by Skyler Grant
"Is it enough?" Anna asked.
"Essentially anything we want to do on a universal scale is going to be at least one point towards project. Best case scenario, we can now complete seven projects with the three points we already had," Caya said.
"There is no way you can do more?" Anna asked Raven.
Raven shrugged. "You want to smash the regulators, we can give you another two. But if you thought our little challenge was hard, do remember that those regulators are protected to keep us away."
That wasn't necessarily the barrier it might seem. Yes, ascended species were incredibly powerful and technologically advanced, but time and time again I'd seen it wasn't necessary how hard you hit, but how and where you hit.
The Scythe were aggressive and direct conflict types. They'd probably sent waves of ships and tried psionic intrusions, and I was sure the Council had safeguarded against those.
Iska was all about hiding. Of the fight or flight duality they represented flight. Those abilities brought to a conflict might be something the Council wasn't expecting.
That made a lot of assumptions though. These were the two active species of the Ascended that we knew about. That didn't mean that others hadn't come before, or that they'd fended off such threats countless times in the past.
I said, "While we can look into a strike, I'd urge caution. I know you monkeys like to fling yourself at anything larger, club in hand, but we're not ready to pick a Council fight yet."
"Coward," Raven said.
It had some truth to it.
"Do you have military forces you can contribute to ours?" Anna asked.
"We have fleets of the species we have taken. We can try to take more amongst our enemies in a fight," Raven said.
"Then await my call," Anna said, and killed the comm. "So, the Scythe are dicks, but we passed the test and got them on our side. Next step to galactic conquest and universal obliteration?"
"More allies," Sylax said. "We're not going to war without them however much Emma thinks she can sprint-leap our technology."
"With Vinci working on research facilities we are going to leap ahead quickly, but I agree with the sociopath. We need partners," I said.
"I also want to find the Iska. I know, I know, they're good at hiding, but I'm the perfect huntress. Even a few more points could make a big difference when we get to building," Caya said.
"Do it. Use whatever resources you need," Anna said with a nod to Caya. "So, who has managed to piss off the Galactic Council and stay alive?"
"More than you'd think," Hot Stuff said, tapping at some keys and bringing up a display. A galactic map. Most was shaded blue for areas that the Council controlled, but there were small blotches of yellow, green, and red.
"The Yellow is the Deepmind. Artificial Intelligences who have followed the downward path to ascension," Hot Stuff said.
"Meaning?" Anna asked.
"The upward path, you try to rise above those things that came from your physicality. The downward path embraces them," Caya said.
"Weird," Anna said. "And the others?"
"The Green folk are the swarm. Insectile hivemind. I think they might actually like us, as Emma is similar," Hot Stuff said.
"And the red?"
"The Wrax. A loose confederation of over a hundred species kicked out of the Council for generally uncivilized behavior. They're almost all high-level predator species and superb killers," Hot Stuff said.
"I like them already," Sylax said.
Hot Stuff shrugged. "They're your kind of people, but this one won't be easy. They don't work well with anybody, even each other. They're constantly at war within as well as outside."
Anna said, "Just like the Scholarium, and we got them on board. We save them for last when we're strongest. Let’s go for the friendliest first. Set course for the swarm."
112
I didn't want to simply take a fleet into Swarm space, they'd rightly respond to that as an attack. We were technically agents of the Galactic Council after all. Somehow, we needed to talk to them.
I settled on the Graven alone. While it might be the deadliest single craft in our fleet considering the crew aboard, the ship at least appeared less threatening than an armada.
I jumped into the Carnabak system, deep within their space. I didn't want anywhere too near the border where it would be easier for the Council to see what we were up to.
In one way the Swarm worlds looked like Vinci's, in another my own. They were covered in very uniform structures. Not any sort of hive that would have been formed by nature, but there was not much individuality to be seen.
Interceptors began closing on the Graven the instant we appeared and I sent out diplomatic codes known to have worked. Just because they were at war with the Council didn't mean they had always been.
If this were me it wouldn't have made a difference where our ship appeared. I wasn't sure if it was the same with them. Was all of their space a single collective intelligence, or did they organize themselves by systems? Planets?
I wasn't to find out at once. The interceptors continued to close and no communications were incoming.
"Might be the reputation of just how unlikable you all are has preceded us," I told everyone.
"Need us on the guns?" Hot Stuff asked.
It was best to be prepared. While I didn't know exactly what level of technological development the Swarm had achieved, the fact that they successfully were holding out against the Galactic Council said something of their capabilities.
"Do it," I said.
Hot Stuff and Sylax made their way to the weapons and I had a drone take over on communications, cycling through frequencies and diplomatic protocols.
"We start this off shooting, we're in a poor position to begin talking," Anna said.
"Stop thinking like a human. This is a hive intelligence. I doubt these individual ships mean much to them at all," I said.
"Your drones mean something to you."
I didn't like it when she was right, although it was something that happened rarely.
The first interceptors had reached weapons range and they opened fire, pulses of yellow energy catching our shields. They were weak shots, weaker than expected. Were they testing us? Of course, they were testing us—everybody was always testing everything.
I hoped they were satisfied with what they learned. Hot Stuff opened fire and the first two interceptors were reduced to their component molecules in seconds.
My consciousness flickered.
That was never a good sign. Fortunately, my paranoia over being hacked meant that I had procedures in place. Error correction buffers kicked in and data was sent to an off-dimension copy for analysis.
The energy pulses that had hit our shields, they hadn't been designed to bring them down but rather to establish specific patterns inside of them. Physical patterns, nanotechnology imprinting on my systems.
I'd done something similar once and it still took me by surprise. Surprised is not overcome, and I fired up the dimensional drives and for an instant we flickered into an alternate dimensional. It was a crude creation, but I just needed physical laws friendly to my technology and hostile to theirs for a few seconds. Enough to kill the contagion before I flickered back.
They were good, so was I. As soon as we materialized two other drones were closing. Once more they hit our shields and were destroyed. It was a similar attack, but instead of a nanite contagion the shield echoes created a swarm of psionic parasites.
I didn't even bother to flicker us out for that one. A shift to the projection of Sylax's powers inward was enough to cause them to shrivel up and die. Psionic parasites had nightmares too and she was exquisite at bringing them out.
That caused a delay in more interceptors. If they were willing to talk, they still weren't giving any signs of it, but at least they had stopped trying to murder us.
"What do you think they're doing?" Anna asked.
"Probably trying to think ahead. I know you wouldn't u
nderstand," I said.
"If they think they can just ignore us, we should advance on one of their planets. Then they'll have to acknowledge us," Sylax said.
It wasn't often that I agreed with Sylax, but when it came to matters of exhibiting strength she did often have some idea what she was talking about. I gave us just ten percent of thrusters, moving us towards the most populated planet in the system.
Less than a minute and I got a transmission. It wasn't an attempt at communication, not yet, but it was at least something. A landing beacon for a largely unpopulated moon.
"Looks like they don't want us near their populated world. They're probably afraid Anna will eat the inhabitants. I should send them proof she only eats cookies," I said.
"I'd argue with you that I eat more than cookies, but I don't think that actually helps me in this case," Anna said.
"It is good to realize when you just aren't capable of winning an argument."
Sylax said, "They've had a look at our guns, of course they're afraid."
That was true. We'd never actually used the Graven’s guns to wipe out a planet. Given some time they'd be able to do so. Instead, massive destruction of the surface would be far easier.
I changed course towards the landing beacon.
Interceptors fell in alongside us as we moved, and this time they didn't open fire. I kept our shields up anyways, it wouldn't do to be careless. I didn't trust the Swarm, I wasn't an idiot.
The moon had no atmosphere and only a quarter of its surface showed signs of industry. Mining, from the looks of it. My sensors showed traces of a few rare metals they must be harvesting.
Not a military facility then, or the location of their ruler. They really did just want to keep us away from anything too important.
The beacon led us into a port, and by the time we landed we were the only ship present with all other craft conspicuously launching away as we approached.
I thought they might sent out a signal asking us to meet them, but shortly after landing our external airlock received a request to come aboard.
Anna had built herself a proper audience hall on board, and it would be the best place for a diplomatic endeavor. If they were a hive mind, they might respect the sight of an Empress.
Although the Swarm might be what we called a hive mind, they looked nothing like any sort of Earth insect. The figure in the airlock stood around nine feet tall, thin and a pale purple in color. It had four sets of spindly arms and moved atop some sort of hover-sled.
Of clothing or even an atmospheric suit there was no sign. I was sure it must have some sort of protection, but it was too advanced for my sensors to detect.
I had one of my drones guide it to the audience hall.
"Empress Anna Besari of the Sol Empire and her retainers," my drone announced to our visitor.
"Chixna Seven of the Swarm," Chixna said, several of the arms making a series of complex motions before becoming still. "They are present in the space of the Swarm. They must not be, the Swarm have no tolerance for they."
"We know that you are at war with the Galactic Council. It was that which we hoped to discuss," Anna said.
"The Swarm has nothing to discuss. That which is not Swarm invades the space of the Swarm. That which is not Swarm kills the Swarm. They have come, they have killed Swarm," Chixna said.
Their pronoun usage was already problematic.
"We plan on changing things. We could use your help," Anna said.
"They are they. Swarm is Swarm," Chixna said.
"Is it just the drone we are speaking to that is stupid, or the intelligence behind it?" I asked.
"They insult Swarm. Irrelevant. They are they," Chixna said.
"We are similar to you in ways the Galactic Council is not. We too have a hive mind present. It is operating on this ship. With your sensors you must be able to detect that," Anna said.
Chixna was silent for a moment. "They may be a swarm, but not the Swarm. They are still they, and they oppose the Swarm."
We weren't getting anywhere and I was quickly getting irritated. I normally found a bit of vivisection made my enemies more cooperative. However, Anna did tend to frown on that sort of thing these days.
Sylax said, "Listen, we're bad people. Well, I'm bad people. I don't know what your beef is with the Council and you've probably got one with us, but you didn't get as far as you have as a species by not understanding that you team up to kill the big bad thing scarier than either of you combined." Sylax said.
Chixna considered a moment and tilted his head. I was getting a data transmission, then Chixna turned and made his way off the ship.
113
"Why do we ever try to play nice? We're not actually very good at it," Anna said.
"Beats the hell out of me. I'd have started breaking arms and stopped when we were friends," Sylax said.
Sylax wasn't joking. I had recordings of her on dates, training the Annas in martial arts.
I brought up the data file the Swarm had sent over and put it up on a display.
"What is that?" Anna asked.
"A Galactic Council listening post. It seems the Council has it set up to monitor what is happening on the Core worlds in Swarm territories. They like to study their enemies," I said.
"Which is part of why they're so good in a fight," Sylax said, frowning at the screen. "So, I'm guessing the Swarm wants us to take that thing down."
"If the Swarm musters anything to throw at the listening post, the Council will see it and take steps to intervene. They need it gone—they can't prepare for war with it there," I said.
"And we become the solver of everybody's problems. I don't like that," Sylax said.
"They'll pay us for it. If we can enlist their help about the Council, they'll buy our aid in blood. The question is can we do anything without tipping our own hand?" Anna asked.
That caused a moment of silence.
"The sensors look top-of-the-line Galactic, which means beyond anything even we have. Our dimensional tech can take them by surprise sometimes, but I don't think it can do much here," Caya said.
"Given what the Swarm threw at us the defenses are probably top rate too. Still, they've got nothing like us. Get us close, we can maybe take it out fast," Sylax said.
Anna said, "Think indirectly, people. If we can't hit directly at this platform, what about where the information is received? Is there any other link in the chain that might be vulnerable?"
I said, "Probably going to one of the main Council worlds. I could find out which one. Our credentials might get us on the planet, but we'd be watched closely."
"We use a natural phenomenon," Caya said, drumming her fingers on her thigh.
The idea was worth hearing.
"Except anything that could destroy or disable that station is going to be able to destroy or disable us," I said.
"We'll have to be careful, of course. We either create it entirely in a sub-dimension and release it into this one, or we bring in something to initiate a reaction here," Caya said.
"The latter will raise less suspicion. What are we thinking?" Anna asked.
"An energy storm. The star the listening post orbits appears to be in a very stable part of its life-cycle, but we can destabilize it," Caya said.
It was doable. It would be risky, working this close to the station. Our dimensional technology really would be all too easy to detect, but there were places that might not be an issue, such as in the heart of a star. Of course, that posed complications of its own.
"It will be risky, but we stand a fair chance of pulling it off so long as it is mostly myself and Caya. The rest of you incompetents are too dangerous to have around something this delicate," I said.
"Just handle it," Anna said.
That was the idea.
A few hours later and I'd navigated the Graven to one of our pocket dimensions to ponder the next step, Caya having relocated to a dimensional science lab.
"What do you think? A full alternate universe
or a pocket dimension?" I asked.
"The pocket dimension where we can tailor the natural laws we require, but we're more likely to encounter issues if we fuse it with ours. The full-on alternate dimension means we'd be dealing with a living star, which poses its own risks," Caya said.
I needed her Flawless opinion on matters, not a restatement of facts. Of course, the fact that she didn't have an opinion said enough. They both were full of risks and we'd be taking our chances either way.
"The pocket dimension then," I said.
Caya nodded.
I began to build the models, sending them through to her workstation, and she made tweaks and modifications as we went. This was a familiar process between us now. I thought far faster and as a result could devise a plan quicker than she could, but with her unique gifts she was immediately able to identify and correct any issues.
Our goal here was to keep things as simple as possible. In an alternate pocket universe, no bigger than a star itself, we'd build a physical and energy construct that, when introduced with a star in our universe, would result in a solar storm.
It was possible to merge dimensions, shifting the contents from one to the other. That had happened to Earth when we first brought it to this universe, and when Anna had absorbed the first of the greater crystals.
SCIENCE was never exact, and so it was a process that had some hazards. There was always a degree of uncertainty how the physical laws would interact, and what you brought over might not be exactly what you had planned.
Bringing over a tiny portion of a wholly alternate existing universe was safer, and more stable, but then you had to deal with the problems of that universe on the other side. The star itself, the chance the system was colonized, all would have been complications.
It didn't take long for us to have our plan and then we could begin construction. It was a familiar process by this point, massive dimensional engines powering up and focusing their energies to slowly expand a dimensional bubble and cut it off from our own universe to float free.
