《Salvaging Heaven》


 Heaven鈥檚 Fall

    The hypnotic plumes of color and raw energy made the planet look like some gas giants she had seen; but instead of pure swirls of gas, flaming cities and boiling oceans broke through the surface.  With a hiss the transmission cut off, leaving the two people in the small command center stunned. They watched the images of their homeworld going up in a storm of nuclear fireballs as the government went to war with itself over an issue that had plagued their world for several generations. Collapsing back into her chair, Egyn of House Heritage watched the images from the remaining satellites over Mesinas showing the hundreds of nuclear mushroom clouds erupting as the two sides of the newly triggered civil war let loose with every weapon under their control.


    As the satellite rounded the orbit of the planet, Egyn spotted the small city where she had been born and raised on the holoscreen in front of her. At first, the city seemed to be intact as it appeared through the radioactive clouds. It drifted closer to reveal the massive crater in the center of the city where the  forest of chimneys that had once made up the massive dura-steel mill and the mountain of a dome that had been the space engine manufacturing center had been. With a sliding finger on the holo-pad she took control of the zoom function on the satellite uplink and focused on a small community on the edge of the city, locating the street where her parent¡¯s home had once stood.


    The entire block had been replaced with the remnants of a massive smokestack; its massive cement cylinder fractured but still mostly in one piece despite the eight homes that laid crushed beneath it. Still top professional to give into the urge to cry, she hid her face in her hands after turning off the small screen at her desk. A strong hand rested softly on her shoulder followed by the low, commanding voice that warned of the arrival of her manager, Nizagi of House Law.


    ¡°I wish I could say something to make it better, My family was at my compound just outside the capital. That was one of the first targets for the Chief Minister and his nuclear crusade. To make things worse, we were able to get a view of the Primary Soul Sphere.¡±


    After using the only physical button on her desk to reactivate her holoscreen, he keyed in a location code to show the most holy site in all of the Axves Empire.  The shimmering spherical structure that had once towered over the city used to stand, remained only a broken egg.  Where once the past and future souls of every Axves had been housed was now just cold steel and stone.


    Despite the pure terror that she felt at the loss of the Primary Soul Sphere that held the souls of every Axves that had passed on, waiting to be cycled back into the next available infant¡¯s body, she did her best to remain in control because her boss was clearly barely holding his panic in. Running her fingers through her sweat slicked silver hair, Egyn turned to look into the haunting red eyes of the man that had become her mentor.


    ¡°I¡­ Is there any word from the three colonies? Maybe we will get support. Or maybe, you¡¯ve heard from your cousin in the fleet?  There¡¯s no way he could have gone along with this.¡±


    Dropping on one knee beside her, Nizagi placed one powerful blue hand on her much smaller bronze one, looking her squarely in her shimmering purple eyes as he spoke.


    ¡°Unfortunately no. It looks like the minister ordered the most loyal sections of the fleet to attack the colonies as well, but many ships have rebelled. We have lost contact with all but a few ships nearby that were either on their way to resupply us or the other observation posts in the sector.¡±


    Taking a deep breath, he glanced away as he struggled to put his thoughts into words.


    ¡°Our species is over¡­Now we will be forced to sit back and watch the rise of another race of beings while we fade into obscurity, trapped here in the only remaining Soul Sphere until it breaks or our souls fade.¡±


    Tears of panic pressed out of her eyes despite the fight against the feeling that a starship was sitting on top of her, Egyn hugged Nizagi tightly before climbing to her feet and turning back to make sure that he knew that she was okay as she spoke.


    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to need to walk this out and process or I¡¯m not going to be able to function. Maybe I will even visit Krituna and get something to help with this headache.¡±


    Rubbing the bridge of her nose to fight down her swimming mind she stumbled out of the anthropology lab and made her way to Med Bay where Krituna of House Remedy ran the station''s clinic as well as the biology research. . Not wanting to hear more of the galaxy¡¯s madness, she kept moving down the whitewashed corridors that had been her home for the last decade, ignoring the news being piped out of the communication center as she passed.


    At the steel double doors marked with the red cup covered in a web of blue veins that was the symbol for medicine, she pressed the glowing white button. Stepping into the  empty medical bay, she glanced around and tried to locate a friend. Moving slowly through the rows of beds and medical devices, she checked for the snow-white-skinned woman in every corner and in the various computer or specimen filled offices and labs that lined two of the walls.


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    The medical communications center where they could exchange information with the hundreds of biology labs, hospitals and research centers on Axves controlled worlds, was filled with noise and light that was jarring after the silent hospital. Seeing the screens all blank and every other sound drowned out by the hissing of dead connections, Egyn stepped into the room and turned off the computers. A soft sniffle behind her caused Egyn to spin around, finding Krituna of House Healing curled up in the corner behind a rack of servers and communication equipment.


    Egyn pulled her best friend in close for a hug as she stroked the woman¡¯s loose red curls like a mother with a hurt child, after sitting down beside her.


    ¡°I know that this is a lot, but I need you to focus.  Nizagi said that we are going to be taking in refugees. We are the last location with an intact Soul Sphere and people are going to start coming here to try and rebuild. You are the only doctor, so if we get wounded  we could get some nasty stuff.¡±


    Pulling back from her hug, her normally very bubbly friend pushed herself to her feet and used a small handkerchief to wipe her eyes before doing her best to straighten her back in order to look more in command of her situation.


    ¡°Do we have casualty estimates yet? How much time do I have to prepare?¡±


    Relieved to see that she was pulling out of her funk to focus on the work that was about to come, Egyn squeezed her arm. ¡°No actual information right now. The first refugees will be joining us via supply ships in the area and other civilian ships in the sector. Nizagi will be considering logistics. We can¡¯t help anyone if he can¡¯t find a safe path to reach us. Yviv must be our new home if our people are going to survive.¡±


    The suggestion triggered her biologist''s mind. She began to plan out the supplies and beds needed to make that possible in a base that had been designed for a maximum of two hundred people for short term use. Leaving her to make the preparations for the potentially wounded and their new reality, Egyn accepted the small pill that Krituna handed her and took it as she left the room. Forced to breath deeply to keep her emotions tamped down, she continued down the long white plastered hallway.


    She spotted the door to the geology lab wide open as she stepped around the final bend in the long corridor that angled towards the sections of the compound that were still under construction. Hard music blared from the room alongside the sound of rocks being hammered. In the back of the cavernous room, Thihana of House Foundation slammed a vibro-pick into the exposed stone wall, her cement gray arms bulging despite her small frame. Egyn located the computer that was playing the music through the dozen speakers around the room and worked her way through the scattered debris and tools to turn it off.


    Throwing the pick into the air with an exasperated growl, the small woman spun her obsidian black eyes to glare at Egyn. Shivers fought to take control of her spine from the disconcerting sight of the other woman¡¯s eyes, Egyn stepped forward and looked at her squarely. Egyn intended to silence the rant that she knew was coming.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you¡¯ve heard, but we are about to have a lot of company. Do you know any other caverns that we can connect to? We need to expand our living space.¡±


    Still furious, but doing her best to stay professional like she had been working on, Thihana crossed her arms and leaned against the exposed stone wall behind her. ¡°Scans have shown several caverns, but I¡¯ve been too busy exploring these veins of minerals to get us what we needed to expand our compound here and keep the reactors running. I¡¯m doing a test now to see if I can find the vein of iron again before I let the drones get back to work, so I don¡¯t have a lot of time right now.  When do we need this done by?¡±


    A little confused at her blas¨¦ reaction to the request, Egyn decided to see if she was really that cold about this situation. ¡°Well, the first refugees will be arriving tomorrow when the supply ship that was just here yesterday doubles back.¡±


    Rolling her eyes at me she walked towards the computer to turn back on her music. Despite her fear of the uncontrollable woman Egyn stepped in front of her to open the feed coming from the command center on the computer, Egyn pressed a few buttons and pulled up the footage of what had happened. Turned to stone by what she saw, she watched the nuclear explosions rip across their capital world, Thihana¡¯s face grew hard as she pushed Egyn out of the way and killed the feed.


    ¡°What kind of faded joke are you trying to pull? This isn¡¯t funny.¡± Taking a couple of steps back, Egyn resisted the urge to reach out and comfort the girl with an arm on her shoulder, but seeing her fists clench as she approached, she backed off again.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I assumed you had heard because this happened about an hour ago. We are still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but we are already broadcasting as a safe haven to the injured and to those who are close by. I know that you are extremely busy and I¡¯m more than happy to help if you have a Geomapper kit that I can borrow. I can take care of it, if you can point me in the right direction.¡±


    Thihana¡¯s rant was cut off before it could get started when the muscular onyx-skinned engineer stuck his head into the room, clearly stuck in his logical work mode.


    ¡°Sorry to interrupt, I heard you say that you are going on a scouting trip Egyn. We just got the first estimates from the ships close by and it looks like it is going to get really crowded in here if we can¡¯t find a few good caves and get access to them. I would love to help, but we need to sink our Soul Sphere deep into the core to keep it powered and safe if we are attacked.


    Egyn nodded, trying not to roll her eyes at the almost comical request as she added the new requests to her mental checklist.


    ¡°Sure, is there anyone else hiding behind that door with other requests for things I need to magically find without really knowing what I¡¯m looking for?¡±


    Chuckling to cut the stressed tension of the room he stepped aside and held out a datapad.


    ¡°Good luck! Try not to fall into a sinkhole or get murdered by an Echi Hunter.¡±

 Chapter Two: Angel鈥檚 Landing

    Taking a deep breath, Egyn stepped out through the energy shield that hid the entrance to the observation compound. Lost in thoughts and memories of her childhood home ¨C now a radioactive wasteland ¨C she moved out into the thick underbrush of the woodland that surrounded the cavern. Pausing under the broad shade of a tree to check the maps of the surrounding area she located the first cave system a little over a kilometer to her south. The cave pinged on her Geomapper somewhere in the distance past a  blood-red forest and a series of orange hills in the center of the valley.


    Quickly checking the small survival pistol on her hip and the knives tucked in the cuff of each boot, she pushed her way into the wall of bushes and ferns that lined the edge of the forest, ignoring the full safety protocol that she would normally go through so that she could escape the pain and suffering in the compound behind her. Hearing the sounds of life consumed her as she moved deeper into the trees. She found her hand reaching for the holster on her right hip, but forced it away. Instead she pushed her hands into the two small front pockets of her jacket to quiet her nerves and to keep from accidentally touching potentially dangerous plants.


    Using her passive energy shield to silently push her way through the brush, keeping as far away from the known Echi tribal camp and hunting grounds. It didn¡¯t take long for the city girl to get lost in the forest and she was forced to rely on her digital map with her Positioning Overlay that projected onto her tactical glasses to guide her. For five minutes she avoided game trails and streams to make sure that she wasn¡¯t visible to any hunting parties that might be out looking for prey.


    Stepping through a thick wall of ferns, she emerged onto a sheer ledge overlooking a crystal clear cenote. Pulling back from the thirty-foot drop into crystal clear water, Egyn activated six drones attached to her backpack and using her datapad sent them to scan the cave system. Taking a second to let out a silent beath of relief, knowing that water sources could be critical if they brought in a lot of refugees. Within seconds the drones had dropped down into the water-filled sinkhole, leaving her to sit on the lip after setting the backpack drone control center safely against a tree several feet from the edge enjoying the smells of the deep clean water moved by unseen currents.


    Watching the datapad in her hands she watched as the three-dimensional model of the cenote began to take shape. It appeared from top to bottom as the four mapping drones slowly spiraled down. Reaching the water level, the drones shifted their small propellers to function in the water and continued their journey deeper. Switching to the second screen she confirmed that the other two drones were testing water quality and taking micro samples of the stone throughout the cenote to get a full picture of the environment and how it could be best used for their needs.


    Laying back onto the soft jungle dirt with her datapad held over her head, she changed the screen over to the cameras that her team had hidden throughout the  clearing that had become the first fixed location where the Echi had begun to build, creating a few non portable buildings that they used as a home base to protect the children and elderly. Switching between cameras she found some of the people she had become attached to, watching them prepare meat to dry or clean skins and feathers to make clothing. This had been her favorite part of this mission since they had managed to place the cameras and she was going to take full advantage of it while she waited for the scan to finish.


    She watched as an older woman worked a fist sized stone against a flat top boulder turning berries into a paste. Egyn wondered what that paste might taste like. After several minutes of watching the midday meal being prepared by the matriarchs of the small tribe, she felt her stomach begin to protest as her hunger grew. Sliding back from the ledge, Egyn moved back to where she had left her backpack and grabbed a homemade ration bar that she and Krituna had made a few days earlier.


    Enjoying the sweet and sour flavor of the bar, she tried to change views on her datapad, accidentally turning on the speakers as it tried to escape her hands. The sounds of a village at work echoed and bounced around the sheer walls of the cenote, making it drastically louder than the initial sound had been. Groaning inwardly, she slumped back onto the dirt and prayed to the lost gods that no one had heard her.


    For several seconds she remained motionless as she waited to see if she had alerted anything to her presence besides the birds that had shot up into the sky in clouds of flowing color. Hearing the drones buzz past her and click into her backpack, Egyn slowly stood up and collected her things. Pulling on her backpack, she turned to enter the forest again but was frozen in place by a pair of dark green eyes staring back at her from behind a star shaped orange fern frond.


    In the shadows she could barely make out the boney concave exo-skull with its serrated bone ridges that ran around the crown and over the center of an Echi¡¯s head.  Barely able to see the flash of white teeth from the very humanoid lower face, it remained hidden while the rest of the body was covered by the orange paint and dark earth that covered his body. Glancing down at her wrist she checked the status of her cloaking field and saw the small red light on her wrist controls flashing red to let her know that she was uncloaked. For several seconds they stared at each other, both stunned by what they were seeing until Egyn decided to break the standoff.


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    Mentally reaching inside herself, she activated the special ability  that had become part of every Axves. . Because she had heard the limited language spoken by the local Echi tribe, her nanites were able to translate the words that she thought into the words of the language she needed.


    ¡°Greetings friend, I am here in peace and do not wish you and your kin any harm. Would you be willing to step out and speak with me?¡±


    With a flash of confusion, the eyes shifted from a predator looking at potential prey to a look of panic mixed with reverence. Stepping forward out of the brush, the wiry framed man emerged from the orange brush, his spear held high in the air with the point held skyward in a gesture of peace and honor.


    ¡°Goddess, you honor me with the vision of you. If it isn¡¯t an insult, please tell me what your purpose is for emerging from the Under Heaven?¡±


    Stunned to realize that she was being worshiped as a goddess, she quickly thought back to the stories and myths that they had managed to record as the village storyteller had relayed them. Remembering the stories of the gods that lived beneath the earth and how they inhabited the deepest caves, she decided to play along in order to survive and maybe get information from this man that could make her mission easier.


    ¡°Be at peace child of the forest, your clan has proven worthy of being closer to us and I have been sent to locate a cavern that can be used by us so that we may keep a better eye on you and bless you. You seem to be a scout and hunter, so you should know the caverns around your village and know which ones are the best options for what we need. Would you be willing to tell me where to look?¡±


    Giving a very shallow bow to Egyn, the Echi man pointed slightly to the west of the path that she had followed to get here. ¡°Yes Goddess, there is a  cavern that is cut out of one of the mountainous  hills. It is completely dry and more spacious than we have ever been able to search. There are also caverns in the center of the valley, but those are often flooded during the wet times. If you need water, those caverns have the best water for weeks of travel, it is why we remain here. The food is also plentiful because the plants partake of the sacred waters as well.¡±


    Bowing deeply as she had seen the elders of the Echi tribe do, she smiled at the man and motioned for him to join her.


    ¡°I know that you likely out looking for signs the beasts that feed your family, but would you be so kind as to direct me to these caves. I need to check them to make sure that they are safe for my people. If you would be willing to do that, I will give you a token of my esteem.¡±


    Clearly terrified by the prospect of working directly with a god, but also thrilled by the honor, he gave another shallow bow and pushed out through the brush with expert ease. Before he could disappear completely, Egyn dove in after him, trying to keep up a conversation so that she could at least follow the voice.


    ¡°May I ask my guide''s name, so that I may tell my people of your help and provide you and your family with blessings for it?¡±


    Slowing slightly to allow her to catch up, he spoke softly despite the lack of the need for stealth. ¡°I am called Dridvick, the seventh hunter of my clan and maker of things when needed. I am honored that you would ascend to this realm to bless me with your presence.¡±


    Smile at his uneducated beliefs that had kept her alive, she reached out as her foot slipped on the slick dead leaves beneath her and put her hand on his arm without thinking about it. As Egyn¡¯s hand slipped down off of his sleeve and onto the bare skin of her arm a spark jumped from her hand into the young man¡¯s arm, causing a noticeable drain in her energy reserves. Pulling her hand away quickly, she slowed slightly to let him get further ahead of her and give her space in case he reacted poorly to what had just happened.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that, I hope that my touch didn¡¯t hurt you. There seems to be a connection between us.¡±


    Seeing Dridvick¡¯s shallow bow, she relaxed and continued to follow behind him as they pressed on. Still curious about what had just happened, she pulled out her medical scanner and tried to covertly scan him. Not sure what she was looking for, she took several scans, looking for some type of bioelectricity or metal in his body that may pull the energy that her body stored in the nanites that had been part of her body from birth.


    Finding nothing that explained the shock, she decided to run one final scan that was designed to check the health of nanites in the body of an Axves. With a small beep her scanner popped up with results causing her to stop and mentally panic as she read the results. The scanner screen was zoomed in on Dridvick¡¯s arm where she had touched him, showing a spreading field of rapidly reproducing nanites, pulling excess minerals from his body to spread.


    Closing her eyes as she hoped that the abilities of these nanites wouldn¡¯t be something visible or dangerous, she pressed the button that the doctor would use to test the ability of the nanites and confirm that they weren¡¯t malfunctioning. Hearing a gasp of surprise, Egyn slowly opened her eyes to see the result. Where the man¡¯s upper arm had been, open air remained, leaving his forearm functional but floating freely as Dridvick moved it and tested it. Slowly the bubble of the disappeared body parts continued to grow as they watched until she pressed the button to deactivate the abilities of the nanites.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry if I surprised you, I wanted to make sure that I didn¡¯t hurt you when I touched you. We can look into this more when we get to the cave.¡±

 Chapter Three: Confessional Chaos

    ¡°Wow, you picked that up fast! I can¡¯t believe that you are talking about all of this so easily. Most of my kind struggle to find their abilities for years before they are fully able to use it.¡±


    Reappearing from thin air a few feet away from where she had assumed he had gone, Dridvick bowed slightly to her in a show of respect.


    ¡°It is all due to my teacher. You have helped me to understand the gift that you have given to me. I promise to only use it to provide for my tribe and to protect those that I love. I won¡¯t do anything to bring your ire.¡±


    It had taken several hours for Dridvick to show Egyn the caverns and to wait for the drones to map them. During that time they had talked about his tribe¡¯s gods while carefully working to see if he could connect to the nanites and control them. It took just over two hours for him to be able to control his new abilities. He could disappear and reappear at will. At first it panicked him, but he quickly became excited about what he could do for his people with this new ability. When they had finished with the main cavern and he had shown her a few other entrances on their way back to the compound, she bid him farewell and moved through the meadow that led up to the false cliff.


    Stepping through the energy shield that looked like the side of the mountain to keep their base hidden, Egyn plugged in her equipment so that all of her data would upload to the servers before stepping into the main compound. Sending a meeting request to Nizagi, Kirtuna, Fesohr, and Thihana, she made her way towards the conference room but stopped by Nizagi¡¯s office first. Sticking her head into the open doorway, she found him collecting his datapad and bag so that he could head to the meeting that she had called.


    ¡°Sorry to interrupt boss, but we need to talk before the meeting. I screwed up big today based on our old policies, but it might actually be good news..¡±


    Seeing the confusion flash on his face, Egyn decided to continue with her explanation with a quick summary of what had happened. After telling her summary, she decided to jump to the real thing she wanted to talk about.


    ¡°When I touched his skin, we both felt a small jolt and when I checked him with my health scanner I discovered that some of my nanites had jumped to him. They reacted quickly like they would with one of our own species that was missing their nanites and they gave him a stealth ability.¡±


    Slumping back into his chair, Nizagi stared at her as he tried to process what she had just told him. ¡°So what does this mean for us Egyn? Why is this a good thing and why should I care enough to delay the meeting you called?¡±


    Taking a deep breath, Egyn sat down in the chair across from him and tried to calm her nerves before responding. ¡°I know this isn¡¯t something that you have wanted to fully address with us so far. But there aren¡¯t any other Soul Spheres that we can recover to increase the number of children that we can have to preserve our race.  If the Echi are compatible and willing to supply us with their souls after death, we can¡­¡±


    Cutting Egyn off, Nizagi jumped to his feet, shocked at what he was hearing. ¡°Stop right there. I¡¯m glad that you expressed them to me before you said anything in the public meeting. Just yesterday, merging our genetics with an alien soul would have been tantamount to heresy under the last regime and you would have lost your career for even thinking about it, if not more.


    ¡°Right now we need to focus on the immediate problems of housing, feeding, and treating the refugees that are on their way. Perhaps once we start planning for the future we will be able to discuss this with everyone and they might be open to it, but for now let''s only discuss this with Krituna so that she can confirm your findings in case it comes to that.¡± Not waiting for a response, Nizagi walked from the room.


    Sitting back in her chair, reeling from her superior''s hardline stance she tried to speak but was cut off when he strode from the room, ignoring her comments. Pushing herself to her feet, she rushed after him, moving quickly to the conference room where the rest of the team was waiting. Taking a seat next to Krituna, Egyn glanced around the room and confirmed that everyone was there before giving Nizagi a subtle nod that they were ready. Leaning on the table Nizagi glanced around the room and met the gaze of everyone one person at a time, confirming that they were paying attention.


    ¡°We have some updates that we need to cover quickly so that we can continue preparations. First, we have received communications from six ships in the sector. Each is en route to our position. Two of those ships are rebels who refused orders.


    ¡°The other four are civilian ships that are mostly limited in their supplies and capabilities. Two are cargo ships hauling supplies. Their crew may contain useful personnel, researchers in rotation between their posts and home planets. The other two are civilian transports with few supplies and hundreds of passengers. We have not received any contact from other ships or colonies at this point, but we hope to repair one of the incoming ships and outfit it as a rescue vessel.  My cousin has checked in though and is moving the remnants of his small frigate squadron into the system to protect us.¡±


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    Giving the team enough time to get out their nervous chatter, he glanced around the room again and confirmed that everyone was ready to focus. ¡°All that said, we have a few problems of our own. This facility isn¡¯t capable of handling refugees in this quantity for more than a few days. We need to begin planning for a massive expansion of the compound. Egyn has been working on this by finding a few potential locations. We will need living space and assets to survive.¡±


    He turned to look at Egyn, giving her permission to present the scan information that she had taken. His serious look told her not to mention the contact with the Echi at this point. Standing as she activated the holo-projector to show the large valley they lived in, projected in the air above the table.


    ¡°Today I was able to get out and explore several cave systems in the area. During my search I discovered something that may actually be better than we had planned for.¡±


    Using the console controls, Egyn zoomed the image into the center of the valley where she had found the cenote and the other water-filled caverns. Pressing another button, the chemical and geological reports appeared on the touch screen panels in front of every person.


    ¡°After scouting the caverns we initially suspected would best serve us, I discovered that the center of the valley has a very high water-table filling most of these limestone caverns with water. This would keep us from using them for habitation, but the underground river does an amazing job of filtration. The water there is already almost as clean as our filtration systems can get it. Because of this I recommend that we run a pump line to this southern cenote for water collection and a line to the northern lower caves where we can let nature do our filtration for us. Obviously, that will be a call for Thihana and Fesohr, but the possibilities are at least something we can work with even if we decide to add additional filtration to this system.¡±


    Pressing another button on the console, the image shifted to show the caverns along the western side of the valley that sat up in the foothills of their large forest valley. Activating the subsurface scan results, Egyn showed them the fifty large granite caverns that she had managed to scan that had proven to be quite dry for a cave. She also added the report from the surface scans that she had taken on her way back to the compound giving an estimated view of the three hundred meters from the outer edge of the compound to the nearest cavern that the drones had found.


    ¡°So the good news is that I did find a large cavern system along the western slopes of the valley. It should provide us with a much better option than the valley floor. The only real issue with these caverns is one of distance from our present operations. Thihana will be required to move much earth, but it may provide us with necessary minerals ¨C the area contains high-quality veins of quartz and granite.¡±


    Thihana sat forward, now clearly intrigued by the thinly veiled challenge. Moving her fingers over the screens, the geologist searched through the reports and highlighted certain sections for later.  Giving her a moment to study the result, Egyn tried to fight down her pleasure at seeing her college excited by what she had found.


    ¡°Egyn is right about these upper caverns being the best option. It looks like there are veins of limestone and shale in-between layers of granite. That would explain why the caverns are so stable. It likely won¡¯t take a lot to reinforce the caves or make them comfortable for habitation. I can start now but I¡¯ll need help to move the debris as I clear it out of the tunnel. I can have us connected to the closest cavern by the end of the day tomorrow.


    ¡°After we get a secure access tunnel in place we should look into building aqueducts. My recommendation would be a spray liner in this cavern¡± she highlighted a low-lying portion of the caves ¡°so that we can use it as a cistern. There is another cavern here that would make a good filtration plant because it can be easily sealed with an airlock to keep the smells of the treatment plant out of the rest of the cavern system.¡±


    Clearly pleased that his team had jumped on board with this plan so quickly, Nizagi stood and pressed a button to show what had already been suggested. ¡°It sounds like we have a good plan for a way to expand our compound to take in the new people that are still on their way. Thihana and Fesohr, you are dismissed to begin work. The rest of us will rotate through helping you Thi, and that will give us a chance to make sure that everything gets completed in time.¡±


    Taking a seat for a moment to let the two team members leave the room, leaving the three of us to discuss the other things that needed to be gone over. When the door swished closed Nizagi leaned forward and rested his pale blue hands on the table, seeming to brace for what he was about to say.


    ¡°Now that the important business is over, Egyn has made a discovery that I will want you to look into Doctor. I¡¯ll let her explain what happened so that we cover all of the details.¡±


    Pressing a few buttons, the screen shifted to show the scans that Egyn had made of Dridvick before and after their contact. Before she could jump into the explanation of what had happened, the communications officer Oziuq of House Memory burst into the room, breathing hard from having run across their small compound from his control center.


    ¡°Sir, I¡¯m sorry for interrupting, but we have a problem. Three more ships have responded to our hails, but they¡¯re loyalists. They are threatening to fire on us if we take in refugees. They¡¯re asking us to ensure that no rebels are aboard any of the ships.¡±

 Chapter Four: Hope in Heresy

    ¡°Captain Qovdite, this request is absurd,¡± Nizagi addressed the ship¡¯s bridge. ¡°As far as we can tell, there are less than a thousand of us and this station is the last one with a stable Soul Sphere designed to hold souls for more than a year. If you destroy this station, you commit genocide against our entire race. You can¡¯t be that suicidally stupid as to think that this will go any other way.¡±


    The dark blue holographic face projected over the conference room table flashed with rage. ¡°You jumped up, faded punk. How dare you address a captain of the Alliance military like that. You have no idea who¡­¡±


    Rising out of his chair to his full height, Nizagi cut the captain off before she could dig a bigger hole with her words.


    ¡°Captain, watch your tongue. I am Nizagi of House Law. Third in line to the high court. My status as a researcher does not negate my rank, and my specialty is the prosecution of war criminals. Knowing what your ships did under your command, you are lucky that I haven¡¯t forced your officers to take you into custody for crimes against the Axves people.


    ¡°Firing nuclear weapons on civilian targets is treason. You performed the attack willingly when other members of our forces refused the order. If the courts still stood, you and your bridge officers would experience the fastest trial in our people¡¯s history, ending in your execution. You will stand down and surrender to the forces you call rebels, or I will force my justice now.¡±


    Hearing a hiss of a pistol being armed, Nizagi zoomed the view out to survey the room. An armed force had entered the bridge.


    ¡°Captain, don''t worry about ordering or fighting. Those men are fully under my control through their nanites, as are your weapons and navigation officers. Please surrender peacefully so that we don¡¯t lose more of our people. Every soul is critical to the survival of the Axves.  I¡¯m sure that a person of your status isn¡¯t used to having the abilities of my house used against you, so please do not fight it or it will get much worse.¡±


    Slowly raising her hands in surrender, the loyalist captain hissed back at him, clearly wishing that she could fire on the compound and find a win despite the futility of the action.  Trying to ignore the cries of panic and chaos of her uncontrolled bridge crew behind her, the older captain replied.


    ¡°Well, Man of Law, it looks like you have the advantage of me. You will live to regret your actions today, but for now, I will play along with your desires for power. Will you at least guarantee the safety of my crew if I issue a stand-down order?¡±


    Smiling icily at the older woman Nizagi¡¯s eyes sparkled as he used his special abilities again. Pressing another button, the images of the two bridges in the small loyalist popped up in the conference room and the loyalist flagship¡¯s bridge, showing that the situation was the same on the bridges of the other two ships. ¡°Captain, I didn¡¯t want to be in this position, but you and your cronies forced my hand. I would have rather spent the next five to ten years here in peace before I was forced to return to the capital to complete my duties to the high court. You don¡¯t have to worry about giving the stand-down order to the other ships, they have been listening to this call and they also now have armed men on their bridges.¡±


    A press of a third button revealed the pale, blue-skinned captain of the rebel ships that had been sitting cloaked not far from the Yviv solar system, waiting for the fight that they had been alerted to. Sitting forward as Egyn saw the familiar face that she had obsessed over in her school days, she let out a relieved sigh as a smile crept across her face. Glancing away from the holo display with a slight blush, she caught the eye of Krituna who gave her a knowing wink as Nizagi continued his duties.


    ¡°Welcome to the conversation cousin. I have guaranteed the safety of these ships and their crews, but if they don¡¯t surrender immediately you have my permission to fire. Any resistance will be a refusal of my offered pardon for their crimes against our people and they will be subject to immediate execution. Be careful and don¡¯t risk your people unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary.¡±


    Giving Nizagi a sharp salute, the rebel captain disappeared from the holo displays and began moving his ships to accept the surrender of the last three loyalist ships in existence. Not wanting to watch what would happen next, Egyn and Krituna stood and left Nizagi to deal with the major crisis while they discussed the original issue. Moving across the hall to the clinic, the two women made their way to Krituna¡¯s office to continue our earlier discussion.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Taking a seat across the desk from Krituna, Egyn activated the holo screen and pulled up the reports from the scans that she had taken earlier. Making sure that the display was showing the two scans of Dridvick, she leaned forward to keep their conversation quiet.


    ¡°So what I¡¯m about to say would have been considered heresy yesterday, but today it might be our saving grace. While I was out scouting, I had an encounter with an Echi hunter. He was very kind and surprisingly intelligent. After a decent conversation, I slipped up and accidentally touched his arm resulting in my nanites jumping over to him.¡±


    Slumping back into her seat, Krituna studied the scans differently than she had before they had been interrupted.


    ¡°You''re suggesting that the nanites that were bestowed on us at birth are able to be transferred to the Echi with uncontrolled contact? We have had contact with several other races and that has never happened before. How could it transfer to this race when other intelligent races have had much more contact with our people and never picked up nanites?¡±


    Taking a deep breath to keep calm as her friend reacted to the information, she pressed on. ¡°I know that this is hard to wrap your mind around but keeping an open mind about this might be critical to our people¡¯s survival. From a purely analytical point of view, how many souls do we need to keep this race stable without the risk of cancers and genetic diseases due to inbreeding due to the limit of the three genetic providers?¡±


    For a few moments, Krituna studied her friend wondering where she was going with this point. When she couldn¡¯t put her finger on the point, Krituna sat forward and responded carefully, letting her knowledge from a long education pore out like the lectures she had sat through.


    ¡°Well, because our people¡¯s DNA is dictated by three separate sources, the soul, the mother and the father; this usually means that there is a lot of variety. Because we will be dealing with only about three hundred potential parents, maybe less depending on the age of the refugees, we will be relying heavily on the souls that are brought in to create variety. We would need at least another seven hundred souls to ensure that our people survived without genetic drift and the risk of genetic disorders. But what does that have to¡­¡±


    Realizing the truth of what her friend was subtly hinting at before her externalized calculations, Krituna slumped in her chair as she let out an exhausted breath. ¡°The records from the ships that we have contact with state that we have sixty-seven souls that are still viable en route. We need at least another six hundred thirty-three souls to make our refugee village viable. You are suggesting that we should use the Echi to supplement our soul cache to make sure that we survive.¡±


    Nodding slowly to try and make it clear that she wasn¡¯t happy about what she was suggesting, Egyn pressed a button so that the second screen showed the deeper scan that she had taken.


    ¡°I know this isn¡¯t the most pleasant thought, but at this point I¡¯m searching for the survival of our people. If we are going to survive and not spend the next century searching the galaxy for other survivors, or just to die out because we couldn¡¯t find any, we need to accept that our xenophobia will kill us if we don¡¯t put it aside.¡±


    Groaning as she agreed, Krituna began studying the data in more detail, looking for any way that she could shut down this dangerous idea before she was forced to propose it and defend it to the leadership of the slowly growing refugee colony.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe that we¡¯re even considering this, but I don¡¯t see any other alternatives that will keep our people alive. I¡¯m going to recommend that we start with the souls we have and send out scout teams to try and find any others that may still exist in small Soul Spheres or on small planets. But I must admit this plan should be put in motion to ensure long-term survival. Hopefully we can find enough souls and we won¡¯t need the Echi, but if not we must accept their necessity. Would you recommend that we start with this man¡¯s tribe first?¡±


    Letting out a relieved sigh, Egyn sat forward and pulled up a broader map of the tribes that she had been monitoring. ¡°Yes, I think that this tribe would be the ideal candidate to start with. We already have a point of contact in the tribe, and they are isolated from any of the other tribes. This gives us the ideal test environment to be sure the process will work unaltered in a different species.


    ¡°We will still be short in terms of the number of souls, but we can start with the elderly to begin, adding to our soul count. We can also control the birth rate to buy us time. That should give us the time we need to confirm that this is viable. But first, we need to figure out a way to collect the souls without giving everyone a full dose of our nanites. Giving them nanites in their phase of development will be extremely dangerous for all of us.


    ¡°All of this is still academic because we can¡¯t operate without the green light from leadership. That is the reason I wanted to talk to you and get you on the same page as me. We will need to present this plan to whoever ends up in charge and pray that they can see reason above all else.¡±