“Retsar Isani doesn’t think so. But they will fight nonetheless. They have asked us again to take the refugees, they have a few remaining civilian ships, they plan on loading them with as many people as they can.” Tomas said.
“A few merchant ships… If what Traveler sent us is correct, they can’t have more than ten of those. They could barely fit a few thousand people on them. What about the rest?” Elias asked.
“They will stay and fight. Sowir will destroy the ships in orbit and then land troops. They will take over the planet.” Tomas said.
“We can’t refuse.” Nadia stated. No one contradicted her.
“We will of course help them. But the real question is, whether or not we involve ourselves in this war.” Tomas said.
“We already are involved.” Seo-yun said. “We were the moment Sowir destroyed Voyager.”
“We could still try and find a peaceful solution. Perhaps we can come to an agreement with them.” Nadia said slowly.
Laura shook her head. “I don’t think we can. We have no cause to doubt records that Nel provided. Sowir are not trustworthy, they will eventually turn on us.”
“They will only grow more powerful with time.” Elias warned.
“So what do we do then? We don’t have the numbers for an all-out war, nor the resources to build massive fleets quickly, in a couple of decades perhaps. But not now.” Nadia said.
“Sanctuary is very well hidden, it’s unlikely that Sowir will find us any time soon. If we don’t give them cause to look for us.” Laura said.
“What do you mean?” Seo-yun asked.
“The Sowir ships have already detected the Traveler, and no doubt they will realize that it is of the same make as the Voyager. If we take the refugees they will wonder where they are going, and they will try to find us.” Laura said.
“So what, you want us to let them die?” Seo-yun asked disbelievingly.
“No. I just want you to realize that if we help them, we will be exposed.” Laura said.
“Alright then we take their people and bring them here.” Nadia said.
“And what about those left on the planet?” Elias asked.
“We can send ships to protect them. All the test on the translanes have been successful, but they will need to come back using hyperspace. There is no time to install trans field generators on the ships, we will need to use the one on Insight to send them. And we don’t have the translanes mapped out. We will need to do that soon.” Seo-yun said.
“If we fight off Sowir, it will get Nuva a few months at the most. And next time they will send more ships. We can’t keep defending them.” Laura said.
“There are 10 million people on Nuva. We could bring them here.” Nadia said.
Tomas put his elbows on the table and then leaned his head on his fists, looking around the table, “We will send the First Fleet. And worry about transferring people of Nuva after we are sure that they are safe.”
Nuva
Lanai Sumia and Retsar Isani stood up as the human Ship Master entered Sumia’s office. The humans didn’t seem to care whether they talked standing or sitting, so they followed the Nel customs. As the human female entered Sumia bowed her head shallowly. “Ship Master Kisaragi.” Sumia said slowly in human tongue. She tried to at least learn some of the humans titles. “I hope that you have a response for us.” It all seemed very strange to Sumia, being able to talk to someone light years away in a blink of an eye. Humans haven’t revealed where exactly their worlds are, but from a few comments their diplomats made Oferani Esama discerned that the closest one was at least ten light years away, six months at Nel ships fastest hyperspace speed. There would be no help from them, thought Sumia never really believed that they could help them, it was a fools hope.
“Yes, Lanai.” Human female said. “Our leadership has decided to give your people Sanctuary on our world.”
Sumia let out a breath and showed relief on her face. At the moment she didn’t really care that she showed emotion in front of a stranger, the only thing that mattered was that at least some of her people will survive. She looked at the human Ship Master with gratitude in her eyes, “Thank you. How soon can you leave? There are still weeks before Sowir arrive, but there is no need to stay and wait for them to get closer.”
The human didn’t respond immediately, which immediately put Sumia on guard. “You want something in return.” Sumia stated, slowly steeling herself. Immediately after she said her words, the human brought her hands up, and started shaking her head. Sumia knew enough to know what those gestures meant.
“No, no.” Kisaragi said, and then after a beat continued. “But there is something else.” She took a deep breath and then looked at Isani. “Our analysis concluded that, assuming your ships technological level is on par with the Sowir, there is very little chance for you to survive this attack.” Sumia knew that they gave the humans information on Sowir ships. Isani nodded his head gravely in a human gesture. “Yes, most of our ships are of older make.” He said.
“We thought so as well. Our leadership has decided to help you, they will send one fleet to Nuva to help you.” Kisaragi said.
Both Isani and Sumia looked at the human. They were shocked, but a moment later Isani managed to regain his composure enough to speak. “We appreciate your willingness to help. But there is no way for us to hold out for more than five months it would most likely take your ships to get here. By then, the Sowir would have most likely killed everyone on the planet.”
Kisaragi nodded. “You are right, it would take our ships around nine months to arrive using hyperspace.” She said.
“We will be long dead by then.” Sumia said dispirited. For a moment there she felt as if there was a chance for them.
“We are aware of that. That is why our ships won’t be coming through hyperspace.” Human said.
Isani looked at her strangely. “What do you mean?”
“Our ships can reach Nuva in nineteen days.” Kisaragi said.
“What?” Sumia said. “So they are already here.”
“No. I don’t know the details. But I know that there are no human ships other than the Traveler in this system. And our leadership instructed me to tell you that they can arrive in nineteen days.” Kisaragi said.
“How?” Isani asked.
“I don’t know, and I wasn’t told anything other than it is something new they discovered. They can make the trip from our world to this system in two days, and it will then take sixteen days to reach Nuva.” Kisaragi said.
“Amazing.” Sumia said. Isani remained silent, Sumia could see that he wasn’t really believing.
“Why would you do this? It is one thing to help our people survive, and quite another to involve yourselves in a war that isn’t yours. You had no contact with the Sowir, the only thing you know is what we told you.” Isani said.
Kisaragi looked from him to Lanai, and then back. “The truth is, that we did have an encounter with the Sowir. Around the same time the Traveler entered your system.” Kisaragi said. Isani and Sumia looked at each other and then back at the human. Under their gazes she finally started talking again. “One of our explorer ships, Voyager, the same class as the Traveler, was exploring a system some ten light years from here. Voyager entered the system and found it empty. Then proceeded to the planet to take scans. Then the Voyager was attacked by three unidentified ships. After the initial attack the Voyager tried to contact the ships while it was running away, but they refused to acknowledge the communications. The three ships ultimately destroyed our ship. Later, when we made contact with you we realized that the ships that attacked us were Sowir.” She said glumly. “So you see, we do realize the threat of the Sowir Dominion. We know that what you said is true because we already met them.”