His people had at the time been a part of a Union of many races. In numbers, they had found strength and security. In time, they had dominated the entire region of space through trade and technology. The Union had been a peaceful community, one with enough power to repel any invader—until the black ships came. They’d moved and systematically wiped all life from the Union worlds, taking their time and settling their own on planets once populated by peaceful beings.
To encounter them meant death. The Union’s ships, weapons, all of their combined technology of tens of thousands of years, was useless against them. It had no effect. They tried to slow them down, to give others time to evacuate and escape, but in the end, nothing mattered. The Union fractured, races that had trusted and lived together turned away from one another. Garash didn’t blame them. He had done the same thing. He’d sent scouts across the galaxy, searching for a new home. A place where they could start again.
And he had found it on the other side of the galaxy. His people encountered the Gatrey and the Sorvani. Garash’s people had then been called the Loraru—the children of the stars—but he gave them a new name, Uvaramo—those who remember. And remember they did. They built a new union, one that remembered the lessons of the past well. Together, they dominated their region of space, expanding, conquering. They used trade to bind races to them, and they manipulated and influenced those who could become threats from the shadows, making sure that there would never again be a threat that could do to them what the invaders had to the Union. And they made sure that when all else failed, they had the military power to match any threat.
The Erasi had survived for a long time, had expanded and prospered by dealing with threats before they became too much to handle. And now they were forced to use their military power to face another threat—the Shara Daim. Once the Erasi had moved into this arm of the galaxy, they had met the Shara Daim, and immediately they’d realized what a threat they were. The usual measures were taken—the Erasi Weavers had tried to manipulate them, to create wars between them and other races, but the Shara Daim had always prevailed, their technology having advanced far too quickly, even for a warlike race. And their people proved almost impossible to turn.
So they’d tried to get at them in other ways. They had traded with them, tried to cripple them economically. And they had succeeded—constant wars with other races coupled with a bad economy weakened the Shara Daim—but still they refused to break. So Garash had no choice; an opponent of their size and strength could not be allowed time to surpass or match the Erasi. He called the other eight O’fa, those who together were the council of the Erasi, and argued for the last measure—a military offensive against the Shara Daim. It was not easy; many O’fa had grown complacent, more reliant on methods that required manipulations and attacks from the shadows. Their fears of weakening the rimward border even a little made them hesitate. But in the end, Garash had convinced them to allow him enough ships to end the Shara Daim threat once and for all.
And the time for the continuation of the offensive against the Shara Daim was near. Two or three more months and the last of the preparations would be finished and his fleets would finally join the forward force and put an end to the Shara Daim. He was only waiting for the last of the levies from the lower Erasi members to arrive. Each of the lower members in this sector had been called upon to ‘donate’ a force to his fleet. For the most part, their ships were far inferior, but a few of the members had tech that was close to that of the Erasi. The levy fleet would serve as a support for the fleet he’d brought from the core, and would be about half of the size of his fleet.
Garash stood and stretched his four arms above his head, shaking off his soreness. His meditation usually lasted for several hours. He then unfurled his mind from the containment that such meditations required and drank in the feel of his surroundings. Immediately, he noticed a mind standing at the entrance of his sanctum, and with a thought, he bade the young Ssarath near. The Ssarath slithered close to Garash, crossed her arms across her chest, and waited.
“What is it?” Garash asked. He knew that no one would there enter his sanctum while he was meditating unless it was important.
“Another devastator has arrived in system several hours ago, Commander,” the Ssarath said. Her people had only small telepathic abilities, but enough to speak with their minds. Garash turned and looked at the Ssarath, recognizing her as one of the bridge crew—Lorsee, her name came to him after a moment.
He could already feel his mood darken. “Which one?” Garash asked with his mind. There wasn’t supposed to be another one here. Garash had been given full control over the offensive, and while he was one of the founders, a council of the three founding races ruled the Erasi. Garash’s status as one of the O’fa—the ancient—gave him a lot of influence, but he was considered equal to the other O’fa; he couldn’t command another devastator.
The Ssarath hesitated just for a moment before speaking. “Sojourn to the Stars,” she sent.
Garash almost snarled at her, but contained himself; he knew that she was not to blame. The Gatrey in command of the Sojourn to the Stars and Garash did not see eye to eye often, and she had been opposed to the offensive against the Shara Daim in favor of more manipulations. But Garash would not allow have his plans to be meddled with, especially not by a mindbender like her.
The Ssarath continued aloud, “The O’fa Valanaru informed us that she wishes to speak with you; she is already on her way.”
“When will she arrive?” Garash asked.
“Ten minutes,” Ssarath said.
Garash narrowed his six eyes in anger. “Escort her here once she arrives,” he said, and turned around to wait as the Ssarath left, working hard to contain his anger. He did not like Valanaru, nor any of the Gatrey, for that matter. They had been useful once, but the older they got and the more powerful they were, the less he liked them. Gatrey had a natural talent with the mind psionics, and Valanaru was as old as Garash, which meant that she was extremely powerful. Certainly a more powerful telepath than him, although he was the more powerful one in the external manifestation psionics.
Garash’s people had abilities across all three categories, but his people had evolved only a very limited number of abilities in each, which was also the reason as to why they were weaker than those races that had more focused psionics. Garash had overcome his people’s weakness by dedicating himself to training his abilities over millennia. From the mind category, Garash only had limited telepathy; he could speak with other telepaths and look through their memories—a skill that had taken him far longer to learn than it would’ve taken a natural telepath—but he could do little else. However, all who studied the other two psionic categories had a distaste for the telepaths, but especially for mindbenders, those who were the most elite and powerful telepaths. Because for all the power of the other psionic disciplines, it only took one slip, one moment in which your defenses were not adequate, and a mindbender could kill you with a thought. Thankfully, breaking through deep enough for that required both power and skill that few telepaths ever really attained, which was why those capable of that were called mindbenders.
Several minutes later, Garash felt a mind move through his ship, far before it ever came close. That was both the testament to Garash’s strength and to Valanaru’s, but it was also a sign that she was coming in peace; it was considered rude to shield one’s presence while in another’s home. The fact that Valanaru hadn’t shielded her mind meant that she was not here to cause trouble, although with the Gatrey you could never really know for sure. Garash turned and watched the entrance to his sanctum before she glided inside, sitting cross-legged on a disk-shaped floating vehicle. The disk carrying her floated towards Garash, guided by a telepathic interface that allowed her control.