There were a few contenders, races, civilizations, empires, large enough to be able to provide them with enough materials. The problem was that none of them would deal with the Shara Daim in good faith. The Erasi had probably already made sure that they wouldn’t trade, and she had no forces available to force their hand.
Which left only one choice—the Empire. She knew that they wanted peace. She could probably get a trade deal with them. But her people couldn’t change overnight; she needed to force them to change. And that meant them interacting with others. But more than a simple trading agreement, she needed help. She was trained as a Dai Sha; she knew that Erasi had more forces, that they already had a foothold in Shara Daim territory that would be hard to take back. The Legions might be able to stop them eventually, but many Shara Daim would die in the meantime, and they might never regain the territory they had lost.
Again, the only ones who might even entertain the possibility of helping them were the Empire. Moreover, she knew that the Empire would want a lot more for help than they would want for simple trade. And that was without the problem she would have with her own people resisting any kind of an alliance. She would need to convince the Empire and her own people to agree. And she knew of only one way that her people would accept help, which was if they witnessed strength.
Anessa smiled in a predatory way as an idea started to form in her mind. It seemed fitting. Adrian had manipulated her once before. Now she would do the same to him, and take care of two problems at the same time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Three months later — March; Year 57 of the Empire — Sol
Adrian entered the command hub of Olympus Mons, summoned by Gotu.
“It should arrive any moment now, Lord Sentinel,” Gotu told him as he approached.
Adrian nodded, and waited. They were expecting a courier ship from the Shara Daim to come out of trans-space. Their stealth ship in the Shara Daim staging system had seen it leave, and their assets on the other side of the trans-lane had seen it enter on its way to Sol.
Adrian was intrigued. He didn’t know what the reason for it coming here was, but it must have been something interesting. Since the battle, a lot of things had changed. The Erasi had launched a surprise attack on the Shara Daim, and the forces once bound for the Empire had now reversed course and headed back, presumably towards the areas attacked by the Erasi. The Empire had stealth ships in border systems of both the Erasi and the Shara Daim; it allowed them to observe the activities in those systems. But they didn’t really have a source of information from the Shara Daim; they couldn’t listen in on their secure communications, and they had no assets that could give them information. With the Erasi, it was another thing entirely. Their system was much more open, and they had assets that could obtain information for them.
Which was why the arrival of the courier ship was such an interesting development. The courier ships were used to send messages between different societies. And the arrival of the courier meant that the Shara Daim wish to open a dialogue, or at least speak with the Empire. Adrian didn’t know if Anessa had managed to change the minds of her Elders, but the fact that they were now ready to speak meant that something had changed.
“Here they are,” Adrian said as the ship entered the system and was met by the large defense station. They made no threatening moves, and immediately answered the defense station’s challenge, telling them that they were on a mission to deliver a message from their leadership. The station allowed them through, and they started on their way towards Mars.
An hour later, Adrian, Gotu, and a squad of adepts and Sowir moved to the hangar as the ship asked for permission to land on the planet. They waited for the white cylinder-shaped ship to land, and then met with the people who exited it. It was three Shara Daim, all wearing their Shur At that looked like a loose bundle of something that was a cross between a robe and tunic on top and a loose pair of pants at the bottom. Two were men and one a woman. They, unlike Anessa, had hair on their heads; all of them had it cut short to the head. The men had white hair, and the woman black that almost melded with her skin tone.
The man in the lead stepped up to Adrian’s group, with the two behind him following a few steps away.
“Greetings,” the Shara Daim said, his tone sounding somehow unsure to Adrian’s ears. He of course understood Shara Daim language, as he had learned it from Anessa. But even if he didn’t, his implant now had a device based on the Erasi translators, like every other implant in the Empire. The Sowir, on the other hand, had a device much more similar to the Erasi version on the top of their heads closest to their brains.
After a short pause, the man continued speaking. “I am Va Dan Reisi, envoy of Kar Daim. I’m here to deliver a message for the leadership of your Empire. I was instructed to speak with someone bearing the title Lord Sentinel,” Va Dan Reisi said slowly.
“I am Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas,” Adrian said, then turned sideways and gestured. “Let us move to someplace more comfortable before you deliver your message.”
The Shara Daim followed, their movements unsure, edgy. They seemed like they were battling what they really wanted to do, which Adrian assumed was to fight him and his people. He led them through Olympus Mons towards one of the larger meeting rooms close to the command hub. Once inside, Adrian guided them to sit at the round table, with the three of them sitting on the one side and Adrian and Gotu sitting on the other, with one Sowir, Song of Silence, standing behind them, a precaution on Adrian’s part. The Shara Daim could for sure feel that the Sowir had Sha, they might not know what they could do but Adrian hoped that they would think twice before they did anything hostile. The Sowir were much better telepaths than the Shara Daim or anyone else the Empire had encountered with the ability. The rest of his people remained outside of the room.
“So what is the message from your leaders?” he asked.
“Our Kar Daim wishes for peaceful talks to be established between the Shara Daim and the Empire,” Va Dan Reisi said in a rehearsed way, with no actual emotion behind the words.
Adrian allowed himself a little internal cheer. Something must’ve changed. Anessa and her people might’ve changed the Elders’ minds. He was aware that it could be a trap, but everything he knew about the Shara Daim told him it wasn’t. Then he remembered something that the envoy had said.
“You said that you are the envoy of Kar Daim? I am unfamiliar with that title; is it another name for your Elders?”
All three Shara Daim suddenly looked unsure, and if his study of Shara Daim expression from Anessa was solid, just a bit afraid.
“No. Kar Daim is an old title for the leader of Shara Daim,” Va Dan Reisi said.
Adrian frowned. An old title for the leader of Shara Daim, he thought to himself. “Do we have any data on that title?” Adrian asked Iris internally.
“There is nothing on the data we received from the Erasi. And we don’t really have anything directly from the Shara Daim,” Iris responded.
“Are the Elders not the leaders of the Shara Daim?” Adrian asked. There was a chance that he had missed something. They only had data from the Erasi and what he had gotten Anessa to tell him, but she had been a prisoner; there was a possibility that she hadn’t told the entire truth.
All three Shara Daim now looked very uncomfortable, but Va Dan Reisi answered, “The Elders no longer rule the Shara Daim.”
Adrian’s eyebrow quirked in a gesture completely lost on the Shara Daim. He knew that if Anessa and her people dug deeper, they would uncover the truth, perhaps enough to change the minds of their Elders. But he hadn’t anticipated that they would overthrow them completely, and not in such a short period of time.