Domel Andrates

"So...," I said. "What happened on Aurelis Three? Did you find what you're looking for?"

I should've asked Arcturus about this, but he seemed to be preoccupied with his leg. I felt responsible for causing this. If I had checked, I might let a couple more Vyrnians to accompany them. Alas, it was just as risky. Vyrnians were too big to traverse the forest of Aurelis Three. But, what's done was done, and I finally got what I needed.

The human, George Atmell, did not know what I was talking about, given that Arcturus was the one who extracted the transmission. He did, however, told me that the ship held the transmission. So, I proceeded to walk into the ship and checked the file they found.

As the recording started, I recognized the Vyrnian in the video. His name was Rachum Andraste. He was under my command right until the Exodus Plan happened. He volunteered to stay on the planet and coordinate the evacuation until it was over, along with a couple other Vyrnians that followed him. However, the evacuation almost ended with a disaster. The president was killed by an unknown assailant who framed my son for it. Then, the cultist attacked, causing riots that killed many Vyrnians. The evacuation was chaotic and many did not manage to get out before the planetary shield went up. Basically, this Exodus Plan did not work as planned, and as a result, many Vyrnians were trapped.

The video message confirmed this. Then, Andraste mentioned the code. 'What does the Rinki Bird Sing?' The planners of the Exodus Plan did tell me about a backup plan named after something popular, yet never existed in real life. Rinki Bird was the character of a children's book character. I remembered reading this to Arcturus when he was little. He liked it, as did all Vyrnian children of his age. Why chose this name? Better than something obscure, right?

"May I ask?" said George after the video ended. "What's a Rinki Bird?"

"Rinki bird is a secret message code. There is no such thing as a rinki bird. In the Intel HQ, we gave codes to many secret operations, some of which stuck."

I walked out of the ship, knowing what to do.

"So, since it's a bird...it has something to do with a particular bird noise?" asked the human.

"That's what they want you to think," I said. "Rinki bird is a story about a bird with an annoying noise that's not like any birds you can find on Vyrn. He wished for a beautiful voice, and his wish was granted by a kind pixie. The clue, however, is on the ending of this story. The question was left deliberately vague so no one could guess it unless they knew the story of the Rinki Bird well."

"Is it that popular?"

"Children loves it, but the parents don't usually care much about the story. Children may know the answer, but no one in the intel HQ will know unless they read the story and understand it. It is popular, but only for the children."

We got into the cold database room. It was used as a freezer when the Nuoevans took over, but now with it cleaned up and the temperature returned to normal, it only felt chilly in there. I was already wearing a synthetic jacket that kept me warm while also accommodating my wing-arms.

I proceeded to operate the computer and inserted the phrase 'rinki bird'. The computer quickly pulled out a file with that name, protected behind a password.

"The phrase 'what does the Rinki Bird sing?' is a clue to the password," I said. "And the password is 'silence'. The ending of the Rinki Bird's story stated that he used his gift and became famous like the song birds, which made him egoistical and even forgot that his voice was once annoying to the point he rebuffed the pixie. As punishment, the pixie took the gift and his voice. In the end, the Rinki Bird's muteness became his downfall as he failed to warn the birds of a dangerous beast, causing them all to be eaten."

"For a children's story, that's too harsh," said George. "Are you telling me that the morale of the story is not to forget who gives you success?"

"Yes, and also not to abuse something that's not your own."

"But isn't it too obvious? Anyone who bothered with the story will find out about it, right?"

"Except no one but those involved in the Exodus Plan were ever given the code. It's a backup plan in case the Trikelians are not completely sealed behind Vyrn. No one knows it exists and no one except the planners knew the content."

"Do you?"

"No," he said with a sigh. "I may be part of the Plan, but i'm not the planner. The plan was made by the Citadel's council, and they have a higher authority than I am. All I do was to execute the Plan as given by the protocol. I came to learn that the protocol does not include everything, only evacuation plans and full access to the Lekan database. At least for me. The rest were given instructions to start their own governments so that the Vyrnian civilization continues."

"For a plan to preserve the future of the Vyrnians, it does have a lot of secrets," said George, something that I agreed with. Still, in their defense, if you knew that your enemy had been influencing your history long before you were even born it made sense to create secret backup plans that no one will know unless invoked. The Trikelians may not control the Vyrnians, but the Eye and the cultists were clear indications that they had caused irreparable damage to the Vyrnians' history, in addition to causing the collapse of normality.

Part of me felt that George's involvement in this affair would put him in a danger even he could not escape from. I was grateful for his involvement with Arcturus's life and was partially responsible for waking me from a 350 years slumber (even though he was incapacitated). He was a pre-space alien who happened to act calm and adapt well with how the galaxy worked. I commended him for that. However, he always had a choice to return to his home planet and he was drawn to the danger and the adventure this galaxy had to offer. He may have known how to act in a dangerous situation, but he could not act like that all the time. Some dangers were simply too dangerous, and the Trikelians were one of them.

The Trikelians were so mysterious that we did not know what they called themselves until they declared it. We knew they came out from the Eye, and we knew the cultists were influenced by them. I mean, the cult had been around as long as the Eye, but they had never been so violent or radical. They seemed possessed because they were. The information given to us from Orlonel proved that they secreted a fluid that enabled complete control of their subjects, but they did not know if they could control an alive Vyrnian due to the colony's state. Other than that, they found out that they could hibernate in vacuum. It was so unnatural, yet natural at the same time.

But I think the reason why the Trikelians were so dangerous was their high-risk, high-reward strategy. They deliberately let the Exodus Plan came to past while many of their agents had spread throughout the galaxy. If that's the case, we would have no chance to fight them because we would not know who had been taken over and what they would do until it's too late.

At least that's what might happen until I read the Rinki Bird file.

Just from reading the first paragraph made it clear that the file was intended to be read after the Exodus Plan and concerned the possibility that the sealed planet was only delaying the inevitable. Thus, there was a backup plan. But this backup plan, as I read it, started to show that the best way to defeat them was to destroy their cage, killing them before they could have time to get out and properly invade the galaxy.

That plan involved the destruction of the planet itself.

"They told me to destroy Vyrn?" I said in disbelief.

"Is it possible?" asked George. He, too, read the plan.

"The generator used as the planetary shield can be made into an overload, much like every generators out there," I said. "However, the generator sustaining the shield was big and used a very large amount of energy drawn from the core of the planet. Overloading the generator will also disrupt geothermal activity of the planet and...destroy it along with the Eye and any Trikelians trapped inside. It may not kill every single Trikelian out there, but it will severely cripple them."

"I do wonder. Why don't you just destroy the Eye? I think a gateway in space of unknown origin warrants precaution, right?" he said.

"Oh, believe me when I said we tried a long time ago. When Vyrnians were still militaristic and regarded space-faring aliens as hostiles, they tried to destroy the Eye. It didn't work. A study conducted later concluded that the Eye was made out of an unknown metal not found in this galaxy. The metal was strong enough to sustain one million years out in space, bombarded by Arcturus's flare and any kind of radiation that passed it. Simply put, only a powerful enough destructive force can damage it."

"And blowing up the planet is the right plan?"

"If we have any weapon capable of planetary destruction, we could destroy it. But...are you capable of building such thing? Vyrnians banned the development of planet killers years ago."

"So, that's it? No other alternative?" said George.

"Do you have a fresh, pre-space perspective?" I said. I know I sounded rather forward, but I needed to remind George that for a pre-space like him, planet killer weapons, spaceships, and even aliens were science fiction, or mere fantasy. For me, all those things were not fiction. Only the realm of time was, especially since no one still had any idea how time travel worked.

But George Atmell the human was full of surprises. Without skipping a beat, he simply said, "How about your initial plan? Find more allies out there that might help us. Except this time, expand beyond the Vyrnians. Sethis and his Saukauri company is ready to help. There's bound to be more out there, whether it's Felinians, Saukaurs, or Nuoevans. Even Orians may want to help."

"Your idea is commendable, George, but if we still have trouble finding Vyrnian allies, how can we find more alien allies?"

"Yes, I know it's impossible," he said. "But trust me. We'll find them. It's only a matter of time."

I could tell him, cynically, that time was something the Trikelian had, but his eyes told me that he was serious. It was full of determination and youthful spirit, something that Arcturus also had in his eyes when he wanted to help. His eyes and conviction convinced me to think of a new strategy, something that I could do to find a way to defeat the Trikelian and drive them out of this galaxy without destroying Vyrn.

I know the destruction of Vyrn was the best option, but it was rather flawed. If the Eye was not destroyed, we're out of options. Allies would make a good backup plan beyond the Exodus Plan, something that would unify this galaxy against a common threat (not sure whether the Trikelians even cared for the other races).

Unifying the galaxy would be a very hard task, even near impossible. But, there would not be results without efforts. It's good to take a step forward that not having one step at all. Progress starts from one small act, then spread like a cascade. I could compare it to a virus, but that's too fast in this context.

But I was curious as to how George managed to give me this idea while he was only a pre-space. So, I asked him.

"Our history is also formed from alliance," said George. "Years ago, dragons and humans lived with animosity towards each other. Dragons had no rights, and humans declared themselves the intelligent creatures to represent the Earth. Things happened, and dragons were now part of this history, along with the subterranean folks. That alliance happened when there's a big crisis that threatened to end the world. For me, this situation is the same, except much bigger than one planet. You might have some work to do."

"I see," I said. "It seems history teaches us many things."

"Isn't it always?" said George with a smile.

"Thank you, George Atmell," I said. I became interested in humans and possibly the denizens of planet Earth. I do not care if they were pre-space or not. Some pre-space civilization could actually give a good perspective we space-faring civilizations had lost over time. It would be good if we could draw some good from it, even if it was old-fashioned. The wisdom of old always had something that could be drawn.

So, with that in mind, I drafted a new plan that night, one that did not necessarily against the Rinki bird plan. No, the Rinki Bird Plan was a last resort that would need to happen if all else failed. This time we needed something with impact.

However, it would not work without the help of the other Vyrnians on Lekan. Several of them were thinkers with their own ideas, and some could help find the necessary items within the Lekan database. I stressed this point to them during our meeting the next day. They were intrigued and started contributing to the plan. But then, one of them got the idea for something to help us travel.

"We need to build a ship," said the Vyrnian. His name was Drachim Arionis, head of the military's ship engineer squad. He did not report to me since he did not work as an intel. I came to know him during the Exodus Plan briefing.

"What kind of ship?" asked another. She was Hanem Areile, part of special ops. She specialized in infiltration and stealth mission. I called her Areil for short.

"Anything we can get from within the Lekan database. I'll choose from the available schematics," said Orionis. "With several modifications, of course."

"If you can," I said. "Make it so other alien races can use it. Are you thinking about a dreadnought class ship?"

"No, that's too big," said Orionis. "Also, it takes time to modify a Vyrnian ship to accommodate other races. And besides, we don't have their schematics. We need to either hire an engineer or find a junk planet and hope we can get what we want in a fairly good condition."

"If that's the case, let's do it," I said. "Given this plan of ours, members of other races will be a part of this ship's crew. I suggest we start early. Knowing the Trikelians, they would not just sit around and wait."

Orionis seemed rather unsure about this. I wasn't either. We only got two Vyrnian colonies allied with us and a Saukauri volunteer soldiers who were very inexperienced both in the art of war and what they were good at. From what I could see, their chosen leader, Sethis Melser, seemed to know a bit about command. However, it was more of a commanding presence to help boost morale. He had almost no knowledge of warfare. When I asked him, he admitted that he stepped up to take command when no one could, only to realize that his inexperience did not help. I told him that it was enough and was willing to teach him a bit more.

But Orionis did not outright refuse. He simply said, "Give me some time. I'll tell you whether it works or not."

I nodded. This would not be easy, and I understood. Even back before the Exodus, he had a team of engineers ready to help him. He lost contact with most of them. I doubted they choose to sleep like us. Sometimes, people moved on rather easily and lived out their lives accepting that some things had happened. Good thing some people did not, like us.

Our little meeting went on for at least 3 hours. After we're done, I wanted to continue reading about the Rinki Bird Plan. There might be a compromise that I did not know when I read it at first. Maybe I was being too hasty after reading it for...well, three times from start to finish. I had a little habit of not accepting anything as a fact until I got the whole picture.

Of course, after the fourth read, I realized that the plan was as written. Knowing that it would be a waste of time, I decided to start the new plan. I did not know what to name it, so it did not really come into mind until later. All I think about was how to make it easy to understand and make sense, along with conveying my thoughts clearly. I thought that Arcturus might understand it well, but it wasn't just for him.

It may be hard to know what we should do or what we could expect. Anything could happen to us when we least expected it. The Trikelians had shown that we would never be ready for them. The Exodus was (in my opinion) poorly executed because of them. However, if there's one thing I knew I could except, it would be the crew of Vyrkaya.

If all else fails, they will make sure it works. All they need is a ship they can use as a symbol of hope, one to unify all the races.