Lacuna: Demons of the Void Read online

  ["Word of the disaster spread slowly... After Evarel was consumed there was no one left to send word of what had happened, and attempts to return to our home world were thwarted by the lack of a warp-point where one was expected. The singularity put out so much gravimetric distortion that jumping into the system was impossible... So finally scouts warped into the edges of the Hijaai system and saw the destruction first hand. It was they who relayed to us the terrible news that our home world had been destroyed.

  ["The pain this caused to the Toralii was utterly unimaginable. The coalition the colonists had forged with our home world, this union of peace and prosperity, disintegrated without Evarel’s influence. In mere weeks we turned on each other in a series of rapidly escalating wars, as each faction squabbled over the scraps of our civilization’s technology, labour, ships, medical supplies, females, food, and water... All became commodities to be bartered from the strong, extorted from the weak or stolen from the weaker.

  ["It was not until the dust had settled, at the cost of so many lives, that our species finally reunited under the banner of the strongest of the colonies, known simply as The Toralii Alliance. The Telvan were part of it, as was everyone, and this new coalition did all they could to try to close the ever-hungry maw of Uraj-tor, but he could not be satisfied. Eventually the Alliance gave up, moved the survivors to a safe location, and let the entire system be consumed.

  ["We tried teaching the first few species we encountered... sharing our knowledge with them, giving them weapons and food and medicines. This met with some success, and we did find some allies, until we encountered another species we called the Kel-Voran. They had not yet developed Voidwarp technology... so we gave it to them.”] Saara took a deep breath. [“...but the Kel-Voran were not like us. Vicious and warlike, they saw the Voidwarp technology not as a tool for ushering in a period of peace, but instead as a way to impose their will on all species around the galaxy.

  ["And so, soon enough, our two species fell into war. We struggled, as we had struggled with so many others, to make them see the danger in the wonders they had discovered... but our messengers were met only with gunfire, and our communications were ignored. They fought us at every turn, until another singularity appeared... and Khali-tor opened his insatiable maw and, just like Uraj-tor did to us, swallowed their home world. It was at this time the Telvan split from the Toralii Alliance.

  ["From our encounters with the Kel-Voran we knew that we could no longer rely on diplomacy to educate about the harms of the Voidwarp. Instead, we are now forced to employ violence, a strategy that has worked for every species we have encountered... And we no longer share our technology with those we find to be friendly.

  ["The truth is that we are a peaceful people... We have no desire to harm or kill, but every time a sentient species develops the Voidwarp technology they must be taught not to use it. They must not be permitted to use the Voidwarp engines without knowing the safe limits to which they can be pushed... the learning process is long, and the risks are great. Too great."]

  Saara’s eyes narrowed as she looked between Liao and Yu, her black fur rising slightly as though reflecting her rising emotional state.

  ["Although we wish it were not so with every fibre of our beings, the reality of the situation is that no species aside from the Toralii may be permitted to own or operate the Voidwarp devices. This is our law... our uncompromising, unyielding law. It exists for a very good reason... I hope you see that now."]

  Liao nodded thoughtfully as she digested everything Saara had told her. It was a lot to take in, but in a way it only confirmed what the humans already knew. The aliens’ arrival and bombardment was not a coincidence and the attacks on Earth were linked to the discovery of the jump drive.

  “Unfortunately,” she began, “humans... are a curious people, but we are not entirely reckless. Had we known of the dangers, we would have been more careful with the technology and taken the time to learn it. We would endeavour to be like you; we would want to understand this mysterious and strange technology. We would want to use it safely.”

  Saara’s eyes seemed to piece through the Asian woman.

  ["Would you?"]

  “If your case had been convincing, yes. I know we would have-”

  ["No... no.”] Saara gave a tired sigh. [“You see, we heard such words before, from dozens of species all over the galaxy... and the outcomes have always been the same. Always the arguments are ‘taken into consideration’, then discarded once the power of the Voidwarp technology becomes truly apparent. The likelihood of your kind weaponizing or abusing the technology was seen as too great.

  ["This ship - this great weapon that you have built to fight for your right to use it - is proof that we were correct."]

  The idea that the Toralii had encountered so many other species who all had the same reaction to the Voidwarp technology came as quite a shock to Liao. Although she wanted to ask about that, she felt compelled to at least attempt to refute Saara’s claim.

  “This ship is a weapon built to fight you,” she argued, “...well, the Toralii – only because the Toralii attacked us – and for no other purpose. The Beijing is designed only to take the fight to those that harmed us... and we didn’t even know why they did.”

  Melissa rolled her shoulders. “But it’s interesting, you know? The attacks upon Earth have proven to be a very uniting event... Our people stand behind the Pillars of the Earth now together in common cause. More or less.”

  Liao leaned forward, folding her hands into her lap. “If you had given us a chance, I think we might have surprised you. Humanity possesses a great potential for greed, yes, but also for great patience, temperance, compassion, and understanding.”

  Lieutenant Yu nodded his agreement. “We have a chequered history, yes, but for every act of barbarism there are acts of great charity and... for lack of a better word, humanity.”

  ["You say that with such certainty and I would love to do nothing more than believe it, but we have heard similar talk before from other species... We could not take the risk."]

  Liao nodded. “Very well, I suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree. One question: what about the other... singularity? You mentioned there were three, and you told us the origins of two of them. What’s the story behind...” She struggled to pronounce it correctly. “...Majev-tor?”

  Saara just gave what Liao could only assume was the equivalent of a saddened smile.

  [“Majev-tor is a story for another day, human. Recounting Uraj-tor’s opening has drained me for today... I can stand no more tragedy.”]

  “Very well.” Liao paused, then inclined her head. “So... while you did not speak our language before coming here, you mentioned that your people had studied us for some time before the attacks. Are there Toralii that know our language? That understand us?”

  [“I am... or rather, I was, merely a pilot. But for the Telvan, each new species we encounter is assigned a diplomat. The diplomat, and other high ranking officers assigned to study humanity, would have a working knowledge of your various languages, yes. In that regard... the Telvan are more considerate than the rest of the Alliance, who generally do not do this. They train only their soldiers with new languages, and they care not for peaceful resolutions. Why do you ask?”]

  “I just want to know if... If we send the Toralii a message, can they understand it?”

  [“You want to open diplomatic ties with my people?”] The Toralii woman screwed up her face in confusion. [“A bold move... one that I doubt will be received very well. You possess jump drives, you attacked one of our survey vessels and you hold one of their crewman. This vessel is impressive, Captain, as are his sisters... but even the Telvan possess great fleets and the will to use them. I doubt very much that our elders will listen to anything you have to say. Once they learn you have jump drives, they will return and in force. You cannot intercept every survey vessel... They will eventually find out, and then they will come. Heed my words well when I say... they will not
send the gentle Telvan. It will be Alliance warships at your proverbial door.”]

  “I know,” Liao admitted, her hand slipping free of Saara’s, “and when they do, I and my crew will be there to meet them.”

  She paused, regarding her Toralii friend.

  “Until then... I will need your help.”

  Chapter VIII

  “Laying the Stones”

  *****

  Conference Room 2

  TFR Beijing

  Orbit of Earth

  One month later

  The trip back to Earth was uneventful in so far as Saara continued to learn, Summer continued to make a pest of herself, and Liao relieved herself from the stress of the day with James’ help whenever she could... which was as often as they both could manage it.

  Soon, however - and too soon for Liao’s liking - they were back at work.

  Saara, Melissa, Iraj, James, Summer, and the senior staff for both the Tehran and the Beijing sat in the conference room, the large projector screen illuminated with a generic welcome message. Liao waited until everyone was seated and there was a lull in the conversation, then called for quiet.

  “Thank you everyone. Firstly, as most of you probably know, we have a very special guest aboard the TFR Beijing... I’d like to formally introduce the senior staff for both our vessels to Saara, who is one of the Toralii that we encountered at the Battle of Jupiter.

  “For some of you, this will be the first time that you’ve seen a Toralii, and I want to make sure that I’m clear about one thing: Saara has proven herself very willing to assist us in our endeavours and, accordingly, she is being granted limited access to the Beijing’s non-classified systems. She will have an armed guard where-ever she goes…” Liao nodded to the marines who stood by the heavy metal door of the room “…but this is at her discretion, and is only for her protection. She’s free to dismiss them if she wants, so don’t become alarmed if you see her wandering around by herself.”

  Liao gave a pause, as though lending weight to her next statement. She wanted the crews of both ships to understand her position clearly and completely.

  “She has my trust, the same trust I extend to all of you. Please bear this in mind.”

  Liao hoped they got the message. She desperately did not want to shoot any more crew members.

  “Also, please remember that while Saara can understand what you say, as long as it’s in English as per Task Force Resolution guidelines, she can’t physically vocalize any of our languages. As only Lieutenant Yu and I can currently understand the Telvan dialect, her communication with you all – and the rest of the crew – will unfortunately be one-way. We’re looking at changing that in the future as we move towards rapidly teaching the whole fleet enough Toralii to permit basic communications...”

  There were a few low groans. Many of the crew had struggled to learn English to serve on the ship; the idea that they were going to have to learn a third language was probably not a popular decision. Liao kept herself composed, however, waiting for the murmurs to die down.

  “... which I’m sure you’re all looking forward to. Now, to business.”

  Liao shone her laser pointer on the floor-to-ceiling computer monitor embedded in the wall of the conference room. Displayed upon it, sketched by Rowe, was a computer-generated map of the solar system. At the woman’s insistence, the words NOT TO SCALE were displayed in one of the corners... as though that weren’t obvious. Summer seemed mortified by the idea that someone on the crew might genuinely assume the Sun and the Earth were approximately the same size.

  At times Liao wondered if Summer sometimes forgot that she lived on a spaceship with a crew that had trained for years for a mission in space and therefore might, presumably, know more about the solar system than the so-called “average person” whom she clearly despised.

  “We now know that the Toralii have been conducting reconnaissance throughout the Sol system for decades. According to Saara, they generally do this via autonomous probes called ‘Forerunners’. A Forerunner is a device about five meters cubed, packed with sensors, which jumps into the outskirts of a system the Toralii wishes to map.”

  Lieutenant Jiang raised her hand. “Why the outskirts? Why don’t they just jump the Forerunner into the system itself?”

  Summer spoke up, her tone arrogantly condescending. “Because they can’t map the Lagrangian points across the huge gulf between solar systems. The distance between stars is just so unimaginably vast that even with the best radio telescopes or whatever there’s just no way you could accurately predict the location of the points. I mean, heh, when you look at the sky you’re observing the stars using light that could be dozens of years old – they’ve moved millions of kilometers since then. Even when you’re looking directly at them, the stars aren’t where you see they are!”

  Rowe, her rant complete, flopped back on her chair in a manner Liao found very disrespectful. Still, the Chinese woman gave her a curt nod.

  “Thank you, Summer.” Then, coughing politely, Melissa addressed the rest of the briefing.

  “So, yes. The Forerunners are designed to perform a fly-through of all the planets in the system, including a close-up pass of the central star, calculating the jump points for all gravity wells in the system and collecting a whole host of other data: mineral composition of the planets, their moons, atmospheric information and climate, radiation levels... more than we can get with our best spectrometers. Once it’s done, it finds the nearest Lagrangian point and jumps back to report its findings. The process takes about a year.

  “If intelligent life is detected the probe is generally sent right back to the new system to become a permanent observer. Based on Saara’s information, we know that there is a Forerunner somewhere in this system. Given that our Earth-based astronomers haven’t discovered it yet it’s probably out by Uranus, Neptune or Pluto... or hiding out in the asteroid belt.”

  Summer looked about ready to raise her hand but Liao cut her off.

  “-But that’s unlikely since it can’t jump from there. We know it’s operational; Saara has confirmed that the Toralii strike fleets were communicating with a Forerunner, so where ever it is it’s talking to the Toralii when they visit the system. Unfortunately its location was unknown to her, so it falls to us to find it.”

  Liao pointed her laser pointer towards the screen, letting the bright green dot trace between all the planets in the solar system. “Accordingly, our primary objective is to find and capture our system’s Forerunner if we’re able, destroy it if we are not, or drive it away in the worst case. This is not as simple as it sounds; the Forerunners are programmed to jump to another in-system Lagrangian point if a hostile ship comes within fifty thousand kilometres. For obvious reasons this makes them pretty hard to get close to. Fortunately, Captain Grégoire and Miss Rowe have come up with a plan. Captain?”

  James stood and Liao handed the man her laser pointer, moving to one side to give him room to speak. She folded her hands behind her back, watching silently as James took over the presentation. The laser pointer’s fine green dot moved from Lagrangian point to Lagrangian point as James spoke.

  “This will be a joint operation between the Tehran, the Beijing and – at long last – the TFR Sydney, who is finally out of drydock. I have it on very good authority that the youngest member of the fleet is going to show her face at this party, fashionably late... but she’s bringing a consolation prize.” Grégoire beckoned to the crowd of people. “...and it’s a prize we all get to share in. I’d like to introduce you all to Major Alex Aharoni, from the Israeli Air and Space Arm.”

  A short but handsome Arabic man stood, grinning a wide grin. The man wore the uniform of an Israeli pilot rather than the TFR’s standard uniform, which immediately drew some disapproving looks.

  “Please,” the man said, holding up his bronzed hands, “call me Jazz.”

  Liao cocked an eyebrow, regarding the newcomer to her ship “Jazz? Is that your...” she made little finger quotes,
“...‘call sign’ or something?”

  “Yep. Had it since flight school. Got it because I can play jazz piano, and back in Tel Aviv there was this smoking hot bar skank who would totally leap straight onto your cock if you played an instrument, so one night I-”

  Liao cut him off. “-thank you, Alex… Jazz. Whatever...” she pinched the bridge of her nose. “...Whatever. You’ll fit in just fine. It’s not like we don’t already have one immature but talented crewman aboard.” Liao cast a look towards Summer, who was sitting behind Alex and appeared to be actively – and over-eagerly, in Liao’s opinion – checking out the pilot’s very tight backside. When Summer caught Liao’s glance, she put on a ‘What, me?’ look.

  Alex took a mock bow, much to Summer’s viewing pleasure, then sat down. He had a proud grin on his face that for some reason caused Liao’s blood pressure to spike.

  James continued, shaking his head at the pilot’s display.

  “...Anyway, based on technology recovered from the Toralii wreck from the Battle of Jupiter, the Task Force’s top scientists – along with some brought in from the EU – have supplied us with our own strike craft based on modified prototypes the Iranians were building. They call it the SSF-01 Wasp, and they’re supplying the fleet of twenty four during our next resupply run. That’s eight for each ship.”

  Alex chimed in. “The eight strike craft assigned to the Beijing are piloted by the best sticks in the Israeli Air Force. Of course, that’s only for the Beijing and the Sydney – for obvious reasons, the Islamic Republic of Iran felt that stationing Israeli pilots aboard the ship named after their capitol would be... unwise, so they’re providing their own – ahem, inferior – pilots.”

  Liao felt mildly annoyed that the Iranians were being so stubborn about this and equally annoyed at Alex’s quip regarding their skill.

  Saara, obviously confused about the situation, spoke up. All eyes fell upon her – for most of them, this was the first time they had heard the Toralii language and none but Liao and Yu understood it.