Star Force: Baron (Star Force Universe Book 43)

  1

  July 7, 4863

  Meinto System (Zadjen Region)

  Treneis

  Tanni Daegan had never been outside of Protovic territory before. As an administrator he’d been overseeing various logistical duties on three different Protovic worlds within the Star Force empire, but he’d never had cause to leave. Now he had been summoned to Treneis, the current transitory capitol where Director Davis had set up shop and brought a lot of his support team with him. In addition to that, the various vultures from outside Star Force were tagging along with numerous embassies where they hoped to leverage the Director to do this or that.

  Daegan’s orders hadn’t specified why he had been sent here, nor to whom he was to report. There was no reassignment order, just a transit one, so he didn’t know if he was going to be briefed on some matter and sent back or if this was a prelude to a reassignment. He was a lower level Administrator who’d only recently risen to a planet-wide position overseeing the Protovic mining division on the planet of Eurothal, and the possibility of him being needed out in the frontier region was foremost in his mind.

  Resources out there were in short supply, and hauling out cargos that far was inefficient. Those newly acquired regions needed to support themselves, which meant mining their own raw materials. Perhaps Davis’s team had tagged him for his quick rising through the Protovic administrator ranks and were going to give him something bigger, or perhaps more tenuous to oversee.

  But nothing had been said to him about any of that. All he got was a summons to the headquarters facility, and as he stepped off the dropship that had been sent to retrieve him his mind was still calculating possibilities without being able to settle on odds.

  “Administrator Daegan?” a waiting Human attendant asked from just beyond the boarding ramp as Tanni came down.

  “I am Daegan.”

  “Follow me please,” she said, all but spinning on her right heel and walking towards the massive building at which they’d landed on an extended platform.

  “May I ask why I have been summoned?”

  “You weren’t informed?” she asked over her shoulder.

  “I was not.”

  “I don’t know the content of the subject matter, but I have been instructed to take you to the Director’s office.”

  Tanni raised an eyeridge, for Protovic had no eyebrows or hair of any kind. “Curious.”

  “I’m sure you’ll find out shortly. The Director has many daily appointments from people across the empire. We don’t understand why, and have learned not to ask, but he always has a reason.”

  “I am sure he does,” Tanni said as the pair walked in silence into and through the building until they came to a lift that brought them up to the center of Davis’s headquarters. They had to pass by a security station with several armored Commandos present, but after that it was just a matter of working through the numerous staff stations until the attendant stopped at the base of a huge stairway.

  “Up there,” she pointed.

  “Thank you,” Tanni said evenly as he began climbing at a measured pace. He felt the slight tickle of an energy field as he moved partway up, immediately recognizing it as an audio-suppression field that would keep those below from hearing what was going on up top and vice versa. It was a way to maintain an open air architecture without the noise pollution that such open spaces typically suffered from.

  When he reached the top of the stairs he wasn’t in an office, rather a huge deck with windows many times higher than his own 6’ 3’’ inch height. Beyond them was blue skies and an even bluer ocean sprinkled with sandy islands and the occasional view of the large, elephant-like Meintre that made up the majority of the planet’s population.

  Almost all of the deck was empty with a firm, but mildly deep carpet covering part of the floor. Off to one side was a single desk with a sole person sitting on the far side of it with his back to the massive ocean side windows.

  Tanni walked slowly over to the desk and stood at attention before Director Davis, who didn’t seem to notice him as he was busy working through what looked like shipping manifest holograms, though Tanni couldn’t be sure because he was seeing them from the reverse side.

  The Human raised a hand and pointed at the empty chair, not looking at the Protovic for another 43 seconds. When he did it was after making a few inputs to the lists and shutting down the holograms entirely, leaving a clear desktop and airspace above it that only added to the spacious design of the Director’s ‘office.’

  “You look confused,” Davis said, leaning back in his chair.

  “My orders were to come here. They did not specify why.”

  “The why is simple. I wanted to speak with you in person and didn’t have the luxury of traveling to Eurothal. The larger Star Force grows, the more I have to do.”

  Tanni twitched, sensing an irregularity in his mind. “You are telepathically scanning me.”

  “Yes I am.”

  “Should I be resisting?”

  “Feel free to, if only for the effort. I need answers to questions that words cannot provide.”

  Tanni tried to harden his mind against the presence, much as he had done with other Protovic in training, but instead of applying more pressure and breaking his resistance the Director’s touch seemed to slip and pass his pressure by. Tanni reset himself and tried again three times, but he could not pin the Director’s presence in one place and everywhere he tried to resist the opposition fled, heading elsewhere in his mind.

  “Your infiltration is elusive,” he finally said, relenting and letting the Director look where he wanted.

  “I have Ikrid. It is superior to Protovic telepathy. That, and I’m a couple millennia older than you.”

  “I was surprised you wanted to speak to someone as young as I am.”

  “I do not care about your age, only your skill. And a Protovic who rises to Administrator level 4 at age 52 indicates either a breakdown in our system or an individual who is learning very fast.”

  “And you are checking my memories to determine which is the case,” Tanni said, stating the obvious rather than asking a rhetorical question.

  “I’m doing more than that. Have you been monitoring V’kit’no’sat activity?”

  “To a point, yes.”

  “Your thoughts?”

  “They are setting up new colonies just beyond the border of the Devastation Zone. I believe they intend to use those as staging bases when the truce expires and we cannot eliminate them now without jeopardizing the truce. This is a problem.”

  “Is it?”

  “Their supply chain is critical this far out from their primary systems.”

  “Yet we have the Uriti.”

  “They obviously see value in it.”

  “They are setting the chess board as they like, but it’s not as significant as you suggest. They cannot build up those worlds in a defensive manner because we can smash them with the Uriti rather easily. They are merely staging bases, nothing more. Given the level of carnage that will occur when fighting resumes, they will still be hurting for supplies.”

  “Unless they make first strike their only strike.”

  “We have ways to slow that down, but I do not believe they will be that stupid. They can’t take all our worlds in such a manner, and they will lose too many ships if they do. The war will be a long, grinding one. Anything else is to our advantage.”

  “Why did you allow Earth to be recolonized?” Tanni asked.

  “I didn’t.”

  “There are people there now, if not a civilian population.”

  “It is a battleground, not a colony. It also belongs to us a
nd I wanted it back. I anticipate it will be the first planet assaulted by the V’kit’no’sat. If it is not, then we have a base in their backwater once they assault the border. That’s me setting our chess board as I like.”

  “Won’t they be wiped out?”

  “We know how to run when needed. We’ve had a lot of practice.”

  “I obviously have not. Nor is combat my specialty.”

  “Yet you do study it. Why?”

  “I do not believe in compartmentalization. All aspects of reality interact, so in order to make the most accurate predictions one must be knowledgeable in all areas.”

  “Interesting, for your physical scores are only barely increasing once you made yellow.”

  “I study as an observer, not a participant. Yellow was my goal, to set myself above average, but climbing higher is not a priority when my skillset lies elsewhere.”

  “Change that. Training only for self-sufficiency is not enough. There are many things that can only be learned from experience. I learned that when I became an Archon. Pursue some aggressive physical training over the coming centuries. It will do you well.”

  “Is that an order or a suggestion?”

  “Both.”

  “Meaning it’s an order that won’t be enforced?”

  “I can’t be looking over everyone’s shoulder. I need people who do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Who do the smart thing because it’s smart. If my orders are wise, then that’s enough. There doesn’t need to be any leverage.”

  “I will consider it then.”

  “A bit of ego there, I think,” Davis said, still looking into his mind.

  “Confidence in my skills. Nothing more than that.”

  “One mark of a good leader is being aware of how much you do not know. The very young are not aware of enough of the universe to realize what they lack. That too comes with experience.”

  “Am I to be demoted?”

  Davis shook his head. “No. If that was the case I would have just sent the order. I brought you here because I need confirmation of things I suspect. Good things. Namely your potential. You have a lot to learn, but you are very observant. That can be a weakness if you are always observing, as I noted previously, but for you it is your greatest asset at the moment. Do not draw comfort in that, for one needs to cultivate multiple assets, but it does you credit regardless.”

  “If my position is to be maintained, is that not also only worth a remote order?” Tanni asked, fishing for more information that he could not get from the Director’s mind.

  Davis knew what he was doing even without being inside the Protovic’s mind, and Tanni knew that as well, so it wasn’t a cloaked comment, rather a polite way of asking a blunt question.

  “I don’t care for word games. Bluntness is preferred,” Davis admonished him.

  “Am I being reassigned?”

  “That’s better. Yes, you are. You’re also a bit of an experiment.”

  “Because of my age?”

  Davis nodded. “I was your age when I began Star Force, more or less, and I had far less resources to work with than you have on Eurothal. You’ve had the benefit of others’ experience. I had to make up everything as I went along. Still, there are a few similarities, and I view you as an investment for the distant future.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Figuring things out for yourself. I think you have the potential to become a peer over time. You’ll never match my experience level, but I could use someone who can figure things out without being given hints. You’re not there yet. Not even close. But I think you could be, some day. And above all, the most important aspect of a leader is one who does the right thing because it’s the right thing. Without that, nothing else matters. You are borderline there, seeing logistics as supreme. Rather, logistics are a means to an end, and that end is doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s necessary to destroy your empire in order to remain the good guys. That’s something you are clueless about now.”

  “If you destroy your ability to effect events, how can you do the right thing?”

  “By preventing yourself from doing the wrong thing and allowing everything you have built up to be misused. Compromise, in this scenario, is failure. The infrastructure might still be intact, but without the purpose behind it there is no reason for it to exist. Your mind is focused on the pieces, not the purpose. And to be fair, you’ve not been exposed to the purpose before. You’ve been managing already established infrastructure. Polished by others before you. You’ve made upgrades, which is why you’ve risen as far and as fast as you have, but you’re still been insulated from the real purpose behind everything.”

  “And you’re going to expose me to it now?”

  “I am, now that I’ve been inside your head and taken your measure. You are not my peer. Not now. But I sense potential in you. Only time will tell, but leaving you on Eurothal would be a waste of your somewhat unique skills. Therefore you are hereby reassigned.”

  “To where?”

  “A world that hasn’t been built yet. To a race that is not yet part of Star Force. We will be receiving a number of races into Beacon that come from afar. They have been marked for destruction by the V’kit’no’sat and have been hiding out for longer than I have been alive. They are coming to us now, not all by their own choice, but their current benefactors want them no longer. We will have to incorporate them into Star Force, and while there are a great many stories of us doing similar things with other races, each race is unique. Adaptation, learning, and imagination are required. And above all that, doing the right thing. Many people don’t understand what that means until they come into contact with the wrong thing, and there are many things wrong with the races we are getting.”

  “That is the job of a Monarch, not an Administrator.”

  “Yes it is,” Davis said amicably, with the reason the Director had brought him here now fully sinking in.

  “No one has been made a Monarch prior to 300 years of age.”

  “Not until now. As I said, you are an experiment. I could let you gain further experience in other areas, but this kind of adaptation is what I had to go through in the beginning. Throwing you in a bit over your head will be a good test of your ability to learn and adapt. If you fail, Arch Duke Scarven will step in so the race you are assigned does not suffer. They are our mission, and are not expendable for a newb like you to learn on. I am assigning you this because I think that you, like me, are capable of handling it with little to no experience. If I am wrong, you will be swiftly replaced and I will reassign you to a position that is not a startup.”

  “But I will remain a Monarch?”

  “I do not penalize people for learning slowly. There are many Monarchs that have learned slowly and risen to the level that deserves that rank. You are not there, but if you cannot handle this assignment I will put you somewhere you can learn more slowly while maintaining what others have built and making small improvements where possible. The only reason you would lose your Monarch status is if you do something wrong or prove to be incompetent.”

  “What race am I being assigned?”

  “Scarven and I have not decided yet, but it will be one with a smaller population. One that can fit on a single world. The larger ones require experienced Monarchs to coordinate across systems. You are not ready for that.”

  “What will my greatest challenge be?”

  “With new races come expected difficulties, but it is the unexpected ones that require an inventive mind. I do not know all the problems with these races. You will have to find out for yourself. However, this is not an isolated assignment. Feel free to ask me questions. I will not be there in person, and the communications lag is a burden, but I want you to stay in contact. Not so I can micromanage you. If you require that then you are not a Monarch. But we operate as a team, and newbs especially need to have access to other Monarchs to converse with. You have a direct line to me, as of now. Use it and those to the other Monarchs, whether th
ey be in Beacon or elsewhere.”

  “And the trailblazers?”

  “You have a direct line to them as well, and they’re better troubleshooters than Monarchs. Care to guess why?”

  Tanni considered that for a moment, then linked it to one of Davis’s previous statements.

  “They are hands on while Monarchs tend to observe and direct from afar?”

  “Indeed. Save for me, though you’ll find that Arch Duke Scarven moves around quite a bit. He will go to see things for himself rather than relying on reports. I suggest you ask him about it, for with a new race you will need to see, feel, and probe minds. You cannot put into a report telepathic information. I hope you know this already.”

  “I do.”

  “You need to do everything first, in person, then let the Administrators copy your successes through redundancy. That means you in the field, not in an office, until you get a handle on who it is you’re annexing into the empire.”

  “A significant challenge, to be sure, and one I am willing to undertake.”

  “Good. But be warned, you will be in over your head. I’m counting on your learning curve to be as high as mine. If not, you will fail.”

  “Then I hope your assessment of my skills is accurate.”

  “There’s only one way to find out for sure.”

  “Where is this planet?”

  “In the Frontier Region. Security will be handled for you, as far as from offworld threats. You will be able to focus on your planet and it alone. Events beyond that are not your responsibility.”

  “So there is to be little interstellar trade?”

  “None aside from supply shipments coming in initially. You need to get your infrastructure self-sufficient sooner rather than later and you will have a Kiritak colony to work out from. How long it will take your race to be able to support themselves is unknown. Do not expect it within 100 years.”

  “Will I have Archons to work with?”

  “Yes. Use their skills whenever possible, but the annexation of this race is ultimately your responsibility. The ideas don’t have to come from you, but the results I expect you to deliver in whatever way, shape, or form appropriate.”