Chapter 26: Shady Business

This was the first time Supreme Wizard Zwhehzwheneu noticed that the seven xenomorphs in their hidden chamber right beneath the Tower of the Supreme Wizard were not as arrogant and aloft as they usually acted. It almost seemed the seven were disturbed and perhaps even afraid.

They had summoned him and he of course obeyed. “I have heard your call and here I am.”

“Our assets, the eyes we have developed within the society known as the Union disappear at an alarming rate. We lost contact with our assets on a world called Pishoir. The ones we have placed among the Saresii are silent.”

“I warned you. You moved to forceful and too quickly. Our enemy is not to be underestimated. There are aspects of their community we know little about. The Ariglou, the Urilliua and then there are life forms we don’t begin to understand like Vanuur the Living Matter cloud or the Enuk. I must say it, but the actions of my predecessor were ill-advised and involved us in a war with an enemy we do not understand. I am compelled to serve you, and I can not act against you, but I retained my ability to be critical. You acted too quickly and poked the giant too many times. Now that it is awake, I fear it will not rest again until we are all exposed and destroyed.”

“You have not been summoned to lecture and accuse. We presented you with circumstances we do not like and expect you to devise conditions to restore our ability to see. We must gain control and we must affect our revenge against the ones known as the Leedei.”

“Then replace me, mind wipe me or condemn me to death. I am unable to do what you ask if you do not share all information you already have and let me be the only one directing our assets. This kind of interference has doomed all previous attempts of our society to gain the upper hand.

The Ministry of Intelligence is overruled by the Ministry of Control, the High Wizard of the Military cooks his own soup and uses considerable assets to sabotage the efforts of other Ministries to gain favors and a chance to send one of theirs upon the central chair.”

There was a considerable pause, no thoughts reached his mind, and the Chorus voice remained silent. To him, it seemed at least ten minutes had passed. He knew they were discussing this among themselves. Perhaps deciding on his very fate.

Then the Chorus reverberated in his mind once more. “You think of yourself as clever, at this point, you can not be replaced. You are our tool to affect Kermac policy and actions. Therefore, we decided to let you live. Our sources and assets have indeed told us more about this. We know the device of the Leedei is here in this galaxy. Its keeper, the Tri of science itself has come and adjusted the Device so it could be used by a simple and primitive human mind. It was indeed instrumental to locate the missing human female. Our asset assigned to secure the device for us was teleported into the sun of Sares. Our intelligence assets on Sares Hub were killed by unknown means shortly thereafter and you do know about the Chistel, he also fell silent. He was employed to secure the forgotten experiment.”

“You asked me to investigate the unknown element using T Cruisers and acting independently from our control.”

“We have done this, yes.”

“There is a rogue element within the Ministry of Control that gained knowledge about you and the Auspice. I was unable to determine how much they know, but it is they who revived a long forgotten and forbidden program meant to expose and purge you and me from society.”

“How can this be? Our control is perfect, and our Silent Ones and the Thought Police is vigilant.”

“Perfect perhaps, but not complete. Our Thought Police is powerful, but it is not everywhere. We Kermac are a society that deals with intrigue for a very long time and are very sensitive to these things. The MOC is everywhere.”

“Why did you not speak of this earlier?”

“Because you did not listen to what I said.”

“You are a servant and a lackey, but we concede that more attention to our tool is warranted. Now tell us about the Narth.”

“No one can tell you much about the Narth. They are the most secretive people in the known Universe.

We know they successfully resisted the Uni; it is believed they summoned the Erogen, who defeated the exalted Uni. The very society that gave the Ker psionic abilities.

The Narth defeated a Y’All invasion with a single spaceship and assisted the Union to defeat them again the last time.

It is rumored that they are members of the Union ever since that last invasion, but there is no reported interaction at all.

Many old societies claim they are the oldest society of them all, the very first one to rise, even before the mythical First Empire that supposedly existed during the first revolution of this galaxy.”

“Their Assembly conducted a closed session very recently. Their warrior Stahl requested it. He was in the company of a Saresii leader and a leader of the Leedei we hate so much. No clear report has reached us as for the subject of that closed session, but a voice friendly to us mentioned Narth taking part.”

“I can not give you information on this. I do not know other than what I revealed.”

“Go then and purge the MOC, destroy all that is MOC and we will increase our control.”

--””—

Aboard the brand-new Arsenal Dreadnought, the USS Shetland was the other Immortal Admiral. The truly immense new ship brimming with every weapon type the Union had developed, had been declared the Union Fleet flagship and with Admiral McElligott aboard it was the flagship in every sense indeed.

It was currently on its way to the so-called Union Backyard and part of a sizeable strike force. Admiral McElligott had delegated its Captain to an observer role and taken command himself.

While the Shetland speeded towards the region, he was informed about the sudden appearance of Stahl before the Assembly. He never liked to hear about Stahl’s dabbling into the political side of things. Ever since the Guardian made its choices, he had questioned the Ancient entities’ decision to select a simple marine to such a prominent position. That man wasn’t even a proper officer. He obtained his commission in the field. Yes, they did send him to Quantico, but for the King’s sake, it wasn’t even a real prestigious academy. Even the yanks most prominent schools could never compare to the Royal Academies of England, he considered this an undeniable fact.

The old Highlander had to admit that Stahl was a very talented military mind. Earned his stellar reputation the old-fashioned way indeed. But he still was an uncut brute, a simple grunt seeing the value in fighting alongside front units and even leading ground assaults like a damn marine grunt. The alien construct known as the Guardian decided to put Stahl in charge of war and conflict, and now the former US Marine was a Five Star Admiral in the Union Spatial Navy. Men like this stayed safe away from the front and directed troops and assets from the rear as it was proper.

This disregard of standards elevated that other Immortal in the eyes of civilians and service people alike. The Klack Queen, Mothermachine, Vanuur, the Eduk, and the Saran queen declared Stahl to be close friends with these powerful entities. In every survey and poll conducted, Stahl turned out on top.

Officially and in public McElligott always declared Stahl to be a valuable Senior Officer, but deep down where he was alone with his thoughts, he despised that German American grunt very much. To Stahl, everything was black or white, good or bad. There was no room for negotiations, deals, give and take. Nothing was simple in real life. Compromise was the name of the game and utilizing all tools to gain a victory for the common good was perfectly acceptable to McElligott. Even if they might have been a tad outside of the law or moral guidelines.

McElligott openly showed resolve and willingness to take personal action in times of need, as he personally rushed towards the region where Kermac activity was reported. He was no coward, not even his most ardent critiques claimed this to be a character trait of his, and he hoped and expected that this well-publicized response would raise his public popularity.

By all measures of things, he was a military leader and public opinion meant little, but this had never really been the case with the Union and now that the last elected offices had been purged, his position was very much a political one and in a society who could affect every aspect of Union life by raising an issue to Assembly attention and a universal vote change, everything in an instant, popularity, and influence was actually quite important.

McElligott had always been a political creature, even while he was a Submarine commandant in His majesty’s navy back before Earth’s Ascent and all nation-states including the United Kingdom faded away.

He was considered the father of the Union Fleet and its current form, and he had maintained a seat during the days of United Earth and made sure the Fleet was an integrated part with a voice at the Assembly of the Union, his voice.

He sat behind the desk of his office aboard the Shetland and stared at the tumbler of scotch he was holding. No, he was not a coward. He had braved the rigors and the claustrophobic conditions of a British Attack-sub while prowling the frigid waters of the Atlantic. But he was an Admiral now, rushing headlong into unpredictable battles was not required.

The Shetland was well protected and inside a cocoon of an entire battlegroup of the most advanced warships heading to a region of space that was already teeming with battleships to answer the reported contact with a Kermac T-Cruiser.

He officially traveled there to personally coordinate and assure Union safety. Only a truly hand-selected group of high-ranking officers and certainly not the one they called the Eternal Warrior knew that it was him who knew about the Secret Back-Door into Union Space. It was Deepa who held the Alien Key Device that allowed it to be activated. It was used by his very secretive X fleet to introduce chimera units and built hidden bases within Freespace and even Galactic Council space.

His NAVINT assets kept an eye on the smuggling activity and made sure nothing really dangerous ever left Union space. He allowed the rest to operate unhindered. Heck, three of the smugglers were in fact NAVINT undercover units.

This what set him apart from Stahl. His ability to bend things and take advantage of such conditions. That cursed Do-Gooder- straight shooter would try to shut it down or put an armed station there if he could not and blast everyone to kingdom come who dared to go through.

He had warned them about Freespace and knew it would never be that utopian heaven of free trade and peace, but instead turn into the lawless, pirate-infested strip of space it had become.

A red light on a special Gal-Com device indicated an incoming Com request. He accepted and the reflection of the NAVINT commandant Admiral Lydaa appeared across his desk. He ageless, mature woman wore a dark red dress, had her snow-white hair coifed in a face-framing helmet like do. Her age was impossible to guess, but McElligott knew she was around since the First Age of Knowledge, and once was a Saresii with tremendous psionic powers. The old Admiral doubted Deepa was still Saresii and believed she had evolved to a different stage.

He didn’t trust her much, but he saw more in common with her than with Stahl. She was a spook through and through. Dedicated to the success of the Union and just like him not squeamish to use the most unsavory tools to achieve what battleship cannons could never do.

McElligott gave her a brooding look. “What do you want? I am getting there alright and make sure our little scheme is not discovered.”

“I am not here for the small stuff, O’Brock. I trust your abilities and your considerable skills to keep this very useful little hole in the armor under our control. I came to mention very alarming developments regarding ‘Project Permeation Red’. Our mutual friend, the one with the shiny boots, appeared before the Assembly.”

McElligott almost dropped the tumbler and he became visibly pale. “This bumbling single track minded doesn’t know anything about this project and none of his usual friends do either.”

“Perhaps the usual friends do not, but he appeared in the company of the Tri of Science and the First among the Saresii and if that would not be alarming enough. Do you know what society made him their representative?”

McElligott made a dismissive hand gesture. “I don’t like him, but I know the man for a long time. He never agrees to something like that. He has always stayed clear of politics and this kind of thing. So, the Klack decided to make him some sort of representative. The Klack queen made him a member of the Queen’s nest for some unexplainable reason.”

“No, not the Klack, not the Ariglou or Mothermachine. Not the Eduk and not his most unusual friend that matter cloud Vantuur which might turn to become a serious problem if I may point out. His rapport with these quite powerful entities is amazing all by itself. You know of course that mysterious witch of the Igras Expanse, pretending to be a Saresii to the world, is worshipping the ground he walks on.”

“Yes, I heard more than just one rumor about Lichfangh’s infatuation with that man. So, it’s her and whatever society she comes from?”