Alien Empire

by Anthony Gillis

  “What do you mean?” said Neem.

  “Are there other ways to generate them?” Karden’s mind was starting to race, “The reason the Elders project their wormholes is that they want to fly ships through them. What if you created one inside the generator itself? Is that possible?”

  Neem considered. “Maybe. In a kind of frame I suppose, like door. Then the rift could stay invisible, inside the satellite itself… we could shield the outside of the satellite to contain the energy emission, even recycle some of it back into power…”

  He was already lost in his work.

  Karden looked at the others. “Granted, we’re assuming the other worlds will be using Elder frequencies.”

  “Is it possible to send the broadcasts out in a number of frequencies at once?” asked Tayyis.

  Neem somehow heard that, and nodded.

  “Then the last main piece might be putting encoding in to get them to spread virally through their nets, if they have them.”

  “There we really will have to assume they are on Elder standards,” said Viris, “But as for going viral, I know just the woman for the job.”

  ///

  “May you not die, Tayyis,” said Skrai’kiik. “It’s good to see you again. I have to say I’m not sure I believe the news your friends have been feeding on my video monitor.”

  “What news?” replied Tayyis.

  “The attack on Malachite. To believe it, I’ve got to buy the idea that you Grounders have a new kind of stardrive that lets you go instantly from here to there, and that you managed to pull off a sneak attack that let you win against a hundred Warden Ships.”

  “I’m sorry they decided to send you those images. It wasn’t my idea. However, all of that really happened. We destroyed the fleet at Malachite that was assembled to attack us.”

  “HOW?”

  “Skrai’kiik, you saw the videos.”

  “I don’t mean how you claim you did it tactically, though if true, that was impressive. What I mean is how could you possibly go from … well sorry to say this, but as backward as you were when we arrived, to able to mount an attack in space, on one of our, I mean the Elder’s Sector Capitals?”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure. Part of it is that some of us decided early on we didn’t like what the Elders were planning to do, and started thinking about ways to stop it. But another is that a lot of the cultures here on ground, Tadine is one of them, have traditions of free thought and the exchange of ideas.”

  “One of the things I like about you,” considered Skrai’kiik, “but how does that help you accomplish anything? I mean, wouldn’t it keep you from working together effectively?”

  “That assumes effectiveness requires central planning and control. Maybe it does in a military campaign, I don’t know. I’m not a military person. However, there are many advantages to being able spread ideas quickly, have lots of people feel free to work with them, see what works, and then share them.”

  “I like the idea of that. I’d like to think it could really work. I’m sick of duty and mandatory enlightenment.”

  “How does the destruction of that fleet make you feel?” asked Tayyis, “You don’t seem angry.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I haven’t sorted it out. Everybody I know personally in the fleet was either on the Vigilant or part of my old unit in Sector 83. I guess if you mean by the loss of all those lives… I don’t like it. But I also know you see it as a war for your own survival. If you mean loyalty to the Elders, no, not really. I don’t feel that.”

  “What about the war three thousand years ago? Some of your people carry anger for the Elders attack on you. Do you?”

  Skrai’kiik made an expression Tayyis took to be quizzical.

  “Tayyis, we attacked them. That is why he, why that pompous prig Ts’krii called it the big mistake.”

  Tayyis sat surprised, unable to reply. Skrai’kiik continued.

  “I’m no historian, but every Ara’kaa that was raised in our culture – and there are those that aren’t – knows that particular piece of history.”

  “Three thousand years ago, the Elders had explored the galaxy, but hadn’t yet divided it up into sectors with sector fleets and all that. They had colonies in their part of the galaxy, and a kind of empire over the rest. From what little I know, they had a lot of problems with it.”

  “But, they’d never, not once, had a large-scale war in space. The only other race that ever discovered FTL was the Imri, and they’d welcomed the Elders with open arms, or at least hands. The Elders didn’t really have much of a battle fleet. We saw them as the biggest threat we’d ever imagined, and decided if we hit them before they could get a fleet built, it could be OUR galaxy.”

  “As you know, it didn’t work out that way. They moved slowly, but they were more advanced and had a lot more resources than we did, and beat us down through a long series of space battles. Then they conquered our core worlds and scattered us across the galaxy as helpers in their cause of enlightenment.”

  “I think that was when they started the modern system of indirectly controlling things while keeping everybody isolated and tame, and of course keeping a big fleet in case they need to knock down anyone who looks like trouble.”

  “Understand Tayyis, that is why so many Ara’kaa have such a twisted complex about it all. We attacked them, and they were, all in all, merciful to us. There is a sense of guilt buried deep in Ara’kaa culture that complicates our attitudes about everything, even after three thousand years of being treated as inferiors.”

  Tayyis looked at her with sympathy.

  “Skrai’kiik, that whole system of assumed superiority and accepted inferiority, that whole system of guilt and duty that you hate so much. We’re trying to change it. We know we can’t win a direct war against the Elders, not in the long run. We want to overthrow the whole system that keeps things as they are, keeps everyone down, makes the Elders our enemies.”

  Skrai’kiik let out a low hissing Ara’kaa laugh, “You want to overthrow them? I thought you were crazy even to fight them. Now you tell me you want to topple, what, the entire Galactic Protectorate by raising what, some kind of mutiny… a…. what is the Elder word… revolt?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know how you’ll do on that. Some people among the advanced races, the ones on production worlds, really believe in enlightenment. Most of the supply worlds know only what the Elders choose to tell them. The primitive worlds, like yours was just before we showed up, don’t know anything.”

  “Not to mention, the Elders aren’t just going to sit still after losing a Sector Squadron and half of eight others. You just dealt them the worst blow since… since we did. They’re going to come for you, in real force this time.”

  “A hundred ships wasn’t real force?”

  Skrai’kiik laughed a bitter laugh.

  “Tayyis, at this point I’m not so sure I’d live through whatever kind of bombardment the Protectorate decides to give you Grounders, and even if I did, I can foresee internment and reeducation in my future with them. Besides, for some probably bad reason, I like you people. Any way I could get a chance to see the outside world?”

  ///

  In his office, Karden reviewed the military situation with Varen and Abida. The latter was speaking.

  “Professor Karden, you are too gloomy! We defeated a force many times our strength. Take at least some pride in that.”

  “We hit them by surprise, under ideal circumstances, and still lost a third of our fleet. What will happen if they return with ten times the force they had at Malachite? And I think they are unlikely to stand by quietly after a defeat like that, particularly once they realize we are trying to raise a revolt against them.”

  “What do you propose” asked Varen.

  “That pitched battles are ultimately going to be a war of attrition that we will lose. Therefore we must come up with more creative ideas.”

  Abida thought for a moment, frowning. Then he looked u
p, and Karden saw in his face the rebel commander of Bacchara.

  “We have a great advantage over them in mobility, but a disadvantage in numbers, strength, and from what I have seen, training. It seems to me then, that we are like a guerilla force faced with a regular army. We must act like one.”

  “Meaning hit and run tactics,” said Varen.

  “We know how dependent the Warden Ships are on resupply at their starbases. Any large fleets coming our way would be coming in stages. That means there are lines of supply that could be cut off,” added Karden.

  “Yes!” said Abida, “Drawing them into traps when we can, shooting at them when it is not possible for them to shoot back, or at least when they don’t have time. Eventually, we could wear them down.”

  “I think we have the start of a plan,” said Karden, “however, we’ll need to find out what they are doing sooner this time than last, and then…”

  Abida grinned, “We have a revolution to lead!”

  41

  The Big Surprise passed through the rift. Below was a blue-white world, the side facing them shrouded in night. Lights twinkled here and there.

  “Navigator, confirm,” said Varen.

  “World known to the Elders as Supply-02 13485, and to its indigenous population as what translates from Elder as ‘The Surface’”.

  “Communications Officer, you have confirmation on location of the Elder satellites?”

  “Confirmed, sending now.”

  “Good work. Let’s destroy those satellites, and then broadcast the message to the inhabitants. After that, we’ll take a short jump to the main transmission satellite on the outskirts of the solar system.”

  His co-pilot grinned and said, “All in a day’s work.”

  “More like an hour’s, but who’s counting?” replied Varen with a smile.

  ///

  Selnin Rorder sat with his wife and some close friends, watching the news with increasing annoyance.

  On the video screen, the announcer was discussing the enormous economic growth of the past year, fueled by Elder fusion and antimatter technology, the amazing inventions coming almost weekly from Neem-Jat Labs, and the dramatic advances in manufacturing, distribution, and project management coming from Pavol Harker’s freewheeling Association of Producers.

  Rorder grumbled, “Reckless greed and environmental destruction. We could have had a stable and sustainable society if we’d only listened to the Elders.”

  He switched channels.

  There were observances, attended by multiple small but competing groups of protesters, of the anniversary of the accidental death of President Vhel.

  “A great man, even if he was driven to certain excesses toward the end by the unreasonable paranoia and resistance he faced.”

  It was followed by a retrospective on the conviction of Tarec, whose administration was now almost universally regarded as illegitimate, and the recent arrest, in a remote tropical town on the Eastern Continent, of former Chief of Staff Karstens. He’d had a suitcase full of cash and certain historic valuables from the Presidential Building.

  “Alas, the small men who sometimes follow the great. As with so many times before, this wasn’t true enlightenment – that has never really been tried! Perhaps someday…”

  He switched the channel again.

  There was news of the rebuilding and expansion of the space fleet. There were large numbers of Neem-Jat rift satellites, now with their own small, slow, but built-in engines. A new generation of fighter, supposedly equal in capabilities to Elder fighters, and more heavily armed, was on its way. Officially the MSSA-3, it was nicknamed the Starfighter.

  “The militarization of space continues. Will we never learn?” said Rorder, shaking his head.

  A new more powerful design of warship, the Avenger class, was in development.

  They looked much like an SDS, save larger. They had more powerful shields, and were equipped with their own Neem-Jat rift drives of a new smaller, more efficient type. They carried two large powerful railguns instead of an array of smaller ones, and many small point defense laser beams instead of a few larger ones. They had two gatling rocket pods, and one very large mount for a nuclear missile underneath.

  “Is it not enough that we have the deaths of millions on our collective conscience, through our reckless use of nuclear weapons in space? Now, it seems we make such death policy.”

  There was news of a sweeping program to spread the word of Elder atrocities and the Grounder victory around the galaxy. To spread a message of liberty and independence opposed to the duty and order of the Elders. Preliminary messages had already been produced and used.

  Now, however, someone had enlisted the help of an alien spokesperson. Not an Elder, but one of those who served in small numbers on their ships. The names of some of the alien races had become fairly well known thanks to the galactic map software. She was an Ara’kaa, named Skrai’kiik.

  “Reactionary propaganda! We meet a people who have moved beyond greed and selfishness, and now we want to spread our backwardness. And that poor prisoner, forced to be our mouthpiece! We find enlightenment up there among the stars, and want to pull them down with us.”

  Finally, there were reports of a new initiative from the Global Defense Command. Rumors were it involved stealth technology. An uncharacteristic amount of secrecy surrounded the project, and it was fueling speculation.

  “How typical. Secrets among the elite, and darkness for ordinary citizens. What are we coming to?”

  ///

  A blue-green world sat amidst the stars. Traceries of clouds floated in its atmosphere, and a yellow-orange sun shined in the distance.

  In space, far out in high orbit, a small rift appeared. From it came a ship. It targeted weapons on a small unobtrusive rock floating in the void, destroyed it, rifted to a point four thousand kilometers away, and destroyed another. It opened a hatch, and out came… nothing. Or at least nothing that could be seen or by most means detected.

  As abruptly as it had appeared, the ship disappeared, rifting to the outer edges of the solar system, where another task awaited it.

  At almost the same time, in another star system, a different ship, of much the same design, appeared. Below it was a yellowish world with small patches of ocean and the merest wisps of cloud. Behind it was a large orange sun. It performed the same tasks. Hidden Elder satellites destroyed. A new, invisible one placed. Then it moved on.

  Across other star systems, other worlds, the same tasks went on. System by system, the communication network of the Elders was being shut down, and other one put in its place. As the new satellites went into place, they began broadcasting, at random intervals and on randomly switching frequencies, video and audio transmissions using the Elder computer data code and language, and where anything was known, that of the indigenous population.

  The transmissions varied, but all followed a similar theme. Warden Ships and Elder troops, destroying cities and killing civilians. Then, one world was shown under attack by a Warden Ship, but the population resisted and destroyed it. Then there were scenes of feverish war preparation, followed by a battle in which Warden Ships were destroyed by swarms of much smaller vessels. They concluded with a call for revolt against the Elders, and a promise of support by those who had defeated the Elders in battle.

  Some of the transmissions carried something else, a bit of code to quietly propagate themselves throughout Elder digital networks, and appear at the right time.

  ///

  In another star system, something very different was happening.

  A Grounder starship returned to the world known to its inhabitants as The Surface. The ship, the Harbinger, was an SDS with a Neem-Jat rift generator strapped in the mounting used for a nuclear missile at Malachite. On board was an unusual crew.

  The commander was one Star Captain Driyatan, who like his crew wore new Global Defense Command military uniforms and insignia. In addition to the normal ship’s complement were six GDC Marines in ba
llistic body armor, and carrying rail rifles, stun-guns, and more.

  Then there were the two guests. One was Darmin Vrir, who had been Tadine Councilor for Foreign Affairs until he resigned during the Tarec administration, and was now Ground’s first ambassador to an alien world. He had recently completed Tayyis Lyr’s training program for Elder language and culture.

  The other guest was Tayyis Lyr herself.

  Vrir was concerned “Ms. Lyr, I must admit I was shocked you chose to accompany this mission. Are you quite certain you want to join me in what could potentially be a dangerous situation?”

  “Ambassador, as you know, at least according to the Elder galactic map and the communications we’ve intercepted, the inhabitants of this world are quite peaceful. Regardless, after all the work I’ve put in toward this moment, I wouldn’t miss it.”

  As the ship descended into the atmosphere, it sent signals to the city below, which they’d determined was the probable planetary capital. It had a starport with a series of landing pads designed for large Elder shuttles, and a great deal of infrastructure nearby concerned with loading and unloading of cargo.

  Below, a hasty delegation was assembled. Beings with slender quadrupedal lower bodies, graceful multi-jointed arms, rounded heads and pale blue-white skin converged to a staging area next to one of the landing pads. They wore clothes of varied design, but with white and silver in Elder-style geometric traceries predominating.

  As the Harbinger descended below the dense clouds, Tayyis got a good look at the city near the starport. She saw graceful buildings of mostly white color and elegant silver decoration. Tidy looking smaller buildings might have been homes or apartments. There were a few large vehicles, public transit perhaps, in the immaculate streets. Beyond were green, idyllic looking fields of crops. Aircraft, looking like less advanced versions of Elder shuttles, flitted through the sky. As the starship descended, they changed course and fled.

  The ship landed on the pad nearest the delegation of inhabitants.