Ivan Kal

SANCTUARY

Timeline

December 2018 – World economy approaching collapsing point, unemployment at an all-time high.

April 2019 – Corruption and economic failing brings about the collapse of the European Union, United States struggles with ever increasing number of homeless, Europe struggles with food shortages.

July 2020 – With the collapse of the EU most countries are forced to implement population control, food and water shortages increasing, the price of water skyrockets. North African countries declare bankruptcy.

February 2021 – Natural oil and gas reserves approaching depletion. United States increases their presence in the Middle East, along with Russia and China. Relations between China and India deteriorate.

November 2021 – African and South American countries reach bankruptcy points, people start rioting. Australia and Indonesian countries invest in solar, sea water, and thermal power research, they start building hydroponic and agroponic industries. Relations between Russia and United States deteriorate, China and India declare war.

January 2022 – Russian military enters Iraq and Iran, United States responds by declaring war on the Russian Federation, the Middle East becomes a battle ground.

February 2022 – UN tries to end the conflicts peacefully, most member countries unable to divert resources from their own problems. United States, Russia, China, India and other countries involved in the conflict withdraw from the UN.

May 2022 – UN and NATO dissolved, most European countries approach bankruptcy points.

Jun 2022 – United Kingdom joins the Middle Eastern war on the side of the United States.

March 2024 – Australia and Indonesian countries sign a pact, creating the League.

December 2024 – The League builds first hydrothermal power plant on the ocean bed in the Southern Ocean.

January 2025 – United States forms an alliance with the UK and India, European and African countries struggle with food, water and oil shortages.

March 2025 – United States soldiers bomb Iranian village due to faulty information, killing hundreds of innocent civilians. Using that as an excuse, Russian Federation arms their nuclear arsenal and points it at US major cities threatening to fire unless the US and their allies withdraw from the Middle East, with the dissolvent of the UN and NATO there is no world governing body to prevent them, US arms their arsenal as well.

April 2025 – Remaining nuclear capable countries involved in the conflict arm their armament.

May 2025 – Russian Federation fires their nuclear missiles, the US defense network isn’t able to shoot them all down, western coast totally destroyed, US fires their missiles in response, within hours both countries mayor cities are destroyed. India fires their nuclear weapons at China totally destroying most of their mayor cities. China subjected to sabotage, unable to fire all of their arsenal.

July 2025 – Death count in the billion rising each day, millions more infected with radiation sickness, China becomes a wasteland. Refugees from the US west coast move to the east and south into Mexico and Southern America, Russian refugees move to Siberia, hard conditions add to the death count, few remaining Chinese refugees are given aid and living space in the League. Radiation clouds move to India, killing millions.

August 2026 – Final death count approaching three billion. Shock from loss of life forces all involved parties to sign a peace treaty, retreating from war torn Middle East.

October 2026 – Accord of Life signed all countries agree never again to use nuclear weapons on Earth soil.

January 2030 – Germany offers financial aid to other European countries, and proposes a union of all European countries into a single entity. Already desperate, all save for UK, Spain, France and Italy accept the offer.

March – September 2030 – A new country is formed, all governments abolished, elections on various matters held. English accepted as primary speaking language, former prime minister of Germany Jonas Bauer voted and appointed as President of this new state, which took the name Concordis – Latin for united. A new governing system implemented, Concordis split into three regions North – Scandinavia and the rest of former Baltic countries, Central – countries of former central Europe, and South – Balkan Peninsula. Each region elected a single representative, the council of three was created, with the power to overrule any presidential decision if all were in agreement.

February 2031 – League starts to export food and power to other countries in Asia and Europe.

August 2033 – Concordis economy stabilizes, quality of life improves. People not living in the League or Concordis suffer. Concordis starts their own hydroponic program on a large scale, most of the fertile land allocated to farming. Water refining programs started. Underground lakes tapped for water.

November 2035 – Radiation clouds over Asia and North America dissipate.

December 2035 – August 2039 – US, India, Russia and UK pool their remaining resources and begin to clean up the nuclear waste left by the war. Their economies slowly start to stabilize.

March 2040 – Olympus Corporation founded in Concordis southern region, primarily focuses on the development of new technology.

September 2041 – League and Concordis finally able to sustain their populations and send aid to critical regions, League sends food packages to Asia, Concordis to Africa.

February 2042 – November 2046 – Olympus buys the designs for the Leagues thermal power plants. Starts research on underwater habitats and development. Olympus builds first underwater farms at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean powered by thermal plants. Olympus invests into genetic research, hoping to improve crop yields, and battle radiation sickness in refugees.

August 2047 – Olympus starts mining the Atlantic Ocean’s bed for metals and oil. League does the same in the Pacific.

January 2048 – African countries unite and jointly ask for the inclusion in Concordis, following their example Asian countries except Russia and India, do the same with the League, and are accepted. The Middle Eastern countries remain independent.

July 2048 – November 2054 – Conditions everywhere begin to improve, the League and Concordis enter a time of technological advancement, Olympus develops first brain implants intended to help people with their everyday lives.

February 2056 – January 2070 – Olympus builds first underwater city at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, it is named Nephthys. Population control is removed.

March 2074 – January 2081 – Implant technology now widespread throughout Concordis and League. North and South American countries reach their prewar states.

February 2081 – Olympus finds an Alien craft at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

October 2081 – August 2094 – Olympus develops technologies found in the Alien craft, and starts building facilities in space, mining operations on the moon and in the asteroid belt begin.

November 2094 – Olympus announces sedition from Earth, they create their own state, based in space.

January 2095 – February 2103 – Tensions between Earth and Olympus rise, Earth economy dependent on Olympus.

March 2103 – Concordis attacks Olympus, resulting in the destruction of the Olympus station in Earth orbit and a Concordis warship.

November 2103 – Olympus leaves the Solar system, taking all their technology and people with them.

October 2109 – Lack of resources, and animosities between world leaders result in Earth being engulfed in a world war.

May 2129 – End of the Great War, Earth population decimated, estimated population 4.5 billion.

February 2159 – Ra’a’zani, an alien race, arrive and conquer Earth, enslaving the population.

November 2160 – Ra’a’zani execute one third of the human population in retaliation against actions of human resistance fighters. Estimated human population 3.5 billion.

May 2164 – Olympus arrives at their new home, they name the planet Sanctuary.

August 2169 – Human resistance in Sol finds Olympus Scout ship left in the asteroid field.

Prologue

Seventh partial of 2896th rotation – Ra’a’zani world Lu’tal

Ninth taskmaster Vit’r’an of the clan Ooruvan watched his screen in disbelief. He had spent the entire tenth of a partial on this post as a penance for his failure to notice a slave trouble maker. The slave in question tried to organize an escape, and even managed to pull two slaves, which were known for their obedience, in his plan. All three were executed when caught, an escape was, of course, impossible. The Ooruvan clan had been in charge of this world for more than 50 rotations, and had complete control over the planet and all traffic in the system. The Yunkari slaves were a primitive race, they had barely started constructing machines when the Ooruvan clan found them. The clan was trying to increase their holdings, and gain more influence with the great clans in the core. They were planning on setting a mining operation here, far away from the other clans, as they did not want to share the profits. It then came as a great surprise when they found one of the planets in the targeted system habitable, and an even greater surprise when they realized that it was inhabited with life forms of higher intelligence. The clan leaders immediately realized that they had found a source of great profit. Not only would they have a supply of workers for their mines, they would also be able to sell those acceptable specimens back in the core, earning influence. High intelligence life forms were rare, and very valuable. The Ra’a’zani had enslaved every other race of higher intelligence they found, and there were only three such races, including the Yunkari, that the Ra’a’zani encountered since they entered the great void. The encountering and acquisition of slaves brought a great deal of influence to a clan, the other two clans, the Uunaran and the Virnan, that encountered and enslaved other races gained much influence, and in time became the core of Ra’a’zani. Then, with the discovery of another source of slaves the Ooruvan gained enough influence to become one of the core clans as well, it had been more than 1000 rotations since another race was discovered, and the other slaves had become integrated in Ra’a’zani society. The Ooruvan clan’s influence was lesser than that of the other two of course, the others had a long time to build influence and connections among the clans, but Ooruvan were still one of the core. The other six clans now had to offer gifts, and seek influence with the Ooruvan if they wanted to expand in their vicinity. The Yunkari were very different than the Ra’a’zani, just like the other two slave races. The template was similar, they had four limbs, the Ra’a’zani had six, they had four digits on each limb, while Ra’a’zani had three on their upper, and none but the boney sharp spike on the lower, they breathed the same air composition as the Ra’a’zani and the other two slave races. But their skin was covered in short hairs, while Ra’a’zani had hard scales. One other great difference was that like the other slave races, the Yunkari reproduced via internal egg fertilization. The new life grew inside the female Yunkari which were numerous, unlike the Ra’a’zani. Ra’a’zani females were few, and each clan protected their females savagely. Only those with the greatest influence among a clan would be able to fertilize the eggs that the female lays, and so ensure passing on of their genes.

Which brought Vit’r’an back to his screen, the disbelief was slowly replaced with eagerness, and excitement. If what he was seeing was true, he might just ensure his spot as one of the fathers of his clan. The computer was still processing the data. But the preliminary reports suggested another high intelligence life form! The signals his station was picking up, according to the computer were communications from another race, and they were sent into the open! It boggled Vit’r’an’s mind, that another intelligent race would announce their existence so freely. The computer of course couldn’t translate the contents from the signals, that would take many partials, or rotations maybe. But Vit’r’an was certain, they had discovered another life form. He verified the data three more times, he didn’t want to risk being executed if he was wrong. He went straight to the clan Rakar, the leader of his parter. If he was right his clan would soon gain a lot more influence. Finding two slave races in a span of less than 100 rotations! Their influence will rise far above the other two core clans. And if he was the one to bring this information to the clan Rakar, the leader of the entire clan, he would gain influence enough to perhaps one day become the Rakar himself.

Chapter One

August 2169 – Olympus Explorer Ship Star Gazer – Sol

Mathias sat on the cold floor of the strange spaceship, the floor didn’t bother him, he was accustomed to sleeping on hard and uncomfortable surfaces. He spent ten years as a slave of the Ra’a’zani, the aliens that conquered Earth. But even before then, he learned how to survive on the streets of the slum city Berlin when he was just a little boy. He was 13 years old when the Ra’a’zani came. No, the cold and hard floor didn’t bother him. Beside him sat Gloria, she, like him was until recently a slave. They escaped their slavery with the help of human resistance, who sent them on a task deep in the asteroid field that resulted in them finding this ship. Across from them on a floorplate, stood an image of a human man, a hologram. The hologram activated when they stepped on the ship’s bridge. At first Mathias assumed that the hologram was a part of an interactive program, but then it told them that it was in fact a representation of an artificial intelligence. It introduced itself as Asumy. Mathias had no idea what that was, the Ra’a’zani had nothing like that, and his knowledge on prewar Human technology was lacking, but the hologram explained that it was a computer that was self-aware. He claimed that he could think and learn just like any other intelligent being. Mathias struggled with the concept. He knew little about the technology humanity had before the war, but he never heard about anything like that.

“We need to contact the resistance.” Gloria said.

“Yeah.” Mathias said, as a part of the resistance, they knew the low-band radio frequency that the resistance monitored. It was a way that those in the resistance communicated, as the Ra’a’zani didn’t have the capability to monitor such a low frequency. They just needed the equipment capable of sending the signal. It suddenly dawned on Mathias that they were given orders by the resistance to investigate these coordinates, but no way to let them know what they found. The Ra’a’zani shuttle they came in didn’t have the capability to send a low radio signal.

“Gloria, did the resistance message say how we can contact them?” Mathias asked. The messages in the resistance were passed on via small paper notes, from one person to another. So that no one knew where they came from.

She frowned for a second. “Oh, right. The equipment parts we were supposed to transfer to another mining station is in fact a radio transmitter. I think that they switched the parts somehow.” She said.

Mathias sighed, he should have asked her that before they even boarded the shuttle. He was too distracted by the prospect of escaping slavery to think clearly.

“Alright then, let’s go back to the shuttle and tell them about the ship.” He got to his legs and started towards the door, but the hologram interrupted him.

“There is no need, this ship’s communication device can send the message on the frequency your friends are using.” It, Asumy said.

Mathias turned towards the hologram. It looked like a young man, maybe twenty five years old, with short brown hair, dressed in a dark blue uniform. The uniform had a strange symbol on its shoulder, it looked like a winged sword of some kind, and Mathias didn’t recognize it.

“And how do you know the frequency of our ‘friends’?” Mathias asked suspiciously.

“I have been monitoring all communications inside the Solar system for the past 66 years.” Asumy said simply.

Mathias saw Gloria’s jaw open, and Mathias’s did the same, it took him a moment to gather himself.

“66 years? You are telling me that you were here for that long?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“That can’t be. Humanity had ships and facilities in space, but only very little, and that was before the war, we did have the capability to come this far into the system, but every ship was destroyed in the war, the facilities abandoned, and the Ra’a’zani either took over or destroyed the rest when they came.” Gloria said, she grew up in one of the cities that managed to survive the war, where she went to school, so Mathias guessed she knew what she was talking about.

“You are wrong.” Asumy said.

“Then who left you here? And why?” Mathias said.

“I was instructed to remain here by my friend, Professor Hyeon Seo-yun of Olympus. She wanted me to monitor the progress of people on Earth, in the event that humanity ever manages to unite in a single entity. And if they were worthy enough in my opinion, to release to them the technology that Seo-yun left with me.” Asumy said.

“Olympus? What is that?” Mathias said, he ignored the part about the technology, one step at a time, he thought.

“Olympus was a country that was based in space, its territory spread out throughout the Solar system.” Asumy said.

“A country in space? Why didn’t I never hear anything about it? And where is it now?” Gloria asked.

“Olympus left the Solar systems 66 years ago, they took all their people and technology with them.” Asumy said.

“You are talking about the lawbreakers, the ones that stole the Earth’s technology and left.” Gloria said.

“The lawbreakers?” Mathias said. “They are only stories told by those born before the war, a story to justify their greed.”

Gloria looked at him. “One of my teachers was born before the war, they did have better technology then. He was almost eighty years old and he still looked as if he was twenty. He told us that before people didn’t age like we do now, that they aged only the last few years prior to death, he also said that the lawbreakers were real.” She said.

Mathias looked at her skeptically, he was aware that he didn’t have any kind of an education, everything he knew about his own world and its history came from stories told by those that survived the war, and the rest of his education came from the Ra’a’zani, he learned more about technology from them than from his own people. He looked at the hologram.

“Is she right? Is this a lawbreaker ship?” He asked.

“Olympus is the ones she is referring to, but they were never lawbreakers, nor did they steal any technology from Earth. None of technology Olympus took with them belonged to Earth, it was Olympus that developed it and owned it.” Asumy said.

Mathias looked at the hologram open-mouthed. “But why did they leave then?”

“One of the Earth’s governments instigated an attack on Olympus station, hoping to steal information on Olympus technology, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of Olympus citizens. Not wanting to have something like that happen again, Tomas Klein leader of Olympus decided that they should leave the system, and start over somewhere else, far away from the greed of those on Earth.”

“But why did they then leave this ship?” Gloria asked.

“The ship was left on orders from Professor Hyeon Seo-yun, Tomas Klein ordered all technology, ships and stations that weren’t being taken with them to be dismantled or destroyed. He was disappointed in humanity and did not believe they were ready for the technology Olympus possessed. Humanity only reinforced his belief by going to war after Olympus left, instead of joining together. Seo-yun on the other hand still hoped that humanity would change, so she left me and this ship here behind his back, so that should humanity ever become worthy, I would release technology left with this ship.”

“Wait, you were here when the Ra’a’zani came. Why didn’t you help?” Mathias asked accusingly.

“There was nothing I could have done, the Earth was devastated. You had no presence in space, you were trying to survive. I don’t have the control over the ships maneuvering, and even if I did send a message to Earth, there was no one that could have gotten here in time, and even if they did, there was nothing they could do. Star Gazer is still just one ship, and even though she is armed, she is not a warship.”

“Alright, I understand why you didn’t contact us prior to the Ra’a’zani arrival, but why not after they came? You could have made contact with the resistance, taught us how to fight them!” Mathias said angrily.

“I did contact the resistance, why did you think they sent you here? I sent them a message with these coordinates.” Asumy said.

Mathias looked at him surprised. “But why wait until now? The Ra’a’zani have been here for ten years…” And then it dawned on him. “You didn’t think we were worthy.” Mathias said.

“You were still bickering amongst yourselves, the resistance was fractured into many factions, each working for its own interests.” Asumy said.

That was the first Mathias heard about that, he believed that the resistance was united, everyone working for the freedom of mankind.

“But that isn’t the case now?” Gloria asked. She took the news in stride, suggesting that she knew about the different factions. She had been a part of the resistance longer than him.

“No, the resistance had finally realized that if they want to free humanity, they need to work together, towards the same goal.”

“Alright, how do we contact the resistance?” Gloria asked.

One of the panels in the room turned on. And Gloria approached it.

“Just speak, I will transmit your message.” Asumy said.

Gloria looked at Mathias for a moment and then spoke.

“This is Gloria Adriano, code 765143-Sunshine.” She said. Every resistance member had a verification code that told to those listening to the frequency that they were the part of the resistance. Actually, they had two, one that was real, and a fake one, that they were supposed to give in the event of being captured, to let the resistance know that they were compromised. And to give them a chance to plan an operation, or feed the Ra’a’zani false information. Gloria continued her message.

“We have arrived at the set coordinates, and have discovered a space ship, upon boarding it, we identified the ship as Olympus Explorer Ship Star Gazer, it was left here 66 years ago. Requesting a rescue team with someone who has knowledge of piloting a space ship, the ship is operational. Also, there is a computer aboard the ship, it called itself an Artificial intelligence.”

She turned and nodded at the hologram.

“Message sent.” Asumy said.

An hour later the comm panel pinged and Asumy played the responding message.

“Message received, expect a team in ten days, no contact until then.” The voice said. There was no verification, he didn’t introduce himself. Mathias looked at Gloria and sighed.

“Ten days, our food will just barely cover that period if we spread it out very thin. But we have water for maybe two days.” He said.

“There is plenty food and water aboard the ship.” Asumy said.

Mathias looked at the hologram.

“That food is more than 60 years old, I don’t think that we can eat it. And as for water, I don’t know if it is still drinkable.” Mathias said.

“Food and water are stored inside stasis units, they are as fresh as the day they were put there.” Asumy said.

Mathias looked at Gloria, she had a bewildered expression, she like him didn’t know what stasis unit was, but if the food and water were fresh as Asumy said, then their ten day wait would pass a lot easier.

“Alright can you show us the way towards this stasis unit?” Gloria asked.

“Of course.” Asumy said, and a line made of light appeared on the floor. “Follow the line, I can still monitor your progress and speak to you, but you won’t see this hologram.” He said.

Mathias shook his head, and started in the direction of the line.

Chapter Two

Sol

Jacob Kelly the leader of the resistance sat impatiently in the copilot seat of a Ra’a’zani shuttle. The resistance acquired it during the early days of the Ra’a’zani occupation, when they still dared to fight back. The Ra’a’zani believed the shuttle destroyed, and the resistance used it only for very important missions. They conquered Earth in less than a month, and their idea of keeping us under control was rather simple. They destroyed all of Earth’s technology, and taught us how to use theirs. So now we depended on them for survival, humans lived in special encampments, and worked for food and water. But they also didn’t monitor us all that close, they knew that we couldn’t escape their rule, and early on they showed us the price of fighting back. In the beginning the resistance organized frequent raids on the Ra’a’zani, until they grew tired and executed a third of the population. Humanity’s enslavement was all that easier because the Great War devastated the population. The Earth population at the end of the war was around 3.5 billion, and only a very small percentage of those left were people born long before the war. Jacob was one of the few remaining humans that was born well before the war, and also one of the few still alive that went through the life extension treatment, before the knowledge was lost during the war. Jacob was 120 years old, and would live at least another 30 years, the rest of the population that was born after they lost the treatments, aged normally with an average life span of 90 years or 100 if they were lucky, since the treatment isn’t passed on from parents to children. After the Ra’a’zani executed the third, there were only 2.7 billion people left. And very few of those remembered a time before the Ra’a’zani, or the Great War. Those left knew very little about humanity’s history, since they only knew what they were taught, or what they heard as stories from their parents. History lessons seemed unimportant when one struggled to stay alive. And barely anyone was left who knew the human technology, the third that the Ra’a’zani chose to execute were all from the cities that survived the war and had the knowledge of the past.

That made it all that more important that they arrive at their destination safely. They were close now, after ten days of traveling, the Ra’a’zani shuttles were very fast, and the Resistance hideout was close, they were situated in the Asteroid belt, on an old forgotten mining station from before the war. They did not send anyone to inspect the coordinates from their hideout because they were so close, they did not want to give away their base. But now that was changed, Jacob was the only one in the resistance available to inspect the ship they found. And also the only one old enough to remember Olympus, and the truth of the events that happened, he was working for the League government then, and remembered well the day when Tomas Klein stood before the leaders of the world and announced that Olympus was leaving the Solar system. He was in the League party then, a part of the team that was sent to the meeting at Sedna city, he remembered the actions of the world leaders upon hearing the announcement. They tried, and failed to obtain Olympus technology, and then immediately they turned their sights on the new opportunities, each pushing to get the biggest share of Olympus territory and facilities that they left behind. Thinking back on that period brought great shame to Jacob, as he was among them, arguing in order to increase his own countries standing. None of them cared that Olympus was leaving, in fact they were relieved. Now Jacob could clearly see where their greed brought them. Each country focused on increasing its own wealth, they neglected their people, and started a war that had all but ended the human race. They learned nothing from the previous war, when they unleashed nuclear weapons on each other. Jacob thanked God that every country at least honored the treaty and didn’t use nuclear weapons during the Great War, at least they remembered that lesson, he had no doubt that there would have been no humanity for Ra’a’zani to enslave, had they used nuclear weapons. Though in truth it didn’t much matter, that just pushed them to find more inventive ways to kill each other.

If the message they received was true, and the discovered ship was an Olympus vessel then they might just have a chance against the Ra’a’zani. Up until now the only thing that they could do was watch and wait for a chance, their military strength paled in comparison to the Ra’a’zani, they had no ships of their own and had no way of destroying the four warships patrolling the Solar System, not to mention the transport ships that carried materials mined here back to the Ra’a’zani space. The message from his people said that the ship had an Artificial intelligence. Jacob was present when they received the message, and saw the confusion of his people, they didn’t know what that was, the concept was foreign to them, as Ra’a’zani had nothing like that, and as they had little to none knowledge of human technology. There were few books or movies that survived the war so they couldn’t have learned about it that way. But Jacob was old enough to understand what that meant, a sentient computer. He was surprised when the message came, he knew that Olympus was advanced but not that it was advanced that much.

“We are here Jacob. There is the ship.” Tamara, his pilot and second in command said. Jacob looked outside the shuttle through its forward windows. He saw the ship immediately. It didn’t match what he remembered of Olympus warships, nor did it match any other Olympus ship he ever saw. Though there was no doubt that it was made by them. It had soft angles, rounded, it was perhaps 140 meters long, with its rear end being bulky, wider and taller than the rest of the ship. The rest resembled the Olympus warships with its rounded box look.

“Contact them.” Jacob said. This was the riskiest part, if this was a Ra’a’zani plot the resistance would end with him. But Jacob knew that the resistance would have ended if they didn’t find the ship, there was nothing they could do against their conquerors. They had no means to fight back.

Tamara contacted the ship and a moment later, they were given instructions to dock with the ship on its port side. Jacob stood up and went to the back end of the shuttle. There were four more people there, they were armed with the remnants of the war, plasma rifles, they were developed during the war by Concordis. The Ra’a’zani gathered all the weapons that Humanity had and destroyed them, these were ones of the few that they managed to hide. Four people were Lars Rickman, Bella Nunez, Kristofer Gates and Nicole Smith. They were all born after the war, and survive in the slum cities, all save for Nicole, she was born in Denver, one of the few cities that survived the war. Jacob nodded to them and they waited until the shuttle docked. When Tamara came out they went to the access hatch and entered the ship.

They were met by two people, he knew that they were Gloria Hernandez and Mathias from their profiles, the boy didn’t have a last name, or didn’t remember it. Seeing them Jacob released a breath, he had a small fear that this was all a Ra’a’zani ploy, though they rarely showed the capacity for elaborate plots. Jacob approached the two and greeted them.

“I’m Jacob Kelly, the leader of the Resistance. You have done a great job here.” Jacob said. And offered his hand.

They shook his hand, and Mathias answered.

“We didn’t really do anything sir.” He said.

“Jacob please.” Jacob looked around. “It is an impressive ship.”

Mathias and Gloria looked at each other. “That it is sir. But why did you come personally?” Gloria asked.

Jacob sighed, he had spent a long time keeping secrets, but there was no need to hide anything from those present here.

“I am old, I was born a long time before the war, and I remember Olympus. So I am the only one who could have verified that this indeed is an Olympus ship. You said that there was an Ai on the ship?” He asked.

They looked blankly at him for a moment, and then Gloria understood. “Oh, you mean the Artificial intelligence.”

Jacob nodded.

“Well you better come with us to meet Asumy.” Mathias said.

“Asumy?” Jacob asked.

“The artificial intelligence.” Gloria said.

He and the rest of his party followed them to the bridge. The first thing he noticed was that the bridge room was a half sphere. When they all entered, Mathias turned towards a floor plate in the room.

“Asumy, the leader of the Resistance is here to speak with you.” He said.

“I am aware of his presence.” A voice said. And a moment later a hologram of a man appeared. The rest of his party was startled, but Jacob took it in stride, he remembered that Olympus had excellent holo technology. The hologram was dressed in standard Olympus fleet uniform, black with Olympus symbol on its shoulder, though there was no rank insignia. Jacob stepped up to the hologram.

“I am—” He started, but was interrupted.

“Jacob Kelly, born May 2049 in Sidney, Former chief of staff to the President of The League, current leader of the human resistance.” It said.

Jacob looked at the hologram taken aback for a moment.

“Well, you might know me, but I don’t believe we had the pleasure of meeting before.” Jacob said, he had a feeling that he should treat it as an equal, and to be direct.

“My name is Asumy, and you are correct, we have not met before, though I know about you, I have access to the files Olympus had on you, and have since added to them in Olympus’s absence.” The artificial intelligence named Asumy said.

“May I know how you learned that I was the leader of the resistance?” Jacob asked.

“You said so yourself when you boarded the ship, but I had prior knowledge, I have been monitoring all communications inside the Solar system since I was left here.”

“That is an amazing capability, I don’t believe that even the Ra’a’zani are capable of monitoring all communications inside the system.” Jacob said.

“You are correct, they don’t have that capability, they use mostly focused laser comms and have limited radio capability.” Asumy said, it confirmed Jacob’s suspicions. Ra’a’zani might have taught humans how to use their technology, but there were still things that they kept secret, like their communications, and weapons.

“So because they use lasers, I assume that you can’t listen to those communications?” Jacob asked.

“Correct, though I can monitor their radio communications. Which most of their military vessels use.”

Jacob’s mind immediately went into high gear, thinking how he could use that in his favor, and then he realized that he needed the cooperation of the Ai first.

“I’m going to be direct with you. First, why are you here?”

“I was left by Professor Hyeon Seo-yun, to monitor Earth, and in case it ever united in a single entity aid them in their expansion to the stars.”

Jacob remembered about Professor Hyeon, she was a brilliant scientist, and later one of the leaders of Olympus. He stored that information for later and continued.

“I assume that it was you who sent us these coordinates, so that we could find you. Will you help us against the Ra’a’zani?”

“Yes.”

Jacob released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, he knew that the Ai was in control of the ship, and since his people lacked expertise, he knew that they had no hope of circumventing the Ai in order to gain the ship and its technology.

“There is one more thing I need to ask you.” Jacob looked back at the others present on the bridge before continuing. “Can you contact Olympus?” He asked.

The Ai didn’t immediately answer, the hologram looked right at him, as if it was really seeing him through the image’s eyes, even though Jacob knew that he saw him through some hidden cameras in the room.

“Yes, I can contact them.”

“How long would it take to get a message to them?” Jacob asked.

“Approximately six months.” Asumy said.

“Six months?” Jacob exclaimed. “So little? They said they were going to find another Star system, and there isn’t supposed to be one close enough so that messages at light speed could get there that fast.”

“They are not close, this ship is capable of faster than light communications.” Asumy said.

Jacob was stunned, yet again his knowledge of Olympus was proven insufficient.

“Faster than light? How far away are they?”

“The system they planned on colonizing is 600 light years away.” Asumy said.

“600 light years? So far… Then we are on our own, there is no way for them to send help back, they might not have even arrived there yet.” Jacob said solemnly.

“According to their projections they would have arrived there five years ago, Olympus ships could travel up to ten times the speed of light.”

“That is amazing, but that means that it would take them around 60 years to come back, provided that they had ships that could fight the Ra’a’zani. And from what I remember of Olympus warships they were impressive, but I don’t know how they would fare against the Ra’a’zani, I don’t know if we can wait that long.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to let them know that the Earth is enslaved.”

“Why didn’t you inform them when the Ra’a’zani came?” Jacob asked.

“There was nothing they could have done then, when the Ra’a’zani came they were still in hyperspace, and once they reached their destination they would have been busy colonizing a new planet and building infrastructure. Letting them know about the Ra’a’zani wouldn’t have mattered in the short term, they would still need time.” Asumy said. “We can send them a message now, even if they can’t do anything in the short term, perhaps they can aid you in other ways, there is still a lot of technology that Seo-yun didn’t leave with this ship. In the meantime, I will release all the technology this ship was equipped with, there are a few things that Seo-yun specifically transferred that will be of great use to you, including a fabricator.”

Jacob stared at the hologram. “A fabricator? And you will let us use it?” He asked excitedly.

“Yes.” Asumy answered.

“What’s a fabricator?” Tamara asked.

“It’s a machine that can create anything it is programmed to, provided it has materials, and in a lot shorter period of time than a regular assembly would take.” Asumy said.

The rest of the party looked confused, so Jacob forestalled any more questions.

“Can this ship move? And can we move it without alarming the Ra’a’zani?” Jacob asked.

“Yes. The Ra’a’zani have little sensor coverage in the belt, their patrols are focused further out in the system close to the transit barrier, so that they can respond to any threat coming into the system, they do not consider humans a threat.” Asumy said.

“Good, can you show my people how to pilot the ship? And we need to give you the coordinates of our base.” Jacob said.

“I can teach them, the controls are fairly simple, and I already know the location of your base.” Asumy said.

Jacob smiled softly. “Of course you do.”

For the first time in a long time, Jacob felt hope for the future.

Chapter Three

October 2169 – Planet Sanctuary, Olympus city – Capital of Olympus

The night sky on Sanctuary was different from the one on Earth, there were no stars, only the two moons orbiting the planet, Thanatos and Hypnos. Thanatos glowed red, and Hypnos faintly blue. The night sky was of dark teal color with streaks of purple and red, it was the light reflected by the nebula that surrounded the newly named Sanctuary system. If there was one thing Tomas Klein missed about the place he left behind, it was the star filled night sky. The sky was beautiful here, but it was not the sky he grew up with.

Tomas sighed, he would have time enough to get used to it. He stepped off his balcony and back into his office. It was late, but it was not unusual for him to be working at this hour, there was so much to do. Building an entirely new civilization turned out to be tiring work. The 7 million colonists from Earth had been calling this system their home for the past five years. And they did turn it into a home. After landing five years ago, the first thing they did, after they chose the spot for their first city and landed, was to start assembling the necessary buildings for their people to live in after they were woken up from stasis. Then all the other building they would need, hospitals, storage facilities etc. Most of the work was already done, they brought enough materials with them to have a head start, and the fabricators on the four colony ships had been working for the last few years of the trip making the components they would need when they arrived. In one months’ time they already had a semblance of a city, and they started waking people up, after that everything happened at a faster pace. Two months later they had finished all the constructions on the city, which was then named Olympus city. All of four of the colony ships were built with dual purpose, they were to get them here, and then to be used for the other purposes. After everyone was transferred to the planet, two ships were disassembled and then reassembled into a station/shipyard that was now orbiting Sanctuary. The third ship was put in orbit around the fifth planet in the system, and used as mining station. The fifth planet – Gem, was an ore rich rock and by the end of their second year they already had mining operations there exceeding their needs. The fourth ship was used as a separate shipyard that focused only on mining needs, ships and equipment. With their fabricating technology they could build a lot faster than people on Earth could, and since then they had increased their fabricator factories numbers by 800%. Their population also had a constant increase over the years, since everyone went through the agelessness genetic treatment they didn’t need to worry about anyone dying of old age, they had a few accidental deaths, and with a lot of new births, they projected that their population could reach a billion in less than a hundred years. And every child was born with the agelessness gene, meaning that they wouldn’t age past their twenty fifth year. It was strange to Tomas, thinking that he would never die, barring a disease or a violent death. He always had to keep in mind that he would not live forever, and now that was no longer the case, it boggled the mind. He couldn’t yet wrap his thoughts around the concept, but he knew that he had forever to get used to it.

He walked to his desk and looked at the reports shown on the holographic displays there. There were numerous requests waiting for his approval. They had created a new form of government, taking the best parts of those from Earth and inventing new when they needed to. They kept the name, Olympus, even though they were no longer simply a company. They first of the humanity to venture this far. And Tomas was their leader, many had started referring to him as the Emperor, though not in his presence. But he thought himself only as a leader, he didn’t rule with an iron fist, he had many advisors. He didn’t really do much, leaving the governing to the people, only stepping in when asked to. He found that given a chance, people would rise to the occasion. But then his people were the best Earth had to offer, those who believed in the same things he did. The request on his displays ranged from someone asking permission to proceed with experiments, to those asking for land to build homes. The planet was big and they had more than enough room, so Tomas gave permissions for his people to start building homes outside of the city. He scrolled down the list using his implant to interact with the display, he gave permission where he thought it was appropriate, and offered other solutions where he believed it was not. After finishing with the civilian requests he started the ones from the military. The first request was from the fleet, it was a request he had read through many times, he had discussions with Laura Reiss the Fleets Master of Olympus’s fleet, and not all of them had ended well. She wanted to turn the entirety of one of the Sanctuary’s moons, into Fleet zone, with only fleet facilities on it, the Academy, Fleet Headquarters, research departments, and a new shipyard in orbit devoted solely to fleet needs. Tomas was reluctant to allow that, they were in a new system where they didn’t have enemies, and while he did see the advantages of her plans, he believed that it was best to wait until other things were done. They didn’t even have Sanctuary firmly under their control, and the fabricators were all working around the clock producing other things vital to their expansion. Laura’s plan required them to retask half of the fabricators to building new fabricators and the stations that would house the shipyards. Tomas was conflicted, on the one hand, he wanted his people protected, he did not want a repeat of the events that transpired back in the Sol. But on the other, there was no threat here. The entire star system was engulfed in a nebula, no one could detect them from the outside. The nebula was at least 4 light years across at its widest, the system hidden inside was around 5 light months in diameter. If someone wanted to enter the system they needed to know the exact coordinates, otherwise they risked coming out of hyperspace inside the nebula, where sensors had a hard time working, and where other hazards awaited. Including the systems Oort cloud. The only reason they knew about the system was because of the records in the Union databases they found on the alien ship back on Earth. And they had eight warships they brought with them from Earth, it seemed enough.

Tomas reach inside his shirt, he grabbed the chain around his neck and brought out a small round metallic object, he pressed the button on the pendant and a list appeared above the object. He gazed at the list of names. He read all 316 names that appeared, though he already knew each one. The names were of people that died when Concordis government ordered the destruction of the Cloud space station, in hope of hiding the theft of one of memory cores filled with data about Olympus’s technology. They failed, but still 316 souls died because of their greed. 316 people that were under Tomas’s protection, he knew that he would never forgive himself for their deaths. He looked back at the request still on his holographic display, he sent the authorization for it. Immediately another two attached requests filled his display, they were set to appear after authorization of the original proposal. He read them and shook his head, Laura must have known that he would change his mind. He authorized both requests, and then shut down the holodesk, it was enough work for one day. He stood up and walked across the office to the adjacent room, he entered it and collapsed on the bed. He fell asleep the moment his head struck the pillow.

* * *

Laura Reiss Fleets Master walked to her office at a brisk pace, she was alerted the moment Tomas approved of the Fleets requests. That was an hour ago while she was still sleeping, she immediately sent for a meeting of top Fleet officers, then quickly showered and dressed. Then after having a quick meal she proceeded to the meeting room. The Fleet headquarters for now were on the station orbiting Sanctuary, it was named Olympia after a great deal of consideration, there were some who wanted to name it Cloud station after the station that was blown up by Concordis back in Sol, but Seo-yun shut it down. Tomas was already weighed down too much by what happened. Following their arrival here, Tomas had retreated behind his desk, his people didn’t see him for the past four years, all he did was answer requests that came to him. That didn’t make him a bad ruler, a leader needed to address his peoples wishes. But he was not the Tomas that they all followed here. The Tomas of then had hundreds of plans or schemes for the future, he acted, and now he only reacted. The only ones that he saw were Seo-yun, Elias, Nadia and Laura, and then when they tried to bring him out of his depressed state their conversations deteriorated into screaming matches. Laura took his approval for the Fleet a good sign, perhaps he was starting to come out of his shell.

Laura arrived and entered the meeting room. She met with four people that ran the Fleet, Edith Leets Headmaster of the Fleet Academy, Oswald Mein Commander of Fleets, Daria Veisi Head builder for the Fleet and Nigel Smith Head quartermaster for the Fleet. She greeted them and sat at the head of the table.

“You must all be wondering why I called you so early in the morning. Well, Tomas has approved of our requests for the fleet.” Laura said.

Grins immediately showed on their faces.

“That’s great!” Edith said.

“Did he approve of all our requests?” Daria asked.

“Yes, he approved those requests as well.”

“Great, then I have your permission to begin construction?” Daria asked.

“Yes. We will start by building twenty ships that will become the home fleet, and another twenty next year that will be the first fleet. Our 8 old warships will be a part of the home fleet, but they won’t really match up to the new ones, we will upgrade them as much as we can.”

“Why next year?” Daria asked.

“Well, we could build them now, but that would mean using resources that are being allocated to other projects. Our mining operations can’t meet the demand for that many ships.”

Daria frowned, “Didn’t we produce much more than we needed in these past years? Shouldn’t there be enough?”

“We did, but most of those reserves will be spent to build the first twenty ships, not to mention that we will need to borrow fabricators that are being used for other things. At least until we get our own. And while our mining operations are sufficient to meet most of our demands, they didn’t take into account the vast amounts going to the fleet.” Laura said.

“What about the Academy?” Edith asked.

“We don’t need to rush there, all the classes had already finished their schooling, we will need to wait until the next generations grows up, but we will start with laying down the ground works on Thanatos, as the materials became available.”

“And my defense stations?” Oswald asked.

“You can build two, one in the orbit of Thanatos, and one in the orbit of Sanctuary. Over the course of the next two years.” Laura said.

“Two won’t be enough to give us complete coverage over the planet.” Oswald noted.

“I know, but that’s all that Tomas was prepared to allow at this time. Don’t worry, he will change his mind in time.”

“I hope he does before something finds us here.” Oswald added.

“No one has found this system in more than seven thousand years, I doubt that they will now.” Laura said.

“I hope you are right.” Oswald said.

“Anything new from Traveler and Voyager?” Laura asked.

“Nothing. And Voyager visited the system where according to the Union databases should be a civilization, and they only found only a barren rock. I worry that they might run into something they can’t handle.”

Voyager and Traveler were two explorer class ships that Laura managed to convince Tomas to build, they were much more advanced than any ship they built up to date, with better hyperdrives allowing them to travel at up to 15 times the speed of light, they were armed lightly with advanced weapons. Their job was to explore their new neighborhood, and make contact with any other race they encounter. They knew that there was other life out there from the Union databases, though their charts for this region of space were sparse, the Union only passed through, not bothering to explore.

“They could have done that to themselves Oswald, remember that we almost destroyed ourselves back on Earth. And as for Voyager and Traveler, they just barely moved out of the 10 light-years radius around Sanctuary.” Laura said.

“I know. It’s just, that knowing there are civilizations out there that have been in space since before we learned to write… It scares me Laura, we have only 8 warships, and they won’t stand a chance against them. We need to start putting the technologies we recovered from the Union ship and those we developed into our ships. And the fact that Tomas is hesitating, well, it makes us worry even more.” Oswald said shamefacedly.

“Don’t you worry about Tomas, he will come around. All of us needed time to adjust to this new world.” Laura said. She hoped she was right, they needed their leader back.

Chapter Four

November 2169 – Resistance base

Mathias ran down the training course, it became his routine in the past three months. He would spend his mornings training, then his afternoons learning about operating human technology and fighting. He was one of those chosen to operate Star Gazer. He was in charge of the weapons board. The weapons that the ship had appeared amazing to Mathias, but Asumy told him that they were nothing compared to Ra’a’zani, so they weren’t going to use the ship in combat, not yet at least. They have been trying to acquire some Ra’a’zani weapons to put on the ship, but getting anything like that was difficult. Ra’a’zani might not watch humans all that much, but all the technology they didn’t want humans touching was keyed to their genetic makeup. And they were still trying to figure out a way around it.

In the meantime Mathias was getting himself educated on human technology. Since he became a slave, he had only used Ra’a’zani tech, and before that the highest form of tech he used was a handgun. Now he learned about everything that human hands managed to build. And he was amazed at what they had, and then angry at the way they fought against themselves and how they lost everything. If they were united before the Ra’a’zani came, perhaps Earth wouldn’t have been enslaved.

In his spare time he was studying human history, and the more he read, the more he saw what kind of people they truly were. Thefts, betrayals, murder, war. All those things made him ashamed of his ancestors. They had spent more time trying to kill each other than trying to help one another. He could see why Olympus left them behind. Even now, when all of humanity was enslaved by an alien race, they still betrayed one another, selling their own kind to their alien overlords, and all for a few more breadcrumbs. Mathias promised himself that he would not rest until humanity was once more free.

Mathias was just finishing his last lap, when a message prompt appeared in his vision. It was a message from Jacob, sent to his implant. He was given one when he first arrived to the resistance base. It was a human technology, and it completely blew Mathias away when he learned about it, he knew that Ra’a’zani didn’t have anything like it, and that just made him even more mad at humanity for wasting it all in the war that doomed them in the end. He opened the message and read it. Jacob wanted to see him in his office in an hour, plenty time for him to take a shower and change clothes. One hour later, he entered Jacob’s office.

“You wanted to see me Jacob?” Mathias said.

“Yes Mathias, come in.” Jacob gestured for Mathias to enter. He had a small object in his hand that was unfamiliar to Mathias.

“A datapad, another human invention.” Jacob said.

“What does it do?” Mathias asked.

“It’s a computer, it can do many things, but it was made obsolete by implants.”

“So why are you using it then?”

Jacob smiled. “I guess that I am used to it. I was born before implants were widespread, and I was accustomed to it.”

“It must be strange to you, I mean remembering a time when there were no Ra’a’zani.” Mathias said.

Jacob just looked thoughtfully at the ceiling for a moment. “Yes.” He said sadly. “You don’t remember a time before Ra’a’zani?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, but it wasn’t any better then. I run gang, with a girl, we were thirteen-fourteen maybe. We didn’t have electricity, but we survived, we stole mostly, and when we needed to, killed. We didn’t know better. And then Ra’a’zani came. And we became their slaves, we saw a lot of people slaughtered. We weren’t strangers to death, but this was somehow worse, they didn’t just kill to survive, they slaughtered because they could.” Mathias said.

Jacob nodded solemnly. “We will be free again, and this time it will be different. I think that all of humanity learned a lesson that had evaded us for too long. We need to be united to face the life in this universe.”

It was Mathias’s turn to nod. He like Jacob, believed that.

“The reason I called you here was, to ask for your opinion on something.” Jacob said, he put his datapad and walked around the desk, he guided Mathias to a couch and took a sit on the opposing one.

“What do you think about Asumy?” Jacob asked.

“What do you mean?” Mathias asked, confused.

“You are spending the most time with him, I’m hearing that he is teaching you human history.”

“Well, yes, in my spare time…”

“I want to know what is he like, how does he think.”

Mathias thought for a moment and a few instances of his conversations with Asumy came to mind.

“Well, he is a good teacher, he is friendly, and he likes to talk about topics he is interested in, manly history, though there were a few strange moments.”

“Like what?” Jacob asked.

Mathias hesitated.

“Mathias, I need to know if we can trust him, the future of the entire human race depends on it.” Jacob said.

Mathias sighed. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way because I know that he can be trusted, and that he wants to help us, it’s just that I think that he is hiding something.”

“Do you have any idea what?” Jacob asked.

“I’m not sure, but every time I ask him about how he was made he steers the conversation elsewhere, at first it thought that perhaps he didn’t want to be reminded that he wasn’t like us, that he wasn’t born but made, but he doesn’t appear troubled by that.”

“Do you think that he doesn’t want us to build more like him?”

“No, I don’t think that’s it. There is one thing, I didn’t tell this to anyone else, I wasn’t sure it even happened, but when Gloria and I first boarded the ship, and when Asumy’s hologram appeared, for a moment I could have sworn I saw some other image.” Mathias said.

“Other image?”

“Well, it wasn’t the image he has now, of a human man, but something else, some alien creature with four arms.” Mathias said uncertainly.

“An alien with four arms? Do you think that he could have been built by Ra’a’zani? And placed for us to find?” Jacob asked.

“No, he wants to help us, I have no doubt about that, and if that was the case Ra’a’zani would have already executed us all. I don’t know what it means, if anything at all.” Mathias said.

“Alright Mathias, I’ll need to think about this a little more, we still haven’t contacted Olympus, and I want to be sure about Asumy before we do, that’s all. You may go.” Jacob said.

Mathias stood up and went to the door, when he reached them he paused and turned his head back.

“I have been spending a lot of time with Asumy, I believe that I know him. And I know that the thing he values most is trust, if you want to know something you should ask him directly. As far as I know he has never lied to me.” Mathias said.

Jacob ran a hand through his hair. “It’s that last part that worries me.”

Mathias nodded, turned and left the room.

* * *

Jacob entered the bridge of Olympus ship, it was late at night, base time, so there was no one there.

“Asumy? May I speak with you?” Jacob said to the empty room.

A moment later Asumy’s hologram appeared.

“Of course Jacob.”

“I wanted to see how you were doing, we have been bothering you a lot in the last few months.”

“It’s no bother, it is well within my capabilities.”

“I heard that you have been teaching Mathias about human history.” Jacob said.

“Yes, I like interacting with him.”

“That’s good.” Jacob said, they spent the next minute in an uncomfortable silence, at least uncomfortable for Jacob, he was sure that it wasn’t for Asumy. Finally Jacob sighed.

“I’m guessing that you have been wondering why I hadn’t asked you to send a message to Olympus.”

“That has been on my mind.” Asumy responded.

“Well, the answer is simple, at first there was the possibility that this was a Ra’a’zani plot. And afterwards I was reluctant, because Olympus did abandon us, even now I don’t think that they will help us, and even if they wanted to, the earliest they could get here is in sixty years. But another reason is because of you.” Jacob said.

The hologram made a caricature of human confusion. “Me? Why?”

“I didn’t trust you, I still don’t, I know that there are things that you are not telling us.” Jacob said.

“That is true, there are things that I didn’t tell you, but none of those things pertain to you and your fight.”

“Really? Is there nothing that you are holding back that could aid us?” Jacob said.

“No, you have my promise that I will never hide anything that pertains to the survival of the human race.”

Jacob looked at the hologram, he knew that the image was computer generated and that he couldn’t see into its eyes and decide whether Asumy was worthy of trust. Even his response now was an evasion, he admitted to hiding things, but made no attempt at revealing them. Jacob decided to go with his gut, and it told him to trust the Ai.

“Alright Asumy, I will trust you. Send a message to Olympus. I can transfer all the information the resistance has gathered on Ra’a’zani for you to send it with the message, tell them… Tell them that we need help.” Jacob said.

“I will Jacob.” Asumy said, and the hologram disappeared.

Chapter Five

November 2169 – Sanctuary

The great trees of Sanctuary were swaying gently on the wind as Seo-yun gazed from her balcony. She chose to have her house built outside of the city, at the edge of the plateau, looking at the great forest spread out below. In the distance she could see the great mountains with their snow covered peaks, it was fall now on Sanctuary, at least the closest equivalent, the trees here don’t shed their leaves, rather the leaves shrink and roll up in on themselves, as a way to protect themselves from the snow and the cold. It was still warm enough, they had a few months more until winter.

Seo-yun turned around and went back inside. Her home wasn’t large, it had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a large bathroom and an office. It was built from synthetic materials and metals as all their buildings were. She went through her bedroom and into her office, the lights turning off and on as she exited or entered a room. Her home got electricity like all the other buildings on Sanctuary, wirelessly. It was a concept that had existed for hundreds of years, first introduced by scientist Nikola Tesla. The energy was sent through the atmosphere from the three power plants that were built a couple of miles outside of the city, they generated energy from antimatter reactors that they finally managed to build by themselves, they were of course aided by the data from the alien databases.

She entered her office and sat down at her desk, the room was filled with holo images, graphics on the walls, and her desk was filled with data, theories, equations and presumptions. She was trying to crack the same problem that she had been working on for more than 20 years. The way that the Union ships traveled between the stars. She knew that they stopped using hyperspace a long time before they even started the journey towards Earth, and started using something they called translanes, what Seo-yun dubbed trans-space. But it just seemed impossible, it didn’t make sense, the time it took the ship to pass a set distance varied, sometimes it could take them a week, and sometimes a month to cross the same distance.

Seo-yun looked at the projected path that the Union ship took from their side of the galaxy to Earth, it wasn’t a straight line, sometimes they went back, or went around a star system that would reduce their travel time significantly. She knew that they were trying to find a place to bring their people and start over, but it didn’t make sense to ignore some viable star systems while going to other that couldn’t be what they were looking for. And their exit points inside the systems were strange as well. Sometimes they entered star systems well inside the gravity influence of the star, which was impossible, at least if one was using hyperspace, and sometimes they exited the trans-space so far away from the star that it took them months or years even to get deeper in the star system.

She used her implant to scroll through the data, coming to the entrance point into this Nebula system. They had entered the system between the orbits of the third planet – Boreas, and the fourth planet – Eurus , well within the Apollo’s strongest gravity influence. After that they proceeded to Sanctuary, which was the second planet in the system, after doing a short survey, they continued towards the other side of the system and exited the Nebula from a point between the orbits of Eurus and Gem the fifth planet. Seo-yun had already sent ships to those coordinates to scan the area, but they couldn’t find anything amiss. The way the Union ships entered and exited systems didn’t seem consistent at all, and yet this seemed to be a much faster way for them to travel, so much so that they abandoned hyperspace travel completely.

“You have been through this data a million times, it won’t change if you keep looking at it.” The voice of Luna, Seo-yun’s Ai said through her implant.

“I know, but it feels as if I’m missing something.” Seo-yun said.

“It will come to you when it comes, don’t force yourself.” Luna said.

Frustrated, she closed the files, and turned to other things, she reviewed the files her assistant sent her, concerning the Academy of Sciences, Seo-yun was elected as the Minister of Science, and was in charge of all the scientific programs. She went through the proposals, someone wanted equipment to go and study wildlife on the southern continent, then she noticed an inquiry from Nadia Wilson, she was appointed the Minister of Civil Service, Olympus had three branches the Civil Service, Military and Science branch. Between those three they ran Olympus under Tomas’s leadership, though in the past years it was all on them.

In the message, Nadia asked for permission to dig a tunnel through a hill where a science team was doing research. The tunnel was supposed to connect one of the power plants to the city. With her implant Seo-yun accessed the science team files and saw that their research was almost over, she then composed a message to Nadia telling her that the science team would be done in a few days and that she can start on the tunnel then.

As she read through the message again to check it, Seo-yun froze on the word tunnel. She immediately brought back the files pertaining to the trans-travel. She looked at the data again, at the path the Union ship took.

“What is it Seo-yun?” Luna asked worriedly.

Seo-yun was too busy to respond.

The first part of the Union word for this kind of travel wasn’t translatable so Seo-yun decided to call it trans, but the second they translated as lane, Seo-yun assumed that that was only the closest translation, but if it was a literal translation. What if Union ships didn’t travel through another kind of space similar to hyperspace, but a tunnel, a lane. She looked at the entrance and exit points of the Union ship, they weren’t constant, which suggested that they didn’t have control over where they enter or come out of it. She looked over the time the ship usually stayed in a system that they were just passing through, they would always proceed straight to the other system exit point immediately after entering a system. That suggested that they didn’t need to wait for a recharge of their drives, as she originally assumed, the translane was already there, they could detect it and use it. Which meant that the translanes were naturally occurring. She went through the scans of those areas where Union ship entered and exited the Sanctuary system, there was still nothing there, but Seo-yun was sure that she had found the answer, there was something there, and now that she knew that, she had no doubt that she would find it.

“I think that I got it.” Seo-yun said excitedly.

“Got what?”

“The translanes problem.”

She was just about to send the message to her assistant to gather her best people, contact her ship in orbit, and to come and pick her up in a transport, but she noticed the time. It was already the middle of the night, and even though she wanted to start on this immediately she put the message in her implant queue to be sent in the morning. Another thought struck her and she prepared an additional instruction, for a special kind of scanning equipment.

“Can you wake me up at six in the morning?” Seo-yun asked.

“Of course Seo-yun.”

She then went back to her bedroom and went to sleep.

* * *

“Be careful with that! It is thousands of years old.” Seo-yun said to the crewmembers of her science vessel Insight, as they lowered a piece of equipment from the transport.

“What is it?” Mia her assistant asked.

“It’s a scanning computer from the Union ship. I am hoping that it will see what our scanners can’t.” Seo-yun said.

“Just the computer? What about the other equipment?” Mia asked.

“Out scanners are copies of theirs, a bit improved actually, the only thing that is different are our computers, there is a ton of data on each scan, the computers sort it out and present it in a way we can understand, perhaps there is something that our computers are overlooking, because we haven’t programed them to recognize it.” She said.

Seo-yun felt that she was right.

“They are done Seo-yun.” Mia said, referring to the loading of the scanner.

“Good, tell the Ship Master that we can get underway at his leisure, I will be in the lab.” She said, the science ship Insight, was the only one of its class, at least for now, there were plans to make more, but there was always something else that needed to be done. And now with half the fabricators working to help fleet expansion on Thanatos, it will be at least another year before they could start building more. The ship itself was unimpressive on the outside, it looked exactly like most other Olympus ships, its hull was grayish, and was shaped like an elongated box with soft corners, though Insight had much more sensitive sensors and telescopes than any other ship, and a state of the art labs, where the science crew could do their research. It didn’t have weapons, only two laser emitters for clearing out debris. It was equipped with two shuttles for missions, and of course an FTL comm.

Seo-yun entered the lab and sat at her holodesk, bringing up the data from the earlier scans.

“Have you found something in the earlier scans?” Seo-yun asked Luna.

“Not in the thousand times I have read through them.” Luna answered.

“I’m sorry, I’m just excited.”

“I know, I can monitor your vitals.”

“Are you sure that there isn’t anything in the data that jumped out at you?” Seo-yun asked.

She could hear Luna sigh. “Seo-yun, you have been in charge of our creation, you should now that the Ai’s that you created have been ‘growing up’ with you, we can’t know more than you do, we can only calculate faster, or process more data. When I see that data, I see the same things a human would.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just frustrating, I know that there is supposed to be something there, and yet we can’t find it.” Seo-yun apologized.

She closed the files pertaining to the translanes, and opened her queue, there was still a lot of work to be done.

* * *

“Anything out of the ordinary?” Seo-yun asked, they had arrived at the coordinates where the Union ship entered the system, and had been scanning for the past hour. First with the computers they built, but when that failed to produce anything, they hooked up the Union computer and were now analyzing the data.

“Not yet, I’m still getting used to the Union programing structure.” Luna said over the ship speakers. She was connected to the ship’s computers via Seo-yun’s implant. They were on the bridge, with Seo-yun’s assistant Mia, three more scientists and the Ship Master and his crew.

“Alright then.” Seo-yun said. She remained silent while Luna worked. She could analyze the data much faster than a human could.

“I found something.” Luna said 15 minutes later. “It was under a secondary protocol, so I didn’t see it immediately. It is detecting some particles, untranslatable to our language, or at least we don’t have a translation for that word.”

“Great!” Seo-yun said excitedly. “Alright people, I want a detailed analysis of the data. Get to work.” She said. Finally, Seo-yun thought, Another Union puzzle we solved.

Chapter Six

Sanctuary orbit – Olympia station

Elias Bakas, head of the Olympus Army Corp, sat in his office. He was waiting for Seo-yun. The insight had arrived at the station just a few minutes earlier. She was on her way to Olympus city, but Elias had insisted that she meets with him before going down to the planet. He needed to talk with her about Tomas, they needed to do something about him. He had shut himself in his office, and his people were already starting to comment on the fact that no one has seen him in public in a while.

A few minutes later Seo-yun entered his office, he stood and walked up to her greeting her by kissing her cheek.

“You really need to visit me more often Seo-yun, I barely see you once every few months. And you were just going to pass without saying hello.” Elias said with a soft smile.

Seo-yun grimaced. “I’m sorry Elias, there is just too much work to be done.”

“That’s okay, I understand. I am busy as well, but that doesn’t mean that I forget my friends. A call from time to time won’t interrupt you too much.” Elias said, his smile growing. He guided Seo-yun to a couch and took a seat across.

“I’ll try.” She said.

“Do you want something to drink?”

“No thank you Elias.”

“Alright then, I hear that you are on a verge of another great discovery, even faster space travel?” Elias asked.

“Yes, well we are on the right path. But there is still a lot of work to be done. We have gathered all the data, now we need to make sense of it.”

“I know you will.” Elias said, and then grew silent and looked at Seo-yun, finally his expression grew serious and he spoke. “Well, the reason I asked you here, was to ask you about Tomas.”

“What about Tomas.” Seo-yun said, her expression guarded.

“You know that he had not been the same since we came here. Since the Cloud station.” Elias said.

“He was hit hard with what happened, we all were.” Seo-yun said.

“We were, but we moved on. He is stuck back there. He rarely goes home, he is closing himself off. I barely managed to convince him to meet me for lunch at his home 10 days ago. He surrounds himself with reports in his office, and he rarely leaves it.”

“I know, but what do you want me to do? I can’t order him out.”

Elias’s expression softened. “Seo-yun, we have known each other for a long time. You are one of my closest friends. You know, you must know.” Elias said, looking at her eyes.

Seo-yun averted her eyes, and remained silent.

“I tried to snap him out of it, but he won’t listen to me. He will listen to you.”

“I don’t know. He never did anything, in all these years.” Seo-yun said uncomfortably.

Elias laughed. “He is a man, we are all stupid like that.”

A corner of Seo-yun’s mouth lifted into a crooked smile. “That you are.” She said.

She looked at Elias for a moment before nodding. “Alright I’ll go see him.”

* * *

“So you are finally going to ‘talk’ to Tomas?” Luna said. Seo-yun was in a transport, going back to her home from Olympia.

“What do you mean finally?” Seo-yun said.

“C’mon, I might not be human, but I am not stupid.” Luna said.

“I hope not, if you were, then we would have failed, and I would’ve had to scrap you.” Seo-yun said.

“Funny.” Luna said sarcastically. “But I’m glad that you finally decided to take initiative.”

Seo-yun felt lighter than she had in years. Just the decision to talk to Tomas had already made her feel better. “So am I.”

She started reading the reports while she waited to arrive home. There were still things that needed to be done.

There were a few reports regarding the antimatter plants, they have been able to boost production by 2%. And requests from Fleet for help in building their new ships. They had already started building a shipyard in the orbit of Thanatos. They had brought the station that was in orbit of Gem, the one they used for building mining equipment and ships, and used it as a core for the new Fleet station and shipyard, as they didn’t have the need to expand their mining fleet in the close future. They were already well into construction, with a part of the shipyard already operational. They needed some of Seo-yun’s people to oversee all the tech that they wanted to put into the ships.  Seo-yun sent an inquiry to her people for volunteers to go to the station. As she scrolled down, she came upon a report regarding a strange crystal formation on the southern continent, she saw a few pictures of the crystals and was struck with an idea.

She opened a channel via her implant to the transport pilot.

“Can you get me to Tomas Klein’s offices?”

“Of course ma’am.” The pilot said.

Seo-yun relaxed into her seat, and tried to think about the best way to tackle Tomas.

Chapter Seven

Olympus city

The morning started as it usually did for Tomas, he was reviewing the requests and reading various reports, until about midday when Seo-yun interrupted him. She entered his office without being announced, she was one of very few people that could do that. She glanced through the open door to the room adjacent to his office, she could see his unmade bed there.

“When was the last time you went home?” She asked.

“Hmm… Two days ago I believe, I had lunch with Elias.” Tomas said.

“That was a week and half ago.” She said glaring at him.

“Really? I guess I lost track of time.”

“Have you looked in a mirror lately? You are tired Tomas, you are awake too much.” She said softly.

Tomas sighed. “There is much work to be done.”

“You are going to burn yourself out. You don’t age anymore, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need rest.” Seo-yun said.

“I know, but I still need to work.”

She approached his desk, and shut it down.

“What are you…” Tomas started.

“That’s it, you are taking a break.”

“I can’t just take a break.”

“You have good people working for you, they can manage for a day. Come, we are going out.” Seo-yun said, grabbing his hand, pulling him out of the chair and guiding him towards the door.

“Where are we going?” Tomas asked, he knew better than to resist, when Seo-yun set her mind it was impossible to change it.

“One of the exploratory teams found something, and we are going to take a look.” She said smiling. They exited his office, and Seo-yun turned to Tomas’s assistant.

“We are going out for a day, tell Nadia that she is in charge.” She said. Marie, Tomas’s assistant just nodded cheerfully.

Seo-yun took him out of the government building, and had him in a shuttle so fast his eyes barely had a moment to adjust to the light of the day, he spent too much time inside.

“So where exactly are we going?” Tomas asked once they were seated inside.

“The southern continent, a team found an interesting cave.” Seo-yun said.

“What’s so important that we need to be there to see it?” Tomas asked.

Seo-yun looked at him. “It’s not that it’s important, it’s that you need a break, a walk through the forest will do you good.”

“Alright then.” Tomas said, surrendering to this field trip, he found that he had trouble saying no to her. And that scared him, he had never felt that way towards anyone. He looked out of the window, they were rising out of the city, and he could see its entirety spread out over the plateau. The city had no skyscrapers, they had more than enough room, the plateau spread for 100 kilometers in every direction. It didn’t resemble the cities of Earth, it was spread out, buildings were large, but none had more than four floors, all but one. The building was set in the middle of the city, surrounded by walls, it had one great blue tower in the middle and various adjacent buildings around it, all connected by elaborate bridges, there were gardens, populated by flora brought from earth, it was a palace. Tomas grimaced as he gazed at it. Seo-yun caught his expression.

“You need to spend more time there. It is your home.” She said.

“I don’t feel comfortable there. It’s too big, I have no need for so much room.” Tomas said.

“It isn’t only for you, it’s for the people, they built it for you, and you are insulting them by avoiding it.”

“How am I insulting them? I am working for them every day!” Tomas said angrily.

“This isn’t like the past when we were Olympus. You are now our ruler, and your people need to see you accept it, living in the palace is the first step. You can’t keep leading from behind the desk, seen only by those closest to you. You need to lead from your throne, and the palace is its symbol.” She said softly. Tomas looked back at the palace, it was disappearing in the distance, he knew that what Seo-yun said was true, but he was still uncomfortable.

Soon even the palace tower disappeared, and all that could be seen were the teal colored forests of Sanctuary. Here the trees had a teal tint to them, unlike the green of Earth, though other plants came in a variety of colors just like on earth, the tree stumps were darker here, closer to black, and the trees reached higher. Sanctuary looked much like Earth, or as close as one could get on an alien world. There were two big continents, and a lot of islands, the amount of water on the planet was only a little bit smaller than on Earth, so the climate was mostly the same. The days were a bit longer, with a 25 hours per day, and a year was a bit longer, it took Sanctuary around 370 days to make a full circle around its sun – Apollo. The other sun in the system was sufficiently away to have little influence over Sanctuary. Though Sanctuary’s thick atmosphere aided that as well. The red dwarf was named Bhanu – meaning the sun in Indian. One could rarely see Bhanu from Sanctuary, as it was mostly in orbit behind Apollo and eclipsed by it most of the time. The fauna of Sanctuary was diverse, the same as it was on Earth. There were no insects here, or insect like creatures, most looked like furry mammals, though genetically they weren’t even close. Every animal that they catalogued was covered in fur that was also a part of their senses, the ‘hairs’ were receptors that detected miniature changes in their environment and alerted the animal about it. Most every animal evolved with this ‘sixth sense’ alongside other five that humans shared as well. Their eyes tended to be poorer than those that the Earth’s animals had, even humans, but their ‘fur’ senses made up for it. There was only one predator species, the theory behind that was that the ‘prey’ animal’s fur senses made them much harder to catch, and so with the lack of food, the predators died out. The predator species that their scientists found, seemed to be able to sneak on the prey without them noticing. It baffled the scientists, because it was very hard for them to sneak upon any animal, and this predator did it easily. The predator was big, about the size of a large Lion, and had a vague resemblance to a cat only in their body shape, they were wider in the shoulders and had tougher legs, their fur was a bit longer, and they had two pairs of eyes on their elongated head, one set above the other. The head looked a little bit like that of a wolf, though fatter and wider like that of a cat, with the nostrils higher on the snout, their teeth were more like a cats than those of a wolf. The scientist had named them some Latin name of course, but most of the people call them wolions, a name they came up with because they looked as a Wolf and a Lion hybrid. They haven’t managed to capture one to run tests, so they knew their appearance only, and they managed to estimate their weight based on the imprints they found in dirt. By their calculation the animals weighed about 650 kg, making them about a third heavier than Lions from Earth, though not that much bigger, which indicated that they had heavier bones. Their fur was of a soft blue color. The wolions rarely came near humans, and they have never attacked them. Early in the colonization, they could often be seen looking at them from the outskirts of the settlement, or hunting in the vicinity, but always they ran away when humans tried to approach. Hunting of the wildlife was forbidden by their laws. And when requests came to Tomas, for a wolion to be caught for tests, he denied it. They have never bothered humans, so he decided that they weren’t going to bother them.

Soon they were no longer flying above the land, they had reached the ocean. When looking down on the blue ocean, Tomas could sometimes forget that he was on another planet. The oceans looked exactly like those on Earth did. At least on the surface, below it was another story. As the land evolved almost void of any predators, the oceans were completely opposite. The water was filled with predators, so much that they have yet to find a species that didn’t evolve to kill something. The ‘fish’ were all large, on the scale of dinosaurs on Earth that lived in the waters. They had large snouts and great jaws. They were fast and merciless, they fed on anything moving. One of the deaths early on, was from an attack by these fish. A man tried swimming in the ocean, when a fish the size of a great white shark jumped out and swallowed him whole. Since then it was forbidden for anyone to swim in the Ocean. Though there was no need for them to forbid it, no one sane would go into those waters. They made pools for those wanting to swim, but the Oceans of Sanctuary were not a hospitable place. The animals even attacked their submarines, so Tomas was forced to abandon the explorations of the Oceans, not willing to endanger anyone else. If the animals that lived close to land were that savage, he didn’t want to imagine what those deeper and further away would be like.

So, they focused their exploration on land, they had already mapped most of the Northern continent, the one where they settled, and were in the process of mapping the Southern. The two continents covered one third of their respective hemispheres, and were separated by one big Ocean, and islands in between. They have yet to settle anyone on the islands or the Southern continent. They have however made a few settlements on the Northern continent beside the Capitol, they were small, a few families at the most. Those that wanted to live in the wilderness. They usually contributed by growing food, since everyone had a place in Olympus, their population too small to have people without a purpose. Though if they wanted to come back and do something else in the city, they were allowed to. Anyone could do anything they wanted in Olympus. With Olympus providing what they needed if it was possible. If not, then they worked on something else until what they needed was available.

An hour later he noticed them lowering down in a clearing surrounded by tall trees. When the shuttle landed, he and Seo-yun exited and were met by three men in army uniforms, they were providing security for the exploration teams. Much of Sanctuary was still unknown, and Tomas didn’t want to risk his people going out without protection.

“Mister Klein, Minister Hyeon, welcome to the Southern continent.” The man in the lead said, no one called him Emperor in his presence, they all knew his unease with the title. He addressed Seo-yun by her title of Minister of Science. Tomas’s implant immediately supplied the man’s name and rank, Commander Johan Riggs, the name and rank appeared above his head, and after reading it, Tomas cleared his HUD with a mental command.

“Thank you.” Tomas said. And nodded to the other two soldiers, their names also coming up.

“Lead the way Commander.” Seo-yun said.

Commander nodded and gestured for them to follow him to the hover car nearby, it was a model designed for use in tough terrain, and was a bit bulkier than the models used for transportation in the city. Seo-yun and Tomas sat in the back of the vehicle, it had an open top, so they could look around freely. The forest was thick all around them, with barely any sunlight coming through, but from time to time Tomas could catch a glimpse of the yellow sunrays shining through, like on Earth the entrance of the light into the atmosphere made the sun look yellow, though its light was in fact white, just like the Sun back home.

Fifteen minutes later they arrived at the entrance of a cave. There was equipment placed in front of the cave, with a few people working on it. Three more army members stood guard over the perimeter. Seo-yun led him inside the cave, as they passed everyone who noticed them stopped what they were doing and stared at them, whispering amongst themselves. Inside the cave they were met with the man in charge of the exploration team.

“Minister Hyeon, Emp— ah, Mister Klein, it’s an honor to meet you, sir.” The man said, shaking Tomas’s hand enthusiastically. Tomas glanced at the name that his implant provided.

“Likewise Chief Morrison. Minister Hyeon tells me that you found something interesting.”

“Yes, yes sir. We found, well, for the lack of a better word a forest made of crystals, deeper inside the cave, and the crystals are generating light, though they have no contact with sunlight, and if we take the sample outside it stops glowing, only starting again when the sun sets, it’s remarkable really.” Chief Morrison said eagerly.

“Is the cave secured?” Tomas asked.

“Yes sir.” Chief Morrison said.

“Good, I’d like to see this forest, is anyone else down there?” Tomas asked, nodding towards the cave tunnel leading down.

“Ah, no, not at the moment.”

“Good, Minister Hyeon and I will go take a look” Tomas said, the Chief tried to say something but Tomas interrupted him. “No, there is no need for an escort, you said that the cave is secured.”

“Of course sir.” Chief Morrison said, and bowed his head shallowly.

Tomas and Seo-yun made their way down in silence, they walked for about 4 minutes until they made a sharp turn and were greeted with an amazing sight.

The cavern inside was vast, and dome like, the crystals reached upwards from the floor, and then split into many branches, looking like a leafless tree. They shined brightly, and illuminated the entire cavern.

“It’s beautiful.” Seo-yun said, and stepped forward. The light caught her face in a way that made Tomas take notice. Her brown hair was now cut to her jawline, rather than the pony tail she used to wear on Earth.

“Yes.” Tomas said, looking at her.

“Can you imagine how many years it took for this to form?” She asked, approaching the crystal tree.

“I assume a lot.” Tomas said.

Seo-yun turned and gave him an incredulous look.

“A lot? It took much more than a lot. Millions and millions of years.” She said, turning and placing her palm against the crystal.

“Hmm… It’s warm.” She said frowning.

“I know why you brought me here.” Tomas said.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” She said, with her back still towards him.

“I have eyes Seo-yun. I saw how those people looked at me, and how Chief Morrison talked to me. I have no doubt that by the end of the day everyone will know that I was here.”

Seo-yun sighed and turned around.

“Yes, you are right. They will find out, and they will know that you took an interest in what your people do, that you care. You have been locked up in that office of yours for years, your people hadn’t seen you for four years. I know that it is not easy for you to accept this, but you are the Emperor, our leader, and you need to start acting like it.” She said.

“I am acting like it! I have been working every day for the past 60 years!” He yelled. His voice echoing throughout the cavern.

“Don’t you dare tell that bullshit to me Tomas, I know you!” She yelled back. Tomas took a step back, he had never seen her yell at anyone.

“I don’t know what you mean. I have been leading, authorizing projects and like.” Tomas said softly.

“Tomas, can you really not see? Ever since Cloud station blew up, you have been reacting, your last command was to get us here, but since then you have been afraid to make decisions, you left everything to your people. Where is the boy whose dream of grasping the stars pushed him to conquer the world, to create his own country?” She said just as softly.

Tomas reached up to his neck and grasped the chain around his neck, it felt as if it was biting into his skin.

“It was my fault, they were my responsibility.” He said.

“It was the fault of people who ordered the attack.” She said.

“I could have shared our technology with them, they wouldn’t have had a reason to attack us then.”

“They were greedy, and unworthy of the things we possessed. The moment they had our technology, they would have turned it against their neighbors, you know that.”

“I could have kept our warships close, instead of hiding them away.” Tomas said shakily.

“You know that it wouldn’t have mattered, they would have found some other way.”

“But those people, my people wouldn’t be dead!”

“Perhaps, or perhaps someone else would have died in their place. You can’t keep focusing on what was.”

“What if I make another mistake?” He said.

Seo-yun smiled sadly. “You will, but you can’t let those mistakes pull you down. We followed you here, to this other world where we struggle daily to find our way. We left our home planet, our roots, everything we knew because you asked us to. We put our trust in you. We don’t need someone who sits behind the desk, too afraid to lead.” She grabbed him by the shoulders, he could see the determination in her eyes. “We need our leader back, the man who created everything from nothing, the man that could have ruled the world, but didn’t because he had bigger goals, the man that laughed in the face of the world leaders when they threatened him and wanted him to step down.” Her gaze pierced into his eyes. “We need a King.”

Tomas looked down at her, he heard the conviction in her words, could see the intensity in her eyes, and there was something else there, something he had hoped to see for a long time.

“Alright, I will be what you want me to be.” Tomas said, a touch of her determination now creeping into his voice. Seo-yun smiled, she put her hands on his head and pulled him down. She kissed him lightly on the lips for barely a moment, and then she pulled back.

“I know you will.” She said, and then turned and left the cavern.

Tomas gazed after her until she turned a corner, then he turned his eyes to the crystal forest. He stood there for a time. He fished out the pendant, he pressed the button and the names of the three hundred and sixteen appeared, he gazed at them for a moment, and then turned it off, he pulled the chain off his neck and walked to one of the trees. He hanged the chain on one of the crystal tree branches, he would never forget those 316 names, but he no longer needed a reminder around his neck. He turned and started back. He had entered the cavern as a man weighed down by the mistakes of the past, he left as an Leader looking towards the future.

Chapter Eight

OES Traveler – Unknown system

The light from the star expanded outward. It traveled through the emptiness of space with nothing impending its path. It’s eventual destination was a planet five hundred light years away from its starting point. Until there was a flash. The fate of the photons was altered as they struck a silver metallic surface. They were scattered in billions of directions, never to reach that far away planet.

“Hyperspace transfer complete, Ship Master.” Ship Handler Jorge Nunez said.

“Good.” Ship Master Kisaragi Hana, of the Olympus Explorer Ship Traveler said.

She looked expectantly at the holographic table in front of her. The holo above was constantly updated, as the computers analyzed the light they were receiving. The center of the hologram was the Traveler, with the other objects in system just now becoming visible. The system was one of those that they had very little information on, as the Union ship just passed through it on its way to Earth, this system was one that the Union ship visited directly from the nebula. And any data on it was corrupted and lost. This system was between Sanctuary and Sol. Although it was still a lot closer to Sanctuary, being only 12 light years away. There was not much to do until the computer processed the full picture of the system and that would take a while. They were several light hours away from the star. A few minutes later the Sensor Handler George Smith exclaimed out loud. “What a hell?”

Ship Master Kisaragi was about to ask him what he meant when she noticed the latest update to the holo.

“Is this correct?” She asked.

“I believe it is Ship Master.” Sensor Handler said.

“Let’s go to yellow alert.” Ship Master Kisaragi said to her first officer, High Prime Rolland Ricks.

He immediately reached for his chair’s display and a moment later, yellow lights flashed five times on the floors of the ship, followed by five alert sounds. Meaning that the ship was now on yellow alert.

“Navigation prim the hyperdrive.” Ship Master Kisaragi said.

“I am getting a lot of comms, nothing targeted at us for now, only radio leakage.” Comm Handler said.

Ship Master Kisaragi nodded. That was a good thing, it suggested that they couldn’t see them yet, and will only see them after the light from the Travelers arrival reaches them.

This was why they were here. The hologram now showed the Traveler, and the fourth planet in the system. The planet was orbiting the system’s sun on an orbit that brought it above the sun’s plane. It was the method that the fleet decided to use, for ships to orient themselves inside the system. The suns plane was the plane that the sun was on, which was parallel to the galactic disk, the galactic plane. If the system was above the disk or below didn’t matter. No planet had an orbit that was exactly parallel to the galactic plane. All maneuvering inside a system used that system’s star as an orientation point. The Traveler was now around 5 light hours from the sun, about the average distance one could engage the hyperdrive. No system was the same. The fourth planet of the system was only a few light minutes from the sun, the light Traveler was getting, was just shy of 5 hours old. That meant that they could see the events as they happened five hours ago.

The hologram showed a settled planet, with a station in its orbit. And ships moving back and forth, a few were on a course that would bring them to the outer reaches of the system on the other side of the Travelers position.

“Niri, are those radio communications enough for you to start the translation of their language?” Kisaragi asked Niri the ship’s Ai.

“I can start, but a more direct communication would be preferable.” Niri said over the ship’s speakers.

“Start, we will see what they do when they notice us.” Kisaragi said.

“Very well, Ship Master.”

Few of the new ships that Olympus built were installed with an Ai. There wasn’t a lot of them to begin with, as they didn’t build more. Tomas Klein was hesitating. So they had only those that were built before they came to Sanctuary. Niri was one of the third generation of Ai’s the humans built. And as she passed all the test she was given a choice of what she wanted to do. No Ai of a lower generation than fourth identified themselves by gender, that was something that happened after. But they succumbed to a human tradition and let the humans assign one to them. It was easier for human beings to care for something that had a gender and a name. The decision to install Ai’s came from the battle between EWS Athena and Concordis ships, when the fifth generation Ai Iris calculated the targeting solution for Athena.

Traveler was equipped with state of the art translating software, and with Niri’s processing power they will be able to get a translation of the alien language much faster. It was an upgrade of the Union translating software. Provided to them by the ancient Ai found in the ship. Asumy had taught them a lot, after they set him free from his shackles and given him a human core as his new home.

Kisaragi spent the next 5 hours on the bridge watching the hologram. They remained in the same position they were in when they exited hyperspace, where they could engage their hyperdrive if they needed to. The aliens didn’t yet notice them, but should any moment now. Just as Kisaragi thought that it was time, she noticed a change. Two of the ships that were in a much higher orbit, moved and met up with the six ships in orbit close to the station. It wasn’t anything major, there were a lot of ships that constantly moved. But the way they fell into formation with the rest told her that those were not transport ships. Two more ships met up in a higher orbit of the planet. Kisaragi intentionally didn’t order any changes, they just sat and watched, expecting a communication. Which, if they contacted them immediately would arrive in another 5 hours. If they didn’t have faster than light communications. She left the bridge to take a three hour nap, then showered and ate. She figured that the next period would be interesting.

After the five hours passed, they got a direct laser comm from the station orbiting the planet. They had already adapted their software to recognize and convert alien transmissions. Niri did a great job, but they still didn’t have a working translation.

“This communication will speed up my progress Ship Master. I will have a full translation in a few hours.” Niri said.

“Alright then.” Kisaragi said. After they made sure that there were no ships near them and that there was no other danger, she allowed the ship to go back to green station, and the bridge shift took place. She went to her quarters and got some more sleep. She was woken up by Niri when she finished translating.

Kisaragi entered the bridge and took her place in the command chair, High Prime Rolland Ricks was already there.

“Can you play the message Niri.” Kisaragi said.

“Yes, Ship Master, it was sound only. There is a word I couldn’t translate, I believe that is the name of their race, I will play that in its original.” She said.

A moment later the ship’s speaker came to life.

“You have entered—” It started in a monotone computer voice, but then a strange voice interrupted saying something that to human ears sounded like Nel “—territory. You have not sent an identification signal, and your ship is not in our database. Identify yourself, or we will take aggressive actions.”

“Well, that’s direct.” Rolland said.

“Yes. Though I doubt they would be able to do anything, we are little over a month away from them at our top speed. And those ships that are leaving the system are moving slower than that.” Kisaragi said.

“Niri, translate and send the following message: This is a Human ship Traveler. We are on a peaceful mission looking for trade in this sector of space. We have a selection of items that we are willing to trade, and are looking for any information you are willing to give about this sector of space.”

The leaders of Olympus decided that it would be best that in the case of meeting an alien race, they pretend that they had already met other races. They knew that there were many out there. But meeting them would be different, they decided that by opening trade they could learn a lot about them. It was a spy practice as old as humanity. They had a few samples of what they were willing to trade. Helium 3, which they had in abundance in the Nebula, some other metals that they had no use for or had too much.

“Message sent Ship Master.” Niri said.

“Good.” Kisaragi said. She stood up and passed the command chair to her High Prime. It would be at least another 10 hours until they get a message back.

* * *

“Are we sure that they are not Sowir?” Lanai Sumia, administrator of planet Nuva asked. They were in her offices with her staff on the planet.

“As much as we can be sure, administrator. The Ship doesn’t match any records we have.” Retsar Isani said.

“What about the message? It was sent in our language.” Sumia asked.

“The computer analysis indicates that the voice was computer generated, and the syntax wasn’t really right. We could understand it, but it was on a level of someone who just started learning the language.” Isani said.

“Could it be a trick?” Sumia asked. Her black claws tapping the round desk in front of her.

“It is only one ship, and not a very big one at that. It is the size of our light cruisers. And there is no point, we don’t have enough ships to defend ourselves should the Dominion finally turn to us.” Isani said.

“So, what do we do?” Sumia asked.

“The home world is refusing to send aid, they have written us off. We are on our own. I say we let the newcomers approach. If they are who they say they are, travelers from another race, we can at least warn them about the Dominion. And you never know administrator, perhaps they will be able to help us.” Retsar Isani said.

“Alright Admiral, let them know that they can approach the planet. Have our ships meet them, and make sure that they are not Sowir.”

* * *

“So, we can approach.” Kisaragi said.

“Yes Ship Master.” Rolland said.

“Alright. Navigation enter the course for the planet.” Kisaragi said.

“They are sending an escort.” Rolland said.

Kisaragi nodded. “How fast are those ships on a course out of the system going?” Kisaragi asked,

“Their top speed is holding at around 1800 km/s.” Navigation Handler said.

“Set our top speed at 1000 km/s. Let’s not show them our best speed. We should get there in less than two months.” Kisaragi said.

“Yes Ship Master.”

“Let’s start actively scanning the system. And send a message back to Sanctuary. Send them everything.” Kisaragi said. She looked at the holo of a big green planet. At least she will have enough time to think about what to do when she gets there.

Chapter Nine

OWS Athena

The bright superheated plasma exploded out of the VASIMR drives of the Olympus Warship Athena. It propelled her at great speeds forward. The drive gave of an immense amount of light, and could be detected easily. But the genius of human design was that the only way it could be detected was if it was pointed at the observer. There was almost no spill, all of the heat, and light was pointed away from the ship. Ship Master Adrian Farkas sat in his ready room, adjacent to the command center, he was going through the last evaluations for his crew. The Athena had been on a patrol for the past two years. It’s patrol route took them out to the inner border of the nebula, then around the system below the sun’s plane, and then back to Sanctuary above the sun’s plane. Sanctuary’s orbit was mostly above the plane, it passes below only for a few days every year. Adrian read the evaluations that his officers wrote for their cadets. Those who had chosen to join the fleet straight out of the academy and advance through ranks traditionally thorough service. They were also the last of the graduates from the academy. There will be no more new fleet personnel until the younger generations grew up. Those that were children when they started their journey from Sol, and those that were born on Sanctuary. It was strange to Adrian to think of himself as a commander. He was thrust into the position by a series of circumstances, that placed him in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least that was what he believed at the time. He knew that he was capable enough for the position, but he also understood that he was very young, technically. Adrian shook his head, it could be argued that he was in fact old. Technically, he was more than eighty years old. If one counted the time they spent on the trip to their new home. Although the stasis units froze the persons aging process, there was a kind of awareness. He couldn’t really put his finger on it, but he and a few others he talked to, felt as if they were dreaming during the trip. The scientist insisted that it was impossible, but he still remembered something, feelings. He could clearly recall how it felt even though he couldn’t really recall what it was he dreamt about. But the feelings of dread, agony and fear remained, etched deep into his mind. He had nightmares the first two years after they came out of stasis. He would wake up in the middle of the night terrified, but unable to recall anything about the dream. The only reason he managed to stay sane were Iris and Bethany, his best friends. Iris was his Ai, and was always there when he needed it. A voice inside his head, whispering soft words, assuring him he was safe. While Bethany was a bit further away, her assignments taking her away, but still there a constant in his life. Thankfully the dreams had stopped.

Adrian finished with the evaluations, and closed the file on the holodesk via his implant (imp). He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head. He looked around the room. It took him a while to adjust to the thought that it was his ready room. The leaders decided that he should keep the position of Athena’s Ship Master for his actions during the Cloud station incident. When he commanded Athena against three Concordis ships. The original Ship Master, Eric Donaldson, was on leave at the time of the incident an wasn’t able to get to the ship fast enough to take command. So Adrian as the acting Ship Master took her out. When the decision from his superiors came that Adrian should remain in command, he tried to refuse, he didn’t want to start any bad relationships with Ship Master Eric Donaldson for taking his ship. But Eric assured him that there is none, Eric was promised the first of the new ships that they planned to build when they arrived at Sanctuary. And four years ago Ship Master Eric Donaldson was put in charge of OES Voyager. He was now on an extended survey mission to map out our neighborhood.

Adrian stood, undressed, went to the bathroom and then to bed. Tomorrow Athena would arrive at Olympia station, her patrol ending.

* * *

“Contact fleet at Olympia, tell them that we are back.” Adrian said to his Comm Handler. The contact was simply a courtesy, Olympia already knew they were back.

“Yes Ship Master.”

Adrian turned his sight at the holo in front of his command chair, specifically on the moon orbiting Sanctuary, Thanatos. There was a new station in its orbit, at least twice as long as Olympia, and it wasn’t yet finished. There were also many other construction sites on the moon’s surface.

“Any idea what those are High Prime.” Adrian asked.

“No, but we will find out soon enough.” Paul Isaacs, Athena’s High Prime said. Paul and Adrian had graduated the Fleet Academy together.

“It looks like the shipyard the fleet proposed to build.” Iris said in Adrian’s head, via his imp. She could speak to anyone on the ship through the speakers. She had access to the ship’s computers, but her core was in Adrian’s head.

“Mother didn’t tell me anything about the proposal being accepted.” Adrian responded.

“That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t.” Iris shot back.

Adrian nodded at Paul’s answer. Choosing to ignore Iris.

“Incoming message from Olympia Ship Master. They are giving us instructions to change course and dock with the shipyard orbiting Thanatos.” Comm Handler said.

Adrian raised his eyebrows at Paul. When Paul shrugged, Adrian turned to his Navigation Handler.

“Set a course Navigation Handler.” Adrian said.

“Right away Ship Master.”

Adrian watched on the holo as his ship turned and started towards Thanatos. An hour later they arrived, and were given instructions from the station/shipyard on where to dock. When they were close enough Adrian turned on the display’s on Athena’s half sphere command center walls. Immediately the walls disappeared and they were suddenly sitting on top of the ship, with the 360° view around them. It appeared as if the command center was on top of the ship’s hull. Though it was only a reproduction from the various cameras that Athena was equipped with, it was still an amazing sight. Up close Adrian could see the gray hull of the station they were approaching. It was long, at least four kilometers. And there were various docks placed on set distances, and some of them were already a hive of activity, with people in suits working on the bones of hulls, and machines placing huge plates of armor on them. There were also a few areas that were closed off, Adrian assumed that those were closed docks. He was amazed at the sight. Looking at the far end of the station he could see that it wasn’t yet finished, but that part was operational. The shipyards held enormous “bones” for the future ships. What kind Adrian didn’t know, but these ships would be larger than Athena.

“Told you so.” Iris said smugly.

“Never doubted you.” Adrian responded.

A few minutes later they docked at one of the free docks. And Adrian got a message from the fleet leadership, meaning Laura. He gave the command of the ship to his High Prime and left the ship. After he exited the airlock, he was met with an Adjutant that was to show him the way to Laura Reiss’s office. He followed closely behind the young looking Adjutant. Adrian’s has long since grown used to everyone looking as if they were in their twenties, ever since he left the orphanage and came to Olympus. Olympus had developed a life extension treatment that slowed aging, and at having everyone looking young was strange for Adrian at first. He grew up in the U.S. were very few people could afford the life extension treatments, that were free in the other parts of the world, mainly Concordis and the League. But now, with the discovery of the “immortality” gene, everyone would remain young forever. Every one of those that came to Sanctuary from Earth had undergone the treatment, and would never age. They would only die from disease or a violent death. Adrian still couldn’t believe that he would live forever. He was raised in a place where everyone aged and died.

As he and the Adjutant walked the station, Adrian looked around, noticing people running around doing additional work on the inside. This part of the station might be operational, but it was not yet finished. Adrian was amazed at how much they managed to construct in a short time. The last private message he got from Laura didn’t say anything about the station and shipyard being built, and that was four months ago. But then again, there wasn’t really a reason for him to be so surprised. With their fabricator technology, lack of politics and no need for never ending permits, forms and other paperwork, they could jump right into the construction. Building an entire station in less than four months wasn’t all that hard to believe. A few minutes later they arrived at Laura’s office and the Adjutant gestured for Adrian to enter.

Laura sat behind her desk, working as usual. When she noticed Adrian she got up and walked around the desk with a smile on her face. Adrian stood at attention and saluted, fist to chest.

“Ship Master Farkas, reporting ma’am.” He said seriously. Instead of saluting back, Laura walked up to him and hugged him.

“I’m so glad you are back son.” Laura said.

Adrian relaxed, apparently this wasn’t official Fleet business.

“Good to be back mother.” Adrian said with a grin. Laura leaned back and hit him in the shoulder.

“Didn’t I tell you not to call me that?” She said, trying to appear angry, and failing miserably.

Adrian grinned even more and said. “Well, it was your idea to adopt me.”

It was a part of the dance the two of them played. She pretended not to like it when he addressed her informally. Adrian was brought to Olympus with the warning that he would never be adopted if he accepted to come. But after meeting Laura, the two of them grew close, and she became a mother figure to Adrian, who never had anyone like that in his life. And after Olympus decided to leave Sol, Laura asked Adrian if he would want her to adopt him. Give him her last name. He was already grown up at the time. He accepted and added her last name to his. Adrian Farkas Reiss was now his legal name. Although he went only by Farkas. There was no need for him to flaunt his connection to Laura, it was enough that the two of them knew. And of course, those closest to them.

Laura guided him to a chair in front of her desk, and took the other one.

“Tell me how was the patrol?” Laura asked. Even though she knew, with the FTL comms, they were in constant contact.

“Boring, as you already knew.” He said.

“It might be boring, but it gives you more experience aboard a ship. Although, you are the only Ship Master with real battle experience in the entire Fleet.” She said.

“Only because of a twist of fate.” Adrian said.

“Perhaps, but it still makes you one of our most experienced Ship Masters.”

Adrian shrugged. He wasn’t really comfortable with that. Every time he went on leave on Sanctuary he was gaped and pointed at. Everyone knew him, Olympus had an open system where most everything was accessible to the people. Everyone watched the records of his battle with the Concordis warship.

“Alright, I made you come here immediately because I wanted to be the first to tell you this.” Laura said.

“Tell me what?”

“I know that you noticed the ships we are building in the docks.” She said.

“Yes, I did.”

“Well, Tomas agreed to my proposal, those ships will be our new warships. And this station will be the Fleets shipyard. We also have the permission to build Fleet facilities on Thanatos.” Laura said with a smile that reminded Adrian of a kid in a candy store.

“Warships? How many?” Adrian asked, becoming excited as well. He always knew that they needed more ships if they were to protect their home.

“Twenty. And the best part is that we are the ones to decide which class we build.” She said.

“That is amazing. What did you decide?”

“We settled on 8 light cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, 4 battleships and 2 dreadnoughts.”

Adrian was surprised.

“No carriers?” He asked.

“No, we decided that they weren’t feasible, at least not yet. With the level of technology we currently possess it is impossible to make fighters that can stand against a warship, or even keep up.”

Adrian nodded, that was his realization as well. He knew that there were people in the Fleet, those from the old days, before they went into space, that tried to push for more traditional Fleet. One that would mirror that of the Earth navy. Which was stupid of course, space was not water, or atmosphere. They borrowed the names, but the purpose and the way the ships fought would be nothing like navy.

Adrian could already imagine a fleet of 20 ships orbiting Sanctuary, it would be an awesome sight. Then he remembered something.

“Dreadnoughts?” He asked, confused. Adrian was part of most every planning for fleet, through Laura, and back when they tried to dream up warship classes there was no mention of a dreadnought class.

Laura smiled widely. “Yes, we managed to flesh out the details a few months ago and all simulations were successful, I didn’t tell you anything because I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“A surprise?” Adrian asked weakly, he knew Laura very well, and he could feel one of her schemes coming up.

“Of course! One of the dreadnoughts is yours.” She said.

Adrian blanched.

“Oh, good! I’ll have a new toy to play with!” Iris exclaimed excitedly.

“What! You can’t. There are other more experienced Ship Masters!” Adrian said.

“Shut up Adrian! Don’t you dare turn this down!” Iris said.

Laura just kept smiling and shook her head. “No, there are not. There are those that served longer than you, but none have more experience than you. And your simulator scores are the best in the entire Fleet. You can’t wiggle out of this.”

Adrian swallowed hard, he knew that he was capable, but having an even more responsibility thrust on his back so fast wasn’t pleasant at all.

“How long?” Adrian managed to squeak out.

“Three months. We are building all the parts that we can here, and then sending them out into open space at another shipyard we have built between the orbits of Sanctuary and Boreas. The shipyards here just can’t hold a ship of that size. The other shipyard will be specifically equipped to build bigger ships.” She said.

Adrian felt light headed, Too big? He thought, the hulls he saw laid out in the shipyard were already double the size of Athena.

“This is going to be so much fun.” Iris cheered on in Adrian’s head.

“Alright, between the two of you, I know I will never be able to escape.” Adrian said, resigned.

“Good. Thank Iris for me.” Laura said, grinning wickedly. “Now, I’m going to send you all the data on the dreadnought class warships. You will need to study it all. We are putting new weapons systems, faster computers and a million other things that you need to became an expert on. Also, you need to choose a crew. You will be limited of course, you can request a transfer from the warships we have now. But many of those officers will be placed on other new ships. While those old ones will be given to the ones that were put on mining or transport ships. We are in a bit of a shortage of personnel, but there is nothing we can do about it for a while.”

Adrian listened carefully, nodding. “Okay, I guess I better get acquainted with the data, and then decide on personnel.” Adrian said.

“Good, I am needed down on the planet for a few days. Our weapons are being manufactured there, and I need to oversee a few things. You can stay on the station until your ship is ready. Officially you are still Ship Master of the Athena, but you can stay onboard the station in my quarters, here is the access code.” Laura said, sending him the access code to her quarters via her imp.

Adrian smiled weakly, and nodded again.

“Okay then, I will see you when you come back.”

They hugged again, and Adrian left, he downloaded the stations map from the net, and then followed the route to Laura’s quarters. He had a lot of studying to do.

Chapter Ten

November 2169 – OES Voyager

A flash of blue light announced the arrival of Olympus Explorer Ship Voyager into a new system. The ships gray hull glistened with the aftereffect of leaving hyperspace. Blue energy arcs jumped from the hull, but a moment later they were gone.

“Anything on sensors?” Ship Master Eric Donaldson asked his Sensor Handler.

“Nothing on short range. We will have a full picture of the system in a few minutes.” Sensor Handler said.

“Good.” Ship Master Donaldson said. He watched the holo, as the image of the system slowly appeared. The system star was old, and its center was a brown dwarf. As it was a low mass star, they were able to exit hyperspace much deeper into the system. Brown dwarf’s aren’t really stars, rather they are stars that don’t have sufficient mass to ignite a nuclear fusion in their cores. This system had only one planet that orbited the brown dwarf in a wide orbit. Voyager came out of hyperspace very close to the planet, only a few light minutes, 120 million km away.

The holo now showed a very empty system. Only one planet, that had one moon, orbiting the systems brown dwarf.

“Navigation, take us to the planet. Let’s see if there is anything valuable down there.” Ship Master said.

The mission of Explorer ships was to map out their neighborhood. To find other habitable planets, and stellar bodies that could possibly be used for mining. They would need to send a shuttle down to the planet in order to scan more accurately. It took them about two hours to get to the planet, they placed the ship in high orbit between the planet and its moon. They sent the shuttle down to the surface to run scans.

“Ship Master, the sensors detected a light source.” Sensor Handler said.

“Where is it?”

“It was there only for a moment. It was gone too fast to determine exact position, but it was coming from the direction of the moon.” Sensor Handler said.

“Any idea what it was?” High Prime asked.

“No sir. It didn’t match anything in our databases.”

“Keep an eye on the moon then. Perhaps it was nothing.” High Prime said.

“When is the team scheduled to return?” Ship Master asked.

“In ten minutes Ship Master.” High Prime said.

Ship Master nodded, and went back to studying the holo. Soon after the shuttle team reported that there was nothing of interest on the planet, and that they were on their way back. A few minutes later they were back on board. Eric was just about to order them to the moon, when his Sensor Handler yelled out.

“Incoming weapons fire, one minute to impact!”

“Combat stations! Evasive maneuvers!” Ship Master yelled out. His High Prime immediately sounded the alarm throughout the ship. Eric looked at the holo, dozens of tracks appeared and were on an intercept course with his ship. Immediately Eric realized what had happened. The previous flash of light was the launch of missiles. He knew that they were missiles as they were accelerating. The missiles cruised unpowered until they closed the range, then their drives kicked in to take them the remaining distance. The scanners couldn’t identify the missile type. Which was no surprise, they haven’t encountered anyone in this part of space yet.

“Weapons, bring the railguns online, arm the missiles. Opal take control of defensive fire.” Ship Master said to Opal, the ship’s Ai. “High Prime I want the tracks on those missiles immediately. Find out where they came from. Sensors, active scans on our surroundings, we are obviously not alone.”

After giving the orders Eric looked at the holo. Above, the time to impact was constantly dropping. Now showing thirty seconds. He hoped that the Ai would be able to take down the missiles. He wondered how they didn’t notice them before the missiles engaged their drives, their sensors should have detected them. There were 68 of them. The missiles tracks were shown from the moment their drives kicked in, the distance they had already passed was shown in a full red line, while the projected path in a dashed red line. Voyager’s drives were slowly kicking in, but Eric knew that they wouldn’t be fast enough. It took time for them to start.

At twenty seconds to impact Voyagers four top railguns opened fire. The rate of fire was amazing. But the missiles were too close, not even Opal, an Ai, could have destroyed them all in time. Out of 68 missiles, Voyager’s railguns took down 65. Three missiles continued on their projected path.

Eric keyed his ship wide comms. “Brace for impact!” He said.

Three explosions rocked Voyager in quick succession. Internal dampeners took care of the brunt of the hit, but they could still feel the ship rock.

“Damage report!”

“Railguns 1 and 4 are no longer operational. Deck 6 is open to space. Five missing, seven injured.” High Prime said.

“Navigation get us out of here, shortest route to the hyperspace barrier. Comms inform the Fleet of what has happened.” Eric said.

“New contact! Correction two! No! Three contacts on an intercept course!” Sensor Handler said.

New contacts immediately appeared on the holo.

“What are they? More missiles?”

“No Ship Master, they are ships. They are coming in fast. Intercept in twenty minutes.”

“Get us out of here, top speed.” Eric said to his Navigation Handler. And then turned back to his Sensor Handler. “How did they get so close without us seeing them?” He demanded.

“I don’t know Ship Master.”

Voyager started accelerating out of the planets orbit, and towards the hyperspace barrier. At their top speed they would be able to get there in an hour. Eric just hoped that they survive that long.

“Ship Master, the three ships are accelerating faster than us. We won’t make it.” High Prime said.

“Try to contact them, start sending greeting messages.” Eric said.

“They had already attacked us, I don’t think that they are peaceful.” High Prime said.

“No, but the messages might confuse them. Give us time to escape.” Eric said

His High prime nodded, and started working on his holoscreen. Five minutes later, the hostile ships were still coming fast.

“Anything?” Eric asked.

“Nothing.” High Prime said.

“Target the closest ship with missiles and fire as soon as you have a lock.” Eric said.

Ten seconds later, Voyagers launch tubes opened and fifty missiles left the ship. Voyagers missiles were faster and bigger than those that their warships used back in Sol. The missiles accelerated rapidly and closed the distance quickly. The lead ship tried to evade, but human missiles were all following adjusting their course. The timer was now on three minutes to impact. They were close enough to be able to track the missiles in near real time.

“We got the images of the ships, Ship Master.” Sensor Handler said. Eric looked up to see a part of the wall turn into a screen and he saw an image of the ship. The image showed a brownish colored hull, the ship was oddly shaped. The front was pointed, rocket like, with its middle being bulky and wider than Voyager by half. The end of the ship was spread out in 7 arcs bent backwards. The ship’s weapons could be seen mounted on its hull. The computer calculated the ship’s size and displayed it above the image. It was 130 meters from tip to end of the bent arcs. Not much bigger than Voyager.

When the timer dropped to two minutes, Voyager’s missiles started exploding.

“What is happening?” Ship Master asked.

“They have engaged point defense Ship Master. It looks like lasers.” Weapons Handler said. Missile computers recognized the danger and engaged evading protocols. But by then ten missiles were already shot down. In the next two minutes, thirty eight more were taken out. Only two missiles passed through their defenses. The enemy ship had turned its side when it tried to evade the missiles. The first missile hit the front of the ship, while the second hit towards the end. Two missiles exploded. A few seconds later they got the images of the ship. The front part of the ship showed little damage, save for a large scorch mark. The end on the other hand showed a hole some two meters in radius, the ship was leaking atmosphere.

There were cheers from those present on the bridge.

Eric quickly silenced them.

“Sensors?” He asked.

“The ship is no longer accelerating, but it is light damage. They are still coming.”

Eric nodded.

“The other ships?”

“They will—” Suddenly the ship computer started showing damage to the hull.

“What was that?” Eric asked.

“Damage report. We sustained light damage to the hull.” High Prime said.

“The second ship is firing laser weapons on us Ship Master.” Sensor Handler said.

“Evasive maneuvers. Opal can you predict their fire?”

“Not yet, I need a few more hits to be able to see a pattern.” Opal said.

“Comms send everything we are getting back to Fleet.”

The Voyager computer showed areas of the ship’s hull where temperature raised significantly, areas where the ship was hit by lasers. Three more laser beams struck the ship, one of them holding long enough to penetrate the outer hull. The third ship came into range and opened fire with its laser weapons. The lasers started raining fire down on Voyager. The hull was breached in several more places. A shot at the back of the ship disabled the Voyagers drives. And suddenly they were dead in space. Eric was thrown out of his chair by the force of the explosion, and everything went black.

Sometime later, Eric got up from the floor feeling lightheaded with a piercing pain in his stomach, he looked around the bridge. Half the stations were on fire, with several of his crew members dead. His High Prime was on the floor a gash on his head, Eric couldn’t see if he was still breathing. The holo was remarkably still operational. Eric could see that the hostile ships were close to them now. They didn’t destroy them, so it suggested that they wanted the Voyager. Eric stumbled to one of the stations, the Comm Handler was on the floor, dead. Her skull was split open. He found the damage report that was generated by Opal, most of the ship was open to space, he checked the internal sensors, and looked for any life signs on the ship, there were none. He then tried the comms, but no one answered him. He saw that the FTL comm was still operational. He keyed it open and sent all the ship logs of the battle back to Sanctuary, he looked down at his stomach, a metal rod had ripped through him, it was from the nearby railing, he had no idea how it managed to impale him. Then, he sent a message saying that he planned on destroying the ship. He went back to his station and somehow managed to get himself in the command chair.

“Opal are you still with me?” He asked.

“Yes Ship Master.”

“I need you to engage the self-destruct sequence.” He sure as hell wasn’t about to let the bodies of his crew be dissected by aliens.

“I will need your command codes Eric.”

Eric nodded and sent the codes to the ship’s computer where Opal could access them.

“Trigger the self-destruct when the enemy ships close the distance. I want to take the bastards with us.”

“Only one ship is approaching, the other two are keeping their distance.” Opal said.

“Well, one is better than none.” Eric said.

“It was an honor Ship Master.” Opal said.

“Likewise Opal, likewise.” Eric said, and lost consciousness.

Opal waited for three minutes until the enemy ship came into blast range. She triggered the self-destruct sequence. It forced the fusion reactor that powered the ship to produce more power, while no safeguards were active. Soon the reactor blew, and the Voyager became a fast expanding ball of white fire. The blast engulfed the shuttle that the enemy ship was sending. A moment later Voyager was gone, along with the entire back part of the enemy ship. An instant later the ship exploded, the debris flying in all directions. There was nothing left of Voyager, but dust.

Chapter Eleven

Olympus city

Laura walked the long corridors of the palace on her way to one of the meeting rooms. She was dreading the duty ahead of her. She tried to think of an easy way to tell Tomas the news, but couldn’t think of one. Navigated through the enormous palace by her implant, she finally arrived at her destination. She steeled herself and entered.

She was the one that called for this meeting. There were four people inside. Civil leader Nadia Wilson, she was the people’s voice. Minister Seo-yun Hyeon, she was in charge of most everything concerning technology. Field Master Elias Bakas, he was in charge of the army. Elias was Laura’s counterpart. And then Tomas Klein. They were sitting at a round table, which Laura knew was a holodesk. Tomas was sitting directly across from the entrance. The table had only five chairs. Laura made her way to the free chair, across from Seo-yun and at Tomas’s right.

“So, what is the reason for this meeting Laura? It sounded serious.” Tomas asked.

Laura steeled herself for a moment before she spoke.

“There was an incident.” She said hesitantly.

“What kind of an incident?” Nadia asked.

“We lost the Voyager.” She said.

“Lost? You mean we lost communications?” Seo-yun asked.

“No. The Voyager was destroyed.” Laura said.

“What happened?” Tomas asked.

“Voyager entered a system and proceeded to the planet. They sent a shuttle team to the surface, as per protocol. When the shuttle returned, Voyager’s sensors detected missiles. Ship Master Eric Donaldson ordered countermeasures immediately, and they managed to take down all but three missiles. The ship survived the three hits, but the sensors then detected three ships on an intercept course. Voyager tried to get to the hyperspace barrier, but the hostile ships had faster acceleration. They disabled the ship, presumably killing most of the crew. Seeing that there was no way for them to escape, Ship Master Eric Donaldson engaged the self-destruct sequence.” Laura said.

“Do we know who attacked them? Was there any attempt at communication?” Elias asked.

“No.” Laura said, answering both questions.

Tomas closed his eyes and covered them with his hand, Seo-yun reached over and covered his other hand with hers. She leaned in and whispered something in his ear. A moment later Tomas nodded. He turned to Laura.

“Do we know if those ships are the same as the ones the Traveler encountered?” He asked.

“We believe that they were not. The drives are similar, as is the material they are made of. But they  don’t look anything alike.” Laura answered.

“But we can’t be sure.” Elias said.

“No. Though the ships that attacked Voyager didn’t even attempt to communicate. But then again, neither did we. And I doubt it would have made a difference. Those that the Traveler encountered on the other hand, did establish communications. And it was them that initiated the talks. I believe that they are two separate races.” Laura said.

“Inform Ship Master Kisaragi of the Voyager’s fate. And make sure she is prepared to turn and run away.” Tomas said. “Now, Voyager was on a long term exploration mission, and it didn’t arrive in that system from here. I’m assuming that there is no chance of them being followed here?” Tomas asked. Seo-yun and Laura shook their heads, and Tomas nodded. “Good. Laura, I will release all available resources and personnel to the Fleet. I want the ships ready as fast as possible. After they are finished we will talk about expanding the Fleet. If there is a hostile race in our neighborhood, we won’t be able to wait for the younger generations to grow up. We are going to need to draw from other departments, army mainly.” He said looking at Elias. “And Nadia, I need you to schedule a conference for this evening, I need to tell the people what happened.”

“Yes Tomas.” Nadia said.

Tomas got up, and nodded at the rest of them. “All of you have things to do, I suggest you get to it. I have a speech to write.” With that, he walked out of the room. Seo-yun got to her feet and followed him out.

Laura looked at Nadia and Elias. “You think he will be okay?” She asked.

“Seo-yun will take care of him.” Elias sad, and Nadia agreed.

“We have other things to worry about.” Nadia said.

“You are right.” Laura said.

* * *

Tomas entered his personal office in the south wing of the palace. He locked the door behind him, and walked over to a reading chair in the corner. He leaned back and closed his eyes. A moment later he heard the door opening. He remembered that Seo-yun had his access codes. A second later he felt a hand on his knee.

“Tomas…” Seo-yun said.

“I don’t think I am right for this job.” Tomas said.

“Of course you are. Didn’t we already go over this. It is not your fault.” Seo-yun said.

“I know, but I still feel helpless.”

She didn’t say anything. She just stood there, anchoring him. A few minutes later, he finally opened his eyes. He looked down to see Seo-yun looking up at him. He saw a touch of trepidation in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I won’t lock myself away again. But that doesn’t mean that I can just ignore feeling like this.”

“Everyone is here to help you. You are not alone.” She said.

Tomas smiled at her. “I know.”

He got up and walked over to his desk. He turned it on and then looked at Seo-yun.

“Help me with the speech?”

“Of course.”

* * *

Three days later Adrian was still shocked by the events that Tomas Klein revealed in the vid conference. Voyager was destroyed by an alien race. And Eric Donaldson was dead. He remembered the previous Ship Master of Athena kindly. And Adrian couldn’t believe that he was dead. The records of the incident were made public, so Adrian reviewed and found that there was nothing Eric could have done. His ship was outmatched. The news pushed Adrian to immediately jump on the data regarding the dreadnought class ship. Three days in, he was barely half way through.

The ship design took a radical change from the previous ships built. Older ships were good, functional, but they were not going to win any beauty contests. The new ships on the other hand will look a lot different. When you looked at them you would immediately know that they are ships made for war. The dreadnought class was massive, and menacing. The dreadnought specs put the ship at 820 meters long, 380 meters wide at its widest, and 140 meters tall at its highest. The front of the ship looked like a double-headed axe head. The middle part of the ship was thinner, and covered in turrets. Around the half-way point two stubby wings protruded bringing the ship’s width to its widest, and the ship’s height also increased equally below and above the ship, bringing its height to its highest. That last part the designers named the Citadel. It was where the command center was situated.

The ship was covered in weapons. Double barreled turrets lined both the top and the bottom of the middle part of the ship. They were a hybrid railgun turrets (DBRG). Close-medium range weapons firing metal slugs by using a combination of high pressure gas and magnetic fields. There were two types of ammo that the ship would carry and that the turrets could fire. Kinetic shell ammo, used at medium range, a simple metal slug, its destructive power coming from its speed. And explosive ammo, explosive shells that exploded when they hit. These were close range, and were fired at lower speed than the simpler kinetic shells. The ship had 28 of these turrets, 8 on the bottom and 20 on the top of the ship. The shells they fired were massive 70 cm in diameter. It also had 36 smaller railgun turrets, that fired 15 cm shells, these turrets were spread out over the ship hull. The ship’s surface was also filled with smaller turrets that were to be used for point defense (PDT), they could be retracted inside the hull. The axe head part of the ship, housed powerful laser turrets (LT), able to fire at long range. They were the strongest ones they have ever made, with lenses of 60 cm in diameter. A three second beam from one of these turrets would slice Athena in half. The 12 turrets could be retracted inside the hull, there were 6 on the top and 6 on the bottom side of the ships axe head. The citadel housed another 20 DBRGs, with PDL turrets and 10 LTs, half on the top and half on the bottom. The sides of the ship housed missile tubes. The new missiles were stronger, faster, and had greater range. They were smart missiles, and didn’t need to be turned towards their target. The Citadel also had ten ‘torpedo’ tubes. These were newly developed weapons for space. These larger missiles were much faster and stronger than the regular ones, but at a cost of maneuverability. They needed to be pointed in the general direction of their target. The two wings extending from the Citadel held the backward hangers and landing bays, with the front of the ship housing the forward smaller ones.

The dreadnought class ships were meant to rain destruction on the enemy, while also being able to take any punishment the enemy dished out. The alien database had little information on weapons that the Union used, save for the laser technology. And judging by the hull of the alien ship they found, laser weapons were common. The hull of the alien ship, had a “skin” material layer that was reflective, and would dissipate most of laser fire, as well as prevent scans. The research department had tested it extensively, a direct beam from one of the dreadnought class lasers would only transfer 45% of its destructive power. That was still enough to damage any ship coated with it, but it was still a huge defensive tool. The research department had also spent the years since recovering the alien ship trying to develop new alloys for the use in Olympus ships. The new warship hulls are all made of new metal alloys, and coated in a layer of skin, developed from studying the alien ship. The alien ship itself used completely synthetic ceramic-like materials. But the way they were used, gave human scientists an idea. They still kept to the metals. It was the material humanity was most proficient and knowledgeable with. And in the end they managed to create alloys that were more durable and stronger than those on the alien ship, if somewhat heavier. But by the human temperament, there was no such thing as too much mass. The data on the new classes of ships was extensive, but for now Adrian focused on things that he needed to know. Like the number of crew, needed to operate the ship. Which was 800, not counting the security forces. With them that number grew to 880 people. But the ship had enough room to carry thousands. It was imagined as a fortress, able to take materials from space, store them and fabricate anything it needed. It had 4 big fabricators, and a score of smaller ones.

Adrian turned to the other window opened on his desk, the list of available personnel. Those that were on the waiting list for a ship, and worked on the planet until a place opened up, or a new ship was built. Most of them had never been on a ship, save in a simulation. But at least that was something.  Adrian kept scrolling down the list, looking for viable candidates and scheduling interviews with them, he of course didn’t need to choose all, only those that would be in various command positions on the ship. But that still amounted to more than 80 interviews. Adrian sighed and rubbed his eyes, he looked at the clock in the left corner of his vision, put there by his implants HUD. He had already spent more than 16 hours at the desk. He yawned and got to his feet, the rest could wait until tomorrow. He asked Iris to go through all the personnel files and see if he missed someone that could be a good fit for his new command. Then, he went to sleep.

Chapter Twelve

December 2169 – OES Traveler

Ship Master Kisaragi Hana stood in the Traveler’s shuttle bay, waiting for the Nel shuttle to arrive. The Traveler met up with the two ships sent from the planet. The Nel, the alien race that inhabited this system, requested that a team of their diplomats meets with the humans onboard the Traveler, prior to their arrival to the planet. To Hana it seemed like there was more to it, but she chose to allow it. They were sending just a small shuttle, and she didn’t believe that they could take over her ship with only a few people. But just in case she had security personnel armed and ready. The Traveler did receive word from the Fleet about the fate of Voyager, along with all the data from the incident. Comparing the data with the sensor readings from this system showed that the ships that attacked Voyager were not Nel, but Fleet cautioned them to proceed with care, the system where Voyager met its end was only 8 light years away from this one. Neither race had seen the other yet. Prior to the arrival of the ship, the Humans asked if they breathed the same air, or if there was anything that is harmful to the Nel. At the end it was established that they breathed the same air, and that it was unlikely for anything that wasn’t harmful to humans, to harm a Nel. There was a question of alien germs, but the Travelers chief medical officer assured Ship Master Kisaragi that the nanites in the human’s bloodstream would protect them, and Nel had their own protections. As off two years ago every human on Sanctuary had nanites in their bloodstream. They had been used long before then, but those versions needed to be controlled by a special kind of implant, but the new ones could be programed by the medical staff. The new versions were simpler, and couldn’t do everything the old ones could, but these were specifically made to boost human immune system.

A minute later, Hana saw a shuttle landing in the outer part of the bay. The shuttle bay was divided in two areas, one that could be opened to space, and the other closed off. Hana looked at the alien shuttle, it was sleek, light gray in color and smaller than human shuttles by half. After it landed the bay outer doors closed, and air was pumped back into the area. A minute later green light flashed above, and Hana and their welcoming committee entered and took positions in front of the shuttle. Their group was made up of five people, including Hana. The other members of their group were her High Prime Rolland Ricks, her Security Chief Manu Akins, Chief Diplomat Park Chung-Ah and her aide Giles Nast. Niri was of course monitoring everything. Each of them wore a device equipped with a speaker on their shoulders and an earpiece. The earpiece was a misdirection, and served no purpose, it was supposed to insinuate that the humans got a translation of the Nel language through it, while they really got it directly through their implants. Every person on the ship had the translating software uploaded to their implants. The speakers on their shoulders on the other hand would translate human speech.

A moment later the shuttle door lowered and three figures walked out. They got to the bottom of the platform and froze, just like the humans did. In the alien database that was recovered from the ship on Earth there were many records of alien races. Humans had studied them all in great detail. They learned that life in the universe varied, and was vastly different. There were cases where a few races looked similar, but even those similarities were small. There were only three races in the alien database that were bipedal. One of those was the race that operated the ship they found, their name was unpronounceable by human mouth so they just called them Jings which was the closest thing to their real name they could come up with. The Jings had two legs and four arms, triangular heads with four curving hornlike protrusions on their top and six eyes. They had no nose, but two slits, and their mouth had no lips. They were the only race that resembled humans in any way that they found in the database.

Hana looked at the Nel in disbelief. They were dressed in form fitting clothes that Hana believed to be a part of some kind of safety suit. Their skin was in various shades of gray. They had thick tails dragging behind them, about as thick as a human forearm, they varied in length, but were all approximately around a meter and a half long. Their fingers ended in short small, and deadly looking claws. The lead Nel had black claws while the rest had dark gray. They had hair on top of their heads, like humans did, but no hair on their faces. No eyebrows or eyelashes, their eyes had no pupil, but only an iris that was filled with small black dots that constantly moved. They were a bit taller than an average human, around two meters tall. And that was where the differences ended. The rest of them looked exactly like a human did, their faces, their body structure, everything. Hana could see that the leading Nel was female, it was obvious because the others didn’t have breasts. And she had longer black hair. The males had their hair cut short, just like most human men did.

After no one moved for a few more moments, Hana took a breath and stepped forward. She approached the leading Nel and spoke.

“I am in charge of this ship. My name is Kisaragi Hana, I welcome you to my ship.” Hana said. Immediately after she finished the device on her shoulder started producing the translation in Nel, with Hana’s voice. She didn’t identify herself as a Ship Master, they didn’t know how they named their commanders and didn’t want to confuse them, their translators weren’t perfect just yet. When the translation finished the lead Nel seemed to regain her composure and she took a step forward and spoke.

“Ru talla denure Oferani Esama, Ru etaro Uru lesavo.” She said, and bowed her head shallowly. Immediately after she finished the translation was produced in Hana’s implant.

“I am named Oferani Esama, I accept your welcome.” Hearing the translation Hana smiled, relaxing a bit. After that first shock of looking at an alien that looked so remarkably close to a human, she forgot that her first worry was not being able to communicate properly. Hana’s smile was returned by the leading Nel, Oferani Esama. She still didn’t know which was her first and which last name, if that was even what those words meant. They could be a title or something else entirely.

Hana then introduced the rest of her party, with the Nel then doing the same.

“I believe that it would be best if we move to a more comfortable location, we have a meeting room ready, if you would follow me?” Hana said. And after her words were translated the Nel agreed. Hana led them to room one level above the shuttle bay. A few minutes later they were all sitting around a table, the Nel had to sit on the chairs sideways as their tails interfered.

After they all settled comfortably Hana took the lead.

“I must say that we were very surprised by the resemblance between us.” Hana said.

After her words were translated the Nel looked among themselves and then responded.

“We were surprised as well.” Hana’s implant translated Oferani Esama’s words.

“Perhaps we would be able to investigate further in the future, and determine if there is any connection? We have always believed that our race evolved on our own home world.” Hana said.

“As did we.” Oferani Esama said.

Hana nodded. No matter how curious she was, they couldn’t push for too much too fast. She glanced at Chief Diplomat Park Chung-Ah, signaling that she should take the lead from now on. Hana turned to Oferani Esama. “Park Chung-Ah, is in charge of our diplomatic matters, and she will be in charge of any talks from now on.”

Nel nodded and turned to Park Chung-Ah. “We look to the future.” The translation said.

Hana then excused herself and left for the bridge, no matter how much she wanted to be there, it was not her job.

* * *

A few hours later, Hana was in her office with Diplomat Park Chung-Ah, and her Chief Medical officer Travis Hughes. The Traveler already continued towards the planet with its two escorts. The Nel diplomatic team elected to stay on board.

“What can you tell me about them?” Hana asked Travis.

“A lot, and not that much.” Travis said. Hana kept quiet knowing that Travis would continue.

“First, concerning our looking so much alike. I tried to get them to give us a blood sample, but they always steered the conversation away from the topic, and Chung-Ah didn’t want to press them. Perhaps in the future when we get to know each other better.” Travis said. Hana nodded.

“And what did you manage to learn?” Hana asked.

“Well, on the physical aspect, they express emotions with their faces just like we do. Although we can’t be sure that our expressions mean the same things as theirs. If there is any connection between us, it was a long time ago. They have evolved on another world on a different path. For example their tails. Humans have the remnants of a tail, at the end of our spines, but ours have atrophied long ago. Theirs on the other hand have not. Their nails seem to have evolved into claws. Their eyes are different from ours, from what I could observe it appears as if they have no pupil, though I believe that the black dots in their irises are in fact many smaller pupils, but I can only be sure by examining them. Their skin is lighter, which points to lack of skin pigmentation. Which tells me that they didn’t evolve on the world we are approaching.” Travis said.

“How can you be sure about that?” Hana asked. She and other people from the Fleet had already come to the same conclusion, although for different reasons.

“Well, this planet’s atmosphere resembles that of Earth, and is a bit closer to the star. That would mean that about the same amount of radiation penetrates the atmosphere. Skin pigmentation in humans is a defensive mechanism, to fight Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Meaning, if they have none, they evolved in an environment that had very little to none of the radiation.” Travis said.

Hana nodded. “Anything else you can tell me?”

“No, perhaps the DNA tests will let us know a bit more. We won’t know for sure until we get to examine them thoroughly.”

“I don’t think that that’s going to happen any time soon.” Chung-Ah said.

“And what about your talks? What have you learned?” Hana turned to Chung-Ah.

“Not much more. We spent this first meeting getting to know each other. Introducing our races to each other. We exchanged social norms, and ways to behave towards one another, so that we don’t make any mistakes when we meet with those in charge. For example, the Nel frown upon physical contact in public, so no handshakes, they feel that touching another being is something private. They have no last names, they each have a single name, that they are given at birth. And then when they mature enough, they get a title that matches what their purpose is. The leading Nel that you meet today, was named Esama and Oferani was her title, it roughly translates to “one who meets”, it is her job to meet with strangers. Basically a diplomat.”

“And the other two?” Hana asked.

“They were Hokra Dson and Hokra Gotu, they avoided answering what their purpose was, but I believe that they were either bodyguards or aides, perhaps even spies.” Chung-Ah said.

“Spies!?” Hana exclaimed.

“There is no need to worry, it is something we would do as well. And we are trying to learn everything we can about them just as they are trying to learn everything about us.” Chung-Ah assured her Ship Master.

“Well alright, there isn’t much they can find out, we have them watched around the clock, and they can’t go anywhere without escort.” Hana said.

“There are a few more things that we learned, they greet one another by bowing their heads, they don’t seem to have any kind of class system, everyone appears to be equal. At least that is the impression I got. I also got the impression that they were just as shocked by our appearance as we were. I also believe that we are not the first alien race they encountered, we of course pretended to have met other races. They seem interested in us.” Chung-Ah said.

“Just like we are interested in them. Proceed with caution Chung-Ah, let’s not reveal more about ourselves than we need to, and not a moment sooner than when we have to.” Hana said steadily. Chung-Ah nodded and then she and Travis left the room, leaving Hana to her thoughts.

Chapter Thirteen

OES Traveler

“How is it that they look so much like Nel?” Esama asked Hokra Dson. Dson apart from being her aide, was also learned in alien species and interactions. Up until now it meant only the four other races that are the part of their trading Consortium, and the only other races they have encountered in the three hundred years they were exploring space. Or rather, races that were the part of their trading Consortium, the Consortium now being dead at the hand of Sowir Dominion. Nel were the second race from their neighborhood to reach the stars, just behind the peaceful Pouute. The big aquatic race came from a world completely covered in water, they encountered Nel, and started trading and sharing technology. In the next 50 years another two races emerged from their own home worlds. First the Guxcacul, the hideous arthropods, with their pointed exoskeletons, hard carapaces, and dozens of legs concealed gentle beings with pure hearts. Next came Mtural, the race that resembled the Nel closest, at least until they met the Human race. Mtural were nocturnal, hairy bipeds, that breathed the same air as Nel, and could survive in the same conditions. The Guxcacul could tolerate the Nel atmosphere for a time, but they preferred the dry air of their desert world. As each race joined them in space, Nel and Pouute guided them, and raised them up to be their equals, in time their little Consortium expanded to cover dozen of worlds, some individual and some populated by all races. For one hundred years they prospered and slowly expanded. Until they met the Sowir.

When they met them, Sowir have been in space for decades, and had spread to 3 worlds. The Consortium rejoiced to have another race join their ranks. Sowir originated in water, but evolved so that they can survive on land as well, breathing air. They had 7 muscled extremities, similar to Nel tails, that they used to move, The center of their bodies held their major organs, they looked at the world by feeling the vibrations in the air and earth and water. By smelling and touching. They were the strangest life form the Consortium encountered, including the beings of low intelligence they found on some planets they settled. Every member of the Consortium had three things in common. They could all hear sounds, they all had eyes and could “see”, and they all had vocal capabilities, even though not all of them could reproduce each other sounds. It was a common ground, and they built upon it greatly. Soon after the Sowir encountered the Consortium they started attacking them. At first The Consortium was shocked. The Consortium of course had military vessels, there were always those of their own kind that turned to piracy and such. But never had they had a war amongst themselves. Pouute quickly found the way to communicate with Sowir, and called for peace, but their hails were ignored. After the Sowir took one of their planets, the Consortium, seeing no other way turned their military on them. The Sowir were not as advanced as the Consortium. They had no way to perceive light and were lacking in some areas, they had no laser weapons, and soon they were about to be defeated. Seeing no way out the Sowir finally communicated with the Consortium, and managed to spin their attack as a misunderstanding and apologized. Not knowing better the Consortium accepted their apology. And twenty years later the Sowir joined the Consortium. In one hundred years following that decision the Consortium grew. Of 18 worlds that were in the Consortium control, 6 were Sowir only, including their home world, or with other Consortium members being the minority, 5 were joined worlds where each of the other four races had an almost equal number of people. The Sowir technology in time matched that of the rest in the Consortium and when they expanded enough they struck. The first worlds to be hit were those that were shared. And in the next ten years Sowir Dominion conquered all of the 5 shared worlds, slaughtering any who were not Sowir. The attacks on those worlds were a surprise and the Consortium didn’t respond quickly enough. The remaining worlds fought back, but slowly they too started to fall. Sowir had effectively divided the four races. Their hidden fleets blowing through those of Consortium. In another ten years all but 2 Nel worlds had fallen. The other races fate was unknown, they had lost contact with all but the Guxcacul, which were even now fighting a losing six yearlong land battle on their home world, all their other worlds had fallen. Though the last news they had from them was a merchant ship that arrived at Nuva almost a year ago. For all they knew their home world had already fallen. Nuva, the world where they met the Humans, was the world farthest from the Sowir space, being a new colony, barely thirty years old, there were a few representatives from Guxcacul, and a few families of Mtural living on Nuva, and they were probably the last of their kind. Nuva had been in infancy when the Sowir attacked, and had very little in terms of ships to defend themselves. The only reason they survived this long was because they were too far away. And now they were on their own, their home world of Nelus had abandoned them, recalled all their ships. Leaving only those that were built here and those that refused to leave. The home world was hoping to survive on its own. And now they met another alien race. The scars from what happened with Sowir were still raw, and there had been little trust amongst the crews of ships that were sent to meet with this new race. But seeing them in person, looking so much like Nel, made them waver. These Humans were not Sowir, that was for sure. But were they like them was the question now. From the little she talked with their representative, Esama got the feeling that they were not. But she could also see that they were different than the races of the Consortium. The way they talked, the questions they asked, all pointed to someone that was looking for any edge they could find on the Nel. That worried Esama. She was ordered to stay on their ship and observe, see if she could find anything that might help Lanai back on Nuva to decide whether to trust these Humans or not. The Lanai of course didn’t yet know about them looking like Nel, the commander of the ship Esama arrived on will send that information, along with everything Esama learned until now, which was very little. The Humans gave Nel their own communication terminal, which Esama had no doubt they could monitor. They were also given their own quarters on the ship. The first thing they did was check for listening devices, which Esama was surprised they didn’t find. But that didn’t mean there were none. So she engaged a scrambler from her wrist unit as soon as they were left alone in their room, and seated comfortably around the table.

“So, you have no answer?” Esama repeated her question to Dson.

“It will take a lot of testing to determine if there is a connection Oferani. And even if there is one, it was very long ago. We have obviously evolved on very different paths. And I can’t imagine how it is even possible.” Hokra Dson said wondering.

“Could have the Order been right?” Hokra Gotu said slowly, hesitantly.

Esama turned on him sharply. “We do not talk about them.”

“Of course Oferani.” Hokra Gotu said, and then after a minute of silence, “No matter how much we look alike, we are different.”

Esama turned the palm of her left hand sideways and back signaling her agreement. “Yes, we are very different, but also very similar.” She said.

“Yes, Oferani.” Dson said, mirroring her gesture with his palm.

Esama sighed in a very human manner. “And what have you observed Gotu.” She asked Hokra Gotu, he was learned in the ways of military and war.

“You are right Oferani, these people are very different, and very similar at the same time. From what I have observed these people know war.” Gotu said.

Esama looked at him, surprised. “They said that this is an exploration vessel. You think that they deceived us?”

“No Oferani. I have no doubt that this is an exploration vessel, from everything I looked over of our scans of their ship, to the interior. This is an exploration ship, but I also believe that it is not as defenseless as our exploration ships.”

“You mean this ship has weapons?” Esama asked.

“I am sure of it. I don’t know how much of a chance you had to look at the exterior of this ship, but there are indications, hatches, that could possibly house weapons. But that is not the only thing that makes me believe that.” Gotu said.

“What more did you notice?” Dson asked, breaching lightly the Ofer-tun protocol by speaking before the Oferani. Gotu noticed that Oferani choose to ignore the breach and was expecting an answer.

“You noticed the escorts that followed us?” Gotu asked.

“That is nothing strange, we often assign guides, escorts and helpers to our visitors.” Esama said.

“Yes, we do. But are our guides Laas Rett?” Gotu asked.

For a moment both Esama and Dson looked at him startled, before Esama recovered enough. She stood up from the seat, her tail furiously moving from side to side toppling the chair.

“Warriors!? How dare they?! Such insult!” She yelled out.

Gotu immediately rose as well, putting his hands in front of his chest, palms turned towards his chest in a placating gesture. “Calm down Oferani. It is no insult.” He said in placating tones.

A moment later Esama managed to get herself under control, trusting her aide. She picked up her chair and sat down again. Still visibly upset she turned to Gotu.

“How can it not be an insult? We only use warriors for criminals, never for guests.” Esama said.

“The key word Oferani is “We”, you said yourself, these people might look like us, but they are not us. I have looked at them closely Oferani, and from the talks you had, I believe that this is a regular practice for them.”

Esama appeared thoughtful for a moment, and then she brought her hand up and turned her palm sideways and back, assenting to Gotu’s point.

“I have jumped to the wrong conclusion, apologies.” Esama said, and continued immediately. “But how can this be an exploration vessel if there are warriors on board?”

“I believe that their ships are not so strictly divided Oferani. There are people on board that are clearly warriors, and then there are those that are not. For example the female that met us, the commander of the ship, their Retnor. She was not a warrior, but she held herself as one. It is strange, I got the feeling that she would be in charge of the ship even in combat, and yet she was no warrior by our understanding.” Gotu said.

Esama put a palm on her forehead, indicating frustration. “You are right Gotu, they are a strange people. This will be much harder than I thought, each time we met another race, it was Pouute, that handled most of the talks.” Esama said.

Gotu turned his palm, agreeing.

“We must learn a lot, it seems.” Esama said.

“Yes.” Both Gotu and Dson said.

Chapter Fourteen

Olympus city

The attack came suddenly, meant to test Adrian’s defense. Adrian twisted his upper body and raised his left hand to block the strike. His palm connected with his opponent’s forearm and adjusted the trajectory slightly, the attack missed his head. Adrian then stepped out to the side, pulling his opponent’s arm with him. That unbalanced his opponent, and brought the opponent’s head in line with Adrian’s shoulder. Adrian pushed his weight with his legs, and altered his target by lowering his center of balance at the last moment. So instead of his opponent’s head, Adrian’s shoulder struck him in the chest. The strike connected, and his opponent flew away, his back hitting the tatami hard. Adrian remained in stance, waiting, but his opponent signaled that the fight was over. Adrian relaxed and waited for his opponent to get up, when he did, they both bowed at the waist. His opponent then walked over and slapped Adrian on the shoulder.

“That was great form Adrian.”

“Thank you Master Hayashi.” Adrian said.

“You don’t need to call me Master anymore. You have long since surpassed me.” Master Hayashi Hideyoshi said.

“Perhaps in some things. But in others you are still much wiser than me.” Adrian said seriously.

His Master smiled. “Knowing that you still have challenges ahead of you, makes you wise as well.” Master Hayashi said.

Looking at his Master smiling Adrian couldn’t help but smile as well. In this age where everyone looked young, it was hard for those that were born in a time and place where age was visible, there was no way to discern someone’s age. Master Hayashi was born long before Adrian.

“There will be challenges ahead of me for as long as I am living. And that will likely be a long, long time.” Adrian said.

Master Hayashi’s smile dimmed. “Aye. Humanity is on a new path, one filled with challenges of the unknown. It is the way of the universe. We grow, we learn, we change.” Master Hayashi said.

“Yes.” Adrian agreed.

“Will you stay for the class? You can show other students how far they still need to go.” Master Hayashi said cheerfully.

Master Hayashi taught Ninjutsu to people living in Olympus city. And being one of the few Dojo’s that taught martial arts on Sanctuary, there was a lot of interest. The class was divided into two courses. The beginners course, which now consisted of mainly children. In the beginning, it was taught by Master Hayashi, and later by some more advanced students. And the advanced course, which was taught by Master Hayashi. And then there was the Masters class. It wasn’t part of Master Hayashi’s Dojo, but rather a joint class with the Masters of other martial arts on Sanctuary. Only 7 million people left Earth for Sanctuary, it might seem like a big number, but in fact there was a lot of knowledge that was left behind. Oh, they had the information, records, books and such. But they lacked the people that studied it. So the Masters of the martial arts came together to share and pass on their knowledge. These classes were held once a month, and only those who had become Masters in their own art could attend. The level of mastery one needed to join these classes was decided by the Masters of the respective arts. For Ninjutsu it was 10th Dan. Most martial arts were divided into kyu and Dan rankings. Kyu were beginner ranks, going from 9th kyu to 1st kyu. The Dan were master ranks, going from 1st Dan to 10th Dan in most martial arts. In Ninjutsu the 10th Dan had five ranks within itself, for a total of 15. Adrian had already attained 15th Dan. And was the only one of his master’s students to have attained that rank. He started studying Ninjutsu when he was brought to Olympus from the orphanage, and had spent every free moment trying to improve himself.

“Sorry Master. I have previous commitments.” Adrian responded.

“Another time then. You might have learned all that I had to teach you, but there are still things you can learn, even from those who are under you. And I hope that you will attend the Master class this month, you are after all, one of the sixteen Grandmasters.” Master Hayashi said with a smile.

Adrian cringed at the title. Once the press found about the Master class, they started referring to those attending them as Grandmasters. “If I have spare time. I am swamped with obligations to the fleet right now.”

“Alright. Do try to keep in touch more often, even if it is by comms.”

“I will Master.” With that Adrian left the training area, just as the advanced class was coming in. He greeted them all, even though only a few knew who he was. He entered the changing room and took off his black kimono, and dressed in more casual attire. He checked the time on his imp, and noticed that he was already late. He quickly left the Dojo, and made the decision to go on foot.

The meeting place was close enough that him stopping to get a grav-car would take more time than it would take for him to get there. Adrian was supposed to meet with the former members of his academy team. Some of them he hadn’t seen in years, and Adrian was very excited to see them again, though they all kept in touch by comm messages. The one he spent the most time with was Paul Isaacs, who served on Athena as Adrian’s High Prime. The others all had their own assignments, whether on other ships or on the planet. Most of them who worked on and in the vicinity of the planet would meet weekly. But he was most excited to see Bethany Jones. She and Adrian had a rocky start. They spent most of their time at the Academy hating each other, clearing up the air only in their last year. Afterwards, they started a shaky friendship. But after the events at the Cloud station, where Adrian commanded Athena and Beth served as his High Prime, they grew closer. They were separated after they arrived at Sanctuary, with Beth being transferred to another ship, and they started seeing each other rarely. Their leave time has not crossed often, so they kept in touch with messages, and video chat when they were in range. For the past two years they had talked almost daily, and have developed a deep friendship, and now, Adrian hoped something more. He was always attracted to Beth, even when they hated each other. But afterwards, when they became such good friends the distance prevented him from trying to take their relationship to the next level. He got the feeling that she felt the same way, though in the last few months he felt as if they were drifting apart. Which frightened Adrian, he didn’t want to lose her like he did his best friend Sahib, who drifted apart from Adrian. They still kept in touch, but there was a gap between them.

Finally, Adrian arrived at the meeting place. It was one of the few bars in the city called New Start. He entered and tried to spot his party in the dim lights. He saw a hand waving at him from a table in the back. Adrian waved back at Sakura and made his way to the table. He noticed that all of his former team were present save Beth. He hugged Sakura, then the rest of the women in their party, Ana, Tania and Helen. After he shook hands and exchanged slaps on the back with the men, Noah, Marcus, Alexander and Paul.

“So you finally found time to meet with us, oh great and mighty Ship Master.” Noah said playfully.

“Yes, as you know my schedule is filled with far more important things, I can rarely find time to meet with simple Adjutants.” Adrian said with a straight face, which earned him a punch in the shoulder from Helen.

“Hey!” Adrian exclaimed, smiling.

“Don’t get a big head, we spent a whole year together in the same room. We know things.” Helen said threateningly, but a small grin played at her lips.

“No, no. Of course I won’t.” Adrian said, rubbing his shoulder. “And when did you start to lift weights?” He asked.

Helen gave him an exasperated look, and Adrian grinned widely. He looked around the table at his friends. “Where is Beth?” He asked.

Ana and Tania looked at each other strangely. “She is running a bit late.” Ana said. “But there is something you should know, and it’s better if you learn it before she arrives.”

Adrian frowned. “What?”

Ana opened her mouth to respond, but Marcus called out. “There she is. Beth, over here!”

Adrian turned and froze the moment he saw her. She was still as beautiful as the day he met her, which was no surprise given that they didn’t age anymore. She had let her red hair grow longer, it was now almost touching her shoulders.

“Who is that with her.” Someone said, but Adrian barely registered it. He only had eyes for Beth.

Adrian smiled widely when she got to the table. “Beth, it’s so good to see you!” He went for a hug, but she returned it hesitantly, awkwardly. Adrian leaned back and frowned as she disengaged herself. She turned to the others hastily and greeted them. Then she gestured to her side.

“Everyone this is Harry.” She said. Adrian turned and noticed the man standing beside her for the first time. He turned back to Beth just as she started speaking again.

“Harry is my fiancé.” Beth said.

Adrian felt his world stop. He stood there gazing at Beth stupidly, unable to tear his eyes off, just as she kept avoiding his. Soon he noticed the man, Bethany’s fiancé extending his hand towards him. Adrian looked down at it not knowing what it was this man wanted from him. After an awkward moment he realized that the man wanted to shake hands. Adrian extended his and gripped it.

“I’m Harry.” The man said.

After another long moment Adrian managed to respond. “Adrian.” He said shakily.

“Well, let us all get seated. We have a lot of questions for you Harry, if you plan on marrying Bethany you need to go through us first.” Marcus said, breaking the awkward moment by forcing everyone to move back to their seats.

Marrying Adrian thought, She is getting married. He still couldn’t believe this was happening as he sat down.

“Oh, Adrian. I am sorry.” Iris said in his head, but he ignored her. He tried to catch Beth’s eyes, but she kept avoiding his gaze.

“So Harry what is it you do?” Marcus asked.

“I’m a teacher.” Harry said.

“Oh, and how did the two of you meet?” Noah asked.

“I was giving a lecture about the academy to the kids in high school. We meet at the school he teaches at.” Beth said. Harry reached over and took her hand in his.

“I asked her out afterwards, and she shot me down immediately.” Harry said in an affectionate tone. “But I kept asking, until she finally accepted.”

Adrian got up to his feet. “I’m going to get us some more drinks.” He said, and immediately realized how stupid of an excuse that was, seeing as everyone’s drinks were almost full.

Marcus frowned at Adrian. “Drinks? We don’t ne—” He started, but Tania elbowed him in the ribs. Adrian turned and walked to the bar. He took the chair and ordered a home grown sanctuary beer. He had never tried one actually, he didn’t drink. Perhaps this is a good time to start drinking. A minute later as he was waiting for the beer he felt a presence beside him. He didn’t turn, he already knew who it was.

“When?” Adrian asked.

After a moment of hesitation, she answered. “We met a seven months ago. He asked me to marry him a month ago.”

“Seven months… We talked often during that time. You never mentioned him.”

“I never seemed to find the right moment.” Beth said.

“Seven months Beth. You had plenty of time.”

She remained silent.

“Are you sure? Seven months aren’t that long to get to know someone that well.” Adrian said.

“I love him, and he loves me.” She said.

“I love you.” For a moment Adrian thought he said it only in his head, but then he realized that he said it out loud. He turned and looked at Beth standing there looking at him strangely.

“You love me?” She whispered. Adrian nodded stupidly.

“You had a long time to tell me that. Years, and you never said anything. Did you think that I was going to wait for you?” She said.

“We will live a long time, we have time.” Adrian said, and immediately regretted it.

Bethany’s face formed into an expression Adrian knew very well, it was the same expression she had at the academy, when she looked down on him, insulted him.

“A long time? I grew tired of waiting for you! I waited for years. It is your own damn fault, you were too cowardly to say anything, and I moved on.” She said, turned around and left, walking back to the table. Adrian watched her leave, a piece of his heart ripping away. The person that walked away didn’t seem like his Beth, his best friend. The way she spoke and acted seemed more like the Bethany that threw insults at his face at the academy, who looked down on him. He believed that that Bethany was gone, but maybe she was always there, only he refused to see it. A beer bottle hit the bar behind him and Adrian turned and looked at it, he then looked back at the group talking amongst themselves, laughing, even Harry, a complete stranger. He had his hand around Bethany. Adrian turned back to the bottle.

A few hours later, and countless bottles later Adrian felt a hand touch his shoulder.

“Let’s get you home buddy.” He heard Paul say.

“Where are the others?” Adrian asked.

“They already left, it’s just me and Alex.” Paul said, gesturing to Alexander behind him.

He then reached down and lifted Adrian out of the chair. Adrian went with it, and then stood on his own.

“I don’t need help, I’m not really drunk.” Adrian said.

“If you drank even half of those bottles, you would be drunk buddy.” Alex said coming to his other side.

Adrian pushed them away. “No, really. Iris didn’t let me get drunk.” Adrian said.

His friends looked at each other and then back.

“Iris?” Paul asked.

Adrian nodded. “She had the nanites in my body counteract the alcohol.”

“She can do that?” Alex asked.

“Apparently.” Adrian said, Iris was silent, she had stopped speaking to Adrian an hour ago, when he refused to stop “Wallowing in self-pity” according to her.

“Well, let us walk you home anyway.” Alex said.

Adrian looked at his friends. “You know?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Alex said.

“Tell me that none of the rest know.” Adrian said weakly.

“Sorry buddy.”

“How?”

“It was obvious every time you talked to any of us, you like to talk about Beth. A lot.” Paul said carefully.

“Marcus was the only one that didn’t realize, but then he is a thick headed ass. He figured it out when you went to get the drinks and didn’t come back.” Alex said.

“Fuck.” Adrian said softly.

“I’m sorry Adrian, if we knew about Harry, we would have told you. Ana and Tania only found out yesterday.” Alex said.

Adrian stayed silent, then sighed. “Let’s go.”

The others nodded and walked with him home. He didn’t tell them, but he felt that they knew how much their silence and presence meant to him.

Chapter Fifteen

Olympus city

Tomas was sitting in his office at the palace, reading through the reports they received from Traveler, concerning the alien race Nel. The similarities between the two races was undeniable, but it baffled all of their scientist. According to them there was no way another intelligent race could evolve to look so similar to another. They were already hard pressed to explain the similarities between the Humans and a few other bipedal races they found in the Union database, now the appearance of Nel put all their theories in question. Unless there was in fact a connection between the two races. Tomas ran his hand through his hair in frustration, and leaned back in his chair. He just had no idea in what manner they should proceed. He took the advice of his advisors, and let the situation develop on its own. The destruction of Voyager was still a great factor. They established that these were not the same people as those that attacked Voyager. The ships were different, but that didn’t mean that they were not involved with them somehow. Tomas sighed and closed the report. He went down the list reading other reports and forming appropriate responses. A few hours later he was interrupted by a person entering his office from the direction of his bedroom.

“You could have slept in.” Seo-yun said. She wore only Tomas’s shirt, which made her legs bare. He admired them for a moment and then looked up.

“I couldn’t sleep, too much to do.” Tomas said.

Seo-yun smiled at him walked over to him, she stopped behind his chair and put her hands around his shoulders.

“Now that you are awake, maybe you can clarify something for me.” Tomas said.

“What?” She said.

Tomas accessed the report via his imp, and brought it on his holo desk. “This, you didn’t leave your summary and I don’t understand the science talk.”

Seo-yun leaned down and looked at the report Tomas was talking about.

“Oh. That one.” She pushed off his shoulders and walked around the desk. “I was planning to talk to you about it, it isn’t urgent.”

“Well, you might as well tell me now.” Tomas said.

Seo-yun sighed. “It is about the gene therapy.” She said.

“Are there any problems?” Tomas asked, concerned.

“No, no. At least not in the short run. Or in the long run for that matter.” She said cryptically.

Tomas frowned. “I don’t understand. Is there a problem or isn’t there?”

“Alright, I need to explain a few things first. I know that you trust in me and our scientists, but I need to at least try to explain how it is that we have attained agelessness.”

Tomas nodded for her to proceed.

“What treatment does, in layman’s terms is simple really. It does two things, first, it gives the human body perfect cell regeneration. One of the reasons we aged, is that each time a cell regenerated it wasn’t a 100% but just a bit less. Although people don’t really die of old age, but as the cells regenerate they become weaker and weaker, which in turn makes the human body weaker, more prone to illness. Second thing, is perfect waste removal. Meaning that when our bodies remove waste they remove everything harmful. Another reason humans died of old age earlier than the human body was designed to die was because of slow poisoning. Most everything we use to survive in fact poisons us, the air, the food, the water. It is a very small amount, but over time it accumulates. Now on the other hand our bodies are capable of removing the poisons perfectly. Do you follow?”

“Yes.” Tomas nodded.

“Now the problem is that our bodies regenerate perfectly, and that we pass these abilities to our children.”

“I don’t understand. Isn’t that a good thing?” Tomas asked.

“Perfect regeneration Tomas, that means no mutations. Ever.” Seo-yun said vaguely.

“Mutations? I would hope that we would try to prevent any mutations in our children.” Tomas said frowningly.

Seo-yun sighed. “Mutations are evolution Tomas. We are who we are today because of them. If there are no more mutations in the future, then we have effectively stopped the evolution of mankind. We will never evolve from this point on.”

Tomas looked at her and finally realized the gravity of what she said. No more evolution, in a universe where everything constantly evolved. They would stagnate. It might not matter in the short run, or in the long run as Seo-yun said. But a million years from now, or ten million, they will still be the same, while every other life form in the universe moved on. If they even survived that long. Tomas was by no measure a scientist, but he did go out of his way to learn a few things. Humans were on a certain evolutionary path, constantly changing to adapt to their environment and the way of life. Stopping that evolution would mean that they would lose their ability to adapt over time. They will need to lean on their technology to do that for them.

“Is there anything we can do?” Tomas asked.

“We are already changed, we can’t reverse the treatment, and every newborn after we did this to ourselves inherited it. But a few of my people, the ones who noticed this, did offer possible answer.” Seo-yun said.

“What?”

“Artificial evolution.” Seo-yun said.

Tomas raised an eyebrow, and Seo-yun continued.

“Guided evolution. We enhance ourselves. The agelessness treatment has been really just that, as was the life extension treatment that we had previously. Though with the agelessness we didn’t really think all the aftereffects quite through. But the truth is that we have great knowledge of genetics. It might not seem that way, but our greatest advances are in genetics, and we have mostly achieved them on our own. We have eliminated most diseases and improved our quality of life significantly. We have far surpassed anything we have found in the Union databases. And our knowledge expands constantly. In time we will learn enough to start altering ourselves even more.” Seo-yun said.

“Is that wise? For us to thinker even more?” Tomas asked.

“Perhaps not, but now it is our only choice. We don’t need to do this now of course. But in time, perhaps, it might be the only way for us to survive.” Seo-yun said.

* * *

Adrian walked through the Olympus city on his way to the space port. Two hours prior he finished with the last of the interviews for the positions on his ship. Now he only needed to decide which people he wanted. The port was outside the city, two hours on foot, and Adrian decided not to take a grav-car. As he walked, he couldn’t help but think back on the events five days ago and his encounter with Bethany. He spent the day after closed up in his room. He refused all comms, and was planning on staying inside the entire second day as well. Until Paul managed to get inside his room. Seeing as Paul didn’t have the codes to enter, the only way he could have, was if someone who knew gave them to him. Which meant that it was Iris that contacted him. She had free access to every piece of technology in Adrian’s home. After Paul arrived, he proceeded to annoy the hell out of Adrian, until he didn’t have any other choice but to get up, clean himself and assent to their wishes and start the interviews. The next three days he spent interviewing personnel for his new ship. The interviews took over his entire day, so he had no time to feel sorry for himself, as Iris liked to say, and by the time he got home he was so exhausted he would immediately fall asleep. Now finished, he needed to get to the shipyard and familiarize himself with the ship. As Adrian left the city boundaries, he looked around. The immediate area outside the city was a grassy plain. The plain where city resided was surrounded by forest, and for the first time Adrian looked around at the nature surrounding him. Before coming to Olympus he was raised in the city, and afterwards in space. He never had a chance of being in the wilderness. Sanctuary was a beautiful world. As he approached the entrance to the forest, he looked up at the great trees. The leaves swaying gently on the wind. It was an awe inspiring sight, he didn’t realize how big they really were. As he entered the forest, following the simple road going through it, he looked around. The inside of the forest was dark, and the wind made a soft whistling sound. Looking around Adrian felt a touch of fear, until he remembered that Sanctuary had no land predators. Well, only one, but they had never attacked humans. Then an image of a great wolion attacking him came to mind. Perhaps I should have taken a grav-car, Adrian though, Would I be the first human ever to be attacked by them?.

He shook himself, and continued walking. The wolion’s had moved away from human settlements, and always chose to run away. He quickened his pace. After a few minutes with no predators jumping out of the bushes to attack him, he relaxed. And then he heard a yowling sound coming deeper from the forest.

Immediately Adrian froze, he wasn’t sure if he imagined the sound or if it was real.

“Iris? Did you hear that?” Adrian asked, Iris could hear everything Adrian could, through his imp.

“Yes.” She said.

Adrian turned, and tried to see if there was anything, but there was nothing. Slowly he started walking again. He didn’t make two steps before he heard the sound again. On the second hearing, he realized that it sounded like a cry of pain. At the realization he hesitated. He knew that there was wildlife around the city, and those were all small animals, herbivores. Humans tried to interfere as little as possible, but from time to time the animals would wander close to the city, some even coming inside. There was no danger to humans, as none of them dangerous. Not even the one predator species they discovered. So Adrian decided to investigate. He set in the direction of the sound, adjusting his path as he heard more yowling. Two minutes later he came upon a shrub beneath one of the trees, surrounded by roots. Below the shrub was a recess in the earth, it looked to Adrian as if it was dug out recently. Confirming his reasoning was the beast lying inside.

“That’s a wolion.” Iris said unnecessarily. Adrian already recognized the animal. It was lying on its side, with its legs pulled protectively around its middle, and its head turned straight towards Adrian. The animal was almost invisible, its blue fur melting into the teal of the bush in the shadows of the forest. Though no one would miss it this close. Its head had a gray streak going between its eyes, meaning that it was a female. The animal was breathing heavily, obviously in pain. Its dark gray eyes were bloodshot, and there was slime around its nostrils. Its great head started to drop, and its eyes slowly started to close. Adrian took a step forward, and immediately the animal raised its head, its eyes opening and started to growl. Adrian froze, he didn’t move for a count of ten, and the wolion again dropped its head. “She is dying.” Adrian told Iris.

“Yes, I don’t think that she has long left.”

Adrian drew closer, the wolion tried to growl again, but it came out only as a gasp. Her breathing intensified as he grew closer.

“She is scared of you Adrian.”

Adrian started making placating sounds. “It’s okay girl. I’m not going to hurt you.” He said as he drew even closer. Two steps and he was close enough to touch her. He extended his hand and touched the wolion’s snout. It tried to move but was too weak. He made circular motions softly patting the animal, until she calmed down. A minute later she stopped trying to move, whether from exhaustion or because she now trusted that he wouldn’t hurt her Adrian didn’t know. He kept stroking her snout, not knowing what to do. They didn’t know anything about wolions, so he didn’t know anyone who could treat her and save her life. And he realized that even if there was, help would come too late. A quick search with his imp and he knew that the veterinarian was on the other side of the city, he would need to come with a grav-car, and even if he started immediately he would still take more than half an hour to get here. And Adrian could see that the animal was on her last stretch, she would die any moment. So he decided that the least he could do was stay there with her until she died. Then he heard another little yelp, and for a moment he thought that it was coming from her, but the second one brought Adrian’s attention to the wolion’s middle, the sound was coming from her middle, behind her limbs. As soon as he realized what that meant, he felt the wolion going stiff. Adrian turned his eyes to hers, he found that she was looking straight at him, studying him. Her eyes were beautiful, even though they were bloodshot. Eerie silver in color, Adrian realized that they had eyes similar to humans, meaning that they had a circular pupil. All four eyes were focusing on Adrian, and Adrian found himself lost in them for a moment. The more he looked, the stranger he felt. In an instant it felt as if he could feel the wolion’s pain, but it passed quickly. Adrian felt dizzy and a soft pressure built behind his eyes. The wolion moved its legs revealing what it was hiding. And then in the next moment the pressure was gone, as was the wolion. It let out a long breath and died. Adrian looked down at two small creatures, they looked like little puppies, and from the look of them, he knew that they hadn’t been in this world yesterday. They were keening and putting their little paws on their mother, their little snouts hitting her belly. One of them had a little gray streak between her closed eyes. Adrian took off his jacket and reached down, he gathered them in it and lifted the up. They barely weighted anything.

“What are you going to do with them? They can hardly survive without their mother.”

“I’ll figure something out.” Adrian said, already formulating a plan. It would mean he would need to delay his trip, but he could afford a few days. The ship should be finished in a month, until then he will see what he can do for the two little wolions.

Chapter Sixteen

Sanctuary space

The holographic viewscreen showed nothing amiss. The images from outside the science vessel Insight were completely normal, space with the nebula in the background and a small black probe floating there. Small in a relative sense, it was the size of a grav-car.

“Are we ready?” Seo-yun asked.

“All readings are within acceptable parameters.” Luna answered through the speakers.

“Start the generator.” Seo-yun said.

Mia, Seo-yun’s assistant swiped her fingers over the holo screen.

“Field reaching threshold output in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” The image from the outside changed, the probe was suddenly engulfed in purple light waves, and the next moment it was gone.

Everyone on the bridge watched the screen, and a moment later cheers broke out. Seo-yun cut them short by turning to Mia. “Are we receiving anything from the probe?”

“Nothing.” Mia answered.

“Is there debris as last time?” She asked. Mia turned to the screen. “No, there is nothing.”

“Are we reading anything Luna?” Seo-yun asked.

“The trans particles are disrupted. Your speculation appears to be correct Seo-yun, once something passes through the translane, nothing can follow for some time.” Luna said.

Hearing that Seo-yun allowed herself a small smile. “Alright, I want everyone to monitor the communications, if the probe went through it will send a signal back when it arrives.”

Seo-yun looked back at the viewscreen where the probe was just a minute ago. She had half convinced herself that she was wrong. After the test failed each time, with the probes they tried sending through blowing up without them knowing why. This test was their first success, at least for now. And it was also the first test that they did at this location. All of the previous tests were done at the location where the Union ship entered the Nebula, between the third and fourth planets. The reason for that being was simply because that location was closer to Sanctuary in its current place in orbit around the sun. But after the fifth failure, Seo-yun decided to move to the other location. The one where the Union ship exited the Nebula. According to the records that point should lead to the Nuva system, which made things a bit awkward if they did succeed. The probe is nothing but armor around a communication and sensor equipment, though it could self-destruct. Seo-yun believed that there was little chance of it being discovered, the exit point was supposed to be close to the orbit of the second planet in the system. And in Nuva’s current orbit it was partially obscured by the sun, they would need to look for the probe specifically in order to see it.

Seo-yun couldn’t yet figure out why the attempts at the other point failed while this one succeeded on the first try. They did everything the same. After Seo-yun figured out how Union ships traveled, the only thing she had to do was figure out how to replicate it. They had found the trans particles and studied them in great detail, afterwards they found the way to interact with them by using a “trans” field generator. They had the blueprints for the generator since they found the alien ship. But until now they had no idea what it was supposed to do. Now on the other hand, they discovered that by projecting the field onto the area filled with trans particles they could send objects through the translane. Which is the way that the Union ships traveled. It was supposed to be much faster. But also limited, translanes were natural and could only go to one location, and the quantity of mass that can be sent is limited by the intensity of the trans field. In order to send multiple ships one would need to generate a trans field of much greater intensity than the one that would be needed for just one ship. Unless of course that one ship out massed all the others put together. And if Seo-yun was correct in her findings, it had one more drawback. The failed test made at the other location suggested that the translanes could only be used in one direction. Seo-yun went back to her quarters to rest. The Union ship traveled the distance of some 12 light years in barely two days. For now all Seo-yun could do was wait.

* * *

Less than two days later Seo-yun sat on the bridge reviewing reports, when the Comm Handler yelled out.

“It came through!”

Seo-yun jumped out of her seat and moved to the comm station. She looked down and saw that they had indeed received a communication from the probe. The probe had successfully passed through trans space, and had sent all the readings it acquired.

“Alright people, get to work, we need to analyze this data!” Seo-yun said cheerfully. They had just given Olympus a travel method that was faster than anything they could have imagined. And the great thing is that all of their ships could use it, without any need for retrofitting. The ships themselves didn’t need to generate the trans field, they just needed to be in the trans area when the field was generated and they would be sent through. Although, how would they come back then? Seo-yun thought. A few more problems became apparent to her. Their sensors were not yet calibrated to detect trans particles, but soon they will. That will mean that they will need ships able to generate the field, the ones that will map out the translanes in their neighborhood. That could be dangerous. Who knows where an unknown translane could lead to? And how far. They could become stranded somewhere years away from the next translane, and If they don’t find another translane that leads back… She shook her head, there will be time enough to think about that. For now they had the lanes that Union used. They knew the ones that led back to Earth, and the ones they used to get to the Nebula, but if Seo-yun was correct they won’t be able to use those from here. We will need to explore them. She sighed and opened the star chart showing the path of the Union ship. She zoomed in on the section that showed the path from Sanctuary to Earth. The time it took them to get to Earth was just over a year. A year to travel what took us sixty. She grimaced, she knew that she would need to tell this to Tomas. But wasn’t sure what that could mean. Would they go back? Would they even want to? This was their home now. She received no message from Asumy, and she didn’t send any back, she hoped that he was alright. She didn’t know how much Earth advanced in 60 years, and didn’t want to unwittingly let them know where they are. She was sure that they couldn’t have advanced as far as Olympus, they didn’t have the aid of alien technology. But then again, most of the Olympus technology was purely human, the alien tech helped them, but it was nothing that they couldn’t have discovered on their own. Often, Seo-yun thought about her friend, the alien Ai Asumy. It pained her to ask him to stay, but she had to leave someone. It couldn’t be a human, they required food and water, it was impossible to supply someone for that long. And she couldn’t leave any of the Ai they created. They were young, and there was no way to predict what it would have done to them to be active over so long a period. During their trip here all of the Ai’s, were either shut down for the entirety of the trip or woken only periodically. And then there was Asumy. He had already spent thousands of years alone. And she knew that another 60 years were nothing for him. And now with the trans travel, she could go back and bring him here easily. Provided of course that there were any translanes leading back to the Nebula from Earth.

Seo-yun shook her head, it wasn’t time to think about going back to visit Earth. There were still things they needed to do here. She went back to her seat and started reading the data that the probe sent back.

Chapter Seventeen

January 2170 – Nuva

A slight bump was the only thing that announced to Ship Master Kisaragi Hana that her shuttle had landed on the alien – Nel station. The Traveler had finally arrived at its destination, the ship itself was waiting close to the station for the Nel to repurpose one of their hatches on the stations docking ring, as Traveler wasn’t able to dock with the station. Over the last few weeks the Nel diplomat and her human counterpart had discussed many things, most of which were unimportant and simple getting to know each other. The human translators were constantly updated, now being able to convert Nel measuring units to human ones easily. The talks didn’t progress further than the introductions, Hana assumed that those would be done now, with someone more up the chain of command. But they did learn a lot until now. The Traveler’s scanners constantly soaked up information. They managed to get a better look at the Nel ships, and found that they used a different energy source. Their drives were a lot “colder” than the human ones, while producing similar pushing power. They didn’t use fusion, and for now the human scientist couldn’t tell what they did use. The Nel steered the conversations off the topics of technology. They also showed only a passing interest in any kind of trade between them. What that meant Hana didn’t yet know. As soon as she exited the shuttle, she was met with an escort, and instructed to follow them to their assigned quarters. Hana and her party followed without question. They were here to meet with Nuva’s Lanai, the person in charge of the planet. The meeting was supposed to take place later that day. As Hana walked she couldn’t help but notice that inside of the station was made from the same material as the outside, that being some kind of ceramic polymer. Human scientist were familiar with the possibilities, but chose to focus on metals. The light on the station was dimmer than what Hana was used on her ship. After a few minutes of walking they arrived at their quarters. Their escorts showed them in, pointed out a few points of interest and then left them alone. Hana and her party made themselves comfortable, and then started planning for the meeting.

* * *

Lanai Sumia sat in the Retnor Maret’s office on the main station orbiting Nuva, Retsar Isani was there as well, together the two of them were leaders of the people of Nuva. They were once nothing but lower officials in the Consortium, but now cut off, left on their own, they were the leaders. Retnor Maret was standing on her left side and Retsar Isani on her right, across from them were Hokra Gotu, Hokra Dson and Oferani Esama, the team sent to meet with the humans. Over the past few weeks they have been sending regular reports, both on the things that they could verify, and speculation. Sumia was startled when she first learned about the appearance of these humans, and even more so when she got the first images of them. But she quickly put it behind her as more and more reports started coming to her hands. They learned a lot about the humans. They were different than Nel, but looked familiar, at least her people managed to reassure her that there was no connection between Humans and Sowir. But the other news wasn’t as good. Retsar Isani informed her that the Human ship was built from metal, a primitive way of constructing ships that the races in the Consortium abandoned long ago. That single piece of intelligence told Sumia that her hopes for help from the humans were not to be. Isani did mention that his scientist were baffled how a ship with as much mass as theirs could move as fast as they could, but still, their speed was barely half of what Nel warships could attain. Isani looked at Esama who had just finished giving her final report in person.

“Is there anything else?” Lanai Sumia asked.

“No Lanai.” Esama said.

Sumia turned to Isani and gave him a small nod, signaling that he can take over.

Isani turned to Hokra Gotu. “Did you manage to uncover the reason for the readings?”

Hokra Gotu made a negative gesture with his hand. “No Retsar, they watched us closely. The only thing I can say for sure is that it was indeed coming from inside the ship.”

Sumia looked at Isani. “Readings?”

“I didn’t want to bother you, it might have been nothing but a glitch. Once our ships came close enough, they started getting readings that matched those of a ship entering hyperspace, only fainter, coming periodically from the Human ship.”

Sumia frowned. “And we don’t know what is the cause?”

“Well, we are sure that it is coming from the Human ship. It is strange, we know that hyperspace transfer within the limit is impossible, yet the readings we are getting match those of a successful hyperspace transfer. Even more baffling is that the readings sometimes come at regular intervals, and sometimes they are irregular. But we did see an increase in them since our ships met the humans.”

“Do you know what that means?” Sumia asked.

“I can only speculate. But my best people have a theory, and after reviewing all of their findings I must agree with them. The most plausible explanation is that the hyperspace bursts are in fact a form of communication.” Isani said.

“Communication? I assume that those communications were not directed at us?”

“No. And as there is no one else here, that brings us to the question, who are they speaking to?”

“And we have no idea?”

“We explored all the answers we could think of, and the one that seems most likely is that those communications are not meant for anyone in this system.”

“But you said that the bursts were regular, and we didn’t detect any comm drones entering the system.” Sumia said confused.

Isani turned his palms agreeing. “Yes, which then means that they are communicating with someone, somewhere directly.”

Sumia and the rest of the people in the room looked shocked.

“Faster than light communications?” Retnor Maret asked.

“Yes, that is the conclusion we drew.” Isani answered.

Sumia looked at Isani open-mouthed. “But that can’t be! Every Consortium scientist agreed that faster than light communications are impossible!”

“They did, but that does not mean that they were right.” Isani said.

“But how? Every report we received suggest that they are no more advanced than the Sowir were when we first encountered them. In some areas they seem even more primitive.” Sumia said.

“They seem that way Sumia. I am not entirely convinced that they are at all inferior to us.” Isani said, which surprised the others. “Their ship is made out of metal and yet moves fast, I doubt that we could have made that ship go as fast as it was moving with our drives. We just don’t know enough about them to come to an informed conclusion. We should not assume inferiority because they do things differently. We made the same mistake with the Sowir, and look where that brought us.” Isani said.

“Perhaps you are right.” Sumia said, after a moment of thought she turned to Esama. “Send for the Human party.”

* * *

Hana and Chung-Ah were escorted to a room where they were met with the diplomatic party led by Oferani Esama and three more Nel. Another female who sat at the desk at the end of the room with two males standing around her. Hana bowed her head to them as did Chung-Ah.

The female then stood, and walked around the desk followed by the two males. Early Chung-Ah learned that Nel preferred to talk while standing.

“Welcome, I am Lanai Sumia, these are Retsar Isani and Retnor Maret.” The lead female said, indicating with her head the two males first the one on her right and then on her left. Hana heard the translation almost immediately, but waited a few breaths, still pretending that it was her earpiece that translated rather than her imp.

“Thank you. I am Ship Master Kisaragi Hana, and this is Diplomat Park Chung-Ah.” Hana said and her translator reproduced her words in Nel.

“I don’t know what your protocols are for meeting another race, and starting a relationship, for us, we take the time to learn your ways as we teach you ours, and in time we expand that to trade and exchange of technology. And later introductions to other races in our Consortium, followed by inclusion in the Consortium.” Hana’s eyes widened at Lanai Sumia’s words, Consortium of races. So there are other races in this part of space. Hana thought, she also wondered whether those that attacked Voyager were part of this Consortium. Hana’s thoughts were interrupted by Lanai Sumia.

“Though I believe that there is no time for that now, so I am going to break with a lot of tradition and rules of my people and speak with you directly and honestly.” As Lanai said that, Hana could hear a gasp from Oferani Esama. Intrigued, she turned back to Lanai.

“My people prefer honesty and directness.” Hana said.

“This world is but one colony, a small colony in the Consortium. Or rather it was. The Consortium is no more.”

Hana remained silent.

“One member of the Consortium, the Sowir made a surprise attack on the rest. The four other members were taken unprepared, and since then only a handful of worlds still stand. It has come to the point where every world was on its own. There were two reasons for me asking you to come here. One was to warn you about the Sowir, so that you don’t make the same mistake we did and trust them. And the second was to see if you can help us. You will never understand how much it pains a Nel to ask for help from someone else, we are a proud people, but now this world is on its own. And we have no means to defend ourselves, we have only a few ships to stand against the Sowir, and they will come here, perhaps a few years from now, or a few months. Anyway, it does not matter, Sowir have more ships, and they will take this world in the end.”

Hana thought about the things she planned to say, all the possibilities she went through with Chung-Ah. This was not one of them. She knew that no one back at Sanctuary would want to get involved in the middle of a war, especially one that was between those most likely stronger than them. Olympus had barely 5 years to start their development, they didn’t even have one fleet of ships able to defend themselves, let alone another world. But she also knew that it was not her decision, there were other ways they could help, and she needed to send word back. But telling Lanai that she needed to send word back would entail letting them know about FTL comms. Or she could leave and then come back a year from now, when it might be too late. Hana weighed her choices and then decided. She was Olympus and they didn’t turn their back to those in need.

“I will need to speak with my superiors. And I will need all the data you have on the Sowir.” She said slowly. Lanai looked to the man on her right and then back.

“We can provide the data. How long will it take you to go back to your world?” Lanai asked strangely. Hana narrowed her eyes, there was something with the way she said it. After a moment Hana spoke.

“I need to go back to my ship, I will return in three days to the station with the response. My people have a way of speaking over vast distances.” She said. At her words she saw a strange exchange between Lanai Sumia and the man on her right, Retsar Isani.

“We would be very interested in knowing how such a thing is possible.” Retsar Isani said.

“I can’t reveal anything without authorization from my superiors.” Hana said.

“Of course.” Retsar Isani said.

With that Hana turned and left the room with Chung-Ah.

After the humans left Sumia looked at the closed doors for a moment, and then turned to Isani.

“Faster than light communications, amazing.” Lanai Sumia said.

“Yes.” Isani said. Sumia caught the expression on his face even though it was there only for a moment.

“What is it?”

“Did you notice the way the human spoke?”

“Through their translator?” Sumia asked, frowning.

“Yes, we were told that the devices on their ears translate our words to theirs, and at the beginning of the conversation she would wait for a while before speaking.”

“I assume that she was listening to the translation.” Sumia said.

“Yes, but at the end she didn’t wait at all, she responded to your words immediately.” Isani said.

Sumia thought back and was shocked that she didn’t realize it.

“What do you think that means?”

“It means that these humans are not what they appear to be.” Isani said cryptically.

Chapter Eighteen

Sanctuary

Tomas awoke to a beeping sound, for a disoriented moment he searched the room for the source of the beeping, and then he realized that it was coming from his imp. He sat up in his bed, his movements waking the person lying next to him.

“Mmm… What is it?” Seo-yun asked.

“Shh— go back to sleep, it’s just Nadia calling.” Tomas said.

Seo-yun turned away. Tomas closed his eyes and answered the call.

“Tomas, I’m sorry I woke you, but we need you right now.” Tomas heard Nadia’s voice say in his head.

“It’s three in the morning, can’t this wait a few more hours?” He asked via the imp, his thoughts transmitting via the imp to Nadia’s where hers would then reproduce Tomas’s voice in her head.

“I’m afraid not Tomas. We got a message from the Traveler. I’m at the palace, in the east meeting room, Laura and Elias are on the way.” She said, and after a moment of hesitation, before Tomas could say anything she continued. “We need Seo-yun too.” She said hesitantly. Tomas and Seo-yun didn’t try to hide their relationship, but they have not made it public yet. Tomas sighed. “Alright, we’ll be there in 10 minutes.” He then closed the channel not waiting for a response.

“Seo-yun. Wake up, we need to get up.”

“What?” She asked sleepily.

“Nadia called for a meeting. There was a message from the Traveler. I told her that we would be there in ten.” Tomas said. At that she woke up fully and looked at him.

“Both of us?” Seo-yun said. She immediately grasped what that meant.

“Yes.”

“Well… Okay then.” She sighed and got up.

Ten minutes later they entered the palace meeting room. The rest were already there sitting at the table. As they took their seats no one commented on them coming together. Not even a small quip at their expense, that told Tomas that things were serious.

“Tell us.” Tomas said.

Nadia gestured to Laura, who sat straighter in her chair and took a deep breath and started speaking.

“Traveler sent back a message, they have arrived at the planet Nuva, and Ship Master Kisaragi Hana met with their leader, one Lanai Sumia.” Laura said, the name of the alien she said slowly.

“The meeting did not go as we expected.” Laura continued. “Their leader basically dropped a bomb after a bomb on us. Starting with the reveal that their race, the Nel are a part of a Consortium of races, five in total.”

Tomas didn’t even try to conceal his shock. The Union databases didn’t say anything about that, but then they came through here thousands of years ago, and didn’t really stay to explore the neighborhood.

He looked at Laura, noticing her grim expression. “That’s not all.” He said.

Laura shook her head. “Not even close. The five races combined controlled 18 worlds. All much more developed than the one Traveler encountered. Nuva is a relatively young colony some thirty years old. But the worst news are that the Consortium is at war.” Laura said, and before anyone could comment she added. “Was at war.”

“What do you mean?” Elias asked.

“I meant that they have already lost, or will soon, it makes no difference.”

“Did we learn anything about the people they are at war with?” Seo-yun asked.

“Yes. They gave us all the information on them. They wanted to warn us. The race that attacked them is called Sowir, they were part of their Consortium, the last race to be added, after a some kind of misunderstanding at the beginning. I didn’t yet have a chance to study the information closely. But what I did learn was that the Sowir joined the Consortium, expanded rapidly and when they felt  they were strong enough attacked the other members. Killing or enslaving the populations of the worlds they attacked and settling their own. From what the Nel said, only a handful of worlds still stands. And they have no hope, the Sowir are too strong. Nuva is on its own, the Nel home world has abandoned them.” Laura looked around the table. “The data also helped us identify the ships that attacked Voyager. It was the Sowir.” Everyone remained silent digesting the information that Laura dropped on them.

“Voyager encountered them some eleven light years from here, eight from Nuva.” Elias said. Laura nodded. “They are close, and are expanding to the systems not previously held by Consortium.” She said.

Tomas closed his eyes. He brought his people here to be safe and now it looked like he just brought them into even greater danger.

“They will find us eventually.” Tomas said certainly. No one tried to deny his words, they all knew they were the truth.

“We could have years, the nebula protects us.” Seo-yun said.

“Even with our fabricators we can’t hope to outpace the production rates of dozen worlds, our mining operations can’t keep up. Not in a while at least.” Nadia said.

“We could go back.” Tomas said slowly. The room looked shocked that he would suggest something like that, and for a moment, no one said anything until Seo-yun turned sternly towards him.

“No! We are not going back to Earth, this is our home now, and we are not going to run away again.” Seo-yun said. Tomas looked at her.

“If we stay, people will die. That was the reason we came here, so that no one else dies for the stupidity of others.” Tomas said.

“And you succeeded. We are independent, but that doesn’t mean that we will give our home to anyone. We will fight for this world, even if it means some of us must die. Your people know that you want to keep us safe. But you need to understand that we are still free to make our own choices. And I can tell you right now that we will not run away again.” Seo-yun said and the others nodded firmly.

Tomas’s hand raised to his chest unconsciously, trying to touch something that was no longer there. After a panicked second he remembered that he left it behind, and that he had made a promise to Seo-yun, to himself and to his people to lead. He sighed, rubbed his hands over his face and then looked around the room. He looked to the ceiling for a moment steeling his resolve, and then he nodded firmly. He looked to Laura. “Did the message say anything else?”

“The Nel have asked for our help, what they need they didn’t say. But they know that they don’t have much time, they might want to trade for any tech we have, hoping that perhaps we have something that can aid them. Other than that, there isn’t much we can do. We don’t know when the Sowir will attack them, and even if we learn immediately there is nothing we can do. At our top hyperspace speeds we can get there in nine months tops if we push it. I assume of course that the attack comes after our ships are ready, and that the attack is something that we can handle. But even that won’t be enough, the Sowir have more ships than us, they will just send more. If their ships are on the level of those that attacked Voyager, our new ones will be superior. But we can still get outnumbered.”

“Nine months… In that time they can kill everything on the planet.” Elias said slowly in his calm manner.

“Perhaps…” Seo-yun said wondering.

“Seo-yun?” Tomas asked. She came out of her thoughts and focused on Tomas, then looked around the room. “I might have a way for us to get there a lot faster, the tests have been successful, a few more days perhaps. But in the end it still won’t matter, they could send hundreds of ships.”

“I don’t think that they will, from the data it looks like the Sowir are extremely utilitarian. They will send just enough to succeed. If they fail, then the next time they will send more, and so forth. They have won almost every engagement with the Consortium, but they also had a lot of losses. The Consortium has made them pay in blood every time their forces met” Laura said.

Tomas sighed. “We will need to discuss this a lot more. But for now I believe that we need to expand our military even more, both the Army and Fleet. And fast.” The others nodded grimly.

“As for Nel, for now tell them that we are willing to offer aid, and start the process, see what they want and need. Captain Kisaragi already revealed our FTL comms, so there is no way around that.” Tomas said.

“Are we sure we want to do this? Help them I mean, we could build up our defenses. And who knows, perhaps we might even remain hidden.” Nadia said.

No one answered her for a few minutes, everyone struggling with their own thoughts. It was Elias, who finally answered.

“There is no way for us to survive long enough to match a race that holds dozen worlds. If we had the population of Earth perhaps. But we are millions, and they probably billions, perhaps trillions. The only way we can keep ourselves safe is to keep them busy away from here, until a time when we can match them. Aiding these aliens will allow us that which we need the most, time.” He looked around the table. “And I would hope that our first decision regarding a friendly alien race isn’t leaving them to die, when we have the means to help.”

“You are right old friend. We left Earth because we didn’t want to be like them, I guess that fate wants to put our resolve to the test.” Tomas said. “Alright, inform your people, start making plans for expansion of our ship and weapon building facilities. I need to have a press conference and let the people know. We’ll meet at midday again. But I’m not committing to anything right now, I need to think some more.” Everyone got up from their seats and left the room in a hurry. Tomas sat for a few more minutes, thinking about how to ask his people to fight for an alien race they didn’t even know existed a few months ago.

Chapter Nineteen

Hades shipbuilding facility – Sanctuary system

Adrian walked down the corridors of his new ship, it was not yet named, that was Adrian’s job. He still couldn’t figure out a good name for the ship, he hoped that by seeing it, walking through it, he would get an idea, but for now there was nothing. Iris on the other hand had plenty suggestions, although her ideas were… Well not good. Adrian made her stop when she tried to convince him that “Great hammer shaped beast” was a perfectly good name. Adrian arrived on the ship two weeks ago, and has made a point of walking around the ship every day. Meeting with the crew, those that had already arrived. New crew members are arriving daily. When Adrian arrived the ship had only 150 crew members, 40 were security, with 40 more scheduled to arrive any day now. There were also around 80 techs, still working on the finishing touches on the ship’s systems, but they have all left a day ago. Now the crew count had risen up to 500, with more coming every day. Originally the crew was to arrive spread out over a period of one month, to allow them all to settle leisurely. But ever since the announcement from Tomas Klein, about the hostile alien race in our neighborhood and the request for help from the Nel, everyone’s leave was canceled. The rest of the new ships were already crewed and out in the system doing various maneuvers, all save for the two dreadnoughts. And they were scheduled to join the rest in one week. Each crew member that arrived was put through accelerated course on the ship. Adrian just hoped that they had enough time to get familiar with the ship. Adrian was privy to information that wasn’t yet released to the others. Laura told him that they had a new way of space travel that could send them to the Nel system in 2 days. But they wouldn’t go unless the system was attacked, and not even that was certain, they were still debating whether they will help or not.

Adrian stopped to greet a group of new cadets that had just arrived. He introduced himself and ask them how their trip was, making small talk, before continuing on his way to his quarters. He tried to at least always greet everyone on his crew. Adrian found that the life on the ship was good for him, everything was faster somehow, and he had less time to think about Beth. He did learn however that she got the command of a battleship in the Second Fleet. Adrian’s routine was simple, he got up then went for morning exercise in the ship training bay. It was now occupied by the army personnel, but they welcomed him, and trained with him, even sparing. Then he would go to breakfast, then review the reports from his High Prime Paul on the status of various matters on the ship. Then lunch, followed by his daily walk around the ship. Lastly, he spent the time before dinner in the simulators, or relaxing in his quarters.

Today he planned on simply relaxing in his quarters reading a book. When he arrived at the door to the Ship Masters quarters, he sent the authorization codes and the door slid open. Doors to the quarters on the ship all had their own authorization codes, which their occupant set. They could be transmitted via implant or entered manually on the pad. Adrian entered the room, and was immediately greeted by a rush of small feet and barking/yowling sounds. He got to his knees and picked up two little balls of fur.

“Hello to you too.” He said, nuzzling their snouts gently. That produced another series of sounds from the two wolions. Another person came through the door to the side.

“Thank you again for looking after them while I’m busy.” Adrian said.

“It’s no problem Ship Master.” Goran said. Goran Baczewski was Adrian’s steward. He was an army chef back on Earth with the Concordis army, now he was in charge of Adrian’s quarters.

Adrian lowered the two cubs to the ground and stood up, immediately they started cozying up to his feet. Looking down Adrian wondered about bringing them with him, everything since he found them seemed blurry to him. He took them to the veterinarian hoping to find someone to take care of them, now that their mother was dead. The veterinarian, who was also an “expert” in Sanctuary fauna, immediately showed interest in them. He took their blood and made sure that they were healthy, as much as he could without preforming more invasive tests. Based on the blood test and the contents of their waste (they peed all over Adrian’s jacket) he managed to synthetize all the necessary supplements that the cubs need to ingest daily in one of the new bio fabricators. After they were fed and asleep Adrian asked the veterinarian what would happen to them. He was told that they would be kept in captivity, studied daily so that they could learn more about wolions, as they were forbidden from catching one from the wild. That answer did not sit well with him at all. Adrian tried to convince him to give them a home or release them back into the wild, but his words fell on deaf ears. In the end Adrian decided that he would take them. The man tried to stop him, saying how Adrian had no right to them, threatening to call a security squad. Adrian responded that he had right of being the one who saved their lives, and as such they were his responsibility. Finally, when the man didn’t back down, Adrian was forced to call Laura and get her to pull strings and get the man to back off. He didn’t like to use his connection to Laura, but he felt justified in doing so. After a long conversation with someone over the comm the man backed down, and let Adrian leave and take the cubs. Before he left, Adrian took the “recipe” for the food stuff the cubs needed and went out of his way to acquire one of the new bio fabricators, which were not yet widely released. In theory they worked the same as the other kind, except that they used bio matter.

He brought the cubs with him, with them bonding to him immediately. Their eyes were closed for the first two days, and as soon as they opened, the two little beasts started running around Adrian’s apartment, and growing fast. Then the announcement from the fleet came, and Adrian was forced to go to his ship. After a lot of pleading he managed to convince Laura to let him take them. She didn’t really have any grounds to deny him, Fleet personnel were allowed pets on the ships, provided they stay in their quarters. Of course that rule was made with Earth animals in mind. Looking down on them, he saw how big they got.  When he found them they were big enough to barely fit in Adrian’s hand. Now they were the size of a small Earth house cat.  And they were smart, to Adrian it looked like they understood him. He knew that they probably needed open spaces, to run and hunt. He planned on taking them with him on runs in the mornings, as for hunting, there he couldn’t really do anything. He knew that they were carnivores, and people in Olympus mainly ate plants, vegetables and fruits they brought from Earth, and synthetic meat, they have also started experimenting with Sanctuary plants. There was still natural meat, though not a lot, they brought very few animals from Earth. But the trend is slowly dying off with the advances in synthetic meat. It was too much bother for something that tasted the same. So Adrian made sure that his pantry was stocked with meat, and that he had enough bio matter to fabricate anything that the cubs need.

The two little beasts were chewing on Adrian’s boots, so he instructed them that that was a no-no.

“Akash! Sora! Stop that.” He said sternly. The cubs turned their faces up towards Adrian, then moved backwards a few steps and sat on their hind legs, looking attentively at him. Adrian thought that he named them appropriately. The female was Sora which in Japanese meant sky, and the male was Akash, meaning sky in Indian. He named them because of the color of their fur, soft blue, like the color of Earth sky. Looking down on them Adrian marveled at how quickly he bonded to them.

Adrian turned to his steward. “Have they eaten?”

“Not yet, I was just about to feed them when you came in.” Goran answered.

“Alright, I’ll take care of it. I would like a cup of tea though.” Adrian said.

“Of course.” Goran said.

After feeding the cubs, he entered his study retrieved his datapad and sat in his reading chair. The two cubs followed, jumping up on his lap and making themselves comfortable. Adrian brought his hand down to pet them for a while, making sure that each got the same amount of his attention. Then, when they fell asleep, he opened a book on the datapad and started reading. He liked to read on a datapad, even though he could just read through the implant. Goran entered the study silently and brought Adrian’s cup of tea. Adrian thanked him with a nod, and started reading.

* * *

Four days later Adrian was sitting in his ready room, as the last of the crew boarded, and with them came a package for Adrian, from Laura. The package came with a message, and Adrian was told to listen to the message before opening the package. So he sat in his ready room, package on his desk, with the message now playing on his holographic viewscreen. It was a video message, Laura looked straight out at Adrian.

“Adrian, I know that you did not want this position. But you really are the best person for it. That being said, I am afraid that I need to put even more pressure on you. We planned on doing this differently, but the events have forced me to do it this way. Originally I would have come to inspect our new ship, but well… It doesn’t matter now. Adrian Farkas Reiss, effective immediately upon ending of this message you are promoted to the rank of Fleet Commander. And will take command of the newly formed First Fleet, which consists of four light cruisers, three heavy cruisers, two battleships and your own ship. All the pertaining data is included in the message attachment. The package holds your new insignia. Congratulations, Fleet Commander.” With that the message ended. Numbly Adrian opened the package, inside were new bars, to replace his old ones. A silver star and three silver V shaped bars. His old ones were dark blue. He took the old ones off, and put the new ones on. Then he opened the attached file that was in the message.

It was a list of ship names, along with some additional information. Each ship was already named by their commander. He read down the list of ship names.

- Olympus Light Cruiser Conqueror

- Olympus Light Cruiser Swift

- Olympus Light Cruiser Sting

- Olympus Light Cruiser Talon

- Olympus Heavy Cruiser Enterprise

- Olympus Heavy Cruiser Freedom

- Olympus Heavy Cruiser Valkyrie

- Olympus Battleship Battle Song

- Olympus Battleship Protector

- Olympus Dreadnought—

The empty spot where his ship’s name was supposed to be made it all too real. He had an idea about the name. A name of a beast in ancient human mythology. Adrian typed in the name, and waited for the response from Fleet server, to see if the name was available. When the response came he was asked to verify the name. He did so, and the name was recorded.

- Olympus Dreadnought Leviathan

As soon as he put in the name he felt that it was right. He entered a few commands and a notification was sent to every crewmember, notifying them of their ship’s name. He looked over the orders from the fleet, the coordinates of where Leviathan needed to meet with the rest of the fleet. The Second Fleet would be there as well, it was an exact mirror image of Adrian’s. They were supposed to practice maneuvers together, and participate in war games. Adrian sent out the alert to his crew, letting them know that they would leave the shipyard in two days. With that he leaned back in his chair, thinking of how much more responsibility was just put on his shoulders.

Chapter Twenty

Orbit of Nuva

“I fail to see how this will aid us against the Sowir. Don’t misunderstand me, I realize that it is an amazing feat of technology, but it will not fight the Sowir Dominion for us.” Lanai Sumia said to Retsar Isani.

“No, it will not. But it will give us an advantage. With this communication devices our ships will be able to communicate instantly, with no lag time, and in battle every moment counts.” Retsar Isani said.

Sumia sighed. “If you say so Retsar, Warcraft is your domain.”

“Trust me Lanai, it will aid us.” Isani said. The Humans had contacted their people, and have agreed to help. For now that help came in the form of the FTL comm devices. It was an amazing piece of technology, and even more astonishing was the fact that the Humans gave them as a gift, without asking for anything in return. They gave them two devices, one to study and reproduce and the other to use and communicate with their leadership. Isani and Suma were guarded, and had already made a list of what they were willing to trade, they did not want to give away Consortium technology, and the gift threw them off their guard. It made them reevaluate the way they treated with the Humans. But in the end no matter how amazing of a gift it was, ultimately it will not matter. Even with it, they only had 13 ships available to protect 10 million people on Nuva. His small force consisted of 4 frigates, 6 light cruisers, 2 heavy cruisers and his own battleship. The frigates were small ships meant to patrol and fight retrofitted pirate ships, not warships. His light cruiser were the newest models, they were fast, but had very little in term of armor. The ships were designed as supports for the larger vessels. The heavy cruisers were his most important weapons, with their long range weapons and moderate speed. And then there was the battleship. Isani has been in its command for years, it was an old ship, an outdated model. It was heavily armored, more so than newer models, his ship could take a pounding. It could go toe to toe with Sowir battleships in terms of firepower, but it was slow, it maneuvered poorly and it lacked in terms of combat effectiveness. Its lasers were power hogs, and it had a limited amount of missiles. It did not have the facilities necessary to replenish its supplies like the newer ones did. And the missiles it used were of older make, and were no longer produced. And it lacked particle beam weapons that newer ships had.

Nuva was intended to be a farming world, and they had very little to defend themselves. Early, when the war started, every colony was given a guard task force, as they didn’t know where the Sowir would attack. The size of a task force was based on the likelihood of an attack and distance from Sowir worlds. Nuva was a colony farthest away from Sowir territory, but had a high likelihood of being attacked. Sowir tended to attack poorly defended planets in the opening of the war. And Nuva was in perfect position to be used as a staging base for Sowir, so it was assigned a 20 ship taskforce, before the home world recalled all ships back. Many colonies lost their protection and then fell to Sowir. The task force guarding Nuva, on the other hand was different, Isani refused to leave. He told his subordinates that he would rather commit Ras Tu, ritual suicide, than to leave innocents to die so that he could protect the rich and powerful. So he stayed, along with most of his taskforce. Some did go, and Isani didn’t hold it against them. It was their choice.

Now Isani tried to figure out a way to save those innocents, even though he knew it was impossible. He knew that Sowir rated Nuva as a low priority, they weren’t any danger to them. He assumed that at the most they would send two taskforces against them, composed out of 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 3 battleships and one troop transport each. That was twenty ships, if by some miracle Isani and his 13 ships managed to defeat them, they would only get a small reprieve. The next time Sowir would send double that, four taskforces. And Isani knew exactly what would happen if his ships failed, he has seen enough recordings from colonies that had fallen. First the Sowir would clear the orbit, then they would bomb the biggest population centers if a planet had them, and finally send their troops to hunt down and kill those that survived.

No matter what Isani said to Sumia, he knew that there was no way for them to survive. And deep down he believed she knew it too.

“Is there anything else that we can do Retsar?” Sumia said, she sounded defeated.

“No. When Sowir come we can send the civilian ships away. Perhaps they could survive, though without support from a planet they would perish soon after us. Maybe the Humans would be willing to take them, but we know next to nothing about the size of Human domain, Sowir will eventually expand and meet them. There is no way for us to evacuate the entire population. It would take a lot more ships and time. And even if we could there is nowhere for them to go.” Isani said. Sumia didn’t respond, she knew this all already.

“Is there really nothing?” Sumia asked again. When Isani didn’t respond, she continued. “Do you think that Humans would send ships to help us? If we asked?”

Isani didn’t respond immediately, he looked at the viewscreen to the side of the room, it showed the planet below them. After a while he turned back to Sumia. “I thought about that. But the impressions that Oferani Esama’s team got was that their ship was traveling for a long time, more than a year. Assuming their hyperdrives are as good as ours, still it would take them at least that long to get here. And I believe that we will see Sowir Dominion in our system long before then, a month at the most. They will want to isolate the home world, break their will before finally going there. And why would Humans fight for us, they just met us. They couldn’t even be sure that our side was right, perhaps they believe we provoked the Sowir.” He raised a hand when he saw Sumia try to say something. “No, I don’t really believe that they think that. Their gift tells me that they believe our side of the story. Although why they would take only our words for truth, I do not know. I wouldn’t if I was in their place. But I am thankful for them. But it is a great leap from giving us some technology, to dying for us.”

“You are right, of course. I will at least try to negotiate for them to take the civilian ships with them, Mtural, and Guxcacul as well. They might be the last of their kind still alive in the universe. And as many people as those ships can carry.” Sumia said.

“Yes, that is all we can do. I just have no idea how to choose who will go.” Isani said. Neither one of them said anything afterwards. There was nothing else left to say.

* * *

Kisaragi Hana sat in her ready room aboard Traveler, she was having a conversation with Oswald Mein. He was second in command of the Fleet directly under Laura Reiss. Their conversation was tedious as FTL comm wasn’t a link, but a way to send messages over vast distances. She would watch his video message, then record and send her response, and so on. It made for a different kind of conversation dynamic. Hana opened the newly arrived message from Oswald.

“We are still hesitating to reveal our strength, or lack off rather. I don’t know how much safer those people would be with us. But tell the Nel that we are considering. Tomas is still trying to decide whether we should just tell them the truth. In any case, we all agree that it is better to fight away from our own world. We know that if we want to live in this part of space eventually we will have to deal with the Sowir Dominion. Their unprovoked attack on Voyager makes us believe that what Nel told us is true. But we are not going to completely abandon all attempts at peace. We are also not going to be naïve and trust them. For now, try to help them in any way you can while not revealing to much about us. And contact us immediately if Sowir arrive in the system. And keep up your regular reports.” Oswald said, and then the video went black. Hana sighed and shut down the viewscreen. Help them, without revealing to much about us? What does that even mean? Hana thought. She wasn’t sure how much more help she and her crew could provide. She assigned techs to help them recreate the FTL comm. Nel had the needed technology, but the construction went slowly. Without a fabricator, they needed to build every piece manually, and that took time. But they should have a working prototype in a week or two. They put one of the comm devices on the station where their diplomatic teams even now talked with those on Sanctuary. The other was down on the planet, along with her techs.

The fact that Nel looked very much like Humans still spun Hana’s head. If they didn’t have tails she would have assumed that they were just Humans in makeup. But if someone took time to look deeper, they would discover that for all our similarities we are very different culturally. In public Nel conducted themselves reserved, keeping their emotions of their faces. It gave them a kind of blank look. They kept emotional responses and gestures private. It could be said that Humanity was the same, but on a closer look it was not. Most Humans were perfectly comfortable with public displays of emotion and gestures of affection, in moderation of course. Nel were more family oriented, while Humans were more individual oriented. Of course over the course of our history, we were also focused more on tight groups, tribes, families, even later nations. They were something that Olympus hoped to be, though not that extreme, a people united in purpose where everyone worked for the betterment of all, while still retaining their personal identities. It was a fine line, but Olympus succeeded in making it work. Nel still wouldn’t accept a test to determine if there is any kind of connection between them. Which told Hana that either it went against their ways, or that they already knew the answer. Or they simply didn’t yet trust them.

Hana opened a file on Sowir, and scrolled down until she found the section about their ships. The majority of their fleets were comprised out of light cruisers. Ships meant to strike fast and hard against the enemy. The three ships that destroyed Voyager were light cruisers. Sowir light cruisers were the fastest ships in this conflict, with their top speed being even greater than that of Traveler, but not by much. These ships were also powered by a power system that was “cold”, and very hard to detect until they were close enough to have already fired their missiles, save getting lucky and catching light reflected off their hull. All Sowir ships and that of the Consortium for that matter, used missiles as a core of their arsenals. Missiles were long range and their trajectories could be adjusted. Then there were lasers, of varying kind. They were used as mid to close range, as prolonged exposure to the enemy hull was needed for them to inflict any kind of damage. And even with them being light speed weapons, they were not viable at long range. Greater distance meant in order to hit your opponent, you needed to anticipate where he would be, and fire accordingly, not to say anything about them losing their power the further they go. And last there were particle beam weapons. Humans knew about them of course, charged particles fired at near speed of light. They were devastating weapons. Olympus didn’t use them yet. At least not yet. The Consortium, including Sowir all built their ships with ceramic composites that Humans never discovered. But then again Human strengths were in other areas. Nel considered metals obsolete and primitive. Though Hana thought that would change once they realized the strength of Human ships. The Consortium fleet before the war mainly consisted out of a battleship core, with supporting cruisers. Each race had different variants of the same design, each race had their own needs, so there was no way for them to use universal controls. Though those races that could, did have joint crews, but those ships were in the minority. There were few differences between the ships, including the Sowir ones. Manly those were necessary changes, a Pouute ship was larger in order to contain more water, Nel and Mtural were the same on the outside while the inside was slightly altered. Guaxcacul and Sowir had designs that suited them, and their ships differed from the rest the most. By Consortium law, each race could have a maximum of 150 warships, with one more joint fleet of 30 ships per member, being under the command of joint government. Each race had its own government, though those were subject to the Consortium government.

Sowir light cruisers, the ones that now consisted the brunt of their fleets, were a relatively new design, made specifically for the war. The Consortium didn’t know about them until they unexpectedly attacked. Looking at the information in front of her, Hana could see that the war was lost even before it started. The Sowir planned for a long time. The first attack came simultaneously against every major fleet of the Consortium. Sowir hidden ships attacked from the dark, while Sowir ships in the joint fleet turned against the others. It was a slaughter. Sowir had a lot more ships built secretly, and with them they managed to overwhelm the other races. Not that they didn’t take heavy losses, they did. That was one of the reasons why they still fought the war. The ships they had were on the same technological level. And even their new light cruisers couldn’t stand up to a Consortium battleship one on one, not even four to one. But they had built many. And so, slowly they started cutting into the territory of other races, cutting them off from each other. That gave them even more advantages that they used ruthlessly. Now they were content to slowly rebuild their forces, while they kept a constant pressure to keep the Consortium from rebuilding. In the opening strikes on the Consortium, Sowir focused on those systems that held their shipbuilding facilities. Taking them for themselves, or destroying them where they could not. According to the last information Nuva received from Nel home world remaining Sowir forces were estimated at around 250 warships. The data indicated that they started the war with around 500. They lost more than half of that, but have slowly been replacing those losses, while Consortium couldn’t. At least not as fast as Sowir could. Nel home world currently had 80 ships. And Nel government believed that was enough to protect them until they could build more. Their projections indicated that Sowir couldn’t have yet conquered the other races, and that they were spread thin. They didn’t believe that Sowir could spare more than 100 ships to attack their home world, not without giving ground on the other fronts. That made them believe that they had time to rebuild. Hana was not convinced. Sowir managed to defeat them with inferior numbers, through guile and  surprise. They were not an opponent that would give them enough time to become a threat again. Not when they went to great lengths to neutralize the Consortium’s greatest strength, their unity. Sowir had been dismantling Consortium territory piece by piece, dividing and conquering. They will take every world until only the home worlds remains, then they will bring enough force to beat them.

No matter what way Hana looked at it, she couldn’t see a way for Consortium to win. Sowir had expanded too much. And no matter how much she wished it, she knew that Olympus couldn’t beat them either. Their technology might be better, their shipbuilding faster, but their one weakness was that there just wasn’t enough of them. Olympus could build ships faster than Sowir, but didn’t have enough trained people to crew them. They could recruit from other areas, but that would only mean that their other fields would suffer. Perhaps if they had enough time to grow, but that could only happen if they managed to stay hidden. And she was sure that Sowir would not stop their expansion. They were conquerors, when they met with the Consortium they reached an obstacle. They tried pushing and when they failed, they pulled back, reassessed, and patiently waited for a time when they would be able to smash that obstacle to pieces. From everything she read, Hana could see that Sowir were a terrible opponent, they were experts at adapting, at deceit, they did not care about other races. They would never stop, any peace with them would only last for as long as it suited them. And that meant that Olympus would need to fight. And unless something changed, they would lose simply because they were too badly outnumbered. Hana finally sighed and got to her feet, she made way towards her quarters, and went to bed. Thinking how she could help Nel survive long enough to give Olympus a chance.

Chapter Twenty One

Sanctuary space

Adrian walked hurriedly towards Leviathan’s conference room, following close behind was High Prime Paul Isaacs. Leviathan had met up with the rest of its fleet. The Second Fleet was there as well and their mock battle was scheduled to begin tomorrow. Before that Adrian wanted to get to know the commanders of his fleet. He entered the room, Paul and he were the last to arrive. The other commanders were all there in person, even though Leviathan was equipped with a hologram conference, they could all sit on their own ship and appear as if they were there in the room. Although this was somewhat limited by lightspeed. The ships needed to be close enough that the lag wasn’t too long. But for their first introduction Adrian wanted to meet them in person.

He knew most of them. Some of them were former Ship Masters of the 8 warships Olympus built in Sol. Adrian looked around the room at the young faces, no one looked older than him, but he knew that all were. That was another thing that changed with the gene therapy. There was no longer expectation that the leaders needed to be older. Now skill and knowledge were put first, no one cared if you were young, only that you were good at what you do. As Adrian entered the room no one stood up, there were subtle nods in his direction, acknowledging his presence, the atmosphere was relaxed as it was supposed to be. Adrian went to his seat at the head of the table and sat.

“Most of you already know me, and those that don’t, know about me. Nevertheless, I wanted to begin this meeting by introducing myself and telling you what you may expect from my command.” Adrian said. He looked around the room, making sure that he had all of their attention.

“My name is Adrian Farkas, I am Fleet Commander of the Olympus Frist Fleet. I want you to know that my command will be more relaxed outside of combat situations. Each of you may run your ship as you wish, unless instructed differently by me. There will be a regular drill schedule and each of you will be required to pass the minimal readiness score. If your ship fails to attain a passing grade I will interfere, if the problem persists, I will contact the Fleet and ask for your ship to be reassigned. Don’t take this as a threat, I will stay out of your business as long as you meet my standards. In combat situations, whether they are simulated or real, you will follow orders of the flagship implicitly. I welcome any insight and suggestions, but the final decisions rests with me. Are there any questions?” Adrian asked.

“How will the score be calculated?” Ship Master Leia Kim of the light cruiser Conqueror asked.

“The score will be calculated based on multiple parameters, such as the overall atmosphere amongst the crew, the time it takes for all stations to go to various stages of alertness. The detailed report, will be sent to each of you by the end of the day.” When no one said anything he continued. “I assume that you had the chance to get to know each other before I arrived. If not, I urge you to do so. I will host a relaxed dinner this evening, the details will be forwarded to your imps. That will be all.” They got to their feet and started to shuffle out of the room. Adrian remained seated.

“Force Leader Smith, Force Leader Krylov. Stay for a moment.” Adrian said. The two commanders looked at each other and then took their previous places. Force Leader Altsoba Smith was in command of the battleship Battle Song, and Force Leader Nenad Krylov was commander of the battleship Protector. They were in command of the two task forces of the fleet named Alpha and Beta.

“I will not take much of your time.” Adrian said. “As task force leaders, it will be up to you to make sure that my orders are followed to the letter. I can’t have ships disobeying in the heat of battle because their commanders believe they know better. You need to make sure that all commanders under you understand this. I said before that I welcome suggestions and insight, but that is not permission for them to go off on their own. I know that all of you went through the academy back in Sol. I know the limitations of those simulators, and I know that each of us are accustomed to working alone. This is the first time any of our ships will act in unison, and I plan on showing everyone during war games tomorrow the power of a fleet. That said, there will be times when I won’t be able to see the whole picture, or when there simply won’t be time to ask for instructions from the flagship. It is a great burden, but it is up to you to learn to differentiate between times when you need to follow my orders to the letter, and times when you need to bend them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Fleet Commander.” Force Leader Krylov and Force Leader Smith said together.

“Good.” Adrian looked at the two commanders. They held themselves formally, there was nothing that suggested that they were uncomfortable with him, but Adrian knew that they must be.

“I want you to speak freely, there will be no repercussions.” Adrian said. The two Force Leaders looked startled for a moment. Adrian pushed forward and spoke again. “Tell me, do you have a problem with me being in command, or are there others that do.”

They didn’t speak immediately, they remained silent for a minute, but Adrian could see them steeling themselves to speak. Finally Force Leader Altsoba Smith spoke.

“There has been some talk of favoritism.” She said slowly. Adrian nodded, he suspected as much.

“The Fleet heads decision is final.” Adrian said. “I assume that the talks about favoritism come from my connection to Laura Reiss, while she is the head of the Fleet the decision comes from the Fleet board. I was selected because my scores are the highest in the fleet, and because I have the most, or rather the only experience in a real battle.”

“That experience is part of the problem. The only reason you have that experience was because you were in the right place at the right time, any one of us could have been in that position. And with the virtual simulators being as advanced as they are, all of us have experience, the simulations have reached the level where they can be called real.” Force Leader Krylov said.

“You are right, anyone could have been in my place. But the reality was that it was me. Would you have had the same thoughts if it was someone else? What if it was you.” Adrian said to Krylov.

“Ah well…” Kyrlov began, but Adrian cut him off.

“None of you would, and you know it. I know that my counterpart in the Second Fleet doesn’t need to deal with this. The only reason I have to, is because of my connection to Laura Reiss. And barring that, all of you know that I deserve this position. My simulator scores are highest in the Fleet, and I have experience.” Adrian said. The two remained silent.

“I don’t want to fight my subordinates while I need to fight my ship and fleet. I need you to tell the others that I will not tolerate anyone interfering with my authority. Is that clear.”

“Yes, Fleet Commander.” Both said in unison.

“That is all.” Adrian said, dismissing them. They both got up and left the room.

“Well, that almost made it seem like you want to command the fleet.” Iris said.

“I can’t have them thinking differently.” Adrian said.

“That went well.” Paul said. He remained quiet during the meeting.

Adrian grimaced. “Truth? I thought it would be worse.” Adrian said.

“They are all professionals, you have nothing to worry about.” Paul said.

“We’ll see.”

* * *

Adrian was sitting in the Leviathans command center. The room was the same shape as the command center on Athena, that of a half sphere. The stations were also in the same positions, arranged in a semi-circle around the command chair and the holographic table in the middle of the room. The only major differences were in software, others were only esthetics, with the stations, chairs and holo-table now being sleek and metallic silver in color. The top of the dome ceiling emanated soft light, while the rest was colored white. The walls were made out of smart material, and could also serve as reproduction devices. Any video streams could be shown on any part of the wall, as well as a full 360° view from the outside of the ship. The view looked as if the command center was on top of the citadel, with only space around them. It served no tactical purpose, but it was an amazing experience. Athena, Adrian’s previous command had the same capability. The holo-table in the middle now showed the representation of Adrian’s fleet on one side and that of Second Fleet on the other. The display on the right side of Adrian’s command chair held detailed information, gathered from the ship’s sensors, including distances between ships in his own fleet, the distance to Second Fleet, the status of every ship in his fleet and more. The holo-table showed similar information only less detailed. This information was shown below the “map”, the part of the hologram that showed ships, the area around them and their movements, scaled down of course. Adrian’s chair also had a new system, called the command board. In front of Adrian was a holographic map, similar to the one on the holo-table just smaller, and it was presented in a half a circle around the command chair when turned on. Directly in front of the command chair was the map, where he could interact with the representations of his ships, on the left side was a list of comms, where Adrian could open a comm link just with a swipe of his hand, on his right was information about the fleet. It was developed as a way of commanding fleets, the old system with every command being verbally transmitted via comms was inefficient. Adrian could with a mix of hand and implant commands give orders to the fleet, similar to the strategy games he played when he was younger. He could select any ship, plot a course he wanted it to take, order it to attack, choose which weapons it should use and more. The orders were then sent to the ship or ships. The command board had its own FTL comm device, that worked independently from the one used for regular communications. Dreadnought class ships were the only ones that had the command board, so the other ships had one extra FTL comm installed with the purpose of receiving orders from the flagship, and for sending reports about the ships, damage. This process was automated, though commanders could add anything that they thought was relevant to the report. They could offer suggestions to the Fleet Commander, which would be shown in the form of a message in a queue on the Fleet Commanders c-board (command board). The entire system was designed with an Ai in mind, one that would look through all the information and give the Fleet Commander information that was most important, while also managing and accelerating the whole system. For Adrian that would be Iris, in a normal situation, now she was too busy guiding the simulated battle to offer any help to Adrian. It was decided early on that the commanders of individual ships were the ultimate authority on their ships, and as such could chose to disregard the orders to a certain degree. But if they did, they needed to have a very good reason, or face penalty. And while Adrian could send commands over the command board it was up to the ship commanders to decide how to execute those commands. Above the map on the holo-table, was a timer, it was counting down from 20 minutes, and was now entering its last five minutes. When the counter hits zero, the war games would officially begin, and both fleets would be free to maneuver. Prior to them starting, both Fleet Commanders put their fleets in formation. The game was simple, after the counter hit zero, both fleets would move with intent to destroy the other. The ships will not fire live rounds, everything but the ship movements will be simulated. Ai’s on ships simulated damage by shutting down those areas of the ship that were “hit”. Adrian studied his opponent’s formation, both fleets were positioned on the sun’s plane. Fleet Commander Johanna Stern chose to put her fleet in a formation that was obviously meant to safeguard her ship. And that was her first mistake. Her light cruisers were at the front of the formation all 4 of them in a line, behind them were the 3 heavy cruisers, two above the plane and behind the line and one below the plane, and behind them was her flagship dreadnought Monarch flanked on each side by a battleship. The cruisers served as a shield for the more powerful ships. Adrian had closely examined all the information provided on the dreadnought class. Leviathan was Adrian’s greatest weapon. Dreadnought class ships, are heavily armored, armed with amazing weaponry, the only drawback was their maneuverability. Leviathan was more maneuverable than Athena, but less than a battleship, and much less than a light cruiser. The speed wasn’t a problem, Leviathan couldn’t outrun a light cruiser, but it could keep up with a battleship. The dreadnought power source was greater, and its drives more powerful, and that compensated for the much greater mass. But it turned slowly. So in Adrian’s mind the formation that protected the most powerful ship in a fleet was pure folly. Fleet Commander Stern was a navy commander in Concordis Navy before she joined Olympus, and in Adrian’s experience those that made that transfer from water based military into space one, didn’t really adjust well. Oh, they had great knowledge of strategy, and Adrian didn’t doubt that Fleet Commander Stern would be able to adapt her tactics to anything Adrian threw at her. But the manner in which she placed her ships told Adrian that she hadn’t yet fully grasped the capabilities of her fleet, and that was something Adrian could use against her.

Adrian’s formation was almost a complete opposite. Leviathan was at the front of the formation flanked by the two battleships, behind them were his heavy cruisers, two above Leviathan, and one below, and then behind them his four light cruisers. Adrian had already prepared the orders for his commanders, there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn’t, and the orders would be executed as soon as the counter hits zero.

Two minutes later the clock hit zero, and the command center of the Leviathan sprang into motion. Adrian sent out the command via his command board. High Prime Paul Isaacs relayed to his command to the command crew of the Leviathan. While Adrian had command of the entire fleet, his High Prime took over as the commander of the Leviathan. Almost in unison the entire First Fleet started moving forward. A soft vibration was felt through the ship, meaning that the ships internal dampeners were working hard to negate the acceleration of the ship. Otherwise, all of them would have been just splatters on the walls. The damper was a technology they adapted from the device they found on the Union ship.

Adrian focused on the hologram, it showed no change in the positions of his opponents. Which was to be expected, the light of their movements didn’t yet reach the Leviathan. Two fleets had been placed just outside of extreme missile range. And as First Fleet moved closer and closer, Adrian started to wonder why he wasn’t seeing enemy fire, he assumed that they would fire immediately. A minute later there was still no movement from the Second Fleet, by the computer’s calculations the light should have reached them. If they moved when the counter hit zero. Which meant that they didn’t move immediately. Adrian executed another command.

Paul received the order immediately and instructed Navigation Handler to continue on the same course. A few second later the ships around Adrian started to change course. The two battleships flanking the Leviathan started to peel off to the sides, gathering speed in order to keep up with the Leviathans straight course. The battleships were followed by the light cruisers, which increased speed to catch the battleships, two on each side, they fell behind the battle ships. The three heavy cruisers increased their speed to catch the Leviathan, two above and one below. Adrian renamed the two battleships and their escorts as Team 1 and Team 2. As they took their positions, the first signs of the Second Fleet’s movement started showing on the holo. The Second Fleet started moving forward in unison. And a minute later the light and heavy cruisers started firing missiles, two minutes later 1400 missiles were fired. Adrian smiled, he hoped that Stern would take the bait. The greatest obstacle in space warfare is the light speed limitation of the ship’s sensors. The greater the distance between the ships, the greater the lag time between what your sensors are telling you and what is happening in that moment. The missiles that the Second Fleet fired, where in fact fired a couple of minutes ago, before Adrian split his formation. Battles in space were very different that those on a planet. At great distances, everything you saw happened before the light reached you, so you were in fact reacting to an afterimage. You were fighting a ghost. The key to winning battles in space was in anticipating your opponents moves, and in guiding them into moves that favored you. Adrian was aware that every move he makes would be seen after he made it, and he planned accordingly. On the holo in front of Adrian and the one in the middle of the command center, the missiles and their track were showing, their targets were his two battleships, or rather the positions in which they were previously. The missiles were guided, so they will adjust, but by then it will be too late. His opponent planned on overwhelming Adrian’s defenses by having her light and heavy cruisers fire all of their missiles. It would have worked if Adrian had not split his ships, the forward point defense turrets couldn’t handle that much missiles in time. His forward ships were his most armored ones, he probably wouldn’t lose any of them, but there would have been damage.

Adrian issued more commands on his board, a moment later Paul relayed those commands and Leviathan started firing explosive shells in a wide arc in front of the ship, it effectively blanketed the area with shells. A few more seconds, and the incoming missiles started dying, from the combined firepower of Team 1, 2, and Leviathan. Two minutes later they were gone. The Second fleet still kept its formation and course, coming straight at them. By now they should have seen that Adrian’s fleet was changing formation, in a minute they will see him taking down their missiles.

Manipulating his board, he issued more commands. All his ships opened fire with their turrets, thousands of shells were fired in a short time, and 30 seconds later Adrian gave an order for them to cease firing. Adrian looked closely, the two fleets were close enough that the lag was now less than a minute. Adrian watched intently, there were only a few options his opponent could take, try to take the incoming fire which would result in her losing most of her forward ships, or split up. Try to evade the fire, which would put her right were Adrian wanted. Just as Adrian started thinking that she chose to bludgeon through, the Second Fleet started splitting up. The entire forward section of the formation split to the left and right, with her dreadnought going downwards below the plane. But the decision came too late, one light cruiser got hit by the massive incoming fire and after a few minutes exploded, while one heavy cruiser sustained heavy damage. The rest of her front line suffered some minor damage. But now they were in Adrian’s hand. Their split came later than Adrian’s did, and the change in formation only served to surround the Second Fleet ships. The two segments splitting off only made a way through the middle of the Second Fleet for Leviathan and his heavy cruiser escorts to enter, and trapped them between Leviathan and the two Teams on the sides. Leviathan would be surrounded by the two sections of the Second fleet on its sides, with the Second fleet’s flagship below, but Adrian gambled that his opponent didn’t yet realize the full capabilities of her ships.

Selecting all his ships he gave the orders for them to open fire on the two split sections of the Second Fleet. Immediately all his ships opened with their lasers, the two enemy formations, started taking damage, and returned fire, with their own lasers. Adrian purposely didn’t order them to use kinetic weaponry. Those weapons were devastating if they hit, but it was hard to aim them at moving targets, and his opponents would be maneuvering trying to evade incoming fire, lasers on the other hand moved at light speed. His opponent’s ships were firing with every weapon available. But they weren’t as effective as Adrian ships were when firing only lasers. Every missile they fired was taken down from the combined fire of the entire First Fleet, all Adrian’s ships were in position to cover each other. Adrian’s battleships covered his light cruisers, taking most of the fire, while the Leviathan covered his heavy cruisers. For the moment none of the missiles reached their mark, while only a few lucky shots with their turrets hit, and coating on all the ships proved effective in dissipating most of the laser fire. Every commander flew his ship as to evade their opponents kinetic weapons, while still operating within the parameters Adrian set. They fired by using their own judgment, only changing targets when Adrian instructed. Which he only had to do once, when one of the Second Fleet battleships took a critical hit to its drives, he instructed Team 2 to focus fire and destroy it. The Second Fleet flagship was too far away by now to effectively join the battle, their attempts to evade incoming fire put them out of range of their most effective weapons. The Monarch was firing missiles and shells, but was too far that Adrian’s ships had enough time to see them and move out of the way, or take down any incoming fire. A minute later Adrian could feel the change in the flow of battle, and like dominos the Second Fleet ships started exploding on his holo. Adrian issued orders to his ship, refocusing fire from the Leviathan to those ships with most damage firing missiles and railguns, quickly eliminating them. When every ship except the Monarch was destroyed Adrian quickly reviewed the status of his ships. Battleship Protector took on heavy damage and was dead in space, Force Leader Krylov reported that it will take them a while to “repair” the damage, heavy cruiser Freedom had also taken heavy damage but was able to move. Other ships all took light damage save for light cruiser Swift, which somehow managed to take no damage. Leviathan itself took a lot of hits to the hull but nothing serious, it was built to take a lot more than that. Looking down on his board and the position and course of Monarch, Adrian quickly issued new orders to his ships. The light cruisers alongside the battleship Battle Song would turn and then dip down below the plane on a course that would bring them in front of the Monarch while the Leviathan and the heavy cruisers followed after it. With the light cruisers and battleships faster speed they would be able to get ahead just as Leviathan and his escorts catch up to the Monarch, surrounding it. He renamed the two groups, the light cruisers and the battleship into Team 1 and the Leviathan and his escorts into Team 2. As soon as he sent the commands his ships started moving. The Monarch seeing what was coming tried to change course and evade, but its previous course, the one that was meant to bring it back to its fleet put it too close to evade Adrian’s ships. Seeing no escape, it opened fire. Looking at the holo, Adrian was shocked to see the amount of missiles that the Monarch was firing. He knew that dreadnought class ships were meant to be fortresses that could take down anything thrown against it but he didn’t really grasp it. Thousands of missiles left the Monarch on an intercept course with Adrian’s ships, half towards toward the ships in front of it and half at the Leviathan at its back. In four minutes Monarch fired 4000 missiles total. Knowing that they couldn’t evade it, he sent the command for his light cruisers and battleship to turn their sides, the part of the ship with most defensive turrets and toughest armor, and try to take down as much as they could. He kept the Leviathan on the same course, and ordered his ships to open fire on the Monarch with their forward weaponry. Lasers, and missiles started flowing out of the Leviathan and its escorts, 6000 missiles started their trip toward cornered dreadnought. Leviathans main lasers didn’t inflict enough damage to the laser resistant hull to disable the ship, but the damage had started to accumulate. Looking at the missiles on their way towards Team 1, and the rate at which his ships were taking them down, he knew that they wouldn’t be able to take them all down. And a minute later the missiles from the Monarch reached their targets. 300 missiles passed and hit Team 1 destroying two light cruisers and disabling the Battle Song. Out of the 2000 sent towards Leviathan and his escorts 600 survived, as his ships couldn’t bring full defensive fire. The missiles struck Leviathan and his escorts, heavily damaging a heavy cruiser and mangling Leviathan’s forward section. The status on Adrian’s command chair, showed his ship with almost a fourth of its front shaded red, the status also showed many compartments open to space, weapons malfunction, energy grids shut down and more. But remarkably with all that damage the ship was still operational. It only reinforced Adrian’s beliefs about his ship, it was a moving fortress. Seeing that his ship had closed enough with the Monarch, he commanded that the ship dip its front brining all of the weaponry on its top side to bear. As soon as the ship finished its dip, all turrets opened fire. Thousands of metal slugs exploded out of Leviathans turrets towards the Monarch, just as the previously fired missiles reached it. Out of 6000 missiles the Monarch was able to take down roughly 4000, the Monarch’s citadel held more defensive turrets than the front of a dreadnought class ship, and could take down more missiles than Leviathan did. Out of those 2000, most didn’t manage to hit, but exploded close enough to inflict damage. Adrian closely monitored his sensors and watched in disbelief as he saw the Monarch survive. Its drives were damaged, and it was gliding through space, but its maneuvering thrusters fired and started turning the ship toward Leviathan. Close enough now that there was only a few seconds lag, he ordered all weapons to fire. Leviathan’s main lasers rained down fire on the Monarch with their devastating invisible beams. With Monarch barely moving, Leviathan’s shells hit their mark, and devastated the top of the ship. The return fire from Monarch, after its impressive first burst started dying off, but was still inflicting damage. Looking at his board, Adrian ordered the rest of his ships to start firing, and soon all of his remaining ships opened fire. But still the dreadnought held, even though it was by now just a wreck. It refused to die, its few remaining weapons firing. And then suddenly there was an enormous explosion, on the holo and the Monarch was gone. Cheers started throughout the First Fleet. Adrian brought out the status report on his fleet, and looked incredulously at the data. The Monarch had inflicted so much damage that it boggled his mind. Adrian surmised that a dreadnought class ship could have taken on all of the other ships on its own, without Leviathan the rest of the fleet wouldn’t have been able to take it down. Damage it inflicted on the Leviathan was minor even though its front weapons were offline, but then Monarch couldn’t bring all of its weaponry on the Leviathan quickly enough, by the time it did it was already heavily damaged. They would need to reevaluate everything they knew about space battles and ships they would build after this. The smaller ships just couldn’t compete with monsters like the Leviathan and Monarch. And this was just their first war game, Adrian knew that his opponent had learned a lot from this encounter, and would not make the same mistakes next time.

“Simulation is now over.” Iris’s voice rang out through the speakers, and the images on the holo changed. Ships from the Second Fleet appearing in places where they were “destroyed”. Adrian looked around the command center, everyone was still celebrating. He let them, they deserved it, but he was already planning a strategy for the next game. He knew it would be much harder.

Chapter Twenty Two

Nuva – four days later

“How much longer do you think we have?” Lanai Sumia asked. Retsar Isani looked at the image of Nuva projected on the screen in Sumia’s office. After a minute of gazing at the world he was supposed to protect he turned to Sumia. “A few weeks at the most.” He said.

“They might let us be, we are not a threat.” Sumia said weakly.

Isani smiled ironically. “We, the Consortium were never a threat to them. And yet they still attacked. No, they will come, they will want to isolate Nelus, show them that they are truly alone. Getova would have fallen by now, I suspect that they might have already dispatched a force to deal with us. And if they didn’t, they soon will. Getova is a month away, so we have a month at the most.”

“There is no hope for us then?” Sumia asked.

“No. My ships can’t defend Nuva, and the militia we organized can’t fight off Sowir assault force.” Isani said.

“What point is there even in trying? We should have already put everyone we can on what few ships we have left and sent them away. Perhaps some could survive.” Sumia said.

“And where would we send them? Nelus won’t accept them, there are already too many people there, the only ones they accept are those that can help them fight. And most of our population are Farmers and their children. Not exactly a fighting force. Sending them out into the unknown might be worse than dying here protecting their homes.”

“I should have pressed the Humans. Perhaps we could save those too young to fight.”

“We do not know them Lanai. They appear to want to help, but in truth we know nothing about them. How many worlds do they have? How are they governed? What’s their history? They look familiar, so we are quick to trust.” Isani said.

“Do you really believe that they would harm us?” Sumia asked.

“No.” Isani said. “But still…”

“It is our only chance, so that at least some of our people survive. We both know that our race will not survive the Sowir.” Sumia said.

Isani sighed, “You are right. We should ask again.”

“Our race won’t end with us.” Sumia said.

Isani was about to add something, when his personal comm sounded. He accepted the call on his wrist unit and the comm went to his earpiece.

“Tell me.” Isani said. And then after a moment. “I’ll be right there.”

He ended the communication with his wrist unit, and then looked at Sumia.

“Sowir ships have been detected, they will be here in a month.” Isani said.

“I’ll contact the Humans.” Sumia said. Isani nodded and walked out of the office.

* * *

Sanctuary

Every seat in the small meeting room at the Olympus city palace was filled. Tomas Klein looked at the people seated there, they were those he trusted implicitly and whose opinions he valued and appreciated.

“We have a choice to make.” Tomas said. “Sowir ships have been detected in Nuva system, they will arrive at the planet in twenty three days.”

“How many?” Laura asked.

“Twenty two ships have been detected. Four battleships, eight heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers and two troop transports.” Tomas said.

“Can Nel fight them off?” Nadia asked.

“Retsar Isani doesn’t think so. But they will fight nonetheless. They have asked us again to take the refugees, they have a few remaining civilian ships, they plan on loading them with as many people as they can.” Tomas said.

“A few merchant ships… If what Traveler sent us is correct, they can’t have more than ten of those. They could barely fit a few thousand people on them. What about the rest?” Elias asked.

“They will stay and fight. Sowir will destroy the ships in orbit and then land troops. They will take over the planet.” Tomas said.

“We can’t refuse.” Nadia stated. No one contradicted her.

“We will of course help them. But the real question is, whether or not we involve ourselves in this war.” Tomas said.

“We already are involved.” Seo-yun said. “We were the moment Sowir destroyed Voyager.”

“We could still try and find a peaceful solution. Perhaps we can come to an agreement with them.” Nadia said slowly.

Laura shook her head. “I don’t think we can. We have no cause to doubt records that Nel provided. Sowir are not trustworthy, they will eventually turn on us.”

“They will only grow more powerful with time.” Elias warned.

“So what do we do then? We don’t have the numbers for an all-out war, nor the resources to build massive fleets quickly, in a couple of decades perhaps. But not now.” Nadia said.

“Sanctuary is very well hidden, it’s unlikely that Sowir will find us any time soon. If we don’t give them cause to look for us.” Laura said.

“What do you mean?” Seo-yun asked.

“The Sowir ships have already detected the Traveler, and no doubt they will realize that it is of the same make as the Voyager. If we take the refugees they will wonder where they are going, and they will try to find us.” Laura said.

“So what, you want us to let them die?” Seo-yun asked disbelievingly.

“No. I just want you to realize that if we help them, we will be exposed.” Laura said.

“Alright then we take their people and bring them here.” Nadia said.

“And what about those left on the planet?” Elias asked.

“We can send ships to protect them. All the test on the translanes have been successful, but they will need to come back using hyperspace. There is no time to install trans field generators on the ships, we will need to use the one on Insight to send them. And we don’t have the translanes mapped out. We will need to do that soon.” Seo-yun said.

“If we fight off Sowir, it will get Nuva a few months at the most. And next time they will send more ships. We can’t keep defending them.” Laura said.

“There are 10 million people on Nuva. We could bring them here.” Nadia said.

Tomas put his elbows on the table and then leaned his head on his fists, looking around the table, “We will send the First Fleet. And worry about transferring people of Nuva after we are sure that they are safe.”

* * *

Nuva

Lanai Sumia and Retsar Isani stood up as the human Ship Master entered Sumia’s office. The humans didn’t seem to care whether they talked standing or sitting, so they followed the Nel customs. As the human female entered Sumia bowed her head shallowly. “Ship Master Kisaragi.” Sumia said slowly in human tongue. She tried to at least learn some of the humans titles. “I hope that you have a response for us.” It all seemed very strange to Sumia, being able to talk to someone light years away in a blink of an eye. Humans haven’t revealed where exactly their worlds are, but from a few comments their diplomats made Oferani Esama discerned that the closest one was at least ten light years away, six months at Nel ships fastest hyperspace speed. There would be no help from them, thought Sumia never really believed that they could help them, it was a fools hope.

“Yes, Lanai.” Human female said. “Our leadership has decided to give your people Sanctuary on our world.”

Sumia let out a breath and showed relief on her face. At the moment she didn’t really care that she showed emotion in front of a stranger, the only thing that mattered was that at least some of her people will survive. She looked at the human Ship Master with gratitude in her eyes, “Thank you. How soon can you leave? There are still weeks before Sowir arrive, but there is no need to stay and wait for them to get closer.”

The human didn’t respond immediately, which immediately put Sumia on guard. “You want something in return.” Sumia stated, slowly steeling herself. Immediately after she said her words, the human brought her hands up, and started shaking her head. Sumia knew enough to know what those gestures meant.

“No, no.” Kisaragi said, and then after a beat continued. “But there is something else.” She took a deep breath and then looked at Isani. “Our analysis concluded that, assuming your ships technological level is on par with the Sowir, there is very little chance for you to survive this attack.” Sumia knew that they gave the humans information on Sowir ships. Isani nodded his head gravely in a human gesture. “Yes, most of our ships are of older make.” He said.

“We thought so as well. Our leadership has decided to help you, they will send one fleet to Nuva to help you.” Kisaragi said.

Both Isani and Sumia looked at the human. They were shocked, but a moment later Isani managed to regain his composure enough to speak. “We appreciate your willingness to help. But there is no way for us to hold out for more than five months it would most likely take your ships to get here. By then, the Sowir would have most likely killed everyone on the planet.”

Kisaragi nodded. “You are right, it would take our ships around nine months to arrive using hyperspace.” She said.

“We will be long dead by then.” Sumia said dispirited. For a moment there she felt as if there was a chance for them.

“We are aware of that. That is why our ships won’t be coming through hyperspace.” Human said.

Isani looked at her strangely. “What do you mean?”

“Our ships can reach Nuva in nineteen days.” Kisaragi said.

“What?” Sumia said. “So they are already here.”

“No. I don’t know the details. But I know that there are no human ships other than the Traveler in this system. And our leadership instructed me to tell you that they can arrive in nineteen days.” Kisaragi said.

“How?” Isani asked.

“I don’t know, and I wasn’t told anything other than it is something new they discovered. They can make the trip from our world to this system in two days, and it will then take sixteen days to reach Nuva.” Kisaragi said.

“Amazing.” Sumia said. Isani remained silent, Sumia could see that he wasn’t really believing.

“Why would you do this? It is one thing to help our people survive, and quite another to involve yourselves in a war that isn’t yours. You had no contact with the Sowir, the only thing you know is what we told you.” Isani said.

Kisaragi looked from him to Lanai, and then back. “The truth is, that we did have an encounter with the Sowir. Around the same time the Traveler entered your system.” Kisaragi said. Isani and Sumia looked at each other and then back at the human. Under their gazes she finally started talking again. “One of our explorer ships, Voyager, the same class as the Traveler, was exploring a system some ten light years from here. Voyager entered the system and found it empty. Then proceeded to the planet to take scans. Then the Voyager was attacked by three unidentified ships. After the initial attack the Voyager tried to contact the ships while it was running away, but they refused to acknowledge the communications. The three ships ultimately destroyed our ship. Later, when we made contact with you we realized that the ships that attacked us were Sowir.” She said glumly. “So you see, we do realize the threat of the Sowir Dominion. We know that what you said is true because we already met them.”

Again, both Lanai and Isani were shocked. And again it was Isani who was first to recover.

“How many ships?” Isani asked.

“They will send one fleet of ten ships. They think it will be enough to defeat the Sowir. I have been instructed to install an FTL comm on your ship Retsar Isani. So that you can coordinate with our people.” Kisaragi said.

“Of course.” Isani said.

“I need to go and report back to my people.” With that the human bowed her head and then left the office. A second later Sumia turned to Isani. “What just happened?” Sumia asked.

“Hope Sumia, hope.”

* * *

Leviathan

Adrian walked in his ready room, after yet another game. This one was one of the hardest yet, and he just barely managed to win. In the last few days the two fleets had eleven encounters. And the score was now 7 to 4 in First Fleet’s favor. After that first battle, Fleet Commander Johanna Stern was much harder to beat. But then, she was chosen to be a Fleet Commander for a reason. This last battle was a close one, but Adrian managed to win in the end, bringing his win total to 7. Both he and Fleet Commander Stern, were learning a lot from the games, they were able to devise better tactics for battles, and to learn much more about the capabilities of the dreadnought class. And quickly it became obvious that these ships would be the core of their fleets. As he sat down, he brought the data from the last game on the holo-table. “What do you think?” Adrian asked.

“The command board is operating adequately. It will be even faster and more efficient in real battle, when I won’t need to manage the simulation.” Iris said. Adrian nodded, agreeing with her.

“I don’t think they imagined this system being so powerful. With the FTL comms it gives the commander of a fleet ability to control almost every aspect of the fleet movements and battle.”

“I agree, they believed it would be just a slightly more efficient way to present data, and send out orders.” Iris said.

“But, it is dangerous as well. With the ability to constantly send out orders some commanders might fall into the trap and try to micromanage their fleets. We will need to have people trained to recognize when to just let things play out.” Adrian said. Both Fleet Commander Stern and he, came to the same conclusion, future commanders need to be trained to avoid trying to control every aspect of their command. Adrian and Johanna both fall into the trap several times, and those instances were usually the ones where they lost. Scrolling down the various lists and reports he came to the report his High Prime sent, or rather now Ship Master Paul Isaacs. Adrian had promoted him, since he was the one in command of the ship during fleet actions, it was appropriate for him to have the title. Adrian knew that the Fleet as a whole was still very young and that they just now started to learn what were the most efficient ways of doing things. They tried to create their own way, rather than to emulate organizations from Earth based militaries. That was reflected in the report that Paul sent him. The ships that were commanded by those that were not affiliated with a navy or air force back on Earth tended to do better than those that were. Most stations that were manned by younger people, those born right before or shortly after Olympus started expanding into space, tended to execute their orders at least 12% faster and more efficiently. That was a huge number when you kept in mind that it was on the fleet level. The numbers in Adrian’s First Fleet have been steadily improving since the beginning of the war games.

“There is an incoming call form the Fleet for you Adrian, it is marked level 1.” Iris said, she usually monitored his comms when he was busy working and when he didn’t want to be disturbed.

Adrian frowned for a second. Level 1 comms were reserved for times of war. At least that was the intention, there was no need for that. Adrian cleared his holo, and then accepted the call. The call was not sent through the FTL comms, but rather ordinary lightspeed ones. They were not so far away from Sanctuary to make conversation impossible. As soon as he accepted the call an image appeared in front of him. As soon as he recognized who it was Adrian executed a sharp salute, fist to chest. He was very much surprised, he excepted Laura or someone else from the Fleet, not Tomas Klein.

“Sir.” Adrian said. He noticed in the corner of the vid a small number, 2.4 sec, which meant that was the lag between the Leviathan and Sanctuary. Two seconds later, Tomas Klein responded with a salute of his own.

“Fleet Commander. I am calling to tell you that the war games are canceled. I know that there was a lot more planned for the future, but we have run out of time.” He sighed then, to Adrian he looked as if he was carrying the weight of a world on his shoulders. “Twenty two Sowir Dominion ships have been detected in Nuva system. And we, I, have decided that we will provide aid. Your fleet is to go to Nuva and engage Sowir. Defending the Nel.” Tomas Klein said.

Adrian looked at the image on his holo, he kept his calm face on, but underneath he was shocked. Looking into the eyes of Tomas Klein, he realized something.

“If they have been detected in system, there is no way for us to get there in time to be of any use.” Adrian said, and immediately continued. “But you already know that, which means you plan on us getting there after… No, you wouldn’t do that, there is no point. You plan on us getting there in enough time to be of use. But I don’t see how…” Adrian said. And a second later he saw a side of Tomas’s lips twitch upwards.

“Yes, you will get there on time. Seo-yun and the research department have found a way to travel much faster than with hyperspace.” He said.

Adrian nodded, he had no idea what it could be. “What about the Second Fleet?” Adrian asked.

Tomas looked saddened for a split second, and then spoke, “The Second Fleet will stay here. I can’t leave Sanctuary unprotected, no matter how small of a chance there is for someone to find us.”

Again Adrian nodded, he understood the reasoning. “But why the First Fleet, and not the Second? Not that I’m trying to find a way out of this. I would just like to know.” Adrian asked.

Tomas Klein studied him for a moment before answering, his gaze looked at Adrian knowingly, “Because you are the best we got. I know that you are very young, but Olympus never put much stock into age. We have always valued skill above all else. And you are our most skilled commander.” Tomas Klein said. “I know that I can entrust this to you, and that you will do everything in your power to succeed. This will take some outside thinking, something new.”

Startled, Adrian responded, “Thank you sir. I will not let you down.”

“I know. That is why we chose you.” He said with a small smile.

“I won’t take much more of your time. The Fleet will be sending you any data that you might need, as well as the coordinates of the trans-station, the army will be joining you as well. We will be sending ten companies. Around fifteen hundred soldiers, to defend the planet in case that Sowir manage to get some troops on the ground. As well as additional loads of ammunition, missiles, and some raw materials for the fabricators. Laura will contact you soon with the details of the mission, wait to brief your commanders until after you speak with her.”

“Yes, sir.” Adrian said.

“Good luck, Fleet Commander.” Tomas Klein said, and closed the link.

Adrian leaned back into his chair. His mind was firing into overdrive, thinking about hundreds of possibilities, and things he had to do. Fear slowly crept in, it seemed to him that things were happening insanely fast ever since he left the orphanage. Then a voice broke through in his head.

“Oh My God! Adrian! I am finally going to get to play for real!” Iris said. Her comment as idiotic as it was sent him into a bout of laughter. He felt fear slip away, and he relaxed.

“Iris, you do know that we could die?” He asked out loud.

“So?” She asked. Again Adrian couldn’t help but laugh. His Ai best friend had a very different view on life.

“Nothing Iris, you are right.”

“Of course I am right. I am always right, you should know that by now.” Iris said cheerfully. Adrian shook his head and called Paul. Tomas Klein said to wait for Laura’s call before telling the other commanders in his fleet, he said nothing about his second in command.

Chapter Twenty Three

February 2170 – Sanctuary

Platoon Leader Sahib Adin was kneeling behind a rock cover on a small hill, overlooking the terrain. His Platoon, Platoon Wolf, was waiting for his instructions. Looking over the forest spreading before him, he came to a decision and sent the instructions to his Squad Leaders over his imp. A moment later the three of the four squads started moving, their movements showed on Sahib’s faceplate HUD. His helmet was entirely see-through from the inside. The outside of his helmet was armored, and had millions of nano cameras that captured the images from all around the helmet and transferred them to the inside. The rest of his suit was armored as well. It was a completely closed battle suit. The nanites carbon mesh gave the wearer a great deal of movement while also giving him protection. It was an upgraded version of the suit developed on Earth, before Olympus left Sol. The suit was dark gray in color, there were no emblems or rank insignia anywhere. There was no need for them, the HUD of each suit would show the rank and name of anyone the wearer looked at. Each suit had its own small range beacon. Though it could be turned off. Finally, as the three squads moved sufficiently away Sahib ordered his squad forward. They were involved in a live exercise against another Platoon. There were four squads in Sahib’s Platoon, with each squad having 7 people, that put each Platoon at 28. All their weapons were loaded with stun discharges, a hit from these charges would freeze the area hit on the suit, while the soldiers imp simulated pain in the affected area. Fifteen minutes later, he got a contact signal from Claw squad, one of their scouts had spotted an enemy scout, without the enemy spotting him. Immediately Sahib formulated a plan, he instructed the scout to reveal his position to the enemy scout, without revealing that he is aware of the enemy scout’s position. He quickly sent instructions to the Claw squad to fall back to a small clearing some 200 meters behind their current position. Then he instructed the other two squads, Fang and Paw to get into positions around Claw squad. He then brought his own squad, Alpha, into position behind Claw squad, they hid in the undergrowth around trees, and Sahib instructed two of his platoon’s snipers to move up into the trees. The trees on Sanctuary were taller on average than those on Earth, the lowest branch was at least 7 meters from the ground. Both snipers moved towards their chosen trees, some 10 meters apart from where they can easily look over the clearing and started climbing, short “claws” extended from their armors fingertips which they used to grab onto the bark and climb. Once they were in position Sahib opened a comm link to the other squads.

“Fang, Paw are you in positions?” Sahib asked.

“Fang is in position Alpha.” Squad Leader Tucker ‘Cheat’ Meyers responded, using Sahibs call sign, which was the same as the designation of his squad.

“Paw is in position Alpha.” Squad Leader Lola ‘NGD’ Petrov said.

Sahib could see where they were on the small map on his HUD, but he needed to verify that they were in fact in position.

He then commed Claw squad. “Alright cub, did the enemy spot you?” Sahib asked the Claw’s scout, every new member of the Platoon got the nickname Cub, until they proved themselves, or did something stupid, and earned a call sign.

“Think so, if whoever it is isn’t blind. I stood up from my cover two times already.” ST2 Marko ‘Cub’ Tijic answered.

“Good, lead them back to Claw squad position. Try not to make it too obvious. You are new, not incompetent.” Sahib said. The opposing Platoon, the Orphans was led by Platoon Leader Eric ‘Jacks’ Regis, and Sahib knew him well. They went through training together, and while he was a good commander, he had his faults. One being a tendency to jump at any opportunity to get an upper hand or capitalize on the mistakes of others. Sometimes that was a good thing, but when faced with someone who knew him well, it could be used against him.

“Noose are you up for a bit of role-play?” Sahib asked Claw’s Squad Leader over the comm channel.

“What do you have in mind?” Noose asked.

“Perhaps we should have a bit of a misunderstanding, a conflict of interests.” Sahib said cheerfully. “Perhaps Rock and you could have a bit of a confrontation.”

“Ah… that could be arranged.” Noose answered understanding Sahib’s words, then he closed the channel. A minute later, Cub entered the clearing, and rejoined the rest of his squad. And a few minutes later both Fang and Paw squads reported movement, closing in on the Claw’s position. Noose and Rock had gotten into a bit of a spat, gesturing widely with Rock pointing in one direction and Noose in the other. Sahib hoped that his opponents would think they are fighting and try to take advantage of the situation. It was known that Noose and Rock don’t really get along much, actually they didn’t stand each other. But Sahib knew that they were soldiers at heart, and would never jeopardize the lives of their squad mates by fighting over command. Rock understood that Noose was in charge, and Noose knew that Rock would follow his commands without any hesitation. Then Fang, and Paw started feeding the locations of the enemy troops to the Claw and Alpha squads. Counting the dots on the minimap Sahib saw that Regis decided to send three squads. He gave the instructions to let them close the distance a bit more. His snipers designated their targets, with the rest placing themselves in the position to cover Claw squad, Sahib’s own team was ready to offer covering fire when Claw started their dash towards cover. Then just as he was about to order his teams to engage his comm went off. He got an urgent message alert on his HUD, saying that he had an incoming call from the Army Headquarters. He noticed his teammates all getting out of cover, and his opponents stepping into the clearing.

“What the fuck Wolf!” One of the men that just entered the clearing yelled over his speakers. They must have gotten some kind of message as well.

“Don’t know!” Sahib responded over his speakers, and then he accepted the call.

“Go for Adin.” Sahib said.

“Adin, Commander Gin here, gather your men the exercise is over, we need you back at the base as soon as possible. The Orphans are being recalled as well.” Commander Jack Gin said.

“May I know why sir?” Sahib asked.

“There has been a development, that is all I can say for now.” Commander Gin said.

“Yes, sir. We will be there in an hour.”

“Good.” With that Commander closed the link.

Sahib looked around at his men, most a have gathered in the clearing, including some of the Orphans. Sahib joined them.

“What’s going on Wolf, Jacks is saying the exercise is canceled.” The man leading one squad of Orphans said over the open link, now when the exercise was over the beacons were again turned on. His HUD showed the name above the man’s head, but even without it Sahib recognized the voice, it was Pyro. He got his nickname when he almost set fire to the changing room, he accidentally fired his rifle filled with incendiary rounds. But he was just a noob then, he got off lightly. Three months of cleaning duties, and double shifts.

“Yeah, just got the call from the old man. He expects us back in an hour.” Sahib said.

“You know why?” Squad Leader Zhu ‘Pyro’ Zhang Wei asked.

Sahib shook his head, “No, but it looks like something happened.”

Zhu started to say something else when he tilted his head for a few seconds.

“We got to go back, Jacks is calling.” Zhu waved and him and the rest of his squad started jogging back towards the tree line. Orphans home base, Rook, was in the opposite direction of the one Platoon Wolf called home. Sahib gathered his Platoon and they started jogging back to base.

Less than an hour later they arrived, and were met by their Company Leader.

“Adin, you have half an hour to shower, change and grab something to eat, then go to the main briefing room. The rest of you do the same, then pack your stuff and get ready for deployment, you will be briefed by your Platoon Leader soon enough.” Company Leader Okoro said as soon as they entered hearing range.

Sahib removed his helmet, and approached CL Okoro.

“What’s going on CL?” Sahib asked.

“You’ll know soon enough, suffice to say we are moving out.” CL Okoro responded.

“Moving out? To where? We are all alone here.” SL Petrov asked.

“You’ll get briefed soon, now go do as I said.” CL Okoro ordered.

Lola looked like she wanted to stay and asked more questions, but Sahib stepped up to her, “Go NGD, make sure your squad is packed and ready.”

“Sure Alpha.” She responded. She turned to CL Okoro and executed a precise salute, fist to chest and then led the rest of the Platoon inside the base. When they moved out of sight, Sahib turned to his Company Leader. “This is something serious then?” He asked.

“Very.” Okoro nodded gravely.

Twenty eight minutes later Sahib entered the main briefing room, it was already filled with other Platoon Leaders, quickly he noticed that not all of Platoon’s were represented. Aeris base was home to 10 Companies, with each Company having 6 Platoons. That put their numbers at 1690 personnel with the 10 Company Leaders. The full number of people on the base, including staff and support personnel was more than 2500. Sahib sat down next to PL Mira ‘Night Owl’ Johannes. “You know anything about this?” Sahib asked.

Mira glanced at him and then returned to studying the room. “Nope.” She said.

“Surely there are rumors?” Sahib asked cheerfully. He used his “happy” voice on purpose, as he knew it irritated Mira. Sahib had always fancied her, though she wouldn’t give him the time of day. She was also older than Sahib, much older, around 100 years older. She turned back and looked at Sahib for a moment. It gave Sahib time to study her in turn, she had brown hair tied in a ponytail at her nape, brown eyes, too big nose, and crooked smile. In essence, she was the most beautiful woman Sahib ever met. Sahib took one look at her and had fallen for her, now all he had to do was make her fall for him. And Sahib could be very, very persistent.

“Of course there are rumors.” Mira said, exasperated. “Doesn’t mean we should join in with the rest of rumormongers. At least I won’t.”

Sahib just looked her in the eyes and smiled widely for a moment. Then when she shook her head and turned to look down at the podium Sahib let out a laugh. “I guess you are right” Sahib said just as Commander Gin entered, followed by Company Leader Okoro, Hughes and Mao “we will know soon anyway.” Sahib added. Mira ignored him, and kept her sight on the three men on the podium.

“I will make this short.” Commander Gin started, “There has been a development in the Nuva system, the system governed by the alien race called Nel. A force of Sowir Dominion has entered the system and is on its way towards the planet. Our leaders had decided that Olympus will provide aid. The Sowir are supposed to arrive at the planet in twenty two days. And we will be there to meet them.”

Immediately most of the Platoon Leaders started speaking amongst themselves, and then one stood and spoke. “Sir, the news concerning the alien system said that it is more than ten light years away.” He said.

“That is correct.” Commander Gin said.

“But how is that possible? It would take us more than twenty days just to reach the hyperspace barrier!” The PL said.

“I don’t know the details. The only thing I know is that the fleet plans on us arriving at Nuva nineteen days from now. Three Aeris base companies have been assigned to the First Fleet. Our orders are to land on Nuva, and help in its defense should enemy forces manage to land troops.” Commander Gin said. At that, everyone grew quiet, the prospect of actually going into battle was enough to make them speechless. Seeing that no one had any questions, or was capable of asking them at the moment, Commander Gin continued. “You will be briefed in detail about the enemy on the way. Their capabilities, know tactics and weapons. All the equipment you will need has already been sent up to the fleet. Transports will land on the base within the hour, they will transport you to the Olympia where you will be met with ships that will take you to the fleet. That is all.” Commander Gin said, and then turned and left the room, the Company Leaders following.

Sahib turned to Mira. “I guess this is it, huh.”

Mira turned and looked at him. “Yeah.” She said.

Chapter Twenty Four

Sanctuary system – Leviathan

The air pumps turned on and started pumping air back into the landing bay, in mere seconds the area was filled with the air and artificial gravity was again turned on. Then the great blast doors were raised and people started entering the landing area of the Hangar. The 4 shuttles that had just landed opened their doors and soldiers started getting out. They were the last group meant for the Leviathan, the last two platoons. Leviathan was assigned 1 company, 168 men and women. The entire fleet was assigned 3 companies in total, with the other two spread out over the fleet. There had been multiple shuttle trips, as the transport ships couldn’t dock with the Leviathan. Adrian looked down on the men and women now arriving on the Leviathan, their arrival meant that soon they would leave for the alien system. He was standing on a raised level, where chief’s offices were and looked through down through the window in the office. He didn’t have anything better to do, all the preparations were finished, and the research department was confident that they could send the entire fleet through something they called translane. The fleet had already arrived at the coordinates of the so called trans-station, the place from where they can enter the lane. Adrian didn’t understand the science behind the trans travel, save that something called trans field, along with a trans station was necessary. He knew that his ships wouldn’t be able to come back the same way, but would need to use hyperspace. The only ship fitted with the trans field generator was the Insight, a research vessel. As Adrian understood it, Insight would project the trans field inside the station where the fleet would be, opening the lane, and sending all ships inside the station through. Insight itself would remain behind, as it won’t be in the area affected.

Adrian saw that there was no more people getting off the shuttles, and that the shuttles started closing their doors getting ready to leave. The soldiers were met by Adrian’s chief of security, Marie Thorne then sent them to the area assigned to the soldiers. Seeing the last of them disappearing through the doorway, Adrian turned and went to the elevator taking it up to the command deck. He entered the Command Center and went to his place in the command chair. Paul and the rest of the Command crew were already there. He checked the fleet readiness on his board, then seeing that all ships reported ready, he turned to Paul.

“Contact Insight, tell them that we are ready.” Adrian said.

“Yes sir.” Paul said. Then he opened a link to the Science vessel Insight. “Leviathan reports First Fleet is ready for transfer.” Paul said.

“Acknowledged Leviathan, beginning transfer in two minutes.” Said a voice over the speakers.

Paul asked for a countdown clock to be put on the holo and a few moments later one appeared in the middle of the room on the holo-table. When the countdown reached one minute, Adrian turned to the Sensor Handler.

“Turn on the viewer.” He said.

“Right away Fleet Commander.” She said.

An instant later the walls of the CC turned bright white, and then they were in space, sitting atop the Leviathan. All around them they could see the other ships in the fleet. The external lighting coupled with the light from the sun, made the fleet an awe inspiring sight. All ships stood there in the light of the nebula, half obscured in shallow shadows. They looked menacing. The clock was entering the last ten seconds, and then it hit zero.

For a second or two nothing happened and then all ships were bathed in a violet wave of light. And the next moment they were away. The surrounding changed, and it looked as if they were traveling through a tunnel of violet and white light. All around Leviathan, violet arcs bounced of his and the other ships in the fleet. Adrian turned to Paul. “Did all ships report in?” He asked. Inside the translane it was impossible to communicate via FTL comms. The only thing that worked were radio signals. Paul nodded as his hand worked on his holographic display.

“Yes, all ships have reported in, there are no complications.” Paul said.

Adrian nodded and stood up. “You have the first watch.” Adrian said, there was no need to stay in the CC, the trip through the translane was two days long. He went to his quarters and settled in to get a bit of rest. He would spend enough time sitting in the CC when they arrive to their destination.

Three hours later Adrian woke, only to find himself under a deadly attack. He felt pressure on his index finger, and another on his foot. He stood up in his bed only to have the attack on his foot intensify immediately. He moved his hand in an attempt to save his fingers, only to have his attacker change objective, and turn his focus on his other foot.

“Stop that, you little monsters.” Adrian said, grinning. Which of course had no effect. The little devils kept attacking his feet until he got out of the bed. Only when he put both feet on the ground did they stop. Both of them sat down on their hind legs in front of him. Adrian knew that they wanted to play, looking at the clock in the corner of his vision he saw that it was the time that he usually played with them. Looking at the two little wolions Adrian couldn’t help but worry about them, the ship was going into battle, and they could die. He planned on leaving them on Sanctuary, but every time he tried he would suddenly feel unable to do so. And then the fleet was ready to leave and he realized that they were still on board. Again he wanted to leave them, to send them to Laura on a shuttle, but was unable to separate himself from them. It wasn’t the first time that had happened, before, when he found their mother dying he felt something similar. An unexplainable urge to protect the little cubs. And then again when he took them to be checked out. He planned on leaving them with the vet, but was unable to do so. Though, the vet’s plans for the them did help his decision as well. But nevertheless it had happened too many times for it to be a coincidence. It probably had something to do with the wolions themselves, but Adrian couldn’t figure it out. He even had Iris use sensors in his quarters, but she found nothing. Sighing, Adrian got up and went to the bathroom. After waking himself completely, he put on clothes and looked at Akash and Sora. Usually when he played with them, they would try to attack him while he fought them off. But looking at them and seeing how much they had grown he had another idea. They were now the size of a small house cat, and their teeth and claws had already started to make them look like predators they were. Adrian wasn’t worried about them hurting him or anyone else, never had they used their claws or teeth on him. Even during playing, they were careful not to hurt each other or him, and Adrian felt that they would never harm. Each day they showed Adrian that they were much more intelligent than people on Sanctuary thought. Sometimes when he talked to them, he could swear they understood him completely.

“I think that today we are going to do something different.” Adrian said, looking down at them. The little wolions just angled their head at the exact same moment, and blinked their four eyes at him, again in perfect sync. He noticed them doing that, and also doing other strange things. For example, one time Adrian was about to feed Akash, when before he even placed the food on the plate the doors opened – the doors had motion sensors – and Sora arrived from the other room. And he knew that there was no way for her to hear, see or smell the food, also there was the fact that she was sleeping soundly. And other strange instances, that made him believe that there was a connection between the two.

“Follow me.” Adrian said, and started for the door. The two wolions followed close behind as he exited his quarters. It wasn’t the first time he took them out of his quarters, though the last time there was a lot less people on the ship. As they started walking down the corridors the little cubs would look around constantly, though they never lost step with him, always keeping up just behind him. From time to time Adrian turned only to find them gazing at some new thing they saw for the first time. They took one of the elevators and went to one of the lower decks where the main training room was. As soon as they exited the elevator they were met with dozen people moving around the hallway. For a moment Adrian was worried that he shouldn’t have brought them, but still they kept just behind him. The people around them on the other hand froze in place as soon as they saw them for the first time. The two cubs were small, and while they still had some of that cute baby look on them, there was no mistaking what they were, predators. Also, their exotic looks – four eyes and blue fur – most definitely drew looks. Soon whispers could be heard behind Adrian, as he passed by the crew. As he passed a crew member they would salute and then usually gasp as he passed them. Soon though, they arrived at the training room. As they entered, Adrian noticed a couple of soldiers training alongside some of Leviathan’s security personnel. As soon as they were noticed the soldiers stopped what they were doing. Adrian knew that there were rumors regarding the two cubs. Those that had seen them before had spread it around, and now everyone knew about his wolions. Though most didn’t really believe it, as far as they knew no one has ever captured a wolion, let alone have one as a pet.

Adrian knew that now there would be no more disbelief. Soon enough four soldiers approached Adrian, they were all dressed in their black uniforms with dark green outlines. They all had that tough look about them, with their close cropped hair, and intense looks in their eyes.

“Fleet Commander.” The lead one said, saluting, the others following close behind.

Adrian’s imp provided him with the man’s name and rank. “Squad Leader Meyers.” Adrian said, returning the salute, then nodding to the rest.

“We don’t mean to bother you sir. But we just wanted to ask… Are those wolions?” SL Meyers asked.

Adrian smiled and looked down at Akash and Sora, they were now sitting one on each side of Adrian, calmly looking at the Squad Leader. The only people they had interacted with were Adrian and his steward Goran.

“Yes, they are. This is Akash,” He said nodding to his left, “And this is Sora.” He nodded to his right.

Squad Leader Meyers got down his knees and looked at them.

“Introduce yourselves.” Adrian said to the cubs. They looked up at him, then at the Squad Leader and back again, then finally they stood up and walked up to the Squad Leader, then they stopped and looked at him intensely. Squad Leader tentatively reached a hand out and stopped a breath away from Akash. Then Sora and Akash moved closer to the hand, sniffed and then after a moment of deciding to shove their heads into the Squad Leader’s hand. He then proceeded to pet them, reaching out with his other hand.

“Amazing.” SL Meyers said, “I didn’t know that anyone managed to catch a wolion.”

“They didn’t.” Adrian said. “I found these two in the woods, their mother died after giving birth to them.”

“Really? Well, they look harmless enough.” As he said that both Sora and Akash let out a small growl. Squad Leader immediately pulled his hands back.

Adrian let out a laugh, “They might be tame and small, but I would hardly call them harmless. Also, they appear to be able to understand us, or at least what we intended to say if not the actual words.”

The Squad Leader nodded tightly, with his companions laughing with Adrian.

“Did you plan to exercise with them here?” Squad Leader asked.

“Yes, they need a bigger space to play than my quarters.” Adrian said, then looked at the cubs and pointed his hand at the small running track, “Go play.”

Immediately the two ran off and started chasing each other all over the room, running around the people training already, as if they didn’t want to disturb them. Although their presence alone did that.

“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you sir. And them.” Squad Leader said, saluting again.

“Likewise Squad Leader.” Adrian said, returning the salute.

As the soldiers left back to their corner of the room, Adrian approached one of the weight lifting machines. Since he was here already he might as well get some training done, he doubted he would have much time for it after they arrived.

* * *

Nuva

Retsar Isani sat in the ready room aboard his battleship Valor, he was reviewing the data provided by the humans. The more he spent in the company of humans, or reading data they provided, the more he realized just how different they really are. Of course we are different, we are not the same species, Isani thought to himself. But they looked similar enough to each other that he questioned everything he knew. Could have the Order been right all along? Isani thought, and immediately shook himself. No, there is no point in questioning the actions of his ancestors. That was the darkest moment in his peoples history, he shuddered to think what would happen if it turned out that the Order was right. It was better to remain ignorant. Some things are better left unknown.

Isani continued reading, the projected time for the arrival of the human fleet in the system was two days. The location was deep inside the system’s gravity well, which had baffled Isani. But he chose to trust the humans, they haven’t lied to them yet. They had concealed things, but they had just met them. After arriving it would take the human fleet another sixteen days to reach Nuva, just two days before the Nel arrive. There were no plans for a joint strategy, they didn’t know each other that well. They would do their best to protect Nuva. Isani didn’t know if they will be able to fight them off. The humans were sending 10 ships, with Isani’s 13 ships their force will outnumber the Sowir force of 20. But still it might not be enough, Sowir force had 6 battleships, all of newer make and more powerful than Valor. And Isani didn’t know whether the Humans had any battleships in their force, he knew nothing about Human warships. There was nothing for him to do but wait and hope that it would be enough to defend Nuva. They would meet the Sowir ship close to the planet. They simply didn’t have enough forces to split them, and meeting them out, away from Nuva would mean leaving the planet undefended. All it would take is for one ship to slip past them, the planet had no other defenses. The Sowir practice of taking over a world was to destroy any defenses, and then land troops to take care of the population. They usually killed everyone, but in a few instances they did leave a small part of the population alive, to serve as a work force. Each world they conquered was then populated by their people. Nuva would be no different. Isani believed that Sowir would try to land their troop ships on the ground, each ship held 1500 Sowir soldiers, their best. With two transport ships, that meant 3000 Sowir soldiers. Nuva had very few weapons for ground combat, and even less people capable of using them, in the last few months they did form a militia of sorts, but Isani knew that they wouldn’t stand a chance against the elite Sowir soldiers. So their only choice was to protect the planet, keep their ships close and make sure that the transports don’t get through. The population will in the next few days be going to the underground shelters, that they built over the course of the past two years. Only those in the militia will stay above to protect their homes.

Looking through the reports, he saw that his ships were all as ready as they would ever be. The ships under his command were mostly older models, with the exception of his light cruisers, but even they couldn’t stand up to a Sowir battleship alone. Only his Valor could, and it was an old ship, she was there in the opening of battles of the war. And she had served Isani well, but he knew that at most she could take out two Sowir battleships, if he was lucky. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t find a way to take out all of the Sowir battleships, he just didn’t have enough firepower. The only hope Nuva had were the humans, and he still didn’t know what kind of ships they were brining, nor what their capabilities were. Isani sighed, in two days the human ships would arrive, and then he would know whether there is any chance for Nuva.

Chapter Twenty Five

Sanctuary – Olympus city

Tomas Klein sat in the palace meeting room alongside the other leaders of Olympus. The last few days they had spent planning for the future. Now, they were trying to figure out how to allocate their resources.

“We need more ships.” Laura said firmly.

“I understand what you are saying Laura, but we can’t build more, not as fast as you want.” Nadia retorted tiredly.

“And how did we build the First and Second Fleets?” Laura asked, her voice rising slightly.

“For the one hundredth time Laura, we built them by drawing on our extra supplies and by halting progress of everything else.” Nadia said, her voice rising also.

“So do it again! We need those ships!” Laura said, almost yelling.

“We can’t! We spent all our reserves to build those ships, it will take months for our mining operation to replenish them. The fabricators we used for the shipbuilding were those designated for the mining operations, if we use them for building ships it will cut into our mining operations, which will in turn cut into our resources, which means no ships later!” Nadia yelled back.

Seeing another screaming match coming, Tomas slammed his hand on the table. “Enough!” He said. “This is not helping anything.” He turned to Laura, “I agree with you that we need more ships.” Laura started to say something, but Tomas cut her off, “But I also agree with Nadia. If building another ten ships now, will cut into our ability to expand and build much more ships later, then it is not worth it.” Then he turned to Nadia. “How about expanding our mining operations? How long will it take for us to reach a point where we can bring all our shipbuilding operations online permanently?” Tomas asked.

Nadia looked ahead for a moment with a blank look on her face meaning she was using her implant. “If we focus all our resources on expanding our mining operations, it will take us three months to reach a point where we will produce enough to satisfy both the needs of the fleet and our other projects. Then we will need an additional two months to build more fabricators for the fleet, we can’t have them keep using the ones that are needed for other projects.” Nadia said.

“Five months!” Laura said incredulously. She rose to her feet, “You can’t possibly think that we can wait that long!”

“Sit down Laura.” Tomas said firmly.

“But…”

Tomas gave her a stern look, “Now.” He said calmly. “Both of you need to cool off, and think about everything clearly.” He looked at them both until they calmed down.

“First,” Tomas started looking at Laura. “It will take at least nine months for the Nel refugees to arrive with the Traveler, and it is highly unlikely that anyone will find us here in that period of time. So there is no rush, we will follow Nadia’s plan. We will expand our mining capabilities and push other projects ahead, training more people at the Academy, although building facilities on Thanatos will need to be halted until our mining operations grow large enough to provide for all we need. Second, although we can’t divert resources to shipbuilding right now, you can still use the facilities that were built for that purpose. You will retrofit the eight ships we brought with us from Sol.”

Laura looked as if she wanted to argue, but then she nodded, “Alright.” She said.

“Good.” Tomas said and then he turned to Nadia. “I want all available resources focused on expanding our mining operations. Halt all city expansions, and make sure that you meet your five months projection. I am expecting our shipyards back to full operational status six months from now.”

* * *

Seo-yun entered Tomas’s private rooms, looking for Tomas. She found him in the library, sitting in his reading chair. Around him on the shelves where books, made from real paper, they were part of his collection brought with them from Earth. Most of people of Olympus had never even seen a paper book, even before the founding of Olympus, electronic medium had taken over. She walked over one of the shelves looking at the titles.

“You know, I never read most of these.” She said.

Tomas raised his head and sighed, “Most now alive didn’t.” He said sadly.

“Why do you think that is?” Seo-yun asked.

“Times have changed I guess.” He said.

“Hmm…”

“What?” Tomas asked.

“Nothing. What are you thinking about?”

He stood up and walked over to stand close to her. “Things will change again.”

Seo-yun angled her head, looking at him.

“The refugees, their presence here will upset everything. We knew that we are not alone in this universe, and now we will need to deal with the realities of other races. A lot will change.” Tomas said.

“It is the way of life, everything changes.” Seo-yun said.

Tomas smiled, “Yes.” And then after a minute, “How are things between Laura and Nadia?”

“Tense. But they will work it out.”

“Good. And the people? What is the mood like?”

“Excited. And anxious.”

“If we bring people from Nuva here, there will be more of them than us… And they don’t know yet that this is the only planet we have. We need to be very careful about this.” Tomas said.

“You think that they would try to take over?” Seo-yun asked, surprised.

“We don’t know them.”

“Why are we helping them then?”

“Because it is right. And because we look so much alike. There is a reason for that, I’m sure.”

“You really think that we are related?”

Tomas nodded, “We look too much alike not to be.”

“Well, I guess that we will see once they get here.” Seo-yun said.

“We will need to speak with them. I am willing to give them sanctuary, perhaps even integrate them into Olympus if they are willing. But I want it made clear to them, we are not interested in making anything like their Consortium. If they choose to join us it will be on our terms.”

Seo-yun raised an eyebrow. “Subjugating other races now are we, oh great Khan.”

He gave her an annoyed look. “No, they will have as much freedom as any citizen of Olympus. But as I said before, we don’t know them. And I have no desire to see corruption and greed infect Sanctuary as it did Earth.”

“I don’t know how they will react to that…” Seo-yun said.

“They won’t have a choice, if they want to survive. Don’t get me wrong, I will give them everything they need, but if they want to live amongst us, they will need to play by our rules. It’s as simple as that.”

“And if they refuse?”

Tomas didn’t answer immediately, keeping silent for a couple of minutes.

“If they refuse, we will send them away.” Tomas said.

Send them where? Seo-yun wondered, but didn’t ask out loud. Tomas didn’t become the most powerful man on Earth by being soft. For a while there, after they came to Sanctuary he was lost, unsure. But ever since the talk they had in the cave, more and more she saw the man she met on Earth. The man that had conquered a world, all for a dream of the star filled night sky.

Chapter Twenty Six

Nuva system

“Entering normal space in five, four, three, two, one.”

A moment later the violet and white surroundings of a translane disappeared, and the round view of Leviathans Command Center now showed star filled space.

“Thank god, we made it.” Ship Master Paul Isaacs.

“You don’t trust our scientists?” Adrian asked.

“No. I mean, yes, I trust them, but these sorts of things should be tested a lot more.” Paul answered.

“They sent a probe through.”

“An unmanned probe isn’t the same as a fleet of ships, filled with people. What if living things couldn’t survive passing through? They couldn’t have known.”

“Ah, but they did know. You forget that the Union used the translanes to travel, which means that living beings could pass through.”

Paul grunted unconvinced, and Adrian smirked.

“Contact the Traveler, let them know we have arrived. Set a course for Nuva.” Adrian said.

* * *

Sixteen days later

Retsar Isani stood in the operations center of the station, the eyes of everyone in the room were on the viewing screen on the far side of the room. The human ships had arrived. The ships looked impressive, rectangular in shape, their hulls brimming with weapons. But his attention was on the enormous ship. It was the largest ship Isani had ever seen, or heard of. It was massive, at least three times larger than his Valor. And its shape was slightly different than others, its front had a wing like appearance while the rest followed the rectangular shapes that all human ships had. Isani and his people had enough time to study their ships as they came closer. All ships had laser weaponry, and they noticed launch shafts on the ships that they believed could only be missile launchers, there were a few things that they couldn’t identify. Turrets that definitely were not laser nor particle weapons, and these appeared to be humans main weapons, they called them kinetic weapons. Isani assumed that there was something that he missed in translation as he had no idea what that could be, even though he understood the word. Then there were other things, these ships, although definitely made out some kind of metal like the Traveler, were obviously made for war. These ships were black, their hull coated with a material that dissipated light. Isani’s people guessed that it would also mitigate damage from laser fire, although they have no idea what it could be. And then there was the big ship, Leviathan. Isani has been in contact with the leader of human ships almost since they entered the system. They didn’t plan for the upcoming battle, they will do that in person. But they did share some info, the name of the ships, their class designation and such. The Leviathan was something they called a dreadnought class. The ship had a great amount of weapons, coupled with laser turrets with lenses that were at least twice as big as the biggest built by the Consortium. That told him that the power source on that ship must be much better than anything that Consortium had. After the ships settled into a safe orbit above Nuva, a shuttle left the big ship, on its way to the station. The human Fleet Commander Adrian Farkas was coming to speak and plan with Isani. As the shuttle neared Isani left to greet the humans. He arrived just as the shuttle docked with the stations ring. A few minutes later the pressure doors opened and three humans stepped on to the station. Isani immediately recognized Fleet Commander Farkas, he talked with him a few times via the FTL device the humans installed. Seeing him in person he was again struck with how young looking he was. In fact, every human he had seen was young. At first he assumed that the Traveler was a ship commanded by a younger crew, but as time passed, he became convinced that there was another reason. But Isani set that aside, there were more pressing things for him to worry about. Isani approached the humans and extended his hand. “I greet you Fleet Commander Farkas.” Isani greeted him in human language and custom, he had again gotten out of his way to learn a few more words of the human language, it was the least he could do. The Fleet Commander raised an eyebrow – Isani found the gesture strange, he was not yet used to seeing Nel like faces with hair on them, but he knew that the gesture could mean a surprise or amusement – then he grasped Isani’s hand. After, Fleet Commander bowed in Nel way,

“I am glad to be here Retsar Isani.” He said in Nel. Now it was Isani’s turn to be surprised, none of the other humans had spoken Nel.

“You speak passable Nel.” Isani said.

Fleet Commander Farkas smiled, “Only a few words.” He said in humans language, which were then reproduced via the translator. Isani noticed that Fleet Commander didn’t have the earpiece that the other humans claimed served as a translator, and yet he responded to Isani’s words almost immediately, just like how Ship Master Kisaragi did. He didn’t comment on it, there would be time later to solve that mystery.

Fleet Commander turned to his compatriots. First, he gestured to his left.

“This is Ship Master Paul Isaacs.” And then to the human with the dark, almost black skin on his right. “And this is Company Leader Dayo Okoro.” Both humans bowed their heads in Nel way, and Isani returned the greetings. When they finished their greetings Isani led them to a nearby meeting room that had already been set up to receive them. Isani had opted for conducting the meetings with the humans while seated. They entered the room and sat on the backless chairs that Nel used to accommodate their tails. Few assistants went through the room offering refreshments. A few minutes later the assistants retired.

“We owe your people a debt, and you will have the gratitude of Nuva forever.” Isani said.

“There is no need for that, we couldn’t have stood by and watched.” Fleet Commander said.

“Nevertheless, we are grateful. Now at least we have a chance of survival.” Isani said.

Fleet Commander bobbed his head, “I’m surprised that there was no change with the Sowir ships. I thought that they would at least slow down when they saw us. Did they try to communicate at least?”

“No, they stopped communicating when they started the war, there has been no talks since then. Sowir don’t retreat. They will keep coming even if they were completely outnumbered. If they fail, they will just send a bigger force next time.” Isani said.

“Did you try contacting them?” Ship Master Isaacs asked.

“There is no point, they will not respond.” Isani said.

“Perhaps we should try.” Fleet Commander said.

“I don’t know if it will matter, even if they respond they will still come.” Isani said.

“We had no official contact with them. If they turn back, don’t return and stop the expansion towards our space, we are ready to set aside the incident with the Voyager.” Fleet Commander said.

“There is no lasting agreement with the Sowir. They will break any agreement as soon as it suits them.” Isani said.

“I agree. But our leaders want us to at least try.” Fleet Commander said.

“It can’t make things worse for us.” Isani said.

“Good, then we will send them a message. In the meanwhile we should start planning for the engagement.” Fleet Commander said.

“According to their practices in the past, I believe it is safe to assume that they won’t bomb the planet. Nuva is an agricultural world, they will want to keep it preserved if possible. That means taking control of the orbit, and then slowly taking control of the surface.” Isani said.

“Yes, that is what we determined as well.” Fleet Commander said.

“But we still need to meet them close to the planet.” Isani said slowly, “We can’t risk that a ship will get past us. While they probably don’t have plans to bomb the planet, if they realize that we will defeat their fleet and a sole ship remains at the planet, I have no doubt that they will open fire on the surface and destroy everything in the planets orbit.” Isani said, this was all assuming that human ships were on par with the Sowir. The Sowir usually wanted to take control of any assets in the orbit of the planet they were conquering, but if they see that they will lose they will destroy.

“Alright, we will meet them here.” Fleet Commander Farkas agreed. They spent the next hour talking about possible strategies, quickly they decided that the two fleets should act separately but try to support one another. As the meeting grew to a close, the humans stood and got back to their ship. Isani gave them an escort back, and left to for his office to contact Sumia. As soon as he entered, he opened a communication using the human FTL device. He still wasn’t used to the way it worked, where one needed to record and send a message, then wait for the other person to respond.

“How did it go?” Sumia’s message said.

“About as I expected it to.” Isani said. “We will fight separately, there is not enough time for us to learn to fight together.”

About a minute later came Sumia’s response, “What about the planet?”

“They have brought five hundred soldiers. The Fleet Commander said that he will have all of them on the planet by the end of the day. They will coordinate with our people down there to help should Sowir land.” Isani sent.

“Will their weapons be able to harm the Sowir?”

“Humans believe that they will, their weapons are alien to us and I have no time to go down to the planet and see them fired. We will have to trust them, and hope that no dropship reach the planet.”

“I shouldn’t have let you convince me to go with the refugee ships. I belong on Nuva.”

“Our people will need you Sumia. They are going into unknown with people they have just met. They need someone like you to look out for them.”

“I know, but I don’t need to like it.” Sumia’s final message said.

* * *

Leviathan

Adrian watched on his command board as the Leviathan’s shuttle left on its last trip to the planet to deliver Olympus soldiers. Company Commanders Okoro, Hughes, and Mao will be in charge of the land battle, if Sowir manage to land anything on the planet, but Adrian was not going to make it easy on them. He understood why they needed to keep the Sowir occupied, to give Sanctuary enough time to grow, to become strong enough to protect itself against any threat. Adrian turned to Ship Master Isaacs.

“Anything from the Sowir?” He asked. They had been sending a continuous laser communication to all Sowir ships for the past five hours.

“Nothing.” Paul said.

Adrian looked at his board, there was no change with the Sowir ships, not even when they saw Adrian’s ships. They still kept coming, no change in speed or course. Fleet thought that there was no way for these ships to have any information about Voyager. That incident happened eight light years from here. Unless they had FTL comms there was no way for them to know, but that was unlikely, the Consortium didn’t.

“Halt the communications.” Adrian said.

“You knew that it was very likely that they wouldn’t respond.” Iris said.

“Yes, but I don’t understand why? They must know that we aren’t from the Consortium. We told them so in the message. And they must see that we outnumber them now, why keep coming when the chance of defeat is much greater?” Adrian said, frustrated, he kept hoping that the Sowir would turn away. That is why he came to Nuva without trying to hide, he gave them time to detect and study his ships.

“Perhaps they don’t think so. Perhaps they believe that they will win.” Iris said.

Adrian shook his head. Olympus knew the capabilities of the Sowir, and he knew that his ships were more than a match.

“Get some rest Paul, tomorrow will be a long day.” Adrian said, tomorrow the battle for Nuva will start, until then there was nothing else he could do.

Chapter Twenty Seven

February 2170 – Battleship Valor

Isani sat on the bridge of his ship, after one more meeting Isani and Fleet Commander Farkas decide to intercept the Sowir fleet. Close enough so to be able to respond should any ship get past them, but far enough to spare the planet of any accidental damage. Looking at the far wall at the viewer, Isani watched as human ships accelerated and joined his own ships keeping up with them. If they kept this acceleration they would reach maximum effective missile range in an hour, at least for Nel ships. And then the battle would start in earnest. Isani had told Fleet Commander Farkas that their priority should be the three Sowir battleships, they posed the greatest danger to their ships. The two forces would operate independently, but try to cover one another. That meant that they will need to keep close enough to provide aid should it be required. The Sowir ships still kept the same course and speed, although they should see the light from human and Isani’s ships in a couple of minutes. Isani kept a corner of his eye on the viewer on his left that showed the Sowir fleet, waiting for them to make a move. And then five minutes later there was a change. Sowir ships started to slow down and change their formation. Isani felt excitement, as he always did when he knew a battle was imminent. He gave command of the ship to his third in command, and went to catch a few more minutes of sleep. There was still time yet before the two forces drew close enough for the battle to start in truth.

* * *

Traveler

Ship Master Kisaragi Hana watched her holo as her ship and the ten refugee ships passed the hyperspace barrier. The Traveler left Nuva when the First Fleet arrived in the system. Out of the refugee ships that were following the Traveler, one merchant ship was filed by representatives of Guxcacul that were on Nuva and few Mtural families that called Nuva home. Hana didn’t have the chance to meet them in person, there was little time. The other nine ships were filled with Nel, women and children. Nuva’s leaders held a lottery of sorts, to decide who got a place on one of the ships. In the end a lot more were left on the planet, waiting to see how the human and Nel ships would fare against the Sowir.

“We are ready to enter hyperspace Ship Master.” High Prime Rolland Ricks said.

“Comm the Nel ships, and start the countdown.” Ship Master Kisaragi said.

“Entering hyperspace in sixty seconds.” Ship Handler Jorge Nunez said.

As Hana watched the countdown she couldn’t help but be amazed by the Nel. They were following the Traveler not knowing where they were going, but that just went to show how desperate they were, they had no hope before the Traveler arrived. Their ships could travel through hyperspace faster than the Traveler, but would follow at Travelers speed. For the Traveler the trip would usually take 9 months, but they would take a detour to limit the chance of anyone finding Sanctuary, which meant instead of 9 it would take a bit more than 10 months.

“Thirty seconds.” Ship Handler said.

Hana wondered whether the First Fleet met the Sowir in the battle yet. A part of her wanted to stay, to help, but she knew that her ship wasn’t made for war.

“Ten seconds… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Entering hyperspace.” Ship Handler said. A moment later, eleven ships disappeared in a flash.

* * *

Leviathan

Adrian took his seat in the Command Center, as soon as he sat down the command board came online, a holographic representation of his and Retsar Isani’s ships was shown in front of him. In a few minutes they would enter the maximum firing range of his fleet. Looking at the Sowir fleet, and seeing that they were still coming in the same formation they formed an hour ago. Going through the mental list of his opening moves, he took a deep breath, “Here we go.” Adrian said to Iris, and then he started manipulating the command board. He assigned orders, but didn’t execute them just yet, he opened a channel to Retsar Isani from the list on the left side of his command board. A window opened in front of him with Retsar Isani looking out of it.

“Fleet Commander, what can I do for you?”

“I wanted to tell you that my ships would be starting this engagement soon.” Adrian said.

He could see a flash of surprise on the Retsar Isani’s face, but it was quickly masked. “With this much distance there is little chance that any missile will pass through their defenses.”

“I know. I’m going to try something, if it fails, we give them knowledge of my ships maximum range and we lose some missiles, if we succeed, we might trim their numbers a bit or at least hurt them.” Adrian said.

Retsar Isani gestured with his hand, turning it in a circular motion. “As you wish Fleet Commander.”

Adrian nodded and closed the channel.

“Ready?” Adrian asked.

“Always Adrian.” Iris responded.

Reaching to his right Adrian executed the orders, the first in this battle. He knew they wouldn’t be the last.

* * *

The two forces grew closer at an astonishing speed, but still there was a lot more ground to cover. Until suddenly fire erupted from one side. Missile launches from the human First Fleet, by the time they stopped firing 3000 missiles were speeding towards the Sowir fleet. Before the light from those missile launches even reached the Sowir ships, Leviathan forward torpedo tubes opened, and six torpedoes got on their way. As they distanced themselves from the fleet Iris took direct control of them, and they started spreading out in a formation. A minute later she detonated all six torpedoes simultaneously, a blinding flash of nuclear fire expanded in front of the incoming human ships that lasted for 6 seconds. In that time the human First Fleet opened fire with all of their kinetic weapons, sending hundreds of metal slugs on an intercept course with the Sowir force. The light of their fire hidden by the blast of six torpedoes.

* * *

Isani watched as the human ships fired their missiles, their rate of fire was better than what his ships could achieve, but he knew that 3000 missiles weren’t going to be enough to breach Sowir defenses at this distance. And the Leviathan fired six much larger missiles. The missiles chased those fired before them until they put a significant distance from the human ships, and then they detonated.

“Maseera!” Hosar Tassat exclaimed from the sensor station, “Those missiles were nuclear!”

Surprised and horrified Isani turned, “Any danger of radiation?” He asked quickly.

“No Retsar. We will pass through the radiation field too fast, and our hulls will protect us. But I wouldn’t recommend any of our ships to stay in the area for extended periods of time.” Hosar Tassat said.

“What were they doing? Why did they detonate early?” Isani asked. It was insanity, the Consortium of course knew about nuclear weapons. The Mtural were the ones that first discovered and built one. But as soon as the Consortium realized the dangers, they put a ban on nuclear research. With extreme punishment for anyone disobeying.

“I don’t know Retsar. Perhaps it was a malfunction… No, they all detonated at the same time…” Hosar Tassat was saying when he was interrupted by Hosar Ovar from the auxiliary sensor station.

“They fired something else during the explosions from the nuclear missiles Retsar.” Hosar Ovar said.

Looking at his screens he saw nothing that indicated any weapons fire. “There is nothing on our scans.”

“Our auxiliary scanners picked it up, there were flashes of light coming from the human ships during the interval of missile explosions. They definitely fired something, our sensors just don’t recognize it as weapons fire.” Hosar Ovar said.

Isani turned to Hosar Tassat, “Find whatever it is they fired, I want to know what the hell it was and why they detonated six nuclear missiles before they fired it.”

“Yes Retsar.”

Isani spent the next few minutes trying to figure out what it was that they fired as he watched his screen and the 3000 missiles speeding towards the Sowir ships. And then Hosar Ovar yelled out. “I think that I got it!” He said, “Out secondary sensors have been following a fast moving objects in space, from the moment of the explosions. Our main sensors are calibrated to look for missiles heat signatures, that’s why we it doesn’t show on our main sensors.”

“Can you tell what it is?” Isani asked.

“Whatever it is, it is cold. Very cold, I have no idea what it is.” Hosar Ovar said.

Isani watched his screen, it now showed the projected track of the human cold weapons. As he looked at it and their tracks that were on the intercept course with the Sowir ships something clicked in his mind.

“Kinetic weapons.” Isani whispered.

“Retsar?” Hosar Inra asked from the weapons station.

“The humans told us that those turrets on their ships fired kinetic weapons. That’s what that is. They must be made out of metals. Just metal missiles, with no explosives, no maneuvering.” Isani said, amazed at the human ingenuity.

“I don’t understand Retsar, what purpose do they serve then?” Hosar Inra asked.

“Those weapons don’t rely on explosive energy, but rather kinetic. Their speed amplified by their mass. And they are made out of metal. If they hit they will transfer all that energy.”

“But what is the point if they can’t maneuver? Sowir will just shoot them down or move out of the way.” Hosar Inra said.

“Only if they can see them. Their sensors are similar to ours, and we only saw them because we witnessed their launch. That was what those nuclear detonations were for. To hide their launch, even those missiles they fired, they are all a distraction. The real danger are those kinetic missiles.” Isani said, the human ships had started to slow down, so Isani ordered his ships to do likewise. They would wait for Sowir to reach them. The humans were dangerous, very dangerous. Isani was very much relieved that they were on his side.

* * *

In the darkness of space 3000 missiles speed towards their target closing in with each passing second. Behind them hundreds of metal slugs followed in their wake, obscured by the missiles leading. The Sowir ships opened with defensive laser fire, and as soon as the first human missile exploded all others entered evasion mode, but even then the Sowir fire started cutting their numbers down. The more ground the missiles covered on the path to their targets more of them were destroyed. Until finally just a couple thousand of kilometers away the last human missile exploded harmlessly, not reaching its target. The Sowir ships kept on the same course, unbothered. Then there was a change, quickly, seemingly in a panic, the Sowir ships started to spread out, but by then it was too late. Hundreds of metal slugs moving at the fraction of the speed of light slammed into their formation. A lot of them missed as Sowir ships spread out, but more than a third hit, and more than half of those that hit were glancing blows, barely scratching the hull of their targets. But those few that hit, were devastating. The Sowir used a ceramic composite as a base of their ship’s hull, just as the rest of Consortium did, it was great for withstanding laser fire, absorbing explosives, preventing missile penetration and deflecting small grain like particle that moved in space. But the human weapons were made out of metal, a material they had long since abandoned in their building because of its weight and mass, and now it was that mass that worked against them. The metal slugs shredded through the ceramic, inflicting heavy damage to areas they hit. They hit only a few ships and none of the damage was critical, as all Sowir ships had redundant systems. But one Sowir light cruiser, two heavy cruisers and one battleship bore the scars of their first encounter with the human warships.

* * *

Adrian looked at his c-board, looking at the results of his little opening move. The damage his ships inflicted looked much worse that it really was. None of the Sowir ships were critically damaged, they detected the fire early enough to escape the brunt of it, but it must have hurt their pride. If Sowir even had such emotions. The enemy fleet had altered their course, now they were coming on an arch that would take them to the right of the Nel fleet, using it as a shield against Adrian’s fleet. Both Adrian and Isani were forced to make adjustments as well. Now altering their course to bring them parallel to that of the Sowir. Eventually this arched course would bring them back towards Nuva. Adrian and Isani formed their ships into two “walls” one above the other, with Adrian’s fleet taking the top and Isani’s the bottom. After they adjust their course they would be travelling parallel to the Sowir, until eventually both forces smashed into one another. The two forces entered laser range, and almost simultaneously all three commanders ordered their ships to fire.

* * *

Invisible beams reached out of the human and Nel ships to strike the Sowir, just as theirs reached out to strike back. Missiles joined the battle, thousands of missiles were fired on both sides, and the space between the two opposing forces became bathed in explosions, with only a few managing to get through. The Sowir laser defenses proved more efficient than the human ones in the sense that their targeting was better, but the sheer amount of defensive shells that the human ships fired provided the difference. The entire space between them was blanketed in cover fire, in a random pattern that Sowir missiles were hard pressed to evade. The bulk of Sowir missiles were targeted at Nel ships, with the human ships using most of their defensive fire to cover for them. The laser beams started inflicting more and more damage on the Nel ships as the two forces drew closer, while human resistant hulls managed to dissipate most of it. On the other side the Sowir ships were soaking in a lot of damage from the human ships. The Leivathan’s heavy lasers were hitting the Sowir battleships hard as they moved out to cover their other ships. The battle was more or less even, until the Sowir opened up with their particle beams.

Chapter Twenty Eight

Leviathan

Adrian watched his command board, the battle was very even, which frustrated Adrian. He had thought that faced with weapons they have never seen before Sowir would slip up, but they had adapted extremely well. The few volleys of railgun fire he sent their way they evaded easily, making small adjustments to their course. And his ships just didn’t have enough shells to blast the entire area in which they were maneuvering. Very few of his missiles managed to pass through, which again frustrated Adrian. The data they got from Voyager indicated that they managed to hit the attacking Sowir ships with two missiles, and that was with not even a hundred missiles fired. Perhaps it was luck, or there was some other factor that Adrian just couldn’t see. But now he had barely 20 verified hits on the enemy ships, all dealing light damage. He needed to get them through or he would soon exhaust his missile supply. The closer his ships were to the Sowir the more effective his railguns would be. His laser weapons were inflicting moderate damage, but still not enough to take a ship out.

“We need to change the flow, and soon.” Adrian said.

“Their ships evading patterns are too random, and each time we hit they start rolling the ship spreading out the beam. We can’t keep our laser beams locked on them for enough time to inflict significant damage.” Iris said.

“We need to close the distance, our ships can take a lot more than theirs. And our weapons more effective up close.” Adrian said.

“But Nel ships can’t, they will take heavy casualties.” Iris warned.

“I don’t see much choice now.” Adrian said.

Adrian reached out to open a channel to Retsar Isani when his command board flashed. He turned his eyes to the map just as an update popped up, the Nel light cruiser Pride had sustained heavy damage. It was now trying to get behind one of the heavy cruisers. Before he could ask Iris said, “Sowir battleships have started firing their particle weapons.”

Adrian looked at the damage to the Nel light cruiser, its maneuverability was greatly reduced. And they stopped firing their lasers. Looking at its position, and the position of the heavy cruiser that was moving to cover it. He knew that it wouldn’t make it, but one of his ships was in a much better position above the Nel light cruiser. Just as he was about to send the order to the ship, he saw that battleship Protector had started moving to cover the Nel ship. A moment later Adrian received a message from Force Leader Krylov that he was moving to provide cover for the Nel ship. Agreeing with the call, Adrian sent orders to his other ships to close the gap from the Protector. The Sowir particle weapons had changed the flow, his ships had now started to accumulate damage. Seeing that he needed to turn the flow Adrian opened a comm to Retsar Isani telling him his plans, and then executed a series of commands that would hopefully turn the tide of the battle.

* * *

As orders from Adrian’s command board went out to his ships and their commanders moved to execute them, it seemed as if a shiver went over the battlefield. Adrian’s light cruisers Sting, Swift, and heavy cruisers Freedom and Enterprise started accelerating on a course that would take them above the field of battle. While Leviathan, battleships Battle Song and Protector, and heavy cruiser Valkyrie turned and started accelerating directly towards the Sowir force. Retsar Isani spread his ships below the plane of battle, pushing his own battleship, two heavy cruisers and five light cruisers forward parallel to the Leviathans course, but held back a bit, while his damaged light cruiser and frigates stayed back providing missile and laser pressure on the Sowir alongside the First Fleets light cruisers Conqueror and Talon. The abrupt course change took Sowir by surprise, which allowed Adrian’s ships to overwhelm Sowir defenses for a few moments. Multiple missile strikes hit the Sowir ships from the combined fire of human and Nel, with Leviathan’s heavy lasers inflicting significant damage to the two Sowir heavy cruisers. But soon Sowir adapted, and their six battleships turned and set a course to intercept the Leviathan and its escorts. The two Troop transports had kept back shielded by the light cruisers, but as Leviathan grew closer, they also changed course and four out of six light cruisers followed. Their new course brought them through the hole that Leviathan made in his forces wall, and then straight to Nuva.

* * *

As he saw the new course of the Sowir light cruisers and the two transports Adrian knew that he had made a mistake. His ships wouldn’t be able to fire upon them as the six battleships kept pressure on them, the taskforce he sent above the plane of battle was too far away and turning them back now would serve no point. Retsar Isani’s ships were following Adrian’s and were likewise engaged. The only ships that could intercept them were Retsar Isani’s frigates, one damaged light cruiser and Adrian’s two light cruisers, Conqueror and Talon. The damaged light cruiser couldn’t achieve the acceleration enough to intercept, which left Conqueror, Talon, and four frigates. Frigates had already almost expended their missile loads, and their light laser turrets were not up to par, not to mention their lightly armored hulls. Which meant the bulk of the work would fall on Adrian’s ships. Two against four. Adrian knew that he had no choice. He manipulated the command board and sent the orders. It would be up to them, he couldn’t control their battle.

“Iris, I need a way in.” Adrian said. He kept looking for room to get Leviathan inside the Sowir formation, but there was none. A couple of seconds later Iris spoke in his mind. “Follow this course.” Iris said, as a course appeared on his map.

“Iris, that will take us on a collision course with their battleships.” Adrian said.

“Trust me, they won’t be there when you get there.” Iris said.

Trusting her, he sent the order. As his ships changed course, he started seeing a subtle shift in the Sowir tracks. Soon he saw what Iris knew would happen. The Sowir battleships altered their course to cover the force that Retsar Isani was brining from below, to avoid being surrounded. Ironically, that was just what was going to happen. The Sowir plan was to bring in their heavy cruiser in the hole they had just made, and ordinarily they would have succeeded. But Iris saw their only available course of action, which meant that now, Leviathan and its escorts would plug the hole before the heavy cruisers arrived. Sowir battleships would be surrounded by Adrian’s ships on the one side and Retsar Isani’s on the other, while their heavy cruisers now unable to close the gap would be left outside on the Leviathan’s side. Quickly Adrian ordered his commanders to focus on the six battleships, as they were the biggest threat. Leviathan started taking fire from Sowir particle weapons in increasing amounts, but Leviathan’s heavy hull shrugged it off. A moment later, as they reached the optimal range for railgun fire, Adrian’s ships opened fire.

* * *

Ship Master Leia Kim, commander of the light cruiser Conqueror watched the holo as ships under her command speed towards the four Sowir light cruisers and the two troop transport they were protecting. Her command consisted of one other human light cruiser, and four Nel frigates. Although Nel ships weren’t directly under her command, they would follow her lead, their ships were not capable of stopping the Sowir ships on their own. She sent out orders to Talon and the four frigates, and the six ships started firing their missiles and lasers. One light cruiser moved to protect the transports, while the other three split off to cut Leia’s ships. Missiles from both sides started getting through the defensive fire, without the bigger ships they had very little defensive capabilities. Human ships proved better at taking down missiles, but they still took the brunt of the attack as they moved to cover the Nel frigates as they fired the remainder of their arsenal. Seeing that if they don’t get by the three ships the troop transports would get away, Leia pressed the attack, closing the distance. Invisible beams scorched the surface of the ships on both sides, even as missiles struck and exploded against the hulls. Conqueror and Talon managed to get by with light damage, while inflicting more damage to the Sowir ships. The Nel frigates didn’t fare so well, after they expanded their missiles they needed to get out of the cover provided by the Conqueror and Talon in order to fire their lasers. And each time they did so, Sowir focused fire on them. It wasn’t long until one of the Sowir beams managed to hold target long enough to burn through one of the frigates hulls, a moment later the Frigate exploded. Meanwhile Lia tried to focus one of Sowir light cruisers that appeared to have taken more damage than the others. Conqueror’s laser fire managed to disrupt the Sowir ships defensive fire long enough for Talon’s missiles to pass through and slam into the ship’s hull. The missiles penetrated and the Sowir ship exploded in a short flash of fire, leaving only a mangled husk. But that focus cost them another Frigate, and depleting the last of their missiles. But watching the holo Leia saw that the ships were now close enough that railguns could be effective. Railguns on the Conqueror and the Talon rotated and locked on the enemy ships. A moment later they started shooting at the Sowir ships. Because of the distance the Sowir ships had less time to evade the incoming fire, and soon glancing blows became direct hits, mauling the Sowir ships. But even with all that the two remaining Sowir ships wouldn’t be destroyed in time, and their return fire had already started to impair Conqueror’s and Talon’s ability to maintain the same level of fire, with constant rotation and maneuvering to avoid the brunt of Sowir laser fire their railguns had to be retargeted constantly. Then another Frigate got hit and exploded. Looking at her holo helplessly Leia tried to find a way to get around the two Sowir light cruisers and catch up to the transports. Then she noticed a blip on the holo moving extremely fast on an intercept course with the transports. It was the damaged Nel light cruiser, accelerating at an amazing rate. After a moment Leia realized what the commander of that ship was going to do. They had overloaded their drives, gaining an enormous amount of speed while guaranteeing that their ship would not survive. She also saw the two Sowir ship moving to block its path, and she pressed the attack harder. Conqueror, Talon and the remaining Nel Frigate pushed the attack as Sowir ships tried to reposition themselves to catch Nel light cruiser. That attempt cost them everything. The three ships poured fire into their sides, lasers and railguns fire started hitting the Sowir hard, but even so the return fire from their lasers was hitting Talon hard in return, but soon the two ships stumbled under the continuous attack. Almost simultaneously they exploded, leaving Conqueror without full maneuvering and Talon heavily damaged its hull sporting gashes and melted hull. The last Nel Frigate had light damage from a few glancing laser hits. With the destruction of the two light cruisers, the Nel ship had a direct path opened at the Sowir transports. As the ship neared, the remaining Sowir light cruiser opened fire, but Nel ship ignored any form of defense instead pouring everything into offence. It opened fire with its missiles and lasers on the light cruiser as it sped past it on an intercept course with one of the transports. Leia watched the front viewer seeing as the Nel ship hit and damaged the light cruiser’s drives, even as its hull was now falling apart pieces breaking off. It sped past the light cruiser and slammed into the troop transport disappearing in a ball of fire. Leia hung her head, she knew that she had just witnessed what someone fighting for their home was capable of.

The remaining Sowir transport ship kept its course towards Nuva, there was no chance for Lia and her ships to catch it. The light cruiser that served as its escort drives were damaged and it couldn’t keep up, it slowly turned and set a course for Lia and her ships. Looking at her crew and then back at the holo she gave the order for them to meet the enemy ship.

* * *

Ship Master Paul Isaacs glanced at Adrian, his friend, as he commanded the fleet. For Adrian the battle was a chess match, but for Paul and the other commanders it was a lot more personal. They were fighting their ships, trying to destroy the enemy while keeping their ships safe.

“Power grid fourteen is down, we lost railguns thirteen through fifteen.” Weapons Handler reported.

“Send the repair crew, get them back online.” Paul’s High Prime ordered.

Studying the holo Paul noticed that battleship Battle Song managed to push six missiles through one of the Sowir battleships defenses, the one designated as H3. Seeing an opening Paul immediately started giving orders.

“Rotate the ship. Bring all our top weapons to bear on H3.” Paul ordered.

Almost immediately Leviathan started its rotation, turning its top towards the Sowir battleships. As each of Leviathan’s weapons got into range they started firing on the 290 meter long battleship. Railgun fire started ravaging the battle ship’s hull even as Leviathan’s lasers scorched it. And then one of Leviathan’s main lasers managed to keep a full 5 second burn on its target. The result was a flash of fire as the beam burned through the hull and ignited the air inside. A change immediately came over the ship.

“It’s point defense is offline!” Sensor Handler yelled out.

“Load torpedo tubes 1 and 3! Get me a lock.” Paul said.

“Torpedo tubes 1 and 3 loaded, we have a lock!”

“Fire!”

Two torpedoes launched from Leviathans forward tubes. The torpedoes were devastating weapons, but lacked maneuverability and evasive capabilities of missiles. But now that the enemy ship’s defenses were offline it was the perfect moment to use them. The two torpedoes sped towards their target, and then slammed into its hull. The detonations were devastating, momentarily blinding sensors of every ship close to the Sowir battleship.

In the fraction of a moment after the detonations, Iris recognized the advantage, and assumed direct command of every missiles already on its way toward the enemy ships. In the moment that sensors were blind, she changed trajectories of all the missiles, she had a virtual map of the battlefield in her memory. As the torpedo blasts expired, Sowir point defense computers tried to lock onto the incoming missiles, searching for their previous tracks. It took them a couple of seconds to realize that the missiles were no longer on those tracks, but that was enough. Hundreds of human missiles hit their new targets, inflicting heavy damage to Sowir battleships.

* * *

Adrian watched as quick thinking from Paul resulted in a complete change of the battle. Adrian adapted his tactics, changing orders to capitalize on the advantage they just acquired. The map showed Adrian’s ships inflicting heavy damage on the Sowir battleships from one side just as Retsar Isani and his were attacking from the other. The advantage Paul created gave Retsar Isani’s ships room to strike on the damaged Sowir ships. Focused fire from Valor and its escorts broke through defenses of Sowir battleship designated as H5. And with its destruction others started to fall, but not without a fight. Their particle beams constantly hammered both Adrian’s and Isani’s ships, a critical hit on the already damaged heavy cruiser Valkyrie caused an explosion that rocked the ship, its forward section blowing up opening the ship to space. Valkyrie spun dead in space, and Adrian hoped that the crew managed to survive, his board was still giving him status reports from Valkyrie, but no one was answering comms. All of Valkyries weapons systems were offline as were most of its critical systems. Putting the Valkyrie in the back of his mind Adrian continued to guide his ships, he had no time to worry now. Seeing the Sowir heavy cruiser entering range and starting to open fire on his ships, Adrian gave order to the taskforce he previously sent above the field of battle to cut previous order short and swing back immediately, striking the heavy cruisers from behind. Then he split his main force in two, sending the battleship Protector to keep them busy, while Leviathan and Battle Song helped Nel ships finish off Sowir battleships. He cast his eyes on the two Sowir transports and its escorts, seeing that his light cruisers and Nel frigates managed to destroy one transport and three of its four light cruisers escorts, but at a heavy price. Nel lost the damaged light cruiser and three of its frigates, while Conqueror and Talon sustained heavy damage. And now the remaining light cruiser was slowly turning to meet Conqueror, Talon, and Nel frigate. Seeing that there was no chance of his ships reaching the troop transport in time to stop it from reaching Nuva, Adrian sent a message to Company Leader Okoro, letting him know that one troop transport was on its way.

* * *

Light cruiser Conqueror fired with its railguns on the crippled Sowir light cruiser. It appeared that the Nel ship did much more damage. The Conqueror, Talon, and Nel frigate were pouring laser fire into the ship, with its return fire coming in short bursts. It looked like they would finish dispatch it quickly.

“Talon got hit! Their power grid overloaded, the backlash hit the core, its compromised!” Comm Handler yelled out. Leia turned sharply, there were countermeasures to prevent that.

“Are they ejecting the core?” Leia asked quickly.

“They are trying Ship Master, but—” Comm Handler started, but was interrupted as a big explosion enveloped the Talon.

“Th-they’re gone.” Comm Handler said softly.

It hit Leia hard, Julia Ness Ship Master of the Talon was her friend, and suddenly she was gone. Leia steeled herself, “Keep the pressure on the Sowir ship.” Leia said coldly.

Laser beams hit the Sowir ship, and Conqueror’s weapons handlers worked frantically to compensate for the Sowir ship movement, keeping the beam in the same place. Then after the third try they finally managed it, the Conqueror’s beam held and burned through the Sowir ship hull. Immediately Ship Master Leia ordered all lasers to be retargeted to the same point. All eight of Conquerors remaining operational lasers hit a target within five meters of each other. The 24cm beams burned deeper into the ship, until finally the Sowir ship couldn’t take anymore and it snapped in half. Short explosions split the ship and sent the two parts flying in opposite directions. There were no cheers among those in the Conquerors command center. Her task now partially complete, Leia sent a message to the flagship, then she looked at the holo in front of her. The Sowir transport had almost reached Nuva. There was nothing she could do about them now, it was left to the soldiers on the ground.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Nuva

Platoon Leader Sahib Adin stood in the makeshift command center on Nuva. Company Leaders Okoro, Hughes, and Mao were deciding what was the best way they can contribute to the defense of Nuva with the Nel military leaders. Nuva had just the one major city, with the rest being farms, that were mostly automated. Machines would do most of the work, people were only needed at certain points during the farming year. The two Nel Laas Rett that were in command of the militia believed that Sowir troops would drop directly into the city, as it had no defenses. It all seemed pointless to Sahib, they couldn’t possibly hold the city, their fleet was losing, if they had support from orbit perhaps. But landing troops now had no purpose other than their deaths. The two Nel Laas Rett, which translated as something like a warrior, argued for waiting and sending troops after the Sowir land, rather than spreading them out over key points in the city as the Company Leaders suggesting. Sahib had spent the time since they landed on the planet listening in to the meetings and planning sessions. And he got the expression that Nel didn’t put much stock into what humans said. They came off arrogant, but that could just be the impression he got from their emotionless faces. In the end Company Leaders had to agree to Nel plans.

As the Sowir troop ship entered orbit of Nuva it released five dropships and then used Nuva’s gravity to slingshot around and exit on a course out of the system, away from the space battle that was still raging. As the Sowir landing points became apparent Laas Rett started sending their militia troops to meet them, after some more “discussion” between Company Leaders and Laas Rett, Company Leader Okoro turned and walked over to Sahib.

“Adin, take yours and Monifa’s platoons to these coordinates, you are to reinforce the militia squad sent to deal with one of the dropships.” Company Leader Okoro said as he sent the coordinates to Sahib’s implant. Sahib could detect a trace of annoyance in his tone.

“And the rest of our people?” Sahib asked.

Okoro shook his head. “The fools are keeping us back. It’s their show, I barely managed to convince them to let me send two platoons as backup.” He sighed. “This needs to be fast Adin. These people don’t understand what is happening, they are giving their opponent time to dig in, they think that because the fleet got one troop transport there is no danger. These guys know how to fight, I can tell just by looking at them, but they don’t understand how to wage war.” Okoro looked Sahib directly in the eye. “Assist their militia, and make sure that you get every single Sowir.”

“Yes, sir!” Sahib said and saluted. Then he turned and went to find Platoon Leader Nissah Monifa and then to get their platoons.

* * *

Sahib swayed gently as the TTV or tactical transport vehicle turned a corner. He was standing in the TTV alongside the rest of his platoon. After Sahib found Nissah, both he and she got their platoons into their TTV’s and immediately started towards the position of the militia force. The TTV’s were armored vehicles designed to be used in high threat situations, transporting troops through contested territory. They remained almost unchanged from even before Olympus got into space, with only a few additions.

“Reaching the coordinates in 5 minutes.” A voice over the internal speakers in Sahib’s helmet, as it did in that of every soldier in the TTV’s.

“Alright, everyone get ready.” Sahib said. Looking at his HUD, he saw the updated info on the situation sent from Company Leader Okoro. The militia forces had engaged the Sowir, and were losing badly. Laas Rett sent 700 militia to deal with 300 Sowir soldiers. Militia with limited training and equipment against 300 fully equipped soldiers. Sahib shook his head. It was stupid. Even this small force will be able to do enormous damage before it was defeated unless Laas Rett started acting competently. TTV’s came to a stop and the back opened. As soon as the two platoons left them Sahib started giving orders.

“Squad Claw and Paw reinforce militia positions, setup turrets and keep them bottled. Nissah, you hit them from the east. I’ll try to come from their backs, see if we can take their dropship.” Sahib said, and Nissah saluted. Claw and Paw squad took out two boxes from the TTV and then started towards the militia positions, Nissah’s platoon took off to get in position. Sahib turned to his two remaining squads, Alpha and Fang.

“Let’s go.” Sahib said. They were provided with detailed maps of the city by the Laas Rett, and Sahib’s HUD was constantly updated with enemy positions. They chose to take a long round route around the contested area, hoping to avoid any Sowir forces until they got into position. At first Sowir landing points seemed random, as there was no significant point of interest they could be going after. Until he realized that all of their droop points were in close proximity to the underground shelters. Logic dictated that those were their targets and that they had some knowledge about them, even though the shelters were supposed to be undetectable from orbit. Sowir were throwing their troops away, but also trying to wreak as much damage as they could. Sahib constantly got updates from Claw and Paw squads, they had set up defensive positions one on the street level and one on a nearby building, from where they managed to halt the Sowir advance. Sahib had sent his thoughts on the Sowir objectives to CL Okoro, and both he and Laas Rett concurred. The militia has been taking heavy casualties simply due to them being outmatched. Claw Squad Leader Lee “Noose” Sato commed Sahib to let him know that their weapons proved very effective against the Sowir, unlike those of Nel militia.

After fifteen minutes they reached the back of Sowir position. “The Sowir dropship came down somewhere behind these buildings.” Sahib said, highlighting them on his and the rest of his people HUDs. “Fang scout ahead. See how many are guarding the dropship.”

Without a word Cheat took his squad through one of the buildings that connected to the square where the dropship was supposed to be.

Sahib took his own squad to the side, where he could quickly respond should Fang need help, or attack the dropship. A few minutes later Cheat commed in.

“There are four Sowir in front of the dropship, can’t say if there are more inside Alpha.”

“Can you take them down?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, wait for my signal.” Sahib said. He moved his squad closer, and then gave the signal to Fang. Alpha squad ran out of cover towards the dropship, using their suits powered systems to increase their speed in three seconds they covered over 160 meters. Sowir noticed them and started to turn just as four shots rang out, dropping them in a shower of blood. Sahib ordered two of his squads to secure the dropship. Then instructed squad Fang to spread out around the square and provide cover. After the dropship was secure and they made sure there are no more threats around them, Sahib looked down at the Sowir bodies. There was much more blood and gore than he expected. The bullets from their sniper rifles ripped through the Sowir suits and their bodies, taking with them huge chunks of flesh. It was as if a cannonball punched through. The Sowir looked like some kind of octopi, only with seven arms instead of eight. The arms weren’t really anything like that of an octopus, there were no suctions or ridges of any kind that Sahib could see, they looked more like Elephant trunks, long muscles ending with four small finger like appendages. The arms were close to two meters in length, and their center of the body looked like a big blob about a meter across. All shots were in the center of their mass, as that was where their major organs were. Looking down, he couldn’t see for sure what their skin looked like as it was covered in a brownish suit, but the few chunks he could see were grayish in color. The center of their bodies was encased in a kind of armor, although Sahib couldn’t tell what it was made from. The center blob had something mounted on it that looked like it could be a weapon of some kind, while two of its seven arms had things attached that definitely were weapons.

“Why the hell didn’t they have more guarding this thing?” Cheat asked over the comm.

“I have no idea. They are alien, who can say. And I don’t think that they planned on getting off this planet alive.” Sahib said.

“But that makes no sense. They can’t possibly hurt Nuva enough to warrant the sacrifice of their soldiers.” Cheat said. Sahib didn’t respond, he felt the same way. Sahib decided to leave two of his men to guard the dropship from a safe distance, but he had them put explosives on the dropship.

“If more Sowir than you can handle come this way detonate the charges.” Sahib told the two. They saluted and went to find sniping positions. Then the rest of Fang and Alpha squads continued towards the back of the Sowir positions.

* * *

Squad Leader Lola ‘NGD’ Petrov and Squad Leader Lee “Noose” Sato sat behind the cover guiding their squads, they had set up a defensive perimeter in one of the main streets that lead to one of the shelters, which as it happened Sowir wanted to reach. They set up two HO-32 turrets on the street level one on a nearby building so that it could cover the west approach, and one closing off the adjacent street. That meant that Sowir had to go through them if they wanted to get to the shelter. And as they learned that wasn’t going to happen, they were at an impasse. Sowir couldn’t get pass the turrets and militia positions, and the militia couldn’t get to them. The Sowir positions were in a series of small streets, which with their higher speed and agility meant that anyone going in there wasn’t coming back out. Before the humans arrived militia was getting hammered. They simply didn’t know how to position themselves, nor did they have any kind of training that could help them. After the two squads arrived and set up their defenses things changed. The turrets started laying waste to the Sowir that were running down the street trying to overwhelm Nel positions. They lost at least fifty before they wised up and moved back. Now the Nel militia was at least positioned correctly to protect the area, under the guidance of Lola and Lee. All of their commanders died in the fighting before humans arrived. Sowir now kept to their side of the street, trying to snipe at the human positions, without much success. Each time they did a shot rang out, and a Sowir died.

“These Sowir aren’t all that smart. Didn’t they bring any heavy weapons?” Noose asked on a private channel to Lola “NGD” Petrov.

“I don’t know… Maybe they’re planning something? They must have brought something, they couldn’t have taken the planet otherwise.” NGD answered.

“I don’t know NGD. These Nel aren’t all that better either, I bet those three hundred over there would have taken care of the militia forces easily if we weren’t here.” Noose said.

“They can’t possibly be this mindless? They are acting like a swarm not a military force.”

“They are aliens after all, more so than Nel are, who knows what they are thinking.” Noose said.

Lola kept quiet, she couldn’t understand anyone just sending their people to die with no reason. Then another shot rang out.

“Got another one.” A voice said over the comms. Lola shook her head, they just don’t learn. Then she got a comm from Platoon Leader Adin.

“Nissah’s platoon is in position. And we will be in ten minutes. Get the militia ready, we are going to attack them from all sides.”

“Yes, sir.” Lola sighed, she got up and went to convince untrained militia that their best option now was to attack advantageously positioned Sowir.

* * *

“What does it looks like?” Sahib asked.

“I have no idea, they are just standing there in the alleys not moving a muscle. Then one would peek out of cover trying to get a hit on one of our turrets, die and the others would shift places.”

Looking over his HUD map Sahib started highlighting certain areas. “We will pass through this street here, there are twelve hostiles there, we should catch them by surprise, and that street will then open a straight path at their back. Fang, you guys will take positions up on this building.” Sahib said, highlighting a building that was about a hundred meters down the street from Sowir positions. “Nissah’s platoon will hit them from the west, we will follow after. You’ll know her platoon started fighting when you hear explosions, they will start with a few RPGs, fired from this point here.” Sahib highlighted a building on the west side. “Then squads Claw and Paw will strike with the militia from the front, and we from the back. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Let’s go.”

His squads got into positions, and soon after three explosions rang out. Sahib immediately ordered his people to attack.

The militia along with Claw and Paw got hit the Sowir positions first. Nel energy weapons bathed the street in light, mingling with return fire from the Sowir. As Sahib’s team entered the street, they saw a swarm of Sowir, moving incredibly fast towards the forward positions to meet the militia. As soon as Sahib got into range he opened fire, his squad mates doing the same. Bullets from human weapons ripped through Sowir armor in a single shot, while militia’s energy weapons took more than one hit on the same target to burn through. The few Sowir weapons that hit the human suits, did nothing more than disrupt the suit’s systems for a moment and two. Then Nissah’s platoon joined in from the west and the street became a slaughter house. Sowir didn’t even try to run away or get to cover, they just mindlessly ran at the Nel militia, a few managing to reach their positions, killing scores as they fired their weapons point blank and used their powerful arms to break the necks of those close enough. But they couldn’t match the human weapons, and quickly there was nothing moving in the street that wasn’t human or Nel.

“Fucking slaughter.” Cheat said over the internal comms, as Nel militia started cheering, it was the first time Sahib saw a Nel show any kind of emotion.

“Why the hell were they so ill equipped for this?” Lola asked.

“I have no idea.” Noose answered.

Sahib just shook his head, and contacted Company Leader Okoro.

“It’s done, sir.”

“I know Adin, militia at your position already called back and reported to Laas Rett. Their other positions are taking a pounding, one of the Sowir landing groups punched through and found a shelter they are trying to enter even as we speak. Laas Rett finally decided to let us fight, I’m sending all platoons to help. I need you to go to these coordinates.” Okoro said, sending the coordinates to Sahib’s imp.

“Yes sir. But sir, these Sowir. I don’t think they are soldiers sir.” Sahib said.

After a moment of hesitation Okoro responded. “I know. There is something very strange going on here. We’ll talk later.” With that, he closed the comm.

“Alright platoon, gather your gear and meet at the TTV’s we got more work to do.”

* * *

Leviathan

Force Leader Nenad Krylov watched the holo as his ship took the combined fire of six Sowir heavy cruisers. The Protector was able to intercept most of their missiles, but their lasers had started to become a problem, and Krylov didn’t know how much more his ship could take. In that moment he noticed that one of the six heavy cruiser’s drives were damaged by a couple of Protector’s missiles that managed to pass through its point defense. Immediately Krylov ordered focused fire from Protector’s powerful railgun turrets, and they started raining fire on the ship that was unable to evade it. Massive metal slugs shredded the ship and after a few seconds its drives exploded, followed by the rest of the ship. Then Krylov noticed pressure on his ship lessen as task force consisting of light cruisers Sting and Swift, and heavy cruisers Freedom and Enterprise commenced firing on the Sowir ships back. Krylov ordered his ship in closer to the Sowir keeping pressure on them. The overwhelming firepower of the human ships overpowered the Sowir noteworthy defenses.

* * *

Adrian watched on his command board as the Protector and the task force destroyed another heavy cruiser, leaving only two remaining. On his side of the battle, Leviathan managed to destroy one Sowir battleship, Valor and its escorts one more, and another one fell to the Battle Song. Force Leader Altsoba Smith proved incredibly competent when she suckered the Sowir battleship into overextending and then smashed it with her railguns. Now only three battered battleships remained, and the combined fire from the human and Nel ships was overwhelming them. Leviathan’s railguns fired constantly on the battleship designated as H6, its hull was now sporting hundreds of small holes and scorch marks, its weapon fire diminishing until finally they were dead in space. Adrian immediately sent orders to leave that ship alone, and focus on the others. He had plans for that one, if they manage to take it. Retsar Isani acknowledged the communication from Adrian, and his ships focused on the two remaining ships. The last two battleships died within minutes of one another. When the last one exploded, Adrian leaned back in his chair, releasing a long breath.

“We won.” Iris said.

“We won.” Adrian agreed. Looking at his command board, he saw countless reports. Injured count was constantly rising, as was that of the dead or lost. Damages to the his ships, and lack of reports from two ships griped at Adrian’s heart. Sitting up in his chair, Adrian started giving orders for rescue operations. There were still things to be done.

Chapter Thirty

March 2170 – Sanctuary

Seo-yun sat in her office at the palace. Tomas was in a meeting with Laura and Elias discussing the battle at Nuva. Seo-yun couldn’t sit there and listen to the endless death reports. She felt guilty, as if she was betraying those people that died by not listening, but she just couldn’t make herself go. It was her that sent them there, using technology that she rediscovered. She knew intellectually that their deaths weren’t her fault. But emotionally she couldn’t help but feel at least partially responsible.

So she sat in her office busying herself by reading reports on various projects.

“You should go, Tomas might need you.” Luna said in her head.

“I can’t. And he is a big boy, he can handle it now.” Seo-yun responded.

“Perhaps then, you need him.”

“What I need is a little time alone. Tomas had five years, all I ask is a few hours.” Seo-yun said harshly, and immediately regretted it, but she didn’t apologize. Luna remained quiet.

Seo-yun spent the next ten minutes in silence, only statistics and graphs occupying her mind. And then Luna spoke again.

“Seo-yun?”

“I’m not going to the meeting.” She said out loud.

“It’s not about that. The fleet just received a message for you, they forwarded it to me.” Luna said.

“Who is it from?” Seo-yun asked.

“I don’t know, but the message is encrypted and from out of the system.”

“Nuva?”

“No.”

Seo-yun accessed the inbox on her holo-table. When she tried to open the message it asked for verification. She entered her key, and her holo cleared. Then a small hologram appeared on her table.

“Hello, my friend.” Said an image of a four armed alien.

Startled Seo-yun watched as an image of an ancient Ai told the story of events that transpired since Olympus left Earth. The more he told her, the more her feelings changed. And then when his tale neared the end disgust for the way people of earth threw their lives away fighting among themselves turned into fear and then helplessness as she listened of what the alien race called Ra’a’zani did to her homeworld.

* * *

“We lost six hundred and fifty eight people, with another one hundred and seven injured, forty of which are critically injured with very little chance of survival.” Laura read. “We lost two ships, light cruiser Talon, and heavy cruiser Valkyrie, which is just a wreck. Rescue crews managed to save thirteen crew members from the wreck, but most of them are critically injured. Other ships sustained various amounts of damage. Light cruiser Conqueror is barely able to move, and its power grid is constantly going offline. Battleship Protector has problems with their cores, which are on the verge of going critical. Heavy cruiser Freedom and Enterprise, and light cruiser Sting got off with light damage. Battleship Battle Song also got of lightly a couple of hull breaches, but, it could have been much worse. Dreadnought Leviathan while being in the middle of most of the fighting is still operating at near full capacity. A few of its weapon grids are offline, but should be up and running in a few days. And then there is light cruiser Swift, which somehow managed to get through the battle with no damage at all. They have also almost depleted their ammunition, they will need to fabricate more.”

“Thank you Laura. Elias, what about the fighting on the planet?” Tomas asked.

“We got through much better, at least our forces did. We lost two soldiers, when the Sowir rushed our positions and got close enough for melee.” Elias said, “Nel on the other hand, had a lot of casualties. Their militia lost twenty nine hundred, out of their four thousand. And they lost over three thousand civilians when one Sowir group managed to get in one of the shelters. Our people got there too late to stop them.” Elias said softly.

“God.” Laura said.

“How was that possible, weren’t they protected? Did Nel even prepare?” Tomas asked.

“Poorly, at least by our standards. Tomas, they didn’t know how.” Elias said.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Their tactics were pitiful, it was on the level of children playing. No, not even that, our children would have done better.” Elias said grimly.

“Why? How could they not know?” Laura asked.

Elias grimaced, “Company Leader Okoro had a theory, after speaking to their Laas Rett, and reading through their history. He thinks that it’s as simple as that they never learned. They know how to police, but war, at least on the ground they know almost nothing about. I have no doubt that they know what they are doing in space, most likely more than us. And rightly so, they were in space for longer than us. But ground warfare…” Elias said, shaking his head. “They never warred against themselves. They never had a war on the ground. Not even the Sowir. The planets Sowir took were won in the orbit, and then fought against police and civilians on the ground, not trained soldiers.”

Tomas got a faraway look in his eyes, “War.” He said.

“What?” Laura asked.

“Just something Seo-yun told me a long time ago. When we found the Union ship. We were surprised that most of their technology wasn’t all that more advanced than ours, at least military technology. She said that it was because we progressed much faster. The reason behind that being so, was war. Humans have fought against each other since before we learned how to write.” Tomas said.

Elias nodded. “That makes sense. No matter how much we try to deny it, our history is one bathed in blood and war. Well, at least now I can guess why our soldiers outmatched the Sowir and Nel so much on the ground.”

“What do we do now?” Laura asked.

“I don’t think that the Sowir will be back anytime soon. Their transport ship will take at least a few months to report back. Until then we start with exploring translanes around Sanctuary and Nuva. We send as much as we can to help fortify Nuva, and then we will see, after we get our shipbuilding operations back online.” Tomas said.

“Adrian had some suggestions for that.” Laura said.

“We will go over them later, I’m sure he has a lot of insights as to what we need to do for our new ships.” Tomas said.

Then the doors opened and Seo-yun entered the room. Seeing her expression Tomas immediately got up.

“What’s wrong?” Tomas asked.

“Earth has been enslaved.”

Epilogue

March 2170 – Earth

Aileen no name, stood at the head of the table behind her master, Vit’r’an Dakar of the clan Ooruvan, overlord of the planet Earth, while he finished with his meal. It was a part of his practice to have her standing behind him as he ate, it was a part of Ra’a’zani creed to never turn their back to an enemy, and this gesture was a way of him telling the humans standing across the table that he did not consider them a threat.

Though the humans across of him had no knowledge of Ra’a’zani creed and the gesture was lost on them. Aileen’s presence only served to remind them that they were slaves on their own world, which in a way made the gesture work in Vit’r’an’s favor.

“Master Vit’r’an w—”

“Dakar Vit’r’an.” Aileen interrupted the man, he looked at her angrily, but knew better than to lash out at a Ra’a’zani’s pet.

“Apologies, Dakar Vit’r’an, as you know we here represent the humans that have accepted your rule, and we are here to discuss some additional benefits for our continued support.” The man said, he was speaking in Ra’a’zani, and to Aileen’s ears was passably good at it. As much as a human can be good at a language that their mouths weren’t designed to speak. The Ra’a’zani language was harsh.

Vit’r’an continued to eat not responding to their words. Looking at a Ra’a’zani eating can be disconcerting for a human. The Ra’a’zani were carnivores, and ate uncooked meat, and one of Vit’r’an’s favorites from Earth was dolphin meat. The sight on the eating table was enough to turn anyone’s stomach, a dolphin was laid in front of Vit’r’an and he proceeded to bite into the flesh and innards alike, ripping them apart with his powerful jaws and teeth. Blood dripped from his face and from his claw like fingers. Ra’a’zani didn’t wear clothes, unless they were going into battle, then they wore armor suits. They had no need for clothes as their bodies were covered by hard scales. The scale color varied from white to dark brown, Vit’r’an’s scales were gray in color. Vit’r’an lifted his lizard like head from the meat and proceeded to swallow the piece he had bitten off. Ra’a’zani didn’t use chairs as their four legs could be locked in a position that leveraged their weight so that they could rest. Vit’r’an unlocked his legs and rose to his feet now towering over the humans with his full two and a half meters height. His legs weren’t straightened all the way, in fact, none of Ra’a’zani could do that, their legs looked vaguely like those of a crab.

“No.” Vit’r’an said.

“Dakar Vit’r’an surely you can see the benefits of having our continued support—”

“You humans are such vile creatures. Did you know than none of the other vermin we enslaved have ever betrayed their own kind? But you, you jump at the chance to do so. And then you want rewards, ‘benefits’ for your betrayal… Alright, I will give you your deserved reward.” Vit’r’an said.

“Thank you, you will not be dis—” The man didn’t have time to finish the sentence before Vit’r’an launched himself across the room the claws of his right hand biting into the man’s throat ripping it out as he turned to the other two. He grabbed the head of the man closest to him with his claws biting through the man’s eye sockets and into his brain. The last man tried to run, but one of Vit’r’an’s legs shoot out and pierced his back. The boney sharp spiked end of Ra’a’zani leg protruded from the man’s stomach, he looked down before Vit’r’an pulled his leg back, the man was dead before he hit the floor.

Vit’r’an stood there for a moment his chest rising and falling quickly, Aileen watched him without moving, she knew that he was in a trance, as he always was after fighting. It was the animal part of the Ra’a’zani brain, he needed a few moments to snap out of it.

After he cooled of Vit’r’an turned towards the door on the left with Aileen following, the next room was a Ra’a’zani bathing chamber, basically it was a pool.

He stepped in the water and submerged, Ra’a’zani could spend up to half an hour underwater. Aileen moved to the edge of the pool, she could see the Rasari, the fish that Ra’a’zani brought from their own world, start eating the blood and gore from Vit’r’an’s scales, it was their way of cleaning themselves. Ten minutes later he resurfaced, his face now clean, but didn’t exit the pool, instead he rested his back on the edge of the pool and looked at Aileen.

“I will never understand how some of you humans can remain so indifferent to the deaths of your own kind.” He said, commenting on Aileen’s blank face, it was a face that she had to perfect in order to survive.

“There are worst things than seeing death Dakar.” Aileen said.

“Perhaps there are.” Vit’r’an said, his lizard like head tilted back, a pose that meant he was thoughtful. “Tell me again, why did you betray your people to us?” He commanded.

“To survive, Dakar.” Aileen answered, Vit’r’an enjoyed asking her that question, even though she always gave the same answer.

“You were taken care of, you were doing what nature intended you to do. Your life wasn’t in danger.” Vit’r’an said. So it’s going to be one of those. Aileen thought, Vit’r’an usually left it at her answer, but sometimes he liked to poke deeper, he fancied himself an expert on human psychology, and always tried to peek further and discern the reasons for our actions.

“Nevertheless, I needed to survive, Dakar.” She said. Against her wishes the wall in her mind between the past and the present cracked, she closed her eyes and images poured through. Cold, her back scraping against the stone floor, grunts above her, crying. NO! Don’t go back to the dark place. Slowly the wall went back up and she opened her eyes, Vit’r’an was studying her, she must have given something away, but he didn’t push further. He submerged himself once more, and then resurfaced and climbed out of the pool. He went to the corner of the room and entered a small chamber filled with mist. A minute later he exited now dry, the mist had collected all the water of his scales. He went back towards the dining room, with Aileen following. The room was now clean, some of the other slaves did their job and cleaned it. He passed through the room and into the main area, a comm unit was placed in the middle of the room, with another Ra’a’zani sitting in front of it.

“Anything important?” Vit’r’an asked.

“No, we still haven’t been able to identify the strange reading from the belt, and we are yet to find the shuttle that disappeared, Dakar.” The other Ra’a’zani answered.

It was rare for Ra’a’zani to lose track of their assets, but accidents do happen, the Solar system was a big place and they couldn’t monitor it all. What made this instance strange was that they lost all sensor capability prior to the shuttles disappearance in that area.

“Inform me immediately if you learn something.” Vit’r’an said. He walked to the rack mounted on the wall by the front entrance and took of a belt, it contained a pulse pistol, a comm device and a few other items. He then exited the door with Aileen following. Vit’r’an always took Aileen with him everywhere, she was his trophy, a way of saying to the other Ra’a’zani that he was the one in charge of all of the slaves, he also liked to question her about humanity, Aileen didn’t care as long she didn’t go back.

They stepped out and onto the streets of what was once Rome, the Ra’a’zani leadership decided that they would make their base there amongst the ruins of once great city. Aileen believed that they didn’t know the significance of the city before they chose it.

As they walked the streets Aileen could see other humans hurrying about doing their master’s bidding, there were few Ra’a’zani outside, they preferred to spend the days in their baths.

“Do you think that it was the resistance?” Vit’r’an asked after a few minutes of walking.

Aileen knew that he was talking about the missing shuttle.

“Perhaps, Dakar.” She said. She had long since made peace with the fact that humanity will never again be free.

“Why do you think they would need a shuttle?”

“There are many reasons. Perhaps they simply needed one, or they plan on using it to sneak up on you, Dakar.”

“Yes, I always forget about your cowardly tendencies. We will watch for that. Why do you think they acted now? There haven’t been any activities from them in years.”

“I don’t know, Dakar.” Aileen said.

“Perhaps it was only an accident, I believe we showed you what happens when you try to rebel.”

“Yes Dakar.”

“We could make another demonstration. Perhaps you need to be reminded that we are in charge.” Vit’r’an said thoughtfully.

Aileen remained silent.

“But we have no proof that it was the resistance. We wouldn’t be very good masters if we did things without a cause, and it would send a message to the other clans that we can’t control our slaves. No, we will wait and see.” He said.

They arrived at a walled off building, with armored Ra’a’zani standing guard, big metal towers were constructed on every corner of the rectangular wall. They were immediately let through, as the guards recognized Vit’r’an. It was the Ra’a’zani headquarters, monitoring all activity on the planet.

They went to a few other security checks and then entered a large command room.

“Anything new?” Vit’r’an asked his second in command.

“We have another batch of slaves ready for shipment to the clan Grakkova, and the breeding group is ready for transport to the home world.” Sa’r’an Tekar of clan Ooruvan said.

“Good, the trip to the home world is long, so make sure that everything is in order with the stasis units.”

“Of course Dakar.”

Aileen felt her chest tighten, Breeding group. That could have been me. She quickly buried the thought, No, I escaped that fate.

“Anything else?”

“We estimate to be able to expand our mining operations deeper in the system in five rotations, as the first of the slaves out of the initial breeding programs reach maturity.”

“That is good, the increase in production will give us a lot of influence with the core, it has been a while since we found so rich a solar system.” Vit’r’an commented, looking at the hologram on the left wall, showing the entire system. He walked up to his usual place on a railing overlooking the room, he locked his legs and just watched as his underlings worked. It was a part of his daily routine, they would spend the greater part of the day here watching over the work. Aileen found a comfortable pose and prepared herself for another long day.

*** END ***

Book 3 of the “Rise of the Empire” series coming March 2015

Contact the author: ivankalrote@gmail.com

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Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Ivan Kal

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover art/illustrations Copyright © 2014 by Stefan Bela – bela.stefan93@gmail.com

Contact the author: ivankalrote@gmail.com