Shadow Space Chronicles 1: The Fallen Race (41 page)

Lucius grunted at the damage estimate.  It looked a lot worse to him.  Power plants damaged, weapons systems missing, defense screens at partial loads due to missing and still-damaged emitters.  “You have no reservations?”

Kral spoke softly, “Most Chxor who receive suicidal orders have no recourse.  They go to their deaths knowing the failure of their actions will lead to the murder of their offspring.  I think the plan full of risks.  Had I thought it suicidal, I would not have volunteered.”

“
Thank you, Kral.”  Lucius looked over at the two Admirals.  “Any questions?”

Admiral Dreyfus shook his head, “We’ve sorted through this for the past six days, now.  I think we’ve talked through every possibility already.  There are a lot of ways this can go wrong, from more significant forces, to a talented Chxor commander.  We need to get ship crews fully briefed, and get people moving.”

Lucius nodded.  “Very well, make it so.”

***

“
Miss Kelly, thank you for seeing me.” Lucius said, later that afternoon.

“
Well, sir, I was a little surprised to get a message, we take off this afternoon.”  She looked uncomfortable as she stood in the office in civilian dress.

“
Take a seat, please.” Lucius said as he pulled out a folder and passed it across to her.  “I’m not sure, exactly, what your plans are.  I’m not sure if you even have any plans, but I think this might help you.”

She opened the folder, and stared at the illuminated certificate inside.  She read over the decorous lettering twice, before she looked up, “Baron, is this what I think it is?”

“If you think it a letter of marque, you are correct,” Lucius said.

“
But… why?”  She looked confused, and a little bit hurt, “Baron, I thought my letter explained it, I’m done with fighting.  I’ve seen too many people die—”

“
I understand.” Lucius said.  He sighed, “Honestly, I hope you never have to use it.  At the same time,” he met her eyes, “I know you, Lauren Kelly.  I know that you can’t set idly by and watch bad things happen to good people.  Hopefully, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to act, this will help you.”  He shrugged, “Honestly, there are systems that will hang you just for having that, so I wouldn’t advertise it.”

“
Oh.” She looked down at the certificate and he saw her rotate it to show the imbedded holograms and verification chips.  “Then you aren’t going to try to use me as some kind of secret agent?”

“
I’m… not against you getting messages to us if you come across anything important.  Captain Nix is putting together a military intelligence net, I’m sure she’d like to tie you in.  I think that’s a little out in the future.  Mostly, just do whatever you and Mason were going to do anyway.”  He doubted either one would ever come into a situation where they’d need it, but still, it wouldn’t hurt for them to have at least a
claim
of legitimacy.

“
Thank you, Baron.”

“
For what its worth, I hope things work out for you, Lauren.”  Lucius said, “You were a hell of an officer, and I really didn’t want to lose you.”

She shrugged uncomfortably.  “Thank you, sir.”

Lucius stood, giving her a crisp salute.  “Dismissed.  Clear space and quick time.”

She returned the salute, her eyes slightly misty.  “You too sir.”  She spun on her heel and departed the office.  A few minutes later, Captain Nix stepped in.  “So, how’d she take it, Baron?”

“Fairly well.” Lucius responded.  “I hope I didn’t just get them hung for piracy.”

Captain Nix shrugged, “Nah, a lot of small colonies have privateers.  Faraday had a couple, actually, a few decades ago.  Didn’t work out, then, though.  They ran afoul of some Republic warlord,” she shrugged.

“How goes the interrogations?” Lucius asked.

She made a grimace of distaste, “I’m so
sick
of looking at Chxor…” She shook her head, “You said before you were working on transferring them over to civil authorities for processing, how’s that going?”

“
A couple snags, I hope to get those fixed soon.  How is everything else going?”

She frowned, “I need to expand my staff, Lucius.  I need some intelligence analysts.  I’ve borrowed a couple spooks from Admiral Dreyfus, but… they and I aren’t really sure who reports to who, you know?”  She shrugged, “On top of that, it seems like we’re doing double the work half the time.  We don’t coordinate with each other, just because we’ve got two separate organizations.  I’ve definitely got the lead in HumInt, but they’re ahead with SigInt and they’ve got some great gadgets."

Lucius nodded, “Integration of units is going to take a while.  There’s some issues with seniority of rank, as well, especially since most of their date of ranks will be thirty or more years older.”

She snorted, “I don’t care about that, too much,” she shrugged again, “I ran the intelligence for a planet before, all else fails, I know I have a job if I decide to quit here.”

“I’m tempted to transfer you over to the civilian side,” Lucius said, after a moment.  “President Bueller has assembled heads for a lot of the civilian services, but the United Colonies Federal Investigation Bureau is lacking in experience.”

She shuddered slightly, “You couldn’t come up with a better acronym than ‘FIB?’”

“I could move you over to the Director slot there.” Lucius said.  “Not a lot of work right now, but they’ll be our primary counter-espionage force.”

Captain Nix pursed her lips, “Director of the FIB?  Where’s the headquarters?”

“Well, I’m certain there are enough empty estates that you can appropriate for the time being.”

She waved a hand, “Unnecessary.  Actually, I’m pretty tempted by that offer, Lucius.”  She narrowed her eyes, “Wait a second, you said earlier, that you’d be transferring the Chxor prisoners over to civilian authorities…”

“Primary responsibility would fall to the FIB.”

“
Argh.”

“
I’m sorry?” Lucius said in such a way to suggest that he really wasn't.  Alicia Nix was a capable woman, she would do a good job, and despite her complaints, she loved challenges.

“
Do you have any idea how much of a headache processing half a million POWs is?”

“
We’re estimating between four hundred thousand and a million people rescued from this upcoming operation.” Lucius said.

Captain Nix put her head in her hands.  “Let me guess,” her muffled voice said, “They’ll all need to be processed too?  And you’ll want the Chxor finished before we start processing human POWs.”

Lucius smiled, “No big rush, you know.  Just two genocidal alien races to worry about.”

“
Did I ever thank you, Baron, for coming to Faraday and saving us?” Nix Reed said.

Lucius cocked his head, “No, I don't think you ever did.”

“Good.”

***

Captain Kral knew that tactical patience won many wars.

That kind of patience the Chxor excelled at.  They had much practice as a race, he knew.  Years of subjugation culled the Chxor to those who could either accept their lot in life or pretend to very well.

Kral had much practice in pretense.  Now, his patience would finally pay off.

After months spent with humans, Kral had come to realize that Chxor too, felt emotions.  Granted, those emotions did not approach the range of the human consciousness.  Kral had no concept of regret.  He had no idea of ‘love.’  Friendship too, he understood poorly, beyond the forging of alliances.

He found that, when he allowed himself to do so, a Chxor could experience human-like emotions.  Obsession, he knew, might explain some of the wasteful actions of certain Chxor commanders, such as Kleigh.  Selfishness certainly showed in the actions of the dominant Chxor gene-lines.  Kral came to find that generosity, when applied to his fellow imprisoned Chxor could also breed loyalty.  They found he could help them, and they reciprocated.

Loyalty had its strong points in the emotions that Kral discovered.  But Kral found that ambition had its own draw.  Ambition fed upon success, and Kral became very successful.

Ambition, however, like obsession, burned away at one’s tactical patience.

He ran calm eyes over his all-Chxor bridge crew.  More likely than not, the Chxor at the station would not search the entire ship.  However, it would not do to take chances in something easily preventable.  His crews aboard both the dreadnoughts and defense cruisers consisted entirely of Chxor.

And all those Chxor owed their freedom--and their loyalty--to him.

“We have established communications with the base defense forces, Squadron Commander.”  The communications technician spoke hesitantly, “There are more ships here than normal, a Chxor convoy arrived a few hours ago.”

Kral nodded his head, he accepted the Chxor rank.  It meant more to him than Baron Giovanni’s granted title of ‘Captain.’  He keyed open a link to the System Commander, “System Commander, this is Squadron Commander Kral.  I have important news, which will require immediate action.”

“What news is that?” The monotone answer somehow carried overtones to Kral’s emotion sensitive ears.  He realized, suddenly, that other Chxor, even those in high positions, must feel emotions.  This System Commander obviously felt despair at his lowly position.  No doubt, a Chxor of high genetic rank, he felt his command over this repair base to be beneath his station.  He saw it as a dead-end job.

A Chxor who won a great victory here, however, might receive rapid promotion, especially for the defeat of a known irritant.  He might further reward the Chxor who warned him of such an opportunity.

“System Commander, until recently I and my crew were captives of humans.”  Kral spoke, “They captured these vessels in actions at the Faraday system.  Knowing the glory of the Chxor would reign triumphant, I and my fellow prisoners lied to the humans.  We professed loyalty to them.  In their emotional foolishness, they believed us.”

The monotonic voice might have gained the slightest hint of surprise, “That is an interesting story.”

“There is more, System Commander.  Knowing great rewards would be ours if we could defeat them, we made up a story to lure them here.  They planned a two part attack, with us to slip inside and open the way for their forces.”  Kral kept his diction precise, his voice level.  It would not do to show his excitement.

“
Logically, then, your force becomes a threat.”

“
Logically, unless I can prove my own loyalty to the Chxor.” Kral said, “The human force is scheduled to arrive in just under six hours.  I will transfer to you a list of their forces.  My own ships, as you see, have received heavy damages and are not yet repaired.  System Commander, obviously, my force is no threat to your own.  Indeed, the recapture of these vessels for the Chxor Empire would be a great boon.”

“
What good would knowledge of the human plans provide me?”

Kral wondered, absently, if stupidity could be considered an emotion.  “With knowledge of their emergence point and their probable course of action, your forces could await them and catch them at close range.  It is highly likely you could destroy those vessels to include the known pirate vessel
War Shrike.
”

The slight pause, Kral interpreted, had to be the System Commander's need to listen to his personal ambition.  “I had heard of this ship.  If I win a victory over this ship, your assistance will not be forgotten.”

“Understood, System Commander.”

“
Take your ships to station, you are not allowed to dock.  Your ships will wait on station near the derelict yard until I defeat the human attack.”  The Chxor on the other end paused, “For the glory of the Chxor.”

“
For the glory of the Chxor, System Commander.”

***

Forrest Perkins was not a hero.

He’d graduated from an academy with a degree in astralnavigation on Saragossa at twenty two.  He could have joined the Navy, but at the time, he’d wanted to start a family.  He did so and got a good, well-paying job on a merchant ship.  He’d left Saragossa in July of 2393.  Three months later, he had returned to find his homeworld ravaged by the Nova Roma Empire.  He gave his spot on the ship to another man there to take his family off-world and went to find his own.  His new wife vanished in the chaos, never to be seen again.  With the system’s infrastructure and defenses gutted, he saw his world plundered multiple times.

Over the next two years, millions of his fellows starved to death.  Forrest held on, till the Chxor came.  Some saw them as saviors, for they brought stability.  Forrest just saw them as one more step down the rung for his world.

It might have been a sullen look in his eye that got him assigned to slave labor.  It might just have been his luck finally ran out.  Either way, his knowledge of ships meant he got assigned to one of the Chxor 113 mining ships.

He started his sixteen hour shift as normal, shoved roughly out of his bunk by one of the other two men he split it with.  With something more than a rudimentary knowledge of spacecraft, Forrest got the thankless job as commander of the mining craft.