Ivan Kal - Out of the Ashes

The command board showed the trajectories of his ships fire, and Adrian calmly watched. Then a couple of minutes later the weapons fire reached the Sowir shipyard. Adrian’s target was not the shipyard main body, but rather three of the docks that held unfinished battleships. A few moments later a holographic display appeared in front of Adrian showing the visual of the destruction. The metal rounds smashed into the unfinished ships and the docks surrounding them, ripping through the ship hull, the docks fell apart as the explosions from the ships and the metal rounds smashed them apart. The resulting destruction caused a series of secondary explosions that spread to another two docks adjacent to the ones he targeted. The destruction was massive but didn’t threaten the integrity of the station itself, it was big enough that it could survive.

Cheers broke out again among the crew on the CC. Adrian waited, his ships keeping their distance from the shipyard. This was the moment, if the Sowir were going to open communications it would be now. Adrian waited, but again there was nothing from the Sowir. He was tempted to open communications first, but decided against it. The Sowir needed to believe that the Human are more than willing to fight a war with them. A few more minutes passed with no word from the Sowir. Adrian sighed, their mission failed. They would have a true war with the Sowir. Failing to come to terms with the Sowir meant that they would be forced to go to the plan C. Hit the Sowir fast and hard. Keep them off balance with constant raids on their territory using their only advantage, the trans-lanes. With the arrival of Adrian’s fleet in Tarsas system Sowir knew for sure that they had a way to enter inside the system’s hyperspace barrier – if they weren’t sure after Nuva. That was supposed to be another clue to the Sowir that humans might not be an easy opponent.

Adrian sighed, he looked at the other targets in the system. The Sowir had a refueling station in the orbit of the gas giant, a few cargo ships were on their way out of the system, and those that were on their way to the shipyard have started turning around as they saw Adrian’s fleet. He would need to destroy everything in the system, trusting that the Sowir ships running away would carry the word of what happened. While Adrian’s fleet kept attacking every system they find the trans-lanes to.

He highlighted the fleet, readying to order an attack that would destroy the shipyard. But before he had a chance an alert appeared on his board.

“We are receiving a message from the shipyard Fleet Commander!” The Comm Handler yelled out.

Adrian released a breath. “Play it.” Adrian said.

The message was in Nel, simple and short, it was the same message that the Consortium received a hundred years ago when they met the Sowir. A computer voice boomed out on the CC of the Leviathan, “ Terms?”

Adrian smiled, “Looks like our gamble paid off.”

Sanctuary

The teal tinted leaves of Sanctuary trees were slowly entering their winter forms, they would roll up in a tight shell to protect themselves for the winter that will be coming in a few months. Seo-yun watched them from the balcony of her former home, she hadn’t been here in months. She still owned the house built some way out of the city, on the edge of the plateau that the Olympus city was built on. It had a great view of the forest that stretched below. Sanctuary was such a beautiful world in her opinion. In some ways maybe even more beautiful than Earth. She did miss Earth sometimes, but she had made a choice, this was her home now. Seo-yun glanced at the person standing next to her, who was captivated by the view. The Nel looked over the forest below in fascination.

“It is something else isn’t it?” Seo-yun asked.

“Yes.” Lanai Sumia responded mesmerized, “I have never seen so many trees, so much nature.”

Seo-yun raised an eyebrow, “Really? I thought that the Consortium had plenty of different worlds. There must have been at least one as beautiful as Sanctuary.” Seo-yun said.

“No, sadly all the planets in the Consortium had been very developed by the time I was born. The cities almost covered the entire planet. I have never even been in nature until Nuva, and even then I spent most of my time on the station in the orbit. But Nuva is nowhere near Sanctuary in terms of beauty. The only thing that comes close are Mtural forest cities.” Sumia said.

“I read a little about them, the pictures I saw were beautiful.”

“They were beautiful, until the Sowir bombed them from space.” Sumia said.

“I’m sorry.” Seo-yun said.

“You don’t need to apologize to me. Your people didn’t commit those acts.” Sumia said.

Seo-yun kept silent, looking out over the forest. “I know that you don’t approve with our making an agreement with the Sowir…”

“Perhaps a part of me hates it, yes. But I understand that you needed it. And I am thankful that you included Nuva in that agreement.” Sumia said then turned to look at Seo-yun, “You know that they won’t keep that agreement forever? The moment they think they are strong enough to beat you they will attack, and if they ever learn that you have only this one system…”

“We know. That’s why we plan on expanding rapidly, we already have potential systems in mind.” Seo-yun said.

“Good. If they believe that you are just now expanding into this area of space, and have a much bigger territory somewhere else, they will wait and build up their forces.” Sumia said. With that they again lapsed into a silence, enjoying the view. Seo-yun liked the Nel, she liked talking to her and enjoyed being in her presence.

After a while, Sumia spoke, “Your leader still hasn’t made a decision on my request?”

“No… He wants to, but he is still hoping that your people from Nelus will change their minds.” Seo-yun responded.

“I know that my people are little more than a burden now, and I appreciate everything you have done for us. The fact that you helped us, and made sure that we are safe from the Sowir is something we can never repay you for. But I still hoped, that we might become more than a burden to you.” Sumia said.

“Give it some more time. Tomas has been stung too many times by acting rashly. He has made himself stop when it concerns you, he wants to make sure that he does the right thing for everyone.”

“Perhaps I was too rash in giving him the same request again, after he already didn’t approve.” Sumia said.

“But he didn’t refuse either.” Seo-yun said.

Again they lapsed into silence, this time it was Seo-yun that spoke first, “I brought you here, because I have something for you.” Seo-yun said.

Sumia looked at her expectantly, “Oh?”

“This was my home, before I moved to the palace to be with Tomas.” Seo-yun said looking around, “But now I rarely use it. So I wanted it to have a right owner.” Seo-yun said, reaching in her pocket for a small computer stick, that she then offered to Sumia. “These are the codes for the house, a human keeps such codes in his or her implant. But as you don’t have an implant, I made this. It will transmit the codes when you are near the house. As well as help you control a few of the appliances that require an implant.”

Sumia looked at Seo-yun open mouthed. “You are giving me your home? Why?”

Seo-yun shrugged, “I like you, and I know that you will appreciate the view.” Seo-yun smiled.

“But… I planned on returning to Nuva…” Sumia said.

“Doesn’t matter, if you ever come to visit you can stay here.” Seo-yun reached down and took Sumia’s hand in her own, placing the stick in her palm. “I want you to have it.”