by D. R. Rosier
Chapter Fifteen
Vik ordered, “Wormhole to outside the Vehiri system.”
Telidur said, “Yes, sir.”
Jillintara said, “Sir, the ships on the Alirann Empire’s and Kruterran Empire’s borders have disappeared.”
Telidur said, “Sir, our wormhole collapsed during formation.”
Jillintara said, “Sir, I found the ships, they’re two A.U. away from us, facing off against each other. There was also a massive subspace wave from the Kruterran ships, I would speculate it was what caused the wormholes to destabilize and collapse. Sir… they didn’t use wormholes, subspace FTL should have taken at least two days to reach here from their last position.”
Vik ordered, “Take no actions, sit tight to see what happens, leave our shields up but let’s wait to see what they’re about. They’re facing each other you said?”
Jillintara said, “Yes sir, they are. Sir, while the Kruterran mode of travel is boggling, we know they used subspace in some way we don’t understand. But sir, I have no idea at all how the Alirann ships got here. They didn’t use subspace at all, neither transition FTL nor wormholes. They just… appeared, sensors have nothing on their mode of propulsion.”
That was alarming.
We sat there and watched, and wondered what they were up to, for at least an hour. It’s possible they were talking, negotiating, threatening, or maybe they all took an afternoon nap. There was no way to know for sure, but all things being equal they were probably talking.
The Kruterran ships were very large, on the scale of a battleship, and were bristling with emitters of various types. The Alirann ships seemed smooth, like our hull, and were smaller but still larger than we were. Almost the size of one of our cruisers.
Just over an hour after the standoff started, or whatever it was, one ship of each left both formation lines and met in the middle.
Jillintara said, “Both ships are employing a simple impulse or gravity drive for local movement. Putting them on the holo-systems sir.”
A hologram of the two ships and the space around them appeared on the bridge
I reported, “Sir, the Kruterran vessel opened fire, several hundred plasma weapons. I’m also picking up some kind of missile, it looks like the missiles are just appearing from nowhere, very close to the Alirann ship, and striking it at a velocity of half-light speed.”
Jillintara said, “I’m picking up short violent pulses in subspace, my guess is they’re somehow launching the missiles through subspace, from inside their ship.”
Vik frowned, “I thought that was impossible, a small wormhole yes, a transition to subspace from within a ship, no.”
Jillintara replied, “It is impossible sir, for us and our understanding of subspace science. It’s not the only thing that’s impossible either, somehow, they’re using a subspace transition to induce inertial velocity, the missiles have no drive system I can detect, they simply exit subspace at half-light speed in velocity. Not only that, but the Alirann ship is simply sitting there absorbing the abuse from plasma and missiles. The attacks are being countered in some way I don’t understand, the ship has no shielding, at least not shielding in the way we understand it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the matter and energy of the attacks are simply being removed from existence.”
I reported, “They’ve stopped firing.”
Vik cleared his throat, “How screwed are we?”
I frowned, “The attacks of the Kruterran vessel would have easily destroyed us, and our whole fleet.”
It was a little humbling, I’d just built this bad ass ship, that could take any ship in the empire, or from the independent worlds within empire space, quite easily. I realized we were still just babies, worse, the Alirann ship was treating the Kruterran attack like it was just a tantrum from a four-year-old. We were twice over infants, and surrounded by giants. I’d thought it was their large empire and the ship numbers we had to worry about, truthfully, it was how much more advanced they were.
“How did we not know?”
Vik grunted, “We respect their borders, and before now they’ve respected ours.”
The Kruterran vessel disappeared. No explosion, no transition, just gone as if it had never existed.
Then all the other Kruterran vessels disappeared in a flash of light.
Jillintara said, “Another large subspace wave, the Kruterran are back on their side of the border already. The ship that was in the fight… I have no proof, but I think it was destroyed.”
Telidur grunted, “Oh good, a drive and a weapon we can’t detect, much less stop.”
The Alirann ships disappeared.
“Sir, the Alirann ships appeared on the border, the exact second they disappeared here. Then they all disappeared again.”
Vik asked, “Speculation?”
Jillintara said, “I believe they appeared at their border as a courtesy to us sir, so we’d know they left our space. Then they broke up. The Kruterran ships have also abandoned the border.”
Vik shook his head, “Any idea what that was about?”
“A guess?”
Vik nodded at me.
“The Kruterran are expansionist, the Alirann are not. Every once in a while, the Kruterran rattle their sabre’s at the border, probably every time they advance their tech and think they have a chance against the Alirann. One on one ship fight to see if they come out on top.”
Vik grunted, “Supporting data?”
I shrugged, “The Alirann not being expansionist is easy. They could easily absorb us and the Kruterran empire if they wished to, with the technology they’ve shown it wouldn’t take them no more than one ship and half an afternoon. They’re so far beyond us we don’t even understand how they did what they did. If I had to guess, I’d say all their tech is based on dimensional technology, but their understanding of that science is far more profound. If I’m wrong, then it’s something so far beyond us it will take us thousands if not millions of years to catch up.”
Vik looked unhappy.
“It’s not all bad news sir, I have a feeling it’s the Alirann who keep the Kruterran from absorbing us. I have a feeling if the Kruterran won that little face off, we’d be in real trouble. There’s also a wealth of data we can send to the scientists in the military. All of their tech seemed based on subspace science, I believe with the data someone on Isyth could crack it.”
Not me, I don’t do breakthroughs, I’m only good at seeing more possibilities of using current tech and science to its furthest.
Vik asked, “What about the dimension part? Why bother with that if we can figure out the more advanced ship?”
Jillintara said, “Data, we don’t have any. There are three possibilities, they don’t know more about dimensional technology is the first and most unlikely. If that’s the case, they have power systems that make ours look like simple batteries to power toys. All the dimensional stuff we do doesn’t take a lot of energy, because we use very small ports to transfer fields and small almost microscopic funnels for matter. The amount of energy it would take to open a dimensional port three feet wide is beyond our capability, and the scale is logarithmic. The idea of creating a dimensional port large enough to swallow an enemy ship for instance, or block missiles and eat plasma, would be unthinkable. It would take the power of several suns to open a port large enough to transport a ship through.”
Vik asked, “The other two possibilities?”
Jillintara said, “We’re looking at it through the eyes of our own knowledge. It may be a completely unknown science related to our universe. Just because what they did could be accomplished with ports and more power than we can imagine, doesn’t mean that’s how they did it. In other words, it could be a complete unknown. The third possibility is I’m wrong, and our science is wrong. Maybe there is a way to open larger dimensional ports without such a large expenditure of energy, we just have no idea how to do it yet. Whatever option of the three it is, we’re not even close to being able to catch up. Subspac
e, we might be able to advance in, but what the Alirann did will require breakthroughs in both scientific and mathematical theory before we can even consider building the tech.”
She was right, it sucked being the little kid on the block. We might have the latest and best in the empire and our region of space, but really, we had so far to go. We knew a lot, but the mysteries of the universe were still many, and vast. Unfortunately, it would take brilliant scientists to make the breakthroughs, and people like me to get the most out of those breakthroughs.
I said, “She’s right, we may be able to match and come up with defenses against the Kruterran in a decade or two with the right scientists on it, but the Alirann technology is too far out of our reach, for now. We may even exceed the Kruterran at that point, since we do use dimensional technology, even if it is in an infant form compared to the Alirann, it would still give us an edge on the Kruterran if we were equal on a subspace tech level.”
Still, as long as the Alirann were peaceful, I was good with that, not that I had a choice about it.
Vik grunted, “We need to worry about what we can control, and change. Hopefully the Alirann will continue to be a friendly if silent neighbor. Nothing has really changed, even before we found out about their tech, we knew the empires around us could overwhelm us. Let’s get back to the mission and what we want to accomplish in our empire. Raise the fleet, and open a wormhole to Vehiri.”
That was a healthy attitude to have, and true. There’d always be someone stronger than us, all we could do is be the best we could be, and deal with what we could. I couldn’t help but wonder though, if that display hadn’t happened right in front of us because the Alirann planned it that way. Had they subtly put us in our place, to make sure we didn’t try to invade them now that we had the new much more powerful ships? So, we wouldn’t get foolishly overambitious like the Kruterran?
Maybe, in the end it didn’t matter, we didn’t and hadn’t had plans to do that, and the Isyth Empire didn’t operate that way. On the bright side, it gave us something to aspire too.
Chapter Sixteen
Vehiri was as beautiful as I remembered it from our first visit. Of course, the first time we were here Vik was only the eighteenth heir, a prince, but also a captain. The planet was Earth like in a way, trees, seas, oceans, and continents. But it wasn’t light blue, it was more a darker blue with a hint of violet, and the greens seemed darker as well.
I frowned as the shuttle with the four of us went down to the planet. I had the local scans in my overlay, as well as wide panorama visual of the outside in my overlay. Truthfully, I’d gotten used to the overlay but it was still a bit stark to my senses. My advanced spatial sense told me it wasn’t real, which I supposed was fine, but it was real in that it was what was around the shuttle right now.
There was a large group of beings in front of the palace, where we were going to meet up with Vik’s Aunt, Natalya. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was a protest of some kind. There were Isythians, Xulians, and Kaprorix in the crowd, the only empire race not present seemed to be the Raitov. We landed in the field, and prepared to disembark from the shuttle. I wasn’t happy, and my senses were strained to their utmost as I took stock with my abilities as I also deployed the orbs.
I’d thought it would be safe here, but the large crowd made me doubt that conclusion.
Vik grunted, “What is this?”
I frowned, “Your worlds don’t have marches or protests?”
Telidur replied, “In our history, long ago.”
Vik said a bit confused, “The government is all powerful in the arena of laws, and defending from outside threats through our space navy. Everything else is handled via socio-economics and tradition. Our people don’t protest because our government doesn’t do anything in the private or social sector. There are no social or economic programs, because we don’t need them. The A.I.s take care of health, food, basic shelter, so we don’t need them. We just protect the people.”
“I don’t like this. That crowd doesn’t look friendly.”
Jillintara said, “They’re protesting what the government does do, and the mistakes Denik made. Except, they’re blaming the entire royal family for Denik’s actions, and demanding justice. I can hear them talking. Most of the world is ignoring the ridiculous accusations and rumors coming from Kaprorix and Xulia, but as we’ve discussed in the past, there are outliers even here and on Isyth.”
I snorted, “I bet we know who put them up to it.”
Vik said, “Let’s go, just stay alert.”
We were on the side of the palace, in a field with a bunch of shuttles, and personal fliers. The crowd was out front, so we wouldn’t have to walk by them exactly, but they could charge us or even fire at us from that crowd. Maybe that was paranoid, but it was what I was being paid for, protect and guard Vik.
Telidur said, “Stay behind me and Lori.”
Vik nodded assent, and we walked toward the palace along the path around and to the front door. The crowd was at least fifty yards away, so hopefully we wouldn’t run into any snags. But… I had a bad feeling about it, and despite not being one of my official genetic upgrades like enhanced spatial awareness, strength, speed, and proprioception, I’d come to learn to listen to those warnings.
It wasn’t exactly psychic I didn’t think, I had no idea what would happen, but I was almost positive I was somehow picking up on their violent intentions.
We were about halfway there when I heard someone cry out in outrage.
“The murderer is here! Get him!”
Shit, I knew it. They came running at us at top speed. No weapons that I could see, but a mob was dangerous. I had one of the orbs wrap us in a shield, plus we still had our own. Then with a second orb I triggered a non-lethal crowd control widespread sonic attack. Several of them screamed and fell, some just passed out silently.
A warning flashed on my overlay as we picked up our pace.
“Missiles incoming.”
The readout indicated they were anti-armor missiles, small and meant to counter armored and shielded vehicles and people. Of course, there was no way the missile would get through an orb shield, they were using emitters that ships used, and had a lot more power behind them than a simple power pack on some armor, or a vehicle.
Yet, the feeling got ten times worse, and I couldn’t figure out why. We were safe.
Fuck, we were safe, the crowd wasn’t.
I assigned the third orb to shield the crowd, and not a moment too soon. The grounds in front of the palace turned into a fiery hell of explosions, plasma, and I was blinded for a moment. If we’d just had personal shields, we wouldn’t have survived.
When the flames cleared, I sent the second orb off on the missile track, with orders to knock them out or subdue if possible, destroy if not.
Several guards ran out of the palace with weapons drawn.
Telidur barked, “Arrest all these people for attempted regicide.”
The guards nodded, and when the orb reported it had captured two men with skimmer full of missile launchers, I released the shield over the crowd so the guards could round them up.
Vik grunted, “They almost killed their own people, the protestors I mean.”
I snorted, “Your majesty, I think that was their plan.”
He frowned at me, but Telidur interrupted our conversation and insisted we move into the palace which was secured and shielded…
When we arrived inside we were taken to a small but richly appointed lounge. It was only a moment later when Natalya came into the room, and threw aside decorum by jumping into Vik’s arms with tears in her eyes.
“Thank goodness your safe. I’m so sorry, I have no excuse. I don’t know how they got heavy weapons so close without them being scanned, but I’m investigating.”
Vik hugged her back, “It’s good to see you well.”
She laughed through the tears, and took a step back, “And you, your majesty.”
Vik turned to me, “What
did you mean, that was their plan.”
I shrugged, “Tek or Jervistad, or maybe both, would have blamed it on you. Something about peaceful protestors being viciously massacred.”
Natalya snorted, “None of my people would believe it.”
I nodded, “Probably not here, but the accusations are meant to stir the blood, and provoke unthinking anger. I suspect it was one more step to getting their own worlds closer to committing treason, or demanding that their leaders do so and remove you. They have to be careful, if they outpace their people’s beliefs they could lose them.
“Of course, I have no proof, but I’m sure the guards will at least discover what the two men with launchers knew. Most likely ninety nine percent of the crowd were just dupes, people that were fooled. There were probably just a couple in on the plan, those that stirred them into a mob ready to run at the king. They probably expected us to gun them down to protect Vik, and those two men were just there in case we didn’t.”
Telidur asked, “I thought you weren’t good at politics?”
I sighed, “I’m not, I have no idea how you should respond to this, or not respond. But… I am a tactician of sorts, and I do understand the way terrorists think, and how they strike. Tek and Jervistad know they can’t go against you openly, in a space battle, so other tactics are required if they want to reach their goals.”
Vik nodded, “Alright, you could be right. As for what we do, nothing yet. We can’t depose them without absolute proof, and even then, it will be a difficult proposition if their people are behind them. Like I said a few days ago, they’ll eventually be given a choice, secede, or allow their rulers to be removed from power.”
Natalya nodded, “What if they refuse either option, the people on the planets I mean.”
Vik sighed, “Then they will be summarily kicked out of the empire, and all their citizens on other worlds will be given a choice to leave, or to forswear their citizenship and stay on our three empire worlds. Their ships will no longer be welcomed at our facilities, and they will be cut off from the fabrication database. I suspect the A.I.s would abandon them as well, since they will have turned their backs on the empire and what it stands for. Civil war will be the last option, and only if they start it.”
