by Aer-ki Jyr
“I get the feeling I’m going to learn a lot from you.”
“That’s the idea. So when your tour is done and you get the notoriety of being associated with me to start your own fan base, you don’t end up like the others and get bored to death. That’s a requirement, you know. I’m not going to invest time in someone who’s just going to give up at some point.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Promise me that if you ever do you’ll come back and talk to me before you start to waste away.”
“Done deal.”
“Good. Now we need to work on your galactic identity, and let’s start with seeing what you can do better than me.”
“Better? I don’t think I can…”
“Yes you can. I already checked,” Starchaser said with a smirk. “I suck at trilling. So you’re going to develop yours further and add it to my show. Then when you go off on your own, you can take that identity with you, but it doesn’t have to just be trilling. We’re going to look at everything you can do better than me and get you a nice identity package to work on. But I’m the only one that gets to be naked at shows.”
“Fair enough. Can you also help me with my workout routine? You are really ripped.”
“I had some Archon help with that too,” she confided. “And I’m willing to share.”
“How often do you see this friend?”
“Every few centuries. She’s very busy out there, keeping weaklings like us safe so we can go play without worry. She makes time for me, even though I can tell it’s boring for her, so I try to learn as much as I can and not waste minutes on small talk. I like to think I’m her apprentice, even if I only get a lesson every now and then.”
“That is so cool.”
“I’m very lucky in that regard. They understand things in a way we can’t, and once I got a few lectures I started to be able to see things differently. The information Star Force gives us in the maturia looks totally different through Archon eyes. The wisdom is there, we just can’t fully understand it when we’re newbs. Even now I still pick up new things from the same training videos I first saw thousands of years ago. There’s a huge hidden learning curve.”
“So where do I start?”
Starchaser reached out and grabbed the tracker that was floating just behind Jessica’s shoulder in standby mode. She reprogrammed it and handed it back to the new addition to her entourage. “Follow this to your new quarters and you’ll find instructions and assignments. I’ll check back in with you in a few days to make sure you are settling in, but most of my time will be spent alone. We’ll get to know each other gradually over time.”
“Works for me. Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me.”
“Get going,” Starchaser said, slapping Jessica lightly on the butt.
Taking note of that small lesson there, she pressed the activation button on the tracker and took off jogging along the holographic trail, eager to begin this crazy new life that just opened up for her, and also not to overstay her welcome and intrude on Starchaser’s private time any more.
Mina watched her go, then reached her arms up high above her head and stretched as a yawn worked its way out.
“Three down, six to go,” she said, pulling a tiny hidden clip out of her hair and holding it up in front of her face as she pressed the only button on the comm device. “Send the next one.”
4
May 3, 128439
Shangri-La System (Zavrex Kingdom)
Titon
Vraka scurried along the floor, with the Zendas Bsidd’s appendage nubs making dull thuds on the hard surface as he hurried up to one of the actual viewports along the promenade. Unlike space stations that had holographic ‘windows,’ the land-based spaceport had a series of real ones lining the half arc the cradled one of the larger landing pad clusters.
Vraka shoved his way between the legs of larger individuals until he got to an open window and stretched up to his full height of 1.3 meters so he could look out at the calm air around the landing pads…an extreme rarity given the amount of traffic on Titon, let alone in the rest of the system that contained 306 planets and 1832 moons. It was the largest system in Star Force possession, but not in the galaxy. 19 larger ones had been discovered, but they were all occupied to some extent and none of them had chosen to join the empire for varying reasons.
They were called ‘Omega’ systems, and while the lower limit was somewhat foggy, these huge systems were rare. Star Force had accumulated 207 smaller ones, but Shangri-La was by far the crown jewel in the empire, and not just because it held the largest Human population. It was also the most developed, with every single planet and moon sporting heavy infrastructure, including the gas giants that had Star Force Hycre colonies within them.
That meant an insane amount of traffic coming and going constantly, with the pause above this section of the Haedera 128 spaceport…which spanned more than 10,000 square miles…being due to the arrival of Lord Daegan. The Protovic monarch was replacing outgoing Lord Jeyron, who had been in Shangri-La since the system was first colonized. The Human had built it up from nothing into what was referred to as the ‘outer capitol’ of Star Force.
Lord Jeyron had already left two months ago to become the new ruler of the Platarro Kingdom, which was a splinter of the existing and overgrown Neonis Kingdom as new territory was constantly being added to it. The Star Force empire was so large that it had to be broken down into manageable units, called Kingdoms, and if they got too large the commerce within became stretched and the oversight and defense lagged, for the communications delays simply became too long to effectively manage.
Even a Kingdom was a huge empire of its own, and the Zavrex Kingdom was one of the oldest. Lord Daegan had been one of the original Lords when they were first created when the Grand Dukes became insufficient, and his being assigned to Zavrex now had been a surprise to many who thought he’d be transferred to a developing expansion of the empire as well while a less experienced Lord, assuming there even was such a thing, would be sent to oversee Zavrex.
But Director Davis had surprised everyone with the appointment, and many people on Titon were here and cramming the spaceport in order to catch a glimpse of the Lord’s ship when it arrived for the first time. There were all kinds of rumors as to why the Protovic monarch had been sent here, but the prevailing ones were that a rebuild was coming.
Such things had been seen elsewhere, and Daegan had been involved in several of them, but Zavrex was so old and stable that it didn’t make sense to Vraka…but what did he know? He was just a Bsidd pilot that ferried people up and down from the planet on dropships, and he’d had to work long and hard to achieve that position. The Bsidd contingent in Shangri-La was the largest by population, with the Kiritak, Paladin, and Verreti coming next, but after that it was the Humans, which was crazy because they reproduced so slow.
But they’d been coming here for so long to escape the ancient wars that their numbers had snowballed to the point where Shangri-La was known as Human territory even if they only made up 13% of the population…though that 13% accounted for 14.2 trillion individuals. The fact that a Protovic Lord was replacing a Human one also seemed a bit odd for the primary Human system, though some would argue Sol still claimed that title, and had many people confused as to what was going on.
Vraka had picked a good spot, accidentally, for when Lord Daegan’s ship descended and he caught his first glimpse of it, his piloting skills instantly confirmed it was heading almost precisely for his position. The golden-colored starship floated down to the landing pad slightly to Vraka’s left and blotted out the single white sun in the sky. It landed only 2 kilometers away and gave Vraka the opportunity to see not only the ship in exacting detail, but also the boarding ramp when it lowered.
It wasn’t close enough to see faces, but with the Bsidd’s enhanced eyesight he could make out uniforms…and when the black/gold uniform of a Lord appeared with a glowing blue head poking out of it a shiver
ran through Vraka’s body, for he was looking at Lord Daegan in person. He hadn’t expected to get that lucky, but he was sure that was him while a number of other monarchs were accompanying him. Their uniforms were also notable, each for their varying ranks, including one that looked to be a Grand Duke.
Which would make sense. A Lord ran a Kingdom with a lot of help as they broke down those Kingdoms into Regions and Clusters. Regions were the designation for a geographic area that Star Force held dominance over, while not actually owning all the systems in it. A Cluster was a grouping of systems in close proximity and high in population density. Grand Dukes were responsible for Regions and policing territory that was not Star Force’s, ensuring that the independent civilizations that existed like a shotgun spread throughout Star Force’s domain held to the basic principles of independence. If they did not, they would be forcibly annexed into the empire rather than allowed to continue their bad behavior.
Arch Dukes were given Clusters to oversee, or sometimes a single race within a Region. Empire-wide racial direction was accomplished by a special appointment of Princes, who held a lesser position than Lord, but their duties were drastically different to the point that they didn’t truly hold a fixed position in the hierarchy. The Prince of the Bsidd, for example, was Karthen. The Human directed no world other than the one he was based on, which in his case was a planet called Char in the Zerus System. It was the defacto homeworld of the Bsidd, and from there Prince Karthen monitored Bsidd across the empire, trouble-shooted problems, and worked on developing their future.
Currently there were 9 different Bsidd variants, and there were rumors of a 10th being worked on. Vraka was a Zendas, and Zendas had been around for nearly the entire life of the empire. His forbearers were not as advanced, for his genome had been advanced at several points along the history of the Bsidd, and it was future enhancements that the Princes of all races worked hard on while avoiding pitfalls associated with becoming too powerful.
Vraka was a civilian who had worked for a number of private corporations. The dropships he piloted were not Star Force ones, though the design was the same. But civilian or in Star Force service, all Bsidd were looked after by their Prince, and the same was true of the other major races in the empire…not counting the Knights, who were directly overseen by the Archons along with the Clans.
They had Monarchs too, but not the higher ranking ones, and the ones that were there assisted the Archons in their leadership. Both the Clans and the Knight races were tooled for warfare, while the Monarchs were more about growth. At least that’s the way most people described them. What actually happened in their very secretive lives was beyond Vraka.
But now he could say he had actually seen one, and a Lord at that. Lords were second only to Director Davis in the hierarchy, and Vraka felt truly honored to have been this close to one.
The moment didn’t last long, for Lord Daegan disappeared from view into one of the upraised cupolas on the landing pad and moved down into the undercity beneath the landing grid. The crowd around Vraka didn’t disperse very quickly, rather still enamored by the sight of the Lord’s ship. Maybe their eyesight wasn’t as good as his and they hadn’t seen the Lord himself, but that wasn’t uncommon. Bsidd pilots had been given extra good eyesight, whereas the other Bsidd and especially Humans lacked in that regard, though there was a mix of just about everyone here now, with more races than he could count.
Vraka sunk back down and began pushing his way between the taller race’s legs until he finally got into the semi-clear area away from the windows. From there he made his way across the spaceport to a security station where he scanned his credentials and was allowed access to a private grid that his corporation owned. Vertias Unlimited had a great number of ships and dedicated pads for them, and he was due to report to work within the next half hour, glad that he’d been able to glimpse the new Lord’s arrival before his first flight of the day went up.
What was in store for Shangri-La and the Zavrex Kingdom he didn’t know, but whatever the new Lord had been assigned here to do, it wasn’t just minding the store, for it was rumored that Daegan was the Director’s favorite troubleshooter, and where he went, changes were going to be made.
Whatever was going to happen, Vraka figured he’d have a good seat to watch from, considering that Lord Daegan had chosen Titon as his capitol, whereas Jeyron had based out of Kaemro. And that shift was probably going to bring even more business to Vertias Unlimited on Titon, as people wanted to be close to wherever the Monarchs were, especially the highest ranking ones, even if they didn’t have access to them. They wanted to be seen and maybe attract their attention, for no one requested an audience with a Monarch. If a meeting was to take place, the Monarch would call for you, not the other way around.
None of them would ever call on Vraka, but he had now seen Lord Daegan and that freak moment was something he would remember for the rest of his life.
5
May 12, 128439
Vborati System (Leona Kingdom)
Sistior
The Nestafar had once been an independent race stronger than Star Force. That was a bit of history that the Nestafar of today clung to with a bit of pride, but it also served as a lesson of how they had failed in the past and Star Force had chosen to rescue and revive their race rather than let them be destroyed by their corruption.
Those two facts had driven the Nestafar of 3,000 years ago to push out of their ward status, push away from a legacy of timid apathy, and embrace Star Force philosophy as they worked to regain their status within the galaxy. It had been a long, hard road, for most Nestafar didn’t care to do anything at all. They just existed, reproduced, died, and the cycle continued until a group of brave individuals began to challenge that status quo and take on the challenges Star Force had waiting for them.
All along there had been a pathway for individuals to rise out of the doldrums, and the few that did eventually left the Nestafar worlds to join Star Force society at large. But 3 millenia ago the revolution began as those who woke from their stupor refused to leave. They wanted to rework the Nestafar race and become more than a ward that existed at the benevolence of the Star Force empire. Rather, they wanted to contribute to it in more than just a logistical fashion. They wanted to become a major player, and the first step in doing that required that they be assigned a Monarch of their own.
Previously they had been offered inclusion into the Beacon Faction, but the Nestafar had refused, wanting to maintain their simple ward status and not interact with the other races. Star Force had allowed them to do so while new races being brought in that couldn’t support themselves were defaultly added to Beacon, which now was the 6th largest faction by territory. The Nestafar had limped on as a single planet whose population never grew much, and their race became a footnote in history as Star Force grew to encompass the majority of the Rim half of the galaxy.
But 3,000 years ago that changed, and their race took up the challenge of growth. They began training in earnest, asking for additional responsibilities, and recruiting other Nestafar that, honestly, just wanted to do whatever the group was doing. That was how most Nestafar thought, and when this group of individuals had grown large enough the ‘winds’ shifted and the whole of their single planet fell in line with the new order.
Many steps had to be taken to get even a little allowance from Star Force for growth, but when they passed the initial tests a Baron was assigned to their race to see just how far they were willing to go.
And over the past 3 millennia the Nestafar had transformed themselves into a respectable Sub-Faction within the empire. They wanted to reach Faction status, but the Nestafar had serious trouble, as many races did, with the aquatics requirements. Not only could they not swim well, they had a hard time mentally adjusting to the slower nature of water combat because they were geared for the fast movements in air. Many aerial races had this problem, and the Nestafar hadn’t overcome it yet, but they were still trying as their substandard aquati
cs division continued to aspire to become more.
But as a Sub-faction they had a higher position within the empire than 98% of the other races, most of whom were either part of Beacon or Axius. Some of those would eventually work their way up to Province status, which was a self-sufficient civilization that operated independently but didn’t have military responsibilities beyond their own worlds. Sub-factions did, and as a Faction Beacon did as well, but each piece of Beacon only contributed a small amount of a valuable attribute from each race, with Prince Avril weaving all those together into a formidable whole.
Axius was somewhat different, in that each race did not live on separate worlds, rather they shared cities based on size, with 3 different categories. The largest races occupied the Alpha worlds, the approximately Human-sized races occupied the Beta worlds, and the smaller races under 2 foot tall or so occupied the Gamma worlds. The Nestafar that had left to join Axius lived on the Betas. They had maturias just for them, but they were taught to integrate and form teams with the other races rather than remain in their racial units. Axius was, in fact, the strongest Faction within Star Force if not the largest population wise, but the Nestafar wanted more than to just be part of a combined force. They wanted their own bit of turf and the responsibilities that went along with it.
And they weren’t alone. Many other races aspired to Faction status, while many more were content to lesser roles. At present, there were 1,398 Factions within Star Force, and another 18,439 Sub-Factions. There were also 5,319 Provinces and 723 wards, but most races within Star Force were within Beacon, numbering at 142,838 while the latest racial count within Axius…where even a single individual qualified as a race…was at more than 2.7 million.
Add in another 7,498,126 Sanctuary races that were well below Ward status and had to be fully taken care of round the clock by their handlers, and the Star Force empire was truly mind-boggling in its scope. Having risen to a Sub-Faction was a truly grand accomplishment for the Nestafar, but they did not have their own Prince. They had a Duke assigned to them that oversaw their 28 systems, all of which were located within the Leona Kingdom in a tight cluster of stars.
