The Vandle War

by Reg Franklin

  Chris took a deep breath, hoping that Vren was right about this. “Reverse engines! Fire!”

  The missile rocketed away from the John Alex, joined by fire from the sleek Xaodi vessel and the blocky Gieron. As they reached the programmed coordinates at the center of the Vandle gate-vessel, all three detonated in a burst of actinic light. At first, nothing seemed to be wrong, other than a halt in the flow of needlers.

  But then, the interior of the ship began to buckle inwards. The artificial wormholes generated by the Vandle existed in a delicate balance of energy, and that balance had been upended by the explosion. The wormhole was collapsing, and taking both entrance and exit with it. The other Vandle ships shut their own gates rapidly, not knowing if the reaction could spread. Three of them accelerated away, reentering superluminal velocity, the fourth decided to open fire against the attackers while the fifth ship continued to crumple like tinfoil.

  But, at a certain point, as the wormhole’s deaththroes accelerated, the powerful generators aboard the vessel ruptured, spilling raw antimatter. The resulting explosion caught the remaining gate-ship, vaporizing it in a flash, along with a few thousand needlers.

  Chris released a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding as his bridge crew stared in awe at the titanic forces unleashed. On his viewer, he saw Vren also staring with the same wide-eyed shock at the destruction caused.

  “Captain Vren? Was that what you expected?” Chris asked.

  The Xaodi looked back at him. “Not really. Although I am hardly displeased with the results, mind you…”

  29.

  “Hello, ambassador. Comfortable?”

  The Relex looked up, saw the Xaodi slime it ordered killed. “Alive?!” It screeched. “This Relex saw you fall! Hit in the neck! Xaodi scum should be dead!”

  “It turns out that humans are very good at keeping allies alive, ambassador.” She grinned at the short, grey alien, displaying her fangs. “They want to know why you tried to kill me. You will tell this one.” She waved a yellow-haired human woman into the room.

  “All Relex want Xaodi dead!”

  Athlé shook her head. “Relex high command was horrified that you tried to kill me, and plead for forgiveness. The pale ones press in upon Relex Prime.”

  The other ambassador scowled. “High command weaklings! That Relex brings shame to all Relex.”

  Jennifer frowned.

  “I notice you haven’t addressed why you above all wanted me dead.” Athlé crossed her arms.

  “Be...because Xaodi traitors should all die!” The Relex became agitated.

  Jennifer smiled. “Lie.”

  “Nice try. Someone put you up to it. The Lavnabren?” Athlé watched the short alien’s face.

  “Who that? More Xaodi scum?” He shrieked.

  “Truth.” Jennifer raised her eyebrows.

  “Then who?” Athlé snarled. She and Jennifer had come up with a scheme to interrogate the little goblin in hopes that Jennifer didn’t have to go rooting through its mind - instead simply scanning for deception - but the success of that plan was looking less and less likely.

  “This Relex tell you nothing! Nothing!”

  Jennifer sighed. “Truth.” She’d had little faith that Athlé’s plan would succeed, but had gone along with the dim hope it might. She grabbed a chair from against the wall and plunked it down in front of the cell. “Athlé, you won’t mind if I deck Young later for this, right?”

  “I might myself. He had no right in proposing this.”

  “What you talking about?!” The Relex looked frantic as Jennifer stared into its beady red eyes. Jennifer ignored it as she latched onto Athlé’s mind, and plunged inwards.

  To Jennifer, the Relex ambassador’s mind was a cluttered mess; whether this was indicative of the species as a whole, she couldn’t say. Stray thoughts floated everywhere: its loathing of the Xaodi, fear of what they were doing, fear of something discovering its mission had failed…

  Jennifer latched onto that one, tracing it back to its source. Searching for the memory it spawned from.

  -”This Relex risks much by your plan! How does this Relex know you keep your end?”

  Found it. It had indeed been put up to…

  Oh no…

  -+You have no choice but to trust me. Succeed, and Relex Prime will be spared. Fail, and it shall be wiped from the universe with everything else.+

  This wasn’t possible! Jennifer frantically looked for a visual memory, hoping beyond hope she was wrong. But she wasn’t. In horror, she fell backwards off the chair, dragging Athlé down with her. The Relex was pointing at her, shrieking “Witch!” over and over.

  Athlé was panting. “It can’t be! The Prelt put him up to it?!”

  Jennifer climbed to her feet, helping the Xaodi ambassador back to her own. “Just the one I hope.”

  “They all look alike! How do we find the one?”

  Jennifer’s face was grim. “I’ve only met four Prelt, and I know that voice.”

  ---

  “Not the way I would have hoped to cement our alliance,” Kelly commented to Chris. “but I refuse to argue with results.”

  They stood in a reception hall, surrounded by the various other species that had arrived during the battle, along with those that had arrived prior. Kelly had been rather impressed by the avian Par’virer race: winged and armed, but curiously legless, they somewhat resembled large, colorful penguins. The reptillian Yoth-y’n were certainly also distinct, if only because despite their somewhat frightening aspect (looking distinctly like bipedal gila monsters), they were extremely friendly, chatting with everyone present.

  But the stars of the party were definitely the Opkohc. Accompanied by a Par’virer translator, they had thanked every human in attendance, and spoke at length of their gratitude towards Captain Kirby and his crew. They sorrowfully described the devastation of Opk, but marvelled at the similarity of Mars to their home.

  Chris nodded in response to Kelly’s words, not particularly listening to him. “Where’s Ambassador Ma’ald?”

  Kelly frowned. “Apparently she went off with Safyo to talk to the Relex. She really should be here.” He sipped a glass of wine. “Ah! The hero of the Opkohc! Captain Kirby! A moment, please!”

  Kirby looked even more uncomfortable than Chris in his dress uniform. “Acting President Young.” He nodded back.

  “How does it feel to have a whole species indebted to you?” Kelly’s smile was as genuine as Kirby’s grimace.

  “I simply did my duty, sir. Admiral, may I speak to you privately?” Chris got the subtext immediately: ‘Permission to jump ship, sir?’

  “Certainly, captain. Excuse us, Young.” Chris led the way to a balcony.

  Kirby exhaled. “What a useless guy.” He grumbled, jerking his head back in Young’s direction.

  Chris had to resist the urge to laugh agreement. “Captain, I’m sure you didn’t ask for a private conversation just to insult the acting president.”

  “No, sir. He just bugs the hell out of me.” Kirby removed his officer’s cap, scratching his short blonde hair. “And I didn’t want him hearing the names of my staff I’m putting up for commendations. He’d insist on having the Opkohc hang medals on them.”

  “Probably.” Chris agreed, sipping his own wine. “All the glamour of saving their ship getting to you, Pierre?”

  Kirby shrugged. “I’m career navy, sir. Just did what had to be done. Personally,” he added, glancing back in the hall “bugs give me the willies. I mean, they seem nice enough, but I got bitten by this huge damn beetle when I was a kid, left me kinda scared of big critters like that ever since.”

  “So, you’re saying you don’t want the Opkohc naming their new colony Kirbytown, then?” Chris joked.

  “Anyway sir,” Kirby attempted to steer the conversation away. “My exec, Commander Jones, weapons officer Lieutenant Antwiler, and engineer Lieutenant Lovhaug all performed admirably. Jones is probably due for promotion anyway, but all three did great
work up there.”

  Chris nodded, taking another drink. “All right, I’ll see what I can do. Got another ship almost ready to go, the Xiahou Dun, might give Jones command of it.”

  “I’d hate to lose the snarky bastard, but he’s wasted as an exec. You’ll be getting a hell of a Captain, sir.”

  Shouts broke out inside the chamber. “Oh what now?” Chris grumbled. He marched back in, and was shocked to see Jennifer Safyo marching towards Zath, anger in her eyes. Kelly Young moved to intercept her, but she waved a hand slightly in his direction, sending him sprawling. Guards unholstered weapons, only to have them yanked from their grasp. Athlé Ma’ald followed behind her, looking more frightened than angry.

  Jennifer stopped squarely in front of the Prelt ambassador. “You told me that the Vandleifdulus were your greatest shame as a species.” Her voice was deadly quiet.

  Zath bowed his head slightly. +That is so.+

  “And what would be the penalty if one of your people were found working with them now? Collaborating with them?”

  Zath actually reeled slightly. +Madam Jennifer, perhaps we should discuss this privately?+

  “No.” Her response was lethal in its finality. “You knew, didn’t you?”

  +I...suspected.+ Zath hung his head in shame, and linked the fingertips of his hands.

  “Would someone care to share with everyone what in the hell you two are talking about?” Chris was dumbfounded.

  “Aster.” Jennifer didn’t look at him. Kelly’s jaw dropped in realization of the implication. “Aster told the Relex to kill Athlé, to wreck the alliance, in exchange for sparing his people from the Vandleifdulus.” She jabbed a finger at Zath and snarled. “And this one ‘suspected’, but never said anything.”

  “So they still have a strategist?” Chris stood tall, but felt an icy chill.

  +More than that.+ Zath lamented. +I suspect that the Hst-ur-Dra you met is a duplicate of Quordex.+

  “I’m sorry, what?” Kelly was helped to his feet by Athlé.

  Chris sighed. “He means that Aster is a clone of Quordex.”

  The curse Kelly let out was alien to many of the attendees, but its meaning was very clear.

  ---

  He stood on a ship of the dead, corpses of his fellows surrounding him. It affected him not. Nor had the gaseous toxin he had released aboard the worldship to kill them all, for he had taken an antidote well ahead of time.

  Ships appeared through the viewing bubble, the large five-sided vessels he had secretly designed, using research captured from the Sal’kart centuries before but forbidden from use. Hst-ur-Dra’s eyes burned an angry red.

  The procedure his “father” had used to create him had been imperfect. Quordex had attempted to overlay his own memories and knowledge with those of a captured member of the military caste. An effort to create the perfect leader for his children. But it hadn’t worked right; Hst-ur-Dra had been created with warring personalities in his mind. For years, he had been effectively insane, secreted away in one of Quordex’s hidden labs. Only in the last century had his mind finally pieced itself together. One personality, a fusion of two. He was still imperfect, but that was the problem with this galaxy, wasn’t it? It was full of imperfect creatures.

  They fought amongst each other, against themselves, each one of them greedy in their own pitiful way. The Relex, grasping at dreams of power realized once more. The Xaodi, were stagnant, no longer interested in anything beyond art. The Yoth-y’n, only interested in new experiences. And the humans, scared of anything different.

  The galaxy had allowed imperfection to run rampant. Quordex had been satisfied merely with allowing the Vandleifdulus to run rampant. In the shadows, Hst-ur-Dra had planned to use them for a much more precise purpose: to wipe the slate entirely clean, and allow the galaxy to start fresh. To begin again.

  The ship’s comm sounded. The Vandleifdulus confirming that he was the only one aboard. He flicked the transmit control and screeched back that he was, this vessel was to be propelled through a gate to D’ah-kho-Rfy, the Cradle orbiting V’elj. It was time that Lavnabren understood her place in things.

  Part V - The Traitor

  When Safyo named Aster as the one who set Athlé up for the slaughter, I didn’t know what to think. To betray your species, to betray all life in the galaxy...what does it take for an individual to do that? The closest our own history comes to this level of intentional evil was Paul Stragdoc. I suppose Hitler as well, but there are key differences. Hitler had specific segments of the population targeted for extermination, Stragdoc was willing to kill everyone in order to rule his people.

  As of this writing, I have not met the man. I rather hope I never do. His desire for domination disgusts me, offends me, on a very personal level. Do I have desires to remain in authority? Of course I do, I make no secret of it! But to rule? Never. My concern is for the people, the common citizens.

  So what motivated Aster to do what he did? Simply being a clone of Quordex can’t explain all of it. Can it? I doubt it. I’ve heard the phrase “some men want to watch the world burn” somewhere, and I suppose that could apply to any species, not just humankind. So that will probably have to do for explanation. For now. Likely we’ll never know.

  But now, we had to figure out what had happened, how bad the damage was, and just what in the hell we were going to do about it.

  -Kelly Young

  30.

  “How long?” Kelly snapped, glaring at Zath. “How goddamned long did you ‘suspect’ he was going to betray us?”

  The military leaders and politicians in attendance at the reception had moved to a meeting room in order to assess the extent of the damage Safyo’s revelation implied. She herself was not in attendance, retiring to her vessel. Athlé and the other Xaodi looked the most hurt by the news. St. George and Kirby were grim, as Zath had admitted most of their offensive strategy had been drafted by Aster.

  Zath continued to hang his head in shame. +Perhaps a week. I had no proof, the vanishing of his worldship is confirmation.+

  “More to the point, why did you suspect him?” Chris’s voice was quiet.

  +Something was very off in the way he acted when we met with your people and madam Jennifer. More anger in his words. The Hst-ur-Dra we knew was resentful of Quordex, but this one was resentful of everything around him it seemed. Anger and hate seemed part of him. And his treatment of Tla-mi-Nga just before we met, with a sense of loathing, was even more concerning.+

  “Lami? What do you mean?”

  +Hst-ur-Dra and I were to be mated. I believe the human term is married?+ Lami glided into the room, her eyes shining pale blue. +In the weeks leading up to now, he became distant, and when he did speak with me, it was with anger. I had thought it was because of the renewed Vandleifdulus threat, I was wrong.+ Bitterness tinged her voice.

  “All right, how badly does this affect us?” Kelly turned to face Zath.

  +If this is indeed a copy of Quordex as I suspect-+

  “A moment, Zath.” Athlé now spoke. “Why do you suspect he is a genetic duplicate?”

  +It would explain much. Particularly Quordex’s notes on the subject, and his research on mind pattern transference.+ Lami offered.

  +Additionally, all Prelt would rather die than work with the Void Queen.+ Zath stood up straight, pride in his bearing.

  “Fair. But back to my question. How badly does Aster’s treachery affect us?” Kelly sat in a chair, rubbing his forehead.

  +To begin again, if he is Quordex’s copy then he will be able to work with Lavnabren, to direct her forces strategically as the Admiral is concerned. As well, he will have access to Quordex’s research, allowing development of fearsome weapons. The gate vessels that appeared are likely of at least Quordex’s design. Their time/space capabilities are based on ancient, forbidden lines of research.+

  “Why forbidden?” Captain Kirby now spoke up. “That sort of technology would be strategically advantageous to us.”

  Zath’s e
yes faded to the same pale blue as Lami’s. +You do not understand! There are things that dwell beyond our capability to observe, that live in the space between space. When this sort of opening is created, it draws their attention, makes them aware of us! Should they break loose, then we will not need the Vandleifdulus to kill us, for these creatures will do the work for them!+

  “Wait.” Chris looked up. “Quordex would have known about these creatures?”

  +Indeed!+

  Captain Vren caught on. “That is what you think they will do? Release them against us?”

  “Yeah, it makes sense. The Vandle breed fast, sure, but their resources aren’t infinite. Lavnabren’s waging a war on multiple fronts, and the way the Vandle throw their lives away, her losses have to be immense. So if she can release those things, she has an entire army in reserve.” Chris became excited as he explained his line of thinking.