“You need to be at your best tomorrow…”
Reith joins me on the terrace and comes to stand next to me. Once again, Chaos and Order, side by side, staring into the night. Staring into the future.
“I’m well aware… It’s the first Conclave I join as a human Avatar, and lucky me it has to be a public one. Most of the Haillar have never seen a human, so everybody will be too distracted by my looks to pay any attention to what I have to say.”
“Ashar, you know our Sisters better than that. They would be listening to your words, but some might use your appearance against you. Especially when it comes to our House’s role in establishing an ongoing relationship with the Human World.”
The first contact with a new race is a rare and valuable occurrence. The Great House laying a claim on a new trade relationship stands to gain enormously, as benefits accrue basically forever. Leaving aside the unusual circumstances of my encounter with the humans, our direct trade competitors have no reason to rejoice my rashly extended invitation. An increase in Sen Dorien fortunes might impact them on multiple levels.
“Do you think my Avatar’s race will be a hindrance tomorrow?”
“I hope not, but I fear so. Being reborn as a non-Dominion race is a bold step to begin with, and some like Faun and Tourin may be opposed to you for this reason alone. Our best bet is to understate your otherness, to make you look as normal as possible.”
“Good luck with that,” I snort. “I don’t see how we can make my build look normal.”
“We can do nothing about your height, but luckily humans look close enough to us. Your make-up and regalia may conceal most of the differences.”
I hate this part.
“I was hoping for a simple attire.”
“Elizabeth Ashar! Most definitely you won’t attend a Formal Council dressed in jerkin and breaches. In fact, I already commissioned a set of Chaos regalia fit for your new size and looks. Mistress Rovalda arrived with it, together with a crew of artists.”
Rovalda was House Dorien’s Mistress of Ceremony and the bane of my existence. In forty cycles since she held this office, she probably managed to get hold of me a dozen times. The result was always spectacular, and the overall experience utterly uncomfortable. I can only imagine this time will be worse, as Rovalda will try to beat my alien physique into strict Haillar moulds.
CHAPTER 6 (PETER)
We were bunched together on the portal platform looking at the cat.
The actual crossing was a lot less impressive than expected, nothing like I imagined it would be. No swirling lights, no vertigo, none of the special effects imagined in the holo-shows. One second, I was standing on the Aldeean Exchange side of the Einstein-Rosen bridge. Then I stepped through and emerged on the other side, presumably in a Haillar ship bay. Just like this, it all happened in a blink of an eye.
If the crossing was a minor surprise, the reception committee was a major one. It wasn’t an impressive group, just a committee of one. In front of us, a cat was comfortably sitting on its haunches, measuring us calmly. Well, maybe a leopard or mountain lion would have been a better description for the impassive feline, given its size.
Strictly speaking, none of these descriptions was quite correct. The alien appeared to be a combination of features borrowed from several species of Earth felines. Its ears were pointed as a regular house cat, but it was as bulky as a panther, or maybe a mountain lion. A luxurious black mane, more impressive than an African lion’s, was framing its face falling in curls on either side of its chest. Other than this, its normal fur was short, and its colour was an impossible shade of teal I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen in nature. The being was sporting a harness with pockets for several devices and crystals.
“Greetings, humans, and welcome on the ‘The Valliant Heart of Diessa’! I’m Junior Lieutenant Serrruin, your appointed guide.”
The cat was a ship officer. It took us a moment to come to terms with the second alien species we were encountering. We knew the Dominion had other races. We’ve seen recordings of several such species in the Archive of Lore. Yet we had never come across any of them on Aldeea, and a military ship was the last place where I expected such a meeting.
On the other hand, we were also guests on the Haillar ships. I couldn’t help noticing that despite their impressive capabilities, our hosts seem to be quite relaxed about aliens boarding their military vessels. Humans would have been a lot more careful with their secrets, had our roles been reversed. Yet another contradiction on the long list I had to somehow sort out.
As the senior Navy officer present, Commander Koslowsky was the first to respond, introducing himself and each one of the humans in our group. I was glad Charles was too busy studying the cat to make another blunder, the way he messed up our first meeting with the warden.
“|I’ll drop you to your berths to park your backpacks,” continued Lt. Serrruin. “After that, I’m at your disposal. I suggest we go to the mess hall and start from there. I’m allowed to take you anywhere except the engines and weaponry sections.”
I was afraid we'd spend the duration of the trip locked in our cabin, but luckily this wasn’t the case. With a couple of restrictions, we had the freedom of the ship under the Dominion officer’s supervision. I couldn’t help laughing at our situation. Compared to Earth, on ‘The Valliant Heart of Diessa’, being a ‘cat minder’ meant something else altogether.
“Can I ask, what kind of vessel is this?” inquired Koslowski, wasting no time to start his investigations.
“It’s a Haillar swarm carrier, one of the oldest models in existence. This one belongs to the Queen of Matter and had been defending the wall for the past five thousand cycles.”
That couldn’t be right. The cat was pulling our leg.
“You’ve got to be kidding!”
“A little more than five thousand, to be precise. Haillars build their ships to last, well… forever.”
“How is this possible? And what’s a swarm carrier to begin with?”
“The eka wielders are building modular ships. I’ve no idea how. Nobody does, and it’s not something they are talking about openly. Believe me, we’d love to find out.”
“I’m confused,” intervened Christine, “I thought you are part of Dominion’s Fleet.”
“Oh no, sorry for not being clear. I’m Lieutenant in the kalan defence forces, as much a passenger on this ship as you are. The Haillar are flying their own ships, they always did. I came to Aldeea as a military observer, basically a spy. Same as your big friend there,” said the alien, pointing to Koslowsky.
The Commander started to protest, then thought better and stopped, asking instead:
“How can you talk so freely about this?”
“Oh, the Haillar don’t mind. All Dominion species are spying on their fleet. Most of them have done it for thousands of cycles, to no avail. We kalan are the newcomers. We were the newcomers, I guess, before you guys showed up.”
This somehow explained Haillar’s willingness to transport us to Tao Bellona and their seemingly lax security. They apparently practised this system for millennia.
We arrived at the end of a corridor, in front of an elegant looking hatch. The entire ship seemed to made of smooth lines, the aesthetic design showing in every little detail.
“This is the entrance to your module. The Haillar tuned the pad to your bio-signature, so it responds to your commands alone. I’ll wait for you outside while you drop your luggage. For us, it’s bad form to enter somebody else’s den.”
We enter an open plan space the size of our mess hall on Endeavour. Some kind of sitting room, judging by the low furniture. Open doors to the sleeping quarters were visible on the opposite side.
The berths themselves were quite spacious, much more than the crew cabins on Endeavour. Furniture was spares but elegant, in soft colours matching the walls.
“This looks more like a high-end hotel than berths on a military space vessel,” observed Hank. “I was happy they pi
cked us, but it seems we’ll travel in style. It kinda looks good for a five thousand year old relic.”
“Please don’t remind me,” answered Charles Swanson. “Nothing built with moving parts should be expected to last for thousands of years.”
“Do you guys realise this spaceship is older than the pyramids?” asked Christine.
“Christine, as somebody in charge of our mental wellbeing, don’t you think this was absolutely the worst thing you could say?”
✽✽✽
Fifteen minutes later, we were entering Haillar’s equivalent of a human ship mess.
The room was large for being on a spacefaring vessel, at least two hundred feet long and maybe eighty feet wide. Some forty Haillar were congregating in small groups, the first navy officers we came across since boarding the ship. They looked quite similar to the Sen’Haillar who hosted us after Endeavour’s loss, obviously military despite their casual outfit.
“How big exactly is this place?” asked Hank. “I mean, how big is the ship, not the officer’s mess?”
“Big enough to accommodate a few thousand adepts,” responded a voice behind us.
I turned and saw a middle-aged Haillar entering the mess hall immediately after us.
“I’m Amon Sen’Diessa, First Pilot on The Valliant Heart. On behalf of the crew, welcome to our ship! I just finished my shift so, while having a tea, I can join your brief and answer a few questions.”
Serrruin picked a table and made himself comfortable on a low stool surprisingly well suited to his unusual physique. I’ve noticed the oddly different seating arrangements at various tables, and now it all made perfect sense. The hall could accommodate several different species, most likely any Dominion races. Luckily, our build being close to the Haillars’, we could fit quite well around our guide, seated on standard chairs. The pilot joined us carrying a cup of foul-smelling tea.
“You mentioned this ship is a swarm carrier. Does this mean it carries a complement of ‘in system’ fighters?”
“Yes, in a broad sense. The ship is a collection of modules built around a central core. This hall is such a module. Your apartments are one, too. Our mobile fighting units are specialised detachable modules that can be combined in several ways. Multiple modules can be configured into an independent frigate, with a crew of dozens, or even a battleship with a crew of hundreds. Stand-alone units are operated by a two-person crew and act like swarms of screening flyers, or fighters, the way I was told that you humans call them.”
“So, am I correct to surmise that each Haillar swarm carrier is, in fact, an entire mobile task force, complete with escort units and squadrons of fighters?”
“I’m unfamiliar with the term,” responded the Pilot. “If I correctly understand your question, yes, each carrier can become a small fleet. Or a moderately large fleet, depending on its size.”
“This is exactly what happened at the end of this Siege”, chimed in Serrruin. “The Haillar carriers decomposed into a sizable fleet, overwhelming the wounded Scourge station.”
He was referring to the third station, the one that outlasted Ellandra’s trap. What about the other two, blasted to cinders in a matter of seconds? A sensible question I felt entitled to ask.
“On Aldeea, we’ve seen eka based weapons and planetary defences. Yet nobody was willing to discuss them.”
“It is no secret that all Haillar weapons and shields use eka,” responded the cat. “Not only that but if I understand correctly, most of the ship’s other systems are using it too. How exactly this works is a question only the Haillar can answer.”
Amon Sen’Diessa didn’t seem perturbed by his ally’s inquisitive statements. He was actually more open to discussing the topic than I expected, though his explanations seemed downright exotic.
“What we call eka are the binding forces that hold the universe together. We can influence them in various ways, either directly or in conjunction with other technologies. This entire ship is based on the application of eka.”
He was referring to some kind of force field manipulation. Though I wasn’t a physicist, I was familiar with the unified field theories, and it looked to me the Haillar had found a way to tap into advanced field physics. A way neither us, nor any of the other Dominion races, could easily understand and duplicate. Not for lack of trying, if Serrruin was to be believed, and I had no reason to think otherwise.
✽✽✽
Twenty-four hours later, we were gathered in our module’s sitting area, comparing notes and feeling we have made no progress.
“This is so frustrating”, complained Christine. “They let us roam the ship, they even gave us a tour of the bridge, and we are nowhere closer to understand how this behemoth works.”
“The bridge was the oddest thing. It looked nothing like a starship command centre. For all I could tell, their active shift seemed to do nothing else but meditate staring at their holo-displays.”
The Navy had high expectations from our voyage, and Commander Koslowsky felt he was directly responsible for meeting them. Not surprisingly, he was regarding the current dead end as a personal failure.
“The one thing we can say for sure is that, as opposed to Endeavour’s jumps, the Haillar seem to pass through their gates instantaneously. Unless we are subject to an elaborate and, to be fair, unnecessary hoax, their space travel seems to work the same way as their planet-side bridges do. It’s a different application of the same technology.”
“Do you mean the strange eka thing? To me, it seems more like magic than advanced technology,” declared Charles.
I couldn’t resist poking him, though I must admit that after Liz’s death annoying the biologist wasn’t nearly as much fun.
“Charles mate, you are the last person I would have suspected to believe in fairy tales. I’m sure you are familiar with Clarke's First Law. To a primitive being, any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic.”
Charles loved to impress by quoting classics. He used to open his pronouncements with a quote whenever he had the chance as if a piece of random wisdom would somehow rub off his words and mutate them into immovable truths.
Ignoring my malicious comment, the biologist continued unperturbed:
“They must have some sort of psychical powers allowing them to manipulate force fields. There can be no other explanation. You’ve seen the officers controlling the ship while being in a trance. More to the point, you’ve seen Ellandra wielding godlike powers against the Scourge.”
“How about some type of implant, an AI interface of some sort? The concept was advanced a while ago. If I remember correctly, UNSA even attempted to develop something like this for the first extrasolar missions twenty years ago.”
“I’m familiar with the program,” continued Charles. “It doesn’t confer the subject any mysterious psi power, it was simply a faster interface with ship’s controls. Error-prone like hell, but that might have only been the inept execution. Nevertheless, this is something different, for the Haillar systems are based on this eka. We aren’t only talking about the ability to remotely operate the ship. Magic, for lack of a better world, seems to be the very foundation of their technology.”
The entire hypothesis was insane. The idea that our hosts could somehow mix hardcore technology with some form of mental field manipulation was the staff of fiction. Yet, back on Aldeea, Charles had been the first one to grasp the star-faring nature of the Haillar civilisation, starting from nothing else but a sample of fertiliser. If this was even remotely true then, despite physical looks, the aliens were even more different to us than we ever imagined.
“I hope you are wrong”, concluded Koslowski. “Because if you are right, then this trip is a waste of time and we’d stand no chance in hell to learn something useful about the pixies.”
I wouldn’t define the purpose of our trip in such narrow terms. However, if Charles was right, then the Haillar technology was not only millennia ahead of ours but also completely unattainable.
CHAPTER 7 (ELIZABETH)
We march in step into the Council’s atrium.
After an entire morning spent under mistress Rovalda’s tender mercies, I feel like an artistic construct ready to fall apart at the gentlest breeze. My face is adorned with golden swirls akin to our normal markings. The eyes are shaded and look larger, as makeup tries to compensate for the differences between human and Haillar features. The attendants applied a pink gloss to my lips, making them pale, a shade naturally belonging to people such as Favriel Sen’Galahad, the White Queen.
But the biggest challenge was my hair, creatively arranged into the semblance of an akuna mane. I haven’t been so over-polished since eight thousand cycles ago, when the jalhuan empire merged with the Dominion and Asturien Sen’Vollar was in charge of the proceedings. Same as now, come to think about it.
I’m flanked by Pharor and Zorbin and followed by the customary squad of four household guards. Our steps cause echoes in the atrium's vastness.
The hall is huge, I’ve seen it hosting gatherings of fifty-thousand people with room to spare. Isolated groups make their way to the Conclave room or spend a moment to renew old acquaintances. I see Reith with her advisors patiently listening to some planetary official’s long-winded speech, not far from the amphitheatre’s entrance.
My presence causes a few long stares, but far less than I expected. Rovalda has made sure I resembled a Haillar as much as possible, and Reith’s classic dress adds to that image. There is nothing that can mask my stature, though. I look indeed like a Dominion queen, but the scaled-up version. I usually couldn’t care less, except for my sister’s worries. Would my human appearance count against my plans to place Earth under Dominion’s shield? Under my direct protection.
“Ashar Sen’Dorien, my dear queen! It’s a pleasure seeing you again, so truly exotic.”
The greeting belongs to Maurien Sen’Diessa, the dashing Advisor of the Spirit Queen and my long-time admirer. I’m the first to admit I’m not on good terms with Faun Sen’Diessa most of the time and having Maurien mediate between us during the last fifteen cycles has been an incredible stroke of luck. He joins our group together with an unknown adept, bearing the symbol of Darkness.
Human Page 5
