Empire in Crisis (25 page)

“Got it, sir. Burke clear.”

Logan watched the countdown timer approach zero with more
than a little dread. The 107th was at Battle Stations, and he was certain that
the 997th was as well. The timer hit zero, the display pinged to show that
Zulu2 was no longer moving at warp speeds, and nothing happened. The Flag
Bridge was dead quiet except for the sounds made by equipment.

“Zoom in tactical,” said Logan in a low voice. The display
zoomed in to show Zulu2 in a very precise formation, travelling at a very low
two point five kilometers per second. The 107th and the 997th seemed to be in a
scattered formation by comparison.
We’re not making a very good impression,
thought
Logan. The chronometer showed that 35 seconds had now passed since Zulu2’s arrival,
and still there was no action on their part.

“Open a video channel, Lieutenant,” said Logan to the
Communications Officer.

“Channel open and transmitting, Admiral.”

Logan waited. His image was being transmitted to Zulu2. He
decided to wait to see if he got a return image of the alien commander before
speaking. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Incoming data signal! It could be video. Our comps are
analyzing it,” said the Com Officer.

Logan waited while trying to keep his expression and
posture from revealing his nervousness. The main display split into two
sections with the right side a mass of colored dots that gradually coalesced to
form an image of an alien, and that alien was not a Gorgon. Logan wasn’t sure
of the gender, but the blue skin and general appearance were familiar.
This
is the same race as the one in the picture on the captured ship. The Gorgons
called them Tollarians.

Logan cleared his throat and began speaking. “My name is
Tyler Logan. I represent the Empire, and I command all Empire forces in the
Rift. We would like to establish peaceful relations with your people.”

The alien didn’t respond right away. When he (Logan decided
to assume it was a he until evidence to the contrary) did respond, he nodded and
began speaking. The words were standard Esperanto, and there was a slight lag
between movement of the alien’s mouth and the sounds that Logan was hearing.
The voice had an electronic quality to it. He realized that he was hearing a
translation of the alien’s actual words.

“Humans. We meet you at last. My name is Sarga Tertius. I
command this fleet on behalf of the Tollarian Hegemony. If you are curious as
to how we know your language, we learned it from the Gorgones, who attacked
your Empire in an impulsive act to prevent you from discovering the stargate
device that you emerged from. They learned it from the humans they took
prisoner. We do not know the fate of those humans. We have much to discuss with
you, and are pleased that you desire peaceful relations. The ships that the
Gorgones used to attack you are ships we consider obsolete. The ships I command
now are much more advanced and powerful. Your Empire would be no match for my
Hegemony. You would be wise not to provoke us, human.”

Logan kept his expression neutral, but he felt like
smiling. He didn’t doubt for one second that this Tollarian fleet had ships
that were more advanced than the ones the Gorgons had used. The superior warp
speed was confirmation of that claim. What make Logan want to smile was the
Tollarian’s obvious attempt at bluster and bluff. The Empire’s Gorgon prisoners
had revealed that 99% of the Tollarian race had evolved from a physical form
into a non-physical form of spiritual energy. The one percent left behind, and
scattered over dozens, maybe hundreds of planets, had to be struggling to
organize themselves into a functioning society. Yes their ships might be more
advanced, but in terms of living, walking bodies, the Empire had to outnumber
the Tollarians by at least 50 to 1. Zulu2 just might be a major portion of the
entire Tollarian Space Force, whereas the two Empire fleets were just a tiny
fraction of what the Empire could bring to bear if it needed to. If he were in
Tertius’ position facing a less advanced but much larger alien race, he’d try
to intimidate the opposition too.

“I strongly suspect that you would find us to be far more
formidable than you believe. What we lack in technical ability, we more than
make up for with greater numbers of ships available to us. We know about your
Ascension. There is no need for threats. Space is big enough for both our
races. We would like to learn about the Stargate. Do you know who built it?”

After another short lag, the alien smiled. “I see that you
do not bluff easily. Yes, space is big enough for both races, and there are
enough mysteries to keep us both occupied. I’ll tell you what we know about the
Stargate builders, human, if you tell me what you encountered on the other side
of that device. Then we can discuss other things.”

Logan, Hood and Bishop jumped to attention as DeChastelaine
entered the conference room.
So that’s what he looks like when he’s in a
good mood,
thought Hood.

“Good morning, everyone,” said DeChastelaine as he moved
towards the head of the oval table. The three admirals waited until he was
seated before taking their own seats. “First of all, I take great pleasure in
congratulating Fleet Group Admiral Logan on his brilliant handling of the
entire Rift war and its successful conclusion. You have vindicated my faith in
you, and I’m personally grateful. By the way, your temporary promotion to that
rank is now a permanent promotion. I hope you concur with that action, Admiral
Bishop?”

Bishop gave a small smile and said, “I do, My Emperor. Admiral
Logan has certainly earned that promotion.”

“Glad to hear it. It’s so nice not to be a loggerheads with
my Chief of Space Force Operations all the time. Once in a while is okay.
That’s once in a long while, by the way.” Everyone, including DeChastelaine,
laughed. The Emperor turned to Logan. “I’ve read your final report, more than
once actually, but I’d like to hear what you didn’t put in it: impressions,
personal observations, that kind of thing, plus anything else that you think
I’d be interested in hearing. You can start with the negotiations with the
Tollarians.”

“Of course, My Emperor. They didn’t start out as
negotiations, but rather as an exchange of information. Once the Tollarian
Fleet Commander realized his attempt to intimidate me had failed, he was pretty
forthcoming. He confirmed my suspicion that the Tollarians who had not ascended
to a higher level of consciousness needed time to get themselves organized into
a functioning society again. I was surprised to hear that there are almost a
billion fallen Tollarians. That’s the term they call themselves. Initially they
were scattered across several hundred colonized worlds, with about ten percent
on their homeworld. That works out to roughly 100 million, and that sounds like
a lot, but it’s not if you realize that not all skills and abilities were
represented proportionately in that number. For example, he told me that almost
all their healers ascended. Some critical skills needed by a functioning
society virtually disappeared altogether. And while their civilization was
highly automated in terms of food production, those automated systems still
needed supervision by technically trained administrators, and many of them had
ascended as well. So for the first few months, the remaining Tollarians had to
scramble to re-acquire the skills they lacked AND to rescue relatively small
groups of fallen from colonies where there just weren’t enough people left to
keep those colonies viable, no matter what they did. That kept the Tollarian
Space Force, what was left of it, busy for months.

“What their Space Force didn’t realize at the time was that
the Gorgons had captured a fallen ship commander who showed them how to operate
his ship. I imagine it was under duress. With that one ship, the Gorgons
travelled to the system where the Tollarians stored their obsolete but still
functional military ships, and they quickly learned how to re-activate those
ships. The Gorgons also learned about the Stargate. That was something that the
Tollarians had literally just discovered a short while before the Ascension.
The Gorgons decided that they would keep an eye on the Stargate while the bulk
of their salvaged fleet was used to try to keep the fallen Tollarians off
balance. What we initially encountered during the Rift exploration phase was
the garrison force that the Gorgons had left to guard access to the Stargate
from all directions. That force had standing orders to destroy any ship that
threatened to discover the Stargate’s existence. Apparently, the Gorgon commander
of that garrison force decided that he would use his orders as an excuse to
cover himself with glory by attacking the Empire directly.

“The main Gorgon offensive against the Tollarians almost
succeeded, but once the Tollarians gained the upper hand, they neutralized the
Gorgon Space Force, learned about the ‘war’ with a race that called themselves
Humans and organized a large fleet to send to the Stargate to take control of
it. Based on the data about the Empire that the Gorgons had captured from the TD39
starbase, they made sure their fleet was large enough to prevail in any
confrontation. The large debris field we detected after re-emergence from the
ring was what was left of the two Gorgon fleets we detected before being sucked
in the first time. I was shocked to learn how much more advanced technically
the Tollarians are than us. I suspect that those 366 Tollarian warships could
have taken on my entire Rift Fleet Group all at the same time with a better
than even chance of wiping us out completely. When I very carefully asked the
Tollarian Commander if the Tollarian Hegemony had any interest in expanding
into our side of the Rift by force, he laughed and said his people would have
their hands full for decades, maybe even longer, just regaining control of the
territory they had prior to the Ascension. He went on to say that their culture
is not aggressive by its nature and that they had plenty of room for growth on
their side of the Rift.

“The one area of potential conflict with the Empire, which
he was quite adamant about, was control of the Stargate. He made it VERY clear
that the Stargate would remain under Tollarian control, and if the Empire
wanted to challenge that, the Hegemony was prepared to go to war over it. I
believe him. I don’t think he was bluffing this time, My Emperor. I did get him
to agree in principle to the request that any attempts to explore the Stargate
would include humans working with Tollarians. I strongly suspect that their
insistence on retaining control over access to that device is a result of their
fear that we impulsive humans, that’s the phrase he used, might somehow
antagonize the race that built the Stargate if we were allowed to play with it
however we wished. And after what I saw on the other side of that artificial wormhole,
I’m inclined to agree that very careful joint exploration efforts is the least
risky strategy. The object that we detected moving to intercept us on the other
side, based upon visual data when it passed in front of the red super giant,
was almost inconceivably large. Our best guess is that it would barely fit
through the Stargate.

“When I described what we saw on the other side to the
Tollarians, they were of the opinion that the object was some kind of automated
sentry that was programmed to respond to any visitors but which would not
follow visitors back through a Stargate. They also speculated that the red
super giant star system, with its hundreds of Stargates, might be a central
transit hub, or perhaps could be what we would call a flytrap: in other words,
a way of monitoring the evolution of hundreds of species by capturing a few
specimens of any that finds a Stargate and send explorers through it.” Logan
stopped when DeChastelaine held up his hand.

“What a curious concept. The Transit Hub I can understand,
but why would a race that advanced care about the progress of less developed
races that might potentially evolve on the other side of the galaxy?”

Logan hesitated before speaking. “I asked that same
question and the answer I got is, I have to admit, highly speculative and far
fetched. Some of the Tollarians believe that the Stargate builders went around
our galaxy genetically upgrading lifeforms that had the potential to develop
intelligent life. The basis for this theory has to do with the fact that their
homeworld and its moon have very peculiar mathematical relationships with each
other and with their sun. Those relationships are so unlikely that they have to
be the product of artificial engineering by an advanced race that wanted to see
intelligent life develop on their homeworld.” Logan stopped to gauge the
reaction among the others. Neither Bishop or the Emperor seemed to understand
the implications of what he had just said, but Hood did. Her eyes opened wide
with understanding.

“Just like Earth and its moon,” said Hood in a voice so low
it was almost a whisper.

“Ah, yes, I remember reading something about the size
ratios and orbital characteristics that seemed highly unlikely,” said
DeChastelaine. “But I don’t believe the theory that our moon is an artificial
construct ever got widespread acceptance among astronomers. How odd that the
Tollarians would have a similar situation.”

“There’s actually an even bigger coincidence, My Emperor,”
said Logan. “When my Fleet Astrogation Officer compared data with his Tollarian
opposite number, they were stunned to find that the Tollarian homeworld and
Earth are exactly the same distance away from the Stargate. The chances against
that happening randomly are literally astronomical. It also confirmed in their
minds that the Stargate builders tried to encourage intelligent life to develop
on both planets. They would have positioned the Stargate precisely in the
middle for convenience, in case they wanted to monitor both planets, and maybe
as a signpost to let us know what they had done. As I said, it’s a highly
speculative theory, but after seeing the data and observing hundreds of
stargates, I’m inclined to view that theory as plausible. I can’t imagine the
engineering challenges of building even one stargate, let alone hundreds. Any
civilization that can do that could probably engineer a moon of the right size
and in the right orbit if they really wanted to.”

DeChastelaine shook his head. “I grant you that the
coincidences are stunning, but I still have trouble accepting that theory. We
know our moon is billions of years old. How could a civilization that old have
relics still in existence now, and how could they have known that far back in
time that the Earth and the Tollarian homeworld would have the right
conditions, temperature, water, biosphere, etc. in order for intelligent bipeds
to evolve? However, my skepticism about the Tollarian theory doesn’t change the
fact that those stargates and that sentry were built by someone far more
advanced than we are. If the Tollarians are willing to let us participate in
joint exploration efforts, that’s fine with me. I noticed from your report that
they’re also willing to let us keep one squadron in RCP01 as observers as long
as we keep our distance from the Stargate. I’m grateful for that concession. Is
there anything else that wasn’t in your report that you’d like to comment on,
Admiral?”

“Yes, My Emperor. As I said in my report, the Tollarians
are willing to exchange diplomatic missions with us, and that would be the next
step in our relationship. I like the Tollarians. I think we could learn a lot
from them, and they would make great allies if we could convince them to sign a
mutual defense treaty.”

DeChastelaine turned to look at Hood and Bishop to gauge
their reaction to that idea. “That’s a very interesting idea, Admiral,
especially now. The Rift war couldn’t have ended at a better time. The Kravell
Empire is getting bolder each week in terms of military operations that, while
not technically a violation of our treaty, are getting damn close to crossing a
line. And they’re not the only neighboring species that seems to be more active
lately. Having a military ally just might be the thing that keeps the peace.
Now if only I could get the Tollarians to help me keep the mega-conglomerates
in line. THAT would really be helpful.”

DeChastelaine leaned back. “With the Rift war over and you
now back here on Earth, I see no reason why you should not take some well
deserved rest and recreation, Admiral. Take as long as you like. When you’re
ready to come back to active duty, we’ll find a position where you can make use
of your talents. I’m going to adjourn this meeting now. Admirals Bishop and
Hood, if either of you have comments, thoughts, questions to share with me, by
all means send me a report. The three of you are free to stay here longer if
you wish.” With that, Dechastelaine stood up and after a quick nod, he turned
and strode out of the room.

Bishop spoke first. “I think I’ll follow our Emperor’s
example. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon, Admiral Logan. You too, of
course, Admiral Hood.”

When Logan and Hood had the room to themselves, Hood stood
up and said, “It’s almost lunch time. How about you join me at the Flag
Officer’s Dining Room and tell me all about the Rift war from your perspective.
I swear, sometimes your FTL messages were so lacking in details that I wanted
to scream. What’s it like commanding a squadron, and then a fleet, and then a
fleet group?”

Logan laughed. “Okay, Corrine, but I’m warning you right
now. It’s going to be a long lunch.”

This is the end of Empire in Crisis.