by Aer-ki Jyr
Rajamal did as well, knowing how rare Jumat was within the V’kit’no’sat. That meant only elite Zen’zat had been assigned to whatever this fake empire beyond the border was.
“I know nothing of this,” the I’rar’et said in all honestly, dropping his mental resistance so they could be certain he was speaking the truth, for he didn’t have the mental blocks that the Zen’zat did, relying instead on his own mental strength to keep others out.
“These Archons led this alliance of races in defeating the Li’vorkrachnika, taking their homeworld and driving them from their former territory,” Hanniel went on, “but they stopped pursuing them at their current rimward border. The one you are about to travel to. Did you notice how perfectly straight it was?”
“So not to get close enough that we might notice,” Rajamal said, his own tone accusing, but not directed at the I’rar’et specifically, for they had not requested the assignment on that end of Li’vorkrachnika territory. He’d given it to them for other reasons, but they had wanted to take part in this eradication for some hidden purpose.
“Unless I have been deliberately not informed, we know nothing of this,” the I’rar’et said firmly. “And if it was sanctioned activity Ha’chet would know and he would have informed me of it. Something is not right here, and if some faction has been operating beyond the frontier…”
That thought was left hanging in the air, for all three of them knew how much internal trouble that would cause if it was true. There would be a territorial forfeiture at minimum, but the penalties could get far more drastic. Knowing that, one would only try something like this if they were stupid or had some larger plan in place…and that worry had them all fearful.
“You were right to conceal this until it was brought to my attention,” Rajamal said slowly. “How strong is this Star Force?”
“They have been conquering a massive amount of territory and reworking it as they see fit. We’ve been able to corroborate database entries with the genetic memories to get a better picture, but we’re still sorely lacking in data. It seems that this Star Force is very new and growing rapidly. Not just in size, but in technology. They practically sprouted up out of nowhere, but these ‘Humans’ make up only a tiny fraction of Star Force’s population. The rest are acquired races that they have outfitted with their own technology that, at a minimum, includes Bra’hem.”
The I’rar’et reared back slightly, puffing out its wings until they hit the walls, which only frustrated it more.
“What treachery is this? Whoever is responsible will be culled.”
“That is why we must handle this carefully,” Rajamal warned. “This has implications far beyond this campaign, but knowing my battle plan someone must be very vexed right now…unless it is the I’rar’et.”
“It is not. I can promise you that. Can we not account for all Zen’zat with Jumat?”
“Yes we can,” Rajamal said, activating the main hologram and digging into his ship’s database. It wasn’t accurate to the present date given communications lag, but if someone had been gone for a very long time they should be able to track them or their absence. “Was this a single individual with Jumat they were concerned about, or many?”
“Many. These Archons have different colors of armor that denote their abilities, and Jumat seems to be present in several of them.”
“Our armor?”
“No. It is made of hard shells. A clever design to afford them movement, but not the equal of ours in agility. They are more hardy to damage taken, based off estimates.”
“A clever disguise without sacrificing effectiveness,” the I’rar’et noted. “Trading out one strength for another. Were there any other races in this alliance that we are familiar with?”
“Possibly an aquatic that was listed as having been eradicated.”
“How long ago?”
“834,000 years.”
“And how recent is this Star Force?”
“Less than 2,000.”
Rajamal shook his head. “This doesn’t make sense unless there is a long lasting conspiracy taking place.”
“I agree,” the I’rar’et said. “We should go to this Star Force and find out what they truly are.”
“No,” Rajamal said firmly. “We do not tip our hand so blindly. How many others know of this?”
“Only the Zen’zat in my research team, and they have pledged to remain silent until they hear from you.”
“Are you certain the memories are Zen’zat?”
Hanniel responded by transmitting some snippets of them from her mind to his.
“What is wrong?” she asked after he was silent for more than a minute.
“You will remain silent on this. Both of you,” he added more forcefully to the I’rar’et, “while I consult with another. If this is what I fear, then we will be going straight to Itaru with it.”
The I’rar’et hissed in displeasure.
“If there is treason here, it is for the Sector or Regional Council to ferret out.”
“Wrong. If there is treason here, it jeopardizes the very core of the V’kit’no’sat. And I will deal with it accordingly. We are leaving this system immediately and you will be assigned to me until further notice,” he told Hanniel. “I assume you brought all necessary data with you?”
“On my armor. There is no other source on the ship that brought me.”
“Well played, and thank you for your wisdom in this matter. I will deal with it from here, but first I need you to lay out everything you know about these rogue Zen’zat and Ter’nat.”
“I do not see why Ter’nat would be involved,” the I’rar’et said. “They are not useful for anything other than breeding stock…”
“Exactly,” Rajamal said, sensing the fear and horror in that simple statement. “And when there are no Jumat bearers listed as dead or assigned to dubious missions, it leads me to one of many concerns…but those are Zen’zat matters and I trust you not to discuss this with others. You will also not be able to send messages off this ship until I say otherwise.”
“Can I then discuss it with the others onboard ship?”
“Would they know more than you?”
“Unlikely.”
“Then no. And do not inform the other races here either. They need to be kept unaware in case one of them are involved.”
“Do you not wish to interrogate them if they show their hand?”
“I want to keep the advantage of surprise that we have as long as possible. If only the 3 of us on this ship and those Zen’zat back in Ittick know, then knowledge of it will not spread. Whoever has done this must be watching us closely for fear that we discover the truth, and if the treason runs as deep as I fear they will not hesitate to destroy this ship to conceal it.”
The I’rar’et leaned his head forward, coming within half a meter of the Zen’zat.
“What is it you fear so?”
“That is what I need to seek counsel on, and I can only do that with other Zen’zat.”
“Whatever you decide, make haste. The I’rar’et are not responsible for this, but we want to discover who is as soon as possible.”
Rajamal nodded and sent word to the bridge to get them underway, then he turned back to Hanniel.
“Continue with your research findings.”
“They are too strong,” he told Daemon, having arrived in his sector of the Zen’zat invasion corridor and brought the commander onboard his ship for a private meeting.
“Meaning?”
“Jumat is prevalent, and individuals have far too many psionics. Too many for natural progression. Please tell me I’m wrong.”
His fellow Zen’zat was silent while he continued to dig through the files before him and the memories that Rajamal transferred from his own mind. When he thought he was about to speak he did not, moving back to another section of the data. It took several minutes before Daemon answered his question with a very displeased look on his face.
“You’re not wrong. Someone i
s artificially advancing Zen’zat.”
“What could they hope to gain from this? The punishment will be so severe I cannot see any worthwhile risk to it.”
“What if it’s someone’s doing who isn’t bound by our rules?”
Rajamal’s face screwed up in confusion and disgust, but he thought on that for a moment.
“They would have had to acquire Zen’zat genetics from somewhere, and I am not aware of any missing individuals dating back to the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. All corpses have been recovered since then, and the possibility of someone engineering a Zen’zat with a tissue sample is so unlikely I can’t even quote you the odds. Capturing a Ter’nat and trying to upgrade them would be more likely, but their systems are monitored to keep them in, but they function just as well to keep others out. I do not know how an exterior power could have orchestrated this, and if they did I do not believe they would use them in this fashion, blatantly and extensively close to our border.”
“Yet they seem to have knowledge of it, hence the reluctance to fully eradicate the Li’vorkrachnika. Ironic, that had they done so we probably never would have discovered them, and that their reluctance allowed the Li’vorkrachnika to extend so far as to attack us. Though I do not fault them for the stupidity inherent in that idea, for had it not happened I would not have foreseen them doing it either. There is, though, another possibility that you are overlooking."
“Enlighten me.”
“Did you note the location of their capitol?”
“I did not see any significance to it.”
“But there is,” Daemon said, pulling up an old starmap from before the Rit’ko’sor rebellion. “Look.”
Rajamal compared the two and saw that one of the sparsely placed frontier colonies from back in that age lay in exactly the same place.
“The Rit’ko’sor attacked and destroyed everything they could find,” Daemon continued, “but this was a waterworld and the aquatics could not be touched, nor did they have the firepower to destroy the planetary defense station, so they flooded it instead to remove it from the surface of the planet along with everything else V’kit’no’sat. The J’gar and other aquatics evacuated the colony, citing it wasn’t worth rebuilding, and scratched it off the map. With all the damage the Rit’ko’sor inflicted, it and others fell beyond the new frontier.”
“And maybe someone went back to it?”
“Possibly. Or maybe the J’gar lied and left something behind that’s been developing ever since. After all, why pull back if your underwater structures are intact? There are reasons to, for sure, but if they’d already been attacked and the aquatics were safe what cause would there be to pull out?”
“How many were there?”
Daemon pulled up those statistics for them both to see.
“Not many,” Rajamal answered himself.
“And all are accounted for,” Daemon added. “As far as the swimmers go. But the Zen’zat on the surface were destroyed…as far as they reported, and that report is a blind spot that could have been used as cover.”
“To what end?”
“I don’t pretend to know what is happening here. I’m only throwing out theoreticals.”
“Keep doing so.”
“If you wanted to experiment with Zen’zat you’d do it beyond the border where no one would look, and the J’gar are patient enough to have taken an opportunity like this when it arose.”
“And then have them build an empire and start knocking off everything in sight?”
“That perplexes me unless it was a field test. The coreward boundary is obviously meant to keep them away from us, and has done so up until now. Which perplexes me as to why we don’t have scouting expeditions regularly sent to the rim to keep us aware of what is happening out there.”
“If we’re not allowed to go then there’s no point in knowing,” Rajamal said sarcastically. “After all, no one can be superior to the V’kit’no’sat, so there’s no bother in looking. Anyone important enough will come to us.”
“Typical Oso’lon propaganda,” Daemon agreed. “Just because the Hadarak occupy our time doesn’t mean we should be oblivious to the rest of the galaxy. I do agree, though, that we shouldn’t keep expanding into territory that we can’t dominate. Spreading ourselves too thin would be a mistake, but intentional blindness is a folly.”
“That someone has taken advantage of.”
“There is another possibility. A slim one, but I feel I have to point it out. Perhaps some Zen’zat were left behind accidentally…”
“And did what? Violate their oaths, reproduce, and build their own empire? One in which they have the genetic knowledge to activate psionics at will?”
“Far-fetched, but given that their capitol is a former colony the possibility has to be considered. Their armor is also curious. If you don’t expect to be discovered why alter it? Ours is better, though I’ll admit theirs is a bit tougher, assuming comparable materials that may not be the case.”
“Different and better are not always the same things, but I take your point.”
“I don’t take yours.”
“Fixed structures can hold more components.”
“But the weight would be cumbersome.”
“A tradeoff that might be better in select circumstances.”
“Curious, I hadn’t thought of that. Why don’t we have tougher versions?”
“Because we never need it,” Rajamal said honestly, then his memories brought obvious anxiety to his face, “unless we’re fighting each other.”
“You fear this may be the tip of a plot that will lead to another rebellion?”
“Yes I do.”
“Then I will go with you to Itaru and we will present them with the situation…then weather the fallout together. I too do not want another bloody war against our brothers, but if it has to happen, so be it. The V’kit’no’sat must be made of pure bonds, else we will break in other ways.”
“Your words are wise, but I still cannot conceive how someone would see this as an advantage.”
“Creating an independent army of superior Zen’zat outside our borders,” Daemon said evenly as he drew a horrific look from Rajamal. “Your problem is you trust too much, and after the Rit’ko’sor there was one lesson learned by all the factions…if you’re going to rebel, you have better make damn sure you’re going to win. And fighting without an advantage is the equivalent of suicide.”
“So someone breeds enhanced Zen’zat and gives them experience fighting in the rim as they grow their own empire.”
“Which probably has them seeing more combat than most Zen’zat.”
“I had hoped when I came here you would alleviate my fears. Now they are far worse.”
“Itaru,” Daemon reminded him. “We can discuss further on the way, but our duty in this is clear.”
“So it is,” Rajamal said sadly. “And if we are to fight them, Itaru will never sanction our own advancement to match.”
“Meaning we’ll be fighting superior opponents? Possibly, but I for one am ready for a real challenge.”
“Against other Zen’zat?”
“I would prefer not, but we take on what fate supplies us. Rogue Zen’zat or not.”
Rajamal sighed. “We have lost so much already.”
“Most of which has been rebuilt.”
“You can’t rebuild dead warriors.”
“No, you can only replace them with inexperienced ones. Which is why the Rit’ko’sor hurt us so badly. It would have been worse if not for us. The Hjar’at are too stubborn to recognize threats that defy their understanding of warfare. The Rit’ko’sor would have destroyed them if we hadn’t intervened. You should be proud of your part in that.”
“We never should have been on opposing sides. We should have been pooling our resources and fighting the Hadarak together.”
“They trust us because we are the most loyal. Unfortunately that statement can be construed in two accurate ways. Do not dwell on it. We made no mis
takes, and those who did are mostly dead by now.”
“So now we face more mistakes by new faces?”
“Our best bet in avoiding them is by pointing out the obvious, and doing so directly at Itaru is better than sending the information through intermediaries. They will listen to us enough to get a direct audience, and if we make a few stops first I can arrange some other names they will listen to.”
“You should have been leading this invasion, not me.”
“You are more than qualified, so there is no issue.”
“Still…” Rajamal said, letting that hang in the air as he scrolled through a few maps with Daemon pointing out systems they needed to visit in order to procure additional Zen’zat of renown that would insure that their envoy would not get pushed aside once they arrived at the capitol…and that the Elder Conclave would take this matter as seriously and they should.
9
April 27, 3601
Itaru System (V’kit’no’sat capitol)
Wendigama
Rajamal, Daemon, and three other high ranking Zen’zat were permitted entry into the Elder Conclave by other Zen’zat through the smaller doorways built for them. More Conclave guardians were stationed at the larger entrances, and those were not Zen’zat due to the physical size needed to keep unwanted individuals out. If an Oso’lon wanted in, there was little Zen’zat could do to stop them, hence they had numerous Era’tran and Hjar’at guardians there supported by more Zen’zat where appropriate.
When the five visitors were granted entrance to the huge chamber they were placed upon a small floating platform that had a single control pedestal. Innas, a Zen’zat that had ties to the Oso’lon, took the lead position and drove the platform out from the wall of the dome-shaped chamber through the sea of pedestals that held the Elder members and their delegations from all of the 193 current member races in the V’kit’no’sat, though that did not include the Ter’nat nor Zen’zat, but there were plenty of the latter here to assist the larger races in small command stations built into or on top of the pedestals that were sometimes a half mile wide.
