Sentience 1: Storm Clouds Gathering (6 page)

“No, quite the opposite actually,” said Drik. “Varq was unmercifully truthful, even when it hurt me to hear it. He always said that he would never dare utter anything less than the full truth, lest I hesitate to believe him when it truly mattered. Only once did he speak such an obvious absurdity, I knew it false immediately.”

“Really? What was that about?”

“I was only a small cub at the time, and I had not yet learned that some questions are forbidden. I foolishly asked him about his life prior to his assignment to me — what his former rank-stone looked like and what position he had forsaken to raise me. His answer was so blatantly ridiculous that I understood at once that I had erred badly in asking such a personal question.”

“Really? What did he say, that was so absurd?” asked Quadrant-Master Raan.

“He told me that his rank stone had been black and that he’d been an OverMaster.”

Raan’s blood froze. An
OverMaster
is a mythological creature of ancient legend that Raknii dams frightened cubs with, to get them to behave themselves. Black onyx rank-stones were reserved for the Dolrak priestesses of the Raknii god Dol, who were all females.

The legends barely mentioned OverMasters, but what little there was attributed many incredible powers to them. OverMasters were said to be mysterious male Dolrak, who wore a High-Rak diamond sunburst around an onyx stone… but then, no one could possibly know that, as legend also said that the OverMasters were special servants of Dol and the Supreme-Master. Supposedly any Raknii who actually saw one was hypnotically programmed to immediately forget having seen him, which, in effect, made them virtually invisible… a hole within memory. Dams frightened cubs with stories of the Supreme-Master or even Dol himself, dispatching OverMasters to steal bad little cubs away to an unpleasant place where no one would ever see them again… so they’d better behave themselves or the OverMasters would get them.

Suddenly, Raan wasn’t quite so sure that some of those legends didn’t have
some
basis in fact. Changing the subject, Raan said, “I take it he never gave you the slightest hint as to your birth heritage, then?”

“Never.”

“The most disturbing part of the prophecy is the lack of anything that might be done to avert it… mass deaths or total extinction seem to be the only options. I find both equally distressing.”

“Master, Varq did mention a third possibility… the one that depended upon our people discovering this new form of wisdom he called
morality
,” said Drik.

“Morality is an ancient word that has all but disappeared from the Rak language. It referred to living life by a code of ethics that often seem contrary to our nature. A life dedicated to doing what is
right
, instead of what feels natural.”

Drik sighed. “Yes, that certainly sounds like him. I have never heard of even a Dolrak who was as totally dedicated to the ancient laws as Varq.”

“Would Varq speak directly to me, do you think, if we were in total privacy?” asked Raan.

“I doubt it, Master. In all my cycles among Region-Master Glan’s pride, he spoke only to me and to other stoneless, such as himself. He said that he was not
sent
for any others, but perhaps he might answer
my
questions in your presence. He did so in Glan’s presence… once… long ago.”

Varq didn’t.

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.
-- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

The Raknii Warship Akudavex, in Deep Space

243/196-1 Akudavex Log: Underway to Region 12
Sub-Region 10
Sector 9 / System 8. Continuing the search for Class-1 planets — Negative Result. Heading: 087-519. Speed X245. // Ship-Master Tzal.

Tzal sat on his command mount examining his ship’s log with distaste. Sixty-seven consecutive entries, all bearing that same, shameful “NEGATIVE RESULT” notation frosted Tzal’s soul. Only the twitching of the whiskers on Tzal’s muzzle betrayed his inner turmoil as he contemplated having to make the sixty-eighth. Tzal realized that his impatience was totally unreasonable. The exploration of only seven star systems without discovering a life-sustaining planet was only to be expected, as they really weren’t all that common in the overall scheme of the universe. But Tzal didn’t feel like being reasonable. His soul
burned
for something… anything positive to weigh against the stain on
Akudavex’
honor after the debacle at Jarp’s Folly. Just surviving the experience and living to tell the tale was a dishonor. Jarp’s Folly had been the worst, and one of the very rare, defeats in all of Raknii history. Merely being associated with a defeat was more dishonor than any Rak warrior could bear.

After discovery of the x-drive propelled the Raknii into interstellar space, they expanded ever outward for over a thousand cycles, enslaving several intelligent races. All had been less technologically advanced and therefore easy prey... until the Trakaan.

The Trakaan were the only other star-faring race the Raknii had ever encountered. Incredibly, those first Trakaan ships carried no weapons at all… a concept totally
alien
to the Raknii mind. Even Raknii transports carried minimal weaponry. The Raknii were virtually unopposed for over six cycles before finally encountering a Trakaan ship that fired back. Even after they finally began to resist, Rak warriors mocked and derided their new prey, saying that the only thing challenging about hunting Trakaan was that one had to chase them farther before the kill.

The Trakaan initially took to destroying their own ships, in an effort to hide the locations of their worlds. Some had even timed their self-destruction, so they could destroy or badly damage the Rak warships closing in to capture them. Eventually, there came a time when a Trakaan ship’s self-destruct mechanism failed and the first one was captured intact. It was then towed to the closest sector capital and analyzed by Raknii scientists.

Science had come slowly to the Raknii, as generally the race just wasn’t emotionally equipped with the patience necessary for scientific discovery. But as the rise of the Dolrak had saved their race from self-extermination, they also provided a method for determining the best field that an individual Raknii citizen was best suited for.

The Dolrak were all females, originally priestesses of the ancient Raknii god, Dol. It was said that in ages past, Dol had shown mercy on his savage Raknii children and given his priestesses the secret by which the bestial savagery that abounded within the Rak males could be tamed and harnessed. Dol taught his priestesses the art of hyper-hypnotics and instituted a ranking system by which every male’s place within Raknii society was established and recognized. All males except cubs and the lowest of all castes of Raknii wore a rank-stone on his forehead, just above and between his eyes. The material makeup of the rank-stones denoted an individual’s rank.

The Dolrak used hypnotics in a secret ritual ceremony every time a Raknii male was advanced in rank. Obedience to those of higher rank, respect for those of equal rank, and restraint towards those of lower rank were hypnotically ingrained. Thus, it was that those males having the genetic inclination towards scientific studies, had those attributes hypnotically strengthened by the Dolrak. Similar hypnotic attribute selection and strengthening for virtually every profession within the entire Raknii civilization was the domain of the Dolrak. A very few Raknii seemed to possess a natural resistance to Dolrak hypnotic conditioning, but those were immediately killed whenever identified, for they were
rogues
— genetic throwbacks to an earlier, savage age in Raknii history.

It took Rak scientists almost ten cycles of tinkering and studying of the alien Trakaan technology in that first captured ship before its secrets finally began to crack. Even the name the Trakaan used for themselves was unknown before the alien computer finally yielded its secrets. It had taken another dozen cycles before the Trakaan language was broken, but then the floodgates opened and the locations of Trakaan planets were revealed. With the knowledge of where their prey built their dens, Rak warships flooded into Trakaan space. Within the next ten cycles, the Trakaan were pushed back seventy-two light-years and surrendered 23 of their inhabited planets before winning even their first encounter against the Raknii onslaught.

The Trakaan were a small, gangly, hairless species with ovoid shaped heads, grayish skin and overly large, black eyes with no notable external olfactory organs. The Trakaan might be ugly, but they were considered rather tasty to the relatively few Raknii who had been afforded the rare opportunity to actually eat one.

The Trakaan eventually built a warfleet of sorts — their battle tactics evolving slowly by trial and error, but rather well suited to the smaller, faster, less armored disc-shaped ships they used. The concept of purposely building warships inferior to those of one’s enemy was puzzling to the Raknii and it wasn’t until after the first few Trakaan inhabited planets were taken that the Raknii made the shocking discovery that the Trakaan were truly a non-aggressive species, who only began arming their ships in self-defense. The idea of a non-aggressive species achieving interstellar travel capabilities was completely foreign and disgusting to the Raknii, and all further study of them was abandoned to scientists and the females of the Dolrak.

The increased Trakaan resistance actually made the hunt more enticing for Rak warriors. Naturally, much greater honor came from being victorious in the frequent inter-regional engagements between the Raknii themselves, but there was just something
extra
special about experiencing actual combat afforded by hunting the alien Trakaan. Still, the Trakaan stood little chance, as they were almost always outnumbered since Supreme-Master Xinn had ordered the policy adopted that full 64 ship Imperial battlefleets be utilized, whenever resistance was expected. This policy had slowed the Raknii advance somewhat, but it had also enabled them to consolidate their conquests and strengthen logistical support.

The poor, docile Trakaan could never guess that nothing remotely approaching the full military might of the Raknii Empire would ever be utilized against them, as most were part of the regional warfleets under the various colors of the constantly feuding region-masters scattered throughout the empire. Only those units honored to augment the Imperial Exploration Fleet would ever have the opportunity to hunt Trakaan prey. Only the very best warriors of each region were selected for a space-combat assignment within the Imperial Fleet. It was an honor beyond measure to wear the white leggings of the Imperial Fleet, beneath the colored silk tunics denoting regional origins.

Of course, a number of imperial warships continued exploration of uncharted, uncontested space, along the edges of the quiet frontier sectors. While undeniably necessary, the discovery of a habitable planet or even the subjugation of another low-technology species just couldn’t compare to the joys of actual combat. Tzal had been proud beyond description when his squadron was chosen by Region-Master Glan to represent Region-3 in the Imperial Fleet. Tzal might admittedly be biased, but he truly believed the combination of the rich medium-blue silk blouse above the white Imperial Fleet leggings made up the most eye-pleasing uniforms he’d ever seen — with the possible exception of those fortunate ones born within the Imperial Region-1 who wore white imperial silks, as well as white leggings.
Bah, those are in the Imperial Fleet simply by the fortunes of birth. I had to
earn
my Imperial whites.
Still, Tzal envied them their good fortune... everyone did.

Akudavex
had six confirmed kills to her credit and the future had been very bright indeed. Most Rak warriors could only hope that they might participate in one of the small skirmishes, which flared along regional borders within the Empire. Rivalries between region-masters occasionally flared into open warfare, as they competed for political power and influence with the emperor, Supreme-Master Xior. These inter-regional spats amongst themselves constituted the only real threat to the Raknii, as everywhere else, with rare and minor exceptions, wherever Rak fleets went, they conquered. Until Jarp’s Folly
,
that is.

Grudgingly, Tzal had to admit that the Trakaan had set their trap masterfully. All sixteen ships of Squadron-Master Boin’s point-squadron were destroyed within moments of the fleet’s conversion into real space, and the command and flank-squadrons had fared no better. Nothing remotely similar had ever happened in the thousands of cycles of Raknii recorded history. Tzal could only imagine the command crews on those 48 ships, frozen in uncomprehending horror as the inconceivable swept them away. The
Akudavex
, part of Squadron-Master Drik’s rear-guard had accordingly been among the last ships in the fleet to complete conversion back to normal space. Tzal became aware, only moments after their instruments had stabilized, that something was horribly wrong. Even before their comm could lock onto the fleet command circuit, Fleet-Master Jarp’s commandship had exploded.

Locked into the memory loop that had plagued him for turns, Tzal again relived the inquest that convened after their escape from the disaster. Tzal remembered seeing Drik escorted away. He had not seen the daring young squadron-master since, and possibly never would again. Tzal had been glad when repairs to
Akudavex
were finally completed and he’d received solo exploration orders from OverFleet-Master Maaz. Group-Master Skor, frustrated by over a cycle of having to deal with his unconventional superior, Squadron-Master Drik, regularly took his frustrations out on his most unconventional subordinate: Tzal. It was good to be away from Skor and his ilk, for the freedom of again roaming amongst the stars.

Tzal was suddenly startled out of his reverie by a call from one of his bridge crew: “Ship-Master Tzal,” called his scanner tech, Operations-UnderMaster Heef. “X-Wake bearing 291-406.”