Free Star Force: Quenar (SF88) (Star Force Origin Series) by Aer-ki Jyr Page B

times and places, with far more here
than Davis thought would come. Either Cal-com regarded this as seriously as
they did, or Paul’s Zak’de’ron visit had prompted an
order from them to get the Voku flocking here in what were promised to be even
more massive numbers in subsequent years. Already there were a few scattered
reports of massive convoys coming across the gap between their home territory
and the ADZ that would eventually end up out here.
    Those reports were courtesy of the hastily build
communications relay link that had stretched out this far via a number of
permanent stations and mobile communications sedas filling in the gaps so Davis
could remain in contact with the empire while he camped out here. There wasn’t
a lot to do, but with so many new empires to deal with, and get a read on, it
wasn’t something he was going to trust to Dukes or even the trailblazers. Star
Force was treading on a very precipitous edge and they needed all the
experience and guile that they could get on this matter.
    The Chamra, Dati, and Yisv had already made independent
contact with Star Force, and the first two of those had redirected most of
those diplomatic overtures here to Davis personally while the Yisv were still
keeping away from any system with the Uriti in it. So while he was dealing with
new races he was also trying to forge ties or lay down the law with these other
more familiar advanced empires as they also jockeyed for position and status
here while backing Star Force so that no one else could depose them and
endanger the controller.
    They didn’t have many ships available but a few more
were coming in periodically, just as some of the observer fleets were getting
reinforcements as well. All it would really take was one ship to keep watch, so
the additional vessels were more of a visible threat that he was going to have
to deal with eventually, but he didn’t have too big of a leverage point here to
work with immediately, otherwise he would have demanded that all ships identify
themselves and their affiliations. As it was, some were still lurking in the shadows
and not taking a public stance.
    The battlemap had an active tracking mechanism in
place to determine when new ships arrived and was programmed to ping him an
alert when an unidentified ship or large grouping appeared, so when the double
ping sounded he turned around sharply as his eyes tracked to the system
hologram.
    He saw immediate activity from the drones surrounding
the Sanguine Blade , for the newcoming ships weren’t at a jumpline. They were right
beside him, barely 30 miles away, and there was one enormous vessel at the
center of a fleet that numbered over 500, all of which were a mix of glossy
black hull plates and luminous strips.
    Davis mentally linked with the battlemap controls and
replayed the last minute as the fleet quickly coalesced around his ship in
aggressive defense posture. On the playback there was nothing there, absolutely
nothing, then suddenly the ships winked into existence with a telltale sparkle
of light. It looked like a brief fireworks display as they all appeared, with
Davis’s gut clenching as he focused the replay on those sparkles. He searched
for the telltale disruptions that cloaking devices made, running the computer
through the necessary paces that should have allowed them to detect the
variations once they knew where to look and at that close range…but there was
nothing. Nothing at all.
    Not even the V’kit’no’sat had ever been able to
produce a true cloaking device, meaning that whoever these guys were, they were
either technological geniuses with a singular breakthrough or a major new
player that had them extremely outclassed.
    “Davis, you seeing this?” Jason’s voice asked over an
open comm.
    “Yeah. They talking?”
    “Pithy. They want to address you, and their message
came through in English.”
    “Link them here.”
    “No, they want to meet in person.”
    “Bad idea?”
    “Did you notice