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  That wasn’t enough by itself, for genetic codes were publically known because it was too easy to get a whiff off someone’s body to sample it. They became your easy ID in V’kit’no’sat society, but ID’s could be faked as well.

  That’s when Rajamal sent for Vikov. He was one of the rebels who had served the J’gar…and one that had personally met the Didact on two occasions. He had him examine the damaged body, from which they removed the armor. All J’gar looked alike…but that was true for just about every race in the galaxy until you got to know them better. In the case of the J’gar there were certain patterns to their bioluminescence that were fairly unique, along with crest height and other factors that could be changed if there was a reason, but the Didact would have no reason to do so as he kept a clandestine life safe from potential threats, as did almost all of the V’kit’no’sat leadership.

  But the Zen’zat never had. Like the Archons, their strongest and wisest and eldest went first into the toughest of battles…or maybe not first, but second after unknown defenses were probed by those of less value. They knew the risks, as did all Zen’zat, and back when Rajamal was new he would have gladly taken that risk to shield a more valuable Zen’zat from a surprise attack.

  That was why Rajamal had kept Vikov back, because he was the only person in the rebel fleet that could personally identify the Didact.

  Vikov knelt next to the head of the J’gar…which had a large hole in it…and he pressed his exposed hand against the blue/purple flesh.

  “I did not want this,” he said flatly. “But they forced it upon us.”

  “In order to defend ourselves we had to break our oaths,” Rajamal agreed, feeling a familiar tightness in his chest…but one he had grown accustomed to long ago. Still, being here in the Didact’s potential presence, it ached a bit more none the less.

  “What are we without our oaths?” Vikov demanded. “What is our purpose once vengeance is satisfied?”

  “Is it satisfied?”

  “This is him. We’ve killed him,” Vikov said regretfully. “How did it come to this, Rajamal? How?”

  “He was our enemy, Vikov.”

  “I served him. You did not.”

  “I turned on those I served long ago when duty demanded it.”

  “It makes me sick to see this. We’ve become a pack of predators and little more. What happens if we run out of prey? Who are we then?”

  “I welcome that day.”

  “I fear it. For we have nothing left but vengeance.”

  “You can always serve Star Force with the others.”

  “The trust is broken. And once broken, it cannot be mended.”

  “They are not the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “And I am still an oathbreaker. That will not change.”

  “What would you have had us do?”

  “Nothing different,” Vikov admitted. “We were driven to this by the failure of the V’kit’no’sat…but we are still being forced to break oaths. They were never relinquished.”

  “A Deathmark doesn’t relinquish them?”

  “Why do I still feel the bond then? Why do I still look at them with envy and awe despite what they have done?”

  “You see what they were promised to be. Not what they actually are.”

  “That ignorance was far more fulfilling than this truth.”

  “But it is truth.”

  “And our very purpose for existing was based on the ignorance. What are we now?”

  “Warriors. With an unfulfilled mission.”

  “To kill them all, Rajamal?”

  “If that’s what it takes. But the objective is to defeat them once and for all. We cannot allow this to happen again.”

  “This?”

  “False leadership and betrayal.”

  “We are what they made us. Zen’zat are meant to serve honorably. We are not meant to chart our own course without a mission. And it cannot be a self-determined mission.”

  “You wish you could go back to the way things were before the collapse of the empire?”

  “If only it were possible…”

  “I think this is where we part ways, my brother. Your will is broken.”

  “I think you are right. May I dispose of his body properly?”

  “I have no wish to make a trophy of it. You’ve given me confirmation, and he cannot be revived with that wound. Take him and do what you wish. The rest of us will stay here and do as much damage to the planet as we can before their reinforcements arrive. I suggest you leave before the jumppoints are blockaded.”

  “You intend to fight it out?”

  “No. But I intend to fight on the run in a direction chosen in the moment. You will be caught and killed if you don’t come with us or leave now.”

  “Then my ship will leave as soon as we have his body onboard.”

  “Make it quick. The ocean will reclaim this place within two hours. Perhaps three.”

  “I will be gone within one,” Vikov promised, finally standing and turning to face Rajamal, but the elder Zen’zat was already moving on ahead to catch up with the assault teams, for there were more J’gar in the lair that were not yet dead, and they might be valuable targets that Rajamal was not going to let slip through his fingers in the oversight.

  Vikov called down his Ti’mat-class warship and a team of Zen’zat with anti-grav pallets came and got the Didact’s body and hauled it outside until they got in the clear and were able to use a grav lift to bring it up into the underside of the ship hovering so low it was below the original ocean level that was nearly up to half what it was before judging by the watermarks on the inside of the shield walls when the steam in the air passed by enough to see.

  Everything was hot in here. Hot and burnt and wet, with splatters of rain mixed with dry air so tart it would suck the mist off your armor.

  Vikov knew the Zen’zat had caused this, and the sight and feel of it only deepened the inherent betrayal…but Rajamal was right. The J’gar had forced this on them. And now they had nothing left but memories of duty.

  And Vikov was going to attend to this last one before disappearing into the stars and an uncertain future.

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