Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3) (10 page)

The human looked at Niraas with an expression that could only be disbelief, and Jusan turned to Niraas with a similar expression. That was not something that they talked about in the preparation. He glanced at Nimuse, and saw no surprise in her. She knew about it, which meant that they withheld things from him.

“We have no intention of taking control of Nuva. Our only motive is to protect the people living there.” Fleet Commander said.

“And yet you have been taking our people to who knows where. We will require that our people be brought back to Nuva, and all your presence removed from the system.” Niraas said.

“We stopped being your people when you abandoned us to the Sowir!” Isani said harshly.

“That is not your decision to make traitor! Nuva belongs to the council!” Nimuse said.

“Lanai Sumia, the leader of Nuva colony declared our independence. You have no claim on us!” Isani responded.

Then Niraas spoke up, “And where is Lanai Sumia? She has been taken to an undisclosed location by these humans. Why should we acknowledge her decree, even if she had the power to make it – which she does not – when she is nowhere to be seen?”

“We believed that we would all die, it was decided that few should be saved. And Sumia went with them to provide guidance.” Isani said.

“It matters not. She had no right to make such a decree. Nuva is, and always will be Nel colony.” Niraas said, and then turned to the human. “You will remove yourselves from our territory. Only then might we discuss some kind of a trade agreement.” Niraas finished in a condescending tone.

For the entire exchange, Jusan watched the human Fleet Commander. His extremely Nel like expression went from inviting at the beginning to neutral, and now hardened and calm. Jusan could see that this person
knew
, not believed, but
knew
, that he was equal to anyone. Jusan could just for a moment see pity in the human’s eyes, pity for Niraas and his belief. And then it was gone, replaced with icy gaze.

“Trade agreement…” Fleet Commander said. “Our proposal was for more than that. We offered you ships so that you can fight the Sowir Dominion.” He said in a calm voice.

Niraas managed to collect himself a bit, but still a touch of condescension entered his voice, “Ah, yes. Our experts determined that any ships you build using this “fabricating” technology of yours won’t be of use to us. But we are willing to make a trade agre-”

“Won’t be of use
?
” Fleet Commander interrupted. Niraas bristled. It was a great insult to be interrupted in the middle of a sentence, especially for a council member, but Fleet Commander continued, not giving him a chance to say anything, “You haven’t even seen our technology. You didn’t inspect our ships, and from what I see you didn’t even look at the recording of the battle we provided.”

“We examined the recording. We were not impressed.” Nimuse said.

“So you will not accept an alliance with us against the Sowir?” Fleet Commander asked.

“No. We see no benefit in such an agreement. A trade agreement is more to our liking. We will of course offer some technological advances that your people obviously lack, in shipbuilding and other areas. But nothing until you remove your presence from Nuva.” Niraas said.

That was when Jusan stood up. He glared at Niraas.

“What are you doing? We need help, Sowir are still a threat and you are throwing any chance of an agreement by insulting them!” Jusan said.

“A threat? No, they overextended by trying to take on all of the Consortium by themselves. The fact that we have seen no sign of them on Nelus for a decade, proves it. They don’t have the strength to fight us, a fact confirmed by the evidence at Nuva. They were defeated by these primitive ships, and our outdated models. No, Sowir pose no threat to Nelus.” Niraas said.

“Perhaps we should continue this discussion tomorrow, after we both had time to reflect on what was said here today.” Fleet Commander said.

Niraas got to his feet, “Yes. But understand that without you agreeing to remove your forces from Nuva there will be no agreements. And the consequences of you not doing so, will be grave.” With that Niraas went out of the room, followed closely by Nimuse and their Laas Rett. Jusan looked at the human, he saw no sign that Niraas’ threat hit its mark. There was no fear in him. Jusan turned to his Laas Rett,

“Wait for me outside.” The Laas Rett bowed their heads and left the room. He didn’t send them outside because he didn’t trust them, he did. But he hoped that it would be a gesture that the human could understand.

The Fleet Commander looked at Jusan for the moment and then without any outward command from him, his guards also left the room. Leaving only Retsar Isani, the Fleet Commander and his beasts, and Jusan in the room. Jusan sat back in his chair and sighed.

“I apologize for what just happened. I had no knowledge of it, our official plan was much different. Although it too was along the same lines, only much more… Diplomatically formulated.” Jusan said with a small smile.

The human raised an eyebrow and then returned Jusan’s smile. “Apology accepted. Although it wasn’t needed. I was warned that this might happen.” Fleet Commander said, glancing at Retsar Isani. “I admit that I didn’t really believe it would be like this.”

“I am afraid that you will not get what you want here Fleet Commander. Even though we might need it desperately.”

“Please call me Adrian. You don’t agree with the rest of your party?”

“No, I don’t. I know that your help is much needed. But the rest of the council… They have deluded themselves into a false safety. Or rather they were deluded into it by House Nor Ral.” Jusan sighed, “Sowir haven’t been seen in Nelus for a decade, so they believe that they won’t turn to us, ever. They think that our converted ships coupled with our new fleet ships will be enough to match Sowir should they chose to attack. This attack on Nuva should scare them, and yet they chose to ignore it.”

“What of the people? Surely some can see that they are in danger.” Adrian asked.

Jusan smiled and looked to Retsar Isani. “No, they don’t, they believe in the council, and that it will keep them safe. That is how society on Nelus works now, those in charge lead, the rest follow.”

“But how could have you been the part of the Consortium if your leaders are like this? It makes no sense.” Adrian asked.

“Because they weren’t in charge then. And because those living on Nelus, are in a way the worst of us.”

“What do you mean?” Adrian asked.

“Our planet was very close to being overpopulated before we went into space. And tensions were high. Many feared that we will repeat the mistake of the past. A thing we are all most ashamed of. But luckily we started colonizing space. Soon after we meet the Pouute, and we formed the Consortium. Those that went to the stars were forward thinkers, those who wanted to erase the class systems. And soon in the Consortium they succeeded. Nelus became the planet filled with backward thinkers. With our best living out amongst the other planets of the Consortium.” Jusan said, stopping to choose his next words.

And then Isani continued Jusan’s thoughts, “And then the Sowir attacked. And all those living outside of Nelus died, leaving only those still following the old ways. The council retook the power on Nelus from the government, and started sending all those who were more vocal in their protest to Nuva. Soon people realized that they had to keep their opinions to themselves, or risk being sent to a world without protection.”

“Yes.” Jusan agreed.

Adrian rubbed his eyes with his left hand for a moment, and then looked at Jusan. “And you? You obviously don’t agree with their way of doing things, and yet you are on the council.”

“I am on the council because of my family’s wealth. I had a lot of trade in the Consortium, so I spent most of my time away from Nelus. And even after I lost most of my fortune, my merchant fleet was still of use to the council. I have been selling my ships to the Fleet to retrofit. And I know how to keep my mouth shut.” Jusan said.

“Is there any chance that I can change the council’s mind? That they can see reason?” Adrian asked.

“I am afraid not. The council answers to Tavaar of House Nor Ral, and he will never accept your help. Doing so would tell everyone that he can’t protect Nelus by himself, it would erode his power. And he will never allow that to happen.” Jusan said.

“And what about Nuva? If my people leave the system, will they send ships to protect it?” Adrian asked.

“I doubt it. The council won’t leave Nelus weakened.”

“And if we don’t leave? They will what, Declare war?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them. But even if they do, they won’t send ships away from Nelus. But you will lose any hope of a trade agreement.” Jusan said.

“We don’t care about a trade agreement. We have all that we need. What we care about is the Sowir Dominion. They are a threat to all of us.” Adrian said firmly.

“Then there is nothing for you here. You will not get an Alliance. The families once allowed power to slip through their hands, when the Consortium was formed. They will not let it happen again.”

“Isani?” Adrian turned to Retsar.

“I didn’t believe that things have gotten this bad. But after what just happened with the other emissaries, I must agree with Sestar Jusan. We will not find what we want here.”

“Well… I guess that then we have no further interest here.” Adrian said.

“What will you do now?” Jusan asked.

“Go back to Nuva. My leaders have made a commitment to protect the people of Nuva. We will find another way to deal with the Sowir.”

“What will you tell the council?”

“I will inform them that I need to consult with my superiors and that I will be back with the response.”

“When will you leave?” Jusan asked.

“As soon as you leave the ship. There is no point in staying any longer, and my ships are needed elsewhere.” Adrian said.

Jusan got to his feet and moved towards the doors, he turned and bowed to Adrian. Then he paused, and looked at Adrian, his hand reached down to his pocket. But after a moment or two he pulled it back and hesitantly asked.

“I must ask. Our people look so much alike. Are you aware of any connection?”

Adrian looked at Jusan puzzled. “We have done a few tests. As far as I am aware, there is a distant connection between us, one which our scientists are unable to explain for now. But the tests are only in their beginning stage.”

Jusan sighed, not hearing what he wanted. Disappointed, Jusan bowed again and left the room.

Chapter Eleven

May 2171 – Sanctuary

Tomas sat at the head of the table in the meeting room, on the one side of the table sat Elias Bakas the head of Olympus army and Linda Reiss Fleets Master, and by his side Hyeon Seo-yun Minister of Science. They were waiting for Nadia Wilson Minister of Civil Service before they started with their weekly meeting. Elias, Linda, and Seo-yun chatted away about insignificant things as they waited, while Tomas read the latest reports on his datapad. He still couldn’t make himself use his implant to read.

After another five minutes of waiting, Nadia entered the room in a hurry.

“Sorry I’m late. Jane’s appointment went a bit long.” Nadia said, referring to her wife.

“Everything okay with the baby?” Tomas asked worried, he knew how much they wanted a baby and how much they went through until they found a suitable donor.

“Yes, yes. Just a regular checkup.” Nadia responded as she took her seat at the table.

“Good.” Tomas said, putting his datapad aside, “Let’s start with you Laura. What are our chances against the Sowir should they decide to contest Nuva?”

“Well with the platforms we already have in place around the planet and the ones we plan on bringing online in the future, it will take a significantly bigger force to take the planet than what they sent last time. At least eighty ships. And sadly all our projections indicate that they have enough to spare should they decide it’s worth it to them.” Laura said.

“What are the chances of success for our plan B?” Elias asked.

Tomas grimaced, “They could be better. But we will go ahead with it, as soon as Fleet Commander returns from Nelus he will go to Tarsas system.”

“And if it goes badly? We don’t know what we will find there, we risk losing most of our ships.” Seo-yun said.

“There is no helping it. We need room to breathe. And with the failure at Nelus, this might be our only chance.” Tomas said.

“When does Fleet Commander Farkas arrive in Nuva?” Seo-yun asked Laura.

“In another five months.” Laura responded.

Seo-yun turned back to Tomas, “And you still insist on sending the Home Fleet as well?”

“Yes.” Tomas said adamantly. “If the plan is to work, we need to present a strong front. Nothing less will do.”

“And you leave Sanctuary unprotected.” Seo-yun added.

“By then we will have another two battleships finished. But in any case it is our location that is our greatest defense. Sowir don’t know where we are and are unlikely to find us on their own.”

Seo-yun sighed, “I just hope we are doing the right thing.”

“What about Nelus? What can we expect their response to be after Fleet Commander doesn’t return.” Elias asked.

“According to Retsar Isani there might not even be a response. He doubts that Nelus council will make true on their threat, they won’t dare sending ships away from Nelus, and he and Lanai Sumia both doubt that they will involve themselves in another war. Although they will no doubt continue to threaten and demand that we leave Nuva. But, we will see.” Tomas said, then turned to Laura, “What about the drone program? Any news?”

“The tests have been a success. The new FTL comms are performing better than anticipated.” Laura said.

“Drones are a lot cheaper to make, and we can build a lot more of them in a shorter period than regular ships…” Tomas said, then turned to Laura. “The question is can we use them? Will they be an adequate alternative to light and heavy cruisers?”

“Yes, they will be.” Laura said.

“So, do we start production?” Tomas asked.

“We planned for each drone team to operate a squadron of ten drones. Technically, one dreadnought could control up to sixty drones, and one battleship thirty. So let’s start with one squadron of ‘light cruiser’ drones, and then expand from there.” Laura said.

“Alright, that is decided.” Tomas said. “Nadia, how are things with the Nel? Are they fitting in well?”

“Oh yes. They are fitting in just fine, they started exploring the city, and there haven’t been any major problems. There have even been a few Mtural that ventured out into the city. The Guxcacul have sadly chosen to stay in their quarters, our atmosphere doesn’t really agree with them. They can survive in it, but it isn’t pleasant for them.” Nadia said.

“How did they live on Nuva then?” Elias asked.

“Much as they did here, they had a few facilities dedicated to them, and they stayed inside.” Nadia responded.

“Talk with them, see if there is anything we can do for them.” Tomas said.

“Of course Tomas.” Nadia said.

“The next thing I wanted to talk about is concerning the exploration fleet, and their discoveries. We need to start expanding our territory outside of Sanctuary, at the very least place some outposts.” Tomas said. They had retrofitted the 8 old ships that they brought with them from Earth into trans-capable explorer ships, and they have been exploring Sanctuary’s neighborhood and mapping out the trans-lanes for suitable systems.

“Well the most important piece of news is that we have found another trans-station in this system, close to the nebula’s boundary.” Laura said, referring to the
inner
boundary of the Sanctuary system. The nebula that surrounds them was around three light years at its longest and about two light years at its thinnest, in a cloud like shape. Sanctuary system was completely engulfed by it, existing inside a
bubble
that was around a light year in diameter. “And it is an outgoing one. But the most interesting thing is the system it leads to. The system is located some seven light years from here, on the other side from Nel and Sowir space, which is great. Also the system is filled with trans-stations, both outgoing and incoming. We have detected eleven outgoing and seven incoming, and have named the system Waypoint. It has six planets orbiting a yellow sun. A gas giant and five planets, sadly none of the planets are habitable, but one of the gas giant’s moons has air, the atmosphere has a bit higher oxygen percent, but it is habitable.” Laura added.

“Have we started exploring the lanes?” Seo-yun asked.

“Yes, two of them. One leads to a virtually empty system, just one tidally locked barren planet orbiting a red dwarf star. And the other one leads to a very interesting system. Almost the entire system is one big asteroid field orbiting a class M supergiant. We don’t know how it was formed, but the most probable theory is that the system once had more than three planets, and that following some kind of catastrophe the planets either crashed into one another or something else caused them to explode. The asteroid field is most likely the remnant of the planets. The asteroid field itself has quite a few planetoids and preliminary scans indicate that it is ore rich. We have also detected two outgoing lanes. One of which the explorer ship took out of the system, and it is currently traveling through it, so we will know the destination once it exits the trans-space. The other exploration ships are set to go through the other lanes in the Waypoint system over the next few days.” Laura responded.

“Good.” Tomas said. “Is there anything else?”

Elias coughed, “Yes. There is a thing that I think needs to be brought up. It concerns the policing of Sanctuary, and any other colonies we might have in the future.”

“What is the problem?” Tomas asked.

“Well, up until now the job of policing was left to my people, soldiers. And that was fine, there was little crime here, our population is small and everyone understood the need for unity. But now as time passes crime is steadily growing. Nothing serious for now, but it is only a matter of time until something drastic happens. And while I have people that are trained in doing police work, back from Earth, they are still a part of my army corps.” Elias said.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Nadia asked.

“This needs to change, we need a separate department that would deal only with police work.” Elias said.

“I agree.” Tomas said nodding. “I have been toying with an idea for something like this. Let me think about it for a bit, there is no rush I assume?”

“Not really, my people can handle the little things for now.” Elias said.

Tomas nodded again, “Alright then, if that is all let’s review the reports for last week.”

***

Sometime later Seo-yun walked through the gardens at the palace. It helped her relax after a hard day’s work. The sun was yet to drop below the horizon, so there was enough light that she could enjoy the sight. After a few steps she noticed a person sitting on a bench. She debated whether to leave or to approach. In the end she decided to approach. She walked to the bench and sat down. The person already sitting glanced at her, “Greetings Minister.” She said.

“Lanai.” Seo-yun responded.

They remained silent for a while, both looking at the flowers. Eventually Lanai Sumia broke the silence, “These are beautiful. I have never seen anything like them. Sadly, my people put little stock in things that have no purpose, we have nothing like this ‘garden’ of yours.”

“It does have a purpose, it soothes the mind. For some at least.” Seo-yun said, “And it looks nice.” She added.

“That it does.” Sumia agreed.

“They are from Earth, our home world.” Seo-yun said.

“Really? Your world must be a beautiful place.” Sumia said.

“It is, it can be. Sadly, my people have abused it much. We don’t value it as much as we should.” Seo-yun said.

“How so?”

“We’ve given little regard to what our actions were doing to our world. We’ve polluted our atmosphere, poisoned our ground. It took a war to make us see what we almost did to our world, and to ourselves.” Seo-yun shook her head.

“War… I still struggle to understand that. How someone can kill so many of their own kind. It is hard to understand.” Sumia said.

“It’s not so hard to understand. It is in our nature. We fought over small differences, and we fought for resources, we fought because of greed and power, and we fought because we simply could. And we fought for freedom, we fought to change things for the better.” Seo-yun said.

“I have read some of your history. You have always been divided into… Countries, I believe you call them, it is a hard concept to grasp, my people have always been one.” Sumia said.

“How did you settle your differences? You must have had them.”

“We did, but one wasn’t supposed to harm another of their own. It did happen from time to time, and it was harshly punished. But never on a scale of your wars. Disputes would be settled with Lus – a game, or talking to one another.” Sumia said.

“But what about other kind of differences, of belief. There must have been some who opposed the way things were in your society?” Seo-yun asked.

“It was understood that the way things were was unchangeable, no one would dare try and use force to change anything, not since the …” Sumia started, and then paused.

“Since what?” Seo-yun asked,

Sumia turned to look at Seo-yun for a moment, and then back at the flowers.

“Since the Order of Truth.” Sumia said slowly.

“What was that?”

“The darkest point in our history.” Sumia answered, “It might not seem like that to you, with your history, but to us it was something to never be spoken about out loud, but also never forgotten. It is the reason why no one tried to change anything with force. The Order of Truth was a religious movement in our past. It preached about a God that created Nel, and how our true home wasn’t on Nelus but in the heavens. They tried to force their belief of equality on others. They started a war, that ultimately led to a genocide, people of those times were forced to kill them all. That is how fanatical the Order was in their beliefs. That event made my people into what we are now. It united us, and also made us complacent with the way things were. Over time as we learned and grew things changed slowly, but still some had more power than others, and no one dared change anything. Then when we formed the Consortium equality became a reality. But only out in the colonies, Nelus stayed the same. Soon all those who believed in the old ways were on Nelus while the rest left for the colonies. Then at the end of the Consortium, all those people died, and Nelus remained.” Sumia said.

“I can’t understand that. War is a terrible thing I agree. But there are some things worth fighting for, worth dying for.” Seo-yun said.

“Yes, there are. But while my people would almost never dare to go to war with their own, you are perhaps all too willing. That is the greatest difference between us.” Sumia said. After that, they sat there in silence for a few minutes before Lanai Sumia spoke again.

“There was one more thing that the Order preached.” Sumia said hesitantly.

“What?” Seo-yun asked.

“They said that their God didn’t put Nel solely on Nelus, but on a two other worlds as well. And that someday we would be reunited in the heavens.” Sumia said.

“Oh?”

“When we first met and saw the similarities between us, it was a shock. But most thought nothing of it. But now that you have found scientific evidence that clearly shows that we are related, albeit distantly, it has sparked talk amongst my people, here and back on Nuva.” Sumia said.