Star Alliance (14 page)

She climbed out of the pilot’s seat and stretched her arms overhead. At Brenda’s insistence she’d gotten eight hours of sleep, and she felt much better. She could probably use more rest, but that would have to wait.
 

The door to the bridge opened and Ezerah walked in. The Nershal wore a dark, formfitting suit made of smart mesh fibers that could readjust for a variety of conditions—anything from the vacuum of space to the atmosphere maintained on the Athena. Ezerah had commented that the suit was extremely comfortable. The squarish pack on the back allowed the Nershal to safely fold away her wings.
 

The Nershals were a beautiful alien race and not at all what Kaylan expected to find in the galaxy. Truth be told, she hadn’t known what to expect. Ezerah’s features were quite alien yet familiar at the same time. Nershals had two eyes at the front of their heads and were generally humanoid in shape—bipedal with two arms. They had hardly any hair to speak of. Their skin was a pale green with darker swaths that adorned their face and, Kaylan assumed, other areas as well. Their eyes were larger than any Humans’ and were several shades of orange. The Nershals also had twin sets of translucent wings. Zack had commented that they reminded him of dragonfly wings. Emma had noted that the similarity in the wing design was actually quite profound. Each wing functioned on its own. The wings didn’t flap per se, but rotated around, which allowed lift to be achieved. This wing design enabled the Nershals to fly with a level of precision that went beyond an ordinary bird.

After a few moments, Gaarokk squeezed his way through the doorway. Boxans were very different from the Nershals, although they shared their bipedal stance. They had two large flaxen eyes about the diameter of a teacup. Their brown, roughened skin was reminiscent of the bark of a tree, and their triangular-shaped heads had a full mane of thick hair. And the Boxans were extremely tall, with an average height of eight to ten feet. Gaarokk, being only eight feet tall, was on the shorter side for a Boxan, but he was still quite thick and muscular. His voice sounded deeply cavernous when he spoke. Gaarokk was extremely open-minded, and Kaylan detected none of the superiority complex she got from Kladomaor.

The rest of the Athena crew joined them on the bridge. Hicks and Katie were armed with pulsar pistols.

Redford glanced at them. “Expecting trouble?” he asked.

Hicks shrugged. “Better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.”

Redford turned his gaze to Kaylan. “I’ve been monitoring the comms channel and scanning on the frequencies Gaarokk provided, and so far we’ve remained undetected.”

Kaylan nodded. “That confirms what we suspected; however, I’m still concerned about being detected when we take the shuttle down to Nerva.”

“There’s no avoiding it,” Ezerah said. “Our orbital installations will detect anything coming toward the planet. When we’re challenged, I can provide my identification and tell them this is a survey ship.”

“Won’t they be able to determine that our shuttle is different from a Nershal vessel?” Kaylan asked.

“We’ll need to transmit ship specs to them, and I will have your AI send the necessary information,” Ezerah said.

“Commander,” Gaarokk said. “They won’t perceive this ship as a threat at all. They will scan the ship for weapons of a greater magnitude than you have available, so we shouldn’t have any problems getting down to the surface.”

“I’ll need to upload the protocols to your AI,” Ezerah said.

“Athena,” Kaylan said, “allow Ezerah to upload comms protocols.”

“Confirmed,” the AI said. “Upload can commence at any time.”

Ezerah tapped a few commands on her suit computer.
 

“Thank you for your help with all this. I don’t think we would have gotten this far without it,” Kaylan said, looking at Ezerah and Gaarokk.

“The Xiiginns have much to answer for,” Ezerah said. “We’ve been blinded by their lies for far too long. I’m also curious about the Mardoxian chamber that’s located at my family’s residence.”

“I’m sure you are,” Gaarokk said. “We were quite surprised we couldn’t find evidence of the Mardoxian potential in your species, given your abilities.”

“What abilities?” Kaylan asked.

“Calculating space jumps for one,” Gaarokk said. “The Nershals make superb navigators. Their brains are made up of three lobes, which allows for superior mathematical calculations. Combine that with an implant link to a ship’s computer and you have a much more agile force at your command. It’s one of the reasons the Xiiginns were so keen to align with them and bring them into the Confederation.”

“And according to the research data from the facility we raided, it’s one of the things the Xiiginns are trying to steal from us,” Ezerah said.

Gaarokk didn’t reply, which Kaylan thought was for the best. It was quite disconcerting for Ezerah to find out that at least some of their leadership had known about the experimentation and had essentially given the Xiiginns permission to genetically experiment on their species. What the Nershals got in return was access to advanced technology that expedited their rise as a spacefaring race. Kaylan frowned. She could easily see a similar course of events happening on Earth if they didn’t get back in time to warn them. The idealist in her didn’t want to believe her own species would sell each other out for access to advanced technology, but she wasn’t convinced they wouldn’t. She glanced at Vitomir. The cosmonaut had sabotaged Titus Station in the asteroid belt, killing four people, including his wife, all for the chance to gain access to advanced alien technology. How would the government leaders on Earth react to such an offer?

“What is it?” Hicks asked.

“I keep thinking about how our own species would react to the Xiiginns,” Kaylan said. “I don’t know the history of all the interspecies relations here, but I can see certain similarities to how our own people would react.”

This drew several ominous glances from the crew of the Athena.

“This is one of the things the Star Shroud program sought to avoid,” Gaarokk said. “It wasn’t a perfect program, and I don’t want to drag us down into a philosophical discussion about it, but one of our guiding principles was to limit our interference in the development of a less advanced species—something the Xiiginns have gotten the Confederation to change.”

“Is the Confederation something we can appeal to?” Kaylan asked.

“No,” Ezerah said. “Your species isn’t even registered—” She broke off and looked at Gaarokk.

“The Boxans aren’t exactly welcome in the Confederation anymore,” Gaarokk said.

Kaylan frowned. “How are new species admitted into the Confederation then?” she asked.

“The Nershals were the last species to be admitted,” Gaarokk said.

Kaylan glanced at Ezerah and then back at Gaarokk. “Kladomaor said there were other species being observed. Wouldn’t the Confederation reach out to those species?”

“The Confederation is aware of the fact that more species exist in the galaxy, but they remain ignorant of their exact locations,” Gaarokk said.

Hicks cleared his throat. “I think I get it. The Confederation wanted the Boxans to relinquish control of the Star Shroud program so they would have access to their star-system data. The Boxans refused, so they cast you out of your own creation.”

“Partially,” Gaarokk said. “We took the Star Shroud networks offline. Though the request came through the Confederation, it was really the Xiiginns pushing for this information.”

“What about the other members of the Confederation?” Kaylan asked.
 

Gaarokk’s jaws clenched. “Those allied with the Xiiginns form a majority. There were some species that spoke out against the Xiiginns but not many. Most agreed that the Star Shroud program should be under control of the Confederation.”

“Who are essentially controlled by the Xiiginns,” Hicks said.

“So to prevent a species like ours from falling to the mercy of the Xiiginns, you’ve been keeping the information about star systems with intelligent life secret from them,” Kaylan said.

“That is correct,” Gaarokk said.

“But Zack and I were able to access the Star Shroud network from our solar system,” Redford said.

“Zack is an exceedingly clever Human,” Gaarokk said. “You were able to access information about your own system, and if you’d had more time you might have figured out where the information went from there. But you wouldn’t have been able to access the master copy, which lists all the known star systems in the Shroud program.”

Redford looked at Kaylan. “It makes sense, and I think if Zack were here, he would agree.”

Kaylan nodded and looked at Gaarokk. “You never told us how the Boxans learned the truth about the Xiiginns. How did this conflict start?” she asked.

“We discovered that the Xiiginns were actively looking for undiscovered life forms. They were given limited access into the Star Shroud program. At the time we’d envisioned bringing them and the rest of the Confederation into that role. The short version is that they were caught exploiting the resources of a star system we’d been observing. The star system was rich in materials used for building ships, among other things,” Gaarokk said.

“You don’t take any materials from the star systems you learn of?” Redford asked.

Gaarokk shook his head. “No. We note whether a system is rich in particular types of resources, but we’d never take them. We note it so when they are brought into the Confederation other species could trade for those materials.”

“You said among other things,” Kaylan said.

“Yes. There was a primitive life form in this star system. They were hundreds of cycles from being able to reach into the great expanse, or space, as you Humans like to call it. One of the defining characteristics of that race of beings was their ability to quickly heal themselves. They had redundant nervous systems—something worth studying in concert with that species. However, the Xiiginns didn’t see it that way. In secret, they shared advanced technology with them in exchange for permission to experiment on their species. They were looking to enhance themselves by taking advantage of millions of years of evolution. Because the species then had access to technology they weren’t ready for, they wiped themselves out. Their planet became a wasteland,” Gaarokk said.

“Why didn’t you stop them?” Kaylan asked.

“We didn’t learn about it until it was too late. It was after this that we started to deploy a specially constructed artificial intelligence to assist in monitoring the star systems in the Star Shroud program. It would have alerted us if such a thing had happened again,” Gaarokk said.

“What happened with the Xiiginns after that?” Kaylan asked.

“We kept a closer eye on them, but we didn’t fully understand their ability to control other species. It wasn’t until we locked them out of the Star Shroud program that we started to see their true colors. That conflict with the Xiiginns divided our species,” Gaarokk said and looked at Ezerah. “That’s why it pains me to see the same conflict beginning here with the Nershals.”

Ezerah returned the Boxan’s gaze. “We are responsible for what happens to our species. We decided to ally with the Xiiginns, and the Nershals will feel the weight of those decisions for generations to come,” Ezerah said.

“Commander,” the AI said. “We’re receiving a signal from the Nerva Space Command.”

“Acknowledged, stand by,” Kaylan said and glanced at Ezerah. “I thought they wouldn’t contact us until we were closer to Nerva?”
 

“They’re likely on high alert since the Xiiginn cruiser was destroyed near Selebus,” Ezerah said.

“How close are they to the ship?” Hicks asked.

Gaarokk shook his head. “Ezerah’s right, this is just standard protocol. The Nershals are tracking all objects that have the potential to come to Nerva.”

“Are they able to detect that this is a ship and not something else?” Redford asked.

Jonah did make a good point, Kaylan thought. If they answered right away they confirmed that they were out here, but if the Nershals weren’t sure what the Athena actually was, it might be best not to answer them.

“I’m not sure,” Ezerah said. “I would suggest we answer them so as not to draw attention to ourselves later.”

Kaylan nodded. “I agree. If they continue to monitor us and we don’t answer them, then once we change course they’ll know right away we’re not some benign piece of space junk. And the fact that we didn’t answer them would raise an alarm in those who are watching.”

No one else offered any comment.

“Athena,” Kaylan said. “Send the information Ezerah uploaded earlier.”

“Sending,” the AI said.

Silence settled on the bridge while they waited for a response. They had to get onto the surface of Nerva. It was their only chance to find Zack; otherwise, they would have to leave the Nershal star system. Kaylan watched the holoscreen over the conference table, which showed the blue and green planet they were approaching. It was strange to look at, considering the only other living planet they’d seen was Earth. Nerva was similar in size to Earth but with smaller oceans, and there were different weather systems swirling their way across the planet. A deep pang settled in Kaylan’s chest. She glanced at the other Athena crew members, who were watching the same thing. Seeing Nerva this way was a reminder of just how far from home they’d come.

“Nerva Space Command cleared us to approach the planet,” the AI said.

Kaylan released the breath she’d been holding and smiled. “Thank you, Athena.”

Kaylan hadn’t realized how tense she’d been until that moment, but this was the easy part. They still needed to get down to the surface and find the hidden Mardoxian chamber.

“Since they know we’re here, we can shave some time off our approach,” Kaylan said.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Redford asked.

“Ezerah,” Kaylan said. “If we increased our velocity, would it appear to be suspicious?”

“A slight increase in speed isn’t unreasonable once clearance has been granted,” Ezerah said.

Kaylan increased the Athena’s velocity by twenty percent, which meant they would hit their objective thirty minutes earlier than previously expected. Every second counted.