Galactic Assimilation 2:: Empire Rising

by J. K. Mabrey

  "Why would you think this has anything to do with Varin Bragko?" she asked.

  Zavik was silent for a moment. "How certain are you that he's stuck there , and not making moves to come back?"

  "That is absurd," she said. "He was in the Dark Sector, and the portal was shut down. The Chokmnd have assured us that it is heavily guarded so that no one can reactivate it. There is no way for him to return to this section of the Galaxy."

  "What if he didn't need the portal to return?" Zavik asked.

  "How else would he?" she asked. "Lightdrives weren't commercialized until a year after the Red Moon rebellion."

  "They weren't commercialized until a year later, but there was definitely testing going on with them before the rebellion," Zavik said.

  Councilor Hains's lower jaw hung open briefly and then, as if she noticed it, she snapped it shut. "You think he was able to create his own lightdrives and bring his forces back to the Galaxy?"

  "I don't know," Zavik said. "I just never believed he trapped himself in the Dark Sector without a way out. I don't believe he's given up his dream of conquering the Galaxy. I don't believe a group of pirates, using ships designed by Red Moon, are randomly attacking strategic points throughout the Galaxy by accident. I believe something is going on, and everyone seems to have their heads in the sand."

  "That is a wild theory, Zavik," she said. "I'm afraid there is no evidence to support it, though. The ships may have been designed by Red Moon, but that doesn't mean they are Red Moon's ships, and even if they were Red Moon's ships, Red Moon isn't controlled by Varin anymore. It's splintered off into many groups, all fighting amongst themselves for control and territories. It's not the organization it once was. As for the attacks, I can assure you the Council is taking them very seriously. I can't say much more, but they've dispatched squads of quantum soldiers to investigate the attacks and to track down the ships. These terrorists won't be able to hide forever."

  "So they don't think they're pirates?" Zavik said.

  "No," she said, "but we don't want to incite panic throughout the Galaxy. It wouldn't do any good."

  "So you lie to the citizens when it suits you?" he asked, not attempting to hide a look of disgust on his face.

  "When it's necessary to keep the citizens safe and secure, yes. Don't be naive, Zavik, you were in the military. You know how it works."

  "The greater good and all?"

  "Yes," she said. "These attacks are just distractions. Terrorists who wish to disrupt the Galaxy's progress. I don't know where their loyalties lie, or what they're after, but I don't think it is anything for you to worry about. You should focus on Garos, and finish your job. I must also request that you give me any information you have on the ships that attacked you. We need all the intelligence we can gather."

  Zavik glanced at Dani and gave her a small nod. "Sure thing."

  "Rudy," Dani said, "give the Councilor the memory stick from the ship."

  "Right away," Rudy responded.

  He took a memory stick from his chest and handed it to the Councilor. She took it with thanks and plugged it into her computer terminal. The desktop screen appeared on her desk. Zavik watched Rudy as he walked back behind them and his eyes went back to Dani. She was watching the computer screen intently. The Councilor was expecting the file to open and show her the ships that attacked them. Instead, the screen stayed frozen for a moment. Another file opened and showed an old shipping manifest that was of no interest.

  Dani looked surprised and let out a verbal hum.

  "Is this the right file?" Councilor Hains asked.

  "Rudy, did you give her the right memory stick?" Dani asked.

  "Robots," Zavik said shaking his head, "they should still be in beta testing. Can't even get a simple command right."

  The Councilor was watching Rudy, who just stood there, unmoved from their comments, when her screen flashed an image of the Galaxy. There were about a hundred white dots sprinkled throughout the map of the Galaxy, each one representing a habited planet in the Community. Five of the planets were red and flashing. They were the locations of the attacks. The Councilor froze while the screen brought up small boxes on each of the planets and overlaid them on the Galaxy.

  The boxes showed a picture of what had been targeted in the attacks and a description of what was destroyed. On Dracona a supply depot that housed a massive amount of the Council army's armaments were hit, on Helmstat it was a new lightdrive factory where most of the allocation of lightdrives were destined for the Council Fleet, on Yalary it was the power core factory, they already knew about that, but they didn't know that over seventy-five percent of the power cores from that factory were destined to be used by the Council military bases, on Vusxeros and on Bashish, two fleet shipyards were attacked. The Council fleet had many capital ships stationed there for repairs and upgrades, new ships were being built there as well.

  The Councilor screamed slightly at the sight of the map and information being displayed. She slammed her hands on her computer and tried to shut it off. Finally, she pulled the memory stick out of the terminal and got the program to stop running. Her screen went back to the normal desktop.

  "What the hell was that?" she asked, looking only at Dani.

  Dani stiffened up and didn't say anything.

  "Hacking into a Galactic Councilor's computer is very, very illegal," she said. "I can have you all arrested and put away for a very long time."

  "But you won't," Zavik said with little hesitation.

  "Excuse me?" she asked. "Are you challenging my authority?"

  "No, not at all," he said. "But I think you see the pattern in the attacks. They've all hit a critical system in the Council's military. Lightdrives, power cores, weapons, the shipyards. They've weakened the Council's military by these few attacks. You know you're vulnerable."

  "Our military is well prepared for any attacks, Zavik," she said. "These are nothing more than distractions and irritants for the local systems. We have plenty of backup weapons depots, a stockpile of power cores, and many more capital ships spread throughout the Galaxy."

  "Are they spread throughout the Galaxy?" Zavik asked. "Or have some of the forces been brought back to the inner systems?"

  "You seem to know a great deal more than you let on, don't you?" she asked. Her face tightened and he thought she was either close to having them arrested or thrown out of her office. "There have been some ships brought to Cedona from the Outer Spiral, but that isn't really of concern. They can return to the Outer Spiral in an instant if they need to."

  "Yes, Cedona has a portal to every system in the Galaxy," Zavik said.

  "Exactly," she said, "Cedona is the perfect place to consolidate the fleet. From here, the ships can be sent to any system in the Galaxy that needs them. Anyone attempting to invade would be foolish if that is what you're suggesting."

  "I don't know if someone is trying to invade, or what the end game is," Zavik said. "I just know that someone is slowly crippling the Council's military and now they've managed to get the fleet to abandon the Outer Spiral. Garos is in the Outer Spiral. How safe are they?"

  "Garos isn't a threat to anyone and right now it has no strategic value," she said. "A risk assessment came up with an almost negative chance of it being the target of attack by anyone except pirates thinking they can get an easy score."

  "What if it really was Varin?" Zavik asked. "He hates humans, and he might just like the chance to wipe out our colony before it really gets started."

  "Like I said, Varin is not of concern to the Council, and I think it will be best if you let him go. What is of concern is how you hacked into my systems. If so much as a mention of you visiting my office leaks out and I even think that you might talk about what you saw, I will have you all arrested without hesitation."

  Zavik pushed himself up out of his seat. It went sliding back and hit Charra in the knee. "Don't you see what's going on?" he shouted. "Is the Council really that blind? These are not uncoordinated attacks. They'
re targeted for a bigger purpose. The Council fleet is weakened and vulnerable."

  "Like I said, Zavik, there are steps being taken to strengthen ourselves and defend against anything that should happen. We are not blind, and we see much more than you. Now, I think it is time for you to leave. You have a job to finish before I decide to get involved and revoke your contract."

  "We didn't come here to fight," Zavik said. "We came for answers. We were attacked by these ships too. I just want to know who's behind it."

  "I think it would be best if you let it go," she said. "Let us take care of this mystery threat."

  The Councilor's intercom suddenly buzzed, breaking the short silence that had set in. It caught Zavik by surprise and he twitched at the sound. The Councilor's expression turned quickly from annoyance to frustration. Her eyebrows peaked and she slammed her finger down on the answer key.

  "What is it?" she said.

  Zavik was certain the secretary would inform her that her next appointment was ready and they would be quickly escorted out. Receiving angry looks of distrust as their only parting gift. So much for playing nice with the most powerful human in the Galaxy. What a waste of time it was to come here, he thought. They did confirm that the other attacks hit critical systems as well, but what did that really mean? Were there really going to be more attacks, like he thought, or was he being paranoid, again?

  He started to scoot his chair in, looking for an easy exit when her secretary responded. Her voice was calm and cold, but there was a creak of fear buried in it. She said, "I need to speak privately."

  The Councilor's reverted from her anger into concern. Her face softened. She knew that was not the typical response from Sarah. She picked up the headset and asked, "What's wrong?"

  Zavik knew it was something important immediately. The Councilor almost dropped the headset from her hand. Her eyes panned back and forth across the room, searching for something to focus on and finding nothing sufficient to hold her gaze.

  "When?" she said softly into the headset, followed by, "Yes, of course. When?" Her eyes met Zavik's but she jerked her head away and spun her chair around. He felt ashamed at listening to half the conversation, but if she wanted them out she could have demanded it. "I want status updates at least every ten minutes if not sooner." She nodded. "Yes, get Fleet Admiral Hansen on the line. I want our forces to be on alert code yellow immediately." She ripped the headset off her head and slammed a finger on the intercom.

  She didn't speak for a moment and kept the back of her chair facing them. Zavik wished he could just slither out of the office and crawl back to the Rinada without her noticing. Instead, he built up the nerve to ask, "Is everything ok?"

  She rotated her chair around. Her eyes were red and already beginning to puff slightly. "Soltin has gone dark."

  "Soltin?" Brax asked.

  "What do you mean dark?" Charra asked.

  "We've lost contact with the planet and every portal to the planet has been deactivated," she said.

  "The portals are deactivated?" Zavik asked. "How could that happen?"

  "They don't know," she said.

  "If the portals at Soltin were shut down, or destroyed, it would deactivate the ones around other planets," Dani said.

  "How could all of the portals be shut down?" Brax asked.

  Zavik had an answer, but he wasn't sure it was the right thing to say. He relented and said, "Invasion."

  "No," Councilor Hains said. "This information I just told you is highly classified. I shouldn't even be telling you. You should leave." She stood up, still holding to her formalities. "Yes, I think it's time for you to get back to your job. I...have a lot to do around here. The vote for portal fees will have to be postponed." She was rummaging through papers on her desk and pulled out a datapad. She started typing on it and ignoring them as they kept their seats. "This can't be happening."

  "Councilor," Zavik said.

  "What! I thought I told you to get out," she said. "I have too much to do today to entertain your wild theories about invasions."

  "What will you do?" he asked. "How will you find out what happened to Soltin?"

  "I'm not sure if that is information you have the privilege to know," she said.

  "We already know so much," he said, "and yet also so little. The Outer Spiral is dangerous, but we have to go back out there to deliver the final supplies for Garos. It would be helpful to know what to look out for."

  "Yes, true," she said, dazed as if she was speaking to herself. "The Council is going to have an emergency session to formally vote on sending a battle fleet to Soltin. The battle fleet is already being mobilized under the authority of Councilor Tregal. They're going to have to travel by lightdrives from Paladon. We won't know anything for two days."

  "That's very dangerous," Zavik said. "You have no idea what could be waiting for them at Soltin."

  "We know the risks, Zavik," she said. "It could be nothing more than a power failure at the planet, an overactive sunspot could have damaged the portals or any number of things. Portals fail all the time."

  "Just not usually every portal around the planet at the same time, right?" Zavik asked.

  "Right," she said cautiously. "That is why we're sending the fleet, to make sure it's nothing serious."

  "It could be a trap," Zavik said. "What if there's something waiting for you?"

  "There aren't any fleets out there that can stand against a whole battle fleet of our ships. If it is something, they can handle it."

  "But-"

  "Enough!" she said. "I think I've had quite enough of you for the moment. Don't you think it's time you got back to your job and delivered those supplies to Garos? They're waiting on them."

  Zavik wasn't ready to leave, but he knew he shouldn't press his luck any further. She did not like the hacking job they pulled on her computer a lot more than he thought. He figured once they showed a larger connection to the attacks that she would soften to the virtual intrusion. Brax and Dani argued on the Rinada that she wouldn't soften, and she hadn't. He found the information valuable at least, and he felt the others were coming around to the realization that something more was going on than just pirates. Even the Councilor had to admit it was something, if only to herself. No matter how hard you try and convince yourself, a planet doesn't just go dark for no reason. Sunspots had never deactivated every portal around a planet before.

  Utaghi experienced one of the strongest solar flare activities ever recorded. A little over half of their portals were knocked offline for a week. The other portals were shielded by the planet's mass and spared any of the damaging effects of the electromagnetic radiation.

  If what happened to Soltin really was a natural disaster, it would turn out to be the largest such disruption in history. Zavik found that highly unlikely, but he figured others found Varin returning from the Dark Sector, or someone else trying to invade a planet to be highly unlikely. Soon enough they'd find out. He hoped it was from natural causes, but he found himself mentally preparing for worse.

  "You're right," he said. "We should get back to work."

  Councilor Hains remained seated at her desk as they started to stand. "Good, and remember, if anything from this meeting gets out, and I mean anything, you will all be arrested."

  "Right," Zavik said dryly. "Are you going to send any of Earth's fleet to Garos, for protection?"

  "If I felt inclined to do so, I would not be discussing it with you," she said. "That is a military matter."

  "You should really think about it," he said. Her eyes grew fierce and burned. She was well past listening to Zavik for advice. He added, "Please, just think about it."

  She softened briefly and said, "Okay, I'll think about it."

  "Thank you," he said and they left her sitting, watching them leave.

  They made it back to the Rinada without incident. Zavik half expected a security team to surround them and arrest them as soon as they left the Council offices, but there was no such commotion.

 
As soon as they were aboard Brax said, "I told you she wouldn't like you hacking into her computer."

  "But she didn't arrest us," Zavik said.

  "Not yet," Charra added.

  "Yes, but Brax bet we would get arrested," Zavik said.

  "The statute of limitations isn't up on that yet," Brax said. "There's still plenty of time for us to get arrested, or worse."

  "Enough," Dani said. She was standing in the doorway leading to the cockpit as they argued by the table.

  Zavik had gotten a glass of water and downed it quicker than he realized. He was more nervous during the meeting with the Councilor than he realized, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what was causing it. They had met with her before. He was hardly nervous the first time they met when she was Ambassador for Earth. Then, she had accused him of being in on the plan to destroy a shipment to Earth that he'd just delivered. That was ludicrous, they had risked everything to help stave off that attack. Now he was risking everything to help Garos, and seriously thinking of risking more to help save the Galaxy. What other choice was there when everyone around him was blind to what was going on?

  "We need to get moving, and finish our job," Dani continued.

  "She's right," Brax said. "It's time to leave the conspiracy theories to someone else, preferably someone who gets paid better than we do."

  "But didn't you guys see the other locations that were hit?" Zavik asked. "They're all critical systems, and now they're offline. And just when that happens a system in the Outer Spiral, the one closest to the Dark Sector goes dark."

  "Look, Zavik," Brax said, "it all sounds reasonable, now more so than ever, but there's nothing we can do about it. Whatever's going on, whoever's doing it, it's up to the Council to figure it out. It's what they do, why they're around. It's not up to a four-man crew with a robot and one little ship to fix. If there really was a fleet invading, what would we do? I'll tell you what, we'd get killed."

  Brax was right of course. They had no shot going up against a real fleet of ships alone and no way of stopping what was already in motion. If there was something happening, he would need to trust that the Council could solve it and keep the Galaxy safe. For some reason, that thought did not bring him much comfort.