by Ivan Kal
He looked into her eyes. She was silent and waiting for his answer. In the end, he had much more in common with her than with anyone else.
“What do you think?” Adrian asked Iris.
“I will always be where you are, Adrian. I don’t want to see you alone anymore. No matter who she is, she does make you happy,” Iris said.
Adrian took a deep breath and focused on Anessa.
“Yes, I will stay,” he said.
Anessa smiled a radiant smile that made him weak. She leaned towards his neck in the customary Shara Daim form of affection, but then she stopped and put her lips on his. After, she stood and took him by the hand, leading him towards the bed.
Adrian stopped her. She turned and looked at him quizzically.
“Wait, if we are doing this, there is someone you need to meet,” he said just as Iris appeared over his shoulder in her fiery form.
“Hi, I’m Iris,” she said.
Anessa looked at the floating fiery woman, then at Adrian, and back again at Iris, her expression bewildered.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Three months later — November; Year 57 of the Empire — Sanctuary
Tomas read the alliance agreement with the Shara Daim. It was a large document, detailing obligations from both empires. Adrian had made sure that all the points Tomas was adamant about were in the agreement, and the things added by the Shara Daim were understandable. There was no problem with the agreement, and Tomas agreed with Adrian completely. He had known that Adrian would make some kind of an alliance with them; it had been a plan of his from the start. And with the aggression by the Erasi and their destruction of one of the Empire’s battleships, Tomas was in a much more favorable state of mind towards the Shara Daim. Even though they had actually attacked an entire system, intent on conquering, Adrian’s tactics had ensured that there were no casualties on their side.
And the change in Shara Daim leadership had come as a great surprise to Tomas. He trusted Adrian, but hadn’t been sure that his plan would work. As it turned out, it had, perhaps even better than he had planned. But what he hadn’t seen coming was Adrian’s decision to stay on Shara Radum, nor his relationship with the Shara Daim’s new leader, Kar Daim Anessa. Adrian had sent Tomas a private message detailing everything about their relationship and what the Kar Daim had asked of him. Instantly, Tomas had seen the value in having Adrian as a partner to the leader of Shara Daim. He didn’t have a problem with it; he trusted Adrian implicitly, and had known that he had had trouble finding someone in the Empire. If this was what made him happy, Tomas had no problem with it. He knew that Adrian would always look out for the interests of the Empire.
Laura, on the other hand, was another story. Tomas glanced to the other side of the room, where Seo-yun was trying to calm Adrian’s adoptive mother down, unsuccessfully.
“I can’t believe he is going to stay there with that…that…I don’t know what she is!” Laura said as she frantically waved her arms around.
“Calm down, Laura,” Seo-yun said, trying to guide her to the couch.
“I haven’t even met her yet!” Laura said. “And she is…Urgh, I’m going to kill him.”
Tomas shook his head and tuned them out. Adrian had sent him a list of people who could replace him as Lord Sentinel, but he thought about whether he actually needed to replace him. A plan was forming in his head. He would need to get a few things together, but perhaps he could pull it off.
***
Shara Radum
Kar Daim Anessa sat on her throne looking over the room and the people gathered there, leaders of different systems that had arrived to Shara Radum to pledge their loyalty and seek favor. She was forced to sit and listen to their words of admiration and praise as each leader had a short time to greet her and pledge his loyalty. And this had been going on for days, as more and more of the people from the remote systems of Shara Daim arrived. Some came in person, other sent proxies, but for now, no one had refused to come.
Coming to see the new leader of Shara Daim was high on almost everyone’s list, but now they had one more reason to come and kneel before her. And that was to look at the person standing at the side of her throne and his two beasts that slept beneath her feet. Adrian stood wearing a white Shur At molded in the same style as Anessa’s, with blue strips falling from his hips matching hers. But the most important piece of gossip and rumors was the relationship between the two of them. Adrian now bore a white marking on the side of his neck, the exact same as the one she wore on the side of her neck, announcing to all that they were Dal A’sha—life partners.
It had made quite the stir that first day when Anessa had entered the throne room with Adrian and his two beasts following behind her, dressed in the Shur At and with both of their markings showing in plain sight. There had immediately been whispers, some outraged, some confused, others disgusted. But none dared say anything to either of them. They knew Anessa’s strength, and the word had spread about Adrian’s duel with Dai Sha Farran. And over the months, his presence had become a bit more accepted in the palace and on Shara Radum, as Anessa never went anywhere without him.
The people quickly realized that what they had once known abstractly, that the Humans, Nel, and Shara Daim were both created by the same person—with the same base DNA—was true. Havasse had been instrumental in the acceptance of Adrian and the other humans and Nel that now had an embassy on Shara Radum, mostly by interacting with them and being seen in public with them. It went a long way for the common people to start changing their views.
Adrian was now acting as the lead representative of the Empire to Shara Daim. And as he told her, he would be the ultimate commander of all forces that the Empire would send to aid Shara Daim, coordinating with her own in their efforts against the Erasi. But until his forces arrive there wasn’t really much for him to do.
She knew that there were people that disapproved, that found it abhorrent, but it didn’t bother her as long as they followed her lead. Most of her time was spent dealing with the demands of the various systems. The Elders had delegated that to other people, only stepping in when they wanted. Anessa wanted to be involved in as many things as possible. In public, she portrayed an image of a strong and ruthless leader, with Adrian walking beside her, never saying anything but making everyone uncomfortable and off their guard by his very presence.
Adrian had moved into her quarters along with the two beasts, Akash and Sora. It had been a challenge for her to accept that the two beasts were intelligent, that they could understand the spoken language, and an even greater challenge to accept that they had some Sha abilities—until they demonstrated their intelligence and Sha. Since then, she had grown accustomed to their presence, and almost understood why Adrian liked to have them follow him everywhere. They were large and imposing; it added to her image of the ruthless Kar Daim.
Then there was the AI that was somehow imbedded under Adrian’s skin, and the Empire’s implants. She had been wondering how the Empire’s technology worked if not by telepathic interfaces, but once she learned about their implant technology, it made sense. She never felt them use it because it wasn’t Sha, it was technology. The AI, Iris, was a bit harder to accept. The Shara Daim had AIs, but none of theirs were as advanced as Iris seemed to be. And she had been with Adrian for most of his life, always there, watching through his eyes. It was going to take some time to get used to that.
Adrian and Anessa spent most of their free private time talking about their lives, learning their respective histories, among other more enjoyable things. They had touched upon a few cultural conventions that were a bit hard for the other one to accept. For example, Shara Daim duels to the death. It seemed normal to her, and was a way to settle large grievances. In the Empire, there was nothing like that; they had something like duels, but it was much more controlled, and not to the death.
But in the end, those little things didn’t matter; they understood each other despite those differences. And that was all that mat
tered to her. She had struggled with her identity ever since she had taken the rule of the Shara Daim, but with Adrian, all her worries went away. She knew who she was, what her purpose was.
The Shara Daim had already begun the change. A lot of her people had wanted it for a long time but had been stuck in a belief of worship towards the Elders. Anessa had taken the Elders away from them; she had thrown change after change at them and forced them to accept them. The Shara Daim weren’t capable of changing easily and without bloodshed, she knew that. They liked fighting and killing. She needed to channel those desires into another direction, and right now that direction was the Erasi.
Adrian had told her that the Empire’s forces were on their way to Shara Radum, along with the first shipment of defensive platforms. And the two of them had started planning on how to best throw the Erasi out of the occupied Shara Daim systems. Once his forces arrive both of them would leave for the Erasi invaded sectors, and assume command directly. Already her decision to have him stay by her side had paid off. Adrian was a brilliant strategist, and she knew that together they would be a force to be reckoned with.
Epilogue
Shara Daim — Erasi border; Unknown system
The Empire’s stealth ship Scarab sat in the shadow of the moon orbiting the gas giant of the Erasi system. It had arrived there only two months ago, and per its orders had set up a monitoring grid across the system, watching and documenting every supply ship passing through the system on its way to the Erasi-controlled systems in the Shara Daim. This was the Empire’s part of the deal now that they were allied with the Shara Daim, as the Shara Daim didn’t use stealth ships. And the traffic in the system had been significant; large transport ships passed through regularly, and every now and then larger cargo ships that the Empire knew carried defense platforms headed for the systems the Erasi had taken and were now planning on holding.
There wasn’t much to do in the system; they were hidden both by their ship’s stealth and by the interference of the gas giant and the moon, getting the information about the system from stealth probes scattered across the system. The post was a boring one—until an unscheduled Erasi entry into the system.
The High Prime of the Scarab called her Ship Master immediately after they started receiving data from the probes.
“What do we have?” Ship Master Sshaat said as he walked into the command center on his six legs. His large Guxcacal body settled just behind his High Prime. The integration of the Erasi translators into the Empire’s implants had made it much easier to operate for those members of the Empire that had languages that were more difficult to speak.
“Hyperspace entries into the system. Erasi warship signatures, and a lot of them. They are still coming in,” High Prime Jaqueline said.
Ship Master Sshaat leaned and peered at the holo, looking at the ships dropping from hyperspace and moving deeper into the system. “Warships…must be reinforcements. But why are they using hyperspace? It would have been faster to go through trans-space,” Sshaat wondered. There were already thousands of warships, at least two fleets’ worth.
“I don’t know, Ship Master,” Jaqueline said.
They both settled and watched as ships kept coming, seemingly without end. Once the computer counted the ten thousandth ship, Sshaat clanked his upper claws together. “I guess that we know now why they didn’t use trans-space, they wouldn’t fit,” he said.
High Prime Jaqueline kept silent and watched as even more ships kept dropping out of hyperspace, the rate of them arriving actually increasing. Another half an hour later, there were around forty fleets assembled and moving deeper into the system, and still more ships kept coming. Then another hour later, the flow of ships started to ebb. Already there were close to one hundred fleets in the system. Jaqueline thought that it was over, when one more ship exited hyperspace.
The sensors immediately noticed the much larger signature, and both Sshaat and Jaqueline watched in disbelief as the computers calculated their size and generated a holo-image of the ship. It was shaped as an elongated saucer, but much larger than even the Erasi super battleships. The computers displayed the size; it stood at 8200 meters in length and 3200 meters in width. Their surfaces covered with weapons and hatches, it joined the fleets and started on a course towards one of the planets in system.
“We need to let the Fleet know,” Jaqueline said.
“Yes,” Sshaat agreed. They could send a message from here, but without comm relays, it would be months until it reached Sol. On the other hand, they could go in person, abandoning their post and getting there much sooner. Still, even going to Sol in person would be take too long; the Shara Daim territory was much closer. Although they were now allied, it was still very early, and going through their territory might be risky; there might be misunderstandings. Sshaat debated for only a moment. He knew a lot about the Shara Daim defending forces from the briefings, and their Har Aras sector was much closer than Sol. By the time he arrived, there might even be an Empire force there. He gave orders for the Scarab to make its way towards the hyperspace barrier.
The stealth ship used its gravity drives to slowly leave the orbit of the gas giant, and set a course in the opposite direction of the Erasi forces. Going as fast as possible without compromising their stealth, Sshaat didn’t want to use the skim drive and give them away. The fleets didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave for the Shara Daim territory, and he didn’t want them to change their plans if they suspected that their force had been detected. He had to warn the Empire that the Erasi were bringing another one hundred fleets against the Shara Daim.
The Scarab creeped across the system for half a day before it reached the hyperspace barrier, and then it slowly moved for another three days to put the Erasi force behind the system’s sun so that they couldn’t see the Scarab’s hyperspace entry. Once satisfied that the Erasi couldn’t see them, Ship Master Sshaat took the Scarab to hyperspace on its way to Shara Daim territory.
***
Hanaru’s taskforce exited trans-space and entered the Varat system. Immediately his ships detected the massive force gathered in the system. As soon as he saw that force, Hanaru felt a deep fear settle into his bones. The second wave of the Shara Daim invasion, waiting only on the last few supply ships before they started the next stage of the plan. It was an amazing force; one hundred Erasi fleets, enough to terrify anyone. But the force itself was not what made Hanaru feel terrified. Once he had reported his failure, he had been instructed to meet the force of the second wave for punishment. Now, upon seeing the the devastator warship, he understood what that punishment was.
Devastator warships were the pinnacle of Erasi military power, and had rarely been used. He remembered stories about them devastating entire solar systems all by themselves. But the true power wasn’t in the warships themselves; it was who commanded them. The Ancients, beings so old that they had seen entire civilizations rise from being primitive tool users to traveling through space. Tens of thousands of years old, they almost never left the core of the Erasi. The devastators were their flagships, their weapons, and Hanaru had never heard of one leaving the core, not in his lifetime at least.
As soon as his force was detected, Hanaru was ordered to come on board the devastator End of Hope. Hanaru couldn’t help but think about running away once he heard the name of the ship. Of all the devastators, that one was the most infamous. The one that had burned out seven suns in order to break the spirit of a race that had been at war with the Erasi, destroying entire solar systems and killing trillions. And its commander was one of the oldest living beings in the Erasi, an Uvaramo named Garash, but most commonly known as the Son of Carnage. He was one of the pivotal people in Erasi history, one of its founders.
Once, Garash’s people were called Loraru, and had been a part of a Union of species on the other side of the Galaxy. But their Union had been attacked by an unstoppable foe that slaughtered all in their way. He and a few others had escaped and had arrived at what was now the Era
si core. There they had encountered the Gatray and the Sorvani, and together the three races had used their superior technology to conquer everything in their vicinity and create the Erasi. And if any of the old stories were true, Garash was responsible for most of their military victories.
Several hours later, Hanaru was escorted through the corridors of the massive warship, and then led into the sanctum of the Ancient. He entered the room with dim lighting that all Uvaramo preferred and stopped after only several steps inside. He looked at the floor, and not at the back of the Ancient standing at the end of the room. Hanaru had trouble breathing; it was as if the very air around the Ancient was heavy and somehow opposed to Hanaru’s desire to breathe.
He stood there struggling with getting air into his lungs for what seemed like days, until the Ancient finally turned.
“Weaver Hanaru.” The Ancient’s voice boomed with such power through Hanaru’s mind that his vision darkened and blurred.
Hanaru kept his eyes on the floor as he struggled to keep his balance, and he answered, “Ancient one.”
“You have failed. You made an unauthorized decision that backfired. You might have just pushed this little Empire into an alliance with the Shara Daim. And that…is a complication,” Ancient Garash sent.