by Luigi Robles
Maeera’s enthusiasm began to plummet, as she suspected that there was something else behind her sudden elevation in rank. Rage began to take over.
As the elders came out from the temple, she tried to brush aside her feelings. She needed to focus.
“We gather here,” Thromos said with a grandiose tone as he spread out his arms, “to elevate a brave Acram warrior to the highest of the ranks.”
Maeera bowed her head.
“But first,” Thromos said, his voice now flat, “there is an important matter to discuss. It is early to award you the rank of Noble, but a special assignment should more than make up for it. That’s if you can pull it off.”
I knew it, I knew there was something else, Maeera thought as she attempted to control her temper. But there is nothing I can do, nothing I should do. These are our great elders, the ones who know best, the ones who are leading us to victory. Perhaps, there being something else might make me all the more special. Whatever they ask from me, I will do it. No matter what it is, I will not taint the Noble name.
“There’s a Noble amongst the Golden Armada who concerns us,” Irah said. “We suspect this Noble has gone insane with power and is no longer fit to be the highest of the Nobles. If you should find the slightest hint of betrayal towards us, kill him where he stands. If you should accept this, we will proceed with the ceremony.”
“I accept it with great honor,” Maeera said as she stooped to the floor.
“Perhaps someday you will take his place,” Thromos said. “Let the Noble ceremony begin.”
10
The Builders
It had been two days since the Ochilenes rescue, and things had slowed down a bit for Fain on board Sodenia. There was no rescue in progress, no aliens attacking Earth, and no end of the world crisis, at least in the next hour or two.
Fain wanted to clear his mind, perhaps even to feel normal again, before entering another meeting with the Ochilenes, and there was nothing better to make you forget reality than a good old book. In this case, he was reading Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card. He read while lying on the bed in his quarters. He had read this book several times before, and he didn’t mind reading it once more. He had always admired how close the author had gotten to the actual reality of how things in space would be.
With hot coffee and some kind of cinnamon cookie, he devoured the book, turning page after page with the same enthusiasm as the first one.
It’s hard to find good sci-fi books nowadays, Fain thought as he read. Authors often prefer to write about the past instead of the future, since we are in the future and all that crap. If only the old great authors had known what kind of mess we’d be in.
When he finished the book, he placed the closed book on the edge of his desk and leaned back against the office chair, escaping reality for just a few more minutes.
“No sense in prolonging the inevitable,” Fain murmured as he got up from his chair and stretched.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to feel his body and mind. Fain often did this when he needed to bring out the best in himself. And a meeting with an alien civilization demanded that much at least.
The meeting with the Ochilenes was an open meeting, for anyone on board to attend, although the room they were in could hold no more than eleven people. However, this would be the first fully coherent meeting they would have with the Ochilenes. Prior to this meeting, they had only managed to be conscious for mere minutes at a time. But thanks to Kya and Pycca’s hard work in collaboration with the Ochilenes, they had managed to make the room where the aliens stayed comfortable enough. As of last night, the Ochilenes were able to remain awake and alert for long periods of time.
Fain wanted to meet with the flight crew before the meeting; he wanted to know what they thought. No, not what they thought. Rather, he needed their advice.
“Kya, patch me through to LEPA,” Fain said through his wristband. “LEPA” was an acronym for Larissa, Eora, Pycca, and August that Fain had made up in the moment.
“Right away,” Kya said. “Line opened.”
He was surprised that Kya didn’t hesitate to connect him with them even though he had just made the acronym up. Either she knows me well, or she is beyond smart, Fain thought. Or both. It could also be that the acronym is quite obvious. After all, I do communicate with them the most often.
“Can you meet me at the bridge?” Fain asked.
“I’m already here,” August said.
“I’m on my way,” Larissa said.
“Going up now,” Eora said.
“I’ll be there soon,” Pycca said.
Fain made his way to the bridge. He took his time, but not too long, to get there. He gave himself just enough time to have a few extra thoughts.
At least now we know that we are not alone in the universe, Fain thought. That’s for sure. But what are we going to do now? Should we just blindly follow? What if that’s not the right thing to do? What if being their allies will actually hurt us instead of helping us? But if we don’t follow, we might just be hurting ourselves.
Ugh, what a mess we are in. We need to make sure that whatever we do follows the natural course for humanity and that the Ochilenes are only aiding our efforts. It needs to make sense for us to go along with anything they say. We shouldn’t take any more blind leaps. We need to find out everything we can about them. But at the same time, I need to be more positive. There’s still a chance we can face whatever is coming and survive. Even if the outcome looks infinitesimally small, there’s still a chance. I need to keep hold of that feeling, no matter the cost.
As he walked onto the bridge, LEPA were already waiting for him by the center console.
“Officer on deck,” Larissa yelled and saluted as Fain entered the room.
The twenty or so flight crew members on the bridge got up from their consoles and saluted. This was the one thing Fain hated about being captain, as he always felt he didn’t deserve such a title. In his heart, he was only a pilot.
“At ease,” Fain said, half-saluting back.
Everyone immediately returned to their consoles, except for LEPA.
“Took you long enough,” August said with a half-smile on his face. “Captain.”
“Just wanted to make sure you were all here,” Fain said as he neared the center console.
“So, what can we do for you?” August asked.
“It’s about the meeting with the Ochilenes,” Fain said. “Green and Truman will be joining us, and this is the first time that we’ll have a heading on what to do next. What I wanted to get from each one of you is just that: can we trust them? Better yet, should we?”
“I don’t see why not,” August said. “I mean, they came this far just to help us. Are we just not going to trust them?”
“No,” Larissa said. “It’s much more complicated than that.”
“How so?” August asked.
“We don’t know for sure what happened,” Larissa said. “And chances are that we won’t know for sure until the Golden Armada shows up, if it shows up.”
“Wait,” August said. “Are you saying they could be a part of the Acram subspecies?”
“No,” Larissa said. “I wouldn’t go as far as that. But if they hadn’t shown up, we would never have known about them or the Acram’s Armada. In our minds, it was all over.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Fain said as he crossed his arms. “Kya knew about the Armada threat from the Herrion archives. Granted, it was only after she was prompted to look for it by the Ochilenes ship.”
“So,” Eora said, “what you’re saying is that them being here changes things. And we don’t know if it’s good or bad. Plainly said, we don’t know if their presence here is good for us or not.”
“Last I heard,” Pycca said, “they escaped a world that was just about to become a subspecies of the Acram. They had ships on their tail, and they came here to Earth. Sounds like they are bringing the fight to us once again. Without them, the
Acram wouldn’t have visited Earth again until one or ten or one hundred years from now. Now, they are sure to come sooner.”
“Oh, I get it,” August said. “But if the Golden Armada is real, and if the Acram are the conquerors of the galaxy, then they would show up at our door regardless. And who can say whether, if we were given a little extra time, we would be ready for them or not.”
“You have a point,” Fain said. “The question is, what would we have done without the Ochilenes coming here?”
“ESAF would have gained control once again,” Larissa said. “Eventually. The world would have voted to move forward with the strengthening of Earth’s defenses, probably. Build more ships, perhaps a shield or two, and heavily armed solar system outposts. But how soon would we have gotten there?”
Everyone turned to look at Pycca.
“I’m not sure,” Pycca said. “It depends on the size of the ships, and there’s a lot we still don’t understand about Sodenia. But say that we figured it out as we built a replica. Given the sheer size, materials, and tech we would need… I’d say about forty years. We’d eventually get better after the first one, and maybe we could build another ship in ten. And that’s if we had an unlimited budget; we are talking about trillions upon trillions here.”
“Just from the money alone we would fail,” Larissa said. “The governments of the world wouldn’t do it; the people of the world wouldn’t do it. Even if it meant saving their own skin.”
“We don’t know that,” Fain said. “But what we do know is that we barely survived the last time they were here. One or two ships, five or ten, would hardly make a difference. If the Golden Armada is anything like what they say it is, we’re helpless.”
“The Ochilenes said that they came here to help,” August said. “So, let them help. There’s nothing wrong with helping, is there?”
“You know,” Fain said, “you are right. If they came here to help, we’ll let them help us.”
Fain felt the clarity return to his mind. Now that he had put all of his doubts out there for LEPA to talk over, he felt much better about the situation. The human mind can become weak if left all to itself.
The observing room next to the medical bay in front of where the Ochilenes were situated had filled up. Kya and LEPA were there. The ranking officers of Sodenia were also there, and Colonel Green and General Nicolas M. Truman had joined the group through a floating communication orb projecting an image of each of them.
Fain was the last one to walk into the full room. There wasn’t a seat left, not even for him. Aside from Fain, Kya was the only other one standing up. She was standing next to the communication sphere off to the side of the room. Plenty of officers and members of the flight crew offered their chairs to Fain after they saluted, but he wasn’t planning on sitting down.
“I’m happy to see that you are feeling better,” Fain said as he stood at the center of the room, directing his voice into the translator on the glass.
“It feels almost as if we are on our own ship,” Elenon said. “We are grateful for your engineers, Pycca and Kya. Without their hard work, this meeting would not be possible.”
“General Truman, Colonel Green, fancy seeing you here,” Fain said, turning to the communication orb, trying to lighten up the mood in the room. “Thanks for joining us.”
“Yeah, this is a perk that comes with the job of trying to keep Earth safe,” Truman said. “It’s good to be here.”
“General Truman, Colonel Green,” Fain said, gesturing towards the Ochilenes behind the glass divider, “this is Elenon Sirallannka, Fermens Itomal, and Iremostal Tallul.” Fain had worked hard to memorize their names.
“It is our pleasure to meet you,” Elenon said as all three of the Ochilenes bowed.
“The pleasure is all ours,” Truman said. “It feels rather nice to be in a situation with an alien race where we are not trying to kill each other.”
“Indeed, it does,” Elenon said, attempting to smile. But his smile looked menacing, and not at all nice. Too many muscles in his face moved at the same time.
“Elenon,” Fain said as he coughed, trying to interrupt the smile. “If you could please tell them”—he gestured towards the communication orb and then everyone sitting behind him—“what you told me when you first had the ability to.”
“Very well,” Elenon said as he took a step towards the glass divider. “Our civilization, the Ochilenes, the great builders, is in direct negotiations with the Acram over immediate and unconditional surrender. It’s just a matter of time before we become an Acram subspecies and begin serving them. Fighting their wars, building their ships, and so on.” Elenon paused; he looked short of breath.
Fermens continued for Elenon. “When the Ochilenes heard of a victory that took place in this sector of the galaxy, an investigation ensued. Pulling considerable resources, we sent probes to observe and absorb what had just taken place. We were able to see for ourselves that this planet had indeed survived an Acram battle fleet. We knew that we must act, for this does not often happen. There’s only one other account that we know of where the Acram battle fleet has lost, and that was at the hands of the now extinct Herrion race.” Fermens paused, and she looked towards the last of them, who had yet to speak.
“The Ochilenes elders,” Iremostal said, “surreptitiously put together a plan to send some of our best ships to aid against the Acram’s unquestionable retribution. Six ships set out to your planet, but only we made it.” Iremostal paused, but he was clearly intending to continue. “As selfless as our actions may seem, they are not entirely so. We must speak the truth. We came here to help, to offer the best of our race so that your kin can have a better chance against the Acram’s infamous Golden Armada. However small the difference we make is, it is still in your favor.” He paused again, this time trying to catch his breath, but it was clear that he wanted to continue. “We do so in the hopes of standing up to the Golden Armada. We do so in the hopes of winning, and we do so in the hopes that someday you will help us recover our home world from the grasp of the Acram conquerors. That is our deal.”
A deal? Fain thought. I haven’t thought about the possibility of them coming all the way over here with a deal in mind. But it makes total sense. Why would they help us and risk so much for nothing in return? Reward is the primary motivator when it comes to being in a dark place. I guess that if we do somehow manage to win, more like survive, the least we can do is try to help. But this is going to escalate things with Truman that much more. He is not going to take the responsibility lightly. Not to mention the opposition. Even if ESAF operates independently, we are still a part of Earth’s government, right?
“We are not a fighting species,” Elenon said. “There is no war in our veins. We have no sense of conquest or fighting. We don’t train for war, to fight. We are a peaceful race. Humans, on the other hand, managed to defeat an entire Acram battle fleet with just one ship. That is quite unheard of. Better said, it has not happened in our history. Now, imagine what you could do with hundreds of ships at your disposal.”
“If I may ask,” Truman said.
Elenon raised his hand and lowered it. It was the equivalent of a human nod, Fain thought.
“Will there be more of your ships coming this way?” Truman asked.
“It will be only us,” Elenon said. “Perhaps I should explain further. You see, although we know nothing of war, we know everything about building. Hence the name ‘the great builders.’ Iremostal and Fermens specialize in one thing—building starships. We aren’t just any builders; we are probably the greatest ship builders our world has seen. But sadly, we are also the only ones left. The rest of the star builders were on board the five other ships that were destroyed by the Acram on the way here. Eventually, more star builders will rise within our world. But for now, we are it.”
“Correct me if I am wrong,” Truman said, “but a ship the size of Sodenia, the size of your ship, would take decades to build. We’ve had Sodenia for a very long tim
e now, hundreds of years, and we haven’t gotten close to being able to replicate it. We’ve made ships, space crafts, carriers, but nothing like this ship. And from what I hear, that Golden Armada is vast. I fear that we will not be able to build an army fast enough to stand up to the Acram’s top card.”
“There are one million and one ships in the Golden Armada,” Elenon said.
Fain felt the room caving in on him. His back felt heavy and his body tense when he heard those impossible odds. The room also felt silent. Everyone was completely still, almost as if their breathing had stopped.
“But you are also underestimating our worth,” Elenon continued. “You see, our ship is capable of building, and even replicating, existing ships. And it can do it fast, in space. For that was its purpose; that’s what we created it for.”
“Can it build on a planet, and how fast?” Truman asked. “Are we talking about a few years, maybe a year?”
“Our ship, the Vieron Vasteos,” Elenon said, gesturing towards the direction he thought his ship was in, “was not designed for that. Even if we can retrofit it, it cannot build from the planet’s surface, as the atmosphere of the planet will cause too many delays in the cooling of the materials, not to mention possible hazards with our building equipment. There might be what you humans call a vast explosion. But the Vieron Vasteos can build almost as fast as the materials are supplied when in space. Of course, our ship is currently in need of repairs. We believe we can resolve all its problems within one of your cycles. However, I do have to emphasize that we don’t have much time.”
“How long do we have?” Truman asked with a grim tone.
“We made our run towards your home planet just a few cycles after we heard of your victory,” Iremostal said. “It took us fourteen ilians to get here. We believe the Golden Armada may be faster. But they are also further away from your home world than ours. We estimate that the Acram may be here in as little as fifteen ilians.”