Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) (12 page)

Of course the aliens didn’t really give them the plans for any of their technologies, instead they gave them knowledge of concepts and ideas. That allowed Quvor’s people to learn and discover things on their own. Some on Trivax were very suspicious of that, citing nefarious purposes, because they didn’t give them everything. But Quvor knew that the aliens didn’t have bad intentions, they helped his ship when they didn’t need to, and they had no reason to give them the gift they did other than their good will.

That was why Quvor was feeling elated, visitors to their system meant that the people that had saved him might be back. Quvor had waited a long time for this, he was barely thirty cycles old when they came, and now he was entering the middle age of his life. He had all but abandoned hope that he will get the chance to thank his rescuers in person.

Finally, Quvor arrived at the control room.

“Quvor!” The Director Tofor yelled out and waved as soon as Quvor entered the room. Quvor made his way through the people running around from one station to another. The room was in complete chaos.

“Director, did they establish contact?” Quvor asked as soon as he was closer.

The Director exchanged looks with people around him before turning back and answering.

“Not yet. That is why I wanted you here. We have a monitoring satellite close enough to get a good look at them. Here, take a look at this.” Director Tofor said, and one of his people gestured for the Quvor to look at one of the monitors. Quvor leaned down and looked at the images of the visitors. Immediately he realized that the ships on the monitor looked nothing like the ships that helped him thirty years ago. All of the ships had the same general shape, that of a hexagonal prism, with a few slight differences.

The differences were minor, some had widened back portions, and others had sections sticking out on the sides. But the core was the same. Ten of the ships were much larger than the others, and with no point of reference Quvor couldn’t really tell how big they were.

“These look nothing like the ships that helped me…” Quvor said slowly.

The Director shivered, his fur making a wave in a clear sign of nervousness. “We compared the images that your ship took, but you saw them in person, we wanted to be sure… Are you certain that they are not the same ships?”

“Yes Director. But I guess that it could still be them, they could have different kind of ships. We just don’t know much about them.” Quvor answered.

“We have been sending them a welcoming message since we discovered them, using the protocols that they left us in the message. We have added their learning software with the basics of our language, although if these were the same people they would already know our language…” Director said.

“I concur, if these are the same people why are they not communicating?” Quvor raising his head to look at the big monitor on the room’s wall. He saw the calculation of the visitor’s course and speed. They were on a direct course with Rofvax, and at their current speed will arrive in ten days. “They are going to Rofvax, but I don’t understand why? We only have a small colony there, two mining operations, and a station in orbit. There is nothing else of interest there, if they wanted to get in contact with us it would make much more sense to come to Trivax.”

“Unless they don’t want contact.” Someone said.

“I need to get to my ship.” Quvor turned to the Director. “I think that we need to recall all our ships back to Trivax.”

“What about Rofvax? Should we send some there?” Director asked.

“Our ships are much slower, we wouldn’t get there in time. And we have only twelve ships with weapons, all in orbit around Trivax.” Quvor’s ears twitched. “We need to keep trying to contact them, we still don’t know their intentions.”

“We will keep trying Commander.” Director Tofor said, and Quvor turned and left to get his shuttle crew, he needed to get up to his ship.

***

Adjutant Michaela Ogden watched as Fleets Master Laura Reiss walked into the monitoring room, and then made her way towards Michaela. The Fleets Master was here at her urgent request, and Michaela swallowed hard as the dark haired woman approached her.

“Report, what happened?” Fleets Master said as she finally came to rest above Michaela and her station.

“Ma’am. I am in charge of monitoring the drone we have in Trivax system. Approximately an hour ago the drone’s passive sensors detected eighty six ships entering the system from hyperspace. Immediately upon entering they started moving inside the system and towards Rofvax the fifth planet in system.” Michaela said.

Fleets Master’s eyes darkened, “What do we know? Can we identify the ships?”

“No Fleets Master. The ships don’t match any of our visual records. With the passive sensors we are looking at events as they happened sixteen hours ago. If we use the active sensors we will know much more…” Michaela said.

“Hold off on the active sensors, I don’t want to betray our drone’s existence just yet. Let’s see how things develop for now. Keep me informed Adjutant.” Laura said, then turned and left the room in a hurry.

Michaela sighed in relief, it seemed that it was a good decision to interrupt her superior.

***

Johanna was woken by a ping in her implant, as soon as she opened her eyes her HUD flashed and she saw that she had an urgent call from Fleets Master. Immediately she got up and put on a small robe before sitting down on her terminal and accepting the call. The holographic display sprung to life and the face of Laura Reiss looked out at her. In the corner there was a small number, 0.002s, the lag time of the connection. Johanna’s fleet was almost one hundred light years away from Sanctuary, but thanks to the FTL communication relays that Johanna’s fleet was seeding outside of the Empire’s territory they could speak in real time.

“Fleets Master.” Johanna acknowledged.

“Johanna, there is a development. A group of unknown ships arrived in Trivax system a few hours ago - clearly more advanced than what Trivaxian’s have now - and set a course towards the system’s fifth planet. They didn’t show any hostile moves yet, but I need you to take your fleet close, I want you one transfer away in case anything goes downhill. It could be a peaceful encounter, but we both know that there is a chance it is not. It has happened too many times for us to ignore the possibility. If it is a peaceful encounter we won’t interfere, but if these new aliens are hostile we need to act. Trivax is on a direct course towards Earth, and we can’t allow a hostile race to move in, not to mention that I will not leave Trivaxian’s to fend for themselves.” Laura said.

Immediately Johanna felt her heart tighten, and nausea hit her stomach hard. “What about a war fleet? My ships have been redesigned for exploration…”

Laura shook her head. “It would take them too long to get there from our territory, at least three months. You can be there in seventeen days.” Laura’s eyes softened as she looked at Johanna, “Our sensors didn’t detect anything that suggest that these ships are anywhere close to our level, they are moving slow even by Sowir standards. But I realize that you have been burned by lack of information before. That is why this time you will wait until we are sure that they are hostile, then we will go active with our drone and gather all the information you need.”

Johanna grabbed the hem of her robe and squeezed hard to prevent her hands from shaking. “I… Yes, Fleets Master.”

“Good. I will send a task force from the First Fleet just in case, but it will arrive too late to be of use for you. You will be on your own.” With that Laura saluted and ended the comm.

It took another five minutes for Johanna to gather herself enough to stand up. She walked to her closet and retrieved her skin-suit and uniform coat. All the while her heart pounded in her chest. Images of Earth burning and suffocating in ash as it tore itself apart flashed in her mind. She had thought that time would make the memories go away, but it was still as fresh as the day she realized what Ra’a’zani had done.

Taking deep breaths Johanna got herself under control, she was a soldier, she wouldn’t let fear control her. After another couple of minutes she finally got her heartbeat back to normal.

If the aliens in Trivax system were hostile, she would enter into battle against an opponent she knew next to nothing about again. But failure to do so would be at the cost of innocent lives. And Johanna made an oath to herself that she would never again let the thing that happened to Earth repeat. Straightening her back, Johanna exited her quarters and headed towards the Command Center. She had a fleet to command.

***

Two days later Quvor sat on the bridge of his ship, the Survivor. His lower arms were crossed at on his stomach, while his upper rested on the armrests of his chair. There were still no communications from the alien visitors. And they still kept the course towards Rofvax. The more time passed without any kind of response from the aliens, the worse the feeling in the Quvor’s chest got. There were probably countless reasons as to why they didn’t respond, from incompatible technology to cultural norms. But the only thing that was going through Quvor’s head was the last message from the aliens that saved him thirty years ago.
The universe is a dangerous place. If you choose to join us out here, you will need to be ready to face the consequences of that course.

Somehow, Quvor was certain that the danger of the universe just found his people.

Chapter Eleven

Trivax system – Eight days later

Quvor sat and watched helplessly along with every Trivaxian as the alien ships reached Rofvax. There was no answer to any of the SEC’s comms. The aliens ignored every attempt both from the colony on Rofvax and from Trivax. By now there was not a doubt in Quvor’s mind that things were about to get bad. He felt so helpless, his twelve combat capable ships were all at Trivax, even if they started the trip towards Rofvax the moment they detected the aliens, they still wouldn’t have made it in time. Afterwards it was decided that they should stay where they were, lest them speeding towards Rofvax somehow provoke the aliens. Now it seemed that it wouldn’t matter anyways.

Ten billion people watched as the alien ships approached Rofvax. They all watched in fear as the alien ships fired their weapons and destroyed the station in orbit. They all watched helplessly as the ships entered Rofvax high orbit, and then as smaller ships started dropping down to the planet, just outside of the colony site. And then over the next twenty hours they watched as the aliens killed the security forces and then started taking the colonists prisoner.

***

Sanctuary

Laura watched as their visual sensors recorded the alien attack on Rofvax, sixteen hours after it happened. She shook her head, it seemed like every other race out there was set on attacking anyone they come in contact with. Trivax wasn’t Empire’s territory, but they had interests there. They were responsible for the jump in technology that Trivax made. But that wasn’t what made Laura want to help them, it was that they were innocent. She had read reports on Trivax ever since they placed the drone to monitor their progress. And she saw a peaceful, kind race. A race that was given a chance to reach out to the stars, a race that was a small child ignorant of the realities of life. But now the universe had taught them a lesson, and they will lose that innocence.

There was no choice, the Empire will not stand idly by as innocent are dying. She let Tomas know first and got his approval. Then she sent the authorization for the monitoring drone to go active and afterwards reached for her comm, Johanna Stern will need to be enough to help them.

***

Johanna closed her eyes as she listened to Fleets Master’s orders. Her fleet was sitting in the trans-station to Trivax system, and they too had been watching the feed from the monitoring drone, their FTL comm system allowing her to see everything at the moment the drone recorded it. She knew that this was going to happen. Finally, she took a deep breath steeled herself and ordered her ship commanders to prepare for a trans-lane transfer.

In the meantime she watched as the drone went active. It sent a tachyon ping across the system, illuminating everything and getting myriad of information back. The sensors penetrated the alien ships hulls detecting everything that there was about them. Johanna watched as her ship’s computer found the match for the ships. The materials and weapon signatures matched those she found in the debris field a few months ago.

Seeing the rest of the alien ship specs, she released a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. The alien ships were inferior to her own, they were even inferior to the Sowir ships. Her forty two ships, thirty of them warships, would be able to handle the alien eighty six ships. She recorded a message for Trivaxian’s telling them that help was on the way. The trip to Trivax system was nine days, she hoped that they could get there in time.

***

Trivax

Director Tofor looked helplessly at the screens in the control room. He, like most everyone on the planet had had very little sleep over the past few days. The horror that they witnessed on Rofvax had given them all nightmares.

“Why are they doing this?” Someone asked, but no one answered. Tofor didn’t know, he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. His people had never harmed these aliens, and now they were being slaughtered by them. Thirty security officers and forty civilians were dead on Rofvax, and there was nothing that anyone on Trivax could do. Their combat ships were not a match for the aliens, they couldn’t even save a few, board them on ships and flee. The ruling council had suggested it, but it would be pointless. They had no ships that could travel faster than the speed of light, and the alien ships were much faster. They would catch them and kill them anyway. There was still no response from the aliens, no reason given as to why they were doing this.