Extinction (36 page)

“Thank you, Empress. I trust you had a
safe journey without incident.” Nogil sat beside her and picked up the goblet
that was offered. He sipped the ale slowly from the goblet; it was much
stronger than the ales of his home world.

“No problems that we know of, but still,
one can’t be too careful, can they? After all, we still don’t know how much the
Coalition knows. They have been at some of the colonies for more than five
years now.” Nogil’s eyes widened in disbelief. “I know, I know, we should have
found out about it sooner. Unfortunately, the Coalition guarded this secret
very well. My spies and official ties didn’t find anything out until a month
ago. I sent the summons for our meeting the day after I got all the information
myself.”

“Thank you for contacting me so quickly.
But what do we do now? Do we tell the Coalition or prepare on our own?” The ale
had suddenly lost Nogil’s interest and he set down the goblet.

“I think both. I, of course, didn’t want
to do anything without first notifying you, but now I think that we should
start to prepare for the inevitable.” She dismissed her guards and after the
doors were closed, she continued. “A distress signal was sent almost five years
ago by accident from the initial colony site. We haven’t much time. I’m
surprised that we haven’t been found yet.”

“How much should we tell the Coalition?
In all honesty, Your Highness, my people will most likely be untouched by the
new information the Coalition would receive, but the Nortes…It’s hard to say
just what the Coalition would think or do to your world. They are such
xenophobes and extremists to match.”

“Yes, I agree, humans are unpredictable.
That’s why I believe that we should give them as little information as
possible, without compromising the security of this sector. Our mistakes of the
past cannot haunt our future.”

“Although the Detrill past is not
pleasant, and much of that is because of the Nortes, I will help you, Your Highness.
Your twelfth great-grandfather freed my people and we will forever stand behind
your house because of him. Whatever I may do to help, I will.”

With a slight bow, the arrangement had
been made. For the next two days, the two discussed recent findings and
thoughts on what to do. And then they decided. A long-range sensor confirmed
their deepest fear. Time was running out.

Dig Site One

“How far are we from
the hanger bay?” Daria asked Bloom through her comlink. “If it’s more than half
a click, we need to stop so I can check Wilks’ ankle.”

“Couple hundred meters, not much farther.
If he can hold out until then, that would give us some time to go over the
ship.” Bloom looked at his display again. “I just hope these log entries are
right; otherwise, we’re walking home.”

“I can make it.” Wilks spoke up from the
rear. “Just get me a beer once we’re there.”

Daria smiled at Wilks and wondered how
he could’ve been such an asshole that night in the bar. She double-timed it up
to Emily on point with Bloom. “I think he can wait till then.” After a pause
she added, “I just needed a change of scenery from back there. Have you been
getting anything from those external sensors?”

Emily waited for Bloom to answer but he
was too deeply involved in the data he was reviewing about the ship, so she
answered for him. “Yeah, and it’s not good news. That alien ship is still up in
a synchronous orbit with site two. If we can even get the ship in the landing
bay to lift, we may have to fight our way out. Not only is our ship a thousand
years old, but we don’t have experience with it. I’m sure that they have
plenty.”

“Too bad our friend died before we got
any more information from him.” Daria had tried to revive the alien but his
anatomy was just too different for her to be of any use. He died after the
first volley of questions and not much information had been gained. “I have
found out something pretty interesting about our friends, though. Their bodies
produce oxygen. They can live in just about any atmosphere or even no
atmosphere as long as it isn’t corrosive to their tissue. Their cells
metabolize a protein that’s in the meat from those game animals. With that
protein, they can remove oxygen elements from their food and store the oxygen
for use later; that’s why they eat raw meat. Heat would destroy the protein
compound. The protein also helps with the gas exchange between their lungs and
bloodstream. Their lungs still work like ours, but they have a backup system
just in case.”

“Can we use that to our advantage?”
Emily asked.

“I’m not sure. But it does let us know
some of their strengths as well as weaknesses. First, we know that any inhaled
chemical or biological agent we currently use might be useless against them.
Second, without meat, they not only starve but also suffocate. And because they
create oxygen, their bodies oxidize very quickly and they age about five times
as fast as we do. That guy we had back there was probably twenty standard years
old. I don’t know how long they live but I’d say he was about mid-life based on
cellular decay and repair. But that is going with human standards.”

“They would have to have a large supply
of game animals on their ships during a hostile takeover if they wanted to
survive. Or they would have to quickly take over the outer planets in a system
to grow their stock on for resupply of their troops. I know that every
conquering force needs supply lines but our food can stay for years in one
place without it dying or going bad. It would be much harder to transport
livestock through enemy-held lines.” Emily thought that this information was
more important than Daria had realized.

“Thanks, Doc. Keep feeding me with any
intel you get. You know, I can’t thank you enough for the friendship you’ve
given me and for being such a valuable resource on this mission.”

“Thanks, Emily. I value our friendship
as well.” Daria turned and walked back towards her patient.

One Thousand Years Ago -
Primary Site Of The Advance Exploration Colony

“And I’m telling you,” the general was
half out of his chair, face red with rage, and pointing a finger at the figure who
sat at the head of the conference table, “I don’t care if you are the emperor!
I will not support your decision to cut ourselves off from the empire, and
neither will any member of my war council.”

The emperor sat forward in his chair,
with his arms resting on the table in front of him. He was a handsome man by
Nortes standards, although he was also considered to be very short. He took a
moment to look at each one of his cabinet members sitting at the huge
conference table. He then looked at the war council sitting behind General
N’thoth. “Do you concur with the general?” He received nods from each member of
the council. He then turned to his cabinet. “And who among you believes that we
should continue to enslave the galaxy just because we can?”

The cabinet members glanced nervously at
one another and sweat broke out on the foreheads of more than one of the twenty
members sitting at the table. After several minutes, the minister of
architecture stood and walked to the war council to make his position known. In
all, fifteen others joined him on the war council’s side.

Of the four who remained, the minister
of learning stood and said, “Your Highness, we stand behind you fully. It is
time to put an end to this shameful existence.” He walked over with the three
other ministers and stood behind his emperor.

“You see, Your Highness,” the general began,
“you are in the minority. We don’t need to make a coup behind your back; we are
doing it right here and right NOW!”

All the members of the war council were
smiling and looking towards their emperor. The smiles faded as seconds passed
and nothing happened.

“What is wrong, General?” the emperor said
as his smile took the place of those lost from the conspirators. “Was something
supposed to happen?”

At that moment, the royal guards ran
through the front and rear chamber doors and surrounded the war council and the
ministers who had defected to N’thoth’s side. Four other guards stood around
the emperor to protect him.

“Your men were killed outside after the
doors were shut and the meeting began. No, I don’t think that there will be any
coup today, except my own of course. I don’t care what you think. This madness
must and will stop. I am implementing my plan to withdraw from my own empire at
once.” He stood and looked at the general with indifference. “Kill the war
council and all the traitors who stand with them.”

Before anyone could object, the guards
opened fire on the men sitting and standing before them. All were slain in a
matter of seconds.

“Please clean this mess up and then
report to your garrison and await further orders.” The emperor turned to his
faithful ministers. “Let’s go to the throne room; we don’t need such a large
space anymore to carry on the affairs of state.” He looked at his minister of
health. “I hate to kill as much as you do, D’Bath, but we need to do just a
little bit more before we can get ourselves out of this mess. Is the virus
ready?”

“Yes”, D’Bath said somberly. “We can
deploy it among the colonists on schedule as planned.”

“And you’re sure that it has only a ten
to fifteen percent mortality rate?” the minister of learning asked.

“I hope so, but nothing is for certain.
I also have the virus ready for our warriors. It does have a one hundred
percent mortality rate. I’m sure of that.”

“I know you are, my friend”, the emperor
said as they stepped into the private throne room. “After all, it was your
eighteenth great-grandfather who helped to create our warriors.”

As they all sat, another door to the
chamber opened and a man dressed in rags and smelling of a foul odor walked in.
The ministers sat aghast, looking at the Detrill slave who stood before them.

“Gentlemen, this is Nogil. He is the
head shipmaster of the Detrills.” He looked around at his ministers. “Oh, come
now, don’t look so shocked. We are leaving the empire because of Nogil and
others like him. Is it not fitting that he and others should help with our
joint liberation? Besides, we couldn’t do it without him and the others.”

“Your Highness,” Nogil began, “we are on
schedule as promised. We will have our escape transports ready on time.” He
handed the emperor a datapad. “We have made it so that several of our fastest
and most heavily armed cruisers will either need preventive maintenance or
repairs on the scheduled date. We will have access to them as planned.”

D’Bath took over. “Both viruses will be
released in three days. None of the slaves will need to be inoculated but all
of us and our family will, of course.” He handed everyone except Nogil a large
canister of pills. “Give each member of your family one pill within the next
three days, otherwise they’ll have to rely on their own immune system to
survive and that may not be enough.”

“As you all know,” the emperor spoke
while looking at one of the little white pills, “the rest of the pills are to
be given to those in your command who you trust to support our movement. You
are not to tell them of our plans or anything else. Just secretly get them to
take the pill somehow to ensure that they are among the survivors.

“The doctor will also give you some
pills that contain the virus. These will be given on the day of infection to
all those in your command who you feel will oppose us after we leave. Take no
chances. If you believe for even one second that they will not stand by us,
give them the pill.” He then turned his gaze to S’bog.

S’bog had already taken his pill and
noticed that it was his turn to speak. “Sire, my team is ready as well. The
department of labor will stay behind and remove all traces of our existence
from the colonies. It will be a relatively simple task considering we only have
a handful of colonies and most don’t have much aboveground construction as of
yet. We estimate six cycles will be enough time to finish. After which, we will
join you at our new home world.” He eyed his jar of inoculating pills and
promised himself that he would take another one later when he was by himself.
No sense in taking any chances, he thought.

“Good.” The emperor stood to end the
meeting. “In three days, we will begin. I know that we are about to endure the
hardest moments of our lives and even of our species’ history. We will prevail,
though, because it is right.”

High Warp Through Space On
Board The Detrill Warship
Emilian

“ETA to target?” The first officer had
just taken over the watch from one of his senior officers.

The helmsman turned his chair towards
the commander. “Sir, we should reach the target in twelve days.”