Omoikane 02 The Shard

Omoikane 02 - The Shard

We watched the dragon go, and then secured from alert.  We had some damage to repair.  No injuries this time.

I turned towards Sharmarlaz. "Okay,  We have questions.  I'm sure you do too."

He nodded. "Many."

"Let's get you situated, and then you can tell us where we're taking you."

"Absolutely not."

"Sorry?"

"The dragons will watch you.  If you take me to any Shard port, they will follow us there.  I will not lead the dragons into the Shard."

"I'm sure there's something we can do to avoid that."

"Your engines are advanced.  Everything else I see is mediocre.  We had the best cloaking device the Shard could produce, and the Dragon saw us.  Your cloaking technology cannot be as advanced."

"Well, I'm sure our cloaking technology is behind yours. Let's talk about it and see what we can come up with."

Sharmarlaz nodded his assent. "As long as we're not endangering my people,  I am at your service."

-*-

"The Shard is what remains of the Original Empire,"  Sharmarlaz said.  We were the first to rise to civilization and the greatest.  Although our old empire fell, we survivors kept the light of civilization alive," Sharmarlaz said.

"Okay.  We'd like to open communications with your great empire.  As I explained to the Dragon, the United Federation of Planets is an organization of peace.  We believe in diplomacy and honest discussion to resolve problems," I replied.

"I note you're heavily armed."

"Not everyone agrees.  We'd prefer to stay alive until diplomacy can be established."

"Forgive me.  It sounds impossibly naive and utopian."

"It’s much more work, this is true.  But we think it's worth it."

"How old is this Federation of yours?"

"Our founding was about three hundred and forty years ago."

He smiled, "Ah.  Newbies.  You'll learn."

I decided to change the subject: "What can you tell me about the dragons?"

"They are a weapon from an ancient war. They are both a life form and a machine at the same time. They eat metals.  When metals cannot be found, they'll eat asteroids and glean metals from them.  They absorb the energy of stars.   Somehow, they store the energy.  Most of the time, you'll find them in a close orbit of a star,  soaking up energy.  They have limited range and duration compared to a starship, but in close battle, they are deadly.  Their living energy fields serve as a strong defense, and they coat themselves in crystals of carbon and silicon, acting as ablative armor.

If injured, they retreat and huddle close to a star to regain energy.

Although they can and do eat asteroids to glean metals, they find starships to be a rich food source.

They are on record as hating we 'meat things,’ and they enjoy destroying our ships, bases, and installations.  They're slow in a strategic sense.  They venture from star to star.  They seem to dislike expending energy on long journeys unless they have a good reason.

Their bones and skin are some flavor of hull metal, distilled from eaten minerals and forged in fire from the surface of a star.  Their organs are semi-solid metal devices that look like the organs of standard life forms, but written in metal.  Their blood is molten metal.

We have no idea how they store energy.  It's an enduring mystery. But we know they do.

Since they absorb heat and radiation from stars, it takes a lot of concentrated energy to hurt them. The weapons of more primitive people are helpless.

Shard Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts hunt the dragons.  The Dragons hunt us back. Everything smaller must flee."

"Your ship was smaller.  It looked like a scout." I realized what tickled my brain about the wreck.  It looked Orion.  Advanced and swoopier Orion, but Orion.

Sharmarlaz nodded. "We felt we were skirting the edge of Dragon territory, at a reasonably safe distance."

"And you feel that the Dragons do not know where your empire is?"

"They seem to have a general feeling, but we take steps not to lead them back towards our main bases.  They have attacked forward bases and colonies before. They seem to enjoy being destructive about it.  As I said, they're on record saying they hate us and enjoy wreaking havoc on us.  The main saving grace is that they take their time.  They're slow, and sometimes they spend decades bathing in energy.  They may not view time the same way we do."

"Hmm,"  I said.  Every word the man said was being recorded.  It would be analyzed in minute detail.

"How old is The Shard?"

"We trace our history back some six thousand years, although there was an interregnum after The War of the Gods."

"War of the Gods?"

"The Original Empire fell in the War of the Gods.  The old records speak of people as both men and gods.  It can be confusing.  They wielded terrible power and were consumed with selfishness and hubris.  Our technology has not yet recovered to that peak, but we've created a better system.

When the Lords of Oron fell to fighting, they destroyed all, leaving a desert where there were no inhabitable planets.  

"Oron, you say?"

"Yes, supposedly our ancient homeworld.  Some say it was fictional."

"We were there eight weeks ago.  We dropped off supplies to an archaeology mission there."

He stared at me in shock, "Really?"

I nodded. "We have other survivors of what I suspect you call The Original Empire as allies.  And some as rivals.  We would love to trade information with your Shard."

He blinked rapidly, "I see."

"So let's figure out how to get you to a Shard base, so we can drop your crew there and negotiate an exchange of information."

He leaned back in the chair of the conference room. "Okay.  Okay."