Star Force: Quenar (SF88) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  The Dragon’s head, attached to a snake-like neck, dipped lower so it could look closer at Paul, with its skull nearly being the size of his body.

  “It seems a discussion on that matter is long overdue.”

  “Indeed. First off,” Paul said, looking at the red Dragon. “Why are you two here when he is doing all the talking?”

  “To observe,” it said simply in an altogether different tone of voice.

  “You were born after me, correct? From one of the eggs discovered in stasis?”

  “I was.”

  “Then I am senior,” he said, turning back to the big Dragon, “to all but you.”

  “Is this arrogance or ignorance?” the yellow Dragon said evenly.

  “Both I believe,” the large one said, “but with a touch of wisdom. How many psionics do you possess, little Archon.”

  “8 tier 1, 23 tier 2, 4 tier 3, and 16 battlemeld. Has that ever been achieved by the Zen’zat?”

  The Dragon’s nostrils flared as he remained silent for a moment. “Not by V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat. Which tier 3s do you possess?”

  “Jumat, Sav, Kex, and Ubven. All Archons of my level possess the same.”

  “How have you accomplished this sharing?”

  “We stumbled upon it by accident and tailored it to our use. Once one of us attains an ability, we can sync with another to trigger their ascension.”

  “The V’kit’no’sat never discovered the battlemeld, yet you have. I am unsure what to make of this.”

  “We train harder than them, and we also give orders rather than taking them.”

  “Both points of merit, but I need to analyze you further. Will you allow me access to your mind?”

  Paul turned to the yellow Dragon. “If it’s a two way street, I’ll allow him and you can share his point of view via your own battlemeld, assuming you didn’t give us something you did not possess.”

  “If I wished to take the knowledge from you by force you could not stop me, Archon. There is no subterfuge here.”

  “Never the less, I will allow him. Your power level is beyond mine.”

  “So is his, as you are about to see.”

  The yellow dragon walked forward and Paul held up his bare hand. The Zak’de’ron pushed its head into his palm making flesh to flesh contact and bypassing Paul’s Ikrid block.

  Suddenly the Dragon’s mind was inside his own, a huge, powerful presence far larger than his fellow Humans’ but not as advanced. Paul was so used to having Jason inside his head that he could adequately size up the Zak’de’ron and spot the areas where it was the inferior, but in so many base ways it completely outclassed him that he was truly surprised.

  There was no pushing or pulling involved, no contention, just an exploration of one another with Paul seeing most of its memories aside from specific portions that were blocked. He too was shielding some areas regarding their technology, codes, hidden worlds, and was ready to break the connection the moment an intervention occurred, but none was to come.

  He could only feel the yellow Dragon’s mind, but he knew the others were also seeing through its perception. But more than its mind, Paul could also feel inside its body and recognized several psionic tissues similar to his own. It had Jumat, he was sure of it, and he suspected several other things, including ones that either the Archons hadn’t unlocked yet or special psionics that had not been given to the Zen’zat.

  He was getting a wealth of knowledge just by being able to look around inside the Dragon’s body and memories, and he knew they were getting the same in return. The sharing occurred for more time than Paul could recount, then the Dragon withdrew its mind, shortly followed by breaking connection with his hand as it stepped back to a flanking position with a renewed respect existing between them both.

  “You have done well, Archon. Though you are still physically weak compared to many Zen’zat, few have achieved as much as you have. It would not save you if you fought them, but if you continue on your present course you will outstrip them given time. In fact I can accurately say that your pace and intensity of training are giving you an enormous advantage over the Zen’zat, but their longevity is something that you will not quickly claim.”

  “I know.”

  “The dreams are meant to be a final test to determine if one is intelligent enough to be granted the highest powers. You cannot share Choratrik, do you know why?”

  “I’m guessing the trigger is structured differently.”

  “It is. It requires a mental alignment that cannot exist passively, therefore your twin link cannot replicate it unless you are so linked during a dream when it occurs, and such connection is deliberately blocked. You will never be able to share those abilities.”

  “Have your Zen’zat ever achieved them?”

  “A rare few.”

  “Have the V’kit’no’sat discovered them in the Zen’zat genetic code? Surely they had to observe your Zen’zat using additional abilities during combat?”

  “What knowledge we have of their current state suggests otherwise. They most likely assume it is coding that we gave them in addition rather than weaving it into the original lot.”

  “Why did they not want the Zen’zat so equipped?”

  “Arrogance is their lifeblood. They deem the Ter’nat inferior, and are right to do so on the whole, but they do not wish to accept that once upgraded, certain individuals can excel to levels of peerdom. They acknowledge the usefulness of Zen’zat while at the same time demeaning them. They did not want to give them equal or greater powers, and only relented knowing that they could not pass them on to offspring and that their power would be limited by the size of their bodies. We have no fear of you, so there was no reason not to give you the potential. If you prove unworthy it would simply lie dormant inside. You and your fellow Archons are beginning to prove yourselves worthy, even if you are not doing it via the path we originally outlined.”

  Paul sighed, accepting the compliment but knowing that it meant little if the V’kit’no’sat ever returned. “How close are we to being exposed?”

  “The border lies far from here, but all it will take is one whiff of your existence to bring them down upon you, and the same is true of us. I hope you understand the enormity of the trust we are instilling in you simply by coming here.”

  “You also don’t have a choice since you can’t wipe our minds…short of killing us all.”

  “While that may have been true in the past, you may accept it as a measure of respect now.”

  “Likewise.”

  “These Chixzon you have revealed to us are dangerous, far more so than I would have imagined. The ability to manipulate the Hadarak to their advantage is not something we had thought to be possible. Their level of genetics must be considerable, but I warn you not to mess with your own coding. We have put failsafes in to prevent most tampering, and only one intricately skilled would be able to alter them. If you pursue the tier 4 abilities, you must do it naturally. The Chixzon may in fact be our peers in genetics, but they operate in an entirely different manner. Our skills do not overlap sufficient for them to rework you, so for your sake do not attempt it.”

  “Failsafe as in defense, or self-destruction?”

  “Defense, and if obvious avenues are taken you will most likely upset a delicate balance, and in so doing damage yourselves. We did not put any damaging code in place. Such things are the product of inferior minds, and I suspect the Chixzon fall into this category. They created some sort of a kill code for these altered Hadarak, I presume?”

  “They did,” Paul confirmed, having held back that piece of information previously.

  “You would be wise to use it. What do you seek to gain here?”

  “I have asked you here to seek your counsel and knowledge of the Hadarak. We know much from the Chixzon, but as you said their knowledge lies along different pathways, and with regards to the Hadarak may be outdated. Their plans to dominate the galaxy failed because of a singular weakness…the sedativ
e that was discovered. Without it they would have achieved their goals. We need to understand these Uriti and what they are capable of, and the database that we have on Earth only goes into so much depth.”

  “It is a redundant core and not meant to maintain the most delicate of files. I have personal knowledge of the Hadarak and I will tell you never to attempt contact with one. They are a plague on this galaxy and must be treated as such, else you will face immediate death.”

  “Speed?”

  “They can be outrun if wisely pursued, but they have countermeasures that can trap the unscrupulous navigators, most notably their minion swarms. When they flood the space around them, they are all but impossible to approach and ranged weapons will only do limited damage. Their bodies are made to take damage rather than deflect it. One must penetrate the outer layers if there is any hope to fatally wound one, but when they act in concert they exhibit additional abilities that make sustained fire almost impossible to achieve.”

  “The Chixzon added weaponry to the Uriti. If I share information with you from the Chixzon, can you advise on the alterations and detail as intricate an analysis as possible. I truly do not know how we are going to proceed from this point on, but our first priority is to establish communication if at all possible outside the Chixzon route. Beyond that, we will pursue other options so long as we can keep this one contained here so that it is not a threat to other star systems.”

  “Most likely futile, but given that I do not know the full extent of their alterations there may be a hope of merit in your ambitions. I will agree to the data sharing.”

  “Beyond that there is a favor I must ask, and one that I believe is in our mutual self-interest. The Chixzon claim to have seeded the galaxy with the race that contains their legacy. We are searching this region and have found many such colonies, but there are bound to be far more beyond our borders. The alliance that has safeguarded the Uriti has agreed in principle to hunting for more of these colonies in order to inoculate them with a genetic alteration that we have devised that will strip the dangerous coding out of them…not rendering it dormant, but completely removing it and thus ensuring the Chixzon cannot return in the future through them.”

  “And you wish us to look for more of this unspecified race?”

  “And to inoculate them, yes. I know that certain races, given that knowledge, would hunt them down and destroy them to prevent the Chixzon return, but this is far more efficient a solution and does not involve mass murder. If we give you the inoculation, will you spread it to any and all colonies that you find?”

  “You have yet to identify the race.”

  “They are the Protovic.”

  The Dragon huffed once. “Such a clever disguise. A pathetic, yet somewhat resilient race to hide themselves within. Their timeline, if it has not been altered by factors unseen to them, is incredibly ambitious. What has this Chixzon suggested that his peers would do if they returned?”

  “Lay low and look for a means to conquer the galaxy where the Uriti failed, but if they could find some way to eliminate the weakness in them that they would seek them out or perhaps another Hadarak from which to make more. He is convinced that they would not make the same fatal mistake a second time, thus they would not reveal themselves until they were all but assured of victory.”

  “From your memories, you have stated that their telepathy is inferior to your own?”

  “Structurally yes, but he is also extremely young.”

  “None the less, it is curious how their development has occurred differently than ours. I had assumed such things were more or less automatic with regards to genetics. Apparently that is not so, for they have exceeded us with the Hadarak while failing to even produce adequate results in other areas. Such things may not be apparent to you, but they are obvious to me from your memories.”

  “You have attempted to reengineer the Hadarak?”

  “We have attempted all things considered and found no way to defeat them other than through continual warfare and attrition. Their sanctuaries in the deep core cannot be reached, thus there is no way known to permanently eradicate them even if we were to mount an enormous crusade to kill all those who come forth. An equilibrium was thus maintained, and is currently done so with a thin region ceded to them that was not previously. This denotes that the V’kit’no’sat are not as strong as they once were and I believe it is partly because we are no longer bolstering them, but also due to the Rit’ko’sor rebellion.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “Unknown. We cannot gather much intel from the core, but what we have thus far indicates that they have been wiped from all records and therefore have not been reassimilated.”

  “Annihilated?”

  “Possibly, but regardless of their ultimate fate they seem to have hurt the V’kit’no’sat to such a degree that they have not fully recovered. Their loosening of the equilibrium will have cumulative negative effects that will force them to commit further resources to holding the line in time. The Hadarak can sense weakness when it exists, and they deliberately prod any such signs looking for a way to penetrate the defenses. They could simply travel past them and be pursued, but they choose to attack them directly. They are a plague that thinks and plans, but does so in such a way that we have bene unable to determine their full motivation.”

  “All the more reason to try and talk to a Uriti if possible.”

  “I am not hopeful, but I will assist you with this endeavor. While the traitors hold the Hadarak at bay, they cannot be continually trusted with such a task. We are not, nor will be, in a position to supplant them, but if another method of combating the Hadarak exists it is important that we find it. But do not mistake my acquiescence as a mitigation of the danger. If the Chixzon hold on this Uriti lapses, it will prove beyond your ability to defeat regardless of what impressive progress your Archons have made. The Hadarak fight navally before all else, and must be countered on such. You of all Archons should understand magnitude of this.”

  “I understand part of it. I need you to help educate me further.”

  “Is that humility I hear?”

  “Never,” Paul said with defiance. “Just acceptance of ignorance that I have not yet been able to rectify from reading reports alone. I need someone with greater knowledge, or better yet, experience with the Hadarak.”

  “Where is the Archon I gifted previously?”

  “Elsewhere making preparations for if and when the V’kit’no’sat return.”

  “Prudent, but otherwise futile. Anonymity is your only effective defense. If she were here I could upload the necessary knowledge to her Vorch’nas, but unless she is close by there is no time. When we leave from here you will not see us again and your efforts concerning the Uriti will be your own. If you have the ability to destroy it, then we shall leave it in your care, for good or ill. Our intervention is tenuous, and destruction of one will not be possible if more prying eyes continue to arrive as you anticipate. I suspect this location is going to come under great scrutiny, thus we must return to the shadows before we can be discovered.”

  “What would you counsel regarding that?”

  “You fear their exposure of you to the traitors. This is a real threat if the races coming here have ties back to the core, but if the Uriti never traveled to the core then you may be clear of that catastrophe. With regards to these races alone I would advise caution and extreme military buildup to discourage intervention. If you are going to claim possession of this Uriti, you may well have to do more than be able to control it.”

  Paul cringed. “I was afraid of that.”

  “I will advise destroying it and the others before your grasp upon them can be challenged.”

  “It’s already been challenged once, but no, we’re not going to kill them unless they take action themselves that forces it.”

  “Noble, but not prudent.”

  “Noble usually isn’t.”

  “Your path is your own.”

  “That
it is,” Paul agreed, knowing he was referencing the V’kit’no’sat betrayal. They weren’t going to ally themselves, trust themselves, to anyone else again after that. “As for the Hadarak…begin enlightening me.”

  5

  August 13, 3256

  Alamo System

  Inner Zone

  The Sanguine Blade sat in a holding orbit inside the empty system that had filled up with starships, some 2,193 of them not counting the fleet that had come along with Jason’s flagship. Those numbered 6,288 and included a mix of warships, personnel transports, cargo ships, sedas, and MCVs. The majority of the ones already here were not Star Force, instead being made up of a healthy number of Sety ships and a handful of others from what remained of The Nine without the Trinx and Yisv, whose fleet was still apparently loyal but not willing to enter a system with a woken Uriti.

  But there were others, several hundred of them scattered around the area and not getting close to one another that were not identified in Star Force’s ship profiles. Some updated once the links to the present fleet had come through, but most of the vessels had ‘unidentified’ tags with a little information on them from sensor records probably compiled while in this system.

  “A lot of visitors,” Jason commented from the observation deck that had been built into the command ship specifically for this mission. It had windows all around it that fed off of external cameras while being located deep within the heart of the vessel and the safest part of the ship, giving it an openness that its occupant preferred.