Star Force: Essence (Star Force Universe Book 51) Read online

  That said, it wasn’t like the Zak’de’ron ran their daily lives. They wouldn’t be useful servants if their masters had to be watching over them day in and day out. The Bo’ja operated out of general parameters set for them, but beyond that they were on their own out here, at least as far as this colony was concerned. He’d first become a Bo’ja onboard a Zak’de’ron Hive ship where there were many different servant races, but since then he had never encountered another except on special missions, and he knew part of the reason for that was security.

  If Mon’ren was ever taken captive, his neural implants would make his memories unrecoverable and so long as he didn’t consciously betray the Zak’de’ron only knowledge of the Bo’ja would be compromised. But if the various servant races worked together, multiple ones could be exposed on a single mission. So far no Bo’ja had ever gone missing, so it was a safe bet the galaxy didn’t even know they existed, and he assumed the same was true of the others, for the Zak’de’ron were extremely wise, cautious, and patient. They knew their time of dominance would return, but it was going to have to be earned and they were going to need the Bo’ja and others to accomplish it.

  The betrayal of the V’kit’no’sat would be dealt with, and even though Mon’ren had not lived through it, the memories given to him still burned him up with hatred for those that had betrayed their oaths. They may not have been fully servants, but their duty to the Zak’de’ron had been the same as that of the Bo’ja and they had not only abandoned it, they had betrayed and destroyed all but the last few Zak’de’ron that had been hidden away just in case that holocaust came to pass.

  Mon’ren would help them get vengeance and return to their rightful place as the galaxy’s guardians, but it was not that simple. Now there were two powers out there, with Star Force being the other. No information had been given to the Bo’ja concerning them, but they were under orders to avoid and hide from them in such a way that it was clear they were not an ally of the Zak’de’ron. They may not have betrayed his masters the same way the V’kit’no’sat did, but they were now, at the minimum, an impediment to the domination of the Zak’de’ron, and Mon’ren had gone on many scouting missions into Star Force territory to learn more about them, their technology, and most importantly their Uriti…which were fearsome beasts.

  The power they contained was greater than that of the Hadarak, whom the Zak’de’ron had sworn to one day eradicate from the galaxy. Yet the Hadarak were masters of their own and the Uriti obeyed Star Force, making them in many ways more dangerous than the V’kit’no’sat, and that danger would have to be dealt with at some point.

  Other Bo’ja had been tasked with running simulations against both Star Force, the V’kit’no’sat, and the lesser powers in the galaxy. War games designed to probe for weaknesses and make the Bo’ja familiar with their future opponents before the first combat arose, using testing systems designed by the Zak’de’ron and operated by a few specially trained Bo’ja while the rest of them, Mon’ren included, did their best to beat the scenarios and learn how to defeat their opponents not only in the long run, but to do so as efficiently as possible. Information Mon’ren and others had brought back about Star Force was input into the simulations to make them more accurate as well as allow the Bo’ja to come up with new strategies to test out, but Mon’ren knew from his previous experience as a Voku that when one went to war no one, not even the Zak’de’ron, would know what was going to happen before it actually happened.

  And they knew that too, otherwise they would not have the Bo’ja constantly running war games and pulling information runs against low level Star Force personnel whose minds the Bo’ja could invade and then wipe so that they would never know what happened. And from Mon’ren’s work he had personally confirmed what others suspected, in that Star Force had a very strict security mechanism in place that essentially bifurcated their empire between the masses and the elite few who contained their most valuable secrets.

  Those the Bo’ja could not risk trying to mind raid, for they were either on Star Force strongholds or were too skilled to grapple with. Only perfect anonymity was acceptable, and if someone put up a fight and realized it after the fact, then the secret of the Bo’ja would be exposed, and that was something that could not be allowed.

  So there was a barrier of information beyond which the Bo’ja could not penetrate, but outside of that Star Force was very liberal with information, meaning there was a lot to collect if one was careful about it and didn’t try to pull a download or hack that could be traced. But to try and pierce the elite barrier of security the Bo’ja had to pull memories from support personnel close to those elites and hope to find a few words spoken in confidence or innocuous comments that could be put together like puzzle pieces to figure out what they would not reveal to the public.

  The secret of how they managed to reproduce Uriti was something that nobody knew, though a lot of people had their own personal theories. None of them were legit and Mon’ren doubted any of the other Zak’de’ron servant races would be able to find out either, assuming they were also going on information raid missions, because it was as if Star Force had known they would be coming and had sanitized everything that might give them away to those that had the power to read minds.

  The list of those that could was extremely short, and even Star Force’s own Protovic couldn’t actually raid a person’s mind, just transmit into it. Those that could typically chose to avoid Star Force, for they would not be allowed to live inside it without precautions, such as a neural inhibitor for temporary visits or genetic deactivation for permanent ones. Star Force wisely only allowed Ikrid-level telepathy for their agents, so anyone who had similar skills naturally steered clear of them or sought to become one of their agents.

  That was how they treated the V’kit’no’sat converts, not allowing any civilian ranks with Ikrid whereas the whole of the V’kit’no’sat empire had it. Star Force’s choice to diminish itself save for select branches was a curious one, but Mon’ren thought he understood part of it, for it allowed Star Force to grow to such monstrous size on the backs of the lesser races. The V’kit’no’sat, on the other hand, ignored the lesser races except when they became a nuisance, keeping their empire at a very elite level.

  Star Force had their own elite level, but it was segregated within an empire that was very averse to psionics. There was a multitude of evidence for them having experimented with such advancements, but each time they did they turned away from that course and incorporated those individuals or races into the empire in a reduced capacity, such as the Protovic, who had a watered down version of psionics.

  The V’kit’no’sat were far older, but Star Force was the more complex and confusing empire. The Bo’ja did not have a handle on how it truly functioned at its core, but they were learning more with every decade that passed. What the Zak’de’ron knew was bound to be far more extensive, but Mon’ren felt they too did not truly understand Star Force, for while they used their V’kit’no’sat legacy to great effect, they were a self-created empire rather than one designed by the Zak’de’ron, so they weren’t always going to do things as expected.

  That said, their behavior was very predictable, and deliberately so. Their Director Davis had a unique methodology of diplomacy that didn’t require any actual conversation. He would communicate with other races through consistency of behavior that underscored a system of fairness. That ‘fairness’ was a common language of the galaxy co-equal to mathematics, and so far the Bo’ja had not found even a single instance of the Director deviating from it. Either he held to the principles of fairness out of a misguided morality, or it was a deliberate mechanism to communicate with those he had not even met yet.

  Mon’ren believed it to be the latter, for no empire of such scope truly put the well-being of others above its own survival, and he had to give them credit for their form of diplomacy, for it had made them many friends and associates…while simultaneously drawing out their enemies in such a way that the
y identified themselves freely rather than remaining under the guise of friends that could one day stab you in the back.

  Such a shakeout had caused many confrontations and even a few large scale wars, but in the end the result was the same…predictable stability, making the enigmatic Star Force empire more behaviorally well-known than the V’kit’no’sat who were a jumble of cross purposes bound together by the rule of the Era’tran and, more specifically, Mak’to’ran. When he was eliminated the empire would either rally together in a rage of vengeance, or it would crumble in the ashes of internecine, for the unnatural state of quasi-servants with no master could not sustain itself indefinitely.

  In that way the V’kit’no’sat were doomed, for they had been designed to serve…or rather serve with the Zak’de’ron. Without them the empire ceased to function as intended, with all the upheavals and civil wars that had occurred since originating from that simple and unfixable flaw. Scouting missions to V’kit’no’sat worlds for information raids were harder to manage, but when successful they showed a myriad of possible vectors for invasion, division, and the sowing of confusion and anarchy. So long as you didn’t stand in the open and challenge them, the V’kit’no’sat were ripe to be picked apart slowly while denying them a visible opponent to strike back at.

  Star Force was completely different. They were geared to fight back and dominate in the small skirmishes. The ones involving not planets, nor cities, but individuals here and there. Their entire civilization was based around the individual and they did not believe in sacrifices, so they were geared to protect all individuals, with their specially trained hunters, known as Arc Commandos, seeking out and confronting the ‘picking’ attacks before they could have any measureable effect.

  Mon’ren had had to evade an Arc Commando once, when he let the hunter get too close on his trail. The Bo’ja had not been seen nor captured, but the pursuit was there, like a monster gobbling up his trail and ready to pounce on him if he got lazy or delayed. The Arc Commandos were everywhere, and they did not announce their presence either. They were the invisible guardians that the Bo’ja sparred with regularly, though without ever actually meeting face to face.

  Both empires were going to be hard to topple, and Mon’ren had faith in the Zak’de’ron to find ways that he and his kin never could, but between the two of them it was general consensus amongst the Bo’ja that it was Star Force that was going to be the harder empire to take down, and he, along with the other Voku, still had some lingering mixed feelings considering that the Voku and Star Force were allies.

  If they didn’t come to an agreement with the Zak’de’ron about who had ultimate control over the galaxy, and the Zak’de’ron decided to have them eliminated, then the Bo’ja would fight that war without hesitation…but they would not do so eagerly, for while the V’kit’no’sat had betrayed the Zak’de’ron, Star Force had never been anything but helpful to the Voku, who considered them to be the closest thing to brothers in a galaxy where they had to stand alone to serve the Zak’de’ron.

  7

  March 21, 128440

  Szequat System (Voku territory, Home One Kingdom)

  Nergthen

  Cal-com, Dafchor of the Voku, was not happy. He wasn’t angry, but as the centuries passed he had begun to feel dissatisfied and suspicious, until now when he was privately questioning the wisdom of the Elders. When he’d first been made the Dafchor of the Voku it had been a great honor and an even greater challenge. The Voku had to safeguard Star Force, then they had to safeguard other servant races of the Elders while they stayed hidden from the galaxy. Then they had to defend themselves from the Skarron Crusade, which they would not have been able to without the direct intervention of the Elders.

  It was true that the Li’vorkrachnika had diverted the Crusade with their own invasion, which was what finally ended the threat to the Voku, but the Elders had been there when they most needed them and that had solidified the bond between Cal-com and those he knew to be Zak’de’ron. Ever since he’d been steadfastly loyal and unquestioning of their decisions, but he was not a blind follower who trusted without verification. No, he was one who actually believed in the Elders and had no reason to avert his eyes on subject matter that might challenge his belief…because he actually believed in them. Only someone who suspected a lie would know where not to look for fear of their belief being in jeopardy, but if that was the case then you didn’t truly believe in the first place. Rather, you were a ‘make-believer.’

  Cal-com was a true believer. He had seen the work of the Elders. He had seen their wisdom proven over the long haul, showing him things early that he could not have fully understood until later. The power of the Elders was beyond his understanding…but something wasn’t right and he could sense it. He felt it in his heart more than anything, but even the logical part of his mind was now objecting to what the Voku had become.

  On the orders of the Elders he had been fortifying Voku territory extensively. They now had stronger defenses in a number of systems than Star Force most likely had, though the extent of his ally’s weaponry wasn’t totally revealed to him. Voku technology was different, but they weren’t quite on par to some of the wonders Star Force had developed. That said, you could still build up a superior force with inferior technology if you had the necessary numerical advantage.

  And that’s what Voku territory had become. A numerical advantage. Systems that were well protected were being stacked with additional defenses, fleets were being doubled and tripled in size, resource production developed at 450% of requirements, deep warehouses with reserves continually stockpiling up, and a population increase that was testing the limits of Voku territory.

  The Voku were ready to act…but no action was allowed. The Voku, on the orders of the Elders, were not to expand beyond their outer borders. And while Cal-com had been colonizing less desirable systems within those boundaries, the only other option for expansion was orbital installations, which he was delving into heavily and having to trade with Star Force for some of the rarer raw materials that he couldn’t use up, but rather had to stock pile on the orders of the Elders.

  And this had been going on for thousands of years. No war had come. Star Force now surrounded every bit of Voku territory, and thankfully they had respected their loose borders and not chosen to colonize empty star systems within. If they had then Cal-com would be in a much worse place now, but still, he and the Voku were capped.

  He’d asked the Elder who lived in the capitol what they were to do, what were they preparing for, but he was never told, only instructed to ‘deepen your defenses and wait.’

  Cal-com had been waiting, patiently, loyally, but now he was beginning to sense the truth.

  The Voku were not planned for some grand endeavor. They were a storehouse that the Elders were pulling resources from, both materiel and personnel, for the best of Cal-com’s warriors were being recruited and never returned. He was constantly having to train replacements and that was all he could do. There were no wars to fight, and the Voku had been instructed not to help Star Force with their battles civilizing the Rim.

  Cal-com had originally thought that was because there was another threat the Elders needed the Voku ready and able to fight…but that had never happened and now Cal-com was beginning to suspect the truth. The Elders did not intend for the Voku to be warriors, but rather a training ground from which warriors would be born and then recruited directly into Elder service.

  But Cal-com had never been called. When he had become the first Dafchor, he had assumed there would be others in time, but there weren’t. He was the only one, and the Elders insisted that he was where he needed to be while others were pulled from their posts to go and serve the Elders in whatever battles were being fought out in the galaxy while Cal-com was left behind tending to the safe systems and making them safer.

  He had expected the Elders to be saving him for something special, but he doubted that now. He had served his purpose initially, when the Voku and other
races were in jeopardy, but now that the Elders had returned and firmly established their power they no longer needed Cal-com in that regard. They didn’t need a warlord anymore, and with every batch of new recruits going out to serve the Elders, he felt more and more dissatisfied.

  The Elder here knew of his feelings and had addressed them directly, citing that his service to the Voku was critical even if it wasn’t in direct combat, and that such service was not to serve one’s ego but to serve the Elders however was necessary. He had agreed with that in principle, but now he was suspecting the truth that they simply didn’t care about him anymore so long as he kept the Voku safe and the flow of recruits coming.

  The grand plan for the Voku was a sham of his own imagination.

  Star Force now ruled the Rim, and while the V’kit’no’sat were still dominant in the Core and the Elders no doubt had plans to avenge themselves on the traitorous empire, it was clear that the only fighting Cal-com would do would be if they came after the Voku…then he would defend the stream of recruits going to the Elders. He would not be leading armies to attack the V’kit’no’sat. He would remain here. Remain behind.

  Meanwhile his peer within Star Force, Paul-024, was out fighting battles and expanding his empire by leaps and bounds. The two of them kept in contact, meeting every now and then, and Cal-com had shared some of his feelings on the matter, for he hated having to turn down Paul when he asked for help on a mission…though he was sure Star Force didn’t really need it. But like Paul, Cal-com did not like to sit on the sidelines while others created the peace that the bulk of the Rim was now enjoying. He needed to be in the action, facing the danger and taking the damage while shielding others. But the Elders would not permit it and he had asked so many times they’d ordered him to stop asking.