The Dark Between The Stars

NINETY-FIVE
ADAR ZAN’NH

His maniple of warliners was en route to the Plumas system, ready for an exhilarating test engagement with the Confederation Defense Forces. He had new information about the Shana Rei to share, as well as a surprise or two. He liked it when he could surprise General Nalani Keah.

Zan’nh considered Keah a tactical genius. Fortunately, she intended to remain in the background for the Plumas maneuvers, merely observing how her Grid Admirals handled a realistic combat scenario. Adar Zan’nh would do the same, allowing the maniple commander Qul Uldo’nh and his seven septars to demonstrate their prowess in the space engagement near the ice moon.

A clash with the CDF, however, would be quite different from a battle against the Shana Rei. On Ildira, Anton Colicos and the rememberer kith had been discovering information about previous battles with the creatures of darkness, stories of Tal Bria’nh’s engagements and his plans for unusual weapons that might have some effect on the Shana Rei. But they remained to be tested.

The grand procession flew through space, forty-nine warliners closing in on the Roamer water-pumping station, precisely on schedule. The Solar Navy crews were drilled, the ships in perfect shape.

As the maniple approached the system, however, three fast CDF Remoras soared toward them. The lead warliners in the formation immediately went on alert. “Human ships approaching rapidly, Adar,” Qul Uldo’nh reported.

Zan’nh was immediately wary. “Shift warliners to defensive formation. Are their weapons active?” He suspected this was some surprise from General Keah.

“They are coming too fast for us to tell, Adar. The pilots are sending an urgent signal.”

One of the techs in the command nucleus activated the comm screen so they could hear what the Remoras were broadcasting. “General Keah has declared an emergency. Our ships are under attack.”

The Adar frowned. Maybe General Keah wanted his ships to race directly into a trap—so she could laugh, having tricked him again. “Let me speak to those pilots.”

Even though the Remoras decelerated at maximum thrust, they overshot the oncoming maniple of Ildiran warliners. It took them several minutes to wheel about and streak back toward the Solar Navy ships.

Zan’nh crossed his arms over his uniformed chest. “Is this part of our exercise? If General Keah is attempting to trick—”

“Good Lord, no, Adar!” squawked the Remora pilot. Zan’nh was familiar enough with human expressions to see the genuine alarm on her face. “One of those black nebulas appeared in the system, like the one at Dhula. There’s a swarm of black robot ships and three gigantic vessels of unknown origin. It isn’t a joke, sir! This is not a war-game exercise.”

Zan’nh knew Keah would not undertake such an elaborate ruse. Black robots and a shadow cloud. A smile crept to his lips. He had not expected an immediate opportunity to use the new prototypes the engineer kith had built from the old designs. “Engaging a real enemy will be a far superior experience to any war games. Full acceleration!”

The CDF Remoras led them into the Plumas system, and Zan’nh saw that indeed this was no trick.

Mammoth hexagonal cylinders had emerged from a cavernous black cloud, and he knew they were Shana Rei battleships. The smaller, frenetic attacking vessels were of Klikiss robot design, but far more numerous than the few they had pursued at Dhula. The robot ships harried the CDF Juggernauts and Mantas.

Zan’nh opened a direct channel to the Kutuzov. “General Keah, the Ildiran Solar Navy is at your service.”

On screen, Keah appeared flustered; her bridge deck seemed canted at an odd angle. “It’s about damned time, Z! We could sure use the cavalry.”

The Adar nodded to Qul Uldo’nh, who transmitted to his seven septars, who then transmitted to their subcommanders. “Attack formation, full speed ahead. Weapons active, traditional artillery as well as modified test lasers.”

The CDF battleships were in disarray, struggling to maintain course and keep up the attack. The firefight was a confusing staccato of jazer beams, relativistic projectiles, and artillery blasts.

Ignoring the main battle, the mammoth hexagonal cylinders glided toward the frozen planetoid. Plumas must have been the original target of the shadow creatures, and the encounter with the human battle group was merely accidental.

Seeing the Solar Navy arrive, a group of robot ships streaked in among the warliners, letting loose with their weapons. The Ildirans scrambled to raise their shields, then struck back with a barrage of high-energy blasters. Against the robots, Zan’nh would use traditional weapons.

As the black hex ships cruised past like blunt spears thrusting into an unprotected body, the warliner systems began to crackle, disrupted by the aftereffects of the Shana Rei, creatures of chaos.

On the main screen, Keah yelled, but a crackle of static distorted her voice. “They’re heading toward the Plumas station, Z. I’ve ordered the Roamers to evacuate, but our ships aren’t exactly a safe haven either.”

“We will try to intercept the Shana Rei,” Zan’nh said.

The screen shifted, and Keah’s signal changed as the commline was commandeered, replaced by an image out of a nightmare—one of the beetlelike Klikiss robots. It had a flat geometric head and a cluster of crimson optical sensors. Zan’nh had seen too many of the black robots during the Elemental War.

The simulated voice was rough and grating. “Humans and Ildirans, this transmission is to inform you of your fate. The Klikiss robots and the Shana Rei are now allies. Together, we will eradicate all intelligent life, down to the last human, the last Ildiran, the last city, the last ship.”

On the same channel, General Keah made a sarcastic comment. “Well at least you’re ambitious.”

“We are invincible.” The robot’s signal was sharp and clear, as if their vessels could bypass the entropy disruption.

Zan’nh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You expect us to surrender?”

The robot swiveled its geometric head. The optical sensors blazed like red coals. “We expect you to perish. Everything else is out of your control.” The signal blanked out.

“Sounds like we’ve got our work cut out for us, Z,” General Keah said as her Juggernaut altered course. The other CDF ships, many of them already damaged, limped toward Plumas in pursuit of the huge hexagonal cylinders.

Zan’nh transmitted to his maniple, “Warliners, fill all energy-weapon chambers and prepare laser missiles for a maximum-intensity discharge. Target those Shana Rei ships.”

Lasers had not been used for weaponry in a very long time, having been superseded by far more efficient modes of destruction, but the historical records suggested the Shana Rei might be vulnerable to the intense coherent light. He did know that laser cutters had sliced through the ebony shell that covered the dead Kolpraxa.

As the warliners cruised in, their control systems began to flicker and fail, but not before they targeted one of the huge black hexagons. A blinding fusillade of high-intensity laser missiles struck the obsidian armor. Though Zan’nh’s eyes were dazzled, he could see part of the ebony hull turn into black smoke under the barrage of light, roiling up and into space.

The Solar Navy soldiers cheered. Zan’nh felt giddy with relief. General Keah sent over a signal, “What the hell was that, Z? What have you been hiding on us?”

“Lasers, General. Concentrated light.”

“Good to see that it had some effect,” Keah said. “I want some, but I think we’re going to need bigger ones.”

The Shana Rei battleship rotated the damaged section out of view and continued toward Plumas, undeterred.

As their guidance systems and sensors failed in the backwash of entropy, the Ildiran battleships drifted out of their coordinated flight patterns. Two warliners careened close to each other, tangling their solar-sail wings.

Although the maniple was blinded by malfunctions, the robot vessels flew in and attacked. The flagship’s systems were failing. Qul Uldo’nh reported, “Five warliners down, Adar!” Meanwhile, the robot ships destroyed two more CDF Mantas.

Roiling, unmade matter spewed from the deep scar in the hex ship’s hull and wrapped like a shroud around one of the warliners. The shadow englobed it in impenetrable black and cut it off from the universe. All signals from the warliner abruptly ceased, and Zan’nh could no longer feel the crewmembers in the thism. The silhouetted ship winked out of existence.

On Plumas, clan Tamblyn was evacuating their water mines, as Keah had ordered. Fifteen bloated water tankers lumbered up out of the gravity well, flanked by dozens of smaller ships that raced away from the facilities.

The Ildiran flagship’s laser missiles needed another hour to recharge to full power, and many of the warliner batteries were already depleted. Zan’nh watched yet another of his ships explode into debris that rained down on the ice moon below.

The flagship’s weapons systems went dead.

Zan’nh didn’t know how he could protect the evacuating Tamblyn ships. He doubted they would be safer out in space than under the ice sheet of Plumas. In fact, he feared the Solar Navy and the CDF might be lucky to escape at all.