Chapter 27

Things were a little tense as we approached the dock. I was uncertain how the crews would react to a known alien vessel. Though we were fighting the last time, in the end they were Mac’skarians. This time, my crew was aware they are an alien species and though I have every confidence in them, nerves can make a person react out of character.

“Vish, have you ever met a Vart’othra in person before?” I asked. “I know not every ship would have interacted with your allies at that time.”

She shook her head, “Some of the original crew had, when they had been stationed on other ships, but I didn’t have such an opportunity.”

That meant this would be the first time any of these people would have met another species. Only a small portion of the people at Trak’alta Station knew that they had assisted the enemy. I wanted to limit that knowledge until we had a greater understanding of why they assisted those that attacked the Empire. I knew I needed a crash course in the Vart’othra.

“Hobbs, Tali,” I called out, causing them to appear in a shimmer of light. “What can you tell me about the Vart’othra?”

Tali’s eyes began to glow, and she said, “As you know, they are a diplomatic and democratic society. They are quadrupedal, having four legs and also have four arms. This has caused the interiors of their ship to be designed to best utilize their unique makeup. They can process information quickly and as such usually can perform multiple tasks at once. The interface consoles on their ship are designed for this. It has allowed their ships to function with crews half the size of ours.

“They have keen technological minds and were key to the advancement of the Empire prior to the fall. They developed the configuration of the Luminal drive cores the empire had used for nearly seven hundred years and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had been responsible for the advancements we found on the enemy ship. Despite their armaments, they are typically noncombatants, preferring to talk than fight. That said, they will never hesitate to defend themselves or allies when the situation calls for it.

“They are straight and to the point, feeling that directness is more efficient than pleasantries and word games. I would expect them to be impressed at your show of restraint and how you handled their unexpected appearance. You were direct and left them little doubt of our intentions. As long as you maintain this, we should be fine.”

I nodded, “Hertal, open a channel to Trak’alta Station, please. I wish to begin preparations for our guests when we arrive.”

“Yes sir,” he replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice. “You would want me to use a secure frequency?”

“No,” I replied with a small shake of my head. “I don’t have an issue with them hearing what I have to say.”

He keyed in the commands and when the channel was opened, I said, “Alta, please have a suitable area prepared for my meeting with our guests. Please ensure the Triumvirate is there, as well since they are the ruling body. Go through your database to see if you have any records of foods our guests may eat and have a small selection of finger foods ready. That said, I want security posted at doors and along the corridor, from the docking port to the meeting room. Standard side arms only, we want to seem prepared but not overly hostile.”

She confirmed my request and said she would get on it immediately. I had Hertal relay instructions to follow us and dock in docking port three.

I tried to stay calm, but a part of me was expecting the other shoe to drop. Despite my misgivings, we arrived at the space dock unmolested, as did the other vessel. As we approached, I saw that we had already got a decent amount of the new hull plating in place and expected the same level of progress in the refit of the internal systems as well. I would be glad once we had a few more ships, especially since we had no idea the full extent of the threats waiting for us out there.

Once we were docked, the command staff followed me out as we made for the meeting room. I asked Vish’ala to head towards docking port three to escort the representatives of their ship to the meeting room.

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek and then left to meet with the Vart’othra delegation. The rest of us, Ev, Hertal and myself left for the meeting room. It was only a few minutes’ walk from where we were docked, and I was glad to see that the security presence I had asked for was in place. Inside the room, I found the Triumvirate waiting for us as well as holograms of Tali, Alta, and Hobbs.

“Hertal,” I called out to my temporary communications and sensor officer. “Have you given any thought yet to the name for your AI?”

He shook his head and said, “No I haven’t been able to come up with anything. I was hoping that you might be able to give him a name.”

I thought for a few moments and said, “Why not call him Tigra? He has very prominent stripes that remind me of a Tiger from my planet.”

It took a few moments, but I saw a smile come across his face. I suggested that he talk to Tali and have her show him the various feline species of my planet.

I greeted the council members and we quickly chatted about what had happened at the station while I was away. They all were uneasy at the arrival of the Vart’othra, mostly due to their part in the massacre that nearly wiped out their people. They said they would follow my lead in this matter, but I assured them that no decision would be made without their input. A few minutes later, Vish walked in, with two Vart’othra in tow and a neutral expression on her face.

It was one thing to look upon the three-hundred-year-old corpse of a Vart’othra, but it was quite another to see a living one. Their height, despite how their legs operated, was impressive, but what was unnerving was their lack of eyes. Their skulls were much like a human’s, though the back of the skull stretched out a bit more and the face seemed elongated a bit. They had a small nose with two nostrils on each side, sitting below a smooth, browless forehead. Their mouths were narrow, with small lips which was in stark contrast to the long angular face and skull. Vish directed them to their table and, as they passed, I noticed a slight, barely perceivable hum coming from them. The rest of us took our seats and, after taking a deep breath, I began.

“Thank you for meeting with us here,” I said in an even tone. “I am sure everyone here is looking for answers and, hopefully, when this meeting is concluded, everyone will have some. Understand that I have taken a grave risk in allowing you entry to our system, but it is my hope that this olive branch may assist in building trust once again.”

“You speak of building trust again, but we have never seen one of you before,” the first Vart’othra said in a monotone voice.

I smiled slightly and replied, “I am a human. If we do indeed build trust, I will be happy to let you learn of my people and where I come from. For now, we cover the past and present before we move on to the future.”

The two Vart’othra turned to one another and began communicating in chitters before turning back at us and slowly nodding.

“First, we will discuss the past,” I stated gesturing to my AI who called forth a map of the former Mac’skarian Empire. “Three hundred years ago, the Mac’skarians were attacked by a race they were unaware of. It was unilateral and nearly wiped them all out. We learned upon searching an enemy vessel that remained intact during the battle here, that your people were a part of that attack. Based on your history, both as a people and with your former allies, it was a shock to say the least. We now know it was a race known as the Neornith and, based on my observations, they were getting revenge for something that the Mac’skarians once did to them.

“I can fully understand that, given the more warlike past of the Empire, but still, the brutality after however long a time it was, was intense. We are certain there are other settlements, stations, and colonies within what used to be the empire, all cut off from one another. I have been tasked with uniting them once again, though my goal is to create something better than what was lost. Strong enough to protect our people, but not looking for a fight, either. This will take time and resources, but, more importantly, we will need allies. I would like our two peoples to work together once again, but the question is, can you be trusted? Are you still in the clutches of the Neornith?”

“Your points are valid, and you are not incorrect in the part our people played in the attack,” the other Vart’othra stated in a slightly deeper monotone. “We were running out of a rare element needed to power our planetary cores. These provided power for the thirteen tribal worlds within our democratic society. Without it, they would begin to stop producing the energy needed to keep our planets going. There were no viable replacements we could find, and we were unable to locate a new, viable source.

That is when the Neornith reached out to us, claiming that they could help us. Somehow, they had found out about our issues and offered to supply us the mineral. They were apparently located in a distant sector of the galaxy that proved difficult to navigate. Whatever distorted that area of space, it affected subspace and even hyperspace. Even scout ships were unable to deal with the gravitational forces. Apparently the Neornith had created disruptors to facilitate making their last remaining bastion closed off from the rest of the galaxy. Over time, the distortions grew until a dozen or so systems were inaccessible. We had believed that it was just a growing phenomenon that we hoped would right itself, and it did. We didn’t think much of the area, and it became known as the ‘unknown regions’.

“We were uncertain about if we should take their deal, hoping to find another location for the mineral that we needed, but we couldn’t find any. We were in a tough position, and we would have lost everything. You must understand that. We had become so dependent on the cores that ran our tribes, that we would be lost without them. If they shut down, we would have been unable to do anything.”

“You make it sound like your people live on planets that are completely cybernetic,” I stated as I leaned back in my chair. “Even if the cores went out, wouldn’t you have the natural resources of your planet to assist you until the cores were brought up and running again?”

“In the adolescence of our race, we ruined our world in petty disputes. It forced us to work together to find a way to stay alive, and this resulted in our developing the thirteen tribes. They are self-contained world ships that we have surrounding what was once our home. We have spent centuries trying to bring life back to our world, but the damage we have done was too severe. The atmosphere was gone completely, but the true damage was done to the core. We had harvested too deep and the means we had used stalled the core. Our attempts to restore it only seemed to destabilize things further. That is why maintaining the cores was so necessary it would have wiped us all out. For a century, we had been separate, but over time we came to realize that we needed to work together. We slowly connected the ships together, which helped us to lengthen the duration of our fuel and food reserves. We never thought that we would run out of our fuel, since there were always minerals in ready supply.”

I processed for a minute and then sighed, “They are smart bastards, I will give them that. It is an ingenious way to work things and it had to have taken a long time given when they were nearly wiped out and when their counterattack occurred.”

Everyone turned their focus towards me, even our new guests, with looks of surprise on their faces.

I gave them all a glance and said, “How do you get someone who wouldn’t help you under any normal circumstances to assist you? You find something that they cannot do without, something that could spell certain doom if they ran out of it, then control the supply. That’s the reason that it slowly dried up over time, which was a surprise to you.

“My guess is that, closing off their system and slowly expanding the number of systems was effective. This allowed them to expand and grow while also allowing them to have multiple regions to work out of. Then they probably spied on you, learned about your dependency on that specific mineral to power the cores of your world ships and then began making it scarce. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had made a stockpile of it and made sure to control the flow of the mineral to you. Thus, they gained control of you through simple supply and demand.”