Euthara (35 page)

“You have no idea how deep,” Breq said.

“I get that and any information you have would be helpful,” Jon said.

“From what I’ve heard, my father has an agent here seeing to things,” Breq said. He sat up a bit straighter in his chair. “It’s one of the reasons we were told not to worry about the Eutharan people. We were to keep them in their system and to let time deal with them.”

“Hrm,” Jon said. He got a far off look in his eyes as he thought about what he had just been told. He was wondering how much Breq might actually know and how much he was holding back. “So, you know about the strange bunker like structures the Crystari attacked from space?”

“What structures and when was this attack?” Breq said. He sat forward as he listened intently waiting for Jon’s reply.

“These Crystari beings jumped into Euthara orbit and attacked something on the ground close to this position,” Jon said. “They were engaged by my ships in orbit of the planet at the time. They seemed to pay more attention to the planet than to what was going on around them. They left just as fast as they came.”

“How many of your ships did you lose?” Breq said.

“None, and light to moderate damage to those that were engaged,” Jon said. “It really drew my attention to this structure. When I started inquiring about the structure the King seemed to get tight lipped about it and warned me, in not so many words, to leave it alone.”

“I take it you did the opposite,” Breq said.

“Well, were sitting here pretty much on top of it,” Jon said. He let a grin slip on to his face.

“I see,” Breq said. He sat back for a second as if collecting his thoughts. “That’s strange activity for the Crystari. They usually don’t leave much in the way of survivors and because of that we really don’t know much about them. The race as a whole is pretty impressive, not that we know anything about them. Their ships are smaller than ours and have twice the fire power and seem to be resistant to any type of damage. Their ships are made of a crystal substance which is why we’ve given them the name Crystari. It means ‘Crystal Ships’ in my native language.”

“Then based on what you’re saying their attack on Euthara falls out of their normal attack routine,” Jon said.

“Very much so,” Breq said. “It appears they were after something here. Some unknown objective they needed to achieve. I would like to get a look at these structures if I can.”

“I can arrange that,” Jon said. “One thing bothers me though, if they’re so strong why don’t they just come in force and conquer everything in one move?”

“They’re afraid,” Breq said. “That is the one thing we know.”

“If they’re afraid of something we can use it against them,” Jon said. “Do you know what they’re afraid of?”

“Of course,” Breq said. “You.”

“Me?” Jon said. “Why me?”

“That we don’t know,” Breq said. “But, we know you have something to do with it. Every time you’re around they retreat from the surrounding sectors and wait for you to leave before resuming their actions.”

“Strange,” Jon said.

“Maybe they have a prophecy of their own and it involves you somehow,” Breq said.

Jon rolled his eyes as he spoke, “Let’s not start that up.”

“We know they have a watcher race that works with them and will take action from time to time,” Breq said. “That’s actually what drove us to try to expand. We wanted their cloaking technology for our own ships.”

“Wonderful,” Jon said. “Now we have to worry about ships that cloak.”

“We actually had the Itaros on their last leg before the Crystari intervened and began pushing us back,” Breq said. “We had learned to detect their ships, which seemed to exist in two dimensions at once. They could shift to the other dimension and disappear from this one. Most of it is speculation but we believe it’s an alternate universe and they could move about in hyperspace while shifted in this other universe. They could also watch both universes no matter where they were and communicate between them.”

We had learned to detect this rift in our dimension and if you lay enough damage down it would force them to come back here to deal with the threat. It was hypothesized that their ships existed in both dimensions at the same time and could never cut the link with one side completely for some reason. Once you forced them out of their shift they were just as vulnerable as anyone else and were easy targets.”

“Why would a race as powerful as the Crystari ally with another race? It’s not like they need the help,” Jon said.

“Oh they have more than one race behind them,” Breq said. “We know this from scout missions that went deep into their territory. They have several races in their territory but their involvement in the Crystari military is unknown. The scouts never seemed to get very far or very much information and they never made it back. We have a few system scans the scouts sent back.”

“Really?” Jon said. His face seemed to brighten up a bit. “You think that my team can take a look at them?”

“Sure, I don’t see why not,” Breq said. “They don’t really show much and we didn’t find any useful information in them.”

“Maybe you just need a fresh set of eyes looking at them,” Jon said.

Breq shrugged as he continued, “Anyway the war was going very well. We pushed the Itaros back to their last system. The funny thing was that every system we took had no life on it, just ghost towns as if all the people had disappeared.”

“Strange, maybe they shifted away before you arrived or were shifted while you were there,” Jon said.

“We thought of that but never found any evidence of the cities being inhabited,” Breq said. “Dust covered rooms and power plants that were powered down for years.”

“Maybe you were fed misinformation,” Jon said.

“That’s what most of the upper command staff thought and in a way it was correct,” Breq said. “When the Crystari came we got pinched between three small fleets. The ambush was well coordinated and took out half the fleet before we got the orders to retreat from command. We dropped back to a rally point and waited for reinforcements to arrive. They’re very hard to kill but we managed to take a few down in the battle and when they didn’t come storming after us we assumed that was the reason.”

“You actually destroyed some of them?” Jon said.

“Yeah, though it was luck that we managed even that feat,” Breq said. “I still don’t know the whole story on that one. I wasn’t there and most of this story is what I read in reports.”

Breq took a sip of his water before he continued. “Anyway, we held our ground in their systems for a few weeks by jumping around and playing hide and seek with them. We took heavy losses while doing so. Reportedly we would destroy one of their ships and they would retreat but slowly they were whittling our fleet down. That was until an engineer found out that they were using our shields against us. Their weapons leeched power from the ships they struck and they did it through the shields. The engineer developed the modifications that we gave you and they worked for a while. Almost turning the fights into an even battle but in the long run they would win out as it was just a matter of time before they got through the shields.”

Then before long a new weapon was introduced but it wasn’t very effective and it would just shove the Crystari ships around. Enough of the new guns aimed at one of their ships could knock it out of combat for a while. This gave them pause and we were finally able to stand our ground, at least for a while. They wised-up and started hitting us in our home systems trying to force the fleet to break up. This whole back and forth went on for about five years. They would take a system and we would rally and take it back. On and on it went like that. In the systems they took an average of five percent of the population would just disappear. No one knew what happened to them just that they were gone.”

Then, just out of the blue, about six months ago, they started razing whole planets and killing entire populations. It was as if they were saying we’re through playing with you and now it’s time to get serious. With nothing left to take back our job became one of protection and response to attacks. Because of this our fleet dwindled as we lost ships and couldn’t replace them fast enough. Now here we are, it took them less than six months to burn through our main systems and I would bet they’re going to be headed here or to Ghost Station next.”

“Why would they change their tactics six months ago?” Jon said.

“That's pretty much the time you started showing up,” Breq said. “I figured it had something to do with your arrival which is why I saved you. If you are a key piece and the person the prophecy talks about then I had to take action even if it meant exposing me to my father.”

“I don’t believe in prophecy,” Jon said. “I hate to think I have my fate laid out before me and I have no control over my choices.”

Breq smiled and then got serious as he spoke, “An Emperor yet to rise in power shall save the one destined to set the universe on its right and true path.”

“Oh let me guess, it comes from the holy book of the Invaru,” Jon said.

“Close, it comes from an ancient Invaru holy book written three thousand years ago by one of the most renowned clerics in our history,” Breq said. “There’s more but since you don’t like prophecy I’ll wait until you come to ask me about it.”

“That will happen in like never,” Jon said.

“Oh you will,” Breq said.

“And you know this why?” Jon said.

“Because,” Breq said.

“It says it in the holy book,” Jon finished with him.

“I knew it!” Jon said.

“That’s why all that nonsense about the Invaru not being in the ADF isn’t going to happen,” Breq said. “I know I’ll be around.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Jon said. “That depends on how you handle this council thing.”

“I still don’t understand why the council matters,” Breq said.

“Because, everyone should have an equal voice,” Jon said. “I’m thinking that will happen once you get this little problem fixed.”

“But, why hang the acceptance of the Invaru Empire on such a thing?” Breq said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“Motivation,” Jon said. “Like I said before, relax, I’m doing you a favor.”

“If you say so,” Breq said. “I still don’t understand.”

“You will,” Jon said. “Trust me. Well, I think I need some time to think about this. You need to return to the station and coordinate your people and any ships that arrive. I’m going to call Sa’oliq and Gabriel and let them know I want you over-seeing the refit and repairs to your ships. You have our facilities, including personnel at your disposal.”

“Thanks,” Breq said.

Jon stood up followed by Breq and the two shook hands.

“No problem,” Jon said. “I would like your people to coordinate through ADF space command on the station. If you don’t mind we’ll be using your ships as they’re repaired in patrols.”

“We’re at your disposal,” Breq said.

“Good, one more thing. I have some Eutharan Captains up there who seem to be riding the fence about helping out,” Jon said. “You seem to have a quality about you. See if you can persuade them to see the benefit of helping out.”

Breq smiled as he nodded. “It would be my pleasure,” he said.

Jon stepped into his quarters an hour later. He had done his rounds and everything seemed to be in capable hands. The impact site was still being excavated and seemed to be proceeding at a reasonable rate. The Eutharan military that had joined him helped out tremendously in the town and at the dig site. He needed to meet with the Dukes that now resided in the city. There were three lower Dukes and one High Duke that had decided to switch sides. Their reasons were still a bit of a mystery, but they all said it was due to the broadcast and a feeling that something wasn’t right.

The city itself was almost in better shape than the crown city. The flurry of activity around the city increased as more people arrived to help out. The native Eutharan population had heard about the reconstruction and many had decided to move back into the subdivisions around the city they had once inhabited. With the extra manpower, all the projects began getting completed much faster.

Ships were coming in to the station at staggered times. Three more races Jon had never heard of had arrived due to the mass evacuation call issued by Breq. Jon sighed as he would have to soon meet these newcomers and deal with their role in the ADF. That was if they decided to join and if they didn’t he would have to deal with what to do with them. He was torn between asking them to leave or giving them shelter somehow. He would talk to his command staff about it, which now included Breq.

The situation with the King hadn’t progressed or declined, and the Council meeting was in two weeks. He had postponed it in light of the recent events. Once that ruling was done, Jon would make his move depending on what they decided. Deatra was a whole other matter, he wanted her back by his side and he felt empty without her. But any move to get her could be seen as an act of aggression and it could destabilize his position.

Andie’s condition hadn’t changed she was still brain locked. She was aware of what was going on and could hear everything around her, so they told him. Her brain had just shut itself down at the news of her brother’s death. They said when she was ready to deal with the issue of her brother’s death she would wake up.

What was left of the Earth’s Revenge had been towed into the station and was currently being evaluated. If enough of the ship had survived it would be refit, if not it would be scrapped. Jon pushed the issue of having the ship refit and not scrapped. He wanted the ship put back in the field as a reminder that they didn’t give up and a moral boost to those who had survived her destruction.

The new Chief Medical Officer had informed him that they would be waking his sister and Oojoung in a day and they were steadily improving. They should both be back in action the week after their waking. It was the best news Jon had heard in the past two days and it lifted his spirits. Sam was still with Oojoung in his room and had been there since the beginning. Since she was being watched by the medical team and four soldiers from Oojoung's Special Forces unit, he didn’t have a problem with it.