Star Force: Shame (SF59)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  “So far yes.”

  “Keep an eye on it. I don’t like this,” he said, staring at the sensor image of a single, moderately-sized jumpship just sitting in stellar orbit with a host of Star Force signals moving towards it. Eventually he took his eyes off it and retreated back towards his chair.

  “Here they come,” the coordinator said before he even made it halfway back. “Multiple vessels incoming in tight stagger.”

  “Sent the messenger on ahead did they?”

  “And these are much bigger.”

  “Defense fleet says they’re assuming priority control of the situation,” another staffer said.

  “Good,” the Chief uttered, returning to his chair. This was in someone else’s hands now. “Keep the area clear and let them do their thing…and bring up possible evacuation routes for the orbital traffic. I want to be ready if fighting breaks out.”

  “They do have a green card,” the coordinator pointed out.

  “That they transmitted,” he said, bringing up a comprehensive system traffic tracking holo in front of him so he could see the big picture and hand out assignments for the coordinators to tackle as needed, “and that makes me wonder.”

  A tone sounded on the desk where Keina was reading a mass of text, bringing her out of her studying haze. She telekinetically pressed a button on the surface half a meter to her right, connecting the incoming comm line. “What is it?”

  “Unidentified ships entering the system under a green transit card that they themselves are transmitting. Traffic control requested an escort and one is under way now.”

  The acolyte frowned, standing up. “On my way.”

  She walked out of the small office and jogged down a straight hallway to an open platform overlooking the system defense command center. She was holding the fort, so to speak, while the normal commander was off duty. He was probably in the sanctum right now and she needed to see what was going on before interrupting the ranger. Having unidentified ships coming through wasn’t all that unusual, for some races just wanted to poke around the Human Core Region and see what was there, but with the addition of the H’kar colony a great deal more traffic was popping up, bringing with it a wide variety of onlookers.

  The part about them transmitting their own green card was odd, but there was only one possibility that rose in the Archon’s mind. The relay grid sent the transmission on ahead of the irregular ships so that the destination system would know that they were guests of some sort in the ADZ and not subject them to the same suspicion and scrutiny in every inhabited system that they passed through. The only reason a ship would carry a copy of the transmission itself was…if the ships were capable of moving faster than the interstellar comm signal.

  Keina bypassed the two lateral stairs and just hopped over the forward railing, dropping a good four meters into a deceleration crouch that went a little too far, forcing her to roll out of it into a somersault, but she kept the transition smooth and was back on her feet in a flash, racing towards the commander’s post and getting a quick look at the holo before she started getting additional information fed to her both visually and verbally.

  It didn’t take the acolyte long to get caught up, with her sending her own message to the H’kar inquiring who this was and if they were responsible for them being here. The lag time up to the moon that they’d been given half of to establish a base of operations to service their fleet and act as an embassy within the ADZ wasn’t more than a fraction of a second, but it was a long few minutes before they finally received a response.

  “Dsevmat,” she read aloud, doing the best she could to get the pronunciation right.

  “Sound familiar?” one of the naval staffers asked.

  “They’re on the member list of the Nexus, but one that we have no other information about. Grant them clearance and have traffic control stand down their redirects, but keep the escort drones nearby. There aren’t a lot of weapons on those bigger ships, but the small ones look well outfitted.”

  “Warships escorts?”

  “That’d be my guess. Keep enough drones nearby that we’ll be able to respond instantly if they go hostile, but otherwise give them their space.”

  Roger was in Alpha Region when he got the message concerning the arrival of another Nexus member and the request they were making of Star Force, prompting him to hop on a Ma’kri and head back to the Core Region immediately. Both Paul and Liam were heavily engaged elsewhere in combat operations, with his work on Lucian tinkering with Clan Emerald Shark infrastructure prototypes being able to wait until later given that the Dsevmat were requesting one of Star Force’s naval warfare specialists.

  When his ship finally arrived in the Banner System he had it go straight to the H’kar moon where the visiting fleet was sitting quietly in orbit carrying the diplomatic delegation and the reward they were offering if Star Force could help them solve a lingering problem. As soon as they were aware that Roger had got here the local Archon in command sent the trailblazer an update, informing him that the green card copy that the Dsevmat ships had been carrying was eventually followed up by the actual transmission through the relay grid two days later.

  That right there told Roger that this wasn’t a low level race within the Nexus like the H’kar, and that whoever they were they had gravity drives far faster than what Star Force currently possessed and probably a full tech tree to match. He made contact with the H’kar first, then let them make the formal introductions via comm, during which the newcomers wanted to meet with Roger in person…and onboard one of their ships.

  Donning his dark blue mage armor, the Archon headed to one of the landing bays in his Ma’kri where the Dsevmat transport eventually landed, sprawling what looked like glowing white hairs in the thousands beneath the ship as landing legs to cradle its mass as a portion of its hull melted open and the material reformed into a meter-wide foot ramp.

  At first Roger waited for someone to come out, but when no one did he reluctantly walked up to the base of the ramp and looked inside, seeing nothing more than a dark hollow. Using his Pefbar he was able to penetrate the hull and look all the way through the small ship, seeing that no one was inside. Guessing that the transport was remote controlled he walked up the ramp only to have it melt and pull back up to reform the wall behind him, then the landing ‘hairs’ retracted and the ship floated out of the hangar as Roger meandered further inside.

  There were only two chambers inside the seed-like pod, a main floor and a small adjunct not counting the short hallway to the door. Both were bare, but he could see additional structures in the floor, walls, and ceiling that he guessed were extrudable if the situation called for it. The main chamber flashed on a flat hologram mimicking a window across the side of the smooth-walled room that had not a single crease nor crevice in it, showing the departure from the bay and the flight across orbit to one of the pearl-colored ships.

  They were likewise smooth and lumpy in places, with tiny splotches that glowed white, blue, or even a tinge of purple here and there. Mostly their hulls were just blank, but several places had been highlighted on the ships during their entry into the system denoting the position of weapons batteries that had since been retracted into the hull and were now hidden, probably behind the same melty technology that the pod’s door was made of.

  Likewise a hangar entrance formed on the side of one of the biggest ships in the Dsevmat fleet, with small ripples of material moving aside and allowing the pod within, only to close up behind the trailblazer and seal him in. A moment later a trickle of apprehension ran down his spine as he reached out with his Ikrid and sensed the surrounding minds…with him immediately picking up reflective feedback.

  He could only get the faintest of readings on them, but could tell that his telepathic touch had sent them into a flurry, for each one he brushed minds with immediately became agitated. Roger pulled back from the penetrating scans that he usually used on new species and just noted the position of their minds as the pod’s door opened a
nd reformed into a ramp, inviting him to leave the tiny ship.

  When he did he saw the source of three of the nearby minds…which sent another little tickle down his spin, for the Dsevmat easily outmassed him and moved in an unusual manner, given that they had no arms, legs, or appendages of any kind. They were literally giant pearl-colored snakes.

  “Hello,” Roger said in the Nexus common language, which he’d learned a number of years back, as all the trailblazers had.

  “We were not told you had telepathic abilities,” the closest snake said, slithering up beside him in the heavy gravity and raising its tri-finned head up level with the Human’s. “Do not try to access our minds again or you will be harmed.”

  “No need for threats,” Roger said calmly. “You asked for me to come here, remember?”

  “Calm yourself, Hameen. He meant no offense,” the snake to the left said with a reverberation in its voice that Roger suddenly realized was being transmitted telepathically rather than physically, imbuing it with the equivalent as a restraining hand on the shoulder or a poke in the ribs. “He withdrew as soon as he sensed us. We would do the same with strangers.”

  “We were not told they were this advanced,” Hameen countered with uncertainty rippling off him.

  “All the better,” the third snake said without any telepathic reinforcement. “We will not have to rely fully on verbal communication.”

  “How can we when he…” Hameen said, then cut off immediately, making Roger wonder if they were only able to transmit omnidirectionally. If they could have private ‘lines’ between one another then they probably wouldn’t be discussing these things in the open.

  “You’re wondering why you can’t probe my mind,” Roger interrupted their moment of indecision. “That’s because we have a defense against such things. My apologies if I startled you earlier. I won’t intrude again.”

  “Apology accepted, Human,” the left snake said agreeably, with its three tiny clear eyes looking Roger over. “Is our atmosphere inappropriate?”

  “It is a bit foul, but breathable,” he said, referencing some of the trace gasses that the Dsevmat used as the equivalent of vitamins that Roger’s nose was equating with a cooking experiment gone horribly wrong. “The armor is precautionary when we are entering unknown environments.”

  “It has its own atmosphere then?”

  “Short span, yes.”

  “Tell us what your native atmosphere is and we will make adjustments.”

  “Unnecessary…I will adapt. Tell me more of this request you have of us.”

  Hameen turned away from the trio, but it was only to loop his body around itself in a coil that he then raised his head back up from before he spoke. “It has become known throughout the Nexus that Star Force’s strategic capabilities far outstrip your technological ones. Your efforts against the Li’vorkrachnika and subsequent joint missions with the H’kar have shown that your wisest warlords have a knack for finding ways to win battles that statistically they should not. Are we to assume you are one of these warlords?”

  “I am not only one of them, but one of the top three regarding naval warfare. Which of us is best is still an undecided issue,” he said, referencing the little rivalry/camaraderie that he, Liam, and Paul still had going on to date. “What is it that you wish me to apply my skill on?”

  “Follow us please,” the snake on the right said, emanating a sense of satisfaction before it twisted around and lengthened out, wiggling back and forth as it headed for a wall. Hameen followed, but the third snake telepathically gestured for Roger to go next and the Human walked off following the other two snakes, feeling very out of place with his bipedal movement. There were many others moving around the bay that he could visually see, plus many more that he could sense in nearby chambers or behind the rows of transport pods, all of which wiggled around with no apparent ability to handle the tasks normal tech crews would.

  The wall opened before them, exposing a hallway on the other side, but it was the little tendril of Lachka that caught Roger’s eye. It wasn’t the same, but close enough that his Rentar allowed him to detect it stretch out from the first snake’s head and contact a control nub on the wall, indicating that not only did the Dsevmat have telepathic abilities, they were also telekinetic…which solved the mystery of how they were able to work with technology without any limbs.

  The snakes were able to move rather quickly despite their trash can thick bodies, though their hallways were shallow ceilinged, with Roger having to duck down in some of the more constricted segments when his height was a few inches greater than the architecture. After a few minutes they came to a brightly glowing tunnel that clashed with the dimly lit rest of the ship that was illuminated from the walls themselves without the presence of any individual orbs or fixtures.

  Before him now was more of a tunnel than a hallway, and as the first snake slithered inside it was whisked away in some type of energy field and quickly disappeared into the distance.

  “A faster means of internal transport,” the one behind Roger said as Hameen likewise entered and disappeared. “It is harmless and automatic. Simply move inside.”

  Roger remained silent, but did as instructed. Suddenly his forward foot left the floor and his center of mass quickly followed…then he was moving down the tunnel of bright light suspended shy of any of the round walls but likewise unable to turn his body. As he wondered what type of force field was holding him the exit manifested itself ahead as he was drastically slowed without any felt effects, meaning an IDF field was also in play.

  He stepped forward back onto solid ground when the field released him, then moved away as the third snake came through. From there they ‘walked’ some more until another wall melted and they entered a chamber with six other Dsevmat at what must have been their version of work stations. They were coiled up inside clear bowls with a mess of holograms around them, some of which appeared to be solid, for they were touching them with their ‘necks’ and it finally clicked that they were head rests.

  “Show him,” Hameen said to all in the chamber, this time purely telepathically and without any physical words, which made it hard for Roger to understand given the mental dialect of the language he wasn’t that familiar with.

  In response to the command a star map of the Nexus and the surround regions appeared, which included lizard territory as a tiny spec on the periphery. He only noticed as his mind registered the geography for there was another region that was highlighted, along with which came hundreds of holographic schematics of alien bodies, warships, cities, weapons, and everything else belonging to a single civilization.

  “They are known as the H’bat’i,” Hameen said with a tone of disbelief in his words. “And they are a conundrum that we ask you to solve.”

  7

  “Explain,” Roger said, beginning to soak in the information around him.

  “They are a violent race within the boundaries that the Nexus is tasked to pacify, one that has fallen to us to deal with. Not long ago we mounted a major push against one of seven strongholds, an assault with sufficient force to defeat and conquer the planet in question. Instead we suffered a defeat and lost nearly our entire invasion force. We have reviewed the assault thousands of times and brought in many tactical experts from within the Dsevmat and other Nexus races. No one can account for how the H’bat’i defeated our clearly superior force, and we are not willing to mount another assault until we understand how we failed.”

  “At the moment,” another Dsevmat said, slithering up on Roger’s left, “we are engaged in containment protocols, preventing the spread of the threat and limiting their actions outside their territory, but they are a problem we must deal with eventually and containment is insufficient. We ask that you conduct your own analysis, and are hoping that you can see the key to the H’bat’i’s victory over us.”

  “Do you have full battle records?”

  “Yes, a few of our ships managed to escape and with them they brought the data log
s from every other vessel, which are transmitted automatically to nearby vessels when they begin to suffer catastrophic failure. We have a wealth of data, but no answers.”

  “How long ago was this?”

  “Approximately 40 years. Since that time other threats have become emboldened by our inability to neutralize the H’bat’i, making our typical peacekeeping efforts more problematic. We could mount another assault, but feel that to do so without understanding what happened the first time would be reckless. We did not expect that so much time would go by without an answer, but the longer this persists the more eroded our reputation becomes. That reputation is keeping smaller threats neutralized without us having to commit ships, and without it we cannot oversee the territory assigned to us with our current resources.”

  “So you want me to show you how to beat them?”

  “No,” Hameen said with a telepathic air of disgust at his presumption. “We are only asking that you show us what they did. We will formulate our own battle plans.”

  “I will need a full history of their race and their conflict with you, as well as any conflicts with others.”

  “We have brought along all information regarding the H’bat’i, and we are prepared to wait here as long as necessary for you to complete your analysis.”

  “Alright then…let’s start with the battle itself.”

  Roger spent the next 7 hours onboard the Dsevmat ship watching holos and asking a lot of questions, then eventually headed planetside for a break with the alien pod delivering him to the spaceport on the surface that he requested. For the rest of the day he trained, pushing aside the challenge the Dsevmat had laid out for him and clearing his head before getting some sleep and heading back up to the ship, for the Nexus race wouldn’t allow copies of their data to be taken with the Human for outside study. They were trusting him with a wealth of information, but only him and within their own ship, meaning he was going to have to do a lot of commuting in the coming days.