by Aer-ki Jyr
Ella turned her head and looked at Riax, equally interested in his answer.
“Our sensors work differently than yours. The shields don’t stop them.”
“Handy,” Jalia commented.
Riax flew the shuttle out clear of the bay, then drifted in on a direct line. There was a small icon marking the navigational beacon that the mercs were using to designate the location of their bay in the center of the screen, but the Human didn’t need it. He kept the shuttle lined up visually and slowly brought it in through the shield wall.
The medium-sized hangar was mostly empty, with flashing guide lights indicating where on the deck the mercs wanted him to land. Riax piloted the shuttle over to that position, swung it around 180 degrees so it was facing out of the bay, then gently touched down.
“I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving,” the Human said, almost jumping out of his chair and heading aft. “Let’s go make some friends.”
“I FIND IT hard to believe that you are Human,” the Elari captain said, his thick top set of arms crossed over his chest. “They were great warriors . . . you are diminutive.”
Riax half smiled as he was chewing, then cleared his throat. “Don’t let size bias you. I could take you with one arm tied . . . with one arm,” he finished. “Or not even that.”
Captain Terrek laughed, making a soft booming sound. “That I would like to see, my young friend.”
The Human stood up as he finished one last mouthful of small white food pellets called Ekchma, which he mentally added to his future requisition list. He rather liked the crunch.
The Elari did likewise and they both walked off into a large area between the long table and the entrance.
“What are you doing?” Jalia whispered at him as he left the table.
Setting some ground rules, his voice echoed through her mind.
She turned sideways in her high backed chair to watch, as did the other eleven people at the table.
“Ha,” Terrek laughed, beating his chest with his lower fists, then his uppers. “Impress me.”
Riax smiled and moved forward in a blur of motion, kicking the taller Elari in the gut and knocking him back a step, then he pulled back to his original position and looked the Captain over.
Terrek huffed and clapped both sets of hands together with a thump. “Faster than I expected, but you’ll have to do better than that.”
“As you wish,” Riax said, beginning to walk a slow circle around him. When he made a full quarter orbit he ran forward a step, leaned forward, then launched himself up into the air while rolling through a somersault, bringing his feet forward.
His left foot hit the Elari in the upper chest while his right missed over his shoulder. Riax fell sideways, bouncing off the captain’s arms, and landed on his knee. He caught his balance instantly and rotated about, knocking Terrek’s legs out from under him. The Captain fell backwards and landed hard.
Riax stood up and looked him over again patiently.
“Alright, enough with me being nice,” the Captain said, climbing to his feet. “Missing arm or no, you’re going down this time.”
“It won’t be that easy,” Riax warned, standing still.
The four-armed giant ran toward him, surprisingly fast, and swung his left arms in a staggered punch.
Riax merely ducked down, nearly sitting on his ankles, then jumped sideways as the Elari slashed down with his right arms, which also missed.
Jalia nearly choked, covering her mouth with her right hand in anticipation of the blows to fall, but somehow they never did.
Stepping forward quickly, Riax kicked into the giant’s midsection again, but Terrek took it and caught his leg with his bottom left hand and held it in place long enough to grin before whipping the Human around and throwing him against the side wall.
Riax bounced off it and landed in a heap on the ground.
That’s more like it.
Terrek clapped both sets of hands together again, urging him to return to the fight. Riax stood up and nodded his head in a gesture of respect, then walked towards his opponent. When he was two steps away he darted forward and kicked his him hard in the leg, knocking it out from under him.
The Elari dropped to a knee and as the bigger alien’s torso came down Riax brought his opposite knee up and impaled him in the chest hard enough that it lifted the Terrek half a meter off the ground. Riax stepped back and waited for him to stand up again before he finally used his full strength and kicked him flying backwards into the wall where he hit it at a bad angle. Hard.
The Elari slumped to the ground and shook his head to clear it, then he looked up at Riax.
“You are far stronger than you should be for your size.”
“It’s not the size of the muscles. It’s the strength of the fibers,” he explained.
“Hmmn. Were all Humans this strong?”
“No, it’s a genetic upgrade that I had to earn,” he said, offering his tiny hand.
The Elari’s grip swallowed it up, but Riax had little trouble pulling Terrek to his feet.
“And yet I sense you were still holding back,” the Captain guessed, looking down at the much smaller Human.
Riax turned to his right and looked at the table. His glass of water was sitting next to Jalia and still half full. He reached out his hand towards it and telekinetically floated it over to him, taking a big gulp before answering the wide-eyed Elari.
“You could say that.”
The Captain was so stunned that he couldn’t say anything for a moment, then busted out laughing again, vibrating small objects in the room. “I can see now why the Elder values your survival. Should your race return to the stars you will be a formidable ally indeed.”
“That remains to be seen,” Riax cautioned. “The Vespa and I do not see eye to eye on many things. We have never been enemies in the military sense, but we have sparred in other ways.”
Terrek nodded, motioning for them to return to the table. “You were once their adversary?”
“They are an incredibly annoying race,” Riax said, resting his hand on Jalia’s shoulder as he sat back down next to her, reassuring her obvious anxiety that everything was alright. “But we find common purpose on occasion.”
“I hope we can share common purpose now. The galaxy is barbaric, undisciplined, and segmented. We try to stabilize what we can, reconnecting local systems and protecting those that cannot fend for themselves. If what the Elder has said is true, this is not apart from your own goals.”
“Tell me more about the Concordat and your ‘Elder.’ I want to know what she’s been up to.”
“She? I didn’t realize the Elder had a gender. No matter. I will tell you whatever you wish to know.”
“A brief history would be a nice start. As far back as you know, anyway.”
Terrek pointed to a Fret on his left. “My analytical Lieutenant would know more than I do.”
“Yes, well . . .” the thin, green-skinned Fret said, talking quickly, “the Concordat originally began as three separate mercenary factions . . . small, fringe rings . . . that the Elder recruited and joined together to serve as a protectorate for the moon of Dega . . .”
Riax leaned back in his chair and listened to a long, detailed history of the creation and accomplishments of the Concordat and their Elder. The Fret, a race Riax wasn’t familiar with, took extreme care in detailing the timeline, giving the Human a good idea of what the Vespa had been up to. By all accounts, she was employing their original pacifistic philosophy of force containment and dispersion by supplanting local militaries with the Concordat, thus taking away their ability to initiate conflicts.
It seemed the Concordat would work for less than other mercenary units, far less in fact, and offer extremely generous contracts that made local governments comfortable with ceding their planetary defenses to
the organization. The Concordat terms offered significant monetary savings coupled with technologically superior defense forces, compared to what they could have fielded on their own, which made the Vespa’s need for Human technology clear. The more advanced her available tech became, the more incentive and negotiating power she’d have . . . and to a Vespa, negotiation was everything.
What didn’t add up, though, was how she was paying for all of this. Mercs charged high rates for a reason, and it wasn’t pure greed. Fielding and maintaining a fighting unit was expensive, and if she was undercutting all the others then she must have some other resource base. While the analyst’s explanation of Concordat affairs didn’t fully answer his question on that account, it did convince Riax that the Vespa’s dealings were more widespread and intricate than he’d thought possible. It seemed she’d learned quite a few new tricks during his ‘nap.’
Riax nodded his thanks as the Fret finished his recollection. “How many of these battleships do you have?”
“Four,” it answered in a clipped word, talking as if it was always in a hurry.
“Then you must rate fairly high in the organizational structure, Captain. Beyond the Vespa, what is your chain of command?”
“I am Captain of this ship, yes, but my duties are those of a General. I answer only to the Elder, and from time to time lead fleet operations. There are six others that I know of with similar standing, though the Elder keeps some portions of the Concordat out of public view, so I cannot say I have full knowledge of our current forces or command structure. We serve the Elder, and do not concern ourselves with the overarching details.”
“Do you have a map of Concordat installations?”
The Elari nodded and sent the Fret off to retrieve it.
“I am curious, though, as to what weaponry your ship possesses,” the Captain asked. “Our battle records indicate some type of plasma weapon?”
Riax nodded. “I made a little upgrade.”
“You are both warrior and tech?”
“My clan specializes in technical attributes, and we are encouraged to pick up at least a level 1 rating in that discipline in addition to others, though my highest rating is in naval combat.”
The Elari seemed to sit up a bit straighter. “You are a commander?”
“My rank is Colonel, which has afforded me command of several ships and even a task force on occasion.”
“Tell me, Culnel. How large was your Human fleet?”
Riax laughed. “A good question. I only know the approximate size of the Beta fleet . . . my clan’s fleet. We had over 300,000 warships this size or larger.”
“Battleships?” the Elari repeated.
“Or bigger.”
“What was your largest ship class?”
“Well, I’m not going to discuss all our variants, but we fielded a Behemoth-class warship that was . . . five times the length of this ship,” Riax explained, getting caught up on the length measurement conversion. Ella was translating everything that was said for him while subsequently feeding him the commerce language translation for every word he said. It was highly difficult to manage, but the telepathic powers of both races were formidable enough to tackle the challenge. That, and Riax didn’t want the mercs knowing that he couldn’t speak their language.
Fortunately he didn’t have to worry about Ella’s playing any pranks on him, because he literally didn’t know what he was saying, only pronouncing the words she fed to him. Had she wanted to she could have had him saying whatever she liked.
“I’ve never known of a warship that large,” the Captain said. “Is it also a jumpship?”
“No, a pure warship,” Riax confirmed as the Fret returned. He placed a holoprojector in the center of the table and a floating map of the local star systems appeared above the remains of their dinner.
“Where are we?” Riax asked.
“Here,” the Captain said, realigning the map so it centered on their position.
Riax looked at the scattering of dots indicating Concordat facilities. “We are headed into Cres space,” Riax said, noticing the large blue-highlighted region on the edge of the map, “by way of Iras.”
The Fret highlighted the system in question.
Terrek nodded. “You hope to access the Yiori jumpship routes.”
“You know of a better way to get to Cres space?” Riax asked, picking up on the Captain’s thoughts.
“Possibly. Why haven’t the Cres sent a ship to pick you up?”
“They don’t know where we are,” Riax explained.
“You have no way of contacting them?”
Riax suppressed a grimace. Technically he did now have the technology to send a signal to the Cres that they could receive and interpret after a month’s delay. Problem was, conversations with Ivara had revealed that the Cres suspected a security leak that had led to the increased scrutiny of the dig site where his pod had been recovered. And if someone out there knew how to intercept and decode Cres signals, they could be asking for more trouble by sending a request for help. For now it was safer to be as anonymous and unpredictable as possible.
“Save for a courier ship we don’t have, no. But then that would defeat the point anyway.”
“The Concordat owns a number of small jumpships, not large enough to carry this battleship, but they should be able to fit your freighter. Trouble is, I have no way of knowing exactly where they are at this moment. The Elder said she was redirecting all available help into your flight path. I assume that would include our jumpship fleet. Even if not, there are several systems where the jumpships make regular stops.”
Riax stood up and walked around the perimeter of the table and stood next to the Captain, beginning to go over possible course deviations based on where they had current resources. Several systems the Captain dismissed immediately, based on his knowledge of rival merc strongholds and unfriendly system defense fleets. After more than an hour of insightful debate they’d come to a mutual agreement about how to proceed. One that made Jalia more than nervous.
They were going to pass through the Jptal System, two jumps away, and home of the Xiats.
Chapter 26
“HEY, YOU FEELING sleepy yet?” Jalia asked mirthfully as she walked off the shuttle and back onto the Resolute’s deck.
Riax frowned at her as Ella walked by the pair and headed elsewhere. “I do believe I won our bet. We didn’t exactly get into a fight with the Concordat.”
Jalia stood firm and crossed her arms over her chest. “I do believe,” she said, mimicking Riax’s tone, “we bet on whether they would bother us or leave us alone . . . and sending a warship to escort us isn’t exactly keeping to themselves, not to mention them having me bring down my ship on their landing pad.”
“Well, ok, that one was their idea, but you’re missing the point. They didn’t shoot at us.”
“Didn’t leave us alone either,” Jalia argued. “They were even inside your base.”
“Fine,” Riax relented. “We both win. I’ll spend the night with you in your sleep pod while I dig the commerce language out of your memory.”
Jalia blinked in confusion. “I thought you’d already learned it. You were just speaking it on the battleship.”
“Ah, no, that was Ella translating for me.”
“But you were saying the words . . .”
“That she was translating for me,” Riax reiterated.
“Really? I didn’t notice any lag.”
“We’re good,” he said, walking off from the shuttle. Jalia hung off his right shoulder perkily.
“But it seems you still need me for lessons . . . or a download,” she added, slightly less enthusiastically.
“It seems so.”
“So . . . are you sleepy yet?” she asked again, smiling.
Riax laughed. “Alright, you win. Naptime now, work on your ship wi
ll have to come later.”
“It can wait,” she said, walking around to his left side and locking her arm around his. “Right now you need your rest. When you invited me to dinner I didn’t expect you to be fighting.”
“That?” Riax scoffed. “That was just a warrior’s handshake. The Elari operate mostly on ego, and it’s necessary to establish your standing early on. Different races, different attitudes, different ways of making friends,” he added with a smile.
“Most I’ve known have been rather pleasant.”
“That’s because they don’t see you as a threat.”
“Hmmn, I hadn’t considered that. Then again, most people would never fear a Junta.”
“That’s because they’re ignorant of your skills,” Riax said seriously.
Jalia looked over at him, being nearly the same height. “Me in particular, or all of us?”
“Your race was once our ally, and for good reason,” he said as they walked up an exit ramp from the bay. “You have more latent skills than you’re probably aware of.”
“The Cres called me a tracker . . .”
“Quick-witted too,” Riax added. “Yes, your kind made for excellent scouts and combat support. You may not mass as much as other races, but your speed and strength are above average, though most people wouldn’t guess that from looking at you.”
Jalia frowned. “I must be the runt of the litter then.”
Riax shook his head. “You’re just not trained. The latent strength, speed, and agility are there. Trust me.”
“I am a fairly good runner,” she agreed.
“Oh? I’ve been meaning to start training again. Want to get a workout in before we head to bed?”
“Not today,” she said, gripping his arm even tighter. “But I’ll be happy to kick your butt tomorrow.”
“Be warned,” Riax cautioned. “Challenges are like candy to Humans.”
“Ouch,” she said mirthfully. “With the way you eat that’s saying something.”
“You’d eat as much as me if you were in shape. You’ve got as high a metabolism as us, more so if I wasn’t upgraded.”
