Star Force: Hamoriti (SF62) (9 page)

No matter how you looked at it, the present situation
had gotten a lot worse.

But halfway through that sixth day the speculation
ended as the Hamoriti rose back out from inside the star. The cyborg ship
scrambled to get further away, making an immediate microjump, but the Hamoriti
wasn’t nearby and didn’t care about the insignificant ship. It’s normally blue
bulk was now glowing cherry red, like an ember pulled out of a fire, and it
didn’t diminish with time as the Hamoriti gained more and more distance from
the star, then made a microjump of its own.

It didn’t travel back to the planet, nor to any of the
other planets. Where it went was…nowhere.

The Trinx and Sety fleets pursued it from a great
distance, unsure of where it was going or if there was a hidden planet out
there that for some reason they couldn’t detect. The odds of that were nil, but
the Hamoriti was obviously traveling out away from the star for a reason and at
a speed nowhere near sufficient to cross to another star.

In fact the Hamoriti began slowing after it got out
past the orbit of the 3rd planet, with the star now being a small orb in the
sky that paled in the distance compared to the red glow from the Hamoriti. When
it eventually came to a stop, pulling on the star itself to slow down rather
than braking against a destination gravity well, it held position for less than
a minute, but long enough for the ships trailing it to realize that the
creature had grown larger by approximately 20%.

As they began to theorize how that was possible and
why the Oracles had never mentioned anything about stellar diving, a massive
energy wave was emitted from the Hamoriti that traveled across the entire star
system within a handful of seconds. Every sensor array that wasn’t shielded
from line of sight was overloaded and knocked offline, blinding the fleets to
what was happening to the Hamoriti and wrecking half of the internal systems
within the Li’vorkrachnika ships.

When the cyborg ship finally rotated around to bring a
few of its intact sensor arrays into alignment with the Hamoriti’s last known
position they reacquired it, seeing that it was no longer glowing and had
shrunken back down to its original size.

And it was moving again, heading into the star and
subsequently making another microjump back to the planet. As it headed down to
the surface it made a slight detour, traveling over to the position where the
Li’vorkrachnika fleet now sat mostly helpless. The Trinx ships moved off, with
only part of their sensors having been knocked out of order, but most of the
more primitive ships were dead in the water.

Those that could still move did so, or tried. Only a
handful were able to make microjumps out, and those were the ones who had been
fortunate enough to be in the silhouette of others when the energy discharge
came. They maneuvered around their incapacitated brethren and ran like hell as
the Hamoriti moved right up into their fleet and emitted a tsunami discharge that,
even without the added destructive power of the atmosphere, shredded every ship
caught in the blast wave.

With that bit of cleanup done, the Hamoriti headed
down into the atmosphere and sunk back into the planet’s surface, leaving the
The
Nine with no answers as to what had just happened.

9

May 23, 2729

Paquat
System

Vikod
(Trinx homeworld)

The Trinx Regent was standing inside
the Ancient shell, plying the Oracle with further questions in a seemingly vain
attempt to find some missed bit of information that the program held. Every
question asked led to previously acquired answers, but the Regent refused to
believe that the Ancients would have constructed an 8th prison and not have included
it in the database. There had to be something else here to explain this, but
after years of trying he and the others had not been able to discern anything
new.

But the Regent kept trying anyway,
for monitoring this Hamoriti was an endlessly boring job, though a vital one,
given the stakes. A single misstep could see this Hamoriti released, and it was
far larger than the one currently out in the galaxy. That one couldn’t be
recaptured or killed, so it was unimaginable how much more dangerous this one
would be if it escaped sedation…or perhaps it would be no different, for what
did power levels matter when neither one could be defeated.

“
Replay
the events from timestamp 284 in the
Descran
System
,”
he told the Oracle, who complied with a slew of holograms that it began
narrating.

“
Minion
incursion began with four seed ships dropping from orbit. Uncontested they set
up…
” the Oracle said, cutting off its sentence briefly before a loud,
chilling sound rattled off in a 1.6 second duration that included 56 rapid fire
beats. “
Containment breach
.”

The Regent froze, unable to think or
move, but it wasn’t from the Hamoriti’s psionics. The shock of those two words
stunned him into silence.

“
Hamoriti
internal activity spike detected, stimuli unknown. Automatic sedative
increase…insufficient. Waking imminent. Recommend emergency sedation procedure,
Regent
.”

The Trinx shook itself from its haze
and ran through the gap between shells, heading for the inner barrier and
activating his
wristbound
comm. “
Bring the vassals online immediately. Full emergency protocols and
don’t wait for confirmation. Hit it as fast as you can
.”

“
Activating
now, but we can’t identify the source
.”

“
I’m
going to visually inspect the Hamoriti. If I’m compromised continue with full
sedation measures until you run out of chemical. We cannot let this one escape
.”

No further words were necessary on
either end, with the Regent and others having trained for this day all of their
lives, as had their forbearers. He didn’t know what was going on, but the Trinx
knew they had to respond immediately. Any delay would allow the Hamoriti to
wake further.

“
Oracle,
open the inner door
,” he said to the air, with a hologram appearing beside
him in the hallways as he ran through them.

“
Opening.
My internal sensors are clear. There is nothing within the chamber to have
prompted this reaction. If you get too close to the Hamoriti you will succumb
to its effects
.”

“
If
there is an error in your sensors we have to know. My life is inconsequential
compared to the deaths that will occur if Rigall is released
,” he said,
referring to the Ancient name given to this Hamoriti.

“
I
assure you, the chamber is clear
,” the Oracle repeated. “
Your machines are activating now
.”

The Regent ran fast, faster than
he’d ever run before, and arrived at the open doorway through the inner shell,
stopping a few steps inside as the monster came into view. Its long tail was
curled around its body just as it had been the last time he’d seen it,
identical in position to every surveillance recording captured over the past
million years. Whatever activity the Oracle’s sensors were detecting was purely
internal at this point. The mountain of corovon-laced flesh hadn’t moved.

Situated several kilometers ahead
were a sea of vassals moving about like ants around the base of the creature.
They’d been put there long ago and were carrying no standard weapons, only
containers of the chemical that they were now spraying on the Hamoriti from
arm-launchers. Some were drenching the ‘skin’ at ground level with liquid
streams while others were launching packets to impact higher up. All of the
chemical goo absorbed on contact, but the Regent knew that if too much was
applied to any one location the excess would slide off and fall to the floor,
hence the need to spread it out.

The trouble was, the Hamoriti was
huge and it took time for the chemical to cycle through its internal systems.
The more active it became the faster it would circulate, but at its present
state it would take minutes at the minimum for it to permeate throughout its
body. On top of that there was no knowing what the stimuli was that was waking
it, and without their being able to shut it down the chemical alone would not
be enough.

“
Status?
”
the Regent asked the hologram of the Oracle.

“
Waking
is continuing, but at a reduced
ra
…
” the Regent
heard, then suddenly there was a chorus of voices around him and he found
himself laying on the ground staring up into several faces with the Oracle’s
hologram hovering directly over him.

“
He
is regaining consciousness
,” it said matter-of-factly.

“
What…
”
he said, sitting up and looking around at the junior members of the monitoring
team and one other Regent that had suddenly popped up all around him. “
Status?
”

“
The
Hamoriti is returning to slumber
,” the other Regent answered. “
The emergency procedures worked, but we have
very little chemical remaining. If another instance occurs soon we will not be
able to stop it.
”

The Trinx tried to stand up but
found his body unwilling to cooperate. He was stiff and feeling ill, with a
massive headache pounding all the way down his headtails. His fellow Regent
extended a hand over him and he took it, being pulled up to his feet painfully.

“
You
were caught in the freezing effect. Are you ill?
”

“
Yes,
but not incapacitated. Oracle, have you determined the source of the breach?
”

“
None
has been recorded. Method of stimuli remains unknown
.”

“
Check
the recorders in the vassals
.”

“
We
already have
,” the other Regent said. “
You’ve
been frozen for two days
.”

“
How
is that possible? I should have regained control of my body as soon as the
Hamoriti’s effective radius diminished
.”

“
It
only now did. The field expanded all the way out to the monitoring facility
before receding. The Oracle says enough chemical has been applied, but it will
take several more hours before the Hamoriti is fully dormant once again
.”

“
I
do not understand
,” the Regent said, looking at the Oracle’s hologram that
had moved up above all of their heads. “
The
aura is not supposed to extend that far
.”

“
The
Hamoriti’s passive aura does not. It awakened enough to put a small measure of
conscious effort into the defense mechanism, then held the effort as it began
returning to slumber. A delayed impulse, to be sure, and one that we have not
recorded before. My analysis is ongoing and will continue through to full
sedation.
”

The Regent spun around, looking at
the Hamoriti where the vassals were still surrounding it as tiny dots in the
distance. The tail curl was still there, but it had changed position slightly.

“
It
moved?
”

“
For
a period of 4 seconds, yes
,” the Oracle confirmed. “
A momentary stretch as it woke. Fortunately your emergency protocol was
applied in time to prevent any further subconscious movement, else the motion
would have added to the waking effect. Though the stimuli has not been
detected, its effects are measureable. It occurred in a single moment, with a
massive uptick in activity that began to spool on its own until the chemical
surge took hold.
”

“
Are
we producing more chemical?
”

“
We
are now that the facility is no longer within the aura
,” the other Regent
explained.

“
My
replacement capabilities are operating at 100%
,” the Oracle added. “
Internal storage will be at full within 129
days, unless external materials are made available.
”

“
Do
you have enough currently to maintain the sedation?
”

“
Remaining
reserves are sufficient
.”

“
It’s
almost over
,” his peer said, placing a hand on his shaky shoulder. “
We made it, barely
.”

“
Not
until we know the source of the breach
,” the Trinx said, swiping away a bit
of blood on his lips, coming from somewhere in his mouth.

When the other Regent saw that he
flicked a wrist in a gesture to his subordinates and two of them came forward.
“
I’ll stay until this is fully resolved.
You have to get treatment now. Take him
.”

“
Find
the breach
,” he said as the pair of Trinx helped him walk on shaky legs
with a support on each arm. “
Nothing is
safe until we do
.”

Nesfa sat in his cubicle atop the
command tower reading through the most recent batch of reports from the
Hamoriti site, his dread growing by the day as the minion incursions subsurface
were steadily increasing. His troops were hunting them down admirably, but the
Hamoriti was growing more devious in its placement and putting them further and
further underground, delaying the time of detection and often requiring the
coring of new tunnels to get down to them.

The Li’vorkrachnika were still
holding up their end of the agreement, devoting as many ground troops as
necessary to suppress the minions and dying by the millions in order to
accomplish it. That was their task, but Nesfa feared it was going to end up not
being enough. By going underground the Hamoriti made it much harder to get at
the minions, meaning that they were having to fight full battles against them,
though the tradeoff was the Hamoriti itself wasn’t involved in those. Even its
tsunami blast had its limits, and detonating it underground would surely
destroy any minions it sought to protect, not to mention wouldn’t travel very
far.

But it seemed to Nesfa that the
Hamoriti, stalemated as it was, was slowly beginning to get the upper hand on them.
The Trinx and Li’vorkrachnika were upping the pressure accordingly, but without
assistance from The Nine he wasn’t sure how long they could maintain the
current form of containment. If the Hamoriti didn’t change tactics again they
had a chance, but Nesfa seriously doubted it would be so accommodating.

They really needed the Yisv down in
those tunnels, for their close engagement skills would far surpass even the
vassals against the minions, or so his analysis teams had told him. But no, the
Yisv refused to come anywhere near the system the Hamoriti was currently in.
Perhaps if it moved yet again they would offer to help clean up here, but that
would still leave them losing ground and having to divide their forces up
further. He needed the Yisv on the front lines, but their fear was holding them
back, even with several years’ worth of information from the current battles to
give them a feel for where they could safely insert themselves without having
to go up against the Hamoriti itself.

But no, they and the others were
basically conceding the spread of the minions. Vowed to reduce and slow their
growth once it happened, but only to buy time for their races to pack up and
run. The stupid fools. The Ancients had said if the Hamoriti were to get loose
the entire galaxy would be in jeopardy. There was no safe place to run to, and
even if they could make a jump to a nearby galaxy spur there was no guarantee
that the Hamoriti couldn’t follow.

He appreciated the desire to
survive, at least a bit longer, but he and the rest of the Trinx knew that the
key to their continual survival was in stopping the minions from spreading in
the first place, which was why his race was devoting their full resources to
building vassals and feeding the Li’vorkrachnika the raw supplies they’d
requested to help them build new worlds specifically for the production of
ships and soldiers to devote to this fight.

For all they’d done, and proved they
could do, the Trinx felt betrayed to still be the only race with the sense to
do what was necessary. When would the others wake up and see what had to be
done before it was too late?

The recent stirrings by the Hamoriti
here had caused everything Nesfa was basing his containment efforts on to be
questioned. How the beast had begun to wake up was still unknown, and worse yet
the Oracle was unable to provide any data to corroborate with, for in all the
history of this shell there had never been even the remotest glitch in the
sedation. Had this been a technological malfunction he would have felt better,
but both the Oracle and his own techs had confirmed that the shell was
operating perfectly. What had awakened it was a mystery that was near to
driving Nesfa mad, for it seemed like everything they had worked so hard for
was being undercut, whether by The Nine or fate itself.

A message prompt pinged a priority
alert and the Prefect pulled up the new file immediately, seeing that it was
another status report from the Hamoriti site…though he wasn’t due to receive a transmission
for several more days. Immediately fearing more bad news, the Prefect opened up
the holographic document and began to read through it with his hearts beat
increasing on reflex.