by Neal Jones
The portal appeared, and a D'Yori female stepped through, followed by a soldier clad entirely in black armor and combat gear. The armor, like everything else on Treym was utterly featureless, streamlined angles, and perfectly shaped to fit the body of its wearer. At first glance it appeared to be inflexible and somewhat bulky, yet, at Vuil'SN's command, the soldier executed a series of quick, swift moves that were faster than the eye could follow and as silent as a whispered breath. The armor made no sound during its movements. The soldier's helmet was as smooth and featureless as the armor and covered the entire head and face. The soldier's height was at least a foot taller than normal, and Erengaar was at once awed and intimated by it. The dark, smooth visage on the front of the helmet made the soldier seem soulless, empty, and menacing.
The lord emperor turned to Vuil'SN. "You have five hundred thousand of these on the surface of Sarlond?"
"Yes, approximately. Magnificent, isn't he?"
"How do you control them?" Ryomekk interjected. "What's to stop them from turning on their commanding officers?"
"Ah, good question." Vuil'SN turned to the clone. "Seize her." He pointed to the woman who had brought him in. "Do not let her escape." The soldier obeyed, grabbing the D'Yori and securing her arms behind her. Vuil'SN turned to Erengaar. "Now give him an order, lord emperor."
"Release her," Erengaar commanded.
The soldier stood motionless, his gloved hands firmly clamped around the wrists of the young woman.
"Release her," Vuil'SN ordered. The soldier promptly obeyed, returning to a position of attention next to the other one. "These clones are more than just sentient genetic copies. They are, in a very real sense, biological machines, capable of being programmed and operated in the same way as electronic computer systems. This one has been programmed to accept orders only from me. This is done by a combination of visual and vocal recognition commands on his part, as well as a specific series of operating codes given by me."
Erengaar walked slowly around the soldier, inspecting him up close. "What is beneath this armor? Is that some type of envirosuit?"
"Yes. It's a specially designed technology. It's molded with the armor to provide a completely self-contained atmosphere. I could order this clones to throw himself out of an airlock now, and he would have no trouble surviving in the vacuum outside."
"I don't see any oxygen packs."
"They're here in the back, beneath the armor." Vuil'SN indicated a slightly raised section behind the shoulders. "There are no visible hoses which could easily be ripped off during a fight. When activated, the oxygen will last for at least two days. When the soldiers are in a breathable atmosphere, there are hidden filters in either side of their helmets that allow them air."
"Impressive," Erengaar murmured. "The entire look is very...intimidating."
"As it should be. These soldiers are the new imperial army. Watch this." He held out his hand to the woman, and she gave him a disruptor. "You might want to stand back," Vuil'SN advised the Jha'Drok. They obeyed, and he pointed the weapon at the clone. The phased energy blast struck the soldier square in the chest, but an invisible field scattered the blast by absorbing the energy discharge. The impact did not budge the soldier so much as a centimeter. Vuil'SN handed the weapon back to his assistant and turned to Erengaar. "A phased scattering field that reacts only to energy discharges." He reached out and grabbed the soldier's arm. "You see? It can automatically detect and repel only phased energy. Everything else is not blocked."
The lord emperor nodded. "Very good. But this technology is something that our own soldiers already possess. Some of our enemies have begun using old fashioned weapons with bullets to circumvent this protection."
"Yes, of course. Stand back." He held out his hand once more, and the woman passed over a different gun. Vuil'SN leveled the weapon at the soldier's chest and emptied the clip in rapid succession. Then he stood to one side, allowing Erengaar and Ryomekk to observe the damage. As before, the soldier was still rooted to his original spot. Two dozen silver buttons now adorned his breastplate.
"Amazing," N'Ro murmured. "How many bullets were in that gun?"
"A standard clip is twenty-five rounds."
Erengaar tapped the armor. "It feels so thin and light."
Vuil'SN nodded, handing the gun back to the assistant. "That's the miracle of this technology. I can provide you with the exact specifications if you'd like."
"No, that won't be necessary." Erengaar slowly circled the soldier once more. "Tell him to remove his helmet."
Vuil'SN gave the order, and the soldier reached behind his head to press a hidden clasp at the base of his neck. He perched the helmet in the crook of his arm as he returned to attention, staring straight ahead. Erengaar stepped back, and Ryomekk came to his side. "Why does his skin appear that way?" the first lovar asked. "None of the species of our empire are that shade."
"It's more than that," the D'Yori explained. "Hold out your left hand," he commanded the soldier. "Remove the glove." The clone obeyed. "Feel his skin," Vuil'SN offered. "It's quite thick, yet still very resilient. This is, again, a defensive measure to ensure survivability during combat. Should their armor be pierced, their skin gives them an extra layer of protection against phased disruptor burns."
"And if the enemy were to pierce them with a dagger?" Erengaar challenged.
Vuil'SN turned to the clone. "Draw your weapon and give it to me." The soldier unsheathed a small dagger from underneath his breastplate and handed it to him. Vuil'SN promptly sliced the man's outstretched palm. The soldier did not even flinch, nor did he cast a glance at his wound. As Erengaar and N'Ro watched, the gash healed in a matter of seconds, and there was very little blood flow from what appeared to be a deep cut. Vuil'SN handed the blade back to the soldier who promptly sheathed it. "Also, if a bullet were to pierce the joints where the armor is not completely connected, the wound would heal just as fast as this cut. Special antibodies that are reinforced with biotechnology would seek out the bullet and dissolve it harmlessly while repairing any internal damage it caused.
Erengaar nodded, impressed, and looked up at the soldier's face. "What is your name?"
"Answer all of his questions," Vuil'SN ordered.
"My designation is Number Seven of Squad Four of Unit Five Hundred and Twelve," the clone replied in clipped, neutral tones. There was no trace of an accent to his voice, which gave it a bland – almost mechanical – quality.
Erengaar glanced at Vuil'SN. "How do you tell them apart?"
The D'Yori pointed to the upper right corner of the clone's breastplate. "Seven of Four, show your designation."
Seven pressed the spot where Vuil'SN pointed and a string of numbers appeared. That small section of his armor was also a display screen.
"Do you know who I am?" Erengaar asked the soldier.
For just a moment the clone looked directly at him, and then returned his gaze straight ahead. "You are Lord Emperor Erengaar of the House Valayne, fourth of your name, son of Emkai, son of S'elrim. House Valayne has ruled the Emperium since the year sixty-one of the eighth century of the modern age –"
"Thank you," Erengaar interrupted, turning to Vuil'SN. "You were right. They appear to be more machines than humanoids. How much non-military knowledge have they been given in their...education?
"A little of everything. The mental processing capacity of these clones is a hundred times faster than the neural networks of your most advanced computer systems. Let me show you an example." Vuil'SN reached into his pocket and pulled out a compad. He turned to the holoscreen and pulled up a different view. Several hundred clones of adolescent age were sitting at workstations, staring at computer screens. The room they were in appeared vast and deep, with row upon row upon row of identical students – all dressed in black uniforms – and consoles. "Each of these students is processing millions of amitets of data per second," the D'Yori narrated. "They are capable of learning and retaining vast amounts of knowledge on literally any subject in a
matter of hours."
"Why would that be necessary?" Ryomekk asked. "Why not teach them only what is needed for effective military combat?"
Vuil'SN considered it, and then gave a slight shrug. "One never knows what information might be useful at any time. The Ko'Mar directed all this, and we have not questioned their methods."
N'Ro exchanged a glance with the lord emperor. Erengaar returned to his seat. "You said there were going to be refreshments?"
Vuil'SN turned to the soldier. "You are dismissed." He followed the woman out of the room. As they were leaving, two more D'Yori entered, each bearing a silver platter of appetizers and drink. Vuil'SN poured tumblers of spice tea and handed them to his guests. "I can see from your expression, lord, that you are still skeptical. You may feel free to ask me anything. The Ko'Mar are grateful to the Emperium for your hospitality, and this army is their way of saying thanks."
"And they ask nothing in return except to inhabit the planet below us?" Erengaar replied, gazing forcefully at Vuil'SN over the rim of his glass.
"Yes. I realize that seems rather suspicious, but the Ko'Mar have no desire to conquer empires or rule other species. They are very different from you and I."
"And what is your species exactly?" Ryomekk questioned. "What's to prevent you from commanding this clone army to invade the Emperium for your own gain?"
"We are servants of the Ko'Mar. In a very real sense, they are our gods. They gave us life, and they give us purpose. If they commanded us to invade your empire, then we would obey. But I can assure you that they will not give that command."
"How do you know that?" Erengaar challenged him, raising his voice. "If they are your gods, they can do anything they want, correct? They have an army of five hundred thousand at their command." He gestured angrily to the holoscreen. "You've demonstrated the remarkable advancements of your medical science. Clearly the Ko'Mar possess technology that far outstrips our own, so why should I not fear an invasion from my own backyard?"
"It's a matter of faith, lord," Vuil'SN replied simply, coldly. "You have no other choice but to accept our promise of peace. Our soldiers will fight on your behalf, and yours alone. I have been authorized, as a gesture of goodwill, to give you these ten thousand that are ready. They can be housed at one of your Talik'Jhor outposts until you have need of them."
Ryomekk coughed, nearly choking on his tea. "We have no bases large enough to house ten thousand soldiers!"
"Of course not," Vuil'SN patiently replied. "I meant that you could spread them among several outposts throughout your empire. A few thousand here and there, especially in the outer systems, might help control some of these armed rebellions on your members worlds."
The two Jha'Drok exchanged another glance, and Erengaar reached for the platter of appetizers. He turned to Vuil'SN, staring at the D'Yori as he chewed thoughtfully. Vuil'SN appeared as nonplussed as ever, calmly waiting for the lord emperor to speak. "There's two other matters that I wish to discuss. The first concerns the Erayan hypergate. Despite several months of prolonged effort, we are still unable to network our gateway in the Plonn system with the other gateways that we presume are still intact. Thus far, the only other hypergate we can access is the one in orbit of the outpost where the Federation discovered the alien lifeform. We're hoping that you can help us with this problem."
"Yes," Vuil'SN brightened. "I was wondering how long you were going to wait before requesting our assistance again with this matter."
"I didn't realize I needed to formally request it, especially since your predecessors were so willing to help us a hundred years ago when we first stumbled upon it."
"Yes, well, as you know, we didn't have much more luck than your engineers when it came to the hypergate technology." The administrator leaned forward, frowning thoughtfully. "There was a final report issued on the subject of the hypergates several decades ago. Since you're requesting our assistance with this again, I assume you haven't seen that report?"
"Probably not," Erengaar replied, irritated. "Why don't you fill me in?"
"Stated simply, our conclusion was that the Erayans did not build the hypergates. We believe that they, like you, stumbled onto them in the course of the expansion of their empire, learned how to use them, and were thus able to expand their reach to hundreds of thousands of new star systems and galaxies."
"And what exactly led you to that conclusion? Everything that I've read from the three decades after the gateway was discovered states that the Erayan technology is the same as that which composes the hypergates."
"Yes, early on that was the conclusion of your scientists and engineers. Further study by our teams, however, proved otherwise. I will, of course, dispatch another team to the Plonn system, but don't be surprised if our efforts are in vain."
"Really?" Erengaar couldn't help the scorn in his tone. "After a century of technological development you don't think that your engineers have new tools and abilities that would enable them to break through network decryption protocols?"
Once again, Vuil'SN's smile was cold. "As I said, we will be happy to assist you in any way we can. I will have a team in that system in four days. What is the other matter?"
"The recent attack by the Khazar in the Graavis sector." Erengaar glanced at Ryomekk. "The Talik'Jhor are having difficulty determining who was behind the invasion. An unknown power is assisting the Khazar, and we're hoping that you can helps us investigate this. You did receive Mister Ryomekk's report on this matter several weeks ago, yes?"
Vuil'SN nodded. "We did. I'm afraid that this is as much a mystery to us as it is to you. You are correct in that the Khazar are being aided by a foreign influence, and I would even go so far as to suggest that whomever it is seems to be just as technologically...advanced as the Ko'Mar."
Erengaar leaned forward, activating is own compad. A 3-D image of the Khazar fleet appeared in the air above the table. "So, just to be clear, you don't recognize these ships?" The lord emperor pointed to the silver hulls that lurked behind the war spiders.
"I'm sorry," the D'Yori replied. "We don't. Is there any data you have obtained recently that we could analyze?"
"Actually, we're hoping that you can assist us by supplying with one or two of your own vessels, perhaps even a fleet that might enable us to retake the Graavis sector."
Vuil'SN hesitated, and then smiled once more. "That may be possible, yes. I will need to discuss it with the Ko'Mar first. You do understand, lord emperor, that our presence here must remain...discreet. If we were to assist you in an assault of this magnitude, it would draw unnecessary attention to us, and I doubt that the Ko'Mar would be willing to take such a risk at this time."
Erengaar nodded. "Are they available now? Perhaps we could speak about this together? I'd also like to thank them personally for the generous gift of this new army."
"Of course." The D'Yori tapped a few commands into his compad. "I have sent them a message with your request. They should respond momentarily."
Ryomekk leaned forward. "Could you show us an exterior view of one of your bases? I'm curious to see what the surface of this planet is like."
"Yes." Vuil'SN tapped his pad once again and the view above the table shifted to show a violent, rain-lashed landscape. Lightning crackled through an angry, dark sky, and the wind made it difficult to see much of anything for the air seemed full of dust and debris. "If you look closely, you can see the outpost there at the base of the cliff. Most of the structure is located beneath the surface, so what you're looking at is only a single building."
"The Ko'Mar live on the surface?" Erengaar asked.
"Yes." His pad gave a soft blurp, and he glanced at the display. "They are ready. Please step over here." Vuil'SN motioned to a corner of the room away from the table.
Erengaar and Ryomekk stood, joining the D'Yori a short distance from the empty space. After a moment or two, the air bent and crackled, as if an invisible fist was crinkling it like paper. An opening appeared, the same height and width as a humanoi
d, but only darkness poured out. The temperature of the room dropped significantly, but only the Jha'Drok seemed to notice this. An ebony shape, shimmering, outlined in slivers of gray, and vaguely bipedal appeared within the opening. Even though was his second time speaking with a member of this species, Erengaar felt a sword of ice cut his spine, and he swallowed, squaring back his shoulders and thrusting out his chin.
"Hello," the lord emperor said, his tone clear and firm.
The alien made no reply, waiting for Erengaar to continue.
He cleared his throat. "I wanted you to know how grateful we are for your gift of these soldiers. We...also appreciate this alliance. It has brought the Emperium many blessings and...benefits." The lord emperor cursed himself for sounding like an idiot. Rather than continue rambling, he decided to wait for a response.
The voice was not 'heard' aloud, but neither was it entirely telepathic. As before, Erengaar was reminded of ice breaking the branches of trees in the dead of winter. His skin crawled, and images of death, and decaying skin, and rot consumed by fire blazed across his conscious mind. {It is the same with us as well.}
"I'm pleased to hear that. There's one other request I'd like to make of you. In addition to the soldiers you will provide us, we are in need of a small fleet of your best warships so that we may take back the Graavis sector –"
{We have nothing else to give you at this time. To assist you in this matter would put our presence here at great risk of exposure.}
The portal crinkled, crumpled, and then closed altogether, taking the darkness and the humanoid shape with it. The temperature returned to normal, and Vuil'SN turned to his guests, smiling sympathetically. "I'm sorry, lord. Perhaps this new army can be used in some way to create a new offensive. Shall we finish our meal?" He motioned to the table.
Erengaar and Ryomekk sat, and, though they both ate, neither had any appetite.
