The Tomb World Ch12 (Patreon)

Every Gotari in the watch tower perked up and immediately rushed to a control console. Daniels saw a shift in them he knew very well. It was the shift from a lighthearted joking atmosphere to of importance and military professionalism.

Daniels wasn’t a xenophobe, and in most cases he liked and respected alien species and cultures. It was part of the reason he was chosen to Captain the Staff of Lore. But never in his life had he ever observed the military of non-Terran species with a modicum of respect. He had spent his whole life in a military environment, as had his parents and theirs before them as well. He knew exactly what a professional military looked like and he found the galaxy’s other militarized factions laughable.

Most pirates outside the Hellworlder fleet were disorganized and unprofessional, as to be expected from pirates. And the very few times he got to step aboard a Union navy ship he got the impression that there was far to much red tape and procedure, and not enough sense to cut through all that crap when the need arose. The crew on those ships seemed to take the word training and discipline to its stupidest possible interpretation. They did things aboard Union Navy ships he had only seen in military cartoons and comedy movies. And did it with the utmost sincerity.

The Gotari might just be the first species he had observed who had a Terrans sense of discipline and urgency.

Voices began to call out things he couldn’t understand. The operators spoke clearly and in an unhurried manor, clearly and concisely relaying their sensor data. Foric had swung up to the hand grips lining the ceiling and had swung across them to a raised command seat in the center of the room. He heard everything relayed to him and grunted out orders of his own. His subordinates tails flicked in a sharp motion that Daniels recognized as a Gotari salute.

Daniels and Jefferson watched all this at first with amusement, and then with a growing sense of respect. They felt their own backs straighten up and their features harden as the familiar bustle of a command center called up old mannerisms that had been endlessly drilled into them from their youth. Without prompting or interrupting the flow of the room Daniels and Jefferson strode to an open space at Foric’s right and stood rigidly waiting for when Foric felt the need to inform them.

The screens in front of Foric flickered through several different displays as data was collected and presented to him. As more and more information came in Foric’s body language became somewhat open and expressed a slight confusion. Or at least that’s what Daniels saw.

Jefferson leaned towards Daniels “Impressive discipline right?” she remarked in low voice.

He nodded “Yeah, sort of brings me back to my days on the Astaroth.”

She looked puzzled before something dawned on her “That’s right, you never got your own command. Not a combat one at least.”

“Yeah, I got the Tartarus as soon as she was refit. Didn’t see any direct combat there besides small skirmishes. It was pretty boring, but in a good way.”

Her eyes dimmed “Yeah I’m a little jealous, being in the helm and being the one in charge of the helm are two very different positions. I wouldn’t be surprised if my hair starts to go gray early.”

He grunted his agreement. He noticed a lull in the activity and decided that now was his time to speak. “Foric, what’s going on?”

Foric turned from a screen to glance at Daniels, his eyes squinted, and mouth twisted into the beginnings of a snarl. A look Daniels believed to mean suspicion and anger. “There’s another ship being stalked by the swarm. You told me you came alone and that you didn’t have any warships.” Those last words sounded more like an accusation than an statement.

“No, I said there was a freighter we ordered to stay far back from this system and all our warships are out of coms range.” Daniels answered promptly. Lying in any first contact situation, especially one as unusual as this, would cause more trouble down the line. “Has some sort of warship entered the system?”

Foric’s suspicious gaze remained in place, but a bit of the tension left his body. “We think so. Our instruments are not precise. But we can definitively make out the shape of a large object with a high Luschuk with regular burst of high energy blasts.”

Daniels frowned “Luschuk didn’t translate.”

“The reflective quality of an object”

“Albedo.” Daniels surmised for the translator. His frown deepened, even if it was Galatea it should have been harder to see from the Tomb world given the Gotari’s sensors. There wasn’t a lot engineers could do to mask freighters besides painting them black with radar deflecting sloped armor, but that should have been enough to obfuscate things from the Gotari. If the Gotari could see it from behind the Tomb worlds atmosphere and thick magnetic shielding the object would have to be huge and painted in the brightest shade of white. But what kind of dumbasses would fly a ship that practically screamed “NOTICE ME” on every…frequency. Fuck!

Jefferson had the same idea “It cant be, right?”

“We know they were out and about. Assuming they found the Swarm signal and followed it here.”

“Right, but on a ship that noticeable. They’d have to be terminally stupid to rush into this system without any stealth capabilities.”

Daniels gave her a flat look.

“Right, don’t know what I was thinking there. Of course they’re terminally stupid.” She said with a grimace.

More high energy bursts appeared on the screen as the swarm tightened its encirclement. Daniels sighed. “Astarte always said it was folly to assume your enemies dumb and incompetent. They may have decided to skip past the barren worlds and never discovered the danger at hand here.”

Jefferson nodded “Lucile had a similar philosophy. Though hers involved more fucks and dipshit.”

Foric made a hacking sound to interject himself into the conversation. “I didn’t get a lot of that, but what I did get leads me to believe you know who this is.”

“Remember that big space government I mentioned?”

“Yes, the Yuunyon.”

Daniels nodded “We believe that’s them. They had some exploratory ships operating in this area, they must have followed the Swarm signal like we did.”

“But unlike you the Swarm saw them sooner, and they are not responding to our hails.” Foric growled.

“Sounds about right. I only listened to your hails on a gut feeling. To anyone else the hails would appear to be the calls for surrender from a hostile power, not safe harbor.”

Foric looked pensive. They returned to watching some number of Union ships fending off the Swarm. A bright burst of energy appeared briefly on the screen. The burst of pulse weapon fire diminished after that, likely due to losing a ship to the Swarm. Foric’s clawed hands gripped the small arms of his command chair and growled.

Daniels understood the feeling. He knew what it felt like to watch people die and feel completely useless. Most people lacked the willpower or training to actually make a difference and made a sort of grim peace with that. But to men like Foric and Daniels, who had the means to do something but were constrained by the circumstances of the situation. It was the sort of thing that pushed a man to his breaking point.

Daniels could sympathize with Foric right now, even if he didn’t feel particularly bad for the Union explorers being killed. The Union was not a friend or ally, they were the enemy. The enemy who conquered Earth, divided his people, and pushed Earth over the edge of Ecological collapse. Even if the United States had been destroyed two hundred years before his birth Daniels still felt a righteous furry at the people who had destroyed the country his family and clan loved so much. Even if it failed to live up to its ideals the USA deserved better than the ignominious death it got.

They didn’t even have the balls to invade. They just threatened them with a brutal orbital bombardment campaign and bribed their elected leaders. Daniels had hated the Union for as long as he could remember, and Astarte revealing the full depth of their crimes had only stoked that fire.

So right now he only felt grim satisfaction at seeing the Union ships die where his Terran ships had survived.

“Can you communicate with them?” Foric asked after a long pause, breaking Daniels out of his dark pleasure.

“What?”

“If I gave you an open channel could you speak with them?” Foric asked, his tone pressing as another burst of energy lit up the Gotari sensors.

“Maybe, I doudt they would listen.” Daniels said.

“Its worth a chance, stand by for an open channel.” Foric said without hesitation.

Daniels blinked “You want me to speak with them?” he asked in surprise.

Foric growled “Yes, maybe you can convince to follow our guidance before its too late.”

Daniels felt his heart falter, and before he could stop himself a firm “No” came out his mouth.

Foric wheeled on Daniels “NO?” he asked furry on his face. “Was that a mistranslation, or are you refusing to save these poor bastards?” his voice rose with each word.

“They don’t deserve to be saved.” Daniels growled back, his mind dipping into something dark and sharp within himself.

Foric went into a rage. “DESERVE! DESERVE! No one deserves to be eaten by the swarm. Their limbs ripped apart and melted in stomach acid for their biomass to be added to the Hive and spawn more monsters. We saved you from that fate knowing full well that you could be dangerous savages because you deserved better than what the swarm offered. And now you have the martlok to say that these people don’t deserve the same.” He roared, the room going silent at their commanders outburst. His arms dug into the cushions of his chairs and spoke in barely more than a whisper. “And I thought you were a species with honor.”

Daniels felt his face heat up from rage, and embarrassment. His hands balled up into fists. But he kept them at his side.

He took in several deep breathes and looked to Jefferson, who was staring at him with a deep concern.

“We can deal with the consequences later Jackson, right now there’s people who need our help. Foric’s right, we have a duty to offer them sanctuary.” He tone was no longer light and joking, nor was it hard and commanding. Her voice had taken on a soft and gentle quality Daniels had never heard from her. It would almost be comical if it were different circumstances.

Daniels felt his hate lose a lot of its heat. He turned on his heels and strode to Fezzen’s console. “Open a channel” he grunted stiffly.

All the Gotari had expressions of shock and fear on them. But of all of them Fezzen looked disappointed; let down. Daniels had gotten the feeling that the little guy had sort of latched onto Daniels and looked up to him. The disappointment on his face was like a bucket of water over the burning hate in Daniels chest.

Fezzen opened his mouth, and then closed it without a word. He turned back to his screen and began typing away. after half a minute there was the crackle and hiss of an open radio channel.

Daniels took in a deep breath and let it out through his nose. And then gathered all his will to summon up the cold professional tone a man of his rank was expected to have. “Union Vessels.” He began in Galactic common, the language the Union tried to enforce as the universal tongue. “This is Captain Jackson Daniels of the ISS Staff of Lore. Please follow the transmitted course to the Ecumenopolis. I repeat please follow the transmitted course to the Ecumenopolis. The locals are friendly and are not affiliated with your attackers.”

There was a pause and the room was filled with static from the radio. Daniels felt a dark part of himself hope that the Gotari didn’t have Wakecom arrays and the travel time for normal radio would doom the Union ships. Then there was a change in the background static and a disgruntled voice came thorough “What is a Terran doing this far from your Deathworld?” the voice accused.

“Bastards” He heard Jefferson mutter behind him.

Daniels just gritted his  and pressed on. For a second he thought about calling it there, he sent his message and they chose to play around. Not his fault if they died. But Foric might accuse him of purposefully dooming those assholes if he didn’t give it his all. “Irrelevant. Follow the given course or face destruction at the maws of uncaring monsters.”

Another long pause. And then “Captain Daniels, we are complying with the given course. But know this, there will be an investigation into your ships and crews.”

Daniels scowled, and couldn’t stop the toxic remark that came out of huis mouth. “Good fucken luck with that. Welcome to the Tomb World.”

He stepped back from Fezzen’s console, turned to face Foric, and forced his to be as neutral as possible. “The Union captain has received my message. Its on you to guide them here. Our presence would only be a distraction at this point, may we depart?”

Foric still looked furious at Daniels, but he held his tongue and made the affirmative clicking sound in his mouth. “Yes, you may leave. An escort will be waiting to return you to your ships.”

“Thank you Sir. We’ll be out of your way then.” Daniels walked to the jungle gym hole that led down the tower before stopping. He turned back to Foric “And Foric, we would take it as a favor if you kept their ships as far from us as possible.”

“Will do, your dismissed.” He said without turning back to Daniels.