by Ivan Kal
“Yes, we were told that the devices on their ears translate our words to theirs, and at the beginning of the conversation she would wait for a while before speaking.”
“I assume that she was listening to the translation.” Sumia said.
“Yes, but at the end she didn’t wait at all, she responded to your words immediately.” Isani said.
Sumia thought back and was shocked that she didn’t realize it.
“What do you think that means?”
“It means that these humans are not what they appear to be.” Isani said cryptically.
Chapter Eighteen
Sanctuary
Tomas awoke to a beeping sound, for a disoriented moment he searched the room for the source of the beeping, and then he realized that it was coming from his imp. He sat up in his bed, his movements waking the person lying next to him.
“Mmm… What is it?” Seo-yun asked.
“Shh- go back to sleep, it’s just Nadia calling.” Tomas said.
Seo-yun turned away. Tomas closed his eyes and answered the call.
“Tomas, I’m sorry I woke you, but we need you right now.” Tomas heard Nadia’s voice say in his head.
“It’s three in the morning, can't this wait a few more hours?” He asked via the imp, his thoughts transmitting via the imp to Nadia’s where hers would then reproduce Tomas’s voice in her head.
“I’m afraid not Tomas. We got a message from the Traveler. I’m at the palace, in the east meeting room, Laura and Elias are on the way.” She said, and after a moment of hesitation, before Tomas could say anything she continued. “We need Seo-yun too.” She said hesitantly. Tomas and Seo-yun didn’t try to hide their relationship, but they have not made it public yet. Tomas sighed. “Alright, we’ll be there in 10 minutes.” He then closed the channel not waiting for a response.
“Seo-yun. Wake up, we need to get up.”
“What?” She asked sleepily.
“Nadia called for a meeting. There was a message from the Traveler. I told her that we would be there in ten.” Tomas said. At that she woke up fully and looked at him.
“Both of us?” Seo-yun said. She immediately grasped what that meant.
“Yes.”
“Well… Okay then.” She sighed and got up.
Ten minutes later they entered the palace meeting room. The rest were already there sitting at the table. As they took their seats no one commented on them coming together. Not even a small quip at their expense, that told Tomas that things were serious.
“Tell us.” Tomas said.
Nadia gestured to Laura, who sat straighter in her chair and took a deep breath and started speaking.
“Traveler sent back a message, they have arrived at the planet Nuva, and Ship Master Kisaragi Hana met with their leader, one Lanai Sumia.” Laura said, the name of the alien she said slowly.
“The meeting did not go as we expected.” Laura continued. “Their leader basically dropped a bomb after a bomb on us. Starting with the reveal that their race, the Nel are a part of a Consortium of races, five in total.”
Tomas didn’t even try to conceal his shock. The Union databases didn’t say anything about that, but then they came through here thousands of years ago, and didn’t really stay to explore the neighborhood.
He looked at Laura, noticing her grim expression. “That’s not all.” He said.
Laura shook her head. “Not even close. The five races combined controlled 18 worlds. All much more developed than the one Traveler encountered. Nuva is a relatively young colony some thirty years old. But the worst news are that the Consortium is at war.” Laura said, and before anyone could comment she added. “Was at war.”
“What do you mean?” Elias asked.
“I meant that they have already lost, or will soon, it makes no difference.”
“Did we learn anything about the people they are at war with?” Seo-yun asked.
“Yes. They gave us all the information on them. They wanted to warn us. The race that attacked them is called Sowir, they were part of their Consortium, the last race to be added, after a some kind of misunderstanding at the beginning. I didn’t yet have a chance to study the information closely. But what I did learn was that the Sowir joined the Consortium, expanded rapidly and when they felt they were strong enough attacked the other members. Killing or enslaving the populations of the worlds they attacked and settling their own. From what the Nel said, only a handful of worlds still stands. And they have no hope, the Sowir are too strong. Nuva is on its own, the Nel home world has abandoned them.” Laura looked around the table. “The data also helped us identify the ships that attacked Voyager. It was the Sowir.” Everyone remained silent digesting the information that Laura dropped on them.
“Voyager encountered them some eleven light years from here, eight from Nuva.” Elias said. Laura nodded. “They are close, and are expanding to the systems not previously held by Consortium.” She said.
Tomas closed his eyes. He brought his people here to be safe and now it looked like he just brought them into even greater danger.
“They will find us eventually.” Tomas said certainly. No one tried to deny his words, they all knew they were the truth.
“We could have years, the nebula protects us.” Seo-yun said.
“Even with our fabricators we can’t hope to outpace the production rates of dozen worlds, our mining operations can’t keep up. Not in a while at least.” Nadia said.
“We could go back.” Tomas said slowly. The room looked shocked that he would suggest something like that, and for a moment, no one said anything until Seo-yun turned sternly towards him.
“No! We are not going back to Earth, this is our home now, and we are not going to run away again.” Seo-yun said. Tomas looked at her.
“If we stay, people will die. That was the reason we came here, so that no one else dies for the stupidity of others.” Tomas said.
“And you succeeded. We are independent, but that doesn’t mean that we will give our home to anyone. We will fight for this world, even if it means some of us must die. Your people know that you want to keep us safe. But you need to understand that we are still free to make our own choices. And I can tell you right now that we will not run away again.” Seo-yun said and the others nodded firmly.
Tomas’s hand raised to his chest unconsciously, trying to touch something that was no longer there. After a panicked second he remembered that he left it behind, and that he had made a promise to Seo-yun, to himself and to his people to lead. He sighed, rubbed his hands over his face and then looked around the room. He looked to the ceiling for a moment steeling his resolve, and then he nodded firmly. He looked to Laura. “Did the message say anything else?”
“The Nel have asked for our help, what they need they didn’t say. But they know that they don’t have much time, they might want to trade for any tech we have, hoping that perhaps we have something that can aid them. Other than that, there isn’t much we can do. We don’t know when the Sowir will attack them, and even if we learn immediately there is nothing we can do. At our top hyperspace speeds we can get there in nine months tops if we push it. I assume of course that the attack comes after our ships are ready, and that the attack is something that we can handle. But even that won’t be enough, the Sowir have more ships than us, they will just send more. If their ships are on the level of those that attacked Voyager, our new ones will be superior. But we can still get outnumbered.”
“Nine months… In that time they can kill everything on the planet.” Elias said slowly in his calm manner.
“Perhaps…” Seo-yun said wondering.
“Seo-yun?” Tomas asked. She came out of her thoughts and focused on Tomas, then looked around the room. “I might have a way for us to get there a lot faster, the tests have been successful, a few more days perhaps. But in the end it still won’t matter, they could send hundreds of ships.”
“I don’t think that they will, from the data it looks like the Sowir are ext
remely utilitarian. They will send just enough to succeed. If they fail, then the next time they will send more, and so forth. They have won almost every engagement with the Consortium, but they also had a lot of losses. The Consortium has made them pay in blood every time their forces met” Laura said.
Tomas sighed. “We will need to discuss this a lot more. But for now I believe that we need to expand our military even more, both the Army and Fleet. And fast.” The others nodded grimly.
“As for Nel, for now tell them that we are willing to offer aid, and start the process, see what they want and need. Captain Kisaragi already revealed our FTL comms, so there is no way around that.” Tomas said.
“Are we sure we want to do this? Help them I mean, we could build up our defenses. And who knows, perhaps we might even remain hidden.” Nadia said.
No one answered her for a few minutes, everyone struggling with their own thoughts. It was Elias, who finally answered.
“There is no way for us to survive long enough to match a race that holds dozen worlds. If we had the population of Earth perhaps. But we are millions, and they probably billions, perhaps trillions. The only way we can keep ourselves safe is to keep them busy away from here, until a time when we can match them. Aiding these aliens will allow us that which we need the most, time.” He looked around the table. “And I would hope that our first decision regarding a friendly alien race isn’t leaving them to die, when we have the means to help.”
“You are right old friend. We left Earth because we didn’t want to be like them, I guess that fate wants to put our resolve to the test.” Tomas said. “Alright, inform your people, start making plans for expansion of our ship and weapon building facilities. I need to have a press conference and let the people know. We’ll meet at midday again. But I’m not committing to anything right now, I need to think some more.” Everyone got up from their seats and left the room in a hurry. Tomas sat for a few more minutes, thinking about how to ask his people to fight for an alien race they didn’t even know existed a few months ago.
Chapter Nineteen
Hades shipbuilding facility – Sanctuary system
Adrian walked down the corridors of his new ship, it was not yet named, that was Adrian’s job. He still couldn’t figure out a good name for the ship, he hoped that by seeing it, walking through it, he would get an idea, but for now there was nothing. Iris on the other hand had plenty suggestions, although her ideas were… Well not good. Adrian made her stop when she tried to convince him that “Great hammer shaped beast” was a perfectly good name. Adrian arrived on the ship two weeks ago, and has made a point of walking around the ship every day. Meeting with the crew, those that had already arrived. New crew members are arriving daily. When Adrian arrived the ship had only 150 crew members, 40 were security, with 40 more scheduled to arrive any day now. There were also around 80 techs, still working on the finishing touches on the ship’s systems, but they have all left a day ago. Now the crew count had risen up to 500, with more coming every day. Originally the crew was to arrive spread out over a period of one month, to allow them all to settle leisurely. But ever since the announcement from Tomas Klein, about the hostile alien race in our neighborhood and the request for help from the Nel, everyone’s leave was canceled. The rest of the new ships were already crewed and out in the system doing various maneuvers, all save for the two dreadnoughts. And they were scheduled to join the rest in one week. Each crew member that arrived was put through accelerated course on the ship. Adrian just hoped that they had enough time to get familiar with the ship. Adrian was privy to information that wasn’t yet released to the others. Laura told him that they had a new way of space travel that could send them to the Nel system in 2 days. But they wouldn’t go unless the system was attacked, and not even that was certain, they were still debating whether they will help or not.
Adrian stopped to greet a group of new cadets that had just arrived. He introduced himself and ask them how their trip was, making small talk, before continuing on his way to his quarters. He tried to at least always greet everyone on his crew. Adrian found that the life on the ship was good for him, everything was faster somehow, and he had less time to think about Beth. He did learn however that she got the command of a battleship in the Second Fleet. Adrian’s routine was simple, he got up then went for morning exercise in the ship training bay. It was now occupied by the army personnel, but they welcomed him, and trained with him, even sparing. Then he would go to breakfast, then review the reports from his High Prime Paul on the status of various matters on the ship. Then lunch, followed by his daily walk around the ship. Lastly, he spent the time before dinner in the simulators, or relaxing in his quarters.
Today he planned on simply relaxing in his quarters reading a book. When he arrived at the door to the Ship Masters quarters, he sent the authorization codes and the door slid open. Doors to the quarters on the ship all had their own authorization codes, which their occupant set. They could be transmitted via implant or entered manually on the pad. Adrian entered the room, and was immediately greeted by a rush of small feet and barking/yowling sounds. He got to his knees and picked up two little balls of fur.
“Hello to you too.” He said, nuzzling their snouts gently. That produced another series of sounds from the two wolions. Another person came through the door to the side.
“Thank you again for looking after them while I’m busy.” Adrian said.
“It’s no problem Ship Master.” Goran said. Goran Baczewski was Adrian’s steward. He was an army chef back on Earth with the Concordis army, now he was in charge of Adrian’s quarters.
Adrian lowered the two cubs to the ground and stood up, immediately they started cozying up to his feet. Looking down Adrian wondered about bringing them with him, everything since he found them seemed blurry to him. He took them to the veterinarian hoping to find someone to take care of them, now that their mother was dead. The veterinarian, who was also an “expert” in Sanctuary fauna, immediately showed interest in them. He took their blood and made sure that they were healthy, as much as he could without preforming more invasive tests. Based on the blood test and the contents of their waste (they peed all over Adrian’s jacket) he managed to synthetize all the necessary supplements that the cubs need to ingest daily in one of the new bio fabricators. After they were fed and asleep Adrian asked the veterinarian what would happen to them. He was told that they would be kept in captivity, studied daily so that they could learn more about wolions, as they were forbidden from catching one from the wild. That answer did not sit well with him at all. Adrian tried to convince him to give them a home or release them back into the wild, but his words fell on deaf ears. In the end Adrian decided that he would take them. The man tried to stop him, saying how Adrian had no right to them, threatening to call a security squad. Adrian responded that he had right of being the one who saved their lives, and as such they were his responsibility. Finally, when the man didn’t back down, Adrian was forced to call Laura and get her to pull strings and get the man to back off. He didn’t like to use his connection to Laura, but he felt justified in doing so. After a long conversation with someone over the comm the man backed down, and let Adrian leave and take the cubs. Before he left, Adrian took the “recipe” for the food stuff the cubs needed and went out of his way to acquire one of the new bio fabricators, which were not yet widely released. In theory they worked the same as the other kind, except that they used bio matter.
He brought the cubs with him, with them bonding to him immediately. Their eyes were closed for the first two days, and as soon as they opened, the two little beasts started running around Adrian’s apartment, and growing fast. Then the announcement from the fleet came, and Adrian was forced to go to his ship. After a lot of pleading he managed to convince Laura to let him take them. She didn’t really have any grounds to deny him, Fleet personnel were allowed pets on the ships, provided they stay in their quarters. Of course that rule was made with Earth animals in mind. Looking down on
them, he saw how big they got. When he found them they were big enough to barely fit in Adrian’s hand. Now they were the size of a small Earth house cat. And they were smart, to Adrian it looked like they understood him. He knew that they probably needed open spaces, to run and hunt. He planned on taking them with him on runs in the mornings, as for hunting, there he couldn’t really do anything. He knew that they were carnivores, and people in Olympus mainly ate plants, vegetables and fruits they brought from Earth, and synthetic meat, they have also started experimenting with Sanctuary plants. There was still natural meat, though not a lot, they brought very few animals from Earth. But the trend is slowly dying off with the advances in synthetic meat. It was too much bother for something that tasted the same. So Adrian made sure that his pantry was stocked with meat, and that he had enough bio matter to fabricate anything that the cubs need.
The two little beasts were chewing on Adrian’s boots, so he instructed them that that was a no-no.
“Akash! Sora! Stop that.” He said sternly. The cubs turned their faces up towards Adrian, then moved backwards a few steps and sat on their hind legs, looking attentively at him. Adrian thought that he named them appropriately. The female was Sora which in Japanese meant sky, and the male was Akash, meaning sky in Indian. He named them because of the color of their fur, soft blue, like the color of Earth sky. Looking down on them Adrian marveled at how quickly he bonded to them.
Adrian turned to his steward. “Have they eaten?”
“Not yet, I was just about to feed them when you came in.” Goran answered.
“Alright, I’ll take care of it. I would like a cup of tea though.” Adrian said.
“Of course.” Goran said.
After feeding the cubs, he entered his study retrieved his datapad and sat in his reading chair. The two cubs followed, jumping up on his lap and making themselves comfortable. Adrian brought his hand down to pet them for a while, making sure that each got the same amount of his attention. Then, when they fell asleep, he opened a book on the datapad and started reading. He liked to read on a datapad, even though he could just read through the implant. Goran entered the study silently and brought Adrian’s cup of tea. Adrian thanked him with a nod, and started reading.
