Inheritance (Rise of the Empire Book 5) (23 page)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Five days later – Tarabat

A violet flash of light announced the arrival of three Shara Daim vessels. Anessa watched as the space around the Bloodbringer, Deathcall, and Unbowed changed as they arrived in the Tarabat system. Immediately, the three large vessels were noticed by the large defense station protecting this entrance point. Anessa’s people sent their identifications and announced their intentions. Almost immediately, they were given permission to proceed to the planet.

Anessa studied the system, looking at all the arrays of ships moving about it. Her ship, the Bloodbringer, was the largest in the system, outmatching the two Erasi protectors. Her escorts, the Deathcall and the Unbowed, were smaller than Bloodbringer by almost a half, but it didn’t matter—all three were ships made for war. Part of a Legion of the Shara Daim, and none would dare take them on lightly.

Anessa accessed the Tarabat net, searching through lists of Erasi corporations that were most likely to have the information that she needed, and found only one that fit her criteria—the Loksi Corporation. She would need to pay an insane amount of credits just to get an audience with the Gatrey, the Erasi race that ran all their information-gathering agencies. But she was confident that they would have the information she was seeking.

Seeking the aid of the Erasi would cost her more than just credits, though. Aid from outsiders would erode her standing among the other Dai Sha. But she did not have the luxury of searching for the Ra’a’zani system by system, not when the Elders had ordered her to locate the Human homeworld. The times when they had been Dai Sha were long gone; they cared little for personal honor. Dai Sha could understand their eagerness to get their hands on the Human device, but she would not have been willing to abandon her blood call in order to do it. But their order had made her desires meaningless. She might have held almost as much power as any one of the Elders, but when they spoke for the good of the Shara Daim, even a Dai Sha bowed.

She composed a request and sent it to the Loksi offices. By the time she arrived at the planet, she would have an appointment. She would finally be able to finish the quest the Elders had given her, and then return to her true mission: wiping out the Ra’a’zani.

***

Adrian and his people walked over to the Loksi headquarters, which was relatively close to their location. The six of them were led to the building by Narateth. Once they arrived, Adrian was allowed in, leaving his people behind. Akash and Sora took positions close to the entrance and watched him enter with Narateth.

Once inside, Narateth led him to an alien of a species he was not familiar with, and then he was led the rest of the way by it. They arrived to one of the private rooms and Adrian entered. The room had no furniture and was completely empty. As the door behind him closed, the door across from him opened and a short alien entered the room. Adrian recognized the species as Gatrey, one of the founding members of the Erasi. As it entered, Adrian felt a shiver pass over him.

He had a large, bulbous head with big, round eyes, a short mouth, and two nostrils. Its skin was sickly green, and its body looked very weak; its limbs were thin, as was its body. The top of its head came to Adrian’s nose level. It wore a loose robe-like piece of clothing, and had no weapons that Adrian could see. Adrian had not been allowed to carry weapons inside, although they didn’t comment on his Sentinel suit.

“Greetings, Adrian of the Empire,” the alien said. “My name is Hanaru. I will be conducting our business today.”

“Greetings,” Adrian said as he studied the alien. “Can I assume that you already know what information we seek?”

“It would be preferable if you state your need, as to avoid any misunderstandings,” Hanaru said.

“We seek any information about the race that calls itself Ra’a’zani, specifically the location of their worlds. Also anything about their technology, warship numbers, and so on,” Adrian said.

Hanaru’s big eyes blinked slowly. “Is that all?”

Adrian hesitated for a moment before adding one more thing. “We are also interested in knowing more about the Shara Daim. But that information is not as important as that about the Ra’a’zani.”

“Really? I would have thought that you would show more interest about the Shara Daim; they have a striking resemblance to you and your Nel race.”

“It is an interesting coincidence only,” Adrian lied.

Hanaru remained silent, and Adrian felt the same shiver again. Then he realized what was happening and slammed his defenses down on his mind. Hanaru’s eyes focused somehow more intently on him, and then he felt him reach out again with his mind.

“So, you are more like the Shara Daim than we realized,”
Hanaru sent.

Adrian narrowed his eyes at the alien, and then reached out with his own mind.

“What do you mean?”

“There are very few races that possess these kinds of abilities. Your physical resemblance to them had intrigued us. We wanted to know if there was a connection.”

“We are not the same species,”
Adrian sent.

“No, we have acquired samples, and your biological structure is different. But there are still irregularities; we wanted to make sure.”

Adrian remained silent and studied the alien. After a time, he continued.

“You wish to know about the Ra’a’zani?”
Hanaru asked, and Adrian felt him use his telepathy. A moment later, a hologram appeared between them, showing the Milky Way galaxy. Then it started zooming in at the area of space they were now. Finally, it stopped and showed an area of space that he recognized. In front of him stretched the Empire’s territory. It wasn’t a complete map, though; it lacked the area that was former Consortium territory, and Sanctuary was missing a marker—only the nebula was shown.

“You know a lot about us,”
Adrian commented.

“Knowledge is our purpose. Your rapid expansion has been noticed,”
Hanaru responded. Then the map zoomed out, and a series of systems along the edge of the Orion spur lit up, about four hundred light years from Sol.
“These are the remaining Ra’a’zani systems.”

“Remaining?”
Adrian asked.

“The Ra’a’zani made the mistake of attacking a Shara Daim scientific outpost. The Shara Daim have been at war with them for some time, and have wiped out most of the Ra’a’zani clans. But those that remain are hidden; their territory is spread out, and the Shara Daim have not had any luck in locating the remainder on their own.”

Hearing that, Adrian felt a burden lift of his chest. They had been worried that the Ra’a’zani would be a threat. But if this was true, they were almost beaten. He needed to send a message to Tomas and see what their next step would be. Probably contacting the Shara Daim and getting them to help find the slaves—unless they already had, in which case, why hadn’t they returned them to Sol?

“Thank you for this information, but I doubt that you are just willing to give me this data,”
Adrian sent.

“We wish something in return. An exchange of information. Your Empire is spreading anti-spinward, in an area we have little influence and knowledge about. We want safe passage for our exploration ships through your territory, and a sharing of information concerning any new powers you encounter in that area of space.”

Adrian looked at him, surprised. It was far less than what he had imagined, and within what Tomas had allowed Adrian to give.

“That can be arranged,”
Adrian said. Hanaru took out a datachip and offered it to Adrian as the hologram disappeared.
“That is all?”
Adrian asked, referring to the comments about the Shara Daim, human, and Nel connection.

“The Shara Daim guard their secrets vehemently. We know enough to be sure that there is a connection between you. But in the grander scheme of things, it is insignificant, a scientific matter. Not one that threatens the Esari.”
With that, Hanaru turned and left the room. Adrian looked at the closed door for a moment before turning and leaving the room. He exited the building and he and his people left.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Anessa exited her shuttle, followed by Do Sun Arikas and two Va Sun. All of them were wearing their Shur At, the weapons and protections that they wore in battle. The Shur At was not active, so it hung around their bodies like a simple garb. But with a thought, Anessa could turn it into armor that encased her body, could have it mold into powerful energy weapons. She had always believed it to be one of her people’s greatest inventions. But after she’d learned more about the device, she knew that it, like so many other technologies they possessed, had come from their ancestors.

Their shuttle had landed close to the Loksi headquarters; it took them only a few minutes to get to their destination. At the entrance, she turned to Do Sun.

“Do you have everything you need?” she asked.

“Yes, Dai Sha, I have the list,” Do Sun answered. While she talked to the Gatrey, he and the two Va Sun would arrange for supplies for their Legion. She wanted to end the Ra’a’zani as fast as possible; already her delay had started whispers from the other Dai Sha.

“Good, I’ll meet you back at the shuttle,” Anessa said, and entered the building as the three of them went the other way to meet with the trading guilds. She needed no guards; she was probably the strongest of the Dai Sha.

Once inside, she was led to an empty room, and as she entered, the doors on the other side opened and a Gatrey entered.

“Dai Sha. My name is Hanaru. It is an honor to speak with you in person,”
he sent. Anessa fought back the impulse to squash him for his presumptuousness of speaking to her with the Sha. But she reined in herself. The Esari was powerful, and the Gatrey held great power in it, even though they liked to pretend that they were simple information brokers. They were the Esari’s spies and scouts.

“I am in need of information,”
Anessa said, refusing to acknowledge him.

She felt him close off his welcoming aura.
“How may we help the Shara Daim?”

“I seek the Ra’a’zani, the race we are at war with. The locations of their worlds,”
Anessa sent.

“Well, that is interesting,”
Hanaru said, and she caught a brief taste of amusement from him.

“What is interesting?”
Anessa sent.

“You are the second person today to ask that information from me.”

Anessa frowned.
“Who was the first?”

“We value the privacy of our clients very much,”
he said. Anessa prepared to press him, when he added,
“Although the person very much resembled a Shara Daim.”

Anessa froze. She glared at the tiny alien.
“What do you mean?”

She felt another rush of emotions from the Gatrey; he was studying her, and was very much interested in her reaction to his words.
“The person asked about the Ra’a’zani worlds as well, and he looked very much like you. Shorter, with different eyes and skin color, but everything else was the same.”

Realization came to Anessa immediately. That could only be another descendant of the People. The Humans were slaves, but did some escape? Or was it the third race? Hanaru continued, all the way studying her closely.

“They are from an Empire anti-spinward from here, and are new to our sectors. Why they wanted to know about the Ra’a’zani, I do not know.”

“You said that they were here today? Are they still on the planet?”
Anessa both spoke and sent.

“I do not know,”
Hanaru said. Anessa felt the lie.

“Where are they?”
Anessa said forcefully, drawing on the Sha and smashing through the Gatrey’s defenses, entering his mind.

She felt his shock, but she pushed it aside and searched his memories, looking for whoever it was that he had spoken with. And then she found the memory. The being he had been talking with was a Human. She couldn’t make out the conversation; the Gatrey was strong and was fighting her probe. But she moved forward. She found him ordering his people to follow the Human and his party. There were more than one. She drew more of the Sha and dug out the information she was looking for—the Human was still on planet. And he was in a local establishment.

She was about to try and dig deeper, find everything that this Gatrey knew, when he pushed back. A resonating pain smashed into her mind, but she shielded most of it. The Gatrey had regained his wits and was fighting back. She reached to the Sha and threw him across the room, breaking the connection.

“You have made a mistake, Dai Sha,”
he ground out as he got to his feet, alert.
“Your agreement with the Erasi prohibits you from using your power to harm our citizens.”

“Your threats don’t faze me, Gatrey. You should have known better than to try and play with a Dai Sha. And you should not have lied to me.”

Anessa turned and left the alien there in the room. No one tried to stop her as she left the building and made her way towards the last known location of the Human. She got her directions from the Erasi net and cut through the throngs of aliens walking around her. There was a Human on this world, and she needed to get to him. Find out the location of their homeworld and recover the device of the People. And anyone that stood in her way would die.