Star Force: Collaboration (SF90) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

“Why? Other than the obvious worker functions.”

  “Aren’t those enough?”

  “Not for you. What else are you getting at?”

  “It’s the growth rate. Specifically the ability to seed planets.”

  Jason’s eyes narrowed. “What do you expect is coming?”

  “We can’t kill the lizards because they spread too fast to track down. I want that same inability to kill for Clan Saber. While the rest of us do the fighting the lizards can be spreading and building bases for us to retreat into.”

  “This is about the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “Yes it is. They’re going to get here at some point. I can feel it. And we are still not ready.”

  Jason scratched the side of his head as he stared down at the floor. “Combat applications?”

  “Scouts.”

  “No spamming as a last resort?”

  “Thrawn would. But you know as well as I do it won’t work against the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “Not unless you gave them better weapons.”

  Paul cracked a smile, but Jason just frowned harder. “What?”

  “I’m running things by Thrawn and he’s having his lizards try and figure out ways to fight such a superior opponent. I’m nixing the dishonorable methods and forcing him to come up with other forms of deviousness.”

  “They are good at that. Are you giving them our tech to play with or just going to steal their ideas?”

  “The independents don’t get our tech. The Saber lizards are another matter. In the long run they might get it, but not now.”

  “Who do the Sabers take orders from?”

  “Me and the other Archons. We’ve taken the place of the templars in their genetic structuring.”

  “Your doing?”

  “Thrawn’s actually. All the newly grown lizards, independent and Saber, have the same structure.”

  “Wait a second, you’re saying all the lizards will obey your orders willingly?”

  “The originals won’t be too eager about it, but they’ll follow Thrawn and the other masterminds, and they follow me so…”

  “What other masterminds?”

  “We grew some.”

  Jason’s jaw dropped slightly. “Damn it, Paul. Would it kill you to keep me in the loop?”

  “I still don’t know how all of this is going to work out yet, and until I have a firm structure in place I didn’t feel like sharing. And it’s not like you shared your stellar squirt guns before you built and tested them either.”

  “I haven’t built any of your ‘fireflies’ yet, that’s just an idea floating around.”

  “Still, we all keep secrets…for a while.”

  “And you don’t want help with this one?”

  “Everyone is pretty set on the lizards not being annexed. After all the fighting we’ve done and are still doing with them that’s understandable, but it’s different with me because I actually got one to surrender and he brought a lot of his buddies over with him, and still is.”

  “We’ve noticed,” Jason reminded him. “You’re saving us a lot of time, equipment, and maybe a few lives by getting those systems to voluntarily evacuate. That alone is enough to make us take interest.”

  Paul shook his head. “This might still blow up in my face, and if that happens I want the collateral damage to be isolated to Clan Saber.”

  “Blow up how? Other than Thrawn running off to tell the V’kit’no’sat where we are.”

  “Scruples can’t be codified.”

  “You don’t want people following orders just to follow orders?”

  “I have to find a balance within their pack mentality. They need to be able to determine right from wrong, but they are so comfortable and efficient with having to not do that. They let administrators and masterminds and templars do their thinking for them and it allows them to focus on their roles.”

  “We do the same.”

  “Not to this extent, which is why they have an advantage. They can literally go to work or into combat a day after they’re born. How much of right and wrong can they understand from genetic memories and how much do they have to sort out through experience and feel?”

  “You’re afraid of the weapon damaging someone by accident, by a situation where you’re not there to give them the right orders.”

  “Yeah I am, but I also know that there is no guarantee in the rest of Star Force either. There are bad people out there that occasionally do bad things before we shut them down, but we’ve got the individualized model pretty ironed out. This unit-based thing is brand new for me and the old model Thrawn is used to won’t do. We’re both covering new ground and I want to keep this in my pocket while I figure out whether or not it’ll actually work.”

  “And if it doesn’t, what happens to all the new lizards you’re growing?”

  “Like you said, they can’t reproduce on their own. Unless they obtain self-sufficiency they’ll die out eventually.”

  “How close are they to that?”

  “Thrawn’s got them extended well beyond previous lifespans, and not just because he isn’t spending their lives recklessly anymore. They’ll do workouts if ordered, but they don’t understand what they’re doing.”

  “That kills efficiency.”

  “I know. It’s something else I’ve got to work on.”

  “But you’re wanting this to work pretty bad?”

  Paul tilted his head to the side sarcastically. “Having more population than Clan Star Fox is worth noting.”

  “Oh geez,” Jason said, holding his head in his hands. “Randy is going to hate you.”

  “If I can make it work,” Paul added, emphasizing the ‘if’ with a telepathic resonance.

  “If you do, are you going to share?”

  “You want some lizards too?” Paul asked, not having considered that.

  “Not really, but if you turn them all badass that might change.”

  “I’m not even sure how that would work. Clan only? Or add them to Mainline?”

  “Mainline already has the Kiritak, no reason they couldn’t add a lizard element. I can tell you don’t like that option.”

  “No I don’t,” Paul admitted.

  “Feeling protective of them?”

  “There’s a dangerous line here between teammate and slave that I’m not sure others will be able to distinguish between.”

  “Give us some credit, please,” Jason said, but Paul firmly shook his head.

  “No. Everything I’m working off of here is an improvement on what the lizards previously had. Even if it sucks they’re better off than before. Implementing a formal program for Star Force means it has to be airtight. Good enough won’t do. I don’t know how to incorporate the lizard unit structure into that, and I don’t want to strip them of their greatest strength to make sure their individual sovereignty isn’t violated. That’s why I have to keep this to Saber for now and the foreseeable future. This is off in left field and the rest of Star Force isn’t…and I can’t bring it in yet because I don’t fully understand it.”

  “But do you want some help out in left field, is what I’m asking.”

  “I already have help, and it’s Thrawn.”

  “You two close enough that I’d be a third wheel?”

  “He trusts me, and that trust has been a long time in earning, but I’ve still got a lot to work on with him. No one else can do that.”

  “What about these other masterminds you mentioned?”

  “They’re partially patterned off of his memories, but they’re different. They didn’t know the templars even though they think they did. Thrawn outranks them, which is new, but they also follow me and the other Archons in Clan Saber. Thrawn is pretty much just following me and I don’t insult him by sending orders for him through anyone else.”

  “Ok, you keep Thrawn close, but is there anything else you want or need help with?”

  “It is very hard to fight these guys and work with them at the same time. Those elements of Saber i
nvolved in the fighting are kept separate from those few working with the friendly lizards. I know not to trust them, but at the same time I’m beginning to trust them. I’d rather those fighting on the front keep their singular perspective.”

  “Not all of us are fighting on the front,” Jason pointed out. “Let’s make this simple. Do you need help with any part of this?”

  Paul sighed. “Probably. But I can’t tell you exactly what.”

  “That’s the biggest sign that you do need help. Let’s work this from another angle. What are you hoping to achieve?”

  “Harness their strength and turn it honorable.”

  “To what end? They’re ill-suited for fighting the V’kit’no’sat and turning them against other lizards is a blood bath that you don’t want.”

  “And yet if I don’t, how many other planets out there are going to get slaughtered because I’m keeping Thrawn in here?”

  Jason’s eyes narrowed. “So you are thinking about turning them loose across the border?”

  “No…and yes. Logic is in favor of both alternatives and I can’t nail it down to one. I’m working the angles I can because if I don’t they’re just going to sit on their worlds and stagnate to death or get so bored they turn on us because they have nothing else to do. They need a purpose, Jason. More so even than we do. It’s what they live and breathe. It’s like a guy so infatuated with a girl that if he loses her he’s such a wreck he doesn’t even want to eat anymore. He has no hope, no future, even though it’s right in front of his face.”

  “Their loyalty to their purpose is also their strength?”

  “Yes,” Paul said, glad he could see the paradox. “How do I mitigate it without mitigating it?”

  “By asking for help,” Jason said, standing up. “That decides it. We’re having a brainstorming session.”

  “We?” Paul asked skeptically.

  “Yeah, we. Arrange for a vacation, kiss Thrawn goodbye, then you’re coming back to the ADZ with me and we’re going to throw some more minds at this.”

  “Who exactly?”

  “The 2s. Randy especially might have some ideas.”

  Paul facepalmed for a moment, closing his eyes and pinching the brim of his nose, but he couldn’t come up with a reason to argue with Jason so he decided to just go with it. “Alright, worth a try.”

  “Long overdue try. Go get packing. There’s no need to waste time.”

  Paul stood up and spread his arms wide. “Done.”

  Jason smiled. “Don’t you need to talk to Thrawn first?”

  “He’s on our comm grid, so I’ll just send him a message.”

  “He’s on our comm grid?”

  “Limited access.”

  Jason rolled his eyes, but then had to laugh despite the silliness of that statement. “You’re right. I’m used to thinking of them as enemies so much that that seemed like a tremendously stupid thing to do. I guess we need you to bring us up to speed with these friendly lizards as we help you think a way around your paradox.”

  “We can’t let them win,” Paul said in a suddenly serious tone. “We can’t let them dictate how we fight.”

  “And this is our chance to prove them wrong?”

  Paul nodded. “It’s them again the galaxy, conquer or die. We beat these guys by breaking their mythology as much as their bones.”

  Jason smiled. “I think I’m going to quote that sometime in the future.”

  “Be my guest.”

  “And you’re thinking if you fail to make a place for them in Clan Saber, they’ll win the philosophical battle?”

  “We’re supposed to be superior. If the lizards have to sacrifice their strength to join us…well, it’s just another dishonorable sacrifice, isn’t it?”

  A grim determination set into Jason as he finally saw the battle Paul had been fighting all this time.

  He nodded at his friend. “Challenge accepted.”

  8

  October 17, 3337

  Degar System (Uriti Preserve)

  Stellar orbit

  The Knights of Quenar came onboard the Zeus with Riley waiting for them in a special cargo bay built for just such a purpose. Now that Nefron wasn’t the only one who could control the Uriti the need for paranoid security around him and this ship had ended, but there was no way any of the KoQ were getting onboard a Star Force ship without going through a mist scan…just in case they wanted to sneak someone or something else onboard at the same time.

  However, they were bringing someone else with them, and openly so, with the smaller biped traveling in cuffs between the two upright quadrupeds. They’d told Riley they were bringing a prisoner with them to turn over to him, but hadn’t gone into detail beyond that.

  The trio walked up to where he waited and an invisible force shoved the Jartool forward enough that it tripped and landed on a knee, tipping forward until Riley telekinetically caught it and kept it from face planting with his hands bound behind its back.

  “This is the one responsible. One of many. But he should have the answers you seek.”

  “To what question?” Riley inquired as he looked down on the lumpy silver skin of the Jartool…a race with a presence in the Preserve but not one of the major powers.

  “Who wanted to test fire a weapon against the Uriti.”

  “Which time? There have been three attempts.”

  “All of them,” the KoQ said smugly, then preferring to remain silent.

  Riley bypassed the typical conversation and dove into the alien’s mind, navigating around the unfamiliar language and tapping into visuals and themes. He poked around until he stumbled across a thread that he followed to the source…a massive conspiracy against the Preserve project that intended to either procure or destroy the Uriti.

  It wasn’t laid out in summary form, so Riley had a lot of digging to do and the KoQ were patient enough to give him time. The Jartool, whose name was Emon, didn’t resist or talk. Curiosity had Riley try and find the reason for that, leading to the treatment he’d received by the KoQ…in addition to the people they’d killed getting to Emon. That alone solidified Riley’s resolve to cut them out of as much of the Preserve operations as he could, for these guys would seemingly do whatever they deemed necessary to accomplish their stated goals.

  Riley continued further into the Jartool’s mind, ticking off every faction that was involved in the conspiracy and some of the attempts they’d made to gain leverage here, some which had not been detected by Star Force, though they’d been unsuccessful anyway. The two subsequent attacks on the Uriti after the large fleet initially dove to their deaths had been small ones, accomplished by a single ship, and were testing different weapon systems for effectiveness before they were quickly obliterated. The Jartool had been one of several races recording from a distance and transmitting the data out to…

  It seemed the conspiracy also had a base within Star Force territory, in the occupation zone, and right under a surveillance satellite that had been tricked into not registering their presence. How they’d managed to achieve that this Emon didn’t know, but figuring it out was top item on the trailblazer’s to-do list.

  “They have a base nearby,” Riley finally said, addressing the KoQ as the Jartool simply stared at the floor knowing there was nothing he could do to resist. He didn’t know the full telepathic power of the Archon, but it was apparently known that they could read memories and this one had no idea how to even resist such a thing. The KoQ’s methods of information retrieval had been…different, but at least they confirmed that they did not possess telepathy. What they did have was basically an information hack that accessed the main through mechanical means, and this one had suffered through it for quite some time before being brought here.

  “Shall we eliminate it?”

  “No, I’ll handle this personally. I need to do it our way. Your methods are not acceptable to the stability of this region…or otherwise.”

  “We did not expect, nor require your approval,” the KoQ reprimand
ed him slightly. “We will, however, follow your lead in this matter.”

  “I’ll be keeping this one,” Riley said, referring to the prisoner.

  “You may have him.”

  Riley pointed to his cuffs, but before he could telekinetically break them free they disconnected and flew into one of the KoQ’s open hands. The Jartool pulled his thick arms around in front of him and massaged his wrists, as well a spot on his upper right arm that Riley could see with his Pefbar that contained a bruise over a cracked bone.

  “We will be available should you require our assistance,” the other KoQ said as the pair turned around and headed back to the airlock, leaving Riley with Emon.

  Riley guessed they didn’t know what system the base was in, but it wasn’t going to be hard for them to follow his command ship when he went after them. Their information retrieval methods might be formidable, but there was no way a machine could navigate a mind like he could, and he was fairly sure the KoQ knew that as well, which was why they’d brought this one to him rather than just disposing of him when they were finished like they had with several other Jartool when this one had been captured.

  It seemed the Preserve was filled with unscrupulous factions that would be just as eager to help you as stab you in the back depending on the circumstances. At least for the moment the Uriti didn’t seem to be in that group, and Riley was starting to get a feel for how to talk to them, picking up on which subjects would get a response and which wouldn’t. Yet in some ways he still felt he understood them less than the KoQ, whose minds didn’t register to his telepathy at all.

  When they were gone he looked at the Jartool, knowing he didn’t speak much English, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t communicate with him.

  “Come with me,” he said, sending the appropriate mental impetus to bypass the language barrier along with a wave of his hand. Emon followed him and the trailblazer led him out of the reception area and through the ship. The Jartool looked around oddly, with Riley watching his thoughts and fears continuously as he gave him complete freedom of movement. He could take control of his mind at will, but unless the alien chose to do some harm there was no reason to keep him restrained.