If you find mistakes, pls tell, thx. I don't like mistakes.

Also feel free to ask for more background information on the world. I am somehow running out of interesting points regarding the small comments at the beginning of the chapters.

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“

In all likelyhood, to all appearances... once you give the wheel to someone else... you shouldn't interfere with the driver.

”

-Unknown

***Galactic Centre, Aether***

***Gideon***

There is no doubt about the intentions of our friends. “The only real problem I have with the situation is how everything seems to be spinning out of control” I gesture at the hologram and let my eyes wander over the assembled people. “Sure. We've had more than enough time to prepare and the ships are still half an hour out of engagement range. Don't you think that all this is too easy on one hand and too outrageous on the other? These aliens are overreacting on several different levels. Stealing our ambassador for puny research reasons, keeping him somewhere where we can find him, sending a huge fleet of ships after us on neutral grounds.”

Isciat nods slowly. “It feels like we are playing a game of which we don't know the rules.”

Gabriel raises his voice. “Everything we have learned so far hints at two major players. The Zeen delegation is trying very hard to entangle us in this 'society of civilised species' and while it's true that there seem to be no serious strings attached, it's still hard to overlook the small subtleties. To be recognized by all important species for example, we would have to adhere to the laws of whatever species' sector we are currently moving through.”

“If we fly through Forlorn space we are practically under their jurisdiction. If we move through Alliance space we have to play by their rules and so forth. That's very troublesome in the long run. We are currently talking to individual species like we did so far. StarDrive already researched a list of interesting candidates. As long as we can sway important and strong species we don't have to care about joining this society. Our ability to offer instant communication and transportation is a very strong argument in this matter.”

“If the plans of our diplomats work out, we will be able to declare the space around our teleportation nodes as our property. Nobody will be able to force any rules or restrictions on us. The threat of placing the nodes somewhere in the void between stars also works very good.

We are already assembling a group of supporters who see much more benefit in letting us trade freely than restricting us. The Alliance turned out to be very helpful in that regard.”

Finally the diplomats ends his explanation and Hedeon decides to speak up. “So it boils down to how we are representing us to these two camps. The Zeen are trying to hold onto the established power while others are willing to ignore us if it benefits them.”

Gabriel nods. “Yes, although we already are fairly certain that the Zeen are playing this game because they are involved in the war with the Drazi. They want to recruit us and other frontier-species as an anvil to smash the escaping Drazi ships. But they bit off more than they expected and now they are turning all gears to find out what exactly they stirred up. FTL communication is miraculous enough to these people, but our travel-speed is outright shocking them.”

Those people. I wonder if we should see the aliens as that. People? Or is it safer to regard them as aliens? My thoughts wander back to when I took a look into the minds of several Drazi. Can we ever apply human standards to creatures as these?

No, I suppose not. I even doubt that long term coexistence is possible.

The Drazi's minds are more animalistic than logical. They barely scratch the edge of creativity and compassion for other members of their species. Everything else is regarded as vermin which has to be removed sooner or later. A Drazi's priorities are fucking, killing threats to the young, eating, shitting, sleeping, caring for the young and thinking of possibilities to accomplish the previous tasks more efficiently. In exactly that order and no other.

A Drazi who thinks about doing something outside that sphere of interest would be considered as mad by his brethren. Someone who is mad could be a threat to the young and certainly won't supply good genes for future generations. A mad individual also diverts resources from important tasks, which means less young. Therefore such an individual is killed without a second thought.

My attention returns to Resch's battle fleet which is approaching the outer perimeter of our formation. Since all this started we've taken great pains in teleporting parts of our fleet away and then back to their previous place.

In the meanwhile the rest of our ships started moving in a random circular pattern. When System Control asked us to cease this irritating behaviour we told them bluntly that we don't give a shit.

It should be clear to everyone what Resch's intentions are, yet they are acting as if nothing dangerous is going on. Either they are practising the pinnacle of ignorance or everyone simply aches to see our capabilities. On a certain level I can understand them. It's unnerving to have a strange, new thing in front of you without being able to put it into a known category.

Should we categorize it as prey? Or as prey with teeth? Something poisonous which we have to stay away from? They are all looking at us with eager eyes to learn more while they are sending one of their own to test the waters.

Hopefully what we cooked up will send a clear message to everyone. It would be a disappointment if not. Or worse, if they misunderstood.

Slowly the enemy fleet converges on ours while our ships are still performing a complicated dance around Aether. Then some of the bulky, alien battleships start homing in ours.

Their ugly spiked shapes look unrefined compared to our slender, teardrop shaped ships. I reach up to my chin and start kneading it, searching for a possible mistake in our plan. It's obvious that Resch wants to involve us in as much boarding actions as possible. Maybe they hope to win at least one of those encounters to get their hands on our technology.

One of our ships would be without any doubt a priceless loot for them. A whole ship with a technology which for all intents and purposes was birthed by a completely different technological path. What they learned from our ambassador must have made them blind to the possible repercussions.

As their ships close in on ours it becomes clearer and clearer that they really intend to board our ships.

And then several of our ships simply blow up!

One ship winks out of existence with the force of an atomic explosion, then another, and another in a silent cacophony as the computer coolly counts the loss with a beep and deletes another dot from the hologram. Each time, one of Resch's ships is also taken out.

Normally a nuclear explosion is insignificant in the vastness of space, but our traps are waiting until the enemy is simply too close to avoid the blast of radiation.

With a raised eyebrow I notice a call from system command. It is directed directly to me as Aether's governor. My eyes wander to the assembled people and then I take the call.

“Yes?”

An obviously translated voice answers me, yet I don't fail to notice a slightly disturbed undertone. “You are engaging in offensive actions within neutral territory! Cease those actions at once!”

“I fail to see how blowing up our own ships is an offensive action?” I answer, pursing my lips. “They are ours. I think we can blow them up whenever we want. If you are concerned about the wreckage, then-”

“You are destroying other ships by doing so!”

I wanted to say that a nuclear blast of that size won't leave anything behind, but that clearly wasn't System Command's concern. “We are sorry, but those ships were warned not to approach us. If you take a look at your computers, you can clearly see that they violated their approved flight paths. We can't be held responsible for bad piloting.”

I imagine the speaker on the other side grinding his teeth. If he has an equivalent. Accessing their database for flight control was easy enough. Since then our ships started interchanging their registered parking positions to throw off the heavily regulated flight control within the system.

In addition the regular exchange of ships allowed us to interchange them with drones. These drones are generating a false image of a ship and are sending it out to the universe. If my people are good at hiding stuff, then sending a false image is even easier. You don't have to convince someone of the non-existence of something. You just have to make him believe that it's something else.

Finally the alien ships give up their attempts at boarding our smaller vessels. I am astounded that they tried it thirty-seven times until they gave up. But now their fleet homes in on Aether instead, the only real ship in our whole formation. The rest of the fleet is waiting a few light years away.

I decide to tempt the unknown speaker who didn't react to my claim at bad piloting. “It seems like Resch's ships are having serious navigational troubles. Now they are converging on our colony. I'll be forced to teleport us out of system. It's actually good that you called. Could you note our date of departure for ten minutes from now?”

The grinding of teeth which I just imagined earlier suddenly becomes audible. “Understood. You'll depart in ten minutes.”

“Thank you. We intend to come back after the navigational hazard has passed.” I smile and disconnect the call. Then I connect to the network, instructing Aether to enlarge its shields as far as possible.

Isciat takes in a deep breath. It was very hard to convince him to send away all of his approximately two hundred ships and replace them with drones. There was no proof that this form electromagnetic warfare would work. The aliens' sensors are obviously good enough to see something if we are trying to hide, but they can't discern a false image from the real one.

Increasing the size of our shields weakens them against a concentrated attack, but at the same time it keeps the enemy ships at a comfortable distance.

A slight tremor runs through the building as the first enemy ships make contact with Aether's shields. The whole of Aether starts vibrating as more and more of the ships press against our shield, trying to overload it with their own shields.

The glass of water right next to me starts wandering over the table and I reach out to hold it still. “Those buggers are quite persistent.”

Hedeon shrugs. “The reactors are reaching their limit. We may consider an early departure.”

I tilt my head and calculate the increasing amount of energy and how many enemy ships are still on an approach vector. “You are right.” So I engage the automated protocol of events which was previously set in stone.

The remaining drones blow up, creating the illusion that our whole fleet just committed suicide. In addition it most likely also blinds any sensors which are aimed at us. Then the teleportation node which was set up a few hundred light years away activates and takes the whole of Aether and everything around it away.

The nature of teleportation is exchanging one space for another. So if the nodes teleport something from one node to the next they can actually also take something away from anywhere within their reach. The only problem is accuracy, but Aether has a fairly big quantum network of its own, so we can act as a beacon.

We appear right inside the teleportation node with about two hundred of Resch's battleships around us. A moment later the node refocuses the space-time-bubble to take only Aether back to Gathering Station and I imagine hundreds of point defence weapons along the node's structure taking aim to wipe out the totally unprepared fleet. Not moving at all with no inertia it must be like clay-pigeon-shooting.

“Whew. That was a first test of the defence systems on our nodes.” I engage the communication channel to System Command and order our fleet back. They are parking a few light years out of system.

“System Command? We are back, but we had to depart early because of a navigational hazard. Will there be any fees to pay for this break of conduct? It also seems like we lost a few ships, so we are calling in reinforcements. Would you be so kind to give us new parking coordinates?”

“Won't they find out that we are calling back the old ships?” Roderik asks.

“Nah...” I shrug my shoulders. “And even if, it will be just one more mystery for them to chew on.”

.