[“I wonder if the Kuth are planning to remain in that system on a full time basis,”] speculated Noah with obvious interest. [“The existence of the quashing weapon makes their own star VERY vulnerable… I don’t think they would put all of their eggs in one basket unless they had no other choice.”]
[“Whatever we may think of their aggressive nature, the Kuth are certainly persistent,”] pointed out Dr. Simmons. [“Just look at how long this war has been taking place… more than forty-six THOUSAND years. That’s a long time to spend hauling troops and ships across a vast void between universes and a demonstration of almost uncanny patience. We have seen no obvious signs that their manipulation of the human clans has in any way been limited. With total control of the war, they can afford to take their time.”]
[“Everything makes sense now,”] Adam blurted out suddenly, the final pieces of the mysterious puzzle all falling into place. [“The Caucus has always been nothing if not overconfident. That’s why the discovery of an alien ship – the Pathfinder – must have really rattled them when they first encountered us ten years ago. We severely damaged their attack shuttles and the larger warship, but some of the visual records along with witnesses talking about our capabilities must have survived. The possibility of an outside threat has panicked the Kuth leadership, which is why they immediately accelerated their clan war and are systematically removing everyone but the Yakiir. Who knows, once the Yakiir are the only humans left they might also be eliminated. But the Caucus obviously is scared of us and what we might do.”]
[“That star system would have been a perfect home base for them on a long term basis if we hadn’t shown up,”] agreed Kaufield. [“The non-stop warring on the part of the humans has created a huge, interacting series of nebulae that completely shrouds them from outside prying eyes. Further, with adequate detection systems on dead worlds and moons, along with regular ship patrols, they can see an enemy coming long before there would be a chance to strike at their new home worlds.”]
[“We’ve certainly caught them with a hand in the proverbial cookie jar,”] Thomas noted triumphantly. [“That means that we must choose to act now and attack while all of their foothold resources are still primarily in a single star system. If they aren’t already moving planets out of here to other solar systems, I guarantee you that particular item has been moved to the very top of their ‘to do’ list!”]
[“No Thomas, we CAN’T simply attack on the spur of the moment,”] Adam protested immediately. [“This is exactly the kind of thing David warned me about… why he told me to weigh carefully what we do before we sacrifice billions of living beings. There has to be a better way to deal with this than just attacking. For instance, if we do choose to attack, who do we go after? The Kuth or the Yakiir?”]
[“Well, I’d start with the Kuth,”] proposed Thomas boldly. [“They’re the main problem.”]
[“They’re trying to SAVE their people,”] Adam bluntly reminded him. [“Their technology is significantly more primitive when compared to ours, so they’ve done the best they can with what they have. I understand that this is primarily a perspective thing… yes, the way they’re going about this is completely atrocious, but in their eyes they are acting to save their entire species… perhaps thousands of species if they’re bringing whole planets over from their side.”]
[“They’re also stealing other planets from this galaxy and killing off fully usable stars,”] Thomas pointed out. [“Saving their species is a very diplomatic way of describing what they have done.”]
In the end, it was his wife who kept her head the clearest of them all. [“Adam,”] she asked him suddenly. [“WHO is David?”]
[“It’s a very long story,”] he told her with a heavy sigh. [“Suffice it to say that someone even Noah’s people can’t track has made contact with us and strongly suggested that we have at least SOME compassion for the Kuth, even after everything they’re responsible for here in the Wasteland.”]
[“I will upload a copy of Adam’s first contact report to the Science Lab back on Tranquility,”] promised Kaufield instantly. [“When we’re done here, everyone can access it and provide feedback.”] He paused for an instant, and for the first time since the extremely long distance discussion began no one jumped into the mix. [“We’ll figure out something,”] he told them all confidently. [“Adam has obtained more information on what’s happening here in the small span of two weeks than we ever could have hoped for. We will figure out a way to stop the warring in this spiral arm and give the humans who live here a chance to live in peace. Let’s all take a long look at Thomas’ new data regarding the foothold system and then we’ll all put our heads together and come up with a plan.”]
One by one, his friends dropped out of the link, all except for Karen Simmons. It was, after all, her turn to be his Sentinel for another few hours.
*
An hour later, Adam invited Kra Wonin to stop by for a brief chat. The Yakiir squadron commander paused at the entrance to the small cabin, smiling at its simple nature and lack of ornate furnishings. “Are you making yourself comfortable out here amongst the rank and file, Captain?” he asked with a light chuckle. Folding his arms, the massive, broad-chested Wasteland soldier simply stood there, towering over him as he sat on the edge of the cot. “Sooner or later, someone still loyal to the Kuth Caucus might try and take a shot at you.”
“That is one of the reasons I have chosen to stay here for now,” admitted Adam somewhat reluctantly. “I like to leave the temptation to do so open, just in case there are still hidden operatives among us.”
Kra Wonin, like his counterpart Snee Vasten, was a trained warrior and easily able to single out the motives of others. If you weren’t able to think tactically in a war zone, life was usually short. “What can I do for you Captain?” he asked politely.
“I was on my way up to see Snee Vasten, but I think you can help me too,” he responded, studying Wonin’s square-jawed expression carefully. “We’ve located a major foothold star system, probably THE central home base of the Caucus. The solar system has been artificially constructed over the passage of hundreds of centuries, with at least four hundred habitable planets orbiting the central star.” Wonin reacted instantly, raising an eyebrow at the unexpected revelation, something Adam picked up on immediately. “You know about this?”
“I… suspected.” Wonin glanced down at the metal floor plating to gather his thoughts before continuing. “Many of us who have spent time on a home world have wondered over the years. Whenever I looked into the sky at night, there were often far too many objects nearby to simply be moons. Those of us who have spent time traveling out among the stars are fully aware that only the largest gas giants usually have so many satellites. What you say makes complete sense to me… I know people who have spent time on a variety of other Yakiir home worlds. Who is to say that those worlds are orbiting different stars?” He looked up sharply. “Is that why you asked me here… what you wanted to know?”
Adam nodded. “Primarily, but I also need your help with something.”
“What?” Kra Wonin asked curiously. “Ask me. I will assist you with anything.”
Rising to his feet, Adam took a deep breath before continuing. “When we’re ready, we are about to use the Pathfinder’s long range PTP system to transit both of our vessels closer to this foothold system so that we can get a better look at it with all of our resources. We’re even considering launching an attack on the Caucus.”
“That will be difficult with only two capital ships.”
“Difficult is not impossible, especially when we have a leading edge with our technology,” replied Adam confidently. “You have no idea just how far above the Kuth some of my allies are in terms of evolution and technology. We can bring a fight to their doorstep if the need arises, but what I would like to do is make a serious effort to minimize bloodshed… particularly where your people are concerned. It is my opinion that they’ve already sacrificed far too much fighting the Kuth’s war
s over the centuries.”
“Quite obviously I would agree with you in that regard, Captain.”
“So here is what I’m asking,” continued Adam tenaciously. “When we arrive in the vicinity of that solar system, I am told that there are literally thousands of ships there… warships, cargo carriers, supply vessels, fighters, shuttles… you name it… it’s there!” He handed Kra Wonin a small handheld computer with several computer files on it. “My brother has tapped into their communications network, and this is a list of all of the vessels – both Yakiir and Kuth. Please review this list thoroughly.”
“And then?”
“And then I’m hoping that you know some of the officers on those other ships, people that are trustworthy. If we contact them covertly, we can make a serious effort to determine just how many Yakiir people are still living on those home worlds. I need to know that in order to adjust our battle plan so that casualties are minimized. Sooner or later there is going to be a shooting war and I would rather not fire on Yakiir vessels or home worlds where there are major concentrations of humans. Ali Rinai told me, right before she died, that she was once a permanent resident on her planet. She thinks that she fell out of favor and that’s why she ended up aboard this ship serving on the frontier. I am suspicious in that regard, because the Kuth have been steadily escalating the war in recent years in an effort to finish off the other clans completely. I think they may be deliberately moving people off of your home worlds just to get rid of them. If that is the case, it would be nice to know how many humans are still on those planets, and there is only one way I can think of for us to quickly make that determination. We need to contact people you know for more information.”
“They may be suspicious of me. The Caucus may also be monitoring them. I would be surprised if they weren’t doing so.”
“We’ll tap into their shipboard communications and find a frequency that the Kuth know nothing about,” Adam promised him. “I’d like to try and speak with people on one or more of those planets too, but if we send any signals through that system they will surely be detected. Local, ship-to-ship communications will be much easier to conceal, especially if we use our invisible Canary probes as relays.” He sized up Kra Wonin cautiously. “Will you help me?”
“Of course, Captain.”
Adam smiled proudly. “Then we’re one step closer to driving the Kuth out of the Wasteland permanently.”
They had to use his implant to induce sleep once again so that he could get a few hours of rest. Like his brother, he was simply too excited to relax enough to fall asleep on his own with so much new information available and events happening at so swift a pace. I just hope we don’t let David down, he thought silently to himself. He’s absolutely right about the notion of killing on such a massive scale. The Kuth can commit those kinds of atrocities and live with what they’ve done, but WE can’t.
That was the last thought he remembered right before drifting off.
PROJECT WASTELAND
Pathfinder Series: Book Two
Chapter XVI: The Calm Before The Storm
Aboard the Ali Rinai…
Despite his discomfort throughout the many events comprising Caucus initiation, the toughest experience in Bok’s life by far proved to be the bridge crossing. He had studied the concept during his years of service to the Caucus and, on occasion, actually been in space and witnessed a convoy of ships making its way through one of the wormholes. The departure from one universe into an entirely new one was an intriguing concept, especially since the boundaries of their own time and space never seemed to end. The Kuth possessed enough rudimentary skills to build telescopes, of course, but nothing on the scale of anything that the humans created. The few who were curious enough to look could see very far out into the void with their crude inventions, but never to the outer edge.
Granted, their universe was significantly older and therefore larger, but they still lacked the motivation to make the effort to see farther. Their astronomy was limited primarily to what they experienced while traveling out in space, to objects that they could reach in ships and physically examine with their own eyes. The Kuth didn’t waste time refining the things that they built or on attempts to hone them in any way, shape or function. Tools and technology were blunt objects to them, things that could be used to make life easier but not something worthy of wasting a lot of time on. Science was simply another way to get things done, proving more often than not to be the career choice of those who did not yearn to be more.
When the ship he was on passed through a faintly flickering wormhole bridge, the first thing Bok noticed was that the trip on this particular occasion was not instantaneous. The standard, ‘bright flash of light and you’re there’ model did not apply, and the lack of even the sense of time passing was itself extremely disturbing. Truthfully, he did not know exactly how long it actually took for his vessel to reach the other side and emerge, unharmed, in the new universe. All he remembered was an interminably long, discomforting blackness that never seemed to end, along with the sound of his mind screaming in angry response to a nothingness that seemed impossible to fill. His body physically passed through the void between universes, he finally realized a few months later. Whatever it was that existed beyond the outer boundaries of his realm remained forever unknown to him… all that he could recall in the later days was a strong memory of an experience that proved to be extremely unpleasant and nearly unbearable.
Once he was on the other side, Bok spent the next several decades faithfully serving the Caucus and attending to its needs. That meant going where he was assigned, doing what he was told to and generally asking as few questions as possible. Most of the time, his skills were used for stealth and assassination, sometimes he was asked to kill humans while on other occasions a very powerful Caucus member would recruit him to eliminate one or more Kuth. Usually when he killed members of his own race, the targets were one or more other operatives in service who grew too powerful and thus overly ambitious as a consequence. This proved to be a learning experience for Bok as well as a life lesson – the Kuth running the central government respected patience, obedience and seniority. Only those who served the longest and most reliably would ever ascend to the upper ranks of leadership. These were strange concepts that the younger, more ambitious recruits found very difficult to accept. Business was business, and the greater good would be served through obedience.
Bok never killed anyone for personal pleasure, although he did relish the taste of human blood whenever he availed himself of the opportunity to allow it to run freely down his throat. On one occasion, during the night shift aboard a warship, he reverted to his normal appearance and terrorized several crewmen walking down a corridor. They fled in the other direction but ended up trapped by a dead end, standing helplessly waiting to die. When he rounded the corner to greet them, Bok once again wore his human disguise and simply looked at the soldiers as though they had lost their minds. But that kind of terror on the part of the Kuth, deliberately sprinkled randomly here and there, kept the Yakiir humans totally subservient. The stories that those who caught an occasional glimpse of their true appearance ended up telling others about ‘demons hiding among us’ served well to stir the pot of total obedience.
His assignment to leave the foothold system and serve on the frontier began after a strange encounter with an alien ship. Most of the covert operatives like himself had been allowed to view the recordings of the strange vessel that briefly visited the Wasteland. It was a huge starship, carefully designed and constructed by loving hands and aesthetically designed in a manner that was utterly alien to the Kuth. They did take careful note, however, of the weaponry deployed against their own ships during the brief engagement – fighters and shuttles with huge rail guns that completely obliterated the approaching Yakiir attack force. There were also missiles fired that automatically adjusted course to follow and destroy even the most talented fighter pilots, those who were best trained in the tactics of evasion. An
d yet these types of smart weapons alone were not what frightened the Caucus leaders most. It was the strange new power source that dangled from the bottom of the alien vessel, burning brightly in space as it generated unimaginable power. This proved to be the deciding factor in the leadership’s sudden change in tactics.
For countless centuries the Kuth had destroyed stars in order to generate the vast quantity of energy needed to power their bridge technology, and yet suddenly there was this new vessel moving around in the Wasteland… a ship filled with aliens who had somehow managed to create their OWN artificial star. Initially, even the most paranoid Kuth scientists wouldn’t have given the Controlled Artificial Singularity a second look. And yet someone on the enemy starship had maneuvered the flexible wand and used that hot, burning spark of fire to retaliate against a shuttle filled to the brim with Yakiir soldiers. Somehow the enemy simply dragged the burning tip of their tiny star across the bottom of that shuttle and nearly sliced it in half.
Lengthwise.
Even the most conservative estimates placed the electrical output of the CAS singularity almost beyond comprehension. It would have to be extremely powerful in order to cut so easily through forged metal and the prospect of someone other than the Kuth developing something like that was extremely disquieting to say the least. Perhaps this wasn’t a power source, reasoned a few scientists, doing their best to be objective. But if that were true, then something even MORE powerful inside the alien starship was generating it! All of the best analysts agreed that the strange ship from another star was probably an exploration vessel, given the fact that its military forces had remained dormant until attacked.
And yet already this strange new power source had proven to give the aliens a clear military advantage. The prospect of someone actually weaponizing such a power source was a vision so devastating that many in the Caucus leadership began having nightmarish visions about what would happen to their Grand Plan. For over forty-six millennia they had labored tirelessly to bring everything valuable that they could across the bridge between universes. Now some unknown alien race had discovered what they were doing and traveled to this fourth spiral arm to investigate matters further.
The Pathfinder Trilogy Page 72