Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

The few of the Empire’s remaining stealth ships watching over the Erasi force observed for two days as the Erasi readied their force. The ships that had been too damaged to move or fight effectively had been left behind, while those lightly damaged had been hastily repaired. In the end, several thousand of the Erasi ships stayed behind, as well as one of the two massive ships. The stealth ships waited and transmitted everything, until every Erasi ship heading for Kaleras entered hyperspace and left.

December; Year 58 of the Empire — Sanctuary

Laura Reiss, Fleets Master of the Empire, entered the private office of Emperor Tomas Klein. She found him standing by a window looking out at Olympus City. Behind him on a holo-table were several different reports, those of the battle in Sanctuary, and the subsequent chase of the Erasi ships through the system, damage reports, casualty reports—lists of names, too many for them all to be shown at the same time.

“Tomas?” Laura said, trying to grab his attention. When he didn’t respond, she stepped closer. She was just about to say something again when he spoke.

“I can’t memorize all of their names,” Tomas said, still looking through the window. “There are just too many of them. I can put the lists with their names in my implant, call on them at any time, but I can’t keep them in my own mind. Sixteen and a half million people, dead.”

“Those deaths are not your fault, Tomas.”

He turned and gave her a sad smile. “The responsibility for the lives of the people of the Empire ultimately lies with me. I was the one that ordered the Sentinels to seek a diplomatic solution with the Erasi, even when we knew that they were stalling, all because I was worried about perceptions. As if I hadn’t learned anything from Earth.” His face twisted in pain. “Did you find them?”

“No, only about fifteen hundred of their ships managed to escape, and we haven’t seen any sign of them. It isn’t surprising, really; they must’ve dropped out of hyperspace in deep space and then turned to their destination. I have started sending more scout ships trying to find them, but…” Laura shook her head. “Our territory is too big, we have stretched too far. Most of our systems are empty, and there are huge swaths of territory virtually empty between Clans.”

“Another one of my ideas. I was so worried that we might not be able to grow in the future that I forced us to take more territory than we can hold,” he said grimly.

“There is something else. The relays between the Shara Daim and the Empire are finally up and running. We’ve received a message from Adrian; the Erasi had called for peace talks and then tried to kill him and Anessa. They almost succeeded. Akash is dead, and Adrian tells me that if the wolions and Lurker of the Depths hadn’t been there, both Adrian and Anessa would’ve been dead. The Erasi force is going to move against Kaleras, and Adrian and Anessa just don’t have the numbers to defend. Adrian thinks that he has a plan that can hurt them a bit before they attack, but he doesn’t think that it will be enough. He asked that we send anything that we can to Kaleras, although if his calculations are right, whatever we send will come after the Erasi attack the system. He hopes that they will be able to hold out for long enough.”

“If I hadn’t asked the Shara Daim to wait, if we had put pressure on the Erasi together, then perhaps none of this would’ve happened.”

“You can’t second guess your decisions. It was not your fault, you are not responsible for their actions,” Laura said forcefully.

“But it is my fault,” Tomas said angrily. “I am the one that has kept us back on purpose, because I wanted us to struggle.” He sneered at himself and shook his head. “I was an idiot. I was so focused on threats so far into the future that I completely disregarded those that were in the present.”

“Tomas—” Laura started.

“No!” Tomas swiped his clenched fist in her direction. “They attacked Sanctuary! A place that was supposed to be untouchable, the one place where our people were supposed to be safe! I was an idiot; I thought that we could protect ourselves enough as it is, that we had time to slowly develop and master the technologies from the sphere. That we can coexist with other races peacefully. But I see now that the only thing that matters in the universe is power. You need to have a big enough stick that no one dares to come against you. And I do have that stick—I just thought that using it would harm us more than not using it.” Tomas walked over to the holo and pointed at the list of names. “And those people paid for it. They died because the Erasi thought that we are weak, that they could come here and kill our people with no repercussions.”

He turned to look at Laura. “You know that is true. The only reason they dared to do something like this is because they believe that we are not a threat, that their people are safe from any retaliation. But they are wrong.”

“Tomas, we don’t have the ships to fight them,” Laura said.

“We only need one.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I have Axull Darr’s ship, the ship built by the People. We had it for ten years, and I kept it a secret.”

“Where is it?”

“In Warpath. I didn’t want to tell people because I wanted us to develop things on our own, not copy the People. Warpath is building ships similar to it, but they won’t be ready for a while. We don’t need fleets; that one ship is so far beyond everything that the Erasi have,” Tomas said. “Don’t worry, I won’t let Adrian fight a losing battle.”

“You want me to do what?” Isani asked for the second time, thinking the he must’ve heard wrong.

“I want you to take the Enduring to Shara Daim territory,” Tomas answered slowly.

“Tomas, we can’t fight in this ship. Our consoles can barely move it. We don’t have interfaces with the weapons or a million other things,” Isani said.

“You are not going to fight it, Adrian is. I want you to give the Enduring to him.”

“Tomas, I know that I said that Adrian probably could use the chair, but we need to run tests to get him ready.”

“I am confident that there will not be any problems. I need you to do this. There isn’t much time, the Erasi are about to attack Kaleras, and Adrian and the Shara Daim need help.”

“I will do it, Tomas, but you have held this ship a secret for so long. Are you sure?” Isani asked.

“I am,” Tomas said resolutely. “I have a message that I want you to give to him, before he takes command of the Enduring.”

“Of course, Tomas. I’ll see to it.”

Tomas nodded and closed the channel. Isani stared at the empty holo for a moment or two before calling his second who was on the Enduring.

“Clan Leader, how may I help you?” his second, a Guxcacul called Rivv, asked.

“Get the Enduring ready for departure. All science teams are to leave immediately, all work is to halt. Make sure that the console interface is operational; I’ll be sending several shuttles with supplies immediately.”

“Where is it going?”

“To Shara Daim space,” Isani said.

“You mean…”

“Yes, just get it ready, we leave as soon as possible,” Isani said. “And send a message to Nelus, let them know that a Warpath ship will enter their territory and needs a path to their sun. We are using the Nelus access point.”

Sol

Aileen sat in Gotu’s office in Sol and reported her experience from Tarabat. Once she finished, Gotu stood and walked around the table to stand and look through a vid-screen that showed the outside of Olympus Mons.