by T. R. Harris
“What do you have to report?”
Angar was seated before a computer screen in what appeared to be a planetside room, not aboard his ship. “The Ministry has completed their survey, and the computer core is not on the ship. The report says the pirates took it.” His tone was incredulous.
“Well, seeing that it was your crew that went aboard, do you have it?”
“No sir, absolutely not!” Angar cried out in his defense. “We didn’t have time to do any salvage before – well – before we left.”
“Then the bastard mule-drivers must have it.”
“The report indicates that his ship passed a cursory inspection.”
“They wouldn’t keep it on their ship. They probably took other things as well.”
Angar looked down at a screen in front of him. “Yes, there were several small units missing, but again, all supposedly taken by us.”
“They would have hidden them somewhere along the way to Nimor.” Then the obvious answer popped into his head. “The asteroids; they hid the core there.”
“There are millions of them, sir.”
“Yes, I know. That’s why we need to get the drivers to tell us where they hid it. Where are the bastards now?”
“They are being detained at the Ministry.”
“Detained, why?”
The blood seemed to drain from Angar’s face. “They are awaiting the arrival of a Juirean Counselor for interrogation”
Juireans! Why did they care about this salvage?
“When will the Counselor be arriving?”
“Very soon; the Ministry is making arrangements for the interrogation of the two mule-drivers as we speak … along with the one survivor.”
“Survivor? What survivor?” Riyad was upset that this was the first he was hearing of this.
“Yes, there seems to have been one survivor.” Realizing his mistake, nearly all the blood drained from Angar’s face. “One of the beings from the hiberpods is still alive.”
“A Human is still alive? Why wasn’t I told of this?” Riyad nearly flew out of his chair, while the facial recognition sensor on the vid camera followed his movement, keeping him on-screen with Angar.
“Apologies, My General. When we went aboard there were dozens of hiberpods. All the creatures were dead – except this one, evidently.”
Riyad stared at the captain for several long moments, while Angar shifted nervously waiting for Riyad to say something. Finally, Riyad spoke. “Where is this survivor now?” His speech was slow and cadenced.
“He, too, is being detained at the Ministry. But he is being held pending a murder investigation.”
This was the last thing Riyad had expected to hear. “What do you mean, Angar? Explain yourself.”
“Early the prior evening, the survivor apparently killed two Rigorians in a life-challenge. Witnesses say it was unprovoked, that’s how two of them could have been killed by a single creature.”
That’s not so unbelievable, not in light of what I’ve just been told, Riyad thought. Another live Human, and it didn’t take long for his abilities to manifest themselves. But that was information Riyad would have to deal with later. Right now he had a more urgent matter.
“Captain Angar, I’m giving you the most important task of your life; fail this and you will not have a life left to live.” Angar swallowed hard, his eyes wide with fear and anticipation. “The mule-drivers must be freed from the Nimorians – alive – and brought to me. If the driver is killed, with him will go the location of the computer core. You can use any of our contacts in the Clans and in the Ministry to secure their release. Do what you must. And one last thing,” his voice lowered slightly, “if you cannot subdue the survivor without risking the lives of the mule-drivers, then you must kill him. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir! I already have a major contact within the Ministry. I will begin planning for the rescue as soon as possible.”
“Keep me informed of your progress, Captain Angar.” Riyad cut the link.
Chapter 14
Well this is just great, Adam thought, as he led the parade out of the office and down the stairs.
The jail block was located in the next building over, and on the way there Adam tried to think if there was any way out of his current situation. Being on an alien planet took away most of his options, and even if he could escape, where would he go? He knew he was innocent of the charges against him; after all, he had killed the lizards in a fair fight. So as the entourage approached the four-story brick building, Adam decided he would just let things ride and see how they played out, even though he had no idea how fair alien justice was.
Solid metal doors greeted them at the prison building, and they entered into a processing room with high counters manned by grim-looking natives wearing tan vests instead of the black ones the guards wore. The three detainees were herded through another security gate made of thin metal bars and taken down a wide corridor to a series of jail cells.
The familiarity of the cells once again amazed Adam. About the only thing that made this scene alien were the creatures escorting him. The room itself was long, with ten cells along the right side. Each cell was made of the same thin metal bars as the security door, running up from the floor to the ceiling with no parallel supports between them, and they were all open to the other cells except for a wall of bars separating them. Inside each cell were two cots, one placed along each side wall of the cell, and with a sink and toilet set along the solid back wall. There were no windows to the outside. The three of them were the only prisoners in the cell block.
Adam was placed in one cell, while Kaylor and Jym were placed together in another. Once the gates were locked, the guards left.
Adam walked over to the sink and splashed some water on his face. Looking around, he didn’t see a towel, so he pulled up the sheet up from one of the cots and dried off. Then he sat on the cot facing the cell of his alien companions, where the two of them were in an animated, yet hushed conversation.
“Hey,” Adam called out to them, “what just happened in there?”
Kaylor and Jym continued their conversation.
“Hey … alien dudes!” This time he got their attention. “What are you two so excited about? You’re not the one accused of murder.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Kaylor said dismissively. “I’m sure they’ll get it all worked out once they interview more of the witnesses.” He then turned back to his conversation with Jym.
Adam decided to use a different tact. “So what’s a Juirean Counselor?”
Both the aliens suddenly stopped talking.
Kaylor moved closer to the bars separating the two cells. “Didn’t I tell you the Juireans rule the civilized galaxy? Having a Juirean come here to with meet us – well there must be something very special about that ship I found you on.”
“That’s not my area of expertise. Remember, I was just cargo.”
Kaylor looked annoyed, while Jym settled on the far away cot and sat down. “You don’t understand how serious this is,” Kaylor said. “The Juirean Expansion encompasses over eight-thousand stellar systems. Juireans don’t bother themselves with every little thing that goes on within them, especially not way out here in The Fringe. I’ve been out in this part of The Expansion for almost twenty standard years, and I’ve never even seen a Juirean in person.”
“I saw one once,” Jym interjected. “But that was at a big celebration on my homeworld, and it was from pretty far away.”
Kaylor ignored the interruption. “A Counselor is only one step below an Overlord, and the only other level above that are the Elites – but they never leave Juir. I’ve heard that there are only about ten Juireans in the entire Fringe. Do you see now why we are so concerned?”
“I guess so. But you didn’t do anything wrong, either. So relax; it will all work itself out,” Adam offered, with a trace of sarcasm in his voice.
Kaylor placed both his hands on the cell bars – favoring his broken left arm –
and hung his head slightly. “It also looks like they may take away our salvage.”
Adam could tell that the two aliens were really worried. “So, tell me more about these Juireans. How did they come to be the top dogs in the galaxy?”
Adam’s reference to top dogs seemed to confuse Kaylor for a moment, as he listened to the translator work through the reference. Then he sat on the cot and leaned back against the bars at the front of the cell.
“First of all, the Juireans are not to be taken lightly. They control the technology and manufacturing capacity of The Expansion. They also have the strongest weapons and largest fleets. They are the ones who have tied the entire known galaxy together, and their Expansion encompasses the other side of the Core, and onto this side of the galaxy and The Fringe, at the edge of the Far Arm – the place where you apparently come from. There’s still a lot of galaxy to explore, and it is believed that eventually the Juireans will control it all.”
“That doesn’t answer the question about how they did it.”
Kaylor leaned his head back against the bars of the cell and closed his eyes. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts for a moment before opening his eyes again and staring at the ceiling. “I have never encountered a being before who has not heard of the Juireans. Yet if you insist, I will tell you the history, as much as I know it. Seeing that we have nothing better to occupy our time, you may actually gain a better insight into our dilemma with this information. First of all, you must go back about four-thousand standard years ago and to the time of the Seven World Common Alliance.” Kaylor began. Adam could tell this line of conversation was helping Kaylor take his mind off of his current situation. It was also doing the same for Adam….
“The way it all began, according to the stories, was that within a small stellar cluster of four dominate stars, seven habitable worlds orbited within close proximity to one another. This was long before interstellar travel and gravity drives, but during certain periods their orbits allowed most of these planets to come very near to one another, near enough that powerful telescopes could pick up the lights on their surfaces along with other signs of intelligent life. So as each species evolved, their primary purpose became to make contact with their neighboring planets.
“According to the stories, science and technology advanced very quickly on these worlds, as they bypassed the normal beliefs in religion and such that most other civilizations hold to be true. With the natives of these planets aware from the beginning of their civilizations that other intelligent life existed on their neighboring worlds, the belief in one god – or in even their own uniqueness based upon some divine creation – was an obsolete concept. My own homeworld of Belson – as well as most of the others I’ve visited – still hold onto these ancient religious beliefs even to this day. Studies have shown that such superstitions and restrictions tend to slow the progress of science by thousands of years.
“But not so in the Alliance. While my people were riding steeds and building our first wheeled carts, some of the races in the Alliance were already constructing rockets and developing wave transmitters in an attempt to communicate with the other worlds of the cluster.
“So in a relatively short time, some of these races began traveling back and forth between planets and sharing technology. The Klin, the Diphorians and the Oanneans were some of the first, establishing the rudimentary Alliance. They eventually set criteria for entry into their organization, the most important of which was that each planet must be united under one government before they would be offered full membership.
“The Juireans, according to these stories, were still divided and tribal at this time, yet they, too, knew of the beings on their neighboring worlds and wanted to join them, but the other worlds considered them too barbaric and warlike for membership. This made the Juireans mad. In fact, at that time, the planet where the Juireans come from was called Axlus, and it was made up of hundreds of city-states, with the city-state of Juir being just one of them.
“But then a leader arose on Axlus, a Juirean citizen named Malor, who began a concerted effort to unify the planet. After a long and bloody campaign, he eventually succeeded, and he changed the name of the planet Axlus to Juir in honor of his home. When he was done, The Others – as they were called – arrived.”
Kaylor stretched, giving himself some relief from the hard metal bars against his back, then seeing that Adam was actually paying attention to his lecture, he continued.
“By then, the Alliance consisted of six of the seven worlds in the cluster. Even though Juir was united now, they were still not granted full membership in the Alliance. The other civilizations still considered them too violent and belligerent. This caused an incredible amount of anger within the Juirean population, since they had killed millions of their own kind just to bring about the unification that had been required for membership. So Malor devised a plan to remedy this.
“At the time, the Klin and the Oanneans were in a minor struggle for control of the Alliance, and Malor convinced the Klin that the Juireans could use their more militaristic abilities to provide protection and security for the Klin, a race who had never had to fight before, either among themselves or against others. So the Juireans were eventually granted full membership in the Alliance and given complete access to all the technology the coalition had to offer. This was a mistake – but not if you listen to the Juireans tell it.”
Adam could tell from the tone of Kaylor’s story that he had no love lost for the Juireans. Yet Adam was finding the story fascinating. Here was a tale of real galactic conquest by real aliens. This was better than any movie or science fiction book.
Kaylor continued.
“Juireans live for a very long time, often a couple of hundred years or more. And over the fifty years or so since Malor had unified the planet – and they were still denied membership in the Alliance – the Juireans had developed an intense hatred for the other members of the Alliance, especially the Klin, whom they considered responsible for this insult. So once Malor and the Juireans gained access to the Alliance technology, including the newly-developed gravity drive for interstellar travel, they attacked. To the Juireans, this is a time of immense pride and accomplishment in their history, and they celebrate The Reckoning, as they call it, as their most hallowed accomplishment. Throughout the cluster, the Juireans decimated the other races, who similar to the Klin, had never developed an advanced military or fighting skills equal to that of the Juireans. Yet the Juireans focused the brunt of their revenge on the Klin. They sterilized the Klin homeworld and exterminated the race.”
“Not all of them!” Jym finally spoke up.
“What do you mean?” Adam asked.
Kaylor answered for him. “What he means is that there are accounts – rumors really – that some of the Klin escaped and went into hiding. The tales say that the Klin will someday rise again and vanquish the Juireans … and reclaim the Alliance as their own.”
“You don’t believe that?”
“It’s been almost four thousand years and there has never been any verifiable proof that the Klin still exist.”
“They’ve been to Fulqin!” Jym countered.
“Fulqin is Jym’s homeworld,” Kaylor explained. “Nearly every race has their myths.” He turned to Jym, “Admit it Jym, no one has actually produced a real Klin for the vids, now have they?”
“They’re just being cautious.”
“Go on,” Adam said to Kaylor.
“Once the Juireans had conquered the Alliance, they set out bringing other worlds under their control using the new gravity drive. But soon wars were breaking out all over the place, and the Juireans found themselves assaulted on all sides.
“By this time Malor had died, and the Juireans went through a series of ineffective leaders until Arolus Ra Un came to power. He was a strong and fearless leader who decided that the best way to bring unity to the warring factions of the Alliance was to give them all a new purpose, something new to fight against, other than th
emselves. So he built The Mass.”
“What was that?” Adam asked.
“As the name suggests, it was a massive fleet of ten-thousand starships, that fanned out in all directions across the galaxy, conquering worlds through force, intimidation or by politics. Some races resisted, but none were able to hold out for long. The Mass lasted for five hundred years, until it became so large and unmanageable that the Juireans had to stop to catch their breath. By this time, the lust for power by the Juireans was fairly well exhausted, and they found that the task of governing all the worlds of the new Alliance almost too much to bear.
“So they retreated briefly, letting thousands of systems fall back to their pre-contact existences. As it turned out, this caused more harm than good. Once most of these worlds had experienced the wonders of the Juirean technology – stolen from the Klin, I might add – they longed for more. So they fought regional wars for what was left by the Juireans. I know this to be true, because my homeworld was involved in one of the bloodiest and most protracted of these wars.”
“So what happened next? Obviously the Juireans didn’t stay quiet for long.”
“No, they didn’t,” Kaylor agreed. “They came out with a new strategy: The Expansion. Realizing that a galaxy is too big for one race to control, the Juireans allowed for regional alliances, as well as individual planets to petition for entry into The Expansion, yet still retain a high level of autonomy and self-rule. Through this strategy the Juireans were able to gain control over thousands of additional worlds by giving the local authorities more freedom, and all in exchange for their allegiance, as well as a tribute paid to the Juireans.
“The strongest of these local authorities gained access to the most technology, yet the Juireans had learned from their past. To this day, they maintain strict control of the technology, only doling out bits and pieces, and never the means of production. In fact, the Juirean culture these days is built almost entirely on managing their Expansion and the manufacture of the technology.”