However, Adrian was unique even in the Empire; he lived for the challenge of pushing his limits and overcoming them, having strength for its own sake. Others lived for the pursuit of knowledge and bettering of those around them, to protect, to broaden the knowledge of the Empire. Similar, but not the same.
The Shara Daim had similar values to the Empire. They too pushed themselves, but they did it to be the strongest. If what he had guessed from Anessa’s words was the truth, all Shara Daim were warriors. But their drive wasn’t to improve themselves, but to stand above all others and further the goals of the Shara Daim. Both of their philosophies had the same end goal—supremacy—but one set out to do that while pushing all those around them down, while the other hoped to pull them up with them.
But the core of the Shara Daim doctrine lay in the fact that they believed, with no uncertainty, that they were superior to all others. There was reason for that belief; they had never lost a war, never felt outmatched. It bred arrogance, and it was that belief that Adrian needed to shatter if he had any hope of changing them.
But what had shaken him was just how easy it was to forget that Anessa was his enemy. How easily he had relaxed in her presence and how easily he had trusted her. They had fought and trained like friends, like more than friends. Both had given their trust to the other so easily. To fight an opponent so openly with no guard was to know them as intimately as you know yourself. And he had never before allowed himself such a level of trust; he had never fought as he had now with Anessa. The two of them had been open books to one another. Every movement of her body, every attack or defense, told Adrian more about her. Every decision and deceit taught him about her character, what she was willing to do and what she wasn’t. And he knew that she had learned as much about him as he had about her.
“You knew, didn’t you?” Adrian asked on his internal line to his personal AI. “That’s why you didn’t like me spending so much time with her.”
“I suspected,” Iris said. “I knew that no matter how you feel, you would go through with your plans. And I did not want to see you get hurt, not again.”
Adrian knew that Iris was referring to Bethany, and how he she had died because of his mistake, because of his orders. And how he would’ve done the same thing again even if he had known beforehand that she would die.
“This is not like Beth,” Adrian said.
“No. But I can see, Adrian, how much it pains you to be alone. There is no one in the Empire who could be your partner, an equal. They do not understand what drives you,” Iris said solemnly. “And she is your equal. She is one person that might understand you and know you for who you truly are. Both of you are the best of your people, and she is your enemy.”
Adrian kept silent; he knew that Iris was right. And he had no answer.
Chapter Six
One month later — May; Year 55 of the Empire—Empire’s attack fleet
Johanna Stern sat and watched as a lone ship closed the distance and joined her fleet. The holo identified it as the Sentinel ship Jewel, commanded by Sentinel Aileen. As the ship reached its spot in the large joint fleet, a small shuttle exited it and flew towards Johanna’s flagship, the command ship Argo.
“Two more weeks, and we will reach the first Ra’a’zani world,” Adrian commented from her side where he was standing. While Johanna would be in charge of the actions against the Ra’a’zani, she had invited Adrian to be on her flagship during the initial assault on the first Ra’a’zani world before he took his ship and his prisoner to Tarabat. She thought that he would have wanted to stay on his ship and watch with his prisoner, but for some reason he had eagerly accepted her offer.
“And we finally make them pay for what they had done to Earth,” Johanna said.
“Emperor’s orders were clear,” Adrian added.
“I know, but a part of me wants to do the same thing to them that they did to us,” Johanna said.
“In a way, what Tomas has planned is a far worse fate,” Adrian said.
“Yes, in a way,” Johanna agreed.
One of Johanna’s subordinates interrupted them, saying, “Sentinel Aileen is onboard.”
“Good, order the fleets forward to the next trans-station,” Johanna said. Two more weeks, she thought to herself as the massive joint fleet moved as one.
Adrian sat at the table in the small meeting room on board the Argo. Across from him sat Aileen, preparing to give her report on what she had learned on Tarabat.
“So, how right was I?” Adrian asked.
“Completely,” Aileen responded. “The Erasi have stealth ships in our systems, under the command of their Weavers. The intel I recovered indicates that there are five such ships. We don’t know where they are, but I have info on how we can detect them.”
Adrian nodded. “I received a message from Gotu: the Erasi ambassador has offered us help against the Shara Daim—for free, of course—in the form of blueprints for defense nets and platforms. The weakest of their designs, but still military-grade. And he dropped a few hints about other technologies they can offer in the future.”
Aileen frowned. “I’ve seen the data on their defense platforms; those are the same as the ones in Tarabat. They are inferior to ours.”
“Yes,” Adrian said, “which tells me that their stealth ships hadn’t reached our core systems. Sol is at the edge of the Empire; our most populated and defended systems are in former Consortium territory and around Sanctuary. We still don’t have full defensive nets in systems around Sol.”
“Wait, if they are in Sol, they must’ve seen the defenses there,” Aileen said.
Adrian smiled. “I think that Erasi were aware of our expansion, but don’t really know anything about us. Why would they? Their territory and resources are vast; we were probably low on their threat list. I think that our actions in Tarabat changed that. They must have sent ships to spy after we returned to Sol.”
Aileen nodded in understanding. Adrian had already started preparations for the Shara Daim attack, and the stealth ship must’ve used hyperspace in order to stay hidden, meaning that it had taken them a while to reach Empire’s territory, and by then Adrian had hidden most of Sol’s defenses. “So they don’t know as much as they think they do…”
“We still can’t rule out that they are faking. They might well know everything about us, but I think that that possibility is low,” Adrian said.
“Either way, you were right; they are trying to manipulate both the Shara Daim and us into a prolonged war,” Aileen said.
“They want us to keep the Shara Daim occupied. I doubt that they are thinking that we can weaken the Shara Daim enough for them to move in, but then again, we know nothing about the Erasi military strength aside from rumors. For all we know, they could roll over the Shara Daim at full strength,” Adrian said.
Aileen scratched her head as she thought about it. “None of the races that trade under the Erasi know anything, only that the Erasi have vast fleets. They are technologically inferior to the Erasi, so there is a limit to how much they can find out. Even the lowest members of the Erasi were reluctant to share anything. But I did manage to learn about the last time that they called one of the ships-of-the-line from their core,” she said, and put her hand in the inside pocket of her overcoat. She produced a small box and opened it to reveal several small data-chips. She placed one on the table and a hologram appeared above its surface.