Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (36 page)

Reeve Hall looked much different than it had two days previously; the dirt floor had been covered with some sort of parquet. The wood had a hypnotic pattern that seemed to entrance anyone who looked at it long enough. In the middle of the arena floor, the Aesir had placed a dais, on which sat a large table and four chairs. There was a chair for each of the Terrans who had been invited by name to attend the court proceedings: Captain James Sheppard, Lieutenant Commander Shawn Hobbs, Captain Paul Train, and First Lieutenant Ryan O’Leary.

“You know, I’ve been here three times now, and this is the first time I’ve actually felt welcome,” Night said as he took a seat at the table.

“At least you never had anyone actively trying to kill you,” Calvin replied under his breath.

“No shit,” Lieutenant O’Leary said, massaging his throat as he took the seat furthest to the right.

“At ease, all of you,” the CO said, seated on the left. “It’s still creepy being here with everyone looking down at us.”

“No shit,” Lieutenant O’Leary repeated. “I mean, no shit, sir.”

“I knew what you meant.”

The reeves stilled as an Aesir came out onto the Thor’s balcony. “Reeves of the Aesir,” he proclaimed in a voice that echoed throughout the hall, “now hail the new Thor!” The reeves stood, with the Terrans following suit.

A second Aesir walked forward to stand next to the herald.

“Is that Silvermoon?” Night whispered.

“Yeah, I think so,” Calvin replied. The Terrans had recovered the elven prince on a prior mission after he was captured by the Jotunn/Shaitan alliance. The Aesir’s hearing had to have been superb, for he turned and winked at the Terrans before turning to face the herald.

The herald placed a small circlet on the Thor’s head, and the reeves chorused in loud voices, “All hail, Thor!”

“Thank you,” the Thor said. “Please be seated.” He waited for everyone to get settled and then continued, “I thank you for your trust in me, although I feel it may be misplaced as I am not sure I am up to the challenges that face us. Of course, no one may be up to the challenge; our situation is dire. We are without a fleet, our last battle station has been destroyed and our enemies abound. It is certain the Jotunn will return, and we must prepare for both them and their unholy allies from beyond our universe.”

“And prepare we shall…but first, it is proper to recognize the aid we have received from our allies. These are the best of friends, friends who came to our aid in our time of peril when we were betrayed by one of our own to our enemies. Friends who fought alongside us, even though they were outnumbered, sacrificing their ships and their lives so our civilization would live on. Friends that crossed the very boundaries of our universe to fight the Shaitans hand-to-claw on their own spaceship. For these actions, I name them “Friends of the Aesir,” and give them honorary Aesir citizenship. These men, these Terrans, are henceforth welcome on Golirion or any other planet in our dominion whenever they wish to come.”

Knowing how private the Aesir were, Calvin expected booing or some display of negativity, but he didn’t hear any. Impressive.

“I have also commissioned medals to be given to your crew and the next-of-kin of the Terrans who lost their lives here,” the Thor continued. “Unfortunately, they are low priority compared with some of the other issues we are faced with at the moment, so it may be some time before I can send them to Terra. I will, however, send a proclamation back with you to document this fact.” He paused, then added, “I also salute you for weeding out the traitor in our midst. It is with some trepidation, however, I must unfortunately note he does not seem to be dead.”

“Not dead, Thor?” Calvin asked. “What does that mean? I killed him. I shot him in the heart. Repeatedly.”

“As I said, unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. When the Arbiter of Final Rites went to dispose of his mortal remains, his body had disappeared. We don’t know if an accomplice stole his body or if he wasn’t quite dead yet, but his body has vanished. We suspect that, like the vampyres of old, he wasn’t dead and has risen to kill again. With his abilities, he could be anyone.”

“Mother fucker…” Lieutenant O’Leary muttered. “Next time…”

“Next time,
I
will kill him,” Night said. “And then he will
stay
dead.”

“With Nightsong on the loose, and the Jotunn/Shaitan alliance at our doorstep, it is our greatest desire for the
Vella Gulf
to remain here and help us in the defense of Golirion. If that is not possible, we would request you take our plea for assistance back to Terra at your best speed. Our replicators are working around the clock; however, my best advisors do not believe we will be prepared for our enemies’ return.”

“I understand your need, Thor, and we are evaluating what is best for both of our civilizations,” Captain Sheppard said. “We will advise you of our intentions shortly. At a minimum, we will be leaving several of our fighter squadrons here with you. You may use them however you wish for the defense of your system.”

“Will you be leaving the pilots, as well?”

“I don’t have the authority to order the pilots to remain behind; however, I will ask for volunteers. Those that want to stay will be allowed to do so. I imagine there will be many who will, rather than being packed like cordwood in the
Vella Gulf
for the return home…should we choose that route.”

“Anything you can do to ease our burden will be greatly appreciated,” the Thor said. “We Aesir have long memories; if we make it through this period, we will always remember the assistance you have given us.”

“Speaking of assistance,” the Thor said after a brief pause, “Our civilization will be sending Lieutenant Commander Hobbs some…um…assistance…in his continued efforts.”

The door opened beneath the Thor’s alcove, and a familiar Aesir walked toward the Terran’s table. The Aesir giggled twice as he walked toward them, stifling them with a hand over his mouth both times. It was the Eco Warrior and former Reeve Farhome.

“I told you once before that our lives and destinies were intertwined,” Farhome said. “It was foolish of me to allow you to leave here by yourself. Hee, hee, I thought you would be able to stay out of trouble on your home planet; I did not realize you intended to try getting yourself killed in so
many
creative ways. With the problems the universe has at the moment, you are far more valuable to both our civilizations in your own body, not stuffed into some moldy old sword.”

“I’d like to think so, anyway,” Calvin said. “Uh, thanks…I think.”

“You’re welcome.” He muffled a giggle. “Sorry; still trying to stop that. I’m getting much better. Really. The bottom line is I intend to come with you from now on. Don’t try to stop me; I have ways around anything you might try to do to prevent it. It will be better for all of us if you just accept it.”

Calvin didn’t know what Farhome had in mind; he also didn’t want to find out, so he simply stood and bowed. “It will be my pleasure to have the company of someone with your…many talents,” he said.

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Farhome asked. “We are going to be the best of friends.” He turned and walked toward the door. “I will just go get my things.” As he walked, he started giggling again, which turned into laughing. By the time he reached the doorway, he was laughing so hard he could barely walk.

“Umm, good luck with him,” the Thor said. “I thought he was getting better, but…good luck.”

“So, what do we do now, hero?” Captain Sheppard asked.

“First, we get you to stop calling me that, sir,” Calvin said.

“Why?” the CO asked. “Everyone else in the universe does it; why not us Terrans?”

“For one thing, it’s silly,” Calvin replied. “For another thing, I can’t even begin to think what the government or Fleet Command will do if they hear it. I’m not a hero; I’m just me, trying to stop the bad guys and keep from getting killed along the way.”

“Okay, so now what do we do, champion?”

“I don’t think that’s any better, sir.”

“No?” the CO asked. “How about vanquisher? Conquistador? Defeater? Subjugator? The galactic dictionary has about 500 synonyms, depending on the type of foe you’re trying to defeat. Sadly, there isn’t one for stopping a Shaitan menace.”

Calvin heard a snort from the front table and leveled a glare in their direction; the helmsman and duty engineer both found something on their panels that needed their attention. When he looked back at the CO, Captain Sheppard was smiling.

“All joking aside, I’m curious what you think we ought to do next. I already know what my duty to the Terran Republic requires, but I’d like to know what you think.”

“I think we need to go home, sir. We need to get back and check in with Fleet Command. They need to know the Shaitans are behind this, and that they are coming to get us. I don’t know where they’re located, but it must be somewhere down the Jotunn’s chain of star systems. Once we check in on Terra, someone, probably us, needs to go find their home world before they find ours. If Nightsong was working with them, he may already have told them where to look for us.”

“I wouldn’t put anything by him,” the CO said; “that’s for sure.”

“Also,” added Calvin, “we probably ought to swing by the Mrowry home world and let them know what we’ve found out. Maybe they can send some ships to aid in the defense of Golirion. They may also have couriers going to the Archons or the other societies; we can spread the word to them, too.” He tapped the tactical plot at the CO’s chair. “We could also bring back a few of the extra fighters we have lying around. I think we still owe Emperor Yazhak for the ones we destroyed the last time we were here. He never asked for them back, but…”

“Yeah, we owe him,” agreed the CO.

“But then we need to go home.”

Emperor Yazhak stood silently, looking out the large bay window at the rock formation several miles away. The massive sandstone monolith was nearly identical to Ayers Rock on Terra, and it glowed bright red as the sun set behind it. The glow from behind him tinged his ebony fur crimson.

“Thank you for coming down to the planet,” he finally said, turning around to address the Terrans waiting for him. “Please sit; we have a lot to discuss. Some of it will not be very pleasant.”

“We were happy to come,” Captain Sheppard said, “as we need to fill you in on the Shaitan/Jotunn alliance and begin planning how to defend ourselves from them.”

“That is important,” the emperor replied, “but it isn’t why I asked you to come meet with me here.”

“No?” Captain Sheppard asked. “What is more important than that?”

“Only time will tell if it is more important, but this topic is certainly more time critical,” the emperor answered. “The Ssselipsssiss have asked to meet with you.”

“The Ssselipsssiss?” Captain Sheppard asked. He turned to Calvin. “Isn’t that the race of lizards you fought on your first mission?”

“It is,” Calvin said, nodding his head. “What do
they
want?”

“I do not know,” the emperor replied. “I know they have been pushing harder on us the last year or two than they ever have before. For a race like theirs, that probably means another race is driving them toward us. Their war must be going extremely poorly if they are asking to meet; they haven’t asked to meet with anyone since the fall of the Alliance of Civilizations.”

“If they want to meet with us, I’m sure our government will send someone to talk to them,” Captain Sheppard said. “Maybe someone can come from Domus; that planet is closer than Terra, and it would save a little time.”

“No,” the emperor said. “They don’t want to meet with Terran representatives; they want to meet with Calvin.”

“
Meet
with me?
” Calvin asked, his eyes opening wide in surprise. “They asked to meet me? How do they even know I exist?”

“Well, they didn’t ask to meet you by name, but they are well aware of our belief in hero spirits, and the fact they rise when needed. They asked to meet with the hero running our war effort.”

“
But I’m not running your war effort!
” Calvin exclaimed. “I’m not even running ours. In fact, I’m only the fourth highest ranking person on my
ship
, much less my military. There are hundreds of officers senior to me.”

“I am well aware of that,” Emperor Yazhak said with a smile. “The fact remains that you are always where the action is, and you are the person who is accomplishing the deeds needed to ensure the continuity of both of our races.”

“Well, yes, I’ve had the misfortune of being in the center of a few fights, but there are many others who helped me in those fights, including your grandson.” He waved in the direction of Lieutenant Rrower. “I absolutely couldn’t have been successful without all of their help. I haven’t done any of it alone.”

“Nor could you,” the emperor agreed. “Hero spirits always attract others to their side. I am tremendously proud that my grandson was worthy enough to be one of them. Hopefully, if his defining moment arrives, he will approach it with the heart of a warrior.”

Lieutenant Rrower roared a very lion-like bellow, then said, “You can count on me, Grandfather!”

The emperor gazed at his grandson for a few seconds. “It is easy to say that, here and now; however, it is never as easy when the moment arrives. That is why it
is
a defining moment.”

Lieutenant Rrower bowed his head. “I understand,” he said in a much more subdued voice.

“What is a ‘defining moment?’” Calvin asked.

“It is where you are called to give your life for your brothers and sisters,” the emperor explained, “knowing full well the cost you are going to pay. It is different than dying in battle where a random laser or grenade blast kills you. A defining moment gives meaning to your life. It is when you choose whether or not to lay down your life for something you believe in. From that moment onward, you will always be defined by it, whether you are known as a hero or coward. Nearly all those who accompany a hero spirit reach their defining moment in the hero’s service. I expect my grandson’s will come as well; hopefully, he will face up to it in such a manner as will make our people proud of him.”

“Okay, I understand all of that,” Calvin said, “but it doesn’t change the fact that I am not leading our war effort.”

“You may not be the person charged with making all of the decisions,” the emperor replied, “but you definitely make the ones that count, and you influence others at the right time and place to make the correct decisions.”

“What if I were to quit?” Calvin asked. “Just retire from the Navy and go home? What would happen then?”

“You won’t,” the emperor replied.

“How do you know?”

“Because your country, your very race, needs you. You will no more ‘quit and go home’ than I will step down from being emperor. Yes, there are many difficult tasks to be accomplished, and impossible questions to be answered, but both of us have been called to our duties, and we will not shirk them.” The emperor began laughing, long and hard.

The laughter was infectious, and, after a few seconds, most of the others in the room joined him. Calvin watched, red-faced. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer. “What is so funny, your highness?”

“Sorry,” the emperor said, winding down. “I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. The concept of a hero spirit not participating in the events he was called forth to accomplish just struck me as humorous.”

“So, hero spirits are good for comic relief?” Calvin asked.

“Sometimes,” the emperor said, still smiling. “Especially when the people around them need it.”

Calvin shrugged, realizing he wasn’t going to change the emperor’s mind. “So, what is it the lizards want?”

“They also believe in hero spirits, after a fashion,” the emperor replied, “although all of theirs seem to have gone missing at the moment. In fact, the war is going so badly for them they sent a ship into HD 40307 with a white flag. They have promised to give us anything we ask if our hero would assist them in their war.”

“Can we trust them?”

“Not as far as you can throw them,” Emperor Yazhak replied. “They have very short memories for promises, and they are nearly amoral.”

“You need not look any further than what happened on the planet Typhon,” Lieutenant Rrower said.

“What happened there?” Calvin asked.

“What happened? We taste good to the Ssselipsssiss. They used a sneak attack under the cover of a truce to land their troops there and take it from us. By the time we could get additional forces to the system, they already had defenses in place around the stargate. There was no longer any need to fight for it, either; they had already killed all of our colonists.”

“How do we know they are negotiating in good faith this time?” Captain Sheppard asked.

“There’s no way you can,” Lieutenant Rrower said. “You know the old joke about how to tell when a Ssselipsssiss is lying to you?”

“No,” Captain Sheppard said. “How do you tell when they’re lying to you?”

“Their forked tongues are moving.”

“Okay, we can’t trust them,” Calvin said. “What would you recommend we do, Emperor?”

“I would suggest you go and see if you can help them.”

“Why would we want to do that?” Calvin asked. “After my first contact with them, I’d be pretty happy to just let them fight it out to the end with their adversaries.”

“It might seem so at first, but if you would listen to someone who has spent a lifetime studying strategy, I would tell you that it makes good strategic sense for you to help the Ssselipsssiss, especially if it turns out they are also fighting the Shaitans, as I suspect they are. If you can help them put more pressure on the Shaitans, it will relieve some of the weight from the Aesir. From what my grandson’s told me, the Aesir are at the point of being wiped out. Although they are reclusive, the Aesir have always been good allies, and I would not want to write them off if they can still be saved. Besides, the Ssselipsssiss have been fighting their enemy for several years. They may have developed weapons and tactics to deal with them that are more effective than what we currently have.”

“Well, that at least makes sense,” Captain Sheppard said.

“If you ask for payment from them for your assistance, make sure they give it to you up front,” Lieutenant Rrower said. “They have a tendency to forget about promises they’ve made after the danger has passed.”

“Payment?” Calvin asked. “Like what?”

“You are still a developing civilization,” the emperor said. “I would make them give you a couple of their replicators. That way, you can build up your forces faster after this conflict is over, and you won’t have to worry about them immediately attacking you.”

“I can imagine the Ssselipsssiss having fewer ships would be something very beneficial for the Mrowry, too, wouldn’t it?” Captain Sheppard asked. “Perhaps even more so since you are closer to them?”

“It certainly would,” the emperor replied, smiling broadly. “I wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise. Besides, they are excellent laser technicians; getting their replicator data banks would be very helpful in arming your ships.”

“And I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if we then shared this technology with you?”

“A little technology transfer in the interest of diplomatic relations would certainly be appreciated.”

Captain Sheppard sighed; he could see he’d been had. “Okay, we will go meet with them, but I would appreciate it if you could send a courier ship to Terra to let them know what happened to our fleet and where we are planning to go.”

“Nothing could be easier. My pilots are getting to know the route quite well.”