Whitmore Day Read online

  8th planet

  Aaron-010 and Sara-012 came down to the surface in the same dropship, landing inside a newly carved cave that spiraled down to the top of the Maty and one of the now exposed entrances that had Star Force defenses built on top of it. They landed without incident and walked across the odd material it was constructed of getting vibes of something they couldn’t quite put their finger on as Morgan-063 emerged from the entrance to meet them.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Sara said as they met up, all wearing full armor in the less than hospitable atmosphere, as Morgan gave them both a telepathic update on their ‘guests.’

  “We’ve still got Hadarak in some areas that we need to purge, but I don’t trust these ‘observers’ one bit. Some have Essence, others have abilities I’m still not sure how they work, but my dodging and defenses prevented them from killing me. I don’t know if I was just better than them or lucky, but I’m not risking fighting them alone twice.”

  “We’ve got your back,” Aaron assured her. “What about the popsicles?”

  “Haven’t had time to look into it…” she said, suddenly going stiff. “Did you guys get that?”

  “Get what?” Sara asked.

  “I just got another comm from the Maty on Star Force frequencies.”

  “Another?”

  “Right, sorry. Been so busy I haven’t had time to write in my diary,” Morgan said sarcastically. “I got called to assist in several particular fights. At first I thought it was the PanNari using the Maty’s systems, but later on realized it was something else. I just got another priority call to an area I haven’t been at yet.”

  “Go,” Aaron said to both of them. “I can handle the interrogation better than you.”

  “One isn’t enough,” Morgan said firmly.

  “They know you’re here, and if they mess with me you come back and kill them, or the fleet does. The stupid ones died already. The others know their only hope of survival is to play nice. Trust me, I can handle it,” he said, referencing his formidable mental skills. “Go find out who’s talking to you. If there are more ‘observers’ here we need to locate them.”

  “He’s right,” Sara said, “and you’re right. We need more of us down here.”

  “The system isn’t secure yet,” Aaron pointed out, “and with your battle notes I have an idea of what these bastards can do. I’ll be fine,” he said, turning his faceplate transparent as well as a bit of his collar where he showed off an underlayer. “I brought backup.”

  Sara’s jaw dropped. “What the hell?”

  “It’s a friend,” he said of the Boos’mo. “We’ve worked together before.”

  “Doesn’t that…stick?” Morgan said, cringing beneath her faceplate.

  “Thought it would be better than wearing Petricite armor. So there are two of us. Go with her, Sara. I’m getting some very odd mojo from this place. There’s a lot more here than the observers. I’ll babysit them. Now go. Trust me.”

  “What’s his name?” Sara asked.

  “Jarvan.”

  “Keep Jarvan hidden under shroud so they don’t know you have him.”

  “I fooled you, didn’t I?”

  “They’re skilled in Essence,” Morgan reminded him, getting the beckon from the Maty a second time. “I have to go.”

  “Move,” Aaron said, pushing Sara telekinetically. “I’ll get the others down here as soon as I can.”

  “Fine,” Sara said, with Morgan and her taking off running in tandem and disappearing below ground as Aaron took a more leisurely pace through the spherical shield covering the entrance.

  He paused a moment when it was passing through him, then moved on, following the map Morgan had given them earlier through the facility until he got to the V’kit’no’sat perimeter line. The corridors were big enough to hold Era’tran, but most of the guards here were Rit’ko’sor and smaller with a few heavy hitters added plus Zen’zat.

  Aaron passed through them and walked down the very empty hallways towards the area where the observers had promised to remain in. It comprised a small complex of habitats and the main observation room, along with connecting areas. And to their word, that’s where he sensed their Essence signatures.

  His telepathy was being blocked by the walls, but some of the glows of Essence were startlingly bright. That meant a lot of Essence inside the body rather than a large body like a Uriti. The concentration told of the multiplier they had via training, but it also said how much was leaking out. A very calm Essence didn’t show as much, but when Aaron sent out a ping of his own it lit them all up much more, showing several with densities that he had only seen in Kara and the other Jinxes.

  Maybe not quite that much, but still far higher than him. Morgan was right about these guys, though most of the signatures didn’t show anything more than normal Essence…meaning they were either very good at hiding it or they didn’t have Essence skills.

  Aaron made his way to the observation room as a small Star Force collection drone was wrapping up one of the dead bodies in a transport pod. Beyond that he saw a few dozen of the observers monitoring the space battle outside along with a pair doing some other research at a terminal that had nothing to do with the players currently in the system.

  “You are larger than the other,” one of them said in English as Aaron walked in and his other senses finally connected. He did a quick telepathic test to see who was susceptible to prying and who wasn’t, finding they all had some resistance, but a few weren’t good enough to keep his very subtle queries out.

  “She’s the runt,” Aaron said, peeling back his helmet, but not so far as to show his neck. His armor bonded to it just under his chin seamlessly, but allowed the others to see his face and short white/orange hair that matched his Clan colors. “I’m the negotiator, or interrogator, if you prefer. Either way, I’m the one you want to talk to. What are you researching other than the current battles?”

  “This facility has records going back before the Hadarak were here,” an amorphous black goo said, with ripples moving through its body to match its words. “We look for anything curious.”

  “What have you found that warrants your long trip here?”

  “The Hadarak kill the more advanced races periodically, so that none can rise to challenge them. But before they came there were many interesting ones. Extinct now, but documented by this facility, with some samples. The one you see displayed before you are not overly impressive, but they have a peculiar genetic code that baffles me. The Gahana were equally curious about it.”

  “What’s unusual about it?” Aaron asked, walking towards that area of the room while giving the others a wide berth.

  “It underwent a spontaneous change that radically altered their race to a level far superior to what they were before, with the mechanism of this change undocumented. The final form has some coding elements that do not make sense to me. Perhaps you could shed some light.”

  “Perhaps, but right now you’re earning passage out of the system by supplying me with information,” he said, lightly knocking down the alien’s attempt at interrogating him.

  “What do you wish to know?” the black goo asked, rising twice Aaron’s height before settling back down into a Zac-like facsimile of Aaron’s biped form, though still larger.

  “For starters, I’d like to say that attacking my sister really pisses me off, and you’re lucky you didn’t succeed in killing her. Furthermore, your apathy towards the carnage the Hadarak inflict on multiple galaxies suggest you are not good people, so let’s start with some boundaries. Do you make any claim on territory in this galaxy…and the question is for you as a group.”

  “We do not. Only the Hadarak have jurisdiction here.”

  “Explain this jurisdiction.”

  “This is one of their galaxies. They are not allowed to consume all of it, but they may groom the rest from time to time to prevent adversaries from arising.”

  “Are any of your territories in galaxies where there ar
e Hadarak?”

  “A few, but they respect our boundaries.”

  “Why?”

  “It is the natural order that the strongest races coexist, so that we may attempt to live forever. The universe is tilted against this, and the facility in which we stand documents many impressive races that have risen then fallen, with most being reduced to ashes and memories. It is not a measure of how far you rise that defines a civilization, but how long one persists. We all respect this, and rather than trying to dominate one another we give each other space so that we may rise or fall on our own merits, and see who can outlast the universe’s never-ending carnage.”

  “But the Hadarak are never-ending carnage.”

  “As long as they do not interfere with us, we do not interfere with them.”

  “So you abandon all other lesser races to their own fate?”

  “We cannot abandon that which we did not lay claim to. The fate of others is not our responsibility.”

  “Well, it is ours, for we have laid claim to the mantle of protectors. So if you intend on causing any mischief in this galaxy, you will end up becoming our enemy and we will intervene. Do you understand this basic principle?”

  “It is a naïve one, for you expend resources you will need to survive other threats, but we understand it.”

  “But you don’t respect it?”

  “We have no need to respect or dislike you. As long as you remain in this galaxy you will not come into conflict with us. We need not be any more than acquaintances.”

  “And if we go beyond this galaxy?”

  “You will find other threats equal in magnitude to the Hadarak who do not wish their territories invaded by outsiders. I offer this as a friendly warning, not as provocation. There is a natural order in the universe that we seek to maintain. Those who conquer indiscriminately imbalance this. The Hadarak know and respect certain boundaries so they do not encroach on others, but they are free to operate in the balance as they wish so long as they do not totally claim a galaxy. Had we not implemented this…policy…your people would not have existed in order to rise against them. The natural order gives you a chance to rise, and if you are worthy you will overcome the Hadarak and lay claim to this galaxy. We will respect this claim, as well as the Hadarak’s right to invade you if they choose. The rest of us will not interfere in what is not our business.”

  “But you do observe?”

  “Knowing what is going on is not interference, and the Hadarak understand and accommodate us as we accommodate their observers.”

  “So our fight here is your entertainment?”

  “We seek to learn from the lesser, for occasionally they make discoveries that we have not.”

  “So we’re the Hunger Games,” Aaron said, knowing he wouldn’t catch the reference.

  “Starvation is not entertainment. It is a failure of basic civilization planning.”

  “Hypothetically speaking, if we attacked one of your races would the others intervene or just observe?”

  “If you attacked one of us who have been around for far longer than you can imagine, you would face powers that would snuff you out rapidly. The Hadarak are primitive compared to us, and make up that disparity with the strength of their swarms. They die rapidly, but their race lives on.”

  “And their leaders?”

  “Safely hidden where others cannot reach them.”

  “Do they die, or are they immortal?”

  “I do not know. I have never seen one in person. Their interactions are always through intermediaries, but their command structure remains fixed. In fact, we are still curious about some facets of their function. Even now we are trying to learn more of them as we watch them battle you.”

  “And how far does a race have to rise to be included in your natural order elite?”

  “You will know if you ever get there. Right now, as impressive as your resistance against the Hadarak is, there are many facets of the universe that you are completely unaware of. When you discover and master some more of those, you will be approaching peerdom of a minor level.”

  “And when we do that, you and the Hadarak will leave us alone?”

  “We will, but your history with the Hadarak means you have a preexisting relationship that you will have to work out with them.”

  “We haven’t been able to talk to them.”

  “Not surprising. Their armies are little more than living machines.”

  “How can we talk to their leadership?”

  “To do that you must be in the Galactic Core. Their intermediaries do not travel beyond it. And those that cannot reach the Core are deemed too unimportant to speak with.”

  “Well that explains a lot,” Aaron said, putting his hands on his armored hips. “Are they continuing to spread to new galaxies?”

  “Where there are no pre-existing ‘elites’ as you called us, yes they are.”

  “How many ‘elite’ civilizations are there?”

  “We do not know. The universe appears to be infinite. The farther we look, the more we discover. But like you, we can only travel so far so fast. Within our domain, for we are called the Mistark, we have met 319 races or civilizations that we consider to be ‘elite’ and many more just below this status. The universe is diverse, but repetitive. Anything truly new fascinates us, and there are many things we are finding recorded in the archives here that are fascinating.”

  “What do you know of the builders?”

  “They predate all of us, then they vanished to regions unknown when the central gravity wells exceeded a certain mass limit and began producing a radiation you probably are not capable of recording. It slowly destroyed their machine matrixes that were bonded with a Core, and they had to flee. We find this radiation in many of the larger galaxies, but oddly it is also in this one despite its mediocre size. That is one curiosity we have not been able to determine, though we only just arrived and have not had a chance to return to the Galactic Core and research this.”

  “Are you familiar with the PanNari in this system?”

  “Only as of recently.”

  “Why aren’t they affected by this radiation?”

  “They are machines, but they are not the same type of machines. Those who built this place would have been elites amongst us, for they are advanced even beyond our understanding. Learning more about their civilization is one reason we wish to leave an emissary here if you will allow us.”

  “Maybe if you hadn’t attacked my sister we would have. But since you did, we’re going to politely part ways as soon as the fighting in this system is over. Do you need us to drop you in a particular Hadarak system? And by the way, how do you travel in their ships when they don’t have internal space for crew?”

  “We make it.”

  Aaron raised an eyebrow. “And the Hadarak allow this?”

  “They have been so programmed. Bring us to any of their vessels capable of interstellar travel and we will be able to see our own way from there. Preferably one of their faster vessels and not one the size of a moon.”

  “Will it take you long to pack?”

  “We can deconstruct our holdings here easily. Do you intend to remove us quickly or keep us around for questioning?”

  “Show us what you have learned of this place, give us some basic information on your own civilizations and where they reside, and I think we’ll be content with kicking you out.”

  “As you wish. Which would you like to learn of first?”

  8

  Morgan and Sara ran through two clusters of Hadarak minions and lots of empty corridors, side tunnels, and one long climb up a ladder network that occurred lightning fast when they simply flew where others could not. Eventually they came to the location the Maty had instructed Morgan to come to, finding a small room with an open pool of water in it.

  “Aquatic section?” Sara asked as they stopped on the rim and scanned down inside.

  “It’s deep and I’m sensing Hadarak. Anything else we’ll have to figure out on t
he way.”

  “Last time you got one of these missions, there was a lot of resistance, right?”

  “Yep,” Morgan said, hopping off the edge and disappearing into the water feet first.

  “Lovely,” Sara said, following her and sinking down below the entry floor through a short shaft that eventually opened up the sensor jamming of the walls so they could see a massive lake with facets in all directions, making its shape impossible to determine, but the central area was clear except for some pods rising up on thin strands, making for buildings in what looked like an underwater city.

  An underwater city with Hadarak growths all over and in between the structures rising out of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

  “Are we being used as the cleaning crew?” Sara asked, not fond of killing the living structures.

  “There’s something else going on, but I haven’t been able to track it down yet. I think those pods might contain more people in stasis, and the Hadarak may be jeopardizing them.”

  “And the automated systems picked you to deal with it?”

  “I don’t think it’s automated,” Morgan said, jetting off superman style towards the cluster of minions rising off the leftward wall and swimming towards her.

  “I’ve got the right side. Meet you at the other end,” Sara said, angling away as they got to work killing enemies that had no chance against them, though the water combat made it a slower process.

  Sara used her death sabers to cut away a tentacle-like Hadarak growth two meters thick that was wrapped around the base of one of the spires coming down from the ceiling, with the water fizzing as energy bled off against it and made a cascade of bubbles that rose upward as the spine of the growth cracked and the bottom half began to unravel. The trailblazer extinguished her blades and latched on to the upper part, then began swimming in a circular path around the spire to unwrap the upper section until it too fell away, leaving the fluted spire untouched, for some reason the growths hadn’t gone into the numerous holes within it.

  “Bored yet?” Sara asked over comms to Morgan, who was doing much the same on the other side of the lake.