Star Force: Symbiosis (Star Force Universe Book 72) Read online

  Some argued to destroy them, others to ignore them, while some scoffed at the Nu’avi returning at all when they should have carried out their standing orders. Jueni was of mixed thoughts, which was why he came to the surface and faced the light…for it forced him to think differently as he felt it burning into his pale skin on his bald head.

  He sensed opportunity here, but how to handle it? The Neofan were growing weaker by the hour, and soon they’d be fully embroiled in a war to claim a new galaxy as most of their population was lost in their home galaxy. House Atriark was not a prominent house, and Jueni was fortunate to have already been assigned here, for many in his House had nowhere to go…at least within the new galaxy chosen by the Neofan. The traffic there was already maxed out to the point where secondary routes were now clogged as they bounced through other galaxies rather than taking the most direct route.

  The giant launching cannons in the Zotav required a massive amount of Essence to activate, and anyone leaving for the new galaxy had to provide it themselves. That wasn’t a problem for House Atriark, it was priority in the waiting line. And when even the Neofan themselves could not be guaranteed evacuation, their slave races had no hope of escape, being left to die to delay the Hadarak and keep their focus where it was now and not on their new target galaxy.

  House Atriark could not alter the priority rules House Mutavi had put in place for travel, but there was nothing stopping them from fleeing to other galaxies if they had the Essence to spend. House Atriark needed to survive with all its members, not a sliver of its population to start over with in the new Neofan galaxy. But where could they go? Hide out in the Temples? They could, but they’d be exiled at the minimum by the ruling House, and targeted for termination at the worst. But faced with extermination by the Pafdreng, that wasn’t such a bad gamble to make considering the ruling House had its hands full coordinating the relocation…otherwise they’d be on the chopping block if they failed in this critical mission.

  “Yes,” he said diabolically as a thought occurred to him. “Distraction, reduction, and diversion. It is logical.”

  Jueni jumped out of the edge of the catacombs to a ladder built into the stone wall that he climbed up to the summit, only to come down and travel a simple dirt path across the horizon that would lead him to House Mutavi’s catacombs some hours later, by which time he had already formed his arguments and counter arguments, and he stopped just short of entry out of respect for the other House’s position.

  One of their servants came out and looked up at him from its low height.

  “What purpose?”

  “Proposition.”

  The little Niad shook as he used his limited telepathy to contact his masters and a brief conversation took place, then the long-legged hexped stepped sideways to clear the Neofan’s path.

  “Entry granted.”

  Jueni entered the catacombs, moving out of the sunlight and feeling his skin welcome the coolness of the shade as he made his way through the rough-hewn stone to one of the pockets inside that held two other Neofan locked in a mating grapple.

  “I did not come to observe your depravity,” he scolded them, for they were not wearing their bioarmor, which was a minor breach in protocol. “I have a proposition to make.”

  The other Neofan broke apart, having to get their wings unhooked from each other first, and the smaller of the two walked over to him and stared up at his chin.

  “You dare to address us like that?”

  “I know you too well, Shiven. Do not forget who you are speaking to.”

  “You are not of the ruling House, Jueni.”

  “No, I am not. So why are you not behaving as if you are?”

  Shiven scoffed at that, but his point has been made and her demeanor changed to one a bit more professional as she reached over to the pool of purple and white that was her Pol’so’nep and allowed it to slowly stretch back across her rib-showing body. “Speak your proposal.”

  “I have reviewed the information the Emperor’s Hands delivered to us, and I counsel more than a reaction. We have an opportunity for a mutually beneficial alliance with them…other than membership in the Bond of Resistance.”

  “What type of alliance?”

  “They are undergoing a Hadarak purge. We can use this as an additional drawdown on Hadarak resources if we help them to become better at fighting them. Doing so will increase our odds of securing a new galaxy. Do you disagree?”

  “Not on that point. You suggest we give them technology rather than our ire?”

  “I am suggesting that your House sanction Atriark to relocate to this galaxy and guide Star Force into their most destructive path possible. This will free up some transport slots for others, while allowing our House to survive the attrition that the others will have to endure.”

  “By moving your entire House here?”

  “That is what I am proposing, minus our natural holdings in the new galaxy. Those of us who would not have survived can survive here as we distract the Hadarak and draw some of their resources away from the target galaxy. I see this as mutually advantageous between Houses, and with Star Force, for they are doomed without our assistance.”

  “You believe you can protect them?”

  “House Atriark would rather face that difficulty than wait in Utovi helpless until our eventual deaths.”

  “Have you been recalled?”

  “I have not.”

  “Then you will survive here regardless.”

  “My House will not. We can be of use to our race and House Mutavi, for you can barter off our transport slots that we will no longer need to prop up your position as most of our people die. That will be seen as failure even if it is not so. We both have to gain from this, as do our people in general.”

  “You seek to give them forbidden technology?”

  “Their weaponry is already effective, it is their Essence knowledge that is lacking. We can also summon the Vargemma to the fight they were promised. At the worst we can organize Star Force into more effectively killing Hadarak before they are purged. We will survive within the Temples, but the longer we can prolong their war the longer they will not be able to send reinforcements from this galaxy to the others.”

  “House Atriark would be exiling itself.”

  “But with your blessing it will not be a violation.”

  “But it’s still exile save for your ambassadors here and in the new galaxy. Why give up your position and holdings there?”

  “Our House must survive, not regrow from preserved seeds. To do that we must travel somewhere else, and by sanctioning this you can ensure that more Neofan survive no matter how successful we are able to become with these primitives.”

  “I cannot find fault in your logic. A lesser position is valuable if it allows a significant portion of your population to avoid destruction. But your population will not be able to travel to the new galaxy and gain a disproportionate foothold. You will have no holdings in it aside from in the Communal Correndon.”

  “I believe my House will embrace this opportunity even if we must handicap our future.”

  “And if you succeed in holding back the Hadarak, you can use the success to make a bid to overthrown Mutavi?”

  “Not if we are not in the same galaxy. You will be inoculated against a hostile takeover. But there is nothing that can save you if your House demonstrates the incompetence that others have shown.”

  “We will not fail. You most likely will, but even a minor delay of the Hadarak here will help distract from our true target. You have permission to bring those here that you can, but not to the Zotav. You must inhabit the galaxy itself. No greater populations will be allowed in the Zotav.”

  “Fair bargained,” he said, extending both of his hands and crossing them.

  “And concluded,” Shiven said, doing likewise and grasping their clawed fingers for a predetermined length of time, then when they broke contact the official contract was cemented. “But unwise. You will rue your exile, but
your sacrifice will benefit the Neofan.”

  “We intend to exceed your predictions.”

  “Exceed them as much as you can, it will not be enough to credit you into new holdings.”

  “We will see what the future holds. Farewell, Shiven.”

  “You are returning to Utovi?”

  “No. I have convinced you, now I must convince Star Force to accept our guidance.”

  “If you fail, your exile remains.”

  “I do not intend to fail…” he said, bowing slightly as he retreated out of the catacombs and returned to the harsh sunlight. He contained his glee until he was beyond their sight, then let his emotions run to visibility as his skin changed color to match them.

  “Mutavi are fools. This is the logical path, but they do not understand why. House Atriark will survive where others do not, and we will make this galaxy our own. How can she not see that possibility?”

  And what Jueni meant by that was that House Atriark would be going independent, expecting the acquisition of a new galaxy to fail in some regard. If it did, Atriark would not be going down with it. They would have their survival pod here, in this galaxy, if they were cagey enough to convince Star Force to accept their teachings. The Neofan were not strong enough, nor could they get enough of their servant population here to do any large amount of fighting on their own. But if they could provide what Star Force lacked, an alliance with them could deliver House Atriark a stronger position within the Bond of Resistance than the tattered remnants of the other Neofan Houses that were even now bickering with each other over the number of evacuation slots they were allowed in Utovi’s Zotav on the shortest jumpline to the new galaxy.

  Jueni would have to send word back to Utovi concerning the deal he had just struck, and he couldn’t go himself. All traffic was outcoming from Utovi on most of the travel lines, but information could go back without risking collision. His House had to begin preparing now, and he had to begin preparing their place in this galaxy for when their ships eventually made it here taking the longer, less traffic heavy Zotavs that were quickly filling up as many fractured Houses began to flee for their own survival into the Temple network, knowing they could never return to the Neofan Empire again, but they did not care. Panic was overtaking Utovi, and for good reason, but official business would always be prioritized in all the Zotavs, even the low priority ones, and House Atriark now had official business in that would give them priority travel slots in the indirect Zotav jumplines.

  Jueni went back to his catacombs and compiled the message after informing the others in his House of the bargain made. Then he arranged to have it transmitted back across the deep void between galaxies hoping his House Leaders would not feel he overstepped his bounds by making this agreement without their counsel, but he knew they were wise enough to recognize the opportunities he had just laid out for them in the heavily encoded message.

  They would know what to do now, and Jueni needed to arrange for more than a truce with Star Force. They had to put aside grudges and forge a Bond of their own for mutual benefit.

  Jueni just hoped they would listen to him long enough to make his logic clear.

  The Nu’avi had made the right call in coming back with the information. It was a shame their elite served the wrong House once again. Their race truly deserved better…

  10

  February 18, 128889

  Happhetima Nebula (Zavrex Kingdom)

  Gamma Tricumbda Temple

  Jueni stood in the center of a Neofan warship. It didn’t belong to his House, but rather to a lower level one that was tasked with the primary defense of his Zotav. They had three stationed there, in addition to thousands of other warships from their servants and other Bond of Resistance races. He wished his House had stationed one here so they wouldn’t have to owe House Bvan a favor, but he wasn’t going to negotiate with Star Force in anything less grand. They needed to see the power of the Neofan, not be told of it, and when his ship passed through one of the main portals and entered the Temple where their Siphon had been known to inhabit, it was something that few Vargemma had ever had the privilege to witness.

  The ship was an orb, but one with four rings around it that all intersected at two points, and from those rings the defense shields were generated…but because there was a physical connection to the shield bubble and it didn’t have to be fully projected, it allowed the technological creation of much stronger shields. That was something that Star Force and most lesser empires never figured out, lest they see one of the Neofan warships and try to copy them, though the physics involved were not simple, and the advanced shields would take more than just a cursory look to imitate.

  The two points where the rings connected also had physical connections to the orb that was not far inside the perimeter, but there was plenty of room for smaller ships to take cover inside, for the Gjardan-class dreadnaught that Jueni was riding in was designed to fit just within the diameter of the Temple portals, which were 127 miles wide.

  It also required use of the third ring of the Conduit stations that had allowed direct Essence transport from the Zotav to this Temple or any other within the galaxy. His ship had not left the Essence realm during transit, but it would be caught and redirected by each ‘Uip’ station allowing for the fastest…and most costly…transport across the galaxy. And for something the size of a Gjardan, the Essence cost was high, which is why this method of travel was rarely used.

  But it gave them movement control across the entire Rim, adjacent to which were all the Zotav, which nearly everyone in this galaxy did not know existed, and it was meant to stay that way. All they would see was the ship arriving from a portal, not knowing its origination point, and a ship so large no one would dare to strike it…

  Except maybe the Star Force fleet that was miraculously waiting for them, thousands in number and of significant size, but none as large as the Gjardan.

  Still, the fact that they knew which portal the ship was coming through was troubling…but also encouraging. If Star Force was skilled enough to be able to learn to use the Temple in ways not given to them, perhaps they were worthy enough to make this venture worthwhile…though Jueni still knew it was a massive gamble. But without it, his House would be decimated and most of its extremely old members would have to be replaced with new births, and that alone almost made their taking a new galaxy irrelevant if they couldn’t take the existing House with them.

  But this was the universe they were faced with, and the chaos of the fall of their galaxy was having irreparable damage to the Neofan even if House Mutavi wouldn’t admit it. Jueni needed his House to survive in better condition than the others or they risked being eliminated in some form or another, perhaps by the Hadarak, for he knew the other Houses would not fight for them if the defense lines were overrun again. It would be every House for itself, as it was now across much of Utovi.

  An incoming message quickly made its way to Jueni, but he let them wait as his ship drifted further out from the portal…but the Star Force ships wouldn’t move. They neared a collision before the Neofan ceased their forward momentum, not wanting to start off this negotiation by killing some of Star Force’s people, for research suggested they valued their individuals far more than was prudent, and that an offense against one was taken as an offense against all.

  Star Force did not understand the concept of sacrifice, and Jueni was going to have to take special care to remember that.

  He watched the incoming transmission without showing himself, seeing that it was from a Human known to them. Morgan-063, one of their warlords. Perhaps she came here after the Emperor’s Hands arrived, but the reason was immaterial. She was here, which was fortunate, for time mattered in the evacuation of Utovi, and negotiating with one of their highest leaders would save some time rather than having to work through intermediaries.

  It also meant he needed to take a different tact, given the trailblazers’ unique history.

  He activated the transmission on his end, s
howing his image to his counterpart and speaking before she could react first.

  “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain…”

  Did that mother fucker just…? Kara said telepathically to Morgan as they both stood in the grass of their training ground playing bait just in case there was another Nu’avi out there, but only Morgan was visible via holo, with an altered background and her signal being bounced through multiple relays so the ship couldn’t detect where she was.

  Yeah he did, she answered, giving the Aatrox-like alien a frown. “A curious choice of words. Are you suggesting that we’re evil or overpowered?”

  “I am suggesting that this is a negotiation, not an invasion. I have come to bargain.”

  “What do you wish to bargain?”

  “A mutually beneficial arrangement that prevents a war between us and gives you a better chance of survival against the Hadarak.”

  “Who is ‘us?’”

  “You most likely have never seen my race, but you know our name. We are the Neofan, and these Temples are largely of our construction, with the assistance of many other races within the Bond of Resistance, but I am not here to offer you membership. I am here to offer something else.”

  “I thought the Temples were built by the three primary races of the ‘Founders?’”

  “‘Founder’ is a term designed for the Vargemma. They are not part of the Bond. They are tools that we help advance in order that they may serve us later if required. The trinity you speak of is the Neofan, the Veloqueen, and the Denogi. All have given much in the way of technology, combining our knowledge to build the Temples, but bulk of the design and construction was Neofan in origin. The Veloqueen prefer to inhabit the Cores of galaxies and leave the Rim to us. The Denogi do not possess Essence technology, for they are immune to it. That leaves the cultivation of Essence users to us and the lesser races in the Bond. We have built the Temples, though the credit does not always match the true actions.”