Shadow of the Blue Ring (35 page)

Lucy and the security teams lead Kyrakian’s officers away to their quarters while the executor himself joined James as they made their way up to the command deck. It was just like it had been six years ago, a Vulian executor joining the crew in the middle of the alliance’s fight for freedom, albeit under far different circumstances this time. The rest of the team had already assembled at the briefing room, almost as if they knew exactly what James was going to do next. Some of them, especially Saavoy, looked a little uncomfortable at the presence of Kyrakian among them but now was not the time to be picky about where help came from. James did notice that neither Kosare nor Julio were present but regardless, James lead the rest of the team inside.

“That didn’t go according to plan,” Ansare stated as the crew assembled at the briefing table, referring back to the failed incursion into the Blue Ring sector, “if only Artennes had listened to you, all of those people might still be alive.”

“We all lost people in the battle, Kaldun,” said Morelli, “my people took the most casualties of any alliance race out there today.”

“But it isn’t right!” Ansare insisted, “as leader of the Freedom Alliance council, he should have known better than this. He was too stubborn and too short sighted to listen to those of us who knew the extent of what we were facing. His stubbornness will be the undoing of this alliance.”

“I must admit, when lord Artennes approached my people about this alliance between our people, I sensed that there was something not quite right with him,” Kyrakian added, “he seemed weary, panicked almost, like stopping these Al’cari was the only thing that mattered to him in the entire universe. It was as if he feared that all of his work in rebuilding the alliance was coming to an end.”

“After what just happened, it all might be,” said Isha, “he was a fool not to listen to us, now he’s cost thousands of soldiers and officers their lives in a single stupid attack. The Al’cari know all about us now and you can bet that they will bring the fight to us next time. Artennes may just have started another war.”

“Not if we can do something about it first,” said James, “remember, we still have two pieces of the Shadow Bringer and the Al’cari still need them to complete the weapon before they can use it. They will probably come after us before they make any kind of attack against the alliance.”

“I concur,” said Kalmar, “the Al’cari have been tearing up the entire Blue Ring sector for decades to find this thing, they will not let go now. Once they track us down, they will surely come for us and that will put anyone around us in danger. I recommend we stay well away from any alliance worlds so as to not lead them to a potential target. Remember, we wiped the memory banks of all the derelict ships in the sector. They will not be aware of the locations of your home planets right now, not unless they accidentally stumble across one.”

“Then we would do well to keep it that way,” said Ansare, “so what’s our next move?”

“Our next move needs to be to find the last piece of the Shadow Bringer,” said James, “if we can get all three pieces together, we can put together a plan of action for recovering the fourth and final piece from the Al’cari base. One way or another, there is only one thing that will end this conflict and that is the destruction of the Shadow Bringer. If anyone has any ideas as to where the last piece might be, now is the time to say it. Kalmar, any ideas?”

“I’m afraid not,” he said glumly, “we searched every Jaiytid ruin we ever came across and Sharstrom was the only place that held any kind of secret. I’m afraid I can’t be of any help here.”

“And I am afraid that I too cannot give you the information you need,” said the voice of Iyacs, who’s consciousness had now been transferred to the briefing room, “any indications as to the last whereabouts of the Shadow Bringer have either been purged from my memory banks or locked away so that I may not access them. To attempt to search those parts of my memory would likely damage me beyond repair.”

“Jaiden is the one we need for this,” said Ansare, “whereabouts is she right now anyway?”

“Jaiden Kosare is currently in the cargo bay with Julio Castellan,” said Iyacs, “they are currently studying the pieces of the Shadow Bringer along with the many records taken from the underground hangar on Sharstrom. I can assure you, this is the only activity they have engaged in since they have been down there.”

“Thanks Iyacs,” James managed to hide a chuckle, “I’ll go down and see them now, see if they can’t find anything useful. As for the rest of you, you’re free to go about your business. If any of you find anything or you have any suggestions as to our next plan of action, you know where to find me.”

He dismissed the meeting there. The crew slowly filtered away, Morelli heading down to engineering, Saavoy and Ansare returning to the bridge, Kalmar and Melina heading to the war room. Isha, however, stayed behind, making her way over to where James continued to sit deep in thought.

“You Ok there?”

“Yeah… yeah I’ll be fine, things just got a little tense back there, thats all,” said James, “if only Artennes had listened, we could have saved all those people and prevented such an unnecessary loss of life.”

“You did everything you could,” Isha put her hand on his shoulder, “if it hadn’t been for you, the entire fleet would have been wiped out. You saved more than three quarters of the fleet, including a lot of my people, one of whom was one of my best friends back in my academy days. You saved more than you know.”

“I know,” James sighed, “I just wish I could have saved them all. I wish they had turned around and headed back towards alliance space when I had warned them. Marek is a great leader and I know that he knew deep down that he should have turned everyone around and got them home but he is an alliance general, he couldn’t disobey an order from the leader of the council, not that way I did.”

“It’s not his fault, James, it’s not your fault or the fault of anyone on this ship,” Isha reassured him, “it’s entirely the fault of the Al’cari that all this happened… Ok, Artennes is to blame too but they started this war. He felt that as the leader of the alliance, he had to do something.”

“What he had to do was listen to us when we warned him what he was going up against,” said James, “I just don’t understand why he did it. You can be sure we’ll confront him about when we get back to Tolis though.”

“Come on, James, you know we can’t go back there yet,” Isha reminded him, “you said it yourself, we can’t lead the Al’cari to any alliance worlds. Lets just focus on finding the last piece of the Shadow Bringer for now. I’m sure we could give Jaiden a hand down there.”

“Yeah, Ok then,” James let Isha take his hand and help him up from his chair but before he could exit the room, she put her other arm around him. “Just remember who we’re doing this for, James,” Isha took his hand and placed it on her stomach, “we’ll get through all of this and once we do, we’ll finally have a family to go back to.”

No matter what the mission threw at them, James could simply not get the thought out of his head… the knowledge that he would soon be a father. It was the kind of distraction that he did not need when he was supposed to be focusing on the mission and yet it was exactly the motivation he needed. Isha was right, it reminded him that he now had a lot more to lose than he had done six years ago. This time, he had something else to fight for rather than just the freedom of the alliance.

Leaving the briefing room behind, James and Isha made their way down to the cargo bay where Kosare was working on deciphering the many clues left behind in the Jaiytid hangar and on the Shadow Bringer itself. James only hoped that they had made some progress since she had been down there. After her years working at the archives, she seemed to know what she was talking about and she was almost certainly their best hope for finding the final piece.

Reaching the cargo bay, James found Julio working at one of the consoles on the near side of the bay with a couple of Kosare’s records from the Sharstrom hangar while Kosare herself was busy working on the Shadow Bringer itself.

“Captain,” Julio nodded as they passed by, “come to check on our progress on locating the Shadow Bringer?”

“I just wanted to see if you had found anything useful yet,” said James, “I’m surprised to see you down here though, I though you and Jaiden still weren’t on the best of terms.”

“She’s warming up to me,” Julio smiled, “just like I said she would. She hasn’t accepted my offer of meeting her in the ship’s bar for a drink yet but I’m taking it one step at a time. I though I might as well make myself useful while I can though, there is a lot of stuff here and Jaiden can use all the help she can get.”

“Well keep at it,” said James, “if you find anything, just give us a yell.”

James carried on through the cargo bay towards where Kosare was lain underneath the two pieces of the Shadow Bringer, likely examining them for hidden clues. All around where she was working, she had pinned up the images she had collected from the underground hangar. The Jaiytids who had hidden the two components had left their fair share of cryptic clues and puzzles behind and solving them may have been their ticket to finding what they needed. Kosare looked like she had seen better days, her red hair was matted and tangled and her face was dirty. She looked exhausted but she continued to work.

“You look like hell,” James commented on her appearance, “when was the last time you slept?”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Kosare slid out from underneath the pieces of the weapon that she had been examining, “who else is gonna solve this damn Jaiytid puzzle? Besides, I think I might be onto something.”

“If you have anything, now would be a good time to tell us,” said Isha, “have you found any clues as to the last piece of the weapon?”

“Well, no, not yet,” said Kosare, “but… I did find this kind of weird inscription on the underside of the second piece… well actually Julio found it. When he’s not too busy checking out my ass, he’s actually been quite useful.”

“Yeah, he mentioned that you were on better terms now,” James chuckled, “apparently you’re still holding off on his offer of a date though.”

“Just because I’m being nice to him, doesn’t mean I want to get busy in the sheets with him,” said Kosare, “besides, who in their right mind takes a girl on a date to a ship’s bar? I want sunsets, beaches and cocktails, maybe even a romantic meal afterwards. In case you didn’t notice, we don’t exactly have an abundance of those around here. Anyway, I’m too busy to think about it right now. I’ve been working on translating this inscription, I’m not quite finished yet but I’m getting there. I think it might at least be able to point us in the right direction.”

Kosare got to her feet and made her way over to the desk where she was keeping all of her documents and her recordings from Sharstrom. James meanwhile, couldn’t resist having a look at the many star charts pinned up around the place, not to mention all the cryptic images displaying events from Jaiytid mythology. They had never really had time to discuss it all before, the Al’cari had shown up far too quickly and forced them to move on in a hurry. James did recognise some of the maps though.

“This one is a map of the Blue Ring is it not?” He asked, indicating to the star chart with a large blue mass on it, parts of which Kosare had scribbled on with a marker, “are these marks to show the possible locations that the Jaiytids could have hidden the Shadow Bringer?”

“No, I was just marking down the locations of some interesting ruins,” said Kosare, “the last piece is definitely not in the Blue Ring, I’ve not found anything hinting at it being out there. You have to remember though, the third piece of the weapon was on Raylia which is in the Galante sector and that is a long way from the Blue Ring. I’m pretty sure the last piece is somewhere outside these two sectors.”

“But no idea as to which one?”

“Well, no, not yet, but listen to this,” Kosare said as she picked up the half-translated images of the inscription on the Shadow Bringer, “Listen to this… ’
A
secret
long
hidden
from
the
galaxy,
a
power
to
be
awakened
in
a
time
of
reckoning.
When
all
else
fails,
when
the
darkness
falls
upon
the
galaxy
that
cannot
be
turned
back,
an
ancient
device
will
be
unleashed
that
will
claim
the
very
fire
of
your
enemy’s
hearts.
For
when
the
wrath
of
Caedius
is
unleashed,
the
power
of
the
sun
itself
shall
turn
all
before
it
to
dust
 
.
 
.
 
.”

“Wow, are you sure you’ve translated this right, Jaiden?” Isha laughed, “it sounds like Shakespeare in space.”

“It probably isn’t a perfect translation but it’s the best I can do,” Kosare gave her a bit of a glare, clearly very proud of her ability to translate ancient languages, “I think it’s meant to be cryptic to confuse other races that might try to translate it. But that isn’t the best bit though, the next bit could be what we’re looking for… ’
the
power
within
the
device
is
one
that
is
not
to
see
the
light
of
day.
Many
will
seek
to
use
such
power
for
their
own
evil
ambitions
but
the
wrath
of
Caedius
is
a
power
that
is
meant
only
to
smite
those
who
follow
the
ways
of
evil.
Therefore,
the
wrath
of
the
gods
is
to
be
divided
and
is
to
be
taken
so
deep
into
the
darkness
of
space
that
none
shall
find
it,
save
for
those
who
seek
it
to
use
it’s
power
for
good.
The
device
itself
shall
be
sealed
in
the
ground
where
none
shall
dare
tread,
in
a
place
known
to
no
living
man,
forever
lying
in
the
shadow
of
the
Blue
Ring,
waiting
for
the
time
when
one
who
is
virtuous
shall
uncover
it’s
deadly
secrets.”