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Hyperspace Tunnel, Departing Maretta, 2413: If not for the smuggler captain who brought us here, we might all be dead by now! I'll never forget the screaming klaxons and blazing warning lights as the Meklar bombers poured out of hyperspace into the Maretta system! They are surrounding the planet even now, and transports are sure to follow, though we thankfully got out of there before any appeared in realspace. Thankfully, we were all together - Sasha, Miristys and me - and Sasha had the presence of mind to call the smuggler captain on her holophone. He didn't reveal his image - he never does; just the symbol of a gleaming star with eagle wings - but answered at once in his gruff but straightforward way that his ship was in dock and ready to jump, and he'd take us on board right away. We rushed to the star dock, Miristys and myself cradled in Sasha's powerful arms, since she can eat the ground up in a single stride to my three, and Miristys still can hardly move at all, and once we were on board, the captain confirmed we we all were inside, remotely slammed the airlock, and threw us back against the rear wall with the force of acceleration and gravity. We got out just in time, as the Meklar fleet was gathering, and have spent the whole time since then settling Miristys as best we can in a medium that will be healthy for it. It keeps reassuring us kindly that even the empty deck is a better environment than anything it could hope for in the world it left behind, and I know - on more than one count - it speaks the truth, but nevertheless, we couldn't forgive ourselves if we rescued it only to let it waste away in hyperspace; we put together the best reproduction we can of the portable habitat we were making for it back on Maretta. It's going to pull through - we all are. I don't even know where we're going, but we're leaving Meklar space, and that's what counts.
I finally manage to sort through the messages I intercepted on our way out from Maretta, and the news is bleak. It appears that negotiations are almost complete between RBO-23 and its Psilon near-allies to unite in war against the Silicoids and exchange technologies - Meklar stabilizer designs for the Psilons' duralloy armor - correcting the Meklars' only shortcoming in ground combat against the Silicoids. It seems certain the deals will be finalized in 2414. The only good news is mixed: We may in fact have fled Maretta too soon. It seems the bombers were using the star as a way-point only, with no local invasion yet prepared, as they proceed toward their next real target, wherever it may be.
(OOC Note: I love doing creative tech trades, but am well aware of the potential exploits associated with them, so I've been trying to avoid taking advantage of the AI's obsession with things like Inertial Stabilizers, trading them for lesser-but-useful techs instead of for the high-level techs the AI so often offers for them. Of course, I don't do trades like Soil Enrichment to Silicoids at all. Some would argue IS trades aren't really exploitive at all, and I'm not sure I'd disagree with them; as with the Wait button, I'm just trying things out here, to see how it affects the game....)
Outer Reaches, Hyades System, 2417: The captain's gruff voice comes over the onboard speakers. "We may have some trouble here." The viewscreen goes active, and I can see the massive fleet clustered around the system's primary world, their lights gleaming red as the ancient star itself in the night of space. Hyades, a star I first encountered as a Human colony, has changed hands several times in the past decades, a flashpoint for the war between the ursine people and the rest of the free races of the galaxy - a war surely started by Strader's madness and popularity. Just now however, as the viewscreen's local map updates itself automatically, I see that it belongs to the Bulrathi. They surely mean no harm to me, but my companions...
Our captain's gruff voice comes to us once more: "I'm going to have to help you two get under cover. We'll be out of here as soon as I refuel." The same voice - but something's subtly different about it. I look up and gasp when I see why: It's not being piped through a speaker anymore. The smuggler captain looms above us in the flesh, for the first time. He's never left his control room and personal cabin in our presence before - but now he does, and looms indeed: A massive ursine presence, with muscles like cables defining every limb. I must be gawking, because he snorts at me. "Don't act so shocked, Ref. How did you think I got the Bulrathi contraband I smuggle across the battle lines? Why did you think I was always skulking in by back ways, doing smuggling runs when there's so much money to be made as a legitimate merchant? That money's always been for races who aren't at war with each other - and for the longest time, that's meant every race there was, except mine."
Sasha is holding Miristys tightly, protectively. She won't lose it - or us - without a fight. She's braced, prepared for anything, as she asks, "What do you intend to do with us?"
His eyes move to her, and I expect a growling retort, but instead his face - his entire posture - seems to soften, like candle wax near a gentle flame. "I'm going to get you out of here as soon as I can, Sasha." Even his voice is softer somehow. He suddenly reminds me of something she once spoke of to me - a giant teddy bear. He reaches out a massive paw to her. "They'll scan this ship but good, with the way we came in, but I'll help you and Istys hide where no scans will reach. I don't make my living as a smuggler for nothing." He seems to melt still more, this time with sorrow, as she hesitates. In a softer voice than I knew he had, he tells her, "I've always been Bulrathi. Will you stop trusting me just because now you can see me?"
Sasha looks away, and her eyes fall on the holodisplay ... and slowly grow wide. She shivers. "Stalaz..." She looks at me, and I follow her eyes back to the screen. She whispers, "Strader's starfleet founded it the same year I met you." On the map, it's glowing pale green.
"They've taken it," she whispers, "The way they took Klystron from the Silicoids."
"And my homeworld before that," I agree. They had not only captured the world, but assimilated the knowledge of its people - designs for warp dissipators, gatling lasers, barren colony bases, death spores, and class 3 deflectors were all added to the Meklar technological stores, and they're sure to turn that knowledge into more.
Our captain is looking down at his open paw, half-stretched toward Sasha still, his face gone soft with sorrow. Sasha steps forward at last, and places her hand on his palm, surrounded by his claws. Her voice is trembling. "I'm sorry. Nicalseref was right. If we don't work together, the Meklar will take us all, one by one, separately. If we can't put our leaders' wars aside ourselves when we've helped each other so reliably, how can we expect them to unite against the common enemy? I do trust you, Captain. More than the Human captains under whom I served for years. You've been very kind to us, and I'm very grateful. Forgive me for doubting you. Please."
He shakes his head, and softly covers her hand with his other paw. "No forgiveness is needed." His happiness, renewed and warm, is visible in his face. "Let's get you to safety before the patrol ships arrive." As the ships slowly approach from beside the nearest Bulrathi dreadnought, he lifts Sasha and Miristys to the ceiling as easily as a father might lift a child, then seeing my concern, lifts me into Sasha's arms as well. With one huge paw, he slides a heavy ceiling panel away, then lifts us all beyond it. "That's a heavily shielded compartment with electromagnetic echo-imaging generators to make it read like a huge nutritional fungus colony to bioscans. There's an emergency release lever in case of utmost desperation, but wait for me, and when we're clear, I'll help you down. Are you comfortable up there?" I nod, and Sasha thanks him, and Miristys shimmers its own reply, and he says, "Good. Don't worry. Sit tight."
It feels like an eternity of waiting, but Sasha holds me close, and I feel very safe with her. There's so much I want to ask her, or to ask our ursine captain ... but for now, we must wait in silence together.
Departing Maretta, 2423: Everywhere we turn, strife and chaos reign. Even aboard our smuggling ship, the captain is pretending nothing happened at Hyades except a routine stop; I can't persuade him to tell me anything at all. The huge Psilon death fleet just arriving at Helos is only the latest example, with its 63 heavy ion and fusion cannons, three megabolt/fusion beam turrets, and 164 death spore bays with payloads of five spores apiece. We came here in light of our captain's revelation, hoping to persuade Carnax, through Maretta's governor, to make peace with Durpp, but the governor remained completely intransigent, even as the transports of the Silicoids' real enemy were flooding space, conquering the ultra-rich star of Toranor for the Meklar five years ago, and the small, toxic world at Helos two years later, where their spies and assimilation drones brought them plans for anti-missile rockets, another small improvement to their terraforming technology, anti-matter bombs, and nuclear engines, all in the same year. It was then that we first spotted the massive Psilon fleet en route to Helos - originally meant to destroy the Silicoid colony there, but at last too committed to its course to turn back when it found the Meklar had already conquered the system. Would that the encounter could have led to war! But with warp dissipators installed aboard their Interdict 2 destroyer and Arc Lamp 4 cruiser, the Meklar froze the Psilon fleet in place instead and negotiated a peaceful end to the battle with the Psilon captains helpless and no ships even damaged in the course of the fight. Our Captain Graur has learned besides that while we were refueling and resupplying at Hyades, the Meklar were negotiating a massive trade agreement and non-aggression pact with the ursines and bringing them back into the then-lapsed Bularathi-Silicoid war. The Meklar have assimilated the skills and knowledge of my homeworld's greatest diplomats, and the best among the Humans of Stalaz, and are using them to divide and conquer the galaxy as they did Meklon itself. Even now, transports are reportedly on their way here, and we have no choice but to flee the system once more.
Leaving Iranha system, 2431: The past several years - for us and all the people of the galaxy - can perhaps be best summed up by a look at the ships and transports racing across the primary war zone in the galaxy. Humans, Psilons, and Bulrathi continue to contest Hyades while the Silicoids struggle against the Meklar at Helos and Maretta - the latter horribly assimilated three years ago, complete with plans for stinger missiles. Worst of all, the forward Meklar fleet established itself over Sol, destroying all its nearly 40 stinger bases and its defensive fighter fleet. Transports will be on their way by now, and their bombers are in striking range of this system, so we must flee once more. They've had us on the run so long, we've had no chance to make any headway diplomatically, and the galaxy has been polarized or in chaos: 32 non-Meklar votes were split 16 to 16 between Carnax and Dynalon in 2425, while RBO-23 cast half a dozen against his silicon-based enemy, and yet just this year, through the Iranha communications net, I heard Emperor Carnax compliment RBO-23 for recognizing the supposed threat of the Humanity! In his madness, Emperor Strader has managed to alienate the entire galaxy, and is now in full flight - much like ourselves - to his one remaining holdout world of Zhardan, far to the east, with the Meklar expected to assimilate his homeworld next year, along with his only remaining technological edge: The designs for a mark four battle computer, class five ECM, and neutron blasters.
We'll have to head for Zhardan too, but by a more roundabout route; as Sasha said as we discussed it today, her face buried in her hands, we seem to have no other choice. I wished I could somehow comfort her, but felt helpless to do so ... and saw that softness again, as he looked at her, in Graur's face across the table. It was a gentleness, a helplessness, a love, that echoed mine for the human woman whose courage and curiosity and openness to alien peoples has brought us together - more perhaps than even my knowledge of the Meklar. I looked to Miristys and saw the same soft love in its crystalline glow. It is not the love of male for female - we are none of us even of the same species, and Silicoid Miristys isn't male - it is a love born of friendship forged by trust through crises of deadly danger, and a love above all for Sasha, for who she is within herself. I don't know when or how it took Captain Graur, but it has taken him entirely; the love I feel for Sasha I see magnified a thousand-fold in his massive ursine heart.
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Next: Division
