Free Dreaming of Atmosphere by Jim C. Wilson Page A

think the Jaani just came along for the ride as a subservient race. It’s effective though.”
    “Do you remember them before the war?”
    “No, I was too young too. I do know that when the Protectorate first opened the Jump Gate into Gossamer System, the Ghantri welcomed the fleets with open arms. Ghan was a rich, verdant world, a super earth. There were a few other planets in the system that were rich in minerals, a gas giant as well. The Protectorate brokered trade agreements with the natives, exchanging technology for mining privileges.”
    “The Ghantri didn’t have space travel before the Protectorate? I thought they never contacted non-spacefaring races?”
    “No, the Ghantri did have space flight, not real advanced, but they could still zip around their system using chemical rockets.”
    “That must have taken years of travel to get between POIs!”
    “I guess. Ambrose Station was built during the first decade of contact. It was nearly finished too, when it all went to shit. There was a colony starting out on one of the moons of Laz’oh Dar, the gas giant. I think they’d started terraforming Nsarri as well, the next planet after Ghan.”
    “Why did they attack? They had everything they could need already.”
    “I don’t know. Maybe it was in their DNA, their apex predator evolutionary imperative. Why trade for things when you can just take them. It was a savagely executed attacked too. They must have been planning for years. Virtually overnight they killed all the Protectorate officials and ambassadors, captured as many star ships as they could, and nearly destroyed the rest. A pitched fighting withdrawal forced the surviving Protectorate ships back to the Jump Gate. They had to leave hundreds of thousands behind on Ambrose Station and who knows how many on the colony at Sho’da Nar.”
    “That’s the moon orbiting Laz’oh Dar?”
    “Oh. Yeah, apparently they’re named for heroes of Ghantri mythology.”
    “I remember hearing about something called The Push. Can you tell me about that?”
    “So the Protectorate managed to block off the Jump Gate on the Gossamer side, and halt the Ghantri advance there. There weren’t enough Protectorate warships on the other side to do more than that, however. Ghantri war parties would attempt to break the blockade every few months, but so far it’s held. The Push was a counter offensive a few years ago, the Protectorate had signed an accord with the big players in the Votus-Eridani Network to enlist local militaries to join the offensive. Intelligence estimated that the Ghantri still had hundreds of thousands of civilians captured in the system, primarily being used as slave labour. It was all set up as a big political stunt by the Protectorate, offering shared access and colonisation opportunities to Eridani and Harakiwan governments.”
    “If they sent ships.”
    “And marines.”
    “You mean the Primacy Star Marines?”
    “Yeah, the Primarch of Kanto Prime pledged a full division of Star Marines, twenty thousand soldiers for the meat grinder.”
    “I actually remember that! I watched Primarch Singh XXVIII make the pledge, and my mother and I took a charter ship to Kanto Moon to watch the parade!”
    “If you looked close enough, you might have seen me.”
    “You were in the Corps then?”
    “Sure was, I’d just made corporal.”
    “Is that when you…you know…your augments?”
    I didn’t answer right away. My first reaction was to close up, change the topic. Talk about politics or navigation. She saw my hesitation, my jaw clenching. She reached out and touch my hand.
    “I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it.”
    “No, I do. I’ve…been having issues with what happened there and I need to sort it out before we go back to Gossamer. Max told me that you could help. That talking to you might help me work out some things.”
    “Ok, but only at your own pace, all right? You can’t go through a past trauma by being forced to relive it,