Chapter Sixteen

Portal Ship

Sorilla checked around the corner as she made her way deeper into the enemy ship, heading for a place she’d only been once before.

The Ross used their ships for more than just fighting, something she hadn’t known the first time she boarded one. They were powerful warships, of that there was no question, the most powerful any human ship had ever encountered, to the point that while some human vessels had emerged victorious against them… none had survived a direct strike from a Ross ship.

Not one.

During the war, a ship either got out of the focal point of the Ross weapon, or it died. There was no middle ground.

Even planets were not proof against their weaponry if the Ross were put upon sufficiently.

So, when she’d learned that the fire power of a Ross ship was literally its least dangerous aspect, well that had thrown the cat in amongst the mice back at SOLCOM.

The ships were, in many ways, mobile Jump points that interconnected a private interstellar FTL network owned and controlled by the Ross themselves.

They could move forces across lightyears if they had to, or chose to. A single portal ship could provide a beachhead that few military forces could hope to defend against. So potent a strategic asset was that, that SOLCOM had immediately put Ross ships on a destroy on sight list. They were the only thing on that list, but it had been made clear to the Alliance that the Ross were Persona Non Grata to SOLCOM.

Orders were to destroy them where they were found, whether it was in SOLCOM space… or anywhere else.

Sorilla wasn’t certain she’d be able to fulfill such an order, but she was retired anyway. What were they going to do, fire her?

She was heading for the portal room, however, as much for her own interests as gathering any sort of intelligence, and if something came up? Well, she’d be well placed to do something about it, if nothing else.

Let’s see what there is to find.

*****

Alliance Cruiser Upwind

The Parithalian Cruiser that Sienele was working out of at the moment was one of the most powerful Alliance vessels in service, short of those employed by the Ross and the Sturm, but for all that Sienele would feel a great deal better once he was back within an Administrative System and could see to securing his prisoners properly for their interrogation.

The Sirhan were uncommunicative, which wasn’t a surprise even if it were more than a little bit frustrating. He had seen their type before, and knew that breaking them would be a long painful process… more for them than him, of course, but painful enough for him just the same.

The interrogation options on Administrative worlds were easier on everyone involved.

They were true believers, much like the humans on the last two worlds they’d dealt with. The Ross seemed to like making use of such people.

Unsurprising. True believers are the easiest to twist into doing whatever you want. Just convince them that their belief will be served by it, and they’ll leap to your service.

They always believed themselves to be rational, which was perhaps the least rational thing about them. Once they were locked into a course of action they’d convinced themselves was right… well, there was nothing that would dissuade them in his experience, short of death.

The Alliance had its fair share, as he had learned did the humans.

And the Ross are manipulating them all. I would have sworn that the Ross were too unlike any of them to even be able to comprehend basic communication, but they manage this? They have fooled us, deeply.

That was the biggest problem.

That the Ross were engaging in operations that weren’t entirely to the good of the Alliance, that was not a surprise. Nor was it unique to the Ross, for that matter. The member species of the Alliance all had their little games of dominance and such, it was expected to some degree, and tolerated to the same so long as they did not get too far beyond the line.

In part, Sienele’s organization was the watchbeast that curtailed those actions when they got out of hand.

The fact that they had written off the Ross as being too alien to have properly executed the very sort of maneuver that they were supposed to police against was a very dark mark against both his organization… and himself.

He walked through the corridors of the Parithalian vessel, making his way to the observation deck that was generally reserved for Masters of Fleets or visiting dignitaries like himself. It was a place that he could observe the operations without getting in the way of those who were tasked to carry them out.

“Envoy.”

Kriss was already there when Sienele entered the deck, thick arms clasped behind him as he looked over the operations deck and the open space beyond.

The view left much to be desired, Sienele supposed, but deep space was like that. Only when nearing planets, or other objects of interest, was there anything to even look at besides the unblinking stars, and much of that time… well, planets were planets. It did not take long before any majesty in that view was lost to the repetition of the experience.

“Sentinel,” He returned the greeting, stepping over to the observation area so he could look down on the activities of those on the Command Deck of the cruiser. “I trust all is well.”

It wasn’t a question, merely polite words.

Kriss seemed to think otherwise.

“No, Envoy, I find myself rather… disjointed.” The Lucian admitted.

“Oh?” Sienele supposed he had an idea of what had caused that, but even the straightforward Lucians occasionally surprised him.

“A warrior deserves a better end than to be killed by saboteurs in such a cowardly attack.”

“Ah.”

And sometimes they were exactly what he expected from them.

Sienele had rather liked the Colonel as well, despite his misgivings concerning bringing her into Alliance space. In many ways he believed that he preferred this ending for the woman, rather than being forced to have her killed by his own order, but he could appreciate the academic consideration Kriss was making.

“She was an impressive specimen,” He allowed, tilting his head slightly. “One end or another, none of them take from her accomplishments.”

Kriss snorted softly, amused, “This is true. I often joked that I would have liked to meet her in battle again, but…”

The Lucian brought a hand up to his side, grimacing slightly, “I have little doubt how it would have ended. By her hand, that would have been an acceptable cap to my life as a Sentinel.”

“You are not dead yet,” Sienele said, irritated by the attitude of the Lucian.

The species was not all quite as insane as their Sentinels, but they were some of the more fatalistic of the Alliance species by a significant margin. Often, dealing with them was a matter of not quite believing how serious they were when they spoke, despite knowing that they rarely hid much of their thoughts. Lucians didn’t consider it worth the time to lie or exaggerate, not that they had any moral objections to it of course… they just tended to believe that if you were worth lying to, you were probably worth killing instead.

A frustrating people.

“This is my last operation as an active Sentinel. We both know that.” Kriss said darkly. “If the enemy does not kill me this time, they will have lost the opportunity. My injuries assure that.”

“Most would consider that a victory,” Sienele offered dryly. “You survived a career that would kill almost any other sentient in the Alliance. Be proud.”

“Pride. What use is it?” Kriss asked, shaking himself slightly. “You cannot eat it. You cannot spend it. It is not a weapon in your hand… but it is a weapon in your enemy’s. No, Envoy, I have no use for it.”

That… was perhaps a more profound statement than he expected from the Lucian… from any Lucian.

“I always considered you to be quite proud of your martial prowess,” He said softly.

“Perhaps,” Kriss conceded, “We are, none of us, free from sin or foolish mistakes, whether in the blossom of our youth or the stoutness of age. But I think you mistake genuine joy for pride, to some degree at least. I was born to be a Sentinel, Envoy. It was everything I wanted for my life.”

Sienele watched the activity on the Command Deck below as the cruiser continued the long climb out of the star’s gravity well, heading for the Jump Point, while he considered those words.

“What will you do?” He asked finally.

“Train others,” Kriss said. “It… is not a bad end, merely not the end I would have wished for.”

That made some sense to Sienele. Kriss had been one of the first tier Sentinels, both for Luca and for the Alliance for a long time. Longer than most managed, and he had not lived through a peaceful period either. His experience would be of great value.

“I have little doubt that you will excel in that, as you have in your other duties.”

Kriss simply shrugged, now falling silent.

Sienele supposed that there was little else to say. They had finished their mission, well all but for the final delivery. Once Kriss was officially off mission, he would be required to undergo a full medical review. Sienele knew that he was right, the Administrative Board would pull him from active duty once his injuries were made clear.

Ending one’s career by exposing what might be the greatest threat the Alliance has ever faced? It is not a bad end, no matter what he might think.

The two continued to stand in silence, with nothing to do but wait while the cruiser made its way out of the system.

*****

Portal Ship

The conclave were once more splitting their focus, mostly because their primary concern… the human identified as Entropy… was currently evading their attempts to locate her, even within one of their own ships, but also because the Alliance team were approaching the jump point that would take them from the production system to one of the Alliance’s central Administrative systems. Additionally, and unfortunately, they were also sending more forces to curtail the rampage of the humans’ automatons.

However, for the moment, the Alliance ship and its approaching leap into Jump Space was taking priority.

Jump point incidents were… uncommon, but far from unknown, and short of a blatant assault on the vessel that was their best option for eliminating the threat to the plan with minimal consequences to the long-term outcome.

The vessel will reach space warping positional frame shortly. Has the conclave made a decision?

Destroy them.

Agreed.

There were no dissenting voices this time, the decision was fairly straightforward and clear. By ending the Alliance vessel as it jumped clear, the current threat to the long-term objective would be contained. Certainly, some suspicions would remain, of that there was no doubt, but suspicions were not something that the People were unused to dealing with.

The Alliance races had never trusted them fully. They would have been foolish to, in fact. The current state of affairs was less of an alliance and more of an… uneasy cease fire, despite what the popular media within the alliance might want to believe.

Very well. Operation will initiate shortly. Begin adjusting the equations.

*****

Sorilla slipped into another storeroom, this one a little closer to her objective. She had to assume that the Ross were observing her, so she couldn’t remain in any one place for long. Otherwise, they’d swarm her again and she doubted she’d find another supply of cougar tanks to provide a neat little distraction.

The current area was a smaller room, though still quite large. At a glance she wasn’t sure what she was looking at, however. None of the equipment was anything she was familiar with, which she expected probably meant that it wasn’t military kit or, at least, not common issue kit. She’d seen most of what the Ross seemed to prefer to field, or so she felt at least.

Sorilla hesitated, but ultimately her curiosity got the best of her and she gravitated to the console interface, quickly lighting it up and getting access to the local inventory management system the Ross made use of.

This whole situation would be so much easier if they hadn’t sandboxed their inventory systems, ah well.

Without being able to get deeper access from the inventory systems, Sorilla didn’t worry so much about trying to find things she knew wouldn’t be there and just skimmed the listings for anything she, or her computer, might recognize.

The Ross stored everything in mathematical formulae, which was in turn written out in their own language.

That was both easier and harder to deal with than a normal language.

Easier because math was a fundamental ‘language’ of the universe, it was true no matter who you were, where you were, and so on. That made it relatively straightforward to decode.

Decoding wasn’t the end, however, but only the beginning. Math, while a fundamental language in its own right, didn’t supply the context that language did. It didn’t convey emotions, or intent, just reality. And, also, the universe was incredibly complex.

Sir Isaac Newton was a superlative mathematician. However, even if the Ross formulae were converted into Arabic numerals for him to peruse, Sorilla was quite certain that they would make no sense to him at all. He would have been lacking some of the basic variables that were necessary to properly understanding the numbers.

Things like how time and space were one and the same, and relative to the observer. That concept didn’t exist for him, and would have made the velocity calculations she was observing a complete mish mash of nonsense to anyone who tried to decode them prior to Einstein’s work being published.

The universe was, for all practical purposes, infinite… and that meant that there were always variables that couldn’t be entirely accounted for. Knowing which variables the Ross properly understood was key to decoding their math, but of course if those variables were part of concepts that humans had yet to understand… well, it became problematic.

This isn’t weaponry, Sorilla decided as she examined the code as quickly as she could. Environmental scanners? I think this block of numbers is at least.

She paused, turning her head to check the section of the room indicated by the inventory system.

Huh, I wonder if those are the same ones that recorded the map I acquired earlier?

That was something she had a great deal of interest in, and so she took a few moments to check the numbers against the symbols on the storage units, and then made her way over to the one so indicated.

It was a sealed unit, what SOLCOM might issue sensitive gear in, though it looked more advanced than a Pelican Case with non-Newtonian padding. Sorilla pulled one out of the cage it was in and popped the lid with interest.

Let’s see what we have here, she thought with some anticipation.

*****

Entropy has been located!

Where is she?

The conclave shifted focus back, seeing the target displayed on the projection.

Secondary storage.

Weapons?

There was some trepidation in that single word, the voice sounding worried about what might be found and what Entropy might once again turn against them.

No. Recording devices, planetary surveying equipment primarily. Nothing of any particular threat.

The relief was palpable at that statement, and quickly the conclave got back to work.

Summon more security.

*****

This… is not what I expected.

Sorilla drew the… device? She wasn’t sure, actually, but the contents of the case slipped out and into her hands. Visually it was a little uncomfortable to look at, changing as she moved it, like it was folding in on itself or something similar.

What she was getting from her accelerometers, now that was weird. She’d not been able to feel it in the case, but she wasn’t sure if that was due to shielding or proximity. The pull it gave was very weak, only barely noticeable even in her hand where it was right next to one of the sensors buried in her body.

What was strange was that it wasn’t constant, but seemed to fluctuate with the movement she… was and wasn’t seeing. Sorilla honestly wasn’t certain there were words in the English language, or any human language aside from advanced mathematics, to describe it.

What it did have, however, was an interface signal that her armor recognized.

Standard Ross interface too, she determined as she linked into the device and examined the very simple data stream it was sending.

Really nothing more than an opening screen with a few options, the easiest to decode being the ‘on’ button.

Sorilla glanced around, then shook her head slightly.

Screw it.

She turned it on.

Realtime data flooded her suit and implants, almost overwhelming her at first while she and her implants attempted to decode it, but it was far too complex and coming way too fast. Her primary processor started to overheat almost immediately, automatically throttling back to prevent brain damage and was quickly followed by the secondaries as they attempted to take up the load and found themselves in similar circumstances.

Sorilla sandboxed the data quickly, immediately feeling her head clear.

Holy crap that’s a lot of information.

She wasn’t certain if even a supercomputer could decode that in anything resembling real-time, there was so much. She’d only gotten a small fraction of the equations decoded, but could tell that they were more than just scanner data. The unit was attempting to feed… something, something she didn’t understand, through the stream.

Definitely taking this, Sorilla decided as she rose to her feet, tucking the device into a pouch on her belt, pushing it around to the back.

There’s so much here that SOLCOM would love to get their hands on, she thought, looking around the room briefly. Too bad.

It was time to go, before they caught up with her again.

Making her way over to the exit, Sorilla again brought up the map gained from earlier forays into the Ross vessels. She was still aiming for their portal room, but had a ways to go. If the guessing they’d made was correct, there was another security or command relay room a short distance away in more or less the right direction.

She’d head for that next.

The sound of footsteps coming her way prompted Sorilla to move quickly, trying to stay a step ahead of the horde.

*****

Entropy is moving again.

This would be simpler if she would remain still, but I suppose that is too much to ask.

The conclave shared a moment of amusement at the thought of the infamous Entropy politely waiting for them to encircle her. It was somewhat less likely than the Alliance learning to mind their own affairs.

What is her goal?

That was a good question, and one that shifted the focus of the conclave as they began to analyze her actions thus far. She was working her way deeper into the ship, rather than attempting to escape it as one might expect would be considered wise. Her pattern was erratic, but that was likely as much due to her being redirected by their actions as by any choice of her own.

Are we certain she has one? Entropy is… entropy.

A point, another voice conceded, but do not ascribe supernatural malice to her. The title we gave was more due to her effect than her intent, we believe. It is likely that she has no true idea the scope of the… conflicts she has created.

That was an old argument about those assigned to deal with the human female known to them as Entropy. Her actions were bizarre, often at odds with any sort of logical stratagem they might have predicted, yet the results often exploded far above and beyond any reasonable outcome that could have been calculated.

Even for such as the People, the universe was an infinitely complex system… with variables that even they had not entirely identified.

Her next goal appears to be a sub-system convergence a short distance from her current location. Disable the systems there?

No. Leave them active, merely loop all commands so that she cannot initiate anything without our approval. Let us see what she is looking for.

Very well. Order security to keep back? Or press her harder? Do we wish to learn her intent, or eliminate her?

Both. Have her pressed, if she is killed… a victory. If she survives, then we learn more. Also a victory.

Agreed.

With the decision made, the conclave turned their focus back to the other matter immediately at hand.

The Alliance vessel was nearing the jump point.

It would not be long now.

*****

Parithalian Cruiser Upwind

As they watched the last preparations for the jump were being made. The cruiser would enter the jump point soon, and this mission would be over.

Sienele sighed softly.

It was well past time, in his opinion. They had learned much, and much of it was disturbing to say the very minimum. That there were conspiracies within the Alliance was nothing new, of course. The breadth of this one, that made it unique.

“Envoy, we are exiting the system well,” a Parithalian aide said from behind him. “The Master of Ships will be engaging the jump drive shortly.”

“Very good, thank him for keeping me up to date.” Sienele said casually.

“Yes, Envoy.”

*****

“Charging Drives.”

Master of Ships Jar Nelim nodded his acknowledgement as he reviewed the transport equations for any errors before signing off on them and sending them back to the Navigation console with his approval.

“Secure all hands, all decks,” He ordered. “Prepare to transit to jump space.”

“Yes, Master of Ships. All hands, all decks, secure for Jump!”

Nelim did what was about the only thing he could do after that order was given - he watched the numbers count down as they closed ever closer on the position of universal null-gravitational effect that was a local stellar jump point.

The Upwind was reporting back, deck by deck, that it was ready for the jump and shortly they would be exiting the production system and en-route for the nearest Administrative one.

All very routine and normal.

“Master of Ships…”

“What is it?” Nelim asked, looking over to the speaker, a young officer manning the gravitation scanning console.

“There are… anomalies in the scan.”

I apparently thought about the routine a little too soon.

Nelim sighed, getting to his feet, and crossing the deck. Anomalies were not all that uncommon, most systems had unmapped planets if you bothered to look for them, generally orbiting far out in the outer sphere of the primary’s influence. So far out that they reflected no light and generally took extreme periods to make a single revolution.

That meant that jump points could shift from time to time, even going from extremely stable for centuries only to suddenly dance around like mad when the planet in question finally came around for a visit.

It was a navigational hazard, but one that could be dealt with easily enough by an experienced hand.

“Show me,” He said as he got to the console, leaning over.

“Right here,” Finel, the young officer said, pointing. “It just appeared a moment ago, watch.”

Finel ran the numbers back, showing what the instruments had scanned. Everything was running appropriate to the predictions until, from one moment to the next, the anomaly appeared.

Nelim blinked, leaning in closer.

That’s not… what is that?

Unmapped masses didn’t just appear from one moment to the next like that. Gravity didn’t work that way. It should have shown gradually, likely over years if anyone watching, but perhaps only being noticed when a ship passed through to scan it.

It shouldn’t have appeared like someone flipped a…

Nelim froze.

“Signal combat alert,” He ordered. “All decks, rig for war!”

“Combat alert!” He second repeated the order. “Rig for war!”

*****

Sienele twisted as the alert sounded, eyes flicking over to lock with Kriss who was also moving to the observation deck to get a closer look.

“What is going on?” Sienele demanded of the aide.

“I do not know. The Master of Ships is not able to respond!”

Damn it. Of course, he isn’t, if he’s signaling a combat alert, something far more important is taking up his time.

Sienele hated not knowing what was going on, but he couldn’t be more than frustrated at the fact that the Master of Ship’s was unavailable. After all, there was nothing that he could do about the situation.

It was all the Master of Ship’s play… for now.

He settled in beside Kriss… and watched.

*****

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