Star Force: Mak'to'ran (1) Read online

  “Why not?” Mak’to’ran scoffed. “They will be out to kill me anyway. What have you created?”

  “The Saroto’kanse’vam are tailored for cutting only, but you will also be given Nakane and Jumat.”

  Mak’to’ran stiffened, realizing the level of treason that involved.

  “We do not plan to give all Era’tran these,” Hamob cautioned. “Not as default. But those who earn them should be allowed the power…and given the tasks you face, you need to be able to defend yourself against a multitude of threats.”

  “They will still take time to master…”

  “Then I hope you learn quickly. Whenever you are off your ship assume assassins lurk in the shadows. If you have cause to use them, please record your biological stats. I’m curious to see how the Sav interacts with them.”

  “Do you not have all 3?”

  “I have only the Saroto’kanse’vam, as will most Era’tran eventually. I have not earned the other two.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “I plan…I do little physical combat. If I am ambushed here these will give me an advantage,” Hamob said, flashing his glowing talons again, “but I will be on friendly ground. The others are reserved for those who travel into enemy lairs.”

  “Am I the first?”

  “You are the 19th, but the first to be given all three. Step inside and brace yourself for some discomfort. The Jumat tissue is extensive in order to get the power output we desired. Yours will outstrip all other races per volume save for the Zen’zat, and it will take some considerable adjustments for your body to acclimate.”

  “I will endure what is necessary.”

  “You will endure it afterwards. The upgrades are quick enough,” Hamob said as Mak’to’ran stepped inside. With a thought he brought the numerous containment arms in around the younger Era’tran and locked them in place. Two smaller tendrils extended and touched his tail and upper back, making firm contact and allowing the microscopic probes into his body.

  Mak’to’ran froze, his body out of his control and numb to what was occurring. He stood in a mental haze until the grogginess faded some time later, though how long was lost on him. As the numbing dissipated he felt a tightness all over and dropped to a knee as his legs had been depleted of most of their strength.

  His breathing was heavy, and though there was little pain associated with it he was exhausted.

  “Take care. You are weak and need to recover. You will do so here for the next few hours. When you are able to walk without drawing undue attention you will depart for your ship. Right now come with me and make use of your rest learning of the future of the Era’tran.”

  Mak’to’ran forced himself to stand up, stretching his tail out and heavily relying on its counterbalance as he took tiny steps. After a few seconds he forced his body to override the shock of the changes and obey him as it should, though at great mental effort. He followed Hamob to the other side of the room to a prepared recovery station with many liquids and foodstuffs available. With a telepathic gesture he told Mak’to’ran to begin eating while the elder Era’tran began bringing up holograms of new technology and old secrets, lecturing in detail while Mak’to’ran absorbed the nutrients and the wisdom…the latter of which would be essential to accomplishing his still vague mission.

  6

  July 2, 3603

  Kiostaq System (Dan’chey territory)

  Abroski

  When Mak’to’ran’s Na’shor entered the system there was no resistance. The Era’tran vessel was V’kit’no’sat and this was V’kit’no’sat territory even if it wasn’t a shared system, as many were within the empire. While the various races often fought for dominance they did not actually shoot one another, nor were they combative about territory. They were a united empire and as such they could move around freely throughout all its systems.

  The Kiostaq System was a medium-developed one. Four major planets and a population of some 78 billion Dan’chey. It wasn’t their capitol or regional powerhouse, just one of hundreds of thousands of V’kit’no’sat systems that fed the giant industrial engine that kept the Hadarak at bay, and this one in particular produced a high level of Solari from a pair of rich stars. One was at system’s center while the other was in a very high orbit. When the planets orbited between them they experience very hot climates and no night…then when they orbited around to the far side they experienced more of a ‘normal’ thermal cycle as they bled off the excess heat.

  Right now Kiostaq was in the ‘cool’ period of its orbit, and it wasn’t something the Dan’chey liked. There were spots of snow visible and Mak’to’ran knew the amphibians absolutely hated frozen water, as did most aquatics, but the Dan’chey also disliked cold water with a passion, meaning that the artificial bodies of water created on Abroski would not be highly populated at this time of year.

  Pulling up thermal imagery of the planet he saw the few hot spots where the Dan’chey would be. According to records this planet had originally possessed deep reservoirs of water beneath the dry surface, but not enough for it to pool up top. Rather than bring in more water from afar, something that was painstaking to do, they created empty, artificial basins on the surface then pumped the water up from below ground and into them. Thus the oceans on this world were formed in a very chaotic design that maximized the coastlines where the Dan’chey preferred to reside, never getting too far from the land or the water.

  Sections of those oceans were being heated from beneath, but not the entire body of water. It was a stopgap measure to allow the planet to survive with amicably cool waters until they rotated past the coldest slice of their orbit, then the natural solar radiation would take over the heating and eventually the oceans would have to be cooled to keep them from boiling off during the height of the hot season…but at least then all the oceans were accessible. Right now it looked to Mak’to’ran that the world was in hibernation save for the industrial centers located deep within the landmasses.

  It was to one of those that he took a drop pod, happy to be dealing with land rather than water. Era’tran could swim well enough with their tail, but they had almost no agility in the water and that left them vulnerable to flanking attacks. If aquatic work was necessary they often sent Zen’zat and only reluctantly went themselves when needed, operating in packs to diminish their disadvantage.

  But today that would not be a concern, for the coordinates given to Mak’to’ran upon arrival by his contact had him landing on dry ground with a few inches of snow covering it. He walked out with his armored ‘sandals’ crunching it while the rest of him drank in the coolness through the gaps between his undeployed armor as he headed for the inner gate of the landing area that held many ships and many more open pads. This was a mining outpost and saw a high rate of orbit to surface transport, so even though his drop pod was conspicuously not Dan’chey his arrival still blended in with the traffic and his presence on the pad was barely noticed until he got indoors.

  When he passed through the atmospheric shield set just inside them he hit a warm, very humid mass of air moments before he was greeted by a pair of the low to the ground quadrupeds. They had flat, heart-shaped heads and legs that stuck out sideways before dropping six-clawed feet that had the ability to grip most smooth surfaces enough to suspend their entire body weight…which wasn’t much, but they still were far heavier than a Zen’zat despite the fact they appeared to be much more massive. Their bodies were described as ‘hollow’ to anyone who had fought them hand to hand, for they were very light but equal in length to a Brat’mar when measured from nose tip to the end of their stubby tails.

  “Welcome Era’tran. What business do you have here?”

  “I am expected. Tion’shu instructed me to come here.”

  The two Dan’chey exchanged quick glances, their eyelids flicking closed twice each as they conversed telepathically.

  “Follow,” one of them said as it spun around in place and began walking down the ovoid hallway that was alm
ost too short for Mak’to’ran. His head came near to brushing the ceiling if he stood up as tall as he could, but his normal walking gait wasn’t affected. The Dan’chey he passed by, however, did not want to risk the larger Era’tran stepping on them and chose to walk up along the curved walls until he passed by, and did so with such ease that Mak’to’ran took a moment to watch them with his Pef’bar as they passed beyond his eyesight.

  He didn’t have much experience with Dan’chey, nor many of the aquatics for that matter, but he’d met them before. Seeing so many in one place was unusual, for he’d never been on one of their private worlds, rather one of the communal areas of others where the races intermixed. There they often wore heat suits to boost their skin temperature, but here most were moving around nude save for a few ornamental sleeves around the lower portion of their legs or tail.

  Their orange/green skin looked more dirty than rough. Every part of their bodies was smooth and built to move through water, but their coloration was almost camouflage for the dry desert climate they avoided…that was until he passed a female and saw her semi-translucent body glowing with reflected light in a white hue that completely clashed with the males. She looked artificial in construction while they looked to be a part of the natural environment, but both were identical in size and movement characteristics. The difference between them was one of strength, with the females being notoriously sloth-like. It was hard for them to achieve self-sufficiency, and many only did the bare minimum to sustain themselves as group consensus fought to consume their every motivation.

  They operated with a very active telepathic hive mind, constantly in conversation with one another while the males were less involved. They operated more as individuals while the females behaved as units in a larger identity, but all Dan’chey were held by close bonds to one another. The idea of there being factions within them was counterintuitive, but Hamob had told him there was a division and that it was something the Dan’chey did not tolerate lightly. Thus far they had not found a way to reconcile it…which was why Mak’to’ran had been sent here.

  They weren’t a powerful faction within the V’kit’no’sat, but they were one of the oldest. Always a secondary to the aquatics, they took on mundane duties that others usually didn’t want, choosing to support rather than lead in most cases. In combat they were capable, but only had Lachka as psionic weaponry. The others they possessed were defensive based, though they did not have Nakane. Those biological shields were reserved for the rarified few, most notably the Oso’lon, but a few adaptations had been made for the Brat’mar and others to give them partial coverage. The most annoying Psionic they possessed was Da’nu, which allowed them to create fields that would interfere with Pefbar. It wasn’t Rentar, which could disable Lachka, but Pefbar was required to use Lachka and unless one had very strong Pefbar fields the Dan’chey could put up a large Da’nu and cut off vision of both their body and the surrounding area, reducing one to having to rely on their eyes to see and making most Lachka attacks pointless…though they couldn’t use their own, for it was simultaneously jammed.

  Before the Rit’ko’sor rebellion the Dan’chey had been paired with them to give the weak Rit’ko’sor some additional defensive capability, and when the surprise attack came on the empire the Dan’chey were not targeted. Likewise they did not actively attack the Rit’ko’sor, instead negotiating to help with logistics and transit so they did not have to take part in the actual killing. They’d lost a lot of standing for that decision, but it had been tolerated…for having worlds that the Rit’ko’sor would not hit had been badly needed once the extent of the first attack wave became common knowledge.

  The Dan’chey had lost no territory to attack, but they’d been forced to abandon some worlds on the rim when the empire’s borders contracted…a form of punishment, but also a necessity at the time, it was argued. Their population had not taken a hit, so while their standing was still that of a second rate member their numbers were larger than most, though still capped under a firm population max determined by the Elder Conclave.

  Because of that history the Dan’chey were seen as the least likely to rebel, and if a new V’kit’no’sat were to be forged such loyalty was badly needed.

  Mak’to’ran followed through many ovoid hallways until coming to a down-chute. It was another hallway, but one that declined at a steep angle that had not been built for Era’tran and he sensed many eyes watching as his guide stepped over the rim and into the water flow, standing steady for a moment before releasing his grip and allowing the water to carry him down in a slide.

  Mak’to’ran huffed his amusement and stepped over the shallow lip, his feet smashing down into the water that was not going to move his heavy mass. He walked forward a few steps then jumped forward onto his chest, using the slickness of the water to allow him to slide with his rear legs flaying out to the sides in order to keep him from gaining too much speed as he slid down the tunnel with it curving multiple times, making it hard to determine his ultimate direction of movement.

  Eventually the decline shallowed out and the water ended in a deeper pool that barely came up to Mak’to’ran’s knees as he stood up and walked out of it. He followed his guide on further, eventually coming to a series of chambers that were open to the air of a dome that had a lot of vegetation growing. Mak’to’ran pushed his way into it following a path that was not high enough to accommodate his upper body. He broke as few branches as he could, but some were simply unavoidable. Era’tran never came here so such concerns had not been addressed in the design…though private worlds were often built to discourage other races from coming.

  Or at least to make their visiting interesting to watch.

  And there were hundreds of eyes watching him, three per Dan’chey as he came into a clearing with many of the locals almost stacked on top of each other as they were standing so close in a semi-circle around the area. Their legs were actually overlapping, with their central bodies covering almost all the available ground, making it impossible for Mak’to’ran to move anywhere but into the center without stepping on them.

  His warrior instincts flared a bit. They were not match for an Era’tran…especially with his recent psionic upgrades…but there were so many of them here and in the vegetation beyond to make the thought prudent. He didn’t think they were going to attack him, not unarmed as they were, but their combined Lachka could be troublesome if they jointly used it against him.

  “Which of you is Tion’shu?” he asked when none of them spoke and his escort took his place in the living carpet of Dan’chey that were all male.

  I am here, a telepathic voice said, then it took on a weird resonance as more minds joined it. We speak as one. You were sent to us. Why?

  “You were part of the V’kit’no’sat prior to the Era’tran, yet your standing is less than ours. There are many theories as to why, now I ask you.”

  We do not seek leadership. We seek to do our duty. Others have hindered us from doing so. Our standing has diminished because of this.

  “What duty do you refer to?”

  To combat the Hadarak and stand by our brothers in the V’kit’no’sat against any and all threats to us and the galaxy.

  “Then the Era’tran are in agreement with you. What are your thoughts concerning Terraxis?”

  There is a traitor amongst us. We do not know who it is.

  “Nor do we. V’kit’no’sat are not supposed to distrust one another. We are meant to be a unified force. This doubt weakens us.”

  It is inescapable. Someone has betrayed the collective.

  “We are meant to be an empire, a brotherhood, not a collective. We each have our strengths. A collective seeks to make all the same.”

  Many seek a collective. We do not.

  “How many?”

  The females.

  Mak’to’ran raised his head slightly in shock. He had no idea the division within the Dan’chey was gender based.

  “Explain.”

  They believe
telepathic linkage should be constant, we do not. Likewise they believe our ties to other races within the V’kit’no’sat should be binding and restrictive. The Oso’lon and J’gar hold too much power. The Hjar’at are too closed minded. Some need culling, others need uplifting. They believe the differences between us need to be forcibly reduced.

  “We are different races. We cannot be the same.”

  There is some merit in what they say. Most is unintelligent prejudice. They believe they should share leadership in the Dan’chey without having earned it. They believe in birthright collective.

  “Our databases hold many examples of that stupidity playing out in extinct races. Why can they not learn from such?”

  They do not wish to learn that which contradicts their beliefs. Most of our females do not live beyond 400 years because they will not work diligently enough to maintain their own bodies. Such individuals cannot be trusted to maintain our civilization when they cannot succeed in such simplistic tasks.

  “Hamob told me to come here. He is one of the eldest Era’tran. Did you request our counsel?”

  The Dan’chey females are a problem that we do not know how to counter, but it is our problem. We see similar trends in the V’kit’no’sat as a whole. That is what concerns the Era’tran. Your race is the most stable. We need to solve our own internal division, but we also wish to help solve the greater problem. What counsel can you offer on the latter?

  “The same as I would offer on the former. Some individuals do not see because they are ignorant. Others do not see because they do not wish to. Ignorance can be cured with knowledge. Stupidity cannot, and must be forcibly kept from causing damage. Do you still maintain control over Dan’chey assets?”

  Males do, but situations vary from system to system. Some are compromising and allowing females more duties that are not being met. We see the same thing in the V’kit’no’sat. We have not yet reclaimed our former borders from before the Rit’ko’sor purging. We do not press into Hadarak territory as we once did. Our research stagnates. Many things are not as they should be. We do not know how to rectify this.