Chapter Six

Orkhana

The Commanding officer of the Sirhan infiltration operation stared at the feed from his secondary observation location, a small section of the facility that they’d managed to carve out of the security grid and redirect feeds to as a fallback.

The Alliance was a complacent Bureaucracy at all levels, rarely really caring if the little details were correct so long as the broad strokes that affected the upper tiers of their society continued to draw the path they wished to see. It was not an unusual thing, he knew. Back home was much the same most of the time, and half the rest it was much worse.

Knowing that fact, however, was what allowed for the infiltration operation to go ahead in the first place.

Their Saviors had observed the Alliance for a great deal of time, learning the patterns and the little details that could be manipulated without also altering the broad strokes. That information had been absolutely invaluable to the operation.

Now, however, it was threated, and he wasn’t honestly certain how that had come about.

What brought the inspectors here? They must have located some of the unmarked and untracked weapons. But what we have been provided should still have kept them from following the trail back here. There should not have been a trail to follow.

Unfortunately, Highest had not been able to get a coherent response from the Saviors.

Sadly, that was not an entirely unexpected situation. The Saviors were not… easy to communicate with. Only the very best of Sirhan’s scientists, in some of the most esoteric of disciplines, were able to make much from the communications they did get and even they admitted freely that they were certain that a great deal of the meaning in each communique had been stripped out by the translation.

Still, they continued as they must, and that was what brought him here.

Sitting in a dark room, watching a lethal threat to his operation through pilfered security feeds.

A far cry from the days of being his world’s top military commander before he failed at his duty.

*****

They’re smart, they’re entrenched, and they have a plan they’re working toward, Sorilla thought as she let Sienele and the others go about their business, uncaring as to the immediate outcome short of them actually finding the targets, which she really did not expect.

The Sirhan were working for the Ross, of that she was certain. Perhaps directly, perhaps through cut-outs, that much didn’t matter. What mattered was that the Ross were defining the mission objectives, and that was problematic because no one she knew of had ever been able to figure out what in the hell passed for a thought in the brains of those twisted little greys.

The Ross were enigma incarnate, doing things that made no sense and not doing things that any sane species wouldn’t have even had to think about. They clearly had a goal, one that they were working toward, but ultimately it wasn’t a goal that made any sense to observers… not human, nor even Alliance observers as best she could tell.

Their closest allies, if they had any, couldn’t predict what the hell the Ross were thinking, what chance did anyone else have?

Sorilla was examining the data she’d pulled from the now destroyed tech the Sirhan had attempted to burn before she got to it, examining the encryption with a dark eye as she threw her entire suite of decryption software at it, getting nothing.

It wasn’t a code according to her gear, not that it couldn’t be cracked… but it wasn’t a code.

Then what the hell is it?

Sorilla rubbed her hand along her chin, staring at the numbers that flashed past her eyes on the corneal implants.

They… couldn’t be transmitting entirely in the open, could they?

That was insane, but… it was the Ross.

Ok, so what if it’s not encrypted at all? What is it then? Knowing what I know of the Ross, it’s probably advanced spacetime formulas, manipulated in a way that means something to them. But…

Sorilla stopped, a thought crossing her mind.

It was a stupid thought.

Too stupid… yet…

Proc, she subvocalized, eyes flicking to keep an eye on Sienele and the Lucians. None of them were paying any attention to her as she sat there quietly. Good. Pattern scan, look for…range differentials.

The processors in her chest, head, and armor all got to work, scanning through the data for anything that looked like location coordinates that could be converted to ranging data. It didn’t take long for the first hit.

Bingo. Ok, those are spacetime coordinates… but I can’t make heads or tails of the rest… but what if I group each of those together, run the sim through a space time algorithm and project it in three dimensions…

She was barely able to keep from flinching as her eyes were assaulted by a physically impossible construct. She killed the projection as quickly as she could and fought to keep from retching in response.

Ok, let’s not do that again.

Still, the projection had seemed to be coherent as best she could tell, rather that just some chaotic mess of conflicting data. She didn’t know if that was a promising thing or not, but Sorilla opted to take it as such.

She pensively considered the options, but the only thing she could think of was something she was very much not looking forward to trying.

After a few moments, some deep breaths, and a deep seated attempt to steel herself, Sorilla made her decision.

Proc, adjust for special reference points and… She grimaced, play the data through my accelerometers.

The computers seemed to stutter for a moment, processing the order and preparing to make it happen, giving Sorilla just enough time to truly regret every moment of her life that led to giving that order, and then the universe heaved around her.

*****

Sienele snuck a glance over to the Colonel, where the human was still sitting quietly and not causing any trouble. Irritatingly, that made him more concerned about what she was up to rather than less. He looked away again before she could notice him and leaned quietly in to where Kriss was standing.

“Keep a tighter leash on your pet,” He growled. “She was out of our observation for too long. We have no way of knowing what she was up to, but with her skill set any time is too long.”

Kriss merely leveled an unimpressed stare at her. “Oh please. She is hardly anyone’s pet, as you are most certainly aware, but even her skills would hardly amount to much in the circumstances. There are limits to what an individual can accomplish, even were she Lucian she could not have caused much damage.”

“But she is not Lucian,” Sienele hissed. “A Lucian would think in terms of sabotage, inflicting maximum damage on us directly, now. She won’t. She will be looking for ways to plant seeds, seeds that may take a year, or a decade, or a century to blossom… but when they do, will inflict damage far in excess of what anyone could accomplish in the moment. I know you like her, find her interesting and a challenge… I share the sentiment, but keep this in mind… if she is determined to have learned too much, or the wrong things, she cannot be allowed to leave Alliance space alive.”

Kriss had no response to that, not immediately at least. Sienele almost thought that he’d gotten the message.

“Do you think they might assign the task of ending her to me?” Kriss asked, his tone slightly excited.

Sienele couldn’t quite muffle the groan he let out.

Lucians.

*****

It was… well, eye opening wasn’t the right word since she wasn’t using her eyes, but the phrase did convey the emotions she felt at that moment better than anything else. Sorilla could feel the message as it propagated through spacetime, read the subtle nuances that whirled like eddies in a brooke.

It was communication, but it wasn’t language.

There was raw intent in the data, combined with orders and instructions and… background data on the facility she was standing in. Sorilla twitched and an image of the facility in four dimensions appeared in her mind.

Not merely the blueprints or the layout of the massive production facility, but everything about it as it existed through time. She could see them breaking ground, the concrete… or, whatever it was, being laid down. Floors being constructed, machines being installed. Everything, all at once and yet broken into slices at the same time.

Sorilla was nearly sent reeling when the program finished running the data, slumping back against the wall she was relying on to keep herself from falling over as she stared, wide eyed, at nothing, her mind reeling.

That’s how they communicate. It’s not math, it’s… mass. They talk in spacetime, how mass deforms and distorts the universe.

It explained everything, and nothing, all at the same time. Much, she supposed, the way the communication had shown her everything and nothing. The Ross were the most unique life form ever discovered, she suspected by anyone, Alliance or Terran… but no one realized it because no one could even approach just how unique they were.

She knew, though, or at least knew enough to have a sliver of a glimpse of the truth.

The problem with that was… what did she do with it? What could she do with it?

The Ross were running their own operations, certainly ones that were not to the benefit of the Alliance, but she doubted that they would leave human operations alone in the future either. They were a surprisingly one tracked species, given how multi-tracked their understanding of spacetime had to be, but…

It came down to their motivations. She might have gained a glimpse of how the Ross saw and interacted with the universe, but it didn’t solve why they did things the way they did. That was the missing piece, possibly the last missing pieces that she needed to drop all the rest of the confused chaotic mess into a coherent picture.

Too bad learning their motivations was far easier to talk about than to actually accomplish.

Sorilla took a break, steadying herself, and pushed off the wall to her feet.

It’s time to get back to work.

*****

The Commander twisted intently, staring at the screen.

“Something just happened. What was that?”

“Commander? I do not understand, nothing happened.”

He ignored the confusion of his subordinate, focusing instead on the alien on the screen. He’d seen enough in his life to know when someone had made a decision, reached some sort of understanding. The alien’s entire demeanor had just changed, like some enormous weight had been lifted or…

No, not lifted… shifted.

Something had just changed. He could see it in the way the alien moved, but there was simply not enough information to tell him just what that was. Whatever it was, however, he could tell that the alien was now in motion, with a mission.

That was not something that the Commander expected to bode well for his operation.

Damn it. We did not need any more complications.

“Jirat,” He snapped.

“Yes Commander!”

“Send to the Saviors. I believe the operation to be entirely compromised. Request instructions.”

“Yes Commander.”

That was it. The call had been made, now it was up the Highest to make the final decision.

In the meantime, preparations had to be made.

*****

Sienele spotted the motion and turned back to see the Colonel approaching.

“Yes, Colonel?”

“I’m getting bored,” She told him, the expression making him double back to look at her more intensely. “If you don’t want me running around on my own, mind if I join one of the inspection teams?”

Sienele stared for a moment, mind racing as he considered both the request and the tone in which it had been delivered. There was something there in the way she spoke that he could not quite place. Reading any race’s expressions was difficult at the best of times, unfortunately, and the humans were not yet a fully studied species.

“I believe you have been running around quite enough already,” He countered.

Kriss snorted. “I’ll go with her, if you like.”

Sienele skewered the unrepentant Lucian with a gaze, and was entirely ignored of course.

Scoffing, he gave it up. “Fine. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“Not until I receive more interesting orders at least,” Kriss said, toothily grinning.

Sienele tiredly waved them both off. He didn’t have the time, nor the patience, for that nonsense at the moment. There were far too many other draws on his focus, sapping his energy. Better to let the two biggest pains in his unmentionables run off and play on their own. Who knows, they might even manage to stir up the little infiltration issue that needed to be dealt with.

Kriss chuckled in a low gravely tone and gestured to the Colonel, allowing her to take the lead as he followed along behind.

Sienele watched them go, a fleeting thought entering his mind that it would solve at least a few of his headaches if the Lucian just put that captured knife through her armor then and there. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, he knew that would not happen. It was too sane a move for the Lucian.

No, if Kriss killed the Colonel, Sienele knew it would be under orders, face to face, and likely with a great deal of injuries on both of them before it was done.

Lucians.

*****

“Well now, Colonel,” Kriss said, voice dripping with what Sorilla recognized as amusement. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“In mind? I’m just bored, felt like stretching my legs,” She countered.

The Lucian Sentinel snorted. “Tell that to someone else. I can read you well enough to tell that, you’re moving like you just finished a mission brief. What did you figure out?”

She chuckled softly. “I suppose I am. I’ll make a note to be more careful in the future. I might have an idea of where the enemy is located. Maybe.”

“And how, pray tell, would you know that? How could you?” Kriss came up abreast of her and turned his head enough to pin her with a stare.

Sorilla shrugged. “I was able to see some things in the fire before they were destroyed.”

She wasn’t even lying, really, just not mentioning that she’d taken the time to properly scan them before throwing them back into the flames.

“Oh? Interesting. And you didn’t mention it to our dear spymaster?” Kriss asked, his tone almost… teasing.

Sorilla found it disconcerting to hear such a tone from the stocky killing machine at her side, but she easily shrugged it off.

“I wasn’t sure what I had seen, to be honest,” she said, again telling the straight truth though without some rather important context. “I’ve been thinking about it ever since.”

“And what was it that you saw then?”

“A map, of sorts, of this facility,” She replied.

Kriss was silent for a moment. “You should be careful of what things you happen to… see.”

Sorilla paused in her step, turning to look over and down at the shorter and stockier alien.

“Should I now?” she asked softly.

Kriss gestured in the affirmative, his tone becoming serious and guarded. “It is not beyond possibility that orders might be given to ensure you do not return to human controlled space. You must be aware.”

“Orders given… to you?”

“Possible, but unlikely,” Kriss said, sounding disappointed. “No, more likely they would want an accident rather than an assassination or a proper warrior’s death. If it were to come to me, I would likely not bother to tell you this. It would be a great pleasure to once more meet you in combat, Colonel.”

Sorilla nodded, turning back, and starting to walk again. “Understood. Between us, while I’m not so eager for it as you… if we must, it would be an honor indeed.”

Kriss just grinned.

“For now, however, we have a mission.”

*****

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