Star Force: Nexus (SF57) Read online

  The massive vessel that the Star Force ships were assigned to had room for all three plus an additional 23 other vessels, each of which was tucked away inside what looked like a lagoon. The bulk of the ship was pointed into a wide, four-spined arrow whose tips circled around an empty, squashed sphere of space inside of which the ships were berthed and held steady by an IDF. The three Ma’kri were not the largest vessels being carried, with four being larger plus a myriad of smaller ships made up of multiple designs.

  There was no interlinking with the carrier ship, so all the crews had to stay onboard their own ships and wait out the trip as if they were traveling solo through the jump, which lasted only 8 days. In comparison, had the Ma’kri attempted to travel that distance on their own, going through one small jump after another between stars, it would have taken them approximately 7 months to get that far, assuming they had fuel reserves to sustain them through that many jumps.

  But when they arrived they were not at their ultimate destination, rather another grid point. It was identical to the other, each with two giant emitters creating the magnetic fields that the carriers amplified and repulsed off from. One for one direction of travel and the other for the reverse…but also to act as backups in case one had to be taken down for maintenance or was damaged. Kerrie also learned that unmanned probe ships were continuously sent through the grid, with them seeing 6 come in and immediately leave on the other emitter during their short wait.

  The probes were unmanned and intended to inform one end of the link if the other was no longer viable, for a ship that made the jump couldn’t slow down without the other grid point being active and would either slam into the construct or miss it and shoot off into the galactic void unable to stop and essentially be lost in space. If a probe didn’t come through on schedule all outgoing traffic was halted until another came in, so as to minimize losses if a grid point was taken down.

  If one of the emitters went offline the other could be used for double duty, but typical procedure had an ‘in’ and an ‘out,’ with Kerrie’s carrier coming in on the top segment of the opposite grid point, after which the Ma’kri exited the ship and waited for instructions as where to go next, for there were three additional grid points within 2 million kilometers, all situated in deep space outside of any system, keeping the transit grid a private one for Nexus use.

  It took another 4 days of waiting before another carrier became available for their use, with the Star Force warships loading up and shooting off through another linkage, for unlike a gravity well the grid point’s emitters were monodirectional and could only fire and receive ships from one destination point. It seemed like an enormous waste of material to build four different constructs in one location, but the speed boost was very beneficial for transit once you had them up and running.

  The amount of ships at this location was even larger, with additional stations spread out in clusters between the grid points, indicating that the one they had originally started this journey from was on the edge of the Nexus’s territory. This point was much more robust with facilities, for the constructs themselves were not housing or commerce units. Almost all of their interior space was devoted to the sole function of producing the magnetic fields and self-defense, leaving these other large facilities, though tiny in comparison, to service the ships coming through the grid.

  It was hard to comprehend, but there were more stations and ships in this location than there were in the entire Solar System, and she didn’t doubt that the local population might be the same. There were no planets or natural objects of any kind to colonize, but there were so many bits of floating infrastructure and ships that it was truly mind blowing. Fortunately the Nexus was very organized and the traffic controllers had Kerrie’s fleet stationed where necessary until their ride was ready, then they loaded up and were taken on another link in their journey out to the next galactic arm.

  The further they went the bigger the grid points got, with their final point containing 19 different constructs and a sea of infrastructure, all floating in deep space away from the prying eyes of anyone else. There they picked up an escort by a Sety ship that was half their size which led them through a series of grav jumps through the nearby star systems until they arrived at the capitol of the Nexus.

  It wasn’t the Sety homeworld, but a system built specifically for the interracial community…and like the grid points it was choked with activity.

  Kerrie had never seen anything even remotely like it before. It was a binary system, with a main central star and a small outer one in very high orbit. Worked into a complicated set of odd orbits were 39 planets and 193 moons, all of which were inhabited with layers of infrastructure. There were no natural environments visible, they’d all been erased in favor of cityscape, but the various planetoids were colonized by different races with different architecture, though it looked like approximately the same level of tech…all higher than what Star Force currently had.

  In addition to the planets there were millions of installations situated in orbit or null space between the planets, but once again each and every one was neatly arranged with traffic flows moving through a very scripted routine. The three Star Force ships followed their escort closely, matching microjumps and other lesser maneuvers until they arrived at a particular planet and were given a parking orbit.

  Though she couldn’t be certain, she suspected that this one system contained more infrastructure and population than the entire ADZ…which was mindboggling. Talk about big fish in the little pond. Seeing it all she wondered what the hell the Nexus had to worry about from the lizards, because they were truly the superior, like Asgard superior to Earth in Stargate, only bigger and more impressive, for some of the ‘stations’ were the size of moons themselves.

  Once getting parked, arrangements were quickly made to get her down to the planet with a dropship being escorted by fighter-like craft from orbit all the way down to a city made of angular pillars that reminded her of Superman’s fortress of solitude. They even looked like ice, though more blue, and were sticking up at all kinds of angles that belied any visible motif other than sheer randomness. It wasn’t until the dropship came in closer did she realize just how big each of the spike/columns were, with most reaching up some 7-12 miles, with the largest oddballs climbing as high as 20.

  The escorts led the tiny Star Force dropship to one of the ‘tall’ ones, with the mountain-sized structure having nearly invisible cutouts until you got close enough to see them, one of which was a landing pad recessed into the otherwise smooth, crystal-like exterior…though that pad alone could have held more than 1000 dropships, with several larger Nexus craft sitting on the deck along with a steady stream of smaller ones coming and going as Kerrie’s ship landed.

  The planet itself was larger than normal, with 1.27 gravity and a mix of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere. Ironically the Sety breathed the nitrogen, while most of the other races in the Nexus respired using oxygen. The binary atmosphere worked for both races, which meant that Kerrie wasn’t going to have to wear special breathing gear, though she did choose to wear her brown padawan armor, minus the weapons, and blew out a deep breath as the boarding ramp lowered and she walked down to the deck, feeling the gravity thicken as she left the dropship’s IDF.

  Outside the ship there was a delegation waiting, made up of six individuals from two different races. Five of them were what Kerrie recognized from the files the H’kar had given them to be Gfatt. They had huge arms and one leg, which was more of a tail that fell directly beneath them. These were wearing an anti-grav harness and floating above the ground, but she knew they could walk as a tripod with their ape-like arms doubling as legs if they leaned forward slightly. Their skin was silver and slick, without so much as a hair or blemish, reminding Kerrie of dolphins save for the face…which was made of harder spikes jutting out at odd angles.

  The other individual was a H’kar, with its exoskeleton clashing with the smooth motif of the Gfatt. It was a dark green almos
t to the point of being black and looked very intimidating, though from their previous experience she knew they were more turtle than warrior, though the natural armor meant they’d be a beast to tackle hand to hand.

  “Welcome to Nexvt’ya,” the H’kar said in passable English. “We are pleased you were able to make the journey.”

  “Thank you,” she said, looking at the Gfatt and making a modification inside her helmet. “Can you understand me?”

  Her external speaker created a series of words that were unintelligible by Human standards, and ones that Kerrie had yet been able to even minorly master with her own vocal chords, which replicated the Nexus’s basic language.

  The Gfatt exchanged glances, then one looked at her with its three eyes and clasped its hands together. “We did not expect you to be able to speak our language.”

  “Computer translation.”

  “Well, it seems I’m not going to be needed here after all,” the H’kar said, who had spent a considerable amount of time learning the Human language in order to act as translator.

  “No, stay. There may be other issues that arise,” the Gfatt said in a tone that indicated that they were definitely higher up in the pecking order.

  “As you wish.”

  “Please come inside, there is much we have to discuss,” the Gfatt said, pointing Kerrie towards the far interior of the landing bay as more ships continued to come and go around them, though none in the immediate area. “Do you have any environmental considerations we need to take into account?”

  “The armor is precautionary and designed for combat. I can breathe the air,” she said, trying to keep any and all sarcasm out of her voice. The translation program was new and the simpler she spoke, the less likelihood of it messing up.

  The Gfatt exchanged looks. “Are you carrying weapons?”

  “No,” she said, suppressing the urge to declare herself a weapon.

  “Weapons are not permitted on the planet aside from those in the possession of the security forces, which is why I ask. Your bodily protection is permissible, but unnecessary. Follow me.”

  Kerrie fell into step behind the Gfatt, looking up at its shoulders as the others formed up into flanking positions with the H’kar following behind as a tagalong. They walked across the deck and into a large, cave-like entrance that split into hallways traveling in all directions. They took one angling down and to the right, with it twisting and turning at various angles with the segments always being straight and angled at the joints. Instead of stairs they had grippy, yet shallow ramps covered in traction nubs that kept wanting to trip Kerrie up.

  The Gfatt simply floated over them, with the H’kar working his way down by ‘foot’ noisily behind her. The clicks of his footfalls were the only sound other than her light footsteps, with the rest of the pedestrians they passed by being eerily silent as they floated about. There was no talking, only a calm tranquility that gave Kerrie the urge to yell just to break up the monotony, making the clunky H’kar stand out amongst the silent crowd.

  Eventually they came to their destination and a large table that was more of a raised symbol coming out of the floor. It was twisted and curved, with what would have been chair positions in a mess of different angles but there were none. All the Gfatt in the room simply floated beside the work station, with what looked like a giant sandbox on part of the tabletop.

  That ‘sand’ was mutable, with it forming into various shapes and sizes of objects while other positions worked with recognizable holograms, not unlike what Star Force used. The ‘sand’ was what drew her attention, for it was shaped into a landscape with tiny moving structures that looked like army men…but whom she recognized as lizard mauler variants.

  “Stand here please,” the Gfatt said, pointing to a spot alongside one of the edges of the sandbox.

  “You’re obviously studying the lizards,” she said, with the translation program using their proper name, which she didn’t care to pronounce.

  “They are a growing nuisance that will not go away, though you know better than us given your history with them.”

  “Given your level of technology how are they a threat to you?” Kerrie had to ask.

  “The Nexus is spread across a wide region of the galaxy. We do not control systems, we oversee them. Because the Li'vorkrachnika consume approximately 30% of all systems within their territory they are spread too wide for us to selectively target. Likewise we cannot defend the systems within the Nexus region that are not exclusively ours. We can fight the Li’vorkrachnika and win, but they are striking numerous targets simultaneously, wherein the problem arises.”

  “You aren’t monitoring your territory?” Kerrie guessed.

  “Not the lesser systems, no. At least not at a sufficient rate to ward off invasion. The Li’vorkrachnika are taking worlds and developing them before we even become aware of their presence. They are like unwanted hazmats sprouting everywhere along the H’kar border region and expanding into others. When we find them we destroy them, but there are too many systems to monitor simultaneously.”

  Kerrie cringed at ‘hazmats,’ guessing that was the first translational glitch of many to come, then the sandbox in front of her spat out tiny globules that resolved themselves into star positions.

  “This is a map of their known invasion area, but for every star system denoted there are 150 others not shown due to stellar density. These are our systems,” the Gfatt said as a scattering of the tiny bits of sand changed color and glowed red. “As you can see, we don’t hold as many systems per volume of space as you do. We believe your alliance’s contained perimeter is an advantage you possess. Do you concur?”

  “Actually, I’d like you to tell me why the Nexus is so spread out? There have got to be valuable worlds inside your territory worth colonizing. Why keep expanding outward?”

  “We do not seek to dominate the galaxy, merely keep it tranquil. The larger the region we inhabit the more we can inhibit the growth of threats. Local conflicts will always exist, and most of the races within our territory are not part of the Nexus. They are insignificant and we ignore them unless they should advance to the point of recognition, either as an ally, neutral, or enemy.”

  “You’ve spread yourselves so wide you can’t focus on a single area?”

  “Our militaries are spread out, dealing with hundreds of conflicts simultaneously. Normally a threat on the level of the Li’vorkrachnika would have been eliminated early on, but they appear to have no weak point. Within a region of space where we would have 6 system strongholds they have 6,000 weak systems. We cannot target and eradicate them all without devoting an enormous amount of resources to the effort, of which their threat level doesn’t warrant.”

  “So you’re used to having a high valued target to hit, and since the lizards are more interested in spreading than consolidating you can’t cripple them with a few key strikes?”

  “They are too spread out to pinpoint target, and our intelligence reports indicate that they are spreading out further towards the core. With the more systems they consume the larger their resource base will become. If they grow large enough they could threaten our border through sheer numbers, at which time we will pull forces from other regions to deal with the threat, but for now we are seeking alternative ways to combat the Li’vorkrachnika in a more economical fashion.”

  “You know you can kill as many as they send, you just don’t know how to defeat them?”

  “Short of a massive campaign to wipe them from the face of the galaxy, no. They seem destined to either dominate or be eradicated. Normally there is middle ground to negotiate with, even if through force alone, but the Li’vorkrachnika have shown a disinterest in survival. They will die by the billions if necessary to achieve an objective.”

  “So I’ve noticed.”

  “I am told you have considerable experience fighting this common enemy.”

  “I do.”

  “Any insights you could provide would be greatly valued, as well as inf
ormation concerning the battles you’ve fought and won.”

  “That I can offer, but first I need to see more of the Nexus and how you’ve been fighting them. If I had your resources the lizards would have been defeated long before now and I don’t see why they’re beating you.”

  “They are not defeating us,” Gfatt countered.

  “They are surviving and expanding, correct?”

  “Correct.”

  “Then they are winning and defeating your stated objective.”

  “The Nexus survives fully intact, we have not lost a world. There is no defeat.”

  “Maybe this is translation issue. You are not winning, correct?”

  “We have not won a complete victory, no.”

  “Then I need to see how you are fighting and what you have available in order to point out where you’re going wrong.”

  “Strategic information is limited to outsiders.”

  “Give me as much as you can, then I will compare and contrast between our battles with the lizards and yours.”

  The Gfatt turned and conversed with another beside it, with their whisper being too low for her translation software to digest, but a moment later the original Gfatt altered the sandbox and a slew of new objects appeared, some being starmaps and others ship profiles.

  “We will extend internal public information rights to you for the purpose of this conference. Ask and we shall answer what we are allowed.”

  Kerrie looked over the various ships, then pointed to one of the smaller ones. “Let’s start here.”

  3

  January 3, 2637

  Danba System (lizard territory)

  Vani

  Liam-090 studied the holograms in the command nexus aboard his Warship-class jumpship as he began to mentally link into the Ikrid control sphere and begin issuing orders to his raiding fleet, which was spread throughout the enemy-occupied system just on the far side of the ‘neutral zone’ beyond Alpha Region. They were about to stage a naval attack on the key lizard stronghold in order to beat down some of the excessive growth the planet was undergoing, and to do the maximum amount of damage possible Liam needed to adapt his fleet positioning to what the lizards were showing.