The Dave Brewster Series

by Karl Morgan

  “Okay, let’s show them and find out what happens next,” Fa-a-Di said. “I think I need another drink.”

  Chapter 7

  Ambassador Kogala and Field Marshall Fongula Nokka were surprised by the crowd in the conference room. They had expected Darlene, but not Dave, Charlie, Loni, General Fa-a-Di and Governor Mak-Kal-a. After introductions, they all sat with Darlene and the Galliceans on one side of the table and the Palians on the other. The remaining humans sat quietly in a corner.

  “Fa-a-Di, this is very unusual,” Fongula began. “We were expecting to meet with Ambassador Brewster to understand the final terms of the agreement. We hadn’t expected to see you until the signing ceremony at sunset.”

  “I understand the confusion, Fongula,” Fa-a-Di replied. “Some new information has come to our attention just this morning that requires us to make modifications to the treaty. Have you been briefed on the tekkan Hive?”

  Fongula laughed. “The destruction of Localus was all the briefing that I needed, friend. What does that have to do with this treaty?”

  Loni stood at one end of the table. “Field Marshall, my name is Loni Arrak, and I am the Lead Chief Engineer for The Hive on Tak-Makla.”

  “But you are human, not tekkan,” Kogala said.

  “And you are a valakar, Ambassador. I am not sure my physiology is relevant to this discussion,” she replied.

  “What is a valakar?” Fongula asked. “We are Palians.”

  “I hadn’t planned on this diversion, and I apologize if you feel insulted by the term valakar, sir,” Loni apologized. “Perhaps later we can all meet to discuss those matters further. For now, please let us focus on this planet. Since the dismantling of Localus, many lines of Universal Power have shifted from that site to Nom-Kat-Un. This planet is now an ideal location for a new Hive. Our mutual need for galactic security requires that a portion of this planet be reserved for a Hive.”

  “I have no problem with that,” Fongula replied. “We Palians can build and manage a Hive here.”

  “Unfortunately, Field Marshall, that won’t work,” she answered. “At this time, we do not have the technology to link a valakar, I mean Palian mind to a Hive. We are actively working on that, but it could take years or decades to find a solution.”

  “So, Fa-a-Di, do we get the planet or not?” Fongula demanded.

  Darlene stood and said, “Fongula, in the updated agreement, you still get Nom-Kat-Un. Your team and ours will chart the entire planet. All of the ideal lands will be exclusively yours. Loni and the tekkans will construct a Hive in an area of the planet that is less desirable to your species. That Hive will be manned by a few billion Beings, who will be citizens of your planet, although they will likely be maklan or human. Besides the tax revenue from them, your people will have complimentary access to the resources of the Hive.”

  “Billions of aliens sharing this planet seems excessive,” Fongula cringed. “There are only ten billion Palians in all of our planets combined! I’m not certain I can agree with such a thing. Those creatures could rise against us and take over.”

  “That is not possible, sir,” Loni answered. “Let us show you some video of The Hive on Tak-Makla and its history. The tekkans are very peace loving. The very nature of a Hive changes those who have been there.”

  “Do I have to remind you about Localus, Loni?” Kogala laughed. “That wasn’t a very peace loving gesture on your part. The Hive on this planet could erase Palus from space. What would stop that?”

  “I would,” Loni said.

  The Palians laughed loudly. Fongula replied, “You would stop it. You are one weak human female. You personally would stop the actions of billions of others madly intent on destroying my home world. You must be insane.”

  “I have to admit that sounds pretty unlikely,” Fa-a-Di said. “Please explain yourself before this entire meeting falls apart.”

  “The Hive on Tak-Makla did not dismantle Localus,” she began. “A single Hive would need fifty billion souls to do such a thing. Eight Hives were involved in that job, including Tak-Makla and the seven human Hives. Each Hive has two chief engineers. All chief engineers must agree, coordinate and fuse with their Hives to complete such a task.”

  “There are more Hives?” Darlene asked. “Human Hives? I don’t understand.”

  “Let’s watch some of the video feed,” Loni said. “I fear I’ve said too much already and am raising the anxiety level. I apologize for that.” She sat in the corner as the video wall came to life at one end of the room.

  A mechanical voice spoke, “Feed A14C9002, Council meeting, Don-Makla, 50 BE.”

  “High Consul Gongaleg, I must protest the continued construction of the planet Tak-Makla. This is a violation of God’s Will,” Zon Palaka said.

  “Eminence, I must say your continued complaints are not helping our society deal with the upcoming exodus,” Nala Gongaleg replied. “You must have forgotten it was your personal calculations that led us to that planet and the design for The Hive.”

  “Nala, I have not forgotten,” Zon sighed. “It was the folly of my youth. You know how children can be. Age has taught me some things should be outside our power. Universal Consciousness is God’s realm, not ours. We must remain here on the home our blessed ancestors on Ai-Makla chose for us.”

  “Eminence, Consul, please let me intercede,” a short, stocky human said. “The Society of Humanity has built many Hives throughout the universe. If God thought they were evil, why do they still exist?”

  “Pal Lazar, you are a silly little person,” Zon laughed. “You may be evil incarnate for all we know. Where did you get the materials you are providing for the construction? How many billions of slaves have you forced to work on your heinous projects?”

  Pal laughed out loud. “Eminence, you should hear yourself speak. I have repeatedly offered to let you enter one of our Hives and join with Universal Power. Once there you would know it is only a tool for trade and commerce.”

  “Enough of both of you,” Nala demanded. “The construction will be complete in fifty solar cycles. Immediately thereafter, all maklans will move to the new planet and Don-Makla will be abandoned.”

  “Please Consul, let those of us who wish to avoid God’s retribution stay here,” Zon pleaded.

  “No, Eminence. All of our citizens are required to bring The Hive online and to support our continued growth. If many stay here, it will take generations to make The Hive operational. That is not acceptable,” Nala shouted.

  “Bide my words, Consul,” Zon threatened, “we will not follow you. Some of us do fear God and cannot allow this atrocity to stand. When you and your followers are facing damnation, perhaps we will let you join us.”

  The mechanical voice spoke again, “Feed C22R0112, Hive inauguration, Tak-Makla, 1 BE.”

  The screen filled with the center opening in The Hive rising further than the eye could see. All of the windows lining The Hive were illuminated, with thousands of rings of light reaching up toward the planet’s surface. The view panned down to reveal a maklan and a human standing on the floor of The Hive. The maklan spoke, “Dear citizens, my name is Val Singalak and I have been chosen as the first Chief Engineer for The Hive on Tak-Makla. We are all very excited about the exodus to begin in one solar cycle. With me today is our Lead Chief Engineer, Vana Listo from the planet Valka Zu. As you can tell, he is from the Society of Humanity.” The human looked remarkably like Loni with the same pale skin and silver eyes. “Vana has hundreds of years of experience managing Hives and has volunteered to help us initiate this one. Please say a few words, Vana.”

  “Thank you, Val,” Vana began. “The upcoming exodus from Don-Makla will be a great day for the friendship between our peoples. Our Society has agreed to provide Chief Engineers for Tak-Makla for as long as needed. Those engineers will insure that all Hives can coordinate their activities. The coordination among human Hives has already allowed us to dismantle five dead planets for building materials for Tak-Makla.”

/>   “Stop the video,” Fongula barked. The screen froze with the smiling face of Vana Listo. “There is that word dismantle again. Loni, you said you dismantled Localus. Does that mean you have all of the material somewhere? I thought that planet disappeared.”

  “Field Marshall, the fundamental law of conservation of matter means all the matter from Localus still exists,” Loni said. “The Society of Humanity includes more than fifty thousand worlds. With our extended lifetimes, we need to have ten or twenty more planets under development continually to keep our people housed and fed. Our goal is to have one Hive for every fifty worlds, so we need to build a Hive every few years. That requires a lot of material.”

  “Don’t you just take the material from the planet where you build the Hive?” Dave asked.

  Loni smiled, “Dave, we stopped building Hives like the one of Tak-Makla many years ago. They are too risky.”

  “What could be more permanent that a planet, Loni?” Fa-a-Di asked. “Gallia has existed for billions of years.”

  “General, the Society of Humanity has existed for over three billion years,” she began. “We have enemies who can attack a planet. Also, suns die. We cannot invest in a Hive that is a target for our enemies or tied to a single planet. The costs and risks are too high.”

  “You build Hive planets from scratch?” Darlene asked.

  “Very perceptive, Darlene. We construct a spherical dome and then fill in the center with our Hive and an artificial planet. Everything is self-contained. It also looks like just a dead chunk of rock floating in uninhabitable space. No other creature would ever expect there to be billions of humans living inside,” Loni replied.

  “Let me get this straight,” Mak-Kal-a interjected. “A big chunk of rock, like Nom-Kat-Zuk in this system could be hollow with a human Hive inside?”

  “As a matter of fact, that is exactly what Nom-Kat-Zuk is, Governor,” Loni replied. “To be precise, it is under construction at this time. We expect it to be complete in fifty solar cycles.”

  “That is not possible, Loni,” Mak-Kal-a shouted. “Zuk has been in this system for billions of years. We have studied it and sent probes. It is a solid chunk of iron and rock.”

  Loni frowned, “This is another diversion from the meeting, but what I said is true. Two hundred solar cycles ago, we determined that Nom-Kat-Zuk would be a great candidate for a Hive planet. We removed the interior of the planet and are now building a new one inside. We won’t need a new Hive in this region for a while, so we are taking the construction slowly. Once it is operational, it will work together with the Hive here to bring the benefits of Universal Power to this sector of space.”

  “Your Society of Humanity has commandeered one of my planets?” Fa-a-Di raged. “This is highly unusual. My council will need to discuss this matter.”

  “General, I apologize for this as well. You must understand that I am only an engineer helping Tak-Makla. The decision to build that Hive was not in my control. Please let us review the final video now. We can all talk about this later,” Loni said.

  The mechanical voice said, “Feed ZZ02D1001, Galactic security briefing, 400B AE.”

  Zee Gongaleg, High Consul for Tak-Makla sat behind his desk and smiled at the camera. “Dear friends, Loni Arrak asked me to brief you on the threats facing our galaxy. I pray you will consider this and accept the plan for Nom-Kat-Un. Only more Hives in this region can protect us from those who wish to enslave us. The main threat in my mind is the Paxran Empire. This is a maklan race that inhabits sixteen hundred worlds on the other side of our galaxy. Our agents in The Hive have determined these maklans destroyed a peaceful maklan race called the Maklakar. We had traded and been friends with the Maklakar for many years. At their zenith, they occupied more than two thousand worlds. After some time, our trading relationship slipped away and we lost touch. When we attempted to work with them again, we found their entire civilization had been destroyed and no Maklakar survived. A peaceful civilization of billions of lives had been wiped from history. The Paxran continue to conquer new worlds. They never negotiate and their highly advanced military would overwhelm any of us. Our only hope is to stop them with Hives.

  “The only civilization that has resisted the Paxran is the Donnaki Empire, which is a valakar species like the Galliceans and Palians. Their military might is equivalent to the Paxran. While the two races despise each other, neither has the power to wage a winning war against the other. They coexist is a state of constant incursions into each other’s space. Planets on their mutual frontier change hands often. Many of those worlds are dead husks where massive populations used to thrive. They must grow in other directions. One of those directions for the Paxran is across the galactic center. The Donnaki might do the same. You can be certain that both of those civilizations have ships and agents exploring our systems for weaknesses. While the Society of Humanity does have a few Hives in our galaxy, that is not enough to stop these threats. Before they could establish more, we might all be killed or enslaved by either enemy. Please think strategically here. The sharing agreement for Nom-Kat-Un is a small price to pay to protect our children in the future.”

  The video ended and the lights came back to full. Loni Arrak stood and smiled at the group around the table. “Dear friends, let us work together to insure our mutual security in this galaxy. If the Paxran or Donnaki are successful, we humans can simply move to other galaxies. We might lose many lives before we could escape, but the Society of Humanity would survive. Gallia, Palus, Tak-Makla, Kalidus and Earth 47 will not be so lucky. We need each other. General Fa-a-Di and I are scheduled to fly over this beautiful planet now. The signing ceremony will be at sunset on the beach. I hope you will do the right thing and be there. Just as on Tak-Makla, I will guarantee that the Society of Humanity will work with you to build Hives, learn more secrets of Universal Power and fight any race that attempts to break the peace. General, I will meet you outside in thirty minutes.” She turned and left the room.

  Chapter 8

  “Governor Lonk, there are fifty Donnaki cruisers in orbit,” Commander Jee Nalta said as he walked into the governor’s office.

  “Do you think they know what this is, Jee?” Alin Lonk asked.

  “They must know something or why would they have so many ships?” Jee replied. “Please bring up the command display, sir.”

  Alin tapped a button and the command bridge appeared on the wall-sized screen. “General Zilma, what’s going on out there?”

  “Governor, the Donnaki ships are firing at the surface. So far, they are making small holes in the rock surface. They need to blast through fifty miles of rock to reach the inner shell,” General Audy Zilma replied. “That would take days at this rate. I don’t think there is much risk yet.”

  “Perhaps we should signal President Bango on Aranar Zu,” Jee suggested.

  “The signal could be traced, Governor,” Audy replied. “Let The Hive communicate for us.”

  “Excellent idea, General,” Alin said as he pressed another key on his console. The general was replaced by Chief Engineer Lina Aderal. “Lina, our post is under attack by Donnaki cruisers. Have your agents contact Aranar Zu to let them know, and also check out the bridges of those ships. We don’t know if this is target practice or if they have discovered our Hive.”

  “Yes Governor,” she replied. “Give us ten minutes.” The screen went dark.

  Alin Lonk sat back in his chair. “Jee, there’s nothing to do now but wait.”

  “Alin, I always knew it was a mistake to bring this Hive into Donnaki space,” Jee said. “They can feel our presence even if there is no evidence we exist. All Beings can sense Universal Power, but just may not believe it if they can’t see it.”

  “We had our orders, Jee. It’s a little late to second guess them now,” Alin replied. He tapped a flashing button on his console.

  “Governor, we are being hailed by the Donnaki,” said the voice of his assistant, Lora Naut. “I’m putting it through.”

  Th
e thick bird-like head of a valakar filled the screen. “I am Admiral Ski Zan of the Donnaki Empire. We know you are in there, humans. How dare you enter our space without our permission? You will pay for your insolence with your lives. Then we will take over your Hive machine and use it to destroy more of your worlds. By the way, we have a new weapon to try out on your false planet. I hope you enjoy it.”

  A massive blast from the cruisers shook the entire planet. Lights flickered and The Hive went dark. After a moment, the power returned.

  General Zilma appeared on the screen. “Governor, that last blast blew away the rock layer in sector Z975B. I’ve never felt anything like that. The inner shell is now exposed. I don’t know how many more blasts like that we can handle before we have a hull breach.”

  Alin pushed a button and shouted, “Lina, get more Hives online. We need to evacuate or get this Hive out of here!”

  “Yes, Governor, I have seven Hives online now,” Lina replied. “Aranar Zu suggests we relocate far outside Donnaki space.”

  “Do it now!” he shouted as a second blast rocked the planet.

  “Governor, the inner hull buckled a bit with that hit,” Audy said. “Two more hits and we will likely lose containment.”

  “Governor, we do not have enough power to jump the planet,” Lina shouted. “Should we jump the crews of those ships to their home world?”

  “Yes, for God’s sake!” he screamed as another blast hit the planet, throwing him to the ground. Jee helped him up and wiped the blood from the governor’s forehead. “One more blast like that and we’re dead, Jee.” Jee helped Alin over to a couch. They sat on the edge of the couch for several minutes waiting.

  “What do you think they’re waiting for, Governor?” Jee asked.

  “Dramatic effect, I imagine,” Alin said.

  “Governor, the mission is complete,” Lina said. “All the Donnaki crews have been jumped to their home world.”