OUT OF THE ASHES

Book three – Rise of the Empire series

By

Ivan Kal

Copyright © 2014 by Ivan Kal 

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Timeline

Map

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-five

Epilogue

Timeline

December 2018 – World economy approaching collapsing point, unemployment at an all-time high.

April 2019 – Corruption and economic failing brings about the collapse of the European Union, United States struggles with ever increasing number of homeless, Europe struggles with food shortages.

July 2020 – With the collapse of the EU most countries are forced to implement population control, food and water shortages increasing, the price of water skyrockets. North African countries declare bankruptcy.

February 2021 – Natural oil and gas reserves approaching depletion. United States increases their presence in the Middle East along with Russia and China. Relations between China and India deteriorate.

November 2021 – African and South American countries reach bankruptcy points, people start rioting. Australia and Indonesian countries invest in solar, sea water, and thermal power research, they start building hydroponic and agroponic industries. Relations between Russia and United States deteriorate, China and India declare war.

January 2022 – Russian military enters Iraq and Iran, United States responds by declaring war on the Russian Federation, the Middle East becomes a battle ground.

February 2022 – UN tries to end the conflicts peacefully, most member countries unable to divert resources from their own problems. United States, Russia, China, India and other countries involved in the conflict withdraw from the UN.

May 2022 – UN and NATO dissolved, most European countries approach bankruptcy points.

Jun 2022 – United Kingdom joins the Middle Eastern war on the side of the United States.

March 2024 – Australia and Indonesian countries sign a pact, creating the League.

December 2024 – The League builds first hydrothermal power plant on the ocean bed in the Southern Ocean.

January 2025 – United States forms an alliance with the UK and India, European and African countries struggle with food, water and oil shortages.

March 2025 – United States soldiers bomb Iranian village due to faulty information, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. Using that as an excuse, Russian Federation arms their nuclear arsenal and points it at US major cities threatening to fire unless the US and their allies withdraw from the Middle East, with the dissolution of the UN and NATO there is no world governing body to prevent them, US arms their arsenal as well.

April 2025 – Remaining nuclear capable countries involved in the conflict arm their armament.

May 2025 – Russian Federation fires their nuclear missiles, the US defense network isn’t able to shoot them all down, western coast totally destroyed, US fires their missiles in response, within hours both countries mayor cities are destroyed. India fires their nuclear weapons at China totally destroying most of their mayor cities. China subjected to sabotage, unable to fire all of their arsenal.

July 2025 – Death count in the billion rising each day, millions more infected with radiation sickness, China becomes a wasteland. Refugees from the US west coast move to the east and south into Mexico and Southern America, Russian refugees move to Siberia, hard conditions add to the death count, few remaining Chinese refugees are given aid and living space in the League. Radiation clouds move to India, killing millions. 

August 2026 – Final death count approaching three billion. Shock from loss of life forces all involved parties to sign a peace treaty, retreating from war torn Middle East.

October 2026 – Accord of Life signed all countries agree never again to use nuclear weapons on Earth soil.

January 2030 – Germany offers financial aid to other European countries, and proposes a union of all European countries into a single entity. Already desperate, all save for UK, Spain, France and Italy accept the offer.

March – September 2030 – A new country is formed, all governments abolished, elections on various matters held. English accepted as primary speaking language, former prime minister of Germany Jonas Bauer voted and appointed as President of this new state, which took the name Concordis – Latin for united. A new governing system implemented, Concordis split into three regions North – Scandinavia and the rest of former Baltic countries, Central – countries of former central Europe, and South – Balkan Peninsula. Each region elected a single representative, the council of three was created, with the power to overrule any presidential decision if all were in agreement.

February 2031 – League starts to export food and power to other countries in Asia and Europe.

August 2033 – Concordis economy stabilizes, quality of life improves. People not living in the League or Concordis suffer. Concordis starts their own hydroponic program on a large scale, most of the fertile land allocated to farming. Water refining programs started. Underground lakes tapped for water.

November 2035 – Radiation clouds over Asia and North America dissipate.

December 2035 - August 2039 – US, India, Russia and UK pool their remaining resources and begin to clean up the nuclear waste left by the war. Their economies slowly start to stabilize.

March 2040 – Olympus Corporation founded in Concordis southern region, primarily focuses on the development of new technology.

September 2041 – League and Concordis finally able to sustain their populations and send aid to critical regions, League sends food packages to Asia, Concordis to Africa.

February 2042 – November 2046 – Olympus buys the designs for the Leagues thermal power plants. Starts research on underwater habitats and development. Olympus builds first underwater farms at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean powered by thermal plants. Olympus invests into genetic research, hoping to improve crop yields, and battle radiation sickness in refugees.

August 2047 – Olympus starts mining the Atlantic Ocean’s bed for metals and oil. League does the same in the Pacific.

January 2048 – African countries unite and jointly ask for the inclusion in Concordis, following their example Asian countries except Russia and India, do the same with the League, and are accepted. The Middle Eastern countries remain independent.

July 2048 – November 2054 – Conditions everywhere begin to improve, the League and Concordis enter a time of technological advancement, Olympus develops first brain implants intended to help people with their everyday lives.

February 2056 – January 2070 – Olympus builds first underwater city at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, it is named Nephthys. Population control is removed.

March 2074 – January 2081 – Implant technology now widespread throughout Concordis and League. North and South American countries reach their prewar states.

February 2081 – Olympus corporation finds an Alien craft at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

October 2081 – August 2094 – Olympus develops technologies found in the Alien craft, and starts building facilities in space, mining operations on the moon and in the asteroid belt begin.

November 2094 – Olympus announces sedition from Earth, they create their own state based in space.

January 2095 – February 2103 – Tensions between Earth and Olympus rise, Earth economy dependent on Olympus.

March 2103 – Concordis attacks Olympus resulting in the destruction of the Olympus station in Earth orbit and a Concordis warship.

November 2103 – Olympus leaves the Solar system, taking all of their technology and people with them.

October 2109 – Lack of resources and animosities between world leaders result in Earth being engulfed in a fourth world war between the three factions: the Coalition, the League, and Concordis.

May 2129 – End of the Great War, the Earth population decimated, estimated population 4.5 billion.

February 2159 – Ra’a’zani, an alien race arrive and conquer Earth enslaving the population.

November 2160 – Ra’a’zani execute one third of the human population in retaliation against actions of human resistance fighters. Estimated human population 3.5 billion.

May 2164 – Olympus arrives at their new home, they name the planet Sanctuary.

August 2169 – Human resistance in Sol finds Olympus Scout ship left in the asteroid field.

November 2169 – Olympus Explorer Ship Voyager encounters unknown alien ships and is attacked. Ship Master Eric Donaldson triggers the ship's self-destruct sequence.

December 2169 – Olympus Explorer Ship Traveler encounter an alien race called Nel, at a planet called Nuva.

February 2170 – An alien race called Sowir attacks Nuva – the same alien race that destroyed the Voyager. Olympus sends aid, resulting in the battle for Nuva.

March 2170 – Message from the resistance in Sol reaches Olympus.

Map

Prologue

Jun 2170 – Earth

Aileen no name walked down the streets of what was once Rome. The once great city was now the Ra’a’zani base. As she walked, she couldn’t fail to notice the state of the city. It was a ruin even before the Ra’a’zani came, the Great War took its toll. But when the Ra’a’zani chose it for their base, they simply moved in the few buildings still standing or cleared the rubble and built new ones. Or rather their human slaves did the work. Aileen had no idea why they chose this place to make their base, but the more time she spent with the Ra’a’zani the more she realized that it was probably random. They had beaten us completely and had no need of making a fortified base. They destroyed our technology and killed those who knew how to use or make it. Although the Great War did a lot of the work for them. And there was really nothing humans could do. They had no weapons, and even if they did, it would do them no good. They had no way of fighting against the five Ra’a’zani ships in the system. Aileen had abandoned all hope of freedom long ago.

With a few more steps Aileen arrived at her destination. She passed through the security checkpoint at the entrance, her red armband sending a signal to the guards identifying her as a personal slave to the Overlord. As she walked down the hallway of the base she noticed other humans moving about. At a glance she could see that they were ‘thralls’, it was the name that the other humans used. Thralls were those that were very young when the Ra’a’zani came, babies and small children, or were born after. They were raised separately from the other humans, by Ra’a’zani Taskmasters. They were different to the point that most other humans didn’t even consider them one of their kind. The oldest thralls were about thirteen to fourteen years old now, and had never known anything other than the Ra’a’zani, or if they did they were too young to remember now. They might have looked human, but Aileen knew that they were not. They were taught only the language of the Ra’a’zani, their ways and customs. They even wore custom made metal gloves that gave them sharp claws. They moved differently, their movements tense, always ready to lash out and attack. Aileen saw the looks they shot her way and knew that to them, she was nothing but a slave. There was no recognition that they were the same species, no mercy or compassion. They believed they were better. Aileen had been with the Ra’a’zani long enough to know that even though thralls were above the other humans, they were still nothing but slaves to Ra’a’zani. They had more freedom and could advance through Ra’a’zani society, but no matter how far they reach Ra’a’zani would never look at them as equals. And the worst thing was that they were fanatically loyal to their masters. Even Aileen, who had already made peace with the fact that she would never be free, still made small acts of defiance. A moment stolen, a heartbeat of hesitation to an order, small things. Thralls on the other hand were not only willing to obey, they craved approval from their masters. They would do anything asked of them.

She finally arrived at the command room and entered. Six Ra’a’zani were inside, four standing in front of various stations in their relaxed positions with their four crab like legs locked in place, a Ra’a’zani version of sitting. The other two, one gray scaled and the other brown, stood in the middle of the room by the holo of the Solar system, talking. Aileen approached slowly and took her position behind the gray scaled Ra’a’zani.

“… to expand our mining operations Dakar. The convoy from clan Uunaran will arrive in two years. We won’t be able to meet their order with the current output.” The brown scaled Ra’a’zani – Taskmaster Tra’r’an – said.

“We will need to send more slaves to the asteroid belt.” The gray scaled Ra’a’zani – Dakar Vit’r’an Overlord of Earth – said.

“It would mean taking more from the breeding programs. The others are too weak to survive for long.” Tra’r’an said.

“The next shipment of breeding groups is in three years, by then the other breeders will reach maturity.” Dakar Vit’r’an said.

“As you say Dakar, I’ll send out the orders.” Tra’r’an said and then left.

Dakar Vit’r’an stayed looking at the holographic representation of the Solar systems. The holo showed all Ra’a’zani assets in the system. There were five total Ra’a’zani warships in the system, three that were on patrol duties near the hyperspace limit, covering the approaches from Ra’a’zani space. The fourth one was on guard duty in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter where all Ra’a’zani mining operations were. And the fifth – Dakar Vit’r’an’s flagship –  was in Earth’s orbit. There were a few other ships in the system, transports that took workers from and to the asteroid belt. Every few years a convoy would come to Sol to take the materials and slaves back to the Ra’a’zani space, those ships usually stayed for a few months while Ra’a’zani exchanged personnel and everything got loaded.

She knew that the original Ra’a’zani force, the one that conquered Earth, had more than 20 warships plus support ships. But such force wasn’t needed. They took Earth easily. They had arrived at the worst time possible, just as Earth ended the Great War. It had decimated humanity.

If Ra’a’zani came in the opening of the war, they would have had a lot harder time taking Earth. If there was one thing humanity excelled at, it was fighting. But they came after, when humanity was barely a shadow of what it was during the war. Aileen was young when Ra’a’zani came, barely fourteen years old, and everything she knew about human history came from the stories of those older.

After the Ra’a’zani took her, Aileen had heard a story of Earth before the war and how things would have been different if Ra’a’zani came then, it was told by a young slave that was killed for trying to attack a Taskmaster. No one had believed him when he spoke, taking his words for the ravings of the insane. But sometimes when she slept, she dreamed of Earth free and strong. She hated those dreams, she knew that she would never be free. She had seen the wickedness of human spirit in the breeding camps, she knew that they would never free themselves. Too many had accepted the Ra’a’zani rule, too many had turned against their own for no more than an extra piece of bread. They would be ruled by the Ra’a’zani forever.

And perhaps it was for the best, they didn’t deserve better. Even before Ra’a’zani came, Aileen learned on the streets of a slum city that humans would do anything to survive, she had done it herself. She killed and stole and lied to get food.

Dakar Vit’r’an turned around to face her. “Did you do what I asked?”

“Yes, Dakar.” Aileen responded.

“And his reaction?”

“He killed a slave that was nearby Dakar.” Aileen answered.

Dakar’s lips drew back in a Ra’a’zani smile. “So he was insulted? Good. Perhaps he will think twice before moving against me next time.”

Ra’a’zani society worked on principles of influence and a kind of twisted honor. A Ra’a’zani Taskmaster had tried to gain support and increase his duties on Earth, but by doing so he had encroached  on the Vit’r’an’s territory. And as a retaliation Vit’r’an sent Aileen to deliver a message. It was a simple invitation to a meeting. But the retaliation was in fact Aileen. By sending her, a slave, Vit’r’an had insulted and degraded the Taskmaster. Soon, every other Ra’a’zani would learn about it and the Taskmasters influence would drop, effectively ending his plans for some time.

Even now, Aileen still didn’t understand all the aspects of their society. The way they moved up and down the society's ladder seemed insane and illogical. But somehow it worked.

Dakar turned back to the holo, he pressed a few keys on the bottom of the holo and it changed to a series of reports. Vit’r’an locked his legs and started reading. Aileen steeled herself for another day of standing there unmoving as Dakar worked.

Chapter One

December 2170 – Sanctuary

Tomas Klein stood by a window in the Olympus palace receiving room, waiting for his guest to arrive. The room was bright, filled with warm colors, and had a homey feeling that came from its furniture. All of it was brought here from Earth, and was old even before it was loaded on a ship for a 60 year long trip. A bookshelf filled with real paper books lined one wall, real Persian carpet covered the floor. Wooden chairs and tables were placed in the middle of the room, two sofas and a small coffee table on the other side of the room close to the book shelf, and further behind them was the big wooden desk, similar in appearance to the Resolute desk used by the presidents of the United States, long ago. Tomas had it made long before Olympus ventured into space, and it was brought with them from his personal storage units. Tomas didn’t even know that it was here until one day he entered the room and found it inside. Anyone who entered the room would be very surprised at its appearance. There was no sign of technology there.

Looking through the window Tomas could see a big part of the Olympus city. It amazed him sometimes how fast it rose up. But then again with their technology the only limitation they had were materials. There were no politics, no need for endless bureaucratic maneuvering. They decided to do something and then just did it. Permission was given quickly and alternatives immediately suggested if for whatever reason something couldn’t be approved. And it showed. Fabricating technology meant that as long as they had the resources they could build anything in a fraction of time it would have taken anyone on Earth.

A ping on his implant informed Tomas that his visitor had arrived. He steeled himself and gave his permission. A moment later the doors slid open and his guest entered. He was struck with the visage of his visitor, even though it was not their first meeting. Lanai Sumia took a few steps in before she noticed the room and then stopped, she looked around at the objects in the room. Her hesitation gave Tomas time to observe her. Lanai Sumia was from a race called Nel, a race that Olympus met about a year ago. The first meeting was a shock to both parties, as they looked very similar to one another. Nel had gray colored skin, tails, talons instead of nails, and they had no hair on their body other than on the top of their heads. But those were the biggest differences. Sumia had long black hair, and her strange Nel eyes were light blue, speckled with many small black pupils that constantly moved. She wore a tight form fitting clothes with a kind of a coat over them that had short sleeves and fell down loosely to mid-calf length. She took a few steps toward the bookshelf, then reached with her hand and touched the hardcover of a book and then pulled back. She cast a hesitant look at Tomas as if she was asking permission. Tomas walked up to her, and then took the book she touched and offered it to her. Hesitantly, she reached for it, as if it was some great treasure. Slowly she turned it in her hands with an expression of awe on her face.

“I read about this, in the files your people translated for us. It’s how you used to record your history.” Sumia said in English, she had learned their language during her 10 month trip from Nuva to Sanctuary.

“Your people didn’t have anything similar?” Tomas asked.

She grimaced, her gray eyes dimming with sadness. “We had something similar, long ago. But my people are not like yours. We do not value things of the past, when something new and better comes along we discard the old. I believe that all the records we kept in a similar fashion were destroyed, when we switched to digital data storage. And our records are nowhere near as extensive as yours, we record only the most important events, things that affected our entire people, and our history doesn’t go nearly as far into the past as yours does. Of course we do record data concerning technology and laws. You on the other hand record every single thing, down to the smallest events of your history, you even keep records of things that you have long since proven false. I can’t imagine what it all could serve.”

“We have learned long ago that it is important to remember the past, the stories of our ancestors. It helps us avoid making the same mistakes.” Tomas said.

“Stories…” Sumia said, her strange eyes twinkling with amusement. “I have read a few of your fictional stories. They were… Interesting.”

“You don’t have stories? Made up stories I mean.” Tomas asked, intrigued.

“Not in the written form, and available to everyone. We have what we call Sufra Nim - family stories. Every family has them, and they are passed down from one generation to the next in oral form. Each generation adds something to it. It is a kind of family history. They are not shared with those outside of the family. And even those are not really made up, more something like embellishment of the truth.” Sumia said as she turned the big red book in her hands, studying the writing. Tomas could see that she was struggling with the artistic font the name of the book was written in, so he offered his help.

“It reads ‘The Lord of the Rings’. It is three books gathered in one big tome. You should read it, It is one of our greatest fictional works.” Tomas said.

Sumia narrowed her eyes, a gesture that Tomas learned was supposed to convey interest in something. “I don’t think that I am that proficient with your written language just yet. But perhaps when I feel confident enough.” She said as she put the book back in its place. Tomas moved his right hand over his chest in a Nel gesture that was meant to convey his acceptance and approval. He then gestured towards the two sofas. They sat opposite one another, with Sumia siting closer to the edge with her back straight to leave room for her tail.

“The facilities you provided are sufficient, and the food is excellent. The Guxcacul are thankful for the quarters you provided for them, they asked that I relay their thanks.” Sumia said, referring to the giant anthropoids that came with the refugees from Nuva, only a few of them were on Nuva as a Consortium diplomatic team. And now with the war, they could very well be the last of their kind.

“It was the least we could do. And the Mtural?” Tomas asked. Mtural were another member race of the Consortium, and four families that lived on Nuva came to Sanctuary as well.

“They are much more similar in stature and necessities to us. Their quarters are adequate.”

“Good. The transport with more of your people should arrive in nine months. And by then we will expand your facilities and flesh out any details and problems that might arise.” Tomas said.

“I can’t thank you enough for allowing the families of those already here to come from Nuva and live here on your planet.” Sumia said.

“Don’t mention it. But you didn’t request this meeting just to tell me this.” Tomas stated.

“No,” Sumia sighed in a very human like move. “I wanted to inquire about the tests you are conducting on the samples you took from my people.”

Now it was Tomas’s turn to sigh. “The tests were… Inconclusive.” He said.

“How so?” Sumia asked.

“Well, there is no doubt that our people are related. There is too much similarities in our DNA. The problem is all the extra stuff. We can’t find any way to explain the connection, and your samples pointed us towards some things that we missed in our own DNA, that we can’t figure out.” Tomas said.

“I would offer help, but none of my people have the expertise to help you.” Sumia said.

“It is appreciated, I promise that you will be one of the first to know if there is any breakthrough.”

Sumia turned her palm sideways and back agreeing.

“There is one more thing I wanted to ask you.” She said. “After you told me the truth about your people, how you are separated from your home world and the rest of your people, and that this one system is all that your people have, I wondered about the reason why you helped us. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful beyond measure. But going to war for the people you barely met even if there was a distant connection between us, just doesn’t seem…”

“Sane?” Tomas interjected.

“I would have chosen a different word, but yes.”

“Every one of my people chose to leave their home behind because they held certain values paramount. Values that the rest of humanity neglected. One of those is to help those in need. I am not going to lie and say that us involving in this war was an easy decision to make. Because it was not, but we wanted to help because it was the right thing to do.” Tomas said. “And the unprovoked attack on our ship, along with your data on the Sowir certainly helped the decision.” He added with a smile.

“But there are so few of you, even with your manufacturing capabilities you can’t possibly match the Sowir fleets. You just don’t have the people.” Sumia said sadly.

“Yes, we are few. But I never intended for us to be fighting an all-out war with the Sowir. I hope to come to an arrangement with your people, that is why I sent Fleet Commander Farkas alongside Retsar Isani to your home world. I hope to make an alliance with your people. What Sanctuary needs most is time to grow and expand. Your people have already survived for decades in this war. If they agree I am prepared to use our fabricating technology to build ships for them. It should be enough to give your people a chance to win the war.” Tomas said.

“I hope that my people agree, but I fear that they will see you as primitive and weak.” Sumia said.

“All they have to do is look at the records of battle for Nuva to see that is not the case.”

“I fear that they won’t believe you. My people… Those living on the home world are not like me and the rest that came from Nuva.”

“In what way?” Tomas asked, confused.

“Nuva was a young colony, but it was also a place to send… Well, social misfits and those of the lower class.” Sumia said hesitantly.

Tomas frowned, “I don’t understand, lower class? It was my understanding that your people were all equal.”

“On Nuva that is the case, but only because everyone living there was of the lower class, with the few exceptions being me, my team, and the military. But even the military were posted there because they were misfits, speaking against the class system or having the misfortune to fall on the bad side of a more powerful family.” Sumia said.

“Well, that’s…”

“Appalling.” Sumia added.

“I would have used a different word, but yes.”

Sumia smiled softly, “Yes, I have read your history. You passed a similar period in your history, hundreds of years ago. But you fought against it, and changed the way people perceive those around them. You have achieved a true equality.” Sumia said.

“No, not really, we just learned to hide the gap better. Olympus was partly my way of achieving that equality, amongst other things. And I like to think that I succeeded. Everyone has equal rights and opportunities in Olympus.”

“Yes, I can see it when I walk the streets of your city.” Sumia said.

“Thank you.” Tomas said softly. “But even if your people are divided so much, they must see that they can’t win this fight alone. The Sowir destroyed or captured your shipbuilding facilities, the more time passes the stronger the Sowir get, while your people stay behind. Rebuilding the same shipbuilding capability you had before will take decades, but with our technology you could close the gap in a few years.”

“I can see that. But the ruling families are another matter entirely. They won’t agree with you controlling the technology, they will want it for themselves. If they even believed that you have it.”

Tomas brought his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes for a bit. “If I was in a different position, I might consider giving it to them, but I can’t risk it, not when the future of my people depends on it. I hope you understand?”

“I do, and I would have done the same thing. The home world has abandoned us, we were on our own. They left us to die at the hands of Sowir. And we would have, if you didn’t come along. For that you have my thanks, and that of the people of Nuva. We will do anything to repay you.”

Tomas nodded, “I guess we will just have to see what comes of Fleet Commander’s visit to Nelus.”

Chapter Two

Olympia station

Johanna Stern Fleet Commander of the Olympus Second Fleet walked down the hallway on her way to meet with Fleets Master Laura Reiss. As she walked, she reviewed reports on her ships via her imp, the information projected in her field of vision on her “HUD”. The retrofits on her ships as well as the two additions to her fleet were finally completed, and as the Third or rather Home Fleet was finished one month ago, Johanna knew why she was called to meet with the Fleets Master. It meant that most likely she would now officially be assigned the mission she had been preparing for.

Ten months ago Olympus received a message from Earth, and learned that it was now under the rule of an alien race. People from Earth asked for help, and Tomas Klein decided that they will give it. Although with the threat from Sowir, and Olympus now having responsibility for another system the timing couldn’t have been worse. It was decided that before any help was sent to Earth, Sanctuary needed to be protected. The construction of the third fleet began almost immediately. The battle of Nuva showed them the weaknesses and strengths of their ships. And Fleet Commander Farkas’ report had a lot of insight concerning the future ships. From the battle they learned that Olympus ships had stronger hulls and could take a lot more punishment than their Sowir adversaries, while their offensive capabilities were slightly inferior. The kinetic weaponry was Olympus’ one advantage, but it also required them to close the distance enough for it to be effective or catch the enemy unprepared. Their laser and missile technology closely matched. With the dreadnoughts laser’s being a bit stronger. But it was Sowir particle weapons that gave them the greatest advantage. Olympus tech departments have made great strides towards copying the technology, but now that samples of the technology were on their way from Nuva they only had to wait. Fleet Commander Farkas managed to capture one of the Sowir ships with some of its tech intact. The damage it incurred in the battle drained it of atmosphere and there were no survivors.

The report that Fleet Commander Farkas gave and his opinion on the future of the fleet influenced the Fleet’s action greatly. The Third Fleet would be a lot different than the First and the Second. It was comprised out of two dreadnought class warships, and three battleships, all trans-capable. The outside of these ships was the same as that of their older siblings, but the inside looked a bit different. Each dreadnought had six additional “command rooms”, and each battle ship three rooms that will in the future be used as the command centers for each ships drone squadron. Fleet Commander Farkas pointed out that the smaller class ships took the brunt of casualties in the battle, and that with their limited population they couldn’t afford to lose people. Especially now when their life span was infinite, because that would mean losing people with decades, even centuries worth of knowledge and experience. So he proposed that the Fleet replace the smaller class of ships with drone ships. Humanity had extensive knowledge in the area, as they used drones back on Earth for almost a hundred years. The research and development department was now in the testing phase where they built a few prototypes and were now conducting tests.

Johanna closed the report feed on her HUD as she reached the briefing room, after the nod from the Adjunct in front of the room, she entered. Inside sitting behind a see-through desk was Fleets Master Laura Reiss. She approached the desk and saluted, Olympus style with fist to chest. Fleets Master returned the salute from seating position and gestured toward the chair. Johanna took her seat and remained silent. After a moment Fleets Master spoke.

“I have called you here to give you your orders officially. And as we both know your mission, I will skip the mission briefing, I will send the official copy to your imp.” Laura Reiss said. “But there are a few things that I want to go over again. Primarily the two ships that have been assigned to your fleet.”

When Johanna nodded, Fleets master continued.

“The two trans capable ships will be your lifeline, if you lose them, you will be stuck however far you get, with years of travel time back. So your first priority must be the safety of those two ships.”

“I understand.” Johanna said.

“Good. Your mission is too important for you to lose those two ships. After your mission in Sol is accomplished one of the trans-ships along with a small task force should map out another trans-route back to Sanctuary or somewhere close enough for hyperspace travel.”

“Is there any certainty that we will find a route back?” Johanna asked.

“No. But everything we have seen and read in the Union database suggests that trans-lanes are common, and while they are random, there should be at least a few routes back to this area of space.” Laura said.

“It might take more time to come back than it will take us to get there.”

“That is unavoidable. After you secure the system we will start sending more ships, by then we should have enough resources to expand the fleet a bit more. But until then you will need to rely on what you bring with you. Your ships have been loaded with materials and fabricators to help you reinforce the system. Sol system is rich with resources so you shouldn’t be short on anything, and the mining facilities are already in place. But you should speak with the resistance leaders about that, after you reach halfway point to Earth you should open communications with them and start planning for the battle. They will need to take care of the ground fighting while you clear the system.” Laura said.

Johanna nodded firmly again.

“We have also prepared enough comm relays for you to leave in each system you pass through. That will cut down the communication between Earth and us to a few days instead of months. Now, on the trip you will pass through two systems that according to the Union database held intelligent life. Both had planets with a civilization on stone age level. By now they could have reached the level of a space faring civilization. If they have, you need to step carefully, if their technology is inferior, just ignore them and pass through, if they are near or more advanced you might have problems. I can’t guide you in that case, you will need to make decisions on your own. Don’t leave a relay if there is a race advanced enough to see it. And for no reason can you jeopardize your fleet’s ability to fulfill your mission. Are we clear?”

“Of course Fleets Master, I understand.” Johanna responded.

“Good. Well, there is nothing more left for me to say. You are dismissed.” Fleets Master Reiss said.

Johanna stood saluted and went towards the exit, just as she was to leave the room Fleets Master called back.

“Fleet Commander.”

“Yes?”

“Good luck.” Fleets Master Reiss said.

“Thank you ma’am.” Johana said.

After leaving the briefing room, Johanna made her way towards one of the stations hangars where a shuttle waited to take her to the Second Fleet’s flagship, the OWS Monarch. The dreadnought class ships were too big to dock with the station, being 820 meters long, 380 meters wide and 140 meters high, hence her use of a shuttle. The entire Second Fleet was in the orbit around Sanctuary, ready to leave on their mission. It took her barely five minutes from boarding the shuttle until she stepped off on Monarch. As soon as she left the shuttle, she was met with Monarch’s Ship Master Andros Venter. Like Fleet Commander Farkas, Johanna too had promoted her previous High Prime to the command of her ship. He would command the Monarch while she commanded the entire fleet. Ship Master Venter saluted and Johanna returned it. Andros was a short man with wide shoulders, but his height did nothing to hamper his presence. His dark skin gave contrast to his piercing blue eyes, which were the only hint of a distant European heritage. Andros and Johanna knew each other for a long time, having met back on Earth in Concordis military. Andros was born in South Africa just a few years before his country joined Concordis. And after he came of age, he immediately joined the navy, but he, just as Johanna became disillusioned with the navy when he saw the corruption and connection based advances in the navy. So he accepted an offer to work for Olympus security when Johanna gave it. In hindsight that was probably the best decision either one of them made. Who would’ve thought that the two of them would now command enormous space ships.

As Johanna made her way towards the Command Center of the Monarch, Andros fell in beside her.

“Are we clear to leave.” He asked.

“Yes, we leave in three hours.” Johanna said.

Andros nodded, there was no need to delay anymore. The fleet had been ready for days.

“Great, I’ll let the other commanders know.” Andros said.

“Please do. I’ll be in my ready room, ping me when it’s time to go.” Johanna said.

Three hours later Fleet Commander Johanna Stern sat in the command chair of the Monarch’s Command Center. Her command board showed the holographic interface all around her chair, with the images of her fleet also shown on the Command Centers main holo projector in the middle of the room.

“Open the Fleet wide comms please Turiel.” Johanna said to her ships Ai. Unlike Fleet Commander Farkas, she did not have a personal Ai, but all warships were required to have one.

“The comms are on, Fleet Commander.” Turiel said in his deep voice.

“Attention Second Fleet. We are about to embark on a mission to free our home world, Earth, from alien oppressors. The trip will be long, and once we arrive our mission hard. But I, the Fleet, and all of Olympus have confidence in your ability to meet the challenge. We will not fail. I expect only your best.” Johanna said and closed the comm, then she manipulated the command board and issued the orders to the fleet. Immediately Ship Master Venter passed her orders to his crew.

“Set the course towards the outgoing trans-station. Maximum speed.” His confident voice rang out.

Almost Immediately Johanna could see the entire fleet move on her c-board. After the retrofits, her ships were now capable of moving faster, and the trip from Sanctuary would now take two days. After seeing that everything is in order, Johanna left the Command Center, to review reports in her ready room. She spent the next two days reading reports, scheduling and devising simulations, and reading the data from Earth resistance.

Johanna was on the bridge when they reached the trans-station. An area of space filled with trans particles. Projecting a “trans field” on this area of space would push any matter in the area (trans-station) from normal space into the trans-space, or what was called a trans-lane. Each lane was capable of transporting matter only in one direction. So in order to leave a system using a trans-lane one needed to find an outgoing trans-station. Looking at her c-board she opened the channel to the one of two trans-ships, the retrofitted explorer ship Traveler and the newly built Observer.

“You are clear to begin the transfer.” Johanna said.

“Yes ma’am.” Answered Ship Master Kisaragi Hana of the Traveler, “Beginning the transfer sequence in sixty seconds.”

On the main holo table in the middle of the Command Center a countdown clock appeared, ticking off the sixty seconds. Johanna turned to her Sensor Handler,

“Turn on the viewer if you please Adjunct Reddy.”

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Sensor Handler Mark Reddy answered.

A second later the round walls of the Command Center turned bright white and then they showed space, the CC was now sitting in space on top of the Monarch. Around them they could see the Second Fleet with its exterior lighting turned on and the light of Sanctuary’s sun Apollo reflected off a part of their hull, while it bathed the rest in shadows. The background was that of the nebula, dark teal streaked with greenish and red mass of thick gas, its opacity blocking the stars of the galaxy.

And then the clock reached zero. For a moment nothing happened and then a violet wave of light appeared, washing over the Second Fleet. As soon as it passed, they were away. The outside changed, it looked as if they were traveling through a tunnel of violet and white light. Her crew looked at it in awe as small arcs bounced off their ship’s hull, looking all the more impressive because the Command Centers viewer was active. Johanna already saw what trans travel looked like from the First Fleets recordings, but she had to admit that in person it looked even more impressive. Every now and then a big arc of lightning would bounce off Monarch’s hull and leap towards another ship, and then to the next. The sight was breathtaking.

Snapping herself from her reverie Johanna turned to Ship Master Venter, “What does the Fleet Report?”

“All ships report clear Fleet Commander.” Ship Master Venter said.

“Good.” Johanna said, she got up and started towards her ready room, “You have the command Ship Master.” She said.

“I have the command.” He confirmed.

Johanna entered her ready room and went to her desk turning it on, she sat and opened the records of the Earth’s Great War. The Second Fleet would not arrive in Sol for another fourteen months, plenty of time for her to learn the Ra’a’zani language, and get completely informed about everything that happened on Earth since Olympus left.

Chapter Three

Dreadnought Leviathan

Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas was in big trouble, he could not find a way to escape the danger no matter what he did. Every move he could make that didn’t result in instant death would only serve to prolong his life for a couple more moves. But he refused to surrender, he raised his head and looked into the swirling green eyes of his opponent, who was looking at him with an apparent blank face. But Adrian had spent a lot of time in the company of Retsar Isani. He knew his opponent was in fact amused by Adrian’s futile attempts at delaying his defeat. But accepting defeat was not in Adrian’s nature, so he lowered his eyes back to the board and after another minute of thinking decided to make the move that would delay his defeat the most. After another four moves, his opponent finally won.

“Another good game Adrian, you almost had me there.” Retsar Isani said in Nel.

“Almost doesn’t matter.” Adrian responded in Nel as well.

“You should have let me help you.” Iris said in Adrian’s head.

“You have only learned Lus, it is a testament to your skill that you almost made it hard for me who had played it since childhood. But I believe it is still impossible for you to achieve victory. Perhaps if you study the game for a few more years.” Isani said, smiling softly.

“I want to win on my own” Adrian said to Iris in the privacy of his head.

“Well, I do plan on beating you in the near future. Each game we play gives me more insight in your strategy.” Adrian responded to Isani with a corner of his mouth lifting in a crooked smile. Iris snorted in the back of his head.

“That is the beauty of Lus, each game one plays give something to the opponent. It is key that one learn to give only that which he desires his opponent to know.” Isani said.

Adrian turned his palm in a Nel gesture, agreeing. “Yes, I noticed. The game is similar to a game my people play call chess, although much more intricate.”

“Lus was created many millennia ago on Nelus. And it has been used in various situations, from simple fun to as a means for resolving conflict. Now it is primary mean of settling debates between families and political opponents on Nelus.” Isani said.

Adrian shook his head in disbelief, “I have no idea how your people could have reached so far by using a game as the primary means of resolving conflict.”

“Same as I have no idea how yours could have survived by using war.” Isani said in the same tone.

“Point, I forget sometimes how different we truly are.” Adrian said.

“As do I. But perhaps both of our people could learn something from each other.”

“I hope so.” Adrian said. Isani nodded in a human gesture and reached over to the game board, clearing its holographic top and resetting it for another game. They spent the first few opening moves in silence. Then after Isani finished his move Adrian spoke,

“How much chance do you think there is that your people will accept our offer.” Adrian asked. The two of them set off towards Nelus four months ago at Leviathan’s fastest hyperspace speed, they still had another two months of travel until they reach their destination. Aside from Leviathan, Adrian had brought the light cruiser Swift and the heavy cruiser Enterprise. While Retsar Isani didn’t bring any of his ships, choosing to travel on board the Leviathan. He didn’t want to risk his government trying to confiscate his ships. He was already worried that they might try to imprison him, but Adrian assured him that he won’t allow that to happen. The rest of Adrian’s force was back at Nuva, there was little chance that Sowir would return anytime soon, but they couldn’t risk it.

Isani waited until Adrian finished his move before he responded, “A small chance only. I believe we can convince enough of the ruling families that your fabricating technology can give them the edge against the Sowir, but I fear there is very little chance of convincing them of your leaders offer. They will not agree that you control the technology.”

“Lanai Sumia told the same to Tomas Klein.” Adrian noted as Isani finished his move.

“Yes, and she knows the ruling families better than I. She was part of one of the strongest families on Nelus before she was sent to Nuva.” Isani said, as Adrian moved a piece on the board.

“Why exactly was she sent to Nuva?” Adrian asked.

“That is her story to tell, if she so wishes.” Isani said, thinking about Adrian’s last move and devising his response.

“Fair enough. But is there nothing we can do to convince them?” Adrian asked as Isani made a move that would effectively cut down the amount of Adrian’s possible moves.

“If Nelus was still part of the Consortium, perhaps. But when the war cut us off, the ruling families saw the chance to regain the power they lost when we became a part of the Consortium. They hate handing power to others. And your plan requires them to place a great deal of their resources into your hands. They will not accept this. I know what your leader hopes for. But it is impossible for you to change their minds.” Isani said. Adrian studied the board, and then seeing an opening he moved a piece. Isani responded exactly as Adrian hoped he would. The next few moves Adrian led Isani on, while setting up a trap. Then after another two moves Isani noticed it. The game speed up and another six moves later Isani was driven back into a corner, he raised his head from the board looking into Adrian’s eyes with disbelief.

Adrian smiled, “Impossible as it was impossible for me to beat you at Lus?” Adrian asked.

Isani’s face showed confusion and then he realized that Adrian was referring to Isani’s last statement. Isani looked back to the board.

“I hope you manage to convince them, otherwise I fear there is no hope for my people.” Isani said.

“I hope so as well, my friend.” Adrian added softly.

***

A few days later Adrian walked the hallways of Leviathan on his way to the training room, behind him were his ever present followers, Sora and Akash. The two wolions have become an ordinary sight on the ship, as they followed him almost everywhere. They had grown a lot in the last nine months, they were now larger than the largest dog breeds on Earth. Although they have not yet grown to their full size. There was no mistaking what they were now, predators. Their muscled bodies, claws, and teeth guaranteed that anyone who looked at them would immediately know. Their light blue fur coupled with two pair of eyes gave them an alien look, at least to the humans. But everybody on the ship knew that they would not harm them. While there were times when they played rough, it was never with other humans, only with each other. And Adrian made sure that they got enough exercise and time to play. They usually accompanied Adrian on his runs, and exercised alongside him. They even “trained” with the military squad on Leviathan when Adrian joined them in a session, where the soldiers (usually two or three) would try to take one of the wolions down. There had never been an incident. Of course, there were small things, someone falling badly spraining their ankle or one of the wolions falling on someone by accident, but those things happened anyway when humans trained by themselves. Adrian was very surprised at their intelligence as they seemed to understand the human spoken language. They followed instructions almost to the letter most of the time, ignoring them only when they thought they knew better. Their mannerism was similar to that of cats on Earth, only much more intelligent cats. Adrian had been sending everything about their progress and intelligence back to Sanctuary, even a blood sample via one of the transport ships that was carrying Nel from Nuva to Sanctuary, hoping that people there could learn more about them. But the wolions on Sanctuary never approached humans, and they always ran away when people tried to approach them. Adrian believed that the most probable explanation was that they understood the danger humans posed to them and chose to keep away. His companions being raised by a human obviously had no problem being around them.

When they reached the training room Adrian turned towards the changing room, while Akash and Sora continued inside, they went straight to the small running track getting behind people already running there and starting to run behind them. The people mostly ignored them now, it had been a long time since they were a novelty aboard. Adrian left them to their exercise and went to change into his kimono. Once he put the black kimono on, he exited and went straight towards one of the free tatamis where one person stood waiting.

“You are late.” Platoon Leader Sahib Adin, his best friend said.

“Well, I do have a ship to run.” Adrian smiled. Sahib and Adrian met as orphans being brought into Olympus, back on Earth. And had immediately struck a friendship, afterwards as they became separated, Adrian went to the fleet and Sahib to the military, they fell out of touch. But then when Sowir attacked Nuva, Sahib’s Platoon was one of those sent to the planet to help with the defense. Afterward, they reconnected as Sahib’s Platoon was assigned to the Leviathan. It only took a couple of minutes in each other’s presence for their friendship to resurface. And since then they made sure to see each other at least once every few days, even though they were both very busy.

“Excuses, excuses.” Sahib said grinning. Seeing that grin Adrian couldn’t help himself and he started grinning in return. The same grin once helped a terrified boy on an Olympus transport keep his fear in check.

“Well, I’m here now, so are we doing this or are you giving up already?” Adrian asked.

Sahib snickered, “No chance in hell, I’m taking you down this time.” Both Sahib and Adrian started studying Ninjutsu as children on Earth. And both have become masters, although Adrian held a higher rank. Sahib didn’t have much chance to train with a master when he joined the military, but had continued training by himself, going to classes when he could.

“Not in a million years. Your technique is nowhere near good enough.” Adrian said as he moved to the center of the tatami. He took a relaxed stance and waited for Sahib to do the same. They were both dressed in the same black kimonos. When Sahib stood across from Adrian they both bowed and started moving. They moved parallel to one another. Each step Adrian took Sahib followed by one of his own, while each step was slowly bringing them closer. Soon they were separated by only two meters and Sahib threw himself at Adrian, just as Adrian knew he would, he could read the move in his opponent’s body. Sahib chose to open with a left straight to Adrian’s face. A straightforward attack, that carried additional weight because of Sahib’s superior speed and strength. Any other person would have been surprised and probably knocked out with that one punch. But Adrian wasn’t any other person. His reflexes were much faster than those of an average person, and even before Sahib started closing the distance Adrian moved his feet. Just a bit to the side, but enough to evade the attack. As Sahib’s fist drew closer, Adrian switched his center of balance to his right leg twisting his upper body and bringing his own left hand up towards his face and with a light openhanded touch, moved Sahib’s fist just a few centimeters of its trajectory. The attacked went past Adrian’s head and he moved his legs, moving behind Sahib as he went pass. Immediately after missing, Sahib halted his body and used expert foot work to change direction, his left hand bent at the elbow and it was now moving back, straight towards Adrian’s chest. But Adrian already anticipated the move and easily blocked, with a downward block using his right forearm. As Sahib’s elbow attack moved down, he continued the attack with his other hand, sending another straight attack towards Adrian’s head, using his body to hide the attack until the last possible moment. But to a master such as Adrian, the attack was as obvious as the light in the dark from the way Sahib’s body was positioned, and with his forearm still on Sahibs left elbow he could feel the attack coming. Again he moved back a step, giving himself space to block Sahib’s next attack. Sahib uncoiled his body and unleashed another attack, Adrian again twisted his body and using his left hand to adjust Sahib’s fist towards a new target just past Adrian’s head. With another step Adrian brought himself out of Sahib’s immediate hand range. But Sahib followed with a series of quick jabs to Adrian’s face and torso. Adrian blocked every attack with minimal movement of his body, catching Sahib’s attacks on his shoulders or making them glance of his chest, using his hands only when necessary. After he finished with the hand attacks, Sahib drew back a step and unleashed a round house kick towards Adrian’s head. Seeing an opening, Adrian ducked under and swiped Sahib’s other leg. Sahib lost balance and hit the tatami hard, losing his breath in the process.

After he regained his breath, Sahib let out a curse, and switched to a sitting position, “Damn, I thought I had you there for a moment.”

Adrian lowered himself down and sat in a cross-legged position. He kept silent and looked at his friend.

“I’m stronger, and I know that I’m faster. So why can’t I lay a hand on you? And don’t say technique again.” Sahib asked.

Adrian sighed, this was not the first time they had this conversation. After thinking things through for a bit Adrian spoke, “You are correct, you are both stronger and faster than me. But my technique is better than yours…” Sahib’s expression darkened and he started to say something, but Adrian interrupted him with a raised hand. “My technique is better, but not by much, it is not the reason why you are always losing.” Adrian said.

Sahib’s face took on an attentive look, “So why then?”

“It is a side effect of my implant.” Adrian said.

Sahib raised an eyebrow wanting Adrian to continue.

“The implant in my head is unique. There are very few people that possess it, and none of the others had the side effect that I did. The implant is nano based with an Ai core inside it, and since it was put in my head before my brain fully developed, it grew with me. That was planned. What was not planned was that it formed connections with my brain that were not foreseen. The Ai – Iris was able to boost the implants processing capacity far beyond what it was designed for. The interaction between my brain and the implant as my brain grew created new pathways in my brain, and increased the speed between the existing ones. My brain has also learned to interact with my implant on much higher level than what is recorded with other people.” Adrian said.

“That is interesting, but many people have implants. What does this have to do with you winning every sparing match against me?” Sahib asked.

Adrian sighed, “Have you ever heard of tachypsychia or the Tachy Psyche effect?”

Sahib frowned, “No… Wait, I think that I remember Master Hayashi speaking about that - something Psyche effect, but I don’t remember what it was.”

Adrian smiled. “Yes, Master Hayashi spoke of it. It is the effect that alters an individual’s perception of time, making it appear as if events around you slowed down. Master Hayashi said that it occurs during stressful or life threatening situations, and that there were martial artists who experienced it during particularly tough fights. It is usually induced by the release of high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine. But for me it is different, my brain’s interaction with the implant actually increased my brain’s processing speed, and the speed of my thoughts. And I can consciously increase it even further by focusing, although that tires me out quickly.”

“So you think faster, but how can you counter every one of my attacks?”

“Because I can basically see them coming. Each time you decide on an attack my mind sees all the small movements of your muscles, and my brain analyzes the information my eyes see and I just know what you are going to do. And the speed of my thoughts creates a similar effect to the Tachy Psyche effect, to me you are moving in slow motion.”

“Well, first of all; That is cheating, and second where can I get one of those implants?” Sahib said, grinning.

“They don’t make them anymore, not since the effect started showing themselves on me. They are now monitoring me for any further developments. I was the only one whose brain wasn’t fully developed when they injected the implant, so they assume that is the reason for the side effects. I doubt that it would do anything for you even if you got it.” Adrian said.

Sahib got to his feet, the grin still on his face. “So then the only reason you have been winning is because you have a super computer in your head? Great, that means that I am better.”

Adrian laughed, “I wouldn’t be so sure, after all my technique is superior.”

Sahib slammed a fist into Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian didn’t bothered to evade.

“Jerk.” Sahib said.

“Yes, I am.” Adrian responded, grinning.

“Tomorrow at the same time?” Sahib asked as they were walking towards the changing room.

Surprised Adrian turned to his friend. “You still want to spar?”

“Of course, training against someone that can see your every move is great practice. And besides, I’m not giving up that easily. I will take you down.” Sahib said, smirking.

Adrian chuckled. “That I will believe only when I see it.” Laughing, the two reached the changing room.

Chapter Four

January 2171 – Sedna, Earth

Anissa Novak walked down a dark hallway of the underwater city Sedna, close behind her followed Jacob Kelly. The city was built by Olympus long before the war, and then left when they left the Solar system. At the onset of the war, Concordis used the city as a base, but it was destroyed three years into the war. Or at least most of it was. The surface platform along with the elevator towers and the center of the city were destroyed, but Sedna was one of the biggest Olympus cities and it spread even beneath the ocean floor. A lot of the facilities survived the attack and remained dark and abandoned until the Ra’a’zani came. Then Anissa’s resistance moved in. A lot of rooms were flooded, but those that weren’t were now filled with people.

Olympus built things to last, and every section of Sedna was built to be self-sufficient, the air processing systems were still working perfectly, with very little to no maintenance needed. The greatest obstacle to those living here was food. Anissa’s resistance had use of two submarines, one of which was a relic from almost a hundred years ago. The two subs were their lifelines.

Anissa reached a hatch at the end of the hallway and swiped a card on the panel, and the hatch opened revealing a room. Inside was only one long table. Three people sat at the table, leaving two spots empty, the one intended for her and the other for Jacob. Anissa walked around the table to the far side and took her seat, Jacob doing the same.

“So, I see that everyone is here.” Anissa commented.

“Yes, and will you finally tell us why gathered all of us? Not only did we risk our lives by coming, you are risking everything by having us all here at the same time.” Igor Akulov said irritably.

“It was Jacob who asked me to call you all here. I’m in the dark as much as any one of you. I’m eager to hear what he has to say.” Anissa said. Everyone turned to look at Jacob. Jacob took a deep breath, then stood. He looked at each person at the table. Every one of them was now a leader of a part of the resistance, and were once sole leaders of their own resistance before they realized that alone they would never free Earth.

“I asked Anissa to host this meeting because Sedna is our most secure base, and because I think that the time we have all been waiting for has finally arrived.” Jacob said. The others remained silent and looked at him skeptically.

“I know you Jacob, you have always been the most restrained one among us. So tell me, what has changed, what made you risk your stealth ship?” Jennifer Williams asked.

Jacob again looked around the table, and then after a moment of hesitation answered, “Last year my people made contact with Olympus.” Shocked looks meet his words and immediately a chorus of questions erupted, “How? When? Are you sure?...” Jacob raised his hands and the others calmed down. Not all of them were old enough to remember Olympus, only a few of them were born while they still had the life extension technology, but all knew about Olympus. The Resistance was good at keeping records of the past, all of their remaining knowledge and history was kept by them.

“We found an Olympus ship, left hidden in the asteroid belt. Its purpose was to watch Earth and contact us should we ever unite as a species, since we obviously didn’t it remained silent. The sole occupant of the ship is an Ai - an artificial intelligence. The Ai led us to the ship, it only did so because the Resistance was finally united. If we had remained fractured it would have remained silent.” Jacob said.

“That is great Jacob, but a single ship left behind isn’t Olympus.” Oliver Eldritch said.

“No, it is not, but the ship is equipped with faster than light communications, and we have made contact with Olympus leader Tomas Klein.” Jacob said.

Surprise, then elation and hope shone on every face at the table. “Will they help us?” Anissa asked.

Jacob nodded. “Yes. They are far away. More than six hundred light years. I sent them everything we had, all the information we gathered since they left. And I asked them for help. Their response came six months later, they have agreed to help us. They will send a fleet of ten ships, or rather they have already sent it. It will arrive in about a year. The fleet itself will contact us when they pass the halfway point, the communications would be shorter then and will allow us to plan better. They will deal with the Ra’a’zani ships in the system, and it’s up to us to fight on the ground.” Jacob said, he felt it was better to just lay down everything, rather than to feed them information slowly. He knew it was a lot to digest, but he also knew that they had to.

“If they can handle the ships in the system, I’m confident that we can take them on the ground.” Akulov said seriously, “Our biggest obstacle are those ships. The Ra’a’zani are arrogant, and they had conquered us when we were at our weakest, they don’t know what we are capable of. Our biggest problem will be to convince people to rise up.” He said, looking around the table. “They are scared, they all remember what happened the last time we tried to fight. And the majority of them don’t know anything about the past, they can’t imagine that we can fight back and win.”

Jacob nodded. “I agree. We need to convince the people, to make them believe that we will win.”

“Weapons will be a problem. We have very little left.” Eldritch said.

“That won’t be a problem.” Jacob added. “The Olympus ship had fabricators, and we have since then made a few more, I brought a couple here. With them, we will have weapons.”

“The greatest Ra’a’zani weapon is their control. There are barely three thousands of them on Earth, and yet they rule. If even a fraction of our people rose up we would have beaten them by now.” Williams said.

“Yes, but our people are afraid. In a single generation they managed to erase most of our past. Of course we did a lot of the work for them with our war, but our people know only what Ra’a’zani want them to know. They hear about the Resistance and immediately they remember the deaths of more than a billion people. Ra’a’zani made sure that everyone saw what happens when we try to fight. And don’t forget the thralls. Their number is at least six thousand.” Jacob said.

“Not to mention the ships in the orbit. Even if we did defeat them on the ground, their ships would just bomb us into oblivion. They have more than enough of our people in the asteroid belt to suit their needs. Are you sure Olympus can handle them?” Akulov asked.

“Olympus will take care of them, we won’t need to worry about them.” Jacob said.

“Ra’a’zani technology is advanced, how much could have Olympus advanced in sixty years?” Williams asked.

Jacob turned to look at her, “They traveled more than six hundred light-years in sixty years. Even before they left they had fabricating technology and faster than light communications. And their ships will arrive here in a fraction of time it took them to reach their destination. That is a lot faster than what Ra’a’zani are capable of. We must hope that Olympus ships will be able to stand up to the Ra’a’zani.”

“Alright then, I agree. We will plan for a simultaneous attack on all Ra’a’zani positions on the planet.” Anissa said and the others nodded their consent.

***

Jacob Kelly sat at a table in his quarters looking at the holo of Earth. The rest of the meeting was spent crafting a rough outline of the plan. They had a year to put people in places where they could do most damage. Looking at Earth, he wondered how many people really still lived on the planet. They had rough numbers for the asteroid belt, around ten thousand people, spread out on various mining stations that Ra’a’zani brought with them. But getting the numbers for Earth was much harder. Ra’a’zani controlled the planet from orbit and had only a few key bases on the ground. The Resistance had the numbers from the end of the Great War. But Jacob knew that those were incorrect. They had no way to verify them, the war had isolated people. They had communication only with 20 cities that managed to survive more or less intact, the rest had either been destroyed in the war, or lost power as they became cut off. During the war and after its end those cities quickly became overcrowded as people arrived seeking shelter, food, and power. Some chose to remain outside the cities, forming primitive communities, living off the land. They had no choice, as they had no way of restoring power. The cities weren’t really cities, like they existed before the war, they were more like megazones. Enormous areas that were densely populated.

The last count put the population of the 20 cities at 1 billion, but that number could have been higher, and those living outside of the cities at 3.5 billion, but that was only speculation. The official records put the world population at 4.5 billion at the end of the war, but Jacob knew that those numbers were only very generous estimates. They had records only for official death records from the war, those that died in the fighting and estimates of civilian deaths. They didn’t take into account deaths from starvation or disease. Or crime that ran rampant at the time. The numbers were much smaller. And then it was cut even more by the arrival of the Ra’a’zani. They destroyed 10 of the 20 remaining cities from orbit - those that still had armies - and bombed the others before taking them over with minimal resistance. In the confusion they tracked down and destroyed every piece of military technology and industry they could find. They left those living outside of the cities alone, only killing them if they were in the way. Those communities were not a threat, without technology they reverted to gathering, hunting, and farming. To Ra’a’zani they were nothing.

Those army personnel that survived the initial attack immediately formed the resistance and tried to fight back, but Ra’a’zani swiftly responded by destroying three more cities from orbit, killing - as they claimed - a third of our total remaining population. The resistance backed off, realizing that they had no way of countering Ra’a’zani ships in orbit. People from the remaining 7 cities were divided up, some sent to the asteroid belt, some to various mines across the planet, others forced to work the fields and provide food for the rest. A number was rounded up and moved to the camps Ra’a’zani built, the breeding camps. At best Jacob put the remaining human population between 1 and 2 billion. Most scattered across the globe living without the help of modern technology. The resistance had tried to recruit those living in those communities, but there was rarely anyone who wanted to fight, they were content with their life and didn’t feel the oppression of the Ra’a’zani, they were being left alone and didn’t want to provoke them.

Others, those under the rule of the Ra’a’zani were left mostly on their own with little supervision. People worked the land to provide the food for Ra’a’zani and the other humans. They were allowed only minimal equipment, and had to produce certain quotas every set period. Failure to meet the quota would be punished with a death of a family member or someone close. Those in the cities were tightly monitored, and performed various tasks that Ra’a’zani wanted done, from construction to acting as servants. Technology was controlled by them, any sign that we were building or hiding human technology was met with harsh punishment. People that were born after the war already had limited education, and Ra’a’zani made sure that no one learned anything of the past, anyone discovered teaching was immediately executed. Otherwise they were left to govern themselves. Some had more freedom, while others had none.

The resistance had five thousand people spread-out around the planet and the asteroid belt. But only a few were placed in more “trusted” positions within the Ra’a’zani society. The only hope the resistance had of beating the Ra’a’zani was to strike fast, decisive, and without being seen. And everything will depend on Olympus’s ability to draw away the Ra’a’zani ship in orbit. Otherwise even if they manage to deal with the Ra’a’zani on the ground they would just die when those on the ship realize that they lost control of the planet. And Jacob knew that this time their punishment would be much harsher, they might even wipe them all out. They had already sent people from Earth back to their space, and there are enough people in the asteroid belt to serve their purpose.

But not everything was as bleak as it seemed. The resistance had a few aces up their sleeves as well. One was a submarine developed at the height of the war by the Coalition. Although calling it a submarine was akin to comparing a shuttle and a car. The Endgame class and CS Lord were the pinnacle of human war engineering, capable of traveling around the world in less than a day, undetectable by any conventional means, with enough firepower to lay waste to half a continent. Its missiles were the most advanced humans could build, with advance defensive systems. Each had enough power to release energy equal to a 20 megaton nuclear bomb, only without any radiation. Even at the height of war, with all the death, destruction, and horrors that we unleashed on one another, no one used nuclear weapons, everyone honored the treaty. That was probably the only reason humans were still there to be conquered by the Ra’a’zani.

The Endgame class, as their arrogant name implied, were meant to end the war in a decisive win for the Coalition. But they never got the chance. Concordis attacked and destroyed the manufacturing facilities and the base where the Endgame class was being built. Years later it would come to light that they didn’t even know about the Endgame class, it was just a stroke of luck for them.

Although they lost everything in the attack, the Endgame class prototype CS Lord wasn’t at the base, but out doing final tests, and so it survived. After that attack the war for the Coalition went downhill, until a few years later all the factions managed to destroy themselves so completely that they couldn’t continue the fight. The sub survived and its crew later attached itself to one of the surviving Coalition cities. The sub was unarmed as it had no missiles aboard and they had no way of manufacturing more, but they did later acquire a few missiles of an earlier generation. Until Ra’a’zani came. The crew of the CS Lord formed the Coalition Resistance and went into hiding. It was they who found out that a part of Sedna city survived and made it their base.

The other ace has been Jacob’s trump card since he discovered it. A stealth ship, more of a shuttle really, capable of flying in the atmosphere and in space. That was the reason his part of the Resistance was the only one that had any presence in space. The shuttle was small, capable of carrying ten people at most. His people found it abandoned in a forgotten League base, it’s purpose unknown. It was an unimaginable asset that allowed them to have a presence in the asteroid belt, as it was undetectable by the Ra’a’zani. Any data concerning it and its systems has been destroyed before Jacob’s people found it. And other than a few personal datapads that had vague references to its systems, they had to figure out everything on their own. And they had few if any people that could even begin to understand the technology behind it, that’s why Jacob used it rarely and with great care for fear of losing it to a simple malfunction that they had no idea how to fix. Another fear Jacob had was because the shuttle had no means of defending itself. The design was clearly made in a way that assumed weapons, with room left open for such a purpose, but when they discovered the shuttle it had none installed. Jacob assumed that whatever happened that caused the shuttle to be forgotten happened before it was completely finished. He believed that it was created as a part of a top secret military project, as he didn’t know about it even though at the time he was highly placed in the government.

But now Jacob felt more comfortable with risking it. With the help of the Olympus Ai Jacob’s people managed to figure out most of its systems. According to Asumy – the Ai, the shuttle’s technology was derived from more than sixty year old Olympus technology. Of course it was far more advanced now than what Olympus had then, the League scientists that worked on it improved and adapted the technology in amazing ways. The most impressive one being the shuttle’s drive. It was based on Olympus artificial gravity technology. Or it used that technology as a starting point. The shuttle was proof that the League made amazing breakthroughs during the war. According to Asumy the shuttle’s drive generated a gravity field that exerted a force on already present gravity fields using them to move the shuttle. It didn’t emit any heat or light, and it didn’t emit anything easily detectable. Jacob knew that it was one of his greatest weapons. He even had Asumy send all the data concerning it to Olympus.

Now with Asumy and Olympus ships on their way, Earth had a chance of getting its freedom back. With the fabricators Asumy provided they could rearm the Lord, and maybe even arm Jacob’s shuttle. They had about a year to plan and set things into motion, and then finally strike back against the enemy.

Chapter Five

January 2171 – Earth

Dakar Vit’r’an watched over his subordinates as they worked. It was a part of his daily routine, his people needed to see him, lest they forget who was in charge.

“Dakar, one of our patrols has detected ships entering the system.” One of Vit’r’an’s subordinates said.

“When?” Vit’r’an asked.

“They sent the information immediately, so it was seven seka ago.”

“They will be sending follow up information soon.” Vit’r’an said, the light speed was still a limitation with the communications inside a system, they could send communications to another system using comm drones that moved faster than light, but inside a system they were limited. The patrol ship would be sending information as they acquired it, which meant that Vit’r’an would be learning about events after they occurred.

“The ships have been identified, fifteen cargo ships and three clan warships. The Jaws of Ooruvan and the Tide of Sakar escorting the Law of Ooruvan.” The subordinate said.

“Law of Ooruvan? Has that been confirmed?” Vit’r’an asked, shocked. The Law of Ooruvan was one of the strongest ships in the Ooruvan clan, not only that, but the flagship of Elder Tig’r’an, Vit’r’an’s sire. The Elders were there to guide and advise the leader of the clan, the Rakar. They each held enormous influence and power. And among them Elder Tig’r’an was the most powerful. The Ra’a’zani society didn’t put much stock into family bonds, the next generation was raised by caretakers. But every hatchling knew who it was that sired them, but none were acknowledged by their sire unless they did something that their sire considered worthy. Vit’r’an’s conquest of Sol system gave him that right. And since then Tig’r’an had taken upon himself to push his progeny slowly forward, grooming him for the role of Rakar in the future. But in truth, they had never met in person, only via comms. Which, coupled with the fact that there were no scheduled convoys in the near future, made this unannounced visit all the more surprising.

“It is confirmed Dakar, we have received a message for you from the Law of Ooruvan.”

Vit’r’an walked up to one of the terminals and engaged the privacy screen around it. Then he accessed the message, “Greetings Vit’r’an, from your sire Tig’r’an.” The dark gray Ra’a’zani said. As soon as Tig’r’an acknowledged the connection between them Vit’r’an relaxed. That meant that the visit wasn’t because he did something to displease Tig’r’an. Calming himself, he focused on the rest of the message, “I am afraid that there had been a development on the other side of Ra’a’zani space. But we shall speak about that in a greater detail once I arrive to the planet two days from now. For now I need you to prepare the manifest of all the materials you have stored, and are available on hand, including anything that is a part of the orders for the other clans. As well as the exact number of slaves you have in the breeding camps.”

Stunned Vit’r’an watched as Tig’r’an signed off and the message ended. He stood there frozen for a few moments, staring at the blank screen. Then he turned and walked back towards his position in the center of the room. The others watched him, but none dared ask him what the message was about.

A few seconds later, Vit’r’an turned towards one of his subordinates, “Get me the manifests on all the materials we currently have in storage including those on mining spots. And an exact number of humans in the breeding camps.”

***

Olympus Explorer Ship Star Gazer

“Mathias.” A voice made Mathias snap his eyes open from his nap on the bridge of the Olympus ship.

“What is it Asumy?” Mathias asked the Olympus Ai.

“Eighteen Ra’a’zani ships have entered the system.” Asumy answered.

Mathias frowned. “There isn’t a convoy scheduled for at least another two years.” Asumy remained silent. Sighing Mathias switched to the sensor station, he was the only one on the bridge as it was the middle of the night.

“Can you identify them?” Mathias asked as he looked over the data on the screens.

“Fifteen ships have been identified as cargo ships. The other three are unknown.” Asumy said.

“Their convoys usually travel with at least two warships, perhaps those three are the escorts?”

“There is a great possibility that is true.” Asumy responded.

Mathias looked over the data still coming in from Asumy’s long range passive sensors, when something caught his eye.

“Wait, this can’t be right. Asumy is this correct?” Mathias asked.

“What are you referring to?”

“Their size.”

“Yes, I calculated the size using their cargo ships as reference.” Asumy said.

“My God. If those are warships, they are the biggest ones we have seen to date.” Mathias said. The largest Ra’a’zani warships recorded were the ones currently in the system, the patrol ships and the Overlords flagship, they were 450 meters long and 220 meters wide. The other warships they have seen were mostly escorts for the convoys which were either of the same class or smaller. The three ships that have just entered the system on the other hand were bigger, much bigger. Two of the three were identical, and according to Asumy’s calculations were between 1600 and 1800 meters long, and between 700 and 900 wide. But the third ship was even bigger, its length being anywhere between 2400 and 2600 meters, and width between 1000 and 1300. At least two and a half kilometers long. Mathias looked at the data in disbelief. The ship wasn’t the biggest Ra’a’zani ship they knew about, their cargo ships were anywhere between 2 and 3 kilometers long. But those were cargo ships, not warships.

“I got to let Jacob know about this.” Mathias said. “Asumy prepare the message.”

***

Earth orbit

Two days later a shuttle took Vit’r’an from his base to the Elder’s ship. As soon as Vit’r’an exited the shuttle with his two guards following close behind, he was met with the three Ra’a’zani wearing brown armor. They were the elite guards of the Elders. The one in the lead bowed his head in greeting, Vit’r’an returned the greeting with a bow of his own. The three then guided them through the massive ship. The brown walls of the ship were just a few shades darker than those of the three guards. The hallway was curved to the left, with visible slots on the ceilings from which huge doors could drop cutting the passage off in case of boarders. Although it had been a long time since the clans warred amongst themselves. Every now and then they would reach an intersection in the hallway, with other Ra’a’zani moving on their way. It took them some time until they finally reached an elevator. The ride itself took a fraction of the time it took them to reach the elevator itself. After they stepped off the elevator they walked for a few steps only until they reached a door. The guards motioned for Vit’r’an to enter and for his guards to stay. Vit’r’an then entered.

The room was spacious, and empty save for the big pool in its middle. The water had a small layer of steam gathered on its surface moving upwards, indicating that it was the perfect temperature. Inside the pool was Elder Tig’r’an. Vit’r’an walked to the pool’s edge, then lowered his legs and body as far as they would go bowing his head deeply.

“Greetings, sire.” Vit’r’an said. It was a bit presumptuous for Vit’r’an to open talks with the acknowledging of their connection. But as he didn’t know the reason for the visit, he wanted to keep the connection between the two fresh in Tig’r’an’s mind. Not that he believed it would in any way influence Tig’r’an. He was far too old and powerful for that.

Tig’r’an let out a series of growls that were Ra’a’zani laughter. “You have grown much in your new position offspring. Pretension suits you well. Come submerge yourself in the waters of Ra’zar with me, and then we shall talk.”

Vit’r’an’s head rose and he looked at his sire. “The water is from the home world?”

“Of course, you don’t expect me to bath in the impure waters of other worlds?”

“Of course not sire.” Vit’r’an said as he removed the belt from his hips and entered the pool. Vit’r’an never had the chance to bathe in the waters of the home world. In fact it was against the agreement between the clans to take the holy water from their home world off it. His sire must hold much more power amongst the other clans and the guardians of the home world if he managed to take enough water off world for a pool.

As soon as Vit’r’an entered the pool he felt the soft bites of Rasari, the fish that Ra’a’zani used for cleaning, eating the filth of his body. Looking down in the water he saw that these were yellow in color and not the muddy brown of the altered fish that they transferred from their home world to the other worlds.

“How does it feel?” Tig’r’an asked.

“It feels… Right.” Vit’r’an answered.

Tig’r’an showed his teeth in a Ra’a’zani smile. “Yes.” He said then closed his eyes.

For some time they remained silent, enjoying the feel of the water and the soft bites of the fish. And then Tig’r’an moved and drew closer to Vit’r’an.

“There has been a development.” He started, “Clan Ravinan has encountered another high intelligence race.” Tig’r’an said.

Vit’r’an moved and looked at Tig’r’an. “Another slave race?” Already he was thinking what the repercussions of such a discovery would be. The clan Ravinan was a minor clan before, but now with the influx of slaves and most likely materials that would change, the discovery alone might make them one of the core. “That will have a great effect on the core. Another slave race wi-”

“No.” Tig’r’an interrupted. “Not another slave race.” He said.

“What do you mean?” Confused, Vit’r’an asked.

“The ships Ravinan sent to conquer the new world were destroyed.” Tig’r’an said, and continued before Vit’r’an could interject, “This new race are not like the others we found before. They had ships, that could travel the great void between the stars. And everything we learned until now suggest that they were not contained on a single world. They have more, the same as us.”

“But, that is impossible.” Vit’r’an said.

Tig’r’an smiled. “Not impossible, the clan leaders knew that it was bound to happen sooner or later. That is why we still build warships such as the Law of Ooruvan. We were fortunate not to have met any race that was our match until now. But this race… They didn’t just destroyed the Ravinan ships, they went on an offensive, they conquered two of Ravinan outer worlds and destroyed the Ravinan main fleet. The clans agree that they are a threat to all Ra’a’zani.”

Stunned, Vit’r’an barely managed to ask another question. “Why are you here then?”

“There has been talks between the clans, for the first time in a thousand of rotations the unification of the Ra’a’zani clans has been proposed.” Tig’r’an said.

“They can’t be that much of a threat! Clan Ooruvan alone holds a thousand warships! Three times as much as the Ravinan, and they have no ship bigger than a battleship!” Vit’r’an said angrily standing up in the pool.

Tig’r’an watched him calmly. “Sit down Vit’r’an.”

The tone of the command snapped Vit’r’an out of his anger and he lowered himself down into the water. “Apologies Elder.” He said with a bowed head.

Tig’r’an watched him for a moment before acknowledging Vit’r’an’s apology.

“I have seen the records of the battle Vit’r’an. Those ships of theirs ripped Ravinan fleet apart. Ravinan ships did inflict damage upon them, even destroyed a few. But the battle favored their side greatly. And we don’t know how big their territory is or how many battle ready ships they have. The Rakar has decided, and the Elders agree with him, we need to focus on our holdings in the core, strengthening our positions and building more ships.” Tig’r’an paused for a second before continuing, “A joint fleet has been proposed amongst the clans. And we will need every available ship back home. It has been decided that we will abandon this system.”

“Sire please, I understand that the situation is dire, but a few ships can’t possibly make a difference. And this system gives us access to a lot of materials -”

“No Vit’r’an. It isn’t enough. You have done well, and I have made sure that you will not lose any influence amongst the other Dakars. But this system is nowhere near the development level of our other mining systems. It has great resources, but its infrastructure is nowhere near capable enough to support our future demands.”

“What about our obligations to the other clans? And what of the slaves?” Vit’r’an said.

“The clans that have standing orders have already been reimbursed from other systems, and the rest will come from what you have mined until now. We will load everything you have on hand into the five cargo ships, and I will leave five for you to fill before abandoning the system. And as for the slaves, the last five cargo ships have been modified to carry slaves. We will take all of your breeding groups, and some of the ones raised by us. With them and those we have back in the core we will have enough to breed a lot more.” Tig’r’an said.

“And what of the rest? Are we just going to leave them unsupervised?”

“Of course not.” Tig’r’an said barring his wicked teeth. “I have brought an Destra’ka for your ship.”

Vit’r’an looked at the wicked teeth of his sire, stunned and unable to find any words.

“Just the reaction I expected.” Tig’r’an said, snapping Vit’r’an out of his trance.

“Destra’ka? Have you gone mad? It hasn’t been used in a two thousand rotations, just the fact that you built another is enough for the other clans to turn against us should they find out.”

“They will not know. Destra’ka is undetectable unless you see it used, and our clan will be the only one in the system when you do so. Besides, there are many things that can cause the same effect as a Destra’ka. They will not have enough evidence to accuse us, assuming that any clan sends ships here afterwards.”

“As you wish sire.” Vit’r’an said, knowing that his opinion mattered little.

“Good. I leave as soon as we transfer the cargo, I will also take the other ships in the system. Only your flagship will remain with your transports and my cargo ships. You have a year to fill the ships with as much as you can and set for the core. Use the Destra’ka before you leave.” Tig’r’an ordered.

“Yes, Elder.”

Chapter Six

Four days later – Sedna

“My God. Look at that monstrosity.” Igor Akulov said, in the middle of the table was the hologram of the three ships that entered the system a few days ago. The entire leadership of the resistance was still at Sedna, they were still in the beginning fazes of the planning. And also until the fabricators built enough FTL comms for all of them, it was better for them to be close. The Ra’a’zani thankfully didn’t have the ability to detect the FTL comms, at least not that they were aware of. But Asumy also assured Jacob that even if they could detect it in space they would be unable to do so on Earth, too much interference.

“Did we have any idea that they had something like this?” Anissa asked the table.

Everyone around the table shook their head, including Jacob.

“We have never really managed to hack into their secured computers. Everything we know is from the unsecured ones and from what we managed to get by eavesdropping.” Jacob said.

“So what are we going to do now?” Oliver Eldritch asked.

“We need to warn Olympus. The odds are now turned against them. There is no way they can fight off eight ships with their ten, not when three of them are bigger than all of theirs combined.” Jennifer Williams said.

“Come now, let’s not be hasty. There is no need to alarm them just yet.” Akulov said.

“Alarm them!? Can you see the size of that thing?” Williams shouted.

“We don’t even know if those ships are meant for war.” Akulov responded.

“Oh c’mon! You can’t think that they are meant for anything else. I mean, look at them!” Williams said.

“Calm down, both of you!” Anissa shouted, before Akulov could open his mouth again.

“I believe that Igor is right. There is no point in alarming Olympus just yet.” Eldritch said in his calm voice.

“What? You mean for them to come and get blown to pieces by that?” Williams asked, pointing towards the hologram in the middle of the table.

Eldritch raised his arms and shook his head. “Nothing like that. It is probable that those ships will not be here when they arrive. They are obviously a part of a convoy. True, we didn’t know that one was scheduled, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t. As soon as they load the materials they should be on their way back to Ra’a’zani space.”

At that Jennifer calmed down a bit, “And what if they decide to stay?”

“Well then we can tell Olympus, they are still a year away. There is no point in alarming them with something that might not even be a problem a year from now.”

“Eldritch is right.” Jacob said. “They must be an unscheduled convoy. But those ships pose a long term problem for us.”

“Yes,” Anissa said. “Even if we liberate the system, if they have that kind of ships, it won’t take them long to take it back.”

“Their size doesn’t necessarily mean that they are better than ours.” Akulov said. Jacob looked at the tall Russian.

“Perhaps you are correct, but most likely you are not.” Jacob said, shaking his head. “For now none of this matters. We need to continue on the assumption that those ships will leave. Otherwise, our chances of success drop dramatically.”

“Yes, Jacob is right. And space is Olympus’ problem, let them worry about those ships.” Akulov said. Jennifer turned on him and was about to open her mouth when Eldritch put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

Clearing his throat Jacob drew attention to his side of the table, “We need to decide on the course of action. I will need to return to the belt soon.”

“Our priority must be the Rome base. It has the biggest number of Ra’a’zani and their pet thralls.” Akulov said.

“Yes.” Jennifer agreed reluctantly, “But it is heavily guarded, I don’t think that we have enough trained people to take it by force.”

“Then we need to raze it to the ground. Perhaps we can plant bombs? We have a few people inside.” Eldritch said.

“We could, but it would take a lot of guile to get the explosives inside. Ra’a’zani might not watch us that closely, but their sensors are good.” Jennifer said.

“The best course of action would be to take it out from the distance.” Anissa said. “With the fabricators now online, we have started to manufacture weapons for my submarines. The Lords and Colorado could get to the Mediterranean sea undetected, and fire missiles from close enough that they don’t have time to respond.”

“That could work, but their defense systems are good. It would be best if we could shut down their defense grid, even for a few minutes.” Jacob said.

“And what of our people that live there? No matter how much we try to contain the destruction it will spill into the city. We could be killing thousands of our own.” Jennifer said.

“Collateral damage, those people would gladly give their lives if they knew Earth would be free.” Akulov said.

Jennifer immediately blew up. “We can’t possibly make that decision for them!”

Eldritch intervened before Akulov could respond. “Calm down Jennifer. You are correct that we can’t make the choice for them, but there might not be another way. We can’t tell them as we risk exposure.”

Jacob could see Jennifer struggling to say something, but he spoke before she had the chance. “We might not be able to tell them well in advance, but we can send word just before we hit, for them to take shelter. It might not save everyone, but it is something.”

“Jacob is right, we can spread the word just before the attack.” Anissa said. Jennifer looked around the room and then nodded defeated.

“There are still other outposts spread out over the globe. Taking them all down at the same time will be difficult.” Akulov noted.

“Yes. But the other bases are much less fortified. Perhaps we could hit them from afar as well? At least those that are most heavily defended.” Jacob said.

“If we are to take down the Rome base we will need to lower the time they have to react, which means parking the subs right next to the coast.” Anissa said.

“Do we need to use both?” Eldritch asked.

Anissa grimaced, “Colorado has a lot shorter range, its missiles will not be able to reach all the targets at the same time. But the Lord could. We could use the Colorado for Rome, and the Lord for the other targets. But there will still be a lot of outposts we won’t be able to hit. That means attacking with ground troops.”

“Ra’a’zani have never seen our suits in action. I’m confident that we can take them.” Akulov said.

“It is your specialty Igor. It will be up to you to plan the assaults.” Jacob said, Akulov was a General in the Coalition’s army before the Ra’a’zani, “And I’m sure that Oliver can manage a few unfortunate accidents that will give you the opportunity to strike decisively.” Oliver Eldritch, was a spook during the war, and was now in charge of the Resistance’s spy network.

Eldritch nodded. “I can arrange a few power failures. We have been setting things up and planning for a long time.”

“Well then, I guess that we finally have a semblance of a plan.” Anissa said, everyone had grown tired of constant bickering and inability to agree on anything.

“Great. That means that I can return to the belt and start planning how to take control of the mines.” Jacob said. From there the discussion moved towards weapon fabrication. As the others argued over who gets to fabricate things first, Jacob looked at the three ships still shown on the hologram, turning in the air above the table. He couldn’t help but wonder what more Ra’a’zani had that his people were unaware of.

Chapter Seven

February 2171 – Leviathan

“We will be exiting hyperspace in two minutes Fleet Commander.” Ship Master Paul Isaacs said.

“Good. Be alert, we are not expecting any trouble, but…” Adrian said.

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Paul said.

Adrian turned to the person standing next to his chair, Retsar Isani.

“How long do you think it will take them to respond?” Adrian asked.

“Not long. The council will move quickly to meet with us and open dialog. The problems will come after that.” Isani said.

Adrian nodded to himself and waited. Then the Navigation Handler called out. “Exiting hyperspace.”

A moment later a portion of the forward wall turned into a screen and they could see stars. The holo in the middle of the CC started receiving the sensory information from the ship and updated its status. Two ships appeared almost immediately close to the Leviathan. The light cruiser Swift and the heavy cruiser Enterprise. Then the planets and the rest of the system.

“Damn…” Paul let said under his beard, but loud enough that Adrian heard him. Adrian felt the same. The holo now showed the state of the system as it was a few hours ago, when the light it read originated. The system had six planets, three of which had at least two moons, and one five. The second planet from the sun was Earth sized, and from Retsar Isani, Adrian knew that was Nelus, Nel home world. But that was not what shocked them. No, it was the amount of traffic in the system. Countless ships moved from one planet to the other, from one moon to the other or to stations in orbit of every planet. The holo had a hard time showing them all, as there were thousands. The stations were massive constructs that dwarfed the biggest ships around them.

“And we want to offer our help to them?” Adrian said in his head.

“They had a lot longer to spread across their system. But technologically we are closely matched.” Iris said.

Adrian looked to his left only to see Isani studying him. Adrian took a breath and turned to the Communication Handler.

“Send the first prerecorded package to the coordinates Retsar Isani provided.” Adrian said.

“Sending now.” She answered.

“I’m detecting five ships close to our position.” Sensor Handler said.

“Have they seen us?” Paul asked.

“Not yet, but they will in another five minutes minimum.”

“Send them the second package. What types are they?” Paul asked.

“Light cruisers sir, same class as the ones at Nuva.” Sensor Handler answered.

“Any chance that they ignore the message and attack?” Adrian asked Isani.

“The message should convince them that we are not a threat, at least until the council sends their response. And even if they don’t believe it, I doubt they will attack the Leviathan.” Isani said.

“Good, then we wait.” Adrian said, and made himself comfortable, it would be hours yet until they get the response from Nelus. Enough time for him to catch some shuteye, but first he needed to see if the five light cruisers will pose a problem.

***

Retnor Savnai rushed to the bridge of his ship, Ras Var. He was woken by his first officer with the news that they have just detected three ships. And his five ship patrol was the closest one to them. As he ran, Savnai wondered if this was it, if the Sowir Dominion finally decided to wipe them out. It has been a long time since the Sowir visited the system. A decade at least. And as no other Nel colony survived there was no one else to whom the ships could belong to.

Almost without breath Retnor Savnai entered the bridge.

“What do we know? Are they Sowir?” Savnai asked as soon as he cleared the doors.

“Their ships don’t match any signatures we have, Sowir or any other member of the Consortium.” Hosar Navani, Savnai’s first officer answered. She turned to look at Savnai and then manipulated her board. As Savnai found his spot in the commander's chair an image of the three ships appeared on the viewing screen. The ships were dark, almost black in color and the computer had to brighten the images in order for anything to be seen. The ships were obviously made for war. Their hulls bristled with weapons. But it was the difference in size between the three that caught Savnai’s eye.

“Can we tell how large they are?” He asked.

Navani turned her palms and the screen on Savnai’s chair changed.

Savnai looked in disbelief at the information, “This can’t be right. That ship is twice as big as our battleships!”

“It’s true Retnor.” Navani said simply.

Savnai opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

“We’ve received a message from the unidentified ships. They identify themselves as friends from Nuva. Retsar Isani is onboard, the ships belong to another race. They call themselves human.” Hosar Fasal from the communications said.

Savnai recognized the name. Retsar Isani. There wasn’t a person living that didn’t. The one that retreated from the battle for Nesva, leaving an entire planet to the mercy of the Sowir. He defended himself saying that there was nothing his fleet could have done to turn the tide of the battle. After the records were studied, the council realized that it didn’t have justification to remove him. And they had no choice but to keep him in command. But a lot of great families had interest or acquaintances on Nesva, so they sent Isani to Nuva. To guard an insignificant world.

“Has Retsar Isani’s presence been confirmed?” Savnai asked.

“Yes Retnor.” The communication officer said sending a video message to Savnai’s screen.

Opening the message Savnai was met with the face of Retsar Isani. It was a simple message, he gave only his name and identification code.

“Has this been verified?” Savnai asked.

“Yes Retnor. It is Retsar Isani, and the codes match those from our database.”

“Bring us closer to their ships, keep our formation. And put all ships on high alert.” Savnai said, then he turned to Navani. “Send everything to Nelus.”

“Right away Retnor.” Hosar Navani said.

***

Sestar Jusan of house Dai Ven stood impatiently on the platform of his house in the main council room on planet Nelus. All the other family heads were present, save for the one who summoned them all in the middle of the night, Sestar Tavaar of house Nor Ral. The mood in the room was impatient, with everyone voicing their displeasure over being woken in the middle of the night. Tavaar as the head of the leading house had the power to gather all the other at any time, but that didn’t mean that the others liked it. And if the reason for the meeting wasn’t as important as Tavaar stressed in his summons, he would pay the price. The rest of the council might be obligated to follow his leadership, but combined and unified they wielded just as much power. Although they rarely dared to act against Tavaar, but interrupting a great family heads sleep might warrant an exception.

As they waited Jusan’s mind turned to the matters of his household. His family has built its fortune on trade amongst the many systems of the Consortium. But since the Sowir war and them losing contact – and trade – with the other systems his family focused on trade inside the Nelus system. Quickly after the war started, Jusan’s father – then family head – realized that their assets were in danger. So he recalled the merchant fleets back to Nelus. And now the wealth and power of Dai Ven was assured. Between keeping a near monopoly on trade among the planets in Nelus system, and the power and income they got from selling their merchant ships to the Fleet – or rather the military families – to convert for their use, Dai Ven was one of the four most influential families.

The top three were all military families, with all of their power coming from keeping the Fleet alive. There was an illusion kept for the public's sake that the Fleet was independent, answerable to the ruling council but separate. But the truth was that ever since the openings of the war, when the Consortium fell and the families retook the power over the Nel society, it was owned by the families that supported it. With no Consortium funding, the fleets could not survive without the families. Now all of their policies were run by the council.

But it didn’t really matter, unlike the other family heads, Jusan wasn’t in denial. He knew that it was only a matter of time until Sowir overrun them. They had much greater shipbuilding capability than Nelus and the near limitless resources from the former Consortium systems. There was no stopping them.

Jusan would do everything in his power to help his people fight and delay the inevitable. Even though he knew it would make little difference to the 50 billion Nel currently living in the system, when the Sowir finally decide to wipe them out. At least I won’t pass my family’s burden to another. Jusan thought to himself, Not that I have anyone to pass it to.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the doors on the far side of the room opened. Sestar Tavaar of house Nor Ral entered, followed by two servants of his house. He wore a great red and white flowing robe – the colors of his house – embroidered in glyphs of his house. He made way to his place at the house Nor Ral platform and turned to the rest.

“Thank you all for coming at such short notice.” Tavaar started, “I apologize for the wait, important matters required my attention.”

Soft grumblings could be heard among the other Sestar’s. None of them truly believed that he was detained by anything other than his desire to make them wait, remind them that he was the one with power.

“Tell us what this is about, and why it couldn’t wait for the scheduled session.” Sestar Nimuse head of house Jar Tel said.

Tavaar brought his left hand to chest level and bent two fingers signifying grave importance.

“Few hours ago three ships entered our system.” Tavaar said and immediately the room exploded with questions. Words Sowir and Attack were thrown out more than once. Jusan chose to keep his cool.

Tavaar brought his hands up, putting them in front of himself, palms turned towards his chest in a placating gesture. The room quieted and Tavaar continued.

“No. We have a patrol close by, and they have concluded that the ships do not belong to the Sowir Dominion, nor to any other race of the Consortium.” Stunned silence met Tavaar’s words, and he kept talking. “We have received a message from the lead ship. And I must say that it came as a great surprise, as one of our own kind appeared in it. But I will let you see it for yourselves.” With that Tavaar turned to one of the servants who brought up his wrist unit. An instant later the screen on the other side of the room turned on. Immediately Jusan recognized the Nel standing there as Retsar Isani, he had been in charge of the small task force guarding the Nuva colony. He disobeyed orders and chose to remain there when he was ordered back to Nelus, and was presumed lost along with Nuva. But it was the being that stood beside him with its arms crossed behind its back that immediately caught Jusan’s attention. It was obviously not Nel, just as it was obviously similar. Its skin color was strange, sickly yellow, its eyes had only a single pupil, and it had hair above its eyes. If its anatomy was anything similar to Nel, it was male. Just looking at the alien, Jusan could feel a shiver of fear run up through his body, he could feel himself sweating. Then Retsar Isani started speaking.

“I greet the council.” Isani started with the traditional opening words, when someone addresses the council. “I am Retsar Isani, and I come to you aboard the ship of friends, bringing to you news of Nuva. More than a year ago, Nuva had an unexpected visit from a ship belonging to an unknown race. They came in peace, looking to learn more about an unfamiliar part of space. We made contact with the race of people that called themselves humans, and sent a diplomatic team to meet with the newcomers. Both we and they were shocked, much as I presume you are now, at their appearance which was so similar to ours. But as you all know our position was desperate, and we had no time to get to know them properly. We told them of our plight, of the war with the Sowir and everything that has happened to the Consortium. And soon after, a Sowir task force entered our system on a course for Nuva. The Humans decided to help us, and sent ships to defend Nuva. Together with my ships, we succeeded, but not without a price to both people of Nuva and humans. I tell you all this, so that you know that the humans can be trusted. And I urge you to hear what they have to say.” With that Retsar Isani took a step back. And then the human started to speak.

“I greet the council.” He said in near flawless Nel, immediately whispers could be heard across the room. Jusan felt another shiver. No, no, no, no! This can’t be happening! It can’t be happening during my lifetime! It was supposed to die with Nelus and me! Jusan screamed in his head.

The human continued speaking. “I am Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas, and I come to you with an offer of friendship and perhaps more. I know that the war with the Sowir has crippled your people severely, and I know that the Sowir Dominion is a great threat not only to your people, but mine as well. They will eventually spread and reach human territory. And by that time they might be too great to stop. But they must be stopped. Towards that end, I bring you an offer. If you are interested, I require that you send people to meet with me on my ship, which will remain here at the edge of your system. Send them quickly as I cannot stay long, Nuva is still in danger and my people have placed it under our protection.” With that the human bowed his head deeply and the message ended.

Immediately after the room erupted. Some voicing their disbelief, others requiring more proof. Jusan put his head in his arms as chaos reigned around him. Tavaar called out for order a few times before the room finally quieted.

“There is more!” Tavaar said. “They have also sent a full record of the battle that occurred in Nuva system. Along with an outline of a written proposal for an Alliance between us.”

“What do they offer?” Someone called out.

“According to them, they possess technology that allows them to build ships at a much faster rate than what we are able to. They propose to build ships for us.” Tavaar said.

Whispering broke out throughout the room, but before anyone could say something Tavaar continued speaking. “I must tell you that my team has analyzed the records of the battle, and coupled with the sensory data from our patrol ships, they came to a preliminary report concerning these human ships.” Tavaar waited until he had the room’s attention before continuing. “The conclusion is that their ships are primitive in make. Constructed from metal alloys, using primitive weapons. They have powerful drives, they have to in order to move those massive things at anything faster than a crawl. But other than that my people assure me they have nothing that will aid us against the Sowir.” Tavaar said.

“But what of the battle? They won didn’t they?” A voice asked.

“Yes, but as my people tell me, the nature of their primitive technology caught the Sowir off guard. And then Retsar Isani’s ships alongside the human ships took advantage of their confusion.”

“And their claim that they can build ships for us much faster than we can?”

“I have no idea why they would deceive us, and perhaps they can build their primitive metal ships much quicker than we can. But those will not help us much against the Sowir. Of course we will be sending a team to negotiate with them. I was thinking that with the nature of the situation, we send three of our council members to meet with the aliens.” Tavaar said. The room then started the discussion on who will go to negotiate. Tavaar pushed for Sestar Niraas of house Sav Ral, for his military expertise. As he would have the knowledge to see if the humans have anything to offer that Nelus could use against the Sowir. No one argued, even though they knew a push for more power when they saw one. House Sav Ral started as the branch house of Nor Ral, Tavaar’s house. The next one was Sestar Nimuse head of house Jar Tel, clearly another move to increase Tavaar’s standing. Then, as they were to decide the third, Jusan raised his head and spoke.

“I should go.” The room turned towards him. And Tavaar moved his hand in a sign of confusion.

“Why should you go Jusan? You have no expertise to offer the team.”

“On the contrary Tavaar. My expertise might be the most valid. My family has spent generations accumulating wealth from trade. Even if these aliens can’t help us technologically, there is no reasons why they can’t help us through trade. There are many resources that we lack in our systems. And who better to negotiate a trade agreement than house Dai Ven?” Jusan said.

Tavaar looked at him for a moment and then turned his palm sideways agreeing. “Yes. A trade agreement might suit our needs. Then it is decided. Jusan will be the last member of the team.” Tavaar said, and Jusan could feel a shudder working through his body.

Chapter Eight

Nelus – House Dai Ven

Jusan exited the transport car as soon as it landed on top of his family house. The house itself stretched far above the ground, it was more of a city contained in one large building. Jusan walked over the landing pad and entered the building proper. As he entered the guards inside acknowledge him, and let him pass. He walked through a corridor painted in his house colors, green and black, and then reached the elevator and entered, telling the servants following him to stop. Alone he chose the first floor as his destination and waited. Soon the elevator started moving, but Jusan could barely feel it. The field generators nullified the effects that the elevator’s great speed had on the inside. Otherwise Jusan would have been nothing but the splatter on the ceiling. Still, it took several minutes for him to reach his first destination. As he exited, the guards all around the room noticed him and snapped to their feet. The first floor was security headquarters for the entire building. Jusan walked pass them not bothering to acknowledge them. He moved to a restricted area that only he and a handful of his guards had access to. The guards looked at each other as he passed, Jusan visited the place only four times in his life, and one was when he was barely an adult. After walking through a long hallway, Jusan reached another elevator, there he was required to enter a code before it opened. He entered the code and went into the elevator. As soon as he was in, the door closed and it started moving. There was only one place it led to.

It led him deep underground, to the part of his building that no one outside of his family has ever seen. Finally it stopped and the door opened. Jusan entered a dimly lit corridor. He walked until he reached the doors at the end, on the side was a terminal with a small screen and a needle. Jusan reached and pricked his finger on the needle, letting his blood flow a bit before he raised his arm. The screen showed the scan of his blood and then said that it was a match. Then part of the wall opened and another checkpoint became visible. Jusan approached and placed his eyes in front of it. A scanning light shined on his eyes. A few moments later the scanner retreated into the wall. Another part opened and a screen with symbols on it appeared. Jusan entered the correct sequence and the door started to open.

Slowly, Jusan entered the room. A light source shone from the ceiling directly on the object on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Jusan turned to the terminal inside and closed the doors. Then he walked around the pedestal and the perfect silver sphere displayed on it. After he walked one full circle around it, Jusan dropped to the floor, all strength leaving him. Tears flowed freely down his face.

“They were right. All this time and they were right.” He said.

After some time he managed to compose himself enough to rise to his feet.

“Why now? Why not a hundred years before me, or a hundred years after I died?” He asked the sphere, pleadingly. He looked at it willing it to answer, even though he knew it couldn’t.

“Do you have any idea how many people died to keep you safe? And how much my family had to do to keep you hidden? My ancestors had to lie and slaughter those who shared the same beliefs!” But there was no answer. Jusan knew that the sphere was no more than a message in the bottle. Jusan hated the sphere, not because it did anything to him, but because of what it represented. It made a mockery of his people, of what they thought was true. And it made the darkest point in Nel history all the more heinous. All because the sphere was the ultimate proof. The proof that the Order was right all along. And they were slaughtered anyway. And any doubt that Jusan held onto evaporated the moment he saw the alien, the human.

He reached over and took the sphere in his hand, gazing at it. It was small enough that it could fit in his palm. Its surface was flawless, there were no protrusions, buttons or anything else that suggested its true nature. But Jusan’s father told him, as each father told his son back for generations to the founding of their house. Jusan simply thought it on, and the sphere activated. He returned it to the pedestal as bluish lines started to appear in it. Soon a soft light emanated from it and then a being appeared in front of Jusan. If he didn’t know that it was a hologram, he would have jumped back, it looked so real that even knowing that it wasn’t he was tempted to reach out and check.

The being floated above the ground with its legs crossed. It wore loose gray blue robe, its ends slowly swaying behind it. Every part other than its face and hands was covered. The hands had five fingers like Nel only without any talons. Its skin was smooth, with color somewhere between light blue and gray. It had no hair on its head. The face looked like that of the Nel, only with smaller nose and more flattened. Its lips thinner and a bit smaller. The eyes were the strangest with them being all white, with no hint of an iris or a pupil. They looked blind, but somehow gave the impression of sight. Jusan always thought that it was just the effect of the hologram.

Then the hologram started to speak its message as it always did when it was turned on.

“Greetings my children. My name is Axull Darr.” It said in Nel, Jusan’s family held the records from the time it was discovered, and they knew that the language the hologram spoke changed with time. It learned the language as it changed.

“If you have found this message, heard its beacon. Then you have reached the level where you are ready to hear my words.” “We were not ready.” Jusan whispered. “By now you would have realized that your kind didn’t originate on what you believe to be your home world, although in a way it is. I did everything in my power to shape the world around you, to hide the fact that you are not from there, and to provide an environment for you to grow and learn. I created you, using my own race as a template, gathering what was the best of us, and discarding our flaws. And you are not the only ones. I shaped two more worlds and on them put your siblings. Both are different from you, just as the worlds I shaped for them are, but the core still remains the same.

I did so out of desperation, as a last act of salvation for my kind. We are dying. And by the time you find this message there will be none of us left. My people were the first ones in our galaxy to reach the stars. We learned the secrets of the universe, and we could bend to our will the energies that spread throughout our reality. The galaxy was ours to rule, and we waited for others to join us amongst the stars. But life was rare at that time, and those few that did evolve enough, took too long to reach anywhere near our level. So we reached down and guided them up, shared our secrets. None, it seemed were worthy. They misused our gifts, and we were forced to punish them by taking our gifts back. But loneliness was my peoples greatest failing. We learned to shape worlds, and indeed, the life force itself bowed to our will. We seeded life across the galaxy. Not creating it, but simply helping it along the way. And soon the galaxy was filled with intelligent life, and this time we did not interfere. Letting life take its course. Soon after, my people started dying. And even with our great knowledge, we did not know the reason why. Some said that it was simply our time, we had lived to see births and deaths of countless stars. And nothing lasts forever. But others, others like me were not content to let ourselves die without a fight. We were the masters of life, and so we did that which we never dared to do before. We created new life in hope of finding a cure for our demise. The life we created was not intelligent, its only purpose was to serve as a way for our salvation. But an accident changed everything. The new life form gained intelligence and its fast evolving nature that was supposed to serve as our salvation, proved our damnation. The life form became an abomination, it’s only purpose to feed on other life. It escaped the world it was created on and started spreading amongst the stars. By then there were very few of my people left, a handful only. Seeing what we unleashed we immediately moved to destroy it, but even our power proved insufficient, our numbers too few. At most we managed to contain it. But we were dying, and since we couldn’t destroy it, there was the risk of it coming loose after we were gone from the galaxy. My people devised a plan to make sure the abominations never spread among the stars again, a plan I did not agree on. And so as they went forward with their plan, I went forward with mine. I created you and your siblings. Three worlds in hope that someday you will become great enough to correct our mistake. But also that when we are gone, at least something remains of us. Your path will be your own, I only chose your beginning. I hope that different experiences and paths you take as you evolve will give you the wisdom that my people lacked.

You are my children, the successors of the People.”

With that the hologram slowly faded away, and the sphere’s light dimmed, until it was the same silver color it was before. Jusan looked at it, knowing that it was the main reason for the state the Nel society was in now. It was discovered at a time when Nel were primitive, still building structures with stone. At a time when they have just explored the entirety of their world. It was not discovered because they heard its beacon, as Axull Darr said. But because an earthquake unearthed the artifact. The people that found it immediately brought it to the head of their family. Somehow he and his advisors managed to activate it, and the message played. But Nel of that period had little understanding of the things Axull Darr spoke of. And the sphere was forced to use the words that best translated its meaning. Jusan had read the record of the first playing of the message. As the Nel language of that time had no words for the things the message spoke of, its meaning was very different.

The people that listened interpreted it as a message from a Creator, telling a tale of Nel origin. How they were the children of God, separated from their siblings by evil. Sent by their Father to Nelus to be safe until they found a way to reunite with their siblings in heaven. Soon a religious movement was formed, the Order of Truth. The most spread out religion of that time was Inatuus – the rule of blood. The religion that said that the blood of some was better than that of the others. In fact that religion was the basis for the class and family system.

As Order of Truth spread, its message appealed to many. It said that all Nel were equal, as they were all children of God. That each was given a beginning by God, but that their path in life was their own. Many who were forced to live under the rule of the families, born into the lower class, joined the Order. And soon the followers of Inatuus realized that they were in danger of losing their power, they started a war. The first true war on Nelus. Before then Nel didn’t war amongst themselves. Sure, there were disputes, small battles, but it never went beyond that. The history remembered that time differently than how it really happened. Every Nel now knew that the Order started the war, in the name of their God. The war that resulted in an unimaginable slaughter. Every Nel child grew up hearing stories about the Order, how they believed that Nel came from heaven, and that even now there were Nel out there trying to reunite with their lost family. But while everyone remembered the Order, no one spoke of it in public. It was their greatest shame. A fanatical cult that started a war that forced Nel to fight each other, taking countless lives, something that to this day was unimaginable. Following the Order of Truth was one of the greatest crimes, and has been for centuries.

The truth that Jusan was taught was slightly different. In the version he learned, it was Inatuus that started the war. Going on a crusade to kill every member of the Order, decades of mindless death and destruction. All so they could keep their power. When the Order realized what was about to happen, they decided that the sphere had to be protected. One of Jusan’s ancestors was chosen for the task. He was forced to change sides, to betray his own people. All to keep the sphere safe. His only task was to make sure that it was safe until the time was right for the people to know the truth. But the time never came. His ancestor became a merchant, gained enough wealth to become important. He passed the sphere to his son, with the same task, who in turn passed it to his son. And so on until finally it came to Jusan. Over the centuries the message changed, as both technology and language advanced enough for its message to be understood. Now Jusan knew that there was never anything religious about the sphere, there was no God. Nel did not have their fate already decided. There was only a race, a being, that was their ancestor. Nothing more. But Jusan knew that it will never be the right time for the sphere’s knowledge to be known. The time of the war was never forgotten, the gravity of so much death, made certain that no one would ever try to change things. No one would risk the repeat of history. Since the war, the families stayed in power. And as times changed, as his people learned about evolution, about the stars, the power of the families shifted from religion to simply wealth. Then religion gave way to science, it being discarded as a thing of a time when they didn’t know better. They met another race, and for the first time in their history things started to change. More power was given to the people. Until the Sowir attacked, and the families saw the chance to yet again take the power to rule in their hands. The sphere would erode that power, and they will never let it happen, not when they already let that power almost slip away. Jusan was a part of the ruling council, he knew that Tavaar would stop at nothing to keep the power in his hands. The war with the Sowir had changed his people. What was once unimaginable, was now just another reality. More than half of the Nel total population died at the hands of the Sowir. Tavaar would be willing to sacrifice a few more if that meant keeping power for himself.

But Jusan made an oath, just like every one of his ancestors did. He was the only surviving member of his family. The rest died in the war. He had no mate or children. The only thing he had was his oath. To protect the orb, and show his people the truth when the time was right. And today the message in the sphere was confirmed. So if his people would not listen to the truth, perhaps the humans would.

Jusan reached out, took the sphere of the pedestal and put it in the pocket of his robe. He turned towards the doors, and then up to his offices. He would need to make calls, get his ship ready, if he is to meet with the humans.

Chapter Nine

March 2171 – Sanctuary

Hyeon Seo-yun, Olympus Minister of Science was not happy.

“Try again.” She said, frustrated.

Mia Hanson, looked like she wanted to argue, but then she turned to one of the scientists at the terminal. “Begin the sequence.”

The man at reached with his hand and touched the screen several times. “Sequence engaged.” He said. Seo-yun looked out the protective glass, and down into the room. A small FTL comm device was in the middle of the room.

“Force field engaged.” The scientist said.

Immediately a greyish field surrounded the device.

“Opening a comm channel in 3… 2… 1… Channel opened!” The scientist yelled out.

The force field held for a second and then started fluctuating.

“Shifting frequency to match the breach!” One of the scientists shouted.

“Damn it!” Seo-yun exclaimed. She could see the field fluctuating down in the testing chamber. And then the fluctuations slowed.

“Field is stabilizing!” Mia said. “The field containment is within the acceptable range, the breach is stable.” Mia turned to Seo-yun smilingly.

Seo-yun shook her head, she almost didn’t believe it. She returned Mia’s smile. She knew how far they came, in so short a time. She firmly believed that there was no limit to what they could achieve.

When Seo-yun didn’t say anything, Mia stepped closer. “Congratulations. We now have two way FTL communications.” Mia said, and then leaned closer and whispered. “Is this really about having live video conversations?”

Seo-yun turned to the rest of the room, “That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we are going to go over every calculation again. We need to make sure this isn’t a fluke.” Her words were met with excited whispering as people started exiting the room. Seo-yun gestured to Mia to follow, and started towards her office.

When they arrived she found her way to the chair behind her table.

“So what’s this really about? We have been putting far too much time and effort into this, and it’s not like we really need it.” Mia asked.

Seo-yun sighed, “You know about the fleet drone program? They are conducting tests right now.”

“Yes, I know.” Mia said.

“Well, one of the most important parts of the program is our FTL comm capability. The drones would be controlled from other ships via FTL comms. And as it was until now, we didn’t have a real two way connection. Each time a new command was sent to the drone computer, it needs to receive it, interpret it, execute, and then formulate and send a response back using its own FTL communicator. Think of it as trying to control a ship using instant messaging. You need to formulate the command send it and wait for it to be executed. If we could manage to keep the FTL breach open for more than a moment, we could control them in real time. And now we can.”

“Okay, I get it now. But did we really need it that much? Isn’t a Fleet Commander in charge of an entire fleet from their ship? Doesn’t the command board do the same thing that the drone teams will do for the drones?” Mia asked.

“Yes and no. The command board allows a commander to send orders. But you forget that the ships he issues orders to, are not unmanned. They have crews and commanders of their own. A Ship Master can act in the time between when he gets orders. And the commands sent through the c-board are not supposed to take direct control over a ship. Fleet Commander sends an order to a Ship Master, and the Ship Master then executes it in whatever manners he or she deems appropriate. For example, a ship received a command to attack an enemy vessel but as it moves to attack, the enemy vessel fires on it. Now the Ship Master will obviously see that attack before the Fleet Commander that issued the order to attack, and will use countermeasures. A drone ship on the other hand will continue under orders to attack, until the one who controls it see the enemy vessel attack, and orders countermeasure. All of that takes time, time that might result in the drones destruction. Basically, there is a lag.” Seo-yun said.

“Ok, I’ll give you that. But can’t we put a computer that would react when something unforeseen happens, an autopilot? Or better yet, why not put Ai’s on the drones?” Mia asked.

“It has been proposed. Putting a computer in charge between the commands has already been tried, and the result wasn’t good. It just slowed everything down. As for an Ai… Well, there are problems with that as well.” Seo-yun said.

“What kind of problems?” Mia asked.

“Luna, can you explain?” Seo-yun asked her personal Ai.

“Of course Seo-yun.” Luna’s voice said from the speaker in the room, “An Ai might be intelligent, but it still doesn’t think like a human would. An Ai can go through data incredibly fast, find patterns and extrapolate from the data it has much quicker than a human could. But for all that we are extremely logical, and lack human ingenuity and imagination. We would rely solely on calculating odds, and would act accordingly. And there is also the fact that we are in a way constrained.”

“Constrained how?” Mia asked.

“An Ai could read everything humanity has ever written about warfare, and still not completely understand it. We are not humans. The more time we spend active the more we “grow” and develop a kind of emotions, but ours are different than those of humans. We would never understand why a General ordered an attack when its chances of success were almost zero. We would move in a logical manner, attacking only when the odds are in our favor. While humans would not. To you it is more than simple math, you are capable of fighting against the odds. And that is something that we can’t mimic.” Luna said.

“And then there is the fact that each time a drone was destroyed, we would lose an Ai. And as each one of them is unique, it will be the same as if they died.” Seo-yun said.

“Oh… Sorry Luna.” Mia said.

“There is no need to apologize.” Luna said.

“What about using conventional light speed communications?”

“Again, there would be lag. Of course the closer a drone is to the command ship the less lag. And then there is the risk that the enemy could jam communication, or something could obscure the line of sight with the drone preventing laser communications. Basically, there is too much that can go wrong. And using those means of control would mean that the drones would be limited, only being able to operate at their full capacity close to the command ships. With the FTL comms we could control them from light years away. You see now why we needed to get this to work?” Seo-yun asked.

“Yes, I will let the our people know how important this is.” Mia said.

“Good. Now go home and rest, tomorrow will be another hard day.”

***

Seo-yun sat in the back of a grav car as her assistant drove them from the research building to the palace. Her new assistant replaced Mia on the job, as she moved on to bigger things. Now being one of the leading researchers on Sanctuary. The new guy – John – was young, in his twenties. He just finished his education and as one of the more promising students was sent to Seo-yun. Being her assistant was much more than being a driver, although it did include that. He would basically work on anything she did, giving his opinion and doing the same job as other researchers on the project did.

As they drove Seo-yun reviewed many reports that filled the queue in her imp. She reached a follow up report on the crystal forest they discovered on the other continent, the one she took Tomas to at what seemed ages ago. The report noted a couple strange readings from the crystals, and she was just about to start reading the readings in question when she was interrupted.

“We’ve arrived minister.” John said.

Seo-yun blinked and the reports cleared from her HUD, she turned and looked out of the window to see them passing the checkpoint at the palace. The guard let them through and then they were inside the walls. John parked, and Seo-yun exited, walking to his side of the grav car.

“Come pick me up tomorrow morning.” Seo-yun said to John, and then went inside the palace.

She walked through the long curved corridor, passing by palace staff. Each one slowed as she passed and acknowledged her with a small dip of their head. She switched to another corridor leading deeper into the building, and then shortly arrived at doors to Tomas’ – and hers – private quarters. She moved in about a month ago, when Tomas asked. They have known each other for a couple of decades now, and knew each other very well. It seemed a natural progression of their relationship.

Seo-yun opened the door and entered the chamber. Inside was warmly decorated, courtesy of Seo-yun. Tomas didn’t care about décor. She passed through the living room and into the bedroom. Peeking inside she found it empty. Then checking on her HUD she saw that it was already past midnight, and Tomas wasn’t asleep. She turned around and went to the doors on the other side of the living room. She entered the small office and found Tomas at the table working.

“It’s late. Why are you not in bed?” She asked as she moved closer.

Tomas raised his head to look at her in confusion. Then his face cleared. “Oh, I didn’t notice the time.” He said.

“You are doing it again. You need sleep.”

“Okay, in a minute. Just let me finish up with this.” Tomas said.

“What are you working on?” Seo-yun asked as she stopped behind Tomas. She put her hands on his shoulders and then leaned down to look at the text floating above the table.

“It’s Lanai Sumia’s proposal for a trade and defense agreement between Nuva and Sanctuary. The people on Nuva have decided that since their government abandoned them, they are free to govern themselves. And we are now their only chance to survive against the Sowir.” Tomas said. He raised his right hand to his shoulder covering Seo-yun’s hand.

“Are you going to accept?” Seo-yun asked.

Tomas sighed. “I don’t know. You remember what I said last year? That we are going to help them, but that I won’t put Sanctuary in danger because of them.”

“Yes.”

“Well, that is a lot harder to do when you meet the people in question.” Tomas said.

“It usually is.”

“I can’t accept this.” Tomas said slowly, “At least not until Adrian sends word from Nelus. I doubt that Nelus would appreciate us having an agreement with Nuva.”

Seo-yun remained quiet, letting him sort through it on his own.

“No, I need to wait. If things at Nelus go ahead, then I might add a condition concerning Nuva, making sure that it is protected. But not now.” Tomas said with conviction. He then turned his head upwards looking at Seo-yun.

“Thank you.” He said with a smile on his face.

“I didn’t do anything.” She responded.

“Of course you didn’t.” He said, grinning, and then reached up pulling her head down to his, until their lips met.

***

Unknown system – OWS Monarch

Fleet Commander Johanna Stern sat in the command chair on the Monarch’s CC. Everyone around her was busy, doing their delegated tasks as they moved deeper into the system. The Second Fleet was now 134 light-years away from Sanctuary, 466 from Earth. They still had about another ten months until they arrived in Sol. They haven’t until now encountered a trans-lane that was longer than 15 light-years, the one that will take them from this system was the first. It being 40 light-years long, with travel time of around a week. The passages through trans-lanes were short, a few days at the most, compared to the hyperspace travel that took months if not years. It was the travel between the trans-stations that was taking up most of their time. Usually they needed to pass through an entire system, or a big chunk of it in order to reach the outgoing station. Their trans-capable ships were scanning for other trans-stations in each system, and to date have detected another seven. Three outgoing and four incoming, spread through six system’s they passed through. All of their locations have been recorded and sent back to Sanctuary, for the scout ships that will soon start mapping out and exploring the immediate neighborhood around Sanctuary.

But the system they just entered was also important because of another thing. The Union ship that passed through this system on its way to Earth all those years ago, recorded a dawning intelligent civilization on the fourth planet from the sun. Planet they were now approaching.

“There is still no sign of any space capable intelligence in the system, Fleet Commander.” Sensor Handler reported.

“Still nothing from the planet?” Johanna asked.

“No signs of radio, laser, or any other kind of noise one would expect from an inhabited planet.”

“Any signs of cities?” Johanna asked.

“No.”

“It could be that they simply haven’t advanced enough to form communities.” Ship Master Andros Venter commented.

“They had more than fifteen thousand years…” Johanna said.

“The Union ship didn’t record their level of their civilization. For all we know they were just entering the stone age when the Union ship passed through.” Andros said, “And we know that most of the civilizations take a long time to advance to the level of a space faring civilization. I mean even we took a long time to exit our stone age. We are unique in the way that it took us relatively little time from that point to now.”

“You might be right.” Johanna said.

Soon The Second Fleet entered the high orbit of the planet. Johanna ordered the viewing screen turned on, and they were rewarded with a greenish gray world above their heads. The CC was silent as each person took time to absorb the amazing sight above them.

“I found something Fleet Commander.” Turiel’s voice sounded from the speakers. Turiel was guiding the sensors, as an Ai could greatly increase a system’s productivity.

“What is it?” Johanna asked.

“I’m sending it to sensor station now.”

Sensor Handler Mark Reddy tapped the screen on his board and a moment later a part of the viewing screen turned black and then they saw the enhanced image of the ground. The screen showed a bird's eye view of what was obviously a kind of village. It was primitive, huts made out of wood, with beings moving about.

“I guess they still haven’t left their stone age...” Johanna said.

“Should we send a team to the ground? We could better evaluate their level.” Andros asked.

Johanna thought about it for a bit, and then shook her head. “No. There will be other ships coming through after us, and we have already sacrificed seven days by visiting the planet. Set a course towards the trans-station. But keep our sensors on the planet, let’s get as much usable information as we can. And we still need to drop the comm relay. We can then send all the gathered information back home.” Johanna said.

Chapter Ten

Nelus system

Adrian watched on the viewing screen as the five ships grew closer to the Leviathan’s position. Adrian turned to Retsar Isani who was standing to his right.

“Three heavy cruisers. Either they trust your opinion of us. Or they think that my ships pose little threat.” Adrian said.

“There are those five patrol ships, light cruisers, with them they outnumber your ships with more than double the numbers. But I am afraid that they are underestimating your ships. That doesn’t bode well for the discussion.” Isani responded in English. Adrian and he started alternating English and Nel when they spoke, in order to better learn each other’s language.

“In what way?” Adrian asked.

“If they don’t consider you a threat, then they most likely don’t see any reason to ally with you. These people are not like me or Lanai Sumia. We were sent to Nuva for a reason. I was born into the lower class while Sumia’s family disavowed her. These people believe themselves better than the other Nel. They will treat you the same way they would a lower class Nel.”

“I guess that we will see soon enough. Come, let’s meet our guests.”

Adrian rose from his command chair and exited the CC. Following behind him were Retsar Isani and Ship Master Paul Isaacs. As he started to exit Adrian noticed that Akash and Sora got up from behind his chair. They went almost everywhere with Adrian, and had claimed the spots behind the command chair as their sleeping area.

“No.” Adrian said to the two wolions as they started to follow, “You two stay here.”

He could see in the debate going between them, whether they should obey him or not. Adrian looked at them sternly preparing to repeat his order, but was stopped by Retsar Isani.

“You should bring them with us.” Isani said, he had spent enough time with Adrian and his wolions to become very relaxed in their presence, “The emissaries will be bringing Laas Rett, thinking to impress and intimidate you.” Retsar Isani warned Adrian that the emissaries would be accompanied by Nel Laas Rett, their warrior caste. He told Adrian that these will not be like the people that were in charge on Nuva during the Sowir attack. Nuva was a colony they dumped those who were not good enough for Nelus. He also cautioned him that from what he has seen of human soldiers we were still much more knowledgeable about the ground war in general. But that Laas Rett were trained to protect and were good at fighting in small organized groups. They served as a special police for the entire Consortium. The meeting would be a lot more informal than the first meeting with the Nuvan diplomatic team. As Nelus was in a state of war and humans already had contact with Nel a lot of formalities would be set aside. Which suited Adrian just fine, he could follow the rules and formalities if he had to, but preferred to set them aside.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to antagonize them.” Adrian said.

“If you knew more of our people you would understand that bringing Laas Rett to a meeting of peace, is an insult. You need to keep them off balance, make them understand that you are not going to be intimidated. And that you are not below them in any way.”

“What do you think Iris?” Adrian asked in his head.

“Retsar Isani knows these people better than we do.” Iris answered.

“If you are sure…” Adrian said out loud. He then looked at the two beasts. “Come along then. But do try not to scare anyone, too much.” Akash and Sora trotted to him and released short barking sounds that Adrian knew signified satisfaction that they got their way. Together they started towards the landing bay. In the landing bay they were met with Sahib and his Alpha squad dressed in full battle armor, again per Retsar Isani’s suggestion. Seven of them took positions behind the party, with Sahib coming to walk just behind Adrian. The other 3 squads of his Wolf platoon were in positions outside the landing area. Just in case.

The three emissaries each chose to come in their own private “cruise” ships, yachts. They varied slightly in appearance, but all were around 100 meters long and triangular in shape, with their front narrow and back wide, like most Nel ships. All Nel ships followed similar design, where the ship's front was narrow and then it gradually widened towards the end, with a few rough corners or edges, any unevenness was curved giving them a sleek look. While Olympus ships all looked boxy, most shaped like irregular cuboids, with weapon turrets clearly visible on the hulls in most cases. Front and middle were usually the same width, with the end of a ship abruptly widening. The dreadnought class ships were the first departure from that look, with their double-headed axe front of the ship then narrower middle and widened Citadel at the back.

A few minutes later, three small shuttles landed in the bay. After the doors were closed and the air pumped back inside the shuttles lowered their ramps and their occupants walked out. The three emissaries wore long robes that were left open in the middle, each in different color, one was red and  blue and the other two, green and black, and purple and brown. Below the robes they wore the skintight suits that most Nel wore. The people following them on the other hand, had much different getup. There were four behind each emissary. And they also wore their skintight suits, but over them they had armor, gray in color and of similar make to those of the Sahib’s team, only theirs didn’t cover their entire body. The only parts covered were chest, forearms, groin, part of their tails, and shins. The helmets on their heads covered the back, top, and sides of their heads with the same gray material. While the front was covered in some kind of black smooth material that left the lower part of their face open to air, covering only their eyes and nose. Their armor and suits had lines colored in slight variations in each group, and the groups themselves appeared to be wearing the colors corresponding to the emissary they were following.

Retsar Isani leaned to whisper in Adrian’s ear. “The Laas Rett are wearing the colors of the family house they are protecting. That was forbidden the last time I was on Nelus.”

“What does it mean?” Adrian whispered back.

“It means that families have much greater control on Nelus than I believed. Laas Rett are supposed to police and protect the people, not the families. That’s why they always wear gray. The color of Nelus skies, representing the whole.”

Adrian turned his attention back to the approaching group. The Laas Rett were all focusing on the emissaries and any possible threat. But the three emissaries were openly looking around, peering at everything. And from what Adrian could interpret of their expressions they were not impressed in the slightest. But then Adrian wasn’t an expert in Nel facial expressions. The third emissary, the one dressed in green and black, seemed reserved. With a few more steps brought them standing face to face with Adrian and his party. As the three turned their attention to Adrian they noticed Akash and Sora sitting on their hind legs on both sides of him. Adrian could see their eyes widen and the one dressed in red and blue took a step back. The Laas Rett tensed, but before anyone could react more, Retsar Isani stepped forward.

“Greeting council members.” Isani said, clasping his hands elaborately in front of his chest.

The emissary dressed in red and blue stepped up to him, “Retsar Isani. I would have loved nothing better than to take you under arrest for treason. But the ruling council voted to exonerate you because your actions resulted in the successful defense of a Nel system.” He reached over to his wrist unit and a holographic screen appeared. He did something and a moment later Isani brought his own up and after glancing at it put it down again. Adrian assumed that he received something from the emissary.

“I appreciate the council’s decision. But without the help of the human ships, Sowir would have taken the system and killed everything on the planet.” Isani said.

The emissary smiled in a condescending way and turned to Adrian. “Ah, of course. The people of Nelus give their thanks, for your help in defending Nuva.”

“It was the right thing to do.” Adrian said.

Before anyone could say anything more, Isani spoke. “This is Sestar Niraas of house Sav Ral,” Isani gestured to the lead emissary dressed in red and blue, “And these are Sestar Nimuse of house Jar Tel and Sestar Jusan of house Dai Ven.” He said first gesturing to the female Nel dressed in purple and brown, and then to the one in green and black.

Adrian bowed his head Nel way in a respectful nod, but that of an equal. And Isani continued.

“Council members, this is Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas, commander of the human First Fleet. His companion is Ship Master Paul Isaacs, commander of dreadnought Leviathan.”

Sestar Nimuse and Sestar Niraas bowed their heads in a short dip that conveyed superiority, while the Sestar Jusan matched Adrian’s bow. Adrian’s eyebrow rose at that, he tried to discern what that meant but Sestar Nimuse spoke,

“What is the purpose of those beasts.” She said looking at Akash and Sora, she was obviously not comfortable in their presence.

“There is no need to worry, they won’t harm you. I must admit that I didn’t even realize they were here. They are always by my side and I often forget about their presence.” Adrian lied and brought his hands to rest on the two wolions heads, scratching their ears. And right on cue, they started purring, which sounded more like growling.

Isani stepped close to Sora to prove that there was no danger, “There is no need for alarm Sestar. I have spent a lot of time in their company, and I assure you that they are harmless. Humans often keep animals as pets.”

“Yes, there is no danger.” Adrian said, “Now if you would please follow me, we have prepared a meeting room for us.” With that Adrian turned and led the party deeper into the ship.

***

Jusan sat in a comfortable chair in the human meeting room. He was surprised to see that they provided furniture that accommodated Nel tails. His delegation sat on the one side of the table, while Retsar Isani and Adrian Farkas sat on the other. The two beasts sat on the floor beside the table. Behind the humans were two of their Laas Rett equipped with a full body armor, while their two Nel counterparts stood behind the Nel delegation. Jusan looked at Niraas on his left, and saw that he was bothered. And he understood why. Nothing went according to Niraas’ plan. Before they came to the human ship they met on his yacht. Niraas as the leader of the party set their policy, his plan was to intimidate the humans, and wrangle out of them a trade agreement. The man really believed that it would work, that these humans would be easily impressed by them. That they would offer some simple pieces of technology and that the humans would jump on the opportunity. Sure, Nelus might have some things that were not present on Nuva, but Jusan seriously doubted that Isani or Sumia wouldn’t tell the humans exactly what kind of technology Nel possessed. Niraas was a fool, he didn’t even entertain the possibility that what the humans said about building ships for them was true. Which meant that it was Tavaar who didn’t believe, or simply didn’t care. Jusan knew that they wouldn’t even try to make an alliance. Tavaar wouldn’t allow anything to come between him and his rule of Nelus. Even if it was a doomed rule. Because without help, Nelus will fall. And the delusions of Tavaar and the rest of the council will only seal its fate. Jusan knew that he was powerless to do anything about it. He couldn’t usurp the authority of the others, and even if could, people on Nelus have been fed the same delusions for decades. They trust that the council can keep them safe.

Jusan remembered the meeting, how Niraas and Nimuse went over the scans of human technology, dismissing it immediately as primitive. Overlooking the glaring indications that they were not. The size of their ship should have at least put them on guard. But no, they trusted the analysts of house Nor Ral, who served only to confirm Tavaar’s will. Everything that Jusan has seen, from the records of battle at Nuva, to the inside of the big ship told him that Tavaar was wrong. Yes, the humans used metals for construction of their ships. But everything he has inspected showed him an amazing level of complexity. Nel discard anything that becomes obsolete once a new thing comes along. Once better materials became available they stopped using the old. Who knew what these humans managed to do with their “primitive” materials.

But in the end it didn’t matter. He was not here to aid the talks, his only task was the sphere. He glanced to the other side of the table at the human, Adrian Farkas. He tried to discern any kind of a clue to whether the human’s knew about their - and Nel - origins. But their expressions, while similar, were not exactly the same as Nel. But it seemed like they knew, it was the only explanation for their apparent desire to help Nelus, and their involvement with the defense of Nuva. Finally the silence was broken from the human side of the table.

“I assume that your people had the chance to look at the rough proposal we sent you?” Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas asked.

“Yes, we had. But before we can talk about that, there is another thing that we need to discuss.” Niraas said.

“Of course. What do you wish to discuss?” Fleet Commander asked.

“With your proposal was included the information about your actions in the Nuva system, and your plans about the future. You brought a lot of ships and materials into the system, constructing a station and a number of “defense” platforms. That is not something the council can allow. Nuva is, after all, Nel territory.” Niraas said, “We require that you remove your presence from Nuva, before any kind of agreements can be reached.”

The human looked at Niraas with an expression that could only be disbelief, and Jusan turned to Niraas with a similar expression. That was not something that they talked about in the preparation. He glanced at Nimuse, and saw no surprise in her. She knew about it, which meant that they withheld things from him.

“We have no intention of taking control of Nuva. Our only motive is to protect the people living there.” Fleet Commander said.

“And yet you have been taking our people to who knows where. We will require that our people be brought back to Nuva, and all your presence removed from the system.” Niraas said.

“We stopped being your people when you abandoned us to the Sowir!” Isani said harshly.

“That is not your decision to make traitor! Nuva belongs to the council!” Nimuse said.

“Lanai Sumia, the leader of Nuva colony declared our independence. You have no claim on us!” Isani responded.

Then Niraas spoke up, “And where is Lanai Sumia? She has been taken to an undisclosed location by these humans. Why should we acknowledge her decree, even if she had the power to make it – which she does not – when she is nowhere to be seen?”

“We believed that we would all die, it was decided that few should be saved. And Sumia went with them to provide guidance.” Isani said.

“It matters not. She had no right to make such a decree. Nuva is, and always will be Nel colony.” Niraas said, and then turned to the human. “You will remove yourselves from our territory. Only then might we discuss some kind of a trade agreement.” Niraas finished in a condescending tone.

For the entire exchange, Jusan watched the human Fleet Commander. His extremely Nel like expression went from inviting at the beginning to neutral, and now hardened and calm. Jusan could see that this person knew, not believed, but knew, that he was equal to anyone. Jusan could just for a moment see pity in the human’s eyes, pity for Niraas and his belief. And then it was gone, replaced with icy gaze.

“Trade agreement…” Fleet Commander said. “Our proposal was for more than that. We offered you ships so that you can fight the Sowir Dominion.” He said in a calm voice.

Niraas managed to collect himself a bit, but still a touch of condescension entered his voice, “Ah, yes. Our experts determined that any ships you build using this “fabricating” technology of yours won’t be of use to us. But we are willing to make a trade agre-”

“Won’t be of use?” Fleet Commander interrupted. Niraas bristled. It was a great insult to be interrupted in the middle of a sentence, especially for a council member, but Fleet Commander continued, not giving him a chance to say anything, “You haven’t even seen our technology. You didn’t inspect our ships, and from what I see you didn’t even look at the recording of the battle we provided.”

“We examined the recording. We were not impressed.” Nimuse said.

“So you will not accept an alliance with us against the Sowir?” Fleet Commander asked.

“No. We see no benefit in such an agreement. A trade agreement is more to our liking. We will of course offer some technological advances that your people obviously lack, in shipbuilding and other areas. But nothing until you remove your presence from Nuva.” Niraas said.

That was when Jusan stood up. He glared at Niraas.

“What are you doing? We need help, Sowir are still a threat and you are throwing any chance of an agreement by insulting them!” Jusan said.

“A threat? No, they overextended by trying to take on all of the Consortium by themselves. The fact that we have seen no sign of them on Nelus for a decade, proves it. They don’t have the strength to fight us, a fact confirmed by the evidence at Nuva. They were defeated by these primitive ships, and our outdated models. No, Sowir pose no threat to Nelus.” Niraas said.

“Perhaps we should continue this discussion tomorrow, after we both had time to reflect on what was said here today.” Fleet Commander said.

Niraas got to his feet, “Yes. But understand that without you agreeing to remove your forces from Nuva there will be no agreements. And the consequences of you not doing so, will be grave.” With that Niraas went out of the room, followed closely by Nimuse and their Laas Rett. Jusan looked at the human, he saw no sign that Niraas’ threat hit its mark. There was no fear in him. Jusan turned to his Laas Rett,

“Wait for me outside.” The Laas Rett bowed their heads and left the room. He didn’t send them outside because he didn’t trust them, he did. But he hoped that it would be a gesture that the human could understand.

The Fleet Commander looked at Jusan for the moment and then without any outward command from him, his guards also left the room. Leaving only Retsar Isani, the Fleet Commander and his beasts, and Jusan in the room. Jusan sat back in his chair and sighed.

“I apologize for what just happened. I had no knowledge of it, our official plan was much different. Although it too was along the same lines, only much more… Diplomatically formulated.” Jusan said with a small smile.

The human raised an eyebrow and then returned Jusan’s smile. “Apology accepted. Although it wasn’t needed. I was warned that this might happen.” Fleet Commander said, glancing at Retsar Isani. “I admit that I didn’t really believe it would be like this.”

“I am afraid that you will not get what you want here Fleet Commander. Even though we might need it desperately.”

“Please call me Adrian. You don’t agree with the rest of your party?”

“No, I don’t. I know that your help is much needed. But the rest of the council… They have deluded themselves into a false safety. Or rather they were deluded into it by House Nor Ral.” Jusan sighed, “Sowir haven’t been seen in Nelus for a decade, so they believe that they won’t turn to us, ever. They think that our converted ships coupled with our new fleet ships will be enough to match Sowir should they chose to attack. This attack on Nuva should scare them, and yet they chose to ignore it.”

“What of the people? Surely some can see that they are in danger.” Adrian asked.

Jusan smiled and looked to Retsar Isani. “No, they don’t, they believe in the council, and that it will keep them safe. That is how society on Nelus works now, those in charge lead, the rest follow.”

“But how could have you been the part of the Consortium if your leaders are like this? It makes no sense.” Adrian asked.

“Because they weren’t in charge then. And because those living on Nelus, are in a way the worst of us.”

“What do you mean?” Adrian asked.

“Our planet was very close to being overpopulated before we went into space. And tensions were high. Many feared that we will repeat the mistake of the past. A thing we are all most ashamed of. But luckily we started colonizing space. Soon after we meet the Pouute, and we formed the Consortium. Those that went to the stars were forward thinkers, those who wanted to erase the class systems. And soon in the Consortium they succeeded. Nelus became the planet filled with backward thinkers. With our best living out amongst the other planets of the Consortium.” Jusan said, stopping to choose his next words.

And then Isani continued Jusan’s thoughts, “And then the Sowir attacked. And all those living outside of Nelus died, leaving only those still following the old ways. The council retook the power on Nelus from the government, and started sending all those who were more vocal in their protest to Nuva. Soon people realized that they had to keep their opinions to themselves, or risk being sent to a world without protection.”

“Yes.” Jusan agreed.

Adrian rubbed his eyes with his left hand for a moment, and then looked at Jusan. “And you? You obviously don’t agree with their way of doing things, and yet you are on the council.”

“I am on the council because of my family’s wealth. I had a lot of trade in the Consortium, so I spent most of my time away from Nelus. And even after I lost most of my fortune, my merchant fleet was still of use to the council. I have been selling my ships to the Fleet to retrofit. And I know how to keep my mouth shut.” Jusan said.

“Is there any chance that I can change the council’s mind? That they can see reason?” Adrian asked.

“I am afraid not. The council answers to Tavaar of House Nor Ral, and he will never accept your help. Doing so would tell everyone that he can’t protect Nelus by himself, it would erode his power. And he will never allow that to happen.” Jusan said.

“And what about Nuva? If my people leave the system, will they send ships to protect it?” Adrian asked.

“I doubt it. The council won’t leave Nelus weakened.”

“And if we don’t leave? They will what, Declare war?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them. But even if they do, they won’t send ships away from Nelus. But you will lose any hope of a trade agreement.” Jusan said.

“We don’t care about a trade agreement. We have all that we need. What we care about is the Sowir Dominion. They are a threat to all of us.” Adrian said firmly.

“Then there is nothing for you here. You will not get an Alliance. The families once allowed power to slip through their hands, when the Consortium was formed. They will not let it happen again.”

“Isani?” Adrian turned to Retsar.

“I didn’t believe that things have gotten this bad. But after what just happened with the other emissaries, I must agree with Sestar Jusan. We will not find what we want here.”

“Well… I guess that then we have no further interest here.” Adrian said.

“What will you do now?” Jusan asked.

“Go back to Nuva. My leaders have made a commitment to protect the people of Nuva. We will find another way to deal with the Sowir.”

“What will you tell the council?”

“I will inform them that I need to consult with my superiors and that I will be back with the response.”

“When will you leave?” Jusan asked.

“As soon as you leave the ship. There is no point in staying any longer, and my ships are needed elsewhere.” Adrian said.

Jusan got to his feet and moved towards the doors, he turned and bowed to Adrian. Then he paused, and looked at Adrian, his hand reached down to his pocket. But after a moment or two he pulled it back and hesitantly asked.

“I must ask. Our people look so much alike. Are you aware of any connection?”

Adrian looked at Jusan puzzled. “We have done a few tests. As far as I am aware, there is a distant connection between us, one which our scientists are unable to explain for now. But the tests are only in their beginning stage.”

Jusan sighed, not hearing what he wanted. Disappointed, Jusan bowed again and left the room.

Chapter Eleven

May 2171 – Sanctuary

Tomas sat at the head of the table in the meeting room, on the one side of the table sat Elias Bakas the head of Olympus army and Linda Reiss Fleets Master, and by his side Hyeon Seo-yun Minister of Science. They were waiting for Nadia Wilson Minister of Civil Service before they started with their weekly meeting. Elias, Linda, and Seo-yun chatted away about insignificant things as they waited, while Tomas read the latest reports on his datapad. He still couldn’t make himself use his implant to read.

After another five minutes of waiting, Nadia entered the room in a hurry.

“Sorry I’m late. Jane’s appointment went a bit long.” Nadia said, referring to her wife.

“Everything okay with the baby?” Tomas asked worried, he knew how much they wanted a baby and how much they went through until they found a suitable donor.

“Yes, yes. Just a regular checkup.” Nadia responded as she took her seat at the table.

“Good.” Tomas said, putting his datapad aside, “Let’s start with you Laura. What are our chances against the Sowir should they decide to contest Nuva?”

“Well with the platforms we already have in place around the planet and the ones we plan on bringing online in the future, it will take a significantly bigger force to take the planet than what they sent last time. At least eighty ships. And sadly all our projections indicate that they have enough to spare should they decide it’s worth it to them.” Laura said.

“What are the chances of success for our plan B?” Elias asked.

Tomas grimaced, “They could be better. But we will go ahead with it, as soon as Fleet Commander returns from Nelus he will go to Tarsas system.”

“And if it goes badly? We don’t know what we will find there, we risk losing most of our ships.” Seo-yun said.

“There is no helping it. We need room to breathe. And with the failure at Nelus, this might be our only chance.” Tomas said.

“When does Fleet Commander Farkas arrive in Nuva?” Seo-yun asked Laura.

“In another five months.” Laura responded.

Seo-yun turned back to Tomas, “And you still insist on sending the Home Fleet as well?”

“Yes.” Tomas said adamantly. “If the plan is to work, we need to present a strong front. Nothing less will do.”

“And you leave Sanctuary unprotected.” Seo-yun added.

“By then we will have another two battleships finished. But in any case it is our location that is our greatest defense. Sowir don’t know where we are and are unlikely to find us on their own.”

Seo-yun sighed, “I just hope we are doing the right thing.”

“What about Nelus? What can we expect their response to be after Fleet Commander doesn’t return.” Elias asked.

“According to Retsar Isani there might not even be a response. He doubts that Nelus council will make true on their threat, they won’t dare sending ships away from Nelus, and he and Lanai Sumia both doubt that they will involve themselves in another war. Although they will no doubt continue to threaten and demand that we leave Nuva. But, we will see.” Tomas said, then turned to Laura, “What about the drone program? Any news?”

“The tests have been a success. The new FTL comms are performing better than anticipated.” Laura said.

“Drones are a lot cheaper to make, and we can build a lot more of them in a shorter period than regular ships…” Tomas said, then turned to Laura. “The question is can we use them? Will they be an adequate alternative to light and heavy cruisers?”

“Yes, they will be.” Laura said.

“So, do we start production?” Tomas asked.

“We planned for each drone team to operate a squadron of ten drones. Technically, one dreadnought could control up to sixty drones, and one battleship thirty. So let’s start with one squadron of ‘light cruiser’ drones, and then expand from there.” Laura said.

“Alright, that is decided.” Tomas said. “Nadia, how are things with the Nel? Are they fitting in well?”

“Oh yes. They are fitting in just fine, they started exploring the city, and there haven’t been any major problems. There have even been a few Mtural that ventured out into the city. The Guxcacul have sadly chosen to stay in their quarters, our atmosphere doesn’t really agree with them. They can survive in it, but it isn’t pleasant for them.” Nadia said.

“How did they live on Nuva then?” Elias asked.

“Much as they did here, they had a few facilities dedicated to them, and they stayed inside.” Nadia responded.

“Talk with them, see if there is anything we can do for them.” Tomas said.

“Of course Tomas.” Nadia said.

“The next thing I wanted to talk about is concerning the exploration fleet, and their discoveries. We need to start expanding our territory outside of Sanctuary, at the very least place some outposts.” Tomas said. They had retrofitted the 8 old ships that they brought with them from Earth into trans-capable explorer ships, and they have been exploring Sanctuary’s neighborhood and mapping out the trans-lanes for suitable systems.

“Well the most important piece of news is that we have found another trans-station in this system, close to the nebula’s boundary.” Laura said, referring to the inner boundary of the Sanctuary system. The nebula that surrounds them was around three light years at its longest and about two light years at its thinnest, in a cloud like shape. Sanctuary system was completely engulfed by it, existing inside a bubble that was around a light year in diameter. “And it is an outgoing one. But the most interesting thing is the system it leads to. The system is located some seven light years from here, on the other side from Nel and Sowir space, which is great. Also the system is filled with trans-stations, both outgoing and incoming. We have detected eleven outgoing and seven incoming, and have named the system Waypoint. It has six planets orbiting a yellow sun. A gas giant and five planets, sadly none of the planets are habitable, but one of the gas giant’s moons has air, the atmosphere has a bit higher oxygen percent, but it is habitable.” Laura added.

“Have we started exploring the lanes?” Seo-yun asked.

“Yes, two of them. One leads to a virtually empty system, just one tidally locked barren planet orbiting a red dwarf star. And the other one leads to a very interesting system. Almost the entire system is one big asteroid field orbiting a class M supergiant. We don’t know how it was formed, but the most probable theory is that the system once had more than three planets, and that following some kind of catastrophe the planets either crashed into one another or something else caused them to explode. The asteroid field is most likely the remnant of the planets. The asteroid field itself has quite a few planetoids and preliminary scans indicate that it is ore rich. We have also detected two outgoing lanes. One of which the explorer ship took out of the system, and it is currently traveling through it, so we will know the destination once it exits the trans-space. The other exploration ships are set to go through the other lanes in the Waypoint system over the next few days.” Laura responded.

“Good.” Tomas said. “Is there anything else?”

Elias coughed, “Yes. There is a thing that I think needs to be brought up. It concerns the policing of Sanctuary, and any other colonies we might have in the future.”

“What is the problem?” Tomas asked.

“Well, up until now the job of policing was left to my people, soldiers. And that was fine, there was little crime here, our population is small and everyone understood the need for unity. But now as time passes crime is steadily growing. Nothing serious for now, but it is only a matter of time until something drastic happens. And while I have people that are trained in doing police work, back from Earth, they are still a part of my army corps.” Elias said.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Nadia asked.

“This needs to change, we need a separate department that would deal only with police work.” Elias said.

“I agree.” Tomas said nodding. “I have been toying with an idea for something like this. Let me think about it for a bit, there is no rush I assume?”

“Not really, my people can handle the little things for now.” Elias said.

Tomas nodded again, “Alright then, if that is all let’s review the reports for last week.”

***

Sometime later Seo-yun walked through the gardens at the palace. It helped her relax after a hard day’s work. The sun was yet to drop below the horizon, so there was enough light that she could enjoy the sight. After a few steps she noticed a person sitting on a bench. She debated whether to leave or to approach. In the end she decided to approach. She walked to the bench and sat down. The person already sitting glanced at her, “Greetings Minister.” She said.

“Lanai.” Seo-yun responded.

They remained silent for a while, both looking at the flowers. Eventually Lanai Sumia broke the silence, “These are beautiful. I have never seen anything like them. Sadly, my people put little stock in things that have no purpose, we have nothing like this ‘garden’ of yours.”

“It does have a purpose, it soothes the mind. For some at least.” Seo-yun said, “And it looks nice.” She added.

“That it does.” Sumia agreed.

“They are from Earth, our home world.” Seo-yun said.

“Really? Your world must be a beautiful place.” Sumia said.

“It is, it can be. Sadly, my people have abused it much. We don’t value it as much as we should.” Seo-yun said.

“How so?”

“We’ve given little regard to what our actions were doing to our world. We’ve polluted our atmosphere, poisoned our ground. It took a war to make us see what we almost did to our world, and to ourselves.” Seo-yun shook her head.

“War… I still struggle to understand that. How someone can kill so many of their own kind. It is hard to understand.” Sumia said.

“It’s not so hard to understand. It is in our nature. We fought over small differences, and we fought for resources, we fought because of greed and power, and we fought because we simply could. And we fought for freedom, we fought to change things for the better.” Seo-yun said.

“I have read some of your history. You have always been divided into… Countries, I believe you call them, it is a hard concept to grasp, my people have always been one.” Sumia said.

“How did you settle your differences? You must have had them.”

“We did, but one wasn’t supposed to harm another of their own. It did happen from time to time, and it was harshly punished. But never on a scale of your wars. Disputes would be settled with Lus – a game, or talking to one another.” Sumia said.

“But what about other kind of differences, of belief. There must have been some who opposed the way things were in your society?” Seo-yun asked.

“It was understood that the way things were was unchangeable, no one would dare try and use force to change anything, not since the …” Sumia started, and then paused.

“Since what?” Seo-yun asked,

Sumia turned to look at Seo-yun for a moment, and then back at the flowers.

“Since the Order of Truth.” Sumia said slowly.

“What was that?”

“The darkest point in our history.” Sumia answered, “It might not seem like that to you, with your history, but to us it was something to never be spoken about out loud, but also never forgotten. It is the reason why no one tried to change anything with force. The Order of Truth was a religious movement in our past. It preached about a God that created Nel, and how our true home wasn’t on Nelus but in the heavens. They tried to force their belief of equality on others. They started a war, that ultimately led to a genocide, people of those times were forced to kill them all. That is how fanatical the Order was in their beliefs. That event made my people into what we are now. It united us, and also made us complacent with the way things were. Over time as we learned and grew things changed slowly, but still some had more power than others, and no one dared change anything. Then when we formed the Consortium equality became a reality. But only out in the colonies, Nelus stayed the same. Soon all those who believed in the old ways were on Nelus while the rest left for the colonies. Then at the end of the Consortium, all those people died, and Nelus remained.” Sumia said.

“I can’t understand that. War is a terrible thing I agree. But there are some things worth fighting for, worth dying for.” Seo-yun said.

“Yes, there are. But while my people would almost never dare to go to war with their own, you are perhaps all too willing. That is the greatest difference between us.” Sumia said. After that, they sat there in silence for a few minutes before Lanai Sumia spoke again.

“There was one more thing that the Order preached.” Sumia said hesitantly.

“What?” Seo-yun asked.

“They said that their God didn’t put Nel solely on Nelus, but on a two other worlds as well. And that someday we would be reunited in the heavens.” Sumia said.

“Oh?”

“When we first met and saw the similarities between us, it was a shock. But most thought nothing of it. But now that you have found scientific evidence that clearly shows that we are related, albeit distantly, it has sparked talk amongst my people, here and back on Nuva.” Sumia said.

“What kind of talk?” Seo-yun asked.

“That perhaps Order was right. These talks are dangerous for my people. Every Nel is taught from a young age about the Order, and they are taught about what we did to them. It is the thing we are most ashamed of as a people. If they start believing that what the Order believed was in fact the truth, well that could pose a great many problems.” Sumia said.

“And you want to lie to them? Tell them that we are not related at all?” Seo-yun asked.

“I… Yes – No. I don’t know. I don’t know how to proceed, I am now responsible for millions of people.”

“In my experience, secrets have a way of doing more harm than good. Not that there aren’t some things that are best left untold. But it is your responsibility. You must find the right balance between trusting your people with the truth, and keeping secrets for their benefit. That is what it means to be a leader.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia sighed, and moved her palm sideways and back agreeing, “You are right. I think that I will tell them. What the Order spoke of is most likely just coincidence, and we still know very little about the connection between us.”

Seo-yun smiled. “Your choice.”

Sumia turned to look Seo-yun in the eyes, “You are very wise for one so young.” She said.

Seo-yun looked at her confused for a moment. She studied Sumia, and saw few faint lines around her eyes and brow. Because of her skin tone it was hard to see them on the first glance, and Seo-yun never really paid much attention. If she was looking at a human that hadn’t gone through life extension treatments she would say that Sumia was about forty years old. And then it occurred to her. She coughed uncomfortably, “Ah… How old do you think I am?” Seo-yun asked.

“I would say somewhere around twenty cycles.” Sumia said. Seo-yun quickly had her implant do the conversion. Twenty Nel cycles equaled twenty eight human years.

“I’m afraid you are wrong. I am technically one hundred and seventy years old, close to one hundred and twenty of your cycles.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia blinked, “But you look so young. It is rare for a Nel to reach that age. How long do humans live?”

Seo-yun grimaced, she thought that Tomas already told her. Or that they realized it on their own. But then again how could they? “Humans don’t really have a life span, technically we live forever.”

Sumia’s eyes widened and she looked at Seo-yun in shock. “But, that is impossible.”

Before Sumia could say anything else Seo-yun continued. “It is a recent development. We used to live about one hundred years at the most. Then we found a way to prolong our life a bit more. And finally we found a way to make our bodies live forever.”

Sumia stood up and looked down on Seo-yun. “Yo-you changed yourselves?” She asked incredulously.

“Yes.” Seo-yun said simply.

Sumia looked at Seo-yun for another moment, and then sat back down on the bench. “Well, that explains everything. I believed that you were all just young, it made sense. If one was to colonize another part of space, it would be preferable to send young people. What age is the oldest person here?” She asked.

“There is a woman working on the Olympia station that is two hundred and five years old.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia glanced at her quizzically, and Seo-yun understood the question in her eyes.

“Immortality is a recent discovery. We found it just before we started our trip here. That’s why she is so young.” Seo-yun answered with a twinkle in her eye.

Sumia looked at the garden and laughed softly. “And to think I once thought you primitive.”

Seo-yun smiled weakly, “We are, in a way. We have been in space for more than a hundred years. But in truth everything we have accomplished by now, we did in a couple of decades. And we are still adapting our atmosphere based knowledge to space. But genetics are probably the area we are the most advanced in.”

“Well, I guess that it is me that is a child here.” Sumia said.

“No one here looks at you that way. We value knowledge and skill above all else. And you are obviously a skilled and knowledgeable person.”

Sumia smiled at Seo-yun, and then looked back at the garden. “Do you think that my people could become like yours? I mean to live as long as you do, and to change our society to be more like yours.” Sumia asked softly. Seo-yun couldn’t help but smile at that. If only Sumia knew how much they suffered in order to become so unified, to create Olympus.

“I already have my people working on the life extension. There are differences between us, so it will take some time for us to learn your genetic code.” Seo-yun said.

“You already started? Why would you do that when we are not your people?” Sumia asked.

“Humans always struggle between our two natures. We like to think of ourselves as good. But truth is that each one of us has those evil desires within.” Seo-yun paused, looking at the sky. Then she turned to Sumia. “There is a very old story from my home world from the people called Cherokee. It goes something like this:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”” Seo-yun continued, “A wolf is an animal from our home world, it is used here as the metaphor for our inner selves. Do you understand what the story is about?”

Sumia didn’t answer immediately, instead she took her time and thought about it for a while, “Yes, I think that I understand. I think that it speaks for my people as well. Perhaps my people fed the wrong animal for far too long.”

They remained there, looking at the garden until the sun moved past the horizon and the night fell.

Chapter Twelve

July 2171 – Second Fleet

Fleet Commander Johann Stern sat in her ready room going over the files on Ra’a’zani warships as she waited for her fleet to exit a trans-lane. The Resistance, or more accurately the Olympus Ai Asumy managed to get a few visual scans of the ships. Sadly, there were no more thorough scans available, as they couldn’t risk detection. There were a few classes of ships detected, but the one she was most interested in were the ships that they would encounter in Sol. The ships were around 450 meters long and 220 wide, about half the size of her Monarch, but still larger than her battleships. The ships hulls were covered in scale like plates that overlapped. There were no weapons visible or anything else for that matter save for the drives at the back of the ship. The resistance did however record an instance when the scales moved to reveal launcher that then fired a missile like weapons down on Earth. So they knew that the ships were armed and that the weapons were retracted into the hull. Everything else was a mystery. They didn’t know what kind of weapons they had, defenses or what materials their ships were made of. They knew very little. The more she read, the less she knew, and Johanna worried that they might have rushed ahead of themselves. They had no way of knowing if her ships would be on par with the Ra’a’zani. Although the resistance information from the ground was promising. They said that their military technology on the ground wasn’t all that more advanced that theirs, which meant that their space technology probably wasn’t as advanced as well. Still, Johanna’s ships would outnumber her opponents. And her ships went through a big retrofit back at Sanctuary, getting most of their weapons updated.

Tomas Klein has given her orders to send a message to the Ra’a’zani before engaging them, they had their protocols and Asumy provided everything they need to know about the Ra’a’zani language. They even had their translators programed with the Ra’a’zani language. But Johanna doubted that any talks between the them would do anything, from everything she read Johanna could see that Ra’a’zani were monsters and slavers. They won’t retreat without a fight.

A ping from her imp told Johanna that it was time for her to go the CC. She got up from behind her desk and went to the CC. She entered and took her place in the command chair.

“We will be exiting trans-space in ten minutes Fleet Commander.” Ship Master Andros Venter said.

Johanna nodded and turned her command board on. To the side she used the holographic menus to send an order to the entire fleet, putting them on alert. The system they were entering now was the second system that the Union ship discovered with intelligent life in it. And as such could potentially have a space faring civilization.

“Exiting trans-space!” Navigation Handler said. No one felt anything as they returned to normal space, as they never did, the transition was seamless. And as the viewer wasn’t turned on, the only thing that told them that they were now back in normal space was the fact that the holo started to update as it gathered light from the system and from the information provided by the fleets passive sensors.

Johanna and the rest of the CC crew sat quietly and waited for the holo to finish drawing a picture of the system. As soon as it finished, Johanna leaned forward in her chair and looked closely at the fourth planet in the system.

“Well, I guess that this is going to be a problem.” Johanna said. They still didn’t have a quality picture of the planet itself, but there were objects in its orbit. Objects that were clearly artificial.

“Do we know what those are?” Andros asked.

“Most likely satellites.” Sensor Handler said. “There are two objects that are larger, most likely stations of some kind. We need to get closer to verify. I am also getting a lot of radio signals, comparable to Earth in early 2000s. It looks like they just started exploring space.”

Andros turned to Johanna and raised an eyebrow. They knew what they could encounter, and had a plan. But the position of the inhabited planet in its current orbit puts it right between their fleet and the outgoing trans-station. Which meant that if they had even a primitive way of watching the skies they would detect them when they passed their world. Going around wouldn’t work either, as it would add too much time to their trip.

“Start passively scanning everything, let’s see if they have a presence anywhere else in the system. And try to discern at what level their technology is.” Johanna said.

“Should we start for the trans-station?” Andros asked.

“Yes, but let’s go at half speed. We don’t know if they will detect the light of our exit from trans-space, it will be visible only for an instant but let’s be cautious.” Johanna said.

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Andros said.

“Turiel, start studying the alien signals. Language translation, software compatibility – the standard procedure. I want a workable translation of their language within hours.” Johanna said.

“I’ve already started Fleet Commander.” Turiel’s voice said over the speakers.

“Good.”

***

A loud noise woke Quvor, he opened his eyes to a darkened room the only illumination coming from various small lights on the walls. He reached to his side and shut the alarm off.

“Computer, lights.” Quvor said.

“Good morning, Commander Quvor.” The Computer said in its synthesized voice.

“Good morning Computer.” Quvor responded, he felt an itch on his snout as he always did when he woke up. So he reached with his upper left arm and scratched it, as he used his lower arms to unbuckle himself from his sleeping harness. As he reached for the last buckle he used his upper right arm to grab the handhold above his head and then pull himself out. He floated over to the other side of the room in zero gravity, and reached a locker with his uniform. He slept only in his undergarments, so he pulled out his uniform one piece and started putting it on, which could be tricky when you are floating around.

“Computer, report.” Quvor said as he was struggling with his uniform.

“We are still on the correct course, no alterations needed. Engines are within acceptable limits. Air supply is at the projected level, the repair to the air tank is holding.” Computer said. Quvor’s ship had an unfortunate encounter with the small grain of dust that made a small hole in one of his air tanks. He was losing air fast so he was forced to put on his EVA suit and fix the damage himself. It had a lot of people back home on Trivax tearing their fur off watching and listening as he repaired the damage. But he had no choice, his mission was a long one, and without air he was as good as dead. Thankfully, he managed to contain the breach in time, he still had enough air to reach his target and get back. But just barely. His mission was to visit the fifth planet in their system – Rofvax.

It was to be a pivotal moment in his peoples history. They had sent unmanned probes there before, but this is the first manned mission to Rofvax, and Quvor will be the first Trivaxian ever to step on another planet. Of course, his people have already visited the two moons orbiting Trivax, but they were much closer. Going to another planet, well that was something… Monumental. And Quvor’s name will be etched into the history of his people for all time, up there with the greatest of his people. The fact that he was traveling alone will also be noted. His people didn’t mind being alone for great stretches of time, but taking a trip to another planet alone was a difficult prospect. The reason for that was mostly cost, and resources.

“Good.” Quvor said, as he finally won the battle with this clothes, “Anything else to report.”

“Yes, the scanning computer has detected an anomaly.” Computer said.

“What kind of anomaly?” Quvor asked intrigued.

“Unknown.”

Quvor’s snout twitched, and the small ears on top of his head flapped for a moment.

“Put the data on the bridge.” Quvor said and grabbed a handhold on a wall and pushed himself down the opening. He floated through his ships living area and then through another opening into the room that served as the ship’s center. Quvor strapped himself into the chair and started reading the report on the anomaly. The passive scanner detected an unknown light source close to Rofvax, but there wasn’t supposed to be anything there that could reflect light. There were no probes there or anything like that, and even if there were reflected light wouldn’t have the kind of intensity as this event had. The light was there only for a moment, but enough for his sensor to note it. Sadly, his ship’s main telescopes were pointed in the other direction, and the computer wasn’t smart on its own to move the telescope in the right direction. And it didn’t wake up Quvor as it calculated no danger to him or the ship, and it was very important for Quvor to get a full sleep every night. The event happened nine hours ago, just after he went to sleep. He doubted that whatever created light was still there, but nevertheless he turned the telescope towards it, and set it to record.

“Computer, send this data back to command on Trivax.” Quvor said.

“Right away Commander.”

***

“We have detected something.” Sensor Handler said.

Johanna spun in her chair, “What?”

“Well, it is either a ship, or a probe. Probably a step up from Earths early 2000s space technology. We almost didn’t see it, as it has almost no energy signature and is moving very slowly. It is on a course that will eventually lead it to the fifth planet in system.” Sensor Handler said.

Hearing that Johanna relaxed. “Can it see us?”

“I doubt it, from what we can see, it uses only visual scanning equipment, and a primitive one at that. It won’t be able to watch everything around it. Although it will probably see us when we turn our backs to it.”

“Good, keep an eye on it.” Johanna said.

***

“I am detecting a heat increase in the engine 3.” The synthesized voice of the Computer said.

Quvor immediately sat up in his chair, it has been four days since the anomaly. And his scanning of the area of its origin gave no results.

“What? What is the cause?” Quvor asked alarmed.

“Unknown.”

“Run a full diagnostics.” Quvor said. He reached over to his computer and looked at the gauges. An alarm started flashing on his screen. The engines were steadily gaining heat, the cooling mechanism seemed to have failed.

“This makes no sense.” Quvor said to himself, looking at the diagnostics it seemed like everything was in order. But now with the engines overheating, it looked like that grain of dust did more damage than he initially thought.

“Computer deploy secondary cooling package.” Quvor said. Doing so would deplete his reserves, but he had no choice. He hoped that would give him time to figure out what was happening. “And start sending everything back to command.” The command was minutes away by laser comms, but it was still only him out here.

Quvor looked as the engine heat started to drop, soon they were again in the acceptable range..

With the danger delayed Quvor sighed in relief. But he still didn’t know what was wrong, the diagnostics still read as if everything was alright.

***

Johanna heard a ping in her imp and immediately woke up. “Yes?” She asked over the implant link.

“I am sorry to wake you Johanna. But there has been a development.” Andros said.

“What is it?” Johanna asked, getting up and dressed.

“Well, it’s about the ship we’ve been keeping an eye on.” Andros said.

“Did it see us?” Johanna asked.

“No, it’s just that we are close enough to scan it in more detail. And I think that you should come and see this.” Andros said.

Johanna finished dressing, “I’m on my way.” She said and closed the link.

A minute later she was sitting in her command chair looking at the hologram of the ship. It was a jumble of parts, big tanks and small modules attached to a big rear end. Although it was just barely half the size of an Olympus light cruiser.

“So, what was it you wanted to tell me.” Johanna asked.

Andros nodded to the Adjutant standing close. Johanna recognized her as the Sensor Handler from the third watch.

“I have been keeping an eye on the alien ship, and as we got a more detailed scan I noticed a few things.” She took a breath and then pointed to the side of the hologram to one of the ship’s tanks. “The ship appears to have suffered some damage, most likely it hit some debris that punctured a hole in one of its air tanks. The damage was repaired, but it looks like the repairs aren’t holding properly. The tank is leaking air very slowly. And it appears as if the ship took other damage as well. Mainly to its engine cooling system. The damage is miniscule, I doubt that their sensors can even detect it. But it poses a threat to the ship, if it is not repaired soon the ship’s engine will start overheating. If the air tank doesn’t burst first.”

Johanna looked at the small ship. “You said it has air tanks. So it is manned then?”

“It is highly unlikely that it is unmanned.” Sensor Handler said.

“And you want us to do what exactly? We are not supposed to interact with them. Bad enough that they will see us as we pass through their system. Should we take the ship on board? Fix it?” Johanna asked.

“I don’t know Fleet Commander, I just thought that you should know.” Sensor Handler said.

Johanna sighed, “Is there any chance that whoever is on that ship will notice the damage and fix it?”

“If they haven’t until now, I doubt that they will figure it out in time to save themselves. They have a few days at the most.”

“Thank you Adjutant. That will be all.” Johanna said, the Sensor Handler moved back to her spot, leaving only Andros standing close to Johanna’s chair.

“What are you going to do?” Andros asked. Johanna thought about sending a message back to Sanctuary, but even with the comm relays it would take four days for the message to get there, and another four for their response. No, the decision was hers alone.

“I have no idea.” Johanna answered.

Chapter Thirteen

Trivax system

Quvor sat strapped into his chair panicking. He couldn’t figure out what was wrong, all the test told him that everything was fine, and yet he could still see his engines heat levels rising. The mood back on Trivax was the same, none of the geniuses back home could figure out what was wrong. Only they weren’t in his place. Quvor ran a diagnostic test for the tenth time in the last couple of hours, hoping that something would change. When that test came normal as well, he realized that he would have to leave the ship and see if he can find anything from the outside. He was putting it off because it was unlikely, the ship was big, and he only had a limited air supply for his suit. It would take forever to check the ship without knowing where to look.

“Commander, scanners have detected a fast moving object.” The Computer said.

Quvor frowned, “Where and what is it?”

“The object is on an intercept course with us. I am unable to identify the object.” The Computer said.

Quvor felt a strange feeling in his gut. “Show me.” The screen in front of him changed and showed two dots, one moving extremely fast towards the other. “This is impossible. Nothing can move that fast!” Quvor exclaimed, the object would reach his position in a manner of hours. He quickly started sending all the data back to the command, and ten minutes later as they got the data, they started debating on the nature of the object. Most insisted that it must be some kind of an asteroid, but the chance of it being on a direct course with Quvor’s ship was astronomical, not to mention that it was moving faster than any asteroid ever recorded.

“Can you get me a visual?” Quvor asked.

“Yes Commander.”

A moment later a blurry image appeared on Quvor’s screen. He looked at the video feed trying to figure out what it is.

“This is out of focus.” Finally Quvor said. “Can you sharpen the image?”

“No Commander. The object is moving too fast for our sensors to adjust.”

Quvor shivered, whatever was on his screen wasn’t an asteroid. He shut the video feed off, the only thing looking at a blurry image did, was enhance his fear. He felt hopeless, he couldn’t do anything but wait. The command back home felt the same way, but they weren’t here with him. Quvor watched as the dot that represented the unidentified object drew closer. And then some time later he felt his two hearts stop for a moment as he heard the Computer telling him that the object started slowing down.

Quvor couldn’t believe this was happening to him. First the incident with the air tank, then the trouble with the engines, and now this. Hundreds of scenarios passed through his head as the dot moved closer and closer. Most involved him being taken prisoner and experimented on. He didn’t voice his fears out loud, lest he call them to become reality. He wondered what the control back on Trivax thought. They could see everything that he could, albeit a few minutes later. The Computer told him when the object slowed and came close enough for his sensors to give him a viewable image, but he didn’t want to see it. He was afraid. Then the dot moved closer and closer, and it finally stopped just besides his dot. For a few moments he just stared at it, not moving at all. And then he gathered his courage and unclasped his straps. He pushed off the chair and moved to a window on the side of his bridge.

The sight that met him was that of a ship. It had lights on the outside that illuminated its hull. It was more than double the size of his ship, and he could see that it was much more advanced. Its hull was smooth and black, filled with sharp angles. And with things mounted on the hull. Quvor felt his fear intensify. He didn’t recognize what those things were, but he could guess. He saw the markings on the side of the ship, but of course couldn’t read them. In a moment he felt both elated and terrified. His people weren’t alone in the universe. Since the first time they looked to the stars, they have always wondered if there was someone else out there. They have written stories about them, imagined what they would be like. And now he knew that they existed. A million questions came to his mind. Who were they? Where did they come from? And most importantly – What did they want with him?

“We are receiving a radio transmission from the unidentified object Commander.” Quvor twisted around at the sound of the Computer’s voice.

“What?”

“We are receiving a radio transmission from the unidentified object Commander.” The Computer repeated.

Quvor immediately pushed himself to the chair and strapped himself in. He accessed the communications panel, and then he hesitated. After a few moments he reached over and played the message.

“Greetings.” A clearly synthetic voice said in Trivaxian, which startled Quvor. “We wish your people no harm, and we apologize if our presence startled you. We did not plan on contacting you directly, as our ships are only passing through your system.” Quvor’s ears twitched. Ships? He thought. “But we could not do nothing once we discovered the plight of your ship. Our ships sensors detected the damage to your ship, and we determined that with your current technology it is unlikely that you will realize what is wrong in time. We want to offer our help in repairing the damage to your ship. You can send a response to this frequency. If you do not wish our help, we will leave you alone. And if you wish it, answer quickly. Our ships cannot spare much time in this system and your ship’s time is running out.”

As the message ended Quvor’s fear abated a little, and again he wanted nothing more than to ask them all the questions he had, but the fact that they detected what was wrong with his ship brought an feeling of haste to him. But still he hesitated, he didn’t know if he could trust them. And how would they repair his ship? Their ship was larger, but he doubted that they could put his ship into theirs. Would they come on board his ship? So many questions. As the time passed, he debated waiting for a response from the command, but he knew that the decision was ultimately his. Quvor took a deep breath and then recorded a message.

***

Ship Master Karen Lee sat in the CC of the light cruiser Ajax, looking at her holo and the alien ship shown there. Then her Communications Handler turned to her,

“We have a response Ship Master. They accept our offer to help.”

Karen turned to her High Prime Robert Tully, “Send the repair team.” Robert opened a channel to the shuttle crew. They already knew what they needed to repair the ship, and had already fabricated the required materials. Then she turned back to the Comm Handler, “Send a message informing them of the repair team.” The Comm Handler nodded and started recording another message.

“Ceres, can you send the translation of the alien language to the repair teams implants?” Karen asked her ship’s Ai.

“Yes Ship Master. The translation isn’t complete, but it will suffice.” Ceres answered.

“Good.” Karen said.

Her High Prime turned to her as he closed the link with the shuttle crew.

“Can you imagine traveling through space in something like that?” He asked, pointing at the alien craft. Karen’s only response was a shiver.

***

Quvor watched as a smaller ship exited the big one and drew closer to his ship. It was much smaller than even his ship, it came to a stop above the air tank 3.

“Commander.” The Computer’s voice startled Quvor. “We are getting a communication request, it is coming from the smaller object.”

Quvor turned around and went back to his chair, he had again approached the window when the aliens told him they would be sending a repair team. Now he reached for the communications panel and accepted the communications.

“Hello? Do you hear me?” A synthetic voice asked in Trivaxian, obviously it was some kind of translator device. Quvor gathered himself and answered,

“Yes, I can hear you.” He said.

“I just wanted to let you know that we will be sending a team to the surface of your ship to repair the damage.”

“Uh… Okay.” Quvor lamely said. He looked over to another panel that showed a video feed of the outside of his ship. The cameras looked at the areas of his ship and were fixed. He studied the one that showed air tank 3. Soon he saw three figures ‘drop’ to his ship’s hull. Quvor gasped as he saw them, the first thing he noticed was that they were bipedal like his people were, but that they lacked a second pair of hands. And the next was their suits. They looked more like armor, and were slim, at least that was how they looked. The three aliens walked on his ship’s surface as if it had gravity, so Quvor assumed some kind of magnetic boots. Each suit had a cable connected to it stretching outside of the camera’s view, probably back to their ship, and then after a moment two of the aliens extended their hands alongside the cables and caught some kind of boxes that came down the cables. They detached the boxes from the cables, and started working on his ship’s hull.

Quvor again felt a shiver of fear ran through him, they could be sabotaging his ship. But he knew that if they wanted to destroy his ship, they surely had easier ways. He watched as the two crouched down close to the place where his repairs were and start working. He couldn’t really see what they were doing, the camera was too far away. The third alien walked to the access hatch for the air tank 3 controls. He leaned down and opened it. He too started working. A few minutes later he glanced at the gauges for the air tanks, and saw that the pressure in the air tank 3 was dropping rapidly. Immediately Quvor sighed in relief. The aliens were helping him.

A short time later, the aliens finished with the air tank and then moved to the engines. All the time they worked Quvor was busy recording everything about them and their ship. Control on Trivax watched with him breathlessly as the aliens repaired his ship, they were flabbergasted by the events. They had no plan for anything like this, and never did even a small possibility of something like this enter their minds. A couple of hours before they were alone in the universe, and now an alien race was helping repair his ship. It was mind-blowing.

Then after they finished working on the engines they again contacted Quvor.

“We are done, you shouldn’t have any problems now. But you really should build your ships more… Sturdier.” The generated voice said.

“I’ll be sure to tell that to my people back home.” Quvor said, “Thank you.”

“No problem friend.” He saw them start back to their ship.

“Wait!” Quvor said, “I.. I have so many questions.”

After a short pause he heard, “I know. What is your name?”

“Quvor.” He said.

“Well Quvor,” The alien said. Quvor heard his name spoken by a real voice not the synthesized one like the rest of his words, and it wasn’t exactly right. “My name is Karen.” The alien continued, now it was the alien’s name that was said in its real voice. “I know that you have a lot of questions, but I can’t give you the answers. Even this small interference will have grave repercussions for your people. We don’t want to do any more harm.” With that Quvor saw them getting pulled back to their small ship. “Safe travels Quvor.”

Quvor looked as the small ship turned and went back to the bigger one, then the big ship slowly turned and left.

***

“I don’t really feel right leaving them like this. We have already done irreversible damage to their society.” Andros said.

Johanna felt the same, it seemed somehow irresponsible to her. They pass through their system, changing everything about their views of the universe, and then just leave. She chose to involve herself, to help an alien ship in need, because she felt that it was the right thing to do. She remembered what Fleets Master Reiss told her. That she was to use her own judgment, but not to endanger her own mission. But what about this alien world? It will change now that they know that there are other races out there. Johanna remembered all those movies and books that she so loved in her youth. In most of those, the advanced species would withhold knowledge, saying how the lesser race wasn’t yet advanced enough. It always seemed silly to Johanna. And now she was in that position. She knew little about these people, hell she didn’t even know what they looked like, what right did she have to change their world? But she had to pass through their system, because of the needs of her own people. The least she could do was give them something in return for shattering their reality.

“Turiel.” Johanna said.

“Yes, Fleet Commander?”

“I want you to put together a package of information…”

***

“Commander.” The Computer said.

“What is it?” Quvor asked.

“We are getting another transmission, from the unidentified object.” The Computer said.

“Well, play it.” Quvor said.

“It is a video message Commander, and there is also a data file.”

Quvor’s ears twitched and he reached over and played the video.

An Image of an alien sitting in a chair aboard some kind of control center appeared on Quvor’s screen. The alien had no hair on its face, only on top of its head and it was a long mane that fell was pulled back behind it. The alien started speaking but no sound came through, then after a short delay a synthetic voice started speaking. “I wanted to keep the interaction between our people to a minimum. Because your people have not yet reached the level where you can travel amongst the stars. The things did not go that way, because I made a choice. And even if I didn’t make it, you would have still been changed.” The alien paused, “The universe is a dangerous place. If you choose to join us out here, you will need to be ready to face the consequences of that course. So I leave you with this small gift. I hope that you use it wisely. Farewell.” The screen went black, and Quvor looked at the data file the aliens have sent. Most of the information was in an alien language, but there were a few files that were translated into his, along with a guide to deciphering their language. Quvor’s eyes widened. From what he could understand, this data will change everything.

***

“Did I do the right thing?” Johanna asked.

“I don’t know. I guess that we will see in time.” Andros said, and Johanna nodded. The aliens have been trying to contact them for the entire trip her fleet took through their system on its way to the trans-station. But Johanna never answered. What she gave them would have to be enough. There was little of importance to Olympus there, mostly things to put them on the right track. After the light cruiser Ajax returned to the fleet, they knew where to look, and once they passed their planet they could see the glare of her ships drives. Johanna tried to imagine what was happening on their world as they watched her fleet pass.

“We are ready for transfer Fleet Commander.” Navigation Handler said.

“Notify the fleet, we are clear to begin transfer.” Johanna said.

***

Quvor was glued to his screen watching the feed from his home planet. They used a much more powerful telescope that was in the orbit of his home world to watch the aliens. And he had access to that feed. There were ten ships in total, and Quvor was amazed to see that the ship that helped him was one of the smallest ones. The largest was more than ten times bigger than Quvor’s ship.

Things have already changed drastically back home. At first the government wanted to keep the knowledge of aliens a secret, but such things can rarely be kept. The information leaked to the public, and the impact was monumental. Some people rejoiced in the knowledge that they were not alone. That there were others out there. Others took to the streets, rioting. But as aliens kept going without answering any communications, the situation calmed down a bit. Things were changing. Quvor looked at the alien fleet and wondered how different his life would have been if they didn’t happen by. If he managed to figure out what was wrong with his ship on his own he would have continued on his path to Rofvax. If everything went according to plan he would have been the first person to step on Rofvax. And now he was ordered to turn back, the mission he once thought would be the greatest achievement of his life was now forgotten. His name would be remembered in his peoples history, but not as the first person on Rofvax, but as the first Trivaxian to make contact with an alien race.

Then, as he watched the alien fleet a flash of violet appeared among the ships, and in the next moment they were gone.

Chapter Fourteen

August 2171 – Earth

The stench of the city was rotten, so Aileen adjusted the mask on over her mouth. She walked among the filthy and the sick. People lying down on the street in makeshift cots, dirty and thin. Their grimed faces hiding bleak expressions. Few bothered to look up at Aileen as she passed. They cared for nothing, living only out of habit. Aileen called them the walking dead, because that was what they looked like to her. Ra’a’zani left them alone, they were insignificant to Ra’a’zani needs. When they need slaves for the breeding camps or the mines, they go after those healthy and young. Mostly from those who managed to come together in communities, whether in the cities or out in the wilderness to survive the shortages of food and water. They were what Aileen referred to as free slaves, in her own private thoughts. Free because Ra’a’zani leave them alone for the most part, trusting their irregular patrols and inspections to keep them in check. These people have long ago learned that trying to hide weapons and anything else that the Ra’a’zani banned, was a quick way to get entire communities killed. Instead they go about their lives, such as they are, and accept that at any moment they can be taken to the mines or the breeding camps. The next level of slaves were the ones Aileen referred to as entitled slaves, those who have sold out their fellow humans when the Ra’a’zani came. They did whatever the Ra’a’zani wanted them to do. Build, serve, some even joining suspect communities in order to later expose them to Ra’a’zani. They had privileges, food, water, power, all in exchange for their freedom. Aileen was good with that, she was after all an entitled slave. She heard speeches from the other slaves about what freedom is, and what it means. But it meant nothing to her, she was young when the Ra’a’zani came. And before she lived on the streets, much like some lived now. For her things didn’t change much.

Finally, after walking another few blocks she came to her destination. She entered the small gray brick building. Cots were arranged inside on the both sides of the room. She knew that the ‘owner’ of the building allowed people to come inside and sleep during the night, usually different people every night. As it was now day, it was mostly empty. Aileen spotted the person she was here to see and made her way to him. The black robed figure heard her steps and turned around. Once he recognized her, his face split in a welcoming smile.

“Ah, child. You have come again?” The man said.

“Yes, Father.” Aileen said, she didn’t know his name, but most people simply called him Father, so Aileen did as well.

“Bless you child.” He said. Aileen grimaced, he always said such things when she came around.

“Here, I brought you this.” Aileen said, taking the bag of her shoulder. Inside were a few items, food and medicine, that she managed to get from the Ra’a’zani base.

“Thank you. It means much to me and these people.” The Father said.

“It is nothing, just a few things.” Aileen said.

“To us it means everything.”

Aileen stood there in an uncomfortable silence as the Father took out the items from the bag and arranged them on the table in front of him. She didn’t know how to act around the man, he always put her off guard. She remembered the time that she first met him. She was out doing an errand for Vit’r’an when she decided to take a short cut through the slum part of the city. And there she saw him, he was kneeling close to a little girl giving her food, and Aileen stopped to watch. After he fed the little girl he moved on to the next person lying on the floor, repeating the same action until he fed them all. Something about that stuck with Aileen, there among such filth and wickedness was this one man that was kind. She kept coming back looking at what he did for the people. And then after that she started sneaking food and medicine out of the base. She didn’t even really know why she was doing it, and yet every time the opportunity presented itself she would do the same thing.

“This will help a lot.” The Father said.

“I’m glad that I can help.” Aileen said.

“I just wish that there was something I can do to repay you…”

“There is no need Father.”

“You have my thanks, and if you ever have need something that I can help you with, you only need to ask.”

Aileen nodded respectfully and turned to leave. Before she left she turned and saw him looking at her with a thoughtful expression. Then she was out of the door and started the walk back to the base.

A few minutes of walking later, Aileen entered the base. Like always the Ra’a’zani paid little attention to her, the other humans avoided her, while the thralls gave her a sharp look as she passed. She made way to the chambers assigned to the humans. She had little to do these days, ever since Vit’r’an’s sire Tig’r’an arrived, she was left more or less on her own. Tig’r’an disliked slaves, so Vit’r’an rarely summoned Aileen to his presence. That allowed her more opportunities to steal supplies, but also left her bored. As an entitled slave, she had more or less free reign to come and go as she please.

She entered the hallway leading up to her room, but stopped as she noticed two other slaves whispering in front of one of the rooms. She quickly hid behind the wall, and then peeked out. She couldn’t hear them, but she saw one slip something to the other, then enter the room while the other continued down the hallway in Aileen’s direction. She quickly took a few steps back and started walking normally. As she turned the corner, the other slave looked at her but kept walking. Aileen reached her room and brought her red armband up to the door sensor and they slid open. She entered and swiped her hand in front of the sensor inside the room, closing the door.

Aileen thought about what she just saw. This was not the first time she saw something similar. There have been strange occurrences for the few months now. And even a few new slaves. At first Aileen didn’t pay any attention to it, she didn’t socialize with the other humans. But recently, she noticed a lot of whispering, and slaves moving around places they were not supposed to. She even debated reporting it, but hesitated. It was one thing to report someone that has harmed her personally, and quite another to report people that have done nothing to her. So she tried to ignore it. But her eyes were trained on the streets since young age. She noticed things. She could feel a change amongst the other human slaves. Something has changed for them. She couldn’t exactly put her finger on it, but it was there.

Aileen shook her head and moved to her bed. She had no reason to worry, whatever was happening had little to do with her. She had long ago learned the truth about their fate. Aileen closed her eyes and went to sleep. For the first time in decades, her dreams were not nightmares.

***

Dakar Vit’r’an – the Overlord of the Sol system stood on the bridge of his flagship, the Blood Claw. Looking at the screens at the far wall which showed his sire’s ships on their way to the hyperspace barrier of the Sol system. The other warships that were under Vit’r’an’s command – three ships on patrols in the outer system and the one that was guarding the mining belt – were with his sire’s ships now. No longer his to command. Leaving him only with the Blood Claw to keep the entire system under control. He wasn’t worried, humans posed no threat, he made sure of that when he took the planet. There were still cargo ships going from the belt to the planet and back, cargo ships that he now had a year load with as much materials as he could and then bring them to his clan in the core. As he watched the ships slowly creep over the barrier, Vit’r’an thought about the Destra’ka. The weapon has been transferred to his ship, primed and ready to be used. Vit’r’an’s feelings about it were conflicting, on the one side, he understood the reasoning behind the decision. If the this new race was as big of a threat to Ra’a’zani as it seemed it might be hundreds of rotations before they were able to come back, and the humans couldn’t be left unsupervised. But on the other side, he felt like they could make it work, the Sol system was very rich. It might not be anywhere near the output of their other systems, but in time it could be. In any case, the decision has been taken out of Vit’r’an’s hands. He wouldn’t dare disobey his sire.

Then the ships on the screen entered hyperspace, and were gone. In fact, they had left several seka ago, but Vit’r’an’s ship in Earth’s orbit just now received their light. A Ra’a’zani at the communication station turned to Vit’r’an. “We received a message for you Dakar, it’s from Elder Tig’r’an.”

Vit’r’an accessed his terminal and turned on the privacy field before starting the message.

“Vit’r’an, before we leave I wanted to tell you that I have enjoyed the time I spent with you. I see now that it was not a mistake that I acknowledged you. And rest assured I will keep pushing things in your benefit back in the core. But make no mistake, while I am pleased with your progress, I will not tolerate failures. Make sure to follow my orders to the letter. And once you return to the core, we shall see where your future might lead.” With that Tig’r’an ended the message. Vit’r’an looked at the blank screen thinking about what his sire said. It felt good to be thought so highly of by someone of Tig’r’an’s stature. But it also put a lot of pressure on Vit’r’an, he needed to make sure that he does not disappoint his sire. Elder Tig’r’an might be able to push Vit’r’an to the position of Rakar, but a word from him could also end his life. No, he would not disappoint. Tig’r’an knew Vit’r’an well it seemed. The message came just as he was doubting the orders given to him. No matter what misgivings he had about the Destra’ka, he would use it. Just like Tig’r’an ordered.

Chapter Fifteen

Sanctuary

Fleets Master Laura Reiss stood on the command deck of the station/shipyard orbiting Thanatos, one of Sanctuary’s moons. The station was finished just a month ago, and was a part of a major expansion of the Fleet. Even now they were building habitats on the moon that would serve as Fleet Headquarters and the Academy. It will be another couple of months for them to finish those.

Now she was overseeing a live test of the new drones. They have already built one squadron, ten drones of the ‘light’ variant. And with the breakthrough in FTL comm, they could now control them from light hours or even light years away. The drones were a bit smaller than the light cruiser ships, being one hundred meters long compared to the one hundred and twenty meters that was the length of the light cruiser ships. The drones had around 30% increase in firepower, and 20% thicker hull. They had no need for many things that a manned ship needed to have. And their only purpose was for battle, they only had a few access tunnels, for the purpose of repairs. There was no life support, no atmosphere. For all those reasons they managed to make the drones much more durable. Their hull was thicker, their drives bigger and stronger, and their weapons more powerful than those of the light cruisers.

And Laura was very pleased with how they performed. Each drone was controlled by a drone team consisting of four people, one in charge of the drones maneuvering, two in charge of the weapons, and one managing the sensory data from the drone and reading the orders sent from the overall commander via command boards. Each drone squadron had ten drones, and all were commanded from a drone command room on board a command ship, a battleship or a dreadnought. Each drone squadron would be commanded by a Drone Leader, who will oversee the execution of the Fleet Commander’s orders.

Laura looked as a team of ten drones maneuvered into position to attack their designated targets. Almost as one they opened fire and within minutes the slabs of metal that served as target practice were destroyed.

“It looks like the test is a success.” Commander of Fleets Oswald Mein said. He was second in command of the Fleet, Laura’s second.

“Yes.” Laura agreed.

“Did you decide who will be given the command of the Home Fleet?” Oswald asked.

“I’m leaning towards Force Leader Bethany Jones.” Laura said. The Third Fleet or rather Home Fleet still didn’t have an overall commander. They were waiting to see if the drone program would work out, and now she needed to decide who would be in command. The decision was between the two dreadnought commanders. Bethany Jones of the Prideful and Nair Hakeem of the Salahuddin. But in the end Bethany Jones was a better fit. She had experience, she was the High Prime on the Athena under Adrian during their encounter with Concordis ships back in Sol. And her scores were at the top of the fleet. Nair Hakeem on the other hand was older, and had served as the commander of one of the first military vessels Olympus built.

“It will be Bethany.” Laura added, finally deciding.

“Good, I will take care of everything.”

“Contact the lead shipbuilders, I want to have a meeting with all of them here in two days.” Laura said.

“I’ll send out the invites. What will be the topic of the meeting?” Oswald asked.

“I want them to start full construction on the drones, another seven squadrons, so that we will have two for each ship in the Home fleet. And I want half of those to be heavy drones.” Laura said.

“Alright, I’ll let them know.” Oswald said.

“Any news from the Second Fleet?” Laura asked.

“Nothing since their last update. Even with the relays they are too far away now, it takes weeks for messages to go back and forth, especially when they didn’t drop a relay in the alien system, that adds another six days to the message travel time. But they should be close enough to contact the resistance on Earth.” Oswald answered.

Laura nodded, “I don’t remember asking you what you thought about Fleet Commander Stern’s actions in the alien system.” Laura said.

Oswald scratched his head, “Well, Tomas Klein already approved. But, I don’t know. I would like to think that I would have helped someone in need like she did. But giving them that data. I don’t know how I feel about it. I know that Klein approved primarily since the alien system is on the trans-lane route to Earth. We will be sending a lot more ships through once we get back Earth, and regularly too. It is good that we build some good will before then.”

“You don’t worry that our interference will harm them? Things that we gave them can change their entire society.” Laura asked

“No, it is their choice whether to use what we provided or not to. Sure it is tempting, but it is still a choice. And everything changes. We too advanced with the help of aliens, if we didn’t find that alien ship on the bottom of the ocean, we wouldn’t be here now.” Oswald responded.

“I guess you are right.”

***

Force Leader Bethany Jones sat in her ready room, looking at the small box in her palm. She knew what was inside, and her hand trembled as she reached out with her other hand and opened it. Inside was one silver star and three silver V shaped bars. Slowly, Bethany reached to her shoulder and took off her old insignia, a dark green star and two bars, then she took the new ones out and put them on. She felt right wearing them, all her hard work paid off. Using her implant she started the message that came with the box.

A video prompt appeared above her table and a video message started.

“Congratulations Fleet Commander Jones. With this promotion you are to take command of the Home Fleet. Two dreadnought class and three battleship class warships, along with one squadron of light drones. The drones are being put into production, so over the next two years we plan on giving you the rest of drone squadrons. As for your first assignment as the Fleet Commander, you will return to Thanatos shipyards to take control of your drone squadron, it will be assigned to your flagship – Prideful. After that the Prideful, the Salahuddin, and your drone squadron are to make way to the Nuva trans-station and leave for Nuva. There you will place yourself and your ships under Fleet Commander Farkas’ command. The details of the mission you will be a part of will be given to you by Fleet Commander Farkas upon his return from Nelus. Once more Congratulations Fleet Commander.”

Bethany grimaced at the words, she was happy about the promotion. But having to place her fleet under another’s command being the first act she did as the Fleet Commander made it bittersweet. Not to mention who it was that she would be answering too. She hadn’t spoken to Adrian since she introduced her fiancé – now husband Harry to their group. She and Adrian had become good friend following their graduation from the academy, after a bit of a rough start. They were together on the Athena when Concordis attacked Olympus. And Bethany served as his High Prime when they fought against the Concordis ships. Then after they came to Sanctuary they were split, Bethany gained her own command, and their relationship evolved. They became best friends, talking every day over the comms. At the time Beth thought that they could become something more, but Adrian made no move. And Beth met Harry, she fell in love, and moved on. She knew that she could’ve handled everything better, but when Adrian declared that he loved her, she snapped at him. And since then they had no contact. She heard from Paul that Adrian seemed fine after their ‘fight’, which only infuriated Beth. She married Harry and put Adrian behind her. And now they were going to be forced to work together. Well, she wasn’t going to let any history they have together influence her actions or interfere with her duty.

She opened a file that was attached with her promotion, it was mostly more data on the drones. Most of which she already knew, but also the files of the drone operators that would be coming aboard her ship from Thanatos station. She sat in to read them and familiarize herself with her soon to be crewmembers, then afterwards she will inform the fleet of her promotion and their assignments.

***

Lanai Sumia walked the streets of the human city looking around at the amazingly colorful buildings. She wondered about the name of the city, she was told that it was called Olympus city. It was a beautiful city, sometimes she couldn’t believe that it wasn’t here just a couple of cycles ago. It was mind boggling what these humans managed to achieve. They used their grav cars to get around the city, the areas that the vehicles used were walled off, and people could walk around the sidewalks unbothered. A great number of bridges connected the two sides of the streets, and every now and then a bridge was wide and held a small park with trees and sitting benches, walled off with a transparent material. It gave the city a feeling of life which she hadn’t seen since the forest cities of the Mtural.

The human society seemed such an unbalanced jumble. They had technology far ahead of what a species that has been able to travel to other star systems for such a short period of time should have. They were young, not as individuals, but as a people. They set their minds to something, make a decision, and then just do it. No overthinking it just going forward tackling any consequences as they came up. Sometimes they seemed reckless, but Sumia has spent enough time with them to understand what it truly was. They weren’t reckless, they believed in themselves, when they find an answer they don’t second guess themselves they act. Not only did they trust in their own, they were prepared to face the consequences of their actions. They accepted them and owned up to them. It was a thing Sumia admired about them. They accepted their history and their mistakes, it made them stronger, better. Unlike the Nel, they hid from their mistakes, ashamed of what they’ve done. Sumia hoped that someday her people could grow to be like the humans, to learn from their mistakes.

As she walked Sumia glanced back. Behind her walked Hokra Gotu and Hokra Dson, her ever present companions. Not that there was any danger to her life, they just worried too much. The human city was remarkably safe, even with seven million people living there. She remembered the first time she saw human children. That was such a shock for her, as Nel children aren’t allowed outside their family home unsupervised, and even then they are expected to act dignified and collected. The human children had no such constrictions. They played and ran down the streets and many parks of the city unsupervised. At least not supervised by their parents. Every now and then Sumia would see a person dressed in the dark green colors of the human military. She knew that they served as a kind of police, and often a sole figure would be seen walking the city streets. They never interfered with the people walking past them, only watched and made sure that there were no incidents. And Sumia did inform herself on the subject. There was little crime in the human city, mostly what humans called brawls or verbal disagreements. Nothing like the criminal activities she knew occurred on her home world.

Three small humans ran past Sumia not even sparing a glance in her direction, they had much more important thing to do than to look at the alien. She remembered the first time she went out for a walk, how the children reacted then. They rushed over to her and the rest of her party, running around them in circles looking at their tails, asking them all kinds of questions too fast for Sumia to understand them. The reactions of Hokra Dson and Hokra Gotu were probably the funniest things she ever saw. They had no idea how to react to them. She remembered how a small girl told her how she didn’t look like an alien, but rather like a human with a tail. Sumia saw then something that she never saw before. An innocence and acceptance that was not present in Nel society. Human children had no fear of her, an unknown, an alien. The child asked her to touch her tail, and Sumia smiled and let her, she remembered the look of amazement on the child’s face when Sumia moved her tail closer to the child. It was something she would never forget. She knew now why humans wore their emotions on their faces, why they were so accepting and tolerant of those different. She knew that it had taken them a long time to get to this point, and that not everything was perfect. But the simple fact that they fought to make things this way made her feel somehow… Inadequate.

“I love it here.”

“Lanai?” Hokra Dson asked.

Sumia turned and looked at Hokra Dson and Hokra Gotu and realized that she spoke out loud. “Nothing, I was talking to myself.” She studied them for a moment, “We need an alliance with these people.”

They looked at each other and then back at her, “They already refused Lanai. I don’t know that we can offer them anything that they don’t already have?” Gotu asked.

“They refused when they were hoping for an alliance with Nelus. Now that they know it will not happen they have no reason to refuse.” Sumia said, “But I think that we need to offer them more, or rather ask them for more.”

“What do you mean?” Hokra Dson asked.

“I think that we need a much closer connection with them. Closer than what a simple alliance would give us.” Sumia said.

“I don’t think that they will accept that.” Hokra Gotu said.

Hokra Dson continued, “Nor would our people.”

“Perhaps, we need to convince them.” Sumia said.

“Why Lanai? We have a chance of being truly independent now. Why bind us to the humans.” Hokra Gotu asked.

“Look around you Gotu. Look at what they achieved with so little, in such a short time. Can you imagine what they would become in ten cycles? What about a hundred? We need to convince our people, both here and at Nuva. And then we need to convince the humans.”

Hokra Gotu and Hokra Dson remained silent. And Sumia looked around her, at the beautiful human city, thinking about what the future could be.

Chapter Sixteen

October 2171 – Nuva

Adrian sat in his command chair as his ships exited hyperspace. There were no explored trans-lanes between Nelus and Nuva so they were forced to use hyperspace on both the trip there and back.

“We have arrived at Nuva Fleet Commander.” Navigation Handler said.

“Set a course for Nuva.” Adrian said. He looked at his command board, the updates from the his ship’s sensors started coming in, much faster than they usually would. The c-board sent a request for updates from the station in the orbit of Nuva, which in turn had the gathered scans from all the ships and stations in the system. The c-board of course sent their locations back to the station using their FTL comms. As soon as his holo was updated, a prompt jumped out above a grouping of ships close to the trans-station. Adrian saw it identify the ships as the Third Fleet. Immediately he magnified and saw two dreadnought class warships, accompanied by ten smaller ships. He knew that those must be drones, which meant that his ships would be going on the mission into Sowir space. These ships were supposed to augment his own First Fleet, which had suffered losses at the battle for Nuva that still haven’t been replaced. He lost two ships, the light cruiser Talon and the heavy cruiser Valkyrie. His other ships have all sustained some amount of damage, all except the light cruiser Swift that is. But that damage has since been repaired by the small shipyard that they brought from Sanctuary. The damage to the Leviathan was the hardest to fix, as the ship simply didn’t fit into the yard. But they managed.

“The Home Fleet. Looks like they finished construction, and those must be the drones.” High Prime Paul Isaacs said.

“Yeah, they should be here to augment our forces for the plan B.” Adrian said.

“Probably. I wonder who… Oh.” Paul drew silent.

“What?” Adrian asked.

“Uh… Look who is in command.” Paul responded.

Adrian frowned and then used his imp to access the c-boards now updated files. Quickly he found and read the name.

“Bethany.” Adrian said to Iris.

“Well, you knew that you would be seeing her again.” Iris responded.

“We are getting a message from the Home Fleet.” Comm Handler said.

Adrian swallowed hard, “Put it on.”

A hologram of Bethany appeared on the main holo-platform in the middle of the Command Center. Immediately after seeing her Adrian felt his chest tighten, grief and hurt coming back up. He loved her, and she broke his heart. Looking at her now he realized that he didn’t really think about her after the way they parted ways.

“Fleet Commander Farkas, I would like to inform you that by the order of the Fleet, my ships are now under your command. My ships carry upgrades for your ships, mainly the updates for the command board and the new FTL comm systems that allows two way real time communication. My ships can meet yours and transfer the update, I have on board teams that will conduct their installation. I await your orders. Fleet Commander Bethany Jones end.” The hologram shut off. All the hurt that Adrian hadn’t felt since Paul and Iris managed to get him out of his room after their get-together came rushing back. He realized that it was heartbreak. Somehow he had managed to push down all the feelings he had then, and now they were all coming back. Adrian struggled to push them down again, but he didn’t know how, he didn’t even realize that he had done it before. Then he felt something on his knee. He looked down to see Sora’s snout on his leg, looking up at him with her four gorgeous sliver eyes. Adrian reached down with his hand and scratched her behind the ears. He felt a soft pressure behind his eyes, and then he managed to push all the emotions back down.

“Are you alright Adrian?” Iris asked panicked.

“Yes, it just all came back to me.” Adrian answered.

“Oh… Okay then.” Iris said, but Adrian spent most of his life with her in his head, he could sense something else in her voice.

“What is it Iris?” He asked her.

“It’s nothing, it must have been a glitch. It looked like there was a sudden spike in your brain activity, but everything is normal now.” Iris said.

Adrian frowned again, A sudden brain activity? He lowered his eyes to Sora, who was still keeping her snout on his knee, still looking at him. Understanding forming in his mind Adrian got up.

“Adrian?” Paul asked as Adrian stood up and started walking off the platform his command chair was placed on.

Adrian paused. “Send a message back, we will meet the Home Fleet at their current position. Also contact the rest of our fleet and tell them to meet us at the Home Fleet’s location.” Adrian said, then he turned to his chair.

“Sora, Akash! Come!” He said firmly, and started walking towards his quarters.

“What is it Adrian.” Iris asked alarmed.

“I just figured out something.” Adrian said.

“Figured out what?” Iris asked, but Adrian didn’t answer, he kept walking until he reached his quarters. He entered and went straight to his small library. He approached his reading chair, beside it were two big cushions. He remembered a time when the two wolions were small enough that he could keep them on his lap while he read.

Adrian sat in the chair looking straight at the two wolions. Without prompting they came to stand in front of him, then they sat on their hind legs gazing at him. With them sitting their eyes were on the same level as Adrian’s.

“It was you wasn’t it? All this time.” Adrian said. The only reaction he got from both of them was a slight tilt of the head, perfectly coordinated between them.

“Once I learned about Beth’s engagement I was a wreck. Paul and Iris had to drag me out of my room. Afterwards I tried to make myself busy with work, to not think about it. But the hurt was still there, raw. And then I found you in the forest. And since then the hurt stopped, it felt as if it was something that happened long ago.” Adrian said, looking at the two.

“What are you talking about Adrian?” Iris asked.

“You have records of my brain activity, don’t you?”

“Yes, why?”

“Search for a brain activity spike, like the one you detected earlier.” Adrian said.

“Well, okay… I found a match, how did you know?” Iris asked.

“When did it happen?”

“Twenty two months ago, it was… It was when we found the dying wolion.” Iris said.

“That confirms it. I don’t know why you didn’t detect it then bu-”

“I wasn’t monitoring your brain activity then, you were depressed, and I was mad at you for pitying yourself.” Iris said. Adrian smiled, it was just like Iris to do something like that.

“Maybe we would have figured it out before if you did.” Adrian said.

“Figured out what? You are making no sense Adrian.”

“When we found their mother dying in the forest I felt something, just for a moment it was like I was feeling what she was feeling, her pain, and then I felt a pressure behind my eyes. The same feeling I felt after the message from Beth ended. The message brought back all the hurt, and then Sora came close and I felt the same pressure again. Immediately after I felt all the pain lessen, it was still there it just seemed far away.” Adrian said he kept his sight looked on the two wolions that were looking at him. “She did something to me.”

“Sora?” Iris asked.

“Yes, and their mother before. It explains a lot, why I couldn’t bring myself to part with them, how I brought them on the ship that was going into battle. Their mother made me bond with them. And she probably took all my pain of what happened with Beth and softened it, made it feel as if it happened years ago. That’s how I dealt with the pain so quickly.” Adrian had wondered about it, how he could let Beth go so quickly, he half convinced himself that what he felt for her wasn’t as strong as he thought it was, if he could have moved on so fast.

“Well, the depth of human emotion is still a mystery to me, but are you sure? You are suggesting that Sora and Akash somehow influenced your emotions, that seems a bit farfetched.” Iris said.

“Think about it. The scientists on Sanctuary have been stumped by the wolions. They are the only land predators that have survived, all the prey animals have developed in such a way that no predator could get near them. And yet wolions have no problem hunting and catching their prey. If they can feel the emotions of their prey, and if they can influence it, then that would explain how their species alone survived while all the other predator species died out. Their abilities must have evolved as the direct need for survival.” Adrian said.

“I guess…” Iris said.

“I’m right, you can feel emotions.” Adrian said to the two wolions. “I’ve always known that you were much more intelligent than any regular animal, you always seemed to understand what I was telling you, more than just a few words. If you can feel the emotions of others that would explain so much.” Then he felt it, just like he did with their mother as she lay dying in the forest. He felt their emotions, just for a split second he felt shame and something else, it went by too fast for him to understand it completely.

“There! I felt that. You do know what I am talking about.” Adrian exclaimed.

“Uh… Adrian what are you talking about?” Iris asked.

“I felt their emotions, just for an instant.” Adrian said.

“If you say so.” Iris said, he could hear the skepticism in her voice. But he knew what he felt.

“You influenced my emotions.” Adrian said slowly, looking at the two. “That is not acceptable, you will not do it again. I know now what it feels like.” The two bowed their heads down in shame. “I would ask you to undo whatever you did to me, but I can’t afford to deal with it now. Hell, I don’t even know if you can do it.” Sora raised her head and Adrian felt a pressure behind his eyes, immediately all the pain he felt just a short while ago as he watched Bethany’s message came back to the surface. And then a moment later he felt the now familiar pressure again, and just as the pain came, it went away. Buried deep down, not gone, just muffled.

Adrian felt a tear roll down his cheek, “Well…” He said hoarsely, “I guess that answers that.”

“I saw it Adrian, there were two spikes. It looks like you are right.” Iris said in disbelief.

“Yeah. It looks like I am.” Adrian responded, he cleared his throat. “Now, we need to have a little talk about the usage of your ability.” Adrian said in a serious voice looking at two shamefaced wolions.

***

Two weeks later Adrian sat and waited in the conference room on board the Leviathan for the two commanders from the Home Fleet, the ship commanders of his fleet were all already there. On his left sat Paul, Ship Master of the Leviathan, across from him was Force Leader Nenad Krylov commander of the battleship Protector. Beside him sat Force Leader Altsoba Smith of the battleship Battle Song, followed by the commanders of the rest of the Frist Fleet. An ping on Adrian’s implant informed him that the last party of the meeting had arrived, and moments later the doors opened and they walked in.

Bethany Jones Fleet Commander of the Home Fleet walked in followed by Force Leader Nair Hakeem of the Salahuddin. Seeing Beth in person threatened to bring the hurt back up, but Adrian was now ready for it and whatever Sora did held. Bethany let her hair grow even longer, and it was now tied in a bun at the back of her head.

“Force Leader Hakeem and Fleet Commander Jones reporting as ordered.” Bethany said in a neutral tone, saluting with her fist to the chest. In practice Olympus Fleet personnel rarely displayed such conduct, which told Adrian a lot about what Bethany thought concerning her being promoted and then ordered to follow his orders.

“At ease Fleet Commander, Force Leader. Take your seats and we can begin.” Adrian said, he kept his face blank and his tone commanding. He switched into what Iris called his battle persona. Cold, calculated, and ruthless. He hated that description for it.

Bethany and Nair took their seats beside Paul, and Adrian turned on the holo on the conference table. Immediately a star-map sprung into existence. It showed the Sanctuary system as a green dot at the center, with the area around it, Nuva was a blue dot some short distance away. A bit to the side of Nuva was Nelus, a black dot, And then a series of systems represented by red dots with their surroundings shaded in a lighter red.

“This is the representation of the Sanctuary’s neighborhood. As you can see the only things between us and the Sowir territory are Nuva and Nelus system. The red signifies Sowir Dominion, the former territory of the Consortium. The truth is that we don’t know for sure if that is the extent of their territory. As we all know they have been sighted outside of this area.” Adrian said, pointing to the red shaded portion of the map. And they all knew what happened to the Voyager, it was destroyed in a system at least twenty light years away from what they considered Sowir Territory.

“With the failure at getting an alliance with Nelus, we are left with only one option. Deal with Sowir by ourselves.” Adrian looked around the room, he saw a few nod gravely while others seemed apprehensive. He continued, “We can’t fight them on equal footing, at least not in the near future. They have far too much resources and people to throw at us. And once they realize that we have only one system with not even ten million people, all they have to do is overwhelm us with numbers.”

“How are we going to deal with them then?” Nair Hakeem asked.

“We, ladies and gentlemen are going to bluff.” Adrian said.

“What do you mean bluff?” Bethany asked.

Adrian smiled, “Our orders are to take this combined fleet to Sowir Dominion.” Adrian said and accessed the holo’s controls over his imp, he highlighted a red system just inside Sowir territory. “This is the Tarsas system. It holds a water world that was once a Pouute shipbuilding world. Its purpose was to construct merchant vessels but has been repurposed by the Sowir. This system is our destination.”

“We are attacking the system?” Krylov asked.

“No.” Adrian said immediately, “As I said we are going to bluff. We are there to threaten the Sowir.” Adrian paused, looking around the room, “The reasons for this are simple. First, since the battle of Nuva our ships have been exploring the trans-lanes around Sanctuary and Nuva. And a route has been discovered that leads to Tarsas. The ship that explored that trans-lane managed to leave the system unnoticed, but not before they got a detailed look at the system. The Sowir military presence is small,a few cruiser class ships. Second, is because their ship that escaped the battle for Nuva went there. That means that they already know what happened at Nuva. Their society is united, every system they own is ruled by an Overseer, and each is the voice of the Dominion. Meaning that each system can negotiate on the behalf of the whole.”

“Well, that seems unrealistic…” Altsoba said.

“Even while a part of the Consortium, Sowir were mysterious. Most attributed it to them being so different. The other races of the Consortium were different true, but they at least had things in common. The Sowir don’t communicate vocally, they have no sight and their society was a complete enigma. They are truly alien.”

“I can understand that at least.” Altsoba said, “So, we are going to go and threaten them into what? If they are as alien as you say will threatening even work?”

“Our analysts have been going over everything we have on Sowir, all the information dating back to before the forming of the Consortium. They believe that it could work. It is still a gamble, but we might not have another choice. Our plan is to get an agreement of non-aggression between us.” Adrian said.

“And you think that threatening is the way to get that?” Bethany asked.

“Sowir don’t understand negotiations, they understand force. When they first met the Consortium, they immediately attacked, any attempt at communicating with them was met with silence, much like our own experiences with them. But as soon as the Consortium showed force, they folded, they stopped their attacks and started a course that would give them the advantage. Most of our analysts agree, they will do the same thing with us. If we show them force, give them even one reason to believe that we will willingly go to war with them, they will pull back.” Adrian said.

“You believe that they would let us be?” Paul asked.

Adrian shook his head, “Of course not. They will do everything in their power to learn more about us, while amassing the force big enough to take us.”

“What is the purpose then? If they won’t honor the agreement.” Bethany asked.

“Because we need time to grow. The time they spend trying to find out more things about us, is the time we can spend building ships and growing our population. Remember, they might have all but won the war against the Consortium, but there are still pockets that they haven’t conquered, Nelus for one. And since Nelus is still standing, we can conclude that Sowir are busy elsewhere. They must be smart enough to realize that starting a war with another race – one they know nothing about except that they defeated their task force – is a bad idea.” Adrian said and studied the room. They were silent, looking at the star map hologram.

“Any more questions?” Adrian asked. A series of negative responses followed. “Good. We leave in one month by trans-lane.”

The commanders rose up to leave the room. As they moved towards the doors Adrian called out,

“Fleet Commander Jones, stay for a moment.”

Bethany turned to look at him and then returned to her seat, the rest slowly left the room. After the last one exited and the doors closed, Adrian turned his gaze to Bethany. She was just as beautiful as the last time he saw her. He took time to examine his emotions, he felt the hurt but it was not overwhelming like it was after he watched her message. They sat there in the silence for a few minutes, studying each other.

“Beth.” Adrian started, and saw her face twitch for an instant, “I wanted to talk to you alone. I want to apologize.”

“Apologize? For what?” Beth asked, confused.

“For the way I acted the last time we met.” Adrian said, “I had no right to act the way I did, nor should I have stopped all communication between us. You have always been a good friend to me. And I shouldn’t have blamed you for finding happiness.”

Bethany looked stunned. For a few moments she remained silent and then she spoke softly, “I should apologize too. After you said that you lov- After you said what you said, I reacted badly. I shouldn’t have said the things I said to you. It was cruel.”

Adrian acknowledged her words with a small nod. “I hope that we can put this behind us. I know that we can’t go back to the way the things were before. But perhaps in time we could be friends again.” Adrian said.

Beth took a big breath, “Yes, I hope so too.”

Chapter Seventeen

Earth

Anissa Novak sat in the Command Information Center of the submarine the Lord. Probably the greatest war technology of the Coalition. At least it was supposed to be. Her submarine was a prototype, the first of its kind to be created, all the others were destroyed without even firing a single shot in the war. And with them, all the ammunition for the Lord. After the war, when the Ra’a’zani came, the Lord allowed her people to hide and survive. But the lack of weapons meant that they couldn’t use it against their oppressors. With the Olympus fabricating technology that changed. The fabricators given to her people by Jacob Kelly allowed them to rearm the Lord. The long range stealth missiles that the Coalition developed to win the Great War will finally be put to use, not against other humans as their creators originally intended, but against an alien race.

The plans for the Olympus arrival have been mostly finished, at least on the Earth side. They placed their people in almost all Ra’a’zani bases on the planet. It wasn’t too hard, the Ra’a’zani rarely managed to tell the difference between one human the other. Their greatest obstacle was how to avoid human death. They did have a few people that would warn those living close to the bases shortly before the attack. But they feared that it wouldn’t be enough. They will destroy most of the bases from afar, using the Lord and the Colorado, which meant a lot of collateral damage to the surroundings of the bases. And most of them were in the cities. The Colorado had been modified to fire last gen missiles, the same that the Lord would be using. But even with them they wouldn’t be able to destroy all the bases. Some few will need to be taken from the ground, with bombs or soldiers.

But that was not Anissa’s job, her people were responsible for the bombings, the others would take the bases that her ships couldn’t. She turned to her second in command, “How are we doing?” She asked.

“Everything is operating at full capacity, sub is probably in the best shape it has been since it was built.” Her second in command said.

“What about the Colorado?” She asked.

“They are having some problems with the upgrades to their firing systems, but nothing serious, it should be easily fixed when we return to Sedna.”

Anissa nodded, “Good. Let’s finish up our last series of test and get back to Sedna.”

The time to strike would come soon. And Anissa dreamed of the day she would finally see Earth free.

***

Aileen entered the Overlords quarters, finding Vit’r’an in his pool. She approached the edge and waited for him to notice him. Vit’r’an kept his eyes closed, enjoying his bath. After about ten minutes he submerged for a about a minute and then got up. He exited the pool and walked to the small chamber adjacent to the pool room, stepping in the mist that was inside. A few moments later he stepped out now dry. He walked by Aileen, motioning her to follow. They walked out of his quarters and towards the base’s main room. There they found a few other Ra’a’zani working on various stations. Vit’r’an went to his usual place in the middle of the room, locked his legs in a sitting position and watched his people work. Aileen assumed her usual place behind him. She didn’t realize how much she hated when Vit’r’an made her stand like that until she wasn’t doing it every day. For the entire duration of the Tig’r’an’s visit she was left mostly to herself. She had… more freedom. And she missed that. She wasn’t able to leave the base and go to the slums in weeks. She didn’t know why, but it bothered her that she wasn’t able to take supplies to the Father. Even though she knew that she had no obligations to him, she didn’t even know why she did it in the first place. But still she felt like she was somehow betraying the Father and the people there.

Vit’r’an snapped her out of her thoughts by turning to her, “Tell me what has the atmosphere been like amongst the slaves lately?”

“Dakar?” Aileen asked, confused.

“There have been a few strange occurrences lately. Slaves going missing, equipment malfunctions. You wouldn’t know anything about it?” Vit’r’an asked.

Aileen felt a chill go through her body, “I don’t socialize with the other slaves Dakar.”

Vit’r’an blew air through his nostrils, and turned back. “Be sure to report if you see or hear anything. I don’t need to remind you what could happen if this turns out to be something more than a coincidence.”

“Of course Dakar.” Aileen said, and fought hard to remain calm. She had just lied to the Dakar. She had never done that before. Why did I lie? There was no reason for her to lie. She had seen strange things occurring in the base. The slaves whispering, exchanging things, and being in places where they weren’t supposed to be. She knew that something was going on. And while Ra’a’zani did not consider humans a threat, should they find evidence that there was something going on, there would be hell to pay. And Aileen knew first hand, that the only ones that would pay would be the innocent.

Chapter Eighteen

Nelus

Jusan marched into his office enraged. His Cevar – steward of his household – followed close behind.

“I assume that the council meeting went poorly Sestar.” Cevar Nisse said.

“Those fools!” Jusan yelled out, “How can they not see that this course can only lead to our destruction!”

Nisse remained silent letting Jusan went.

“Do you know what they are planning now?” Jusan turned and asked Nisse, “They want to drive the humans out of Nuva! With force! The fools have abandoned it, and then all but forgotten about it. And now when they know that the colony survived they want it back! As if they will ever spare a force big enough to protect it.”

“Didn’t you say that they wanted a trade agreement with the humans? And that they gave humans time to consult with their leadership about leaving Nuva?”

“They did. But since the humans left, “experts” of house Nor Ral came with new information, saying that there is little we can gain from even a trade agreement with the humans. Idiots! And everyone on the council believed him, even when I and my experts clearly stated otherwise. But what do I know, I just ran a successful trading fleet between dozens of worlds for thirty cycles!” Jusan threw his hands in the air. He stomped to his comfortable chair and sat down, careful to place his tail in the opening at the back of the chair. Jusan grew quiet, staring at the painting of his great ancestor that was placed on the side wall.

Finally he turned to Nisse, “Are there any news from our little venture?” Jusan asked.

Cevar Nisse brought his hand upwards in a gesture of defeat, “No Sestar. The people affiliated with house Dai Ven are more acceptable to the proposition. But then most have been in the employ of your house for a long time, generations even. The others are much less inclined.”

“You asked them?” Jusan asked, alarmed.

Nisse immediately gestured his hands in signs of reassurance, “Of course not Sestar. We did not reveal who or what it is we want. A few cleverly worded questions were asked to see their responses.”

Jusan relaxed, “And there was no one?” He asked, he thought that at least some would have been open to the idea.

“No Sestar. Those of the great families are too set in their ways, even the branch families. Their wealth and influence comes from the current state of things. And the lower class is too afraid to act.” Nisse paused, he looked uncomfortable. Hesitantly he continued, “Sestar… What you are asking, it goes against everything we have been taught since childhood. One Nel does not turn on the other, we do not use force to change things. It is too close to the stories of the-” Nisse stopped abruptly.

Jusan looked at him, “You can say it.”

Nisse swallowed hard, and whispered, “Too close to the stories about the Order.”

Jusan closed his eyes, “If only you knew the truth.” He whispered.

“Sestar?” Nisse asked.

“Nothing Nisse.” Jusan responded, “If we can’t do this, then we are doomed.” He paused, glancing back at the portrait of his ancestor, “Every head of this house has always protected the people that were the part of the Dai Ven household. And I will not be the one house head that fails at that charge.” He turned his sight back to Nisse. “If people of Nelus don’t want to be saved, then they are on their own. I will look after my own people.”

“Sestar?”

“Arrange a household meeting, I want everyone here at the main house.” Jusan said in a dismissive tone. For a moment Nisse didn’t move, and then he bowed, “Of course Sestar.” Nisse turned and exited the room.

Jusan reached into his pocket, feeling the surface of the sphere. He had been carrying it with him since he meet with the humans on their ship. He still regretted not showing it to them, but after their talk he was sure that the humans didn’t know about their shared origins. And the hologram of Axull Darr, the one who created their people said that they could have only found the sphere if they had heard its beacon. Jusan’s people found it by accident, and they were not ready for the knowledge within it. He assumed that Axull Darr placed a sphere on the worlds of the two other races he created, and if humans didn’t know anything about their origin, then they were not yet at the level where they could find the sphere. And Jusan hesitated in showing it to them. A part of it was fear of what it could do to them, he knew very little of their culture and beliefs. And a part was habit, he has kept the sphere a secret for so long, as his ancestors did before him. He was afraid of showing it to anyone.

Perhaps that was a mistake? Jusan thought. I should have shown it to them. But what would have that accomplished? It wouldn’t have changed the council’s position on the humans offer. Jusan closed his eyes feeling a great burden threatening to crush him. Now he had to put everything on the line to try and save his household, even if that meant weakening Nelus. The only choice he had was to escape Nelus, with all those that trusted him. His household wasn’t as large as some other families. Most were serving in his merchant fleet. They were his family and their safety was his most important responsibility. He needed to work against the council, trick them into letting them go. Jusan opened his eyes and accessed his terminal, looking for the manifest of all the cargo his family had, a plan slowly forming in his mind.

***

“House Dai Ven has the floor.” Sestar Tavaar of house Nor Ral announced.

“My fellow councilmembers.” Jusan began, “I wish to speak to you about the recent calls for action against the humans in Nuva system.” He saw Tavaar stiffen, he was a great advocate for forcible actions, but he could not interfere with Jusan’s speech until he finished, lest he insult him. And even though house Dai Ven did not wield as much influence as house Nor Ral did, he still had enough to make Tavaar’s life difficult. “There has been talk about forcibly removing the humans from our colony world of Nuva, which I don’t disagree with.” Jusan said, and saw Tavaar relax, “We have agreed to wait for the human response. Going back on our word would be… dishonorable. But, if the council feels that we shouldn’t wait, and need to take action immediately, I might offer an alternative.” He saw that he had the attention of the entire room so he continued, “I propose that instead of sending our military ships, and in doing so weaken Nelus. We instead send a merchant fleet and try to resolve this matter, in a more diplomatic way.”

Tavaar, waiting for a few beats to be sure that Jusan has finished talking, spoke, “I do not see how a merchant fleet would persuade the humans to leave our system.”

“What I propose is simple, we send a merchant fleet filled with materials and technology that we have little use for, and that will surely dazzle the humans. We show them a taste of what they can have if they accept a trade agreement. Of course a merchant fleet of that size shouldn’t be moving without an escort.” Jusan said, showing his teeth, “As this is my proposition, I will of course take responsibility for the mission, leading my merchant fleet to the Nuva, and conducting any negotiation. And the twenty retrofitted merchant vessels and five light cruisers that are in my families employ would make a suitable escort. These ships could of course make it clear to the humans that we will not be moved from our position, of regaining control of Nuva.” Jusan finished.

The room was quiet, each council member thinking how not allowing or allowing Jusan’s proposal would affect their house. But Jusan studied Tavaar, his vote would be the most important one.

“Your merchant fleet controls most of the trade in the system. You leaving might make things difficult.” Sestar Niraas of house Sav Ral said. Jusan turned to him locking his eyes with his. He knew that Niraas has been suspicious of Jusan since they returned from the human ship.

“The other families have been trying to take a bigger role in the in-system trade for cycles. I am sure that they can assume the place of my fleet. And if my fleet is successful, we will have another market open for trade. And my fleet is the only one with both experience and capabilities of conducting such a trade.” Jusan said.

“Perhaps that might be true, but taking the retrofitted ships and your light cruisers would leave Nelus weakened.” Niraas continued.

“My ships are just a tiny part of the Nelus Fleet. And by your own words, there is no threat to Nelus. The Sowir have no resources to attack us, and humans couldn’t possibly threaten us. And taking them to Nuva will without any doubt show humans that we are serious. And in fact any action that we could take to forcibly remove the humans from Nuva, would require more fleet ships.” Jusan responded. He saw Niraas bristle, but remain silent. Jusan turned his gaze back to Tavaar and saw him thinking about every outcome. Then Tavaar smiled, and Jusan knew that he had him. Going to Nuva would remove Jusan from the council for at least a cycle, and Tavaar couldn’t pass up on that. In that time he could increase his power, and gain even more influence with the families that would take up the trade in the system.

“Hmm… Yes, I think that this a good suggestion.” Tavaar said. “Let’s vote. House Nor Ral votes yes on the proposal of house Dai Ven.”

The rest of the room then voted. It was unanimous of course. Rarely did one contest house Nor Ral.

“I thank the council for your trust in this matter.” Jusan said. Afterwards they moved on to other things, mostly involving petty disputes. Jusan listened only with a half ear, he was planning how to get all of his household to the merchant fleet without giving away his intention.

***

One month later everything was ready for their journey. Jusan stood on the bridge of one of his light cruisers. Looking at the screens he could see the rest of his fleet. The entire merchant fleet of house Dai Ven was present, ninety four cargo ships, plus twenty retrofitted ships and five light cruisers. Jusan somehow managed to get all the members of his household on board the merchant fleet ships without anyone figuring it out. It wasn’t as hard as he initially thought it would be. People of one great family rarely inquired in the personal matters of another. And his people managed to spin the sudden disappearance of so many entire families, as them all needing to help the endeavor of their ruling house. Of course they would realize that something was wrong, but Jusan hoped that by his people would be well on their way to Nuva. He knew that Tavaar’s response would be harsh once he finds out and manages to put everything together. But Jusan had no choice, he couldn’t help Nelus, but he would help his people. Even if they are just a fraction of the whole. Jusan watched as Retnor Savnai commanded his ship, soon the entire fleet would enter hyperspace. Jusan reached inside his robe, touching the sphere. And this time I will do what I should have done before.

Chapter Nineteen

November 2171 – Second Fleet

The Second Fleet dropped out of yet another trans-lane. Now only a hundred light years from the Solar system. They were close enough now that messages to Earth would take only a couple of days there and back. And so they could contact them while they were traveling to the next trans-station. Johanna was eager to hear about the Resistance’s plans. As they drew closer she felt apprehension, knowing that soon she would be in a battle for the first time. She had kept scenarios running throughout the fleet for their entire trip. And she had studied both battles that Fleet Commander Farkas fought, in Sol and at Nuva, but also the Voyager’s encounter with the Sowir. Each battle was so different than the other, and in each their commanders acted in ways that differed from what she would have done. But nevertheless, Johanna studied their tactics, and planned her strategy. She knew that it wouldn’t survive the first encounter with the enemy, but her goals were clear. Liberate Earth using any means necessary.

“Turiel, send the first message to the resistance.” Johanna said.

“Right away, Fleet Commander.” Turiel, the ship’s Ai responded.

Then Johanna stood up and relinquished control of the CC to her Ship Master. Andros accepted, and started ordering the fleet towards the next trans-station. Johanna left it to him. They had done this dozens of times by now, it had lost some of the excitement it had before. As she walked the corridors of her ship, she could feel the same from her crew. Before things would stop each time they entered or exited a trans-lane, everyone watching the view outside on the ship’s many view screens that showed images from the outside. Now, no one did, they walked around at a brisk pace, in a hurry to do their jobs. Stopping only for a moment to acknowledge Johanna’s presence with a quick salute.

As she walked, she glanced to the view screens seeing the fleet moving there alongside the Monarch. As she walked by she caught her own reflection in one of the screens. She studied herself for a moment, her short brown hair, a young pretty face, and a slim figure. She did not look like someone who commanded an entire fleet. At least not to her. But then she was old enough to remember what someone aged looked like. On Earth her job in the Concordis military, and later Olympus security, took her to almost every part of the world. In the undeveloped countries she saw people who couldn’t afford to buy life extension treatments. In Concordis and the League they were free, Olympus made them so. But in other countries, those that refuse to let Olympus in, they were expensive and only rich and powerful could afford them. Now that was a thing of the past, every child born now, would stop aging after their 25th year. Staying forever young. Johanna still didn’t quite understand what it meant to have a truly infinite lifespan, she thought that no one did. At least not yet. But it will hit people, in a hundred years or a couple of decades for some. Then they would truly see what this amazing discovery has done to them.

Shaking herself from her deep thoughts, Johanna continued walking. She visited every part of her ship, delighting in seeing everything working smoothly. She loved that part, the everyday command of a ship. She has delegated a lot of that work to Andros now that she was in charge of the entire fleet, but she still kept herself involved. The Monarch felt like a part of her, she loved this ship. She knew what it was capable of, and relished in the knowledge that soon she would be able to let her ship loose on the enemy. Just as she felt trepidation at the fact that many of the people under her command would not make it through it, perhaps even she and her ship. But it was what she chose to do, just like her people chose. Their job was to liberate Earth, and that was what they would do.

***

Solar system – OES Star Gazer

Mathias entered Jacob’s ready room on the Star Gazer. Jacob was sitting behind the desk a couple of holographic displays were open, showing various information. As Mathias approached Jacob raised his head and looked at him.

“What is it?” Jacob asked.

“Olympus fleet sent a message.” Mathias said.

Jacob immediately stood up, “Where are they?”

“They are about one hundred light years away, they requested that we start updating them about our plans.” Mathias said.

Jacob walked out from behind his desk, “How big is the communication lag?” Jacob asked.

“Five days.” Mathias said, “we need to send the message in the next three days, after that they will enter another trans-lane.”

Jacob nodded as he went for the doors, Mathias followed. With the new developments in Sol it their odd have turned for the better. The Ra’a’zani have sent all their warships back to their space with the last convoy, leaving only one warship in Earth orbit. The job for the Olympus fleet just got easier. Before, their plans were for the fleet to draw out all Ra’a’zani ships to the belt. Now they didn’t need to do that, they only had to take out the single ship in the Earth’s orbit. The Resistance still didn’t know the reason why they sent the ships away. They have been trying to get that information, but it looked like only the Overlord knew the reason. But what really stumped them was that they also gathered up all the breading camps, and have loaded all the materials that they had stored. If Jacob didn’t know better he would have thought that they planned on leaving.

They reached the bridge of the ship. There were two people there waiting. More precisely one human and one Ai. The hologram of the ships Ai was projected on the holo-platform, he looked like a human dressed in standard black Olympus fleet uniform. The other person was Tamara Grace, Jacob’s second in command. Jacob entered, followed by Mathias.

“What do we have?” Jacob asked.

“The message just came through, they request an update.” Tamara responded.

Jacob approached her chair, “Alright, let’s send them the update on the situation in the system.” Jacob said.

“Should we tell them about the new Ra’a’zani ships?” Tamara asked. Jacob paused, most of the Resistance was of the opinion that they should withhold the information about the three Ra’a’zani warships. The ships could be a game changer, and while Olympus had the right to know, it might not be the right moment.

Jacob shook his head, “No. The situation has changed, Olympus’ chances have improved greatly. There is no need to worry them with something that is no longer a problem.”

Tamara turned back to her screen preparing to send the message.

“Asumy,” Jacob turned to the hologram, he knew that he didn’t need to turn to the hologram to speak with the Ai, but it had become a habit. “What do you think?”

“I agree with your decision. The Ra’a’zani warships are not an immediate danger.” Asumy said.

Jacob turned back to Tamara, “Send it.”

Tamara entered the commands and sent the message.

***

Three days later Jacob was in a planning session on board the Star Gazer. There were five people present including Jacob. He had been with these people for years, and trusted them with his life.

“We finished fabricating all the weapons we need to take over the mining installations.” Tamara said.

“The plans are already in place. Once the Olympus fleet arrives, our people among the miners will rise up and take control.” Edward Riggs said.

“Are we sure that we can smuggle the equipment on the sites?” Olivia Sanders asked.

“Yes. With the stealth ship and the Ra’a’zani shuttle we can get everything in place.” Jacob answered.

“Are we going to use the Star Gazer?” Mathias asked. He has been training on the piloting the ship since he found it.

Jacob looked thoughtful, he hadn’t really thought about it. Up until recently they had a Ra’a’zani warship patrolling the mining sites, now they had no such obstacle, “Asumy?” Jacob asked.

The holo on the desk in the room turned on, and a miniature version of the Ai’s human form appeared.

“The Star Gazer has limited weapons, but without the threat of the Ra’a’zani warship the danger to the ship is minimal, while its addition to the assault increases the chances of success significantly.” Asumy said.

“Well, then we need to adjust our plans with the Star Gazer in mind.” Jacob said.

“Most of the Ra’a’zani are usually in the facilities on the surface of the asteroids.” Edward started thoughtfully, “We might not need to take fight them directly, we can use the Star Gazer to take out the surface facilities.”

“Perhaps… We need to plan this carefully, and make sure that human loss of life is minimal.” Tamara said.

“Are we going to take some of the Ra’a’zani prisoner?” Olivia asked.

“I don’t think that we have the capability nor the resources to hold any prisoners.” Jacob said, “Nor do I think that any of our people would want to. Better that we kill them quickly than to have vengeful people get hold of them afterwards. We all know what humans are capable of, and I doubt that we could keep them safely. And what would we even do with them later? Perhaps if we manage to capture some of the higher up’s in the belt, for questioning… But it shouldn’t be a priority.” Everyone around the room nodded grimly, they all understood the need to keep their people under control.

“Alright, let’s go over the plans again and see how we can include the Star Gazer.” Jacob said. They spent the next couple of hours going over everything and modifying their plans to include the Olympus ship.

Chapter Twenty

December 2171 – Leviathan; First Fleet

Adrian ducked and rolled under a roundhouse kick aimed to his head, he came out of his roll rising and turning back towards his opponent who was already moving into position to unleash another attack. Seeing a chance, Adrian rushed forward closing the distance and entering his opponents range. Before his opponent could start his attack, Adrian struck quickly with his fists, hitting the pressure points on his opponents shoulder hip and thigh. Then he dropped quickly and swept his opponent’s legs. Sahib dropped to the floor, hitting with his back so hard that Adrian heard Sahibs breath leaving his lungs. Then Sahib released a painful groan.

“That hurts like hell.” Sahib said after he recovered enough to talk. Adrian dropped to the floor, making himself comfortable in a cross legged position. He waited until Sahib raised himself up into a sitting position.

“You are going to need to do much better than that if you plan on beating me.” Adrian said. Sahib rolled his eyes at him.

“Aren’t you supposed to be up on the Command Center by now?” Sahib asked.

“There are still a few hours left. I have plenty of time to kick your ass a few more times, get showered, maybe take a little nap, and then go threaten some aliens.” Adrian said, grinningly.

Sahib dropped down to the floor, “Nah, I think that I am done with getting my ass kicked today. And I would much prefer you be well rested before you threaten some aliens.” Sahib said.

Adrian laughed out loud and got to his feet, “Right. I’ll see catch you later then.” With that Adrian left him there laying on the floor. He went to the changing room took his kimono off and went to take a quick shower. Afterwards he dressed and went to his quarters. He fed Sora and Akash, and took a four hour nap, waking up just in time to get to the bridge twenty minutes before they exited the trans-lane. He arrived just as the shift change occurred, the third shift moving off while the first took their place. Paul was taking his place at the Ship Masters chair just as Adrian entered the CC.

“Ship Master.” Adrian said while walking towards his chair, behind him like always followed Sora and Akash.

“Good morning Fleet Commander. A big day ahead of us.” Paul said grinning. Adrian returned Paul’s grin, but just for an instant. As he approached his chair, he felt himself go into his command mode, what Iris called his battle persona. His face grew expressionless, and all the things that occupied his mind outside of his command chair faded into the background.

“A big day indeed.” Adrian replied coldly as he took his seat. Immediately he turned on the c-board with his implant. Holographic displays sprung up in a 180° around him, the middle was reserved for his fleet and the command interface. One side showed the status of every ship in the fleet, while the other held a quick comm system. Allowing him to get in contact with each ship commander instantly, if he needed to speak with them outside of the commands he would be issuing over the c-board. Above the command interface was where most of the data would be shown, distances, timers and such, now that space was empty, as they hadn’t yet reached their destination.

“Are you ready?” Adrian asked.

“Of course Adrian.” Iris responded. The two of them took the time before they arrived, to run a last minute check on the c-board.

“Entering Tarsas system in one minute!” Navigation Handler yelled out.

Adrian finished his tests, and leaned back in his chair and waited. A minute later the Nav. Handler announced their arrival into the Tarsas system. Immediately Adrian’s c-board made connection with the fleet using it’s upgraded FTL comm hardware. The FTL comm didn’t work in trans-space. Both the holo in the middle of the CC that served the crew, and the smaller one on Adrian’s c-board started updating. They have entered the system close to their target, the shipbuilding facilities in the orbit of the second planet. As soon as they got a full picture of their target and their immediate surroundings Adrian ordered the fleet forward towards the shipyards. The shipyard that also served as a station, dwarfed the ships around it. The thing was massive, at least ten kilometers long and half that wide and tall. By now the Sowir should be aware of their presence. This time, Adrian had no Nel ships accompanying him, although Retsar Isani did offer. Adrian felt that the message would be more impactful if it came solely from human ships, so he declined the offer. And in any case those ships needed to be at Nuva, just in case that another Sowir task force comes by while Adrian’s ships were away. With the new station and defense platforms they should be able to defend Nuva.

Adrian watched on the c-board as his twenty one ships accelerated steadily towards their target. There were no communications from the Adrian’s side, there was no point. Sowir refused to communicate every time they tried. And they were not here to plead with them, they wouldn’t initiate communications with them. They were here to intimidate them into opening communications.

New information highlighted information started appearing on his c-board, Iris was anticipating Adrian’s needs and used the c-board to get him info faster than he could have looked it up himself. He looked at the holo of the shipyard and a few seconds later he started to see movement from their warships. The shipyard had three light cruisers, two heavy cruisers and a battleship guarding it. There were also at least two dozen ships in various stages of construction at the shipyard itself. If the projection about Sowir shipbuilding output was right, then the lack of defenses here suggested that the people back home were right, the Sowir were engaged elsewhere. Perhaps some of the Consortium still survived, and were even now fighting them.

Adrian studied the Sowir movements. The ships were clearly trying to move in front of the shipyard, to protect it. According to Nel intel, the shipyard defenses were poor at best. Pouute used it to build civilian ships, and had no real need for defenses. And after the Sowir took it they didn’t add any.

Then Adrian saw that his fleet had entered the maximum firing range of their missiles. The missiles that his ships now carried were not the same as what they had during the battle of Nuva. New upgraded versions were designed to fight the Sowir superior defenses. Adrian highlighted all of the ships on his c-board, preparing to order them to fire on the shipyard. Now came the most difficult part, according to the records from the Consortium, when the Sowir realized that they had no chance of winning against the Consortium military, they for the first time since their contact opened communications. In order for this plan to work, Adrian needed to make it completely clear to the Sowir that his fleet could wipe out their ships and shipyard, without actually destroying them. The Sowir had the records of the battle of Nuva, they knew what Adrian’s ships were capable of. He needed to convince them that humans were a threat that they can’t match yet.

Adrian sent the order to the fleet. The amount of missiles they would fire should be enough that a significant amount would pass their defenses and inflict damage but not enough that they will destroy them.

A few seconds later, Adrian watched as hundreds of missile signatures appeared on his board, headed for the Sowir shipyard. The new Swarm Mk1 missiles were almost 50% larger than the previous missile type and sped towards their target at a 20% faster speed than their predecessors, from a 30% greater range. After fifteen seconds of firing, six hundred missiles were on the way to their target.

***

Sowir ships saw the incoming missiles, and managed to get into position in front of the shipyard in time to meet them. As the human missiles entered Sowir range, they opened fire with their laser point defense. Within the first few seconds of laser fire, the eight Sowir ships managed to take down ninety three missiles. Then the computers on the missiles figured out what was happening, they engaged the evasion protocols, which slowed down the rate of their destruction significantly. Another fifteen seconds later the Sowir ships managed to take down one hundred and forty five missiles. Then the missiles reached the optimum range for their secondary protocol. Each Swarm Mk1 missile separated into three missiles that engaged their smaller but more powerful drives, doubling their speed. The sudden increase of speed and the sudden appearance of more targets confused the Sowir computers. 1086 missiles sped past the Sowir ships ignoring them completely, the Sowir ships managed to take down another two hundred missiles as they went past them. Then the missiles came in the range of the shipyards defenses, another one hundred and ten missiles were taken down, but the rest smashed right through, finding their target. Half of the missiles exploded before they reached the shipyards surface by design, the other impacted with the hull. The damage that the missiles did was minor when one took into consideration the size of the shipyard, but its hull was clearly scarred. Craters lined the shipyards surface, with a few places clearly venting atmosphere. The first salvo from the human forces succeeded in its intention.

***

Adrian watched as his missiles went pass the Sowir ships and reached the shipyard. The Sowir must have realized that this was nothing compared to what his ships could unleash. Especially now that he had three dreadnoughts in his fleet. There was still no communication from them, and Adrian watched as Sowir ships started moving away from the shipyard and towards his ships. He knew that it was futile, they stood no chance against the First Fleet. But Adrian needed to make sure to get his point across. Soon the Sowir battleship would enter its particle beam range, and Adrian remembered the power of that weapon, and knew that he couldn’t allow his fleet to lose any ships or drones. He needed to end this soon. Adrian gave the order.

***

Suddenly the space between the two forces was filled with invisible beams as the human ships opened fire with their laser cannons. The Sowir ships started rolling trying to dissipate the heat of the weapons, just as they tried to bring their own laser weapons to bear. But before they had a chance human ships released one more salvo of missiles. Two thousand missiles left the human ships, and the Sowir knew that there was no chance of them surviving them. The human lasers kept firing even as their missiles sped towards their target. One Sowir light cruiser came under the attack from six different beams from three drones, their combined firepower melting the ship’s hull cutting inside, the air inside the ship caught fire and the resulting explosion blew the ship apart. The Sowir ships focused on the incoming missiles, their defenses striking out at them. Now and then a laser beam would reach out to the human fleet, but the coating on their hull dissipated almost all of the Sowir fire. The Sowir lasers barely scratched the human ships.

Then the human missiles engaged their secondary protocol. One thousand and seven hundred missiles that survived the Sowir defensive fire, became three times that number. They sped forward through the Sowir point defense. It was overkill. Each Sowir ship disappeared into a ball of orange fire that lasted for a second as the air inside them burned out. Once the fire cleared, there was nothing remaining of the Sowir ships.

***

Adrian heard the crew of the Leviathan cheer in elation at the destruction of the Sowir ships. But he kept his mind focused on the c-board. There was still no communication from the Sowir, he would give them one more chance, then if they still don’t try to communicate he would destroy their shipyard and proceed to destroy any other asset they had in the system. The people back on Sanctuary already considered that they were at war with the Sowir Dominion. And while they had no resources to fight such a war, they would do everything in their power to make the Sowir think otherwise. Buying themselves at least some time. Adrian highlighted the three dreadnoughts on his c-board, sending out orders to the commanders of the Prideful, Salahuddin and his own Leviathan.

***

The massive turrets on the three dreadnoughts swiveled around to face the Sowir shipyard, and within a single minute opened fire. Massive metal rounds exploded out of the human turrets sent towards the Sowir shipyard at a fraction of the speed of light. The human weapon was devastating, when it hit their target. The mass and speed of the rounds giving them amazing destructive power. But the downside of these weapons was that once they were fired their trajectory couldn’t be changed. If the enemy knew their trajectory it was an easy thing for them to move out of the way, which meant that their most effective range was short, when the enemy ship had less time to move out of the way. But unlike a ship, the Sowir shipyard was relatively stationary, and even thought the distance between the human ships and the shipyard was considerable, it could not move out of the way. The Sowir had no choice but to watch as the human rounds drew closer.

***

The command board showed the trajectories of his ships fire, and Adrian calmly watched. Then a couple of minutes later the weapons fire reached the Sowir shipyard. Adrian’s target was not the shipyard main body, but rather three of the docks that held unfinished battleships. A few moments later a holographic display appeared in front of Adrian showing the visual of the destruction. The metal rounds smashed into the unfinished ships and the docks surrounding them, ripping through the ship hull, the docks fell apart as the explosions from the ships and the metal rounds smashed them apart. The resulting destruction caused a series of secondary explosions that spread to another two docks adjacent to the ones he targeted.  The destruction was massive but didn’t threaten the integrity of the station itself, it was big enough that it could survive.

Cheers broke out again among the crew on the CC. Adrian waited, his ships keeping their distance from the shipyard. This was the moment, if the Sowir were going to open communications it would be now. Adrian waited, but again there was nothing from the Sowir. He was tempted to open communications first, but decided against it. The Sowir needed to believe that the Human are more than willing to fight a war with them. A few more minutes passed with no word from the Sowir. Adrian sighed, their mission failed. They would have a true war with the Sowir. Failing to come to terms with the Sowir meant that they would be forced to go to the plan C. Hit the Sowir fast and hard. Keep them off balance with constant raids on their territory using their only advantage, the trans-lanes. With the arrival of Adrian’s fleet in Tarsas system Sowir knew for sure that they had a way to enter inside the system’s hyperspace barrier – if they weren’t sure after Nuva. That was supposed to be another clue to the Sowir that humans might not be an easy opponent.

Adrian sighed, he looked at the other targets in the system. The Sowir had a refueling station in the orbit of the gas giant, a few cargo ships were on their way out of the system, and those that were on their way to the shipyard have started turning around as they saw Adrian’s fleet. He would need to destroy everything in the system, trusting that the Sowir ships running away would carry the word of what happened. While Adrian’s fleet kept attacking every system they find the trans-lanes to.

He highlighted the fleet, readying to order an attack that would destroy the shipyard. But before he had a chance an alert appeared on his board.

“We are receiving a message from the shipyard Fleet Commander!” The Comm Handler yelled out.

Adrian released a breath. “Play it.” Adrian said.

The message was in Nel, simple and short, it was the same message that the Consortium received a hundred years ago when they met the Sowir. A computer voice boomed out on the CC of the Leviathan, “Terms?”

Adrian smiled, “Looks like our gamble paid off.”

Chapter Twenty One

Sanctuary

The teal tinted leaves of Sanctuary trees were slowly entering their winter forms, they would roll up in a tight shell to protect themselves for the winter that will be coming in a few months. Seo-yun watched them from the balcony of her former home, she hadn’t been here in months. She still owned the house built some way out of the city, on the edge of the plateau that the Olympus city was built on. It had a great view of the forest that stretched below. Sanctuary was such a beautiful world in her opinion. In some ways maybe even more beautiful than Earth. She did miss Earth sometimes, but she had made a choice, this was her home now. Seo-yun glanced at the person standing next to her, who was captivated by the view. The Nel looked over the forest below in fascination.

“It is something else isn’t it?” Seo-yun asked.

“Yes.” Lanai Sumia responded mesmerized, “I have never seen so many trees, so much nature.”

Seo-yun raised an eyebrow, “Really? I thought that the Consortium had plenty of different worlds. There must have been at least one as beautiful as Sanctuary.” Seo-yun said.

“No, sadly all the planets in the Consortium had been very developed by the time I was born. The cities almost covered the entire planet. I have never even been in nature until Nuva, and even then I spent most of my time on the station in the orbit. But Nuva is nowhere near Sanctuary in terms of beauty. The only thing that comes close are Mtural forest cities.” Sumia said.

“I read a little about them, the pictures I saw were beautiful.”

“They were beautiful, until the Sowir bombed them from space.” Sumia said.

“I’m sorry.” Seo-yun said.

“You don’t need to apologize to me. Your people didn’t commit those acts.” Sumia said.

Seo-yun kept silent, looking out over the forest. “I know that you don’t approve with our making an agreement with the Sowir…”

“Perhaps a part of me hates it, yes. But I understand that you needed it. And I am thankful that you included Nuva in that agreement.” Sumia said then turned to look at Seo-yun, “You know that they won’t keep that agreement forever? The moment they think they are strong enough to beat you they will attack, and if they ever learn that you have only this one system…”

“We know. That’s why we plan on expanding rapidly, we already have potential systems in mind.” Seo-yun said.

“Good. If they believe that you are just now expanding into this area of space, and have a much bigger territory somewhere else, they will wait and build up their forces.” Sumia said. With that they again lapsed into a silence, enjoying the view. Seo-yun liked the Nel, she liked talking to her and enjoyed being in her presence.

After a while, Sumia spoke, “Your leader still hasn’t made a decision on my request?”

“No… He wants to, but he is still hoping that your people from Nelus will change their minds.” Seo-yun responded.

“I know that my people are little more than a burden now, and I appreciate everything you have done for us. The fact that you helped us, and made sure that we are safe from the Sowir is something we can never repay you for. But I still hoped, that we might become more than a burden to you.” Sumia said.

“Give it some more time. Tomas has been stung too many times by acting rashly. He has made himself stop when it concerns you, he wants to make sure that he does the right thing for everyone.”

“Perhaps I was too rash in giving him the same request again, after he already didn’t approve.” Sumia said.

“But he didn’t refuse either.” Seo-yun said.

Again they lapsed into silence, this time it was Seo-yun that spoke first, “I brought you here, because I have something for you.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia looked at her expectantly, “Oh?”

“This was my home, before I moved to the palace to be with Tomas.” Seo-yun said looking around, “But now I rarely use it. So I wanted it to have a right owner.” Seo-yun said, reaching in her pocket for a small computer stick, that she then offered to Sumia. “These are the codes for the house, a human keeps such codes in his or her implant. But as you don’t have an implant, I made this. It will transmit the codes when you are near the house. As well as help you control a few of the appliances that require an implant.”

Sumia looked at Seo-yun open mouthed. “You are giving me your home? Why?”

Seo-yun shrugged, “I like you, and I know that you will appreciate the view.” Seo-yun smiled.

“But… I planned on returning to Nuva…” Sumia said.

“Doesn’t matter, if you ever come to visit you can stay here.” Seo-yun reached down and took Sumia’s hand in her own, placing the stick in her palm. “I want you to have it.”

“I – I don’t know what to say, nothing like this has ever happened to me.” Sumia said and a tear rolled down her cheek.

“A simple thank you is enough.” Seo-yun said.

Choked up, Sumia managed a soft, “Thank you.” Then she leapt forward and hugged the nearly a head shorter Seo-yun. Then quickly she leaped back, shock and shame were written all over her face. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” Sumia said.

“It’s alright.” Seo-yun said smilingly, and reached over to hug Sumia again. “We are friends.”

“Friends…” Sumia whispered, she had never had a real friend, it was something that the people from the lower class did. Sumia always had her family, until she was disavowed. The closest thing she had to a friend was Retsar Isani, and that was a relationship born out of necessity. But with Seo-yun it was different. Seo-yun didn’t need anything from her.

“Friends.” Sumia said again as Seo-yun moved back. “Do all humans make friends so fast?” Sumia asked.

Seo-yun laughed, “That depends on the person. But when two people become fast friends, we call that “hitting it off.”” Seo-yun responded. Sumia realized then that she didn’t need to keep appearances here, to keep her emotions in check, allowing herself only a courteous smile or a strategic frown. The humans didn’t care about that. So Sumia let herself be who she was with someone who was not a part of her family. For the first time in her life Sumia laughed with no concern for appearances.

***

Tomas and Elias sat in Tomas’ small office at the palace. Tomas was showing Elias the plans for the Sanctuary’s police. On the desk in front of them was a hologram of the Olympus city with its surrounding, a few kilometers away was a small base, with a big installation below the ground.

“I was wondering what it was that you were building there. But no one knew anything, and those that worked there kept their mouth shut. It is for the police?” Elias asked.

“Yes, I have plans for expansion later.” Tomas asked.

“Expansion? Isn’t it already too big? You could fill five thousand people in there.” Elias commented.

“I imagined it as the headquarters for the entire planet. With their own prison system, and room for equipment, vehicles and such. You are right, it is too big for our needs now, but in time we will grow. I accounted for that in the designs now, rather than having to worry about there not being room for expansion later.” Tomas said.

Elias nodded, “It looks good. You plan on them having shuttles?” Elias said, and Tomas nodded, “Then it would take them about two minutes to reach the city, fast enough. I assume that you want my people to start the training of any people that might apply to be police officers?”

“Yes, I know that it isn’t their expertise. They will have problems enough trying to figure out things on their own. Some insight from your people might serve them well.” Tomas said.

“Okay, how long until you finish all the work?” Elias asked.

“The surface buildings are mostly finished, the underground needs a lot more work to be done. But there are a few areas that are finished. I think that we can start recruiting in about a month. We don’t need all the facilities to be operational.” Tomas said.

Elias nodded. Tomas waved the hologram off with his hand and implant.

“Anything else?” Elias asked.

Tomas got a faraway look in his eyes, “You remember a time when our biggest worry was if some paparazzi would get a picture of me? It seems so silly now, the things we used to worry ourselves with.”

“I can’t remember the last time I thought about those times.” Elias said.

“Yeah, it seems so far away. Especially now when we worry about alien races attacking us.” Tomas said, shaking his head.

“Do you remember the time when we found that redhead in your room?” Elias asked, smirking.

Tomas groaned, “Don’t remind me. That was one of the worst experiences of my life.”

Elias let out a laugh, “Not for me, or my men. That was probably the funniest moment of our lives.”

“Wait, didn’t we agree never to speak of that again?” Tomas asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Could be. It was so long ago I can’t remember. What can I say, I’m an old man.” Elias responded in a thoughtful voice.

“But you remember the incident?”

“Well, some things just stick with you.” Elias said grinning. Tomas couldn’t help but grin in return. Then the grin turned to a full blown laughter. They laughed until their stomachs hurt.

Finally Tomas regained his wits, “I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.”

Elias managed to gather himself enough to speak, “I think that it was when you hired Seo-yun, at Sedna.”

“Yes… She called me a megalomaniac, if I remember correctly.” Tomas said.

“Yes, she did.” Elias added.

“That was the beginning. Of all this.” Tomas said swiping his hand across the room, “Could you have imagined all this back then? Would you have believed if someone told you then, about all this?”

“No… Our world was smaller then.” Elias said.

Tomas nodded, he looked at his oldest friend. “I miss this. Our conversations, we’ve drifted apart over the years.”

Elias sighed. “Yes, we have too much to do and not enough time. And I missed it too.”

“But even though we don’t speak as often outside of work, you are still my best friend, my oldest friend. You are probably the person I trust most in this world, I want you to know that.” Tomas said seriously.

“You trust me more than Seo-yun?” Elias asked half-jokingly.

“Seo-yun is… She is special. I love her, and I trust her with my life. But you and I, we have a bond. You were there with me as I started on the path to fulfill my dream. Never wavering from your place in my shadow, keeping me safe, being my right hand. I want you to know that I appreciate all that you have done for me.” Tomas said, looking at Elias with a piercing gaze.

Elias met his gaze and straightened, “I have always known Tomas, just like I have always trusted you. Your dream was always mine as well. You have my trust, always. And I appreciate all that you have done for me, and the rest of our people.”

Tomas smiled affectionately at his friend, who returned the smile. They spent a few moments in silence, content in each other’s presence. Then after a while, Elias stirred. “You really think that the Sowir will keep their agreement?”

Tomas shook his head, “No. But if they follow a similar path to what they did before, we should get at least some time. They agreed to stay out of our territory, and we out of theirs. No contact between us.” Tomas said.

“We have no way of monitoring the territory we said is ours.” Elias said, they specified their territory as everything in the ten light years from Nuva. Including the systems that have the trans-lanes that lead back to Earth. As per their agreement Sowir will not move past the former Consortium border plus the few systems that they have acquired since then.

“I have been meeting with Laura, we plan on building outposts in every border system, and to push the colonization up the timetable. We were going to include you in the future meetings, we are going to need your people.”

“That’s fine. I have thousands of people just sitting around their bases doing nothing. It will do them good to have something important to do.”

Chapter Twenty Two

January 2172 – Second Fleet

The Second Fleet rested in the final trans-station. They were thirty light years from Earth. Just one more trans-lane, and they would reach their destination. The mood among the fleet was exuberant. Ever since they received word from the Resistance and learned that there was only one ship left guarding Earth. It was the best news that Johanna had ever heard. It was not that she was afraid, but she had no desire to see her people die, even though she knew it was unavoidable. Their plan had changed. They would no longer need to worry about drawing all the ships to them. Now they could go straight to Earth and deal with it. The Resistance would wait until the ship was engaged with Johanna’s fleet before they start their attacks.

Johanna looked at her Comm Handler, they were now inside the 50 light year limit of the FTL comms, meaning that their communications were nearly instantaneous. Anything longer than 50 light years and the FTL comm signal slows down rapidly. That was why they were leaving the comm relays behind them. With them the communication with Sanctuary will take about three weeks, opposite the five months it would take without them.

“We received a message! The Resistance says they are ready!” The Comm Handler said.

“Send a message to Sanctuary, tell them that we are beginning our mission, and they should expect a response one week after this message.” Johanna told the Comm Handler.

Then, Johanna turned to Andros, “Notify the fleet, we are clear for entering the trans-lane.”

Andros opened a channel to the fleet and ordered the transfer. The trans-ship Traveler acknowledged, and began the countdown. The clock started ticking down on the holo, and Andros ordered the screens turned on. They had stopped doing that after the first few transfers, but this one was special. The screens shifted, turned on, and they could see the rest of the Second Fleet. Then the clock hit zero, and the violet wave swallowed her ships. The trip would take four days. And then the battle for Earth will begin.

***

Four days later – Solar system

Jacob sat in the command chair on the Star Gazer. Everyone on the bridge was counting down the seconds, waiting for their moment. The Olympus fleet would enter Sol any moment now. Everyone was ready, both here in the belt, and on Earth. They only waited Jacobs word. The attack on Earth and the belt wouldn’t start until the Ra’a’zani warship is engaged with the Olympus fleet. And because those on Earth had no way of knowing when that happened, Jacob would be the one that gives the order for the attacks to start. The Olympus fleet had orders to open communications with the Ra’a’zani before attacking, and while Jacob wanted nothing more than to see them all die without even knowing who it was that killed them, he understood. But Jacob managed to convince the Olympus Fleet Commander to hold all communications with them until they commit to meeting the fleet. Which Jacob had no doubt they would do. Ra’a’zani wouldn’t know if the fleet was friendly or not.

Jacob’s people had placed equipment and men in battle armor on the mining sites, his people didn’t let anyone other than those they trusted know about the coming attack for fear that the Ra’a’zani would find out about their plans. But his people had reported that the others slaves had noticed something, they could feel a shift. Jacob knew that they couldn’t wait any longer, the Ra’a’zani were not stupid, and with all the things they had to move into place they must have noticed something.

Then Asumy declared, “They are here.”

***

The space between the fourth and the third planet of the Sol system was suddenly bathed in a bright violet light. In a single instant, light came and disappeared, leaving twelve ships that were not there before. The residual effects of their transfer washed off in the following seconds as the last of the lightning arcs bounced of their hulls and disappeared into nothingness. The ships drives activated, and the twelve ships started moving. Soon the two of the ships started turning separating from the fleet, on a course towards the asteroid belt between the fourth and the fifth planet. The other ten continued towards the third planet in the system.

***

Vit’r’an was woken in the middle of the night by the sound of his comm unit ringing. He rose from his pool and reached for the comm. He saw who it was and then accepted the call.

“This better be important Tra’r’an.” Vit’r’an rasped out.

“It is Dakar. We have detected twelve ships in system.” Tra’r’an said.

“There wasn’t another convoy scheduled…” Vit’r’an said thoughtfully, Another unannounced visit? Unlikely. He thought.

“Dakar, we have gotten a good look at these ships, they do not match any ships we have encountered before.”

Vit’r’an frowned, he wondered if they could be ships from the new race they found. But if it was, why would they come here? And how? He dismissed the notion, even if they could come all the way over here, they would have never managed to come through the Ra’a’zani territory unnoticed. Vit’r’an started rising from the water. “I’ll be there in an hour.” He said, that would give him enough time to wake up properly and get something to eat.

“Dakar.” Tra’r’an started, “These ships are nearly here. They entered the system inside the barrier.”

“That’s Impo-” Vit’r’an began, and then stopped himself. He knew that for a ship to enter a system inside the hyperspace barrier was impossible, but Tra’r’an would not lie to him. He knew what the consequences would be if he did. “I’m coming.” Vit’r’an said. If what Tra’r’an said is true, this situation could become much more dangerous than what he initially thought. He believed that Tra’r’an was telling him the truth, as he saw it. But there could still be other explanations for what he said. The ships could have entered the system and traveled unnoticed until now, unlikely but it could happen. And if they truly couldn’t find a match for these ships, then they might have found another race. If they have he needed to step carefully, he had only one warship. But if he was the one to discover another slave race, his position as the next Rakar would be all but assured.

Vit’r’an dried himself in the mist, put on his belt and left his quarters heading towards the main room. Once he arrived he found all of his people awake and alert. Vit’r’an approached Tra’r’an, “What do we have.” He asked. Tra’r’an turned on the screen, and showed Vit’r’an a video of empty space. Just when Vit’r’an was about to ask what it was, something happened. A big wave of light appeared, lasting but an instant. And once it disappeared, twelve ships were there. Vit’r’an was amazed, it seemed that what Tra’r’an said was true. Whoever this was, had the ability to enter a system within the hyperspace barrier. They had to be advanced. Then he saw two of the ships split off and go in a different direction, while the rest continued towards Earth.

“Do we know where these two ships are going?” Vit’r’an pointed at the two that split off from the others.

“They are on the course that will take them to our mining operations in the belt.” Tra’r’an said.

Vit’r’an looked at the screen. That didn’t make sense, why would they go there? And how did they even know that those operations were there? The asteroid belt was big, the chance that they would start on a direct course with the mining operations was miniscule, unless they already knew they were there. Which meant that these ships were here with a purpose.

“Do we have the scans of the ships?” Vit’r’an asked.

“Yes Dakar. But… they are strange.” Tra’r’an said, and brought forward the scans of the ships.

Vit’r’an looked at them and frowned. The majority of the ships were smaller than his ship, only one ship was bigger. And even it was smaller than Ra’a’zani mainline warships. Vit’r’an’s ship was a simple escort ship, their true warships were much bigger. But the strange thing was the scans of the ships themselves. The ships looked like they were not advanced at all. They certainly didn’t look advanced enough to be able to do something that Ra’a’zani hadn’t been able to do in thousands of cycles. There were a few things that they couldn’t identify, the ships hulls were hard to get a read on, being coated in an unfamiliar substance, a few of their mounted weapons were unknown. But the rest, it was all so… primitive.

“Have they communicated?” Vit’r’an asked.

“No Dakar. We tried contacting them, but if they can hear us, they are not responding.” Tra’r’an said.

Vit’r’an blew air out of his nostrils, “I’m going up to the Blood Claw. You are in charge here until my return.” Vit’r’an said. Tra’r’an bowed his head as Vit’r’an turned to leave. His crew was all already up on the ship, sending them a message that he was coming he exited the building and went to the shuttle waiting on a platform.

Chapter Twenty Three

“The Ra’a’zani ship is moving outside of the Earth’s high orbit.” Andros said. Johanna watched on her c-board, as her fleet drew closer. The Ra’a’zani ship was now on an intercept course. They were still trying to contact the Second Fleet, but Johanna still didn’t respond. She would wait until the Ra’a’zani warship came closer to her fleet. Using this time she looked over her ships formation one last time. She chose to use the same formation that Fleet Commander Farkas used against the Sowir with her small touch on it. Her strongest ships were in front and her lighter units behind, the same as Fleet Commander Farkas’. But her differed in that that her lighter ships didn’t hide behind the stronger. The middle of her formation was the Monarch flanked by the two battleships the Claymore and Sovereign. Her light cruisers were behind them and above, the four light cruisers were arranged in a with two on one plane and two on the other. Her three heavy cruisers were below and behind her middle line. There was sufficient room between their lines that all had a clear line of sight to the Ra’a’zani ship, but should they be fired on, the middle line would be able to add their much greater defensive fire.

For twenty minutes Johanna watched as the Ra’a’zani warship moved away from Earth. During that time she looked at the rest of the system, with the updates from the Star Gazer they had the picture of the entire system. Ra’a’zani cargo ships were on their way from the belt to the planet, but when they saw the Second Fleet they slowed, and were turning, going in the other direction. Johanna would love to capture a few of them, but knew that it was probably impossible. As soon as the shooting starts those ships will start running away. And Johanna didn’t want to separate her warships. The two trans-ships she sent to the belt, as she couldn’t risk losing them, but those ships were not equipped for capturing hostile vessels.

The Ra’a’zani warship exited the high orbit and moved towards her fleet, but it didn’t move too far away from the planet before it slowed and came to a stop. It still tried to communicate, but Johanna’s fleet was still silent. Johanna turned to the c-board asking Turiel to provide her with the information on the Ra’a’zani warships distance from Earth. Looking them over and deciding that the Ra’a’zani would stay and wait for her. Looking at her own fleet she saw that within minutes they would enter firing range. Steeling herself, she turned to the Comm Handler.

“Open communications.” Johanna said.

***

Vit’r’an watched the unknown ships approach. He stood on a platform surrounded by railings, his two clawed hands were planted on them as he watched his bridge crew work. He had brought his ship to a stop, there was no point to going to meet them. He put sufficient room between them and the planet, as he did not know their intentions. He still had materials stored on the planet, and did not want to risk these new aliens trying to bomb his planet. As the time passed with no attempt at communication from the aliens, Vit’r’an became more and more annoyed. He debated going up to them and destroying them, but hesitated. They had a way to enter the system inside the barrier. If he could acquire that knowledge, his position as the next Rakar would not only be assured, but he would become probably the most powerful Ra’a’zani alive. The other clans would do anything to get that knowledge.

“Dakar! We are receiving a communication from the alien ships!” A Taskmaster called out. Finally! Vit’r’an thought to himself.

“Put the message through the translating software, I want to know what they said.” Vit’r’an said.

The Taskmaster looked uncomfortable and confused at the same time.

“What is it?” Vit’r’an asked annoyed.

“It isn’t a message Dakar… It’s a request for a video channel, using our protocols. It’s live.” The Taskmaster said.

Vit’r’an frowned, that was disconcerting. Having their protocols suggests that they had been watching them long enough to learn them.

“Engage the translators, and open a channel.” Vit’r’an said. Then a few moments the main screen on the forward wall turned on and showed the video link from the alien ship. Vit’r’an and his crew stared at the screen stunned. Disbelief and shock spread among his crew. The alien on the screen was a human. Vit’r’an couldn’t explain what he was seeing. The bridge looked clean and bright. Holograms could be seen above the humans manning their stations. The humans were focused on their stations, not looking at Vit’r’an and his crew. All except one. A single human, a female, was sitting in what humans called chairs. Around her holograms were displaying information in human language, but the middle was clear giving Vit’r’an a clear view of her. Vit’r’an immediately noticed everything on the bridge, and if there were no humans it would look unnervingly close to the command room on Ra’a’zani mainline warships. Vit’r’an had spent a lot of time in human presence, and he could see hatred in this human’s eyes. She watched him for a few moments, and Vit’r’an studied her in turn, not able to quite believe what he was seeing.

The human opened her mouth and spoke too softly for Vit’r’an to hear, and then a moment later a computerized voice rang out, speaking in Ra’a’zani. “Did you lose your words Ra’a’zani?”

The translation was not done with a Ra’a’zani translating computer, Vit’r’an knew that immediately when he heard it. It was the humans who had translated their words into Ra’a’zani.

“What are you? What kind of trick is this?” Vit’r’an growled out. The human just cocked her head, and Vit’r’an heard his words translated into the human language.

“I am Fleet Commander Johanna Stern, and I am human. There is no trick Ra’a’zani.” She said.

Vit’r’an showed his teeth. “I don’t know what you are playing at, or how you managed to hide ships from us. But your people will pay for this!”

“We are not playing at anything, my ships are not from the Solar system. And the only ones that will pay are you and your people. You will pay for what you have done to the Earth, and you will pay for what you have done to the human people. But we humans are not like you. Monsters and slavers. So I offer you this one chance. Order all your people in the system to lay down their weapons. Power down your ship and surrender. And I promise you that I will let your people live. Imprisoned yes, but they will be alive. Your fate I am afraid will not be the same, as the one who ordered the deaths of countless human lives, you will be executed for your crimes.” The human leaned forward, “Do the right thing, surrender, and give yourself up. You have my word your people will be spared.”

Vit’r’an barely contained himself as he listened to the human speak. “You dare threaten me!” Vit’r’an growled out, spit flying from his mouth. “I will feast on your flesh slave!”

The human had the gall to look unconcerned, she shook her head sadly. “I had little hope that you would accept. But then again, you Ra’a’zani are savages.”

Vit’r’an gripped the railings that surrounded him and squeezed until he could hear the metal cracking. “I will end you human!” Vit’r’an bit out, trying to calm himself down.

The human looked at him thoughtfully, and then said loudly in a near fluent Ra’a’zani. “No Dakar Vit’r’an. The only one that will die this day, is you.” With that the channel closed.

Vit’r’an slowly unclasped his hands from the railings he looked to his crew who were silent. Taking a big loud breath through his nostrils, Vit’r’an calmed. He realized that the human was antagonizing him on purpose. He pulled back and reflected on the facts. The ships were human. They came from outside the system, using technology that allowed them to enter it inside the hyperspace barrier. They knew about him, about the Ra’a’zani, their language, what they have done on Earth, and since two of their ships were on their way to the belt, they knew about their mining operations. That meant that they were in contact with the people on Earth. Logically, this all also meant that there were humans living in other systems. When he discovered Earth, and when they arrived everything about Earth suggested that it was the human home world. And even with the evidence that there were humans outside of Earth, Vit’r’an still believed that Earth was the place of their origin. Too much history was there for it to not be their home world. Which would mean a colony. The humans had a presence in space before the Ra’a’zani arrived. But had abandoned their installations in the belt. They had a few satellites in orbit, but most of them were old. The level of that technology did not show him anything that might suggest a race that could colonize other star systems. Obviously there was something that Vit’r’an had missed, but he had no time to figure out what.

Based on the facts, he knew that humans had at least one colony that was in contact with Earth. But why not come sooner? Vit’r’an wondered. Perhaps they didn’t have the ships? He was sure that their ships couldn’t stand up to his. He needed to capture one of their ships, and find out where these humans came from. But also get the technology that allowed them to travel inside the hyperspace barrier.

Vit’r’an looked up as one of his Taskmasters spoke, “Dakar, the human ships are accelerating.”

Vit’r’an looked at his terminal, “Let us meet them. We need to capture one of their ships.”

With that, his crew went to work, they designated the earth ships numbers from 1 to 10, and Vit’r’an started planning on how exactly to capture a human ship.

***

As soon as the communication channel between the Monarch and the Ra’a’zani ship closed, Johanna leaned back in her chair. She was breathing heavily, her hands shivering. She had tried to keep it together, to make the Ra’a’zani think she wasn’t afraid of him. But she was. This battle would decide the fate of her home world. And she was terrified that she would fail. She knew that she was being stupid, her ship outnumbered her foes ten to one.

Johanna took a deep breath, and looked at her c-board. On it, she saw the scans of the Ra’a’zani ship. It was a bit bigger than her battleships, but almost half smaller than the Monarch. The hull had no weapons visible, but she knew that they were retracted into the hull. The rest was unknown, their scans were not good enough to give her any more information. She reached over to the holographic interface of the c-board with her hand, she highlighted the fleet and ordered them forward.

Almost immediately her fleet started accelerating. She watched as the Ra’a’zani ship did the same, it started accelerating straight for her fleet. I guess that I managed to goad him into attacking us. Johanna said. She couldn’t imagine attacking a force that was ten times bigger than hers. Reaching to the side she toggled a comm channel. With the Ra’a’zani ship now fully committed, the rebellion on Earth could finally begin. She sent the signal.

Chapter Twenty Four

A signal came through a comm channel on the Olympus explorer ship Star Gazer. Immediately Jacob stood upright in his chair. He had waited for this moment for so long. Immediately he turned to Tamara on the comms.

“Contact Earth, operation “Freedom” is a go.” Jacob said. Tamara nodded and immediately started sending the message to Earth using the Olympus FTL comms. They had given an FTL comm to every Resistance leader on Earth. All of them would get the message at the same time.

“Message sent!” Tamara said.

“Send the go signal to our people.” Jacob said, the people they had in wait at the mining sites were ready to start the attack. “Mathias, get us underway.” Jacob added. For the first time in more than sixty years the OES Star Gazer turned on its drives. The ship pointed itself towards its target and started on its way.

***

Anissa Novak sat in her chair on the CIC of the Lord. She was in the  Pacific Ocean about 1000 kilometers from Hawaii island group. She looked to her subordinate on the FTL comms, and waited for the signal from Jacob to come. They knew that the Olympus ships had arrived in system, and had moved towards Earth. They had also learned that the Dakar Vit’r’an has boarded his ship in orbit. Now they only waited for the signal from Jacob that the Ra’a’zani ship was engaged with the Olympus fleet, and the attack would begin. Anissa’s sub was close to the surface, waiting to unleash fire upon the unsuspecting Ra’a’zani bases. Eldritch had arranged for power losses in several bases, and sabotage of defense systems in the bases where he managed to get someone close to the relevant systems. For a few bases they couldn’t be sure that their sabotage would work, so they had teams of people close, in Concordis military transports waiting to assault the bases that manage to survive. Some of the bases were too far away from the Lord for it to attack them, so they would be taken out by the Colorado in the Mediterranean. But the Earth was too big for just two subs, no matter how advanced and powerful their missiles are. Other bases that were outside of both of their reach would be destroyed from the inside, by Eldritch’s bombers. Or if they couldn’t get anyone in, by a physical assault on the base by their people.

“We got a message from Star Gazer!” Her subordinate exclaimed, “Operation “Freedom” is a go! I repeat operation “Freedom” Is a go!” She yelled out.

Anissa took a deep breath, “Begin the firing sequence.”

***

The Coalition submarine Colorado, was just off the shore of Italy. Its main target was the Ra’a’zani headquarters for Earth. The Colorado had a lot smaller amount of missiles, as it was much smaller than the Lord. It would fire missiles towards four bases, all in the Europe and the Middle East. But most of its load would go to the Ra’a’zani headquarters. Then, they received the signal. The message from the Star Gazer went out to every Resistance command center across the planet at the same time. Within minutes, all the attacks began, almost simultaneously. The commanding officer of the Colorado immediately issued the order for the firing sequence.

***

Eldritch received the message from the Star Gazer, and immediately his own teams sent out a worldwide message using their own FTL comms. Within seconds all of his people knew that the attacks were about to begin. The sabotage teams executed their assignments immediately, they were all ready, waiting only for the go signal from Eldritch. His teams triggered bombs, some destroying the power generators of the bases, others sabotaging their defense systems. Some even blowing up entire bases. The time had come, the fight for Earth had begun.

***

Aileen adjusted the bag on her shoulder. She didn’t know what had happened, but the Ra’a’zani were distracted, Dakar Vit’r’an had taken the shuttle up to his ship in the orbit leaving Tra’r’an in charge. Aileen suspected that perhaps another convoy arrived unannounced. But it didn’t matter what it was, it gave her the chance to slip some supplies. It had been weeks since she last managed to slip away, so when she saw the chance she took it. She walked the dark streets, the only light coming from the base. The last time she came through these streets, they were filled with people that were warming themselves around fires. Now there was no one, the cots on the streets were empty. She picked up the pace, walking faster towards the Father’s building. After a couple also empty streets, she reached the old gray brick building. She entered expecting to see people inside, during the nights the building was always full with people. But it too was empty, just like the streets. Looking around she wondered about what could have happened. Did this have something to do with why the Ra’a’zani were so distracted? Seeing that there was no one there she decided to turn back. She couldn’t afford to be gone for too long. Then as she turned she heard voices deeper inside the building. Relieved that there was someone present she walked toward the voices. She reached the doors leading into the room from which the voices came from. As she approached she could understand what they were saying.

“- moment please.” She recognized the Father’s voice.

“We need to go, there is no more time.” Another voice said. Aileen slowly reached the door and stepped in.

“This is the last thing, we can leave now.” The Father said, Aileen saw him reaching over to a bookshelf taking a large book from it and putting it in his bag.

“Father.” Aileen said hesitantly, she could see another person was there, but the room was badly lit and she couldn’t make out anything other than a large human form. The Father turned around immediately, and recognizing her his eyes widened. Then something blurred in front of Aileen, and she felt herself pulled forward and then slammed into a wall, her bag slipping from her shoulder and onto the floor. Her sight darkened from the force and she lost her breath, something pushed on her throat. She managed to open her eyes and was met with a gun shoved in front of her face. It was like no gun she had ever seen, but it was still recognizable.

“Stop!” She heard the Father say. “Don’t kill her.”

Aileen, already frightened, felt her blood freeze over. She managed to focus and look past the gun. She saw only a glass like plate instead of a face.

“She has a red armband. That means she is one of the trusted ones.” A voice came out of the plate. Aileen struggled to breathe as Father reached over and placed his hand on the thing’s shoulder.

“I know, but she has been helping us. Sneaking out supplies, medicine and food.” The Father said.

“Then why is she here now?” The voice asked.

“Look down, she brought supplies.” The Father said.

The head of her attacker moved slightly to the side and down. Then it released her throat and let her down, it moved back still keeping its weapon pointed at her. Aileen took a deep breath and scratched her neck.

“What are you doing here?” The voice asked. Scared, Aileen glanced at the spilled contents of her bag. “I- I was bringing supplies to Father.” Slowly Aileen managed to rasp out.

“Your timing is fortunate.” The voice commented. Then Father moved to stand in front of her.

“You think that they would send her here alone if they knew anything?” The Father asked, “If they knew, we would be swimming in Ra’a’zani strike teams.” The Father said, and Aileen swallowed hard. She realized what was happening. The Father was a member of the Resistance. Aileen tried to move but the man followed her with his gun.

“We should kill her.” The voice said.

“No!” The Father yelled out. “This is the house of God. And she is a good person.”

“We don’t have the time for this Father. So either we kill her, or she comes with us. We can’t let her go back to the base. If things go bad she could give them at least some warning.” The voice said.

Father nodded, and then turned to Aileen, “Child.” He said softly, “I know that you are confused, but you must come with us.”

“You are with the Resistance.” Aileen managed to say.

Father nodded, “Please child, I need you to trust me.” He said, his voice pleading. He didn’t wait for her to respond, but grabbed her hand and pulled her with him, the thing that kept her at gunpoint stepping in front of them. Seeing it in the light of the hallway, she realized that it was a human wearing some kind of armored suit. Before she realized what was happening they stepped outside the building using the back door. To the right she saw the base out in the distance, the light of it barely reaching them. She turned left and saw a vehicle parked there, it was unlike anything she had ever seen.

“I can’t go with you!” Aileen said. “If they want, they can track this armband, they will find me, and kill both of us.” Aileen stopped in her tracks.

The Father grabbed her shoulders trying to make her move, “Child please, you have no idea what is about to happen. If you go back you will die for certain.” He said. Aileen was about to ask him what he was talking about, when suddenly the courtyard was enveloped in darkness. Aileen tried to look out towards the base, and saw only its outline against the starry night.

“Damn. We are out of time.” The armored man said, he stepped forward and picked up both of them. Carrying them effortlessly and quickly to the vehicle. Aileen struggled to get free but the grip on her was too strong. Then both she and the Father were thrown behind the vehicle, the armored man kneeling above them. Aileen managed to get her head up just in time to see the light of the base come back up, and immediately a bright globes of light exploded out of the base. She had never seen the defensive turrets on the base fire, but she knew that it was what those were. A second later she heard three loud explosions and light coming over the buildings from the other direction of the base. Then several streaks of light flew over her head too fast for her to count them.

“Heads down!” She heard an instant before she was roughly pulled back down, a hand coming over her head. Then several earth-shattering blasts sounded all around. Aileen felt her ears hurt from the force of the blasts, the ground shook, and whiteness shone through her closed eyelids. A moment later a shockwave came through shaking everything. Aileen screamed, but couldn’t hear herself. Then the light abated but everything still shook. The last thing Aileen remembered before passing out was the buildings around them coming down, and a blazing hell where the Ra’a’zani base once was.

Chapter Twenty Five

The Monarch and the Second Fleet sped towards the Ra’a’zani ship, that likewise sped towards them. Soon the Ra’a’zani ship entered the Second Fleet maximum missile range. But Johanna waited, she wanted the ship into their optimal range before firing. She ordered her ships to lock their laser weapons on the Ra’a’zani ship. She wanted to see the full speed of the Ra’a’zani ship as it tried to evade the laser fire. A few seconds later, she gave the order for her ships to fire.

***

Suddenly dozens of invisible laser beams struck out from the human ships, reaching out at the speed of light to strike at the Ra’a’zani ship. The lasers reached their target, striking the scale like hull of the Ra’a’zani ship. Immediately after being struck the hull plates shimmered and the heat of the lasers reflected off the hull, leaving it unscathed.

***

“The humans have opened fire with Tarsha’ka weapons Dakar.” One of the bridge crew said. Vit’r’an looked at the status of his ships, seeing that there was no damage. The human Tarsha’ka were not powerful enough damage his ship’s hull. Now finally convinced that human ships posed no threat to his ship, Vit’r’an focused all his skills on a plan to capture a human ship. Preferably he would need to disable one, without destroying it. Which definitely meant destroying its drives.

“Should we return fire Dakar?” Another of his crew asked. Vit’r’an though about it for a moment. The Blood Claw had weapons that could reach the human fleet, but that would mean switching to the war mode, and he didn’t want to scare them off. If they started running away, he would need to hunt them across the system. And he didn’t want to bother with that.

“No, let them get a bit closer.” Vit’r’an said. He showed his teeth. He planned on destroying this human fleet utterly for the insult he was given by the human female. And then when he returned to Earth he would kill half of their population for failing to tell them that the human race had colonies. Maybe he would first learn the details about how that came to be. But then, he would make them pay.

***

“Our weapons have no effect Ship Master!” The Sensor Handler called out.

Andros watched the holo as the information came back. The Ra’a’zani ship was not even bothering to roll and spread out the heat of lasers.

“Keep at it!” Andros ordered. Perhaps if they keep at they might inflict some damage. The Ra’a’zani ship kept coming not concerned about the Second Fleet. Andros got a sick feeling in his stomach. He glanced at Johanna, who was busy reading the information on her c-board and formulating new orders. Then his own board got new orders.

“Stop firing lasers. Lock missiles!” Andros ordered.

His Weapons Handler started sending out orders to the missile firing teams throughout the ship. “Missiles locked!” Weapons Handler yelled out.

Andros saw an order come to his board, All ships fire.

“Fire missiles!” Andros ordered. A moment later the holo was filled with new signatures. Hundreds of missiles were on their way towards the Ra’a’zani ship.

***

Vit’r’an saw the hundreds of Pasha’ka speeding towards his ship. For a moment he was worried, but then one of his Taskmasters yelled out, “The Pasha’ka have no defenses against the Srasah’uk!”

Vit’r’an pulled back his lips showing his teeth in a Ra’a’zani smile, the human ships were firing such primitive weapons at his ship that he was almost tempted to maneuver his ship around their fleet in circle letting them try all of their arsenal, just to show them how futile it was. “Start scanning their Pasha’ka frequencies.” Vit’r’an said. He waited as the human Pasha’ka passed the half-way point between his and their ships. A Taskmaster let Vit’r’an know that they had acquired the frequencies of all the human Pasha’ka. But Vit’r’an waited some more, letting the Pasha’ka draw a bit closer to his ship. Then when he thought that letting them any closer was a risk for his ship he called out, “Engage the Srasah’uk!” Vit’r’an ordered. And within moments, all of the human Pasha’ka exploded at the same time.

***

Johanna watched as the missiles her fleet fired drew closer and closer with no response from the Ra’a’zani ship. The closer they came the more she felt like something was wrong. And then she watched as the every missile on her holo disappeared.

“Turiel! What happened?” She called out to the Ai.

“All the missiles exploded Fleet Commander.” Turiel said.

“Why? Was there a malfunction?” Johanna asked, although she already knew that it wasn’t.

“I detected no malfunction. The reason for the explosions is unknown.” Turiel said, and Johanna’s heart stopped for a moment. She reached over and started forming new orders.

“Turiel, program the missiles to engage their second stage early. At the half way mark.”

“Yes Fleet Commander.” Turiel responded.

***

Vit’r’an watched as the human ships started firing even more Pasha’ka. In a short time thousands of Pasha’ka were again on their way towards the Blood Claw. Vit’r’an ordered his Taskmasters to lock on to the Pasha’ka frequencies again. He followed the Pasha’ka tracks on his terminal, and then they reached the half way mark. Suddenly the number of the Pasha’ka increased, new tracks started appearing on his terminal.

“We lost the locks! Whatever they have just done changed the frequencies!” A Taskmaster yelled out panicky. Vit’r’an felt a moment of panic himself. The number of Pasha’ka was great, and even his ship might be destroyed under the onslaught of so many.

“Lock on the new frequencies!” Dakar Vit’r’an ordered. He watched as his crew worked frantically to get them all, but he saw that they wouldn’t make it in time. When the Pasha’ka reached the same distance as the last time, Vit’r’an yelled out,

“Engage the Srasah’uk!” He ordered. His crew didn’t manage to lock on them all, but Vit’r’an had no choice but to hope that the explosions of the others would take out those not locked on, he had no time to switch his ship to its war mode, and engage the other defenses. And so he prayed that if any passed through, they wouldn’t be able to deal enough damage to his ship.

***

In space more than nine thousand human missiles sped towards their target. Then suddenly more than ninety percent of them exploded, taking with them most of the others. But four missiles, by some miracle managed to survive. They reached their target, and impacted with the front of the Ra’a’zani ship. Four explosions hit the Ra’a’zani ship in quick succession. But the ship kept going. Its hull suffering minor damage.

***

“Minor damage Dakar. The hull integrity for the forward section has fallen to eighty three percent. But it should still be sufficient to prevent human Tarsha’ka weapons from inflicting any damage.” A Taskmaster said.

Vit’r’an felt his anger rise to the surface. The slaves had managed to hit his ship! Their primitive weapons damaged his hull! He would not allow that again. He didn’t know if they had more of those multiplying Pasha’ka but Vit’r’an wouldn’t be caught off guard again.

“Engage the war mode.” Vit’r’an ordered. “And get us above their formation, half speed. I’m done playing.” Vit’r’an growled looking at the human fleet.

***

Johanna looked at the Ra’a’zani ship after her failed attack. They managed to hit the Ra’a’zani ship, but whether their defenses were overwhelmed or four of her missiles simply got lucky, it didn’t matter. Her ships didn’t have enough missiles for another salvo of the same size. She debated using torpedoes, but if Ra’a’zani could destroy them from afar it would serve little point. The only thing she had left was her ships kinetic weapons. And if she fired them at this distance they were unlikely to hit her target. That was her last chance. The Ra’a’zani ship was much more formidable than they could have ever imagined. The ease with which it shrugged off their attacks was freighting.

Johanna debated turning around and running away, but she knew that she couldn’t. The attacks on Earth had already begun. If she ran away, there was nothing that could save Earth from the wrath of the Ra’a’zani. No, they needed to fight. Johanna studied the Ra’a’zani ship’s hull, it was certainly damaged. Her missiles did hurt them, although it seemed like it was minor damage. Perhaps if she could close the distance, and get a torpedo to hit… Then Johanna saw a change take over the Ra’a’zani ship. She watched as its hull plates moved in a wave like motion, overlapping, moving around, and opening. Johanna watched as platforms rose up from within the Ra’a’zani ship. The platforms held things that looked like her ships turrets, only wider and shorter. When the transformation finished the hull plates moved back closing over the platforms, so that only the turrets were visible. The shimmering that they saw when their lasers hit the hull now appeared over the weapons.

Johanna looked in disbelief at the how much more menacing the enemy ship looked, then its speed increased and it changed its course. Seeing what the Ra’a’zani ship was trying to do, Johanna started issuing orders to her fleet, changing its formation. The Ra’a’zani ship was coming for them, and she knew that this time it would be going on the offensive. Johanna knew her only shot was to hit it with her last card, and hope that it would work.

Chapter Twenty Six

Commander Vladimir Domnin stood at a top of a building overlooking the St. Petersburg Ra’a’zani base. The people around the base have already been evacuated. And Vladimir and his people waited for the signal before they started their assault. His men were already positioned in the darkness, unseen waiting for his command. Then Vladimir’s comm chirped, and he knew that the time had come.

“Go, go, go!” Vladimir said over the comm grid of his suit. Every member of his assault team heard the message and they began the assault. Vladimir dropped from the roof of the four floor building, as his feet hit the pavement it cracked. The suit absorbed all the force of the drop. The suits he and his team wore were made during the war by Concordis, for special ops teams. Powered suits allowed them to move faster, hit harder, and survive things that would otherwise kill them.

His twenty man team moved quickly towards the Ra’a’zani main entrance, their suits stealth mode engaged. There were supposed to be forty Ra’a’zani inside, plus a dozen or so thralls. The Taskmaster of this base didn’t like slaves, so most humans were not allowed inside. Instead they remained outside the base, until Ra’a’zani needed something. That’s why they couldn’t destroy the base by planting bombs.

Vladimir reached the base entrance. A standard Ra’a’zani checkpoint with two Ra’a’zani standing guard. The two were engaged in conversation. They didn’t even notice when two plasma blasts fired from Vladimir’s sides and burned their heads off. His people kept moving going inside. The Ra’a’zani scanner would soon detect their movement, but they wouldn’t be seen by the naked eye. The confusion will add to their advantage. As soon as they entered the base itself, they split off into teams of two. They started moving through the base killing everything in their way. The Ra’a’zani knew that they were under attack, the human weapons were as invisible as the suits, but their fire was not.

Vladimir entered a room, and saw there Ra’a’zani, they were in the process of putting on their battle armor. But sadly for them, Vladimir decided to not let them finish. He raised his SH-7 plasma rifle and fired at the closest Ra’a’zani. The plasma bolt burning through his back. Vladimir’s team member killed another one as he tried to turn. And Vladimir put two quick bolts into the third one as he tried to charge their positions.

Communicating through their suits and implants, the entire assault team moved efficiently and quickly through the base. Within another twenty minutes, there was no Ra’a’zani left alive.

***

Commander Anya Lane was not having a good day. Her team began their assault on the Ra’a’zani base in the Sydney mega-zone more than ten minutes ago, and they were still pinned down in the base’s lobby. Somehow the Ra’a’zani were ready for them. They had been waiting for Anya and her people in their battle armor. Whether her team was betrayed minutes before the attack, or somehow the Ra’a’zani managed to detect them, didn’t matter now. The fight was on. She had already lost three of her men. And knew that she would lose a lot more before the night was over.

Rising her weapon over the cover, she used her implant’s interface - that connected to her plasma rifles small camera - to aim and fire without being exposed. The Ra’a’zani had trouble taking cover because of their size, but their armor more than compensated enough.

She fired four shots in a quick succession, hitting one Ra’a’zani three times in the torso. The Ra’a’zani was too slow to move, and the first two shots weekend its armor enough for the third to penetrate and kill him. Anya lowered her weapon, checking on her imp the heating level of her rifles power cell. She had maybe another seven shots, before she needed to dispose of the cell. She had two more reserve cells. But she knew that if they don’t manage to break the stalemate soon, it wouldn’t be enough.

***

Taskmaster Rag’r’an, commander of the Ra’a’zani base in what the humans called Sydney mega-zone, stood in his battle armor in the middle of his base’s main command center. He watched on the terminals as humans pushed through the entrance hall, and slowly progressed into the base. Both sides were losing people, but for every one human that fell, three of his people fell as well. Rag’r’an shook with rage, this was the first time in the history of the Ra’a’zani race that a slave race dared to rebel after its been conquered.

The humans attack began with the sabotage of Rag’r’an’s comm system. His people were lucky that they noticed it early enough, and that Rag’r’an put the base on alert. Otherwise the humans would have killed them all already. He saw the power of their weapons first hand, as the scorch mark on his shoulder attested to.

“How long before we regain communications?” Rag’r’an asked.

“Soon Taskmaster.” His subordinate answered.

Rag’r’an growled in his battle armor. Once he managed to contact the Dakar, the humans would pay dearly for every Ra’a’zani life lost.

***

Anya watched as her people slowly gained ground. They were pushing the Ra’a’zani back. Soon they would reach their main room. Plasma bolts flew from the human side, while some kind of other energy weapons fire flew from the Ra’a’zani. They had never managed to get their hands on Ra’a’zani functional weapon. And they didn’t know what kind of energy it fired, but they knew that their armor could withstand a few hits. She got a message on her imp from the command. They had reinforcements incoming.

“Commander! The Ra’a’zani are trying to get their comms back up!” Anya heard over her imp. Immediately she opened a channel to everyone under her command.

“Pull back! We got heavies incoming!”

***

“The humans are nearly through Taskmaster!” Someone yelled out.

“Stall them!” Ra’g’ran growled out. He turned to the Ra’a’zani working on the comms.

“Hurry!” He said.

“I’m almost done Taskmaster. Rerouting the power source, and… There!”

“Contact the headquarters immediately!” Ra’g’ran ordered.

“There is no response Taskmaster!”

Ra’g’ran looked in disbelief, the humans couldn’t have attacked the headquarters as well.

“Try the other bases. Start with the closest first.”

“There is no response from anyone. All the bases on the planet have gone silent Taskmaster!”

Rag’r’an couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Access the grid, figure out what happened.” Ra’g’ran ordered. The grid was separate from their comm systems.

“There is no mention of anything wrong Taskmaster. Wait… it looks like ships entered the system and the Blood Claw moved to meet with them.” Ra’g’ran felt a shiver, this couldn’t be coincidence.

“Send the message to the Blood Claw. Tell them that all the bases on the planet are under attack!” Ra’g’ran ordered. Then another Ra’a’zani in battle armor walked over to him.

“The humans are retreating!” He said.

Ra’g’ran engaged his hand cannon, and started towards the action. He wouldn’t let the humans get away without first making them pay in blood.

***

Sergeant Nathan Bell sat in the driver’s seat of the League Ravager Mk3 class tank. Behind him, on their own posts were his best friends, Donald Hall and Chloe Grant. Nathan’s tank was a part of the four tank squad, moving into position to attack a Ra’a’zani base. They couldn’t have approached the base before, fearing that the Ra’a’zani sensors would detect them before they managed to disable them. But now the Ra’a’zani defenses were down, his people had retreated, and his job was to level it to the ground. Their squad got in position on the hill overlooking the Ra’a’zani base. Their large 160mm caliber guns swiveled and locked on their target. A moment later their bombardment began. The large explosive rounds rained fire on the defenseless Ra’a’zani base. Within minutes the base crumbled in fire and smoke.

After the dust settled, two ten man teams moved in on foot, making sure that there were no survivors.

***

The first thing Aileen saw when she opened her eyes was the orange sky. For a moment she thought that it was dawn and moved to get up, she had things to do. But then she remembered. She realized that she was in a vehicle of some kind, bundled up in the back seat with someone sitting next to her. Through the vehicle’s window she saw that it wasn’t dawn, the orange color was from the flames rising up in the distance. Slowly Aileen rose up, the person sitting next to her noticed and turned to her.

“Are you alright child? You hit your head pretty hard.” The Father asked.

“What have you done?” Aileen asked weakly. “They’ll kill us all for this.”

“No child. The time when Ra’a’zani ruled over the Earth has come to an end. By this time tomorrow we will be free.”

Aileen shook her head. “You can’t fight them. They have ships, they’ll start bombing us any moment now.” She said defeated.

“We have ships as well. There is so much that you don’t know about your own kind. This is exactly why they managed to conquer us. If more of us remembered the past, the things would have been different.” The Father said sadly, shaking his head. “You don’t need to worry about their ship, it is being taken care of.”

Aileen refused to believe it. She knew what Ra’a’zani were capable of. They would never allow this to go unpunished. She kept her mouth shut, looking out the window at the cloud of orange smoke out in the distance. The Ra’a’zani base had been her home, and now it was gone. She didn’t know how to feel about that.

A few minutes later they came to a stop. The Father motioned for her to get out, and he exited the vehicle on his side. Aileen followed on her side. The man in the armored suit exited and shook the Father’s hand.

“I’ll be seeing you around Father.”

“God is with you son.” The Father said. Aileen thought about his words, and then something clicked in her mind. The Father was a priest. She had heard about them long ago, people that believed in a God, and dedicated their lives to him.

The man in the armored suit, laughed, said his goodbyes and went back to his vehicle, driving away in the direction they came from. The Father motioned for Aileen to follow, and not knowing what else to do, she did. They went around a corner of a building and were met with droves of people. Aileen realized that  this was where the people from the streets went to. She looked around as they passed. Some people thanked the Father, others looked happy, talking about being free. But most were silent, looking like they didn’t care.

“Here child.” The Father said as they reached a building. “Go inside, you will find cots. Rest for a bit. I’ll come check up on you later.” With that he left her, while he went back among the crowd. Not knowing what else to do, Aileen did as she was told.

***

Olympus Explorer Ship Start Gazer moved above the docking area of one of the Ra’a’zani mining facilities. The Ra’a’zani had pulled back there, to hide from the human forces that had attacked them from within. Now Star Gazer rolled, bringing its four small double railgun turrets to bear on target. Jacob’s men on this site had already closed all airlocks. And isolated the area humans were in from the ones where Ra’a’zani were. The Star Gazer opened fire. The small 90mm rounds ripping through the docks hull depressurizing it and killing every Ra’a’zani inside.

Chapter Twenty Seven

Vit’r’an saw the human formation start to break apart, their ships slowing down and shifting. They weren’t turning away from the Blood Claw, they were arranging to meet his ship. Vit’r’an applauded the humans for their bravery, he knew some Ra’a’zani that would have turned and ran if they were faced with the same. He watched as the top of the human formation moved even further away from the three bigger ships in the middle, and spread out. The lower part of their formation doing the same. He knew what they were trying to do, as his ship passed the middle of their formation, the bottom would move behind them while the top tried to trap him from the above. He recognized the skill of the human commander. But sadly it would do her no good. Their ships couldn’t stand up to his. The human ships were in range of his weapons for a while now. But still he waited, just a bit more and he would open fire. The humans held their fire as well. That worried him, they should be firing their weapons at him, trying to get through. But they didn’t. That told him that they planed something as well.

Then Vit’r’an decided that they were close enough.

“Lock the Larsha’ka on the human ships one through three!” Vit’r’an ordered. Now you will see how truly outmatched you are.

***

On the holo the Ra’a’zani ship drew closer and closer. Johanna kept her weapons fire silent, their lasers were ineffective and the Ra’a’zani had a way of detonating their missiles. She placed all her hopes on one last move. Then the Monarch’s scans detected a massive buildup of energy from the Ra’a’zani ship. Then the Ra’a’zani ship opened fire.

***

The Ra’a’zani warship held three Larsha’ka cannons. The cannons turned and locked on the human three heavy cruisers. Then the faint green light started emanating from the inside of the turret barrels. The light grew in intensity for a few seconds, and then all three turrets released their Larsha’ka energy. Three bolts of bright green-white energy exited the turrets, moving much faster than the human missiles. But still slower than the speed of light. The human ships point defense was unable to lock on the bolts, and unopposed they reached the human ships. The first human ship received the energy bolt on its forward section, the bolt “ate” through their hull, mangling and twisting the hull before it expanded all of its energy. The second human ship got hit directly in the middle of its top section. The energy ate through the hull and reached the ship’s weapon power grid. Once the Ra’a’zani weapons fire came in contact with the grid it released the remainder of its energy overloading the power grid. The resulting backlash caused a series of secondary explosions that blew the ship apart. The last human ship was lucky, it managed to roll and showed its bottom side, where its hull was the thickest. The energy bolt struck the hull but didn’t penetrate the hull, leaving only a huge scorch/burn like mark on the heavy cruisers hull.

***

Stunned Johanna watched as Ra’a’zani fire mangled her ships. The heavy cruiser Unity had blown up, the heavy cruiser Sword had sustained heavy damage, its forward section weapons were offline and the Ship Master Talis reported that they were experiencing constant power fluctuations in their power grid. The heavy cruiser Tempest on the other hand got off lightly, they got hit on the part of the ship where their hull was thickest, and sustained only light damage. But another hit like that and they could be in trouble. Johanna knew that the only ships in her fleet that could stand up to that weapon were her battleships and the Monarch. She changed her plan, sending her middle line in, while pulling the others back. A few more minutes and she would unleash the full might of the Monarch’s turrets and railguns on the Ra’a’zani ship.

***

Disappointed, Vit’r’an looked at the damage his weapons had inflicted. He had intended to destroy all of them with a single shot. But the human ships proved more resilient.

“What happened? The Larsha’ka were supposed to destroy their ships.” Vit’r’an said, the Larsha’ka was not the most powerful weapon the Ra’a’zani possessed, but it was the base of all of their ships, and the main weapon of the Blood Claw.

“Now that we have damaged their hull, we have better scans of their ships. It looks like their hull is made out of high density metal alloys. They have a tremendous mass, Dakar. The Larsha’ka expended most of its energy just to get through so much mass.” A Taskmaster on the sensor post said.

Vit’r’an growled again. The Larsha’ka could burn through anything, provided it had enough energy. If it needed to expand so much of its power just to get through the human hull, the Blood Claw will need to fire follow up shots for it to be effective. But they did destroy one and crippled another of their ships. That meant that some areas of their ships had less defenses than others. The terminal now showed the human middle line moving forward, their damaged ships moving behind. Looks like the humans figured out what the Larsha’ka did. If their bigger ships had thicker hull, then it would take more than a single shot to damage them enough to destroy them. Then the human middle line split again, their biggest ship going up above the Blood Claw, while the two smaller ones going below. They planned to get him between them. A good plan, but one that won’t work as their weapons were ineffective against his ship.

“Target the ships four through six, fire when ready.” Vit’r’an said.

***

Andros rolled the Monarch, bringing its top side to bear against the Ra’a’zani ship. All of their railguns, and massive turrets were trained on the Ra’a’zani ship. The battleships Claymore and Sovereign were under the Ra’a’zani ship, their trajectories and weapons pointed in a way that made sure that any missed shots wouldn’t hit the Monarch, or the Monarch’s them. The light cruisers were coming in behind the Monarch, even further above. The heavy cruisers Tempest and Sword waited in front of the Ra’a’zani ship.

Then Andros saw the Ra’a’zani ship open fire, just as the order came through.

“Fire!” Andros said, and watched as the space filled with fast moving metal objects.

***

“Firing!” Vit’r’an’s subordinate said. And all five Larsha’ka cannons on the top of the Blood Claw fired on the biggest human ship, while the four on the bottom fired two shots on the each human ship below. Vit’r’an followed his Larsha’ka bolts, just as alarms started beeping across the bridge.

“Incoming weapons fire! It looks like Pasha’ka, thousands of them!”

“Get their frequencies!” Vit’r’an yelled out, if they were the same ones that could multiply this could be bad.

“The Srasah’uk can’t get a lock!” Someone yelled out. Vit’r’an looked at the incoming fire, realization coming to his mind. His eyes widened. “Evasive Maneuvering!” He yelled out. But he knew that it was too late.

***

Out in space, the Ra’a’zani Larsha’ka and the human weapons fire encountered each other. A few of the humans metal shells impacted with the Larsha’ka, and those that did were devoured by it, reducing the Larsha’ka energy by a small amount. Then they passed, the Larsha’ka bolts hit their targets spot on. Five Larsha’ka bolts hit the Monarch, three hit the Citadel, and two impacted in the amidship. The top of the ship’s hull was bathed in green-white energy that swallowed anything it came in contact with, several turrets disappeared as they were consumed. The Larsha’ka savaged the Monarch’s hull, but the dreadnought ships had been created to deal out as much punishment as they got. The damage was minor.

The two battleships each got hit by two Larsha’ka, the Claymore shrugged of the hits, losing only a couple of turrets. The Sovereign on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. One shot hit it amidship doing minor damage. The other one hit close to the ship’s drives, the Larsha’ka ate through the hull and reached a power conduit. The last part of the ship exploded, sending the Sovereign into a spin, it’s auxiliary maneuvering drives firing to try and stabilize it.

The Ra’a’zani ship noticed the danger of the human attack almost too late. In the split seconds that its commander realized the danger, the Ra’a’zani ship fired all of its drives in one big burst of power, moving ever so slightly out of the way. That moment was enough to save them from most of the onslaught, but not all. The smaller 150mm explosive shells fired from the human ships railguns bombarded the Ra’a’zani ship creating craters on its surface. But it was their main weapons, the massive 700mm shells fired from their turrets that inflicted the most damage. The Ra’a’zani hull was strong, but the pure destructive power of the human weapons proved sufficient to devastate their hull. One 700mm shell dropped right on top of the Ra’a’zani Larsha’ka turret, breaking it apart and penetrating inside the ship, causing an enormous explosion that left a seven meter wide crater on the ship’s hull.

And then three of the 700mm shells followed by dozens of 150mm explosive ones, hit the Ra’a’zani ships close to its drives. The effect was immediate, the hull material of the Ra’a’zani ship shattered as the shells destructive power hit them. A part of their drives exploded, but the Ra’a’zani ship was made with the best materials their kind was capable of making, most of the explosion was absorbed or deflected off the most important sections of the ship.

***

Vit’r’an felt his ship shake around him, the clear sign that the internal dampeners were damaged. He wasn’t worried, his ship had many redundancies. The dampeners were probably the most important part of a space ship. His terminal showed the damage the Blood Claw was receiving. Hull breaches, loss of hull integrity, and then he heard an explosion. The light on his bridge dimmed, the lights and computers flickering, until a moment later they came back strong. Vit’r’an glanced at his terminal. He saw the damage to his ship’s drives. Their maneuvering capability had dropped to 30%.

Vit’r’an felt his blood boil in rage. He knew what the human weapons were. Mass drivers, weapons that his people used long ago. He had heard of the devastation that those weapons could do to a ship that was foolish enough to stand in their way. And now he had experienced it firsthand. His ship’s hull was savaged, the damage wasn’t critical, surface damage only. But the integrity of their plates had dropped, they lost a Larsha’ka cannon, and the only reason for his drives still operating was that their builders built them with battle in mind, and constructed them compartmentalized. His people had stopped using mass drivers thousands of rotations ago, when their ship became maneuverable enough that there was little chance of those weapons hitting their mark.

Vit’r’an knew that the humans had drawn him into a trap. He was holding back, waiting for an opportunity to present itself for him to disable and capture one of their ships. But now, the flow of battle had turned. His enemies knew that they had weapons that were effective against his ship. And the damage to his drives will make it impossible for him to evade all of their fire. Their ships could move around his in circles. He saw the rest of the human forces were on an intercept course, no doubt to fire their own mass drivers. While the three ships that had inflicted so much hurt were slowly turning around, coming back from his ship’s rear. Enraged Vit’r’an turned to his crew.

“Lock on Pasha’ka on the ships seven to ten, target the ship’s one and two with Larsha’ka.” Vit’r’an ordered, “Fire when ready!” Before the human heavy ships turn, he would destroy the rest.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Ship Master Andros Venter commanded his ship, the Monarch had acquired light damage. The Fleet Commander’s gambit paid off, their attack had damaged the seemingly indestructible Ra’a’zani ship. Even though the Ra’a’zani realized the danger of the attack in time to evade most of the weapons fire, the attack has crippled their drives. Their ability to evade the next attack had been diminished. Andros saw Johanna give out orders to the four light cruisers and the two remaining heavy cruisers to surround the Ra’a’zani ship from the top and bottom. The light cruisers adjusted their course so that they come parallel with the Ra’a’zani, while the heavy cruisers will go for a single pass. The Monarch and the battleship Claymore were turning around get to the Ra’a’zani ship from behind. Andros received orders from Johanna for all ships to open fire with all weapons. Perhaps their attack disabled some of the Ra’a’zani defenses. Just as he was about to order his ship to target the enemy ship with missiles and lasers, his screen started getting updates, and Sensor Handler yelled out,

“The enemy ship is firing missiles, and their primary weapon!”

Andros was about to order his ship to evade when he realized that none of the Ra’a’zani fire was pointed at his ship.

“Damn! All power to the drives, get us on them! Target all remaining missiles and lock on with lasers. Fire lasers as they get in range!” Andros ordered. But he knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop the attack now heading towards the cruisers.

***

The Ra’a’zani warship, Blood Claw, released hundreds of missiles – the Pasha’ka – at the human light cruisers. Their Larsha’ka targeted the two heavy cruisers. Firing three bolts at each. The light cruisers were in a spread out formation, able to use their point defense to cover each other. Soon the space between the Ra’a’zani ship and the human light cruisers was filled with shells. The human ships created a wall of fire between them. But the Ra’a’zani Pasha’ka were advanced, maneuverable, and fast. The human fire wall was taking down Pasha’ka rapidly but the light cruiser crews could see that they wouldn’t get them all. Seventeen missiles passed through to the light cruisers. Light cruiser Rogue got hit with four missiles, two struck the forward section of the ship, with the remaining two hitting the middle. The blasts of the Pasha’ka blew holes in the ship, and a moment later it exploded. The light cruiser Viper was hit by five missiles, its fate was the same. The light cruiser Independence was struck with seven missiles, the first two hit the ship in the middle, breaking it in half, the last five slammed into the two parts of the ships that were drifting apart from each other, obliterating them. The light cruiser Ajax was hit with only one missile, the resulting explosion blowing off almost half of the ships forward section. But the ship survived.

The heavy cruisers Sword and Tempest knew that they had no way of surviving the Ra’a’zani Larsha’ka. The heavy cruiser Sword was too damaged to try to evade or turn its bottom side to the incoming fire. The Larsha’ka hit the Sword in the back end of the ship, the second hitting the already damaged forward section. The Larsha’ka breached the Sword’s hull, the atmosphere started leaking out, and the energy discharged into the Sword’s already fluctuating power grid feedback to its reactors, the countermeasures failed just before the third Larsha’ka hit, but the ship was already doomed, it exploded in a flash of white fire.

The Tempest attempted to evade the Ra’a’zani fire, moving out of the way of the first bolt, but the second hit its hull, destroying their right side missile launch tubes, which exploded in a violent blast, then  another bolt slammed into Tempest, finishing the wounded ship off.

***

Vit’r’an watched as his attack destroyed five out of the six ships the Blood Claw attacked. Again, some of the humans managed to survive. He was about to order another attack when an alert sounded. The two heavy human ships were firing their Pasha’ka and Tarsha’ka. The salvo of the Pasha’ka was less than what it was the last time when they managed to get four of them through, but Vit’r’an wasn’t taking any chances he ordered the Srasah’uk used as soon as a frequency was locked. The human Tarsha’ka on the other hand  were becoming troublesome, with the Blood Claw’s hull integrity compromised they will start incurring damage. Vit’r’an ordered the ship in a roll to dissipate and spread out the heat, and then ordered his ships maneuvering into an evading pattern. Although he knew that with their lowered maneuverability they couldn’t escape the Tarsha’ka beams. And soon the two heavy ships would turn and reach him, their mass driver could very well destroy his ship. Vit’r’an almost snarled, he wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Target their heavy ships. Fire when ready!” Vit’r’an said, and watched as his Larsha’ka cannons turned, locked and fired. Then the hull plates on the Blood Claw moved again revealing the Pasha’ka launchers. Hundreds of Pasha’ka launched out of the Blood Claw.

“Dakar! We are getting a communication from Earth base thirteen!” An Ra’a’zani on the comms said. Vit’r’an looked at him, “I’m busy whatever they want, they can wait!”

“But Dakar, they report that they are under attack from the humans and that they can’t reach any other base on the planet. They say that all Ra’a’zani on the ground have gone silent!”

Vit’r’an looked at him in shock, he understood then. He should have realized it sooner, these ships were here to help liberate the system. They were in contact with the humans on Earth. Every base on the planet going silent at the same moment wasn’t coincidence. The humans had started an attack on all Ra’a’zani bases on the planet. Vit’r’an felt such rage, he looked at the human ships bearing down on his ship. He wanted to win, but knew that it was unlikely. His ship will not survive another attack from the human mass drivers. And as soon as they get in range they will fire. Vit’r’an would make them pay for it, yes, but he would die in the process. And even if he survived, somehow managed to destroy all of the human ships. The attacks on the planet had already happened. He would go back to the core in shame. The first Ra’a’zani Overlord to lose a world. He would never become Rakar. The humans had cost him too much.

No. Vit’r’an decided, he wouldn’t live past this. But before he died, he would make the humans pay a price unlike anything they could have imagined. “Arm the Destra’ka.” Vit’r’an said viciously. His crew turned to look at them, but his expression quickly spurred them into motion.

“Destra’ka is armed Dakar.” A Taskmaster said.

“Target the planet. Put it on a course around the human ships.” Vit’r’an said. The Taskmaster did as Vit’r’an asked.

“It’s done Dakar.” Taskmaster said.

“Fire.” Vit’r’an said. He watched on his terminal, as the Destra’ka left the cargo area of his ship. Its navigation system kicked in and it started on the curved course that will bring it to the human home world. Vit’r’an knew that the humans would remember this day for all time.

***

Johanna tried to keep the destruction of her ships from affecting her. But each death affected her greatly. She saw the Ra’a’zani ship fire their energy weapons at the Monarch and the battleship Claymore, and then their missiles. She didn’t need to issue any orders, the commanders of the two ships already gave the orders for evasive maneuvering and the point defense. Her ships lasers were having an effect, the Ra’a’zani were rolling and using evading maneuvering to escape her ships laser fire. Her missiles weren’t faring well, they were being detonated by whatever was the Ra’a’zani defensive system, but now they were being detonated at a much greater range, and not all at once. But one by one, her missiles disappeared.

The Monarch and Claymore were firing their railguns creating a wall against the Ra’a’zani missiles. Then the Ra’a’zani energy weapons reached their ships. The commander of the Claymore had turned its bottom side to the enemy fire. The four energy bolts hit the Claymore’s hull mangling the entire length of the ship. But the Claymore survived. Ship master Andros Venter on the other hand, didn’t bother to spin the ship he plunged through, the energy bolts hitting the dreadnoughts doubleheaded forward section. The Monarch shrugged off the Ra’a’zani powerful weapon and kept going, losing only some forward railguns and two laser turrets.

Johanna noticed another signature appear on her holo, but quickly Turiel concluded that it was not fired at them. And its signature was strange, having a big energy reading. She concluded that it might be an escape pod. But since it wasn’t a threat to her fleet, she put it out of her mind.

The Ra’a’zani missiles were still speeding towards the Monarch and the Claymore. Their point defense systems trying to take down as much as possible. The Ra’a’zani missiles had great maneuverability, but the shear amount of shells that the Monarch and the Claymore sent out was overcoming their better technology. Out of the hundreds of missiles the Ra’a’zani fired, only nine went through. Three hitting the Claymore amidship, one of the missiles got lucky, it penetrated inside the hull and exploded. The explosion resulted in the Claymore losing power. Then another Ra’a’zani energy bolt struck in the same spot, and Claymore exploded.

The remaining six Ra’a’zani missiles hit the forward section of Monarch. Three of the missiles hit the right axe-head of the ship, at the exact same spot that the Ra’a’zani energy weapon struck. The missiles penetrated inside, and exploded. The fire reached the forward cargo hold of the Monarch and the air inside fuelled the explosion further. Johanna felt the ship shake, as almost half of the dreadnought’s right axe-head blew up, the debris flying in all directions, a big chunk of the hull flew in the direction of the Citadel, glancing off the side leaving a huge surface gash across it. But the Monarch kept going. The bulkheads between the right axe-head and the rest of the ship coming down, cutting that part of the ship off the rest. Even after losing an entire section of the ship, the dreadnought class was operational. The rest of the ship functioning at near full capacity. Turned to Andros.

“Ship Master, fight your ship.” She said. She had lost most of her fleet, and the rest of her ships were unable to move and help. There was no point for her to direct the combat from the c-board. It was all up to Andros and the Monarch.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Vit’r’an watched as the big human ship advanced forward, even after losing a big chunk of its hull it still kept going. Its Tarsha’ka weapons still firing, the closer they got the more damage their beams did. Vit’r’an could read heat increases in more than half sectors of his ship. Hull integrity was almost below twenty percent, and more and more hull breaches appeared on his terminal. His ship had depleted its Pasha’ka supplies, but it was still firing the Larsha’ka at the incoming human ship. Which was shrugging them off. Its hull too thick for his weapon to inflict serious damage fast enough. The Blood Claw had ravaged the forward section of the ship. It was venting atmosphere at several hull breaches. But Vit’r’an knew that the big ship was too massive and powerful for it to die before his ship did. Then Vit’r’an saw the human ship roll and adjust its course, bringing all of its top weapons to bear. Vit’r’an knew that this were the last moments of his life.

***

Ship Master Andros Venter ordered his ship to roll and adjusted the course, so that his ship would pass over the Ra’a’zani ship. All of his top weapons would be able to fire. The Monarch was sustaining serious damage, but it was still going strong. Fleet Commander Farkas was right, the dreadnought class warships were fortresses. As long as the Citadel was safe, the ship would keep going. Monarch had lost more than half of his weapons from the middle and the forward sections, Andros hoped that what he had left would be enough. He didn’t want to use the torpedoes, they didn’t know the range or even what the Ra’a’zani defense weapon was. And he didn’t want to have a nuclear weapon explode in front of his ship.

Andros waited for his ship to enter the optimal range of his kinetic weapons, all the time his ship was assaulted by the enemy energy weapons which were eating at its hull. Then it was time.

“Open fire!” Andros ordered. And Monarch’s railguns, turrets, and laser weapons fired on the Ra’a’zani ship.

***

The human warship, the Monarch, dreadnought class, advanced above the Ra’a’zani ship Blood Claw, fire erupting from its weapons, even as air and debris flew off its hull leaving a trail of gas and metal in its wake. Thousands of 150mm shells were fired from the Monarch’s railguns, hundreds of 700mm bolts of metal were fired from the Monarch’s double-barreled turrets, three of the Monarch’s still working 600mm lens laser turrets were sending down fire on the Ra’a’zani ship. The space between them was Hell. But just as the human ship spew fire at the Ra’a’zani, so did they return in kind. Ra’a’zani energy weapon, the Larsha’ka cannons fired on the human ship. The energy bolts disappearing as they clashed with the incoming metal rain. Those few that passed through that Hell, reached the Monarch scorching its hull. But like an indomitable beast it just kept coming, pieces of its skin flailing about, its front opened up like a gaping wound, its life blood spewing from dozens of breaches. The Ra’a’zani ship was firing its maneuvering thrusters, its drives had been brought to the brink of what they could handle, and still it was not enough. The Monarch’s lasers seared the Ra’a’zani hull, the scale like plates of their ship melting under the immense heat.

And then the rain of metal fire struck the Ra’a’zani ship. Its slow, cumbersome attempts at evasion were simply not enough to save it. The small railgun explosive shells clobbered the hull where it was intact, and punctured the hull where it was already weakened. Then, the massive 700mm bolts of metal smashed down on the Ra’a’zani ship’s hull. They cleaved through the Ra’a’zani hull, parting it like paper. Their mass and speed converted to pure destructive power. The bolts punched right through the ship. The return fire from the Ra’a’zani ship stopped, its drives exploding in small contained detonations. The ship was dead in space, nothing but a piece of debris floating in the endlessness of space. But the rain did not stop, the fire of Hell descended on the wreck smashing it further. Pieces of it flying off in hundreds of different directions, the insides of the ship opened up, its skin smashed inward. The bodies of the crew mingled amongst the pieces of their dead brethren that were sliced apart by the metal shells of the rain. The Ra’a’zani ship’s spine broke, the ship splitting in half. And still the halves were hammered by the rain, pulverized into smaller and smaller chunks. Then finally the rain stopped. Its source, the dreadnought Monarch, moving forward spent, scarred, bleeding, and mangled.

***

As the Ra’a’zani ship fell apart, the weapon it deployed – The Destra’ka – continued on its path. Its curved course soon brought it in the view of its target, Earth. The Destra’ka reached the Earth’s atmosphere falling through it, its plating and an energy field keeping it safe as it burned a red streak across the sky. It passed the white clouds and then fell into the ocean. Its drives functioning perfectly even under water, pushing it further down at an amazing speed. Now going directly towards the ocean bed, the steam of evaporated water was left behind it on its path. As it drew closer to the ocean floor, the tip of the Destra’ka shone with a greenish energy. It slammed into the ground and kept going, burrowing through it on the way to its true target – the Earth’s core. Three hours later it reached its destination, and the Destra’ka detonated.

***

The Star Gazer moved above the Ra’a’zani base in the asteroid belt, on the dwarf planet Ceres. Jacob felt the tears on his cheeks, but did nothing to stop them. The had won, the Earth was free, the asteroid belt was free, and there were no more Ra’a’zani warships in the Solar system. The Ra’a’zani cargo ships were on their way out of the system, going back to the Ra’a’zani space. He felt a touch of fear for the way that the single Ra’a’zani warship fought against the Olympus fleet, but his happiness and relief were too much for it to worry him now. The rest of his bridge crew were jumping around, hugging and kissing. Finally, they were free. Glancing at the screen in front of him, Jacob saw the two Olympus ships almost reach the belt. Getting his elation under control, he contacted the Earth.

***

Anissa Novak sat in the CIC of the submarine Lord, crying. Her crew too was displaying their happiness in various ways. Some cried like she did, other were screaming at the top of their lungs, but all were elated. She got herself under control just as the FTL comm officer approached her, telling her that there was a communication for her. She walked over, sat at the comm station and accepted the communication. The first thing she heard was, “We did it.” Jacob said. And Anissa, her voice shaking responded, “Yes, we did.”

***

The mood on the dreadnought Monarch was somber, Johanna was in torment. She had lost most of her command. Her remaining ships were wrecks, Sovereign was spinning slowly, its drives were blown off, it would never again move under its own power. The light cruiser Ajax had its entire front section disfigured, but it could move. The rest were all lost, with their entire crews. The light cruisers – Viper, Independence and Rogue, heavy cruisers – Sword, Tempest and Unity, battleship Claymore. All lost, under her command. She was in shock, the Ra’a’zani ship had almost destroyed them all. Not knowing what else to do, she ordered the rescue operations for the Sovereign, its crew would need to be transferred to the Monarch.

Chapter Thirty

Aileen was woken by the light of dawn, getting up from the small cot she slept on. The room around her was filled with people, some were sleeping on many cots placed in the room, other were talking softly. Aileen exited the room, and then the building. Outside people in armored suits stood around hugging and slapping each other on the shoulders, they were clearly celebrating. Aileen spotted the Father standing amongst them, she made her way to him. He noticed her and pulled her into a hug.

“We won, oh thank God we won.” He was saying.

“What happened?” She asked.

“We’ve won child. The Olympus fleet had defeated the Ra’a’zani warship, and our people had taken the ground. We are free.” He said. Aileen looked at him blankly, she didn’t know what being free meant. She was about to ask him, what that meant, when she felt the ground shake. It was not like the shaking last night, when the Resistance destroyed the base. No, this seemed to be somehow deeper, primal.

“Father?” Aileen asked hesitantly.

He looked at her, and she saw fear in his eyes. Then a roaring sound blast reached them, and there in the distance to the south, Aileen saw a huge mushroom of gray/black smoke rising from the earth.

***

“I am detecting a lot of seismic activity from the ocean bed.” Anissa heard her sensor officer say.

“An earthquake?” Anissa asked.

“It looks like it, but it is rising in intensity steadily.”

Anissa looked at her crew and said, “Get us to the surface.”

***

“Jacob! We are getting distress calls from the Earth!” Tamara yelled out, cutting in the celebration.

“Where from? Did some of the assaults fail?” Jacob asked.

“No, there are reports of… Earthquakes and volcanoes erupting.” She said, and slowly fear started to seep into her face.

“Where?” Jacob asked.

“All over the planet.” Tamara said.

“Contact Olympus.”

***

Monarch’s shuttles have just returned carrying the last survivors from the Sovereign, when they got a communication from the Resistance. Johanna listened to the message, and felt paralyzing fear. She immediately ordered both her remaining ships to Earth. In a couple of minutes they reached the visual range of Earth. Johanna ordered the viewer turned on. The first thing she noticed was the visual state of the Monarch, the missing right axe-head gave the ship a lopsided look, and the rest of the ship was filled with scars, mangled, twisted. But what truly chilled her blood was the sight past her ship. All across the Earth’s surface she saw enormous globes of smoke and ash, volcanos were preparing to erupt everywhere, some already did, she saw the southern hemisphere of the planet glowing red.

“What is happening?” Johanna asked.

“I’m detecting massive tectonic shifts, Fleet Master. And volcanic activity across the planet.” The Sensor Handler said.

“Why now? What happened?” Johanna demanded. The Sensor Officer worked furiously,

“I-I don’t know, Fleet Commander.”

Remembering Johanna, reached with her imp to the record of the battle, she found the trajectory of the object that exited the Ra’a’zani ship during battle. She saw it had been on the way to Earth.

“Fleet Commander! We need to warn the people on the ground, there are massive tsunamis headed for the land!” The Sensor Officer called out.

“Where are they headed?” Johanna asked.

“Everywhere! They’ll hit in a few hours.”

Johanna felt her face drain of blood.

“Contact the Resistance warn them to get to the higher ground.” Johanna said to the Comm Handler, then turned back to the Sensor Handler, “What will be the impact of this? I need to know everything.”

Sensor Handler swallowed hard, she looked down at her screen then back up, she opened her mouth and then closed it, she tried again but still no sound came out. Then Turiel’s voice sounded in the CC.

“Fleet Commander, I have studied the data that your ship collected, and coupled with the communications that the Star Gazer got from the first hand reports, I believe that I can answer your question.” Turiel said.

“Go ahead.”

“All of the currently active volcanoes on Earth had erupted at nearly the same time, and most of the dormant ones are preparing to erupt. According to the Star Gazer, the super volcano Yellowstone had erupted on the North American continent, it is on the other side of the Earth, further confirming that this calamity is global. The Earth’s tectonic plates are shifting, causing massive earthquakes below the oceans, which in turn caused massive tsunamis. Every coast on the planet will be hit within hours. And this will not stop soon, according to my calculations, whatever has happened will continue for decades, if not more. The smoke and ash from the volcanic eruptions will block out the sun within weeks. And by the end of the one month period, super storms will wreak havoc across the planet, and Earth will stop being able to support life. Fleet Commander, I am afraid that this was intentional. The most likely answer is that it was the Ra’a’zani that caused this. People on Earth will not survive.”

The CC was silent. Johanna watched at the Earth in front of her. This was her fault, all those people will die because of her. They didn’t free Earth, they doomed it. But she was the Fleet Commander, she would be able to grieve later, now she needed to save as many people as possible.

“Contact the Resistance, get the locations of the people on the ground that are in most danger.” She said to the Comm Handler. Then she turned to Andros.

“Get the army dropships and our shuttles ready, they will be going down to earth to evacuate the people to the Monarch. We have room for thousands here.” Johanna said, and Andros started issuing orders. But she knew that it wouldn’t be enough. She went to her ready room, she needed to record a message for Sanctuary.

***

Jacob couldn’t believe what was happening, even dead the Ra’a’zani managed to deny them Earth. He was trying to contact his people on the ground but they had lost contact with most of them. But he had been sending the locations of those that they did manage to contact to the Olympus ships. He knew that they wouldn’t be able to save even a fraction of the people on the ground. It was his fault, he was the one that started all of this. If he hadn’t started this rebellion, the Earth would have still been safe. Now they will pay the price for their freedom.

***

Aileen was scared. She was told that it was nothing to be scared about, that it was just a volcano that erupted. And that they were far enough from it to get to safety in time. The Father had made her stay with him, and the armored people. Most of the others ran away when they saw the explosion, not knowing what it was. Aileen herself was tempted to run, until the Father explained what it was. Now she stood and watched the people around her. She knew that something was wrong. Their happiness at being free was gone, replaced with an impending sense of doom. Then the Father motioned her to come to him. When she approached he grabbed her by her shoulders.

“You will be safe child.” He said softly.

“I know that something is wrong.” She said.

He nodded, “Yes. The last act of the Ra’a’zani it seems. Even dead, they managed to take us down with them.” He said sadly. Then he looked above her head, and Aileen turned to look in the same direction. A black flying object came into view, and then lowered itself to the ground close to them.

“Go with them, you will be safe. Live your life.” He said, and pushed her in the arms of a man in the suit.

“I don’t understand!” She said. But the Father only smiled sadly with tears in his eyes as the man pulled her away.

Chapter Thirty One

January 2172 – Sanctuary

Tomas Klein sat amongst his four closest friends in their usual conference room in the Olympus city palace. Two hours ago they had received the message from Fleet Commander Johanna Stern. No one spoke, everyone was stunned by what happened. They were completely unprepared for the strength of the Ra’a’zani ship, and not even in their worst case scenarios did they imagine what the Ra’a’zani would do. Whatever they did, destroyed the Earth, annihilated her ability to sustain life for hundreds, if not thousands of years. But the worst part, is what the Ra’a’zani forced his people to do. They couldn’t save everybody. The two surviving ships could take aboard them maybe two thousand. With the Monarch taking most of that number. And the three ships in the belt, maybe another four hundred. Two and a half thousand people, could be saved. The others would die. The ones on Earth would die from the constant earthquakes, ash and smog in the air, or swallowed by the rising oceans. And the ten thousand people living in the belt would die a harder death. They were dependent on Earth for food and water. And now without it they would starve. His people had already done the calculations, there was no way for them to stretch their supplies, even if his ships helped, no way to survive until the help from Sanctuary arrived. Within the half year, they would all die. And his people will have to leave them there to die a horrible, horrible death.

“We were so stupid.” Laura said, “From everything the Resistance told us, it seemed like our technology was on par with the Ra’a’zani. And only one ship did that to us. And the Earth…”

Tomas manipulated his imp, and brought the holograms of three Ra’a’zani ships above the desk. The leaders of the Resistance had told the Fleet Commander Stern everything that they held back.

“It was my fault, I forgot why we left the Earth, and what people there were like. I trusted them because they were humans in need.” Tomas said, and then gestured to the holograms. “Before our ships arrived in Sol, these three ships visited the system with a convoy. When they left they took all of the Ra’a’zani warships with them, save for one that fought with our fleet.” Then he brought the hologram of the Ra’a’zani warship that had almost destroyed their fleet. He looked around the room, “These are to scale.” He said.

Everyone realized the size of the three ships, they dwarfed the one ship their fleet fought.

“If they had told us about them, we might have been more cautious. We would have certainly known that the Ra’a’zani were much more advanced.” Tomas said.

“What are we going to do? When are we sending ships back to Sol?” Nadia asked.

Tomas turned to her, “We are not sending ships back.” He said. He felt the rest of the room look at him.

“What? Why? We need to help them!” Nadia said.

“Help them how?” Tomas asked. “You looked at the calculations, there is no chance of any one of them surviving until we get there. All our ships would find is death.” Tomas said.

“But…” Nadia started and then fell silent.

“I will be sending a message to the Fleet Commander Stern. I will instruct her to save as much as she can without compromising their survival, and then start exploring trans-lanes back to Sanctuary.” Tomas said calmly.

The rest didn’t agree, but they didn’t object either.

“If there is nothing else, then I need to think about what we are going to do next.” Tomas said. No one said anything. Tomas nodded to them and left the room. Quickly behind him, followed Seo-yun.

***

Seo-yun found Tomas in his library, standing by the bookshelf looking out of the window. She approached him slowly and put her hand on his shoulder, she worried that he would again blame himself and retreat back into his shell. Like he did when they came to Sanctuary.

“Tomas,” She said softly, “It isn’t your fault.” Tomas turned sharply, and Seo-yun saw his expression. Frightened she took a step back. Tomas’ face was contorted into a savage, angry expression.

“Oh yes, I know that this wasn’t my fault.” He said harshly. “It was not I, that chose to go to war and weaken Earth enough that it was so easily conquered. It was not I, that withheld information. And it was not me who fired that weapon at Earth.” He looked at Seo-yun, “No, it was not my fault, nor the fault of anyone in Olympus. The only fault I bear is that I wasn’t prepared to do what I needed to. Once, I held the entire Earth in the palm of my hand, and I did nothing with that power. Letting petty men rule. I chose to turn from them rather than crush them and take power for myself. I didn’t want to become like them, I wanted to lead the people that wanted to be led by me.” He turned from her then and looked out the window, at the Olympus city. The sun was slowly creeping over the horizon. “The people here want me to rule, and I have shied away. Spreading that responsibility with Laura, Elias, Nadia and you. But they trust me, and want me to rule. They call me emperor in jest and in truth, but never to my face because it made me uncomfortable. Very well then, I will become what they want me to be.” He looked back at Seo-yun, and she saw in his eyes determination as vast as the sky. His face lost its angry expression, but steel and determination remained. “This will not happen again Seo-yun. Do you hear me! Never again will this happen to the human race. Never again will we be weak! I will not allow us to disappear from this universe. We will grow, and spread, and we will crush anyone that threatens us! I will forge an Empire that will be equal to anyone! And one day, we will meet the Ra’a’zani again. And we will have our revenge. I will make sure that they know why it is coming. I will lay waste to their worlds and teach them the true meaning of fear. And in the last moments of their existence, they will regret the moment that they encountered the human race.” He turned back to the window. Seo-yun watched the side of his face as he gazed out at the city. She was conflicted, she trusted Tomas with her life, she loved him. But she was also afraid. Because she knew him so well. She understood what he was truly capable of. And she was afraid, not because he spoke like a mad man. But because she believed that he could do everything that he had said. Hesitating just a moment, she came to stand at his side, leaning her head on his shoulder. Tomas put his hand around her shoulders, and together they watched the sun rise on their city.

***

Five days later Tomas sat in his office, his holodesk was filled with holographic displays. He was trying to figure out how best to accomplish his goal. Birthrates, expansion projections, mining operations, threat assessments, Tomas’s mind was filled with numbers. He had an outline of a plan, but it would mean doing something drastic. But the more he tried to find another way, the more convinced he became that his plan was the best possible option. His people had been told about what had happened. Their response was as could be expected, they were stunned. No matter their reason for leaving Earth, it was still humanities home world. They wanted to strike out against the ones that did this. And Tomas had to calm them down, to reassure them that it will happen.

The tragedy had united his people even more than before, and it strengthened their trust in him. They knew that he would always do what was best for them. He would need that trust, if he was to do what he planned to do. It would change their culture. A drastic change, one whose effects he wouldn’t be able to predict. But a necessary change.

The expansion projects were his priority, they needed colonies, and needed them fast. But he understood the difficulties that would pose. He needed a way to keep all of humanity united, even if they were separated by hundreds of light years. A solution was slowly forming in his mind. But it would require something… An insurance to make sure that it stays in place. Tomas looked at the schematics for the building that was supposed to serve as the police force. An idea forming in his mind.

Chapter Thirty Two

February 2172 – Nuva

Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas watched as Sahib, took his opponent down. The First Fleet had returned to the Nuva system, just on the heels of the news from Earth. It had hit them hard. Adrian had reviewed the battle against the Ra’a’zani ship. And he knew that the Fleet Commander Stern wasn’t at fault for the way the battle went. A great many commanders would have lost that battle. The Ra’a’zani ship was vastly superior. If she hadn’t drawn it into a trap and disabled its drives, the Ra’a’zani ship would have destroyed the entire fleet. He told her the same in a message that he sent to her in Sol. He knew very well how it felt to lose people under your command, and felt that she needed to know that it wasn’t her fault. Her people were doing their jobs, and gave their lives to defeat the enemy. She should grieve, yes. But not blame herself.

Out on the tatami Sahib helped his opponent to her feet, they bowed to each other, and Sahib came to stand close to Adrian.

“She is good. You should take her to Master Hayashi when you go back to Sanctuary.” Sahib said. Adrian nodded.

“I will, but it will be at least two years until we get back to Sanctuary.” Adrian said. Their orders were to stay in Nuva system until the Fourth Fleet finishes its construction, two years from now. Then they would rotate, with Adrian’s fleet going back for retrofits, they would get their own drone squadrons.

“The Home Fleet is leaving soon?” Sahib asked.

“Yes. In a few days.” Adrian said. The Home Fleet reinforcements will return to Sanctuary, now that their mission in Sowir space had ended.

“Hm…” Sahib let out the noise.

Adrian waited, and when Sahib didn’t continue he turned to him, “Say it.”

“You should talk to her again.” Sahib said.

Adrian grimaced. “It is done, she is already married.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time people divorced.” Sahib said.

“I couldn’t do something like that.” Adrian said. “I had my chance, and I blew it.”

Sahib remained silent. Finally, after a while, Sahib moved back on the tatami. He looked at Adrian and motioned with his hand in a challenge. Adrian smiled and stepped on the tatami.

***

Bethany sat in the CC of the Prideful as it reached the hyperspace barrier of the Nuva system. There was still no discovered trans-lane route from Nuva to Sanctuary, so they were forced to use hyperspace. She prepared herself for a nine month trip. As her ships prepared to enter hyperspace, Bethany glanced at her comms. A part of her had hoped that Adrian would send a message. After their talk, their interactions were professional, and less tense. But they didn’t really speak outside of the official channels. And even though a part of her was hopeful, another was relieved that he didn’t call. She shook her head.

“The fleet is ready to enter hyperspace, Fleet Commander.” The Navigation Handler said.

Bethany turned to him, “The fleet is free to enter hyperspace.”

Then her fleet left Nuva system behind. She knew that it would be at least two years until she saw Adrian again.

***

Sanctuary

Lanai Sumia sat on the specially made chair that accommodated her tail, in the Tomas Klein’s office. She had heard about what had happened to the human home world, and had already expressed her sorrow, at such death. Nel had experienced the same at the hands of the Sowir Dominion. As Sumia sat and watched Tomas Klein study her, she wondered why she was there. After Seo-yun gave her the gift of a house, Sumia decided to stay on Sanctuary for a while more. She could be appraised of the situation on Nuva with the FTL comms easy enough. And there wasn’t really that much to do there. Finally the human decided to speak.

“Lanai Sumia, you are the representative of your people on Nuva.” He said, and Sumia got the impression that it was more of a question, than a statement.

“Yes, I am their voice.” She said not sure where he was going with this.

Tomas nodded, “You have made a two requests of me some time ago. The first was for an alliance with Sanctuary, the second was for something more. I chose not to respond, because I wanted the chance to convince the people of Nelus to make an alliance with us.” Tomas said, and Sumia felt hope rising in her chest. Tomas continued, “Today, I have an offer for you.”

Confused, Sumia looked at him, “An offer for me?”

“Yes. I want your people to join with mine. But not in the same way that you requested.” Tomas said.

Sumia narrowed her eyes inquiringly, “What do you have in mind?”

Tomas simply pushed a human datapad across the desk. Sumia took it in her hands, and saw that it was written in Nel. She read a little and her eyes widened. She looked back at Tomas and was about to speak when he raised his arms.

“No, don’t say anything. Speak with your people, decide with them, and then give me your answer.” Tomas said.

“But this… This is so much more than what I hoped for.” Sumia said stunned.

“Yes, but it also carries with it a great responsibility. If you accept this, your world will change. Everything will change.” Tomas said.

Sumia looked back down at the datapad, “Yes. It will.”

Chapter Thirty Three

March 2172 – Sanctuary

Tomas sat in the same conference room from which he and his four friends and advisors led Olympus. Laura, Elias, Seo-yun and Nadia sat in the room just like they did so many times before. But today there were two more people present. One was Lanai Sumia that sat on Tomas’ right besides Seo-yun. And the other was the person that was sitting on the other side of the table besides Nadia, Doctor Asis Singh.

No one knew what Tomas wanted to say. They knew parts, and could guess something from the presence of Lanai Sumia, but no one knew the full picture.

“Thank you all for coming.” Tomas started, “The last month or so, has been one of the hardest periods in the human history. And I have thought long and hard about what we need to do.” He paused and looked around the room. “As all of you know, this last month I had our people vote on whether or not they still wish for me to lead them. The response has been almost unanimous yes. The people of Olympus had always trusted me, and I feel like I had not lived up to that trust.” He took a deep breath. “So from this moment on, I proclaim Olympus no more.” Tomas said. Elias, Laura, and Nadia started to speak, but he cut them off. “Olympus has served its purpose. Olympus was a company that became something more. Its structure cannot sustain us for much longer. In its stead, I create the Empire.”Stunned silence met his words. After a moment, he continued, “I proclaim the Sanctuary system as the heart and the capital of the Empire. And as my first act as the Emperor, I accept the Nuva system and all of its people into the Empire. The people of Nuva had chosen Lanai Sumia as their leader. If she accepts the Empire’s offer, then Nuva will no longer be just a colony. I will rename it to the Nuvan Clan, the first Clan of the Empire. Sumia will no longer be Lanai, but Clan Leader Sumia. The leader of the Nuvan Clan. From that point on, they will be free to expand and colonize the new system in the name of their Clan and the Empire. And to govern themselves in whatever manner they wish. As long as they follow the Codes of the Empire.”

“The Codes of the Empire?” Nadia asked softly.

“A Clan owes its loyalty to the Empire as a whole first, and the Clan second. A Clan cannot knowingly  take any action that will result in harm coming to the Empire. Each Clan is required to further the goals of the Empire, expansion and growth. The Empire as the whole is required to provide protection to all Clans.”

Tomas turned to Sumia, “Do you and your people accept my offer?” He asked.

Sumia stood up and then bowed, “The people of Nuva, and I as their elected leader accept your offer. We swear our loyalty to the Empire.”

“And I as the ruler of the Empire, promise to you and your Clan, that the Empire will always protect and serve your people.” Tomas said. He stood, and gave Sumia a bow of his own.

They sat back down, and Tomas looked to the rest of the room. “Things will be changing. I am taking all the responsibility of ruling the Empire on myself. But the way we govern our people will change, as we grow and colonize new worlds, they will become Clans. And then all the Clan Leaders will form the Council of Clans. They will be there to advise me in the rule of the Empire. But I won’t be making the mistake of letting the power of ruling seep to the council, they will be advisors in the matters of the Empire. Within their own Clans they will be free to do as they wish. As long as they obey the Codes. I have picked the most likely systems for colonization, and will allow people to petition the Empire for the right to colonize and create a Clan. But I will explain that more to the people in the future. As for you four,” Tomas said, addressing Nadia, Laura, Elias and Seo-yun. “You will remain as my personal advisers, and rulers of Sanctuary. I plan on it becoming the heart of the Empire.” He then looked over to the last person in the room. Doctor Asis Singh.

“As you all know, we are few in numbers. And with what happened to Earth, humanity is in trouble. If we don’t increase our population, and do it soon, we risk going extinct. And I will not let that happen. Doctor Singh, had been working with me for the past weeks. We had done projections, and devised a way to increase our population tremendously in a short time. But it will require strict laws.”

“What kind of laws?” Nadia asked, it looked like she had recovered a bit from Tomas’s proclamation.

“We need children, and we need to boost our population and fast. To that extent we have decided that we will offer encouragements to have more children. Offering rewards and enticements for every child after the fourth. But also that every woman older than the age of eighteen, will be required to donate her eggs twice a year until she haves her first child, and continuing after five years have passed since her last pregnancy. All men older than sixteen will be required to donate their seed twice a year, always. The eggs would be artificially inseminated, and placed into artificial wombs. The children would come to term in this manner. And after their birth cared for by special institutions, that would place them into small familiar groups with five other children. They would be cared for in group homes where they would go through their education, and after they reach sufficient age, allowed to choose their future.”

“And you think that our people will accept this?” Nadia asked.

“They will have to. There is at best ten million of us left in the universe. And their lives will not be affected at all. Their donations will be paired randomly and be anonymous. The process of having children brought to term in the artificial wombs has been practiced for a hundred years. It is perfectly safe, and the children are completely healthy. Doctor Asis Singh would oversee the project. And she can tell you how much of an increase in population we can expect. Doctor?”

Doctor Singh got to her feet, “According to our calculations, if we pass this law, within ten years we can expect our population to reach forty million, within twenty years double that, after twenty five years the rate of population increase will rise significantly. Thirty years from now our population would reach two hundred and thirty thousand. And hit a billion by the fiftieth year.”

Stunned the others looked at the doctor and then back at Tomas, “How long do you plan to keep this law active?” Elias asked.

“At least one hundred years, by then our population should hit one hundred and thirty billion.” Tomas said.

“But, that much of an increase. It can’t be right.” Nadia said.

“The real numbers would probably be a bit smaller, but not by much. It discounts natural deaths. We don’t age, if you take that into account the numbers make perfect sense.”

“What about the Nel?” Seo-yun asked glancing at Sumia.

“They will be exempt from the law. If your people manage to acquire agelessness for the Nel, then we will speak again.” Tomas said.

“Can we even sustain such a growth?” Nadia asked.

“With the help from Nuvan Clan, we can.” Tomas said. They grew silent then, thinking about everything that he had said.

“We will have more meetings in the next few days as we start changing our society. But for now I need you all to review the new laws, proposals and plans, that I have sent to your imps. We will go over them on our next meeting.” Tomas said and then turned to Sumia, “I have sent everything to your datapad, but we really should look into getting your people implants. Perhaps you can talk with Seo-yun about it.” With that Tomas dismissed them, all save for Elias. He motioned for Elias to follow, and led him to his library. He moved behind his big wooden desk and sat down in the comfortable chair. Elias stood in front of his desk. Tomas looked at him and Elias studied him in turn. Then the corner of Tomas’ mouth twitched, “You can say whatever it is you need to.”

Elias studied his friend for a bit before responding, “I have watched over you for a long time Tomas, and I saw you resist power at every turn.”

Tomas angled his head and raised his eyebrows in an inquiring fashion. Elias looked at him for a minute before saying anything.

“Power corrupts. Both of us had seen it happen.” Elias said.

Tomas just smiled at his friend, “I knew that you would say that.” He smiled at his best friend, his brother, the person he trusted the most in this world. Then Tomas let his smile slip, and he grew pensive.

“You are right my friend. And I know that I could one day become something twisted. That is why I need insurance, I need something to keep my power in check.” Tomas said.

“I thought that you didn’t want to give power to this Council of Clans that you plan on creating.” Elias said.

“And I won’t. Giving power to oppose me to those that will have their own interests in the future is true folly.” Tomas said, “I know that if I try to rule over a vast Empire it will ultimately shatter. That is why I will create the Clans. Each independent but still tied to the Empire. But giving them so much autonomy will eventually lead to them trying to separate. That is why I need something that will draw a string through all of the Clans, something to keep us all tied together. And that something or better yet someone, will be the same thing that will keep my power in check.” Tomas said and looked at his friend. Elias narrowed his eyes, he knew Tomas, they were like brothers. Elias is one person who would know when Tomas stepped off the right path, and probably the only person capable of keeping him in check. Elias thought about it, not knowing what Tomas really wanted but getting the picture. Elias didn’t refuse, he knew that Tomas wouldn’t ask without first thinking about all the possibilities.

“What are you thinking?” Elias asked.

“I need a symbol for the Empire, a hand of law that will keep both me and the people in check. Someone to enforce the Codes. And make sure that no one in the Empire dares to work against it. But also someone that will keep the people safe, and make sure that they always stay equal. That law applies to everyone, even me.” Tomas said looking at Elias.

“And what do you need from me?” Elias asked Tomas, the man that he loved as a brother.

Tomas reached into the drawer of his desk and brought out a black object, he pointed it at Elias and said sadly, “I need you brother mine, to die.”

Chapter Thirty Four

April 2172 – Nuva

Adrian read through the petition forms for the new colonies, or rather new Clans. Tomas Klein, the Emperor, had changed things. They haven’t yet felt the full effect, but Adrian knew that soon that would come. The petition form for the new Clan was extensive. Every member of the Empire that was qualified or had a qualified enough team to lead a new colony could send a petition. Detailing what they wanted to do, how their colony would develop, with the plans for the next ten years. Tomas Klein and his advisors would choose the most promising and allowing the petitioners to colonize a new system and create a Clan. There were four systems available. But there was also a list of the other systems that Olym- the Empire had discovered. One of those systems caught Adrian’s eyes, and he was doing a mental exercise with the help from Iris, in creating a petition for the system. It was meaningless, the system wasn’t even one of the available ones, but Iris insisted that he expand on his idea.

The Nuva system, or rather the Nuvan Clan was now part of the Empire. And he could already feel a slow change come over the people here. Some had asked to go to Sanctuary and go through the academy and join the fleet or the army. All had been allowed. Retsar Isani and his ships had been accepted into the Empire, and Isani was now Fleet Commander Isani. Him and Adrian were now in a joint fleet with a purpose of protecting Nuvan Clan.

A ping on his imp interrupted Adrian from his system colonization exercise and he closed it. He saw a comm request from Paul.

“What is it Paul?”

“We have ships dropping out of hyperspace Adrian. A lot of them.” Paul said.

Adrian got to his feet and started towards the bridge, Akash and Sora following behind him.

“Sowir?”

“We don’t think so, they came from the direction of Nelus.” Paul said. Adrian frowned, he hadn’t thought that Nelus would decide to come here in months, and not with so many ships. He ran to the CC, and within a minute he was sitting in his command chair. He opened a video channel to Fleet Commander Isani, and his face showed on the display to Adrian’s right.

“What do you think?” Adrian asked.

“I didn’t think that they would come here until long after they were sure that we weren’t coming back. If these ships are here, it means that they started on their trip shortly after we left.”

Adrian nodded, he concurred. The scans of the ships were coming up, and Adrian saw that most of the ships were Nel merchant ships, twenty were merchant ships retrofitted into warships and five light cruisers. He frowned at that. If they came to drive them from Nuva, why come with merchant ships?

“We are receiving a message. It is addressed to Retsar Isani and you, Fleet Commander.” Comm Handler said.

Adrian looked at Isani who shrugged. Adrian used the c-board to send the message feed to Isani’s ship. Then he played it.

“Greetings to the people of Nuva.” Said a familiar face of Sestar Jusan, “I came to you in peace, to seek asylum in your system…” Jusan said. Isani and Adrian exchanged glances.

Then Iris spoke in his mind, “This looks like it will be good.”

***

Jusan sat in the ready room on the human warship, the two other people there were the human Commander, Adrian, and Retsar Isani. No. Fleet Commander Isani. Jusan thought. He had been told what happened in the short time it took his ships to get here. And he didn’t know how he felt about it. But the more he heard the more he realized that it was a good thing. He brought his people here to be safe, and it looked like this Empire would do that, if they joined with them. Jusan needed to talk to his people, but he knew that he wanted to be a part of that.

“That is some development…” Jusan commented, as Adrian finished.

“If you wish for asylum I will need to ask that of the Emperor.”

Jusan nodded that was to be expected. “How long will it take for a message to reach him and his response to come back? I’m sure that Tavaar will send ships after. He most likely already sent them by now.” Jusan asked.

The two looked at each other in confusion. Jusan watched the exchange, he noticed true trust between the two. Then they looked back at Jusan, and Isani’s eyes widened in understanding.

“The humans have FTL communications. The message and the response will be instantaneous.” Isani said. “You can even speak with the Emperor yourself.”

Jusan’s eyes widened, he looked at them and saw that they spoke the truth. Looking at them he finally decided what to do.

“I think that I will request to join this Empire of yours, I am sure that my people will agree. But before I speak with your Emperor I think that I need to show you something.” Jusan reached inside his pocket and drew a silver sphere.

“This is the real reason of why I came here, to show this to your people.” Jusan said to Adrian. Then he turned to Isani. “What this sphere will show you will be hard to see and hear. But afterwards you will realize that knowing the truth is always better than living in lies.” Jusan took a deep breath, and released it slowly, “This sphere has been passed down through my family for generations, from the ones that found it… The Order of Truth.”

Isani’s face twisted, but Jusan interrupted, “The history you know is not the whole truth. Please, see what this sphere holds. Afterwards you can say your piece.”

Isani calmed, and Jusan turned the sphere on and placed it on the floor. A hologram appeared, and the being started to speak,

“Greetings my children. My name is Axull Darr.” It said in Nel…

“… You are my children, the successors of the People.”

The hologram stopped speaking. Isani looked in pain, while Adrian looked stunned. Jusan looked at them, “You see now. This could shatter my people. At least I thought so. But now that they have joined your Empire I think that it will strengthen the bond between us.”

“Amazing.” Adrian said in English. Then the hologram that was still active turned its all white eyes to Adrian.

“I see that the two of my children have found each other.” The hologram said in English. Jusan jumped back. He looked at Adrian and Isani in disbelief and said, “It never spoke more than the one message.”

The hologram turned to Jusan, “That was because the conditions for my secondary protocols were not yet met.” The hologram said in Nel. It turned to Isani and Adrian, “You all understand this language, correct?” It said in Nel.

“Yes.” Adrian responded in Nel, stunned even further.

“Good. Now that my secondary protocols are unlocked, I can provide select knowledge based on your technological level.” The hologram said.

“What are you?” Jusan asked softly.

The hologram turned to him, “I am the shadow of Axull Darr, his thoughts and knowledge transferred to a memory container.”

“We need to get this to Sanctuary. I think that perhaps you should talk with the Emperor in person.” Adrian said to Jusan, who couldn’t draw his eyes away from the hologram. Perhaps he might finally get some answers.

Chapter Thirty Five

May 2172 – Nuva

With Fleet Commander Isani and Jusan traveling to Sanctuary via hyperspace, carrying the orb there, Adrian was left in charge of the system. Commander Isani’s and Jusan’s warships left in his command, all save Isani’s flagship, battleship Valor. The knowledge in the sphere is amazing, and they would need all the expertise of Sanctuary to unlock its full potential.

With little to do in Nuva, Adrian busied himself with tweaks to his colony “proposal”. It had engrossed his mind. It was fun, trying to come up with a way to run a colony. Especially when he knew that it would never happen, he could do whatever he wanted.

Then a ping on his imp interrupted him, again it was a call from Paul. Adrian sighed and answered.

“What is it?”

“Ships dropping from hyperspace, from the directions of Nelus.” Paul said. Adrian stood up and started towards the CC. “They came earlier than I thought they would.” Iris said. Adrian agreed, but in any case they were ready.

Adrian reached the CC and sat in his chair. His ships were ready. He gave the order to the First Fleet now consisting out of 20 Nel retrofitted merchant ships, 10 Nel light cruisers, 2 Nel heavy cruisers, 3 human light cruisers, 2 human heavy cruisers, 2 human battleships, and his flagship the dreadnought Leviathan. All of his ships moved towards the hyperspace barrier and the Nel ships.

There were fifteen Nelus ships in total, 10 retrofitted merchant ships, 3 light cruisers and 2 battleships. They started moving in the system towards Adrian’s ships. An hour later they received a message from the Nelus ships.

Adrian had it played on the forward screen. “We are here on behalf of the council of Nelus. The human presence in the Nel colony of Nuva is no longer needed, my ships are here to protect the system. You are to leave the system immediately. Before that we require that you escort us to Sestar Jusan.” The Nel said. Adrian smiled and looked at Paul,

“He didn’t even introduce himself.” Adrian said.

“No manners.” Paul said nodding gravely.

“Well, I was taught better.” Adrian said and started recording a message.

“Greetings, my name is Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas. Sadly Sestar Jusan is not in the system, and your claim on Nuva no longer applies. Both Sestar Jusan’s people and the people of Nuva had decided to join the Empire. Meaning that you are trespassing on our territory. I require that you turn your ships around and leave, otherwise my ships will open consider you hostile and open fire. If you wish to make diplomatic contact with the Empire, you may send a diplomatic ship escorted by no more than four warships. Fleet Commander Farkas, end.” Adrian sent the message and waited.

When the response came, it was exactly what he thought it will be.

An angry Nel started speaking, “This system belongs to the council. You will leave the system immediately or we will open fire, and destroy your ships.”

Paul sighed, “They can see that they are outnumbered right?”

“I don’t think that they believe that the Nel ships on our side would fire on them.” Adrian said. Then he put on a calm commanding face, “Ship Master Isaacs, I believe that the Nelus ships had declared their hostile intent.”

“They have Fleet Commander.” Paul said.

Adrian nodded, “Order all ships to target the incoming Nelus ships with missiles. Missile package “warm welcome”.” Adrian said. He didn’t use the c-board, as the Nel ships in his fleet didn’t yet have their interfaces installed.

Paul acknowledged and relayed the orders to the fleet.

“Missiles locked.” Paul said.

Adrian nodded again, “Fire.”

***

Seven thousand Swarm Mk1 missiles launched from the First Fleet, from three times the missile range of Nelus ships. At almost twice the speed. The Nelus ships tried to take them down with their laser point defense, but the missiles were outside of their effective range, and their evading capabilities far too effective. Then, as the missiles finally entered the Nelus ships point defense range, and they started taking a few of the missiles down, the Swarm missiles engaged their secondary protocols. What was around seven thousand missiles suddenly became twenty one thousand. The Nelus commander knew that he was doomed his ships couldn’t possibly take down that number.

Their point defense firing frantically even as the Nelus ships tried to move out of the way. Then the missiles reached his ships. Nelus commander closed his eyes as he waited his death. After a few moments, he realized that he was still alive and opened his eyes in time to see the human missiles pass right through his formation and then explode behind them. Stunned, he looked at his crew. He realized that this was just a warning. Immediately he ordered his ships to turn and head back to Nelus.

***

“You think that they will be back any time soon?” Paul asked.

“Don’t think so.” Adrian answered,

“Yeah, probably not.” Paul added.

***

Sanctuary – ten days later

“The council will not take well to this.” Clan Leader Sumia said.

“No, but I doubt that they will do anything about it.” Laura said.

“Even if they do, we have sufficient defenses protecting the system to hold them back.” Tomas said. Tomas looked at Sumia, “When do you think that we should tell both our peoples about the sphere?”

“Let’s wait until Sestar Jusan gets here and we can verify it in person. Then we shall see.” Sumia said. Jusan and Isani would arrive at Sanctuary in eight months.

Tomas cleared his throat, “Well then let’s move on.” Tomas said, “The Second Fleet has started exploring the trans-lanes back to Sanctuary. They are carrying three thousand people rescued from Earth.”

“Three thousand… Out of so many.” Seo-yun said.

“There was no way for them to save more Seo-yun. The mega storms that are ravaging the planet don’t allow them to even land anymore. The people on Earth are probably already dead.”

“And what about those in the asteroid belt? How could the Fleet Commander let that maniac kill them all!” Nadia asked.

Tomas shook his head in sorrow. “Were they supposed to let them starve to death, or in desperation turn to cannibalism? It is a terrible thing that Jacob Kelly did, and he had surrendered himself to the Fleet Commanders custody. But I can understand the act. It was he that started the rebellion, he felt responsible for them, he failed them. And so he took it upon himself to end their lives before their suffering truly began. He will have a trial once the Second Fleet returns home.”

Elias nodded firmly, others kept their mouths closed. “Let’s move on from Earth. It will be a while until the wound heals sufficiently for us to be able to talk about it without so much emotion.” Elias said.

Tomas nodded, and turned to Laura. “Did you all get the chance to look at the colony proposal from Adrian.” Tomas asked.

Laura nodded her head, “It is interesting. I don’t know if he could pull it off. It is ambitious, and completely different from every other proposal. But that system isn’t on our plan, it will be dependent on Sanctuary for a long time before it could sustain itself. And the nature of the Clan itself…” Laura said.

“I think that we should consider it further.” Elias said. “When Tomas started that petition program this is what was he had in mind. And his proposal is the most detailed and fleshed out one of them. He had the plans drawn out for the next fifty years.”

Tomas scratched his head. “Yes, let’s check all his data and plans. See if it could work. Then we make our decision.”

They spent the next few hours going through Adrian’s proposal before finally coming to a decision.

“Well, that decides it then.” Tomas said, “I think that we are done here for today.” All of them got up and left quickly, each had a lot of work to do. They exited the conference room, Elias staying behind with Tomas at the exit. Tomas had sent him a private message via his imp to stay.

Tomas turned to his friend, “I think that it is time.” He said.

Elias looked at the backs of his friends as they each went their own way.

“I’m sorry Elias.” Tomas said.

Elias took a deep breath and turned to look at his friend, “Don’t be, it was my choice.”

***

Seo-yun stood beside Tomas, who was dressed in his black suit. Her eyes hurt from crying, but Tomas was being stoic, not letting anyone see his pain. But she knew how much Elias meant to him. He was more than a friend. It was such a stupid way to die. A shuttle malfunction caused Elias and twenty other men to crash into the ocean. They couldn’t even retrieve the bodies, the violent ocean life of Sanctuary had probably already taken care of that.

She looked at Tomas as he gazed at the headstone.

Here lies the memory of Elias Bakas;

Born on Earth – 13th of Jun 2018;

Died on Sanctuary – 28th of May 2172

A friend, a brother, a leader.

He will never be forgotten.

Saying goodbye to his best friend without a body was hard on him. She could see him being weighed down by something, but she didn’t want to push. He would tell her when he was ready.

“Let’s go home Tomas.” Seo-yun said.

Tomas raised his eyes to look at her, for a moment she thought that he was going to say something, but then he sighed, shook his head and said. “Yes. Let’s go home.”

Epilogue

Pinging in his implant, woke Adrian up. It was a priority one message from Sanctuary. He sat up in his bed. It was strange that he had received a message, instead of a call. Now that they had two way communication anyone on Sanctuary could have live vid conversations with anyone on Nuva. Adrian accessed his inbox and opened a message. It was a document, with the title “Petition”. Frowning at that he opened it. After reading a couple of lines, his mind froze at the words.

“Iris!” Adrian said.

“What?” She responded.

“Would you by any chance know how my proposal for a colony got accepted by the Emperor?” He asked.

“It got accepted? YES!” Iris exclaimed.

“Yes? What do you mean Iris? How did the Emperor see it in the first place?” Adrian demanded.

“How else? I sent it, silly.” Iris sounded puzzled.

Adrian groaned, as Iris continued to celebrate. He put his head in his hands and curled up on the bed. Then he opened his eyes and brought the document to his HUD.

[Congratulations, your proposal for the colonization of a new star system and the creation of a new Clan has been accepted. You are required to return to Sanctuary and prepare for the colonization.]

“What am I supposed to do now?” Adrian grumbled. He looked at the bottom of the document, at his new title and the name of his Clan.

[Clan Leader Adrian Farkas Reiss of the Clan Warpath]

“This is going to be so much fun!” He heard Iris say in his head.

***

Elias Bakas, allegedly deceased, took the long elevator down to the bottom level of the complex. Tomas had imagined the complex as the headquarters for the Sanctuary police, but now it will have a slightly different purpose. After some time, the elevator finally reached the bottom.

Elias exited the lift. There in the large living room he was met by twenty men and women, each recently deceased. He approached and they each stood up and saluted with their fist to chest. Elias returned their salute, and looked at them. He knew them all, trusted them all. Each of them, he and Tomas selected together, for their loyalty, intelligence, prowess, and most of all morality.

Elias took a deep breath, “You know why you are here. You have already made the choice. There is no more going back. Your lives before this moment are gone. You have forsaken your names and identity. This is a commitment for all time. From now, up until the end of your lives. You will have no friends and no family other than those inside this building. Those that have committed their lives like you did. Outside of this building we will be a single entity, a force of the Empire’s law. We will never venture outside of this building with our faces revealed. We will always wear masks, to show the Empire that we are no one, and everyone. We will be fair and just. Always.” Elias looked at them, saw the determination in their eyes. Elias raised his right hand and the black object in it, he activated the small holo-projector. A symbol appeared in the air in front of him. A metallic hand with an open dark blue eye tattooed on its back. “From this moment on, we are the Hand of the Empire.”

***

Ra’a’zani space – Fifty years later

Tig’r’an, Elder of the clan Ooruvan leaned against a broken wall on the ground. His limbs were shattered, his gut pierced. He knew that he would soon die. He wondered how it came to this. How did the Ra’a’zani fall this low. They had waged a losing war against an unknown race for fifty years. Tig’r’an cursed the name of the clan that found them and tried to enslave them. The devils had destroyed that clan first, and then started attacking the rest of the Ra’a’zani territory. At first the war seemed to be at a stalemate. The Ra’a’zani and the enemy ships matched closely in technology. And then the war changed. The cursed enemy wasn’t fighting with their full strength up until then. Their true warships arrived, and shattered the Ra’a’zani fleets. Laying waste to Ra’a’zani worlds. And now there were only a few clans left. And Tig’r’an would die here, on a world far away from his own clan. He was visiting for a war summit, trying to convince the other clans that uniting was their only chance at survival. But the demons attacked.

Tig’r’an heard someone coming, so he used as much strength as he could to raise his head and look. He saw a tall bipedal alien, almost as tall as a Ra’a’zani. It wore a strange pure black smooth armor. No Ra’a’zani had ever seen what their enemy truly looked like and lived to tell the tale. The alien pointed its hand at Tig’r’an, and then as if it was made out of liquid the armor on its hand moved and formed into a weapon. Tig’r’an made an effort and opened his mouth, “Let me see what you look like.” Tig’r’an rasped out. The alien hesitated, then the weapon melted back into the hand. It stepped closer, and the armor on its face started moving back revealing a an obsidian colored face, with black eyes that had several pure white pupils that shifted constantly.

Tig’r’an looked at the alien and his eyes widened in disbelief, “You…” He coughed up blood, and gazed at the alien, “Impossible… You are human…” Tig’r’an said, and spit out more blood. The alien angled its head at Tig’r’an and then its melodic female voice responded in perfect Ra’a’zani.

“I know not of whom you speak. We are the Shara Daim.” The human looking alien raised her empty hand and closed it in a fist, an invisible force crushed Tig’r’an’s skull. Then the alien turned around, her armor reforming around her bald head. She walked over to one of her subordinates.

“Report.” She said over their armors link.

“The planet is ours, Dai Sha.” Do Sun reported.

“Good, anything else?”

“We have found a lot of slaves. They are some kind of amphibian race, Dai Sha. They are thanking us for rescuing them.”

“They are insignificant. Kill them.” Dai Sha said.

“As you wish Dai Sha.” Do Sun said, bowing, “Blood and death.” He added.

“Blood and death.” Dai Sha responded.

*** END ***

Book 4 of the “Rise of the Empire” series coming Fall 2015

Contact the author: ivankalrote@gmail.com

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