[OT] - Story thread: Xenology Resurrected

[dogscoff]

OK, here it is. I hope there's at least someone reading this...

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An insistent wheezing sound issued from the vast bulk of the bladdergart as it gradually deflated, echoing around the frozen cavern like the whisperings of the unfortunate creature's ghost. Shreekep chuckled from atop the dripping mass.
"I have to admit I'd thought I'd sampled everything the new domains had to offer," he said, still squirming himself clean of oily gore, "but you've really surprised me with this one. Quite delicious."
"It's natural that an adventurer like you would be more familiar with the northern systems than the southern ones."
Shkimsk replied, carefully keeping any sense of satisfaction out of his voice. "These red bladdergarts are from the polar regions of Daran II. They're as stupid as they are tasty, you only have to imitate their calls and they swim right to you."
"You're right, I've never been to that end of the galaxy. Much too quiet for my taste, but it obviously has its charms. Perhaps I should think about some investments there." He adjusted his balance slightly as one of the
beast's internal membranes gave way and a fresh flotation chamber began to vent rudely. "Say, it must have cost you a fortune to get this thing shipped all that way."
Shkimsk waved his tail casually and tried hard to make his denial sound nonchalant. If anything, the word "fortune" was an understatement, but he had the measure of Shreekep and knew that this lurid display of wealth would impress him. Shkimsk had understood this as soon as he had heard the pirate wanted an audience fee from him- coming from anyone but royalty it was an outright insult, although Shreekep had mitigated the affront somewhat by offering to share the kill with its donor. Even with Kleesh's influence, it had taken considerable funds, organisation, coertion and bribery to seal off and flood an entire starliner compartment- room that could have accomodated over forty thousand paying passengers- so that this creature could be transported alive to Marfak IX, one of the colonies nearest the alien borders. Still, it would be worth the expense and the wounded pride if he could just
bring Shreekep onto their side. He was an icon, a figurehead for the adventuring spirit that was the appeal of the colonies, and his co-operation was crucial to their continued success. "So now that we're fed, let's talk business," Shreekep said. Shkimsk made a sound of agreement as he plugged one of the bladdergart's noisier punctures with his tail, then settled himself down. This, according to the old KanesS proverb, would be the real meat of the meeting.

"It concerns the Xiati." He began. "As you know, they aren't at all happy with us."
"Well, I'm quite happy with them." Replied Shreekep. "As should you be. I've made my name hunting them, and it seems to me that your own little adventure on Pruli VIa was the turning point in yours and Kleesh's little empire."
Shkimsk bared his teeth in displeasure. It was all true enough, but the use of the word "empire" was a dangerous one. He and Kleesh had already assembled and deployed their own private army in the conquest of Pruli VIa, and what they were about to propose to Shreekep would amount to little less than a private war-fleet, and that's enough to make any monarch nervous. Kleesh might be the effective ruler of the empire's colonies, but her parents wouldn't be king and the queen if they hadn't retained the power to crush any potential rebellion, even if they had never left the homeworld themselves. Besidess, The prosperity of the colonies depended on a steady flow of colonists from the homeworld, and that in turn depended not only on the goodwill of the monarchy but on public opinion, and nothing makes the gerneral public more nervous about travel than a fully-fledged civil war.

No doubt Shreekep understood all his, and perhaps also understood that he effectively held the balance in any such conflict. Kleesh had no warships of her own, except for the landing craft used to invade the Xiati outpost and a number of support ships, and any attempts to procure warships directly would look too much like a potential coup. On the other hand, their majesties' government- backwards as ever- had no real fleet to speak of, although they were finally beginning to remedy the situation. No, the only real armed KanesS presence in space was the legion of privately owned buccaneers, lone entrepreneurs who preyed on lost and helpless ships. They had no allegiance except to themselves, but they all looked up to and respected Sheekep, who had popularised the pirate lifestyle. He had risked his first fortune when he invested all of it into his ship, and then had founded a second one on the capture of a Xiati explorer craft. Although his ship still prowled the borders, he paid someone else to take the helm these days, while he himself had taken to teaching. His "ship training" facilities on Marfak IX and Catia IV had been popular and profitable, and had done a great deal to remedy the staggering ineptitude shown by many of the first buccaneer crews. Dozens of small trade ships- Xiati, Cue Cappan, Norak, Drukshockan and KanesS- had fallen victim to pirates since the establishment of the academies, as well as a second explorer and even a small Xiati warship.

All this ran through Shkimsk's mind as he considered his reply to Shreekep's observation.
"You're right, of course. The Xiati have benefitted both of us, but now they threaten us. I'm sure you'e heard about the First Battle of Pruli*? If not for blind luck we could have easily lost the colony. Quite apart from the exports we get from Pruli VIa, it's become a symbol of the whole colonial lifestyle. To lose it would be more than just embarrassing."
"So you've come here to ask me to defend your precious colony? You want me to rally a few ships to hang around the Pruli warp point and fight off any righteous Xiati invaders? I have to say it all sounds rather dull."
Shkimsk coiled languidly while flashing a warning glance to one of his servants, who was obviously finding the smell of the bladdergart's flesh almost too tempting to resist.
"Really, Shreekep." Replied Shminsk, with just enough condescension in his voice to make the buccaneer bare his teeth. "You're supposed to be an entrepreneur, an opportunist. Why should we settle for simply defending our assets when we can procure new ones. The auctioning of Pruli VIa was a massive success, and the subsequent rioting only proved that there is demand for more. And there is more- beyond the Pruli warp point there are systems full of worlds, all occupied by the Xiati. We've taken one, we can take more. We won't be able to surprise them again like we did in Pruli, but we've already seen what a few buccaneer crews can do to Xiati warships. Imagine what an entire fleet could do. No, Shreekep, I want you to build a fleet of buccaneers and go through the Pruli warp point."

"Foolhardy." Said Shreekep at Last. "We have no idea what forces they may have ammassed on the other side of that warp point. We could be destroyed in an instant." There was no thought of cowardice in either of their minds. The KanesS are a race of opportunistic scavengers, who prey on the weak, the dying and the unsuspecting. They have no pretensions of bravado. Shkimsk was ready with a reply. "We have procured some information. One of the Overmind ships came through the warp point and made a little deal with one of our starliner Captains. It gave us some very precise information about their forces, and if you can get five or six captains to follow, we will crush them utterly. I can provide repair ships, supply tenders and a minesweeper. We'll bring along extra prize crews and expand the fleet as we capture enemy ships. Eventually we'll have the pick of their colonies, and you will have a significant share in the venture. It will be a feast."

A long silence followed in the darkness, broken only by the now-gentle exhalation of the gigantic corpse on which the two KanesS sat, measuring one-another with their precise sonar sense.

"I will consider it. I have some other business to look over before I can make a decision, and I will expect a sixty percent share, but I will consider it. The rewards would certainly be ample, but the risks may be too great. Now, leave me to think, and I will let you know in due course."

Shkimsk slithered off of the bladdergart and left, annoyed that he should be dismissed like some servant, but at the same time confident that the pirate's appetite had been sufficiently tickled by the offer. He would come, and the Xiati would fall into their open mouths, and Kleesh's position as first heir would be utterly unassailable.


FOOTNOTES:

* The battle-naming debate was finally settled when the First Battle Nomenclaturists made a surprise return from obscurity and gained the support of their peers with the suggestion that the previous three engagements be named the First, Second and Third Slaughters of Pruli**. Historians are now ferociously debating whether or not to revise the rest of KanesS military history and reclassify all previous conflicts as either "battles", "slaughters" or "feasts".

** It is likely that the timing of the suggestion- just before lunch after a particularly appetising morning's debate- contributed as much to its success as its content.

[dogscoff]

*cough*bump*cough*

[Raging Deadstar]

I'm reading it And I'm enjoying it Dogscoff. Very much so, the KanesS are one of the most itneresting empires i've read about in a fanfiction. And i'm sure I'm not the only one Reading.

By the Way, I updated the Copy of this on SpaceEmpires.Net

[dogscoff]

By the Way, I updated the Copy of this on SpaceEmpires.Net

Thanks

[Atrocities]

Very nice read. I wish I could write this well.

[dogscoff]

Shrikeesh's audience fee to her parents was far less extravagant than the one Shkimsk had shared with Shreekep. The modestly-sized but exquisitely tasty Roogafish imported from the Cue Cappan homeworld implied a certain intimacy, which hinted at the favour she hoped to regain.
"It certainly is very exciting," she said, "I hope they do well." It took everything she had not to writhe with hatred as she lavished praise upon her sister's adventures, but it was rarely wise to criticise a favoured heir of the royal couple to their faces, so she just had to swallow her bile and put up with it. She could vent her frustrations on her servants later- they had been getting fat and lazy anyway, some physical punishment would do them good.
"I mean, she can hardly fail to succeed, with all those warships she's assembled. Most impressive, I must say." Shrikeesh continued. It might not do to criticise Kleesh right now, but barbs could always be disguised as praise.
"It's just a shame that your majesties don't have a fleet of their own. If the homeworld were to come under attack from some... hostile force... we would have little to defend it."
"We have the ground defences, they are more than a match for any alien fleet," drawled the king. The defences he referred to were a number of hastily-constucted weapons platforms, thrown together when a rather large alien ship had appeared in the homesystem. It had been a representative of the enigmatic Overmind, and- as it happens- had turned out to be benign. It was the first alien craft to enter the homesystem, and the masses had panicked: After seeing what could be inflicted upon alien planets by Kleesh's invasion force, their imaginations went wild at the thought of what aliens might do to them- particularly strange, mysterious aliens like the Overmind. Little was known about them, and what information there was had fuelled all kinds of wild theories and fantasies. Stories about the ability to shape life to any purpose the way other races shaped metal were popular, although not as popular as the one about the edible spacecraft a hundred miles long. When the Overmind ship started advancing upon the homeworld, such utopian tales soon turned to stories of specially-engineered fire-breathing monsters, armour-plated and ready to swallow a thousand KanesS in a single gulp. In the end, the ship had lain in orbit for a short while, dropped off a small diplomatic party and then powered off toward the nebula that lay between the homesystem and the northern domains.

His majesty reclined opulently, while a juvenile servant carefully picked lumps of meat from the royal teeth. Shrikeesh knew from experience that the wily old sod was far more alert than his composure might show, and she began filtering her words even more carefully than before.
"Of course, your majesties, with the ground defences, life and death are yours to grant to any alien that dares to enter orbit." She emphasised the word 'alien' ever so subtly, and almost immediately thought it had been too much, the implication of a potential coup too plain. The king tilted his head at her, as though to pursue the matter, but the the queen interrupted with a change of subject- her thoughts perhaps guided toward the Overmind by talk of the weapons platforms.
"I understand the Overmind have sent a delegation. What manner of creature are they?"
Shrikeesh twisted awkwardly. This was a question she had hoped to avoid, because she knew her royal parents would never be able to see beneath the surface of her answer, even if they allowed her to attempt to explain it to them.

Something Shrikeesh understood that most KanesS did not, was that aliens are utterly different, and that- according to the laws of evolution- they are supposed to be. The chances of life on different worlds evolving into anything but vastly different creatures were as close to zero as made no difference, and Shrikeesh's job as minister for alien interaction put her in amlost daily contact with the reality of this simple fact. She was beginning to realise that aliens were not only built differently, but that they had different drives, priorities and ways of thinking as well. For example, while the concept of 'compassion' is not entirely lost on the KanesS, the idea that it might be considered a good thing would be somewhat laughable to them. Nonetheless, Shrikeesh had reaslied quite some time ago that the Drukshockans weren't joking when they talked about a "benevolent and compassionate interstellar relationship." She had already found ways to manipulate this strange notion to her own advantage, securing numerous charitable donations from various Drukshockan organisations.

Then there were the Norak, with the thing they called 'religion'. This one was trickier, but she was fairly confident she'd be able to exploit that one soon enough as well. Apparently it wasn't just make-believe or metaphor, it was all real- or at least, it was real to them, and very important to them, too. If she could use it to gain some kind of advantage, it would be important to her as well.

The Cue Cappans were even trickier still, since their mind-reading tricks made it very easy for them to conceal their true intentions, and more often than not it was they who were the manipulators, and the KanesS who were the unsuspecting dupes. For this reason trade and contact with them had gradually diminished over time, but Shrikeesh had undoubtedly learned a lot from them.

However the Overmind was undoubtedly the most unfathomable of the lot. For one thing, it didn't actually seem to be a race, as such- the impression she got was that everything from that planet was somehow part of the same personality. There appeared to be individuals, but the diplomatic emissaries that had been on the homeworld since the unannounced visit seemed to have little in the way of individuality. She might be talking to one, and then go and talk to another and find that it would pick up the conversation where the first had left off. They had explained it to her several times, that they were disconnected nodes from some great intelligence, but it hadn't made much sense to her, and the baffling nature of their explanations did nothing to improve her trust of them.

Her second concern was that she couldn't divine the creatures' motives. What were they here for? The other races harrassed her on a daily basis about trade, treaties, social functions, cultural exchanges, piracy and a hundred other things. The Overmind representatives did not. They seemed quite content with the current state of affairs, although they made occasional requests for information about KanesS biology, or their studies of alien life-forms, or medical sciences. In most cases the best Shrikeesh could do was to direct them to various culinary publications.

Also, a certain amount of espionage was expected and tolerated among all the diplomatic visitors, but the Overmind's emissaries were either completely uninterested in it or so subtle that no-one even suspected them of trying. When they first arrived, they had sought assurances that their ships would not be attacked, and offered a reciprocal promise. After that, they were housed in the diplomatic complex, where they politely conversed with anyone who approached them and attended any social events to which they were invited, but beyond the continued safety of their ships and their requests for reading material they seemed to have no interest in interaction at all. Shrikeesh had agreed to forbid any attacks on Overmind ships- after all, such promises were cheap enough, since threats from the homeworld had very little impact on the buccaneers. Somehow though, no overmind ships had been attacked. Perhaps the pirates were as wary of this unknown quantity as she was, or perhaps the Overmind ships were simply too large and well armed. Certainly all she had seen so far outmassed the simple escorts the Xiati had lost.

More worrying than anything else, though- the warning sign that she knew her parents would not be able to appreciate- was their appearance. At first glance, one might easily mistake them for KanesS. The size, shape and colourings of the emissaries were almost identical to those of a typical, adult KanesS, although the colour bands were slightly too regular, and the eyes seemed somehow too large on them, and the way they moved wasn't at all right. This subtle not-quite-right was almost more unappetizing to her than the completely inorganic nature of the Drukshocka, although other KanesS didn't seemed to mind it. Soon she felt as though the emissaries had been sent to deceive her, or at the very least to patronise her. Why hadn't this super-intelligence come to them in its own, true form instead of mocking them with these imperfect copies of KanesS? The emissaries insisted that it would be quite impossible because the true overmind covered an entire planet, but that notion was even more absurd than even the most fantastic stories circulating among the lower classes.

Shrikeesh snapped her attention back to the present, and the curious gaze her royal mother was focussing at her.
"The Overmind emissaries... look much like us, but they tell me they are not typical of their species."
"So they copy us, eh?" Exclaimed the king. "Perhaps they realise that the KanesS form is the most elegant and useful, and they seek to emulate us. It must be a joy for you to finally have some sensible aliens to work with, daughter."
"It is, Royal Father, a great relief. However, their ways are not like ours, and I have heard some... interesting news from the frontier regarding the Overmind."

The king snapped away his tooth-cleaner and tipped his head to regard Shrikeesh with just one eye. There was an unspoken question in the air, and she answered it, suddenly even more acutely aware of the dangers of upsetting her parents.
"A strange incident came to light regarding one of our transports and an Overmind ship." She began, hiding her caution behind false confidence. "Some routine bookkeeping showed that two hundred colonists had boarded a colony transport, but had not landed. It looked as though he had sold them for meat," The king bared his teeth slightly, and interrupted Shrikeesh's monologue.
"As I understand it, cannibalism laws have been relaxed on the colonies." He said. "You have no right to be harrassing your sister's starliner captains anyway, and even less right to punish them for homeworld laws."
Shrikeesh stammered, but her mother intervened.
"The Captain would still be guilty of breach of contract if he sold the colonists for meat." She pointed out, "and I was never comfortable with this relaxation of cannibalism anyway. Carry on, daughter."
"When the Captain - Trissi, his name was- was brought up on charges, he said that he had sold the colonists to an Overmind ship, which had been in a great hurry for them. He confirmed his story with sensor logs."
"I fail to see why that's so worrying, daughter." Said the king. " All it proves to me is that unlike all the other aliens, these Overminds aren't prudish about what they eat. If they have a taste for KanesS flesh, then good for them, I say. Our people have always known how short a distance there is between the top and the bottom of the food chain."
"Yes, father, I understand..." Began Shrikeesh, but the king was in no mood to be placated.
"No, you do not understand. You seem to fear that these creatures will attack us and try to take us as Kleesh has taken the Xiati. You are wrong. No creature will risk conflict when it can achieve its goals by less drastic means. If the Xiati had offered us there flesh in trade, we would not be attacking them now. If the Overminds want KanesS meat, we will trade them for it. I thought you above this kind of peasantish panic, daughter."
"But she may have a point about the fleets," teh queen intervened, sparing Shrikeesh from a fresh barrage of abuse."We shouldn't allow ourselves to be upstaged by our own daughter, so we must have a royal fleet to surpass Kleesh's collection of pirates. Design and construction will begin at once. Will that set your mind at ease, daughter?"
Kleesh made a tiny sound of agreement beneath the withering stare of her father, who snorted with disgust.
"I think a Royal fleet unnecessary, but your mother has now decreed it. But know, daughter, that your hints haven't been wasted upon us, and you can rest assured that Kleesh poses no threat to us. We can easily outbid her for her mercenary fleet if it comes to it, and we have troops and agents loyal to the crown on every colony. Her own troops are mostly untrained peasants anyway. We have nothing to fear from her, even if she doesn't realise it. She might try to take the throne from us yet, the little rascal. I do like her spirit."
He paused for a moment, apparently tired by his outburst, and for an instant he seemed to soften a little.
"We're very frond of you, Shrikeesh, but you could learn much from your sister, despite her odd ways. Now, your mother and I have other business to attend to."

The interview over, Shrikeesh retired, burning with humiliation. She hadn't had a chance to reveal the reason she had wanted to discuss the Overmind with her parents. There was one important detail missing, but now she felt inclined to keep it to herself. When the starliner captain had sold some of his colonists, he had accepted sixty tons of meat in payment. The meat had been delivered, but rather than an array of live creatures or frozen carcasses, it had arrived as three massive cubes, thirty metres to a side. The flesh-cubes had no internal organs, just a series of regular capillaries criss-crossing their masses in a perfect three-dimensional grid. There was no fat, bone, cartilage, tendon or other tissues, and the surfaces showed no sign of it having been cut from a larger creature. Such a mass could serve no purpose in any living creature- indeed, it couldn't even support its own shape in anything other than zero-gravity. There was only one explanation, and that was that it had never been part of an animal. It had been created specially for the purpose of trade in some kind of vat.

The Overmind had a meat factory, and Shrikeesh wanted it.

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

Great story, I just love these guys. I wonder if the overmind can produce meat cubes with "mad meat cube disease" that will affect the upper crust of Kaness society in a few short years? They're such cute little bitey ice snakes! Keep up the good work!

A Meat Factory? Probably made of meat also?

"Overmind, it's not just for breakfast anymore"

[Raging Deadstar]

I agree this is going great, I hope to hear more from Unknown Enemy soon on the Overmind. That Last piece was great, so packed full of details and unique ideas.

Bravo

I'll get it uploaded soon to SpaceEmpires.Net

[sachmo]

Finally cuaght up. Very nice work.

[dogscoff]

I'm on a roll now...

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Shreekep's light cruiser crackled with fireworks as a second salvo of depleted uranium shells fired off toward the Xiati. Two of the alien ships had been destroyed already, and the remainder were frantically trying to regroup. Some of them returned fire, but it was clear they simply weren't hitting the KanesS ships hard enough. Shreekep fired again, rolling steadily toward the disorganised Xiati cluster. A jagged black explorer rocked with each hit, and a cloud of vented gasses hissed noisily from the hull.
"Captain Mxzz'kt'pl'k. We've been hit!" Screamed the tactical officer. "I can't get power to the engines, and they're coming in to ram us!"
The ageing escort was unarmed, and had only been included in the fleet because its long-range supply storage meant it could carry extra fuel for the warships. Without its engines it was helpless. Just then the ship shuddered again as one of its compatriots, glowing with damage, collided with the explorer as a result of a desperate evasive maneuver. Plates fell from both hulls, and the two craft trundled uncertainly apart at an oblique angle, the warship finally slowing to a near-halt and overturning loudly.
The Xiati captain picked himself off the floor, and his eyes flashed with fear. "That's not a ramming course. They're going to board us."
Suited KanesS boarders were already working to violate the explorer's stricken hull, and their equipment made hideous noises as it cut its way through. Hearing this, the tac officer looked up to his captain with terror written plainly across his face. "What will we do, Captain Mzz'imx'plxi't'x? Whatever will we do?"
The Captain looked down at his subordinate and gripped his rifle tightly. "By my implants, there's only one thing we can do, M'thr'plthr'xplxplxplxplxrthmx." He replied, sternly. "There is only one course of action now." he turned his dusky face away from the cringing tac officer, and gazed heroicly into nothingness. "We must baste ourselves in sauce and panic!" At that he threw himself on the floor, screeching and thrashing his tail until some of his less securely-fastened cybernetic implants flew off and skittered across the bridge, while the tac officer and the rest of the bridge crew burst simultaneously into song.

The audience loved it. No-one had ever attempted to depict a space battle on stage before, and the story of the Xiati invasion was a massive success. Most viewers agreed that the unconvincing Xiati costumes only added to the charm, as did the rickety, wheeled 'starships' that rolled about the stage and were certain to either fall apart before the end of each performance, or catch fire from their own pyrotechnics. Misk-weed was distributed to each audience before the performance, which was always indicative of a good, gory show. The KanesS digestive system can handle most things, vegetables included, and although they are generally scornful of any kind of salad they tend to make an exception for misk-weed. They find it tasty, filling and mildly sedative, and theatres discovered long ago that this is an ideal combination of properties for an in-show snack whenever the content of the performance is likely to spontaneously provoke a murderous feeding-frenzy. Too many good actors, staff and paying customers had been lost to theatre-wide orgies of mutual digestion*.

Despite the obvious liberties taken in the portrayal of the Xiati protagonists, the show was more or less accurate in the depiction of Kleesh's incursion into Xiati space. The eight fighters left from the first battle of Pruli were quickly destroyed by the new, sensor-equipped pirate vessels, and the fleet crossed the warp point into the desolate Marak system. There it discovered a small fleet of escorts and tore into them with passionate ferocity. The attackers suffered some damage, but no losses, and captured five enemy ships. The fleet's repair ships quickly restored their own vessels to full functionality, and most of the damage to the captured ships was retored, although their alien weapons and shield remained beyond the skills of the KanesS technicians. One of the prize ships was sent back to KanesS space to spread the news of the victory. It was then refit as an explorer and sent to investigate some of the northern systems as yet unknown to the KanesS. Three of the other ships- a single explorer and two damaged warships- were left behind to keep an eye on Marak while fifth ship joined the main fleet and crossed one of Marak's other two warp points into the Nihal system. Three occupied worlds awaited them, and none had any defences beyond a smattering of puny fighters. The twin troop transports simultaneously unloaded KanesS warriors by the thousand onto the first two worlds, and the terrified Xiati put up little resistance. They seemed to be resigned to their fate- almost as if they known it was coming. Those that did fight, invaribly fought to the death, always saving an explosive charge for themselves in orderto deny the KanesS their flesh. However most of them committed suicide immediately, having learned the fate of Pruli's colonists. All across the system, families locked themselves in their homes and burned, as- in a bizarre twist of circumstance- the KanesS occupiers risked their lives to put out the fires and save the Xiati occupants, who were the chief assets of the captured colonies.

For the invasion of the third colony- a sparsely populated moon- Kleesh ordered a different approach. A small, covert landing force managed to locate a few prominent Xiati- a local politician, a reporter, a few others- who were willing and able to pacify the locals with stories of an impending counter-attack. They advised all Xiati to stay in their homes and await rescue, while the collaborators were given a small ship and allowed to escape the system as promised. After all, if co-operation isn't seen to be rewarded, it will not be forthcoming in the future. By now the KanesS invasion fleets had learned enough about Xiati biology and cybernetics to flood the small dome with a powerful anesthetic gas. When the unfortunate prisoners awoke, they were tied, caged or otherwise prevented from harming themselves. News was sent back home, and the colonisation offices began to fill with hungry adventurers once more.

Meanwhile, the three-ship picket left in Marak reported a large fleet heading toward the Nihal warp point. The fleet had appeared at Marak's third warp-point, which was thought to exit upon the heavily-mined Xiati home-system. This fleet consisted of several carriers, numerous escorts and some ships that outmassed even the buccaneer light cruisers favoured by the likes of Shreekep. News of this new threat was received apprehensively by the fleet, but it was eventually decided that with the advantage of getting the first shot in at the warp point, they had the power to defeat even this fleet. Besides, they had assets to defend, and those assets provided them with a new and unexpected advantage. As well as extensive fleet support facilities- including resupply, repair and even training faculties- they had captured something new and very interesting with the Nihal system. Just how it worked was unclear, and whether it could be trusted or not was another question altogether, but it appeared to be able to provide information about events that hadn't actually happened yet. The expedition included numerous engineers, but no researchers, and Kleesh was determined to learn to use this thing before the Xiati relief force arrived. In the end, they managed to find a number of knowledgeable Xiati amongst the surviving colonists, who were immediately offered a choice between slavery and the fate they knew awaited them otherwise. Of those that chose slavery, a few didn't use it as an opportunity to commit suicide, attack the KanesS or attempt escape, and those few eventually got the thing working. Kleesh began studying the predictions from various fleet-engagement scenarios. It was more or less conclusive: They would crush the Xiati fleet the moment it arrived.

FOOTNOTES:

* Any readers who happen to be members of heavy metal bands are welcome to use the phrase "orgies of mutual digestion" as an album title.