The Fallen

by Paul B Spence

  The statue dominated the plaza.

  Lt. Commander Maria Sanchez understood now why the survivors of the Federation expedition on Cedeforthy had all talked so much about the city and the statue. It was an abomination. She wanted nothing more than to strike down that perverse thing, but her orders were clear; she was to interact with nothing beyond the scope of her mission. That included the smashing of what might be valuable archeological evidence. No matter how twisted and loathsome it might be.

  The city itself wasn't much better. Ruined towers soared to tens of meters all around the edges of the broken and shattered masonry of the plaza. The swirling geometric pattern of the masonry twisted under her gaze and made her dizzy if she tried to look directly upon it. Her eyes kept trying to impose an order on the pattern that her brain wouldn't -- couldn't -- accept. There was also something about those towers; the angles were wrong.

  The grotesque statue was broken in places and worn by thousands of years of weather, despite its basaltic composition. It was ten meters high, and no one would ever have mistaken it for human or anything else that had ever evolved naturally. She didn't think that humans had anything to do it.

  In some ways, it looked like a Jaernalith, but it wasn't. Sanchez had seen the reports on them; they weren't nearly as strange as this unwholesome amalgam. Its mass of adamantine tentacles seemed to writhe, as if uncomfortable with being exposed to daylight. The statue was covered with eyes and gaping and screaming mouths. It held a large, open book in its arms.

  Sanchez had no doubt that the statue represented a Theta entity.

  She wondered what horrors lurked in distant corners of that cursed city. That people had come there and worshiped such a creature... She shuddered with revulsion.

  "Anything?" she asked her team.

  "I've got sporadic energy readings from all over the city, but the strongest of them emanates from here," Sergeant Karl Aleksey answered. "At the statue."

  "What we're looking for will be here, near this thing. Spread out, people. There has to be an underground entrance around here somewhere. And stay sharp." Sanchez could feel the cold hunger of a Theta gnawing at her guts. It was here, somewhere close to where they were, and it was powerful. "We can all feel it. Don't let your guard down."

  Her team spread out, investigating the patterns of tiles and the statue itself. It was in the base of the statue that they found the hidden panel. The doorway opened to a mental command, the same as the doors in the ruined installation.

  Sanchez led her team in. She couldn't have asked anyone else to go first, not in the face of that kind of fear. The entity wasn't hidden. Directly under the statue was a cylindrical room ten meters across and four meters high. Humming machinery filled the room along with leaky pipes. Dominating the center of the space was a thick tube of glass filled with a slightly bluish fluid. The thing that floated in the fluid did not attempt to hide its form from her or her team. It floated there in a kind of regal stasis.

  The power of the millennia of slumber weighed heavily on Sanchez. This thing had been sleeping since before her species had developed agriculture or built cities. It was ancient, unknowable, and yet not entirely unknown. Things like it had plagued the nightmares of a thousand generations. It was the foulest abomination she had ever seen, and yet she was drawn to it. They all were.

  Sanchez swallowed convulsively. Even in stasis, that thing held power.

  "All right, people. Let's get to work. Sergeant, get the science team down here. I want to extract this thing and get out of here."

  "I'm on it, sir."

  Sanchez walked around the cylinder while waiting for the techs to set up. She wasn't as confident as she had been when they had arrived. She didn't know how they were going to move the stasis machinery without waking the thing it held, and she sure as hell didn't want to do that.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mason finished packing the last of their charts and drawings for shipment to Admiral Shadovsky and the Office of Internal Security. It still pissed her off that they had to turn over the fruits of months of hard labor. Not to mention the way in which it had been done. It wasn't as if they had any choice in the matter.

  "Do you think we can trust him?" she asked.

  "Yes, I think so. I know we did the right thing in telling him about our research," Bauval replied. "And I know that he rubbed you the wrong way, but security types are like that. I think he'll keep his end of the bargain. He'll be able to use the information we've compiled to help save lives."

  "Well, I still don't like him."

  "Really? I do," Ana said, entering the room. "The admiral reminded me of Hrothgar. He's experienced so much sorrow. There's a lot of pain there; it drives him. I believe that we can trust him."

  "I hope so," said Mason. "I really do. Considering you're normally the overly cautious one of us, maybe this is a good sign."

  "It is, and I'm cautious because I understand what really motivates people. It's a gift."

  Mason chuckled at Ana's self-assurance.

  "So what do you think motivates the admiral?" Bauval asked.

  "Revenge," Ana said softly. "He hates the Thetas as much as my husband does, maybe more. I don't know why. I don't know whom he lost to them, but he does hate them. Trust me."

  Mason shivered. Something in Ana's voice scared her. "I'm just surprised he didn't arrest us. He didn't seem too happy about us working on this from home."

  "What choice did he have?" Bauval asked, laughing wryly. "Would you want to piss off Tebrey by arresting Ana?"

  "Well, no. I can't say that I would," Mason said. "I'm not sure if he knows that much about Tebrey, though."

  "Don't count on it," said Bauval. "I think he probably knows more about Tebrey than we do. I'm sure Tebrey has a really interesting file. I'd love to read it."

  "I wouldn't," Mason muttered. There were some things that she simply didn’t want to know. She liked Tebrey; she wanted it to stay that way.

  "He'll call on us. We are good at putting information together. Not to mention our connection within the Federation Admiralty," Ana said smugly. "Yes, we'll hear from Shadovsky again, and soon. I think he'll ask us to work with his people more closely than he already has. He was very surprised at some of the things we told him, even if he didn't say so. I could sense his confusion."

  "I think you're right," Bauval said. "He looked ready to run out of the room when we talked about that first ruined city."

  "Well, he probably still has people on Cedeforthy. He'd want to warn them away from there for their safety," Mason said. She was willing at least to concede that the Admiral seemed like the type of man who took care of his own people, but only that.

  "I don't think that was it," replied Bauval. "I think he'll either send in a team to kill it, or he'll do something foolish like try to study it directly -- probably the latter. He really wants to know what these things are and where they come from."

  "I wouldn't want to be a part of that!" Mason exclaimed.

  "I think it more likely we'd be asked to help sift through data on the enemy's activity," Ana said. "We've shown that we can do that well."

  "Should we accept?"

  "Yes, I think we should. He has resources that would aid our cause. There is also another consideration." Bauval paused.

  "What is that?" Ana asked.

  "At some point, we're going to attract the wrong kind of attention. With Tebrey gone on assignment, we're going to need military protection. The kind only these people can provide."

  Mason shivered and hugged herself tightly. The idea that she might have to face one of those things... She couldn't bear to think of it. She resumed packing, happy to let the conversation turn to other matters.

  Mandor approached the security door of the confinement facility with a sense of deep foreboding. In the twenty-six years he had been working with the Concord, he'd had to do many things that were morally grey. Working in the field of internal security had that effect. Espionage was a dirty business. He was
crossing a line with this project that he had never thought to cross, and he knew it.

  He stepped forward and placed his hand over the security scanner, wincing slightly at the light jab of the DNA test. "Admiral Mandor Shadovsky," he said clearly. If there was even the slightest deviation in his DNA from the records, he would die in a wave of quantum annihilation. There could be no mistakes made here.

  The apparently seamless door was over thirty centimeters thick and made of solid, interlocking beryllium-steel plates. Magnetic particle shielding protected the door from streaming atomic cutters and plasma torches. The door and walls of the installation were as impenetrable as Concord science could make them.

  The AI recognized his DNA, handprint, voiceprint, and ident code, and the door split into four parts and slid quietly into the walls. As Mandor stepped through the door, he felt the odd lack of mental pressure that marked the beginning of the psionic dampening field. He hated the feeling of the field, but knew that it, like so many other precautions, was necessary and unavoidable. It was much better than what might happen if they didn't have such a field in place. He was sure that they were overdoing the safeguards, but he didn't want anything to go wrong.

  Not here on Dawn. Not with this project.

  Dr. Kainoa was waiting for him in the antechamber. "Admiral, it's good to see you. I was surprised by your message. I didn't expect to see you for another week or so. We're still getting the new systems set up."

  "I wanted to see how things were preceding myself, Doctor. How is your newest guest?"

  "Same as it was when it was brought in," the scientist replied. "I'd like to add that the marines from the Arcturus were not very happy about this whole thing."

  "They'll get over it," Mandor said. To be honest, he hadn't been all that happy about having to ask those marines to undertake such a dangerous mission, but he hadn't had anyone else to do it.

  Dr. Kainoa led the way to his office. "I still contend that the only way we will ever get the answers we want is through psionic interrogation."

  "You know why that can never happen, Doctor."

  "I know, but I'm not sure what you want me to do." He opened his office door for the admiral. "Standard interrogation techniques won’t work that well, either, when you cannot awaken or even touch the subject. We don't even know enough about the physiology to even guess at what kinds of drugs would work, if any."

  "I know," Mandor said. "I have some more people for you, by the way. Bruce will bring them by later today."

  "New recruits?" Kainoa asked.

  "Yes, the three surviving marines from the Darius."

  "Frigate, wasn't it?"

  "Yes."

  "Theta, or Jaernalith?"

  "Jaernalith, thank god," Mandor replied. "If it had been a Theta, those three wouldn't have made it. They aren't that good. Take it easy on them for a while."

  "That is the seventh Jaernalith attack this year," said Kainoa. "There is some evidence that at least some of them are working together with the Thetas. What do you make of it?"

  "That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. There's a small group of civilians who have stumbled upon this information. What I really wanted to discuss with you are their findings."

  "Civilians?" The scientist looked dubious. "Can we trust them?"

  "One of them is a Theta attack survivor, like us. The other two know quite a bit about what's going on. They also have a connection in the Earth Federation military that makes them reliable informants."

  "That contact has to be Hrothgar Tebrey, the Special Operations operative you were telling me about. Isn't his wife here on Dawn?"

  "You're correct. Ana Tebrey -- she survived the attack on Cedeforthy. She, Dr. Pierre Bauval, and Dr. Amber Mason have been tracking all of the Theta activity they have been able to find reports of, both here and in the Federation." He paused to let that sink in. "Federation Fleet Admiral Kasimira Meleeka has taken Hrothgar Tebrey into her confidence. She feels that the Federation Admiralty has been infiltrated and compromised."

  "Oh, shit."

  "Yes, Doctor. We have a problem. A big problem. Our neighbor, the greatest military force in this part of the galaxy, has most likely been subverted by our enemies. To make matters worse, we think those enemies know about us. Admiral Meleeka sent me a message this morning, personally."

  "That was a bold move."

  "Or a desperate one," Mandor replied. "Depends on how you look at it. She told me that elements within the Federation Admiralty have been pushing for a declaration of war with us. She seems to think it is imminent."

  "That would be... unfortunate. Do you think it is because of what we're trying to do here?"

  "Yes and no. I think that they would be pushing for it anyway. Drennanism has gained popularity in the Federation. There are large groups of people calling for the sterilization and exile – or outright execution – of known psions. The Federation economy has been spiraling downward since the beginning of the Nurgg War. With that coming to an end, a new foreign war would help distract people from what could be an imminent civil war. Add the Thetas into the equation, and things get really scary. Everything we've learned about these things suggests that Thetas thrive on carnage and fear. What better ground for that than a constant state of war?"

  "And if they take out the only humans in this region that are actively opposing them at the same time..."

  "Then so much the better, from their point of view. From the look of things in the Federation, they won’t even have to push all that hard to make it happen."

  "So what do we do?"

  "Nothing, for now. There isn't anything we can do. If they want a war, they will not find us sitting by idly, waiting to be destroyed. Our technology is better. We would have a fair chance of winning."

  "Save the propaganda for the masses," Kainoa said. "I know too much about the forces involved. If the Federation wants to destroy us, there isn't much we could do to stop them."

  "Maybe not," said Mandor. "But with support from our allies, we could hold out for a long time, and that isn't propaganda. There is another little fact I've been withholding."

  "What is that?"

  "Since our civilian friends had access to a more complete data set than we did, they've managed to discern patterns to the attacks."

  "Were they able to deduce a system of origin?" Kainoa asked excitedly. That had been one of his projects that kept getting set aside for ones that were more urgent.

  "Yes, much good may it do us."

  "What do you mean? Is it a Federation-controlled system?"

  "You could say that," Mandor replied without humor. "There seem to be two major centers of activity, one emanating from the Wolf Empire, and another a lot closer. The closer attacks, including the Jaernalith attacks, seem to be originating from the Centauri system, the second largest concentration of Federation military power."

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ambassador Inkeri Valkoinen gazed through the thick double-paned glass across the alien city she had grown to love. She watched, fascinated, as torrential rains swept through the jungles surrounding the city and reduced visibility to only a few kilometers. Flass was the capitol city of the Rhyrhan Combine, the unified worlds of the Rhyrhans and the Slith. The capitol, like all things undertaken by the Rhyrhans, was a thing of beauty, a shining jewel of glass and steel rising out of the jungle like some rare crystalline growth.

  Inkeri had been stationed on the Rhyrhan homeworld for six years. Her colleagues back on Dawn often teased her that she had gone native. Not far from the truth, she thought as she turned reluctantly from the window to return to her desk. She was certainly enchanted by the art and culture of the untamed world.

  The air screen on her desk lit up, and her assistant Jorgen Campbell peered at her anxiously from it. "Ambassador?" he said hesitantly.

  She'd never known Jorgen to be at a loss for words. "What is it?" she asked, concerned.

  "There is someone here to see you, ma'am."

&
nbsp; "I don't have any appointments today, Jorgen. Have them come back another –" Something about his expression stopped her. "Who is it?"

  "The Rhyrhan chancellor, ma'am."

  "What? See him in immediately," she said. She'd never been visited by so high-ranking a member of the Rhyrhan government. Rhyrhans almost never visited the lower-gravity environments of the off-world enclaves. For the chancellor to do so was unheard of. Somehow, Inkeri doubted it was good news that brought him to her. She wished she had time to change into more formal clothing.

  Ambassador Valkoinen stood as Jorgen escorted the stately figure of the chancellor into her office. The chancellor was one of the oldest Rhyrhans she had ever seen. Even the fur on his face was beginning to turn white, although he was still tall and powerfully built. He towered over her assistant, who was by no means short at two meters.

  "Chancellor Kevell'en," she said with a short bow. "You honor me."

  "The Sentient Concord honors us with its friendship and fidelity," the chancellor replied. His Normarish was thick with gutturals, but quite intelligible. Inkeri doubted she could have done as well in Low Rhyrhan. She was relieved that she wouldn't have to.

  "May I offer you tea?" she asked.

  "No, thank you."

  She nodded to Jorgen, who quietly closed the door behind him as he left.

  "What can this humble servant do for you, Chancellor?"

  The chancellor smiled, and Ambassador Valkoinen was once again struck by the similarity between Earthly cats and Rhyrhans. She knew it was a dangerous connection to make. The Rhyrhans may have looked vaguely like cats, but that was where the similarity ended. They were more savage than any human, and more restrained and sophisticated at the same time. They were the most artistic culture known to the Concord. Everything was art for a Rhyrhan, even war, and the Rhyrhans took their arts very seriously indeed. She'd never met one that took kindly to being compared to cats, either.

  "I have been entrusted with a message for you from the Council of the Eldest," the chancellor said simply.