Star Force: Quenar (SF88) (Star Force Origin Series) (7 page)

“At the moment, yes. It is the future that concerns
me.”

“Us as well, which is why we’d prefer your help in
setting up this preserve and maintaining it.”

“But you intend to continue with or without our
assistance?”

“Yep. If you want to wash your hands of the matter entirely,
turn over any Uriti you’re currently guarding, you can do so and forget about
them entirely. We’ll take it from here.”

“And what do you gain from this if you do not use them
as leverage to extort various tributes?”

“One very big deterrent against invasion.”

“And what invasion do you fear?”

“None specifically. But I didn’t think you’d accept
the answer that we have no motive.”

“If you have no motive, you have no impetus for
action.”

“No profit motive then. This will be an expenditure
for us, especially considering the systems we’re going to devote to this
Preserve. Those, auctioned off to The Nexus or others, could profit us greatly.
We are doing this for the simple reason that it needs to be done and we’re the
only ones that can exercise control over the Uriti. But even if we couldn’t,
we’d still try and find a way.”

“Altruism is your motive?”

“If you want to think of it that way, yes. Though I
suppose we will make a nice little profit off the tourist revenue once
everything is set up. But that’s going to be negligible when compared to the
cost of establishing a proper blockade.”

“As you have said, we have no choice but to return to
the anarchy of the past. But we are slow to trust those we have little history
with.”

“And I’m not too confident in your choice of friends.”

“The Trinx are…I do not even know the right phrase to
use. Disappointment is too kind. Do you plan a reprisal?”

“The Uriti that they possess will be coming here
eventually, one way or another. But that will be a long time in the future. We
lost a lot of ships in that battle. Replacing those and building the Preserve
is going to be a very large effort in order to do it right, and it will take
time.”

“You have honored your promises thus far. Continue to
do so and you will have no quarrel with the Sety. But you do not have our
trust.”

“I don’t need it. Just your compliance.”

“You will have it,” the Sety said as he ended the
conversation with a mild tone of disgust.

7

January 9, 3258

Alamo System

Inner Zone

Davis watched from the observation deck as Nami traced
her slow path across the star system from pylon 5 to 6, making yet another lap
of the course laid out for it by the trailblazers. Within a month they’d begin
weapon tests, adding a small target for it to destroy at the end of its circuits,
and many of the races that were still present in this system were eager to see
that. The first embassy station was partially complete, but many of the
observers had not requested a presence there. There wasn’t much eagerness for
participation, yet, but a handful of races beyond the already allied 7 had
deposited at least a minimal presence on the station.

Davis wasn’t going to be taking residence there. That
was Duke
Setti’s
job. She was going to handle the
diplomatic liaison between Star Force and any and all races that came here
while Duke Pryon was going to oversee the warden function of the Preserve,
building the necessary infrastructure and anything the trailblazers needed with
regards to their handling of the Uriti, then a third Duke would be added later
if needed to handle the visitors and tourist traffic that may or may not
manifest. The trailblazers had already assured Davis that they’d work out the
necessities of the training package and in the process give him a good show to
put on for outsiders to see how much control they actually had while not
revealing too much information.

Nefron was being kept away from the other races, the
silent partner in all of this despite the many protests. Of those races
talking, most wanted to speak with him out of either curiosity or a wish to try
and influence the single individual who had the power to control the Uriti…and
the longer Davis kept them thinking in terms like that the better. Nefron
wouldn’t change his allegiance, nor was he worried about such things. What he
was worried about was outsiders coming in and taking immediate action. The
longer that didn’t happen and Star Force’s position here stabilized, the more
leverage he would have against many races that had technology levels equal to
or partially superior to their own.

That technological advantage wasn’t complete, for Star
Force was building based off the V’kit’no’sat tech tree and making a few
upgrades of their own enroute. That gave them a much more comprehensive base
than other races or empires possessed, but some of the individual engines,
shields, or weapons that these races were fielding were damn impressive and
dangerous, as were so many being in the same place at the same time without a
strong controlling hand governing them all.

Davis had as many ships here as he could manage
without stalling the war with the lizards. That border had to keep pushing
forward else more people would die as the lizards continued to spread into
areas not yet contained. Drawing ships from the ADZ was problematic, for he
didn’t want to delve too deep into their reserves, but he needed as many here
as possible to forestall brash actions. The upcoming weapons demonstration by
the Uriti would hopefully give anyone thinking of trying to usurp Star Force
additional pause.

And while more Star Force ships were incoming, so were
the Voku. They were manifesting at odd times and places, with far more here
than Davis thought would come. Either Cal-com regarded this as seriously as
they did, or Paul’s
Zak’de’ron
visit had prompted an
order from them to get the Voku flocking here in what were promised to be even
more massive numbers in subsequent years. Already there were a few scattered
reports of massive convoys coming across the gap between their home territory
and the ADZ that would eventually end up out here.

Those reports were courtesy of the hastily build
communications relay link that had stretched out this far via a number of
permanent stations and mobile communications sedas filling in the gaps so Davis
could remain in contact with the empire while he camped out here. There wasn’t
a lot to do, but with so many new empires to deal with, and get a read on, it
wasn’t something he was going to trust to Dukes or even the trailblazers. Star
Force was treading on a very precipitous edge and they needed all the
experience and guile that they could get on this matter.

The Chamra, Dati, and Yisv had already made independent
contact with Star Force, and the first two of those had redirected most of
those diplomatic overtures here to Davis personally while the Yisv were still
keeping away from any system with the Uriti in it. So while he was dealing with
new races he was also trying to forge ties or lay down the law with these other
more familiar advanced empires as they also jockeyed for position and status
here while backing Star Force so that no one else could depose them and
endanger the controller.

They didn’t have many ships available but a few more
were coming in periodically, just as some of the observer fleets were getting
reinforcements as well. All it would really take was one ship to keep watch, so
the additional vessels were more of a visible threat that he was going to have
to deal with eventually, but he didn’t have too big of a leverage point here to
work with immediately, otherwise he would have demanded that all ships identify
themselves and their affiliations. As it was, some were still lurking in the shadows
and not taking a public stance.

The battlemap had an active tracking mechanism in
place to determine when new ships arrived and was programmed to ping him an
alert when an unidentified ship or large grouping appeared, so when the double
ping sounded he turned around sharply as his eyes tracked to the system
hologram.

He saw immediate activity from the drones surrounding
the
Sanguine Blade
, for the
newcoming
ships weren’t at a jumpline. They were right
beside him, barely 30 miles away, and there was one enormous vessel at the
center of a fleet that numbered over 500, all of which were a mix of glossy
black hull plates and luminous strips.

Davis mentally linked with the battlemap controls and
replayed the last minute as the fleet quickly coalesced around his ship in
aggressive defense posture. On the playback there was nothing there, absolutely
nothing, then suddenly the ships winked into existence with a telltale sparkle
of light. It looked like a brief fireworks display as they all appeared, with
Davis’s gut clenching as he focused the replay on those sparkles. He searched
for the telltale disruptions that cloaking devices made, running the computer
through the necessary paces that should have allowed them to detect the
variations once they knew where to look and at that close range…but there was
nothing. Nothing at all.

Not even the V’kit’no’sat had ever been able to
produce a true cloaking device, meaning that whoever these guys were, they were
either technological geniuses with a singular breakthrough or a major new
player that had them extremely outclassed.

“Davis, you seeing this?” Jason’s voice asked over an
open comm.

“Yeah. They talking?”

“Pithy. They want to address you, and their message
came through in English.”

“Link them here.”

“No, they want to meet in person.”

“Bad idea?”

“Did you notice how they arrived?”

“Perfect cloaking device.”

“I don’t want someone or something like that getting
onboard my ship.”

“Mist scan?”

“We can, but it’ll take some time to set up. We’ll
also have to arrange a lot of security for you.”

“Take your time, but if they want to talk that’s
better than shooting first.”

“I think this means they’ve had a cloaked ship here
observing for a while.”

“I wonder how many more are out there. You think the
Zak’de’ron
are completely gone?”

“If not they’re going to get an eyeful.”

“I know,” Davis said, referencing the tech
differential. “Tell them I accept, then set it up to your liking.”

“Holo would be to my liking,” Jason differed, “but
we’ll make it work.”

“Did we get a name?”

“If they have a native one they didn’t give it, but
the translation is Knights of Quenar.”

It took four days before preparations were ready, then
Davis found himself waiting on a rebuilt cargo bay in the center of what looked
like a sports arena. The center was open to the air with large columns ringing
it and all the apparatus to generate incredibly powerful shields that could
bisect the area on a thought. Multiple layers could be added, meaning that
anyone inside the arena could be sectioned apart like a chess board. That would
allow the Knights of Quenar entry and the ability to talk with him in person,
yet give Star Force the ability to protect Davis should they try anything.

Davis was also wearing his Archon armor, clad in
acolyte silver while the bright pinks of Jason and Paul were beside him. Riley
was not present, instead handling fleet coordination from the
Zeus
and protecting Nefron, knowing that
he was probably the bigger target than Davis if these newcomers wanted to do
more than talk.

A small transport had entered the bay moments ago,
sealed off by newly built walls that gave it a decent landing area but then
forced its occupants to pass through an airlock that held the ‘mist’ sensors.
In reality they were tiny robots the size of dust that relayed their positions
to the nearby sensors, so that if they were fooled by a cloaking device the
little robots would be able to paint a picture of the silhouette by their
physical absence in the space it occupied.

The KoQ had been informed of the procedure and
approved of it, so the first Davis saw of them was when the inside of the
airlock opened and they walked through the opposite wall of the arena. They
wore no visible armor, merely loose fitting green clothing with a multitude of
golden ornamentation. There were three of them, each with a Humanoid torso, but
from the waist down they split into four legs that were part spider part Human.
They angled away from the center of mass then went straight down, but they were
well muscled and looked to give them impressive jumping capability.

Their skin was hairy, covered in greys and whites so
thick he couldn’t make out the actual skin beneath it, and the same was true of
their faces, which vaguely resembled dogs with a short snout, but they had two
eyes and two arms much like his own, though they sported what looked like seven
fingers as they walked across the considerable gap towards the three Humans
with a backdrop of Archons, Knights, and Commandos of various Star Force races
standing by ready to act if anything went poorly.

Their minds are
blank
, Jason commented telepathically.

Well shielded
,
Paul amended.

Poker then
,
Davis noted as they continued to walk towards the waiting trio, trusting in his
own Ikrid blocks to keep his thoughts protected if the Knights of Quenar were
in fact telepathic. They waited for them to cross the 200 meters or so until
they came to a low wall, barely 8 inches high, that denoted where they were not
to cross. The three of them stepped up to it side by side, with the one on the
left being slightly taller than the others’ 6 foot plus height, making them
almost eye level with the Archons.

“Where is the Chixzon?” the bigger one demanded,
actually speaking English rather than having it work through a translation
mechanism. His words carried a shrill accent, but his words were clear enough.

“Not onboard this ship,” Davis stated plainly. “I was
told you wished to speak with me.”

“Bring him before us.”

“Others have wished to speak with him as well, and
have been declined. Given his unique abilities he is not accessible to guests.”

“You will bring him before us,” the KoQ said, holding
up his right hand towards Davis.

Suddenly the Human in the silver armor was lifted off
the ground by an invisible force. Paul couldn’t see any Lachka tendrils, but he
flashed his Rentar around him without success…then with a thought he
telekinetically grabbed the big one and knocked him to the ground, pinning him
there as Jason stepped in front of Davis who suddenly dropped to the deck.

The other two KoQ jerked, looking from their fallen
comrade and to the armored Humans.

“Release him,” one of them demanded, holding up a hand
towards Paul and knocking the Archon off his feet and onto his butt with some
kind of invisible punch that his armor’s shields did not pick up.

Jason didn’t wait, launching himself over the wall
towards the two standing KoQ and missing a fist to one of their heads when both
of them turned and pointed their hands at him, catching him
mid
dash and holding his feet a few inches off the ground. They couldn’t fully
control him, with his arms coming in close to his body as a ripple of
distortion surrounded him, then released to blow both KoQ away from him,
simultaneously breaking their grasp.

When his feet hit the ground he launched at one of them,
meaning to tackle and pin his arms down but he never got there, for a shield of
hexagons suddenly flashed around the KoQ, with each invisible panel outlined in
gold and Jason bouncing off the solid mesh of inch-wide polygons.

As he bounced another invisible grasp took hold of him
and propelled him backwards across the tiny wall above which a field of
hexagons formed blocking the three Humans off from the three KoQ as the army of
support troops rushed up to surround Davis and pull him back behind the two
pink-clad trailblazers.

“Stop,” the big KoQ said before further fighting could
occur. “It is clear we underestimated your potential. We have come here to
negotiate, not fight. And if we do not return from this vessel it will be
destroyed.”