Chapter 4: Arrested

The Karthanian resource manager who was responsible for all the mines and smelter operations of the Karthanian conglomerate himself had been dispatched by the Guild Masters to quickly erase all Union citizens currently used as forced laborers.

He traveled aboard a Karthanian warship, mostly crewed by Oghr and Jooltar and was more than displeased that none of the smelter moons in the Liprois system answered his requests or responded to the hails.

No landing instructions were received as they approached Olx.

It did not take long to find out why this was so. After they had landed, they found the main smelter facilities vandalized, the entire command center melted to the foundation and thousands of dead guards. Only a very small number of dead slaves painted a clear picture. The slaves somehow managed to revolt and overcome their guards. With the command center destroyed, the obedience collars did not work. The revolt suppression systems were also completely inoperable.

An engineering Jooltar checking the systems suspected an aggressive software attack.

The manager, however, could not explain how all these slaves had left the moon.

As they found similar conditions on the second moon, he was certain he would find only dead and no live slaves on the third.

Yet as they approached the third moon, which was in orbit of the third planet, the mystery of the missing slaves was revealed. His scanner operator detected a fleet of lumbering transports heading for the boundaries of the Liprois system and threshold speed.

The transports were slow and unarmed and he was certain they were packed with slaves.

That, whoever assisted the forced laborers to escape was using ore and scrap freighters seemed evidence to him that this was not a well-planned action, however, he had to admit it was a very successful one.

He ordered his Oghr shipmaster to follow that rag-tag fleet, it would certainly lead them to the escapees of the other moons and then he intended to destroy them all. Dead slaves could not bear witness.

“We are almost in Open Space,” Mao said over our personal wrist com units. The refugees of the first moon already made it.”

Narth chimed in. “Almost is another one of these terms that defy Narth understanding. We are still twenty-three light years distant from deep space and thus past Karthanian spheres of claimed space.”

Now Circuit linked himself into our conversation.”We are also pursuit by what I think might be a Karthanian Romther Class. The ship appears to be under shields and I am certain it is well armed.”

I checked our progress and that of the pursuer, Circuit had identified. Thar Karthanian ship would reach us just when we reached open space. I was deeply concerned, the ore and scrap transporters were at their limits in terms of life support, not to mention the hygienic conditions. These old only rudimentary maintained ships were, of course, unarmed and had no shields other than micro matter deflectors.

I had no illusions the Karthanian would turn around.

Not that the sensors of this garbage scow were anything more than the most rudimentary kind.”What kind of weapons do Karthanian ships have?

Mao responded over the comm unit.”Ship to ship missiles, Kermac style FTL Line cannons. Nothing that could even scratch the Tigershark, but blow us to bits.”

“Can we go past red line?”

“We already redlining everything these flying relics have. Life support, engines, artigrav, and sensors.”

I started biting my fingernails as I watched the swarm of light dots that represented the last flight of ships with the liberated slaves and at the horizon of this primitive energy-mass detector, a larger dot of light, the one pursuing us.

Itheamh

Har-Hi was certain he was dreaming or maybe he had died and there was an afterlife. He was completely pain-free and felt as if he was floating. There was someone else, he felt an immense presence. “Am I dead?”

“No mighty Dai, you are already back where you belong.”

“Who are you?”

“We have not met in person, but we are friends. I am the Narth Supreme.”

Har-Hi felt a strange and calming relieve. “Will you help me to get back?”

“No, Har-Hi your friends are already doing that. I am here because you did what no mortal was ever able to do before. You have slain one of the twelve self-appointed Guardians of Light and one of the servants to the one called Lord Lumis.”

“Did I do wrong? Should I have him kill me?”

“No, my child. I was already on my way to assist you.” The warm deep and bodiless voice actually sounded amused.”You have a host of friends, that not only surprise the immortal admirals, but their combined talents give all that is Narth pause.”

He felt a deep sense of pride but wondered why this entity was appearing to him.

The voice continued. “Yes, indeed there is a profound and important reason for this meeting. You stumbled upon an important part of a cosmic conflict, your best friend Erica is the core part of this conflict. I know you have already felt its presence and Erica confined in you about it, as far as she currently knows.”

“Yes I have and while it concerns me, while I do not understand. I am Erica’s friend and will stand with her against anything, no matter what it might be.”

“Erica takes much strength from that, but what sleeps in her is stirring. It is stirring much too soon, and if it awakes before she is ready, the consequences cannot be foreseen, but are of such magnitude that it will affect all reality forever.”

“Gods are real? Erica shares her body with a god?”

“As I tried to explain to the Eternal Warrior, to Erica and now to you, the term God is very hard to define, but even in Narth terms, what Erica or Eric will become is indeed godlike, with powers and ability one can only describe as omnipotent.”

“What is she or what will she become and why?”

“This universe is only one of many, but there was only one at the beginning of it all. In this first condition of reality, two concepts took on sentient form. One represented light, life, and creation. The other became the incarnation of death, destruction, and darkness. Together they formed a perfect balance. Because there can be no good without evil, no light without darkness. This balance became THE RULE.