by Yakov Merkin
“Reinforce the fleets in key systems,” he ordered. “And devote more resources to tracking enemy movement. I do not want to lose any more systems, however minor. The High Lord does not tolerate failure.” Though with any luck he won’t have the chance to tolerate these defeats.
“Understood, Executor,” Keeneye replied, then terminated the transmission.
Darkclaw reverted the command deck to its normal configuration as he ordered the teams designated to accompany him to the Reizan’Tvay facility to gather in the main shuttle bay. He had fought hard to keep this system. Now all he needed was something to make that fight worthwhile.
* * *
“We are in,” the Tyrannodon in charge of one of the engineering teams announced just before the doors to the abandoned Reizan’Tvay facility began to slide open. This facility, by the brief descriptions contained in the previously found outpost, was a true research facility, and far larger. However, it had proven immune to scanning, so they would have to find out how large it was first hand.
Darkclaw signaled for the team to make way, and entered the facility first, followed closely by Lisar and Kalviss. It was highly unlikely that there would be any dangers inside, but regardless, Darkclaw meant to be the first to find whatever they did find. The Reizan’Tvay had created both him and the High Lord, and if there was to be a way for him to do what needed to be done, to ensure that life in the galaxy continued, it would come from the Reizan’Tvay.
Once he was inside the facility, Darkclaw could tell that he was standing in a long hallway, despite the lack of light. His armor’s display adjusted, shifting to its night vision setting.
“Can we confirm if this facility still has a functioning power source?” Darkclaw asked. They could navigate the facility with the aid of equipment, but they would need actual light in order to best peruse its contents.
“I’m getting a power reading,” the lieutenant in command of the engineering team said, “but it’s very weak. We had to use a portable generator to open the doors.”
“Understood,” Darkclaw replied. “Do what you can to get light into this facility; I don’t care if we use their power, our power, or if we simply bring portable lighting equipment in.”
“Of course, Executor,” the officer replied immediately, and Darkclaw heard new orders being given as he continued walking deeper into the facility. He attempted a scan with his armor’s multitool, and was pleasantly surprised—still something he was not used to feeling—when it worked. The outer walls must have been what had blocked the earlier scanning attempts. The scan revealed that the facility, while it would not be considered large when compared to the Alliance facility on Daukar, was still fairly large, roughly 30,000 square meters in size. There would be a great deal to find there.
“This is incredible,” Lisar said. “I can’t believe no one ever found this place before.”
“No one was searching for it,” Darkclaw replied.
“They thought uss priimitiives,” Kalviss remarked. “Sso they hid thee facilityy as wee hide oour own from aniimals.” At least they were interested, and perceptive.
Darkclaw continued to walk deeper into the facility, leaving Nayasar, Felivas, and his own forces behind. Once they had figured out a suitable way to light the building they would rejoin him. First, Darkclaw made his way to the far end of the building, where there were a number of smaller rooms grouped together, likely the living area for the facility’s staff. Perhaps he would find another dead Reizan’Tvay, along with any messages they had left behind.
Unfortunately, there did not prove to be much of worth. Each room was as sparsely filled as the one in the outpost on Xearin, only containing a handful of small, likely personal items and notes. There were no bodies to be found, and no hints of anything that would be found in the research laboratories.
“Where do you think they went?” Lisar asked.
“Diied. Or baack where they caame from,” Kalviss replied, again showing surprising insight.
“As good a guess as any,” Darkclaw said with a nod.
After checking through each room a second time, Darkclaw made his way out of the living area. From the reports he’d received, his teams had found a way to provide power to the station’s generator. He paused briefly to admire a relief on one of the walls that looked almost exactly like one of those in the High Lord’s throne room on the Hudecar, then rejoined the others. “Nothing of use in the living areas,” he stated. “Though a team should be sent there to gather a number of small items I discovered. Personal objects, most likely.” Certainly of no use, though they would have been interesting to examine, under other circumstances. The bodyguards showed more scientific curiosity than he had.
Felivas, who had been standing alongside Nayasar, apart from the Tyrannodons, nodded. “I’m still amazed no one’s discovered a facility this large after all this time. This moon’s been explored.”
Darkclaw shrugged, and answered him as he had Lisar. “They were not looking for this place, and it is scan shielded and camouflaged. The Reizan’Tvay were here to observe and study, not to make direct contact. We only found it because we were given its location.”
“I’m still not clear on why we’re needed here. You seem perfectly capable of managing this search on your own,” Nayasar said, her tone only slightly venomous. It was a small improvement, but Darkclaw was quickly growing exasperated, and unable to simply shake it off.
“Because, Grand Admiral, we are running out of time. At any point I could be discovered, and regardless, the Galactic Alliance could fall in weeks. Did you forget what will happen to you once the High Lord no longer needs you?” he said as quietly as possible, but also with force. He had tried to sound angry, but he was more tired than angry, and it surely showed.
“Furthermore,” he added even more quietly, “you will better be able to search unnoticed by the High Lord. I need you to be capable of searching a facility such as this on your own. For that you’ll need first-hand experience, along with the tools I will supply.”
“Executor,” a Tyrannodon said, and Darkclaw nearly jumped. They hadn’t heard what he had said, had they?
“What is it?” he asked as he attempted to switch his voice back to its emotionless tone. If the officer noticed anything amiss, he made no mention of it.
“The portable generators, Executor. They have been successfully connected; our technology was fairly compatible with that of the Saviors.”
The Saviors. How long had it been since Darkclaw had thought of the Reizan’Tvay in that manner? Despite everything, the Tyrannodons did still owe them a great debt. And it made sense that their technology was compatible. “Very good. Activate them now.”
The officer nodded, and relayed the order. Seconds later, there was an audible buzz, and the facility came to life, bright white lights illuminating the room they stood in, previously unnoticed panels on the walls snapped on, green indicator lights and screens coming up.
Then an alarm began to blare, and red lights began to strobe throughout the room. “Warning! Unauthorized entry detected! Initiating first response protocol.” A computerized voice blared in a Reizan’Tvay dialect close enough to the Tyrannodon language for Darkclaw to understand, though it was plainly obvious what was happening.
Darkclaw had his only weapon, a heavy pistol, out in a second. “Ready defensive positions!” he ordered. He had known this was a possibility and should have been more prepared. Hopefully this would not doom them all.
As his forces scrambled about; bodyguards taking up positions in front of Darkclaw and Tyrannodons building makeshift cover positions out of crates and equipment and taking aim at the still empty hallway ahead, Darkclaw’s armor notified him of a spike in energy levels within the room. What if the defense mechanism was something they could not fight, such as a sealed off room, electrified floor, or worse?
A few seconds later, a holographic image of a Reizan’Tvay appeared in the doorway that led to the rest of the facility, and began to walk toward
Darkclaw. A needless aesthetic animation, but it made the figure seem all the more real.
It stared at Darkclaw for several seconds, then at the Felinaris, and it smiled. The alarms abruptly stopped blaring, the strobing light deactivated. “This is a welcome surprise, Project Tyrannodon: Specimen Eight,” it said to Darkclaw. “And more surprising,” it continued, its gaze turned to Nayasar, Felivas, and Lisar, “three members of Controlled Observation Species One, and one member of Project Uplift Falcon” it said in standard. “The splicing seems to have worked well,” it muttered.
“Who are you?” Darkclaw demanded in standard.
“Oh. My apologies. I am called Caretaker, a Limited Intelligence System, designed to continue ongoing experiments in the absence of personnel, maintain this facility, and greet any who happen upon it, as you have. And I should apologize for the welcome. You were never in any danger; it was a continuation of a long-running experiment on stresses, and how new arrivals react to potential threats—unfortunately not very often. Additionally, I have been ordered to test the capabilities of the Project Tyrannodon specimens, Executor.”
It knew who he was? Darkclaw had an unpleasant feeling that this “Caretaker” was going to be at least a difficult as the message he had found on Xearin. The welcome and revelation that it had been part of a study was not a good beginning.
“You know who I am?” Darkclaw asked.
“Correct,” Caretaker replied. “This facility was one of those that monitored your status while in hibernation, and our sensor relays and probes have been gathering data on you and your kind ever since you became spaceborne; the implementation of the protocol that dictated initiating contact with you was delayed due to lack of processing power. Information gathering and maintaining this facility took priority. It is unfortunate that the staff has not yet returned. They had been looking forward to this day; you have performed remarkably well thus far.”
Darkclaw decided not to bring up the fact that he was being treated as an inanimate laboratory specimen. He could question the limited intelligence system at a later date. He needed something useful now. “What happened to the facility’s staff? What were they working on here?”
“Present location unknown. When contact was lost with the Empire for several years, the staff elected to depart temporarily to travel back and re-establish contact. I cannot speculate as to why they have not returned. They would not abandon their work; doing so would be punishable by death. But my programming does not allow me to speculate,” it said. Darkclaw had his own theories. Likely the staff had been running low on supplies, and had abandoned their posts to find suitable supplies elsewhere. Or perhaps they had been killed.
“What projects did they leave behind?” Darkclaw asked again.
“They left behind all observation equipment, and tasked me with overseeing the ongoing experiments. Most of the research projects they took with them, however, to continue work during their travels.”
Of course they would, Darkclaw realized in frustration. Once again, the Reizan’Tvay were proving to be helpful up until it came to giving him what he needed. “They left some research projects behind?”
“Correct. Laboratory Eight was left sealed when they departed.”
“What is in Laboratory Eight?”
“I was not made privy to that information. My programming did not deal with the research projects.”
“Unseal the lab,” Darkclaw commanded. Now the question was whether the Caretaker would comply.
“Complying,” it said a few seconds later. “Protocol dictates that I cooperate fully with specimens from Project Tyrannodon in the absence of the project overseers.”
Finally! Something going right. “Thank you,” Darkclaw said. “Could you guide us to the laboratory?”
“Certainly. Follow.” Caretaker began to walk, in midair, away from Darkclaw and down the hallway.
Darkclaw turned to the Tyrannodon engineering teams. “Scour the facility,” he ordered. “Take whatever we can, including the limited intelligence system, if possible.” Darkclaw doubted that any of the ongoing experiments or studies would prove useful in stopping the High Lord, but there was the future to think of, should they succeed. And besides, the High Lord would want everything. He stood still for a moment, manually placing key thoughts and memories into the innocence chip—it had proven to be far more taxing and difficult than he had hoped, then began to follow Caretaker, with Nayasar and Felivas close behind him.
“So, what do you think it meant when it called us ‘Controlled Observation Species’?” Nayasar asked Felivas.
“Most likely it meant that your species was one of those that the Reizan’Tvay did not directly influence or uplift in some way,” Darkclaw said without looking behind him. The limited intelligence system’s words seemed clear to him.
“That does make a lot of sense, given our differences with much of the rest of the galaxy,” Felivas commented. There was a long pause. “You still won’t say where you’ve been?” he asked Nayasar.
“None of your business,” Nayasar snapped. “Nor yours, Tyrannodon,” she added needlessly. Darkclaw was aware that she was still upset with him. He understood that. What he didn’t understand was her distraction. It was as though her focus was not longer on the war, but on something else.
“Here we are,” stated Caretaker, drawing Darkclaw out of his thoughts. “The room is unsealed. I am programmed to request that you leave its contents as is, but you are free to examine.”
Darkclaw nodded absently, and glanced around the admittedly small laboratory. It was disappointingly small. The chances of finding what he sought were already slim enough; why would they leave something so specific behind? All he saw were a pair of large, complex computer systems, a large work table, and a sealed box suspended by wires above it.
He went first to the box, found its opening mechanism, and opened it, ignoring a terse warning in a higher Reizan’Tvay dialect which, as best he could tell, amounted to “be careful with this”.
It was a small device, maybe a meter long, roughly tube-shaped, with a handle designed for hands smaller than Darkclaw’s and a small protrusion on one end. It almost resembled a short rifle. A weapon. Darkclaw barely dared to hope.
He held the device almost reverently in his hands as he carefully rearranged his thoughts once more, then walked over to the nearer of the two computer systems and activated it. It struggled to come to life, and it surely looked in need of maintenance.
“I though you were tasked to maintain this facility,” Darkclaw said to Caretaker.
“Correct. But I was not permitted to deal with the research labs. Some projects were highly classified. It was not considered proper for a synthetic intelligence as simple as myself to have such access.”
Darkclaw shook his head, but then the computer came to life and immediately began to play an audio message. “I apologize to whichever team finds this. I had to delete all of the project notes in order to ensure that this message survives; Caretaker will not be able to maintain this facility effectively once we are gone. Pay close attention. Our research here was crucial to the Empire’s survival. We were tasked with studying the extra-physical energy that pervades all matter in the universe. Our observations in this galaxy and elsewhere have taught us much about the potential uses and functions of this energy, and we have been working to harness it. Projects Lash and Dragon—though Dragon was not strictly speaking equivalent to Lash—were both successes, so we took the liberty to alter Project Tyrannodon with infusions of the strain of extra-physical energy we have taken to calling void energy.
“If successful, this experiment will create at least one being created entirely of this energy: a nearly unstoppable weapon. But we have learned from past failures that intelligent creations often turn on their own creators, so we were tasked with creating an emergency countermeasure.” Darkclaw felt his heartbeat accelerate.
“Through combining our own technology with additional strains of extra-physical energy
and technology dating back to the time of the Machine Gods, we have constructed a weapon that will disperse gathered extra-physical energy, and in the case of a being comprised of this energy, dissipate it completely. For security’s sake, we have taken all of the data on how to construct such a weapon, but we have left the prototype behind in the event that contact is re-established with the Empire and new staff is assigned here.” Darkclaw was speechless. They had found it! The weapon they had been looking for!
“As far as we can tell,” the recording continued, “this device is only one of three known ways to destroy such an energy being, the other two being Kirothian metal from the Cassolapsus Galaxy and another being other…” the message trailed off into static as the computer began to fail.
“I need a team in laboratory eight to extract information from a failing computer system,” Darkclaw ordered through his comm unit. He turned to the Felinaris and Kalviss, who were all standing silently. Of course. They hadn’t understood the recording. “We’ve found it!” Darkclaw exclaimed, any remaining attempt at maintaining decorum gone. He was about to go on when he felt an all too familiar presence in his mind. No, not now! He had moments. He hurriedly moved anything possibly incriminating into the innocence chip, and pressed the button that deactivated it.
“Darkclaw,” the High Lord said as the familiar presence touched his mind. “I am pleasantly surprised. You seem to have overcome your… shortcomings.”
“You commanded it, my lord,” Darkclaw replied simply, and mentally. It would not do for the Felinaris and others in the room to know that the High Lord planned to conquer them as well. “But why have you contacted me directly?”
