The Exxar Chronicles: Book 03 - Acts of Peace and War

by Neal Jones

  This is a work of fiction. The characters and events described in this story are imaginary and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  ©2013 by Neal Jones

  "ACTS OF PEACE AND WAR"

  www.exxar1.com

  Other books by Neal Jones:

  The Exxar Chronicles:

  Volume 1:

  Book One: "The Erayan"

  Book Two: "Emissary"

  This one is for my Friday night gals:

  Jeni, Christy and Pat

  (P.S. Jeni, I managed to keep this one under 500 pages. High-five!)

  Foreword

  As always, thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you like it.

  I would also like to acknowledge all the usual suspects:

  My family – Grandpa and Grandma Birkey, Mom, Dad, Jeremy, Shannon, Chad, Rochelle, Caleb, and all my nieces and nephews. You all keep me moving forward in one way or another, and for that I am always grateful.

  Last – but definitely NOT least – I would like to thank Amazon. Without their self publishing program in the Kindle store, these books would be entertaining only me. Kindle Direct Publishing has been a godsend for independent authors such as myself who have been unable to find agents and publishers the traditional way. For that – and so much more – I am eternally grateful.

  Synopsis

  A year (ESC) has passed since Commodore Gabriel took command of Exxar-One, and much has happened since. Amidst the ever-tenuous political and cultural relations between the Interstellar Federation and the Chrisarii Alliance, a new round of peace talks is set to begin. While Gabriel is pleased to be reunited with Ambassador Zar, he and his crew must also deal with two mysteries:

  A Ralorian man is found dead in his quarters only hours after arriving on the station.

  Lieutenant Commander Garrett, chief engineer, has suddenly gone missing.

  Brantar Varis is asked by Lieutenant Commander Navarr to assist in the investigation of the Ralorian's death, and the case eventually leads J'Soran back to her homeworld where she uncovers a startling revelation about her mother and her past.

  Garrett – half human, half Mykahrian – finds himself on an unexpected journey to the alien empire that was his father's: the People's Union of Mykahr. The identity of his captors, as well as their motives for taking him, are unknown.

  Thalor Grax is paid a visit by an old friend who brings news of his sister's disappearance. He embarks on a mission to the Nevala sector to find her, only to come face to face with transgressions from his past.

  On the other side of the Nevala sector, in the Jha'Drok Emperium, Lord Emperor Erengaar Valayne has his hands full with more social and civil unrest among his people than ever before. His efforts to ease the turbulence among the member worlds, however, make him blind to the unrest that has spread to the members of his Imperial Senate. Meanwhile, Lady Princess Vatra Inehl and her son, Jharek, make a new home for themselves on J'Vel Sonri. The peaceful colony is far from homeworld – and the daily strife of the royal court. But Vatra knows that distance doesn't necessarily equal safety. Erengaar's motives for her arranged marriage to R'Daak are still unclear.

  And then there's the number of patients that begin flooding Exxar-One's ER and hospital, all exhibiting symptoms that don't match known diseases and that don't respond to standard treatments. As his marriage falls apart, Doctor Rosenberg must marshal every resource available in his medical labs to fight an outbreak of unknown origin.

  The daily chaos of life aboard Exxar-One is about to come to a perilous halt. . .

  Table of Contents

  Prologue 13

  Part One 37

  Chapter 1 38

  Chapter 2 57

  Chapter 3 76

  Chapter 4 95

  Chapter 5 117

  Chapter 6 146

  Chapter 7 163

  Part Two 185

  Chapter 8 186

  Chapter 9 209

  Chapter 10 231

  Chapter 11 251

  Chapter 12 274

  Chapter 13 294

  Chapter 14 316

  Part Three 336

  Chapter 15 337

  Chapter 16 358

  Chapter 17 378

  Chapter 18 399

  Chapter 19 418

  Chapter 20 437

  Epilogue 461

  Appendix 1 474

  Appendix 2 478

  Historical Note:

  Acts Of Peace And War takes place approximately six months (ESC) after the events of Emissary, a full year after The Erayan

  Previously, on The Exxar Chronicles . . .

  Starbase Exxar-One is a joint operation between the Chrisarii Alliance and the Interstellar Federation of Peace, a project that ensures the treaty of non-conflict will last until the Alliance can become a charter member of the Federation. However, the Haal'Chai, a group of renegade Chrisarii who are against the treaty, attacked Exxar-One a year ago in an effort to destroy the station and sabotage the peace. They failed.

  During the attack, Ambassador Taelon Zar's son, the station's chief of security, was killed. Commodore Marcus Gabriel was tortured by Colonel Serehl, the renegade fleet's commander, and Gabriel continued to suffer the physical and emotional aftereffects of that experience for several months.

  Six months ago, Major Kralin Saveck returned to the Chrisarii homeworld after receiving an urgent message from his estranged father. Kralin's mother, Jharis, was dying, and Kralin arrived in time to say goodbye. While there, he reconnected with some old friends, one of them named Inedra Bre'el. Kralin and Inedra shared a brief romance, and, before returning to Exxar-One, Kralin also reconnected with his father, Farak.

  On Exxar-One, Marc was reunited with his ex-fiancée, Doctor Laura Sysko, whom the commodore had not seen or spoken to in twenty-three years. With Laura was her daughter, Jeanette. Laura revealed to Marc that Jeanette was his daughter as well. Doctor Sysko is a senior director for the Anthro-Tech department of the Federation Corps of Engineers. After renewing her romance with Marc, she took a team to K'Ssala Ormmai, the planet where Ilkara was found and awakened, to study the Erayan technology left behind there.

  Ilkara, after a brief sojourn on the Federation capital world of Galadreon-253, returned to Exxar-One to further assist its crew with upgrading the station's technology in order to improve its defenses and other engineering needs. She was also granted ambassadorial status by the Office of First Contact and Interspecies Relations (OFCIR) since she is the only known surviving member of the long dead Erayan Empire. For that reason, it was requested by OFCIR that she remain on Exxar-One for the time being instead of accompanying Sysko's team to K'Ssala.

  Gabriel, under orders from Vice Admiral Hazen, dispatched Brantar Varis on a covert mission into Jha'Drok space to locate and investigate their Erayan hypergate. Varis and her team, which included Lieutenant Jeff Ritano and Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Michael Frakes, succeeded in finding the hypergate with the help of the Jha'Drok senator, Jolan Nejra. Jolan and his wife, Annaias, had defected from the Emperium shortly after Jolan sabotaged the hidden assault fleets that the Imperial Senate had been constructing for over a century. Those fleets were going to be used in a mass invasion of the Federation at the same time that that the Haal'Chai fleet attacked Exxar-One. Now, Jolan and his wife, after assisting Varis' team, requested to be left behind on a small colony world on the far edge of Emperium space. There they would be able to live the rest of their lives in safe hiding from the monarchy and the senate. Varis granted the request. Before departing the ship, however, Jolan told Varis of a mysterious pl
ague that is affecting over a third of each generation of Jha'Drok females. The plague, which renders its victims barren and unable to bear children, was first discovered over a century ago, and the senate – with the aid of the Talik'Jhor – have gone to extreme measures to keep the syndrome a secret from those outside the Emperium.

  On the Jha'Drok homeworld, Lady Princess Vatra Inehl found her position in the royal court – and that of her son, Jharek's – even more precarious than before her father's death. Her half-brother, Erengaar, the current lord emperor, has married a young woman named Larewyn Tannit, and she is pregnant with their firstborn. Erengaar arranged a marriage for his half-sister, and Vatra will be leaving the palace soon. Her future husband is a commandant of the 26th Legion, and his fleet is stationed in a sector on the far side of Emperium Space. Erengaar made it clear to Vatra that she is to be his spy, but exactly what – or whom – she is spying upon is unclear. Also, Erengaar revealed to Vatra that he knows that Jharek is his son.

  All over the Emperium – as well as in the Chrisarii Alliance – there is much political and civil unrest. The Chrisarii High Quorum, under the authority of High Chancellor Kroth, arranged a covert partnership between the Haal'Chai and the Jha'Drok resistance movement, which goes by the name "Shouk Drigald". Some months ago, the leader of the Haal'Chai, Alikk Vi'Sar, and the leader of the Drigald, Galoret Ain, met face to face in the Nevala Sector for the first time.

  On Exxar-One, new relationships were begun. Lieutenant Commander Navarr, chief of security, began dating Doctor Sam Eppler. Lieutenant Ritano and Sergeant Frakes began dating after returning to the station from their covert mission with Varis. Commodore Gabriel finally came to terms with his traumatic experience at the hands of Colonel Serehl, and he and Laura agreed to be married after Marc's current term of service is up in two years. He will retire and return to Mars with Laura. In the meantime, Jeanette has decided to remain on Exxar-One to get to know her father more.

  "...though some cast again

  (And by that destiny) to perform an act

  Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come,

  In yours and my discharge."

  -- William Shakespeare

  "The Tempest"

  Act 2, Scene 1

  Prologue

  ____________________

  ( 1 )

  LADY PRINCESS VATRA INEHL ADJUSTED her veil and examined the woman staring back at her in the holoscreen's reflective surface. A pair of handmaids hovered close by, one of them staring at Vatra with an unabashed expression of pride and rapture on her face. Vatra had never been as stern with her servants as her brother or father. She permitted her handmaids to look her in the face, to offer their opinions even when not directly asked, and to sit while in her presence. Vatra adjusted the veil once more, turning its silver crown just a hair's breadth to the right, and then smoothed out the silk skirt, allowing her fingers to linger on the shimmering gray fabric for several moments. She turned to the servant girls.

  "Well?"

  "You are truly a sight of beauty, m'lady," the older one said, smiling.

  The other girl was young, new to the palace, and she kept her face downcast while daring to glance up with her eyes at the lady princess. "Yes, m'lady," she echoed softly.

  "Thank you." Vatra smiled as well, but it was a tired, worn expression. She turned back to the holoscreen. "You may leave now. Go to the kitchen and fetch yourselves some breakfast."

  The girls bowed and then eagerly scurried from the bedchamber. Vatra sighed as she stared at her reflection, arranging her expression so as to hide her anxiety. She had slept little last night, tossing and turning in her large bed by herself, until she had finally summoned Druskk to her chamber. He was her favorite servant, pleasuring her in ways that no other man had ever been able to satisfy her, and when he was done she allowed him to remain in her bed until dawn. It was their last night together, after all, for R'Daak had been clear in his message to Vatra a month before. She would be allowed no servants of any kind on J'Vel Sonri, the private colony that was to be her new home.

  Vatra ran her fingers along the row of tiny, silver buttons that fastened her intricately patterned bodice, watching them catch the light in her reflection, winking like distant stars. Her wedding gown was made of Filarian silk, the finest – and rarest – cloth in the whole Emperium. It was so expensive that only royalty and the very wealthiest of the noble houses could afford it, and the long skirt rustled softly as Vatra moved to a nearby chair and sat. She gathered the equally long train and tucked it beneath her feet before reaching for her cup of tea.

  The cup had been sitting untouched for a long while, and Vatra forced herself to swallow the lukewarm beverage. She had added to it some krelian herbs that would calm her nerves, and she sat back, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. In less than hour she and Jharek would be transported to the Barvin district of Gtheldron, the Jha'Drok homeworld's capital city. That was where the Temple of Sh'allis was located, one of only four on the entire homeworld. Vatra had been surprised to learn that her new husband was a follower of the goddess Sh'alla, one of the more obscure and less worshiped deities from Jha'Drok history.

  The Sh'allanites were a small group, numbering less than a million followers in the whole empire, and Vatra had only heard it referenced once in her life. She'd accompanied her father on one of his tours of the homeworld, and they had passed through the Barvin district. It was one of the oldest sections of the city, and Vatra – who'd only been about five or six at the time – had turned to her father and asked what the large, plain gray building directly below them was. He had cast a disparaging glance at the silver dome and said with a sneer, "The Temple of Sh'allis. A waste of perfectly good space if I ever saw one." Now, thirty-three years later, Vatra was to be married in that 'waste of space'.

  She sighed once more as she tapped a command on her terminal to change the holoscreen display. A flourishing blue and green meadow beneath a purple sky replaced the reflection of her bedchamber. Vatra sipped the rest of her tea as she watched a firehawk dip and glide across the horizon, no doubt tracking a rodent in the meadow far below. She could almost feel the breeze from the bac'la trees at the far edge of the plain, and Vatra leaned back, closing her eyes once more. The herbs were finally taking effect, and she took another deep breath as her thoughts wandered to the images of J'Vel Sonri that she had downloaded to her terminal last week.

  J'Vel was a small planet in the Kelvana star system, on far edge of the Tasumlor sector, where the twenty-sixth legion was currently assigned. There was only one colony on the planet, and, according to the information R'Daak had supplied Vatra in his first official message to her four months ago, the current population was around seven thousand. Sonri's people were mostly the wives and children of the officers serving under R'Daak's command. It was against military regulations for soldiers' families to reside aboard Imperial Warships, so colonies like J'Vel Sonri were common throughout the Emperium. The images that Prokal had included with his message showed the colony itself to be a lovely city, situated at the foothills of a towering mountain range that stretched for at least a hundred miles. On the other side of the city was a wide river that tumbled out of the mountains and flowed all the way to the coast, some three hundred miles away. The climate was temperate, since the part of the continent on which Sonri was located was near the planet's equator. Prokal's message ended with a warning to Vatra to pack light, summer clothing. The humidity on the surface of J'Vel, particularly near the equator, could be quite high for those who weren't used to such climates.

  A boy's eager shout interrupted Vatra's reverie, and she opened her eyes. Her twelve year old son, Jharek bounded into the outer room, nearly tripping over his new shoes.

  "Mother!"

  "I'm in here, Jhar, there's no need to shout."

  "Sorry." He appeared at the door to her chamber, tugging at his waistcoat and adjusting the high collar of his dress shirt. "May I come in?"

  "Yes." Vatra sat up. "Come o
ver here. Let me have a look at you."

  "I don't like this coat. And my shoes are too big."

  "Your shoes are fine. Stand up straight, stop fidgeting." She smiled as she straightened his jacket and pulled up his pants. "Tighten your belt some more."

  Jharek obeyed, scowling. "There. It's the last notch. Why couldn't we just get me some new pants?"

  "You should have told me two weeks ago that these were too big. There's no time now to get a new pair." She smoothed his hair away from his forehead and adjusted the ceremonial sash. "Good. Now stand back and let me look at you. Stop fidgeting!"

  Vatra swallowed the lump in her throat as she gazed upon her handsome son. He had grown another three inches in the last few weeks, and his face was starting to lose the soft angles of boyhood. In another couple years, he would be almost as tall as his mother, and she smiled as she gazed into eyes that were so much like her late husband's.

  "Your father would be very proud to see you today, Jhar," she managed, swallowing again.

  "Oh, mother, you're not going to start crying again, are you?"

  Vatra laughed and wiped her eyes. "Of course not. I wouldn't dream of embarrassing you. Now help me stand up."

  Jharek stretched out both hands, and, once she was on her feet, Vatra switched the holoscreen back to its reflective display. She stood behind Jharek, her hands resting on his shoulders. "What do you think?" she asked quietly.