Nova War

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'A stain upon your noble reputation, Miss Merrick, that you would wish to deceive me when the truth is so abundantly clear. I witnessed, as from a great distance, your flight from Ironbloom. Within moments your mind had penetrated the Bandati vessel that carried you away, even as you destroyed the Magi ship that had delivered you to Night's End.'

'Fine.' She sighed and slumped to the floor, her back resting against one wall. 'So what's your point?'

Trader's tentacles writhed beneath the wide curve of his under-body. 'An exponential leap in your ability to control computational systems remotely, is it not? You had control of the pulse-ship within seconds, Dakota. Just seconds.'

Dakota shook her head wearily. 'I don't know how I did it. I just-'

'Did it without even really thinking?'

Dakota averted her gaze, her expression defiant as the Shoal-member drifted closer.

'Upon us the Magi attempted most foul seduction, dearest Dakota. When first they arrived from faraway skies, they offered to us the pleasure of hunting the Maker caches by their side, through nebulous reef and abyssal depth. And, yet, any one of their ships was equal to our entire civilization at that time.

'No, what they most wanted, in its entirety, was to regain the lofty heights of their civilization, to build new temples and palaces and wonders – even to rebuild their empires in place of our own. Oh, Dakota, it would have been grand beyond imagining. But it would have been their empire, yes, not ours. Only ever in their shadows would we then live, and only upon their sufferance.'

'So you destroyed them?'

'In order to protect ourselves! It was necessary to be cu

After a pause, he continued. 'And, for all their lofty ambitions, we found the means to subvert their systems and kill them from great distances. A few of their ships escaped from our world and were hunted down one by one, and continue, Dakota, to be hunted long after their navigators have become dust. Look there.'

Dakota looked up and saw a star simulation materialize out of the darkness around them: the Milky Way as seen from high above the galactic plane. Trader next caused their point of view to zoom in first towards the familiar glittering band of the Orion Arm, and then on the familiar borders of Consortium and Bandati space. Markers appeared signifying Earth, Redstone, Nova Arctis, Bellhaven, Ocean's Deep and finally Night's End.

A line next appeared, cutting tangentially first through the Bandati territories and then through those of the Consortium, curving slightly as it did so. The line originated from deep within the galaxy, before zooming out into the relatively starless regions of the outer rim.

'Witness the path along which the last Magi chose to flee from our system. And also direct your attention upon both Nova Arctis and Ocean's Deep,' Trader continued, 'which, you will observe, lie close to that very same path, as does the world briefly occupied by the Uchidans.'

Dakota nodded, studying the map with undisguised fascination. It was clear that the fleet had also passed through the territories of other species with which she was less familiar – particularly the Rafters and Skelites.

'We suspect,' Trader continued, 'the vessel secreted within the Ocean's Deep system might very well prove to be the last of its kind. Others may yet lie hidden, but their existence lies outside the realms of verification.'

Dakota moved closer to the walls of the chamber, drawing her fingers across the multitude of stars represented. Other, nameless, territories lay beyond the Rafters and Skelites, as tantalizing as they were unknown. Home, no doubt, to further species with whom humanity had been forbidden contact.

'So there might be more of them?' she asked, turning back to Trader.

'May be, yes. Yet their navigators are dead, dead, dead, and their ships lost and adrift far and wide across an entire spiral arm. It is to be most readily assumed that the vast majority will almost certainly have been destroyed by time's slow and steady hand.'

Dakota wondered about that, for she had begun to feel a presence both familiar and new floating at the edge of her awareness: the Ocean's Deep derelict reaching out to her.

She had to fight to keep her voice steady as she spoke. 'We're at Ocean's Deep already, aren't we?'

'Indeed, our travels are done,' Trader replied, 'and our coreship set sail to that star's far light during these last few minutes. Within a passing moment, you and I, we will pass through this great ship's centre, to join a fleet that will snare and destroy the unwary Emissaries.'

The huge eyes stared down at Dakota questioningly. 'You understand your role in all of this? You can prevent the derelict here from falling to the Emissaries. You will then deliver it to me, so that the Shoal may seek to stem the fount of forbidden knowledge from which the Emissaries seek to drink.'

Dakota shook her head, incredulous. 'And you really think I'm going to bring the derelict to you? I already know what you did to the Magi.' She laughed. 'Sometimes you almost sound convincing, but most of the time I just wonder how you think I could believe your bullshit.'

Trader moved closer again, until his field-bubble hovered millimetres from Dakota's face. 'By careful implementation of technologies manifestly dangerous in fins of lesser forms, the Shoal most demonstrably are the only force capable of maintaining peace and preventing war. Once you brought the derelict to Night's End, were you not tortured, imprisoned, and made witness to the outbreak of war between two great Hives? And so it would always be, should control lie outside our grasp. Upon reaching the derelict, dear Dakota, you will endeavour to bring it to the coreship, and thence will it travel at last to the Shoal home world, where its knowledge may be studied in safety.'

Dakota's reply was calm. 'I already destroyed one derelict. And I'll destroy this one, too, before I let you or anyone else get control of it.'

'Would you indeed?' asked Trader, moving up to the edge of the field-bubble that was closest to her. His fins and manipulators wafted gently as he floated closer. 'Or have you finally succumbed to the seductive voices whispering to you from within this newfound derelict? To whom or what, I wonder, do your loyalties now actually lie?'

Dakota felt her face grow hot. 'Go to hell.'

'Most certainly, given time. The structures in your brain, Dakota, mark you now as a Magi navigator, however much you might deceive yourself that you are still human. That you would try to flee upon reaching this latest Magi ship is a given, hence the necessity of making certain that you then do with it only what the Shoal and I wish.'

Dakota took a breath and ducked her head down defensively, her voice trembling surprisingly little. 'I already told you to go to hell, Trader. There's nothing you can do to make me follow your orders.'

'Excuse me that I should be so bold, but may I assume you are at least passingly familiar with the history of the First Civil War on your own world of Bellhaven?'

Dakota stared back at the Shoal-member. 'What?'

'If you will please recall, State and Church struggled more than once for control of your world. The Elders fought hard to gain victory and yet, if not for a healthy trade in technologies with other worlds throughout the vastness of the Consortium, Bellhaven might easily have slipped into obscurity and political chaos. Praise be, then,' Trader concluded, 'that so few of their stockpiled nuclear weapons were ever used.'