Star Force: Rescue (SF71)

  1

  March 12, 2827

  Solar System

  Mars

  “Play it again,” the Protovic Chancellor said, not fully comprehending what he’d just heard.

  Kip reset the hologram back to the relevant beginning of this interrogation snippet from the Veliquesh called Nifron who was still supplying information freely, thinking that Star Force was an ally of his race rather than a newly minted enemy. Over the past few months a computer translation program had been constructed for the Veliquesh race, allowing anyone to talk to the 7 prisoners they’d brought back with them.

  “Our origins are not clear, but we do know that there was a great cataclysm that fragmented our race. We won a war, but in doing so were all but destroyed ourselves. In order to survive we were split into seven fragments and scattered across the galaxy. We have never known what happened to the others until now, but we do know of them. Each faction of the old empire had different coloration. Ours was tasked with Purity. The others were Unity, Trepidation, Origination, Equity, Contention, and Understanding. The purple visage signifies your allies as Origination, those who were responsible for the beginnings of life.”

  “They are the first of the factions that we have known to survive aside from ours. It was said that we could no longer function together, for our enemies were too vast, so that to survive we must disappear into remote corners of the galaxy. Where the others went we did not know so that we could not compromise them. We did not think Origination could be so close to ourselves, else we would have sought them out. The days of the empire were so long ago that our records do not stretch back to its occurrence, nor do we have any estimates.”

  “What we know of concerns more recent history. We branched out from our point of refuge to encompass 9 star systems, never overreaching or invading to claim what we wanted. We sought out worlds that were totally uninhabited so as to not draw attention to ourselves. We knew that we had to grow our power or fall victim to those we originally fled, but we had to do so carefully. Ironically an enemy came to us that was new, and the Li’vorkrachnika did not even know we existed. They were conquering everything across a swath of the galaxy that was unfortunately inhabited. Our neighbors fell, but we did not.”

  “Primitive as they were we could not defeat them. They were far too many, so we simply kept to our borders and defended them. Over the years the enemy grew in strength and began to test our limits. We lost ships and structures with each attack, then rebuilt. Over time the enemy’s attacks grew more powerful and we lost enough to jeopardize our defenses, so we decided to evacuate 4 systems so to reinforce the others while we waited. A prophecy of your arrival had been foretold, so we were content to wait and survive until, in recent years, the technological power of the enemy increased greatly.”

  “They have been using that advantage to make gains within our systems. None have fallen, but we were losing until you arrived. We have done our duty and survived until your arrival, but much has been lost over time. The reunification of the empire can now begin with Origination having been found and your aid to us. Together we will grow strong again, enough to one day defeat the Li’vorkrachnika and begin to search out the fate of the others. With each one we find our civilization will grow stronger, for isolated we are weak. We are built to function as one, and once we are again the galaxy will submit to us as it once did.”

  “What do you know of this great war?” Mike’s voice asked from off camera.

  The Veliquesh frowned, its glowing facial markings reshaping as it did. “Very little. It was an indomitable enemy that we succeeded in neutralizing, but the effort was too costly. When the main threat was gone the lesser ones rose up to destroy us, hence our need to flee and rebuild in isolation.”

  “Why the split?”

  “If we were one we would not submit to others. We would fight and be destroyed. We had to become components that could be recombined later, when the time was right. We know that we are not whole, so it keeps us from being true to form. Our mission is to grow and reassemble…nothing more. Once complete again, that will change.”

  “Change how?”

  “We do not know for certain. There is a void in us that the others were meant to fill. When we are together again we will be whole and know how to proceed. Until then we cannot know for certain.”

  “Do any relics from the old empire still exist? Or merely stories passed down through the years?”

  “Unfortunately nothing remains,” Nifron admitted. “The Nash’garmat’ecklima favored us to survive, but little more. Our faction’s transition to isolation was a tumultuous one. We did not function correctly without the others and great sacrifice was made to preserve ourselves in this current form. Many died in the early years, and with them went the records of such. We only know of the loss without detail and the mission before us. What do your allies know of this? Have they spoken of it? Any knowledge of those days or before is invaluable to us, no matter how small. We have nothing left of them.”

  “You will be able to speak with them in time,” Mike promised. “Right now we need to record as much information as we can. They will be viewing these holos, so any information you can provide them for comparison sake speak now even if you do not feel it relevant to us.”

  “What is your standing with them? You have stated you are allies, but how this is possible I do not understand. We have no peers.”

  “What did your prophecy say of us?”

  “It was said that you would be as if a force of nature that would consume the enemy and free us of our imprisonment. It made no mention of the other factions or your bond with them.”

  “The Protovic are our ally, a lesser peer in both numbers and technology, but a trusted friend.”

  Nifron frowned again, not understanding. “You claim superiority?”

  “You saw us fight. Why do you disagree?”

  The Veliquesh considered that, with his thoughts so muddled it was as if he was forced to use his brain for the first time to conceive something beyond tradition.

  “Perhaps we have lost more than we realize. In our true form we have no equals.”

  “What of this enemy you neutralized. Were they not an equal?”

  “They were defeated. We were the superior.”

  “But you were forced to disband and flee. That was also a defeat, was it not?”

  “It was a necessity. It will only be a defeat if we fail to recombine and resume our place as the galactic lords. Has Origination spoken nothing of this to you?”

  “About being galactic lords? No, they haven’t. And your level of technology isn’t superior to a lot of races out there. Did you lose a lot of it in the fracturing of your empire?”

  “We do not know what has been lost. Are there races with technology superior to yours?”

  “Many, yes.”

  Again, the Veliquesh frowned and thought. “We will not know until we are reunited with the others. Until then we must persist. We are but pieces of the whole, and cannot know our true intent as we are now.”

  Kip paused the holo there, for Mike had pressed other subjects thereafter. “Anything?”

  “You said they were insane. Correct?”

  “Sometimes even insanity is built upon fragments of the truth. What did he say?”

  The Chancellor bowed his head slightly. “We have no knowledge of these origins whatsoever, and though I still do not understand what he says about reunification it brings to mind an uncertain memory. I will have to confer with my geneticists, but I seem to remember some mention of dormant, incomplete code segments. The missing pieces were not present in our genome at all. A bit of a lingering mystery, if I recall correctly. I doubt it has any relevance, but it is the only connection I
can make. Everything he says is completely foreign to me.”

  “What’s the furthest back you have records?”

  “Nothing that predates our homeworld, nor any mention of other factions. His red coloring is not something that is present in our genome, active or otherwise.”

  “Now that is interesting,” Kip mewed. “We need to do a full analysis of their genetic code then. Maybe they do have some of your missing puzzle pieces.”

  “To what end?”

  Kip shrugged. “I don’t know. I was hoping some of this would make sense to you.”

  “Unfortunately it does not, and I reviewed our records thoroughly before I came. Have they met with any of my people yet?”

  “This one hasn’t. Three of the others have. We’ve been keeping them isolated from one another for the most part through scheduling. We’re not treating them as prisoners per se, but we don’t want them sharing what questions we’ve asked and syncing their answers. Most of their days have them going through various forms of training to become familiar with Star Force, then a session where they teach us about the Veliquesh. They see each other passing in the halls, but other than interrupting their sleep cycles they have no spare time to congregate…and when they do we monitor their conversations.”

  “Have you picked up on any duplicity?”

  “No, but if you noticed in this recording they are very unused to thinking. Present them with a scenario that requires them to come up with a solution rather than just repeat rhetoric and they are extremely uncomfortable. We’re breaking these of that habit slowly, but I think it’s symptomatic of their civilization. Everything is rigid with deviations resulting in executions.”

  “What do you plan to do with these 7?”

  “We’re not sending them back. What they’re learning from us could get them killed.”

  “Do not send them to us.”

  Kip raised an eyebrow. “I expected you’d want them.”

  “What they are, according to your information, is abhorrent. They are not Protovic, they are barbarians.”

  “Agreed.”

  “They are a poison that I do not want to subject my civilization to.”

  “But you still want to learn about them?”

  “Of course we do. We just cannot tolerate them as they are.”

  Kip nodded. “Ok. They can remain with us.”

  “You disapprove?”

  “No. Just because you are the same race doesn’t make you the same people. It’s no different than you not wanting the Calavari living with you.”

  “The Calavari do not burn people alive.”

  “True,” Kip admitted.

  “What is your aim in this?”

  “We cannot allow this type of civilization to exist…anywhere. It has to be ended.”

  “Ended how? Allow the Cajdital to remain in that region until they destroy them?”

  “We’re certainly not going to protect them again, but I don’t think they’re going to fall anytime soon. And we’re not holding back our push into lizard territory. We’re going to deal with the Veliquesh ourselves, which is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “We won’t oppose you,” the Chancellor said firmly. “They’re not our people.”

  “We offer the Cajdital the option to surrender in every engagement, an offer they never accept. Only then do we kill them, for when we’ve captured them they try to kill themselves in confinement anyway. Do not mistake our war with them as an inclination to wipe out our enemies. We don’t plan on killing the Veliquesh. We plan on annexing them.”

  The Chancellor took an involuntary step backwards as he stared at Kip. “Bringing them into your empire would be a grave mistake. They are a poison that goes against everything you stand for.”

  “Which is why their civilization has to be destroyed,” Kip explained. “That doesn’t mean the people have to die…or rather it doesn’t mean they have to be killed. This isn’t our first time doing something like this. Every race that we’ve taken into Star Force has had their culture eradicated, save for any valuable pieces we preserved.”

  “You wish to save them? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “More or less. Is that going to be a problem?”

  “You’re welcome to try, but I don’t want them anywhere near our territory.”

  “Relax. What they are now will be destroyed, I can guarantee you that. Those younglings being born in the years to come will know nothing of this abomination. They’ll become part of Star Force, at which point I hope you choose not to shun them.”

  “So long as we are in agreement that they will be part of Star Force and not the Protovic.”

  “This is on us,” Kip made clear. “I just needed to know what part you wanted to play in it, if any.”

  “Unless you’re going to kill them, we’d prefer to stay out of the affair.”

  “We have a number of Protovic in Axius already. Are you going to object to us using them?”

  The Chancellor sighed. “We don’t like anything about this, but so long as you keep this outside of my territory you can do as you wish. We do not give our blessing, for we think they should be destroyed, but we will not try to stop you if you want to try and save them from themselves. Just do not let them persist as they are now, not even in the slightest way. Ideas have a way of infecting others, and their culture is a poison I would suggest you do not toy with.”

  “Truth kills lies, Chancellor. This is something we learned a long time ago, which is why we do not suppress information. If there’s something dangerous we confront it head on rather than trying to bury it away where no one will see.”

  “I do not think this is wise, but it’s your empire. Do as you wish.”

  Kip looked at the ceiling. “I was hoping for a little more optimism than that,” he said sarcastically.

  “If these were Humans, how would you react?”

  “Honestly it doesn’t affect me anymore. I look at you and I see a person. I look at Humans and I see a person. The race doesn’t factor in unless it’s a new one that I haven’t learned the idiosyncrasies of.”

  The Chancellor raised an eyebrow. “A side effect of your Axius?”

  Kip smiled. “Perhaps.”

  “Our civilization is still only one race, and no matter how close our ties are with Star Force you will always be an outsider. That is not a negative, and please do not take it as an insult, it is just a reality of life.”

  “Those you keep company with are the familiar, others are the outsiders. The biology doesn’t really matter. If you’ve only lived with other Protovic I understand how you can’t see that. I will admit that there are some compatibility issues, but a lot of my friends are Protovic and I don’t see them as outsiders. And most of them are not part of Star Force.”

  “I will grant you wisdom there, but where Star Force is clear about who and what you are others are not. They feign to assimilate and seek to assert their own culture over that which they live in. That is why we keep to ourselves. Our affiliation with Star Force is the only exception. I am told even that was deemed dangerous, though you have proved a reliable ally over the course of time. You stated, arrogantly so, that the Protovic had to adhere to a set of your rules. We were already in compliance with most of them, and the remainder had been proposed internally before you issued your mandate, but we were rightfully concerned that it wouldn’t end there and that additional demands would be made later on.”

  “Unfortunately the galaxy is full of liars and cheats.”

  “But not you. You held to the mandate and did not alter it one speck over all these years. You have left us alone so long as we adhere to it, and that has allowed the interconnectivity that has bonded our civilizations more than we ever thought possible. I fear that if you annex these barbarians that it will alter Star Force, and through you us. Yet like you said, you have successfully annexed other races before, though none on this scale?”

  “Not in these numbers, no. But the Calavari were a much
more prominent race before their near destruction.”

  “They are stronger now than they ever were before, which is credit due to you. I do not see it happening with the barbarians.”

  “Once part of Star Force they will be allowed to travel throughout our territory as all others do, but their populations will not be relocated to the ADZ. Our borders are continuously expanding, and the Veliquesh will remain in the approximate region they are now. They will not become part of the ADZ community in any meaningful way.”

  “And if you fail they will remain isolated and able to be severed once again?”

  “We won’t fail. It’s simply a matter of denying the younglings any connection to the old culture from birth. Unless Protovic have some genetic memory that I’m unaware of?”

  “All races do, but if you’re referring to the more impressive ones then no, we do not. You should already know that given your Axius Protovic.”

  “Do I detect some dissatisfaction there?”

  “They chose you over us.”

  “Team pride?”

  “Something like that. I do not think it is any different for you.”

  “Yeah, we don’t like quitters either. But we always leave the door open for them to come back.”

  The Chancellor cracked a smile. “Always a competition with you.”

  “Friendly competition. And once I get past the horror of the Veliquesh I see them as a challenge, not a poison. I ask that you abhor what they are now, but wait to pass judgement on what we will make of them later. If we succeed I don’t want you carrying a grudge against people because of who their ancestors were. And if you do, then you’ll have to start hating yourself because it looks like you have the same ancestors as them,” Kip pointed out.

  “Am I free to hate the ones living now?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Yes. Their actions and mindset are deserving of hate. Those yet to be born are not yet poisoned by it. Make sure you differentiate between the two.”

  “I take your meaning, but if your goals are for their offspring then what will you do with the 3 trillion bad ones now?”

  “Keep them contained and away from everyone else while providing a difficult, but not impossible, path for individuals to work their way out of that mess. In order to do that they’ll have to essentially kill their own culture, which I doubt very few will, but we’ll offer them the possibility regardless. As for the rest, they haven’t attained self-sufficiency. Unless they change and learn, time will erase them from the galaxy.”