[geoschmo]

Year 2413.1

The Maiden Voyage of the S.R.S. Gartok (500Kt Gartok class - series 0001) had been quite successful. Captain Tadminum had led his ship and his crew as far east as the black hole system of Equandul before having to turn back for resupply. The route plotted had been a little more circuitous than he would have liked, but it was necessary to avoid several unstable wormholes the Fazrah had charted in the area. They also needed to avoid the heart of Sergetti space as they didn’t have the weaponry to fight off a fleet of their ships.

First contact was made with two new races. The first, a race calling themselves the Nultoh Group inhabited the Utekra system. Despite a decent level of technology, and having colonized several planets in their home system, the Nultoh did not apparently have any desire to explore the areas around their space. The Gartok had in fact not encountered them until warping into their home system. The were basically peaceful, if rather isolationist, and had no problems with enacting a trade agreement with the Sallegan Republic.

The second, and far more important race was the Eee. A gas dwelling race inhabiting several systems in the eastern part of the galaxy. The discovery of the Eee caused quite a stir, as there was evidence that they, or their ancestors were the race that had inhabited the Gas Giants in Narcisston and the other systems in the west. Apparently this was either an offshoot of the previous race, or some calamity had befallen them in the distant past, because technologically the Eee were no more advanced than the Sallegans or any of the other races they had met. A treaty was enacted and plans were made to send cultural and exo-biology experts to the Eee empire to try and unlock these mysteries.

The Last major event to occur on the Gartok’s mission was on the return trip. While skirting known Sergetti space the ship was passing through the Marjoram system and came across an unarmed Sergetti ship in some significant distress. They had run afoul of an ion storm and the crew was close to death. While the Sergetti had two colonies in the system they had nothing close enough to respond to the distress call. Captain Tadminum responded and saved the crew and dropped them in an escape pod close to one of the colonies for one of their orbital ships to pick it up.

It was not clear if it was this act of charity, or some other unknown factor, but soon after the Sallgan consulate in Ushphada received a communication from the Sergetti requesting a dialogue for peace. A Non-Aggresion pact was signed, and plans made for a conference towards closer cooperation.

“The next ship to venture into those parts should be able to take a far more direct route.” Tadminum thought as his shuttle landed at the New Capitol City SpacePort on Narcisston VIII. He had been summoned to report directly to Admiral Grandow. Not unheard of, but unusual nonetheless. Tadminum had rather expected it considering the momentous events of the Gartok’s mission, and the fact that she was currently in space dock on Ushphada III being retrofit to the latest in solar cell technology that would greatly increase her range.

As he entered the Admiral’s office he could see that Grandow had something serious on his mind. After some general pleasantries, Tadminum ran through the events of the preceding two-year mission for the Admiral. It was all a formality of course. The Admiral had read all the reports, and had an intimate knowledge of what had taken place. Captain Tadminum tried to give him a deeper understanding of those things that don’t get put into official logs.

When he was done the Admiral spoke. “What do you know of the conflict between the Fazrah and the Paretorians lately?”

“Only what has been in the news, and in the daily briefings sir. We saw no Praetorian ships on our mission, and only encountered a few Fazrah once we returned to Sallegan space” the captain answered. “Do we think there will be a war?”

“We do.” Grandow answered. “And we fear for what that may mean for the stability of the quadrant. The Fazrah are strong, but the Praetorians are as well. And recently the Paretorians and the Norak have become quite close.”

“Does this affect us?” Tadminum asked. “The Fazrah-Pretorian border is far from us. And we are allies with both of them, as well as the Norak. Do we have an interest in this?”

“We believe we may.” Grandow answered. “If the Fazrah were to be overrun, the Norak-Praetorian alliance would be quite strong. Much stronger than us alone. We must think of the long-term consequences if something like this were to happen. We occupy a strategic position between the Norak and the rest of the galaxy. They may someday decide they no longer need us around if they feel they can remove us without too much trouble.”

“So you mean to attack the Norak? If I may speak freely sir, that would be madness! They are quite strong. Even if the Fazrah were able to handle the Praetorians, we would have quite a fight if it were to come to open warfare between us and the Norak. And would the people support it? Their religion is quite popular these days, even among my ships crew there are converts. I don’t doubt their loyalty to the republic, but I would hate to have to put it to a test such as this.”

“No captain. We do not intend to attack the Norak, or even the Praetorians. But we are making preparations. We have not been asked directly by the Fazrah for assistance as of yet, but we plan to be ready when such a request comes. The Fazrah have been a loyal ally, but they are erratic. Their chaotic government, if it can even be called that, has trouble maintaing control over their own ships. We do not cherish the thought of them defeating the Praetorians any more than we wish to see them defeated. We intend to give them sufficient aid to maintain the status quo.”

“This will be a dangerous path Admiral. Do you wish for me to go to the Fazrah as an advisor?”

“No Captain. I have another for that job. I need you to return to your ship and head east again. The Eee tell us of another race farther to the east called the Jraenar. We wish you to make contact with them, and any others you find along the way. And we need you to scout the strength and extent of the Praetorian Empire to the northeast. We have the maps of all the systems, but no Sallegan eyes have ever seen those planets up close. We need to see it for ourselves so we can have a fuller picture of what is to come.”

With that Captain Tadminum was dismissed and returned to his shuttle. As they lifted off and returned to orbit he looked out over the capitol below. He thought back to the ruin that was left after the first attack in the Great War. A visitor from another planet, or even another city would have trouble locating any remnants of that battle over thirteen years ago now. But having grown up on a farm in this province, and having been involved in the cleanup and rebuilding of the city afterwards, he knew all too well.

He knew where the mass graves for the millions with no identification, or no surviving relatives were located. He could still make out the scarred earth in the few areas not yet redeveloped. Scarred by the fire from above, and the bulldozer afterwards. He wondered if those fires would burn again on his homeworld. He would do his best to make sure they didn’t.