by Ivan Kal
“Fire k-turrets.” Just as the two ships were passing one another at a distance of no more than eight thousand kilometers, or about 26 light-milliseconds, the Jewel’s two k-turrets fired.
Massive kinetic shells left the Jewel as streaks of light. Traveling at one third the speed of light, the two shells struck the unprotected Erasi battleship. The result was spectacular; the ship tore apart as it broke into three pieces, with explosions throwing each of those pieces flying in different directions.
“How long until we can skim?” Vota asked.
“Twenty seconds, Ship Master,” the Navigation Handler said as he oriented the ship towards the course that would hopefully lead them through the Erasi ‘blockade.’ The two remaining battleships kept firing and speeding towards the Jewel, targeting their drives. By now, the Jewel was littered with gashes and scorch marks on its hull, and its drives had been reduced to almost half of their max output.
“We can skim on your command, Ship Master. I can’t guarantee that we will make it, but it’s the best path I could find.”
Vota closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Skim,” she ordered.
***
The Empire Sentinel ship Jewel powered up its skim drive, and two powerful fields sprang into existence, one in front of the ship and one behind it. A moment later, space bent around it and the ship entered the skim, traveling faster than the speed of light.
Several moments before, one of the remote-controlled cargo ships that the Erasi used to blockade the Empire’s ship changed course as per its programming. The sudden change in course put it in the path of the Empire’s ship that was traveling at amazing speed. The moment the Empire’s ship struck the cargo ship, the space nearby was filled with a bright light, and then an incredible explosion sent pieces of both ships flying in thousands of directions.
***
Every single ship or station in the orbit of Tarabat watched as the Empire’s Sentinel ship fought against the Erasi. They didn’t know the reasons as to why, but they all watched in awe as the Empire’s warship stood against three Erasi battleships. They watched as the Empire’s warship destroyed the Erasi battleship, and then it disappeared, its wake leaving one station without power for long enough that its power-core destabilized, blowing a ship-sized hole in its side. And then there was a bright light, followed by an explosion and a rain of debris that pelted the stations in orbit, killing thousands.
Interlude I
A long time ago
Axull Darr stood on a hover-plate and sped through the streets of the Enduring’s city. He guided the plate with his mind Sha, using the interface he himself had designed. The people walking on the streets looked at him with surprise and annoyance as he sped pass them; after all, no one was ever in a hurry among the People. Why rush somewhere when you had all eternity to get there? Axull disagreed with that mentality. Time was precious, and there were so many things to discover, to invent, or to learn.
Most of the people were perfectly fine with taking their time, contemplating on decisions and projects for years before they actually did something. Axull was not like them. He never stopped to contemplate as the rest of his people did. He jumped from project to project, always learning, always furthering his abilities. It was how he had risen so far for being so young. Axull was barely two hundred thousand years old, still in the first phase of his life, and yet he had achieved almost as much as a Grand Exatt, the oldest and the wisest of the People.
He finally reached the transport hub and found a free one. He entered and picked the symbol for the world-ship’s main landing bay. Immediately, the chamber started moving, guiding him through the air over the city and then into the wall on the other side. The trip didn’t take long, and soon enough he reached his destination. The iris opened and he guided his hover-plate out of the tube and into the bay.
Immediately, he noticed the newcomer, a shuttle with the markings of another world-ship. He approached the new shuttle just as a part of its side dissolved. Axull spotted his friend and raised his hand to wave. Waiss Gast, Axull Darr’s best friend, glanced in Axull’s direction and took to the air, flying over the people leaving the shuttle and those that were there to meet them.
Waiss landed in front of Axull with a big smile and reached over to give him a hug, nearly making Axull fall from the hover-plate.
“Axull, my friend, it has been too long,” Waiss Gast said.
“It has,” Axull agreed. He glanced behind his friend at the two large wings that were growing out of his back, and were in the process of being covered with Waiss’s Shur At. “Those are new,” he commented.
Waiss looked back excitedly. “Yes, I grew tired of having to use anti-grav harnesses all the time. So I had them grown. Most of the flesh is in fact a biological anti-grav, but the wings themselves can help with maneuvering.”
Axull nodded in understanding. He had already figured out that the wings by themselves wouldn’t be strong enough to make his friend fly. “Did you design them? Or did you model them on something?”
“I modeled them after the animal that I found while exploring a world in the Gatalax sector,” Waiss said proudly. Then he looked at Axull mischievously. “You want them?” he asked with a smile.
Axull returned the smile while he made a negative gesture with his hand. “No, thank you. I am perfectly comfortable with my own body.” Many of the People had taken to ‘improving’ themselves with genetic and physical alterations. Axull, on the other hand, had never had the desire to change the body he was born with. Aside from the reasonable genetic treatments, of course.
“So,” Axull said, “why are you here? I came here as soon as I heard that your world-ship reached us and that a shuttle was on its way.”
“What? You knew for certain that I would be here?” Waiss said grinningly.
Axull let out a chuckle. “As if you would miss seeing Ullax as quickly as possible.”
Waiss looked embarrassed, and Axull felt a bit bad at the jab. He knew how Waiss felt about his twin, and he also knew that his sister wasn’t interested. Not because she didn’t like Waiss, but because she was too busy with her work.
“Well…” Waiss started. “She is in some part why I am here.”
“She is?” Axull asked.
Then Waiss’s face cleared, and an expression of pride and exhilaration filled his expression. “We found one,” he said in a near whisper.
Axull’s eyes immediately widened. “What stage?”
“Just entering stage three,” Waiss said giddily.
“Are you certain that that is not an aberration?” Axull asked.
“We watched them for a long time, they are not an aberration.”
“I can’t believe it,” Axull Darr said in shock. “The first race of higher intelligence we have ever encountered.” He looked disbelievingly at his friend, and then his scientific mind took over and he launched into a series of questions. “Have you established a timeline? How do they compare on the it-scale? Wait, what do they look like?”
Waiss laughed and gestured for Axull to stop. “Slow down, there is time for all the questions and answers. I am here to recruit, actually; we need more people willing to spend large periods of time observing the lifeform, watching over them and doing tests.”
“I’m in!” Axull said immediately. A chance to study another intelligent life was something he couldn’t pass up.
“I knew you would be,” Waiss said, and then almost as an afterthought, he added, “I hoped that perhaps Ullax would be willing to come as well.”
Axull thought about it for a moment. “Her interests lie more in the mechanical arts,” Axull said, trying to prepare his best friend for a possible rejection.
“I know, we talked some time ago. Is she still stuck on the hive mind?” Waiss asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, perhaps she would like a change of pace; it might do her good to focus on something else for a time. She might even get an inspiration on how to solve her problem.”
>
Axull’s first instinct was to tell him that it was unlikely, but then he thought about it. His sister had been stuck on the same problem for a long time; a change of pace would do her good. “Alright, I’ll talk to her and try to convince her,” Axull said, but as soon as he saw the hopeful look Waiss gave him, he added, “But I don’t promise anything beyond that!”
“Of course, my friend.” Waiss gestured in the direction of the transport tubes. “Tell me what have you been up to lately?” And then as if he’d just noticed his hover-plate, he asked, “And what is that thing you are standing on?”
Axull laughed and pointed his hover-plate towards the transport tube.
Chapter Nine
July — Sol
“How long is it now?” Gotu, Administrator of Sol, asked Adjunct Larissa, who sat at the communications console in the Olympus Mons command center.
“Two hours past the second deadline,” Adjunct Larissa answered.
“And none of our communications are reaching Tarabat?”
“We don’t know if they are. It’s like they aren’t even there, our messages are just lost. All the relays in between Sol and Tarabat are functioning perfectly,” Larissa answered.
“Sentinel Aileen wouldn’t miss two deadlines, no matter what. In the worst case, she would send the Jewel with the message,” Gotu said mostly to himself. Then, after a moment of silence, he turned back to the adjunct. “Get me a channel to Fleet Commander Stern. Send it to my office.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gotu walked out of the command center and into his office. Once there, he took a seat at his holo-table and saw that a channel with the fleet was already on hold and he accepted it.
“Fleet Commander,” Gotu greeted once the hologram of Johanna Stern’s face appeared in front of him. “I apologize if I interrupted you, but there is a situation and I was hoping that you could help me.”
“Of course, Administrator, what can I help you with?” Fleet Commander Johanna Stern said. She and her fleet had been stationed at Sol ever since the Shara Daim attack, and aside from serving as a defense for Sol, they were tasked with patrolling this side of the Empire’s border.
“We have lost contact with Tarabat, and I was hoping that you can spare a ship to go and scout out the situation,” Gotu said.
“Do you have any idea what could’ve occurred?” Johanna asked.
“Speculation only, but the timing is suspicious. I have received a report from the Lord Sentinel in which he made me aware that Sentinel Aileen had been ordered to give an ultimatum to the Erasi. Either they commit fully to peace talks, or she leaves and the Empire’s forces join the Shara Daim,” Gotu said.
Johanna nodded in understanding. “You think that they have prevented her from leaving and sending a message to us.”
“Yes,” Gotu answered simply.
“I’ll send a ship, Administrator,” Johanna said.
“Thank you, Fleet Commander.”
“I’ll keep you posted,” the Fleet Commander said and closed the channel.
Gotu leaned back in his chair, relieved. He didn’t have any kind of jurisdiction over the Fleet Commander; she was Fleet and Gotu was from Warpath. The Sentinels were chosen from Warpath, but in truth they were separate from them. Gotu had worried that he would need to seek help from Warpath, which would’ve taken longer, but he should’ve known that the Fleet Commander would help. There wasn’t really any political maneuvering or bad relations between the many divisions of the Empire.
Gotu turned to his holo-table. There was nothing really that he could do until they learned what the situation at Tarabat was, so he brought a window with the next report from his queue and started reading.
***
Tarabat
Aileen and her people sat quietly inside a small four-by-four room. They were hiding in Narateth’s family home, or rather in its basement. Narateth’s race was called Jugat, and they weren’t a part of the Erasi. They did, however, live in its territory. They were a bipedal race that had two trunk-like appendages bellow their mouths, with two bulged eyes on the sides of their heads that made them have a sort of fish-like appearance. Their skin was thick and rough, usually gray in color. The Jugat survived by working as mediators, independent information brokers, or traders. Their kind didn’t have a homeworld or even territory; they lived in family units spread out over Erasi territory.
The Empire had been working with the Jugat ever since Aileen arrived on Tarabat, at first using them as guides, and later as their eyes and ears to the lesser races of the Erasi, those who didn’t have an official member status. The Jugat and the Empire worked well; the Empire paid them generously and they provided a loyal service. Now, on the other hand, they were hiding fugitives, and Aileen wasn’t sure how long the goodwill her people had made for themselves would hold.
A click at the doors startled Aileen and the rest, and all raised their weapons just as Narateth entered. “It’s only me.”
Aileen and the rest lowered their weapons, but didn’t really relax. Aileen stood and walked over to the alien. “Any news?”
“Communications outside of the system are still impossible. The Erasi insist that a hyperspace storm is over the system, which most believe is true. The news feeds are still looping the story that your ship attacked unprovoked, and that it means war between the Empire and the Erasi. The problem is that they are not allowing any ship to leave the system; they say that it is for our protection and that your ships could arrive at any moment. The merchant guilds that had been working with you are obviously not happy, and there are many that managed to hobble together the more true sequence of events; they know that Erasi warships fired first. But they still don’t want to speak out against the Erasi,” Narateth said.
Aileen grimaced. There was no way that her people could get out if the Erasi weren’t letting ships leave. She had entertained the idea of trying to get to Jurr on the other side of the planet, as she had no worry that he would be able to hide them more effectively, but it would be risky and, with no way of getting out of the system, not worth it.
“Are the Erasi looking for us?” Aileen asked.
“They are, although they don’t want anyone to know that they are. They told the public that you were on the ship when it exploded, but they are looking covertly,” Narateth said.
“Any chance that they allow ships out of the system anytime soon?” Aileen asked.
“Many are very vocal about not being able to leave, but in the end, no one wants to defy the Erasi. But if they don’t find you soon, they might allow it, if only to tempt you to try to escape.”
Aileen nodded. “Thank you, Narateth. The fact that you were willing to help us means a lot, and we will not forget it.”
“Of course. You have always dealt more than fairly with me and mine; this is the least we can do,” Narateth said, and then turned and left the room, closing the doors behind her.
Aileen only hoped that Narateth’s goodwill lasted long enough for her to figure out a way to escape, or at least send a message to Sol.
Chapter Ten
July; Year 58 of the Empire — Erasi border system
Garash finished reading the latest report from the Shara Daim territory, and shook his head in annoyance. He and Valanaru were in his command center on board the End of Hope as Garash made the final preparations for the fleet’s departure.
“This will be another inconvenience,” Valanaru said, concerning the report.
Garash glared at the Gatrey. “Their presence is inconsequential for my plans.”
“Did you forget who we are talking about? This is the greatest of their Dai Sha, who took the rule of the Shara Daim by force, and one of the Empire’s leaders, who defeated both our forces and hers. Do not underestimate them,” Valanaru warned.
“They are outnumbered, and the Empire’s troops will not engage ours until they exhaust all diplomatic avenues. And in any case, Hanaru will soon begin executing his orders, and that will take care of any i
nvolvement by the Empire,” Garash added.
“Those diplomatic avenues will close as soon as they realize that something is wrong on Tarabat,” Valanaru said.
“That incident works in our advantage; it will take time for them to check the situation out, and by then we will have already struck at the Shara Daim and Hanaru will have given the Empire other things to worry about,” Garash insisted.
“You, better than anyone, should understand that things don’t always work out the way we want them to, Son of Carnage. Different races react differently to threats,” Valanaru said evenly. “And the fact that the Kar Daim and her consort have moved to the front means that they will restart the offensive before our fleets can arrive. Unless you decide to split them up and send them through trans-space, we will arrive too late.”
“And you would counsel splitting my forces?” Garash asked. He had thought about it; it would mean that some elements of his fleet would arrive faster, but the limits on trans-space meant that he could only send a small portion of his fleet through and wait until the trans-route reopened to send another. And that made those smaller taskforces vulnerable to ambush by a superior number. Hyperspace might be a bit slower, but also allowed him to move his fleet in full force.
Valanaru made a show of pretending to think about it, but Garash had known the Weaver for a long time and could see right through her. “It is an option,” she started. “We could reinforce all the hub systems under our control faster, true, and we could probably fight of the Shara Daim counteroffensive. Then we could take time to decide how to proceed. But perhaps a small sacrifice could give us a larger reward.”
“I’m listening,” Garash said. He and Valanaru might not have agreed on many things, but in the end, they were both Erasi.