by Ivan Kal
He reached the room, and saw Akash and Sora sitting in front of it. They had taken it upon themselves to guard the room. Akash had patches over two of his eyes, it would be a few days before he could use them again. And he still had problems with dizzines from the battle. Adrian motioned for the Nel guards, and they let him inside, wolions following. The only person inside was the Shara Daim, restrained on a bed angled upright at about 60 degrees.
She was dressed in one of the Empire’s black skin-suits, which was almost the same color as her skin, making it seem like it was actually her skin. They’d had to destroy her suit in order to get it off, and she had had nothing beneath it. The clothing she was dressed in now hugged her body tightly, revealing every curve and muscle of her body. Every single muscle was defined, but they weren’t bulky like those of a weightlifter. She was a big woman, tall and stocky, but still clearly had feminine features.
He took a moment to study her more closely. Her face looked hard, her features slightly different than those of humans or Nel, and was yet somehow exotically beautiful. She had eyebrows and eyelashes, unlike the Nel, who only had hair on the top of their head. Her lips were of a lighter shade than her skin, and her ear shells had a different shape. Other than that, she could pass for a human, more so than a Nel, whose gray skin color, tails, and claws made them stand out immediately. Her body was exactly like that of a human, no tail or claws, except that her feet had four toes instead of five.
When they’d fought, she had had the translating device on her temple, so after testing it Adrian had it put back on her head so that they could speak without telepathy.
Adrian walked over to her and pressed an injection gun to her neck, injecting the contents. Then he stepped back and waited. Slowly, she started moving, waking up. As she woke up, her eyes opened and looked around her. First she noticed her restraints, and then as she turned her head upwards, she noticed Sora, Akash, and finally him. The ‘whites’ of her eyes were all black; her iris was white surrounding a black pupil.
She watched him, all the while testing her restraints. He saw her muscles bulge as she tried to move. Then he saw her eyes widen for a single instant, and she lowered her head and looked at her shoulder, where the device that drained her energy was.
Adrian remained silent and watched her. He could see her thinking, evaluating her options. And soon enough, she came to the conclusion that there was nothing she could do. She turned back to him.
“You have doomed yourself, Human. You have taken a Dai Sha of the Shara Daim. Your death will not be swift. My ships will find you and free me,” she said in a melodic voice.
Adrian gazed at her unfazed. “I could say the same thing to you. You have attacked a Lord Sentinel of the Empire. The sentence for that crime is severe as well,” Adrian said in a patronizing tone.
Her face twitched, and she leaned her head forward as far as her constraints allowed her to. “Are you mocking me?” she whispered slowly.
Adrian mimicked her move, leaning down so that their faces almost touched, and whispered, “Yes, I am mocking you.”
He saw her outrage. Her face twisted, and she struggled at her restraints trying to reach him, but was unable to move any closer. Adrian remained where he was, looking at her.
“And your ships have found us; they were unsuccessful in their endeavor of freeing you. And their threats were empty,” Adrian said.
She calmed and watched him hatefully. “How long was I unconscious for?” she demanded.
Adrian tilted his head, trying to decide whether to tell her or not.
“About twenty days,” he said. The translator on her temple would make her hear her own measuring units.
He saw her surprise at that. She had really thought that her people would find her quickly.
“Now, I would like to ask you a few questions,” Adrian said.
“Better that you release me now. I might be merciful,” she said.
“I guess that means you are not going to answer. Very well, I will speak, and you chime in if you have something to add,” Adrian said, and started walking around her.
“You are of the Shara Daim, you hold a title Dai Sha. Which is apparently a big deal,” Adrian started. Her eyes followed him until he went behind her, and then continued when he emerged on the other side. “You knew that my people were called human, and you wanted something from me. I can’t imagine what that could be, but no matter. I assume that you found out about my kind from the Ra’a’zani; you have been at war with them. You either encountered those that had been taken as slaves, or you found mention of us in their data. Either way, that doesn’t matter either,” he said.
The Shara Daim remained quiet.
“What I can’t figure out is why would you try to take me? I mean, you could have just asked to meet with me, and I would have accepted. But then you attacked me once you heard me mention Axull Darr,” Adrian continued. “That means that you know everything. You have the Sha; your people must’ve heard the beacon and gained all the knowledge inside the sphere.”
Her face hardened, but she still didn’t comment.
“But why attack me because of that? You know that we are descended from the same race. And what possible information could I possess that you don’t already have?”
She glared at him and spoke, “You did not have the Sha when the Ra’a’zani conquered your world. You wouldn’t have become their slaves if you had had the knowledge. And their records say that you were bound to your home system. Did you get the Sha after?” she asked.
“After the Ra’a’zani conquered our homeworld?” Adrian asked. “Well, in a way, we did. We weren’t bound to a single world when the Ra’a’zani came, though; a part of our race had a colony far away. Once we received a message from those enslaved, we came back and defeated the Ra’a’zani. We didn’t get the Sha until recently.”
“You defeated them without technology from the People and the Sha?” she asked doubtfully.
“Yes. We did get access to the sphere after, but not because of the Sha, nor did we find the one on our homeworld. We encountered the third race that Axull Darr created. They had the device, but they too didn’t have the Sha; they discovered the sphere by accident. Then I awoke the trigger that Axull Darr placed in our DNA and gained the Sha. Now we have started triggering the change in others of my people, newborns and adults alike,” Adrian explained. It was not like any of that was a secret, a search on any of the Empire’s nets would have allowed her to learn about the Nel and human history, and he wanted to know why she had attacked him, not go to war with her people. He figured that it was a misunderstanding, and he planned on clearing everything up before he sent her back.
And Adrian was not above lying to get his way. Either the Dai Sha would realize her mistake and the Empire and Shara Daim would start a conversation. Or she would never see her people again.
“You were not born with the Sha?” she asked, surprised.
“No, I received it fifteen years ago, and my body was artificially enhanced in order for me to be able to use them effectively,” Adrian answered.
Her face twisted into something between being disgusted and impressed.
Adrian leaned towards her. “Now, will you tell me why you attacked me?”
“Your people were supposed to be slaves. I believed you an escaped slave of the Ra’a’zani,” she said hesitantly.
“That still doesn’t explain why you attacked me.”
“You are weak; you allowed yourselves to become slaves. You deserve no recognition from the true heirs,” she said.
Adrian thought about her words. It sounded like their belief system revolved around strength. That did fit into what he had already found out from the Erasi net.
“I am weak?” Adrian asked, and then motioned to her current condition.
That brought a spark of anger to her eyes. “There were more of you,” she said, and glanced at Akash and Sora, who were standing behind him.
“But still, I doubt that you c
an categorize us as weak.”
“No,” she said, but he could see her fighting with herself.
“Alright, we need to change gears. I don’t plan on keeping you here forever. I only took you because I wanted to know why you attacked me, and what information you wanted to claim from me. I never planned on keeping you a prisoner. Tell me, and I will release you. There is no need for the first contact between our people to go like this.”
She studied him, and he saw her thinking. Then, after a minute or two, she spoke, “I wanted to know the location of your homeworld.”
“Why? Didn’t you already know that from the Ra’a’zani?”
“The clans I destroyed had no such information, nor did they have human slaves. We only recovered information that you existed. My task was to locate the remaining Ra’a’zani clans and find the human slaves.”
“And our homeworld? Why do you need to know that?”
“The Elders of Shara Daim have charged me with finding your homeworld and your device left by Axull Darr.”
Adrian frowned. “Why would you need that? All the devices are the same.”
She remained silent. Adrian tried to think why they would need it. To keep it out of Ra’a’zani hands was a likely answer. But the Ra’a’zani couldn’t hear its beacon, even if they did have telepathy. And it was unlikely that they would find it by accident like the Nel had. And then it hit him. All the information about the Shara Daim in the Erasi net, everything that he had learned about them—they had been in space for a long time, and their technology was on the level of the Erasi, even that of the Empire.
“You lost yours, didn’t you?” Adrian asked.
She didn’t respond, but he could see the truth in her eyes.
“You wanted ours. You didn’t care that we were slaves to the Ra’a’zani. I thought you might have wanted to help us. But no, you made it clear when we first met that you don’t care about us, and again just now, when you said that we were weak. You truly believe that those weaker than you are insignificant,” Adrian said, disappointed.
She remained quiet. Adrian shook his head, then turned and left her there. She would stay his prisoner a little bit longer. He had a lot of things to think about, and a soon-to-be pissed-off Emperor to explain himself to.
Chapter Forty-One
October – Sanctuary
Tomas stood in a meeting room surrounded by his advisors. Laura and Jack sat on his left, with Sumia, Seo-yun, and Nadia on his right. All of them had just watched the holo message from Adrian; he had already seen it last night. He still couldn’t decide how he felt about it.
“Shara Daim...” Nadia said. “Adrian has probably put us on a course that will lead to war with them.”
Jack shook his head. “If what Adrian has found out is true, they will be coming for the sphere still on Earth. This would have happened even if he hadn’t taken one of theirs. They call themselves the true heirs, which should tell you everything that you need to know about them. They wouldn’t have cared that Earth was no longer enslaved by the Ra’a’zani.”
“You think that they would have attacked rather than negotiated?” Laura asked.
“She told Adrian that we were weak for allowing the Ra’a’zani to conquer us. By their belief, that makes us unworthy. You have seen the data Adrian sent from the Erasi net. They roll over anyone that they consider weak. They are bigoted and intolerant towards those not of their own kind,” Jack answered.
Sumia looked at him, seeming unconvinced. “We are very close to being their kind; we are all descendants of the People.”
“And yet the first thing this ‘Dai Sha’ did was try and kidnap Adrian, take him, and get information about Earth from him. That should tell you how much they respect us being descendants of the People,” Jack said. “If she had encountered anyone other than Adrian and his Sentinel, we wouldn’t have known anything about the Shara Daim until their ships showed up in Sol going straight for Earth.”
“I would like to see them try and find the sphere in that firestorm.” Laura snorted. “I doubt that they could even get down to the ground.”
Tomas scratched his chin. “There is no point in debating whether it was the right call or not. I put Adrian in charge of the Sentinel program because I trust his instincts. If he believes that this was the best course of action, then that is the end of discussion. Now based on his recommendations and information, we need to make a plan.”
“I’m sending two more fleets to Sol,” Laura said. “We don’t really need them in other sectors for now, and the remaining fleets can cover theirs for a time.”
“You are preparing us for war,” Seo-yun said. “Why just not return the prisoner to the Shara Daim and try to get them to talk?”
“You, better than anyone, should know how much power the knowledge in the sphere holds,” Jack answered. “I doubt that they will settle for anything other than us giving them the sphere. And what do you think they will do with it after?”
Seo-yun remained quiet, not having anything to say to that.
“Adrian has a plan,” Tomas said, “one that includes the prisoner, and I think that it is worth a try. In the meantime, we need to prepare for war. One other problem is the Erasi. They have an agenda, and we need to find out what it is.”
***
A few days later, Tomas entered another meeting room. This one was filled with very different people. On one side of the room stood three Guxcacul, representatives of their council. On the other stood three representatives of the Nelus government. Tomas stopped in front of them.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
“Your invitation was compelling,” Sisstra, Elder of the Guxcacul, said through her translator.
“Yes, we were... intrigued,” Sestar Nimuse of the Nelus government said.
“I hope that you had the chance to read through my proposal,” Tomas said.
“We did. It is...interesting,” Sisstra said.
Nimuse turned her palms sideways, agreeing. “Yes, it is interesting. But my people worry about how much we would benefit from it.”
Tomas kept his irritation off his face. “Let’s not start with posturing. We both know that the Empire has left you behind technologically. My offer will give you everything, make you a part of Empire.”
“But you ask us to forget our traditions, beliefs, and history,” Sisstra said.
“No. I ask you to change them. I don’t ask you to forget. And tell me, what did your beliefs and traditions do for you? Did they save you from the Sowir?”
“You are asking us to join you because you need us. We have the population that you need to grow much faster,” Nimuse added.
“No, I didn’t offer you this because I need you. I offered it because I might need you. There is a difference. And you must know that your progress will never match ours now. Your territories are surrounded by mine. You will always need to deal with us. Eventually, your people will see the life in the Empire and want it. They will leave on their own and I will accept them as individuals. Why delay the inevitable? Join us now when you can still benefit from what we offer. Otherwise, you might not live long enough to see a time when your peoples become great again,” Tomas said,
“And that is the thing, isn’t it? You are offering us immortality in order to be a part of your Empire,” Nimuse said tiredly.
“I use whatever tools I have to get what I want. And I want a strong and powerful Empire that bows to no one,” Tomas said, and looked them. He had spent a lot of time studying their people and their expressions. He saw them make the decision.
Chapter Forty-Two
November; Year 54 of the Empire – Sol
Adrian walked into the holding room. The Shara Daim immediately looked at him and then at Akash and Sora, who were following him. Adrian approached her.
“How are you today?” he asked cheerfully, as he always did. And she ignored him while staring icy daggers at him, like she always did.
“Well, today I was thinkin
g of doing something different,” he said. Since that first time, they had spoken on a few more occasions. Or rather, Adrian had spoken while she’d remained quiet.
“Are you feeling up for a walk?” Adrian asked, and saw her narrow her eyes at him. “No?” Adrian asked, and when she didn’t answer, he continued, “I was thinking that this isn’t really working—I mean, me talking and you only listening. So maybe a change in scenery would do you good.”
“How about this? I am going to release you, and we will take a walk around my ship. But you need to promise that you won’t try anything—like attacking me again,” Adrian said pointedly. “I think that you realize that even if you managed to kill me, there isn’t really anything that you can do. You don’t know how to operate this ship. There are a lot more of my people around than there is of you. And I doubt that you could kill them all, especially with no Sha. Not to mention them having weapons. I have already told you that I plan on letting you go back to your people. I just want to show you some things before that. So, what do you say?”
She glared at him a bit longer, before finally responding, “I give you my word as Dai Sha, I will not attempt to escape or harm anyone.”
Adrian nodded, and started removing her restraints. She remained motionless until the last one was removed. Then she got up from the bed and stood. Adrian looked up at her, remembering just how much bigger she was than him.
Adrian turned his back at her and started walking towards the exit, all the way letting his senses keep watch on her. After a few steps, she started following, walking past Akash and Sora, who started following a bit behind them.
They exited the holding room and entered into the hallway. Warpath warriors stood at the end of the hall with their weapons armed and ready, and as Adrian and the Dai Sha started walking down the hallway, they followed from a distance.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, until they reached their destination. They entered a large room. Adrian walked up to stand in front of the wall on the far side; the Dai Sha stopped beside him and glared at the wall.