Ghost star the shadow sp.., p.16
Ghost Star (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 6), page 16
“The lighter defense weapons of this facility operate on similar principles to those of the ansible network: sending pulses of energy through shadow space. But while an ansible projects wide band in all directions, this is a highly focused beam, projected and amplified to a thousand times as powerful.” Marius shrugged, “This is our first official use of the weapon, outside of a few tests. As you can see... it is very effective.”
Colonel Price looked over at Alannis Giovanni. The Lieutenant had as shocked expression as Colonel Price wore. This wasn't just a powerful weapon, it changed the way that war could be fought. No ship would be safe. Entire fleets could be wiped out without risking a single vessel. It was worse than the Illuari Enforcer Station at Kapteyn's Star. That, at least, had some kind of range limitations.
“Now,” Marius Giovanni smiled, “I think that concludes our tour, for the day, Colonel. Captain Leone please have someone show him and his people back to their quarters.”
Colonel Price could only nod in response. This was something that he'd need to factor into his plans. It changed everything. Perhaps, he thought to himself, perhaps I will have no choice but to ally myself with him.
***
“You don't look happy, my daughter,” Marius Giovanni said, looking over at Alannis.
Alannis still stared at the displays. Two more had popped up, both showing news feeds from the two star systems. On the one, a Centauri military officer was trying to give a response, but reporters were shouting questions at him. On the other, people shouted and threw stones at a line of riot police in the streets.
“The Centauri will blame Lucius for this,” Alannis said.
“Of course,” Marius smiled. “They'll need a target and they'll blame the United Colonies... but they were going to go to war with them in any case. Don't worry too much about your brother and his experiment in ruling, I'll take claim for the attack, soon enough.”
Alannis, however, was thinking about the weapon, how it had worked, and what it had done. “The Enforcer Platforms, this is the same kind of weapon, isn't it? Only, it's more powerful...” When Chuni had fired the Enforcer Platform at Kopal Pesh, it had left debris, rubble, and the remains of ships. This weapon had consumed the vessels.
Marius nodded, “Very good. You see now, why my priority wasn't the enforcer platform.”
“What other capabilities does this station have?” Alannis demanded. “I can read you well enough that you aren't telling Colonel Price everything.”
“Is that your intuition or your psychic abilities talking?” Marius asked, his smile going broad. Alannis looked away. She didn't want to think about that... she especially didn't want to think that it was something she shared with him. He's not my father, she told herself. Odds were that he was just another clone.
Either something of her distaste showed on her face or he was reading her thoughts. Marius's face went hard. “I'm not another of those imposters, as I've told you before.” He stalked over to the displays and waved a hand, “Do you think any of them could have accomplished this?!”
His brown eyes had gone dark with anger and as he gestured sharply, some of his brown hair came loose. “I have told you, I am the real deal, I am Marius Octavius Giovanni. I am your father, Alannis, and you are my daughter.”
Alannis didn't look right at him. She didn't want to meet his eyes. She pushed her unease and fear out of her mind and focused on her anger. She’d been kidnapped and threatened. Reese had tried to kidnap her son, on Marius’s orders. The two of them had been behind the deaths of hundreds, probably thousands, of innocent men and women. She wrapped that anger around herself and then she met his eyes. "So, what, then?" Alannis demanded. "You're going to use this doomsday device of yours to blast anyone in your way? You're going to kill people until they surrender to you?"
Marius's intense expression didn't ease, "I'm not doing this for myself, Alannis. I'm doing this for all of humanity. The Balor started this war... this is just a continuation of a fight that has gone on for over a million years. Do you think it is coincidence that they've begun attacking humanity as we started developing colonies and expanding... or as we developed psychic abilities?"
Alannis's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure what you're talking about."
He turned back to the display and brought up imagery of Balor drones. The lean, angular, almost insectile forms disturbed Alannis in a way she couldn't quite explain. They were alien, but they were sinister in appearance, every bit of them jagged and sharp. They looked like living weapons.
"You can sense it... I think the Balor are just a cog in the machine... I think they are weapons, designed and engineered by their creators for this war... and I think their masters, the Miniari, won the war a million years ago against the Illuari," Marius snapped. "They won that war just before the Illuari could achieve victory."
"So they defeated this station," Alannis waved a hand, "what makes you think they can't do it again?" As insane as it seemed, she couldn't really argue with the evidence he'd presented so far, the similarities between artifacts and Balor ships made sense. She didn't have a reason for why the Balor technology hadn't advanced, but that was a job for engineers and scientists. Feliks and Rory would have a field day with these theories, she thought to herself.
"The Miniari won a single battle, they hit the Illuari when they were most vulnerable... but they didn't finish them off... they weren't strong enough to do that." Marius adjusted the display and a moment later, it showed Halcyon Colony's single, rugged continent. "Halcyon's Zar base at Broken Jaw Mountain. It was a Zar Gamma base, one of their kuruk bases. Until recently, my best scientists didn't know why the mid to late war Zar facilities and colonies were all underground or hidden in remote moons or asteroids... the answer is the Illuari's Enforcer Platforms... technology developed from the Star Engine."
"They were hiding..." Alannis's eyes narrowed and despite herself she walked forward to stare at the screen. "You can't destroy what you can't see."
Marius nodded, "Exactly. I think the Illuari's enemies all adopted similar strategies, hiding their facilities, hiding their vessels. They built up their strength in secret and they launched an all-or-nothing attack on the Illuari at the crucial moment."
"And they won," Alannis said, "obviously."
"No," Marius grimaced, "or at least not as much as you would think." He shifted the display again and it showed the Star Engine once more. "You're right, Alannis, I didn't tell Colonel Price everything.... and I don't intend to do so. He's a material man, he believes only in the things he can see and touch."
Marius waved at Reese, and Alannis's ex-husband came forward, his blue eyes alight. "This wasn't a war of conquest or extermination... nor was it over access to the Star Engine... not directly, anyway."
Alannis tried to pull her gaze away from Reese, but she couldn't. His blue eyes were too intense, his expression a mix of rapture and excitement. "The Illuari didn't care about conquest. They realized why the creators of the Star Engine went to so much effort to come to another galaxy." He pointed out nodes within the schematic, "These sections of the station would have enabled the Illuari to ascend to a higher plane of existence, to transform. It would have allowed them to achieve an energy state... and their enemies, in their pettiness, wanted to steal it for themselves."
Alannis tore her gaze away from her ex-husband and looked at Marius, "Wait, what?"
"They'd have god-like abilities," Marius said, "near-immortality, abilities that defy imagination. The Illuari had every system online, prepared for the effort, their entire race assembled in a fleet, ready to be transformed. The process would have required an open tear between real and shadow space, which is where the Illuari assembled." Marius adjusted the display and a tear between real and shadow space appeared over the surface of the Star Engine, icons of ships assembling inside it. "It's a pocket, created within shadow space... all but inaccessible, so that their process would only effect those within."
"And that is when their enemies struck... the cowards," Reese sneered. "The Balor, or their masters the Miniari, hit the Illuari with a massive fleet to distract them, while the Zar launched a raid that ripped the key component from the Star Engine."
"Which trapped the vast majority of the Illuari in their pocket of shadow space," Marius said. "The handful that escaped before the tear closed were hunted to extinction. Some created a temporary refuge in the Ghornath's Sacred Stars, protecting their client species from the wrath of the Miniari and their allies for as long as they could... but they, too, were eventually found and destroyed."
"But the rest of them, all of them," Reese waved a hand through the air, "they're all there, trapped just outside of our reality, their ships, their weapons, and their infinite knowledge!"
"An entire race, a species that dominated our galaxy." He smiled, "Our potential allies."
Alannis looked between the two of them. The enormity of their plan left her feeling overwhelmed. "You want to resurrect a species from a million years ago? How do you know they'll be our allies?"
"We'll have saved them from their prison," Reese blurted, "we're already at war with their enemies, how could they not be our allies?! Think of how much we can learn from them! They could save our entire species... not just from the Balor and Miniari, but from ourselves! They could end our petty wars, bring an end to scarcity and poverty!"
Marius put a hand on Reese's shoulder to calm him, and then looked at Alannis, "We'll be well-positioned. It's not a plan without risks... but in the time of my exile, I scouted far beyond normal space. There are thousands of lifeless worlds where the Balor wiped out the extant species, there are Balor fleets to be found a thousand light years away. This is a war that we cannot win on our own. The relatively small forces that we have encountered so far are merely the garrison for this region. As we fight them, there will come more and more, until their entire might, all of their forces, bear down upon us. We need a powerful ally, one that can match them on their own terms, one that surpassed them. We need the Illuari."
Alannis shook her head, "We don't know what this species is capable of. Multiple races worked together to defeat them--"
"The Miniari and their Balor minions killed off the Zar almost as soon as the Illuari were defeated," Reese snapped, spittle flying from his lips. "Just as they hunted down all their other puppets in the war. They were jealous of the power of the Star Engine and they could not bear to let anyone else have it! This power is only safe in the hands of the Illuari!"
"Reese," Marius interjected.
Reese shook his head, "Sorry, Lord Admiral." He nodded at Alannis, "I get a little passionate about this. It's just the more that I learn, the more that I realize that we need their help."
"I entirely understand, Reese," Marius said gently. "Now, I'll walk Alannis back to her quarters. Why don't you see to the evaluation team at work on the weapons systems?"
"Of course, Lord Admiral," Reese nodded and turned back to the controls. Marius gestured to her, and Alannis followed him out of the control room.
"He's crazy, you know," Alannis said as the doors closed behind them.
"Oh, utterly mad," Marius nodded. "Passionate about a war that was lost a million years ago... mentally obsessed about Illuari technology... and you." He shook his head, "I'd understood that the mental process at the Temple of Light would have side effects, but if I'd realized how focused it would make him, I would probably have insisted it be someone else."
"You can't be serious about going through with this," Alannis demanded.
"It's one of many options," Marius said. "The weapons on this station will only be so effective. As you realized, the main flaw is that we cannot fire on a target that we can't see. The Balor forces are constantly on the move, we'd need scouts positioned who could relay target coordinates through ansible or psychic transmissions.... and even then, we are vulnerable here to a sustained, massive attack. They cannot destroy the Star Engine, not with the firepower of a hundred fleets... but they could knock out our modifications, damage our human components, and kill our fragile human bodies."
"What do you want from me, then?" Alannis demanded. "Why am I here?" She couldn't help a desperate note in her voice. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but the forced inactivity was as wearing on her as captivity.
"I want you to pick a side, my dear," Marius replied. They stepped into an elevator and she couldn't help but shy back from him in the small area. They'd left the guards behind, but she knew from personal experience that Marius would meet any physical attack with his psychic defenses. The last time she'd went against him, he'd held her helpless in the air, like an adult holding a child throwing a tantrum.
"You are loyal to your brother... which is admirable. I respect what Lucius has accomplished. I respect the people he has assembled and the cause to which he fights... but he cannot win this war," Marius said. "I am patient enough to give you time to realize that."
"And if I refuse to see things your way?" Alannis asked.
The elevator door opened and Marius led the way out without responding. He paused outside the door to her quarters, the guards out front watching her, their faces hidden behind their helmets. "I am a patient man, Alannis, and you're family, just as Lucius is family," Marius spoke in a calm voice. "Just as your son and Lucius's daughter are family. More than that, you, like me, are a psychic, with incredible potential. I need those with such abilities more than anyone else. I want you to succeed, to work with me... but my patience is not without limits." Marius's voice went hard. "If you cannot accept my methods, if you --or your brother-- get in the way of my plans, I will do what I have to do."
He gave a slight wave and one of the guards opened the door, while the other three stood ready. Alannis stepped inside her suite, noting where Lizmadie stood, just having come out of the bathroom. Marius's next words chilled her to the bone, "If you force me to, I will use mental conditioning to make you see the truth... and if that doesn't work, I'll have to settle for your son."
He shut the door and left Alannis with that to mull over.
***
"Have you experimented with your abilities at all?" Lizmadie asked, after Alannis had finished relating what she'd seen and heard.
Alannis could only shake her head. Even thinking too much about her abilities gave her a headache. She felt more and more certain that her grandmother had put some kind of mental block on her abilities, probably to protect her. Though why she'd thought it would protect her, Alannis didn't really know. "It hurts, a lot, if I try."
"It could give us an edge," Lizmadie said, obliquely referencing their escape.
"It could backfire," Alannis growled. She didn't know if she'd be able to control her abilities. She might incapacitate herself or injure or kill Lizmadie.
"Well, I made some progress," Lizmadie said as she pointed at the chessboard. She'd arranged the pieces in an odd fashion. Only because she knew what it was supposed to look like did Alannis realize it was a representation of their bathroom... with the area around the toilet missing.
"Ah," Alannis smiled, "our new game. Should be interesting. Do you think we could play tonight?"
Lizmadie shook her head, "I think we'll need to wait longer than that. But we can look at things and see what mechanics we need to develop." They'd spent the past few days discussing a new "game" to play with the chess pieces. She wondered what their security thought of it... if they tried to follow it or if they saw through the escape plan and watched with amusement.
Stop that, Alannis told herself, they're not all knowing or powerful, you can defeat them. She would defeat them.
Alannis reached over to where the king stood and tilted it forward. Her smile grew broader. Even if she couldn't escape, she would do what she could to make her son safe from Marius. She thought about the pistol they had concealed. She didn't know if this Marius was really her father, but whether he was or not, she'd put a bullet in Marius's head before she let him get his hands on her son.
***
Chapter IX
August 29, 2410
Port Klast
Port Klast System
"So that's what I think is going on," Forrest finished explaining his theory about Alannis and Reese's survival and the encounter with Shadow Lord Invictus. Telling the entire story in detail had taken most of three days, off and on due to Captain King having to depart to see to his business here at Port Klast. Whatever that business may be, Forrest thought, it sure does seem to take a lot of his time.
"In my opinion, Invictus did you a favor," Tommy King said after a moment of thought. "No way that you could trust Annabelle Spiridon, not if she's anything like her father, anyway." He stroked the stubble on his chin, "The timing of all this, though. I got to wonder his game..."
Forrest wasn't sure that he followed. "Who, Shadow Lord Invictus?"
"No," Tommy King waved a dismissive hand. "Well, probably him in a way. I'm talking the way that peace summit fell apart, just as you showed up. I got to wonder if they didn't have some kind of tracker or something, see you coming, and decide to torpedo the whole thing. Then they invite you to Delta Pavonis, seize your ship, and say that the United Colonies was behind the whole thing. In fact..."
His comm unit began to buzz and Tommy King frowned. "I need to take this." He pulled out his datapad and it projected a hologram of Prince Alexander of Nova Roma. "Captain King, are you monitoring the news feeds?" Forrest recognized the young prince with shock. What is he doing with a pirate like Tommy King? The last that Forrest had heard, the young Prince led some kind of force in exile, made up of Nova Roman military personnel who didn't accept Lucius Giovanni as their new emperor. Prince Alexander's goals seemed to be to liberate human worlds still held by remnants of the Chxor Empire.
"Uh, no," Tommy King said, "I've been looking into the Widowmaker situation, what did I miss?"
"Someone just hit Volaterra and Lavinium, hard," Prince Alexander said. "The Centauri forces in both systems have been virtually wiped out. I'm prepping my forces to go there now. With how the Centauri are overextended, I think this is our opportunity."
