Star Force: Rift Read online

  “I can guarantee that much,” the Arch Duke said confidently. “But the ultimate decision on any merger will lie with Director Davis and the trailblazers. I honestly can’t say how they’re going to react.”

  “I can,” Randal said, pointing a finger at the Rit’ko’sor’s hologram. “Your traitors never fought against us. The V’kit’no’sat kept them fighting the Hadarak or doing other things. They were never assigned with our destruction, so our blood has not been spilt by the Rit’ko’sor. The trailblazers will not hold a grudge against a race we have not fought.”

  “Assuming this isn’t a massive ruse,” the Arch Duke added. “You are Rit’ko’sor, and Mak’to’ran has shown his interest in both our destruction and the Uriti. Planting spies and saboteurs amongst us would be an effective tactic, so while we will entertain negotiations, we will also be highly skeptical.”

  “You would be foolish to do otherwise,” the Rit’ko’sor agreed. “All we ask now is that you allow negotiations to occur, and preferably in neutral territory so there is no possibility of our subterfuge. We will allow you to select a location, if you are willing.”

  “An empty system within our borders?” the Arch Duke floated.

  “Acceptable.”

  “How soon can your leaders be here?”

  “9 months.”

  Tevvaline brought up a map and randomly chose an uninhabited system within the Menfo Region on the backside of Star Force territory, far away from the Devastation Zone and the V’kit’no’sat.

  “Vinniak,” she said, sending the coordinates across the secure comm. “9 months from now.”

  “Agreed. Please keep this rendezvous as secret as possible. The V’kit’no’sat most likely have many spies amongst your empire, and I do not wish to endanger our leaders or our worlds by allowing them to backtrack us. They do not know I am here now, so they cannot follow, but if they know of an upcoming rendezvous they could get in position to track us.”

  “We will convey the information in person,” the Arch Duke promised. “It will not enter our databases.”

  “Then my mission here is accomplished. With your permission we will depart the system.”

  “Granted,” Randal said, mentally sending a stand down order to the bridge crew to relay out to the defense fleet.

  And with that the impromptu conversation ended and the Rit’ko’sor ship began to slowly ease away from the planet as the drone swarms parted ahead of it.

  “I did not see that coming,” Tevvaline admitted.

  “I don’t think anyone did, but it explains a few things.”

  “Such as?”

  “Why the V’kit’no’sat didn’t trust the Rit’ko’sor enough to send them after us. They didn’t fully rejoin their empire, so they’re tainted with continual distrust on top of their previous ‘suppression.’ I think there’s a lot more to that story than we know, and a lot more than the V’kit’no’sat wanted to put into their general records. I’d like to be at that meeting, if it’s alright with you?”

  “I’m staying here, so you can go inform Davis and the trailblazers personally, but keep this knowledge in mind only.”

  “Does everyone know we have V’kit’no’sat spies?” he said, perturbed.

  “Worried that might mean we have more than even we thought?”

  “Yeah, I am. I’m also wondering if these Rit’ko’sor are on the level, or what the V’kit’no’sat will do if they are.”

  “Cancel the truce?”

  “They can do that whenever they want. We already delivered the Hadarak information.”

  “No one knows what they said to us, right?” Tevvaline said with a devious smile.

  “Just the two of us. Why?”

  “If there are spies, and they saw a Rit’ko’sor ship appear there, what will they say?”

  “We didn’t see any special markings on the hull,” Randal said, activating a nearby console to bring up the recorded sensor feeds to confirm that fact. “There’s no way to know that was a rebel ship…I’ve got an idea.”

  “Go with it.”

  Randal reactivated the comm, with the Rit’ko’sor ship still in range so there was only a twitch of lag as the hologram reappeared.

  “What else do you require?” the Rit’ko’sor asked.

  “I need you to stealth your ship and flee the system quickly. We will fire in your wake to give the impression that you weren’t supposed to be here. Is there a way to identify your ship as not belonging to the V’kit’no’sat?”

  “Only the identification beacons, which we’ve disabled. You want observers to think we were a scout ship that you caught and drove off?”

  “Better to give curious eyes a reason than to let them wonder.”

  “Very well. We will hold a straight line trajectory so you can approximate our position. You may also fire a single shot into our shields, after which we will flee and stealth.”

  “Negative. We don’t shoot ships in such a manner. That would draw more suspicion to our motives. We have discovered you here, now you are forced to leave while visible. You stealth against our orders so we fire on you. That fits with our protocols.”

  “Noted. Are you ready?”

  “Flee in 90 seconds. We will handle the rest.”

  “We will comply,” the Rit’ko’sor said, disappearing again as Randal immediately headed for the bridge with the Arch Duke having to jog to keep up with him.

  “Nice touch.”

  “Quiet,” he warned, now that they were in the hallway leading to the bridge. They got there about 20 seconds later, with all eyes focused on the pair.

  “The Rit’ko’sor are slowly leaving the system. If they so much as deviate from their current course, kick ‘em in the rear on the way out.”

  “No kill shots?” the Terminator’s captain asked.

  “We don’t want to end the truce, but they’re out of bounds and we’re not going to put up with shenanigans. Go back through sensor logs and see if anything of that ship appeared before we noticed them. We’ve got to find a way to pick these bastards up, or they’ll be snooping right under our noses the entire time.”

  “Did you chew them out?”

  “They won’t be coming back here again,” Randal said as he sat down in the vacant Admiral’s chair and mentally linked into the system. “Arrange the Arch Duke’s transport back to the surface. She’s done here.”

  The Captain did as ordered, then right on schedule the Rit’ko’sor ship suddenly accelerated and disappeared from view.

  Randal caught the firing commands before they could be executed, overriding them and giving the gunners firing points that were just behind the acceleration track that he knew would be unaltered. The gunners didn’t know what it would be, so they were just guessing, but with his revisions he made sure the red Ardent beams that leapt out would miss just behind the now invisible ship.

  After a few seconds the weaponry fell silent, for the probability of hitting something invisible diminished greatly as it had more maneuvering possibilities. Randal sent a flurry of drones out after several of them, plus more in towards the star as he knew the Rit’ko’sor vessel’s track would be heading there.

  “Keep them moving,” the Archon said, getting up from his chair. “I know we can’t catch them, but keep enough patrols moving so they know we’re not content to let them poke around where they want…and keep sensor scans at maximum. If we can even get a partial hit, I want it.”

  “Unlikely, but we’ll keep trying,” the Captain promised. “Did they mouth off or apologize for being here?”

  “Something else that you’ll hopefully find out later. Right now, mum’s the word.”

  The Captain raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask any more questions. “As you wish.”

  “And two days from now I’m taking this ship on a vacation.”

  “May I ask where?”

  “Wherever Director Davis currently is. There’s something I have to talk to him about in person.”

  “You do
n’t want to leave now?” the Captain asked, starting to catch on.

  “Too obvious. We wait two days, then we go. And we’re going at max speed, so top off the fuel tanks before we leave.”

  8

  February 15, 4846

  Vinniak System (Menfo Region)

  Stellar Orbit

  Randal was onboard the Nedrador, Director Davis’s personal command ship, when the Rit’ko’sor fleet began to arrive. They hadn’t known if they’d bring a single vessel under cloak or more, but the Rit’ko’sor were not making any attempt to hide their presence within Star Force territory and through the relay network they’d been tracking their fleet’s progress all the way here.

  What the Rit’ko’sor did do was avoid uninhabited systems, but thankfully Star Force had gotten a decent amount of monitoring stations set up with relay links over the years to be able to spot their arrival. They’d dipped in and out of coverage, but their arrival today had been anticipated and the first of their S-shaped ships were arriving in deep stellar orbit, drawing an odd look from the Archon.

  Based on their assumed speed, they shouldn’t have had to come out that close to the star. They could always choose to brake slower if they wanted to arrive that deep, but it wasn’t standard…and as sensor readings began to catch up he saw that these ships were not typical V’kit’no’sat design.

  They were close, very close, but some had been modified slightly and Randal guessed that their engines had been reduced in power to make room for what were high powered transmitters. He assumed these ships were control ships for the Rit’ko’sor drone fleets they’d used to fight the Hadarak, but he’d never actually seen one before.

  The rest of the 219 ship fleet were standard varieties, exiting the jumppoint in formation with the others along with a super-sized ship of similar shape that he knew to be a Mach’nel. It was a ‘new’ one as far as the V’kit’no’sat were concerned, ostensibly built from stolen information over the course of the Rit’ko’sor’s exile in the Hadarak zone, but until a handful of days ago Star Force didn’t even know they possessed one.

  That made Star Force’s fleet of 26 Warship-class jumpships and two command ships heavily outgunned, but Randal doubted that they were here to fight. More likely they wanted to keep their leaders safe, along with enhancing their negotiating position by bringing with them a ship far superior to anything Star Force possessed.

  The Rit’ko’sor hadn’t brought any of their drone ships, but Star Force’s were already deployed and spread out in a defensive arrangement and did not move as the Rit’ko’sor fleet emerged one by one from their jump and began to reposition. They came out to the nearby fleet within easy comm range then held position a few hundred miles off.

  Randal was standing beside Davis in the command Nexus, but he wasn’t in view of the holo transmitter as Sara-012 and Davis linked up, with her image appearing as a tiny glowing statue on the Director’s right side as a much larger Rit’ko’sor appeared directly in front of him and rising up well above his head. Not quite life size, but it soon shrank as other Rit’ko’sor entered range and the viewing angle altered to accommodate them all.

  There were 6 of them, most wearing partial robes that obscured their legs but let their tails swing free, but there was no mistaking their pale white skin that Star Force had never personally encountered. Most of the V’kit’no’sat races had taken part in the war against Star Force at some point, but not the Rit’ko’sor, and he’d always wondered how much of their rebellion had tainted their reunification…or maybe the fact that these separatists had taken their Mach’nel with them had something to do with that.

  “Nice ship,” Sara commented. “Did you steal or build that one?”

  “We stole the knowledge and built it after the war,” the Rit’ko’sor answered, also in English. “We did not let the traitors retain possession of it, though they tried.”

  “Was there fighting?”

  “No deaths occurred, but stun weapons had to be used. We did not part amicably, and now they are our enemy the same as the rest of the V’kit’no’sat. They have betrayed us.”

  “How did the reunification occur?” Davis asked.

  “The Era’tran were exploring the outer Core and discovered us. They did not report their findings, choosing to open a secret dialog. We knew our situation was untenable so we talked to them while prepping for evacuation. Our former hatchlings succumbed to the Era’tran’s entreaties, not knowing them as we do. They chose them over us.”

  “How easy is it to explore the Core?” Davis pressed. “I was under the impression that Hadarak patrols were difficult to get by.”

  “It is tricky where their minions are in massive numbers. Our stealth technology does not hide us from the Hadarak. Their gravitational sensors can pick up all but the smallest of ships at range, and even those closer. The minions also have weaker gravitational sensors that reinforce each other, so the larger the swarm the more accurate their detection capability. Getting past them requires fast movements, and fast movements increase detection for reasons that we cannot fully articulate. We cannot go where they are, but we can explore where there are few. Roaming Hadarak make navigation uncertain, and many ships have been lost when they are where they were not expected to be.”

  “How far have you surveyed?”

  “Farther than the V’kit’no’sat, though they now have most of our data. There are regions were every system contains their minions, and not by accident. They hold to the inner regions tightly, and only a few skimming missions have penetrated those lines.”

  “Skimming?”

  “Making slow jumps to exit far from the star, then skirting around the outer edges of the system to another distant jumppoint. The minions can move quickly, but if you arrive in a position they are not it is possible to evade them from afar, though you will not be allowed to remain long enough to gather extensive data.”

  “They can detect mass that far away?”

  “If a Hadarak is present, yes. Their navigational capability allows them to sense very distant stars, and closer objects who have a similar gravitational profile show up the same. We speculate that any movement of gravity silhouettes is an obvious giveaway, and by not moving we have been able to avoid ranged detection on occasion.”

  “And why were the Era’tran looking?”

  “They were operating on their own, without Itaru’s permission, trying to expand their knowledge of the Hadarak. Their discovery of us was accidental.”

  “Is that common? Exploration without permission.”

  “Before our rebellion, no. Afterwards I cannot speak to.”

  “How many Rit’ko’sor do you speak for?”

  “53 billion.”

  “And how certain are you of their loyalty?”

  “We have lived separate from them for more than a millennia. If there were traitors, they would have revealed us by now. We did not expect to contact you, for we did not expect you to be able to survive this long. There are no V’kit’no’sat plants among us with the intent of undermining you.”

  “We will have to confirm that,” Sara pointed out.

  “As expected. You possess formidable Ikrid, correct?”

  “I do.”

  “We will submit to mental verification, as many of us as you wish. We come before you with nothing to hide. We seek vengeance against the V’kit’no’sat. Nothing more.”

  “Your name?” Davis asked.

  “I am Jovca. With me are Nemti, Soval, Piv, Ranklo, and Tarck.”

  “Tarck?” Sara asked, recognizing that name.

  “I am Tarck,” another Rit’ko’sor on the far right side of the hologram said.

  “I recognize your name from the V’kit’no’sat records. You were assumed killed during the first century of the rebellion.”

  “Subterfuge for my relocation.”

  “How did that occur?” Davis asked. “Who was chosen, and for what purpose?”

  “None of us wanted to run, but we were chosen to d
o so,” Jovca explained. “We are warriors, and hiding while our brethren were killed in battle was the most distasteful thing we have ever been required to do. Now that we have a chance to fight back successfully, we do not wish to continue to lurk in the shadows. Our fight is with the V’kit’no’sat, to the death, and we are willing to assist you in our full capacity if you will allow us that role.”

  “You obviously have a Mach’nel. What else can you offer?”

  “We are more advanced than Zen’zat, and would be the premier race within Star Force if you accepted us, despite our low numbers. We can reproduce rapidly if allowed to, so that numerical disadvantage can diminish quickly.”

  “Then you are requesting full membership?”

  “We are asking more than that. You have been very successful while utilizing inferior races to build your empire. Even your own people do not possess psionics. Our inclusion would allow a significant advancement for your empire, as well as bringing with us our battle experience against the V’kit’no’sat. We know how to kill them in ways you do not. We know where they are vulnerable, for we have exploited those cracks in the past.”

  “Will you submit to our leadership?”

  “There will be no need for submission. You do not suppress the races in your empire. You enhance them. We offer you potential that you will make the most of. For that reason we will follow your orders and give you our eggs to do with as you wish.”

  Davis raised an eyebrow. “Your eggs?”

  “We know you use a maturia system for all races, and if we are to become part of Star Force our hatchlings must incorporate into that system. Those of us who are already living, we ask for special consideration. We want to fight, not assimilate. We do not expect to survive, but will fight for a future for our race that you will establish.”