“Incoming fire!” the Sensor Handler said.
The enemy energy beam struck at the back of Veritas, and his ship shook slightly.
“Shields holding at ninety-four percent,” the Sensor Handler reported.
Adrian nodded to himself. “Erasi?” he asked. Firing a weapon in their system was forbidden.
“Still not reacting,” Iris said, and Adrian got a piece of the puzzle. For whatever reason, the Erasi would not interfere, which made him want to know what was happening. Why would she attack him at the mention of Axull Darr? Why didn’t the Loksi press him on the connection between the Shara Daim, Nel, and humans?
“Find us a clear course to the hyperspace barrier for a skim. But get us away from the stations and other ships. I don’t want to antagonize the Erasi more than this incident already has,” Adrian ordered. The Shara Daim were gaining on them; their drivers were apparently faster. The scans said that they, like the Empire, used both gravity and conventional drives in concert.
The Shara Daim fired again, all three ships this time, dropping the shield matrix to 85%.
“Should we return fire?” Gotu asked.
“No. They are not using all of their weapons, and are only trying to disable us,” Adrian said. “We will get away soon enough. I don’t want to declare war.”
“You think that kidnapping one of theirs is not enough to achieve that?” Gotu asked incredulously.
“She attacked me. If us capturing her for that is enough for war, then they planned on it from the beginning.”
“They didn’t know about us before,” Gotu said.
Adrian shook his head. “She called me a human. And she said that we were Ra’a’zani slaves. They obviously had plans for us, and I want to know what they are,” Adrian said grimly.
“The hostile ships have fired missiles!” the Sensor Handler yelled out.
“Point defense grid is online,” Iris said. Lasers reached out and took down the missiles.
“How long until we get clear?” Adrian asked.
“We will be out of the range of the stations and other ships in one minute, Lord Sentinel,” the Navigation Handler said.
The Shara Daim ships increased their rate of fire, but the Empire’s shield technology held. By the time the one minute passed, the shield was down to sixty percent.
“Ready to engage the skim drive,” the Navigation Handler announced.
“Engage,” Adrian said.
Veritas shuddered for a moment, and then they were moving faster than light inside the system. Their sensors didn’t work now; they couldn’t see anything around themselves. But that was why they always skimmed when they had a clear line of sight. A few seconds later, they stopped behind the hyperspace barrier. The Shara Daim ships were still inside it, searching for Veritas. They might have been able to follow them with sensors, but unless they could skim, they had no chance of catching them.
“Chart a hyperspace course towards the closest system. We will jump around a bit until we go back to our trans-lane route back to Sol,” Adrian ordered. And less than a minute later, they entered into hyperspace.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Tarabat – Loksi Corporation headquarters
Arisak, Do Sun of the Shara Daim, exited the shuttle. They had returned to Tarabat following the escape of the ship that had taken the Dai Sha. The ship was powerful, and Arisak wanted to know who they were. He charged into the Loksi Corporation headquarters, followed by five Va Sun. They shoved aside the pitiful aliens in their path and moved deeper inside the building, only to be met with a group of aliens in a large receiving area—a handful of Bomtu and Ssarath, and in the middle of their group were four Gatrey, obviously the leaders.
Arisak took a step towards the middle. “Who were they, and where are they taking the Dai Sha?”
“That is no way of asking for help,” the lead Gatrey said.
“Do not play with me, Gatrey! I have no patience for your games. Tell us or we will take the knowledge from your mind!” Arisak sent, enraged.
The Gatrey watched them, and then Arisak dropped to his knees as the Gatrey blanketed the room with their Sha. Piercing pain spread through his mind as the Gatrey broke through his defenses.
“Do not threaten us, Shara Daim. For far too long have we stood by and watched you intimidate and conquer other races with your power. But we are not them; we are not defenseless.” The Gatrey’s voice echoed through his mind. “Your Dai Sha might be powerful enough to fight us off, but you are not.”
Arisak pulled on his energy and stood up, grabbing one of the aliens and lifting him off the floor, only to have another Gatrey step forward and throw Arisak aside into a wall. He held him there for a moment before releasing him.
“You do not demand here, Shara Daim. Your victories over races weaker than you have made you arrogant. You don’t think that there is anyone that can match you. Your Dai Sha believed herself the strongest. She made the mistake of assuming her target was far weaker than her, and she is now paying the price,” the Gatrey said.
Arisak got back up to his feet and saw the rest of his people released. They moved to attack, but Arisak stopped them.
“You will pay for this insult, Gatrey,” Arisak said.
“We are done with standing by as you do what you wish. Find your Dai Sha on your own; you will have no aid from us.”
Arisak snarled at the smaller alien, and then turned and left the building with his people. Once outside, he turned to one of the Va Sun.
“Spread our people, find out who the ones that took the Dai Sha were,” Arisak said.
“But the Gatrey will have surely spread the word that they should not speak with us.”
“Yes, but there are always those that are willing to speak in return for credits, and if that fails, we will dig it out of their minds,” Arisak said.
“As you order, Do Sun.”
Hanaru watched as the Shara Daim left his building.
“Was that wise?” his compatriot Ubvaru asked.
“War between the Shara Daim and the Erasi is inevitable. Projections show us that they will only continue to grow in power until they can no longer be stopped. It was either now or when they were ready. They don’t suffer competition,” Hanaru responded.
“Their Elder council will demand that we find their Dai Sha or they will send their Legions to our doorstep,” Ubvaru sent.
“I’ll admit, that I did not plan for. I wanted to see the Dai Sha’s reaction to the mention of the Human. I did not anticipate her acting the way she did, nor did I think that the Empire’s people would be strong enough to incapacitate and take her. I know that we wouldn’t have been able to, no matter how many people we brought against her. But it has worked in our favor,” Hanaru sent.
He had been trying to learn more about the Shara Daim ever since he’d gotten this post and had been put in charge of the planning for the inevitable war. He couldn’t resist poking at the Dai Sha once he had an opportunity. In hindsight, that wasn’t really smart. He knew stories and had read reports about the Dai Sha. They were the Shara Daim’s strongest and most powerful. She could have crushed him in an instance.
But somehow the Human had managed to subdue her. He had had help, but still. It said a lot about them. The Empire ship had already entered hyperspace. Rumors about their in-system FTL technology proved true. Their ship was powerful, too; it had shrugged off attacks of the Shara Daim warships like they were nothing. He wasn’t sure that the Erasi warships would fare as well.