Star Force: Capitulation (Star Force Universe Book 73) Read online

  “Why?” Paul asked, before Davis could say anything.

  “Because it doesn’t matter how big Star Force becomes and how much we accomplish if we don’t end up on your planet helping you. Those areas of the Rim probably do not even know Star Force exists, and all manner of darkness can thrive in the smallest of corners if they are overlooked. Spreading the light to those who need it is just as important as fighting the Hadarak. Perhaps more so, though the Hadarak are the necessary war. Bringing Star Force’s light to the small, dark places is an optional one. We need to take on that war in whatever measure we can manage now, and not wait until the Hadarak are driven from this galaxy.”

  “And this is the task you would choose for yourself?” the Director asked.

  “No. I have my task, up until you relieve me of it, and I have not completed it in full.”

  “If you did, would you take on the war you suggest?”

  “I would.”

  “Explain further,” Paul prompted.

  “The honorable do not only fight in defense of themselves and their neighbors. They fight for everyone who needs assistance. They live for the fight, not the victory.”

  Paul and Davis exchanged glances.

  “Go on,” the Director urged.

  “We are not meant to be stagnant. Peace is stagnant when one does not train. And one trains to be better capable of fighting the next war. Without war, without challenge, without a mission, a civilization loses its meaning. Warriors exist to go into areas where there is no peace and create it for the younglings and foundlings to take refuge in as they grow and heal. When they have done so sufficiently, they will seek out the war in a time of their choosing rather than that of the universe. The universe will throw it at you when you are not ready. Peace allows us to select our own timing, and that timing is when one embraces the path of the warrior. That path leads to the areas of the galaxy where injustice lives. We are meant to hunt it down and destroy it wherever it is, building civilization on the battlefields where we were victorious, and that civilization will be the cradle for future warriors, as well as a monument to our victory.”

  “And what happens when we run out of wars to fight?” Paul asked. “When we conquer the entire galaxy and make it ‘peaceful?’”

  “Then we spread our light to other galaxies.”

  “To what end?”

  Cal-com frowned. “If the universe is infinite, there will be no end. Warriors do not fight towards an end. We fight because the fight itself is worthy. What we build may fall tomorrow. Nothing is permanent. There can be no ‘end’ to work towards. I do not understand your question.”

  “If there is not an ‘end’ and we keep fighting the same battles over and over again, what are we accomplishing?”

  “Light and darkness have an effect on people, because people adapt to their environment. Warriors are less affected, because they rise up to face and change negative environments, but most do not. They are consumed by them, or embrace them and spread more darkness. Every victory we have, every bit of light we shine, has an effect on those involved, and it changes them. The same is true of darkness. I have seen the light of Star Force, and short of memory loss I can never fully lose it now. It has permanently become part of me, and cannot be undone. If that is the ‘end’ you speak of, then we are accomplishing permanent victories with every person we affect enough to make it stick. And that occurs with repetitive experience stacks.”

  “Which the universe then erases when it so casually kills those people,” the Director added.

  “Do you know that?” Cal-com questioned. “When we die, are you certain there is no correlation between what we accomplish here to what occurs afterwards?”

  “I have no knowledge of this, except that the Core separates from the brain where those memories are held.”

  “It is more than just memories. More than just biology. I have seen it personally with brain-damaged Voku. When we healed the damage, the erased skills were not completely gone. Something in their Core had altered, and it stuck. They relearned faster the second time, and in some cases demonstrated a knowledge of things that were not present in their brain. It came across as instinct or other unfathomable but real life occurrences. Have you not had similar scenarios with the injured?”

  “I don’t know,” the Director said. “But it’s something I’m going to look into.”

  “No going back,” Paul whispered, his eyes looking past Cal-com to somewhere else. “We’re not just fighting for other people, but our own Core development.”

  “Warrior is not a description of the past, but a state of being in the present.”

  “Did the Zak’de’ron teach you this?”

  “In a way. When they cast me out I was forced to either crumble in sorrow or analyze everything. You helped me a great deal with that, Paul. Why are my words so surprising to you when much of it originated from your own counsel?”

  Paul sighed. “We have become what you might call battle numb. With the Zak’de’ron leaving, we are essentially victorious and looking at either endless carnage against the Hadarak or maintenance of what we have already built. We are having trouble finding our way forward.”

  “The V’kit’no’sat defined you,” Cal-com said, suddenly seeing it in his friend’s eyes. “Now you have surpassed and absorbed them. Your nemesis is gone, and not even the multi-galactic power of the Hadarak can replace it. You know how to fight, and when, but you have lost the ‘why?’”

  “Not lost,” Paul slightly corrected. “Just misplaced for the moment. I used to do that with the TV remote far too much.”

  “Then let me help illuminate it for you,” Cal-com said with all seriousness. “When I was lost you showed me the way, and that way is as clear now as ever, if not more so with every millennia that passes. You built this empire, so your view of it is different than mine, and I am beginning to understand how your perspective could be compromised. But your purpose remains constant. The V’kit’no’sat are not gone. Their kind continue to exist, you are just not as weak as you were before, and many people are changed because of it.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it.”

  “Then go to those who have not seen Star Force’s light. Not in your starships behind walls and sensors. Find the dark corners and throw yourself into them with all the power you have now and did not have then. I believe the old you will return, and be grateful for the power rather than seeing it as cheating you out of a formidable challenge. A naval commander cannot become callous to the damage his fleet does by being too far afield from it. You must walk the planets you bombard to calibrate, otherwise they begin to feel meaningless. And that is something the Elders taught us. Sometimes we must steel our emotions to do what must be done, but we must not permanently lose our calibration in doing so. We must maintain a personal connection to the battlefield.”

  Paul stared at the Voku for a moment. “Will you show me how to do this?”

  “Gladly.”

  The trailblazer looked over at Davis. “Permission to go awol for a while?”

  “I’m sure the other 100 can continue to beat me up without you,” he said, looking to Cal-com for a moment. “Fieldtrip granted. Leave now before the others volunteer to go with you.”

  Paul pushed himself off the window he’d been leaning on into a brisk walk, tapping Cal-com on the shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  “Immediately?” the Voku asked, rising out of his chair at a more elegant speed.

  “Immediately,” Paul confirmed, already heading down the stairs.

  “This is more important than you know,” the Director said as Cal-com was halfway there, with him stopping and glancing back. “The future of the empire depends on it.”

  “Then I will not fail,” he said firmly before turning and following Paul down the stairs.

  Davis sat in his desk as the two disappeared from view, then spun his chair around so he could stare out across the city and the ocean beyond, processing everything that had been said during the
conversation again and looking for any epiphanies he could find, with one thread rising to dominance over the rest.

  A second warfront to ‘civilize’ the Unexplored Frontier…and their neighbors that were behaving only well enough to avoid annexation.

  Davis hadn’t done that because there were always too many people to save and not enough resources to do it, so he had to pick and choose. Mandating that their neighbors allow people to leave if they want had been his way of helping those he couldn’t get to, and his scouts did a good job of monitoring whether or not people were being allowed to leave, but they couldn’t see everything or be everywhere.

  A lot of those worlds needed annexed, but they were obeying the loose guidelines and that had put them as less worthy targets than others. And with the Hadarak banging on the door constantly how could he divert resources away from that overbearing threat to deal with the ‘little dark corners’ that Cal-com had mentioned.

  Now that the Grand Border was complete and holding, he did have additional options. Options he’d never had before, and with the Zak’de’ron leaving he’d have even more. And it wasn’t like Star Force wasn’t expanding out there. They’d been nibbling away at the Unexplored Frontier constantly, just not very fast.

  “Damn it, he’s right,” Davis said to himself. “Now I’ve gotten punch drunk from the logistics side. We can’t wait to defeat the Hadarak before helping those people. If we do the Hadarak win with a stalemate.”

  He sighed, running numbers through his head and not liking what he was finding. Why did they always have to operate at their limits? Couldn’t they just, for once, take it easy enough to build up a reserve? That’s what he’d been doing recently, prepping for the invasion of the Hadarak Zone in an effort to retake it and the galaxy in full, though not knowing what kind of mess they’d get to in the Deep Core when they eventually got there.

  If they got there.

  “Priorities,” he mumbled, kicking himself for not seeing it sooner. This transition with the Zak’de’ron leaving and absorbing their holdings was the top priority, assuming the Grand Border held. After that it was a choice between fighting endless waves of Hadarak in a defensive action or going on offense and trying to push them back to the Deep Core.

  But they couldn’t do that if they made a significant push into the Far Rim.

  “The beacons are lit…” Davis said, already knowing what his eventual decision would be.

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  While you wait…for the next Star Force episode, you may want to check out John Walker’s ‘Legacy War’ box set if you need some additional reading to stave off your boredom.

  US Amazon Link

  UK Amazon Link

  Also… there is a Star Force mobile card game in early development called ‘Galactic War Empires.’

  Game Crowdfunding Page

  Game Facebook Page

  www.aerkijyr.com