by Jerome Kelly
“We don’t know the reasons behind it but they came into conflict with the Xerion faction in a very sudden move,” said Iyacs, “they raided three Xerion systems close to their homeworld and inflicted some pretty heavy damage on their forces in the area. Even though relationships between the Xerions and the other factions were starting to strain at this point, we were still an empire and we could not ignore them and so the Antalaea united against the Al’cari and began a campaign to drive back their attacks. Eventually we pushed them back to their home system and we were about to attempt to negotiate a truce when the Xerions decided to continue their attack and bomb their homeworld, Tiros. We believed that the entire Al’cari race was wiped out that day. If there were survivors, they would be seeking revenge against the races of the Antalaea, most notably the Xerions. Al’cari are very intelligent and very proficient in combat, their ships were immensely powerful and even the stronger Jaiytid cruisers had real difficulty engaging them.”
“The ones we encountered fought like brutes,” said James, “they didn’t attempt contact, they didn’t stop to ask questions, they just came at us like mindless beasts with the intention of killing us all. They nearly succeeded too, one of our crew is still in critical condition.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” said Iyacs, “and I am also surprised to hear of this change in Al’cari tactics. The ones that the Jaiytid ground forces engaged were organised and fought bravely. Had we not been engaged in hostilities with them, they would have been an excellent candidate to join the empire.”
“It’s hard to imagine them as an intelligent race from what we have seen,” said James, “attacking without warning, no offer of negotiation, brutally killing our people. They seem like no more than brutes and brawlers to me.”
“They were a very proud race once,” said Iyacs, “in fact, their race possessed one of the greatest war heroes in the history of the empire. When the Xerions made their attack on Tiros, they started by trying to eliminate the military camps the Al’cari had placed on the planet’s moon. Even though they had a physical advantage in combat, they were hopelessly outnumbered and it looked as if they were going to be forced into a full retreat. That was when one Al’cari captain stepped forward, a warrior named Arrokan. He stood alone at the heart of the last standing Al’cari base as wave after wave of Xerions soldiers poured in to try and size the facility, the last one on the moon that hadn’t fallen to the attackers. He held them there for so long, reinforcements from the homeworld were able to arrive and all of the beaten and bloodied troops who were cooped up inside the base regained their will to fight, joining the battle once more and pushing the Xerions back and eventually off the moon. They say he killed more than a thousand Xerions that day with simply his wrist blade and his pistol. If his race had not been supposedly wiped out, he would have been honoured as one of the greatest war heroes in history.”
“I only wish the ones we were facing now had that same kind of honour and bravery,” said James, “maybe they wouldn’t be trying so hard to kill us. Facing them in battle isn’t the biggest problem we have right now though. They are searching for an ancient Jaiytid weapon, something that is referred to as the Shadow Bringer.”
“So… the Shadow Bringer has been found…” if it was possible for a machine to sound sorrowful, this was it, “that was a secret that was meant to be buried forever. If the Al’cari were to possess this weapon, the damage that they could do is untold. It is fortunate that the weapon was divided into four pieces though and it cannot be used unless all four are combined.”
“So you know of it then?”
“Yes, I am aware of it’s existence,” said Iyacs, “in fact, one piece of the weapon itself lies in the vaults beneath this hangar.”
“Excuse me!?” James jumped up from where he had been sat, “there is a piece here!? Why could you not have told us this when we were here before?”
“I was instructed to withhold all information regarding any of the items hidden here unless the individual present already knows of their existence,” said Iyacs, “only a Jaiytid descendant who does not intend to use the Shadow Bringer for evil means is to be allowed to find it, and even then, I am not permitted to reveal the locations of the other parts of the weapon. In fact, I do not even possess that information, it has been removed from my memory core, likely by whoever left it here.”
“But now that we know of it, you can tell us how to get it?”
“If you want to take it, you may proceed to the vaults below the hangar,” said Iyacs, “but I must warn you, by retrieving this weapon and bringing it out into the open once more, there is a high chance that this series of events will end only by the use of the weapon itself.”
“All we want to do for now is make sure that these Al’cari can’t find it,” James assured it, “we have no intentions of using it ourselves, we just want to make sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. If all else fails, we can destroy it and ensure that no one can ever use it.”
“The weapon cannot be destroyed James,” said Iyacs, “each piece of the Shadow Bringer contains large portions of unstable matter. While they are not a threat when left untampered with, if someone was to attempt to disassemble this thing, it could trigger an unpredictable chain reaction and cause untold devastation. This is why the Jaiytids went to so much trouble to hide the weapon, there is only one way this can possibly end.”
“So whatever happens, this is going to end badly for someone?” Said James, “if we were to detonate this thing in dead space, far from any star systems, what effect would it have?”
“If there is nothing in the proximity of it’s blast radius, it will not cause any lasting harm,” said Iyacs, “but used within the confines of a star system, it could wipe out an entire planet, if detonated close enough to it. Each of the three components extracted from the main part of the weapon contain a different form of unstable matter which when combined, trigger a chain reaction that will cause an explosion the size of a small supernova. If fired directly into a system’s star, it will amplify the effects and will likely result in the destruction of every planet and moon in the system.”
“Why would the Jaiytids have built something like this? Even with the war against the Xerions, could they really have sunk to the level of wanting to wipe out entire systems like this?”
“It was a desperate move by one of the last factions of surviving Jaiytids,” said Iyacs, “they knew the only way to save their race was by using a weapon of mass destruction on either a Xerion world or by massing their fleet and detonating it there. Either one could have changed the tide of the war and seen the Jaiytid faction survive. In the end, the weapon was declared too dangerous to exist in case the Xerions ended up taking possession of it and learning how to duplicate it. Jaiytid engineers tried to disarm the weapon but realised that it’s individual components could not be taken apart without triggering some kind of explosion. It was, however, possible to remove the matter containment cells from the weapon and separate them in secret locations across the galaxy. It was hoped that these pieces would never see the light of day again.”
“There is one way we could end this,” said Kalmar, “we could recover all the pieces of the Shadow Bringer and then use the weapon to destroy the Al’cari base. It’s not going to be easy and it wouldn’t be pretty but it would end this once and for all.”
“That’s genocide!” Isha exclaimed, “you would wipe out and entire race?”
“Not the people, only their base,” said Kalmar, “we destroy their centre of operations and the thing they are so desperately searching for, we cripple them and they will have no reason to continue their campaign against us.”
“The Al’cari have already come back from being presumed extinct once,” said Iyacs, “there is nothing to say that they will not do it again.”
“We don’t need to decide anything yet,” said James, cooling the situation, “lets just get all the
pieces together before deciding what to do with them. I can’t condone using it against and entire race though, Kalmar, there is a reason that Artennes outlawed the creation of any weapons of mass destruction within the alliance. As much as I don’t always agree with him, he has the right idea on this. Iyacs, show is the way to the vaults.”
“Very well, I will allow you access to the lower vaults,” said Iyacs, “the consequences of the recovering of this weapon are yours alone.”
Just as on Sharstrom, the main console from which James was speaking to Iyacs moved to one side to reveal the hidden pathway. James indicated for his crew to follow behind him as he made his way inside. It was not a stairway built into the ground like last time, the steps lead down to a light silver, metallic hallway with rows of sealed doors on each side. All except one which had been left slightly open.
“Iyacs, what’s going on, has someone else been here recently?”
“No, not since you and your crew discovered this hangar six years ago,” said Iyacs, “my instruments down there indicate that one of your crew entered this part of the facility two days after you made first contact.”
“Who?”
“It was the one you called Darien. He accessed this vault and retrieved the item stored inside however the nature of the contents of this vault are not known to me. It was a package delivered here by a Jaiytid captain just a matter of days before the Xerion fleet arrived to destroy the buildings on the surface of this world. Do not worry, this was not the vault containing the Shadow Bringer.”
“I still don’t like the sound of this,” said Isha, “Darien’s intentions may not be like those of his predecessor but the thought of him possessing a Jaiytid artefact is a little unsettling. Do you know exactly what it was that he stole?”
“I am not permitted to reveal information of items stored within the vaults to anyone who does not already know of their nature or existence,” Iyacs repeated, “perhaps you should question him in person next time you see him.”
“I doubt he’ll just be willing to come over for a chat,” said Ansare, “if it was something bad, we would have known about it though, I don’t think we need to concern ourselves too much.”
“Yeah, Ok, we’ll worry about this another time,” said James, “Iyacs, can you open the vault with the Shadow Bringer inside?”
“I will do so now.”
Another of the large metallic doors unlocked and slowly, it opened, allowing the crew to enter. Just as before, at the end of a long rectangular room, there was the second piece of the Shadow Bringer. This too was attached to a lift mechanism that would take it to a chamber above the vaults. If they were lucky, they wouldn’t have to carry this one so far.
“To think it was here under our noses this whole time,” said Kosare, “if only we had known about it back then, we could have been ready for all of this.”
“I’m just glad the Vulians never learned of it,” said James, “imagine if one of their executors had got his hands on this thing. Its safe with us for now though, we just need to get it back to the ship. Iyacs, can you get this thing moving.”
“I will bring it to the surface for you now,” said Iyacs, “there is not room for all of you on the lift though, I can only take four of you.”
James elected to remain in the facility for now, he still had more questions for Iyacs. Julio, Ansare, Kalmar and Kosare all took the lift with the Shadow Bringer while the rest of the group exited the vault and returned to the main hangar. He couldn’t help but be curious as to what else might be lying around in the vaults that they did not know about, there must have been some important artefacts stored within them.
“The knowledge and the history that must be stored in this place… it’s almost like some kind of museum,” James said as they returned to the main hangar bay, “I only wish we had more time to look through all of it. There’s so much I wanted to learn last time I was here but I just never seem to have the time.”
“You would make a great scholar, James,” Kosare chuckled, “you sound just like all the guys at the archives, they would give so much just to come and spend a few weeks here. It would be great if we could take everything that is stored here and download it to the archives though, we could keep the staff busy for decades.”
“If only…” said James, “. . . we’d probably have to take Iyacs with us and I’m pretty sure we can’t fit everything in this facility onto our ship.”
“Actually…” said Morelli, “. . . I think we could.”
“Seriously?” Said Kosare, “and how exactly would we do that?”
“I could remove Iyacs’s central databanks, memory core and central processor and link it to the ship,” said Morelli, “the Evening Star is made up of Jaiytid technology, the two would be compatible… I think. I could definitely do it though.”
“This is a pretty ambitious idea Loca,” James had to admit it was one that appealed to him but he had his share of concerns about it, “how exactly would we link it with our systems? Wouldn’t we have to rebuild part of the ship to accommodate it?”
“The ship’s VI system!” Morelli said eagerly, “I could remove the current VI processor and link Iyacs to it’s workings within the ship. It would then become the new ship’s intelligence. I can guarantee it would be easier to use too, the current VI system is useless.”
“Iyacs, are you listening to this?”
“I am most curious,” said Iyacs, “you wish to remove me from this facility and transplant me into your ship?”
“If thats Ok with you,” said Morelli, “I know it’s ambitious but if you would rather come with us than stay down here, James would love to have you on board.”
“Well I can’t deny that it would be an interesting change of scenery,” said Iyacs, “many of your people seem to forget that even though I am a machine, I have sentient intelligence and I have feelings to some extent. I will admit, I am curious to see outside of this facility and experience being part of something new. Five hundred years underground does make for a tedious use of my time.”
“Then I guess its settled,” said James, “Loca, are you absolutely sure you can do this?”
“Oh please, this is routine for someone like me,” Morelli said confidently, “I’ll need a few hours to remove the Iyacs core from the facility and I’ll need to extract all the databanks and the memory processors too. I should have it done by the end of the day. I might need you to spare Connolly and some of the other engineers though, I could use someone to help me with the heavy lifting while I’m still healing.”
“I’ll get him down here right away,” said James, “Iyacs, are you ready to join the crew.”
“I am looking forward to going with you,” said Iyacs, “I will shut down all my systems and disconnect from the facility so that you may safely remove me. I only ask that you take exceptional care when transplanting me into your ship. A single mistake and I could be corrupted or irreversibly damaged and that would not suit any of our needs.”
“Don’t worry, I’m a professional,” chuckled Morelli, “I’ll have you on the ship good as new.”
The voice of Iyacs went silent, the intelligence powering down to allow Morelli to begin work and she was more than happy to get straight to it. With her injury putting her out of the fight for at least a few more days, getting her hands dirty with some advanced Jaiytid technology was the best thing she could do right now.
“Are you sure about this, James?” Lucy asked, “I’ve watched a fair few sci-fi films in my life. Don’t machines always rise up and rebel against their creators and then try to take over? How do we know this wont happen If Iyacs is linked to our ship?”
“You’ve watched too many films Lucy, it’ll be fine,” said James, “and we aren’t even Iyacs’s creator so it has no reason to rebel, think of it as a new part of the crew, a new member of the team.”
“I guess so but don’t say
I didn’t warn you,” said Lucy, “if it takes control of the ship and goes berserk…”
“Then I’ll admit I was wrong,” said James, “I think it will be just fine though. Besides, we will have a fail-safe in place just incase anything goes wrong. I trust Loca to get it done though.”
With Morelli getting to work on Iyacs and the engineering team on it’s way down to the surface, James returned to the rest of his crew on the flyer where the second piece of the Shadow Bringer was loaded and ready to go. It was just a matter of waiting to see how his decision to combine his ship with a Jaiytid intelligence would work out. It was risky but it could have enormous benefits for them if it was all a success.
Several hours had passed since they had arrived at Raylia. James wondered just how long it would take for Artennes and the Tolian engineers to figure out that they had only succeeded in obtaining a fake piece of the Shadow Bringer. Artennes would not likely be too pleased at James’s deception and it would likely have some strong repercussions, likely another reprimand, but he would not do anything differently if given the choice a second time. Only he and his crew knew the true extend of the power of the Al’cari, after all they were the only ones in the alliance to engage them successfully and survive the encounter. If Artennes really thought that a direct military operation against them was a sensible idea then he was gravely mistaken.
“James, I’m ready to bring Iyacs on board,” Morelli’s voice came over the comm in James’s quarters. He had spent the last few hours at his desk, going over the readouts on the Al’cari ships and reading through some old papers on tactics and space combat from back from when he had been at Greenwich academy. Isha was also with him in their quarters but she had chosen to get some sleep, the morning sickness was just starting to show up again despite the medication and she was in need of some rest.
“Good work, Loca,” said James, “how soon can you have it installed in the ship’s computer core?”
“We reckon five, maybe six hours,” said Morelli, “the technology is a little more complex that I had anticipated but I’m confident I can get it done in good time. Iyacs will be part of the ship very soon, don’t you worry.”
