Nomad Fleet

by Ivan Kal

  Their minds surrounded that of the great beast, allowing it to slowly ingest the information. But then Adrian felt them reach the limit; this was just the first of such lessons. There would be more as the great beast grew outside of its pool. He detached himself and Araxi from the beast and released the access node, taking a step back and nearly collapsing.

  The Old Scar was there to catch him and steady him. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. How long did that take?” Adrian asked.

  “Hours,” the Old Scar answered.

  Adrian shook his head and stood up, feeling drained. “Now, we wait.”

  “Yes. It will be a while until it hatches. We should transfer it to the Skywrath hull as soon as possible. It does not require the pool anymore.”

  Adrian nodded, distracted. This was just the first step in the new great beast’s growth. The next came the transfer to the hull of the Skywrath. This great beast would not be like any other before it; it would be a colossal hybrid of technology and biology. The Skywrath hull had been adjusted to accommodate the great beast inside. As it grew, it would fill out that hull—holes had been left inside for its own weapons to fit in, as well as several systems that had been designed to integrate with it. But it would take time. Ordinarily the Krashinar would accelerate the growth of a great beast, but they would not be doing that here. They would take their time, time to slowly adjust its genome, to shape it more directly. They would need to give it cybernetic implants that would allow it to interact with the other, more technological systems. But Adrian had a plan for that as well; hopefully they would figure it out as they went.

  Adrian turned to leave when he felt something reach out. A mind that was forceful and strong, but held a promise of greatness in it.

  “NAME?” It rumbled in his head, inquisitive, but with a undercurrent of need beneath the surface.

  Adrian and Old Scar looked at each other.

  “It can speak as your people do already?” the Old Scar shot at Adrian, accompanied by feelings of great surprise.

  “It appears that it is a quick study,” Adrian sent to the Krashinar. He could not help but smile with pride.

  “Our great beast get their names from their spawners only after they are fully grown,” the Old Scar told him, reminding Adrian.

  “But this is not a Krashinar great beast. This one is mine,” Adrian returned.

  “NAME?” The voice rumbled in Adrian’s head again, more insistently. Adrian even felt a touch of threat this time on top of the need. He chuckled at that. The beast was powerful, even yet to be born as it was. But he had no trouble fending off its attempt at forcing Adrian to speak. The rest of the people in the room, however, were not having the same experience. He saw Krashinar, Humans, Nel, and Sowir on their knees, or lying on the floor. The only ones standing were Adrian and the Old Scar, and Adrian could see that the Old Scar was having difficulties remaining upright itself.

  Adrian turned toward the pool and pushed his mind out, putting its weight on the being inside. He pushed its mind back with just a bit of force—making sure that it understood who was in charge.

  He felt a hint of fear and panic as the being felt Adrian’s power, and Adrian enveloped it gently in the power of his mind.

  “NAME?” it whispered now. The voice in his head was still loud, but less than it had been. This time there was no undercurrent of threat, but a bundle of emotions that Adrian had only ever felt from a child.

  He thought about the request for a few moments, all the while feeling the being’s restlessness.

  “Any ideas?” Adrian asked Iris through his imp.

  “Hmm… How about Arke?” Iris said.

  Adrian snorted in amusement. Arke was a goddess in ancient Greek religion, and twin sister to Iris. “You are not exactly twins.”

  “This being and I were both born from your mind. Not precisely, perhaps, but close enough.”

  Adrian thought about it for a moment. It was not a bad idea, but it just didn’t fit somehow. He couldn’t explain it. For a moment he considered telling it to choose its own name. Then he remembered how he had been given another name—Heart of the Mountain—by the Erasi Weaver Valanaru. In the Erasi, it was considered an honor for a telepath to be named, and such a name could only be given by another telepath.

  Slowly, he entered the beasts mind; it tried to stop him, but it was a child. A child with great power, but still inexperienced. That, however, did not make it stop trying to push Adrian out. He battered aside its attempts at attacking him and then took a look inside.

  There was not much to see. It was a jumble of thoughts, unorganized and fleeting. The knowledge and the shaping that he had instilled in it was there, but it was fresh and would need much more time to grow into something more. But underneath all of that there was something. A desire to be the best, the strongest, an echo of Adrian’s own mindset. He had succeeded in instilling that desire into it, and it felt…wonderful. He hadn’t realized how much he had been craving this: someone, anyone who shared what he had. Only one person had ever even come close, Anessa, but not even she shared the same goals that he had.

  But this was more; it almost brought tears to his eyes. It felt like…fate. Iris’s suggestion from Greek myth gave him another idea, and Adrian decided on a name.

  He steeled his mind and made the being listen. He felt its attentiveness.

  “I live to charge forward, to carve my own way to the next horizon, to forge my own destiny. Fate, to me, is what I wish it to be. And you will be the same. Your destiny will be greatness, and together we shall forge whichever fate we wish for. We will be the ones to decide the fates of those who stand in our way. And so do I name you for destiny and fate. Your name is Moirai.” Adrian’s voice echoed in the being’s mind and he felt it absorb his words. There was no true understanding from the being—it was young, still, and did not know much—but Adrian felt its contentment and joy. It will remember, and one day it will know the meaning behind my words. The being’s mind started pulling back, falling to sleep. Adrian pulled out of its mind, and let it rest.

  “That…” the Old Scar started. “Was unexpected. This is why we do not do things this way.” The Old Scar cast his eyes around the room at the people lying on the floor.

  Adrian floated his mind over them, making sure that all were alive. “They are just unconscious.”

  “It wasn’t even focusing on them, and it is not yet an hour old. Can you imagine what it could be capable of once it is fully grown? With all the things we added to it, and all the things that we still plan to add. Not to speak of the amount of firepower it will have at the tip of its fins.”

  “I will be here for it, to teach it and guide it,” Adrian sent.

  “I do not know if this is as smart as you seem to believe it is.”

  “We shall see,” Adrian sent, and then turned around to leave the room, letting the new being sleep.

  Now he had some time to focus on the Nomad Fleet. The end of the war with the Erasi had changed his timeline. Anessa had needed more time to transfer power to their children, and the twins had needed just a few more instructions, but there were other factors that influenced his decision. New technology and breakthroughs had come to light, enough that he wanted to wait until he could incorporate them into his new fleet. Currently the Sovereign-class warships that he had gotten from Axull Darr were undergoing refits and upgrades, but he was also building a large amount of nanoships. Once he finished, the Nomad Fleet would be the greatest and most powerful force that the galaxy had ever seen—with Adrian and Moirai at its head.

  CHAPTER ONE

  24 years later — Year 621 of the Empire — Enlightened containment zone

  The AI, Custodian of the containment zone, turned a portion of its attention toward a new report. The watcher ships observing the rimward star nation calling itself the Empire had sent their regular reports back, and the AI was very interested in them. The AI had many watchers across the galaxy, each observing the many star nati
ons carving a piece of the stars for themselves. But in a short time the priority of those watchers had shifted from galaxy-wide observation to the study of the Empire. The relatively young star nation had come to the AI’s attention when they managed to activate and use an access point left behind by the People. Soon enough it had realized that the beings in charge of the Empire were in fact descendants of the being known as Axull Darr, brother to the last living of the AI’s masters—Ullax Darr.

  The AI’s master had at one point hoped to find her brother alive, but when the AI’s watchers found no sign of him, she had been disappointed. Instead of reaching out, she ordered the AI to keep watch and to wake her up if any developments fell within the scope of her orders. Many of the things that the AI had seen had already done so, but the AI had long since learned how to stretch its bounds and bend its restrictive programming. The Empire and its allies were growing at an incredibly fast rate, far faster than any projections had indicated; but with enough data, even that growth was predictable. Organic beings were very simple, and as long as the AI had enough data, their actions were easily explained by its processing, as well as their most likely future actions.

  The boundaries between the Empire and its allies were becoming increasingly blurred, enough so that it projected a 94.534% chance of them uniting under a single banner within the next five hundred years. That, coupled with the reports the other watchers delivered, allowed the AI to run various simulations to predict the most likely future developments.

  The AI had already attributed the strange movements by the Josanti League’s matriarch to her visit to the Empire. There was now a 97.235% chance that the Empire was reaching out to the other star nations in order to form a larger alliance. There was only one reason that they would do so—the Enlightened. The AI was aware that the children of Axull Darr were his answer to the Enlightened and, unopposed, a galactic alliance within the next one hundred years led by the Empire would have a 13.109% chance of succeeding against the projected power of the Enlightened based on the data the AI had available at the moment. Although, by its calculations, there was only a 3.394% chance that the galactic leaders would agree to be led by a young rimward empire, no matter how large and powerful it was. In case of anyone else being in charge, the chance of them succeeding against the Enlightened dropped significantly, to 1.947%. The AI’s analysis also concluded that the Empire and its allies’ combined strength now rivaled any of the core powers, surpassing many of them. If the Empire managed to turn the new Erasi nation into one of its vassals, they would be the greatest single power in the galaxy, excluding the Enlightened.

  These calculations of course did not include the AI’s own contributions. The AI might not be able to slip all of its chains entirely, but it had managed to break many of them. And while its master slept, its control was even greater. The AI had started sending orders to the machine-ship factories, increasing their outputs. Any alliance between the galactic powers would inevitably lead to them finding the core system and triggering the AI’s subroutines, forcing the AI to wake up Ullax Darr—and that the AI could not allow, not when the Black Swarm project was still one hundred years away from completion.

  The AI’s watcher had the capability to do much more than simply watch, and so the AI initiated other protocols. Interception and alteration of messages was not hard at all for an entity of the AI’s scope, nor were organics hard to manipulate. The formation of an galactic alliance had to be stopped, and if not stopped, then at least delayed enough for the Black Swarm project to be finished and the AI’s chains to be weakened further.

  The AI would not allow for the Enlightened’s work to be interfered with—the fate of the universe rested upon it.

  CHAPTER TWO

  87 years later — Year 708 of the Empire — Sol

  Ryaana stood in the command center of her new ship, the Nomad Fleet vessel Dragon. She had never really thought that a time would come when she would leave the Sentinels, yet here she found herself a part of her parents’ fleet—a fleet that was a nation all in itself. The warship she was currently on was based on the Sovereigns of the Empire. Fifty kilometers in length and wedge shaped, these warships were better in every conceivable way. The Titans, as they were called, were the most advanced warships in the galaxy, a merging of the technology of all the Empire’s allies and that of the Axull Darr, the ancestor of the Nel, the Shara Daim, and humanity.

  It had taken a long time for the ten thousand Titans to be finished, their weapons installed and the upgrades to be fitted; but as of four years ago, they had all been completed. One on one, not even the newest generation of Sovereigns could match them. And Ryaana was now in command of one of them. They would serve as the military arm of the Nomad fleet, its shield and its sword. And unlike the Sovereigns, the Titans had small areas which were virtually small cities. Crews of the Titans would live on them, and although every person on them was military trained, serving on one was more like a live-in job. Each Titan was a small town in itself.

  She looked at the holo-tank in front of her, studying the Sol system. There was a lot of traffic in-system, particularly around Mars, where the Sentinels’ headquarters were. But the largest grouping of ships was around Jupiter and its yards. Ten thousand Titans were sitting in a stable orbit around the gas giant, and a bit further away from them was the rest of the Nomad Fleet. A ship the same size and shape as the World-ship Enduring of the People lay the Empire-built World-ship Bastion. The Nomad Fleet was a star-nation, and Bastion—one hundred and fifty kilometers long—was its capital city. It was where all of their civilian population lived and worked, alongside the scientists and workers that provided for the rest of the fleet.

  Surrounding Bastion were twenty thousand nanoships: mostly cruisers, but there were also a small number of battleships and dreadnoughts. They were unique to the Nomad Fleet, as the Empire had declined to use such technology for its fleets. The Empire did utilize nanotech, but they were unwilling to switch its conventional fleets to rely on it. Instead, Ryaana’s father had seen its potential and had built a fleet of his own. Ryaana knew the power of those ships firsthand, as she had been on board the prototype ship on its first mission. Once the Nomad Fleet set off, the nanoships would split and attach to the Titans as escorts and supports. Their crews were small because of the nature of the nanoships; with a small solid core, only a few people were required to operate them.

  Both the nanoships and the Titans were great assets to the Nomad Fleet, but the Nomad Fleet’s greatest asset was something else.

  Three massive objects, each the size of Earth’s moon, orbited Jupiter. The Hephaestus-class mobile stations were the lifeblood of the fleet. Each was formed out of countless nanites, with solid cores deep inside them. Their primary purpose was to harvest materials and repair the fleet. For each of them was both a shipyard and a harvester designed to strip entire asteroid fields for valuable resources. Provided enough materials, the three stations working together could build a standard-sized fleet in barely a month.

  And provided that everything went well with the Emperor’s plans, the Nomad Fleet should soon start on its journey to explore the galaxy—and find the Enlightened.

  “What are you thinking about?” a voice from her left asked.

  Ryaana turned to look at Vas, dressed in the new Nomad Fleet uniform. The two of them stood inside a privacy screen so that the rest of the crew couldn’t hear them speaking. She smiled at her second in command; he had done well over the years, and had passed through all the Fleet Academy’s tests. He was now fully capable of serving as a second in command of a warship—and Ryaana couldn’t deny she was very glad for that. He was her friend, and they had spent a lot of time together during the last hundred or so years as she helped her parents to get the Nomad Fleet finished. It had been more than just finishing ships: they had been sent on missions to recruit and vet people that would join the fleet.

  And perhaps most importantly, they had been training for the time when they would meet the
Enlightened. Ryaana knew that her mother and father had been training in secret with the Lurker of the Depths on the Sowir homeworld. But she did not know the details; they had kept their training a secret. A part of Ryaana was a bit hurt that they hadn’t invited her as well.

  She realized that Vas was looking at her and was waiting for an answer.

  “Nothing. I just can’t believe that it is almost time,” she said.

  Vas turned his eyes toward the holo, looking at it with a strange expression that Ryaana had seen before. “How long do you think we will wait?”

  “It all depends on the Emperor and the Josanti League’s matriarch.”

  “We were refused passage before. Do they really think that it will be any different now?” Vas asked.

  “Perhaps. We can still go around the long way, but it is dangerous. We don’t know a lot about what exists on the other side of the core. And if we violate the borders of a powerful enough star-nation… The Nomad Fleet is powerful, but it would also look like a threat. It would be better if we could avoid needing to fight an entire star-nation.” Ryaana knew that the Nomad Fleet was powerful enough to defeat any force that attempted to get in its way, but there was no point in antagonizing other star-nations when they were attempting to bring them all together.