Star Force: Excalibur (Star Force Universe Book 41) Read online

  “You want to influence this quarter of the galactic rim, but without expanding your own borders. And to do that you need us, or the ability to assemble alliances after our fall.”

  “We would prefer you still existed, but we are making contingencies for both possibilities, as you would do in our place. We helped you fight the Li’vorkrachnika because we know that threats growing afar will eventually reach our borders, and it is best to deal with them when they are small. If we wait until they are so large to dare challenge us, we will be at a disadvantage. Now that you are successfully challenging the V’kit’no’sat the galaxy is in flux. We must take a more active role, even if from a neutral position, to help shape the future no matter what the outcome of your war may be. Linking into The Nexus Grid Point system would greatly enhance our reach, and since you control a piece of it we can negotiate with you rather than them.”

  “We’d still need to run it by them, but not for the sake of compensation,” Kara said amicably, which even with her Ikrid block the Preema were able to pick up from her surface emotions.

  “Then we have the ability to be mutually beneficial?”

  “Potentially,” Kara said neutrally. “You are honest, but if your leaders are not and have deceived you there could be complications.”

  “I can summon them here if you wish.”

  “They won’t let me scan them,” she pointed out. “You were chosen because you don’t hold too many secrets.”

  “And if they were willing?”

  “Your top tier, not subordinates?”

  “If they were, and you could confirm their earnestness, would Star Force be open to striking a wide-spanning deal?”

  Kara eyed him carefully, searching his mind for a few classic traps but finding none of them. If the Preema were trying to trick Star Force, they’d succeeded in tricking their ambassador as well.

  “How fast can you get them here?”

  4

  April 8, 4852

  Unnamed System (between Preema and Star Force territory)

  Stellar Orbit

  Kara’s small fleet came out of its jump into one of the many systems they had to pass through to get to Preema territory. This one had no inhabitants, and no name, merely a catalog number for the star and the 3 gas giants that would probably be enticing to the Hycre, but this was too far away from Star Force territory where they operated to even consider colonization. Most races couldn’t use gas giants, so it wasn’t surprising these weren’t claimed, though there were a lot of habitable planets in other systems she was passing through that were also devoid of technological civilizations.

  Kara wasn’t on the bridge, for jumping in and out of a system didn’t require her attention. She spent most of her travel time in the Archon sanctum, but not today. She’d already gone through some light workouts, but now she was floating in her quarters with the artificial gravity turned off, using her bioshields to reach out to the walls and touch them to adjust her position. Her Lachka could touch the walls, but she couldn’t use it to push herself away, for the energy field didn’t work like that, but her Nakane worked just fine to keep her in the center of the dark room, save for a few pinpricks of light from glowing buttons on the comm terminal.

  Her eyes were closed, her thoughts turned inward as she was searching for something elusive. Ever since she’d had the Vorch’nas bonded to her arm her mind had possessed hidden information that she’d been required to dig out over the centuries, but in those efforts she also realized there was a lot more to her biological mind to discover as well. She’d been disappointed that her dream state wasn’t so revealing, for she hadn’t been able to personally access any of the tier 4 psionics that Star Force could now activate with a little trip to a secure medical station. Sharing wasn’t necessary anymore, though padawans still received psionics from their master in that manner, and always would.

  Kara’s mind while dreaming was too undisciplined, which was why this type of introspection required a higher waking state. Meditation, for all of the myths surrounding it, was nothing more than altering ones current mode. Normally, when around other people and surrounding events, one would put up defenses similar to how an eye would iris almost closed in bright light. It was a necessary adaptation, but if one wanted to see in dim light it took time for the eye to adjust and open up. That was dangerous in bright light, and the same was true about certain mental modes.

  Meditation required a let down of certain defenses, which was why it needed to be done in a secure location. Some meditation could happen in noisy places, but the deepest required quiet and seclusion…and in this case, lack of gravity and light. The less her body had to defend/adapt against the more she could loosen up, which wasn’t always a good thing. There were other types of meditation that happened during action, but right now she was going about this in a passive state.

  What she was looking for she didn’t know. It was just a persistent nagging that there was something there but out of reach. Was it something from her Vorch’nas or something inherent to her? There was no way to tell, but Kara felt it was worth taking time to track down.

  Clearing her mind was almost impossible for an Archon. She could do it, forcibly, but only for short periods of time. Kara always had to focus on something. Her breathing, heartbeat, the tick of a metronome. She just wasn’t geared to shut down completely, which was an essential trait in an Archon, so she had to work herself into a very low active state.

  During that state her mind would wander, with her partially directing it, and the more she had something to chew on the more relaxed she would get. Already she’d worked through the deal with the Preema from multiple angles, looking for advantages and disadvantages, but nothing knew had occurred to her that hadn’t previously when she’d spent more than a month negotiating it. Davis still had to confirm it, and she was heading to meet him directly once she got back to Star Force territory, but that didn’t stop her mind from running through it again and again with minor variations.

  What Kara was looking for had a very distinct feeling, and every now and then she’d encounter it. To her it was like a glow around a particular thought, telling her it was important and she needed to follow it. Often that glow would disappear soon thereafter, leaving her to chase a phantom…but that phantom usually led her to something valuable.

  Though it was impossible, Kara had also been able to see the future multiple times. She couldn’t totally explain it, but her working theory was that she was able to feel out future versions of herself before they happened. That wasn’t time-based precognition, but it was something other Archons had been able to sense before regarding physical breakthroughs. Some could sense a new ability level before it happened, as if their bodies had the blueprints for it and were reviewing them before they actually got built.

  That’s what Kara was feeling now, and it focused on speed, but it was indistinct. She could feel herself moving through a fluid medium with grace and ease…then something so loud hit her that she physically jerked, sending her into a light spin in the center of her room as her eyes snapped open along with the banging inside her head.

  It took a moment, then she realized it wasn’t loud. She’d just been so scaled down it was like wide eyes in the dark suddenly being hit with a floodlight. Kara fought to adjust quickly, then realized the pinging was coming from the part of her mind connected to her Vorch’nas…along with a red glow from the normally clear jewel.

  Kara found the ping in her mind and pressed back, having it respond with an information flow…a simple message with coordinates. She was supposed to come to the 2nd planet in the system.

  “Son of a bitch,” she whispered, knowing that meant the Zak’de’ron had to be in this system, and probably close by, to send her a signal like that.

  Kara telekinetically toggled the wall-mounted controls and turned the lights and gravity back on, dropping gracefully to the floor in a crouch before springing up and heading for the door in her bare feet and pajama-like casual clothing a
s she headed for the bridge. Halfway there she made telepathic contact with Captain Zeddi, ordering him to do a full sensor sweep of the immediate area.

  When she got to the bridge the report was negative, drawing a frown from her. She’d hoped to get a least a small hit on a Zak’de’ron ship, for Star Force’s technology was still creeping forward now that they’d matched almost everything in the original pyramid database, but she wasn’t too surprised not to pick up so much as a fist-sized rock out there. Maybe when they got a ghostbane sensor system working for ships that would change, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t.

  “Is there a problem?” the Kiritas Captain asked as Kara walked across the bridge with the pads of her feet making an odd patting sound compared to the shoe clicks from everyone else.

  Kara held up her arm, with the dull red glow of her jewel becoming obvious. “I’ve been summoned. We need to go to the second planet.”

  “Summoned by who?”

  “Star Force didn’t make this,” she said, tapping on the jewel that virtually everyone in Clan Ghostblade knew about, though they didn’t know of its origins. “It was a gift from a race not to be mentioned, and I think they’re out there now. Either they want to chat or there’s something at the planet they want us to see.”

  “We’re not allowed to know?” the Captain asked, not offended, but needing to know the situation.

  “The less people that know the better, and if they hold to pattern they may want to come onboard. We’ve never been able to penetrate their cloaking devices, and apparently our sensors aren’t advanced enough yet. I was hoping they were, but…meh.”

  The Captain exchanged a few glances with his bridge crew, then turned back to face their Clan leader. “Do we need to clear the bridge?”

  “No. Just take us to the second planet. They’ll probably stay hidden, but who knows. This hasn’t happened to me before.”

  “Can I assume they’re more advanced than us?”

  “Very much so,” Kara said with a hint of defeat.

  “Are you in their service?”

  Kara shook her head firmly. “I’m not compromised, Captain, and this little baby has been very useful. I just didn’t know it also acted like a pager.”

  “If they’re in the system, can’t you receive a full message?”

  “Who knows. I’m in unknown territory here.”

  “Just this ship?”

  “No, we’re all going. I have no idea what’s out there.”

  Kara’s 18 ships redirected away from the star and made a microjump out to the 2nd planet, a huge grey/orange gas giant that was so big it was almost a star. In fact there was considerable heat emanating from it, but the outer layers were still gas and not plasma, and not a single moon was present…nor any ships, and Kara had pulled a complete lap around the gas giant in the Yi looking for anything out of the ordinary.

  We need to speak with you, a voice suddenly said into her mind, and this was definitely telepathy, meaning they were close by. A private meeting in your hangar bay.

  “Captain. Clear a hangar bay of all personnel and deactivate the surveillance systems. They’re coming onboard and apparently they’re very shy. I’ll be meeting with them in private.”

  “As you wish, but we’re not picking up any vessels or communications signals.”

  “Telepathy, Captain. They’re very close by.”

  “We’re not picking up any telepathic signals either.”

  “If they transmitting broadly you’d all hear it in your heads. When a direct link is used the sensors won’t register it. It’s a tight beam.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said warily.

  “I’m not worried, Captain,” she said, walking off the bridge with her soft, squishy footfalls. “In fact, I get the feeling we’re going to get some badly needed intel.”

  “Hangar 8,” he said before she walked out the door, then he turned to the naval officer at the sensor paddock that could hold 6 people, but right now she was the only one manning the controls due to the lack of a combat situation.

  “Anything?” the Kiritas asked the Human.

  She shook her head. “Not so much as a wrinkle. If they’re there, they’ve got a perfect cloak.”

  “Telepathic range is damn limited. Only a few miles. And you say we can’t detect a thing?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  The Captain whistled. “Friends in high places, I hope.”

  “The Knights of Quenar?” another crewer wondered.

  “You’ve heard of them. Whoever this is, Kara doesn’t want us to know their name. And as far as I know, she’s had that jewel on her arm most of her life. This must be a very old acquaintance.”

  “And?”

  “And it’s her play. Keep scanning constantly with conventionals. If we can pick up anything, I want it.”

  “What about the disposables?”

  “Not unless we’re shooting or Kara orders it. We need a blip with conventionals if we have any hope of modifying them. Try every variation in the book, but give me something. We don’t have opportunities like this very often.”

  5

  Kara walked into the hangar bay in her bare feet, not bothering to put on a uniform as she wanted to be in the hangar when the Zak’de’ron arrived. She succeeded in getting there just ahead of a slight shimmer passing through the atmospheric containment field. Kara watched closely as it came further inside, barely able to pick up any visual clue at all if she didn’t know what to look for. Their cloaking technology, even on their smallest transports, was damn near perfect, but Star Force had come up with ways to detect cloaked ships if necessary, though the range was extremely limited.

  It involved creating either a mist field or a spray of energized particles that literally transmitted a beacon from their position. If they hit something invisible you could see their pattern redirect, but the further you got away from the ship the more volume they had to cover, making them almost useless at medium range. Right now, if she ordered the bridge to do so, they could probably pick up the Zak’de’ron ship’s location if it was nearby, though Kara had a feeling it would be further off.

  She also knew that the Zak’de’ron were so strong she wouldn’t be able to defend herself against them very well if they attacked, either herself or her ship, so there was no need grabbing Archon armor, or even shoes for that matter. She had her Vorch’nas she could activate to give her both in a few seconds, but she wasn’t wearing it now. Part of that was respect, the other part cockiness. A fool would think they could stand up to the Zak’de’ron and win, but the wise wouldn’t bother with such defenses after they allowed the Zak’de’ron onboard. If they were truly worried they would have handled this conversation via holo, or not at all.

  Kara wasn’t worried about the Zak’de’ron being a threat, and she knew them better than anyone in Star Force, despite having met only one, and once at that. But from the knowledge gained via her Vorch’nas she felt like she’d lived a lifetime with them, and wasn’t phased in the least when the transport appeared in the totally empty hangar. It was a swirl of red and blue, with various components colored fully one or the other and twisted together into a convoluted mass that looked like a bird nest, but without any gaps between the pieces.

  Kara knew it was a ‘Shri’kori,’ a small personal transport capable of low speed interstellar jumps, but more often used as a shuttle between planets or for ship to ship transfers. She highly doubted it had flown here on its own, meaning they had a larger ship nearby. Possibly one had been trailing her fleet for some time, otherwise them finding her here would have been incredibly lucky…and she knew it wasn’t. She wondered how much they’d been able to rebuild since the first eggs had hatched, but she doubted this one would tell her.

  And there was only one Zak’de’ron inside the Shri’kori, which she could sense immediately as it decloaked and tried to access her mind. It couldn’t, because of the Ikrid block, but it still offered greetings telepathically
as it would one of its servants. She wasn’t a Zen’zat, but she’d been given the tool of one and apparently this Zak’de’ron intended to converse with her as such.

  A piece of the hull appeared to melt, then a ramp formed from the material and a huge gold Dragon walked out, far larger than the ones Paul had met, and Kara almost gasped. Gold was not a traditional color, but a marking indicating great achievement.

  “Are you the one I met previously?” Kara asked, not sure.

  “I am not,” the huge Dragon said as it walked up to her and stopped just prior to stepping on and squishing the fragile Human.

  “You’re too big to have grown from an egg in such a short amount of time,” Kara pointed out.

  “Good. Your memories have integrated well. That will make this easier.”

  “Make what easier?” she asked, having to crane her neck back to look up at his car-sized head that was tilted down towards her. Had he wanted to, he could roast her with plasma from two meters away with ease, and instinctively Kara held her bioshields at the ready. She didn’t think she’d need them, but being this close was a bit unnerving…especially considering she alone in Star Force knew how truly powerful the Zak’de’ron were.

  “You are doing something extremely dangerous, and I have come to make sure you are fully aware of it.”

  “The Rit’ko’sor or the Uriti?”

  “I speak of the Rit’ko’sor.”

  “Are the V’kit’no’sat going to break the truce over them?”

  “No. They already know and there are no plans to strike early. They will honor it, though they are even more bent on your destruction. Defying them is enough to earn you a death mark, but annexing a piece of one of their races is an insult beyond measure. They will not attack early because it is not in their advantage to do so, though many disagree with Mak’to’ran on this.”