by Ivan Kal
“Well,” Ritsarni started enthusiastically, “the shield matrix works in combination with the applied energy source to—” Laura stopped him by raising her right hand. She then covered her face with her other hand and took a deep breath.
“Could you explain it in layman’s terms, please?” she asked weakly. She had spent the last six hours being bombarded with terms and facts that she barely understood, and she could not take one more.
Ritsarni looked crestfallen, but Laura refused to be swayed, so he righted himself and started speaking.
“The shield basically negates the energy that comes in contact with it. It’s not really that simple; it doesn’t just negate energy, it makes it…It is a bit more complicated than that. It is—” He’d started to steer back into scientific talk, but one look from Laura made him focus. “Right. It negates energy by pushing with equal force from within, basically,” he said, and Laura could see that he wasn’t happy with his explanation.
“Alright,” Laura said. “Convince me that it is better than what we already have.”
“The People didn’t invent these shields as defenses against attacks; they were used for deep mining of suns,” Ritsarni said.
“Mining of the suns?” Laura asked incredulously.
“A certain type of sun, yes. Apparently some suns possess an element that was essential for their more advanced technology, and could only be found inside certain suns. Although later they discovered a means to make it artificially, but that was hundreds of thousands of years after. The energy shield allowed them to build their mining facilities inside the suns. The shield we are capable of building now won’t be able to do that, of course. We don’t have a power source strong enough to do that yet. That is the limit of these shields; the amount of power we can pump into them dictates the level of energy they can stop.”
“So, will they be better than the shimmering field?” Laura pressed.
“In some ways yes, in others no. The shimmering field doesn’t require an equal amount of energy to dissipate the attack. If an attack more powerful than our field hits it, it will still lose some of its power from the field. If an attack more powerful than the energy shield hits, it will disrupt the energy matrix and simply pass through.”
“That to me sounds like our field tech is superior.”
“As I said, in some ways yes, in others no. The greatest advantage I believe this technology holds is that it can be configured to stop kinetic energy,” Ritsarni added.
“It can stop kinetic weapons?” Laura asked, intrigued.
“Yes. It can rob the weapons of their energy, if the matrix is properly configured, making the attack effectively stop moving. The People used them on their world ships to stop dust or anything else that might impact their hulls. The shields are limited by our power-generating capabilities, but as the team on Sanctuary draws closer to building a working prototype of their old power source designs from the sphere, I think that we should take a look at energy shields as a possible addition to our newer ships.”
“Well, that is interesting. We won’t start building the new fleets for a few years, but yes…this can be something that we consider for that.” Laura nodded. “Thank you, Ritsarni. I will think on this, and we will see.”
***
Laura was at her home on Thanatos when a call came in for her. She sat down at her holo table and answered. A video window popped out above the desk and Adrian looked at her.
“Adrian!” she said. “I’m glad that you called. I have been wanting to speak with you.”
Adrian smiled at her words. They had of course been in contact almost daily, as he gave her reports on the offensive. But this wasn’t about Fleet business; it was a personal call.
“I didn’t have anything better to do, honestly. We are still waiting for the Third Fleet to arrive, and I have done as much to prepare as I can,” Adrian said.
The Second and the Vanguard Fleets were in a staging system, waiting on the Third Fleet and some more reinforcements from the Empire, preparing to attack the Sowir home system. The fleet had passed through seven Sowir systems in the last nineteen days before the Sowir had decided to abandon the other three and move all their assets to their home system. But as the fleets had passed through the abandoned systems, they’d found that the Sowir had already destroyed their own assets in them.
Laura glared at him in faux anger. “You want to say that you only called me because you are bored?” Adrian gave her a boyish grin that reminded her of a time when he was much younger, and her face softened. “How have you been?” she asked.
Adrian’s face changed, and she could see that he was tired.
“I’m good,” he said, and Laura gave him a look of disbelief. “Okay, I’m tired.” He grimaced. “The Sowir don’t know when to stop. Any sane race would have surrendered long ago. The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that we made a mistake when we broke our agreement with them. That made us untrustworthy in their eyes; they will not let themselves be fooled again. They would rather die than let what they believe we would do if they surrender happen.” He shook his head and his right hand made the Nel gesture for frustration.
Laura shared in his sentiment. At the time, it had been a good decision, and she would not allow herself to dwell on it. But she knew from their prisoners that the Sowir believed that the Empire was on the side of Nelus, as they knew that Nel were part of the Empire. And that, along with the fact that the Empire had broken its non-aggression agreement with them, made them think that humanity would allow the Nel to do the same thing to the Sowir as what they had done to the Nel and the other races of the Consortium. They might not have seen anything wrong with what they were doing, but they understood that the Nel did not share that opinion. They knew the Consortium laws; their crimes were unforgivable.
“Do you think that you can force them to surrender?” Laura asked.
“We can enforce a surrender even without their compliance; we just destroy every asset they have in space and blockade the planet. Even if they don’t want to talk with us, there is little that they can do. But I think that eventually, when they realize what we are doing, they will start responding to our attempts at communication, if only out of curiosity.”
Laura nodded. “Let’s not talk about them anymore. We spend most of our time with them on our minds as it is,” she said. “So…I hear you and Bethany have been talking again.” She feigned disinterest.
Adrian rolled his eyes at her. “It was just one lunch!” he said, then narrowed his eyes at her. “How did you even know? We were here, on Harbinger…” Then he raised his hand and looked at the bracer on it. “Iris? It was you, wasn’t it? I told you to stop doing that. Oh, and now you ignore me, of course you do.”
Laura smiled at his ramblings. “Don’t be mad at her, she worries about you.”
“There isn’t anything for her to worry about.”
“She thinks that you are alone too much,” Laura added gently.
“Alone? I’m constantly surrounded by people!” Adrian argued.
“Yes, but you are their commander. And yes, I know you have friends. But you don’t have anyone with whom you can share your life.”
“Beth and I are just friends,” he said.
“Whatever you say, Adrian. But there was a time when you were in love with her.”
“Once. I don’t have the time now for those things,” Adrian said stubbornly.
“Perhaps you can try and make time,” Laura retorted.
Adrian sighed. “Perhaps.” He paused, and looked conflicted for a moment before his face cleared. “Tell me, how was your day?” he asked, changing the subject. Laura resigned herself to the end of that conversation and went along with his not-so-subtle topic change. She proceeded to describe to him in excruciating detail the flow of her meetings that day.
***
Adrian stood as Bethany entered his quarters. They embraced warmly and she took a seat at the table. Goran, Adrian’s steward, entere
d from the kitchen and started putting food on the table. Bethany sighed in satisfaction as Goran removed the covers from the plates and the smell of the dishes spread through the room.
“That looks delicious,” Bethany said. “I skipped lunch and have been looking forward to this all day.”
Adrian smiled. “Well, then, there is no need to wait,” he said, and grabbed a big chunk of synth meat. He cut off a chunk and put it in his mouth. There was no difference in taste from real meat, and over the years it had replaced meat harvested from living animals. Now meat was grown in vats on “farms,” but with no actual living animals. But cooked meals weren’t really that commonplace nowadays; they were for special occasions. Most of the Empire ate food prepared in bio-fabricators, and while it could be made to taste like anything you imagined, it was always in the form of gray paste.
Beth released another sound of satisfaction as she took a bite of her own piece.
“This is the best thing I have ever eaten,” she said blissfully.
Adrian nodded in agreement. “It is pretty good. I’ve been trying to get the recipe from Goran for years, but that man is one tough nut to crack,” he said. Then he made a Nel gesture for interest as he asked, “So why did you skip lunch?”
They made small talk as they ate, exchanging funny stories and swapping experiences from their various positions in command over the years and how they dealt with insubordination. Adrian told her about their old team from the Academy, which she had lost touch with, and he promised to get them all together again.
Then Beth paused and looked at him strangely for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t think that I will ever get used to that,” she commented.
“Used to what?” Adrian asked, confused.
“Those gestures you are making as you speak,” she answered.
Adrian looked at his hand and saw that his fingers were bent and pointed upwards in a Nel sign that meant comfortableness. Startled, he dropped his hand to the table.
“Oh, I didn’t realize I was doing it,” he said.
“No, no. It’s not bad, I’m just not used to seeing that. I don’t really interact with any Nel privately; I have only seen it from a few of my subordinates.”
“I do spend a lot of time around Nel, and count some among my best friends. I guess that it just became a part of me,” Adrian said.
Bethany looked at him sadly. “I knew that you must have changed, but these past few days have just served to show me the extent of it. We lost so much time…” Beth said remorsefully.
“Neither one of us is the same person we were then.”
“No, we are not,” Beth said softly. She picked up a fork and started playing with it in silence for a few moments before speaking. “I heard some rumors…”
“Rumors?” Adrian asked.
“Yes.” She raised her eyes to look at him, and she dropped her fork to the table in front of them. “About a floating ball.”
Adrian smiled. “Floating ball?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
Adrian glanced down at the fork, then pointed his hand at it and slowly raised the object using telekinesis. Technically, he didn’t need to move his hand, but he had found that telekinesis was much easier for him to use with hand motions; it was easier for his mind to recognize what he wanted to do. He didn’t need to concentrate as much.
Bethany looked at the floating fork openmouthed. Then Adrian slowly moved it in front of her and lowered it to the table, releasing his grasp on it. Beth reached and picked it up, studying it in fascination.
That allowed Adrian to study her in turn. Her red hair was now about the same length as it had been back in the Academy, cut to her jawline. But her green eyes no longer had the same shine as they used to. There was tiredness in them, on her face as well. She was still as beautiful as she was the day he met her—there was no sign of age on her face—but Adrian could still see it in the movement of her facial muscles. There were times when his mind made him see more than he should, more than the person he was talking to intended to reveal.
His mind could process and interpret her slight movements, tell him what was hidden behind believable smiles and deft topic changes. That skill was something that gave him an edge over his opponents in fights. But it was also what had given birth to the chasm between him and his friends. He knew that was one of the reasons why he interacted more with Nel. They were capable of hiding their emotions behind bland faces that they wore in public with much greater skill. They had evolved that way. It was why they used their hand gestures to make their emotions clear. It made it much easier for Adrian to connect with the people who could reveal to him only what they wanted to.
It was also one of the main reasons why he hadn’t pushed himself to learn more about his telepathy. Even without Iris and Laura telling him, he had seen what was happening, how he was becoming isolated from people. If he could read people’s minds, it would have only made that worse.
Adrian looked at Beth and found he could see right through her. He had seen everything that day when he’d told her that they could be only friends. She wanted more, he knew it. And he also knew that he wanted that as well.
After a moment of hesitation, he stood and took the two steps to stand in front of her. She was so engrossed with the fork in her hands that she didn’t notice until he gently placed his palm against her cheek and turned her around. He saw her startle, and then he leaned down and kissed her.
She hesitated for a moment before giving in. The kiss was everything he had dreamed it would be, and more. But too soon it ended. And Adrian straightened. His hand was still on her face, and both of them were flushed and breathing heavily.
He lowered his hand, taking hers in his and helping her stand. He felt her against him, and then guided her to the doors leading to his bedroom.
***
A few hours later, Adrian gazed at Beth as he tenderly traced circles on her bare shoulder. They were in his bed, and Beth was asleep. Adrian just couldn’t let sleep take him. He had imagined this moment for years, and now it was real. He was afraid that if he went to sleep, he would wake up with all of this being just a dream, or the same delusion but induced in his mind space.
He knew that it couldn’t be a dream, but the fear was still there. He had never let anyone inside his inner circle. Never opened himself to another, except for Iris, who was almost a part of him. But he felt that he was ready to do that with Beth.
It was close to morning, and Adrian knew that they wouldn’t be able to hide this. By midday, everyone would know, if they didn’t already. But there wasn’t really a problem; personal relationships weren’t forbidden, although there were some stipulations. And Adrian technically wasn’t a part of the Fleet; he was a Clan Leader.
Beth moved in her sleep, getting closer to him and making herself comfortable. And Adrian finally allowed himself to drift away, and fall asleep.
***
Harbinger – three days later
Adrian sat in the command chair in Harbinger’s command center juggling eight lead balls in the air around him and watching on the holo as the three fleets formed into one formation. With the reinforcements from the Empire, he now commanded eighteen hundred ships, the bulk of which were the Furious-class missile ships and the Kraken-class dreadnoughts. And after a bit of shuffling, Adrian had leveled the size of the three fleets, getting all three of them to six hundred ships. Along with the reinforcements had arrived a special ship, carrying Sowir prisoners from Sanctuary, for the part of the plan that would come after they took the system.
All ships slowly formed into the formation that Adrian had chosen, and soon ready signals started arriving at his c-board. When all of the ships were green, Adrian sent the countdown for their entrance into hyperspace.
They wouldn’t be using the trans-lane to enter the Sowir system, as every probe or drone they’d sent through had gotten destroyed before it managed to send anything back to them. There could be many reasons for th
at. But the most likely one was that the trans-station in the Sowir system was blocked; perhaps it now resided inside a planet. It was strange, as it had worked when the Union ship had passed through. That system was one of those that they had sent their smaller scout ships to explore. But that had been a long time ago; orbits of planets could change, or something else could have been moved inside the trans-station.
That was why they would arrive at the Sowir system through hyperspace. The travel time was around 35 days, and Adrian planned on dropping out of hyperspace further away from the system’s barrier and then coming in slowly after they had a picture of the entire system.
The countdown reached zero, and Adrian felt his ship engage its hyperdrives along with every other ship in his joint fleet. A moment later, they were on their way towards the Sowir home system.
Chapter Twelve
Sanctuary – Ten days later
Emperor Tomas Klein walked through a cave, surrounded by glowing crystal trees. At his side was Seo-yun, the woman he loved, his partner. He liked walking through this specific cave, as it was the place that soothed him, and allowed him clarity at times when he needed it the most.
“The Trivaxians are not happy,” Tomas said as they stopped in front of an unusually tall and bright crystal formation.
Seo-yun snorted. “Of course they aren’t happy. They have been trying to get our advanced technology for the past three years.”
“I gave them the conditions for their inclusion in the Empire. The longer they try to circumvent them, the longer it will take until they attain our level of technology.”
“It is not that simple, Tomas. You want them to do all of it on their own. And it’s not easy, inventing hyperspace generators and then building a hyperspace-capable ship without our help. Let alone then founding a viable colony in another star system,” she said seriously. “And I am not even considering the other conditions you have set for them. It is too much, Tomas.”
“It is,” he agreed. “But the things we know and possess are dangerous. I will not give them technology they are not ready for.”