Star Force: Excalibur (Star Force Universe Book 41) Read online

  “I want to trust it…but I have to wonder if I’m not programmed to.”

  “I haven’t seen or sensed any alteration of you in that manner, so it’s possible the Dragons gave it to you as a legitimate gift, but one with a backdoor they can utilize whenever they wish. Those things were designed for their servants, remember?”

  “I’m willing to risk myself on the fact that I can now block them, but I’m not willing to risk anyone else. I need to keep it, Paul. Tell me what I have to give up.”

  “No further contact with the Dragons. I know you can’t totally control that, but no more face to face meetings. If they find you, talk over comm or not at all, whether they like it or not. But I want more than that. Assuming they backtracked you from your meeting with the Preema, that’s still damn good intelligence to find you. We have to do better. I want you to become a ghost along with your Clan. And I want you to learn how to evade them. You have to stay away from them Kara, and we have to begin to prepare to one day fight them. Hopefully we won’t have to, but we have to prepare just in case.”

  “I have to be a ghost from you guys too?”

  “Not in person, but you won’t have our information to access. Same goes for the Monarchs. You’ll have your Clan, which is used to operating outside the relay grid, and you’ll have plenty of standard updates, but on our secret projects you’ll have to be out of the loop. Is that worth keeping the Vorch’nas?”

  “Well I have to for now, otherwise we lose the Rit’ko’sor knowledge.”

  “After that?”

  “I guess I have a lot of thinking to do between now and then. Blackout terms accepted, for the interim.”

  “You understand why this has to happen?”

  “Yeah I do. It’s the right call.”

  “But?”

  “I really do think the Zak’de’ron can be trusted.”

  “How far?”

  “Meaning what?”

  “You said they have a death mark on the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “And?”

  “And they’re going to kill every last one of them. No surrenders.”

  “We’re not their enemy.”

  “Do not expect your allies to treat you any differently than they do their enemies,” Paul warned. “If they are dishonorable with them, expect that dishonor to seep in your direction someday as well.”

  “Well said,” she relented.

  “We’re exposed, Kara. They know almost everything because you know almost everything. We can’t get that back. Might as well get what use you can out of that thing, but we have to be able to do new secret stuff and not let them get access to it.”

  “Totally fair. I created this mess and you guys have to start cleaning it up.”

  “We’ve gained a lot from your Vorch’nas. Jason would probably be dead without it. So worth the exchange. We just can’t allow any more exchanges.”

  “I’m still learning the upgrades, Paul. I’d bet anything they packed it with stuff useful to us.”

  “Then figure it out…in the isolation of your Clan where they can’t get to you.”

  “You’re totally right.”

  “After you help the 1s with the Raptors.”

  “Isn’t that giving me new secrets?”

  “No, that’s you helping to create new secrets. Can’t be helped.”

  “You think they gave me the information this way so that I have to be involved, so they can keep tabs on what the Raptors do through me?”

  “If that’s the case, they’re going to be tracking you at some point. See if you can figure out a way to track them. That’s a permanent order for you. We have to learn to out Dragon the Dragons.”

  “They did give us a badass new sensor tech.”

  “Yeah, and if it pans out there’s a big reason why we might be able to become allies, but would the Dragons permit them to have a security breach where we know everything they know?”

  “Not a chance. They’d probably kill everyone with knowledge just to be sure…” Kara said before she realized what she was saying.

  “And there’s the dishonorable part,” Paul pointed out unnecessarily.

  “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “They’re not Star Force. But I get the feeling they do have some honor in them.”

  “Trust them, Kara. But never trust them.”

  “Yeah. I gotta learn to own this,” she said, hefting her now much more bedazzled left arm.

  “And figure out how we can make our own. Clan RaSeru would especially like that.”

  “That’s a tall order, even with a Mastertech.”

  “Work on it. I like the concept, but we gotta control it. Not an outside power.”

  “Noted.”

  “Now, about this sword.”

  Kara pulled it off her back and handed it to him…with the sphere on the bottom of the hilt immediately glowing blue when she did.

  “What the hell…that never happened before.”

  “Guess it is keyed to me. And the fact that the Dragons have my genetic code is…disturbing. That wasn’t in your memory. They must have sampled it when I met them, or they have access to our computer systems. Either way, not a good sign,” he said, rotating the sword around. “I don’t feel any mental access point.”

  “The blade is super hard. Go ahead, stab the floor.”

  “And damage my ship?” he asked sarcastically, then did as she suggested. The blade sank a couple inches into the hard surface and stuck hard. Paul had to yank twice to get it out, then he examined the blade. “Not a scratch on it.”

  “It’s a weapon, for sure, but not very useful the way we fight.”

  “How about Zak’de’ron Zen’zat?”

  “Not the way they fought either. Seems I’m the last of my breed.”

  “So they’re going to kill the Ter’nat too?”

  “Not if we’re still around. They said they’d give them to us, but the Zen’zat have to die.”

  “And if we’re not around?”

  “We didn’t discuss that.”

  “An ally and a friend are not always the same thing,” Paul said as he worked the sword around, doing a few thrusts and swings. Other than the blue glow on the hilt, nothing happened until he tossed the sword back to Kara.

  “Light’s gone,” she said, catching it in her bare hand. “It’s definitely for you, but what for?”

  “I’ll figure it out,” he said, motioning for her to toss it back. He caught it telekinetically, but the blue didn’t return until he finally make skin contact. “I’d like to keep you around here kicking more ass, but you know where you need to go.”

  “Raptors, aye Captain,” she said with a mock salute. “Thank you for not kicking my ass.”

  “Could I have?”

  “Not unless I allowed it,” she said humorlessly. “Which I would have.”

  “As of now, stop blaming yourself. Using that thing was a gamble, which we both gained and lost from. You keeping it is another gamble, one we are accepting within some limitations. It might come back to bite us, but we have a lot to gain so we’re going for it. As is, we might not last long enough for the Dragons to stab us in the back. If it’s a weapon we can use against the V’kit’no’sat, we’re using it, but we’re also playing the long game. You especially.”

  “So ordered. I’ll figure this thing out or die trying.”

  “And I’ll try and figure this thing out in my spare time,” Paul said, tossing the sword to the ground and telekinetically cushioning it as he walked up to Kara and pulled her into a big hug.

  She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, making skin to skin contact and having a short, but very complex conversation directly mind to mind. When she pulled back she left the observation room without a word, heading back to her ship to leave the system with a single tear in her left eye. It was a mix of sadness and relief…relief at Paul having brushed her screw-up aside, just as Davis had, but sadness at having let her team down so badly in the first place.

 
Paul knew she wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, though using the Vorch’nas was like playing with fire. There were no guarantees, but it was a risk they needed to take.

  When she left he picked up the sword again, unable to make any sense out of it in the short period of time he had before the trailblazer had to get back to war still going on outside the hull of his ship.

  Four weeks later…

  Paul had spent a few minutes every now and then when he had the chance working with the sword. Eventually he had though there might be a way to unlock it through physical combat, so he had gone through many chopping challenges to no avail. The more it defied him the more it intrigued him, for he was literally wasting his time with no results to show for it.

  He didn’t spend long on it, but he couldn’t let it go either, so when he got back from more ground combat he grabbed a shower then picked up the sword in his quarters and swung it around theatrically, doing nothing more than being stupid but not having any idea what else to do.

  “Thundercats, ho!” he yelled, thrusting the sword above his head with both hands. A moment later he brought it down and cradled it in front of him.

  “This weapon is your life,” he said, then switching it to a position that made it look like it was sheathed on his back.

  “You’re about to find out what it’s like to fight a real Super Saiyan…and I’m not talking about Goku…”

  “Sikanda…Brisingr…Gryffindor…where’s the hat when you need it?”

  “Narsil…Glamdring the Foe-Hammer…Saba…Power Sword…Sword of Darkness…Inigo Montoya.”

  “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!” Paul said, jabbing the sword forward, then brought it back up in front of his chest in both hands. “Excalibur, be my strength!”

  Paul never got to his next line, for the sword blade suddenly glowed blue along with the hilt and his mind was flooded with so much information he reflexively dropped the sword, which cut off the mental invasion. It dropped to the ground, not glowing at all, and stared at it for moment, then smacked the palm of his hand against his face.

  “I’m such a dumbass. It’s literally the name of my ship.”

  He picked the sword up again, with only the hilt glowing on contact. “Excalibur!”

  Nothing happened, and Paul whistled his appreciate for the Dragons’ subtlety. “How the hell did you know to program that obscure phrase?” he asked the empty room. “Excalibur, be my strength!”

  Again the sword blade glowed blue and a massive amount of information hit Paul’s mind like a tsunami, but he held firm this time, realizing that the sword was actually a hidden database that he was able to physically link into.

  There was so much information that it couldn’t possibly fit into his mind. His brain literally wasn’t that big, so the sword was allowing him to use it like a second brain…which was why it was such a shock. He immediately wondered about a potential security breach here, but it wasn’t attached to his body…

  Paul let the sword go, then reached out with his mind and toggled the communications panel.

  “Admiral, I need to know if any transmissions are originating from my quarters.”

  “Standby.”

  Paul waited for about 18 seconds, then the Admiral responded in the negative.

  “Nothing except your comm to the bridge.”

  “Search for exotics as well,” Paul said, picking up the sword and flicking the mute button for the mic before saying, “Excalibur, be my strength!”

  He withstood the onslaught as he turned the mic back on. “Anything now?”

  “No, nothing. Is there a problem?”

  “Going to need some construction work done. I need a chamber shielded against all transmissions so I can play around with an artifact of unfamiliar origin. I don’t want it transmitting data, if it’s capable of that.”

  “Something from the Ziviri?”

  “No, it was something Kara brought me. I need that chamber built within a day.”

  “Any particular place?”

  “In the Archon sanctum. And get a fake stone made for the center. With a slot for a sword in it.”

  “Like the Excalibur sword?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I’ll get some designs to you within the hour.”

  “Good. I’ll see you in an hour,” Paul said, cutting the comm and looking at the sword again. He hadn’t had long to interface with it, and he wasn’t going to again until he had that chamber built. If the Dragons thought they could steal his memories the same way they were going to be mistaken…unless they were outside right now and it’d already happened.

  He doubted that, but there was no way to completely discount it. But once inside that chamber the sword wouldn’t be able to get any signals out…assuming the Dragons didn’t have a radically different comm system. Regardless, he was going to explore this, for while he couldn’t remember much of anything now that his second brain was disconnected, he could remember the gist of what was in there.

  Paul smiled secretively as he stared at the glowing blue blade, sensing the significance immediately. “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”

  10

  March 22, 4853

  Axalon System (Pavana Region)

  Turok

  “We have to keep the pack mentality center,” Kara said from the observation platform over the training center where there were literally thousands of tiny Raptors moving about a commons area with various handlers keeping them on task, or at least corralled where they needed to be in the giant indoor park. “Branching off on individual tasks will allow for development, but they’re so wired for group think we can’t go the traditional route without significant genetic reprograming.”

  “That bad huh?” Aaron-010 asked as he and Jace-013 were picking her mind again.

  “From the Zak’de’ron perspective, they’re too small to operate individually and their only use is in unison. Zen’zat were an experiment in a totally different direction, and one not prompted by the Zak’de’ron, but they did their thing with them regardless. Rit’ko’sor are meant to operate with a hive mind short of hindering their individual efficiency.”

  “Expendable troops?” Jace asked.

  “Not quite, but when the Zak’de’ron were gone that’s where the V’kit’no’sat went with them. Ari’tat are far smaller,” she reminded him. “The key to the Rit’ko’sor is the fact that they have decent combat ability individually, excel in groups, and don’t require the same foodstuffs and support facilities as the larger races. They’re a second tier race by design, but one with a purpose. They’re support, through and through, which is why the damage they did in the rebellion was so surprising.”

  “You have knowledge of it?”

  “Yeah. They probably stole most of it from the V’kit’no’sat. I’ve got pretty much everything on the Rit’ko’sor now,” Kara said, leaning on the railing casually as her eyes were on the little ones below and beyond. “We’ve got to do something drastically different with these guys, but I don’t see how we can veer too far off immediately. There’s no way we have enough genetic knowledge to tinker with what the Zak’de’ron set up. Not yet, anyway.”

  “Then we make adjustments through training, not direct genetic alteration,” Aaron concluded.

  “Agreed.”

  “But?” Jace added.

  “When the Zak’de’ron found the Rit’ko’sor they were primitive by comparison, save for their mental development. They were actually smarter then, but viciously self-destructive as a civilization. They killed more of each other than they did their enemies. The Zak’de’ron fixed that problem by constricting their minds with a heavy inclination to protect the group, to serve the group, to think as the group. Their individuality was seen as a threat, and rather than try to retool it they went with the pack model.”

  “So if we try to weaken the pack, we might be unleashing the beast?” Jace asked.

  “That’s my worry. Especially with all
the psionics.”

  “Nuts,” Aaron said, leaning against the rail on Kara’s left.

  “Smarter how?” Jace asked.

  “Deviousness mostly. Savvy manipulators and scoundrels.”

  “Why did the Zak’de’ron want them then?”

  “They were seen as a plague on the galaxy and the Zak’de’ron wanted to turn that headache into an advantage and throw them against the Hadarak. It was deemed an act of great mercy after they attacked a Zak’de’ron world.”

  “They attacked them?”

  “Well, not them exactly. It was one of their servant races outside the V’kit’no’sat. The Zak’de’ron fought to repel them, and that would normally mean the eradication of the attacker, but the Zak’de’ron chose to take a different route with them.”

  “Which is why they had to put some safeguards in place,” Aaron added.

  “Yeah,” Kara said, seeing the little herds moving in unison. Whenever one changed direction the others mimicked it almost instantly, making them look like schools of fish swimming through the short grasses. “If we’re not careful here, we could be creating a very big problem for ourselves.”

  “Do you know what that genetic alteration process was?” Jace asked.

  “I do, but it’s not something that can be deleted now. They’ve developed too much with it in place. The rest of their brain couldn’t function without it any more than you can unbake a cake. We’d have to create a new genetic template from scratch, and that’s too dangerous to attempt with a race this powerful.”

  “So we’re still using the V’kit’no’sat toys rather than creating our own?”

  “I’m open to suggestions guys. My knowledge is of the old. In fact, I’m kind of stuck in it. If there’s an outside the box solution here, I’ll probably be the last to see it.”

  “You’re just the helper anyway,” Aaron said, elbowing Kara jokingly. “This is on us.”

  “What are you thinking about doing?”

  “Working the problems when they arise. So far we’re not seeing any.”

  “It’s early.”