Blood on the Stars

by Aer-ki Jyr

  You also had more obstructions and more movement of obstructions as the rotational speed of objects around the Deep Core gravity wells was far faster than that in the Rim. Nebula moved into and out of space lanes regularly, destroying ships that tried to pass through at multiple times lightspeed unless they had robust shielding or very good armor at slower speeds. But those openings and closings of the space lanes occurred over thousands of years, not days, while the Maty’s records were slow drips over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, so the state of the Core was largely unknown going into this invasion by Star Force.

  The location of systems was largely known, and their movements calculated with decent accuracy, but each time a Star Force ship moved through any system geographical data was logged and added to the master map, with the routes the scouts were taking being new additions once they returned to this makeshift base of operations.

  The planet Oni’s Borg vessel was sitting in orbit of was partially gone. The smooth sphere had a bite taken out of it, and even now the edges of that bite were crumbling and falling into the pit towards the planet’s center as gravity slowly worked to reform the sphere. What had been in the ‘bite’ was all Hadarak growths, all alive, and removing them was distasteful but necessary. Oni didn’t like killing them, but Star Force had found no way to ‘capture’ a living Hadarak growth, for they were essentially people whose bodies were buildings that would continually try and produce more growths and mobile combat units. They had to be removed, and this cluster had reached so deep into the planet they had to be dug out with Essence ‘dissolving’ weaponry, then have the ashes left behind siphoned out and into space or the nearby land where piles of them were the size of mountains.

  The ones in space had been funneled into a waiting fleet of industrial ships that were harvesting the material for use in building more mobile infrastructure. They were from Clan Ghostblade, and were responsible for setting up the mobile base of operations here that was feeding the warfleets from local materials harvested and a continuous influx of supplies coming from the distant Grand Border and being carried across Hadarak territory by heavily armed convoys.

  Every day that passed saw this broken planet and wrecked system put a little bit more into order, but Oni was not going to put down any fixed facilities. When the Hadarak counterattacked she didn’t want anything that couldn’t be moved, though right now the center of their breach point hadn’t been hit again, with the systems on the edge taking the counterattacks and turning them back with ease…but at a cost of drones and Essence that had to be replenished or the minion swarms would win via attrition.

  Right now there was a fleet of mobile cites that Ghostblade had brought with them, along with shipyards and factories, that were being used a layovers for crews and specialists with enough flex room to accommodate for lost ships. That was rare, thankfully, but every now and then the Hadarak would hit one of the manned vessels and it would have to be evacuated. So far none had been destroyed with all crew dying with them, but if there was a sudden reversal of fortune Oni wanted options this far away from help, and she wasn’t taking any chances.

  The trailblazer was horribly overextended here, but she refused to fight on the Hadarak’s terms or schedule. Clan Kai’sa was doing the hard, tedious work of removing the Hadarak from system after system along the Grand Border and holding them to prevent re-infestation. That would continue for millennia even if the war ended today and Star Force claimed possession of the Tethers in the Deep Core, and they were far from doing that. Rushing those high end gravity wells would be suicide for most of their fleets if they tried, and while the Neofan might not find that too high a cost for securing them and setting up easy ambushes for Hadarak reinforcements coming from other galaxies, Star Force would not fight that way.

  They would have to get there eventually, but before then they needed to deal with the ‘neighbors’ in the Core that the Hadarak hadn’t been able to conquer, and there were rumored to be a lot of them, all Megaloids…though there could be anything and anyone hidden in the millions of star systems in here.

  A ping caught her attention, and it was the notification of the system’s tracking sensors that a ship had entered on a jumpline on the other side of the system. It was one of her scouts, but it shouldn’t have been coming in that way…though the timestamp of the arrival indicated it had arrived 17 minutes before deadline, with the comm lag attributing to the time delay.

  Soon there were more pings coming in from other jumplines, but none from the primary one that was deemed ‘safe’ ahead to the next link in the Breach Point. The transmission dumps from the ships occurred immediately, with a priority header grabbing Oni’s attention.

  System 8 under siege. Unknown Hadarak units are encroaching on jumplines and snaring ships at high stellar orbit locations. Were forced to reroute through Hadarak systems.

  Oni’s fist balled and she smashed it into the railing. She’d known her success here was too good to be true, and her lack of a comm grid being established yet was being exploited. She had received no couriers warning of trouble, yet the Hadarak were assaulting her leading system and she didn’t even know about it.

  Oni mentally linked with the ship’s systems through the command nexus and began readying it for departure, as well as calling up some of the warships in the system…but not all…to accompany her to the besieged system as she began perusing through the scouting reports, with additional ones coming in with each scout ship upload into the system’s battlemap network.

  Contact had been made successfully with two Megaloid races, and unsuccessfully with dozens more…meaning they didn’t respond as many didn’t due to translation issues. This area wasn’t safe enough to bring a Uriti in to try and talk to them, but apparently the Wranglers in the scout ships had been able to get through to a couple of them, and what they had to say was very curious.

  They wanted out.

  Apparently the Hadarak had been blockading them from leaving, but were unable to conquer them. They stated it was their magic that they couldn’t defeat, but they rarely used it on their probing attacks. Both races wanted to flee to the Rim to avoid the Hadarak, but were unable to because of the Web Wall…and they were asking for permission to pass through Star Force’s claimed breach point…

  Paul stood in the bioharvest facility inside the Excalibur during a jump between star systems as Azoro was coaching him on making very small adjustments in his own production of the Saiolum. There was very little of it in the Excalibur out in the middle of nowhere between stars, which made the bioharvest facility the area with the highest concentration other than where the crew was, and Paul didn’t want to experiment on them.

  The trailblazer was surging it inside him, then learning to direct where it went when leaving. He didn’t have good control over it, but was able to funnel it in certain directions with limited accuracy. He had about a 20 degree cone he could manage, and Azoro said that was enough to start working on his manipulation of targets.

  Saiolum wasn’t just produced by biological life, it was used by it as well. It wasn’t needed, but could be used to enhance various aspects of a community network that Paul was now retrospectively realizing as Azoro let him in on more tidbits of information that clarified previous mysteries from past experience.

  One aspect he was now learning was communication. It wasn’t telepathy, and it wasn’t Ikrid hacking, but it had aspects of both. Paul could, when focusing his own Saiolum, force it onto the plants and pick up a reflection of their current status. It was as if they were speaking to him and giving him status reports, but in a manner that was not mathematical. He felt them, as if a limited extension of himself.

  And when they die you will feel it too, Azoro said in words, letting go of the mind meld teaching he was having to use to give Paul concepts that he didn’t have the words for…and words in Sha’kier that he didn’t yet understand. Be mindful about when you connect. You cannot do so permanently or you will go insane.

  Ho
w far can you sense?

  I can use other techniques to sense on the other side of the galaxy so long as there are connections the entire distance. It is not immediate, but I can feel ripples that damage cause, that growth causes. That moving creates. You are creating more than ripples, and that gives you a greater connection, but when you quiet your mind and develop the necessary sensitivity, you can see very, very far…but it is the past you are seeing.

  Are you blocking out the war?

  I have not tried to connect to any except Behemoth and you. The galactic ripples I must stay mostly numb to, though they are ever present.

  Even now?

  No. I hear nothing now, but if I open up I will still feel occasional echoes when we pass through another jumpline and intercept the flow.

  How often does that happen?

  Rarely except in the Deep Core. They are wide there, and the spacing is much smaller. Still, there are pockets you can escape into if you have a carrier. If not, you must live in the chaotic wash in the Saiolum, and if you cannot numb it out you will suffer forever in my position.

  How long did it take you to learn how?

  Fortunately that occurred before my banishment from the biological realm. I fear for any others that survived and did not have the necessary containment skills.

  How bad do you think it could get?

  Deeper into madness than I can imagine.

  Could that be what happened with those in the Apocalypse Monsters?

  I don’t know. They are an enigma for me, and the Saiolum around them is twisted.

  How close did you get?

  I came within a system, once, and felt the Saiolum diminishing around them so fast I fled on the first available carrier I could find.

  The Apocalypse Monsters don’t create Saiolum?

  That is a question I have not been able to answer. Consider it an ocean in a hurricane, and the current is sucking you into the storm as if the water level is receding inside it. Travel too far and you may never come out again. In my case, if the Saiolum disappears, I die. If the Apocalypse Monsters are the only source of it in the area, I will be trapped with them.

  Can you hurt another in your current form?

  It has never been tried.

  You’re vulnerable, aren’t you?

  When we created our second mind here, we did not anticipate attack from those who cannot affect this state.

  Can they do something similar to what I am doing to harm biological life?

  I fear so.

  Can you?

  If I can I do not know how. Builders don’t practice destroying.

  Warriors do, so we know how to build proper defenses when an enemy attacks us. But we don’t practice on people. How could it theoretically work on plants?

  I do not want you even attempting such things now in your current state. You know so little, and the path ahead is critical to your development, and not guaranteed.

  How would it occur in theory?

  Mal communication, or a deprivation of those lifeforms that require higher levels of Saiolum.

  Wait, I thought you said we didn’t need it?

  Another higher level lesson you seem to cheat your way into, Azoro said with mild annoyance, but also a measure of respect. We can craft plants that can use it to accomplish certain things, and even bodies, but they require it constantly or they malfunction. Natural lifeforms do not require it, but can be uplifted by it.

  Could someone use the Saiolum to kill off a planet of lifeforms in order to silence it?

  I fear it, but have not encountered it. Nor have the Sha’kier. But there are legends that infer it from races older than ours. So much knowledge is lost in the continual restarting of civilizations across the universe, that we are forced to relearn what was discovered before, and to make the same mistakes. I fear much has been lost, and is leaving us vulnerable to ancient enemies that have not been reset.

  Where?

  Dark places where I will not go. And one that I must brave along with you one day.

  The system you told me not to go to?

  Yes. It is your Dagobah swamp in reality. There the Saiolum has been altered. I cannot enter without being corrupted. Not without a body to secure me.

  Corrupted how?

  A sickness is felt when I neared it before. I had to leave before I understood more, but I came back several times, though I could penetrate no further. The aura could be a shield mechanism to defend the location, or it could be a perversion. I do not know.

  How does the Saiolum become perverted?

  Ripples are not always positive.

  Then it’s the information that is carried, not the Saiolum itself?

  Correct, but irrelevant.

  Why do you need to go there?

  To solve lingering mysteries, and to help prepare you for threats I have not yet encountered.

  How long until I’m ready?

  Not soon, but you are progressing faster than I expected. If you continue at this rate, before the Hadarak are fully dealt with in this galaxy.

  You’ve encountered very little hope in all your travels, I suspect?

  Depression was a constant until I found you, and you have not disappointed. If your empire is to fall, I will choose to perish with you. I have no wish to return to hopelessness. I am committed to your cause, for it is the last hope for my sanity to become stable. And you know what I mean, for you feel it as well. You cannot care for the galaxy without being torn apart in empathy with it.

  I do understand that. And I sense you still think our odds are low?

  The darkness will come for you, as it did for us, but you will draw more out, for you are truly lightside rather than merely allied to it as we were. There is no avoiding this fight, and in it many mysteries will be revealed. I would like to see what they are before I die. I would like even more to see you successfully defend this galaxy. Please continue to exceed my expectations, my young apprentice.

  Paul smirked. Then stop holding back so much.

  Master this connection technique and I will. Much of what I have not spoken of depends on it.

  Challenge accepted, the Furyan said, returning his attention to the plants and feeling their ongoing photosynthesis.

  5

  December 23, 154971

  Itaru System (Novunu Region)

  Wendigama

  “It’s been 5 months since I arrived here,” Kent said as the 100 Furyan younglings sat quietly in rows before him on vibration pads, having found out that the small movements were better at keeping their focus for instruction than normal chairs or the floor. “You were a mess when I got here, and you’re still a mess now. The difference is, you’re learning. And you want to learn. You’ve seen a taste of your possible future, and now it’s time to lay out the battlefield on which you will fight your most important battle.”

  “That is the War Within that I mentioned earlier. Now you know what training is. Now you know how your body and mind responds to it…but you don’t know why. You have information without context, and it’s time to give you that context.”

  “There are three parts to a person…Mind, Body, and Core. Your Body is your physical hardware, your Mind is the software that operates the hardware, and your Core is the pilot inside. Each of you are born into a Body, but you are not that Body. You are the Core inside it, and over time you may find that your Core doesn’t like all the aspects of your Body. Why? Because it doesn’t fit right. You don’t get a choice in your Body. You don’t get a choice in your Mind. You don’t get a choice when or where you’re born. You get thrown into the universe at a point of its choosing, but you 100 are damn lucky to be here, in Star Force, where it is safe. Others are being born into positions where they will die soon and there is nothing they can do about it. Star Force seeks to bring as many people into safety to avoid this, in order to give each person a chance at climbing the ladder of life, which we refer to as the War Within.”

  “What is that war?” Kent said, pacing back and for
th in front of the seated younglings as they wobbled in place, keeping their full attention on him while their bodies had to lightly fight the vibration to keep from falling off their 6 inch high pads. “It is the war between your Core and your Body/Mind. It is also the war between you and your environment. The battlefield is your Body/Mind, and it is set by your parents. Their genetics determine your starting equipment and starting settings. Some will be awesome, others will be problematic. Your Furyan genetics are superior to the Human genetics I started with, but within your genome are still problems. Things that the universe put there to keep you alive long enough to reproduce and continue your race. You don’t understand this, because you are young and you haven’t seen how bad it is out there, but inside you are instincts. Some come from me and my brothers, but others are default. How many you have I don’t know, but I expect there will always be some that you have to reset. One of those is the predator instinct.”

  “Warriors are anti-predator, and perhaps you have inherited some of that anti-predator software from us, though if you have I haven’t seen it yet. Not all instincts appear in the beginning. Some have to be unlocked over time. But one constant throughout the universe is the predator instinct, and it tells you to attack and destroy your target. Another is the protect instinct, which tells you to attack another to protect a target. Some of that is useful, but if it doesn’t come with ethics then it is darkside. You will find various instincts that are not set to the lightside in you, and you must fight to readjust your settings both to the lightside and to customize yourself in order to match your Core.”

  “Visualize a target with a central dot and 10 rings around it. That central dot is your Core. Your Core has many aspects to it, and only over time will you have a chance to discover who you are. I am a Warrior, not because of choices I’ve made, but because it is my nature. Not in my rings, but in my Core, and my Core has rewritten my rings to match. That did not happen fast or easy. My rings started out with the settings of my race and my parents, and I had to fight and conquer each ring starting with the outermost. It is Ring 10. The closest to your Core is Ring 1. Your outside ring, Ring 10, is the part of you that interacts with the environment. You are hearing me now through your Ring 10. Everything that happens in the moment occurs in Ring 10, and it is the easiest to change, and is always changing, often mirroring what is around you.”