“It is your decision, Tomas,” Nadia said solemnly.
Seo-yun entered the room where Axull Darr’s sphere was held. Only a fraction of the data had been copied and transferred to other systems. There was too much for them to transfer it all, and more than 99 percent they couldn’t even understand. There was billions of years’ worth of data.
“Hello, Axull Darr,” Seo-yun greeted the copy of Axull Darr’s mind, the hologram floating above the sphere.
“Greetings, Seo-yun,” he responded.
“I came down here to show you something,” she said, and sent a file from her imp to the holo in the room. A report came to life in front of her and Axull Darr. “What do you think?” she asked.
“It looks good. The meld of human or Nel DNA and the Sha upgrades is going well. It will add a few days to the incubation times, but the children will be healthy, and they will have all the enhancements I intended for you, along with what you gained through your own evolution,” Axull Darr said.
“That’s good to hear. We were pretty sure that everything was good, but I wanted to check,” Seo-yun said. The first group of embryos in the vats in the progeny center had been given the treatment to unlock psionics, and the body upgrades that allowed for their safe use. They wouldn’t need to go through augmentation in order to use their abilities.
“You should still monitor the process closely. Even at the height of the People’s power, these things were delicate,” Axull Darr said.
“Of course,” Seo-yun said. She hesitated. “There was one more thing I wanted to ask.”
“Ask.”
“The People had been adding psionics to their own genome from other beings, yes?”
“That is correct.”
“I couldn’t find any information on that topic in the data from the sphere available to us,” Seo-yun said.
Axull Darr didn’t respond immediately; it seemed like he was thinking. But Seo-yun knew that he didn’t really need the time. “The data concerning alteration of lifeforms has been restricted,” Axull Darr said.
“Restricted why? Weren’t we supposed to gain all the knowledge that the People possessed?”
Again, he paused. “There are things that you are not yet ready for. Things that not even we were ready for.”
“You are referring to whatever it was that the last of your people created? The thing that made the original Axull Darr make us?”
“Yes.”
“But that occurred millions of years ago. Whatever they made is probably long dead. And we have you. You can warn us, keep us from making the same mistakes,” Seo-yun said.
“You are wrong. You don’t understand. And you are not yet ready to understand. The thing that they created is still alive; I have seen proof of it. The threat is still out there.”
“And what is that threat? Why won’t you tell us?” she asked.
“Because you are not ready, and you can do nothing as you are now. In time, when you have grown, I will tell you. But now you need to focus on other things,” Axull Darr said, and Seo-yun could see that she wouldn’t be able to get anything from the ancient intelligence before he was ready to say it.
“Fine.” She sighed in defeat. “Let’s talk about…”
Chapter Thirty-One
June; Year 54 of the Empire – Veritas
Adrian stood in the control room with Gotu and Björn as their ship exited hyperspace and entered the Erasi system. They followed the regulations they’d received from the Sorvani, and had all their weapons powered down, although Adrian had their shields and field emitters primed just in case. The Veritas’s active scanners activated, and the holo in front of them updated.
“Well, this is something new,” Björn said.
And Adrian agreed. The entire system was full of traffic, with ships moving from hyperspace barriers and trans-stations towards and from the second planet in the system. The planet had its entire surface covered with buildings—large, city-sized domes, space elevators stretching from the surface to the stations in the orbit, and the stations themselves that filled the high orbit of the planet. But what really got their attention was the differences between the ships. Iris had identified more than two dozen types of ships that likely belonged to different species.
“How do you think we should proceed?” Adrian asked the two.
“We should follow the guidelines that the Sorvani gave us,” Björn said. “Announce our presence and then follow their instructions. Something tells me that this isn’t the first time they’ve had unfamiliar visitors.”
Adrian nodded, agreeing. “Start with the communications. Establish us as new to the neighborhood, seeking to meet people interested in trade. Don’t mention the Ra’a’zani just yet.”
“I’ll get the Comms Handlers on it immediately,” Gotu said. “Do you want us to skim to the planet? There is a lot of traffic; we will need to find a clear course.”
Adrian thought about it, but then shook his head. “No, I think that we made an error when we showed that to the Sorvani. I don’t see any of the ships in system skimming. Let’s keep it to ourselves for now.”
“As you wish,” Gotu said.
Seventeen hours later
Adrian and Aileen entered the briefing room on the Veritas control deck. Already there were Gotu and Björn. Adrian took the seat at the head of the table, with Aileen to his right and Gotu and Björn on his left.
“So, what have we learned?” Adrian asked.
Gotu stood up and took control of the holo, zooming in on the planet. “Tarabat is what the Erasi call this hub world. Trade with those outside of the Erasi is conducted on such worlds. Anyone can own properties on hub worlds; if we wanted to, we could buy a building here and use it however we wished.”
Björn stood and continued for Gotu, “But, the laws on Erasi hub worlds are… very loose. From what I have read of them, pretty much anything is legal, from slavery to drug trafficking to weapons trade. The reason for this is because there are so many races, cultures, and different ideologies that it would have been impossible to make laws that everyone would agree to follow.”
Gotu turned his palm, agreeing. “Yes. They use the hub worlds to trade and negotiate with other races. Their other worlds, those where only the member races of the Erasi are allowed in, are much different.”
“So what does this mean for us?” Adrian asked.
“Basically, we can do whatever we want once we are on their stations or on the planet. We are, however, forbidden form firing our ship’s weapons within the system. They have a flotilla that is there to punish any who break that rule. Although there are circumstances in which that is permitted, for example if we are attacked first, or if some outside force attacks the system. The flotilla is relatively small, twenty ships only. But no outside force would dare attack an Erasi system, especially a hub. One reason is that the Erasi have massive fleets in their core systems, and the other is that if anyone from the outside tries to attack a hub world, the other races that have business with the Erasi would turn against them in order to protect their interests. And there are thousands of warships here, protecting convoys that are doing trade with Erasi.”
“If we can do whatever we want, I assume that they can do so as well?” Aileen asked.
“Yes, Sentinel. There are guard forces, but they are in the employ of the trade guilds, and don’t really care about anything unless it concerns a breach in the validated contract. The Erasi are a conglomerate of many races, held together by thousands of corporations. These corporations establish offices on hub worlds and then make deals there. A deal made with a corporation or a private business on a hub world is binding. If you break it, the Erasi step in and enforce it. The corporations are so large that they deal with multiple races at the same time,” Björn answered.