Vargemma

  1

  February 18, 128535

  Solar System (Home One Kingdom, Star Force Capitol)

  Earth

  Vochem was walking on his four, hairy, spider-like legs with his robes draping down to almost touch the ground through the gaps between them as the Knight of Quenar strolled across the surface of the city of Atlantis. He did so daily, getting a taste of the planet’s native air and feeling the intense sunlight on his wolf-like fur. There were many places in Atlantis that the Ambassador was not allowed to go, and he respected those boundaries, but where he could go he roamed, speaking to random people and gathering information whenever he could.

  He had very little in the way of duties here other than to be a mouthpiece for the Knights of Quenar, and that position had sporadic activity, leaving him with ample amounts of time to fill beyond training, which he often partook with members of Star Force. The rest of the time he preferred to walk and roam rather than sit confined to a room, and the surface of Atlantis was one of those places that was oddly sparse in population.

  Most of the city was inside the massive construct that sat poking out of the planet’s largest ocean, with a few buildings rising up higher with actual windows that the denizens could see out of…which was a rarity in Star Force. In space, windows were dangerous as a weak point against the sucking void, but on a habitable planet they didn’t have that worry. Star Force cities rarely had windows, for if they came under attack they would provide weak points. Vochem considered that nothing more than paranoia, but that was how Star Force built, making the surface of Atlantis a rarity that he continually pondered the reason for.

  Was it because they felt the capitol city on their capitol planet in their capitol system was untouchable? He didn’t think so. Atlantis was the most heavily armored and shielded structure within Star Force that he knew of, when you counted the planetary defenses along with what the city also sported. No, he felt it was something else…perhaps a critical insight into how the Director thought, for this city had been designed as his home more than the center of the Star Force empire.

  In truth Star Force was decentralized, with the term ‘capitol’ being more symbolic than functional, but this was the planet on which they had begun their expansion across the stars, and even after losing it to the V’kit’no’sat the Director had chosen to return and rebuild the entire planet back to what it had once been. Earth was special for the Director, yet Vochem didn’t fully understand why, and perhaps that specialness involved his wish to view it directly rather than through video relays.

  The Director’s office was in the highest tower on Atlantis, rising well above the rest and ringed with a circular wall of windows that you could see in and out the other side through. It went completely against Star Force building methodology, and every time Vochem walked up here he tried to ascertain why, with today being no exception, but he still couldn’t come to grasp the reason for the inconsistency. Hypocrisy was not the answer, for Star Force was notoriously bound to calibration with reality, so it had to be something else.

  But Vochem would not be figuring out the answer today, for as he walked through the few people out running the surface trails between towers an alarm sounded…with everyone in sight visibly bolting towards the exits down into the interior.

  Vochem didn’t run, and merely kept walking and observing while he waited to be informed by his embassy staff. The message came through about 20 seconds later on a nearly invisible earpiece that was grafted to the interior of his ear where the hair stopped and soft skin appeared deep within the hole.

  “The alarm is a system invasion warning. It is not for Earth.”

  “Someone is attacking?” Vochem asked in disbelief. “What is under attack?”

  “There are ships moving towards Mars. They are known to us.”

  That meant he didn’t want to say it over transmission, for if Star Force intercepted it they might be able to decode it, but if something was happening here he needed to know and he was far from the embassy chambers that had been confirmed to be clear of surveillance equipment.

  “Speak it now.”

  “There is a mixed fleet of Vargemma here, Vochem.”

  The Knight of Quenar Ambassador stopped walking, with the hair across his head and down his back standing up as his flesh puckered. “Have we been told of this?”

  “No. They have offered no transmission. Do you wish us to try and contact them?”

  “Immediately,” he demanded, then as he waited to get a response a small rumble was felt through the city, with him spinning around to look as Davis’s tower began to retract down inside the city…then his attention was down below him as a Jenshar effect caught his attention. It took a moment for him to realize it wasn’t below the surface, but rather on the other side of the planet and all the way out to Mars.

  His senses weren’t that attuned, but even at this range he could sense a Sha’mesh forming…and that meant combat. But what was on Mars that they wanted? There were nothing…

  Vochem’s eyes glanced back to the tower as the last bit of it disappeared down into the city, but the rumbling didn’t stop. It took some time before a large wall began rising up above the nearest fat tower and he belatedly realized it was a giant armored dome rotating up and over his position, along with bits of others appearing on the horizon in other directions.

  The entire city was locking down, but the heavy armor plating would be useless against a Jenshar attack. There was nothing here of value worth that expenditure, despite Star Force being a capitol. If the Vargemma thought destroying it would stop Star Force then they had misread them badly. It would only enrage them into a war, but there was one thing here that couldn’t be replaced, and that was the Director himself.

  Vochem didn’t wait to hear a response from his staff. He took off running towards Davis’s tower, or rather where it had been. As an Archon had taught him years before, the fastest way to cross the city was to come to the surface, fly across it, then descend to your location. Vochem couldn’t fly, but he could run and bypass whatever traffic or restricted areas below would hinder him, and go directly to the tower’s location, then find his way down to it.

  So that’s what he did, and as he ran his staff reported comm silence from the Vargemma. They would not respond to the Knights of Quenar, and he knew it wasn’t because they couldn’t. They simply didn’t care that they were here.

  Vochem ran as fast as he could, actually hop/jumping across the now empty city streets that were being blocked off from the sun as the armored domes rotated into position and locked into place. The one above him was actually in his way, blocking his access to the surface beyond. Vochem used his own penetrative sight, known as Bostromak, to see through it. Beyond was not another dome, but a stretch of city with very low buildings that were in fact already armored plates, and he suddenly had a partial explanation of the windows, for it seemed that every location that had them now had armored domes over them, but this one was blocking the surface street access to the other side.

  But that wasn’t going to stop Vochem. He just hoped Atlantis’s defenses didn’t shoot him as he hop/jumped up near the dome and kept going, switching to a regular run to keep his line of momentum even as he blinked out of existence just prior to slamming into the armored dome…then a few seconds later he blinked back in, dropping a meter out of the air and back down to the ground as he ran beyond the dome and underneath the sunlight as he felt Jenshar signatures in orbit above.

  He knew he’d guessed right. They were coming for Davis and had attacked near Mars as a distraction. Their ships were not as strong as Star Force’s, but all they had to do was get close enough to call in the Olopar, and with their Jenshar barriers they could withstand Star Force’s planetary defenses for a short period of time. And in th
at brief moment they would destroy whatever they wished.

  “Scatter and survive. They are going to attack here,” Vochem warned his staff. “Do not wait for me. Survive and regroup after,” he said, shutting down his comm unit so that his staff couldn’t further communicate with him. There was nothing more to say. The Vargemma knew they were in Atlantis, and they weren’t even going to bother to warn them. They were just collateral damage, of which the Vargemma often spoke of, but they didn’t have to be. A simple warning would have been enough to get them away, but the Vargemma did not care about them. A few individuals were expendable, and the Knights of Quenar couldn’t do anything in response, so they could kill them at will as they carried out their missions without worry of reprisal.

  Vochem ran hard, using his own Jenshar to increase his speed, making him look like a hopping insect traveling quickly across the city surface, but as expected he was noticed and several shields popped up ahead of him to block his progress. He disappeared before each and reappeared on the other side, then he disappeared inside the next dome before any automated turrets or micro drones could get to him.

  He was telepathically trying to find Davis, but he was too far away with too many minds to sort out and had to take his best guess as to where the tower had come down. He assumed he was still in it, and if he was guessing wrong it would be too late to change his destination.

  He was nearly over the location of the tower when the Olopar appeared in orbit. He could feel their arrival, for the hole they tore into the Jenshar realm was obvious. That meant he only had a few minutes left, and he still wasn’t close enough to pick out Davis’s mind. The tower location had sealed over, and he looked down beneath it, seeing an air gap, then multiple layers of armored sheets that had moved laterally to cover it…then very far below he saw the top of the tower itself.

  Vochem had to get down there, but moving vertically was far more dangerous than laterally. He had no beacon to work with, and if he reemerged within a solid object it would not move away from his position. Gas would, as would liquid if it wasn’t too stubborn, but if he crossed a wall with even one of his fingers it would fuse with it and be destroyed in the process…as well as tethering him to that position.

  He had to make small jumps, so the Knight of Quenar centered himself on the armored covering in the dark of the enclosed dome, then jumped up a couple meters. He needed the momentum, for in the Jenshar region he had no means of propulsion without a Beacon for assistance. He encased himself in the Den’gar technique and used it to pull him into the other realm where no matter existed. If he did it wrong he would kill himself, pulling his Core there without his body, but he had learned long ago how to do the simple technique, and how dangerous what he was currently doing was, for he had no way to navigate other than by counting and hoping his guess was accurate.

  A split second later he popped back in, maintaining his momentum and slamming into the armored panel below. He’d successfully emerged into the air gap between the two, which was some 12 meters tall. He stood up and jumped again, hitting his head on the ceiling above, then fell and blinked out, only to reemerged in the next air gap below, but he was too late. The Olopar began to charge above them in orbit, so close he could almost feel the different ‘heats’ from them. They were directly over Atlantis, and there were two different attacks charging. One that would encompass the planet with a Lian’no, and the other one would rip Atlantis apart molecule by molecule in one simple attack known as a Fruc’zo.

  But now he could sense Davis’s mind, though faintly, meaning he had a location. He didn’t think he could survive that long of a jump, for his counting wasn’t going to be accurate enough, but as he thought about protecting himself if he wasn’t going to be able to get to Davis fortune blessed him, for Davis began emitting a crude Jenshar effect.

  Vochem jumped again, hitting his head and getting the maximum momentum he could out of his short fall, then he blinked out and into the Jenshar realm. Overhead were two suns from the Olopar, and below was a small ripple from Davis. He couldn’t sense his mind, for his telepathy was matter related, and none of that transitioned here, but every Jenshar use in his realm made ripples here, and he could navigate by that ripple…meaning he could let himself fall until he was parallel to it, then Vochem fearfully reemerged, hoping he didn’t end up inside a console or chair.

  The Knight of Quenar came out into Davis’s thankfully bare office half a meter above the floor just before one of the Olopar fired, with him hitting the ground behind and to the right of Davis, who didn’t notice his arrival. His gaze was fixed above him at the incoming attack, leaving Vochem with a single opportunity.

  He lunged towards him as the Olopar fired, wrapping Davis and himself in the Den’gar even before he made physical contact with the armored body…then he got an elbow to his gut before he could send a telepathic pulse explaining that he was here to help.

  The Archon’s combat reflexes were too good, and he nearly lost the Den’gar as the darkness around them in the Jenshar realm went white a moment later as the ripples from the Fruc’zo hit the city around them.

  “Vochem? What is going on?” Davis asked as the Knight of Quenar had him in a stranglehold from behind, with his muscular arms and four legs wrapped around him as they both floated in null gravity within a small air pocket that Vochem had pulled with them into the Essence realm.

  “The city is being destroyed around us. I have pulled us into the Jenshar and we are now ballistic. We are rising in altitude now that gravity cannot affect us. It was the only way to save you.”

  The shower of white around them began to morph and dissipate in a wield kaleidoscope effect, and Davis watched it with his overlaid vision, for his eyes saw nothing but blackness in the lightless realm.

  “How long can we stay here?”

  “I can maintain the Den’gar for hours if need be, but when I release it we will merge with any solid mass at the location. I cannot navigate nor see what is beyond, and the city is exploding around us. We must wait, but if we wait too long we will emerge in orbit. I must guess, and if I guess right, we will fall. You can fly, correct?”

  “I can,” Davis said, his mind rapidly adjusting from expecting death to survival mode now that the Knight of Quenar Ambassador had just saved him.

  “You will have to support us both. I do not know if I can survive the fall. The ocean below will be jolted. If it consumes us we may merge with part of it. We need to emerge in the atmosphere.”

  “What did they just hit us with?”

  “It is the same technique the Lurker used that you referred to as a Disruption attack. We call it Fruc’zo, and it is separating all molecules within Atlantis and the surrounding ocean from their bonds. They are exploding from the decompression and forcing the ocean down. It will rebound back.”

  “The entire city is gone?”

  “I would imagine so. I cannot perceive it from here, but the level of attack used leaves little hope for survivors.”

  “They fired on you?” Davis asked, anger evident in his voice.

  “They do not care about us,” Vochem sneered. “And they have now crossed a line that I will not tolerate. The galaxy needs Star Force, and it needs you, Director. They came here to destroy you in the hopes your empire would fall. I know it will not, but you are not replaceable. I have never liked the Vargemma, but their dominance was unquestionable. Now I do not care. This is unacceptable. I will keep you alive as long as I can. Hopefully they will assume you were killed.”

  “Can they detect us here?”

  “Yes, if they are looking, but for the moment the Fruc’zo shields us. In this realm, Jenshar use makes ripples, so we cannot be attacked, but my Den’gar also makes tiny ripples. When the larger ones subside, the smaller will be visible. Until then we are invisible.”

  “Are you sure we are rising?”

  “Gravity has no effect here, and your planet is spinning. It is simple momentum.”

  “And the planet around the star?�
� Davis surmised.

  “Yes, but that angular moment is greatly reduced compared to the spin of the planet.”

  Davis ran some mental calculations. “So we’re talking minutes before we get close to orbit?”

  “I do not know. I have never done this before. We can estimate short jumps to get through barriers, or drift through space where there is no obstruction. We do not blindly pass through planets. Even a small element of heavy mass will not be fully moved when we revert, and it could lay shrapnel from the explosion within our bodies. I had no choice.”

  “I understand. Thank you.”

  “You are an asset to the galaxy that must be protected.”

  “No, it’s more than that. I feel you are developing a sense of honor, or am I wrong?”

  “Perhaps your proximity has had some effect. Practicality aside, I am furious at what the Vargemma have done. You have a weapon that can kill Hadarak, and I am sure that is why they have acted. They are so sure victory is impossible they wish to ensure that it remains impossible. It is a form of madness.”

  The whiteness around them faded quickly, after which Davis saw small specs of light drifting around them, mostly below, but then those specs would sporadically shoot off like little rockets.

  “What am I witnessing now?” he asked.

  “Those are your dead,” Vochem said regretfully. “When in this realm, you can view their passing. Their Jenshar returns here. That is the small spots of light. The streaks are when their Cores leave it. They pull a portion along with them, but when it fades off we cannot track the Cores.”

  “Those are my people?” Davis asked, seeing the sparks shoot off in bunches as the population of glowing spots decreased rapidly.

  “No longer. Their bodies are gone. Their brains are gone. They cannot think. They are packages. Seeds. But yes, they are the Cores of what were your people. And possibly mine.”

  “Can’t yours survive like you are now?”

  “Possibly, but they will risk the same death as we will when we reemerge.”