Chapter 3: Sojonit Secrets

The woman in the red dress led me through a labyrinth of hallways, corridors and after an elevator ride, into the secret basement facilities of the Temple far below the surface accessible only through a complicated process of ID verification that made the Blue-Blue-Red Code process look like child’s play.

We ended up in a small conference room of sorts with several chairs and a kidney shaped table in the middle. A Sojonit entered and handed the Mother Superior a PDD and said. “Arrangements have been made and we will get a ship in three weeks.”

The masked leader of the Sojonites glanced at the PDD, nodded and handed it back. To me she said. “By then everyone who is looking for you will think you are dead. Death comes quickly here on Sin 4 and in three weeks you are old news. By then we should have no problems to move you off planet.”

She pointed at my leg and added. “That gives you time to heal completely and we can teach you a few useful skills.”

A modern looking SII GalNet terminal rose from a hidden compartment in the table. A field screen flickered into existence and the logo of fleet command rotated in the middle for a short moment only to be replaced by the face of Admiral Stahl.

Suddenly I wished I was not dressed like a Sojonit. While I deeply enjoyed the role and the quite provocative outfit I somehow didn’t want Stahl to know my secret.

The woman motioned me to remove my mask and the wig and I did.

Stahl looked at me; his face did not reveal what emotions he felt as he said. “Midshipman Olafson I am very glad you are unharmed and safe.”

I wasn’t sure if I should stand at attention. Military protocol required such behavior only when in uniform so I decided against it. “Thank you Sir.”

He nodded and said. “As you know military ships cannot enter Freespace and so we cannot come and get you officially. While we do have extensive other resources I think the current plan is the best, to let things cool down and make sure no one connects your rescue in any way to the Sojonites. I am sure you understand that we must be subtle and move carefully through very secure channels so we do not jeopardize the Sojonites or the Saresii Intel Operation on Sin 4.

Your friends know you are alive and I told them that you are reasonably safe for the moment. However no one but I and Mother Superior know where you are at the moment. Most of your current adventure and the details of your rescue are classified beyond Blue-Blue-Red, meaning you will not divulge any details of this to anyone.”

“Yes Sir I understand.”

He smiled briefly and continued. “I expected nothing less of you. For the time being you are transferred to the Saresii Intel service and you will take orders from Mother Superior as if they came from me, understood?”

“Yes Sir.”

He leaned back and the optical sensor now revealed that he was sitting in his office aboard the Devastator. “It might interest you that your friend Har-Hi killed Admiral Dent, sparing him an execution and we are currently cleaning up on Newport.”

I could not stop the grin that crept over my lips. “I can’t say I am terribly sorry to hear that, Sir.”

“I am looking forward to seeing you soon and in person for a complete report, Midshipman Olafson, until then good luck and gods speed. Stahl out.”

The transmission terminated and the field screen went dark.

I felt much better now after talking to Stahl. Everything didn’t seem so confusing and there was a clear direction once more.

Mother Superior said with a warm tone in her voice. “I’ve known him for a very long time and I can tell he is very fond of you.”

I was still staring at the dark field screen and said. “I am very proud to know the Admiral. It is very reassuring to know he is one of the men in charge and to know I can trust him.”

She nodded. “That you can indeed, there is no one with a reputation like his. In all the centuries I’ve know him, he has not changed. No matter the situation or crisis he is like a sturdy rock. Even his worst enemies respect and trust him.”

I looked at her masked face “It seems you are fond of him as well.”

“You have keen senses and I think your feminine side goes much deeper than you know.”

--””--

During the next few days I was taught how to override and hack into advanced locks, break into Computronics, operate Bioflex mask makers and use make up and other means to change my appearance. I learned that the Sojonites did not only teach the art of love making but had a special squad of enforcers that made sure the Sojonit brand was not exploited by others. The tall Sojonit, so I learned, was from Earth and she taught me a new and different secretive martial arts technique that had only one goal, to kill the opponent as quickly as possible by recognizing the weak spot. Most of the training was given by neural upload and ancient Saresii Hypnotic techniques. I was told that they had to revert to these old techniques as I was immune to Psionic Learning. After each extensive upload she would go through a series of physical exercises to make sure the upload had taken hold. The martial arts technique was unlike any of the ones I knew as it was based on the incredible deep knowledge of the Sojonites into the weaknesses and nervous systems of hundreds of different species.

Another woman introduced me to the world of poisons and neuro-toxins. How to identify some of them and how to effectively use them; again the Sojonites drew from a deep knowledge base of many species, some of them unknown to the Union.

The range of weapons the Sojonites used was wicked and deadly. None of them obvious and all of them hidden. Micro-needlers, monofilament blades disguised in jewelry, masks, wigs and clothing. A seemingly innocent and playful looking wispy veil used as part of the costume or in seductive dances could be transformed into mono mesh nets slicing through flesh and bone was especially nasty in my opinion.

None of the weapons would do much good in real battle or during boarding action, but reap terrible havoc in a night club, an urban setting or in a bed room.

I learned much about the Sojonit and their secrets, that this order was only one aspect of the Goddess and that another much more secretive Order worshipped and studied the destructive aspect. To them the Universe was a female spirit giving live and light but part of the Universe was also death and destruction. This innermost circle of the Sojonites enforced the laws of the Order quite effective as Assassins, killing without mercy those who did not pay for services or those who tried to cash in on the reputation and dress like Sojonit Sisters.

While I was not really buying all the metaphysical stuff I learned that the Order existed long before Terra ascended and had collected, preserved knowledge and age old skills for a very long time.

After two weeks of the most intensive training that barely left time for eating or sleeping I wondered why I was receiving these instructions.

I was certain it would come in handy to know these things and I eagerly wanted to learn more. The Viking Warrior in me recoiled and abhorred the wicked and hidden ways to kill and assassinate, which was not really my style or character, but knowing such things existed would help me to identify such threats easier.

I had just completed another practice session with the tall Sojonit when the Mother Superior came and inquired about my progress. After she received a satisfactory answer and a little demonstration of the skills I had learned she asked me to follow her to a small sacral looking vaulted room with a statue of the goddess Sojo dominating the back. The statue was about the size of a human and the material had a waxen bone colored appearance. The figure was dressed in the same deep red as the Mother superior. Hundreds of Candles were burning and the scent they produced was almost too much.

“The Godess herself wants to get to know you.” She said in a matter of fact fashion.

I wanted to object and tell her that I wasn’t the religious type and whatever room I had for religion was reserved for the Aseir, but then this wasn’t the first time I participated in a religious ritual. I had danced before the statue of a Saran goddess along with other Sarans, Elfi and the Queen herself. And what would it hurt? The Spojonites had saved my life and shared much of their knowledge and thaught me many of their secret skills, so I would endure whatever ritual was about to take place. Paying respect to their ways.

A faint sound of silvery bells could be heard; it wasn’t really a melody but appeared to be generated randomly. I also could hear the gurgling of water somewhere.

She sat down on a large silk cushion, folded her legs underneath her and asked me to do the same on a cushion across from her. She made a gesture towards the statue. “To us Sojonites the Goddess is quite real and I am going to tell you our story so you may understand us better. After that I will arrange to improve your education in certain areas.”

I blushed and said. “I don’t really want to know all the things Sojonites do. I respect it and all that and I do enjoy being female at the moment, but I am quite sure I am not interested in the ... uhm ... you know what you Sojonites do.”

She laughed heartily. “Oh now young student, fear not, there are no intentions of that nature. Even though you would be surprised how powerful and useful such knowledge could be. The skills we hope you will acquire here are of a more practical nature and your Admiral has approved it.”

I nodded and was glad that there was some knowledge I needed to acquire. Still I wondered what it could be she wanted to teach me.

She pressed the palms of her hands together and placed them above her lap. “To learn something it is often best to start at the beginning.”

I had to agree with this basic wisdom and simply nodded, while she begun. “In a time where humans on Earth barely learned to walk upright and had yet to bring forth true sentience, the Saresii had developed into a strong and mighty civilization with many achievements. We were blessed with Psionic gifts and talents few others species could dream to match and with these powers and the achievements of our culture came pride.”

While she talked a dark sphere established itself between us, expanded until the temple room had vanished and deep space was all around us.

Just like a virtual tour we moved without effort to a Star system with seven planets.

I knew as soon as I saw it, that such a system could not have been natural, as all Planets were on the same orbit around their sun. The orbit was not elliptical but a perfect circle, placing all the seven worlds into a perfect distance from that star.

Her voice explained what I was seeing. “Our pride grew and, while pride is a good emotion, it can easily grow into haughtiness and arrogance and it did so with us.

The Saresii became obsessed with our own beauty, our own power and this self-importance affected and infected our entire society.

The Saresii were as condescending as the Kermac are now. Yes there were voices of warning and those who tried to make us see the true reflection but to little avail.”

“We used our combined Psionic powers to re-arrange our own solar system. As you can see there are seven perfectly groomed and perfectly identical worlds.

“We were not content with one home world but showed the Galaxy we were powerful enough to rearrange star systems and shape entire planets with little effort to our ideals.”

“The Saresii spread over many worlds and colonies and each colony competed to be the most beautiful and aesthetic pleasing.”

“We Saresii cared little about what others found pleasing and sterilized many worlds to brand them and remake them in our image. During this phase of expansion and arrogance we extermimated many other perceived lesser civilizations. And then we met another civilization, the Seenians. Just as arrogant and even more advanced. They commanded an empire that stretched across most of our Galaxy, with untold resources and mighty fleets.”

I actually enjoyed her history lesson and it did give me some insights into one of the leading societies of our Union. I was sure her story would drag on for a while longer, but after running through an alien city wounded, poisoned, hunted and near death; I found this a nice change of pace.

I also had the suspicion that the scent of the candles, beyond that visual illusion had some sort of tranquilizing, calming effect. Mmy mild interest changed as the image showed a fleet of ships, hundreds of them, each appearing in size and shape exactly like the Devastator.

To the entire known Galaxy, the Devastator was a sign of Union might.

I had unleashed her terrible power mysef and now I stared at a fleet with hundreds of these immense ships.

I knew how difficult it was to fight a small courier vessel of the Seenians. These images brought home just how powerful the Seenians had been.

I heard her say, “The Devastator is an old Seenian ship as you can see now. The Seenians showed up with fleets of thousands.”

I remembered the words of Admiral Stahl about how dangerous the universe could be, regardless of how big your ship was; there was always someone with a bigger or better one.

I wondered if even the combined might of the Union fleet would have stood a chance against such an adversary. While I still tried to wrap my mind around the image, she continued. “We welcomed them and felt we finally met a species worthy of our attention.

The Seenians impressed by our achievements and Psionic powers, accepted us as equal and offered us to join their Alliance.

She paused only a few moments while the enormous fleet of Devastator sized ships were met by an impressive fleet of smaller very elegant looking ships. I could clearly see Saresii design but I never heard about the Seenians having a fleet of ships like that.

“The Seenians told us that they were at war against a brutish force and recruited others to join their fight. They also warned us that if we would not join them that we would certainly perish trying to stand alone against the Dark Ones.”

Seeing the might of the Seenians and the ancient Saresii displayed, I wondered what opponent could hope to stand against them. Yet the Seenians were no longer around and everyone knew they Saresii lost the war with dire consequences.

I could not see her and only heard her voice.

The Mother Superior kept on talking and commenting on the visual before me. “The Saresii, as you most likely know from school, fought with the Seenians against the Dark Ones much like the young civilizations of the Galaxy now fight against the Y’All every time they return...

The Dark Ones were relentlessly unstoppable.”

I wondered what the motivation of that enemy was. No matter how advance or beyond human understanding this conflict seemed to be, it had to have a reason.

The projection field between us displayed grainy and blurry images of a spherical ship that moved into a star system and she said.

“These images are the only visuals we have of the Dark Ones and no outsider has ever seen them. We enhanced the quality as much as possible but these records have been copied many times and are over a million of your years old.”

The view switched and whoever took the image was standing on a planetary surface. I could see troops on sleek, artistic looking battle tanks and other beings wearing similar suits as Cateria the Seenian commander had worn and they all looked into the sky as an immense shadow darkened their sun. In that eerie twilight I could see little darks spots in the sky. The troops on the ground poured withering fire of powerful weapons into those spots, yet the spots became bigger and descended unharmed. The eyewitness who made these recordings had the camera mounted on his helmet so it appeared and he looked around and I saw Celtest and Saresii troops ripped out of their battle suits by unseen forces. I saw blood and gore and the painful screaming of men everywhere. Four legged creatures hellish looking beasts that made Fangsnappers look tame and cuddly. The recording ended and the projection field went dark.

While I was impressed by the intensity of the fight. It did not look very adanced or the conflict of civilizations technologically so far advanced.

Once more I became aware of my ring; Every time this happened I wondered why I never thought about this piece of jewelry and why I kept forgetting that I had it. While I watched these ancient million year old recordings, something struck a chord somewhere deep inside, as if I had seen these images before; familiar images that meant something to me.

A new voice spoke in the darkness.”Indeed you are not just an avatar or another precursor. Come, come to the hidden world of Sojo. Come eternal one, you who will rise and answer the question, I too guard a piece of thine.”

I was in a strange dreamlike state, unable to form a clear thought. “Who are you?”

“I am Sojo.”

From within me a voice that was mine yet of a different person or conciousness spoke.”Neither Crea nor the host of all elders. Nothing can stand before me and no one and nothing can deny me what is rightfully mine.”

“Your ascent is foretold and expected, but a new answer dawned. Sojo will not deny you waht is yours, I invite you and want you to come.”

Without really knowing why anger rose in me and I clenched my fist. “I will rise and bring the order and silence of death to punish all those who worshipped the chaos of life and light with the final peace of darkness. As it was the preordained faith of all who conspired against...”

“Your time has not yet come.”

The Images displayed on the projection field now showed an elegant glittering object that appeared like a precious jewel floating over a deep blue ocean. These powerful emotions and thoughts that had gripped me just moments ago faded away and I wondered who conspired against whom and how I would know all this, as the thoughts faded away like a puff of smoke in a fresh breeze of air.

That crystal object that was now coming into focus, I had seen it before. Recent memories flooded my mind. It looked exactly as the crystal construct on Pluribus where the Diamond ball was held.

These new images made the other dark thoughts fade away and as much as I tried to hold on. What was that voice in me? What just occured slipped away and after a moment I wondered what I was trying to remember.

As if waking from a dream that had taken me away from reality, I remembered where I was and I heard the voice of the Mother Superior once again reach my ears as she said.

“I know you recognize this sphere, it was the original hall of the Saresi council.

The Sphere was donated to Pluribus as a symbol of Sares commitment to the Union.”

I still felt as if in had cobwebs around my mind and, while I did not feel tired, I could barely keep my focus on her presentation. I knew I had seen something that was profound and important. More important to me than anything and yet it was gone. I could not remember.

It had to be the scent, the candles.

Her voice went on and inside the projection field we now saw seven white haired men in floor length robesstanding in a semi-circle inside the crystal hall. They looked regal and wise and full of authority. While I looked at these images she said. “These seven men represented the seven Core worlds and they had made the decision for all Sares to join the Seenians and to fight the Dark Ones. Now after we were soundly defeated at an engagement they demanded that we fight even harder, that we invent and develop new weapons and that our greatness as a civilization would only be measured by our success in fighting the Dark Ones. Yet there were other voices and these voices culminated in that woman you see that is now standing before the Seven.

The image showed a woman looking very much like a Saresii with a skin tight suit and long silver hair. She argued with the seven men and then as her demands were not immediately accepted she made a sign and a group of twenty more women entered the room and they pointed little silvery devices at the men and as the men collapsed to the floor in withering agony I knew what these little things were. I recognized the small mushroom shaped projector head of Neuro Rippers.

The voice of the Mother superior on the other side of the projection screen said. “This was Deepa and her followers. They believed that it was men’s aggression that caused the war and it was she who contacted the Dark Ones and negotiated conditions of surrender.”

Her voice became harder as she said. “The true reason why the Dark Ones did not destroy the Seven Worlds, but every other Saresii location, was her act of treason. She revealed all the locations and the positions of every Saresii ship and promised to destroy all means of Saresii space technology and knowledge in exchange for the safety of the Seven Worlds.”

“This part of our history is not taught in any school and not even Saresii know, but her actions succeeded.

For the prize of thousand Colonies and billions of lives, the seven Sares Worlds were safe. The Seenians are nothing but memory.”

I could see her outline now through the projection and she spread her arms. “Some think that she was a spy of the Dark Ones and that was the reason she could contact them in the first place.some say the Dark Ones were not an outside force but Seenians themselves, following not the Queen but another leader.

Some of bthe few that still remember call her a savior. Whatever she was she is no more reduced to fading legends.

As you know it occured a long time ago. This however is also the beginning of rhe Sojonite story.”

Most of the facts she told me about the Saresii from that point on I had heard in some form or another.