The shuttle landed, and they stood and walked to the ramp that was already lowering, Anessa taking the lead. The hangar was almost empty; there was no activity anywhere around them. In front of her shuttle stood twelve people in battle armor with their weapons held in their hands and pointed at the floor. A few of them were Nel and others Human, at least based on their shape. On both sides of them stood another twelve aliens that she had never seen, standing taller, with three limbs on their upper body and three strange ‘leg-like’ limbs on which they stood. Anessa’s eyes widened when she felt their minds and realized that they had the Sha.
In front of the soldiers stood three figures. One was a Nel dressed in a normal Empire skin-suit with an over-garment that had a symbol on it; she recognized him both from her captivity and the communication with Adrian from her ship. She had heard him called Gotu; whether that was a title or a name, she didn’t know, but she was sure that he served as something similar to her Do Sun.
The other person wore a set of armor that the Dai Sha had only seen once before, on the day that she had tried to capture Adrian. She couldn’t see the face, but she could tell that it was a female. Whether it was the same one that she fought on that day, she didn’t know, but she stood a step behind on Adrian’s right. Adrian wore the same armor as the person behind him, only his wasn’t deployed.
“Anessa, I’m glad that you accepted my offer,” Adrian said once she was close enough, his eyes somehow soft at seeing her. “And I see you brought a friend.” He quirked his eyebrow in a way she had seen him do a thousand times, but now for some reason it made her smile slightly.
“Yes, this is Dai Sha Garaam of the Fourteenth Legion,” Anessa introduced her friend, and watched Adrian for a reaction.
Adrian bowed his head slightly. “I am Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas of the Empire.”
He didn’t seem at all concerned that Anessa had brought Garaam with her, even though he must have realized how potentially dangerous the two of them were. Together and fighting without restraint, they could do a lot of damage. But Adrian simply gestured for the two of them to follow him. The rest of his people took positions behind them and they walked through the base in silence.
They walked through a part of the base that she wasn’t familiar with, and after a while finally reached their destination. The soldiers, aliens, Gotu, and the female in the armor took positions around the door while Adrian led Anessa and Garaam inside.
Anessa was surprised to see that he had led them into what could only be living quarters. He gestured at the seating furniture in the middle of the room and took a seat across from the two of them. He didn’t speak, he only studied her, casting a glance or two in Garaam’s direction from time to time.
“Why are we here, Adrian?” Anessa asked finally.
Again, Adrian’s eyebrow rose. “I am here because this is my home. I hope that you know why you are here, or do you wander into other people’s systems attacking them at random?”
Garaam frowned, and Anessa sighed. “Don’t play your games now, Adrian, I am not in the mood. We have just lost a lot of our people and are now sitting across from the one responsible.”
Adrian’s expression cleared and settled into his expressionless mask. “Yes, you have lost a lot of people. But I warned you, Anessa, I begged you to go to your Elders and find a way for there to be peace between us. We have never done anything to your people, and yet you decided that we are weak and that you somehow have a right to what is ours. You and your Elders are the only ones that are responsible for the deaths of your people.”
Garaam started to move. Anessa felt her reach for the Sha and quickly put her own hand on hers to stop her. “Don’t,” Anessa sent, and for a moment she thought that Garaam wasn’t going to listen to her, but she pulled back.
“What do you want, Adrian? I told you once that Shara Daim are loyal to our Elders; we won’t change our minds just because you say so, or because we lost people,” Anessa said.
“You told me also that the Empire is weak. Do you think that that is still true?” He asked.
Anessa wanted to say yes, but she knew that she would be lying. “No,” she said. It didn’t mean that she no longer believed in everything she had been taught, though; it only meant that she acknowledged him as a worthy opponent, nothing more.
Adrian nodded and reached with his hand into his over-garment. Anessa felt Garaam stiffen when he pulled his hand back and showed them a spherical object.
“Do you know what this is?” Adrian asked.
Anessa looked at the unimpressive globe; it was silver in color with no markings whatsoever. “No, should I?” Anessa asked.
“Of course you should, this is what you came for. The reason why your Elders sent you against my people,” he said nonchalantly.
Anessa’s eyes widened as he levitated the sphere above his palm. A telepathic pulse came from the sphere, and Anessa knew that he was telling the truth. The Elders had told her that the beacon was unmistakable, and it was.
“This is the device your Elders want. Do you know what it is?” he asked Garaam.
“It is the device left by our ancestors, holding all of their knowledge,” Garaam said, sliding closer to the edge and leaning forward.
“It does contain all of their knowledge, yes. But it also contains the consciousness of Axull Darr, or rather a copy of his consciousness,” Adrian said.
Garaam frowned. “Axull Darr?”
Adrian looked at her strangely. “Axull Darr, one of the People, the one who created our three races,” he explained, and then turned to look back at Anessa with a question in his eyes.
Anessa grimaced. She knew about Axull Darr because she had pressured the Elders into telling her, but everyone else still believed that Shara Daim were direct descendants of the People.
“We are descendants of the People, we weren’t created,” Garaam said with a hint of anger, turning to look at Anessa, but the look on her face must’ve told her the truth. “Anessa?”
“The Elders kept some things from the rest of us. We are not direct descendants of a colony left behind. We were created by Axull Darr from his own DNA, infused into a lifeform on our homeworld.”
Garaam looked shocked, but before she had a chance to say anything, Adrian interrupted.
“I brought you here so that you may learn the truth right from its source.” He placed the sphere on the table. “Axull Darr,” he called, and lines started appearing in the sphere. Anessa felt a telepathic vibration in the Sha, and then moment later, a being was floating above them. It looked vaguely like a Nel, or a Human, or a Shara Daim, but it was different.
“I am Axull Darr,” the hologram spoke.
Adrian stood and moved towards the doors. “You will not have this device. Try to fight your way out and both you and your people in my system will die,” he said, allowing a bit of his certainty to leak through his mind. “Talk with him, ask about anything that you want to know. I will wait outside.”
As soon as Adrian left, Garaam stood and grabbed the sphere; Axull Darr didn’t react.
“So they lied about more things than we thought,” Garaam said under her breath.
Anessa frowned at her. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Garaam turned to look at her, an embarrassed look on her face. She remained silent for a moment, enough to look at the sphere in her hand and then back at Anessa. “There are things that you don’t know. There are some of us who have been having… let’s say suspicions about the Elders.”
“Suspicions,” Anessa said, shocked.
“We should speak of it later, away from enemies.” Garaam turned to look at Axull Darr but kept speaking to Anessa. “Are we sure that this isn’t some kind of a trick?”