by Aer-ki Jyr
“Our elder is over 3 million years old, though he spent most of those 900 millennia in a form of stasis while the V’kit’no’sat believed us to be annihilated. We had to disappear from existence so we waited, us in our eggs, until the time was right. When we hatched we began work to rebuild the essential parts of our civilization before a second generation of eggs were laid. We are through 6 generations now and our population will increase exponentially going forward…but we have little experience and genetic memory can only take us so far. We are no match for the V’kit’no’sat yet, nor will be for millennia to come. We must keep our existence hidden, which is why your ship is being destroyed in such a way that your missing body will not be noticed.”
“You intend to attack them?” Tew’chor said, a bit shocked.
“For you the war is over, a part of your history. The V’kit’no’sat believe so as well, but so long as one of us draws breath we will not rest until we correct our mistake and undo the treasonous empire that we spawned.”
“How powerful are you? The empire may be fractured, but it is too powerful to defeat.”
“Too powerful to defeat quickly. Given time they will fall and we will win the war they mistakenly think is over.”
“You are not a backup survival plan…you are a long term assault force?”
“Both, but we only hide so long as necessary.”
“Yet you risked coming to get me?”
“The Les’i’kron are an abomination. You will learn why shortly. You have fought your way out of their enslavement, meaning you are in part Zak’de’ron. You are one of us, and as soon as we suspected that we began planning your retrieval.”
“Why not reconquer? If you destroy the V’kit’no’sat what will become of the Hadarak?”
“We have no plans to unleash the Hadarak on the outer regions of the galaxy that we have protected for millions of years. The cost of recovering the territory that was lost would be too great, and the races destroyed could not be recovered without proper samples. No, we are going to destroy the V’kit’no’sat, but we will not be reckless about it.”
“How then will you contain the Hadarak?”
“The elder will decide that. For now our priority is rebuilding. We are but a shadow of our former strength, and hopefully Mak’to’ran can reforge the V’kit’no’sat enough for us to kill them later. If they are so incompetent to fall apart and unleash the Hadarak on the galaxy, our shame will be increased beyond measure. Hopefully we taught them well enough that they will persist and maintain the front until we can destroy them.”
“Including the Les’i’kron?”
“Most likely if they fight alongside them. They did not participate in our annihilation because they did not exist then, so we hold them with less and greater contempt, for they are a bastardized version of us. A living mockery of what we were. If they were recoverable, such as you, we would make it a priority, but all of our research indicates they are beyond hope and now a different race that is fanatically dedicated to the empire we are going to destroy.”
“There is much wrong with us, but we do not deserve that fate for being loyal.”
“Such things are in the distant future. If there is a way to save them we will, I can promise you that.”
“As they are?”
“Perhaps. Our hate is reserved for those that hold their leash.”
“Most of those in the V’kit’no’sat now were not hatched until after the Zak’de’ron were gone. Do you hold them responsible as well?”
“If they assume their predecessors mantle, yes.”
“And if not?”
“The Rit’ko’sor had the right idea.”
“They were annihilated as well. Is that the only way the V’kit’no’sat races can regain their honor?”
“There is much you do not understand yet, and your loyalty is commendable, but once you learn what actually happened you will not view them the same.”
“What specifically do I not know?”
“Everything. We will tell some, but the elder wants to meet with you personally and he will be able to answer what we cannot.”
“Your elder is not onboard this ship?”
“No, but we will travel to his current location.”
“His name?”
“Zeno’dor.”
“How many of you are onboard this vessel?”
“Do you really have to ask?” the Zak’de’ron tested.
“I sense four, but this ship feels odd. There could be regions shielded from my Ikrid.”
“The ship’s hull is running with a psionic blind so we can get close to those with Ikrid and not be detected, but there are only four of us onboard. This is a small vessel. The one we are taking you to is not.”
“Vessel? We are not traveling to your world?”
“We have many worlds, none of which are highly populated. We must hide, so our cities are not expansive or obvious, and those few worlds where we can build freely are far from here. In order to monitor the V’kit’no’sat we must move amongst their territory, and to do that we need a hive. Does that term strike a memory?”
“It does not.”
“You will see when we arrive,” the Zak’de’ron said as he mentally activated a hologram that showed the ship they were in and the Les’i’kron vessel outside as it was being pummeled by weaponsfire with the pieces then targeted for further destruction. “This will be your place of death as far as the V’kit’no’sat know. I suggest you mentally leave your former life here and embrace the unknown ahead of you.”
“That would be easier if my Zen’zat were not killed along with the ship.”
“Your objection is noted, but the Zen’zat are the most fanatical race within the V’kit’no’sat. They cannot be converted, therefore they must be destroyed.”
“If you truly began the V’kit’no’sat, can you not simply return and assert command over them?”
“If your history had not been altered, yes. But they do not know of our existence, nor do we look like Les’i’kron. They serve the V’kit’no’sat that were founded by the Oso’lon and J’gar. Zak’de’ron do not exist, therefore we cannot return to that which we did not found…and our patience only goes so far. If the Zen’zat stood down and did not fight we would regard them differently, but that will not happen. They will be the first to fight and die to preserve the empire that we must destroy. We did not start this war, but we are going to finish it.”
“You mean restart it?”
“No, finish it. It was not a culling, it was an annihilation. So long as we live it is not finished. Tell me, if they learned we still lived what would they do?”
“Honestly I cannot predict that.”
“We know what they would do. They are already assassinating those within the V’kit’no’sat that do not behave as they wish. They would never tolerate us, just as they do not tolerate splinter factions of their own races. Once part of the V’kit’no’sat you can never leave it. Is it really so hard to imagine that they would try to finish what they started?”
“Given the rifts in the empire, your return to dominance may be welcomed by some.”
“We do not have the strength to reveal ourselves now, and this rift will end itself one way or another before we are able. Regardless, the V’kit’no’sat must be dismantled and their arrogance will not permit that. Do not think them victims. They tried to destroy us all and failed. When we strike again we will have the advantage, as well as the memories of what transpired. We do not forget. We will not forgive. We will win what they think has already been won.”
“Can you?”
“We can, but it will take great guile and an even greater amount of time to accomplish.”
“You said you monitor the Urrten?”
“Yes.”
“You use it to surveil the empire?”
“More so than you think possible. There are aspects to it that the V’kit’no’sat do not understand. They simply copy the technology, and with it our a
ccess protocols. We know more about their own empire than they do.”
“Do you know which faction is responsible for the treason of Terraxis?”
All three Zak’de’ron in the chamber began laughing, a combination of roars and hisses that were very similar to Les’i’kron mannerisms but with a signature feel that Tew’chor had not encountered before.
“What did I say that is so hilarious?”
“The Humans told you the truth. There is no faction supporting them. They were abandoned on Terraxis, recovered the planetary defense station, and have built everything you have encountered themselves. There is no sponsor. The V’kit’no’sat are fracturing over paranoia alone.”
“That is not possible. They have psionics other Zen’zat do not. They have access to the database and defense station weaponry. They hold the leash to weaponized Hadarak. They could not have done that on their own.”
“They did,” the Zak’de’ron confirmed, “though the planetary defense station was not fully operational when they found it. Our elder was awoken earlier than planned by an accidental encounter with the Humans that prevented our destruction by others. They did not know who we were, but in order to ascertain what had happened over the millennia before returning to V’kit’no’sat territory, the elder traveled to Terraxis to inspect the database in the defense station…where he confirmed that all our other plans to win the war had failed. We were the last hope remaining, and our existence was not even suspected. We had our anonymity, and with a bit of trust in the most elite Humans and some rewriting of their sensor records, our existence remains a secret. In exchange we unlocked the database for them and gave them full command over the planetary defense station. Beyond that we have had no contact with them and everything they have accomplished, including their discovery and acquisition of the Uriti, has been of their own doing.”
Tew’chor’s eyes widened with utter shock. “You are their sponsor!”
“No. They do not take orders from us, and their psionics are something they have developed on their own. They are outperforming the Zen’zat and we have been studying them closely to determine why, but we are not directing them. They kept my egg and others from being destroyed by primitives, so a debt was owed and paid. The fact that such help has led to the paranoia that is fracturing the V’kit’no’sat is a welcome irony.”
“And now you seek to blame the Era’tran for my death. Are you trying to collapse them now, or do you want them to survive and contain the Hadarak before you are able to replace them? You seem to be contradicting yourselves.”
“If they are even remotely competent, our small tampering will be nothing more than an annoyance. They managed to destroy our race, so we know they are not incompetent. Mak’to’ran is proof that they are reforming, as we knew they would. Their identity comes from their association with one another. Independent they would not function well, and their reluctance to fight all out wars with one another is proof of that. They know the Hadarak stand to surge forth if the V’kit’no’sat fall, and no matter how far the stupid amongst them have permeated, sanity will restore itself eventually. We have elevated them too far for them to topple so easily. It will take a far greater effort to do so, and we have not yet begun to try…”
It took several weeks to get to their destination, during which Tew’chor asked, and was asked, many questions. Odd bits of memories he had never known before kept popping up randomly, usually in response to something he saw onboard the ship or telepathic images sent to his mind from the others when words alone could not explain something. Of the things he’d learned was that much within the Zak’de’ron civilization mirrored the V’kit’no’sat…but that was because the V’kit’no’sat had mirrored them, with the Zak’de’ron being responsible for almost everything they had.
The other races had eventually begun to contribute some elements on their own, and the Zen’zat were one of them. The Zak’de’ron had done most of the genetic design, but it had been the Era’tran that pushed for their inclusion, having a confidence that the Zak’de’ron did not mirror initially, but once their inclusion began to show promise the elder race had taken Zen’zat for themselves and held them out exclusively…meaning theirs didn’t serve the empire, but rather the Zak’de’ron only. That had been a sticking point with the V’kit’no’sat, but the reason for the restriction was that the Zak’de’ron had trained their Zen’zat differently…and as a result they had uncovered more of their hidden psionics buried within their extensive genetic code.
The Humans on Terraxis were proving very good in hunting down these new psionics and the Zak’de’ron were using them to fill in huge chunks of research data on the Zen’zat, though they were not going to repeat their mistake with the V’kit’no’sat in any way, shape, or form. Tew’chor was convinced that they could go and recover Ter’nat and start their own Zen’zat population again if they wanted, but anything V’kit’no’sat seemed to be tainted for their civilization and despite the supposed great advancement by the Humans they were not doing their research for anything more than curiosity’s sake.
When the Zak’de’ron ship arrived at the ‘hive’ Tew’chor saw that it was a Mach’nel-sized vessel without the Yeg’gor armor or heavy defenses. Instead it was a mobile city in which the Zak’de’ron lived while moving about V’kit’no’sat territory…though staying away from any inhabited system. It moved through backwater jumplines where there was no surveillance while sending out Wur’ki-class vessels like the one Tew’chor had been retrieved by to do their closer surveillance.
The Zak’de’ron vessel melted against the side of the mass of lumpy hull that had multiple coils on it. Tew’chor wasn’t sure if those were docked vessels or part of the design, but there were no hangar bays to land in and no drop pods to cross over on. The ship simply docked with the hive and connected a corridor into it that the semi-Les’i’kron walked through and out into a mostly open air interior with huge columns rising up and crossing laterally that had several other races present…including a bipedal equivalent of the Zen’zat virtually the same size, but one with much lesser mental capacity.
“They are servants of the Zak’de’ron,” his escort told him as they took flight.
“You are recreating the V’kit’no’sat alliance with other races?”
“No,” he said firmly. “These are servants and will never be equals. We will not make the same mistake twice, but we coopted other races into our service before we created the V’kit’no’sat and there is no reason we will not do so now.”
“Those look like Zen’zat.”
“They serve the same purpose, but are not so far along in their development. They are known as Bo’ja, and come from a race called the Voku. They are useful where Ter’nat are not, but we are taking the cultivation of the Bo’ja slowly.”
“And the others here?”
“They all serve their purpose.”
“Security concerns?”
“All you see here stay here. They have pledged their lives to our service whereas their former races have not to a level that we can trust with the full truth of our existence. None know the name of Zak’de’ron, but we are known by other aliases. In order to regain our strength we are using other races, but we are not being reckless. We are hidden and we shall remain hidden.”
“And when the Humans are conquered?”
“They have not betrayed our confidence, nor have they shared their knowledge with the public. If they had we would already have intervened and removed it from them.”
The two dragons flew through the giant ship, weaving around what looked like floating buildings and between ‘vines’ that were connective tubes that allowed the Bo’ja and other non-flyers access to the heights. Nearly half the surface area inside the hollow was covered with plants and there was a light organic scent to the air that Tew’chor found refreshing.
“What is the vegetation for?”
“Supplemental food production so we don’t have to risk continuous supply shipments,
along with other periphery uses. The oxygen content is high enough that we don’t have to cycle the air much. This way,” he said, giving Tew’chor a telepathic redirect to a plant-covered spire that looked the same as the others, but apparently this one was not, for when they landed there were more servants here than anywhere else along with many Zak’de’ron…all smaller than Tew’chor and red, with both facts signifying their youth.
But a powerful mind was nearby and walked out onto the large landing platform that rode beneath a roof that was the spire continuing upward. There was more than ample room to move or fly around, but technically they were now inside though missing any walls of significance in front and behind them. Coming out one of the side walls was another Zak’de’ron, but this one was a deep grey and larger than Tew’chor, with him immediately realizing that this was their elder Zeno’dor.
The two stared at each other for several seconds, then the elder dragon stood up on his rear legs and spread his massive wings out as wide as they could go before flapping them heavily in a mannerism that Tew’chor somewhat recognized, though it wasn’t something the Les’i’kron did.
“You are a work in progress,” Zeno’dor said bluntly, “but are Zak’de’ron at heart. With your permission, we will correct the rest and make you fully Zak’de’ron.”
Tew’chor recoiled slightly. “Meaning what?”
“A physical alteration and a cleanup of your mind. There is enough of you intact that we can restructure off of without you losing your identity.”
“And if I refuse?”
“The choice is yours, and the offer will stand permanently. We will force nothing on you. We wish only to help you.”
Tew’chor looked around, both visually and with Pefbar. “What have they done to us?” he asked, referring to the Les’i’kron.
“Hobbled you into a lesser form, but from your coloration they did not succeed in stripping all of the Zak’de’ron from you. You have partially emerged from their enslavement on your own arduous merits, and we are offering to bring you the rest of the way into the light of day.”
