Star Force: Scruples (SF37) Read online

  “Define technology.”

  SHIPS AND WEAPONS.

  “Have the Hycre ever eradicated a planetary population?”

  TWICE.

  “Explain the circumstances.”

  INTERNAL CONFLICTS.

  Paul frowned. “They were Hycre?”

  YES.

  That was disturbing…and yet it made sense, given that the Hycre didn’t have ground troops to assault worlds with, nor an ability to bombard a planet from orbit. That’s why they’d coopted Star Force for several assaults on the lizards.

  The disturbing part was that they were capable of doing so, especially to their own people. That told Paul that given the right circumstances they could do it again if they weren’t opposed to the tactic itself.

  “Why were your people killed rather than punished?”

  SOME DIFFERENCES ARE TOO GREAT TO ACCOMMODATE.

  “I need further explanation on that point.”

  THEY WERE TRAITORS. WE MAY PUNISH OTHER RACES FOR THEIR ACTIONS, BUT WE HOLD OUR OWN PEOPLE TO HIGHER STANDARDS. THEY SOUGHT REBELLION AND HAD TO BE EXTERMINATED.

  That was not what Paul wanted to hear, but it was important information none the less.

  “We are not in a position to punish the Bsidd or Kvash for what they did, but we consider what happened at Orica worthy of punishment. As you pointed out, the Hycre did not participate in the bombardment itself, but the fact that you aided in the assault that set up the bombardment, and the fact that you didn’t stop it when it occurred, puts your honor into question.”

  “The Bsidd and Kvash are far from here, but Star Force and the Hycre share territory, and this system is largely protected by us as we hold the Cajdital in this area at bay. Ever since our two races met when you came to our aid we have trusted you, but Orica has shaken that trust. Should the Hycre attempt to do the same again, with a Star Force fleet in the same system, our ships will intervene to stop you…so it’s very important that we come to terms now before such a situation can occur.”

  YOUR WORDS BORDER ON THREAT AND WARNING, BUT I SEE THE WISDOM IN THEM. OUR RACES DO SHARE BURDENS, AND AS SUCH WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER. I WILL OFFER WHAT EXPLANATIONS I CAN, BUT I CANNOT SPEAK FOR THOSE OUTSIDE THIS SYSTEM. IF YOU SEEK TREATY TERMS I CANNOT SIGN THEM.

  “But can you negotiate them in principle?”

  SO LONG AS THEY ARE UNBINDING.

  “Only unbinding terms would be acceptable, given that we are not aware of each other’s actions the majority of the time.”

  YOU DO NOT SEEK REPERCUSSIONS FOR FUTURE ACTIONS THEN?

  “I seek an understanding between us, so that if one day Star Force must sever ties with the Hycre it will not be a surprise to either side.”

  YOU RELY ON US MORE THAN WE RELY ON YOU. SUCH A SEVERING WOULD BE TO YOUR DISADVANTAGE.

  Paul smiled. “That is exactly what I am referring to. You are assuming that our primary motivation is to seek out advantage. It is not. Our first priority is to the truth and to honor…not honor in the form of reputation or status, but in morality.”

  YOU SAY YOUR PRIMARY, THEN YOU NAME TWO ITEMS. A PRIMARY MUST ONLY BE ONE.

  “Honor is linked to the truth, and cannot be attained through a lie. The truth is rarely acknowledged by those without honor, for they lie to attain their own advantages. In this way the two concepts are intrinsically linked, yet they are separate words for us.”

  WHILE TRANSLATIONAL DIFFICULTIES COULD BE AT FAULT, YOUR WORDS MIMIC THOSE OF THE CALAVARI. THEY TOO SPEAK OFTEN OF HONOR AND LINK IT TO STRENGTH. WE ARE NOT IN DISAGREEMENT WITH THEM. WE ARE NOT IN DISAGREEMENT WITH YOU. BUT WE PUT THE NEEDS OF OUR OWN PEOPLE ABOVE THOSE OF OTHERS. WE HAVE NOT ENCOUNTERED A RACE THAT HAS DONE OTHERWISE.

  “To me, every race is my people. You are my brothers, same with the Calavari, the Nestafar, the Cajdital, the Kiritas, and others. Even the primitive races that we cannot communicate with are our brothers, right down to the insects that we accidentally step on…” Paul hesitated, remembering that the Hycre don’t ‘step’ on anything. “Even the small, seemingly insignificant lifeforms that most races see as beneath them or as their property. All are living, and therefore my brothers. I can communicate more easily with my own race, given our similarities, as I can communicate more easily with warriors than I can pacifists.”

  “And just as I can communicate with you in naval terms better than any other race. Similarities enhance communication, differences hinder it, but all are my brothers, all are my people, and all are my concern…including the Nestafar in Orica who the Alliance slaughtered.”

  “That is why I will side with those who are in the right, above and beyond my own race. Doing what is right is the definition of honor. If Humans are in the wrong I will side against them, even if it means my race’s destruction. My ‘people’ are those who hold honor as the highest priority and those that speak the truth, regardless of their race, and it is with them that I will side…always.”

  THIS IS WHY YOU ARE NOT CARNIVORS?

  “Yes.”

  THE CALAVARI DO NOT HOLD HONOR AS YOU DO. THEY CONSUME THE FLESH OF OTHERS.

  “In a small amount, yes, and they are in the wrong for it. Not for the consumption, but for the killing. But even they have nearly abandoned the practice because of the logistics. Large civilizations cannot rely on a food source that in itself consumes food, particularly not where land space is limited. Honorable foodstuff production is more efficient and reliable.”

  WE CONCUR.

  “I am curious,” Paul said, going slightly off topic, “are there other lifeforms in the planets you inhabit, or is it just the Hycre that are present?”

  MOST OF OUR WORLDS ARE SOLELY OURS, BUT THERE ARE A FEW WITH INDIGENOUS LIFEFORMS. WE DO NOT CONSUME THEM. WE DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH THEM. THEY ARE IRRELEVANT AND WE IGNORE THEM.

  “There are many on our worlds, and we ignore most of them…but we also take care not to harm them, save for when the harming is unavoidable. We don’t like it when it occurs, and we usually find ways around it, but in clogged ecosystems it is almost impossible to fly through the atmosphere without running into something. We don’t intentionally do it, but when you can’t communicate with the insects in the air, you can’t tell them where to stay away from.”

  “The more advanced the race the more options one has, but the inescapable fact is that the universe is chaos. We can either participate in it or rebuff it. The honorable rebuff it, which is what I am doing now. Rebuffing the chaos in Orica and everywhere else in the war zones where it might also be occurring.”

  YOUR POINT IS TAKEN.

  “Is it? I want you to understand clearly that not only do we not condone such action, but that we will fight against those that take it. We can’t stop what happened in Orica, but if the Alliance does it in the presence of a Star Force fleet we’re not just going to stand by and watch like you did. We’re going to take action, even if it means fighting our own allies, for we will stand against the chaos.”

  “To date we’ve haven’t had a problem with the Hycre, but our good relationship won’t stop us from doing what’s right if you should choose to go down that path. Do you understand the implications of what I’m saying?”

  YOUR MEANING IS CLEAR, BUT YOUR ACTIONS ARE CONTRADICTORY. EXPLAIN YOUR HONOR REGARDING THE CAJDITAL, FOR IT SEEMS YOU HAVE ABANDONED IT IN THE NAME OF NECESSITY.

  Paul suppressed a frown, knowing ahead of time that this was going to be a sticking point. He didn’t like the way they were dealing with the lizards, but so far the enemy hadn’t given them much choice, and until he or one of the other trailblazers figured out a better way to deal with them they were going to have to keep killing them by the droves or see their territory encroach on theirs…at which point numerous worlds would be put at greater risk.

  “We have no problem with killing,” Paul began. “We know that most people in the universe are not honorable. If they were we wouldn’t have chaos, or we wouldn’t have it for long, for we’d figure out solutions to m
inimize or negate it entirely. Those of us who are honorable know that we are few, and that we will live most of our lives alone.”

  “Most Humans are not honorable, but what Star Force has done is create a haven for those that are to gather and combine our skills. We have active enemies within the Human population, and I expect we always will. Fighting is to be expected, and while not all fights are to the death, some are, and we don’t shy away from them. If someone needs to be killed we kill them, no hesitation. But those people are threats in some way, and they’re a threat because they chose to be one.”

  “We do not kill because an individual belongs to a certain race, we kill because of the actions they take. No one chooses what race they are born into, or on what planet…therefore we will not penalize them for such things. There were probably Nestafar in Orica that had nothing to do with the war against the Calavari and in fact were opposed to it…but the Alliance killed them along with the rest, not because of a choice they’d made, but because of the race they were.”

  “The Cajdital don’t choose to be born, but they do choose to try and kill us…so we try and kill them back. Not always, because sometimes we can defeat them without killing them, and we have taken some of them prisoner. When we held them together they killed each other, with the last one standing using its claws to tear out its own throat, for they will not accept imprisonment.”

  “Now, we don’t presume all Cajdital will be the same, but so far we haven’t encountered one with a different mindset. We offer surrender before killing their colonies from orbit, and if they would take it we’d make accommodations, but none have as of yet. We’ve stopped taking prisoners by force, for the most part, because it is inconvenient for us to do so and they end up killing themselves anyway. We’ll only go so far, in risking our own people, to keep our enemies alive…but we will try to do so because we are honorable, when we have the advantage.”

  “After we learned of the Cajdital’s suicidal tendencies we created wrist cuffs that covered their claws so they couldn’t use them to cut their own throats…and we also started keeping the prisoners separate from one another, so they couldn’t kill each other. When we did, they tried to starve themselves to death. We fed them through forcible means, putting nutrients directly into their blood stream. To do this we had to restrain them, making them little more than objects kept in storage.”

  “We didn’t let that continue for long, and eventually we returned them to a Cajdital world, figuring it would be better for them to die in combat than live restrained and stagnant. We flew through enemy fleets to execute a low orbit drop to return the Cajdital to their people, and not because it was to our advantage to do so. Some of our ships took damage in the return, and we expended resources to build the drop pods…or in some cases returned one of their captured ships to them.”

  “We returned them because, wayward as they are, they are our brothers, and if they are going to die let it be in battle where they are free to choose their own fate. As dishonorable as the Cajdital are, they are skilled in warfare, and in that small area at least they have our respect. We fight them because they are in the wrong and because they are trying to kill us, and sometimes that means we have to kill them en mass, but we never actually slaughter them.”

  “That word, slaughter, has several meanings for us. One is simply a lot of killing, and is not dishonorable. Another is killing when combat has ceased, which is what happened on Orica. The Cajdital never stop fighting. They keep building more weapons and troops constantly, so there is never a moment when you can say it’s over. You either kill them when you can or they build up their numbers and come back at you again. It’s never over with them, which is probably why none of them accept surrender.”

  “It is forever war with them, and will continue to be so until they have wiped us our or they are wiped out…or until we can find another alternative, which we’re continuously searching for. That’s the difference between the Cajdital and others. So long as the fight continues they are a threat, and they will not stop until they’ve won. So either we destroy them or we take away their ability to fight.”

  Paul left it at that, though he could have gone on further, but he didn’t want to muddy the intellectual waters any more. The Hycre he was speaking to, whose name he hadn’t even gotten, didn’t respond immediately, but took a few seconds to either think through what Paul had said or to consider its response.

  I STAND CORRECTED. YOU ARE NOT HYPOCRITICAL, THOUGH IT IS A NARROW LINE BETWEEN THE TWO POINTS.

  “Details matter.”

  DETAILS ARE ALSO IMPORTANT TO AVOID MISUNDERSTANDING. I THINK IT IS VALUABLE FOR BOTH RACES TO DETAIL OUR PHILOSOPHIES. THERE MAY BE CONFLICTS, BUT YOU ARE RIGHT TO WANT TO AVOID UNNECESSARY ONES. MAKE A LIST OF PRINCIPLES BY WHICH YOU OPERATE AND WE SHALL DO THE SAME. THEN WE WILL SEE HOW MUCH WE HAVE IN COMMON FOR A DECLARATION OF WHAT YOU WOULD CALL HONORABLE CONDUCT.

  “Acceptable,” Paul said, with the Hycre’s hologram winking out a moment later.

  The warship’s Captain stepped over to Paul and lowered his voice. “I didn’t realize we were taking lizards prisoner.”

  “A few here and there,” Paul said, rubbing his eyebrow distractedly as he thought. “Looks like I’ve got some writing to do. So long as we’re going to be here a while, unpack a couple of the corvettes and have them take up flanking positions. If our luck gets really bad and the lizards or other bad guys happen to show up I want some quick response assets in place.”

  “You think that’s a possibility?”

  “I don’t plan for what I think will happen, but what’s physically capable of happening. I also have a long history with the bad luck monkey, and you never know when he’ll jump on your back.”

  “Are you worried about the Hycre?” the Captain whispered.

  Paul shook his head. “No, I’m not. I just want some flankers.”

  “I’ll make it so,” the Captain joked, leaving Paul to sit down and pull up a writing prompt on his command chair.

  6

  June 10, 2449

  Ghanis System (Beta Region)

  Ettiana

  Captain Erica Sorvela stood on the observation deck of her jumpship’s 32nd cargo bay, monitoring the incoming dropship traffic as she always did. The large artificial plain stretching out before her carried its own subtle wind currents, tussling a few strands of her blonde bangs hanging out from the tight up-do she usually sported, as over 100 Dragon-class dropships were offloading grain cubes directly into the chamber.

  Off to her left, the wall stretched into the outer hull of the jumpship, along which were 4 entry points…short tunnels with multiple atmospheric shields to keep the air in and the cold of space out. Off to her right were the cargo crate stacks, being organized and added to by a myriad of cranes reaching down from the ceiling above her. Normally a hangar bay and a cargo bay were two separate facilities, but this jumpship was Harvest-class and designed specifically to carry produce from the Kiritak colonies back to other Star Force worlds, meaning a very limited and specific inventory list.

  Knowing ahead of time what the ship would be carrying, the designers decided to maximize internal hull space and combine the landing and storage areas into one multi-tasking facility…or rather 44 such facilities that ran the spine of the jumpship in rows of 11. Each bay had its own external ports, the only ‘windows’ on the ship, but they also had armored hatches that could and would close during travel to make sure the odd bit of space debris didn’t shoot inside one of the gaps and bypass the hull armor.

  Bays 1-31 were already loaded, and ‘loaded’ to Sorvela meant full to the point where only 1 dropship could enter. That would make offloading take longer, for the dropships on location would have to ‘eat’ their way into the crate stacks, but it maximized the amount of cargo her ship could carry, and the less jumpship flights necessary the better, for the Kiritak were pouring out the resources now that their colonies had gotten firmly established and were seeing ridiculous growth.

&nb
sp; Her jumpship, the H132, had been built in a Kiritak yard with a mix of alien and Human crews in just under 10 months’ time. Star Force had gotten so good at building the massive ships that, coupled with the Kiritak’s insane numbers and work rate, they were pumping them off the line unbelievably fast…limited only in how many resources they had available, now that the Kiritak training programs had caught up with the demand for workers.

  It was those resources that Sorvela’s ship was meant to carry, and she knew well how critical they were to the war effort. Sometimes it was foodstuffs, sometimes it was metals…then there would be fabricated components or finished products, many of which were coming out to the Kiritak from factories back in the core region. But what still awed the Captain was the fact that after 6 years on the job, her jumpship had never seen a split cargo. It was always all of the same product, underscoring just how much the Kiritak were producing…and requiring in return.

  This current cargo was destined for the Sirius System, all the way back in the core and just a handful of lightyears away from Earth. There it would be split up and sent off to a number of locations, though she knew a great deal of it was being sent to HTC, the new Calavari world, along with a number of other colonies in Alpha Region, which was why Sirius was being used as a way station. The system had several inhabited planets, with Orion as the major population center and distribution hub for the Kiritak supply chain.

  And that’s where her farthest supply runs went. Sorvela’s missions didn’t always take her that far, most kept her inside Beta Region, but as the number of Kiritak-created jumpships increased the more veteran Captains were being given the longer routes, leaving the newly minted ones handling the short hops, some of which were only insystem.

  Some people would have thought that driving a huge jumpship from point to point was a mundane and simple task…which it was, until something went wrong. The cargos that the massive ships were carrying, such as this foodstuff load that was still being brought up from the planet’s surface after 18 days of continuous dropship ferrying, were so important that Star Force wasn’t going to play games with their fleet and assign lower level personnel to their care. In fact, it had taken Sorvela over 40 years of service aboard other vessels to finally rate a Captain’s slot, and had it not been for the aggressive fleet expansion being forced for the Kiritak annexation, it would have been unlikely for her to have gotten the post in the coming decades.