Star Force: Excalibur (Star Force Universe Book 41)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “You have access to the Urrtren?”

  “Of course, though they are unaware of it.”

  “Do you know what happened to the Hadarak we let go?” she asked boldly, not as a servant would, but a lesser equal…respectful, but not suggesting anything was off limits. If this Zak’de’ron didn’t want to tell her something he wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t ask, for you never knew how much information they would feel like sharing.

  “They destroyed it. The secret of your Uriti has not reached the other Hadarak.”

  “What about couriers?”

  “All were destroyed.”

  “What if it grew another enroute?”

  “It did not. We were there and followed it. No couriers were released prior to the V’kit’no’sat fleet catching up to and destroying it.”

  Kara raised an eyebrow. “Why follow it?”

  “If the V’kit’no’sat did not destroy it, we would have.”

  “Did you see the information we gave to Mak’to’ran?”

  “We did, and I have been told to give credit to Star Force for your decision to preserve the Uriti. We would have destroyed them, but your solution has proved the wiser and given us far more information on the Hadarak than we have ever possessed.”

  “What’s his name?” Kara asked bluntly. “The one who gave me this,” she said, holding up her forearm with the jewel that had been seared into it.

  “That name must not reach the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “You’ve already give me technology and knowledge that cannot reach them, knowing that they’d eventually have at least hints of your existence when they saw me in battle. I will not willingly give them his name, but I would like to know who he is, and who you are.”

  The Zak’de’ron huffed, with a warm blast of air coming down on Kara’s face that she deftly parried with her bioshields so it didn’t move her hair a twitch.

  “You know us well enough, and you are still arrogant. I am not sure if this is wisdom or folly.”

  “I know how powerful you are, but we do have a few advantages over you.”

  “Convince me, little one.”

  “The Uriti’s strength is not ours, only one that we can direct, so I do not count it. I do count how we obtained it, and how we interact with others. You are wise, but only to a point. You live and breathe death in a way that makes you inferior. True superiority is being better, not simply outliving. The last man standing can still be a fool. True superiority is something more. We would rather die doing the right thing than survive by doing the wrong thing. You would not. You see survival as paramount. That is one advantage we have.”

  “Your definition of ‘advantage’ is questionable.”

  “Advantage two…unless you have surpassed all expectations, we heavily outnumber you at the moment.”

  “A temporary advantage, I’ll grant. Continue.”

  “Advantage three…experience. Wherever you came from, you did not build the Zak’de’ron, nor did the other. You are the product of a long line. We are the founders, and we have progressed through so many transitions we have gained a wisdom you will never have. The wisdom of growth. You replicate and make minor advancements. Those who built your civilization are gone, and you cannot draw on their wisdom.”

  “You have formidable adaptational abilities, though most of your success is due to the knowledge you gained from the V’kit’no’sat and us.”

  “Did you expect us to use it so well?”

  “No. You have far exceeded expectations.”

  “And what are your expectations for our survival after the truce?”

  “Minimal. Had the Hadarak been provoked, the attention needed to be applied to them may have spared you, but that is no longer a possibility…nor will we allow you to contact them again. If they are spurred, the galaxy will suffer too great a fate.”

  Kara’s eyes narrowed. “Define ‘spurred.’”

  “They hold most of their strength in reserve, how much even we do not know. Occasionally some of it comes forth, but we fear the response if they know the Uriti exist.”

  “You think they’ll just attack everything?”

  “The Hadarak are unfathomable, despite the information you obtained. We cannot accurately predict their actions, but if they surge their attacks even to the level of the past, the V’kit’no’sat will be hard pressed to hold them.”

  “Their perimeter is too large?”

  “Indeed, though Mak’to’ran has been leading efforts to decrease it.”

  “Is that respect I hear?”

  “It is frustration. We taught them much, and they have forgotten most of it. Mak’to’ran is beginning to rectify that.”

  “Then why not kill him now? Quietly.”

  “Because we are not ready to replace them. And without the V’kit’no’sat, the Hadarak will roam unchallenged. We will have our vengeance, but not at the cost of the galaxy.”

  “How can you fight a war against them and hold the Hadarak back at the same time?”

  “That is our responsibility, not yours. You have to survive before worrying about the Hadarak.”

  “Your name?” Kara reiterated.

  “I am Tew’chor, and my coloration is not an error.”

  Kara frowned, for that was what she had been thinking…then she glanced down at her wrist in horror.

  “You can access my mind through the Vorch’nas?”

  “Yes,” the Zak’de’ron said with a ping of apology.

  “Fuck,” Kara swore with a venom driven by her own incompetence. “I should have taken this thing off long ago.”

  “You have the ability to block access,” Tew’chor noted, highlighting in her mind a particular spot that she’d never noticed before. “You did not have it activated.”

  Kara felt like an idiot, finding and hitting the mental ‘button’ there and feeling the block slip into place as if it were a little status icon on the HUD of her Archon armor.

  “How much did you get?”

  “Everything,” the Zak’de’ron said, knowing what her reaction would be even before she shot the floor with her bioplasma, creating a small puff of vaporized material near her bare feet that would have singed them if not for her Rensiek heat shield, though a few melted spots appeared on her pant leg.

  “Of all the…” she said, turning around and pacing in a circle as she fully grasped how much vital information she’d let the Zak’de’ron steal from her. The trailblazers had given her access to their message board, so she knew everything they were up to, along with most of what Davis was doing.

  “We are not your enemy,” Tew’chor said conciliatorily. “The information will not fall into V’kit’no’sat possession.”

  “It wouldn’t be in yours if I wasn’t a fool,” Kara said, facing him again angrily, though most of it was directed at herself.

  “It was necessary that I take advantage of your weakness.”

  “Why give me this and not tell me how to use it?”

  “If you are worthy you will figure it out, and you have, for the most part, but there are elements you have been completely blind to. You seek abstract exploration while ignoring the physical unless it screams at you. The block is a mechanism all of our Zen’zat possessed. They would lower it in our presence out of respect, but you always had the ability to shield your mind. We do not want blind servants, little one. We want those who are capable.”

  “Do you consider me your servant?”

  “After a fashion, yes, though you do not take orders from us. This we know. However, your objectives mirror our own. That was why Zeno’dor gave you the Vorch’nas.”

  “Zeno’dor,” Kara repeated, working it through her mouth as if she should have recognized it, but didn’t. “And you?”

  “My path did not come from an egg, but from the body of a Les’i’kron,” he said with disgust. “I was able to partially free my mind from the imprisonment of our bastardized race, and when the other Zak’de’ron discovered this t
hey rescued me and restored me to my birthright. I am far older than you, and my size comes from my previous life…as does my coloration. The process of freeing my mind was not an easy one.”

  Kara looked up at him, realizing he was sharing with her things he probably wouldn’t have otherwise, meaning he understood how royally she’d just screwed up and was trying to compensate a bit.

  “Are you going to rescue the others?”

  “We cannot. They are what they are now. I rescued myself enough to be retrievable. The others are beyond help.”

  “Will you kill them?”

  “All V’kit’no’sat must be destroyed.”

  “And that’s why you’re here,” Kara said, understanding. “We didn’t get your permission to take your Rit’ko’sor.”

  “They are no longer ours.”

  “Yes they are,” she argued. “You still see them as your responsibility, and that you have to kill them, otherwise they are running around with knowledge and power you gave them, doing things with it you don’t want. Then again, so are we, so why help us?”

  “You are not V’kit’no’sat, and it was imperative that we know what you intended to do with the Rit’ko’sor. They are treacherous and pose a great danger to you…but as you have noted, you have a great deal of experience with annexation of hostile races. You have never dealt with anything like the Rit’ko’sor. They are advanced beyond the Zen’zat.”

  “We’ve noticed.”

  “Not fully, and there is peril in what you plan, but also great opportunity. One that we wish you to succeed in.”

  “I thought you wanted them dead?”

  “The hatchlings you have are not Rit’ko’sor. They are Raptors, and not under our death mark. Those Rit’ko’sor that have chosen to join you for the sake of their own vengeance against the V’kit’no’sat can never fully be trusted. But if they seek combat to the death, and remain under your command, we are willing to release them from our death mark. We will never forgive them for their betrayal, but they betrayed the other betrayers, and that pleases us to a limited extent. If they wish to continue that futile redemption as part of Star Force, we will relinquish responsibility of them to you.”

  “So you kill V’kit’no’sat while we destroy V’kit’no’sat. Notice the difference?”

  “I do. Your methods are not our own, but they can be effective,” he said as a piece of one of the rings on his toes broke off and flew into the air in front of Kara, then transformed into another clear jewel that headed for her wrist.

  “Whoa there,” she said, telekinetically grabbing and halting its approach. The first time she had no defense against the melding, but she’d come far since then and wasn’t going to let him stick another one on her.

  “It is an upgrade to what you currently possess, and with it comes our full knowledge of the Rit’ko’sor…more than you obtained from the V’kit’no’sat. In order to convert your enemy, you must know your enemy, and we know the Rit’ko’sor better than they know themselves, for we were the ones that uplifted and shaped their civilization into an asset. If you wish to do the same, using your methods, you would be wise to study our methods and utilize what of it you desire.”

  “Why another Vorch’nas simply for information?”

  “It’s not just information. It is an upgrade.”

  “I…” she said, about to claim ignorance, but memories started to come forth that she’d never encountered before.

  “Your knowledge must be prodded, little one. The same goes for your Vorch’nas. You now have the ability to shield your thoughts from me, and there is no override I possess. You are no longer a security risk.”

  “Unless you’re lying.”

  “If I am, it is of no relevance, for I have already copied your memories. You have nothing more for me to steal.”

  Kara growled, but he had a point. She looked at the floating jewel, now knowing it to be the components for a level 2 Vorch’nas that few Zen’zat had ever earned.

  “Do I deserve that, or are you just being generous?”

  “Your path is a wayward one, but your deeds warrant it.”

  “Very well,” she said, holding up her arm and releasing her Lachka fields. The clear jewel flew up to her left arm and touched beneath the other. Kara felt a burning that she knew was coming, but it passed quickly and the new jewel melded into her existing Vorch’nas…with the new combined version just as clear, but stretching from her wrist all the way up to her elbow.

  As it connected she felt a prodding on her mechanical block, which was Tew’chor requesting access. As he had pointed out, she had nothing left to hide, so she relinquished the block and felt a rush of new instructions as he showed her many things, most of which focused on the wealth of Rit’ko’sor knowledge she now had access to.

  She’d been expecting notes, but what the Zak’de’ron had given her was essentially a database of everything Rit’ko’sor that contained far more information than she could ever have imagined.

  “You see now, Kara?” he asked, finally using her name.

  “I do,” she said, light winded from the mental effort.

  “If you are to die, we would have you kill as many V’kit’no’sat as possible,” he added. “I personally wish we could strike Itaru when they are busy fighting you, but we are not ready and will not be so within your lifetime. We cannot reveal ourselves until the time is right, and that time will be too late to save you.”

  “I understand.”

  “No, you do not, and you cannot. I tell you this because you are worthy allies. Inferior, for the most part, but worthy.”

  “You see no chance of us surviving?”

  “None worth speaking of, unless the V’kit’no’sat have become truly stupid. They cannot ignore you any longer. The Uriti made sure of that, and the Rit’ko’sor have sealed their wrath. I would recommend you expand your far rim operations. If you spread beyond Shangri-La they will never be able to find you all.”

  Kara’s gut clenched at the mention of the ultra secret backup system, but something else caught her attention.

  “Why didn’t you do the same?”

  “We did, but all our colonies were tracked down and destroyed.”

  “How?”

  “They were prepared before their betrayal with scores of spies watching for our movements. How they accomplished it has eluded us. There is no information on the Urrtren. We should have been able to escape in greater numbers, and did so for a period of time, but ultimately they were all discovered and destroyed. We have looked and found little that remains to explain how they did it.”

  “Why didn’t they find the eggs?”

  “I do not know.”

  “Did they have the ability to track gravity drives previously?”

  “No. That discovery is new.”

  “How could they follow your cloaked ships?”

  “We didn’t have many. We didn’t need them when we were dominant. You have few as well.”

  “It rattles you, even though you were not there at the time?”

  “We have to be meticulous in our vengeance.”

  “Yet you gave them clues to your existence through me. Why?”

  “Zeno’dor did more than that. His reasons are his own, though I think it was due to spite. We have had to withhold our rage for so long, it is not a good thing. It is necessary, but it wears on us. Taking a small action of defiance can make a large difference.”

  “And you’re taking one now?”

  “The V’kit’no’sat believe that Star Force has had a sponsor from within the V’kit’no’sat. That is what fueled their recent civil war. In all that time they never suspected us, because they believe we are dead and the repercussions of them being incorrect are too vast for their egos to contemplate. If they have not made that logical assumption, then they have grown vastly inferior to those that betrayed us.”

  “What specifically about a sponsor?”

  “You had access to information from the planetary defense s
tation that only the Oso’lon and J’gar could give you. There is a third set of access codes, ours, that were never removed from the system. There were only 3 possibilities and they considered the two, chasing a sponsor from within that did not exist. And to be fair, our ‘sponsorship’ has been very little compared to what they suspect. It is one reason why they have continued to underestimate you. They thought you were receiving outside direction.”

  “Are we?”

  “Information. What you do with it is up to your unique experience that is greater than ours.”

  “Is that a challenge?”

  “You have a perverse obsession with that word.”

  “Are you so biologically advanced that self-sufficiency isn’t much of an effort?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then perhaps we work harder than you as well.”

  “There is no doubt of that.”

  “Why?”

  “We know where our strengths and weaknesses lie, and there is no point in wasting time increasing a small strength when the battle is going to be won or lost in ship combat. Your obsession is a personal crusade and not the best use of your time.”

  “We’ve found psionics that the Zen’zat never did.”

  “V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat, not ours.”

  “Do you have any now?”

  “No, and we will not ever again. The V’kit’no’sat must be destroyed in their entirety.”

  “But you still incorporate other races, I assume?”

  “We do.”

  “Then you’re starting over. V’kit’no’sat again, but with corrections the second time?”

  “The amount of corrections is so vast it no longer bears comparison, but you are essentially correct.”

  “And how do you feel about the Les’i’kron?”

  “I regret they cannot be saved, but do not mistake them for Zak’de’ron. They are mindless brutes in comparison.”

  “We wouldn’t give up that easily.”

  “Mercy is the luxury of the dominant,” Tew’chor said, quoting the Archons. “We are not dominant in numbers, nor are we arrogant enough to believe so. Correcting our mistake is going to take all of our skills and power, and we must do so without unleashing the Hadarak on the galaxy to the extent they once were.”