Star Force: Shame (SF59) (6 page)

The air in Davis seemed to go out, with his facial
features sagging a bit. “And I thought I had an answer.”

The Archon smirked as he casually headed towards the
doorway. “Learn to live with doubt.”

Davis stayed on his chair, back to the wall ‘window’
and watched him leave, then slowly shook his head in dismay. Somehow the
Archons could always read him, and it’d become his private little war to find a
way to hide whatever cues he was giving away and from time to time to test the
limits of their awareness.

It certainly seemed like they were reading his mind,
but at times he was able to conceal things from them…or ‘punk them’ as Victoria
had put it. Today was just another
datapoint
in his
ongoing quest to try and figure out the riddle of the way their minds worked,
and he had a feeling it was going to take him another hundred years or so
before he made any real progress.

Davis returned the chair to its original position and
headed back to the landing bay and his waiting ship, his task here done. He’d
be returning to Atlantis directly while the 10 Archons would each be heading to
their own
MCV
-class jumpship escorted
by a flotilla of cargo ships and a handful of warships. They’d be leaving the
system within the next 6 hours, with the Calavari and Elarioni ships meeting up
with them at Venus and then transitioning over to the star in a long convoy
that would begin making the numerous jumps required to travel across Epsilon
Region and beyond the ADZ to the mostly uncharted wilds of the neighboring
galaxy where they’d start to hack out some new Star Force territory ahead of
the brushfire that was the oncoming lizard advance.

6

January 3, 2659

Banner System
(Core Region)

Smash

“Ship arrival without IFF,” one of the Star Force
traffic coordinators told the deck chief over his shoulder, his eyes still on
the contact near the smaller of the two stars in the system that the detection
grid had just registered and transmitted over the gap in the system to the
heavily populated Human world where the transit headquarters were located.

“What make?” the Chief asked, leaning forward
microscopically in his chair as he pushed aside whatever it was he was working
on at the time. The coordinators handled all the traffic within the system,
each with a particular zone that was micromanaged by other controllers on site,
but in this case there was no station near the stellar pair so the anomaly had
been routed directly to the control center.

The coordinator waited for a few seconds so the
sensors could chew on the readings they were getting, but with no luck he
merely shook his head and raised an eyebrow. “Unknown.”

“Alert the defense fleet to stand by for intercept and
get a
comm
to the H’kar. This may be one of theirs.”

“It doesn’t match any H’kar ship in the database.”

“It could be another Nexus craft that we’re unfamiliar
with. Where’s it heading?”

“Staying put for the moment…defense fleet says drones
are being dispatched.”

“Reroute traffic patterns around it until we know what
we’re dealing with. If it is hostile we don’t want anyone getting caught up in
the crossfire. Backtrack its trajectory.”

“Jumpline indicates
Mortica
System.”

“Incoming
comm
from the
unidentified ship,” another control room staffer interrupted. “It’s a copied
Star Force transmission granting them pass-through rights.”

“It’s what?”

“It’s a green card.”

“Those don’t come from ships, they come though the
grid.”

“I know, but this one is coming from the ship.”

The Chief rubbed his forehead in confusion. “Who does
it say it is?”

“It’s labeled as
a
H’kar
associate.”

“Inform the defense fleet that we have a probable
legit transport, but that we request a military escort anyway. I don’t like
this.”

“Actually, the green card is for a convoy fleet of 259
vessels.”

“What the hell,” the Chief said, getting up out of his
seat and walking forward. He stepped down two levels and came up behind the
coordinator, double checking what he was seeing. “Amend that
comm
to the defense fleet to ‘convoy escort.’ Still just
the one ship?”

“So far yes.”

“Keep an eye on it. I don’t like this,” he said,
staring at the sensor image of a single, moderately-sized jumpship just sitting
in stellar orbit with a host of Star Force signals moving towards it.
Eventually he took his eyes off it and retreated back towards his chair.

“Here they come,” the coordinator said before he even
made it halfway back. “Multiple vessels incoming in tight stagger.”

“Sent the messenger on ahead did they?”

“And these are much bigger.”

“Defense fleet says they’re assuming priority control
of the situation,” another staffer said.

“Good,” the Chief uttered, returning to his chair.
This was in someone else’s hands now. “Keep the area clear and let them do
their thing…and bring up possible evacuation routes for the orbital traffic. I
want to be ready if fighting breaks out.”

“They do have a green card,” the coordinator pointed
out.

“That
they
transmitted,” he said, bringing up a comprehensive system traffic tracking holo
in front of him so he could see the big picture and hand out assignments for
the coordinators to tackle as needed, “and that makes me wonder.”

A tone sounded on the desk where
Keina
was reading a mass of text, bringing her out of her studying haze. She
telekinetically pressed a button on the surface half a meter to her right,
connecting the incoming
comm
line. “What is it?”

“Unidentified ships entering the system under a green
transit card that they themselves are transmitting. Traffic control requested
an escort and one is under way now.”

The acolyte frowned, standing up. “On my way.”

She walked out of the small office and jogged down a
straight hallway to an open platform overlooking the system defense command
center. She was holding the fort, so to speak, while the normal commander was
off duty. He was probably in the sanctum right now and she needed to see what
was going on before interrupting the ranger. Having unidentified ships coming
through wasn’t all that unusual, for some races just wanted to poke around the
Human Core Region and see what was there, but with the addition of the H’kar
colony a great deal more traffic was popping up, bringing with it a wide
variety of onlookers.

The part about them transmitting their own green card
was odd, but there was only one possibility that rose in the Archon’s mind. The
relay grid sent the transmission on ahead of the irregular ships so that the
destination system would know that they were guests of some sort in the ADZ and
not subject them to the same suspicion and scrutiny in every inhabited system
that they passed through. The only reason a ship would carry a copy of the
transmission itself was…if the ships were capable of moving faster than the
interstellar
comm
signal.

Keina
bypassed the two
lateral stairs and just hopped over the forward railing, dropping a good four
meters into a deceleration crouch that went a little too far, forcing her to
roll out of it into a somersault, but she kept the transition smooth and was
back on her feet in a flash, racing towards the commander’s post and getting a
quick look at the holo before she started getting additional information fed to
her both visually and verbally.

It didn’t take the acolyte long to get caught up, with
her sending her own message to the H’kar inquiring who this was and if they
were responsible for them being here. The lag time up to the moon that they’d
been given half of to establish a base of operations to service their fleet and
act as an embassy within the ADZ wasn’t more than a fraction of a second, but
it was a long few minutes before they finally received a response.

“Dsevmat,” she read aloud, doing the best she could to
get the pronunciation right.

“Sound familiar?” one of the naval staffers asked.

“They’re on the member list of the Nexus, but one that
we have no other information about. Grant them clearance and have traffic
control stand down their redirects, but keep the escort drones nearby. There
aren’t a lot of weapons on those bigger ships, but the small ones look well
outfitted.”

“Warships escorts?”

“That’d be my guess. Keep enough drones nearby that
we’ll be able to respond instantly if they go hostile, but otherwise give them
their space.”

Roger was in Alpha Region when he got the message
concerning the arrival of another Nexus member and the request they were making
of Star Force, prompting him to hop on a Ma’kri and head back to the Core
Region immediately. Both Paul and Liam were heavily engaged elsewhere in combat
operations, with his work on Lucian tinkering with Clan Emerald Shark
infrastructure prototypes being able to wait until later given that the Dsevmat
were requesting one of Star Force’s naval warfare specialists.

When his ship finally arrived in the Banner System he
had it go straight to the H’kar moon where the visiting fleet was sitting
quietly in orbit carrying the diplomatic delegation and the reward they were
offering if Star Force could help them solve a lingering problem. As soon as
they were aware that Roger had got here the local Archon in command sent the
trailblazer an update, informing him that the green card copy that the Dsevmat
ships had been carrying was eventually followed up by the actual transmission
through the relay grid
two days later
.

That right there told Roger that this wasn’t a low
level race within the Nexus like the H’kar, and that whoever they were they had
gravity drives far faster than what Star Force currently possessed and probably
a full tech tree to match. He made contact with the H’kar first, then let them
make the formal introductions via
comm
, during which
the newcomers wanted to meet with Roger in person…and onboard one of their
ships.

Donning his dark blue mage armor, the Archon headed to
one of the landing bays in his Ma’kri where the Dsevmat transport eventually
landed, sprawling what looked like glowing white hairs in the thousands beneath
the ship as landing legs to cradle its mass as a portion of its hull melted
open and the material reformed into a meter-wide foot ramp.

At first Roger waited for someone to come out, but
when no one did he reluctantly walked up to the base of the ramp and looked
inside, seeing nothing more than a dark hollow. Using his Pefbar he was able to
penetrate the hull and look all the way through the small ship, seeing that no one
was inside. Guessing that the transport was remote controlled he walked up the
ramp only to have it melt and pull back up to reform the wall behind him, then
the landing ‘hairs’ retracted and the ship floated out of the hangar as Roger
meandered further inside.

There were only two chambers inside the seed-like pod,
a main floor and a small adjunct not counting the short hallway to the door.
Both were bare, but he could see additional structures in the floor, walls, and
ceiling that he guessed were
extrudable
if the
situation called for it. The main chamber flashed on a flat hologram mimicking
a window across the side of the smooth-walled room that had not a single crease
nor crevice in it, showing the departure from the bay and the flight across
orbit to one of the pearl-colored ships.

They were likewise smooth and lumpy in places, with
tiny splotches that glowed white, blue, or even a tinge of purple here and
there. Mostly their hulls were just blank, but several places had been
highlighted on the ships during their entry into the system denoting the
position of weapons batteries that had since been retracted into the hull and
were now hidden, probably behind the same
melty
technology that the pod’s door was made of.

Likewise a hangar entrance formed on the side of one
of the biggest ships in the Dsevmat fleet, with small ripples of material
moving aside and allowing the pod within, only to close up behind the
trailblazer and seal him in. A moment later a trickle of apprehension ran down
his spine as he reached out with his Ikrid and sensed the surrounding
minds…with him immediately picking up reflective feedback.

He could only get the faintest of readings on them,
but could tell that his telepathic touch had sent them into a flurry, for each
one he brushed minds with immediately became agitated. Roger pulled back from
the penetrating scans that he usually used on new species and just noted the
position of their minds as the pod’s door opened and reformed into a ramp,
inviting him to leave the tiny ship.

When he did he saw the source of three of the nearby
minds…which sent another little tickle down his spin, for the Dsevmat easily
outmassed
him and moved in an unusual manner, given that
they had no arms, legs, or appendages of any kind. They were literally giant
pearl-colored snakes.

“
Hello
,”
Roger said in the Nexus common language, which he’d learned a number of
years
back, as all the trailblazers had.

“
We were not
told you had telepathic abilities
,” the closest snake said, slithering up
beside him in the heavy gravity and raising its tri-finned head up level with
the Human’s. “
Do not try to access our
minds again or you will be harmed.
”

“
No need for
threats
,” Roger said calmly. “
You
asked for me to come here, remember?
”

“
Calm yourself,
Hameen
. He meant no offense
,” the snake to the left
said with a reverberation in its voice that Roger suddenly realized was being
transmitted telepathically rather than physically, imbuing it with the
equivalent as a restraining hand on the shoulder or a poke in the ribs. “
He withdrew as soon as he sensed us. We
would do the same with strangers.
”

“
We were not
told they were this advanced
,”
Hameen
countered
with uncertainty rippling off him.

“
All the better
,”
the third snake said without any telepathic reinforcement. “
We will not have to rely fully on verbal
communication.
”

“
How can we when
he…
”
Hameen
said, then cut off immediately,
making Roger wonder if they were only able to transmit
omnidirectionally
.
If they could have private ‘lines’ between one another then they probably
wouldn’t be discussing these things in the open.

“
You’re
wondering why you can’t probe my mind
,” Roger interrupted their moment of
indecision. “
That’s because we have a
defense against such things. My apologies if I startled you earlier. I won’t intrude
again.
”

“
Apology
accepted, Human
,” the left snake said agreeably, with its three tiny clear
eyes looking Roger over. “
Is our
atmosphere inappropriate?
”

“
It is a bit
foul, but breathable
,” he said, referencing some of the trace gasses that
the Dsevmat used as the equivalent of vitamins that Roger’s nose was equating
with a cooking experiment gone horribly wrong. “
The armor is precautionary when we are entering unknown environments
.”