STARTING POINT: AMONGST THE D’NIRI

Short Story inspired by http://www.scifiideas.com/inspiration/starting-point-amongst-dniri/



'' Alan Delmarr stood at the confluence of the three rivers. He couldn’t pronounce their names, the D’niri language wasn’t one that humans could pronounce. It was the lack of having two airways ventrally located the throat. Alan just watch the water run past the crumbling paving stones of an ancient ruin. Fish-like creatures leapt out of the water, their ventral mouths snapping at the air. ''

'' He had been assigned to this world to investigate what had happened to Union representative Eric Spencer. Spencer was part of a Union delegation to the D’niri. He went missing a week ago visiting the people of this city, some name that sounded like “argle-bargle ”. They were a separate culture from the majority population. Religious differences. ''

''Spencer was trying to determine what these people believed in, worshiped. NAVINT had warned that they were, vigorous in their beliefs. Well, Alan was vigorous in his beliefs as well. It was his job to find out where or what happened to Spencer. He was a RAvE man.''



-1-

It was only twenty years ago after the defeat of the Kermac and the Galactic Council, the known regions of the M-0 Galaxy was at peace and now with the Kermac gone and the Freespace treaty null and void, the United Stars of the Galaxy, commonly known as the Union increased its efforts to explore the rest of the galaxy, especially the virtually unknown Downward sector. It came to no big surprise that there were previously unknown and advances space faring civilizations.

One of them were the D’niri. The D’niri continuum stretched over two hundred systems in the Scrutum Centaurus arm and was ruled by a enigmatic caste of priests.

The D’niri had reached tech level seven and weren't too far from making it to TL 8 according to the Science council.

First contact was made and a delegation of Union officials under the lead of Eric Spencer was invited by the D’niri to evaluate and discus cultural and trade contacts.

The sixteen members of the Union delegation at first reported cautions but fruitful talks, but then then Eric Spencer disappeared and the delegation was asked to leave without any explanation given. All inquiries as of the whereabouts of Eric Spencer remained unanswered.

This caused a special session at the Assembly and it was decided to find out what happened, before an official request was made that could lead to open hostilities.

Of course there were voices at the Assembly to send battle ships and to force the D’niri to answer, but the Three Wise men suggested a more subtle approach first, before escalating things to a potential war.

And this is why Alan Demarr had come to D’Orghn the center of the D’niri Continuum.

His small Sturgeon class courier ship had been disguised as a civilian ship and he traveled as an independent opportunist seeking to identify a potential source of trade or profit. That the D’niri weren't opposed to trade was confirmed by the Golden.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">Being alone on an alien world was nothing new to Alan. He had been there many times before, during the years when the Freespace treaty was still active. Finding abducted citizens or investigating and hunting criminals that fled beyond the reach of official Union law, was what he did and without false pride, he was one of the best.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">Agents of RAvE, Rescue, Avenge or Execute were a special breed of highly motivated and talented individuals, virtually unknown to exist.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">The sky over that alien city before him, had a leaden character, painted with swirls of dark ash colored clouds, he was almost certain a rain storm was brewing and from the looks of it, a big one.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">The wind tugged on his long pseudo leather coat and the temperature was steadily dropping.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">The city appeared like a man made conical mountain rising beyond the river valley with thousand of needle like spires of different heights.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">It was unlike Union cities who appeared like sparkling diamonds with thousands of colorful light and the ever present advertising. This city did have lights, but not many and they all had a dim orange glow.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">This was the capitol of a space traveling civilization, and yet it was nowhere near the continent spanning size of Pluribus. The surrounding landscape was bare of any constructed objects, save for a paved road that led to the bare bones space port. Again he found it odd, that a space faring society with advanced FTL technology and at the very core of their empire only had a leveled landing field of rough gravel. There were nine other space ships other than his, he recognized three of them to be the arrow head shaped ships of the D’niri. Impressive 600 meter tall units that dwarfed his 60 meter courier ship, but were nothing in comparison to Union battleships. The other ships belonged to civilizations he did not recognize.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">He received landing permission without many questions asked and since he had landed he had met no one. The space port almost appeared abandoned if it weren't for the flood lights marking the ten square kilometer landing field.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">The city was a good twenty kilometers distant.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">He decided if he should use his flight belt or break out the skimmer, when he noticed a D’niri approaching him.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">He wondered where the alien had come from, as it was a good distance to the closest D’niri ship and he would have seen the being before.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0.26cm;border-style:none;padding:0cm;line-height:0.64cm;">The being was at least two hundred fifty centimeters tall. It used bipedal locomotion but the stride wasn't human, more that of a bird or a Maggi Sauron. The being appeared even thinner than the Stick of Sin 4. It was wearing a cape like garment of wide strips of fabric.