Star Force: Dominance (Star Force Universe Book 50) Read online

  “Is that why you didn’t want me to take the higher programs?”

  “You said you didn’t want to.”

  “I know, but why didn’t you insist I did before hiring me?”

  “I want you with me. And Star Force can’t teach you about our business, so I figure you’ll learn more relevant stuff this way, but you’re free to go back and take a maturia program whenever you want.”

  “No thanks. It’s too high strung for me. They don’t let you have any free time.”

  “I know. Your mother felt the same way.”

  “You said you met her in the maturia?”

  “She was my sister,” he said, referencing the maturia classes that operated as family from birth, though they had no biological connection other than their race. “We’d been together forever,” he said, getting a bit misty eyed.

  “I never hooked up with any of my brothers.”

  “Never?”

  “No. We just didn’t see eye to eye on anything.”

  “Really?”

  “They wanted to go into Star Force service and I didn’t. I was the only one that didn’t.”

  “Most of them won’t stay in it. Less than 1% of all people in Star Force end up in service past the age of 100. A lot try it, but they end up preferring less stressful civilian life or the challenge of making money on their own. Service doesn’t get you rich. It gets you responsibilities. I prefer money.”

  “You’re responsible for your corporation, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but I choose who’s in it. Star Force has to be responsible for everyone born into it. That’s not a job I want. I like to pick and choose.”

  “Like me?”

  “I chose well, Nari. You’re very much like your mother, except that nose,” he said, tapping his own with a smile. “You’re also curious like us. I’m glad you’re here. I need you, badly.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “I need someone I can trust to do it my way, and we think alike. More so than any other employee I have. Plus they come and go. I need someone who will stay around, and I think you will.”

  “Are you kidding? I’m not going anywhere. You’re the only person in the galaxy that understands me.”

  “I’m glad you feel that way,” Larson said, popping one of the smaller food cubes into his mouth and chewing hard. It was mint flavored, not one of his personal favorites, but the cylinder was a mixed bag, so you got what you got. He could have ordered more high end food cubes and other items, but he was perfectly content with the freebies Star Force handed out here. No sense in wasting extra credits on luxuries when magjump travel was so damn expensive to begin with.

  A monthor walked by their booth, then sat down in another two spots ahead of Nari with its hairy mass nearly eclipsing the bench it sat on, but the tray of food cubes was identical to the one the two Humans had…except there were far more canisters on the alien’s tray.

  “Do they all speak English?” she whispered.

  “It’s the language of the Rim, and V’kit’no’sat is the language of the Core. If you operate inside Star Force territory, it’s expected you know it. Some of our trading partners on the frontier don’t, which is why we have to have linguists troubleshoot the shortfalls in the translation programs. The Star Force scouts get a decent feel for them, but they don’t spend a lot of time figuring out the intricacies. They’re more interested in providing a base from which to teach English to those who speak other languages rather than mastering theirs.”

  “Isn’t that good?”

  “Why would it be? If someone told you that you had to learn something different, would you want to?”

  “No, but with 2.3 million races you can’t learn every language. Having just one makes sense, unless you don’t want to facilitate communication.”

  Larson smiled, for Nari has passed his little test to see if she was agreeing with him or just echoing everything he said.

  “Quite right, but you also have to realize that some planets don’t want outside contact, for the most part, and their interactions are limited to a few spaceports. When we work there, we learn their language and speak it as a courtesy. If we’re not very good at it we use the translators, but a lot of our clients prefer the personal touch. It’s gotten us a number of contracts over larger and better financed corporations.”

  “Interesting,” Nari said, chewing food cubes at a rapid pace in between words whereas Larson was taking his time. That was another symptom of maturia training. You were always in a rush and trying to cram in as much work, or in this case, food, into the minimum amount of time possible. It was a trait that Nari would lose in time, but less than a year out of the maturia wasn’t enough to shed most of its habits. “They really don’t want to interact with the galaxy?”

  “Star Force is rather unique in that regard, and brings a lot of people together. Others would not do things the same way. Take the V’kit’no’sat. Their borders are closed to civilian traffic, at least those without permission. They have select trade deals with some of the truly huge corporations, but most of their commerce is through Star Force itself, and they don’t care to interact with the ‘lesser’ races in the Rim.”

  “Lesser?”

  “Frankly they’re snobs, and I wouldn’t do business with them even if I had the chance. There’s also still some bad blood between them and Star Force that I don’t want to get between, but some will risk it. Especially for a few V’kit’no’sat trinkets not available out here.”

  Something out the window drew Nari’s attention as she sipped her blue drink, enough so that she half choked and spilled some on her thin shirt.

  “Blast it,” she said, swiping away what she could and thankfully avoiding a stain thanks to the synthetic fabric.

  “What?” Larson asked, glancing out the window at the hundreds of things visible.

  “That’s a Knight ship, isn’t it?” she said, pointing to the far left as it was entering view.

  “Good eye. It is. And a magjump ship at that. They must be transiting between constructs.”

  “They have their own grid ships?”

  Larson nodded. “They can’t wait to hop a carrier, so they’ve got their own transit fleet,” he said, referencing the pyramid-shaped vessel that had a very elongated peak that doubled as a bow, making it look like a fat obelisk. “There’s probably 20-30 warships inside.”

  “Can you tell which it is?”

  “Hold on,” he said, using a small console on the table to bring up a hologram between them that mirrored the window view…except that he was able to zoom in until the Knight ship filled the screen. The dark hull had a green twinge to it, which was typical of Star Force’s advanced Tu’gor armor that the Knight vessels had, and all of their grid ships were covered in the stuff to ensure they couldn’t be destroyed in a quick ambush or by debris when traveling through space at magjump speeds higher than civilian transports were capable of.

  “There,” he said, zooming in even further to a symbol on the side of the pyramid that was nearly a mile wide, but appeared tiny on the massive 268 mile long ship. “Do you recognize that shape?”

  “It looks familiar, but no, I can’t place it.”

  “It’s Bez. Star Force Bez. V’kit’no’sat races have similar icons, and Star Force modified them all to differentiate between the two. That’s a Bez Knight ship…and actually, there’s more than one. Looks like a convoy,” he said as he zoomed back out and rotated the camera angle around to see a long train of pyramids creeping through the dense traffic field with smaller ships zipping in and around them but staying respectfully out of the way within a decent perimeter.

  “Why do they get the best ships?”

  “They’re the first line of defense, and the ones going out into the deep frontier to look for problems to solve. I’m afraid you’ve been isolated from the truth being in a maturia,” he said looking her squarely in the eyes. “The galaxy is a very dark, horrific place outside of Star Force territory. And Star Fo
rce doesn’t accept that. They’re constantly pushing the borders out and civilizing the frontier, but the galaxy is huge and there’s no end to the threats out there.”

  “What threats?”

  “Nothing that can take down Star Force on the whole, but threats that can kill people just the same. And there are people out there born into those dark worlds with no knowledge of Star Force. Be grateful you were born here. Some of the things you will see out there will scare you shitless.”

  Nari frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “Oh…just a crude description of something that happens to some people. It’s never happened to me, but I’ve been close. Never mind about that. Just look at those Knight ships and remember, they’re going out to fight wars to free people from the darkness. Not to bring them back here, but to extend Star Force out to them, and the threats don’t like it. Make no mistake, those Knights are going into harm’s way, and that’s why they need the best ships.”

  “But those ships don’t leave the Grid Point system.”

  “True, but any delay means more people out there die, so they have to move fast when a mission is assigned. I’m not sure how it all works, but I know they don’t waste time and those grid ships are damn necessary, so they can’t risk losing them.”

  “But who could damage them on the grid?”

  “It’s rare, but sometimes there is debris between the stars. There have been cases where magjump ships simply don’t arrive, and it’s speculated that they ran into something.”

  “I’ve never heard that.”

  “Doesn’t happen much now, but in the past it did. The shields absorb most of the impacts, but the faster you go and the larger the object gets…well, physics will eventually get the best of you, and the Knight ships are designed to travel the grid much faster, so they’re in more harm’s way. Something the size of this,” he said, holding up a single food cube, “can destroy a ship without shielding because of the speeds involved.”

  “Wouldn’t it just punch right through?”

  “Yes, but it will spray debris along the way that will hollow out a cone that vaporizes everything in its path. And if systems are damaged, like fuel storage…boom.”

  “What happens to the pieces?”

  “They drift off the jumpline and miss the grid points…hopefully.”

  “We were never taught that.”

  “Pulse purges are performed on the jumplines at regular intervals. It’s a pain in the ass when they do them, because it has to be shut down for a few hours as the cone widens on its way out, but it tends to push away the little trash and highlight the big ones. If you see a travel delay noted, sometimes it’s because a big piece is floating through the corridor and the jumps are scheduled to let it move through.”

  “Ugh…there’s so much I don’t know.”

  “There’s a lot I don’t know, Nari. There’s too much to know it all. We just learn as we go and we pick up things. Over my 528 years I’ve picked up a lot. You haven’t had time to yet, but stick with me and I’ll get you there faster than most.”

  Nari smiled. “I have no doubt about that.”

  Larson returned the smile, then the view on the hologram suspended between them caused him to frown.

  “What?”

  “That’s not just a convoy,” he said, looking at the Knight ships. “There’s more than 100 of them.”

  “100 grid ships?” she asked in awe.

  “At least. That’s not normal, Nari. They’re either moving assets around or this is a war fleet heading across the galaxy.”

  “How do you know it’s across the galaxy?”

  “They’re on the Hula Hoop. If it was local they’d go straight there. If it’s around the curve of the galaxy, they come to the Hoop to get there faster than going around or cutting through V’kit’no’sat territory. They don’t have grid points. Only Star Force does and for some reason they haven’t shared.”

  “Any idea where they are going?”

  “No, but if it is a warfleet and not some scheduled rotation…which it might be, I’m not an expert on the Knight races…but if it is a warfleet, I’d bet they’ve found some larger than normal threat out there that needs pounding, and that’s one hell of a hammer they’re bringing.”

  “That is so cool.”

  “War isn’t cool, Nari. It’s ugly, even when Star Force fights it with stun weapons and takes everyone alive. Hopefully you never have to see it.”

  “You have?”

  “A little. I’ve been out on the frontier ahead of Star Force a few times. And when they come in and clean out a system it’s a major improvement, because whoever ticked them off had to be doing some very bad things. But the cleaning out process is ugly, because the bad guys don’t go down willingly.”

  “And that’s not cool?”

  “It’s serious, and necessary, but not cool. It’s downright terrifying.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it makes you wonder what the galaxy would be like without Star Force…and nothing gives me more nightmares than that casual thought. You’ll see, someday, and I don’t envy you that learning experience.”

  “It’s that bad out there?”

  “Worse,” he said, looking at the Knight ships now drifting by the starport with decent speed. “That’s why we won’t go very far out into the frontier. The deeper you go, the worse it gets, and only Knights or very stupid civilians go that far out.”

  2

  April 12, 128439

  Quitassna System (Opaty territory)

  Vinanakva

  “They’re refusing to surrender,” a Calavari Knight standing at the comms station on the bridge of the Bez command ship announced. “In fact, they gave a very eloquent explanation of how we should go fuck ourselves.”

  “At least they responded,” Chavarri, the Bez fleet commander, said. “Most don’t. Alright, let’s get this done. They’ve been warned. Now we fight.”

  With a telepathic ping he signaled the entire bridge crew to bring the ship to battle stations as Chavarri signaled the other warships via the battlemap system that he was mentally linked into from the soft pedestal that he stood on. The Bez was the size of an Era’tran, but had a distinctive fin running high over his back that contained an array of psionic tissue, most notably Jumat, that gave them a far different ground combat profile than their ‘cousin’ race.

  There were only three Bez on the bridge, with the other 52 personnel being smaller races indentured to the Bez as Esquires. These were the evolution of the original Knights, who focused on hand to hand combat and were a notch above the regular Commando. Now the term ‘Knight’ was reserved for those who sought out combat rather than waiting in defense, and applied to both the Knight races and the individuals from other races who volunteered for such duty.

  The individuals had two choices if they wanted front line duty…join a Clan, if they were good enough, or serve one of the Knight races in their missions. The Esquires were also referred to as Knights, but the ‘Esquire’ title denoted that they had chosen this life rather than being born into it…whereas the Knight races were born into that duty and had to choose to leave it.

  Most of the Esquires were the smaller races, but not all. There were a few larger ones too, but none in this fleet that was tasked with subjugating this Opaty system. No combat had occurred during entry, with the enemy fleet holding tight to low planetary orbit where the ground defenses could assist them in the combat to come. The Bez had laid down the terms for their surrender, but it appeared that the Opaty were going to fight to the death like the rest of their civilization in other systems.

  Their race was an empire that held many other races as various types of servants, some of which were rather primitive and used for ritual sacrifices. As soon as Star Force found this out the Knights were tasked with ending their empire, and combat had been occurring over the past 8 years in a multitude of systems. The Opaty could not stop the invasions, yet they still refused to negotiate or surrender. Ma
ny of them were being taken prisoner with stun weapons, and the Bez intended to do so here as well, but they had to get through their defense fleet and penetrate the planetary shields before they could start capturing the population.

  But this wasn’t going to be an easy fight. The Opaty had been a fairly advanced race in previous millennia, but they’d grown considerably as of late and Chixzon intervention had already been confirmed. They were trying to throw up yet another roadblock to Star Force, and the insistence of the Opaty to fight to the death and do as much damage as possible to the Knights probably had something to do with the wishes of their clandestine masters.

  Chavarri had no Uriti in his fleet, for this wasn’t that large of a target, but he was going to lose a lot of drones getting through the mess ahead, for the planetary defense weaponry was showing more cannons than scouting reports had previously revealed, all of which were now rising up from hidden bunkers across the planet.

  The Bez fully immersed himself in the battlemap system, and with his Sav psionic upgrade he could feel his entire fleet as the warships disgorged their hives of smaller drones, all of which were perfect cubes. The other militaries within Star Force had their own shapes, but the Knight races all had cubes, which was the second best geometry available after a sphere, but the spheres didn’t pack well into ships and left a lot of empty space between them. The cubes packed tight, as did the other geometric shapes, and had both advantages and disadvantages over the other designs.

  They didn’t have a front or back, and could defend evenly against all angles of attack, but that was also a disadvantage when a flat rectangle could come in with its smallest side towards the enemy. A cube didn’t have a smaller side to use, but then again it didn’t have a larger side than the enemy could flank either.

  Seeing the swarm of medium-sized vessels arrayed against them, Chavarri ordered his fleet pilots to combine the drones into clusters, physically interlocking and sharing shields, power, and more importantly putting physical mass in between them and some of the soon to be incoming fire. They linked up in a variety of formations, but most were spear shaped and had a body 3 wide by 3 tall, meaning the inside row was completely protected from the outside.