The Black

Clint welcomed Ivar and Martina into the Orlivaro’s home. Ivar gave Clint a warm “man hug” and laughed as Martina completely ignored them with a squee as Frie popped around the corner holding a wide-eyed Natalia.

“Dam Admiral, you married up.” Ivar whistled as he looked about the estate, “Thanks for having us over, Marty has been dying to see Frie and Natalia for months. She swears it’s not baby fever, I almost believe her.”

Clint snorted as he handed Ivar a Delmar Beer as they followed the girls into the library where Natalia had her play area set up. Ivar didn’t notice the smirk on Clint’s face as the seasoned fighter pilot melted slightly at the sight of his wife rolling around on the ground with a little one. “I’m not sure she’s the only one.. with the fever that is. You two talked about it?”

“Aye, we have. We want kids, but we want to keep flying together more, for the moment. Martina has introduced me to a significant amount of human “fighter jock” history. The event “battle of Britain” comes to mind. We need pilots, and she’s fallen in love with Delmar almost as hard as she fell in love with me.” Ivar chuckled before taking A long pull from the bottle, “We both want a Delmar we can leave to our kids; Marty isn’t ready to step out of the cockpit just yet.”

“Hmm, and you?” Clint asked carefully, “I know you took a big risk marrying Marty, from a cultural standpoint alone. How are you two doing without the claiming.”

“It was rough for the first little while. I was always told that I would be able to know my mate by thought and feeling. Learning to read her the “human way” was a challenge. I got lucky there. I think she understood what I was trying to do and doesn’t do some of the horror story behaviors I’ve heard joked about by humans. She did have to get used to me asking really dumb questions at first.” Ivar glanced to the side at his commanding officer. On a hunch, he dropped the formalities. . “Clint, what’s this about. It’s not like you to pry into personal business.”

“Forgive me, I have a good reason; but let’s enjoy the evening first. We can get serious after Nat goes to bed.” Clint smiled up at his towering friend and they both joined the women to promptly get pounced on by a burbling and babbling little one.

————————————

Patrick was asleep. Well, mostly asleep. He was up in the gazebo that topped the canopy above Camorra’s family home. It was the only constructed portion of the house, having been built up on top of the tree that made its base instead of carved into it. The wind was crisp at this height, howling lightly as it skimmed the top of the sea of silver and auburn. The waves of wind-swept foliage signified the planet-wide jungle that enveloped most of Delmar’s landmasses. It had become his sanctuary for the afternoon as Camorra was off on a girl’s date with some of her friends and family from other freighters, or who had chosen to stay on planet.

He had taken the chance to explore their home, trying to learn enough of his way around to not get lost in the intricately carved corridors and levels. He had eventually ended up here, at the crown jewel of the property, and he was currently on top of the gazebo’s roof basking in the sun’s rays, allowing the wind to blow about his ears.

He wanted space to think. Cammy had taken his offer to heart, completely ignoring her own room in the evenings to sleep in his bed. He knew it was a normal thing for a Delmar, but she was also a gorgeous young woman. Worse, she insisted on curling herself around him at night for warmth. It was intoxicating, and Patrick was beginning to dread the day she felt comfortable going back to her own room. More than once, he had caught himself stroking her hair as she dozed, often falling asleep well before him in the evenings. He knew he was falling for her, and he knew he couldn’t tell her. She had already had one panic attack, and last night had returned a nightmare that had awoken him to her clenching his chest, whimpering.

He almost missed the sound of the elevator opening as someone else exited, “Patrick, are you here?” He heard the voice of Krastus clearly enough and stood where he was. The roof creaked under his weight as he slipped down, hanging from one arm easily as he lowered himself back onto the platform and stepped into the gazebo proper.

“I am, If you are looking for Cammy, uh, Camorra, she’s off with her girlfriends.” Patrick suppressed a smirk at the realization of just where exactly He had come from flooded through Krastus’ features.

“I, uh, I was actually looking for you.” Krastus handed him a glass of water from the two he had in his hand and sat down in one of the comfortable chairs inside the structure.

“Ah, I see. I was wondering when the father talk was going to happen.” Patrick smiled before settling into his own chair, “at least this one hasn’t started with shotguns and veiled threats.”

Krastus snorted, “If I had thought that would work, your first morning here would have… corrected… that assumption. Do your kind really threaten potential mates of your offspring?”

“Humans are… protective… we also do not have the same psychological risks associated with casual intimacy. You put those two traits together and… yea.” Patrick shrugged, “if you think I shocked you when I mistook you for a threat; as a human, my jaw practically bounced off the floor when you seemed completely content in leaving your daughter in the bed of a young man you just met. That’s just not done with my people.”

“It wasn’t without worry; but I also must trust my daughter, and she trusts you.” Krastus took a sip from his own glass, “I assume she has done so with reason…. She won’t tell me, and that worries me. I am… unaccustomed to that reaction from her, but I don’t want to push her.”

“And you want to ask me.” Patrick set his glass down. Waiting patiently for Krastus to make his move.

“I must know. You have confided in me that you care for my daughter, and she is at a minimum comfortable enough with you to share a room and a bed with you. That alone is enough for me to consider your request favorably.” Krastus began, “It is not done quite so formally these days, with the vast reaches that families can find themselves spread across, but Delmar families often find and approve of mates if the daughter has not expressly stated otherwise. This also applies to when a male is interested in a female, he approaches the family first. In a roundabout way, you have done this.”

“I see, and in true arranged marriage fashion, you wish to vet me for Camorra.” Patrick said slowly.

“It is my duty, along with her mother. That is why I must know.” Krastus stated formally, “It’s an old way, but It is our way.”

“I understand. And I will answer your question, but it is… a difficult story to tell… I suspect that is why Cammy has refused to answer. if both of you are to vet me, I wish to only tell the story once…” Patrick rose.

“I can accept that; Aria is waiting for me in the library. Shall we?” Krastus pressed the button, recalling the elevator.

Patrick only nodded, taking a deep breath before following Krastus into the elevator as it arrived.

——————————-

Quawrine’s composite amalgamation of a Vorath corvette flashed out of subspace. A few short seconds later, USN Phobos ripped into normal space with its customary plasma contrails. Quawrine had been confused when the Humans had refused to do a linked subspace jump, but this Captain Collins of theirs, along with his team had stayed on her ship and relayed coordinates for the beacon. The three ships burned for a small planetoid in the middle of an otherwise desolate red dwarf system.

A four-hour burn resulted in not so much an orbit of the planetoid, but an interception and escort of it. “We will have to take a shuttle from here.” The kawmari stated curtly.

“Signal Phobos, I want the research team to meet us in the hangar.” Collins ordered as the group followed the giant Avian to the shuttle bay. “May I ask, how you manage a vessel this size? I see no crew.”

“I have managed to automate a great deal over the years. I was also not expecting a fight, I have a capable crew available should I need them.” Quawrine huffed.

Three shuttles launched as Quawrine took her own, flanked by her bodyguards. The Marines, along with R’Ben, boarded the Mars-manufactured human shuttle still attached to the courier vessel, and a second was launched from Phobos.

“Com, transmit to the rest of the fleet. Quote: “I feel a draft” end quote.” the captain of Phobos drawled, “full alert status. clear for action, minus decomp.”

The trio of shuttles settled onto the landing platform of the singular large hanger cut into the side of the planetoid as their pirate host activated the codes to close the doors and repressurized the space.

Quawrine and her bodyguards met with the marine team in front of their shuttles as the research team shuttle landed, “I know this means nothing to you, but please… this is my life’s passion. Be careful. R’Ben will know the procedures. They have not changed. How long do you thi…… what the void?!” She squawked as the research team, 2/3rds Delmar research team, stepped out from around their shuttle to join them. “What’s going on. Why is the Confederation here.!”

Captain Collins raised his hands in a firm but placating gesture. “Ma’am. You are not dealing with the confederation, please stay calm.”

“If you aren’t confederation, and you aren’t a human force…WHO are you!” Quawrine demanded, clearly riffled.

“Remember the Pirate attacks that failed so fantastically in the Delmar home sector?” Collins asked.

“Of course! Several of my ships were obliterated by strange vessels that seemed to be able to ignore beacons entirely and…” the Avian woman gawked at the people in shock as her memory was jogged of Phobos’ arrival, decidedly not near a beacon upon their first meeting.. “YOU?!?”

“Us.” Collins said simply.

“But how can you.. what do you… who are you…” she stammered.

“We are Legion.” The head of the science team said simply, “Where would you like us to start.”

“Uh.. yes… well… this way..” Quawrine stammered before leading them in a series of cavernous rooms.

“R’Ben, is it?” The research team lead smiled down at the amphibious being. “Mike, Mike Dawes. I assume we use the white glove treatment for artifacts? We shouldn’t need to touch anything if what we are looking for is digital.”

“Well, yes. Nice to meet you. Protective gloves would be advisable. Anything in a locked case, come get me. Some of it can be moved, and some of it is too fragile for a physical inspection. The terminal to get into the digital archives is this way.” R’Ben stated, shaking the man’s hand.

Quawrine fluttered about, fretting over every movement of her “guests” for several minutes until she finally admitted to herself that she was not, in fact, being sacked. She sat down on one of her favorite spots and just watched for the next 2hours. To her shock, the team asked her just as many questions as they did R’Ben, and they seemed both genuinely interested in preserving the library, as well as collecting as much data as possible.

Curiosity finally got the best of her when the head of the research team openly asked R’Ben for advice. “R’Ben, may I have a word.” She asked cautiously when she saw an opportunity. The amphibian hopped over after a moment, politely waiting for her to continue, “Your new masters… I don’t understand. Delmar finds slavery Abhorrent… were they conquered?”

“They are not masters… “ R’Ben replied, “That was a ploy I needed to contact you with. Humanity is from deep in an uncharted region, from what I can tell, and are allied with the Delmar. They seem to somehow have been able to make contact with the Unity without being forced to join it. There is a Rumor that they repelled an inquisitorum fleet, destroying a frigate in the process without suffering losses. I haven’t seen the recordings, but I also have been told by Captain Collins that they repelled a full force Devoted’s assault on the Delmar homeworld…. Using Atomics…” he finished.

“But… how.. atomics were too unwieldy, and abandoned generations ago..” Quawrine shot back.

“It’s what I heard. Alex, Captain Collins calls it “canned sunshine” and I tend to believe him.” R’Ben said. He was about to say something else when one of the Delmar researchers called out, “I think someone needs to see this!!”

Mike Dawes walked crisply over before stiffening visibly and turning to the team, “changed plans! We bulk copy and download EVERYTHING. No exceptions!” He shouted before turning to Collins.

“Phobos needs to warm the Drives…. We have a problem.”

————————————

Clint glanced up as the door to the library cracked as Hera began to enter, then backed out, seeing that the room was occupied. He recognized the look on her face, but now was not the time.

Martina was sitting next to Ivar just staring at Clint in shock. Ivar’s expression was more controlled, but held few secrets to those that knew him.

“Admi… Nitro, let me see if I got this straight. The same slimy grey aliens that apparently conducted abductions and observations on Humanity… have been here so long that they programmed all of humanity with the genetic keys to resurrect entire species?!?” Martina took a breath.

“In short yes. In long, yes and no. According to the copy of a Corth living on earth, they never expected catastrophic devastation wrought by the devoted. They had planned to pod-grow populations to augment survivors’ genetics with the Codex they left in our own genome. It’s apparently one of the reasons for Humanities wide variations in appearances.

“I always wondered about that” Ivar said, finally giving his voice to the conversation, “Outside of gender differences, I can’t actually think of another race with the level of genetic diversity to cause all of Humanities “races”. Being an evolving library would probably do it though.” He paused, “Why are you telling us this...” Clint sat back as Ivar made the connection. “Oh…”

“Atticus, the being in question, has been working closely with Johansen and his team on the other side. His original was apparently the… head…. Of the project to see if it could be done.” Clint stated, “The latest data stream included a formula, based on information he got from Mac’s family bios can information while they were on Luna… We don’t know what it will do.. it is completely untested… but there are prototype doses available. Blood sample tests have been promising, but we have not tested it on a human subject.”

“Clint, what are you saying…” Martina asked very, very slowly as she looked over at Ivar for a long minute.

“I know you Chika, If I didn’t give you this option to consider, I would wake up 24 hours after you found out missing body parts. I’m saying, that with this particular version of project CODEX, you may be able to acquire some Delmar physical and mental traits. Now hear me on this Marty… this could just as easily kill you… we literally have no idea wh…”

“I’ll do it.” Martina said firmly, she locked eyes with Clint, silencing the unspoken. Before turning to Ivar, “I know it’s stupid. But he is right. And there isn’t anyone else in as unique a position as we are.”

“Take the evening. Talk to each other” Clint stated finally. “I’ll have an air car launched to bring you two home. I’m truly sorry I had to drop this bomb on you two, know that it is a sign of the trust I hold in you both. This is TS… with all that entails. Go home and sleep on it, THAT is an order.”

——————————

“What the void is going on!” Quawrine squawked as the “Legion” team started filling storage drives as fast as they could, all the while packing up.

“Ma’am, you need to see this” Captain Collins said, non too politely, “you have a Vorath emergency transponder.” He stated. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, well I bought it for a pittance considering the owner didn’t know what he had.” Quawrine huffed, ruffling herself in confused annoyance.

“I suggest you move your library, after jettisoning this thing.. it just activated.” Dawes said before his com Chirped again. “Shit.”

The Vorath Cruiser that dropped into real space was only 150 years old, but she was fully manned and triple the tonnage of Phobos. It had been drawn from its usual silent observation of this arm of the galaxy by the emergency transponder’s activation. It was one of the only standing orders that could remove it from its quietly watchful purpose. Its captain was not a stupid man, and had jump in full readiness, seeing the strange ship in front of him and rounded on Phobos to bring to bear its two primary weapons.

“Vent vent vent! Helm, get the PAC on her!” Phobos’ captain bellowed even as his helmet snapped closed and a familiar muffling of sound took over in the impending vacuum. “Shields double front! Forward GAU, open fire!”

The Vorath cruisers captain narrowed his eyes as his shield registered impact even as not a single laser or plasma weapon had been fired at him. His forward deflectors started flickering as his readout registered hundreds of thousands of Kinetic impacts rained upon in as both ships swung to bring their chase weapons to bear. The Impacts did not do much; but his scowl deepend, recognizing an alarming build up of heat in his generators as they were forced to compensate for the sheer volume and speed of the onslaught.

The Vorath ship acquired a targetting solution first. The Vorath preference was very laser heavy in their doctrine, allowing for an articulating lens at the end of the emitter. Phobos’ Captain had not time to react as his ship was bracketed with a pair of immensely intense yellow beams, as the Vorath cruiser fired at last.

“Away damage control!!” The Captain bellowed.

“Shields down 40 percent, breaches on decks 9 and 10! Overheat situation in D.Gen 3. Compensating.”

A new flash of data caught the eye of Phobos’ Captain as the planetoid began to move, slowly, but move on its own as the surface-mounted Pirate Barge modules lit their main drives, in a desperate bid for subspace. “Com! Status on that window!” He barked before turning his attention to his opponent. Phobos was heavily out tonnage, and her GAU batteries appeared to be doing little, he prayed the next part of his gambit worked.

“Tactical, main PAC, continual discharge. Fire as you bear” he growled, “warm up strategic, Helm get us between the Library and the enemy.”

Almost as he finished, the centerline PAC spoke as Phobos’ tactical officer Opened up on the enemy cruiser with a maximum duration burn. Arcing the beam across the forward shields of the larger vessel.

-------------------

“Report!” Bellowed the Vorath captain as the strange ship finally fired a weapon he could see.

“Shield down 60 percent! No identification available on the weapon! Hill breaches on decks 12-16.” Came the reply. The captain released a sinister grin as this became a fight of worthy opponents. “Begin defensive maneuvers, give me a shot at the fleeing theives.”

----------------

“Window in 40 seconds!” Coms could barely be heard over the crowded frequencies clamor of orders and callouts, “Strategic ready!”

“Harpoon tubes 7-9, Fire.” Came the order over the din, and the space born descendants of the venerable antiship missiles arced away from Phobos’ spine and burned for their target.

----------------

The Vorath captain raised an eyebrow as white streamers streaked up along the centerline of his foe, unsure of if this was a sign of surrender. He was about to order a stand down when every one of those white streamers turned and his sensors registered an ancient fear, long ignored but not forgotten. The Radiation alarms began to whale as the object on the streams of smoke bore down on him,

He didn’t wait for the report, “point defenses, open fire! Hard a Larboard! Nothing gets within 2000 kilometers!” He bellowed.

A wall of laser fire erupted from his vessel as she responded to her helm, curving her course to her orders. The captain’s eyes widened as the streams of smoke began to dodge and weave. Two were vaporized with direct hits, the third took a glancing hit and began pinwheeling for a moment. The space between Phobos and the attacker erupted in blinding radioactive rage as the warhead triggered. A titanic shockwave of radiation, Thermal, and EM energy impacted both vessels like a rogue wave in a hurricane. Phobos lost most of the rest of her shields and ruptured her pressure hull in three more places.

The Vorath cruiser stood the test with little improvement. Her deflector power banks drained themselves in protection of their vessel, and one-third of the capacitance cells fused together in the heat transfer. Her captain had to shut down her point defense to redirect some of the power from weapons into keeping the shields alive. He was about to consider a withdrawal as two more Vorath cruisers flashed into existence almost perfectly in sync and within 12 minutes of being in range of the fight.

Phobos’ starboard side main drives were forced into emergency shutdown during the blast from the radiation. The missile that exploded had done so outside of minimum safe distances, but only just. The blast had been almost equidistant from the dueling vessels and Phobus’ captain growled as a pair of enemy ships dropped out of subspace and burned for the combat zone.

“How much lo…?” The captain of Phobos began.

“More new contact! 198 mark 185!.” Came the Call from Phobos’ sensor station as real space was rent asunder. The USN Texas flashed out of slipspace streaming brilliant trails of burning blue plasma to fall alongside Phobos.

“I see you started the party without us Demetri” Captain Hank Gleeson mused to himself from the captain’s chair aboard USN Texas before raising his voice. “Forward Batteries by 3… Fire.”