by Terry Frost
“Our Emperor of that time constructed a writ, stating we would colonize Trev to help ease the overcrowding of Phar. Also in that same writ, he made it illegal to have more than one offspring for every Vagan couple. It was a turbulent time for all Vagans and there would eventually be a war amongst our people.
“Many did not adhere to the writ and when discovered they hadn’t obeyed by having a second child the offenders were immediately sterilized. I would ask that you hold your judgments as it was an extremely difficult choice for our people and the Emperor.”
“You said the writ began nearly 900 years ago. Do you feel it was the right decision, and how are your citizens doing now?”
“Our ruling class had doubts for many years the writ would work, then started to see less pressure on our society. Our darkest days didn’t involve the sterilizations, those days were reserved for splitting families. The writ stated all Vagans of the age of fifty would be transported to Trev to live out the remainder of their days without the stress of overpopulation.
“I can’t imagine all the turmoil that would cause in the Human Race. But in Human society, we take into account what is best for the majority of our people. We do govern by the majority.”
“Ah, then you can partially understand the writ as we too governed by the majority, Supreme Commander. Ah, I too need to mind my manners. Would you travelers of the galaxy accept my offer to move this meeting to my private quarters? I am intrigued by you Humans and still have many inquiries, as I assume you do for me. Besides, I want to offer you a taste of Vagan’s grandest elixir, which was first distilled by my grandfather’s grandfather. You’ll not find a better spirit in the entire universe.”
Allen looked at Dubois, then back at Bagnor and said, “We would be honored, Grand Admiral. I must request that you allow me to contact my Second so I can inform him we will be longer than anticipated.”
“Absolutely, Admiral. By all means, contact your ship.”
Chapter 38
The Vagan ship had tall ceilings and tall doors and it was slightly intimidating to Allen and Dubois. They followed Bagnor down a long hall leading to the Grand Admiral’s private quarters. The interior lighting was set to low light but was still plenty bright enough to see as they walked.
To their left was a wall full of images of past great Vagan military commanders from the past. The commander’s battle gear had changed several times from the beginning image to the last. Allen could tell the Vagan were a proud race and the fact that they paid homage to their leaders was something the admiral appreciated.
Bagnor stopped in front of a door that had a plaque that read Grand Admiral. Bagnor put his right hand on a panel and the panel scanned his hand and the door slid into a hidden compartment. He walked in followed by the two Humans.
The size of his quarters was twice as big as Allen’s. General Dubois let out a whistle because of the size of the spacious quarters, which gave the Grand Admiral pause, then it was as if he understood the reason for the strange sound coming from the general and laughed.
The Grand Admiral’s room was brightly colored with several shades of red from light to dark. Above a table made of an eloquently designed hardened alien wood trimmed in dark green and gold, and hanging from the ceiling was a pretzel-shaped light bathed in silver and gold. Just as Human’s did, it was obvious the Vagan admiral appreciated the finer qualities of what is considered on Earth to be its most precious metal.
There was a double door leading to what had to be the admiral’s bedroom. On either side of the doors were an array of strange hand-held weapons. One of the weapons was a long bowed blade with some type of black animal hide handle.
There was a six-foot-long double-headed spear on one end and a half-moon shaped slicing blade on the other end that would make any warrior proud to take into battle or use while hunting prey. Bagnor asked his guests to take a seat at the small table while he poured everyone a drink.
Set further into the center of a two-sided cabinet was an image of Bagnor kneeling as someone with great power and authority was placing what looked to be a platinum chain and medal over his head.
Bagnor opened the cabinet door on the right and brought out three handsome silver chalices and set them on the countertop. He then opened the cabinet to his left and pulled out a sliding drawer that held four bottles of liquid and chose the one near the back of the drawer.
The bottle was magnificent with colors of a prism. Neither Allen or Dubois had ever seen such a handsome decanter that actually looked to be alive. Bagnor pulled the plug from the top of the bottle and poured a crimson colored liquid into each chalice.
He sat the chalices in front of his guests and sat down. He raised his chalice and said, “A toast of celebration between Humans and Vagans. May we enjoy a newly found friendship in a galaxy with too many species that do not share the value of friendship.”
Allen and Dubois joined Bagnor in his toast and each took a manageable sip of the elixir. Just before taking his sip, Allen thought I wonder how many species this alien commander has crossed in his time that doesn’t appreciate the value of friendship. I know of two that I can think of rather quickly.
After giving the usual few seconds for the elixir to hit their palates, both men found the drink to be as smooth as anything either of them had ever tasted before. The liquor had a slightly fruity taste combined with a soothing, but powerful taste of an aged bourbon.
“Excellent libation, Grand Admiral,” Dubois offered.
“Here, here. A most pleasurable liquid. What name do you give to this?” Allen asked as he swirled the drink in front of his face while looking at it.
“Pharmon. It is named after our homeworld’s pristine waters that are found only on Phar. You can travel the universe and not find a smoother spirit, or one that relaxes the body as well.”
“It is wonderful. I’ll wager that not just any Vagan or Human could afford much of this Pharmon,” Dubois said.
“You would be correct my fine, General. Only those with considerable wealth can afford Pharmon. After we have finished our conversation I will be sure to have Aknor bring two bottles for both you and the admiral.”
“As part of your toast, you said there were many species that do not value friendship. I wish to ask if you could share the name of those that you know of that feels that way. For we too have met species that prefer violence over friendship.” Allen said.
“The first one that comes to mind is known as the Hive. They are a ravenous insectoid race and care nothing about communicating. Their desire is to capture, kill, enslave and feed on their captives.”
“We know the Hive. They attacked us and fortunately for us at the time we encountered them their number was small, but that didn’t seem to deter their intentions. Have you or any of your people ever met the Daakie?”
“No, I don’t know the Daakie. Are they a vicious race too?”
“No, by far. They are a good race and eventually helped us plan an attack on the Hive, which turned out to be a complete success. But not too far after the ambush the Daakie paid an enormous price.”
“How so?”
“Our friends captured a Hive fighter pilot and took him to their planet for interrogation. But since the Hive’s language is not an accepted language of the universal language processors our friends got nothing out of the captured alien and it died while being interrogated.
“ The Daakie must have some harsh interrogation techniques.”
“Funny you say that because that is exactly what I thought when they told me the creature had died. What none of us knew at the time was the Hive inject tracking devices into their soldiers and they tracked their lost pilot to the Daakie homeworld. A few weeks later they brought a massive attack force with them and all but eliminated the entire population of Planet Daak.
“Their king lost his life during the attack and only a handful of transports and four of their high ranking military personnel escaped and wound up locating our ships. We gladly accepted them
to travel along with us until we could figure out what they wanted to do.”
“I notice they aren’t with you now so where did they end up going?”
Admiral Allen thought he had already given over more information than he wanted to, so he made a general statement about the Grand Admiral’s question.
“It was during my conversation with their new military commander that they were going to ask for help from some old allies of theirs. He didn’t offer any information about their allies and I didn’t press him for more information. He thanked me for our help and left. That was nearly a year ago and I’ve not had any further contact with them, even though I have tried to get in touch to see how they were faring.”
“The Vagan’s have had a run or two with those flesh eaters and unfortunately for the Hive, they didn’t come out on the good end. But I need to share with you that there are another violent flesh-eating species out here that I believe is worst than the Hive.
“We call them the Soids. They are another species of insectoids, but they don’t take captives. They kill and eat all they are fortunate to find that can’t hurt them enough to do any real harm. You may want to ask a higher power if you believe there is a higher power, that you don’t ever run into them.”
“Grand Admiral, could you describe what the Soids look like?”
“They are light green in color, are a winged creature with powerful legs they use for jumping. They are nearly a meter taller than me.”
“I believe we have already encountered the Soids. We gave them the name of Mantis because my Science Officer found one on a moon he was exploring. The alien was injured from crashing his fighter on the moon. My officer took a recording of the Mantis after he eliminated him during a fight and brought the recording back for me to look at.
“On Planet Earth we have an insect called the Praying Mantis and the creature I was looking at in the recording favored the Praying Mantis, with the exception of having two extra mandibles the Earth’s insect doesn’t have.”
“We Vagans do not want any of those Soids, or Mantis anywhere near our system and will do all we can to ensure it stays that way. May I ask where was the location of your contact with the vicious creature?”
“We found it in a system many light years from here and I don’t think that location should be of a concern to the Vagans. It was my estimate that the crashed Mantis was only a scout vessel. I do, however, have knowledge of their hideous ways that we discovered only two star systems from your own, in the Jovan System.”
The Grand Admiral became quite animated when he heard the Mantis were that close to his home system. “I’m familiar with the Jovan System and that is too close to Phar. Where did you discover their presence?”
“We had scanned several planets within the Red Dwarf’s system and it wasn’t until we began exploring the last suitable planet in the system. We found death all over the planet and didn’t find a single living occupant of a species we named BigHeads.
“All we located were their skeletons and most all of those we found had the same hole through their heads my Science Officer found in the skeletons on that moon. Those bastards had wiped out an entire species of aliens.”
“Were you able to conclude how long ago the attack on the BigHeads had taken place?”
“Long enough for their bones to have become brittle. When my Science Officer tried to pick up a femur it broke into several pieces, which indicated the attack had taken place long ago.”
“I must inform Emperor Gaul of this information. I wish to thank you for giving me this knowledge and the Emperor will want this information as soon as I can get it to him.”
“You are most welcome, Grand Admiral. What do you think your Emperor will do with the information I’ve provided?”
“Of course he will make up his own mind but I have great influence in matters of protecting his subjects. If I have my way, I will send out several squadrons to seek them out then report back if they were to locate their presence. If we do locate them within three star systems from us in any direction, I will begin formulating a plan to eliminate as many as we can.”
Bagnor stood as did Allen and Dubois and Bagnor said, “I have enjoyed our meeting and hope we can spend more time together before you proceed with your mission. But your Second is probably anxious to have you return to your ship.
“Please allow me some time to discuss the news of the Soids/Mantis with my Emperor before you make plans to leave the Galic System. Will you consider giving me that amount of time? There are many things your race and ours can benefit from one another going forward.”
“Yes, we should be getting back. I don’t see the harm in waiting to hear from you after you have talked to your Emperor.”
Chapter 39
Vagan Emperor Gaul told General Admiral Bagnor to gather anything he might require to begin searching the nearest star systems for the Soids. The Grand Admiral decided to rename the Soids and change their designation to Mantis. After hearing Allen’s reasoning for naming them Mantis, it made more sense for that to be their official name.
By order of the Emperor, he had his scribes remove the Soids name in their archives and replace it with Mantis. He also informed his Grand Admiral of his desire to meet the Human Supreme Commander, Admiral Allen.
Back on Colossus, Admiral Allen called a short briefing of his and General Dubois’s visit on the massive Vagan starship. He didn’t say anything to his commander but Vice Admiral Petrov was still slightly peeved at him for breaking protocol by going to see the alien Grand Admiral when he should have sent him instead.
“The Vagans are a step or two ahead of us in technology. I really have only one thing on my mind about them and that is, does everyone in this damn part of the galaxy have cloaking technologies?”
“It does make one wonder why we didn’t make it a priority to spend more time trying to develop cloaking before we started out on this mission,” Colonel Hammer said.
“I do not wonder the same thing, Colonel. Ponder all you want, but it won’t help now. During my association with our finest minds, including mine, the subject never came up. Mainly because for most it, was an improbable idea as we hadn’t experienced such a technology prior to our departure.”
Allen informed his staff of the Grand Admiral’s need to speak with his Emperor about planning a search and destroy mission targeting the Mantis. He ended the meeting by telling them he promised to stay close until the Grand Admiral contacted him with the success or failure of his meeting with his Emperor.
A half an hour after the meeting Allen was once again hailed by Bagnor. “How was your meeting with Emperor Gaul? Did he give you permission to begin a mission to locate the Mantis?”
“Did I not inform you that I have great influence on decisions concerning the safety of his subjects?”
“That you did, Grand Admiral. So, how soon are you planning to start your mission?”
“The mission has already begun, Admiral. Within the hour there will be one-hundred sorties taking place by our Avenger Class lite cruisers. Our Avengers are smaller versions of your Battlecruisers but are very capable ships that can defend as well as attack.”
“Will you be taking part in the sorties?”
“Negative, Admiral. Emperor Gaul wishes to meet with you and has ordered me to handle the introduction. Will you agree to meet with him?”
“I’d be most honored to do just that. How soon do want to conduct the meeting?”
“He had expressed his desire to have you come to Phar. Since Phar is a good distance from your location I will send you the coordinates and will set the meeting for 11:00 tomorrow morning. If that will serve you.”
“I wish to bring along a Colonel Hammer and my Science Officer, Commodore Jeeves with me if that is acceptable.”
“Acceptable, Admiral. I will have an escort at those coordinates at 11:00 and I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce you to our Emperor.”
****
Sitting at the small tabl
e in his Ready Room and just a tad nervous prior to meeting Emperor Gaul, was Admiral Allen and Doctor Stavens, as she was trying to finish the task of giving him a slight trimming of his crew cut.
“Arvin, if you don’t stop fidgeting I’m going to make a mess out of this. Now for the last time, hold still. You know I’ve never seen you this nervous about meeting anyone. What’s going on?”
“I’m not nervous, Victoria. Let’s just say I’m anxious. Meeting a new powerful race and so far, a friendly one is never a bad thing. I just want to represent us well to the Vagan Emperor.”
“You will always represent us well. Now, sit still and I’ll have you looking like the Supreme Fleet Commander you are.”
Colossus arrived at the coordinates given to him by the Vagan Grand Admiral, and just as he said, the escort was there waiting for his arrival. Allen, Hammer, and Jeeves loaded into the executive shuttle and followed the escort down to Planet Phar.
From space, Planet Phar looked a lot like Earth in the fact it resembled a blue ball with white clouds and several large landmasses. Their ships broke through the stratosphere and the closer they dropped in altitude the scene playing out below them confirmed what Bagnor had said about the planet being overpopulated.
The huge capital city was located in the middle of a tall mountain range. The boundaries of the city hugged up against the bottom of the mountains for miles and miles. The sky above the capital was full of hundreds and hundreds of personal small to medium-sized spacecraft going to their late morning destinations.
The skyline was filled with tall parapet style buildings that were possibly business offices. They flew to the north of the main metropolitan area a couple miles to a point where a structure came into view that could only be one thing, that being Emperor Gaul’s palace.
Nearing the palace the number of personal flyers declined dramatically and was replaced by only military spacecraft of all sizes. An odd-looking squadron of single piloted fighters flew next to the shuttle for a short distance then peeled off to the west.
