Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

“Any more questions?” Adrian asked. A series of negative responses followed. “Good. We leave in one month by trans-lane.”

The commanders rose up to leave the room. As they moved towards the doors Adrian called out,

“Fleet Commander Jones, stay for a moment.”

Bethany turned to look at him and then returned to her seat, the rest slowly left the room. After the last one exited and the doors closed, Adrian turned his gaze to Bethany. She was just as beautiful as the last time he saw her. He took time to examine his emotions, he felt the hurt but it was not overwhelming like it was after he watched her message. They sat there in the silence for a few minutes, studying each other.

“Beth.” Adrian started, and saw her face twitch for an instant, “I wanted to talk to you alone. I want to apologize.”

“Apologize? For what?” Beth asked, confused.

“For the way I acted the last time we met.” Adrian said, “I had no right to act the way I did, nor should I have stopped all communication between us. You have always been a good friend to me. And I shouldn’t have blamed you for finding happiness.”

Bethany looked stunned. For a few moments she remained silent and then she spoke softly, “I should apologize too. After you said that you lov— After you said what you said, I reacted badly. I shouldn’t have said the things I said to you. It was cruel.”

Adrian acknowledged her words with a small nod. “I hope that we can put this behind us. I know that we can’t go back to the way the things were before. But perhaps in time we could be friends again.” Adrian said.

Beth took a big breath, “Yes, I hope so too.”

Earth

Anissa Novak sat in the Command Information Center of the submarine the Lord. Probably the greatest war technology of the Coalition. At least it was supposed to be. Her submarine was a prototype, the first of its kind to be created, all the others were destroyed without even firing a single shot in the war. And with them, all the ammunition for the Lord. After the war, when the Ra’a’zani came, the Lord allowed her people to hide and survive. But the lack of weapons meant that they couldn’t use it against their oppressors. With the Olympus fabricating technology that changed. The fabricators given to her people by Jacob Kelly allowed them to rearm the Lord. The long range stealth missiles that the Coalition developed to win the Great War will finally be put to use, not against other humans as their creators originally intended, but against an alien race.

The plans for the Olympus arrival have been mostly finished, at least on the Earth side. They placed their people in almost all Ra’a’zani bases on the planet. It wasn’t too hard, the Ra’a’zani rarely managed to tell the difference between one human the other. Their greatest obstacle was how to avoid human death. They did have a few people that would warn those living close to the bases shortly before the attack. But they feared that it wouldn’t be enough. They will destroy most of the bases from afar, using the Lord and the Colorado, which meant a lot of collateral damage to the surroundings of the bases. And most of them were in the cities. The Colorado had been modified to fire last gen missiles, the same that the Lord would be using. But even with them they wouldn’t be able to destroy all the bases. Some few will need to be taken from the ground, with bombs or soldiers.

But that was not Anissa’s job, her people were responsible for the bombings, the others would take the bases that her ships couldn’t. She turned to her second in command, “How are we doing?” She asked.

“Everything is operating at full capacity, sub is probably in the best shape it has been since it was built.” Her second in command said.

“What about the Colorado?” She asked.

“They are having some problems with the upgrades to their firing systems, but nothing serious, it should be easily fixed when we return to Sedna.”

Anissa nodded, “Good. Let’s finish up our last series of test and get back to Sedna.”

The time to strike would come soon. And Anissa dreamed of the day she would finally see Earth free.

Aileen entered the Overlords quarters, finding Vit’r’an in his pool. She approached the edge and waited for him to notice him. Vit’r’an kept his eyes closed, enjoying his bath. After about ten minutes he submerged for a about a minute and then got up. He exited the pool and walked to the small chamber adjacent to the pool room, stepping in the mist that was inside. A few moments later he stepped out now dry. He walked by Aileen, motioning her to follow. They walked out of his quarters and towards the base’s main room. There they found a few other Ra’a’zani working on various stations. Vit’r’an went to his usual place in the middle of the room, locked his legs in a sitting position and watched his people work. Aileen assumed her usual place behind him. She didn’t realize how much she hated when Vit’r’an made her stand like that until she wasn’t doing it every day. For the entire duration of the Tig’r’an’s visit she was left mostly to herself. She had… more freedom. And she missed that. She wasn’t able to leave the base and go to the slums in weeks. She didn’t know why, but it bothered her that she wasn’t able to take supplies to the Father. Even though she knew that she had no obligations to him, she didn’t even know why she did it in the first place. But still she felt like she was somehow betraying the Father and the people there.

Vit’r’an snapped her out of her thoughts by turning to her, “Tell me what has the atmosphere been like amongst the slaves lately?”

“Dakar?” Aileen asked, confused.

“There have been a few strange occurrences lately. Slaves going missing, equipment malfunctions. You wouldn’t know anything about it?” Vit’r’an asked.

Aileen felt a chill go through her body, “I don’t socialize with the other slaves Dakar.”

Vit’r’an blew air through his nostrils, and turned back. “Be sure to report if you see or hear anything. I don’t need to remind you what could happen if this turns out to be something more than a coincidence.”

“Of course Dakar.” Aileen said, and fought hard to remain calm. She had just lied to the Dakar. She had never done that before. Why did I lie? There was no reason for her to lie. She had seen strange things occurring in the base. The slaves whispering, exchanging things, and being in places where they weren’t supposed to be. She knew that something was going on. And while Ra’a’zani did not consider humans a threat, should they find evidence that there was something going on, there would be hell to pay. And Aileen knew first hand, that the only ones that would pay would be the innocent.

Nelus

Jusan marched into his office enraged. His Cevar – steward of his household – followed close behind.

“I assume that the council meeting went poorly Sestar.” Cevar Nisse said.

“Those fools!” Jusan yelled out, “How can they not see that this course can only lead to our destruction!”

Nisse remained silent letting Jusan went.

“Do you know what they are planning now?” Jusan turned and asked Nisse, “They want to drive the humans out of Nuva! With force! The fools have abandoned it, and then all but forgotten about it. And now when they know that the colony survived they want it back! As if they will ever spare a force big enough to protect it.”

“Didn’t you say that they wanted a trade agreement with the humans? And that they gave humans time to consult with their leadership about leaving Nuva?”