There were a few abilities that were elusive, and he couldn’t figure them out, but hopefully after children and other people received psionics, they would stumble upon them. And Clara and Meifeng were perfectly capable of figuring things out on the go. But for now, Adrian focused on the ones that he was good at. The rest would come with time.
Drained of all energy, Adrian got to his feet and started towards the mess hall for some food. His metabolism had increased at least ten times since his changes, and food was instrumental in regaining energy. He exited the training room, all the way thinking about how to improve his skills with the psionics.
Later that night, Adrian entered his quarters on the Veritas, exhausted. He walked across to his room, leaving the wolions in the living area, where they usually slept. He entered his room and sat down at his table, opening reports that he hadn’t read through yet. Before he started reading them, his attention was drawn to the picture at his nightstand. It was the only one he had of Bethany; it was a group picture with all of their team from the Academy. It had taken him a long time to put her death behind him. He didn’t forget; he would never do that to her memory. But it hurt less now.
He was never really bothered by guilt; she hadn’t blamed him, and he knew that he would have made the same decision again. It had made him understand who he was as a person, and he had grown to accept that. He knew that emotions would never compromise him doing what he believed was right. But that did not mean that it didn’t hurt him. It was the pain of losing someone he loved that he had a problem dealing with. She was the first person that he had opened up to. The first person that he had felt he could reveal all that he was.
But now, with years of reflection, he knew that it wouldn’t have worked out between them. She had been in love with a person that was only a small part of what Adrian was. That did not diminish his love for her, though. At the time, it had been real. But he kept the picture there as a reminder that there probably would never be anyone who could understand who he truly was. Someone who could be with him even when they knew that he would sacrifice them in order to defeat his enemies.
He forced himself to look away and focus on the reports. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Three days later, Adrian stepped into the control room again, as the drone they’d sent through the first trans-lane had reached its destination.
“What do we have, Gotu?” Adrian asked as he was approaching.
“The drone is some thirty-six light years away. We should be getting its sensor readings back any moment now,” Gotu answered.
Together, they watched the holo and waited. Then the information started pouring in. Both of them read it as it was arriving, and at about the same time turned to one look at one another.
“Well, that is interesting,” Adrian said.
“Very much so,” Gotu said as they watched images and readings from the system depicting a small station orbiting a small, rocky planet.
“Can you analyze it, Iris?” Adrian asked, and a human-sized hologram of Iris appeared in front of them. While on Veritas, she was connected with the onboard system and could use any projector on the ship.
“The tech does not appear Ra’a’zani in nature. Energy readings are different,” Iris said as she manipulated the holo. “Hmm… We have a match for the architecture and a partial on the energy readings.”
“Really?” Adrian asked, surprised.
“Yes, from the Union ship’s databases. The Union encountered this race in their explorations. They had limited contact, as their territory was too far away for any kind of relationship between the Union and this race, but we have a translation of their language,” she said. “There is very little else, only a mention that they were technologically inferior to the Union, but that was a couple thousand of years ago. And that they appeared peaceful. The race’s name is Sorvani, and that is all that we know.”
Gotu looked thoughtfully at the holo. “Hm… They don’t appear to have any defenses in system except that station. That could suggest that they don’t really have anything to fear in this area of space. Which, if it is true, means that we are on a wrong path. I’m sure that if the Ra’a’zani were anywhere close to here, they wouldn’t be so careless,” Gotu said. “Do we know how what they look like?”
“No. The Union exploration ship encountered a single Sorvani ship at the outer edge of their explored space. They only exchanged the basics, no visual contact. That was… on the other side of the galactic core. The Union territory was—or still is—in the Perseus arm. They encountered the Sorvani at the inner edge of the Sagittarius arm, only on their side of the galactic core. About thirty thousand light years from here,” Iris answered.
Gotu looked thoughtful. “That could mean that they are a race that holds a big chunk of territory. Or, and I think that this is more likely, the Sorvani ship was also an explorer.”
Adrian scratched his head. “Whatever may be true, they are, as far as we know, our closest neighbors in this area of space. I think that we should go and introduce ourselves. Who knows, we might even get some information about this area of space that can narrow our search.”
“As you wish, Lord Sentinel. We can depart immediately,” Gotu said.
“Yes, but leave a relay probe here so that we can receive data from the other drone once it passes through its trans-lane.”
About a day later, Veritas exited the trans-lane and dropped into the Sorvani system. Adrian, Gotu, and Björn Borg—another master from Warpath, with the focus on cultural interactions—watched as their prerecorded greeting message was sent to the Sorvani station. The first thing they used was the normal space FTL comms, and the Sorvani acknowledged and responded in the same way.
“Well, they have some advanced tech,” Björn said.
In front of Adrian, the holo screen turned on and he could see a bright red alien. It was a biped with fur. It wore a harness of some sort and nothing else, and had two arms, only at the elbow they split into two, which technically made it have four arms, with three fingers on each. Its face was flat, with no pronounced snout or a nose, three eyes arranged one above the other, and only a slit where a human nose would have been. Adrian wasn’t sure that it was a nose, though, and he was proven right when the orifice opened and the being started speaking through it in a whispering voice.
Adrian already had their language loaded into his implant, so as the being spoke, he heard the translation in his head.
“Greetings. Your first message said that you have not met my people before, and yet it came in our language—an old dialect, but still understandable,” the Sorvani said.
“That is right,” Adrian said. “We haven’t met with your people before, but we have had contact with someone who has. Although that was a long time ago. We are exploring our neighborhood in search of a race called the Ra’a’zani, who should be inhabiting this area of space. We would appreciate any help in that regard, and of course, if you wish, we may open relations between our peoples.”
“I have not heard of this race that you speak of, but then again, I am not interested in those things much. My team and I are scientists conducting experiments on this world; we have little contact with the rest of the Erasi, save for supply ships that arrive once every few years.” While tilting its head from side to side, the Sorvani added, “If you wish to open relationship with the Erasi, you will need to go to one of the larger worlds where such things are done. You might even find the information you seek; there are information brokers on these worlds.”