by Ivan Kal
Anessa looked skeptically at Narrasak? “And did they tell you what this device was? How it looks like? How to even find it?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I am not in the habit of second guessing the Elders,” Narrasak said through his teeth. “But they said that the device is most likely on their homeworld. That they might not even be aware of its existence. And that we will hear its beacon once we land on the planet. That only the true heirs can hear it.”
Anessa kept her face emotionless as she considered his words. The Elders were withholding information, and they thought that the Humans hadn’t yet heard the beacon of the device, which was true in a way; their device was still on their homeworld. The Elders didn’t know about the Nel or their device.
She opened her mouth to tell them about the second device but stopped herself. They didn’t know anything but the stories that the Elders allowed to become the truth. And it didn’t change their mission in the slightest.
“How many Legions have been recalled?” she asked instead.
“All of them,” Do Sun Arisak said. “Ten of the Legions have been ordered to reposition in strategic points throughout our territory so that they may respond quickly if any of our other enemies notice and try to take advantage. But the rest are all to gather here.”
That left forty-two Legions for the offensive against the Empire, the largest force they had ever used for an opponent. But the Elders knew that they needed to end the Empire quickly, and a smaller force would’ve taken longer, giving the Empire the chance to use more knowledge from the device.
“When is the invasion supposed to start?” Anessa asked.
Garaam turned and glared at Narrasak. “We are having some disagreements concerning that,” Garaam answered sourly. “After your capture, Narrasak was given the overall command of the Legions. And he means to start the invasion within days, with the three Legions we have here. I have been trying to convince him to wait for more forces.”
“You have seen the information our agents stole from the Erasi. That system has no defenses,” Narrasak argued from his place at the table.
“Can I see that information?” Anessa asked.
Narrasak keyed the telepathic interface and a hologram of the system appeared above the table. “Our agents recovered data sent by the Erasi ambassador; we have their scans of the system, and while they are incomplete, it is a great opportunity. Their trans-space entry point is not guarded; we can enter inside the system and take it before they have a chance to do anything,” Narrasak said.
Anessa recognized the system immediately; it was the place where she had been held. She pointed at the third planet from the sun. “That is the Human homeworld,” she said, looking at the devastated planet.
Narrasak’s eyes widened. “How do you know?”
“That is the system I was held in. My captor showed me that world and told me that it was their homeworld. It was conquered by the Ra’a’zani decades ago. The Humans retook it only recently, but not before the Ra’a’zani deployed a weapon that did that to the planet. And the device the Elders want is still there,” Anessa said.
Narrasak looked at Garaam, with hunger in his eyes. “This is the world the Elders ordered captured. Doing so now would bring us much prestige with the other Dai Sha.”
Garaam narrowed her eyes. “That is true, but we don’t have any verification on this information. You want us to enter through the trans-point; if they have defenses there, they can hurt us badly. There is a reason why invasion forces rarely attack through trans-points.”
“They are weaklings, you heard Anessa—they just recently recovered that system; they haven’t had the time to make it defensible,” Narrasak pressed.
“I do not doubt our strength, but to enter a system through a defended trans-point is folly,” Garaam insisted.
Anessa sighed. “Narrasak’s information is correct, that point isn’t defended,” she said reluctantly. “I was in their system-watch center when the Erasi diplomats arrived, and there were no defenses there. And I accompanied their force into the Ra’a’zani territory; their forces are not there. But with their FTL tech, they might be able to return before we arrive. Their leader seemed to think so. I don’t know if he was lying or not.” She knew that she was aiding in Narrasak’s plan, but there was no reason for her to keep that information to herself.
Narrasak turned and grinned at Garaam. “See, we should attack before that changes. We can secure the system and use it as a staging point for the invasion of the rest of their territory.”
“Do you think that we should attack?” Garaam asked, turning to Anessa.
Anessa thought about it for a minute. “It is a great opportunity, Narrasak is right about that. But I have spent time with these people, and they are not as weak as the Elders think,” she said slowly, thinking about Adrian. Their fight had given her a lot of insight into who he was, but in the end, it was she who had won that fight by restraining him. “But we are Shara Daim; none can stand against us. Narrasak has command, so it is his call in the end. I would only advise caution.”
Narasak was given command by the Elders, Anessa might be the first of the Dai Sha, but her seniority only allowed her to assume command in emergencies, otherwise all Dai Sha were supposed to be equal. But the personal honor and respect from the other Dai Sha came into play, Anessa was very respected, powerful, and usually she would take command. But now her standing was harmed by the fact that she was captured. Not enough for her to lose her position, but enough to make her trying to take command from Narrasak complicated. And it was pointless anyway, Narrasak was about to do something that she agreed with.
“We are attacking,” Narrasak said in triumph. Then he turned to Anessa. “Will you go to the Elders to report? Or will you come with us?” he asked.
She was tempted to go to the Elders, to ask them for more answers, but that somehow made her feel as if Adrian had won. It was what he wanted her to do, and she would not let his words poison her actions. And it would take several months of travel to reach Shara Radum in order for her to speak with them in person. She trusted the Elders still, and their original orders to her had been to recover the device. And she knew that the human device was still on their ravaged homeworld. There was no choice.
“I’m coming with you.”
Chapter Twelve
One month later— July — Sanctuary
Emperor Tomas Klein sat at the head of a long table and listened as the Clan Leaders of his Empire discussed new resource allocations and mining rights.
“Clan Gudólfr was supposed to provide us with one third of our requirements for military shipyards, and now those materials are being funneled to Warpath. Not to mention that Warpath and Dai Ven have reduced the resources trade with other Clans by sixty percent. The shortage of resources will delay our projects by at least a year,” said Clan Leader Barbara Brown of the Terran Clan.
“Warpath, Dai Ven, and Sanctuary are on war footing; they need those resources to build up our forces. Forces that defend all of us,” Clan Leader Isani of Warpath added.
“I can understand that, but Dai Ven trade with Guxcacul and Nelus Clans has continued with no reductions, and they are not required to aid the three Clans with a percentage of their own production. We only ask that if we must suffer these reductions, then the rest should too,” Clan Leader Brown said.
Clan Leader Annbjörg Johansson of Clan Gudólfr shook her head. “Guxcacul and Nelus are the newest clans, their needs are lower than yours; they are barely getting ten percent of your yearly quota. There is no point in reducing resources going to them, it wouldn’t make a difference. They still need time to grow to the level of other Clans.”
“Annbjörg is right, cutting resources going to them wouldn’t increase our production, but would cripple their expansion. And their production is nowhere near the size of other Clans; their contributions would be minuscule,” Clan Leader Sumia of Nuvan Clan added.
Clan Leader Brown sighed in defeat.
“Fine, but I expect an increase in Terran Clans quota after the war footing ends.”
Clan Leader Jusan of Clan Dai Ven turned to look at Brown. “We can do that. I will add ten percent of your yearly quota from our reserves for two years after the war footing ends. I assume that that will be enough?”
Brown nodded. “It will.”
“While we are on the subject, is there anything that Guxcacal and Nelus Clans wish to add?” Tomas asked, startling the Clan Leaders. He usually kept back and let them discus things on their own, but today he had an agenda that he needed to bring up.
Clan Leader Nimuse of Nelus Clan turned to Tomas. She now looked like a young Nel woman; it was a great change compared to how she had looked before Nelus had joined the Empire. She had been an old woman, but now after the rejuvenation and immortality treatments, she would look young for a long time.
“Nelus has nothing to add, sir. The expansion of our production and processing plants is proceeding as planned.”
Then Clan Leader Sisstra of the Guxcacul Clan spoke, “The same as Nelus; everything is proceeding according to plans, sir.” Tomas knew that she had spoken in her own tongue, but he heard her words in Empire standard, thanks to the technology sent by Adrian from the Erasi. His scientists had adapted it and integrated it into their implants, and as all races in the Empire had one, it made it much easier for them all to communicate. They no longer had the need to use translators that had lag.
“Well, now that we have finished with that, I have two matters to bring to your attention,” he said as he looked around the table at the nine Clan Leaders. Five of them were Nel, three human if he counted himself and Sanctuary, and the last two were a Guxcacul and a Trivaxian. He could not have imagined all that time ago that he would end up here.
He looked over the Clan Leaders at the table, and at the ever-present agent of the Hand who sat opposite of him observing the meeting. “All of you are aware that we expect an all-out state of war with a hostile race we recently came into contact with called the Shara Daim. What most of you have not been aware of is that they are like us, human and Nel. They are the third race that is our genetic sibling. You know the human and Nel history, and are aware of the knowledge we received from our ancestor, which should tell you how dangerous Shara Daim are. They too had access to that knowledge, and for longer than us,” Tomas said evenly. “But we have intel that indicates that they lost their sphere some time ago, so the amount of knowledge from it that they currently possess is unknown.”
“Can we match them?” Clan Leader Brown asked.
“We believe so, at least technologically. They have a much larger territory and population than us. Nevertheless, we have plans for a prolonged war. I’m telling you this so that you can prepare your own colonies for invasions. I don’t think that it will come to that, but I want you all to be aware of the possibility,” Tomas answered, and then turned to the Trivaxian Clan Leader. “Tofor, Trivax is the first major world that would be hit if our border systems fall. But I have spoken with Fleets Master Laura, and we will see to moving some assets into your territory to bolster your own.”
“Of course, thank you, sir,” Clan Leader Tofor of Trivaxian Clan said.
“And the second thing is to warn you that the Erasi have stealth ships in our territory, which is not altogether surprising, since we have our stealth ships in their territory. We believe their purpose is espionage, and we have a response ready to implement against them. I just wanted to warn you that you might be seeing some strange fleet movements and ghost signatures in your systems. If you notice anything strange, please have your people forward it to Fleet on Thanatos.”
A chorus of affirmative responses followed his words, and Tomas nodded. “Good. If there is nothing else,” he said, and moved to stand. The rest followed.
***
Seo-yun moved anxiously behind a group of solders as they carefully loaded their priceless cargo onto a military transport. After they slowly lowered the box on the floor of the shuttle and secured it, the leader turned to look at Seo-yun.
“Don’t worry, Minister. We’ll make sure that it reaches its destination in perfect condition,” Commander Talluah said as she put out a hand for Seo-yun.
She grasped and shook it while looking the commander in the eyes. “You better. If not, you will answer to me,” she said seriously.
The commander nodded and entered the shuttle. Seo-yun stepped back as the shuttle took off for the ship waiting in orbit. She shook her head as she walked back into the Sanctuary’s science and research center; she still could not believe that Tomas had actually managed to convince her to send the sphere to Adrian. It was what the Shara Daim wanted, and if they got their hands on it, there would be no stopping them. Thankfully, she and her team had transferred all of the data to several other devices that they had built according to the specifications from Axull Darr, but only the original device contained his consciousness.
She knew that Adrian had a plan that required it, but she still worried that it could fall into Shara Daim hands even with all the precautions that Adrian had in place.
She walked through the large building and made her way to one of the main research rooms. Inside, a squad of scientists worked on their stations. Holographic images of Ra’a’zani in all of their stages of development were scattered amongst the working stations. Seo-yun approached a Nel woman sitting at a desk in the center of the room.
“Sevani, any progress?” she asked the woman.
“Yes, actually, I was just about to call you. I think that we got it,” she said with a human smile. Sevani was young and brilliant, and as she had been born out of the progeny centers and then raised in a mixed home, with both Human and Nel caregivers, she was perfectly fine with expressing her emotions through facial expressions, unlike Nel who were born out of purely Nel families.
“Really? Show me,” Seo-yun said.
“Here is what their reconstructed DNA will look like,” Sevani said as a holo of a helix appeared above her table. “We have added defenses against the cold, rewritten a portion of their original code substantially. They will look similar but will be slightly smaller in order to better retain heat and survive on their new world. We had to remove their scales and add fur.” She sighed. “I know that you didn’t want that many physical changes, but there was no getting around it; we are still not as good at this as the People. Unless you want to reconsider and put them on a warmer world?” Sevani asked.
Seo-yun shook her head. “No, this is as much a test for us as it is their new chance. In addition, Tomas wants them to grow in a completely different environment from the originals. What else?”
“Well, we made sure that the females will be able to lay only six eggs during their lifetime, in three periods about ten years apart, with a much better egg fertilization success rate. That should ensure something like family units to be established, or at least give the females more freedom in their society to find a purpose other than egg laying. Moreover, there will now be a fifty-fifty chance of an embryo in the egg being male or female; it should level their society out a bit. We put in markers that would allow the team on site to adjust this if something unforeseen happens,” Savani said.
“And what about the Sha package?”
“We put in the limited package, yes: telepathy, telekinesis, and vitakinesis, buried in their genetic code with the same triggers that Axull Durr put into us. We found instructions on how to make genetic memories for alien races not descended from the People, but we will not know if we nailed it until we try. And we needed to design a slightly different energy organ more suited for their physiology.”
“Good. The eggs we recovered from Lu’tal should arrive in a couple of days, and we’ll get more once Johanna takes their other worlds,” Seo-yun said.
“So did the Emperor decide on a name?” Savani asked.
Seo-yun sighed tiredly. She had tried to have him choose some other name, but he had been persistent. “He renamed the world Jötunhei
mr, and plans on naming them Jötunn.”
Savani looked at her quizzically. “Does that have some meaning?”
“Its human mythology. In one of old human religions, Jötunn were frost giants banished to the world of Jötunheimr.”
Savani shrugged. “Well, they will be banished in a way, and they will need a new name. That one is better than nothing.”
“New name for a new species. Hopefully they become something better than what they are now,” Seo-yun said.
***
Later that day, Seo-yun was walking through the palace on her way to her and Tomas’s quarters, the Ra’a’zani still on her mind. There had been a time when she would not have even considered doing what they planned to do to the Ra’a’zani and their offspring, when she would have opposed it vehemently.
However, that was before she had studied the historical data from the sphere. Before she’d realized that the People had aided most of the life in the galaxy. That their fingerprints were on most of the intelligent races in the galaxy. They were the first, and for the longest time, the only race, and they had used their knowledge to help life along, to guide it into becoming intelligent. Now their descendants were going to attempt something similar.
The People had never modified a race without its consent, not once a lifeform achieved intelligence, but then they had never involved themselves in the matters of other races. They had stood above, both in technology and age. They had never had to fight a war against another intelligent race that they could lose, had never known what it felt like to be inferior and at the mercy of another. The Empire, on the other hand, lived amongst the other races, fought and suffered at their hands. They understood that sometimes they needed to do the hard thing, that the universe was not a nice place. It had taken Seo-yun a bit of time to come to peace with that, with the power and responsibility her people wielded.
She reached and entered her living quarter. Seeing a light coming from the library, she changed direction. Inside, she found Tomas sitting in his reading chair with an old book in his hands. He raised his head and smiled as he noticed her. She walked over and sat in his lap as he put the book aside, then gave him a peck on the lips.