by Ken Lozito
Connor walked out of the camp and came to a stop in plain view. They were about two hundred meters from the entrance of the city. Dash and Samson walked over to him.
“I can try sending the message again,” Dash offered.
Connor shook his head. “I’m not going to play games with them,” he said and looked at Dash. “Let’s take a walk, you and me.”
“I have to advise against that, General,” Samson said.
Three squads of soldiers began standing to approach the edge of the camp.
“Understood, Captain. I’m going to try a different tactic this time around. I want you to maintain this position.”
The skin around Samson’s eyes tightened. “How about you take two of my men in with you? Or better yet, I’ll go with you.”
“Negative. If we get neck deep in it, I’ll need you to come get us,” Connor replied, and Dash’s eyes widened.
Samson glanced at Dash. “I hope you can handle that sidearm, kid.”
Connor started walking toward the city, and Dash quickly caught up with him.
“You don’t really expect any trouble, do you?”
Connor wanted to dismiss Dash’s concerns, but he couldn’t. The last time he’d been in that city, he’d had an army with him. He’d also called the warlord’s bluff and threatened him. If the Ovarrow wanted to kill him, this would be a perfect opportunity.
“I taught you better than that. Always expect trouble,” Connor said.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay. They like me,” Dash replied.
He was right, and Connor knew it. He’d sent the message and tried to be patient, but he wasn’t going to wait all day. Sometimes doors needed to be knocked open.
The entry to the Ovarrow city didn’t have gates per se. They were more like improvised barricades. It wasn’t the only entrance into the city, but this was where the diplomatic envoys used to come, and Connor wasn’t about to try and sneak into the back door for this meeting. He doubted the Ovarrow would appreciate that. It was probably too soon to even make this request, but he didn’t have the luxury of time for the Ovarrow to feel ready to work with him again. The Krake could already be making their way to this planet, and they needed to be prepared. Preparedness overrode the Ovarrow's finicky feelings about the human colonists living on their planet, who, incidentally, had brought them out of stasis.
He’d seen the Ovarrow stasis pods. He’d been there when they were first discovered and accidentally triggered the "end stasis" protocols. Connor looked at the Ovarrow, who clustered together behind the barricades, watching him suspiciously as he approached. The fact that there had been a massive colonial effort to bring over ten thousand Ovarrow out of stasis couldn’t be missed, given that most of the tools the Ovarrow now used had been made by the colonists. Connor had helped organize the delivery of the supply caches found in the hidden bunkers where many of the stasis pods had been found. There were still thousands of Ovarrow in stasis, and these numbers were only based on the known bunker locations that Connor and many others had mapped out.
New Earth had one massive supercontinent that was similar in size to Earth’s Pangea before millions of years of continental drift had separated them. Colonial geologists had found no evidence to support the same events occurring on New Earth. The supercontinent was home to massive lakes, long, powerful rivers, and a nearly extinct species of intelligent aliens who called themselves Ovarrow.
Over the past twelve years, people like his wife had tried to piece together the history associated with the alien ruins they’d found. No one could ever think of New Earth as a dull place to live. It had taken every bit of human ingenuity to not only make a life on this planet but to learn about its history—the calamities that had occurred. There'd been an impromptu ice age that only lasted for two hundred years. They'd since learned that the ice age had been triggered by the Ovarrow in a last-ditch effort to drive the Krake away. At the time humanity loaded three hundred thousand people aboard the Ark and began a voyage beyond Earth’s solar system, the Ovarrow had been fighting a long war both with the Krake and among themselves.
Connor had thought that all the Ovarrow had gone into stasis pods, but he’d been wrong. Only mature Ovarrow could survive going into stasis, which was why the colonists had never found Ovarrow children in the pods.
He wondered why the Ovarrow they’d discovered on the other side of the continent had never tried to contact them. They must have known the colonists were living there. They hadn't tried to hide their presence on this world. Even with colonists restricting their activities to the western side of the continent, there was no way they could have missed the Vemus War. Battles had been fought on the ground but also in low orbit and even on New Earth’s moons. So, the question that tugged at Connor the most was: why wouldn’t they try to contact the colonists? The colonial government had decided to keep the presence of these other Ovarrow from the ones they'd brought out of stasis, but that was about to change.
The Mekaal soldiers standing atop the barricade said something in the Ovarrow language. Dash had the translator interface ready, but Connor could guess the meaning. The soldiers' weapons were quarterstaff-sized and were able to fire powerful energy blasts. They didn’t point their weapons at them, but they were held at the ready and it wouldn’t take much to make use of them.
“I’m here to speak with Warlord Vitory or High Commissioner Senleon. Can you tell them we're here?” Connor asked.
Dash made his personal holoscreen spread as far as it could go so Connor could see the Ovarrow translation. The Ovarrow spoke among themselves while keeping a careful watch on Connor and Dash.
“This isn’t the warmest reception I’ve gotten from them,” Dash said quietly.
“They didn’t shoot at us, so that’s something,” Connor replied. But he hadn’t expected the Ovarrow to shoot at them. They knew who he was, and they also knew who Dash was.
Connor looked up at the Mekaal, trying to figure out which one was their leader. The Ovarrow stuck to an almost rigid form of hierarchy, and he'd have the most luck gaining entry to the city by dealing with whoever was at the top of the pecking order.
Connor raised his hand and pointed his finger at the Mekaal soldier the others seemed to defer to. “I’m General Connor Gates of the Colonial Defense Force. I know you have your orders, but if someone doesn’t get here in the next few minutes, I’m going to walk into your city. Whether you shoot me or not is up to you, but I am going to speak to your leaders.”
The Mekaal soldiers read the message, and the one Connor had guessed was the leader regarded him. The dark, sunken eyes with brow ridges that went to the back of his head made him look as if he were constantly glaring. After a few moments, he touched the side of his helmet, which apparently was the universal signal for speaking over the comlink. The Ovarrow communications capabilities included shortwave radio signals, which could broadcast at distances of several thousand kilometers. The Mekaal uttered a short, decisive sentence and gestured for them to follow.
“We’re in,” Dash said.
Connor nodded and walked toward the barricade. He only carried a sidearm, but the Mekaal hardly paid it any notice. He’d expected that they’d want him to disarm, but then he recalled that the diplomatic envoys had been allowed a squad of armed soldiers.
They weren’t entirely defenseless. Both Connor and Dash wore military-grade multi-protection suits made of nanorobotic material, which mimicked the clothing the colonists wore while providing a lot of protection.
The fact that they were walking into the city was a small victory unto itself. Nathan hadn't thought he'd be able to get inside or that the Ovarrow would speak with them. But getting inside had been the easy part; convincing the Ovarrow to help them would be slightly more difficult.
Connor glanced toward a cloaked recon drone flying overhead. Samson was keeping watch, but if the Ovarrow actually intended to harm them, Connor doubted that the CDF soldiers outside the city would be able to reach them in
time. Connor and Dash were on their own, but he’d faced worse odds.
Significant progress had been made with the cleanup efforts in the city, which Connor attributed to the use of the machines they’d found. This part of the city was slowly coming back to life, but Connor didn’t have to look far to see the haunting remnants of a battle fought here hundreds of years ago.
He glanced down one of the side streets and stopped. A large section of the building on the corner had been torn away. Blackened, scorched remains marred what was left, with bits of jagged bronze, metallic alloy glittering in the sun. The Ovarrow preferred a rounded architecture that flared at the top, which made them defensible. There must have been an explosion. Connor glanced at the other side of the street and saw where huge chunks had lodged themselves into the nearby structures. He narrowed his gaze and peered into the building, his enhanced vision easily piercing the darkened interior.
“That was someone’s home,” Connor said to Dash.
“What the hell happened?”
They both looked at their Mekaal escorts, and the leader made an impatient gesture for them to follow.
Connor opened a comlink to Samson. “Scorched building southeast of us. Have the drone scout for more of the same, and look for a cause of the explosion.”
“Acknowledged. Not a warm welcome, then?”
“It’s too soon to tell,” Connor said and closed the comlink.
As they walked farther into the city, Connor tried to get a feel for the mood of the Ovarrow they passed. Ovarrow didn’t really show emotion the way humans did, or perhaps the Ovarrow were always in a near-constant state of dedicated focus on the task at hand. None of them were standing idly by. Some of them stopped for a few seconds to look at Connor and Dash as they went by, but they quickly returned to what they were doing. More than a few of them seemed to recognize them.
Dash looked at Connor. “It looks like they remember you.”
“Or were warned about me,” he countered, and Dash frowned. “That’s just the way it is.”
Connor had tried to be civil. Frowning in thought, he tried to think of the term Nathan liked to use—diplomatic. Sometimes diplomacy took too damn long, and the Ovarrow seemed to respond to the use of force. It had been a dangerous precedent to set, but lives had been on the line. In particular, Lenora’s life had been on the line.
Connor had been a professional soldier for most of his life. Even when he’d awakened on the Ark, he’d found a niche in the colony leading Search and Rescue. His skills had been well-utilized there, but then they’d formed the CDF. In the meeting rooms with the Security Council, he’d emphasized that the primary motivating factor for the military response to the terrorist act in the Ovarrow city had been that colonial lives had been at risk. He’d sent in the CDF and threatened the warlord. If the Ovarrow had kept attacking the soldiers who were securing the collapsed bridge, he'd have hit them hard. He wouldn’t have wanted to do it, but he wouldn’t have hesitated either. Connor suspected that more information had been conveyed in those few moments than in most of the diplomatic envoys put together. Now Connor would learn how the warlord had internalized such a lesson. Would he and the rest of the Ovarrow resent the colonists to the point that there would be no chance of forming an alliance, or would they acknowledge the truth and accept the fact that they needed each other?
Their escorts quickened the pace, and about ten minutes later, they were brought to a large building where the thick, russet-colored walls had been drawn to the side, leaving a vast atrium opened to fresh air. Connor had been to a number of Ovarrow ruins over the years, but he hadn't known that the buildings could actually do something like this. There was some kind of mechanism on the floor and along the ceiling that allowed sections of the walls to be collapsed into each other like an accordion. Inside were several work areas where groups of Ovarrow spoke to each other.
Connor saw the warlord. He wore armor similar to the rest of the soldiers. It was deep purple and had a power cord on the back, which also was used for some of the Ovarrow's weapons. He was older, with more lines to his face, but lean and muscular. He’d been speaking with the high commissioner, as well as other faction leaders. Their conversations abruptly ceased, and they turned to look at Connor and Dash.
Their escorts came to a stop, and Connor waited for the Ovarrow leadership to acknowledge them. This was a gesture of respect, since they were guests. Off to one side, a soldier brought in the colonial translator and activated it.
The warlord regarded Connor with a hint of malice in his gaze. The warlord's First was standing by his side, his second-in-command. Cerot watched Connor curiously. Connor looked at the high commissioner.
There seemed to be so much tension in the room that Connor began to wonder whether it was purely due to his presence, as well as the CDF soldiers outside the city. He got the feeling that there was something else going on.
Connor activated his own translator and spoke. “Thank you for seeing me, High Commissioner,” he said, and his gaze flicked to the warlord. “Vitory.”
The high commissioner regarded Connor for a few moments. When he spoke, another Ovarrow used the holo-interface to enter his words.
“Your presence here is surprising. It was my understanding that if the colonial government wanted to reopen communications, they'd send us a message through this console.”
“You are correct, but I'm here of my own volition.”
The warlord came to stand by the high commissioner's side. “Have you returned to make war?”
“No, I haven’t,” Connor answered.
“Then why are your soldiers outside our city walls? And there have been reports of a large force gathered some distance northeast of the city,” Vitory said.
The Mekaal were scouting the area outside the city, having learned from their previous experience when they clashed with the CDF. Connor approved. “They’re waiting for me. I'd like to speak with you peacefully, if you’ll allow it.”
Vitory glanced at High Commissioner Senleon and spoke a few words that weren't entered into the translator.
Senleon looked at Connor. “We appreciate the delicacy with which you handled coming here, but you must know we haven't changed our stance regarding an alliance with your colony.”
“I understand that, and I’m not here to speak about those things,” Connor said, waiting a few moments before continuing. “A short while ago, we found more Ovarrow living far away from here. We don’t know much about them. Our initial contact with them was strained. It wasn’t peaceful.”
Connor used his neural implants to bring up a holographic map of the continent that showed their current position and then the general location of where they'd found the other Ovarrow settlement.
Vitory studied the map for a few moments. “Did you attack them?”
“No, we didn’t, but we did defend ourselves.”
“This place is known to us, but nobody here has ever been there. Before we slept, there were limits to where we could travel in the open. This was one of our capitals,” Senleon said.
Connor wondered which faction's capital it was but was reluctant to bring the question up at this point. The Ovarrow were sensitive to accusations, and certain questions might stop them communicating altogether because it implied that they were holding back information.
“Why did you go there?” Vitory asked.
“We found records that indicated there was an arch there, and we went there to study it to help us get our own arch working. Some of my people were trapped on the other side of the gateway, and we needed our arch to work. We think they were surprised by our presence, but we never actually spoke to them. We found Ovarrow dressed in ryklar skins, and they attacked us alongside them. These ryklars were different from the others we’ve seen. There are auditory systems . . .” Connor paused because the translator failed at that point. Connor gestured toward his ears. “These ryklars had had their ears removed. They were controlled by spectrums of light.”
The Ovarrow translator did its best to convey what Connor had said, but he wondered how much was getting lost in translation. Mention of the arch had sparked several side conversations by the Ovarrow, but Vitory studied the holoscreen for a few moments. They knew the archway was Krake technology used to traverse between universes. They also knew they were dangerous, and they were afraid.
“We’ve searched for the city and haven’t found any stasis pods. Some of us believe that perhaps these Ovarrow didn't go into stasis. They weathered the long winter,” Connor said.
“That theory may be correct. There weren’t enough stasis pods for everyone,” Senleon said.
A sobering silence settled on the Ovarrow. The memory of their time before stasis was still fresh in their minds. Their stasis technology had been flawed and they were lucky to be alive, but they retained their memories from before, and it had been a brutal time of survival.
“I’m here for two reasons,” Connor continued. “The first is that we intend to go search for those Ovarrow, and I wanted to know if anyone here would like to come with us. I think it might help open communication between us. The reason I'm looking for them is to find out how they survived for so long. I also want to know what they know about the Krake. If they didn’t go into stasis, they must've successfully hidden from the Krake. Perhaps they know something about them that will help us find where they live.”
This brought another wave of scattered conversations among the Ovarrow, some of which involved both the warlord and the high commissioner, and Connor waited for them to finish.
Vitory turned to address Connor again. “You are only bringing soldiers to find them and not a diplomatic envoy?”
“That is correct. We expect there'll be significant danger, given what happened before. We’ve helped you, and now we seek your help in return,” Connor replied.
