She addressed the Klack directly now." I know you say not knowing the law you break doesn't make you less guilty and they do call you N'Uts for rules for a reason old friend, but I am Captain for quite a while now, and I would not hesitate to offer him a post on our bridge when he is done with the Academy. "
I think my chin dropped to my chest as I heard her judgment. Finally it was the Admiral's turn. He did not get up just leaned back stapled his fingers and slowly shook his head with a very faint smile on his lips."I value the opinion of both officers greatly. They are not Command officers of the Union Flag ship because I like their faces, but they earned my trust and respect many times over. Commander N'Utrtrn's opinion in this matter is the reason why we have this hearing. I wanted you to know how thin the line was you have walked. Just hours ago I talked to you about that thin line between insubordination and the necessity to act despite given orders. "He was now talking to the Yokuta it seemed." Before my home world was known as Terra, we called it Earth and before we ascended we fought many bloody wars among ourselves. Terrible things were done and officers declared themselves not responsible because they acted under orders out of this terrible and bloody history originates this command philosophy I was talking about. An officer must analyze each and every order and each situation and the excuse: I was only following orders is not a valid defense. The cadet acted exactly how an officer should have acted. I would throw him out of the service if he acted on the third option he had, simply stay on his seat and do nothing. This was the safest option in terms of decisions. Have you noted that neither Cadet Olafson nor the Commander N'Utrtrn even considered that third option? This readiness to help friends, disregard personal comfort and safety is what I want to see in officers and therefore I am closing this hearing and recommend Cadet Olafson to be promoted to Cadet Lieutenant and complying with the wishes of the Yokuta, he will be awarded the Yaktnh in recognition of his deeds."
The Admiral finally got up and then said to the Captain." Get him and his Cadet friends as fast as you can to Arsenal. I take the Delegation of the Yokuta along in the Devi. I don't want him to have any more chances to make some sort of decisions outside the Academy before he is fully trained."
She saluted him." Yes Sir, a sensible course of action indeed." To me she said. "Let's go Cadet Olafson. The Admiral said as fast as possible. That means now!"
Interlude: Foreshadow
The Ivanhoe was gone! Everything he knew was gone. Was he dead? Was this the afterlife?
Flowar Saxa remembered every detail of the last moments very vividly. Now he stood on a surface that was like a mirror of glass. Hard, cold and reflective, he could see himself in the reflection. He still wore his Union Uniform. He could feel his heart pounding. The surface had no end in all directions there was a faint reddish glow in the distance ahead of him. The sky or whatever it was above him was black and he could see stars, like standing on a cloudless night outside on a planet seeing the stars above. Just like he had seen them the first time he stepped out the slave trader ship, naked, hungry and perhaps ten or twelve years old. He had looked up into the sky and his wish to travel free among the stars burned inside him until the day he was accepted at the Union academy.
He slapped his own face and he could feel the pain. Where was he?
A voice spoke to him. No not a voice but telepathic thoughts. It was words, not written or spoken just words! "Who are you?"
If he was alive how could a telepath penetrate his mind? He was a Union captain and shielded!" I am Captain Flowar Saxa of the USS Ivanhoe. Service number 234543-FS-443245-P."
"You speak these words with pride and distinction yet there is resistance in you. You want to keep secrets!"
"Where am I?"
"You are between!"
"Who are you?"
"I am the Voice of the Rule."
"Am I dead?"
"What an interesting question! You are too limited to understand, but you still exist as you have always existed."
"Where is my ship?"
"The construct you used to breach the curtain is no more."
"Are you a God?"
"If the difference of abilities and knowledge between you and the Voice is a measure then yes I am a god, but I am only a servant, a tool. I am only the voice of the Rule. It who has put the Rule in place however is perhaps the God you are thinking of."
Saxa felt thirsty and with that realization he knew he was not dead. "It was the chaotic conditions of the asymmetric Isah field that has brought me here. I am in some higher dimension or space?"
"The definition of high and low, the idea of dimension of space and time have no meaning here. I see your mind and it is not capable to understand where you are. It was in your reality were the rule has been broken. You are not the one who has broken it and you are not associated with those who have broken it."
Saxa spread his thick arms." Voice, I do not understand and I do not know what you are talking about."
There was an empty silence and only after a while the voice spoke again:" Very few come to this place and even fewer remain in their corporal shell. The Rule must remain impartial, but I am only the voice and I see you as you truly are. This place has been adjusted so you can see and exist, but you cannot remain here."
"That is a relief! Don't get me wrong. You got a nice place here, perhaps a little on the bombastic minimalistic side, but I hate to spend the rest of my life here."
Again the voice felt silent for long moments then said." Ah yes it is what you call humor and sarcasm. It appears you have very well adapted to your chosen home you call the Union."
"I am a Plato by birth, yes. I am from a species suppressed for millennia. Not even knowing what freedom and liberty means, Voice, but in our Union I am a Plato only in biological terms. I am a Union citizen and an officer in the Union fleet. I owe them more than you will ever understand and I gladly lay down my life to preserve the Union!"
"Your emotions are strong!"
Saxa remembered his duty and said." This is a first contact situation! Voice I am representing the United Stars of the Galaxy and we are many different cultures and individuals forming one society with the simple common goal of liberty and justice for all sentient beings. Insectoids, methane breathers, humans, lizards, invertebrates, even species without corporal bodies all live together in peace and common respect. I invite you to come to Pluribus. We even have the Narth and they might understand you and this place quite well. It does not matter if you are a just a voice or the representative of a God, there would be a place for you too!"
"Yes Narth would have the capability to see this place as it is and perhaps even understand the Rule. The Rule must stay impartial and cannot associate itself with anything or anyone, but I see you speak from your innermost with the greatest conviction. Maybe your Union will one day find the answer to the Rule, it is conceivable. Now I will send you back, but one day I will call you again to return to this place and then I shall educate you more about the Rule."
"I do not understand Voice but I feel you are a force of good and I will look forward to meet you again."
"The rule is impartial and the concept of good and bad is always in the eye of the beholder, but I am only the voice and the voice can be a force of good for you. Now you must learn, you will return to your universe, but not as you once were. Time is of no essence here! Once you have learned you will be able to make a choice"
Interlude: The Tinkehel
Qualnat covered behind a tree as he saw the gigantic metal mountain descent from the sky. He used to be one of the scientists working on the first Deep space expedition. The very first ship to be able to reach faster than light velocities was sent out to visit the closest neighboring star, 34 Light orbits away. This happened 22 solar orbits ago. Back then he was a celebrated man, one of the heroes of progress and science, now he was an outlaw, living in the most primitive conditions in the remaining forests of his once so beautiful planet. The Urtla One, that first ship met other sentient bein
gs! This alone was a shocking revelation, but this first meeting with intelligence did not turn out to be a profound joyous occasion but brought almost complete destruction to his civilization! The aliens destroyed the Utlra One and then came in many huge space ships and rained nuclear fire onto the Tinkehel. They had no defense against those energy shielded elongated spheres, immune to the few weapon systems the Tinkehel had. Of the 6 Billion Tinkehel only about two million survived, much of the planet surface turned into lifeless radiated deserts. The surviving blamed the scientists and the explorers for the misery and he would face certain death if anyone seeing him remembering who he was. Now the aliens had returned! In a construct that defied all believe. The landing wedge shaped ship was much bigger than the original spheres they had. He could clearly see the faint purplish bubble around the thing. His scientific mind was in awe about the technology presented.
A wide opening appeared on the bottom of the alien ship and small flyers and vehicles appeared. The beings coming out were mere dots compared to the size of the ship. He used his magnifying optics he used for hunting. The visitors appearing wore bulky armor suits, but they walked upright and did not look like the Siucra, the world destroyers. He concluded these were perhaps Aliens of a different species. This would explain why their ship was so much bigger and differently shaped.
He rushed to his well concealed earth mound, once the burrow of a Jickkak, and now his dirty , muddy dwelling. With his dirty fingers he rummaged through his few belongings and found the hand held Communication device. It was once the hallmark of all the scientist to have one of these, now it was a certain death sentence to be caught with one. Survival and food was more important than maintaining technology. Qualnat had nothing to lose and from the size and the displayed technology of the new comers there was nothing the surviving Tinkehel could do if the Aliens came with hostile intentions. It might as well a good thing trying to find out what they wanted.
He cleaned himself as much as possible and went back to the edge of the forest, took a deep breath and started to walk towards the Aliens.
It was clear to him that others must have seen the arrival of that ship as well and he could imagine the terror and the fear they felt. Those who had families still had hope and lived for tomorrow.
It took him longer than he thought to reach the almost invisible energy barrier, testimony to the incredible size of the alien construct. He was immediately spotted by a towering two armed being in a frightening looking armor suit. The being raised his arm and hand and two more aliens appeared, they wore black uniforms. One had the overall shape of a Tinkehel, but his face had no fur and only two instead of four eyes. The other had four arms and his skin was dark green and scaled and looked shockingly similar to a Jickkak lizard, but much bigger. The shimmering energy disappeared before him and he heard the naked skin being say something to him.
"I am Qualnat of the Tinkehel. Are you here to destroy us?"
Out of thin air a thing like a soap bubble appeared and it displayed one dot then two and he understood that this was a simple math problem and he responded saying:"Two!"
The bubble now displayed his planet and he said." Tink"
An image of himself and he said."Qualnat."
After the bubble had displayed about fifty different images of rocks, trees, hands, feet, faces, eyes and other easy to recognize items. The bubble said." Sufficient Psionic and verbal data for language analysis, collected."
Now the naked being said." I am Captain Kowalski of the USS Bremerton. We are of the United Stars of the Galaxy and we are on a peaceful first contact mission. We noticed the signs of extensive orbital bombardment as we surveyed this system and our instruments detected surviving sentient life. We are here to offer assistance and aid if your people need or want it."
"You are not here to destroy us?"
"No, I assure you we are here to help. We can clean up the radiation, render medical help and help you get your civilization back on track. All this is offered freely and without any conditions. Should you decide you do not want our help we will leave and let you be."
"You are not the Siucra?"
"No we just defeated most of their fleet and we are in pursuit of the last Siucra, this is why we have found this system."
Qualnat almost fainted out of thankful relief. He was so tense and much afraid, now it looked like he was right after all. The Universe was full of life and not just evil destroyers." I am a disgraced scientist and I cannot speak for the rest of my people but there is no central government left, only family pods, but we are starving and dying of radiation poisoning and we need your help very much."
The first Protector had entered the forbidden Cave and went past the shafts of knowledge to activate a hidden door in the rock face wall. The ancient songs described exactly how to open it and it worked just as described. There in a chamber no one had entered in over a million cycles was a raised round platform made out of the same indestructible Neutronium material as the main doors. The raised platform was about 200 steps across and two sickle shaped arms of perhaps 100 steps height on each side of the platform. This was the Nuthrum Device, the gate to the Master of the Y'All. According to the ancient songs if activated, beings of incredible fighting power would emerge without number and eradicate all life. He was not a Kermac and the beings would certainly not recognize the Siucra as the masters, but perhaps they would have mercy for a fellow thrall society.
Not that the First Protector had much choice. The last reports confirmed the Plato slaves on the approach. The thousand ships under Olnatar were long destroyed and reports came in that the enemy had appeared in the last star system before the holy one and hunted down any Siucra ship. It was only a matter of days now they would appear here and defile holy Koken.
He placed his hands onto the sensor fields mounted into a monolith console before the device. His body heat activated the ancient machinery and a wafting bright light point appeared between pointed ends of the sickle shaped columns above the platform and it grew slowly in size. The primordial system hummed with and vibrated with dimension crossing energies. The first Protector and those with him started to chant the old texts."We the guardians and protectors of the most Holy place summon thee oh spirit of the Universe, grant us revenge and tools so we may continue to protect what is holy. Of Kermac hand we received this task. It is the God like masters we serve alone! Come ye who are also serve the Masters and assist us in defeating great evil!"
Something appeared, out of the shimmering portal. It was a bluish skinned Plato wielding a Terran TKU in one hand and a sword in the other, wearing a black cloak over a black chainmail outfit that looked both anachronistic and timeless." I doubt you expected me! The Y'All cannot be stopped and they will come but in their own time when the Union is ready for them. You are dabbling with forces you do not understand and comprehend!"
His sword sliced through the Neutronium monolith with the controls for the trans dimensional gate as if it was air. The bright energy gate behind him collapsed. The Siucra barley came out of their shock seeing a Plato appear instead of Y'All. One of them did fire his blaster weapon but the beam did not penetrate the flexible armor the Plato wore. He returned fire and killed the shooter." Once I have been Captain Saxa of the United Stars Fleet. Now I am serving another purpose and I am a Knight of the Order now. Despite my new purpose and knowledge I am and always will be a citizen of the Union. The Kermac you worship are not the Gods you make them to be, yet they have broken the rule! Events have been set in motion that will bring much war and bloodshed, but it won't be the Siucra who make these events occur before their time. Your species is doomed and shall be nothing more than a side note in galactic events."
It was Captain Jackson of the USS Alexandria and his crew who discovered the hidden caves, after three days of heavy fighting the remaining Siucra surrendered and the first Union troops landed on the planet that turned out to be the planet of origin of the Kermac. He and his landing party followed a faint union code signal tha
t had led them to a underground facility of a long gone civilization, and they found a Union Issue wrist communicator, next to six dead Siucra before a metallic platform. The communicator had a message recorded and Jackson activated it." This message is for Admiral Mc Elligott and the Fleet Command. I was once known as Captain Flowar Saxa of the USS Ivanhoe, Service number 234543-FS-443245-P. The ship is lost and destroyed, but I am alive even though I am no longer the same person and I am now serving another purpose. I am herby resigning my commission. Rest assured that I am and always will be a Union Citizen and I will serve my new task with this assurance as foundation. I cannot tell you what has happened to me or what I have become. For it is forbidden. If the time is right I might be able to reveal myself in a distant future.
"This planet is where the Kermac originated, but before that it was a UNI world. You are standing in one of the last remaining UNI installations built for the sole purpose to contain a gate to another Galaxy and to safeguard forbidden knowledge. The Kermac have called the Y'All and they will come again, but those who send the Y'All, will also come! If my sources are correct you still have 100 standard years time to prevent that or to prepare for what is coming. Somewhere in our Galaxy is a device to be found, something the Y'All seek and something that can defeat both the Y'All and their masters. You will recognize it when you find it as a small disc shaped space ship of great age. Inside rests knowledge and power unimaginable. It must be found before the Y'All find it. It is this device that makes the Y'All return as they seek it. Take this message to Fleet Command. There are two more messages for their eyes only recorded on this wrist com. Fare well, all of you!"
***
Captain McKenzie called us up to the command deck. Standing before the security door to the bridge she said."I still hate Cadets and don't like Midshipmen, but you guys have earned my respect so I decided you should complete your journey seeing the bridge. Now I expect you to behave and not to touch anything and we will all get through with this."
Eric Olafson Series Boxed Set: Books 1 - 6 (The Galactic Chronicles Series) Page 251