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Outside - The Reflection
:: 01-01-31 ::
Chapter 16: Galactic Council
“Three Bentusi Exchanges have reinforced our fleet,” Pukna Somtaaw reported in the Beastslayer’s war room.
“Good news, finally,” Dolann Kaalel sighed. “The Galactic Council is still divided over us.”
“They need a catalyst,” Shanal Alo said. “Something to convince them to go one way or the other.”
“Such as?” asked Kaalel. Shanal Alo did not answer. “Do you have any other news?”
“Yes,” replied Pukna. She tapped in a sequence at one of the war room interfaces. A holographic map of the Galaxy appeared above all of them, spanning the length of the room. A red dot appeared at the fringe of the map, between two spiral arms. “This is where Galactic Shipyard 0 was. When our fleets fled the T-Mat, the Bentusi sent out several Cargo Barges as diversions.” Several yellow lines, denoting the Cargo Barge’s paths, radiated from the red point, leading to various places across a quarter of the Galaxy. A blue line also emanated from the location of the Shipyard.
“The blue line represents our fleet. The T-Mat have been searching for us for days. New red dots indicate the locations T-Mat fleets have been observed from friendly outposts. The dots appear in chronological order of sighting.”
On the map, small red points began appearing around the endpoints of three yellow lines. After a few seconds, there was a pause, and then red dots appeared at the endpoints of three more of the yellow lines, as the T-Mat searched at those locations in the Galaxy for the fleet. Soon, red points began appearing around the endpoints of the last yellow line and the blue path. Finally, only around the blue endpoint, the location of the Beastslayer fleet, did red points appear.
“The T-Mat have found us,” Kaalel breathed.
“Yes,” Pukna Somtaaw said sadly.
“How long until they strike?” Shanal Alo asked.
“They probably will need a few days to gather their forces and pinpoint our location,” Pukna replied. “We are in deep interstellar space, so where we exactly are should not be obvious. Unfortunately, we do not know how well they can track through hyperspace. They may be following the Bentusi Tradeships’ lead at this moment.
“Then we must launch the Beastslayer soon, before the T-Mat find us,” Kaalel said. “Tasiin Limandatt’sa.”
“I have been listening to your conversation,” Tasiin’s disembodied voice stated. “I am making plans for our attack on Outside. The gravity well defense can be ready in a day. I have also been looking into the telepathic defenses from some of the previous attacks on Outside.”
“Can you be ready to jump in two or three days, before the T-Mat arrive?”
“That will be difficult.”
“Make every effort to try,” Kaalel ordered.
“I already am.” Tasiin said nothing further.
“Back to the matter of the Council, we should try to convince the other races to come to our side,” Dolann Kaalel said.
“The member races of the Project, including yours and ours, have enough dissent to prevent their speaking on our behalf,” Shanal Alo warned.
“Then we’ll speak for ourselves,” Kaalel said. “Let us get to work on a message.”
*****
Two year ago, the Beast threatened all life in the Galaxy. All races suffered immense losses. The Taiidan Republic lost more ships than the Empire did in the Hiigaran War. If not for Hiigaran kiith Somtaaw and the cooperation of the Bentusi, all would have been lost.
Now, we, the makers of the Beastslayer, have found a greater threat, the source of the Beast, Outside. Now, though, we have a ship to stand guard against Outside. We have a chance to strike back.
We have been attacked by the Turanic Raiders, the Taiidan Imperialists, and the T-Mat without provocation. This happened before we launched the Beastslayer to Outside. At this moment, T-Mat vessels are gathering to attack us, even though we have done no harm.
Many of you are against us. Many believe that we should not go Outside, so that it will not come to us.
But, we have already launched the Beastslayer Outside. We know that Outside will stop at nothing short of the complete destruction of the Universe. Of the billions of years, the Universe has existed, Outside has only become more fanatical. It becomes hungrier as time goes on. Soon, nothing will satiate it.
One million years ago, our ancestors killed thousands of races across the Galaxy. We have the blood of a half trillion lives at our hands. We still do not know if other descendants of our ancestors continue their genocide.
But now, we, the descendants of the Naggarok launchers, have a chance to prove ourselves. We can defeat Outside - and then we will have saved the Universe. If we have killed trillions in the past, we can save an infinity of lives in all of the galaxies in all of the universes, perhaps even the lives of our own descendants.
However, we may fail to defeat Outside. If Outside does not destroy us at that point, we will take responsibility for our actions. We will not endanger the Galaxy again. If we fail, our fleet will leave the Galaxy for intergalactic space - permanently. We will enter a self-imposed exile. We will never threaten you again.
The member races, the kiith of the Hiigaran personnel, and their allies should not be held responsible. Some of them have even sent orders to us, calling on us to disband. Only the fleet and the Beastslayer are responsible for our actions.
To the Unbound races that oppose us: when the Beast threatened the Galaxy, the Bentusi tried to abandon the Bound races. They were about to leave, when they were convinced to stay. They could have destroyed the Hiigarans trying to keep them here. But they stayed, helping complete a weapon, the Kuun-Lan’s siege cannon, which turned the war in our favor. They overcame their fear, even though they risked being killed. Now, we ask you to overcome your fear. You do not have to assist us. You only have to overcome your fear and stop the attacks.
We have been given a chance to atone for our ancestor’s sins. Let us prove that we are, in fact, better than the Naggarok launchers by standing together, despite our fears, to save the Universe. Let us prove that we can learn. Let us prove that there is still hope for us.
The Beastslayer project members
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