Star Force: Baron (Star Force Universe Book 43) Page 9

  Mak’to’ran went straight to the Elder Conclave and interrupted their ongoing proceedings as he angrily assumed the center pedestal and took control of the massive indoor chamber that held representatives from all the races in the empire.

  “I will say this plainly, so even the dimwitted amongst you can understand. The truce will not be violated. We gave our word. We will honor our word. Any race that violates it will have to deal with me and the Era’tran. If you wish to start another civil war, then by all means attack Star Force before the truce expires. I will guarantee you get one, for I will cull any race that violates the agreement that the empire has made.”

  The vocal response was muted compared to the telepathic crescendo that followed, but Mak’to’ran responded to it with his own emotions, letting them feel just how angry he was.

  “I do not belong here. I belong fighting the Hadarak, yet it seems I cannot rely on you to do anything of merit. We have made a deal. It must be honored. Yet here I am, coming to Itaru to stop you from launching an invasion against my orders. Your incompetence disgusts me. For the first time in our history we have an effective weapon against the Hadarak, and you quibble about inconsequential matters. Star Force is not a threat to us. They wish to be left alone. We only suffer losses when we attack them, and we do so because they do not have our permission to exist.”

  “I will not waste resources on them while we are fighting the Hadarak. I will not waste resources destroying them when they hold a vital key to our war against the Hadarak. Their Uriti are a threat to us, but even more so to the Hadarak. I have struck a deal with them once, I plan to do so again before the end of the truce. If they refuse, then they will be destroyed. But the knowledge they contain is too valuable to just throw away due to ego. The Knights of Quenar attacked us, and if we can identify their location we will avenge our losses, but Star Force did not attack us. Their allies did.”

  “I have a good measure of how they think, and they are defensive. They hate us, but that hate does not manifest itself the same way ours does. They know they cannot defeat us, but they also know that if we fight them we do so on their worlds where they have the advantage. They will hurt us badly, and if we need to suffer that damage in order to achieve our goals, then so be it. But if it is not necessary, I will not allow you to waste our resources and lives to satiate your desire for false dominance.”

  “I say false because we are not dominant. The Knights of Quenar are our equal, if not our superior, in skill and technology. We are superior in might, and the fact that they handed us such an egregious loss rankles you. I, on the other hand, respond by adapting to the threat rather than throwing a tantrum. And even if we did destroy Star Force, we still would not have destroyed the Knights of Quenar. They will still elude us. Destroying them is a priority for us, but it pales in comparison to the Hadarak. And if I can coopt Star Force into helping us destroy them, then I will take that route regardless of how much it offends your false sense of dominance. If we were dominant, Star Force never would have survived to this point.”

  “You know this to be true, and now you want to rewrite history and throw away invaluable tools. The Chixzon were able to alter a captured Hadarak into a weapon of their own. Star Force has knowledge of the Chixzon, from sources we are not aware of. If we destroy Star Force we destroy that knowledge, for they will take it to their graves with them. I can promise you that, for spite is a trait we both share.”

  “We have been fighting the Hadarak for millions of years, yet you only think of this century. My mind is far into the future, and Star Force is an asset that I must bring into the fold. How I will do that is not certain yet, but I will not waste the opportunity because you are shortsighted. If you wish to attack Star Force before the truce expires, you will have to fight me as well, for I will not tolerate this disobedience…even from the Oso’lon,” he said, looking directly at the long necks.

  “I lead the V’kit’no’sat, not the Elder Council. If anyone wishes to change that, step forward now and face me.”

  Mak’to’ran let that invitation hang in the air for minutes that felt like hours, and while there was a lot of bickering and complaining going on, no one, not even the Oso’lon, wanted to directly challenge him.

  “Then this matter is settled. We honor the truce. If I cannot find a way to utilize Star Force prior to that, we destroy them when it expires. As for the Knights of Quenar, we will have to deal with them in another manner…”

  10

  February 3, 4882

  Alamo System (Uriti Preserve)

  Warden 8 Station

  Riley-038 was training onboard his command ship when the priority summons from the Knights of Quenar came in. Normally he was not to be disturbed for diplomatic inquiries, but the KoQ didn’t mess around like the other races did and the fact that they were citing this as high priority was enough for his ship’s captain to interrupt the trailblazer during a swimming workout.

  Riley had left immediately, heading over to the diplomatic station that had a special chamber where he could securely meet face to face with the KoQ without putting their facilities at risk. The technological capabilities of their ally were still not fully known, so it was standard protocol never to let them onboard except for a handful of special cargo bays such as this one.

  There was a large force field separating him from the sole KoQ who stood waiting, with the Human’s hair still mildly wet and his clothing casual. No armor or weapons, but the KoQ knew that Archons had biological ones similar to what they possessed, and while cautious of each other neither really regarded their counterpart as a threat…not here at least.

  “What is it?” Riley asked, stopping a meter from the invisible barrier denoted by a small ridge in the floor.

  “A grave problem,” Ulusal said, one of the few KoQ that Riley had gotten to know by name. “We located another Uriti, but the V’kit’no’sat got to it before we did.”

  Riley’s neutral expression depressed into a scowl. “They have one? Sedated or awake?”

  “They kept it sedated, and we believe they were studying it. We attacked and took it from them.”

  Riley whistled. “Oh, that is a problem.”

  “This is not recent history. It occurred 24 of your years ago. If they saw our actions as a violation of your truce, they would have acted by now.”

  The trailblazer frowned. “24 years? Why have you not brought the Uriti to us yet?”

  “Because we no longer possess it. Our fleet that took it from the V’kit’no’sat reported via courier of the events that took place, but the fleet then disappeared and we had no knowledge of where they were or what happened to them until recently. A single survivor in a slow emergency ship eventually made his way back to us. It was not the V’kit’no’sat that destroyed them, as we had assumed, for they have come after us in our own territory as punishment for our boldness. We were attacked by an unknown race whose technology is the equal of our own. They were waiting in ambush along our convoy route, and none of our ships survived the attack or were allowed to flee.”

  “How did your messenger survive?”

  “Within the star where they dumped our ship debris. They did not know our emergency ship could survive within it. He played dead then limped his way across the stars to one of our remote operating bases with the sensor data that this race, I suspect, wanted to make sure did not survive. They now have the Uriti, sedated, for after the V’kit’no’sat awakened it in response to our assault we were able to resedate it, and the ambush occurred too quickly for us to release it again.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Riley said, slowing him down with a raised hand. “The Uriti was woken…wait, which one was it?”

  “Bulmuthal.”

  “The original?”

  “Yes, and it was truly massive.”

  “And the V’kit’no’sat woke it up in order to deny it to you?”

  “They did. After we drove them out of the system so they could not interfere, we resedated it.”


  “I thought you couldn’t do that without massive sacrifice.”

  “There was a sacrifice, but not as massive as in past history. We have developed better methods of sedation, which we are not prepared to share.”

  “Exactly how big of a fleet did you send?”

  “Large enough.”

  “And you can detect cloaked V’kit’no’sat ships?” Riley deduced, otherwise they could not ensure they were not still around to ‘interfere.’

  “We can. They were not present when we resedated it. They do not know what happened to it. They only found an empty system when we left. The race that stole it from us used cloaking devices that we could not penetrate. This allowed them to ambush us quite effectively.”

  “And you don’t know who it was?”

  “We do not.”

  “And they took the Uriti while still sedate?”

  “We assume so. We have no data on a release, and our carrier vessel was absent when the survivor emerged from the star. We assume they seized it.”

  “Show me this race.”

  The Knight produced a hologram of the battle records, and despite his lack of familiarity with Humans he didn’t miss the facial flinch Riley made when he saw the ‘nest-like’ ships.

  “You have encountered this race before?”

  Riley stared directly into the dog-like face of the KoQ, his gaze imparting lethal intent. “Who else have you shown this to?”

  “You are the first beyond the Knights of Quenar.”

  “Make sure I am the last. This information cannot reach the public or the V’kit’no’sat. This race values their anonymity above all else. They will kill you if even a hint of it comes to their attention, and their spies are everywhere.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Someone I’m not supposed to tell you about,” Riley answered honestly. “I’m going to have to scrub the recordings of this conversation from the station computer, just in case they have a means of accessing it and seeing those holograms. I recommend you not keep them widely available to your own people. If they destroy a ship with that knowledge onboard and recover it, bad things will happen.”

  “Bad things have already happened. Who is this race?”

  “You are familiar with the Chixzon?”

  “Of course.”

  “They are their equivalent from the inner half of the galaxy, also thought to be dead, but not. They are rebuilding in secret, and the fact that they emerged to attack you and steal the Uriti changes a great many things…all for the worse.”

  “We have not been able to find the Uriti. The lead they had is too great, and we have not been able to find any trace of this race, not even a rumor, though our efforts are only beginning. Tell us what you know, for we are already involved.”

  Riley closed his eyes, telepathically interfacing with the station’s computer via a nodule in the ceiling and shutting down the active surveillance in the chamber. He also contacted the station security forces and ordered them to scrub the existing records for him, as well as telling them that the new blackout was intended and not a security breach.

  When he opened his eyes he looked directly into the Knight’s pair, telepathically sharing with him images of what the Dragons looked like, along with images of their ships, confirming that they were the same. He couldn’t penetrate the Knight’s mind, but he could still transmit to him like anyone else.

  “They are called the Zak’de’ron, and you must never let that word be spoken. They created the V’kit’no’sat, then were betrayed by them about a million years ago. They were always superior and uplifted the many races that are now V’kit’no’sat, but they didn’t share everything with them. The V’kit’no’sat believe they were destroyed, but a single Zak’de’ron survived and has been rebuilding their ranks for the past 2 millennia. They have told us they are not yet ready to assist us against the V’kit’no’sat, but their attack on you suggests they may be stronger than they have admitted.”

  “You are their ally?”

  “They wish us to believe so, but in truth we are not after a…recent incident that they are not aware of. They seek dominance, like the V’kit’no’sat, but they prefer to coopt many other races, and did so even before they created the V’kit’no’sat. They are very good friends so long as you do what they want, and the fact that they stole a Uriti from you that they knew was going to us sends a very clear message that they are not our allies. If they thought they’d killed you all, then they wanted to keep this knowledge from reaching us. Do you understand why you cannot allow them to learn of this?”

  “You wish them to continue to believe you are working with them. What have you done for them, exactly?”

  “We accidentally stumbled upon their sole survivor in stasis. We didn’t kill him, so he was grateful. We’ve had a few conversations over the years and they’ve shared some information, but that’s it. They want to remain dead to the galaxy, which is why their attack on you is surprising.”

  “You say their power rivals the Chixzon?”

  “Hard to compare without firm details, but yes, I believe so.”

  “And yet they were defeated by the V’kit’no’sat.”

  “They were ambushed by them. They trusted and were betrayed. I do not think they could have rebuilt so much in such a short period of time…unless they lied to us, which is possible.”

  “Do they possess the knowledge of the Chixzon that you do?”

  Riley bit his lip as he considered that, thinking of Kara’s memory theft. “We can’t rule it out entirely.”

  “So they may be able to command it to do their bidding?”

  “I hope not, but this doesn’t make sense. Something else is in play here.”

  “We are still looking for the other Uriti, as I assume the V’kit’no’sat are. If we do recover another, we risk running into another ambush. Can you tell us anything about their technology?”

  “Unfortunately not much. They’ve been able to sneak up on us without us detecting them. Gravity detection will give them away, so they can’t sneak up on the Hadarak or Uriti, but again that’s us taking their word for it. We’ve had almost no interaction with them. However, anything the V’kit’no’sat know, assume they know it. They’ve got hacks into their communication grid. If you find another Uriti that the V’kit’no’sat do not know about, you might be able to get it back to us before they realize it.”

  “They have shared this knowledge with you?”

  “Yeah, they did, while apologizing for not being able to militarily assist us when the truce ends. I think they’re going to let us and the V’kit’no’sat blast each other’s brains out, then hit them afterward. Supposedly they’re not rebuilt enough for that yet, but them taking you guys out may suggest otherwise. This is bad no matter how you look at it, and it will only get worse if they know we know, which is why you have to hide this information and that of your survivor. Bury it deep. Very deep.”

  “We rarely share anything with outsiders. You are an exception because of your ability to control the Uriti, but these revelations disturb us greatly.”

  “How many ships did you lose?”

  “It will not affect our overall military ability by a significant factor,” Ulusal said, not giving any information that Star Force could use to size up their true strength. “It would have been wise of you to warn us of this threat.”

  “I thought they were hiding out, not making clandestine raids…and for the record, we don’t fully trust you either. And if we weren’t helpful to your agenda, you’d probably be attacking us, so let’s not pretend we’re close friends.”

  “We have no quarrel with you now, nor would we ever so long as you don’t misuse the Uriti. We have trusted you greatly by bestowing them into your care.”

  “Because we are the only ones that can control them.”

  “That may no longer be the case,” he pointed out. “But we are allies, though you do not approve of all of our methods.”

  “That disapproval
could lead to war, you know. We don’t tolerate bad guys, and if we knew more about what you actually did, you might fall into that category.”

  “Your methods are effective, but you do not go far enough in some circumstances. That is why we know you will never be an enemy…and why we will never tell you everything that we do.”

  “And that is why we will never be full allies.”

  “So long as the mission is accomplished, that is acceptable to us.”

  “And what mission is that? The destruction of the Uriti?”

  “That would be one solution, but not the best one. After all the destruction they have ravaged on the galaxy, compensation is a fitting turn of fate. Under your care, they are accomplishing that. And because of your squeamishness, we know you will not go too far with them.”

  “And you need to realize that you are in the wrong. Life is not so cheap as you make it, though I can understand how people can lose their way in the face of such carnage. You, however, have no excuse because you didn’t live through it, or are you far older than I assume?”

  “I did not, but my people did, and we remember. This conversation is pointless, for we will never operate on the same protocols. We do have a new threat to face, and one who now possesses a Uriti and potentially the ability to use it.”

  “If they do, it will not be soon. Hiding a Uriti strike is not easy, and I doubt they are ready to hit the V’kit’no’sat yet.”

  “If that is their true agenda.”

  “It is. We know enough of their history to be sure of that. There is pure hatred there.”

  “Or would they use the V’kit’no’sat to their advantage?” Ulusal wondered. “If they are manipulators, it could be more advantageous than fighting a war with them.”

  “The V’kit’no’sat despise and fear them. I do not think they could openly interact with them. The result would be catastrophic and the V’kit’no’sat would hunt them to extinction…again.”

  “You obviously place some trust in us, or you would not be giving us this information.”