by Ben Winston
Vance was nodding. "Once we get done with the Council stuff, I'll read the proclamation knighting you. Traditionally, the proclamation isn't official until the High Council physically bestows it upon you, but considering the situation we have found ourselves in, it was decided to at least inform you of the decision."
"I'd prefer to be called Eric or at the least Doctor Cowan; those, I'm at least used to! 'Lord' makes me sound so... I don't know... pompous?" I said.
"Are you trying to tell me I'm pompous then, Eric?" Vance said, but he was grinning to let me know he was teasing me.
"Indeed, I actually am pompous, yet I have no title other than Councilor," Corhen added, with a straight face.
I realized that they were teasing me right away. "But, you're Veranorian, Councilor, you're supposed to be pompous!"
She nodded. "That is true."
By now, the rest of the table was laughing, including the big Simonian Foreten Kree. When a Simonian laughs, their whole body gets into the act, and they need a lot of room. Luckily he'd pushed himself away from the table before completely losing it.
When the mirth finally died down to an acceptable level, and Foreten Kree was no longer in danger or needing to repair the Admiral’s office. I couldn't help but make a comment.
"You know, when I was first recruited and was moving up here, I was warned by Sarah, and later by others, that a strict adherence to formality and protocol was the norm in all situations here. Here, among all of you that have become my friends, it no longer seems as though such formality is important, yet we still retain the respect for the individual. I'm very pleased to see this, but I never believed it would happen."
Corhen replied before one of the others could. "Strict adherence to protocol has always been a hallmark of being Veranorian. Even among peers formality was strictly enforced. Yet in those situations, something was always missing. Before coming here, while among those of my last posting, formality was always the focus of any social gathering. Again, something was missing.
"With this group, I feel I can be less worried about formality. Among this group, titles do not have the importance, yet respect still remains. I dare say, even affection now plays a part. Others of my race that adhere to the protocols of formality would not have the level of trust I have for this group."
I nodded. "I call it friendship. This is what a group of real friends feels like. I do have to admit, that Matriarch Alyessa is new to us, but I feel she fits right in."
"Indeed she does," Foreten Kree replied. "By Nature, I feel my race is the more jovial, but I too feel a closeness to this group. Conversing with all of you gives me almost the same feeling as I feel when I complete a project. By allowing me to be included in this group, all of you inspire me to do more."
Corhen nodded. "That is what I was trying to say, thank you Master Kree. Now that I must join the Council on Novalus, I fear I will lose this feeling. I feel it has value, but yet I cannot quantify it."
"I must agree with Matriarch Nori, I feel as though I have found a group of friends though long lost, almost as though I have finally come home. If it falls to me to represent my people on the Council of the Alliance, I will do so because it is my duty, and I will miss all of you. However, I am gladdened that Matriarch Nori will be accompanying me. It will make this burden far less of a burden." Alyessa added.
At that moment, Sarah again materialized in the room. "Excuse me for interrupting, Lord Admiral, we are receiving a distress call from the Planet Veranor; it is under siege by the Aracnise Grand Hive."
Office of the Base Commander
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
It took a moment for what Sarah had said to sink in. A Core world was under attack by the Hive. Well, granted, it happened to be the core world that the hive actually existed on, but still it was a core world.
"Receiving civilian transmissions are you, AI Sarah?" Corhen asked.
"The signal is weak, Councilor, but I'll do what I can to improve it," Sarah replied and nodded to a flat monitor on one wall.
An image of the Veranorian city of Escaraport could be seen, and slowly the audio gained in volume for us to hear.
"...Transports are available at the spaceport to the north of the city. To these all citizens must report at once. Do not bring personal affects as space is an issue. Synod has ordered all ships to Novalus. Again, an order for general evacuation has been given. The Aracnise Grand Hive is on our world and is moving to this city. Reports from five cities are no longer being received, these are Cerbilax City, Shroudgard, Heaven's Reign and Brightly. Horde activity has been detected moving this direction. All citizens are to proceed with all haste to the spaceport. Transports are available and are filling up quickly. As they become available, more transports there will be."
The sound was muted, and Sarah turned back to Vance. "Lord Admiral, Rear Admiral H'sten is on the comm for you."
"Thank you Sarah, please put him through," Vance replied.
The screen on the wall split to make room for the image of a Novan Rear Admiral. "Lord Admiral Vance, I've ordered the fleet to drop out of hyperspace and set course for Veranor. Do you have any other orders before I make the jump?"
Vance was nodding his approval. "Nothing other than to be careful, and be leary of the Veranorians. Most of them are not our enemy, and have no idea what the Synod has been up to. Rescue what you can, but don't try to retake the planet."
"No offense Lord Admiral, but it is a core world, shouldn't we..."
"Admiral, Veranor is also the home world of the Grand Hive. I don't believe the entire fleet could retake that world at this point. All we can do is try to rescue as many civilians as we can. I wouldn't stick around either, we don't know what the hive is going to do now that the Veranorians are no longer controlling them," Vance explained.
"Blessed Maker! The Veranorians had them on their own world? How incredibly... "the man shook his head. "That's neither here nor there. We will do as you order, Lord Admiral, what should I do with the survivors?"
"The planetary civil defense network is telling them that they are going to be taken to Novalus. I'll give the First Admiral a call and see if he wants them there. Plan on taking them there for now, if that changes, I'll give you a call," Vance replied.
"Will do," H'sten replied nodding.
"Be careful and safe, H'sten," Vance said smiling at the man.
H'sten chuckled. "That wasn't in the job description I saw! I'll see you when I see you, Lord Admiral. Leave a light on for us."
"Lord Admiral, First Admiral Hearlis is on the comm," Sarah said as soon as the other channel closed she put Hearlis up in place of H'sten.
"Sir, H'sten is responding to the Veranorian distress call. He'll be dropping the survivors at Novalus before resuming his trip here," Vance said immediately.
"Understood, Vance. But you might want to tell him he's on a clock. Every Arac fleet we had been engaged with has packed up their toys and jumped away. All indications tell us they were heading deeper into Arac space, but that doesn't mean they can't change course. Hell, it's been long enough for most of them to have finished whatever it was they were doing and head for Veranor. No matter what, if an Arac fleet arrives at Veranor, they are to get their asses out of there. Under no circumstance are they to engage the Arac fleet. That game has changed completely, and we have no idea what the new rules are," Hearlis ordered.
"They are jumping right now, Admiral. I'll have Sarah send a hypercom message with your orders immediately though," Vance replied.
"That would be fine, Vance. Good luck, good work, and keep your head down out there," Hearlis said before disconnecting the call.
"Sarah?" Vance asked.
"Message sent, Sir," Sarah replied.
"Excellent, thank you." Vance scrubbed his face. "The First Admiral was right about one thing; this changes everything. From now on, we're going to be fighting a war against an enemy we've never seen before using
tactics we've never seen before. We're going to have to be ready for just about anything."
I cleared my throat. "Sir, just before you called us here, you put the base on yellow alert, can you tell us what's going on?"
"Yes, I was getting to that," he said, tiredly. "Earlier today, we received a message from one of AI Susan's clones that had been assigned to that big, heavily guarded research lab outside of their main city." He continued, telling the group about Susan12's last message. When he finished, he nodded to the muted monitor still displaying images from Veranor. "There is a good chance we are witnessing the aftermath of that event."
Corhen nodded. "Yes, the events on Veranor could very well have occurred as a result of the AI shutting down. Analyzed this data we must do, there is much we could learn, knowledge we may need very soon."
Alyessa nodded gravely. "I agree Matriarch Nori. The Aracnise under synod control were bad enough, but at least they had control. I fear what may be happening on our worlds at this moment. If the Synod were to lose control of those hives as well, it is likely that we Shallans may be all that remain."
I nodded. "Sarah, secondary protocol project; hack into Galtar system and discover the fate of the Shallan people."
"I will do what I can, Lord Cowan," Sarah replied. "However, there is a chance that Susan might have already done so. I will send her an inquiry before attempting entry."
"Good thinking," I nodded.
"Do we know what an infestation mission is, and do we know if it will proceed in light of the current situation?" Foreten Kree asked. "I would not like to see Earth under the dominance of the Hive."
"I wouldn't want to see any planet under the dominance of the Hive, my large friend," Ced replied.
"To answer your question, no, we don't know what an infestation mission is, or even what ships it will consist of. Nor do we know how it will attack," Vance said. "I wish I did, we would be able to create some kind of defense against it."
Sarah was still present since no one had dismissed her, and she suddenly looked scared. "I think we are about to find out, Sir. An Aracnise ship has just dropped out of hyperspace only nine hundred thousand klicks from the planet! It's heading for orbit Sir!"
High Earth Orbit
Planet Earth
Sol System
The Aracnise ship raced for the planet their Queen wanted to place a colony on. They knew that the humans on the planet and in the system would try to stop them, but they were determined to accomplish their task, no matter the cost.
The crew saw the human ships moving to stop them, to block the planet from them, but what they didn't know was that it was already too late. The seeding had already happened. This pass at the planet was a ruse; the pods carrying the eggs had already been launched, and would be entering the planet's atmosphere, unhindered, within minutes. Once those pods made it to the ground, it would be too late for anyone to do anything to stop the hive from forming.
The pods will land, the eggs will be removed from stasis, and hatch. The new queen and her small brood of attendants will then seek shelter in order to build a hive. Once a hive has been built, the planet would fall to the hive. Once an established hive was on a planet, there was nothing anyone could do to remove it, nothing.
The 'captain' of this ship watched as the small pods entered the atmosphere, but it lost sight of them as the ship fell under attack. The Human ships were still far out of range, so this must have been some kind of defense system attacking. In the end, it knew it would die, but that no longer mattered. It had accomplished its task; it had served its Queen well. That was all there was. This planet now belonged to the Hive. As the small ship began to break up from the missile impacts, the 'captain' once again tried to find the telltale trace of the descending pods. When it couldn't find them, it realized it didn't really matter, it had done what it was told, it had served its Queen well. This planet was hers, that's all that mattered.
Office of the Base Commander
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
"Well, the defense platforms got the ship just before it made orbit. So, I think we got them before any damage was done," Vance replied
Even though it was getting late, we were all still at the meeting. "That's not completely accurate, Lord Admiral," Sarah replied. "When it dropped out of hyperspace, it dislodged several small asteroids. A few of them followed the ship and were captured by the Earth's gravity well. As luck would have it, none of the strikes occurred in populated areas."
"That seems odd to me, how many asteroids are we talking about, Sarah?" I asked.
"Four with a possibility of a fifth, but indications are it burned up in the atmosphere. No strike was recorded along its projected path," she replied. Considering the angle of approach, and trajectory, it is entirely possible that these strike would not impact a populated area."
"Where did they hit?" I asked.
"By order of impact, Northwest Territories, Canada, North American Continent. Northeastern Siberia, Asian Continent. Southern Russia, near the Mongolian Border, Asian Continent. Jammu district, (disputed) Northeastern Pakistan. Middle-Eastern sub-continent. And finally in the Sahara Desert, Sudan, African Continent," she explained.
"Can you show us a hologram, Sarah?" Ced asked, interested.
"What is it you fear, Doctor Eric?" Alyessa asked.
"Forgive me, but when the Shallan worlds at Galtar were infested, did you know how it happened?" I asked.
"Not really, no, but it is assumed that infestation took place during the attacks we underwent. The strange thing about those was we didn't detect the arrival of any ships prior to the attack. Most of the records for the time were destroyed in the attack as well, so we have no hard data to analyze," Alyessa replied.
"Those were asteroids, Eric. It's not uncommon for this effect to happen when jumping into a system. In fact, it's one of the main reasons ships usually arrive outside the system, then move in at sublight speed," Vance replied.
"I know, but... It's just a gut feeling I guess. Maybe I'm just being paranoid because it's my planet. It's getting late, let's just got on with the meeting. Maybe, if I just ignore it, the feeling will go away," I said.
"Well the meeting is mostly over with, what I didn't get the chance to tell you about, you all learned of in more direct ways. So we might as well call it a night, and get some rest. Councilors, please let me know of your decisions as soon as you have answers, so I can inform the First Admiral," Vance said.
"If called to a higher station I am, then Lord Cowan takes my place, yes?" Corhen asked.
Vance nodded. "That would follow, yes. Besides, there really isn't anyone else I could name to the post is there?"
"No one else as qualified as Eric, however, that situation can be rectified if needed. There are a couple of others that could be brought up to speed to administer the department," Corhen replied. "The need for them is training," she looked at me. "This we must undertake beginning tomorrow."
"I agree, while I don't mind being your second, I'm afraid if I become department head, I won't have time for doing what I love anymore. If we can get one of the others trained, maybe I could just assist them much as I do for you. Although, I doubt anyone will be as good as an administrator as you have been," I replied.
Corhen nodded. "Time consuming is this position. Programming and leading are what you are best at. Perhaps we should consider a non-programmer to administer the department while you lead them."
"I have an assistant that would be perfect for that," Ced replied. "The man tries, he really does, and he does have the interest, but lacks the innate ability. However, I've had him handling the administrative parts of the fighter redesign project. That is finished now since the project has been handed off. I've been trying to think of something else I could assign him too. He's yours if you want him."
"The Simonian, Hopsis?" I asked. When Ced grinned and nodded, I jumped on it. "Hell yes! Even though he is probably th
e smallest Simonian I've ever met, he is an excellent administrator. He has enough interest in computers and technology to want to work with us. If it won't short you, Ced, I'd love to have him in my department!"
Ced grinned. "I'd like to keep him, but the fact of the matter is, he would do far better in the position you are planning. I'll let him know in the morning, and explain it to him."
"Hopsis is from a different ethnic group than most Simonians present on this base. Just as on your planet of Earth, you have different species of our lesser cousins. We do have an over all-blended society, however, in our distant past, there was much discrimination between the diverse ethnic groups, much like you have on Earth now. We worked past them, just as we see your brethren on the planet are doing," Foreten replied. "I do not know Hopsis well, but I have heard of his remarkable administrative abilities. He should serve you very well."
Vance nodded. "Great, I'll leave it to Councilor Nori and Lord Cowan to interview Hopsis with an eye to making him the Department administrator. Just let me know what you need when the time comes, and I'll make sure it happens.
"With that, we’ll adjourn, please pass the word to your peoples that as soon as I have more news about the council, I will put it out to them," Vance said. "Altuis Tenae, everyone. Until we meet again, may light and wisdom guide us."
I quickly said my good-byes to my friends and headed for my home. The incident of the seeding ship was still bothering me, and for some reason I couldn't shake it. "Sarah, the whole seeding ship thing is still bugging me. Is there any anomalous behavior in the asteroids or the ship?"
"I can do a frame by frame analysis of the video, if you would like, Eric. But other than that, no, everything that happened is perfectly in line with what should have happened, with one possible exception; the seeding ship did not try to evade the incoming warships. However, that could be explained by the fact that it would have beaten them to the planet, and it was simply trying to continue its original mission. We have to assume that the Aracs had no knowledge of the defensive systems we have built here," Sarah finished. "Can you tell me what part of this is bothering you the most? Perhaps I can do a more detailed search there?"