Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

November; Year 58 of the Empire — Tarabat

Aileen walked through the streets of one of Tarabat’s cities dressed in a loose garb that covered all of her features. It was not actually hard for her to hide among Tarabat’s masses, especially when the Erasi had stopped actively searching for them. There were many races on Tarabat, and a lot of them had a similar general shape to a human. With her garb, it was impossible for anyone to actually recognize her as human, and most didn’t even know what a human was or how they looked. Few cared about the matters of the Erasi, if they were even aware of them. The Erasi had finally released their restrictions on the system. Ships could leave, and the communications were no longer being jammed—or rather, the ‘storm’ had moved on. Which could mean only one thing: it no longer mattered if she escaped or contacted the Empire. She didn’t know anything about what had been happening outside of Tarabat, and the Erasi news didn’t reveal anything important.

Now that ships could actually leave the system, she needed to get her people out. She entered the small shop that served as a front for Jurr’s meeting place. She removed the garb from her face so that the attendant in front would recognize her and then made her way to the back. Jurr was already there waiting for her.

“I am glad that you’ve survived, Sentinel,”Jurr sent.

“As am I,”Aileen told him. “I need a way off planet and passage to the Empire.”

“The Erasi have given up their search of you, so it will be relatively easy to smuggle you off world. But I have more information for you.”

“You know why the Erasi decided that it was more preferable to kill my people than to let us leave?”

“Yes. After the communications were reestablished, my agents reported in. The Erasi are no longer interested in you because their forces have begun or soon will begin their offensive against the Shara Daim, and levy fleets from this sector have augmented their reinforcements. And they are confident that they will win.”

Aileen nodded to herself; it was about what she’d believed had happened. “Then I need to leave as soon as possible.”She would’ve tried to send a message, but for it to arrive in any reasonable time, she needed to use the Erasi relays, and it was actually far easier for her to leave than to do that without the Erasi knowing where the message was sent and its contents.

“I will make arrangements,”Jurr sent. “This will mean war between the Empire and the Erasi, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then I wish to offer my services. My people have planned for this day for a long time. We have assets in place that can set this Erasi sector on fire, disrupt their communications, and destroy their supplies. There are also many smaller members of the Erasi that are not happy under their rule. If your Empire can promise protection, they will rise against the Erasi.”

“I can promise nothing without first seeing what the situation in the Empire is. After I’ve reached Sol and talked with our leaders, I will pass on your offer.”

“I hope that you will see the advantage. With my help, you could push the Erasi out of this galactic arm.”

Aileen could feel the fervor behind his words. In a way, she understood them. She had once been a slave to the Ra’a’zani; she had seen the rebels and the lengths they had been willing to go to free themselves. But she also knew that the Empire might not be able to do what he wanted.

“I can promise only that we will consider it, nothing else.”

A long time ago

“We did it!” Ullax said as she hugged Waiss and cheered.

“This will change everything!” Axull said, looking at the data. The altered group of Alphas had passed the barrier from stage two to stage three lifeform. They had started improving their tools, building primitive structures, taming wildlife, and planting plant life in the beginnings of agriculture.

“If the only thing necessary to jumpstart intelligence is a conduit to the Sha, we could start altering life across the galaxy!” Ullax said as she untangled herself from Waiss.

Waiss smiled at Axull’s sister. “We are a long way from that. First, we need to gather more data. Who knows what kind of effects this could have in the future?”

“Of course, but this discovery will for sure be well received by the Grand Exatts. They might even allow us to accelerate their growth. We could force them to advance faster if we take a direct hand in guiding them. Teaching them about the universe, about advanced technology,” Ullax said.

“Yes…” Waiss said. “We would need to be careful, introduce everything slowly, so as to not overwhelm them. And we would need more people.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Axull chided them gently, “we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Once we have enough data to show the council of Exatts that there is no doubt, then we can start planning on how best to accelerate their growth.”

“You’re right, as always, brother,” Ullax said with a smile. “I’ll go and start compiling the data that we do have. We still need to repeat this result in at least two more groups,” Ullax said, turning around and leaving the room.

Axull turned from the retreating form of his sister to look at Waiss gazing at her longingly. Finally, Axull couldn’t take any more. He stepped in front of Waiss, startling him.

“What?” Waiss asked.

“You need to stop acting like this. If you want to have something more than a simple friendship with my sister, you need to go and tell her that.”

Waiss stammered, “Uh… I…”

“No. You know who she is. We have spent a long period of time together on this project. She doesn’t care for social norms, and she doesn’t care for those who are not as driven as she is. You have proven that you are like her; she respects you and knows you. But you will never get what you want from her if you keep waiting for her to give you some kind of a signal. She just isn’t like that,” Axull said, and with each word Waiss grew more pale. “Now, go there and tell her how you feel.”

Waiss swallowed, then steeled himself and went after Ullax. Axull watched him go in amusement. He was pretty sure that his sister had grown to care about Waiss during these last few years, but he also knew that she, like Waiss, was hopeless when it came to things like that. Thankfully, he as her brother was here to give them a little push.

Several years passed, and their other groups showed the same progress as the first group. Ultimately, Axull, Ullax, and Waiss decided that it was time. They were going to present their findings to the council of Exatts. And the decision came at an opportune moment, in Axull’s opinion; he had grown tired of watching his sister and his best friend cavort around him. Not that he didn’t love them, but enough was enough.

Hopefully the Exatts would accept their plans, and give them permission to accelerate the advancement of Alphas. And perhaps after that, allow them to start uplifting more races from across the galaxy.

November; Year 58 of the Empire — Sanctuary

Fleet Commander Nair Hakeem of the First Fleet startled awake from his bed as alarms blazed across his ship. For a moment he thought that was dreaming, and then reality hit. The alarm blazing through the speakers could only mean a hostile force inside the Sanctuary system. Setting aside all the questions that had immediately entered his mind of why and how, he stood, dressed, and ran out of his quarters, going straight towards the command center. On the way, he passed startled crew, all in similar haste running to their posts.