Chapter 13: Erica gone

Luurat, the High Lord of the Tomradi marched ahead of an entire regiment towards the former Estrella Caravanserai. Each of his warriors wearing a living combat shell and armed with Tomradi force projectors.

Never has there been a display of such force on Avondur planet. No one here ever seen over a thousand Tomradi. Yet many knew there were many legions more in the terrifying battle discs in the Avondur system.

Fetherars, the representative of the Circle of Seven and the chairholder of the Sandakaar Council bravely stepped into Luurat’s way.

Fetherars was accompanied by all one hundred Sandakaar guards. Beings of different species recruited by the city council.

They were far outnumbered, but Luurat made his force stop. “Make way, or perish!”

“Stand down, Luurat! This is not permitted on Avondur. You may challenge and fight an individual but full-scale war is forbidden.”

Luurat released a bolt of energy from his face trunk and vaporized the Representative.

“No one stands against the Tomradi, I am Luurat!”

Tomradi warriors unleashed withering energy blasts against the remaining Council guards. Some of the guards had come to Avondur passing through rifts, originating from different spheres and realms and some returned fire, managing to kill a few of the well-armored Tomradi. Their living battle shells were highly resistant to the energy blasts of the Council guard. Despite the brave stand of the guards, there were simply too many Tomradi.

The sky darkened as several battle discs, huge 30,000-meter space ships bristling with force projectors descended and hovered among the low hanging clouds.

Luurat’s voice boomed as he stood before the old caravanserai, that had been remodeled, “Show yourself, you who claims to be the Emperor! We Tomradi deserve what is sealed in the Vault alone! Come out and crawl before me, share what you know about the Imperials. Do this not, I destroy and kill!”

Lumis had taken residence in the old temple of the light priests, just outside and to the south of the city center of Sandakaar. It was here where the trans spatial gate to the Stronghold of Light was. Asput, another female member of the Knights of light, kept the place.

He anxiously waited for the team of hunters to come back with that elusive bitch. She knew where the WEAPON was so he could go and retrieve it, slay the Dark One and end all this tiresome business. He was destined to be a god and he deserved to be worshiped by every living thing.

He was simply not prepared for that Dark One, the first time they met. It was the wrong place and he did not control the WEAPON.

In all this contemplation he wondered why Crea did not simply tell him where that WEAPON was, or why she not made a new one and bestowed it on him. Part of him realized that she had lied to him and elevated him just to be a tool, but he was an egomaniac and dismissed those voices. He was destined to slay that foul thing and with that WEAPON he planned to threaten maybe even destroy Crea and take her place.

Just as his thoughts and dreams soothed his mind. Everything went black, utterly dark before his eyes, Another pulse reverberated across the Omniverse and reached the consciousness of every entity. The first such pulse was a cosmic declaration of power. The universe was put on notice, that the JUDGE was one with the Dark One. It was a signal of forthcoming judgment. This second one was as intense as the first, but it was different. The Dark One was once again the Antiforce of Life.

A chill of eternal darkness ran up his spine and reminded him and all the other god-like entities, they were not beyond the reach of death.

As he recovered from that uncanny event, he noticed the enormous dark circles just beyond the clouds. The Tomradi disregarded all warnings and made their presence known.

He decided to wait and see how this developed. He didn’t like these arrogant members of that Circle. The Red Knights, specifically Crimsor and the Yellow Robes deserved whatever the Tomradi dished out.

At first, Alice was nervous, Captain Olafson made true of her suggestion and Commander Hi had scheduled her for CONN. She wanted to be a helmsman and that meant her career would lead to a bridge position and that meant CONN rotation. That she only spent a few weeks in basic training between the first and second mission meant little on the Tigershark. She had been promoted to Ensign, without ever serving three years in the Academy.

The Admiral of the Fleet had promoted everyone, including her. Alice smiled as she was certain no academy cadet or midshipman had teachers as she had. Shaka, the best helmsman was the most knowledgeable, patient and intuitive teacher who shared her great passion for being at the helm of a starship. That the very SHIP, technically its AI was also her friend and shared intimate insights into a ship’s helm and propulsion systems, no official manual ever mentioned was part of the reason that she was now officially rated at 810. That far above the average and reached Virtu Helm talent without having that rare gift, or curse as Shaka always said.

Two hours ago she had stepped onto the bridge to take her first CONN watch. Because it was her first watch, Commander Narth had remained at OPS. One of the Y’All, his name was Forty-Nine had changed his desire to become a marine and expressed his wish to be a regular Navy officer like TheOther, he was now officially a Union Fleet cadet and Captain Olafson made him a Midshipman.

The massive Y’All was sitting behind the Navigation controls. Lt.Cmdr Krabbel right behind him supervising the Y’All. Fivcheer the Leedei was at Helm and Brana the Delicate held the science station.

This was another Tigershark special. Normally the bridge science station was only occupied when required by mission or situation. On the Tigershark, this station was always occupied. Technically there was little or nothing to do, but the Tigershark was passing through non-Union space and on her way to a planet called N’Ger.

Lt. Nolei was working with the Attikan marine behind the security station cataloging scanner contacts.

The closer they came to N’Ger the more contacts popped up at the scanner horizon.

Alice had lost much of her nervousness and relaxed in the big seat. It was an event less watch so far and actually quite boring as she had nothing to do.

From the engineering station, she heard odd sounds, something wet and organic sounding. Certainly not part of the constant electronic whisper that was constant ambiance.

The servos of the command seat followed her move to swivel and she looked at Meeze, the wormlike creature actually wearing Union fleet uniform and coiled on top of a chair behind the engineering bridge controls. Meeze was buzy eating something dark red. His ring mouth was smeared with a red substance and so was part of his uniform.

Alice said. “Mr.Meeze. there is no eating on the bridge.”

“That is not true. The Captinz drinks the coffees and eats the sandwiches sometimes.”

“She is the captain.”

“Soo? I am the Meeze.”

“You got that strawberry stuff all over you, the uniform and the console.”

“It’s not straberriez, its blood.” He held up a dripping piece. “Want to try some?”

Alice shuddered. “No way, not even living on Trash Island did I eat ... what is it?”

The worm raised his thin arms. “That is what I try to find out, I found it in the hold after the slaves left. It’s not too bad. Good idea, I add the strawberries.”

“Mr.Meeze please clean up your mess before the captain sees it.”

She swiveled back.

Fivcheer’s icon blinked and the Leedei still under the Virtu Helmet reported. “Five minutes to drop. We are about to arrive at Eller system.”

Alice acknowledged. “SHIP please inform the Captain.”

“No need, Ensign Enigma, she is right behind you.”

Alice swiveled the command chair and there she was, Captain Olafson.

I smiled at Alice. “Good job, Ensign Enigma.”

She got up and almost saluted, remembering that this was not done on the bridge of an active ship. “Thank you, ma’am. Thank you for trusting me with that responsibility.”

To Meeze I said. “Could you at least keep the work station clean, Mr. Meeze and not use the engineering console as a cutting board?”

The worm seemed a bit annoyed. “Meeze cleans it.”

I rolled my eyes, of all my diverse crew Meeze, was taking the cake for sure, virtually and quite literally, I stopped myself from asking what he was eating. To Alice I said.

“It’s quite boring, right?”

“Just a tinny bit, Ma’am.”

“SHIP, call the Seniors to stations.”

“They are on their way.”

“Mr.Fivcheer please drop us out of quasi and go to drift.”

My senior officers and friends arrived, while Krabbel changed seats with the Y’All.

I gave then a few moments to get situated and then asked Mao. “Anything on the scanners, that could concern us?”

He responded. “The system is quite busy, and Hans identified two contacts with known energy signatures of pirates. None are on the top ten list.”

“Until we know why we are here, they are safe. But if they are still there when we leave I think we reduce the number of known pirates by two.”

I had to admit, I liked us being the Silver Streak again, I wore my Black Velvet outfit that was made of syntho leather and a layer of ultronit micromesh. I was also certain. Tyron would insist on being worn the second we landed.

“Mr. Ndbele, approach N’Ger and take us down. Elfi announce us if necessary.”

Our Saran princess said. “I announced us. There are Oghr forts on both moons. All they responded was a general behave or else message. The same we got the last times we have been here.”

Har-Hi pointed at the main viewer. “SHIP, focus on that orbital contact and enlarges, please.”

SHIP chirped. “Sure thing, Sir. Isn’t that a Dai Mother?”

He nodded, and said. “She is perhaps the most unique feature of N’Ger security because it is provided by the Ug-Ka Dai. Their Dai Mother has been in orbit around N’Ger for centuries. Dai Fighters are the main reason, no raid or attack on N’Ger was ever successful.”

SHIP adjusted the zoom settings and the little dot became bigger. Due to my recent exposure to Dai culture, I was able to identify the ship as a very old Kur-Mesk; a Dai Mother made during the sixth age after the destruction of Thana-Shoo. Not one of the very big ones, but still an impressive sight of over 13,000 meters in length.

“I remember one of the merchant houses was supposed to be associated with the Dai, but Dai providing fighter protection for others sounds odd.”

Har-Hi, as so often, crossed his arms before his chest. “About 6000 years ago, a Dai tribe starving and near the end of their resources arrived in the orbit of N’Ger. The Wak, you know is a 3rd tier Dai tribe leader decided to attack and raid N’Ger or die doing so.”

While Shaka steered the ship getting us close and in an orbit before we were in the best position for planet-fall, everyone was paying attention to Har-Hi.

He continued. “The Oghr commandant of the protective forces was a smart and intelligent man and he convinced the Wak Ure-Ka to a face to face meeting.

This Oghr commandant, quite famous Nerun Risor, due to his intelligent and wise decisions acknowledged the Wak and his dilemma. He offered an alternative, pointing out that the Merchant House of the Muruur, a Kakth Oghr was on the verge of collapse.

The Ka tribe could fight the Muruur without any interference of the Oghr protective forces and take over that house.

So it came that the Ka tribe abandoned its spacefaring nomadic existence and became settled.

Other Dai declared them Okthi and it was confirmed by the Pale Ones. The heart of the Ka Tribe died and the Dai Mother of the Ka remained in orbit around N’Ger. Without a heart, she is nothing more than an immobile hulk, unable to go FTL.

The Ka tribe became the Uk-Ka merchants of N’Ger. In a somewhat similar development as the Man tribe, but instead of dealing among Dai tribes, the Uk-Ka are galaxy-wide known weapon dealers and in turn very rich and influential.”