by Aer-ki Jyr
“There were no others specified in the data.”
The dragon’s eyes narrowed. “You recovered a planetary defense station.”
“Meaning what?”
“Do not try to hide it from me. I may not be able to access your mind, but I am not blind. Our data records are kept in few places, and knowledge of a rebellion would not have spread to a colony except through controlled channels. You discovered a planetary defense station and used your genetic legacy to access it.”
“Our data records?” Kara asked.
“You obviously haven’t studied them very closely,” the dragon said, a bit miffed. “We were part of the V’kit’no’sat until they turned on us. They eradicated our worlds and decreed that all must die, which is why I must know the name of your world. It is important.”
“That I can’t risk,” Kara said, feeling the gravity of the situation upon her. “I know the names of every race within the V’kit’no’sat. I have studied my enemy well, and your kind were never mentioned.”
The dragon’s nostrils flared with anger, but fortunately it wasn’t directed at Kara. “Killing our young is treason enough, but to rewrite history is beyond contempt.”
“Why did they turn on you?”
“Many reasons. Like your kind, we are not blood kin. We did not fully capitulate to the consensus during inception. We kept a portion of our identity intact, and that the others never forgave us for. The water dwellers never trusted those they could not control, and the smaller races relied on the elders to provide for them, so when it came time to make choices their voices were suppressed. We are Zak’de’ron first and always, V’kit’no’sat second. That was why they betrayed us, and that is why they will stop at nothing to hunt me down, so I ask again, Zen’zat, what world are you from?”
The headache returned a third time, as if the dragon were trying to reach into her memories without success. “Why does it matter? The V’kit’no’sat are no longer there or anywhere in the vicinity.”
“That is exactly why I need to know. From the size of the hole in their domain I can guestimate a sequence of events, but I must know where that hole is.”
Kara stared up at the huge beast, glad to have her helmet in between herself and its massive jaws, for it steadied her nerve a bit. “Tamprani.”
6
“Tamprani…” the dragon mewed. “But that is a region, not a world.”
“That’s as much as I’m going to give you.”
“Sufficient enough,” it decided, spinning around in place and giving Kara a good view of its long, muscular tail as it seemed to stretch out its various joints. “How long have I slept?”
“I have no idea,” Kara admitted, glancing at Kel’sad. “What have you done to him?” she repeated.
“His mind is not shielded as yours is. How long has your world been free?”
“Is he damaged?” she asked icily.
“He is paused,” the dragon said, staring the Human down. “How long?”
“About 100,000 years.”
Suddenly every fiber on the beast’s body tensed up, and for a moment it appeared that he had become as frozen as Kel’sad, then a low rumble sounded from his gut that quickly rose up to a screeching howl more terrifying than any sound Kara had ever heard.
When it ceased the dragon stamped its front legs down hard on the floor, looking severely stricken.
“Then I am the last of the Zak’de’ron,” it said, turning to face Kara again. “Zen’zat, I require your assistance.”
“How about you clue me in one what’s happening before you start asking favors.”
“Ask? You serve us, little one.”
“I said we were descended from Zen’zat, not that we are Zen’zat. We are Star Force, and we serve no one.”
“You serve their Alliance,” he said, gesturing towards the frozen Scionate.
“We work with them to counter a common foe.”
“Yes, these Cajdital, you call them. For such weaklings to dominate this area of the galaxy means the V’kit’no’sat must have suffered heavy losses, but still, we are not safe here. We must relocate, and for that I require your…help.”
“Oh, you’re asking now are you?”
“You have courage, little Star Force, but not wisdom. I could crush you easily.”
“And yet you seem to need my help for something. Odd how that works.”
The dragon huffed. “Your insolence is refreshing. Tell me, if the V’kit’no’sat come back to reclaim your world, what will you do?”
“Run,” Kara said without hesitation.
“You have already made plans.”
“Of course we have. We know their strength.”
“You do not, that I can assure you. If they seek it, they will destroy you no matter where you go, as they have destroyed us. If you are wise, you will abandon your world and flee to the edge of the galaxy, there they have no domain. Make yourself small and go unnoticed, for it is your only hope of survival…and the same is true for us, only greater so. You are insignificant to them, we are not. If they believe us dead then I have a chance to fulfill my mission, but I cannot remain here. I must flee as well, before they know to chase me. Do you understand this?”
“Who are you...to them?”
“A threat…one that they will not, cannot tolerate. For their treachery they know we will never forgive them, thus one of us must fall. They believe it to have been us, but here we survive, unknown to them. I can blanket the minds of the others, but yours I cannot. I must either kill or conscript you into silence, but given that we both will share the same fate if the V’kit’no’sat find us, I do not believe you are in a position to betray us to them.”
“You can erase their memories?” Kara asked, looking again at Kel’sad.
“Our power over the mind is formidable, even more so than the Oso’lon. It is one reason why they fear us so.”
“The Oso’lon have mind control?”
The dragon frowned, wrinkling its hairless eyebrows. “You do not know as much as I assumed. You must delve deeper into the information you possess if you seek to unlock their secrets.”
“We have been, but this is the first I’ve heard of any telepathy.”
“Their information systems are designed for use by those who already know, they do not teach as your Alliance does. Information is not given to those without the ability to use it, and those with the ability to use it will know how to find it. You must look deeper to find the answers you seek. Then, perhaps, you will recognize how hopeless your survival is on your native world.”
“They call you the ‘Keepers,’ why?”
“We conscript others into our civilization…something else that the V’kit’no’sat did not condone. Many of our conscripts referred to us as such amongst themselves.”
“You’re not conscripting us, I can promise you that.”
“We cannot, do you not see?” the dragon said, leaning closer with its long neck. “You are shielded from our power. The V’kit’no’sat changed the Ter’nat they recruited into Zen’zat so that none of us could manipulate you. You served us all, without bias. You were obedient, but independent. Zen’zat have no master, for the sake of all.”
Kara frowned inside her helmet, trying to make sense of this. “How many V’kit’no’sat races have telepathy?”
“All do. The Ter’nat do not because they are servants, but the Zen’zat were elevated to better serve. Your mind is blank to me, have you no skill?”
“Wait a second, you’re saying Zen’zat are also telepathic?”
“Much more than telepathic, though your ‘skill’ is impotent compared to ours. Your greatest asset is your shielding, but you should have some basic abilities. Zen’zat were forbidden from breeding so they could not pass them on to those who were unloyal. If your ancestors truly were Zen’zat, then you should possess the capability, no matter how many generations have passed.”
Suddenly all those episodes of X-files she used to watch started to
pop into Kara’s head. “Ok…did not know that. So you ‘keep’ races of your own, you’re telepathically stronger than the other races, you kind of do your own thing…so why did the others put up with you as long as they did?”
“It was we who put up with them…do you not know how the V’kit’no’sat began?”
“Oddly enough, that wasn’t foremost in the datab…in the records.”
“There is no need to try and deceive me, little one. You could not access the ‘records’ unless you possessed ambrosia, and in order to know how to make it you would need access to the factories that produced it. Those only existed in one place in the colonies. Tell me, is your defense station fully operational or was it damaged?”
“The Rit’ko’sor trashed everything else on the planet, then submerged it,” she admitted.
“It was on land then? They broke the water ponds?”
“Yes,” she said, feeling a little spooked by how much he knew.
“The armor on the defense stations is extremely difficult to damage…and even harder to build. They could not have destroyed it if they wished, because they did not possess the weapons strong enough to do so. There is a hierarchy amongst the V’kit’no’sat, with weapons and technology divvied out accordingly. The Rit’ko’sor are at the bottom, though their numbers are immense. That is why they were capable of rebellion.”
“If you have an intact defense station, which I’m assuming you do,” the dragon continued, “you should also have access to the information nets?”
“No, they went down shortly after the colony was abandoned.”
“The relays must have been destroyed then,” he mewed. “That means they truly have withdrawn from Tamprani…but then they’d have to in order to replace the Rit’ko’sor. Your scraps of a race may have more time than I originally assumed, but beware, they will return eventually to reclaim what they’ve lost. At present they are unable to do so, but once their numbers rise again they will push back out towards the rim.”
“Why?” Kara asked, glimpsing something more there. “Why haven’t they taken the rim already? You said it was beyond their domain earlier.”
“The V’kit’no’sat are bound to the core and expand when they can. Without sufficient strength the Hadarak will strike, as they always have, thus they are bound to the front.”
“What are the Hadarak?”
“A curse on the galaxy. Beasts without reason that live in deep gravity wells. They have the power to alter gravity and can use it to hurl themselves across the stars. They have no technology, all is biology for them, and it was for our mutual defense against them that we created the V’kit’no’sat to counter, much as you have done with your Alliance.”
“We?”
“You have not discovered even that much? You truly do not know who we are?”
“There is a race known as the Les’i’kron that is similar, but there was no mention of Zak’de’ron. Mark thought you were a race the V’kit’no’sat had in the database that was exterminated, but that was before we could see your wings. I don’t recall what they were, but they were not listed as part of the V’kit’no’sat.”
“Les’i’kron?” the dragon growled. “What do you know of them?”
“Not much. They’re flyers, built like you but with a shorter neck and a double blade on the tail. Inhabit the coreward planets mostly.”
“Vile betrayers!” he said, tilting his head towards the ceiling and eliciting a huge plume of what looked like plasma from its throat. The material of the ceiling partially melted, dropping in molten globs down to the ground, some of which hit the dragon and bounced off, cooling as they fell…though it didn’t seem to care.
Kara didn’t say anything for a few moments, and waited till he’d stopped torching the roof before asking her next question. “Not friends of yours I take it?”
“They are a perversion,” he said, pounding his forelegs into the ground again, which rattled the whole chamber, though the somewhat soft material dampened the vibration from traveling further out. “The blades you mention were a genetic upgrade the V’kit’no’sat tried to force upon us. We refused, as we refused most of their demands. Les’i’kron means ‘subjugated one’ in our native tongue,” he said before launching another plume of blue/white fire at the ceiling angrily.
“They didn’t kill you, they…”
“Corrupted them,” the dragon finished. “I am still the last of my kind, but the others live on as perversions. I swear on the pyres of my ancestors this heresy will not go unpunished!”
“Who controls the V’kit’no’sat? Which race is dominant?”
“In the beginning there were three,” he said, controlling his anger though it wouldn’t abate. “The ground dwellers were led by the Oso’lon, the water dwellers were led by the J’gar, and the air dwellers were led by us, though we also controlled many land dwelling races. We were the dominant of the three, and organized for adding many more secondary races to grow the strength of the V’kit’no’sat. As we fortified the core worlds the Hadarak were pushed back, contained to their gravity wells where we could not pursue. It is because of this the V’kit’no’sat cannot leave the core, nor can they leave it under-defended.”
“Why then did they betray you? That would cut into their strength greatly, I would assume.”
“Indeed it did, but the V’kit’no’sat grew beyond us. They developed a common culture, one which restricted and bound all together in common cause. We were too powerful to be coerced, and they resented that fact. All must yield to the V’kit’no’sat, or else must be destroyed…but you are also correct about their needing our strength, because it seems they recreated us as the Les’i’kron to fill the gap in their ranks. I require the information you have on them.”
“Thinking about a rescue? I thought you were running.”
“If they have done what I believe they have, then there is no one left to rescue…nor am I able, but I need to know exactly what they have done.”
“What are the eggs for?” Kara asked, pointing in the direction of the other chamber.
The dragon’s nostrils flared. “Have they come to harm?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but I didn’t take too close a look. What are they doing here? What are you doing here and what is this place? The Nestafar seem to want it pretty bad.”
“The Nestafar know nothing,” he said dismissively. “They foolishly seek to acquire technology they could never use. Given how we are pathetically lowered to equals in this circumstance, I will tell you why we are here, but the others will never know. That information cannot spread back to the V’kit’no’sat.”
“We know how to keep secrets, as you can imagine.”
The dragon huffed once, blowing out a few sparks. “You have not shared your find with the others in your little Alliance?”
“We have not shared that secret with our own people,” Kara countered. “Only a few know…those that can be trusted.”
“The Zen’zat were individually trained…though I would imagine yours reproduce wildly?”
“Unrestricted, if that’s what you mean.”
“Then most possess abilities they did not earn. For that alone the V’kit’no’sat will hunt you down and destroy you. Every last one. You will not be able to run far enough, nor fast enough, to stay ahead of them. Secrecy is your only hope, as was it ours. While we fought and distracted our former allies we sought to hurt them, delving deeply into the territory of those who dared to defy us, but they were united and we could not turn one against the other, for their fear of the collective was greater than their fear of us.”
“We knew that we were at a disadvantage, for their war caught us off guard. We did not share everything with the V’kit’no’sat, however, and our knowledge and power held them at bay for a time. Knowing that they would never let us live, we knew we either had to defeat them or escape them…so we planned for both.”
“I was entrusted with the escape, and with me a future generation. The onl
y way we could escape was to no longer exist, so here we disappeared. My mind could be detected from space, so I had to slumber in order to insure there was no chance of detection. The galaxy is far greater than you know, Zen’zat, and it is easy to hide when you know how. As good of hunters as the V’kit’no’sat are, the odds are always with the hunted due to the boundless playing field. Because of this I was able to slip away and remain safely here without their knowing.”
“Until when?”
“Until I am summoned by the victorious others…or until another has risen up to overcome the V’kit’no’sat. I do not believe the Rit’ko’sor have accomplished so much, but we can no longer stay here now that you have found us, and I would be a fool not to take advantage of our enemy’s temporary weakness.”
“Wait, how were you supposed to know if the V’kit’no’sat were defeated if you were sleeping here?”
“That is a secret I will keep, little one.”
“So this whole place is a storage facility for you and your eggs?”
“No, it is a repository of all that we are. A seed for us to regrow from. I contain the knowledge, this place contains the power. A power that the Nestafar will not gain…nor will your Alliance.”
“Fair enough, not that we need it anyway.”
The dragon huffed again. “The power stored here is greater than that which the V’kit’no’sat wielded at the time I began to sleep, and I highly doubt they could have attained it since. We know all that they know, but they do not know all that we know. We only shared part of our knowledge.”
“By knowledge you mean technology?”
“By that question, you demonstrate how little you know.”
Kara sighed. “If you can leave the planet, does that mean you have a ship down here too?”
“Your primitive base will remain intact. I will not remove it.”
“It won’t be our base for much longer, unless we can find a way to stop the Nestafar. I assume you can control their minds as well?”