by Aer-ki Jyr
The trailblazer looked at the one that was the source of the tickle and decided to return the favor, hacking into its mind and essentially taking it by the telepathic throat. The tickle in his mind vanished, and the Dsevmat was froze in place as its body no longer responded to its own impulses.
The others sensed the assault taking place and responded instinctually, trying at first to get to Roger then wisely abandoning that idea when they couldn’t reach past his permanent Ikrid block and instead hacked into their fellow snake and fought Roger through him. That made it harder for the Archon to maintain his grip, but even with them stacking their telepathic power against him it was still no contest. They might possess some psionics, but theirs were nowhere near as advanced as the V’kit’no’sat package.
Wanting to make a quick statement he let them try and remove him from the other’s mind, then after giving them a taste of failure sent out a Fornax sphere that dropped all of them to the ground like limp ropes. When he did he let go of the Dsevmat’s mind, then let them shake off the temporary effect and try to figure out what had just happened.
“Do not try and enter my mind,” Roger warned. “And do not do so in retaliation for me simply showing you the truth. That’s rude. If I’m wrong feel free to point out where and in detail, but you know you won’t be able to. What I’ve said may infuriate you but it also smacks of truth and you know it. I can sense it in you without even entering your minds.”
Just then the doorway melted open and more snakes rushed in, apparently having felt the telepathic scuffle, but one of them wasn’t focused on Roger and instead headed directly for the Dsevmat that had first tried to get inside the Human’s head.
There was a scuffle between them, all telepathic, and Roger quietly tapped in to see what was going on but without enough of a presence for them to notice. The one who had rushed in was ship’s security and he was reviewing the recent memories, confirming the attempted invasion of the Human’s mind.
“How dare you shame us in this manner,” it said aloud, the first words spoken by the Dsevmat in some time. “This one is a guest and here at our request. Be gone,” it demanded, telepathically pointing towards the door and telekinetically shoving its head in that direction none too gently. The snake didn’t stick around to argue and slithered away, but it was spouting a considerable amount of telepathic noise in the process, all of which was in its native language that Roger couldn’t understand, but then again some sentiments were universal and didn’t require translating, with this one being the equivalent of a middle finger back at the Human.
“Our deepest apologies,” the security snake said, throwing discontent at the others nearby for their part in the scrap. “We do not normally behave in such a manner, though your skills are clearly sufficient to defend yourself.”
“They are,” Roger agreed.
The snake twitched it head slightly, sending a telepathic nod of respect along with it. “I do not care what the guest has said. You will retreat him with respect. Is that understood?”
The telepathic boom on that last word was so forceful that even Roger got a bit prickly from it, and it had the effect of subduing the others instantly.
“I know what he has said and the affront it carries, but if there is even the slightest truth in it we must know, for if there is it would shame us all. Ask your questions of him, ask many questions, but do not turn away from this and do not disrespect him again. He is a guest and I should not have to remind you as to what that means.”
With that the security snake left the room along with his escorts, his task apparently done, leaving Roger with the others and another long, awkward pause before one of them spoke.
“Explain the H’bat’i further.”
Roger telepathically told one of his assistants which files to bring up, then pointed to an unrelated report that he’d found when digging through commerce records.
“Prior to the Nexus’s interest in them, the races that the H’bat’i conquered has some contact with your economic community through third parties. The data is piecemeal but I’ve gathered enough scraps to suggest that several of the conquered races were themselves predatory, with the others being a mix of the needy and primitive. Comparing those states with those in the reconnaissance reports indicates that the tech level of the conquered races and their living standards rose after annexation, and rose considerably for some.”
“Now that typically does not occur when one is subjugated by a hostile entity. Another point is the population statistics. In nearly all cases they rose, with one that I have been unable to confirm for lack of initial numbers. There were no massive purges that diminished the local populations down to ‘manageable’ numbers, and the number of overseers in the most recent reports show that they would be incapable of suppressing an uprising. This suggests a partnership of some sort rather than brute force control.”
“A broken slave is often compliant,” Hameen commented.
“Yes, which is why I went further in my analysis and searched the current infrastructure. Even with broken slaves there must be some measure of control in place, even if it is not used. I found none other than a light military force, and those were arrayed as defensive guards at the H’bat’i outposts instead of in the population centers. However the H’bat’i took possession of the annexed worlds, even if it was through war, I believe the current inhabitants are not at odds with them given the lack of societal controls. The H’bat’i may be in charge, but it’s not by means of any leash that I can detect.”
From there on Roger explained in detail each step of his logical progression which invariably came to his final conclusion. The Dsevmat, after their initial backlash, probed him with more and more questions trying to poke holes in his theory, for which the trailblazer schooled them on each one. They stayed at it for hours, but in the end they were forced to reluctantly accept the truth that was being explained to them.
And with that they were gone, sending Roger back via pod and leaving a massive slew of cargo containers drifting in space without even bothering to tell Star Force what was inside them. It took a while to unload them before they jumped out, so Roger was able to have his own people there to stabilize and receive the ‘bounty’ for him completing the challenge, but he didn’t know what was inside until they tried to move them.
A few of the giant boxes were so massive that there was really only one thing they could contain and Roger was eager to open them up to confirm it. The others massed less and were still a mystery, but once all of them were moved over to the nearest station with sufficient hangar space they were floated inside and positioned on the deck with the AG slowly cranking up to normal and settling them in place.
The armored Archon was out with the techs as they figured out that there was no opening mechanism for the boxes, rather just a containment sheath that had to be cut through. The futuristic equivalent of cardboard didn’t take long to peel off and reveal the perfectly smooth cubes of a greenish metal that was instantly recognizable as corovon in its pure form.
Roger whistled within his helmet, then pulled it off with a click and looked along with the deck chief at the lowest cube that stood more than a meter tall, with this crate/box being some 16 meters high and 28 meters long. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
“I don’t believe what I’m seeing,” the tech said wide eyed. “That can’t be corovon.”
“I’m pretty sure it is.”
“Not that much. That’s gotta be more than we mine in, what, a decade?”
“You underestimate how much we bring in, but you’re right about this not being any small amount…and there are four more crates as massive as this one.”
“What the hell is this for? You give them a star system or something?”
“I answered a question,” Roger said simply, reaching out and tapping the lowest cube in the stack with his armored finger.
“Must have been a hell of a question.”
“Let’s see what else they gave us,” Roger
said, curious, as he started walking over towards one of the ‘light’ ones. It took a few minutes to get the sheath torn off, but before they did it began spilling out clear orbs like raindrops, with each being the size of croquet balls and none the less hard.
“I got it,” Roger said, telekinetically catching a lot of them and holding the dam in place so more wouldn’t flow out. “We need collection bins.”
“I’ll have some cargo crates brought over,” the tech said, glancing at the motionless Archon. “How long can you hold those?”
“Not very…they’re heavy too.”
“Right…clear the area,” he told one of his subordinates before making a comm call to someone else. A few minutes later some car-sized, open-topped crates were flown up on anti-grav and Roger let the top portion of the load spill out into it, though he had to guide the flow and that further added to his mental fatigue. He only had so much Lachka energy in his reserves, but he managed to hold it together until the top portion of the box emptied and he was able to finally let go.
“Find a better way to get the rest out,” he said, walking over and picking up one of the orbs and looking it over.
“I don’t recognize it,” the tech commented after some confused looks from Roger.
“Neither do I, but I think the orb is a carrying case for those particles in the center.”
“I thought it was an integrated component.”
“Whatever it is, get them collected and out of their original containers.”
“Will do, but we’ll need a lot more crates shipped in. We don’t get a lot of call for them in a warehouse, odd as that sounds.”
“Because everything is already shipped in one.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll find you some more. Don’t open too many more boxes until we get them, all the way at least.”
“You going to peek inside?”
“Are you kidding, this might as well be Christmas.”
“What’s that?”
Roger glanced at him. “Sorry, figured you were older. It was a holiday where you got presents.”
“What for?”
“No reason, you just got them on that day.”
“Sounds odd. I thought holidays were for parties.”
“Both in some cases.”
“How can you get a present without a reason? That makes no sense.”
“Just one of those cultural quirks that got lost with time,” Roger said, walking over to another unopened box. “But come Christmas morning you felt something like this.”
“But you earned these?”
Roger laughed. “Never mind. If you didn’t live through that era you wouldn’t understand.”
“Guess not, but I understand this,” he said, stepping onto a mobile lift and heading up to the top with Roger and a cutting team. “Surprise boxes.”
“That’s pretty much what Christmas was,” the trailblazer said, waiting for them to tear the top corner off. When they did his jaw dropped as he smelled the contents. They were tropical, almost fruity but with a very metallic/coppery scent that was hard to explain but impossible to forget.
The tech reached into the packing material and pulled out a small cube. “Heavy sucker,” he said, handing it to Roger.
“Damn,” he said, taking another sniff.
“What is it?”
“Take a whiff.”
“I can already smell it. Strong stuff.”
“That’s a scent you will never forget…and this,” he said, holding the cube between them, “is a raw arc element.”
The tech pointed towards it reverently. “You mean this…”
“Yep,” he said, glancing at the packing material that held many more of the tiny cubes in regal fashion.
“Holy shit. What the hell was that question you answered?”
“Something important…that I hope they learn a lesson from.”
“Expensive lesson.”
Roger’s expression dimmed just a touch as his mind flicked back to the Dsevmat/H’bat’i battle.
“Very.”
9
February 3, 2659
Fvatt System (lizard territory)
Kri’mas
The Hycre scout ship sat in orbit along with the rest of the debris fields that had once been their orbital infrastructure, ships, and even the hulks of their attackers. All still floated mostly where they had been when the Hycre had been forced to evacuate the system, and other than a few reconnaissance probes thrown into the mix there was nothing functioning or alive here, from either race.
Those probes were short range, meaning that a lizard ship would have to come through the system to pick up their records of activity, from which the Hycre there had been none for the past 164 years. After the lizards had completed their destruction of everything they could find they’d apparently been satisfied and left, given that there were no habitable worlds available for them to colonize. The gas giant of Kri’mas was still inhospitable to them, and other than deposing the Hycre, they seemed not to care about the system at all.
The scout ship had come ahead to survey the location for a second time so that when the colonization fleet arrived they could have a sitrep available immediately to them. The small Hycre vessel was transmitting it continuously, and once the fleet learned that there was no enemy presence to contend with they jumped out from the star and began to litter orbit with all manner of ships, including a warfleet composed entirely of Shaven.
Some of them immediately began to focus their attention on the debris, clearing it away and opening up the sections of orbit that were tagged as restricted travel zones. They’d want those back after they got the system in working order, for several of them crossed over major jumplines out from the planet during various times in the planet’s cyclical revolution. Meanwhile other ships headed down into the thick atmosphere of the planet, slowly descending further and further in altitude until they found the clusters that had been hidden there long ago.
To their relief their hails were acknowledged and docking instructions were given, with the tightly packed work crews and colonists crossing over into the Hycre equivalent of cities and meeting up with the denizens who had volunteered to stay behind and maintain them in the depths where the enemy could not go. Only a few had remained, with some having died in the interim, but their preservation mission had been a success and the clusters hadn’t fallen into disarray and sank to the planet’s core or floated up to the detection range of the lizards.
They got a welcome committee quickly as the crews moved in and began to bring the clusters back to life, feeding them fuel and other supplies as they gradually increased their elevation and brought the clusters back to their preferred depth. Dozens of them rose up across the planet, giving the Hycre an infrastructure base that they would not have to rebuild and the ability to start producing auxiliary equipment that would enable the planet to return to self-sufficiency on a remarkably short timetable.
Those who had cared for and maintained the clusters in their ‘stored’ mode had been living off of a modicum of supplies that they were able to produce for themselves along with the reserves that had been left in the cluster. Those were near depletion and the caretakers partially malnourished, but most had survived and would have continued to go on doing so indefinitely if needed. They were greeted and welcomed back into Hycre society as heroes as the floating clusters came back to life and the population of the planet suddenly jumped by some 200,000%.
The lizard probes were found and destroyed, but eventually one of their ships would come around to find the planet back in Hycre possession, sitting in the middle of lizard territory as many current and former Hycre worlds were, but that was part of the plan set forth by Star Force. The Hycre had always intended to come back and reclaim their dormant worlds, else they wouldn’t have left people behind to maintain their most valuable infrastructure, but now they were doing so both to retake what had once been theirs and to put pressure on the lizards.
‘Pre
ssure’ was the key focus of the overall battle plan against their common enemy, with the Human warlord Paul having insisted that they make the lizards play defense rather than dictate when and where the fighting would occur. Star Force was hitting, probing, and confusing the lizards on multiple fronts, as were the Voku and Protovic, with the Hycre’s contribution being the reclamation of their old worlds. The lizards would have to choose who to push back against, all the while funneling most of their reinforcements towards the Skarron front whose level of fighting was beyond anything the Hycre had seen before.
They were continually scouting the regions surrounding the ADZ and others, including the ever moving Skarron/lizard border, and while they suspected there were a lot of conflicts they were missing out on, those they were quietly monitoring and recording were beyond vicious. The lizards had finally found an enemy that they couldn’t overwhelm with sheer numbers and the amount of ships both sides were deploying into the war, and subsequently losing, was staggering.
Knowing this Star Force and the Hycre’s other allies were committed to pushing back on multiple fronts, not in any big way, but enough to pressure and test the lizards to see how much they could or would defend. Already there were gains being made and worlds retaken, but some were drawing large responses while others were not. One didn’t know when and where the lizards would strike back, but for the first time the Alliance was getting a few easy wins in.
The Hycre didn’t know if/when the lizards would hit them back, or maybe because they couldn’t use the gas giants for their own purposes they wouldn’t bother trying this time around. Regardless, the Hycre now had enough Shaven, their line of ships that included the tech gifts from Star Force, to defend themselves against the lizards short of their enemy throwing the hammer down at them…and currently that hammer was being occupied by larger targets.