by Aer-ki Jyr
“They’re not defeated, just evicted,” Paul clarified. “There’s a big difference.”
Taryn telekinetically picked up a lizard corpse and flew it back to a Bsidd on the collection team that was busily cleaning out the rubble while other teams were scouring it for anything interesting left behind…though about a third of it had been destroyed in the fighting to take the city where all the senior lizards seemed to have camped out. They didn’t typically go in for luxury infrastructure, but this region was definitely the exception with a very different vibe to it.
“Well, what now?” she asked, looking at Paul.
“They’re not getting this one, but we’re going to fill up Michra.”
“And?” Greg pressed as he ducked under a half fallen structural support as they continued a lazy victory tour through the complex while taking helmet vids for those trailblazers not here. Conquering the lizard homeworld had been one of the big items on their to-do list, and now that the fighting here was over they were taking a moment to savor that milestone have a look around.
“We’re going to pull as many lizards here as we can so we don’t have to kill them. Thrawn is going to make use of them, but under strict conditions that they not leave this planet without permission.”
“Thrawn?” Rio asked with a smile.
“Seemed fitting, and they don’t have names. Just batch and geographical numbers. ‘He is what he is’ is how he described it, so I decided to give him a name.”
“And the templars?”
“If they have names he isn’t privy to them.”
“What do you plan on doing if your new best friend kicks the bucket?” Greg asked.
“I don’t have a backup plan,” Paul admitted as the group of 18 trailblazers walked out into a more or less intact hallway that rose up about three times their height but was double that in width and stretched out for more than a mile to their left and a half mile to their right. “He said that if he grew another mastermind it would cause immediate problems, and without one to control them the other lizards would either follow established orders or revert to previous ones.”
“Meaning they’d attack us?”
“And we’d have to kill them like we were going to do anyway,” Jason finished the line of logic.
“What about long term?” Greg asked.
“What do you guys think?”
Taryn answered first. “I think we can’t incorporate them into Star Force without running the risk of them taking anything we give them and spiriting it away to the rest of them.”
“Point,” Rio emphasized.
“Genetic recalibration?” Jason floated.
“We could have done that a long time ago,” Greg reminded him. “And with all the other races we’ve rescued here, do we need or want the lizards in our empire?”
“No and no,” Olivia spouted. “Where does that leave them then?”
“They need a purpose,” Paul explained. “Right now they have one…rebuilding and Thrawn figuring out the riddle of the templars, but they’re going to need another, because their training marks are showing as adequate. There won’t be a lot of deaths to thin their numbers.”
“They are holding to the ‘no population growth’ edict, right?” Aaron asked.
“So far as I can tell, yes.”
“And you trust this Thrawn?” Rio asked.
“Mostly. He knows he has little leverage here, and every time we meet in person I can access his memories…which is why I’ve been visiting often.”
“But you’re not going to stay here?” Jason asked.
“Long term, no.”
“So what keeps him from misbehaving once you move on?”
“A purpose. I’ve been thinking through this for a long time, but I want fresh opinions. And what the hell is with this place anyway?”
Greg glanced up at the ceiling, seeing ornamentation that was distinctively not lizard utilitarian. “I get the feeling these templars aren’t the lizards we’re familiar with.”
“I think…” Taryn said, suddenly stopping. “Anyone else feel that?”
“Feel what?” Jason asked, stretching out his senses.
She mentally directed them all to the northeast and down below ground level, with Paul feeling a faint presence that wasn’t Bsidd or Human.
“There’s something there but I can’t make it out. Aaron?”
“Not lizard, and I don’t think it’s fully awake.”
“Let’s go,” Jason said, breaking into a run with the others following.
It took them nearly half an hour to work their way down through the structure, passing through two more damaged areas before they came to a blank wall with no visible entry points.
“They sealed someone inside?” Rio wondered, with all of them able to see the compartment with their Pefbar and the single alien it contained.
“A little trap for us?” Taryn floated.
“My gut says no,” Greg said, looking at the architecture. The equipment keeping this guy sedate was all internal.
“Paul,” Jason said, retracting the armor on his right hand as Paul did the same on his left and walked up beside him. After a long moment they each plunged a heated hand into the wall material and began melting lines from head height down to the ground, then Paul continued across the bottom while Jason took the top. It took more than 15 minutes to get through it all, then they pulled the 3 inch thick plug out and tossed it on the ground.
“Oh that smells bad,” Taryn said, despite the filters on her helmet.
“I’m starting a search for other concealed compartments like this,” Aaron said before getting on his comm and getting Archon units out to psionically scan the entire complex, which had a footprint of some 43 square miles.
“Anyone recognize this guy?” Olivia asked, walking up beside the insect-like hexped that was hooked up to the equipment via various tubes and restraints.
“It’s a pain inducer,” Greg said, figuring out the odd sensations he was getting from the person. “He’s sedate enough to perpetuate here, but his mind is just active enough to feel the discomfort.
“His body is a mess,” Jason commented. “If we so much as bump him he could die.”
“Med team with a regenerator is on its way,” Paul informed them.
“Punishment?” Aaron wondered.
“Left here to rot away while in constant pain,” Greg floated. “Unfortunately, I’d have to say yes.”
“Think he’s been here since the templars left?” Taryn asked.
“Damn,” Olivia said, looking at and into him. “Anyone find the pain switch? Can we at least shut that off?”
“I hate to say no,” Jason cautioned, “but a few more minutes of suffering is better than being dead. Let’s not touch anything until we have the regenerator here.”
“Punishment for what?” Rio wondered.
“And who is this race?” Paul added.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait until he wakes up…and hope he’s still sane,” Greg said, trying to access his mind but getting nothing but a wall of pain. “I can’t get anything from him.”
“Me neither,” Aaron agreed. “He doesn’t match any of the prison races?”
“No,” Paul confirmed. “And I don’t recognize this race from any database I’ve studied. Maybe a slave race.”
Olivia looked down at him from about a foot away. “I wonder what he did to piss them off this bad.”
The painful haze that had long ago swallowed up Kirritimin suddenly withdrew, replaced by a numbness as his eyes opened. The light was so bright it would have hurt, but the numbness was there as well and soon the overload dissipated and his senses began to return to him. His spider-like body was so weak, but he was no longer in pain again and the restraining straps were now gone.
Replacing them was a silvery device on his chest, but as he lifted one of his legs up to touch it an invisible force held him in check. That little bit of resistance sent his mind into a chaotic swirl, so many years
of damage making him so brittle he had virtually no control…but soon a firm and cool presence slipped into his mind and quieted the storm, giving him a clarity that felt surreal.
He bent his torso, sitting up slightly and seeing individuals around him that he’d never laid eyes on before but knew intimately well. Pushing off the table on which he lay, the beetle-shaped Fassna flipped over and got its six legs underneath it as it looked around, happy that the pain had ended and not caring if he died soon after.
“Hello,” one of them said in Li’vorkrachnika, which Kirritimin had been forced to learn long ago. “You are safe now.”
“You are Archons,” he said, knowing their identity from their armor. “A new rank?”
“I am a Vilord. The next level beyond titan. You know what we are?”
“I do. You can read my mind I assume?”
“Yes. Who are you and why are you here?”
“Where am I?”
“On the Li’vorkrachnika homeworld that we just conquered.”
Glee mixed with tinges of sadness erupted within him. “I am the last survivor of the Fassna. The rest of my race were killed before my eyes as punishment, then I was forced to endure more,” it said, blinking its pair of eyes on the front of its shell where it had a small lump for a head. “What is this chamber?”
“You were sealed inside a wall with no entry points. We detected your mind and cut our way in.”
“I was left to die?”
“Slowly. We don’t know for sure how long you have been here, but we assume a very long time.”
“What is the device you have on me?”
“A healing device. It is repairing your body.”
“I can feel the changes. How was I damaged?”
“You were nearly dead of stagnation. Have you been unconscious the entire time?”
“I have no memory of this chamber,” he said as he felt the device slither across his chest then detach. It flew through the room over to one of the Archons’ hands. The pain returned, but it was different and somehow refreshing. His body was still weak, but he could move well enough to shift his weight around, though he was too far off the ground to jump, for he feared his strength wouldn’t hold up on landing.
“Why are you here?”
“I was captured long ago along with what was left of my defeated race. They kept them alive to force me to help them,” he said with considerable shame. “Under my leadership we hurt the Li’vorkrachnika far more than they expected, and they wanted my skills for their own purposes.”
“You were kept on this world or another?”
“My people were kept here, away from the minions, and I was only permitted to interact with their leaders. They sought from me strategic savvy. I frustrated them in small ways where possible, but I had to give them knowledge else they’d kill those who were depending on me. Perhaps I should have refused long ago, but I did not see what else to do. In retrospect it was a mistake, but at the time I could not allow my kin to be wiped out entirely.”
“Why did they kill them and put you here if you were assisting them?”
“Because I failed them. If I was not useful there was no reason to keep us alive. I am only here, now, because they sought to punish me further. I did not expect this method, and part of me wishes to die. If you kill me now I will not put up resistance. I deserve death for what I have helped them do to you and others.”
“What exactly did you do?”
“Plan their conquest of the galaxy. They will not stop until they have consumed it all, then they will find a way to spread to others. I do not know how they will accomplish that, but they will never stop expanding. They are compelled to do it. I do not think it is greed alone. They are adamant and have given me much information with which to work with. Had they known you would retrieve me they would not have let me linger. You bombarded this world?”
“We did, followed up with a ground invasion.”
“And I am in a chamber underneath a shield generator?”
“No. You are within their command complex. Its generators are spread around the perimeter. You are placed well within the foundations of the building.”
The Fassna was confused. “You said there was no entry?”
The Archon pointed behind him to a hole in the wall. “We had to cut our way in. From the exterior there is no visible entrance, nor any indication to suggest there is a compartment within. All power and life support are self-contained.”
“Then they meant for me not to be found. My mind was small to you?”
“You were unconscious, but still visible to us.”
“Then they erred…again.”
“Why did they need you when they have their own strategists?”
“Their strategists were created from me. They studied me and tried to duplicate my intellect, but never fully succeeded. They sought to control them, and in doing so limited their foresight. They are effective in small tasks, but civilization-wide control is not what they meant for them. They sought to keep knowledge suppressed to regions, with only their leadership caste knowing all that occurred. I knew much because they had to tell me much, but in recent times they have kept things from me. What they are doing in the region towards the galactic core is largely unknown,” he said looking up at the Archons around him, each in turn. “Why have you not pursued them there? Why give them safe haven yet push to conquer them rimward?”
“We have our reasons,” the Archon nearest him said. “How old are you?”
“I have been a prisoner for 3,923 years. Sadly, I have been indirectly responsible for most of their growth. They were dumb, but numerous. They are still reckless, but have learned much from me, though they will not be as effective now that they have abandoned me, no matter what they believe. Do you wish to kill me for what I have done? Or do you want my information first? I would like that they be destroyed for what they forced me to do and the death of my race.”
“We want your information, but not your death. You have amnesty with us.”
“Even though I was responsible for the campaigns against you?”
“What exactly did you do?”
“I told them how to defeat you.”
“What went wrong?”
“You are far smarter than them. I gave them a strategy to defeat you and they failed. They took too much time, and you grew far faster than you should have. Your technological progress is astounding and you incorporated other races into your civilization in a most beneficial way. Now your numbers are almost entirely Bsidd, and they fight for you not as a slave race. Their loyalty is not bought by threats or fear. They give you the numbers the Li’vorkrachnika have always wielded. They are why you cannot be defeated.”
“I think we had a little to do with that,” the Archon pointed out.
“Your skills are remarkable, but it would not have mattered. Given enough numbers they could have overwhelmed you. Your Bsidd countered that weakness, and now you are impossible to defeat. Please do not stop until you have destroyed them all.”
“Why did you not die earlier? How did you survive so long?”
“My race does not decay like others. It is also why this form of punishment was effective. You may have repaired my body, but my essence is broken. I do not know how long I want to live in this condition.”
“We don’t give up on people,” the Archon said firmly, “and after surviving all this, it would be a waste to die now. Especially if you want vengeance.”
“You would trust me to help you? After everything I have done? I know you are in my mind, but surely your anger…”
“Would you have done what you did if your people weren’t held hostage?”
“No, but I still did it. That cannot be forgotten.”
“I am choosing to forget. Not erase the memory, but leave the consequences in the past along with your dead race. Let this be a fresh start, and with us you will be free, not a slave. Help if you wish, or simply take refuge with us. I do not blame you…besides, even with
your help, we beat them.”
“That is what I hoped. And that is why they punished me. Perhaps that is fortunate, or they would have taken us with them when they evacuated.”
“Why take you with them if you failed?”
“I failed because I told them they could win, though I knew they would not. They committed many resources here to wear you down towards an eventual breaking point that I knew would not be achieved. They believed the lie until you were literally on their doorstep. I did not want my people to die, and I did not refuse to do my task, but I chose a battle that I knew could not be won rather than cautioning against direct contact and withdrawing faster. The plan to move away from their powerhouse was mine, but I delayed it enough to cause them to be far weaker than they otherwise would have been. When my predictions did not come true they saw no further use for me, though I do not believe they ever understood my deception. They are arrogant, and sometimes that arrogance blinds them.”
“You told them they could win how?”
“Attrition. I knew they would slow your advance, but I had no hope of countering it even with the technological updates we began receiving.”
“Receiving?”
“The rate of technological advanced increased suddenly. I presume a new source of knowledge was obtained, but even with it I knew it would not be enough. The margin of error was small, but I was counting on your intelligence not to squander your advantage. Other than your coreward boundary you have not. I cannot fathom why you have it, but I assume there is a cause. If you do not go beyond it they will grow again, so I do not understand.”
“Do they always expect to win?”
“They see it is simply a matter of proper tactics and time. They cannot or do not comprehend the idea of someone else being superior. That is why they do not negotiate. And until you, they had never had need to.”
5
After a long discussion the Archons got the very old survivor up to the Sanguine Blade, Jason’s command ship, where they ran him through a full medical diagnosis, but as usual the Kich’a’kat had done a good job. He was very weak, tissue wise, due to the fact that he’d been laying still for years, but he was no longer in danger of dying…though he still expected to, and in some respects wanted to, but the Archons weren’t taking that bait.
