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Chapter 04

The Karthanian resource manager who was responsible for all the mines and smelter operations of the Karthanian conglomerate himself had been dispatched by the Guild Masters to quickly erase all Union citizens currently used as forced laborers. He traveled aboard a Karthanian warship, mostly crewed by Oghr and Jooltar and was more than displeased that none of the smelter moons in the Liprois system answered his requests or responded to the hails. No landing instructions were received as they approached Olx. It did not take long to find out why this was so. After they had landed, they found the main smelter facilities vandalized, the entire command center melted to the foundation and thousands of dead guards. Only a very small number of dead slaves painted a clear picture. The slaves somehow managed to revolt and overcomuards. With the command center destroyed, the obedience collars did not work. The revolt suppression systems were also completely inoperable. An engineering Jooltar checking the systems suspected an aggressive software attack. The manager, however, could not explain how all these slaves had left the moon. As they found similar conditions on the second moon, he was certain he would find only dead and no live slaves on the third. Yet as they approached the third moon, which was in orbit of the third planet, the mystery of the missing slaves was revealed. His scanner operator detected a fleet of lumbering transports heading for the boundaries of the Liprois system and threshold speed. The transports were slow and unarmed and he was certain they were packed with slaves. That, whoever assisted the forced laborers to escape was using ore and scrap freighters seemed evidence to him that this was not a well-planned action, however, he had to admit it was a very successful one. He ordered his Oghr shipmaster to follow that rag-tag fleet, it would certainly lead them to the escapees of the other moons and then he intended to destroy them all. Dead slaves could not bear witness.

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"We are almost in Open Space ," Mao said over our personal wrist com units. The refugees of the first moon already made it." Narth chimed in. "Almost is another one of these terms that defy Narth understanding. We are still twenty-three light years distant from deep space and thus past Karthanian spheres of claimed space." Now Circuit linked himself into our conversation."We are also pursuit by what I think might be a Karthanian Romther Class. The ship appears to be under shields and I am certain it is well armed." I checked our progress and that of the pursuer, Circuit had identified. Thar Karthanian ship would reach us just when we reached open space. I was deeply concerned, the ore and scrap transporters were at their limits in terms of life support, not to mention the hygienic conditions. These old only rudimentary maintained ships were, of course, unarmed and had no shields other than micro matter deflectors. I had no illusions the Karthanian would turn around. Not that the sensors of this garbage scow were anything more than the most rudimentary kind."What kind of weapons do Karthanian ships have? Mao responded over the comm unit."Ship to ship missiles, Kermac style FTL Line cannons. Nothing that could even scratch the Tigershark, but blow us to bits." "Can we go past red line?" "We already redlining everything these flying relics have. Life support, engines, artigrav, and sensors." I started biting my fingernails as I watched the swarm of light dots that represented the last flight of ships with the liberated slaves and at the horizon of this primitive energy-mass detector, a larger dot of light, the one pursuing us.

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Itheamh

Har-Hi was certain he was dreaming or maybe he had died and there was an afterlife. He was completely pain-free and felt as if he was floating. There was someone else, he felt an immense presence. “Am I dead?” “No mighty Dai, you are already back where you belong.” “Who are you?” “We have not met in person, but we are friends. I am the Narth Supreme.” Har-Hi felt a strange and calming relieve. “Will you help me to get back?” “No, Har-Hi your friends are already doing that. I am here because you did what no mortal was ever able to do before. You have slain one of the twelve self-appointed Guardians of Light and one of the servants to the one called Lord Lumis.” “Did I do wrong? Should I have him kill me?” “No, my child. I was already on my way to assist you.” The warm deep and bodiless voice actually sounded amused.”You have a host of friends, that not only surprise the immortal admirals, but their combined talents give all that is Narth pause.” He felt a deep sense of pride but wondered why this entity was appearing to him. The voice continued. “Yes, indeed there is a profound and important reason for this meeting. You stumbled upon an important part of a cosmic conflict, your best friend Erica is the core part of this conflict. I know you have already felt its presence and Erica confined in you about it, as far as she currently knows.” “Yes I have and while it concerns me, while I do not understand. I am Erica’s friend and will stand with her against anything, no matter what it might be.” “Erica takes much strength from that, but what sleeps in her is stirring. It is stirring much too soon, and if it awakes before she is ready, the consequences cannot be foreseen, but are of such magnitude that it will affect all reality forever.” “Gods are real? Erica shares her body with a god?” “As I tried to explain to the Eternal Warrior, to Erica and now to you, the term God is very hard to define, but even in Narth terms, what Erica or Eric will become is indeed godlike, with powers and ability one can only describe as omnipotent." “What is she or what will she become and why?” “This universe is only one of many, but there was only one at the beginning of it all. In this first condition of reality, two concepts took on sentient form. One represented light, life, and creation. The other became the incarnation of death, destruction, and darkness. Together they formed a perfect balance. Because there can be no good without evil, no light without darkness. This balance became THE RULE. One of these entities was Crea, the spirit of Creation and life. She also became the definition of female, decided to destroy darkness and reshape further universes without darkness and death. In doing so she had to fight and attack the incarnation of Darkness. But the very act of fighting and attacking are not aspects of light but include elements of the other side. As the desired result of that conflict was the destruction of the other side. It sounds simple but on a cosmic scale it is infinite complicated and she disturbed the balance and by doing so broke the Rule. This first Universe was destroyed and Crea punished for her deed. The Dark incarnation was asked to sleep and not retaliate so the Rule could be restored in the next Universe. However, Crea did not abide by the judgment and attacked the sleeping entity of Darkness. Unable to destroy it, she managed to split and divide this entity into twelve parts. Again Crea was punished and sent into exile to another plane of existence. Unable to directly influence reality, she raised a mortal being as her defender and agent in the next universe. The mortal became Lord Lumis and was tasked to destroy the Dark One, or at least prevent his incarnation. Now we are in the final Universe, and it is here where the Dark One will reincarnate, unify the twelve tokens of his power and rise to make the decision. Will he seek revenge and destroy Crea and thus destroy the Rule, will he submit to the side of light and thus also destroy the balance forever, or is there a third way? I won’t and can’t go in much detail for now, but your Erica is the Dark One. “ Even in this dream-like state, Har-Hi felt completely overwhelmed and quite afraid.”What can mortals, what can a Dai do?” “You and a few others have very important parts in this. The Dark One will recognize you and perhaps as a friend. He might listen to you or may shape the decision he is to make because of you. Maybe the human part will be able to suppress the Dark One forever. Nothing is set and the future is not known to Narth. “How can I function as a Union officer, knowing that my best friend eventually becomes a universe-shattering something?” “This is the reason I have come. You destroyed one of the beings serving Lord Lumis if Erica hears about this the entity that is her might wake and perhaps seek to destroy Lord Lumis and thus making the decision before all the preordained events have occurred. You will wake and remember only fighting another star born being, but what I have told you now will come back to you the day, you must stand with or against the Dark One.” “Thank you.” And then he was certain he heard the voice of the Eternal Warrior.”How is he?” The voice that answered was that of Cateria. “He should be completely recovered and good as new in about an hour. There was not much time to spare, however.” Har-Hi opened his eyes and looked into the face of Elfi, who could hold back her tears. She smiled at the same time and said. ”Welcome back, Lt. Hi.” He tried to get up, but Cateria pushed him back. “Stay put, Sir for a little while longer. I am still grafting tissue to your body. You suffered serious burns to almost twenty percent of your body. Not to mention, radiation damage and a small catalog of other injuries.” “You found me?” “Yes we did, well technically it was Lt. Three-Four.” Har-Hi frowned and said with a quieter voice. “I lost Lt.Schwartz. There was an entity that took her.” “I am right here, we defeated the energy being. But what happened to you?” “That is what I want to know as well.” Said Admiral Stahl stepping into view. Har-Hi delivered a detailed account of his ordeal, of him fighting another of these energy beings, but even as he recalled the fight and the details, he could not shake the feeling that something more profound happened. The immortal admiral smiled. “Well, Mr. Hi, these Star Demon things had no chance, it stood against you. Welcome back in this part of Universe.” “Thank you, Sir. Can you brief me on what happened while I was gone?” “The energy being was destroyed by EMP grenades and by Lt. Three-Four. The Ithe have requested Union help and applied for membership, about three hours ago. The science corps is renting the rubble pile with the Pree gate below and your Captain is on her way back. She liberated the slaves on all three Smelter Moons.” Har-Hi grinned relieved. “I knew she would not just stop at one.” Stahl sighed. “I should have known as well. Since you are back and soon fit for duty, I can go back and run the big show.”

--“”--

The Karthanian warship did not stop or turn around. I was convinced however that it was only moments away from firing range. A loud an clear message came over all comm channels."This is the USS Kilman, any and all weapon action against the unarmed transport vessels will be considered an act of war." The response came almost immediately."These are Karthanian vessels and of no concern to Union ships." "There are Union citizen aboard, that have been held to perform forced labor against their will by Karthanian enterprises. Add to the injury of even one citizen and we will retaliate with all force available to us." Captain, the Karthanian is turning around! I relaxed and thought this was the end of this caper, It was not. While the USS Kilman was only one of many Union fleet units, including several hospital ships and even a mobile dockyard, taking the transports on his tremendous deck, Union Marines swarmed our ships and three of them busted onto the bridge. I swiveled around."Glad to see you, marines." One of them raised his weapon arm."Not for long, pirate! We know who you are under that Thauran makeup, Pirate Black Velvet. You are hereby under arrest." The other used his paralysator and I lost consciousness before I could say a word.

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