 
## Contingency

Copyright 2014 Florian Nagy

Published by Florian Nagy at Smashwords

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### Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Epilogue

About the Author

Connect

# Prologue

The Earth Defense Fleet's ships zipped around the amassing enemy armada. At its head loomed the oncoming dreadnaught. The Skyrrnian flagship advanced slowly among the intense exchange of firepower. Deadly eruptions of light and destructive energy flashed all over the view screen of the EFS _Vigilante_. From inside, the crew of the now dwindling supply of Earth frigates could see the enemy behemoth. It picked off the fighters who were valiantly trying to hinder its advance by focusing fire on one of its windows or power relays. Unfortunately, the Skyrrnian flagship had blast shutters drawn over almost every sensitive component and was fully prepared for the assault. Its turrets took down the small strike craft like flies.

The flagship was a huge ship, larger than any previously seen in the Skyrrnian fleets. Its large, bulbous anterior section was outfitted with many viewports for its multiple bridges. Scans of the ship had shown a complex interior design, of which almost nothing was understood. There were many points of command, which took control over many simultaneous operations taking place in the battle between the two armadas. Operations on the ship itself and its hangars were controlled from these points. Operations based off of several groups of other large Skyrrnian ships seemed orchestrated from this one hub as well. The entire Skyrrnian fleet seemed to move as one, and the presence of this intense command network seemed to be the key.

The Earth Defense Fleet ran its chain of command in a much more distorted fashion. Whenever a general order was issued and then carried out by a hierarchy of commanders, each commander added his own interpretation to the plan at his specific command level, thus creating a less coherent fleet, which couldn't work in all its possible efficiency.

The flagship had braces moved over almost all its windows (aesthetics was not of importance in a time like this), and its armor seemed layered, with many separate plates covering and reinforcing its hull. Defense turrets bristled at several locations on the side sections of the mass as well as the top, which seemed to flatten out and create a military platform. From a 45-degree angle downwards, the front and side sections of the ship formed rigid walls housing the command windows and hubs. This section abruptly ended to give way to the bottom of the ship underneath. Heavy weaponry protruded from both left and right sides, and multiple clusters of guns could be seen. The center portion of the behemoth was thinner than the rest and had some windows. It was shielded from view by the military platform above it, and was probably used for living space and thus showed no outward details. The aft portion came out of the middle like a triangle. At the top, connected to the military platform, gaped its immense hangar bay which spouted out ships and received crippled ones. It was a center of activity. Earth's attacking ships tried to spearhead an entry but were furiously denied with raging shreds of light emanating from points bordering the massive dock. Skyrrnian ships lingered like an insect cloud in its vicinity. To the bottom of the hangar roared the behemoth's massive engines. A set of eight large cylinders, blasting antimatter, shone palely blue.

Darius looked hopelessly over the remaining defense fleet. His deep-set eyes caught all the forms and shapes of the scene unfolding in front of him. Standing on the bridge of the EFS _Vigilante_ , he could see that only a handful of frigates were left strategically retreating under their mediocre firepower. Only one war cruiser was left; the Earth Defense Fleet's _Aurora III_. It was badly damaged, and its left weapons array all but destroyed. Its aft section was venting blue sparks and bolts from all of its broken power conduits. It was trudging slowly to turn and flee, but was under heavy fire from the majority of the Skyrrnian fleet. Crack after crash came through the communications link, and soon large hulks of seared metal started flying off at violent releases of energy as the contact beams fried off the sections of the ship. The other cruisers of the Earth Defense Fleet that had spearheaded the defense and had taken the brunt of the alien assault were all floating debris and carcasses of metal.

The _Aurora_ would soon share their fate. Its hulk creaked and started the tear under the concussive blasts from the alien flagship and its escort. The end section came off grindingly and erupted in a shower of electric lights that flew off in every direction. Screams were heard through the communication link, and soon the captain's voice came on with a slight hesitation, "...is fleet commander Jerald warren of the _Aurora III_ , I have set a collision course with the enemy dreadnaught. We hope to at most cause a distraction and buy some time for our fleet. The enemy's arrival to Earth must be delayed as long as possible. All our escape pods and fighters have been launched." A crackle was heard in the background, and some muffled voices quickly exchanged alarmed tones, and the captain continued, "...to the rest of the fleet, either delay the onslaught with your lives, or flee for them. I have no contact with the admiral and do not know if he is alive, no beacons respond from the EFS _Adrada_ , and I do not hope for any. I leave you all, choose your fate well, and choose together as one. A few escape shuttles from Earth are already space bound; try to cover their escape if possible."

Darius watched the bulk of the cruiser's front half change course slightly as its emergency side boosters flared. The half of a once proud totem of power, now crippled and punctured, sped up towards the enemy. Its slightly thinner front made it look like a blunt spear slowly trudging toward its target. Unfortunately, the cruiser was dwarfed by the behemoth and—at best—would only cripple it. The behemoth fired a bottom gun that emitted a bright orange glow in a conic projection, right as the cruiser was about to hit it. The cruiser gleamed with heat; the fiery projection seemed to disintegrate the matter in its wake. The EFS _Aurora_ broke apart as it hit the ship. Its bold assault was severely hindered as the ship fell apart, sending large chunks of its metal scratching along the behemoth's surface. The pieces ground up portions of the dreadnaught's armor, and then were sent bounding off along the sides of the ship. There were visible collision marks, and some chambers had become decompressed and refortified with the ship's emergency doors, but overall too little damage had been done: the brunt of the impact had been nullified by the orange beam.

"Captain Targen!" called the helmsman from his station as creaks and groans from the _Vigilante_ 's hull signaled enemy fire. Darius stood there behind the captain's chair. He had stood up during the final stages of the fight.

Is this how the Earth Defense Fleet reaches its demise? It cannot be. Has the Imperium given its last breath? But a few weeks ago we would have been ready to meet and send back those incoming hyperspace trails. How sure we would have been of ourselves. The Skyrrnians had been defeated and left dying on their scrap of a planet, and no other war bands had such hostile relations that they'd attack our home world. How did they come to fight us again so soon? How did they produce such a ship and such technology?

Had the Skyrrnians really been able to produce such an armada in a few hundred years? Their poor and resource-depleted planet had somehow managed to build all this grandeur. The fervor with which they must have worked was incredible, not to mention that they must have been able to construct it all in an undisclosed location, somehow hidden from Man's sensors. Yet it was still physically impossible. They must have been sponsored by another powerful group that had equal motivation to get rid of humanity. Yet who could it be?

There was no time to think now. The billions of lives on Earth would be all but gone. Possibly a few of the renegades being evacuated could survive if given more time. His eyes scanned the battlefield before his eyes. Without voice he motioned his arm forward, and the helmsman, who sadly understood the captain's choice, pushed the engines, sending the EFS _Vigilante_ lunging forward. Another gesture to the weapons officer set all the weapons, creating a dazzling display of light that was meant more as a distraction than an actual attack. Darius quickly reflected on all that had happened. How did it end up in such a mess? The EFS _Vigilante_ met its end in the silence of vacuum as it flew towards the enemy armada. Surely it had to be an unfitting finale. The Earth Defense Fleet, what an ironic name.

# Chapter 1

A bright, shining sun glistened in cold space. Its rays shot out in all directions, bathing all who looked upon it in its uplifting light. A glazed, blue planet looked on it with admiration and dependence. It turned slowly on its axis, and even more slowly around the burning light.

Those rays also came in through thick composite-glass windows set in the walls of the Earth Star Base. They landed on the walls illuminating them in beautiful organic light, giving the ensemble of the base a small contrast to its entirely artificial being.

Aboard the star base, Darius Targen walked down the halls leading to the command center. He had just come back from a call in the far end of the Perseus arm, dealing with aggression against a colony from an independent group of "traders." The raiding party was quickly put down: the traders' small fleet of five ships had been destroyed and the remains salvaged by the colony.

Darius had been notified of a promotion from his rank of commander to one of full-level captain, and he was being assigned to a new vessel. He knew neither the details of his promotion nor of his new task, but he was to be put in command of a newly fabricated frigate chassis ship at the shipyards at Galar. A fresh set of crewmembers was being sent to the location, the recruits ready to start their careers aboard the ship. Oftentimes sets of these new ships with new pilots were put together so the pieces would find it easier to bind to each other, to learn quickly, and to work efficiently. In time these would produce the hardened ships and crews required to sustain Earth's task force.

Darius recalled his long years with the fleet. He had joined the Imperial Fleet at the age of twenty-one, after a brief period of time spent studying the various tactical forms of warfare, the political frame of the galaxy, xenology, as well as ship mechanics and systems. A few of Darius' ancestors had served aboard ships fighting to suppress the last of the Skyrrnian attacks on Earth's colonies. For decades in the second half of the fourth millennium, the Skyrrnian fleets had relentlessly attacked all human establishments. By making sure not to let their raids become too widespread, they had always just barely tottered on the brink of open war.

The decision was then made to counter the attack instead of only defending and supporting vulnerable systems. The Earth Imperial Fleet launched a massive offensive on the Skyrrnian worlds. The Skyrrnian marauders were not equipped for square, sustained battle, and so even with the combined force of their recalled fleets, they were unable to fend off the Imperial attackers. All of the Skyrrnian outposts in the local sector of the Sagittarius Arm, near the human colonies, were razed. The Skyrrnian expansions were then put down.

The Skyrrnians did not colonize and develop an infrastructure for their developing empire. Their form of existence was one of migration. From the time before they roamed the stars they had been raiders and nomads. As they developed into a new level of existence, they found it hard to separate themselves from their old ways. As a result, they had scattered their outposts and bases around their area, but had never taken the time to instate proper, coordinated habitations. They controlled only a handful of planets and moons, most of which were left to fend for themselves, with no notion of a whole.

As a result, after the fragile network of outposts fell, the Skyrrnian colonies were unable to put up much resistance. The population on these planets was not even entirely Skyrrnian, and with no loyalty to a whole, they were easily assimilated. The feudal-like shards of people here and there did not have the interest to bind to their own and were easily separated from the Skyrrnian sovereign territories. As had been done before, people were removed from the planet. In order to ensure that there would be no further aggression from the defeated peoples, some were taken and spread around the empire, and used to assist in labor on newly colonized worlds. Most of all, however, these people served precious roles on mining bases found on barren moons and asteroids.

In time, measures were taken so that the servile population dwindled and all but disappeared. It was a long held belief of most of the people of Earth that an enemy is never truly defeated until every single member has disappeared.

In times when the beings in question were not even genetically related, the matter became of utmost importance: they had to be hindered from prolonging the existence of their genes. Over generations, regulations straining the creation of new alien members and their livelihood worked to expunge all foreign genetic material. With this decrease, the need to oversee the captured population also decreased.

When the fleet had removed all of the Skyrrnian planets, it advanced on the Skyrrnian world itself. The world would have been put to waste, and not too many of its people spared, were it not for the collective outcry for mercy.

The citizens of the Earth's Imperium had been pulled quite far. Taking the necessary means to ensure an aggressor was put down was hard to accept for some, but it was bearable. To obliterate the legacy of an entire people, however, seemed entirely inhumane and weighed much more heavily on them than it had a thousand years ago. Protests had begun in many systems and threatened to lash at the stability of the Imperium. In order to ensure peace and to avoid any unnecessary conflict, the rulers had struck a compromise.

The Imperial ships stormed the two remaining Skyrrnian orbital bases left in its home system and destroyed any additional orbital facilities. The only things spared were a few miners in the local asteroid belt and the urban structures and population of the scrap of planet itself. A generous portion of the population was removed to serve the Imperium. A strong occupational force was deployed on the planet to oversee all of the Skyrrnian affairs. All actions carried out, especially those in relation to the space mining operations, were under the most watchful eyes of the Imperium's best men.

As freighter after freighter carried off the Skyrrnian population, so that the few that would be left would remember to change their pitiful ways, the Skyrrnians' hearts turned to stone, and they vowed revenge. Their coarse minds already began molding plans from their grudges: in secret meetings they plotted and planned against their invaders.

And now, well over three hundred years later, Targen remembered with pride the overwhelming power he felt in the ships that flew around him. The Imperium was strong, the Imperial Fleet was strong. Humankind had assured its place among the stars. It could pass judgment upon others and take a hand in influencing and deciding the fate of its ambient cohabiters. He had always worn the Earth Imperial Fleet insignia with pride.

He walked down the last few steps of the gray corridor leading to the double doors of the command center, his dress shoes softy padding on the floor. He looked at the silver-gray lining on the walls and door and into the insignia carved onto the door: Earth Star Base Command. He moved his hand across the pad sticking out from the door. "Welcome, Earth Imperial Fleet, Command Section, Commander Darius Targen" the automated computer responded in a deep, digital male voice. The doors clicked a moment then proceeded to slide apart and allow him to enter into the Earth Star Base Command room. Darius quickly stepped inside. The room was shaped like a spacious hemisphere and was very large. It did not seem to be subject to the volume/efficiency ratio that the rest of the station was. _If you're the boss, who's there to stop you_ , Targen thought to himself.

The room had a thick walkway all around the perimeter that allowed for a decent number of people to move around freely without actually being a part of the activity in the central hub within. Going down a short and shallow set of steps set in six places around the ring would bring you to a middle circle full of rows of chairs and hubs of monitors and processors, as well as to three holographic display stations. By going down another shallow set of steps, you came to an inner circle dominated by an enormous holographic display and a single set of seats. By default, that display was set to show the beautiful Earth as it was slowly spinning on its axis. High above the heads of the people, there was a glass dome, and above that the dark of space could be seen. The command center was located at the apex of the star base and so, because the top was transparent, one could look out freely into space. The hangars and docking bays were situated on the cubic, bottom layers of the base.

Darius started towards the nearest set of stairs when, from across the bustling set of officers and high ranking crew, the admiral greeted him. "Targen!" He shouted, "This way, Station seven!" A bit amazed that the admiral knew him by name, he followed the call. The admiral was sitting beside a few fleet commanders and captains. The vice admirals were nowhere to be seen. Darius strode over to the men and saluted them.

"Commander, you must already know why I have summoned you."

"Yes, sir."

"I have received many commendations for you, and in reviewing your file I have no objections to the promotion. You've done good work and been with us a good seventeen years." The admiral finished as he glanced over the report.

"Our production facilities at Galar have been producing more and more ships than we are currently able to commission into use, and I am happy to immediately present you with your own ship and crew. Recent growth in recruitment has created entire new sets of men and women ready to serve on new ships and bases. These people are able to expand our force of influence exponentially. We need capable captains, and even more capable fleet commanders to ensure these people will reach their potential. These new ships and crew are not patched with veteran officers, so we need strong captains to work closely with their officers to lead our ships to a healthy and law-abiding expansion. You are an experienced candidate and have been a part of both armed and peaceful resolutions of conflict. Based on four recommendations and backed by the power of the EIF, I grant you the full rank of captain in command of the ship EFS _Vigilante_. You shall report to the Galar space facility in two weeks. Thank you," the admiral concluded with a smile.

The various people at the stations immediately around them looked up from their tasks and gave hearty applause. Targen couldn't resist, and let out a smile. The admiral and the fleet commanders were discussing something, he muttered a few finishing words to them and moved to say something to Darius. "Targen, your first order is to join a flotilla forming around the Tyrll Colony. A small strike force is being assembled to deal with raider activity in the area. You will find your detailed orders waiting for you so you can get to work, good luck!" The admiral shook his hand heartily, his gray hair standing firmly as a complement to his deep, powerful eyes.

Darius thanked the admiral with a quick and polite bow and turned around to exit the command center. Before he left, Darius watched the man return to his previous duty alongside the other men. One man gave a short speech while gesturing towards something displayed on the screen. He concluded his announcement with a deciding tone and then lowered his hand in a closing gesture.

Darius had a few days shy of two weeks to do what he liked. There were many consoles available on the upper level for personal use, and he took one of these to check for Earth-bound flights. Because he was so close to home, he thought he should visit it again.

# Chapter 2

Ten days later, Darius left on a passenger cruiser bound to the colonies in Sector 02 of the Centaurus arm of the galaxy. In the area beside the galactic center, rich resource abundant planets had been converted into the hubs of the EIF's industry. Among these starbases, production planets, and asteroid mines, there loomed the orbital facilities at Galar. These were, to date, the largest arrays of versatile production capacity in the empire. A significant amount of ships were fabricated at this base, along with dozens of kinds of equipment and processed materials.

Large cargo, materials, and passenger transport cruisers traversed the length and width of the Imperium at enormous speeds, stopping only briefly at each major planet. Cargoes of every kind were transported between planets aboard these carriers, and due to their large size only a handful had to exist in order to effectively connect all the planets in the empire. These also had small passenger decks where shipless members of the fleet, workers, and all classes of citizens alike could be carried about towards their destinations in the vast regions of human space. Darius boarded such a cruiser on its outward run from the small strip of stars —that included Earth— in the Orion Arm to the massive clusters that skirt the center of the galaxy. The cruiser left Earth on its way towards this central hub, across the Sagittarius arm, and into Sector 01, the first portion of the Centaurus arm.

The massive Galar battlestation shone brightly against the blackness around it. Since the recent explosion of industry in the system and its dozens of mineral rich moons, military tensions in the area had increased tenfold. Ameerian renegades, Rekked Imperialists, and anonymous pirates had been trying to feed off the smaller cargo ships coming to and from the orbital shipyards. The construction of the massive battlestation was a reminder to all the space-faring cultures of the area that mankind was not a presence to be trifled with.

The massive fleets' birthing place was by no means an abandoned nest. Made up of hundreds of kilotons of heavy metal, the enormous structure stood as a silent guardian affirming the human race as the presiding military and economic power in the galaxy. Every member of the Earth Imperial Fleet felt immense pride when wearing its dark uniform and insignia. The symbol cast upon the emblem stood out proudly. It showed a disproportionately large frigate with _EIF_ clearly marked over its hull flying across the globe.

In all of mankind's expedition across the stars a few other sentient beings had been discovered, but due to the inert incompatibility of genetics and raw culture, cooperation had been useless. As isolation became more and more difficult to achieve due to constant expansion, conflict sprang out of every corner. Each race that rose from its sphere was ready and fighting to secure itself in its second home. The genetic drive to succeed against one's competitors increased tenfold when the competitors fought not for themselves alone but for the very essence of their branch of evolution and life. And so, everywhere that the empire's ships ventured, they were met with conflict. Enormous amounts of resources were consumed in pointless squabbles fought almost for the virtue of conflict itself. The pioneers of the new age met warfare at every corner and were as much soldiers as explorers.

As the empire grew, however, so did its military. Campaigns and organized attacks were made possible with developments in communications technology and increases in fleet sizes. Colonies were properly secured, and raiders thinned out. Large-scale construction put starbases into the orbits of planets. Silent but deadly sentinels stood guard over the homelands while the fleets ventured outwards.

After several hundreds of years of turmoil with all the outside forces, conflict had been inscribed in the minds of Earth's people. The original goal of peaceful expansion had been forgotten, and the people's minds had become bloodthirsty. And so, with defenses secured and enemy advances put down, Earth's campaign fleets ventured outwards on a warpath. In the Earth Year 2789, the Imperium had been founded. All ships wore an EIF marking as they flew out to the colonies of man's only neighbor in the Orion arm.

In what is now called year 0 of the Imperial Date, human ships battered against the species known as the Ghenim. The centuries-old grudge had been settled in the course of a few months. The fleet arrived at a planet or moon, stripped the facility of its valuables and destroyed it, and then bombarded the planet. The primitive, antimatter atmospheric missiles were used to destroy large military and industrial sites, and left nothing standing. The extraordinary power of these warheads flattened cities. After a planet had been crushed, freighter ships were landed on the surface, along with troop escorts, to ensure a smooth operation.

The denizens of these crumbling worlds rarely lifted a finger in retaliation. All valuable materials were taken from the planet. The rare materials were loaded onto the freighters and shipped off. Fleets of these cargo ships came and left, taking all the planets' wealth away. Large carriers then returned these materials to the heart of the young Imperium. After everything of interest had been seized from a planet, it was prepared for decimation.

High-yield bombs containing precisely arrayed highly unstable materials created an effective death recipe. Several of these warheads were launched onto the planet, immediately filling the air with intense radiation. Ambient temperatures peaked, and the planet was swept clear of its life. The few colonies of the Ghenim expanse received this treatment—except for two. These were deemed materialistically superior, and colonized. By the end of the assault, not one member of the enemy was alive, and the attackers' insatiable hunger seemed appeased. In retrospect, those events served for many foreign policy decisions of the new empire: the people were mitigated and did not want to be quite as merciless in the future. Deep moral conflicts would weigh on some people for a long while.

Under the new Imperium, it was heavily stressed that punishment must never be delivered without due cause. Even when it was, such extreme measures were never reached again. In that millennium, mankind had proven over and over that it was a force to be reckoned with and that any offense would be swiftly and duly punished.

Yet, small parties looking for opportunities were always searching the empire for vulnerable targets, and so military installations were built around every object of value. It was no wonder that such a large guardian was placed around the garden of Galar.

The Rekked Empire had lingered in this center. It had proven itself to be one especially vehement enemy for the humans. In Earth's Year 3486, the Emperor Terryk had had enough of human expansion into the stars around him and had declared war. The space armada had been unleashed, and any and all Rekked ships had been either broken apart on sight and scrapped or carried into carriers to be refitted at the nearest starbase into more ships of the EIF. The war had raged on only a few years, with many of the outlying Rekked stars surrendering almost immediately. They had been spared completely and given independence. As the Rekked armadas continued to shrink, more systems surrendered to mankind's onslaught, with a few planetary bombings becoming necessary.

In the year 3490, the Rekked homeworld, Trellak, was stormed and the emperor's flagship neutralized. The ship was boarded and the emperor taken prisoner. The emperor was executed and the empire dissolved.

In the empire's stead a republic was created for the Rekked colonies. A large assembly of rulers over each planet met, with a human chairman presiding over all actions.

In order to inhibit the development of any effective military or industrial force, the system of government imposed upon the Rekked population was a democracy. This would assure that the people would never come to one strong objective that they could collaboratively achieve. It was taken care of that there would always be dissent and opposing forces working against each other. Without a way to effectively combine people's efforts into one task, the Rekked population fell into an array of semi completed, useless enterprises. They were broken as a whole.

A slow-moving and slightly corrupt democracy was created out of the old Rekked Empire. A human manager ensured things always ran their course while turning a friendly face to Earth. This was a crippling blow to both the power of the Rekked Empire and its pride. Many planets had been left untouched, but now they were spread over a quadrant of the galaxy, leaderless, and with an extensive board of men making their choices. This group was far away and wholly unconnected with them.

Any production of a military force of ships or movement of such ships could never be carried out and was always lost in an endless maze of bureaucracy and indecisiveness. No one had the power or authority to do anything, and so, slowly, power was sapped away from capitals of the old empire. The once mighty industrial centers remained unsupplied. Shipyards grew quieter and quieter. Few shipping lanes were active, and so each planet became involuntarily more and more independent until the New Rekked Republic was all but gone.

A democracy is a heavy form of government, and the only way that mankind had advanced to its current magnitude was through a set of wise rulers having ultimate power and appointing the right successors and wisely moving their fleets through all enemy lines. If at the whim of the public choice of hundreds of worlds, rulers would have to contend with the divergence of trillions of people. The entire collective would amount to nothing, and the groans and cries of the galaxy would fade into an irritating drone.

Although thousands of years ago it may have been possible to have a single person with a board of officials making all the decisions of a small empire, the current size of Imperium required a new form of government. Though not a direct empire, a set of rulers had control over sections of the empire and had full authority over what concerned their areas of influence. Together, the handful of people served as one entity: the emperor of mankind.

This was Collective Gov. In the current Imperial Year 1198 (Earth's Year 3987), there was a collection of sixty-three governors ruling over sections of the Orion, Sagittarius, and Perseus arms as well as small parts of the Norma-Outer Arm and Scutum-Crux Arm of the Galaxy. Each governor served until the age of sixty or until they were taken down from their position by receiving ten or more demerit votes from their peers. In a session where all the governors met either in reality or by neural-image transfer, the faults of the governor in question were reviewed and discussed.

The rulers formed an official objection, and the impeachment was carried out immediately. The official was taken to a detention facility for life. This facility on Earth was by no means uncomfortable; it included all the facilities that were available to any citizen, free of charge. The man or woman led a very good life until his or her death. However, this precaution was not made in vain. The person was kept under strict supervision so that he or she could cause no upheaval. Media access was unlimited to the person but interaction and input were fully monitored and censored.

To ensure maximum impartiality in the appointment of new governors, the rulers were not allowed to have children. Producing an heir entailed an immediate withdrawal from office. In the few cases that this problem arose, all contact between the governor and his or her child was severed in the detention facility.

The induction of a new ruler in the Imperium was carried out by the existing governors as well as the top ranking members of the EIF. There was always a confidential stand-by list of potential candidates. These were people who had proven their worth with either the EIF, the ITN (Imperial Trade Network), or through various accomplishments worthy of recognition. People were weeded out, and their histories reviewed for qualities required of a ruler. The governors met once every two years to update this list. Each person's file was reviewed by five members of the group, and all five had to accept that person for them to be added to the active roster. When a governor aged out of his position or was removed by other means, or when a new sector required a governor, the governors met by neural image with the admiral and vice admirals of the EIF to appoint a new member. Several criteria were taken into account such as the person's familiarity with the area in question and his or her background, but above all counted proven capability. The governor had to have had something that had made them able and competent. New governors were given a two year trial period, after which most remained in their positions, but some were removed.

In addition to these rulers of general affairs, in terms of fleets, ships, and war, the admiral and vice admirals of the EIF carried immense influence. The admiral held the power of the fleet in his own hands. If he gave a movement order, the only security against a truly insane move was the combined objection of all four vice admirals. The admiral could then be disposed of, and only if two thirds of the governors conceded with such a motion. The assembly of rulers would then choose a new leader of the fleet from the four vice admirals.

Various fleet commanders moved squadrons of ships and worked together with captains to create plans for current tasks. The higher levels of command dealt with all manner of shipping routes, passenger ships, public ships, and fleet distribution and usage. The governors of the partitions of the empire were not wholly disconnected with warfare. Thus they were sometimes involved with the EIF members in matters dealing with their area or its surroundings.

# Chapter 3

Jerald Warren reclined in the seat of an odd, little, antique café tucked away in the corner of the Galar Space Facility's entertainment level. He pondered the defeat the Rekked had suffered. The empire that had stretched across myriads of stars now was reduced to a collection of rogue systems. They contained people who shared the same genes and language but nothing else. It was no wonder that the new Rekked Imperialist upstarts took it upon themselves to reform the Rekked Empire under a new banner with one goal: the destruction of all things human. The funny yet tragic side effect was that the Rekked Republic was required to outlaw these rebels and destroy them as if they were enemies. With both the EIF and Rekked Republic ships on their tails the Rekked Imperialists didn't stand a chance to establish any foothold anywhere. They were far from reinstating their once glorious empire.

In contrast to the Rekkeds, stood the Ameerians. This species was at an uneasy peace with Earth, yet unlike other peoples before them, understood logic. What could be the use of fighting a battle you couldn't win? The official standings between the Imperium and the Ameerian Federation were peaceful. The Ameerian Federation occupied several systems and conducted their affairs almost entirely independently of the galaxy around them. Their people were content and had not suffered under any major war, yet their jurisdiction was grimly defined and did not expand. They carried out trade and relations with the areas around them and existed alongside their large neighbor. A few renegade detachments from the government, however, used stolen ships to antagonize the Earth Imperium. They kept up a resistance they felt was due to such an intrusive neighbor.

The huge Galar battlestation had instated the power of the EIF in the area. Long-range concussive missiles had the ability to seek out and destroy frigate class ships. Close range batteries of every weapon available loomed over the extensive shipyards in orbit as well as on the cruisers and cargo vessels bringing in materials to the planet.

Communication between races was made possible by speaking into a recorder, which took speech and coded it into a set of data bites that formed a universal form of language. It included most of the basic forms of dialects from many languages, alien or human, with their words and their meanings.

This code had been built at a collective assembly that included all the known species in the galaxy.

The few peoples who existed had such different languages that communication was impossible. This had made early contact almost unworkable other than through the communication of simple ideas through actions and pictures. In the year 2673 of the Earth date, an assembly had been held on a Rekked starbase. Top linguistics and diplomats of all the peoples had come together to work out a code system that could work with and include all of their languages. At first the things common to all species had been slowly worked out through pictures, displays, and signs. From this point, the language had been built up.

It incorporated some words not existing in many of the languages (thus giving some languages a bit of difficulty assimilating these words, because they had to first be described using a series of other words existing in their own language). In a matter of months, an almost complete system had been worked out for all communication purposes. All computer software had been updated to make the connection between written and spoken language and this universal code. Now, whenever cross-species communication was desired, one could speak to the computer, and it would turn the speech into universal code and then send it to the other ship. The other ship would then have _its_ computer speak the words out or display them in its own language.

Jerald looked up as an attractive woman in EIF uniform came with his order. He had selected a taste of home: black coffee made with Earth coffee beans. He did not know exactly where or on what landmass they had been grown, but that really didn't matter. They were organic, and they were genuine. The small shop in the corner of the entertainment deck had an Earth theme and served Earth delicacies, albeit for quite a price (Earth produced goods had to be shared among an entire empire). The establishment even boasted human waiters. Nowadays only the highest tier of restaurants would spend money to employ human waiters and waitresses.

This little café incorporated the waiters into its atmosphere in order to strongly mimic Earth's more rustic areas. He thought about all the automated little mess halls that abounded in space. Little ration packs contained all the food one needed. The food was highly compressed and did not provide much in terms of taste. Space was practical, not luxurious.

He leaned back as the woman walked back towards the shop's display wall. She walked behind the long counter that loomed in front of the vivid advertisement displays, checked something on the desk, and headed toward a door further inwards. He watched the doors slide back and obstruct his view of her.

He sipped his coffee and looked though the modest window at his side at the green clouds over Galar. The slow, calm marshy surface gave the impression that it was one giant rainforest, bounding with life. His destroyer class ship, the EFS _Antioch_ , was in for an ion cannon refit, and he had a two week break along with the entire crew. He had spent the last several years in ceaseless proximity to this planet and its industrial boom. It grew dearer and dearer in his heart, and he looked on it with the same joy as he did on the images of Earth. The green surface had slight swirls of darker colors on it that seemed to teem with life. The planet was extremely rich in minerals, and the gases in the atmosphere contained rare compounds used in the synthesis of many materials.

Warren finished his coffee, smiled, and got up to spend some more time on the entertainment deck. He strolled down the walkway through the various entertainment stations. Some were quite attractive, but others he deemed as places fit only to kill time. Sport-like arenas were the central attraction, with games such as zero-g basketball (where one would jump around a three-dimensional environment to shoot a small ball into a series of small holes). There were also several gravity-using sports from cultures all over the galaxy.

Another attractive game was a zero-g battle simulation. A slightly moving arena filled with debris and obstacles served as a stage for two teams to compete in a mock fight. They had to position themselves in such a way that they would be able to surround their enemies under their cover. A wide range of tactics emerged from flanks to direct assaults on groups of people behind large obstacles serving as walls. Every person "shot" by the fake guns was removed by a series of clamps on the walls that reached out to grab him and pull him out of the simulation. That was Jerald's favorite game. A two-dimensional version existed of the game as well, which consisted of gravity and a floor, but tactics took on a fuller array of possibilities and difficulties in three dimensions.

Another warlike attraction was the shooting ranges with all sorts of weapons. Modern energy guns, hand-thrown objects, and antique Earth firearms operated by combustion could be shot at static or moving targets. The plethora of options attracted a wide array of people to come and unwind.

The large, open space resonated with noise and cheer as people talked and laughed. Jerald even managed to spot a few families among the mass. This was truly an odd sight among the space-bound portions of humanity. Life was so volatile and homes so temporary that keeping a family together was nearly impossible. There were speculations that the unnatural gravity provided by the powered floors created slight growth distortions in children.

Aside from the speculated psychological and physical effects that living in an artificial enclosure had on developing minds and bodies, life in space simply was not geared for minors. Space was with purpose; there were no schools or playgrounds, there was only machine after machine after machine. Trade, exploration, research, curiosity, defense, and even attack were the reasons why man lived among the stars. The natural cycle of life was almost always carried out by land-bound people or by men and women who had tired of the void of space and who wanted to give it up for rough ground under their feet and atmosphere in their lungs. The environment of a planet-side colony was immensely different from that of a space station.

Jerald turned to a holographic display on his right. The antique holovision cinema was replaying an old classic film he had greatly enjoyed the last time he had seen it. Jerald took a keen interest in holographic productions and had seen many in his life.

In contrast to those classics, the modern method of neural-image transfer allowed immersive plot and experience, what had once been "film" then "holofilm," was delivered directly to the senses. One would experience the story firsthand, as if one were standing there, amidst the action. One could be a bystander, or even part of the action. The line between virtual game and virtual film had blurred out. The experience was an immersive, sense-replacing experience, as if one could live in another life. People could control the outcomes of what they observed. This had created great distractions, and people oftentimes abused this gateway away from the harshness of reality.

Jerald, however, preferred to be master of his own life and to leave it so: amusements were amusements. He thus took interest in holofilm productions. He had heard of the times when there had been only three dimensional display cinemas available and wondered what life would have been like. "Much more rustic, probably" he almost said out loud.

The holovision cinemas were rare, and he thought he would enjoy a little film from the past. He went to the ticket booth and scanned his hand, "Welcome, Earth Imperial Fleet, Military Contact Section, Senior Captain Jerald Warren," the standardized EIF voice said. Jerald asked for entrance to the film and had the fee deducted from his funds with the EIF.

The doors opened with a slide, and he went inside to sit down in front of the image. Several seats were arranged to one side of the little rectangular box that projected the image. A few were full, but such old sport had been left long ago by the mass of the population. He took an empty seat and sat down. Behind him a dark haired man, slightly aged, with sharp facial angles and a well built structure, swiped his hand at the very same console, "Welcome, Earth Imperial Fleet, Command Section, Captain Darius Targen."

# Chapter 4

The recording was of an old historical-fiction movie. It was set in the days before matter–antimatter reactors had been made stable and small enough to be placed on starships. There had been no way to provide bursts of violent power strong enough to create folds in space and to send ships cruising at near light speeds, with trajectories through the folds resulting in overall speeds much faster than that of light.

The film was from the time when men had to use nuclear powered engines to zip around their own home star, bravely exploring Mars, Jupiter, and the rest of the celestial bodies. Frontier colonies had been set up on the worlds that could provide some sort of resource, such as Jupiter's moons Titan and Ganymede and even Europa for its significant water deposits.

This story told of an expedition to the moon Titan. The introduction began, and a science team prepared to leave the Jupiter station as it slowly orbited the massive giant. The few fans in the room enjoyed the thrill of not being able to interact with or change the film. The story swept them up and took them were it willed. Unlike the neural-image transfer entertainment, you would have to be exposed to elements you might not particularly enjoy.

The story evolved, and the moon began giving off anomalous transmissions. The team advanced into a cave system on the moon and was amazed to find alien technology inside. Upon analyzing it, they discovered that it was recent and that an alien species was dealing with the affairs of mankind. Through heroic sacrifice they were able to sabotage the alien installment and the alien ship. The film closed with the heroes returning to their orbital base, grieving the loss of some of their comrades.

"I'm glad they still have these; all virtual reality stories take all the 'reality' out of a story," Jerald muttered to the man who had stood up from his seat to the left. "A tale does not have to end exactly the way you want it to. You give it credit for the journey and the telling."

The man responded calmly, "I guess it's more of a thrill if the person experiencing it feels important, and has control over his surroundings. Everyone has it in their blood to be egocentric and bend the world to their will; unfortunately, we can't do that in the real world. That's why we've got neural-transfer: to create an entirely new existence, one where we are the masters, where we are in control, one directly inside of our brains."

"Well yes, I guess everyone looks for something different in entertainment," Jerald responded thoughtfully.

"Yes, and the masses do prefer to feel significant. If afraid the era of holovision is a dying one," the stranger chuckled.

"I'm sorry if I was imposing, I'm quite a fanatic."

"Don't worry, so few nowadays take the time to go back into history and tradition that it is nice to meet another who cares about these things."

"Glad. Jerald Warren." He reached out his hand with a _bonne homme_ smile on his face.

"Darius Targen; glad to meet you." Darius shook the other man's hand heartily. "Do you work here on Galar Space Facility?"

"No, but I'm always in the vicinity, my ship is in the docks for a tune-up. What brings you here?"

"Wow, a captain; I'm here myself to report to my first term of command," Darius replied lightheartedly.

"Ahem," Jerald cleared his throat with a smile, "Senior captain. I've been with the EIF for quite some time."

"My apologies," Darius said with a very slight bow. Just then, Jerald's wrist attachment gave him a pulse. "Excuse me, I have to go," he quickly said.

"It was a pleasure meeting you," Darius quickly replied, then bade him farewell. He lingered tentatively a moment later at the exit of the display room, then in rapid strides left the room and was lost in the crowd.

After spending a few days in the threadbare living compartments of the Galar Space Facility, Darius was glad to be on his feet again. The day had come for him to report to his newly fabricated vessel. He checked his wrist attachment for details and was reminded that the _Vigilante_ was being held in Docking Bay E-59.

He ate his first meal from the small, rectangular container it came in. The corners were smoothed out for aesthetic and practical use, but other than that the box was quite volume efficient. The meal consisted of a standardized thick substance, with an additional fruit or vegetable and vitamin and mineral supplements. The substance was viscous and contained a thorough mixture of proteins, carbohydrates, and amounts of all vital components to a human diet. The addition of one or two vegetables or fruits gave a small pinch of luxury to a meal that would be otherwise extremely miserly. The supplemental pills gave the finishing touch, which guaranteed all people living in space-bound facilities would be well fed and energized.

Darius proceeded to seal his handbag and turned around to check his bedding and storage unit for anything he may have forgotten. Convinced he had all his belongings, he turned and left the housing section and proceeded towards the internal transport. He walked briskly past several tight, densely populated hallways. People were busy at every station available; chatter filled the air and reverberated through the walls. His path took him to a large, open space where several pods were coming and going. Each transport stopped briefly at one of several docking locations, displayed its destination, waited briefly for all members to board, then brusquely shut its doors and sped away. These transport pods were flying in several directions, some fell straight downwards towards the space station's docks, some flew upwards to the industrial area, some carried passengers left, right, or deeper into the station.

The area abounded with activity as people entered, left, or stood by the terminals. Darius quickly scanned the displays for a transport to the docking area and spotted one towards his right. After a few minutes wait, the transport arrived and he stepped on board. A few other people shared the pod with him. Among them, none were too remarkable. All wore the tinted black uniform of the EIF. Some had two large parallel lines coming down across each half of the body. The color of these two lines on the upper part of the uniform provided easy identification of the wearer's specialization. Two gray lines represented the industrial and fabrications sector, two blue lines represented general engineering, two dull red lines represented the military sector, and two white lines symbolized the combined scientific corps.

The pod left the station and zipped along its line. Although Darius had boarded it upright, its line had bent and was now horizontally positioned in front of them. The pod moved forward with its tip lying flat. The people inside, however, were still standing normally. They were kept in place by means of the powered floor, even if compared to the rest of the station they were standing horizontally.

The transport's voice came out into the pod. "Arriving now at Docks: Sections D, E."

A few moments later the pod came to a rest, and the doors slid open for the people to exit. The diverse mass quickly left the pod and then scattered away in all directions. There were large, metallic floor bridges that spread out in all directions like one large spider's web. The wide black metallic beams occupied all space in three dimensions, to large distances around the terminal. There were platform movers that allowed people to quickly access the areas they intended to reach. They moved back and forth as well as up and down, intertwining the sprawl beautifully. Darius pulled up a map on his wrist attachment and had it magnified through the device's holo-projector into the space in front of him so he could get his bearings. He easily located the -E- cluster of docking bays and searched for the fifties. He eventually found Group E-59 and started walking. His shoes made loud strikes on the plates beneath him, so he trod more lightly. He made his way up and down, across the maze of metal, and after some time reached his destination.

E-59 housed a handful of ships, all arranged side by side outside the reinforced glass barrier. The metal walkway he was moving along was the last area inside the atmosphere-filled zone. Each ship had a walkway extended directly to its entrance. The ship itself was firmly bound to the dock but remained outside, in the vacuum of the outer dock. A strong connector kept the ship's entrance in alignment to the walkway from the atmosphere zone.

The wall that separated the two zones was thick, yet through glass gave generous views of the outside dock. Data and dock controls were transferred automatically between the connectors and beams that doubled as communication paths and as supports. Darius advanced to the gateway marked E-59.4 and entered his information at the panel under the small screen on the right side of the connector. He swiped his hand, and the computer recognized his identity. "Welcome Captain Targen," the screen displayed, and after a few moments the door unlatched and slid apart, revealing the ship's interior. The inside would be empty; he was the first one to arrive.

# Chapter 5

The ship seemed to glisten from the inside. Every corner, every display on its walls was brand new and seemed to shine with pride and vitality. Darius stood amazed for a moment before setting foot inside. His first footfall made a pronounced tap against the ship's hard floor. He thought a moment about the irony of a momentous footfall, when in reality it was entirely produced by the artificial gravity aboard the Galar station.

He then proceeded to enter the ship and run his hand slowly against one of the cool, metallic alloy walls. The wall's composition seemed hard yet somehow elastic, as if it swayed under his hand. Yet when he pressed harder onto the wall, he was met only with cold resistance. After being caught a few moments longer in admiration, he proceeded to walk down the hallway and make his way toward the ship's bridge. The ship was an Imperial frigate and so not too large, yet it took him a bit over a minute to reach his destination. He turned a few corners and took a lift to the bridge level. The size of the vessel was still astounding. It would require fifty people to effectively run the ship, and a fifth of a crew was always brought along in case of replacement, and to facilitate shifts. Alongside him, sixty members of the EIF would now forge their marks in space. A sense of majesty dawned on Darius as the doors to the bridge opened.

He entered the bridge and gazed upon all its components. They were all gleaming and immaculate. He moved to the main computer console and activated it for the first time. It slowly came to life, with power running through its circuits. The main screen turned on, and a pleasant glow filled its face. Soon the details of the ship materialized on the screen. Boxes listed its specifications, and reports filled in one after the other about the primary status of the ship. The communications array picked up Galar's chatter, and soon the entire right side of the screen began flashing with messages being intercepted from the station.

Before long, the entire screen heralded the living, breathing, existence of the ship. It was as if it had a life of its own. It functioned independently and completely, ready to carry out any task. Its smooth, white surfaces shone in the light from above. Darius readied the ship and awaited the rest of his crew.

"I'm glad to be able to meet with you all here today; I'm the captain of this new ship, the EFS _Vigilante_. As you are all well aware, due to the new explosion of fleet production and personnel recruitment we are all relatively new. I hope we may make our christening voyage a successful one to serve as a harbinger of many enterprises to come." Darius spoke from the top level of the assembly hall to all the senior and junior crew assembled there. The room was named a hall, but was barely a crammed room that served the purpose of a mess hall, a briefing room, and a multipurpose room.

The tables were crumpled to their storage sizes, and all the people aboard the frigate were huddled up in the room to hear the opening formalities. Many of the men and women were fresh from whatever training facilities they had come from and felt itchy to be in full uniform and finally aboard a fully functional starship. Many were facing the reality of collaboratively operating a starship. They stood awkwardly and looked on with undivided attention.

"I have faith that every single one of you knows their job onboard, and that you can work as a collective to complete all the required tasks with maximum efficiency. This ship will have a policy of transparency. Our tasks are no secret. In order to work well, to the limit of my authority, I will share in full the objectives of our missions at hand. Due to the nature of our first undertaking, it will be required that all crew work to their full capacities, that the security personnel are at full alert, and that field engineers can work on any, heaven forbid, critical hull damage we receive."

At this, some gasps came from the crowd. "Space-faring never was and never will be a promenade. The final expanse can never be conquered; there are always conflicts, enemies, and obstacles. From the first brave men who set forth on small spacecraft, injury and death were not to be feared, but to be prudently avoided."

He took a slight pause then continued, "We have been sent to the Tyrll Colony to take part in a decisive offensive against a wing of Ameerian raiders. The band has been harassing freighters and stray ships for months now. It seems they are not just nomadic pirates but a tangible disturbance. The young colony has been suffering raids on its incoming and outgoing cargo vessels. It is not my job to tell you how a strong and early industrial growth is essential to the creation of a well founded outpost of humanity. Our orders are to destroy all of the Ameerian attackers we can find and bring some of the crew in for questioning."

Darius addressed his crew firmly. "I will now present the senior crew and officers of this ship. If you have a specific question regarding the functioning of your field of duty, please ask it during the hours on board, before departure. To my right here, is Dwight Verne, First Officer and Commander of this ship. Winter Gussol is our systems and weapons officer. Dejar Coban is our helmsman, and Klaise Xeran is our communications and operations officer. And finally, Emily Serin is our head of engineering."

Darius drew in breath before concluding, "Thanks for the time. Engineering and reaction chamber specialists please perform the final checks on all vital components; we want a smooth christening voyage." Darius turned his head as he spoke the final words. He thought of what might happen if there were an antimatter leak. The small, escaped particles would surely create an enormous explosion large enough to rip apart the ship and a portion of the space station if they were to fire the antimatter engines inside of it. He had decided not to paint out this unfortunate possibility to the crew.

A chorus of applause erupted from the crew, who had been comforted by the welcome yet sharpened by the captain's multiple warnings. The engineering section crews made their way out the door. The people with a thick white bar covering the tops of the blue stripes of their uniforms set themselves out as antimatter specialists. They made their ways to the reaction chamber. The double red lines military corps walked out following a few officers. A second group of engineers said goodbye to the group and headed out with their supervisors for briefing.

When almost all had departed, Winter Gussol stepped up to the captain to talk with him. She had an even voice that carried weight in its words and had long black hair drawn back over her shoulders. It was an odd sight where long hair was so hard to manage. With the limited grooming facilities and lack of interest, most women kept their hair short. She had well-built shoulders and an air of stolidity and of almost intrusiveness. "Captain, am I to understand this is a military offensive mission?"

"Yes, Gussol, I want a full diagnostic of this frigate's offensive and defensive capabilities before 02.00 tomorrow, when we leave."

She answered, "Yes... Sir, what do we know about the Ameerians?"

Darius stepped back and quickly reviewed the details he had received but an hour ago. "There is a group of raiders in the vicinity of the Tyrll colony system. They have relied mainly on small fighter ships. They most likely have some sort of flagship with them and are supporting themselves from the plundering of our cargo ships. They will thus probably have antimatter capabilities; it would be prudent of us to make sure they do not get the chance to escape when they know they are uncovered. We suspect they are using a nearby nebula to cover their base of operation."

Winter nodded briefly and entered a commentary into the notepad on her wrist attachment. Darius continued, "Although the Ameerians are ruthless, and they don't really like us at all, they wouldn't support renegade war bands. On the other hand, I don't think they would interfere with them either. These guys won't go away unless we kick them out, and they don't understand diplomacy. No pirate does."

"Understood, you will have the report. This initial bustle will subside after a few hours; I think that's why they give us a ten hour time period between personnel and cargo doors shut, and the actual departure."

"Alright, get to it," Darius answered quickly to hint that he was still the superior officer and she shouldn't be telling him how things were. He talked to the other officers briefly to give them their basic pre-launch duties and to personally greet them. He then walked off to his personal quarters.

"Attention, all crew," the stern and artificially monotonous voice of Dwight Verne boomed over the ships communicator system many hours later. People all over the ship looked up from their various occupations and listened to his address. Darius looked up, annoyed, from some old logs on Ameerian ship configuration written by captains in previous conflicts.

He was slightly annoyed at his commander's voice. The official pre-launch address had to be given, but somehow it made him feel as if he were listening to redundancy. The spiel was always the same, and it always seemed to crash upon him at the wrong time. He himself had given the pre-flight speech several times, informing the crew of the job ahead, the status of the ship, launch times, and everything else that had to be said. Only now did he realize actually how annoying it was to listen to someone give orders when you were exempt from them. Verne's voice spoke clearly and distinctly as he outlined every detail. Darius was still glancing over the designs in from of him and thinking of how un-aerodynamic the Ameerian ships would be if they were flying in atmosphere.

As his mind jumped to the report he expected from Gussol, he realized he had just missed more than half of the announcement. He'd heard hundreds before, and so wasn't overly concerned. "... all cargo again to make sure it is in its right place. Reaction chamber engineers should now report to their station for initialization. Chief Engineer Emily Serin is presiding. All crew on active duty must now report to respective stations. Final reminder, departure is in thirty minutes. Let us make the _Vigilante_ 's maiden voyage a success. Thank you, and good luck."

Applause could be heard in main engineering, cargo, processing, the crew decks, the security hub, and even the bridge. The crew was excited and anxious to set out for the first time on a real ship. Darius had to admit that the speech, in Verne's voice, had quite a ring to it.

# Chapter 6

Darius walked toward his door, and it opened almost silently for him. He proceeded to step outside and turn down the hall. He was wearing a captain's uniform for the first time. Three white, overlapping circles, arranged horizontally, symbolized his rank. They were set on the red upper half of the uniform. Unlike the other dark uniforms of the rest of the crew, the upper part of his shirt was of a pale gray color, and the two red lines were thinner.

Darius reached the end of the hall and opened the door that took one to the next level. To reach a higher level, such as the bridge at the front of the ship on the level above, one had to either climb a single column through the center of the ship with a ladder or take an elevator. The elevators were composed of moving platforms. Because of the design of all ships to be as compact and volume efficient as possible, so as to not waste precious resources and air, the levels were not that far apart. A movable platform brought one up or down a level quickly. It could carry many persons and be used rapidly in sequence.

Darius approached the large cabinet. The doors slid open and Darius got in. Because it connected only the lower crew deck and the middle deck, only an "engage" pad had to be pushed, and the steel alloy flew upwards. The pad stopped, and the top doors opened. Darius got out and walked past several engineering rooms and the observatory and laboratory. He wondered at this new fashion of putting small science rooms with fairly versatile equipment on every ship. The idea was that with the proper equipment at hand any anomalous or interesting artifact or material could be quickly analyzed.

Fleet Command seemed to think that now that human ships no longer had any real physical threat, they could turn their attention to advancing the knowledge about the universe. "A noble, yet unfruitful endeavor," Darius chucked to himself. Ships that were not fully functional research vessels with specific investigation missions rarely, if often, ever produced any findings of value. The heavy black doors of the bridge now stood in front of him. His last footfall upon the semi-hard floor in front of the overpowering doors sounded quietly, and then died out. Unlike the other white or gray doors to the department rooms, this was pitch black, with white linings. The door was set deeply into the wall.

They designed these ships like this on purpose. They wanted to make the bridge display its wonder and might to the crew and any observer. To the majority of the human population, these doors painted the very portrait of the EIF: strength, stability, power, ambition. When looked upon, they stood as a challenge to the one witnessing them. The EIF did not only design its ships to be harsh in battle, but also to display that power.

The bridge also added respect to the command and military contact sections of the EIF. All of the crew had the images of the heavy doors interred in their minds. Darius swiped his hand on the pad in front of the door, and the door made a deep click and began to slowly open. Darius almost laughed out loud; every time he opened a bridge door, he compared it to the time it took to open a living-compartment's door. As the bridge doors opened, instead of opening with a zip, they made a quiet "skrinsh," like two plates of metal just slightly scraping against each other. They did not take long, the EIF would never compromise practicality for show, yet they did take a fraction of a second longer.

Darius stepped in with both feet and inspected the room. It had two sections, one to the rear, where the communications officer and commander stood at their stations and the other to the front of the ship. There the helmsman sat in his station to the right and the systems officer to the left, and the captain in his chair would be in the middle of the floor overseeing the two. Each had various consoles they required. A general display and console box allowed the captain to make chair-side changes. Several displays around the room showed various statistics required by the personnel around them, but were also visible to anyone in the room. "EFS Vigilante" stood printed on the small plate set on the railing that was visible to anyone who walked in.

"Captain has arrived," spoke Verne in a clear, calm voice. All heads turned and saluted the captain. He walked slowly to his chair and turned to look out the front window. The inside of the hangar bay of the Galar production facility stood a dull gray. He sat down, and the rest of the bridge crew slightly relaxed and turned to their stations. He turned his head to the pad at his right and entered a public address. The system gave a two second pause, which meant that a four note tune had played throughout the ship, giving the signal of a ship-wide bridge transmission calling for full attention. A small "ding" sound signaled the start of the audio stream.

"Greetings, crew of the Earth Fleet Ship, _Vigilante_. This is Captain Darius Targen giving the final address before our immediate departure to the Tyrll colony. We have been given clearance to leave space dock. You all know the nature of our maiden voyage, so without any delay all stations will now report final readiness." The captain looked pleased as the confirmations flooded in until whole departments were fully confirmed.

A small point of light appeared in the right of his screen, and after hovering a moment flew out a few centimeters to become rows of text.

" _Ah, a text message_ ," he thought, as he tapped the now static box. It expanded to spill out its contents:

Dated message to be delivered on Imperial Date: 27.06.1198; (June 27, 3987 Earth Date.)

Sender: Admiral Gordon

Good luck, captain.

He smiled as he thought of the personal gesture. They were only three impersonal words, but the admiral must have taken the time to search the _Vigilante_ 's departure time and have the message arrive to him right at that moment. But then again, he must have written this at the moment he'd passed the promotion and then went on to other matters. The admiral was a busy man, but he tried to make as much contact with the men beneath him as he could and to retain an open and friendly image. Darius credited him for that at least.

That effect and success was what Darius wanted to recreate with his own crew. He smiled and closed the message, and the reports screen was brought back up. All stations were fully accounted for and ready. "Mr. Coban, engage primary mobility engines."

"Yes, sir," Dejar Coban answered, and with a moment's hesitation engaged the power flow to the engines. The nuclear powered drives started humming with the micro reactions starting to move inside the ship's engines for the first time. The nuclear engines would be able to accurately move the ship around over small distances.

"EFS _Vigilante_ , you are cleared for exit through Dock Door 3," a computerized voice said through the speakers from the hangar control station. The frigate turned left to move out of its clump of ships in the E section. The large open space of the full hanger could now be seen from the front window. This view was broadcast throughout the ship for all to see. Two doors were open on the left and right of Dock Door 3 as the massive battlestation turned on its orbit around Galar.

A cluster of docking bays could be seen off to the left of the expanse outside. The station had just come around the planet, and the sun shone brightly into the hangar, illuminating the inside with enormous beams of light that penetrated the artificially lighted environment inside. It seemed to be an overwhelming torrent of organic light that poured in from the left and right. Two large rectangles were painted over the walls to the rear in a yellowish tint.

"When those doors ahead of us open, we're going blind," Darius chuckled to himself, and then dimmed the windows.

"All right, Coban, punch it in. Clear the dock."

The massive doors slowly began to open. The huge, steel alloy doors were large enough to let out two destroyer class warships at a time or even a military class cruiser that was produced at the facility. The crack that grew into a line then into a band admitted the yellow light of Galar's sun. At first it exploded into the vast space ahead, but then concentrated into a well-defined ball as the doors opened further to allow the full view of the sun. It was relatively close, so it was not just a pinpoint of light but a lamp that cast shadows all over the dock. Side view cameras broadcasted the view of the whole dock to the crew.

Ships after ships arranged in rectangles behind the _Vigilante_ were all bathed in light. Several large ships coming in and out had one side brightly lit and the other dark, casting long shadows over the walls. The bridge was frozen at the sheer immensity of the docks, with all its angles clearly defined by the sun shining in steadily from straight ahead.

The frigate disconnected from the docking clamp connecting it to the station's E-59 dock. It trudged forward slowly towards the exit in front of it. A large destroyer starship moved in alongside the frigate to exit through the doors. The destroyer loomed a few times larger than the frigate, and its side turrets and platforms cast sharp angles along its hull and aft engines. The onlookers felt awe in it. The craft was like a domineering leader paving the way. It was not, however, an unpleasant sight. It was one of import, one to consider the extent and influence of the EIF.

The destroyer fired its nuclear engines to their maximum, and its forward section cleared the docks, the engines gleaming red and orange as it pushed faster and faster. The whole ship was out of the docks and it slowed a moment as it turned right and upward. It then gained speed and flew off out of view.

The frigate moved on to the gates in the footsteps of its precursor and turned slightly left, towards its destination. The engines were turned up and the ship left the doors. It picked up speed while the sun slid to the right of its view. The frigate briefly left its small shadow on the side of the space facility before moving away quickly.

"Crew, we have cleared the orbital facility. We will clear industrial space in three minutes and then engage the antimatter reactor and plot a course for Tyrll. The Tyrll colony is, as you know, at the edge of Sector 08 of the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy, around the middle of the arm. It's quite a long way from our local cluster. We will spend a little under three weeks in hyperspace," Darius reported through the communication system.

As the empire had expanded, the colonized sections of the galaxy had to be kept under control in an orderly fashion. Although over 2,000 years ago a simple map of the Earth had sufficed, maps of tens of star systems now had to be created and arranged in a three-dimensional manner.

Since the pre-hyperspeed era, the galaxy had been crudely charted by mankind. Its various constructions had been christened as "arms," and its swirling shape had been coined as the galactic spiral. With the use of faster-than-light travel and the subsequent colonization of those arms had come a new level of mapping. Each arm was divided into sectors, beginning from 01, right next to the galactic core, and counting outwards to somewhere in the teens at the arm's end. This had in turn given structure to Collective Gov, whose governors arranged themselves as seemed fit among the populated sectors of space. Each sector had come to roughly represent a political unit. The small Orion Arm housing Earth, which was the most concentrated hub of the Imperium, was made of three small sectors. Each sector was further divided into blocks. Each sector consisted of several hundred blocks. Few of these blocks, however, contained populated systems.

The frigate turned and flew faster, clearing the battlestation and leaving the planet a smaller and smaller dot behind them."Coban; halt mobility engines."

"Attention reaction chamber personnel. The ship has cleared Galar industrial space. You can proceed to set the direction and starting point for the jump. Engage matter–antimatter reactions when ready," Darius announced.

"All crew get ready for the jump to hyperspace." The aft section of the ship unclamped a seal that would allow for the ejection of its antimatter exhaust. Inside the reaction chamber, the carefully protected fuel box was brought to the reaction core. An arm extended from the core and made contact with the box. The crew all worked from the control station at the front of the room. Although an antimatter leak from the small box containing more than enough of the precious fuel would rip apart the whole ship, the crew all stayed in the control room while the floor and console stations were all empty. The large reaction chamber itself and the fuel box at the opposite end of the room had no company.

Once the arm was attached, the antimatter from the magnetic field container above started leaking it out particle by particle, and then exponentially more quickly. It created a smooth transition instead of a large burst of speed that would damage the ship because of the inertia and of the brute assault on the folds of space. The first explosions started occurring as the fuels met. The force immediately shot the frigate forward. In the blink of an eye, the planet flew far behind them, only to be shot away faster and faster until it couldn't be seen. The steady hum of the now continually increasing antimatter reactions grew into a drone only partially heard through the heavily sound-insulated walls.

The vast majority of the crew, who had never flown at superluminal speeds before other than in their training, still were tense because they half feared the ship would blow up at the first reaction. They now flooded the windows or view screens to see the stars moving quickly by. Yet, still only very few trudged at all. Most of the stars were too far away to be seen differently from such a small change in position. Cheer and applause was now heard throughout the ship. All living compartments were empty, and the few who didn't have active shifts crowded the public hall.

# Chapter 7

Darius completed his first voyage in a ship he commanded. He'd been through the routine hundreds of times and was amused by some of the crew's reactions. The bridge crews were all peacefully sitting at their stations, and Winter Gussol was checking the ship for any defects. The jump had gone well, and their momentum had pushed them undaunted though space.

"I would like to inform you all that we are approaching our destination. ETA 10 minutes to contact. Reaction chamber personnel, stand by to decelerate," the captain announced from his place on the bridge.

The people working on the engineering deck all took to their stations, and the matter–antimatter specialists made their way to the engine room. Blasts made from side components of the ship were to create forces that would stop the ship and pull it out to normal speeds.

"Standby for deceleration: Immediate approach to Tyrll colony space."

"Re-engage reaction now." With that the engineers reactivated the fuel mix, and the ship started to slow down with the rising hum of the side engine components. The stars moved slower until the drone of the engines had brought them to a near stop. The nuclear engines had already started, and the momentum was taken over by the mobility engines. The ship's antimatter engines silenced their drone, and the ship emerged from among the fleeing stars into normal space. The crew aboard the EFS _Vigilante_ eagerly awaited the captain's report on their next move.

Darius looked out towards the planet's location and saw the reddish-brown circle which was Tyrll. Long-range scans revealed four medium-sized ships in its immediate vicinity. He decided to address the crew before making contact. "It seems that four of the five ships that are a part of our strike team have already arrived. We will contact them and begin proceedings; further information will be supplied as needed, thank you."

Coban aligned the ship to the small cluster in front of them and then began flying towards it. The frigate flew swiftly and then slowed down within a few kilometers of the gathering. From his post, Xeran hailed the flagship of the small fleet, the EFS _Defender_ _IV_. A response was immediately received, and the captain's voice came through. "Welcome, Mr. Targen and crew. We've been expecting you; you're right on time. With the _Vigilante_ 's arrival, we are now waiting only for Captain Khain and the EFS _Keeran_. Their mission log predicts their arrival in about five hours."

"Thank you for the welcome, Trein, have you contacted the colony?" Darius asked the other captain. "Yes we have, and they are aware of our purpose. They report the latest attack at twenty-six days ago."

"That's not too short a time. If I am correct the Tyrll colony is quite young, are there any orbital facilities?"

"It had none except for the space tower, which connects the planet's surface to a point in its orbit. It allows cargo ships to unload without landing.

"Right. Did you manage to acquire any other information as to the Ameerians' location?"

"They didn't have anything that we didn't know already. The colony's intelligence reports that the raiders always pull back into the western nebulae. When they emerge, however, they do not have a specific launching point for their attack."

"Very good, we will wait for Captain Khain to arrive, and then we will begin our investigation."

"Goodbye, Captain."

The transmission came to an end, and the people aboard the _Vigilante_ found themselves twiddling their thumbs. It was as if a great hole had been dug out of their plans. All that had had to be said had been discussed. Verne sent out a bulletin informing the people of their situation. Darius stood up, and after exchanging formalities with the people on the bridge, proceeded to his personal compartment to rest awhile. Everything so far had gone smoothly. There was no reason why things shouldn't continue to do so.

# Chapter 8

A single star shone more brightly than the rest. In the chaotic field of stars sprawled endlessly in all directions, this one star seemed to glow with enhanced vigor. Dwight Verne was peering at the galactic core. This dense haze of yellowish matter seemed to him like a thick fog that collapsed on itself under its own weight, burying countless wonders in its depths. The lack of proper surveillance data from the region, due to its highly irregular and dangerous gravitic fields, also added to its mystery and wonder.

The small screen that displayed the zoomed-in portion of the galaxy he was observing provided him with only a snapshot of what he felt was there to see. He imaged an enormous expanse running out in all three dimensions forever. Endless space to be explored seemed to wait outside the door. He especially admired that one star, glistening more strongly than the rest. What a true land of the imagination the galactic core was.

Verne had his eyes closed as he remembered the image of a star encased in beautiful glory, as a large diamond enclosed in an equally beautiful golden ring, worthy of its treasure's magnificence. Swirls of white and gold were spinning in his head as his thoughts seemed to slip out of the physical scale. They took on a more emotional nature that can dwell only in one's head and is impossible to express in words. He dreamt of his home on the planet of Dreon, a close neighbor to Earth in its cozy corner of the Orion Arm.

Its flora was alive with billions of tiny, white seeds. They gave everything a glistening trim. The air seemed to breathe it. He remembered one time when he was a boy of eleven years and had been on an expedition through one of the forests left untouched by civilization. The light-gray stalks and stems of the plants around him were alive with spring's touch. He had run as fast as his feet would carry him through the dense shrubbery. In a valiant, spasmodic burst of energy he had crashed through the dense growth. He set loose enormous clouds of twinkling particles, like a collection of Earth's rain droplets, but which flew with the wind and quickly migrated beyond his field of vision.

His wrist attachment gave him an impulse, and the colors behind the back of his eyes rematerialized into the stars in front of him. He opened its notification, and it informed him of an incoming hyperspace trail. _The Keeran must be arriving_ , he thought to himself. The trail had just been detected, and the ship could not yet be identified. There was probably still about an hour before the ship would arrive.

Although messages could be quickly and easily sent through waves in hyperspace, an incoming ship could not be as easily detected. All ships gave off ripples in the folds of space as they travelled and disturbed its fibers. These would travel at a significant speed, but not as quickly as the ones designed to cut through as efficiently as possible. They were nonetheless effective harbingers of a ship's arrival. Because there was always the ship travelling in the same direction and with great speed behind these waves, the notice of a ship's arrival arrived only a little time before the actual ship. The closer the distance, the less that time was, because the waves had less time to get ahead of the ship itself. Thus, when travelling within the same system, hyperspace jumps could be carried out almost undetected until they were complete. Jumps to adjacent systems gave only less than a minute's warning.

Messages also took time to be sent from a corner of the galaxy to another. It was less than the time a ship would take to travel that distance, but it would still need weeks.

The _Keeran_ had been travelling just a little longer than the _Vigilante_ , coming to the system all the way from the Local Sector of the Orion Arm. There would have to be a somewhat significant wait until the ship itself arrived.

Verne turned his gaze to the starfield in front of him and let his gaze linger upon it for a moment longer. He then silently touched a few contacts on the keyboard to his right, and the large screen's image vanished. Somewhere far off towards the back of the ship the long range telescope powered down. After a second, the screen's standby images returned to its surface. The date was displayed beautifully across the top right of the screen: the numbers _12.07.1198_ floated across the screen in a pleasant white font that was easy to look at. His eyes quickly fell over the collection of other data that had some purpose in the ship, but he did not linger. He quickly turned his back to the screen in the small room and started walking away.

He left through its door and started making his way to the bridge. With a slow pace, he pondered the mission that awaited them. What enemies would await them within that nebula? Would the enterprise be efficient, or would they be stuck chasing down ghosts of pirates? He was not as much apprehensive as slightly depressed. He had dozed off a bit too long into his own world and now was thrown back into the real one.

When he arrived on the bridge the captain was already there, talking with Winter and Dejar and a few others. They were talking through the ship's communication system with the other four ships. Hustled voices shot back and forth. He was apparently quite late for something. He caught a few of their words; they were discussing several approaches to the nebula. The general consensus seemed to be that a spread-out formation would be most effective at sweeping out the area and discovering the enemies. The ships could converge easily on the enemy's location when they were found. The other four captains eagerly contributed their ideas, and the preliminary plans were laid down. Verne approached and was welcomed.

Thirty minutes later, everyone was impatiently sitting at their stations. It was quite ironic, because the arrival of the _Keeran_ did not herald the beginning of the conflict, but only the beginning of the search. The other four ships stood motionless in the space around them. Their engines were completely shut off, and they gave no sign of movement, but each ship bustled with activity from the inside. Light shone out from every display, and every ship's interior was abuzz with the thoughts and worries of all the crew.

To pass the time, the _Vigilante's_ crew checked and rechecked their systems. Side conversations sprang up, and the people fell into a boring last mile stretch they had to wait through.

The _Keeran_ was approaching quite rapidly. It was now only a few minutes from the system. The _Defender IV_ reopened the communication link to the _Vigilante_ , and Captain Trein's voice fed through. "Hello, _Vigilante_. We will brief the _Keeran_ to our current situation. We will then communicate to you for an official meeting to lay down a launch time." Darius promptly acknowledged the transmission and then let himself sink back into his chair. His eyes rolled over the entire personnel arranged on the bridge in front of him. His mind drifted off into a suspended sea of thoughts. The imperious air taken on by Captain Trein seemed to have subconsciously chipped away from his autonomy. He felt like he wanted to leave events to run their course, like he was floating above it all.

After a minute he regained his composure and set his eyes on the large display at the front of the bridge. Suddenly a glistening white line struck out of the distance. This line quickly dissipated, and a ship emerged, dragging the trail to an end. The ship was still moving quickly; it arranged its course for the five ships and sped hastily until it came to a brusque stop at the edge to the cluster. Darius knew Trein had hailed the arrivals and was briefing them on the situation.

All the members of the crew waited more or less patiently for the discourse to end. After a short while, an inter-ship communication stream was opened across all the six ships, and the strike force prepared its assault.

# Chapter 9

With expert speed Winter Gussol's fingers tapped the controls at her station. The _Vigilante_ 's sensor array was fully tuned for the nebula's composition. The initial scans of the mass had displayed its approximate composition and distribution. The ship's sensors were being constantly tuned and arrayed in order to ensure maximum penetration through its specific composure.

Although the entire area had been analyzed in great detail, as soon as the ship had touched the outskirts of the nebula, the area had to be constantly scanned and sensors readjusted due to the ever changing pattern of energy and matter within it. There was an active data link among the six ships as each searched and compared its results with the other five. Bytes of data flew across the ships at incredible speed as the findings were added, equated, and put together. Winter's eyes quickly drained the main pieces of information she needed from the displays in front of her. After making a few additional minor adjustments, she let the sensors run uninterrupted for another few minutes.

The _Vigilante_ 's weapons array and gun batteries were activated. Electronic pressure reinforcements for the hull were on standby. When damage was caused to an area of a ship's hull, in order to minimize the damage taken at the expense of quite a lot of energy, force in the opposite direction could be given through a network inside the hull walls. This was especially useful and efficient for defense in short skirmishes where brief, large bursts of destruction defined a battle. In all situations, however, these fields granted extra integrity to otherwise weaker hulls.

The six ships advanced in a line of war. The weapons systems on all of the ships were charged. Their advance was swift but not careless. Flying mere tens of kilometers apart, in order to be able to become battle ready at a moment's notice, the ships monitored a large area thousands of kilometers around.

Aboard the bridge of the _Vigilante_ , the air was thin with apprehension. Every person was busy at his or her station, making sure the frigate was functioning at one hundred-percent efficiency and capacity. Dwight Verne noted the mood aboard the ship. It was truly the calm before the storm. He could almost feel the adrenaline that would very soon run in the very same veins that now had calm blood flowing peacefully.

The _Vigilante_ threaded through the nebula as it advanced with determination. The giant hulk flew as a swift eagle advancing towards an ever-distant prey.

Then, Winter's eyes got a hold of the very pattern they both dreaded and hoped for. Somewhere, far off below to the right, several large, metallic objects had been detected. They were not asteroids. Significant energy patterns were being released from the objects. They were in no way random. The patterns were clearly of artificial, not of natural design. Waves after waves bounced off the detected ships and were immediately recorded in all six of the fleet's shipboard computers. The active communication link started to hear some voices as the six ships began to chatter amongst themselves. The scans materialized into data as the operations officers processed them.

Louder comments and reports were being heard from several members aboard the ships. The data became clear. On the reports screen in front of them, an overview of the Ameerian raider fleet materialized. It seemed that the estimates had been accurate. The raiders had a flagship of significant size in their flotilla. It seemed to be a patchwork of many different styles, probably manufactured and refitted, again and again as it was constantly changed and armed. It carried a strong power core.

Its emissions were not shielded well, which displayed the crudeness and volatility of its design, but nonetheless it was clear that it served its role as a harbor for the raiders. Its core must have been a great handicap to its stealth. The raiders probably relied heavily on the nebula to compensate for this fact. The core was also surely inefficient; its imperfect nature would make it consume more energy for the same result.

Several ships of much smaller sizes were being detected as well. As the excruciatingly slow seconds wore on, the groups of ships turned into swarms of ships. There were significantly many fighter ships in the area. All races used strike craft: they were small, single or double pilot ships. They could be used to cause damage to specific structures of a large ship, as decoys and distractions, or simply as elusive attackers. These chassis of ships were common for raiders and independent fleets.

"Captain Trein to task force: all ships fall into close formation. I am setting the approach speed to five hundred clicks per second. Please stay with me and copy the _Defender_ 's attack vector. All fighter craft are the initial target." Captain Trein briefly halted his speech as more extensive scans of the Ameerian fleet poured in. The base now appeared to be significantly larger than anticipated. There were several frigate class starships in the area with hyperspace capabilities. It seemed that the size of the opposing fleet had been mildly underestimated. His left eyebrow twitched slightly as he quickly calculated the new information. Would a direct assault still be prudent or viable? Would it be better if the task force withdrew and returned with fresh reinforcements?

Although bringing more ships would secure them a flawless victory, Trein worried that there wouldn't be any more victory to secure. The raiders, clearly alerted of the Imperium's eye on them, would certainly flee and dissipate into the surrounding area, never to be found again. They would then slowly return to leech off the ships in this area, or another, all over again. He knew he could not allow that to happen.

His eyes looked over the data again. There seemed to be only a handful of crudely built frigates in the area. He did not estimate their firepower to be too significant. He decided that the fleet could play safely and still secure themselves a victory.

Trein's voice rang out again, "In addition, all frigates should be destroyed as well. We will have to neutralize and disable the flagship. There should be enough data and personnel onboard for our interrogation. After the area is secure we will perform a salvage operation and board it. Stand by, half a minute to enemy contact."

# Chapter 10

The Skyrrnian officer's heavy boots made noises in the hard red soil in his way. His long, strong legs moved with determination, and his arms stood holding an ion rifle poised to shoot. His uniform was worn yet acceptably clean, the sleeves rolled up above his elbows, and his hard light-gray skin showed beneath. The rough patchwork of pseudo-scales, softened through disuse over millennia, shuffled and moved as he walked. His legs were bulky, and his pants shifted and whispered with each step. Loud crunches accompanied each tread on the ground.

His protruding face was alert; his rocky nose darted left and right as his small, set-in eyes peered around him from behind massive, ridged eyebrows and cheeks. He wore a military cap, tilted slightly to the right, on his head.

The path he was walking on seemed to be, at first glance, simply a rough road on some country trail. However, the red soil was arrayed along in geometric forms at too many places, and the borders of the pathway were too well defined in some sections. The trail had once been a road of some sort. At closer inspection, one could see dull metallic plating resting just beneath the thin, fine layer of soil. The path was broad, but its edges were overgrown. Hidden in the side growth there were broken-down ruins. Barely noticeable artificial shapes and designs seemed to form just well enough to be observed. The route seemed to be a decrepit highway.

The communicator at his neck made an inaudible vibration that he only barely felt. He took one last look around as if expecting danger and then proceeded to quickly accept the incoming call with a tap to the small pad at the tip of his collarbone, beside his shoulder. When he had heard the other person's inquiry, he began to speak in quick, excited tones. He offered quick explanations and was enthusiastic yet brief in his speech. He waited to hear a response and then addressed it in a level tone, yet urgency still lingered in his voice. Another brief exchange of ideas took place, and then the call was finished. The man continued to walk along the path with a brisk pace.

The ground was a dark red and brown hue, with shaded rocks populating all the area in sight. The small, drooping vegetation also kept a steady red color. The diminutive plants did not stretch out for the sky but limped around the ground. The few, tall tree-like plants carried the same color as their companions, but had darker bodies. These, however, reached quite high, extending outwards defiantly sideways, tangling among each other and forming small canopies here and there were they grew. They skillfully hid the odd artificial scrap of material mixed in with the growth.

Small patches of red-brown creepers grew on many rock-like structures that littered parts of the scenery like boxes fallen out of a transport. The sky's few clouds echoed the reddish hue and seemed to float above the land as large pools of old blood. The rest of the sky shone pale gray, with a tinge of red in the light of a setting orange sun. Even the dome that seemed to encase the landscape still carried within it the glistening red.

The Skyrrnian walked along to a small clearing and looked up at the two stars already visible from the red planet. Around him there were very few animals, and the whole planet seemed to sigh with silence. An eerie ancientness gloomed among the vegetation, and even though it was evening, the atmosphere of the area was that of dark midnight.

The planet seemed to push on the man, and he seemed scared that something might jump out of the bush and force him off its home. Within a few moments a group of seventeen of his comrades came from another trail. After a few brief exchanges the large group joined with him and followed him to where he had come from. The band of men was all in uniform, yet all of them were with their sleeves rolled up and their bodies poised for physical action. They moved quickly down the path and kept their weapons ready.

Along the path, similar to a lot of the eroded litter in the area, there stood an artifact. A humanoid shape lay semi-preserved. The lower half of the body was all roughed out and stood as a dull, rock-like creation. The upper half had imprints on it from the rocks it had been lying under, yet the parts not crushed could be seen much more clearly. The relic had a well defined chest made out of some metallic compound; it had several tool openings along its chest and had two upper limbs that protruded left and right from the top of the torso.

These were designed for efficiency rather than looks as the arms were taken up with a manifold of interchangeable tools at the tip. A mechanism allowed for the rotation, orientation, withdrawal, or extension of the countless components. Its neck was set in a complex, 360-degree rotating system to the torso, and the head stood as a dull skull shape over the neck. The headpiece was wide and seemed to stare sadly and hopelessly straight forward as its gray eyes stood motionlessly within their sensor array. The head's components were well incased in the gray metal that gleamed with a faint bluish tint.

The man spoke quickly in his native tongue, tripping over his words. One needed to comprehend only a few words to understand their meaning. "Discovered... can now find out... where are...?"

# Chapter 11

The _Vigilante_ 's weapons array drew in power allocated from the ship's system. Its outward sections came to life and gleamed dully blue. After a second, their color intensified and a forceful discharge of polarized energy was released. The beam sliced across the thin matter of the nebula, exciting the few particles that populated the area of space immediately beside or inside the beam. The nebula was denser than regular space, which has particles spread out at great distances, but was still extremely sparse.

The task force was now upon the enemy fleet. All six ships rapidly decreased power to their engines and came to a slow drift, spreading out and encircling their adversaries. Their weapons launched ray after ray of destructive energy upon their targets.

The raiders had had only a few minutes to detect the oncoming fleet and deduce their purpose. The flagship was still drawing power from its core to become battle ready. It had been semi-adrift, in a power-economic mode, and served only its purpose as base of operations and hangar while not needed. It had now scrambled furiously to reactivate all its hull reinforcements and to awaken its ancient weapons arrays from their slumber. Its engines were powered as well, and it began to turn in order to be able to engage the enemies. Swarms of assault craft erupted from its hangar bay. They filled the space in front of it and started rushing forward in a menacing cloud, vehemently preparing to engage the attackers. There were a handful of slightly larger, threadbare ships in the vicinity that also started moving to form their own line of war against their enemy. They arrayed themselves and returned fire.

The _Vigilante_ 's beam made contact with an assault craft, the forward side of which was seared and split into two sections. Blue energy momentarily struck through the ship's hull, whose integrity had been compromised, and it was ripped apart in one motion as its insides burst open the walls. The void outside immediately sucked out all the loose items in the craft, and the atmosphere inside it created a small explosion of junk. The two disjointed parts were sent flying in opposite directions, spinning violently from the force of the expelled air.

The _Vigilante_ 's right weapons battery fired again, but the opposing pilot's velocity was too erratic and quick for the computer to accurately target, and so the beam missed its target and fired into empty space. It took a split second for the computer to quickly observe the ship's movement and to calculate its probable location after the instant it would take the weapon to fire. The system was state of the art, but large weapons arrays nonetheless took time to fire, and this gave up just a small fraction of a second to calculation and probability. An object travelling in a line, a curve, or a changing but repetitive trajectory could easily have its location in the near future extrapolated. The computer would then fire the weapon in that direction, providing a clean hit.

A skilled fighter pilot, operating a small maneuverable ship could, however, evade these shots for quite a while. By making sure he kept his flight path ever changing and as random as possible, he could avoid the computer's lock on him. He had to make sure to constantly change his strategy though, because if he were to start giving loops to his assault vector, the computer could catch on, and at the very least graze and disable the ship. It was a nerve-wracking way to fight, immensely more energy consuming and mentally demanding than calmly sitting at the bridge of a large warship, simply choosing targets and making sure that all systems were running and following tactical maneuvers.

If ships were shooting at a small group of fighters, the bonus agility provided by the small ship size would be severely reduced. A swarm of ships must move with much less agility and much less initiative than a single ship. One person can come up with maneuvers and spontaneous turns to avoid detection, due to the randomness and creativity of the mind. When a group of ships has the interest to move as one, they become one. They must fly similar patterns in order to avoid collision with each other. The swarm is then easily targeted, and even though the specific ship being tracked and aimed at is not shot, the beam can strike close-by, probably hitting several ships at once along its length.

That is why fighter swarms always fought as amorphous, shapeless groups. They would spread out and engage the enemy, then dive back together for just a moment to concentrate fire, and then fly out again in all directions, greatly thinning out their concentration, and thus their chance of being hit.

Larger ships such as the frigates of the Imperium and other fleets could not afford the luxuries of such maneuverability. The inertia of the sheer mass of such a ship would severely compromise the integrity of the ship's hull, if not destroy it, if the ship was to be constantly stopping, accelerating, and turning in all directions in three dimensions. Thus, as a ship's size increased, its mobile role in battle decreased. It steadily became a drifting vessel that had to be fitted with heavily reinforced hull to withstand a lot of damage in battle and with large weapons arrays for delivering great force to the opposing large ships. They were also fitted with several smaller weapons to deal with the smaller assault craft. The super-carriers of the EIF, which heralded the fleet in its great historic battles, barely moved at all after coming out of hyperspace. They merely stood in one place, spitting out waves of fighters and firing long range weapons and missiles.

The swarm had now reached the group of six ships, and it passed through them like a wave. Some ships immediately turned left or right to begin a second attack, some carried out their path further, whereas some flew upwards or downwards. The _Defender_ 's guns shot rapidly and deadly as they visibly moved with each shot. Burst after burst came from the enemy swarm. The EIF's line of war continued to expand, which gave all ships more shooting room, making sure they didn't have to withhold shots because the computer calculated it would hit one of their own vessels.

The enemy swarm continued their attack vehemently. They collapsed in on each other, expanded, and then attacked again. They opened gaps and then folded in upon them again in order to weave a continuous web around their attackers. They flew from ship to ship, but it became apparent that they had begun to concentrate fire on the EFS _Mirage_.

The enemy line of frigates had also come within combat distance and had begun firing their weapons. The raiders' ships began emitting their own dense beams of energy at the task force. Their light-blue rays of light struck hard on the hulls of the ships, beginning to fry out their reinforcements. After a few moments of a scattering display of firepower, the Ameerian ships had communicated with each other. They turned and faced inwards and closed in their fire upon the _Mirage_. The concentrated barrage of damage drained the ship's resources quickly.

"Request backup! Get these ships off of us!" a voice spoke from the _Mirage_. Trein and the other four ships were still engaged with the assault craft around them. The _Defender_ turned slowly and reenergized its weapons. "Fleet, target the centermost ship of the line, aim primarily for its weapon arrays."

The _Mirage_ withdrew slowly backwards out the line while the two ships to its right closed in leftwards to cover its place as they faced the opposing frigates. The _Vigilante_ , _Keeran_ , and _Defender_ turned rightwards, from the left side, and commenced the counter-attack. The solid blue beams erupted from the five ships at almost the same time, creating five glowing contact beams for a few seconds. The vibrant energy discharged upon the lower half of the front of the opposing ship.

The front of its short, rectangular shape crackled and crunched in upon itself after glowing brightly in defiance for a few seconds. The beams dissipated, and the ship's bottom half remained a charred, destroyed block. The _Defender_ fired its dual mounted beams directly between the weapons array section and the upper half. The two beams made contact, and the ship's anterior was crumpled and forced inwards. There was a momentary crackle and flash of energy around the ship, and then, with its hull compromised, the ship exploded, releasing all of its contents to the outside. The atmosphere in the ship flew outwards and thinned out into the nebula.

The ships fired continuously at the other raider frigates. Beams of energy flew back and forth, but the poorly fabricated raider ships could withstand much less punishment and so gave way more quickly.

Two more ships had been neutralized and destroyed; their hulks were drifting away silently. A third was now consumed by an electrical fire that ate away its side. The Imperium ships' turrets fired continuously, hunting down the fighter craft. They loosened their formation and arranged themselves in a large pseudo-wall. The electrical fire aboard the raider frigate was aggravated with a final bolt of energy from the _Vigilante_. The ship was pierced and exploded in a dazzling display of blue and yellow.

"Hull reinforcements are out of power. We are losing hull strength," the _Mirage_ reported. Swarms of fighters were flying in and out of its left side, puncturing a hole in it. The hull started to buckle under the force. The Imperium's ships turned and returned fire to deal with the threat.

The Ameerian pilots were much too dedicated. Seeing the fate of the battle all but sealed, with almost half their fighters gone and only two frigates remaining, they tried to cause as much damage as possible. Their energy discharges crashed onto the hull of the ship, and it twisted apart.

The contents of the room within the wall surged outwards from the immense difference in pressure. The fighters launched missiles into the gap, and the ship started to crumble from the inside. Shouts and loud crashes were heard on the communication stream from the _Mirage_. It fired as many shots as it could into the swarm surrounding it. Scans revealed that half of the interior was destroyed, and a large part of the exterior was visibly destroyed as well.

The ship fired its emergency engines and flew a quick path into the heart of the fighters. It managed to catch a few ships on its hull and crush them on its way. They tore holes through the hull of the ship, and its interior broke apart. The other ships executed emergency maneuvers and flew away before the _Mirage_ 's engines were affected and the small portion of antimatter was destroyed. It created a strong blast that obliterated all of the ship. Several fighters were caught in the explosion as it expelled matter in all directions. Bits of material rained heavily on all the ships around it. The attack fleet turned upon the raiders with renewed vigor.

Space was ablaze with the vivid crossfire, but the superior ships of the Imperium had clearly consolidated their upper hand. They dispatched the rest of the frigates and then spread out to finish the fighters. All ships had exhausted their energy reserves, and the _Defender IV_ had already reported two hull breaches. These were quickly sealed with emergency airlocks that closed over affected sections of the ship.

The computer had drawn a calculation of the total casualties incurred. There had been fifty-five deaths from the _Mirage_ , and a total of thirty six from the other ships. Darius had suffered only four upon his own ship, from a blast from a broken power transfer conduit. That was too much, he thought. This was not a war or a skirmish, simply a raider clean up. All conflicts suffered casualties, but the numbers should have been low against such unprepared adversaries. The defining factor, he thought, was the unexpected presence of the large ships. They had not counted on finding large frigate chassis vessels.

Captain Trein's thoughts followed a similar route. Maybe it had not been worth the results to launch the attack as planned. A few reinforcement ships could have surely been spared, and would have reduced the casualty count if not even saved the EFS _Mirage_. There would have been too long a wait though. The ships had flown all the way to the edge of colonized space to fight this fight. More ships would have taken again so long. This pack of pirates, which was clearly organized and significant, would have been able to escape and grow even larger until they resurfaced or were dug up again. The harassment against Tyrll would not have abated. But, did the ends justify the means?

He turned his attention back to the battle. Only a few raiders still flew through the battle zone. They had given up and were starting to kamikaze into the remaining frigates. The EFS _Freelancer_ took the brunt of the assault. Its bottom left engine was rendered immobile, and several of its components were compromised or destroyed. When the number of enemy fighters had almost dwindled out, it reported more than half of its crew compliment deceased.

The raider flagship had started preparing itself for a hyperspace escape during the last phase of the attack. It closed its hangar bay and all extended parts and deactivated its weapons. Its power core was running smoothly, and it was moving away from the epicenter of the battle.

Darius Targen had noted its state. Only one wave of attack had been thrown upon the flagship; it had not been a severe threat in the battle and so it had been left almost ignored. It now took advantage of its almost complete state and moved away from the battle. The _Vigilante_ immediately gave pursuit. The other ships came together and started firing upon it.

Their beams struck hard upon the flagship's hull. It reverberated with the vibrant discharges of energy. Its power flew through its walls, dulling the incoming damage with diminishing capability. "Concentrate fire on aft engines!" Trein shouted desperately at his crew. The flagship's engines shone brightly for a second, and then it vanished off the screen.

# Chapter 12

A faint, blue light appeared to shine. At first it took the form of a thin sliver of energy that seemed to glow just beyond detectable brightness. It slowly but steadily gained vigor to become a well defined albeit dim haze. The light grew brighter and brighter until its existence could no longer be disputed. The light began to gain definition; oddly defined lines and pathways seemed to form within its surface. Shapes intersected each other at artificial angles. The energy grew more and more vivid, and the arrays of light became clear and enduring. The two pools of blue form solidified and remained stable in their crystalline shapes. Their patterns were set, and they stood ready.

The eyes of the android peered forward with newfound life. His ancient circuits breathed with power once more. The enormous quantity of data stored in his memory resurfaced into his consciousness. The millions of memories of which he was once again aware erupted back into his mind: the throng of moving machines, the bright shattering light, and the smooth surfaces reassembled and built themselves back.

The commander asked the group working on the power relays about their status. The team had managed to replicate the energy patterns that had once fed the circuits of the android. They had rerouted starship fuel to a makeshift generator to provide the power they would need. They had opened the relic and fed the stream directly into the flux of components and transmissions, into a section that had seemed relatively isolated. It had taken several minutes for the all the decrepit systems to be sufficiently fueled by the power source, but slowly he had come to life and he continued to be supplied by the stream.

The team reported their apparent success to the commander.

"Very well done," was the response.

They quickly explained to him the adjustments they had made to the system they had set up. He listened, and then the whole group turned their eyes towards the android. It was unaware of what had just transpired, but felt contact from the outside. The Skyrrnians had assembled an interface with the machine. They were directly linked into the android's artificial mind.

The android could now sense the foreign presence probing its memory, which swept through its interior at an immense speed, picking up, observing, and analyzing all it found; taking all it could get its ravenous probes on.

The android's internal security system had been dormant so long that it took a long while for it to realize the threat. There had been no foreign contact for so long. It had seen no trace of anything unaccounted for in the physical world, let alone in its mind, since its fabrication. The presence was marked as the invader it was, and the Skyrrnian technicians lost control over their probes in the android's system.

The program that was reading and collecting all it could in the android's mind suddenly stopped its feed. The people keeping track of and storing all the information took in anxious breaths. The communication link became entirely devoid of substance, and the power connection between the machine and the station, both in and out, ceased. Their worried glances and hushed tones aggravated the brusque failure that had swept over them. The commander took a step back and peered at the android. Its head began to move. It looked over the group of men huddled to its side. It observed their heavy forms, their gray skin, their established communication station, and the air with which they had implanted themselves there, especially the one who stood slightly off behind them.

"Firstman Khrrn, we have lost all contact with the robot," one man from the group tentatively reported to the commander in his native tongue, slightly mispronouncing the last word.

"What has gone wrong?"

"We do not know, sir, the robot has been able to completely isolate us from its inside. It is as if the machine were inactive and dormant, yet as we can see... can see quite clearly... it is active in front of us," the engineer responded, losing his fluency at the end.

"Well, burn inside the damn thing!" the commander shot back with a defiant yet not angry tone. He stepped towards the half-destroyed relic menacingly as if he could squeeze the knowledge out of its casing. The engineers stood uncertain of how to interpret the commander's order, when suddenly their readings started once more.

The android's stout eyes now followed the commander most steadily. The game had shifted, and now _it_ was the one observing _them_. Small quantities of data heralding the machine's life came through to the crew, who exclaimed with joy and quickly beckoned to the commander to come join them.

He took quick strides and returned to the group's side. He proceeded to peer into the screen processing the data. It seemed to be just cosmic noise. There was nothing intelligible in the whole mess.

The android connected with the Skyrrnian interface and began to read it carefully. Slowly the men saw signs of definition begin to slip into the chaos. The data began to fluctuate and take form. Although what they read did not form anything intelligible, the information they received began to match their computer's comprehension frame. What they could see were still illogical scraps of data, but they were in a format that matched the computer. They were no longer reading gray background noise, but distinct letters, numbers, shapes, and lights. The group of people stood huddled in rapt attention as they waited for the data to clarify further.

The android had made contact with the Skyrrnian computer. It had used its vastly superior computational force to map out the entire system and absorb it into itself. It analyzed every nook of its fabric and familiarized itself with its workings. It formulated the Skyrrnian computer's language into a form it could use. It understood how it worked, how the oddly made and inefficient, almost crude, network functioned. It analyzed the tribal form of communication and steadily adapted its own forms to that level. Quickly, it tuned its outgoing communication stream to fit that of the Skyrrnian system. Its messages were cut and fitted to be made readable for its visitors. The android held fast to the link and attempted to connect to the foreign presence.

The android was still being powered by the energy being diverted by the Skyrrnians. It sent out a message that was both an emotional pattern that could be picked up by an intelligence that could read it, and a simple data stream. The Skyrrnian computer decoded the data stream and letters formed in the Skyrrnian script on their screen.

-Who are you. Why have you woken me. Where are the Kher'Somaaw.-

The commander stood a moment, taken by surprise. The Skyrrnian engineers quickly spoke to each other and then turned to the commander, "Firstman Khrrn, it would be best to share all we can with the robot. We need to learn as much as we can from him."

"And are you assured that if we share our knowledge with him, he will share his with us?" the commander abruptly yet irresolutely responded. He quickly moved to the front of the crowd and stood in front of the computer console. "Let's introduce ourselves," he said to the group as his hands began to enter the information into the computer.

-We are of the Skyrrnian race. We have come on an initiative of exploration. We have discovered countless wreckages and remnants of an advanced habitation on this planet. We want to know more about the civilization that was once here. Can you tell us who you are? Who are the Kher'Somaaw? -

The commander thought to himself whether or not it had made a difference that he had used "who" instead of "what" when addressing the android. Any robot he knew of would not be affected by the difference in title, but the android seemed to have a spark of self-aware intelligence, and he did not want to risk disturbing any patriotic or personal "emotions" it entertained. The entire group began a discussion on what they thought they could share with the android.

What aspects of the truth would they want to reveal? In order to entice the robot to cooperate, they could convince it that the Skyrrnians were in control of a large galactic empire, spanning from core to rim. They could assure it that its lack of compliance would only delay their research and progress, but in no way thwart it. They might appeal to an entrepreneur's sense in the robot. They could say that they were ready to rebuild the relics from the rubble they were trapped in, and to make known the existence of the place.

The small group debated for a minute until the robot's message arrived. It had come with a significant delay, taking into account the processing speed of a machine.

-There is no recollection of the Skyrrnian people. I am an Industrial Cooperative android. It is you who must tell me what has happened here.-

A wave of surprise moved through the people assembled there. They had no way of deducing the state of the planet, or what its previous inhabitants had been. They agreed they had to get all they could from the android.

-We are as surprised as you are. Can you tell us the things you knew about this place?-

The android's processor ran quickly. What _had_ transpired? What had happened to all the buildings, the glamour, the myriads of lights? He felt a tinge of what can only be described as _recollection_ _with_ _remorse_. He concluded that he was not able to give a proper answer to the aliens without knowing more. He had no way of knowing which information he held was still sensitive: which he could part with, and which he couldn't. They obviously wanted information on the planet, on the history of its inhabitants. All he came up with that might further his own standing was more information on the visitors, their actual purpose and their means of arrival, and most importantly, the current state of the galaxy.

He decided to activate his internal communications array. The ancient device drew power in from its surroundings and breathed in life. It swept the entire planet in its search. Its small size and capability did not allow it to search much further, so hope of outside communication, inward or outward, was out of the question. He would have to deal with the Skyrrnians alone, and none else.

No signs of any active signals were picked up. The entire planet was as if it had fallen into a tremendous slumber, and the silence of decay inundated and overwhelmed it in its rest. Every last beacon had gone out, and if one stood outside the fringes of the system, it would be impossible to detect any advanced life upon the planet. The scan did pick up, however, the enormous sprawl of remains from the people he knew had once existed there. The immense urban network that had once loomed over virtually the entire sphere now covered only a few small parts of the planet's surface.

The silenced flora had crept back and retaken the planet from its cruel dictators. Jagged peaks and humble patches on the ground were all that stood as remnants from that apparently distant time. The android realized that he was not where and even when he thought he was. He searched for grounded ships because he could not search for derelict ones in space, but discovered nothing. A few cargo shipment modules were scattered throughout the planet in various decrepit facilities, but there were no autonomous ships at all. Upon the completion of his scan, the android loaded all the data into his memory.

He analyzed the data carefully and slowly. The planet had clearly seen some defining turning point that had marked its fall. The lack of any ships or signals was quite surprising. There had been an event that had ripped the life force from the planet and left its bones to dry. Only structures, facilities, and robotic constructions were left. There was little to no actual imprint of the Kher'Somaaw people anywhere.

He was quite stupefied. A second analysis was run to try to date the fall. Assuming that what was left on the surface was once all intact all at the same time, the rate of natural decay from organic and inorganic causes was calculated. The materials used were extremely resistant, and automatic energy fields that were theoretically used for temporary enforcement of compromised sections might have given structures vastly greater endurance, assuming that their power supply was not cut. He added factor after factor into the processor, and a rough estimate started forming about how long ago the rubble had stood proudly in the air instead of creeping on the ground.

He estimated the time elapsed from the fully operational urban network to its present ruins to be three hundred million years. The number shocked him. In the cosmic sense, it was small, a good stone's throw away, but in the sense of the sweep of a civilization, it was an eon. The hypothetical fall that had occurred was again entirely speculation. His last memories were not of a declining culture but a flourishing one, and any amount of time may have passed between his deactivation and the "fall." He began to understand his situation was quite pitiful and entirely insignificant. His computations looked grim; he had little choice. There was nothing left for him from his old life, it was clearly gone. He also had no possible way of recovering it; the adamant barrier of time stood between him and what it once was. He cast all of it aside and prepared his new options.

These visitors evidently did not pose a shred of threat anymore; there was nothing they could do to make it worse. Whether they came to explore or to salvage it mattered not. With his body crushed, his own feeble existence hung upon their actions. With no bargaining point and no damage to cause, he decided to at least further the knowledge that he had. He prepared his transmission and quickly sent it to them.

After a slightly lengthened wait because of the android's scans, the now impatient Skyrrnians observed the long message that unfolded upon their screen. It was too large to be displayed all at once comfortably, so only the beginning was presently shown.

-This is the planet Acar. It is the homeworld of the Kher'Somaaw. In the time that I have record of ...-

# Chapter 13

The Ameerian flagship flew trough hyperspace. Its engines were ablaze with the energy it had expelled when it had escaped the battle. Its hull stood strongly intact, and it streaked forward determinedly. Already, its attackers were on its trail. Its launch direction had been recorded and its trajectory estimated. The Ameerians did not know that the Imperium vessels were there: their ripples through hyperspace had not yet reached the Ameerian flagship at its present speed away from their focal point, but the Ameerians knew they were being followed. They knew they weren't out of danger.

Onboard the _Vigilante_ , the crew were busily repairing what they could of the damage sustained during the skirmish. The small group of five ships pressed their advance heavily on the fleeting ship. Their superior engines would allow them to catch up with the Ameerian flagship in several days.

The makeshift design of the raider ship and the inefficiency of its engine now dragged heavily on the its crew but brightened the thoughts of the people of the Imperium. The ship had caught itself in an impossible predicament. It had just barely escaped the battle, making a getaway but allowing its pursuers to immediately follow in its footsteps. It was now travelling along a straight line in hyperspace from which it was impossible to deviate, making it impossible to shake pursuers. Sooner or later the flagship would have to drop out of hyperspace, which would alert its hunters in a matter of minutes. They would drop out after the ship and follow it, yet, the flagship would have precious few minutes in normal space to possibly coordinate a new jump or try to find a way to hide.

The Ameerians knew that quickly calculating a second jump trajectory and executing it would leave ripples in space that would then be tracked again by the Imperium, and the chase would begin anew. They knew they could drag it on for some time, but their inferior engines would eventually cause them to be caught at a stop, when they would run out of time to coordinate a new jump.

Still, they reckoned that if they did not spend too much time in this first flight to allow their pursuers to catch up, they could jump again in a new direction and choose the place of battle. Maybe even with some luck they could contact allies who could be of assistance. They knew their hunters were severely weakened and could be wiped out with a well placed counter-attack.

Their current course was leading them away from the rim and towards the center part of the galaxy. They were approaching the central galactic sectors of the Sagittarius and Perseus arms, the populated hub of the galaxy where the Rekkeds and Ameerians had their homes.

They knew that if they advanced too far they would be caught by their hunters or step into Imperium space to be pinned down by countless patrols. The prudent course of action seemed to be to try to redirect their flight path towards friendly territory. They would have several days in front of them in largely unpopulated space, but then they would come upon Rekked and Ameerian space. In the time they had available to them, they doubted, however, that they would be able to make it far into any populated space.

The problem that existed was of course that the Ameerian systems were not friendly to the renegades. Although a strong minority of the Ameerian populations supported the brave defiance of the human scourge, most of the people did not care for such matters of "independence." To them, peace and prosperity spoke for itself, and much louder than hollow promises of glory, which carried only death and destruction in their wake.

The renegades had a widespread system of support that they often could fall back on. There were countless operators functioning in several sectors of the Imperium and its rim. The question to be asked was which of these could be relied on and which had the means to defeat the Imperial task force.

# Chapter 14

It is said, in the first dawn he rose above all. The galaxy stood empty and motionless, none moved, for none existed. The stars stood cold and bleak, and crude rocks circled them lifelessly. Then he breathed life into the universe. The fabric of the galaxy was changed. Its dull, unmoving form was crafted into a vibrant energy, one that could bear life. Its smallest pieces became the blocks, they interacted with each other, they combined, the recombined, they changed the world around them. Worlds became fertile, their parts arranging to his hand, bearing life. We rose up from our ground, and our primeval systems breathed life. We were his living creations in the vast galaxy he had created.

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.2 Ps.4

# Chapter 15

Khrrn, the Skyrrnian commander, along with the rest of the expedition, felt relieved. The android was cooperating excellently. Their enterprise had been a critical success, they could not have dreamed of a better outcome. He had recounted to them the intricacies of the people who had once walked the planet, and they had diligently learned all they could about the Kher'Somaaw Empire. Their ship in orbit had quickly conducted a scan of the surrounding area, but no other system divulged any traces of urban settlements.

The entire being of that civilization must have either flourished and died on its homeworld, or the remainder of its existence had been somehow flushed out from the galaxy.

The Skyrrnian expedition had now been stationed on Acar for well over a week. They had excavated the android from his crippled corpse in the ground. He was dug out from under the rocks. His legs, which were completely destroyed, were carefully removed using his minute assistance and the schematic of his structure, which he had provided for them. The Skyrrnians then manufactured a wheeled moving platform built to absorb shock and cross rough terrain. They mounted the android on it and allowed him to move himself by connecting his interface with the vehicle's controls. This allowed the android to be a fully autonomous member of the group, just as they all were.

In the first few days of their cooperation, the robot had recounted to them all he could produce from his memory banks. If his people were dead, he wanted every little bit of them to be remembered. The Skyrrnian scientists converted what they could from the robot's data into their own data format. Much of the information he held could not be transferred directly because it was too foreign to the Skyrrnian systems. The robot had to read through the data that was locked up in the form of images, thoughts, ideas, and even emotions in his memory bank and to actively convert it to text and code. He downgraded the memories so that he could recount them to the Skyrrnians, who kept extensive logs and journals and formulated a large volume of what they knew of the Kher'Somaaw existence.

After the company was satisfied that it had acquired all the information it needed, the group urgently pressed on to the real agenda they wished to accomplish. The android led the team towards what had once been a micro-components production facility. The robot remembered that once, eons ago, he had been a worker in that facility.

They were only a few kilometers from its location; he had not been moved far from where he had lived his previous life. They made their way on the Skyrrnians' ground vehicle. The ground mover was quite crude for the standards of the Imperium, and even more so for the standards of the Kher'Somaaw. It was by no means, however, unfit for its job.

It had several air cushions, which formed a layer of repulsion between it and the ground below. Thus, it nullified the effects of friction and of unsmooth terrain. It had a minute nuclear powered engine that gave enough energy for it to work months without refueling. It had a sleek, rectangular design and was of a bright metallic color. The front and back ends of the vehicle were slightly thinner than the middle. Finally, it was fully stocked will all the types of communication equipment it could need.

A detachment of Skyrrnians left on the large ground mover while the rest packed up their encampment and prepared to move it via a landed ship to the urban ruins. The ground team loaded their things into the mover and started. The vehicle gave an almost inaudible hum as its displays smoothly turned on. Its systems worked, and in a puff the vehicle bounced into the air. With a quiet, steady drone, it plunged forward, dashing across the ground with great speed. The dim plant life streamed by, and the growth directly under the car twisted and turned in the artificial wind. The drive was streamlined, as if in a dream. The surroundings moved by, and the car forged onwards quickly over rough terrain and rocks like a boat treading water. It moved up and down over hills, it seemed to sail in the wind.

After the dreamy trip to the facility, the people in the car proceeded to exit and unload their equipment. Their ship had already relocated to the area and was landed some distance away. The team set up their encampment outside the large mega-structure. Their command post was but a small pebble beside the behemoth that rose into the sky alongside them. The facility spread out in all directions around them, so they could not even begin to comprehend its design and scale. However, the Skyrrnian eyes were robbed of the true splendor they could have beheld. The building retained only its very skeleton. It was broken down beyond hope of repair. There was rubble everywhere, and only the memory of the android contained the building's image of true splendor as it had been all those eons ago.

Firstman Khrrn, commander of the expedition, gathered his team together inside the command post they had established. He spoke to his men, "My friends, our mission has come to its climax. We have been entirely successful until now; let this not be the end of our path. The glory of the ancient rulers must not come to an end now. It cannot fall into the hands of the Terran scum. For sixteen thousand years, from the first rude awakenings of our ancient fathers, we have endured. Our people have been ever on the rise. It is our very destiny to rise to the pinnacle of all civilization. Just as we struggled through the hardships of our early existence and through the rebellion of the closed minded, we must struggle through this battle. The journey is never-ending and filled with those who will oppose us at every turn. The Terrans now wish to push us down and to cage us like animals. They deny us the skies that we have looked upon for so long from our cradle. They lock us up in a prison, with our glory and pride ripped from our chests. They think they are the masters of creation, but all they will reap from us is their own blood!"

Khrrn hit the table strongly in a definite gesture of defiance that roused the emotions of his companions. Their eyes grew sharp, and their minds moved faster. They grumbled angrily and gave nods of approval.

"As you, my friends, very well know, it has fallen to us and only us, to save our people from this mighty humiliation." He spoke with enunciation and stressed the last few words in his speech. He turned away from the men assembled and looked at the galactic map displayed on the large command screen in front of the group. The various galactic empires were clearly visible in a tactical overlay.

"We are the last hope of our people," spoke the commander, knowing that their status was not quite as severe as he presented it. "We must find something to help turn the tide in this conflict. We set out to find something or someone that could aid us. Few allies were likely to be found. None wanted to aid us in our cause against the Terrans. None wanted to come to the side of a clearly inferior enemy against such a large adversary. We will prove wrong all those who did not believe in us! We have discovered here the ancient relics of a civilization much more advanced than any in the galaxy. With its technology, we will create such a fleet as was never seen before!" Khrrn raised his voice as he concluded his speech.

The men assembled with him there were skeptical. What was the meaning of this patriotic speech their commander was giving? The alien planet had yielded little in terms of practical results. So far they had been able to retrieve only histories and information on the civilization that had flourished on the planet.

"Sir, what great technology have we found that we can practically use for our military effort?" a man close to the front asked. Khrrn turned and faced the man.

"Herrah, we have here in front of our eyes the marvel of Kher'Somaaw productivity. There are doubtlessly myriads of great innovations within its walls. We have had a stroke of critical luck in finding the android. He can unlock all this world's secrets for us. Tomorrow we will leave with him to explore the facility. I am confident that he can point us to the most important centers of production. We are on the verge of a ground-shattering discovery. I feel it in the marrow of my bones and the rushing of my cool blood."

# Chapter 16

Our sphere breathed life. But it was not the only one upon which his gift was bestowed. Others, like us, moved through the heavens. Some were destined for greatness; some would fall into their own corruption and decadence, and would only be brushed away in Somaaw's ultimate judgment. Take heed, only those who ceaselessly strive to follow his way will succeed. You must never falter.

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.2 Ps.7

# Chapter 17

The micro-components facility was truly vast. The Skyrrnian expedition had at first split into smaller and smaller groups to explore as much area as possible, but when the groups had dwindled to only two or three men, they stuck together. They did not want to be left alone in the immense alien metal carcass. The android led Khrrn, with a larger group of five men, to the heart of the facility. Khrrn had told the others to break off so that they would not miss any intact technological works to complement the data banks that the android would recover.

The android's moving platform rolled agilely over small debris and broken material. His body was not fused beautifully to the platform, but he moved decisively and accurately. The men walked through a seemingly endless maze of walls and doors. They had to clear several obstructions that denied them access through some parts of their route. The men's small scales were dark in the poor light, but their contours stood out clearly, painting each of them in a net of dark lines.

They moved as quickly as they could. They were wearing informal clothing, with their arms and most of their legs exposed. The thick, organic air of the planet had weighed heavily on them; their homeworld had evolved them to support a drier and colder climate. Yet even so, they were formed to be resilient, and they withstood the climate difference.

The android announced to them— through a communication signal they had set up— that they were nearing their destination: the de facto heart of the factory. The building was so tall that the roof damage did not affect them at the lower floors. They had no sunlight throughout their entire journey. In some locations, emergency lighting that activated only when living forms were detected lit a dim, red-tinted white. The light's hue was most likely tailored to mimic the natural red light that existed on the planet.

It was almost a miracle that some of the lights were still operational even after an eon. The undoubtedly expertly crafted wiring must have simply fell prey to microscopic degradation over such a long period of time.

One of the men in the group had his weapon drawn. There was little cause for danger in the area, but they were prepared. The rest used wrist-bound lights to illuminate the path ahead. They passed by several large rooms crammed with large machines. The android said that individual pieces were produced in immense quantities and arranged by the construction machines. There was robotic equipment of every shape and size, from large rectangular boxes to multi-limbed drones that would have worked with minute precision on objects beneath it.

The android said that the inhabitants of the planet had built the androids roughly in humanoid image so that they would stand out. The androids were the supervisors. They worked endlessly to repair the machines and make the production process run quickly. They were ready to deal with a wide array of situations and were capable of making decisions to further the goals of production. They were multipurpose, and were fully suited to do a wide array of tasks.

They worked ceaselessly to ensure the factories did not die. The robotic army was always working as one, all their appendages twirling and mass producing the industrial goods of the planet. This army worked in facilities so large that they encompassed Earth cities and had production outputs so high they could put out a fleet in weeks.

The group was now at the door to the large central hub of the factory. The android could not interface with the door, it had long since died. Luckily for them, it was so deep inside the facility that it had no special defenses and could simply be opened with weapons fire. It wasn't a command room, because there was no need for a physical command location, but a large exporting bay, which was open to the air for pickup. A tunnel leading to the side allowed for ground vehicles to carry away the productions. Although the specific facility had dealt with minute components, they had often also assembled and incorporated their systems into larger productions, and so they did export large volumes of matter.

The group walked slowly around the half stocked room. It was clearly well under its full capacity, but it was not swept clean. Electronic components of every nature lay around them. The majority seemed to require only finishing touches. The roof of the building was closed with interlocking gates that had held strong. The android led them to the main console and fed it power through the battery they had brought. He isolated it from the rest of the facility's system so that the power would not be spread out to the entire structure and be used up in an instant.

The system turned on with a delay, because many of its components had broken down after such a long wait. The android reported that he was not able to access many of its components, and only little of what it held was accessible. Through the android's rendition, the Skyrrnians browsed through the ancient fruits of Kher'Somaaw research and production.

# Chapter 18

The people of Somaaw rose quickly. They worked and strove to become better and stronger. They discovered the truths of the world around them. Somaaw had left the entire galaxy at their door. It was his giant gift to them. They explored its every detail; they mapped his creation and solved the riddles he left them. The more they knew, the more control they had over the world around them. Somaaw had left his very tools at their disposal. Using his forge, they could bend the universe to their will.

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.5 Ps.3

# Chapter 19

"Captain Harka'yn, your orders sir?" the Ameerian officer asked his commanding officer. The captain stood leaning onto the command console on the ship with his eyes gazing intently into its surface. He had been silent for several minutes now. He gave no signs of life, but his mind stood in stark contrast to his outward appearance. It raged furiously as it tried to forge a logical solution to the problem he faced.

Too much time had gone by since his ship had carried out its daring escape, and he knew that his pursuers were on their way. The hours had already ticked into days; they were catching up with him, and he had little time left to spare. If they were to attempt to change course or to try to find some allies, they would have to act immediately before they yielded too much of their advantage to their pursuers.

Three main courses of action unfolded in front of the crew. Their first option was to try to somehow stop and fly into a nebulous area with high ambient energy levels, which would possibly hide their ship. A dust or asteroid field might mask the ship, but only from extremely large distances. The ship was simply too big, and if any seekers came close they would surely find it.

The Ameerians' second option was to make their second jump to a location featuring several celestial objects such as moons or planets. They could position the ship to engage the pursuing fleet from their broadside, and have their other side covered. Arranging the enemy fleet against one long side of their hull would allow them to funnel all their power to that section of the hull and to those weapons. They would be able to resist a short while longer and to possibly destroy some of their attackers. This situation was sure to end in defeat, but the strategic decision on a place of battle would ensure that they maximized their damage output before they were destroyed.

The third, and most risky yet rewarding of them all, was to try to seek help. There would be great risk involved. They might expose and compromise several of their allies, but if they were lucky they could also save themselves. They were rapidly approaching Ameerian space, so there were a few people who could come to their assistance.

Harka'yn looked up and met eyes with the officer, "We will..." his speech dropped off as he immediately reconsidered his options. He could not make up his mind. His mind jumped, but he was the captain, and he was responsible for making decisions. If nothing else, a leader had to be firm and decisive.

He decided that he would send a distress signal to several of the systems in the area where several packs of raiders had lurked at one point or another. There was even an independent establishment in one of the vacant systems in the area that operated under the pretext of a mining operation while actually trading with and giving supplies to Ameerian renegades in the area.

Harka'yn's voice came out strong, "I am going to prepare a voice and data transmission. I want you to relay it to all the systems in a two-day flight radius from the point where we will be in about five hours. We must try to gather to us as many of our friends as we can. We will drop out of hyperspace and then we will make for..." the captain quickly scanned over the charts in his command console and located the best and most defendable rally point, "the thick asteroid field in the QAX-23 system."

The officer smiled and responded, "Very good, sir. I'm sure that many of the bands operating in this area are still here; one or two of them should answer our call. The time is short though, they will have to act immediately if they are to arrive at the same time as us."

The officer left to complete his task. The preparations were made and the ship was ready to return to normal space. The crew had high hopes that the captain's message would be received and heeded.

The next few hours wore on slowly. The ship prepared to stop and quickly make its second jump. The trajectory towards the uninhabited QAX-23 system had to be calculated. All preparations were made so they would have to spend as little time as possible between jumps. The QAX-23 system was simply one from the plethora of solar systems in the vicinity. The Ameerian ship had already travelled some distance, and the clusters of systems that would be ahead of them would be the last sparsely populated areas of space before the Ameerian and Rekked expanses, which in turn bordered the Galar battlestation.

This area of space was predominantly populated by Ameerian and Rekked peoples. It was relatively close to the galactic core, and so there were many systems in the area. Several were populated, but an overwhelming majority of them were not. Such an empty system had been chosen for the rendezvous point; it was almost an arbitrary choice. This would also slow down the pursuers because they would have to calculate the exact direction in which the Ameerians had travelled. Because the ripples in space lost accuracy over long distances, the Imperial fleet would have a large chance of making a few mis-jumps before arriving at QAX-23.

The last few minutes trickled down to a halt. The Ameerian flagship had now been on its escape route for almost a week. The Imperium's ships would catch up in one to two days. They were not stopping at any system but were going to make their midway stop in the vast void of interstellar space. The last few seconds came to a grinding halt as the exact measurements came closer and closer. Their stop loomed ahead.

The engines came to life and fired in reverse. The ship was caught in the reverse thrust, and its speed abruptly changed. The fold in space immediately zipped past behind them, abandoning them to normal space. They decelerated and came to a stop. They seemed to float momentarily in a sea of blackness, their engine still shining blue from the antimatter discharge. It gleamed palely and weakly. All lights were lit aboard the ship, yet everyone except the engineers waited with drawn breaths.

Those responsible for the ship's movement worked furiously at their stations. Both on the bridge and in the engineering rooms the tension could be cut with a knife. All members who were occupied communicated on a private channel through the ships communications system. The entire flagship was, as all ships are, equipped with a ship-wide communicator system. This system carried voice, text, images, design, and all manner of data to whomever needed it. It provided a reliable and immediate method of communication and was used for all the purposes it could serve. The crew at work now talked in rapid tones to one another. Their voices came through crystal clear, each reporting and receiving reports. They worked in unison, fueled by fear and dedication.

Their next hyperspace jump was plotted and confirmed with lightning speed. They were prepared to once again activate their antimatter engines. The bulky ship stood adrift in space, and for a moment it seemed to draw in a sharp breath before its engines flared and it was out of sight. It darted away quickly and decisively towards the QAX-23 system. The Ameerian vessel had been in normal space only for a minute.

It was now once again travelling swiftly through hyperspace. It was speeding toward the rendezvous point. Their message had been sent out when they had made their stop. It echoed through space, but there was no guarantee that anyone would be there to listen. The time frame for which support would be possible was miniscule, and any allies would have to set out immediately upon receiving the message. The ships of the Imperium were now almost upon them, and the climax of the chase was at hand.

Aboard the _Defender IV_ , Captain Trein was informed that the Ameerian ship's hyperspace disturbances had abruptly stopped. He quickly reviewed the findings and noticed that at a point they were to pass by momentarily, the tracks through space had vanished.

For a moment, he remained confused. _Why would the ship stop and accept its fate?_ His thoughts sharpened, and he realized that the Ameerians might've had a strong ace up their sleeve.

Whatever their plan, and whatever trick they thought they could work, they were doubtlessly at a severe disadvantage. Their ship was crippled, and they were outnumbered five to one. Trein knew that no matter what the Ameerians tried to do, in the end they would fail.

Yet, because his enemies clearly thought that they would be better off by running this scheme, it was only logical to advance with caution. Trein thought about what would be the most prudent course of action, but his resolve to advance stood unshaken: there was simply no evidence to turn the team back.

He contacted the other ships, which had also measured the disturbance, and they decided to stop. They dropped to normal space and scanned the area around them. For an enormous distance all around them, there was no sign of any ship or even of any matter. They then analyzed the pattern of the space itself and noticed disturbances leading away in a straight line.

The ripples left in space by one's travel through it via hyperspace can be easily detected. The waves disturb the natural form of space by creating holes in it. These ruptures, however, dissipate if they are not continuously renewed. A ship's passing will leave a mark, yet that mark will slowly fade and then be undistinguishable altogether.

Many attempts had been made to quantify the rate of this disappearance and its properties, but all attempts had failed. Every area of space had entirely different properties. Where one track would be all but erased in a matter of days, another location might showcase the hyperspace imprints for years. All locations had different rates of decomposition. Some locations allowed for clear readings whereas others completely distorted the tracks.

Some sites never got rid of the ruptures created in them and so the tracks continued to stand dull but present. These oddities made hyperspace disturbances almost useless for determining the size or number of ships that had passed by, and entirely useless for determining the time elapsed since their passing.

Fortunately, the Imperium's fleet needed only a heading and it was quickly agreed that they would follow it. They traced its direction and launched into hyperspace in hot pursuit.

# Chapter 20

The designs that had been produced by the facility seemed difficult to imagine. Through the android's translation, Khrrn looked over disruption devices that were extremely efficient and deadly. They used a beam that was only several atoms wide and thus impossible to visibly detect and next to impossible to pick up using a ship's battle scanners. They could thus fire with undeterred accuracy at ships all around them. The discharge could ignite a catalyzing effect on the surface it touched, destabilizing all the matter in contact with it, making sure it was completely destroyed but causing no damage into the vacuum of space.

There were designs of active hull plating that withstood immense damage. The molecules of the hull itself could be moved at will and charged with energy. Energy discharges fired against the hull could be manipulated and deterred or even fired back at the attacker.

There were atmospheric manipulators that could emulate the hell fires of Venus on a moon or turn the bleak surface of Pluto into a Gaia.

There were genetic modifiers that could be used to manually alter the genetic build of a living specimen.

They found microprobes that could take on the role of a pathogen or of a panacea. They could be programmed to disperse from a capsule into a water supply or into the air. They would spread out and enter any living being. A mere few of them could overpower any species' immune system and destroy it or wreak predetermined damage to it. The Kher'Somaaw research into nervous systems also allowed the micro-robots to move to the brain and substantially alter its components, making the subject act differently or even alter the factual information it had available.

The microprobes also had the ability to seek out a virus or bacteria and eliminate it. In that case substantially more microprobes were required, but the android assured them that the hospitals were never in short supply. The probes would fan out and carry out a pseudo search and destroy operation, targeting out the invading beings and dissolving them to sludge. The probes could also repair broken bones, cell by cell, nearly identically to their natural form. They could easily eliminate clustered diseases such as cancer, and genetic mutations could be treated with genetic alteration.

With each new revelation, the Skyrrnians' heads grew light. They felt the weight of the world lifting off their shoulders. Whatever purpose they had had was now gone. They had found the greatest treasure in all of the history of the galaxy. They could not believe their eyes and ears. The capabilities they were imagining seemed outright magical. They could not believe the plethora of practical uses available to them. This was only in the field of micro-technology. Khrnn could only imagine what other world shattering innovations were to be reaped in the fields of construction, engineering, or energy!

The android seemed to be a god to the group. He gave them miracle after miracle from the console. They stood frozen and drew in the epic images as they flooded in.

The android finished his "speech" by reminding the Skyrrnians that not all of the products were finished. Many required several other components to function, and many others required Kher'Somaaw infrastructure to work. Whether in a city or on a ship, the devices needed several things to run, and adopting the heightened technology would take immense time and armies of people to study and learn it.

Not all of the products were ready for use and not all of those could be incorporated into 40th century machinery. Khrnn thought of the implications that this enterprise would bring, but did not think that they were necessarily in a crisis of time. The humans would still be around for quite a while, and as long as their demise was guaranteed, he wouldn't be upset. Keeping the nature of the revolutionary discovery a secret from the galaxy, however, was impossible.

Yet the android found something he did not know about in the system data banks. There was a significant amount of information on a very large cooperative project with many other research, fabrication, and testing facilities on the planet. There were many messages and communications between all the sections of the venture. There had been countless amounts of time and power dedicated to its development. He couldn't initially deduce anything except that it dealt with alteration. It was meant to alter something extremely vast. It was meant to use the small molecules of creation and the vastness of space as they had never been used before.

# Chapter 21

The people of Somaaw had great power. More and more the world was becoming their servant. Sadly, the drive that pushed them to develop and to create became decadence. They became too proud of their achievements; they became obsessed with their own image.

The force of creation must always be in the image of Somaaw, not in the image of the being.

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.6 Ps.8

# Chapter 22

The Imperial Destroyer streaked through hyperspace alongside its massive escort. Four destroyers and several frigates moved in a close formation at unimaginable speeds. They had been recently dispatched and were on a tight schedule. The pieces had fallen into place, and with a bit of luck they could pull their mission off flawlessly.

The Skyrrnian camp bustled with activity. Artifacts were being carried out as fast as was possible from the factory, and not a pair of hands was idle. Researchers analyzed what they could of the alien relics, but for all their efforts they could be illiterate simpletons trying to unravel the knowledge of an ancient tome. In the three days after Khrrn's team had brought news of the legendary discovery, the team of researchers had produced next to no results.

The technology they found operated on an entirely different scale, one far above their own. They could not begin to comprehend its design. The vast majority of the salvage was meant to be used in combination with other devices. They were parts, such as the engine to a ship, things which are extremely useful but worthless without their entourage. The team rarely had luck with piecing together parts that worked in unison. Salvage that seemed to be functional was then oftentimes entirely incompatible with their systems. The design of Skyrrnian technology, its ships, its buildings, its vehicles, was as different from the designs of the Kher'Somaaw as the DNA of a carbon-based life form would be from that of a silicon-based life form.

Yet here and there, the team found that a device that functioned on an entirely closed circuit: not needing outside information, and not feeding out any data either. These devices required only power to function, which could be easily fed into its system. Because they did not have to communicate with another entity, they could, in theory, be transplanted for use elsewhere. Self-targeting ship cannon arrays were among the most prominent discoveries. The weapons must have been quite inefficient for the ancient ships they were designed to protect. Automated guns could be turned only on and off and could not be used by the ship to target specific ships or to carry out whatever objective it had at hand. The guns could not easily be controlled and were probably used only as fail-safe backup weaponry in case parts of the ship's computer were damaged.

Such discoveries were given the most attention. Already tens of blueprints had been put together in which the Skyrrnians hoped to develop new ships and weaponry to incorporate the new technology. There were only a limited number of these relics in the cargo bay, but enough to provide substantial benefit. The Skyrrnians sent out scouts all over the planet to seek out more stashes of Kher'Somaaw production, and some reported minor success.

Khrrn had hesitated to broadcast his findings. He knew that as soon as word of their discoveries left the planet, the entire galaxy would flock to the system like flies. He knew there would be a tremendous conflict in which the humans would invariably come out as victorious. They would take all the marvelous technology for themselves and only further tighten their grip upon the throats of all the people of the galaxy. Their totalitarian reign would only be made all the more absolute.

Khrrn had set up controls over all the communications of the group. No signal was allowed to leave the planet. He had held an extensive speech to the entire assembly and had also confiscated all personal emitters. Only public communicators were allowed. Every block was in place. He had to be sure they would be in absolute seclusion until they were ready to make a move. The camp was operating entirely independently of any other Skyrrnian group.

The android was also troubled, but for an entirely different reason. He had secretly stored the logs he had found in the facility's computer. He had reviewed all the data stored inside its ancient banks, and slowly and carefully analyzed it all. Most of it he already knew, but there was one project of which he was unaware. It was a joint operation among many of the planets' factories and labs. It must have come into existence after his deactivation, because he had had access to even the most classified files in the computer's database. The project aimed to warp space. The Kher'Somaaw had become bored with the physical matters of the universe. He knew that their interest in advanced weaponry, engineering, biology, chemistry, and their infernal list of material things had dwindled. They had done so much that they no longer felt it worthwhile to pursue those roads any longer. He remembered that they had begun to kindle a fascination for abstract sciences. They had loved to deal with the imperceptible and to nurture the unseen.

The new information he had found proved that they had truly pushed the boundaries of their capabilities and had increased their physical potency exponentially. The entire planet was bent on this project, and it seemed to carry the utmost weight for them. The project's details were in an ultra-advanced stage. What were recorded were not early research notes but end-stage production and implementation plans. The entire process had been completed and apparently concluded.

The results of the project, however, were nowhere to be found. There was no way to determine what had happened with the testing of the production. The logs ended abruptly at the production and implementation stage of the Kher'Somaaw's long and arduous work. There were no records of a termination but that seemed to be the most logical conclusion to the process.

The entire process must have been wholly discarded and the logs kept for analytical purposes. The android quickly revaluated his options. He thought he might escape from his captors and try to make for the complex in which the development of the device had climaxed. That site, unfortunately, was a quarter of the planet's surface away. Driving a stolen land vehicle would take him far too long to reach his destination. The Skyrrnians would surely notice both his absence and that of one of their machines, and quickly find him. They would catch up with him and reclaim him. Although they had no way to force information from him because his internal makeup was entirely foreign to them, he would have gained nothing by trying. He thought of stealing their ship, but it was occupied at all times. The Skyrrnian encampment surrounded the landed ship like a sea of algae hugging a jagged rock sticking out of the water.

The android watched the movement of the Skyrrnians closely, but the ship was always occupied by people using its equipment and lab. There was little opportunity to somehow overtake it. Without a ship, getting to the site of the main experimental facility was near impossible. Furthermore, the android was unsure of what outcome might unfold if he _was_ able to reach the facility. It would doubtlessly require power, and he had no means by which to provide it. He calculated factor after factor, and there was a near zero chance that he would be able to use the Kher'Somaaw's newly made creation alone. He would do much more good if he remained on good terms with the Skyrrnians and tried to uncover more about the planet's history and to bend their actions to serve any purposes he may have in the near future.

In the next communication exchange with the analysis team, he decided to voice his knowledge on the matter. After he had finished sharing with them the details of a piece they were analyzing, he included his data on the planet-wide project. The scientists were taken aback for a moment, because they weren't expecting another transfer. They quickly read through what they could, and then one of them jumped out of his seat and ran as fast as his feet would carry him to find Khrrn.

# Chapter 23

Our enemies will be swept out of our path, and we will rule the galaxy. From one end to another, everything will bow to our will. We are masters of the universe's fate. Somaaw has given his chosen people the ultimate reward. The unworthy have been tried and removed from the way. The path to enlightenment is open. But—we must remember. There is only one judgment that exists, that of Somaaw. None else can exercise their will upon another. Each has the right to live his life to the fullest extent. Time and space are the left and right hands of Somaaw, and with them he will work the universe as he has always done. All must live in his world, none can rise above it and call themselves master of creation and nature. If creation thinks itself above creation, if being is above being, Somaaw's punishment will truly be severe.

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.9 Ps.4

# Chapter 24

Klaise Xeran sat quietly at his table. He was just beginning his second meal of the day and felt oddly relieved. The mess hall around him was familiar. Its clean and rigid form had now blended in with the daily routine, and it no longer held the awe and excitement it had when the whole ship had assembled there a few weeks ago.

It was now just a time marker: it came into his life for three brief moments each day before disappearing back into the past and future. In the morning it gave him a reminder of the workday ahead and sharpened his mind so he could remember and focus on completing all the tasks at hand. At noon it gave his lungs a few breaths so he could regain his faltering strength. In the evening it let his broken pieces rest from the day's troubles. He could sit and think of something—or nothing at all. He often enjoyed those times when he was master of himself. Although without energy, he could enjoy simply existing. He was not pressed to do anything, he had no responsibility for the moment, and he felt content.

He thought about the times when he had felt free, and then that feeling oddly crept to him. He knew that he still had part of his workday ahead of him, and that even afterwards he could be summoned at any time, but it didn't feel that way. He knew that the Imperium's task force would catch the Ameerian ship at its escape point in a matter of hours, but his head was clear. The artificial light overhead illuminated his bleak meal with a shine he suddenly appreciated. He picked up the single tomato slice he was permitted and examined it with keen interest.

The juice within was remarkably well kept, its bulbous, liquid form was still intact. He observed the arrangement of little yellow seeds within its depth, and his mind paralleled them to the stars in the sky. He noted the thick red crust that contained the center slice. Like a masterwork armor hauberk it kept the middle in its place.

He raised it above his head and watched the light dance off its surface; he felt intrigued and forgot the people around him. The seeds seemed so delicate to him, they were all so randomly yet orderly arranged within the slice. He knew that a single disturbance could destroy that entire micro-system. A part taken from the whole was no longer protected. It no longer had its think shell to surround it on all sides.

The seeds were at first the men and women who worked aboard the EFS _Vigilante_ , and the strong shell was their ship's hull, shielding them from the harsh death of space. A breach in the hull would send all the seeds to their death.

The seeds then became a fleet of ships, a collection of collections of people. They all worked as a many-limbed creature, flying together and working together. They were so majestic and strong and could strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. The fleet was only a slice, and fraction of what it needed to be. Its sides were undefended, it was outflanked. Its enemies took it from the sides and behind and closed themselves around it. The armada was hopelessly destroyed without its other parts and left its cold wreckages throughout that thin slice of red.

The many fleets came together, and then every seed was a star. A large galactic empire rose. It occupied its vast dominion in space. Its ships carried goods throughout its systems and patrolled the skies. Its rulers made the choices they had to make in order to send it rocketing into the future. The empire was then divided. Its jurisdiction was but a sliver of what the galaxy was. It was a thin line of disjoined solar systems, each groaning from pain. It was a loosely bound string of scrawny establishments, its bare bones picked clean by ruthless raiders from the outside. Without protection from all sides, it was but a failed rule that would never again see the light of glory. It all stood within the heart of the tomato.

No matter what overarching authority a thing possessed, without the proper defense and unity, it crumbled into nothingness.

"Now what might this little oddity be?" inquired a jocular and warm female voice.

Klaise snapped out of his thoughts and looked to his left to see Gussol taking the last step towards his table. Her bounce stopped, and she stood to his side. He realized he was still holding the tomato slice to the ceiling light, with a jerked arm bent awkwardly at the elbow. He looked as if he were inspecting a rare specimen of some sort. He was surprised and ripped out of his state of mind; it took him a second to gather his words.

"This, this is a tomato. I'll bet you've never seen one," he finally responded.

"Oh, I've seen a few, but I've never found them quite so absorbing."

"Well, maybe you haven't looked close enough."

She offered a very slight nod and moved to sit down opposite him. He leaned backwards from the table in a gesture more used to display a respect for personal space than to actually facilitate the other person's seating. She took her seat and sat down her tray. If the conditions of food in space were bad aboard massive stations, they were all the worse aboard small ships on long voyages.

The package consisted of one slightly rectangular light-brown block and a potato slice. Klaise was amused at the composition of the meal. The entirety of the nutritional value came from concentrated blocks or sludge, leaving only a small token of real food to give a little taste to the meal. She also had with her a drink that was a clear white. The drinks were manufactured to taste like a wide array of actual beverages, but their color was most often plain white.

"What do you have there?" Klaise asked while motioning to the cup.

"This," she said as she hovered with high-spirited enunciation on the word, "is the finest of wines. Taken not from the cellars of Earth, Regred or Sihntar, but straight from the dunes of Veii."

Klaise laughed a hearty laugh as he thought of the ridiculous statement. Wine aboard a spaceship was a ridiculous waste of space. Only pleasure cruisers ever carried it. The drink aboard the _Vigilante_ was a highly nutritious mix that further supplemented one's diet, in addition to providing the water one needed. Storage space was of the essence, and every square meter that could be filled was used because antimatter fuel was something costly and dangerous to produce. Gussol was in quite a gleeful mood, he thought to himself. Still smiling, he looked up and replied.

"And what is the finest drink known to man doing in your hands, aboard a starship? Last I heard we weren't allowed alcohol, or any actual shipped freight, onboard."

"Mmm," she responded, looking with mock interest at the cup, which obviously contained some synthesized drink, "I had to go through a very secretive deal with a band of smugglers."

"Oh my," Klaise shook his head as he responded, "what if the captain got wind of this?"

"Then I'll know who's head needs to roll," she answered with a bright smile.

After the charade came to an end, Klaise started eating his bleak, yet richly nutritious meal. Winter opened several topics of discussion and he began finding himself more and more immersed in them. His brief moment of respite had been interrupted, but he did not mind the company. She had a vibrant voice filled with vitality and good morale. He forgot the tight schedule on which the ship was operating and did not feel the time start to slip by.

Winter was likewise well entertained and deeply immersed in a debate on the long-range effectiveness of experimental disruption torpedoes when the ship's public announcement began to sound.

-Five minutes to disengagement from hyperspace.-

Both of them got up quickly and put away their utensils. Because they both were senior officers on the ship, they quickly made their way out the door and towards the bridge. They moved through the thin halls quickly and made it to their posts with time to spare.

Darius Targen was already standing at the main command console, with a formation plan ready from Trein. The ships would fall into a tight tetrahedron, with the _Defender IV_ at the top. The EFS _Freelancer_ , being badly damaged, would be in the center of the figure, having three ships in front of it to move around and block it. The commanders took their stations, and the crew prepared themselves for the exit. All ships gave their final readiness, and at an arbitrary location in the QAX-23 system they reversed their engines and disengaged from hyperspace.

# Chapter 25

The entire Skyrrnian assembly stood in the large room. The space was large enough for the entire group. They stood closely in a ring around a large cubic object. The object was more of a room itself, since it rose twice as high as the people themselves, and was just about as long and as wide. Its surface was pitch black, silent, and severe. The android rolled himself to the front of it. Khrrn and four other members of the company hesitantly stood hunched behind him. There was a visible disturbance in their eyes as they gazed over the artifact.

The room was entirely unpowered and so was still. Large lights set up by the party projected over the scene. The android called for someone to bring in the power supply he would need.

A group of three Skyrrnians carried a large, smoothly shaped cylinder. It moved on wheels and was quite large. The android had concluded that the highly compact battery stored enough energy to run the room's systems for several hours, despite their heightened power usage.

The assembly waited in breathless anticipation for the unveiling. Khrrn and his entourage had been amazed by the report from the android. They had immediately prepared an expedition, and they had left within the hour. They were now all arranged, awaiting the culmination of their expedition.

The android had isolated the room's power in order to be able to power it. Once again, this was necessary so that the power went to only one room, and not to the entire facility, which would burn out the battery instantaneously. He connected the power supply and waited a few seconds as the ancient systems received their defibrillating shock.

The assembly gasped as the room stood dark and morose for a few seconds too long. They wondered if it had died out after all the years it had waited. Had the hardened circuits gone out?

After a few moments, the cube started to flicker. Its dark ebony surface tingled with an almost imperceptible light. The entire group, including the robot, stood back and watched it breathe. It began to glisten and then dulled again. A series of symbols appeared on the face opposite them. They were set in a seemingly incomprehensible pattern. The Skyrrnians couldn't make out what the symbols were or what their arrangement meant.

In the mind of the android, these were all simple standards. A control board had appeared over the box. The bottom area was full of all the tunings and settings that would be needed to run the machine. The team gathered up close around the wall. They inspected the symbols closely and began to discern regularities in the seemingly chaotic arrangement. The android reached out and tested the interface of the machine. It gave an imperceptible shudder to announce its awakening.

If any true emotions could have existed within the android's casing, they would have been of utter joy and hope. The Kher'Somaaw had tired of their voyages through a mere three dimensions; they had constructed a vessel to carry them through time.

# Chapter 26

Harka'yn motioned to the officer beside him to step closer. He took a casual step towards the captain and engaged him in conversation. Harka'yn outlined the array of ships that had formed a defensive barrier with the flagship. He asked that an Ameerian unit be placed on all the allied ships to facilitate the orchestration of the fleet in battle and to report on the ships' status. The officer nodded and made the necessary adjustments to the battle plan.

Harka'yn leaned back from the display he was working on. He stretched his back and looked over the large three-dimensional projection of the small fleet that was arranged in the solar system. There were two lines of ships, one slightly below and in front of the other. They were arranged to form a small curve, with their focal point aimed in the direction from which the Imperium's fleet would arrive. They were surrounded by asteroids of moderate size, which would disrupt both their weapons and those of their enemy, reducing the risk of burst damage. They reasoned that this would prevent the Imperium's ships from causing any debilitating damage before the Ameerian-Rekked fleet would be able to take advantage of their superior numbers to wear down the attackers and destroy them.

Harka'yn and the crew of the Ameerian vessel were pleased with the turnout they had received. A great many allies had come to their aid. Among the ships present there was a majority of Ameerian renegades and a surprisingly significant number of Rekked reinforcements. Something seemed to be just a bit out of place, but their force was strong.

The group of ships would most likely be able to defeat their attackers. Enough ships had turned up to be able to pin down the attackers and ensure their defeat.

"Captain Zenaia, what is your status?" Harka'yn's voice cut through the thin air aboard the _Liberator_.

"The Ameerian Liberation Fleet is ready. All stations have been secured, and weapons are ready for combat," an impersonal voice responded.

"Free Brothers, what is your status?" Harka'yn sent the message to the assembly of Rekked vessels.

"This had better be what you said it was, as we will expect our payment in full."

The captain of the Rekked Free Brothers pondered the events at hand. Harka'yn's message was tenuous at best. He was being pursued by four Imperium attackers, and had lost his entire escort. He reported that the attackers had already lost one of their ships and the rest were severely weakened and burnt out. Their hulls were compromised, and their power supplies low.

However, the captain was skeptical of the encounter until several more ships had arrived at the system and their force had grown to a formidable size. His doubts had largely been put to rest; the only factor that could still turn the tide of the conflict was the verity of Harka'yn's account of the attackers.

The Free Brothers ran a myriad of jobs, including mercenary, smuggler, cargo shipper, and even passenger transport. They were a small group that lived off the numerous systems in the Rekked space, and they dealt only in currency.

One by one, Harka'yn confirmed the presence of all his assembly. Some had come only as mercenaries, completing a simple job for a part of the spoils. The fleet was a crude patchwork of different peoples from different walks of life. A few of the Ameerians belonged to the Ameerian Liberation Fleet. They were a group of vigilante outlaws fighting for whatever they could, oftentimes producing no results. They were largely hidden, they had no established home or base of operations, and they moved like the wind. Their force was still far too small to cause any tangible disturbance or to incite a rebellion. They lingered on and collected members slowly, always moving when they became noticed. They lived secluded lives and almost never engaged in military action. They traded and gathered supplies and spent their time mostly on the very few neutral planets that existed along the borders of the various space empires. Their one ubiquitous defining aspect was their fierce loyalty to the Ameerian people. They believed that one day they would be able to rise up and bestow upon their civilization the greatest power and glory possible.

It was for this reason that they had answered. They had come on a mission of goodwill to aid a prominent Ameerian ally in time of need.

Their convoy had arrived first, one by one, and prepared themselves for the oncoming enemies. They were the first to greet Harka'yn upon his arrival. Their ships made up the front circle, with Harka'yn's ship in the center.

Because they had stopped, the hyperspace ripples from the pursuing fleet had been able to catch up with them and herald them of their attackers' presence. They calculated that the Imperium's ships would arrive in over an hour.

# Chapter 27

The cube was alight with bright lines, encompassing its entire mass. They swirled around it, gathering in one central point. They converged onto that one spot on its center and then hovered there. The core of the cube formed a pulsating glow. Everyone stood huddled in a semicircle around the device. In awe, they watched the machine power up.

"The device is prepared," the android announced.

The Skyrrnians all moved in closer to gaze at it. Its dark surface contrasted strongly with the bright glow of the lines that formed some sort of interface. They gleamed dimly, pleasant to look at yet pale. The android moved forward out of the crowd and inspected the device.

His appendages moved over the lower surface of the cube, changing position and moving back and forth. He quickly retracted his arms and then spoke to the crowd, "The device uses a more advanced language than I am programmed to understand. However, there are many similarities between its structure and the structure of the language that I do understand."

Khrrn and a few other officers made themselves comfortable beside the cube and asked the android to extract as much of the information as he could from it. He worked for several minutes, his processors working to their maximum capacity. He analyzed the cube's functions, its capabilities, its potential, and its shortcomings. He looked into its mode of operations and all of its details. He worked out its process and became as familiar as he could with its use.

He then reported his findings back in a simple manner. He withheld, however, critical information in order to make himself the only operator. The others might be able to crudely use the machine, but he was the only one who could truly understand its workings. It had myriads of setting and balances that altered the function and flow of time and even event elements within its passing.

After a few discussions among the Skyrrnian officers, a large portion of the assembly was dismissed to begin preparations for the device's use. They would have had either to move the device or bring all their operations to the planet Acar. They opted to move it. With the android's counsel, they formed a plan to extract the room and all of its components from the facility. Their largest ship would have to be heavily modified to accommodate this room. They would be able to transport it with all of its original casing and structure to wherever they would use it. Using crude methods, it would be possible to keep the room with the cube functioning as a single module and to patch it in only to the ship's system. The android would oversee the extraction, and the Skyrrnians would transport it to the ship, clear out a large part of the ship's interior, and then connect it to the ship.

The plans were detailed and precise, yet unbefitting the grand design of the cube. The android could not exactly determine what functions of the cube might be affected and compromised by the altering of the cube's environment.

The next phase of their plan was to test the cube's functionalities. With the help of the android, they attempted to send an inanimate object into the future. A moderate group of people were assembled for the first testing of the device. The rest of the people were assiduously working on the immense tasks ahead of them, none were idle.

The android configured the cube to accelerate a test pod's speed through time. The team watched from behind a makeshift observation station. The cube focused its energy on the test pod and the pod gained speed and left their path through time. Even the first small acceleration made it leave the eyes of Skyrrnians. It advanced through time faster than they did. Even if it was only a few milliseconds ahead of the Skyrrnians, they would not see it because when they reached that point in time, the pod had already advanced that much and even a little more, causing the gap between the observers and the pod to grow ever larger. The pod's speed increased, and then after a given amount of time began to decrease again, as the energy burst given from the cube wore itself off. It was set to fall back to the normal pace of time sixty seconds after its launch.

Exactly one minute after the cube had sent its pulse, the pod reappeared on the surface of a table beside it. The flat surface that stood dwarfed beside the cube and that had been completely devoid of content now carried the test pod. It was without effect or glamour, as if the eyes of watchers had been deceiving them and only now had revealed the truth. The pod simply was on the table.

The effect was breathtaking and anticlimactic at the same time, with the observers struck speechless, yet with minds already thinking ahead to the cube's more complex uses. The team took shifts and ran a multitude of further small tests to gain information on the cube's minor workings. Their results showed no anomalies, and the device seemed to work without incident.

Khrrn and a few officers had intently watched all the tests and were amazed at its potential. They advanced to the small assembly, which included the android, to discuss the cube's further uses. Khrrn voiced his intentions, but as soon as the words were spoken the cube's lights dimmed, and then immediately three figures appeared before the group. In front of the cube—where a moment before there had been only thin air— now stood captain Khrrn and two Skyrrnian officers. They looked around briefly and seemed struck by the familiarity of the atmosphere. The Khrrn that stood in the group gazed unwaveringly at the visitor, as if judging him. The android quickly realized what had occurred.

In awe, the Khrrn from the time machine moved to his counterpart. The other two Skyrrnians stood idly by as if fulfilling no useful purpose in the scheme. The Khrrn in the group stepped forward to engage his visitor.

"It's quite a miracle how the machine works," the visitor Khrrn murmured to his counterpart. "But in this final test I have stressed its capabilities to their limits. The machine is able to compensate for the dislocation of elements from their temporal positions. There are two of us in this point in time. There will continue to be two of us at this point as it moves normally through time. This ties together two points in time that are not able to meet naturally, causing a conflict of outcomes. The futures of both our points in time are in limbo, as your actions will change what I am. You come before me, and thus should singlehandedly determine what I am, yet..." the visitor paused, "here I am. I am directly influencing you. Your point in time is affected by mine, which is backwards from the way it's supposed to be. You see what happens? It goes in circles; I influence you, who influence me, and so on."

"It's marvelous how the machine can smooth those two folds into one. It is capable— without incident—of merging similar elements from across different times into one position. However, immense damage would be caused to the outcomes of a myriad of events by this bending and folding of time. The device can smooth out only the folds around the focal point, this meeting, so to speak, for a time. The longer conflicting elements are in the same point, the larger their effect. It would not be wise to stress-test the device."

"Our meeting is causing its disturbance as we speak, and I don't even have to ask you to take any leap of faith. I have with me a storage device that will transfer all of our test data to your version of the android. I will, however, need to take the unit back, so that we change the flow of time as little as possible. I leave you only with knowledge."

As he spoke the last words, the visitor Khrrn moved to the android and connected a thin rectangular device to him. After several seconds the android removed it and rolled backwards, processing all the information he had received. The device also contained a pre-made set of instructions for the cube. Khrrn, visibly practiced at handling the cube, entered the instructions from the device into the cube. The room stood silent for a moment, with the three anachronisms waiting idly by the side of the cube. As abruptly as they had come, they departed. The cube now stood alone once more.

# Chapter 28

Harka'yn waited patiently for the last few minutes to trickle away. The formation was ready, and the crews were awaiting the action. The scanners of all the ships were trained on the incoming hyperspace signatures. The waves came closer and closer, the ships were nearly upon the system. The small fleet moved onward, coming nearer until they were on the system's outskirts, and then inside it.

The _Defender IV_ and its allies disengaged from hyperspace annoyed that the chase had dragged on for so long. They fired their engines in reverse, space slowed down, and they were once again in normal space. Immediately the scanners on all the four ships began beeping wildly. The _Vigilante_ 's bridge was ablaze with confusion. Before anyone could even comprehend the reason for the commotion, all the ships were bombarded, shuddering under the impact.

The double line of the Ameerian defenders trained their weapons on the invaders and fired. Their weapons emanated from their arc formation and closed in on the focal point. In reality, the ships were hundreds of kilometers apart—fighting from across a large distance that was astronomically, however, next to nothing.

The Imperium's ships began to return fire to the flagship while preparing their engines to escape. Commotion echoed across the four ships, as everyone scrambled to their posts. Captain Trein furiously tried to put together a target for the fleet. They were all firing wildly into their enemies without result. Aboard the _Vigilante_ , Darius Targen trained the ship's fire on the engine room of the Ameerian flagship.

He hoped he could punch through its already weakened hull and possibly incite an explosion from its antimatter fuel reserves. That would surely explode and cause debilitating wreckage among their enemies. The scans of the enemy ships revealed that their hulls were not as well made as those of an Imperium's vessel, but could withstand some damage—and even an antimatter explosion would not wipe out the fleet at that range.

He immediately turned on his communication to the other ships, and in a few quick words explained his plan. The four ships then spread out and trained their fire on the flagship. The Imperium's ships were weakened, and their progress was slow.

The Ameerian mercenaries cut deep into the task force's flesh. Their heat had not yet abated. The frigate to the right of the _Vigilante_ began to buckle. The EFS _Keeran_ had been overwhelmed and its systems had become compromised. Some of the crew had time, however, to escape by the means of its shuttles. A few small darts shot out of the sides of the _Keeran_ before it was consumed by flashes of energy and cracked and tore apart, gushing its contents into thin, cold space.

All ships were feeling the effects of the fight. The total duration of the skirmish had probably been only around a minute or so, but to everyone it had seemed like an hour. Darius felt they had lost the battle. They could not defeat their enemies even if they managed to somehow break apart the flagship. Their fate seemed to become clearer and clearer. He was stupefied at the short-mindedness of the mission they were on. How had the Imperium's intelligence not gathered enough information on the raiders as to send only five ships to battle them? How had this mission run so amuck that they had to chase their enemies for days just after coming out of a nerve-wracking battle in which they had suffered great casualties?

Harka'yn's eye twitched nervously as he caught sight of the notification on his screen. It flashed slowly, a pale white, and then dimmed back into the screen just to resurface a second later as a menacing, pulsating light. A fleet was arriving at QAX-23. A coincidental passerby to this system was almost impossible. It would have been a massive coincidence in the barren mass of stars. Someone knew or had detected the ships there and was coming. Could the ships be Ameerian allies? They would be several hours late. They would surely have known that the Imperium's ships had already arrived. Yet, the Imperium's ships were still intact and fighting, so any help was welcomed. Their arrival would not be in vain.

The Imperium's ships also detected the visitors. Many aboard the remaining three ships lost all shreds of hope. The escape shuttles from the _Keeran_ had docked aboard the remaining three ships. The crew walked around with looks of frozen dread on their faces. Sections of the _Vigilante_ blew, and environmental hazards broke out all over the ship.

The ship was in a state of shock, but Darius' mind was quite the opposite. The conformity to death had not stirred sudden chaos in him but a smooth attention to his last moments. His breaths heaved with power, and the sweat tricked down his forehead. With the back of his right hand he wiped it in one rough motion, his eyes focused on the screen in from of him. They caught every detail. He had never noticed the beauty with which the computer projected its images, how much artistic detail had gone into it. Surely, so many people had worked on the design, production, and implementation of that system.

His eyes looked up quickly, and he gazed at the ship's large front screen, now showing the enemy lines. All lines and forms left burning images in his mind. He heard a beeping sound as the ship's power levels had gone critically low. As the adrenaline pulsated through his every vein, the visitors arrived.

# Chapter 29

"Time is normally like a flat surface, the smooth surface of a sheet of fabric. Time flows over it uncontested, and passes by every point on its surface with the same speed and without delay. There are many points on the surface. Some lie along the same line horizontally. They are all the points that exist in the universe at one time, they are the coexisting elements in the same moment in time.

"A vertical line is one element streaming through time. It is a part of the universe, an infinitely small fraction of existence as it travels and changes through time. We then see the fabric for what it is: an infinitely complex interaction of elements and their progress through time. Some elements can be together in this point in time, but then they can separate in the future and meet with other elements. They are in constant change, and in constant motion. All moves forward, and every single event that has occurred in the past, down to the very smallest action, determines the state of the universe exactly as it is today.

"The device changes all this. It corrupts and destroys this perfect system. It allows you to seize the cloth and bend it and tear it at your whim. You can crumple up a point on its surface, uniting an element from its future and past into one point. You can collapse several elements from different places and times into one point. You can purge out a point on the surface, eradicating whatever was there, completely breaking the flow of time in that point. That element then no longer is there to exist later on in time, so other elements take up its place in space. You can fold up an entire line of the cloth, bending a large part of the galaxy to your will. You can move back and forth, making and smoothing out the folds the device creates.

"The machine is not perfect, however, and the more stress its actions cause on the continuum the less it can sustain that 'fold.' The machine would able to isolate the repercussions caused by a very minor notch in the surface such as the presence of a shirt, a year ahead of its time, almost indefinitely. However, the ripples and effects produced by a fleet of ships moving a few years forward are substantially larger. Those ships are causing much more change to the natural outcome of events. By making contact with people or modifying existing objects—which they undoubtedly are, that being the entire purpose of their voyage—they are furthermore causing change to the surface of time.

"The machine must account for these changes and revert all of them, except for the ones being directly caused by power of will by the visitors. It uses unimaginable power to calculate and simulate the part of the universe it has modified. As you can imagine, that requires tremendous force. The larger the users' area of impact, the larger the machine must run its simulation. Thus it can trace all the elements of time and keep them stable while its users are in that time. The longer the simulation drags on, however, the further those elements disturbed by the users develop. A simple choice that is made is at first just that, a simple choice, but over time, as it affects other elements and other choices, the impact by that initially small element grows exponentially. It influences and disturbs more and more, and the machine must use more power of calculation and compensation to deal with it. This results in an exponential system of growth in temporal disturbances. If it is small to begin with, the base is small, and it will be longer before the disturbance reaches critical levels. If the base disturbance is large, then it will progress to dangerous levels quickly.

"The machine has no way to contact a user in another time. If the users wish not to change the essence of history, they must beware of their actions and return to their time safely. The disturbances caused by a voyage can be roughly calculated before the travel, using estimates, so the users may have a rough idea of how much time they have.

"If the voyage goes well, then the machine will have made sure that no side effects have occurred and that, if the user intended to change something, such as the outcome of a leadership position, only that one element will be changed but all else will be fit together to happen in the same way. Such a large change, however, is immensely difficult to keep isolated, and it is most likely the second outcome will occur. That is when the machine has been stressed past its limits and the user is stranded in the world they have created.

"Any actions they have taken play out exactly as they would, and the damage to the galaxy can be large enough to rewrite all of history. Through one's actions, the machine might even come to not exist, in which case the user would be the single element surviving from his parallel version of time. Elements might be completely erased; time might destroy the user in its path back to its natural state. There is little information I can give on that matter. The time machine would be a device to change existence, unchallenged by anything."

The android had explained the device to all of the Skyrrnian expedition. They would be the experts on time travel in the new Skyrrnian Empire. The first collective of high operatives had just been formed. They were the leaders, the experts, and the pioneers. They would lead the Skyrrnian people in their new-found glory. They worked diligently at all their tasks, for a new day would rise, and they would stand on the mountaintops with the suns at their backs and proclaim the golden age of their people.

The ship had been outfitted, and the Skyrrnian people left a small detachment to stay behind and watch the rest of the relics they had not taken. The ships left Acar with the android and replete with the precious technology of the Kher'Somaaw.

Captain Khrrn had contacted a Rekked dealer to supply him with five large transport ships, in the shortest time possible. The Rekkeds had hastily accepted, knowing the high price they would receive for their work and for the time frame. Khrrn now sent a message to a contact on the Skyrrnian homeworld to have the payment transferred to the Rekkeds. The contact first responded hesitantly, staggered by the price that would bleed out their already miserly reserves, but at Khrrn's insistence the payment was made.

The Skyrrnian fleet now flew towards Rekked space to pick up the ships they needed in order to properly transport the rest of their relics and devices back to their homeworld. They had said nothing of their discovery to anyone, neither to the Rekkeds nor to the Skyrrnian homeworld.

They would soon return to take all they needed and to disband their camp on Acar. They would then fly all their cargo to their homeworld, where they would set about the construction of their new empire.

# Chapter 30

The space in between the two groups of ships was empty of all except the spiteful surges of energy that flashed from the mercenaries to the last three Imperial ships. Darius' eyes lingered on the screen. It was empty no more, the hyperspace trails had arrived.

Four Imperial destroyers drifted in front of the decrepit _Vigilante_. Their escort of frigates was spread out like bees around a hive. The destroyers fell into a line and advanced upon the mercenaries. They destroyers were long and bulky. They had myriads of modules attached all round their bodies. Their colors ranged the entire spectrum, from white to black. Their large engines glowed calmly and softly from the slight propulsion they were generating. Their armored weapons arrays were active, and the sides of the ships were alive with the movement of their various components. Their crystalline frontal sections were in sync, and the bridges of the four ships quickly exchanged plans.

The giants picked up speed, and Darius quickly set about scanning them for identification, but his effort proved useless: they had just sent a message to the task force.

-Imperium vessels, we are aware of your intentions and directive. I am Gerald Warren, captain of the EFS _Antioch_ and coordinator of this strike force. We have been tracing this Rekked band for some time and have gotten a hold of their position since they left cover recently. We have been following them since then, and now will take them into custody. Your ships are badly damaged and unsafe; three frigates will accept your crew on evacuation shuttles and then escort you to Galar. Thank you for your work.-

The destroyers then sent another message to the entire mercenary assembly.

-Rekked band and allies, we are a delegation of the Imperium here to apprehend you for numerous violations of the Heartland Agreement of Year 3570. The Ameerian outlaws are also required to submit for their crimes of violence. To the other vessels assembled here, you are guilty of assisting these outlaws in an attack on the Imperium. You are also guilty of aggression against the Imperium. Power down your weapons and non-vital ship systems and prepare for removal from your ships. You will be transported on our ships to an Imperial detention facility, and your ships will be taken into Imperial custody. Refusal of compliance or powering your engines will result in your destruction. You must comply immediately.-

Darius sighed deeply and routed the bridge crew. The ship was breaking apart, and several casualties and deaths had already been reported. The medical crew gathered the injured and moved to the shuttle bay. Several shuttles had been destroyed and only two were still functional. The relief frigates sent their own shuttles to pick up the people and transport them to the ships. The _Vigilante_ and the other two ships were damaged beyond repair. The systems were almost entirely fried, and the hull was so compromised it would have to be entirely redone, meaning the construction of an entire new body.

The crews of the three broken ships flew on shuttles towards their rescue ships. A group of recyclers would pass by sometime in the future to collect the refined materials of the ships' hulks.

The mercenaries froze in fear; the tables had been violently turned on them. The Rekkeds sent out waves of frantic distress calls with no practical purpose. Harka'yn growled in anger. His ingenious plans had been trashed by the actions of Rekked avarice and stupidity. The misfortune of the whole scheme and the undue pit he had fallen into grew on him immensely. His thoughts circled, and he forgot all else. He paid no heed to what logical step he should take next. He didn't even care; he had worked tirelessly, and all his efforts had amounted to nothing! He had lost most of his men and ships. His allies were now on the verge of demise. He didn't even feel any bereavement; it was their fault they had failed! How could they have been so stupid! Why doesn't anything work out, why does the Imperium eat everything good in life!

Harka'yn was fuming. In anger, he punched his fist into the console to his right. It cracked slightly but didn't give. He hit it again, more strongly. The pale Ameerian skin began to bend as it was being compromised from the inside. He prepared his right arm again and viciously unleashed hit after hit into the console. The surface cracked and crinkled, and Harka'yn didn't stop until it was broken. The display's color scheme was broken, and then the center became deformed, and with the last hit flashed white and then was silenced.

He breathed heavily, the muscles on his hand tense with pressure. His rough fingers and knuckles were red from the contact and in many places cut and bleeding. The scratches were all over his fingers, a pale red and bubbling with his pinkish blood. He didn't even feel the exertion. In mental agony he collapsed onto the console in front of him.

The people on the bridge looked on in desperation. No one moved on any of the ships. There could be no resistance. The destroyers' ion cannons would rip ships of such low caliber to dust.

-None of your ships have powered down weapons, we cannot perform an extraction of your crew while you are combat ready. If you do not power down we will be forced to destroy your combat capabilities regardless of collateral damage.-

A few of the ships powered themselves down. The Rekkeds scrambled to save themselves and their ships' systems also went down. Some still lingered in uncertainty of what to do. One of the Ameerian vessels jump-powered its engines and prepared to make a hyperspace flight. The hasty power surge to the engines was detected, and one of the turrets on the _EFS Antioch_ shone blue and then blasted a large ball of shrieking force. It flew to the Ameerian ship in an instant and flew right through it, throwing the ship in all directions in a large gush of its own air.

Quickly afterward more of the ships powered down, and grudgingly the last few grew quiet. Marine shuttles launched from the destroyers and latched onto the ships. The marines entered the mercenary vessels and apprehended the people without much incident. They were taken back to the shuttles and escorted back to the destroyers. On some ships some crew gave resistance, but the combat suits and artificial-intelligence guided weapons ensured the marines' complete safety.

As the procedure was coming to a close, the notification panels on all the ships once again heralded the coming of a visitor. The waves of surprise that ran through everyone the first time now were felt even more strongly. The ships were on a direct intercept course with the assembly there. Once again, this was no passerby, but someone who had business with either the mercenaries or the Imperium.

# Chapter 31

The Skyrrnian fleet had been on its way to pick up its delivery when the very people who were supposed to meet them could be heard screaming in agony through space. The Rekkeds had apparently taken another job, and it had run amuck. If this had been any other situation, Khrrn might have been glad that he could have demanded a smaller price, but now it was only a bother. With the time machine, he knew that the money he spent now was all a relative nothingness.

Nevertheless, he needed the cargo ships _now_ so he could set that whole plan in motion. He had already mounted a Kher'Somaaw particle cannon onto his main ship, so he was quite confident. He would go and get his ships and finally be able to do what was needed.

Khrrn was frustrated with the nature of the Rekked: dithering here and there, never dedicated, never bound to word. Such a people, living off avarice in an egocentric life, would never succeed.

"Take us to their system. We have to resolve their dilemma. They will pay for their perfidious ways, however, they will become like the rest, servants of the Skyrrnians. That is why the mighty Skyrrnian people will rule the galaxy in our new age, not the capricious Rekked or the sanctimonious Terrans!"

He had now arrived at QAX-23 and was slightly disgruntled by the presence of the many destroyers. He was not sure of the capability of his weapon and was skeptical whether he could overpower the fleet there. The captives were in their shuttles and were docking with the Imperial vessels. Their ships were completely empty.

Khrrn cursed under his breath. It seemed everyone in the galaxy truly _was_ incompetent. From his place on the bridge the android keenly observed the scene unfolding in front on him. He had learned much of the new galaxy and was amazed by its diversity.

-Skyrrnian fleet, what is your business in this part of space? What are your intentions? Do not interfere with this matter.-

The Imperial ships then scanned the intruders and were amazed. The last of the shuttles had docked, and the ports were firmly sealed. They turned and faced their visitors in battle formation, with weapons charged.

-You are carrying exotic weaponry and unknown technological devices. You must submit your ships to a search. You are carrying contraband denied to Skyrrnian ships and you are suspiciously far from your homeworld.-

Khrrn froze; it was a critical moment in his mission. He had to get past this Imperial guard, and he had the means to do so, but he had to be extremely careful. One wrong move could mean their deaths. He thought of powering up his weapon and trying to defeat the destroyers through combat. This was, however, not possible. He had advanced weaponry but very crude defenses. He might destroy one or two destroyers, but they would surely shoot him down, and the rest of his fleet. His only immediate option was to comply and allow a search of his ship.

-This is commander Khrrn; we are testing new mining tools on different environments. We are now testing their effectiveness on asteroids under the effects of the galactic core. We assumed we would be able to use any of these uninhabited systems near the galactic core to conduct our research. We meant no disturbance, you are welcome onboard to conduct your search.-

-We read signs that suggest weaponry, and the technology is very different from anything that exists. We can't make out what it is. It will require a thorough examination. Your weapons aren't active but your engines are, please power down your engines.-

-Complying.-

Quickly, heaps of shuttles launched from all the destroyers and streaked towards the main Skyrrnian ship. The transport shuttles were accompanied by copious amounts of marine shuttles.

Khrrn turned to his only other superpower, the time machine. He consulted the android and confirmed that it would be possible to quickly calculate a voyage that would send the entire fleet back in time. Khrrn consulted with the other officers, and they agreed that they could easily slip from under the Imperium's grasp by going back in time a few days. He stroked the rough, patchy skin of dull scales by his forehead as he contemplated his options. He had a few minutes to decide before the Imperium's men would arrive.

He was tired of preparations and decided there was no need to play games any longer. He had adequate weaponry and the time machine. He wouldn't put his plans on hold to wait for some Rekked fool. He would send the fleet back one thousand years. From there he could easily use the larger Skyrrnian population mass to build the power he needed, without the Imperium's interference. The Imperium would be a thousand years weaker, and the Skyrrnian people would have more than one planet to work with.

Going further back would only harm him as well, the humans would be weak and in the cradle, but the Skyrrnians would also be a more primitive people after a certain point. They would be few in numbers and confined to their homeworld, and have no knowledge of space travel.

He quickly discussed the details with the android, and the android went to operate the machine. Many parameters had to be set into the machine. The machine would have to send a precise amount of matter into time, and it would also send these ships and men across space, not only time.

Khrrn had run out of time and went to meet the boarding party while the android continued. The android had until now been forced to serve Skyrrnian will simply because of the lack of a better option, and because it gave him the chance to learn about the galaxy and thus to possibly find ways to further his own goals. He now had in his hands limited use of the time machine.

There were two Skyrrnian officers watching him, but they had extremely limited knowledge of the cube. They were the best of the Skyrrnians, but still they were nothing. They understood some characters and some workings of the cube and watched his input carefully. He could easily deceive them, however. They knew nothing of the myriads of advanced settings he had to coordinate. All he had to do was to demonstrate that he was sending the large ships back one thousand years.

His own goal was in sight: he wanted to be with the Kher'Somaaw and to return to his own time. He furtively created a separate launch direction for himself that would send him three hundred million years into the past, to the surface of Acar.

The dock door of the Skyrrnian ship opened and allowed the shuttles to enter. They flew in and landed in the docking bay. The marine shuttles opened and unloaded their guards while the others produced a mix of Imperium officials and experts. Gerald Warren was on the team investigating Khrrn's ship. He got out with the others and moved to the dock bay entrance of the ship.

With a weak smile on his face, Khrrn was awaiting them. He welcomed them and led them further into his ship. The marines moved carefully and vigilantly, watching the Skyrrnians' every move.

A team had landed on all of the ships in the small Skyrrnian fleet. Darius watched carefully from aboard the frigate, but some of his officers had been a part of the launch teams. Klaise Xeran and Winter Gussol were with the captain of one of the destroyers and Verne had gone with another team.

The teams were in constant contact with one another as they disembarked onto their dubious vessels. Khrrn was leading Warren to the artificially extended storage compartments of his ship. At the same time, the android was updating him on the progress he was making with the time machine. They kept in contact by means of a small communication device built into the outer portion of the inside of the ear. The android had almost completed his instructions, the fleet was ready. Khrrn was pleased and hastened to conclude his dealings with his visitors.

If the machine didn't work, he had no other option available to him, and so he would be caught by the inspectors. If the machine did carry out its function, it wouldn't matter what he would do before the voyage because it would all be erased as soon as the machine's fail-safe broke, which he very well intended to happen.

His visitors were almost upon the cargo room when they were contacted by Klaise, aboard another ship, "Sir, there are stashes of weapons aboard this ship. They have energy and force-based weaponry and well as many devices we haven't figured out the uses of yet. It's clearly an illegal operation, be careful."

Warren's eyes were trained on the Skyrrnian captain. There was no need for words, Khrrn knew what he meant. Warren had caught the mendacious Skyrrnian red handed. The marines grew tense and kept their weapons ready. The Imperium's men opened the door to the cargo bay, and Khrrn contacted the android, who reported completion.

Those who were watching him approached him defiantly, demanding to know what he was doing. Once again he spoke into a communicator on his neck, "Launch." The cargo bay doors opened and revealed the dense metallic structure of devices. The visitors were caught in a moment of wonderment before they were suddenly left floating freely in the vacuum of space.

# Chapter 32

Klaise felt numb. His eyes were shut and his body registered little from its environment. His legs felt as if they were twisted sideways around each other and his body was limp. His face was pressed against a rough, moist surface. His mind was entirely devoid of any thought. He lay there as if in limbo.

Then, as if gasping awake from a deep sleep, a thought flickered into his mind. The complete emptiness saw a small light begin to shine. He imagined a great open space above him, as if he were lying at the bottom of an immense sunlit crater. He felt the ground around him and felt something pressing his eyelids shut. He felt still and cold, yet not uncomfortable; he felt as if he had just been born, and his first movements and thoughts were making their marks upon a completely untouched plane.

A cold, thin air seemed to hover above him, and his breath came easily and plentifully. He opened his eyes, but the right half of his face was pressed against the ground, and so only the left one registered the world around it.

He was hit by the crimson light all around him. The ground he was lying on was covered in vibrant red foliage. Growths and leaves of every kind made a thick blanket that came all the way to his face. He could see the millions of intricate lines that bounced the light off the dense, queer plants. They were short and stocky, and had many bright extensions protruding all around them, making them like little thick bushes that packed together to form a solid sheet.

He moved his arms back and lifted himself up, his knees coming to life, and his muscles moving as if new. He stood up without staggering and looked at the world around him clearly for the first time. He was in a large clearing that extended out a long way in front of him. He could see that it was bordered by a dark, red forest with foliage of a brighter color, similar to the undergrowth. The sky was a pinkish color and had the appearance of water. It was muddled with swirls and lines, as if taken out of an impressionist painting. It was luminous, and the light was calming, although to Klaise it seemed flagrantly artificial.

He began to walk across the ground, bathed in the whitish-pink light. His feet brushed against the red plants, making odd scraping noises. The wet marks on his face had now dried up. His uniform was a dark gray color, contrasting strongly against the crimson around him. He could not remember how he got there, but remembered where he had been before he had woken up on the field of red. It was like waking up in the morning: he wasn't sure exactly how or when he had fallen asleep.

The ground turned upwards, and the walking became a little more difficult. His legs moved steadily, and he advanced towards the tree line. He noticed some creatures in the distance but could not make out their shapes. He heard some eerie calls from the forest, but thought any call must have sounded odd to someone who had never heard it before.

As he looked around and in front of him, he saw movement in the shrub far ahead. He did not call, but instead peered in that direction intently as he increased his pace. His shoes made loud swishing sounds through the plants at his feet. As he neared the top of the rise he could make out a humanoid shape straight ahead.

With small steps, a human was walking out of the forest towards him. She had black hair drawn back behind her shoulders. As she neared him, Klaise could identify her as Winter Gussol. His pace slowed down. It was as if he were in a dream, meeting someone he knew from his everyday life, but in such an alien and unreal environment.

The two met, and at first just looked at each other in disbelief. Winter was the first to speak, "Did you..." she motioned with her hand towards the field from where Klaise had come.

"Yes, and you?" he responded, looking at the forest.

"Yes, it was so dark, but not a black darkness, a red darkness, if you can imagine,"

"I assume there is no use in asking what's happened or what to do now."

"Let's get to the top of this hill," she answered.

They fell in line side by side and moved quickly up the hill, beside the tree line. At first they were silent, and then they began to talk in quiet voices. They talked about how they had simply woken up on a floor of strange plants on what seemed to be an unknown planet. They recounted the events of the Skyrrnian search. They recalled that they had found a stash of highly exotic weaponry they could not analyze. They had contacted Jerald Warren without incident and then could remember no more.

They began to talk about the bright landscape and the rays of light that fell upon the shining ground. It seemed so dreamy they forgot they were living in reality. When they reached the top of the rise they realized they would have to eat and drink. They looked around them and saw a large portion of the land covered by the deep red forest that lay below them. The rest was covered largely by the thick red plants. The light was already waning, and they looked for a place to spend the night. They opted that the forest would be the most enclosed place.

On the horizon, they saw a large, gray expanse. It was barely lit and seemed to glow with a thick haze. "It must be a city of some sort. This planet must be populated," Winter suggested.

They agreed they would gradually move towards it if no other options came forth. They went into the forest and looked around to see if there could be any food source. Sadly, they knew that even if they found something it might not edible for them. They didn't know anything of the creatures of this planet, or what substances their bodies contained. Still, if they found no alternative, they would have to try it rather than die of hunger or thirst.

In the forest they found little that seemed like it could be eaten. Some of the trees had growths that looked like fruit, but they left them alone. Being in the wild had an odd effect upon the minds of two people, who had always been enclosed within artificial walls. They wondered what they would do in such a world. As the day grew darker and darker, they sat side by side at the base of an immense tree and talked in hushed whispers. They talked about their old lives aboard the _Vigilante_ and on other ships. They talked about their homes, where they had first seen the world. They talked about the galaxy and its immense diversity; they talked about the countless lives that were each so hopelessly unique and different that it was hard to believe such a large Imperium could exist.

They made guesses as to where they were. Klaise suggested that they had been teleported to another galaxy and were an infinity away from all they had ever known. They chuckled, and Winter suggested they had been drugged by the Skyrrnians and kept in stasis to be dumped at the far edge of the galaxy.

Soon they fell asleep against the tree, disregarding the dangers that might have existed in such a forest. The whole forest felt of a calm detachment.

They awoke to a thin, gray air. They had grown stiff from sleeping in their sitting positions. They got up slowly and began to walk out of the forest when they heard a quiet hum. They wanted to see what it was, and prudently made sure that they would see it, and not the other way around. They retreated back into the forest and tried to make out where the thing would come from. The hum became slightly louder, and they saw a large, airborne object come towards them from the distance, from the city.

It came closer and closer and it was above the forest. The two huddled beside each other between two of the red trees and awaited their visitors. The large craft came and hovered momentarily above the trees. It seemed to stop right over them.

It then moved a way off and landed quietly in the clearing. Klaise and Winter got out and watched discreetly from the shadows of the tree line. A small procession was approaching them. It was off in the distance but moving straight for them.

The humans knew they had been detected and no longer made an effort to hide. Whoever it was clearly knew they were there and had evidently made this whole journey just to find them. They started to walk towards to their visitors.

They saw that the group consisted of four large, roughly humanoid shapes and one metallic looking man. The two parties met, and the first to speak was the metallic man. He had deep-blue eyes and humanoid features on his head and body. His arms were a myriad of protrusions and extensions, which must have served a multitude of odd tasks. For legs he had four appendages, which moved with expert finesse and precision. They were thin and long and bent at three joints. They fell and were raised silently; he seemed to skitter along the ground effortlessly. Klaise was sure they could move over rough terrain and rocks; it seemed he could even walk over water, from the way his insect-like legs moved entirely independently of the body.

"Greetings, humans. I am an Industrial Cooperative android of the Kher'Somaaw Empire. I brought you here with me from the Skyrrnian ships. I was onboard with them. I will explain everything that has happened, but come with us; we will take you out of here."

Klaise and Winter quickly agreed, having no better option. They made their way to the vessel and entered it cautiously, hand in hand.

Inside, while the craft lifted off and began moving, the android explained to them what had occurred.

"In your time, there was a Skyrrnian expedition to Acar, which is the planet we are on. It is roughly on the other side of the galaxy to your own sun, meaning we are at the end of what you call the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. In this expedition the Skyrrnians found the remains of the Kher'Somaaw civilization—this civilization. They also found me. Among the relics there was a machine that could send the user through time. I helped them operate it in return for their care. They then took some of the devices they had found with them and left the planet. The Skyrrnian fleet, already equipped with some of the Kher'Somaaw technology, came to your conflict because it had business with the Rekkeds. However, the Skyrrnians couldn't have defeated your fleet, so they complied with your requests. When your people came aboard, the Skyrrnians' only option was to escape by means of the time machine.

"I had to send them where they wanted me to, one thousand years into the past. They mean to make a great fleet using the Kher'Somaaw technology and to destroy your people. I also managed to send us back three hundred million years. The machine evidently lost accuracy over such a great time and distance, and so we were far apart on Acar and our landing was a few hundred years off. I immediately used my transmitter to signal a high-priority alert, and a single ship came for me. We then scanned for you two and found you. I wanted you to be witnesses for the Kher'Somaaw to the state your galaxy is currently in."

The android paused and looked at the figures beside him. Klaise and Winter only now took the time to observe and scrutinize them. They were tall and bulky, reaching to about half a body higher than the humans. They had especially large torsos which looked like a suits of armor, and protruding arms, which were tightly fixed into their bodies. Their skin was coarse and dull, with cracks and ridges all over. They were of a light-gray color and looked as if their skin was made of stone.

Their legs were firmly planted into the floor beneath them; they looked as if they were rooted to it. They wore no clothes, but Klaise couldn't help but realize that he was unable to determine the difference between the males and females. Their entire bodies were covered externally by the rough hauberk. For that matter, he didn't know, but the small group could be composed entirely of one sex, or even the entire species could be composed of only one sex.

The figure immediately to the right of the android looked at Winter closely. His head was roughly cubic, with all the facial features carved into its front plane. His eyes were very thin horizontal slivers of piercing deep blue. They were alive. They waved slowly like fire, in some parts shining and in some parts darkening, glowing with an innate power. They pulsated from their edges inwards. Winter's skin prickled at the defeating glare.

He eventually lifted his gaze and looked to the other members assembled with him. A deep groaning, cracking, pulsating sound began to emanate from him. He had no mouth or moving organ, so the humans' initial impression was of confusion. No matter how hard they tried, they could not place the source of the sounds. The voices were sent back and forth between the group and the android as well.

Their movements divulged the fact that they were communicating. The humans listened in awe at the mysterious speech.

The android soon continued, "But... it seems something had gone amiss. The Kher'Somaaw Empire should have been vast and glorious. I remember it stretching over thousands of worlds, over half the galaxy. Acar now somehow lies in chaos and decay, and we are only now working out the possible cause. We came to get you as soon as we could in order to minimize the danger of something happening to you."

Another of the Kher'Somaaw stepped forward determinedly, his torso undulating softly as he tread. He began to speak, and the android translated his message using the data he had acquired from the Skyrrnians.

"Our fleet was away from the galaxy, and upon our return we found the empire dissolved. Acar lies in smoldering ruins. We found an overdeveloped robotic industrial expansion in ruins. It is different from what we recall. There were less of the mechanical commanders. This one then hailed us and told us he came from the future.

"It was at that moment that the possible gravity of our actions entered our minds. The seed of fear was planted, and we pondered the effects of our single enterprise. In order to continue our investigation we must ask you to share with us what you know."

Barely being able to keep track of the Kher'Somaaw's words, Klaise scrambled to answer. His interrogator had been careful to avoid giving away the exact details of his team's actions and history. He knew it was probably sensitive and so answered regardless.

"We are of the human race, originating from a system in the Orion Arm of the galaxy. The android has informed us that we live in a time three hundred million years in the future. Our people have been awakened for roughly over ten thousand years."

The Kher'Somaaw man answered, "Your race is young, the Kher'Somaaw have followed in the steps of Somaaw for hundreds of thousands of years. But come, we are not interested at present with your histories. We must know what goes on in the galaxy."

And so Klaise explained to him what every empire was doing, where it lived, and how it behaved. He made sure to explain that no one had ever heard of the Kher'Somaaw before.

When he had concluded, the android told the two to wait for the rest of the journey. He went with his companions to what seemed to be a control hub for the craft. They were separated by a dark gray wall. Klaise managed to catch the android making cracking rumbling sounds before they were sealed away.

# Chapter 33

The young planet loomed in the Skyrrnian view screen. It was a twisted gray and brown that gleamed beautifully in the eyes of the Skyrrnians. The small Skyrrnian fleet orbited its homeworld, turning slowly around its axis. The ships immediately hailed the Skyrrnian government, and explained to them the future that was in store for them.

The fleet landed upon the planet and the visitors were regarded with awe and keen curiosity. They warned the Skyrrnians of the Imperium and the future that would lie in front of them. The Skyrrnians could not identify their visitors or the things they carried with them on their ships. They knew only that their visitors were of the same race.

The populace was skeptical of their visitors. They were welcomed, but their urgent tidings were avoided. The people had only to look to the stars to see that the Skyrrnian people stretched over several systems and showed no signs of weakening.

The Skyrrnians were especially doubtful of the newcomers' words, because the human space, or as the humans had called it, the Imperium, consisted only of words and thoughts. They were far away from Skyrrnian space, and their paths never crossed except for the scouting and mapping ships that flew about. They had contacted and knew the humans, but they were far away, and the incompatibility of different species made contact useless. The two could at best make out what the other meant; a relationship was pointless. The newly born Imperium clawed at its surroundings from its birthing pool while the Skyrrnian space was a bustle of life.

Nevertheless, the visitors began to parade all over the world, heralding the doom that would await them all if they did not rise up against it and throttle it in its sleep. The mysteriousness of the visitors and their technology garnered the interest of a fair amount of people. They spoke like prophets of destruction, and the Skyrrnian government began to grow restless.

Their untraceable origin stirred odd questions in the minds of countless of the people. Word spread far and wide of the visitors, who claimed to come from a different time. A large investigation was carried out by the Skyrrnian government to try to crack the question of where their visitors' home was located.

They could not trace them to a location on any of their planets. None showed signs of once harboring the visitors, much less of being their home. There were no birth records, no family records, no records at all that could point towards their existence. The search for the people had been a complete failure. The search for the origin of their small fleet gave likewise no results. No trace could be found of the production or movement of their fleet. It really seemed as if the fleet had built itself from thin space.

In a few weeks after the fleet had arrived to the Skyrrnian homeworld, the government buckled under the rising pressure, and a formal technological analysis team was established to work with the visitors. The government could not place the threat the visitors might pose, but they knew that the population was beginning to be affected.

The analysis team could detect faint similarities in the builds of the ships. The ships seemed to have similar material compositions, and the proportions in which they were mixed and put together were familiar. One could make the assumption that the ships had been built using the materials in the asteroid belts in the Skyrrnian homeworld's system.

The visitors' fame and credibility grew, and soon crowds began to cry for action from them. They demanded that the visitors immediately begin on a plan of action. All through Skyrrnian space the plight of the visitors was heard, and slowly heeded. The visitors eagerly gave the Skyrrnian government access to study the relics they carried with them.

The technology amazed the people, but they could barely make out what the devices were. The 30th century Skyrrnian scientists were almost entirely dumbfounded by the foreign compositions and designs. The visitors explained to them the intricacies of each of their devices, and heralded the power they carried.

After raising enough support in his home, Khrrn set out once again for Acar. There he knew he would once again find the android and all of the planet's relics, just as he had first found them one thousand years in the future.

The primitive 30th century Skyrrnian ships would have taken years to travel to Acar. The visitors' convoy, however, left as it had departed, only to return several weeks later loaded to the brim with what they said was unimaginably powerful weaponry. Their first android had slipped through their fingers using the time machine, but they now had an exact copy of him from the past, as well as much more of the Kher'Somaaw's relics.

The visitors' plight could no longer be ignored. They were all over the Skyrrnian broadcasting channels. They began to talk in great detail about their arrival. They told everything about the time manipulation device and their ability to use it. They told everyone about its unimaginable power.

They told the stories of the near extinction of their species. They recounted their glorious discoveries. Their hype had reached its peak. They now were all that the Skyrrnian people talked about. Several groups attempted raids on the visitor's fleet as it orbited in space, but all were taken down by the visitors stationed on the ships.

For a short while, they seemed to be in pseudo-chaos, as both the government and independent groups tried to seize their ships. With a computer system a millennium more advanced than those of the Skyrrnians, they were virtually immune to cyber raids. With Kher'Somaaw defense turrets immensely more advanced than 30th century weapons, physical attacks were stopped immediately. The visitors' only weakness was their physical death, and so the visitors prudently stopped their actions on the planet itself and dealt only from their ships in space.

When they had proven their indefatigable strength, they began to move the masses to consolidate power for themselves. Virtually all of the populations of the Skyrrnian planets sided with the prophets. The zeal with which the visitors had preached their ominous tidings had burned itself into the hearts of the overwhelming majority of the Skyrrnian population. The visitors' holy relics promised salvation to all, and like a horde of rats they came rushing to them.

The Skyrrnian government defected almost entirely to the visitors' power. Some came from conviction, and the rest came in search of personal gain, seeing how the now demolished Skyrrnian government had failed. In the end, several months after their flight through time, the visitors instated a new system of order, one with Khrrn and his men at the head.

And so it came to pass that in the year 2988 of the Earth's Gregorian calendar, the 200- year-old Imperium's greatest threat was being born in the form of the Skyrrnian orbital shipyards.

# Chapter 34

"... finally, it led us to this situation. This is what remains of Acar, the homeworld of the Kher'Somaaw..."

The android served as a mediator between the big, bulky figures and the humans. They were in another hovercraft, orbiting the red planet. Most of the cities still had various artificial intelligence units active, chaotically trying to make order from the disaster. All intelligent organic life had forsaken the planet.

Klaise and Winter had explained that in their time there was no trace of any of the things that the Kher'Somaaw knew of. They listed the few space-faring cultures that existed in their time and plotted out their homes and domains on a map of the galaxy. The grim-faced figures understood that the galaxy was entirely different from what they knew it to be. They also knew what had occurred, but could not come to believe it.

They were the Harbingers of the Divine, the most elite group of soldiers ever to exist in the Kher'Somaaw ranks. They discussed the truth of the matter at hand in quick tones with the android, who was almost seen as one of their members. Their slow, cracking, groaning voices splintered in the air and seemed to bounce hollowly off the ears of the humans, who felt as if they were listening to an orchestra of metaphysical sparks.

The Harbingers of the Divine had completed their mission successfully, only to return to an empty and lifeless planet. Some great disaster had occurred on Acar, but they could not place it, for they had been gone only an instant! Then they had found the android frantically signaling them on a high-priority channel and had gone to investigate. He had told them all about his experience with the Skyrrnians and of Acar's future.

Together, they deduced the effects and the power of the time manipulation device. It had shredded a huge hole through time and if left unchecked, would do so again, possibly causing exponential damage to the galaxy. The more elements were changed, the more drastically different the galaxy would be. They feared that eventually, the galaxy might even cease to exist, or become a place so entirely different it would be unable to support life.

They thought that they could try to undo the damage they had done and in the process maybe even save some of the lives that had perished, but the risk was simply too great. The device threatened to rip apart space, and it had to be extinguished as soon as it could without further being used. The Kher'Somaaw's power had gotten the better of them, and they had to expunge it. They would have to move quickly before they, the Harbingers of the Divine, would unwillingly wreak their "divine judgment" upon their own people and all the species that lived and ever would live in the galaxy.

# Chapter 35

The _Flagship Avenger_ was completed, along with an entire war fleet. Countless of the Kher'Somaaw weapons were mounted on the ships and they prepared to fly out. Khrrn sat on the bridge of the _Avenger_ , with his heart burning black with revenge. He had been in the 30th century for over two years.

The fleet had taken time to complete construction, even with the assistance of the Kher'Somaaw's relics. Its crown jewel, the _Flagship_ _Avenger_ had taken months alone. Khrrn had wanted its every last detail to be perfect. It was to be his chariot on the path to war.

Khrrn now wanted to go and face the humans head-on. He would go and trample all over their glory, but he did not want to engage the pathetic scrub that was presently the young Imperium.

He would instead travel back to the 40th century, from whence he had come, and crush the humans' bloated heads. After that, he would settle in the 40th century and live in the galaxy as it should be, with all its history intact, but with a new chapter added to its end: the fall of the Imperium. The massive fleet prepared itself to jump from Skyrrnian space, and the second android complied, having no better option, this time guarded closely by scientists who had studied the device intensely for the past two years. He could not pull the same ruse his counterpart had pulled.

The _Defender IV_ and its allies disengaged from hyperspace annoyed that the chase had dragged on for so long. They fired their engines in reverse, space slowed down, and they were once again in normal space. Immediately the scanners on all the four ships began beeping wildly. The _Vigilante_ 's bridge was ablaze with confusion. Before anyone could even comprehend the reason for the commotion, all the ships were bombarded, shuddering under the impact.

The double line of the Ameerian defenders trained their weapons on the invaders and fired. Their weapons emanated from their arc formation and closed in on the focal point. In reality, the ships were hundreds of kilometers apart—fighting from across a large distance that was astronomically, however, next to nothing.

The Imperium's ships began to return fire to the flagship while preparing their engines to escape. Commotion echoed across the four ships, as everyone scrambled to their posts. Captain Trein furiously tried to put together a target for the fleet. They were all firing wildly into their enemies without result. Aboard the _Vigilante_ , Darius Targen trained the ship's fire on the engine room of the Ameerian flagship.

Suddenly, an entire fleet of Skyrrnian warships stood in their midst. They were large and featured ugly, angular protrusions. The two groups immediately ceased firing upon each other. The fleet lingered in space momentarily, as if unsure of their next move, but on the contrary, Khrrn had been sure for two years about what he was going to do.

With mind filled with glee, he prepared his transmission device to communicate with all the ships in the vicinity. A devilish joy burned through his eyes as he opened his mouth to speak. He relaxed in his immense chair upon the bridge of the _Avenger_.

-Speaking to all ships, if anyone tries to leave this system, they will be destroyed. Don't fire, and don't run away, we're waiting for company.-

With that, he leaned back and closed his eyes, knowing he had several more minutes to wait before he would have to do anything again. His officers blocked myriads of communications from all the ships. They were all in disbelief, and wanted to find out if real Skyrrnians were in those ships and what those ships were doing in this abandoned area of space. They received no response.

Three Rekked ships attempted to bolt and simply exploded as soon as they moved the first bit of power to their engines. Projectiles the size of single cells had destroyed them on contact.

The air was tense with anticipation for the next minutes before they all got wind of an incoming fleet. Khrrn smiled as he saw it, while the others became only more engrossed.

As soon as the defenders arrived, Khrrn contacted them.

-Welcome, Terrans. I am sorry to inform you, but your mission will not be carried out. You will disembark from those ships and all make your way to one of those beat-down frigates you have there. Run to your home and tell your people the Skyrrnians are coming. It is irrelevant why or how we are here; all that matters is that your time has come to an end. Some of you will be allowed to work the better of your planets for the profit of our people, but we must also repay your previous unkindness. Now run Terrans.-

The destroyers were awed by the immense fleet but turned to fight while they coordinated a retreat. Yellow beams from the front line of Skyrrnian ships all concentrated on one of the destroyers, and its hull's energy drained quickly. Cries of astonishment and despair were heard before it buckled and the ship broke in four. The destroyers deactivated their engines, and all made their way to the _Vigilante_. The many shuttles flew like a cloud to what was their promised safety.

Shots flew out every now and then from the Skyrrnian fleet, taking out some of the shuttles. The people onboard the attacking fleet were having some fun at the expense of the blood of the Imperium.

In the end, only about half of the shuttles had arrived. The broken _Vigilante_ immediately set its course and blasted off. The rest of the Imperium ships were destroyed, and the independent ships set free. Khrrn knew their freedom would be shallow and short.

# Chapter 36

The Skyrrnians attacked and decimated the planets and installations on their path to the Galar Battlestation. At first the attackers were met with resistance, but soon it was clear that they could not be defeated. Every battle left the Imperium's fleet in pieces, whereas the Skyrrnian's fleet suffered only minor damage.

All of the remaining ships were recalled to Earth. With final defeat an almost inevitable outcome, the Imperium recalled all its ships in order to maximize Earth's security. Many people who had been settled for generations outside of Sol or its surroundings groaned at the order, and there were many defections. People did not want to leave their homes and so broke away from the Imperial fleet and stayed to defend their home planets.

They felt no connection to Earth. They had spent their entire lives on whatever world they were on, and so had countless many of their ancestors. Over all, only two thirds of the Imperium's ships heeded their orders and came to Earth to form the crisis Earth Defense Fleet. The rest formed various groups around their homes.

Many of the defectors were wiped out by the Skyrrnian advance. Lacking any unity, Khrrn was able to devour them in his warpath.

The Collective Gov's unpopular decision had sparked an utterly useless wave of rebellion. The Galar Battlestation's might fell to the defiant Skyrrnian fleet, and then the attackers trained their gaze on Sol, and on the planet Earth. The deep space reconnaissance satellites told the grim news that they were on their way. Earth would only too soon read the hyperspace waves itself.

Meanwhile, the Rekked and Ameerian people danced on the Imperium's bones that lay scattered around their home.

Virtue rewards itself, and evil wreaks its damage upon itself. If you ever have doubt about the balance and law of the galaxy remember only the passage of time. By cultivating meaningful and useful traits, you will have them ready to serve you. By cultivating decadence and hate, you will have only decadence and hate to keep you.

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.1 Ps.2

# Chapter 37

The EFS _Vigilante_ lurched forward. Its weapons were ablaze. From inside, the remainder of the crew watched the raging battle. The Skyrrnian fleet was enveloping the last few scraps of what had been the Earth Defense Fleet. Their ships flowed over the jagged remains, with the dreadnaught implanted firmly in the center. The ship was like the pupil of a large malevolent eye, peering closer and closer at its final victim.

To the left and right, the last few of the EDF's frigates were now blasting all their power to their engines. They had opted to end the battle with a bang because they knew no other outcome awaited them. Defeat was inevitable, but what a show they might give. They flew faster and faster as kamikaze pilots, their engines leaving bright white trails from the overdrive.

A few ships had escaped the scene of battle. Several of them had turned on their heels and flashed away from the conflict. They had escaped, but if Earth fell, then all human colonies would fall. They would be sought out, and if they weren't caught and made to suffer as prisoners of war they would live horrid existences in constant fear as outlaws on one of the isolated agricultural worlds. Smaller chassis ships had all been pecked down by the Skyrrnian's strike craft. The larger ships had all been destroyed during the heavy Skyrrnian onslaught.

Darius Targen's eyes looked over the last handful of ships. They were rushing headfirst into a sea of a million bright lights and twisted hulks set against the deep melancholy of space. A stroboscopic light flashed in his mind. The sheer greatness of the situation wormed itself into his consciousness. The physical chaos and adrenaline high pulsing through his senses seemed to sharpen. It formed into a single image: a blinking red light. It pulsed in and out of consciousness. It became order, it became truth. He soon became aware of a beeping sound. It came from inside his mind at first. It then emanated from all around him.

He then looked at the bridge and took the sight in. His command console was flashing at him.

-Incoming Hyperspace Disruption-

Darius wanted to feel surprised. His mind felt as if he should jolt awake and immediately scramble to digest the new information, yet he was unable to do so. He felt as if he were in a dream. He lazily moved his hand to open the notification. The screen acknowledged him and announced to him that a large hyperspace disturbance had been detected. A fleet of considerable size was approaching.

Darius was almost amused. More ships? Already present was the largest conglomeration of starships that had ever been seen. Ships and ships without end swirled around the physical and mental space of the people still alive. He did not care for more ships. Were there more enemies, to come and multiply the severity of the disaster that was already at comic proportions? Were there cargo ships, were there undiscovered aliens, were there _journalists_ to come and fill history books on the fall of the Human Imperium?!

"No, we can't take it anymore," he whispered more to himself that to anyone present in the room. He slid his hand off the control and sat back into his chair.

A haze began to creep over his vision. It formed at the edge of his vision and lingered for a moment. Then it began to move over his view like a dark fog. It slid over his eyes, and he began to feel the reality of the situation slip away. Some of the people around him were talking, but he did not manage to catch any of their words.

A bright haze seemed to shine from behind the enemy armada. The ships moved towards his dwindling gaze like rain coming down on the light's early dawn.

-Sections A3-B7 of the ship are compromised-

The computer's voice rang through Darius' ears with an unearthly echo. He closed his eyes; he wanted to be free of responsibility. The conflict did not even qualify as a war because it had all passed by so quickly. Perhaps it was better that way, because victory was never an option.

Dwight Verne looked up from his console to see the captain slink down into his chair. His eyes were closed, and his mind seemed to be wandering. He stood watching for a moment until vivid colors drew his attention to the view screen.

The colors of the far side of the advancing armada seemed to be warped. A bright light flashed across space, illuminating the view screen in an enthralling luminescence. In the next instant a large hulk hovered majestically a few kilometers off to the side of the Skyrrnian fleet. As soon as his eyes registered the first appearance, a cascade of flashes erupted from its side, and rigid forms materialized in a large assembly around the centerpiece.

As soon as the last hulks had flown in, the entire collective started moving forward. The ships were a light-tan color, with black shades trimming their front and sides in straight, angular lines. The ships were thin, tall, and long. The lower halves of their capital vessels were arrayed with odd, protruding, probe-like structures. The upper halves displayed several symmetric compartments protruding from the surface of the ship. They extended about twice as far up as they did across. Along their lengths, which were hidden mostly behind them, and of which Verne could catch only glimpses, there were several doors, or latches, that seemed to all be tightly shut.

Their hulls were matte; they fit in with the gloom of space around them. The black linings, which trimmed the compartments and modules on each ship, further left a somber impression. The ships flew in close formation, their sides parallel, and they moved as if in rank. Most of the ships were very large, about the size of an Imperial supercarrier. There were several smaller ships above and below the assembly, giving the formation a conic shape. In the middle of the line was the flagship. It was much larger than the other vessels and shaped quite differently. It was wide, even at its front section. Its forward section was shaped like a triangular prism on its side, the long sharp side facing outwards. Its body stood behind it, an immense rounded prism. To its left and right were two branches half as large as the ship itself, which jutted out and forward, giving the ship a three-pronged head.

Verne looked down at his console quickly and adjusted the ship's sensors. He enlarged the image to zoom in on the fleet itself. At the rear of the flagship stood a large cubic structure that extended itself above the surface of the ship. It carried immense engines that flared across the entire length of the ship's stern.

Verne looked over the armada and guessed that there were surely tens of ships. They were picking up speed and rushing into the sprawl of the battle. Blue tints seemed to form around the ships. Their probe-like structures seemed to come alive, like multi-limbed bugs, extending their dozen feelers out before themselves in odd, jerking motions. They bent and straightened out, and then they rested in their positions.

The space between the two groups of ships was rapidly closing in. The flagship was clearly larger than the Skyrrnian dreadnaught. The Skyrrnian ships seemed to be frozen for a moment, before urgently shrinking back and regrouping in a tight formation. They had been significantly separated, like a cloud lingering in the air. They now swirled and drifted closely together in a new makeshift formation.

A few Imperial frigates had not yet collided with their targets, and they now reeled back and retreated from the focal point. The _Vigilante_ followed suit. Verne could not see them anymore, but a display from the computer showed that eight frigate chassis vessels and five large strike corvettes remained. They regrouped a short way off from the battle, tense with anticipation.

The foreign fleet continued to advance, its presence sucking in the light from around it. It moved like a cold hand with probing fingers into the midst of the battle. It had separated the combatants, who now drifted apart, into two loose camps. Its delta formation moved until it had the Skyrrnians off one of its sides, and the Imperium on the other. The flagship's engines were now idle, and it seemed to breathe without moving. Its jagged form seemed to observe its surroundings. It stood unmoving, as a challenge to all who gazed upon it. It had separated and split the battle and sent each group to its side like a strong wind parting water.

It now rested, brooding over the deeds done. Its companions stood close-by like a unified company. Their hulls seemed almost gray in the darkness. Time passed by, but Verne could not quantify it. All minds were poised on the new assembly of ships. Several moments or perhaps minutes elapsed. A blue light began to flash from the ship's screen. The ship was receiving a transmission.

# Chapter 38

Verne rushed to the side and furiously entered the correct sequence to accept the transmission. After his fingers had finished their work, his head slowly looked up and his eyes fixed on the massive ships ahead. He stared intently at them for a moment. He then remembered that the captain was still in his subconscious daze, and he dashed over to waken him. Darius' head was bobbing slightly and his eyes were closed, but only lightly so.

Verne grasped his left shoulder with his left hand and the side of his face with the other and shook him lightly. The captain gave a small life sign but did not wake up. Verne gave a quick glance around the room, but there was nothing that could have been of use. He shook much harder this time and spoke, "Captain! An unidentified fleet has entered the area! They're contacting us!"

Darius' consciousness lingered in limbo for another few moments. His thoughts were not his own. Then something flickered in his head and his eyes shot open. He looked around from his reclined position and then let his gaze stop on the vessel ahead.

In that moment, the communication stream had been established between the new arrival and the _Vigilante_ and the other frigates. A deep rumbling tone first took form. The crew members were frozen in their positions as they tried to discern the sound. The tone then became much more vigorous and life-bearing. Its pitch rose slightly and its rumble became clearly defined. It gave the impression of listening to the slow cracking of thick tree trunks far off in the forest. It sounded like a dull, matted scrape that resonated as if in a drum. The voices went on for quite a while. They twisted and turned and folded in upon each other. It seemed as if several of these jolting lines of sound came together to form an odd form of Morse code.

Then a higher line of sound entered the stream. This tone gave the impression of being agitated. It creaked and ticked loudly and consistently. It sounded like an electric synthetic instrument was pounding out a rapid, discordant tune. It wormed it way in circles and clicked and snapped. After several more moments the voice died out.

The deep throbbing was once again the sole sound reaching the ears of the _Vigilante_ crew. Its tone started to die out to a thin, metallic tapping sound. It played an odd accentuated finale and then died out. The stream was once again complete silence.

The people assembled were struck dumbfounded. They did not know what to make of the mysterious transmission. Some started to whisper to each other in hushed tones. Some suspected that the transmission was sent in a format wholly unknown to the Imperium's computers and thus played out only as discordant sounds. There were myriads of speculations, but none were grounded in fact.

Darius turned his gaze from the imperious armada assembled in front of him to his tactical console. The transmission was not complete, a string of text followed. The computer asked him if he wished to read it or if it should be read aloud. Darius quickly selected the option for it to be read aloud. The computer immediately began to enunciate the message. The voice was a perfect imitation of a human's voice. Each and every sound that could be pronounced by a human tongue was expertly incorporated into a system of speech that flawlessly talked like a streamlined voice. The voice was like that of a man who spoke an even compromise of all accents possible.

-Human vessels; one of your kind is with us and will formulate our voice so you may understand it. We are the Kher'Somaaw, in our tongue: the unremitting servants of god, Somaaw. We come from a time that has long past, a time before any assembled here existed. In that time only two sentient beings existed in the galaxy: The Kher'Somaaw and The Others.

In the beginning of memory, the Kher'Somaaw were alone on the planet Acar. We did not know that there were other worlds like ours and that what seemed to be an entire universe was just a small piece in a much larger frame. Slowly, Somaaw revealed his world to us and we began to comprehend his design. The sky became open to us and soon later what lay beyond it.

We began to explore Somaaw's true universe and answer the questions he had left. Our power and influence became great, yet it still was childlike in nature. We had become fat with our own little dominance, and internal conflict began to mount. Few of our people could foresee a new rise in our people. We had consumed all the resources our own precious star had to offer and were now groaning greedily.

It was then that the First Time of Reckoning came upon us: the first true barrier in our path towards enlightenment and glory. Unlike the tribal squabbles that consume every people in their early development, this war rose to a drastic scale. The Kher'Somaaw were fighting each other, reaping genocide from among their own brothers. Resources and commodities had become extremely limited, and the three planets fought each other bitterly for whatever salvage they could steal. A grim end seemed to be approaching, one that rang out from our distant past: mindless conflict and war, it seemed, were not below us.

It was then that a detachment of workers on Acar's third space station stumbled upon our salvation. They had unlocked the secrets to the antimatter engines that your civilizations use today to travel the galaxy. After they were able to run a successful demonstration, interest in all the Kher'Somaaw factions peaked, and the people came together grudgingly once more to collaborate in this new effort. They worked quickly and ardently, and in little time ships were able to be outfitted with the new propulsion. A small convoy was put together and they left for the stars. The distance between suns was drastically reduced, and we could dream of fresh worlds ripe for the taking.

Our people pushed outward and spread all throughout our surroundings. With vigorous drive we listened to the sounds of the galaxy around us and ventured deeper and deeper. In our searches we found something that would change the history of our people forever.

We recorded signals that formed artificial patters. An intelligent entity other than us existed somewhere else in the universe. We saw that we were not the only creation of Somaaw. Our two peoples soon met and for a time we avoided each other. Our people stayed to one side of the meeting point and theirs stayed to the other. The more time passed, the more unstable our relation became with The Others. We could not find common ground; our cultures were so innately different. Squabbles ranging from the ownership of valuable planets to the ownership of space routes started to disrupt the peace. There was a ceaseless race to claim the goods and resources available and to expand as much as possible while disrupting the other's growth.

This primordial galaxy was large and empty, but it could not appease both the Kher'Somaaw's and The Others' appetites. Quarrels escalated to conflicts, and soon we were in open galactic war. This was Somaaw's Second Time of Reckoning.

The Kher'Somaaw people's hearts were filled with hate and anger. They put down all their previous conflicts and united as one against The Others. All effort was put into creating bigger and stronger weapons and more and more ships to resupply the endless campaign fleets that wreaked war on our enemies. The conflict dragged on and on, and due to the size of both our empires, billions died in the process. Planets were taken and retaken, and fleets were destroyed and rebuilt. The war was bloody and merciless and it seemed to show no end. A stop to the fighting seemed impossible; both sides were filled with a feverish drive for revenge, and the issue would only be sparked again if we were to coexist in the same space.

The Kher'Somaaw's corrupt minds and hearts caused the damage to continue unchecked, and they worked ever harder to gain every tactical advantage possible. The fighting dragged on for four generations, until it had wiped everyone clean of their humanity in a deadly war of attrition. Somaaw was a tale left to legend and myth. In our arrogant advance we created devices so powerful we were not wise enough to wield them. Our weapons, which had once only bent the physical world to our advantage, now changed fate and destiny as well. We grasped an advantage over our enemies, and we didn't let go until we had squeezed all the life out of them.

Using our device to change time, we sent a detachment of ships back thousands of years into the past. They flew to The Other's homeworld and eradicated the primeval beings that were in time to become our enemies. Unable to defeat our enemies head to head, we killed them in the cradle. We, the last remnants of the Kher'Somaaw, are that detachment.

However, we dealt with forces we did not understand, and in the process of destroying our greatest enemy, we had robbed ourselves of our greatest source of motivation and unification. The Kher'Somaaw are far from an enlightened people, and without the one goal to keep them together, the empire grew unchecked. In this new timeline of events, the Kher'Somaaw had spread unopposed throughout all space they could lay their hands on. There could be no central authority strong enough to hold all the people together and so, as abruptly as it had began, our expansion stopped. People became fragmented and cut off from each other. Work and development were mindlessly handed to robotic leaders, and our people lost the capacity to think. Worlds and systems stopped cooperating, and every piece of territory that could escape became hopelessly independent. People didn't work together, but against one another. Confusion swelled throughout the galaxy, and civilization declined. What things had once been commonplace became luxuries for the elite. Life became simple, and soon the majority of the Kher'Somaaw devolved into simple beings living their lives out on the worlds they were on. The glory of the Kher'Somaaw Empire was reduced to legend. Few still remembered the words of Somaaw and the true story of the life of his creation.

And so the Second Time of Reckoning overwhelmed us, and we were erased from memory. Only a few pitiful ruins on Acar are all that remain of the Kher'Somaaw. We are the only remnant of the Kher'Somaaw Empire that remains, preserved by the malicious pockets of time. We returned to Acar in bewilderment. Your two members have alerted us to the situation of the galaxy, and we were able to confirm our story. Our own decline opened the galaxy for countless other species to live and thrive. The entire history of the galaxy is based upon the fluke created by our arrogance. Perhaps it was Somaaw's will that more of his children be there to inherit the galaxy.

Nonetheless, Somaaw does not look lightly on the destruction of his creation, and so we will not use it again, not even to repair the past. Enough damage has already been done. The flow of time and happening must not be aware of itself, it must move as it always has, with its natural balance. If we artificially destroy it, then it will not be able to process life. It will loop in on itself, countless factors clashing with each other, endless possibilities changing themselves, history rewriting itself, and the future changing the past, changing the future, changing the past. Time itself will cease to exist, and our entire universe with it. There is a reason why Somaaw gave us almost all his tools to use, but not all. We are not god, we are only his servants, and so we shall stay, the Kher'Somaaw. We have now been given a final chance, and we will mend the wounds that have been caused.

You humans have also tampered with the life of other civilizations in space, but you have not caused catastrophic damage. Still, much of our story can also be found in your own history. Be warned. Those named the Ghenim must forever bask in Somaaw's life after death, may he look kindly on both their souls and those of the Others.

The Skyrrnian people aren't destined to destroy Earth; we will repay the restoration of our civilization... with the salvation of yours.-

The communication stream was then closed and everyone looked up in awe and confusion. Darius looked dazed across the blank faces of his crew. Verne looked intently on the domineering armada in front of them. Klaise and Winter were somewhere among those hulks. The only explanation was that they had somehow found themselves with the Kher'Somaaw and had communicated with them. The armada now began to move again. It turned in formation to face the Skyrrnian fleet. The wall never faltered as it slowly moved to engage their adversaries.

Khrrn stood blank faced on the bridge of the _Flagship_ _Avenger_. The walls of the behemoth no longer filled him with security but with fear. The name of the Kher'Somaaw rang hollowly through his mind and memory. He seemed detached from the world around him. All the ecstasy that had coursed through his veins in the past few years of his life drained out as if he was cut open. Fate had caught up with him, and his conjurations now dissolved all around him. He felt as if he were in a dream, yet a dream that smelled of death. It lingered in the back of his mind and threatened to consume him without ever letting him wake.

Several ships had already tried to ignite their engines and flee the scene of battle but were unable to do so. Khrrn now moved to the helm and completed the jump sequence himself. The engines prepared to begin the reaction, but when they produced thrust the ship remained immobile. It seemed to be caught in the fabric of space itself. Several people frantically worked to analyze the defect at hand. Chatter erupted from the entire Skyrrnian fleet, and it grew more frantic by the second. Soon a dreadful chaos consumed the entire assembly, and all order was lost. People were running in all directions, and brawls had broken out on several of the larger ships.

The speakers came to life on all the Skyrrnian ships. A transmission from the Kher'Somaaw in the Skyrrnian language rang through the halls.

-Skyrrnian people, we are the Kher'Somaaw. You have stolen something of paramount importance from us. The ships you fly, the weapons you fire, but most importantly the fleets you have acquired were never supposed to be yours. Too much damage has already been caused to Somaaw's beautiful plan for his universe, and we will not allow for any more to be done. What has been changed cannot be undone without causing more damage, but we _can_ make sure _you_ do not cause any more damage. It is imperative that your force be diminished to what it was and that the time manipulation device be silenced forever. The Kher'Somaaw once again draw breath and there is no hate within our minds and hearts, only duty.-

Khrrn furiously worked at the engines, but the ship would not budge. The Kher'Somaaw ships had cast a sort of web over them. Khrrn did not even want to start to think how such an act was possible. The laws of science seemed broken beyond recognition or repair in the hand of the Kher'Somaaw. The Skyrrnian fleets had only crudely salvaged what they could from the Kher'Somaaw technology, they understood almost nothing of it, and could not replicate any of it. The relics that rested on the Skyrrnians ships were are they had.

"There's no way to outplay an opponent in a game we can't even understand." The words left his lips in a discordant jumble that rolled quietly throughout the room. "Fire at will on the fourth ship left from the flagship, give the guns one last voice."

The weapons arrays on the Skyrrnian ships engaged for combat and targeted the Kher'Somaaw ship. Flaming yellow beams erupted from the guns and left a streak in space as they impacted on their target. The Skyrrnians watched intently, hoping they could even now affirm themselves in some manner.

The dull hull of the Kher'Somaaw ship flashed vigorously and then returned to its dark, breathless state. No visible damage was inflicted, but the molecular integrity of the plating had been chipped. The line of ships fired their conventional weapons upon the ships ahead but these left no traceable damage. Their weapons charged again and then fired again, compromising the integrity of the Kher'Somaaw hull.

The armada of Kher'Somaaw ships had now advanced to directly face their adversaries. Their weapons arrays however, did not show signs of life. Aboard the _Flagship_ _Avenger_ , the fear and tension was palpable. Khrrn thought about how his death would come; he thought that he might skip the wait and bring its end immediately but quickly dismissed the idea. He would not miss the end of his own people; he had to be with them until the end. A race's downfall is not something one sees often, and he had to be a part of that history.

The Skyrrnians waited, confused that the Kher'Somaaw ships made no move, instead they lingered for several moments. The front line then poised their forward ship extensions, and their weapons arrays began to turn. Like mandibles, the extended arms formed funnels that carried the energy released by the cannons. A deep orange force shot out from the cannon and twisted and turned on itself in the split second it flew before it hit its target. It was like a deafening cyclone that bore a hole through the hull of the massive Skyrrnian ship. It hit the center of the flagship, and surged all around it; consuming the ship in an electric storm. The orange clashed with the blinding white, frying everything in sight. Khrrn heard crashes and shrieks fill his mind.

The ship lost its form, dilated, and then shattered like glass in all directions, allowing for the bloated beam to pierce through again, a straight and true line. It gleamed a second longer, seeming to stretch out to infinity, a solid streak from which the debris of the _Avenger_ fled quickly.

The rest of the line fired its cannons, and the entire Skyrrnian assembly was consumed in a light-storm. The smaller ships fell much more quickly, creating an array of bright dazzling sparks, one after another. The ships moved their beams, tracing the entire Skyrrnian armada, reducing it quickly into a bright display of fireworks.

After several moments, the rays of energy dissipated, leaving behind a dense, metallic cloud. Darius could swear he heard something in the eerie silence that followed. The cloud carried the souls of countless dead, and they bore into his mind, calling out to him. The darkness after the light was no less agitating, his heart still beat rapidly. He could not comprehend and calculate the situation. The enemies were still out in the void; the only difference was that they were dead. The cloud lingered ominously as if it would breathe life again at any moment.

# Chapter 39

The sole Skyrrnian frigate flew back as fast as its engines would go. It flew straight for the Skyrrnian homeworld. The Kher'Somaaw had spared the lives of its crew, so that they would be witness to the actions that had transpired. The Skyrrnians were not to become extinct but only to be limited to the power they were naturally granted. They would live in their home system and would have to develop themselves through their own means. The Kher'Somaaw had given them no restrictions, the only condition that they had to follow they had already paid for by force: the removal and destruction of all change caused to the galaxy by means of the time manipulation device.

The Kher'Somaaw ships remained immobile, and as the cluster of Imperium ships came together, they formed a weak and infinitesimal mass compared to their neighbors. The Kher'Somaaw ships sent out a flurry of drones that skittered among the derelict rubble. They collected bits and pieces of what they found and returned to the ships. In waves they picked out a small but very exact portion of the debris. When they were done, a single larger shuttle was launched from the largest ship. It was a dark gray-brown color, and had a rigid boxy structure. It flew swiftly to the EFS _Vigilante_ and lingered in from of it.

The exhausted voice of Klaise Xeran came through the speaker, "Captain, permission to board."

The docking bay of the _Vigilante_ opened, and the shuttle flew in and landed. At that moment a final transmission came through from the Kher'Somaaw. Their ships were starting to move and turn direction.

-Humans, the error caused to your destiny had been corrected, albeit imperfectly. We had collected all traces of our technology. The secrets the universe holds are for you alone to discover, and Somaaw has left it to you as much as he has left it to us. You must forge your own journey through time, not take ours. We have returned your two people; it is all we can do, given their condition. You can mend the damage that has been done here today, and may Somaaw approve your endeavors. We will return to the planet Acar and rebuild it. We will remember what has transpired in the galaxy here today and also in the past millions of years. The Kher'Somaaw Empire will live again, but only on Acar. We will watch and judge the galaxy, but we will not venture out into it. Do not come to our star. It is our retreat, and we will no longer communicate with any of you.-

The ships broadcast the warning to all the populated planets of all races in the galaxy and then almost simultaneously, the ships jumped away, and all that was left was cold, dark space.

Klaise and Winter walked huddled side by side to the infirmary.

# Epilogue

... _and in the Final Reckoning the Kher'Somaaw found favor in the eyes of Somaaw. They were given new life in their new home. They would live among the children they found populating the galaxy. They would have to be vigilant, for there still would be eons to come and pass before the end. The galaxy was still young and the Kher'Somaaw was only an early chapter in its history. The tides of existence would sweep over them and their descendants countless times until Somaaw's final plans would come to light in the End Time._

\- The Book of Somaaw Vol.15 Ps.1

# About the Author

Florian Nagy is a high school senior. He has a keen interest in science fiction and writing. From an early age he cultivated this interest by writing and drawing science fiction stories and comics. Science fiction has played a major role in his literary work, spanning from snippets of notes to complete short stories. The story Contingency first began to take form in a summer evening in 2013. From the description of one large space battle, the book grew to incorporate characters and plot. The people grew in depth and soon the book had a well-founded back-story. The story is the culmination of years of developing ideas.

# Connect with Florian Nagy

Thank you for reading my book!

Feel free to contact me at florian9nagy@gmail.com
