by T. R. Harris
This rapid expansion of the empire caused the Klin to be continually on the move, unable to put down roots for fear of being discovered by the Juireans. Yet the ultimate goal of the Klin at this time was to find a suitable hiding place well within the Expansion, a place where they could easily monitor the activities of their mortal enemy.
When they eventually stumbled upon the Elision stellar system, buried deep within the turmoil of the Juddle Nebula, the Klin knew they had found their perfect sanctuary.
A stellar nebulae is a violent and dangerous place. Ever-changing vagaries of gravity, matter, heat and deadly radiation made these regions of space a place to be avoided by most sane spacers, even the fearless explorers of the Expansion. Also, within these stellar birthing grounds, several generations of new-born stars could come and go within a billion years’ time, and the planets that formed around these young stars were often bombarded with so much left over stellar material during the brief time of their existence that life could seldom gain a foothold.
The star named Kyrils was an exception. It had burst into existence almost five billion years before near the outer edge of the nebulae, in a more stable region, and was able to clear out most of the rogue dust, rock and gas to form a fairly uniform planetary shield of thirteen worlds. Even though constant concussions from nearby stellar novae deformed the system in its early days, the system had survived, safe within a fairly dense cocoon of gas and dust, hidden well within the very confines of the Juddle Nebula.
Fifteen hundred years before, scouts from the surviving Klin had weaved their way through the maze of gravity eddies to discover the Kyrils system. Immediately, they saw it for what it was: the perfect place for their forward base deep within Juirean territory. There were even two worlds situated comfortably within the star’s habitable zone. One was called Olypon, and would serve well as the Klin’s base of operations. The other was called Eilsion by the race of Primes who dominated its landscape – a people called the Kracori.
Even though Eilsion was a rocky world, with a large molten core and a strong magnetic field, it still suffered from considerably more stellar radiation than did Olypon. The Kracori had evolved as an extremely tough race, with thick leathery skin that had turned a deep, ashen gray over the millennia. But there was another unique quality that set the Kracori apart from nearly every other race in the galaxy.
Eilsion was a heavy-gravity world. Ever since the Juireans had taken over the galaxy and set the surface gravity of Juir as the galactic standard, all worlds were compared against this measure. The home of the Kracori was rated at 1.28 that of standard. This was significant, but not unique. There are literally millions of planets with higher gravity than even Eilsion throughout the galaxy, yet what made the Kracori so unique is how they had adapted to it.
Most inhabitants of heavy-gravity worlds were thick, low-lying and bulky. Also, these creatures had very slow metabolisms, so their movements were sloth-like, almost like a world in slow-motion.
But not the Kracori; they were an active, strong race of beings, able to move within their environment at speeds comparable to those on lower-gravity worlds. The Klin, being as cerebral as they were, classified the Kracori as Prime-D, and they would remain the only race so classified for another thirteen hundred years – until the discovery of the Human race.
The Klin established a small colony on the neighboring world of Olypon and began to watch the Kracori as they developed their society. They also continued to be pushed further out from the heart of the galaxy. This was not a problem for the Klin. Over the millennia, they had learned not to concentrate their population in only one location, and by the time the Earth was discovered, the Klin had established three very distinct colonies.
The main base was on Olypon, and over the years, contact was made with the Kracori, who become willing and proficient manufacturers of the Klin technology. They built spaceships by the hundreds and enjoyed the benefits of all the wonders of Klin science.
A second base – a much smaller one – was located on the planet Glasien-4 in the Far Arm of the galaxy. It was from here that scouts first discovered the planet Earth, although the world had already been visited many times in past. These early visitors had been the frontier adventurers seeking freedom from the confines of the Juirean Expansion, and more often than not, slavers. Although the Humans were an exceptionally strong and durable race, perfect for the slave trade, they had proved to be almost impossible to contain and control. After several thousand years, only the most stubborn slavers continued to find new product among the Humans.
The Klin’s primary administration headquarters was located on the distant world of Marishal, far out near the galactic rim and out of the main gravity lanes. This was where the Pleabaens of Klin resided, the leaders of the race. Marishal was also the secondary manufacturing location for the Klin, although not nearly as extensive an operation as on Elision.
All three of these locations served the Klin well for over fifteen hundred years, primarily because of their isolation from the major deep-well gravity lanes.
The Klin had developed the gravity drive four thousand years earlier, just before the Juireans had attacked their world and killed off nearly ninety-nine percent of the population. Even though the Juireans called this event the Reckoning, the Klin word for the event more closely translated into Holocaust.
Gravity drives work by focusing dynamic-forces to create microscopic singularities in space. Since these miniature black holes were always created at the same distance from the generator, the motherships were already well within the event horizon of the singularity when it was created, thereby shielding the generating spaceships from the effects of relativity. As space would flow toward the singularity, the starships would move as well, requiring no additional energy to propel them forward.
But here is where the true genius of the gravity drive paid dividends. Since the effects of the singularity were felt in all directions around the central point, space on the opposite side of the generating spaceship was also drawn in, and when the singularity dissolved, space would rebound, propelling the starship several billions of kilometers from where it had originally created the singularity. Space travel was achieved through the constant creation and dissolving of hundreds of these tiny black holes along the line of travel.
Of course, as with any great scientific discovery, there were guidelines to be followed to achieve maximum results.
Gravity drives were constantly being affected by other gravity sources around them, such as stars, nebulae and even other black holes. One simply couldn’t plot a straight-line course through space. In addition, gravity drives were very temperamental with regard to the amount of matter available within a particular region of space. Too little matter and the critical mass for singularity generation could not be achieved. Too much and the amount of matter drawn toward the singularity would cause a rainstorm of deadly projectiles capable of ripping any starship to shreds. These large-mass singularities were also very unstable and hard to control.
For true deep-well generation, just the right mix of matter and void had to be found. This requirement restricted truly swift movement throughout the galaxy to a relatively few well-established gravity lanes. Here the large interstellar spacecraft could crank up their wells and travel at speeds of several hundred light years per standard hour. Using these lanes, a journey from the planet Earth to Juir for example – a distance of approximately twenty-thousand light years – could be achieved in just over under nine standard months.
However, for the majority of travel within the galaxy, these kinds of speeds could not be employed. Journey between relatively close star systems – as well as within the systems themselves – was reserved for shallow-well generation.
With so many competing gravity sources and ample clusters of matter in the form of dust and debris throughout the bulk of the galaxy, shallow-well speeds were greatly reduced, often down to only a few millions of kilometers per hour. It was like comparing atmospher
ic ramjet speeds to those of surface wheeled transport, and with those transports having to navigate down narrow streets and between buildings. These smaller spaceships could include within their engine rooms massive gravity generators capable of much higher speeds, but why would they? It would be like carrying a ramjet engine on the back of your wheeled transport, just in case one needed to jump a twenty kilometer-wide canyon at some point. It just wasn’t practical.
So the three worlds the Klin chose as their main sanctuaries were well-isolated from the major deep-well gravity lanes, and far enough from normal star-to-star trade that they remained hidden from most prying eyes for hundreds of years.
Four thousand years ago, at the time of the Reckoning, there had been approximately forty-eight thousand Klin living off-planet or on ships in space. The surviving Klin had run for their lives, moving from refuge to refuge as the Juireans expanded their empire. The Klin are very slow breeders, often not reaching physical maturity until after seventy-standard, so even in the present time, the descendants of these survivors still only numbered about two-hundred thousand adults.
The past two hundred years had been the most stable for the Klin, as the push by the Juireans to bring new members into their Expansion had subsided. The Juireans were now content to let new worlds approach them with requests for membership, often after these worlds had been exposed to the realities of galactic society by the frontier explorers.
It was also around this time that the Pleabaens of the Klin had first devised the current plan for revenge against the Juireans, the one that was rapidly falling apart – thanks to the Humans.
The Juireans had never been a very forward-looking race, and the recent evolution of their society had made them even less so. In the time before becoming a galactic power, the Juireans – as did most all races – mated in pairs and for long-term. As a result, the mothers and fathers of the offspring produced through these unions would have to consider the future and plan accordingly for the well-being of the children. Meanwhile, these offspring would plan for their own futures, including for families of their own.
When the Juireans switched to a more dispassionate means of reproduction and child-rearing, things began to change. Females become pregnant through artificial insemination and the children would be raised in government-run facilities. The needs of every Juirean were satisfied from cradle to grave, and with their life path predetermined at an early age as well. There was no need to plan for the future in Juirean society, since all decisions had already been made for them.
Early on in the history of the Juirean Empire, the need for military power had been great, yet as the years passed, the quest for more proficient administrators to manage all the gains the Juireans had already acquired began to take center-stage. The philosophy and organization of the Expansion also diminished the need for a large military, as growth was achieved by petition rather than conquest.
There was still a need for adequate military force in the outer limits of the Expansion, but within its core, the Juirean military was nearly obsolete. Where ten to twenty military vessels may be required to maintain control of an area such as the Fringe, one ship may do the job of patrolling a hundred worlds within the interior of the Expansion.
The Klin noticed this gradual change, and within it, an opportunity.
The Klin had always seen themselves as the true inheritors of the galaxy; the first race to contact other worlds within the Alliance Cluster and the inventors of the gravity drive. But now they were few and far between, with the Juireans the dominant force in the galaxy.
With time, the Klin knew the Juirean military would eventually vanish altogether, to be replaced by a much smaller police force limited to only local dispute resolution. Yet after four thousand years of waiting, they were desperately looking for a way to hasten that time….
The plan began to jell once the Earth was discovered by the Klin. Here was a race of extreme beings – extreme strength, extreme savagery, extreme capabilities – who were every bit a match for the Juireans. All they lacked was the technology to go up against the Juireans – as well as a reason.
A resource-draining war was all the Klin needed to reduce the Juireans to a level of military strength where they – along with their compliant Kracori – could make a move to supplant the Juireans as leaders of the galaxy. The plan had been perfection in its simplicity: The Humans would seek revenge against a race that had savagely attacked them, and the Juireans were gullible enough to see new threats where there were none.
But then it had all gone so terribly wrong.
The Humans had proved to be more proficient at war than even the Klin realized, as well as much more conniving and deceptive. And now the Kracori had revolted, commandeering hundreds of Klin spacecraft, along with the means to manufacture more.
The only race that had followed the plan precisely as the Klin had conceived it had been the Juireans.
Chapter 6
The same Juirean Guard commander in the yellow cape led the trio of Humans out of the massive pyramid building and to over to one of the adjacent towers. They took an elevator up several stories before being shown a spacious set of suites at the end of a long hallway. The Guard told them that the rest of the Humans would be joining them momentarily. He also informed them that armed guards would be stationed at the other end of the corridor near the elevators and that none of them would be allowed to leave unless ordered by higher authorities.
When the door to the suites closed, Sherri and Riyad set upon Adam with a combination of congratulations, thank you’s – as well as a few ‘what the hell just happened?’
“Most of it was just going with the flow,” he said to them. “When I found out they were planning on evacuating, I figured I had a little leverage.”
“But do you really think you can get the fleet to stop their attack?” Sherri asked as she poked her head inside several of the other rooms in the suite.
“I don’t really know, but it’s worth a try.”
Riyad had found the room’s beverage dispenser and already placed his finger into the sampling slot. In a moment, a cold drink appeared on the tray. “I wouldn’t,” he said after a long swallow from the glass. “We have all the power at this time. There would be nothing to stop us from laying waste to the entire region and crushing the Juireans – maybe forever. Like you said, Sherri: payback is a bitch.”
“But if the Juireans stop fighting, shouldn’t we?” Sherri asked as she sat down on a long sofa next to the room’s only window.
“Ask the families of the billion dead back on Earth—” Riyad caught himself suddenly as he saw Adam’s face blanch. “I am so sorry, my friend. I did not mean to be insensitive.”
“It’s cool,” Adam said, retrieving his own drink from the processor. “But we have to think of the bigger picture. If the war can end sooner rather than later, a lot of lives will be saved. Besides, the Juirean was right; they do have a lot more resources available. Any victory we would have now could be short-lived, and that would only mean more casualties down the road.”
“Granted,” Riyad said, “I’m just saying it could be difficult to convince the admirals not to attack.” And then he grinned wide, his eyes bright. “But after talking your way out of being flayed by that nasty-looking sword, I’m pretty sure if anyone could, it would be you!”
Just then a commotion was heard in the hallway outside the room; the door burst open and the rest of the Humans flowed in, along with Kaylor and Jym. Adam had been worried about the two aliens. The Juireans may not have considered them part of Adam’s entourage and simply had them eliminated. Probably more than anyone, he was relieved to see them come through the doorway.
Being the humble person that he was, Adam was content to let Sherri and Riyad explain what had just happened. The room was soon crowded with people who, a moment before, had been resigned to their fate and the next overwhelmed with relief at being spared.
Then Nigel McCarthy had to ruin the mood. “You know, if
Cain can’t convince the fleet to stop the attack, the bloody Juireans will just go ahead and kill us straight away. Why wouldn’t they? So at the most, we have another two months to sit around and worry about this. I for one don’t want to spend that time doing nothing.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Lt. Tobias spoke up. “Captain Cain has the Juireans working with us now. Let’s not do anything that will make them regret that decision.” There was chorus of agreement from Adam’s contingent; McCarthy’s men offered no opinion, at least verbally. Adam had to admit: McCarthy commanded a very-disciplined team.
Eventually, they all found separate rooms within the suite to claim; there weren’t enough total rooms for the seventeen of them to have separate quarters so everyone had to pair up. McCarthy and Thomas shared a room. The large Englishman fell heavily onto one of the two beds in the room, as Carter Thomas did the same, and within minutes, McCarthy could hear the contented snoring of the huge black man, enjoying the slumber of the recently pardoned.
McCarthy felt no such relief and so he found sleep elusive.
As he lay awake on the bed, a club-like arm resting across his forehead, he began to work through the consequences of Adam Cain’s actions. A truce between the Humans and Juireans would certainly come as a welcome relief to all the forces currently fighting, and a long-term, negotiated peace would be accepted back on Earth. But then where would that leave him?
Even though he had left the service of the Klin, he had not done so voluntarily. He had known what the Klin were all about, yet he still agreed to help them, and against his own people. The likes of Sherri Valentine would not let that rest. She would blab to anyone who would listen about his collusion with the enemy. And she wasn’t the only one. Yes, if he was ever to return to Earth, he would be summarily placed in shackles and charged with the highest of treason. He would undoubtedly become the face of the enemy – even worse than the Klin themselves – since he had turned against his own kind with full knowledge of the consequences. And in light of the deaths of a billion innocent souls, they wouldn’t be able to execute him enough.