Void Wraith (The Void Wraith Trilogy Book 2) (6 page)

"Okay," the Tigris said, taking a very large step back. It--she--blinked rapidly. "Is that far enough? I do not understand human customs."

"Annie," Hannan called from the doorway to the docking bay. She strode briskly toward the Tibs. "Put that gun down. You don't need it."

The Marine stopped next to the Tigris, wrapping an arm around her furry shoulder. "This is Izzy. Izzy's a good kitty."

"You know I hate it when you say that," Izzy said, elbowing Hannan in the ribs.

"Y'all got Tigris on your crew?" Annie said, raising her eyebrows. "This is going to be an interesting deployment."

Chapter 11- Lena's Discovery

Lena turned on the acetylene torch she'd clamped to her makeshift table, setting the flask full of water on it to heat. She had no tea, of course, but she still completed the ritual. Teatime calmed her, even when it was just a mug of hot water. It was a practice she'd embraced since she was a kit, even before she'd gone to the Royal Academy to study Anthropology.
 

Once the water was tended to, Lena smoothed her flowing white pants, and sat primly atop the stool Edwards had made for her. She appreciated the human's desire to help, especially given his transformation. He was unfailingly respectful to her, always using the honorific
ma'am
. She didn't know what it meant, but could tell from the respectful tone that it denoted an elder of some kind.

"Ship, bring up the data file you flagged," Lena ordered, warming her paws over the fire. The ship wasn't precisely cold, but it was a few degrees cooler than she was used to. Tigris vessels ran hotter, and she liked it that way.

A holographic file appeared, text hovering on one side and graphics on the other. This bit showed a strand of DNA, the double helix that humans, Primo, and Tigris all shared. This particular bit belonged to not just any Primo, but to the earliest Primo found in the ship's data core. Lena scanned the text, eyes widening at the age. It was nearly forty thousand years old, older than the original empire she and Nolan had discovered back on Purito. Older by far.

"Ship, the article doesn't contrast this strand with a modern version. Can you sequence both sets of DNA, and give me a summary of the major differences?" Lena asked. She turned off the torch, blowing lightly across the flask as she waited for the water to cool.

"Processing," Ship said. The holographic representation disappeared, and Lena wrapped a paw experimentally around the flask. It was hot, but not too hot to pick up. She settled both paws around it, and raised it to her mouth for a tiny sip.

A moment later, a new hologram sprang into view. This one had two DNA strands, each very similar. Below them was a bulleted list of differences, and Lena could only blink as she read the summary. The implications of this discovery could not be overstated.
 

"Honored one?" came a quiet voice from the doorway. Lena looked up to see Izzy peering around the corner of the door. "It is time for the evening meal. Nolan sent me to fetch everyone."

"I'll be there shortly," Lena replied, waving absently at Izzy as she focused on the data.

Chapter 12- Biscuits

Nolan pulled out one of the uncomfortable metal chairs, sitting next to Hannan. Fizgig and Izzy sat across from them, while Edwards had squeezed his metallic body into the corner of their makeshift mess. Everything from the chairs to the table had been fabricated recently, as the ship hadn't been built to support human occupants. Thank God there was a machine shop.

"That smells amazing," he said, eyeing the pot of stew in the center of the table. High-rimmed metal plates sat in front of everyone, along with chromed glasses full of water.
 

"Wait until you taste these," Annie boomed, grinning as she approached the table. She wore a pair of oven mitts, and carried a tray of fist-sized biscuits. They smelled even better than the stew. "You don't have much in the way of cooking equipment, but we can use the
Tibs
until we get something rigged."

Annie set the tray of biscuits near the center of the table. Izzy stretched out a paw to snatch one, but Fizgig batted her paw away and gave her the kind of condescending look only Fizgig could manage.

"Where's Lena?" Nolan asked, not seeing her anywhere in the mess.

"She said she'd be here shortly, Mighty Nolan," Izzy said, though her gaze never left the biscuits. "She seemed very excited. I believe she found something important in the Primo data core."

"Will she be offended if we start without her?" Nolan asked, looking to Fizgig.

"She will not," Fizgig said, giving a half smile. "She might not show up at all. That one is a true scientist, one of our best. It consumes her."

"Let's dig in, then. Thank you for this, Annie. We've been surviving on protein paste for the past three months," Nolan said, ladling a generous portion of stew onto his plate. He passed the ladle to Hannan, who served up her own portion, then passed the ladle to Izzy.

"My pleasure. I love cooking," Annie said, cramming a biscuit into her mouth. She spoke around mouthfuls. "I ain't too civilized, but I can turn an old sock and some grease into a decent meal."

"Is that what they feed you infantry types? Old socks?" Edwards's voice came from the far side of the room, startling all of them. The tone was playful, but his sheer size was still intimidating.
 

"Jesus, is that thing alive?" Annie said, blinking. She picked up a second biscuit, absently chewing as she approached Edwards. "You some kind of robot? Doesn't look like UFC tech, any more than this ship does."

"I'm a...what did Lena call me? A
cybernetically enhanced life form
," Edwards said, offering Annie a massive blue hand. She grabbed his index finger and shook it.

The exchange made Nolan smile. Edwards had kept his distance during the long voyage home, though the longer they were out here the more he seemed to be adjusting.

"Captain," Lena said, breezing into the room. She sat daintily on the corner of the bench next to Izzy, her feline eyes alight with excitement. "I've discovered something monumental, something I think may be very important."

Nolan finished his biscuit, then offered Lena his full attention. She'd come to him during the trip home with several
monumental discoveries
, none of which were relevant to their situation--or all that monumental, in his opinion.

"What did you find?" he asked, scooping up something resembling a potato from the stew on his plate.

"I found an account from a Primo scientist. He was a citizen of the empire you and I discovered back on Purito, one who did groundbreaking work on genetics. He believed that his race had been genetically modified, but his ideas were dismissed as wild conspiracy theories," Lena said, leaning across the table. She licked her chops in a most alarming way, seemingly unaware of Hannan shrinking back from her. "He found markers indicative of tampering. He was certain of it. So he spent over forty years cataloguing Primo DNA, looking for blood stains, ancient sites, and anything else that might yield an intact genome. After many years he found it, a sample from a skeleton that was at least forty thousand years old." Lena paused, perhaps for dramatic effect. "This sample lacked the genetic markers found in modern Primo. By comparing the samples, the researcher realized that someone had deliberately altered the Primo, and that the alteration occurred somewhere between fifty and sixty thousand years ago."

"What does that mean?" Edwards asked. His metallic face turned in their direction.

"It means," Lena continued, shooting Edwards an annoyed glance, "that someone bred the Primo, in the same way your species breeds dogs. Their markers encouraged specific traits--in this case, aggression and increased fertility."

"They were breeding soldiers," Nolan said, making the connection instantly. "This is further evidence. Look how the Void Wraith function. They depopulate worlds, and convert those they harvest into Judicators. It would make sense that they want those Judicators as lethal as possible. Why not modify the species you're abducting to have the traits you find most desirable?"
 

"I believe you're correct, but I think there's a greater revelation here," Lena said, positively beaming now. "If I'm correct, there are three distinct eras of Primo development. The one I am studying now isn't the first, as I'd originally assumed. There's an even earlier empire, probably the one that first encountered the Void Wraith. This reshapes tens of thousands of years of Primo history. Everything they believe about their origins is a lie. Their ancestors were space faring when mine were hunting monkans in the jungle."

"That's fascinating, Holy One," Fizgig allowed. She'd been using a claw to carefully spear chunks of meat from the stew, but was ignoring the rest of the food. "Yet, I am unsure why you consider this discovery so important."

"Because I don't believe the Void Wraith are the real enemy. Their weapons and ships are clearly of Primo design," Lena explained. "I believe that someone or something else showed up, turned the Primo's own citizens and weapons against them, and then harvested them into a massive army. When they were finished, they modified the remaining Primo to have their desired traits. Then they left."

"So you think these are literal harvests," Nolan said, understanding. "The Void Wraith, or whoever made the Void Wraith, pop by every so-many-thousands of years to build another army."

"If that's the case, that's terrifying," Hannan said. "What the hell do you use an army that size for?"

"Lena, is it possible that this first group of Primo might have left behind a library? Some source of knowledge we can tap into to learn more?" Nolan asked. "If the war really is cyclic, we need to know as much as possible about it. If they're the ones who first encountered the Void Wraith, then they have the best chance of knowing what really happened."

"Very possible," Lena said, nodding. "Now that I know what to look for, I believe I might be able to learn more. We could do that at any of the oldest Primo libraries. One of their researchers could point us in the right direction. In the meantime, I'll study the early mythology in the current data core. It's possible there's more there. Myths and legends often hold a bit of literal truth."

Chapter 13- Dryker

Dryker shifted uncomfortably in his brand-new uniform. It fit perfectly, but it felt stiff and confining after spending the last few months in the flowing Primo garments they'd been provided. He had no idea where they'd gotten the uniform, either. Did the Primo just happen to have captain's bars on hand? It didn't really matter, he guessed.

"Are you ready, Dryker?" Khar boomed, flexing his claws as he approached. The Tigris had been given a full set of black war armor, and now carried a gleaming silver spear. The weapon was an ancestral favorite for the Tigris, used to kill fleeing prey. Fleeing humans, the last time Dryker had seen one used.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Dryker said, turning from the mirror and exiting the lavish quarters.
 

Juliard was already waiting in the hall, her face buried in her comm. The fact that they couldn't reach the Quantum Network didn't seem to phase her. She had a seemingly endless number of games, and was playing one of them now. She stopped at his approach, sliding her comm into her pocket.

"Sir," she said, nodding.
 

"Let's get this over with," Dryker said, walking down the corridor and into the ship's main chamber.

The
First Light
'
s
central chamber was an invention unique to the Primo. Human and Tigris vessels were both compact. They had only enough room for their crew to function, and no space was wasted. Even the most modern UFC ship used an economical design.

The Primo had taken the opposite route. The central chamber was cavernous, with a ceiling that vaulted several hundred feet into the air. Globes of energy dotted the ceiling, making the blue metallic walls sparkle. In the center of the room was a huge, flat disk. The center of that disk was slightly raised, and appeared just large enough for a single person to stand on.

The entire aft wall was transparent, a gigantic dome providing a spectacular view of space. Three golden thrones floated in the air near that dome, bobbing slowly up and down. Their occupants wore shimmering silver garments unlike anything Dryker had seen the others wear. Some sort of parade dress, probably. He recognized one of the three figures as Celendra, but the other two were unfamiliar.

Both were male--one with deep purple skin, the other a pallid grey. Celendra floated between them, though Dryker had no idea if that signified anything. He still had very little understanding of how Primo politics worked, which made them damnably difficult to navigate.

Below the chairs, several hundred Primos were gathered, more than he'd ever seen gathered in one place. Primo were powerful, but rare. They were secretive about their numbers, but he'd guess there couldn't be more than a hundred thousand remaining. Their colonies had long been abandoned, and they'd retreated all the way to Theras Prime, the world the
First Light
was currently orbiting.

"As the hosting navigator, I call this conclave to order. Endari of the
Fist of Endari
and Kayton of the
Rising Star
sit in witness," Celendra's clear voice echoed through the room as she gestured first at the grey-skinned Primo, and then the purple. Dryker realized the timing wasn't a coincidence, as she was staring in his direction. She must have been waiting for him before starting. "I have called this conclave to discuss the threat posed by the Void Wraith, and to decide how our people can best respond."

"I have still seen no evidence that these Void Wraith even exist," Endari said, eyeing Celendra sharply. His grey skin had a waxy look Dryker had seen on the oldest Primo aboard the
First Light
. "You've presented a primitive recording contributed by a lesser race. Surely you don't believe that worthy of a conclave."

Soft gasps whispered through the ranks of the Primo, and Celendra's eyes narrowed. Her voice was frosty when she spoke. "Do not mock me, Endari. I have irrefutable proof that the Void Wraith exist, and that proof has been made available to you. In addition, I offer testimony from eyewitnesses."