Chalto spent the first few days docked at the station, just decompressing and letting the stress of the journey fade from his mind while remaining aboard his ship. He would have liked to take more time to relax, but he knew the adjunct was up to something, so it was his duty to find out what that was.
The station AI wasn’t all that helpful, despite Chalto’s credentials. “You cannot tell me anything about the station or the ship?”
“You do not have the required credentials to access this information,” the AI replied cheerfully.
“But you recognized my diplomatic credentials when you allowed us to land.”
“That is correct,” the AI replied once again.
Chalto sighed. That AI’s refusal to comply was further proof that this wasn’t an Astryx station. Not that he needed any more, given its location in the dead zone. He assumed the station was operated by an applicant species that hadn’t yet been inducted into the council, since it recognized his status. It wasn’t unheard of; new species were in the process of being inducted all the time, and the process was a slow one, taking decades. That didn’t seem to be the case, however. Even applicant species were required to implement diplomatic access, and any issues with that access would have been addressed a long time ago.
He could probably tease the information out of the AI eventually, but it would take far too long. If it refused to provide him with any information, he would have to try another approach.
“Does this station have a comm array that I can access?” Chalto had tried the ship’s onboard comm array, but they were so far from civilized space that the ship’s transmitter didn’t have the power to reach even the closest comm hub. Having such an underpowered comm was an oversight for whoever had built the ship, but then again, who would have ever guessed that a representative’s vessel would fly deep into the dead zone?
“Certainly, Representative Chalto. Please provide the location with which you need to contact, and I will facilitate your request.”
When he told the AI the destination, the AI responded that it didn’t have that location stored in its archives. That was not the first time Chalto had come across that problem, but it had been years since he had to provide location data for a comm link manually. Finding the link data proved to be difficult, but with the help of the crew aboard his vessel, he was able to locate an old log with the destination stored in an archive file.
Once he provided that to the AI, his comm terminal lit up and the silver screen cleared to show an older four-eyed individual with shaggy silver hair held back in a ponytail. The hair being tied back only emphasized the individual’s small horns that stuck up between his ears. It was a face Chalto was very familiar with from his time at the political academy.
“Representative Chalto? It’s been a long time. What can I help you with?”
Chalto nodded in respect. “Archivist Brunt, I was wondering if you could look at some ship scans and images for me and see if there is any information on them?”
“Certainly.”
Chalto forwarded the data.
“Give me a moment,” the older ivathian man said as he perused the images.
“Hmm, fascinating. I’m not familiar with anything fitting that design, but it does look similar to some of the old converted Concord stations. Where did you even find such a thing?” the man asked enthusiastically.
“The ship?” Chalto asked, keeping the easily distracted archivist on topic.
“Oh, right,” the man chuckled before going back to the data. “I’m not sure. It’s certainly old, whatever it is. I’ll need to consult our repository to see if it can reconstruct the outline of the vessel. There’s too much damage to get an image match with what you sent. Give me a few minutes.”
Chalto waited, and eventually, archivist Brunt returned with a grave face, which couldn’t be good. “What did you find?”
Instead of answering the question, Brunt asked one of his own. “Where did you find these images?”
“I didn’t find them. They came from my ship’s sensors.”
“That’s not possible,” Brunt declared.
“I can assure you, it is possible. I’m docked at that very station now.”
“That ship is a planetary conditioning vessel. It can’t be there because most of those were confirmed destroyed during the Concord/Alliance war, and the rest were accounted for and disassembled before the Alliance fell apart. That station is a Concord military shipyard, which was also logged as destroyed in the archives. I shudder to think what would happen if that ship became fully active. I’m sorry, representative, but I need to report this to the council.”
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Chalto worked his jaw in annoyance. Now he knew why adjunct Xing’che had been so adamant about coming to this station. He nodded at the man. “I will remain here and monitor things. The ship has a captain, but I’m unsure if the vessel is capable of moving on its own.”
Brunt went even paler at that statement. “It has a captain?”
Chalto nodded in confirmation.
“This is far more serious than I thought. I need to alert the council right away.”
Before Chalto could argue or comment, the connection ended.
Less than an hour later, his comm terminal pinged. When he answered, he was greeted by the current council head, along with the Astryx military cabinet.
Chalto didn’t recognize the puatha council member, but he did recognize the mantle he was wearing. “Council Head.”
“Representative Chalto,” the many-jointed council head replied in clear agitation. “You have brought us some rather disturbing information. How long have you had this data?”
“A few days,” Chalto admitted. “Had I been aware of the ship’s significance, I would have reached out far sooner.”
The council heads’ limbs jerked in agitation before he calmed himself. “I suppose I cannot blame you entirely. None of us was aware of this vessel’s significance until the archivist told us. That being said, we have some additional questions. Tell us all you know about this captain, and why you are out in the dead zone.”
Chalto hadn’t said he was in the dead zone, but it wouldn’t have been hard to figure out. A station and ship as large as what he had discovered wouldn’t have remained undetected inside Astryx space for any length of time, let alone nearly nine hundred years, and the only unexplored region left that the Imperium had been in before the war was the dead zone.
He relayed what he knew of Captain Jacob, which wasn’t much, as well as how Adjunct Xing’che had convinced him to go to the station.
“And you don’t even know what species this man is?” one of the military members asked. “I thought the borganians had a highly evolved sense of smell.”
“We do,” Chalto confirmed. “I suspect that what greeted us was not the captain, but some sort of remotely operated drone.”
He had pondered the lack of smells coming from the suited form, as well as the metallic smell, and a remotely operated device was the only thing that made sense.
The room went worryingly quiet at that statement.
“Did I say something out of line?” Chalto asked.
“No, representative,” the council head replied. “Just surprising. Your words could confirm some of the topics we discussed before contacting you, or they could mean nothing at all. You do not need to concern yourself with that matter; we have others looking into that. We need you to lock down the station and prevent the ship from leaving.”
Chalto wondered what they could have discussed, but he suppressed his curiosity. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that, Council Head. The station AI refuses to acknowledge my diplomatic credentials past allowing my ship to land. I believe it might be damaged or its programming altered. I must also ask, is this even worth pursuing? The ship is a wreck; I doubt it will be going anywhere anytime soon, so there isn’t any real threat.”
The council head frowned. “We’ll have to look into the credentials issue. It was likely configured in haste by the alliance and not set up properly. That could also explain how it wasn’t properly deactivated. And you are correct, the ship isn’t of any concern, at least in its current state. Our information indicates that the Concord vessels don’t have shields, and their weapons were primarily void cannons, with missiles as backup. It could not harm any shielded vessel unless it crashed directly into it, but it is not the ship I am concerned about; it’s what it represents.”
“The Concord Imperium?” Chalto guessed.
“Yes,” the council head confirmed. “The universe believes they are gone, and we must maintain that belief to prevent widespread panic. Thankfully, archivist Brunt was smart enough to request an emergency closed-door meeting with the council to discuss this matter, instead of an open-door meeting. If Representative Naal hadn’t finally gotten the eiraxin dissenters under control shortly after your departure from the planet, the council would have held a second vote based on the news you brought us. I do not, however, believe that your departure and the t’uk representative’s ability to restore order to the planet are a coincidence.”
“You believe that Adjunct Xing’che was behind the rebellion?” Chalto believed the woman was crafty and certainly had an agenda, but he had a hard time picturing her leading her people into open rebellion. She had to know how something like that would end. Almost did end, if Chalto understood what the council head was hinting at.
“We don’t know that for certain,” the council head replied, “but you are to keep an eye on her as well. The council has agreed to dispatch a judicator to the station to determine the severity of the threat and how to deal with the captain of that vessel, as well as Adjunct Xing’che. Someone will be in touch as soon as we have the proper diplomatic credentials to lock down the station.”
Chalto didn’t like it, but he had little choice in the matter. “I will do as you ask, Council Head.”
The council leader thanked him for his service to the Astryx and ended the call, leaving Chalto to stare at his own reflection in the silvery surface of the comm terminal.
Chalto sighed. “War this, fight that. They didn’t even bother to consider a diplomatic resolution.”
He would carry out his duty as that was what was required of him, but he would be bringing this issue to borganian leadership. For years now, his people had been wondering if joining the Astryx had been the right call.
What the council didn’t know was that Chalto had been the most vocal opponent of the Astryx since becoming a representative. He had witnessed how the other representatives treated the eiraxins with disdain and contempt, even if most just wanted to live their lives. If that wasn’t enough to prove that joining the Astryx council was a bad idea, the fact that they considered calling a vote to eliminate an entire species over a revolt certainly was, because if they could do that for one species, what was to stop them from doing it to others?
Had they actually gone forward with that vote, Chalto was sure his leadership would have immediately withdrawn from the council. It would have cut his people off from the greater universe, but that was better than being complicit in genocide.
He understood that there was a long history of hatred and mistrust between the council members and eiraxins, but he had never seen Adjunct Xing’che utter a single word of complaint or disparagement against any of them.
That didn’t mean his people were perfect. All species had their troubled individuals, even the borganians. It was how the leaders acted that really mattered, and so far, he was leaning in favor of Adjunct Xing’che, which was something he never thought he would have done only a few years ago.