6200 - Book 1 - Beginnings - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 -

The first of the Malkenet Nebula races I studied was the Celoan an all male race of humanoids that have a genetic structure similar to that of the Progenitors.

Some time during their fight with the Gnosis several Progenitors ships and colonies were captured by the Black Council and experimented upon out of this experiment came two races; the Celoan and the Oracles.

The Celoan are the male counterparts to the female Oracles and can only mate with Oracles. I should expand on this observation, the Celoan may mate with other humanoid races but the genetic keys that would create a Celoan offspring are only created when they mate with an Oracle, otherwise the child has the same characteristics as the mother.

The main purpose of the Celoans creation by the Black Council appears to be that of assassins and infiltrators and they have been genetically modified to be able to dislocate every joint in their bodies and are quite adept at hiding in extremely small spaces.

At the time of this writing the Celoan serve as consorts and protectors of the Council of Oracles that run the Malkenet Nebula Government and Theology.

Dr. Stanislaw Medloe - Professor of Galactic & Xeno-History Cambridge College

In His Book - A History of the Milky Way Galaxy and its Inhabitants - Vol. XIX 5928

UNSF - Manhattan Sector - Brooklyn System - Brooklyn IV/Neo-Brooklyn

Neo-Brooklyn’s Alpha Ring

February 4th, 1 2E - 12:00 CST

It had taken over two months for the repairs on the Forlorn Hope to be completed and every member of the crew was ready to get off the planet and be somewhere, anywhere else.

The six of them had just left a small bar on Neo-Brooklyn’s Alpha Ring after being informed that the final supplies had been loaded onto the ship. They were heading down the concourse when a small girl burst from the crowd.

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” a little girl with blonde pig tails that couldn’t have been older than seven or eight years old yelled leaping towards Barr.

To everyone’s surprise instead of opening his arms wide to catch the girl Barr punched her in the face, or rather the forehead hitting her hard enough to knock her to the ground unconscious.

“What the hell man, you just punched your own daughter,” Jason shouted a look of anger and confusion on his face.

“Man even I think that’s cold,” Joe said.

“She doesn’t really look that much like him,” Aehgr said poking the girl with tip of his shoe. “Oh darn now I’ll have to clean those,” he whined.

“Yeah I punched my own daughter,” Barr said bending down and frisking the small form. During his search he tossed half a dozen knives and a small pistol in the trash can a little way down the concourse.

“Let’s go, we’re getting weird looks,” Barr said pushing the rest of the crew in the direction of the ship.

Back aboard the ship Barr sat down at the table in mess hall.

“So what the hell was that all about?” Jon asked.

“That was my eight year old daughter trying to kill me again,” Barr stated rather dryly.

“Wait you have a daughter?” Jason said and then putting his hands up to make a T. “Actually the better question I guess would be why is your daughter trying to kill you?” He asked.

“It’s a long story,” Barr said.

“Well enlighten us oh swami,” Joe said sarcastically.

“Oh, I feel a story coming on,” Ernie said excitedly.

“Okay Miranda my daughter was born about eight years ago, I didn’t even know she existed until her mother contacted me,” Barr started the story. “About a year before Miranda was born I was still in the Theban Cluster Fleet Marine Corps and was on leave from my ship on New Tuscany,” Barr paused and lit a cigarette blowing a couple of rings of smoke out.

“I met this really hot chick, just absolutely gorgeous, great personality. We spent the best week of my life just enjoying each other, it wasn’t until after we’d first had sex that I found out she was an illegal nanno-junkie,” Barr explained.

“So you ditched her and went back to the Marines,” Jon guessed.

“Yeah it was shit move to make, I probably could have helped her get off the nannos but I felt betrayed by the fact that she didn’t tell me this off the bat, I mean I really loved her and then it all came crashing down when I found this out,” Barr said tiredly.

“So where does your daughter trying to kill you come into the picture?” Joe asked.

“Well it seems that Fleet Marine Corps screwed up on my mail and all the messages that she had been sending me never got forwarded. I wasn’t actually aware of Miranda until her grandmother contacted me telling me that Elizabeth had Over Dosed on the nanno-drug Gold Dust,” Barr explained blowing twin streamers of smoke from his nostrils.

“It seems that after she couldn’t get a hold of me for several years she started poisoning Miranda against me, by this point Elizabeth had been hitting the worst of the nanno-drugs. She was lucid enough though to realize that she was probably going to OD eventually so she had Miranda declared an emancipated minor and ever since her mother overdosed she’s been tracking me down and trying to kill me,” Barr continued lighting a new cigarette.

“By the time I made it back to New Tuscany Miranda had disappeared and I took possession of Elizabeth’s remains, shortly after that Miranda found me on Sekolas, I was overjoyed to see her until she stabbed me in the kidneys, I barely made it to a med-station before I bled out,” Barr said touching his side.

“Oh that sounds messy,” Aehgr said.

“Have you tried to talking to her?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, repeatedly, unfortunately her mother filled her head with hate,” Barr said tiredly.

“How was her mother able to get her declared an emancipated minor at such a young age?” Joe asked.

“Elizabeth was a Nanno-Junkie for decades; all the different things she had taken somehow caused Miranda to have an astonishingly high IQ and cognitive ability. Unfortunately she still has the emotional reactions of an eight year old, I don’t how they hid that fact from the judge,” Barr finished standing up.

“Man, what a fucked up situation,” Jon commented.

“That it is,” Barr said quietly as he left the mess hall.

Rather than return to his cabin Barr traveled to the bowels of the small ship to an unused machine shop. Keying in the code that only he knew Barr watched as the door slid open and entered the room. The room itself was totally dark but Barr knew it by heart, and walked cautiously around the room navigating around the items of furniture that were obscured until he finally came to a large bed pressed up against one wall.

Sitting on the edge of the bed he sat silently contemplating the shrouded figure in the middle of it for almost twenty minutes before raising his head. “Damocles, lights please,” he ordered with sad emotion.

When the lights came up it revealed a well appointed bedroom, in the center of the bed was a figure eyes closed, a slight smile playing across her face as she lay on her side, arms tucked up under her head, raven tresses splayed over her shoulders and legs slightly pulled into her stomach, it was a scene of pure contented sleep.

The only thing that really marred the scene was the unmoving chest and the pure golden tone of her skin, as if some great artist had captured the perfect woman as she slept and created a sculpture of that scene.

“Oh, Elizabeth what am I going to do,” Barr said leaning down over the figure and tears splashed and slid over her golden skin.

Some would have thought it unnatural to keep the dead body of the woman he had loved in a locked room aboard his ship. Barr didn’t care he’d screwed up and lost the only woman he had ever loved and if he didn’t figure something out soon he’d lose the daughter that they had made with that love.

Theban Cluster - Medina Sector - Sonora System - New Sonora

Somewhere In the Northern Sonora Desert Region

February 18th, 1 2E - 14:35 CST

Two weeks later found the crew of the Forlorn Hope on the desolate desert planet of New Sonora. The planet originally colonized about 2500 years prior although the population was still small and spread over the stretches of desert with the occasional oasis.

The planet had been colonized by peoples from the areas of earth known as New Mexico and the Middle East, and while most of the factions of the Middle East had calmed down quite a bit the idea of slavery still appealed to them.

“So we’re supposed to just drop this gear here and go?” Jon asked suspiciously.

“Yeah that’s what the contract calls for,” Barr answered.

“I don’t like it,” Joe said.

“Oh all this nasty sand, I just know it’ll get in my shoes,” Aehgr said.

“Aehgr, your boots are integral to the duty suit you are wearing, you’d have to literally open the magnetic seal, dump sand down the front of yourself and then shake up and down till it settled in your boots,” Jason explained with no small amount of exasperation.

“Sand and dirt are pretty sneaky, they can get into anywhere,” Aehgr replied a sly paranoid look on his face.

“Wow; a little bit of ocean and this place would be even more perfect than it already is,” Ernie commented.

“Okay, so we have all the crates unloaded, uploading the confirmation to the satellite now,” Barr paused for a second staring at his E-PADD. “The second half of our fee has been uploaded to the account,” he said with a small smile as the E-PADD beeped confirmation.

“Okay we are all set to go gentlemen,” Barr said and then his head snapped around to look in the direction of a rolling line of sand dunes. “What was that?” He asked pulling his H96 out of its shoulder holster.

“What’s what?” Jason said. “I didn’t hear anything,” he said looking around.

“I hear it,” Jon said drawing his weapon as well.

“Just over that sand dune,” Barr said nodding with his chin. “Ernie, Jason, Aehgr I want you to stay here with the ship, Joe, Jon you two come with me,” he ordered.

The three nodded their assent and then Joe and Jon followed Barr as he tread slowly towards the sand dunes that the sound had been coming from.

Upon reaching the lower edge of the dunes Barr dropped to his stomach and slow crawled up the side of it with Joe and Jon following suit. Reaching the top edge Barr slowly raised his head over the tip trying as best as he could to not silhouette himself against the sky.

Barr bit off a curse and slithered over the top of the dune holstering his gun as he went sliding down its face half the time on his feet the rest of it on his butt.

“What the hell,” Jon whispered and only got a shrug in reply from Joe. The two of them crested the dune at the same time and found Barr holding a figure in a once white dress near the bottom of the dunes, the figure was moving weakly as they watched and Barr picked it up and started back towards them.

When Barr got closer they saw that the figure was a young woman with sores around her mouth from dehydration and she seemed almost stick thin from malnutrition.

“Come on we have to get her back to the ship and into med bay,” Barr growled practically running up the side of the dune.

Joe and Jon raced after him as he slid down the backside of the dune and blasted past the others still standing by the lowered cargo cradle under the rear end of the ship dashing onto the cradle slamming his elbow against the control panel.

The others watched as the cradle slammed shut with Barr still holding the girl.

“Uhm so, who was that?” Jason asked.

“Dunno,” Joe said huffing as he came to a halt next to the others.

“How are we supposed to get back in the ship?” Aehgr whined. “I can already feel sand in my boots,” he complained.

“Like this,” Jason said pulling his comm out and keying a code in. “Damocles could you lower the starboard side airlock steps please,” he said into the comm.

About a minute later they heard the clang of a hatch opening and then the steady whine as the airlock steps were lowered to the sandy ground. “Airlock stairs extended,” Damocles said from Jason’s comm.

“Thank you Damocles,” Jason said.

“You are most welcome Mr. Rite,” Damocles replied.

“Come on,” Jon ordered and raced around to the starboard hatch quickly climbing the stairs.

The crew quickly cycled themselves through the air lock and raced to the med bay to find Barr standing near one of the med bunks as the ship’s automated systems ran various tests, servo arms inserted an IV of saline, and another servo used a nanno-injector giving the girl a light stimulant.

Even with the light stimulant the girl awoke quickly speaking in rapid fire Spanish.

“What did she say?” Jason asked.

“Something about slavers,” Jon said translating as quickly as he could but the girl’s rapid fire speech pattern and dialect kept him from understanding her very clearly.

“Slavers, I hate slavers,” Joe said.

“Who doesn’t,” Jason replied. “Well except maybe the slavers themselves; maybe,” he said scratching at his chin.

“Damocles can we get her a little more coherent,” Barr asked the ship’s AI.

“Certainly but it will take a few minutes to get her fever down and get some fluids into her,” the AI Replied.

“Alright let us know when she’s more lucid,” Barr ordered and shooed the rest of the crew out of the room.

A few minutes later the crew was arranged around the large dining table in the mess hall a sandwich and a cold bottle of beer in front of them, except for Ernie who had some lemonade.

“So if it is slavers what should we do about it?” Jason asked pulling a pickle from his sandwich.

“Kill them,” Jon growled and Joe nodded agreement.

“Slavers are such nasty people, they do horrible, terrible things to others,” Aehgr added.

“Well I guess it’s kill the slavers then,” Barr said a grim look on his face as he chugged down the cold bottle of beer.

The six of them ate their meals quietly as they contemplated what they were going to do with the slavers once they caught them, probably horrible nasty things, but who really wouldn’t want to do those types of things to slavers.

Just about every member of the crew had dealt with slavers before and they looked forward to thinning that overly large herd.

Theban Cluster - Medina Sector - Sonora System - New Sonora

Somewhere In the Northern Sonora Desert Region

February 18th, 1 2E - 17:32 CST

The crew members stood vigil over the girl in rotation; Aehgr was there when she finally woke up.

Aehgr was sitting in a chair next to the med bunk when the girl reached out and grabbed him around the arm with one strong hand.

Aehgr practically jumped out of his seat as the girl gripped his arm. “AAAHHH, AAAHHH,” his scream was high pitched and piercing.

“Captain Robards the girl is awake and Mr. Weinberg is I believe you call it freaking out,” Damocles told Barr.

“Wonderful, of all the people to be there when she woke up it had to be Aehgr,” Barr growled jumping up from his bed and tossing his E-PADD down as he pounded towards the hatchway. “Thanks Damocles,” Barr shouted over his shoulder at the intercom.

“Certainly Captain,” the AI replied.

“The girl is awake,” Barr said into his comm as he headed for med bay at top speed. “Everyone just stay put until I figure out what is going, I guess Aehgr was with her when she woke up and he’s freaking out,” Barr told the rest of the crew.

“Oh great,” Jason said.

“I wonder who’ll be more traumatized, Aehgr or the girl?” Joe mused over the comm channel.

“I’d bet Aehgr,” Jon replied.

Barr reached the med bay to find the girl awake and Aehgr screaming like a girl, the girl in the white dress looked honestly confused as the small red headed man screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Aehgr there’s a spot of dirt on shoes,” Barr told him loudly enough to be heard over the screaming.

“Oh dear, I have to go wash this immediately,” Aehgr said and rushed out of the med bay.

The girl looked even more confused and even a little frightened at the sudden mood swing in the man who had started screaming when she woke up.

Barr walked over to the girl, “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yes thank you,” the girl answered. “What was all that about?” she asked in faintly accented English in the direction Aehgr had wandered off in.

“Well that was Aehgr,” Barr explained with a faint smile. “We’ll just kind of leave it at that for now,” he told her sheepishly.

“Where am I?” The girl asked.

“You’re currently aboard the privately registered vessel Forlorn Hope,” Barr told her. “My name is Barr Robards and the mood swing king that just left was Aehgr Weinberg a member of my crew,” he told her with a small smile.

“Are we still on New Sonora?” she asked.

“Yes, my crew and I found you dehydrated and delirious out in the desert and I brought you aboard the ship to help you recover,” Barr informed her. “Ah, if you don’t mind my asking, what is your name?” He asked her.

She muttered something in Spanish to herself. “I apologize, my name is Giselle, Giselle Joaquin,” she told him.

“Well Giselle it’s nice to meet you,” Barr said taking her hand lightly and kissing the back of it causing her to blush. “Do you mind if I get my crew in here so when can figure out how best to help you?” He asked her.

“No I don’t mind but would it be possible to get some solid food?” She asked.

“Certainly,” Barr turned his attention to one of the ships security cameras. “Damocles could you fix a plate of sandwiches and have them brought to the med bay,” Barr ordered

“Certainly Captain, will you require refreshments also?” the AI asked.

“Yes good, Idea, send only non-alcoholic stuff though,” Barr ordered.

“Certainly captain,” the AI replied.

“We’ll have you some food here shortly,” Barr told her smiling reassuringly and pulling out his comm. “Okay guys go ahead and come in,” Barr ordered.

A few seconds later the door opened to admit the rest of the crew.

Giselle took a few seconds to get a good look at her rescuers. The one who had introduced himself as Barr seemed the most professional although his taste in clothing was rather on the odd side, he was wearing a bright red Hawaiian shirt, cargo pants, combat boots and a black baseball cap with no logo on it, and he had friendly grey eyes, short trimmed black hair, and a neatly trimmed goatee.

As the others entered the room Barr introduced them. “This is my first officer Jason Rite,” Barr motioned to a man wearing a polo shirt and slacks, he had thick brown hair and a neatly trimmed mustache covered his upper lip. “Ernie McClain, our pilot,” somewhat on the chunky side Ernie had thinning black hair and an easy smile, he wore a bright neon yellow shirt that asked “Where’s The Party” across the front and was wearing tan work pants.

The next two through the door were a bit on the menacing side, the first one had short cut blonde hair, ice blue eyes with no feeling in them and wore a black leather jacket over a band t-shirt, black leather pants and motorcycle boots, “Our medic, Joe Hiker.” The other figure that came in with him had a shaved head which only added to his menacing looks and a goatee; he wore a long sleeved shirt over well worn BDUs and combat boots, “our armorer and ship gunner, Jon Jonson.”

Barr turned towards the door as a slight figure came through, “and of course Aehgr who you have already met. The short figure had curly red hair, pale skin, slightly pointed ears and a small gem was embedded in his forehead, and he also wore a blindingly white mono-film duty suit with the integral gloves and boots and seemed to fuss at something on the suit.

“Gentlemen and I use that term loosely this is Miss Giselle Joaquin,” Barr said introducing the girl to the crew members.

“Now Giselle if you don’t mind telling us exactly what happened?” Barr asked as one of Damocles servo-bots brought in a platter with bottles of water and sandwiches on it.

It took nearly an hour for the girl to finish her story and by that time the bottles of water were empty and the plate of sandwiches demolished.

They found out that she was from a small village called Okakinta which was situated in an oasis about twenty-five kilometers away, the village had only supported about three dozen families and had been if not rich fairly prosperous as they had charged fees for land cargo convoys to use a large parking area in the village for stopovers.

That had ended two days earlier when a supposed convoy of truckers had stopped to rest in the small parking area.

That night the men had raided the village killing the children, men, and any women over the age of thirty and taking the rest as captives. Giselle had been on a walk with her boyfriend when the gunfire started and he had run back to the village telling her to stay put; he’d never returned and Giselle had run into the desert until they had found her.

“Alright Giselle you go ahead and get some rest,” Barr told her and ushered the others out of the room.

In the hallway he led the others to the ship’s small conference room. “Alright guys we won’t be getting paid for this one but we would be rescuing a bunch of supposedly, beautiful and grateful young ladies,” Barr said with a small smile.

“And killing slavers, can’t forget to mention killing those pieces of shit,” Jon growled.

“Oh yes and killing the slavers,” Barr said a cold glint in his grey eyes.

“I say go for it,” Joe said.

“So how exactly are we going to do this?” Jason asked.

“Easiest way we can,” Barr said.

“Oh no, I am not going to pretend to be a slave trader,” Jason said as the others looked at him.

“Why not you are such a great actor, I’m sure you could easily pull it off,” Barr told him.

“Why do I always have to pretend to be someone?” Jason asked with a sigh.

“Like the man said you’re good at it,” Jon told him guzzling a beer down.

Theban Cluster - Medina Sector - Sonora System - New Sonora

Former Site of the Town Okakinta

February 19th, 1 2E - 16:22 CST

Almost ten hours later found Jason wearing a pure white suit and tie with matching vest; he was smoking some Turkish cigarettes and walking a small circle in the sand.

It had taken Joe several hours to track down and locate the name of the group of slavers that had raided Okakinta, massacred its inhabitants, and burnt it to the ground.

Joe and Jon were in full unmarked battle rattle on either side of him, military grade H99 particle beam rifles slung over their shoulders and their gear festooned with munitions and grenades.

Aehgr stood off to one side under an umbrella with a small table and some portable lab equipment.

There was no sign of Ernie or Barr anywhere.

The sound of racing engines finally reached the small group near the rear cargo ramp of the frigate.

“Alright get ready,” Barr said over the tactical network.

Barr had secreted himself in one of the burnt out buildings with all sorts of nice destructive toys, chief among these a multi-shot LAW 108 particle rocket launcher, and an H95 particle beam sniper rifle.

“Show time,” Jason said lighting a fresh cigarette and getting himself in character.

Half a dozen SUVs and five large vans slewed to a halt about fifty meters from where the friends were standing and a couple dozen dirty and grungy slave traders spilled forth with a motley assortment of weaponry.

Jason draped himself in a cloak of arrogance as he puffed away at one of the Turkish cigarettes, the things were foul but Turkey was a major importer and exporter on the regular slave trade market.

The apparent leader of the bunch of slavers was a short man of mixed decent with a scraggly chin beard and at least four gold teeth.

“You that Mr. Raphael meng?” Scraggle Puss asked.

“Ja, I am Herr Raphael,” Jason replied affecting a German accent. “And you would be Herr Minerton?” Jason asked raising an eyebrow.

“That be me Meng,” the short rounded little runt had a SPAS-24 semi-automatic shotgun over one shoulder.

“I hear tell you have some cargo I would be interested in?” Jason asked raising an eyebrow again.

“And I hear you have some money I would be interested in,” the run said with a huge grin and eliciting chuckles from his two dozen or so goons.

“Ja if we can come to a mutual agreement over price,” Jason said. “But first I wish to see the wares,” Jason informed him.

“Chur meng,” golden grin waved a hand and some of his men broke away to rip open the doors of the vans and started pulling and shoving girls of Mexican decent ranging in ages from about six to twenty-something. “You want to check out the merchandise jefe.”

“Yes,” Jason crushed out his latest cigarette and moved towards the girls. At first he just took a visual inspection of them but knowing that the little freak would be expecting it he ripped the dress from the oldest girl there and inspected her, even going so far as to push two fingers inside the girl.

“See all fresh and unabused Meng,” the scrawny man said with another leer.

“I can see that they are physically fine but I insist on a blood analysis,” Jason insisted.

“Chur, no problem meng,” the runt said.

Jason took blood samples from all the girls and took the vials over to Aehgr who quickly ran them all through the blood analysis machine that was sitting on the table.

“Ja, I see that they are unspoiled,” Jason said perusing the information that had been sent to his E-PADD. “How much for them?” He asked.

“Heh, 250,000 creds for each one,” the little bastard said his lips spread in a grin showing off his gold teeth the others contrasted by their nicotine stains.

“Nein, 75,000 creds each,” Jason said whirling quickly on the man.

The slavers around their leader raised the barrels of their weapons menacingly, but the leader just smiled all the wider and pushed the nearest barrel towards the ground. “Now you insult me meng, 200,000.”

“Preposterous, they are underfed and will need to be trained for their future jobs, that I’ll have to pay good money to have them trained for,” Jason said pushing the subject. “125,000 and that’s my final offer.”

The slaver leader rubbed at his scraggly beard for a second contemplating, “okay meng 125,000 creds each.”

“Mr. Weingartner please bring the money over here,” Jason ordered Aehgr who was still standing under the umbrella his stark white mono-film duty suit practically glowing in the dim light.

“Oy, do I have to there is so much dirt and sand between here and there?” Aehgr whined.

“Mr. Weingartner, must I remind you who pays your salary?” Jason growled.

“Oy,” Aehgr said and brought the suitcase of money over to Jason.

“Here is your money Mr. Minerton?” Jason said starting to hand over the case of money.

“You can call me Mr. Moneybag meng,” the scrawny slaver said starting to flip the latches up on the briefcase as his men gathered around with greedy looks all they found themselves looking stupidly at was a briefcase full of sand.

“You didn’t exactly state what kind of currency you wanted paid in,” Jason said and shot the slaver in the head splattering his underlings and then diving out of the line of fire and burying himself as deeply as he could into the sand.

Behind him Aehgr jumped behind the open cargo ramp and Joe and Jon had split up taking cover behind some convenient rocks they had placed earlier, the two of them opened up servicing targets smoothly with short controlled bursts.

Some of the slavers tried to make a run for the SUVs but were flung tattered and broken as Barr opened up with the LAW 108 packeted particle charges destroying the vehicles and sending them burning and spinning across the desert. Laying the LAW aside Barr grabbed up the H95 and start taking down slavers until he saw a group start running towards the girls still huddled around the vans.

“I don’t think so,” Barr muttered pulling a remote detonator from his pocket and thumbed the command switch.

A line of smart claymores went off obliterating the group and then it was just a matter of clean up. He’d seeded the area with the Mk.29 Mobile Smart Claymores before the meeting and had maneuvered them under the sand until they were in a position to protect the girls and women.

After the last slaver had dropped Barr thumbed the deactivation key on the detonator and then pushed another button that would cause the remaining claymores to start trundling into the cargo hold of the ship.

Slinging the H95 he picked up the empty LAW 108 and headed for the group of young girls and women.

“Ladies my name is Barr Robards and I am the captain of the vessel you see parked over there, if you would please make your way to the ship we’ll get you some medical attention and some food and clothes, then we’ll discuss where we go from there. Don’t worry we are not slavers and we are not here to take advantage of you,” Barr explained to the frightened women.

At first the women and girls milled around not sure what to do and then slowly filed up the ramp and into the ship, inside Aehgr lead them to the medical bay where Damocles ran quick scans of them with the aid of Giselle reassuring them in quick Spanish with a soft voice.

On the bridge of the ship Jason lifted the vessel into orbit and then they all convened in the conference room save for Aehgr who was helping Giselle sort out the fifty women and girls crammed into the med bay.

“What exactly are we going to do with all these women?” Jon asked.

“We ask them what they want to do,” Barr stated easily.

“Easier said than done,” Jason said having changed out of his now ruined white suit.

“Damocles setup a channel to the med bay please,” Barr ordered.

A few seconds later the Holo-Vid panel on the reception desk in med-bay popped on and they could hear Giselle rather harshly ordering the women to allow the ship’s medical servos to run a diagnostic on them and then she turned her head towards the glow of the Holo-Vid.

“Hi,” she said walking up to the screen.

“Hey, Giselle, how is everything going in med-bay?” Barr asked politely.

“Slightly hard,” Giselle stated her eyes grim. “While none of them were raped the threats were made repeatedly and some of these women have never had a gynecological exam,” she explained.

“I thought your village had a doctor?” Barr asked.

“It did but some of these women are from outlying farms and had never even visited Okakinta,” Giselle told him.

Barr coughed nervously. “Well, maybe we can skip that part for now,” he told her. “But we also need to know where to take these women,” he said changing the subject.

“Five of the older women and a dozen of the young girls are from my village and have no relatives to return to the other women and girls do still have some family members scattered across the various outlying farms,” Giselle explained.

Barr was suddenly struck by how well Giselle spoke English, with barely an accent, “Giselle where did you go to school?”

“I went to school in the village, but have been taking correspondence courses since I was about seven. I have been taking advanced engineering courses for the last three years,” Giselle explained.

Jason let out a low whistle.

“Well that is a surprise,” Barr truthfully told Giselle.

Giselle smiled, “I’m actually only a few months away from graduating and have a 3.6 GPA.”

“Would you like a job?” Barr asked.

“A…, a job,” Giselle said confused.

“Yeah a job, a rather well paying job with benefits at that,” Barr told her.

“What about the other women and girls from my village?” Giselle asked.

“Uh, what kind of skills do they have?” Barr asked.

“Well all of them have been taking courses like myself Katarine is very good with communications systems, Zara just graduated her courses as an environmental tech, Sesely is a very good chef and has been taking correspondence courses from Cordon Bleu, Juanita is a certified gravity control tech, and Daniella is very good with electronics, as for the girls I don’t know, we’d need to take them with us,” Giselle explained.

“Well, uh, that’s great; do you think they’d want jobs as well?” Barr asked.

“I’ll ask, hold on a second,” Giselle told him walking away from the pickup screen and returning almost twenty minutes later. “Yes they would be extremely interested in taking the jobs,” She told him.

“Good, we’ll figure something out about the girls later,” Barr said rather surprised at the list of skills the six women had.

“Gracias,” Giselle said logging off the comm.

“Well looks like we got extremely lucky with this batch,” Barr said blowing air through his lips.

“Yeah we could definitely use more crew members,” Jason said.

“So how did we make out from the slavers?” Joe asked.

“Pretty damn good actually,” Jon said tossing a scorched briefcase on the table and opening it and turning it so the others good see it easily. The case was crammed with a motley assortment of Cred coins, most were copper color of 100 Cred coins with a smattering of brass-colored 500 Cred coins and 1,000 Cred silver-purple ones but the crown of the pile lay jammed in one corner of the case; ten 250,000 credit full palladium coins sat gleaming under the overhead lighting.

“Whoa, mother load baby,” Joe said.

“Well that’s definitely a good thing, we were kind of running low on cash,” Barr told them.

Silverfield Republic - Olander Sector - Olander System - Olander III

Republican Government Building - Republic Mineralogical Trade Committee Chamber

February 20th, 1 2E - 16:22 CST

“The Committee now recognizes Special Trade Attaché Gamaoran,” the committee head said rapping his gavel against the plinth before his chair.

“I’ve returned to Olander as requested after reviewing the request of the Tantalan Hive Mind’s requests for mineral and metal resources,” Attaché Gamaoran stated standing up to approach the floor in front of the committee.

“And what has your reviews shown Mr. Gamaoran?” Committeeman Genero asked.

“My reviews show that the Tantalan Hive Mind is very peaceful and their main intent is to re-assimilate those worlds infested with Quislings,” Gamaoran paused and pulled out an E-PADD and scrolled through a few pages. “Unfortunately for the Tantalans the New Bavaria system or Assimilated Crèche System 001 as it is referred to by the Tantalans is almost totally devoid of the mineralogical resources after several millennia of the Neo-Prussian Empire’s aggressive mining program.”

“What exactly do the Tantalans ask for?” Committeewoman Jersey asked.

“Well while they have access to numerous older and less advanced vessels and technology, they also have the ability to manufacture the parts to fix these ships and new vessels however they do not have the mineral resources to maintain parts and keep their industries from grinding to a halt,” Gamaoran explained.

“How do we know that we can trust the Tantalans not to assimilate the crews of those cargo vessels bringing them resources?” another committeeman asked.

“The Coalition has signed agreements with the Tantalans so that as long as a vessel is already expected to arrive they will not have to fear assimilation,” Gamaoran explained.

“What exactly do the Tantalans want?” one of the other committee members questioned.

“At this time they mainly require raw palladium, Molocrystallinium, and refined bars of titanium,” the attaché told them. Gamaoran retook his seat and waited while the committee discussed their intentions periodically asking him a question, after three hours of discussion the committee came to a decision.

“Mr. Gamaoran under your recommendation we’ll start shipping the minerals that the Tantalans requested immediately,” the head committeeman said rapping his gavel on the table.

Throughout the galaxy other star nations came to the same conclusion and trade started in earnest with the newly recognized Tantalus Hive Mind.

Theban Cluster - Caruthers Sector - Caruthers System - Caruthers World - Caruthers City

Theban Cluster Fleet Headquarters - Office of Fleet Intelligence

February 25th, 1 2E - 14:00 CST

Once again Commander Conroy was swallowing a stomach suppressant but the nannites really didn’t seem to be helping any as he read another round of reports that had just landed on his desk.

Now the prime minister had gone missing along with his ship and entire crew and no one was sure where they had disappeared to. Although the last communication received from hyperspace was near Hive Mind Space, if they had entered that sector of space without calling ahead as it were, they were most likely assimilated and there was nothing the Theban Cluster could do except protest vehemently since the treaty they had signed stated that any unauthorized vessels were fair game.

And then there was this new Church Of The Multi-Spatial God and their weird spaceship pyramid thingy, and it seemed to be growing in leaps and bounds, and other reports stated that most of the other religions were becoming highly disconcerted as the Church Of The Multi-Spatial God gained new followers.

Conroy was massaging his temples as he tried to figure out what the hell he was going to do, there were too many leaks in the dike and he was running out of fingers to plug them with.

There was still one last person that could help him with all of these wild fires but he still hadn’t replied to his Galactanet Mail.

Theban Cluster - Yucatan Sector - Yucatan System - Yucatan IV-A

Annamira Bolivar School for Girls

March 5th, 1 2E - 16:22 CST

With their recent windfall of funds it was decided that the twelve younger girls would be best served if taken to a private school where they could get a decent education and have some sort of future that didn’t involve deserts and slavery.

“Oh, thank you again so much for taking care of us Mr. Robards,” fourteen year old Isadora Galenas said hugging Barr.

“Not a problem sweetie,” Barr said patting the girl on the back.

The twelve girls were lined up in the schools front courtyard resplendent in their blue and white mono-film duty suit school uniforms one of the school’s head teachers in the black and gray mono-film duty suit of her own.

Barr waved back as the girls waved to him and the other crew members as they left the compound and squeezed everybody in the Charger and SUV.

“Alright guys that is done, we need to find us another job, hopefully one that doesn’t require us getting shot or shooting anyone else,” Barr told the others in the Charger.

“Amen to that,” Jon agreed.

“Hmm, I might actually have something for us on that front,” Jason said holding up his E-PADD.

“What have you got?” Barr asked.

“A friend of mine at Office of Fleet Intelligence is offering us a pretty good paying job with little risk,” Jason explained.

“Which Office of Fleet Intelligence?” Jon asked.

“Oh, sorry, Theban Cluster,” Jason supplied. “Although the message is dated about four months ago though,” Jason explained somewhat disappointed as he looked at the date.

“Hell we’ll head for the Coronet and you can send a message back from there,” Barr told him. “Maybe the job offer will still be open,” Barr said hoping to cheer Jason up.

“Hopefully,” Jon said. “Even with the money we got from the slavers, setting those girls up at the private school kind of cut into that.”

“Don’t complain,” Barr said. “Those girls needed a chance to make something of themselves and I’m damn proud to be able to help them do it,” Barr said acerbically.

“Hey I ain’t complaining I’m just saying it cut into our funds quite a bit is all,” Jon said raising his hands defensively.

Barr just shook his head and put the sedan in gear and blasted off for the spaceport.

Center of the Milky Way Galaxy - Hyperspace Terminus

Coronet Space - Yucatan Wormhole Gate Exit to Coronet Docking Lane 235

Privately Registered Vessel - Forlorn Hope

March 7th, 1 2E - 15:37 CST 

“Alright folks we are now officially in Coronet Space, if you’ll look out your monitors we’ll be passing by the magnetically sealed black hole that forms the center of the Milky Way galaxy,” Barr said over the ship’s intercom sounding like some cheesy tour guide. “And if you’ll look and to your right you’ll see the five huge gas giants that are mined for minerals and gases by the Coalition council, and passing across our bow right now is the planet Coalition, former home of the Progenitors and now home to over ten billion inhabitants of various races and species. And now as piece de resistance is the space station known as the Coronet.”

The Coronet looked like its name, a huge circular station it more resembled a ring with ribbed arches flowing in either direction, its silver alloy reflecting the system’s sun, it’s numerous, red, green, blue, white, and amber lights resembling twinkling rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and topazes.

Barr was personally piloting the ship and next to him Giselle let out a breath that she probably didn’t even realize she had been holding.

“It’s beautiful. How big is it?” She asked.

“Slightly over 10,000 kilometers in diameter,” Barr told her quietly sounding as if he didn’t want to break this seemingly sacred moment as someone new took in the astonishing masterpiece that a now extinct race had left for those who had come after it.

Independent Systems League - Fountain System

Planet Godhead - New Church of the Multi-Spatial God - Main Supplication Chamber

March 7th, 1 2E - 18:00 CST

Sylvia had been on Godhead for almost a month now investigating the new owners of the Church Of The Multi-Spatial God and had come up with zip, zero, and nada on them.

Upon arriving on Godhead she had immediately sussed out the situation at the Church and had delved into her goody bag of nannites and found one that would change her skin to the coal black of the church’s members, and with a little judicious application of silver lipstick, and hair dye as well as a set of black contact lenses she had managed to bluff her way into the church without anyone knowing any better.

Now Sylvia lay stretched out on her knees abasing herself to the liquid black pool that the Church’s worshippers seemed to think was their god. Something was definitely wrong with the church, once a member had imbibed the flesh of their god they became fanatical about it and several groups of worshippers had attacked and ransacked some of the older temples to weaker gods.

“Our Lord, Our Master, Our God,” Sylvia said still abasing herself as the high priest Samcar led the worship ceremony.

Once the main part of the worship was finished Samcar usually dove straight into proselytizing about the gifts that their god had given them and his great wisdom, however something seemed to be different today.

“My fellow worshippers it is my grave duty to inform you that there is a spy among us, they have infiltrated our religion for monetary gain so as to inform their masters about our religion. Not for enlightenment but so that they may find a way to buy us out,” Samcar informed the worshippers now sitting up on their knees.

Oh shit, Sylvia thought to herself.

“Now I shall reveal the identity of this person,” Samcar paused and pointed straight at Sylvia. “It is she who blasphemes against Our Lord, Our Master, Our God,” Samcar said the litany and the rest of the room echoed it.

Sylvia tried to get up and run but was grabbed from behind by two of the priests, struggling she was drug before the entire congregation to the steps before the black pool. “Let me go dammit,” Sylvia growled struggling futilely against those holding her.

“Our Lord, Our Master, Our God has decreed a special fate for this one,” Samcar said and motioned for the two priests holding Sylvia to follow him up the steps to the pool of blackness.

“What are you doing?” Sylvia demanded as the two lower caste priests drug her up to the pool.

“It is time you met Our Lord, Our Master, Our God in person,” Samcar ordered and one raised arm dropped.

The two priests shoved Sylvia into the pool of black fluid and with her arms wind milling wildly she fell forward and down into the blackness.

Trying to swim back upwards she found herself being sucked down further into the pool, her eyes, nostrils, and ears filled with the black liquid and then when she could hold her breath no longer her mouth sagged open and the liquid surged inwards gagging her as it filled her throat and lungs.

“Join me, I am your lord, your master, your god,” a reverberating voice echoed through Sylvia’s mind.

Sylvia shook her head negatively even as more of the fluid filled her lungs.

“You will submit to me and you will recognize me as your lord, master, and god,” the voice boomed through her mind echoing down the corridors of her memory and causing her to cringe mentally as some atavistic fear took over. A fear that caused the primitive part of her to want to abase herself but she continued to shake her head in the negative and deny the voice.

“Then I shall destroy all that is you and take your body for my own, it has long been since I had an avatar to walk amongst those who worship me once again,” the voice booming angrily again.

Even more fear filled Sylvia as she felt a mental pressure build and swell in her mind, she felt the presence of the would be god enter her mind and start to push her out and she thrashed wildly in the blackness, each second making the movements slower and less frantic.

“What you are shall cease to exist,” the voice thundered. “There shall not even be enough of you left to join the great wheel, and dark evil laughter echoed through what was left of her mind as the essence that was Sylvia started losing memories until her mind was fully bled free and her spark winked out from the universe to never be seen again.

When the multi-spatial god was done modifying Sylvia’s body he/she slowly rose from the depths of the black pool.

Sylvia’s body features had been changed drastically, her face had become more symmetrical taking on some male tones and becoming on the androgynous side, the body that had been taken over had taken on a silver sheen to it. The sheen wasn’t that of a nanno-sheath but as if someone had taken silver paint and spray painted the body.

Completely nude the god’s avatar rose from the pool, Raven black tresses hung down the back to the perfectly formed buttocks, breasts still swelled from the bodies chest but were void of any nipple or areola, and the juncture between the legs was completely smooth devoid of any male or female genitalia, black eyes surveyed the congregation and black lips peeled back from perfect white teeth.

Arms raised at its sides with black nailed hands turned upwards the Avatar greeted its worshippers. “I am returned my followers,” a deep resonating voice spoke from the lips tones of both male and female intermingling.

All around the avatar the priests and followers abased themselves before the physical manifestation of their god.

“Now choose from amongst yourselves three of each gender who would be my personal attendants,” the Avatar ordered.

Quicker than one would have thought the six healthiest, strongest, and most beautiful of the worshippers were pressed forward to abase themselves at the Avatar’s feet.

“Rise up my attendants and receive a special gift from your god,” the Avatar ordered those at his/her feet.

The six followers rose and as they stood looking at their god he/she passed among them and gave each them a full kiss on the lips that lasted exactly a minute each, as he/she released the followers their bodies shuddered and a golden glow covered them bodies as the others watched their bodies turned a gold color and their lips and hair turned the blackest shade of night.

“Behold those who are the most faithful and most gifted of my followers,” the Avatar shouted raising his/her arms above his/her head and the six golden members of his/her entourage faced their fellow worshippers and abased themselves.

“Our Lord, Our Master, Our God,” they intoned and soon the rest of the room resonated with the prayer.

“Now my servants and followers return to your homes and places of work and spread the word that the multi-spatial god has become flesh once again,” he/she ordered and then watched as they filed out of the room.

“Samcar attend me,” the silver figure ordered sweeping out of the room followed by his entourage and then the high priest Samcar.

In a room that had not existed moments before the Avatar sat on a gleaming throne of silver and stone his/her entourage arranging themselves on either side and down the three steps leading up to the throne.

“How may I serve you my lord, my master, my god,” Samcar asked abasing himself before the physical embodiment of his god.

“Tell me of how things go with the others on BCP-001,” he/she ordered.

“Yes my lord, my master, my god,” and the high priest proceeded to relay the information that he had received from the high priestess Siecar.

Center of the Milky Way Galaxy - Hyperspace Terminus

Coronet Space - Coronet Space Station - Docking Port

Privately Registered Vessel - Forlorn Hope

March 8th, 6201 C.E. - 12:00 CST 

The mess hall seemed more full than it usually did as there were now twelve people in it’s crew, they had pulled two of the mess hall tables together and they now sat anchored in the middle of the mess hall with the table’s ten occupants awaiting dinner.

In the galley the sounds and smells of cooking rose as Sesely cooked them a meal and Giselle assisted her. The ship had been docked at the Coronet for less than twenty-four hours and was currently undergoing some cosmetic repairs and refueling. The entire crew including the six new members had decided to relax a couple of days before Barr and the others showed the six women around the huge space station that was at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy and the heart of the Galactic Coalition.

“Dinner is served,” Sesely said in a faux French accent as she and Giselle wheeled a large cart with various trays and platters on it out of the kitchen and over to the table.

Barr and the others were expecting Mexican or Spanish dishes but were surprised when after the dishes had been set down the middle of the table Sesely removed the lid from the main course revealing a dozen small squab garnished with greens, the other dishes contained soft crescent rolls, a large pot of soup, and a platter with a wide variety of vegetables.

“I didn’t realize that I had stocked Squab,” Barr said staring at the seasoned and broiled birds.

“They must have stocked us with all sorts of things when the ship was getting fixed,” Jason said.

“Yes your freezer and food pantry are very well stocked for such a small vessel,” Sesely commented.

“I was wondering why the restocking fee was so high,” Barr said pulling out an E-PADD and keying it to the receipt for the kitchen’s restocking.

“I guess we are well stocked,” Barr commented and showed Jason the E-PADD it listed all sorts of high end foods such as crab, lobster, duck, as well as the normal everyday food’s they ate.

Jason let out a low whistle, “I guess we will be eating pretty well for awhile.”

“I guess this’ll let Sesely flex her cooking muscles then,” Jon commented already digging into the squab.

Center of the Milky Way Galaxy - Hyperspace Terminus

Coronet Space - Coronet Space Station - Docking Port

Privately Registered Vessel - Forlorn Hope

March 10th, 1 2E - 17:00 CST 

Barr had given the six women some money out of his own pocket to do some shopping for necessary items since before now the ship hadn’t carried any female crew members, what he wasn’t expecting was what Giselle and other girls brought back with them.

“What do you have there Giselle?” Barr asked as she maneuvered a small grav cart into the loading bay of the ship with several plasticard boxes on it.

“A bit of a surprise, I hope you don’t mind I used what money we had left over to purchase these,” Giselle said worriedly gnawing at her lower lip.

“What is it?” Barr asked looking questioningly at the boxes.

“Well we were reading space way regulations at the Coronet information center and it states that any commercial business is required to have their personnel wearing at least mono-film duty suits while aboard ship, I believe it explained the reason for it being the ability to more easily get into a skinsuit or environmental suit,” Giselle said gnawing at her lip still.

“Yeah I’ve read that regulation but we’re not really a commercial business,” Barr said slightly confused.

“Actually with the addition of the six of us as crew members you’re status in the Coronet’s database was upgraded to commercial instead of semi-commercial like it had been,” Giselle told him.

“Okay I’m confused why would adding six more crew members change our status?” Barr asked.

“Basically the regulation stipulates that any time a business reaches ten or more employees their business status changes from semi-commercial to commercial,” Giselle answered.

“Jeeze gotta love bureaucracy,” Barr grumbled.

“So I hope you are not mad at me for doing this, I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t going to get fined for not following regulations,” Giselle said once again gnawing at her lip.

“Why would I get mad at you for making sure we were doing the right thing,” Barr said reaching a hand up to touch her cheek and using his thumb to gently press her teeth away from her lips. “You’re going to start bleeding if you keep doing that,” he told her quietly.

“Sorry I do that when I get nervous,” she told him.

“Okay so show me what you’ve got, and how it will help us follow annoying commercial business law,” Barr told her smiling faintly.

Giselle bent over and opened one of the plasticard boxes with a flipping motion and pulled something out, the shape unfurled into a light gray mono-film duty suit with darker gray at the knees, shoulders, and elbows, the model she was holding up had integrated feet and gloves and he could just faintly make out the magnetic seam at the juncture of the legs that could be disengaged to allow entry of plumbing connections.

Barr also noticed a patch on the left breast of the suit, looking closely he saw that it was dark gray on the outer ring of the patch with the words Forlorn Hope Shipping & Cargo Transit Company, the interior circle was taken up by a full color depiction of the ships nose art.

“Wow, that’s pretty amazing,” He said scratching the back of his head.

“You like them then,” Giselle said with a hopeful look on her face.

“I love them, I’d have never thought to use the ship’s nose art as a logo,” Barr said reaching out to run a finger over the molecularly bonded patch.

“I was hoping you would like them,” Giselle said letting out a small breath.

“Now we just have to talk the others into wearing them,” Barr said dryly.

“Well I’ve already given the girls theirs, and we got ten for each person,” Giselle informed him. “You think there will be a problem getting the others to wear them?” Giselle asked suddenly worried again.

“Well see the main problem with people who are rather independent is that they tend to not like to follow regulations and then there is Aehgr who only wears white,” Barr said sighing at the number of conversations he was going to have to have.

“We thought of that,” Giselle said opening another plasticard box and picking up an all white version of the other duty suits.

“Well I see you thought of everything,” Barr said grinning at her. “Alright, well we aren’t leaving for another couple of days so I’ll talk to everyone personally,” Barr said scratching his head again.

Unknown Region of Space - Edge of the Milky Way Galaxy

Planet Designate BCP-001

March 11th, 1 2E - 12:00 CST

“It seems our last guest has arrived,” Hood said standing up from his seat again; the council meeting had once again stalled to a halt as the various factions became more fractious.

A black glossy carapace covered figure with dreadlock like umbilicals flowing from the back of its head to its upper and lower back appeared in the final chair.

“Welcome Savelle, queen of the Falcra,” Hood greeted the final figure.

“Greetings Hood, I hope this time around that you’ll not betray us,” the Falcra Queen questioned coldly.

“Not unless it suits my purposes,” Hood said with a chuckle.

“I guess we shall have to be satisfied with that answer,” the re-breather like face of the glossy black figure said.

“You know Hood from previously?” Wrath asked the black figure.

“Silence, do not speak to me unless spoken to first,” Savelle ordered the Seven Deadly Sin imperiously.

Wrath surged forward to try and jump over the table but found herself being restrained by the Tantalus Empress and Ailene-67.

“Restrain your dog Hood or I‘ll put it down,” Savelle ordered.

“She is not my dog Savelle, what you need to realize is that your race is no longer as powerful as it once was,” Hood paused a hint of amusement in his voice. “If I’m correct there are only about thirty or so of you left at the moment,” he commented.

“Currently but we are in negotiations to expand our numbers quickly,” Savelle said haughtily.

“Ah yes with the Neo-Prussian Empire,” Hood said and chuckled slightly at the carapace clad figures surprised body language.

“How did you know this?” Savelle practically sputtered.

“I know a lot of things my dear Savelle,” Hood replied and was suddenly standing next to the Falcra Queen. “Do not try my patience, and never threaten me again,” Hood said fisting a hand in the umbilical running from the back of her head to her back and pulling her head down to the opening to his cowl. “Because if you do so again, I shall destroy your race in its comeback infancy,” Hood hissed running his other hand down her smooth glossy black cheek and then down her side. “Are we understood Savelle?” Hood questioned.

“Yes,” Savelle husked out in pain.

“Maybe I should offer the Neo-Prussians a seat at this table,” Hood commented looking at the empty chair at the table. “Since we seem to have a vacancy,” he continued.

“Good. So shall we break for lunch then,” Hood asked the other representatives after a few minutes of them getting Wrath calmed down and much muttering.

Wrath was still being held back by Ailene-67 and the Tantalan Empress and all realized once again they were dealing with someone who was clearly not sane.

After lunch the representatives had returned to the triangular table and Hood started pulling the agreement together, he had tired of their infantile arguing and they were now going to do what he wanted or else he would wipe their people’s out just like he had done with the Skurmvald.

“Representative Vaspel you and you’re Gnosis comrades once done assimilating the ships of the Castellan Federation and their space and groundside facilities will act as blockaders for the other representative’s forces and as guards for forthcoming logistics trains,” Hood said looking at the nanno-circuitry covered puppet.

“Wrath my dear, you and your sisters will sow discontent and avarice and all your other happy go lucky feelings, targeting government and corporate officials as much as possible,” Hood told the Mu.

Hood explained to the two representatives their jobs more in-depth, and then moved on to the other representatives.

Neo-Prussian Empire - New Imperial Sector - Hamburg System

New Hamburg [Hamburg III] - Imperial Palace

March 11th, 1 2E - 16:22 CST

“Sire the Falcra representative is here to see you,” the genetic slave told Emperor Nathan IV.

“Thank you slave, please bring him in,” Nathan ordered.

“Yes Master,” the nanno-rubber coated slave acknowledged and then returned leading a male figure into the room.

Nathan studied the Falcra representative as he entered the throne room. The figure was clad in a glossy black carapace that reflected the lights of the throne room and several umbilical lead from the back of its head to its back, the dreadlock like umbilicals seeming to be moving in a breeze.

“Your message said that you have something that you can offer me,” Nathan said still seated in his throne as the figure stopped short of the bottom of the dais.

“Yes, from our study of your history it shows that you’re grandfather tried to take over the other star nations by using a nanno-virus that created your current Quisling problem,” Sakron said rather than actually answering.

Nathan’s nostrils flared slightly as he looked at the glossy figure below him, “My grandfather was quite insane and no further mention of him or the Quislings shall be made.”

“Unfortunately to explain what I have in trade for you I’ll have to mention at least the Quislings a few times more,” Sakron told him unperturbed by the Emperor’s apparent anger.

“Fine I’ll let you mention Quislings, but any further mention of my grandfather will result in your death by decapitation,” the Emperor ordered.

“Certainly your highness,” Sakron said bowing.

“Continue,” Nathan ordered.

“As I was saying the Quisling problem was originally caused by the fact that the original virus classified as the Tantalus Nanno-Virus became uncontrollable, just as it did for the Progenitors,” Sakron explained.

Nathan sat up in his throne a little straighter, “Wait the Tantalus Nanno-Virus was created by the Progenitors?”

“Not the Tantalus itself but the nanno-virus it was based off of,” Sakron clarified. “The progenitors were facing an unknown enemy that had turned their ships against them. The Gnosis who were overtaking their worlds and space stations and using them and their captured populations as spare parts, they had originally developed it as something similar to your nanno-sheaths that would allow their personnel to keep from being taken over, however they were unable to stabilize the exact nanno-viral formulae and it generally turned all those who used it into mindless zombies that could be commanded to do whatever someone wanted them to do,” Sakron told him.

“The Gnosis were created by the Progenitors?” Nathan asked genuinely surprised at that information.

“Yes when they first managed long range hyperspace travel and started colonizing other worlds they created the Gnosis as allies and comrades to help guard the outer reaches of their empire allowing them to more aptly guard the inner parts of their government and to focus on research, medicine, and art,” Sakron continued.

“How do you know all this?” Nathan asked.

“The Falcra were around before the Progenitors were even a gleam in the universe’s eye,” Sakron told him arrogantly.

“Then how is it there are so few of you left if you’ve been around since before the Progenitors?” Nathan asked tauntingly.

“We encountered another race called the Sinveck who we went to war with, both of us nearly wiped the other out and we are the only survivors of that war,” the Falcra King explained.

“If the nanno-virus is so unstable why would I want to use it again?” Nathan asked.

“The nanno-virus I offer is based off of Falcra technology not the incompetent junk that was created by the Progenitors and your own scientists,” the Falcra King explained. “With this nanno-virus you can tailor it to do what ever you wish it to do, and is fully malleable,” Sakron told him.

“And what exactly do you wish to have in return for this extremely marvelous nanno-virus,” Nathan practically sneered.

“One billion of your uncoated genetic slaves and a planet or moon of sufficient size for our home as well as 1.5 Quadrillion Galactic Standard Credits,” Sakron told him.

“That’s an awfully expensive price tag, the slaves alone represent three and a half trillion galactic standard credits and a moon of the size you would wish would cost untold credits,” Nathan said surprised at the audacity of the beggar before him.

“I realize that the cost would be astronomical,” Sakron agreed. “Would you like a demonstration?” the Falcra king asked.

“Certainly,” Nathan said.

“Do you have a slave that is unimportant to you?” Sakron asked.

“Certainly, Higet come in here a moment please,” Nathan ordered.

“Yes sire,” the slave known as Higet said entering the room and bowing deeply to his master.

“His highness King Sakron would like to demonstrate something,” Nathan explained. “King Sakron?” Nathan questioned gesturing at the slave.

“I need you to hold completely still for me,” Sakron ordered the slave.

“Yes your highness,” the slave said not moving.

Sakron paced behind the slave and stopped. Nathan watched raptly as the umbilicals trailing from the back of his head to his upper back started to writhe and then shot out impaling the sides of the slave’s neck and instantly stiffened.

For a second nothing happened as Nathan watched and then black fluid started flowing up and down the slave’s body and then flowed together as a re-breather style mask swam from the mass to mimic that of Sakron’s. After a few seconds umbilicals flowed from the figure’s head into its back and finally Sakron’s umbilicals released the slave who turned and bowed to Sakron.

“My king I await your orders,” the black figure said to Sakron.

“It is good to see you again Kaaepha,” Sakron said and then motioned for the Falcra to move out of the way.

“Interesting demonstration King Sakron,” Nathan said. “But how does implanting you people into a slave help me?” He asked with a raised brow.

Sakron nodded in acknowledgement, “you can easily modify the nanno-virus to do whatever you wish it to and within a short period of time, also information from one infected individual can be transferred to another or be copied and downloaded en mass to numerous infected at the same time allowing you to selectively program skills and information.”

“We have a deal then but first I wish for my own nanno-doctors to examine the virus,” Nathan agreed.

“Certainly but they’ll have to do it right here within my presence,” Sakron clarified.

“Certainly,” Nathan stabbed a button on his comm and ordered for his head nanno-scientists to come to the throne room with the needed equipment.

Neo-Prussian Empire - New Imperial Sector - Hamburg System

New Hamburg [Hamburg III] - Imperial Palace

March 11th, 1 2E C.E. - 21:00 CST

“Everything checks out as the Falcra representative stated your highness,” Dr. Nukian Geldmeyer informed his Emperor.

“Good Dr. Geldmeyer you may leave now and start discussing things with the people of you section,” the Emperor ordered. “Seems we have a deal,” the Emperor told the Falcra King as he dismissed the scientist.

“Certainly, as soon as we have the agreement filled out,” the Falcra King returned.

Nathan snapped his fingers and a slave brought an E-PADD to the Emperor who used a light stylus to sign the on-screen document and then handed it to the Falcra King who read over the document.

“All seems in order,” the King said and signed the E-PADD himself.

“Yes, I’ve had the funds transferred to a numbered account under the Fulfillment Achievement Life Center For Recreational Activity based off of the moon of Caulfield IVC in the Caulfield System, it should be plenty large enough for your needs,” the Emperor explained.

“I thank you Emperor,” the Falcra king said bowing to the Neo-Prussian Emperor.

“You are most welcome, and now for your end of the deal,” the Emperor said.

“Certainly,” the Falcra king stood still for a moment and then several more Falcra entered carrying a large tube full of black nannites. “These are the nannites that are part of our bargain,” Sakron told him and then left with the other Falcra in tow.

An odd look crossed Nathan’s face as he considered the large cylinder of nannites and then called in several slaves to transport it to the Nanno-Research Facility.

Theban Cluster - Caruthers Sector - Caruthers System

Caruthers World, Caruthers City

Unknown Date & Time

“Ack, war, war, and more war,” Jack said in disgust. “You’d think after all this time we’d be able to stop fighting so much,” Jack said shaking his head.

“Humanity has made some strong strides towards that,” Ethan explained. “But these unfortunately are few and far between. That and some star nations seem to be going out of their way to cause more problems; the Neo-Prussian Empire seems to be the basis of most of the galaxies problems at the moment.”

“Well that and all the parasitic and symbiotic races that see us as nothing but food and hosts, or spare parts or races like the Sssisssvarisss who consider other races nothing but slave labor, and the Neo-Prussians aren’t helping in that matter by breeding or turning those found guilty of crimes into genetic slaves,” Ethan shook his own head in disgust at what he had just said.

“Seems like humans aren’t the only ones fucked up in the head,” Jack said with a grin. “That’s always nice to know,” he said his grinning broadening.