your method of conquest is most intriguing. You do not use fear of death to intimidate. No. You use a much…wider net to ensnare your opponents and turn them into servants. It is quite remarkable, actually, and makes our methods seem brutish in comparison.”
“You admit that? I thought your collective ego would have prevented any such simple thoughts.”
“Ah, and you can also insult. Very good indeed.”
“Now that we’re properly introduced, do you have an offer to make or are you going to turn tail and run. The threat against this planet is hollow, or at best poorly thought out. We respond to the biggest threats, so making yourself a bigger one is…”
“…poor planning. Yes, my subordinates are not very inventive and fall back on habits when presented with an unfamiliar situation. That is why I am here. You are right not to concede anything to us, for you are winning. We can hurt you badly if we wished, but that would also be poor planning. We cannot destroy you entirely, and I know you have a vast empire far from here to draw resources from that we can never eliminate. So where does that
leave us?”
“You have to change your methodology.”
“Quite so. Hence we are…negotiating.”
“And doing poorly, I might add.”
“What would you recommend?”
“Something substantive.”
“Then I offer you this. We will never yield to your standards of conduct. To do so would destroy who and what we are, and there is no victory in that. Better to die fighting than convert.”
“We can arrange either one.”
“You will not take us alive, nor our offspring. That I can assure you.”
“Don’t be so sure. If properly motivated, we can make a lot of things happen.”
“Your rumored mind powers?”
“Fishing for information?”
“Should I not be?”
“Feel free to come onboard my ship and discuss such things in detail.”
“Thank you, no. That truly would be a misstep, for I do not believe I would be able to kill you if you could read my intent beforehand.”
“If we’re to be obvious enemies, then what do you have to offer?”
“Exactly what you said. You have a reputation for honesty, though we are not going to count on that. I will reciprocate though, and state that we already know your resources are stretched and that your attacks against us are in desperation. Desperation to distract us from the worlds that we can take and you cannot protect. It had been assumed you were disinclined to reprisals when ships drawn off to do so would expose other worlds. Those who predicted as much are now dead, and rather than pushing our advantage into your weak areas we are withdrawing ships to bolster our own defenses. You have turned our aggression against us and have made us the prey.”
“We’re not finished yet.”
“Yes you are, because I’m going to give you what you want. You will never abide us and we will never abide you, but we do know when we’re outmatched. You might eventually prevail in this region even if we bleed each other out, but you will fail in your stated goal of protecting those who are in danger and we will lost a great amount of territory and prestige…so the only suitable course of action for us both is to go our separate ways.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Disengaging. We will spend our resources on opponents other than the ones you protect…specifically the Trefu.”
“You can’t hold their territory even if you could take it,” Paul said, surprised by that revelation. “They’re far from your borders and you’ll have to cross through territory that we control.”
“Try to control,” the Zargor corrected. “We can slip through easy enough, but our goal isn’t to take what they possess. We have a score to settle with them that will only be acquitted with blood. You are also fighting the Trefu in a few engagements, correct?”
“More than a few, though not me personally.”
“One of your other factions?”
“Three, actually.”
“Then I recommend that we do not agree to a deal. There can be no peace between us. But we can pursue different opponents and ignore one another for a while…at least as long as it benefits us.”
“I’m curious. What’s your long term play beyond the Trefu. You know you can’t best us, and I doubt you’ll give up the worlds you currently have and run far, far off into the galaxy where we can’t find you…”
“There will be no running, and our future is our concern, not yours.”
Paul stared at him for a long moment, with the Zargor disinclined to break the silence.
“We have combat missions against your worlds either ongoing or planned. They will continue until we see your ships leave. I will not cancel them on words alone.”
“Nor should you. You judge an opponent by the size of their teeth and claws, not their voice.”
“Was that your mistake, because Humans don’t have claws?”
“Perhaps it was,” the Zargor said, smiling widely enough to show the large daggers he had for teeth inside his snout. “It is not a mistake we will make again. I suggest that if our ships cross paths in your domain that we ignore one another, for the combat would be a waste for us both, as we have others that need killing.”
The hologram cut out before Paul could respond, and within a few seconds the entire Zargor fleet began to move towards the Excalibur…then flew around it, heading for the jumppoint for the star as the command ship held its ground amidst the thousands of passing ships.
Paul sighed, then whispered an old bit of wisdom from James Tiberius Kirk regarding diplomacy.
“Words don’t always solve problems. Sometimes you just have to punch an alien in the face,” he said, stepping down from the nexus before turning back and telekinetically flipping a few buttons that brought up a map of the Rim Region and the gap between the Zargor and the Trefu. This was going to get interesting, no matter how it played out.
Paul snorted with mild disgust as another thought occurred to him.
“Picard would have given them a neutral zone.”
8
January 13, 3548
Iocane System (Gamma Region)
Outer Zone
Ace-095 yawned as he walked onto the bridge of the small insystem transport that was carrying him, Ryan-096, and about 300 passengers and cargo out to a point far beyond the last planet in the system. So far, in fact, that they were having to creep their way out to it navigationally speaking, for the gravity was so weak here that engines didn’t have much grip to work off of.
When the trailblazer came into the small compartment Ryan was already there, leaning against a wall while the crew of 4 manned their stations as he noticed on the holographic map that they were already decelerating towards their destination…at which was the surprise Ryan had promised him.
“Sleep well?”
“Did you have to put it so far out?” Ace complained.
“Yes, and for good reason. My Clan has been working on this for a long time and we needed someplace remote.”
“You’re almost inside the nebula,” Ace pointed out, referencing the huge gas cloud that was larger than the entire system and blocking nearly a third of all possible jumplines out from the star. It sat beside it and nearly swallowed up four adjacent systems that had to go the long way round, while another six stars were located inside the nebula itself but unreachable at any decent speed for the drag on the gasses would be too much strain at jump speeds, even for Star Force’s advanced shields.
“Hence it’s remote,” Ryan reiterated.
“How long until you’re going to let me in on the secret?”
“About four more minutes, then we’ll be within visual range.”
“Why isn’t the hologram showing whatever it is?”
“Because it’s sensor stealthed,” the pilot offered. “We’re working off of coordinates.”
“Dude,” Ace said, addressing Ryan, “if you built a Death Star out here, so help me…”
“I’m not Paul. And besides, this is way better.”
“Uh…huh…I’m waiting to be impressed.”
“You will be.”
Ace decided to just wait it out, watching the various readouts on the small bridge as the ship continued to decelerate, then out of nowhere the sensors finally got enough of a return bounce to register. It looked like eye with two flat arcs intersecting at either end and he noticed Ryan smiling silently.
Determined to figure it out without asking, Ace walked up to one of the stations and politely pressed a few buttons to pull up additional data. The length of whatever this was was big…really big…and sitting at just under 800 miles. The gap inside of it was…
Ace’s eyes widened as he realized he was seeing it from the side. The two flat arcs weren’t flat at all, rather opposite sides of a giant ring viewed slightly askew from the side.
“You built a frickin Halo?”
“It gets better,” Ryan promised.
“Alright tour guide. Feel free to show off.”
“Happy to,” he said, pu
shing off the wall as the half mile long ship continued to get closer.
“Clan Spartan…” Ace muttered. “I should have known.”
“You wouldn’t have guessed anyway. I put a lot of thought into this.”
“By copying Halo?”
“Wait and see,” the trailblazer said, suddenly clamming up and making Ace wait out their approach.
There were no other ships nearby the giant ring that was some 6 miles thick and 38 wide, and to Ace’s disappointment there was no visible land or water on the inside surface. The entire thing was black, but when Ryan sent a transmission the blackness disappeared and the grey hull plates that he would have expected to see materialized…as did the green and blue of land features.
Sensor readings lit up, and before Ace could get to inspecting what was before him he noticed a giant spherical energy shield around both them and the ring that wasn’t there before.
“What’s the bubble?”
“Sensor shield. I had them expand it beyond the ring so we could take a look. Normally it’s pretty tight to the construct.”
“Sunlight?”
“Artificial. There’s an atmospheric shield that doubles as internal light generation. You can see out, but it makes it look like a sunny day without the sun.”
“Training facility?”
“That and a great deal more.”
“Is this weaponized?”
“No. It’s got nothing at all on it. I couldn’t fit anything in with all the other equipment. There’s a mile and a half of air, then another half mile of substrata with the remaining mass being equipment. And yes, we hauled in rock and water to make it legit.”
“Awfully expensive.”
“But not wasted.”
“You’ve had your Clan working on this for how long?”
“378 years.”
Ace frowned. “I know it’s big, but…”
“It’s not the only one.”
Ryan glared at him. “Ok, what gives?”
“I could make you sweat it out…but what the hell. It’s too cool to wait any longer. You see the rim on the edges?”