by Aer-ki Jyr
“And the templars?”
“The more I learn the more I believe they have deliberately corrupted that purpose to their own gains, so much so that I do not know what it is. It is there, though, just outside the reach of my mind. Your honor runs parallel to it.”
“And combat clarifies it?”
“Without full understanding, yes, it seems to.”
Paul closed his eyes for a moment, still mentally holding in check the other lizards around them. “Then observe the true enemy and tell me what your hidden purpose drives you to do.”
Suddenly there was a flood of images and knowledge pouring into the mastermind’s thoughts. They didn’t stop coming, more and more until he lost track of the time as his superior intellect rapidly soaked them up as he came to see the V’kit’no’sat for what they truly were, race for race, battle after battle.
The Hadarak, the Zen’zat, the Zak’de’ron who they overthrew. Millennia after millennia holding the deep core border and expanding their empire outward. The arrogance, the superiority, the unflinching loyalty…and the horrors they enacted to subsidize it all. Sometimes they were in the right, taking down enemies that deserved to be destroyed, but many times they were not, simply doing what they wanted to do and treating the galaxy and all in it as their birthright.
And yet even they had a nemesis they could not overcome. The Hadarak vexed them, but rather than simply hold the line for perpetuity they continually sought ways to strike at them, failing time and again, but their ego would not let them admit inferiority.
They had to be superior.
They were superior.
And anything that suggested otherwise had to be annihilated.
No matter the cost.
The mastermind took a step backward when the massive mental download ended, his mind still trying to process it all as Paul just stood there giving him time to work through it. One of his large hands rose to his face and he touched his claws to his forehead as he thought quickly and cleanly, all doubt having been erased from his mind. He might not fully understand himself, let alone the templars, but the existence of the V’kit’no’sat made it all nearly irrelevant. They were an unbeatable foe…and one that had to be challenged.
He eventually dropped his hand and looked directly at Paul as possible strategies to employ against them failed humorously. There was no way to beat them. That was clear enough. And ironically, it didn’t matter to him in the slightest.
“What would you have your Thrawn do?”
4
April 3, 3254
Solar System
Earth
Davis didn’t get the priority update until he got out of the shower after his morning workout session, finding the small red holographic icon floating over his computer terminal in his quarters that he rarely used. Normally he’d wait until he got to his office, but it was times like these that made him glad he had the access handy.
He sat down and pulled up the alert, finding the report from the scouting mission to an unnamed system in lizard territory. The lizards were there, along with a lot of other races, including the Sety…and their scout ship had been fired upon, and not by the lizards.
He picked up his earpiece from the desktop and opened a line to his staff with a simple preset mental command. “Get the Sety ambassador down here immediately, personal conference, I want him face to face. Don’t tell him why.”
Davis pounded his fist on his desktop in frustration. The Ma’kri hadn’t been damaged, but at the same time as The Nexus had its delegation here negotiating with him another part of their fleet was firing on one of his ships. He didn’t know who these other races were, and it wasn’t a Sety ship that had fired upon them, but they’d been chasing as well and didn’t get into firing range only because the Ma’kri had managed to slip away from the planet in time. Regardless, they were working with whoever had fired those shots, not to mention the lizards…which drew into question the lack of action on the H’kar front, and if they had some arrangement with them all along.
These bastards had been here for two months, hounding him with matter after matter and him putting them on hold for a few days at a time here and there so he could get other work done. Part of the negotiations were worthwhile, but a lot of it seemed like little more than blustering as the various races within The Nexus sought and offered information as well as trade deals, technology overtures that Davis had almost entirely struck down before they’d uttered the words, and a lot of political maneuvering within The Nexus that he wasn’t going to facilitate.
The Daegon and the Maktee seemed to be straightforward enough and interested in actual agreements, and until now Davis hadn’t had any appreciable contact with them. A few others he’d made inroads with before were now coming to the forefront as well, but most of the delegation was here trying to trick or leverage Star Force into disadvantageous positions…as if Davis were a newb and couldn’t see through these guys even without his telepathy.
He’d turned down their request for an embassy in the Solar System, instructing them that they could build one in Epsilon Eridani like everyone else, and he thought they were dragging out negotiations here trying to get that decision reversed. Fortunately that meant they were still here when the alert had come in, so he’d have a chance to wring the information out of the Sety envoy personally.
“You requested my counsel?” the Sety said as he walked into a small conference room where Davis was waiting for him, not affording any of the representatives access to his office.
“I was told by your people to ask you for information regarding a matter in this star system,” Davis said, activating a holographic map. “It has no name in our database, nor the Li’vorkrachnika’s, but at present the Sety have a large warfleet there in addition to those of 9 other races including the Li’vorkrachnika…and they are not fighting each other.”
“I was informed that we had recently annexed a system within Li’vorkrachnika borders, and I believe it is this system, but I do not know what other vessels would be with them, and I sincerely doubt that the Li’vorkrachnika would allow our presence without throwing themselves into a suicidal frenzy.”
Davis silently brought up the recordings from the Ma’kri showing the various fleets.
“As you can see, I am not making this up. Your ships are there, in league with the Li’vorkrachnika and others. We’ve identified one race as the Trinx. The others are unknown to us. Explain this.”
“I cannot. I do not know the nature of our business there, only the annexation of the system.”
“My ship was specifically told to refer the matter to this delegation, and you’re telling me you have no information to give me?”
“I’m afraid I do not. I can tell you that two of those races are known to me. They are the Domu and Chamra. We have relations with them but they are not part of The Nexus and live far beyond our borders.”
“Take note,” Davis said as he advanced the timeline on the recordings, “that this allied fleet fired upon my ship when it didn’t leave the system as instructed. The Sety are part of that fleet, therefore I need answers.”
The envoy stared at the images for a moment. “I do not know what to tell you. I know of no reason why our fleet would be at cross purposes with yours. What did your ship do?”
“It moved in to take a closer scan of the planet and found this,” Davis said, showing him the enhanced subterranean image. “A large object, sensor stealthed, that the combined fleet seems to be excavating in conjunction with the Li’vorkrachnika.”
“Curious indeed.”
“Curious doesn’t cut it. That fleet said to ask you, now you’re telling me you have no answers?” Davis reiterated.
“I do not.”
“Then we were deliberately told to ask you in order to waste our time. When you are here to discuss matters of greater cooperation, such insulting tactics do not help your case.”
“I cannot control our fleet. They do not answer to me.”
�
�Why would that many ships be there? What could possibly pry them away from your territory? I know you’re overtaxed, don’t try to deny it, so what would justify stripping that many warships away from other priorities?”
“Again, I do not know.
“And how long do you think it would take to get me some answers?”
“A message would have to be sent back via courier ship. It would take a minimum of 3 months.”
“And I’m guessing the answer would be that they didn’t know as well, which will have just wasted three more months of my time,” Davis said angrily. “Do you have any objection to us going back and asking the fleet ourselves?”
“I would caution against that. If your ship drew fire then they are taking whatever the matter is very seriously.”
“I take anyone who fires on one of my ships very seriously.”
“I do not know what is occurring here,” the Sety said, pointing at the holograms that lingered above the table, “but if you were told to leave then it is best that you heed their warning. I will send a priority message back to my homeworld on the fastest vessel we have inquiring to this matter and informing them that your ship was fired upon. If you wish it, I will go personally to expedite matters.”
“Yes, you go and deliver a message from me. I have to have a really good explanation as to what is going on or I will not sanction The Nexus’s presence in that system. They are allied with the Li’vorkrachnika far beyond your borders. We are taking this region, and because of the Li’vorkrachnika’s involvement here we will not pass by this system. We will take it by force if needed, unless you can convince me of the need to do otherwise.”
“Strong as you are, you cannot stand up against that combined fleet,” the Sety strongly urged. “I do not know the capabilities of all of those ships, but if they are on par with ours you wouldn’t stand a chance in armed conflict, nor would we wish it to come to that given our recent inroads.”
“My ship has already been fired upon,” Davis said simply.
“Was it damaged?”
“No.”
“Then you can choose to overlook the incident.”
“Why would I do that?”
“To avoid a much more costly one.”
“You’re in our backyard now. You don’t dictate to us.”
“If my government sent in that large of a fleet, respectfully, they are dictating what occurs in that system. I do not think they will interfere in any others, and whatever the matter is in this one, it must be of the utmost importance.”
“You know we have strong relations with the H’kar.”
“You have made this clear, yes.”
“Now I see you have allied with the Li’vorkrachnika. Previously, you have not fully supported the H’kar in the defense of their territory against the Li’vorkrachnika. Do you see the problem with this?”
“I am beginning to,” the Sety said, clearly unbalanced. He’d been sent here to ingratiate himself with Star Force and now he was in a very awkward and unexpected position.
“The construction of a Nexus embassy in Epsilon Eridani is hereby canceled. You will not have a presence here if you are allied with our enemy, and I will need a full and open accounting of what is happening before I will even begin to reconsider that. Until such time I will deal with the races of The Nexus individually, but you and the Sety vessel here must leave immediately. Do not come back until you have an explanation that will meet my satisfaction. The other vessels may remain to conduct individual negotiations, then when completed, they will also leave and none of you will be allowed back into this star system again without my permission. Return here and expect to have your ships confiscated. You may bring any further diplomatic inquiries to one of our other systems and the information will be relayed here via our communications grid.”
“Do not throw away what we have accomplished here over a misunderstanding.”
“My ship was fired upon. That is not a misunderstanding.”
“The Sety did not fire.”
“Their compatriots did, and they were also in pursuit. Your fleet is working in conjunction with theirs and the Li’vorkrachnika’s, and you didn’t even bother to inform us you had assets in our invasion corridor…let alone a fleet of that size.”
“I was not instructed to. Had I know it would be of relevance I would have told you we had assets in that system, but given that your war front had not reached that area yet I did not think it was an issue. I apologize for the oversight.”
“I highly doubt this was an oversight, and I do not want apologies…I want answers. There is nothing further to discuss until you have some. Return to your homeworld and find them.”
“As you wish,” the Sety said, not wanting to cool relations any more with arguing. He turned his tree-like mass around and walked out of the room leaving Davis standing beside the chair he had never taken. A few minutes later another person walked in that door, shaking his head.
“He doesn’t know,” Riley-038 said, having been telepathically observing from another room. “But he had been notified of the activity in the system without being given any details and told to downplay it if asked.”
“I got that feeling too. How important is that fleet?”
“Huge. He’s never seen one of that size assembled before, nor does he have any idea why that many would be necessary. The two races he identified are regarded as being too powerful to join The Nexus and are contemporaries of the Sety.”
“The Sety and their peers,” Davis said, turning and pointing to the subsurface scan floating in holo along with the other major recon items. “What do you think that is?”
“Could be a ship. Kind of small for a city, but if there are remains of some civilization even more advanced than these guys, it could be of enough value to them to warrant this level of paranoia.”
“Zak’de’ron?”
“I doubt it. The finds we’ve documented have been basically trash left behind. If they had anything of value I’d bet they’d have recovered it by now.”
“Agreed. Who else in the database would fit this profile?”
“Nothing in this region, and it’s beyond the survey zone.”
“Was their coming here a coincidence or a distraction?”
“Coincidence. We wouldn’t even have been scouting that system if the mastermind hadn’t tipped us off to it. That said, they knew we’d get there eventually.”
“Did they think we’d pass it by because it wasn’t on the map?”
“I think they don’t worry about it with that large of a fleet. They think they can dictate whatever they want.”
“Can they?”
“I’ll need to pull a chunk of ships from here and a lot of other systems in order to not delay the ongoing invasions.”
“Do it. We can’t let the lizards have safe haven anywhere, and we can’t let The Nexus dictate to us on our own doorstep…nor whoever the rest of these races are. I get the feeling we’re tripping over a long existing relationship between them and the lizards that they never expected to come to light.”
“That doesn’t explain the excavation.”
“No, it doesn’t. I think it’s tied into it, but whatever is going on there is recent. Find out what it is. We’re not waiting for their politicians to stall us. We haven’t had any here for a long time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t remember their tactics.”
“This fleet movement was fairly recent.”
“And it may be time sensitive as well. Go.”
“Going,” Riley said happily as he walked away enroute to rallying a response fleet.
Davis let him go, shutting off the holograms save for the subsurface scan. There was hardly anything to look at, just a hazy outline around where the sensor stealthing was, but something about it worried him. He didn’t know what it was, but the response of the Sety alone in sending that many ships that he knew were needed elsewhere was significant. No, not significant, panicked.
This was extremely important to th
em, and apparently a lot of other very advanced races.
What the hell was this thing?
5
July 2, 3254
Unnamed System
Inner Zone
Riley’s command ship came out of its jump head of the line to find stellar orbit empty. That was fine with him, for within a few seconds another command ship slowed to a position several hundred kilometers behind his. The Excalibur drew closer as a continent of Warship-class jumpships followed the two trailblazers into the system, with them claiming control of stellar orbit without a confrontation and getting a look at the condition of the planet in question as soon as they worked their way around the star and got into line of sight with it.
They were all still there, sitting in planetary orbit and safeguarding whatever it was that they were excavating. Riley and Paul both stayed put near the star as their fleet continued to jump in one ship at a time at a very high rate of sequence that had become second nature after so many lizard invasions. Normally ships in convoy wouldn’t jump this close to one another but now, for Star Force’s veteran ship captains, this felt normal and any pilot that couldn’t handle such a maneuver was far from making it to a position where they’d be able to fly a jumpship. The competition amongst pilots was so high now they all had to be experts just to get a primary slot on even a freighter.
“There they are,” Paul commented, popping up in holo on Riley’s command nexus control board.
“Yeah, just sitting there and ignoring the star. For someone who doesn’t want anyone here they’re not acting like it.”
“I get the feeling they’re used to getting what they want just by frowning in someone’s direction. They want the planet secured, so they’re not going to bother stopping transit through this star.”
“Agreed. They’ve got to be noticing us by now.”
“I don’t think they’re worried…yet,” Paul added. “When the incoming ships don’t stop, they’re going to get nervous. The Sety have enough data on our capabilities to know we mean business.”